1/2 a year!

Well, here we go again...I haven't made a post since Cooper was 5 months old, and now he's a week and a half away from being 7 months old.  I guess it's still not too late to talk about my favorite 6 month old though. 

The 1/2 of a year mark started on September 10th with his 6 month photo shoot.  I must say it was by far the hardest month yet to take pictures of (and yes I know it will just get harder as the months go on).  He was constantly wanting to roll around, eat his hands and feet, look at things other than the camera, jump out of the chair, or pull off his sticker.  I definitely didn't get as many pictures as usual, but some of them still turned out pretty cute!

It's amazing to think how much Cooper has changed in the past month or two.  I feel like he's starting to change form a baby into a little boy.  If he's awake, the kid is constantly moving!  I mean he will roll across the room in a matter of seconds it seems like.  I have a feeling he'll be crawling before too long, and when he does, I think we'll be in trouble because he'll be into everything.  He is definitely sitting up on his own now, and he sometimes gets mad because he'd rather stand or jump.  Check out this video of him jumping last week.  The trim around our door facings are too wide, so the jumper only works down in our basement.  Please excuse Brad's burp in the middle of the video. :)

We still have the happiest baby ever I think.  He laughs and smiles at pretty much everything, and I just love listening to the sound of his laughter.  It's by far the best noise ever!

We took Cooper to the park the weekend before last and he just loved swinging!  Can't you tell....

We took Cooper to his 6 month check-up last Friday, and he got a great report as usual.  He weighs 18 pounds 5 ounces and is 26 3/4 inches long.  She said everything was great with him, and he's right on track where he needs to be, and it actually seems like he's doing things a little ahead of time.  The most exciting part of our trip to the doctor was that Cooper discovered the tissue paper type stuff, and he absolutely had the best time playing with it. After he would shred some of the paper, we would pull off more, and then that would be destroyed in just a minute or two.

Last weekend we got Cooper's 6 month pictures made, and they are by far my favorite pictures we've taken yet!  It was so much fun because Cooper was able to do so much more, and he has so much more personality than he did for his newborn or 3 month pictures.  It's hard to pick, but here are some of my favorites (including the family picture at the top of my blog)....

Cooper is going to be a little monkey for Halloween, and we got a little sneak peek of him in his costume.

Isn't he the cutest little monkey you've ever seen?

A few little facts about Cooper at 6 months:

• He has been taking about 7 ounces of formula, but starting last week he stopped finishing most of his bottles.  Sometimes he'll leave just half an ounce, and other times he'll leave 2 ounces.  The pediatrician acted like this was normal since his body is starting to change and want solids more often.
• He eats cereal mixed with fruit every morning, a fruit and vegetable during the day, and then another fruit and vegetable in the evening.  He LOVES every kind of food he's tried so far....even peas! He is in the Stage 2 foods.  I was trying to make the food for a while, but when I started back to work and my two Master's classes started it pretty much got impossible to add baby food making into the schedule too.  I am planning on making some more food though while I'm off for 2 weeks for Fall Break.
• He wears mostly 6-9 month clothes and 12 month PJs.
• He's still in size 3 diapers.
• He still LOVES to be outside more than anything.  We've decided we're in trouble when it starts to get too cold to go outside all of the time.  We need to go ahead and stock up on warm clothes because I have a feeling we'll be bundling up to go outside a lot.
• He is talking more than ever these days.  His favorite sayings are "Ga-Ga" and "Da-Da".  For a while he was saying "OL-GA" a lot, and we decided that must be his girlfriend.

We love our little guy more and more each day (if that's possible).  He is at such a fun age right now, and I would do anything to stop time for a while.  Cooper is spending his first two nights with my parents (last night and tonight) and we are definitely missing him!  Brad and I were watching videos of him earlier from when he was just 1 or 2 months old, and we don't even remember him being that small.  It's crazy how much time flies.  I can't wait to wake up tomorrow because our little man will be home! :)

5 MONTHS

Well, I'm not surprised that I'm 2 weeks late making this post....school has started back (3 1/2 weeks ago), and I am still trying to adjust to working all day, doing things around the house, and most importantly spending time with my family. 

