J Cooper Photography

So glad that my heart is here in our house instead of on the other side of the world.

Is your heart aching for something?

There are over 4 million others waiting…

Here at the Cooper house we are even worse than band geeks.  We are orchetra nerds…we’ve acheieved an entirely new level of dorkiness here…but we are proud of it just the same.  Mr. P and I met in the William Jewell orchestra, fell in love over Stravinsky, and spent hours in those dingy basement practice rooms perfecting Bach.  So it only makes sense that playing the violin in the Cooper house is somewhat mandatory.  Both of the girls started at age 4 with the Suzuki method.  Both Mr.  P and I started with the Suzuki method about 30 years ago (another one of those weird, crazy coincidences surrounding our childhoods…kind of like both being NCA cheerleaders…but that is a WHOLE different post!)

{violins all in a row at our house}

So we have this theory at the Cooper house.  Music makes you smarter.  And I truly believe it does.  Also…music is an acquired taste.  We love the type of music to which we are exposed to the most.  So if your kids grow up listening to Barry Manalow and The Platters…chances are they will still be drawn to those tunes as a thirty something (thanks so much for that special little “gift” Mom).  We figure that if we start our kids out on classical music on their violins while they are still tiny, they’ll never remember NOT playing (and practicing).  Music makes up a huge portion of our weekly routine.  We drive across town THREE times per week for lessons, do hours of listening to their cds, attend camps, and practice every day (at least that is the goal).  And we aren’t talking about a 10 minute practice.  A has gotten to the point where she required 45-60 minutes of diligent practice a day!

Some people might call this all cruel and unusual punishment.  But we have another theory that addresses that too.  Kids LOVE to do things that make them successful.  If your child has tried an activity and didn’t enjoy it…chances are it is because they didn’t feel successful doing it.  Music is a learned art and the Suzuki method strives to show parents that ALL children can learn.  Which means that all children WILL have success (at some level).  My girls truly LOVE to play their violins.  But my hope for them is not that they will become concert violinists (I’d actually prefer they dont!)  And even if they come to me in a few years begging to quit, I’ll have the same hopes for them.  I want them to enjoy and appreciate music.  I want them to learn a DISCIPLINE.  Music does not have to be “their thing” in life.  Maybe they will be scientists or doctors or stay at home moms.  A says she wants to vaccuum people’s houses for a living so she can paint and have lots of cats.  Whatever!  Just do something you love.  But we also ALL need to learn a discipline.  We need to know that not everything in life is our favorite activity…yet if we work hard…we can still see success.

Getting off my soap box now and will show you the fruit of their efforts.

{violin friends are the best}

{getting tuned up before the recital}

I thought about editing A’s video but had to leave the beginning part alone.  I love how it shows her youthful innocence.  She was SO eager to get up on stage to play she ran down the aisle and dove straight into her piece before even waiting for the pianist!  I love too that she stopped and re-positioned herself to try again!

And then there is Miss J.  I was SO proud of her!  This wasn’t actually her best performance as her nerves got in the way of her memorization a bit.  But what I LOVED was her focus and determination to KEEP GOING!  I think that is pretty amazing for a six year old….she didn’t miss a beat…kept her eyes down…and just pushed forward.  Pretty darn awesome in my book!

Now we just need a bigger wall over the piano…gotta make room for 2 more little fiddles in a few years {or maybe more!}

This morning I woke up to a very wet 2 year old bed (did I mention I just laundered his sheets yesterday?) After school drop off I tried to squeeze in a quick run to Walmart to grab some milk only to realize I didn’t have my wallet.  I came home to receive bad news from a very close friend that broke my heart.  Can we just get a re-do today?  I’m thinking that would be nice!  But since I know that isn’t possible…how about we have a bit of “beat the winter dulldrums” sale?

It’s time to clear out the ‘ol Etsy shop.  My life is full of bottles, and baby food, and breathing treatments right now.  And any sewing I can sneak in will be strictly for the beautification of our own closets   So it is time to sell off the last of my shop at some DEEP discounts.  That makes for a HAPPIER FRIDAY doesn’t it?

These items are only available in the sizes listed.  I will NOT be making more.  I will NOT be taking custom orders.  Most of my shop contents sold during my big Fall fundraiser sale.  These are the few stray items still looking for a bit of love

Size 2T  – Tank & Ruffles – $20 shipped  SOLD

Super cute and comfy wide legged knit ruffles.  Old Navy tank adorned with ruffle and vintage button.

Jean Jacket – Available in a size 12-18 month and 18-24 month (run generous) – $15 shipped

Old Navy jean jackets embellished with cute patches, trims, and handmade yo-yos.  Super cute with Matilda Jane!  Each jacket is unique but includes shades of brown, pink, aqua, and lime.

BROWN SCRAPPY TANK SET – Size 18-24 month – $20 shipped  SOLD

Old Navy tank embellished with fabric ruffle and vintage button.  Circo jean skirt (built in biker shorts) has patches and funky trim.

PINK SCRAPPY TANK SET – Available in 18-24 month, 2T, 3T, and 4T – $20 shipped

Same as the brown set but with a funky zebra influence. 

