Cooper turned 22 months old this week! Only 2 more months and I'll have a 2 year old. Wasn't I just pregnant with him?!?! He will also be starting up at Mother's Day Out next month for the first time. I have mixed emotions about it but I think it will be so good for him. He really is turning into a little boy!
My brother had his son and Cooper take some pictures together last week. Cooper was very shy and didn't want to take pictures at first, but then after we brought the football out, his whole demeanor changed. The boy LOVES balls. Any kind of ball, he will find it and throw it. I know I'm his Mama, but he seriously has an incredible arm on him. He can throw any type of ball extremely well and hard. We think he will be a great baseball player…maybe even a pitcher like his Daddy and Uncle, but we will see :)
Cooper also really loves our dog, Bella and to be outside. I say that his 3 favorite things are to be outside, throwing balls, and playing with the dog. That is pretty much all he needs! There are at least 4 times a day he will go to the back door and say "side, side" over and over again for outside. We do go outside everyday and he loves to play with the water table and chase Bella around. I still try to take him on walks and go to the park even though it is crazy hot out. It actually hasn't been too hot of a summer for Houston, but it can still be hot. We both like getting out of the house and a little sweat and sun won't kill us :)
He is still a great sleeper and not much has changed there. He has been going to bed a little later in the summer since it is so nice to be outside in the evening and doesn't get dark until late. He wakes up around 8am and then he will take a 2-3 hour nap. His naps have been mostly 3 hours lately since he has been going to bed a little later, but it has been working well for us and I get a nice break in the afternoon to get stuff done.
His vocabulary has really taken off the past couple of months. He can pretty much repeat almost anything you say. When he says please and thank you, it just melts my heart. He can also say I love you, which is soooo sweet! He doesn't talk much around other people because he is shy but he talks non stop at home. It is so fun to see him connect the dots and learn new words everyday.
Cooper still has a shy personality and is very cautious around strangers. When he is in a new environment, it will take him awhile to warm up to it and he will stay right by mom or dad until he gets comfortable. He used to be very scared of the pool, but we have had a great break through this summer and he is getting better at going in the pool! We have a baby pool in our backyard that he loves, so that has helped a lot. He is still a very sweet and affectionate little boy. He gives such great hugs and kisses and loves to cuddle, most of the time :)
He really does get more and more fun each day. I love that he can play by himself and I don't feel like I have to watch him as closely as I used to. He LOVES his books and will go in his room multiple times a day to "read" and look at his books. They are always spread out all over his room. I used to pick them up and put them in the book basket, but he will immediately take them all out to look and read them. I gave up on that and want to encourage him to read, so I don't mind the mess in his room. He also loves to "help" Mommy make the bed. Every morning, I say "lets go make the bed" and he runs in our room and then lays in the middle of the floor so I can throw pillows on top of him. He does this every.single.day. It is so cute!
Here he is ready for the pillows! Notice he is sucking his fingers in both pictures
Then, here comes the pillows! I always throw all the pillows off the bed so I can make it first. He loves it when I throw them on top of him.
After he plays with the pillows on the floor he will help me by putting the pillows back on the bed. Usually he does the smaller throw pillows, but he is still a good helper! He also loves to feed the dog and will help fill her bowl with food, and also help unload the silverware in the dish washer. We are still working on him helping cleaning up his toys though :)
Poor Cooper also got his very first stomach bug this week. It was awful! He randomly started throwing up Monday evening, the night before we were supposed to leave for our family mini vacation. It came out of no where and he wasn't acting sick one bit, so at first I thought it was just random and maybe he was okay. Well, 20 minutes later he was throwing up pretty much non stop for 2-3 hours. It was terrible to watch him be so miserable. I didn't know when it would end. He finally fell asleep on us and thankfully was able to sleep through the night. I thought maybe he would be okay the next morning but once he ate again, he started throwing up again! Poor Justin got the brunt of it. It was ironic that every time he would throw up unexpectedly, Justin was holding him and it ended up ALL over Justin. Thanks goodness I'm married to a nurse! We then took him to the Doctor, where he threw up again in the waiting room (yuck) and they gave him some medicine which helped tremendously! He slept the rest of the day and then woke up the next morning back to normal. Thankfully it was just a 24 hour bug! Cooper is still a very happy boy for being sick…he has always been tough.
I know the "terrible twos" are coming, but I'm really looking forward to 2! I know he will learn so much and his vocabulary will explode. I think it will be a really fun age, though I am sad my baby is growing up. Thankfully, we will have a new baby coming soon!!
