Hood River Hiking Weekend

A little forewarning, this is going to be a very pathetic blog post that reveals how little life I have. 

I remember writing a blog post about going on a date with Josh a few months after I had Cooper because it was so rare and noteworthy. And now I'm writing a blog post about a hike I went on because, rare and noteworthy. See? I told you it makes me seem sad and pathetic. 

So 4th of July weekend was coming up and since Josh just started a new job and can't take vacation for six months, this was a rare three day weekend that he had. We talked about what we wanted to do and Josh suggested I go somewhere by myself for the weekend as he has been away from the kids several times and I never had before. I thought about it and researched some places to hike and ultimately decided not to go. I told Josh I wasn't going and then while I was playing with Cooper I heard him on the phone booking me a hotel anyway! Oh Josh! What a selfless, generous, kind hearted husband he is! I just love the stuffing out of him. And while he was making the reservation he was spelling my name for the person on the phone and Cooper overheard and then started walking around saying, "B E A C H. B E A C H. B E A C H." Cutie. 

So I went to Hood River, Oregon because I have serious Pacific Northwest withdrawals and there are a ton of hikes to do around the Columbia River Gorge. Plus Hood River is on my list of places I want to visit so it was perfect, and only a five hour drive from Boise.

I wanted to hike as much as I could because I don't get to do "real hikes" with the kids right now. So I chose the hardest hike in the gorge to really take advantage of the weekend to do the first day and then a few smaller waterfall hikes the next day in case I was super sore from my Mt. Defiance hike. (Um I'm still sore from Mt. Defiance!) 

Mt. Defiance is the tallest peak in the gorge and considered the hardest hike in Oregon. Hikers use it to train for Mt. Hood, and actually the trail is steeper than Mt. Hood's. It's 12 miles and has an elevation gain of 5,000 feet. Um does it sound to anyone else like I probably shouldn't have hiked it? Yeah... Apparently I have really poor judgement. 

So off I went, like an idiot. I did a lot of research and had a trail map and enough water and food and everything, so not a total idiot, though I did decide to leave my trekking poles in the car (yeah, big mistake.) But I definitely underestimated the hike.

It starts out really cute and deceiving, you saunter past some waterfalls. 

Then you start a normal incline along the mountainside with some pretty views of the gorge.

This nice hike lasts about a mile and then the remaining miles are straight torture without letting up for a second. On the way up I was often using my hands to climb it was so vertical. On the way down I was repelling down tree branches or tree roots, or giving up and actually sliding down on my butt. Whhhyyy didn't I take my trekking poles! I hate myself for that. I told Josh that I wanted to take pictures of how steep the trail was but I couldn't shift my feet at all to take my pack off and get my camera or I would have fallen down the mountain. It was insane! Insane! Ha, when I got home I had to throw away the shirt I wore because I couldn't get the sweat stains out. Ahh it was so hard. 

And then I got altitude sickness. My hands and face ballooned up and I looked down at my super swollen hands, thought for a millisecond that was weird, and then ignored them as I was way more concerned about forcing my legs to keep going. It wasn't until I got back to the car that I was like, "wait, what on earth happened to my hands?!?!" I didn't even research altitude sickness or know anything about it because it was only 5,000 feet but then I read that if you're ascending 1,000 feet in less than three hours you will get sick at any altitude. I was ascending 1,000 every hour. Dummy. Most people on hikes like that take medication beforehand to help their bodies adjust quickly to the altitude gain. Big oops. 

Anyway back to me hiking unaware of my altitude sickness, eventually I reached the summit! And I even passed someone on the way up too, take that dude! I bought a premade sandwich at the grocery store to take up with me and the whole way up I couldn't wait to eat that dumb sandwich at the top. And then when I finally opened it up like 3.5 hours later I realized it had no mayo or mustard on it, I was supposed to grab one of those little packets! Ah man, it was so disappointing. I should have hauled some Cafe Rio up there instead. 

