Beat Up

No, we are not abusive parents. This is what happens when most of your playmates are two-year-old boys and you run everywhere but are not super steady on your feet.
She is going to hate me for posting this picture when she's older.

PS - sorry about all the snippets I've been posting lately. I will do a real blog post soon.

Summer Fun

Do you remember when you were little and could run around all day in a swimming suit totally un-self-consciously? The simple pleasures in life, like cold water on a hot summer's day, were all you needed to be totally content. And having a good buddy along for the ride always makes a good thing even better.

My Baby Boy

My new favorite picture of Caleb:
Isn't he getting cute?

And, I just wanted to take a second to brag about my latest find. I went to Target to find some church clothes for Caleb and they didn't have any. And can I just say, I never realized when I only had a baby girl to shop for just how little there is to choose from for baby boys. Target had probably twenty racks of girl clothes and five racks of boy clothes. Anyway... they didn't have any church clothes at all. It was all baby skater stuff, pajamas, or swim trunks. So I went to the clearance rack and I found this!
And there was only one and it was only $1.24.

Terrible Yellow Eyes

So, this one time I had a dream. It was more of a nightmare, really. Little Caleb was about a month old and in my dream he was walking! I suppose this could be a happy event, but for me it was horrifying. One-month-old babies are not supposed to walk. They are not built for it. He was just hobbling around on his malformed legs and really freaking me out. And then he turned his head to look at me and his eyes turned yellow! That was when I woke up and had to laugh at myself despite the lingering feelings of uneasiness. Good news though! My baby is not a mutant and he still has blue/gray eyes.
This story does have a point. It is the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this blog, which is fantastic. It is a tribute to Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are. A "visual love letter," if you will. Go take a look!

A few more pics

Ebony and ivory :)
The monkey in the middle. There are three people in the picture, but he knows who the star is.


Little mommy in the making (and her guinea pig)

Trials and Bad Pictures

So, Joseph, Nathan, Stephanie, and I all had to face a pretty rough trial last night - the power went out for about an hour and a half and we were left without air conditioning! It sure makes you appreciate the luxury of electricity.

It was a pretty violent storm that hit last night around 9 pm. Normal people would have run for cover, those Cooper boys decided to go outside and check it out. Stephanie and I joined them and I have to admit it was pretty cool.
But check this out!














That brown car is ours and I have no idea how that branch landed where it did without hitting it (not that we would have been able to notice extra dents). Nice, huh?

Don't mind the poor quality of the pictures. One was taken through a window screen and the other has a pink sky because our camera is taking its dying breaths.

There's a Hole in my Finger, Dear Liza...

Bad news. Last night I was chopping a tomato and saying, "Joseph, this knife is so great! Look how well it's chopping this..." and literally, mid-sentence, I hacked into my finger. Or rather, I sliced cleanly into my finger. No messy hacking with this knife, it really is a good one (J.A. Henckels twin gourmet, if you're interested). This gash immediately started pouring blood everywhere so I grabbed a paper towel to cover it and then held it under cold water for a while. We messily stuck a band-aid on and then scotch-taped some paper towel around to catch all the excess blood. An hour and a half later it wasn't feeling too much better so I called my friend Kim. Kim is a search and rescue girl and also has an energetic two-year-old who she patches up on a fairly regular basis. She told me to come over and she'd try to help me out. When I got there, she asked me if it was a slice or if there was a flap of skin. I hadn't examined it too closely up to that point so I carefully peeled the band-aid off and immediately put it back on. It was neither a slice nor a flapper. The tip of my finger was gone! (I sure hope the missing piece ended up being washed down the drain.) That's why it was bleeding so much and that's why it still bleeds whenever I bump the band-aid/paper towel wad/gauze wrapping that I have protecting it. It's very annoying and pretty gross. I can only handle Caleb and Emily very gingerly because I don't want to bump my finger and bleed all over them. I feel very handicapped. I just hope I'm normal enough to accompany the choir on Sunday.

One more free gadget

When I think on the technological wonder that is the dishwasher, I inevitably am taken back to the days of my youth in the old country(I mean, in Provo). I remember mentioning in passing to a best friend's mom that my family was finally getting a dishwasher installed in our new house. She, having only recently incorporated her own dishwasher (lovingly dubbed "D.W.") into her household, responded in reverent awe, "Your life will change." And so it has.
Dishwashing always puts me in a bad mood, so having less of this chore helps me be a little less angry and consequently helps our whole family be happier. I have been sad to see this semester end, as several families have moved away from student housing and on to bigger and better things, but I have loved getting so many discarded treasures!

And here are some pictures, since I don't have any to go with the post. A picture of a dishwasher just isn't all that exciting.
Our kids have unionized against us and no longer allow decent pictures to be taken of them.
And here is Emily's sultry look:
Okay, maybe it's just her grumpy look.

Sleeping Like a Baby

This is not an uncommon sight. Usually it's piled a little higher and there are more blankets involved. Maybe the lack of oxygen helps him sleep better? I've already uncovered him twice in the course of this one nap.

Koala onesie courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett, all the way from Australia. The eyes glow in the dark.

Give the Dog a Bone

Dad: [singing] This old man, he played two. He played knick-knack on my... [pausing and pointing to Emily's foot]
Emily: Shoooooo!
...
Dad: This old man, he played three. He played knick-knack on my... [pointing to Emily's knee]
Emily: ... Pants!