Cooper: The Musical!

Cooper and his teacher Miss Jaime.

After the performance Cooper couldn't wait to go play.

He found one of his favorite toys!

We are having issues with Quinn keeping his shoes on when he is riding the bus home. He is constantly taking his shoes and socks off and it drives his bus aid crazy. I think that is why he does it, Quinn loves messing with people! It has become a problem though, any advice? I am so glad winter break is almost here!!! Besides that he is doing great, no complaints from his teacher. I let him watch the Wiggles in my room yesterday while we cuddled in bed. He thought that was neat, but not as neat as sitting in daddy's laundry basket :)

Cooper is so funny. Today I bought some Christmas window clings to decorate with. I was putting them up and he was really interested, so I started naming stuff for him. Tree, bear, dolly..you know. Next thing I know he is pointing to the doll and saying "daddy"! What? What does Daddy have in common with a little blonde doll in a blue dress? Then I realized... Dad-dy...Dol-ly, and yesterday I swear he called Portia "daddy" twice..."Dog-gy". So I guess to Cooper any word that starts with a "D" and ends in a "Y" is Daddy. Can't wait to hear what his speech teacher has to say about this one.

Tommorow is the big Holiday Musical at his school. Hopefully I will have some video to share!

I watched Cooper's class for a while this morning. He is doing really great! Today was the first day he put the weather on the board all by himself, yay! For some reason Cooper doesn't like "weather time" but he seems to be over it. He also really liked the art project they did today, it involved lots of glitter and glue. Unfortunately for his teacher Cooper just couldn't help grabbing her nice white sweater with his glittery gluey hands. That's my Cooper. I also got a sneak peek at their routine for the holiday musical. All I know is that it involves bells!

We are going to try the CF/GF diet with both the boys starting in January. That means no gluten and no dairy. One of the biggest concerns I had was taking away Quinn's beloved baby oatmeal. No, oats don't naturally have gluten, but apparently because of how they are grown they are a no-no. Tonight we gave him rice cereal instead and held our breath. He loved it!! He even flapped his arms! We used to give him rice cereal when he was a baby but stopped because of his constipation issues, I think he missed it :) Now all I have to do is replace the milk in the cereal with rice milk, then we are good to go!

Two amazing things Cooper did today...

1) They sing a song about the alphabet at school everyday. Ah, ah, Apple, etc. His therapist said they were playing with letters this afternoon and he started singing it! He sang ah, ah, apple when he was looking at the A. Ba,ba, when he was looking at the B, and ku, ku, cookie, when he was looking at the C! All to the tune of the song of course. Way to go Cooper!

2) He was playing with his letter and numbers at home tonight. I looked over and he had lined up all of the numbers on the top of the sofa. They weren't in numerical order or anything, but on closer examination I realized that he had sorted all those numbers from a big pile of letters and numbers and there were no numbers left in the pile! Who knew Cooper could tell the difference between a letter and a number? Wow!

Christmas Tree Party

Cooper loved wearing the Santa hat!

Then Grandpop Bill tried to steal it.

Quinn playing with Kermit, his favorite toy at Grandma Donna's house.

Cooper loved playing with all the ornaments.

Uncle Ian showing Cooper the tree.

Dang! My kids are expensive! Today we went to see the orthodist and just as I thought, Quinn has outgrown his Sure Steps and needs a new pair. Sure Steps are expensive, sigh..... Quinn was actually very good at his appointment. The lady asked me to take his shoes, socks, and pants off so she could see his legs/feet at work. I did that and then told her that Quinn would be more than happy to walk every inch of her office so she could watch him walk. I was right. We watched Quinn walk into the bathroom, the break room, the two other exam rooms, and the billing office all just wearing a diaper. It was pretty funny, but I know my boy, and he loves to explore. She said he definately needs the Sure Steps, but that seemed to be the only issue. She spent at least 20 minutes measuring his feet and suprisingly he let her. He only moved when it tickled, but that is understandable. I picked out the "traffic" pattern with blue straps this time :) His old ones were dinosaurs with white straps. They should be here in the next couple of weeks, I hope he doesn't mind wearing them.

Cooper got picked up at school by Grandma Donna today. She brought chocolate chip cookies and a book for the ride. I hope he doesn't expect that kind of treatment from me!! His teacher said he said "out" today when he wanted to get out of his seat. Then this afternoon when I put him down for a nap he looked out the window and said clear as day, "rain". It was raining really hard! They do talk about the weather at school everyday, so maybe he knew what he was talking about. Maybe I am hearing things, who knows.

