My Week

I don't know what Cooper gets more excited about. Seeing daddy when we gets home from work or playing with daddy's name tag.This is what is on my agenda for this week. Today between 12-4 someone is coming to check out our air conditioning unit. It stopped working last night. I am also waiting on a call back so we can get an estimate on our roof. There is no major damage, only a few shingles that have popped up. Someone was supposed to come out the day after the storm and despite a few phone calls we cannot get a hold of this person so we had to call someone new. Sometime this week we need to call Insight to take a look at our modem connection because we keep losing the signal. Is there anything that is working in my house?

Big Boy

I think I've mentioned it before that fall is my favorite season. To make things even better I get to start dressing Cooper in some big boy clothes. Here is a picture from Friday night. I love the jeans and tennis shoes!Here is another big boy picture. He has pulling up for a few weeks now but couldn't do it on the couch until recently. I think it was a little high for him. I guess he thinks he can use a cell phone too.

523

That is the number that did not appear on the screen at church this week. Another victory for Cooper. Seems as if he has made a friend in the nursery. He has warmed up to one of the volunteers. I knew this would happen, volunteers rotate monthly so now that he has made it the whole service without crying, new volunteers will be there next month. I'm just excited that he is making it again. By the end of the year he should in the other room and walking around so I think things will get a lot better. Until then it's just a lot of prayer.

What a Morning...

I think I need to stop while I'm ahead. I've already smashed Cooper's finger in the dishwasher and he has eaten paper. I'm counting down the minutes till nap time :)

Remember When

For some reason I'm starting to feel very sentimental about Cooper. I don't know if it is because we are nearing his first birthday and I'm having memories of my last couple months of pregnancy or what it is. I find myself during the rare moments where he will sit still and want to cuddle that I'm taking the time to cherish the moment a little more. Before I got pregnant it seemed like everyday was the same old thing. Watching him grow these past 10 months has really made me realize how precious life is and to never take thing for granted. Before pregnancy you could pretty much guarantee that 6 months to year from then things might not change too much. With a child things can change weekly even daily.

Since I didn't start this blog until after he was born I missed out on blogging about my pregnancy. I can forget something you told me an hour ago but I have a weird ability to recall details about certain events. So, during the next few months I'm going to randomly blog about things that were going on during my pregnancy a year ago.

This time last year I was about 7 months pregnant and having baby showers. Steve and I were blessed with so many caring friends, relatives, and co-workers that supported us during that time. We are so thankful for the love they showed us. Here are some pictures of that time.

Me and the cake from the shower Steve's mom threw for me.

The cake from the shower some friends threw for me.


The tissue holder Steve's aunt made, which matches Cooper's room.

The diaper game.

I have many more but I will leave it at this. It was fun to take a look back.

Mystery Solved

The other night after dinner Cooper was playing in the kitchen and Steve found him with what appeared to be some left over spit up on his mouth and shirt. We looked all over the floors and carpet to find where all this originated but couldn't find anything. Later on that night I was cleaning up the living room and picked Cooper's shoes off the floor. He always likes to chew on them but this one was a more wet than usual. I looked inside and found some leftover dinner. Oh the joy of children :)

594 and 506

Those were the two numbers assigned to Cooper in church the past two weeks for the nursery. Those numbers did not pop up on the screen during service. Yea Cooper!!! The last two Sunday's in July I got called back, I worked in the nursery in August, then the first Sunday in Sept I got called back. It's good to know we are making progress. Although when I did pick him up today he was pretty upset, crying, red blotchy face. They said that had only been going on for about 5 minutes. Poor thing! But we are strong and we will make it!

Fun Filled Saturday

Steve's parents had a yard sale on Saturday and since his dad was going to the IU football game Steve and I went over to help out. It started slow but turned out pretty good for me and Steve. We made $80, which at first my goal was $20. We set up the pack and play outside and Cooper just sat in there and played with his toys. There is no way he would do that at home but he seemed to enjoy it there.

Saturday evening Cooper and I went out to eat with my family for my Carmen and Candiace's (my sisters) birthday. It was me, Cooper, my mom, my dad, Carmen, her husband Jason, their daughter Emma, Candiace, her husband Jeff, their son Courtland, and one of his friends. Carmen's oldest daughter Hailey was with her dad and Steve stayed home with a headache. As you can imagine it was a rowdy group, but we still had fun. It had been a while that all of us were together.

Cooper being silly.

My mom and Emma.

My dad and Emma.Cooper and Emma (She likes being in pictures if you can't tell).

Cooper couldn't resist being in a picture by himself.