TINY BROWN TEE – 6-12 months – $10 shipped

Cute Old Navy tee with tiny handmade yo-yos.  Was ready to be made into a dress similar to the picture.  This is for the TEE ONLY.  Would be super cute with MJ ruffles or a teeny pair of jeans   Maybe a cute personalized baby gift??  Yo-yos are different than pictured (zebra, aqua dots, and lime/pink floral)

FRUITY TOP – Size 12-24 month – $18 shipped  SOLD

Just tried this on Sam.  He said “I look like a Julia!”  He is a solid 2/3 and this fits as a top.  Would fit a 12-18 month old as a tunic/dress.  Ridiculously cute alone or layered.

OK….THE NITTY GRITTY:

You MUST pay with PAYPAL within 24 hours.  Or I will send you hate mail and show up at your house with all of my stir crazy children in tow.  Just kidding.  But you do need to pay TODAY.  Or else I will offer your items to someone else.  The price includes First class shipping.  Just because I am that nice  

My camera is charging downstairs but my little man insists I show you how adorable that fruity top is.  So here you go!

Tonight it’s just a couple of late night snap shots.  Nothing fancy or technically amazing to dazzle you with (not that I ever really “dazzle” anyone…but it’s a fun word nonetheless!)  It’s dark, dark, dark and stormy here but my little people were hard at work getting the welcome wagon ready.  I would have loved a bit of light to capture their creativity with but that didn’t stop them from busting out the Crayolas.   One of Daniel’s special girls (he does happen to have a couple) is COMING HOME!  This little sweetie slept in the crib on just the other side of our little man and she is on her way home to Kansas City!  Isn’t God AMAZING?  Two tiny babies on the other side of the world finding their way to their forever families in the SAME CITY.  That just makes my heart smile!

And tomorrow night we’ll don our Africa tees and stand in a crowded airport waiting for a peek at a sweet curly headed beauty in her Mommy’s arms FOREVER!  So excited to be switching places with these special friends and be able to welcome them home!

Can’t wait to see you again Baby Z…Daniel has been missing you!!

My kids have gotten really into doing “commercials” about their food at meal time.  Not sure where they came up with this idea but the last few nights at dinner have been quite entertaining.

Tonight’s menu:  Homemade chicken nuggets with ketchup,  butter and herb rice, peas, apple slices, and milk.

It went something like this:

GREEN PEAS:  “The greenest you’ll find anywhere…HURRY!  Eat them before they eat YOU!”

RED DELICIOUS APPLES:  “Good for your health.  They will even cure you of those awful pimples and zits!”

CHICKEN NUGGETS:  “Homemade…even YOUR Mom can make them (I think this was a jab at my lack of cooking skills).  Delicious…not spicy at all.  And they cool off fast so you’ll never burn your tongue!”

HERB RICE:  “Good, good, good.  It is so healthy it cures cancer!  And it’s free!”

KETCHUP:  “The reddest you’ll find anywhere.  It will even make you lose weight!”

WHITE MILK:  “Delicious and it isn’t even sticky!  Give it to your babies when they are born and you won’t waste time feeding them from your own body!”

WOW…now that’s a great meal, huh?  Can your dinner say that?

Adoption is hard.  It is a wonderfully, amazing journey FULL of God’s grace and provision.  But the truth is…it is hard.

And while we are head over heals in love with our newest son and finding MANY reasons to be joyous that he is home with us (finally)…there are still hard moments.  I want to be real about our experience in hopes that I don’t set unrealistic expectations for others that choose this path.  But let me first say this.  You WILL love your adopted child (eventually).  You WILL have the strength to muddle through any problems that arise (through God’s strength). You WILL seriously think about doing this again (even before you have fully recovered from the first round…that’s just a bit of fair warning!).

Looking back on our trip to Ethiopia I have such mixed emotions.  We were elated to finally be holding our son…yet my heart was breaking for his loss.  He was losing the only home and care givers he had ever known.  At the time I chose to show images that reflected OUR emotions.  We were happy, joyful, and on cloud 9.  But as I sift back through these images I see another side of the story.  I see Daniel’s hurt.  His dismissal of us (at times).  His avoidance.  Fortunately, there were also MANY smiles and giggles to round out our trip!  But the pain for him WAS real and evident and has continued in some ways even now that we are home for good.

And even once we have been home there has been a sense of loss.  Even through the happiness, I grieve our family the way it was before.   I miss the convenience of having kids that didn’t require my attention every second of the day.  I miss my independence, my sleep, my “me time”.  Our bigger kids are missing our undivided attention. I miss being able to leave the house.

The road of adoption is not without sacrifice.  But sometimes the BIGGEST blessings come when we allow God to push us into scary territory.  Daniel made huge sacrifices to become a member of our family.  He deserves a family that will do the same for him.

