Hey, Little Cooper! Where Ya Goin?

Oh man, let’s talk. (By the way, happy Patriot's Day! Never forget!)

It’s been almost a month since our last post (yeah, yeah, I hear it all the time from Cooper’s fans…”Update the blog” “What’s going on with Cooper” “We want more of Cooper”). In less than 30 days, it never ceases to amaze me about the development of our child and how quickly it happens when you’re NOT paying attention.

This past week, we had our first true vacation with Cooper. It was an impromptu vacation to the Outer Banks. Abbie found this cute little cottage OCEANSIDE. You walked out the back door, down your own private gangway, and voila, there was the beach. I like the beach…I hate the ocean. Too many things living in there that can do damage (I have personal experience as a child that makes all this rational). I kept waiting to see a great white jump out of the surf and eat off the far end of the fishing pier as some unsuspecting fisherman and his little boy were hauling in their meager 2lb catch.

Anyways, we’re in Nags Head. It’s too windy to be on the beach. There’s a “No Swimming” posted because the surf is too strong thanks to the two Hurricanes out in the Atlantic and the one Tropical Depression sitting off the coast of Florida. Those were some magnificent waves…especially when they crashed up against the pier…Cooper will one day come to appreciate that type of guy coolness for it is in the the trials that my young Padawan must pass in order to be a Jedi Knight. Anyhoo, we happen to be inside. Cooper had a spot in the middle of the floor where his toys were and he could flop around, roll around, and pretty much do whatever he needed to do without knocking his noggin on anything hard or dangerous.

Riiiight.

The boy crawled, truly, for the first time.

Now, he’s passed the 1-inch, 2-inch, and even 1/2-foot mobility trials which Ab and I have blogged in the past. Well, check this out. We’re in our cottage, Abbie’s scrapbooking on the big dining room tables where she can spread her stuff out, and I’m on the couch with my laptop working on a screenplay. We both have views of him. One of the toys he has is a simple Baby Einstein® soft learning block. He rarely plays with them for long. I look up, and he’s playing with it. Okay, that’s cute. I look back down. When I look back up, he’s literally chasing that block around the room. Now, don’t envision him Jeff Gordoning it at top speed going after this little block, but rather, see this…he has the block in front of him. He leans over to grab it with one hand. That one hand hits the edge of the top of the block. It now FLIPS about ½ a foot away from him. Up until recently, he’d had a hard time going from his haunches to his knees…he’d get halfway, then sit back down. So, he deftly puts his hands down, supports his weight, lifts his butt up off the ground, puts one foot flat on the ground, and puts his other leg’s knee down to support him. From there, he pushes with that foot that he’s got flat on the ground (you knew it was coming into play later), and BAM! He’s right there behind the block, only to repeat the same futile attempt at grabbing it that got him started in the first place. I watched him go from the center of the room, chasing that block, to the other end of it. He ended up right in front of the coffee table I was using for my laptop, looking up at me like “Hey, Dad, whatcha doin? Anything I can play with?”

I learned really quick to NOT leave anything on the edge of the table that I didn’t want him to get a hold of. He ripped apart one of the magazines sitting on the table, and then went after the second one but I was able to rescue it. He managed to find my computer’s power cord, and amused himself with that for almost an hour. Sometimes, I wonder why we spend money on all these awesome toys for him when he just throws them aside and plays with the power cord instead. Needless to say, he now won't stop moving around. It is fun, though, to put him on the ground, and slide a toy across the room...it keeps him occupied for at least a few minutes because, let's face it, he ain't no Speedy Gonzalez.

My young apprentice has passed the fourth stage mobility trial.

Pictures will be coming soon...there are some great ones. By the way, if you like the blog photos, and want to see more, send me or Abbie an email telling us you want to be on the Ofoto distro list, and monthly (sometimes more), we'll send out all the photos we've taken of Cooper that month. Ofoto doesn't cost anything, but you will need to register in order to view the photos.