Cooper John 7 months

I LOVE this face!  I especially like this picture because this is a look I get often throughout the day.  One finger in his mouth, a toothless grin and big happy eyes.  This kid brings such joy to his Mama!  

The 7th month of Cooper's life brought a lot of growing up.  Is that true for all youngsters?  

He plays well independently.  

He notices everything and grabs at everything.  

He laughs when Louie comes into the room and watches him intently. 

He giggles with such delight when his Papa comes home from work.  

He examines his surroundings...sometimes he likes what he sees and sometimes he doesn't. 

He knows when he is about to get into the bath or have something to eat and gets excited.  

He talks to himself and to others with total animation. 

He ditched the swaddle cold turkey after making it clear if was irritating him rather than helping him.

He gets himself to sleep for bedtime and all his naps (after about a week of letting him cry..so good for him..so hard for me).

He puts his pacifier in his mouth on his own.

And there is more...but I'll let the pictures tell the rest.  

{playing in his room with some of his favorite toys}

{he notices the airplane now and wants to grab it}

This is his biggest accomplishment of the month by far!  Look at our strong boy! That is one good plank if I don't say so myself! It's the beginnings of crawling...

{and reaching}

wouldn't you melt if you got a look like this one?!?!

Predictions on when we are going to have to cut his hair? Before 1 year?

Savoring every moment and every month the Lord allows us with our little man.

Gather 'Round the Campfire

When Matt and I got married almost 6 years ago it was the season of weddings and wedding showers.  What a fun time that was and now... a season of babies!  And boy do I love them.  We have had so much fun planning showers along the way to celebrate good friends and their tiny little blessings.  This last shower was no exception.  Our sweet friend Jana is expecting a little boy next month and we couldn't be more excited.  In honor of Jana's husband we decided to go with a manly theme of camping!  Weston and his brothers go on annual camping trips and so we thought it would be perfect.  It was so much fun to put together!  Here are some elements of the day and photos of the glowing mom to be.

Here are some of the fun details

 Let me introduce "the Guys!" They were greeting our guests when they arrived with a copy of We're Going on a Bear Hunt.

A marshmallow guessing game

"Take Home S'more Fun!" 

We decorated with burlap (of course), trees, lanterns, candles.  

Welcome Lil' Camper

 Happy Camper Crunch...

...and a hot cocoa bar

This was a fun activity. We picked up a package of diapers and sharpies and had guests write a funny note to Jana to read while changing her little guy's diaper.

This was my favorite part!  The camp ground!  We had tents and a fire pit, a clothes line, and a camping stove. The green tent was our family tent that we spent every summer in at Lake Tahoe. Oh the flood of memories that came back when I stepped inside.  I think the last time I was in that tent was over 10 years ago.  We had the food set up outside on the camping stove.  We did grilled cheese and soups..perfect for a cool day and definite camping food.  And yes! We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. 

Taking a load off by the fire.  My Mama and Miss Ag are among the best hostesses I know.  They are tireless and make it look so easy.  It's a total blast working with them!

The growing Sutherland family!

 Sweet Ella!  She was all dolled up for the day and such a wonderful helper to her Mama.  

The desserts!  S'more parfaits.  DELICIOUS!

The finished diapers

And no blog is complete with a picture of the Coopster!

Enjoying our S'mores at the end of the day! What fun!

My nephew Nolan.  Unbelievably cute!

What a day it was! We can't wait to meet you Mister Sutherland!

Cooper John 6 months old

Mr Squishy, as he is often referred to with great admiration, turned half a year old just before Christmas.  This was big for me.  I had been looking forward to six months...just because…well maybe because we always celebrated our half birthdays growing up in the Cooper family.  Not a huge celebration, just an acknowledgement of the day, dinner on the red “You are Special Today” plate and a yummy special treat in our lunches.  Cooper is a little too young for all of the above, but we still celebrated! We gave him avocado!  I know what you’re thinking.  Wow Jenny, pull out all the stops.  But this was huge! Up until that point he had only tasted VERY bland rice cereal.  So avocado was pretty much up there with the chocolate chip cookies I used to get. 

What else has he done at 6 months?  SIT UP!  I was so excited for the half year mark and hoping that he would be able to sit in front of the Christmas tree for a picture. Here it is!  He started sitting up by himself at about 5 ½ months and we couldn’t have been prouder. 

He passed his 6 month check up with flying colors.  Except for one thing…sleeping through the night.  Yep, our boy formed a habit of getting up just once during the night for an extra feeding.  Just like someone else in our house...who I won’t mention...but it isn’t me… So it was time to break that habit.  How? Most of the books say you've got to just let them cry until they fall asleep again.  Not something I was looking forward to.  We made a decision to start letting him cry just after Christmas.  But guess what!  By the grace of God he stopped getting up and started sleeping all through the night.  What a guy, saving his Mama the agony of middle-of-the-night tears.  

And a few pictures of our little man at 6 months old...

The guy is noticing everything now.  Up until this point he never paid attention to the sticker I would put on him for these pictures.  This time he noticed and of course tried to eat it. 

We are crazy in love with you Cooper John.  When those big brown eyes look up at us our hearts swell with amazement that you have been given to us.