"Was Dat?" Wednesday

Once upon a time, a VERY long time ago, I used to be much less inquisitive than I currently am. In fact, I couldn't have been less concerned with the world around me. As long as my Mommy (or 2nd Mommy) or Daddy were nearby and I had a fully belly, all was well with the world.

Now, the world is my oyster....whatever that means...it doesn't really make sense but it sounds fitting. I guess I'm searching for the pearl, even though I really have no interest in pearls but its figurative. I'm searching for EVERYTHING! Sometimes my brain can't even keep up with all of the knowledge I am receiving when my little finger points to every object within my view and I ask with utmost curiosity: "Was Dat?" "Was Dat?" "Was Dat?"....and so on, you catch my drift.

I feel like a sponge with infinite soaking capabilities. I MUST know what everything is.

From what I hear from my older, wiser toddler buddies (Shout-out Caleb!), this is just a pre-cursor to the ever-dreaded "Why's?" Here is a photo of one of my best inquisitive faces:

From what I understand: You spend your early toddler days finding out WHAT things are and once you've done that you must find out WHY they exist and what their purpose in life is. So, essentially we are budding existentialists, talk about deep! Note to Parents: please be patient with us as we are embarking on our journey into a knowledge comparable to yours! Every repetitive "Was Dat?" and "Why?" is bringing us closer to that college degree and the mental capability to explain similar instances to you when you are old and gray and years of raising angelic children have taken their toll on your brains. :)

But I digress....

Now onto a simpler subject, my favorite "Was Dat?" discovery of the past week: CHEEEEEEESE!!!!!!!!!!

This is a yellowy-orange or white substance, sometimes solid and sometimes in shreds that Mom pulls out and sprinkles atop my less desirable meals in order to entice me to eat more. Let me tell you, she is a magician because this works and everything tastes better with this stuff on it. It even tastes good in a block or pile of its own. While its been a staple of my consumption for quite some time I hadn't been able to pronounce that "Ch" sound until this week. Its so nice to put a name to an object and finally have the ability to command the 'rents to serve up "Mo Cheeeee". Note that this is usually a half-signed (more), half-spoken command (Cheeeee) given with all of the exuberance and zeal I'm able to muster...for this deliciousness is worthy of my hardest efforts and I WILL resort to waterworks and tantrums if my commands go unmet.

In other developments:


*I have a newfound love for other animals other than Shiner dog, altough I think he will always be my number one. I can mooooo like a cow and hug on the kiddy cots and talk about the birds in the sky. It would be so nice to find a local petting zoo or someone with animals that I could come visit. If you have any ideas (besides Fossil Rim) please tell my Mommy so we can plan an excursion! Maybe it could be a group thing.

*Though he's not technically an animal, I have a new betta fish named "Bobby." "Why Bobby?" you ask. Thats because I've taken to calling books "Bobbies," I'm not really sure why it is that I call them this, but it works for me. I make sure to sign "book," to assure Mom and Dad that I'm not referring to an imaginary friend named Bobby.

*I've discovered a new pathway to go "owside" where Shiner goes potty and there are sometimes dead rodents and/or rodent parts from the cats. This is great! Talk about freedom! It seems to be stressing Mom out though. There's talk around the household that Shiner may have to be let owside manually and this portal may be closed soon.

* I'm now able to show Mom where my legs are. She must have trouble locating body parts because she is constantly inquiring about the location of my facial features...and her own. Sometimes I worry that she is unable to find these things without my assistance. Shouldn't mothers go through some sort of training or have qualifications for this stuff? She seems fairly intelligent but I question her credibility when she has to ask her 1-year old to point out her own nose. This is a photo of my feet, which are attached to my legs, which I like to put in this hook when I'm in my highchair.

Dancing King

Mommy bought my soon to be one year old possible future wife, Kirsten, a neat magnetized farm animal contraption thing. As it turns out, she already has one of these so I got to keep it! Thanks Kirsten.

