Farming is hard work

My Aunt Carla bought Cooper this farm.  He loves it, which means I love it.  It keeps him occupied.  He spins the windmill and plays with the pig & cow and his hands stay there while he eats and not in this mouth.  Meaning sweet potatoes and cereal aren't all over the place.

Last night he fought his evening catnap.  We finally gave up and put him back in the highchair, only to find him passed out mid-farming.  Guess all that farm work is exhausting.

NOW we're eating!

In case you don't know, I decided to make my own baby food.  I made this decision for a few reasons.  1 - I know what's going in the baby food (though really, the jarred stuff only contains the veggie and some water so this is just the reason people give when they don't have a good reason to make their own baby food, in my opinion. Unless you want specific organic type veggies, etc.). 2 - it's cheaper.  Much, much, much cheaper.  For example, the packages at Target cost a little less than $1 and contain 5oz.  Cooper eats about 2oz per day, so 1 package will last a little more than 2 days.  I bought 2 bags of frozen peas for $2 and made 32oz of food.  Cooper is a big boy.  I doubt I'll be able to afford to feed him jarred food!  And my final (and best) reason #3 - I got a shiny new food processor to help me in this process!  (thanks to Cooper's Grandpa & Granna for that)  I wanted a food processor for years.  Seriously.  I asked for it a lot.  And finally it came this past Christmas.  I love it.

The whole baby food making thing is pretty easy.  Steam the food, puree it, freeze it.  I even have a few ice cube trays with lids to keep freezer smells from getting into the food.  It's time consuming, but once we get the hang of it I figure it will be just as difficult as cooking a meal for the 2 of us.

Tuesday we gave Cooper his first solid vegetable - sweet potatoes.  I could eat sweet potatoes every day.  Jason...not so much.  Tuesday night Coop wasn't quite sure what to think.  He was very thoughtful while eating them, but didn't spit any out.  (like you really thought he would??) The last two nights he's been a little more opinionated - he make a bit of a funny face, but keeps on eating.  And last night he was MAD when Jason ran out of the first ounce, thus the reason we decided 2oz was going to be his usual meal.  For now.

A look of anticipation...

First bite

Really not sure what to think

How cute is this?

Sunday we finally got Cooper down for a nap.  My mom rocked him and put him down on the floor in her bedroom to snooze.  I went into check on him and he'd rolled onto his side.

I had to grab a photo.  It was too cute.

Nothing says Texas like Bluebonnets

I've mentioned that most logical reasoning goes out the window when you have a child.  Paying $25 for an Easter Basket for a kid who can't roll over?  No problem.  Paying another $25 for one freaking photo with the Easter Bunny?  You got it.  Freaking out shortly before Christmas because your new child won't have a stocking, so you drive to Hobby Lobby and obsess over stockings AND you end up buying 4 because when you do need that 4th stocking odds are Hobby Lobby won't have it?  Did that.  And don't bring up what might happen if we have twins.  I'll just start over, ok.

So let's talk about bluebonnets.  It's a Texas thing.  And if you have had a child in the state of Texas during the short few weeks that bluebonnets bloom, you know what I'm talking about.  People will pull over on the side if Hwy 290 at all hours of the day to plop their kids in a field of blue and snap some photos.  Can we discuss the fact that 290 is a busy highway?  Especially Easter weekend - it goes from Austin to Houston.  And these same people back out in front of tons of cars speeding down the freeway going well over the speed limit.  That is, unless you happen to pull out in front of a car that slowed down to rubber neck the cute kids in the bluebonnets.  ((I'll not even go there with the people who don't have kids and just take photos of their dogs))

This year when we headed to my mom's for Easter we decided that we would not be like the idiots who cause traffic to back up on 290 by pulling over to the side of the road.  Instead, we'd try to wait until we got to my mom's and find some located on a much less travelled road.  Yeah, well, that didn't happen.  They were there but Cooper's mood was never quite right.  I didn't worry since I planned to go back 3 weeks later.

