11 months

Cooper is 11 months old today. Wow, where did that go. I have a few pictures I will add; but for now I will do another recap of what was accomplished recently. He's a super smiley little guy and has a good demeanor--even when we were travelling. He's a good eater and loves to eat whatever the grown ups are eating--especially ice cream!

• 2 new teeth popped last week while on vacation


• is walking up a storm! This last week the confidence and balance are way up and he is on the go. He is also clicking his tongue making a "Click" noise. He reminds me of that crocodile that swallowed the clock on Peter Pan and stalks Capt Hook. You can't always see Cooper; but you can hear him!


• He can't fall down and pop right back up; but he will crawl back over to something to pull himself up on and then continue to go.


• Started saying "da-da" with some regularity. Especially after we came home from vacation and saw Dad again.


• He weighs roughly 21 lbs and is wearing size 12 month clothes and a size 4 shoe.

Vacation recap

We survived our week vacation and were gone from the 23rd to the 30th. That is:

• 7 nights away from home with a 11 month old who doesn't like to sleep


• about 100 diapers or so


• 1420 miles on the Expedition


• 2 bags of puff-corn consumed during those miles by the small people!


• 2 new teeth popped by Cooper


• 8 million--not really but it seemed like it--the number of hours Paige logged in the pool


• 6 hours spent at the wonderful Minnesota Zoo


• 4 minutes--the estimated time of the roller coaster Paige and I went on--we both screamed and loved it


• 1 pair of newly pierced ears


• countless--giggles, smiles and hours of fun

Thanks to Crystal and Aunt Wanda for hosting us at the travel stops in Fargo and thanks to Aunt Mary and Steve for letting us invade them for 5 days--we had so much fun and can't wait to see you all again soon.

Pictures to follow; but need to have some time to go through the 300 I took to see which are worthy!

Cooper walking video

Tee ball and coconuts

Last tee ball game on the 11th--they split up and played against themselves and it was on the 'big' baseball field underneath the lights at 8pm. They thought they were big stuff. Paige couldn't keep her hands out of the line chalk!

Sunday the 17th, my hula girl ready for the parade and the bank's float. The parade theme was tropical paradise; complete with a tiki hut that Ryan worked hard on building the frame for and Sarah made look wonderful with the raffia.

Around the 4th pictures

Cooper & I on July 4th. Paige was too busy with sparklers for pictures!

Cooper modelling his swimwear. We went to the pool and his swim shirt did a great job of keepign him warm and not burnt.

Cooper watching Paige and Ryan set off fireworks from inside the house--where it was safe and bug free.

We have a walker. . .

This week Cooper has had showed off a few steps--primarily from me to Ryan or vice versa earlier in the week. There was a sequence of 2 or 3 steps. I called that first steps on the calendar. He's been getting braver all week and you'll see him hang on to something; then let go and stand there--you can see the thought bubble over his head wondering if he can make it! This morning he let go of his inhibitions and was going in stretches that were 5-6 feet at a time. There was 3 or 4 times he did this in an hour; so I am declaring him walking! This all happened from 6-8am this morning; and I told Ryan by the time he came home I was sure we'd be outside running circles around the house ;) We'll see how crazy my day is!

Tee-Ball

Paige had her 2nd tee ball game on Thursday night in Scranton. They did very well and this time she kept her fingers out of her mouth when she was on base! They have a few days of practice left and then they have one last game where they get to play on the big baseball field at night underneath the lights.