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!