Bounce Time

Today we had our first experience at Bounce Time, at SIGS in New Albany. What Fun!!! We met Jess, Alicia, and lots of other blogging mommies. The other blogger were friends that Alicia teaches with, I read all their blogs but this was the first time I have ever met any of them. It was finally nice to put a face to all the stories and not to feel so stalkish. I think there was a total of 14 kids. I wasn't able to get a picture of Cooper in the inflatables, he wasn't so sure about those. He did warm up to the foam pit and the long less bouncy trampoline.
Here is his first attempt at the foam pit, I just threw him in there. Out of all the things to do, Cooper & Carter found this block to play with.

Here are a couple on the trampoline, sorry for the red eye in a few of them. I'm not for sure if it is user error if maybe I just need a new camera... we have had it since we got married.

I couldn't resist this cute innocent face.

More from the foam pit.

Here are a few that Alicia took of us jumping into the pit, that is Aaron with us, he is one of Jess's twin boys.

These next few are courtesy of Aaron and Aidan.

This is Aaron

And this is us with Aidan.

I'm not for sure which one this is, but I'm sure Jess would know.

Finally it was off to lunch at Chick-fil-A. I'm pretty sure we used up every single high chair and took up the entire play area. You know my son, the one who is scared of everything? Well I let him play in there and went to use the restroom... there were plenty of mommies from our group who would watch him. I come back and he is at the top of the playground, but too afraid to go into the tunnel. So of course I have to climb it myself to bring him down.

It was such a good morning and a great way for Cooper to get out some energy. In a few months I think he will LOVE bounce time. However, it's on Fri mornings and that my day to work at the door at Jazzercise so it won't be something we can do too often. Thanks Alicia for Jess and everyone else, it was great to finally meet everyone.

A Day in the Life of Cooper

When I first quit my job last summer someone had asked Steve, what does Jami do all day? So I thought I would give you a glimpse into a regular day in our house. Can you tell I'm bored? I picked today (Thursday) because there was nothing to do. Wed & Fri's are my short days, I work the door at Jazzercise while Steve's parents come over to watch Cooper, by the time I get home, take a shower and fix lunch it is almost Cooper's nap time. For some reason Thursday's always seem to be our boring day. So here goes...
Cooper slept in today, usually he gets up around 7:00, today was almost 7:45. He is almost always ready to go as soon as he wakes up, today was no exception. He always starts off with his books, he loves his books.
After a few minutes he started to ask for some milk, today he was asking for chocolate. I'm a sucker and gave in, I try to reserve chocolate milk for weekends as a treat, but what the heck.

After a small breakfast is was playing time. He has found our flashlight and loves it. I'm afraid one day he is going to drop the Maglite on his toes or throw it so I decided today would be a good day to go find one of his own.

All ready for a trip to Target.... he loves to go bye bye.

I found a cute Cars flashlight and he won't put it down.

After Target we grabbed a quick snack and some playtime. We went outside for a while and of course he had to bring the flashlight. We played with some puzzles and played in the computer/toy room/what will be his new room once we get a toddler bed.

I also picked up this cute Monkey plate and cup.... we haven't tried drinking out of a cup without a lid, so I thought he needed one of his own first.

He's getting good at this game and had figured out how to get each one to pop up.

Pretty soon it was lunch, this is when he gets a video of some sort so I can prepare lunch. If not he is at my heels. I could be sitting next to him in the living room and he barely acknowledges me, but the second I get up he needs me. Today was Curious George, he usually sits on the couch but for some reason he decided to stand in the kitchen and watch.

After lunch we played some more and walked over to Karen's to pick up her mail then it was back inside for some books and time for nap. I LOVE NAP TIME!!! Today was almost 3 hours, those are best. I'm fortunate that Steve gets off work early and by the time Cooper gets up from nap Steve is home within a half hour or so. Steve and Cooper then play for a while while I get dinner ready. Steve is awesome, he never acts as if he needs time to rest or sit down after work. He is always willing and ready to play with Cooper as soon as he walks in. Since it was raining he stayed in the rest of the night. Steve and I did some cleaning and Cooper tried to help. I didn't get any pictures but he was helping with the vacuum and sweeping the floor. Too cute. He then got out his coloring sheets and wanted to color. I think he may have a lefty, any teachers out there know when you can determine this? He has always favored his left hand, it is what he uses a fork with, colors with, and throws with. We already have a sights set on a major league pitcher.

