He did it!!!

You have got to see this! I keep saying how proud I am, but wow I think this takes the cake. Look at how fast he is moving!

Shhhh we skipped school today...

We did. All three of us stayed home today to celebrate my 29th birthday. (Wow I said it, I am 29 years old now - eek!) And what a great day it was. I woke up to beautiful flowers from the boys along with cards. The weather was beautiful so we all took a long walk outside. Then we went to mall to get my birthday present, some brand new sandals. They are so pretty if I must say so myself. Then we came home and had a great dinner all together. At the end of it, I looked at Eddie and Cooper and just thought what a wonderful birthday it was spending time with them. Cooper has changed everything about our life, but it is so much better than I could have ever imagined. Last year at this time Cooper was still rolling around in my tummy and now he is rolling around in his crib (as I type actually). What an amazing and wonderful year. My 29th birthday has been great!

Official Measurements

We just got back from our 6 month well visit at the doctor's office. Here is the run down of Cooper's measurements:

Weight - 20 lbs. 6 oz. (75% - 90% percentile)
Height - 28.5" (90% - 97% percentile)
Head Circumference - 17.5" (75% percentile)

I thought it was a little weird that this time they gave us ranges of his percentiles, but maybe that is normal. I definitely wouldn't know. So it looks like our little guy (or should I say big guy) is growing well and everything is great. The doctor said we can start feeding him more solids like meats and some table food (think mashed potatoes). I bet he will just love that! Does that mean Eddie and I get to eat more mashed potatoes? :-)

He was really good throughout the whole visit. Well, except for when the doctor had to look in his ears. He noticed some wax build up and he was getting it out and Cooper just started screaming. Crocodile tears and all. As soon as I held him when he was done, he was fine. Something about digging in his ears he must not like.

Well, that's the update for now. In case you were wondering, Cooper is back to sleeping through the night. We went a couple of weeks where he kept waking up. Thank goodness the good sleeping baby is back!

Cooper's Baptism Weekend

It was a big weekend in the Holland household. We had family coming into town, Cooper was being baptized at Church on Sunday, and it was a long holiday weekend. All in all it was a wonderful weekend filled with family and fun.

My family got into town on Saturday afternoon. Cooper was very excited to see them and show them his new found skill of crawling (or at least his version of it). Once they got here my mom, sister and grandmother and I all headed up to go to the Talbots outlet, a must do when they all come to Charlotte. Cooper stayed with Eddie and Pop Pop and I am sure those three had a blast. They actually had dinner started for us when we got home. How nice! Cooper needed to go to bed early because 1) he didn't sleep real well the night before and 2) the big event was the next morning. So everyone retired a little earlier than normal to get ready for the big day. However, after we put Cooper to sleep we got all the preparations for the breakfast the next morning ready. Think yummy egg casserole, cinnamon rolls, fruit, biscuits, ham! Delicious!

The next morning we got Cooper ready in his outfit (with his initials and everything - thanks Mom Mom and Pop Pop). Eddie's family was meeting us at the church, so off we went. Cooper snoozed a little bit on the way to church - as he does every Sunday morning. Cooper + car seat + 15 minute trip = nap time! We headed into church up to the very front row. I don't know that I had ever been that close to the front of that church before. It is beautiful. If you ever have the chance to go, you should. Cooper was wonderful. He didn't cry at all! He was actually very interested in everything Rev. Howell was doing. When he lit the candle, Cooper just stared. When he blew the candle out he just looked at him like what are you doing? It was priceless! They walked him down the aisle and showed him to the entire congregation. It was another one of those moments that I will never forget. I was proud, happy, emotional. Oh it was wonderful. It was even better knowing that our families were there to experience it with the three of us. They will never know how much it meant to have them there.

After the service, everyone came back to our house for breakfast/brunch. Everything went so smoothly and Cooper was again just the perfect baby. The weather held out for us to get in and out of the church without getting soaked which was another bonus. After the breakfast/brunch, we all got changed and headed to the mall to do some shopping. This time the boys came with us. We had a great time, and Cooper loved it because no one was making him nap. You probably could have guessed with all this activity, Cooper would not nap. I think he was scared he would miss something. Only our little man!

My family headed back to Florida early Monday morning and the house felt empty with it just the three of us. The weather was so rainy on Memorial Day. I can't remember the last time the weather was so bad like that on the holiday. With that being said, I will say it was kind of nice. We had to stay inside and recover from the busy weekend. Cooper especially. That poor baby was so tired. He took three great naps. (I should probably tell you his dad held him through these naps - no wonder he slept).

