Big Cope and Baby Van

the end of an era

2011-07-05T13:19:00.002-05:00

family and friends, sadly, i've come to the realization that i just can't keep up!! i'm going to try a different version of a blog, that you can check out at

copelandandvan.tumblr.com

note, there is no "e" in tumblr... we'll see how it goes! i wish i had a few more hours in the day, but i just don't. please try to keep up with us there... thanks! mama bear

dinosaur park

2011-05-10T13:18:00.006-05:00

my pals really enjoyed the dinosaur park a few months ago. cope loves dinosaurs (much like his dad did, i hear)... there is a park in north austin that has a scavenger hunt trail set up with some cute little dino things on it..

i know this is superold.. but i'm trying folks!! i promise some newer stuff is to come..

my boys and their friends

2011-05-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

cope has taken a shine to little baby van.. in fact, i'd say they are pretty good pals. cope didn't want to leave baby van out of the sticker fun after he was awarded for peeing on the potty, so he gave one to baby van too.

here is cope chasing after evan and chloe in the yard with his infamous dumptruck.

he and evan are peas in a pod.. quite a dangerous combo.

and little baby van loves anybody who will hold him, in particular his daddy.

but he also loved on grandaddy when he came to visit a few months back. i can't wait to see how they get along as they grow.. it should be interesting!!

learning new tricks

2011-03-11T22:06:00.001-06:00

so my boys are learning lots of new tricks! baby van is learning to coo and cope is learning to share..

we took both the boys fishing a few weekends ago.. or should i say, we took them to the river to "purchase and release" some minnows...

baby van has learned to make a sad face (isn't it heart breaking!!)
and daddy is trying to teach some of his soul-inspired moves (the moonwalk!) to his eldest.. God help the ladies!!

sicky poo birthday

2011-03-03T09:00:00.008-06:00

it was a rough few weeks at the madray house. it started with the kids' well child check, at which time they weren't really well. cope had a cough and congestion and baby van had a cute little tiny cough but felt pretty good. the week rolled on with cope out of work and daddy staying at home with him.

like any good parents, we kept them both home, and poor daddy missed a week of work!
cope of course found ways to keep himself busy!!

so at the end of the week, van's cough got worse and he ran a fever so we went to the ER and ended up in the hospital on cope's bday. we cancelled his scheduled party and thankfully grandmama, nancy and ree were here to entertain him and keep order around the house while we hung out at dell children's hospital. baby van was a trooper, and we were home in a few days.

we had a belated birthday party with the family and all is well that end's well!

yippee for the best little 3 year old i know! poor guy got sick again with strep throat and an ear infection the following week, but is now 100% healthy. good thing he had all those new toys to entertain himself with ;)

family

2011-02-28T21:21:00.008-06:00

so we've been a bit busy and these are pretty much in reverse order, but bear with me! i just wanted to post some pics of the great family times we've been having, first and foremost with the two brothers..

great grandmama, aunt nancy and ree came to visit a week ago and cope had a ball with them!

when baby van was just a little thing, mom's cousin jacob came through town and got hold that sweet little guy.

and right after christmas, aunt gracie and grandma donna came and loved my little fat blob of baby.

we are settling into our larger family as well.. i think we are getting the hang of things, somewhat. it takes a lot longer to get out the door and grocery shopping is sort of a joke (where does the food go when you have a 3 yo in the seat part and a baby seat in the big part of the cart?!?)

and yes, i do force steve to take a picture of me now and then so that my children will know i was actually present during their childhood!!

bathtime!

2011-02-15T09:35:00.006-06:00

my little dude loves bathtime!

and brother bear loves to poke that clean baby!

settling in with baby van.. oh and CHRISTMAS!

2011-02-03T11:23:00.012-06:00

we were definitely ready for a low key Christmas after getting settled in with baby van.

cope was enjoying the lax parenting, for sure..

poor baby van had a messed up stocking so we had to go with plan b!
big brother loved his new presents, particularly his "car slide" and the hungry hungry hippo game..

and the aftermath was quite relaxed..

baby van could have cared less about the whole ordeal!

my pal fell in love with "charlie groun (silent d)". not to be confused with charlie brown. if you say to him "no, it's charlie BROWN", he says "NOOOOO! not charlie brown! charlie GROUN!" he wears a red jacket and a brown hat!! here he is rocking out to the linus and lucy song. he was also obsessed with christmas lights.. namely, you guessed it, charlie groun.

our belated christmas card!

2010-12-27T14:55:00.000-06:00

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at home with baby van

2010-12-20T21:56:00.000-06:00

my best big friend cope didn't care much one way or the other about that new little baby, other than to say "sweeet baby" and pet him a little.

cope was also not so into mom's request for taking pics with that baby... but he did manage to take some pics with his own camera..

nana and cope were chumming it up at home and she also loved it when she finally got some baby van time.

nana gave van his first sponge bath.. except the diaper area!! she was too afraid to take a peek at his circumcision site so she left that up to mama.

i think my new pal is settling in just fine!!

welcome to the world baby van!!

