well, this post started out as a 48 and 49 week post, then quickly became a 48-50 week post, and well....you see what it is now! :( we have just been so busy I've hardly had time to get the pictures off my camera, much less sit and write down everything that he's been doing! Not to mention, the battery on my computer is fried and won't charge at all so I have to sit here with the cord (which is having trouble keeping a good connection) plugged in and try not to move it or the whole thing turns off! I'll be ordering a new battery from Amazon this week! I've started working on this post MANY times and ended up so frustrated that to computer keeps turning off that I just give up....for 4 weeks now! Sheesh!
Oh boy are we ever at a stage where Cooper's little personality is really coming out! :) He is really just SO much fun right now! As he is beginning to be able to do more on his own, and gaining a little more independence because of that, he is just so happy! There's not a whole lot that this kid won't at least
try to do! Warning, there's a lot here...he's just into so much and this is such a busy time for us! :)
at 48, 49, 50 and 51 weeks Cooper:
- FINALLY has another tooth poking through, a top one. It only took how many weeks? 10...I just went back and looked! I noticed it looking white a few days ago and today (October 27th) we noticed that it has broken through! I guess that's why he's been a bit crankier lately....I thought perhaps he was getting sick because he's been sleeping more and crying more...guess it was that dern tooth! :) Even still, he's hardly been fussy at all! Such a good baby!
- is walking with such steadiness now! Sometimes he walks completely normal (as opposed to baby godzilla walk) and will even walk with something in his hands or will stop, change directions, turn around, pick something up and keep on going! He still has his moments where his body gets ahead of his feet and he takes a tumble but he's getting really steady now!
- knows where his belly is! When you ask him, he pats it with both hands and just GRINS at you like he's really done something smart and wonderful! And of course we don't encourage it or applaud it profusely AT ALL! ;) he's also learning where his feet are! This one isn't as consistent as the belly, but from time to time he will grab his feet when you ask where they are. :) *update* he now clearly identifies his feet when you ask and can even show you where mommy's belly is or where daddy's belly is, as opposed to his own. Interestingly though....when he tries to find ours he always has to pull up our shirt looking for it....not sure why, because he will pat his own without lifting his shirt?!?! silly boy!
- signs "more" pretty well. He's actually been doing this for a month or so, I just keep forgetting to put it here in the blog! it's not a clear sign for "more" but he puts his hands together in an attempt to imitate what I've been doing to him for months and months! :)
- Loves playing in boxes...I mean really, what kid doesn't?!?! he will crawl in and out of one endlessly! *side note moment...but there is a point to this story* When Carrington and I met, we were working at a summer camp at church for kindergarten through 7th graders. At least one of the summers that we worked there we did a giant box maze that covered the floor of most of the gym. We used any large boxes that we could round up from various stores and places around town and taped them together end to end making a tunnel that the kids crawled through. Carrington was one of the ring leaders in putting this together and I like to think that i helped a pretty good deal one of the years that we did it. The counselors had JUST as much, if not more, fun than the kids!! *here's the point* I told Carrington that after we have moved and we have lots of boxes lying around....he's going to have to build Cooper a box maze, and we may or may not all crawl through it together! :) (
secretly, I can't wait!)
- keeps his feet moving CONSTANTLY! When he's walking (obviously), eating, riding, sitting, playing, nursing, ALL THE TIME!
- Has started to dance to the music of his toys....it's so cute! He just grins and starts bouncing while the music plays. I'll have to try to catch him on video. :)
- Has been sharing his kisses with me profusely! and when he decides he's giving a kiss, you better get ready because he's coming in! :) I've also started trying to teach him eskimo kisses....so far is just me giving him eskimo kisses and him grinning, frozen, and cutting his eyes up with the look of "this feels a little strange, what is mommy doing?!?!" But I love it! it's so cute because he really just doesn't know what to think of it but of course he's just grinning away!
- loves throwing the ball for the dogs; he just laughs when they retrieve it!
- does not like being confined to one room at all! We used to keep him blocked in the living room so that he wouldn't get into things and he was just not happy with that, even when we were with him in the living room. So we expanded his play area to the dining room as well and he has been much happier with the larger area now! Perhaps its because he now has access to the dog bed and dog toys...which he thoroughly enjoys! The other day he curled up in Arnold's bed and snuggled up with one of Arnold's toys! :)
- LOVES his daddy! Don't get me wrong, of course he loves me just as much :) but we spend all day together so it's really cute to see the big grin spread across his face when he sees daddy! When he's taking his bath, which I usually do, we will call "daaaaddyyyyy" and he will crane that little neck to look out the bathroom door and down the hall waiting for daddy to appear. And when he does, he just grins! It's the cutest thing ever!
