Relaxing weekend, pretty random post

Hey all! I must admit, I've been a blg slacker lately. Just a lot to keep up with - the whole husband, kid, work, house, etc. You know how it is!

We're watching Everwood right now, both on our laptops. Luke got a new Dell just so he could have a laptop and be cool like me. This will never happen, because I have a Mac. Ha. (You're cool honey, just kidding. Wuv you.)

Friday night: Let's see. We went to El Arroyo for dinner with Cooper - a pretty good Mexican food restaurant. We fed him using the Bumbo on the table because they were out of high chairs with seatbelts. Losers. People were staring, mostly saying "How cute!" so it was entertaining. A big storm was moving in and we were eating outside. It was really nice. Then, we came home, put Cooper to bed and watched our latest Netflix - The Passion of the Christ. Neither one of us had seen it, so it was pretty heavy, but very good. I couldn't handle watching a lot of it, which made me feel bad for some reason, but I did like it. One thing I've realized is that the story of Jesus' death becomes VERY real after you have a child of your own. I can't imagine.

Saturday: I woke up early with Cooper and we hung out. After Luke woke up and put Cooper to bed for a nap, I took a nap. SO nice. Then, we all got ready and decided to go to the Red Poppy Festival in downtown Georgetown. We felt so small town. The weather was perfect, we ate kettle corn and drank root beer. Good times. Cooper sat facing forward in his other stroller, which was fun for him. Sat. night we ate at the Hejls and just hung out.

Sunday: We went to church and to Jason's Deli afterward. Luke was a super duper handyman and put all new door handles and deadbolts on the front and back doors. They look awesome. AND, he painted the front door as well. So pretty!

Here's a little Cooper update, since I haven't really commented on the new stuff he can do:
Sit up on his own, for a long time!
Eat meat. Pureed meat. Mmmmm ...
Bounce up and down in his bouncy thingie.
Scoot around on his tummy with his knees - no crawling yet!
Roll over and over until he gets to what he's reaching for.
Pet the cat and dog.
Type on a computer keyboard, since that's all he sees his parents do.
Knows who's who when we say "Where's mama?" or "Where's dada?"
Says "nyah nyah nyah" and "dadadadada."
Say the alphabet. (jk)

He's such a big boy, and a blessing! Have a great week!

RENT, Hallmark and The West Wing

Random, I know, but these are the TV items that stick out from my weekend. We had a great weekend, just chillin', hanging out with Cooper, lawn work (that was Luke), a bachelorette party, and these items.

RENT: Do NOT waste your money on the movie. It's great music, but one of the WORST movies I've ever seen. They did NOT do it right. It's the first movie I think EVER that Luke and I both agreed we should turn off. Cheese. Sad that we wasted a Netflix on it. Next movie in the queue is Memoirs of a Geisha - hopefully that one will be better.

Hallmark: I have a husband that will watch any horribly acted movie on TV just because he hasn't seen it before. Especially, the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame movies. I don't even know what the movie was called, but it starred Marsha Gaye Hardin ... The kickers, however, were Hallmark commercials. SO heart-wrenching. Hallmark knows exactly how to pull from emotion and experience with their ads. I was in tears for all like 20 of them.

The West Wing: I watched three episodes of The West Wing on Wednesday night until 1 a.m. and one on Saturday just to catch up for this Sunday's episode. I seriously speak the truth when I say that this is my favorite drama of all time. It is so beautiful - everything about it - the camera work, the complex characters, everything. I watched the season finale last year THREE TIMES. It was amazing. I'm not even a politics buff, but I love this show and am so sad that there are only three episodes left EVER. The DVDs will be purchased soon. Josh Lyman is the greatest character to watch, same with Donna Moss. I'm SO glad they're finally together. AND, Rob Lowe is back on it until the end. His character, Sam Seaborne, was awesome too, until he went bye-bye for a show that's already cancelled and some pay issue. Bad move. Sorry if I seem obsessed. I find myself yelling at the TV during every episode.

That's enough. I might watch too much TV thanks to DVR. We're home again this weekend, and I'm glad.

Easter weekend and doctor update

We had such a great weekend in Cleburne for Easter! My sis and I threw a kickin' party for my mom and Lisa - the food and cake were awesome. The best part was taking the RV to Ft. Worth to the restaurant. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. But, it was very comfortable for everyone, and Luke and I had never taken a ride in Big Blue. There were plenty of places to park, so no worries.





Doesn't he look cute in his Easter outfit? He's sitting up for about 30 seconds at a time now, which is pretty cool. Doctor says all is well and he looks great. He weighs 16 lbs, 3 ounces which is in the 25th percentile, but still okay. Skinny boy. But, he's in 75th percentile in head circumference and height, at 27.5 inches tall. He's gonna be a tall one! We're going to add in that third meal for lunch and start meats pretty soon. That should be yummy.

