It's been awhile..

I apologize for not posting lately. There have been numerous things that have trumped blogging (ear infections - both me and cooper :-(, work, a baby that hasn't been sleeping). But I am back, and I am going to be better. I promise.

Let me catch you up. Cooper started in his new class and loves it. He has been walking more and more and has started to let go on his own now. Clemson football has started so Cooper and I have are starting our Saturday dates while Daddy watches his team. (Please note - his team, not mine. Go SEMINOLES!) Our Labor Day was not too exciting. Cooper had a double ear infection and was NOT a happy baby. We did take him to a town festival or tried to. He just was not feeling well, so we walked around for a few minutes and then headed home. Cooper hasn't been to school too much in the past week, so not any stories from there. However, he will be going back tomorrow, so this week I am sure I will have something fun to share. I will share with you that the teacher's at Cooper's school (not just his classroom) LOVE him. I mean rave about him when we pick him up. It makes me so proud. What a good boy.

Instead of stories I will share pictures from the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, this will make up for my lack of posting.

Here is Cooper sitting on the front steps. He is trying to pull the flowers off to eat them.

Here is Cooper in front of our new Halloween Flag. Hasn't he grown so much?!
Posing for Mommy...

Here is Cooper with his new friend, Mr. Scarecrow. He loves him! He likes to talk to him. Maybe they understand each other. You never know :-)

Cooper trying to get the camera...

Cooper found a new toy, the laundry basket.

Here is Cooper being a big boy and drinking his milk out of a sippy cup instead of a bottle. However, he takes a sip and then spits it out. Lovely...

Cooper just being cute...

Cooper and his first bite of spaghetti. He actually really liked it. You know what he liked even more, a piece of bread. The boy LOVES bread. All kinds, biscuits, garlic bread (per school), plain white bread, anything!

This is one of my favorites of him. I took this one morning after a VERY long night with a screaming Cooper. But when you wake up and see this, it really doesn't matter.

Loves pancakes too!

Here is Daddy feeding Cooper when he really wasn't feeling good. He wouldn't eat any "real" food, so Oatmeal & Pears baby food it was.

Here is Daddy and Cooper at the town festival. Poor baby, he didn't feel good.

Hope you enjoyed all the pictures.

It was a great weekend and I will update you more tomorrow, but I wanted to get some cute pics out tonight.

Here is Cooper begging his Dad for some Applejacks!

Here is my genius little man sporting his FSU hat.

And the grand finale....Cooper walking! He is so close, just take a look.

New Pictures

We had a pretty low key weekend. Nothing to exciting - some shopping, cleaning, playing. It was great! I promised some updated pictures so here they are along with some cute videos of Cooper playing peek-a-boo and throwing toys outside his play pen.

Cooper Updates

I haven't posted in awhile because my camera's batteries need to be replaced. These batteries I swear have to be replaced every week. I will buy some this weekend and update the blog with some new pictures of our Little Cooper.



I will update you all on what Cooper has been doing lately. He has learned how to play peek-a-boo. It is hilarious! He just laughs the entire time. All I have to say now is, "Where's Cooper?" and he will grab a towel or blanket and cover his face. It is too cute for words. I have tried to catch on the camera, but again stupid batteries!



The other update is that Cooper is moving up to the next class at school. Yes, that means that Cooper will not be in the baby room anymore. It makes me teary just thinking about it. He will now be a "Frisky Frog" and no longer just a "Tadpole". My little baby is growing up!

Cooper is 9 months old today!

Today the little man turned 9 months old. Only 3 more months and he will be 1 year old. I am shocked! Without any further...here he is right before bedtime. Isn't he sweet?!

Weekend Updates

Well, it certainly has been an interesting weekend. On Friday night we went out to dinner. We were all exhausted from the week and Eddie nor I felt like cooking, so out we went to Red Robin. It's a hamburger place that is VERY kid friendly. Funny thing is it has a full bar - must be for all the parents that need a drink to be able to handle the noise. This was Cooper's first time ordering off the kids menu! Chicken fingers and mandarin oranges to be exact. He did great and LOVED it. I was so proud. Only thing he wasn't very good at was eating off of a plate. He just wanted to play with it. Note to self - get a place mat that we can take to restaurants - do they even make those? Guess I am going to have to go to Babies R Us to find out-yuk! He really was a great baby the whole time and ate his dinner like a big boy.

