The Beautiful Mess: 18 weeks!!

I just love my sweet, flexible, happy, snuggly, playful little boy more than ever at 18 weeks old! I love watching him grow and develop and move through all these fun little stages! it's amazing how much he is learning, and so fast! This week we had a play date with Leah and Carter, and Katherine and Olivia. Carter and Olivia are 3 months apart (20 months and 17 months) and are so fun to watch playing together! Before long Cooper will be right in there playing too! :) We went to a park for lunch and a little play time on the playground. It was nice to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather....although my allergies are going crazy right now! my nose, eyes, ears, and throat itch like crazy and I'm hesitant to take anything for fear that it will hurt my milk supply, we certainly don't want that....so I'm just sticking it out! :(
This morning we went to school for the kids' Fable presentations. They have been studying fables and took several fables, in small groups, and adapted them into scripts. They were fun to see and Cooper was VERY well behaved through them all!

At 18 weeks Cooper

grabs EVERYTHING! if it's within his reach, he's going to do his best to get ahold of it....and probably try to put it in his mouth!
still drools all over the place! :) maybe he's teething...between the drool and the gnawing on things....I don't know....we'll see
sleeps in his CRIB! yay! we moved him to the crib on Sunday night (in this house, you turn 4 months old and the next day....you're on your own! ;) ) He has done so well sleeping in there. I think he was just really ready for the space. I find myself getting up a few times in the night to give him the paci when he looses it, but he goes right back to sleep. He's still sleeping until somewhere around 4-5:30 before his first feeding
wakes up bright-eyes and bushy-tailed at 7 most mornings. Sometimes I can get him to go back to sleep until 8:30 or so if I put him in the bed with me.
loves to stand up! when I get him up from his naps in the crib i will let him hold onto my fingers and he pulls himself up and pulls up onto his feet, not just to a sitting position (that just won't do!) He loves to be able to stand there and get almost eye level with you to "talk." We do it after changing his diaper on the changing table too :)
has started this new sound making process.....he closes his mouth and pooches out his lips...almost like a duck face...and makes this mmmmm sound! :) sometimes it's a whine, most of the time it's just trying out some new noise!
moves NON-STOP! his legs, his arms, his mouth, his head! non-stop!
has figured out how to get his arms up under him and prop himself up during tummy time....this usually then quickly becomes a roll over!
rolls from one side of the crib to the other when he's in there awake! I try not to let him "play" in there too much because right now I want him to see it as a place to sleep, rather than a place to play. But sometimes when he's fighting his nap, he will roll from one bumper.....grabbing at it, scratching at the dots on it, pulling it....to the other bumper! :)
LOVES Arnold, or any dog for that matter! he will now reach out for his snout or his fur or his ears. Luckily Arnold loves him just as much, and doesn't mind the grabbing! He also loves to give him kisses! (Arnold does.....not Cooper.....we're not quite to the kiss stage yet with Coop! :) )
loves to have his toes free! I likes for me to take his socks off and let him wiggle his little piggies! he's also figured out how to grab those piggies! :)

We go back to the doctor on Monday for his 4 month check up and shots (yikes!) so we'll see what they say, and see for sure how much he weighs! Thanks for stopping by!

oh yeah, almost forgot about he pictures! (nah, how could I forget that!!)