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!

Splish Splash

I figured I would open this blog post with a beautiful picture of our family at Kristin and Mick's wedding, LOL! Daddy is not going to be happy about this one. While we were preparing for a quick photo of our family, a bird flew over and caught his attention. Hence, he has a ridiculous look on his face. So much for the beautiful family photo :)

The weather this past week has been blazing HOT! Mommy decided to venture out some more so we scheduled several playdates with friends and water. Shauna hosted a pool party which was quite the challenge for Mommy. Cooper was too hot in his carseat and I wanted to go down the ladder right into the deep end. She has realized how two boys with very different needs can pose challenges in many situations.

Shauna has a lot of fun toys in her backyard. One of my favorites was this mini lounger. Isn't it cute!?! I decided to take a little break and relax for a bit.

I was showing off Cooper's silly hat to our friends. You can tell that Cooper is stressed as he is nearly gnawing off his little finger.

Cooper has been smiling for several weeks now, but he is starting to do lots of cooing. He is especially happy in the mornings. He is a morning person, just like me and unlike our Mommy.

One of Mommy's favorite times is when Cooper hears my voice in the morning. He immediately smiles and begins to kick his chubby legs. I guess I have that affect on people :)

Another fun outing this week was to the local park. They have a fun playground area and a fountain for kids to splash in. We met up with Carter and Owen (Mommy works with their Mommy Rachel) and Heather and Finley too.

Mommy cannot believe they still allow these dangerous merry-go-round things at playgrounds! Luckily, we were the only kids on it, so we went nice and slow.

Finley and I had fun swinging together. Lately, I pitch a royal fit when it is time to stop swinging. I think I could honestly swing for 30 minutes at a time!

The fountain is a fun place to be on a hot day! It is a large fountain with chlorinated water (yeah to the germ killer!) The second day we went to the fountain, we caught on and brought our own beach toys for the water.

The second day was not as exciting as the first. The Moms were wondering why we were all hanging around them eating goldfish. We still had fun, but maybe the hot weather was getting to us.

I created new fun on our second trip by playing peek-a-boo with my John Deere beach towel. I then thought it would be exciting to run through the water with it on my head. Mommy has decided to pick her battles and this one was not worth fighting.

Our first day at the fountain was a busy one. Not as crowded as a weekend day, but fairly busy. It was especially fun to get my head wet and take drinks of water.

Mommy and Heather cracked up at this picture. This was taken at the end of our fountain playdate. Can you tell that I had enough?

Finley was still ready to keep on playing, me... not so much.

Last weekend, we had Kristin's wedding. We stopped by Papa's so that he could give Mommy and Daddy their anniversary gift (10 years on August 12th!) Their gift was not the Harley, sorry Daddy! Papa gave them MN Viking vs Packers tickets! Mommy was excited about that one. I love going to Papa's because he has lots of fun things that I shouldn't touch. His Harley is one toy that Papa doesn't mind me crawling on, to Mommy's dismay.

I kept asking to go on a ride and Mommy would quickly reply, "No." What a bummer for me because I think this thing could go fast.

Before we went to Papa's we spent some time at Grandma's and Grandpa Jamie house. Great-auntie Karen gave me some hugs. She was in town for the wedding and we rarely get to see each other.

The big day finally arrived for Mommy's cousin Kristin. Kristin and Mick got married in the cities and we were excited for the special event. This is Grandma's side of the family, which is a bit small, so a wedding is a big deal and it was time to debut my baby brother. Cousins Lexi and Sam were there to keep me company.

My Mom dressed Cooper and I similarly (Cooper in a shortall and me in a plaid shirt that matched). I can already see the nerdiness in these situations. She attempted to get a picture of us boys together, but I was more interested in the golf course which is where the reception was.

We LOVE this picture of the four "grandkids." It is a miracle that we are all looking at the camera at the same time.

Mommy is showing off her new ring from Daddy. Daddy has been saving for many years since he decided he would do things differently at his wise old age:) Mommy picked out the ring and Daddy gave it to her since she has had to put up with him for 10 years ( I think it is the other way around!)

Happy 10 year anniversary Mommy and Daddy! May you have many more wonderful years together!

As I was saying, Kristin got married last weekend which meant we had many family members to celebrate with! I am in hardly any pictures because I loved the waterfalls and golf course, the place where the outdoor pictures were taken above. Daddy left with me around 8:30 since I started to fall apart. My little brother was a "gem" all night and was able to stay with Mommy, lucky duck!

Kristin was a beautiful bride and we really like Mick too! He is a cool guy and we wish them many happy years and babies together! That's my plug for more little cousins to play with.

Here is Kristin's Mom and stepdad meeting Cooper. You can tell he was real thrilled at the time. This was probably the only time he cried all night. He was perfect and happy to have lots of attention.

Great-Grandpa loves babies and he was really excited to finally meet Cooper. Most of Mommy's family lives in MN which means we don't get together as often as we would like. Great-Grandpa is happy to have another little hunter join the hunting party at the shack someday.

Great-Grandma looked lovely that evening and she also enjoyed "hogging" Cooper. Great-Grandma has spoiled Cooper (and I) with many beautiful handmade sweaters and outfits. She is currently working on Cooper's baptism outfit since he will be baptized in a few weeks.

Grandma and Grandpa Jamie having a fun time with the family.

Mommy's cousin Sarah (Kristin's little sister) finally introduced us to her boyfriend Collin. He was a very nice guy and we were happy to meet the man she talks about often.

Before everyone headed out for the night, some of the girls got a quick picture together. Cooper was all tuckered out and ready for bed. He slept his first 5 hour stretch that night.

In the morning, Grandma spent time with her favorite boys before we left for home. She loved seeing Cooper smile and coo at her. He has changed so much in the past few weeks and we celebrate all the little joys he brings to our lives each day!