Thrilling Three

Wow!  Can you believe our little Cooper is already three months old?  It amazes me how quickly the days and weeks are flying by and our boys are getting so big.

This little charmer continues to brighten our world every day.

What sorts of things is he doing these days, you ask?  

Well, let me tell you, he:

~ Recognizes Mom and Dad and greets us with excited smiles and grins.

~ Recognizes his big brother and responds to him with extreme excitement.  Boy does he love his brother!

~ Is quite vocal: he enjoys "talking" to us with coos, gurgles, and grunts.  

~ Copies us when we stick out our tongue and tries to blow raspberries back at us.

~ Plays with his hands.  A lot.

~ Chews on his hands, fists, wrists, arms, and elbows.  This would be so much better if he'd just chew on a binkey...but nooooooo, that might keep his clothes dry.

~ Holds his head steady (95% of the time)

~ Tracks objects 

~ LOVES watching himself in mirrors.

~ Starting to laugh (he actually had one full on laugh today, but I couldn't get him to repeat it)  He is definitely getting there!

~ Is growing like a weed: he measures 24 inches long and is 13 pounds 2 ounces. 

~ And the most interesting, he absolutely dislikes, no HATES, having a dirty diaper.  Some of his happiest, smiling moments of the day are when he's getting a fresh, clean, dry diaper.

He is fighting off his first cold, so he hasn't been sleeping as well as he normally does and has red puffy eyes.  He is still pretty darned adorable.  

This picture makes the top of his head look ginormous, but in person it doesn't look the same.  The hair on the top of his head is starting to fill in and looks cute.  He is also a drool factory these days.

My Two Boys

Who are most amazing boys in the world?

They ate these two guys right here.  We sure love them.

And boy do they love each other.

You can't tell me this isn't the cutest thing ever.  

They were just sitting there like this.  

So sweet.

All of them.  So precious.  Cooper's little hand resting on Eli's.

Mommy moment.  :)

Odds and Ends

We've just been hanging out and doing our thing the last thirteen weeks.  Can you believe Cooper is already thirteen weeks old? Holy smokes!  The last three months (almost, tomorrow is his three month birthday) have absolutely flown by.  I have loved nearly every moment of having two kids.  There have been some very trying moments, from both boys, but they are most definitely the most wonderful things that have happened to us.  We love them more than anything in the world!

Eli sneaking in for a picture.  

He sure makes me smile and my heart sing.  

He is a goofball!

Our littlest cutie.  I don't remember Eli smiling as much as Cooper does.  

(Although as I'm typing this, he just woke up and is quite the opposite of smiling.  He does NOT enjoy waking up)

Snoozing away.  I love how he holds his little hands while he sleeps.  

A little tummy time. 

Just like his big brother, this is not his favorite time of the day. 

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day he wrote his name on all of the valentines he was going to hand out at preschool.  Here he is in the process of writing. 

Hmmmm....oddly enough he holds his pencil (pen) just like I do.  And I KNOW whenever I work with him at home I am sure to show him the "right" way to hold a pencil.  He may not look like me, but he's part me!

On a few, I think his goal was to see how big he could write and still get his name on the back.  Check out that E...and his focus writing!

 A serious cheeseball moment.  Just for me, I'm sure.

Showing the valentines he chose this year.

Grandma and Papa Visit

Grandma and Papa came over for dinner one day last week.  Papa folded diapers (woo hoo, thanks Dad!) and Grandma had a fun time with the boys.  Before they left, they had a little one on one time with baby Cooper.  

Loving Papa and Grandma

Hanging out with Papa

Smiling at a goofy Grandma.

Mr. Cooper.  We all love him!

He's Got the Wiggles

That is, he's got a wiggly tooth!  Eli is ready to lose his first tooth, we can hardly believe it.  Well, maybe not exactly.  He has fallen on and run into so many random things, we're probably lucky those two front teeth have held on this long.

At any rate, his top, right front tooth is ready to fall out.  He is pretty funny about wiggling it and is excited to lose his first baby tooth.  Today, after giving it a little wiggle, he exclaimed, "It's a little farther out!"  Jokingly I told him to just grab it and yank it out, thinking he'd look at me and say, "No way!"  Instead he reached in and started getting ready to pull.  Both Jess and I told him "NO!  Don't do it! I was kidding."

You would think that after seeing countless students lose their teeth at school, I would be used to it.  In fact, it totally grosses me out.  Yes, I am excited for my students to lose their teeth, but please, PLEASE, do not bring that bloodied, nasty thing and stick it in my face.  Ewwwwww.  It's not nearly as bad with Eli, but I'm not really looking forward to him handing me the tooth once it does fall out.  I guess I need to figure out what to do with it when he does lose it.

Do we keep them?  I remember running across my brother's and my old teeth once when I was in middle or high school, so clearly my parents kept ours.  Then what?

Is it a biohazard to dispose of?  If we do dispose of it, how do we do it?

I need some advice.  What do you do?

Our Little Loves

It's been pretty quiet around here lately.  Well, as quiet as a house with a five year old and almost twelve week old can be.  Tonight while I was folding diapers and getting them put away when Aerosmith's song "I
Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" came on.  Don't get me wrong, I have heard this song a million times, afterall, Armageddon is one of my favorite movies.  Tonight, however, was the first time that it brought a tear to my eye thinking about my sweet, sweet boys.  

I could lie awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
Well you're far away dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
And just stay here lost in this moment forever
Well, every moment spent with you
Is a moment I treasure

[Chorus]
I don't wanna close my eyes
I don't wanna fall asleep
'Cause I'd miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing
'Cause even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream will never do
I'd still miss you, babe
And I don't wanna miss a thing

I know one's children is not why this song was written, but I couldn't help but think about how much our boys mean to me.  They are our world.  They are so precious and darling.  Everything about them, from their amazingly sweet smiles to their most distressed cries.  I could watch them sleep for hours on end, and yes, the smiles while they sleep warm my heart.  I don't want to miss a moment of their lives.  We are so lucky be their parents. 

Eli loves Cars2.  He has many of the cars and could play with them for hours on end.

Cooper has been drooling for about two weeks now.  He has a little white bump on his lower gums.  Yes, I do believe it is his first tooth.  It's hard and pointy and sharp.  We'll see what happens in the next little bit.  Two and a half months is a little young to be getting teeth, isn't it!?

Our darling little Cougar.

He is a happy, happy little boy.

Big brother, a little "too cool" for the camera. 

Sunshine in Seattle

Today was absolutely beautiful.  I don't think I saw a single cloud in the sky all day.  Since it was so nice, the boys and I decided to head out and go for a walk.  I was quite thankful today was so nice because Little C had a really hard time napping this morning and knowing his past experience in the stroller, figured we might as well give that a try.  After a while, he did end up falling asleep for about 20 minutes.  I guess something is better than nothing.

We had a lot of this come noon today.  Poor kid has been fighting sleep so hard.

Happily pushing his little brother.  

(No, I did not ask him to, he wanted to push him around.)  

Enjoying the ride.

Boy do those big blue eyes melt my heart.  

I love my boys so much!

And of course I love him and his big brown eyes. 

Now, that tooth on the other hand...he's rammed it and jammed it so many times, it is dropping like crazy and is loose.  It looks like it is dying.  Not really news though, the dentist said it would probably happen when we took him in after the major crash and burn.  I bet it won't be too long before it falls out.

Still enjoying pushing him even though he's crying, again.

I hope he sleeps well tonight.