2010-12-20T21:21:00.008-06:00

Thursday we went to the hospital at around 6 am to bring baby van into the world..

much like his brother, he has a flare for drama and didn't come into the world in a well-behaved manor. he chose to come in blue and breathless, actually needing to be breathed for with a bag until he decided he was done messing with us.. right when the pediatrician came in to intervene, he cried and pinked up! fortunately for us, we had seen this trick by his older brother so we were pretty calm about it, relatively speaking.

daddy was thrilled with our new fat addition! 8 lbs 11 oz at 11:54 AM.. he was 20 1/2 inches long.

after a good scrub over my pal looked much more handsome.

van's first girl catcher hair-do!!

nana thought her new pal was pretty sweet too..

and cope was pretty indifferent!

but did manage to borrow mom's camera and do some photography of his own.

we had to give cope mom's camera game to get him in the bed so we could take a picture together.. let's just say he was NOT interested in family photos..

my sweet pal was quite a snuzzler and we got to take him home the next day after his circumcision..

what a great early christmas gift! we are so lucky and blessed to have this healthy, sweet baby.

thanksgiving!

2010-12-01T13:11:00.006-06:00

thanksgiving was fun at the madray house. we missed being with family since mama can't fly, but spent the day with our friends the burys. cope got to play with his good pal joe, which he enjoyed, and of course we ate too much!! cope did bring home a nifty hat from ms. tara's house that he wore to the grocery store to the tune of many compliments from the shoppers..

he also got to play with daddy's deer that he killed and thought that was pretty cool
when it came time to do the christmas decorating, my pal was NOT a very useful engine. he kept tearing off my fake candy canes and trying to eat them, relocating the rest of the ornaments, "mommy put it on the top" and breaking the ones we left on the bottom. he also kept collecting a deck of cards and throwing them at the tree.. i guess that is his creative contribution... and of course he had to get down and see what dad was doing when he added the water.. what a helper!!

my sweet pal is growing up too quickly!! it is so fun to watch him experiment and learn, though.. he really is the the love of my life.. they say your heart grows big enough for a second but i have to wait to see that before i believe it. i guess we'll find out soon enough.. we have so many things to be thankful for!

2 weeks til baby...

2010-12-01T11:42:00.011-06:00

as it gets closer to baby time, my pal and his dad have been hanging out together having boy time a good bit..

daddy and cope taking a family nap (i started on the couch next to cope but the baby takes up too much room so i had to relocate to the bedroom!)
cope and his new favorite toy..

"daddy you want to play cars?? i love to play cars!"

when we couldn't find my little buddy the other night at 10 pm but could hear him snoring.. we ultimately found him under his bed!! we had to literally move the bed to get him out from under there and put him to sleep..

and of course cope and dad spend a lot of time outdoors together.. they definitely have that in common.

my pal has also been practicing his sharing and friendship skills.. here he is at a party with his pal chloe and his treats that he has grown to love (another trait he picked up from dad).. he actually picked up a cupcake off the ground (footprint and all) and started chowing down before we got it out of his hands!

spooky halloween

2010-11-04T10:08:00.009-05:00

so we started off our halloween festivities by attending the georgetown parks and rec halloween carnival, which cope found to be fantastic.. not only did he get a sucker (his favorite food), but there were balls involved! he also got to stay up way past his bedtime because mommy dropped the truck keys in a field.. we were eventually reunited with them, but it was a longer trek than planned. then on friday my pal had his halloween party at ms. tara's house. he wore his handy manny costume but still didn't really "get it".. he sure loved the cupcakes, though!

by the time the "real deal" got her on sunday night, my pal had become well-versed in trick or treating, courtesy of the dora halloween special which played non-stop on our DVR for the last week. we went to the carsons' house and cope's pals evan and chloe (thing 1 and thing 2), weston (the fonz), and fat baby tyler (the green monster who is 12 months old and weighs just a pound or 2 shy of cope's weight), were out in full force!

my buddy loved all the spooky decorations in the neighborhood and ran (leading the pack) from house to house.
my pal got to eat one small bag of m&m's and then became the neighborhood start by handing out candy, 2 huge handfuls at a time, to all of the stragglers at ms. chelcy's house. he had a ball and we did too!

fall!

