A New Years Eve Rant

Disclaimer: this post contains too much of my personal opinions and not enough stories about Cooper's boogers.

New Years Eve is my least favorite holiday. I hate staying up late and I looove to sleep. I usually don't think too much about New Years (or really anything besides the different colors and consistencies of baby poop and what they might indicate) but this year I find myself ponderous even! Ever since I was given responsibility of Cooper (I don't know who let that one slip through the cracks) I have been trying to become a better person, since you know, Cooper may actually turn out to be semi like me one day. This involves some personal reflection of my own attitude and a lot of listening to others who have better attitudes (that includes most everyone else.)

Anyway let's introduce philosophical Paige shall we. I've heard a lot of talk tonight analyzing this past year, whether it was good or whether it was bad, and I wonder how we evaluate our lives? Is it the number of trials we go through? The number of "advances" we make? I believe, though much easier said than done, that our attitude, our outlook, our treatment of others should remain the same whether our lives are on an upswing or a downswing. I don't even think I should call them upswings or downswings, they are mere events that happen to us in our lives and it is up to us how we react to them, how we let them teach us and shape us. It's like the zen master story that someone brings up in Sunday School every single week, that somehow still stays with me despite it's obnoxious over-quoting-

a Zen master who observes the people of his village celebrating a young boy's new horse as a wonderful gift. "We'll see," the Zen master says. When the boy falls off the horse and breaks a leg, everyone says the horse is a curse. "We'll see," says the master. Then war breaks out, the boy cannot be conscripted because of his injury, and everyone now says the horse was a fortunate gift. "We'll see," the master says again.

In short, "It is our reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself that determines how our life story will develop." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

I see 2012 as neither good nor bad. In it I see things I learned, I see people who helped me and people who I helped, I see ways in which I can be better next year. Oh so many, many ways! And I hope that 2013 brings me closer to becoming the sort of person that stays consistent in all things no matter what the year brings.

End Rant.

On a more exciting note I have of course many fun Coop stories to share. 

I've been trying to suction his boogers with a nasal suction and Cooper has now wised up. When he sees me coming with it he buries his face in the carpet so I can't reach his nostrils. Then he lifts his head a little and peeks to see if I'm still holding it, and refuses to turn around until I put it down. Smart boy.

The other day I was watching 24 with Cooper on my lap (I know what you're thinking... that was so ten years ago and Kiefer Sutherland is a dream boat and also you're so skinny. I know, sooo true, and thank you!) Cooper was playing with toys and wasn't watching the tv and then all the sudden he drops his rattle and stares wide eyed and open mounted at the tv so I look to see what has him so mesmerized- it was the black actor who plays President Palmer. I thought for a second and then realized this was the first not-white person he's ever seen! He looked very puzzled and would not take his eyes off the screen.

Still fat, still bald, and not racist. Don't worry.

Happy New Year

My Birthday

Is it sad that spending 3 hours alone with my husband has become so rare and precious that I blog about it now? Probably! But that is life once you have a mini-dictator, it becomes hard to escape the regime. ;) If you are reading this (you aren't, I don't even think my own husband reads my blog) and you don't have small kids, please go out and do something fun tonight and stay out late and savor it! Not that dancing around like an idiot to children's songs trying to make your ball of chub laugh isn't an awesome way to spend your weekend nights! I just wish I would have enjoyed myself a little more when I had the opportunity... Food for thought.

Anyway, Sunday is my birthday (you still have time to get my presents ready!) and Cooper has been sick all week with bronchiolitis. He has a nasty cough, a boogery nose, and has been WHEEZING non stop. It is official, hearing Cooper wheeze is the saddest most heart breaking noise there ever could be. We took him to the doctor (of course I did, I take him about every week) and the doctor did her thing and then asked if we had a family history of asthma!! So from now until the day I die I will be worried and stressed about what if Cooper has asthma. Thanks lady. I have been sick too (which I typically wouldn't have cared about) but being sick while you have a sick baby to take care of and wake up every 2-3 hours like a newborn with SUCKS. Side note: Cooper, please go back to sleeping like a good boy once you feel better, please don't make a habit of having mom come pat your tummy every 3 hours. I will give you absolutely anything you want.

