Cooper - 13 weeks

Full Disclosure Future Cooper - This picture was taken one day late!  Your daddy is now home for the summer and between the change in routine, the Memorial Day holiday, and the stomach virus Daddy had on our wedding anniversary, I was completely confused on what day it was.  Also you spit up each time I tried to take your picture, so this was best I could do.  Sorry about the unfortunate ear placement!

A recap of Cooper's 13th week...

Oh, you are going to be my thumb sucker!!  Considering Momma and Daddy where thumb suckers, I guess it was bound to happen.

I think Cooper has been going through his 3 month growth spurt recently.  I'm not sure when it began and I'm not convinced it's over with either.  That or he just likes to eat a lot!  He likes to eat every hour. And not an hour after he finishes eating.  He likes to begin eating an hour after the last time he started eating.  In other words, he likes to eat every 30 minutes.  It's driving me crazy and makes me nervous for when I go back to work!

Now that Daddy is home for the summer, Coop and him can begin bonding.  They do pretty good for the first 20 minutes and then Cooper starts screaming because he's "starving" (roll my eyes).  Unlike Chase, Cooper does not yet appreciate being "tossed" in the air like his brother did.  In fact, when Drew does it, Cooper does a full on pout where he sticks out his lower lip really far!  It's incredibly cute.  We keep saying we'll take a picture of it, but we haven't yet!

Family Picture...Finally

This Memorial Day allowed us an opportunity to finally get all 4 of us in a picture together.  We were all dressed.  All in a relatively good mood.  And there was someone else to hand the camera to.  The perfect combination to get a picture or two! :)

Ok, so half of us are looking at the camera!

 There is one angry boy who really wanted the phone (held next to the camera in a desperate attempt to get him to look up!).

 I think these are the only picture options you can have with a 2 year old!

Chase - 2 years, 8 months

Someone else is another month older!

Here is a (relatively) brief summary of the past month:

Chase's favorite word is No. He'll have a complete meltdown if you do even the tiniest thing "wrong".

He won't eat anything anymore!  He lives off nuggets and hummus, fruit chews, and milk.  Oh, and he loves "gookies" (cookies).

He loves the Avengers.  Cap'n. Eye-n man. Huck (stong). A-Tor.

He loves the iPhone and his apps.

He says bye-bye to everything now.  And lately it's been coming out bye-bye Gigi (to everything...to TV show credits, to his friends at school, to me!)

Potty training still seems like it is a million years away.  Even when he has to go, he will hold it and not go in the potty and then go 10 minutes after we put his diaper back on.  I haven't quite figured out what his motivation will be.  M&M's aren't working.  He doesn't care about big boy underwear.  Stickers mean nothing to him.  He likes cheering and praise, but that's not enough to make him want to use the potty.  "Chase, you want to go potty?" "No"....every time!  Oh well, we'll keep trying!

He gives a kiss to me and Cooper every night before bed and sometimes he'll come back for a second kiss.  It's really just the sweetest thing ever!  His favorite books right now are the Avenger books Uncle Trey bought for him and Little Gorilla.

I interviewed Chase the other week.  "Chase, what's your favorite color?" "Blue".  "Chase, what's your favorite animal?" "Cow, Moo".  "Chase, who's your favorite - Momma or Dada?" "Momma-Dada".

We took off the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, so we have a little more trust in him now with the stairs.  He loves to jump off the bottom stair and say "Kang-a-ROOOOO"!

Cooper - 3 Months

A certain someone is 3 months old today!

3 Months:

Unofficial Weight: 12 pounds, 12 ounces
Diaper Size: Size 2 (moved up a couple of weeks ago)
Clothes: Just recently moved to 3-6 month clothes although the 0-3 fit just fine.
Hair/Eyes: Hair still appears to be brown, but it is getting thinner and thinner.  His eyes are a steel blue/gray.  Somedays they look to be getting a bit hazel in the middle.
Favorite toy: His Rock N' Play came with a little bunny he likes to knaw on.  He loves sucking on his hands and toe.  He likes when we dangle little toys above him.  And he loves the ceiling fans!
Favorite food:  Obviously...Milk!
Typical daily schedule: Some days he sleeps through the night (going to bed around 10 and waking at 5:30).  Other days he goes to bed around 10 and then wakes up at 1 and then wakes up at 4 and then wakes up at 6.  Those are the days I want to pull my hair out (what's left of it anyways!).  I can usually get him to nap about 2 to 3 hours during the day usually about 3 to 4 hours after he wakes up for the day.  He eats all day long!  During his waking hours, I think he nurses every hour.  It's a lot!
Who people say he looks like: ME! :)

This boy loves to talk and coo and smile and eat and spit up. We are so lucky to have him.  He has definitely made our little family whole.

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, May 27th

More napping.  I love napping pictures.