2010-11-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

so we went to marble falls and visited the pumpkin patch last weekend. my pal found the goats to be the most exciting thing there. he was a little tentative at first (or maybe dad was just worried he'd get his short baby fingers chewed off)

he latched on to a little yellow/white pumpkin and that was the one we took home for him.

my handsome little fella! we had quite the time until he pooped his pants and we realized we didn't have wipes. so our visit was somewhat shortlived but still fun.. a little trip to HEB for wipes, some clean britches and one thomas and elmo potty movie later, we were home and my buddy had a good nap.

mr. independent

2010-10-27T11:29:00.004-05:00

so mr. bossy britches is becoming quite independent, but shows me that he still needs us in the cutest ways... we basically have to lock him in his room at night with the safety knob cover thing (otherwise we have to put him back literally 1000 times), so ocassionally he'll send us smoke signals like this one... this is his favorite book right now and he'll read the whole thing to you. "now stop turning pages!" he'll holler. he will also feign illness and distress, but we are too smart for those wolf cries. eventually he falls asleep in the floor and we put him back in bed. not ideal, but that's what we are working with.

he thinks he can prepare his own meals. he tries to cook toast without me, and he can put butter and jelly on anything with his cute mini-butter knife that lives in the lower cabinet so he can reach it. he also "cooks" oatmeal (he loves to help stir and knows which buttons to push on the microwave). the messier the better.

he is also now at the point where he is enjoying some of the things dad likes.. here they are at a football game that steve's buddy is coaching.. my pal wanted to run out and play football with the big boys!

last but not least, he is getting pretty bossy in terms of what he wants to do and when he wants to do it.. patience is not yet a virtue. he is starting to love dora and diego and here he is with his halloween spooky kitty cat glasses. he loves all things halloween! we will drive around the neighborhood and he will point out every pumpkin on every porch and say "do you see it mama? do you see the pumpkin? i see it!" he loves spooky ghosts and skeletons and i think once he gets a taste of the halloween candy we may have a hard time getting him to stop eating it.. i guess he has his daddy's sweet tooth too.

the life and times of copeland

2010-10-13T12:12:00.010-05:00

sorry it's been so long! we have been busy.. cope has been in early childhood intervention for some language delay but is now talking up a storm.. we went with our good friends chloe and evan to see thomas and cope asked for days to go back! we had to tell him that thomas went back to the island of sodor to work..

cope riding thomas

my pal is now sleeping in his big boy bed (well... he usually falls asleep in the floor at the foot of the bed with his sweet paw poking out.. then we put him in the bed)..

cope has also become obsessed with the camera and "cheese".. this one is a self-portrait..

cope has been really busy with dad working in the yard and playing since the weather is cooler

he's become a much more dignified eater and now says "napkin please".

my pal is obsessed with balls just like his daddy.. he is truly his dad's son.
he'll say "try hit ball on tee mommy!"

like father like son! at least i have convinced daddy to wear a hat like his sweet little buddy. we are so blessed!

mommy weekend and disco fingers!

2010-09-09T13:11:00.007-05:00

my pal and i had great labor day weekend. daddy is elk hunting so we had some "mommy and cope" time. the first evening we played in the yard and my pal got some itchy bug bites so then i was too paranoid to take him back out. we went to the mall and played on the playscape, which my buddy enjoyed.

we splashed in the bath since it rained the rest of the weekend..

the ball popper has been resurrected to it's former status as favorite toy
and i taught my baby how to do disco fingers! what a great time we had, but cope can't wait for dad to come back from "camfing".. aka camping.

pig knuckles in germany

2010-09-02T09:10:00.011-05:00

so a month back steve and i went to germany to visit some good friends the leadbetters who are living there. cope, being the well-experienced traveler and son of his frugal father, tried to go as a carry on, but he wouldn't quite fit so we had to buy him his own ticket.. he hung out with nana and papa in jesup while we traveled across the big pond.

he just had a terrible time being spoiled while we were gone.. green-mama, nancy and grandma deedee took him swimming and got in his good graces.

while we were gone we explored the area around stuttgart germany where our friends live. we ate big pretzels and drank big beers.

and steve ate a pig knuckle at the hofbrahaus. it's exactly what it sounds like.

hitler used to have get togethers here..

we visited a concentration camp, which was of course, very sobering and sad.

and we took castle road to heidelberg and visited the castle there.

this is a local farmer who drove through the streets and rang a bell and hollered..it's like a vegetable ice cream truck.. very cool!!

i missed my pal pretty bad, but at least we had sweet fat shane to love on!

we had a good trip but i don't think we'll be leaving my pal again anytime soon.

O-r-e-o!

2010-08-26T09:52:00.004-05:00

my pal had his first oreo and his opinion is..

"that's delicious!"

here he is trying to share with daddy..

look at those sweet cookie lips!

