Sunday, April 18, 2010

10 Months...That is only 2 months away from ONE YEAR!

If pictures are worth a thousand words then there are a good 45,000 words on this one. That is what happens when I miss a monthly update.
I would apologize in advance but you are the one choosing to look at this blog :)
Since I never gave Cooper's stats from his 9 month check up, here they are:...
Oops. Never mind. Went digging for them wherever it was I had kept them written down for forever and now I've lost them.
I remember that he was 17 lbs. 15 oz. (which they rounded to 18lbs.) That was somewhere around the 10% in weight and whatever his height happened to be (which I wouldn't know since I LOST the piece of scrap paper like the fabulous mom that I am) was also around the 10%. The doctor looked at me and then asked me how tall my husband is. I told him I am 5'2 (which I round up from the constant 5'1.5 that I always seemed to be measured at the doc's office) and Todd is around 5'11....He then informed me that although the boys have their daddy's eye color I am winning in the size category.
Let's hope that isn't the case.

Anyhow, I will make the rest of these short and tell you a little of what the Coopster has been up to lately.

He is an active little beast but a cute and happy one at that.

And here are a few picture of his feet because I can't get enough of his little hands and toes.


I will mention that his fingernails grow so fast and are as sharp as talons constantly even though I swear I will have just cut them and they will be sharp again.

He is idolizes Fisher. No one can make Cooper laugh the way Fisher does.

When we go to grocery store he now rides around in the cart and loves looking around at everyone and flirting with the women.

Bath time is still one of his favorites.

He still has beautiful blue eyes, courtesy of Todd.

He sleeps around 11 hours a night and will take one or two naps throughout the day depending on our agenda for the day. There have been days where he will have slept 20 minutes from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed. Those days sometime feel a little lllooooonnnnnggg.

He says "mama" and "dada" although he has no clue what he is saying.

Most people who have been around Cooper on a regular basis will agree that he is not a crier. I know that he has hurt himself if he starts really crying. Here's what he looks like.

So around 3-4 wks ago (I think) he cut his first tooth. This kid is the slowest teether in the world and we thought Fisher was slow.

The two teeth he has cut are barely visible still. He does tend to get a little grumpy when they break through and I guess I can't blame him. Fisher got his first two (bottom front) when he was 8 months and then 9 months. The next two teeth to come in were his top canines. He looked like a little vampire.
Now Cooper has cut his two bottom canines as his first two teeth...There are some strange things going on in the Church house.
Cooper drools a lot.
It probably has something to do with those little teeth...

Or it might just be due to his love of blowing raspberries.

To help with the pain he loves to chew. Apples are one of his favorites. It is nice since he doesn't have any teeth I don't have to worry about him actually biting anything off and choking although I will find little scrape marks from the two little microscopic nubs that he has.

He will also chew on drum sticks (and anything else he can find that is not supposed to go in his mouth.)

But occasionally he prefers to play with them instead.

Same goes for the blocks. Sometimes he chews...

And sometimes he plays.

He has been eating solid foods for at least 2-3 weeks now. Despite not having teeth, he is great at chewing. For lunch I will normally infant size dice him up some chicken, bananas or peaches, carrots, and cheese. I still give him cereal and baby food at breakfast and dinner and sometimes in the afternoon if he wants it. He's still nursing although he has cut down on some of those feedings.

He loves shoving all of it in his mouth. About 75% of it makes it in. He loves eating food this way. For snacks or to keep him occupied I will give him Rice Krispies and puffs and he will happily eat them while I try to get stuff done.

We're still working on the sippy cup. For now it seems to be more of a toy. Or ball. You know, something that gets lobbed across the room harder and further than should be possible for a ten month old.

It also works well as a chew toy.

The guy has been standing for over a month and now is taking steps when he feels like it. The other night I was walking with him holding on to his hands. When I let go, instead of him crawling, he took SIX steps!! Todd and I were so excited. We got down on the ground and tried to get him to walk back and forth between us but he, instead, looked at us like we were a bunch of buffoons. Like I said, he walks when he feels like it.


He likes getting into EVERYTHING. Magnets are something he enjoys tremendously at the moment.

And Fisher's table. There are always all kinds of "no-no's" on there.

He loves looking out the window and playing with the blinds.

Occasionally he will play a little peek-a-boo with the grass.

Can I mention how much I love this sweet little boy? He is still a happy place for me, even if it is a lot more active than it was six months ago!

Cooper loves pulling books off the shelf. Some days I will find books pulled off all three bookshelves through out our house along with the DVDs. He also has started ripping pages out them which four of my library books can attest to.

He loves playing with Fisher's toys, especially the cars the Easter Bunny brought. (Still working on that Easter post. (Maybe by the 4th of July.)

Since we only have carpet in the bedrooms, the little push car Fisher used to learn how to walk, slips out from under Cooper when trying to walk in the main area.

Cooper has found a good alternative to the problem. He will push Fisher's little chairs around the house probably about 1-2 hours a day.

But when cruising, pushing chairs and jumping fails him, Cooper always has his speedy gonzales crawl to fall back on. The kid is FAST. Especially when he knows he is not supposed to be going somewhere.

When he gets too out of control he spends some confined time in his pack n' play with a bunch of toys.

One of his favorite toys is still Daddy's receiver, along with all other electronics. He likes making the lights turn on and off.

He loves to dig through the Wii stuff.

And then he likes to eat it.

When I find myself going into panic mode because the house is such a disaster (which it has been for quite a while now. I can't seem to get my act together. thank goodness I have such a low key husband when it comes to things like cooking and cleaning- I am lucky.) we head to the park where Cooper hangs out eating food in his stroller.

He is old enough now though, where all he wants to do is get out and crawl around with the big boys. It does make park time a little more difficult compared to the fall where he would sleep the whole time.

