Cooper's Sixth Month, Just Passed

Holy smokes! Has it really been a month since our last post? Wow, Cooper, you're slacking on reminding me. To be honest, I'd have had this done earlier, but every time I sit down to write it, Cooper starts grabbing for my keyboard or my mouse...in fact, he just knocked my mouse off my table. He did delight in watching it crash to the ground, the battery compartment exploding off and the battery shooting across the floor. On top of that, when he plays with the mouse (he likes the blinking light on the bottom of it), my damned cursor jumps all over the screen. So I may be knee deep in a sentence, and next thing I know, I'm six lines up in the middle of another word. Very frustrating.

So let's recap this past month.

First and foremost, our hearts go out to John and Kat for the loss of their cat, Shonti. Shonti passed away from chronic renal failure this week. She was a constant in John's ever changing world, from college, to the military, to home in Haymarket, to Kat & John's apt in Fairfax, to their condo in Ashburn, and finally to their home in Sterling. Shonti kept Kat company during John's year long deployment to Iraq. She served as Kat's friend and sounding board during that time, and pretty much helped keep Kat sane on those hard days and nights without John. Shonti came into John's life during our Senior year in college. He was helping deliver goods to a charitable organization, at Christmas if I remember correctly. He left his truck open as he hauled these packages inside. When he came out, there was this little scraggly black kitten sitting next to his truck. He petted it, then got the next batch of packages to go inside. When he came back out, the kitty was sitting in his truck on his passenger seat...ready to go for a ride. And she was with him ever since. As John and Kat said in their email, Shonti, you will be missed.

While on the subject of cats, Mosby finally found a home, too. After a couple of weeks without Maggie Moo, we noticed that Mosby was becoming mopey. He obviously missed his play pal, who, by the way, has been thriving at Courtney & Kevin's house. Well, we were prepared to call Fancy Cats to try and find him a home. Abbie had called them and got instructions on how to get Mosby included in those Sunday adoption periods at Pet Smart. Enter Shannon and Bob. It took Shannon a week to work on Bob, but they said they'd take Mosby on a trial basis and see how he responds to their animals and to life in their house. Last word I had was that Mosby was assimilating well and that he was looking to be a fit. While we love both Maggie Moo and Mosby, we're glad that they're with caring and loving families.

To help with Cooper's eczema, which has been very bad this month, we ripped out the carpet on the main and upper level and put in laminate floors. The place has a completely different feel to it, that's for sure. A bit noisier. But I like it. Makes moving things a lot easier since they slide without hassle.

Cooper's a lot of fun to watch now. He's getting a personality, and with more motor control, he can now grab at things and deftly put them in his mouth...including Daddy's eyeglasses, the remote control, the cell phones, etc. So now that he can grab things...he grabs at EVERYTHING! Don't leave anything remotely interesting nearby, because he'll be reaching for it. He's reached so far for something before, that he nearly popped out of my arms. It was funny when all he was grabbing for was Abbie's hair, but now that he wants to have everything, we've really got to be on our toes.

His eczema is coming and going. Lately, is come more than its gone. We think that he scratches behind his legs alot because its habit. Change his diaper, clothes, or put him down for a second with nothing to keep him occupied, and he immediately starts scratching. Poor guy. He did clear up a bit when Mosby left and again when we put in the laminate floors, so now its up to his immune system and his gut to heal enough to be able to battle any of the triggers.

Oh, here's a fun one. He cries. I know, I know...he's a baby, he's supposed to cry. But he cries when he gets put down, or in his exercauser, or is set down to eat, etc. In other words, he's taken to crying to get us to pick him up whenever we set him down. It's remarkable how manipulative a baby can be at 7 months. He gets those waterworks going...and man, it breaks your heart. His cries can be so blood curling, that you'd think we were ripping his arms off. I'll tell ya what...it's not easy, but its oh so rewarding when he does the cute things.

He had his first foray in a pool this past weekend. Not really a pool that you or I would do laps or throw our double gainers into, but just a kiddy pool. Other than the bath, he's not been immersed in water. Abbie, Cooper and I went to Bruce, Katie and Emily's house on Sunday to hang out for lunch and to let the kids "swim". They have a kiddy pool, which Bruce dutifully filled for the youngsters. They were soooo cute. It was funny to watch Cooper trying to come to grips with the cold water versus his warm bath water. Hopefully, Abbie will post some pics soon from that time.

We didn't get a measurement or weight of him this month...I forgot to bring him to his pediatrician's appointment, so when I get that data next month, I'll let everyone know.

He's not starting to crawl yet, but we have been giving him belly time, and he's progressing nicely. He isn't at the point that he actually moves with any deliberateness on his part, but he can move forward and to the side, which is what we want to see. We do want him to crawl before he walks simply because of the amount of brain development that occurs during that crawl stage. When he starts crawling, well, shoot...guess we'll have to keep more of an eye on him. His rolling now (can go from front to back to back to front in succession) is causing us to not leave him anywhere that he can roll OFF of. Jan Smith, a friend of our's said it best yesterday when she said, "they grow up so fast". Sister, you ain't kidding!

That's it for today. I'll try to keep everyone updated more than once a month. I now understand why it was sometimes so hard for John to keep his blog updated while he was in Iraq. Of course, when business is busy for me, preventing me from updating this, there isn't any chance of an armed conflict erupting right outside my door. :-)