8 Steps

Today John counted 8 steps all by himself. He still takes convincing to do it instead of crawling, but he's slowing getting this stepping thing down. Making messes he does not need encouragement towards. Rolls of toilet paper are no match for him, as is magazines and garbage pails. Clean and dirty dishes are thrown around at will, and he makes no effort to conceal his displeasure if any of his wishes are not granted...immediately. I don't remember back arches, howling and high pitched screaming being the norm back in the day, but Cooper is quick to remind me of who is in charge these days. The other day I saw him scrunch up his face, throw his head back with a howl, then launch himself onto Tommy, biting down with all his might. Of course, Tommy had been pushing him away from a desired toy and barking at him, but....
Cooper really wants to be in on all the action. When any door opens he is on it like lightning. When one of us leaves the room, he knows about it. When the fridge opens, he is hustling over to get himself inside, quick to check out and rearrange. When the door upstairs squeaks open or closed, he turns his head and waits. There is very little hiding done these days. He loves to be outside, climbing on the toys and playing in the sand. Hopefully he'll walk soon, which will make it a lot easier to keep him dry and clean, instead of mucked up and foul whenever he goes out.

Re-everything these days. Re-got (forgot), re-struction (construction)
Gool (School)

The other day he was corrected on form in gymnastics. He melted down with it, and with deep and intense sobs, told me he would not go back out on the floor and wanted to go home. I finally convinced him to give it one more shot, but when he doesn't get it right, he does not want to do it. He has to be right and when I try to correct him on something, however minor, he either quickly tries to deflect it onto something else, change the subject or distract me, or he melts down into tears.

"ma-ma, ma-ma"

Cooper has taken to calling out ma-ma all the time. John saw Cooper crawl over to Thomas while he was playing Legos on the deck of his boat bed. Cooper was jabbering, "Ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma" over and over, pulling on his pants and legs. Thomas leans over and calls, "I'm not your Ma-ma. Stop bugging me!"

Sunshine, finally!

Coopie, don't take my Doritos!

Today we went down to Boulevard Park to enjoy the sunshine, boardwalk, hot cocoa and Tommy's beach catapult. Cooper tried out his new backpack Sherpani, and seemed to like it just fine. I think he was quite entertaining on the ride back, drawing looks here and there as he slept.

Walking (Stepping) Begins! 9 1/2 months

Today John and I both were able to witness Cooper first take three or four steps on his own, then again later in the day he pulled two off before dropping down to his steady and reliable crawl position. He also finds great delight in hustling off at high speed crawling to get to the toilet before we can catch him, and belly laughs when he gets his hands on the rim before we haul his bum out of there. He enjoys pulling all the laundry out of the dryer and scattering it, as well as the utensils in the dishwasher. Same with items in the fridge that he can handle and throw about. Now he actually crawls into the dishwasher to get into things, and whines and calls for us when he can't figure out how to get down. He loves to play chase with Tommy, loves to be with him, wrestle and play. In the morning, his face lights up when Tommy drags himself out of bed, and where Tommy is, so must Cooper. He is no dummy. He knows when we're sneaking upstairs or outside without him. He knows when the bath water starts up and screams a high pitched yell when he's not getting his way about any of this. Today he launched himself onto the coffee grinder that I had running on the floor in Tommy's room (it's too loud in the mornings when someone is sleeping so we do it in another room). Both boys love to get their hands on this machine, and Cooper was fully draped over it while it ground the coffee beans up. Coop enjoys eating big boy food these days, happily munching on whatever the rest of us are having, including meats and treats. It's so great to almost be out of the baby food stage. I'm thankful it's short lived and Cooper didn't really care for it to begin with.

This is such an amazing photo to us, not in that it's unusual in any way, but that our baby looks so big and grown up. Naked and streaking through the house he still looks all little and cuddly. Here he looks so much like a boy. Thomas has finally decided that he wants to go poo on his potty, but that has brought with it a lot of cleaning on our end. As much as I longed for this day, it's much more of a learning process (and hygiene issue) than I planned on. He loves his brother-and he can't stand him as well. "Coopie, get out of here!" he'll yell, and slam the door to his room. "Coopie, Coopie", he'll say, as he's loving on him and wrestling with him on the bed. "I don't want you in here!" he'll yell, stomping his feet. Tonight he said to me, "Mama, will you watch Cooper and Daddy can take me up to Isaac's?" "You stay home. Just me and Daddy." "Just me and Daddy, got it?" For the last three nights he's taken to sleeping in his boat bed again, giving us a much needed break from three of us rotating between our bed and the mattress on the floor. Throw Cooper into the mix and it's still musical beds all throughout the night. Cooper tends to take the longest naps when he's put down on the floor bed. Go figure. I've suspected for a bit now that Cooper coming into the picture gave him some separation anxiety and then he took to being scared of the dark. Maybe now we've turned a corner.
Tommy is really enjoying preschool and comes home singing new songs and talking about what he's picking up. However, when asked how his day is, his usual response is "good" but nothing much more. He's really interested in reading now and wants to write letters, although he's still trying to figure out if he's left handed or right handed, which is making writing challenging. He's also really big into pretend, and likes to act out the things that he's doing or what he's seen. He's big into watching BunnyTown, so he wants to play BunnyTown in our room and assigns himself a bunny and us one as well. I came home from work to find crackers and crumbs all over the floor and in the floor bed. When I asked John about it, he told me that crackers are allowed in the beds of BunnyTown. I think that deserves the look of annoyance that was on my face. The other day he started gym again and our room transformed into a gym, with climbing boxes to jump from, added blankets and new positions to try and jumps to perform. He makes waterfalls in the sink, then strips naked to climb on in. He makes himself busy cooking (flour all over) and washing (soap and toothepaste cleaning the mirrors). The other day he jumped in the lake and began the ritual of outdoor tub time (37 degrees outside). A bit on the early side, but a great taste of summer days to come. He wants me to cuddle up with him to go to sleep, both at night and sometimes for nap, telling me stories big storms and tornadoes, and still enjoys the taste of a good cup of creamer with our coffee in the morning. Our runs to Starbucks are a favorite trip, as is Fi-llama burger, Thai food and Burger Me. He's still my great grocery trip buddy and I love our time together when we get to go. I'm still conflicted on sharing my time, though, and I pray that he never feels like I don't have enough time for him. Cooper is very demanding in ways, and I have to juggle the needs of both, and I just hope that I can still find the time to make "our" time special with him.
"Dad, you're annoying me," he says when John's humming a song on the way to the car. He has to be the one to grind the coffee and blend anything that needs to be blended. "Good job, Daddy!"
At bedtime, "Thomas, you're my treasure, baby." "But Mama, I'm not treasure." "But you're my treasure, the best kind of treasure." "But I'm not gold, I'm not golden." Thomas, if a pirate came in here right now and offered me all the treasure in the world, big, big piles of it, I still wouldn't give you up. You're the best kind of treasure ever and you'll always be my treasure." He didn't say anything after that, just snuggled closer and looped his arm around me tighter.

Opening day of Bucket Season

Cooper gets his first taste of the hot water bucket