Last week...

seemed to be the week from hell...though I am finding it hard to remember why...funny how it works like that.  The weekend of Mar 19/20 we went to New Braunfels to visit Jamie and Zach and Amy.  We had a great time...I wish I could see them more often.  It's hard to go from living with J and A in college to living hours apart and hardly ever seeing each other.  Here are a few pics from the weekend...

More adventures to come soon....

Rice and Beans...

I haven't posted in a really long time...so I am going to start with today and work my way backwards.  Today's big news....Cooper ate some rice and refried beans at Mission Burrito today without gagging.  He actually ate a bite...then signed for more...and ate 3 or 4 more bites.  This is HUGE!  This follows the visit we had Tuesday with an Occupational therapist and speech therapist about Coopers gagging on anything but stage 2 Gerber food.  We had decided to go ahead with some treatment from the OT....but now I am thinking of canceling the appointment that we have next Monday.  We were having lunch with some of our friends from the little gym....when Cooper ate the few bites everyone clapped saying "yea Cooper" and he clapped, smiled big and was very proud of himself.  I guess we'll see how dinner goes...

This week was also big in that when I put Cooper on all fours on Tuesday....he actually stayed that way and began rocking back and forth.  This is HUGE too....he never would put his legs up under himself before...and if you tried to help he laughed hysterically and rolled over.  We are making progress in all areas this week!

I also got a new camera on Tuesday of this week and have just been wrapped up in it.   I got a Nikon 3100 DSLR camera....and I LOVE it!  I have been interested in photography for a really long time...Kyle and I talked about it and I finally decided to take the leap.  Happy early birthday to me :)  I have been constantly taking pictures of Cooper...and when he is asleep I am taking pics of the dogs...who are not too amused with it.  I have learned so much in the last few days and I know I still have so much to learn...but I'm hoping to start my own photography business at some point. 

Here are a few pictures from the first few times I used the camera.  I am using Picasa for editing right now...so far I'm not a huge fan of Picasa...but it's working for the time being.

More adventures to come soon...

10 months...

Cooper was 10 months yesterday...I can't believe it.  We spent the day running errands and hanging out here at home.  Today we are headed to New Braunfels to spend some time with Jamie and Amy for the weekend...I am SO excited!

More adventures to come...

When it rains it pours...

and floods, and sprinkles, and poops.  This post talks about bodily fluids of children, dogs, and washing machines....so quit reading if you don't want to hear about it.

Yesterday Cooper and I headed to Wal-Mart...and not 2 minutes after we got inside it poured...and I mean poured for about 45 minutes.  No big deal...we just shopped around.  We get home and it's time for a diaper change....and wouldn't you know I look away for one second and urine is being sprayed straight up in the air...all over Cooper...hair, face, and whole body...all over my shirt...and almost in my face...and he's belly laughing the whole time.  Now there is a comforter and some clothes to add to my laundry piles...the laundry fairy at our house is already in over her head...and now she's drowning.

Today started out with Cooper covered in urine when I went to get him out of his bed...no big deal...note to self...start using the nigh time diapers that I got.  Morning nap time ended with being covered in pee again...no big deal one more change of clothes and sheets...at this point what's another load of laundry.

We went and visited our friends Andrea and Michael today.  I kept Michael a few days a week a couple years ago and I love going to visit.  We had a great visit and Cooper LOVED being around Michael who is almost 3.  Michael read to Cooper and they ate lunch together...too cute.

