Notes about Cooper
and Kellar
Tuesday, 17 May 2005
We're horrible, awful people.
Really. We very much apologize for the lack of information and photos
about Cooper lately. All you out-of-state family must want to kick us.
Again, sorry.
Anyway, Cooper is no
longer a baby - he's a full on BOY. He's running around the house,
climbing on everything, getting covered in bumps and scrapes, digging in the
dirt, stealing books off the shelves and pens out of the drawers. He's
one. But, even with all that, he's a real angel - and we know how lucky we
are to have such a good, well-mannered, even-tempered boy.
He got 7 new teeeth - just in
the last week or so. It's a whole mouth full, and he loves to use them.
Don't get your finger too close to his mouth or he'll be happy to show you his
chomping strength. He loves to eat anything crunchy now - ice, carrot
sticks, bean sprouts, crackers, whatever. As long as it crunches, he wants
it. And he still loves the Kraft mad and cheese, of course. And he
drinks out of his sippy-cup almost exclusively now, but whenever he sees a pop
can or one of our cups, he has to drink from it. He's gotten much better
about drinking - and usually even remembers to close his mouth after he takes a
sip! He giggles like mad after he swallows, as he's very proud of his
accomplishment!
Other than that...not much
else to tell. His health is fine. His heart tests went fine.
he dos have a murmur, which the infant cardiologist suspected, but it's nothing
he's worried about. so we'll go back in a year, and assume that nothing
changes in the meantime (he's likely not to grow out of it, as he has it past
his first birthday already). He's gained a lot of weight in the past few
months, and has grown taller, but he hasn't been sick enough to go to the
doctor, so we don't know exactly what he weighs.
We will really try to be
better about updating notes and photos. Really!
Wednesday, 12 January 2005
We've been slackers lately -
it's been a full 3 months since we put photos up on the site. Not that we
don't HAVE photos, mind you, we were just really busy.
So - let's see... what's
new with Cooper? He now has 8 teeth: 4 on the top and 4 on the
bottom. He must be getting some more, though, as the crabbiness and
drooling has come back in the last couple of days. He no longer eats
"baby food" - at least not any that is pureed and fed to him. He
really can't stand being fed, and wants to do all his own eating. Mostly
we let him do just that - and make a huge mess. It's great fun, and Maddie
very much enjoys the chance to clean up his highchair, the floor, his face,
etc. She's gotten so demanding that when he doesn't eat fast enough for
her liking, she paces and whines and circles around his chair, sticking her head
entirely into his lap under the tray. She's very pushy.
Maddie is just as in love with
Cooper as we are. She is very tolerant of him, and doesn't mind when he
pulls her hair or ears. His latest trick is to "give" - so he'll
take her bone or chewy toy right out of her mouth, then give it back.
Maddie usually looks like she's saying "come on, kid - I was chewing
that!" but plays along. Sometimes when she gets fed up of his game,
she moves to the couch - where she is almost always followed by Cooper.
She's a good dog.
Christmas was full of
festivity for the Coopster. He raked in the present like you wouldn't
believe - and we had to rearrange the livingroom to make room. It was a
lot of fun, though.
Presents Cooper received:
He also received a few books, a couple of outfits (a White Sox jersey/onesie,
a denim fireman pant/shirt/jacket set, and a Tasmanian Devil shirt/pant
set), several wood block sorters (a mailbox, set of stacking cups, etc.), a
football/basketball/soccerball set, a
few DVDs and CDs, a couple of small stuffed animals and his first
"baby". All in all, it was a fruitful couple of days for
Cooper - and he mostly enjoyed the wrapping paper!
A couple of months ago, he was given the Baby
Playzone Stride-to-Ride Walker by our now-former neighbors Mike and Dana
(with twins Braxton and Dalton)- and Coop spends at least an hour a day
walking back and forth with it across the living room and kitchen. He
refuses to walk behind it if the seat is split (meant for walking, not
riding). He's a wee bit stubborn that way! He was also given
another couple of toys from the Baby Playzone series that we don't think are
made anymore, but he really loves. You'll see MANY photos of these
toys in the pictures from the last several months. Mike, Dana, Braxton and
Dalton just moved to Tennessee and we miss them a LOT.
