Camping!

We decided to go camping now that the weather is cooling down but before it gets too cold at night.  My hubby is a finicky camper, haha!  We had a great time!  Cooper played hard all day long and was filthy so the weekend was a success!

October 3rd 

(carrying on with my countdown of Coop's last month as a 4 year old)

He's watching daddy put up the tent...

He's excited to be camping!

He decided to help with the tent ;) 

Who needs toys when there's rocks around...

 

We're out exploring...

 

October 4th 

It was chilly outside so we stayed bundled up while daddy built a fire...

 

Breakfast by the fire...

 

Cooper loves his new baby cousin, Charlie

 

Coop holding Charlie for the first time!

Cooper and Clayre...cousins are your first friends!

I brought a scavenger hunt for all the kiddos...

 

 

It's the classic tale of a boy and his pumpkin...what? Ok, well, he loves his pumpkin, haha!

We walked into Kroger to discover this heaping pile of pumpkins and Cooper chose this pumpkin with a lot of thought. I didn't have the heart or really a reason to tell him no so we got the pumpkin.  3 days later and he's still carrying the thing around the house with  him...

31 Days of Cooper!

Yesterday marked exactly one month until Cooper's 5th birthday!!  I cannot believe this kid will be 5, seriously.  He's such an absolute joy every single day and is the best part of every day.. 

So, I'm making an effort to snap as many pics this month, his last month, as a 4 year old...

October 1st 

October 2nd

I mourned our afternoons at the pool and have replaced the pool with walks on the trail.  We never get very far due to the fact that my walking buddy is much more into discovering leaves, pinecones and mud.  What's that quote about it's not about the destination but the journey? Yeah, our walks are like that...but, that's fine by me!

He's been asking for his very own basket so we got this one for him at a yard sale over the weekend. It now comes with us on our walks and it comes home full of rocks, pine straw, pine cones and what ever else he finds a long the way...

He needed a break!

Just some cuteness from our recent duck pond visit!

Coop's translator

Cooper and I have an unique way of communicating with each other.  I'm with him the most thankfully due to the fact that I'm a stay at home mom.  Cooper has only 10 words (he's functionally non-verbal) that he's able to say consistently so most of our communication is done through signing, gestures/expressions, and his AAC program on his Ipad.  He's come a long way but we have a long way to go (in terms of being a verbal communicator) BUT I'm beyond grateful that we're able to communicate in any form!

This is his "why?' expression or aka as his "curious Coop" expression :)

He has a very specific arm flap that means he wants me to say "fe fi fo fum"...because he's pretending to be a giant!  

First day of Autumn!

We celebrated the first day of Autumn with a walk on the trail in our backyard.  The leaves are slowly changing colors and are falling from the trees. Most importantly, our weather has drastically changed in the way of less humidity. Praise Jesus and that's all that I'll say about that...

He's trying to fix two random sticks by putting them back together. He really worked hard on this project! 

 

He was watching the trees sway in the wind and the leaves falling to the ground...

 

He needed a break, haha!