Cooper's 1st Zoo trip

Actually, Coop visited the KL zoo last year, but I don't suppose it counted since he was still in Mommy's tummy at that time. And if I recall correctly, I think we visited that zoo just the week before he was born. He also visited the Aquarium at KLCC the Friday before he was born...that was when I had one of my first major contractions...as we had E touring the aquarium. I remember having to take that one very slowly and it took us awhile to get back to our apartment since we'd walked over.

Today was also Cooper's 1st time to ride in his back carrier....and he loved it!! He could see everything and I think was happy to be in something other than his stroller....espcially the double since he gets limited view riding in the back behind Evan!

And if you are wondering why the boys are in long sleeves and jeans...it was to help keep them protected from all the mosquitoes. Luckily, it wasn't too hot (there was even a slight breeze at times) and most of the zoo was shaded, so they didn't get overheated. We were sure to keep them well hydrated. I, on the otherhand, was extremely sweaty after our outing lugging an extra 20+ lbs around for over an hour....wow am I out of shape!!

And Cooper walks....

Yes, the little man took those first few steps yesterday....5 to be exact...3 big, slow ones and then 2 quick stutter steps....afterwards falling face forward into my arms...eyes closed, hoping I was there to catch him. He did it a couple of more times and then had enough and went back to his knees. So, while he is now quick on all fours, I think he is also going to pick up this walking thing pretty quick too. I swear this child is a dare devil...he has no fear! He can climb stairs almost as fast as Evan can walk up them and loves to pull himself up on anything he can to GET INTO EVERYTHING! That boy cannot sit still and play with a toy any longer....with this new found mobility, he is on the go constantly!! It is so much fun to see him grow. I can't believe that he is already 10 months old....the months are just flying by. It's also hard to believe that we have lived here in Malaysia for just near 2 years already. Some days I'm ready for something new, but one thing I do know is that I sure do enjoy spending this time with my boys. Cooper is such a fun and happy kid -he is ALWAYS smiling! He LOVES curtains....to hide behind them and play peek-a-boo. It's one of his most favorite things to do. When you set him down on the floor, he loves to find the nearest set of curtains to hide behind. He also has this new found love of dancing as well. He'll throw his hands up in the air and give a little bounce and then he'll start clapping...it's too precious! He also loves to see the monkeys in our backyard. As soon as we ask him "Where are the monkeys"...he'll head straight over to the patio door to look into the backyard...he's mesmerized by them! I laugh when I think about telling him that the first animal he ever recognized was a monkey. When we get back to the states, he'll never even see a monkey again...unless of course, we go to a zoo. Evan has been into lions lately and making the roaring sound, so Coop has picked up on that and loves to do his version of a lion's roar too...it's hilarious. Another thing he loves is balls. He loves throwing them and then crawling after them....it's a great game he plays alone and I love watching how much fun he has doing it. It also means the less trouble he is getting into! Anyhow, that's my quick update on the little man. Here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks: This pic is on the day he took his first solo steps. I didn't get him in action, but I wanted to at least have a pic from the "special day".

He sure is going to enjoy being able to use his hands when he finally masters this walking thing. For now, his mouth seems to be a good alternative!

And here is the cool guy looking like such a big boy on E's bike. Looks like he is ready for one of his own now! Just like his brother, he loves being outside and throws a fit when it's time to come back inside!

And we are back to brother baths....brother bubble baths now! The boys do very well together and have so much fun playing together while getting clean (and getting bubbles everywhere I might add...including all over us!). As I anticipated, we've had to start bath time a bit earlier now, so that we leave plenty of time for playing in the bubbles and so that no one throws a fit when it's time to get out!

Doing a great job keeping up with his big bro and playing right alongside him. I'm sure he can't wait until he can keep up with him on two feet and not on all fours!This is the face we get now when you put something in his mouth he doesn't care for or when he has had too much and doesn't want anymore!

And since he spends most of his time on his knees, he is now sporting some knee pads so those poor little knees don't get sore from crawling around on all these tile floors!

And I just had to add this picture...it was from when the boys were sick earlier in February. Cooper had puked in his highchair one too many times (amongst other things) and it was being cleaned, so he had his lunch in E's booster seat. I thought he looked so adorable sitting there like such a big boy. Wow, my baby is baby no longer!!!