Then the freaking flowers died!!!  Finding a place to take a pic of Cooper in the bluebonnets was going to be harder than I thought.  We drove around for 1/2 an hour Saturday looking for a great spot only to succeed in getting Cooper to nap.  Finally on the way back to Houston Rachel and I spotted a decent spot next to a drive way.  We were not on 290, so the danger of being "those people" was minimal.  And we managed to snap a few photos and somehow not break the number one rule for having kids in Texas: put that baby in the bluebonnets.

20 Weeks Old

20 weeks.  That's half of a pregnancy.  The point where you usually find out if the little one is going to be team blue or team pink.  That is, if you're a control freak like me and want to find out.

I'm really trying not to take photos of Cooper in the same outfit for his Weekly Photo.  It's becoming more and more difficult.  I really thought we had a ton of clothes.  We do, don't get me wrong.  But since Cooper grew like a weed for the first 4 months of his life (and still is) he's blowing through clothes like crazy!  Some of the smaller stuff was only worn 1-2 times before I had to pack it away.  And I've made it my mission to have his little butt in every single outfit we own at least once. 

Hold on...I got this.

Even if it is a long sleeve sweatsuit in the middle of July.  I promise to blast the A/C.

19 Weeks Old

Wednesday morning Cooper and I set out on a new adventure.  Single parenting.  It lasted one day.  :-)  Jason left early that morning for his annual camping trip - a long weekend full of canoes, fish, poker and a little beer.  Just a little.  My goal for the week was to take a long hot bath.  HA!  I really wanted to put Cooper to bed Wednesday night and soak in the tub with a glass of wine.  Instead, he stayed up a little later than normal and I ended up helping my mom with her research paper.  I learned one thing - there is a reason I didn't go back to school. 

Thursday I had to work late, so it was a Cooper & Aunt Sassy night.  I ended up being there later than I planned so the bath was once again out the window.  Then Friday after work I headed to my mom's with my Rachel for the weekend.  Even though I had help in the evening, I had to do the morning routine alone and I missed the help!

Jason took the camera with him so the weekly photos had to be snapped with the video camera.  It has no flash.  The photos came out VERY grainy.

This is currently my favorite outfit for Cooper.  I HAD to have it.  I've been calling him "my little man" since he was days old because he wasn't ever really baby...he was a little man!  I saw this in the store one day and HAD to have it.  It came with a matching bib, but I didn't really care.  The onesie was all I wanted.  Plus, the blue makes his eyes just ooze blue.  I'll have to take photos of him in it again to prove the blueness.

A lesson in the art of the swaddle

If you talk at length with most new parents they will say that the key to getting a baby to sleep is The Swaddle.  Any baby book/website out there will give you a simple cartoon illustration on how to properly swaddle a baby.  And if you're still not sure, you can always watch the nurses at the hospital do it in oh, say 10 seconds flat.  Easy enough, right?

Wrong!!  I mean, really - you can learn how to swaddle a baby by looking a 4-5 cartoon images?  Or watching a nurse who performs that task a mere 567 times a day?  Not so much.  Especially if you are like me and couldn't get out of the bed the first 24 hours.  Jason did take it up on himself to watch the nurses swaddle Cooper as often as possible and to be honest he was quite proficient at The Swaddle.  I'll even go so far as to admit that for the first few weeks he was in charge of that little duty in our house.  I just couldn't get it right.

But that's not the point of this post.  The point I'm trying to make is that when we registered I chose the standard fleece receiving blankets that most of my friends recommended for the swaddle. 

I folded a few up to take to the hospital so that my baby could be wrapped in something other than the standard hospital blanket.  You know, something with character.  Something cute.

They didn't fit.  No matter how we folded that stinking blanket or how much we pulled and tugged and tucked it around Cooper, it just didn't happen.  One wriggle out of him and boom - he was free.  He was just too big.

