Random Photos

I'm trying to take as many vertical pictures as I can before August 19th. I got these photo albums at one of my showers that are specific to 0-3 months, 3-6, 6-9, and 9-12. They smaller albums you can probably carry in a purse and hold vertical pictures. I was putting pictures in them the other night and realized if I don't take some more vertical pictures then his 6-9 month album will only be hall full. I know I could put some horizontal ones in there but I'm kind of picky that way. Anyway, here are some pictures.

Daddy and Cooper goofing around.

Cooper being calm and reading a book. (This doesn't happen very often).

Finally, posing for mommy!

Quick Update

I don't really have any new pictures to post so I guess I will just do an update. Let's see, what has been happening with us this past week. Well Saturday morning Cooper somehow managed to crawl out of his exersaucer. I was taking a shower I heard him crying, peeked my head out the door and he was on the floor. Thankfully he wasn't hurt, just more scared. I have been taking my showers at 6:00 am now before Steve gets up for work so I don't have to leave him unsupervised.
What else, oh this kid is into everything now. He is going to keep me busy that is for sure. If we go to the grocery all he is interested in is my shopping list, he wants to eat it. He can find a piece of hair on the floor and pick it up and eat it. Yesterday he was trying to pick up light, that's right, light. The sun was shinning through the blinds and was making a shadow on our carpet, he found it interesting.
Okay, that is enough he is about to tear apart some stationary he pulled down from a shelf in our computer room.
Have a great day!

Cooper's New Game

As any mother knows there are some toys that are life savers. For us it has been the exersaucer, I use to clean up, eat dinner, take a shower, etc. If we give Cooper any toy to play with while he is in there it quickly ends up on the ground. He loves throwing things over the edge and yelling at it to come back. He does this in his highchair too. My favorite was in the highchair he tried throwing this buckle off the edge and got confused when it wouldn't go. Anyway, one day Steve took every single small toy he could find and placed them around the edge of the exersaucer so Cooper could throw them off. We did this this other night while eating dinner, here are before and after shots.

Mommy N Me

Today I went with the Mommy N' Me group from church to the Zoo. Well it was supposed to be a group from church but the regulars had to cancel. It was just me & Cooper and a girl named Amber and her two kids. She doesn't go to Eastside, she just knows another girl from Eastside. It was nice to get out and meet someone new, we had a good time. We walked around the zoo and went into Glacier Park. I think this was the first time I've been to the zoo since the water park opened, it's pretty nice, a lot bigger than I expected. I was going to get some pictures but Cooper slept the whole time. I think it was a combination from the heat and I think he may have gotten some sunscreen in his eye by rubbing his eye. Poor thing. I had hoped he would sit up and enjoy the walk and wear himself out so he would take a good nap this afternoon at home, looks like it's going to be the other way around. Anyway, I had a great time and got a bit of exercise too. Amber was also nice enough to let me have a free pass she had with her membership, so thanks to her!!!

Playing in the Tub

Last night we put Cooper in big tub. Steve put on some swim trunks and got in there with him. I'm so thankful that I have child who doesn't mind the bath or water. He had a great time. We have these squirt toys and one is an octopus. I'm not for sure what he thought it was, a big pacifier, but this is what he was doing. I would love to know what is going on in his head.

Oh, and here is one of him in the laundry basket. I had just washed some towels and he did his new army crawl over to the basket, so Steve stuck him in.

Chatterbox update

So this is the third night in a row he has woke up multiple times and just talked to himself. I can't tell if he fully awake or if he talking in his sleep. He sleeps in his own room and since it so hard to get him to sleep through the night I don't go in there unless he is crying. I'm afraid if I do go and he is awake then he will see me and want to play. He is just waking up, talking for about 5 minutes and going back to sleep. Is this normal?