4th of July

2010-08-16T12:49:00.004-05:00

i know we have been MIA, but we've been busy! we went to salem for the 4th and floated the good ol' current river with my family and friends, i finally took my boards, and we went to germany for a week (with a quick little trip to jesup on either end). i am finally working at my big girl dermatology job 3 1/2 days a week, cope and daddy are back into the swing at work, and my belly is growing. we are having another boy (whew.. i have a mortal fear of hair bows)... and cope has had a great summer visiting with his family! fortunately, it was beautiful weather in missouri.

cope loved auntie carol's mulberry tree!

so anyway, cope had a ball with his cousins and his grandma and auntie carol. he didn't care much for the fireworks.. maybe next year?? all my pal really needs is a pile of dirt and a container of water and he is in hog heaven!

evan's birthday and my big boy bed

2010-07-01T11:53:00.004-05:00

so there it is.. and there i am, asleep in the floor next to it. and in case you are wondering, no... i don't wear those big boy underwear, i just flung them out of the dresser before i fell asleep.

my pal has recently become obsessed with "simming", so his pal evan's super summer splash time swimming party was quite fun.

he got so cold whne the sun went down his lips were purple, but it didn't stop him!!

my pal also got a new trampoline which he really loves, too.. all in all, it's been a pretty good summer for my pal so far.

the river and friends

2010-06-20T11:36:00.001-05:00

my pal is loving the river. we found a little spot about 10 miles from our house with slow, warm, shallow water and it's my pal's new favorite place. he loves to throw rocks, the bigger the better! his favorites are the ones that are so heavy that he can only lift them while they are underwater. when he gets them to the surface, they are too heavy and i have to help him. he says "heavy!". we have also learned that he loves to go underwater and you have to stay right next to him because at first he hadn't figured out that he can't stay underwater indefinitely.

yesterday cope had some pals over for a little play date and all the kids are growing up so fast.. they will be the georgetown varsity football team before we know it..

nancy and green-mama

2010-06-14T08:46:00.008-05:00

cope's great aunt nancy and great grandmother came to visit last weekend. we went to dale's essenhaus, this cute little burger joint/beirgarten in walburg, tx, just up the road. cope could of course care less about the genuine texas music and people two-stepping, but LOVED all the rocks and the playscape. we even got greenmama on a zip line! not bad for being 80 years old.

cope did great with "nancy" but grandmama turned into "green-mama", which, needless to say, grandmama didn't mind a bit. there was a little bit of spoiling going on, with nancy bringing him a supergenius talking elmo and then a trip to target with new "base-bock" toys (that's sand box in cope speak), and a slew of new thomas trains. his favorite was "bill-ben", two twin trains named bill and ben. cope doesn't make the distinction between them, he just calls them both bill-ben. i wasn't sure if he was going to give up the box to be scanned by the lady working, but he eventually handed it over for 2.5 seconds. it was a great visit and cope really enjoyed spending time with his family.

memorial day in fredericksburg

2010-06-01T08:38:00.015-05:00

mom, dad and baby spent the weekend at an awesome little cabin B&B in the super cute little hill country town of fredericksburg. we stopped at a petting zoo on the way, and after pulling cope off this old plastic playscape, we finally got him somewhat into the animals.
there were goats and sheep and deer and lemurs and all sorts of exotic animals that we didn't know the name of! cope was really more into the dirt and the bucket of food than he was the animals, but one particular deer he sort of warmed up to.

when we got to the cabin we were greeted by one of the peacocks. there were also deer, chickens, cows, and lots of birds to watch.

my pal really loved the cabin and made himself right at home.
we also did some outings.. we went to pedernales falls state park and my pal threw every rock he could get his paws on, including some that he could barely pick up. we also went out for a nice dinner (for which my pal was quite well behaved) and took him to a local park for some slide time.

we had a great vacation!

busy spring!

2010-05-25T08:06:00.020-05:00

my pal continues his love affair with dirt..
and is awful partial to his slide too!

mom had her graduation ceremony from residency (finally!!)

the first fawn was born in our neighborhood

my friend has been working on his moves..

and we have been working on his discipline. let's call it a work in progress. here he is acting like we are pulling his toenails out when all we are doing is trying to have him clean up!! i guess spring cleaning will have to wait til next year.

happy mama's day

2010-05-10T19:20:00.009-05:00

we had a great mother's day weekend. daddy was gone hunting friday and saturday, so cope and i had some great mommy and cope time. he "helped" me water the trees, ran around the yard, and let me snuggle him while he watched some thomas.

sunday daddy made my best pal a sandbox, which was actually my mother's day present. as you may remember from previous posts, my little best friend has a strong draw to dirt (mostly my off-limits dirt). so now he is out of my tomatoes!

and then my pal did a little dance for us to top of my perfect weekend!

cheese!

2010-04-26T10:58:00.007-05:00

my pal has mastered the art of "cheese" whenever mom wants to take a picture. he has also mastered the art of sitting in any toy box he sees (usually after he violently empties it).

