Joy Day 12

Baking cookies with Cooper.

Joy Day 11

A successful shopping trip.

Joy Day 10

(Friday)

Movie night.  Calzones (or Pizzas, according to Cooper), pumpkin carving and The Lion King.

Joy Day 9

Conversations in my car.

Me: We're going to have Mexican food for dinner.
Cooper: Yeah!
Me: Cooper, do you know what Mexican food is?
Cooper: Cheese!

The boy can't lie...

The Relative Hangover

Yesterday my sister came over to spend the afternoon with Cooper.  After dinner, I jokingly asked him if he wanted to go to Aunt Sassy's house to spend the night.  He brought me his suitcase.

This is kind of what his face looked like after we packed his bags, loaded her car and kissed goodbye.  Looks real broke up, right?

Later this afternoon I'm going to pick him up from her house.  I'm bracing myself for this face.

Anyone else see the problem here?  This is what I like to call The Relative Hangover.

Joy Day 8

(Wednesday)

A face to face conversation with a good friend.  I love the internet.

Joy Day 7

Morning snuggles watching Mickey Mouse.

Joy Day 6

Bunko night with the girls.

Joy Day 5

(Monday)

Spending the weekend with friends and watching one of them do something that took a lot of hard work!

Joy Day 4

Six years...

Joy Day 3

(Friday)

Hearing the excited squeals when I pick Cooper up from school.

Joy Day 2

Cooper & his Aunt Sassy

Choo Choos & Animals

September turned out to be a fairly quiet month for us, but it was definitely the calm before the storm.  We decided to set some time aside to take Cooper to the zoo before things got too crazy.  It figured that for the second time in a row I'd pack the camera and forget the memory card.  Thankfully, my phone takes semi-decent pics.

Our first stop was to see the elephants. 

We made our way over to the bears...

The weather was finally cool enough to see the lions!  Every other trip, they've been in hiding.  I still the the lion exhibit at the San Diego Zoo was awesome, but these were pretty close to the glass.

 Cooper's favorite, though, is the Gorilla Enclosure.  He doesn't quite realize they aren't monkeys, but he loves them.  The gorillas get up close and personal with the glass, so I think that also has something to do with it.

We stopped to check out the rhino...

before going to see the giraffe.  Cooper's daycare got a face lift last month and they put in a huge painting of a giraffe in his room.  He is very quick to identify them and love it...until they were almost close enough to touch!

Since we knew quiet weekends were going to be few and far between this fall, we decided to treat Cooper to a ride on the train.  He was very excited when he realized it was actually a real train, and the store was full of Thomas stuff (that we didn't buy) but when it came time to ride the train I think he was a little scared.

Cooper was pretty quiet during the train ride, but I knew he was sold when we had to basically pry him off.

Joy Day 1

Last year I spent a few weeks reflecting on the little things.  Some days were harder than others, but in the end I enjoyed it.  So, I'm going to give it a shot again.

Joy Day 1: this face at the end of the day.

And here are a few others for good measure.

Too fast

Monday night Jason picked Cooper up from school.  The evening teacher has been with Cooper since the first classroom and he loves her.  Probably not as much as he loves Peanut & Libby, but some days he may prefer Ina (Ee-na) over Momma.  I've not-so-secretly been dreading the day he was going to move up to the 2's and leave Ina.  He cried for a month when he moved to this classroom and Ina was moving with him!  And she loves him just as much.  But I figured he'd be a little old and one of his buddies would move with him, so I didn't panic.

Until Monday.  Ina was a little pained to tell Jason that "they" wanted to ask us about moving him early.  He seems to be a little advanced and they feel like he'll benefit more from being in an older class.

So you're telling me he's a bully?  Ok, that wasn't said, but I did think it.  Cooper usually gets great reports in the evening.  I sort of think Ina is a little biased and may water things down, but she also does have to follow the rules.  He has been bit quite a few times, but I also think (and know) that sometimes he causes it.  Not that biting is ok, but I feel like that is the first reaction kids learn and it is their defense mechanism.  Plus, he's easily the biggest kid in class.  (shocked, aren't you?)  

I talked to the assistant director Tuesday morning just to see what was discussed.  Cooper is bored.  He doesn't sit long during circle time and they think he will benefit from being challenged more.  They go outside twice (score!), still nap (hallelujah) and have a bigger educational plan.  Plus, they'll start potty training him.  I was fully prepared to wait until next summer (or longer if needed) because I know boys are usually behind on this. And I know pushing him can cause it to fail.  But I do think he's ready.  He runs to the bathroom if Jason is going, and Sunday he asked me to sit on the potty.  I asked him if he knew what was supposed to happen on the potty, but he didn't answer.  I've also been informed that once we start this, I get the pleasure of being clapped for every time I go to the bathroom!  I've been waiting my whole life for someone to clap for me when I pee!!  Not really, but it did make me laugh.

Still, this is all going too fast.  I feel like just last year I was pregnant.  And now when I realize I need to work out and drop some weight, I also realize that I almost have a 2 year old.  It is all going too fast.