You are definitely growing up. At 17 months you are showing your personality. You are sweet, loving, opinionated, stubborn, and so smart. You love your family like crazy! I love it when I say "Cooper give Mommy a kiss" and you grin and give me one of your wide open mouth kisses. You give the best hugs ever. When I drop you off at Mamaw and Pappy's in the morning I always ask for a hug and after a second of playing with me and just standing where you were, you come running to me with your arms open and squeeze my neck. And every morning, I hate having to get in my car and leave you. (But I am thankful for my job and for your grandparents who adore you and take such wonderful care of you.)
I have a few names that I call you... "Sunshine" "Cooper Booper" "Cooper D. Booper" "Lovebug" "Little Man" "Little Guy" "Mister Man" and there's always "COOPER ALAN".
You are understanding so much of what is going on. I tell you to go get my phone by the couch and you go straight for it. We ask you to take something to someone and you take it to the right person. I tell you to go get a book and you get a book. I ask for a ball and you get a ball. I say it's time to eat and you say "ee" and point/walk to toward the kitchen/your high chair. I say "Let's go to bed" and you go to the stairs. I say "let's put on your shoes" and you find your shoes. You are picking out pictures in books. You know what a cow is and can say "mmmoo" when I ask what it sounds like. Just tonight you pointed out the armadillo in "Goodnight Gorilla". You picked out the ball in the same book and always say "bawl" and point to it. You know what close the door, drawer, cabinet means, though don't always do this when we tell you too. You point to the right people in our family and you point to yourself when we say "where's Cooper?". You love to point out the "big trucks" whenever you are in the car. As Mimi says, you have some preliteracy skills because you take a book and turn the pages yourself, granted the book is upside down sometimes, but that's ok. The other night you picked out one of your "baby" toys (a rattle) that was mixed in with your books and took it to the drawer where we keep those toys without me saying a word to you about it. And yet not minutes later went right behind the chair in your room after I said not too. You know what you're doing.
You love to see and talk to Daddy on the computer when he is away. I'll say "come see Daddy" and you come running to the computer and say "hi dada" and grin so big. This week I said blow Daddy and kiss and you pulled your pacy out of your mouth (sorry Grandmommy, but it was bedtime I promise!!) and put your hand over your wide open mouth to blow him kisses.
You love Jere and he tolerates you. Every once in a while he'll play with you and you just cackle and cackle. You try to get him to play by bringing him a toy and holding it to his face and waiting for him to go after it. Most of the time he just lays there or tries to get away. If he's laying somewhere you can reach him, you'll give him a big hug and he let's you. It's so cute! You are not a fan of any other dogs, though, unless they are little and white like Jere. You run from them and try to hide behind us or reach for us to pick you up. If you're really not a fan then you start fussing/crying. You met Uncle Ben's new puppy, Meiko, last weekend and you finally started warming up to her when they were getting ready to leave.
Your speech is growing quickly! You are so southern when you say "Ma-maw" and you absolutely made your Papaw's day when you said "Pap-aw". You totally surprised me when we were at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago and you pointed at some "elmo" pajamas and said "mehmo". I was so proud!! And we of course came home with the "mehmo" pjs. Now every time you wear them you point to your shirt and say "mehmo" and then your shorts (that have lots of elmo's) and point to them and say "mehmo, mehmo, mehmo, mehmo" and then grin super big. You say "wow, wo, mo (more), bye-bye, hi, ee (eat), baba (bottle), moo, boobawl (football)". Daddy and I were talking today that it is a little strange that you don't say "no" yet, but we are not pushing that one! All day today you were pointing at the tv and saying "boobawl"! We love it!!
You love your bath time. You now splash regularly which is cute and annoying when I don't really want to take a bath too. The other night you threw a cup of water out of the tub and it landed on me. I was dripping wet and sternly said "Cooper Alan" and you turned around and sweetly said "Ma-maw". I couldn't help but laugh because of course you wanted your Mamaw when Mommy was getting on to you.
You are growing so fast! You have three teeth. You got your 3rd tooth right before you turned 16 moths and we all know you are about to be getting some more. We can see 3 more just ready to pop through at any time on the top and are pretty sure there are more on the bottom. You are wearing size 5 diapers, 18 month shorts/shirts, and size 6 shoes. We finally went and bought you some long pants and long sleeve shirts today and we got all 24 month or 2T stuff. The pants are a little long, but it won't be long before you grow into them. You wore your new jeans tonight and I could not believe how not-like-a-baby you look.
You are starting to be over the baby food. We were mixing fruits/veggies for a while and you were cool with that, but now you won't hardly even do that. I'm glad of this, but also slightly frustrated because there's not a whole lot of things you are willing to try. We offer you just about everything, but the majority of the time you just shake your head no and turn away. I battle between forcing you to try it and just waiting it out. Things you have tried recently include sweet potato fries, french fries, fried white cheddar bites (from Zaxby's), banana pudding, grilled chicken, mac & cheese, barbeque chips, baked beans, potato salad, bread, cake. Please know that when I say try, I mean you may have taken 4-5 bites of these things if we were lucky. You love sweets and fruit. Somehow you just know when something will be sweet and you readily take a bite of that! You turn your head at pasta, meats, and veggies.
You wave and grin at just about everyone, but when someone new or you haven't been around them in a while, you get all bashful and go to me, Daddy, or Mamaw. You also get shy around people and don't show off your cool tricks like saying your words or your "touchdown" with your arms up and "Tennessee" where you hold your fingers up to say "1". You are a fan of country music and last week when we were coming back from Clarksville you finally calmed down when I turned it on a country station. You are an adorable dancer and kick/shuffle your feet, bop your head, bend your knees, and spin around. I love dancing with you.
We are trying hard to teach you "no". You know what this means, but you do not always listen. We want you to be obedient and it is not fun for Mommy to try and be consistent with this, but it's part of my job and I plan on taking it seriously. We pray every morning on the way to Pappy's for you to listen and to be obedient.
As much as I love the day time with you and being around you while you're so active, my favorite part of the day is still bed time. You pick out some books for us to read, crawl up in my lap, and I read to you. I say "Cooper are you ready for your bottle?" and you take out your pacy and reach for the bottle. I put the pacy on the table, you take your bottle and snuggle right up next to me. You drink your bottle and I catch up on Facebook, Twitter, and some blogs on my phone while you relax and enjoy your milk. Sometimes you are so tired you fall asleep mid-bottle. Sometimes you finish it and I switch the bottle for your pacy. Sometimes you just look up at me and drift off to sleep. Sometimes you reach your tiny hand to my neck and face. But every night you drift off to sleep in my arms. And every night I rock you just a couple extra minutes because I can. And every night it is in those quite minutes that I am rocking my baby, it seems all is right with the world. No matter what has happened that day and no matter what is on my heart/mind, in those minutes the world is just as it should be. Mommy rocking her baby boy to sleep. It is a feeling that words cannot explain. Some nights (like tonight) I get so overwhelmed with love for you, I can't help but shed a few tears.
I love you, little guy. Forever and Always.
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