On Saturday we were invited to go to a friends lake house to enjoy the day on the water. He was great all day. Well except for one little thing - the complete break down on the boat. I am not kidding. I have never seen Cooper like this. Non stop screaming, crying, screaming, crying. Here's the worst part. I forgot his paci. I even said it as we were walking down to the boat. I said oh wait I don't have his paci, think he will be ok. Eddie replies - I am sure he will be fine - let's play Russian roulette. We played and we lost big time. I felt terrible. I mean screaming baby not quite the background you want relaxing on the water. It's one of those mommy moments where you just want to crawl under a rock and post a sign that says, Yes I am not the best mommy in the world. And there was no consoling him. I tried rocking, singing, letting him stand up, showing him the other boats go by, nothing worked. What did work was getting off the boat and giving him his paci. To which about 5 minutes or so later a sleeping baby - ahhhh silence. After we ruined everyone Else's afternoon on the water, we let Cooper finish his little cat nap and then decided to leave the nice people to enjoy the rest of the day without a screaming baby. How do you apologize for something like that? I still am not quite sure. Oh Cooper...

Here's a few pics from the day...

Here's a happy baby before the boat incident.

Look - he looks a little nervous - but still ok...

Starting to get unsure of what is going on and starting to get sleepy...."Mommy, where's my paci?"


And that's where the pictures end of the boat ride....

Now on to Sunday - after the melt down yesterday I was exhausted. So we laid low today. We did however take a trip to Kohl's to see if there was anything cute for Cooper. We also headed over to Party City to start to get some ideas for Cooper's 1st birthday party. Kohl's - Not too much to report except that I really liked looking in the kid's section. Very cute. Party City - We found NOTHING! I mean it is his 1st birthday ever! And it will be his only 1st birthday. It has to be perfect. Dora the explorer - no thanks. Elmo? Thomas the tank engine - no thanks. The decorations for the "1st birthday boy" were a disappointment. For the girls it was perfectly cute. For the boys they had crowns? Seriously? A crown? The little t-shirt for boys had glitter on it. Glitter for a 1 year old BOY? Needless to say Eddie and I both looked at each other at that point and said definitely not. I did find some cute 1st birthday stuff with little dinos on it while searching online. I guess I will have to order online. Tell me what you think...

You know today Cooper is 9 months old! We will take some pictures of him once he wakes up from his nap. I will post later.

Some updated pictures

I haven't posted pictures of the little man in a while so I thought I would share some along with a video of Cooper eating some dinner.

This was hilarious. The pictures don't do it justice. Cooper found a camisole of mine and decided he wanted to put it on. So these are pictures of him getting the shirt on. Too cute!

Look at that happy baby!

Now here is the video. Please note it isn't our best video (Eddie is the cameraman - you be the judge!)

Yay Cooper!

I don't think I have told you all this yet. So Aunt MS gave us J's baby potty to set up and start getting Cooper used to it. So we have it set up in our bathroom and we decided right before bath time we would have him try to go pee pee in the potty. It worked! He did it! We both started cheering so loud and Cooper just kind of looked at both of us like we were crazy. The little potty started singing a song saying "You did it!" And Cooper still was just like this is no big deal, what is the fuss about. Hilarious!

