Happy Easter

For Easter, Grammy Rachel came out to visit. Cooper has enjoyed every minute of it. On Easter morning, Cooper enjoyed finding his basket from the Easter bunny. He LOVED the chocolate bunny and ate the hole thing for breakfast. I don't know why I thought he would only have one bite. Good thing the bunny was small.



They are laughing and singing at the same time!


Cute, but messy!


Cooper loved playing with Buzz Lightyear. Papi picked this out on their trip to Disneyland. Anything with lights and sound is a hit with Cooper.


Cooper the Easter Bunny.


Cooper has decided that he HATES having his diaper changed. This is he new entertainment. A snot sucker is so much fun! He will try to put it up his nose and in his ear. Hey, what ever works to keep him still is ok with me.


Cooper had fun playing with his new ball


Here is a video of Cooper discovering his Easter basket.



Cooper loved the new toys he received in his Easter basket.


What a fun Easter!

Cooper's Adventures

It amazes me how everyday Cooper is growing and learning new things. He now has a handful of words that he is able to communicate. If you look on the right side of the blog you will find a new feature of our blog called speech chatter. These are all the words Cooper currently says and the signs he uses.

Since the weather has been getting warmer Cooper loves to play outside. Whenever he wants to go out side he will grab his coat, hand it to mom or dad, and said "side". So cute! He loves to play in the dirt and throw it everywhere. This particular picture was taken in front of our neighbors yard. I guess their dirt is better than dirt in our yard.



Cooper decided that he wanted to play with his forks and spoons. Apparently they are more fun to play with than to use to eat with. He will now only use a small adult fork.



Lately Cooper likes to wear things around his neck. It started with bibs. He doesn't like to wear them much when he eats, but they make great capes. And he has to wear more than one at a time.


He also enjoyed wearing moms scarf around his neck. Maybe next year he'll have his own scarf to wear.


He also wanted to wear a blanket around his neck. Maybe some day he'll have a real cape.


As he wears his "super hero" capes, here are some of the tricks he can do.


Since we moved this table back upstairs all Cooper wants to do is sit under it and play. It's like his own little throne.




This is a rare moment for Cooper and mommy. He's usually off running or trying to squirm away. But every once in awhile I will be able to catch him for a quick hug.


Cooper has discovered lying on his stomach and how much fun this can be on the kitchen floor. He does this when one of his toys goes under furniture out of his reach.


Cooper is holding one of his favorite toys. Daddy's phone with a USB cable attached. What a cute mischievous smile.


Cooper has graduated to a "big boy" tooth brush. He does it all by himself, of course because he won't let us help him. He mostly chews on the brush instead of brushing. He's not perfect, but he's learning. As Paul says, "Rome wasn't built in a day."


One of Cooper's new favorite foods is polenta. On this day, during dinner, he couldn't seem to eat it fast enough with his fork so he decided to use his hands instead. This was the end result. Surprisingly enough, most of it made it into his mouth.


Cooper has discovered painting. These brushes have paint in a tube with a brush on the end. He liked to touch the brush with his hands more than actually painting. Once he tried to taste it, hence the paint near his mouth.


Can't have just one! Gotta have 'em all in his hands.


Cooper has discovered black olives. Putting them on his middle finger is his favorite thing to do!


Every time we get out the vacuum Cooper has to help. He loves to do it himself. Hopefully he will still think it's fun when he's older.



For his 1st birthday Grammy Terry and Grandpa Ed got Cooper a walker/riding car. At that time Cooper wasn't able to steer it very well and kept running into walls. Now he's a pro!

Where's the Belly Button?

Cooper just recently started signing "where" accompanied by saying his own version of "where is it?". He is such a funny little boy. He is doing something new almost every day.

A New Phase

Ok, so I know I haven't posted pictures from my family's New Years visit yet (which I will do soon), but I feel like I needed to write about this first. Over the past few months Cooper has started a new phase. Cooper has always been a daddy's boy ever since he was born. He and his dad have this wonderful relationship that I can't even begin to relate to. It's all about being BOYS! Which is great for them. The problem is, I seem to have a love hate relationship with this new phase. I love the way Paul relates to Cooper but I hate the fact that Cooper wants Paul all of the time. What about me, the mommy? Paul is the fun one, the energetic one, the one who will walk Cooper around the house or up and down the stairs for hours at a time. I'm really glad that Cooper has such a wonderful dad, but as the mommy, I feel like I'm not needed or wanted as much and it BREAKS MY HEART! This past weekend was particularly difficulty for me. Cooper wanted to be held a lot. There isn't anything wrong with that, except Cooper would only let Paul hold him. Every time I held Cooper he would reach for Paul or squirm and wiggle his way to the ground and then walk over to Paul wanting to be held. This just broke my heart! I kept thinking what did I do or not do? Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with Cooper wanting to be around his dad, it's just that, when it happens ALL the time I feel rejected. I'm really glad that Cooper loves his dad so much and shows interest in him but I wish he would show interest in his mom sometimes. I will never have that same relationship as Cooper does with Paul, nor do I want it. I wouldn't mind hearing him say mom once in awhile rather than dad all the time. Maybe I'm over reacting a little. But I want to feel loved and needed and I'm not feeling that right now. I'm hoping this is just a phase and that he will want to spend some time with me someday soon. I'm really looking forward to having my summer vacation to spend everyday home with Cooper! Summer can't come fast enough!