Pool Day

Since Coop enjoyed the water so much while we were in Singapore, we decided to do another pool day yesterday at Orna (a nearby golf & country club where Andrew is a member). It too has some fun slides that Evan is just getting big enough to enjoy....although they are still a little too fast for them, so we went down with him. Even though there was a no adults policy on these slides too, they didn't seem to mind too much when we didn't follow the rules since we were the only ones there. Cooper loved the fountains and had a great time just hanging in his crab float watching E and his daddy on the slide and making waves!

A long weekend in Singapore

Andrew had a holiday last weekend so we decided to take a quick trip back to Sentosa Island (off of Singapore), where we went last year for Easter. It was a bit different going with 2 kiddos, but a great time nevertheless! We did alot of swimming, eating and just hanging out around the island. Cooper seemed to enjoy the sand much more than Evan did his first time, but didn't stay interested for very long. We took Marte along with us this time, so we got some nice, quality alone time during their naps and after the boys had gone to bed. We played alot of ping pong...which I think I finally ended up beating Andrew once out of the 40 games we played and I finally got a chance to read an entire book (while laying by the pool and enjoying a nice glass of wine..or two..or three!)....that was the best part!!!

Both the boys loved the water and E even got to enjoy going down the slides all by himself this time (he was a little too young for them the first time we went). Cooper even had his first slide with Mom...that is until we got caught and Mom got booted from the slides since it was only for kids and not for adults! Oh well, we had fun until we got in trouble!

The camera was fogged with the humidity, but I thought this was a good photo of me and my boys...they are actually both looking at the camera for once (of course something had to go wrong with the camera...isn't that the way it always works??)

The hotel also had this playroom with some cars and a playhouse to run around in, so this helped provide some entertainment as well!

Here are both the boys enjoying some snacks after a swimming session...something about swimming that just makes you hungry!! It seemed like that is all we did while we were there...swam and ate....swam and ate! Like that's what I needed to be doing...eating...especially since I'm no longer nursing....those extra calories seem to settle in the ol' thighs these days!!

That's Coop and Mom about to go down the slide for the 1st time.

We were on our way to this really neat water/light show about Oscar the fish and Princess Ani. Both the boys were mesmerized the entire time at the show, but E was a little frightened by the fireworks at the end!On our way home, so we thought we'd get a few pictures from our balcony before we headed out! Here is a good one of Dad and his boys!

Mommy and Evan playtime while Coop naps!

While Cooper takes his morning naps on the days E doesn't go to school, I've tried to make it some special Mommy and Evan time and do some of the things we can't normally do while Cooper is around....getting into everything! So lately, we have had some fun with art time - playing with water colors, which E seems to be having more fun with it lately - I think he's creative side is starting to emerge as well as his imagination. He used to like to tell me what colors to use and watch me draw, but now he loves drawing "pictures" on his own. He loves to draw circles and "dinosaurs". Everything seems to be about dinosaurs lately.

We also had some fun doing some face painting with the watercolors too....the messier the more fun....isn't it always that way with boys!?!?!
One day we had some fun baking blueberry muffins. As everyone well knows, I am by no means a baker, so the most fun my child has is breaking out the box kind and hand mixing up the ingredients (I don't even own a mixer....how horrible is that!!). Regardless of my lack of baking skills, we had a great time and I think my little helper loved eating the batter more than mixing and pouring!

We also made the most of a rainy day one day. Evan loves to be outside any chance I will let him (since I rarely let him out due to the heat and mosquitos) so rain or no rain, he was taking advantage of me letting him have some outside time. We decided splashing in the puddles would be fun, so I let him splash to his hearts content. He had the best time ever....again it's just the little things sometimes that are the most fun!! Forget the hundreds of dollars of toys inside, just give the kid a puddle and it is total entertainment for the next 45 minutes. For the next week, all I heard was "Mommy, is there rain to make puddles to splash?"

Doesn't the shirt say it all?!?! Another one of E's latest favorites is getting to play with these rocks we picked up at the fish store the other day. We went to pick up some new fish for E's tank and after taking a gander at the fish (rather quickly), he became engrossed with the rocks (of course!) that they sell for filling up the bottom of the aquariums. They came in all different colors, so we decided we'd get a scoop of each color and maybe play some games with them....maybe sorting colors or counting or just some good ol' fashion "dipping" (E's word for scooping...not sure where he came up with that one!). And one week later, the rocks still provide tons of entertainment....all 581 of them (yes, we counted them all!). It's actually quite funny because we told him he could not play with them while Cooper was awake because he could possibly get one and swallow it, so he was only allowed to play with the rocks when Cooper took his naps....so now when he's itching to get the rocks out he says "Mom, Cooper is tired - he needs to sleep...and then we can play with rocks, okay!" He is such a little stinker sometimes...actually most of the time!
And as always, just some fun coloring is always a great past time. Of course, I think he enjoys taking the caps off of the markers and putting them back on, more than actually drawing a picture. Whatever, as long as he is having fun, that is all that matters, right?!?

