Being a Dad

Before you get yourself geared up for a cute, funny, quirky story about Cooper, let me tell you that today I'm breaking from my norm in order to share a few of the feelings I had tonight.

Tonight, for the first time, I rocked Cooper to sleep while softly singing hymns to him. I've never done that before, because in the past he would ALWAYS take another presence in the room to mean that play time was not yet over, and he would stay up indefinitely.

Tonight, however, I wanted to try holding him and rocking him to sleep. Mind you, we don't own a rocking chair, but I have a natural tendency to rock or sway in my seat; and so just sitting and holding him easily changed into a slow sway back and forth.

At first I hoped that just being held in a dark room would clue Cooper in to the idea that it was time to go to sleep (we were in his room with the lights off); but, Cooper being himself, he kept himself bolt upright looking around in the dark. Every time I moved his head to my shoulder it would spring back up like a squirrel hearing a noise. So, I decided to try and calm the savage, little beast with some music.

I started by singing 'I am a child of God,' since that is pretty much the only hymn I know start to finish from memory. I moved on to other hymns, first verses only, and within minutes Cooper was winding down. His head was popping up less and less; and more and more he was trying to snuggle himself into a comfortable position. He kept rolling his head from side to side, and trying alternating shoulders looking for the one that afforded maximum comfort (daddy doesn't have built in pillows like mommy does). A couple of times, though, he lifted his little head to look square at me in the dark. I don't know what was going through his mind, but I sincerely hope it was something along the lines of, 'My daddy loves me so much, and I love him too.' Finally, he settled on the more comfortable right shoulder, and shortly after that I felt his little body go completely limp as he floated toward dreamland, in my arms.

It was such a unique, singular, and fulfilling experience to have. I thank God with all my heart for the blessing my little boy is to my life. Loving him, and spending time with him affords me blessings and experiences I never knew existed. My heart swelled as I held my sleeping Cooper, and thought about just how good of a little boy he is. He is one in a zillion. He is a happy, obedient, loving, fun little boy. I could go on and on, but it feels like here is the appropriate place to end.

Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf. You helped bring Cooper to us, and my gratitude is beyond measure.

New Photos

Long time no post. Well, hopefully I can ease 'what's-happening-with-Cooper' tension with some brand new pictures. Pictures that include Cooper in his Super halloween costume. Then new pictures are
here
here
here
here
and here

Here is a sample of Cooper's costume:

Little Casanova

Cooper is becoming quite the little loverboy. Our live-in maid takes Cooper out to play at least once a day to the neighborhood playgrounds. Apparently, Cooper has shunned playing with other little boys and prefers playing with the neighborhood girls. Additionally, when it's time to go home he tries to be sure to kiss and hug the girls goodbye before he goes; except, he goes straight for the lips! I'm bordering between humor and concern with this new antic. At least we know he likes girls!

Building character

Cooper has been having a character spurt during the past couple of days. Now, when I say character, I really do mean character. For one, he has started to sing his own super Cooper theme song. He chants, 'da da daaaaaaaa!,' claps his hands, and ends with a fist in the air like a superhero. Then, in case your hearing may have been impaired in some way, he continues by happily repeating his personal anthem a significant number of times for the enjoyment of all.

Cooper has also learned 'nose,' and can point to his own and say 'doze.'

Additionally, he has become incredibly confident in using the word 'no.' He is not shy about saying it or using it at any time or for any reason he feels it is appropriate. Nor is he reluctant to solidify his position on a matter by repeating it in rapid succession, 'no, No, NO!' ::sigh:: Where on earth did we get such a strong willed kid? Sarah and I certainly never deserved this.

On a completely separate note, I have uploaded more pictures to our online photo gallery. You can find the link on the right and look for the most recent album.

beach time

Sorry for the long silence, life and stuff you know.

