Dear Cooper,
First off, let me say, you are so flippin' cute. I can't even stand it. I want to bite you (and sometimes I do, but not hard). Okay, now that that is out of the way...
I can't believe you are a one-year-old! Where did the last year go? When I see newborn babies out and about I always say to your dad, "Look at that baby! He/She is so itty bitty! I don't think Cooper was ever that small." But you were. You were tiny and helpless and needed to be held and swaddled and fed all the time. And I loved you. But now you are big toddler and HATE being confined and can feed yourself. And even though I don't know how it's possible, I love you even more..
You went from a blob (a cute, yummy smelling blob, but just a little blob) to a little mobile monster in the blink of an eye. You can walk (for the most part). I mean, you have shoes for crying out loud -- only big kids have shoes! You talk...speaking of which, remember when you used to say "moooooooooom, mooooom, moooooooom," over and over? Why now is it "dada, dada, dada" all day long? You even call me "dada." I think you and your dad have a secret pact or something. Whatever.
You are funny and make car noises, monkey noises, duck quacking noises and have a great vampire laugh. You like to feed me mushy bananas and crackers and I happily eat them.
You bang your forehead against my mouth when you want kisses (LOVE THIS).
You love to read...or love to listen to us read to you. You bring me a book and climb in my lap and lay your head back against my chest, like you are getting comfy for a nice, long book reading session and I love it.
You wait a really long time to do stuff that the stupid screening ladies say you should be doing and then when you start to do it, it's like your saying, "What? Clap? Oh, yeah. I've been able to do that forever. Did I forget to mention that? I can wave, too, watch. Oh, I can even clap to that song you always sing to me, the 'If your happy and you know it' song. Yeah, I've had that down forever. Sorry ma--- I mean dada! Did I forget to let you in on my secret. Whatev."
And, when you know you aren't supposed to do something, you look at me with those big eyes and you make your mouth into this little 'O' shape and stretch your hand out...just waiting for me to say, "No." And when I do you stop...for a second and then try again...and again...and again...and again until you finally win and touch/throw/pull whatever you weren't supposed to touch/throw/pull and get a smug little look on your face that says, "haha, I win." And you do. You win. You always win.
But, that's okay. That's you. You are crazy and perfect. And I love you.
But my favorite thing is when I put you to sleep at night, every night. Just you and me. No 'dada.' You cuddle in and look at me with those HUGE brown eyes and I kiss your head and you smile and I know you love me, too.
With all my love,
Mommy
{itty bitty coop & big, crazy, one-year-old coop}