Cookie is officially Cooper's favorite word! He said it multiple times over the weekend, usually when it was appropriate. Today we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Cooper was cuddled up close with me. I wasn't really paying attention, I had seen that episode before. All of the sudden Cooper said "cookie", I was very confused why he would say that. Then I realized Minnie was holding a plate of cookies and they were looking for the cookie jar. I really need to stop second guessing this kid, he knows what he is talking about :) I wonder if there are other words he uses regularly and we just don't recognize them?

Tommorow I am taking Quinn to Annapolis to see the Orthodist. He has outgrown his sure steps and I am anxious to hear what they have to say now that he is walking. Before they just had to guess at what he needed because they couldn't watch him walk. Whatever it is I hope he doesn't mind it too much, he is not the same easy-going guy he was a year ago!

Oook-Eeee!

I gave Cooper a cookie after dinner tonight and he got all excited and started running around yelling what I thought was the word "eat", but Matt pointed out that it actually sounded more like "cookie"! Well, it sounded like "oook-eeee", but that is close enough for me!

Good job Cooper! Keep those words coming!

Thankful

This Thanksgiving Quinn and Cooper wanted to share with the world what they are thankful for. Here are their lists....

Top Ten Things Quinn is Thankful for.....

10. The Wiggles-They rock!
9. Gerber's Baby Cereal-still Quinn's favorite food four years later!
8. Chewy Tubes- sometimes you just need to chew on something.
7. Windy Days- Quinn loves the feel of wind on his tounge.
6. Snacktime- His favorite time of day, which lately has been all day...everyday.
5. Hand Rubs- Want to make Quinn happy? Rub the palm of his hand :)
4. School- This includes the bus ride, Ms. Carol, and Ms. Ronnie, Quinn loves it all!
3. Grandparents- We are all so thankful for all the Grandmas and Grandpas in our life.
2. Mommy and Daddy- Quinn seems pretty happy with his parental picks.
1. Best Friends- Grandpa Don, this means you!

Top Ten Things Cooper is Thankful for....

10. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse- Cooper loves Mickey and his friends!
9. Snack Cups- These make it possible for Cooper to snack all over the house, just like he likes!
8. Grandma Donna's Cookies- This is a new obsession, but he is definately thankful for them.
7. Portia- Cooper thinks his doggie is the best toy ever, Portia disagrees.
6. Baby Einstein DVDs- a.k.a baby prozac, they calm Cooper down when he gets upset.
5. Blankets- Cooper loves all kinds of blankets, but he is especially thankful for his blankie.
4. School- Cooper loves school even more than Quinn does, if that is even possible!
3. Granparents- Cooper is thankful for all of his grandparents and all that they do for him.
3a. Grandpa Don- Yes, he gets an honerable mention here too, he is the baby whisperer!
2. Daddy's Shoulders- Thankful for taking daily rides over 6' up in the air? You betcha!
1. Mommy's Cuddles- Mommy is thankful for this one too!

We are all mostly feeling better. Cooper still has a runny nose and a scratchy voice (which sounds really funny since he doesn't speak real words). He had an okay day at school today. Quinn had the day off and he stayed home with me. I think he really enjoyed being an only child for the day. He was even well behaved, didn't try to climb on the table once! He did spit up many many times, but that isn't his fault.

Cooper did a funny thing tonight. He was chasing Portia around the house and trying to touch her with one of his flashcards. Guess which card it was? Yup, it was the dog card. I guess that is Cooper's idea of "extreme matching". Portia did not enjoy that game one bit!

It is a crazy life.....

Sick....

sick....

sick....

sick.

No school for us tommorow! Both boys are not feeling well, as you can see from the pictures. I even had to go pick Cooper up from school early today! He has a fever which is pretty unusual, and he is completely miserable.

Cooper must have walked up and down the steps to the playroom today at least 200 times. What a goof! Where does he get his energy and can I borrow some???

Quinn has a cold and we aren't sure he is going to school tommorow. He is not feeling like himself, he barely even climbed up on the dining room table all weekend! He is sick, but it isn't nearly as bad as before he got his adenoids out.

Off to bed, another busy week ahead!

