Must Be Santa

Last weekend, we took Cooper to see Santa at Valley Fair. He loved staring at Santa, Santa's elves, and all of the decorations, but when it came to put him on Santa's lap, there was no way he was going without a fight. And really, I guess I can't blame him for not wanting to be passed off to a random guy with a long white beard.

I guess the photo people have figured out that pictures of a screaming baby on Santa's lap don't sell very well, because they wouldn't take a picture of him crying and instead suggested a "family" portrait so that Coop would enjoy the experience more....so all three of us sat down with Santa and got our picture taken. After we were done Cooper was smiling and waving at Santa and blowing him kisses, so we made another attempt for him to have a picture by himself, but the poor little guy just clung to me and screamed his head off. So, this is our Santa picture, 2010!

November!!

We are very behind on the blog front...we didn't even post a single entry for the whole month of November! November was a very busy and fun month for us. Cooper is running everywhere and into everything. He has a few words he uses now, mostly "Dat" (for "that"), "dah" (for dog), "Dada", and "Mama" (but only uses Mama when he's upset!) His new favorite signs are "train", which he uses for any moving vehicle, "Poop", which he uses whenever we take Cody on a walk, and "Up", which he uses to ask us for a waffle, since it pops out of the toaster.

Cooper had a fantastic Halloween - he got lots of chances to wear his monkey costume and to our surprise, loved having it on and didn't even mind the little monkey hat.

We took Cooper "trick or treating" through the Deloitte office and he had a great time picking out candy, putting it back in the bowl, and picking it out again. The crinkly wrappers were much more exciting than the actual candy (which given his limited number of teeth, he couldn't really dig into, anyway!)

Cooper also had a great time at his friend Miller's Halloween themed 1st birthday party:

And had a blast at his playgroup's Halloween party, where he was mistaken for a life-size teddy bear by his buddy Lukas:

We actually got all the little ones to sit still for a picture!

Mommy and daddy weren't very creative and went for a general "jungle/Indiana Jones" theme to match Cooper's monkey costume:

Off to trick or treat on Halloween night!!

The weather was so nice in November that we spent lots of time outside. Cooper loved going to Vasona to ride the train, merry-go-round, and play in the leaves:

The first week of November, mommy and daddy both had to travel for almost a week for work, so Cooper's sweet Gigi came out to take care of him. They had SO much fun during their time together, and went to Happy Hollow, the park, and Children's Discovery Museum:

Cooper is still our sweet silly boy, and is always making silly faces. He still pulls his "scrunchy face" every once in a while:
For Thanksgiving week, we flew to Mississippi and had so much fun with friends and family! Cooper and Foster loved playing together at Gigi and Grandaddy's house:

Daddy taught Cooper t-ball in Aunt JJ's backyard, and Coop couldn't get enough of it!

Cooper, Foster, and Carson loved running around together!




For Thanksgiving Day, we headed to Tuscaloosa to visit Aunt Natalie, Uncle Jim, and Josh's cousins. Rebecca gave us a fabulous tour of University of Alabama and Coop had so much fun playing with his "big" cousins:

Foster and Coop playing chase!!

Thanksgiving Day...gobble!
Yes, we dressed them in matching outfits - precious!! And together they're "gobble gobble":

They were so cute giving each other "hugs and kisses":

Cooper loved grabbing big cousin Foster!

Hanging out in cousin Hunter's pedicab ("Hunter is entering the pedicab business"):

Cooper absolutely adores Cody and one of his favorite games is to share his food with Cody...we gave up on trying to stop it a long time ago:

More silly faces....when Cooper is running around, trying to decide what toy or game to play with next, this is his "focused" face:

Our sweet sweet baby boy!! These last few awesome pictures were taken by our fantastic nanny, April.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Bye bye!!

Chatting with Signs

When Cooper was about 5 months old, we took a baby signing class and tried to work a few signs into his routine every day. A couple weeks before he turned 1, he pointed to his snacks and signed eat...and we couldn't believe it!! Since then he's slowly built up his confidence and has been quickly adding more signs. We love finally hearing his "voice" and it's so much fun to see him put things together and see that he understands what we are saying.

Cooper signs "more", "please", "milk", "all done", "book", and of course "eat". Since it was his first sign, he tends to use "eat" to mean - "I WANT". He'll sign for it when he's hungry or wants food, and he'll also point to a toy on the shelf and sign "eat" to mean, hey guys, I really want that!!! He has also started signing multiple thoughts in the same sentence, which is so fun and exciting to for us to experience.




We love communicating with our little monkey and he is learning new signs every day. Can't wait to hear him communicate his ideas with full sentences in his own sweet little voice!

Fall is Here

Fall is here!! Last weekend we did lots of fall-ish events. We took Cooper back to the pumpkin patch, and unlike the last visit where he slept the whole time (he about 2 weeks old), this time he couldn't get enough of the pumpkins, the train, the hay, the wheelbarrows...he loved everything about it!

Picking out our wheelbarrow:

Trying to push it himself:

Cooper LOVED the train ride!

Picking out our "big" pumpkin:

Cooper picking out his "little" pumpkin:

This one looks pretty good! I'll take it:

We'll see if he fits in the wheelbarrow with all three pumpkins next year!

On Sunday, our friends Jenny and Bill had us over for Canadian Thanksgiving (our first!). The food was awesome and all of the kids had so much fun playing together.

Cooper loves his big buddy Anthony:

Anthony thinking, "this little guy again?? Let me show him the ropes..." :)

Anthony loved pinching Coop's cheeks!

Carving the turkey:

Lauren and baby Liam:

Adam and baby Max:

The gorgeous table:

Even the kids' table was decorated:

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!!

Bye-bye!! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving / Halloween / Fall to everyone!!