Mothers day weekend

For my first mothers day weekend we went to Viroqua WI to visit Rob's family. It was a great weekend. As a present to Rob's grandma and to myself, Donna arranged for 4 generation pictures to be taken at one of the local photographer's studio. Even though it was Cooper's nap time he did a great job of smiling and sitting still. We should get the pictures at the end of this month, I will try and put a copy of the picture when we get it. After the professional pictures were taken Rob, Cooper, Roger and I headed to the park to try and get a good picture of our family. Here is the best one. Unfortunately Cooper is squinting a little because of the sun and I am talking to him trying to get him to smile. Either way we finally have a half decent picture of the three of us. After the pictures we went out to Di and Rog's place so Cooper could meet their horses. Roger was so great, he went down into the pasture in the rain to bring the horses up towards the house. Here is a picture of Cooper meeting Anne for first time.

Then Sunday on our way home we made a short detour and stopped in Albert Lea to spend a little time with the Schultz family. I couldn't believe how big the boys were! Once we got home and unpacked Rob gave me my present from Cooper which was a Vikings Peterson jersey.

Tuesday we got together with my family. It is so nice when we get everyone together, I wish we could do it more often. Here are some great pictures of the kids.

Scare #1

I know as kids are growing up there are times when they scare their parents and almost give them a heart attack. Last night was our first big scare. As I have said in a prior post Cooper has become obsessed with the stairs. Tonight after we had dinner we just relaxed and attempted to watch a TV show. We closed all doors, put up the gates and put two chairs in front of the steps so Cooper could roam where he wanted to. After about 5 minutes Rob decided to go check on Cooper. Next thing I know Rob is telling me to come over. So I head towards the dining room and I don't see them, head to the stairs and I don't see them. I finally ask where are they and Rob says come up stairs. Cooper had crawled through the chairs and climbed all the way up the stairs. Both Rob and I just stood there shocked and completely scared out of our minds. Then we wanted to know how he did it so we put him on the floor and watched him this time.

He crawled through the chairs. Silly me thought the chairs just being there would be enough of a deterrent. Needless to say we won't be putting chairs in front of the stairs again. Off to Target again for another gate.

Mamamama

Cooper has now started babbling and his firsts babble was ma ma ma mum mum. Though I know it's probably not directed at me, it sure makes my heart swell everytime he does it.

Pictures

Now that I finally caught up for April and the month is over, here are some cute pictures from the past month.

The Hanson's and the Yu's gave Cooper this horse towel for Easter. It works great at swimming lessons.




"Baby jail" I picked this toy up at a garage sale thinking it would be good to keep Cooper in one spot. I didn't realize until after I got home that it had a swinging door and a huge opening. I guess that is what I get for rushing. Even though it doesn't keep him contained he does like it. So when Kaylin came over to play one Sunday, we put her in there and Cooper crawled in to join her.




Cooper loves biter biscuits but gets it everywhere.



His first sink bath after the biter biscuit.

Swim lessons

Because we spend a lot of time around water, we want to make sure Cooper knows how to swim or at least is comfortable in it. So we signed him up for swimming classes at the New Hope YMCA. I wanted Rob to take pictures of Cooper at his first swimming lesson, but the instructor asked us to wait until the last class. But we couldn't let one of his "firsts" go undocumented.. So Rob took this picture of Cooper and I in the locker room after showering. During the first class he just kind of went along with everything, now he is smiling and seems to really enjoy himself.

Getting into almost everything

Now that Cooper has started crawling he is getting more and more adventurous.

He has learned there are other rooms in our house besides the living room (where his toys have almost taken over). He is almost always under my feet when I am in the kitchen cooking. He loves to play with the rugs and before I took them off, he loved to put the tags in his mouth. Needless to say after I took this picture, the tags were cut off. He also likes to go into the laundry room and sit on Jasper's bed.

A couple weekends ago Grandma and Grandpa Peterson watched him so we could go to Liz's 30th birthday party. When we got back to they told us that he has now figured out the stairs. We got home and put him on the stairs and yep he could do it. Since then he has been mysteriously drawn to them and can't seem to keep away.

Kickball

Though the nice weather has been teasing us here and there, kickball season has officially started! Yes, kickball with the big red ball like in elementary school, only with an adult twist. Thankfully you don't see many elementary school kids smoking and drinking beer while playing, which happens often in this league.

Cooper and I went to Rob's first game tonight. When we left the house it was sunny and nice. By the time we got to the field it had already started to cool down. You have to love spring in Minnesota.

Conner John

My cousin Gena had her baby Conner John on Thursday, April 3rd. He weighed 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 20 inches long. Tonight we went over to meet him. He is adorable with long fingers and long toes.

video

I have tried to post a video of Cooper in the past with no luck. I figured I would try it again to see if it would work and it did! Here is a video of Cooper going after his favorite thing.

Cooper Update

Cooper has changed so much in the past two weeks, here are some highlights:

• He is now pulling himself up and standing



• He is working really hard to fully crawl. He is still doing the worm if he wants to get somewhere quickly.



• He is lfiting his butt up in the air like he is going to stand up by himself. The other night I thought he was going to do a headstand because he put his head on the floor and put his butt in the air.



• His personality is starting to show now, he is making funny faces, gets excited when he sees the puffs container and is curious about everything.