Whoa! I'm way behind....

The last few weeks have been the weeks of  "What did you just do?!?!"  This kid is growing up fast and I think he decided to do it all on one month!  We have spent a LOT of time packing and getting the house ready to list and it is FINALLY on the market!  We listed it last Thursday (the 13th) and on Sunday we had an agent showing it.  We still haven't gotten feedback from that agent so we don't have anything to report yet.  Last week, after getting the house listed and ready to go, I started working in the preschool at the Y, instead of just in the nursery (I'm still working nursery until the end of the month and will continue here and there after that).  The preschool program is rapidly growing and they feel we could have an actual pre-k program.  Since I was a teacher and have a degree in the field, I have been handed that project!  I'm so excited about building the program and getting back into the planning and teaching that I have loved, and have missed since leaving in November.  This will be a great opportunity for our family because it will mean, number 1.....more money!  yay!  That will help out tremendously!  Cooper will also be able to go to the preschool and be there with me still.  The preschool day is only from 9-1 so Coop and I will still have our entire afternoon together and I most likely won't have to do anymore evening nursery duties at the Y!  To me it sounds perfect.....I get paid more, get more hours, still have Cooper right there in the next room with me, still have my afternoons with Cooper to do whatever, and I get to do something I love again....teach!  Now the next thing is to get moved back to Winston completely!  Pray that it happens soon (we've found a house we love but can't act on it until ours sells!  :(  )
Friday morning Cooper got up and just decided "I'm not nursing anymore!"  That little stubborn booger screamed and arched his back and threw himself backwards any time I tried to nurse him!  Unfortunately we were in Winston, without my pump, so I had no way of getting milk to him!  Not to mention the pain I was in after 24 hours of a non-nursing baby, but boobs that continued to produce milk!  And at the risk of sharing too much, I did end up hand expressing milk Friday night and got a hand pump on Saturday to relieve the pressure and pain....I felt like a whole new woman after using that pump! We are now on day 6 of the nursing strike and no signs of letting up....could he REALLY be done nursing?!?!?  what in the world!  :(   breaks my heart because I was fulling planning to nurse for AT LEAST the first 12 months....never intended to stop at 10 months!  :(  Guess you just go with the flow and adapt and we'll see where it takes us.
Saturday, Cooper and I went to Mason's first birthday party (which was If You Give a Dog a Doughnut themed and was super cute!).  Carrington had a soccer game for the team he plays on and then 4 games for the teams he coaches.  In his game he severely rolled his ankle and we REALLY hope it isn't broken....so far it's still too swollen to tell....He's been hobbling around for 5 days now.
Sunday was a dreary rainy day.  We had someone come see the house at 3:30 so we left for about an hour but pretty much took it easy that day because I felt like POOP and Carrington had a bum ankle!
Monday morning I went to the dr and did indeed have a sinus infection.....thank goodness for the Z-pack!  Monday was also Cooper's 10 month "birthday!"  That sounds so much older than 9 months!
Wednesday, Sept 19th, was "talk like a pirate day" and Krispy Kreme was giving away a free doughnut to anyone who talked like a pirate and a free DOZEN to anyone who dressed like a pirate.  I got Cooper a cute little Pirate outfit from Once Upon a Child and we met Sara, Darby, and Walt at Krispy Kreme for an afternoon snack.  Cooper was the CUTEST little pirate there and earned us a free dozen doughnuts!  Of course I had to let him try it since he earned them for us.....they were a HUGE hit!  He loved the glaze and kept opening the box and grabbing more!  Needless to say, we had several doughnuts with little baby finger prints/holes in them!  Check out the picture of him below.  Of course on the way home he washed it all down with some of mama's milk!  :)

At 42, 43, and 44 weeks Cooper:

