Birthday Dinner

We had my birthday dinner (it's not till Monday) at Steve's parents house tonight. It was a miracle because Steve managed to snap a good picture of me and Cooper. Notice the chocolate cake next to us? His mom asked me earlier today if I wanted chocolate or white icing on the choc cake, well her chocolate icing is awesome! So I couldn't resist the chocolate overload. I also taught Cooper how to sing the birthday song, Steve didn't get the record button pushed in time but this is what he did get. Sorry if you get tired of videos, I just learned how to post them and I can't help myself.

Yes, I am Jami Leigh Lee

So my dear friend Rachel asked me if I really was Jami Leigh Lee... and the answer is yes! My given name is Jami Leigh Upton. It was a running joke when I met Steve that I couldn't marry him because my name would be Jami Leigh Lee. Well, 6 years later guess what happened, we got married. I know some, if not most, people would kept their maiden name as a middle name but to be polite, I'm just not attached and have no sentimental value to my maiden name. Especially after some recent circumstances. I apologize to any family members who read this, but I am sure you understand as well. I thought I could get by with Jami L Lee, which is pretty much what everything says with the exception of my social security card. So legally I am Jami Leigh Lee. It makes for interesting conversations on the first day of a new job when you go to show your card.

Thank You's

Somehow in this world we call blogging an idea came about that those of us that read one anothers blogs should make a post on the same day about the same topic. You can blame Jaime Mac and Alicia on that one. I also know that Gretchen and Tracey should be doing the same, so you can read theirs as well. Today's topic: Thank You Notes!

I'm going to preface this blog post by saying I know I am totally guilty on occasions of not sending a thank you note when they deem appropriate, so if you happen to be the recipient of a non thank you note, I'm sorry!

I agree with Jaime that there are three major occasions where a thank you note should be mandatory; bridal showers, weddings, and baby showers. I can remember stressing out after opening wedding gifts that we had one without a card and I was embarrassed because someone wouldn't be receiving a thank you card from us. I also believe in proper thank you card etiquette. For one they should be done in a timely manner; for showers one to two weeks and although I have heard you get up to a year on wedding gifts, in my opinion this should take no longer than a few months. I also read on Jaime's blog where one reader was a maid of honor and it was her job to help the bride write her thank you card and was responsible for getting them out on time. I totally disagree!!! The gift was for the bride & groom, they are the ones responsible. I also believe they should be handwritten, but that's just me.

Here is where it gets tricky, after the baby is born. This is where I do cut some slack. Things can get overwhelming and sometimes it is easy to forget who brought what and when and let's face it, you are just plain dog tired to remember. After having Cooper I am careful to only bring a gift to the hospital if I know I'm not going to see this person for a while. It's too easy to forget as the mom.

Other times I believe a thank you card is important are high school/college graduation gifts and interviews. I was taught never to do an interview and not send a thank you note.

Kid's birthdays are another that is up in the air for me. I'm a stay at home mom so after Cooper's party I had plenty of time do this. I don't get offended if I don't receive one, sometimes we just don't have time. We also had a small immediate family only party, so it was pretty easy to remember and get them out.

Finally... when someone does something nice and unexpected for you, a simply thank you is good enough for me. But it is extra special to get a thank you note, it's nice to know you made a difference in that person's day.

All this being said- I don't get offended at all if I don't receive one. I think it's the proper thing to do and it's what I was taught, but more often than not if I receive one I read and it gets thrown away. Our world has almost become too politically correct and it's a little odd writing a thank you note to your third cousin, I mean what do you say? Thank you for the kitchen towels and for coming to the wedding. Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk, but then again maybe we did, we haven't seen one another since we were three so I can't really remember what you look like.

Anyway, it is the proper thing to do do and it is a little disrespectful if you don't even attempt one, but I probably won't miss it if I don't receive one either.

Cooper's Singing Debut

Cooper was a singing sensation tonight. We captured the abc song, Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and Jesus Loves Me.

Crafts

This was Cooper's craft from church today.
Apparently it was supposed to be decorated with fruit loops, graham crackers, and pretzels. Well, those never made it to the paper, they made it to his belly, but not the paper. The ladies from his classroom apologized for him eating such a big snack. Amazingly he still ate his lunch as well.

