4 Months

Dear Cooper,
Today you are 4 months old! It's hard to believe that we are one-third of the way to your first birthday!

When you were born, I really expected things with you to be similar to the way things were when Garrett was a baby. Mostly because I planned to do things the same way. However, you are definitely your own person and want to do things your own way regardless of my attempts to do them my way.

Ever since you were born, most people have told us many times that you look just like Daddy. I didn't really see the resemblence and didn't really know who you looked like. Until I saw Daddy's baby pictures last weekend. You look a lot like him as a baby, minus the hair color and eye color. And you definitely get your ears from him. :) As Daddy said, "Well, atleast we know he'll eventually grow into them."

At 4 months old you are:

-rolling over, mostly from stomach to back, though you have gone from back to stomach once so far. You mainly want to roll at night in your crib. And then during the day lay on your stomach on the floor and cry because you want to roll over, but can't figure it out.

-sitting up really well with support. I can put the boppy pillow around you and you can sit for atleast 5 minutes before you have trouble staying upright.

-beginning to play with toys. You hold them in your hand and sometimes wave them around. You also try to put them in your mouth. Your current favorite toy is an Elmo radio that plays a few different songs when you push the button. You've hit yourself on the head with a rattle a couple of times now and don't like that very much.

-loving to sit in the Exersaucer and Jumperoo. You jump some in the jumper and enjoy the toys in the Exersaucer.

-starting to enjoy cereal. You've had it a few times now and definitely prefer it mixed with cold apple juice. You eat quite a bit before I can tell that you're tired of sitting in the highchair.

-doing better about sitting in your car seat. You haven't had a total meltdown in it since our trip to the beach, so that's been a nice change.

-squealing a lot. You love to talk to us and squealing is your current choice of communication.

-loving the time on your changing table. Weird, but true. Anytime I lay you there to change your diaper or clothes you start smiling and laughing and seem so happy to be there. Even pulling your arms and head through shirts doesn't bother you. You think it's funny and laugh. The exception to this is first thing in the morning. You want your bottle immediately and don't appreciate the time taken for a quick diaper change.

Naps are finally becoming more predictable and we're down to about 3 a day. Sometimes more on the days Garrett goes to school because you go down for a nap and about 45 minutes later we have to leave to pick up Garrett, so you finish the nap when we get home. Eventually I hope to move that nap to after we pick up Garrett, but I know you're not ready to go that long between naps, so we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

You're down to 4 bottles a day and take 6-7 ounces with each feeding. That's been a very nice change!

You go to bed between 7:00 and 7:30 each night. You usually sleep really well until 4 am, then you start stirring and rolling over and searching for your pacifier. So from then until 7 ish, I'm up and down getting you settled again. Sometimes, if I'm really tired, I'll just bring you into our bed. But I know that needs to stop. We will begin crying it out to get past this hump soon. I'm sure you're excited about that.

I know the next 4 months hold a lot of new things for us. Assuming you do things roughly the same as Garrett did (and who knows about that), then you'll begin sitting up on your own, crawling, and pulling up during this time frame. It will be a busy time for us, I'm sure. I'm looking forward to it!!

And here are a few recent pictures I've taken of you.

First bites of cereal

Even though you do look a lot like Daddy, you remind me of Aunt Grace's baby pictures in this shot. I guess it's the expression on your face.

But in this picture you really look like Daddy...

One Year

One year ago today, I found out I was pregnant.

It's crazy how fast time goes by.

I remember taking the pregnancy test and it was positive. Keith was at work, so I called him and asked him when he was going to be home (this was early afternoon, so obviously it wasn't going to be anytime soon.) I had sworn to myself that I wasn't going to tell him on the phone, but he asked me if I needed him home early and I said I had something to tell him. He said "Is it the something we've been waiting on?" And I said yes, hoping we were on the same page.

Then I proceeded to call my parents to let them know. I was excited to call my sister Grace because she was pregnant at that time too.

When Keith got home that night, he acted as if it was just another day. After about 30 minutes, I finally broke down and asked him if he understood what I was telling him on the phone earlier. He said "You're pregnant, right?" OK, don't get too excited... But then he went on to call his family and let them know, so I guess he was more excited than he let on.

This was a better experience than when I told him I was pregnant with Garrett. He paced the floor for a better part of the evening after that announcement.

Signs That You Live In a House With Boys

-You see this when you go to the bathroom.


Because all men need to take a potty break when they're in the middle of using the chain saw. Then they wander the house wondering where their chain saw is. Umm, you left it hanging on the bathroom door.

-You also open the bathroom drawer to get out toothpaste and find a gun.

You thought I meant a real gun, didn't you? We do have those around here too, but they're safely locked up in the gun safe.

You actually see a lot of things when you go to the bathroom in a house with boys. I refrained from taking pictures of the toilet seat left up or the puddles on the seat (that wasn't lifted prior to pottying) or the puddles on the floor. I was informed that since I'm in the minority I should put the seat up when I'm done in the bathroom. I politely said no.

But I do refrain from any toilet seat nagging. It's not a big deal to check to be sure the seat is in the down position before sitting. I grew up with 2 brothers so it's second nature.

-Toy Story reenactments are routine. Especially after seeing Toy Story 1 & 2 in the theater last week. In 3D. (Woody #1's pull-string broke. When Garrett got money for his birthday, he immediately requested to buy Woody #2. I was impressed with his dedication to the movie that he would rather buy a new toy to replace a broken one than to just buy something entirely different.)

-You do photo shoots with a Tonka truck. And evoke the ire of big brother who was "Using that! And he better not slobber or poop on it!!"

-Bugs and other creatures are pretty regular around here. Garrett found this (dead) butterfly in the garage. He told Keith it was sick so Keith told him to bring it inside and show me. He brought it in and I said "I'm sorry your butterfly is sick." He said "It's not sick! It's dead! You ran over it in the car." OK.

-We are pretty clueless when it comes to girl movie characters. Garrett insists that Tinkerbell is actually called Jingle Bell. And he won't be persuaded otherwise.

-Burps and farts are a huge crowd pleaser. If you want to get a laugh out of someone in a house with boys, you do one or the other and everyone laughs. Unless the person doing one of these is a girl. It's apparently gross when a girl burps or farts, but hilarious when it's a boy. Hello double standard.

-Bedtime prayers can be amusing. Here are a few of Garrett's recent prayers:
"God, thank you for going to the beach. We played golf, but not baseball. I hope we can play baseball next time."
"God, I need more sand for my sand box."
"God, can we please not have more rain? I want to play on my swingset and ride on my mower." (It's not a tractor, it's a mower. I've been informed of this correction many times.)
"God, thank you for Thomas." (the train.)

I know that I will only have many many more things to share the older that my boys get. But that's what is fun about raising boys. They're hilarious, sweet, fun, energetic, exciting, exhausting, loveable, and crazy. Plus many many more adjectives. (And yes, I know girls are the same...)