Nothing new here. We're hanging out at home this weekend and taking care of stuff around the house. I can't wait!

I'm MySpaced

Yes, I've fallen into the trap that is MySpace. This Blogger blog will be what I update on a regular basis though. If you'd like, you can visit myspace.com/hejlyeah. It's amazing, this MySpace stuff. I'm corresponding with people that I haven't seen since high school. Unreal. What an idea!

Thanks for the sleep comments. We've got the morning 10:30 nap down now, but the afternoon nap is still a battle. We'll see how it goes. Last night and the night before, Cooper has gone to sleep on his back in the center of the bed. However, he wakes up at the foot of the bed, on his tummy, turned sideways. So crazy how much he's wiggling around already.

Happy 50th birthday to my mom! She's still young!

Four day week

Only four days of work this week - yay! I'm pumped to be going up to Cleburne this weekend for Easter, and to celebrate my mom and aunt's 50th birthday. Should be fun!

We didn't do too much this weekend. Luke spent all of Saturday in the yard - it looks SO much better. Whata man. Sunday, we ate lunch with Hayden and Atosha and their twin 1.5 year olds Hadley and Dean (same birthday as Cooper, just a year later). Whew. Props to those with twins - I don't think I could do it!

Anybody have any baby nap advice? Cooper's a super star at night - bath, eat, goes to bed at around 7:30 and sleeps through the night. But, it's a never-ending battle getting him to take naps. And when he does go to sleep, it's not for very long. This is REALLY hard for me since I take him to work sometimes and would love for him to take at least one, one-hour nap sometimes.

Ideas? What works for you guys?

The last time I slept in ...

It just occurred to me that I haven't slept until 8:00 a.m. in over 5.5 months. The morning of Oct. 15, 2005 was one of leisure. I remember it well as one of the more fun days of my pregnancy, not knowing that Cooper was to be born the next day. Luke and I got up around 8 or 8:30 and hung out a little, then decided to go on a Sat. morning walk. I felt really great that day for being 9.5 months pregnant, so we walked fast. We got home, took a shower, went to lunch with Ty and Charis, and then to the UT game. Finally, we ended the day with Hula Hut tubular tacos. What a great way to ring out the freedom and abundance of sleep.

People tell you, but they don't really tell you, about not sleeping ever again. It's not like Cooper doesn't sleep all night - he usually sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 to about 6:00 - but man. I sure wish he'd decide to sleep until 7:30 or 8! I don't know why I'm complaining. So many people have it much, much worse, so I'm thankful. I just think about the day before and the day of Cooper's birth as two of the best days ever.

We had a great weekend. On Sat. we went to Temple to visit Rachel and George, and my mom brought Granddaddy and Virginia up to see Cooper. It was a relaxing day. Then, we came home and got ready for Luke's company party and left Cooper with Matt and Candi (thanks guys!). It was a really fun night for us to get away for a while. T3 sure can put on a good shindig! Sunday was a lazy day for me and Coop, but Luke cut stuff down in the yard. What a muscle man.

Here are a few cute shots. The one with the food is creamed spinach gone haywire. I think he looks more like me now when he smiles, but some would say Luke. I think it's both.

The King of Droolerville

I don't have any real up-to-date drool pictures, but I'm sure y'all have seen them already. His drooling is out of control. So much so that he wears a bib about 80 percent of the time. Hope those teeth come in soon, and fast.

Here's a cute one. This was right before a jog. Cooper is becoming like our dog Joey, in that he needs a walk every day or he'll whine until he gets one. It's a great motivation for us to get outside. He loves looking at the trees and feeling the wind.

Cooper hasn't really wanted to roll over in the past three weeks or so. He can, and has before both ways, but it seems like he'll just squirm over on his tummy over to where he needs to go. Same with on his back. Turning over just doesn't float his boat. I think he'll be an early crawler. Great. We're SO not ready for that. He's eating twice a day now, which makes me feel like he's eating all of the time. We're going to try eating solids at work tomorrow. One more bit of fun to the already packed day!

Friday was Luke's birthday. (Happy 27th honey!) We went to PF Chang's (mmmm) with the Dishmans, and then to bed. I got Luke an iPod Nano, so I'm cool. He spent most of the day trying to figure it out (not a Mac user). It's pretty cool lookin'. Saturday we went on a really long walk, hung out with Cooper, and cleaned a little. Luke worked on the yard. The weather was awesome here this weekend. Coop went to Bible class today and had a great time. We've been taking him since he was about three months old, so I think he's used to it by now. I stayed in there a little bit today by the door just to watch. He's so engaged in everything. That boy LOVES to be sung to. Maybe he'll be a singer!

