The Beautiful Mess: 24 weeks and yay for solid foods!

Cooper is 24 weeks old today, and this week we started solid foods! well....solid-ish! Yesterday Cooper had his first taste of rice cereal! It was mostly breast milk with a little bit of cereal mixed in just to get him used to the spoon concept. He did really well! the first couple spoonfuls he pushed it out with his tongue but he figured it out pretty quickly and was banging on his tray and reaching for more! I *almost* made the mistake of putting the bowl on his tray when he quickly showed me why that would be a bad idea and grabbed for it immediately. Instead I held it below his tray and each time I would go to get another spoonful he would lean way over trying his best to see where the spoon went and if he was going to get any more! :) I definitely think he was ready to start the solids and I'm glad we waited until now to start him on them since it was such a successful experience! We will probably continue doing just one feeding of rice cereal for a week and then start to try some real food...that's when the fun really begins! :)

So a recap of the week...let's see....we actually got to spend a weekend at home this week! yay! We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves! :)
Friday we headed to Winston because I helped cater an event that evening with my uncle. Cooper stayed with my aunt and her grandgirly (who is adorable and so sweet!) They played until my mom got off work and she stopped by to pick him up until I was finished. I think they all enjoyed playing with him for a little while...who wouldn't!?!?! ;) but maybe I'm biased!
Saturday was spring cleaning in the Dahmer house! Carrington worked outside and mowed the yard, trimmed up some of the yard and plugged the yard to get ready to put down some more grass seed. I cleaned the kitchen and both bathrooms from TOP to BOTTOM! and dusted (way overdue) and vacuumed the living room! It felt good to get things in order finally! Cooper was really good all day and allowed us to do those things. He also took a 2 hour nap! That evening we went to Greensboro to have dinner at one of Carrington's co-workers' homes with his family and a couple other families that he works with. The are from China and had prepared an authentic Chinese meal that was delish! it was SO much food! And again, Cooper was SO good all evening! He sat in my lap while we ate and hardly made a peep! :)
Sunday we headed to Raleigh because Carrington was coaching a soccer game for one of the other Twins coaches who was overbooked and couldn't be in two places at once. Luckily they won! :) It was a beautiful day to be out at the soccer field! Coop played on a blanket for the first half and then decided that he was tired of soccer and napped for the second half! We will have to work on his love for the game! :)
This week Carrington also went back to 4 day work-weeks so that he can be home on Wednesdays. We LOVED having him home with us yesterday! We went for a walk at a nearby park (even Arnold got to go), watched the fish in the koi pond there, hunted for baby turtles, saw a box turtle along the path, watched daddy chop up some wood, checked on the roses on out rose bush, played with daddy on the floor, and daddy even got to feed him some of his rice cereal lunch! I think we will all enjoy being able to have this time together each week!

At 24 weeks Cooper:

weighs 16.6 pounds. (46th percentile....IF the weight is accurate)
is 27 1/2 inches long (91st percentile)
is starting to grow hair back where it fell out before. It's so soft and sweet! I love rubbing his lil head! :)
LOVES to "help" get his bath ready....and can't wait to get in it when he sees me filling his tub! see the pictures below of that! :)
has finally figured out the Sassy seat doorway jumper! He used to just hang there and spin around a little bit but, with a little help from mama, has figured out "hey, this thing bounces and it's FUN!" Now he loves it and gets very excited in there!
has been sleeping for 10-11 hours at a time! typically he goes to bed around 8:15 or 8:30 and sleeps (usually) until somewhere around 6:30 or 7:30! He'll usually eat then and snuggle in bed with me for another hour or so until we get up for the day.
still doesn't nap very well, although I'm working on trying to get him into a better schedule of that....but he's very stubborn and fights it will everything he's got! Usually I let him win because it's not worth him getting SO upset over...and it doesn't affect his nighttime sleeping routine. When he's tired enough, he sleeps! :)
can scoot with the best of 'em! He's still easily making his rounds around the living room and getting where he wants to go! However, his scoot usually tends to propel him backwards! He can't quite get the forward motion down pat just yet, but rolling generally gets him where he wants to go! :)
has started rubbing his head again while nursing. When he was tiny he would immediately put his hand up behind his head and rub his hair while nursing and when he was falling asleep. He stopped that for a long time and just started doing it again this week...maybe because he like's his soft fuzzy hair too! :)
rubs my face or hair when he's going to sleep. I can always tell when he's trying to relax and go to sleep because his hand reaches up to my faces and starts rubbing.....er....more like grabbing and scratching, but I think he means to rub it! :) If my hair is down and hanging he will bat at it gently while he drifts off....it's so sweet! Much better than the tight fistfuls he grabs when he's fully awake!
has gotten very vocal with various different cries and noises that mean various different things. I can certainly tell when it's the "I'm hungry, and I'm hungry NOW" cry, versus the "I'm tired of doing this....move me to something new please" cry, versus the "I'm sooooo sleepy but I'm afraid I might miss something if I give in to it" cry. He also makes various happy noises that are so cute as he discovers the full range of his voice!
generally wakes up so happy! I love when I look at the monitor and see that he's awake but he never even made a sound to let me know. He usually wakes up, when he's really fully rested, on his own and will look around his crib, or play with the bumpers or roll around quietly and happily for as long as I'll leave him there. When I go in to get him up he just griiiiiins at me and all is right with the world in that moment! :)
still doesn't have any teeth that have broken through, but he's working really hard on a couple! They don't seem to be hurting him as much as they initially did but he gnaws on things (including my fingers if he can get hold of them and slip 'em in there quick enough) really hard! Hopefully this isn't a couple month process as we wait for them to break through. Although, I'm in no hurry for teeth; I happen to love his little gummy grin and am in no rush to see it go!