Tonight, after the kids went to bed, we watched The Happening. Yes, it is another scary M. Night Shyamalan, but this one stood out. Why? Because part of it was filmed at my middle school!!! I knew the movie was filmed in Philadelphia, but I didn't realize it was filmed at J.R. Masterman! Of course, in the movie they called the school "Philadelphia High School"...umm yeah, like Philadelphia only has one high school. But anyway, Marky Mark (I mean Mark Walhberg) was a science teacher, teaching class in the science lab. The camera panned to look out the window and that view I recognized, all I ever did in science class was look out the window. I told Matt, that is my middle school! My husband humored me but said "Don't you think that a lot of schools in Philadelphia look like that?" No, they don't that school is very unique and I was sure of it, I was right! Here is a picture of Shymalan, Mark Walhberg, and John Leguizamo standing in front of the school.

How exciting, and by the way, the only reason to watch this movie it kind of sucked. Oh well.

The meeting at Cooper's school went well. His head therapist showed me his schedule and she feels he is on track to be labeling objects with actual verbal words by March, if not sooner! Yipee! I finally discovered the secret to his weird running in circles, throwing himself on the floor, and laughing behavior. Apparently, this is how the teachers at his school demonstrate Ring-A-Round-The-Rosie! His teacher was really surprised and impressed that he took that home and imitated it after the fact!

Tonight we also had a really nice moment. Grandma Berta was leaving to go home and she said "Bye, Cooper" like she always does. Well, usually he pretty much ignores her, but today he got up from the sofa, ran into the kitchen to get her and pulled her back into the living room! He wanted her to play with him some more before she left! How sweet is that? Very Sweet! And so good developmentally too!

I know, I haven't updated in forever, but we've been busy!

Cooper is doing great at school. His eye contact has greatly improved, he pops out with a word every now and then, and he is just generally really happy. I have a meeting there tommorow so I should have more details soon. He recently discovered that Portia is the best toy in our house, Portia is not thrilled by this discovery, but she is dealing. Cooper runs after her, laughing the whole time, then when he catches her he pets her nicely (she still growls at him though). I bought a cute book the other day, Dog Food, it is a board book with pictures of dogs made out of fruits and vegetables. I thought Quinn would like it, but it turns out that Cooper really loves it and he actually wants me to look at it with him. This is great, since he never used to sit and let me look at books with him. Good Job, Cooper.

Quinn is doing good too. I went and visited him at school the other day. I told his teacher how he has been having behavior problems at home, but she said he didn't there. Then she told me how he pulls all the papers off the wall and constantly trys to climb into the toilet. Umm, I guess we have different definitions of behavior problems :) He used two talking buttons to request either "crackers" or "juice" at snack. I also suggested a "Hi" and "Bye" button so they will be starting that too. He did pretty well with the snack requesting. We are at a bit of a standstill developmentally, but he is happy and doing well, so for now we will just be patient.

We went to Philadelphia this weekend to visit with family and discovered two things. 1) Cooper is now coloring with crayons instead of just playing with them! 2) He eats pineapple! I am going to work on eating the pineapple with a spoon...we will see.

You know I hate to admit it, but my mother in law was right. I think Cooper is definately saying "I eat". You have to really listen (and use your imagination), but he is saying it. Yesterday I was trying to open up a bottle of gummy vitamins and he really wanted one. I was having trouble and he got impatient and said "I EAT!". Today I was sitting in the dining room and he came over, placed his empty snack cup on the counter and said casually "I eat..." Does "I eat." count as a sentence, my husband thinks it does, but I disagree. In other word news, we were watching Baby McDonald for the millionth time today and I pointed out the cow and said "Cow". Cooper looked at it and said "Oww". He did the same exact thing with no prompting while we were watching the DVD for the million and one time tonight.

Today Cooper had his first day in his regular class. He did really well and apparently really liked it. Not sure what they did to him (maybe too many games of ring-a-round the rosey) but all night he kept running in circles, falling down, and laughing. Weird, but very cute.

Halloween Pictures

It's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Man!

Cooper dressed up as train engineer.

Cutest. Doctor. Ever.

Cooper decided Grandpa Don should wear the hat!

Isn't he the cutest train engineer ever??

Busy Week!

