Happy 2 months!

Happy 2 months birthday to my cute little brother, Cooper! We can't believe how much he has grown in 60 days. Cooper is a happy little chunker and I mean that in a nice way. He has chubby little legs and arms that he kicks and pumps in happy delight. Cooper started smiling at 1 month and he makes lots of cooing and giggling sounds now. It is super cute to hear. He is developing a very strong neck and can hold his head up during tummy time for what seems to be a long time. Cooper has a silly personality... very strong-willed and vocalizes very well when he is not happy (which isn't too often). Mommy feared she would not have another cuddly baby, but she was wrong. She has two cuddly little boys and is so thankful for that. The little outfit my brother is wearing is one of Mommy's favorite ones from when I was a baby. My parents think that Cooper is going to surpass my size by the time he is one. You can see from the picture of me below that Cooper is starting to take after my Daddy more and we don't look as identical as we once did.

Me (Caden) at 3 months above

Cooper at 2 months

That cute and silly smile of his

Last Friday, we had a playdate at Heather and Finley's house. I haven't been there in a while but after a few hours, I sure hope to have many more return visits! He has really fun toys~ the firetruck being one of the major hits of the party. Finley's cousin Spencer was visiting from Hudson and the two of them are too fun to watch! I wish I had a little cousin like that close by (hurry up and move back home Bennett!)

You can tell how seriously I took my job as a firefighter. The bell was fun to ring.

Lily and Ethan were also there for our playdate and after lots of playing we sat down for a picnic snack. It makes Mommy laugh at how funny kids are... we are all sitting together but we are all doing our own thing, hence the scattered kids in the picture above!

Laurie Jo practiced holding baby Cooper while we were there. I was a bit jealous since I LOVE LJ and talk about her everyday. It seems that my brother Cooper also thinks she is fantastic; just look at his excited face! Laurie Jo is going to have a baby in October so Lily needs to get used to be on the sidelines, kidding of course :)

On the weekend, there was the Pure Waters Day parade. It was a real scorcher and the parade was during my nap. We went anyhow and after one hour, Mommy said it was time to go. Daddy and I sat on the curb and caught lots of candy while Mommy and Cooper stood under an awning for shade.

Daddy's department had a float so he brought me to the truck to say, "Hi-ya!" I got candy and Daddy got a beer. Funny how that worked out.

Mommy estimates that I ate 3 pounds of candy. Every piece that was thrown to me needed to be opened, licked or eaten. My parents started to hoard my candy and came up with the awful idea that it should be used as bribery for potty training. I will get to that topic in just a minute.

My brother was so excited that he could hardly contain himself :) This is what Cooper looked like the entire hour of the parade~ even through the noise of the high school band, emergency vehicle sirens, Tin Lizzies, and all!

On Sunday, Aaron, Bridget, Sophie and Sam came to visit us. They haven't seen Cooper since July 4th weekend and they couldn't believe how big he was! Sophie couldn't wait to hold him so she got dibs on Cooper. Sam and I were not as excited to hold the baby but rather wanted to play outside. Sam liked my John Deere tractor. It is the hit among all kids ages 1-10 in our neighborhood! I do pretty good about sharing the tractor with others.

Sam really liked the reverse option on the John Deere. As Mommy grabbed her camera, I tumbled out.

After my spill, I ran to Sophie for a hug and a little consoling. I decided to take a break from John for a few days.

Mommy thought this was a cute picture of me as I sat in my high chair for breakfast. She thinks I look like a little boy (I wonder what I look like otherwise?)

We had another playdate with Molly and Max last week and again, we had some fun outside. You can see in the above picture that my friends liked John Deere but I still wasn't ready for it.

Mommy loves this picture of Molly and I. We were both gazing at our neighbor's swingset and wondered if we should venture over (our parents said, "NO!")