The other day we took Cooper to the beach for some family time. We swung, we played, we took a walk down by the water. I got into the water ankle deep to show Cooper that it was safe and fun. However, He seemed unsure about the water moving up and down the sand with the ripple size waves, so he backed up a few feet and plopped himself down on the sand thinking he was safe from the water. Well, just as he was settled on the sand a bigger than normal size ripple washed up the shore, and raced over Coopers legs, making him freak out with the shock of cold water first pushing and then pulling at him. Mommy rescued him as fast as she could, but it was too late. Cooper was wet waist-high and whimpering. Poor kid, mom and I could only laugh at the hilarity of the situation. Cooper spent the next half hour playing at the beach playground on the slide. But, every time he came off the slide he would fall into the sand and add another layer of sand to his wet pants. The sand acted like a dry lubicant, and every subsequent time Cooper would fly down the slide faster and just launch off of the end. It was highly entertaining.

After that we went to McDonalds to treat Cooper to his first ever ice cream cone he could have all to himself. It was a hoot. By the end he had a full ice cream beard and an ice cream icecicle hanging off his nose. We highly regret that we didn't have our camera to capture the beauty.

A Post from Sarah

On Saturday night I put Cooper to bed as usual. About
half an hour later things were very quiet and I
decided that I should check on him. (As most parents
can attest being really quiet is either a really good
or really bad thing.) Cooper wasn’t asleep yet, and
so I told him, “Cooper, go to sleep.” He looked at me
as innocent as can be and said, “K. Bye-bye.” Before
I closed the door to leave I told him, “Love you.”
Too which he replied, “Love you.”
This is the first time he has ever told me that he
loves me and nothing could be sweeter. It’s moments
like these that make being a parent all worthwhile.

Bridging the species gap

Cooper does his very best to communicate. Even though he can't yet form sentences, he still points, says 'peez,' and cries to get his basic points across. He is now at the stage when, quite often, he will mimic what we do as he tries to master our (at times lacking) communication skills. Cute as it is, he is also carrying this technique to try and communicate with other . . . um, species. For the past couple of weeks, whenever he hears one of our cats, he will invariably try to 'meow' in reply. One of our cats hides under the sofa for 15 of the 16 hours of the day; and when Cooper hears her, he gets on his belly, looks under the sofa, and meows at the cat for the next minute or so. I don't get the sense that the cats are as enthusiastic about the mimicking thing as we are, though.

What a treasure

Sarah and I have just discovered a little treasure we didn't know we had. The day Cooper was declared officially ours by the Hong Kong courts we also moved house from South Horizons to Discovery Bay. At the courtroom, our social worker gave us some mementos that he couldn't give us until everything was final, and since we were moving we just shoved them in a box and never considered what was inside. Well, just last week we stumbled upon the contents of what our social worker gave us, and lo and behold it contained photos. The 'orphanage' had kept a photographic record of his life before we got him. We were overjoyed to have a visual record of that time period. We rushed out and got them printed right away for a special scrap book. Anyway, those photos have now been posted online. The link is here. We hope you enjoy these special pictures as much as we do.

With Cooper you cannot sneak out

Today we needed to leave church a little early. We thought, 'well, we're sitting near the back, so it should be easy to sneak out without disturbing the meeting.' We got ourselves together, and when the moment was right we stood up to duck out quickly. Only one problem. As soon as Cooper understood what was happening, he did what he usually does in that situation. He put his right hand into the air, flapped it back and forth, and said as loudly as he could, 'bye, bye. bye, bye,' and was blowing kisses to everyone he could see. Ah, what a cute little boy, and what embarassed parents! I looked up and, sure enough, several people were waving back at Cooper as we made our exit. Note to self, sneaking out is no longer easy to do.

Cooper the virtuoso

Quick chuckle time. The other night Cooper woke up in the middle of the night, hummed a little tune of his own making for a few minutes, and fell back asleep. Now, every once in awhile he will wake up and cry (if his teeth are hurting him), or play, or just kick the wall with his feet. Never, though, has he woken up to serenade the night. That's our funny little boy!

