I have been trying to get Cooper to stack blocks. I know he can do it, but he has to do it in front of his darn therapists or "it doesn't count". Last night I was trying very hard to get him to stack blocks on demand and instead he started throwing the hard wooden blocks up in the air so he could watch them fall. In the interest of noone getting their heads cracked open I told him very seriously that he needed to stop. Then I started picking up the blocks and putting them back in their bin and told Cooper to help me put away the blocks. Now, I fully expected him to continue to throw them in the air but you have to try. The thing is...he listened! He started picking up blocks and putting them in the bin. I know it is little, but I was so proud of him. Then today his OT came over and he blew her away with how well he stacked the blocks, yay! He even took turns with her building a tower and he got extra credit for that :)

Also, I bought him an alphabet puzzle the other day which is much harder than I anticipated. So while I have to say the alphabet in my head to put the pieces in right, Cooper is pretty good at it (considering that I am pretty sure he does not actually know the alphabet yet).

I had a meeting with the girls who are doing Quinn's speech camp on Tuesday. It was to go over how he did because tommorow is the last day. For the first time in a long time they had lots of accomplishments to report! He has been signing "more" "eat" and "fish" on his own with no prompting. He can identify his name when he sees it in print (they have name tags on their chairs and he hasn't sat in anyone elses chair in weeks). They are also starting to use a communication board with him and he took to it suprisingly well. Oh yeah, he can now drink out of a straw but I take total credit for that one :)

One more thing, we have stopped giving Cooper dairy for now. He has been having some stomach problems and there is stuff on the internet that suggests it may help his delays. We shall see, he seems to be adjusting well to soy milk and I bought him some "rice cream".

All is right in the world...we are back to our usual Saturday schedule! Grandma Jan and Grandpa Don got home in time to take the boys so mom & dad could have a date. Quinn and Cooper were so happy when they realized we were going to Grandma's house. They were even happier when the saw the baby pools set up in the backyard. Yes, they were a little dissapointed when Grandpa couldn't pick them up, but they got over it.

A good night was had by all :)

My boys are so good!

Quinn didn't use a sippy cup at all today! He drank entirely through a straw!!! Why a straw? His messy eating is becoming more of a problem so I asked at speech camp the other day what we could do to help it. The answer was to have him start drinking from a straw because that would work important muscles that would help keep him mouth shut when he chewed. I wasn't sure he would be willing to try the straw but he did great! Tommorow we might try a straw cup that has a valve in it and see how that goes.

Cooper was also a very good boy today. We went to get his blood taken, yes again! I got a horrible phone call last night that there was a problem with the lab and they needed another sample. I was very upset that we had to put Cooper through that again but he handled it very well considering. I told him that is it, if they need anymore of his blood they are out of luck!

Cooper also discovered that he really loves Nerds today. Not "nerd" like his daddy, "nerd" like the candy. Oh the things his cousins are teaching him :)

Emilia cuddling with Quinn and Cooper.

Today we made candy sushi!

Emilia and Sam had a great time.

This morning we took Grandma Berta to an appointment. We had to wait in a very crowded, very large waiting room. Quinn, my angel, sat down in a chair and looked at books the whole time. Cooper, my devil, ran around the whole waiting room for almost an hour entertaining everyone (everyone except his mommy) with his antics. He found a bunch of wheelchairs and tried repeatedly to get them to move. Thankfully there was noone sitting in said wheelchairs and their wheels were locked. Besides that he just ran around and around bumping into people and making funny sounds. Then he decided he was done with the waiting room and I swear he said "go,go,go!" So we left Grandma Berta to wait and went and sat in the car.

After we dropped off Grandma and Quinn, Cooper and I went to get his blood test done. He needs a lead test before he starts preschool this fall. He did not enjoy the actual blood taking, but it was done quickly and he did an excellent job. He made his mommy very proud.

The cousins came by for a short time tonight and Quinn really enjoyed cuddling with Emilia and watching Robot Chicken with the boys. Cooper was still napping so he didn't even know they were here.

Tonight after dinner I gave Cooper some ice cream. I put it in a bowl and tried to encourage him to use a spoon himself. He did a really good job and enjoyed it. Of course we did this after our new nightly ritual of practicing drinking from an open cup. He did great with that tonight, picking up the cup himself and even tilting his head back to get the last drops. He didn't even spill!

