Dad...get my cape!

I found this swim suit online for Cooper.  I'll be honest - it looks just as cute in person.

Sadly, the logo started to crack and peel shortly after we got in the water.  I was frustrated (considering the cost), but realized that Cooper just isn't cut out to be Superman.  He's more of an Incredible Hulk in a Superman suit.

One fish, two fish...

Since my mom has a swimming pool I jumped on the chance to put Cooper in swim lessons this summer.  I know he won't learn much but I wanted to feel comfortable with him being in the pool.  Plus, I want to be comfortable with myself when he's in the pool and actually enjoy the time.  I also don't want him to be afraid of the water.

Kelly mentioned a few months ago that she wanted Eileen to take lessons for similar reasons.  We were both excited that the local Y offers a "mommy & me" class and they take kids as young as Cooper.  Our two are the youngest in the class, by far, but they are also the cutest boy and girl there!!

24 weeks old!

This week we've been busy!  Cooper and Eileen are taking swim lessons at the YMCA so I've been leaving work a bit early to pick him up and head to class.  We didn't take his photos until later that night and I worried he'd be in a fussy mood...but he ended up having a ball.

The tiger moves stealthily through the jungle...

This outfit is probably one of my top five faves.  I bought it because I've been calling him my little man since the beginning.  Plus I love the way the blue just makes his eyes sparkle.  Or pop.  Whatever is less girly... :-)

Give me a steak momma!

Cooper got his first tooth Tuesday!!  That night as we sat down to nurse before bed he was being pretty fussy.  I figured it was gas so we gave him a little Mylicon.  But it just didn't help.  Finally I decided to just check his mouth...on the off chance that this time I could feel something.  And feel something I did!  Not just a nub under the gum...I felt a full on tooth cut through the skin.  No wonder he was crying.  Poor baby.

We gave him a little tylenol and rubbed some orajel on the gums and waited for them to kick in.  In the meantime, he cried.  And cried.  And cried.  Hard.  If someone had walked by they would have thought I dropped him off of the table.  He would just stare at me and cry with this "momma help me" look.  Pretty helpless feeling.  Finally he started to settle down and finished dinner before crashing.  He slept most of the night only waking up once.  I let him nurse a bit and we all got a little more sleep before starting the day.

He's been pretty good overall.  I've given him a little tylenol a few times since then for fussiness at night, but his teachers say that he's been great during the day.

Looks like the little guy is ready to blow right past the pureed food and chew on a steak.  For now, I'll stick with waffles.

Such a boy...

Coop's new favorite thing is the remote control.  We caught him trying to escape my lap and grab it Saturday morning.  He'd be a little more successful if he could crawl.

I'm also excited to say that we all survived the first night away!!  Lin picked Cooper up from school on Friday and they spent the evening together.  We had lined her up to go with us to the game and take him home from there so we could sleep in Sunday, but her plans changed.  She still wanted to keep him overnight, though.  I will say that I was extremely nervous Friday.  We've been going through a growth spurt causing him to wake up around 3am.  The issue is that he's been hungry and has only wanted me.  We go through a snot-slinging cry and finally he settles down when I feed him.  I first thought he was teething, but toward the end of the week I'm sure it was a growth spurt.  I think I told Lin 47 times Friday that if he did that I'd come get him overnight.  Instead he slept until about 4:30, ate half of a bottle and went back to sleep!  I was so proud.

((he did trick me the next night by getting up at 3am again to eat.  he was this ( ) close to having Lin move in!))

Go Stros!!

Jason and I intended to take Cooper to his first Astros game for Father's Day, however we were given some tickets by a friend for this past Saturday.  It's hard to pass up Club Level tickets, so we headed to the game with Beth & Rachel.

Cooper had a great time - he loves being nosey.  After looking around and checking things out, he grabbed a quick nap in my lap before the 7th inning stretch.  Unfortunately the Astros lost (man we need some help this year) but that's ok - we're still fans!

Birthday Party Overload

We've helped celebrate 4 birthdays in May.  Wow.  This weekend we wrapped up the Birthday Party Mania by celebrating with Reagan at Pump It Up and Oliver at Gymboree.  Cooper is a little too young to really enjoy either place, but Jason and I got in a little play time ourselves with our friends.

Gymboree is a little more baby-friendly, but it's still hard since Cooper isn't quite sitting up on his own.  We're SO close, but just not quite there.  Shannon helped him out and I realized that I need to get some balls for this house.  He lunged out of our laps looking for the balls.

And I'm slightly disappointed to report that I went to 2 birthday parties and had zero cake.  I'm still confused about that one.

23 Weeks Old

We've been busy recently and it's been harder and harder to find time to blog.  I can't remember much of what happened last week, so it must not have been stellar.

Cooper is a belly sleeper.  Most mornings I find him on his belly and twice this weekend I put him down for a nap and he slept great on his belly.  I can't blame - before he was in the way I loved sleeping on my stomach!  This morning I saw him on the monitor and he was on his stomach, sideways in the crib!  He had to scrunch up a little since he's longer than the crib is wide.  So cute.

Here are a few photos from last week.  My goal for this week is to try and post his weekly photo only 1 day late.  Wish me luck.

A busy weekend!!

This past weekend we headed north to Ft. Worth for Joe's birthday party.  Cooper had his first (and maybe last) hotel visit during the trip.  Jason and I both decided that Saturday was the worst day ever with him.  So to all of my friends who have spent the last five months hating me because my kid slept and didn't cry, you can now stop.  It's over.  We're teething and boy is he a bear!  I told him Sunday morning that if he didn't shape up I was going to list him on eBay for $1.  ((that way Aunt Sassy could afford to buy him))

On the outside, Saturday didn't look too bad.  He was great over at Joe's house.  But at the hotel...I feel bad for the guests in the rooms next to us.  He screamed.  He yelled.  He cried.  He arched his back and swatted his hands.  And if he saw me...well, multiply that by 10.  Poor Jason - Cooper wanted nothing to do with him.  The baby did not feel good!  Sunday he must have felt better, but that night was brutal. We were up at 12:30, 1:15, 3:45 & 5am.  I spent yesterday compiling photos for my eBay listing, but last night was better.  So no need to place bids...yet.

