Pinterest Party

There is a First Time Mom's Group here that I belong to.  There are quite a few mom's with children ranging from new born to 3 years old.  They host activities for moms and babies to come to on a daily basis.  You can pick and choose what you want to attend.  A lot of the activities include play dates at the park, library or mall.  On a few occasions, a mom will host a party at her house.  On Wednesday, a mom hosted a Pinterest Party.  For those of you who do not know what pinterest is, here is the wikipedia definition.


"Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, hobbies, and more. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, 're-pin' images to their own collections and/or 'like' photos. Pinterest's mission is to "connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting"^[3] via a global platform of inspiration and idea sharing."


I'm addicted to pinterest.  I post a lot of various recipes, house ideas and photography ideas.  For this party, we were all suppose to pick out a recipe we wanted to try and then bring it to the party for a potluck.  I decided to make frozen smore cups.  There was a graham cracker crust, which was layered with melted chocolate, marshmallows, chocolate mouse, whip cream and chocolate chips.  This was all frozen in the freezer.  It was a very good dessert and huge hit at the party.  


Cooper had a good time at the party and loved interacting with the kids and watching them.  Here is a picture of them.

8 months

We cannot believe that Cooper is 8 months old. He turned 8 months on June 14, 2012. He is 2/3 the way through his first year of life.  It has gone by WAY too fast. He is developing such a cute personality. He is such a happy baby (well most of the time, when he isn't tired or teething).  


Statistics:  Weight:  19 lbs (40%), Height 27.5 inches (50%), Head circumference:  18.125 inches (82%).  His check up went well. His pediatrician was very pleased with how he was progressing.  We can now start adding meat into his diet and continue to allow him to try new foods.  Cooper was recently diagnosed as being anemic, so he has been taking an iron supplement.  He had his hemoglobin rechecked at his 8 month appointment, and he continues to be slightly low, so we are continuing with the iron supplementation.  

Sleeping Patterns: Cooper is sleeping through the night, 6:30 pm to around 5:45/ 6 am.  He naps 3x per day, ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours.  But is starting to drop the 3rd nap.  

Eating Habits: Cooper continues to love solids.  We have added: green beans, potatoes, mangoes and have started mixing foods together instead of just 1 solid. He also has started to try puffs.  He can gum them and is enjoying them.  We continue to make our own baby food.  But when we travel, we use the Plum Organic Pouches to feed Cooper.  It is a lot more convenient when we are traveling and we do not have to worry about keeping the food cold.

Accomplishments:  Rolls in all directions and rolls all over a room. Sits independently and can sit up for longer than 10 minutes.   He has started swimming lessons and has gone all the way underwater.  He did fine when I put him under (he didn't cry).  He can stand holding onto the ottoman for 30 seconds.  Walks by being held and steps foot over foot.  

Discoveries: He continues to love babbling and taking.  He loves the water (bath time and in the pool).  He loves the cats.  The cats have become more accepting of Cooper and now will come up to Cooper and let him pet them.  He gets so excited.  He watches everything.  He loves to watch cars drive by, watched a helicopter at the beach, and watches people.  He wants everyone to say hi to him. 


Special Memories: Drove down to San Diego to visit Jake, Lindsey and Jameson Woelke.  Drove up to Tracy, CA to visit his Great Grandma and Grandpa Cook.  Started swimming lessons.  Went down to Laguna Niguel and went to the beach.  He cut his 1st tooth (bottom right), and it looks like 2 more are cutting through.  He does not do well with teething.  He is very fussy.  

 Lucy

 Bella

 Meal post-doctor appointment--having plums and spinach/ sweet potatoes

 Bandaid on finger from getting hemoglobin checked

 8 months old!

 Cooper is starting to get more hair.  He has this curly cue on the side of his head that is always sticking out.  

Father's Day Weekend

AJ had a region meeting on June 14th and 15th in Laguna Niguel (which is just south of Laguna Beach). We decided to extend our stay until June 17th and have a mini family vacation.  We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Dana Point.  This was a very nice hotel right on the beach.  Our room was overlooking  the water with a nice little balcony.

AJ was in meetings all day/night on Thursday and Friday, so Cooper and I had to keep ourself entertained.  We explored the hotel property, went on walks on the beach and on the nice path that went near the beach, we went swimming, played outside and visited the only "child friendly" restaurant where we became regulars and everyone knew Cooper.

Friday night, AJ got done with meetings around 5:30 pm and they were having a buffet outside, so Cooper and I went along to go mingle for a bit and so Cooper and I could meet his boss, Johnny.  Cooper loved seeing everyone and did great with strangers holding him.  But it was getting way past his bedtime, so we had to head back to the room. AJ continued to stay out with his colleagues.

Unfortunately, Cooper did not sleep well on Friday or Saturday night.  We usually let him fuss for a little, but since we were in a hotel, we didn't want him to cry in the middle of the night and wake everyone up.  So when Cooper was up, so were we.  Cooper got off his schedule during this trip.  He rarely napped because I think he was just so excited about everything.  Thankfully, when we returned home, he returned to his routine fairly easily.

It was nice to have AJ to hang out with on Saturday.  We went and had breakfast, tried to get Cooper to nap, went on a nice long walk, headed to the pool where we hung out with some of AJ's co-workers, and then that evening went over to the external's house who lives in Orange County and had a BBQ.  We had to leave around 6:30 pm because Cooper was getting very fussy and needed to head to bed.

Sunday morning we went and had breakfast, I let AJ go work out for Father's Day while Coop and I packed everything up, we then headed to the beach for about 1.5 hours, then checked out of the hotel and started our journey back up home.  We stopped in Irvine for lunch at Red Robin.  Cooper is now sitting in a high chair.  It's a great thing that he can now sit in a high chair, as I feel we have more flexibility now to go out and do things.

It was a great long weekend and a great father's day.  Very relaxing and fun to spend time together as a family.  AJ also got some very nice grill accessories so he can make a variety of foods on the grill.

 

Sweet Tooth

Cooper has a sweet tooth.  He is starting to prefer fruits over vegetables.  We still continue to feed him vegetables, but becomes very fussy and stubborn and refuses to eat anymore food.  Hopefully it is just a  phase, and as he starts to eat finger foods and feed himself, he will start to like vegetables again.  But who knows, maybe he is like his daddy and doesn't like vegetables.

When Grandma and Grandpa Jorg came for a visit in May, they brought a gift for Cooper.  They also brought along a lollipop for Cooper.  Here are a few pictures of him holding it.

When we went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Cook, we had In-n-Out for lunch one day.  Great- Grandpa had a vanilla shake.  As we were leaving to head back home, they gave us some money to treat Cooper to a milkshake from In-n-out.  We went and bought Cooper a milkshake.  He didn't drink it, but we did let him put the straw in his mouth.  He did not like it at all.