COOPER-MONTH 6!!!

Cooper, don't be too mad at your mommy for being three days late in writing this blog for you because for the past three days I have spent the majority of my time holding you, rocking you and praying to the Almighty that you stop crying.

We had a rough weekend. On Friday night you, my marvelous beautiful baby boy who has slept through the night from the very beginning of your life decided to wake up and cry every two hours...I dutifully got up with you. I rocked you, I fed you and sometimes I even held you on my lap and we both slept in the big bed.

On Saturday I could tell something was wrong. You didn't want to take a nap. You didn't want to play. You didn't want to eat. You wanted to cry. And cry. And then, in case we didn't get it, you wanted to cry some more. Saturday night you didn't sleep, only cried. The most frustrating part in all of this was the fact that I didn't know what was wrong. Were you hurting? Were you hungry? Were you on some kind of baby crack that had opened a whole new realm of emotions for you? Did you finally hear who our new president was?

Finally around 8:30 Sunday morning, I told your daddy that he HAD to take you for a little while because I HAD to sleep at least an hour. I was exhausted. He took over Cooper-duty while I slept on the couch. I still woke up every little bit when I would hear you and ask how you were and remind your daddy of things like "um did you feed him" and "try changing his diaper" and other relatively easy baby things it would seem but for some reason when your daddy is the sole provider for you these things fall out of his head.

Things went from bad to worse. When word got around that you were sick your family CONVERGED into our house. Your grandma Mincey tends to freak out in all situations concerning you and it didn't help my mood or the fact that I was running on very little sleep by insisting that I go lay down while she folded clothes and did dishes. Even if you actually are exhausted if someone keeps insisting that you are, IT BECOMES MADDENING.

Luckily by Sunday night we had a system I sat up in bed with pillows behind me and crossed my legs indian style. I put a pillow on my legs and propped you up, facing me. It worked. You slept. I slept. I still woke up a lot but not to you screaming, I woke up just to touch your face or chest to make sure you were breathing. We made it through the night.

Yesterday you were a completely different baby. Thank God you finally started feeling better and you were back to being MY MOST PRECIOUS, SWEET, LOVING TINY HUMAN BEING THAT I REMEMBERED!

You completely amaze me with your new skills. You roll, you "sing", you play and you definitely have your very own personality. Last night I was letting you play with a new toy that is actually supposed to strap to your car seat to give you something to do while riding but since it wasn't on your seat yet I decided to let you try it out. It is a long hard plastic bar with toys that spin and light up in the middle. It velcro's onto the car seat. After I had given you this baby death toy to play with I realized just how dangerous it was. It would be fine if it had indeed been fastened securely onto your seat but since I handed it to you loose you gripped it in your chubby fists and waved it furiously around hitting several things including your own face and head...after seeing this several times (if I was a good mom, one time would have been enough, but I swear it was so entertaining...) anyway I finally took it away which sent you into a tantrum! I know realistically that I should discourage such behavior but I just looked at you in awe and wonder and rejoiced in the fact that you're YOU! You may only be 6 months old but you know what you want. You wanted that toy and you were extremely aggravated that I took it away and you let me know! You communicated your feelings! I don't why this amazes me but for some reason it just reiterates the fact that YOU'RE REAL. You are a real human being and you're developing normally and you are reaching all your milestones and MY GOSH AT THE PERSONALITY YOU ALREADY HAVE!

Sometimes I'll hold you standing up in my lap so our faces our even and I'll say "COOPER. COOPER. COOPER" over and over again trying to get you to look at me. You deliberately turn your head to look past my shoulder and then I see you smile. YOU'RE ALREADY IGNORING ME, oh what a great relationship we're going to have when you're a teenager!

No matter what your face always lights up when your daddy or your grandpa frosty walks in the room...I pretend like it annoys me but it's actually pretty cute, you are definitely a "man's man"!

You sing to me by looking at me and screeching in different tones and I can only imagine that you feel like I'm doing the same thing when I try to sing to you.

You love prunes and bananas and sweet potatoes but most of all you love coke! When you reach for my cup I usually give you a sip and your eyes get big and you get VERY excited and then afterwards you make this growly noise and flap your arms to show everyone who very much you love sugar!