So if you don't believe Cooper is weird, how is this for evidence? As he was finishing his ice cream I was cleaning up from our taco dinner. Cooper refuses to eat almost all foods that aren't fruit, sweets, or snacks so he didn't eat any tacos. I guess I left the bowl of scallions a little too close to him because I walked back into the dining room to see him happily snacking on chopped scallions!!! Yuck! All the things this boy won't eat and he choses raw chopped scallions? He loved them and ate almost all of them that were left in the bowl. I noticed he prefered the white part to the green, what a freak! I love my little freak though! :)

This morning Quinn had speech camp. He had a good time, but he spit up really bad two times. I left for a while and when I came back he had already gone through the shorts he had been wearing and his backup shorts. He was wearing some emergency shorts that they just happened to have there. I don't know what was wrong, but he didn't spit up again all day. That is the worst part of this whole spit up thing...you never know when it is going to happen!

Cooper did something interesting today. I had given him some new pretzels that he really liked and he was trying to get Grandma Berta to give him some more. Well, they were both confused because I had put the pretzels away in the cabinet (shocker, I know) so Grandma didn't know what he wanted and he couldn't show her. They were also both getting a little upset when I walked into the room and realized what he wanted. Just then Cooper became so desperate that he yelled "more"! How exciting! I hope he realized just how well that worked and will do it again soon. I know it is all in there, he just needs to learn to let it out. He has such a nice voice :)

Our weekend was pretty good. We all really missed Grandma Jan and Grandpa Don!

On Saturday we took the kids to Arundel Mills Mall for a family date night. As soon as we turned into the parking lot Quinn fell asleep. I hate when he does that! So we put him in the stroller and let Cooper walk. Quinn was really asleep because he didn't even object when we put him in his stroller. We went to Chevy's for dinner and Quinn slept through the whole meal! Thankfully they put us at a table that had the perfect little corner to push the stroller into. I think Cooper really liked having us to himself while Quinn slept. Last week when we went out to dinner Cooper wouldn't eat anything, this time he ate all the fries and all the fruit! He seemed to really like that the ketchup came in a little cup (they don't keep ketchup on the tables at Mexican restraunts). The best part? At Chevy's kids meals come with a free ice cream cone! He wasn't sure at first, it looks different than your typical ice cream cone, but once I showed him what to do he was really into it. Then he started eating it from the bottom and painting the table with ice cream, but that is okay at least he was happy.

After dinner we went to Outdoor World and watched the fish. Cooper was really that, he loves fish. At this point I woke up Quinn but all he wanted to do was cuddle. That was fine, they have lots of benches to cuddle on there. The only problem we had was that Quinn didn't want to walk at all. I think it was because I put on his sneakers and suresteps for the first time in a long while. Those suresteps seem to be too small for him now :( I will probably wait until school starts again and discuss this new issue with his PT. Untill then, sandals!

Today we didn't do much, just hung out. Quinn and Cooper fought over who got to cuddle with their daddy, their new thing. They both refused to take naps and Cooper was extra cranky. We have another busy week ahead of us!

A Good Day

We had a pretty good day here today. This morning Cooper's speech therapist came over and she got him to repeat the word "daddy"! She was also thrilled with all the new sounds he is making since his surgery. At one point she was looking at a book with Cooper and she pointed to the bear and said "bear" and what do you know...from across the room came a very clear sounding "bear" from Quinn!!! We both heard it and were pretty shocked. He has 6 hours of speech camp a week and the first word he decides to say is during Cooper's speech session? I guess he just wanted to show up his little brother. Of course, I haven't gotten him to say it again, but he definately said it and it couldn't have been a coincidence.

After that I took Cooper in for his post-op appointment for his tubes. The doctor said the ears looked great and they retested his hearing and it is now in the normal range! So all good news there. It was pretty funny because when the doctor pulled out the thing to look in Cooper's ears, Cooper grabbed it from him and stuck it in his own ear! I think this is a result of Dr. Crawford letting him play with his ear thingy at his yearly check up. It would have been great if Cooper would have let him take it back to turn the light on, but when he tried to do that Cooper wasn't happy. So I had to hold him down and he was very unhappy for a few minutes. Oh well, what do you expect when you schedule a doctors appointment during naptime?

Oh Brother!

Cooper strikes again!

Once again he chose Quinn's lap to sit in when there was a whole sofa available. Quinn was too tired to care this time.

Cooper finally decided he wanted to play on his new climber.

He really liked it up there

I bought him a sprinkler to play in, he loved it!

He loved running arond the backyard in his diaper too.

The cousins are here too! Quinn and Emilia had a great time playing together.

Some of the cousins look a little different this year, but they are still just as sweet on the inside :)

The good news is that Grandpa Don is feeling better, the bad news is that he isn't better enough to take our kids like he usually does! So instead we decided to be brave and took Quinn and Cooper out for a family date night. We went to Red Robin for dinner, mainly because it is loud (so people can't hear our kids scream) and because it has free balloons (Cooper just loves balloons). I have to say it was a very successful meal. What makes a meal successful? Well, when you are eating with a 2 and a 4 year old a meal is a success when the adults get to finish eating before all hell breaks loose! Besides that Quinn really enjoyed his pizza and fries and Cooper refused to eat anything. He did however drink tons of Sprite and yes....a little Diet Coke.

