Our little surprise

Cooper & I were shopping in Wal-Mart yesterday & came across Cooper on a toy box! And he was at Target too!

Look at me!

Shopping at Target. Hey, that kid looks familiar!

Cooper would never endorse anything he doesn't really like himself.

Side of the box

Front of the box

Another celebrity in the family

John's making his film debut! He was part of a panel of new dads (including his friend Terrence & Terrence's brother-in-law) for a documentary called Being Dad. It was filmed when Cooper was 8 weeks old & now it's available on Amazon and Netflix.

Now we're cooking

Have I mentioned that I love Craigslist? I got Cooper this kitchen, a large plastic shopping cart with plastic food, a metal pot & pan, & a ton of Melissa & Doug wooden dishes & food, all for $35. We can't drag Cooper away from it. Maybe I can try some more complicated recipes now while he's busy "cooking".

Cooper gets creative

Cooper's been making up a new game every night. The picture below is "give mommy all the stuffed animals to hold & then start piling other stuff on there too".

The most interesting by far was the "barn door" game. Here's how you play: detach the barn door from your Little People barn. Then take a cardboard cylinder from your wooden block set. Take both to the far wall in the dining room & spin the barn door in the cylinder. Take the barn door with both hands & walk into the living room where mommy is sitting. Holding the barn door with both hands, gently touch it to mommy's throat. Remove it, walk back into the dining room & repeat. About 30 times. Be sure to be very, very focused & serious while playing.
I don't think there was ever a time I would have paid more to know what was going on in that big head of his.
I'm also happy to announce that Cooper survived his first real experience of being babysat (thanks Mom!). He's been watched before, but only for a couple hours. Last night John & I went out to dinner & then a movie (Coraline in 3D - it was awesome & you should all see it; I love that there are a bunch of 3D movies coming out now). Grandma reports that he was very good & not fussy about us being gone, even at bedtime (his first time being put to bed by someone other than me or John). Good job Coop! Grandma thinks he's ready for an overnighter. Hmmm... I'll have to think about that. :)

Salma Hayek rocks

I've never been a huge Salma Hayek fan, but this totally changed my mind. Maybe I'm a bigger fan of Salma Hayek than Drew Barrymore now. Yeah, you read that right, I think I like her more than Drew now. Finally, an actress doing something useful with her body & sending such a great message to the world. I love it.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is our house for the holiday. There's one heart for every month John & I have been together.

It's been a long...

..long, time.

Cooper grabbed a bag & my new (old) New Kids on the Block mug (that John got me for Valentine's Day) & decided it was time to hit the road.

Bye!

Old friends

Cooper & Dora (oops.. watch her eye!)

Converse All Stars - me & Cooper in our (almost) matching flame Converse

DuPage Children's Museum with Joslyn, Dave, & Althea.

Wow, time has flown by... check out our earlier visit here.

Purple people eater & a pretty dress

I probably shouldn't post this yet 'cause these are gifts for Becca's daughter Madeline's birthday party which is today, but I'm counting on Becca being too busy preparing for the party to check my blog - fingers crossed.
Madeline was fortunate to be born a few weeks after Althea, & she's going to benefit from a few more weeks of my sewing experience. I made this reversible dress for her from a tutorial I found here.




I also made a purple people eater hooded towel. I think it was a great idea (inspired by several I saw online), but the execution was not so great. It may actually eat Madeline since it wound up being big on me. Oh, well. It'll get her dry at least.

Child labor

Someone really should make some kind of law against it.
I put Cooper to work cleaning up a toy storage rack. We got this on Craigslist for only $20. Now I just have to find a nice play kitchen & a table & chair set for Coop.

Coop also helped make pizza. (Unfortunately, despite all his hard work, mommy burned the pizza & we had to get fast food for dinner.)

Looks like Cooper was helping himself to some pizza dough. I swear, it's so hard to find good help these days.

Mmm... bacon.

Everything's better with a side of bacon, even my blog. Click here.

New haircut, new adventure, new job

Cooper's hair has been getting longer & wispier by the minute & we've had several people assume he was a girl, so when his agent called us about a casting call I figured I should bite the bullet & get him a real haircut. It's not his first haircut, but I really didn't let the girl cut anything the first time, so this was the first real one. It looks like a boy haircut instead of just trimmed baby hair (insert mommy sobs here).

The casting call was for Carter's and there were at least a hundred billion kids there. Okay, it was probably only about 30 while we were there, but it sure seemed like more. And they had 4 outfits (two for girls, two for boys) that we all had to take turns with to meet the client so it was a bit chaotic. We were there for about an hour and a half before Cooper got his turn; we put on the outfit, went onto the set, the photographer clicked the camera 3 times & we were out of there. There was no smiling or posing; Cooper just stood there like a deer in headlights (not that I blame him - I felt like that too).
We got the call later that night & Cooper got the job so we were back early the next morning. He loves all the attention, but I think sometimes he gets a little freaked out by all the lights & stuff & doesn't really understand why he can't just sit with me the whole time. There were multiple kids in the same outfits so I'm not sure that Cooper will appear, but I was told the pictures should be in a circular in March.

Little Cooper, big world

One of the wonderful things about living in the city is all the great stuff to do. Me & Cooper & the nursing mommies & babies (oops, I mean kids!) took advantage of a free day at the Museum of Science & Industry.
Cooper loved the water table, and this one was actually his size (seems like the ones at the children's museums are always so high). Luckily, the museum provides waterproof coats so the kids don't get soaked. He's not crying here; just splashed water on his face.

Unfortunately for Cooper, his bad mommy put the coat on much too late.

Cooper is apparently reviving blue steel (Zoolander reference).
Bad mommy also didn't bring a change of clothes (I didn't even know they had a water table!) so he was wet for the rest of the day.

Yep, still wet.

Sorry kiddo. I'm sure you'll be showing these pictures to a therapist someday.

Visiting with friends

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked. ~Author Unknown

We recently went to visit our friends Becca and Derek, and their daughters Samantha and Madeline. We don't see them nearly enough & we always have so much fun. Unfortunately I didn't remember to pull out my camera until Samantha went down for her nap so no pictures of her this time.

John playing catch with Madeline. Barely a year, but she's got quite an arm. Maybe she's got a future in baseball.

Cooper made sure he tested out every ride-on toy (& there were a lot!)

Cooper seemed to love the table & chairs. Maybe we should have gotten him that for Christmas like we planned.