Baby Boeckman #2

So just like the shirt says. Cooper is going to be a BIG BROTHER. We are super excited!!

We found out I was pregnant the week after Thanksgiving. And we told our family the news at Christmas! We used Cooper's shirt above to break the news to the family. And it was fun to see how long it took people to 'get it'. Some it took a while and others figured it out pretty quickly.

We told Joe's mom Diana. And it took her a while to catch on. Then we Skyped with my parents. And I think they figured it out fairly quickly. Its been fun letting Cooper spread the news.

My due date is August 8th. And yes we do plan to find out what it is. We won't find out until mid-March. So place your bets now.. ha ha. I don't having any gut feeling about it. But Joe dreamed that it was a girl. And my Dad is pretty sure its a girl. They both a good success rate, so who knows. I guess time will tell.

Friends

Friends - and no I'm not referring to my maiden name or my family.. HA!

Its funny when you 'grow up' and go to work everyday and life gets busy. You get caught up in day to day activities and chores and well.. just life. Or maybe you just soaking in life. Enjoying your spouse, or your child/children. Or maybe you a single and your just living it up doing the things that make you happy. My point is its interesting how the role of friends changes and adapts as life moves forward. I would have to say I feel pretty blessed with all of the friends that God gave me. Some friends that I've know since Kindergarten, brownies, grade school and high school. Some that I hardly see or hardly talk to, but when we get together.. its just like old times. Though our lives are very different and even our interest may be 'night and day'. They are Friends, those friends that you call friends forever. Then there are those friends that you make at some of the key points in your life. The time when your really finding yourself, finding your faith... for me those were my college friends, my college roomate. Again I wouldn't have survived the move to St. Louis with such a smooth transition if it weren't for my volleyball teammates, an awesome roomate and great classmates and bible study friends. Sometimes I kinda think I wish I had one of those super close girl friends. And at a few points in my life, I did. But I've never been the type of person to have just one best friend. I usually have a number of close friends. Friends from different circles or areas of interest. My one best friend I met in college and that forever changed my life and that was Joe... yeah yeah. I know I won't get too mushy. But its true. When I showed up at Maryville I didn't expect to find the love of my life. And I didn't expect to be head over heels for a good portion of my college career. But I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. And I don't want to forgot the new friends. I think as you get older you don't really plan to make 'new' friends. But sometimes they just appear. People you meet at work or through other circles of friends. They just move right in and it seems like they have been there forever.

Anyway I don't see all of my friends as much as I would like to. People are busy. We have different schedules. But the moments you get together, they are good. And it makes me remember how lucky I am, to have these women in my life. That I don't talk to every day. But they know me. Some really well. They have been there through great highs and low lows. They've shared in some of the greatest moments of my life. And I'm very grateful for that. And I hope that I am as good of a friend to them, as they have been to me. Sometimes I feel like I'm not the best friend because right now my priorities are different. Cooper and Joe are my priorities. But there is a season for everything. And I know at some point maybe more of my friends and I will be in a similiar place in life, then we might hang out more and that is ok. But for now, I'm thankful that I have those friends. The ones that I can always count on.

Ok, that is my soap box for today.  : )

Words - 32 Months

I wanted to jot down a few of the things Cooper is saying now.

–He knows almost every letter in the alphabet (and has for a least a few months)

–He can make sounds for many of the letters

–Bye Bye or Bye Bye Ma Ma or Bye bye _____

–Please (Peez)

–Hi or Hi ___

–High (like when building with legos)

–Lemonade (Om-a-nade)

–Go, go, go  (if you are running with him)

–Baby  (Be Be)

–Apple

–If you say, say 'Yes'. He says "Yeah". (and very matter a fact like)

–Ryan (for Uncle Ryan)

 –I want ____  (he points to his eye)

–Hole (like it he is building legos and there is a hole or empty gap)

–Ham

–Cheese   (for Cheese the food) or if you are taking a photo of him

–Em  (for Emily)


 just the ones I could think of right now.... 