Ramble on

I have a few minutes, so I thought I'd sit down and just do some rambling. First, the Cooper news. He's starting to form real words. Once in awhile you'll hear a 'shooss' for shoes, or 'ba bye' instead of 'ba ba' to say bye bye. He says 'heez' as his form of please, and we hear it loud and clear when we're eating and he wants a bite. He is even saying some things in Cantonese, but neither you nor I would understand them, only Sarah does. He's in the stage where using his tongue to do the spitting 'pbpbpbpbpb' sound is just the funnest thing to do. And he is just turning all shades of brown. Sarah takes him to swim every other day; and, despite the generous coating of sunblock he receives, is getting more and more cinnamon colored.

Ok, now on to my news. Things are working out tremendously for our family in terms of my work situation. I finished working for the company I was working for last year, and have been looking for another job that would allow me flexibility and time to study. I got hooked up with a company called Science Adventures. Working 'full time' for this company means working 5-7 hours a week and receiving about half of the pay we need to survive. Unfortunately, they couldn't get enough work hours together for me to offer me the 'full time' position. Bummer. I had to look for some other full time job. I was offered a few, but they all involved long hours and working on Saturday. Sarah and I prayed about it, and we decided that a long hours job would not be condusive to our goals. We decided to exercise faith that Heavenly Father would open a way despite the risk of not going with a standard full time job. Well, not 2 days after we made that decision with Heavenly Father I got a call from Science Adventures. One of their teachers that was going to come from the States changed his mind, and would I like to take his hours and work full time. Yes, absolutely! So now I'm going to have that wonderfully flexible job this year. Now, I need to add to that. Just a few days ago I met with the person who I've been working with sporadically in setting up his new business of personal organizers. He asked me to be the 'managing director' of sorts for his company, and I could work the hours I'd like. WOW! What a blessing. Now I'll be working not one, but two jobs with wonderfully flexible hours (great for my studies). Sarah and I never imagined that when we felt impressed to make the more risky decision of not going with a standard, full time job here in Hong Kong that we would be blessed so quickly with just exactly the thing we needed. Actually, this situation is even better than what we hoped. We are being blessed even beyong our needs. We are so very grateful for Heavenly Father's abundance.

Photos through the cracks

Hi. I just saw that some photos on the old hard drive had slipped through the cracks and I hadn't uploaded them yet. Well, here they are. Just click here and enjoy the Cooperness.

One year today

Although Eric usually is the one to post on our blog,
I felt the need to make some comments.  Today is our
one year anniversary of bringing Cooper home from the
orphanage, Mother’s Choice.  Today we returned to
Mother’s Choice with Cooper.  I felt overwhelmed by
how much our family has changed this past year.  We
left Mother’s Choice one year ago with hopes of
becoming the family we always wanted to be.  Today we
returned as that family.  I’m so grateful for Eric and
Cooper.  Eric and I have never been happier than this
past year, and feel like the luckiest people in the
world.

I’m appreciative of Cooper’s birth mother, for giving
our son life and for her choice to give him up for
adoption.  Her loving act made it possible for us to
become parents.  Finally, I’m thankful for Mother’s
Choice and the work they do.  Each volunteer took
loving care of our son until we could. 

We are truly blessed.  Thank you for all your prayers.
Heavenly Father has truly answered them, as evidenced
by our Super Cooper.

The Pick-Up Artist

Today I got to see Cooper try to pick up on girl for the first time. Yep, my little boy is already playing the field.

Today I took Cooper to the club play room for him to be able to run around and play with all the other kids. About 3o minutes into his playing, screeching, and running he stopped dead in front of a cute little 2 year old girl who was sitting on a foam rectangle. He stared at her for a few seconds, then proceeded to point at the play gym and jabber away. I imagine he was trying to communicate that they should go play together, and how well Cooper can climb up and down the big steps (no doubt trying to impress the little lass). She just stared at him. Cooper then jabbered more and pointed again. Still no response. I think Cooper could tell that the little girl was not going to be moved by his mastery of 'goo goo gaa gaa' parlance alone, and so he approached. He was not shy in the least, Cooper was a boy with a goal. He was going to sit down beside her. However, as soon as Cooper was part way up the foam rectangle, and it was obvious to the little girl what he was trying to do, she got up and ran away to go sit someplace else. Cooper was a little devestated. He tried to hide it; play it off like it was no big deal, but I could tell. He just sat on his little foam rectangle, alone, staring at the little girl now across the room, with a look of distraught disappointment on his face. I felt bad for the tyke. He had just experienced his first (to my knowledge) R E J E C T I O N. Oooh, ouch. But, true to Cooper form, after about 2 minutes the entire experience was forgotten and he was again trooping around the play room with his silly little pleased grin beaming brightly.

