The Thanksgiving post

Blogging isn't easy. Especially, when you have a 7 week old little guy living under your roof. Although I guess I probably wouldn't have a blog if that wasn't the case. We've had the best intentions with the blog but for those of you who do not know babies are a lot of work and leave little time for other things. Amazingly enough, as I write this at 8 pm, Cooper is sleeping. Call it luck for us or just over feeding but we got him down nice and early this evening.

Cooper has been busily growing and developing a little personality these past few weeks. He is now just about 7 weeks and is tipping the scales at a bit over 10.5 lbs. I had planned to have him pose with the turkey because it tipped the scales at more than 3 times Cooper's weight but completely forgot about the camera with craziness of the holiday. He was an amazing sleeper at Thanksgiving. I think he must have inhaled some of those triptophans because he was awake for no more than 20 minutes the whole day. He was happily passed around the house all day like a flask at a high school party (that simile is an example of showing not telling for all of our teacher friends that enjoy the blog).

Cooper has started to smile but we've had little luck catching one on camera. He is now making more and more eye contact on a daily basis and has started to enjoy some of his toys and his mobile. A quick sidebar on the mobile. The mobile wouldn't fit onto his crib and we didn't want to get another because this one is really quite the mobile with the lights, the fish, and the music. So I cleverly turned to my trusty drill. Since we live in an apartment it wasn't the aesthetics we were after, but the functionality. Cooper couldn't be happier with the results. I can't say our landlord will appreciate it as much as Cooper, but luckily he is not a blog reader. End sidebar.

Cooper has continued to make his way all over town with us. He came into school the other day to meet some teacher friends and our classes. He was sleeping at the time so we told the kids they had to be quiet and to give him a friendly wave. My class has not been that quiet all year. We've successfully taken Cooper out to a bunch of restaurants and even take him to our neighborhood dive bar on Thanksgiving morning. Before you get too alarmed and call DSS it was following a race I ran and he had other baby company in there. He did enjoy the dark and dank surroundings while I enjoyed my post race Guinness.

I set out not to be wordy with this post. The long and short. Cooper is doing great. He keeps us awake at all hours, makes us smile, could possibly be the cutest baby ever, and we love every moment with him.

Enjoy the photos. PS for those of you that do not know, you can just click on the "enjoy the photos" and it will take you directly to shutterfly to see the album. You can also find the links to all the other photo albums on the right side of the main page.

Look who just turned...1 month

Cooper's first month culminated in a weekend spent up in VT with his Uncle Ross and Aunt Heidi. Originally, Aimee and I were hesitant about the trip because we didn't want to subject Ross to Cooper's sleeping habits. Aimee and I have always felt something special for VT and after this weekend we think Cooper does too. He turned a sleeping corner this weekend and let us sleep for an unprecedented and uninterrupted 3 plus hrs. There were a couple of times this weekend where we had to check-in on Cooper just to make sure everything was ok because it seemed just too good to be true. I prefer the finger under the nose method to feel his warm breath. Anyway, Cooper loved VT and visited all his parents favorite haunts in the Mad River Valley. He spent some quality time at the Hyde Away Inn, stopped at the Big Picture to enjoy some fresh, homemade donuts, visited the base of Sugarbush, hiked 5 miles to enjoy a great view of the valley and experience snow for the first time, built his first snowman, and even took in some culture in the state capital. Our Montpelier visit took on a new and different feel for Aimee and I. Usually, when we pop into a city we find a local bar to grab a bite and some local beers. This time we traded in the bars for browsing in a couple of baby stores for winter gear, finding a quiet place in a park where we could feed and change Cooper, and enjoying our lunch in the car because Cooper wanted nothing to do with sitting and relaxing in a quiet restaurant. I'm not complaining about our new routine, simply stating the differences.

What else has Cooper been up to these past 2 weeks? He's been eating. He has gained nearly 2lbs since his birthday. As a result newborn clothes no longer fit. As do newborn diapers. Aimee and I had a slow learning curve figuring out that we needed bigger diapers. A couple days in a row we kept finding Cooper soaked through his clothes and couldn't figure out how/why it was happening. I believe it was one of our friends who have a couple of their own kids that said "diapers aren't supposed to stretch that way". Since the awakening.. No leaky diapers. He had a playdate with his new lady friend, Olivia. Olivia belongs to a couple we met at a baby class back in August. He's been sleeping in 1-2 hr bursts throughout the night. And he's been doing more and more baby like things. Making and keeping eye contact, baby noises, and even the occasional smile. He may be just farting which he finds amusing (our baby books say when babies pass gas (never thought I would be so technical) they can make smile like gestures with their mouths). I prefer to think that he is just a boys' boy and finds it funny, as do I.

It's been a wonderful month. Enjoy the photos!

I ain't afraid of no ghost

Cooper had quite the weekend. His Aunt Heidi and Uncle Ross came down from VT to visit with him and celebrate his first Halloween. We aren't sure what he thought about Halloween. He either liked it so much he got overly excited and peed all over his costume or... he saw a ghost and is afraid of them and subsequently peed all over his costume. However, it shakes down he peed on his costume and had to be changed within 5 minutes of putting it on.

Late last week and into the weekend Cooper developed a new sleeping pattern. He enjoys waking up at 3AM and watching SportsCenter until 6 when I have to get ready to work. I enjoy SportsCenter just as much as the next guy but find it far less entertaining at 4 in the morning.

This past week Cooper has a lot more awake time (even at 3 AM). He has been becoming noticeably more alert and has really started to check out his surroundings. We took Cooper on lots of walks around town these past bunch of days. The weather has gone from 80 one day to 40 another so we've been able to dress him up in all sorts of outfits and use lots of the gear that Aimee received from her shower. We've been playing with the Baby Bjorn but may need a rocket scientist to help us figure out exactly how to wear the freaking thing. He seems like it when his faced is not getting smashed into our chests.

Wondering about his costume? The track outfit is vintage Cabbage Patch Kid circa the early 80's. We took the track outfit from Aimee's Cabbage Patch and the wind breaker from mine. Yeah, I had a doll.. So what!

Halloween Weekend album