New kicks...

Last year my mom and step-dad bought Cooper a pair of boots for Christmas.  They were a little big, so we packed them away in the closet.  Then he reached a size 6 and I decided to try them on.  Only they wouldn't fit. I shoved, and pulled, and pushed.  Much like the step-sisters in Cinderella.  Those shoes were not going on.

Thankfully, I was able to exchange them for a larger size.  We've tried pulling them out a few times, but he really didn't want to wear them.  This week, though, I couldn't get them off.  It could be the noise they make on the floor, but he loved walking and stomping and jumping around saying "boots" over and over.

I think the pajamas make the outfit, don't you?

We've created a monster.

A few weeks ago we went to The Ranch for the weekend.  I'm now officially calling it The Ranch...you'll see why later.

Lindsey actually picked up Cooper early and headed out early.  After work, Jason and I made our way and got a text with a photo of Cooper & Lindsey on a horse.  I was a little shocked...and curious.  The weekend before I tried to get him to pet a horse and that took some arm twisting.  I couldn't understand how he was sitting there without a screaming look on his face.

The next morning, Lindsey went outside to work the horses again and Cooper was hot on her heels.  Before I knew it, he was right there with her.

They didn't go far, but he was hooked.  Cooper has always loved being outside, but that weekend was outside on crack.  He wanted to ride Peanut and drive the golf cart.  If he saw Lindsey on a horse, he thought he should be there.  If we dare mention "golf cart" he dropped what he was doing and ran toward the door yelling it over and over.

That afternoon we suited up for the pool, but Cooper just stood by the gate calling Peanut again and again.

It got worse, though.  Jason put one of the photos above on his cell phone lock screen to show Cooper.  We really didn't know he would flip out, crying for Peanut over and over again.  I decided that we needed to print a copy of the photo for him to carry around...however getting the phone away wasn't easy.  Cooper was heartbroken.  He cried and cried.  Not an angry cry, but the cry of a little boy who lost his dog.

Since then, we've carried photos around the house, renamed the rocking horse Peanut and instructed Lindsey to buy him a stuffed Peanut to carry around.  You know, since she started it all.  I'm holding her fully responsible.

Coming home!

Yes, I know we've been back for over a month.  Shut it.

The last day of our trip, we headed out to the park.  The goal was to run the kids down so that they would take long, hard naps.  The trick was that I needed Cooper to put his nap off by two hours. 

The boys had a great time running, swinging and sliding. 

We made one final attempt to snap a photo of the two of them before heading back to the house to finish packing.

At that point, Cooper's naps hadn't been great...his sleeping overnight hadn't been great either.  I was praying, people.  I mean, emailing & texting all of my friends and asking them to pray also.  I just had visions of this kid getting on the plane, two hours past nap, tired, worn out...overtired.  And screaming.

And momma would have flagged down the drink card and handed over the credit card.  For myself, don't worry.

We headed off to the airport, planning to grab lunch there and let Cooper run around before boarding.  Finally it was go time.  I knew we had a tired little boy, but I just hoped that he would wind down and sleep.

Thankfully, he did.  Wheels up to wheels down.  I sat there, sweating like fat kid on the 4th of July (because, you know, it was the 4th of July) but I didn't dare move him.  He was sleeping.  Finally.  After 5 days on vacation, he decided to sleep all the way home.  Those three hours of quiet sleep made up for the nights/afternoons of no sleep. 

Things I learned this weekend

1. I am not allergic to bee stings.  My sister is very allergic, so I always wondered.  My mom thinks I was stung once as a kid, but I don't remember that.  Saturday I was stung by a yellow jacket for the first time that I can remember.  I may or may not have said something that I shouldn't repeat, but it hurt!
2. Cooper has apparently inherited my accident prone gene.  Sunday he was jumping on the bed (after we told him not to) and fell down against the headboard, getting a big fat goose egg.  Then he was playing in his room, only to have the toy attack him giving him a big black eye.  And finally he almost choked on a Dorito.  Scared me to death.
3. Doing one project will lead to several more.  We got new floors this weekend (yay!) which led me to wipe down the kitchen cabinets, wash & iron the drapes, and do more cleaning than I've done in a long time.
4. I need to purchase one of those rolling mop buckets.  For real.
5. Baking cookies is good for my soul.  I have been very stressed lately and decided yesterday that I wanted to bake a batch of cookies.  I haven't baked cookies in...a very long time.  Like maybe February?  It wasn't a complicated recipe and I went out to watch Cooper swim while they baked, but it felt good.

Take me out to the ball game...

I may have mentioned that Cooper's Aunt Carla made him an honorary Astros baseball player this year.  Well, she signed him up for the Astros Buddies Club.  I actually recommend this for parents with kids that will sit through the games (or part of the game).  They get a few gifts from the Astros, passes to sneak to the front of the line and run the bases and tickets to one game.  Cooper can't quite run the bases yet, but I'm hoping next year he gets it.

Since Aunt Carla bought Cooper's membership, we decided to give the 4th ticket to her.  She met us one Sunday morning and we headed in to grab lunch before the game.  After lunch, we walked over the park to run off some Cooper energy.  Our first stop was the kids batting cage.

Cooper raced down the baseline, but those pics are hard to get.  He did tell us all about it, though.

On the way out, we ran into one our best buds...Mickey Mouse.  Or, as Cooper calls him - Mouse.  They're close like that.

We finally made it over to our seats to watch the game.  Aunt Carla & Cooper took another walk around the park while Jason and I got to watch a few uninterrupted innings.

We all sat down to watch the game and got to see a home run!

We all had a great time at the game, even though we did lose.  I have a feeling the next few several years are going to be long "rebuilding" years.  That's ok...at least the tickets will be cheap!

This is for Bear

Do you think we could just send it in now?

Caution: Children at Play

The next day in Delaware, we took a trip to the Wilmington Children's Museum.  Jason and I have talked about taking Cooper to the children's museum in Houston, but never have made it down there.  After this trip, it has moved up on the list of things we'd like to do soon.  Plus - it has air conditioning.

Cooper went right to the slide and I worried it would be hard to pull him away.

I should have worried more about taking the two adult boys...they almost had more fun that the little boys!

Matthew has a serious fascination with trains and Cars.  He managed to share some of that obsession with Cooper and now everything is about "choo-choos" and "Qeen." 

After fixing the cars, the boys took the boat out for a drive.

We spent a little time learning about magnets before finally getting to play in the water.

Poor baby Hannah...for the second outing in a row she missed all of the excitement.  I guess she decided that she'll spend enough of her years telling these boys to behave that she should probably sleep while she can.