Cooper turned 5 months old on August 10th, and it seems like he grows and changed everyday. 

Based on our measurements, Cooper is about 15 1/2 pounds.  He's wearing size 3 diapers and is in mostly 6 month clothes.  I did put him in some 9 month onesies this past week, and they fit him pretty good too. 

I feel like in the past month he's really changed when it comes to what he can do.  He is still only rolling over from his belly to his back.  He won't go from his back to belly.  It seems like he really wants to, and his bottom half will roll over, but his top half won't go all the way over.  I think his big shoulder gets in the way, and he doesn't quite know what to do with that arm that gets stuck underneath him. 

In the past couple of weeks he's also been wanting to not sit still.  He wants to sit up, stand, jump, fall backwards...anything but sit still.  I can't imagine what it'll be like once he's mobile.  Once he figures out how to crawl I don't think he'll ever slow down!

He LOVES when you talk to him, and he tries so hard to talk back.  I think he learns to make a new sound everyday, and it's so funny to watch his face when he realizes he did something new.  He's constantly chewing on his hands and feet, and he still LOVES to be outside. 

I don't know what happened over the past few weeks, but Cooper went from sleeping through the night like a rock since he was 6 weeks old to waking up once or twice during the night about 4 or 5 nights a week.  We've been trying to let him "cry it out" but after 30 minutes one of us will go in there and put his pacifier in.  He's not really awake when he does this, and he goes right back to sleep, so I'm not sure what the problem is.  I think he just misses us and wants to see us at 2 am.  :)  A lot of people have told me it could be that he's teething.  We haven't felt any teeth yet, but he does chew on everything and drool a lot.  He has been doing better the past couple of nights, so hopefully he'll get this sleep thing worked out soon.  Because he's had some sleep issues, we figured it was the perfect time to get him out of the swaddle blanket.  We took him out of that and put him in a sleep sack to keep him warm. 

When it comes to eating, he takes about a 6 1/2 oz. bottle about every 3 1/2 hours.  We kind of cut back on the solids during his whole sleeping issue because we first thought the food might be upsetting his stomach.  He was going a few days at a time with pooping, and we blamed it on the food.  Once we let up on the food, it seemed to ease his stomach issues.  For the past few days, we have been bringing solids back into the picture.  As of now, Cooper's eaten applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans, prunes, and bananas.  He's liked everything he's tried so far except he hasn't been a big fan of green beans.  He takes a few bites and acts like he likes them, and then he'll just start spitting them out.  It's so fun watching him try new things.

Just in the past few days, he's been trying to pull up on my legs or the couch pillows.  His legs are still a little too weak to do it all on his own, but he has the whole process down, and he knows what to do.  He's also doing great at sitting up.  We can leave him sitting up by himself for about 2 minutes before he starts kicking, and then he topples over.  We usually put the boppy pillow around him, and he loves to sit up and look and grab at everything.

This may be my most scattered post yet....I feel like I've jumped all over the place, but I wanted to hurry about make this post before he turns 6 months old!  Since I've been back in school, time is flying by even faster.  5 months is such a fun age, and I wish I could stop time right now. 

We had a great 5 month photo shoot and got a lot of cute pictures....

Baby Laughter (the BEST sound ever)

Cooper laughed at his "Aunt" Stacey a lot during our trip to St. Louis the weekend before last.  Stacey got this cute video of Cooper before he went to bed one night!

After Cooper ate his cereal today, he started laughing at the weird noises I was making.  I took a video of him on my phone, and everytime I replayed the video he laughed at it.  It was too cute not to capture it on the video camera too!  Who knew I was so funny?  :)

Lovin' the solids!

