Cooper Whipple should not be confused with his brother!

Cooper may share many things with his brother, but from his kinky, curly hair to his deep dark eyes, there are some definite differences with my little boy. First of all, he regularly smacks the back of his head throwing it back in an explosion of frustration about something or other. Even his brother has taken to the saying, "That's what happens, Cooper," when Cooper cries after smacking his head on something. I used to enjoy taking Thomas to the grocery store or the mall. Not Cooper. Just the other night, on a quick trip to the grocery store, Cooper threw items in three different aisles, and that was even after all the bribing treats he was offered. I tried again yesterday to get some shopping done on my one free day and made it through two stores before I was completely done with him. Today I attempted to get ONE thing...gloves for Thomas at REI before the snow hits, and we spent every moment dodging through the racks and chasing him down the aisles. Left without gloves-within minutes of walking through the doors. Cooper does not appreciate shopping! Cooper loves to dance, he loves to hang out in the bathroom playing with the faucet, enjoys playing with the eggs in the carton and dumping food all over the place. He loves to take him arms and wrap then around my neck tightly, holding on and saying, "Mama, mama" over and over. And he loves to be upstairs. It's so hard to keep him downstairs, and he becomes inconsolable when we won't let him go up to see "Bah-bah". He just begs and begs. He loves to watch animals on YouTube and wants to sit with grandpa to watch these videos. He loves to read books with grandma and take apart her kitchen. He's a picky eater and won't eat a lot of what we put in front of him unless it's ice cream or fried foods. He loves Elmo, and I got a kick out of watching his face light up as he held on to the talking Elmo at Target the other day. Maybe if Elmo had a little more to say we would have accomplished more at Target, but for $50, Elmo didn't do a good enough job and didn't come home with us either!
So...Cooper is a lot different than his brother and his temper goes a long ways to proving that. But what a sweet little boy we have as well. He loves to give kisses, loves to cuddle and snuggle up. It is so fun to watch Thomas and Cooper chasing each other around, and for every time we have to break them up, there are two other times when they are playing nicely with each other. Coop will not be left out, though, and senses when things are "up" and he may be left out of something. He's not talking much at this point, but has taken to pointing at things and loudly getting his wishes met. There is no doubt who is in control of our house at this point. Cooper has his foot firmly on the gas and we are just along to try to keep up!

Christmas Tree Hunting 2008 Cooper 19 mo, Tommy 4

Tommy's Surgery

It was great relief mixed with anxiety and worry that we greeted today.  It has been months now that we have wondered how bad Tommy's hearing was.  Days and days of "what?" and "what did you say", days of loud tv, loud talking, repeated sentences and blank looks.  Tommy's teacher advised that he would often leave the group, table or activity when others joined him, and we wondered if the commotion, loud chatter and activity was just too much for ears that couldn't decipher anything.  On the playground she would call to him, but he would not respond unless she could catch his eye and talk directly to him.  If his back was to her, he could not hear her.  Finally, after all the worry, today was the day to get it addressed.  The day before we took him in for a tour of the surgery center, on the advice of the staff who thought it would be good to relieve his anxiety about it.  It somewhat backfired on us, as he was more worried and scared than before.  Grandpa met us there, which made it better, and like the great boy he is, he gathered his courage and walked back to the room.  I kept repeating the doctor's words over and over in my mind.  "It is a simple procedure."  I knew it would be no big deal, but when it is your child, and the doctor is saying to him, "I will be the one to put you to sleep and the one to wake you up", my heart lurched.  "You'd better believe you will be waking him up!" I thought, and tried to breathe again.  Getting him undressed was only successful after forcing the "sleepy juice" down his throat, and we had to chuckle when it finally started to work and he took on a loopy expression, big eyes and a dazed look came over him.  After that, he no longer fussed about the gown or the wagon ride.  As the nurse pulled him along, and the doctor walked beside the wagon to distract, we pulled away, hoping that our confidence was spot on.  Barely opening the new issue of People magazine, the doctor came back out.  "Wait, this is a new one!" I thought with a smile, but quickly put it down again.  It was that simple and that quick.  Walking towards the inner waiting room, we could hear screaming children that they warned us about.  Kids often wake up very unhappy, emotional and carrying on.  We paused to try to determine if we could hear Thomas, though I knew they would bring us back before he was fully awake.  When it was our turn to go back, we followed another set of parents on the walk back to the recovery rooms.  Seeing Tommy sleeping so peacefully was quite the sight.  He was so little, so still, so peaceful.  I touched him to assure myself, whispering to him that Mama was here, that we were with him.  Either my touch or the screaming child down the hall roused him, and he simply and gently woke up, looked around, cuddled up to my hand and flopped back down.  It was so easy, and I was so thankful that it was soon to be over.  He wasn't all that interested in the popcicle they offered him.  They don't know that Tommy has his own personal stash from Grandma that he can raid at his leisure.  After a bit of argument about the Lego that was his reward, he determined that the giant airplane Lego dad surprised him with was worth it, and we headed home.  Once there, Thomas was quite the entertainer as he struggled to walk on unsteady and loopy legs.  John had to guide him and hold him for a bit until the effects of the anesthesia had worn off.  A bit of an emotional ride passed quickly, and by afternoon he was good as new.  Two weeks from now we will take him back in to see if his hearing is restored.  I heard a few "whats" this afternoon, and I had to pause, but I will wait to see what these tests show, and pray that this procedure was all that was needed to have him hearing normally again.