When Cooper went down for his afternoon nap I had planned to get a ton of things done from my "to-do" list.  One of those things included cleaning out the washer lent basket...yes I said washer lent basket.  This involves manually draining any water that is in the washer (much easier than it sounds) and then ....finishing the job...to keep it short.  It usually takes a few minutes to drain it...so I decided to go ahead and load the washer and get it ready to go for when I was done with lent cleaning.  Well I guess my mind was somewhere else because about 10 minutes later I think to myself "oh I'm sure that's done draining now"...and then I thought to myself...."oh **** I started the washer with the drain open".  You can see right where this story is headed.  That's right...I walked into a completely flooded laundry room.  If you've never been in our laundry room/pantry/extra fridge/dog sleeping room....it's not small.  An hour and a half of sopping up water...moving the fridge and washer and dryer and dog beds later...all the water was up.  I feel like this description of what went on this afternoon in our laundry room does not in any way do what really happened justice.  Anyway...it's done.  Everything happens for a reason...I can't help but wonder if I kept our house from burning down by cleaning the large amount of dog hair that was behind the fridge and all up in the wires and coils....it was enough dog hair to be a small dog...and by small dog I mean a whole other Mollie dog.

Oh but wait my day of liquids and bodily fluids is not over.  Sampson sometimes leakes stuff from his bummy.  There was some on the couch and some on the floor in Coopers room....this needed to be taken care of asap.  A little resolve here...and there...and going to get some paper towels...and that dog is licking up the resolve!  You have got to be kidding me.  So 30 minutes later on hold with the vet and a call in to the resolve company and poison control later....he's supposed to be just fine with no intervention...."but keep a close eye on him".

With that the day is coming to an end with some great junk TV and a Pina Colada :)

I was pleasantly surprised with myself when I reacted to todays "issues" not by crying, or cursing...but instead I found myself praying.  I found myself saying "Thank you God that I have a washer and dryer.  Thank you god that I have water to clean up.  Thank you God that I have a house.  Thank you God that I have dogs I love and a phone to call for help when needed"

More adventures to come tomorrow...

The time change...

has my furry children fooled but not my human child.  5:30 this morning...which should feel like 4:30 to Cooperman....found him talking and giggling to himself.  He did get quiet again for a little bit...but at 6:30 he was having a full on conversation with someone.  Mollie and Sampson have been quiet in the morning...which is a huge change from the whining and barking that usually happens around 6:30 if not earlier letting me know they would like to be served their breakfast. 

Grammie got here late this past Friday night and 6:29 Saturday morning I found her waiting outside Coopers door.  We went to the farmers market Saturday and then had lunch on a patio in La Centerra.  In the afternoon we all took a little snooze and then went for a walk. 

Sunday after church our youth was having a "Malt Shop" fundraiser to raise money for vacation Bible school.  Cooper tried his first french fry...he liked the inside squishy potato part...but not she outside part.  He also likes ketchup...he would rather lick the ketchup off the fry than actually eat the fry.  I was horrible this weekend and didn't take any pictures. 

It is thundering and raining this morning...so I'm wondering if we are going to spend the day inside...guess we will see.  No new pictures for today...I'll try and be better about that this week!

More adventures to come soon.....

And the days go by...

I feel like the days are just flying by lately.  I feel as if I wake up...blink...and it's Coopers bed time.  With that said it's been well over a week since I've posted...

Cooper has been grabbing at his ears A LOT lately...and pretty fussy here and there. So...last Wednesday and Thursday I found myself stuck in my usual problem of what I call the "Do I" struggle.  Do I take him to the Dr. to check for an ear infection or do I give it a few days to see if maybe he's just teething.  Do I take him to the Dr. and chance him catching something else from there or do I just call in and see what the Dr. says?  Thursday I decided to take him in ... and no ear infection...just teething.  So at that point am I happy there is no ear infection or sad that it is teething and he's going to have to deal with this off and on for who knows how long?  Anyway...I guess Motrin and Tylenol are our new best friends for awhile. 

On a sad note...A man from our church named Jerry Burton passed away on Sunday February 27th.  We sat in the pew just in front of Jerry and his wife Betty when we first joined the church.  Yes we sit in almost the same spot every Sunday....and they did too.  They were so kind and welcoming to us when we first joined...and they saw me through the whole second half of my pregnancy.  We sat with them at the church picnic the day before Cooper was born.  We also sat with them for the Christmas eve service this past year.  We will miss Jerry.