After dinner we drove over to the mall for haircuts. Quinn was desperately in need of one and Cooper was ready for a trim. There was a 15 minute wait so Quinn decided to climb up into one of the empty stylist chairs and watch Barney. It was pretty funny that he so willingly sat in that chair for 15 minutes without moving at all, but when it came time for a haircut he totally freaked out. He went first and I had to hold him in my lap. He struggled and struggled and the nice lady kept making comments like "He's so strong" and "Mom, you are really sweating." Well, yeah! It was really hot in there and holding Quinn in my lap was like wrestling with an alligator! Except for all the stuggling Quinn was actually a very good boy, didn't cry and let the lady finish cutting his hair. It is nice and short so we hopefully don't have to do this again anytime soon. When it was over we were both totally covered with hair!

Cooper went next, he sat in the chair and we handed him a lollipop. He didn't move at all the entire haircut except to take the lollipop out of his mouth and examine it a few times. The first time I saw him do this I instantly realized the problem with combining sticky lollipops and haircuts. Whose idea was this?? Sure enough, when the lady went to cut his bangs he suddenly had the cutest little red mustache and goatee. Yup, the area around his mouth was all sticky from the lollipop and when the hair fell down in his face it stuck! It was cute and gross at the same time. Oh well, after that we went home and had baths since we were all covered with hair!

And the big news? There was a message when we got home, the boys have a new cousin! His name is Max! Congratulations Uncle Scott and Aunt Stacey!

Just when I think I can't take anymore...Cooper is suddenly good!

It has been a difficult week with lots to do and both boys testing my patience to its limit. So today we had nothing to do and got to hang out at home. Well, Cooper must have known I needed a break because he was such a good boy today! First he let me sleep in late, then he didn't really fuss all day and was super cooperative. Cooper? Yes, Cooper! He let me put him in his Rifton chair and we tried painting with water for the first time. He actually liked it and did a really good job, even though he really just wanted to splash the water everywhere he let me show him how to use the brush and did it a bunch of times all by himself. Then we colored with markers and he actually made some marks on the paper! After that he was covered with paint and markers so we went to the bathroom to wash our hands. I figured since we were there (and on a roll) we would try brushing our teeth again. Well, Cooper loves to brush his teeth and actually isn't half bad at it for a two year old. But.....he never wants to give me back the toothbrush and ususally throws a huge fit when I take it from him. Not today, today he gave it to me willingly with a big (clean) smile on his face. What else? He didn't need a bottle until very late this afternoon, instead he settled willingly for a sippy cup. He sat down and let me read him half a book. He took his apple off the table and ate most of it while walking around and barely spit any out. He was just such a good boy! I guess I will keep him afterall ;)

Of course when sat down to dinner he managed to drive his father totally nuts by continuously kicking the table and knocking it out of place. It didn't really bother me though, I wasn't sitting opposite of him (Matt was), and he sat happily through most of dinner because he thought it was soooo funny kicking the table.

Quinn was good today too, except he fell asleep on the sofa again and I couldn't wake him up. So he took a nap and then couldn't fall asleep when it was bedtime. Quinn is always a good boy though. He tries my patience in totally different and less direct ways than Cooper does.

Today was a very busy day for Quinn. This morning I took him over to his elementary school for a half hour of speech therapy. We chose not to send him to summer school this year (so he could go to speech camp amoung other reasons), but he apparently still gets some services. His new speech therapist seemed very nice, although Quinn never cooperates during the first session. She thinks he said "hat" while he was playing with the Mr. Potatohead...but I am not so sure.

After speech Quinn had his yearly checkup at the doctors. He was in a good mood the whole time and very cooperative. The only problem I had was he kept trying to escape from the waiting room. Dr. Crawford said he was doing great. He is 25th percentile in both height and weight on the typical growth chart, which is excellent. I had a talk with the doctor about his development and once again, he wasn't concerned. He reminded me that his own son with Down Syndrome didn't talk until he was 6 or 7 years old. And I now know for sure his son talks very well since we sat next to them in a restraunt a few months ago! He also told me there was no correlation between being a late bloomer (which Quinn certainly is), and how advanced he might be as an adult. That is definately comforting. I also asked about the spit up. He said there isn't anything wrong and he thinks he will still grow out of it. He said the oldest kid he has seen that still spits up is seven...so we just have to hang in there a few more years! After we were done with the doctor the nurse came in to give Quinn his 4 booster shots. He didn't cry at all, he actually giggled! Yup, my silly guy giggled through all 4 shots! Afterwards I overheard the nurse saying she wished they were all like that! What a good boy :)

Everytime I take Quinn to speech camp someone mentions that great picture of him and Don from the DS Picnic. I finally went to look at it and they were right! What a great picture!

