# 15 - Check!

So number 15 on my 101 list was to let someone watch Cooper overnight.

Last night, my mother kept Cooper overnight while Dixie and I went out to Scooter's to celebrate his birthday. We had such a good time being out with our friends and knowing that Cooper was being well taken care of.  We didn't close the bar down like I thought we would. We left Scooters before 1am. I know! Lightweights! LOL I think we were more interested in a full night's sleep.

I left Dixie in the bed this morning and went to pick Cooper up around 9:30. Here he is at MawMaw's.

It's bad quality, I know. Blame the crappy cell phone camera. He did so good at his MawMaw's house, even though he didn't really sleep through the night. We expected that though, being his first night away from home without Mommy and Daddy. He went to bed around 11, and woke at 4am and again at 7am. Not too bad.

So yay for my first check off my list! I have a few more things to add to it, but I'm still about 3-4 things short. I'll update the list soon.

Sleeping Through the Night!

I am the proud mom of a good sleeper! Finally! Now if only I could be a good sleeper. :-) For the last 4 nights straight, cooper has slept 7+ hours at a time! Usually he goes down between 10-11p after his last bottle and gets up around 5:30-6am, then he'll eat and go right back down for a couple more hours. It has been wonderful! He is in a much better mood in the mornings since he is sleeping better. I just love love love getting him up around 8am and he just smiles and coos at me.

And this is all thanks to my wonderful husband. He has got Cooper on such a good schedule. I had a bad habit at night and early morning feedings of letting him fall back to sleep without eating much. But Dixie has him on a good schedule where he eats better, and I got better at making sure he eats enough, and he sleeps so much better and longer. It's awesome.

The only problem is....Cooper no longer wakes up at 2am, but I do! Every night I wake up when he usually woke up and I have to go to his crib, which is like, 2 feet away, and poke him to make sure he's breathing. And every time I hear, "He's fine, you better not wake him up," from the other side of the bed. Haha! I never wake him up, I just have to make sure.

Oh, and Cooper has become a mover lately while in his crib. His crib has a changing table attached to the right side of it, and instead of slats on that side it's a solid panel. Well the first night he slept all the way through, I think he would have slept longer but he had scooted himself all the way up to where his head was up against that solid panel. And he likes to sleep with his hands up above his head, and every time he would go to throw his arms back, he would hit the panel and it would wake him up. At first I couldn't figure out what the noise he kept making was until I finally got up to look and saw it. I scooted him back down and he slept a little while longer.

So after that we started putting his head at the other end of the crib and this morning, he had turned sideways and his head was up against the slats on the front side of the bed. I wish I had thought to take a picture but the camera was in the car. I think if he hadn't gotten up against the slats he would have slept a little while longer. I guess we are going to have to get him some bumpers. We never actually got him a bedding set because A) they are unnaturally expensive, and B) half the stuff that comes in a bedding set, including bumpers, aren't supposed to be in the bed with the baby. So what's the point, right? Well, we are going to be looking into those breathable bumpers. It makes me feel bad when he gets his little head up against the rails.

Speaking of his little head, despite the fact that he already doesn't have a lot of hair, he's getting a little bald spot on the back of his head. LOL

And speaking of hair, I think a lot more of mine is falling out. Like, it scared me this morning. I know that's "normal" or whatever but my hair is a big deal. I mean, yes, I hardly ever actually do my hair because there's just so much of it and it takes forever, but I really do like it. I don't want to be bald. Which shouldn't be a problem. According to my stylist sister, I have the perfect kind of hair. It's not thick, as in each strand, there's just a whole lot of it on my head.

How did this go from my son's sleep habits to my hair? I'm not sure either. Oh well...

until next time....

Yay for TV!

So TV isn't all that important. Honestly, we hardly ever watch TV at our house. We are internet people. When we do watch TV it's usually the DIY Network. For some reason, we really enjoy watching other people get their homes madeover. I guess we are gathering ideas or something. We just love "Bath Crashers," "Kitchen Crashers," and "Yard Crashers."

I used to watch a lot of TV. When "Grey's Anatomy" first came out, I was obsessed! Like, don't make plans on Thursday because my show was coming on. But it only lasted a couple of seasons. Well a few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to get caught up on it, all EIGHT SEASONS! So I downloaded every episode. Yep, every one of them. It's probably over a hundred of them.

