Crawling and Crying

Cooper's been having a slightly productive September. :-) Wanna hear it, here it go.

Abbie saw earlier this month that Katie & Bruce's daughter, Emily, was walking with the aid of her walker. She came home and mentioned it to me. I think Cooper was listening, because the next day, you know what he does? He pulls himself up on the couch from sitting to standing.

Holy shnikeys! Now we need to worry about him getting ready to walk. Baby gates? Well, we have one that's portable, and thank God for it. Coop can make some tracks when he crawls. Get him focused on something, and he'll make a fast beeline towards it. Without the baby gate, he'd be going down the steps.

Which leads me to the scareist potential moment we've had up to this time. Cooper had just really become mobile...I mean long distance mobile, too...and we were all in the living room. Well, darned if it suddenly got quiet, and Abbie took a look for Cooper. All I heard was a frantic, "HONEY!", turned and saw Master Cooper sitting at the top of the basement stairs, leaning over, checking out whether or not he should go down there. I jumped up and snatched the boy from certain doom.

Oh, I also wanted to say thank you to Kristi and Bill Snyder. When we got home from the Outer Banks, we had a small package sitting on our doorstep. In the box, was a toddler survival kit. It contained duct tape, screws and nails for repairs, latches for cupboards, and a set of screwdrivers for Cooper to play with...all of them provided as a result of years of experience with nothing but little boys. Thanks K & B. That was, in my opinion, the most thoughtful gift we've recieved yet.

We've started getting Coop to learn to go to sleep on his own. I know, I know, it sounds silly, particularly to those of you without chilluns, but here's the deal. Cooper wants to be connected, as do all babies. For Cooper, if he's not with his partents (especially his mother), he fusses. And I think its the same for most 9 month olds. When we put him in his crib for naps or nighty night, he screams. He used to not be able to sleep on his own in his crib for longer than a 1/2 hour. He used to scream for hours when left in his crib, unless we put him to sleep by holding him and rocking him. Then we hit the point (twice) where the only way he could sleep was in his swing (such a great contraption...I hope the inventor made billions off that b/c it's a great thing to have). We've finally gotten to the point where he's understanding that when he's in his crib, and lights are off, its time to ride the sleepy train. And he's typically only fussing about 10-20 minutes before finally face-planting and falling asleep. Must mean the planets are aligning and the universe is coming together.

Now if we can get him to start baby signing.

We'll try to have pics soon.

Cooper's Day On The Beach

Say Cheese