Fun things!

Cooper giving Crew kisses without me asking!

 Crew 2 months - loving his bath

 Not even close to potty training but he's getting used to sitting on the potty

 snuggle time with daddy!

 Crew's adorable smile

 he started giggling and I LOVE how he scrunches up his nose!

 coloring

 our new diaper bag! We had to upgrade to a larger one

New Words

I still can't get over how fast Cooper is growing!! He continues to talk non stop but we are finally able to understand more of what he's saying. Here's a little list of his new words:

- bubble

- star

- thank you

- baby

- sweetie (so cute! I went to crew and said "hi sweetie" and he went up and goes "hi seetie!"

- Brad (pronounced Braid for Brady)

- Suzie (sounds like Suz - my friend from work)

- football

- color

His physical ability is pretty much amazing. His most favorite thing is to spin in circles of to stand on one foot and kick the other. We went to a large area with several soccer fields for him to run around on and he ran for an hour STRAIGHT! He did not stop and did not walk. Not.even.once. When it was time for bed we knew he'd be upset to get in the car so he and I walked home (it's really like 2 minutes away from home). He was a little upset to go inside of course but at least we didn't have to strap him in his car seat! He's also amazing at kicking the soccer ball! 

Cooper is so much fun! He is a wild child. He was having a difficult time in nursery on Sunday so I stayed with him. I went home in tears because of how different Cooper is compared to the other children his age. He was far more (and I mean WAY WAY WAY more) wild than the others. He's always been this way but it's still difficult for me to handle. I think he just gets bored with things. And come snack time he shoved the food in and was done before the other's even ate a few bites! He did pretty good with music time but I think he got bored towards the end because he was running around like a mad man. It is very overwhelming for me to try to get him to sit down and listen for something. We even have to tell Cooper to look at us just to get his attention so he'll listen for a second. I've talked with several mother's and 2 pediatricians. They have all said he'll eventually grow out of it. Oh I sure hope he does some day! But until then we will be struggling with quiet time activities.

Milk

Ever since I was pregnant for Cooper I wanted to breast feed our children. There are so many benefits from breast feeding and it's so good for the children. Well, when Cooper absolutely would NOT latch on (even with a shield) we ended up having to give him a bottle. I pumped for little over a month but of course eventually went down to nothing. I was an emotional wreck over it...

Crew is a different story. We tried for a full week to have him latch on, which he did successfully a few times but was extremely frustrated all the others. Then he went to the NICU and just refused so we tried a shield. The shield did the trick and we've been successful ever since. Now that I've started up work again I go two days in a row without breast feeding Crew. I'll go without pumping for a full 8 hours at times because I usually can't take the time to pump at work (horrible huh?). Crew went through a growth spurt over the WEEKEND and was eating every 2 hours...well I wasn't there to nurse him so my milk production is about 2 oz too low. We've been trying to get it up for over a week now and I am still not making enough. I've tried different milk producing supplements and drinking LOTS of water. It's still not getting any better. And trying to nurse Crew every 1 to 2 hours is not so fun with Cooper running around!!

So with that said... we are going to formula :( I am pretty bummed about it but our baby needs to eat! Now the trick is to find a formula that works for him. We supplement with Nutramigen and that stuff is ridiculously expensive. I guess we will see how it goes.

to my crafty mother!!

Mom - go to this link and take a look!

Way Cute!

"side"

Since the weather has been pretty comfortable (in the 80's) I've been able to have the windows open! YAY! With that Cooper wants to be outside more. So I hang out in our bedroom with Crew and let Cooper play out in the sun and water on his own - I go out and play when Crew's napping. We have been going "side" after breakfast and after nap time. Well, last night around 11 Cooper woke up screaming. It's very unusual for him to do this so we ran in and got him up. The first words he said was "side?" He so desperately wanted outside from 11 pm - 1:30 am. He cried and cried for hours! We ended up opening our living room windows so he could look at the stars and he was content with that. But by then he was hungry so we ended up feeding him some yogurt then he FINALLY went back to bed.

Some cool things happened during those few hours. It was one of the first times he's actually spent time with us in bed! He has never slept in bed with us since he was 1 week old and we have been anxiously waiting for a time when he would calm down enough to cuddle. Unfortunately he didn't cuddle but he did pretend to sleep :) It was also nice to have Brady up with us. We really do miss him. Also, Crew slept through the night for the first time!! YAY!! He didn't even mind Cooper's screaming!

Back to Cooper - his sleeping habits have been horrible. extremely horrible (compared to how he was). Last night he went down around 8:30 because cream of wheat takes forever to cool down, he cried until 9:00ish. woke up at 11 and was up until 1:30ish. He woke up again around 6 hungry so he got a bottle (grr), and was up again at 8:30. He's been up and playing and has refused to take a nap. I tried to put him down at 1 but he cried/screamed for an hour and so we got up, had a snack, and played for a bit then tried again at 3. He cried for about 15 minutes. Oh and he's still banging his head - ugh. Seriously?? I really hope this stage passes quickly!

