Sleepy buddy

Cooper is a champion sleeper, and I know we are really lucky. He's started taking only one nap a day around half of the time, which sounds like a bad thing until you learn that his one nap is often over three hours long. He goes to bed every night right about at eight, and (knock on wood) hasn't woken up during the night for several months now. Yup- months. He gets up for the day between 6 and 7am, and sometimes when he's feeling snuggly he sleeps an extra 30 minutes or so in bed with Matt and I. That means that sometimes he sleeps 11 1/2 hours at night. And then takes a 3 hour nap. Wow.

Today is a rainy and cold day, which has translated to a sleepy day. He napped for 2 1/2 hours this morning (9 to 11:30), and now has been asleep for another hour (3 to 4) with no sign of waking up. I get soooo much done on days like this, which is awesome.

Sleepy kid!

Everyone gets a Bye Bye

Everything in the world needs to be waved at lately. Dogs across the street (Hi!) Car driving by (bye bye!) Daddy goes into the bathroom (bye bye!) Mom walks up the stairs (bye bye!)

It is a waving party around here. I'm glad the waving is so exciting, and takes place at appropriate times of hello-ing and bye-bye-ing. It is very charming. This morning, as Matt left to go volunteer downtown for a bike race, Cooper waved bye-bye to him as he went out the back door (to grab his bike) and then Cooper ran to the front window, hoisted himself onto the step so he could peer out, and waved bye-bye to Matt as he rode through the front gate onto the street.

Then Cooper looked at me all sad, and waved to me. I told him he was correct, Daddy did go bye-bye for the morning. And then we had breakfast together.

Signing starts

Cooper has started, all of sudden, to use the baby sign language that we've been sort of trying to teach him since he was around 8 months old. Matt and I have been working on just a couple of basics- waving goodbye, more, eat, spoon, milk... I think that is it. For the last month, Cooper has been using his own sign, that he invented, for "I want to nurse." This is a funny little thing he does- he runs up to me, gives me a big hug, and then taps me on the backs of my shoulders. Tap tap tap. I wanna nurse.

After I figured this out (and yes, it took me a long time) I started responding immediately because it was cool that he invented a sign. I think, and hope, that this sparked his interest in signs in general.

Now, he's into it. In the last three days, he's been signing "milk" when he wants more food, which is kinda funny because we've taught him "more" for that situation, not "milk." I don't care though- it is a darn close sign and really exciting that he's doing it. He also is starting to sign "milk" when he is nursing, which is encouraging in terms of getting the right sign for the right actual thing. He has yet to sign "more" or "spoon" but now is very good (and cute) at waving Bye. He also waves Hi, which I love. He likes to wave Hi at Matt when he comes and goes. Amusingly, Cooper is nondiscriminatory and sometimes waves Hi at the dog while he's sitting on the front stoop waiting to be let in.

I'm hoping that the more vs. milk thing starts clearing up, and I'm also thinking that now is the right time for Matt and I to learn more signs and start using them. If Cooper just put it all together, I want to encourage his little brain! So far, we've added "chicken" to the signs we are going to use with him. Fun!

Growth charts

Did you know that in the USA, we don't use the World Health Organization growth chart? Nope. Wanna know why? Because that chart applies best to babies that are breastfed according to the World Health Organization guidelines. Which is about 2% of US kids. Yikes.

So I downloaded that chart, out of curiousity, and plotted Cooper's stats on it. Guess what? He's exactly at 50% for everything.

I can't say I'm surprised. But now I fully intend to ignore the growth chart at the pediatrician, because that chart is for a different demographic than my kid is.

These things are so interesting once you dig deeper, I think.

Birthday party success!

We had Cooper's make-up birthday party (he came down with a high fever on the morning of the first one that we had planned) and it was great! Cooper played with his toys, the adults chatted and hung out at the BBQ, and then we all ate cake. Well, almost all.

As suspected, Cooper utterly rejected his cupcake (he's become really picky most of the time) but I think I still got some good shots of him staring in horror at the single tiny birthday candle in it. He was wearing his super cute birthday boy shirt that Aunt Pam gave him, and ran around happily for about 3 out of 4 hours of his party. The last hour he got tired and cranky so Matt, Nicole and I took turns holding him to keep him happy. You know you have a nice babysitter when she voluntarily comes to your kid's birthday party, and even brings her very pleasant boyfriend.

We asked people not to bring gifts (both for them to save money, and because we don't need any more stuff) but one friend still got Cooper a really adorable little stuffed owl, and Nicole brought him an organic avocado with a bow on it. That is an inside joke between us, as avocado is one of Cooper's favorite foods and I offhandedly joked one day that I should ask all our guests to either bring avocados or frozen blueberries as gifts, because that is why Cooper would really want for his birthday. And frankly, that stuff is not cheap when you go through it as fast as we do.

Bye-bye!

Yesterday, Matt was getting ready to go to school and I was holding Cooper. Matt walked into the entryway of our house, where he was out of sight because of the angle of the wall, and Cooper raised his left hand, waved, and said "Bah-bah!"

I was very surprised. Cooper has never done that before (or since). For a second I thought maybe it was just a wild coincidence, but then again we've been waving bye-bye for months now. Upon thinking about it, I think it is actually more likely that he was testing his "bye-bye" and waving skills out during a fairly typical bye-bye waving scenario.

I can't wait until he tries it again. So exciting!

Balancing

Cooper recently has taken a big interest into how things balance. He especially seems to enjoy balancing his stacking rings on their edges, which is quite challenging for him. Matt and I are pretty amazed that he learned to do this himself (we did ask the babysitter, and she denied teaching him how to do it) and it is funny to watch him balance one or two, and then act really proud of his work. He get soooo frustrated with the purple and tan rings (the two biggest ones) because they are the toughest ones to balance- he sometimes stomps off in a huff when they finally drive him nuts. We let him fail to balance these all the time, and try not to giggle at his little tantrums, because Matt and I agree it is very good for him to try and fail at this sort of baby-learning task.

He also likes balancing big things on little things. Like empty milk jugs on top of coffee mugs, or a book on top of a toy. And he like to stack his cars on top of each other, which makes me giggle because they often look like they are mating. Yes, I know that is all in my head, but it is still funny.

Last but not least, he's learned that he can climb stuff by throwing his outstretched foot onto the edge of it. As opposed to the technique he employs for the stairs, which is all about his knees, this is more versatile and allows for conquering taller objects. The two things he most often climbs onto using his new foot-stretching technique is the back and front deck. Which is cute, but of course then he has to get down. We are still working on safe methods for getting off the decks!