Gerber Puff Update

We tried out the Gerber puffs again yesterday. I fed him a few then held out my hand to see if he would pick them up and eat them himself. He had other ideas, you can't really tell by the picture but he is eating them from my hand. He does enjoy them now and I'm not so scared to give him a whole one either.

Grandma & Grandpa

Steve's parents have been on vacation for the past week. Prior to leaving all they could talk about was not being able to see Cooper for over a week. To make matters worse they were actually in Canada for the majority of the trip and did not have international calling on their cell phone. They got home Wednesday evening and as Steve's brother picked them up from the airport, Steve, Cooper and myself waited at their house to surprise them. I had Scott call when he got close and give me a code word so that we could go outside and meet them. I wish I had our video camera to capture Steve's dad jumping out of the car before it even came to a stop. This was all I got out of the moment. They sure do love their Cooper.

Chatterbox & Swimming

For the first time in almost two months Cooper woke up multiple times last night. I think he is getting another tooth. Although this time wasn't so bad, he didn't wake up crying and we never once had to and get him out of bed. He woke up and talked to himself. This happened once early in the night, again around 3, again around 5:45. Then he was up early around 6:20. He ended up taking a long early nap and woke up grumpy again. Thankfully my mom got off work early so we went swimming. He thinks he is such a big boy in his boat. Notice his cute shirt, it says "I was born at Floyd Memorial Hospital", I know it's kind of cheesy but still cute.

Big Boy Stuff

Cooper decided he wanted to help mommy with dinner the other day, I told him he could help drain the pasta.This morning I thought I would give the Gerber puffs a try. At first he was only interested in the lid to the can.

Then when I did give him a piece to eat he just wanted to play with it. Why is it that you give them something they can put in their mouth they don't want to. He eats everything! He even tries to eat my feet.

Bowling and Dinner

Saturday was adult night out with the Reids and Bushes. We had a great time, I think this might be the second or third time Steve and I have gotten a babysitter at night and went out. We went to Lucky Strike for bowling and dinner at Friday's. Cooper did well with my mom too, it took him a while to get to sleep so he slept in today and then took an hour a half nap, my nap was wonderful, I took full advantage today. Here are some shots from the night.

Gretchen, Paul, Tracey, and Eric.

Don't let the professional wrist brace fool you into thinking I'm a good bowler. I've been having trouble with my wrist for a few months now and it doesn't help I'm right handed. I bowled a 57 the first game and didn't even break 50 the second. Yup, that is how bad I am.

Gretchen, Eric and Tracey. Aren't the cute?

I'm really not for sure what Steve is doing here, kind of scares me.

Yes, I am on the phone with my mom checking on Cooper.

I had a great time guys, looking forward to doing it again soon!

Seriously!!!

I was watching the Today Show this morning and there was a segment on ways to cut your budget in half. Since we just lost approx 40% of our income I thought it might be interesting. They showed a family of 4 who decided to cut their budget in half for one week. One week? Anyone can cut back for one week, but I watched anyway. On average they spend about $660/week. I'm not for sure if this accounted for bills or not, it didn't seem like it. So I looked up some figures on the median household income in the US. 2006 was the earliest I could find and according to Wikipedia it was around $48K. I took out some taxes and health insurance, which in my opinion was a little low, and I came out with about a $722/week net income. Keep in mind this does not account for savings or retirement. So the average household is bringing home $60 more a week than this family spends in a week. Did I mention this was $660 not including bills? What did this family do for a week that saved money? No morning Starbucks, no weekly pedicure for mom, dad mowed the lawn instead of paying someone, washed their own Lexus SUV instead of paying someone else to, went the local pool instead of I assume might have been a water park since it saved them about $40, went to the Farmer's Market for produce that cut down their $160/week grocery bill. Once again $160/week, they mention they eat out the majority of the week. Chic-Fil-A at least twice a week for lunch they mentioned. When it was over they ended up only spending $105 that week. So basically they gave up weekly luxuries that over 50% of our country cannot afford. Tell me how this helps people?