But that generic, non-cute hospital blanket that shows up in every single photo of a new baby in the hospital?  Yeah, that fit.  The size was just a little different.  And the fabric?  It just stayed stuck.  I searched high and low for a blanket that was of the same size.  I mean every store and every website.  Nothing.  I swear they only make them for hospitals just to trick parents into thinking it will be easy to swaddle that baby when you get home. 

Just so you know, a blanket may or may not have snuck home with us.  And it worked, for a while.  Until Cooper outgrew it.  Fortunately Jason had added something to our registry that I sort of gave the side-eye to.  But I just left it on there since he really liked it.  To be honest, the photo that came with the packaging was a little creepy and not cute.

I am now here to say that blanket was the best purchase ever.  It's huge.  And stretchy.  And so stinking cute when on my kiddo!  We used it every single day and I would not take an overnight trip without it. 

I became so attached to that blanket that I bought another one that was equally cute.  Besides, they come with some awesome hats.  I'm a sucker for baby hats.

We still use them.  Yes, my kid is 4 months old and we still swaddle.  Why?  Because momma needs her sleep and Cooper only sleeps if he's wrapped up tighter than King Tut.

The other woman

Cooper has another woman in his life.  No, I'm not talking about Aunt Sassy.  I'm talking about Eileen, his girlfriend.

A few weeks ago Kelly asked if she could borrow our driveway for a garage sale.  I had no problem and actually jumped on the idea knowing we had something that needed to be sold.  In the end, we both had a lot of stuff and did pretty well.  What was left went to Goodwill and it ended up being a nice Saturday overall.

It also ended up that Kelly's husband was going to be out of town and Eileen's "aunts" were coming over to watch her.  They offered to watch Cooper as well, so I sent him off for a morning date.  According to the girls they did really well together.  Eileen would put her head on Cooper's belly in a loving sort of way.  She also totally flirted with him.  What a little tease.

When we got ready to head home for the day Eileen decided to tell Cooper good bye.  She crawled over and hoisted herself up on the car seat.  Keep in mind that although Eileen is twice Cooper's age he flew right past her in the size department.

This totally cracked me up - he has this confused look that I swear I get from Jason at times.  The one that says "what do you want me to do???"  He did play along nicely until Eileen decided to use her outside voice to talk.  She screamed...he frowned...then he cried and gave me the "momma save me!" look.  It was so adorable I had to laugh at his expense.  Poor guy.  He's going to be pushed around by women his entire life.  I just giggled and said "well, we know who wears the pants in that relationship."

ps: the photos are from Kelly.  I didn't have my camera with me so I ripped them from her blog.

Why walk when you can...

ROLL!

Yep, we rolled over!  I'll admit, it might have been a bit of an accident based on the help of gravity.  But one minute Cooper was one his back and the next - flip, he was on his tummy.  Jason and I were changing the sheets on the crib and had him on his elephant (courtesy of our friend Beth).  He was grunting and growling away, trying without success to get his toes into his mouth.  And voila...we turn our back and he decides to go belly down.  Of course.  It would happen while neither of us were watching.

He's been getting close to going all the way over all weekend.  Somehow his arm seems to get in the way and he doesn't quite make it.  I have a little feeling that since he was off of the elephant when he landed, gravity may have helped him get all the way over, but who cares.

We spent the rest of today trying to capture the roll on the video camera and it didn't happen.  I gave him strict instructions to only flip over again if I were watching or filming.  On the flip side (heehee) this means that he's about to be really mobile.  And the days of leaving him in one place while I go get something are over.

ps: don't judge.  Cooper stayed in his pjs all day.  We intended on going to church and before I could get dressed he had a full on meltdown because he was hungry.  By the time we finished there was no way we could get dressed an out the door.

18 Weeks Old

This week (thankfully) has been a little less eventful than last week.  So, I really only have a few photos to share.

