Hi Easter Bunny

Saturday Coop and I headed to the mall (naturally) to meet up with his buddy Landon and his mom Tonia and get pictures with the Easter Bunny. When Coop first sat on the Easter Bunny's lap, he started to cry. Luckily he's easily entertained and when the photographer started to wave a stuffed animal around, he snapped out of it. However, he chose not to smile, only to make funny faces with his tounge out in every shot. I just rolled with it and picked the pic that made me laugh the most...

Mommy is a slacker

Okay, apparently mom-ing and work-ing doesn't leave a lot of time for blog-ing. Going back to work has been fun; I enjoy being busy, love being back with my peeps and there's a lot of fun stuff going on. However, it's made me a slacker in every other aspect of my life...haven't worked out in 3 weeks, been eating poorly since going back to work and no blog posts or Shutterfly updates. I'm so tired when I get home from work, but I know if I fit in just a little exercise and eat even a little better, I'll have more energy for everything. Today's a new day and I'm turning over a new leaf!

Uncle Bill (a.k.a. Finchy, Pinchy, the Chimp) came to visit Coop, Pat and I last weekend. We were an extended stop on his way to Denver for a teacher conference (btw, when he got to Denver, there was a huge snow storm. Poor Pinchy). He was very impressed at how relaxed and "chill" the Coop is. Yes, I have the best baby ever. Pinchy can do a great Donald Duck impression and Cooper loved it. Uncle Bill had Coop laughing up a storm. The sound of Coop laughing is the craziest sound ever. If you're not looking at him, you're not sure if he's mad or if he's laughing, but he's usually laughing and it's so awesome. It melts my heart. Below is a really bad video of Uncle Bill and Coop. We (read: Patrick) have yet to figure out how to use the regular video camera, so this was shot with the still camera, which has some low quality video ability.

I promise to get back on it with updates, photos and videos. Today Coop and I are going to visit the Easter Bunny, so there will be some new photos to share soon!

Catching up

What a week (and weekend)! I went back to work last Monday, March 9. As I said in my previous post, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Pat and I worked out our schedule (although he might need to move a touch faster in the mornings) and I got to work on time and made it through the day all week. It was on my way home Thursday, however, that it hit me. I only had about 15 - 20 minutes with Coop in the morning and as I drove home I realized I'd miss his 4 p.m. feeding and since I had an appointment with my trainer at the gym that night, I would alo miss his 7 p.m. feeding and only have about an hour with him in the evening. Sad. When I got home I found out from Nanny Kansas that his next feeding would be at 5 p.m. (sometimes he goes a little long based on his naps). YAY, I was going to get to feed him. As I went to get him out of his crib from his nap, the water works started. I couldn't control it. No way I was leaving him to go to the gym. So I skipped the gym and spent the rest of the night cuddling with little man. Ahhh, heaven! And, my friend April had her little girl Thursday, too, so that helped put a smile on my face.

Friday the 13th was a big day for me and Coop. Not only was it his 4 month birthday, we also had his infant screening and pediatrician appointment. We found out at the screening that he's spot on regarding his basic development. check. At the pediatrician he had to get his shots, which he did not like at all. The needle going in was fine, but once the meds started to make their way in, he was not a happy camper.

We also got to find out where Coop was on the size scale. His head is shaped perfectly -- no flat spots. Doc said I was doing a good job of not letting him lay on one side too much. I said he's a flippin' wiggle worm, it has nothing to do with me. He weighs 17 lbs. 1 oz. and is 26.5 inches long. He's in the 90th percentile for weight and length. I was worried I might get in trouble, that maybe Coop had one too many rolls on those chubby little legs.

My conversation with the doc went like this:

me: He's fat, huh?

doc: Ummmmm, yeah, he's a chunker.

me: Is he too fat?

doc: No, he's in proportion, so he's fine.

me: Sweet! I like him fat!

Saturday we went for family photos. We had a great time cuddling as a family and Coop was a champ giving us an hour and a half of his best smiles, squeals and happy faces. We get to look at our pics in about two weeks, I can't wait.

This Friday Uncle Bill comes to visit. Something tells me I'll have stories to share. :)

The photo below is a few weeks old, but I think it's hilarious and demonstrates just how fat my fat baby is! :)

Back at it

So, yesterday was my first day back at work. Albeit a short 4 hour day, but still, I had to leave little man and get back to it. So, Patrick and I were awaken at about 4:45 a.m. when we heard little man talking to himself. This is relatively normal -- he usually wakes up at about 5:30 a.m. and talkes to himself for a while and then goes back to sleep until 7 or 7:30 a.m. -- except Coop didn't know about daylight savings time, so for him it was 3:30 a.m., this is definitely not normal.