Speech Therapy

With the holidays and all there was a lot going on. But Cooper starting something new that we are pretty excited about and so far he is doing so great.  He starting getting some speech therapy once a week. Its with a program called First Steps. A speech therapist comes to our house once a week to work with him for a hour.

Its funny how little I knew of anything when I first became a parent. I guess what I mean is there is just so much to learn. About everything. About babies, about milestones. And developmental stuff. Your always learning something new. I felt really clueless when we had Cooper. Being the youngest myself and not really being around many babies lately. Being the first of my friends to have a baby. I just mean that there was so much to learn and figure out.

Ok, back to my main point.. anyway we have been doing the Parents as Teachers program with Cooper since he was fairly young. Which by the way we were partnered with an awesome educator. She was with us at our old house. And luckily our new house was still within her boundaries. My point is months ago, she expressed some concern about Cooper's lack of talking. That she thought compared to other kids his age, he was not really saying many words. Well he wasn't really saying much at all. Since he is our first and I don't work with kids I hadn't really thought about it. He was so smart and understands everything you say. I just figured he wasn't quite ready yet. So months went by and she kept expressing concern, saying if it doesn't change by a certain point that she would recommend checking into speech therapy. I guess my first reaction was well I guess a little disappointed, not dissappointed in Cooper but rather in Joe and myself. Like maybe we had failed him somehow. Maybe because he wasn't around other kids enough. Which by the way none of our friends really had kids. The ones that do, live miles away. Or maybe he was missing out on important skills by not being in a daycare situation. We must be doing something wrong, right? I felt really down about it at first. Then after a while I 'snapped' out of it and was like well we need to get this checked out. We need to make sure its not something else. Like a hearing issue. We need to check into some options. Our PAT educator suggested First Steps. So we got the ball rolling...

We met with them (by the way), this was last year when we lived with Diana. We went through a lengthly evaulation and testing to see if Cooper would qualify for the program. Well he was just a few points to high on the test for them to except him. Which was kind of a bummer. But I figured well I guess that is kinda good news. We'll just keep working with him and in his own time it will come. Months went by... we bought our new house... and enough time had passed that we could re-apply and have him retested. He hadn't shown hardly any progress as far as new words, etc. This was probably in Nov. And this time they took him. I was really excited to have a way to get him a little bit of help.

I know some people are like oh well he'll talk eventually. He probably won't shut up. He is just a late talker. Just wait it out. I heard a few comments like that. And that's ok. And I'm sure its partly true. And that is what I thought at first.. and as the months went by, I thought well I just don't want to sit back and not do anything. I guess though like they say when you become a parent, a mom - you just have to go with your gut feeling. And for me I thought I want to make sure we are making every effort to help him. And if this just gives him a little jump start to speaking that its totally worth it.

So he had his first therapy session the week before Christmas. And he did great! He loves his teacher Sally (speech therapist). She gave us some great 'tools' and suggestions of how we can work with him. Since he has had three more sessions. And already in a such a short period of time, he has quite a few new words and sounds. He is even attempting two-three word phrases. Its really quite awesome. Maybe its freak timing. Or maybe he just needed a little push. Either way it doesn't really matter. I'm so thankful that now a days there are so many things offered out there. Just like Parents as Teachers, which I had never heard of when we first had Cooper. It has been a great resource. He loves his PAT educator too. She always brings great toys and activities and fun ideas for us to try. And just like that fell into place so did the speech therapy. God had this program fall into our lap. And the right teacher (therapist) fall into place.

So far we are having a really positive experience. And I can't wait to see Cooper progress in the coming months. He is such a smart little guy. And its just fun to see him growing and learning and doing such a good job! 

Buzz Jammies

Santa brought Cooper some Buzz Lightyear jammies. But its been so cold he hadn't really wore them to bed yet. Since the evenings were a little warmer last week, we finally got out his new jammies. I think the picture above he is 'zapping' me with his lazer.. ha!

