Happy Birthday Cooper!!

My little boy turns ONE today!!  It doesn't seem like a year ago at this hour that I was just getting into active labor; that we were just a few short hours from meeting the child we'd waited so long for... But then all the amazing moments from the past year flash through my mind and I know that a very full, fun year has indeed passed.

Cooper has two bottom and two top teeth now.  He's taking 3-4 steps unassisted now, with much glee and "eeeehhhhhh!!" when we cheer him on.  He plays peekaboo with us now, instead of us with him.  If he thinks he can scale something, he will definitely try to climb up on it.  He is such a good eater--he loves his veggies, fruits and grilled cheese.  We introduced him to Nutrigrain bars this week and he is definitely in love with those. He's still not eating meat, except fish.  He LOVES fish.  And he loves the nightgown mama has that has a fish on it and says "catch me if you can."  He points and squeals at the fish on it.  There is actually a lot of gleeful squealing in our life these days.  It's the next best sound in the world next to his adorable giggles. 

Cooper is catching on to things so fast these days.  You only have to show him how a new toy works once and he remembers.  He can identify cows, tractors, sheep, ducks of many varieties (thanks to daddy!), deer/buck, fish, dogs (Bo!) and he can say so many words now I can't remember them all.  Though, if he doesn't feel like talking some days, he just doesn't!  Other days he wakes up babbling and goes all day long.  He seems to really enjoy looking at books.  He gets into his toybox and pulls out books to look at by himself, and he also brings them over to us and wants us to look with him.  His favorite cartoon is still Mickey Mouse, but Handy Manny comes in a close second. 

Christmas was a lot of fun this year, watching Cooper open his presents and figure out that there were fun things under the wrapping paper!

We're looking forward to another year of watching this amazing little man come into his own personality.  Happy birthday Cooper, we love you!

YAY!!

Yesterday, Cooper took several steps all by himself yesterday!!  Grandma and Grandpa Jones were there to witness it!  But, it was short lived as he got so excited with himself that he tried to run.  :)

Mr. Cooper's Christmas Pictures!

Merry Christmas!

Month #11

Where is the time going???  I close my eyes and it truly feels like just yesterday we found out we had a baby on the way, and now he is this big, smart, handsome boy who is almost a year old.  This month, Cooper has begun doing "pattycake" all by himself if you sing the words to him.  Sometimes he doesn't throw it in the pan though, because I have a bad habit of tickling him when he throws up his arms.  :)  I know this will be a huge shocker, but the kid LOVES anything musical.  He dances when he hears music, always goes for the musical toys and only sits still in church when there is music going.

He is now 23 1/2 lbs and I think close to 29" long.  He still has issues with spitting up certain foods, but it seems to be improving some.  He continues to be a fruit and veggie lover, and definitely a cracker monster.  He wants "cays" for breakfast.  Translation: pancakes!  He's just starting to take steps holding only one of our hands now.  That's an improvement from hollering at us every time we tried to let go. :)

We're in party planning mode now!!  If you want to join us for Cooper's birthday party, it will be January 2nd in Huntsville, so save the date!

A big week!

It's been a big week for Cooper and I just had to make a note of it.  He's learned how to clap by himself, walk behind his push/walker toys without falling flat on his face (hee hee), and he's got two top teeth peeking just barely out of his very, very swollen gums.

Month #10

I'm just a little slow on getting this month's update in.  We've been busy beavers around here! 

Halloween was so much fun with Cooper this year.  We dressed Cooper up as a Lion, while Dave and I dressed as a Wardrobe and a Witch, so we made up the C.S. Lewis book, the Chronicles of Narnia.  We went to a few places trick or treating, and then hit the Huntsville Lions Club costume contest, where little man got third place.  He won a silver dollar! 

He's got two bottom center teeth now that are fully in, and he LOVES to use them to bite!  He gets an ornery look on his face right before he chomps down, so we have to watch for that.  We are still having some issues with Cooper not being able to eat much meat.  Chicken and turkey still make him really sick when we try it every other week or so.  The doc said to keep trying it though, and someday it would probably stay down.  He seems to be able to eat ground beef ok though and boy, does he love spaghetti!  He still eats his veggies and fruit really well, and we've added in toasted cheese sandwiches, pasta, bagel bits with cream cheese, rice, and he likes to share soup with us.  If we're eating something, he definitely wants to have a taste.  Oh, and he loves tofu, of all things! 

