A Weekend for Celebrating

We've known since Cooper was born that his first birthday would be on Easter.  When we were waiting for him to make his arrival last year and wondering what day he would come, we looked up Easter dates for the next 5 years or so since we knew he'd most likely be born during the Easter season.  I don't even remember any of the other Easter dates, but I remember we thought it was funny that Easter would be on April Fool's Day this year since neither of us remembered that happening in our lives.  So when Cooper decided to fool us all by being an April baby and being smaller than the doctors kept saying, we also knew his first birthday would be on Easter.

Our Easters are usually pretty busy.  We always spend Easter with my family and every year, until last year, we've gone to our church's Easter service and then gone to my mom's church for their Easter service, followed by lunch and egg hunts and hanging out with family for the day.  This year we're going to have a little breakfast at home for our birthday boy before meeting up with my family for church and Easter festivities.  Obviously, he has no idea it's his birthday or what that even means, so we'll celebrate him some and celebrate Easter some.

And even though it makes his first birthday day pretty crazy, I've realized how grateful I am that these fall on the same day.  What a great day to remember God's unfailing love for us.  As I hit hard days in parenting, I am so grateful to have His grace to fall on and I am even more grateful that I don't have to do it perfectly and that when I mess up I can point Cooper to the One who is perfect.  As I've been reflecting on Easter and Cooper's birthday this year, it reminds me of the verse in Because He Lives that holds even more meaning these days.

 How sweet to hold 

a newborn baby

and feel the pride

 and joy He gives

But greater still

the calm assurance

This child can face uncertain days because He lives

Thankful for my Risen Savior.  Thankful that in a world of chaos, He is the hope I have and the reason I can raise Cooper without fear.  Not because I am doing such a great job or because he is such a great kid, but because I serve a great God who holds his future.

(I'll have you know, I've made it through the entire week leading up to Cooper's birthday without any tears, but this one did me in as I think about God's goodness toward us--what a sweet thing to remember this weekend and always!)

Watch Cooper Grow: Cousins Edition

There are so many more ways that I've watched Cooper grow this past year, but one of the most fun is to see him with his cousins.  Not only has it been fun seeing him become more interactive, it's also been fun to watch their reactions to him.  We went from Piper not wanting to have anything to do with him to now wanting to hold him every time she sees him and both his cousins always want to sit next to him when we eat together.  It's so sweet and I'm so glad we live close to them so the kids can grow up around each other!

April 2017-- Chase couldn't wait to hold him and Piper didn't even want to look at him

May 2017-- Piper was so interested in him and just wanted to pet his head

June 2017-- This was the first time Cooper seemed interested in them and he was cooing up a storm as they played with him

July 2017-- Reaching out to say hi

September 2017-- Enjoying a Rangers game together

December 2018-- Christmas Eve

March 2018-- they love showing Cooper all their toys and think it's funny when he throws the cups and they pick them up

Love these three kiddos so much!

Watch Cooper Grow: Lily Edition

Cooper and Lily have a very special relationship.  They both really love each other, but also tend to annoy each other pretty quickly.  He will pant like a dog anytime he sees Lily, when he's looking for her, or when we say her name.  They started off not really paying any attention to each other and have grown into friends.

April 2017-- exploring each other

May 2017-- Lily spent a lot of time supervising naps

 and floor time

 July 2017-- hanging out on the bed while I did laundry

August 2017-- This was one of the first days that Cooper really noticed Lily

September 2017

December 2017-- Cooper likes to find Lily when she's outside and watch from the door and window

January 2018- Now that Cooper can stand, Lily doesn't have quite as many places to hide!

February 2018-- He also likes to pull up on her and she is not so sure about that, but is pretty patient with him

March 2018-- So many times a day I tell them both to be sweet, they're pretty good at as this picture shows, but they have their moments!

As Lily gets older I sometimes wonder if Cooper will remember her.  But even if he doesn't, I'm glad to have these memories of Cooper and his first pet!

Watch Cooper Grow: Breakfast Taco Edition

One of the very first outings we took Cooper on was to get breakfast tacos the first weekend he was home.  David and I both love breakfast tacos, so by that first weekend we were craving some so we loaded him up and headed to Chiloso.  We actually ran into a friend from church there and she was surprised to see us and was like "didn't you just have a baby?"  Toward the end of the first month, we realized we had gone to get breakfast tacos every weekend of Cooper's life, so we decided to make that our new Saturday morning tradition.  We've gone almost every weekend since last April and we have several different restaurants that we alternate between.

 April 2017- Rosa's

 May 2017-- Fuzzy's

July 2017-- Fuzzy's

September 2017-- Chiloso (first time in a highchair at a restaurant)

 October 2017-- Chiloso-- first time eating some of the eggs from our tacos

December 2017-- Rosa's

January 2018- Fuzzy's, chowing down on some eggs

March 2018-- Chiloso, now he eats his own deconstructed breakfast taco with sausage, eggs, cheese, and tomatoes and then he goes to town on the tortilla

He's come a long way from the baby who slept in a car seat while we ate to the little boy who demands more food the whole time!  Love our breakfast taco traditions!

Watch Cooper Grow: Sleepsack Edition

One of Cooper's favorite things from day one has been his swaddle sacks.  We used them for every bedtime and most naptimes until he started rolling over and we had to stop swaddling his arms.  Once we stopped swaddling, we'd still put him in a sleep sack with his arms out to help signal bedtime and to give some extra warmth when needed-so he actually still wears them today and he has a hard time falling asleep without one.

April 2017-- little burrito baby

April 2017- Came in the get him one morning and he had gotten one arm out the bottom and was sleeping like this

June 2017-- He started getting one of his arms out to suck on it pretty quickly and we would often find him like this

July 2017-- He'd get so excited when he would get his arms free (but he also struggled to sleep with them out!)

July 2017

August 2017-- one arm AND one leg out

August 2017-- the morning after his first night with his arms unswaddled

November 2017-- Good morning sleepyhead!

December 2017-- No problems standing up in it

February 2018- How I found him one morning--sleepsack on, paci in mouth and one paci in each hand

March 2018-- He crawls around in his sleepsack just fine--here he is finding all the pacis he threw on the floor overnight!

He was so cute as a little burrito baby and still cute as he explores in his sleepsacks! 

Watch Cooper Grow: Car Seat Edition

It's hard to believe we're in the final week of Cooper's first year!  I have been working on his baby book a lot the last couple of weeks.  Throughout pregnancy and his first year, I kept a Google Doc with several prompts and different information that I knew I wanted to put in his baby book and now I'm compiling it into a Shutterfly photo book.  I'll share more about it later, but it inspired a series of posts.

In addition to the monthly pages, holidays, special events, etc. during the first year of Cooper's life, I also have some special spreads that look at common themes throughout the year to watch him grow by.  So I thought I'd share some of those this week in the countdown to his birthday.  So it's basically a lot of pictures of me looking at how little he was, just a warning of what's ahead if you want to skip it.

This first post actually is not in his baby book, but this weekend we switched him from the infant car seat to the convertible car seat, so I thought it'd be fun to watch him grow in comparison to the seats!

April 2017 His very first ride in the car seat.

April 2017 A little less than a month old, I remember we thought he looked so big here- ha!

May 2017

June 2017

 September 2017

 December 2017

 January 2018

March 2018-- in his new big boy car seat!