Almost every part of life right now is unpredictable. We keep hearing the phrase, "in these unprecedented times..."
Almost every part of life right now is unpredictable. We keep hearing the phrase, "in these unprecedented times..."
So that's the word that came to mind when I was trying to decide what to name this post. It's so fitting. (Teaching all online all of a sudden was definitely unexpected, but it is going really well for me so far. No complaints, just not predicted. I think it's also a good thing that I've been teaching for a long time now because that experience makes it easier to roll with the punches.) Anyways, on to the rest of the post.
The weather
It has been mostly gorgeous and we got about 4 days of cold weather out of the blue. You'd think that'd be a bad thing but when every day is the same you enjoy the cold more haha I loved being able to wear a hoodie again.
We had 94 degree day recently (in NOVEMBER) Can you believe that?! Mostly it's been upper 70s low 80s. So we have loved being outside lately because it feels amazing. We took the top off the jeep to enjoy it.
Meeting Luca
I wasn't expecting we'd be able to meet baby Luca so fast so that was an unpredicted, awesome surprise! I love how cooper is pulling peanuts hair in the pic of all of us and she's looking at him like "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!" lol
their first family pic
Coopers toys
He is very interactive with toys now. He has to be entertained or he will get annoyed. He loved when i put toys in a bucket and could shake them out. That was his favorite until he hit himself in the face with the bucket a few times.
He started to get picky with toys and what little we had wasn't entertaining him anymore so my cheap side kicked in and we got creative....
I didn't want to spend money in case he didn't like them. His use of toys is unpredictable after all. We got these teethers and this was literally the only time he used it. And this was maybe 30 seconds.
He still absolutely loves his jump jump. He loves to just follow us around everywhere or walk in circles or chase the dogs. He seems to love having the ability to move.
Someone clued me in on the "hide the rest of their toys and pull out different ones each day so they're always new" bit and it seems to be helping. I scoured the house and pulled together a decent amount of toys and he seems to be happy with it. We only ended up buying one new toy and it just came with a bunch of different options so that has panned out well. I didn't want to end up with a ton of toys or end up spending money on them and then they go un-used.
speaking of toys, dallin got him this toy that aubrey told him about that is helps them sleep. When they press it it plays music that helps them fall back asleep. I was thinking it wouldn't work but then we saw on the video that it did work! We are proud of him for being able to self soothe so we don't have to go in there and he can just cuddle his toy until he falls back asleep.
Whether or not I will have any hair left is unpredictable
I know I've been losing hair since july because I see it all over the floor but it doesn't make sense that it's all from the front around my face/hairline. It looks like I have bangs! Gross, too short, bangs. And some days they spike up and I have an inch of it so that's nice.
Halloween 2020
This year no one seemed to know what to do for halloween. I heard the radio announcer talking about using a sling shot to shoot the candy at kids hahah
We went to the church by our house and they did a trunk or treat. We were a family of animals and it didn't occur to me that Cooper was a Lion, Dallin was a bear, so we could have been "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" If I would have been a tiger. (face-palm moment) So there I am in a giraffe costume making no sense to anyone. Dallin's costume was hilarious and 7 feet tall.
They gave out free photos.
Cooper with a mini cooper. (Couldn't resist that photo of course.) Him "trick or treating".... lol
The moment before this photo was like this- Dallin trying to figure out how to blow up his costume. Me chasing the dogs down and shoving them into their costumes while they resist. Cooper crying because he hated that his costume covered his eyes. Struggling to find a place where we can all get in the picture and prop up the phone. Setting the timer on the camera and the dogs run out of the picture. Cooper crying in the pictures. Me getting frustrated and screaming "ALL I WANTED WAS A FREAKING PICTURE!"
So ya. This did not pan out like the joyous holiday I envisioned. But the trunk or treat was really fun. And I just did the uber-cheap thing and returned coopers costume after he wore it.
This was me at school to celebrate halloween. I had the kids do halloween themed line dances and gave candy to the best dancers to celebrate.
Our Health
We all got sick. This was cooper's 3rd time getting sick and it was by far the worst. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't go to day care, then we got it and we both felt like crap too. We were both trying to figure out how to work while dealing with all this. It was difficult.
My eye randomly swelled up... so that's nice. I sent a pic to trenden asking if he thinks its pink eye and he said take off the halloween mask so i can see it.
I got slight reprieve in the tub and whenever we could get cooper to sleep. Most the time it was anytime he was propped up because of how bad his congestion was.
We got tested for cover and it was negative. Although it was going around my school so much we went to all online until after thanksgiving break again. Anyway it was about a week and half of feeling like death and then when it was gone I have never been more grateful. That was the worst thing ever it felt like it must have been the bubonic plague or something.
I have been having a hard time with my left trap so I’ve been going and getting it worked on. It still is hurting but it’s at least getting a tiny bit better
The use of our appliances is apparently unpredictable as well
Our garbage disposal went out and the dishwasher flooded....
I never would have predicted Having Friends in my neighborhood!
I thought our neighborhood was 100% 65 and older but I made a post on the next-door app to see if there were any moms who wanted to do a stroller walking group on saturdays. Now we have 6! I couldn't believe it! I love it! I have been having so much fun meeting up with these girls.
all the babies our first walk
Cooper can't always hang haha sometimes he falls asleep while we're walking
This was a different day
We met up at the neighborhood park with a few of us and brought the dogs. That was so fun!
