Phone Friday

I've fallen way behind on this. Mostly I haven't taken too many photos, but also I have just been busy.

We finished off October by visiting the Pumpkin Patch and carving some pumpkins for the house.

I made cookies to send to school for Cooper's classmates. A few may have been left at home for our consumption.

Cooper got "scary teeth" in his Halloween bucket from school. They apparently had a pinata. At least that's what I gathered from Cooper's story. It went something like this. "There was a bat and we had a stick and we went BAM BAM BAM and all the candy dumped on the ground and we had to run and pick it up really fast."

After weeks of waiting, we finally were able to trick or treat for Halloween.

One Saturday, we found this Spiderman mask tossed in the middle of the clearance Halloween stuff. The costume was missing, but Cooper wanted the mask. Thankfully the manager was nice enough to sell it to us for $1.  

It finally got cold enough for a jacket! It also warmed up quite quickly each day and Cooper refused to take his jacket off. 

We took family photos and rewarded Cooper with a train ride in the park.

He also got a lollipop.

Last weekend, Jason had to make a last minute trip out of town. Cooper & I met Rachel for dinner at Freebirds.

Sunday, Cooper & I met up with some of our friends for the Color Run. Or Walk. When you're pushing a 40lb toddler, it is definitely a walk. At first Cooper did not want to participate. He wasn't thrilled with getting paint on his clothes & didn't really know what to expect.

 After we started to get dirty, he had more fun. The kids really enjoyed throwing color on each other at the end and Cooper wanted to get more paint on him again.

Monday morning started off with a bang. Cooper & I were sitting in bed and he started to cough, then proceeded to 'get sick' all over my bed. I spent Monday morning cleaning up vomit (which is awesome on a regular day, but goes to a whole new level when you're pregnant) and Cooper watched a lot of Disney. 

I have a whole new love for my washer and dryer, as well as Clorox wipes. Thankfully he was the only victim and was up & running the next morning. 

Happy Halloween!

I started asking Cooper weeks ago what he wanted to be for Halloween. His first and only response was Batman. Jason and I ordered a costume early so that we wouldn't make 100 trips across Houston looking for one the week before Halloween. That's how I roll - I'm either crazy prepared and early, or pushing things to the last minute.

Unfortunately, a few days before Halloween we realized we should try the costume on. It was a little snug and I did sort of try to find a bigger size. After a few misses, we decided to roll with it. It would work for one night. Sadly, he'll outgrow it in a month but I'm not 100% sure it will last that long.

For weeks, Cooper has been asking if it was Halloween Day. When he came down Wednesday, he was thrilled to finally hear that it was actually Halloween Day!  Halloween morning I sent him to school with his costume for their party. We talked for two days about how he'd have to take the costume off after the party, but I still had my doubts. Surprisingly, I picked him up that afternoon in his shorts & trick or treat shirt!

Once we got home I ordered pizza and did my best to keep Cooper from putting his costume on before Jason got there. Once Jason scarfed down his pizza, we hit the streets.

I grabbed a few quick photos before Cooper took off running.

We started off by hitting up the neighbors houses. Cooper was more than excited this year. I stressed to him that he needed to remember to say Trick or Treat and Thank You.

Cooper thought it was necessary to tell everyone he was Batman. He also thought the cuffs on his sleeves were guns and would start "shooting" at other kids on the street. I got tickled when some of the homeowners would ask the obligatory "Well, who are you?" Cooper would respond with "My name is Co... I'm BATMAN!"

After a few streets and an almost full bucket of candy, we decided to head home. Batman wanted to see a few more houses, but he also wanted us to carry him so we knew he was done.  He walked in, sat down, and started going through the bucket of candy. I managed to hold him to 1 piece before putting it all away.

We finally managed to talk him out of his costume before sending him to bed. The next morning I asked if he knew what day it was (Thursday) and he said "It's Christmas Day!"

We've got some learning to do regarding days, it seems.

Pumpkin Carving

For the few weeks leading up to October, Cooper talked quite a bit about putting faces on pumpkins. He'd beg to buy some every time we went to the grocery store and finally we picked up a few at the pumpkin patch.

That night, the boys got to work carving faces.

Cooper became pretty attached to his pumpkins and I knew it would be tough tossing them in the trash. He greeted them, talked to them and even went out the night before Halloween to show his pumpkins his Batman costume. I finally decided to tell him that they would go back to the pumpkin patch after Halloween was over. He didn't really buy that.

Thankfully, the morning after Halloween is trash day. I went to see how bad they were looking and he saw some ants crawling on the pumpkins and agreed they had to go. On the way to school he also told me we needed to go get some more and give them more faces.

We're still working on the concept that Halloween is over.

Pumpkin Patch

We've had one chilly weekend so far this fall. Since the temps dipped below 70, we decided it would be the prefect time to check out the pumpkin patch.

Cooper was very excited to check out the pumpkins and give them faces. We walked in and he immediately started climbing over the piles.

We did manage to grab his attention for a few photos before he was off again to go over another pile of pumpkins.

He got a kick out of these cutouts.

Finally we picked out our pumpkins and took a few more photos before heading home.

Cooper's Big News

His shirt reads: Only Child - Expires 5/4/13

Yep, that's right. Cooper's going to be a big brother! We finally told Cooper last week and I'm not quite sure he knew what to think. We told him, asked a few questions, and he asked if he could watch TV. Slowly over the last week he's started to talk more about it.

I've tried telling him he can't jump on me or kick me (playing around) because of the baby. Now it isn't a big deal, but in 4 months...it might be. He'll quickly stop what he's going, pat my stomach and say "Sorry baby!"

I also ask him daily if he thinks the baby is a boy or girl. It changes every few days, but it is pretty funny to hear. Earlier this week I asked if he would share his toys with the new baby. He said "No, the new baby will have her own toys." When I asked what he thought about the baby maybe being a boy he said that would make him sad.

One evening he didn't want to go home after school. I told him we needed to cook dinner because I was hungry. I said the baby is hungry too. Later that night Cooper wanted a snack and said I needed to feed the baby. I asked what the baby would want and he said "Ummmm....pizza!"

As for me, I'm doing well. Finally getting to the point where I don't feel like crawling in bed at 8pm every night. And although I didn't feel great for about a month, I never really felt sick. And the best part is that my reflux hasn't started yet! I had terrible reflux with Cooper so I'm expecting it to show up at any point, but for now I'll be happy without it.

Aggieland

A few weeks ago we decided to take a day trip to College Station. I wanted to grab lunch, show Cooper around campus and get to visit with Adalynn and her parents. Aly's dad ended up working, but we had a great time with the girls!

We started off with lunch at the Dixie Chicken.

After a round of burgers, we took off walking. It amazes & saddens me to see how many changes there are on campus. Of course, it has been several years and things do change. But seeing the changes in person as we walked across campus...it was a little crazy.

We checked out the newly renovated Memorial Student Center and picked up a new Aggie book for Cooper. On the way back across campus, we stopped to show Cooper the Century Tree. That portion of the tour was postponed, though, once we realized a lucky girl was about to become engaged.

Cooper put a penny on the Sul Ross statue (and tried to take two off) before we headed out.

Another quick stop at the relocated Fish Pond.

We made a few more stops around College Station & visited some more with Aly & Bridget before heading home. It is quite apparent that Adalynn LOVES Cooper. She grins when she sees him and we caught the first real belly laughs when Cooper played her Bumbo like a drum. Those two will probably cause a lot of trouble when they're older.