Missions accomplished

I'm a little late in posting this, but Cooper & I went to Brookfield Zoo with my brother Adam just before he left for training for his deployment to Afghanistan.
Adam wanted to spend time with me & Cooper before leaving, and get pictures of himself riding animals (yes, himself), but I convinced him to take a couple with Cooper too.

Not sure what this face is about...

As we were leaving, Adam was my lookout for a little project I had. I recently came across this great website, The Toy Society, so I made a small stuffed animal & I wanted to leave it someone to find. You can see the post on the Toy Society site about my drop here and about the person who found it here!

Happy birthday Dad!

Happy birthday Justin!

Communication gap

Cooper's vocabulary has been growing by leaps and bounds lately. We're regularly hearing things like, "Mama, are you?" "Bye bye Dada. Love you. Have fun!" and "It big mama cow. Baby cow, are you?"
So I guess I forget that he doesn't always understand everything I'm saying. Today while I was showering he decided he wanted to clean up his clothes. He put his shirt & shorts in the bathroom sink. I realize now that the best mommy response to that would have been, "Good job! Thank you sweetie!" but instead I decided to ask him to put them in the laundry hamper.

Me, standing in the shower, trying to wash my hair with one hand & point to the laundry hamper with the other: No sweetie, dirty clothes go in the hamper. Can you put them in the hamper?
(Cooper carries his clothes to the hamper & stands there with them looking at me.)
Me: Open the hamper.
(Cooper opens the closet door.)
Me: No Coop, that's the closet. Open the hamper.
(Cooper smiles at me.)
Me: Right there.
(He smiles.)
Me: Turn your head.
(He looks up. Then turns his head in the opposite direction of the hamper.)
Me: Put them in the hamper sweetie. Right there.
(He smiles.)
Me (pointing to the lid of the hamper): Lift that up.
(He puts the clothes on his head.)
Me (giving up): Good job sweetie! Thank you!

I then go back to showering. Cooper goes back to playing, but first puts the clothes on top of the hamper (good enough!).

I hear the communication gap between parents & kids only last about 18 years though.

Learning new things

This remains John, Sarah is not responsible for the content of this post. So, in addition to learning how to woo the ladies, Cooper was learning from Sarah's cousin, and one of Sarah's cousin's kids. As you'll see in the second video below, he also had a few of his own Matrix style moves to share:

Ryanne's Wedding: Guest posted by John

So last night I attended the most wonderfully exhausting event of my life. Congratulations on your wedding again, Ryanne. I am now fairly certain that I am not ready for two children because Cooper's performance has taken all of my energy for the week. He demonstrated some serious moves, though, both on and off the dance floor. I want you to know that he does not know the girl who appears in the following video. He has never met her before, and had not been dancing with her earlier in the evening.


Now, I would like to take credit for what you have just seen, but many of the people who supposedly visit this site have met me (who once made several friends literally wait 2 hours in a restaurant parking lot while I chatted up a girl... and then I forgot to get her phone number. Josh was right to punch me that day.) More videos from the evening will follow.

Catching up on life

Okay, so in between having a sick dog, finding out my brother is leaving for Afghanistan, starting my new Avon business, and having a new niece, some other stuff has happened that I haven't posted about. I keep meaning too, but the pictures keep piling up.

Update on Dora: Thanks everyone for all your comments & everything. I really appreciate it. Dora had a single dose of chemo & is on steroids. Her lymph nodes have gotten back to normal & she seems to be perfectly healthy. She's in remission & you'd never know there's anything wrong with her. She has a huge appetite & drinks water by the gallon (side effects of the steroids), but otherwise she's her normal self. She visits the oncologist again next week for a check up. We're hoping her remission lasts as long as possible.

So, here's our life recently - in pictures.

John showing Cooper a chick at the Iroquis County Fair
(where, by the way, my mom won 2nd place for her Around the World quilt, and was totally cheated on her map quilt)

Geez, Mom, let the kids have a turn!

Caycee's birthday!

Children of the corn!

Cooper found heaven - and climbed in.

Yeah, Coop, I agree.