Switching

Sorry for the few days of silence. I have been working to install and use linux on my computer due to some unresolvable issues with WindowsXP. This change to linux will hopefully save us some moolah in that we won't need to buy a new PC. It's taken some time to change over, since linux operates differently from windows, but it also hasn't been as painful as I thought it might.

As for news about Cooper, for the past few days he has been cutting 4 . . . yes FOUR molars all at once. Please direct all prayers to mommy and daddy during this trying time. Thank you.

All photos online

Big news! All of Coopers photos have now been uploaded. I'm all caught up. There are no new pictures that we have taken that you have not yet seen. They are all there. Please proceed to the photo albums here to see them. Enjoy!

::Sigh::

I may have said it before, but I'm going to say it again, Cooper is much too smart for his own good. He is figuring out how to get into absolutely EVERYTHING. Here's the shining example for the week. We are currently trying to train Cooper to go down for a nap and stay in bed. This is a challenge because if Cooper decides he's not ready to sleep he will slide himself out of bed and play with his toys. Well, a couple of days ago Sarah put Cooper in bed. After a few minutes it was just too quiet, so she went in to check on him. Sarah found him in the following state:

What you may not be able to tell from the picture is that he is standing in his second drawer up. He had pulled out his two drawers and was using them as steps to get into the cabinet above. Oh my goodness.

On a side note, he also likes to get behind the curtains on his window ledge and talk to himself while looking out the window as an alternative to sleeping. Do his smarts and quirks know no bounds?

The Fearless Swimmer

We just got back from swimming together as a family. Let me say that . . . Cooper is fearless. We were in the jacuzzi area. Cooper could stand on the sitting level with his head comfortably above water. However, at one point he decided that exploration was in order. He took one step, two steps, then disappeared under the water. Of course daddy reached in and pulled him back up right away, but was Cooper plussed or spooked that the floor had just vanished under his feet and he had dunked under water? No, he wasn't bothered at all. In fact, seconds after he was safely on the sitting ledge he walked right over the edge again, and again went under the water. Daddy scooped the little guy back up, and he did it AGAIN! The little boy has no fear at all. Fortunately, our friend who is a children's swimming teacher says that Cooper has good form in the water.

Much happenings, short time span

Holy cow!! Let me summarize - Hospital trip, cuteness, smartness, and duh-ness.

Cooper keeps us busy, that is easy to discern. What started as a fever a few days ago started to worry us when it lasted 24 hours, and climbed up to 103-104 degrees. Naturally, we took him to the hospital; DON'T WORRY, though, he is just fine. At the hospital it was determined that he has a combined bacterial AND viral infection, so they started him on antibiotics and observed him for the day. We were concerned that the hospital would likely want to keep him overnight for observation, too, but the attending doctor said, and I paraphrase, "It'll be better if he goes home for the night. For one he'll sleep better in a familiar environment. Two, he's such an active little boy we'd either have to restrain him or sedate him to keep him in bed." Well, duh!! That's our Cooper. That was 2 days ago, and Cooper has been discharged from the hospital and has not had a high fever for the past 24 hours.

Next, the cuteness. Last night Sarah put Cooper to bed. In usual form, after about 20 minutes she could hear him playing gleefully. Sarah opened the door, poked in her head, and with her stern mommy voice said, "Cooper, you go to sleep." To which Cooper replied, "K, bye-bye." and waved his hand.