It definitely is filling a hole I felt like I had in my life of missing that sense of community. I think it will only get better as well if we keep trying to get out and do things.
This was our walk on halloween day. Cooper was a monster and I was a cheetah. So I ended up having 3 costumes this year! haha
Dallin's vacation
He told me it was a work trip when it didn't end up being anything to do with clear link at all. So I guess that was unpredictable. And then his ability to stay was as well because I called him desperately one night because the sickness was setting in and cooper would not sleep. Luckily they were just in scottsdale. Dallins friends came down from utah and they just hung out, went to casinos, swam, and played video games.
Our other kids
Lately it feels like Josie could bark any second. Maybe she's going senile or something but she barks sooooo much it's so obnoxious. We were making a book for taskmaster and so I went around taking pictures of jake in random places haha that was funny.
Cooper loves the dogs but they avoid him mostly cuz he pulls their hair. If he starts crying though they run over to check on him. haha typical sibling relationship.
He decided he HATES peaches. He spit it out over and over both times we tried to give it to him and the first time he projectile vomited twice. It was like a fire-hose of orange liquid shooting probably 2-3 feet out from him straight against the wall. I could hear it happen from all the way down stairs. He is back and forth on puffs right now.
Josie's pills are a thorn in my side. We can't get them on auto ship from anywhere, and they're all on different schedules so I end up going to the vet so often. They're all expensive and one pill is in a national shortage right now. So since everyone wants them the vet can only give them to me one week at a time and they charge way more than online pharmacies do. So there are sites we can find them from sometimes too so we have to plan it out perfectly with shipping time and they won't give you more than a month's worth at a time. She is so dependent on these pills we can't be flexible with it anymore. Ugh anyway long story short I hate this "4 pills every 12 hours" thing. She hates it too- we're having to get more and more creative about the way we give it to her so she'll take the dang things.
What cooper will eat is unpredictable
He will eat his feet. HE JUST FOUND OUT HE LOVES RITZ CRACKERS WITH ALL HIS HEART. (Which is the cutest thing ever because he doesn't have any teeth so he just gums it to death. lol )
He decided he HATES peaches. He spit it out over and over both times we tried to give it to him and the first time he projectile vomited twice. It was like a fire-hose of orange liquid shooting probably 2-3 feet out from him straight against the wall. I could hear it happen from all the way down stairs. He is back and forth on puffs right now.
We got this new bib that covers his arms and the whole front area because his seat is like covered in baby food haha Makes him look like he's getting his hair cut but it's very effective!
Nails
My nails have been going back and forth between gel and the press ons because I had to cut them off and kind of grow them back a little.
Cooper getting into things
He will open cabinets and stuff so we got the cabinet things and the light socket covers
Preferences on the "baby cage"
We must have had dogs for too long since we call it that haha
Cooper loves it but Olivia hates it (Olivia is our neighbor and Cooper's 9 month old girl friend.) They're in love.
Cooper's butt is pretty unpredictable
He will go #2 up to 4 times a day. He's like a poop machine. Marni said she's been doing this 14 years and there's only one other baby that beats him in blow outs and his name was Atlas. Cooper takes 2nd place in that department. And the other weird thing is that randomly he'll get this super bad rash. We are always really on top of it with changing him fast, I know from this picture no one will believe me. But it's true it shows up so crazy fast. This has really only happened like 3 or 4 times in his whole life. But all of the times we were mystified how it happened. And then the even crazier thing was how fast it went away! We put the cream on it and it's gone within a few hours.
Since I'm reading twilight still looking at this picture makes me think "it looks like his butt was bit by a vampire."
Back to sleeping normally after being sick!! Hallelujah!!
He is so cute. And neither of us can believe that he is growing up so fast. Dallin always says when he’s holding him, “look at this he looks like a boy.” Or “he looks like a toddler”
It is pretty unpredictable whether or not Josie will get in the pool at any given moment. She was stinking so bad that after her last grooming we gated it off because we were so sick of the smell.
Pumpkin patch with the Mayne’s
We went to a pumpkin patch with Justin and Lexi and we had so much fun! Here are some pics from that day. It was definitely strange that we were all so hot but walking around surrounded by fall-looking things. And it was also hard to know whether or not we should be wearing our masks
Thanksgiving decor for November
Working on the front yard
After we removed the big huge saguaro cactus, the left side of our front yard looked naked. We had so many plants on the right side and then nothing on the left so it did not look balanced. So we removed some plants from the right side and planted some new ones on the left to try to balance it out. This was what it looked like before…
This is Dallin planting a little agave
This is the after version
The Predictable Parts
1. Cooper is happy
Except for when he is sick, he is so easy going and happy and laughing all the time.
We love our friends!
We went over to visit baby Luca, Gianna, and Nick. It was so fun! And Cooper loved seeing the baby
Cooper loves his grandma!
She is like his favorite person right now LOL so when she visits he’s soaks up all the cuddles he can
More friendships!
We love hanging out with our neighbors Jessie and Wade and their daughter Olivia. They took us golfing on the golf course that we live on and we’ve had dinner at their house and stuff
It was so cute because she would crawl to go get him toys and then bring them to him
Me and Cooper in our matching pajamas!
