A Successful Trip

You all may think I’m silly or weird for wanting to remember this, but I’m writing it down anyway, for myself :)

Oh, and recently I’ve been wondering if people think that I am sometimes negative or portraying life with a child (my child) kind of dramatically because I always mention his (mis)behavior, even if I’m just doing a weekend recap.  But, I try so hard to be true-to-life on here.  For me, remembering the trying times makes the good times even sweeter.  So, please don’t mistake my need to document the bad with the good for anything other than what is it.  Which is simply telling a story, the way it happened.  Oh, and perhaps the fact that I’m a wee bit dramatic.  At times.  Or so I’ve been told ;)

Sorry, just felt the need for a disclaimer for some reason.

So, today Cooper went to the doctor.  He’s fine, really, just has some allergy issues.  On Mondays, my dad watches him, so they met me at the doctor’s office.

I walked in and saw my dad, but Cooper was nowhere to be found.  Then I looked over at the big playhouse/slide that they have, and there were 3 kids over there playing.  And one was Cooper.  He has never been able to play on that without help.  He usually needs help climbing the ladder to get up in it, and then he needs help finding and then going down the slide.  Usually, he puts his foot down while going down the slide, so we always stand right by him so he doesn’t do that and start to somersault down it.

But today?  He was navigating that thing like a pro.  Weaving in and out of the tunnel, and climbing right up to the tallest slide, and zipping right down it with no problem.  I just sat there, probably with a stupid goofy grin, because he looked like such a big boy.

And he was so good around the 2 bigger boys that were playing on it, too.  He took turns, and waited until they were off of the slide to go down.  He listened to me when I told him to wait until one of the boys had gotten out of the front of the slide.  He has always loved playing on the slides there, and every time we go (which has been a lot since he has been sick so often the past 6+ months), I long to be the mom that just gets to sit in the chair and watch while her kid plays.  And today, just like that, I was.  And I kind of wanted to cry!  When did he get so big that he didn’t need my help ? 

And then, they called his name to go back.  Usually this means a scream-fest because he can’t play anymore.  But this time, he went down the slide, and I told him we had to go back.  And he took my hand and we walked back.  No tears or fights.  He went and stood on the scale all by himself (he has never done that even though we’ve tried), and then he lifted his arm for the nurse to take his temperature, before she even asked him to.  It was so cute :)  He just stood there and looked at stickers while we waited.  When the nurse was all done, he proclaimed “Yay!” and took my hand again.

We walked back to the room, where he usually cries and repeats “bye bye” while trying to open the door, despite me trying to distract him with anything.  But today, we looked at a book, and I asked if he wanted to watch Barney on my phone, to which he replied “Blahbey!”,which clearly means yes.  So we pulled up something on You Tube, and he sat in my lap and watched.  People, this has never happened before, ever in his life.  And trust me, I’ve tried!  He watched while the nurse asked questions, and then he let her listen to him breathing, which is also usually a fight.  He also didn’t freak when the nurse left, or when the doctor came in.  We stopped watching Barney at that point, and he just sat in my lap and read a Humpty Dumpty book.  He let the doctor look in his ears, which is a MAJORLY big deal.  While the doctor and I discussed what course of treatment to take, Cooper hopped down of my lap and I got a little worried that he was going to melt down.  But he went and sat in a chair, and looked at a book.  I was seriously in shock that he was still being good.  He did keep saying “Poppa” (my dad, who was still out in the waiting room), and he did say “home” a few times, but overall, he was perfect! 

When we left, he still didn’t want to be carried.  He wanted to walk while holding my hand, so I let him.  He didn’t even freak out that we couldn’t play on the slides anymore.  It was crazy that he was so well-behaved, and amazing that he was such a big boy doing everything by himself.  Kind of makes me want to cry and jump for joy at the same time :)

A Boy and His Dogs

Cooper LOVES his puppy dogs.  I have never seen anything like it.  They are the first thing he wants in the morning, and the last thing he wants at night.  Kind of hurts mom and dad’s feelings!

We have 2 yorkies, Isabelle (who he calls Belle Belle), and Zoe (who he calls Zo Zo).  When we found out we were pregnant, we were a little nervous as to how they would react to having a little one around.  If we ever had any pint-sized visitors over, they would freak out and bark like crazy. Zoe went as far as to snap at a little girl once.  After that, we just didn’t let them around kids.  So, naturally we were worried.

But, the day we brought Cooper home from the hospital, they sniffed his head, and then just went on with their business as if he didn’t exist.  Except for those first few nights.  Haha.  He slept in our room and they did NOT know what to do when he was waking up at night crying.  But, after a few nights of it, they got used to it, and soon enough they didn’t even stir when he woke up.  Much like their father.

As Cooper got older, he became very interested in the girls, as we lovingly refer to them.  He thought they were hilarious, and laughed every time he saw them.  He would try to touch them, or grab them.  They responded by running away from him.  Pretty soon, he was able to catch them, and, because he wasn’t sure what to do, he usually ended up hurting them in some way by pulling their hair or grabbing their legs.  They were always very chill about it though.  They never barked or growled, and they certainly have never snapped at him.  Even when they yelped from him pulling their ears.  Poor things.