It has been a very busy week here! On top of all the craziness we have all been sick, well everyone but Matt really. Here is what we have been up to:

Me: I am trying to make some kind of income to help pay for Cooper's new school. I spend almost all my free computer time working as a guide for ChaCha.com. I answer questions for 10 cents a pop, it sounds easier than it actually is. I am only making about $3/hour right now but I am hoping to get "top guide" next week and make $6/hour. Yes, I know it is still less than minimum wage, but I don't have a lot of options. I will try to update this blog more, sorry about that.

Cooper: Cooper started at his new school this week and he loves it!! Even though he was sick at first he was thrilled to be there and have all these girls paying attention to him. He gets so excited every morning when I say "Do you want to go to school?" and when we get there he can't wait to go back to the classrooms. Next week the tough stuff starts so we will see if he still loves it. They really love him there, I have had multiple people tell me Cooper is: delightful, so much fun, adorable...yeah, I know....now make him talk! I appreciate the sentiment but I am not paying you people ridiculous amounts of money to enjoy my sons company! :)

Quinn: Quinn has had a hard time adjusting to Daddy putting him on the bus and Grandma Berta taking him off. I think he actually misses me, those two times of day were serious bonding times for the two of us. I miss it too. The last few days he has been giving the ladies on the bus a hard time when getting down the steps. He has also been refusing to walk for Grandma Berta and she can't carry him. It has been taking about five minutes of pushing and crying to get him in the house. So this morning I had a long talk with him and told him he couldn't do that anymore. I told him that he had to smile at Grandma Berta when he got off the bus and then walk like a good boy into the house. I guess he understood because that is exactly what he did this afternoon, thank god!

Portia: Poor Portia, she hates our new schedule! She has to spend a lot more time in her cage now that I am driving Cooper back and forth to school everyday. I have considered taking her with me, but I am on the fence on that one. Maybe when Cooper starts his actual class, then all I have to do is pull up in front of the school and they come get him out of the car. That will be really nice of snowy cold days!

Cooper's Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

The pumpkin farm was full of old structures from the old Enchanted Forest. This little house had a "real" piano in it. Cooper loved playing it and kept trying to put down the lid even though it didn't move.

I don't know if he was making this face at me or the kid standing right in front of the window, but it was funny!

There was a gazebo with a huge plaster birthday cake in the middle. Cooper had a great time running in circles around the cake.

Taking a break from the cake running. Right after I snapped this Cooper squeezed his way through that tiny opening. He must take after Grandpop Bill.

Checking out the animals at the petting farm.

Going down the slide, very disappointed it wasn't a fast one.

Cooper examines his first pumpkin.

Nope, gotta find the perfect one!

Picking seeds out of an open pumpkin, yes he ate one..but he spit it out right away!

This looks like a good one!

Cooper amoung the pumpkins.

Walking through the mini corn maze.

Tonight we went to the mall for a family date. We only do this when we are forced to because no grandparents are available for babysitting, but it was actually very nice. We ate dinner at the food court, really the best plan with two young kids. They can cry all they want and noone will hear them! They didn't cry though, they were both very good. We got them McDonalds and Quinn ate the nuggets and Cooper ate the fries. Everything was going great until this family sat down next to us. They had a very cute little girl and Cooper was looking right at her and making his happy sounds. I told Matt how cute that was that Cooper seemed to really like that little girl. Then she moved a little and I realized Cooper wasn't looking at her at all, he was looking at her pizza! He then made it abundantly clear to us that he wanted pizza...now! No problem, I ran off and got him a slice of pizza and he happily ate it. It was right out of the oven and really hot, but he took lots of little careful bites, it was so cute.

After dinner I took Cooper to get his haircut. We had to wait for a really long time so Matt took Quinn and they walked around the mall. Cooper was really good while we waited. He watched the other kids get their haircuts and played with the toys they had there. He only tried to escape a few times. When it was time for his haircut I gave him one of the lollipops that they had there, but it was a mini tootsie pop and he just didn't identify it as a lollipop. He held onto it but didn't put it in his mouth. Luckily, I had some organic lollipops (like he is used to) with me, so I gave him one of those after he got in the haircutting chair. It was so cute, he popped it in his mouth and then tucked the other pop under his leg. Cooper is really good at getting his haircut so he did great. In the middle of his cut he finished his lollipop, handed the stick to me, and then reached under his leg and got the other one! What a funny kid! Once again the lady couldn't believe that he was only two, yes he is huge :)

Up, up, up!

