Weekend Photos

We had a great long weekend. We went swimming, shopping, learned new words (see previous post) and even learned to take a few steps (falling forward immediately after, but still!). Here are some photos and video to recapt these events. Let's be honest - you really just want to see pictures of the little guy!

This picture is for you J - if you look closely these are the jammies you gave to Cooper. (Side note - these are sized for an 18 month old - Cooper is 8.5 months old.)


Here is Cooper in his Faux Hawk. Isn't he cute?!

Here is a video of Cooper clapping -

And saved the best for last....precious little steps...

He said it!

It is official and I had to log on and record it. "MaMa" He distinctly said it. Nothing else just looked at me and said "MaMa". Oh and you know my heart melted. Seriously this kid - if he only knew. However, he does know. I was feeding him lunch. We are moving to stage 3 foods that have little bits of food in it to get used to new textures. (Needless to say Cooper + new things = no fun.) Cooper isn't much for change. (I did say Cooper and yes he is just like his dad.) We were having green beans, which he loves, with rice in it, which he apparently does not love. I was being very patient and smiling and doing everything I could and then he just wasn't having it. He starts slapping my hand away and sprays green beans everywhere. Now I know babies do this. But if you could have seen the look on his face. It was just like he was saying, "Listen lady I am not eating this so go away." Well, I couldn't have that, so I told him no Cooper we do not throw food. If you do it again we are going to have some problems. Wouldn't you know he pauses, looks at me, then throws it again. I raised my voice a little and there it started - with those big eyes just glaring at me - "MaMa". You can imagine how the rest of this went knowing how spoiled this boy is. But come on, he said it and straight at me. Isn't he just an angel? Hehehe!

Pictures I promised...

Look at him standing all on his own. I am so proud of him, but so sad at the same time. He's growing up to fast!

Weekend Recap

We had a very busy weekend in the Holland household. We traveled down to SC for Reid's 9th birthday party. Cooper did great on the trip and really was a great baby the whole time. We really are very lucky to have such an easy going baby. I haven't quite figured out who he gets that from. I don't think anyone looks at Eddie or I and says oh there are two easy going people. Poppa Bruce took some pictures and I will have to post once I get them. Just a clue of what they are....think adorable baby!

On Sunday we had a cookout with some friends and Cooper had a ball. So much attention was directed all at him and he loved it. Cooper showed them his new "tricks" as Eddie likes to say. He a few new ones. One he has started clapping! It is so cute. I don't think he understands when you clap or why he is clapping, but he can still do it! Also, he is starting to be able to stand on his own for a few seconds. He is not too far away from taking some step. Gosh I can't believe how fast time has gone by. I will leave you with a video of our little man showing his "trick" of standing up. Hope you all have a great week!

Walking?

I know! Two posts in one day! Maybe that makes up for the past couple of week? This post you all will love. I bought Cooper a toy that serves as a walker as well as a little car he can ride on. We have been trying to get him to use it as a walker but he never would. Until now...
Take a look. Aren't you impressed?

Here is a video of Cooper just jabbering away. He is such a sweet boy!

Oh Cooper!

Lots of exciting things have been going on at our house. We have been working on getting Cooper to fall asleep on his own at night. Let's just say Cooper's mom and dad are exhausted! Hahah! Doing this involves letting Cooper cry it out a bit. It's awful. I mean it breaks my heart, but I know he can do it. Well, Cooper doesn't like this plan one bit. And he let's us know it. If you were ever curious who Cooper is like, we have an answer - Eddie. Stubborn as can be. Let me explain...

So I give Cooper 10 minute intervals. I lay him down tell him I love him and good night and walk away. He cries (aka screams) for 10 minutes, I go back in and do it all again without picking him up. Well, he is EXHAUSTED, but is so stubborn he won't lay down. He just stands up holding on to the side of the crib crying. We have only gone like 3 rounds of this normally a night. Well, we have been finding this...

Yes, it is what you think it is - Cooper asleep standing up against his crib. Hilarious! I am sorry for the poor quality, but I wouldn't let Eddie go in and risk waking him up, so it is a picture of our video monitor. I mean seriously how stubborn of a baby. Would not lay down for anything. So we continue our quest - we aren't there yet!

Now in the morning when Cooper wakes up, he immediately stands up and starts jabbering. Here is a picture of what we see when we go in and get him up in the morning.

So another thing that has happened is Cooper has gotten his first walking shoes. You know the ones - the white "high-tops" from Stride Rite. And he looks adorable in them. When we went to buy them you should have seen him. He would stand up so proud and look at the sales lady and smile and then look at his shoes. Oh it was too cute for words. Here is a picture of Cooper in his fancy shoes.