We have no idea how tall he is
right now, or how much he weighs (his 1 year appointment is scheduled for
2/4/05), but we just switched out all his clothes to 18 month size.
They're a little big, but all the 12 month clothes were way too small.
Sunday, 1 August 2004
Cooper has a tooth. It's
just barely through the gum, but it's there, and it's sharp! It's in the
bottom gum, just right of center (his right). We've tried taking pictures,
but there's always a lot of tongue, lip and drool in the way - so you'll have to
wait until it comes in all the way to see it.
Friday, 30 July
2004
Happy
Birthday Auntie Erika!
Today,
Cooper had his 6 month Dr. appt. All was well, except he was tired
and hungry and teething - so SCREAMED the entire time he waited with Mom.
It was a VERY long hour for the Dr. to come into the room. He didn't stop
then, either. However, the Dr. DID finally see a tooth, just about to pop
through the gum, so at least there's a good explanation for all the
shrieking. Cooper now weighs in at 15lbs-14oz, and is 26" tall.
He's dropped to the 25th percentile in height and weight, but the Dr. said that
with all his movement, that's not surprising. His head was measured (with
much difficulty, because he was turning it back and forth trying to see the
Dr.), but I forgot what it was. The Dr. also said today that he has a slight
heart murmur, but that it's probably nothing, and just a result of him being
so active. He'll just keep an eye on it and check again at his next
appointment in 3 months.
Other
notes:
-
Cooper
moves like crazy. He can roll across the floor with lightening speed
to get at just about anything he wants (although he often gets irritated
when he doesn't move quite as fast as he'd like to the desired object).
-
Cooper
does NOT like to sit still AT ALL. And he almost never lays on his
back anymore - he's too quick to roll over onto his tummy. I hope you
can appreciate how this makes changing a diaper awfully difficult.
-
Along
with the rolling over, he almost always sleeps on his stomach. At
first, we spent much of the night rolling him on to his back, but he'd
almost immediately roll over on to his tummy. And he just doesn't lie
flat on his tummy, he pulls his legs up under him, and his arms in tight to
his sides, or along his head. It's pretty funny - he's just like a
roly-poly bug.
-
He
sits almost-unassisted for a minute or two at a time. He often tumbles
over to the side, not because he doesn't have the coordination to sit up,
but because he's very fond of reaching for anything and everything -
regardless if it's way too far out of his reach.
-
Mostly,
he likes to stand up. If we put him standing up against the couch,
he'll hold on and stand there for a few minutes before getting interested in
something else that requires him to move.
-
He
loves anything with music. We've found some Sesame Street DVDs (we
need more!) that he absolutely LOVES to watch, and he'll move his arms and
legs with the music and squeal along with the music.
-
He
has now enjoyed all of the Gerber First Foods, which include peaches, pears,
applesauce, prunes, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans
and peas. He also eats the rice cereal (we haven't tried any others
yet), and likes it mixed with some of the dry formula and fruit juice. He
seems to like that better than with just the formula or water.
-
He
is eating like crazy now - usually has a bowl of the cereal, a container of
a fruit and one of a vegetable at every meal - at least 4 times a day.
He does NOT want to drink anything from a bottle during the day anymore - I
think it's because he knows what he's missing and doesn't want to waste
tummy space on formula when he could be having real food! There are 10
times as many Gerber Second Foods, so I think he's anxiously awaiting when
he can have those (supposedly once he sits up repeatedly, entirely
unassisted).
Saturday, 24 July 2004
Here's a few updates from
Grandma, Cinda's Mom.
-
Cooper is 5-1/2 months
old now, eating lots of new foods - is not allergic to any so
far, and is learning at the fastest rate he will learn in his
lifetime.
