Torment

It is what happens when left home alone with a mother on a day when you are having company and you have to have your hair combed... it results in a face like the one Coop is making in the first picture in the post below.

Adorableness

Know what is so friggin cute it makes me completely laugh / melt? Cooper's manners.

"Cooper, say 'more please'."

- "Mow, tease"

"Now say 'thank you'."

- "Tank oooo."

Also adorable, is the way Cooper listens to 'Mickey.' See, Cooper has decided to employ some selective hearing when it comes to his Daddy lately. In an effort to regain the upper hand, Steve has started using Coop's stuffed Mickey Mouse and holding it up, speaking in a Mickey Mouse voice and asking Coop to do the things Coop "didn't hear Dad ask him to do" about 2 minutes prior. Seriously, Coop would do ANYTHING for Mickey. I am concerned Steve may misuse his Mickey power...

Finally, Coop had some friends over today and OH MY GOODNESS was it AMAZING. He is so sweet with other kids and so loves having friends. You can see the duet at the piano.

TRUTH

I find myself saying or agreeing to the following statement, even though, for me, it is a lie:

"Being a parent is hard."

I mean, is it easy? Not in every way, no. But I don't think it is "hard," at least not in the way people mean when they say this. I mean, when I look back and think about how in the hell I handled a newborn preemie without getting any sort of "maternity leave" and juggled finishing 2 grad programs, well, yes, I guess that was not the "easiest" thing, but to be honest, it just was. Just like millions of other women who have babies across the world (many in places and under circumstances that make my little story sound like a dream come true). The school was going to be there no matter what, that wasn't Coop's doing, and the rest was exactly what I wanted. I was loving every second of it, and while there was tiredness and there was stress, I never thought "man, this is hard." It was totally what I thought it would be, what I signed up for, what I wanted, ONLY BETTER. I wonder sometimes what people expected when they got pregnant. No I didn't expect this. This has been WAAAAAY more awesome then I ever could have imagined. If I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night, if I wanted to have time to myself, hell, if I wanted to be able to go to the bathroom without having someone tag along, I would have never bothered with having kids (they are expensive little buggers).

I have struggled a lot with working this job and being a parent, but it isn't the parent part that has been "hard" (nor has it been the actual job), but it has been all the time that I am NOT able to be a parent. A couple times, either because of a nightmare or because Momma and Dada were too loud banging around the kitchen looking for a night time snack, Cooper has woken up crying. I won't LET Steve into that room. I race to that door to be "interrupted" by that child not sleeping. I so badly want to be the one who holds him and makes it all better.

The only thing I truly think is hard about being a parent is the feeling that I am not parenting well enough.

That part, the NOT parenting part, keeps me up at night.

I wrote and rewrote this post a few times, SO not something I ever do on this blog. It is in response to random things that have happened that have made me build up some feelings, and perhaps made me perpetuate this little lie I talk about. When I wrote this post before, it was filled with bitterness and a bit of anger, two things I try NOT to put in Cooper's baby book a la blog. But it is important to me that I write this down, because this is something that resonates with me so much right now. I am tired of acting like parenting is so hard. I feel like I constantly validate people who take for granted something that I am ridiculously jealous of. I long for the day when I can parent more.

Snuggling in a Snuggie

Yes, I have a snuggie (thank you Woot! for offering up irresistible good deals on stuff...). I also have a littler sunggler.




Isn't he snuggleable?

Good, No, GREAT Hair Day

Coop likes to take this blanket and put it over his head, and then he pulls it down off his head, thereby creating some AMAZING hair. Trust me, even these pictures hardly do it justice... but use your imagination!

"Bup, Momma"

Yes, Momma will pick you bup.

Good Day, Doctor, I Said Good Day.

Coop has decided that in lieu of the doctor (especially his upcoming 2 year old appointment with MUCHOS shots) he will just have an apple a day... So he helped himself and went to munching.

HELLO FRANCO!!!

The return of Franco! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

We loves us some Franco!

Poor Use of Flexibility

Even if I could... I would not put my toes to my nose to sniff them.

LET THERE BE WORDS!!!!

We are SO entering the Land of the Talking, and I am SO happy and sad (but sad in a good way). Today Steve called and told me a certain Mr. Someone said "Beka" and then proceeded to put that certain Mr. Someone on the phone to say it to me. He has continued chatterboxing all day and even through the evening after I got home from work. Our sitter was quite impressed and said she had heard a lot of "uh ohs" (which MOMMY had been working on with him, quite a bit... thanks to the many goofy things I do that make an "uh oh" appropriate).

Coop is eager to chat now, and he is quick to respond to many prompts of "say ______"... he still is more emphatic about saying only the second syllable of words, but it is so wonderful to hear that little voice come to life, and even better to see how excited he is with his new talent.

Where IS Cooper????

Coop loves to climb behind people when they are on the couch and sit still and be sneaky and when they can't find him, it is HILARIOUS... Also hilarious, when they lean back and "discover" him there - SO SURPRISING!!!!

Conductor and Samarai

Coop has been very cute playing with his train track and a quick study at putting pieces together....

He has ALSO had a lot of fun with the wrapping paper tube which is both used for karate and as a sort of Kazoo....

Great Aunt Krishia, the Giver of Awesome Air

Cooper has a Great Aunt Krishia. This year at Christmas she sent him a cool toy that shoots balls into the air with some reverse vacuum mechanism - very cool.



Coop immediately loved this toy (even pre-batteries) and has been playing with it quite frequently - putting a ball in and then laughing as it shoots in the air...

Then, Steve showed Coop another way to play with this toy.... letting the air shoot into his face.



I have a feeling THIS was not what Aunt Krishia the Great had in mind...



Though, now this toy is just doubly awesome!

The Zoo

Right now, Cooper knows what the following things say:

- Car
- Cow
- Sheep
- Dog
- Horse
- Lion
- Elephant
- Cat
- Giraffe*

My favorite is the way he scrunches his face up to say "mooooooo" in a long drawn out, slightly pained voice. He is so proud of all his sounds.

My deal closed today - A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. - and I have billed a measly 2.5 hours.... nonetheless I have been in my office since 8am and it is now a quarter of 4. I am leaving at 4... which I feel may be pushing it with regards to the office politics, but I am kind of at a lull in work, and am having a hard enough time being here until 4 as it is... thus, I will leave at 4. I prefer to get in more "face time" at home... cause HAVE YOU SEEN COOP'S FACE?

*Many moons ago we were reading a book to Cooper and saying "what sound does a ____ make" and then making the sound. Half joking, we said "what sound does a giraffe make" and on cue, Cooper supplied a sound, thus, in our house, a giraffe says "whirr whirr" (I am not sure how to spell the sound, but that is my best guess).

Coop and Boots

Coop loooves to wear big people shoes. Especially his Mommy's. Especially his Mommy's BOOTS!!!! He tries to put these on all the time, and usually I discourage it, because it just seems like too much shoe for such a little body, but I caved yesterday - he was SO insistent. And, VOILA! Coop and Boots!

(Can you tell that I left work early today, and by "early" I mean by 6:15, but being able to come home and actually play, and then put Cooper to bed, and NOT rush the whole routine feeling like I am not somewhere else that I need to be and simultaneously beating myself up for short changing my kiddo... well, today was a much better day, and to prove it - I blogged and posted about random nothingness.)