Back to the week. Question: Does anyone feel like they do the same thing every day with their baby? I mean, I move him to the exersaucer, then the chair, then the Bumbo, then Baby Einstein, eat, sleep, go for a walk, then do it all over again, etc. How do you break up the routine without, well, breaking up the routine too much?

I couldn't resist this video. I promise he can say "hi" already. I need to get one of him splashing in the tub and almost sitting up.

Five-month pictures

Click here for a funny video with the Hejl cousins.

Here are a few from this weekend at the RV:






From St. Patty's Day (aka Jeffrey's b-day):

Weekend Update

I realized that I didn't update everyone on last weekend, and I'm going to give an update on this weekend as well. Both were equally fun!

Last weekend, Jay and Ally and their "other wife" Melissa (ha) came down to see us (and the state basketball tournament too ...) for the weekend. We just hung out Sat. morning, they went to watch games while we went to get my car fixed (new battery) and on a walk. Then, the basketball people came back and we went and ate seafood. As soon as we got home, we went to bed. Getting SO old. Sunday morning, we all went to church and then to Hula Hut - everyone's favorite place. It was an awesome day to eat outside, so we ate, and ate a LOT. Ally's the only one with the excuse (prego), but oh well. Then, sadly, they had to leave. It was a fun time.

This weekend, I took Friday off to chill with Cooper and run some errands. Friday night we celebrated Luke's brother's birthday at their house, and watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind back at our place. I liked it.

The remainder of the weekend was spent with my side of the family in Marble Falls at my parents RV. It is such a pretty area out there, but unfortunately, it RAINED THE WHOLE TIME! What a bummer. So, we sat around and ate of course, and got to chill. It was still a fun weekend!

Back to work tomorrow. Nothing new to report. Cooper's five months old and counting. He's getting cuter and cuter every day. He's also learned to whine and throw things. That's awesome.

Let's see: April Fool's Day is coming up. What's the worst April Fool's joke you've ever pulled, or had pulled on you?

A post, not about Cooper.

Just thought I'd do one of those fun posts with all of my fave stuff.

4 jobs you have had in your life:
1. Snow cone stand worker
2. Creative director for a TV station
3. Account executive at a PR firm
4. Account manager at a marketing firm

4 movies you could watch over & over:
1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
2. Ocean's Eleven
3. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
4. Clueless

4 places you have lived, not in order:
1. Austin, TX
2. Abilene, TX
3. Cleburne, TX
4. Pflugerville, TX

4 of your favorite TV shows, currently on TV:
1. The West Wing (sadness - it's almost over)
2. Desperate Housewives
3. The Office
4. Scrubs
5. (sorry another one) ER

4 vacation places you have visited:
1. Hawaii
2. Washington D.C.
3. LA, Cali.
4. NYC

4 Websites you visit everyday:
1. cnn.com
2. everyone's blogs
3. all of my client's sites
4. personal email sites

4 of your favorite foods:
1. PIZZA
2. Chips and queso and salsa, especially Chuy's
3. Outback cheese fries
4. Chili's chicken enchilada soup

4 of your favorite beverages:
1. Coke
2. Sweet tea from Bill Miller's
3. Diet Coke
4. Starbucks decaf iced mocha non fat no whip

4 places I would rather be:
1. At home with my hubby and child
2. Hawaii
3. Running outside
4. Any pizza or chinese buffet (my fat self talking)

Boy, am I interesing.

Swingin'

So cute at Granna's today. We need to get a tree swing, but not sure if we have any trees big enough for a swing!

4.5 months

What a cutie. Here are a few pics of the Coop.

We love this Bumbo thing. Everyone should have one.





Kinda blurry, but good perspective.


The church pew, with lots of fam that day.


Cutie. Deer in headlights when it comes to the camera.


Rachel new place - Mom and Rach feeding Cooper.



Bathtime.

Church is early

Luke and I are sitting here watching Big Fish, a pretty weird, but strikingly beautiful movie. As you can read, I'm not really in to it right now.

Thanks for all of the feeding suggestions last week for Cooper. He seems to be getting a little "stopped up" lately, so I'm cutting back a little, and trying some oatmeal.

