Coopapotamus

A few weeks ago the hubs and I headed to Santa Monica for an adult only "staycation" [this is not my word, this is something I stole from one-eyed wonder). After a great night of sushi followed by a nice little wine bar, the hubs and I had a fabulous breakfast and headed to the farmer's market. There we found Jackapotamus, these oh-so-cute baby tees and onsies. We decided to throw down $16 for this organic cotton teaddy bear skull & crossbones tee for little man. It's so cute, I love it! Granted, Cooper is 7 months old and this tee is sized at 18 months old. But, Coop's big, the shirt is still a little big on him. They have some really fun designs. I personally like the one that says "Punk." It maybe my next purchase! If I had a girl, I'd be all over this Breakfast at Tiffany's tee, too.

That's my binky

A couple weeks ago, we were at a friend's house as was Coop's best bud Landon. They are kinda getting to an age where they are interacting, but mostly on accident. Landon usually tries to grab Cooper's face [so cute] and Cooper seems confused by the whole thing. That's because Lando's 6 weeks older and has more stuff figured out. Even though they don't actually "play" we sit them in front of each other, which we find entertaining.

Note the binky in the video. It's not Cooper's, but he seems to be intrigued by it. I love how it ends up in Landon's mouth by the end. The community binky!

Crawling is so last week

So, last Saturday Coopie started to crawl. My mom asked me if I was sad, because up until now every milestone he hits or pound he gains makes me realize I'm never going to get those tiny baby moments back. I've been know to shead a tear or two [or sob, but whatever]. But, the crawling didn't make me sad because it was so exciting. This is definitely the best age. He's cute, cuddly and super fun. He laughs when I tickle him like it's the best thing he's ever experience in the whole wide world and it melts my heart every time. But I digress...

Anyway, the day before yesterday, while sitting on my lap, baby Coop decide to to pull himself into a standing position using the toy music center, that's bigger than he is and sitting in front of us, to hold on to. This was exciting and scary. He was so proud of himself, looking back at me like, "Look what I just did, Mom!" But, this meant we were going to have to move the crib mattress down another notch [didn't we just do that a few weeks ago when he started sitting] and a realization that the crawling phase was going to go quickly. So, I was back to being sad when my baby boy starts to move ahead faster than I want him to or am ready for. I haven't had enough time to soak in the crawling, slow down, kid!

So, last night, I'm telling the hubs that we need to move the mattress down, he tells me I'm crazy, no way he's going to pull himself up, and if he does, no way he can fall out of the crib. Literally, right then, we look at the monitor and he's standing in the crib, holding onto the sides [yay for video monitors]. I RUN up the stairs to find this:

The hubs conceeds and at 8:30 p.m. we are moving his mattress down a notch. Now for the best part, as we are doing this, the hubs tells me that a guy from work just told him how their kid fell out of the crib because they didn't move the mattress down!

Me: Wait, you just had this conversation with Mike at work and he told you that his kid FELL OUT OF THE CRIB and you still didn't think Coop could do it?

Hubs: Well, he said his kid was fine and I still don't think Cooper could get himself over the rail.

Me: He has a big, heavy head! I don't think he's going to throw a leg over or anything, but he's going to lean over and that noggin is going to take him down and then, thud.

Hubs: Okay, okay.

I still theink we need to go down one more notch on the mattress, however, because this morning, when he decided not sleep for his morning nap, I went in to find this:

Please note that his mellon is higher then the top rail and he's only on his knees. What am I going to do with you, Chupie! :)

Babyfood Making Day

Sunday was baby food making day for the Coopster. I busted out the BabyCook and the organic peaches and apples I bought the day before [BTW, four organic peaches and four organic apples cost me about $10. Good thing it'll take him two weeks to eat it all]. I went to work steaming the peaches and apples, separately of course, and peeling the skin from the warm fruit, just like the baby cook book said to do. Yes, I have a baby cookbook, two in fact. Of course, I had to taste these tasty treats to make sure they were good enough for my little monster. It turned out so good! I told the hubs that we should steam the fruit and then put it over ice cream, YUM! The apples reminded me of apple pie and the peaches tasted like some kind of dessert tart. No wonder you are supposed to feed kids veggies before fruit. If I ate peaches first, I'd probably never eat peas either!

And he's mobile

So, This weekend was the official beginning to the end...Cooper has started to crawl. He is mobile. It is now 100 times more difficult to get dressed AND watch him in the morning. Check it out for yourself. This is from Saturday, when he finally figured out how to move his arms to go forward.

Now, just a few days later, he's a machine and getting around like nobody's business. Of course, he only crawls to objects that he wants that are out of his reach. He's not exploring yet or crawling to me, but I know that's coming soon enough. Right now, his favorite thing to check out is the dog bed in our room. I just know one day I'm going to find him curled up in there. Gross.

Trip to Costco

A month's worth of Similac Advance Early Shield formula = $112.00
206 Huggies Snug & Dry Diapers = $41.00
1,000 Huggies Wipes = $24.00
Having Happy Kick, Kick Cooper as your shopping companion = Priceless

Sorry for the poor quality video and no sound, it was shot on my phone...but look how happy he is!

Better Late then Never -- NYC

Yes, I know this is late, but at least it's here now!

A few weeks ago we were in New York for a biz/visit with family trip. We took the red eye from LAX to NYC. Coop woke up as soon as we got to the airport and I got worried. Then we got on the plane and he started to cry and the guy sitting in the next row asked the flight attendant for ear plugs and I really started to worry that this wasn't going to go well. But, come on, this is Cooper we are talking about! He fell asleep within 10 minutes and slept curled up on my lap the whole way. Best baby EVER! :)

In New York we spent lots of Time with Grandma and Grandpa B, Uncle John, Uncle Steve and Aunt Kristy. We played, went to the park and visited Great Grandpa John in Long Island. Cooper was a trooper through the long car rides and time changes. Gotta love this kid!

We also got to see Coop's Colorado peeps -- Brody and his mom Pam and dad Jed as well as the rest of the NY crew -- Billy, Dave and TJ for a BBQ at the lake house. Next time we go back Coop will actually be able to eat something that Dave, TJ and Billy cook up! Much love to our NYC family and friends! Can't wait to see everyone again in August.

I'm a big boy now!

Yes, my updates lately have been too few. May was busy! We've had many visits by family members, a trip to NYC, a mini-trip for mommy and daddy to Santa Monica and lots and lots of work. And, somehow the plane trip back from NYC put Cooper's development on fastforward. Anyone who knows me knows that with every milestone he meets I'm both excited and sad, so when he decided to do a bunch of stuff at one time, I was overwhelmed. Here's a recap.

1. Coop started eating. The boy loves to eat. They say it takes a few times for them to get the hang of swallowing food and having the new taste and textures in their mouth. Not Coopie...the first time he totally got it.

2. He is a sitting machine. He can go from belly to sitting like nobody's business. So much so that it is now unsafe for him to be in his bouncy chair because he can use his massive baby ab muscles to sit up.

3. He's so close to crawling. He's up on all fours, he's rocking back and forth, he's so close and gets so mad when he can't go forward.

4. He can hold his own bottle. He also drinks water out of a sippy cup. It's all too much!