Friday morning we were up at 4:30 and out the door by 9 headed to Burleson.  The weekend was great...nice and relaxing.  Kyle and his dad went and took the Cowboys stadium tour on Saturday and that evening we went for Mexican food where I had the BEST margarita I have ever had.  It was nice to spend some time with Robert and Debbie...we hadn't seen them in awhile.  Sunday morning we headed back home with a stop in Bryan to visit Luke.  It was nice to see him too and he though Cooper had grown so much.

Monday started with our computer crashing....but I did get it fixed for $21.00.  WooHoo for me...that is the second time I have gotten our computer fixed for around $20.  Another great thing about Monday...when Cooper and I got home in the evening from getting the computer fixed there was a beautiful vase and flowers that Kyle got me...just because.  That's right...flowers for no reason....what an amazing daddy we have. 

Tuesday Cooper and I had lunch with our friend and neighbor Becky....I really enjoyed the grown up conversation.  Hello Mexican food and a nap :)

Wednesday was the start of Lent season.  I have decided to take on reading the Bible daily...and there are a few other things I am working on.  We went to church Wednesday night where Cooper decided he needed to be giving the sermon and leading the service....man can that kid "talk". 

Thursday Kyle took most of the day off and we mowed the yard for the first time this year.  Cooper also had his first teething biscuit...kinda like the teething cookies he's been having....but I don't think the biscuits taste as good as the cookies.  Oh also let me throw in the he likes to give the dog a lick...and then put it back in his mouth.  Yum.

I spoke with my friend Andrea who is a speech therapist about Coopers gagging issues.  I can't remember if I've talked about this before... Cooperman love his food...that is if it is stage 2 creamy Gerber baby food.  If he gets a chunk of anything in his mouth one of two things happen...he spits it out...or he gags until he vomits...and I don't mean a little bit.  We've been somewhat concerned about this....and it was time for me to check into it.  Anyway...Andrea suggested a few things for me to try and work on with him and she told me about ECI...Early Childhood Intervention through Katy ISD.  Turns out we'll get to see a speech therapist for free (well not free seeing as we pay KISD some hefty taxes)...but 'free' is much better than the $200 we were going pay.  Anyway...it will be a few weeks before we get seen...  On another developmental note...Cooper is moving around more and more every day.  Now when I go in to get him in the morning he pulls down the crib bumpers to peak out.  Those bumpers and going to need to go soon.

Today was spent taking care of stuff here around the house and I took Miss Mollie to the vet for her annual check up.  All is well except she needs to lose 7 to 10lbs.  Yikes...Mollie Dog likes to eat...but who doesn't. 

Grammie is on her way into town as I write this.  She hasn't seen Cooper in 6 weeks...that's the longest she's even gone...it won't surprise me if she's camping outside his door in the morning waiting for any little peep out of him.

Oh yea one last thing...we had our first up the back diaper explosion this evening....WOW is all I have to say.

More adventures to come soon.....

Dermatologists, haircuts, and naps...

Yesterday ended up being a pretty busy day for us.  The morning was quiet...if you ever could call it quiet around here.  Kyle came home early afternoon and we headed to the Pediatric Dermatologist just inside the loop.  Turns out Coopers bumps and redness on his arms and legs has nothing to do with milk allergy as previously suspected...but he has Keratosis Pilaris...which is "caused by a plug of dead skin cells that forms around the hair follicle...it is a sign of sensitive skin".  The Ped Derm explained it as a skin type...she said just as you can't pick your skin color...you can't pick your skin type.  Treatment in unnecessary and only used for cosmetic reasons.  Basically we just keep it moisturized and use some really gentle soaps/lotions/sunscreens on Cooper. 

After getting home from that Kyle went down to our neighbors house for a haircut and I gave Cooper a haircut.  I feel like he looks like a big boy now and lost some of his baby look...the main thing is that his hair is not in his eyes anymore.  Below are some before and after haircut pics.

On another note...the rolling all over the room is out of control...he is also lunging himself forward and scooting to things...I suspect crawling is just around the corner.  The other members of our family are not so consumed with moving around...in fact they'd rather do the opposite and nap on the couch.

More adventures sure to come tomorrow!