My Favorites

Nothing really new to say just wanted to share my two favorite things!

Cooper's Crib

One day last week Cooper was taking a nap and I was in the shower. Mid way through I heard him wake up and start crying. I quickly finished, ran in his room and started this musical/light thing on his crib. I finished getting dressed, came back in the room and this is what I found. Needless to say the crib was lowered the next day.

Fun Saturday

Well it didn't start out so great when I got a wake up call around 5:15 in the morning, by wake up call I mean a cry. It took a while, but with a little mommy touch he finally went back down around 6 and let us sleep another 45 minutes. It was much needed. We got up, I headed over to Karen's for our "weekly weigh in". Not a good week, must be something to do with the fried chicken I had Friday night and hot dog I had Thursday night. Holidays only come once a year, what are you going to do? Came back home, Cooper laid down around 9:45 and we all took another much needed nap. Got up, dropped Cooper off at Grandma and Grandpa's (they are going out of town next week and just don't know how they will manage a full week without him). Steve and I decided to have a "date day". We are doing the Dave Ramsey envelope system on certain things now and since we can replenish it on Wed we decided to treat ourselves to lunch and a movie. First on the list was McAlister's. I had a left over gift card with what I thought was about $3 left. Our total was $18 something so imagine my surprise when she ran the gift card and my new total was $7 something. I love it when things like that happen. Then it was off to see Hancock, matinee price of course. It was good, different than I expected, but still good. It's been close to a year since I went to the movies, so it was a nice treat. Total cost so far, $19. Of course we stopped by for a Blizzard afterwards. I'm not a huge ice cream fan but I do get in the mood every once in a while. A small Blizzard will last me two days, but today is my only cheat day I have another weigh in on Friday. Wish me luck!

Question????

First I want to say that I love fireworks and 4th of July as much as the next person. However when do you question fun celebration vs. excessive behavior? Last night we were going to bed around 10:00 and there were a few fireworks going off in our neighborhood. I expected this, due to the 4th on a Friday I knew that there would most likely be some all weekend long. I don't think it lasted long and I was able to fall asleep. I woke up a while later to some more fireworks, we looked at the clock, it was midnight. Steve and I were trying to keep a good attitude about it, laid back down, tried to get some sleep. I kept dozing off and kept waking back up. Looked at the clock, it was 12:30. Laid there for about another 15 or so minutes before I finally feel asleep for the night. So I guess the question is, am I being unrealistic in thinking that 1:00 am is too late? There were times we let off fireworks at Scott's and after the cleanup and driving home, we were still in bed by 12. And we used to go all out, spending close to $300 every year. Am I alone in this, or is 1:00 too late?

Jazzercise!

If you have known me more than 5 years then you know how much Jazzercise has changed me. I used to be the biggest couch potato and hated exercise. About 2 weeks before I got engaged I decided I needed to get in shape and join the class. Steve didn't think it would last, however he didn't realize the power and motivation a ring brings to a female. Once we were married a year later didn't mean that I would quit, I was already hooked. It takes dedication to go to class 6 months pregnant, 90 degrees outside, and no air conditioning. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, I slowed down a bit in the summer months but picked it back up once it cooled down. So much so I was in there on a Wed and delivered on Mon. Anyway..... once I went back to work I found it difficult to go to class. I had to leave work early and even then I didn't get home till 6:30 and it was too big of a rush to get things done. After Cooper got sick then I got sick it had been almost a month since I had been to a class. I knew that there was a possibility I would get to stay at home with Cooper but it would take a few months. Luckily, instead of cancelling my membership I was able to put my account on hold. As of July 1st my account was active again. I've already been twice this week and it feels great. I'm a little sore, it's amazing how much changes in such a short amount of time. The best advice I've gotten since I decided to stay at home was to find something for myself. For me, Jazzercise is it. I feel great, I'm so excited to be back!