More of the monkey mommy

You probably want to start with the previous post ;)



Monkey can't have all the fun, Cooper joined in the play time (notice even at play she is cradling the monkey)



Monkey got to have a little snack...



And she read him a story (remind me not to let her read me a story, that doesn't look very comfortable!)




And finally, bouncing him to sleep while saying "shhh shhh shhh shhhh shhh" (yes, I often bounce Zeke to sleep like that when he's cranky)

I gotta say, she's getting in lots of good practice, and I am confident she is going to be an amazing mommy some day. She's very attentive, that's for sure!!! And by the way, I didn't coach her on any of that, all I did was follow her around with my camera. She's quite a busy little thing!

But it's a monkey!!!

Recently Cooper has been really into "swaddling" things and carrying them around, and lately it's mostly been her monkey. But the other day I realized just how closely she's been watching every little thing I do to take care of her "Bubba". I first noticed her playing Mommy when I realized that she was trying to give her little bundled monkey a bottle (it was actually a toy that vaguely resembles the shape of a bottle, but she was holding it up to the monkey's mouth while she cradled him). I missed getting a picture of the bottle feeding, but I did manage to capture the rest of her run as Mommy. By the way, I was sorting through some of Zeke's clothes, so it is actually Zeke's rash guard that she is wearing. Just smile and nod, that's what we do.


Singing to monkey



Rocking him to sleep



Waving night night after carefully laying him down



"Mom, you have to leave the room so the baby can sleep!"



He got to play for a while after he woke up from his nap.

Stoda family pictures

Just for the record, Pensacola is having record lows currently, and we were down on the windy beach taking pictures. Possibly not smart, but definitely worth it for these pics.

Zoo lights

We took the kids to the zoo last week, and we stayed for zoo lights. After trying for quite a while to get some good pictures in front of the animal lights, we gave up and headed to the car and found this little area with lots of white lights, it was so beautiful, and I was able to get some great pictures. We actually got a couple cute family pictures, too, but they are on Jesse's camera, and at the moment it is MIA.

Christmas with a Toddler!

We had so much fun on Christmas morning. Jesse and I got Cooper a kitchen and had it all set up in the morning when she got up, and it was so fun to watch how excited she was. She is young enough that she didn't know to be impatient, she was excited to play with each present as she opened it, but old enough to be excited about opening presents and getting new toys. She would open a something and wonder off to play, and Jesse and I opened stuff, and watched her, and had a really fun, chill morning. And Zeke slept through the whole thing :).


Putting away dishes in her new kitchen


Using her new camera


Opening a gift


Helping Daddy set up a new toy.

Update pics

Zeke hanging out, trying to keep warm while his big sister plays outside.


Being like Daddy, working away.


What, I wasn't touching the presents!


The Z man practicing his standing skills.