Monday, April 30, 2012

Cooper

Cooper is now 26 months old! Where did the time go? He is definitely our 2 year old toddler and keeps us on our toes!

- He is an EXTREMELY active little boy. He can climb pretty much anything he wants - including cabinets. He is smart too and finds anything he can stand on to make it a little easier. I watched him the other day stack a few things on top of each other, stand on them and reach for the ceiling fan. I know that it's only a matter of time before he masters that one. He jumps off all sorts of things. Boxes, the couch, bed. At the playgrounds he has absolutely no.fear.at.all. He would jump off an edge 5 feet from the ground without even thinking about it. He goes down the slides without a problem and climbs up all kinds of things. He loves to jump and never walks. We have people ask us "does he ever walk?" haha I'm here to tell you...NOPE! We are still working on "walk your feet." It's really funny to watch him try to walk because his little arms are swinging as if he's running and he's bouncing on his toes as he walks! haha but he's trying. He has mastered a full on spin and has almost smashed his face into the TV stand.
- His tantrums are definitely interesting. He tends to claw his face, smash his head and bit himself during his tantrums. He also will body slam into the ground. It's pretty scary and it's hard to watch. We have tried to even hold him during a tantrum and have been bit in return...and clawed at. It's a work in progress and has improved...a little.
- he is talking a LOT more. He knows all sorts of animal sounds: dog, cat, horse, cow, fish (he makes a cute fish face), bird, elephant, lion, bear, dinosaur, monkey, snack, bee, duck. Those are the only ones that come to mind. He is starting to say sentences but I'm pretty sure only Brady and I can understand him. He adds "danana" to the end of a LOT words such as "motadanana" for motorcycle. haha It's mostly words with more than 2 syllables. But he's learning.
- He is a picky eater. He used to eat everything and it's frustrating that he will not even try the food we give him...even though he's had it and liked it before. But he does like peaches, bananas, yogurt, applesauce, waffles, toast, crackers, quesadillas, hot dogs, mac and cheese, grilled cheese, blueberries, pancakes, pizza (sometimes), jelly sandwiches (he doesn't eat the peanut butter side of the bread). Those are the main things I can think of. He only drinks water and milk. We have stayed away from the juice and he has never had a glass of pop. I'm sure he's had a sip from some extended family but we haven't given him any. He also had his first popsicle yesterday. Of course he LOVED it! He loves cookies but we don't like to give him any. You may think it's a little stingy not to give him many yummy treats but he is so stubborn that trying to reason him with 1 just doesn't happen and it has almost always turned into a huge tantrum where he starts to hurt himself. It's just not worth the fight. And not to mention that he hates brushing his teeth so the less sugar the better!
- he loves movies and TV. Yikes. We started a bad thing with the television. His favorite movies are Cars, Toy Story, Tangled, Robots, The Lion King, Madagascar 2, and Monsters, Inc,. He also LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Doc McStuffins isn't too bad either. haha Really. we've started a bad habit over here. When American Idol is over we are canceling our cable.
- He is starting to want to wear certain clothes. He gets excited to put a special shirt on that has boats or robots on it. He also REALLY likes his Superman pajamas. haha He runs around saying "supa ooper!" (super cooper) with his arms out to the side. It's really cute!
- he doesn't need a safety bar up on his bed. He has fallen off once and hasn't done it since. He sleeps really good in the middle of his bed or up against the wall.
- He's starting to get REALLY snuggly with me. he wants me to "lay down" all the time with him in bed. It's actually a little out of control and I'm having to say no now :( It makes me super sad because that's the one thing I can do as his mother. SNUGGLE! But he won't sleep and will just play anymore and he throws huge tantrums now about it. Ya...the tantrums are bad.
- He loves to play in the bathtub. He will lay down on his back, stomach and roll around! It's fun and creates a big mess but oh well. At least he likes it and will take a bath. Him and Crew take baths together now and they both have so much fun splashing and playing in the bubbles.
- He is a big help with Crew. He likes to "help peas" (help please) with everything. Changing his diaper, getting him dressed, holding him, feeding him, putting him to bed. Anything. He wants to help. It's cute and he's learning a lot. Yesterday we went to a friends house who have a little girl. He picked up her baby doll, held the baby up to his shoulder and started to pat it's back. he looked at me and said "sad" then started to say "shhh. okay. okay." Meaning "Shhh it's okay. it's okay." Of course he chucked it to the floor right after but he does have a mothering side to him. He'll be a good dad someday.
- He is wearing 2-3T clothes and size 7 shoes. He likes to wear hats and sunglasses.

So that's a lot but there's our Cooper right now! He is so funny and also so very frustrating at this stage. It's a love/hate stage right now but I try to enjoy all the funny, sweet moments we have together. They are very few but they are there. We love him so much and can't imagine our home without him!

Crew

Crew is now 9 months old!! I can't believe that he will be a year old in 3 months! He is learning new things all the time.

