Cooper's 1st birthday

Thursday, September 1st was our Cooper's first birthday. I remember everything about the few days prior to his birth so well and its hard to believe one year has passed. I remember at our ultrasound being told we were having a boy. I saw the joy in Ryan's eyes as we found out--and I am not going to lie--I was a little scared. I know nothing about little boys. I know they are messy, loud, into things, always on the go and busier in general than litle girls. I have a beautiful little girl and felt comfortable with another girl. Well this little guy came along and I am so happy to have a little man in our house. He's everything I didn't expect--and I am so happy to be his Mom. Happy Birthday to our Cooper. We love you and are thankful you are in our lives.

Well, he is related to us as chocolate is the flavor of choice. . .and he dug in like a champ!

Cooper's big present from Mom, Dad, and Paige--a Cars ride on that makes all kinds of great noise. He can get off and on it by himself and thinks its great.


Birthday boy who loved all the balloons.

Cooper and his daddy--wonder where the blue eyes come from?!

Cooper's mini cake--just for him

He's on the go

This crawling stuff is easy! Its even more fun outside in the grass.

"What Mom? I'm not supposed to be pulling myself up on stuff?"

Big stuff

So, roughly the first week of April Cooper officially began to crawl. I think he snuck it in once prior; but that was when some consistancy showed up. Now all of a sudden this last week, he's figured out how to crawl to stuff and is up on his knees by it. I was okay with that; then on Saturday he crawled (rather fast) over to the box of diapers and pulled himself up and was standing up holding on to the box thinking he was the biggest stuff ever. I was just adjusting to the fact that he was going to be slightly mobile; and am so not ready for this. Miss Paige was no where near this early with crawling or pulling herself up. She was a content observer. Cooper is apparently not and wants to be where the action is. Boys :) He hasn't been the happiest camper the last few days as his teeth are still troubling him--lots of chewing and drool but still no signs of those chompers yet.

Crawling

Its been a busy few days and the biggest news is Cooper is crawling. He's getting a bit faster and going a bit farther each day; but so far he's resembling the tortoise and not the hare. I am okay with that. He did manage to crawl up to my legs and I swear he was trying to climb up my legs while I was doing dishes tonight. He has been up on his knees a few times with his hands on the edge of the toy basket; thinking he's pretty big stuff. I have some video and hope to post it soon; as I don't have any pictures of him crawling. He did discover the walker at Gramma Shelly's this weekend and thought that was pretty great. It was even better once big sister figured out it was fun to push him around in it. He also decided to really like the sippy cup we found in the cupboard and really thinks its fun to sip water out of it when he's in his chair. Too bad his teeth hurt so bad he's decided to not each any food though.

We decided to enjoy the spring day after work and we all played outside. Here's our cowdog loving her favorite cowboy.

6 months

Okay, the picture is 3 days prior to the offical 6 month timeline, but what's 3 days! We'll take the horse picture later. Cooper had his 6 month check up today. He weighed in at 16lbs 9 oz; so he has doubled his birth weight by a few ounces. He is 25.5 inches long. I don't know where that falls in the percentiles; we don't worry about those. He's sitting up fairly well and drooling like a mad man today. I expect teeth soon. He had his first few bites of baby food last Friday; and much to his dad's dislike, Cooper liked squash. Ryan is convinced its evil; Cooper was happy to have something with flavor. So he is happiliy going to go through the orange and yellow vegetables in the next few weeks. The last few weeks have involved lots of tummy time, and the occasional scooch backwards. Its common to put him in one spot on the floor and if you come back one minute later, for him to be in a completely different position and over a few feet. He also mastered the log roll last weekend and went from back, to tummy, to back again. I fear he will be a crawler sooner than later! He'll probably decide to start crawling next month when the puppy gets here and then we'll have double destruction!

Tummy time

This is Cooper's newest favorite position. He mastered rolling from his back to his tummy, and now if you set him down, you will find him like this. Not just on his tummy, but up on his arms checking everything out. I know it was accidental and hopefully won't happen for a while, but he even scooched backwards. He was pushing himself up so fast he ended up moving backwards. I think he desperately wants to go where his sister goes!