I started watching them about a month ago, and I just finished. Like last week. I am completely caught up, and there is apparently a season finale next week or something, so I will DVR it. (If I can figure out how to work my DVR.)

I spent all my spare time watching TV on my laptop for the last month, that now that I have no "Greys" I was a little bored. So you know what I did? I picked another show!

I am in the process of acquiring every episode of "Royal Pains." I watched the first couple seasons of it on On Demand and stayed pretty caught up but I haven't seen much of the 3rd season. So, that's my new project. Should take up a sufficient amount of time. This time though, my goal is to not eat potato chips the entire time I'm in front of my laptop. I've got to find a healthier alternative. I was thinking popcorn but I don't know. Popcorn makes me think "light and airy," which it is, but not so much when you factor in the "movie theater butter" part. We'll see though.

I'm trying to diet. Maybe not diet but just eat healthier and tackle this baby weight. I told Dixie to help me by letting me know when I'm not making good food choices. This morning, when I was craving salt, I was totally about to pop some popcorn and have it for breakfast. And I hear, "You need to eat a real breakfast. There's poptarts, cereal, or grits or something." 

Love him! So I made myself some grits and put bacon bits in it for my salt craving. Good idea right? I think so too. But now that I'm about to start watching some "Royal Pains" I feel a really strong urge to make popcorn again. Maybe, maybe not. IDK. I'll let you know.

until next time....

Deja Vu

I blog stalk some pretty random people that I don't know from Adam. Most live in my area but a few don't. I was blog stalking this morning as my little one slept off his first bottle of the day and came across this:

A Blue Eyed Boy Met a Brown Eyed Girl

This girl Stephanie, has a baby boy, and she's a hoot! I love reading her blog. She's so funny. But this morning, her blog brought me to tears, and brought back some memories that I can't bury deep enough.

I live in Tuscaloosa, and almost a year ago, our town experienced a natural disaster unlike we ever had before. A massive tornado tore through the heart of our town during rush hour. So many people lost their lives, and almost everyone in the city limits had some sort of damage to their homes and businesses. We are still recovering.

And it just happened to a town in Eastern Kentucky on March 2nd. Tornados across the country that day did severe damage in several states. I didn't watch the news about it specifically because I didn't want to dig up those awful memories.

I don't even know if anyone reads my blog except my husband. Go and look at Stephanies blog, and help if you can. If you can't help with donations, help with prayer. Man, they need it. I would encourage a donation to the Red Cross. The Red Cross used a massive amount of funds helping our town, and I know I'd like to be able to pay it forward. So check it out. (And read the rest of her blog too....her son is adorable and she will have you laughing like a crazy person!)

until next time...

Ohhhh.....Ahhhh....

So Cooper has always been mesmerized with our TV. Maybe because it's huge (55 inches) and it dominates the room so it's the easiest thing for him to look at. He has also been turning his head toward sounds since he had the tiniest bit of control over his head. But he never seemed interested in smaller objects, like toys. He has a mobile over his swing that he sometimes looked at intently, but it only lasted a few seconds. He has a short attention span. Here the last few days though, he is noticing and checking out things.

Today when I came home from work, he was laying in his portacrib in the living room staring at a little toy. My mother bought this little toy a couple weeks ago that is meant to hang from the handle of a car seat. Well, in the car seat, it seems to hang too close to his face and he didn't like it. But Dixie had it hanging on the side of the crib, and Cooper was just staring at it so hard! I said to Dixie, "Look how hard his checking that thing out." And Dixie says, "Yeah, he's been doing that for about 15 minutes now."

He liked it so much! Later this evening, after we all ate and played a little bit, I layed him back in the portacrib, and he started staring at it again, then he reached out for it! That's a milestone I have been sorta waiting for him to hit, reaching out for objects. He didn't grab it, but he reached out and hit it. The toy has three parts: the plastic clippy piece at the top that attaches it to something, a middle round piece that jingles, and a little stuffed lion on the bottom. I think Cooper figured out that if he touched it, that it would jingle. He still isn't that coordinated with it, but he reached out several times and made it jingle. The rest of the time he sat and talked to it. Well, of course he didn't make conversation, but he cooed and squealed at it. I think he likes it.