We also have started trying to get Cooper to eat some table food. We started with those Gerber puffs that basically dissolve in his mouth. Take a look at these pictures - how happy does he look! I wish he was like this with vegetables!

Now here are just some adorable pictures of him that I just had to post. Seriously, isn't he cute?!?!

He's 8 months old today!

Can you believe it? I can't. He will be 1 year old in 4 months - where did the time go? Our little man is 8 months old. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and fast, pulling up trying to stand on his own. He is doing so much! Funny story for you ....

I went to pick up Cooper from school today and his teacher was telling me that a new baby is starting on Monday, a little boy, Andrew, just a few days older than Cooper. Yippee! Cooper will have a friend his age in his class. Then she told me that he wasn't able to do any of the things Cooper could, all he could do was sit up. The mom was hoping Cooper could show him his "tricks". Haha! Isn't that cute? However, his teacher followed that up by saying "You really need to start him on table food." I know I really do - It's me that is holding him back. He gags on EVERYTHING that is new. We can thank Eddie and his picky eating for that. But the gagging makes me nervous. Is he choking, faking, what? I told his teacher ok we can start working on it. Then she says well you know the new little boy is eating table food and we don't want him to pass Cooper up on something! HAHA. It was so cute - she wanted to Cooper to keep his top dog status in the class.

Well, I apologize again for the lack of posts. I have been working a ton and I am exhausted - so off to bed I go. I will give you more recaps this weekend!

Oh - Pop Pop here's a picture of a future store employee...Make sure you tell Penny and Diane he loves all of his shirts!

And one last picture - I just think he looks adorable!

4th of July Pictures

Sorry for the lack of posting on my part. I am in the middle of some busy times at work, but I wanted to post some pictures of the little man from the 4th down in Florida. We had a great trip and are missing everyone terribly! I will recap it as soon as I get a few minutes.

New toy!

It's been awhile since I have posted and it proves how fast he is learning new things (or getting better at what he can do). He's getting really good at pulling up and standing up as long as he is holding on to something. He also has learned to give kisses. It was another one of those moments that I will never forget. I picked Cooper up and I said give me a kiss Cooper, and wouldn't you know he leaned in and then gave me a hug. If he only knew...

Well on to showing you how he has improved on pulling up and standing up. We bought him a new toy that he can pull himself up to standing and then play. He loves it! Here's some cute pictures and some videos to show you all:

Oh the happy baby...

We went to church yesterday and Cooper had to go to nursery. (Yes, we had to start sending him to nursery - he loves to talk and crawl and well you can't do that in church.) When we went to go pick him up I couldn't find him. I kept looking around the whole room and started to have a little panic attack. They must have saw the sheer terror in my face because they all said at once, who are you looking for. I responded back quickly, Cooper - he has palm tree pants on. They replied, "Oh the happy baby!" There he was crawling behind a chair. Oh Cooper, yes you are the happy baby.

Here are a few pictures from tonight. I was getting dinner ready and Eddie calls out to me to hurry up and come look. Here is what I found:

Happy Father's Day!

It was the first Father's day at our house. So of course I had to take a picture of the baby with his Daddy today. We had a great relaxing day. Cooper was sure to call out for his dad all day with "Dada, dada, dada" all day. (Keep in mind that's all he ever says, I really don't think he is referring to his dad, but shhhh don't tell him that.) It's sweet nonetheless. Eddie is a great dad and Cooper is very lucky to have him. We are both lucky to him. We love you!

Here are a few pictures from today:

In addition to celebrating Dad today, we let Cooper try a teething biscuit. In case I forgot to tell you guys, Cooper had a tooth pop through. One of his bottom teeth popped through at the end of last week. (no wonder why he wasn't sleeping too great -in addition to pink eye, ear infection, etc.) Anyways, back to it - teething biscuit. He loved it! Take a look at the pictures and the video. Now the video I thought was just cute - so I thought I would share with all of you!

He's a crawler! (For real this time...)

Check it out. No worming here - just good ole fashioned crawling!

Here's another video of him just being cute.

He's 7 months old today!

Yes, you read that correctly. 7 months old. Can you believe it? I can't. On his 7 month birthday the poor little guy had to get shots. He did great! Well, he did cry of course. His little legs got poked 3 different times! Who wouldn't cry? I held him close and the crying stopped. Once he got into the car, he was sleeping away. All in all it was a good day. I will leave you with some pictures of Cooper on his 7 month birthday. Don't you think he's cute?