Now the smartness. I got up with Cooper this morning, fed him, changed him, and plopped him right down for some morning Sesame Street. He loves it. While he was watching TV I checked email, picked up some, got some breakfast, etc. Sarah soon woke up, too, and did her morning routine. Approximately one and a half hours after Cooper had gotten up, he climbed down off the chair, toddled toward his room, waved, and said, "Bye-bye." Next thing we knew he had closed himself into his room, got in bed, and curled up with his teddy bear and blanket for a nap. I ask you, do normal 16-month-olds do this? or is Cooper just the smartest, cleverest boy in the world?

The Haircut

A few days ago we gave Cooper a summer buzz haircut. Like his dad he gets hot very easily, and for the summer this haircut will help him stay cool. Let me say, though, that giving him that haircut ranks as one of the most demanding 20 minute tasks I have ever participated in. We did it at home with our own pair of clippers, and anyone who knows Cooper well knows that he WILL NOT be restrained for any reason without putting up a tremendous struggle.

Here's how it went down:

First we tried it with him standing in his high chair so he had nowhere to go, and so that his hair wouldn't get all over us. The immediate flaw in this approach was that, even though we (I) could keep his head stationary while mommy cut his hair; his feet were free to perform jumps, stamps, and other tantrumish movements. Needless to say, the high chair approach was quickly abandoned despite the bonus of us remaining hair-free. The next strategy was the bear hug hold with one handed shearing. This involved me holding Cooper's arms and legs (legs too because his feet were exactly at my groin level) in the tightest, most loving bear hug, while Sarah held his head as still as possible and at the same time practically sheep shearing him as fast as she could. Meanwhile, Cooper was screaming and creating a glue of snot and tears for his copious amount of cut hairs to stick to. I'm certain any outside spectator would have sworn we were doing our best to torture some kind of information out of him. "Where did you hide the sippy cup? We know you have it somewhere! We're going to keep squeezing you and rubbing your head with this buzzy-thingy until you talk!" After about 10 minutes of this (felt like 40) he, and we, were done. We were all completely covered in Cooper hair, and Cooper was sobbing. Sarah looked us all over and said, "We're all getting in the shower."

If there are any volunteers willing to do Cooper's next haircut please, please contact me. Below are a couple of pics of a happy, haircutted Cooper.

Sick Little Boy

Sad times! Cooper is sick. This morning he was very fussy, whiny, and couldn't decide what he wanted or needed, rotating between mommy hugs and getting frustrated at some toy. His head was a hot, and we could tell he was generally uncomfortable, probably just aching all over. Mommy's at home taking care of him, but we welcome your prayers for a quick return to his normal, ornery self.

New Pics Again!!!

So maybe I'm a little enthusiastic about this new website, but I've just posted ANOTHER photo album titled 2006-02-18. I hope you enjoy them. They were taken the day Cooper was sealed to us. Cooper's photos can be found here.

Quick Change

OK, so, Sarah said something that made me realize that it won't be practical to have a website dedicated just to Cooper once we get another, um, Cooper. So I've changed a few things about the website to make it more family centered than Cooper only-centered. It's our family site now, though most of the posts will still undoubtedly be about Cooper. Thanks for bearing with me as I get these fine tunings in the beginning here. Loves to all.

New pics!!!

I have just uploaded new pictures to Cooper's online photo albums. The most recent is titled: 2006-02-10. From now on I'm just going to be labeling the photo albums according to the date (approximate) that the photos were taken. I think there are 84 pics in this new album, so enjoy! You can get to Cooper's online photos by clicking here.

First posting

Hello to all Cooper fans. This is the inaugural post on Cooper's exclusive news site. This will serve to be a check-in point for all those who would like to keep up on what's happening in Cooper's world on a day-to-day, or week-to-week basis. I admit that I (Eric) have been sparse in keeping everyone afloat with Cooper happenings, and that many of you are starved for news. Well, this here website will give me a chance to redeem myself and keep everyone who's interested up to date on what's going on with our unique little boy. As this is the first of many posts to come let me kick it off with a nice little photo of our Cooper shortly after we met him for the first time. This happens to be Grandpa Campbell's favorite as well.



And also, if you can figure out how, please by all means leave your own comments on the site. I would love to hear them. Stay tuned!