Cooper has a lot more control over his head than most babies do at this age (according to Baby Center). As soon as he gets a little bit more steady with it, we are going to get him some sort of exersaucer play thing. Since he's noticing things now, we are going to start buying toys and things. We didn't get any toys as gifts, and we didn't buy any because, well, he wouldn't need them for a while. (We bought clothes and diapers instead.) I am excited to see him notice things and start to sorta play.

He has been smiling up a storm lately, and he coos all the time. He loves his daddy! Dixie will lay him on a blanket on the floor and just talk to him and Cooper loves it! Half the time Dixie isn't making much sense but it's his voice I guess. Cooper will just smile so big and kick his legs so hard. He hasn't really laughed yet. He smiles and makes a funny sound like he might be trying to laugh, but it isn't quite there yet. I can't wait til he does.

Right now, he's laying in his portacrib, talking to his other friend, the ceiling fan. They have a good relationship. When the fan is off, the air conditioner blows it just hard enough to make it turn really slowly, and Cooper seems to be able to actually track it, so he stays occupied with that a good bit.

So enough random rambling about my son...I have a pile of laundry from several days ago that just won't fold itself. I probably won't fold it tonight either. In the morning. Hopefully. Oh how I hate to fold clothes! That's a lie, it's not the folding that I hate, it's putting it away. I love to finish folding and see neat stacks of t-shirts, jeans, baby blankets, and onsies. Then I have to put it away. Ugh. Hopefully I can motivate myself to do it tomorrow. Maybe. I'll let y'all know how that goes. LOL.

until next time.....

Flash...Bang!

We had some crazy storms last night in our area. Everyone was silently (and some not so silently) freaking out thinking it was going to be as bad at April 27, 2011. Of course, it didn't help that James Spann, our beloved meteorologist, said that if 4/27/11 was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, yesterday's storms had the potential to be an 8. Yeah. He said that. And of course, since anything out of James Spann's mouth is like gospel, people started freaking out.


Thank goodness it didn't happen again. Although, I did have my freak out moment while I was driving home from work last night. I work in Tuscaloosa and live in Pickens County. So I'm driving down Hwy 82 headed home. I keep the radio tuned to 98.1, because I know that as long as they are playing music or commercials, we are fine. (Continuous weather coverage means something bad is about to happen somewhere.) I heard the announcer mention something about the worst section of the storm coming through Aliceville, which is the other side of Pickens County from me (or where I was going).

Then all of a sudden, the wind got so strong and the rain was falling so hard that it looked like buckets of water being dropped on my windshield one after the other. Then the lightening was flashing so bright I was nearly blinded. I put my flashers on and slowed to a crawl, mostly because I couldn't see the shoulder to pull over. Then the radio guy says something about Echola and Elrod were taking the worst hit from the storm right then. That's exactly where I was! I was about a half mile from the Texaco in Elrod for those that know the area. Talk about scary.

Then as sudden as it came, it just went away. Right as I was pulling into the Texaco to let it pass, the rain suddenly became barely a drizzle. I was shaking when I got out of the car at home. Severe weather doesn't bother me. I guess I've never really been directly affected by it. But last night, I was scared! I was glad to get home. I had to fight myself to not wake up my sleeping child just to cuddle.

So there's my "severe weather story." The weather is supposed to be clearing up now, so I hopefully I'll have a sunny day off.

til next time.....

101 in 1,001...The List

Alright here is my list. I'm still a few things short of 101 but I'll add to it when I come up with a few more things.

 (And these are in no particular order.)

