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   <title>Little Monkey Home</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/" />
   <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/atom.xml" />
   <id>tag:,2008:/1</id>
   <updated>2008-02-13T06:01:42Z</updated>
   
   <generator uri="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/">Movable Type 3.33</generator>

<entry>
   <title>Happy Valentine&apos;s Day, Happy New Year, Merry Xmas.....</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2008/02/happy_valentines_day_happy_new_1.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2008://1.13</id>
   
   <published>2008-02-12T04:53:32Z</published>
   <updated>2008-02-13T06:01:42Z</updated>
   
   <summary>and Happy Hanukah, Thanksgiving, Halloween,etc. I think that just about covers all the major holidays we have missed since our last entry. As you can well imagine, much has changed with our dear little Cooper. We estimate that he has...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[and Happy Hanukah, Thanksgiving, Halloween,etc.  I think that just about covers all the major holidays we have missed since our last entry.  As you can well imagine, much has changed with our dear little Cooper.  

We estimate that he has travelled over 10,000 miles, making two trips to Colorado in October and December, and making the grand adventure to England, Wales and France in November.  We definitely took advantage of the fact that he wasn't mobile for the first few months, which is a good thing because he seems to be on his way to being able to crawl.  Coop starting rolling over front to back at 2.5 months, and has since mastered back to front, which means our days of leaving him in the middle of a bed or floor are numbered.  He has conquered the skill of sitting up completely on his own, which gives him a great vantage to play his favorite game- dump over the bucket of blocks.  

Cooper's personality continues to reveal itself.  As Matt likes to say- the kid laughs to fit in.  One of his favorite activities is laughing when you laugh, so many hours are spent fake laughing just so we can get a chuckle out of the boy.  It's quite fun, actually.  While most of the time Cooper is a chilled-out kid, he has his moments of telling you exactly what he does not like.  So far, the primary thing that ticks him off like non other is being offered a beverage that is not fresh mothers milk.  Snooty little kid won't touch frozen milk or formula- I have a feeling this is just the beginning of the opinions. 

Well, it is late, and I must get to bed.  Matt and I are both back to work now, so I anticipate the blog entries will continue to be infrequent, but we promise to upload a slide show from time to time.  Hope you enjoy these pictures from thanksgiving & Christmas.

<a href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/holiday2007/index.html">http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/holiday2007/index.html</a>

Karrie 

ps. we actually have even more photos that we'll be posting, this weekend - check back soon!]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>Cooper&apos;s second month</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/10/coopers_second_month.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.11</id>
   
   <published>2007-10-16T04:21:03Z</published>
   <updated>2007-10-30T18:40:20Z</updated>
   
   <summary>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...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[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:  <a href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/cooperMonth2/index.html ">http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/cooperMonth2/index.html </a>

]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>Arm Hickies, Coop Speak and Other Stories of Coop&apos;s first month</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/09/arm_hickies_coop_speak_and_oth.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.10</id>
   
   <published>2007-09-07T04:50:50Z</published>
   <updated>2007-09-11T16:37:48Z</updated>
   
   <summary>It has been a grand adventure in getting to know our little boy Coop over his first month of life on this planet. We certainly fall in the sterotypical camp of parents who think their kid is the greatest thing...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[It has been a grand adventure in getting to know our little boy Coop over his first month of life on this planet.  We certainly fall in the sterotypical camp of parents who think their kid is the greatest thing on earth, but honestly, he could give a lot of other babies a run for their money.  First off, our little guy is a great sleeper.  The first week and half, he was giving his mom and dad the chance to sleep 3-4 hour stretches at night.  That waned a little as the two week growth spurt kicked in, but over the last week, he seems to be going back to blissful sleep.  God I love this kid!

Coop "the master sucker" has now surpassed his birth weight.  After losing about a pound the first couple days, he came roaring back and now weighs 8 pounds, 14 ounces, and has grown a full inch in both his head and length as of 9/5 (we anticipate him being well over 9 pounds by now.)  Much of the credit goes to Cooper's "Hoover" like skills at extracting milk from me.  Despite the pain that sometimes caused, as a results oriented person, nothing gives me more pleasure than to see him get fat.  

