Cooper Turns Two

Cooper's birthday is actually the 26th but he's two and doesn't know the date so we made Saturday his birthday instead. All week I talked to Cooper about how this weekend was going to be his birthday and he was going to have a birthday party with balloons and cake and his friends were going to come over to his house and he was just wildly excited all week long. Since we aren't around any family this year I thought I'd invite a couple of his toddler friends over for a small, short party so he didn't have to spend his birthday staring at his mom and dad like he does every day. The theme this year was balls as balls have replaced Hello Kitty as his new favorite thing.

This was Cooper's party invitation he sent to his little friends.

We turned our dining room into a party room and we kept the doors closed until his friends came and when I finally opened the doors Cooper screamed and bolted inside to play. It was sooooo sweet and made me so happy.

The chalkboard is kind of hard to read in the picture. It lists all the things Cooper loves: balls, trucks, stop signs, rocks, oreos, his kangaroo, bubbles, Super Why, Michael Buble, dirt, trains, blueberries, puppies, pretzels, running, babies, Daniel Tiger, water, hiding things, milk, letters, mom and dad, his friends, and circles.

We also played a balloon/parachute game that I didn't get photos of and Cooper was just in heaven. He wanted to keep playing that all day long.

Gene brought Cooper an awesome ball!

This is the story of my life. Everyone sits except Cooper. Even when there's chocolate cake involved.

I didn't get pictures of him blowing out his candle and singing happy birthday because I was chasing him around the house with his cake. As soon as he realized everyone was singing to him he ran for it.

Cooper didn't care for his cake or his ice cream. Because he's weird. He's refused two birthday ice cream treats today.

But he sure loves balloons.

Cooper handed out party favors of bouncy balls and candy with this little note.

Then we opened presents when his party was over. Josh and I got him a bunch of car stuff as he's starting to get really into cars and trains.

He was very excited about his car rug.

He immediately started lining up his new matchbox cars.

His cool new car from Nana and Papa was very exciting.

He started driving it right away.

And he got a million trains from Aunt Becky which he loooved.

He lined those up too.

                                      

Then we set up his car ramp we got him and he played with that for hours. Notice the screwdriver and scissors right there? Nice one Mom and Dad.

He also got some new clothes and some more presents from other relatives that we're waiting to skype with before he opens them, and some presents from his party guests I didn't get a picture of. Spoiled little guy.

After naptime we decided to take Cooper somewhere to dinner that would sing to him and give him a little treat.

He was very excited about the singing but not so much about the ice cream. He drank his milk instead and Josh and I ended up eating his ice cream sundae.

Then we went to the mall and let him ride the train which I think is officially his favorite thing in the world to do. If you ever want a really good laugh, ride the train with Cooper at the mall. Passersby just bust up laughing at how excited this kid is to be riding the train.

And that was the end of Cooper's big birthday bash. It was quite the day for a two year old! 

I love my little bubby so much words cannot express. He makes me laugh every day and I just love getting to know more and more of his little personality. I can't wait for many more birthdays to come! I love spoiling someone who gets so excited! Love you Coop!

Portland Take Two

We went to Portland this weekend, almost exactly one year after our last Portland trip. A year in young child time is a long time, instead of screaming for 30 minutes about sleeping in a hotel room, this year Cooper went right to sleep! Probably next year he'll even make us dinner before he goes to sleep.

We went to meet Josh's sister's family on their way to the Oregon coast. When we were almost there I turned to Cooper in the car and told him we were almost there and we were going to play with our cousins and he got the biggest smile on his face. He is always so excited to see his cousins, it's so sweet. But first things first, we had to stop at Ikea! Oh man do I love Ikea. We bought the most adorable orange folding chairs for extra seating. A car rug for part of Cooper's upcoming birthday present. And shelf and two wood picture frames for our upcoming woodland nursery. Ah Ikea...

I love my new orange chairs.

Then we met our cousins at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry which was a really cool museum. It's an awesome place for kids, so much to do. They had a live dinosaur exhibit which was sooo cool! These huge dinosaurs were moving and roaring and looked so lifelike. Cooper clung to me for dear life and buried his head in my neck. He was terrified. But the children play area more than made up for it. Cooper played in the water for hours. Balls + water = one happy Cooper.

Digging for dinosaur bones. Or rubbing fistfuls of sand into your hair as Cooper interpreted it.

Sometimes the only way Cooper will allow himself to be restrained is if he's riding on your shoulders. But then he puts his hands all over your face and gives you a bunch of wet willies. I'm not sure it's worth it.

Then we ate dinner at Jimmy John's which shouldn't be exciting but it is because I live an hour away from the closest Jimmy John's, and checked into our cute hotel. Josh and I put Cooper to bed and then took our baby monitor into the hall to sit and wait for Cooper to fall asleep. The outlet we needed for the baby monitor was actually in front of the hotel room next to us so we plugged it in and sat down and I got ready to read my book. Josh left his phone inside the room and had nothing to do so we decided to take turns reading my book out loud to each other. Eventually the people staying in the room we were sitting in front of came in to get into their room right when we were sprawled out in front of their door laughing our heads off and Josh was loudly acting out a scene from the book. We must have looked insane.

The next day we went to the Portland Children's Museum. Cooper had a great time at this one too. There was a lot for little kids to do.

There was a water area at this one too. What's with Portland and these weird little kid lab coats?

Grace and Brady at the pet hospital. Sooooo cute.

There was a mini splash park outside and Cooper had a blast but got soaked and covered in mud. We were driving home from there so we made him ride home in just a diaper, which was awkward when we stopped for lunch. Josh wanted to take him in his diaper! But I dug some pajamas out of his suitcase for him instead. Classy parents.

Then we left our cousins to go to the zoo while we went to lunch and drove home. We went to Panda Express (another thrilling thing for me) and some guy came running out of the hair salon next door with a balloon for Cooper loudly proclaiming him to be the cutest baby he's ever seen. I'm glad someone finally noticed! 

Then we drove home about 5 miles an hour all the way home from Portland in the worst traffic ever. And Cooper sat in the backseat successfully fighting sleep to the death.