Chase - 2 Years, 9 Months

Our sweet oldest child is just a joyful, ball of energy...and another month older!

He currently weighs in at 35 pounds.  Almost too heavy for Momma.  Good thing Daddy is strong!

Thankfully, he's starting to use some affirmatives like "yep" and "yesh" rather than just "no".

He thinks Spiderman is Ironman and we can't convince him otherwise no matter what we say!

Chase is communicating his wants better with us.  With snacks and dinner, we can ask him what he wants and go through all his options until he finally says yes.  He'll tell us specifically if he wants juice or milk.  When we really get desperate, we'll pick him up and take him to the fridge or pantry and let him pull what he wants himself.  It's cut down on the number of tantrums!

Speech therapy has been put on hold the past two weeks because Ms. Jesslyn had her baby and her replacement hasn't yet picked up her workload yet.  We could start again as soon as this Thursday or as late as the middle of July.  I'm not overly concerned about this since Chase has been making so much progress.

He can say nearly all his family members names.

I'm afraid I'm raising a litter-er.  As soon as he gets done needing whatever it is he'll either hand you back the item or just throw it down wherever he is - whether he's in the hallway at school, at home, in the car, or in the backyard!  This will be something we will work on since I'm Mrs. Recycle-Everything.

Chase went to a daycare friend's birthday party at Pump It Up on Thursday.  He wore Drew ragged.  Future Chase, know that your Daddy loves you very much and went through the obstacle course with you about 15 times all because you can't make it over that final 8 foot wall by yourself!  Drew was sweaty and worn out by the end of the hour!  We then decided that Chase can't have his birthday party there until he can make it through the obstacle course by himself because Drew can't handle sending Cooper and Chase through there by himself (because Lord knows I can't make it over the 8 foot wall either!).

Chase has suddenly discovered the joy of playing with baby toys.  All the little rattly toys, play mats, and exersaucers are all now in the rotation of toys he wants to play with!  I expect things to get real interesting when Cooper wants to start playing with toys in a month or two!

Some of the other toys Chase likes right now are his microphones, his wooden construction hammer (he thinks it's Thor's hammer!), and his musical instruments (he and Daddy pretend they are fighting weapons...sheesh!).

He's starting to get better with numbers.  You can tell he's starting to pick up on what he's learning in school and what we do around the house.  He can count (when he's in the mood) to about 4 or 5 and then randomly say "eight, nine" mixed in with some nonsense words!

Chase is getting better at letting us brush his teeth and brush his hair.  He's starting to undress himself better, although he still sometimes starts to cry when we take off his shoes and socks.  Potty training will start again in another few weeks.  We have made a little progress because he doesn't hate the toilet anymore!

His favorite books right now are his Avengers books, his Woody Toy Story book, Little Gorilla, and Goodnight Moon.  He has them read to him every night and before his naps on the weekend.  It's really precious to hear him and Daddy read them together.  Chase has each page nearly memorized and there is a very strict routine in reading his books each night (i.e. Chase names all the animals on each page of Little Gorilla - "peepo, line, snake, bwird, ah ah (monkey), ene, ene (elephants), giraffe").  He also names every Avenger he sees on each page ("Capt'n Ma, Ironman, Thor-Hulk, Antman, (whispers) Wasp").

Speaking of whispering the word Wasp, he also whispers the word Cheetah...every time.

At times when he watches some of his movies he has them so memorized that he'll say what they are about to say on screen.  They are simple thinks like the word "no", but still...he must have gotten that from Drew. 

He says his favorite characters catchphrases.  For Woody he says "Reach for the SKY".  For Buzz he says "To Infinity and Beyond", and for Hulk he says "Hulk Strong", "Hulk Smash", "Hulk Powerful".

Cooper - 4 Months

Here's a humungo picture for you!

