The Sweetest Sound

So, Cooper has been making some big strides, which I will write about later. But for now a little tidbit that went on at the breakfast table yesterday morning. As I was sitting with Cooper having breakfast, I turned to the side and sneezed. My non-speaking son said to me, "Bless You." Ya'll, it melted my heart and made me so incredibly proud and happy.

Preschool

Today was Cooper's first day of preschool. He did absolutely wonderful. He ran in straight to the play kitchen. Came back and hugged Mommy's legs and ran back to the kitchen again. Then I told him Mommy was going bye-bye and he gave me a kiss and I left. He ran to me when I came to pick him up and was all smiles.

Here is that big boy!

Love and Proper Mascara Application

We have been having a great time with our friends, Christina and Dwayne. They have come over to travel around in celebration of Dwayne's birthday. So far, I have taken them to Salzburg, Austria and shown them around Munich for a day. Right now they are off on their own in Prague, and tomorrow we will head over to the concentration camp in Dachau (which while very worthwhile to see leaves you with that icky depressive feeling that one gets after seeing thousands of images of humans being starved, tortured, gassed, and shot). After that we will head back into Munich to Oktoberfest to lift our spirits with chicken, beer, and men dancing on tables in lederhosen. I may have mentioned it before, but the lederhosen do tend to make a girl frisky.

As Peter and I were rushing around at the last minute trying to get the house in order for our guests to arrive, I walked into the bathroom to this:

That is Cooper after a hefty application of mascara.

I should tell you that Christina and Dwayne are a young couple in the deep throws of love and affection and are engaged to be married this coming May. It is the typical scenario of giddy lovey dovey-ness that one would expect. You know, hand holding, kissing, hugging, biting, finding your partner's farts and burps charming and funny, giggling, etc. It reminds me of Peter and I when we were just newly and nearly married. Back in the day before long work hours, putting kids to bed, changing diapers, smelly socks on the floor, piles of laundry and dirty toilets, moves, moves and more moves, and when we were a good 5 or 40 pounds lighter. But some things remain the same. . . the farts and burps are still there. They just aren't as charming and funny as they used to be.

Christina and Dwayne, we have enjoyed having you here and wish you the best of luck for a happy marriage.

Survivor

You ever hear those horror stories where someone has died for whatever reason in a house and they find that person days later with a 2 year old still alive? I have no doubt that should something happen to me in the house, Cooper would still thrive. He is a scavenger! He still doesn't communicate with me when he is hungry or thirsty, I guess because he knows that he is fully capable of just going down to the kitchen and getting something himself.

He is constantly pulling food out of the cabinets and trying to get into stuff. It was several months ago that he decided he wanted a banana. I didn't realize it until I came down into the kitchen and he had almost gnawed completely through the peel to get to the banana. Eww! I put all his snacks into some plastic containers with lids that I thought he couldn't open, but of course who am I kidding? He just goes in and gets himself a waffle, rice cake, or some M&M's whenever he so pleases. Yesterday as I was cooking dinner, I turned around and saw that he had carried over a LARGE jar of nutella (chocolate spread) to the table and had already unscrewed the lid and was just about to dig in . . . with his hands. Last week he found himself Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (coveted candy around here), unwrapped it all by himself and was chowing down when I found him in the living room. There were two problems with this (besides the fact that he would not normally be allowed an entire peanut butter cup all to himself). First, the chocolate had melted at some point, so it was stuck to the paper cup liner, which Cooper was eating with no problems. Second, he found the cup in our bedroom, and I found him with the remains of the cup downstairs in the living room. It isn't the first time I've found chocolate on the wall!

When I told Peter my theory about Cooper being able to survive in the house, he agreed that Cooper would make it without any problems. But he did add that whoever ended up discovering my body would also discover Cooper sitting on me, bouncing up and down and crumbs and chocolate smeared all over me. All I can say is thank goodness cockroaches don't exist over here!

Now there's a lovely thought to leave you with!