Watching the Avengers cartoons.  I know nothing about the Avengers, but unfortunately I'm learning.  I can't wait til they are into Harry Potter someday! :)

 Coop had a little bit of a bloody nose Sunday morning.  We figured his little boogies in his nose caused the irritation or we had an extreme burping session and he hit his nose on my shoulder.  I blame the boogies because I think I would have noticed the other.

They're back! The moles that is.  Apparently our yard is very tasty because none of our neighbors have them  We think they are coming from that ditch area next to our house (see long, tall, messy grass in the below picture).  About 30 minutes after the mole guy left, one trap caught one.  Hopefully there are no more buddies hanging around.   I may be asking for mole traps for Christmas if we get anymore this summer.  It gets pricey to get someone else to kill these little fellas for you.

Dead mole.  Love it!

Cooper - 12 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 12th week...

This week Cooper continued to sleep through the night.  We had a few nights that could be considered borderline on sleeping through the night (i.e. waking up at 3:50), but I'll still count them because I got at least 5 hours of mostly uninterrupted sleep.  Also, we have started a napping routine!  It doesn't always work, but I have been able to nap most of the time from around noon to 3 if I swaddle him up and put him in the Rock N' Play.  It's awesome.  I almost don't know what to do with myself during that time.  Sometimes I'm productive.  Sometimes I just load the dishwasher, eat lunch, and then mindlessly play around on the internet.

He's been tracking objects really well this week.  I keep Chase's beanbag chair in our bathroom so when I go to the bathroom and Cooper is fussy, I can place him on the chair so he can see me the entire time (sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't).  One morning my shirt had been spit up on at least 5 times so I figured it was time to change.  I set him down in the beanbag chair and then walked into the closet to change my shirt.  As I was leaving the closet, I look down at Cooper and he is just staring me down!  It caught me a little off guard that he wasn't staring at the light fixtures!  I've then been noticing that he'll follow us around the room all the time!

He loves sucking on his hands.  He likes his pacifier too, but doesn't love it.  But when he gets his hands in his mouth, he is so happy!  I've tried sticking his big toe in his mouth.  He loves that too, but he's not coordinated to do that by himself just yet! :)

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, May 20th

First long nap ever during the day.  He won't sleep in the swing anymore though.  That was a fluke.

We bought Chase his first game a couple of weeks ago.  It's Memory.  He doesn't really play it correctly.  He really plays it like a match game.  He picks up one card and then picks up another.  If it doesn't match, he says "No" and then picks up another card.  This goes on many more times until he finds the right card.  I'm not sure what he is doing with the tape measure besides just figuring out what it was!

Sexy legs!

 Loading up for school in the morning.  Chase looks ticked off because I'm taking the picture with my phone and he wanted the phone to play games.  One day I need to remember my real camera so maybe I can catch a smile on his face!

Sleepy snuggles!

Cooper - 11 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 11th week...

Big developments on the sleep front this week.  I'm debating whether I should post this as it will totally jinx us, but here I go...Cooper began sleeping though the night Monday (from 10 to 5:30 with not even a peep!).  Not only that, but he's doing it not in our bed!  That means I don't have to sleep all wonky and contorted at night anymore (who knew newborn babies could wiggle all over the bed chasing momma where ever she went!) and I get my pillow back!  We still aren't following the correct sleep rules even with the new developments.  He's now sleeping in his Rock N' Play and he's swaddled in his SwaddleMe.  Since we had Chase, they say you shouldn't tightly swaddle the arms or something anymore.  Whatever!  It's really the only way we ever got Chase to sleep through the night, so we'll be doing it again with Cooper.  With the sleeping through the night comes a whole new anxiety on my part.  I wake up several times during the night wondering where he is (forgetting he's now sleeping by himself) or thinking he is dead since I haven't heard from him in several hours.  Once I looked down at him Monday night and I thought I saw that his lips were blue.  I FREAKED out, but it turns out it was just a shadow on his lips.  Oh my goodness...I don't think I slept well the rest of the night, despite the fact that Cooper did sleep well.

Cooper still doesn't like lying down flat by himself, so the crib isn't a good option right now, but I'm hoping in a month or so we can try the crib again and he'll last longer than 30 minutes!

Cooper has developed this ear piercing scream that is just unlike anything else I've ever heard.  Though it kind of reminds me of when I scream.  It's very dramatic.

Coop likes looking at himself in a little hand mirror.  He just smiles at the little dude looking back at him!

I always thought it was crazy when people said their kids liked diaper changes, but I think Cooper likes them too (for the most part!).  He'll just smile at me throughout the entire change.  I don't ever remember Chase liking them, but maybe I'm remembering incorrectly since he hated it so much when he became an older baby.

His fussy times have changed from the 7 to 11pm range to around noon to 4.  This makes me very ready to see Drew when he comes home from work.

