Our weekend

We had a very busy but productive weekend. Here is just a quick recap .

Friday afternoon we went to REI to purchase a BOB running stroller. We can't go running with Cooper in it until he is 6 months old. We were planning on going for a walk with him in it on Sunday but it was pouring rain. Here is a pic of the stroller.

Saturday morning was devoted to running errands. There is a baby boutique here in Thousand Oaks which is close to being shut down, so they put together an event known as a "cash mob" where the community comes in between 10 am and 1 pm. You bring a friend and spend at least $20. We feel it is important to support local business especially this company as there is no baby stores in Thousand Oaks besides Target. We went and bought our baby food maker.

We then decided that we wanted to paint some rooms inside our house. We were given permission by our land lord, so we wanted to change the ugly peach walls and the green. AJ painted the dining room and wall in the family room on Saturday a khaki color, and then started painted the accent walls a blue color. We have not finished the blue, but it will most likely get done next weekend. We also have plans to paint the master bedroom and Cooper's bathroom.

The color on the left is our new color.

Here is a picture of Cooper getting ready for bed. This was right before we put him in his pajamas.

Bella felt left out of the pictures. Here are a few of her. As you can see, she is not being starved in our household.

Fat Bella

hiding from the rug cleaner

On Sunday we woke up to pouring rain. Here is a picture of our backyard. You can see the puddles of water on our grass. We wish is was warm out to go enjoy the sunshine, but know that we need the rain. So we spent Sunday going grocery shopping, painting, doing laundry, picking up around the house and AJ shampood the carpets. All in all, I would say it was a very productive weekend. But it went by way too fast!

5 months

I'm 1.5 weeks late of posting about Cooper turning 5 months. I feel like such a bad mom as we just took his pictures today. I guess better late than never. I love how serious he looks in all the pictures. The pictures make cooper look like he is always so serious and never smiles, but that is not true. He is such a smiley baby but the minute he sees the "big" camera or my phone, the smiles stop and he gets very serious. Hopefully that will change soon, as he has such a cute smile and I want to keep capturing it on camera.

Cooper turned 5 months on March 14, 2012. He has changed so much over the past month and we cannot believe how big he has gotten. We couldn't imagine our life without him.

Stats: Cooper did not have a 5 month doctors appointment, so he was not officially weighed, but we have weighed him at home and believe he is getting close to 16 lbs. He goes back to the doctor in April for his 6 months check up and we are looking forward to seeing what his official weight will be.

Eating: He is still exclusively breastfed and eats between 6-8 times per day. He only wakes up 1x at night to eat. We are waiting to start solids until after we talk to our pediatrician at our 6 month appointment. But we are planning on making our own baby food.

Sleeping: He sleeps between 10-12 hours per night. He wakes up 1-2x per night. One of those times he stirs and can put himself back to sleep, and then he awakes between 4 and 5 am for a feeding. It takes about 30 min to get him back to sleep but then he will sleep another 2-3 hours. His naps are slowly improving. He gets rocked to sleep for naps, and can only sleep between 30 and 60 min in his crib. We are trying to get him down for 2-3 naps per day. He still is being swaddled in his sleepsack at night and for naps, and we use a sound machine. We are doing a modified cry it out technique at night.

Clothing Size: Cooper has almost outgrown his 6 month pajamas. We believe he will only have 1-2 more weeks left in them, but still fits into his 6 month clothes well. We think he is pretty long, so the footed pajamas make it difficult for him to straighten his legs. Guess it's another reason for us to go shopping for clothes! :) No complaints there from mommy!

Favorites: Cooper has begun to develop a personality. Some of his favorites include: eating, being outside, going for walks, stroller strides, his jumperoo, bumbo chair, playing airplane with mommy and daddy, petting Bella, playing peek-a-boo, playing with his rattle and ball, his play mat, looking at himself in the mirror, his turtle, being in his ergo carrier, sitting in our laps and looking around, massages, being tickled, blowing raspberries, and bath time.

Dislikes: Cooper overall is a very happy baby. He absolutely hates going down for naps, but we are slowly working on that. His tummy time is improving and he is starting to tolerate tummy time more (total of 1 hour per day).

Milestones: Cooper began rolling over from tummy to back, but has stopped rolling over. We believe he has stopped because he is enjoying being on his tummy more. He requires support for sitting, but enjoys being upright in standing and sitting. He has found his feet and grabs onto them all the time. He also always has his hands in his mouth. We believe he is starting to teeth.

Events this past month: Grandma and Grandpa Jorg came for a visit in February. He was left with them while AJ and I went out for a "day date." Cooper attended many stroller stride classes. Flew on an airplane back to Denver to visit Grandma and Grandpa Adams, saw Uncle Corey and Chris as well as the Kinseys (erin, david and Cade). Cooper was transitioned to sleep in his own crib on March 10th. Cooper traveled up to Sunnyvale to visit great Grandma Becky, and the Adams/ Butler family.

Jump Jump Jump

Cooper has finally gotten the hang of his jumperoo. All he wants to do now is jump, jump and jump. He loves being in there and doesn't want to get out. Here is a video of Cooper in the jumperoo.

He also has spent some time in his johnny jump up (which goes in a doorway), but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of jumping in it yet. But i know it won't take him long. Here is a picture of coop in the johnny jump up.

Peek a boo

Here is a video of cooper playing peek a boo a few nights ago. It's not the greatest quality (AJ sent it from his phone to mine). To describe what is going on, he's sitting in his high chair and I was playing peek a boo with him. He was laughing a lot, so hopefully you are at least able to hear him laugh.

