Tyler's Proof

*I couldn't find the perfect picture of Cooper for the comparison, but I can DEFINITELY see her in this picture of Tripp

Tyler has been insisting, pretty much since Cooper was born, that Cooper looks like my brother, David. I somewhat agreed, but didn't think it was that obvious...until I saw a picture of Tripp at her age. Tripp is nothing short of a miniature David, so now I guess we just need to decide if David would make a pretty woman! :)

Cooper is 4 months old!

Little Miss Cooper is now four months old! It's extremely hard to believe that so much time has passed and she is becoming such a little person--interacting with people, sharing her feelings, and growing growing growing!!

We have definitely been able to pick up on more of her personality over the past month or so. Tyler made the comment that he thinks Cooper is more like him and Axl is more like me. "You know, Cooper loves for people to be around and Axl is just really whiny...". So basically, Tyler thinks I'm a whiny introvert. Thanks again, dude. But in all seriousness, it may be kind of true. :)

Whenever we hear Cooper waking up upset or gets upset in the next room as soon as you come into sight the cry turns into a screechy squeal and her face just lights up; making it hard to put her pacifier in because of her goofy grin! This morning marked the first (atleast that I can remember) time waking up and just cooing in her bed. She doesn't usually get overly loud, but you can tell she's ready for someone to get in there! I got her a new play gym which we keep in the pack 'n play so she can actually play somewhat independently without Axl attacking her. She will just coo and squeal (rather loudly) for quite a while, but definitely lets you know when she's done and ready to move on to something else.

Her schedule has relaxed quite a bit in the last week or two and I am loving it! I could tell she was wanting to drag it out a bit because I was waking her up from her naps, but if I didn't she would end up going to bed way too late because of trying to get that last feeding in. But I finally got up the nerve to play with it a bit and here is what she has kind of set.


about 8 wake up and get Donnatol
8:30 nurse
10 or 10:30 nap
12 or 12:30 wake up and get Donnatol
12:30 or 1 nurse
2 or 2:30 nap
about 4:30 wake up and get Donnatol
5 nurse
6:30 nap
8 wake up and get Donnatol
8:30 nurse
about 9:30 bed
10:30 or 11 dream feed (I added this back in when she stretched her schedule out, so that she would still sleep through the night)


She sleeps through the night and takes 3 FABULOUS naps a day! I was just looking back at Axl's four month post and saw that his naps were still 30 to 45 minutes long and he was eating 6 times a day!! I think I would be dead if Cooper hadn't figured out how to take good nap by now, though I think his issues probably had to do with his reflux at this point because we were just starting the Zantac.

Cooper has her 4 month check up on Friday and I'm anxious to see how much she's grown...and how a double-doctor's appointment goes when both my children are going to be due for shots. ugh. Wish me luck!

1 month old

2 months old3 months old4 months old

Ponytail!

Such a cutie!

Please, someone tell me what program is good for just sifting through pictures and fixing red-eye. I just want to be able to do it easily as I look through the pictures. Any ideas?

Axl is 2 years old!!

...and I can't believe it!! Though sometimes it feels like we've been in the terrible two's for a while now! ;)

To celebrate Axl's birthday this year I decided to just have a family party and we invited one of Axl's friends, McKay. Given that our families are large, it was still quite an affair! The theme was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as this is Axl's favorite show at the moment. The day that worked out the best for the party was actually the 12th (my birthday), so we attended church, came home to put Axl down for a good nap and the guests started arriving at 5:30. We tried to fill the day with Axl's favorite things: Mickey Mouse (Gickey), pizza (teetza), Toodles (tootie), balloons (this word is essentially unrecognizable unless you are Axl's parents), and Gabi (Babi, meaning ALL of his cousins collectively, ha). The party went extra smooth, as I didn't really have to do anything because we had purchased Papa Murphy's pizza (which didn't end up being very good) the day before, and I also made the cake the day before. Though it was pretty stressful, I was really happy with the cake. The only other cake I had ever decorated was for Axl's 1st birthday, and it was TINY; so this was a challenge, but I did it! Toodle's face was chocolate cake with strawberry filling, and the ears were white cake with strawberry filling, and the icing was buttercream (my first ever successful (meaning it didn't taste like straight butter AND didn't turn to sugar) icing--and I have tried so many times!!) Axl didn't eat much pizza (he's pretty much a hot 'n' ready snob, ha) and as I predicted was much more enamored with the idea of the cake (du-day or birthday) than actually eating it (didn't even take a bite). He did blow out his candle, which surprised me because we haven't been to all that many birthday parties where he would pick up on this...anyway...he had a wonderful time running around with all of his cousins and all in all it was a success!

By the end of the night he was hot mess covered in sucker and ready for a bath!!

Side story: On Sunday, the day of the party, I was packing Axl's church bag and threw in the figurines that I didn't use for the cake. I only used Mickey and Pluto because those are the only characters he has ever acknowledged or talked to me about. As I opened the zipper of his bag in the middle of sacrament meeting, his eyes got so big they looked like they were going to pop out as he reached in a grabbed each of the figurines one by one..."Daaaaaaaaaaisy", "Goo-gee" (goofy), "Ninee" (minnie), "Ga-na" (Donald)! It was one of the cutest, most surprising things. If someone saw me they were probably wanting to lift my jaw up off the floor because I just couldn't believe he knew all of them; he really is a smart boy!!