Cooper: I guess I have been too rough on my Grandpa Don and today was the last straw. We were playing at the playground and I think I broke his back!! I was running down a hill and yanking on his arm and the next thing you know....Grandpa was very unhappy. Mommy says his back isn't broken, just really hurt but if it isn't broken why did those nice men have to carry him into the house from the car? He is in so much pain he can't even get out of bed to go to the bathroom! Grandpa, if you need to borrow some diapers just let me know, I never have to get out of bed to pee! So besides this all really sucking for Grandpa, it is really bad timing. My Aunt Stacey is just about ready to pop her baby out and Grandpa Don and Grandma Jan were supposed to go visit them. Aunt Stacey, if you are reading this, Mommy says cross your legs :) Grandpa is gonna need at least a week to recover and then Mommy says no more carrying us kids everywhere.

Quinn: Cooper is always messing stuff up, and now he broke my Grandpa Don! Darn it! When it was time to leave tonight I didn't even want to walk to the car with Mommy. Grandpa usually takes me and it just wasn't the same. I hope you feel better really soon Grandpa, cause I love you lots and lots and don't want you to be in pain. Hugs and cuddles from your favorite grandson (the one that didn't break you).

Today was the Fourth of July and the local parade goes by only blocks from our house. Unfortunately, it goes by right in the middle of Cooper's naptime and I am not sure how the kids would react to all that noise, so instead we just sat around and watched all the other families park in front of our house to walk to the parade. Oh well, maybe next year.

Since Daddy was home today we all went out back and played outside which made the kids very happy. I pulled the water table out from the wall so each kid could have his own side and that went much better. I also gave them a new water toy, a small watering can I found. That didn't go so well, Cooper wanted it, Quinn wanted it, and this time Quinn wasn't letting it go! It was okay because Quinn always gets bored with the water table before Cooper does. So Quinn went off to swing with Daddy and I watched Cooper do the goofiest thing! He decided that he was going to put his entire face in the water! He laid his face completely down in the water table and then after a few seconds pulled it back out and said "Aye, aye, aye!" So of course I laughed, and then he did it twenty more times! What a goof, I think we may be needing earplugs this summer after all, he is a natural swimmer.

What else did Cooper say today? Well, he said "bubbles"! And yesterday when Matt came home he said "Dada"! I think these tubes are really helping, of course we have yet to hear the same word twice and Cooper always turns away before saying something, but it's a start.

Well, Cooper surprised us all this morning by being an excellent little patient! Even though he must have been very hungry he was very happy to go to the hospital. I think he liked the idea of going somewhere special with just Mommy and Daddy. Then when we put him in his little gown and they made us wait for almost an hour he stood quiety and watched a DVD. He even cooperated when they went to take his temperature! When it was time for surgery I took him back and the nurse showed him the mask. He was really interested in that mask with the bubble gum flavored sleepy air coming out of it! He started examining it , chewing on it, and playing with the air. The nurses all thought that was really funny and they said it didn't matter if he breathed the air or ate it...it would still make him go to sleep! They were right, he fell very happily asleep while he was playing with the mask! Since the surgery was so quick and minor he didn't get any IV or anything, the doctor also told us that he could drink right after he woke up. So while we were waiting I made him a bottle. When they brought us back to see him he was very upset, but he saw that bottle, grabbed it right out of my hands and popped it in his mouth. After that he was in a great mood! We watched one episode of the Wiggles and then it was already time to leave. This surgery was a piece of cake for everyone, thank god!

Cooper has also been in a very good mood all day long, which is unusual for him. He loves the clock puzzle that Grandma Donna brought him and he is really good at it even though it is a little hard. So has the surgery helped his hearing? Tonight we were singing "Row,row, row your boat" and rocking on our chair. He loves that. When the song was over he turned away from me and said really quietly "row, row, row"! Now I am 96% sure that he actually said this, but I couldn't get him to say it again. Whatever he said it was definately to the tune of the song, so that is a start.

Tommorow morning Cooper gets his tubes put in! Wish us luck, both that the surgery goes well and that this helps with his talking. I am a little less nervous this time because we already went through it all with Quinn. I am mostly nervous about not being able to give Cooper anything to eat or drink before surgery.

Cooper isn't the only one having surgery tommorow. Sweet Kennedy is having something much more major done! Lots of positive thoughts being sent her way tonight!!! Click on the button below to read more about Kennedy...