Evan and his expanding vocabulary!

I actually started this post back in January, shortly after we got back from the states, so the information is a little dated, but I wanted to have it for my own recollection of Evan at 28 months old and the stuff he was doing and saying at that age. Soon, I'll have to post another, more recent list of his latest things that keep us laughing! So hope you enjoy the read....sorry, it's a bit of a lengthy one.

I thought I'd fill everyone in on E's latest and greatest - the child keeps me on my toes, but also keeps me thoroughly entertained!! I swear he picks up 2 to 3 new words everyday now. It seems like when we were back in the states he really picked up a tremendous amount. I don't know if it was just the timing or if it was the fact that we were back in the states around EVERYONE who spoke "our" English so everything sounded clearer to him (not the Malaysian English he hears around here that I can hardly make out myself sometimes!). Either way, he is saying so much more now .....he practically talks in complete sentences. It is so much fun now that we can totally communicate. Although I've also noticed that he totally plays me when it comes to testing me on how much he can get away with. He now has that look when I tell him not to do something that says "I totally understand what you just told me, but I'm going to do it anyhow!!".....ahhhhh I could just wring his little neck sometimes!!

The last few days he has been doing this 'let me see just how loud I can yell in a public place' thing and how much I can "push Mom's buttons." When I first told him "Evan, do not push my buttons"....he responded with "Mom, where are buttons?"....how are you not supposed to laugh at a response like that - even when you are furious for what he has just done that he wasn't supposed to!?!!?!

He has also picked up some really nice stuff too lately....like "oh crap", "stupid"...and a few other choice words I won't even begin to mention...I'm sure you get the idea!! Needless to say, we are starting to teach him about the words that he will get in trouble for saying....are we already at that stage...yikes!! Guess we'll be trained by the time Cooper is old enough to start saying them, so maybe we'll have at least one child who doesn't use foul language at such a young age!! ha! As an update....luckily this was just a very short phase - 2 months later and he now knows what's bad and what he shouldn't be saying. It was good to know that didn't last too long! We even made it through without any really embarrasing moments of using the inappropriate words at inappropriate times...like while out in public!!

He also continues to do some very sweet stuff too....like one night when putting him to bed as I was leaving his room, he said "I love you, Mommy", I said "I love you more, buddy"....to which he responded "I love you too much!!" And then my heart melted and all the frustrating moments of the day were totally forgotten! Even better, since then he continues to say it nightly now!!

And just to be fair, he does learn some wonderful sayings too (not just the "bad" words!)....like how he has picked up from his Dad (who would say, "doesn't mommy look pretty") to say "Wow, Mommy....how pretty" when I come down the stairs as he is having breakfast - regardless of what I'm dressed in....dressed up or still in pjs, it's always "wow...how pretty, mommy!!" What a way to start your day!

Here are some new and not-so-new words that I love that he says as well as some of his latest milestones (which by the way are more so that I can remember them - so please feel free to stop reading when you get bored with my list!) :

"scardy" - scary with a "d"...."ewww Mom, that dinosaur is scardy"

"seaka buckle" - for seat belt..."no, no, no Mom...I do seaka buckle" for when he wants to buckle himself in his carseat.

"muskick" - for music. "I want to turn on muskick"....which he uses to sleep with for every nap and every night

"that's louder" - when something is too loud, he will say "louder" instead of "that's really loud" or "too loud"...it's cute. It really makes you appreciate someone learning a new language...he has so many choices to get it just right, so the mistakes he makes while he is still learning are sometimes so adorable - like how he is still trying to figure out how to use "I", "you" and "me" correctly. He'll usually say "Mom, come get you" instead of "come get me". He is getting much better at getting them right, but still confuses them occasionally. You can tell when he doesn't know which one to use, he'll just say "Mom, come get Evan (or E as he also sometimes refers to himself)", so that he doesn't have to think about which one to use!!