Here is the mess that prompted some color time. In case you are wondering that is part of a potty seat. He likes to play with his, since he doesn't use it right now it's not too gross... right?

Now it is 7:15, Steve & Cooper are playing and I am finishing up my blog so Steve can get on x-box live tonight. We will play some more, read books, put on pj's and head to bed between 8:15 and 8:30. Don't think I'm gross, he got a bath last night and we didn't do much today so he will get a bath tomorrow. Cooper is an early riser but he also goes to bed early, this gives us a good two hours before we go to bed to wind down and relax for the night.
Hope you enjoyed a look into our lives. This is pretty typical day unless we have something planned. Kind of boring, but fun and loving at the same time.

Toddler Bed???

Any one have advice on a good toddler bed? I'm starting to shop around for one, most likely won't convert Cooper until after the end of the year, just thought I would get a head start.

Mac N' Cheese Anyone?

My plan for this afternoon was to make the 4:15 Jazzercise class. In order to do this I walk out the door as soon as Steve walks in the door around 4:00. We planned on having fish and mac n'cheese for dinner so I helped him out by making the mac n'cheese earlier today so he would just have to warm it up and put the fish in the oven. I let him know this once he got home and I walked out the door for some much needed exercise. I got home and dinner was ready waiting for me, I thought it was a little strange when I noticed the mac n'cheese was on the stove instead of being warmed up the microwave, that is until I oped the fridge and realized Steve had made a whole new box. I don't know if he just didn't hear me and failed to notice the abundance of mac n'cheese in the fridge... regardless we now have a weeks supply ahead of us. One box can feed us for two days so looks like Cooper has one of his favorites all week long.

Tired????

We had a busy Sunday morning, started off with 1st service at church. Cooper is now screaming and crying and clinging on to me for dear life when I drop him off in the nursery, he gets in over once I leave and is fine the rest of the hour, but boy does it break my heart to leave him. We came home just long enough to me to change clothes and the Cooper & I headed back out to meet some girls I worked with at Mercer for lunch. We always meet at Tumbleweed on the river so we can eat and then let the kids play at the playground. We are a servers worse nightmare; 3 adults and 6 kids. When I first met Mary & Jennifer there were 2 kids between the three of us... boy has time changed. It was a great time catching up and the kids had fun playing, I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. We headed home around 1:15 and we didn't even make it to the bridge before Cooper sacked out. This was him at 4:15....
I hated to wake him up but it was getting too late. He still went to bed on time tonight as well, I must have wore him out this weekend.

Take Two

We had another go around at The Fun House today. Steve was working so we met my mom at the Fun House for some indoor fun. The original plan was to go to the zoo but the weather didn't cooperate. For $20 it was worth the price, we ate and had left overs and got to play games for about an hour. We tried some skee ball but Cooper kept getting ahold of the balls and throwing them and of course they would fall back and I would have to chase them. I think the school bus was his favorite. You can see pictures below, the first one shows a big cheesy smile. Afterwards my mom mentioned that Graeters was close.... she really had to talk me into that one. Summer is almost over which means Strawberry Chip will disappear for 9 months, I gotta get it while I still have a chance. Cooper was such a big boy, I sat him down in a regular chair and he sat so good turning back and forth between me and mom for a bite of ice cream. I have a feeling that wouldn't have worked with vegetables.
Thanks mom for meeting us today.... oh and paying too :)

For some reason he got a little scared of Clifford.

Here is my big boy at Graeter's.

The Fun House

I took Cooper today to the Fun House to meet up with a play group from church. I have come to the conclusion that this is the perfect age for such outings as The Fun House and Chuck E Cheese.

- He has no idea there are games that will earn you tickets that will earn you prizes. He is just in awe of the surroundings.
- He is just as content sitting inside Clifford/school bus/Bob the Builder as he would be if they were actually turned on.

I used a total of three tokens (I would have gotten more but they were provided to us by the church and I didn't want to take away from the older kiddos) in just little over and hour. He fell asleep on the way home and slept for almost three hours.

