Talk to me...

Here is my first video post.  Man it takes a long time to download!  Ignore my "baby voice."  Enjoy!!

Happy 2 months!!

Look mom he's wearing shoes!!

Spring Break

Once again it has been too long since I have posted.  Before I get to the details of spring break, here is a picture we took of Cooper at 5 weeks with a 5 day old baby from church.  He looks huge!!

Clay took the youth group skiing at Wolf Creek the first half of spring break so Cooper and I camped out at Nana's.  It was good to see my family and spend a couple of days with my mom.  Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures.  On Sunday night we spent time with my family.  I spent a few days working with my mom at her convenient store.  On Tuesday Cooper spent the day with Grandma Jane so that I could work.  He did great and she LOVED keeping him. (Sidenote: My grandma Jane was in a car wreck today.  She is fine but a little shook up.  If would be nice if you could keep her in your prayers.  After seeing the Jeep we are very thankful she walked away with just a few bruises.)  Cooper celebrated St. Patrick's day (aka Tricia's birthday) in green.  Ignore the spit up....

Serious face...

Half smile...

Big smile...

Nana trying to get some work done...

Hanging out in the pack 'n play while mom works...

Cheesing for the camera...

Sleepy baby - Dad thought this was funny...

We celebrated my birthday on Friday.  Here was Cooper's birthday cake to momma...

Hurrying to take a family photo before the wax melts...

Eating at Chili's for mommy's 25th birthday and Cooper's 7 week birthday...

Against my demands, Clay had them sing Happy Birthday to me.  Paybacks are coming in April...

Clay knows the way to my heart - molten chocolate dessert.  I did not share...

My baby is 7 weeks old!

The cute outfit Nana got him.  I tried to get him to set up but he kept lunging his head forward.  

I finally gave up and laid him down so I could get the whole outfit.  He found his tongue last week.  He is rolling it here.  He sticks it out and will imitate me when I stick it out at him.  

He loves taking a "big boy bath" in the real bathtub.  His arms and legs were hanging out of his baby bath tub.  He likes to be able to kick and splash the water in the tub.  He loves his bath until he has to get out.  But don't we all hate getting out of the tub after a nice warm bath?

Cooper did NOT sleep well the 4 nights we were at my mom's.  Even though we took the whole house (swing, bouncy seat, bassinet, humidifier etc.) so that he would be sleeping where he is use to he still knew something was not right.  One night I slept in a recliner holding him because that was the only way he would stay asleep!  The day he was 6 weeks old (the night before we left for my moms) he slept 6 hours straight!  I thought it was a fluke after being at my moms.  However, since we have been home he has slept for 6 hours the first stretch of the night.  He will then wake up to eat and then go back to sleep for 3-4 hours and then ready to eat again.  It is SO NICE!  If only I would go to bed when he does I could have the entire 6 hours but I always end up staying up for a few hours.  He has to be swaddled to sleep.  He is such a mover that if we lay him down asleep within 10 minutes he will wake himself up by moving his arms and legs.  We didn't swaddle him the first 3 weeks or so and started after some friends loaned us the 'Happiest Baby on the Block' video.  He also talks and whimpers in his sleep.  I have to look at him to see if his eyes are open to know if he is awake or not.  He has started taking naps during the day in his crib and soon I am going to start transitioning him to sleep in his crib at night.  That will be a sad day for me!

He is really talking, cooing, smiling, and laughing.  He is happiest in the morning when he first wakes up.  He didn't get that from me because I am NOT a morning person!  I am hoping to upload a video soon so you can watch him in action.  He's growing up quick....

I got a big one!

5 weeks....

Tuesday thru Thursday of last week Cooper went through a growth spurt.  I have heard that babies go through growth spurts around 3 and 6 weeks.  So far Cooper has had one at 2 and 4 weeks.  He was eating every 2 hours around the clock for 3 days and 2 nights.  That makes it rough for night time and planning the day.  My body actually handled it better than expected, or better than the first growth spurt.  I put him in this onesie to commemorate the occasion.  

