4th of July

 

Well this is a little over due. But we had a great 4th of July this year. I took Friday off and enjoyed a 4 day weekend. We hung out at Joe's mom's house for dinner with the family on the fourth. Joe and Cooper shot off some fireworks. And we headed downtown to Fair St. Louis. Yes, we are crazy going downtown to the mass chaos, but it was fun... and worth it.

We continued shooting off little bit of fireworks through the weekend. Cooper loved the smoke bombs and parachutes... and sparklers of course. And he held a sparkler for the first time. A 3 yr old holding a sparkler? Yeah yeah I know, but Joe was supervising. It wasn't my idea.. Ha! Boys will be boys.. Joe and him had a great time.

Sprinkle Shower

 

A few weeks ago. My friends at work surprised me with a lunch "Baby Sprinkle Shower".  I was totally surprised. I actually had planned to go to Michael's and run an errand during my lunch and almost ruined the whole surprise.. ha! But anyway it was soo nice. There was all kinds of food and appetizers and cake. We got some really cute stuff for Gwen. Lucky to have such great friends at work!

 We had such a good time during the shower. We didn't take any photos of me actually opening gifts. So later we reinacted me opening a few gifts.

 

 And here are the girls. And yes 3 of us are pregnant. Which is pretty fun! 

 

 

 Just a few pics of the gifts. 

 

  

Summer Daddy Days

Everyday this summer Joe usually sends me a few pictures and maybe of video of what him and Cooper are up to. They have been having a good time.

Playing in his water table.

 Eating breakfast.

 At the park.

 
Out to breakfast at First Watch.  

 

 At the grocery store. 

 Being silly.

At another park.

 Buying fireworks.

Riding around. This video cracks me up.

More Potty

I know I already had a recent post about this. But I wanted to document it some more with a few pictures and a video. I'm sure one day Cooper will kill me for showing the picture above.. ha! 

Like I mentioned before: one goal for the summer is that Cooper would become potty trained. Of course we knew we could try some different things. But utimately he has to 'be ready'. So I made a little chart system.. see below. He gets a circle sticker ever time he sits on the potty. And two for actually going. And he gets a sucker for actually going. Once he fills up his chart, he gets to pick somewhere fun to go. After he filled up his first chart he picked Chuck E Cheeses.

 

He filled up his first chart during the day while I was a work. So Joe send me the iphone video below. It may be a little blurry. But Cooper is pretty excited and even does a little 'victory run' around the house.

 

This was just an iphone photo. I'll have to add another post later with some more Chuck E Cheese photos. He had a great time!  

Father's Day

This is a little late, but oh well. Summer has been great. And Joe and Cooper have had some great quality time during the weekdays. We have been able to do some fun family stuff on the weekend. We didn't do anything big for Father's Day. But here are a few pics of Cooper giving Joe his Father's Day gift. 

Cooper making a 'fake' mean face. 

Big Boy Milestones

I don't have any pictures to go with this post. But this past weekend was a big one in the milestone department and I just want to jot it down so I don't forget it. So if you read the two previous post you will know that Cooper just got moved into his BIG boy room. With a twin size bed, etc. I remember thinking months ago that I didn't want to throw too many changes on Cooper at once too close to the baby coming. He isn't the best with change... ha. But who is? So only getting him into his new room just about a month before the baby is due, wasn't really my ideal idea. But our ideas aren't always what is best, right? And so I just had to have a little faith that things will work out. And that 'someone else's' plan is better than mine, which it always is.

So the Big Boy room is the one big thing. The other thing on is getting Cooper potty trained. We gave it a shot months ago when he started to out grow his clothes diapers. But he wasn't really getting it, so we decided to take a break until the summer. The past few months since Joe has been out of school we started it up again. We tried some new things and so far until the past weekend we have had no luck. We really want to send Cooper to preschool at our church but he has to be potty trained by the beginning of August.. no pressure. Ha!

Anyway this past weekend was HUGE in that he went on the potty multiple times. And was telling us when he needed to go some of the time. He had literally never even gone on the potty with me. He had sat on there many times.. but then nothing. It just wasn't clicking. Well this weekend, something clicked. He even told us when he needed to go #2. Now granted we didn't actually make it to the potty, but he realized he needed to go. Pretty awesome! We still have a ways to go to be FULLY potty trained. But I'm hopeful for continued progress and that Cooper will be able show up at preschool the first day.

So back to the BIG boy room. We weren't sure what his reaction would be. He is in a "NO" phase right now. Everything is no, some of the time, most of the time..ha! But when we showed him his room, he loved it!! So we were very thankful for that. And he even faked us out a bit when it was time for his first nap in there. He layed down, gave us kisses and everything seemed great. But.... then he chickened out. But that's ok. I layed down with him for his naps and bedtime the past few days. Just for 5 or 10 minutes until he falls asleep. I know its not the best habit to start. But if that's what it takes to get him adjusted and comfortable, then that is what we will do. Once he is asleep he has done great. Sleeping through the night with no problem. Its a huge change for him. Baby crib his entire life, to huge twin bed all of a sudden. And he is doing great! So we are very proud of him. He is a great little guy and I know he will be a great brother once Gwen arrives.

So we are enjoying soaking up our Cooper time this last few weeks. And now that Cooper is settled in a new room, we will be kicking it to high gear finishing getting ready for Gwen. Jazzing up Cooper's old room just a bit. Getting out the rest of the baby gadgets and toys for her, etc. So lots of fun changes at our house. And more fun changes to come.

Big Boy Room - The Reveal

 

Well finally the BIG Boy room is done and we showed it to Cooper this weekend (4th of July weekend).

He reaction was pretty good. He say "oh wow". We got it on video. 

I hope to add that later once I get it edited.

He went straight to his baseball chair and books in the corner. He was really excited to have some new books. 

 

 

 

Next he climbed up on his new bed.

 

 Then he checked out his closet. And was excited to see his hats in there. 

 Back to the bed to play with the new mascot stuffed animals.

Lastly we had gotten a few new boards games that were in an ottoman at the end of his bed. 

Joe and him played a matching game first. And then hungry hippos.

We thought it went pretty well. He seemed to really like it. There are only a few little things to finish up. We have a decal coming that will go over his bed. It's a big "C" and says Cooper. And I'll probably hang some stuff in his closet. The next step will be sleeping in here in his new big boy bed.