Cooper's speech teacher came over today. She brought a Little People set that has a slide with it. She took one of the little people and walked it up the steps to the slide and said "up, up, up". Believe it or not this was followed closely by Cooper grabbing the little person, walking him up the steps, and saying "up, up, up"! Wow! That is some seriously amazing imitation for Cooper. I was so proud that I started telling the speech teacher about how he has been saying "eat" occasionally. So what does Cooper do? He starts saying "eat, eat, eat"! This is the first time Cooper has ever said an actual word in front of his speech teacher, and she got two!! WTG, Cooper!

Quinn didn't go to school today. He had another long night. Not sure why, no sugar or anything this time. Oh well.

I got the best letter in the mail today! It was from my amazing niece Emilia. It was awesome and totally made my day, thanks Emilia :)

Off the bottle!

Believe it or not, day one of "Operation Bottle Freedom" was a huge success! When Cooper woke up early this morning I brought him a cup of pretzels to snack on and a straw cup with grape juice. He happily took the straw cup and layed down to drink it. I thought he would cry hysterically when there was no morning bottle. Last night I removed all bottle paraphernalia from the former "bottle drawer" and only left sippy cups. Cooper spent a few hours this afternoon and evening closely examining everything in the drawer making sure there were truly no bottles left. He seemed pretty calm about it. The big test was going to sleep. Cooper has never been able to fall asleep at night without a bottle. We simply put what we usually put in his bottle (Carnation Instant Breakfast) in a straw cup and layed him in bed with it. Not one complaint! He went right to sleep!!! Is it too early to refer to this as a miracle? Who would have ever thought it would be this easy? I am so proud of my Cooper!!!

In other news Cooper went to the county's preschool Wednesday class for the first time today. When his teacher said I should bring him she forgot to mention that parents do not stay for the Wednesday class! I was extremely nervous leaving him, but I did. I wasn't so much worried about him (I trust Ms. Dorothy like family), but I was really worried about the teachers and other kids. I was sure he would cry the whole time. He didn't, he did wonderfully! He took turns playing with one of the teachers, even looking to her to signal it was her turn. He sat in circle time (with a little help) and he put stickers on paper for the art project (he even put out his hand to ask for more stickers). When I went back to pick him up he was happily playing with the parashute (his favorite), but when he saw me he ran right over with a huge smile. I thought he was going to try and push me right out the door so we could leave, but instead he pulled me over to the parashute so I could play with him! Once again, I was so proud of my Cooper!!!

Quinn also had a good day. He had speech at Loyola and did a great job working with his new communication device. He was really concentrating on looking at the pictures. His therapist read him a book and had matching pictures on his board and he was very obviously looking at the book and then looking to the board to match it up. As a special treat they decided that today they would let him play in the water table. He was thrilled and had a wonderful time soaking himself, the therapist, and the OT. I won't be suprised if the water table doesn't happen again for a good long time :) I had to take his shirt off and he just wore his jacket home, but he really enjoyed speech today!

Quinn has a great new speech teacher at school. She just started working with him on using assistive technology to communicate. Here is the update that she sent me today. It sounds like he is doing great!


I wanted to give you an update on Quinn's speech therapy!
Last Monday I spent about 2 hours in the classroom to see where we could best start introducing the assistive tech. I felt that the most highly motivating time of day is snack! So, today, I took him to my room where it is nice and quiet and had him request the food (cheese curls) by pushing a switch with a picture symbol on it. I only gave him little pieces of cheese curl to increase the need for interactions. Overall he did great.
After about 30 minutes of practice, I had Miss Ronnie come out and see how I did it with him so she could carryover in the classroom. She was very happy to see how well he did. He was also very tickled with himself! He made lots of different sounds while he was working with me.
I set up the device for use in the classroom with the appropriate pictures. As he progresses, I will up the expectation level. I will continue to pull him out of the classroom once a week and provide support for the classroom.
I know you want him to use the multi-button and we will build to that.

A Weekend in Annapolis

Quinn and Cooper in the bathtub.

Something appears to be missing, water maybe?

Cooper enjoying the playground.

Quinn enjoying the playground.

Quinn spots someone's shoes and makes his move.

This great big playground and he wants to play with a bucket!

Cooper sliding down the lighthouse.

Quinn considering his options.