"CHEESE!"

yesterday my little buddy was in rare form. he was defiant and spent most of the day getting in trouble.. he would run in our neighbor Anne's yard and I'd tell him not to.. then he would run in Anne's back yard, then I'd tell him not to. Then he took his hat off twice.. I told him if he did it again we were going to go inside, so he stared me in the face, took of his hat, threw it down and ran as fast as he could all the way to the back fence in our yard. when he finally got off restriction and came back out, dad was mowing. he thought cope might like it, but he ended up shaking like a leaf with his lip stuck out.. after i got him off that mean ol' mower i told him "cheese!" and he flashed me a giant smile which made all of us feel a lot better!

easter and more dirt dirt dirt

2010-04-16T12:05:00.004-05:00

we went to visit cope's pal joe bury on easter. we had a great meal but cope just wanted to play in the dirt!! I think he might need a sand box.

then we had to go home and get our scrub on.. my pal had pretty good easter! we have a movie of him seeing his basket when he woke up, but i have to edit it.. i'll get it to you soon.

bluebonnets

2010-04-03T21:37:00.006-05:00

so in texas, its the thing to do to have pictures of your kids in the bluebonnets.. last year there was no rain so there weren't many bluebonnets. the year before, cope was just a little blob of of baby who couldn't really pose for pics.. so this year, after we missed the city wide easter egg hunt because we showed up at 9:15 (thanks daddy) to the 9 AM hunt, we stopped to take some pics.
of course my pal didn't want to cooperate. at first he would have nothing to do with the bluebonnets.. then we started counting them and he started to participate some..

then we found a bigger patch with really tall bluebonnets and my buddy chased dad through them as i snapped pics... of course he wouldn't sit down and pose for me, but every time he fell down i'd run after him and snap pics. he had sooooo much fun. way better than the silly softball field easter egg hunt.. you are off the hook daddy.

i'm 2!

2010-03-28T13:56:00.009-05:00

my pal's birthday started off right.. he broke into his presents early.

then we had a get together with some of his best pals and their parents. we had build-your-own pizza, which dad grilled until he ran out of gas. good thing he told me repeatedly that he had checked it and we had "more than plenty".. but never fear, we baked the rest in the oven..

we had some thomas cake,

the little ones watched some thomas movies and then it was thomas present time (aka chaos)

cope loves dirt

2010-03-28T12:38:00.005-05:00

mom has been studying for an important test so i apologize for the long delay.. birthday pics will be posted soon, but i thought i might share my pals new passion.. dirt.

he moves it from each potted plant, one handful at a time, to it's new and improved destination.

his helper is the kitty that is staying with us, who cope loves to boss around. he'll say "get down kitty cat!" anytime the cat jumps on something.

and of course he has not forgotten his other passion. he has a handful of choo choos while he is excavating..

abc.. it's easy as 1-2- 3

2010-02-12T09:51:00.006-06:00

my pal and his play things

2010-02-12T09:26:00.008-06:00

my best little pal loves 3 things more than anything else: 1. rough housing 2. thomas the train and 3. his dvd player. we took him to the jump and climb a few weeks ago and he got to rough house with his dad in the ball pits, which he just loved.

then at our friends' super bowl party he got to hang out with his pal wes. they rough housed some more and watched some thomas.. you know, a little "man time".

the potty..

2010-01-25T21:16:00.002-06:00

my best pal did a potty stop a few weeks ago... he is definitely NOT ready to potty train, i think we just got lucky.. he promptly peed right through his thomas 'roos about 10 min after the movie!

post-op cope

2010-01-25T21:15:00.003-06:00

after my pal got home from his surgery, he actually felt pretty good. we played inside the first day, but that didn't last long.

we got outside on the 2nd day and cope helped dad with his arrows and with some dirt.

my pal also spent some time playing in the garage.. another of his favorite places is behind the wheel..

and of course.. bball and laundry baskets. my pal is such a playful guy, even when he's not feeling 100%.

2010-01-15T20:12:00.003-06:00

my friend has had a stressful week. he had a big lymph node pop up on the right side of his neck in november after he had been sick with an ear infection. he was on antibiotics for about 3 weeks without resolution, so we saw the ENT doc. we decided to wait for a month to give it a chance to go away on it's own, but it didn't, so monday, my little pal had surgery. we took him to get a fresh haircut the day before and then slicked his hair up in a girl catcher hair-do the day of the procedure.

he was so brave and tough. he howled when they tried to check his blood pressure so the reading ended up 150/140!! he watched some thomas the train and when the anesthesiologist came to meet him, he hopped out of the bed and followed him out the door. when the doc turned around, cope gave him 5, then walked back and gave daddy 5, then gave mama 5, then climbed back into bed to wait to taken to surgery. when the time came, a big burly nurse guy named butch came in to get him and he climbed into his arms and off he went without a tear.

back home at the ranch my pal was back to rule breaking as usual.

christmas number 3.. in snowy chicago!

