Moving Right Along....

Well, construction is moving right along at our house! We are so excited to move back into our house on Sunday! Our contractor has been amazing, and we are moving back in a week AHEAD of schedule!!



This is the hallway. It used to be straight...now, it's zig-zagged and so much more functional!!



This is the floor of our new laundry room!!! I am painting gray and white chevron stripes on the wall, above the beadboard that will go up.



This is Cale's new closet. When it is finished, there will be elfa drawers in it! I LOVE the space we have. We have nearly doubled our space.



This is our bedroom with two new closets and a little entry hallway...LOVE.



And, this is what the other half of our house looks like. ALL of our furniture is behind that plastic.

Finished product pictures to come!


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Cha-Cha-Change!

This month has been a whirlwind for the Cooper family!  We are currently living with my parents, in their Dallas apartment, while our house is being remodeled over the next four weeks!  We are so excited for all of the new changes that we are making to our house!  

Several months ago, we began looking at houses and entertained the idea of moving.  Since living in Dallas, we have lived in my grandparents old house - a house that they moved into when I was four.  That house is so dear to me, as it holds so many sweet memories from my childhood.  When we moved to Dallas in 2006, my grandparents were living in an assisted living facility, but had not sold their house.  They offered to let us live there while Adam was in school, but it needed some MAJOR work.  Since they house was going to need some work done before it was sold, we decided to make those changes before we moved in.  We have lived there, and loved it.  We have made some great memories, and have felt completely spoiled with our space and our location.  The only downside to the house is that although it is a three bedroom house, it really only functions as a two bedroom house.  The master bedroom was added on after the house was built, and to access that master bedroom, we have to walk through one of the other bedrooms.  We used that "walk-through" room as Cale's nursery for the first six months of his life, but eventually had to move him into our other spare bedroom.  The "walk-through" room also functions as our laundry room.  All that being said, we didn't need more space, we just needed "different" space.  So, we started our house search.  We looked and looked, but quickly became discouraged with the location that we were having to look in or the condition of the houses that we were seeing.  We started thinking through other options and met with a friend of ours that is a General Contractor.  He came up with a plan to move the walls of the bedrooms in our house, to create three full bedrooms and a separate laundry room.  Not only do we get to stay in a house we love, in a location we love, but every change we are making will only help with re-sale later on down the road...if we ever leave! Ha!  

Here are some pics, mid construction...

 Our new master closet

 Our second closet!

 Down the hall

So, my parents are graciously housing us, while our house is under construction!  My mom and dad have both been out of town most of the time we have been living at their apartment, and I have to say, it has felt like a mini location.  We are across the street from a great pool, and walking distance from the mall, Barnes & Noble, and Yogurtland...what more could we want?!  Cale has his own little room, and we have our own space in the guest room.  It really is such a great set up!  We worried how Cale would sleep, since we've been having issues with night terrors, and this was somewhat of a new space for him.  Thankfully, he has slept better at the apartment, than he does at our house!  We are thankful it has been a easy transition for him.  He has LOVED exploring the apartment and has loved playing with the toys that my parents have stashed away for when he comes over.  

Cale loves playing with the pots, pans and tupperware in the kitchen!

More progress pictures to come...

Our Fourth of July

We were so excited to celebrate the Fourth of July with Cale this year.  He is just getting to the age where is aware of new things and experiences, and gets so excited about them!  We woke up early Wednesday morning and headed out to a local parade that has become quite a Dallas tradition!  We met up with some friends and got great seats, spread out our blanket and had breakfast!  Cale thought that was pretty fun!  

Before the parade reached us, Cale was ready to go explore...

 Before we knew it, we were hearing sirens and horns...the parade was starting!!

Cyclists, cars, and marching bands followed...

Cale had his first push popcicle (at 9:30am) as it started to get a little steamy...

We headed home in time for Cale's morning nap and then headed to our house to see the progress.  Later, we grabbed dinner with friends and enjoyed a low key evening!  It was a fun day, and a day of events that we hope to start making a tradition in the Cooper home!

14...15...and almost 16 Months Old (catching up!)

Oh my word!  Where has the time gone?!?  I can't believe that I am having to combine a post that includes pictures and events from almost three months of Cale's life!  Well, no more delaying...here we go!

Cale has reached a bunch of milestones in the past 2.5 months!  He is now officially a FULL-TIME walker!  He is picking up speed everyday, so I know it is a matter of minutes before he will be a full-time runner! Ha!  I do have to admit that he is harder to keep up with now that he is walking, but I LOVE that I can hold his hand and walk places, or put him down at the park, or do a number of things that were harder to do when he wasn't getting around on his own two feet!

Adam and I have found ourselves saying, "He is just so big...He is just so grown up...He is SUCH a toddler!"  Physically, he is just a big boy!  At his 15-month well check that we went to last week, he weighed 24 lbs (50th percentile) and measured 33" (90th percentile).  He is definitely taking after my dad...he even looks a lot like him!

Cale's vocabulary and understanding have really taken off.  He has added "puppy", "keys", "cracker", and "mow-mow" to his vocabulary, just to name a few.  He follows basic command directions, such as, "get your shoes and bring them to me", or "go get the ball and throw it to Daddy".  He understands when we tell him its time for a meal, or when we are going to run errands, or when it's time for a nap/bedtime.  Unfortunately, like most toddlers, he understands more than he can communicate back with words, so he is entering the stage where he becomes frustrated with his lack of words.  The tantrums have started, with the full-on scream and cry session.  I've been told this could last for several more months (or years).  

Because of the heat, we've been spending a lot of time inside at malls or Gymboree, or in the water outside!  We are thankful that we have access to two pools and a little pool in our backyard that Cale enjoys.  He loves trying to drink from the backyard hose...

Unfortunately, we have been dealing with some sleep issues this month.  As we were trying to transition Cale from two naps a day to only one nap, Cale responded great during the day, but his night time sleep started to become very irregular.  He would wake up between 11:30pm-1:30am and be very disoriented.  Sometimes he would put himself back to sleep after 5 minutes, but other times we would have to go in and comfort him to get him back to sleep.  We weren't sure if it was because of his schedule transition or due to his discomfort from the FOUR molars he was getting in, all at the same time.  Right before we went in for Cale's well-check appointment, he woke up and was screaming (blood-curdling screams), so we went in to check on him and he seemed very disoriented and unaware of what was happening.  He flailed in my arms and did not want me or Adam to hold him.  He was shaking and screaming...it was pretty scary.  We took him into our room with low lighting to see if we could get him to calm down.  He would not make eye contact with us, and it looked as though he was looking through us.  He finally came out of it and started acting normal again, but was very confused at why he was not in his bed and why the lights were on.  We took him back to his room, he reached for his bed, and went right back to sleep.  It was the craziest little "episode".  Later, Adam and I were discussing it and Adam thought I should ask Cale's pediatrician about "night terrors".  After talking with the pediatrician, she did feel like that might be what Cale is experiencing.  Night Terrors differ from nightmares, in that night terrors is a condition that usually happens between ages 1-7 and it is a sleep pattern disruption.  With night terrors, a child may "wake up" screaming and flailing, etc..., but they are not truly awake, and have no memory of it in the morning.  It is often onset by sleep exhaustion or disruption in schedule.  Since "diagnosing" Cale with night terrors, he's had a few more episodes, but we've gone back to his solid two-naps-per-day schedule, and that has really helped!  Hopefully with age, the two to one nap transition will go a little smoother in a few months!

All in all, we are loving watching Cale become a little boy!  

More to come...