Trying out the video camera

Mom bought us one of those nice little digital video cameras for Christmas. I took this as in indicator that I need to capture video of her grandchildren! I have some great ones so far, but this is the only 30 second blip I have; and I am not quite sure how to edit the other ones I have so far. When I do, I will post more. I have a great one of Paige singing. Thanks for the new toy Mom!

The third try. . .

I finally got a somewhat good picture of Cooper in front of the tree--too bad Christmas cards are ordered! The third attempt was the best; and I caught him right away this morning. Too bad he is losing all his hair on the right side of his head--he's going to have a mohawk pretty soon. He continues to be pretty 'smiley' and happy. Plus, he is starting to roll--or at least fall over on his side! Haven't had a complete 180 from back to tummy yet, but I am thinking pretty soon. He doesn't really like his tummy, so it doesn't shock me he doesn't want to hang out on it.

Paige & Cooper

I am starting to see little glimpses of brotherly/sisterly love amongst my children. As an only child, I am intrigued by this and am so excited to see how they grow together. The minute Cooper hears his sister, he smiles and watches her. There can be lots of other people in the room, but he seems to know where she is and watches her the most. She loves him in return, and is such a good big sister. We've never had any negative comments about him from her; and she is starting to love to be a helper. She'll gladly run and grab a diaper, a toy, his nuk, etc. Yesterday, Gramma let her help feed him, which went over very well. I hear he stopped often to look up and smile at her, so it took a while--but the job still got done.

Cooper's 3 month photo--below is with the horse, above is with his sister. Either way, he is growing! And starting to be a mover--as noted by the blurs below.

Smiles

This is what I am blessed with seeing very frequently these days. Lots of smiles by my little guy. He wakes up and when he sees us he smiles and starts to coo. Its hard to be sad about 6 am with that much happiness radiating towards you.

Cooper 2 months

November 2nd. Roughly about 12.5 pounds!

Here are the monthly horse pictures of Cooper. Paige and he are in the one together for comparisons sake! He is doing really well and is a good baby. He's starting to have great neck control and we've put him in the Bumbo chair a time or two and within a few weeks I think it will be his favorite new place to hang out. He can sit there now; but his neck gets tired and he starts to tilt! Cooper is sleeping so well I can't believe it. We've started swaddling him super tight and we've had countless all nighters because of it. I enjoy getting 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep and am getting spoiled! He is starting to be more alert and likes to 'sit up' and watch his surroundings. The biggest thing he's been doing is smiling. Of course I can't catch it very well with a picture; but he's starting to be very 'smiley' and reacts to our voices with huge smiles. He is starting to coo more and will sometimes 'talk' back to you. Overall, I feel he's phasing out of that newborn stage and starting to be a fun baby. He's starting to get his own little personality.

One month old

The top picture is Cooper on the first, with his horse we are using for a growth comparison. The other picture was taken on 9-8-10. He is growing so fast, and I took him in to get weighed on his 4 week day. His weight was 10 pounds, 8 ounces. He's a good eater! Can't see too much difference in the photos, but I imagine in a month or two we'll see lots of changes!

Cooper

I was trying to get a picture of Cooper when he was sleeping--the beautiful infant picture of a newborn blissfully sleeping. Today was not the day to try that. However, you can see his 'old man eyebrows' that are growing in if you look. His profile shows these blonde eyebrows that stick out! Plus, I love the odd angle of this that shows his chunky little cheeks. He's starting to look less like Paige's pictures and more like. . .Cooper.

House updates

So we had the long awaited baby and have slacked for awhile with the house. Cowboy got back in the swing of things during the last few weeks; and all the light fixtures upstairs have been subbed out with newer ceiling fixtures--except for the ceiling fans--they aren't in yet. He also took down the yellow hood above my stove and put the new white one up. There isn't a trace of an orange/yellow appliance anywhere now! Dad and Ryan also got the woodburner put into place with some additional manpower last weekend. We still need to get the chimney pieces installed and Cowboy needs to do some tweaking with the chimney before he'll be happy. However, Dad did a great job painting the woodburner and getting it cleaned up for us. We are recycling it; as it used to be in my parent's house in town. My job was to get it started when I got home from school when I was in junior high and high school; and this stove makes it easy enough I can do it! I grew up in a house with this stove and running around in tank tops and shorts most of the winter because it puts out some heat.

