Sledding in 2009

Fritz and I got an awesome deal on a snow suit for Cooper at Ross. It was originally $80 but we paid $14 for the snow pants and jacket. He looks absolutely adorable wearing them. Along with his new snow boots that Nana and "Gramp Grump" bought him last year on sale.
Of course we come to find out that Cooper doesn't like snow, AT ALL. The first time he saw it this year and had to step in it he was no too thrilled. He calls it "no" but says it different than when he's saying no. (He has a hard time with "s".)

You may all remember this adorable picture taken last year the day after Christmas.
Well we thought it would be fun to recreate that this year, so on Fritz's day off we went to my parents house with the understanding we would be sledding and having loads of fun...
... this is what we got instead: Cooper asking for his grandpa so he could go inside. Being a mean mommy and trying to get him used to the snow I told him the only way he was going inside was if he walked himself.
So he did. Right up to the door. I had to force this smile out of him, after which he immediately reached for the door to go in.
He does enjoy watching "Gramp Grump" shovel from his window so maybe if he's in a good mood we can give him a shovel and see if he'll get more used to the snow.

Lets hope we don't spend Christmas sick.

I haven't been able to keep up with the blog lately because I've been taking care of a sick baby. For about a week Cooper had a slight fever and wasn't acting like his usual self. On Tuesday Dec 1 (which happened to be my parents 25th wedding anniversary) he was feeling hotter than usual so we took his temperature; which was 103.5 We gave him Tylenol and let him sleep, then Wed the 2nd we took him to see his Pediatrician.

While in the waiting room we noticed a little cold sore looking lesion on the left corner of his mouth. Upon examining him the doctor found tons of little "cold sores" on the back of his tongue and throat, and determined it was Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. Unfortunately there isn't any medicine for him to take. He has to just wait it out. On Saturday night my parents were watching him and he wasn't doing very well at all so my mom took him to see a 24 hour doctor who sent him to the ER because he was afraid of Cooper getting dehydrated. The ER doctor said Cooper wasn't dehydrated but to make sure we watched the amount of fluids he was taking. He also concocted some medicine for Cooper to dip swabs into and rub in his mouth to numb it, and gave my mom some liquid Loratab to help him sleep, along with recommending he alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours.

Cooper was pretty miserable for an entire week. He couldn't drink anything because most juices have Acid which burned his sores, he couldn't eat anything because his gums were incredibly swollen and it hurt his mouth to chew. He walked around all day asking to be held and spent hours just laying in my arms zoned out. He also took naps with me on my bed and fell asleep on my chest like he did when he was a newborn. He would lay there whimpering and it broke my heart because there was nothing I could do. Fritz and I thought about taking him back to the doctor on Wednesday 9th but we noticed some improvement in his fever and overall appearance so we decided to wait it out and see if he continued to improve.

As of today he is doing a lot better! He has regained most of his appetite and is able to eat and drink most of his normal foods. He's also begun to run around and play like his usual self. Now he just needs for these sores to go away and he'll be the Cooper we all know!

Cooper's poor mouth. (No that isn't a bruise on his cheek, I dropped my camera and it has that dot in every picture now, it just shows up on Cooper's skin really obviously.)
The red in the back is all little sores. He was a big boy and stuck out his tongue to show me though.I was trying to get him to say "cheese" so I could see his swollen teeth but he started crying like he was being tortured and that resulted in this. You can see his bottom teeth are pretty small looking because the gums are so high up.
I got him to laugh so this one you can see the top part being swollen.

Family Pictures 2009!

When Cooper was three months old a friend of mine that I made through the portrait studio I used to work at took mommy & son pictures in the park.

Then last year in October when Cooper was about 6 months old we called her up again to have family pictures taken!
So this year when we thought of family pictures we naturally thought of Ila! I got a hold of her and she said she would be able to do them for us. I think this is going to be a yearly tradition, maybe even more often!
She is completely amazing and I think she should start her own business! I know we would go to her! Here is a tribute to Ila!!!

There are a couple more here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/album.php?aid=123545&id=630762193

Spooooky Halloween!!

Once again I find myself behind in updating the blog. These are late but here are Cooper's Halloween pictures! Last year we didn't really do anything for Halloween so we decided to have Cooper help carve and gut a pumpkin this year. Sadly as usual Fritz had to work so he missed out again.
Cooper helping Grandpa cut the top off.
Using an old ice cream scooper to get all the gunk out. I thought he would dig in and get messy but he didn't like the smell and he didn't want to touch it.
You can see by the look on his face that he was disgusted.
Cooper took a nap while the rest of the dirty work got done. I sorted out the seeds and my dad carved the pumpkin to look like Cookie Monster!
Cooper wasn't in the mood for pictures on Halloween so there aren't very many of him really smiling. I put the very rare moments on here. Mr Pirate putting his "booty" in his piggy bank!
Cooper and I with my sister and Cookie Monster.
His "I'm sick of this picture crap" face.
Kisses!
Cooper's friend Issac celebrated his birthday (Nov 1) on Halloween. We went Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood and then back to Issac's house for yummy chili and presents! I was really horrible with the camera since my costume had no pockets and I had to carry Cooper most of the time, so there aren't many pictures and the ones I have are from my wonderful friend Sam who always has her camera.

Cooper and the birthday boy Issac. Issac turned 2 this year. Cooper is only a year and a half. He's a giant, or Issac is a miget.
Issac's older brother Xavier and Cooper's other pirate buddy!This is Issac's sister Evvie. She was a fairy and had a Cadidid on her head!
Cooper and mama getting ready to head out and get some candy!
He was sad when I wouldn't let him eat his candy but once I showed him we were putting it in his bucket for later he really liked the idea.
He even posed with his bucket but no smile.
All the kiddos were very polite saying "Trick-or-Treat" and the saying "thank you" once they got their candy. Cooper even told one lady he loved her.
It was really fun! I'm hoping next year Fritz is able to get off work and I wear better shoes!