- seems to be getting a little finicky about his meals. If he doesn't want something, he doesn't' hesitate to toss it over the side of his tray! He's now mostly feeding himself (until he starts tossing things or if he's just lolli-gagging and we need to move things along, in which case...I'll feed him some too) He hasn't shown much interest in actually using the spoon, he'd much rather grab the food by the handful and shovel it in. He will hold the spoon and let me put something on it and then he gets it into his mouth, but as for scooping it up himself....uh-uh, not happening. He has, a couple of times, picked something up, put it on his spoon, and then picked it back off the spoon and into his mouth. :)
- doesn't particularly care for broccoli, but loves cauliflower. I did make some broccoli and cheese nuggets that he seems to like better than just eating plain ol broccoli. And they are pretty good, I ate a couple! :)
- Has now tried turkey, chicken, and beef....no more vegetarian meals for this kiddo. He has also had his first cookies....the arrowroot cookies by gerber. I had bought some but just had them in the cabinet, saving them for a later time. One morning Carrington put Cooper in his seat and handed him 2 cookies for the road....he LOVED them! Of course they were all over his face! Through the course of that day he ended up having somewhere around 6 cookies and this child was WILD that evening...just going non-stop! it was quite comical, so I looked at the package and realized that each cookie had a gram of sugar, and surely not a natural sugar like fruit, so he had around 6 grams of sugar just from his cookies that day! whew, we could tell it too! :)
- will go in and out of our back door onto the deck for like 30 minutes at a time. There is a small step, about 6 inches maybe, and he will drawl up into the house then turn around and crawl backward back out the door! He's really starting to figure out the going backwards down something now....as opposed to the head-first-I-hope-someone-catches-me method! I'm so thankful for this! He will also crawl up the stairs at my mom's house like a pro! we're still working on going down....he gets that he should go backward but somewhere after the first step he thinks that's it and he just sits down, which often results in a tumble backward. Luckily we've always been right there to help him out. I think he'll get it soon. *update* he now completely gets the turn around and slide down trick! He will get to the top of the stairs and turn around, swing a leg over, and slide down. He also does this with getting down off the bed or couch.
- does not miss ANYthing! if he sees you do it, you can be assured that he will be right behind you repeating what you just did! and you can just see the little wheels turning in his head as he's learning about things.
- loved playing in the leaves at grandma's house! and he never tried to eat them, surprisingly! :)
- visited his first pumpkin patch! we wanted to get some fall pictures so we went to a farm near our house (it's where I got the pumpkin that I painted for our maternity pictures last year). There were SO many people there that Cooper was quite distracted and wouldn't really look at the camera. We still got some cute pictures though. He really loved the little various gourds. He stood at the basket and picked them out one by one, turning them over in his hands and really checking them out! :)
- "helped" carve his first pumpkin...he just jumped right in there and helped pull the guts out...then proceeded to put them back in...where they belong :)
- wore his halloween costume a couple of times! A week before Halloween we went to Wake Forest where they have a pumpkin fest each year. All of the student organizations set up booths and had various games and activities, and of course candy, for the kids! Cooper wore his costume and we met up with Sara, Darby and Walt. Coop was too young to care a bit about what was going on but Darby had a blast! He just wanted to push the stroller the whole time. :)
- visited daddy at one of his soccer practices! One of the teams that Carrington coaches has been dying to meet Cooper so we went out to practice one night and they got to see him and play with him. He loved the fact that there were multiple balls around that we could chase and kick!
- went to his first college soccer game! Wake Forest hosts the twins soccer club occasionally for a practice session followed by free admission to the game so Cooper and I got to tag along; we even saw my cousin, Taylor, there! He had fun walking around the bleachers and checking out the various mascots that were there (it was also mascot night). He also got passed around amongst some of the players and parents; he did really well with it considering he was quite tired by that point!
- Celebrated his first Halloween with trunk or treating! Some friends of our do a big Halloween trunk or treat event at their church each year and this was the perfect year to check it out! We saw Jackson there, who is only 8 days older than Cooper, and Coop had a BLAST! I wasn't sure how the evening would go since he was almost alseep in the car when we got there but he really got into it! by the end of the night he was pulling us from one booth to the next and got so excited about visiting them all! He really loved digging into his treat bag (or the candy bowl at the booths...whichever was closest!). I was really surprised with how much he actually enjoyed it, I didn't think he would really care too much for the costume and all. :) next year should be really fun! :)
- had a play date with Mason! Mason is almost 2 months older than Cooper and they are so cute together! It was really fun to see them playing together since they are so close in age and are really doing most of the same things!
- has become a wonderful napper! I love that i finally have a good sleeper, not only at night, but also for naps! I can totally tell when he's ready for a nap and he generally goes down with very little, if any, struggle and usually sleeps for and hour and a half to (sometimes) two and a half hours! The last couple days have been 2+ hour naps...I think he's just had too much fun with all the festivities and it has worn him out! :)
- has finally learned to throw his arms up for "touchdown!" much to his daddy's pleasure! He has worked really hard with Cooper trying to teach him this and, up until the last couple of days, Cooper has had no interest in replicating the action but would rather look at you like you're silly and crazy! now, whenever you shout "touchdown!" he throws his little hands straight up in the air and grins at you, waiting for approval! Of course, then he waits for the high five moment (carrington usually said "high five!" after each touchdown when teaching him, so now he just thinks it all goes together!) so cute! :)
- Has finally learned how to clap! I will say "yay! clap clap clap" and he just claps and looks so proud of himself!
- IS TALKING!!!! he's always been very vocal but he haven't heard any discernable words until this past week...now he says "dada dada dada" all the time! I told Carrington that I'm kinda glad that was who he learned to scream at first! haha, he will just scream out "DADA!" sometimes! At first we weren't sure he really knew who he was talking about/to, but I really think he knows that he's saying dada and that means daddy. he will say it right to Carrington many times and sometimes I will talk to him about dada being at work and he will start looking for him!
- feeds himself almost completely now. He's still not interested in using the spoon and it usually ends up on the floor but he's got great little pinchers for picking things up! :) This week I made some muffins that he LOVES!! he will eat 2 mini muffins at a time! They have some applesauce, banana, shredded carrots and shredded zucchini in them and he gobbles them up! I think I might try making another batch and hiding some other veggies and such in them. :) tricky mommy!
- chases Arnold and just LAUGHS at him! he has found the cabinet where my wooden utensils are stored and he will pull them out and chase Arnold with them! too funny!
- waves bye-bye finally!! seriously, the last week and a half have been FULL of him discovering these things we've been trying to get him to do for so long! he suddenly started waving bye-bye and now anytime you say the words (just about....he's still a bit choose-y about when he wants to perform) he stars waving.
- LOVES playing in the dog crate! he has played with the door for a long time now but never crawled in until recently....now he climbs right in with a toy and closes the door behind him and lays down! What is it with kids and playing in the dog crates!?!?!?
- stayed with grandma for a whole day while Carrington and I went to Boone. Saturday was my birthday so we went to the App game and I think that was the longest we have both been away from him at once. We were gone for about 8 hours that day and he stayed with my mom. He did great and we were ready for some snuggles when we got home!
- has had his first diaper rash. We have been so lucky in that respect the past year, but this past weekend he made up for it big time! I don't know what it was he ate, but it sure made his lil butt raw! poor little fella just laid on the couch after his bath and was afraid to move because his butt hurt! :( it was pitiful! and diaper changes have been EVEN MORE of a battle since then because it does hurt him so badly. Thankfully, we seem to be almost rid of it completely.
- can identify so many objects now! I can ask him where something is, like his bink or a ball, and he will look around and find it and bring it back to me! Today, I asked for a ball and he brought them to me one by one until he had brought them all to me! :)
- is really expanding his palate now....i'll will let him try almost anything now, within reason. he really likes his food to be seasoned though, which is great that he's willing to try new flavors and a variety of things. sometimes it takes a little warming up to, but he's pretty open to it most times.
Ok, I think that's enough for now! :) I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting but I'll add it in later. As for now, I'm back to working on bee-day party stuff while he continues napping! My baby is almost a year old! yikes! where did the time go! I'll share party details soon....I'm SUPER excited about it! :) Here are some pictures for now :)
 |
| 48 weeks old! |
 |
| playing in the pots and pans! yes....everything is something to get INTO these days! he did this himself and was so proud when he finally got his little feet tucked inside! :) |
 |
| mmmmmm! cookies are delicious! |
 |
| the bakery at Old Salem, where Cooper's great grandmother used to work |
 |
| playing at the water pump at Old Salem with daddy |
 |
| getting up close and personal with the toys in his toy box! |
 |
| riding on his car! |
 |
| watching daddy working in the yard |
 |
| "watcha doin out there, Arnold?" |
 |
| 49 weeks....showing off his belly! |
 |
| 49 weeks...making me work for it! |
 |
| Cooper's first pumpkin! |
 |
| the pumpkin farm! |
 |
| Pumpkin fest at Wake Forest with Darby and Walk....he was more interested in pushing the stroller than anything else! |
 |
| 50 weeks |
 |
| Having fun in the leaves! |
 |
| some of the many faces of Cooper.... |
 |
| riding his turtle! Ok, funny story time....after bath time Cooper loves to be naked for a little bit so one night he flips over after drying him off, and makes a b-line for the turtle. I called Carrington into the room to see because it was quite the funny sight seeing him sitting there buck naked on his turtle. as SOON as Carrington walked through the door Cooper let one rip and it reverberated on the plastic of the turtle and we both just died laughing! of course he sat there with the biggest grin on his face looking like a proud peacock because we were both in stitches laughing at him! :) |
 |
| Trunk-or-treating and dragging US from one stop to the next...he was really getting into it! Once he had some candy in his bag, though, he seemed a little more pre-occupied with pulling it out and putting it back in. |
 |
| 51 weeks....I guess things can't ALWAYS be rosy...he was NOT having the picture taking this day and kept throwing the sign....this was the best shot we got, if that tells you anything! :) |
Thanks for stopping by!