We let him keep talking to himself for a while until he started to get serious about his fussing. I got up at 5:30 a.m. to check on him and wouldn't you know it, he had turned himself around 180 degrees. When I put him to sleep the night before, his head was to the right and feet to the left. In the morning, head to left and feet were to the right. Anyway, I reinserted the binky and headed to the shower. Apparently he didn't go back to sleep because Patrick was feeding him when I got out of the shower a little before 6 a.m. Does anyone see the problem here? For little man it was only 5 a.m. and he's not supposed to eat until 7 or 7:30 a.m. That kid was all outta whack the entire day eating at weird times and taking crazy naps. However, he still went to sleep on schedule. He was out by 8:30 a.m. Huh.

This morning he was up and at it again at 5:15 a.m. Seriously? This is not working with my back to work plan. Luckily I was able to shower and get dressed before he wanted to eat at 6:15 a.m. And, yes, once again he had twisted himself around in the crib. Crazy kid.

So, my first day back at work wasn't as bad as most people thought it would be for me (have you no faith, people). Did I miss Coop? YES! Was it nice to talk to adults for a majority of the day and be able to use my actual voice vs. the high pitched voice I use with Coop that hurts my throat? Yes. Did GolinHarris feed us cereal and let us wear jammies to work to "celebrate" daylight savings time? Oh yeah...

That's me and the team (from left to right -- Lyndsey, JoLee, Catie and Candice). Yes, I know I'm hunched over weird. I don't know why I'm standing like that; Lyndsey looks extra tall in this pic; please note that JoLee is wearing footie jammies. For a full length pic, please visit Lyndsey's blog, One-Eyed Wonder - link on the right :)

Thumb Sucker

Even in the womb, Cooper liked to suck on his hands. We have a sonogram pic of him with his fist shoved in his mouth. He continues to see if he can get his entire fist, sometimes two fists, into his mouth. But, now that he has better control over his hands, he also has turned into a full-fledged thumb sucker. As a kid, I also sucked my thumb, so it appears he's taking after Mommy. You'll also note from the photo that he's sucking his left thumb, also like Mommy. :) Although my mom tells me I won't think this is all that cute when I have to pay the orthodontist bills down the road, right now I love it. Not only is it the cutest thing ever, he's also able to sooth himself when his binky falls out by just jamming his thumb in there. I absolutely love it!

Nanny on board

Some of you may have heard a little about our new nanny, but here's the full scoop...Nanny Megan is a super sweet girl who just moved to the OC from Kansas. We (Pat and I) call her Kansas. If you've read the blog posting about the nicknames you know that it's impossible for anyone to just be called by their given name in this house. We have yet to have the kind of funny or strange situation that usually results in a nickname with Megan and she doesn't do anything strange like only wear green socks or eat only blue food or something equally strange that would help us come up with a clever nickname, so we just call her Kansas (Megan, if you are reading this, really, we mean nothing by it, Pat just has a disorder that requires him to give EVERYONE a nickname. I'm sure you've noticed that Cooper is called by many names, none of which are actually Cooper :).

I met Megan on nannies4hire.com. We started talking via email and on the phone before she officially moved to California. Over the phone I felt like I had a good rapport with her and Patrick and I liked her as soon as we met her. I talked to a ton of people and we met a handful of candidates. Some were very strange others where fine, but not a good fit for us and others were just flaky.

Megan's been watching Coop a few times a week for the last month or so and officially begins her daily nanny duties Monday.

She's great with Coop and has taught me a trick or two already. She worked with a set of twins and a heard of boys previously, so one easy baby is a piece of cake for her! Please welcome the nanny to the family!

My other new favorite thing

Since Coop joined the Biolsi clan I've found that I no longer have a desire to by anything for myself -- except for Starbucks, I still LOVE me some Star-Bs...ummmm, ummmm). Anyway, if you know me, you know I love handbags and I've been known to spend a good amount of money on just one in addition to shoes, clothing, stuff for the house, etc. Most, if not all, is stuff I don't actually need. Anyway, since Coop-a-loop has come along I've had no real desire to go shopping for myself. I much prefer to wander the aisles of Babies R' Us, Baby Gap or the baby section of Target. I just want him to have everything he could ever need and/or want. So, my other new favorite thing [in addition to the baby food maker] is the Bumbo seat. How cute does my fat baby look in this thing? Patrick says it looks like he's in his own little baby recliner. I love that I can pop him in there and sit him on the counter and he's totally entertained watching me do the dishes! He totally loves this thing. I also just got the clip on tray that I fill up with toys that are just within reach for him. He's totally entertain and self-contained in this foam seat.