Cooper rocked his Star Wars gear this week and we had a quick lesson on the best movie trilogy every made.  (I'm talking about Star Wars 4, 5 & 6 - not 1, 2 & 3)

Can I get an agent?

Because my kid could totally be a Smurf!  I found these pjs hanging in the closet between the 12 & 18mo stuff.  They are 3-6mo...so I have no idea what happened.  He looked super cute in person.

Then I saw the photos and cracked up because he looks like a freaking Smurf.

Weekend recap full of new toys

This weekend, since Jason was in the attic, I asked him to bring down the exersaucer.  I've seen photos of people on the nest who have kids around the same age and are loving this toy so I figured Cooper would get a kick out of it.

Little did I know...my man isn't quite big enough for it yet.  Poor guy - Jason put him in the seat and he just flopped forward.  Fortunately, I've learned almost all of my parenting tricks on the internet and one of them was to add a little extra something to the seat.  Notice a blue & brown blanket stuffed around the kid?  Yeah, that's to keep him upright.  Hey, it works.

He wasn't quite as fascinated with the toys and I'd hoped thought he would be, but he did enjoy the ability to turn around and view the tv.  Lord have mercy that kid will watch anything that is on.  Aunt Sassy - I'm totally blaming that on you...

Also, this is currently one of his favorite toys.  Mostly because it's usually close to where I am and it's the one I hand him.  The Easter Bunny was kind enough to send it via my mom.  Although I think he'd enjoy it more if he could get the whole thing in his mouth.  Cooper gets a little frustrated when he realizes that it's just not going to happen.

PS: a big thank you to Maegan for some hand-me-down toys.  The Bumbo and exersaucer both belonged to Jett.  I was really hesitant to get a Bumbo since Cooper seems to carry his weight in his thighs, but so far so good.  And those stinking exersaucers are $$$!  Man.

Happy 4 Months!!

Oh my goodness, where has the time gone??  This baby big boy is 4 months old?  Good grief.  I keep telling myself that I need to quit looking forward to new stages - the rolling over (yes, we're still not quite there yet), the unassisted sitting...which leads to the top of my list of things I can't wait for: sitting in the grocery cart!! Really, though, I need to quit.  If I keep doing that then I'll end up getting to those phases and thinking that I want the little baby back who couldn't move and who could just curl up in my lap.

 

In the last month we've really settled into a routine.  Most days Jason gets Cooper out of the crib and brings him to bed for breakfast.  I've mastered feeding him while I'm lying down - awesome.  I can't really sleep, though, because he kicks while he nurses.  And because he's so tall, he kicks me right in my incision.  Nice Coop - you're the reason it's there!!  I try to scoot away from him and he'll end up scooting closer.  I do enjoy it though.  After he finishes nursing we snuggle a little before I jump out of bed in a failed attempt to avoid running late.  I really try to get up and get moving because I also love the time we get to play while I pump and change his clothes.  95% of the time he's in a great mood, laughing and playing.  He obviously thinks his mom is a riot. 

Last week was a bit rough for all of us, though.  First Cooper was sick.  Then they moved his 4 month check-up to Thursday.  Since I left early Monday to run him to the doctor, I really didn't need to leave work again so Jason stepped in.  And Jason wound up sick, so Friday he stayed home from work to try and rest up.   

This look cracks me up!

So, in the last month Cooper has started doing some new things:

• he found his toes, but can't get them anywhere close to his mouth.  Grabbing the toes also causes him to roll to his side, but not all the way over.
• he can bring his hands together, grab stuff...and bring both his hands and the stuff into his mouth
• he found his thumb.  This is one thing we're still not happy about.  I swear I pulled that thumb out 33 times Wednesday night.  And the little fart knows he's doing something wrong.  He's very sneaky about getting it in also.
• he started lifting his head up when he's on his belly and actually enjoys tummy time...a little
• we're pretty well doing cereal daily - which he loves!!
• he's finally becoming a fan of the Bumbo