After lots and lots of Lee and myself saying “gentle, gentle” and “soft pet”, and showing how to pet them with an open hand, Cooper finally learned how he was supposed to love on and pet the girls.  And boy does he do that every chance he gets. It kind of reminds me of that carton, I think it was Tiny Toons?  With that crazy little girl that would grab the animals and say something like “I wanna love him and hug him and squeeze him and never let him go!”  Is that how it went?  I don’t remember exactly, but that’s how Cooper is.  He just loves these dogs SO much!

And in return, the girls…tolerate him.  Isabelle is more affectionate with him (that’s just her personality in general), and she gets excited to see him in the mornings.  She is always waiting at the bottom of the stairs.  She will give him kisses any time he’s on the floor.  Zoe is not affectionate (that’s just her personality), but she does like to play, so she lets him throw her ball and stuffed animals  for her to run after.  He loves to run around the house because both of the girls get excited and chase him while barking.  This happens a lot, and Cooper laughs the whole time.

The funny thing about Zoe is, even though she usually acts like Cooper annoys her, I have caught her on several occasions squeezing through the closed baby gate at the bottom of the stairs so that she can lay outside of his room while he sleeps.  And she always goes up with him when it’s time to go to bed.  She stays up there while he has a bath and gets his jammies on, and she would stay up there if we didn’t tell her to go downstairs. She secretly loves him :)

Every single morning when I get him from bed, the first thing he says is “Zo Zo”.  And he always says it in a very demanding way, haha.  Zoe is definitely his favorite, because she will actually play and interact with him.  And she is the first thing he wants to see in the morning. And recently, he has started asking demanding to see her before his bedtime stories.  Every night after he gets his jammies on, he says “Zo Zo” and we must  catch get Zoe so he can say goodnight to her.  It is very cute, actually.  He hugs her, gives her a few pets, and a goodnight kiss.  He says night night to her, and then she goes downstairs with whoever is not reading stories.  Zoe is nice and obliges him, although she usually jumps down before he is quite finished saying goodnight.

Giving her a kiss

Saying “nigh nigh”  

Cooper thinks it is hilarious when the girls ride in the car with us.  This day, we picked them up from the groomer, and he wanted one of them in the backseat.  Zoe was not having it, but Isabelle is more laid back so I threw her back there.  And she stayed!  Cooper LOVED it!  Although, I have to admit that after about 5 minutes, he started asking for Zo Zo and then started crying because she wouldn’t sit with him.  Haha.

Giving her a hug  

Giving her a “soft pet”

Oh this boy.  His love of dogs doesn’t stop with our own, that’s for sure.  If we ever see one on tv, or out and about, we have to stop what we are doing and point/stare/try to pet/cry because we can’t touch the dog.  I think it’s so sweet, and he definitely got this love of dogs from his parents!

Weekend Recap!

We had such a good weekend!  Friday after work, Lee and Cooper got their hair cut.  Cooper needed a haircut in a bad way!  It was so long that we couldn’t control his curls at all.

Haha!  Poor kid.  I get nervous to take him for a haircut.  He has had 3, and they had gotten progressively worse each time.  The first time he was perfectly fine though.  The last time, I wasn’t there, and I think Lee was traumatized!  Ha!  This time, I thought he should watch Lee first, and then have his turn.  Plus, I took reinforcements: “gummies” aka: fruit snacks.  Although this time, all I had were lifesavers gummies.  Cooper will do anything for a “gummy”, and they ended up working perfectly!  Lee held him, and I distracted him/fed him the sugar laden treats.  Whatever works.

I was feeling so victorious after that, that we also went out to dinner (!)  This is something we rarely do. We’ve never been big out-to-eat-ers, and now we go even less since we have a wild toddler.  My parents were meeting us so I thought it would be fine.  But…it wasn’t!  Lee ended up just taking him home.  He had used up all his good behavior at the hair salon :)

Before the meltdown:

Cute little haircut!  It’s so curly/wavy on top, I don’t know what to do with it, so I just leave it usually!

Saturday Cooper and I went to the mall to get him new shoes.  The thing about having a wild child, is that you expect them to be rowdy and disruptive (ie, embarrassing) when you’re out.  So, when they are actually good, or heck, even just decent, it’s like an amazing victory!  And you’re so proud of them!  Haha.  Well, that was how it went at the mall.  I knew I had to suck it up and take him because he needed to be measured for shoes.  I fully expected kicking, screaming, and crying (because he wants to run around as opposed to being confined to his stroller)  But, he was so good.  He loves people watching, so I’m sure that had a lot to do with it.  He even tolerated me going in to Sephora to get some makeup.  He was SO cute in the shoe store, though.  He was nervous at first, and didn’t want to get out of his stroller.  But, after a little convincing (me telling him he had to get shoes so he could play outside), he hopped right down!  He stuck his little feet out for the lady to measure them, and when she asked him if he wanted to try them on, he just sat right down.  He showed her his socks, and told her that the shoes go on after the socks.  It was cute :)

New kicks!  In a size 7.5.  Hold me :(

Then we went home, and Lee was working in the yard, so we played in the front yard.  A couple of little girls were driving one of those little cars around, and he was very interested.  They asked if he wanted to ride, and he got in, and loved it!  They were so cute.  I think we might have a birthday gift idea…

Cooper also rode his trike around the block for the first time.  Since when is he big enough to do that?!  It was so cute, and he did a good job listening to me when I told him to stay on the sidewalk. We did get pretty sidetracked when we saw a dog in a backyard.  That boy loves dogs. Good grief.  We probably sat and pointed at it for 5-7 minutes. All the while, it was barking.  Haha.