He has finally learned all his colors....he's known most of them for awhile now, but for some reason had trouble with the primary colors - red, yellow and blue. Anyhow, he has them all down now and loves pointing out what color everything is lately!

He is up to 20 now in counting, but sometimes decides to count by 2s..."9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18,19, 20" or "9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20" or some similar version of that. So he knows all the numbers up to 20, just not all in a row just yet.

He greets his Dad home from work every evening by giving him a hug and a kiss and telling him "I missed you...I love you!" I know his Dad just eats it up!

He also knows his full name "Evan James Thompson" and also how to spell it (just E-V-A-N of course, not the whole thing - he's not that smart!!)...and also knows Cooper's full name "Cooper Price Thompson", but spells it "C-O-O-R"...we still have a little work to do on that one! As for his Mommy's name....I'm usually Mommy James Thompson or Hope James Thompson or Mommy Hope Price Thompson...or some other combination of the sort. Daddy is about the same - Andrew Daddy Thompson or Daddy Price Thompson, etc. It's pretty cute! We laugh, so he loves making up different combinations or then just starts making up silly words instead!

The ABC's still have an "l-bow P" instead of "l,m,n,o,p", but he can say the rest very clearly.... and still continues to add a "God Bless You" at the end!

He is also great at singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Jesus Loves Me", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Old McDonald", "Wheels on the Bus", "B-I-N-G-O", "Fly, Fly, Fly, the Butterfly"....and oh yeah "Happy Birthday", which in the last 2-3 days at bedtime we've had to sing to every member of the family.....including all the stuffed animals...one-by-one....and he has about 8 animals which currently reside in his crib with him (Rover, Lily, Spike, George, George and Little George, Ely, and Molly). As another update, the Happy Birthday thing was also a short phase....we only had to sing that one at bedtime for a week or so...thank goodness!!

He has also become quite the negotiator when he isn't ready to go for a nap or get in bed at night. Like today -we had to play "chase Evan" before we went up for a nap and he said "Mom, just one time.... and then one time...okay?" (his very sneaky way of doing it more than once). Sometimes we'll even get "just two times and two times..okay?". He has this adorable way of saying "okay?" at the end of all his requests that just make it so hard to put my foot down sometimes.

I also love it when he says "want to play toys, Mommy? Okay, let's try this one!" He is totally at that age where he narrates everything he does, so he is constantly talking, but it is just the cutest thing ever! Update.....did I really say this was the cutest thing ever....it definitely was when he was just learning to hold conversations, but geez, sometimes I think the only time he stops talking now is when he is sleeping!! And I must hear, "Mommy, Mommy..." at least a hundred times a day! For some reason, I don't think I'm looking as forward to Cooper being able to say "Mommy" as I was when E first said it. I can only imagine how crazy I'm going to be with both of them yelling at me at the same time to get my attention!

Anyhow, that is about all I can think of now. I've started carrying around a notepad with me in my purse so I can jot down all the cute things he comes up with lately. What a fun time we are having!

Cooper is officially crawling!

At 9 1/2 months, Cooper is officially on the move on his own. He has been toying with the idea of crawling for awhile now, but would only ever take one or two "steps" and then fall back to his tummy. He did more slithering around on his tummy than anything...and most of the time backwards! But, after some practicing at Gymboree on Monday, he decided to crawl across the rug over to me later that afternoon. Of course, he protested by whining the entire time, but he managed his way over just so he could get to me to help him stand. It's been a couple of days now and he is already getting pretty efficient at it. He would still rather walk, but I think he realizes crawling does give him a bit more freedom to go where he wants on his own. For us, it just means even more work because this kiddo is into EVERYTHING so we have to keep him within our reach AT ALL TIMES! Even though he is crawling now, I still think walking on his own might also only be a short time away. He has also started, within the last week, pulling himself up (successfully half of the time) and cruising along the couches. He is also really beginning to master walking around with only holding one hand, so he is getting pretty steady on his feet now....which makes me think he is ready for some solo walking soon. He has actually taken one and two steps on his own, but we haven't recorded it as official walking since he hasn't taken those 3 solo steps that we have E marked down for as his first steps. Wow...I can't believe we are already at this stage again....now with our littlest one! Why do they have to grow up so quickly?!!?

The 1st video is the 1st day that I wrote about above. The 2nd video is the one I took of him today trying to catch the "crazy fish". He was determined to catch the darn thing...and was successful in the end!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing