It's a Waltrip Life: 2012

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Monday, March 19, 2012

Cooper turned one year old this past Saturday! Even though it's been over a week, it still seems so surreal that we have a one year old. Where has the past year gone? Everyone always says that the older you get, the faster time goes by. I completely believe that, and I also believe that once you have kids, time flies even faster. This has been the BEST year of our lives, and I don't know what we ever did without Cooper.

At 12 months, Cooper is more active than ever. If he's awake, he's going full force! That would explain the million bumps and bruises this kid has had in the past few weeks.

Cooper's first busted lip! He was dancing to Mickey Mouse at JuJu and Pops' and fell and bumped his lip on the coffee table.

This has been the PERFECT past few months for Cooper. Who would have thought that February and March would bring such perfect, warm weather. Cooper has always loved to be outside, and the warm weather we've been having has just proved how much he still likes it. When we get home every afternoon, Cooper runs from the front door to Bailey's crate. He knows how to get her out of her crate, but he can't quiet get the latch undone yet. It's so cute to watch him because he runs as fast as he can and screams her name (well actually it sounds more like BAY, but he really is meaning to say Bailey). When we get Bailey out, I've been taking him outside to run around the yard. He loves every minute of it!

He's also been loving the outdoor time he's been getting in his car. He loves to jabber and scream while he's riding, and he likes to wave bye bye at the cars that pass.

Cooper is officially on 100% whole milk. I started mixing formula and milk about a week after he turned 11 months. About a week before he turned 12 months, I started just doing a bottle in the morning and a bottle at night and sippy cups of milk throughout the day. He did great with all of this. Right now, he takes milk, juice, or water from a sippy cup all day, and then he still takes a bottle of milk at night right before bed. I know we need to get rid of this nighttime bottle, but he's in such a routine, I hate to mess it up. As for eating, Cooper is still a great eater. He went through a little spell a couple of weeks ago when he had a few teeth popping through at once where he didn't want to eat much at all. Well, once those teeth popped through, he started eating again and hasn't stopped. He has 2 teeth on the bottom, 2 that are definitely through on the top, and 2 more on the top that have just barely poked through. I think there's another 1 or 2 trying to come through on the bottom too. At 12 months, his favorite foods are ANY kid of pasta, peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, oatmeal, peas, pizza, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese....

He is still wearing a size 4 diaper. I feel like we might have to move up a size in the next couple of weeks because we've gotten close to have a few blow-outs. :) He's wearing all 12-18 month or just 18 month clothes. The 18 month pants are still a little too long and a little big in the waist, but most of the 12 month pants are too short for him.

Of course I took several 12 month pictures to add to the monthly collection. This is the first month that I took the pictures on the day before his monthly birthday. I knew his actual birthday would be very busy (I took my Comps test that morning for my Masters), and I wanted to make sure I had time to get some good ones to print for his party. It took about 100+ tries, but I think I did get some good shots.

Monday, February 13, 2012

11 months

I've been thinking about Cooper's 1st birthday for a couple of months now, but it really hit me yesterday that in one short month, Cooper will not just be a 12 month old, but he'll be a big one year old! At times, it seems like Cooper has been in our lives forever, but at other times, it seems like he was just born.

Cooper facts at 11 months:

Weight= 22.4 lbs.
Height= 30 1/2 in.
Started to really walk a lot more this week (without hs walker). He can stand up from sitting on the floor and just take off! I would definitely consider him a walker now.
Still eats like a champ! For the past couple of weeks he hasn't been as interested in his baby food because he would rather have regular people food. We are still giving him baby food to make sure he's getting his fruits and veggies, but he is also eating PLENTY of regular food. I don't think he has any "favorites" but he does really seem to like grilled cheese (he ate a whole one last night minus the crust), peanut butter sandwiches, any kind of pasta (ravioli, spaghetti, lasagna), bananas, cheerios, vegetable soup, mac and cheese, peas, carrots, and green beans (when they have a little bit of flavor), chicken....if he sees you eating it, he wants it too! :) It's much easier to feed him real food instead of all baby food, and I'm looking forward to when I don't have to buy anymore formula or baby food. We're thinking about trying to start mixing whole milk in with his formula for a couple of bottles during the day. The goal is to get him off of the bottle by his 1st birthday.
still LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! He gets so excited when it first comes on, and he loves the Hot Dog Dance at the end. I'm danced with him so much during the song, he now puts his arms up by himself when it gets to that point in the song.

