Thirty-Two Months Old

Summertime is in full swing, and we are loving it!  Besides taking swimming lessons, we've been busy doing other things too. 

Memorial Day brought a family outing to the Ellington Agricultural Center, a favorite place to go for a walk, enjoy nature and see the police horses.

We've had quite a bit of rain. One rainy day brought a turtle into our yard from some unknown place.  Cooper was very interested in this and still talks about it, weeks later.

The rain has been great for my garden.  I get such a "rush" from seeing the seeds pop up out of the ground, that by the time they had all come up, I decided to double the size of it and plant some more things.  It's been a lot of work, but we're starting to reap the rewards.  We have gotten lots of lettuce and radishes, and tonight we had our first sugar snap peas for dinner.  It's looking like we will soon have some green beans, cucumbers and tomatoes too.

Cooper's sunflowers are doing well.  They are now taller than he is!

Of course, we get really filthy doing all these things, and have to come in and take a bath.  But Cooper usually enjoys that too.

Don got laid off from his job a couple of weeks ago.  He got a pretty good severance package, so we'll be okay financially for a while.  Prayers are appreciated that he'll find something, preferably a good job that pays well and has good benefits, not too far away, and one that he enjoys, before his severance runs out.  It's been kind of nice having him at home, but it's a little stressful for both of us, not knowing what's next.  God is in control though, and for that, we are very thankful.

Swimming Lessons

Cooper has been taking swimming lessons at our local YMCA this week.  He had never been in a "big" swimming pool before, so I was a little apprehensive as to how he might do.  I needn't have worried.  He LOVED it!

His class was for kids 6-36 months old.  It was designed for a parent (me) and child to take together, so that while the child was learning, the parent was also learning to how work with the child and teach him further.

He began learning to float on his tummy and on his back, stroke with his arms, kick, and put his head under and blow bubbles.

We stayed afterward a few of the days and went to the outside pool. They had a splash pad that he liked playing in, but his favorite thing of all was sliding down the slide . . . over and over and over . . .!  I was afraid he wouldn't want to go back into his structured class the next day after he enjoyed this so much, but he did.  He loved it all!

We may join the Y for the rest of the summer, now that we know how much he loves swimming, and to give him more practice doing it.  At any rate, we have definitely found something that makes our little guy happy! ( :

Thirty-One Months Old

Spring seems to finally have sprung!  I have a bigger garden this year than I've had since Cooper was born, and I have Cooper "in training" to be my helper.  Actually he planted some sunflower seeds himself, which are doing very well.  I can't wait until they start to get really big!  Hopefully he'll get bitten by the gardening bug too.

We had a brief visit from Cooper's Uncle Doug, Don's brother, who was passing through town from Pennsylvania.

We have finished Community Bible Study for the year.  They had a children's program on the second-to-last day, which Cooper participated in.  He didn't sing too much, but he sure did look cute up there (at least in my possibly biased opinion).   ( :

Someone gave Cooper a secondhand bike, and we recently got it fixed up so he can ride it (with training wheels).  He's getting pretty good at pedaling, though he's still got some work to do in the steering and stopping departments.  We've got to get him a helmet pretty soon too.

We've had a lot of nice weather this month, so we've played outside a lot, at home, at the park, or whatever other creative places we can come up with.

And, we like to eat popsicles.  Life is good.

Mid-South Live Steamers

Yesterday my friend Laurie invited Cooper and me, along with another friend of hers who also has a little boy, to a semi-annual event in Columbia (south of Nashville) that I didn't even know existed: Mid-South Live Steamers. 

It was a fun day-all the way around.  The weather was beautiful.  Cooper behaved, and I think everyone had a great time!

This park is full of miniature (1/8 scale) railroad tracks, and apparently there are people who collect working steam-engine trains that are smaller than a real train but big enough for people to ride on.  Twice a year, they invite the public to come ride them.  We went over bridges, through tunnels and around the park, about a 10 or 15 minute ride.  There were about 6 trains running, and the wait was never too long.  Of course, we went on a Friday; it would probably have been longer on a Saturday.

We brought our lunch and ate it there, and besides the trains, there was a playground to play on and live music playing. 

Everything was free except concessions and souvenirs.  They even gave us free books! 

What a great day!  I think this is definitely something we will do again.  Thanks, Laurie!

Thirty Months Old

I can't believe Cooper is 2-1/2!  Everyone told me time would fly, and they were so right!  My only defense is to savor every day and take lots of pictures!

We had a fun Easter all the way around.  Besides having my family come visit, we went to a local egg hunt the day before.  Cooper had a great time hunting eggs, petting baby chicks and ducks, riding a train and playing on bouncy inflatables.

And while we were having fun, we also focused on the meaning of Easter, using books and Resurrection eggs to begin teaching Cooper about Jesus' death and resurrection.  Of course, he doesn't fully understand the concept at this point, but I pray that he is hiding these truths in his heart, and we will be able to build on them.  Our greatest prayer for him is that he will someday come to know Jesus as his Savior.

He also had his first trip to the dentist this month.  He wasn't too receptive initially, but with a little bribery on my part, he did finally let the dentist examine him.  They didn't actually do a cleaning this time, but just examined him to check on something I was concerned about, which turned out to be nothing serious.

 

Afterward, we went to the lake to feed the ducks (the fulfillment of my bribe).

We renewed our zoo membership, and went there one day as a family,

and another day had a play date with one of my MOPS friends who has a little boy his age, as well as 3 other small children.

I saw an example of Cooper's sweet side there when her baby was crying, and he went up to her stroller to check on her, saying gently, "I'm sorry, baby."

Since our snow a few weeks ago, we've had mostly pretty weather, and we've been getting outside a lot to enjoy the sunshine.  I love springtime!

And I love my baby boy!

A Happy Easter

In the years since we've been married, we've had a tradition of having family and friends over after church for homemade pizza and an indoor egg hunt for both adults and children.  Last year we didn't get to have it because my brother and his family had moved out of town and were unable to come, though we did have my parents and some friends from church over for pizza.

This year, we were back in business.  My brother's family came to town for a few days and the egg hunt was on!  I thought his kids might be getting too old for it (ages 7-12), but they seemed to have just as good a time as ever (which may have been helped by the extra challenge of finding hidden $5 bills in the house).  Even Cooper participated this year, though he had his own eggs and didn't compete with everyone else.

He had a blast hanging out with his cousins.

We also had a belated celebration of my brother's 40th birthday

and had mini flute and piano concerts.

We had lots of fun,

good pizza

and lots of silliness.

It was a day I think everyone enjoyed.