Friday Night

Since we were unsure of what Saturday would bring, we took advantage of the dry weather Friday night and finished up the landscaping. Really Steve finished it up while I supervised plus someone needed to take care of the two year old. I had taken Cooper inside for a second and we came back and had a surprise visitor, the famous Uncle Scott was here. He took care of wearing him out for the next half hour or so. They like to get in Scott's car and pretend they are driving. Anytime we see a black SUV he points out Uncle Scott's car to me.

I'm gonna pray the next 14 years go by very slowly, I'm not quite ready for this sight.

Tent Fun

Steve broke out the tent this morning. We use it for about 2 weeks before I get tired of it in my way and I put it back up. Each time it comes out Cooper loves it. Check out the Batman shirt and Mickey socks he is rocking!

To think he would never talk

There was a time about 6 months ago that we were afraid Cooper would never talk, you know like try to carry on conversations. Well, those times are over. Tonight we went to a surprise birthday party for a cousin of Steve's. It was held at a church in New Albany, close to the hospital. You have to know something about my husband, he sometimes like to take the round about way of getting to places. We were coming from State St in New Albany and since we live about 3 miles from the Charlestown exit off of 265, the logical way to come home would be the interstate. Nope, not my husband. He decided to go the back way through New Albany to Clarksville, take 31 back into Jeff, around our church and the back roads to our house. I promise it took like 30 minutes. This is also the way we came home from the hospital when we had Cooper, it caused us to go over a thousand railroad tracks and my stomach had just been cut open. Okay, back to the story, of course we all know it was like a monsoon outside and it was a little hard to see and Steve was trying to concentrate, well our son decided to jabber it up the entire way home. I can't even begin to tell you what all he talked about. He wanted us to tell stories, which had us almost screaming so he could hear us over the rain. Poor Steve, I think he needed a Valium by the time we got home.

Books

Cooper LOVES for us to read to him. Now we only read before nap and before bedtime but there was a time when he would want us to read all day long.

Tonight, Cooper read to me! He read me Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?

Okay, so he does have this memorized, but it was way too cute!

Cravings

I'm going to take a moment and talk about cravings. I never had any true cravings with Cooper, this time I am experience a big one. Sour Gummy Worms. I can't get enough. The bad thing is I can't find the perfect one. I've tried Kroger & Meijer's bulk candy and don't even get me started on the Market Pantry brand at Target. Kroger's taste the best as far as sourness but aren't exactly fresh. Meijer's are fresh but not sour. I think I'm going to have to break down and try out Schimpf's. If you guys know of a good kind let me know. I realize there are totally unhealthy, but I'm pregnant I have an excuse.

Zoo Trip

Gretchen & I finally made our trip to the zoo today with the kids. I say finally because we have been talking about this for about a month. We didn't want to go on either spring break week, all three kids had their week with strep, throw a bad weather week in there and that brings us to today. I can't complain at all, today was prefect. The weather was awesome, low crowds, and for the first time since we have had Cooper we got to walk the whole zoo. Usually it is too crowded or we are with a big group of people that we barely make it through half the zoo before it's time to leave. The best part of the day was by far lunch time. We ate on one of the picnic tables and the geese were trying to get our food. Pierce & Hope flipped out and both climbed into Gretchen's lap. I took a picture but with her camera so hopefully she will blog about it. Cooper dropped a cracker and one was right under his feet eating it and he was oblivious to that fact. Another highlight was when Cooper touched a snake. I'm not for sure he knew what he was doing, it's too bad I didn't get a picture in time.

The giraffe weren't outside yet so we got a good close-up view of them eating indoors. I'm pretty sure this is the new baby giraffe. When I went on a field trip here back in middle school there was a baby giraffe born on my birthday, wonder if he/she is still here???

He was beginning to fall off so I didn't get a good picture of Cooper on the elephant.This thing was freaking us out. It just kept staring. There was only one other lady with her two kids inside the gorilla exhibit, usually this place is so crowded we never get a chance to get up close.

Pierce wanted to do the dinosaur exhibit. Luckily Cooper is still free so I only had to pay $4. Hope missed being free by like 5 days. It was neat. The T-Rex was HUGE! For some reason I thought this was inside and was afraid Cooper would get scared, but he didn't' seem to mind them. He didn't want to get too close but he still did okay.

We got to see the elephant demonstration as we were headed out. Pretty neat stuff! I didn't think the big elephant was going to make his way up off the ground.

A Day to Work Outside

We had plans today to do some work out in the landscaping, we need to re-mulch and plant some flowers. However, with the weather dipping down into possibly the low 40's or 30's the next couple of days we decided to put it off a week. Steve had to run to Lowe's today anyway and he went ahead and picked up some bushes since they were on sale. Of course Cooper had to get in on the action of helping him with the dirt.