Many things have made us chuckle about Cooper.  Related to his sucking skills, Coop has gotten into the habit of soothing himself by sucking on his arm, giving himself big red welt like hickies.  At first we thought he was getting strap marks from his car seat, but upon further investigation, all the "strap marks" took the perfect shape of Coop's gum line.  We are noting this skill, and will be sure to keep an eye on him when he reaches junior high.. we may have to warn all future girlfriends of the danger. ;-)

It is clear to us that Cooper was definitely born under the correct sign as a Leo.  While generally a mellow child, he knows with precise certainty what he wants at all times, and is very directive in telling his mom and dad what to do via his use of the word "ACK!!"  Learning "Coop Speak", we have dutifully followed his many commands "AACKK Mom- get me a pacifer"  "AAACCKK Dad, put me in the football hold".  In learning his language, we generally can avoid major melt down, however, if we miss a clue, he will go beet red, and go into a full out "AACCKKK" scream until we get in line.  (For those of you who understand Matt and my temperments, I guess it wouldn't be too much of a surprise that our child tends to know what he wants and be directive. :)

Matt and I really love being Coop's parents.  We are filled with gratitude that he is such and easy kid to hang out with.  So easy, in fact, that we have already managed to get out of the house for family dinners at local kid friendly restaurants.  All this, of course, was made easier by having a steady stream of grandparents with us for the first three weeks of his life, in addition is a load of super support of friends who have made the transition to parenthood so much more manageable.  We are hoping to continue to get out as Cooper enters the second month of his life, and will keep you posted on the details.  

Until then, enjoy these pictures with scenes from the grand adventure of Cooper's first month: <a href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/cooperMonth1/">http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/photos/cooperMonth1/</a>]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>Cooper&apos;s Birthday</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/08/coopers_birthday.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.6</id>
   
   <published>2007-08-29T07:36:42Z</published>
   <updated>2007-08-31T15:56:39Z</updated>
   
   <summary>Hopefully everyone with access to this blog received an email announcing the birth of our beautiful little boy: Cooper Sullivan Stedman Ayers In case you missed it, the highlight of the event is that Cooper arrived at 3:02am on Saturday,...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[Hopefully everyone with access to this blog received an email announcing the birth of our beautiful little boy:  Cooper Sullivan Stedman Ayers

In case you missed it, the highlight of the event is that Cooper arrived at 3:02am on Saturday, August 11, 2007.  He was a healthy 7 pound, 8.8 ounce baby boy, 20 inches long, and he came out screaming.  (My motherly instincts kicked in right away, and I tried to calm him down, but the nurse said that we should test out the lungs to make sure they work.  After about 15 mins of volume, she then sheepishly said, "oh, ah, I guess they work- you can calm him down now.)  Matt and I are proud to tell you that he scored a 9 out of 10 on his Apgar, (he missed a point for having purple feet... we thought that was a pretty cheap shot... who wouldn't have cold feet after going through what he just did!)

For those of you following the labor saga, you know that Cooper was practicing the whole labor thing for weeks ahead of time.  For that reason, we were suprised that he not only made it to his due date (which was supposed to be Aug. 4th), but he decided to hang out for a whole extra week in utero.  My parents were in town keeping me company for the wait.  They will vouch that I wasn't, shall we say, "happy" about the delay, but in hindsight, after seeing his chunky little arms for the first time, I ended up feeling pretty pleased that he had an extra week to fatten up a bit.

At some point in time I may detail the labor story, but at a high level, it was a pretty amazing experience.  Key to this outcome was my "pit crew" which consisted of my very loving and patient husband Matt, and our doula, Jennifer.  Together with Cooper, we managed to get through the painful process in about 9 hours total... not bad for a first baby.  

For those of you who haven't had a chance to see him, I have attached a couple pictures:

<img src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/cooperBirth%20005.JPG" width="480" height="360" />

<img src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/cooperBirth%20006.JPG" width="640" height="480" />


<img src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/cooperBirth%20015.JPG" width="640" height="480" />

]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>t +4 and still on the launch pad</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/08/t_4_and_still_on_the_launch_pa.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.5</id>
   
   <published>2007-08-08T20:08:02Z</published>
   <updated>2007-08-08T20:17:42Z</updated>
   
   <summary>so, there&apos;s no getting around the fact that we&apos;re lame. Several months without a monkey update is truly bad form. To sum up the past few months. Baby is growing &amp; healthy Lots of contractions over the past few weeks...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Matt</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      so, there&apos;s no getting around the fact that we&apos;re lame. Several months without a monkey update is truly bad form. To sum up the past few months. 

Baby is growing &amp; healthy
Lots of contractions over the past few weeks
Baby is still a boy
Names are still a secret
Baby is still internal

We&apos;re four days past the official due date but he&apos;s clearly not paying attention to the calendar.

There are two popular theories:

1. Given the parents, he&apos;s bound to be headstrong &amp; uncooperative: get used to a lifetime of this
2. We both work for Microsoft and have a track record of missing our ship dates - why should this be any different?

In any case, the nursery is ready, we&apos;re eager to meet the little guy and we&apos;ll keep y&apos;all up to date with the progress. 

