Twelve Months

I don't think I can handle saying the words my baby is one. I'm definitely one of those over-emotional, reminiscent people that can't throw out a single baby sock. I can't believe how fast this year flew by. I wish I could rock a tiny little Cooper to sleep one more night.

Ok sob sob sob. Anyway....

This month:

My darling made his first animal sound. He picks up any stuffed animal/toy/picture in a book that is a monkey and says "ooooo." Pretty darn cute.

When you say, "Cooper go get mama a book and she'll read it to you" he goes over to his books, picks one out, and then gives throws it to you for you to read. Also pretty cute. Minus the times you get clocked in the face with Baby Peekaboo.

Cooper has decided that Josh and I are both "Dada" now. He knows how to say mama and he's said it a handful of times but for some reason he just decided he has two daddies instead.

Cooper still takes a few steps at a time but isn't really walking yet. He crawls at lightning speed so I don't think he's too concerned with other modes of transportation yet.

Cooper has two bottom teeth and no others in sight.

Cooper is the happiest, busiest, wildest, most energetic baby around.

Cooper's stats:

weight- 22.3 pounds (63rd percentile)

height- 28 inches (15th percentile)

head- 46 inches (96th percentile)

Poor buddy has a really big head. Josh and I call him "El Cabazon." 

Happy Birthday my little buddy.

Anniversary #4: Trip to Portland

We've been taking Cooper on quite a few trips lately. Partly because we're in a new area and there's a lot of stuff we want to see. Partly because there's nothing to do in Aberdeen. Partly because we're in a very short window of time before it starts raining 24/7. And partly, and most problematically, because I am in serious denial about what it's like to vacation with a baby. I don't know how that's possible by the way, I've been a mom for a year now. When I concoct a plan to go see Mt. Rainier I picture Josh and I strolling leisurely through a meadow of wildflowers, I don't picture Cooper unplugging the display movie in the visitor center that dozens of people were watching. Yep that happened. Every trip we take I end up saying to myself at some point that I'm never taking Cooper anywhere again. But no matter how many mishaps we have, it only takes me a couple days to forget, and I'm back to planning the next trip, foolishly thinking it will turn out differently.

So this post is here to serve as my reality check about what vacations with babies are really like. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of moments of kisses, laughs, and tickle fights and I love spending time with Cooper. But I love it a little more in the comfort of our baby-proofed home.

So our 4th anniversary was this week. We decided not to get a sitter for Cooper as he really has a hard time with strangers, and we decided (ingeniously) to spend the weekend as a family in Portland. It was going to be great! Josh and I were going to meander around the city for as long as we wanted, doing whatever tickled our fancy at the moment, stay in a nice hotel, have lots of deep, loving conversations about our last year of marriage, spend lots of quality time together as a couple... Do you see why I need a reality check now?

Day 1:

Drive to Portland. Go during Cooper's nap time so he will spend the 2.5 hours in the car asleep and Josh and I can relax and talk. Cooper sleeps for 30 minutes and the rest of the 2 hours I get motion sick in the backseat while I read him books about animals.

Check into our hotel. Josh gets the luggage while I use the restroom and Cooper happily explores the hotel room. Cooper finds the remote while I'm in the bathroom and orders an adult movie called The Hills Have Thighs which he is engrossed in when I come out of the bathroom.

Go downtown for lunch. Eat at a food cart or some hole in the wall local place with really good, unusual food. Opt for a chain restaurant because it's the only place with highchairs. Spend the meal picking up Cheerios and napkins that Cooper has ripped to shreds because the busser has been giving you the stink eye with each Cheerio that hits the floor.

Go to the zoo or children's museum so Cooper can do something kid-oriented and gain valuable knowledge by experiencing his surroundings. Realize everything closed while you were at the hotel trying (fruitlessly) to get your son to take a nap.

Go to the rose garden. Cooper rips the petals off everything he can reach and then pops them in his mouth. Get the stink eye from a group of rose-loving elderly people.

Back to the hotel. Realize that you saw exactly one thing on your list before you had to go back and put Cooper to bed.

Cooper's bedtime. Curse yourself for forgetting your book as you and your husband will be confined to total silence from 8 o'clock onwards. Listen to Cooper scream bloody murder for 30 straight minutes before he finally falls asleep. Sit in the corner reading the hotel bible and praying no one complains to the front desk about your screaming baby.

Our bedtime. Panic that you put Cooper's crib in front of the bathroom door and the front door (so he couldn't see you) but you forgot to go to the bathroom before you put him to sleep. And you drank a Diet Coke with dinner. And you have to pee. And you can't hold it until morning. And if you use the bathroom you'll wake him up and listen to another 30 minutes of screaming. Panic. Finally pee into an empty garbage sack while Josh shakes his head in disbelief! Happy anniversary sweetheart...

