Rachel Ray says...

that if you can't go on a vacation to a different country than visit different ethnic restaurants in your area! So, that's what we did on Monday with my hubby being off for President's Day. We went to a Mediterranean restaurant and boy, was it yummy! We love mediterranean food but this was Cooper's first time other than pita and hummus which he loves and is always kept in the fridge!

"Oh, don't do that to him!"

We went to the grocery store on Monday and I bumped into the daughter of one of my patients that I hadn't seen in a long time. For those of you that don't know, I was a social worker before becoming a stay at home mom. It was funny because she turned around at my hubby and Cooper that were further down the aisle and said "is that your baby?" She said that you could tell he was mine. I liked that comment :)

What I didn't like was the following stuff. She asked if we were going to have anymore and I said that we were most likely done with adding onto our family. She then proceeds to tell me how unfair it is to not give him a brother or sister. Well, I could've gone into the whole story but really why should I have to? I can't have anymore kids but even if I could, why can't I just be satisified with the one that I have? I could've gone into the whole "I'm lucky to have this one" story but why should I have to? I could've gone into the "well, I wanted two but that wasn't in God's plan..." story but again why should I have to?

I'm tired of having to tell a really sad story to get people to leave me alone about kids. Enough, already! I truly believe that people mean well, but as a whole they're generally clueless.

A true (funny) story...

I was in bed all day yesterday with a migraine so I don't have any pics to share today! I haven't had a migraine in 2 years and was only awake for about 30 minutes yesterday when I could feel one coming on. I started having migraines when I was 16 and they stopped right around the time that I found out that I was pregnant with Cooper. I was wiped out and spent almost the entire day in the bed. My sweet hubby took Cooper to my goddaughter's 12th birthday party while I slept it off...anyways, this has nothing to do with my funny story!

We spent a lot of time last week out in the sun and sunblock is very important to me. So, I was putting sunblock on Cooper one day and noticed that the sunblock was kind of thick but figured that it was just getting old. I used this tube for about 2 days. I decided to use the other tube of sunblock in my diaper bag and was much more pleased with the consistency. LOL, but decided to take a closer look at the 2 tubes of sunblock and noticed that one of them was actually Ave.no diaper rash cream! His face shall we say is now as smooth as a baby's bottom! :)

Oy Vey! Sometimes, I wonder where my head is!

Now it just seems like I'm bragging...

But, another glorious day in Georgia yesterday! We met my sister and her three girls in a park in Athens for lunch and a stroll around their natural walk. This park is awesome because it's totally free! You don't have to pay $3 for parking and their little zoo is free, too! Our favorite part was seeing the bald eagles...

Cooper eating a chocolate chip cookie :)

There are these painted bulldogs all over Athens...

Cooper swinging and wanting the camera!

Mommy and Cooper

My favorite menfolk!

Just another day in the sunshine!

Cooper and I spent the afternoon at the zoo yesterday! Gosh, I have really enjoyed this weather! It feels like we've been cooped up in the house for weeks and weeks so it's really lovely to feel the sunshine on my skin! Obviously, the entire city of Atlanta feels the same way because this place was packed!

I put this picture on here just so you can see how fascinated Cooper is with this milk snake...

Homeboy was totally enthralled with this snake!

He's telling me about how cool Chelsea the tiger is...

I packed our lunch...

But, we shared this dessert :) No worries, I ate all the gummy bears!

And, I couldn't get him to look up to take a pic, no matter how hard I tried!

Dead leaves are obviously way more captivating!

Cooper, a gingerbread man and some pinestraw...

Is all I need to have a fun afternoon! We were blessed with yet another day of great weather yesterday and I'm looking forward to seeing green everywhere soon! Come on, Spring!

He looks really serious for a baby with a gingerbread man cookie!

The remains of the gingerbread cookie lay on these cute little lips!

We never leave home without a book or two :)

Chillin with a huge frog!

"What big feet you have!"

Spying on the ducks....

He's obviously inherited both mommy and daddy's need for clean :)

Coopie to english translation, please :)

Cooper talks a lot but I can't understand about 75% of what he's saying. There are things that he says perfectly, like Dahda, momma, wuv, wuv ewe (love you) , moo, and dog. He'll say the same *indecipherable to mommy* word several times in a row so it's a word to him! I'm still learning on how to translate because I'm sure what he's saying is very, very wise!

A trip to the park...

We've had some lovely weather the last few days so we've been getting some vitamin D the old fashioned way!

We went to a local playground that has a beautiful frontlawn with sidewalks and a little fountain. It's really adorable! And, we are so lucky to have a paved trail right in our backyard so we've been taking walks everyday. It was so fun to watch the squirrels jump from tree to tree as we walked yesterday! I told Coop that even the squirrels are happy for the beautiful weather!