We started Cooper on rice cereal 6 days before he turned 4 months.  The pediatrician said this was ok to do, and he was acting like he was starving all the time, so we figured this was the perfect time.  Well, since then, Cooper had his 4 month appointment and the pediatrician told us we could start introducing solids.  The day after his appointment (July 12th) we gave Cooper applesauce, and he LOVED it!  You're probably wondering "where's the picture?" and I can't believe I'm actually saying this but I forgot to take pictures of this!!!!  How in the world did that happen?!?  I was very upset with myself, but I've taken several pictures and videos since then of him eating his applesauce, so I think I've made up for it.

He makes the cutest like "AAAHHH" sound with his mouth wide open when he's waiting for you to stick the spoon in his mouth.  Check out this video we got of him eating his cereal and applesauce yesterday.

He ate his first sweet potatoes on Sunday, and he loved those too!  I DID get pictures this time! :)

It's so much fun watching all of the faces he makes when he tries new food.  I think we'll try something new tomorrow, but I'm not sure what yet. 

I wish there was some instruction booklet for this stuff (and I'm sure there is somewhere) because I feel like we're just kind of making some of this stuff up as we go.  I'm not sure what's best, but I've been giving Cooper a bottle when he wakes up in the morning, and then he'll nap for about an hour or so, and then I'll give him a fruit and veggie (so far it's only been sweet potatoes and applesauce or prunes).  After his afternoon nap, I give him a bottle, and then about an hour or so later I give him cereal mixed with applesauce.  Since he's been trying different foods, he doesn't like just the plain rice cereal anymore so I've got to trick him into eating it! :)  I think the cereal works best in the late afternoon because this is the time when he's the most hungry.  It's worked so far the past couple of days, so I guess we'll stick with it for a while.

140 days

140 days---that's how long I will get to spend at home with my sweet little boy before going back to work next week.  Yes, I went back to school the last 2 days of the year in May, and I went to a couple all day professional development meetings, but other than that, I've been home with my little guy everyday, and I have LOVED every minute of it. Over the past couple of days, it's really hit me that I have to go back to work.  I've been trying to think of what I can do to stay home....win the lottery, ask Brad to get a second job...but then I realize that I don't even play the lottery, and I would sure hate if Brad had to work another job because he'd never be home with us.  So I guess I will suck it up and head off to work next Thursday because I know it's the best thing for all of us....even though I know Cooper would rather have me home everyday! :)  haha

Brad and I are VERY lucky that his parents are going to keep Cooper everyday.  We know he will be in great hands, and we won't have to worry about him at all as we head off to work everyday. 

I also know I am VERY lucky that I have gotten to stay at home for as long as I have. It worked out perfectly that I had Cooper in March, and I was able to stretch my maternity leave out until summer break.  (Thanks to all of my wonderful co-workers who donated days to me, I only had to take a few days without pay!)

I must admit that I am excited to start a new school year with 23 new students, but I know the first few days leaving Cooper will be rough.  It does make it so much better to know that I will have 23 kids at school that are depending on me everyday, and I know it's going to be a great year!  I know Cooper will have a great time with JuJu and Pops everyday (and playing with Beck 3 days a week).  

As the summer comes to an end, I am going to enjoy the next 7 days I have at home with my little man.  BUT, for the next 7 days I will also still be secretly hoping I win the lottery or Brad gets a second job...but only because I want to be able to see this face as much as possible...

Cleaning out the cellphone!

Since the day Cooper was born, I have taken at least one picture of him everyday.  Some people probably think I'm crazy with the camera, but I'm pretty proud of myself that I can say I have a picture of everyday of Cooper's life so far.  I TRY to take at least one picture or video on my phone everyday to send to the grandparents.  I cleaned out my phone today, and I realized I have a lot of cute pictures and videos that haven't been seen, so I wanted to share some of these! Sorry...I had a hard time picking my favorites, so I attached A LOT of pictures and several videos!  Oh, and sorry some of the videos are sideways...I don't know how to flip them! :)