2009-12-27T21:20:00.004-06:00

we spent dec 25th (christmas #3) in chicago at my sister's house with all of my family.
mr. cope was trying to get into all of the pictures!!

cope and his cousin atticus (i call him platypus) both became better at sharing over the weekend!

we had fun, but we prefer the sun! it was 50 and sunny when we got back so we went on the trails and had lunch at whole foods before heading back home.. merry christmas, austin style.

christmas x 3

2009-12-27T20:15:00.012-06:00

my pal had a pretty good go of it this year. we went home to jesup for a wedding and mr. cope had a good visit with his family..

at home in texas, santa was very good to my little buddy.

he liked his chair so much he chose to eat breakfast in it..

i think his favorite is actually his kitchen set.. we may have a budding chef on our hands.

and as for round 3 of christmas.. please see the next post!

missing his dad

2009-12-22T16:19:00.003-06:00

cope was missing his dad this morning! he hung on the door and even put on daddy's hat.

he got over it the second we got in the car and started our morning sing along. he even did the turkey sound for his mama this morning when we sang "old mr. copeland had a farm". i think it was a tribute to his daddy!

santa claus

2009-12-22T16:12:00.002-06:00

well he must be real because it is the same guy 2 years in a row! my pal was a little less friendly this year.

maybe next year he'll put it together that this is the guy who brings the toys!!

thanksgiving in jesup

2009-12-10T12:36:00.007-06:00

my best little friend had a ball with his family at thanksgiving.. he and his aunt nancy are becoming inseparable... she is everybody's favorite and she and grandmama were responsible for some handy manny tools that my little pal just loves.it seems that my little pal really enjoys an audience.. i think he got that from his daddy.

cope and miss priss got pretty tight over the visit as well.. here they are playing in the dirt at papa shannon and granny genny's.

and of course he had a blast at his grandaddy's place on thanksgiving day too. he loved visiting all of his aunts.

here he is trying to feed grandmama a rock.

they ended up being pretty sweet on each other too. it was a busy but great visit and we have so much to be thankful for!

frequent flyer cope

2009-12-04T16:52:00.003-06:00

my pal spent a few days in cold chicago with aunt mel and her crew while mom and dad had conferences out of town.

he did a great job and love love loved playing with his cousins. he really wanted to wrestle with them!

he ended up becoming a stair climbing pro instead and sure did keep everybody busy. he had a blast and mom was at ease leaving her big boy alone without mom or dad for the first time ever!

love you!

2009-12-04T16:33:00.002-06:00

my buddy has learned my two favorite words!

4 flavors of cope

2009-11-16T08:31:00.004-06:00

my pal comes in 4 flavors: playful

helpful (which usually doesn't help at all and really makes more work for mama.. but nonetheless is so sweet)

lovey (usually involves him watching TV and me sneaking love)and trouble. he's been that flavor quite a bit lately. i guess we are into our terrible twos!

nana and uncle sherod

2009-11-11T20:12:00.005-06:00

my best pal was sick sick sick last week! good thing nana was here to baby him. he is feeling much better and although nana missed him at his full speed self, they still had a ball together.

he also took to his uncle sherod.. he even gave him his lovie!

Halloween with my pals

2009-11-01T20:45:00.012-06:00

cope had a practice run at his costume friday when he wore it to "work". here he is breaking it in.

saturday we went to the carsons' for a neighborhood trick or treat caravan. from left are evan, big wes, cope, and baby chloe.

baby tyler was a little more relaxed about the whole thing than the rest of the gang.
big wes made himself right at home.. he ran into this house!

when it was all said and done we had some pretty tired little ones on our hands but we had a blast! thanks for hosting us chelcy and deakon.

cookie.. please???

2009-11-01T20:39:00.000-06:00

nana... you have no idea what you are getting yourself into this week (or you aunt mel in a few weeks). my pal has learned the art of throwing fits.

fall! fall! fall!

2009-10-28T20:33:00.003-05:00

my pal loves the fall!

cats and dogs

2009-10-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

he also does cows, ducks, pigs and something sort of akin to sheep and horses... but cats and dogs are his favorites!

early morning sneak attack

2009-10-18T21:00:00.000-05:00

so my pal and i have an early morning routine. he wakes up, starts to chatter, then i go get him out of bed, change his diapy, then take him to the kitchen to get his milk and "coke-ies", which equals puffs. the other AM i was not quite awake and my best pal had his puffs open and upside down before i knew what happened.. i guess he was pretty hungry for his pre-breakfast snack! at least he is polite and tried to share.

mr. spaghetti moustache

2009-10-14T15:34:00.001-05:00

my buddy doesn't know how to do anything but smile when he's eating spaghetti!

the library

2009-10-08T21:39:00.002-05:00

we went with grandma donna to the public library for the first time this weekend. my pal just loved it! there is a jeep, tons of books, a big play mat, and lots of kitchen toys. the perfect place for a rainy sunday. my best friend just loved it and now i think i need to get him some plastic food and silverware!

who's the boss?

