"Pretend City"

Coop & I are in Irvine visiting Matt, Alisa & crew (along with granba & granbma). Jon is at home enjoying his "freedom". Today we went to a place called "pretend city" where they have a doctor's office, post office, grocery store, beach, farm, etc...where kids can pretend they're grown up. Cooper basically tore the place to pieces, it was a lot of fun and he enjoyed his cousins!!

Janitor...hmm....

Katelyn (almost 5), Coop & Holden (his new 2 & 1/2 yr. old mentor)

Coop & Holden

"go, go, go..."

Going To The Greek

I took Cooper to the Greek festival last week and put him on his first amusement park ride. It was small and went slow so I thought he'd like it. I was wrong. As you can see in the montage he gets angrier the more times he goes around.

On A Jet Plane

When Cooper and I take Michelle to the airport we usually swing by the airport park and watch the planes take off.

Guerilla In The Mist

We headed down to Lake Keowee for part of the Labor Day weekend to stay some friends who make an annual trip down there. Cooper, who has taken to whining quite often, moaned for most of the 3 hour car ride down there. On the morning we woke up to leave, we got these tasteful nudes down by the water right after sunrise. Michelle and Cooper actually watched the sunrise. I woke up later and took pictures.

Boo Boo

Michelle and I usually split up park trips with Cooper. All three of us went one time and I thought it was admirable (yet odd) how interactive Michelle was on the kids playground equipment. Great mom? Without a doubt. Weird lady trying to make it across the monkey bars? Possibly. Anyway, tonight she fell from some piece of playground equipment and appears to have a mild ankle sprain.

Couch Potatoes

Michelle's college roommate is in town with her two kids. It took then all of an hour to dump all the kids on me. I've got two watching a Seuss DVD and the other watching the TV.

Squirrel Hunters

Some of you are aware of my intense dislike of tree rats (squirrels). There was a time when I didn't have a problem with squirrels. For a photography class in college I once submitted a nice picture of a squirrel peering at me around a tree. Then, three years ago we bought a house that had squirrels living in the attic. When sealed up the holes they were entering through, the chewed a hold in the roof flashing. Then (I can only assume as revenge) they dug small holes in my grass this fall and spring after I spent hours upon hours trying to grow grass. So now I hate them. In fact, I penned a blog for two years that was named after my desire to eliminate them from the Earth.

So I took Cooper to the park this morning and for the first time, he appeared to get excited about squirrels. I kindly explained to him that they are disease-ridden, card-carrying members of the rat family, and we hate them. Then I positioned him under a tree and taught him to scowl at the tree rats.

I like his form here. Ready to pounce in case on has the guts to come down the tree.

We're off to the South Park area this afternoon for an immunization shot and then heading to Dick's Sporting Goods, which I assume sells a child's BB gun. Death to the tree rats ...