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 :)