Special Delivery

What is so special about this package? Let me tell you, it contains these tickets..

Which in 7 1/2 weeks will grant me access inside this building

Where I can look out onto this field...

And watch this man do his magic.

Thank you Steve for the best anniversary present ever!!! Okay, so a trip to Disney World at our one year was pretty nice too.... this is a close second.

Not All Bad

I feel as if I should do a follow up to my earlier post, it wasn't all bad today.

Earlier in the morning I had laid out some gold fish for Cooper to snack on. I was laying on the living room and he kept walking back between the living room and kitchen just to feed me a goldfish. He did this about 4 or 5 times, until he ran out of food.

This evening he took the empty watering can and watered our bushes in the front yard... trying to be just like his Daddy.

Yes Gretchen, the cuteness always makes up for the bad moments.

Bring on the Tantrums

Since we all get on our blogs and write about fun things I thought I would write about a not so pleasant experience. If you have one you would like to share, please do so. For the past few weeks Cooper has been a little cranky on and off. He still needs to get all his canine teethe (the pointy ones) and I have heard from different sources they are the most painful. Today started off great and after lunch we went outside for some playtime before nap. We got out his lawn mower and he was pushing down the sidewalk. I told him that once we got to the next driveway we were going to turn around and go the other way. I realize he probably doesn't understand what half those words meant, but I can't talk baby talk forever. So we get to the driveway and he wants to keep going so I stop him and turn the mower around. He gets frustrated and turns it back the other way again. I kept telling him no, we are going back the other way and he keeps getting upset and starting this scream that he does. I tell him if he keeps acting that way then we are going inside. He still wont listen, so I pick him up screaming and kicking and carry him back inside the house. Of course there are people outside watching us as well. We get inside and he stands by the door and keeps on screaming, finally I pick him up where he pretty much is dead weight at this time, I get his diaper changed and put him down for nap. By the time this was all over his head was sweaty, his nose was running, he could barely catch his breath.... full on tantrum. If this is what it is like at 20 months, I can't imagine him at 2 or 3. I don't know where he is getting this defiance from, our parents can tell you that Steve and I were nothing like this. The only good part of this story is that I held my ground and didn't let him get away with it.
Any other good stories out there?

Night Night

This is pretty much how all evenings end in our household. I love it that Cooper likes books so much. He doesn't even play with toys much, just books and puzzles. It's funny though, he won't even let Steve read to him. Steve will try, Cooper will take the book and climb out of his lap into mine and hand me the book. It HAS to be Mommy. This one is funny because it's actually wildlife calendar. Steve has a patient at work that always gives him odd magazines and such, somehow this one ended up in the rotation of nightly book reading.

Waterfront Park

Last night we met the Reid's, Murphy's, McCarty's, and Ausmus's at Waterfront Park for a picnic and some playtime. It's always a good time to get together and watch the kids play and interact. It was such a beautiful evening as well, perfect weather this weekend. Oddly enough we did manage to grab a spot that had the rain cloud and managed to get a few drops of rain on us. We had a great time and it wore Cooper out, which is even better because he slept until 7:15 today. We left a little early to get home and get baths and I needed to finish making a Butterfinger cake for Steve to take to work, I can't decide if I want him to bring any home or not, probably not.
I shouldn't leave out Saturday night, it was fun too. Cooper and I hung out at the Bush's with Gretchen, Pierce, Hope, Jill, Reece, and Janie. It's pretty much the only place I can go and Cooper doesn't pay too much attention to me and just goes off and does his own thing. It's nice. Steve had the 7th of our 9 game season tickets to the Bats. He has really enjoyed them this summer, I think it was a great birthday present if I do say so. Enjoy the pictures.
Cooper & Steve playing before the rest of our party arrived.
Melanie, Matt (holding Addie), Eric, Tracey and Levi

Me, Cooper & Corbin.... Corbin was our friend because we had the full bag of Goldfish.

Look at this cute kid.

Tracey, talking to.....

Janna

Corbin playing Peek-a-Boo

Eric, Melanie, and Josh... wonder what they are talking about?

It was a fun times guys... we need to do this more often.