Mummy Milestone :(

We can now say that Axl slept his first night ever without a yummy before he turned two--his birthday is tomorrow. Over the last couple of days, at naptime and bedtime, when Axl would go to the little drawer where his yummies are kept, one of them would be "broken". He would bring it to me and tell me it was "break" and needed to go in the "tash". It kind of worried me that he was getting excited about the process, but always, of course, going back to find one that wasn't broken. So, last night, I took the three yummies that were left, broke one (I know, can you believe it!? I am the culprit!), placed it back in the drawer and hid the other two. When Axl found the lone broken yummy, he put it in the trash and went back looking for another. We told him they were all broken and we had put them all in the trash. When we left his room he asked for Mickey and juice, and I got both of them, impressed he had accepted the "broken yummy" situation. It took him a LONG time to go to sleep. And the funny thing was that he would cry, but it was TOTALLY a fake cry, he has become a master whiner! We would go in and he would be EXTRA EXTRA snuggly and tell us to lay our heads on the pillow and tell us the story about "break" and "trash", but never really ask for the yummy. ...but, moral, of the story...he did eventually fall asleep, I think at about 10:30.

So, last night when I went to bed I was most certainly not fake crying. My little boy doesn't have a yummy anymore and it hurts my heart to know that he doesn't. Tyler and I were trying to think of things to compare it to, to try and relate to him. We don't have anything, as adults, that we are attached to because of the comfort it brings us. I determined the closest thing was me trying to go to bed without Tyler. It's really hard for me to fall asleep and it, quite frankly, makes me sad. Tyler responded, "I can go to sleep anywhere". Oh, thanks dude.

Let's hope Axl takes after his dad and isn't as traumatized as he could potentially be. The day so far has been great and he hasn't mentioned the yummy. I'm not looking forward to "mummy" going missing from our vocabulary, either!

Push-ups!

Broken Yummies.

Axl got a yummy today which mysteriously had the end snipped off of it. He brought it over to show me and I told him it was broken. "Should we throw it in the trash?" and then he threw it in the trash. Later, in the car, he asked me for his yummy and I reminded him about the broken one and he remembered and told me about the broken yummy, no crying involved.

I'm thinking maybe this will work but am torn between two options. Should they all be "broken" at once or would it be just as traumatic for him to find a broken one every day and then the final day realize there are no more? I'm leaning toward the gradual option, but thinking it may just be delaying the inevitable.

And really, there is a huge part of me that doesn't want to take it away at all, because I want him to have it. Being a mother is both hard and weird.

...and, of course, wonderful when you're not having to take away one of your son's life sources.

Stuck!

I tried to come quickly when I heard Axl yelling from the living room, "Stuck, stuck, stuck!" When I got there, I found this. He has figured out how to get INTO the shoes, but not OUT. He got even more frustrated when I left to find my camera, and I came back to him pouting, like so. :)

Bo-K!

Last week, Axl started attending a Mother's Day Out program at Southland Christian Church called the Great Escape. He is in a classroom with about 15-20 kids and several teachers and attends on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9-12. Axl and I went to Wal-Mart before his first day to find a backpack (people laughed at me -really just Tyler-but it's a good thing I did this because ALL the other kids have backpacks!) He picked out this really, really ugly Cars backpack covered with a huge hologram and I just couldn't support the decision. I tricked him into putting it back and found a small, little plain black backpack and jazzed it up a bit with some iron-on lettering and some "tuck" buttons Axl picked out at Hobby Lobby.

The first day went great--he sent me off with a smile while I cried all the way home. Since then, we've had a bit rougher time. The second day he started crying before we even got into the room because you have to pass the play room to get there, and I guess he wanted to go there instead. He had a really rough night this past Monday night, so I wasn't even sure I would take him, but he woke up in a good mood so we went anyway. Tyler picked him up and the teacher said he fussed on and off all day. I was a little frustrated that I had told her about his bunny bear and yummy in the bag and they never got it for him or called me like I asked (since I knew he wasn't feeling great because of the night before). Anyway--he survived. Today he threw himself on the ground as soon as we walked in the door...nice. I reminded her about the yummy and when I picked him up, she told me he had it all day--hopefully this doesn't foil my plan of taking it away next week. I kept trying to get his attention, but he was acting oblivious. As soon as he realized I was there he broke into a huge cry and started telling me he wanted to go "bye-bye". I'm hoping he starts to actually enjoy it. It's hard to tell if he just needs to get used to being away from us (which doesn't make much sense because he goes to nursery at church just fine every week) or if he really just doesn't like it. Do you give a child that age the choice and just quit going after a month or so if he's still having trouble? Anyway, other than the fact that I'm worried about him for the three hours he's there, I am getting a little bit more done and the worry is perhaps worth the lightened load of stress.

We gave it to him the night before his first day and he REALLY liked it. The first day. I did take the headband off his head before we left. :)I love that he is bringing home little art projects. However, it's also funny to distinguish what he actually did. He HATES coloring so I know he didn't do most of this page. The part I believe he did is where you can see he was banging the crayon on the table. :)He pulled the eyes off this little guy before we got it home. Guess I need to take the pictures AT the school! ha

Also--the title. Since the first day, Axl has been saying, "Bo-K" ALL the time. It's different than book, but tells me no when I ask if he's saying box. No idea. Hopefully we'll figure it out soon. Sometimes he gets so frustrated after about a minute of me trying to figure it out that he just changes it to book and accepts one, ha.

Handyman.

Cooper gets her toes did.