Building Vocabularies and Big Muscles

Hot Weather with Good Friends

What a weird month. If you ask me, I'll tell you that I'm "2 half" years old, which is right on. My vocabulary has infinitely expanded this month, and I'm talking in quite complex sentences of 5 or 6 words. I know a ton of songs that I can sing. I'm getting a little attitude and say smart things back to mommy and daddy sometimes. I've also decided to talk a lot of gibberish and use nonsense words sometimes, mixed in with real words. I told mommy that I was going to be a fireman when I grow up, which she said was an improvement from the garbage man I said I was going to be last week. Hey, this stuff is exciting to me!

This is the life! Mommy and daddy couldn't stand one more viewing of Cars, so I got to watch it on my own little tv while they watched other stuff.

I love spaghetti!

Our good buddies the Schultes from Louisville decided to come visit us for a weekend. It was, of course, the hottest weekend of the summer to date, so we were all miserable in the heat. As I've said before, I'm a lover, so right away I had to corrupt 14 month old Taylor Schulte with her first kiss. I think she dug it.

In this heat in a house with no airconditioning, you seek out the coolest place possible. We headed downtown with the Schultes to the Boston Common. Here we found the Frog Pond, an artificial chlorinated little wading lake. What a nice treat!

Come on in Taylor! The water is great!

David and daddy swing us in the water.

Even Megan, Taylor's mommy, takes a little dip.

After we cooled off, we took a little walk around downtown. I'm a ladies man, so any chance I got to hold on to Taylor I took.

More water to cool off.... We turned on the sprinklers and played while grilling out.

Putting my big car under the sprinkler is funny!

Sharing my big car is not.

After that weekend's heat, we went out and bought a window unit airconditioner for the downstairs. Our house is heaven now.

Mommy butting in now: While this month was filled with lots of fun times with friends, we also had some hard times. Jeff and I were thrilled to learn that we were expecting baby #2, due in March. After our first doctors appointment at 8 weeks, we had just started telling family and friends. On August 6th at 9.5 weeks, we suffered a natural miscarriage. We felt strongly from the beginning that this baby was a girl, so we named her Claire Bolton. Our family is healing and doing much better now. We had a week long visit from Mimi to come help us out while we got better, and we feel better knowing we have a little baby angel watching over us.

Okay, back to Cooper: This is what happens when I'm quiet. Mimi and I were playing playdough and I slipped away and was quiet for about 30 seconds. When Mimi found me, I had covered myself in blue marker. I was careful not to color on my clothes, but I did color on every square inch of visible skin. I was so proud.

We just tried to stay busy while Mimi was here, so another trip to the Frog Pond was in order.

Splashing Mommy and Mimi.

If you look closely, I have my hands pressed together like a shark fin. I am making the noise do do do do (imagine Jaws theme music). I am a scary shark. Daddy doesn't seem to sense the danger behind him!

I am so big. I can climb here "all my self." Mommy was taking this picture having a stroke watching me do this.

I also hide down low when its time to go home.

Going home is made all that much sweeter when you stop by the balloon man.

He made me a white doggie on a black leash. Can you tell? I loved it. I named it Bijoux (which is the name of Mimi and Bubba's dog).

It popped on the way home but I sure was proud of it. I thought the popping noise was pretty cool so I wasn't too upset. We hope you are doing well and enjoying the nice weather and the airconditioning as much as we are!

Bubbles and Beaches

Happy half-birthday to me! I finally hit the 2.5 year old mark. I'm so big. The month of June was filled with days upon days of rain and cold weather, so we snuck in all the outdoor fun times whenever we could. I am saying really complicated sentences now, but sometimes I get all the words really mixed up. The other day, I wanted to know what everybody's favorite candy is, so I asked "What your favorite candy is you like." I always wanna know who's gonna be where, "Is momma go be dere? Is daddy go be dere? Is Kaya go be dere, etc" and I go through every single person I know. I'm getting some attitude, as frequent phrases around my house are "No! I don't want to. Not right now! Soon! Do it self!" I love, love reading my nighttime books and my favorites are Green Eggs and Ham and Cat and the Hat. I know almost every word by heart.

I love my Daddy! I also love cake, so I wanted to make a blue cake for daddy on Father's Day. Mommy didn't know how to make a blue cake, or have any food coloring, so I settled for some carrot cake with blue icing. Yummy!

We celebrated the fourth of July with a visit from Mimi and Papaw.

Mimi celebrated the big 60 birthday. We sang to her over and over and bought her a really big cake!

Mimi and Papaw brought me a bubble gun. I LOVE bubbles so this was right up my alley. I wanted to play this all day every day.

Look! I made bubbles myself.

We took Mimi and Papaw to the Rainforest Cafe again to eat with the gorillas and elephants. There is a big gorilla behind me, but I'm not scared!

Nana and Papa Bolton sent me a bubble machine a while back, so we broke it out again in the back yard. Did I mention how much I love bubbles?

Daddy also was trying to teach me how to play baseball.

I was better at chasing and hitting daddy than I was at hitting the ball.

Daddy had to work the fourth of July and it was one of the few pretty days we'd had in a while, so Mimi, Papaw, and Mommy took an impromptu trip to the Singing Beach at Manchester by the Sea, site of our beach trip about a year ago. We drove up there, nearly all the way, but were stopped by the town parade and couldn't get to a closer parking spot. Determined as we were, we walked the entire 2.5 miles remaining to the beach. Of course, I refused to walk, so Mommy carried me. Boy we were glad to see that beach. Papaw didn't see the sign that said the water temperature was 55-61 degrees, and he ran right for it. So did I. Boy it was cold!

I am a huge fan of the beach! I love the sand as much as the water.

I always love to pretend to cook a variety of food in my oven (oben), and I even found a pretend oven at the beach to prepare some sandy yummy foods for Mommy.

I'm not sure why I do this.

But it makes a funny and gross picture!

Another day when Daddy was at work, Mimi, Papaw and Mommy braved a rainy day and headed out to the zoo. Look, I'm a chicken.

I love riding the carousel (carouself). I picked out a fast bunny rabbit to ride with Mommy. I yelled "Hi!!!" every time I passed Mimi and Papaw.

I'm really not afraid of gorillas anymore. Look at us!

Hello gorilla!

Standing under this ostrich, I exclaimed "That birdie poopin' on your head Mommy!"

More poop on Mimi and Papaw's heads.

We were sad to see Mimi and Papaw go back on their airplane. This month, we went to see the Tall Ships come into the Boston Harbor, but I was not on my best behavior, so the pictures were bad. We also had some CHOP parties with friends who recently moved up here from Philly. We hope the weather stays sunny and that everyone is well!