Mom Too Tree

So we are now in Boise. Mostly unpacked, unless of course you look in our garage where we hid all of our boxes we haven't gotten to yet. I don't know much about the city yet because we've been busy unpacking, spending hours trying to figure out our sprinkler system, buying a lawn mower, getting angry letters from the HOA about our long, yellow grass... Our subdivision is super nice, one of the most beautiful neighborhoods I've ever seen, it's really nice to live here but it also makes me feel like a hot mess. We can't figure out our sprinklers so we're out moving our sad store bought sprinkler every 20 minutes, my car is covered in cross country road trip bird poop, Cooper frequently runs down the sidewalk shoeless in a diaper. We don't really fit in but I guess they have no choice about it, fair housing act suckers.

Our house is cute and we like it a lot. But our kids bedrooms are right next to each other! Aaahhh! I'm already developing an ulcer. Cooper has always slept far away from any noise or light his whole life so I'm not sure how deep of sleeper he is. And Ruby is already not a deep sleeper despite my best efforts. Ruby still wakes up once a night to eat so I'm pretty worried she's going to wake him up too. We got so spoiled by our big Aberdeen house with its' weird layout where the bedrooms were super far apart. I loved that weird floor plan! It worked perfect for babies and toddlers! But we wanted Cooper to live in an actual neighborhood with little kids to play with and a place to ride bikes so here we are, it even has a cute neighborhood pool! But I will always miss our yellow house.

Cooper, Ruby, and I spent a fun week in Utah while Josh was finishing things up in Boise for us. We took Cooper to Lagoon twice! The first time we went with our cousins and Cooper had a huge blast, he loves those girls and would run after them whatever ride they were going on. I had to say no to many a roller coaster. Cooper loved it so much that Josh and I took him to bounce back, when he got tired we took him back to my mom's and then Josh and I went back by ourselves! It was our first date since we had Ruby and it was so. much. fun. We had so much fun in Utah, hopefully we can visit much more often now that we're closer and airplane travel is thankfully over with.

Speaking of air travel, I flew alone with Ruby and Cooper to Salt Lake and I will never set foot on a plane with my children ever again. I am not kidding. It was that bad. The airline lost the base to Ruby's car seat and some employee told me, "Next time you fly, you need to put your car seat in a bag." I then burst into laughter and he looked at me confused and I was like, "Does someone have a gun to my head? No? Then there will be no next time."

Shudder shudder shudder.

Anyway, before I slip into some post traumatic stress, let's talk about the happiest thing of my entire life!!

Cooper is making SO much progress with his speech! I've been so used to hearing people say don't worry my son didn't talk until 18 months and then I wait until 18 months and nothing and then I hear don't worry my son didn't talk until 2 so I wait until 2 and nothing, and then I hear don't worry my son didn't talk until 2.5 so I wait until 2.5 and nothing. Plus Teacher Judy and all the websites on apraxia told me that I was in for a long haul with painfully slow, hardly visible progress, which honestly I was already experiencing so I didn't really mind. I had long given up any expectation of verbal speech, I'd given up fantasizing about what Cooper's little voice would sound like, I'd given up hoping for Cooper to ever say anything to me or to call me mama. Call me dramatic but I was already researching careers Cooper could perform in sign language.

Now before you get too excited, Cooper is not reciting the Magna Carta, but oh the progress he's made has made my heart so happy.

Cooper has started repeating words! Mimicking is a huge skill and something he has never done before! Ever! He has never imitated animal sounds or sound effects. He has never responded to, "Can Cooper say _____?" A few months ago in the car I told Josh something was weird as hell and Josh said it was a good thing we didn't have to worry about Cooper repeating our language.

AND NOW WE DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE TO WATCH WHAT I SAY NOW! I have never been more excited to stop saying things like idiot.

My mom was watching Cooper this week and dropped something and said, "Oh shoot" and Cooper parroted, "Oh shoot!" And now he walks around saying oh shoot!

He repeats everything now! I get to hear how he pronounces everything! Orange is like orgne, with like no vowels. It's so sweet. Yellow is like yelLOW. Haha it's so cute, I could go on and on. He calls my mom (Zoe), "soe."

He says hi and bye now!! Today I walked through the kitchen and said, "Hi Coop" and he said, "Hi." Hahaha I almost walked into the wall!

Yesterday he stood up in his high chair and I said, "Are you all done?" and he said, "all done!" I almost rocked launched Ruby out of my arms so I could get him out of his high chair as soon as humanly possible. And the sweetest thing was that he was surprised and impressed with himself! He got a huge smile on his face and kept saying, "all done all done all done all done all done" like he just couldn't believe he was saying it every time. Ah I'm just so proud of my little boy!!

Cooper has been able to say mama and dada for a while but he has never said them independently. Yesterday I was hanging up a picture and I heard Ruby wake up from her nap and I said to Cooper, "Uh oh. Mama woke up Ruby." And Cooper said, "Oh Mama." Ha! I'm so used to having one way conversations with Cooper that when he responds I'm totally caught off guard.

And then the other night Cooper got out Josh's wallet and saw his drivers license and pointed to the picture and said, "Dada." Or I should say "daDAAAAA." Which is how he says it.

He is finally becoming interested in animal sounds. Something I've been expecting him to do since he was 12 months old. Yesterday he went and found a stuffed sheep and pointed at Josh and said, "baaa." And Josh said, "yeah a sheep says baa!" And Cooper said, "Sheep." And then Josh picked up the stuffed dog and said, "What's this?" And Cooper said, "dog." And Josh said, "What does a dog say?" And Cooper said, "woof woof woof."

Last one, I promise. Cooper looves numbers and counting and is always counting things silently on his fingers. Well the other night he was in the bathtub and I was getting a towel for him when I heard him softly saying something that sounded like he was counting to five so I looked and sure enough he was counting on his fingers and saying, "Mom. Too. Tree. Fo. Five!" Numbers two through five are really clear and spot on, but for some reason he says mom for one!! Hahaha I get such a kick out of that! I guess mom does sound kind of like one... Something I never thought of before.

Ah I just love him. And I am amazed at the progress he's been making. I really never thought I'd be here. He still needs speech therapy and help and time and effort but I finally feel like I can breathe. I'm finally not worried that Cooper is never going to talk. He really is going to talk one day! He says hi and bye and mama and dada and oh shoot and all done and mom two tree. And his little voice is just the sweetest little voice that's ever spoken.

Ah happy happy happy!!!!!

The one teeny tiny itty bitty negative thing to come from his progress (but really not negative because I'm so happy for him) is that we're a little worried he's not going to qualify for speech services preschool now! His evaluation is at the end of August, it's an hour and a half long and I'm not allowed in with him. So I'm like one percent worried. But not really because he still has very few words that he speaks without prompting. But I would probably laugh if after all of this he doesn't qualify for the preschool. Silly Cooper!

This probably doesn't sound like a very big deal to most people, or really to anyone. But for those people who know Cooper and who have been around him, this is huge. Any words from Cooper are just huge. Repeating words is huge. Making animal sounds is huge. Saying mama and dada and hi and bye and night night is huge. I'm just so happy for my sweet boy. I love to watch his face light up with surprise and pride when he says a word. It is the best feeling I've ever felt. I hope we have turned a corner where there is less frustration and more successes instead of the other way around. I would just love for Cooper be able to communicate with others besides his parents, my heart would just explode. So here's to hoping he keeps progressing! And that we uncover a good life in Boise! And that we figure out how to run our sprinklers!