We are all very tired.

boys

Cooper - 19 months.
- learning so fast! He picks up on words and has the cutest little voice. The words he says the most right now: juice - sounds like "uice"; dog; car; beep beep; wee - sounds like "me"; ball; airplane; thank you - sounds like "ah you"; hot dog; shoes; hi; bye. He continues to sign more, please, and thank you. He hardly ever signs that he's hungry anymore. Oh and something cute - I call Brady "braid" most of the time. Brady was outside mowing the lawn and I yelled "Braid" to get his attention so Cooper repeated it over and over yelling "braid!" out the window.
- he loves to jump, run, stomp, and spin circles. his most recent favorite is to jump on the bed and couch. he doesn't know how to walk anymore - he still just runs everywhere
- he figured out that he can yell. really. loud. EXTREMELY loud.

- i hear him laughing at himself often.
- he still loves hot dogs and yogurt. i've been able to get him to eat grapes, strawberries, and blueberries. but only for one day. i offer fruits and veggies but he never eats them. he loves anything bread like. crescent rolls, toast, garlic bread, bread sticks, etc.
- he loves water and has a blast in the tub
- he's still a binky and blanket lover. his blanket goes everywhere with us. the other day he was outside and snuck his blanket by me and soaked it with the hose. I immediately put it in the washer and he cried for over an hour by the washer and dryer. I tried explaining it to him that it was dirty and needed to be washed but of course he didn't understand.
- we say prayers before meals with cooper. today for lunch he and i said a prayer as usual. he folds his arms and bows his head for about 2 seconds. then as i was walking away he refolded his arms, bowed his head, and mumbled jibberish. it was his very first prayer!! my heart just melted!
- he continues to bang his head. the padding on the crib is working beautifully but we have found him banging his head on the sides of his crib instead of the railing. at least the bruises are covered with his hair now and not down the middle.
- he's obsessed with balls. brady had a soccer website up with lots of balls for sale and cooper was so excited. super excited!! when we drive past any car dealership with balloons cooper freaks out yelling "ball!!" he loves any and all balls! he's a pro at kicking balls too - something his dad taught him.
 - he has the most outrageous tantrums. he kicks, screams, thrashes around, hits, bangs his head and will continue to do this f.o.r.e.v.e.r. He is not easily distracted and very determined to get what he wants.

Crew - 7 weeks
- he's starting to smile, giggle, and coo.
- loves to smile at his big brother
- is definitely a mommy's boy!
- eats about every 3 hours during the day and goes a good 5-6 hour stretch at night.
- starting to love bath time
- naps really well and tolerates all the noise cooper makes
- has dark curly hair and blue eyes! (for now anyway)
- fits into NB clothes well and may advance into 0-3 months! his NB diapers are also a little snug.
- he like to have his face covered with blankets. we wrap it around so that his cheeks are touching a blanket and his little face is open to the air.
- he has his hands in his mouth all the time. he sucks constantly
- his neck is getting stronger and his head bobbles less every day.
- he kicks and moves his arms around all the time - just like cooper
- i'd say he grew out of his colicky stage already. he still whines but it's not constantly all day long like it was.

Overall, our boys are awesome and growing way too quickly! I love being their mommy!

Family

"In all of human experience, there are no joys more tender, no love more sweet, no fulfillment higher than that found in the family. " - Elder Bruce D. Porter

Compare

cooper less than a month old

 crew 7 weeks

Talent

cooper had horrible reflux. he could project vomit across any size couch.

crew has a totally different talent. take a look:

i happened to be at my first day back to work and never witnessed this event. brady sure had fun cleaning it up though. he says he was changing his diaper and when he was wiping crew tooted a little. no big deal until the next toot came with a stream of poo. and then it happened again. he says it was all over his hands and can't believe how powerful it was! haha poor daddy on his first night with the boys!

Our little Family

Here is a picture of the 4 of us on Crew's blessing day. It is the first day a picture of the 4 of us was taken.

a good day.

today's been a good day. cooper and i played a LOT! he even climbed into his empty toy tub.

he's wanting me to play constantly lately! it's so fun to get down and hear him giggle with me. he has the sweetest laugh and it's so contagious!

 crew and i played a lot too when cooper was napping. he's starting to interact more and reach for different things...like his favorite giraffe hanging there from great grandma!

 he's growing but is still really really tiny!

 his cheeks are filling out and he actually feels "heavy" to me! he's smiling more and is starting to coo!! i definitely didn't forget how fun this stage is but it's so so exciting to see him do more than eat, sleep...

...and poop. Poop? he hardly EVER poops anymore. usually only if we feed him formula. i have questioned the pediatrician on this and he says he's absorbing all of the breast milk since it can be broken down so much. he only poops the formula because it can't be absorbed like breast milk. it's a good thing he fills his diaper so much or i would be worried he wasn't getting food!

New Bed

don't be fooled. we rarely see this happy little stud...

...this is the stud we've seen a lot of...

 ...and it caused these awesome looking battle wounds...

 ...which caused us to make his new bed!

the padding is working well and his bruises are more green now. the bruises in the picture are a couple days old and look nothing like he did. his tantrums are starting to occur less often (at the moment) so hopefully they don't get as bad as they did. Oh, and we asked several doctor's about his "head banging" and apparently it's fairly common in children. especially when a change at home occurs - like adding a new baby. we've been spending LOTS of quality time with him...hopefully it'll help.