 4 Months:

Unofficial Weight: 14 pounds, 13 ounces
Diaper Size: Size 2
Clothes: 3-6 month clothes
Hair/Eyes: Hair still appears to be brown.  If you asked Drew, he would say Cooper's eyes are hazel, but Drew is a weirdo about eye color.  Cooper's eyes are still mainly blue, but turning more hazel in the middle each month.
Favorite toy: The little toys on top of the Exersaucer, Daddy (tossing him in the air), Momma (entertaining him in ways that do not involve tossing in the air)
Favorite food:  Milk and his fists
Typical daily schedule: The bedtime routine now starts at 8:30 with his last (maybe) feeding of the night and then being swaddled and put in the RNP or the crib.  On the good nights, he'll sleep until maybe 4:30 before stirring.  After eating he'll usually sleep more until his brother comes downstairs and wakes him up (around 6:30 or 7).  He takes one 2 to 3 hour nap in the middle of the day.  He still eats a lot, thus the 2 pound weight gain this month! I now feel stupid that I was ever worried that he didn't gain hardly any weight his first month!

He talks a lot.  He drools a lot.  He smiles and laughs a lot (I'm funnier than daddy to him...I'll cherish that while I can!).  He doesn't have as much fussiness as he used to, but he still has his moments!  He doesn't have much patience - when he wants food, he wants it NOW!  He must have had some sort of growth spurt this past month because this boy is BIG now!  When I place him in the RNP, the bouncer, the swing, or the changing table, he almost appears too big for them with his long legs!  Before I know it, he'll be sitting up and eating my delicious (?) sweet potato mush.

 

 

 

Update!

 

Here's an update since we had Cooper's well-baby visit on July 2.  The biggest revelation was that my home scale sucks and Cooper weighed in at almost 10 ounces less at the pediatricians office.  Also he's in the 35% percentile for weight which is surprising because he literally eats all day!  I'm sure this will change when he starts daycare in a couple of weeks and takes big 5oz bottles.  He also got his second dose of vaccinations.

This will also be the doctor's appointment that Cooper will never let his parents live down.  We took Chase with us to the doctor's appointment to finally test whether he has a peanut allergy.  We let Chase eat a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup while Cooper got his shots and another little painful procedure.  Sorry kid!  FYI - Chase is not allergic to peanuts.

4 Month Stats:

Weight:  14 lb 5 oz (35th percentile) - up 2 lb 8 oz from 2 month checkup

Length: 25.5" (70th percentile) - 1.5" longer than month 2
Head: 43cm (70th percentile) - 2.5cm bigger than month 2

 Post shots

Cooper - 17 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 17th week...

Cooper decided to get his sleeping back on track this week.  We even had one night this week that had him sleeping from about 9pm to 8am with just one feeding and one rocking needed that night to get him back to sleep.  Even Chase slept in until nearly 8am that day.  It was very much appreciated by me!

Cooper has gotten very strong and can how fully support his head, stand assisted, sit up assisted, and during tummy time he can now rest on his elbows.  We created a little game where we play "momma skiing" and I hold his hands and let him stand on the bed and we ski from side to side.  Then I blow in his face to let him feel the "wind".  He thinks it's pretty fun!

I'm totally going to jinx this, but his spitting up has been slowing down.  We still need a ton of burp cloths during the day, but we don't need to wash our entire lot every single day anymore (just every other day!).

Coop is a talker.  Sometimes it sounds like he's upset, but instead he's just loudly saying Aaaaaggghhhhhh and Uuuuugggghhhh over and over again.  Between Chase discovering his outside voice and Cooper exercising his voice, our house is rarely quiet anymore outside of bedtime!

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, June 24th

Cooper and Chase playing along side each other.  Chase showing Cooper how to play with all the things on the Exersaucer!

 One of Chase's favorite things.  Raiding the pantry for cereal bars, juice, and crackers!

 We started potty training over the weekend.  Pure torture.  Within 10 minutes of starting, Chase had already peed in the living room floor and was totally oblivious to what he had just done and in no way concern about his wet underwear.  I think Chase had spent over half the day sitting on the potty watching movies and eating crackers.  Over the weekend he went #1 twice in the potty and held #2 until Sunday and then went in the corner of the living room and didn't tell us what he was doing!  He's just not ready even though daycare is starting to push the issue a little on us.  We'll try again in a couple of weeks!