Barring anything significant in the next couple days, we&apos;ll post some pictures of the nursery, Karrie&apos;s belly &amp; the dog.

take care,
-M


      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>An update worth writing about...</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/03/an_update_worth_writing_about.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.4</id>
   
   <published>2007-03-11T04:39:22Z</published>
   <updated>2007-03-13T06:53:34Z</updated>
   
   <summary>Our apologies for the delays in updating the blog. Matt and I have always known we were perfect for each other when we realized that we share several similar characteristics, the greatest of which is procrastination. On Friday, however, we...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[Our apologies for the delays in updating the blog.  Matt and I have always known we were perfect for each other when we realized that we share several similar characteristics, the greatest of which is procrastination.  On Friday, however, we learned some news about the baby's gender that we thought you might be interested in.....

But since you have already waited this long for an update, I might as well take some time to catch you up to speed.  Around week 14 and 1/2 I finally stopped feeling like I had the flu, and declared the official end to morning (or in my case, All Day and Night) sickness.  At that point I had a week when I started feeling really good, then Matt came down with an awful cold, and since marriage is about sharing everything, he kindly gave it to me too.  Here is how things were shaping up with the belly then:

<img alt="14%20weeks%20small.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/14%20weeks%20small.jpg" width="317" height="238" />

After we all finally recovered, Matt got busy and painted the wall downstairs (also known as Sedro's room.)  Now that we are nearing the halfway point, the nesting has begun.  Here is a picture of me heading into week 19, where things really started to pop:

<img alt="19%20Week%20Belly.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/19%20Week%20Belly.jpg" width="252" height="214" />

We all have been waiting anxiously to find out whether the goofy little Monkey was going to be a girl or a boy.  All bets for me have been on girl.  Matt hasn't been as adamant, but his best guess has been girl as well.  Sedro, well, he is just overwhelmed by the thought of it:

<img alt="Sedro%20angst.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/Sedro%20angst.jpg" width="640" height="480" />

So, after all the waiting, and ruminating, we finally have our answer, but before we spill the beans, you can make your guess looking at the latest ultrasound picture:

<img alt="boy2.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/boy2.jpg" width="640" height="458" />

What was your guess?  If you were betting with Matt and I on a girl, then we are pleased to let you know: You are <strong>WRONG</strong>!  :-)  If pictures tell the truth, we will be having a beautiful little boy!  (We apologize for not including the picture that verifies this fact, but even Matt thought that was a little tacky.)  The best news, of course, is that it looks like the baby is really healthy and I am feeling great!

Again, sorry for the delays in updates.  We will try to be better in the future.  Please drop a line when you can and let us know how you are doing!

Karrie & Matt]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>so maybe Karrie is right...</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/02/so_maybe_karrie_is_right_1.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.3</id>
   
   <published>2007-02-03T22:53:31Z</published>
   <updated>2007-02-03T23:03:15Z</updated>
   
   <summary>I&apos;ve been cleaning out the closet and sorting through pictures in the den and found this picture. Proof positve of my simian lineage? From left to right that&apos;s: my cousin Mark , my cousin Jason, me and my little brother...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Matt</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[I've been cleaning out the closet and sorting through pictures in the den and found this picture. Proof positve of my simian lineage?

<img alt="little_monkeys.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/little_monkeys.jpg" width="543" height="390" />

From left to right that's: my cousin Mark , my cousin Jason, me and my little brother Josh at the bottom in the yellow.

the kid's doomed,
-M]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>Name story</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/01/name_story.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.2</id>
   
   <published>2007-01-19T04:37:10Z</published>
   <updated>2007-01-19T04:43:09Z</updated>
   
   <summary>It is probably not hard to figure out how we came up with the name for the website. We are going to try not to be the parents that are so blinded by the love we feel for our child...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Karrie</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      It is probably not hard to figure out how we came up with the name for the website.  We are going to try not to be the parents that are so blinded by the love we feel for our child that we can&apos;t tell the truth:  our baby looks like a monkey.  Matt thinks I caused it because I eat bananas everyday.  I think my answer is much more likely:  The baby looks like a monkey because his/her father is Matt.

Karrie
      
   </content>
</entry>
<entry>
   <title>baby v1.0</title>
   <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/2007/01/baby_v10_1.html" />
   <id>tag:www.goofylittlemonkey.com,2007://1.1</id>
   
   <published>2007-01-18T09:23:13Z</published>
   <updated>2007-01-18T09:30:50Z</updated>
   
   <summary>welcome... I guess that the first thing to do when creating a blog is explain why you&apos;re doing it, who it&apos;s for, how the world is better for you having added your voice to the cacophony that is Time Magazine&apos;s...</summary>
   <author>
      <name>Matt</name>
      
   </author>
   
   
   <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/">
      <![CDATA[welcome... I guess that the first thing to do when creating a blog is explain why you're doing it, who it's for, how the world is better for you having added your voice to the cacophony that is Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Nah. This is a site about our new addition. We'll explain the choice of site name, later. For now, here's our first baby picture:

<img alt="Image.jpg" src="http://www.goofylittlemonkey.com/Image.jpg" width="444" height="234" />

K&M]]>
      
   </content>
</entry>

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