The road less taken...

 

 

Cooper started the special needs preschool last month and he LOVES it!  I have to make him say "bye" to me in the lobby because he runs into the room as soon as we see his classroom.   He only goes until noon and his school is less than a quarter mile from our house so we just walk home from school if the weather is nice.   These pics are from a recent afternoon when it was like 67 degrees outside! 

 

 

 

Sunday Funday!

Coop and I recently had a free Sunday morning so we headed over to the zoo.  I don't know where everyone was because it was a really nice day and it seemed that we had the zoo all to ourselves!  We go to the zoo a lot but tend to stay away on the weekends to avoid crowds so I was surprised to have such a pleasant morning with the animals and my favorite wild man! 

 

The awesome thing about this zoo trip was that it was our first stroller free zoo trip.  Normally, he gets tired (kids with Hypotonia fatigue easily) and wants to ride but I thought I'd see how he'd do without it and he did awesome! 

 





 

I look overly excited to be riding the train and he looks barely impressed, lol..

 



Physical therapy graduation!

I should be ashamed of how far behind I am in posting on Cooper's life!  Your blog readers will be slammed with all my catch up posts in the next few days! 

 

 

One HUGE thing happened to Cooper last month and that was that he GRADUATED from physical therapy!!!  He's been going to PT once or twice a week since he was 6 months old!  He could only hold his head up for seconds at a time during tummy time when he started PT but now he's walking, running, climbing stairs, dancing and is full of energy! 

 

 

Cooper saying "bye" to Dr. Turtle :)

 

O' Christmas tree!

I love pinterest and spend way too much time during nap coming up with recipes, gift ideas, household remedies but my favorite thing to do on pinterest is come up with activities for Cooper!  I pinned this felt Christmas tree in March so I was super excited to finally make it for him! 

 

 

Our felt tree is not nearly as fancy as other trees that I've seen on other blogs but it serves it's purpose, lol...

 

 

 

He loves it!

 

 

Christmas fun!

A few weeks ago, we went to a Christmas festival that included cookie decorating, gingerbread house making, a candy cane hunt and a very brutal game of Christmas music musical chairs.  We participated in all the activities except the musical chairs because I love my child and didn't want him to get a broken arm from the children who were taking the game way to seriously, lol...The candy cane hunt was really cute and he caught on quick!  Come to find out, he hates candy candes (at least, the peppermint ones) so I've really enjoyed eating them! 

 

Coop decorating his cookie which was IMMEDIATELY eaten!

 

He was eating his gingerbread house while he was making it!  He always acts like I don't feed him, lol..

And, the house was demolished about 10 minutes later...



Thanksgiving Instagram Style...

Cooper is a huge fan of Thanksgiving!  He couldn't eat fast enough!  I am LOVING this age because he's now getting into the festivities and not just in the sidelines.  He did crafts with his cousins and even skipped naptime to hang out with the family...

If you're a friend of mine on facebook then you know that I adore Cooper and I'm thankful for him everyday.  I think back to Thanksgiving 2008 and we were deep in the grieving stage after Lily.  The next Thanksgiving was our favorite Thanksgiving because Cooper was born and our true healing had started...

So thankful...

Cooper's 3 year pics

 

Here are my favorites :)

 

 

Coop's first day!

Cooper's first day in the special needs preschool was yesterday!  He had a wonderful day and even pee'd on the potty for the first time!  We haven't started potty training in our home because it's normal for kids with hypotonia to not potty train until they're 4 or 5 because they just don't have the same sensation as kids with normal tone.  Add in a huge language barrier called Apraxia and potty training just hasn't reached my radar in importance but now that he's shown an interest (nothing like peer pressure to get things moving!) we'll start working on things at home, too. 

He's going to go to school on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for 4 hours a day.  I take him to school around 7:30 which means that I have to wake him up around 6:45 to get ready and let me tell you that I haven't set an alarm clock in 3 years and I forgot how much I hate that damn thing, lol.  I also learned that I hate a carpool lane so I'm going to be walking/strolling him to school unless it's snowing or raining! 

Cooper's first day of school pic!  He was so excited and didn't even cry when I dropped him off!  He gave me two sweet kisses and ran off to play!

 



Coop becomes a daddy (lol)

 

We went to the Cabbage Patch Hospital on Saturday and seriously it was adorable!  I went as a kid but it's definitely much more fun as a mom!  I loved watching him run all over the place and looking at every baby!  It took us an hour to pick out our babies and ended up adopting two...

