Cooper's Song

Cooper has been "singing" little songs lately. Mostly, they seem to be about his family, with lots of repeating "Mama, lalalala, Paaaa, dodododo, Bubba eeyeyeyey". (It is necessary to understand that Scout, our trustworthy and ever patient chocolate lab, has been renamed Bubba by Cooper. It probably doesn't help that we have now taken to calling Scout Bubba. Poor dog!)

This morning after a breakfast that consisted mostly of Cooper throwing his food off his tray onto the floor, me telling him I would have to take it away if he did, and Cooper eating only a few bites of his breakfast, I caught him singing away. It sure is hard to hold on to any frustration when you see this. Enjoy Cooper's song.

As a side note, perhaps even better than the singing itself is watching Cooper watch himself and sing right along. One of these days I will capture the joy in Cooper's face when he watches his favorite movie star....Cooper Henry Talsnes Dahl.

Cooper is 2!!!

I can't even believe this day is here, that my baby boy is 2 years old!!!

Here are some highlights from the day:

Starting the day with presents

Loving his new tractor from Gramma and Grampa Dahl

So I thought this would be the big highlight. Cooper's new favorite show is Little Einsteins, and I bought him the toy rocket from the show. However, Cooper is terrified of it and can't even look at it without crying.

Cooper's train cake. He kept asking to make the train drive into the "tunnel".

Not sure what the three of us are going to do with all this cake, but hey, it looks cool, and Cooper loved it!

Cooper loved the candles and singing, just for him.

Blowing out his candles

Eating the engine

Black frosting makes for a very strange looking boy.

A great day for the best boy!!!

The Celebration Begins

Cooper's 2nd Birthday celebration #1, a day early. Sharing cookies and birthday wishes with his friends at daycare.







I went for the easy route on a work day and
just used the pre-made cookies, bake only,
and added the two-s to make them a little special.

Books, Glorious Books

In the past few weeks an even more intense love of reading books has been bursting out of Cooper. He now begs us to read certain books, and each reading session often consists of reading the same chosen book over, and over, and over again. Along with a increased love of reading stories, Cooper is in the midst of what the child development experts would call a "language explosion". While he definitely is far from speaking in sentences, he does have some short phrases, and for the first time really is trying to repeat what we say, thereby picking up new words all the time. Very exciting for the mom of a quiet boy.

Over the weekend, Cooper and I engaged in one of the most magical childhood activities...building a "fort". There is nothing quite like creating a new special space to cuddle up in. We had so much fun pretending we were driving a rocket ship and squeezing the whole family, Scout included, into the little cavern. The day with the fort ended reading Cooper's new book, Tip Tip, Dig Dig, a big big hit!!!

Here are some pictures of these highlights....

Cooper has some special hand motions
to go along with the actions in the book.
Here, he is dig, dig, dig-ing.

Listening so intently.

A kiss for the boy at the end of the book.

Addressing the Public

I thought this would be an appropriate picture to post for Super Tuesday. Could Cooper be a future politician?


It always amazes me when Cooper knows how to appropriately interact with an object that I would swear he has never seen before. This picture is a case in point....how did he know what to do with microphones on a podium? If this was a video, you would even hear him giving his "speech" to anyone listening.

Candidate Quizes

My friend Kara posted a quiz on her blog about which candidate you best match. I find these quizzes interesting, though occasionally simplistic, and definitely fun. (One problem I had with the quiz she posted was some slanting on the questions, at least one regarding teaching family values in schools. This questions is actually getting at your feelings about allowing prayer in schools....possibly misleading to some.)

I found a couple of other quizzes.

Candidate Match Game, from USAToday. The questions are more complex. However, it is annoying because they haven't totally eliminated those who have dropped out. So, like four years ago, I come up as supporting Dennis Kucinich.

Electoral Compass USA. I like this one because it shows where you land on the political landscape.

Have fun, and happy voting to anyone lucky enough to vote tomorrow on Super Tuesday. Our primary isn't until April, and I still don't even know if I can vote. Despite my obvious political leanings, I disagree with having to declare a party.

Yes We Can