What's Up Wednesday

It's the last Wednesday of May, so I thought I'd link up with Mix and Match Mama for a little What's Up Wednesday.

What we're eating this week

This is the first week since Cooper was born that I've planned out meals for the entire week!  We lived off of people bringing us meals for the first 6 weeks or so and since then I will plan a few meals.  This past weekend I sat down and wrote down meals for every night of this week.  We grilled burgers and I made a steak and veggies sheet pan dinner (which did not turn out as well as I'd hoped unfortunately).  Tonight we're enjoying one of our freezer meals (Tuscan Chicken Pasta), and tomorrow is BBQ Country Ribs.  

What I'm reminiscing about

Sleep :)  The first month Cooper was home he slept abnormally well.  He would nap most of the day and would give us a 7ish hour stretch most nights.  Well starting in May he would only nap about 30 minutes at a time during the day but still mostly slept well at night.  But the last week or so he doesn't sleep super well day or night.  His longest naps during the day are 30-45 minutes unless I'm holding him and some nights he sleeps through the night and others he's up which is no big deal since that's more normal for his age.  But last night he was up every 45 minutes unless we held him, so he and I slept in the recliner.  So I'm reminiscing about the good sleep we once had.

What I'm loving

The absolutely sweetest baby smiles

In exchange for sleep, we're getting lots of smiles and it definitely is a highlight of life with Cooper.  He has even started laughing a little bit at times.  He smiles almost immediately whenever I talk to him or kiss him and it just melts me.  I sure love being this boy's mom.

What we've been up to

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Saturday we went to a going away party for our friends Aaron and Lydia.  They have been heading up the International Student ministry at our church this past year and have also been in our Community Group.  Aaron just finished his Master's so they are moving back to the Atlanta area to be closer to friends.  We will sure miss them, but we had a great time at lunch and got to introduce Cooper to some of our international student friends.

Sunday we went to church and then had dinner with our Community Group.  Our friends Amy and Chad hosted us for a potluck and we enjoyed BBQ and great time with friends

Monday we spent just the 3 of us.  We went out to breakfast and then spent the rest of the day at home getting ready for the week.

What I'm dreading

Tomorrow is Cooper's 2 month check up and he will get his first big round of shots.  I am definitely not looking forward to that for my boy, but glad that it will bring some better protection from illness so we can feel better about getting out more!

What I'm working on

A few top secret Father's Day Projects. :)  More details to come... later

What I'm excited about

It's been so fun to watch Cooper get more interactive this past month, so I'm excited to see him continue to learn more and more!

What I'm watching/reading

I have 3 different books that I am just now starting

Cooper isn't quite old enough where we want to try sleep training, but I am reading up on a few methods so we're ready when the time comes.  For now I'm just enjoying all the snuggles--during the day and night :)

 I've had a few people recommend this book, including my best friend who was on the launch team.  I just started it last night!

And a fiction book which I also just started last night, but so far am really enjoying

What I'm listening to

Still lots of Amazon music playlists/stations and some podcasts.  Cooper had a particularly fussy bedtime over the weekend and we found that he likes when I sing to him so I was singing him some hymns which led me to look up some albums with hymns on them so I can get some ideas for material

I also found this new podcast that I am loving called Risen Motherhood.  They tackle several parenting topics, but frame them in light of the gospel and it is just so refreshing and gospel centered.  I've already listened to several episodes and I've really enjoyed them.

What I'm wearing

Still lots of yoga pants and nursing tank tops.  I've also picked up a few new dresses from Walmart that I am really loving as the weather gets warmer.

What I'm doing this weekend

No big plans.  David is going to the Ranger's game on Friday night and we have church and Community Group on Sunday.  Otherwise we will probably be home.

What I'm looking forward to next month

Celebrating Father's Day and David's 30th birthday.  We also are having Cooper's baby dedication at our church!

What else is new

Not a whole lot.

The Many Faces of Cooper

This sweet boy has been in our arms for about 7 and a half weeks now and we just think he's the greatest thing ever.  And he also cracks us up with all of his faces.  I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was planning to do a post about the many faces of Cooper but he had an off day, so it didn't go as planned.  But I've been capturing different facial expressions over the last couple of weeks so I thought I'd share them here.

His waking up face.  He looks kind of upset, but really he had been wide awake and smiling--then I took his swaddle off his arms so he is stretching big

He loves to "talk" to us and make different faces.  This is the beginning of a smile

 This is what my heartbroken boy does every time we switch sides during his feedings.  He gets so very upset, but then is quickly content again once he's eating

After he eats he gets a little milk drunk and drowsy.  Usually he doesn't fall asleep he just chills for a while and then is ready to play 

Sometimes he snuggles with us while he's drowsy

He is very focused when he plays!  He has started really focusing on toys and tracking them with his eyes!

 This is the classic Cooper face.  He makes this face a lot.  When others hold him they comment that he must not like them or he might be upset about something because he furrows his little brow.  But that's just him.

Not too big a fan of being woken up from his car seat nap so we can take him out of his seat 

His "what in the world is happening" face comes out when his cousins are around!

 And that sweet pathetic pouty lip.  Oh my goodness it makes me want to scoop him up right away!

I love when I'm rocking him to sleep and he smiles up at me under his pacifier

 And then he gets super sleepy and drifts off to sleep

And of course, the big smiles we get when we talk to, kiss him and play with him are the very best.

I just want to capture all these sweet moments because he is changing so much all the time and I know he will be so different soon!  Love this sweet boy and all of his faces

High Five for Friday

Woohoo--Friday is here!

