Happy Easter

Well, there must be pigs flying around somewhere, because we actually got Cooper to smile (sort of) for his Easter bunny picture. Maybe it is because I'm in the bunny suit...who knows. I was worried though because as soon as I started putting the costume on he started wimpering. But it ended up turning out OK. Thank goodness!



We had a really good Easter this year. Saturday we went to a huge Easter egg hunt early in the morning. Cooper wasn't much on actually hunting the eggs, but he enjoyed playing with them afterwards. So here we are posing with his basket and the eggs I grabbed for him.

Here he is with all his Easter goodies. Lesson learned this year though....Don't waste time dying real eggs with a 14 month old. They throw them around just like the plastic ones!!!!

And finally, here he is just looking darn cute playing in the backyard.

Learning New Tricks

Cooper's world is just opening up to new things on a daily basis. One of the more obvious events is that he is learning to smile a whole lot more. For a while there, I thought I had the most serious little one-year-old on the planet! We've even managed to catch some of those rare smiles on camara a couple of times. He giggles, and makes the sounds of the swoosh of an airplane, and he loves to fake cough to get attention! It is hilarious. Everytime he walks into a room he goes, "WOOOOOOWWWWW"! Although this is not one of Greg's favorite tricks, Cooper calls me Mama, but he seems to be confused because he calls Greg, Mama, too! I try to reassure my husband that Cooper probably just thinks it's like a joint word for both parental units, but that doesn't seem to make him feel better. Cooper also doesn't walk around anymore, he RUNS! He has the bumps and bruises to prove it. And he can't stay still for a second. If he standing, he is constantly moving his feet or going in circles. He makes me tired just watching him! If you are reading him a book he will stand and gaze at the book from afar...all the way across the living room while shuffling those feet! No wonder he crashes at 7:30 every night! Oh, and that is another thing he just started doing last week...he has started going to bed on his own. All of a sudden he didn't want to be rocked anymore for bedtime. I just laid him in his bed and he rolled and flopped around on his own until he went to sleep. That was definitely a milestone for Cooper. We were so proud of him! It just had to be on his timing.

And finally, last week while Greg was out of the country on a business trip, Cooper fell out of his crib in the middle of the night. I knew something was wrong when I heard a loud "BAM" on the monitor and then that really scary "I'm hurt" cry. Of course I run down the hallway, and he met me at his bedroom door. Talk about a weird and scary feeling. Cooper doesn't have carpet in his room either. It is that laminate floor, so I know it had to hurt. I checked him for bumps, but couldn't find any, and he slept with me for the rest of the night. It scared me pretty bad. Needless to say, I lowered the crib down to the lowest setting the next day. I still don't know how he did that. I have never seen any signs of him crawling on it, or I would have lowered it a long time ago! But he is all right, and I learned a thing or two about crib structure.

So, anyways, that is Cooper's world for now. Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

Here is one with his new lawn mower that his Nonny bought him. He loves it! I just wish it really worked so Greg and I wouldn't have to mow. That would be GREAT!






Here he is playing peek-a-boo from behind a tree. Sorry about the off-centeredness. I was trying to watch him and take a picture at the same time. Not a good idea...





Here is one with him carrying his ever-present green blanket all over the house. We never leave without it. He is always walking around with it covering his face, so he is constantly bumping into things. He also loves to play peek-a-boo with it.




And here is one with all his cousins at a family get-together. Of course Cooper is the only one not having a good time in this picture.

Cooper's One Fun

So much has happened in the last month, I don't even know where to start. Since Christmas, Cooper has had his first haircut, first birthday, and has started walking all over the place! I cannot keep up with him! He is so fast! Before I get ahead of myself, I should probably start this chronologically. That is what I get for waiting so long to catch up on my blogging. We went to get his haircut right after Christmas. It was no big deal really, but he did go into Sportclips looking like a baby and came out looking like a little boy. I have to admit, I did get a little choked up. Greg thought I was absolutely insane. Cooper did really good through it though...as long as he could hold the girl's comb. Here is a picture just after he was finished with his haircut.

After that, came his actual birthday. Since it fell on a Wednesday this year, Greg and I took off of work and took Cooper to Galveston to the Rainforest Cafe and to the aquarium at Moody Gardens. It was such a fun day. It was extremely cold, but fun. We took several pictures, but the lighting was so dark they didn't come out really well. Cooper loved the aquarium. He kept leaning on the tanks and watching the seals and penguins. We just had so much fun with him that day. Here is a picture of him standing beside a painting of a macaroni penguin. We had to take this picture because Cooper loves the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book series. And in one of them it says "Macaroni penguin, Macaroni penguin, what do you see? "

And then, the following Saturday was his birthday party. Of course we woke up to several rain showers that morning. I was starting to panic because we rented one of those giant moonwalks for the older kids to play in. I would go outside and in between rains I would dry the entire moonwalk off with towels until I was soaked. But it FINALLY stopped raining just as the party started so the kids eventually got to play. I think the party went really well. Cooper had fun visiting with all his cousins and friends. He even ate his birthday cake! It was a really good day. And from the bottom picture you can see that Cooper was one pooped little boy. He actually fell asleep in mid-bite in his high chair! It was hilarious!