Well, I know this was a long post, but someone pointed out to me this weekend that this is like Cooper's baby book online...what a great concept. It will all be right here! Aren't you all excited to be able to live it with us? I will leave you with some pictures from the big day!

"You have such a good baby"

This is the quote from a woman at Chili's (about Cooper of course, not Eddie). Today was like our Friday because we are off from work tomorrow and Monday for the holiday. So we got home a little early and we decided to go out to dinner to Chili's where we could sit outside, have some chips & salsa and margaritas (not for Cooper of course, but he was eyeing it - I think he wanted some!). We were going to test Cooper out to see how he did sitting in a high chair by himself while we were out to dinner. We sat down, put him in the high chair and he just thought he was the best thing ever. He played with a few toys that we brought and really entertained himself for the WHOLE dinner. It was fantastic! I kid you not. There was no screaming, no yelling, nothing. Not a peep out of him because he was so busy playing with his toys. The woman sitting across the patio came over and said, "You have such a good baby. He has been my entertainment for my whole dinner. He has the most adorable cheeks!" Of course Eddie and I were beaming with pride. We said thank you and Cooper continued on just playing like nothing had happened. We truly are the luckiest parents in the world!





It's funny because we have been getting lots of comments on the Cooper cheeks. Let's face it, this kid is adorable. You can't deny it. Look at the pictures. One of Cooper's teachers at school has given him a nickname, Spanky, from the Little Rascals because of his cheeks. Google "Spanky" and see if you agree.

One more little tidbit for you all - So Cooper is very good at playing by himself. They have made a comment at school that he really just wants to lay on the floor and learn how to crawl. At home we notice that he really entertains himself quite well. Again, what a great baby!

Bye bye for now! We have everyone coming into town this weekend for Cooper's baptism. Surely we will have some good stories for you.

Mobility is right around the corner...

Yes, you read that right. He is about to crawl. He can get up on his hands and knees and move. I guess I should tell you all that the direction he is moving in at this point is backwards. He hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet. But hey one step or lunge at a time.

You will see in the video below that it looks more like he is doing pushups than trying to crawl, but its cute nonetheless. He's just getting his arm strength up to be able to crawl, don't you think?


Here is a video of one of his attempts. If you have your sound on, listen at how smart he is! Adorable I tell you!

Pictures!

Here are the pictures I promised, plus a few more. I have been feeling a little under the weather, so I have been a little slow to update things.

Cooper waving bye bye for now!

Cooper is 6 months old!

I can't believe it. He is 6 months old. 6 short months ago we heard him cry for the first time. What an amazing experience. I wish I had words that could describe it, but there are none that would do it justice. I just remember looking up at Eddie and him saying to me, "There he is!" And me immediately saying go check on him. Funny how those words have been said everyday since then! haha!

I will try not to be so sappy now...

Cooper is doing all the things a 6 month old should - drooling, putting everything he can pick up in his mouth, and yes drooling some more. He is also sitting up pretty well on his own. That head topples him over sometimes, but he is pretty darn resilient! Poppa Bruce would be proud - Cooper has great hand-eye coordination. Future baseball player possibly?

The past week or so Cooper has had some trouble sleeping. Before this, he was sleeping until we would wake him up. Apparently that has ended. We are not sure what is going on with him. Could be a growth spurt, his teeth, his cough, separation anxiety.Who knows? All I know is he needs to go back to us having to go wake him up!

I will add his 6 month pictures that we took on Saturday later tonight when I get them uploaded. Until then, have a great day!

Our Getaway to Vero

Let me start by saying we have the most wonderful baby in the world. You are probably thinking I am just saying that because I am biased. However, I have had multiple people tell me what a good baby he is. (granted most are related to Cooper, but still) I will give you examples and you can be the judge...

We left for Vero on Thursday afternoon around 3pm. Cooper napped on and off pretty much the whole trip. No major breakdowns or anything! Impressive I know! However, I started to notice him whine during his sleep. Started to make me wonder if we were getting another ear infection. We got to Vero around 12:45am. Thinking Cooper was down for the night, I had Eddie carry him in the house in his car seat. I come in and Eddie tells me he somehow just woke up. Looking back - Bad judgment on my part to let Eddie take him in. He is always saying "Come on, let's just go wake him up and play" Ummm that's apparently exactly what he did because Cooper was ready for some play time at 1am. Not just a little, I mean full out laughing, kicking, rolling over, the whole bit. Now MomMom and PopPop thought it was the cutest thing ever. I was thinking its 1:30am and I have been up since 6am, Cooper please go to sleep. However, all Cooper wanted was to get in bed with us and out he went. Once he got to sleep he went right into his crib to get ready for his big trip to Florida.