He's still slowly losing his hair...and I'm starting to lose mine as well.  Ugh!  It's starting again!.  I'm contemplating chopping my hair off this time around and buying that WEN shampoo.  If anyone has tried it please let me know!

Also, Chase now calls Cooper, "Coo Coo".  Very cute!  At first Chase called him "Coo Coe", then "Coop Coo", now it's just "Coo Coo".  Chase loves to touch Cooper's feet and say "Piggies" and "Wee wee wee".

Cooper - 10 weeks

Holy moly!  Double digits.  He's no longer a teeny, weeny bay-bee anymore!

A recap of Cooper's 10th week...

He has been much more observant this week of everything going on around him...and of his hands and feet.  Our little photoshoot was almost ruined because he wouldn't quit looking at his feet (see below)

We have some new baby gear in our house - a Rock N' Play - that has made life easier.  It's a reclined little baby seat/rocker that Coop can sit in by himself and just observe everything around him.  He also will nap in it, so that's a big win!

Coop still loves bathtime.  He rarely ever cries during bathtime.  He doesn't smile or splash, but he just lies there really relaxed and lets us do whatever we need to do.

Tears have started this week!  When he gets really worked up and cries (for example, his vaccinations last week), he can form really big tears now.  It's so sad!

He's a big coo'er and a big time smiler.  But he can also switch from being happy to upset very quickly!

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, May 13th

He really wants to be a thumb sucker!

 I don't know whose idea this was!

 The cousins eating Pawpaw's ice cream bars

 I think Weezie has taken a liking to Cooper. I often find her sniffing, licking, or lying beside him throughout the day.  I think she appreciates that he can't move around like Chase does.

 

Chase had a serious case of "Something About Mary" hair earlier in the week.  This hairdo was quite hard to undo before sending him off to school!

My Mother's Day present from the boys.  A before and after.  Ahh, so much better!

Fun With a Water Hose!

Excuse all the hummus from dinner on his clothes!  :)

Cooper - 9 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 9th week...

Cooper loves to be sung to.  Since I don't know a lot of lyrics to a lot of songs, he gets sung some doozies.  I sing a lot of Christmas songs (Jingle Bells, Silent Night) and preschool songs (ABC, Twinkle Twinkle, Doggie in the Window - Lyrics changed to Cooper in the Window though!).  He also loves Zou Bisou Bisou a la Mad Men! :)

He is still waking up twice a night to eat, giving us about 3 to 4 hour stretches of sleep at night.  Overall some days are great and some days are not so fantastic.  We are having more great days than bad, but there are some days that he just won't nap easily and he cries all the time unless he is eating!  Those are the days where it is a blessing and curse that your nursing (blessing because it's easy to sooth him; curse because you can't delegate!)

I just learned yesterday that I have to go out of town for work for 3 nights in the middle of June.  I won't technically be back at work then (returning with a reduced workload in July), but there is a required training I need to attend and the location of the training is within driving distance that week.  If I delayed the training until July I would have to fly and I do not want to do that - especially after hearing all the horror stories about nursing moms going through airport security.  No thanks.  Anyways, I'm already dreading this and I don't know if I can handle it!  I didn't leave Chase until he was past one year old.  I'm going to be an absolute mess as the time gets closer!

Today we had our 2 month well baby visit.  Cooper's weight skyrocketed since my last weight check with him (that or my scale has always been wrong)!  He had his first vaccinations this visit which he wasn't too keen on.  He shed actual tears after the shots, but I think he felt more betrayed by us than hurt by the shots!

2 Month Stats:
Weight:  11 lb 13 oz (50th percentile) - up 2 lb 10 oz from 2 week checkup
Length: 24" (80th percentile) - 2" longer than week 2
Head: 40.5cm (60th percentile) - 2.5cm bigger than week 2

iPhone Pictures

Here are some pictures from about 2 weeks ago.

Of Chase, the first one is a set of Green Lantern glasses that came from a trip to McDonald's that the boys went on while I went to Home Depot.  The glasses were way too big for any little kids and the glasses lasted all of 3 days before they broke! The second picture is a picture I found on my phone one day...ha ha!  He's loves our phones and opening and closing all the apps.  He gets extremely tickled when we turn on the camera on the front of the phone and let him stare at himself!  The third picture is from the day that Chase threw up at school after eating Mini Wheats.  During naptime, I looked at the video monitor and saw where he had gotten himself stuck between his bed and his bedside table!  Poor thing!

These are three pictures Drew sent me when I was at Home Depot that day.  So cute!

Oh Deer!!

Drew had a run in with Bambi this morning on his way to work.  Fortunately, Drew was not hurt at all.  What a way to start your day at 5:45 in the morning!

A little remnant of the deer...ugh!

The only body damage beside the windshield is that little dent next to the windshield and the side mirror is loose.  Could be much worse!