Trip to Toys R Us

Cooper turns 10 months tomorrow and I thought I had managed to escape disaster on our trips outside the home. That is until yesterday. I needed to run to Toys R Us for a safety gate and then by Old Navy. I had coupons for both that expired a day. The trip started off bad, I put him the car and while I was loading the stroller he started screaming. I'm not for sure if he thought I was leaving him by himself but he went crazy. We were halfway there before he calmed down. So we went in and got the gate, which is actually one of those gates you can enclose and keep your kids in there, I promise it is actually for our Christmas tree. I loaded the thing in the cart, paid for it, struggled to get it to my car on the downward slooping parking lot as the cart began to pick up speed, and then realized that with the stroller taking up the entire trunk, I could not fit the box in my car. I tried everything, Cooper's car seat is still in the middle and with a Honda Civic there is only so much you can do. For lack of a better word I felt like an idiot. Thankfully my mother-in-law lives like 3 minutes away and was at home and could come rescue me. Thank you again! After that I didn't feel like going to Old Navy, but that was the whole reason I brought stroller in the first place. After Old Navy I drove through Dairy Queen and treated myself to a sweet tea. It could have been worse, I could have gotten a giant Reece Cup Blizzard.

What a Wonderful Husband!

Steve and I (well more me actually) decided not to get each other anything this year for our anniversary. With the exception of our first anniversary when we went back to Disney we usually just went out to dinner and got each other a gift. This year was just dinner. With only one income, Christmas coming up and we have to buy two new car seats within the next few months we thought against it. Well I guess I will have to forgive Steve for walking through the door with these.

Pictures

Here are some random pictures from the week.

Cooper trying on my sunglasses.

Me with Cooper and Alex. For an hour Steve and I got to see what life would be like with twins.

Cooper after he learned out to pull up.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 4 year anniversary. I can't believe how fast time has gone. It just feels like yesterday! Here we are on our wedding day and a picture from our honeymoon.

We didn't do much this year, we went out Saturday for dinner and that is about it. Steve said he felt bad because it seems like we don't ever do anything to celebrate. I asked him if he forgot about the $2000 we spent to go back to Disney World on our first anniversary.

New things

Cooper has been doing a variety of new cute things lately. Although he has been crawling for a couple of months now it has always been more of an army crawl. About the past week he has started to move a little with his belly up off the floor. Until now he hasn't been able to go from being on his belly back to a sitting position. The first few times he did so it was with some assistance, either trying to crawl on one of us or once in his crib. The other night he did it on his own. When he did Steve and I both started clapping, and now every time he does it he claps for himself. It is too cute. He sits up, looks at us, smiles and starts to clap.

He has also has this new look when we get out the camera. I've posted one below on what I was able to capture the best. He shuts his eyes and grins really big. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in his little head.

One thing not so cute is that he has started testing us and crying when he doesn't get his way. He loves to play with the telephone and remote control. Yesterday someone had called and when I hung up the phone he wanted it back. He kept trying to crawl up on the couch to get it. I sat him back down and he started crying like it was the end of the world! So I got out his bucket of shapes and started playing with them. It didn't take long for him to realize that what I was doing looked more fun and he quickly joined in. I think I won our first battle!

Yeah, but we still won the Championship!

Just to prove I'm not a sore loser I thought I would post some pictures I took when Gretchen brought Hope and Pierce over on Monday. I'm okay, really, if you would have given me the choice back in Feb 2007 that the Colts could either win that night or they could win their opening game of the 2008 season but not both, I would have taken the Super Bowl trophy. For those that do not know, Steve is a Bears fan.

Good Times

I don't think I could have asked for a better weekend. Saturday was great, we did not have to be anywhere early that morning we we were able to get up and relax and not rush around. Cooper was in a great mood as usual in the morning and enjoyed his French Toast sticks. The boy will eat anything. I had lunch with Sharon and Karen at O'Charley's. I don't go there often and I think it's becoming a tradition that Sharon and I go there for lunch right before either of us has a baby. She found out last week she has to have a c-section and is scheduled to go in on the 19th. I'm so excited for her! After lunch I came home, picked up Cooper and headed off to Gunner's 1st birthday party. Gunner is Lisa and Joey Stamper's little boy. I've never seen anything quite like it for a birthday party. They had a cowboy theme complete with pony rides, which you will see later that Cooper was not a fan of. By the time I got home it was 6:00 and I think I was more tired than Cooper was, despite the fact he only had one nap.

So far it has been the picture perfect Sunday as well. I've been in the nursery the whole month of August and the two Sunday's prior to that I got called back because Cooper was getting cranky. I was so excited to hear a sermon again. I let the nursery workers know that if he gets upset it's because it's a Mommy thing and I'm okay with that he needs to get used to it and if he gets out of control to call me in. Well, as soon our preacher got up someone came to tell me that he had been crying the entire time, they were okay, but thought I should know. I went ahead and went back and he was so upset. Once I took him he was fine. I guess it's something we are going to have to try and work through. Okay, so that wasn't picture perfect but the rest of the day has been. We had Steve's parents and my mom over for Papa Murphy's pizza and some Brownies and after they left all three of us took a nap. How much better does it get? Then tonight we get to see the Colts beat the Bears! Opening NFL kick-off weekend has to be the best weekend all year!

Cooper wanting off the pony.

Wearing Daddy's shoes.

Cooper's favorite new place to crawl. He crawls from the living room to the kitchen this way.

Cooper and his cowboy hat, amazingly he actually kept this on for a while.

Nothing is better than my cup in one hand and my alligator in the other.