July 2006

Cooper's favorite treat is to eat an avocado right out of the skin now. He will lick it clean! Thankfully Cooper is throwing less and less of his temper tantrums. With the birth of Sullivan I think his world was just a little rocked and he had to adjust. Don’t get me wrong he still can throw a tantrum but we’ve learned a few tricks. First we got consistent- I know- imagine that! He must have been sent to the corner in daycare (or seen it happen) we have surmised because one time he was in trouble someone pointed to go a different direction and he went right to the corner and put his nose in it! We have created the “Comfort Corner.” It has a pillow and it’s where he goes when he is having a really horrible tantrum. Granted he is still pretty young for this. (We’ve been recording Super Nanny and taking notes!) So when he threw his water bottle at me for the umpteenth time and bruised my ankle Jim told him he needed to not do that again and apologize to me. Well that didn’t seem acceptable so he proceeded to scream and throw himself around so Jim put him in the CC till he could calm down. He knew what he was doing. He would cry if we were looking in his direction. As soon as we would turn our heads he would try to sneak out. But Jim was on him like white on rice man. It took a few trys but he finally sat there, got calm and then came out ready to play. Although he never apologized he hasn't been throwing his bottles at my feet anymore. No joke he would wait for me with all his empty sippy cups to throw them at me. I never screamed or gave a reaction but for some reason he felt he needed to do it. Anyway now we just tell him he needs to stop (insert behavior) or he will go to the CC and he stops. We’ll get back to everyone in another 6 months on that one.

We now have our trashcan elevated on a stool. We have lost way to many tupperware lids to the trash now. If you've lost it in our house look in the trash!

He is now climbing down the stairs now. Until now it was just up. That has opened a whole new world. He is fanatical about closing all the doors. He says, “Closing” but it sounds like “cloo.” Something new for us is one second he’s there and the next he’s GONE. We had to take the baby gates down for painting and he is taking full advantage of that. Coop used to avoid the top of the stairs like the plague. He made it to the basement one day and all the bills we had put in a crate to be filed were strewn all over the floor! Hard to get mad when he looks like he had a blast doing it.

Cooper must have my stubborn streak. He has learned some baby signs which make our life much easier. He will say eat and put his fingers together. His finger to his mouth is drink. Wipe your hands across the tray for all done. He even will say GiGi!! But the little bugger refuses to say Mamma. Our conversations go a little something like this:

Abbie: Can you say GiGi?
Cooper: GiGi
Abbie:Can you say Mamma?
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: Mamma
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: Mamma
Cooper: Dadda
Abbie: MAMMA
Cooper:DADDA
Abbie:MAMMA
Cooper:DADDA
Jim: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!"


We couldn't believe how much stuff we have. This was one day of trash!

His comprehension of words is getting better and better. He used to wave but not know why he was doing it just that he was getting praise for it. Now he knows what goodbye means and will wave without any prompting. One day I left for a bit and as I was pulling out I looked back at the house and there was Cooper at the door waving goodbye to me. I honestly don't know how to explain the lump in my throat when I saw him doing that.

He still says, “baby” but mostly now it sounds like, “pappy” and will pet Sully. He likes to sit next to him and play footsies with him it’s very cute. Sometimes a pained look will still come over him and you know he’s upset that the baby is in my arms. But boy oh boy what a difference a little time makes. He is such a patient little guy. When I'm nursing he's either playing, or sitting next to me. He tries to crawl on top of Sully only when he's really tired but other than that he just waits it out. I've learned to do the poop patrol at the same time which saves a lot of time!

And oh my goodness is Sullivan is such a little gem. He is gooooing a lot and sleeping a lot….. during the day. He likes to get all his gas at night and will wake me up every hour and a half usually punching me with his little boxer arms. Once he finally gets the gas out he’s ready to nurse and go back to sleep. I’ve been lucky that Jim has been there to get Cooper at 6:30 to make him breakfast so I can get another hour of sleep still.

Sully loves to push up and stand up on your lap. Nowadays if you jump on the rebounder he is smiling within 5 seconds and 30 seconds later his eyes are rolling up into his head. It’s absolutely a phenomenon. Nothing else works like the rebounder. We can’t even put him in the swing until he’s mostly asleep. We’ve broken him on the swing though. He pretty much has to have it during the day or every time Cooper screams or pokes him when he’s sleeping on the couch he’s awake. I just can't describe how easy Sully makes it. He cries very little and goes to sleep pretty easily. Besides the fact that he continues to poo on me constantly I really can't complain. We were eating out during the big packing phase and he did break out in eczema. That was a huge bummer. But I stopped eating all dairy and wheat and within 2 days it was gone. (phew)

I'm watching him now in his swing making his little chipmunk noises. If you would have told me a few years ago my heart was capable of holding this much love for these two children I wouldn't have been able to imagine it. We may complain about the poo's or the temper tantrums but I wouldn't give it up for the world.

This is Sully's toy that Cooper isn't allowed on. It drives Cooper nuts to not be able to crawl all over it!!