- He is finally really steady standing up and likes to stand up. It's a HUGE improvement from a few months ago.
- He has mastered rolling around and spinning on his stomach to get to wherever he wants to go. He has also learned the army crawl and is starting to get on his knees and rock! Another HUGE improvement!
- He LOVES LOVES LOVES to eat! He'll eat anything we give him and has great coordination! He eats much better than Cooper at this time. He does have an attachment to his bottle, which is weird because he gets it maybe 1-2 times a day. He still doesn't drink out of a sippy cup. He can do it...I've seen him. He just won't. It's strange. He can sip from a straw too and the speech therapist said to skip the sippy cup all together and go straight to a straw (it's better for speech development).
- Says mama and dada REALLY good and at the right people.
- He's starting to wave but only occasionally.
- He still sleeps through the night!! We have had one bad night and it was because he didn't feel well but other than that he sleeps great!!
- He is very much a mama's boy. And I LOVE it! I soak up as much snuggle time as I can! Cooper wasn't very cuddly so I am enjoying all the slobbery kisses Crew gives and the times that he wants to be held and rocked. It's pretty much amazing! He loves to play with my face and uses his pointer finger to touch my eyes and nose. He also likes to hang on to the collar of my shirt when he gets super comfy.
- He is a very content little boy. Someone commented yesterday how easy going he is. He will just lay on the floor and play with toys or watch people. A lot of children his age are moving every where and wanting to be active. Thankfully, not Crew! He's happy just playing with his toys :)
- Crew loves his older brother. There is no doubt how much he adores Cooper. And the adoration goes both ways. Cooper thinks the world of Crew and is very much aware of him. It's so special to watch them interact with each other.
- at 9 months he weighs 17 pounds 11.4 ounces. He is wearing 6-9 month clothes.
- We gave him his first hair cut last week! His hair was a little out of control on top. He did great and it made his head look a lot more square! haha
- he has a cry that will make your skin crawl!
- still has blue eyes!! But around his pupil is starting to turn a little brown. he has very long eye lashes and big eyes! We get a lot of compliments on them.

We love our little Crew! He is so special and has a sweet spirit. he is growing up so fast but also taking his sweet time. We enjoy having him in our home and we still can't believe he is ours!

House Update

Our new house is coming along so fast! This weekend we drove by to take a look and they were putting the roof on! We also have siding that is up and looks like it's ready to be painted! The cement in the garage is down and all the electrical work looks like it's moving along great! The fireplace is in and the inside is swept and cleaned out.

We are really excited to see it move right along. We are getting more and more anxious and giddy about having a new home! We are excited for the kids to have more space and to have a playroom to keep all their toys!! I'm also excited for a bigger kitchen where I can store all our kitchen stuff that's boxed up. My Aunts and Uncles bought us our kitchen set that we wanted when we were married and they are ALL still boxed up because we have no place to put them!! We are going to get rid of our "old" stuff and pull out EVERYTHING from their boxes!! I am SUPER excited and can't wait to have people over!

Brady is super excited about having the 3rd garage. We have a list of things going that he gets to make:

- step stool for the kids and one for me to reach the top of our 9 foot pantry!
- a play table for the kids' playroom. Coloring and doing crafts on our brand new (expensive) table is a little scary with a child that would rather color on the table than on the paper.
- a time out stool/chair. Cooper likes to roll around and play while he's in time out. I think a special spot will make it easier and more effective...I hope.
- side tables for the couches that I found on Pinterest!! yes!
- headboards for the boys' beds.
- cubbies/shoe rack/bench/coat rack for the garage
- a beautiful hutch - some day! The hutch is not as important yet because I can see Cooper climbing on it and knocking it down on top of him and Crew. It's a nightmare I can see happening.

Oh man that's a lot! and there is always something else that goes through my head that I want! And he's so excited to have the space to do this all in :)

{I don't have pictures on the computer because I haven't taken the time to make space to upload them...I wonder where all my time is spent??}

Monday, April 2, 2012

New House!

We have officially started our new house!  We've been looking for houses for a LONG while.  We looked and looked...walked through several houses and nothing felt right.  Even houses where we thought this would be nice there was a lot of fixing up to do and we just don't have the time or energy to do so.  We then started looking into building a home.  There are several builders in the area and we met with 3 of them that we heard were good.  We decided to go with a company called Eaglewood Homes.  They are based out of Meridian, Idaho but have someone down here working it all together!! We absolutely love the company and couldn't be more happy with how things are going.