What a cute little man!

Do I even need to explain the video? He is just adorable and wonderful. He is really getting better at actually crawling instead of doing the worm. I haven't gotten a good video of it yet, but I will. We have two bottom teeth that are about to break through. Needless to say we have had a cranky baby around here all afternoon. He didn't sleep well last night, but I think his poor teeth were just hurting. I am going to try and go to bed early tonight because I have a feeling its going to be a long night. I will leave you with a few cute pictures of him that we have taken this weekend. Check out his cute little shoes in the one of him drinking out of a sippy cup.

He's discovered he can put his feet in his mouth!

Looking back

Early this week a girlfriend at work had a little baby girl. As soon as I heard, my mind went immediately back to the day we were headed to the hospital to have Cooper. We had no idea what to expect. This could be because I didn't listen in any of our classes. I couldn't. Some people like to know all the possible situations and what will happen under each. However, I apparently was not one of those people. If you know me, you would think this is very odd. I didn't want to think about it. Looking back, I was too scared to know. I knew that God would watch over us and things would happen as they should. Did I need to know all the details beforehand? Obviously not, because I knew nothing! I even had to ask Eddie when we pulled into the hospital, "Do you know what floor we are supposed to go to?" Of course he knew, he listened. He was good like that. Through all of our classes I think he saw I was overwhelmed and couldn't listen, so he did. He took notes, paid attention, basically he tackled it like everything else that is given to him. He is diligent like that.

I remember staying up the entire night before we were scheduled to head to the hospital. I couldn't sleep. I was about to meet the little boy who had been kicking me for months. I thought about who he would look like, what kind of baby he would be, would I be any good at this being a mother thing. No wonder I couldn't sleep!

I thought about my girlfriend and all the things she was experiencing - those first moments, the complete fear of actually going home. (Funny how you never think about the going home part - you think about having the baby, about playing with the baby - but the actual fact of taking them home for the first time never crosses your mind until they say you are being released from the hospital. ) We have come a long way in 7 short months. I wouldn't have it any other way. I still don't know the exact thing to do every day, but somehow we figure it out. Maybe God was trying to prepare me for the fact that I am sometimes not going to know what to do or what is going to happen and that is ok. Cooper knows that we love him. He's the best thing that ever happened to us. Funny how such a little person can put your entire life into perspective ,isn't it?

Slept like a baby....a good sleeping baby that is

YES! He slept last night. All night long. Put him down at 8:30 and he woke up jabbering away at 7. The medicine must have kicked in. Thank goodness! How on earth did I do it those first few months? Or even those first 2 weeks where he wasn't sleeping at night at all? Unfortunately, both Eddie and I were up working pretty late, so we didn't get to take advantage of going to bed early, but the no waking up during the night was great!

Let's hope this continues...

Wow, what a weekend!

It has been awhile since I posted so of course I have lots to share. Once I tell you about our weekend you will understand why I have not posted. It's called exhaustion. I thought I knew what tired meant before, now I know it is just a permanent state that I have learned to accept and live through. Needless to say Cooper did not sleep this weekend. It started Friday night. He could not get to sleep. Then once he did, he couldn't stay asleep for more than 1 -2 hours. Finally, around 2am (I think, who actually knows) Eddie's solution was to bring him in to sleep with us. (I should probably tell you that this is always Eddie's solution if it is his turn to get up and Cooper is restless. I think it is because Cooper somehow miraculously always ends up on my side. Convenient? I don't think so. It is sweet of him though, don't you think?) He brings him in and the boy is just not sleeping. He is whiny, wiggly, wormy. At 5am he starts crying and won't stop. Only thing I could think of was to feed him. He ate and then played for a little while and then decided he was finally tired at 7am. He went to sleep til 9am. I think he must have looked and Eddie and I and said, "Look at those poor souls, they look terrible. I guess I could take a little nap." Here

is a picture where Eddie was "playing with him" at like 6am on Saturday morning after a night of zero sleep. Look at Cooper, not a care in the world!





Also, this boy has some crazy hair. On Saturday morning, when he finally got up at 9am his hair was all over the place. Take a look. It is hilarious. Look at those eyes!