Friday was supposed to be a relaxing day and one where Eddie and I were going to leave Cooper with MomMom, PopPop, Meems and Aunt MS to go over to stay on the beach for a night. Well, Cooper decided he wanted us to stay with him a little longer. Poor little man got an ear infection. We took him to the doctor and that is where we spent most of the day Friday. But he got some medicine and we were off to our night out at the beach. They said Cooper did great. Mary Kate gave me the inside scoop that Cooper had a little trouble going to sleep. But he made it just fine! Cooper's first night away from us was a success! Good job little man. Another example of what a great little baby we have. Well, I say little, but I should call him what Eddie and I have been calling him, Big Time. We did find out on our doctor's visit that Cooper is in fact 20lbs. If you read my prior post, they call that a "big baby"!

Saturday was a big day for Big Time. He had his first adventure swimming in the pool and took his first trip to the beach. It was so funny to see how serious his face was. He was really studying the water and trying to figure out what was going on. It's not that he didn't like the water, I think he really just wanted to figure it out. Maybe we have a little engineer on our hands. I will attach some pics below so you can see his reaction. Finally, I have a picture of the three of us on the beach. A very nice woman stopped and saw us AKA me taking pictures of Cooper and Eddie and asked if we wanted a picture of all three of us. She said that it always looked like with her kids that her husband was the only one that took them on vacation because she was always taking the pictures not in them. Isn't that so true!

My first Mother's Day was wonderful. Cooper woke up a happy little man and gave me a card with his own signature. We had a great breakfast and Cooper just had a blast playing. Now, here's a good picture for you...mind you this is on Mother's Day, look what I caught Eddie and Cooper doing. (I should be honest and tell you my mom and I were going shopping, but still how funny is this)

Sunday afternoon we also celebrated J's 4th birthday. He had a blast with his pirate cake and everyone liked the cake except for well Jackson. He really just wanted a pirate ship I think. We came back to the house and MomMom, Aunt MS and me went for a walk while Cooper played. When we got back Cooper went in the pool again, and got his first taste of ice. Yes, I said ice. He loved it! His bottom two teeth are coming in and he just kept rubbing that cold ice on his little gums. He couldn't get enough...take a look.

Here's a picture of the three cousins. Are they not the sweetest?!?! They look thrilled that I made them stop playing to take a picture don't they?

Well, that brings us to the end of our weekend in Florida. We headed back to Charlotte early Monday morning and got back home around 430pm. All in all we had a great trip and we loved seeing everyone. Cooper did great and showed everyone truly what a great baby he is. To say I was proud is an understatement. He really is the best baby in the whole world! Don't you think that too now?

Almost forgot...you know how I have said we think Cooper is a genius baby, well here's proof! Future Seminole! Garnet and gold look so good on him don't they?

Playing Catch Up...

• Well, I haven't written an update in a few days so of course there is ton to catch you all up on.
• Getting ready for school - As I have said in previous posts Eddie gets Cooper ready and takes him to school. Well, the other morning Eddie had gotten Cooper dressed and was getting ready himself when he looks over at Cooper (who has since rolled on his tummy) reaching up for a pillow that we keep on our bed. Now this pillow is like a fleece material so it is very soft. Cooper is rubbing his little face on it and then wouldn't you know it falls asleep! Please take a look at how sweet...

Crawling? - Cooper is really trying to figure out how to crawl. He tries to stick his knees underneath him, but can't figure out that he needs to use his arms too. Take a look at his attempt:

• Weekend Update - Our weekend was good. We are busy trying to get ready for our big trip down to Florida this week. Planning out what we are going to bring, not going to bring, things we should bring so different compared to how we used to make the trip. Night before we would leave we would throw together a bag and be off, now I am making lists a week ahead of time. It should be a great trip and we are hoping Cooper does great. As you can imagine, we will have lots of fun stories to share when we get back.


• Now I will leave you with just a few adorable pics of our little man. Isn't he sweet?!?!

• Baseball already??? - Eddie apparently is trying to get him started early. However, just like he should, all Cooper wanted to do was eat the baseball.
  

• Reading? - So we put Cooper on the bed yesterday with Eddie's Sports Illustrated magazine. Does Cooper like to read you ask? Oh yes, quite a bit. But as a warning when he gets bored of the article he just rips it apart and throws to the ground....take a look. Must remember to NEVER leave work papers in front of Cooper!
  

That's all for now. Hope you all have a great week!