Cooper's kinda sitting up, y'know. 

His 5 Month Development Update

Hi Everyone. Apologies for those that check this on a regular basis. Real estate's in its busiest time of the year, so I've not had tremendous time to do much with the blog. There are some pics that we posted recently. Enjoy.

In the past month, Cooper's demonstrated that he's able to control some of his motor functions. Meaning, he can now control his limbs to a certain extent. For the past few weeks, he's been reaching out to toys and objects quite frequently. Shake a rattle in front of him, and he gets this look on his face like, "ooooh" and reaches out with both hands. Just don't get your face too close to him...he's fascinated by hair and loves to grab it. Ask Abbie. And she's got that interesting red hair. Daddy's black hair isn't all that. Of course, I keep it short enough that he can't grab it. Ah, its good to be a man.

So, since he's able to grab hair, you should've guessed that he's able to control his grip a bit. Before, he had two modes, open hand or closed fist. No inbetween. He's got it now where he has some dexterity with his hands, and can very easily and adroitly grab an object, and bring it to his mouth, relatively speaking. His favorite pasttime is pulling his binky (pacifier) out of his mouth. For those that don't have kids, this is fun because when he doesn't have his binky, especially at night, he cries and screams. See the catch 22 here? It's great that he can use his hands, unfortunately, he's using them for evil. I've sat and watched him when trying to put him to sleep in his crib, reach up, hook his thumb in the loop of the binky, and yank the sucka out. That's followed very quickly by a crescendo of a wail. His cry is quicker than my binky reinserting ability, I'm afraid.

Up until Sunday night, he was sleeping in his crib at night for the first half, swing for the second. Dunno what happened, but that whole crib thing went out the window. Abbie thinks he's going through a cognitive and physiological development stage, which, her friend Jamie Mitchell told her, is usually accompanied by an inability to sleep. We've definitely got an inability to sleep.

Also up until Sunday night, he was having great naps. He used to only nap for about 20 minutes at a time. Very frustrating for Ma and Pa. For the preceding week and a half I would say, I had great success with getting him to nap, in his crib, for over an hour at a time. That's all gone now. We're back to the 20 minutes at a time thing. Man, sucks to be us.

Ask G.G. (Wanda), and she'll tell you that she believes that Cooper's destined for a future in music. Whether performing or producing or whatever...maybe he'll just watch American Idol all day long in reruns, but music of some form will be important to him as an adult. He seems to have a affinity for music. He'll stop and listen to songs. He knows songs that he likes. He'll even throw his arms to the beat. He'll watch music videos sometimes, too. But what Abbie discovered is that we may have a little rock and roller on our hands. She had VH1's video channel on, and Coop was in his exercauser. His back was to the TV. Some rock song came on, and he stopped what he was doing, turned himself around, and watched the video, quiet as a mouse with rapt attention. So, great, we've got a Bo Bice on our hands (he's that rock dude from American Idol in case you've been on Mars for the past 13 weeks).

Physically, we think he's over 15lbs now. Just ask my left arm, which is the arm I carry him in. He's also standing and sitting. No, he's not standing on his own. But with assistance. We brought him to a BBQ on Sunday for Memorial Day Weekend, and Katie and Bruce's baby, Emily, was standing with minor assistance (she's a month older). So, suddenly, Cooper starts doing it. Now we can't get him to stop.

Grandpa Gene visited last week, and made a comment about Cooper's back muscles needing to strengthen so he could sit up. Well, Dad, he's on that route. Check out the picture above!

Finally, it appears that his eczema has decided to return for a visit. He's dry and its itching. We do have a scheduled visit with Children's Hospital soon to check on his allergies to see if that's what's exacerbating his eczema. Some literature says that eczema is cyclical, and may apper to go away, and then come back in full force. Well, his came back on our flanks and took out our eczema-free jubilation right quick. I feel so sorry for the boy. Late nights now. Lots of wake ups. Itchy skin like no tomorrow. I just want him to get better. It kills me to see him in pain.

But y'know, look at the pic above again. Tell me he ain't a cute bugger!

Just preparing Cooper for when he's famous. 

As if anyone needed proof that babies will try to eat just about anything! 

Cooper and his Grandpa hanging out. 

Cooper and his Pappa spending time at Mom's office one Saturday. 

A tried and true method to get Cooper to sleep- throw him in the sling and he's out in seconds. 

Cooper held Deltek captive with is delighted laughter and smiles. This is a picture of Cooper with Ahlam as he made the rounds. 

What's that?? 

Cooper's first time in his ExerSaucer from Aunt Jamie. He only lasted a few minutes, but 2 weeks later he makes the rounds with every toy squeeling with laughter. 

GiGi and Cooper on one of their Friday's. Must be nice! 

Roli-Poli

A breakthrough! Cooper can now roll over on his own. Wanna hear it? Here it go...

Cheryl, our daycare provider, found a way to get Cooper to sleep in the afternoon. She put him on his belly. He fusses for about five minutes with her (2o minutes with Abbie or me), then falls asleep. So we've given it a try during the day, and it seems to work to a small extent. He still wakes after 30 minutes.

That's the prelude to the breakthrough. On Saturday April 30th, I went to Busch Gardens for a cheer competition that my squad was particpating in. As I was driving back in the afternoon, I was on the phone with Abbie. She was playing with Cooper in the bedroom. She had him on his belly on the bed. As we talked, she pulled out the video camera and taped Cooper playing on the bed. Well, darned if he didn't begin to figure out that he can push himself over to his side using his feet, as long as his arms aren't in the way. On video, while talking to me on the phone, she watches Coop roll to his side, and then all the way over. She about cried with joy. It was special that we both got to share in it AND we caught it on tape, too.

Well, every rose has its thorn. Now, we can't get him to sleep on his belly because he just rolls his happy ass over to his back. Cheryl can't get him to stay belly-side down either. We've had to resort to putting him in a special bed that sits in his crib which prevents him from rolling over to his back...just to his side.

It is wonderful to see him making progress. Updating his eczema, we think its due to seasonal allergies, exacerbated by food allergies. He didn't have any eczema before March, when the weather turned warm and the flowers and trees began pollenating. We think that allergen type foods may have weakened his immune system enough that seasonal allergies came out and gave the eczema something to live off of. We're still experimenting with creams and lotions. Just not wanting to use the prescription drug Eladil since research has shown its linked to cancer over prolonged use. And I'm not about to put something that's bad for an adult in my child.

It's been tough on Abbie. When we go out to eat, all those goodies we enjoyed before are now forbidden so as to keep Cooper from having a reaction. So we're definitely watching what we eat. Upside to this...we've both lost a good amount of weight just by dietary changes alone (and maybe Abbie's Wednesday walks with Dawn Guenthner).