Chase showing Coop all about the tummy time mat! Chase does not like when I put Cooper on the mat.  He'll start whining and poke at Cooper's belly trying to get me to pick Cooper up!  Oh, kid!

 

 

I love sleeping Cooper pictures.  Drew got him to finally sleep in the living room one afternoon when he had been fighting sleep the whole day.  I figured I'd practice some picture taking on him!

Photo Re-creation

One of my favorite things from the old Craig Kilborn talk show was "Re-creation of a Press Photo".  What he used to do was find a funny picture that has been in the papers that week and then he would re-create it on his set.  It was always amusing...at least to my old college self.

One of the photography sites I follow started sharing pictures on Facebook in early June leading into Father's Day of current father/son pictures that had been re-created based on pictures of the father's own childhood.  I instantly loved the idea and had Drew scour his family pictures for a picture to re-create.  We had a couple of different options of Drew and his dad (one involving a dead deer in the picture was NOT an option).  The one we selected below was the winner because Drew already looked so much like Chase and we were actually able to find the bee/martian antennae online!

We are going to try again next weekend to see if we can get the picture even closer! Ha!  My "aging" of the current day picture leaves a little bit to be desired!  Since Cooper appears to currently look like me, I'm having my mom look for a picture that I can recreate with Cooper (you know, one that doesn't have me in a dress or an all pink outfit!).

Cooper - 16 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 16th week...

He slept in his own room each night this week (or at least began the night in his room!).  He slept in his crib about half the week and his Rock N Play the other half.  Around Saturday or Sunday, he decided sleeping through the night was for the birds.  He'd go to bed in the early evening, but then wake up at 1 (the absolute worst!), 3, 5, and 6 and then be up for a majority of the day.  I'm hoping this is just a phase!

I spent a good part of his 16th week at work at various trainings (and I'm not even officially off maternity leave yet...go figure!).  Both of us did pretty well.  Of course it was easier to leave him during the day because he was with Drew.  When he starts daycare next month, it'll be a whole different story.  I'll be so sad!  But I love Ms. Betty in the baby room and Coop will be on her side of the room in just a few short months.

Right now Cooper's big things are drooling (he's been doing this for several weeks, but it's getting progressively worse!), holding on to his feet (so cute!), and smiling and laughing at our stupid made up songs and silly voices.  He's been showing off his leg muscles too by standing up all the time.  When I burp him I have to be careful that he doesn't pole vault over my left shoulder due to him kicking off on my lap.  By the way, he is getting so big!  When did that happen??

As I posted on Sunday, we recently put him in the exersaucer.  He is showing that thing who is boss!  We put him in there and he can spin around and touch all the toys.  I don't remember Chase being like that.  Chase would just stand in whatever direction he put him and he'd only play with the toy directly in front of him.  Coop goes clockwise around the exersaucer.  Like Chase though he does spit up in that thing a lot.  He pretty much has to go in that thing with only his diaper on!

 We've noticed that lots of strangers come up to us when we are in public and ooh and aww over Cooper.  When we are in the grocery store we have lots of older women (and not so older women) stalk behind us and look at Cooper and then make inappropriate comments about how they want "to steal our bundle of joy".  I even had a man come up to me the other day at Chipotle wanting to look at him.  I don't remember this so much with Chase (with the exception of an incredibly uncomfortable dining experience at Dixie Cafe!) , but maybe it's because we didn't take him out as much.  It really doesn't bother me too badly, but I just find it weird...especially the old ladies at the grocery store!

Week In Pictures - Ending Sunday, June 17th

This picture was taken at a rest stop on the way to Nashville on Monday.  He looks happy, but we stopped because he was crying on the interstate and all that crying made me want a Coke and Doritos.  I had to spend the next 4 hours in the backseat with him holding his hand and reading Twitter updates about the Auburn shooter "capture" to Drew. 

