Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

I finally remembered to seek out the Flip video camera to tape the Coop roll over. Once he started rolling over he really got into it. He pretty much rolls over any time he is on the ground now. Even if monkey tries to get in his way (as he does in the video), Coop just rolls right over him!

We started this thing where we would say "Yay Cooper!" when he rolled over. He had waited a while to do this trick so we wanted to encourage him to keep it up. Now, even though he rolls over a million times a day, he still appreciates (and usually gets) this same cheer from his cheer section. At least in return we get a gummy smile.

Yay Cooper!

Accomplishments Part II

Cooper's BIG DAY continued:

Cooper had 2 other big milestones today. He took a bottle that was half-formula and half breast milk. He has been an exclusively breast fed baby for the first 6 months of his life, but my starting work in a month and recent activities highlighting how inflexible life is when you are a mommy and sole source of food has led me to believe now is the right time to introduce formula. I was so nervous about how it would go (images of thrown bottles (though he cannot really even hold a bottle on his own) and screaming tormenting me), but I finally got up the nerve and gave it a go. The doctor recommended mixing formula with breast milk at first and slowly changing the percentage of each until he will take an entirely formula bottle... tricky, like when someone wants to wean themselves off of caffeinated coffee. Well, so far so good. I will be sad when he switches all the way on to formula. Not only has breastfeeding helped him to be big and strong and healthy, but it has been a special bonding experience. I will miss it. But, that is a ways off. For now I just want to applaud his willingness to be open to something new.

Also... Coop can now pick up his little cereal-like puffs (or take them from our hand) and put them between his little finger and thumb, and feed it to himself. It is amazing how proud his Dad and I are of this accomplishment. The pictures provide a bit of a play by play. (Picture 1- "oooh, what is that, I must grab it with my own hands"... Picture 2 - into the mouth... Picture 3 - Whoops - better push it back in, Picture 4 - chewing with his mouth open)

ALSO... The doctor said Coop can drink water from time to time if he wants now. He thinks it is HYSTERICAL to drink from my glass. And, to be honest, it kind of is. (Picture 5)

Accomplishments Part 1

Steve and I have been married for a year (or at least it will be so in about an hour... ya know, if you want to get all technical about it). People say the first year of marriage is the hardest, and while it hasn't been a complete cake walk... (what with the pregnancy ailments, school, work, moving, tests... you get the idea) we are certainly sitting pretty for the rest of our lives, cause I would do this year all over again in a heart beat, it has been, without a doubt, the best year of my life.

Enough about our mommy and daddy accomplishments. As any holiday in our house, it was really our first anniversary "featuring Coop" and he managed to show us up by doing quite a bit himself. For example:

Picture 1- He managed to slime Steve's whole face.

Picture 2 - He managed to roll over AND ham it up for the camera at the same time

Picture 3 - Continued general cuteness with his monkey

Picture 4- He set the world record for holding one's foot high in the air while in a carseat (Seriously. We took him to the Arboretum (for non-Austinites this is a outdoor mall kind of area with places to walk and sit and home of Amy's Ice Cream) and he held his single left foot in the air from the time we strapped him into his carseat in the house, in the car, and at the arboretum, in the Barnes and Noble, back into the car, and all the way home until we unstrapped him. It was impressive and strange.)

Stats (and some pictures)!

So, who is six months old????















THIS GUY! (technically 6 months and 2 days, but today was the 6 month well check) (excuse the fuzziness, it looked less fuzzy when I copied and pasted it).








He is:

27.5 inches long (84th percentile)
17.5 pounds heavy (46th percentile)

He got 4 different shots (look at all those band-aids). The usual 3 vaccinations and then the flu shot. It was super sad because the nurse came in adn gave the vaccinations not knowing she was also to give the flu shot, so she finished, I picked him up to soothe him and asked her about it, and she left, and jsut as he started to calm down she came in and poked him again. You could see the injustice of it all in his eyes. But it is over now, and he was a champ and mostly slept it off (see the pics). We love our new pediatrician (despite the shot mix-up) and are looking forward to the next 6 months.