And finally, just this past week, Cooper has started walking everywhere! He has been taking a few steps here and there for a while now. But all the sudden he just decided that it was time to walk permanently. He even gets up by himself without pulling up on anything. It is just amazing! One minute he was crawling and the next he was walking! He is so proud of himself. If he takes a particularly long stroll across the living room, he expects applause whenever he gets to his destination. This kid just makes my world go 'round!

Christmas and Birthday Wishes

So, a lot has been going on since my last post...sorry about the lagtime in updates. Cooper has been through his first ear infection and presently starting on his second, taken his first two steps, and has learned to play peak-a-boo...a significant milestone in my book. We have had a couple of sittings for pictures given the fact that Christmas and Cooper's birthday are readily approaching. (How is that already possible!) And of course, my son, the somber one, cannot crack a smile for pictures we actually pay for to save his life. I see a lot of bribes in his future. He will be all smiles immediatly prior to and following the session...but do not under any circumstances ask him to smile on cue...you either get tears or a "this is a waste of my time" stare. This causes lots of frustration for Mommy and Daddy, but I think they turn out good anyways. We've got our own personal pictures to prove our kid isn't miserable and that he does know how to smile.

I am so excited for his first Christmas this year. Although I did have to give up trying to find a "Baby's First Christmas" outfit in 18 months size. I've decided that is definitely a lost cause. That's OK, we know it is his first one, and oh boy, are we really overdoing it. Cooper has got more presents than he will know what to do with. We have had to muster up all the restraint we have not to just let him have them now. That is hard! I can't wait to see the look on his face with all this new stuff!

And then right behind Christmas comes his birthday. I'm really kind of stressing about that, but it will still be fun. It is going to be Baby Einstein themed since he loves and practically has all the DVDs. As a matter of fact, he is getting four new ones for Christmas and his birthday just because Greg and I are completely tired of his others that he watches OVER and OVER again. Do you think he is too young to get hooked on something cool like Star Wars or something? Now that I could watch over and over again with no problem! Ha!

Super Cooper's First Halloween

Well, we just experienced Cooper's first Halloween. It was a lot of fun. We made some stops at grandma's house and we went to a church carnival, and after all that, we sure did have a tuckered-out little boy. He even got to have his first taste of candy as you can see in one of the pictures below. He liked it A LOT, and I had to distract him to take the sucker away. I know I am a MEAN mom, but I was afraid he would try to bite into it or something. Needless to say, after the candy experience, Cooper and I were sticky from head to toe. But it was worth it to see his cute little expression when he tasted the yummy sugar. And, I think every kid should have something sweet on Halloween! I think he earned it anyways, after we carried him all around town in that hot Superman costume. You know my son had to spend his first Halloween in a Superman outfit. I figured this is the only time I really get to pick so it was definitely a "no-brainer" as to what he was going to be. The other pictures on the blog were professional ones we had Greg's cousin take for us at the pumpkin patch in town. You can't tell from the pictures, but Cooper was in a horrible mood that day. That is a tribute to the photographer for not catching Cooper's mood in the pictures. I think they turned out pretty darn cute. So, enjoy the pictures and Happy Halloween!

Cooper's Cruise Control

I had put Cooper down for a nap one day and then left the room. After a few minutes I walked back in to check on him and this is what I found. He was standing up looking at me! To tell you the truth, it kind of scared me. I'm not used to someone staring back at me when I walk in. As you can tell from the picture, Cooper was really proud of himself. Now he is pulling up everywhere and on everything and even starting to cruise a little bit! Did I mention that he is crawling all over the place?!? It is like all this stuff happened within a week. Now, Greg and I are trying to teach him what "NO-NO" means...(Can a ten-month-old grasp that concept?) because he gravitates toward anything that he is not supposed to have. It is amazing, he can have a room full of toys, and it is the fireplace tools or the dog beds that mesmerize him! Go figure.


This is a picture of Cooper at his first birthday party. A friend of our's son turned one, and I didn't ask if I could post the pictures of everyone at the party so here is one of just Cooper.



Here are some cute pictures of Cooper posing with us. He was just in a cute mood that day.

He is ready for football season with his new chair. GO TEXANS!

And finally, we got our landscaping redone...Here are what I like to call our jungle pictures before the landscaping:

And here are the after pictures. You really can't tell much from the photos, but it really did make a world of difference. Before there were bushes covering up half the house from the front view. With them gone, it looks like our house is twice at big from the outside.

Cooper's First Trip to Minute Maid

Cooper went to his first ballgame at Minute Maid Park last Sunday which happened to be the Astros' and Biggio's last game. Cooper did so good, and we all had a lot of fun. It was sad seeing Biggio out there for the last time. I'm glad Cooper got to be there to see it. It will be a great story to tell him some day. They even won the game with Biggio scoring a run, which was a perfect ending to his career. I think it was more crowded at that game then at the World Series. But it was worth it, and a memory that we will have forever.

There really isn't much new news to report in this blog. I just had a few pictures I wanted to post. I mentioned earlier that Cooper started holding his own bottle and we got a picture of that. However, I think we got over-excited because as soon as he started doing that, I broke out the sippy cups. As you can see from the bottom picture, he isn't quite ready for that leap yet.

And this is one of my favorite pictures to date. Cooper is wearing his little NASCAR onesie that his daddy bought him since that is his new favorite thing to watch on TV. Number 8 is Dale Earnhart Jr.'s number. I just thought Cooper looked so cute with his little tube socks!