Friday, June 26, 2009

Cooper

Cooper has been trying some new foods lately and loving every minute of it.

Here he is after trying to feed himself oatmeal and carrots. It went everywhere! He even had it in his hair. He went right into the bathtub after this meal.


Cooper loves to eat blueberries . Since these blueberries were frozen they became very juicy when thawed. They were very messy going in and borderline disastrous coming out. Everything was stained blue for the day.


Here he is eating rice. He had to help by holding the spoon. He's trying to be a big boy and do it himself.


Cooper loves playing outside. He would spend all day outside if we would let him.


Mr. Cool wearing his new sunglasses. As you can see, I'm reaching for his hand to keep him from taking them off. He likes to chew on them more than wear them.


Ever wonder what Cooper looks like with a pacifier in his mouth? We don't usually give it too him but lately this is the only way he will take a nap. On this particular day he would not let me take it out of his mouth. When he was done with it he took it out himself and tossed it aside.


Here is Cooper sitting on the couch and playing with his musical drum. He is always happy to hear music.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Happy Father's Day!


This was Paul's first official father's day. He has been the best father and husband anyone could ever ask for. These are a few of my favorite things about Paul:

  • The way he cares so much about his family. He will drop any thing he's doing to help me out.
  • He is the best "nurse" anyone could ever ask for.
  • I love it when he is goofy and silly playing with Cooper, it's the cutest thing.
  • He is adventurous and willing to take risks {hey, he married me didn't he :) }
  • His passion for his "hobby" taking pictures. He has taken some awesome photos.
  • His knowledge of math and science. It may sound silly but it's helped me a ton. ( I don't seem to have the math gene). Cooper will learn to love math and science!
  • He cooks yummy meals. His specialties include biscuits and homemade gravy, banana pancakes, spaghetti, mahi mahi, turkey burger... I could go on and on.
  • He is often laid back and doesn't worry too much. (That's my job)
Thanks Paul for being a wonderful father to our little Cooper and a super husband!
Here are a few of my favorite pictures of my 2 boys.





































Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Our Perpetual Motion Machine

Like every child, Cooper is unique in so many ways. As a parent, I appreciate the individuality and dynamics of babies to a much greater extent than I ever have. This brings me to one of Cooper's unique traits. We discovered early that Cooper is an active boy. In fact, we didn't even know he was a boy yet. It was the first ultrasound when he was approximately 1 inch long that we noticed how much he moved around. Kelly felt this quite often towards the end of the pregnancy. As Cooper is getting older, his motor skills are improving and his movements become more refined. Nevertheless, he is quite an active little boy. This video, which is a time lapse exposure at 1 second intervals shows the rate of activity displayed by Cooper. It is pretty entertaining to watch him move from one object to another, although he did spend a lot of time on the water bottle! Thank goodness he is not really that fast!
















Cooper attempting to remove balls from his new favorite toy. This is a difficult proposition for an 8 month old, but Cooper is persistent. It could be an expression of the infamous "Slinky (AKA Eckes) Gene." Although unsuccessful so far, he still has a good time reaching his hand in the box.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

8 Months Old

On Friday Cooper turned 8 months old. We can't believe it. He is growing up so fast right before our eyes. He is really a good little boy and so much fun.

New abilities:
rolling over from back to tummy really fast
scooting on his stomach backwards
holding toys with one hand (it especially impressive with a ball)
starting to hold the bottle on his own once in a while
sitting up with out falling over (almost all the time)
grinding his 4 teeth together (drives mom and dad crazy!)
sleeping through the night once (hopefully more often)
babbles mama and baba (although he doesn't know what they mean yet)
Putting pieces of food in his mouth (most of the time it gets stuck in the palm of his hands)

Likes:
sleeping on his stomach
being outside
rolling over and playing on his tummy
trying to scoot/crawl
chewing on books (sneaking them in his mouth when mom and dad aren't looking)
eating bread, bananas, peaches, carrots, sweet potatoes
pacifier
playing with the computer keyboard/mouse
watching abstract music visualizations
talking to grandparents on Skype
chewing on bath toys and playing in the water
touching and trying to eat grass/flowers/leaves (anything I can get my hands on)
looking around the yard while dad tells me what we have growing

Dislikes:
eating peas, green beans, white grape juice
being rocked to sleep
mom/dad blowing nose or sneezing loudly
looking at people wearing sunglasses

Monday, June 8, 2009

A Fun Weekend

This weekend was packed with adventure! On Friday I went on an "Epic" hike with a couple of friends from work. We hike to Malan's Peak just outside of Ogden.















Me, Chris and Ben at Malan's Peak








A panorama of the Ogden Area from Malan's Peak

The hike was about 5 miles round trip and the elevation climb was about 2400 ft. It was quite fun and was the first time I had seriously hit the trails since Cooper was born. If I keep this up, perhaps I will have the stamina to climb Mt. Ogden. I'm going to shoot for early October for that one.




















Me at the peak overlooking Ogden

Other than the hike, we had impressive amounts of rain, as illustrated by the video of Cooper feeling the raindrops.

This was also the weekend of the great Hill Air Force Base airshow. This year the Thunderbirds were in attendance. This is enjoyable for us because we live relatively close to Hill and we get to see most of the airplanes flying around. I always enjoyed going to the airshows with my dad in Idaho, so when Cooper is old enough, we will probably take an adventure to an airshow.









































We were able to enjoy most of the show from the comfort of our back yard. I originally wanted to watch the performance with Cooper, because I thought he would get a kick out of it...but of course he was sleeping so I tested out my skills with the telephoto lens. I captured a couple of cool photos.














Cooper also had a great time playing with some new toys, a keyboard and his toy box. He is really becoming fascinated with just about everything he sees. This has been very enjoyable to watch, but watch out, I fear that a mobile Cooper will keep us on our toes!




















Sunday, June 7, 2009

Enjoying a Rainy Day


Today was a very rainy day here in Ogden, UT. Cooper hasn't really experienced rain before, so we decided to take him outside for a few minutes. He enjoyed watching the rain fall and touching the cold drops.






Friday, June 5, 2009