Cooper is becoming a bit of a parrot these days.  He has a whole list of "words" he says on a semi-regular basis.  Some of them are ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba (bottle), go-go (leave), uh-oh, oooh, yah, ga-ga/gugga (depending on the grandma), pa-pa (for his grandpa's) and in the last couple days he learned the dog's name and now goes over to our back window and yells at him, BO!!  BO!!  BO!  BO! BO!

He loves crazy noises and anything that makes noise or music.  He heads straight for the noisy/musical toys every time. We don't know why he would be so into music! It's not Dave or I like music! Ha ha.  Oh and he's also started dancing to music when he hears it.  He shakes his little tail and bobs his head.  It's so cute!  He's still crawling and cruising around things, but not taking any independent steps.  He gets mad when he wants to walk with our help and we keep letting go to see if he'll take a step on his own.

Month #9

It's been a big month in the life of Mr. Cooper! Let's start with the big news that we finally got an ALL CLEAR on his ears!! After five months of one ear infection after another, the doctor's check of his ears last week revealed that there is no more fluid hanging out in his left ear. FINALLY! WOO!!! Sorry for all the exclamation points, but seriously. We are so happy to know his ears aren't plugged up! Let's just hope we can keep them that way. Knock on wood, right? The doctor visit also revealed that Cooper is now weighing in at a hefty 22 lbs 8 oz. We didn't measure his height this time, but I know he's sprouted up recently. It's a good thing I like to shop because it's time for new pants again! All the new pants I bought him on Labor Day sale at Carter's are suddenly too short!

Cooper had his very first haircut this month too! Thanks to Danielle at Platinum Salon, he looks a little less like a raggedy Andy and more like a handsome little man. I'll put up some pictures of it.

For new and fun things Cooper is doing lately... he loves to suck in his breath and say "heeee" at the same time. He sounds like he's been breathing in helium. It's hilarious. He's also saying a variety of different "words" now. Some are actual words, like Mama (finally!!) and Dada and "Uh oh!" Others are spoken in what we can only assume is a tribal language of some remote deserted island. There are a lot of "gooog, gooog, goooog, a;lksjdf;laksjdfal;ksdf... But, he does sometimes get "baa baa" going at the same time that we're waving bye-bye to him at the sitter's or grandparents' house. Another thing that Daddy is particularly proud of at the moment is that Cooper has figured out how to quack like a duck. And I don't mean to say "quack, quack" like you might think. He crawls around all over the place making REAL duck noises. He sounds just like one of Daddy's duck hunting calls. Daddy is very happy now that we bought that duck at Bass Pro that makes real duck sounds.

Cooper continues to cruise around things while holding on. He thinks he's pretty big stuff now and is getting to the point that he really doesn't want to crawl. He wants someone else to hold his hands so he can walk around. He gets pretty mad if you leave him behind to crawl after you. He got brave last night for just a second and tried to take a step toward the chair from the couch, but only one before he fell down.

He has the one tooth all the way in now. It's really cute until he crawls over and bites your toes with it while you're reading a magazine on the couch. Not that I would know. ;) He's got another bottom tooth that is just peeking through and some very swollen upper gums, which makes me think top teeth aren't very far off now.

Last week we made the transition from bottle and rocking to sleep to laying him down awake in his crib to put himself to sleep. We'd been thinking for a couple weeks that he was probably ready for that switch because if you're holding him, he really fights sleep (literally kicking me!) in the evenings now. So we gave it a shot one night. I laid him down and kissed him good night and walked out. I let him holler for about a minute before I went back in to lay him back down again. We went in every couple minutes for twenty minutes that night, telling him good night and laying him back down. Every night since then though, we've only had to go back in once to lay him back down.

I'm sure I write this every time I do one of these updates, but we're constantly saying how blessed we are to have such a HAPPY baby. He is always giggling, laughing, and smiling. Well, unless he's hungry! Speaking of food, Cooper is all about feeding himself these days. He really likes grilled cheese sandwiches, green beans, pears, carrots, peas, crackers, cereal, pancakes, waffles, and sweet potatoes... just to name a few things.

Anyway, that's enough of a novel for this month. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!






Smiley, happy guy!!




After our first haircut:





Cooper's first pumpkin patch visit! He's laughing with the geese gourds!



Happy fall!

New pics of the boy

Eight and a half months!