After his nap, my parent’s watched Cooper for about an hour while we went to buy some living room furniture.  We bought a couch and 2 chairs.

The couch!  It’s huge and so, so comfy!  We ordered it in a different fabric than this.

We also got 2 of these chairs, in this fabric.  They swivel :)  

We won’t get them for 6-8 weeks. :(

Sunday, we cleaned up around the house, and I went to the grocery store.  We had a birthday party to go to that evening, but Cooper for some reason was running a little fever all day.  So, I ended up going by myself, since it was for my friend’s little boy.  The party was super heroes and it was SO so cute!  She did an excellent job!  Sadly I didn’t take one picture!

After the party, my mother in law came in to town.  She wanted to watch Cooper for a few days, so she is staying with us until Wednesday.  This means I can get to work early and leave early!  Good thing since this is spring break and it is dead around the office!

Numbers

Oh. Hi.  We’ve been keeping ourselves busy with some projects around the house the past few weeks.  The main one?  Painting.  Ohhhh painting.  Let’s break it down by the numbers.

20 – total gallons of paint we purchased

6 – gallons of paint we originally purchased, thinking it would be the color

1 – number of times we had the original 6 gallons of paint re-tinted after we hated the color

5 – number of “sample” quarts we purchased after we hated the second color (and after we painted the entire downstairs in that second color that we ended up hating)

3 – gallons of primer we had to use after the second color

11 – number of gallons of the final color, and we used every last drop of that 11 gallons.  Sheesh

4 – days it took to (finally) paint the entire house

7 – total days spent painting over the course of all of the mishaps

14 – number of feet the ladder was that we had to rent to get to our high ceilings in the entryway

1 – number of times I climbed that ladder and subsequently freaked out and refused to get on it ever again (fear of heights right here)

1 – number of times Cooper threw a quart of chalkboard paint onto the floor, where it busted open and spilled all over.  Luckily it was on the wood and not carpet, and came up easily.

So, there you have it.  In case you didn’t catch it – we originally chose to paint the same (gray) color that we had painted our old house.  So we bought it, and proceeded to paint.  Well, in the new house, that gray paint looked…lavender.  Seriously, it was little girl’s room purple.  We had purchased 6 gallons of that non-refundable paint color. And we hated it. (No, stupidly, we didn’t test the color before purchasing all of that)  Ugh.  So, I went back, they re-tinted it for me, we tested it on a wall and liked it.  So, I proceeded to paint the entire downstairs.  And when I was finished, I looked around…and hated it!  Ahhh!  I wanted to cry.  Lee probably wanted to strangle me.  So we started completely over and sampled a TON of colors, and finally ended up with one we liked (we painted a ton of samples, and then one entire wall of the one we thought we liked best, just to be sure this time!). 

Here are all of the colors we tried.  The main wall color is the second try, the re-tinted version of the original.  It looks gray on here, but it was more of a smoky blue.  I told Lee it reminded me of a man-room color.  Which is fine.  But not for our entire house.  The lavender is around the top.  The one we went with in the end is the far right swatch on the top.  It looks tan-ish here, but it is almost a true gray in person.  (This picture was also taken at night, and with my phone)

I took last Thursday and Friday off work, thinking I would be able to get our entire house painted in that time.  WRONG!!  It also took the entire weekend, and lots of Lee’s help to get all of the high areas.  I still have not cut in around the trim upstairs.  I finally stopped about 5:30 on Sunday night and just couldn’t do it anymore. We will finish that this weekend.  Whew.  I am SO SO glad to have this behind us!  Even without all of the paint color issues, this was a much larger task than I had been anticipating.  I am used to painting.  We painted our last house 4 times in the 5 times we lived there, and it was never a big deal.  But that was also a 1,000 square foot house, with 7 foot ceilings.  Much easier than our current home! It’s a good thing that I didn’t think about it too much before I actually got into the whole process.  And thank goodness for a tall husband who is not scared of heights!  I could never have done that entryway on my own!

Now I am on to the next project, curtains!  I ordered the fabric on Monday, and I can’t wait to get it in and get started!  It took me so long to choose a fabric (shocking, right?) and I absolutely love the navy and white ikat. (none of those paint colors are the one we went with, btw)  

I can’t wait to have the curtains up and get some stuff on the walls!  It’s only taken us 9+ months to actually start decorating :)