-
Cooper is a very good
baby, except when he keeps Mom and Dad up during the night because he's
hungry. You can't shovel the baby food fast enough to please this
growing boy. He has learned how much fun it is to roll all over the
floor to get things he wants, and of course, put them in his mouth.
And, he wants to stand up and look at everything, although he can't sit up
yet unassisted.
-
Maddie and Cooper are
close friends. She let's him grab her hair and ears and tail, and he
lets her sniff his diaper and lick all remaining food from his face.
Maddie, who is very long legged and towers over Cooper, is very careful
not to step on him. Of course, her main role in life is to watch out
the front window, from her perch on the living room sofa, to make sure no
strangers come near her house, or her baby Cooper!
-
Cooper has adjusted to
his new babysitters (the girl next door and her family) twice a week while
Dad goes to work as an architect and Mom teaches college classes three
days a week. On those days, Dad gets the early morning baby care, as
well as the night shift. It's hard work being parents, especially
with a strong, active, inquisitive, and hungry baby like Cooper.
-
For this Grandmother, it
is such a treat to play with him and feed him when I can, which is not
often enough. Cooper's other Grandmother will get to meet him soon
when she comes to Chicago for a visit. Let's hope there will be new
photos posted soon.
Love,
Grandma Lester
Wednesday, 22 June 2004
-
Cooper has now mastered rice cereal, pears, bananas (which
he didn't like - which isn't a surprise, as Mom and Dad don't like them
either), sweet potatoes and is now onto peaches. For the most part, he
can't wait to have his food, and doesn't much want his bottle during the
day.
-
His night-time sleep is much better (although he rolls over
a lot, and spends a lot of the night on his side), and consistently sleeps
from about 9pm - 7 am (he's been close to that for at least 2 months).
He doesn't nap too during the, although he usually goes back to sleep after
waking up in the morning and having a full bottle.
-
He also loves to go in the stroller, or anyplace he can be
outside and have the wind in his face.
-
Oh - Cooper also knows how to roll over
now. He moves all over the place when he's on his stomach - pushing
himself around with his legs (he doesn't use his arms too much, so his face
tends to get squished into the floor a bit). He's very determined to get
what he wants, though, even if it means he has to move across the room to grab a
toy or book or whatever. He'll probably be crawling soon...although really
he just wants to get up and walk. There's not much more he likes to do
than stand up and look around.
Friday, 4 June 2004
There are lots of notes I should make about the Coopster from the last 2 months,
but today's will have to do. We just got home from his 4 month check up
(hard to believe he's that old already!) and the Dr. says he's perfect!
His weight is 14 lbs, 7 oz (which is less than I thought), and his length
is 25". Both of those are the 50th percentile. His head
size is 41.25 mm, which is the 25th percentile. Dr. Bhaskar said "so
you don't have to call him big-headed, because the size is on the low
side." I commented, "YOU didn't have to push that head out - so
don't talk to ME about not being big-headed!" Even Cooper
laughed. He had 3 more shots today, which he cried for, but only for a
minute. The Dr. said that he was a very tough guy and had a high
tolerance, because he didn't cry nearly as much as some other babies. He's
also got the OK to start on real food now - so he'll be having his first
bowl of cereal when he wakes up. Fun! We'll be sure to take lots of
pictures...
Saturday, 27 March 2004
Cooper had his first trip to a restaurant (Applebee's) this afternoon,
and slept the whole time. His 2 month Dr. appt yesterday went well - he's
now 10 lbs-11 oz, and 23" long. So he's on the light side
(25%), but that's likely because of all the switching of formula we've had to
do. We're hoping that the new formula will help and he'll eat a lot more
from now on. He also had 3 big shots, which were traumatic for all
involved, but quickly fell asleep afterward. Unfortunately, he's starting
to get a cold. Ugh.