This Labor Day weekend was a big one for Cooper! After several false alarms thinking we actually had a real live tooth, he finally got one!! Its just barely visible, but it is a super sharp little razor in there--ready to bite anything in its path. Don't fall for his sweet smile!! LOL This weekend Cooper also figured out that chasing and being chased is great fun. He crawls away as fast as he can, then flops over on his butt and waits for you to catch up to him, screeching and giggling the whole time. He is truly one of the happiest kids I know. I spend a lot of my evenings doing everything I can to make him do the screech and giggle routine. Hearing his laughter and seeing his great big smile is the highlight of our days right now.

He is really moving fast these days. He is walking around anything he pull up to. He's even attempted to take unassisted steps a couple times, but he goes splat pretty fast because he just isn't steady enough without something to lean on. As far as his toys, right now loves balls, cars, the big tractors at Jackson W.'s house, and his Leap Frog learning table from Auntie Tracy.

Over the weekend we went camping at Bennett Spring and also discovered that he is really into banging on pots and pans with big plastic spoons. That entertained him for a whole hour, which is a very long time for anything to hold his attention. We recently got a Kelty backpack to carry him around in and we hiked through the State Park at Bennett. He really loved looking around at all the different sights.

In other very exciting news, we decided to take Cooper to a family doc here in town a few weeks back, to try to determine if there was any reason for his continuous night-wakings and painful crying fits he'd been having way too many of. We'd had several people recently suggest that we check with our pedi to see if Cooper maybe had some reflux. But our regular pediatrician just said it was normal baby stuff and not to worry about all the spitting up he was doing that every baby spit up and they can't medicate them all. So after discussing things with Dave, we decided to see that other family doc in town because he'd actually been to see Dave at work and had talked to him about the reflux and ear infection connection.

So we got our second opinion and with Cooper showing so many of the typical reflux symptoms and seeminly in quite a bit of pain, he gave us some reflux medicine to try. I cannot tell you all how much that medicine has helped Cooper. He's eating better. He's sleeping 8-9 hours now instead of 1-2 at a time. And he's almost stopped spitting up and vomiting completely. It's so nice!! We're all happier because we're rested, that's for sure!!!! So far, since Cooper had that last round of antibiotics at the beginning of August and started the reflux meds, we haven't had any more ear trouble. We're crossing our fingers that he stays health for a while now!!

Pulling up! Eek!

As Scooby Doo would say, "Ruh roh raggy!!!" Sunday we put Cooper in his crib so we could both get dressed and ready to head out for our anniversary shopping day in Columbia. A couple minutes later we heard him grunting and, naturally, thought he was doing his #2 business. Another few minutes passed and we can hear him in there cracking up laughing and banging on the crib. I went to see what was so funny and he had pulled up on the side of the crib and he was SO proud of himself! Last night he was pulling up on anything he could get his hands on and even making motions to walk around things!

Seven months... time is flying too fast!

Okay, I'm taking my afternoon break to put down a few notes about what Mr. Cooper is up to these days! He's so busy anymore! We set him down on the floor and whoosh! He's across the room pulling on some knob or unshelving books for us. :) He's also decided that now is a good time to start pulling up. He can't do it in his crib yet--that's too straight up and down for him. But he'll pull up anything with a moderate angle to it--like a mama or daddy laying on the floor.

He loves a variety of food right now. He's learned how to put food in his own mouth, which is fun. He thinks he can grab the spoon from our hands and feed himself. But when I let him try, he usually feeds his hair or the floor. But it sure is fun to watch him try. It's also pretty dang funny when you give him a teething biscuit. In about 5 minutes he's gummed it beyond recognition and smeared it in every hard to get out of crevice he can find....such as ears, eyelids and up his nose.

He's still pretty crazy over swimming pools. In his lifejacket he will lay back and swim himself around in circles, but otherwise he wants you to hold him around the belly so he can splash and kick.

It seems we've kicked ear infection #4 to the curb finally. I think that last round of antibiotics actually worked! After 4 days of the Rocephin (?) you can tell he feels better AND he's sleeping better. A happy baby and a sleeping baby make for a very happy mama and daddy! FOR SURE!!!!

What else? Oh, the little monkey also thinks its cute to crawl on his hands and toes, monkey-style of course. He only seems to do it on linoleum or hardwood floors, but its pretty funny. He's still a nut for the jumpy seat too. It's the only form of containment he still allows. ;) Ah, and he also spends a LOT of his time babbling, talking, singing, screaming, screeching--whatever. He is a NOISY kid! He sing/yells along with the radio and mama in the car and says "da da da da da" all through the evening after daddy gets home.

