Stars and Stripes

We spent the fourth of July in Dahlonega with John's family. Gracie got to go to her first parade, which she seemed to enjoy. She didn't seem too impressed by all of the political candidates walking in the parade, but neither were we. Thank goodness we found a shady spot to stand in at the square! I taught Gracie to say, "God bless America" whenever she saw the American flag, but she never said it when anyone was around to hear! Cooper was a sweetheart, but the loud motorcylces did give him a fright. We had a nice picnic after the parade, but we didn't stay for the fireworks. We had to be in Anderson early the next day and didn't want to whole family to be tired. As most people know, with little ones, once you get behind on sleep, you can NEVER get caught up. "Grown-up naps" are a luxury John and I no longer have with 2 little ones. When we got home, we lit a few sparklers for Gracie and shot a few fireworks in the driveway. I don't have any pics of that because I was holding Cooper. Here are some of my favorite pics of the day.

Here's Gracie showing off her "spoils of war." She walked away with several necklaces, a bouncy ball, candy, stickers, a teddy bear and a penguin. I'm still trying to figure out where the penguin fits in to the birth of our nation...

My two favorite men in the whole wide world!

I think this is a great pic of the Anderson gals.

Here's Gracie chillin' in our new "Sit and Stand" double stroller. We realized we needed one badly after our trip to the zoo. Even though it takes up a lot of room in the SUV, it's worth it! It's awesome!

Talking and Teething

Gosh, I love that sweet smile! My little man had his 4 month check-up last week. He is in the 85th percentile for height and 50th for weight. He's definitely a healthy boy, but it is still strange to have a "smaller" child. Gracie was completely off the charts for both height and weight for almost the entire first year. She was always a size ahead of where she should have been. It's amazing how wonderfully different they are...it keeps things interesting! Praise the Lord for my healthy children! I am so blessed!

On a side note, Coop is talking up a storm. At home, he constantly coos and squeals. He and Gracie will squeal at each other sometimes; it is so funny to see her get him going. It is amazing how quickly he responds to her already, and she likes playing with him as well. He will play on the floor or in his exersaucer much longer when she is with him. The one thing I have realized is that we are going to have to teach Gracie that she can't give him toys that have small parts that he might choke him. She gave him a soft rubber bracelet the other day when I wasn't looking that he immediately tried to put in his mouth.

This week has been somewhat miserable for Cooper as he seems to be dealing with some teething pain. It looks like he may cut some side teeth before his front (if his swollen gums are any indication). I hope he cuts them soon because he sure has had a hard week. We have tried several different teethers and, like Gracie, he doesn't like any of them. We've tried various cold things and he likes those. He seems to prefer chewing on cloth things rather than plastic. He has also started random night-waking. That has been really hard to adjust to since he had been sleeping through the night for the last two months. It's probably been about a week and a half since I've gotten a full night of sleep. For example, last night Coop went to bed at 1 am and then Gracie came in wide awake at 6:45 when she normally sleeps until 9:00. I have learned, unfortunately, that my patience level with my children seems to be proportional to the amount of sleep I get at night. Oh well, this, too shall pass. :-)

It's a Jungle Out There

I realized the other day that I haven't posted anything in a few weeks. I have been working on a curriculum project for work and have spent most of my free time doing that. The summers always seem busier to me than the rest of the school year. It seems that for some reason I am usually pushing to get students done before August so that they can graduate in time for college. John also works 10 hour days during the summer which makes for a longer day with the kids. He gets Fridays off though (because of the 10-hour days) so it is super-nice to have him home on Fridays. We have tried to use that time to take a few day-trips.

So, one of those trips was to the Atlanta Zoo a couple of weeks ago. We were kinda worried about the heat, but it really wasn't bad. Most of the walk was shaded, and we had some of those nifty little portable fans for the kids. Cooper slept most of the time, and Gracie didn't even seem phased by the heat. Every time we would go to an exhibit Gracie would yell out, "Hey zebra, I'm waving at you!" (Or whatever appropriate animal was there.)

We were really impressed with the zoo, and we definitely plan on going back when Cooper gets bigger. My favorite quote of the day came from one of our potty-breaks. The zoo had a cute bathroom near the kids' rides that had colored, wavy-shaped toilet seats. When her Aunt Megan took her into the stall, she saw the toilet and said, "Oh, it's so beautiful!"

Here are some various shots from the day.