Cooper turned 5 weeks old on Friday.  We celebrated by going to school where I work and watching the kids perform Aladdin the musical.  They did a great job and they all loved getting to see Cooper.  I sure miss all of my kids at school but I still wouldn't trade being with them for being with Cooper!  We took his 5 week picture in his OU onesie (thanks Jennifer and Melinda!).  At the rate he is growing I know he won't be able to wear it long!  Boomer Sooner!
As I mentioned last post he is starting to smile.  My camera has a delay on it so it is hard for me to capture a smile.  Here are several attempts I made.  I got a few half smiles but not a big one yet.  Believe me I will post it as soon as I capture one!!

This face cracks me up!  This is his "I'm about to get angry face."  He doesn't really cry much, he whimpers.  The only time he cries is when we don't get to him fast enough when he is whimpering which doesn't happen very often.  He will close one eye and raise his upper lip.  I thought I would want to photograph this to show him when he gets older.  
Last night we went to Spring Sing at OC.  He loved watching Delta and Theta!  He stayed awake for the first part of the show and then fell asleep for the last half.  It was so loud in there at the end of the show that he put his finger in his ear!  Maybe it was coincidence but I have never seen him do that before.  We went to the Saturday night show which started at 8pm.  Add in the fact that we lost an hour last night and we were in bed by 1:45am only to get up for a 5am feeding and then again at 7am to get ready for church.  I was not as tired as I had expected to be with that lack of sleep.  God wanted us to have energy for church this morning! Here is Cooper with Lauren....
And Brooke!!  We were so glad that we got to see her last night and meet Jonathan.  Cooper hopes to see them again soon!
I took these pictures after church today.  I just LOVE this outfit.  I have been waiting for him to be able to wear it.  It really brings out his blue eyes.  I think it is so sweet!
A few last attempts to catch a smile on camera.  This is as close as I'm going to get for now....

Out with the old in with the new!

For those of you who don't know, Clay and I live in a house owned by the church where Clay works.  It is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom nearly 2000 square foot house built in the 70's.  We have done quite a bit of work on the house in the nearly 4 years we have lived here.  They include painting, taking off and painting all trim, painting cabinets, new carpet, new tile, new hardware etc.  As seen in the pictures below, the house still has the original stove, oven, and hood from when the house was built.  The tiny oven worked but it didn't cook thoroughly.  (Ex. When baking blueberry muffins the bottoms would burn and the tops would not be cooked or vice versa.)  The stove had 4 burners - 3 small and 1 large.  Only 2 of the small ones worked.  A gracious couple from our church noticed the appliances before we even lived there.  They donated money to replace them!!  Here are the before pictures:

And here are the after pictures!  Notice in the original pictures that the stove and over were separate.  In the new pictures the stove and oven are in one piece which meant the area where the original oven was has been converted to cabinets and the cabinets below the stove were cut out to make room for the new oven.  


We LOVE our new appliances!  It is great to have water boiling in 5 minutes instead of 20!  We are so thankful!

Catching up....

I have a lot of catching up to do!  Here is a quick look at the last three weeks.

Uncle Cale, Aunt Annika, and cousin AJ came up from Killeen, TX to meet Cooper

Daddy gave Cooper his first bottle while Mommy went to play bunco.  He has had a bottle a few times and has taken very well to it. 

Sleeping peacefully....

With Uncle Todd wearing the "My Uncle Kicks Butt" onesie he bought for Cooper.

Four generations of family......

He's a wiggler!

My sleeping boys....

Our family at the Titan Pageant.  Congratulations Emily Ms. Titan 2009!

First mohawk - of course daddy did it!

Getting use to his swing....

4 weeks old - My baby is growing!

Look at that smirk.  It cracks me up!

I love his big blue eyes!

Cooper's sleeping situation is much better.  He is in bed at least by the 11pm feeding if not before.  He wakes up every 3 hours or so to eat.  He sometimes puts up a fight to go back to sleep but he eventually zonks out.  That is very doable for us!  We are so glad he isn't wide awake in the middle of the night.  He is awake more during the day and starting to smile.  He is overall a very good baby.  He is so much fun!

I LOVE staying home with him right now.  I have back to work on April 20th to finish up the last month of school.  I don't know how I am going to be away from him.  I can't even think about having to go back in August!  I am trying to treasure the time I have with him now and not waste it thinking about how I have to go back to school.  So on a positive note I have a month and a half left at home with him and I'm going to make the best of it!