I think that's all for now!

A VISIBLE TOOTH!

We have a visible bottom toofie! YAY! It's just peeking, but it is there! I hope they come fast now that they've started arriving so he can get over that misery for a while!

Another cute factoid... Mr. Cooper now waves back! If you tell him hi or bye and wave he will flap his whole arm back at you. So cute!

EI #4

Yep. We've won the ear infection lottery again. WOOOO! This time we had the added bonus of pink eye and a sinus infection as well. Sunday we went to the urgent care clinic to get some medicine for the poor boy.

Yesterday, we went to visit the pedi for a recheck and the left ear was still looking very bad. The pedi switched our antibiotic, so hopefully this will kick the EI to the CURB! He also said to start thinking about who our favorite ENT was, since we'd probably be seeing one in the fall.

Hold the presses!

Ok, so it's not really a real tooth sticking out just yet. At least I haven't been able to feel it. But the sitter, Miss Jodi swears its there at lunchtime every day. :)

TOOOOOOFFF!!!

We have a TOOOF! Finally, after what feels like 5 months of teetching out of 6 months, we have a tooth! YAY!

Country Grammar?

Ok, I'm a nut. I think the grammar is correct in the blog title, but I'm not sure if I've properly placed my apostrophe. Since its news about multiple Drews, it comes after the s and not before, right?!?!

These are the things which weigh on my mind...

Uh oh!

It's on now. Cooper can crawl from one end of the living room to the other in no time flat now!!! It's crazy how quickly he went from swimming in one place on the floor and pushing up on his toes and flopping when he tried to crawl to actually being pretty well able to do it! Watch out world!

Poor Baby!

Okay, so the ear infection of 3 weeks ago has kind of taken on a life of it's own.

For Round One, we got Amoxicillen, the lovely bubble gum pink goop that worked for EI #1. It didn't do a thing for EI #2 though, so we went back to the pedi a week later for something new.

Round two, Augmentin. Cooper got three days worth before he turned into one big mess of blotchy, patchy, splotchy, itchy redness. Of course, I freaked out, thinking it was chicken pox. Why freak? Because Dave has never had the chicken pox and we've been told he can't get a vaccination for it because they only give it to college kids and adults over 65. Huh? Anyway, back to the story. After fretting and talking to some nurse friends and some seasoned mothers, I did call our pedi's on-call nurse. She said to give him Benadryl and see if it went away. That way we'd know if it was chicken pox or a reaction to the medicine. Benadryl worked like a charm, so off to the pedi we went first thing the next day.

Round three, Omnicef. Cooper got two days worth of it in him before he started in with a pin-prick rash, which made his skin feel really grainy. It was odd. And then, he started throwing up pretty much everything he ate. The pedi nurse said it was probably a 24 hour bug and to continue giving him the Omnicef. My mama radar said it was the antibiotics and his ear check had come back clear and the Omnicef was just a "make sure it's really gone" treatment. So, he hasn't had it for two nights now and guess who isn't throwing up anymore? Hmmm, that would be Cooper.

Grandma Jones said, "Welcome to the (allergic to medicine) family Cooper!" LOL

We are F-A-M-I-L-Y!

It's true. We're a family--Dave, Cooper and I. So, I've decided that since so much of this blog is now about family happenings, and not just about little old me--I've changed the name to reflect that.

Six Months Old???

How is my baby six months old already??? We had so many people tell us time would fly faster after we had him, but we didn't quite believe it. Now we do...

Apparently, I forgot to post a monthly Cooper update for May! Reading April's entry makes me realize just how much he has grown and changed in the last few weeks.

For growth stats, Cooper is weighing in at 18.5 pounds now and very long! He is long and lean, but has an adorable double chin and some spare tire thighs. He's wearing 9-12 month clothes now for the most part. He doesn't need the width around in that size, but smaller sizes just aren't long enough for his torso. Cooper still doesn't have any teeth, though he is constantly teething on everything in sight. Gunga Drew even bought him a couple little outfits that have pirhanas on them, and one says "caution: teething," which is so true! He bites anything he can.

Cooper is now eating a variety of foods. Hands down, his favorite is bananas! He will open wide for more 'nanas and holler when you don't shovel it in fast enough. It's pretty funny. He also loves pears, sweet potatoes, applesauce, green beans, squash, and even prunes! So far, he is not a fan of carrots and he really doesn't like peaches. He always spits up the peaches when we've tried them.

