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!

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!