Chris was holding Cooper over his head the other day. Cooper was smiling back at Chris and giggling. Chris was saying something to Cooper and then out of no where, Cooper begins to drool. (I bet you know where this one is going) The long strand of drool lands right in Chris’s mouth.

Moral of the Story: Keep your mouth closed when holding a baby over your head!

Cooper has sweaty head syndrome…Well… he is just a hot guy and plays hard. Because he had a full head of hair that was starting to have a rat tail in the back and wings on the side, Chris and I decided it was time to cut his hair. We were going to take him to a hair cutter, but decided spending $20 on a kid’s hair cut was not worth it. Chris buzz cuts his own hair and thought he could just buzz cut Cooper’s hair too. I thought this was a great idea because Cooper would have less hair on his head and help decrease the sweaty head syndrome and make him a little cooler. Well, the hair cut was traumatic. Cooper HATED having his hair buzzed. I think the sound of the clippers freaked him out. He cried and was shaking in fear. Thankfully, after we had finished cutting his hair, he was all smiles again.

Before Pictures:

After Pictures:

They say when it rains, it pours. About 3 weeks ago, Chris’s Grandmother Hazel Foley passed away. Hazel was one week shy of 89. She was slowly deteriorating and finally God called her name. The three of us made a 10 hours road trip to Lubbock, TX which is 9.5 hours away from Houston. We were gone for 3 nights and 4 days. Thanks to Baby Einstein and the DVD player, we were able to make it on such a long trip. I just kept feeding him and giving him bottles and that seemed to make him happy. But during these 1o hours, Cooper barely slept. Cooper will no longer sleep in the car. Yes, I know this is crazy. Babies should sleep in the car right?!? The only way that Cooper would fall asleep is if we let him wail until he would just give up. But he would only sleep for 20- 40 minutes tops. I think the whole trip in the car he slept a total of one hour. Thankfully, once we arrive he had a lot of distraction to keep him from loosing it.

Then a week later my Grandfather Bill Brogan passed away suddenly and unexpected at the age of 80. I booked a plane ticket to return to Maryland last minute, but the ticket prices were so high that I was the only one able to go. Chris had to say behind. I took Cooper with me so that my family could see him. So for the first time ever, I took a 3 hours flight alone with Cooper.  I just returned yesterday. Let me say this, I will never travel on a plane alone with Cooper ever again! Well, I would travel alone with Cooper on the plane if I bought him a seat and put him in his carseat for the flight. At least that way I don’t have to hold him the whole trip. In summary he was so squirmy. All he wanted to do was crawl all over the plane, touch the man next to me or kick him, eat the seat belt, or basically do anything he was not allowed to do. He will not sleep in my arms anymore so that made traveling hard because he was tired but refused to fall asleep. He cried on the way back for the first 1.5 hours. I was “that mom” who could not control her son. I tired everything to get him to calm down, offered a bottle, offered food, tried to rock him, turned on the DVD player, handed him toys…but he was just so tired he could not help it. Finally, I stood up and went to the back of the plane and he feel alseep in my arms for 10 minutes to the hum the plane was creating, but he quickly awoke when I was asked to return to my seat and then his crying only increased in intensity. Finally, he calmed down after taking a bottle (which he had refused 3 times prior). Then I read him his favorite three books over and over and over. The poor guy next to me must have hated to hear me reading him the same books like a broken record. I really did not care, it was keeping him distracted and calm. All the while, I just kept handing him Gerber puffs to keep him quite and to keep his ears from popping during descent. When I was exiting the plane the flight attendant said to me, “He did OK.” I laughed and said, “your kind!” She patted me on the back and gave me a look like, “well at least it’s all over.”

So Cooper survived the car and plane and sleeping in many different places. He is such a trooper. He really did a great job with not following a schedule, missing naps, and asking a very active 10 month old to sit still for so long. I know our family is glad that we brought him along to the funerals so that he could be apart of the family. Something about a young child or infant can really breath life into such a sad event. I know that Chris and I will miss our grandparents. We are glad that both of them got to meet Cooper. I am sure that neither of them would have wanted Cooper to stay behind and not be present for their funerals/ day of their funerals.

Cooper is now 10 months old. I have really enjoyed watching him grow and learn. He surprises me every day. He is like a sponge and is soaking up a ton of new information and skills every day. I thought I would list some of the neat things that Cooper is learning and doing:

• Bangs spoons and toys together
• Turns the pages of a book and “read” to himself
• Enjoys to read books that have touch and feel stuff on them
• Loves to throw balls, roll balls, and just hold balls
• Pull himself up on a piece of furniture
• Army crawls and pulling himself up to sitting
• Gives high fives
• Claps his hands
• Will hand an object to “share” it, but then takes it back (haha)
• Turns lights off and on
• Understands the word “no”
• Walks around the house while holding our hands
• Feeds himself a bottle laying down
• Drinks from a straw
• Drops objects and then looks to see where they landed
• …the list could just keep coming, but I’ll stop there!