1.       Donate blood.

2.       Get a tattoo.

3.       Get a promotion at work.

4.       Take Cooper camping.

5.       Take Cooper to the zoo.

6.       Take Copper to an aquarium.

7.       Take Cooper to the Circus.

8.       Take a road trip.

9.       Go to a concert at the Amphitheater.

10.   Volunteer for a day.

11.   Get a Kindle Fire.

12.   Get Cooper’s baby book up to date.

13.   Lose baby weight.

14.   Go on vacation to a new place.

       15.   Let someone babysit Cooper overnight.

16.   Plan Cooper an amazing 1^st birthday party.

17.   Take Cooper to his cousin Brooklynn’s 1^st birthday party.

18.   Move Cooper into his own room.

19.   Run a 5k.

20.   Makeover my blog.

21.   Makeover my hair.

22.   Crochet a whole blanket.

23.   Go to a museum I’ve never been to.

24.   Visit New Orleans.

25.   Decorate our bathroom.

26.   Buy a good cooking set.

27.   Build a fire pit outside.

28.   Put up a clothes line.

29.   Keep up with a workout routine for 2 weeks.

30.   Go horseback riding.

31.   Get a dog.

32.   Get family pictures made.

33.   Start learning Spanish.

34.   Take a Zumba class.

35.   Start a play date group.

36.   Go on a double date.

37.   Do something great for Dixie’s birthday (0/2)

38.   Save up for a pair of Frye boots.

39.   Get Cooper in a preschool.

40.   Get Coopers first steps on video.

41.   Teach Cooper to say “Mama”

42.   Start Cooper on solids.

43.   Make Cooper’s baby food.

44.   Get involved in the Adopt-a-School program.

45.   Go to Sips n’ Strokes.

46.   Go to All Fired Up

47.   Buy a good fitting bathing suit.

48.   Get fitted for a good bra.

49.   Buy 10 casual dresses (0/10)

50.   Shave legs every day for a month.

51.   Wear a dress every day for a week.

52.   Host a game night.

53.   Climb a tree.

54.   Get a real Christmas tree.

55.   Meet James Spann.

56.   Participate in an eating contest.

57.   Get tested for the breast cancer gene.

58.   Learn to drive a stick shift.

59.   Find a home church.

60.   Go to an Alabama Game.

61.   Go tailgaiting.

62.   Go to an Alabama Gymnastics meet.

63.   Make a cast of Cooper’s hand and foot prints.

64.   Go to Gulf Shores.

65.   Bake a cake from scratch.

66.   Make a 3 course dinner for my family.

67.   Try a new type of food.

68.   Learn to make gravy.

69.   Get $1000 into savings.

70.   Start using coupons.

71.   Read 10 biographies (0/10)

72.   Wear my hair down for an entire week.

73.   Organize the pictures and videos on my computer.

74.   Buy an external hard drive.

75.   Start Cooper on the “Your Baby Can Read” program.

76.   Take a pole dancing class.

77.   Join a gym.

78.   Go to a spa.

79.   Rearrange my bedroom.

80.   See a play.

81.   Sew Brooklynn an outfit by hand.

82.   Make myself a dress by hand.

83.   Send out Christmas cards (0/2).

84.   Take Cooper to CHOM.

85.   Start potty training.

86.   Fix up our flowerbeds.

87.   Get a houseplant.

88.   Go to a wedding.

89.   Go to Six Flags.

90.   Take Cooper to see Santa.

91.   Take Cooper to see the Easter Bunny.

92.   Buy a kitchen table.

So, I need 8 things. # 101 will be to make a new list, so I need 7 things.  If I add anything, I'll make a post about it.

So that's my list. Again, in no particular order.

Start date: March 3, 2012.

End date: November 28, 2014.

So Here Goes...

My name is Amy. My husband is Dixie, and Cooper is our 2 month old son.

This is our life.

This is my blog.

I hope to keep up and record Cooper's milestones here. I don't do scrapbooking, and his baby book sits on a shelf, needing to be dusted. This is my best shot at documenting his life.

If anyone reads this and doesn't already know us (highly unlikely) you will get to know us eventually. We like our life and and we like doing it our way. You'll see.

For those that read this that do know us, don't do anything worth blogging about, because it will end up on the internet. I promise.

I am currently trying to put together a 101 in 1001 list, and I'm about 15 things shy of a complete list, so as soon as I get it finished, I'll post it on here.

I'm also going to probably put random pictures of my son in nearly every post, just because I can. He's a pretty baby.

Thats an old picture. He's about 4 weeks in this one.

So here goes. I'll be back soon with my 101 in 1001 list. Should be interesting.

Til next time.....