The picture above is the lot we purchased. We went with a lot in a town 5 minutes out of Twin Falls known as Kimberly. We choose Kimberly mainly for the school district. We have heard that it's one of the best schools in the area and the website says it's one of the top in the nation. We choose this lot because the sun rises in the back and sets in the front and it's at the backside of the neighborhood. There is a road behind us and then a field for someone's farm.  There are NO plans to build behind us any time soon.  And the lot next to us (to the right) is empty and will probably be built up in the next year.  It's a neighborhood with young families and we hear there are MANY BBQ's during the summer and lots of play dates during the weeks.  I've heard from a friend that lives in there that as far as she's aware there are only 2 mother's that work...all the others are stay at home mom's! Not that I stay home but I am home enough to schedule play dates and get to know other mother's in the neighborhood!  Brady and I drive out there pretty much every other day and on the warm days there are so many young children playing and families going for walks! Everyone seems very friendly and wave as we drive by. One of Brady's co-workers lives in the neighborhood and she said people are already talking and excited for new families to be in to the neighborhood! We are very excited for this new move - the neighborhood was very important to us and a hard decision to choose. We could have moved in to a neighborhood that we've loved from the time we moved here but it just seemed like it was all older couples with the children grown up and moved out. We REALLY didn't want to live in a neighborhood where we'd be the "young" family.

The house we are building is a two story, 2087 square feet home.  It will have 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath.  Family room and living room (with a fireplace), granite counter tops and hardwood floors.  Walk in pantry which I LOVE and the laundry room is upstairs with all the bedrooms - no hauling laundry up and down the stairs!  And the best part...a soaker tub! The tub will be awesome after my 12 hour night shifts to relax and rest my muscles. Brady is pretty excited about the 3 car garage so he can set his tools up.  I am also anxious for the great backyard for the boys to play in. In the package the yard will be finished with sod and a full sprinkler system.

We are feeling very blessed and spoiled as we have gone through this process so far.  We are so so so excited for this new change in our lives and to finally feel settled!! It's no fun renting and thinking "where do we go next?"  We can't wait!!

{I have more pictures of the house but my computer memory is full and won't let me download any more pictures off the camera. Dumb. We are going to buy a hard drive to transfer our 11,000 pictures on to and then that will free up a lot of space!}

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Reactive Airway Disease...

AKA Asthma.

Crew has it.  Bummer.

He's been wheezing since January and I immediately thought it was RSV.  He had the runny nose, watery eyes, fever.  But he tested negative so he was given an inhaler to try and it didn't work.  That was strike one.  Then he continued to wheeze (never getting any better) so I took him in again and they gave him a breathing treatment.  Didn't work so they gave him one with a steroid in it...that helped.  Strike 2. We then were given prednisone medication to help with the swelling in his airways to see what happened.  The wheezing stopped!! yay...but came back two days later.  Strike 3.  The doctor's say 3 strikes and they diagnose with asthma...especially since the last two strikes he was not sick.  So we are now on another dose of Prednisone and will have another appointment this week to get the entire lecture on asthma.

There are two ways to have wheezing.  One way is with irritated airways that are swollen so much they cause the wheezing or with spasms in the muscle lining.  The prednisone is to help with the swelling and then the inhalers help with the spasms.  We will see how this goes!

I am VERY confident in our doctor's that we've taken Crew to.  I work with them and have sat in several asthma demonstrations and even one physician educating a newly diagnosed pediatric patient.  These men know what they're talking about and I am extremely confident in them.  Our "favorite" doc is even a new Bishop!

Spring Time

Between the chaos and crazy work schedules we have managed to have some fun!

Cooper likes to cuddle.  Especially when he's tired!  We enjoy every minute that he wants to cuddle with us.
 He's also trying to do everything Brady and I do.  When we're getting ready he will play with an old electric razor of Brady's and pretend to shave.  He will ask for me to put make up on him and he always wants to brush his teeth at the same time.  This day he joined in and worked out with Dad.
 The two boys continue to enjoy each others company and REALLY are starting to enjoy doing things together.  This day was very nice (still cold enough to need a hat) and we went for a walk around the block 2 1/2 times!
 The sun was hurting Cooper's eyes and he kept saying "EYES!" haha
 Crew is growing so fast and getting stronger every day!  He loves to jump and recently discovered the ability to roll around the entire room!  He gets super excited when we help him to his knees in the crawling position.  Crawling is still far away for this little man though.
 He LOVES to be outside too.  He's our "Mr. Adorable" blowing bubbles
 We have a little play set with a few soccer fields near our home and we like to go there.  It's nice because it's FAR from the road and Cooper can run anywhere.  Here is Cooper being a big boy and going down the slide all by himself.
 He wanted to be like Daddy and wear it backwards :)
 Waving hi or bye to the airplane...I can't remember.  REALLY cute though!
 And of course a picture that reminds me of Brady.  He truly is a little mini of Brady!!  It's amazing the things Cooper does that is EXACTLY something Brady does.  Oh and Cooper is definitely a little lefty!  It's been interesting to watch him finally figure out what side is dominant!  He still tries to do things with his right hand like eating and writing but he's much stronger and coordinated with his left.  And he almost always kicks with his left foot first and climbs up steps with his left foot.  Interesting huh?