We got two new Azalea bushes and moved our other one. It may be dead but we are giving it another shot. Maybe next week we can complete the rest of the project.

The day wasn't totally wasted, Steve is working our mailbox right now. Most of our neighbors have gotten new mailboxes, painted their posts and gotten new numbers so we though why not. One of our numbers was getting dull anyway so you could only see 3 of the 4 from a distance. He is out working on that right now. I love marking things off the to-do list especially when there isn't much I have to do.

Name

I think we have decided on a name for our new baby boy but I'm going to wait for the reveal once we have my 20 week ultrasound on May 5th. I want to make sure it is still a boy :)

However, we did tell Cooper the name, thought it might be best to not be called gooey gooey any longer. It's no secret that the middle name will be Scott, after Steve's brother. So after we tell him, Cooper leans over to my belly and says- Hi "baby's name" Uncle Scott!

New Game

Steve and Cooper have a new game. I was out picking up Cooper's medicine earlier this week, found out he has strep, and Steve called to tell me about this game and I was going to be so jealous. So I get home and this is what they are doing. They are both laying on the floor, a few feet from each other, and Steve is just telling him stories. He said they did that almost the entire time I was one. Really? So your game is to lay on the floor? Cooper, Mommy will play this game with you anytime!

On a side note, Steve has been telling stories before bed for a couple of weeks now. They are too cute! Some are made up and some are real. He likes hearing Daddy's arm story, how Steve broke his arm in first grade. Cooper will even show you where he broke it and how Mamaw picked him up and took him to the doctor. I love it! I love watching the interaction between the two of them, as he gets older you can start to see more of a Daddy's boy come out in him.

Christmas in April

Last week we experienced what I like to call Christmas in April. We had about $80 in gift cards to Target left over from Christmas, most of it was for Cooper to begin with, so that gave us the perfect opportunity to get him his first tricycle. He hasn't quite warmed up to it yet so I haven't been able to get any pictures, but it's the standard Radio Flyer and we also got the cutest little Toy Story helmet. We had about $10 left so we also decided on this bat and tee-ball set. It's so funny watching him try to hit the ball. It's difficult teaching him out to hit it as well since he is predominately left handed and Steve & I are both right. Steve was amazed I showed Cooper to stand on the correct side of the tee. I'm not that athletically challenged! Check out the pants he is wearing, this was after church and we hadn't changed his pants yet, it was getting hot outside so we just rolled them up.

After we bought the tricycle my mom called to let me know that our cousin was having a yard sale and his girlfriend was selling a train table with all the accessories. I went over to their house to check it out, I got all of this for $40. I didn't even get a good picture of everything that came with the table. The best part of the table is both sides have drawers for storage. We haven't had a chance to play with it too much, we were gone most of the day Mon & Tues and when we were home we were playing outside. But so far so good. It took some rearranging in the bedroom to get it all to fit, but I think I have everything where I like it. I'm a bit OCD like that.

Oh My!

Tonight after dinner we headed out to Chillers for an ice cream treat. Usually when we get ice cream Cooper will just share between the two of us. I decided that tonight he could have his own. Since he doesn't know who Superman is we told him it was Spider-Man ice cream. He had minor meltdown on the way there because he he couldn't wait for the ice cream, we almost had to come back home but he calmed down and I think it was worth the wait. I couldn't decide which pictures to post so I posted them all.

Just Because

It's my blog and I can! I love taking pictures of Cooper while sleeping but it's getting harder to do. So, last week when it was 4:15 and he was still napping and I went into his room to wake him up and he didn't budge, I knew I had the perfect opportunity. I just love it!