Day 2:

Morning. Wake up at 8 am sharp, decide you don't have time to shower if you want to see anything before naptime. Realize that while you packed everything Cooper could possibly need and more, including a first aid kit- you forgot to pack yourself deoderant and a hairbrush.

Portland Market. Look at all the booths from a distance as Cooper yanks whatever is in reaching distance and has already pulled a hat and scarf off a display and threw them on the ground.

Powell's books. Leave after five minutes because Cooper got so excited at the kid's books that he snatched one off the shelf and accidentally hit himself in the eye with it. Leave store to calm him down.

Lunch. Eat at another chain because highchairs.

Drive home. Because it's way past naptime, Cooper is miserably sleepy, and will only nap in a moving vehicle.

Ah, Portland....
I've already forgotten about the adult movie and peeing into a bag. Where are we going next weekend?!

Seeking Mommy Friends

Originally posted on another blog I occassionally write for- becominglovely.com I felt like I would like to share this particular post on my personal blog as well.

When I got married I thought my days of awkward dates were over and I could not have been more thrilled. The truth is I hate meeting new people. Or more accurately, I hate the process of meeting new people. Where you have to pretend that you're super normal, not eat second helpings at dinner, and not blurt out stuff like your son was conceived under a Christmas tree. Why can't we just skip right to the good stuff from the moment of introduction? "Hi I'm Paige and I ate three doughnuts for breakfast today." It would be so much easier.

Instead I find myself in the throes of awkward first dates all over again, trying to act normal enough to entrap someone into my waiting arms. Only this time around I'm married with a baby, I'm too tired to go through the song and dance of getting to know someone and feigning interest in a lengthy explanation of their bonsai tree trimming hobby. And this time around instead of courting young undergrads, I'm on the prowl for a more elusive and complex group of people...

Mommy friends.

I recently moved to a new state where I don't know anyone and I am sort of desperate for some serious committed relationships.Why can't they make an eharmony site for meeting other moms? I'm pretty good at putting myself out there, going to book club, to parks, to baby music class, though the whole time I'm not watching my baby bang on a wood block, I'm checking out the other mommy tail and trying to decide who I have a shot at. My problem is I don't know how to take the next step, how to go from small talk at baby music class to play dates that I pretend are for my infant son when they're really just for me.

I do have a lot of ideas though! Driving by their house several times a day to see if they're home. Leaving really long, rambling, incoherent voicemails that just end with a trail of nervous laughter. Pretending something fell out of their purse and I needed to return it. Isn't this your stick of gum? I thought you might need it... As long as I'm here, you want to grab lunch or something?

All solid ideas.

I also have the same jealousy issues that I did when I was actually dating, only they're magnified tenfold. "Oh you and Jill went to the thrift store together? That's soooo great. I'm so happy for you two! Really great. That's just so so so great. I hate the thrift store so it's a good thing you didn't call me..."

At the end of my first round of dating I wound up with a wonderful prize, a loyal husband who fills my days with love and laughter. I hope that at the end of this round of dating I will end up with something similar. Someone who will make all the nervous flirting in tight jeans at baby music class worth it. Someone who will go to Krispy Kreme with me for breakfast, sharing laughs over a dozen doughnuts, our diaper bags touching under the table. Someone who will look the other way when my son snatches their kid's toy away. Someone I can swap poop disaster stories with. Someone to call for advice when my son eats the dirt out of all my house plants....

But until then, I have got to get better at dating.

Mt. Rainier

When Josh first got offered his job in Washington the first thing I said was, "Oh good, I can hike Mt. Rainier!" That was before I realized it required things like ice picks and bagging your own poop. But I still wanted to see it, and do some smaller hikes that didn't require poop transportation. So we waited and waited for the perfect Saturday that would be completely clear and sunny so we could have a good view of the mountain, realized it didn't exist, and decided to go this weekend anyway.

It was a 2.5 hour drive each way, we thought about doing a hotel (and for the tiniest second considered camping), but it angers The Beast to sleep in the same room as his parents but still have to sleep in his own bed. Last time we tried to one-room it, we let Cooper sleep with us and I was woken up with a bottle to the head. Thankfully it was toxic plastic and not glass. We weren't keen on not getting any sleep so we opted to be terrible parents and force Cooper into the confinement of a car seat/hiking backpack for an entire day. Actually he was pretty good until the last 30 minutes in the car when he started to throw his toys at us.

