Baby Proofing

We have been doing some baby proofing lately. It was time. Lol.

We moved the DVD tower out of his reach because I was getting tired of putting the DVD's away everday. We moved the bookcase out of his area as well. We re-arranged the living room so he his now trapped in the living room... literally!!! It's great!

I just put up a baby gate in the kitchen. So now when I take him into the kitchen he can only go into the kitchen and dining room. I don't have to worry about him going into the foyer to play with the water bowl, pebbles' crate, or going up/down the stairs! I literally JUST put this gate up. He is napping and I know he will be PISSED when he realizes the gate is there! I can see him screaming at it already.

We still need to get about5 more gates... those damn things are expensive though! We just make sure we keep an eye on him at all times when he's near stairs or something else he isn't supposed to be by. I do want to get gates for all the stairs (up and down) at some point though. But right now he's sequestered in one area and can't even get to the stairs LOL. That'll only last so long though. *sigh*

Speaking of stairs. He climbed up the stairs yesterday. Of course I was standing right behind him but it was so cute watching him climb them. Took him about 10 minutes to climb 7 stairs, he kept wanting to go back down but I wouldn't let him! LOL.

The preparations for his first birthday party are coming along smashingly! I ordered all the favors and decorations (oriental trading company rocks!). I have the invites all filled in and just need to mail them out. We cleaned/organized the basement on Saturday so that's all set.

Coop's up. Gotta run!!

We have a toddler

It's official... our baby is walking! Very well I might add. He took his first step on Christmas Eve and less then a month later was walking all over the place. He says "Mama", gives kisses, high fives, claps, points, and signs "milkies".

I've started planning his first birthday party. March 14th btw. It's going to be an Under the Sea theme. I ordered his birthday gifts on Saturday.

He's still not sleeping through the night. Beginning to wonder if he ever will!

He's into EVERYTHING. Loves to pull things out of the kitchen cabinets. We re-arranged the living room so he's trapped in the living room... literally he can not get out! It's great! Lol. It's like HUGE play pen full of toys. Of course when we go anywhere else in the house he goes with us so he does get to explore other areas.

Yesterday we actually left him with a friend so we could go out for Valentine's Day. I of course had a harder time then Cooper did. We got to Janice's around 12:30 and hung out for a while to make sure he was comfy and everything. Of course he was great... tons of new tosy to play with, new things to explore, etc. I tried giving him a kiss good bye and he pushed away from me!!! ;-(( I felt like crying.

Paul and I got some clothe shopping done while he was at Janice's. We also went to dinner at Bahama Breeze... Yum!! And then I got my hair cut before we went to pick him up. Cooper was excited to see us when get went to pick him up but he still wanted to play with all the new toys.

Janice said he did great. Only cried a couple of times and took a good nap for her. I was very happy to hear that!!

Well nap time is over so I gotta go!!! I'll try to write more often!

~Amanda

My BABY is walking

The past week or so Cooper has been taking 3-5 steps when you let go of his hand...

Well, on Saturday night he took 12 steps in a row!!!!! I just keep thinking that it won't be long before I'm running after him.

We're still working on the walking but he is letting go of the couch A LOT more and will walk between dad and I during the "go get daddy/mommy" game...

It is very bittersweet. Such an amazing thing to see him learning so much on his own and so bittersweet to see him taking his first steps toward independence... literally.

Cooper hand-knee crawling

He's finally hand-knee crawling 

More Milestones

These milestones just keep rolling in. In order....

7 months - Cooper reached out for me.

7.5 months - He is "talking" so much.

8 months - He cruised around the furniture.

9 months - He stood unassisted for a few seconds

9.5 months - He said "Mama".

9.5 months (Christmas Eve actually) - He took his first step 

9.5 months - He's hand-knee crawling.

10 months - He stacks large objects.

It's so wonderful to see him grow and learn. The things he is doing amaze me. He's developing so quickly. In 10 short months he went from a blob that did nothing to doing so much. 

A full milestone list - 

1 hour - held head up for the first time
4 weeks - slept in crib
8 weeks - first smile
3 months - slept through the night
10 weeks - first laugh
3 months - first tooth bud (below the gums)
3.5 months - started teething
4 months - stopped sleeping through the night
4 months - rolled over for the first time
5 months 1 week - pushed up on hands
5 months 2 weeks - sat up with little to no support

6 months - started crawling, army crawl
6 months 2 weeks - first tooth popped through

7 months - Cooper reached out for me.

7.5 months - He is "talking" so much.

8 months - He cruised around the furniture.

9 months - He stood unassisted for a few seconds

9.5 months - He said "Mama".

9.5 months (Christmas Eve actually) - He took his first step 

9.5 months - He's hand-knee crawling.

10 months - He stacks large objects.

Coop's sleeping issues

  

That's how I feel about every night in our house. I know Irish just posted about Gus not wanting to go to bed... well that isn't exactly our issue. 