There are moments I want to escape somewhere and grieve the loss of someone I loved so much, but turns out, I am a mom 100% of the time. And thank goodness. This guy brings me so much happiness and it is truly a comfort to know he did the same for his GG. We love you little guy. Happy first year 1/2 birthday. Keep growing so big and strong.

GG

Cooper lost his GG this week.
I lost my Granny. And so did Steve. She "adopted" him officially when we got married, but in spirit long before that.

I cannot find a way to write about it right now. I cannot put the words down on paper because I cannot find the right ones. I loved her and she loved me and my family with such a fierceness it was amazing.

I have questioned many times in the past months whether moving our whole little family down here for this year was the right thing to do. Now I know it was. Even if it was only a few weeks that our time here overlapped with hers, I know that her holding and loving and kissing and hugging her first great grandbaby was exactly what she deserved in her last few weeks, and fortunately we were able to give that to her.

Later I will find a way to document for Cooper what a loss this was, tell him everything he should know about the wonderful woman who was his GG, and capture as much of her spirit in this blog that is possible, but for now I am just going to cry and be sad that he won't get to know her more, but take solace in knowing he will know her through his parents. It is our job to remember her for him and make sure she is a part of him.

Pictures From the Move...

I realized I had not posted some of the moving pictures...

1- The Chicago skyline as we were driving out of town

2- The Holiday Inn where we stayed Saturday during the day

3- Daddy and Coop after our morning nap

4- Coop flexing his belly

5- Coop channel surfing

What's Not to Love?

In all seriousness... I love this little guy so much and he is such a smiley and happy baby. He is a total love and always there to brighten any day, give big hugs and slobbery kisses. I love these pictures from recently because they show him off. How hard he can concentrate (picture 1); how handsome he is and how freely he smiles (2 & 3); what a sweet love he is, even when he is asleep (picture 4); and, finally, and perhaps most importantly, how delicious his toes are (picture 5).

What a Mess

We got a cool new toy from my friend here in Austin. It is like a bunch of presents that all fit inside one another. Steve decided to use the big one as a hat for Coop. He looks like he needs a stout vodka.



















Here is Coop eating in his big high chair with Grandpa Cox feeding him. Double cool.














Mmmmmmm


And everyone knows anything tastes better if you mix your fingers in it!

Food, Football and Books

Here are some pics of Coop eating in his big boy high chair (he absolutely loves it) (more to come)... also... Here is Coop playing with his first football with Grandpa Cox and reading a book with his GG.

T-I-double G- ER

Steve bought Cooper this Tigger costume. Mainly for our amusement, I think, but Coop did not seem to mind too much. It is HYSTERICAL. It has a velcro tail and everything.

*There is little rhyme or reason to the order of the posts at this point. I cannot even sort them chronologically if I try ... it is all a bit fuzzy for the last few weeks. I am just posting and trying to get as many pics up as possible.

Cox-Kowalski Kind of Luck

Day 1: Hot water went out. For those of you who recall our time in Houston… this created a somewhat traumatic flashback. Fortunately it was a super easy fix and was corrected practically immediately (I pushed a red button).

Day 2: Water stopped all together.

Seriously.

Fortunately we have very quick to respond landlords (thanks mom and dad) and a handy neighbor. Funny story:

Neighbor (investigating the problem with our pump) “Do you have something wooden?”
Me: “I think so, what do you need it for?”
Neighbor: “Just in case I start getting electrocuted I want you to be able to use something wooden to push me away.”
Me: “you’re kidding right.”
Neighbor: “No I wasn’t” “How about I just turn off the braker.”

Now, while the water issues we seem to bring with us stink, you can not find better neighbors then that. Yay for Southern Kindness!

Not Quite as We Had Planned

Since I didn’t get around to it before leaving (imagine that) I planned on doing a nice post as soon as we got to Texas about our first home. Ya know, the place where we got engaged, where we felt Coop first move, where we brought him home…. All that stuff. Well, that will have to wait.

