Cups, Graham Crackers, and Cars: Oh My!

Friday night Coop was playing with this cup for awhile. He is constantly trying to figure things out. At one point, he actually got the lid put back on, but that was before the camera started.

This morning Coop was eating graham cracker. He had shoved the entire graham cracker in his mouth, and his cheeks looked like little chipmunk cheeks full of food. We tried to take a picture, but he decided to do an open-mouthed grin instead. So I aplogize for the food shot.

He thought it was hilarious.

This afternoon we gave Coop some matchbox cars to play with. He was excited to check out the cars.

Daddy helped show him some of the cars. I loved this picture of the two of them. Coop's face shows his awe.

Bed Head

Thought I'd never get to say it, but Coop woke up from his morning nap today with bed head.

Our little baldy is finally getting some hair. In fact, I just gave him his third "haircut" last week to even out all the long strands to match the short ones and make him look like more of a little man. Thanks Chelsey for the pictures so we can all revel in this cute proof of what must have been a great nap!

13 Months (ok more like 13-1/2)

Here I am at work, finishing lunch, and thinking of things I have forgotten to blog about. I don't like blogging without pictures of the Coopster, but sometimes better to record cute things without the visual aids than not at all.



I realize I failed to do a post for Cooper's 13-month milestones. Things he started doing recently (forgive me if I've mentioned these before):

• Dancing - Coop has discovered rhythym and dance. He mostly dances in a circle with his arm in the air, but will also do a head bob, a quick shuffle of the feet, or a bounce at the knees. I love dancing with him.
• Along with dancing, he has learned to turn on the CD player. He knows what button to push to play the CD. But lest you think he's technologically advanced, he also likes to use the CD player as a seat. It's the perfect height for him. His favorite CD to date is the soundtrack to the movie Juno. It has lots of songs with distinct beats and funky upbeat sounds. Yesterday I was tired of hearing this soundtrack, so I put in a children's CD I have, and he was SO not interested. Nate says it's because he can already tell the difference between good and bad taste in music.
• Eyes, Ears, Mouth and Nose - Coop has learned to identify these things on himself and others. Well, almost. Sometimes he gets them mixed up, but he's learning!
• He's starting to notice things on his clothes. At night I let him pick out his pjs. The other night he picked some because they had a monkey on them. He was excited to "have a monkey on his belly."
• His climbing antics have gone to a whole new level.
• When I tell him no or that something is naughty (usually something he's climbing onto, or getting into), he stops and "angrily" says "Naaaaaa!" back. Then goes right back to it, all the while looking at me like, "Na, na, na, na , na." He is stubborn and somewhat defiant. Oh boy.
• Coop LOVES talking on the phone and is starting to talk back. He is constantly pretending to talk on the phone, but when there is really someone else on the other end, he gets elated. So if you want to call and chat with him (his attention span is probably about a minute), he'd love it. You may even catch him saying, "Hello?" or "Hi!" He hasn't figured out yet though that waving bye-bye doesn't cut it when talking on the telephone.
• I love his little giggle he does when he's trying to communicate something and you guess correctly. It's his little, "That's it!" Gets me every time.
• Just when I thought my little guy was going to be lucky enough to not go through it, Coop has started having separation anxiety. Maybe it has to do with the fact that for the last week I have been working on coaching him through learning to fall asleep on his own. [The "Sleep Lady" is a genius!] Or maybe it's just his age. But today I was about to leave for work, and he came running into the kitchen to give me a kiss and then wouldn't let me leave. Chelsey had to bribe him with looking out the window for birds. This may make my working career even shorter than planned...so hard.
• Coop has taken to his stuffed monkey (shown in this picture). He has refused the "snuggle bunny/blanket" item we tried to give him as a security item, and has moved on to the monkey. At night when he's crying, I tell him to lay down and give his monkey a love. It calms him, and he'll lay down and snuggle it. So cute.
• Coop loves to pull things out of bags. At church he's constantly raiding someone else's bag or purse. All the people who ever sit next to us are forever moving their stuff out of his reach. It's rather embarrassing. At home if someone's purse is on the floor, he's immediately into it. The only bag he won't get into is his own diaper bag. Been there, done that, I guess. This morning he was getting into Chelsey's purse soon after she arrived, and so I suggested putting a few things into one of those reusable grocery bags we have. Coop was in heaven.

Ok enough for now. More pictures later when I remember to re-charge the camera battery...

Halloween Celebrations

This year we had lots of opportunities to celebrate Halloween. First was a Fall Festival/Halloween Party for the kids from my brother's apartment complex. Coop posed as a scarecrow.

And got to pet a real Velvetine rabbit.

We had two trunk-or-treats to go to. The first one for our church I forgot my camera. Coop was funny that night, not fully understanding what was going on. He wasn't as interested in gathering candy as we was in the various trunk decorations, especially things that lit up like mechanical ghosts or candles in jack-o-lanterns.

Saturday night was a trunk-or-treat at the ward my brother's family attends. Ellie dressed as Dorothy (might I add that she won a costume contest for the cutest costume at the Fall Festival mentioned above. Grammie did an awesome job making the dress!). The rest of their family was centered around the Wizard of Oz theme: Chelsey as Glenda the Good Witch, Liz as the Wicked Witch of the West (Cooper was terrified of her all night as she was hardly recognizable with all the great makeup), and Bryt (not pictured) was Oz. I was a witch, and Coop was a skeleton. His outfit glowed in the dark.

Coop and Dad ready for trunk-or-treating

Nate did an awesome job both nights decorating the back of the truck. It was the talk of both parties with so many spiders, big and small, and the light behind it all. This picture doesn't do it justice.

Coop was a stinker Saturday night. He was tired and wanted to run around without holding my hand. It was a fight all night long, including taking pictures.

Ah, the crash. While we were cleaning up the truck, he pulled a lollipop out of his loot, and was sucking on it through the wrapper. Next thing I knew, he had ripped the wrapper off the top and was very happily licking the lollipop. It was his first taste of candy, and if the sticky mess was any proof of how much he liked it, we may have to hide the rest of his candy.