One funny thing to come out of this sickness is that Cooper loves B sounds, and laughs his head off when you call him a boogery boy. Also he loves to be squirted in the face by puffs of air from his nasal syringe. He closes his eyes and smiles and then laughs as soon as you're done. He does not however enjoy the actual usage of the nasal syringe. Poor buddy.

Anyway why I'm describing my awful week is that I felt sure I was going to spend my birthday in the same fashion. The sick taking care of the sick. And the one thing I wanted for my birthday was time alone with Josh. Once again, please go do something fun with your sweetheart tonight. But thanks to my wonderful husband and amazing brother and sister in law- I got what I wanted!!!

And so my true pathetic-ness begins as I blog about a regular date night. Ha. We went to dinner at Red Rock Brewing Company. How I love going out to eat without someone who is either crying or giving me a dirty look that says hey lady if I'm not home with my toys in 12 seconds you will suffer my wrath. During dinner I made Josh give me 25 compliments, which actually turned out to be heart felt and lovely with minimal sarcasm. I did tack on an extra compliment for every sarcastic one he made. So I think he ended up giving me 30. I wish everyone thought as highly as me as Josh does! My sweet guy, made me feel like a princess. Then we went to Crate and Barrell to pick out a birthday gift and as an extra treat I made Josh stay right by my side as I looked at everything in the store. It looked like a physical struggle but he managed it. And the only mean comment I got was that I needed another mug like I need a hole in the head. Which is true. I don't even drink out of mugs, I just love them. So I got a yellow and white striped rug for our entry way! Yay! And then Josh surprised me and took me ice skating. We've never been before so I told Josh as we walked in that I had been ice skating all my life and I was really good and could do tricks and stuff. Funny joke, I can't even stand up on ice skates and spent the whole time hugging the wall. I don't think Josh will be taking me again. Maybe his nephew Cole can give me lessons.

So ends our 3 hours together. We went and picked up our wee babe who was wearing puppy pajamas and had a runny nose and was laughing at his Uncle. And that was the best birthday present of all.

So monumentous Josh even consented to a picture. By the way I have only 5 more pounds to lose of baby (and barbecue chips) weight! So take that! Also at a family Christmas party last week my aunt told me I looked like the michellan man while pregnant. Ugh, so true.

My birthday rug! I love you rug!

Coop eating a Christmas present because of course I have to post a picture of Coop! Still bald, in case you were wondering...

Also, if you want to start a babysitter's club, let me know. I am clearly in need of more date nights. I'll call Kristina and Claudia and Stacy and Mary and Dawn and whoever else was in the babysitters club! My favorite was Claudia, because obviously I identified with a Japanese person who was really good at art. ??

Cooper's First Christmas

Cooper was SICK on Christmas. So sad. He has a cough and now that he's figured out how to cough, he fake coughs too just for fun. So all he coughs all day long. Some of them are real and some of them are obviously fake. What a stinker. Other than his little cough, Cooper did great. It was a long day, with shorter naps, somewhere other than home, 20 people, and constant stimuli and he didn't have any meltdowns. Sometimes I would take him in the other room and we would sit in the dark together and mellow out a little. He would sit and smile at me from behind his binkie (those are my favorite smiles.) He got a lot of gifts and was the main attraction of the day. Although he liked to suck on the wrapping paper more than anything, I know he will love his new toys once he gets the chance to play with them. He is getting over that little stranger anxiety he had for a while (though he will still only laugh for mom or dad.)

I was so looking forward to Cooper's first Christmas and it turned out to be less of skipping through meadows while singing and more of tired, stressed, constantly looking for one of the five binkies I brought with me, and changing his outfit he pooped on for the 4th time that day. Oh holidays with kids! But we did manage to get a few cute pictures where he looks way more excited than he actually was, but down the road we'll forget he wasn't really into it and we'll look at these pictures and commend ourselves for being such excellent Santa's. And thank you to all the other Santa's who helped make Cooper's first Christmas such a special one!