This was Wednesday morning at the hotel.  Coop had fallen asleep in my arms minutes before I had to leave for work.  The look on my face is 1) because I was about to go to work and 2) I just learned that House Hunters is fake.

Drew and I tried to find casual places to eat dinner each night.  The first night we went to Mellow Mushroom and they sat Cooper by the big yellow mushroom in the corner of the restaurant. The second night we went to Chuys.  In the middle of dinner, I started laughing when I realized that Cooper was placed next to a big palm tree.  It's not every day that you get placed next to the big decorations at restaurants!

In case Chase looks back at this blog and wonders what he was up to this week, he was having fun at Mimi and Papa's house.

 

Back at home.  While Drew was with Chase trying his best to get him to poop on the potty (didn't happen), I took pictures of Cooper.

 

When we got back from Nashville, Cooper spent his first night in the crib!!!  The next night he went back to the Rock N Play, but we are making progress!

On Saturday night, we brought one of the bouncy, exersaucers downstairs.  Cooper immediately loved it and even immediately started spinning the rolling thing.  Drew then perks up and says "this is when babies get easy and you can just sit them in this thing and do other things".  I might be paraphrasing some.

We were headed to give my dad his Father's Day present and Chase crawls up on the chair and squeezes in next to Cooper.  I had to take a picture of this moment!  Chase skipped his nap because he was too busy taking off his diaper and saying "night, night" to actually sleep.  That fact caught up with us just an hour later! (edit: So Drew tells me this picture was actually taken on Saturday before we headed to Kroger.  This make sense based on the outfits. Everything else is true though).

 

 Happy Father's Day to the best daddy we could ever hope for!

  Yeah, no nap! 6pm bedtime for Chase and 7pm bedtime for Cooper. 

Cooper - 15 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 15th week...

This week a stomach virus finally cleared out of our house after about 2 weeks and Cooper was the only one unaffected.  Thank goodness!

Cooper started sleeping in his own room his week.  He's still sleeping in his Rock N' Play, but now he's in his own room instead of ours.  Because of this, I'm now getting Drew to check in on him every 20 minutes to see if he's still breathing.  Please remind me of this paranoia if I ever think I want more children!  He's sleeping longer as well, usually wanting to eat maybe around 4 or 5 in the morning....and then every hour after that (so some things haven't changed!).

Cooper loves his hands and feet now and will even grab on to his legs and feet.  He also likes to reach out for our faces.  I managed to let him pull my glasses off one day.  He was totally confused by what his hands were doing!

The boy is cooing and talking a ton!  He likes to "talk" when I'm singing to him.

Cooper ended his 15th week in Nashville with Drew and I since I had to come here for a work training.  Tuesday morning was rather eventful after Drew dropped me off around 9:30.  He started preparing a bottle for Cooper as soon as they got back, but Cooper had no patience for the milk to warm up.  Around 10:30 or so, Drew is texting me that Cooper won't eat and that he wouldn't calm down.  In his head he was imagining every feeding for the rest of the week to be like this so he began cussing out my employer and was convinced that Avent had conspired to make the bottle nipples incorrectly.  After some swaddling and strategic pacifier usage, Cooper finally calmed down a little and began eating about 30 minutes later.  Thank goodness!

Cooper did not necessarily like the car ride to Nashville.  Where our trip should have normally taken 3 hours, it ended up taking close to 5 hours (even with no traffic!).  He wanted to eat once around the middle of the trip and he didn't like riding on the interstate.  He would fuss and cry so we'd exit the interstate and then he'd immediately calm down.  We'd then think he was okay so we'd get back on the interstate and then he would cry again.  Thankfully he slept the last 45 minutes of the trip!

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, June 10th

Playing T-ball in the backyard. Chase likes to look at his reflection in the window and backdoor when swinging the bat!  Ha!

  Modeling his Captain America T-shirt I made him!

Cooper enjoying (?) the Bumbo.