Peek a boo

Nighty Night

We have continued to work on sleep training with Cooper. It has been going fairly well. He usually goes down very easily between 6:30 and 7:30 PM, wakes up between 4 and 5 am for a feeding then goes back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. He has difficulty going back to sleep after the morning feeding and cries anywhere between 10 and 30 minutes. He has gotten better at putting him self to sleep, but we still go in there to "shhhh" him and reassure him that everything is ok.

Nap time on the other hand is a different story. I have heard from moms in my stroller strides group that nap time is much more difficult, but comes with time. It's better to focus on the night time sleep and then naps will come later on. He will go down for a nap anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours, but still has to cry it out a lot. I try and rock him before nap time which seems to help.

His new favorite thing to do stand on his feet with us holding him. He gets the biggest smile on his face. Here is a few pictures of him before bed time.

Cooper and Bella

Bella is starting to warm up to Cooper. Every morning when we are on the floor playing, Bella comes up to visit. When I'm holding Cooper in my lap, Bella comes up and wants Cooper to "pet" her. Cooper absolutely loves petting her and feeling her fur underneath his fingers. I can't wait til cooper starts grabbing her tail and bella wants nothing to do with him. Bella also assists with tummy time as it gives Cooper something to look at besides his toys.

High Chair

Cooper is becoming such a big boy. He turned 5 months on March 14th (5 month blog post to come later this week). He will start eating solids after his 6 month birthday, so AJ and I figured it would be a good idea to get a high chair so Cooper can get use to it as well as we can all finally eat dinner around the table as a family. Having the high chair will also allow be to get things done in the kitchen (like cook dinner...hahaha). We put Cooper in his high chair for the first time tonight and he loved it. We got him the Graco Blossom 4 in 1 high chair. This high chair will grow with Cooper as he becomes a toddler. The high chair reclines, then sits upright, then can be used as a space saver chair (which attaches to a chair), as well as a booster seat. We really like it and its very easy to take the tray on and off. We also bought Cooper some spoons and a tippee cup. We let Cooper play with them on his high chair so he can get use to having them. AJ and I are planning on making our own baby food. We are going to go buy all of the supplies next weekend.

With his new toy. It's a car wheel that he can turn that plays music.

Looking at daddy

Playing with his tippee cup

Laughing Baby

Cooper has become very chatty and laughs a lot. He is very ticklish and loves being tickled underneath his armpits. Here is a video of cooper taken last week.

laughing

Trip to Sunnyvale

AJ traveled up to San Luis Obispo on Thursday for work, so we figured it would be a good opportunity to drive another 2.5 hours up to Sunnyvale to visit Grandma Becky and The Adams/ Butler family. It was a very quick trip but we had a great time seeing everyone.

Cooper did very well on the trip. We stopped in San Luis Obispo for 4 hours so AJ could hold a few meetings. Luckily, it was very nice out so Cooper and I walked around down town. We did a little shopping and then spent our time outside. We had many visitors and Cooper flirted with all of them. Once AJ was done with work, we continued up to Sunnyvale for the last 3 hour drive. Cooper was a little more fussy as we had been on the road since 9:30, but he wasn't bad. We arrived at Grandma Becky's house around 7:30 pm. Cooper slept very well in his pack in play and slept til 6 am!!!! AJ and I were very happy about this.

We hung out at Grandma's house on Friday. Cooper was a little fussy but he enjoyed his time with Great Grandma Becky. He chatted with her. He was very interested in her glasses and kept grabbing at her mouth/ face. We then headed over to my cousin Katie's and her husband Dean's house for dinner. Katie prepared a great meal that met all of my dietary restrictions. They also bought a house last winter, and just moved in in January. So we got to see their new house.

We headed out of town on Saturday morning. We stopped by the Feder's house for a short visit before hitting the road back down to Thousand Oaks. It rained the entire time down to Thousand Oaks. It took us longer to get back home as we stopped a few times to feed Cooper and eat lunch that Grandma Becky packed for us. Cooper did great on this ride and slept most of the time. We are very lucky he enjoys being in the car.

Chatting it up with Great Grandma Becky

Cooper is a lot bigger than the last time Great Grandma saw him in December.

Katie, Dean and Cooper

Katie getting her baby fix with Cooper.

Kisses from Katie

Super Baby!!

Katie and Cooper

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

This has been a very crazy/ busy week for us. AJ was traveling for most of the week and got home very late. Therefore, it was just me and Cooper. Blogging was put on the back burner this past week.

Here are some pictures from the past week (not including our trip up to Sunnyvale).

What are you looking at?

Cooper is starting to teeth. He is drooling a lot more and his hands are making their way to his mouth. He has cried out in pain a few times so we have given him baby tylenol and oragel. They seem to be helping.

I love my jumper!

Looking at himself in the penguin mirror.

Tummy time with his turtle

Sophie the Giraffe

AJ and I believe that Cooper has begun to teethe. He loves to chew on his hands, my hands and Sophie the Giraffe. If you are not familiar with Sophie, she is an expensive giraffe that makes a squeeky sound like a dog toy. We aren't quite sure why Cooper loves her, but he does. We have heard from other parents that their kids love Sophie too. No one quite understands a child's fascination with Sophie. Sophie seems to be the only thing that makes Cooper happy when he wants to chew.

Splish Splash

Cooper has always loved bath time and being in the water. Last night we put him in the bath tub and he had a great time. He enjoyed kicking his leg and splashing the water everywhere. He made a huge mess on the counter. His next bath will be with his baby tub in the real bath tub. Here are 2 movies of him splashing around in his bath tub. To View them, just click the links below.

Bath time

Bath Time Part 2

Rock n Roll Baby

Cooper has improved sitting in his bumbo and manipulating toys. He has found his mouth and loves putting toys in his mouth. Here are a few pictures of him holding the guitar.