Nine Days Without Daddy



Jakob leaves for the East Coast this afternoon. He'll be driving across the U.S of A. with his brother Sean. They're scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on September 1st. Then, (drum roll, please) Uncle Sean will live here! Yippity skippity yay!

NOTE: I'm going to try to get Cooper to call Sean "Uncle Silly." We'll see if it sticks.

Did I ever mention that I hate going to the movies alone? I do. It makes me sad. I feel like a little old lady and all my friends are dead. There's no one to laugh or cry with. I like having someone by my side.

I'm without my husband for the next week + two days. I have Cooper and I have planned activities with friends to avoid feeling lonely. But I know it'll creep up on me anyway.

Probably when I eat a sandwich for dinner instead of cooking, because why cook for just me?

Probably when I put Coop in his crib and he keeps asking for Da Da.

Probably when I try to sleep alone in my bed.

When it comes to Cooper's care during the week, Jakob refers to himself as "The Closer." I pitch most of the game and then Jakob comes home from work and wins it for the team by putting Coop to bed.

This week, I'm doing all nine innings every day. Hope I'm strong enough.

Keepsake Clay

Today was a doozy. A real doozy.

Not a "Doozer", mind you. Those were the little worker dudes on Fraggle Rock.

I couldn't get out of bed this morning. I didn't stay up particularly late the night before. I was just exhausted.

I found out that I was accidentally overdrawn on my bank account. (We'll not be discussing how much.) I accidentally left my iPod where Cooper could get at it. (He enjoyed chewing my ear buds!) And I accidentally ran the microwave and the air conditioner at the same time which caused a fuse to blow out.

Yick.

To cheer us both up, I decided to take out a gift that Aunt Dona and Uncle Joe had given to us for Christmas--KEEPSAKE CLAY!



It's a picture frame that's partially made of clay so you can preserve your little one's hand prints. I meant to do this with Cooper when he was 6 months old, but (as you know) Cooper and I always seem to be busy, busy, busy.

I molded the clay in my hands. I let Coop play with some. He tried to eat it, of course.

The picture on the box is of two perfect, little, adorable hand prints. Well, I must have waited too long, because my kid has HUGE hands and there's no way that he'd fit more than one hand print in the clay provided.



THIS was the FIFTH attempt at a hand print.

My toddler wants to grab the clay and rip it apart, not carefully press his hand into it.

I kept trying to get him to make a decent print, but he didn't want to. And that's when my mind changed.

This was his hand print. It looked like Quasimodo, but it was how he wanted to do it. So...so be it. We don't need to make everything look like the example on the box.

He doesn't conform. Perfect hand prints don't say "Cooper."

I guess he's more artsy than that.

My Latest Love is 'Before Both I'm Gone' by Girl In A Coma



Have you not treated your ears to Girl In A Coma yet?

Dood...why not?

I do ridiculous dancing to this album alone in my room.

It's good stuff good.

Wig Of Bubbles



Rawk me, Amadeus.

"Cooper Isn't Here, Mrs. White"

We bought Cooper a magnet board for his room.



The Alphabet Set only came with one "R." That's why this says "REDBUM."



Jakob HAS been trying to finish a screenplay for, like, 12 years.
But I doubt he's capable of mubder :)

Tantrum Catalysts



"Don't stand on the couch."

"No standing on the chair."

"No biting! Biting hurts!"

"You have to hold Mommy's hand."

"Please give that to Mommy."

"Say bye-bye to Daddy. He has to go to work."

"Mommy has to use the bathroom. She'll be right out."

"Don't eat paper."

Artsy Fartsy



VOILA! Coop d'artiste.



I bought some finger paints for us to try. I figured he'd just start eating them and art time would be over.



Surprisingly, he did not put them in his mouth. He put them on the paper. I could tell he liked the feeling of the paint squishing in his hands.

His work is very sensitive (like Momma's). He uses lots of purple.



As we mooshed the paint around together, I started imagining future art projects like making Halloween costumes, creating Christmas cards and teaching him how to draw just like my dad taught me.

As cheesy as it may sound, art is in my soul and I'm so excited to share it with my son.