And then the descent tore my legs up like nothing I've ever experienced. When you get to the bottom of the trail, there's like a half mile walk to the parking lot and the whole time you can see your car in your sight but yet you're not quite there and I kept thinking I'm going to have to call life flight and they're going to have to chopper me a half a mile to my car. But I hobbled there myself, without a helicopter. When I finally got back to the hotel I couldn't wait to shower, remember my shirt I had to throw away? I was so sweaty and disgusting. And then when I pulled back the shower curtain I saw it was a handicap shower and the shower head was so low I had to hold a squat to shower! I thought I was going to cry. What a cruel cosmic joke! After I showed I crawled into bed at 5 pm and didn't get out til the morning! I text Josh that I really wished I had some Tylenol or something but I couldn't make it to the store and Josh said to try the front desk and I was like um I can't make it to the front desk! 

The next day I was really sore but I could actually walk so I did all my waterfall hikes that I planned. My favorite was Elowah Falls. 

And then I drove home to my babies because I missed them! 

And now I want to hike South Sister. Except it has almost the exact same mileage and elevation that Mt. Defiance does. But again, I have poor judgement. This time I'll bring my dumb trekking poles and maybe get some of those altitude pills and wear a shirt I don't like so when I have to throw it away it won't be a bummer! 

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!

Bye Bye Small Town

When I first moved to Aberdeen two years ago my world was turned upside down by living in a small town. It was DIFFERENT. And after standing in the checkout line for 20 minutes because the cashier knew and chit chatted with every single customer, I was immediately irritated by small town living. But then it grew on me as things tend to do and now upon leaving my heart is full of love for the cute small town quirks I've come to enjoy. I will never forget the sometimes unusual and oftentimes sweet experience of living here. 

I'm going to miss our garbage man who knows Cooper by name and gets out of his truck to talk to Cooper every week and reminisce about how fast he's growing. I'm going to miss the owner of our favorite restaurant who always gives Cooper a free bag of chips because he remembers how much Cooper loves them. I'm going to miss the people at the YMCA who keep track of how far I run and congratulate me when I make progress. I'm going to miss Josh being out of town announced on the radio. I'm going to miss the receptionist at the speech therapy office who prints out a pictures of Thomas the Train for Cooper when he's upset. I'm going to miss calling the doctor to reschedule an appointment I had to cancel and them saying, "Oh Cooper's mom right?" I'm going to miss the lady at the post office calling to tell us our Christmas packages came. I'm going to miss the librarian who double checked the hold I placed on a science fiction book because it didn't seem like what I usually read (Josh was using my card.) I'm going to miss the lady at the video rental in Safeway telling me she didn't charge me a late fee because she knows I have two small kids that are hard to take to the store. I'm going to miss whoever honks at me when I'm running down my street and yells, "Hey Orange Shirt!" I'm going to miss the employees at Bennett's fish shack who know our order and ask us where the kids are when we're there on a date. I'm going to miss how members of my choir called Josh to find out how I was doing when I had pneumonia. I'm going to miss the cashier at the movie theater offer me the standard popcorn/drink special and then look up at me and say, "Oh yeah, you hate Pepsi products, never mind." I'm going to miss telling people we live in the yellow house up Wishkah and having everyone immediately know which house is ours. I'm REALLY going to miss the small town newspaper with it's hysterical crime report. I'm going to miss how I always hear events by word of mouth before I read them in the news. I'm going to miss how fast gossip travels and how everyone seems to know everyone. I'm going to miss how sweet and protective everyone is with each other and the many, wonderful, tender hearted individuals that welcomed me into their circle-

Most of all, I'm going to miss the sweet friendship of some of the kindest people I've known. People who visited me in the hospital when I had my kidney infection, people who come over and watch the kids so I can pack, people who offer to take me on a hike I mention I want to go on but don't know the trail, people who made blankets for Ruby, people who threw me a baby shower, people who offered to watch Cooper when I had my doctor appointments, people who encourage, lift, motivate, and inspire me.

So while we may not have a Costco (or about a million other things), we do have some of the sweetest people in the world right here in Aberdeen, Plus all the trees.

Cooper's Diagnosis

This week in our session with Teacher Judy, Cooper said six new words in 30 minutes! We love Teacher Judy. While blowing bubbles she got him to say blow, bubble, and pop. Why he never says those for me I don't know... And then she got him to say Ruby for the very first time! It was so exciting! Which he pronounces Rubah or sometimes Wubah. And she got him to say Cooper, or Toopah. And she got him to say Mama. Teacher Judy was so excited about that one that she gave him a hug and Cooper immediately ran away. Apparently Cooper's love for Teacher Judy does not extend to hugs.

Josh and I love hearing him say Wubah. We make him say it all day long and then giggle about it at night in bed. Wubah.

So at the end of our session Teacher Judy told me that Cooper has apraxia. Apraxia is a condition where the brain's signals to the mouth muscles involving speech are missing or incorrect. This means that the child has no problem understanding speech but when it comes to speaking themselves, they don't know how to move their mouth muscles to make the sounds. Children with apraxia have to learn how to make each sound, and then the thousands of combinations of sounds and practice them thousands of times before they become muscle memory and something they can say independently. It involves extensive and frequent speech therapy for years sometimes. But the good news is once they figure out how to talk, they'll be all caught up on their speech. It just takes a lot of work to get to that point.

It's a daunting task and right now it feels a little overwhelming. And I'm a little sad that speech can't just come naturally to him like it does to everyone else. But I'm glad Cooper has a diagnosis so we know what help to get him. I'm glad there is help available for him. I'm glad I get to stay at home with him so we can practice our speech together. I'm glad Cooper has so many people who support him. I'm glad my husband is just as committed to helping Cooper as I am. There are many things to be grateful for.

Luckily Cooper has a few words already that help him communicate. Once they practice a word enough to have it become a muscle memory they will always have that word and Cooper already has a few words, of course "no" being one of them. And luckily he can make all his consonant and vowel sounds, he just needs to practice them and learn how to combine them into words. So he has a few things working for him already and the rest we will help him figure out.

One thing I know for sure about Cooper is that he is smart. He can count to ten, he knows the first half of the alphabet, he knows his letters, shapes, numbers, and colors. After watching a Barney episode about China, I said hi to Cooper one morning and he answered, "nee how." He is a smart boy and if he gets the help he needs, he can overcome this. And he will have the added blessing of parents who listen to every single thing he says for the rest of his life because we're going to be so delighted by every word. "Wubah" has already brought a lot of happiness to our hearts.

So now we know what to do and what lies ahead for us. Good luck buddy. Mama is always cheering for you.

Another Week

Another week, another blog post. Maybe I should amend my writing goal, there's no way we do enough in one week to warrant a blog post! Let's dig down deep here....

I drove by the preschool this week that Cooper would potentially go to. Actually I drove by it several times, as I drove in one continuous loop around the building for ten minutes. There's just no way. It's too far from my house. It's too big. There are too many window treatments that make it hard to see. I just can't do it. Cooper will just have to be a mute.

This week my mute said up and made monkey sounds. Progress. He's discovered a passionate love for Curious George and he imitates whatever George says. Now if only George was a human instead of a monkey. 

Ruby is officially the cutest baby that has ever been born. She is just gorgeous! I really think she should do baby modeling. She's so dainty, she looks like a little porcelain doll! I want to get her pictures taken again even though we just took newborn photos. I'm kind of obsessed with her. She still wakes up once a night but I still think she's too small to go all night without eating. It is funny though because Cooper was sleeping through the night at six weeks old! Now I realize that was just pure luck. Maybe solid foods will help her stay full a little longer? I doubt it...

Ruby has been doing the 45 minute nap thing, I looked back on my blog and Cooper was doing that too at the same age. She sleeps for 45 minutes and then wakes up and if I get her up she's cranky and tired until her next nap. Most of the time she will go back to sleep if I let her cry for a few minutes, but man I hate letting her cry. And Cooper and I are usually playing in the living room while Ruby is crying away and I wonder if Cooper thinks I'm a terrible mother. But he actually doesn't seem to mind having fun while sister cries. I'm not sure what to make of that.

Cooper is getting a little less enthused with Ruby the older she gets. Sometimes Ruby will flail her arm and accidentally touch one of his trains and he is not pleased. I put her in his old exersaucer this week and he told her, "no!" Then when I eventually got her out he tried to get in it and wound up stuck in the seat head first with his head stuck in a leg hole. Cooper needs to work on his sharing.

This week we went out to dinner with the kids and both of them sat there nicely and quietly the entire meal! I am not even kidding! The check came and we looked at each other like woah, that was amazing. I thought that was blog worthy. We haven't gone out to eat in like six months and maybe that's the key, only take your kids out to eat once every six months.

This week was Josh's last week of classes! He still has to take his boards in July before he graduates but he is done with three years of night classes!! It is so exciting for everyone in our family. But I'm probably the most excited, let's be honest.

Also I'm in love with my yard during the summer. That's all.

Preschool Problems

So my little Cooper had his first speech therapy this week with Teacher Judy. Then later that same night we got him to say "poo-poo." So I hope that's a good sign. Poo poo is an excellent word because the p sound is a very important sound. Basically he could be talking in swear words and we would be happy.

The developmental specialists in Seattle are booked several months out so it looks like that will take quite a while to get him evaluated. In the meantime we are going to be seeing Teacher Judy once a week and next week Cooper is getting evaluated to start receiving speech services through the school district as well.

As soon as I posted about Cooper's doctor appointment last week, a sweet angel from my ward who works with the early intervention program called me and talked to me about getting Cooper set up to do speech services through them. It was amazing because our pediatrician said nothing about it and I was aware that there was a program but had no idea how to get him into it. I am incredibly grateful to her right now. So next week someone comes to our house to evaluate Cooper so he can start speech therapy. It will be so wonderful to have him doing more speech therapy than just our weekly session with Teacher Judy. HOWEVER, this program only runs until he's two, when he turns three, they send the kids to a preschool where he would get extra help with speech.

Preschool.

This fall.

FOUR days a week!

My sweet precious baby boy would be ripped from my arms FOUR days a week!

I called my mom in tears and she asked me how long the days were. And I told her that didn't matter! They could be 30 minutes long and it would still be FOUR days a week!

Now I don't know all the details, we still have to apply and get accepted and maybe I wouldn't have to send him all four days. But I'm already in a state of panic. I wasn't going to send him to preschool at all this year, he has a late August birthday so technically I could send him early or wait a year, and I was going to wait! And then next year maybe find a co op preschool that was two days a week but I could volunteer as a mother helper so I could be there with him every day. And then by the time kindergarten rolled around Cooper would say, "Mom I want to be homeschooled!" And I'd say ok! And then we'd be with each other all day every day all the way through high school and Cooper would take me as his date to senior prom and then maybe he could just live with us for the rest of his life and save on rent! That was my life plan. Every time Cooper poses in a picture with me I think oh, this is just how our prom pictures are going to look! But all of my grand plans started coming off the rails when I heard- FOUR days a week...

I'm not ready. There's no way I'll be ready by September. I just barely let him go to nursery at church. And then when I finally let him go I sat and watched him through the window the whole time. Then the next week they put papers up in the window! Coincidence? Probably not! Now I have to jump up and down to see him!

I wonder if the preschool has better windows.

I wonder if they let people into preschool who still sleep in a crib and still have fat rolls and still giggle when their mommies pretend to eat their feet. It should be illegal! It should be considered kidnapping to even suggest it!

There's even a bus that can come get them! When she told me that, my knees buckled. I'd sooner throw myself in front of the bus before I let my little baby ride on a bus without me!

That darn August birthday! It was the undoing of my life plan! If only I would have known I would never have done anything underneath a Christmas tree!

Aaaahhhhhhhhh!

But Cooper would probably benefit from the extra socialization with other children and he would probably (definitely) benefit from the extra, daily speech therapy, and he would probably benefit from some time away from his mommy who knows what every point and grunt means.

