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!