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.

Watching the prez ...

Luke and I are sitting here, dog tired, watching the State of the Union. Pretty good. I wish I cared a little more about politics, even enough to say what party I belong to, but I don't. All I can say is, how can you not stand up and clap your little rear end off when Dubya says that human life should never be discarded or sold? Plain idiotic. I believe that more than ever now. I don't agree with half of the stuff he says, but seriously, members of Congress not caring about unborn babies and their rights? Just weird.

Coop's asleep. He spent the whole day at work with his daddy. We're about to be in bed too. He's outside talking to someone, trying to sell the hottub. Ha.

I need to post a picture, but honestly, I haven't taken that many in the past couple of weeks. I'll take some tomorrow and post them. I promise, he's twice as big as he was last month. It's amazing to watch my kid grow.

Uncle George and Aunt Rachel are coming to visit tomorrow and staying until Friday. Can't wait to hang out with them! Rach is here for an interview in Temple, so maybe they'll live close. Yay!

We heart pizza

My mother-in-law had Cooper all day today while I worked (thanks Janie). I was SO glad to see him! Luke and I were both so tired, and Cooper was in his carrier, so we just picked up and went to our favorite pizza place - Lamppost Pizza. Yummy-yum-yum. Not healthy, but so worth it. Then, we went to our new fave, It's Gelato, next to the pizza place. Can we talk about how good gelato is? Cooper really wanted some - he was staring at it the whole time.

Now we're at home, vegging out in front of the TV. My house is a mess, and for the first time, I don't give a hoot. It's not even bothering me right now. We're about to watch Scrubs, which is the highlight of my week of TV, next to The Office and Desperate Housewives.

Not much new to report. I'm already looking forward to the weekend. Coop's asleep in Luke's arms right now because he only slept a total of one hour today. Too exciting at Granna's house.

Let's talk about how sad I am the The West Wing is CANCELLED after this season! I love that show. It is getting annoying with the whole never-ending campaign and all, and John Spencer died, but I still love it. Last year's season finale was amazing. I watched it three times. That was pre-Cooper.

Not sure of a good topic of convo on this thing. I'll post pictures soon.

How about ... what's your favorite ad on TV right now? I love the Citi credit card guy that can't find the credit card bill, can't get a real person on the phone, etc. "My disco pants!" Also, I love the new eBay "it" commercials. Great. Anyone think that the new Mac spot with the Intel chip thing is awesome? Pretty gutsy.

Three month pics

Here's a couple. We ALL love the jogging stroller. It's so awesome to have.

"So I Married a Tomato Grower. Wait, Green Fried Tomato Pants!?

These were my husband's words when he couldn't think of the movie with the Kathy Bates line "I'm older, but I have more insurance." I'm guessing it's from Fried Green Tomatoes, but not confirmed. Needless to say, we're both very tired. I'm watching the Golden Globes - is it the same Larry MacMurtry who writes all of the other Western novels who wrote Brokeback Mountain? Just checking, because if so, that's weird. Also, I'm amazed at John Williams for a. still being alive, and b. for writing such great soundtracks for movies - Superman, Star Wars, Theme from Cowboys, Catch Me If You Can, and Memoirs of a Geisha, for which he won best soundtrack tonight. How the heck do you write a soundtrack? Whoa. Overwhelming.

Thanks to everyone for the great comments on my previous blog entry. They've really helped me these past couple of days. I guess I should post more challenging questions to get more people to come out of the woodwork - hey Lauren! My mom stayed with Cooper today while I worked - it was hard to be away for the first time all day, but I got some stuff done at work.

We had a nice weekend. Two walks with the jogging stroller and the Coopster. He loves it!

My least favorite phrase as of late ...

... full-time mom.

Tell me: What mom is NOT a full-time mom? I know those who say that particular phrase don't mean it as a shot to working mothers, but I think working mothers might take it that way sometimes. I can get behind "stay-at-home mom" as a title, but sometimes I stay at home and work and watch my child during the week. I'm just looking for better ways to say who we all are as mothers. Why do we have to define ourselves so defensively when people ask "What do you do?" Both types of moms are under so much pressure from different people to answer correctly. What is correct?

"Yes, I'm going back to work ..." Whew. I said it. Now, the reaction I get depends on who asks. Someone at church, I get a sigh. Someone not at church, (ANYONE not at church) I get a "cool" or no reaction at all. What does that say? Does the church tend to frown upon working moms with kids who aren't in school yet? Or, am I paranoid? I only ask because I know like one or two other moms like me at church out of many, many moms.

Is it working mom and non-working mom? No. All moms work.

In actuality, I have two full-time jobs. Yikes. And I feel it this week more than ever.

Sorry, I'm whining a little, but I figured it would be a good topic of convo on a blog. No offense to anyone. See, I'm already thinking I'm offending people just by talking about it! It's so sensitive. Maybe it's because working moms sometimes secretly want to be stay-at-home moms, and vice versa. Thoughts?

Smiley

Coop in his church clothes. No words for this one. CUTE!