First Solid Foods

I started to try some solid foods on Cooper last month which was super fun!  I was trying to follow the guidelines in Baby Wise 2, but now I'm just letting him try all different foods in stage one.   I started with some rice cereal and he was pretty much indifferent about it.

It took him awhile to get used to the idea of swallowing but by day 3 he had it down.  

What is this Mommy??

 As you can see, he's just not really sure about it....

I had him stay on rice cereal for awhile since it was mainly just for practice and he never finished one serving.  He would still eat it, but halfway through, he was done and just wanted his bottle

Look at those cute hands

My little cutie

The next food that we tried was carrots, which was a huge success.  He loved them!!

Yummy

 He loved the carrots so much that he couldn't wait to get more!

 He would wave his hands up and down with excitement when the carrots were coming towards his mouth...too cute!

 Then after a couple days of carrots, we moved on to green beans.  I guess the pictures speak for themselves....

This is not carrots!

He did not like the green beans one bit.  He would just spit it out.  It's so funny how babies as young as 6 months have such a taste preference.  

Then he started to get upset so that was enough of green beans.  I did try peas a week later and he liked that better for some reason.  

After trying lots of different veggies, we started on some fruit.  He loved bananas, which is no surprise, but he was super fussy and not himself that day so I'm not sure if it sat well with him.  

He seems to like everything so far except for the green beans.  It's fun seeing him try new things.  

Here is a video of him eating some carrots...

Happy 6 Months Cooper!

Today is Cooper's half birthday!  6 months old...can you believe it??  

6 months is the most scrumptious age ever!  I am in love with this age and I just want to freeze time right now and enjoy every second of it.  It's no secret that  Cooper was a difficult newborn, and I was a first time mom that had no idea what I was doing.  Those first 2 months were rough and I wanted to pull my hair out!  But now...Oh.My.Goodness,  he is the sweetest baby.  Yes, I'm biased and not all the nursery workers would say that (he can get cranky when he's tired), but I think he is my smiley little angel baby (that I call him often). 

We went to the Doctor today for his 6 months check up.  He now weighs 17 pounds (42nd percentile), 26 inches long (35th percentile) and his head is 43.8 cm (52nd percentile).   He jumped from the 27th percentile in weight to the 42nd percentile in 2 months.  You can tell he is definitely getting chunkier.  I look back at pictures when he was 1 and 2 months old and forgot how skinny he was!  This mama just did not have enough milk for him.  He also got his 6 month shots today.  He handled it like a champ, only cried for less than 10 seconds and then stopped after I picked him up.  Sweet Mama's boy.  Then he even smiled at the nurse that gave him the shots!  

look at those feet!

Taking his pictures by myself is not easy.  He is so squirmy, even the nurse mentioned that at the Doctor's.  He would not sit still and wanted to look at everything around him...as you will see in some of the pictures I got :)

Here is what is going with my boy at 6 months:

Sleeping:  The month started out rough as he was waking up consistently every night anywhere from 3-5am.  He did this for about 3 weeks straight.  Sometimes I would have to feed him and sometimes I would have to rock him.  It threw me off because he does not have to be rocked when he goes down for naps or at bedtime, I can put him in his crib awake and he will just go to sleep.  But if he woke up in the middle of the night, he would NOT go back to sleep unless I would rock him to sleep.  He would scream and cry when I would put him back down awake.  But thankfully, that has also been much better of the past 2 weeks or so and he is back to sleeping through the entire night.  He even slept a record of 12 hours straight the other night.  Usually it's about 11 hours.  He goes to bed around 8-8:30pm and then wakes up anywhere between 7:30-8:30am.  But of course there are days he goes to bed later for different reasons.  I'm definitely not a bedtime nazi...yet.  

Not a good idea to put the bear next to him anymore while trying to take his pictures...this is what happens

Napping:  He still takes 3 naps a day which has been working well for us since he goes to bed a little later sometimes.  His nap times are usually 10am, 2pm, and a short nap around 5:30 or 6pm.  I'm thinking this might be the month he drops his 3rd nap so I will probably need to put him to bed earlier.  He is a great napper and his first 2 naps are usually 1.5 to 2 hours long.  If we are out and about in the morning and his first nap is super short, he will usually take a 3 hour nap in the afternoon.  

"I just want to look around the room, Mama"

Eating:  His eating hasn't changed much in the past month.  He has about 6-8 oz 5 times a day.  I try not to feed him in the middle of the night if he wakes up and that has been working well.  I also started him on some solids this month.  He's had rice cereal (thought it was just okay), carrots (he loved), green beans (ewww, wouldn't eat that), squash (not too great), and peas (ewww again).  I'm going to start some fruits this week and I'm sure he will love that.  It was really cute to watch him eat carrots and he was loving it!

well, hello there...

Milestones/Working on: There didn't seem to be any major changes this past month.  We are working on him sitting up on his own.  He can do it for a few seconds but then falls over or wants to just get on his tummy.  The kid loves to be on his tummy, it's crazy.  He still rolls over from his back to his tummy all the time.  Sometimes I think he will crawl before he sits up.  He loves playing with toys and he concentrates so hard on everything.  I started taking him to the childcare at the gym which has worked out great.  I was nervous about it at first since I've only taken him to the church nursery but the ladies there love him and he is perfect every time.    

Again, the bear was just a huge distraction....

What can I say?  I love being a Mommy and so thankful for my little guy!  He is already growing up too fast!!  

March Madness

Here is a recap of what we have been up to in March.  Or more of just a bunch a pictures I wanted to share :)

It started with Justin's cousin and her husband had their sweet baby boy Joshua.  I was able to stop by for a visit.  He is the sweetest newborn!

First of many cousin play dates

Out for a little walk 

I also started Cooper on some solids this month.  Here is his first taste of rice cereal.  I hope to do another post about his first solid foods.

Uhh what is this?

Not too bad

Here is a glimpse of his 2 bottom teeth

Cooper's First St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day was on a Sunday...here we are at lunch after church

Peyton and Uncle Brandon also came over for a visit.  Peyton loves to entertain Cooper and make him laugh.  Cooper loves his cousin!

Peyton cracks me up!

Cooper laughing at Peyton

Cooper tried out the jumper for the first time...he loved it!  It was so cute to watch him jump up and down non stop.  It's so great to be able to shower with him in the jumper

This is fun!

Cooper also faced outwards in his stroller for the first time. He loved that too!  

Is this right Mommy?

W'sup

We also enjoyed some time outside in the backyard on a beautiful day.  Cooper loved looking around at everything and was too distracted to look at the camera

 

This picture cracks me up...he's just chillin leaning back with his arms propped up.  Talk about 5 months going on 15 years!  

Cooper and I also went to Peyton's first Tball game of the season!  My brother is the head coach and it was just too cute to watch the 3 & 4 year olds play.  Cooper also enjoyed watching all the big kids play.  I can't wait until Cooper is old enough to play and Justin can coach .  I'll be the crazy competitive team mom!  

Watching the big boys play!

Time to strategize 

My mom also got to see Cooper and I for the first time since she went into the hospital for her stem cell transplant.  Cooper enjoyed being with Granna again!

The month ended with Cooper's first trip to the zoo!  The Delgado's invited me to join their crew at the zoo and we had a blast.  It was fun catching up with them.  Cooper did great and slept a lot in the stroller too. I can't wait to take Cooper back when he can enjoy it more.  

The zoo wore him out

Loves these kids

Of course there was also the Rodeo and Easter Weekend but I already blogged about that.   Well, that was our March in a nutshell...loving everyday as a stay at home mom!