2009-10-05T21:24:00.003-05:00

i think you know.. my little pal runs the show. he thinks he is sooo big britchens.. here he is in dad's shoes with his own big boy spiderman electric toothbrush (thanks aunt mel!)

this independence leads to lots of head bonks.

he runs the show when mom's supposed to be in charge,

when dad's supposed to be in charge...

and if neither of us is around, he will do whatever he wants, including sitting in the dvd box.. he was actually stuck and i had to retrieve him!

basketball jones

2009-10-05T20:57:00.004-05:00

watch out michael jordan! sorry family and friends for the hiatus.. we're back on track! more pics and video of my best pal soon.

yeah for fall!

2009-09-16T21:18:00.007-05:00

we are so glad for the cooler weather here in central texas. we were one day shy of the all time >100 degree days/year record. now that it's cooled down some, we have been able to enjoy the outdoors a bit. unfortunately, the first time it was cool enough to go out, we had about 8-10" of rain in 36 hours.. so off to wal-mart we went hunting rain boots so my pal could go out. no such luck, but i did find these jewels..

here is cope practicing his calls with daddy.

when we aren't outside, my pal likes to pretend he is by digging up my one remaining plant in the house...

or flinging puffs all over the house like he's outside and it doesn't matter.. note the stray puff on his shoulder. dad often wakes up with puffs stuck to his back after cope spills them in our bed, too!

and of course my pal loves to read with his mom while dad is watching football and play all of his favorite games, usually at times when he should be eating, sleeping or laying still for us to change him.. what a blast he is!

cope's favorites

2009-09-16T21:09:00.004-05:00

my best pal has a few favorite things.. one is his hi 5 movie that aunt nancy gave him.. which he is enjoying here with his pal weston on the best invention ever, the portable dvd player.

he also loooooves balls.. including his basketball and goal.

he also loves his various lovies in this order:

1. tan lovie that aunt mel got him.. we left that in georgia for a while so he was using his # 2 favorite that is pictured here in the floor

2. yellow taggie lovie that grandma diane got him

3. blue dog lovie from chrissie and mariana and nana

4. winnie the pooh bigger lovie that ? nana or diane? got him

in this pic, he must have lost his taggie lovie over the edge...

so sometime in the night he woke up, realized he was lovie-less and reached through the bars to pull in pooh from the toybox.. problem was, pooh's head wouldn't fit! daddy and i laughed ourselves silly when we came in and saw that!

greatgrandmama's birthday

2009-09-12T19:30:00.004-05:00

my pal went to jesup a few weekends ago to visit and he had a ball. the ladies just wore him out!he danced til he couldn't stand up straight..

he and his nana had big fun together... and miss priss was so helpful with him!

he ran, ran, ran all over grandaddy's yard.

and he played some mean ball as he so loves to do..

cope and dad had a really nice visit and they were so glad to be there for grandmama's birthday.. cope will be back in november so you guys better keep working out so you can keep up with him!

the rewards of parenting

2009-09-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

we bought my buddy this mini-basketball goal because he LLOOOOOOVVEEES to play ball.. his face lit up when he saw the box, but he was really tired so we laid him down for a nap, and when he woke up, it was set up and ready to go. is he unappreciative already? i thought he would wait at least til his pre-teen years.

18 months old

2009-08-21T08:05:00.005-05:00

my pal is now a year and a half old.. we went to the doctor and he's getting really tall (75%ile), but he's also slimming out (25%ile in weight).. here he is on the big boy scale.. no more naked baby seat scale.

he eats like a horse, but he also play play plays all day long which is why he is slim, i think. here he is going after some "cookies" in the pantry.

he also loves balls more than anything in the world.. he basically loves whatever dad has, including his golf clubs.

he is talking up a storm and loves to tell me what kitty cats, dogs, duckys and cows say. but ball is his favorite word! He also loves to help.. here he is helping with the recycling.

basically, our best little pal who is so busy and growing so fast. you can't blink or you'll miss something.

spelling and raspberries

2009-08-11T21:06:00.004-05:00

we had such a good time this evening! my buddy ate chicken and rice, some grilled cheese, 3/4 of a pint of raspberries, and 2 small pancakes.. he was hungry! then we worked on our spelling.. he was a blast.. i just couldn't wait to share this with you guys.

wild and crazy baby

2009-08-10T08:32:00.007-05:00

my little friend has been getting wild and crazy at home with mom and dad. his babysitter was off on thursday and friday so my pal didn't get his sillies out like he usually does with his friends at "work". he is also getting bigger and is less and less lovey with us, but occasionally we sneak in a hug or too.

he is so busy and loves to explore and destroy! he is 100% boy.