But if everyone could just pray that Cooper starts talking before September so he can stay home with his mommy, that'd be great.

See? Wouldn't we look so good at prom together?

Weekly Update

I'm so glad I made this goal of writing on my blog once a week! HA! I'm already failing at it. It's funny how little I feel like I actually do but yet I never have any spare time. I complained to Josh about a weekly obligation we have and Josh replied, "simplify your life." And I was like umm how much more simple can it get?! Some days I don't even leave the house! It's a strange phenomenon. Anyway, this week-

This week we took Cooper in to the doctor to get him a referral to start speech therapy again. We decided waiting until he's 3 is just too long and if we can get in early it would be nice. Plus Cooper seems to have made a developmental leap where he is being pretty receptive to learning things, he learned how to count to five on his fingers this week, so now would be a good time to go back to "Teacher Judy." And as further proof that I've forgotten how to speak to adults I told the doctor that the speech therapist we had seen before was "Teacher Judy" and then I was like wait, I guess that's not her actual name.

The appointment was... disappointing. I expected her to just write us the referral and say good luck. Instead she expressed concerns about Cooper being on the autism spectrum and wrote us a referral to see the speech therapist and also a developmental specialist in Seattle. Then she started telling me that Cooper would be able to go to regular classes in school and I was like why don't we see if there's anything going on first before you make Cooper's education plan.

So I'm frustrated and disappointed and want to punch the doctor in the face a little bit, and also want to cry when I see every other toddler in the world doing something like analyzing their genetic code under a microscope. I hate childhood development. I just do. But Cooper is my little buddy. So I'll swallow all the sour stuff and slap a smile on my face while I help him do whatever it is he needs.

My mommy gut, certified by Oprah, doesn't think there is anything else going on besides speech problems. Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see. But then again I love to overreact and diagnose my children with everything imaginable so one would think I would have caught this already.

So that's Cooper's news. The longer he goes without talking, the dumber everyone is starting to think he is. Hahaha. I have this fantasy where I'm telling a teenaged Cooper stories about his childhood and I tell him you just wouldn't talk for so long, we were taking you to speech therapists and special doctors in Seattle! And then we laugh together about what a stubborn stinker he was. That's my hope.

Now for our neglected child- Ruby is still kicking it, baby style. I don't think she'll be ready to sleep train at 4 months. I guess I don't really know but she seems way too small to me to sleep all night without eating. She seems too little to think about starting solids in a month too. Did I really start feeding Cooper solids at 4 months old?! I thought he was so big at 4 months old. Anyway, Ruby is an angel, she seems to understand I have a toddler boy and she does a lot of sitting happily in her bouncy seat. I just love her.

I am trying to get outdoors more. Every summer after a pregnancy I get super antsy to get out and go because I feel like I sat inside for nine months. I've made a goal of two trail runs a week. I love getting out on the trails but spring in Aberdeen can be really rainy so I tend to lean towards going to the gym but I've made a goal to go rain or shine during those small, pre-planned times when Josh can take the kids. My grandpa inspired me to spend more time exercising outside rather than inside. I smile to myself when I think of the fittest person I ever knew, and the quiet, connected way he went about it. Papa never went to the gym, he never ran with an iPod or tracked his distance with the Nike running app, he never wore trendy spandex, and he never ran organized races. I remember when Papa was teaching me how to run sprint ladders to increase my endurance and I asked him for precise times for sprinting, jogging etc... But Papa never ran these sprint ladders on a treadmill, he ran them outside, and kept track of distance by counting each time his left foot hit the ground. He was the true outdoorsmen that Papa. So this weekend we're taking the kids hiking up at Lake Quinualt. It's supposed to be a sunny Saturday so depending on my children's disposition, it could be a really amazing day. It's hard to hike with young kids, did you know that? Probably because it's no fun to sit in a hiking backpack all day when you're two.

So that's about it for this week. Loving on my kids, worried that Cooper has special needs, and trying to enjoy more outdoor time.