Happy 2010

Where to begin...

2010 is well under way, but it's hard to believe it only began a month ago. The New Year holiday was a busy time for us. My parents came to visit for a week and a half, my brother Craig and his wife Olga came and Olga's mom, Luba, came all the way from Russia. This was Luba's first visit to the US. Even though she speaks no English she was able to make the journey by herself. I have to admit, I was a little nervous at first about having her stay at our house. I wasn't sure what to expect since she doesn't speak English and I don't speak Russian. I was afraid we would have those awkward silence moments that nobody likes. As it turned out, her visit was nothing like I expected.

on Monday night we went to pick up Grammy and Papi at the airport.


Cooper had a great time watching all of the luggage go around on the carousel at the airport.


We went out to the Red Iguana for dinner. And Cooper was excited to use a straw for the first time.


Cooper spent most of his time being pulled around in the laundry basket. It was one of his favorite games.


Cooper loved the fill and dump wagon from Grammy and Papi. When it crashed, he pulled out his screwdriver and started to fix it.


When Craig, Olga, and Luba arived Luba wan't shy at all. She jumped right in and warmed up to Cooper right away.


Cooper trying on Olga's Russian hat.

This was our third Christmas celebration for this year. And by this time Cooper was a pro at opening presents.


Here is Cooper opening his Russian stuffed animals and wooden tool bench.

Everyone got new hats for Christmas.


Papi was especially excited about his because it was a Russian revolutionary hat.

Grammy made a hat for everyone.


Cooper's was a little big for him.

Craig is always the clown in the family.


Cooper loved playing with his Russian whistle toy. Although he had difficulty blowing it, he would carry it around in his mouth.


For New Year's dinner we had barbeque pork ribs, garlic noodles, and green salad. Who's idea was it to have Cooper suck on the bone? Oh yeah, Grammy's. To our surprise, he loved it!


Cooper always seems to copy Uncle Craig. But Cooper is much cuter, sorry Uncle Craig.


Cooper is helping Luba learn English by reading a Curious George book.


We were thankful the air cleared up one day so we could go out and play. Thanks to Craig, we were able to have the tallest snowman on the block. Who ever heard of a 4 ball snowman?? Cooper enjoyed helping too.

Since this was Luba's first trip to Utah, we thought it would be fun to take the Front Runner down to SLC for a day.


Cooper loved riding on the train. Looking out the window at all the scenery was so exciting.


After awhile, Cooper was getting tired of being held. Thank goodness we were almost there.


Temple Square was just as busy as ever. All Cooper wanted to do was walk up and down the stairs.


We had fun shopping at the Gateway. I was most excited about getting a snickers caramel apple.


On the way home, one of the train workers was passing out candy canes. Cooper love it instantly.


When we got home we ate sushi and steak. My dad and I were the ones who ate steak. We're not big on eating sushi. Mom, however dove right in and enjoyed every bite.


After all the toys Cooper had received for Christmas, his favorite toy ended up being some pipe insinuation we used as bumper pads around our table.

None of us made it to midnight this year. We were all in bed by 9:30.
What a great New Years celebration this turned out to be!

Christmas in Nampa 2009

The holidays are over, the decorations are put away, and we are getting back into our routines. Now I finally have time to write this blog. This year we went to Idaho for Christmas. Since the whole family was unable to get together all at the same time, our Christmas celebration was spread over several days in a row. We arrived in Idaho on Tuesday Dec. 22nd safely thanks to our Forester. We hit snow just outside of Utah, and the Forester handled it well! We weren't sure what toys Cooper was going to want to play with while in Nampa so we brought a laundry basket full. It turns out that our choice of toys didn't really matter, because instead of playing with his toys, this is how Cooper was entertained.


Grammy and grandpa found this laundry basket that had wheels and just had to get it for Cooper to play with (in).


As you can see, Cooper couldn't play with the basket all by himself. The basket stayed in Nampa when we left.


Cooper's other favorite "toys" were playing with the three remote controls that grammy and grandpa had in their TV room. Cooper watches minimal TV at home, but he knew exactly what to do with the remotes. He would point them at the TV, turn it on and off, and change the stations.

As for the actual toys we brought with us from home... most of them grew dusty over the week.

Cooper wasn't quite sure what to think about opening presents. In this video grammy pokes a hole in the wrapping paper and Cooper tries to put the paper back together.




Cooper has a fascination with buttons. He loves to push anything we will let him. This is a microwave box that has a picture on the outside and Cooper went right for the buttons on the picture. Funny kid!


Helping mommy open a present. He's so thoughtful like that.


Paul's sister April and her husband Zach.



Cooper enjoys riding his turtle. He's not quite tall enough to bounce on it yet.



Aww! The boys are so cute!

What a wonderful holiday we had in Nampa, thanks to our family!


Click on the link to see more pictures of our holiday in Nampa. Holiday photos