This is the "before" shot. I should have taken an after pic to compare. Two words: sweaty, tired.


Here's Gracie showing off her panda stamps.


Aunt Megan took this shot of us getting ready to ride the train that goes around part of the zoo. Cooper was NOT very fond of the noise.




I love these cardboard cut-out things. Do they have an official name?


Cooper's first ride on a carousel.


This picture totally makes me laugh. Gracie was soooo tired when we left. She found a bag of chips in the back as we were packing up the stroller. She was so worn out that she fell asleep before we got out of the parking lot with her hand still in the bag! John and I both agreed that it must have been the "Acker" coming out in her.

A Quick Dip

We decided to take an impromptu trip to Oconee State Park this afternoon for some swimming! Wow, that cool mountain water felt awesome! Cooper "went swimming" for the first time, and I was amazed at how well he did in the water! He stayed in the water for almost an hour and never gave the slightest indication that he was unhappy. After about an hour, he started grunting which we assumed meant, "I'm done with this whole water thing." Gracie had a good time kicking around in her little float that I grabbed on the way there. I wanted to get a picture of Cooper in the water, but we had our hands full with both of them in the water so by the time I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of him, I had already dried and changed him. Oh well! I had to settle for a quick shot of him chilling on the blanket while waiting on Gracie to finish swimming.

On the drive there, we passed some very pretty overlooks that gave a great view of the mountains. As we were talking about the beauty of the mountains I said, "Gracie, did you know that God made the mountains?" Her response: "Oh, thank you God! That's very sweet!"

Fast Favs

I haven't had a lot of time to post lately, so here is a random assortment of some of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks. (I know some need to be cropped, etc. but if I wait until that is done, they probably won't make it on the blog for another couple of months.)

Hook, Line, and Sinker

This clip is very special to me. A few weeks ago, my parents went camping at Moccasin Creek State Park. The park has an awesome lake and a creek running by the campground that they stock daily with trout. There is a special section of the creek, right where they stock it, that can only be fished by kids under 11 or people 65 and up.

I have two older brothers and a dad who loves to fish. Every year, when my family would vacation in the mountains, we would all go trout fishing. We would go to the river and hike a few miles to get to the hard-to-reach, secluded fishing holes. Very quickly, I learned that if I was going with "the men" I had to bait my own hook, catch my own fish, and clean them. When my younger sister became old enough, she joined us as well. We would spend hours on the river and usually come home completely exhausted. I enjoyed fishing when I was younger, but now I absolutely LOVE going.

The time that I have gotten to spend with my dad and my siblings out on the river has meant so much to me. Now, John joins us as well. Unfortunately, due to various obligations, it is a rare event now when all of us are out on the river together. Still, I try to make sure that I go several times a year (that's all...it's hard with little ones).

Anyway, I really want to pass the fishing tradition on to my kids. So, we went to Wal-Mart and bought Gracie a purple and pink princess fishing rod and headed up to Moccassin Creek. In my opinion, there is no better trout fisherman than my dad. I decided that if I wanted Gracie to catch a fish, getting his help would be our best bet.

We went down to the creek and after about 2 minutes with the help of Granddaddy, Gracie had a bite. She started reeling it in and did pretty good until she saw the fish flapping in the water. Gracie got so interested in watching the fish that she completely forgot about reeling! We are lucky the fish didn't get away. I was so incredibly proud, and so was Gracie. She ended up catching 3 before we called it quits, and she walked around the campground showing everyone her "fish-ys". John ended up cleaning them, and they are now in the freezer waiting to become part of the next family fish fry. I hope Gracie will enjoy fishing as much as I do...maybe she'll be "hooked" for life. :-)

Tiny Talker

I have been wanting to put some video up for a couple of weeks, but I was having issues getting my computer to detect my video camera. Yes, I am married to a tech director, but I forgot to ask him to look at it until tonight. Anyway, Cooper is "talking" up a storm. He is such a sweet little thing. I think he has the cutest little smile! I absolutely love to hear him talk and coo. I pulled out the camera one night when he was acting hyper on the changing table. I love how every once in a while, he will open his eyes really wide and then kick his legs really hard. You'd think that I had a load of caffeine in my breastmilk! He went on kicking and talking that night on the changing table for about 15 minutes.

I also added another quick clip of Cooper talking in his bouncer. I didn't even realize it until I was watching the tape but I swear Cooper says something towards the very end that sounds like "I love you." What do you think?