 

 

If you read my babyloss blog then you know that I'm a big believer in signs.  Well, while we were there Mother Cabbage went into labor (hahaha!) and a baby girl was delivered.  This baby had already been adopted so the little girl was in the audience.  The LPN (licensed PATCH nurse) asked the little girl what she wanted to name her and she said "Lily".  I mean, what are the odds...anyways, I felt like she was with us as we were celebrating her brother's birthday!

 

 

 

Whew, becoming a dad is hard work!



Cooper's 3rd birthday!

I decided to keep Cooper's 3rd birthday a more intimate affair because I'd thrown him that massive Mickey Mouse party in July.  Plus, he's only 3 so a lot of the pomp and circumstance isn't really necessary and he's more into parties for the cupcakes, lol...

Yesterday, my hubby took the day off from work and we took Coop to Chuck E Cheese to play.  He loves this place!!  We buy like $10 in token for the 3 of us to share and he has a ball!  Then we took him to our favorite restaurant which is this Greek restaurant and he devoured some hummus and greek potatoes like no ones business! 

We invited his 5 buddies that he sees all the time over for an evening pizza playdate and needless to say he was exhausted and fell asleep in like 5 minutes last night!  His birthday celebration isn't over yet because tomorrow we're taking him the Cabbage Patch Hospital and letting him adopt a boy doll!  The boy part was my hubby's only request, lol...Cooper loves dolls and the social worker in me just cannot teach him that dolls are "supposed" to be for girls.  He feeds and burps dolls, rocks them, kisses them and he's just an overall very nurturing little boy. 

His birthday ended with the most awesome thing though which is that the card that I made him for Sprout actually made it on tv!!!  I quickly hit record on the vcr so I've included the link.  Excuse our crappy tv ;)

 Katy Perry's Firework is our Super Cooper theme song and I play it for him sometimes on the way to therapy so please go to my actual birthday post from yesterday :)

More than anything, I can't believe that my tiny 31 weeker is 3 years old!  He's such a sweet, smart, funny, spunky and wonderful, wonderful, blessing to us each and every day.  We just couldn't love him more than we already do...

Cooper's 3rd birthday video at OneTrueMedia.com

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Memories

 

We've taken Cooper to the same pumpkin patch for the last three Octobers but this was the first time that he was able to walk into the pumpkin patch!  I love watching him investigate the pumpkins and to watch him just run around in the field.  He's really just a fun kid (he has his moments albeit...) and I just love making memories with him!

 

 

 

Walking to the pumpkin patch :)

 



It's Fall!!!

A long time ago, I worked as a social worker at a long-term care facility and they do an annual fall festival that is free to the community.  Oh, I love the word "free" especially when it's referring to free food, free games, free pony rides, etc!  It's always nice to see the old crew again and to show off my goodlooking boy!  

 

LOL, he looks so amused!

 

Homeboy loved the hula-hoops!  I sucked at the demonstration but it was hilarious to watch his skills!  He get in and just walk in circles!  Oh, he makes me laugh!

 





Pirates and Princesses

 

One of Cooper's closest buddies had his third birthday and this real cool place last month.  It's like this farm house but it's not farm from the city and they specialized in themed birthday parties.  We went to one called Pirates and Princesses and it was really cute.  There were costumes that they could change into, a bunny and some chickens that the kids could hold, and a game where they just threw candy onto the ground and the kids went nuts.  Yeah, Coop had a great time!

 

 

Cooper liked a lot of the princess toys but I'm raising him to not fall into gender stereotypes :D

 

Daddy and Cooper painting a car...

 



My friend's mom made this cupcakes!  Amazing!

 



Coop was a fan ;)



Choo Choo!

 

Cooper is definitely all boy and loves trains, cars and airplanes but he especially loves trains!  A small group of mommy friends and I took the kiddos to a Civil War and Locomotive museum in Kennesaw and it was awesome!  This museum is a Smithsonian museum and was very educational plus it had an awesome indoor kid play area!  This museum was worth the drive and it's only $6.50! 

 

 



 

Caboose (eh, I can't get it to flip) but it's open so the kids went in one end ran through and came out the other end...like a hundred times!



 

I wish we had room for a traintable at home...



Train simulator