Getting ready to run and chase Daddy. A daily activity in our house. 

Time for his bedtime movie and snack.

The Bike

This is a little delayed. But the one thing I didn't do at Christmas was get pictures of some of Cooper's gifts. I totally forgot my camera on Christmas day when we went to Grandma Boeckman's. He got some great gifts over there. And one of his really big gifts too.

His big gift from Grandma Boeckman was a tricycle. She bought it for him months before. I'll have to say its one cool tricycle. Cooper might be just a little young for it. But I think he'll catch on pretty quickly. For now he will just have to practice in our basement since its obviously too cold outside.

I got a few pics of him riding around in our basement.

Pay no attention to our messy basement. 

 

Bye Bye Poo

Well Cooper had a major milestone last week. We have been working on potty training for the past month or so. I'd say at this point we aren't really pushing him. We are just trying to make the option open to him. Sometimes he sits on the potty. Sometimes he doesn't want to. That is ok for me. I don't want to push him, because I feel like something has to 'click' in his little brain to be really ready.

So he gets a sticker for sitting on the potty. He gets a big sticker for actually going. So far he had gone #1, but not #2.

But yesterday while he was with Aunt Kari.. he pooped for the first time in the potty. He wasn't totally sure  if he did the right thing. But he was very excited to flush.. and he told the poop... "Bye Bye Poop". Which was pretty funny.

We are working a lot on saying Bye Bye Momma, or Bye Bye _____ . So the Bye Bye Poo Poo only seemed appropriate. Ha!

I'm not sure how long the potty training phase will last in our house... but this is ok. I'm sure we'll have some good stories. Our big goal is to be totally potty trained by the beginning of August so Cooper can start going to preschool. So we have a little bit of time to get it going.

Blogging

Occasionally I'll write a post that has nothing to do with Cooper, so here you go.

Its funny I got kinda sucked into this world of 'blogging' a few years ago. I wouldn't really call myself a blogger though. I don't have any talent or awesome DIY skills. I'm not an awesome cook or a photographer. Or I don't have a fabulously decorated house. Or I don't have awesome advice to share. I liked the idea of a blog, since I've been a life-long journaler. I liked having a way to document Cooper's life, the little things. Milestone and moments that I don't want to forget. And I wanted an easy way to share those with family that is far away. Because even though I probably tell my parents many of the stories or pictures that I post, I can't always remember everything.

I'm not sure if I have any followers that check my blog daily and are disappointed that I haven't posted anything. If you do, I'm sorry if I let you down. I have blogs that I check daily, people that lives seems inspiring, or maybe I'm just intrigued by what appears to be a 'real' life. Or maybe I just connect with what they are saying about being a young mom trying to figure things out. A lot of my friends don't have kids yet, or some of them are starting to, but I don't have a lot of people to share with or bounce ideas about where I am in this stage of life. Some of the blogs I read, I feel like 'yeah, someone else is in the same place'.

Anyways the reason I'm rambling on is that if you read my blog, that is awesome. I'm honored. But I doubt I'll ever be a daily blogger. I try to blog when I can. Sometimes I have a week or more with nothing posted. I just don't have the time. I'm blow away by the other bloggers that can do it daily. Or multiple times a day. I just don't know how they do it. I work full-time and my evenings I try hard to make them for Cooper. I'm not perfect though, so sure the evenings I have to make dinner, try and get the house in order. And make my perfectionist self not worry about having the house perfect.. and just sit down and play with my son. I gotten a lot better at that. But its hard sometimes. I guess its just a balancing game, that I'm still trying to master or figure out.

So there you go. Yes I like blogging. I like the 'concept'. But on this blog its probably different from others. Its just our life. And if there aren't lots of posts or a big gap inbetween posts, don't think I disappeared. Just know that I'm busy living life. And I'll be back eventually. For me blogging is fun. Its great to look back at. But.. at the end of the day... I want to spend time with Cooper and Joe.. try to make some time for God.. and who knows maybe once in a while have a little time for myself.