Easter

When my sister suggested we decorate eggs with the kids the weekend before Easter, I thought she was crazy. Cooper has a short attention span and gets frustrated really easy. Have I

mentioned he is in the terrible twos already? I finally gave in and I am glad I did. We decided to just use crayons and stickers and Cooper did really great! Here are the five eggs he decorated:

We alternate Easter and Thanksgiving with our families and this year was Easter with my family. Unfortunately we didn't get to make the trip to Wisconsin with the Peterson's, but we did celebrate Easter with the Peterson's the following weekend. We had Easter brunch at my parents house, as always it was fun to watch the kids play in their dress clothes. Cooper was standing on Kaylin's ride on toy and fell and split his lip about an hour after we got him into his dress clothes. Thankfully Adrian was able to take some pictures of Cooper before he fell. Here is my favorite picture:

And he was able to catch a good pitcute of both Cooper and I, which is really hard to do:

Of course I couldn't end this post without adding a picture of a beautiful little girl in a beautiful dress:

Breast Cancer 3 day

Kim, a good friend of mine has bravely signed up to do the Breast Cancer three day this August. This is no small undertaking, she will walk 60 miles in three days and camp out each night. If you knew her the camping part would be the hardest part. Anyway she doing this to honor her mother who currently fighting breast cancer. When signing up for this incredible walk you also agree to raise (or pay) $2,400.00! This is where you can help. If you would like to help Kim reach her goal and help find a cure for breast cancer please click on this link: http://www.the3day.org/goto/Kim.S.Williams

Without a cure, one in eight women in the U.S. will continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s why she is walking in the 3-Day. Because everyone deserves a lifetime.

Breast Cancer Facts:

* There are 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the U.S. today.
*Early detection and effective treatment for breast cancer have been shown to improve survival.
* Men can develop breast cancer too.

18th Month Appointment

Today we had Cooper's 18 month well baby visit even though technically he is almost 19 months. I swore I wouldn't be that parent that constantly quoted how many months my child was, yet I find myself doing it more often than I would like. Anyway back to this morning and the appointment. Cooper woke up this morning with his right eye full of goop again and my first thought was no way could he have pink eye again, he just had it a couple weeks ago. We get to the doctors office and sure enough he has pink eye again and an ear infection! So no daycare for him today. I swear he understood the doctor when she said it because he crossed his arms and pouted. I ended up staying home with him today, these are the days I don't mind staying home with him. Just like a couple weeks ago besides having to fight giving him medicine he is fine. We play, laugh and have a great time.

In case you are wondering how the rest of the visit went, here are his stats:

Height: 34 3/4 inches (95%)
Weight: 31 pounds 12 ounces (97%)
Head: 50 cm (90-5%)

It was funny when the doctor was reviewing his chart she mentioned that he was actually on the charts instead of off the charts like last visit.

One last thing. My sister just texted me and Adrian also has pink eye. Cooper spent the night at their house on Saturday, I wonder who gave it to who? Just kidding I am sure it was Cooper giving it to Adrian.

Bed time

I just have to share what happened during our bedtime routine tonight. As I was rocking Cooper tonight he lifted his head up and gave me a kiss. It was one of those moments that makes a parent's heart explode. It was the sweetest thing, an unprompted kiss. Especially since the routine had a somewhat cranky start.

Things that go bump in the night

I am not talking about ghosts or monsters, I am talking about Cooper. Most nights when I put Cooper to bed he will snuggle into his pillow and go to sleep. Last night that was not the case. When I laid him down and he immediately stood up and started crying, I quietly walked out of his room and closed the door. By the time I took three steps to the stairs I heard this loud crash followed by more crying. I ran back into his room to find him on the floor! He fell/climbed/jumped out of his crib! I couldn't believe it. I yelled for Rob and both of just couldn't believe he did that. We both checked him over to make sure he wasn't hurt, thankfully he wasn't.

I sure hope this doesn't become a habit since I think he is too young for a toddler bed.

Donna update

Tonight we brought dinner over to Ron and Donna's house. This is the first time I have seen her since the Wednesday after her surgery. I am amazed at how well she is doing. Even though we brought her dinner she kept trying to serve us and grab stuff for Cooper. We had a nice visit and she was able to play with Cooper, which she said was the best medicine she could have. I took a picture of her with her get well quilt and a picture of the boys watching basketball. I hope to upload them to her caring bridge site as well.

Cooper update

Is it possible Cooper has hit the terrible twos already? He is so dang stubborn! Whenever he gets frustrated he will do a pouty face, cross his arms and make a funny hrumph noise. It's super funny and really not at the same time. I haven't been able to catch it on camera yet but I will.


