Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Cooper - 8 Months Old!

My sweet boy is 8 months old!!  This has been a GREAT month with Cooper, and we're starting to get into some of my favorite baby stages!  

Here's a look at how Cooper is doing this month compared to What to Expect the First Year:

Stats:
Weight: 20 lbs
Diaper: Size 3
Clothes: Mostly 9 months with just a teeny bit of 6 months or 6-9 months hanging on.



Schedule:
Here's a look at his 4 hour schedule:
7:00 am - up for the day! (6 oz bottle)
8:15ish - solids (fruit)
8:45ish - down for nap
11:00 - up and eat (6oz)
12:15ish - solids (veggie)
12:45ish - down for nap
3:00 - up and eat (6oz)
5:45ish - dinner (cereal and veggie)
6:30 - bath
6:45ish - bottle and bed (6oz)

Little man is FINALLY sleeping through the night!  We put him down for bed and don't see him again until the next morning!!



Cooper can do all of the things that an eight month old baby should be able to do:
- bear some weight on legs when held upright
- feed self a cracker
-rake with fingers an object and pick it up in fist
-turn in the direction of a voice
- look for a dropped object

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  LOVE those cheeks and that little squished face!!


Cooper can do most of the things that an eight month old baby will probably be able to do:
-pass a cube or other object from one hand to another
-stand holding on to someone or something
-object if you try to take a toy away
-work to get a toy that's out of reach
-play peekaboo
-get into a sitting position from stomach {he just did this YESTERDAY for the first time!!!}



Cooper can do one thing that an eight month old may possibly be able to do:
-pick up a tiny object with any part of thumb and finger

When I put the hat on, he thought I was trying to play peekaboo and tried to take it off - haha.  


Still trying to get it off.  :)

Cooper can NOT do most of the things from the "may possibly" section:
-creep or crawl (he's SO CLOSE!)
-pull up to standing position from sitting
-say "mama" or "dada" indiscriminately

Once again - trying to get his hat off.



Cooper can do one thing that an eight month old baby may even be able to do:
-play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye {he can wave bye-bye, although he doesn't do it often}.


Cooper can NOT do most of the things in the "may even" section:
-walk holding on to furniture (cruise)
-stand alone momentarily
-understand "no" (but not always obey it) {we don't really tell him "no" yet.  ??}




Big boy!!!



Cooper has definitely been changing so much lately!


A look at Cooper and LL at the same age (no more looking alike AT ALL!):

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

LL's 4 Year Well-Visit

We had Lorelai's 4 year check up on February 6 - just one day after her birthday.  



Here's how the visit went:

Stats:
-Weight: 36 lbs  59% (+4 lbs from last year)
-Height: 41"  77% (+3 inches from last year)
-BMI:  41% (They look for a number between 5 - 85, so 41 is GREAT)
  • She has reached all of the milestones that she should have by now:
    • balancing on one foot
    • running
    • talking in easy to understand paragraphs
    • speaks in first person
    • can dress/undress herself
    • can keep her legs straight and touch her toes
    • can recognize her name when it is written
  • Her iron is great for the first time ever!  Usually, they tell us that it's on the low side of normal because of her milk intake.  Finally it looks great!
  • Her strawberry is still shrinking.  She measured it and it was 2.5cm.  At her 2 year appointment, it was measuring at 3 cm, so it has gone down half a cm in 2 years (they didn't measure it last year).  She did comment on how flat it is.  At this point, it's barely raised above the level of her skin (until recently, it's always been VERY raised).  Every time we talk to LL about her strawberry going away, she cries uncontrollably.  No joke. She LOVES it and gets super upset when we tell her that it won't always be there.  I tried to tell her that Jesus was going to give it to another little baby girl to make her special, but that didn't help much - haha.  
  • When the nurse pricked her finger, LL got VERY upset and started crying.  She asked the nurse, "Why did you do that to me?"  When the nurse answered, she said, "You shouldn't do that anymore!".
  • She had to get 4 shots this time and girl LOST.  HER.  MIND. If you live or work in town, I'm sure you could hear the screaming.  She refused to let us take the band aids off for over 24 hours.  And she refused to walk anywhere.  I wish I was joking.  She said her legs were broken.  I even got a text from her teacher at school (I had texted her to give her a heads up about the broken legs) and it said, "Her legs are still broken, but they're moving and working fine!", so I'm assuming that she played it up at school also.  I finally got the band aids off and she immediately started using her legs again and acting normal.
Broken legs