The transformation in our son over the past five weeks has been mind boggling.  He is growing (at an alarming rate), gaining a schedule, hitting developmental milestones, and adjusting more every day.  He’s a different baby than the baby we met that Saturday morning at the orphanage.   The fear in his eyes has been replaced with a mischievous twinkle.  The kitten-like cry has become constant baby babble.  And the ever present hand to his face has been completely given up…and exchanged for deliberate eye contact, hugs, and little hands reaching out.

The hard is real.  But it makes the good that much better.  And I’d walk this path of sleepless nights and mouth clenched meals over a thousand times to have the privilege of parenting my son.

Maybe I should start practicing saying “no” now…cause something tells me it is going to be excruciatingly hard.  Just look at that lip.

Could YOU resist this face?

{didn’t think so}

Sam first met his betrothed right after his birth.  She’s only 3 weeks younger than him and her mom and I spent our pregnancies comparing notes.  She gained 12 lbs.  I gained 40.  She was cute like an olive on a toothpick.  I looked like a beached walrus.  She rocked her zipped jeans home from the hospital.  I wore a moo-moo.  You get the drift.

But despite our differences we have remained friends.  We just completed our last “pregnancies” together too…her new little man is 5 months old…mine 8…and GUESS WHAT?  I gained less weight than her   Just barely, though (and only because I wasn’t really pregnant)!

So here is the happy couple.  They played all morning together in the sweetest way.  I hope they fall madly in love some day and have cute happy little babies just like they were.

{sorry about the slightly out of focus Sam…the sentiment was too cute…and they weren’t exactly holding still!}

Here they were at about 6 months…they loved each other even way back then!

Clearly this relationship was meant to be.

So what you can’t see in this snapshot of my loverboy is the slogan on his shirt….”Captain Heartbreaker – Ahoy Ladies”.  Pretty darn cute

I know that the orange and olive color scheme is probably throwing you off a bit on the Valentine’s Day shirt.  But we rolled in from Nebraska late on Sunday night and it donned on me that I hadn’t really thought out cute Valentine’s Day outfits.  In years past I had the kids decked from head to toe (residual Ebay obsession) but this year we just went with the hodpodge of whatever we could find in our school scramble Monday morning.  The girls scrounged up some hearts on some tops and I pulled this onsie out for our newest lover boy.  Sam actually won the V-day prize as he had a real live Valentine’s Day tee in his closet I bought for $1.99 last winter and stored away on one of his shelves….no digging required!

I wish I had cute pics of them all together (even in their not-so-coordinated attire) but we didn’t make it that far yesterday.  Happy to report that everyone did indeed enjoy their day despite the wardrobe malfunctions.

And speaking of a bit of love….how about loverboy with his Mimi and Baboo?  Aren’t they looking festive in their red??  I was so excited to pull out this little tracksuit for him for our visit

I love.love.LOVE this little smirk he does!

Big brother got in on the love action too…

And of course the girls and their “Meems”…these three have a pretty special bond.  My mom must have played Old Maid with them 1000 times over the course of 2 days.  Now that is a BIG heart!

Hope your day was everything you wanted it to be.  I’m finding that “simple” is winning out for most of our celebrations right now…and I’m really enjoying it.  Bring on the mismatched clothes and store bought Valentines…it’s time to embrace it

I hope you are all enjoying a Happy Valentine’s Day with someone you love.  We are having play dates, school parties, and a little visit from the Valentine’s Fairy.   But our real celebration started this weekend.  It has been a long month of being couped up inside cocooning….so at about 1:00pm on Friday afternoon we decided to make a weekend trip to Nebraska.  I laid the kiddos down for naps and packed like crazy.  Mr. P rolled in from work, loaded the car…and off we went.

My “Gaga” hasn’t been feeling well and I was so anxious for Daniel to meet her.  She can’t travel and rarely leaves her apartment so I knew I wanted to make sure to etch out time during our weekend to get these two together.  And it was LOVE at FIRST SIGHT!  Gaga adored Daniel…and the feeling was quite mutual.  I think babies and kids just KNOW when someone is truly special in their lives.  Normally, Daniel would raise his hands in avoidance at a new face…but he just GRINNED up at her!  He sat on her lap babbling and just soaked her in.  I couldn’t stop smiling.  It was the sweetest reunion.  “Gaga” had a Daniel…”Danny” and he will always hold a special place in her heart.  Our Daniel isn’t a replacement…but we know that God provided us with a sweet baby with his namesake.  There are no coincidences.  God had a plan…and our Danny was meant for this family.  And you better believe he knew his Great Gaga when he first laid his eyes on her

Love grows like a little seed.  And Daniel’s name helped to water that seed and help it sprout.  We are so thankful that God cares about the little details in our love stories!

I can’t wait to show a few more pictures from our weekend of some more lovin’ that was going on…cause there was plenty to go around

And to top off a great weekend full of family and a bit of (warm!) fresh air…a little love showed up in my mailbox this week!  Sometimes it’s the friends you’ve never met in person that somehow really “know” you the best.  This friend and I have grown a friendship via this crazy computer for years and our hearts are connected through stories that only God could weave.

Thank you, friend.  It hasn’t left my neck since

Now go spread a bit of love around your neck of the woods!  Happy Valentine’s Day!