He also has started to like blankets, pillows and stuffed animals in the last few weeks. Just when I thought I was in the clear. He never took a pacifier, hated blankets and could care less about any stuffed animal. Now any time he gets out of bed he needs to have his blanket(s), panda (from aunt Jody), frog (from Angie) and pillow. When he gets tired he will grab one of them and cuddle with it. Last Monday we are at home because Cooper had pink eye and somehow we ended up with 4 blankets, his pillow and the stuffed animals. It's super funny because he tries to carry them by himself. He loaded them onto the chair and then had to be lifted on it.


Because the weather was so nice out last Monday we decided to go for a walk and even though it was 66 degrees out he had to wear his winter boots, carry his snow shovel and bring his blanket. This actually worked out well because we ran into some neighbor kids and he wouldn't put either of them down so I didn't have to worry about him spreading pink eye.

Another thing he has started doing is climbing. He loves to climb on the chairs and get up on the island. He always seems to find the one thing we don't want him to have. Yesterday he used the broiler drawer and the oven handle to try climb on the stove and another time he was standing on top of the seat of his Tonka truck and dancing. Today he used the Tonka truck to try and play in the sink.

This weekend he has also started shaking his head no instead of always yes. Thankfully he still uses yes as well.

Mexico

At the end of February we finally used our timeshare and took a family trip to Puerto Vallarta. We were even able to talk my parents into coming with us which was a lot of fun. I knew traveling with Cooper would be an interesting experience and it was. He was really good on the plane for the most part. It's hard to sit still for 4 hours as an adult let alone an active toddler that can't sit still ever. Because he is under 2 years old we didn't have to buy a seat for him, thankfully it wasn't a full plane so he was able to have his own seat on both trips. I do feel bad for the lady sitting in front of us on the way home though, she got a baby wipe thrown on her head. Especially after Cooper had been kicking the back of her seat for about 2 hours.

Cooper loved the water! The first time he saw the ocean he would laugh and laugh as the waves hit his feet. Unfortunately Rob and I missed this, we got tricked into a timeshare presentation, lucky us. Though it was really painful, we did get a great deal on two day trips for the five of us. We had an awesome deck on our room complete with a Jacuzzi tub which Cooper loved! It was covered so he could be out of the sun and still be in the water. He was fearless in the water which scared the crap out of me. He would walk right off the edge of the pool without a care. He even wanted to go on the water slide so we put him on at the bottom and he loved it. I went on it and I was a little scared, it was a steep slide.

One night we went to the Mexican fiesta at our resort. It was a blast! They had great food, open bar, a mariachi band, dancing and a great show. Cooper of course loved the music and was really good. There was a guy going around to each table making balloon hats for everyone and another person going around putting sombreros on people's heads and taking pictures.

One of the day trips was a whale watching adventure and adventure it was. We started it out by getting kissed by a sea lion (I will try and scan the picture to add it) then got on a boat for breakfast and headed out on the water. We did see a lot of whales which was exciting. Cooper had a minor freak out so we missed snorkeling but that is fine. We then stopped at this beach where we had the choice of sitting on the beach for three hours or staying on the boat to go to the next stop and go see a waterfall. It was a mile walk or you could ride a horse up, we opted to go horseback riding after being told it would be fine by one of the guides on the boat. Never again will we make that mistake again. What they failed to mention is we were going up a mountain on a crappy path! Cooper rode up with me and both of us were terrified! Thankfully the horse had made the journey a couple times because I wasn't able to hold the reins at all. I had Cooper in one arm and I had a death grip on the saddle with my other hand. We finally get up to the waterfall and we were so disappointed! The Minnehaha Falls are more interesting. We had a beverage at the snack shop and then started the journey back down. My horse must have drank the water because it was crazy. At one point it took this crazy path and I ended up screaming. Thankfully a cameraman came to my rescue and lead us down to where the path was "safer". The kicker? As he was helping me he asked if I had been carrying my son the whole time and I said yes. He looked at me like I was crazy at told me that was really dangerous. Really?!?

Most nights we would try and watch the sunset from our deck and Cooper would scare the crap out of me by climbing on the railing.

All and all it was a great trip and really nice to spend the time with my parents. Cooper didn't know what to do when we got back and he couldn't go see grandma and grandpa on our deck every morning and being completely spoiled by them.

Cooper and Kaylin playing piano

Kaylin spent the night on Friday and on Saturday we went to Rob's parents house to visit with Grandma Charlene and Aunt Diane. The kids loved the piano! Here is a video of them "playing".

Donna's Surgery

For some of you that don't know and for those of you who do; Rob's mom is having surgery today to remove some cancerous cells in her colon and on her kidney. While it's incredibly scary just to say the "C" word the prognosis is good. She has created a Caring Bridge site to keep everyone updated and for people to send her well wishes. Please say prayers for her speedy recovery and that everything goes well.