Cooper's second month
It is official: Time with a new baby flies by. It seems just yesterday that our little Cooper arrived in the world, and already he is a big two month old. At his two month check-in he weighed in at 12 pounds, 4 ounces, and is 23.5 inches long. From a development perspective, the best thing that has happed this month is spontaneous smiling, not related to gas (well, most of the time, anyhow.) Followed closely to this is the expansion of "Coop Speak". In addition to the directive "ACK!", Cooper has begun to extensively "Coo" and chatter with us- his favorite phrases included liberal uses of the sounds: "OWWW" "EWWWHH" "PPPBBBBTTTHHH", plus he has a cute little giggle. Many mornings are spent in bed with Cooper chattering away, Matt and I completely engrossed in the dialog. We could spend the whole day watching "Coop TV", and I am not even minding that he is turning out to be a morning person. The final development milestone that is pretty cool is to see him track us when we talk with him. He is especially fond of watching his daddy... I think he is perplexed by the facial hair.
If Cooper could speak in phrases we understood, I think he would say the best part of this month has been making friends and seeing new parts of the world. On the furry friend side, Sedro has continued to befriend Coop, and is often found laying next to him while he is doing tummy time on the exercise mat, or on the couch while dad plays video games. Cooper's best buddy Henry turned 1 in Sept, and he was happy he was around to attend the big party. Sarah Rae Barker moved to Seattle this month, and has been a great helper in holding him, changing his diapers, and pushing him around the zoo in the stoller. Her nickname for Coop is "Super-Duper Cooper". Much of the socialization for both Mom and Cooper has been Mom and Baby yoga, where he has met many friends, including Teo and James. We anticipate that these boys will cause much mischief together in the future.
In the broader world, Cooper has made a couple road trips- one to Bellingham and another to Boise Idaho. What we found on these trips is that the car seat is like baby Zanax, causing the kid to easily be lulled asleep for hours at a time. (yes, we do thank our lucky stars for this.) With the success of these trips, we are hopeful that the two big trips we have planned for Oct and Nov will also go well. Cooper will be making his first of many trips to Denver for Halloween, and then will really go the distance with us over Thanksgiving, making the trek to Wales and France to see Katy & Ray +kids and the Lemoines.
Of course, Matt would argue that the most pivotal trips of Coopers' young life has been those to Lowes with Daddy. On Saturdays, Cooper and Dad often spend the day together to give Mom a little break, and since Dad is spending inordinate amounts of time at Lowe's these days, so too is Cooper. All this is quite endearing, really, and Matt assures me that he is not endangering Cooper's life by tying large pieces of plywood to the top of the car (which I agree is better than in the seat next to Cooper.)
Here are a few of the pictures of Cooper and friends from his second month of life: http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/cooperMonth2/index.html