I love my fat boy.

Four Months

Cooper's four month stats:

15 lbs 2 oz (75th percentile- which is weird since I thought he was morbidly obese)

25 inches (50th percentile)

Essentially he is his mama's baby, short and fat. :)

Cooper is just getting big, plain and simple. He is starting to look less like a baby to me and more like an actual person. He is growing more aware of his teeny tiny world and his personality is starting to make itself known little by little.

Apparently Cooper is a home body. We can have him at home when he is happy and laughing and smiling and shrieking with joy, take him to the store the next minute where he glares at you the whole time, get him back home and he immediately smiles as soon as we bring him inside. And this happens every single time. He doesn't even like to look around when we go places! We put him in the cart and he never takes his eyes off me and he just looks so mad the whole time. No smiles, no laughing, nothing. Sometimes I feel guilty taking him to run errands because I know he'd rather be at home. I think it would be boring to look at the same old stuff all day long, but not to Coop I guess! I've started to plan my errands for during his nap, which is probably the opposite of what most people do, but Cooper sleeps through everything while we're out, people banging into our cart, me transferring his car seat from the car to the store to the cart back to the car... Apparently two hours in Costco makes for an excellent nap.

Cooper loves to have mommy and daddy dance for him. He laughs and laughs and laughs his chubby head off. If someone walked into our house at any given time they would probably see Cooper sitting on the couch and Josh and I doing a dance for him. We know who runs the show around here...

Cooper definitely prefers some toys to others. He even seems to have a favorite blanket. Interestingly it is not one of the many, many, many nice blankets given to him by loving friends and family, it is the one I took home from a used clothing exchange at church. It is ugly and ratty and whenever I show it to Coop he buries his face in it and then sits and licks it all day long. 

This Christmas time has been my favorite since we've been married. It is so fun to have a little one to spoil at Christmas. Today I signed my first ever gift "From Santa." It was awesome. Last Christmas eve we found out little Coop was on his way and one year later we're wrapping up teething rings and baby spoons. It's pretty great and I cannot for the life of me figure out how I got to be so lucky!! I am definitely feeling very blessed this Christmas to have my little happy family. Cooper brings us so much joy. We spend all of our nights surrounding Cooper laughing at all of the cute things he does. 

I love my little man!!

Coop's New Tricks

My little tricksy minx is getting more and more fun each day! I love watching him grow and develop new skills. So like the crazy person that I've become, let me share each and every mundane thing my child does (which to me is as exciting and noteworthy as tooting unicorns.)

Cooper has become quite the giggle monster! Before his laughs were a little indistinguishable from his other happy noises but now they are just like adult laughs. One night he started laughing in his sleep. And now he starts laughing whenever we kiss or tickle him. Hilarious. It is absolutely my most favorite sound. He laughs especially hard when his daddy teases him, which is good because I'm sure there will be a lot of that in the future.

He is so good at grabbing things now! His favorite things to grab are the neckline of my shirt to pull down and flash everyone (usually during church) and he loves to grab blankies and never let go and shove them in his mouth. We had a used clothing exchange at church and I brought him home a super ugly, ratty lamb toy/blankie (but it was soft so I thought he might like it) and he loves loves to shove every inch of it into his mouth.

(The first time he grabbed and held something)

He is really wanting to roll over back to stomach. Every time I lay him down he grunts and strains and tries every way he can to be on the move. Soon little buddy! Most of the time I end up picking him up because he gets too upset!

He has BAD stranger anxiety! Which I thought idn't start until they're around 8 months old! But if someone he doesn't know tries to look at him or gets too close he goes from happy to screaming at the drop of a hat, and then as soon as I pick him up he's fine. I'm kind of apprehensive about Christmas and also feel bad for people that want to hold him and can't because he only wants mom or dad.

And as usual he's super fat and super bald. Rock that look while you can baby.

In other news, I decided to make my own Christmas ornaments with Cooper's hand print and foot print, thinking I was so cute and special and basically Martha Stewart right???  Huge failure. Haha. They look like Cooper made them himself.

Wah wah