16 Week Check Up

I had my 16 week check up today and it turned our very eventful! It was supposed to be a routine "check for the heartbeat, any questions" type of visit. My doctor was out of town so I seen one nurse practitioners. I was actually in the room with her before my scheduled visit time so that was awesome. She got out the doppler, I laid down, and of course she can't get the heartbeat. Normally this would have freaked me out, I mean I'm 16 weeks and I heard it last time we should be able to hear it again. For some reason I was pretty calm. She tried for almost a good 5 minutes but with no luck. It could be because my uterus is tilted making the baby in a difficult position to hear the heartbeat or because the baby is just so small still and moving a lot. She told me they will go ahead and try and fit me in to do an ultrasound to double check everything. I was able to get in immediately thank goodness, I tried to call Steve to update him but he didn't answer, of course I am by myself on a visit like this. Anyway, they got me back quickly and as soon as she turned on the machine we could see the heart beating, HUGE RELIEF! It was 148 bpm, everything looked great. She apologized because her printer was down and couldn't give me any pictures but she did show me a good profile view. Then she asked the big question.... are you going to find out the gender? I am a very impatient person, if I have a chance to know something, especially something as big as this, I want to know. So I asked if it was too early to tell and she said she would go ahead and take a look. I did say if she can see to write it down and put it in an envelope so Steve & I could look at it together. She was able to see and she did write it down, told me it was about 98% accurate and I will get the confirmation and all the measurement at my 20 week appt.

So, this was all around 10:00, I have at least 6 more hours of keeping this in my purse. Since I wasn't able to get ahold of Steve I called Gretchen and told her the story, she said I was better than her b/c she would have so looked. I was almost to Steve's parents house to pick up Cooper when he called back. I told him the story, at first he thought I wasn't going to be able to get another ultrasound, but I said no, that is still scheduled. We both pretty much at this point had the same feeling on what the paper said, so he told me to go ahead and look. The paper read:

It's a boy! Congratulations!

We both figured that if they could see something then it probably was in a fact a boy. I totally feel like I'm cheating the system by finding out this early. I have another 4 weeks before I was supposed to find out. But now we know and you know as well. I'm excited, at first I said I wanted another boy then I started talking myself into thinking it might be a girl, either way it didn't matter to me at all. As long as the baby is healthy. Steve joked that we have to try for three, but I think we are done. I wont have another baby just to have a girl, I will have another baby to have a BABY! Cooper is getting a little brother, now we just need to decide on a name.

Random

No true reason for this post besides to show Cooper showing off his new Easter present, the Mickey Mouse outfit that Mamaw & Papaw bought for him.

It's been so nice these past few days. We ate our lunch outside yesterday & today. For some reason he eats more outside, it's not that big of a fight for him to eat his food. Although for some reason I still have to sweep my kitchen floor just as much. I've also had to turn on the air the past two days while Cooper has napped. I've been keeping the windows open but it's been so warm that I didn't want him to get too hot while sleeping. I also love getting him in and out of the car seat w/o a jacket or warm coat on. That was such a hassle. I just love this weather!

Guess who....

has been sleeping in his toddler bed? So far it's been three nights and he is working on his third day of naps in the big bed. It's been GREAT!!!!

Steve went out Saturday morning and got the tint for the window and put it up so I thought, why not try tonight? We kept telling him he was going to sleep in his new night night and when it came time for bed it fell right to sleep. We ending up having to turn he bed around the next day if you can't already tell? He flipped himself to the other side so he would be sleeping the same way he did in his crib, so we turned the bed around so his head would be up by the rails. Sunday's nap was a little more difficult, but it also could have been because he was so wound up from Easter. It would have went better if Steve wouldn't have went in there the moment he started crying. He's a sucker for that. Once we did let him, it only lasted about 2 minutes. Yesterday and today he didn't cry at all.

On one hand I'm so excited and proud of him, on the other it makes me sad. He's out of his crib, he really isn't a baby anymore.

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! I feel so blessed to have my family and my church. The day couldn't have been better. We started off with church. I left right after Cooper woke up so I could work the nursery, I was a little sad I missed getting him ready, but it's not about me. It was the cutest thing when he first saw me at church, he gave me the biggest smile and showed off his tie. It was the first time he ever wore on and he was so proud, he got to be just like his daddy.
After church we headed to Steve's parents for lunch. But first up was Easter baskets. Cooper racked up, he got candy, flashcards, stickers, a coloring book and a new outfit that you can see in the background.
Check out my little man all dressed up! These are Disney flash cards, one is numbers and counting and the other is shapes and colors. He loves things like this so I am sure we will have fun.

No holiday is complete with some stickers.

After getting in his basket he helped me with mine. More candy of course! I have so much chocolate in my house right now. Steve's parents got us both a World's Finest Chocolate Bar. Oh my, those are delicious! Reminds me of middle school fundraisers. I got a dark chocolate w/almonds, I justify eating it by telling myself that dark chocolate and almonds are both good for you.

This is a horrible picture of me, but adorable of Cooper.

I think he was ready to go egg hunting here.