We arrived in Texas Saturday night. We only made it to Arkansas on Friday. Now, originally I was supposed to fly with Coop to Dallas and Steve and Grandpa Cox were going to drive Steve’s car, and the truck (towing my car). Well, the towing mechanism didn’t work (so much so that it knocked my bumper off a little) so we had 3 vehicles and only 2 intended drivers. To avoid leaving a car in Chicago without a home, or anyone making yet another Chicago to Texas voyage, we bit the bullet and I skipped the plane ride and just opted to drive with Coop.

I fear I have already gotten ahead of myself. The night before we left (Thursday) we spent the night at a hotel because we had emptied our apartment. I had the MPRE Friday morning (the ethics portion of the Bar) and we figured it was important to get a good night’s sleep. (ha) So we left Grandpa Cox and Coop at the hotel, went to do final cleaning with John and Stef only to return to a hotel room with a baby who had hardly slept and refused to sleep more then 30 minutes at a time for the rest of the night. So going into Friday we had a cumulative 4 hours of sleep between us….

Anyways, we left Friday night at 6 (Coop’s earlier bed time, necessary due to his antics the night before) and got him ready for bed and simply placed him in his carseat to sleep the drive away. Fortunately, because he is the best baby ever, he DID. He actually slept in the car the WHOLE time. We drove all the way into Arkansas and just before becoming delirious we decided to stop to find a place to rest during the day Saturday so we could drive through the night again, since that seemed the only humane way to transport a 5 month old baby across the country. We stopped at 3 or 4 places before finding one (some looked to skuzzy and some refused cats… oh yes, did I mention we had both cats with us…). Then we finally stopped at a little after 4am, got a crib brought to our room, fed then transferred Coop to his crib and laid our little heads down (by this point around 5am). Coop slept til 8am and we napped with him throughout the day. Day 2 of driving went just as flawlessly (seriously, BEST BABY EVER) except for our little kitty deciding to escape with an hour left of the drive.. on to Steve’s lap… with claws out. Twice.

Then we arrived and were met by Grandpa Cox who helped us get into bed around 3:30am Sunday morning, only to get up the next day and help us unload the truck (along with the most amazing friends in the world – David, Liz (who we met for the first time ever… um, yes, she is forever awesome), and John – seriously, we would still be unloading with out their help).

At last. We have arrived. Except for all the remaining unloading…

To be Continued....

We have no internet, thus all the amazing posts I want to post are on hold. To be continued starting Tuesday (Hopefully).

Two Days in a Row

Coop has rolled over TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!!
We are pretty sure yesterday was a happy accident, and today was more about getting his Daddy's finger to put in his mouth that merely led to a roll over, but either way, we will take it!

Since then....

Things have been a bit insane here in the Kowalski-Cox house. Since the Bar ended we have gone to a baseball game (go White Sox!) spent the night at Aunt Allison's, met up with friends we will miss immensely, and packed, packed, packed. In the next few days before we leave there will be more packing and hopefully more friend-seeing. We have had so much fun with everyone it makes it that much harder to really pack up and go. I know this is the right choice for us, and I know we are going to do great in Austin, or wherever this crazy little life leads us (cause ya know, what is the alternative?) but it is so much easier (I would imagine) to leave a city that is boring and ugly with no nice people in it.

Over the next few days while we pack, Steve and I are determined to go around and take some pictures of where we live so Cooper can know his first home. With those I am sure will come a sappy post about this little house, but until then, I give you pictures of King Cooper.

Picture 1: Cooper and Grandma and Grandpa Kowalski reading a book

Picture 2: Cooper in his shnazzy outfit from his Great Aunt Debbie that I have been waiting to put him in forever. (I got it when he was less then 3 months and it is 9 month size... yes, he is just over 5 months, but he is... healthy, so he fills it out well enough that he can wear it now).

Picture 3: Me and the little guy. Aren't we cute? Ok, isn't he cute and don't I look happy. I am. I so am.

Picture 4: This is the multiple generations on one side of Steve's family. Top to bottom, left to right: Grandma Kowalski, Great Uncle Gary, Aunt Allison, Beka, Steve a.k.a. Daddy, King Cooper

Picture 5: This is Cooper's with his Great Grandmother Kowalski. Coop is lucky to have THREE great grandmothers. Does any little boy really need all that love.... well, yes, yes he does.