So we were obviously very slow to get the day started, but we did go and get Cooper a new convertible car seat for the car so we don't have to carry in to school the infant carrier any more. This boy is 20lbs remember. With the additional weight of the carrier and his bag, I have to tell you that is HEAVY! So we got him a new, bigger seat that I really think he likes. We also got him a swing to hang up outside (pictures to come later). Other than that, we cleaned and hung out together. As we put him to bed Saturday we were just hoping/praying/begging that he would sleep well. No such luck. However, I didn't let Eddie get up with him, I just went in and gave him his paci (felt like I did that 100 times, I am sure it was like 3). But he was still waking up and crying. I knew something was up. Sunday we got up, went to church and had some breakfast. Cooper stayed home with Eddie while I ran some errands and those two took a nap. A nap similar to the Mother's Day nap. Please go back and look at that post with the picture. It cracks me up! I walk in this Sunday and they are in the same position. Again, when we put him to bed we just hoped and prayed he would sleep well. By this time I told Eddie if he doesn't sleep tonight we are going to the doctor tomorrow. Sure enough didn't sleep and was back in our bed. He seemed to do a little better when we elevated his head, but still not like the Cooper we know and love. I take him to the doctor's this morning, and come to find out something was wrong. He has an ear infection! Poor little man! No worries, he has some medicine and hopefully tonight will be better. Please hope for us! (An update to this post - He didn't sleep well last night either. Maybe the medicine just didn't kick in...here's to hoping for tonight.)

Well, that was our weekend, but of course I still have more to catch you up on. My nephew, J, called and requested that I put another video up. So here is a video just for you big J. It's Cooper saying hello to all of you! Please excuse the spit up at the end. I tried to capture this much chatter again, but of course he wouldn't cooperate, so you get the spit up version. I apologize! However, doesn't this remind you of that commercial where the baby is buying stock and he spits up? Regardless, overlook at the spit up and listen to those great sounds (babababa and dadadada). What a great baby boy.

I will give you another update later on today. Bye bye for now!

Want to smile today?

I figure it's Thursday, everyone needs a little pick me up. Here's mine...

Check out his shirt. It says, "I'm the best!" Hahah. Yes you are little man. You are the best thing that ever happened to us!

Yummy!

Cooper is doing great with eating more and more solid foods. This in turn means he is not as excited about the bottle as he used to be. The pediatrician says this is totally normal. We also asked him if we were feeding him too much. And he asked what we were feeding him, so I thought I would share:

Morning Bottle
Breakfast - Oatmeal Cereal mixed with Applesauce and Prunes (yummy sounding right?)
Lunch Bottle
Lunch (with his friends at school) - Vegetable (either squash, peas, green beans - those are his faves)
Afternoon Bottle
Dinner - Oatmeal Cereal mixed with Applesauce and Prunes and a Vegetable (again either squash, peas, green beans)
Bottle before bed

He said that was a great feeding schedule. Maybe I am posting in defense, I am not sure. Let me explain...

So I took Cooper to Target with me on Saturday. He loves to sit in the cart and stare at all the people. I just had to pick up a few things including some baby food. Who knew it would be so much cheaper there than a grocery store?!?! Back to my story. So we go to check out. And you all have seen pictures of our little man - he is a big boy. A cute, adorable big boy. The cheeks give him away don't you think? Well the lady behind the counter said in a very negative tone - wow you really are starving him aren't you. (imagine a little snicker from her at the end of that statement) I don't know if I just went in the defensive mode or what but I looked her straight in the eye and said yes we do on a daily basis. I mean seriously! I tell Eddie and he just laughed it off. I think our little man is perfect so take that Target lady!

Anyways....if you are curious about what vegetables and fruits we have tried here's a list -
Green beans - loves them
Peas - LOVES them
Squash
Sweet potatoes
Carrots
Applesauce
Prunes
Pears
Peaches

Last night I gave him some watermelon in one of those mesh feeders that Aunt MS gave us. He LOVED it. He is really funny about eating fruit. He's ok if it is mixed in his cereal. He is also ok if he is eating it before he eats the vegetables. However, if you try and give him plain fruit after vegetables he makes this face (picture closed eyes, puckered lips - almost like he is eating a sour patch kid or something). It is too cute, but nonetheless he apparently needs to eat the fruit first, then go to the veggies. Hey at least he will eat veggies.

Well, this post was not intended to be this long, but hope you enjoyed!

Bababababa

This is Cooper's new favorite saying. He also likes to say hey. I knew from the very beginning Cooper would be saying Hi or Hey very early because every time I went to pick him up when he was a newborn I would say Hi Cooper or Hey Coop. But the past couple of days he has really gotten into saying the Ba sound. Over and over again. It is adorable. Gosh we are in for a whole bunch of new firsts I know, but I swear he does something fantastic and new every day! What a special little man we have. We love you Cooper!