I have an afternoon planned for us at the zoo on Friday since it's supposed to be 68 degrees! Yay! It's starting to feel as if Spring is right around the corner :)

Cooper by the little fountain

Cooper investigating the grass

Finally, he stopped his grass investigations to acknowledge me and the camara...

Cooper on the swinging bench...no worries, I was right in front of him so there was no way he would fall :)

Coopie Smoragasboard!

This post has no direction whatsoever but to share some cute pics of Cooper! No rhyme or reason :) I hope you enjoy them as much I do!

He got these elephant ears from the zoo...

Cooper is at that age where he LOVES to read and you can often catch him taking a book with him as he rolls/crawls around the house. It's very cute!

We were getting ready to make some Valentine cards and it's much easier to get the red paint off his skin versus his clothes!

This is how cool he is~ his hat says "dude" and his shirt says "I run this ship" which is about right ;)

Cooper with two of my most favorite human beings, my sister and her oldest daughter :)

Have an awesomely blessed day!

Valentine's presents :)

Cooper's Valentine presents!

The Eric Carle books and stuffed animals are part of Kohl's Cares project. The books and stuffed animals are only $5 each! The little bear's name is Cooper and he's from Hall.mark and he interacts with the Cooper books. I mean, how could I resist a bear named Cooper!?!

My sweet menfolk got me these charms for my Pandora bracelet. My hubby says that Cooper chose the green murano glass charm all by himself :) How did he know that green is mommy's favorite color?

This charm is for Lily. She's always a part of every day and Valentine's day is no exception :)


The cross. The symbol of the sacrifices that Jesus made on my behalf. I wear my cross on my neck everyday and I was so thrilled to add this one to my bracelet!

Oh, and I gave my hubby a new battery and charger for his power tools :) And, a honey do list! Just joking!

Our family is super blessed to have this love for each other and we don't need Valentine's day to show each other...but, it was a fun day, none-the-less ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from my sweetie to yours!

Just some out-takes!

This poor Happy heart kept being ripped off the wall!

Cooper trying to catch the flying balls!

I bought this Fis.her Pri.ce toy for Cooper during one of Kohl's midnight owl sales for $13.00! But, it's so cool that I probably would've paid full price for it! Really, Cooper is more interested in trying to catch the balls in the process of being shot it the air versus going after them while they roll across the living room floor. Obviously, that falls under my mommy duties! Anyways, he enjoys it and it's exercise for me!

He loves this toy so much that I have to put it where he can't reach it! I still can't find that gosh darn purple ball! Anyone want to come over for a search and rescue party? ;)

Learning our colors!

I actually stole this idea from this awesome blog. I love this blog because she really gives you ideas on how to teach things to toddlers. I really just want to focus on primary colors at this point but I do have some ideas for the crazier colors like pink, orange, silver. He is only 15 months old so I don't want to overload him with too much. Kro.ger is awesome about having their match.box cars for 10 for $10 for those of you interested in doing the same activity.

We've been rotating colors, shapes and animals on different days of the week to keep us both from being bored. We also read several books a day which I'm going to write a post soon on some of Cooper's favorite books. But, let me just show you one of the color activities that we've been working on!

This gives him the color name and an object to correlate to the color!

Cooper matching the car to the color

This would be Cooper's "I'm over this game" face


I'm not a total slave driver so I did let him play with the cars, too! :)

Cooper and Benny!

One of the blogs that I read on a regular basis did a post with her son and her hubby's childhood toy and I thought it would be a hoot to share Benny with the world! Benny is my hubby's childhood bear and the poor thing has been around the block once or twice. My sweet mother-in-law washed this bear everytime that he was puked on, sewed on countless eyes and whatever else Benny needed to stay alive for my hubby. The things that we do for our kids!

This is Benny with my childhood doll, Emma! My second neice's name actually came from this cabbage patch doll :)

Cooper doing an inspection on Benny~

The pair have met before actually! This is when Cooper was about 2 months old :)

Are you feeling froggy?

Cooper was wearing a frog t-shirt yesterday (we try to be a green as possible, minus using disposable diapers, but really I bought the shirt because it was $1.99 at The Child.ren's Place!) so I thought I would be clever and do a frog themed lunch!

As you can see, Cooper is excited for lunch!

Does his grilled cheese sandwich look like a frog? Let's pretend that the broccoli is a lily pad!

My sweet 6 year old neice gave me a set of cookie cutters for Christmas so we used the frog one to have a froggy lunch!