Fall Leaves and Outside Fun

A few weeks before Christmas we headed to the Arboretum for some playtime and to meet Santa! Playtime was super fun; meeting Santa was a complete disaster. Even though we had been talking about Santa and looking at pictures of Santa, and Cooper talked about wanting to see Santa, when it came to show time at the Arboretum and actually meet Santa, there were only big tears. Oh well! There's always next year! Coop did talk constantly about meeting Santa after this day, though, and kept asking to see Santa again. It was like he had forgotten he cried and just focused on the fact that he got to meet the big guy!

On to playtime...

Cooper loves running up and down this long walkway to the water fountains and the big frog.

Love this picture of the boys!

Ever since Cooper could pull himself up to a standing position, he's been pushing and moving furniture. He would move the cribs at daycare--they were on rollers and Coop would pull himself up and start pushing them (with kids inside) around the room! So, it didn't surprise me when he began rearranging the outdoor furniture at the Arboretum. The table did look better where he put it. :)

Santa might have not been a hit with Cooper, but when it came to Frosty and Rudolf, Coop couldn't get enough hugs.

Family picture attempt...fail.

After the Arboretum, we headed to a field near the lake that was completely covered in leaves. Big, orange, crunchy fall leaves!

Love. This. Picture.
Coop realized that leaves aren't as tasty as he might have thought.

Is there anything better than making a big pile of leaves and then jumping in them, throwing them up in the air, or covering someone in them? I think not.

Such a fun, fun fall day!

Say Cheese!

The following conversation happened tonight...

Cooper: Dada, I want picture. With blankie.
Philip: You want me to take your picture?
Cooper: Yea, sit right here. (Cooper then proceeded to sit by the fireplace with his blankie.)

Philip grabbed a camera and told Coop to say cheese, and this is the picture that came out.
Then, Philip told Coop to smile really big and that he did!

Little Travling Man

I am so so so far behind in blogging, but I just saw this picture and had to do a quick post. Philip had just come back from a business trip and Coop wanted to "go travel with Dada. Get suitcase!" And he was off around the house saying goodbye and hello enthusiastically over and over again. I happened to be trying that sweater and button down on Coop for size, so it ended up being the perfect little man picture.

Texas State Fair

Picture with Big Tex? Check. Tried a fried food that shouldn't be fried? Check. Took your child through the petting zoo? Check. Corndog and beer? Check and check. All of that equals another successful State Fair trip!
We were so glad that Jackson, Sarah, and Chris came with us!!I think all the goats at the petting zoo were over being fed. They looked full, content and had no intention of lingering for very long no matter how much food two two-year-olds could throw at them.

Leave it to my child to find the one broom in the entire petting zoo. So much for feeding the non-hungry goats.

Sarah and I tried, and actually liked, the fried s'mores. Yum! And Jackson thought eating fried s'mores was funny.

The boys sat on a bench...for a very split second of a moment.

And the highlight of the day? The working trucks area. Loaders, diggers, bulldozers...and they were all available to play in. The boys were in heaven.

"Umm...you aren't going to sit there, are you?"

Even Philip and Chris squeezed into one of the trucks!

Who's That?

Several times a day, every day, the following conversations occur:

While looking through the mail...
Cooper: Who's that? (while pointing)
Mommy: That's a model in the magazine

Looking at his Clifford book...
C: Who's that?
M: That's Clifford's neighbor

Watching TV...
C: Who's that?
M: That's a man selling car insurance

Waiting in the grocery checkout line...
C: Who's that?
M: That's a little girl with her Mommy
C: Who's that?
M: That's a man bagging our groceries

Entering the Children's Museum...
C: Who's that?
M: That's a security guard
C: Who's that?
M: That's a little boy with his Mommy
C: Who's that?
M: That's someone who works at the museum

You get the point...question after question. I absolutely love seeing how his little mind is thinking, wondering, and questioning! And, the details he notices and wonders about. He notices people and things that are not even close to being on my radar. It's an opportunity for me to slow down a little and look at the world through Cooper's eyes.

Morning Surprise

One morning last week, I went to get Cooper out of bed to find him wearing this grin...and nothing else. Yep, that's right. No jammies, no diaper...completely in his birthday suit. The first time it happened, he was laying in bed talking, but then got quiet again, so I thought he had fallen back to sleep. About 30 or 45 minutes later, he started calling "Mama? Mama?" so I went in to get him and SURPRISE! Just in case I didn't immediately notice he was naked, he told me, "take diap off!! Toopie take diap off!!!!" So excited and so proud of himself. (And, he hadn't had an accident in his bed...yea!)

The following night I put him in different pajamas thinking surely he couldn't get himself out of a long sleeve shirt and pants. Wrong!! Totally naked again by morning time, but still no accident spots. And the next morning, same thing. Three mornings in a row this had happened now, and I was starting to worry this was going to become a favorite habit.

However, the fourth and final time...as of now...happened during the night. At midnight one evening, I heard Coop through the monitor calling me. He had been asleep for over three hours at this point, and he very rarely wakes up in the middle of the night, so I went in to check on him. What did I find? Poor little guy holding his blankie and cuddled up in the corner of his bed...naked. And this time there was a little accident spot in the middle of the bed. I think that he had gotten cold and that's what woke him up. Philip and I quickly changed the sheets and got Coop in some warm jammies. It's funny, too, because I go to check on Coop every night before I get in bed, and this particular night, I opened his door but heard him moving around, so I decided not to go in because I didn't want to wake him. To me, he was moving around, so that meant he was fine. Little did I know he was in his birthday suit!

I think after that night stripping down to nothin maybe lost the "fun" to Cooper because he has yet to do it since then. Every morning when I go in his room, though, I wonder what morning surprise I might find.

Happy Election Day

Team Lamb braved the rainy, cold, and super wet weather to cast our vote for the next Texas Governor tonight. Coop is only two years old, but has tagged along with me for one Presidential voting and now one Texas Governor voting.