Cooper's Weekend

Like the title? I figured really everyone just wants to know about his weekend, so thought I would just kick us off that way. Cooper had a great weekend. He is getting much better at eating dinner that is not baby food. Why on earth did I rush this table food thing? Do you know how long it took me to get his dinner ready when it was cereal and baby food vegetable? A whopping 3 minutes. Now I actually have to make him something. No one warned me! Let's see - here are a few things he has tried:
Chicken, Chicken Nuggets, Mac n Cheese, Broccoli, Carrots, Peas, Pears, Peaches and of course Graham Crackers (his FAVORITE!). He now knows if he whines enough I will give him a graham cracker and be done with it. I know I am giving in to easily - but he won't open his mouth for anything else. The boy is stubborn!
On Friday night we just hung out at home. I had to go to Target after he went to sleep to pick up some things for Cooper mainly a new diaper genie. Funny story here - so this is my 3rd one. Yes, you read that right. THIRD diaper pail. Eddie is frustrated with me that I keep breaking them. I always break them in the early morning when I am changing his diaper and want him to go back to sleep so all the lights are off. I try to hurry and stuff the diaper in and always end up breaking it. I don't know how I do it, so don't ask. Quick solution for Eddie - Always change his diaper then I can't break anymore of them. Let's see if he actually reads the blog...a true test. Hahaha!
On Saturday we took Cooper out for a walk and that is when he had his first taste of Chick-Fil-A. (It really looks like I am terrible parent so far doesn't it.) Chicken nugget and a french fry - only 1 nugget and 1 french fry. He LOVED them both. We could be in for some trouble here. Then Saturday night his school had parent's night out. So Eddie and I dropped Cooper off at his school while we went to the movies. Now - the plan was for us to drop him off around 630pm and he would eat his dinner/bottle and go to sleep and pick him up at 10pm. Cooper had other plans. When we picked him up at 945pm the boy was still awake and quote - "No, not really, no he hasn't slept at all." GREAT! Why does he hate to sleep at school?
Sunday we went to church and the nursery was very excited to see Cooper again - "Oh its our dancing baby." He loves to jump and dance now. Too cute! Then Eddie installed Cooper's new car seat in his car. That's right, the infant carrier is now too small. I started to get emotinal when he brought it in to put it in the attic. I mean he's not a little baby anymore. Sad day for me. Well, that was our weekend in a nutshell. Hope you all had a great one!

Updates on the Little Man!

I don't have any pictures for you on this post, but I have lots to catch you all up on. Cooper has been very busy the past few weeks. You have seen his attempts at walking and his clapping, but so much more has been going on. Here's a few recaps:

• School - Cooper is now officially the second oldest baby in his class! He started as the youngest baby by a few months. And now he is one of the oldest. He is growing up so fast, it makes me teary just thinking about it. We are interested to see if his new "tricks" slow down because there aren't many older babies to learn from. We will let you know. Here's a funny Cooper story for you. I went to pick him up the other day and Cooper was the last baby. (Side note - Mom, I am sorry for always complaining about being the last kid to be picked up - It's hard to try and get everything done and make it on time!) The ladies were telling me that Cooper had them rolling with laughter. Apparently Cooper likes to steal other babies' pacifiers. Cooper wears a paci clip so he always has access to a paci. Well, he was crawling and dragging his along and saw another baby's paci drop to the ground - he trucks it over drops his paci and steals the other baby's. Oh Cooper! You are so bad.
• Clothes - Ok I have an assignment for everyone. Please take a gander through the baby's clothing section of any department store and take note. The girls section makes up approximately 75% of the options. The other 25% is for the little boys. However, apparently it is a requirement for little boys clothing in order for them to be in the store they must have one of the following: dogs, trucks, trains, dinosaurs, some type of sport ball or some other random animal. Why? What if I don't want all of Cooper's outfits to be covered with animals or tractors? Cooper has been growing so fast, its hard to keep up with him in the clothes department. I have been on a search to find him some cute outfits to wear to church and to wear to school. By cute I mean a little nicer than just a plain t-shirt and gym shorts. It's impossible - so please take my assignment and let me know if I am wrong. If I am, please report what store you found more options in.
• Food - We have been trying to move Cooper to table food. They told me at school we needed to start trying. We have been ordering off the menu at his school for a couple of weeks. They say he eats great at school. Ummm not so much at home. I know its me. I am doing something wrong. Problem is I don't know what that is. We have tried pears, peaches, peas, carrots, broccoli, mac n cheese and chicken. He hasn't done terrible, but nothing spectacular. However, tonight he did great!!! Every time he took a bite Eddie or I or both would clap and say YAY! He loved it. And ate! Maybe he just needed some encouragement! Don't we all? I have found 1 thing he absolutely LOVES....graham crackers. I mean eats it up. And begs for more. I know I know - he should be eating fruit or veggies. But I am so darn proud he can do it I keep giving them to him. Also, he smells so yummy after he eats them. Laugh if you want, but when I go to clean his face and his hands they smell like yummy graham crackers...such a little boy. Makes me smile.

Well, I know this was long and maybe you didn't make it all the way through - but I have said earlier this is basically my baby book. I need this in writing! Have a great day!

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.