Monday, 15 March 2004
A whole month since I updated last. Shame on me. Aunt Amy has
demanded larger (and more!) photos of Cooper - so here you go. We hope you
don't mind the longer download times. Cooper is growing a lot now - he's
almost out of all of his newborn clothes. He weighed 7lbs-14 oz. at birth,
7 lbs-10 oz at 6 days old, 9 lbs-1 oz at 4 weeks old and 9 lbs-10 oz at 5 weeks
old. He's definitely over 10 lbs now. We had to switch him to soy
formula (which is too bad for us - we were getting the milk-based formula for
free from our neighbors), but at least he's eating better without getting such a
bad rash.
Monday, 16
February 2004
Uncle Gary and Shelly were very kind to babysit Cooper on their day off so we
could go to a movie (we saw "Miracle" and highly recommend it!).
I think it's fair to say that everyone enjoyed themselves - especially Jackson
with his pudding. Things we have to look forward to!
Friday, 13
February 2004
Friday the 13th. We found out we were pregnant on Friday the 13th - in
June, 8 months ago. There's not much new to report, we've mostly been
around the house, getting used to sleeping and eating schedules. His
jaundice is almost entirely gone, so he's much more pink now. Luckily, the
whole inking/bath time fiasco last night wore him out, so he slept pretty well
overnight. Good thing Henri's so good at getting up in the middle of the
night, though (usually only a few minutes after I've finally gone to bed!).
Thursday,
12 February 2004
Today is Cooper's original due date. And while it would have been nice to
have him on the 12th - my lucky number - we sure are glad he came
early.
Today was just another day at home (except for the first ride
in the swing), until Henri came home. First, we attempted to get his hand
and foot prints for the baby book and wall hanging that Aunt Shelly gave
us. This was certainly a much more difficult task than any of had
anticipated. We got a great print the first time around, and it went
downhill from there. So, if anyone ever sees these prints, please don't
think that only his right foot is perfect, has extra toes on the left, has 3
fingers on the right hand and 8 fingers on the left. It was a chore that
we will NOT be repeating anytime soon! It's too bad that there wasn't
anyone around to tape the event - it surely could have won some kind of prize on
America's Funniest Home Videos.
Also, because his umbilical cord fell off this
afternoon (which is also good, because that crusty black thing was looking
pretty gross), he could now get a real bath in the baby tub (instead of the
sponge bath on the counter). He seemed excited at first to be in the warm
water - but then quickly decided it was too cold to be naked for long.
Sunday,
8
February 2004
Sonja came to visit us and Cooper, and also to pick up the crate she lent us for
Maddie last year. She brought drinks for us, and Cooper's first Chicago Blackhawks
memorabilia - a cup/bowl/plate/silverware set that he'll get plenty of use out
of once he's not attached to a bottle anymore!
Saturday,
7
February 2004
Grandma Lester came to visit - bringing some furniture from Great Grammie
Guthrie's house...but really we know it was just to see Cooper. She stayed
just long enough to feed him, let him spit up and make a messy diaper.
Such is the life of a Grandma. Afterward, we all had a trip across the
street to Mike and Dana's (and the 9 month old twins Braxton and Dalton) house
for dinner - his first night out!
Friday, 6
February 2004
Yesterday,
he had his first Dr. appointment - weighed in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. He has some
less than lovely jaundice now, and is a lovely shade of yellow/orange. The
Dr. says it's ok, unless it gets worse in the next couple of days, and it's
almost assuredly due to all of his bruising at birth. Immediately after
the appointment, he has his first trip grocery shopping, as we had absolutely NOTHING
in the house to eat. He slept the entire time - smart boy, as Jewel is
hardly worth waking up for.
Wednesday, 4 February 2004
You
can see from some of the photos how bruised and cone-shaped his head
was. The bruising is almost entirely gone now, and his head has returned
to a semi-normal shape; now it's a perfect little pumpkin
head. He has blue eyes and brown hair, although his eyebrows and eyelashes
are very light blonde. Aunt Betty came for a visit, too - she was very
happy to hold him while he slept for an hour or two.