We did have a great visit with friends who we don't get to see often enough and I think the kiddos all had a fantastic time at the party.  I know I did!  Jess is a brave woman though.  She had three other families staying with them that weekend (if you count her parents).  So let's see...8 adults and 5 kids.  Make that 10 adults and 6 kids after we showed up.  Can we say noise???

Cooper munched on his first frozen waffle.  Apparently it's a good teething trick.

The kids played on Joe's new swing set.

And drove the forklift.

Cooper decided he likes to swing.

Joe shared his grandma so that Cooper could nap.

And (shockingly) we managed to get everyone on the stairs for a photo op.

22 Weeks Old

I know I'm WAY late with this.  Cooper will be 23 weeks tomorrow and I'll have to do this all over again.  I have a few reasons for being so far behind.  I'm busy.  Ok, that's only one but still.  I'm busy.  Last week was a bit odd.  Not boring, but not overly eventful.  I worried earlier last week that Cooper was getting sick since he woke up Tuesday morning having spit up in the crib overnight.  Then he tossed his cookies two more times that morning.  However, everything was fine and it didn't happen again.

We did have a week full of wardrobe malfunctions.  That kid came home almost every day in new clothes!  We started apples last week so that was a contributing factor.  Add that to the fact that I thought he may be teething (more on that later) and I did a lot of laundry last week!  We nixed the apples and went up a size in the diapers to hold it all in and so far everything gone well.  I did come home Sunday night and put 5 containers on the counter to soak clothes in Oxyclean!!

Oh, we did decide to stop the swaddle at night.  Instead of weaning Cooper, we went cold turkey.  Last Friday night we put him to bed with no swaddle and were both shocked when he slept all night!  He is a very restless sleeper and rolls from his back to his side, but most nights I've turned on the monitor to see him sleeping on his side.  Seriously, there is nothing cuter than a baby sleeping on their side.  At least, that's my current top cute thing.  And it's really funny that when we put him in the crib he likes to stretch out - his arms go from one side to the other.  My big boy!  The keyboard has been removed because Jason caught him pulling on it one morning.  I have a feeling the bumper is going to come out soon also...

Here are some photos from last week.

Some days you can only laugh...to keep from crying.

It's been one of those weeks, however I won't go in to detail.  Today, though, I reached the point where things have to go uphill because really...it can't get much worse.

I needed to leave early to get gas, drop Cooper off and then run back home to leave the car seat and base so that my mom could get them before picking him up this afternoon.  In the process of getting gas, I hear Cooper grunting.  The poop-grunt.  And for the record, this would have been the second one of the day!  ((I may rethink this whole sold food thing!!))  So I'm already slightly embarrassed to drop him off at daycare with a full diaper, but I'll live.  I mean - what's the protocol for this?  Change him in the car?  Go back home?  Be mom of the year and drop him off poopy? 

I went for the last one and when we get to daycare I checked him over to find no poop.  Oh, it was in the diaper - but we'd had nothing leak out.  Score!!  ((side note: he's been coming home in new clothes quite a bit recently so I'm thinking we need to go up a size in the diapers and I'm going back to the more expensive Huggies.  I'll sacrifice $0.04 per diaper to avoid washing clothes every single day.))  I walk in slightly embarrassed to hand him over full of poop...only to see it all over his legs!!!  And then I look down and it's all over my hip.  I must have squished it all out when I put him on my hip.  OMG WTF Cooper?  Seriously?

So there I am having gone from slight embarrassment to full on mortification.  I mean, what the heck is the protocol for THIS?  He's got poop everywhere.  I have poop everywhere.  Runny, bright yellow/green poop.  Fortunately his teacher passed him off to the other teacher and handed me a wet rag.  She felt really bad for me, but I was able to wipe most of it off.  I, on the other hand, felt horrible for leaving him covered in poop...but Cooper didn't seem to mind.  He kept laughing.  Thanks kid.

I finally walk out and check the car seat (which is poop-free) and head home to change and drop off the car seat...only to get flustered in the process and forget the car seat!  Fortunately I was on the phone with my mom so I turned around again, dropped it off and then drove through the dry cleaners with my poop covered shirt in a bag, a quick "I'll get it at 6" and a prayer that the stain comes out.  And that they don't ban me for life for dropping off a shirt that really smelled of baby poop.

I really did laugh about the whole thing.  Right after I died from embarrassment.  Mom actually suggested I just drop the car seat at the daycare since it's right next to the dry cleaners.  She caught herself right as I screamed "I cannot step foot in there!"

Guess who is dropping Cooper off tomorrow...his daddy!

Happy Mother's Day & 5 Months Old

Mother's Day happened to coincide with Cooper's 5 month birthday.  We started the day by going to church and then headed to Hermann Park for lunch.  Cooper loves being outside and laughed just looking up at the trees.  We ate some lunch and then took snapped a few photos.

After he had a little snack, we took off for a walk around the park.  Jason and I have lived in Houston for about 8 years and (embarrassingly) have never really been around Hermann Park.  We've also never been anywhere for a picnic, but I feel like we'll be doing it more often.  It's free and in good weather it's a great way to pass the time.  Cooper napped while we walked through the Japanese Garden (who knew it was there?) and we finally headed home.

I had a great first Mother's Day with my boys and look forward to many more.