On the Paige and Cooper side of things; they are doing well. Preschool was very successful last week. It was nice on Friday to be the one to drop her off and there were no tears--just a hug and she ran off. Paige, Cowboy and I attended the PRCA rodeo held in Bowman on Friday night and Cooper got to hang out with Gramma for a few hours. I was a nervous mom when I realized my cell phone didn't work in the metal building and didn't like the idea of a starving baby who had a mom that couldn't be contacted. I only stayed away about 1.5 hours; but was needed within 10 minutes of getting home. We also had company on Sunday; as Keith and Sandy came and met Cooper. He was a good boy for them; but didn't want to be awake for them very much.

I have a hard time keeping clothes on my daughter. Wondering when this phase will run out.

Cooper on 9-20-10--he's starting to fill out and get some cheeks!

He's also starting to stretch out and unfold--I giggle when babies start to do this. Most mornings in his crib he sleeps with his arms above his head like this.

First day of preschool

Today was Paige's first day of preschool. She will attend Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; and Friday mornings. She and Kyler were at daycare this am and super excited. I was to meet them at preschool; and there were some excited little people. Paige posed for me outside and took off for the door behind Kim and Kyler. Then. . .she sort of froze and reached for me with tears. A complete 180 in emotions--I know she's my daughter! She had a few hugs and a few tears; and then Kyler took her hand and they headed off to the main room. I took that as my cue to leave. Upon pickup, I hear she was sad for a whole 5 seconds and was then fine. It sure took Mom longer than 5 minutes as I had to stop at my mother-in-laws for Kleenex to wipe my sobbing face before taking Cooper to his doctor's appointment. Bless Jane for understanding and not giggling in front of me. I picked Paige up and there were 8 excited little people who had a great afternoon ready to be picked up. She had a wonderful time and chattered about the things they did. She exclaimed, "Mom, I made new friends!" I asked what their names were and she told me she couldn't remember. The good news is she wants to go back. Paige, Kyler, Kim and I celebrated with ice cream at Eats-n'treats afterwards before heading home. I have a tired little girl tonight.

On the Cooper front, his 2 week appointment went well and he's perfect. Dr. Jacobson poked and checked every crevice and said he's a keeper. We think so. He weighed in at 8lbs 11 oz--so a gain of 1 pound 1 ounce since we left the hospital. I have a good eater!

Cooper Ryan

Cooper Ryan arrived ahead of time, but still on his decided date. We were scheduled to be induced on Wednesday morning at 7am. He was born at 6:53am as my water broke about 1:45 in the morning. No Pitocin for me! All went well with the birth, even my cracked/fractured pelvis bone I injured the day before. That's a long story for another day. I was using a walker on Tuesday and couldn't move. A few hours after his birth, I could walk easier. The human body is an amazing thing. It could have been his 8 pounds, 1.6 ounces was gone and that's what abled me to move easier! He measured in at 19.5 inches long. He was almost 2 pounds bigger than his sister.

Wednesday was spent dozing, visiting with company, and getting to know Cooper. Someone named Paige really hasn't spent any time getting to know him yet. She was in the hospital all afternoon with us, but was more entertained my Mom's now useless walker. She's not exactly jealous, but not liking the fact that Mom is in the hospital. That's pretty tough to handle--the eyes were very big when they saw Mom's IV's, etc. She went home with Daddy last night and was pretty sad I hear. She's at daycare today for a while, and is doing just fine I hear. She and Daddy will be over tonight to see us and we'll all go home together Friday morning.

I have a baby with a roll or two! Long monkey toes and huge little hands.

My two guys. Daddy and Cooper a few minutes after he was born.




Cooper sleeping this morning. He and I had a good night and have had a nice relaxing morning cuddling and getting acquainted. He's been a good little eater so far and just has a hard time staying awake long enough to eat alittle bit. He had a great little scowl when he gets mad at us for unwrapping him so he stays awake to eat.

I'll post more pictures when I can on Facebook and update the Shutterfly site, but the wireless connection at the hospital won't allow us access to the sites.