Note: I realize that Cooper's list is going to be like 4x the length of Lincoln's... and I'd like to let future Lincoln know that in NO WAY does this mean we loved Cooper more than you. Your almost three-month-old self is just mainly doing the four things an almost-three-month old should do: sleeping, smiling, eating, and excreting... and I don't think you really want me to document the last two. :)
Cooper Is:
* LOVING his "blank." And being generally amazing when it comes to sleep, as usual! In fact, he often tells me, "Seepy, seepy," rubs his eyes, and walks himself to his bedroom. Or "nap." and then shuts the book I'm trying to read him and stands at his crib and looks at me. Or he just does this:
* Displaying his incredible memory! Probably all kids have it, it's just the first I've experienced it, and it amazes me! Ok, so most of these stories involve food...
- We drove down the highway the other day and he started saying "waffle, waffle"... I finally realized that about two weeks earlier we had gone out to breakfast at a little diner (which you couldn't even see from the road) and he had his first waffles.
- When we pass by the road we turn on to get to our favorite pizza place [which we have only been to a handful of times with him and haven't been in over a month because I'm now dairy/wheat-free for Lincoln (you're welcome, son... our family loves pizza...)], he shouts "pee-zee, pee-zee."
- We've taken him to get frozen yogurt twice in the 8 months we've lived here (deprived, I know) and he shouts "ICE-SREEM" often when we drive down the road where the little shop is.
- When my mom was here when Lincoln was born, she threw a sheet over the kitchen table and her and Cooper played in the "forp" (Cooper's word for fort). He bumped his head while crawling out of it one time, and frequently now, two months later, out of nowhere, he'll either point to the table and say "Juju, forp" or touch his head and say "bump."
* Making lots of animal noises: dog, cat, frog, duck, cow, dolphin (my fav), bear, bird, owl (he calls his stuffed animal owl "hoo hoo"), rooster ("caca"), chicken (and let's us know when he sees them on the roads, which is often, by making their noises), and possibly a few others...
* LOVING trucks and can identify quite a few types in books/pictures, or even as we're driving [dump, "pick" (pick-up), "gar-bee" (garbage truck, one of his favs), "vader" (excavator), "cane" (crane truck), "dozee" (bulldozer), "wee-ohh, wee-ohh" (fire, ambulance, or police car).] Most of the time it's pretty stinkin' adorable, but occasionally his "I know a word and I'm going to use it as many times as I can consecutively for 10 minutes straight" is just a little over the top. We hear ya, buddy!
* Very opinionated when it comes to music. He LOVES the "sunshine" song (You Are My Sunshine) and Wheels on the Bus, and usually HATES the ABCs ("nooooo, nooooo!"). Unfortunately for him, Pandora's Toddler Radio station only lets you skip so many songs an hour, so he's learning that "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
* For the most part, really amazing with Lincoln, and so very sweet [most of the time]! I'm actually surprised and shocked with how intrinsically sweet he is with his brother. When he cries, he [sometimes] brings him things, and he really likes to pet his brother's head and say, "soff, soff." He gets very excited when I lay Lincoln in the crib with Cooper and often tells me to lay Lincoln down next to him by saying, "nap, nap" and pointing where he'd like his brother to lie.
* Losing his rolls. :( He officially has knees (I was wondering there for the last 20-months) and he only has 1/2 of a roll left on each thigh (down from like 6). He still has sausage fingers, dimples instead of knuckles, and feet too pudgy on the top to fit into literally ANY other shoes than 1-size-too-large Crocs.
* Officially a baby when it comes to teething and being sick. Oh my. It's a good thing he is an incredibly healthy boy and always has been, because he is over-the-top hilariously dramatic when it comes to not feeling well. He's actually relatively tough when it comes to scrapes and bumps (unless he's teething or sick), but absolutely cannot function when he's sick.
* Embracing his inner Aloha:
- He refuses to say "All done." and only loudly yells "POW! POW!" then shoves as many pieces of meat/cheese/rice into his mouth as he can, as though we're going to immediately rush, rip away all of his food and never feed him again. (Pau is Hawaiian for finished)
- I don't think I've ever referred to his shoes as "Slippers" and always tell him we're putting on his shoes... however, he brings me my sandals and says, "Slippahs!" and tries to put them on me when he wants me to hurry it up and get to steppin'.
- I have to hide his swim suits from him in the morning if he opens the drawer, otherwise he'll grab one, mumble something that sounds like "sweeeeeem soup" and yell, "Beeeeeech! Beeeeeeech! Beeeeeech" (to which I wince and hope the neighbors didn't hear and assume horrible things about what I allow my son to call me).
- Eating crabs, and LOVING them. Daniel's been a total STUD and has taken the role of "provider" to a whole new level that I am COMPLETELY ok with.
Lincoln is:
* SMILING! A ton! I think his smile is the most adorably awkward thing anyone's ever seen. All of his smiles are giantly open-mouthed and you're not quite sure if he's going to giggle or eat the air. He often throws his little head to the side and one side of his mouth grins more than the other. He melts my heart, and all of this positive feedback is 1) making me feel completely head-over-heels in love, 2) making me not even miss cheese or ice cream, 3) making the meds not quite such a brutal task as they were at the beginning because I feel like they're helping uncover his tender, sensitive, cheerful little personality that was hidden under him not feeling well! They're still pretty brutal, though...
* SLEEPING! His night time sleep has been pretty much AMAZING since a few days after we started him on meds. I really think he was just waking up so frequently from the reflux and getting upset, so once the meds settled that and he got a little older, his body kicked into gear! We went from a norm of every 2.5-3.5 hours (with ~30 min of that being nursing/consoling back to sleep) or the worst of every 1-1.5 hours, to a norm of 9-10 hour stretches with several 11-12 hours! WHAT?!? Should I do a Zantac/Prevacid commercial or what?! His day-time sleep is still hit-or-miss, I have theories involving serotonin and melatonin levels in babies as to why it's so different during the day but it is still MUCH improved day and night and he is a MUCH MUCH happier baby because of it!
We, the adults, are enjoying the adorable moments and [mostly] laughing through the not-so-adorable moments (the boys tend to scream/melt at exactly the same time, of course). We're thoroughly enjoying Lincoln's gigantic smiles and happy noises, as well as Cooper's ever-growing vocabulary and hearing the [mostly] adorable things that go through his head! FUN boys. I tried to bring back dairy and had a great 24-hours of parmesan roasted sweet potatoes (yum!), ice cream, cereal w/ cow's milk, pancakes, and coffee w/ milk... but, we're both convinced he definitely has a sensitivity to cow's milk after seeing the return of the scream-feeds, so at least now I am fairly certain the dairy part is actually helping something.
More about what we've been up to soon!
Really enjoyed reading about your fam! Great stuff, Karen!
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