It's here! It's here!

We pulled up to the house today and there was a beautiful brown package sitting on our doorstep! I was immediately excited because I knew what it had to be! I ran to the steps and sure enough... not even a week after ordering... my book arrived! After frantically getting the box open, I saw the beauty! I'll be honest, I cried a little. I can't wait to actually sit down and read it. It's a beautiful book of so many memories that we cherish. Especially that I cherish. Writing while Cooper was in the hospital is what kept me from going crazy. I love it!

Smarty Pants

We might as well call Cooper "Mr. Smarty Pants" because he is so smart! He had his annual IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan) this month with the Early Intervention program. We have specialists in hearing and development see him at our house each month. He blew us away! He is 15 months (12 adjusted for his prematurity). He is at 12 months in one area and 14 in another. He is 15 months in the others areas... which means he is caught up! And, he is even 16 months in one area. That is unheard of for a 3 month preemie who had a Grade IV brain bleed! He is amazing! We laughed at the part that says he needs to have more temper tantrums. He's such a good kid, but this is happening more!

First Haircut

It was a hard decision to trim Cooper's hair, but I know how annoying hair tickling your ears is. The sound of the scissors cutting through the first patch of hair made me tear up. What was I thinking?! It was hard, but looks great. He sat still and ate snacks while I cut his hair. He was curious what I was doing and what I was holding in my hand (scissors). My sweet baby is a little boy. Sniff sniff.

Learning Like Crazy

We're finally all on the mend around here. Cooper seemed to get better before the rest of us and Chris has had a lingering cough. It's nice to be feeling better again.

Sometimes we aren't up for cleaning out the tub so we use Cooper's little tub to give him a bath. Tonight he realized he can climb out of it and so he did... a few times. He thought it was funny. He's such a cute kid. He's doing so many fun things and has learned so much over the past few weeks. Early Intervention thinks he may be caught up to his actual age. It makes me a proud mom. They say it's because of what Chris and I are doing with him, but I say it's all him. He's just a smart kid. Some things about Cooper:

• He discovered his nostrils with his little pointer finger. Hilarious! (For now.)
• He will sometimes point to his nose. 
• He's great at mimicking what you are doing and sounds you make.
• He can say "baby." I've told Chris this means it's time for another. He doesn't believe me. 
• He's walking more and more, but still getting the hang of it.
• His laughs are contagious. We LOVE to hear him laugh. We probably tickle him too much!
• He still only has 4 teeth! 
• He is still throwing up many times a week. For some reason he can't keep a meal down sometimes. An occupational therapist will be coming to visit with Cooper and see if we can figure out the problem.
• He knows how to open his stack cans by biting the edge and popping it off. When he dumps them out I go to pick them up and he tries to pick them up as fast as he can. It makes me laugh every time!
• He's great at putting a ball in a hoop and is getting better at putting shapes into his shape bucket.
• He can unlock my iPad all by himself. Even take pictures of himself with it. 

I am sure I'm forgetting something. It seems like he learns so many things every day. He truly is such a smart kid.

Can you tell...?

We've been sick around here. It makes me kind of sad because we've done everything we can to prevent Cooper from getting sick and he got sick and then gave it to us. He's in the early stages of RSV, which makes us so sad because that's why we kept him away from people until May of last year. We laughed as we were making a grocery list this morning because you could tell we were sick. We aren't big on medicine, but it's the only thing keeping us moving at the moment.

The Best Dad

Chris truly is a wonderful dad. I always knew he would be. He got two paper rolls and he and Cooper sword fought. It's really cute. Cooper swings the roll and hits Daddy's sword. I love my boys.

We're all been sick the past two days and decided it was best we all stayed home today. We found out Cooper has an earache. Despite trying to keep a hat on him and him all bundled up, we couldn't prevent it. He's got a runny nose and a cough. You can tell by his sad little face, and the random crying, that he doesn't feel well. He has just wanted to be held and hasn't been sleeping well.

Gadget Guy

We have a feeling Cooper is going to be a gadget guy. He loves playing with my phone. He's been known to call and text people. He also loves the iPad. There is this game called Baby Finger that he really likes. Wherever he touches the screen a shape pops up and makes a noise. He knows if he touches it again it makes a noise and disappears. He's really good at it. He also likes one that makes animal sounds.

Let It Snow!

We've had a lot of snow this winter. I'm excited because it's going to kill all the bugs we had last year due to the lame winter the season before. I'll be honest though, I have spring fever! I can't wait to garden and plant flowers. I'm looking forward to playing in the yard with Cooper. I'm very excited! Cooper loves watching dad shovel while sitting in the window seat. Dad throws snowballs at him and waves at him and Cooper giggles. 

Our Little Walker

Cooper took his first steps last week. Yesterday he took 4. Today he began to do it more often. For some reason he doesn't like to do it at home, but he was doing it like crazy at my work today. It's bittersweet. So happy for him, but he's growing TOO FAST!

Reading

Cooper has always been fascinated with words on pages. He also loves being read to. He has this Halloween flap book that is his favorite. He is able to open every flap on his own and he already turns the pages of books, something many kids don't do until about 18 months. I sure hope he enjoys reading as he gets older because it's something I've never enjoyed much. I have always struggled with reading comprehension and I only like realistic fiction (for the most part). I hope Cooper finds a love for all books. I hope with my background as a teacher I will better be able to help him do well with reading comprehension. He also likes to take all of the books out of his book holder. He does it daily. Usually multiple times a day.