Kirsten's Mom told my Mom that Kirsten likes to jam out to Farmer Tad's rocking banjo tunes rather than using it for its intended purpose of matching farm animal parts to one another and learning about them. I determined that if I am going to one day woo her, I'll have to learn to like her music taste and be able to keep up with her on the dance floor. Here I am busting some moves:

I'm also considering trying out for "So You Think You Can Dance?"

Advice for new mothers of toddlers...

My parents are learning so many new things in this parenting process. I'm going through another life change into full-blown toddlerhood and its taking some getting used to for them. Here are a few tips I've taught them the hard way:

1. We toddlers love to help with all of your chores, dishes especially, and will always grab for the sharpest knife first. They're so shiny and pointy! 2. If given large quantities of blueberries for dirty-messy-fun-food-before-bath-time, we will pass black stools. This will send you into frenzied-internet-search-for-"toddler black stool" mode while assuming that your sweet child has some rare intestinal disease.
3. Two wobbly toddlers trying to hug will inevitably end up on the floor! And where there are two wobbly toddlers, there is bound to be an Aunt (or two) with a camera.

4. If you own a dog, you will need to switch his food to a Diet version, as he/she will gain immense amounts of weight from toddler food droppings and handouts. Also, it may be a good idea to invest in pet insurance as the full sippy cup thrown at the head of the dog from a tall highchair could risk injury. Shiner, too, has had a few months of learning about toddler habits and now resides under the highchair during mealtime for protection.

5. Go with your gut and take your baby to the doctor if they are acting strangely and causing you to miss out on sleep for long periods, there is probably a culprit....like a DOUBLE ear infection! That mixed with Mommy's sinus infection can lead to some unhappy times as Mommy discussed here, citing these circumstances, I've decided to forgive her for being short with me.

I think things are changing for the better now that I am out of daycare and spending my afternoons with one of the sweetest women ever! Maybe I'll even go a week without a cold...so far so good and its Thursday. :) Wish me luck.

Go Cowboys!!!

This Sunday was the first Cowboys game of the season. In my efforts to prepare for my future football career, I asked if I could start wearing a helmet around the house. Mommy has been a helmet advocate ever since I was born but Dad just refuses to let me have one. So I decided to be constructive and created my own facemask...this thing is funner than any of my toys!





Here I am doing my best Tony Romo impression and calling out plays to my team(Mommy and Shiner).

Super "Immune System" Cooper

If you've been one of the unfortunate recipients of one of my Mother's invite refusals due to "Cooper being sick AGAIN, I swear!" Rest assured, she is not suffering from munchausen by proxy. Its been a rough two months for us all. It started with an awful cold with fever that caused me to miss the entire second week of my new school. Followed by a nasty bout of pink eye, a few other colds, another bout of herpangina (my body's favorite choice of throat virus), a double ear infection, and now another cold....or is it a tooth? or another ear infection? allergies?

Either way, I've heard a lot of talk from Mom about "going insane," "all of our money going to Cook's children's," "people are going to stop believing that he's sick, maybe I should just stop telling anyone," etc. So I'm here to vouch for my Mom's sanity....I have, in fact, been sick approximately 75% of the past 2 months. What a way to bring in my toddlerhood!

The doctor, who knows my throat, ears, and parents debit card number all too well says this is pretty common when starting school for the first time. He said that after 6 months (WHAT?!!) to a YEAR (WHATTTT???), I should have this super immune system and will miss less days once I start big kids school. I hardly ever got sick when I stayed with my beloved Abby & Caleb, but apparently schools harbor many more drippy-nosed toddlers and, thus more germs for my body to ingest! School is also tons of fun, though, I have so many new friends:

A photo of some of the culprits...their images have been blurred to protect their identities. I am the 3rd from right, showing off some dance moves.

So, please don't think my mother is insane (at least when it comes to this subject), she is just weary from worrying about me being sick and never getting a moment to herself because I require myself to be in her arms at all times when I am under the weather.