I love this little boy but I have to admit I love when it is time to put him down for the night. He is a busy little boy these days.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Fisherman

I have been meaning to put all of these pictures up forever which is why some will have snow in them and others will have Fisher in short sleeve and shorts.
I like to keep up on my pictures because I am a picture kind of girl- always have been. My room growing up was always a big collage of pictures. Just ask my family, friends and roommates :) Now I can keep them contained on my blog, but I hate for any of my favorites to be left behind.
I am also a person with a lot of favorites. My Ipod has about a gazillion play lists. I have current favorites, New favorites, Twilight favorites, Soundtrack favorites... Those are just a few of my favorites. But then I have my Ultimate favorites. On that list alone I have about 150 songs which could all fall in my top 5 of all time favorites depending on my mood. That is why this blog of favorite Fisher photos from the last 6 weeks will have more like 30 pictures instead of 3.

It's just the way I roll.

Fisher got really good at rolling big snowballs.

We made a couple of snowmen.

Which Fisher then had a lot of fun "DESTROYING!" I heard a lot of "Die snowman! I am going to destroy you!"

I told Fisher we could make some snow ice cream when we had a big storm one day with lots of fresh white stuff. He grabbed the biggest bowl we had and we ate about two bites each.

Want some snow cream?

His pre-school had a Beach Day. Fisher thought it was so cool to wear his swimsuit when there was snow outside.
We have been so happy with his school. His teacher is so sweet and while I was worried that she was "not feeling" him all that much in the beginning (you know, when he was hitting everyone and telling all the adults he was going to kill them) she stuck with him and seems to genuinely care about him. I was worried they weren't going to take him back next year but he has grown up a lot over the last 9 months, thank goodness. Next year it will be four days a week. I considered taking him to a different one with about 20 kids in the class as a stepping stone for Kindergarten, but he seems to do better in smaller groups so I want to stick with what works for the time. He will start kindergarten wherever it is we next move.

He has become quite the little builder and spends time everyday building all sorts of contraptions with his blocks. He is going through a big "tent" or fort phase.
Maybe one day he will build huge buildings like his Uncle Robbie.

He loves designing cars, boats, space ships and most of all, guns. Lots and lots of guns.

Fisher is a drumming machine. We keep our guitar hero drums in Cooper's room and almost like clockwork I can expect to hear Fisher drumming every morning when Cooper wakes up.

Nothing is better than lunch with friends.
Fisher is such a four year old boy.

He LOVES peanut butter and honey sandwiches. That is on the menu for lunch everyday and has been for at least two months.

Fisher is old enough now that when he has friends over he will play in the backyard/woods and won't run off and I can watch them from inside. This picture was on St. Patrick's Day and the boys spent a lot of time digging for bugs and playing with sticks.

We did green pancakes for dinner.
Fisher gave me his typical Fisher pose.
We were planning on putting him into soccer, but were going to miss the last month and so we are holding off until Fall. We might put him in T-ball before that. For now we spend our days at the park and zoo and playing at friends' houses.

He was telling everyone he is the best soccer player ever as he struck this pose.

Everyone needs a fireman hat when gardening.

There is a relatively new park near our house that has this cool pedaling thing. It tires Fisher out. I root him on "Keep going!" when in my head I am thinking "You might actually fall asleep at a decent hour tonight!"
Fisher never sleeps. Bedtime is a hassle every night. He wakes up before Todd most mornings (and Todd gets up at 6:30) he doesn't nap, doesn't have quiet time (because he and I always wind up fighting which completely negates the concept of quiet time...)
He yawns all the day long, is grumpy a lot of the time and I think it would all go away if he would just sleep every now and then.
I will have these really good days with Fisher when he is my happy, sweet little boy and I will realize that he either napped the day before or he slept a decent period of time. The difference is night and day.
I have had a lot of dandelion bouquets this spring.
I love it.

Despite my grumblings about this guy I DO love him.
Our good days are sooo good!
He is really funny, as most four year olds are. His observations on life crack me up. He loves his little brother, friends, and playing outside.
Oh...and sugar. The kid loves sugar.
One of his favorite outside things to do is pump up his bike tires. He actually likes to pump up anything that moves...or not. In this picture he is pumping up his belly button so that he can have some energy.

He loves riding his bike.

But he forgets to pay attention sometimes. He often will start looking at something and you will see him riding while looking off to the side or even behind him.
Many curbs, cars and mail boxes have fallen victim to Fisher's lack of attention.
What's really scary is that now he likes to ride without hands and legs.
Yes. It is as scary as it sounds.
Needless to say, we won't be removing the training wheels for a while to keep the neighborhood safe.
Some boys put cards in their tires.
Fisher is a sensitive guy and opts for flowers.

I have nothing to say on this one.

This is from over a month ago but now he likes to write words out. I was telling him how to spell Mama & Daddy. Somehow he got Daddy right but who knows what happened to Mom :)
He loves when I read to him. I have been meaning to start on the "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" since he has shown interest but I haven't gotten around to it.

I love those shoes, too, Fisher.

Wanting to know if he has the same bump on his throat that Daddy does.
He has become very observant in regards to our bodies. He is going through a streaking phase and if you happened to be driving by at the right time you might get lucky enough to see a naked four year old running circles around our house...The outside of our house.
I keep trying to explain about our bodies and blah blah blah but in some ways I hate bringing it to his attention because that almost seems to make it worse.
He loves having the missionaries over for dinner and thinks they are really cool.

I can't think of anything else to say about Fisher.

Except that he is one cool dude.
I will get around to posting abour Easter one of these days. And Cooper's 9 month post which will probably be joined with his 10 month since he will be 10 months old in a couple of days!
I can't believe it.