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!

The New Man in My Life

OK, no one is allowed to get mad at this post. As you may know, I was travelling last week to a mystery location to meet up with a man. He was short and bald, which is just my type. His name is Sam, and he is just so delicious I could scoop him up and eat him with a shrimp fork. And, I kind of think that he liked me too!

This is my nephew who I finally got to see after 6 weeks. I had a wonderful week of changing diapers, feeding him, rocking him to sleep, holding in his paci, practicing my football hold, and bouncing that baby boy. The funny thing is that it felt like a great little vacation away from my 2 year old! I enjoyed time with family and for once was not running around like a crazy person all over town as we usually are when we are in Augusta. I also got to hit a big sale at Macy's with my Aunt Brenda and got lots of great stuff. It was really hard not to call friends and let them know I was there, but I really wanted to enjoy my time with family.

Thank you, Aunt Brenda, for bringing me home. I had a wonderful time!!! And thanks, Alan and April, for sharing your little bundle of joy with me. He is just wonderful. I can't wait until Cooper gets to meet him too.

Sneaking Around

I am on a secret rendezvous with another boy, and I am starting to fall in love. Yes, my husband knows. When I am back next week, I will tell you all about it!

Something To Get Excited About

Look on the left side bar to see something new! It is our countdown to Disney World. Yes, after talking about it every trip home so far, we have finally decided to head to Disney World. We will enjoy a wonderful time with some great friends and we cannot wait!

Even the best of us . . .

. . . can have a bad day!

A Day of Ropes and Condiments

Since I never really did anything specific for Peter's birthday or our 8th anniversary, I asked my man to set aside a day for a surprise getaway. Well, today was that day. Peter and I drove to the mountains and went to an area with a big ropes course. It was really fun and quite strenuous. We spent the better part of 4 hours hanging high in the air clad in straps and ropes that created bulges in all the wrong places to challenge our fears and balance. Overall a great day! We had a wonderful getaway, thanks to Peter's parents who came to watch Cooper.

After putting Cooper down for the evening, we started discussing our dinner options and scouring the pantry for something to make. Nothing I presented sounded appealing to Peter, so I settled on making myself scrambled eggs and sausage. Peter, on the other hand, had more ambitious culinary plans. He decided to make himself some chili. Here are his ingredients:

In case you can't make it out from the picture, they are as follows:

- Diced tomatoes (pre-packaged)

- Leftover Fuego Salsa

- Tabasco

- Gypsy Sauce (a red spicy sauce)

- Grill and Steak Seasoning

- Sausage Seasoning

- Chili Flakes

- 1 onion

- Hamburger Meat

- Splash of Milk

To say I was skeptical of this collaboration of ingredients would be an understatement. And when Peter started combining the ingredients and claimed that the onion was too much trouble and that the diced tomatoes may not be necessary, I exclaimed all the wrongness that would come of a chili made exclusively of condiments. Luckily, both the tomatoes and onion were necessary and were added to the creative concoction.

In the end, Peter proclaimed his experiment a success and offered to share with me. "You've got to be curious," he stated. Curious wouldn't be an accurate description of my current state of mind; it is a feeling closer to nausea. Somehow I was able to refrain from partaking.

Cooper CAN Do - Part II

First off, a little eye candy for you of my two favorite men in one of my new favorite pics. This is from a hike we went on a little while back.

And this, with our neighbor's cat.

Lately I have been frustrated with Cooper's therapy situation and overall progress. It seems as if the gap between where he should be and where he is continues to get bigger and bigger. At the same time, I find myself constantly running after a little boy whose physical abilities are getting stronger, while his mental abilities are still behind creating more and more dangerous situations. There have been so many instances in the last several months that literally could have been a huge tragedy and the end of Cooper if what could have happened really happened.

It is tiring and scary, and the feelings of guilt are so overwhelming at the moment. Guilt about what if I did more speech therapy at home, what if I made more healthy dinners and could somehow get Cooper to eat more vegetables, what if I were more pushy with his therapists here, or what if I spent more time seeking out better therapists, what if I just talked more, what if I spent more time teaching him hands on how to pedal his tractor or push his little car, what if I bought him different toys, etc, etc, etc. Then there is this question that keeps popping into my head, making me feel most guilty of all: Why can't I just spend more time helping him, rather than wishing he were different? Because, quite honestly, most of the time I do wish things were different. I wish that it were easy. I wish that he would communicate with us. I wish that he would call me mommy. I wish I could give him more, help him more. I wish that he could do and understand and say all the things that the other kids his age can.

I have to remind myself to not let the deficiencies overshadow the little victories and things that Cooper is accomplishing, because they are so wonderful and important. And I really do get excited over the new accomplishments. What I love the most is God's timing. Two days ago, I was at my wits end at mealtime and in an emotional funk after one of Cooper's therapy sessions, and out of nowhere Cooper looks up at me and clearly says "More" while perfectly doing the sign language for more, which I haven't done in over a month! Yesterday I had a really hard day with Cooper. Everything was a struggle and after a week alone with Peter out of town, I had zero patience left. I actually contemplated laying Cooper down without reading any books, which never happens because I love reading, Cooper loves reading, and that is typically my favorite time together with him. Guilt made me sit down and start reading anyway. I pulled out a picture book and for the first time, Cooper correctly identified and said Car, Ball, and Shoes, among some other words and pictures that he already knew (dog, cat, apple, duck). Then, the ones he didn't know I could really see him making a big attempt to repeat the words after me (flower, train, boat) and I swear I could see him absorbing that information. Those are the moments that push me on and reassure me.

So, it is time for Part II of Cooper CAN Do. These are some words that he knows, his first words, and words that he may not say but can understand.

Cooper's first words were:

- Up

- No
- Froggie
- Bye-Bye

More words he knows now:

- Bubbles

- Cookie

- Bugaboo (Gummy Bears)

- Papa

- Car

- Otto (boy next door)

- Apple

- Uh-Oh

- All Done

- Open

- Juice

- Ball

- Shoes

- Down

- Dicka-Dicka-Dicka (tickle)

- Chocolate

- Hello

Body parts he can identify (although he doesn't say the words, but touches these parts):

- Toes

- Foot

- Eyes

- Mouth

- Nose

- Ears

- Tummy

- Belly Button

Animal Sounds he can make when he sees a picture of an animal or a toy figure:

- Pig

- Duck

- Dog

- Tiger

- Lion

- Cow

- Monkey

- Snake

- Sheep (this one is my favorite)

- Fish

Favorite Books:

- Chicka, Chicka ABC

- Goodnight Moon

- Fridolin der Frosch

- What's Up, Duck?

Other Stuff:

- He can take things to the trash when I ask him to.

- He knows how to blow and smell when we talk about those words.

- He knows the melodies to several songs and will often "sing" along with us.

- One of my favorite things is to find him in his room, sitting in his rocking chair reading books. He does this a lot and it is the one activity that he can do for the longest amount of time.

- He is doing a lot of repeating after me right now. He will repeat almost any word that I ask him to.

- He loves Curious George and will always pick that DVD out of the cabinet full of DVDs and bring it to me. Then he will sit in his special little chair that is set up just for him when he watches TV.

- He can turn the lights on or off when asked, although that doesn't mean that they will stay the way I asked them. Cooper might decide that he wants them off again or on again, or he just may go for the strobe effect.

- He is learning to take his clothes off when I ask him to (still needs some help, though), and when I tell him to pull his pants up, he makes the cutest attempts.

- He loves to jump into my arms on the count of three.

- When I ask him for his piggies, he lifts up his foot and loves to play This Little Piggie.

- When I ask him to, he will sit on the stairs so that we can put on his shoes.

- When I ask him if he wants to push the button on the elevator, he knows exactly what to do.

Let me tell you what is so great. It is so great that as I was typing this post, I had to keep scrolling up and adding more and more words that Cooper knows.

And what do I know? I know that Cooper is special and wonderful. I know that God's timing is perfect and He has a very special and specific plan for Cooper. I know that Cooper is happy and loves his mommy. I guess that is all that I need to know for now. That, and the fact that this is just the cutest guy on the Earth!