Vertical Venturer

In recent weeks, I've found myself standing perilously in mid-air with no prop of any sort holding me up. While it feels okay and strangely natural, each time, I immediately squat back down to crawling position to ensure my safety.



I've also noticed both parents staring at me alot more lately when I'm cruising around the house on whatever crutch is available. Not that its terribly abnormal, but Mom also seems to have more cameras at the ready these days too. I've been feeling like I'm on display and they are waiting for the Cooper show to start. Maybe they want me to dance? clap? point at various objects quizzically and repeatedly ask "whats that?" I've tried all of these tactics and the staring continues....sometimes it looks as though Mom has even been holding her breath. While its nice to be paid attention to, it was getting out of hand, and causing me much confusion trying to figure out what it was they wanted from me and how I could provide the best entertainment.


This weekend was apparently a monumental one, albeit seemingly normal to me. Outside of my becoming proficient at saying and signing "Doggy uh-oh," at the same time, which caused much fanfare from the parents, I have completed the task which I believe will satisfy their hungry eyes...


We had another session of "Go See Daddy/Mommy," its a game we play in our family where Mommy and Daddy will let me cruise to the other one while holding their hands (I'm sure no other families are aware of this ritual, I believe its original to our household). Anyways, I decided to switch things up for entertainment value and release their hands and cruise to the other one with no support.



My Goodness! You would have thought I just graduated from Yale with honors!



This led my mother both to hysterical tears and laughter, all the while clapping and cheering my name. Daddy hugged me and threw me up in the air and told Mommy to 'stop crying or I'd think something was wrong.' While I'm still confused at the potpourri of emotions, I think I did something quite important that will be a part of my life for a long time to come. After a few runs, I felt really confident and ventured away from our normal straight path and headed for the toy box. See video:



This post is dedicated to my ottoman, couch, music table, walker hippo, baby gate, chairs, drawers, and most of all...to my dearest and most loyal supporter, Shiner dog. All of you have been there to guide me through the perils of navigating this new world above my previous domain of one foot off the floor. I must thank you all for your support...I couldn't have made it through the past few months without you there to lean on.

My Birthday Bash

My first birthday was apparently reason for celebration. People just began coming over one day and I seemed to be the focus of their attention. Nolan came and tried to steal my new bike. I showed him and pulled it from his hands thus knocking his tiny self to the ground. I bet he won't be messing with any of my future rides.

Elmo and his girlfriend came too...aren't they a cute couple? A perfect match.

Cadence and McKalyn stared longingly at this strange rectangular celebratory object.

Grandpa stayed outside with the bigger kids, perplexed by their extreme intelligence and wit.

Here's me playing with some of my buddies, and Aunt Steph showing us that Josh does, in fact, have a face under all of that hair.

Note that we all require something in our hands at all times, preferably something we can also attempt to eat.

Mom gave me my own personal "cake" to tear into. I assumed it was intended as a hand lotion of sorts for dry baby hands but it didn't seem to nourish my skin very well. ....so I took the tiniest nibble and was pleasantly surprised to find it was sweet and delicious and obviously intended for my consumption. An added bonus was that the paints used for decoration could also be used as Native American war paint for my face. Little did I know that this paint doesn't feel great in the eyes. You live and you learn I suppose, something to remember for next year. Not only were my eyes burning from the paint, I felt a sudden surge of emotions like the cake had some chemical in it that provided me with a short period of bliss, followed by a quick dive into crankiness. I wanted no more of this and Mommy quickly obliged and placed me back on the floor with my friends and great new toys. Ryeland felt similar and, being too young to communicate properly, gave out a peace sign in the hopes things would calm down.

Once the excitement died down, I decided to retreat to my toy basket for a few moments of reflective thought. I pondered how it was possible to have so many friends close to my age that I can play with and how wonderful it is that my Mommy and Daddy can play with their parents too, what a deal. I am truly blessed.

Once everyone had gone, I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion and joy onto the floor.

What a great day! I am one lucky one year old.