1. Lily and Coop took their first car ride together this week!  We took Lily to Petsmart for a bath and to get her nails cut/grinded, so we all loaded up Monday to take her.  She is used to jumping into the car and immediately jumping across to the other side, so she was a little confused by the baby in the middle, but she did really well. She actually mostly just laid on the floor underneath his car seat, but we had stopped here so David could run into a store so she was up on the seat looking for him in this picture.

2. This sweet boy has been having a pretty rough week.  So we've been doing a whole lot of this.  I haven't gotten much done at all, but I'll take the snuggles.

 3. Yesterday marked 5 years since our first date!  We celebrated by going out to lunch at BJs (where we went on our first date).  We enjoyed lunch and pizookies for dessert and of course had our cute 3rd wheel in tow.  It's been a fun 5 years of dating and I love that we still get to go on lots of dates together.  Time with him is my very favorite!

4. In his not-so-fussy moments, Cooper is becoming very engaged with some of his toys.  He has started really looking at all of the toys on his play mat and even will hit some of them.  He can stay entertained for a long time just laying here and looking at all of the animals hanging down.  He also likes looking at the precious baby in the mirror on the side of the play mat.  

5. Cooper and I are heading to my Book Club tonight at my friend Jill's house.  I finally finished the book this morning and I thought it was a good story.  Looking forward to a fun evening with friends!

Happy Weekend!

Mother's Day

We had a really great Mother's Day weekend thanks to our new little guy!  We were able to see both of our moms and spend good time with family.

We woke up Saturday and Cooper put on his Team Grandma onesie to go have breakfast with Grandma (my mom).  When he outgrew his Newborn clothes, his 0-3 clothes still swallowed him up--but there was 1 brand of onesies from Target that seemed to fit him well and seemed like they'd leave some room to grow so I decided to get another pack of them.  So I picked out a pack that had a baseball theme and it happened to have a Team Grandma onesie in it which I thought was funny!

We met my mom and my brother and his family at Breadwinners for breakfast Saturday morning.  My other brother woke up sick so we missed him.   Cooper's cousins were all about him that morning.  He was asleep in the car seat for the first half of breakfast, but they both kept coming around to see him and gently touch him.  And when he started waking up, Piper was quick to notice and yelled out "Cooper waking up!" as she jumped up and down excitedly.

This picture pretty much sums up Cooper's morning--lots of snuggles and 2 cousins who want to be closeby touching him.  It will be fun as he gets bigger and can play with them more, but I'm glad they are interested in him now too when he's pretty boring :)

 Grandma and her grandbabies

Sunday we got up and got ready for church.  I snapped a picture with my favorite little guy on the way out the door.

We were glad to get to be at Woodcreek for Mother's Day.  We've enjoyed getting to take Cooper in the Baby K'tan and he pretty much just crashes and sleeps through the service every week.  For Mother's Day our church did baby dedications and it was fun being there as some of our friends dedicated their babies, including Cooper's future best friends Eli and Maddie :)

After church we had lunch and then we headed to Cleburne to visit Cooper's Nanny and Pappaw (David's parents) and Aunt Rachel.  It was Cooper's longest car ride yet and he did great--he slept for the first half and then when he woke up he just cooed contently in his car seat.

 Cooper was glad to get to celebrate and snuggle with his Nanny for Mother's Day

 And he's pretty fond of his Pappaw too!

Before we headed home, I changed him into his footed pajamas (I didn't get a picture of the whole thing, but there are monkeys on the feet!).  You can't read it, but the square at the top says "Wild about Mommy."  I'm pretty wild about this little guy and was so glad to get to spend my first Mother's Day with him!

Baby Smiles

So I was planning to do a post about the many faces of Cooper throughout the day, but honestly today has been a rough one for him.  He is just out of sorts today and has been pretty fussy and needed lots of snuggles--if I'd posted about his faces throughout the day they mainly would have been sad ones or sleepy ones, so I'll save it for another day.  But as I've been enjoying the snuggles, I thought it'd be fun to look at some his smiles over the past month.

 This was the first smile we got from him when he was a few weeks old.  He smiled when I would put the pacifier near his mouth/cheek.

 Then he started smiling more in response to us.  He will smile when you talk to him as he watches you and he even has started smiling when he just hears my voice sometimes.

And today I captured this precious smile that he gave me while I was getting him ready for the day.

This sweet boy and his precious smile melt my heart!  I know the smiles will only get better with time.

Cooper's Cubbyhole: 1 Month

Cooper is 1 month old today, so we are starting the series of monthly blog updates for him.  Since we frequently call him our baby bear, David figured that the term cubbyhole fit this series well.  So here we go with the first installment of Cooper's cubbyhole.

Weight: 8 lbs 10.5 ounces

Height: 22 inches

Diaper Size: Newborn

Clothes Size: You are too long for your newborn footie pajamas, but still fit well into the newborn onesies.  Size 0-3 clothes still seem too big for you

Things you Love: Being Held, Being Swaddled, Your Pacifier

Things you Don’t Love: Bath time, Being Hungry

Milestones: You are doing so well when you play on the floor. When you are on your tummy you will lift your head and turn it to the other side!  You will smile at us sometimes, but are still mostly serious.  You also are a great sleeper and will usually go one 7 hour stretch at night between feedings which is amazing.

Sweet boy, we are just so in love with you. Both your Daddy and I feel like the transition from family of 2 to family of 3 has gone much easier than either of us expected which is largely because you are just so easy most of the time. You fit perfectly in our family and light up our lives so much. It's amazing to me to see God's grace in how much healing He has brought into my life through you. You are so special and we can't wait to see you continue to grow!