Labor Day Weekend

I love three day weekends! Even though it doesn't effect me much anymore it is just nice to have Steve home an extra day. Friday was a pretty usual day, didn't do much. Steve was in Bloomington all day Saturday for the IU game. I started off the day with breakfast at Cracker Barrel with Karen and Heather. Steve's parents came over to watch Cooper, it was nice to catch up with the girls. Even though we all live next door to each other we still rarely spend time together. Next I had my sister's baby shower. It was at 2:00 and Cooper never got his second nap in so we had to leave around 3:30 and didn't get to see her open her gifts. Steve got home around 6 :30, just in time for Cooper's bath and bedtime. Although seeing Daddy he did get excited and stayed up later than usual. Sunday morning was church as usual. I've been in the nursery the month of August and I can't expect at Cooper's age to remain in church for two services so I've only been going to the nursery this month. It seems like forever since I've heard a sermon. But I do love the nursery so I'm not complaining. Last night Steve and I went to the Bat's game. Louisville won 6-4 thanks to a 3 run homer in the 6th or 7th inning. It was actually part of Steve's Father's Day present there was just never a good time to go. We let Steve's parent's keep Cooper overnight again and would you believe that I did not sleep well at all. I have this weird feeling when he isn't here, I wanted to turn on the monitor and just pretend. Now it is Monday morning, Steve is mowing the grass, Cooper is napping, and there is a 90210 marathon on all day long. Sounds like a great day to me!

Remember when...

So I know I just posted this picture yesterday but I wanted to post it again next to a similar one. This other one was taken the first time we too him to church. He's gotten so big, it makes me sad!

Time for Cooper's close-up

My child loves the camera and always has a big cheesy grin when I get it out. Here he is wanting a close-up.

Here is one of him being a little dare devil. He could have easily went around the high chair, but I guess he had other plans. If you look closely he is going for his IU football.

And finally my little sleepy guy. His naps are starting to shift and his first nap is getting later and longer and it's getting harder and harder to get him to take a second nap. When he does take a second nap he goes to bed later, sometimes an hour and half later than normal. Except today, he didn't take a second nap at all. Anyway, the other day we knew we could not hold him out and wanted him to take at least a quick 20 minute nap. We decide to go take our recyclables to the recycle place (sorry I couldn't think of what it is called) just to get him to go to sleep. Here he is when we got him home and we were trying to wake him.

2 Missions...

I thought I would fill you guys in on two missions I am on right now. The first has been going on for about 12 weeks. If you have been reading Karen's blog you know that some of us have been meeting and weighing in each week. Saturday was our last weigh in and I'm about half way to my goal. Since we have stopped meeting I need some accountability so I'm going to post on here how close I'm getting to my goal. I haven't decided what I get to do once I reach my goal, so I need some ideas. Clothes would be nice, but once I reach that goal I should be able to fit into all my old clothes I haven't worn in almost 2 years.

The second goal is doing some things around the house. This is for two reasons, one I need to make things a little bit more baby proof and two I need to maximize space a little more. I cleaned out our hall closet yesterday and have some room for more stuff, I plan on cleaning out the spare bedroom closet this week. For the first year in our house both spare bedrooms where junk rooms. For the past two years we have had a huge yard sale in May and made about $200 each time. I don't know how we accumulate so much stuff. Next month we are having another one at Steve's parents house. I've already gotten some stuff together. I'm not holding on to anything this time around. I think one day I'm going to take Cooper to my in-laws and just spend the entire day cleaning and reorganizing. For some strange reason I'm really excited about this.

9 Month Checkup

We had Cooper's checkup this morning. He is in great health. He weighs 17 lb 15 oz which puts him in the 10th percentile, he is 27 1/4 inches long which is the 15th percentile, and his head is 80th. The best part of today's visit was no shots. Although his one year he gets a boat load. We also have to go back early October for a flu shot.
I've been putting off replacing the car seat carrier we have until he gets to be a year that way I don't have to have installed rear facing and then forward facing, I just thought I would do it all at once. However, at the rate we are going I won't be able to face him forward until he is like 18 months. So, I am on a mission to find a convertible car seat. It's getting hard to lift that carrier in the middle of the car. That is my goal for this week and next is to get a new car seat and have it installed.

Happy 9th Month Birthday!

I wanted to post this picture we took this morning. We always keep two pacifiers in the bedroom at night just in case Cooper wakes up we don't have to search the crib for one. Last night was a rare two time wake up. Steve was the one to check on him the second time. So this morning I went in and could only find one pacifier. I checked all around the crib and couldn't find it. I went ahead and got Cooper out and that is when I found it. My little stinker had both.
We go to the doctor on Thursday, I will post stats then.

Go Colts!