When we first arrived it was nice and sunny and you could see what you drove 2.5 hours to see. So nice. We saw Mt. Rainier for about 5 minutes until the clouds came.

I think I might have finally crammed enough nature down his throat that he's starting to like it. Chalk one up for indoctrination!

When I carried Cooper he spent the whole time trying to kiss on me. He would say "mama!" and then try to get to my face with his mouth wide open. I ended up with a lot of wet willies.

Cooper is holding one of our plastic knife covers. He's weirdly obsessed with it, never lets it go, and to top it off---throws a fit unless we let him sleep with it. It's kind of bizarre. I'm hoping soon he will replace this attachment with a teddy bear or a blankie or something less concerning.

Lots of fog.

So long Mt. Rainier!

Eleven Months

This post is extremely late. I have to psych myself up now to take these monthly pictures! They used to be so easy! As did diaper changes... Anyway, my boy insists on growing older and is now 11 months old. Insert tearful comment here. But really, his babyhood is almost over. Some people haven't even seen it yet and it's already over. How come you only get a baby for a year? It's very unfair and now I understand why some people have a whole brood of children.

This month:

Cooper is talking! Sort of... He's said a few words one time. Nevertheless it's wildly exciting for his over-emotional mother. He's said hi, bye, yeah, sit, and dada. No mama, of course.

Hi- One night Josh and I put him to bed obviously before he was ready because he cried for a little while in his crib which he usually doesn't do. Finally Josh caved and went and got him and brought him back downstairs to play some more. As soon as they rounded the corner and Cooper saw me he said in a very sad, melancholy, I've-just-been-crying voice "hi." It broke my little heart and I decided to give him ice cream and let him stay up til midnight.

Yeah- One day I took Cooper in his stroller for a jog through the park. We got back to the car and as I was holding him about to put him in his car seat I saw that he was gazing longingly at the kids playing on the playground. I asked him, "Cooper do you want to go play?" And he said, again very sadly, "yeah."

Bye- Cooper has said bye twice. Both to people he had never met before and never to anyone he sees multiple times. I guess he was keen for these strangers to go. He would wave and say a very soft "bye."

Dada- Cooper didn't really say dada to Josh so I'm not sure it counts. But one night in Utah after we hadn't seen Josh in a couple weeks, we were watching tv and a man that looked like Josh came on a pet food commercial. Cooper looked at the screen and loudly exclaimed, "dada!" Maybe the little buddy needs glasses?

Sit- One night Cooper was standing up on his own for a few minutes and Josh and I were both staring at him in amazement to see how long he would stand there. He looked at us and said, "sit" as he plopped his bummy back on the ground.

Cooper has turned into quite the entertainer these days. Especially in Utah when there were always a lot of people to show off for. He knows exactly what tricks to do that will make people laugh and he is absolutely delighted when people laugh and clap for him, he laughs and claps back. He loves being the center of attention. He also has started playing his own game of peekaboo with me several times a day. He goes and hides behind the couch, waits for me to say, "Where's Cooper?", and then jumps out at me with a great big smile on his face.

Cooper has always been a great kiss giver- they're very wide and wet, and he always loves to give them. But in the last few days he's learned to give them on cue. I ask, "can mama have some kisses?" and he beelines it over to me with his mouth wide open. Needless to say I make this request a lot and receive a LOT of daily kisses.

After months of stressing out that Cooper would be the only child ever that couldn't drink out of a sippy cup, my baby Einstein finally mastered the art of the sippy. At 11 months old. Poor buddy, some things are just more challenging than others.

The other day Cooper did the cutest thing in the entire world. I noticed some crumbs on the bottom of his exersaucer and I pulled out a wipe and started to wipe them up. Cooper came over, pulled out his own wipe and started rubbing it on the exersaucer too. It was officially adorable. And I hope that means that he will scrub my floors when he gets a little bigger. It's high time this kid starting pulling his weight around here. Freeloader. :)

Cooper took his first few steps this month, he toddled from his exersaucer to the couch. He is able to get from sitting to standing by himself, and he can stand on his own for a few minutes. I am very nervous for the life changes that walking will bring as he is already hard enough to keep up with!

Cooper has become so much more interactive and playful this month. I hope it's not pathetic that he is my best friend and makes me laugh harder than any adult does. He is just one very fun, happy, energetic, entertaining boy!

I LOVE YOU Coop.

And now his pitiful pictures... Poor buddy, I am not cutting it in the photo department. I think I need to hire a photographer, he hasn't had any decent pictures in a while, and someone this cute definitely deserves it!