Cooper's Top Ten

Sweet Cooper has changed so much lately.  What a fun, exciting time!  As usual, time is going by far too quickly.  She's already been with us for half a year.  Wow. 

At her six month appointment last week, she weighed 16 pounds, 9.5 ounces and I was thrilled.  Only 60th percentile!  (Judson was 15 lbs., 11.5 ounces at two months.) Her length put her in the 74th percentile and her head circumference was 93rd.  We're a big-headed family. :)

Here's a look at her recent milestones in pictures.

1. Discovered just how fun - and tasty! - toes can be.

 2. First wedding.  (Almost second.  She attended one five days before she was born.  :)  You will see this dress again in Easter and baby dedication pictures...

Dancing with Daddy

No milestone...just love for her cousin.

Macy doesn't use a binky (never really liked them), but she was excited to find one of Cooper's.

Here Cooper, try this one.

 3. Six month picture...with help

 4. Ever-deepening love for her big brother (he likes it when I put her in his crib after naptime)

 5. Sitting up, as of one week ago.  She's still quite unstable, but improving every day.

6. First "solid" food - homemade brown rice cereal.  I put it off until Sunday, because Judson got so constipated when he first started eating.  (I'm hoping the brown rice cereal will help.)  She initially grabbed the spoon and shoved it in, much like Judson did.  However, I don't think it was smooth enough, and she eventually made gagging faces with every bite.  I froze the rest of that batch and made some smoother stuff yesterday.  The past two days have gone better, though she spit it all up after she ate yesterday.  :)

 7. If you click on the picture below and look really closely, you can possibly see her first two teeth.  Anna discovered the first one on the seventh and I found the second two days later, the day she turned six months.  This is about six weeks sooner than Judson got his first teeth.

Clearly not enthused.

 8. We just got the Jumperoo from Bandon, and Cooper loves it!

9. And no picture of this, but she had her first "cry it out" session last night.  The night before, she woke up three times before we ever went to bed.  When she woke up after forty-five minutes last night, I knew she wasn't hungry, so we decided to let her cry.  I'm not sure exactly how long it went on (an hour or so), because I went grocery shopping.  She was never completely hysterical, so that was good.  She still woke up three times between 11:30 and 6:30 and I didn't let her cry.  I'm not quite ready to do middle of the night crying it out yet...the ramifications of waking the guys up are daunting.  :)  I'm hoping that if she knows I won't go in early in the evening, she'll eventually just stop waking up.  If not, in another month or so, I'll be desperate enough to let her cry.

10. Cooper is a screamer/screecher.  She is SO. LOUD.  Unfortunately, she knows if she does it when Judson is sleeping, I'm going to pick her up.  Because it does wake him up.  I know I should probably just let him learn to sleep through it, but our evenings are HARD when his nap has been too short.  *Sigh*  :)

That about sums up our sweet girl at six months.  She brings us so much joy with her adorable giggles and smiles.  We praise the Lord for entrusting her to us!  What a blessing it is to be her mama.

It's about time...

...for some new pictures. And a bit of an update, but that's going to have to wait.  Sorry.

We are doing well and staying pretty healthy (slight colds going around here, but nothing major)...

And, now for some pictures.  A lot of pictures, as it turns out.  And this just catches us up to March.

Before naptime.  These pictures didn't turn out well, because I had the wrong lens on my camera.  I love them anyway.

Five months...with a helper (I'll save the six months picture for another post)

Judson was really congested awhile back and Nate filled half his crib with pillows so he'd have to sleep upright.  He already had a ton of stuff in his bed, so it was quite a sight.  Even with so many pillows, it never occurred to him that he should try to climb out.  :)

Story time with Mandy and Justin

Cooper and Emmitt

Judson and Madi

Papa and Cooper

Grandma and Judson being silly

Valentine balloons

Not sure how this happened after his bath.  Nate was in charge.  :)

At Eagle Crest

The day before Cooper officially rolled.  She was SO CLOSE.

Nate thought we should count this, but he wasn't there to see it.  She never got her arm out and eventually just flipped back over.  Since she really did roll the next day, it wasn't an issue.  :)

Big girl!

So there you have it.  Updates coming soon...hopefully!

Snow much fun!

I rarely pay attention to the weather forecast.  I'd heard talk of snow this week, and it snowed off and on Monday, but never stuck.  It was snowing last night before we went to bed, and I noticed that it was snowing every time Cooper got me up (yes, still multiple times a night...I've given up all hope of it getting better any time soon).  So, I figured there would be some on the ground this morning, but was not prepared for what I found.

We spent two and a half hours outside (Cooper napped twice during that time) and had a blast.  The sun was so warm that it was the best of both worlds - outside time in the sun, with the added fun of snow.  It was fun to have snow crashing off the branches around us, but there was so much that it didn't melt off the ground very quickly.

Five inches in the yard!  I was glad I measured.  I didn't think it was quite that much.

 

It was so bright that Judson finally agreed to wear his sunglasses.  He didn't want to come with me to the house to get them, though.  Since he was toward the back of our property, I left him there...

He was heavily into throwing "snowballs" this time around.  (We went to Eagle Crest last weekend and Forrest taught him how.)  He wouldn't even let me make a snowman.  We just had to keep throwing snow.

Happy girl up from her nap

Lots of this occurred too

He wouldn't let her ride there, but did allow a photo op.  I about had a heart attack getting them back to the house - holding her with one arm and pulling him with the other.  Sheesh!  After this picture (or series of pictures, as the case may be), I asked Judson to take his glasses off so I could see his eyes.  He said, "Ack-shee (actually), they're goggles."  :)

First time in the swing!  (It just recently became accessible again.  It had been buried by  stuff that needed to move back into our garage.  Judson has spent lots of time swinging, and the snow was the only reason Cooper got a turn today.)

Putting his excavator and dump truck to good  use.  He filled them up and then transferred the snow to his ride-on tractor's bucket.  Then we went back to throwing snow...