On Saturday we drove up to Indianapolis to tour the new Colts stadium. They had 5 free tours and Steve's brother was kind enough to give us tickets to the 12:00 tour. I wanted to take Cooper with us cause I thought it would be good to take some pictures and dress him up in a Manning jersey, which by the way I want to thank Tracey and Levi for letting us borrow. We had a good time, but the tour itself was a mess. They have away 20,000 tickets for each tour and only had one gate up to let everyone in. They didn't even open our gate until 12:15 and by the time we got through it almost 1:00 and we needed to be out by 2:00. It was a madhouse in there. The stadium itself was awesome and I can't wait to see it on TV but it almost feels like a wasted trip. I'm just glad it was free. We could have went down on the field but they didn't have the ramps open and we would have needed to take an elevator and it was too congested to get on. Here are some photos that I did take. Maybe I will get lucky and actually get to go to a game one day. I didn't get a shot of it, but this place towers the RCA Dome. It's amazing from the interstate how much bigger it is.

Our Weekend

Steve had to work on Saturday so we started our day off with a trip to the park to meet Tracey and Levi. It was nice to catch up, I miss you guys. We then went to my mom's house to visit for a while. She is in the process of cleaning and putting things in storage. When I first got there she came out to get Cooper while I got some stuff out of my car. I came back in and this is where I found him.

Sunday we went to the zoo, second time for Cooper, but first time as a family. He was a little bit more lively this time around, last time he slept. It was a great day to go, the weather was awesome. I didn't get a lot of pictures, here are two that did take. If you wonder why Cooper looks happy with Steve and miserable with me, it's because when he is next to Steve he is looking at me! He always smiles when he sees Mommy.

Here he is after Steve decided to push the stroller under the mist they blow out to cool people down. Turns out it was more like a water fall that soaked the stroller and Cooper. He didn't like it at all. So of course, Mommy had to get him out and make it all better.

The end of the weekend was the cutest. Every night we read That's Not My Puppy, and Cooper likes to help us turn the pages then at the end of the book he gives his puppy a kiss on the nose. Last night we had to read it like 4 times, by the third time he was giving every puppy a kiss, it was the sweetest thing. We have it on tape if someone can let me know how to post a video, that would be great.
Have a great week!

Daddy's Boy

For the most part Cooper is a mommy's boy. He is undoubtedly attached to me, even more so now that I am home everyday with him. However, when Steve is gone all day at work, once he comes home Cooper is all daddy. It's so exciting to see him when Steve walks in the door. He kicks his feet, waves his arms, jumps up and down in my arms, smiles and laughs. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen. It's especially cute when he happens to sleep in and doesn't wake until after Steve leaves for the day. I rarely get to see this excitement, partly because I'm never away from him for more than a few hours This one is a rarity because our child does not like to cuddle.

Cooper's First Popsicle

Steve gave Cooper some of his popsicle last night, it's safe to say that he enjoyed it.

My Little Explorer

Yesterday I was doing laundry and I left Cooper in the living room while I put some clothes in the dryer. I was walking back through the kitchen and this is where I found my child.

Play time with Corbin

On Monday we went to Matt & Melanie's so Cooper and Corbin could have play time together, well as much as two kids their age can actually play. Corbin kept getting in Cooper's car seat and at one time found the pacifier. This is the best shot I could get, but it is of Corbin trying to give Cooper his (Cooper) pacifier. It was too cute.

Thanks to Corbin and Melanie for having us over and to Melanie for the awesome brunch she made!

Who Needs Toys

Why do we spend money on toys for kids? All they need is a few simple items. (If you can't tell, I went shoe shopping recently)

Last Night...

was a lot of fun! The Dave concert was great, although our seats weren't so much. We should have gotten the general admission tickets to be down on the field, we will know better next time. They played for almost three hours, I didn't know all of the songs, Steve is more of a fan than I am, but they are awesome live. The band is great. Cooper did good too and slept all night for Steve's parents. The best part, he went to bed later and got up earlier, so he took almost a three hour nap for us today and of course we slept too. Now we are off to a cook out down the street. Have a great Saturday.

Tonight...

Steve and I have tickets to the Dave Matthews concert at Slugger Field. Since the concert will most likely run late we decided to let Cooper stay with Steve's parents for night. This will be the second time that he has been away from us all night long, and I really don't count the first. The first time he was just shy of 4 months and I had just went back to work. He had been sick all weekend, up all night with a fever, not sleeping, etc. To make matters worse, it was a weekend and there was about 8 or 10 inches of snow on the ground and our pediatrician's office was closed, so it took a few days to find out it was just an ear infection. One night my mom offered to keep him for us all night so we could get some sleep. We dropped him off around 7 and I picked him up around 7 am the next morning. Would you believe it was the only night in a span of about 10 nights that he actually slept all night? So I don't count this night for several reasons: I was in a complete daze for this week, he was still young enough that he didn't really know what was going on, and I was so tired I could have passed out anywhere that week. This time is a little different. He has become so attached to me that Steve has a hard time putting him to sleep. One night he screamed until I came in there and he started reaching for me. Steve's parents have watched him late enough before that they had to put him down for bed and we picked him up later but just never all night. I hope he does okay and doesn't wake up and get sad because I'm not here. Speaking of waking up, he is waking up from his nap right now. Wish me luck tonight, I will probably be checking my phone all night instead of enjoying the concert.