On Wednesday, we went to a music/spanish class. Supposedly kids are supposed to start young with learning a new language, but Mommy doesn't think I absorbed too much during our class. I was quite shy and pretended to be Daddy in church (he doesn't sing at all). I sat right next to Heather and Finley while Mommy had to juggle Cooper, a bottle and rhythm sticks (now that is multi-tasking!) It was a fun class and I chose to sing "Old McDonald" and "Twinkle Twinkle" on my way home in the car instead of in class.

Potty Training- Mommy was eager to get me going with potty training now that things are settling down with Cooper. For months, I have used the potty before bathtime and have done quite well with that. Lately, Mommy has me going after meals and nap and it is "hit and miss" as far as consistency goes. On Thursday, Mom bought me pull-ups, big boy underwear, and a second toilet~ this one is a Sesame Street seat (see above). The lady at the checkout at Target probably thought my Mommy was going a bit overboard. She also brought out M&M's and all of that delicious parade candy that she stole from me. The next day, I put myself on my potty about every 30 minutes or so. I didn't need reminders, just lots of trips to the candy bag. I had one little tinkle on the carpet and one accident in my pull-up. My parents thought they had this whole thing figured out until the next day. Since we were out and about they became off schedule and so did I. I am still going from time to time, but not as much as I did previously. My Mom thinks she needs to go buy some more candy for bribes and thanks to the teacher in her, she started one of those sticker charts... oh goody.

One of this weekend's events was kind of a silly one. Daddy needed to get his watch sized, so we went to the mall. While we were there, we saw lots of trucks for some kind of truck show that was going on. Just think of it as Wal-mart outdoors (you know the kind of people I am talking about). My face below is a classic, "Where am I?" look! In the above picture, you can see a guy with green pants, white shirt and a hat... he is Alex from the History Chanel show, Ice Road Truckers. Strangely, my parents enjoy watching this show from time to time. It is "dumb" entertainment in Mommy's words. I didn't meet or get an autograph from Alex since the line was super-duper long and two year olds are not good at waiting.

On Sunday, we met up with Papa on the St. Croix for a boat ride. Papa keeps his pontoon at the marina all summer and we kept waiting for Cooper to get a bit bigger and for the weather to cooperate. It was a perfect day for boating, swimming, and bean bags (Bag-O or whatever they call it).

Uncle Jimmy came for the ride and was the only one who kept Cooper awake. He slept almost the entire afternoon away!

Grandma Sharon gave me several juice boxes on our pontoon ride. My parents humored it since I rarely get the privilege of drinking these at home. Plus, I needed to stay hydrated on such a hot day.

Papa enjoys his boat and takes it out several times a week. I guess that is what they call retirement. I think I should retire and go boating every week too.

I decided to take the waves on when we were at the island. I love saying, "ready, set, go" while running into the waves. I laughed and laughed at myself and the water. You can say that I am fearless around water, which is a double-edged sword in my parents mind. Our two hour pontoon outing turned into a four hour one. Time went fast but we had a great time. We all agreed that we need to make more trips over to go boating with Papa and company.

Prior to this posting, Daddy took Cooper to see Great-Grandpa Bud. He is at a nursing home and has not been feeling too well lately. Great-Grandpa hasn't met Cooper yet and so Daddy decided he should bring him over to visit. As you can see, Cooper was tired from the day's events, but luckily, Grandpa Bud didn't seem to mind. He was all tucked into bed ready for some sleep and Cooper just sang him a sweet lullaby :) We hope that Great-Grandpa is comfortable, happy, and knows how much he is loved.

In closing, we look forward to this week as Cooper has his two-month doctor's appointment! He has not seen his pediatrician since he was one week old, so we are excited to hear his stats. Mommy is planning on a day at school this week followed by two days of work the following. Many people have asked if she is returning to teaching this fall. Mommy is job-sharing (working part-time) this year and will begin teaching at the end of October. She is thankful for the extra time to spend with her boys. Have a great week everyone!