Next up he helped Steve with his Easter basket. Inside was a gift for the both of us, a gift certificate to Papa Murphy's, looks like we will have another pineapple pizza night.
After lunch and some yummy strawberry cake we had an egg hunt in their back yard. Of course Cooper had to open each egg as he found one, but this time he would just show us and smile, he didn't even try to eat the candy. He also got some change to put in his new piggy bank that Scott got for him and matches his new room.

Finally I had to get a picture after dinner of Cooper eating a Peep. I just don't get him to smile for the camera often and it was too cute.

We ended the evening by going up to my mom's house. Cooper got a little more candy and a Spider-man car.

We had a wonderful Blessed Day!

Easter Basket

We decided to give Cooper his Easter basket on Saturday. I had to work what I thought was the 8:30 service in the nursery on Sunday, turns out it was really the 9:45 but I still needed to attend worship service so ended up working out. This all means I had to leave the house at the same time Cooper was waking up. Instead of waiting until Sunday evening we decided to go ahead and get it ready for Saturday night. He didn't get much, I knew he would be spoiled the next day. We got him a book, a Thomas coloring book with over 700 stickers, new Crayola Wonder sheets (they have Blue's Clues on them) and a chocolate bunny.

Here he is getting a sneak peek. Next up were the stickers. He love stickers!

I didn't get great pictures because I was too busy watching his reaction.

This was where the bunny ended up. I was shocked that he didn't tear into it.

I have a funny story about the book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". Most parents probably know of this book but I hadn't until about a month ago. We were in the car one day and all of a sudden Cooper asks for Chicka Boom Boom Boom. I had no clue what he was talking about. So I checked the list of songs on the CD we listen to just to see if anything can be translated into that. Couldn't find anything. Then the next day he asked again but this time made a comment like he may have heard it from church. So I emailed a girl that works in his classroom and sure enough they have the book. She doesn't work the service we attended so she wasn't sure if they had been reading it or not. Turns out, yes the have been reading it. I was so amazed. I knew I had to get it. Our book also came with a CD that we have been listening to in the car. If you haven't read this book, it is adorable and very catchy. It will stick in your head.

Finished Eggs

Just a few pictures of our finished eggs. The second picture is a Papaw egg.

New George/Old George

Cooper still calls Curious George "Key". I don't really know why, I think it's way back before he could talk and key was the closest thing to monkey? Anyway, we have one Curious George video and this week at the bookmobile we checked out a different one. The whole walk home he kept talking about New Key. So this is the conversation we had yesterday before I made dinner.

C- Watch new key please

J- Not yet Cooper, you need to a wait until it's time to make dinner

C- Watch new key please

J- We can't watch it yet, what else would you like to do?

C- Watch old key please

In his defense he did come up with something different.

Eggs, Strawberries, and Popsicles

After dinner tonight we colored some Easter Eggs. Would you believe me if I said this was the first time I ever did this? Luckily we had some vinegar cause I didn't realize you needed any. I must have led a very sheltered life. So this was a learning experience for me as much as it was for Cooper. He liked putting the tablets into the cups. We only had one mishap were he tried to put the tablet in his mouth. They really need to make those things look not so much like candy.

We then moved outside for the coloring. It was just too nice of a night to pass up. We also only managed one broke egg, it was already cracked, by Cooper throwing them into the cups.

While the color was setting I brought out some strawberry shortcake for dessert. For some reason Cooper wasn't interestedhe would rather feed Steve.

We then needed to make a quick trip back inside for a band aid. He fell in the driveway and skinned his knee, so Daddy had to fix the boo boo.

Once we made it back outside the eggs were dried so Cooper used some stickers. It didn't last long before he wanted his sticker book instead.

Since he didn't eat much of his strawberry shortcake he also got a popsicle tonight. I'll be the first to admit that I don't bathe my kid every night, especially during the winter. He has sensitive skin and if he doesn't get too dirty, then really isn't a need for it, we just do it every other night. Well tonight was like the 4th night in a row he has needed a bath. I was thinking of waiting until tomorrow night, I have a thing that he has to have one the night before a church, it's OCD, anyway the popsicle put it over the limit and I had to give in to the bath again tonight.

There really isn't a reason for this last picture besides the fact Steve was trying out different settings.

I just realized I never took a picture of the final product. If I remember tomorrow I will do that. Also I want to apologize for the picture quality. I thought there was a smudge on the viewing screen, it wasn't until after I uploaded them did I realize there was a finger print on the lens. Sorry about that!