Go away flu & germs

So, my goal for next week is to have a complete week at work without missing one whole day. Whay would I want that? Because its been impossible for the last few weeks for that to happen. Note, today is only Monday and I have attended work for a whopping 15 minutes before I headed home. It all started last weekend with Cooper's first ear infection, then Paige getting a fever/chills, then the fever/chills hit me midweek. We made it through the weekend, and then boom, Mom is out of the game again today. I feel like my desk is drowing in paperwork; as I am never there and when I am, I have been filling in for everyone else. Here is hoping for a productive week; both at home and work to getting all the little things accomplished. The one big goal; go eat lunch at school with Paige on Thursday or Friday. Thursday is milkshake day, definitely going on Thursday!

First day of kindergarten

Thursday, August 18, 2011 was Paige's first day of kindergarten. She did great and was ready to go. The biggest problem we had was Mom getting sick on Wed. and not sure if I'd be able to even move on Thursday! Everything turned out okay; and I took Paige to school rather than have her ride the bus. There were no tears by her or me; so I am calling it a victory! I picked her up at 3:15 and she had a great day. On Friday; she rode the bus and we are lucky its Grampa Rick who is our morning bus driver; so that helped immensely. This will be our first full week of school; and here is hoping for more smiles than scowls :)

What? Already!

So this cute little sprite is starting Kindergarten in 5 days. Granted she doesn't look like this anymore; but it feels like this was 5 days ago. I am trying to anticipate if I will be one of those Moms that cries the first day of school; or if I will keep my cool. Will keep you posted and have lots of great pictures of the first day later this week. Thursday, the 18th is the first day of school. Paige will go all day 4 days a week with Wed. off. We went to her room and stashed her supplies and met her teacher on Friday afternoon. They have another hour on Tuesday where its the whole Kindergarten class (w/o parents). I think she is totally ready and going to have so much fun.

In other news:

Cooper is learning to play 'nice' with Piper; or trying!



A little blurry; but great clouds this week when a large rain storm came through.

C00per yesterday--prior to his fever hitting and those two front teeth trying to finally erupt. Its been a long weekend with a cranky baby.

Pre-rinse

This is Cooper. Cooper is what we call a "hands on eater." So he doesn't like bibs because they restrict his movement of shovelling food in-so he eats without his clothes on. Then there are scenarios like this one; where the spaghetti sauce was the victor and Mom is on the losing team. Cooper gets set in the tub and has to be wiped off before the bath water can be ran. You know its a good mess if you need a pre-rinse to take a bath! We won't even talk about the high chair or dining room floor. . .

11 months

Cooper is 11 months old today. Wow, where did that go. I have a few pictures I will add; but for now I will do another recap of what was accomplished recently. He's a super smiley little guy and has a good demeanor--even when we were travelling. He's a good eater and loves to eat whatever the grown ups are eating--especially ice cream!

• 2 new teeth popped last week while on vacation


• is walking up a storm! This last week the confidence and balance are way up and he is on the go. He is also clicking his tongue making a "Click" noise. He reminds me of that crocodile that swallowed the clock on Peter Pan and stalks Capt Hook. You can't always see Cooper; but you can hear him!


• He can't fall down and pop right back up; but he will crawl back over to something to pull himself up on and then continue to go.


• Started saying "da-da" with some regularity. Especially after we came home from vacation and saw Dad again.


• He weighs roughly 21 lbs and is wearing size 12 month clothes and a size 4 shoe.

Vacation recap

We survived our week vacation and were gone from the 23rd to the 30th. That is:

• 7 nights away from home with a 11 month old who doesn't like to sleep


• about 100 diapers or so


• 1420 miles on the Expedition


• 2 bags of puff-corn consumed during those miles by the small people!


• 2 new teeth popped by Cooper


• 8 million--not really but it seemed like it--the number of hours Paige logged in the pool


• 6 hours spent at the wonderful Minnesota Zoo


• 4 minutes--the estimated time of the roller coaster Paige and I went on--we both screamed and loved it


• 1 pair of newly pierced ears


• countless--giggles, smiles and hours of fun

Thanks to Crystal and Aunt Wanda for hosting us at the travel stops in Fargo and thanks to Aunt Mary and Steve for letting us invade them for 5 days--we had so much fun and can't wait to see you all again soon.

Pictures to follow; but need to have some time to go through the 300 I took to see which are worthy!

Cooper walking video