Parker had his birthday party on Sunday.  It was at a place that had trampolines, a foam pit, and a zip line.  The first 20 minutes of the party involved standing in line to jump on the trampolines, so Chase didn't participate in that because he has no experience standing in lines!  Also, he was a little traumatized that he had to have his shoes and socks off to participate (due to his shoe obsession)!  Once we threw him in the foam pit though, he had the best time ever!  There was also a zip line that he could ride on.  All of the other kids at the party were older (5/6 years old), so they took much "wilder" rides on the zip line.  They babied Chase's down a little bit, but he has a blast!  He said "wee" the entire time.  I think I even heard a "kang-a-rooooo"!

Cooper - 14 weeks

A recap of Cooper's 14th week...

Coop has been growing like a little weed despite all the spitting up he does constantly! That's a great thing, but my arms are TIRED!

There haven't been any big new developments this week.  His favorite things are eating and being walked around.  He does not like just hanging out in your arms though if you are sitting down (he's a baby that hates being held like a baby!).  If so, you better be prepared with a song and dance routine to entertain him.

Coop is becoming a very distracted eater.  I have to keep the room fairly quiet now to get him to focus!  If Drew or Chase come running in, then he turns his head in their direction.

Cooper loves his name.  You can sing a little ditty with his name in it and he just lights up!

I thought having Daddy home for a weekly picture would mean I'd capture some more smiles, but it worked out opposite.  I think Cooper was overwhelmed with the silly!

Week in Pictures - Ending Sunday, June 3rd

Coop pouting

 
Like half the city, we got the 3 month trial membership to the Pink Palace.  Drew was more interested in going than anyone because apparently he used to go as a kid.  I have no recollection of ever going besides to the IMAX once on a field trip.  Chase was several years too young to appreciate the museum.  We zipped on through the entire museum in about 30 minutes...and about 15 minutes of that time was spent in one of the common areas where they had a dance floor set up for a wedding later in the day.

 

Unhappy to leave!

 Aunt Mel and Uncle Chris were watching Cooper while we went to the Pink Palace, so we tried to burn some time since the time at the museum didn't last as long as we originally expected.  We first drove to Jerry's Snow Cones but the line was to the curb and it was much too hot to try to find a place to park the van and wait in line with a toddler on the verge of exploding.  So we then went to the "Mexican Popsicle" place I kept hearing people talk about.  Chase loved his chocolate popsicle, but he ate it very, very, very slowly.  He was still working on it when we got back to pick up Cooper, so we had to take it away from him because it was the consistency of a Frosty on a stick by the time we got there.  Chase had a complete and utter meltdown.  It was the worst temper tantrum we have ever seen from him.  Thankfully, he finally calmed down about 20 to 30 minutes after we got home.  We were totally worn out!

The park near our house that we lovingly call "Goose Poop Park" got a new playground since last summer.  We went early in the week when it was in the lower 70's and it was the best experience ever!  We went back later in the week when it was in the upper 80's and it was so stinking hot!!  Chase loves the playground though and can do most of the things all by himself, but needs a little help on the climbing bars and the rope ladders.

 Coop was a little hot during our second visit.  It's hard being stuck in a car seat all the time!

 Chase randomly visiting his brother...then back off to playing!

There is a story about the blue tube thing. When we got to the park, there was a teenage boy and girl that ran to the playground and then set up camp in that tube.  It was odd and I was nervous about what I might see.  They just kind of hung out and acted awkward.  The problem was that the tube is the only easy way to get down the twirly slide.  Chase climbed up the "rock wall" thing and wanted to get to the slide.  The boy was lying down in the tube and Chase stood on the edge of the tube staring at them and then started laughing and then crawled right in almost on top of that boy.  Thankfully the boy moved out of the way so Chase could go through, but then the boy and girl got back in the tube.  So we repeated this awkward exchange about 2 more times.  Finally the teenagers left.  Drew and I thought the whole thing was awkward.  Teenagers, let the 2 year old play on the playground!  Stop being weird!

 Toddler drama