We just took Cooper to the doctors office for his 9 month check-up, except that he is a week shy of 10 months, so we are a little late. We had the typical developmental questions asked and his height and weight checked. We are growing a BIG kid. I asked the doctor if it was okay that he was only army crawling and he said it was fine. The doctor suspects that because Cooper is carrying around a “little” more weight, that is why he is not crawling on his knees and elbows yet. The doctor said not to worry, that in time he’ll get there.

So here are his stats (9 months, 24 days old)

Height:  29.5 inches (78%)

Weight: 22 lbs 7 oz (71%)

Head Circumference: 47 inches (85%)

Clothing size: 12-18 month clothing (I kid you not!)

Today Chris and I decide to brake out the video camera and record Cooper playing (a week shy of 10 months old). He has change so much since we moved to Texas almost two months ago. He’s moving around now. Before we left, he was only rolling around. Now he is crawling. He is doing the army crawl all over his play floor. Today seemed to be a day when crawling really seemed to become second nature for him because he has been moving all over the floor today with ease. He is really good at pulling himself up to the seated position from laying down. He started to do this the week he turned 9 months old. He is still not pulling himself up to standing yet, but he tries daily, so I think he’s close to doing it.

Cooper has also learned the meaning of the word “no”. As you can see in the video, we had to tell Cooper “no” on several occasions not to pull up on the foam floor tiles. We are trying to train him to not pull up on them. He is getting better at  listening to our discipline. He still tests us and will try to repeat the action, but a stern “no” usually will do the trick!

Cooper is really starting to babble a ton. He babbles a little on this video, but I will try and get a better video up soon to show him babbling some more. Currently he can say only variations of the sounds m, b, n, w (with all vowel sounds attached). He even tries to imitate Chris barking like a dog by saying, “na, na, na”.

Cooper has some favorite toys: his large green ball (shown in video), wooden kitchen spoons, plastic storage containers, sunglasses, pop-up toy, small boxes with small items in them, kick gym, moving boxes, leap frog activity table, and any toy that lights up and makes music. He still loves Baby Einstein Videos too!

Hope you Enjoy the Video!

Last night was a rough night for Cooper. It took from 7pm until 9pm for Cooper to fall asleep. Not sure what was keeping him awake. It could have been teething, gas, separation anxiety, or not enough wake time so he may not have been tired enough. No matter the reason for his resistance to sleep, he was one sad kid. He was crying and whimpering off and on for about two hours. I went up to his room about four times. The first time I went up there he was crying out for me. Yes, Cooper has learned to request me by saying “mom”, “ma” or “mama”. Most often he calls me “mom” in an almost British accent, which he says rather quickly. I wish I had a tape recording of him saying “mom”. But last night he was crying and screaming out for me. When I opened the door he greeted me by crying, “mooommmmm!” I picked him up and he rested his head on my shoulder and just kept whimpering, “ma, ma, mooooommmm, maaaaaa!” over and over. So sad! I felt terrible! I gave him Tylenol and gripe water in hopes that if he had teething pain or gas that one of those things would help him. Well, I ended up holding him off and on until he calmed down enough to go to sleep. All the while he kept whimpering my name. It was hard to see him so upset. I am glad that Cooper is able to request me now by saying my name. I am also glad that Cooper feels like I can sooth him. He is going though a little bout of separation anxiety lately. He can be in someone else arms and cry out, “ma, mom” and then proceed to reach for me.

I love that Cooper feel secure in my arms. It is amazing how being a parent helps me understand how God must feel about me. I understand that Christ hates to see me upset and wishes he could take away my pain. But I also understand that God cannot always take the pain and suffering away; it is just something that I have to endure (just like Cooper must go through teething). What I realized now is that if we call out to our Heavenly Father, “Abba”, He will respond, just as I will respond to Cooper. I sing to Cooper before he goes to sleep. I have been singing the song “He’s got the whole world in his hands”. I do this as I rock Cooper. He seems to love this song. The song reminds me that God is rocking me and hold me in his hands and that I have nothing to worry about because my Heavenly father has me in his hands! I feel it is a privilege to be Cooper’s mom. God is showing me a glimpse of just how much he really does love and care for us all by allowing me to be Coop’s mom.

Here is a little update on the teething front:

Cooper’s 5th tooth looks like it finally ruptured the skin. This was the first tooth that has cause a blood blister on his gums and a little bleeding. It really looked like it hurt. I am not quite sure, but his gum on the right top side next to his two front teeth is hard and I can see a little bump. The gum is not to swollen, but I think he’s getting ready to cut his 6th tooth. Wow…he seems to be getting all his teeth all at once. Anyone else have this happen to their little one? His naps are on the shorter side and he is waking up in the middle of many of his naps, but he has been able to fall back to sleep for some of his naps. His nighttime sleep still seems to be uninterrupted for the most part.

Here’s a picture of his teeth and his adorable smile!

We took Cooper to the Pool for the first time about 3 weeks ago. He did not react well to the water at first. I think it was a little too cold, but once he got warmed up he was squealing in delight and loved it! We were in a kiddy pool and he was tall enough to stand in it without the water being over his head. Chris, Uncle Trent, and I took turns pulling him around the pool. This is a picture of little Coop in his new swim trunks showing off his chunk!