2009-08-03T09:22:00.006-05:00

cope loooooooves his dad. he wants to be just like him. they are the best of play pals.

they push each other around on the choo choo..

and cope plays with dad's box of engineering tools and gadgets.

they also love to relax together on a saturday and watch some toons..

they really enjoy being basketball teammates too.

in fact, my best pal loves all types of balls.. and tires and wheels and any thing else that is round. this weekend we also found out how much he loves balloons!

2009-07-24T11:45:00.003-05:00

my best pal was a little wild and crazy last night so after his bath we gave him a "girl catcher" hair-do.

when he got up this morning, he still a had a bit of a spike so i moussed him up and sent him off to work. when i took him to see miss tara she said he didn't need any help in the girl catching category!

aunt nancy and grandmama

2009-07-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

my best little friend had a great visit with his great grandmama and aunt nancy. he was so excited to see his family that he wanted to go ahead and eat dinner so he'd be ready to play when daddy brought them home from the airport.

after dinner and a scrub down, he put on a good show with his new game of "mailman" where he repeatedly took shapes in and out of his mailbox and delivered them. he got lots of applause, which he also enjoyed.

cope and his aunt nancy became big pals on the trip and had so much fun together.

then we had a nice dinner together at wildfire, mom and dad's favorite georgetown hangout.

my best little pal also learned some new tricks this weekend.. like "dake you" which he says everytime he gives you something, and the ever courteous skill of putting dirty silverware in the drawer every time you open the dishwasher. we are still working on the clean/dirty concept. we had a ball with our visitors and can't wait to see them again.

happy (way late) 4th of july!

2009-07-14T12:34:00.004-05:00

we had a pretty good 4th. we played in the pool, but my pal's attention span is pretty short!

he eventually jumped ship and just ran around the yard carrying his monkey towel.

we went to some friends' for a bbq where he thoroughly enjoyed the dog, and when we got home my pal was so tired. unfortunately, the fireworks woke him up but it was just a good excuse to love on him for a few more minutes. we really enjoyed the holiday.

dinnertime!

2009-07-02T13:00:00.004-05:00

father's day weekend

2009-06-21T20:18:00.007-05:00

we had a ball this weekend. we took dad to the japanese steak house on friday night and cope was loving the chopsticks.

we also swung by chuck e. cheese for the first time ever and my best pal was in hog heaven.

saturday night my best pal discovered his new favorite trick. sitting in his toy bucket over an d over and over.

and sunday cope and dad watched some golf and enjoyed each other's company.. mom managed to sneak in some mommy & cope play time too. it was an awesome weekend.

what exactly does a 16 mth old do all day?

2009-06-14T11:27:00.011-05:00

we had a good morning.. dad ran from out by our house on the trail to the park downtown. cope and i ate a leisurely waffle breakfast and then met dad at the park and played.

my best pal is always so much fun in the mornings. he always has a big cup of milkers when he wakes up.

he also has some puffs out of his snack keeper or a gerber graduates "wheel". he calls them all cookies of course, and i'll keep letting him think that cereal-type snacks are cookies as long as he doesn't catch on.

he also loves to brush his teeth thoroughly and give himself a round of applause every 2 seconds because of how good of a job he is doing.

in the evenings he likes to dance and catch up on his correspondence.. the other night he called 911.. sorry!! then it's off to bed for baby dreams before he gets up and starts a new day.

busy busy

2009-06-03T20:26:00.004-05:00

my little best friend has been working so hard. about the last week or two, he has turned into a handsome little destruction machine. sit your purse down... he'll have every little thing flung out in 2 seconds. open a drawer and he'll have every pair of dad's underwear flung over his head before you even realize he is in the room.

the seafood guy at the store brought this crawdad out to show cope, but we had to take over because we know that cope could easily launch it at an unsuspecting lady and have the grocery store in chaos in no time. on this particular day, he couldn't keep his paw out of that crusty baguette he is grabbing at in the pic and he kept shoveling it in until he wound up with a gummy glob of bread that had nearly cemented his mouth shut. it took me about 30 seconds of him screaming while i dug it out. the poor shoppers thought i was abusing him!

and as evidenced in this pic, my pal loves to play, play, play.

at the end of the day he literally passes out because he has been so busy. here he is with his poor llama hanging out of the crib and his thumb just barely hanging in his mouth. what a hard day!

hanging out

2009-05-21T10:29:00.013-05:00

mom and dad often argue who is better friends with cope. i think i'm his best pal and steve, of course, thinks that he is.

cope loves to bathe with his mom's help.

he likes to eat with both of us.

he loves to exercise.. both working out with dad and dancing for his mama.

but last weekend, cope stayed home with me and baked a cake while dad went turkey hunting and i thought that might have given me the advantage.

but ultimately sesame street beats both of us.