Whistler, B.C November 21st

We headed up for the weekend, hoping to spend some quality time in the pool and hot tubs.  The last time we were up at Whistler, Cooper was just a small little guy, so we were eager to give him a shot at Whistler!  Thomas thoroughly enjoyed the pool and hot tubs, impressing us with his diving ability and creativity in pool jumping.  It is great to see his confidence growing and pretty impressive to see the show he can put on doing tricks and cannon balls into the pool.  Cooper was not so thrilled with the hotel initially.  He was rather clingy and didn't seem to find as much enjoyment in his surroundings as we'd thought.  He soon warmed up, though, and quickly found himself launching into the pool just as fast as we could get in to position.  John and I would get in position in the pool and hot tub, and Cooper would make a mad dash back and forth, launching first into the pool, then the hot tub, then back again.  Again and again!  I prayed for a snow, and we were not disappointed.  On Friday  night it was a blizzard!  Wind and snow blew while we raced from the pool to the hot tub and back.  John and I were physically exhausted from all the effort.  Swimming in the pool with the snow blowing was quite the treat!  The snow stayed for the weekend, but nothing quite like Friday night's show.  On Saturday it was more cookies at the front desk, swimming and tubbing.  Somewhere in there we worried about the boys eating more than just front desk cookies, but they didn't seem to mind and the front desk didn't say anything about our eating habits.  We took a few breaks to go look around, but the boys were less than impressed with shopping and looking around, so we had to quickly make our way back to the pool.  Cooper was almost as happy playing in the bathroom.  At one point John had to barricade him out of the bathroom as he was incessant about the toilet bowl and flushing.  We paid a lot of money for him to play in the bathroom!  Thomas started running a fever Saturday night, so it was a long night of coughing, snoring and trying to find some sleep somewhere.  While others partied it up around me, I made a mad dash through the village- with Cooper in the stroller- trying to find cough syrup amongst the throngs of villagers hoopin' it up.  Somehow the night passed us by, and soon morning brought more swimming and tubbing.  By mid morning, though, we brought the boys up to the room to pack up from our swimming stay-cation!  They sat on the bed not moving, staring at the cartoon on the screen in our room.  "John, I think we exhausted them," I said.  They didn't budge.  Quiet...for a short while!

Both in the same picture?!?!?

Earlier in the day, John worked with the Lawrence kids to take head shots for their school pictures. We joke that this is Tommy's school shot this year, complete with the dirtiest face he could possibly get! Since this is how Thomas typically looks after a day on the beach and up in the shop, it really is quite fitting we think!

Best Buddies!

You can just imagine them as old farts!

33 Big Ones

Today is my birthday. On Tuesday of this week, my office mates surprised me with an awesome Thai luncheon. After a meeting with our supervisors, Rhonda said that I needed to wait for her to run out to meet with someone at the garden that we manage. I didn't really want to wait all that long, so I put a Weight Watchers Hot Pocket in the microwave to feed my growling stomach. Jim comes over and tells me he's really hungry and asks for a piece of my hot pocket. Surprised that he would ask, as it was a small pocket and Weight Watchers at that, I quickly cut him the bigger piece, knowing he had to be hungry to ask. Shortly after sharing with me, I walked into the lunch room to find all this Thai food and my co workers set up to eat lunch together. Although I missed Don being there to celebrate, hopefully we can send him a few pictures to let him know we were thinking of him.

Today, I woke up to hit the gym early for the day with my bestest buddy Jenny and off we went. Watching the Hawks lose was no way to spend a birthday morning, but it was a lot of fun to take a birthday nap after waking up early. Once we all woke up from our naps, we loaded up the cars for a trip out to McPhail's to get pumpkins. Cooper is at an age where he is running around with the other kids, and we had a great time feeding the animals, climbing on the farm equipment and riding the tractor out to the field of pumpkins. Taking a family picture proved easier for the Lawrences than us Whipples. It may be a while before the boys will actually cooperate enough to get a good one of us all.

That evening Rhonda joined in on the fun, coming over for dinner of Thai at the Lawrences. There we celebrated with Thai, presents and sprinkle cake. It is So fun to share a birthday with my main man, Isaac! What a treat it is to share this day with him! Jenny totally over did it and surprised me with a beautiful new coat to wear and Rhonda blessed me with a new heating pad (to replaced my nearly destroyed, ancient one I've been dealing with), a massage and the New Kids CD I asked her for. How cool is that! I was thrilled. It was a great day and a fabulous birthday. Lil made brownies and I took advantage of our extra tough workouts to enjoy not only the cake at Jenny's, but the brownies as well!

October 1st Lake Swimming!

Our theme of the summer was jumping, swimming and bbq's. It was a fabulous summer and to celebrate this beautiful weather we're having and our thankfulness for a period of great weather following a less than memorable August, we took up the opportunity to jump into the freezing waters of Lake Whatcom tonight. It was almost dark, but we did it in various stages. Thomas and Isaac went in first, then quickly followed Rhonda and Cynthia into the deep end. While we warmed up in the hot water buckets, Lance and John decided they too had to get in the fun and jumped in as well. After several weeks of chilly temps, the water has cooled off considerably. We will see how long we will continue to jump into the lake!

Words by Cooper at 17 months old

Ma-Ma, Da-Da, moo-rh (more), I--see (Isaac) ba-ba (bottle) and he goes to the dishwasher to pull it out, Bah(Grandpa) Up, Ah-ple (apple) Cheesh (cheese) Off, Jush (juice),