  • This got her over her fear of band aids.  Usually she NEVER lets us use one.  And by never - I mean NEVER.  Since her appointment, she's asked for a band aid twice.  That part has been helpful!
  • The doctor also made sure to let us know that it's time to start talking about "good touch/bad touch" with her - which we've already started doing.  We haven't put a lot of emphasis on it, but I have been talking with her about how no one should touch her pee pee, and she knows to tell someone to leave it alone.  I almost hate to bring it to her attention, but I just think that, in this world, it's important for them to know.

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Friday, February 22, 2013

20 Questions: LL at 4 Years Old

Last year, I started the tradition of asking LL a set of questions on her birthday.  I'll continue to do this every year, and I think it's going to be a really fun way to see how she changes over the years.  I asked the exact same questions that I asked last year.

Again, I did not change her answers (or lead her at all) for any of these questions.  I just asked her and wrote down what she said.  

1- What is your favorite color?  Blue

2- What is your favorite toy?  Stuffed animals

3- What is your favorite fruit? Apples and strawberries

4- What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Tinkerbelle and her sister

5- What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Soup

6- What is your favorite thing to wear? Pink dress

7- What is your favorite game to play? Hungry Hippos

8- What is your favorite snack? Big crackers (cheeze its)

9- What is your favorite animal? Baby elephants and bunnies

10- What is your favorite song? Oh This God

11- What is your favorite book? Winnie the Pooh books at Gigi's

12- Who is your best friend? Greysen

13 - What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Strawberries

14- What is your favorite thing to do outside? Find caterpillars

15- What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk

16- What is your favorite holiday? Valentine's Day

17- What do you like to have in bed with you at night to sleep with? Airplane stuff (a Polly Pocket airplane that she got for her birthday)

18- What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Meat (which is NOT true - haha)

19- What do you want to be when you grow up? A princess

20- What is your favorite way to wear your hair? Down

You can see her answers to these questions last year here.  :)




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Thursday, February 21, 2013

LL's 4th Birthday

That's right - my sweet girl is FOUR now!  She really is just at the sweetest age, and we all are just enjoying this so much.  I also LOVED that this year - she really, 100% understands birthdays and what they're all about - and that made it so much FUN!  

She was in charge of snacks for the week of her birthday at school, so she helped me make her class birthday cupcakes the night before her birthday!

She took the job of putting the cups in the muffin tin VERY seriously.


She also did wonderful at helping me fill them up!

Daddy came in to show us how it was done and took over on the icing part.  ;)



After Daddy finished icing them, LL put the sprinkles on them and they were done!

The morning of her birthday was pretty much business as usual.  We put some helium balloons in her room while she was sleeping, so she got to wake up to those.  Then, when she got to Grammy and Pop's before school, she was SUPER excited for a present.  She has been asking for two lizards and an iguana (???), and by some miracle, they found them!  She was PUMPED!

Later, her teacher sent me this picture from school.  I LOVE it.  :)

When we explained the whole birthday process to her, we told her that her birthday was all about HER.  I told her that dinner for her birthday was whatever she wanted: that I could cook whatever she wanted or we could go out to eat.  She picked to go out to eat.  For the longest time she said she wanted to go to Red Lobster, but she changed it to Cheddar's at the last minute.  We also told her that it was up to her who came: it could just be the four of us, or she could invite other family.  She chose to invite all of her grandparents and even called them to ask them herself!  So we all me up at Cheddar's to celebrate the birthday girl!

Opa and Cooper

Ben was in town, so he got to join in on the birthday fun, too!

My  beautiful birthday girl!



This is the best shot that we got with her all night.  :(

She LOVED her Lambie that Cooper gave her.



Grammy, Pop, and MeeMee

She wanted to read her new Sophia the First book right away.



Cooper enjoyed having everyone around and grubbing down!  He chowed down on some broccoli for a loooong time.



She's always a little unsure of the singing part.


Coop and Gigi



LL was SO happy to have everyone there to celebrate - and that's what was most important to me.  She got everything exactly how she wanted and was absolutely in Heaven.  Thanks to all of our families who came to make her night!


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