Cooper is really becoming what we call a "GO baby." If he is awake (and not tired) he wants to go, go, and go some more. If he's getting sleepy, he gets the wiggles--to stay awake, just like daddy does! He still loves to be held and snuggled close when it's bedtime though. Cooper can sit up now! He lasts for about 30 seconds at a time before he lunges forward, trying to go after a toy. He is also rolling in all directions now and he does lots of baby push-ups, especially when he wants to crane his neck around to see something he's hearing. He is just *this close* to truly crawling, but he scoots and combat crawls all over the place. He also loves to walk while holding our hands. Just in the last two weeks, he's really figured out how to walk in succession for any length of time. He loves to be in the swimming pool too. He kicks his legs behind him and loves batting at the water.

Cooper had his second ear infection week before last and it made for a very long weekend. Why do babies get sick on Friday afternoons?? We ended up going to a Mediquick clinic on Sunday in Columbia just to get some relief so we could all sleep. It breaks our hearts to see him hurting so much.

It seems that we're always having some sort of adventure with his poop. How lovely is that? This weekend, we were getting ready to go to Cooper's Aunt Heather's house for Father's Day dinner. He was all dressed and ready to go, so I put him in his jumpy play seat so he could bounce around while we finished getting ready. About 5 minutes later, he started crying loudly, so I went in and picked him up and noticed his shirt was a little wet. I thought he'd peed through, but NOPE! It was POO!!! He had it up the front, up the back, and running down to his toes. I was SO, SO grossed out. Luckily daddy was finishing up his shower, so into the shower Cooper went with him to wash all that ick off. It was a very LARGE poo!

Ahh the glamorous stories of a new mom, huh?

Dave's First Father's Day

I got Dave a card from Cooper for Father's Day and I thought it would be cute if Cooper "signed" it himself. So I got one of my washable ink pads out of the scrapbooking cabinet and put his handprint on the card. Dave was very touched, but the washable ink took almost two days to wash off. Ooops!!

Dave's Mad Rescue Skills

In all his spare time (haha), Dave is a volunteer firefighter. It's hard to get pictures of him in action since it seems that most things requiring their services happen in the wee hours. But today, Orscheln's in Moberly had Emergency Services Day where lots of different departments got together to showcase their equipment and talents for kids to come see.

Just a week or two ago, Dave and several of his Westran FD buddies took an extrication class to learn how to use the "Jaws of Life" tools. So they practiced what they learned on th

is poor, unsuspecting Buick donated by the junkyard. Dave is in suit 520. Cooper watched the show pretty intently! He got a big grin on his face when they were done and Dave took his helmet off and called out to him.

And then, being the super nice firefighters that they are, Dave and a few others headed to the local park for the annual Summer Park Day and put on a hillbilly waterslide. They used a ditch drainage tube, a big plastic tarp and a firehose and BAM! Instant waterslide. The kids think it's pretty cool, and actually it is!

Camping!!!

Dave and I love to go camping, and while we do enjoy the occasional tent camping experience, we're pretty much spoiled rotten because we normally use my inlaws' camper. It's so nice and big and clean and we don't have to sleep on the hard ground! Anyway, this weekend we decided to take Cooper and head up to the lake lot to spend the night at the camper. We had such a great time! Dave grilled while I fed Cooper and put him to bed. Then Dave and I sat and chatted the night away over coffee and smores. Sunday morning, Pawpaw Drew came up and joined us for camp breakfast of eggs and sausage cooked over the fire. Dave loves, loves, loves to cook over the fire! In fact, he loves it so much, Dave and his dad spent over an hour trying to get a good fire going in the rain! Camp breakfast is VERY important around here! :) Cooper took a very long morning nap under the shade of the pergola in his playpen. It was such a fun weekend!

Five months!!!

More babies at our house!

Cooper isn't the only baby in my world right now! We have a Robin's nest with three little birdies in it in the backyard! So adorable.

Four Months

He grows, and grows, and grows so fast! Mr. Cooper is now pushing 18 lbs. We haven't had his length measured lately, but he is so very long! He's definitely working the spare tires up on his thighs too though. ;)

It's amazing how fast he is learning new things right now. He is babbling nonstop in the evenings. He is definitely giggling now, and not just when he's tickled. I was making funny noises for him over the weekend and he was laughing so hard at me. It's so fun watching his personality blossom. He is getting to the point where he hates to lay down in your arms. He wants to STAND UP! UP! UP! UP! If you sit him down, he pulls up. This boy is going to be just like his daddy, I think. Go, go, go. :) When he's not standing up, he likes to roll over, but only to the right. He will work himself in circles all over the floor rolling right.