My mom made me a Hallmark Recordable book for my birthday when she lived in Tennessee. Now, it's Cooper's favorite. He's kind of taken it over. He loves to open it and hear Nana's voice. He gets frustrated if he can't open the book. He ends up opening it over and over again.

Some fun updates:

• Cooper started standing up from sitting, without grabbing onto anything, yesterday.
• He has started opening doors and drawers on his own. He gets upset when I close them.
• He makes all kinds of noises.
• He's started squinting when you squint at him.
• He's struggling with eating our food so we've gone back to stage 3 baby food at the direction of an occupational therapist and developmentalist.
• He loves chicken noodle soup, peas, and goldfish crackers. Whenever we eat, he wants some.
• Still not taking a sippy cup very well. We're still working on it!

Bath Time!

This kid LOVES being in the water. When he hears the water in the tub come on, he crawls as fast as he can to the tub and stands by it watching the water fill up. He gets so excited! He's even taken his own diaper off once. He didn't want to get out of the tub the other night. He ended up staying in for 45 minutes! Needless to say, he had cute little pruned feet.

Pruned feet!

He loves to chew on q-tips so we let him while we try to get him dressed in an attempt to keep him still.

Mommy taught him how to put bubbles on his face. My brother and I used to do this with the bubbles from dish water. He thought it was funny.

Loving his bath time!

It's a New Year!

The past year has been the best of our lives. I am super excited for a new year. There is something rejuvenating about it. I'm excited to watch Cooper grow and for all the fun things we will do together this year. We're hoping Chris will get to go full time and I'll get to be a stay-at-home mom. There is a chance we could get pregnant with our next child, but we aren't thinking about that until the end of the year. There are so many fun things to look forward to and enjoy this year. It's going to be hard to top this past year. Here's to 2013!

Cooper & The Vacuum

I've heard many kids being scared of the vacuum, but Cooper loves it. He always watches it and if he hears it running in a different room, he comes to it. He loves to watch it and loves to play with it. He's a very curious kid. We sat him on the vacuum and he just let us clean the floor with him on it. I love these memories. My Grandpa Call used to do this with the grandkids and I know it's something he would do with Cooper now if we lived closer.

Riding the vacuum while I cleaned up his goldfish mess at Grandma Frederiksen's house.

Caught him playing with the vacuum. Such a sweet face.

Lots of snow!!!

We finally are getting a good snow storm! We went out to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery and not sticky enough. We decided to go sledding instead! I love being a mom!!!!!

A Wonderful Christmas

Christmas this year was the best thus far. It was an exhausting, but wonderful day. We really enjoyed spending time with our families and giving them gifts. It is so much more fun when you have a child! We both get so excited for him. We started the day as our little family of three. Cooper even helped tear the paper of his own presents.

We then went to Great-Grandma/Grandpa Smith's house and ate grandpa's traditional Christmas breakfast pronounced "barfrushka."

Then, we went to Nana's and ate a delicious dinner and Facetimed with Great-Grandma/Grandpa Call while opening presents.

We ended the day at Grandma & Grandpa Frederiksen's. We chatted and played the Wii. Then, we opened gifts. Aunt Katie & Uncle Scott got Cooper THE cutest gift! Little stuffed animals that "talk." They are Yoda and Chubaka from Star Wars. He really likes Yoda. He carried a conversation on with him. Hilarious!

We feel so blessed to be sounded by family we love and appreciate on such a special day. The laughter was needed and company was great. It couldn't have been a better Christmas.

Christmas Advent Calendar

Christmas went by so fast last year because we were so busy running to and from work, school, and the hospital that we wanted to do something that allowed us to enjoy the season more this year. I decided to make an advent calendar. A few of the things we did: Watched It's a Wonderful Life and ate chocolate chip cookies, slept by the Christmas tree, watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, made salt dough Christmas ornaments, drove around to see the Christmas lights, pictures with Santa, attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square Christmas Concert with Alfie Boe (Amazing!), wrapped presents, ate some candy, went to parties, and went to the library with intentions to read Christmas stories, but Cooper just wanted to play with the Legos! We had a lot of fun!

Slept by the Christmas tree and watched Arthur's Christmas.

Smith Family Christmas Party in Lehi

Drive around and see Christmas lights.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at our Annual Christmas Eve party hosted by Aunt Johnnie. We had a Cafe Rio style dinner and shared our favorite Christmas memories. Things I shared: wrapping my mom's socks when we were little as her Christmas gift and she didn't know where they were and driving through this park decked out in Christmas lights and scenes in St. Albans, WV. It was a great evening.

That night we went to the NICU to drop off outfits that ourselves, as well as family members and friends, donated for us to give to the families in the NICU during Christmas. We felt like Santa and it was so great to see many of the nurses that helped take care of Cooper. We're so grateful for them. It will be something we do each year. We donated 21 outfits.

Merry Christmas!

Bathtime!

Cooper loves bathtime. He hears the water and crawls right to the tub. He makes a grunting sound (you would think he was pooping) trying to get in the tub. He gets so excited!

Can you see his four teeth?

Zonked!

Chris told me to look at the text he sent my mom this morning. It's embarassing to even post this photo, but it's a funny memory. After feeding Cooper, we both fell asleep. We were very tired and it was before noon!