This week is your very first Thanksgiving. Oh Cooper, you have not known the definition of "fiasco" until you live through a holiday season with our family! I have many stories to share with you when you're older and only if you promise to not repeat the words I'll have to use to describe the happenings...but most of all this Thanksgiving and Christmas you're going to experience the most love and joy and warmness that you've ever felt! No matter how many times we change the location of Thanksgiving with grandma Joann or how "late" we happen to be to grandma Mincey's (even though it's not really fair to say "we'll eat between 12-:00 and 12:30" and then call at 11:55 and ask why we're not there yet. If you want to eat at 11:55, FINE, but just say so to begin with...) anyway DESPITE all of those things holidays rock with our families! They are second to none and you are going to love it! You will be passed around and hugged more than you have in your entire life. And the presents, OH THE PRESENTS! You will be surrounded by shinny paper and curly ribbons and bags and bags that will CRINKLE in your submissive little hands! And nap time is completely unheard of on holidays. You will be encouraged to stay up and play until you finally have to lay down in the floor amongst piles of discarded gift wrap and boxes and catch a short rest. Then we'll get you back up because it will be time to try new foods and anything and everything sugar coated! That is a holiday with our family.

And as for the "warm fuzzy" feeling, well that comes from grandma Mincey's house. It will be the hottest feeling you've ever had. (She even bought a brand new heater last month...) Luckily for you you're still young enough that it would be acceptable for you to strip down naked and roll around on the floor cool yourself off...

hugs and kisses and love,
your mommy
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PREGNANT AGAIN!!!

not me.

dooce is preggo again http://www.dooce.com

i cant wait to read about her preggo-related adventures...they promise to be very amusing...and by the way did i freak any of you out just now with the whole "pregnant again" DID I? DID I?!

For Your Viewing Pleasure

you should watch this youtube clip...you will laugh...repeatedly...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtKxrYp0pC0

okay GRETCHEN, here's your freakin blog...

I was told to write a blog so here's whats on my mind right now...

My current gripe and pet peeve:
there is a family waiting to see an investigator in the front lobby. I am sitting at the front desk because I was the unfortunate loser of the day. The mom is sitting in the chair facing me (even though there are plenty of chairs that don't require her to stare directly at me), and she's gripping about various things such as that she's cold, blah blah blah.

Her kid, a TEENAGE girl is spinning around right in front of the glass window to my office. She spins and spins and spins all the while saying "THE ROOM IS SPINNING, THE ROOM IS SPINNING" then she crashes spread eagle into the window (picture a bug hitting your windshield).

This is beyond annoying and distracting and I can't even eat my cheesy spaghetti bake because of the pandemonium AND THE FRIGGIN STARRING.

And this is not a little girl. If she was 3 I might (*might* depending vastly on my mood) find this endearing and cute but the girl is at least 13...(and not mentally handicapped...) although maybe if she hits the glass a few more times she'll qualify...

The Power of...Brain Power...x's 3...

Mom (Lorri), Angela and me have went coupon crazy. (As many of you already know). But we have realized that couponing is hard. It takes perseverance...it takes strategy...it takes brain power. And we have also realized that we don't have enough brain power alone, we must unite our brains to come up with one usable brain that is capable of true couponing genius...


Latest example: Last night kroger's was out of carnation evaporated milk that was on sale. This was a bummer because we were expecting to get it for free...here's how: it's normal price is $1.24. It was on sale for $1.00. But it was also part of the MEGA 10 DEAL where if you bought 10 items you got an additional $5.00 off your order. So if you bought 10 cans when you calculate that, it makes them $0.50 a can. HOWEVER we also had several coupons that were $0.50 off of 2 AND because kroger's doubles coupons that would make it $1.00 off of 2 and since we were getting them for $0.50 each that would make them free...now since they were out, we all got rainchecks and the rainchecks were written "each can $0.50 each". For some reason this blew our mind, our coupons went out of our brain window and we were mad thinking we were going to have the buy the milk for $0.50 a can...still a good deal but not free...


It took us 3 brains, 13 hours, a night's sleep, 3 phone calls and 1 voicemail later to realize that we would in fact still be able to obtain them for free...after using our coupons...

I'm glad we have each other because...well...I'm just not sure that any of us are smart enough to do this alone...

You're like a homeless person...but with a home...

"You're a scavenger...you're like a homeless person...but with a home...and a job and a baby." That was the random quote that one of the deputies slapped me in the face with today when I merely mentioned that Shane's was giving away free chicken tenders if you brought in your "I VOTED" sticker.

Yes, I am like a scavenger. I'm just about the cheapest person you'll ever meet but who would turn down FREE CHICKEN?!

Now I can't honestly say that this quote came unprovoked, as every single day that I've seen him for the last week I've boasted about some kind of deal that I got for free...and okay maybe that does make me sound a little pathetic especially when you pair it with the fact that I told him about how I sometimes dumpster dive for coupons...BUT STILL...

KNOW THIS DEPUTY TYLER HENRY, I will no longer be sharing with you any of my fabulous finds and I hope that you always have to pay full price for your chicken as long as you live...

Harsh, I know but this idle threat comes with no fear of repercussion as he informed me he would never read my blog because he has no desire to read about "kittens and fluffy babies" or something like that and incidentally those happen to be my favorite subjects...