We started cereal a couple weeks ago and while it took him a while to warm up to the texture, he eats it very well now, especially after I started stirring in a little applesauce to help with the taste.

Cooper has also developed a very interesting poop schedule over the past few weeks. Well, if you find poop interesting that is!! He poops daily Monday through Wednesday and then not again until Sunday or Monday. Very odd, but it's happened three weeks in a row now.

He had his first ear infection a couple weeks ago too. That was MISERABLE for everyone. He whimpered all night long for two nights. We thought it was his teeth bothering him, but then he started in with a green snotty nose and a cough. Off to the pedi we went and he was the proud owner of an ear infection. ICK! Thankfully he's all better now though.

Three Months

It's time for another monthly Cooper update! I cannot believe he is 3 months old already. Time is really flying. He is growing so fast right now. It's truly amazing.

True to both of our sides of the family, Cooper is a big boy. He is about 15 lbs now and wearing 6-9 month clothes. He has such a long torso. He's still working pretty hard on his teeth. He wakes up in pain at least a few times a week, gnawing on anything he can grab. Cooper is also starting to really lengthen out his eating and sleeping schedule. Instead of lots of little catnaps and small meals, he eats a lot at once and goes several hours without a nap now.

This past month was a big one for Cooper! We took our first two road trips as a family. First trip was to Louisville. We visited the Louisville Slugger museum and hung out while dad was in an archery shoot. Last weekend we went to visit Uncle Bub and Aunt Paula. He did awesome until he blew the diaper out at DSW shoe store! It smelled so bad he sent Aunt Paula running. Hee hee!

Of course he has camo clothing!

Any respectable half redneck, half city slicker baby has to have at least one camo outfit. This is Cooper's and he looks pretty darn adorable if I do say so myself.

Two Months

Another month has passed and Cooper is doing wonderful. He is such a joy to have around and makes everyday brighter for Mama and Daddy.

He now weighs 13 lbs 8oz and is 24 inches long. He's in the 90% according to the growth charts! He got his first shots this past week and he did fantastic. He didn't even flinch when they stuck him, but he did cry for a minute when they pushed the medicine in. Overall he's done well with them, just a little fever for a day or so.

A couple weeks ago we noticed a couple tooth buds in the bottom of his mouth. It's a little early for teeth, but the doc said it does happen. He's drooling and gnawing on his hands a lot these days.

Cooper is definitely a morning person. He wakes up "talking" to us and giving the biggest smiles. Oh, and we really appreciate that he's decided to sleep about 7 hours straight at night now!!!!

Daddy Loves You

I underestimated how awesome it would be to watch Cooper and his daddy together. Dave loves him so much and he is so tender with him. It makes my heart swell. I'm just thankful my feet are no longer swelling! Ha!

One Month!!

It's been a month since I last updated on Mr. Cooper. Boy, has he grown and changed so much in that time!! A couple weeks ago, he weighed in at a whopping 10 lbs 8 oz! He'd gained 3 pounds since leaving the hospital, and I know he's grown even more since then. He is getting longer and stronger too. Cooper is holding his head up like a champ and he "swims" on the floor during tummy time. He gets all his limbs moving like he wants to crawl, but it looks like swimming. It's too cute!

Cooper started giving us the sweetest smiles right around 5 weeks old. He opens his mouth wide and his eyes turn down into half moons when he's really happy. He also gives us lots of other neat expressions, like one raised eyebrow! Last week he found out he could make other noises besides crying. He coos and oooohs and even hollers at us. We are having a great time watching him develop his little personality.

Today is a sad day for mama since I started back to work. I miss Cooper something fierce, but I know he is in the best care with his babysitter, Jodi. When I dropped him off this morning, all the other kids were jumping around and cheering, "Yay! Cooper is here!" It made me feel better to leave him, knowing that Jodi and the kids are so excited for him to be there. But, I still can't wait for 5pm to get here!!!!!!

The Lil' Nugget

This has got to be the cutest little love nugget I've ever seen. My new mama heart is so full of joy that I'm delirious. Oh, well, maybe that's the lack of sleep but who cares. This is good stuff people. The best stuff.