My goodness, this child is precious.
He has easily raked in a million dollars through our dollar in the college fund every time we call him sweet. I am obviously becoming a broken record here in these posts: Cooper is so sweet. Cooper is so cute. Cooper Cooper Cooper.
What can I say? I like this guy. I like him a lot. He is a sweet, sparkly eyed, chill dude. He has this laugh that is intoxicating. A smile that just melts me and eyes that wrecks my heart. Cooper jibberjabbers all day. He clearly has a lot of important things to say, I believe it. Dada is still his favorite sound and he laughs when I say mama. He is 19 pounds and few ounces and has a big ol' noggin. He likes to eat, still thinks his sister is just about the coolest, and likes to sit and play with toys.
This kid doesn't seem too interested in getting moving. He isn't a big fan of being on his stomach. He is a lot like his big sister was at this age, pretty content sitting and observing the world. He is always trying to grab at things within some reasonable range from him. Try eating with him sitting on your lap, I dare you. Generally speaking he is super easy. Of course he has his days, and worse than that bad nights. Sleep, sweet sleep, where doth you live? This past month he slept through the night for the first time. It was no coincidence that he was wearing his lucky Virginia Tech pajamas when this rare incident occurred. Since then, there has only been three other nights that he has slept through the night, each just as shocking as the last. But alas, house guests, some travels, and moving put a quick end to that glorious thing known as a full night of rest for mom. Luckily he is back to his once a night quick snacking and back to bed, so it really isn't too bad.
Hopefully I can stay on top of these last few remaining first year posts this summer. It is just insane to me that he will be 1 year in 4 months. We have a busy summer ahead. Brian is spending the summer in Baltimore for some more school, while the kids and I travel around a bit and visit him as well. We are actually not exactly sure what all we will be doing or where we will be staying but adventure awaits. The movers came and hauled off our
Speaking of Alaska, we are excited for our big move, first starting with our long drive there. We have a super fun trip planned with some really cool stops and drive by site seeing. Some but not all include: Milwaukee (holler!), Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, Banff and Lake Louise, Jasper National Park, and a ferry up through the inside passage to Alaska. I hope this little dude Cooper (yes yes the one that I was originally here to write about) does okay on the trip. He is definitely becoming better with going with the flow and letting loose of his totally desired routine. The kid likes his scheduled naps. He has been having a tough time sleeping in the car on trips lately because he oh so carefully watches his sister's every move. She has a habit of making him laugh hysterically in the car, so hard that he always gets the hiccups.
I am going to continue to hijack this Cooper post a bit more, its a big season of change and activity for us. First off, blog shout out and congratulations to Brian for graduating from grad school. As often as there has been times where I have craved a little more routine back in our life, it has been really been great to spend more time together these last two years, especially him getting to spend more time with the kiddos during the day. All and all, graduate school was a nice break from the working world. I think it will be good to get back to a more structured lifestyle but I think it is cool that he got to be home a lot, especially during much of the first year of Cooper's life. Who wouldn't want to watch this kid grow up. He is just about the coolest.
Moving to Chapel Hill was initially really tough for me. I did not love this area and I was really missing Milwaukee. It was one of the first times in awhile that I felt truly homesick and it was bad. But as I sit here in our empty house reflecting on the last two years, I am finding one common theme spinning through my head, the importance of community. I know we could of done a much better job of being involved, getting to know more people, making relationships, serving and spending time with people in our community. I so often was dwelling on the whats next to come instead of the right now (don't we all tend to do that). With that said I am very grateful for the friendships that we did in fact make. This last few weeks of going out with friends, visiting over ice cream, having a neighborhood potluck, celebrating graduation with a cookout, playing with our neighborhoods friends, watching Hannah grow and learn through preschool and church, having people graciously serve us with things like letting us crash their house for baby naps, bringing us food, lending us cleaning supplies, hanging out with the kids, showing us love and support, all these things have been a blessing to my heart. I am not particularly the best with goodbyes, though I should be an expert by this point, but it is tough. Nonetheless, I am so very thankful for community, for support, for kindness. So thank you all, friends and family, everyone we have met along the way. Moving often can be fun, but it is also sad saying goodbye so often.
We excited for our next stage of life. I think it will be pretty cool for our kiddos to spend many of their early years in an exciting place like Alaska. Eagles, mountain goats, bears, oh my! I am looking forward to seeing how this kiddo Cooper will continue to grow and change. I confident that this guy is just bound to be sweet forever.
Thank you North Carolina for many good memories. Thank you to our friends here that have loved our kiddos. We will miss ya North Carolina. And as hard as it is for this Hokie to say....I'll miss you UNC.
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