• walks all over the place!  he can EASILY go from standing at one object, turn, take a few steps to the next object, and continue on his way.  He is also pretty good at squatting down and back up again!  I think we've got a few more weeks and then we'll probably have an independent walker!
• loves the cabinets!  He does not hesitate to open them up anywhere he sees them and proceed to rifle through whatever is inside....he particularly loves the tupperware, pots and pans, and the cheese grater (?!?!?)   I'm not too fond of that last one....I can just see it grating his little perfect baby skin some time.  It might need to find a new, higher up, home soon!
• likes to "help" unload the dishwasher!  I usually have to do this quickly when he's not looking because you can bet he'll be there pulling the spoons out and sucking on them!
• definitely knows which toys are his and which toys are the dog's toys.  he will pick up a dog toy and hand it right to the dogs!  He also seems to know which dog is which, you can ask him "where's Arnold?" and he will look right to wherever Arnold is....smart little cookie!  :)
• has the cutest little (well....big) open mouthed smile when he's super happy!  it's the cutest!
• still wears 6 month pants because his tiny little waist can't hold up anything bigger!  Other than that, he's pretty much in 6-9 month or 9 month clothes
• Attended his 2nd wedding (Uncle's Chris and Aunt Stephanie's was the first) and was so good!  My old roommate, Anna, got married to Riley last Saturday (the 8th); It was an 11:00 wedding which is right smack in the middle of nap time but he was SO good!  only got a little noisy toward the end but my mom moved away with him and it was fine!
• is always bumping, scratching, scraping or bruising something!  Poor kid, right now he has several scratches on his face and a bruise on his forehead (from crawling RIGHT into a shelf unit!)  I think every time I go to get him up from a nap or in the morning he has a new scratch....I don't know what monsters he's fighting in his sleep but sheesh!
• loves to be naked!  I am dreading the day that he figures out how to get his clothes and diaper off!  After bath time, when I lay him down in his towel, it takes all of 3.6 seconds and that kid has flipped over and is booking it down the hallway buck naked!  it's the cutest little butt I've ever seen crawling away at lightning speed!  He loves being naked....but it's sooo dangerous!  :)
• loves Cheerios!  we have introduced him to the multi grain cheerios and he loves them!
• is no longer a vegetarian!  he's a meat eater now!  We introduced him to ground turkey as his first meat; he kind of mashed it around in his mouth for a minute trying to decide what he thought, but it was a definite hit!
• likes to take control of meal time himself!  usually we make it halfway though the meal and then he decides that he wants to spoon...it usually ends up with him holding one spoon and me feeding him with another one.  On a few occasions I have put food on his spoon and he's been able to get it to his mouth!  
• Eats like a little piglet!  He has 3 regular meals and can put away some food each time he eats!  We've gotten into quite a good schedule with his meals and nap times now.
• is FINALLY sleeping ALL night long without waking up at all!  honestly, this happened in conjunction with him giving up nursing....which I'm surprised because I expected him to be more hungry without getting as much milk and I expected him to wake up more at night but it's been quite the opposite!  He's always been a good sleeper but he's been in the habit of waking up somewhere between 4 and 6 each morning.  I used to nurse him and he'd go back to sleep until 8 or so.  I then decided that he didn't need me to nurse him to sleep and instead I just rocked him a few minutes and put him back in his crib when he would wake up in the night.  now he will go to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 (on a typical night) and will sleep, without a peep, until 7:30 or so!  YAY!  I am SOOOO thankful for this!  :)
• Has quite an ear piercing squeal!  He will share it with us when he's happy but even more so when he's not happy!  he is starting to get quite the stubborn, temper-tantrum, streak to him....he does not like to be told no or to not be allowed to get into something he wants to get into!  I've had to let him lay in the middle of the floor squealing a couple times because he's throwing a 10 month old version of a tantrum.  After a couple seconds of getting no attention for it, though, he typically gets over it and moves on with life.  :)
• is just the most amazing little thing ever!  Some days I really can't get over the fact that he is my son!  I could just stare at him forever when he sleeps, smother him in kisses all day long, play with him on the floor and listen to his little giggles every day, and tell him that mommy loves him a million times a day!  I LOVE this little boy and the person that he is becoming!  I can't imagine my life any other way than the way it is in this very moment with my sweet family!

I'm sure there are things that he is doing that I'll remember as soon as I publish this post, but that's enough for today!   Now for some pictures and videos!!

Seriously....any time I need a good smile from this kid all I have to do is give him the soccer ball!  Daddy is so proud!

Eating breakfast is exhausting!

Double Trouble!

It takes a LOT of work to get a good weekly picture....this is typical!  :)

Oh, just playin' with my workbench mom!

Taking control of my own lunch!

43 weeks!  If you look closely, you can see his little bottom teeth!

"I could have SWORN I had ONE more Cheerio left....Where did it go!?!?!"      This is my FAVORITE group of photos so far!

Tuckered out little baby!  Look at that sweet hand behind his head!  he never sleeps on his back, so this was a verrrry tired baby!

44 weeks.....and again, with the soccer ball!  :)

Arrrr!  Ready for his free Doughnuts.....and trying to get into the box!   And of course, any baby chases that Krispy Kreme doughnut with some of mama's milk!

Thanks for stopping by!