He's been going to bed about 8:30 every night and getting up around 6:30 or 6:45 in the morning.
Still has 3 teeth (2 on the bottom and 1 on the top)
Loves to play with balls. He likes to roll around on the big ones and he loves Bailey's ball with bells inside.
One of his favorite things to do right now is to torture Bailey. He loves to chase her around the house, either crawling or running with his walker. I think she likes the attention, but she's still not too sure about him.

Cooper's pretty much wearing all 12 month or 12-18 month clothes and size 4 diapers.
Likes to chase us around the house!
Cooper has also become a pro at waving and saying "bye". The kid LOVES to talk. Sometimes he says da-da, ma-ma, ball, bite...but most of the time he loves to just jabber and see how loud he can get. In the past week or two, he's started acting like he's yelling for one of us when we're in another room, and when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap, he will usually yell "BA" (not sure what it's supposed to mean). It's so cute because he really seems like he's thinking about where one of us disappeared to. He's also started saying what sounds like "Abby" a lot. He must like the way it sounds because he says it ALL time time!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

10 months

Last Tuesday our favorite little guy turned 10 months old. It's amazing how much he continues to grow and change everyday. It's also sad and scary to think that in 7 short weeks, our little boy will be a 1 year old toddler!

Cooper has been using his walker he got for Christmas A LOT, and he's actually gotten really good at maneauvering it around the house. He'll run into a wall or table, and then turn the walker around so he can get around whatever obstacle is in front of him. He's been able to walk around the house by himself for a while. He cruises around from room to room checking things out and seeing what he can get into. We knew it was only a matter of time before he took a real step on his own, and that time came the Monday before last (March 9th). He took a step when I got home, but when Brad got home he took about 4 steps. Of course we weren't able to get a video of it, and he wouldn't do it again when we tried. Since then he's taken a few more steps everyday. His balance is still off and he would rather run than walk, so I'm sure it'll still be a little while before he's off and running on his own. (Maybe I just keep telling myself that because I don't know if we're ready to have a "walker" in the house.)

We also noticed last night that Cooper has a new tooth that has popped through. It's his other middle, bottom one. That makes a total of 3 teeth, but I just know there are more that will soon follow. Cooper also has his very first diaper rash. Yes, I think it's weird that he's 10 months old and just now has a diaper rash, but the poop he's had the past few days has really been weird and nasty so we're blaming it on that. He is also getting over an ear infection, and it may have something to do with the antibiotic he's been on since Monday when I took him to the doctor.

Cooper is "talking" more than ever these days. I'm pretty sure he says bye, ball, book (and knows what they mean), and he also says dada and mama. I'm not sure that he knows what dada means yet, but he's gotten pretty good at mama (especially when he's whining). :)

I also think Cooper is ready to say goodbye to baby food completely and just eat adult food. It's been more of a struggle to get him to eat his baby food because he'd much rather have something else. I really don't blame him though. Cooper loves to eat peanut butter sandwiches, grilled cheese, scrambled eggs (he had some with cheese this morning), bananas, nilla wafers, green beans, carrots, peas, pasta, vegetable soup, and pretty much anything else you're willing to offer him.

Another new thing Cooper has done in the past couple of weeks is he's FINALLY started clapping! I don't know how long we've tried to get him to do this, but one day he just decided he was ready to stop watching us do it and start doing it himself. He also likes to play "patty cake" and he'll clap his hands if you start singing it. JuJu, Pops, and Beck have taught him a little sign language at grandparent daycare. He knows how to say "more" and does it ALL the time when he's eating. It's so fun to see him communicate with us and we actually understand what he's saying!

We measured Cooper's weight and length right around the time he turned 10 months, and according to our measurements, he weighed 22.6 lbs. and is 30 1/2 in. long.

A few more facts about 10 month old Cooper

Still loves books
Loves to watch Mickey Mouse and Little Einsteins
Loves to be chased
Wants to get his little hands on Bailey so bad
Loves looking at pictures around the house
Still the sweetest, cutest little boy we know

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Baby's First Christmas

Cooper's 10 month birthday is today, and I just realized I never made a post about his first Christmas. I could just go on and on about our busy few days, but I will make it a little more enjoyable and just recap Christmas through pictures! :)