Coop will go to bed fairly easily. I say "fairly" because most nights he's in his crib asleep within 20 minutes... some nights it takes longer, but not usually. However!

At least FOUR times a week we (mostly me since Paul works) are up with Coop for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night. Cooper never really wakes up though. He is tossing and turning, squirming, head butting, kicking, moaning, groaning, etc. But NEVER even opens his eyes! We co-sleep about 30% of the time, but that has become impossible... I ended up with bruised ribs from him kicking me and just the other night he busted my lip with a head butt     I have braces so it is easier to bust my lip, but it hurt like hell! 

I'm grasping at straws to try to figure out what's going on with him. At first I thought it was from the puff things we started letting him eat so we stopped that over a month ago but it's still happening. I have noticed that after about an hour he will start passing gas, lots of gas. So I'm wondering if it's just intestinal gas, hence the squirming and moaning. 

He's still eating 3 times a night, I have NO problems what so ever with that. It's the being up for 1-2 hours with him. If I put him down during his squirming/moaning he starts screaming and then really does wake up and it takes even longer to get him back down. So I've resorted to either sitting in the glider with him or taking him to bed with me, that's where the bruised ribs and busted lip come in... that's how much he's squirming! 

I feel so          

Happy New Year - Starting out sick...

I haven't actually blogged about Cooper in a while, just posted pictures. So here's a Cooper blog... 

Coop had a wonderful Christmas. He got so many nice things for Christmas and is enjoying ever single one of them. Thank you to those of you that sent presents - clothes, toys and everything else are fabulous. 

On Christmas Eve we went to Fay and Jerry's for family fun. Cooper got some sweaters, a cute outfit and a wonderful book. 

Christmas morning we got up around 8 and Cooper opened his stocking first. In his stocking he found wooden sea animals, a rain stick, rattle and finger puppets. After he opened his stocking we had a wonderful Christmas breakfast. When breakfast was done Cooper began his present opening frenzy. This frenzy ended one nap and 5 hours later... hehe. He had so much fun ripping the paper off of his gifts. He had to taste EVERY present before and after it was opened. I wasn't aware of this, but apparently wrapping paper tastes F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S!!! 

We spent the rest of Christmas day relaxing in our jammies. We watched Coop's new movie - Horton Hears a Who... what a wonderful movie! I recommend that everyone watch it! 

On New Years Eve we had a playdate with some friends and then Cooper proceded to get sick. He was perfect that morning and he played played played his little heart out. 

In the afternoon he had 2 very loose bowel movements that were full of mucus, literally clear slimey mucus. But was still acting/playing okay. As we were leaving to go to Paul's sisters for NYE he started getting a little fussy, we chalked it up to him being tired and he slept the whole way there. 

By the time we got to Beth's he had a slight fever   We talked about going home but he kept right on playing, no fussies, crabbies, nothing. He did have another runny, mucusy diaper. That's 3 poopy diapers in one day... from a kid that usually goes every other day. And OMG does it stink!!! It's a horribly rancid, not a usual "poop" smell. Isn't that a sign of a virus?   I thought I heard that somewhere   And it's green.  

He went to sleep/bed around 8:30ish... past his normal bed time but since we weren't home I didn't really push a bed time on him. We stuck with his milkies, laying in bed together routine (in my nephews room) at 7:30 but he wasn't ready for sleep so we got back up until he fell asleep in my arms on the couch at 8:20 while we were watching Twilight Zone. I took him in my nephews room and he slept there until 11:30. 

Yep, my baby woke up just in time for the New Year!!! He was actually up, he didn't want to go back to bed and since we weren't home I didn't push it. I didn't want to make it more uncomfortable on him being in a new place and everything. So we all rang in the New Year together   It was great to have the whole family there together at that moment. He even toasted with his sippy full of water  

His fever had gotten worse. I didn't have the thermometer and Beth didn't have one but I would guess his temp was 101-102, if not higher. We left Beth's house shortly aftrer 12:30. We were going to stay the night but decided with him being sick to just go home (neither one of us did much drinking and had stopped well before 12 so we felt comfy driving). We got home a little after 1 and worked on getting Coop in bed. He pooped AGAIN, same awful smell and green color. He was finally settled in his crib around 3. But was back up at 4. We got him asleep and back in his crib around 5 and he got up for good at 8:30. 

He had a fever all night. 

He doesn't seem to have a fever today, but has pooped his smelly green poop 3 times already today.We keep pushing milkies on him and water to make sure he doesn't get dehydrated, so far so good! 

 We are firm believers that diarhhea, fevers, runny noses, etc are the bodies natural way of ridding itself of infection so we are not worried about him at all. His body knows exactly what it needs to do to make him better and is working on it as we speak! 

I hope 2009 treats everyone fabulous!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!