I just remembered that I didn't say anything about Luke having pancreatitis last week. It was a truly horrible experience for us all. Well, except for Cooper. He slept through it all here at home, all night. Luke's brother came over and slept here while we went to the emergency room at 11:30 p.m. Thanks Jeff. Luke and I were at the emergency room from then until 5:00 a.m. We got about two hours of sleep. Then, Cooper woke up and was wide awake. And, Luke had another appointment at the gastroenterologist (what a word) that morning, AND, I HAD to go into work that afternoon. Needless to say, after that day, we were exhausted. More Luke than me though. Pancreatitis is reeeealy painful. Scared me a lot. There were so many things it could have been. Glad you feel better honey!

We have to be at church at 8:30 tomorrow morning to help serve for a reception for those who helped with the Katrina victims. It'll be a good day. But, when it takes 25 minutes to get to church, 8:30 is early with a kid. I signed up though - go me for getting involved.

I'm going to post a video and some pictures in the next post. Coop's getting cuter every day.

Freaky Scrubs

Did anyone watch Scrubs last night, the 7:30 one? They were both SO hilarious, but the last one was kinda creepy too, about how germs are spread with the green, toxic waste-looking color following everywhere germs went. And the end, when the lady made herself sick again. It was just kinda creepy to me. And, they made a reference to Grey's Anatomy, an ABC show on an NBC station. That was funny too. Anyway ...

Luke has the Coopster today, so I'm working my little hiney off. I've been drinking a lot of green tea lately at work - trying to make myself become more of a weird tea buff. We'll see how that goes.

Question: I'm trying to figure out what a good ramp-up feeding schedule for Cooper would be - solid foods I mean. I've started him on rice cereal, a fairly large serving, once a day. When do I do twice a day? When do I change to oat and other grainy cereals, and then, when to real baby food, and how often? I've seen a lot of different recommendations, but I don't know what the right time is. And, this whole "your baby will tell you" mumbo jumbo doesn't cut it for me. He can't talk people! Then, they still have to have milk. I guess he'll jsut be eating all of time it seems!

More pics later. He'll be five months this month. What the heck?

New pics

I haven't taken very many pictures in the past couple of weeks - more video. Here's a few to enjoy. Oh - another quick note ... He rolled over for ME tonight! I was so happy. He's already almost rolling over back to front, so that will follow soon. Yay!

First "real" food:




Smiley in high chair:


Loves the exersaucer:



Me and the boy:

Tired, but a fun tired.

I can't believe I went to Sing Song and didn't take a single picture with my camera! Well, I took some video, but that's it. We had a short but good weekend in Abilene. Got to see lots of friends that I haven't seen in a while. However, next year, I think we'll take Friday off, go up Thursday, chill more, and go to the afternoon show. Taking Cooper to the Saturday night show was crazy. He actually had a great time watching it, but was pretty tired at ELEVEN THIRTY when Sing Song was over. Man, Sing Song is long. It was really good, but LONG. Then, we went to early service at Highland on Sunday, which was great. ZOE leading worship was awesome. I need to stock up on some more of their CDs.

The worst part was the messup on the results for the women. Poor Alpha Chi, and poor Siggies too! No one got to enjoy their victory, or almost victory. Guess I never met a math major at ACU.

I liked being on stage with all of the old hosts and hostesses at the end. I felt a little like a dork, but I think we all did. It was great to catch up with those guys and gals after so long.

Not much new to report. We all went to bed last night at about 8:30, exhausted from the weekend. I'll post pictures soon of Cooper's first "real food" experience with rice cereal. Hilarious.

Doctor's appointment for the Coopster

Cooper had his four month appointment today, shots and all. It went really well actually - better than the two month. Probably because Luke went with me this time, and got to hold him down for the shots. Glad I didn't have to do that! He screamed a little, but calmed down after a few minutes. No fever yet, so we'll see what the evening brings.

He is 50th percentile on everything - height, weight and head. So, a very average-sized baby! He's 25 inches long, weighs 14 pounds, 6 ounces. Right on track! The doc said we could start giving him solid foods at any point, so I think I'm going to wait until after the weekend to start on that. We'll see. That'll be a fun little escapade. Real, messy food!

I can't believe it's been four months already. He's so much fun! Here are some pics from the last week. Notice he's wearing the same clothes in a lot of these - he had one busy day of pictures!

He's rollin'

Cooper rolled over. I wasn't there to see it, so I'm sad. But, my mom was. He's growing too fast ...

Big Boy!

Here are some pics, as promised!

Little man:


What I wish I could do sometimes at church (jk):


Cutie:


Cousin Mason and his legos:


Mason + Cooper = BFF4VR:


Loves the play gym:

A hard day

Rachel and George stayed with Cooper all day Thursday for me. Guess they got a little tired. Doesn't Coop look a little sneaky? Already a handful.

I have so many more pictures. I will post a bunch soon.