These Feet Are Made For Walking!!

The past couple of weeks Cooper has been frantically perfecting his walking ability. He still looks like a drunken Leprechaun doing the limbo a lot of the time, but he is getting pretty good. Please ignore my messy house, I really have to blame that on Cooper. And do note how well he listens to me and how I resort to mild psychotic behavior.

He has lots of other little tricks-he likes to clap when we say 'yay!' (we like to do this as he walks across the floor happily clapping and Brandon and I chanting 'yay!') He also likes to raise his arms when we say 'arms up' and he loves to wave, backwards (towards himself), but I am still counting it. Oddly, he had a lot of words he use to say and he seems to have abandoned talking for walking!

Happy 11th Month, Kiddo!

Wow, what a difference a few months can make. Here is Cooper back in March, strangled by Grandma and looking tiny on the tiger.

And here he is this last weekend, looking more and more like a little boy than baby and able to touch the ground!!

He is so close to walking right now and takes steps whenever he feels like it, he also loves to chase the dogs around laughing maniacally, and we have his ball pit set up in the living room and he likes to go there and have a little privacy to 'do his business', if you know what I mean.

4th of July for Old Foggies

We had a fun 4th, we went out to breakfast and Cooper yelled every time he wanted a bite of something (exactly every 2.3 seconds). I think our restaurant days are nearing an end. Then we went to the zoo where Cooper was more interested in the animals than the last time he was there. He even waved to the tiger, his new trick that he learned while wooing all the women in Albertsons. Then we came home and hung out in the backyard all day. Cooper had his ball pit, his pool, and he was fixed up. And he would scream if you tried to take him in the house. This past week he has really been good at taking a few steps once in awhile, especially on the grass because if he crawls he has to do a daddy-long leg crawl (he still doesn't like the grass touching him).

Brandon bought a ton of fireworks for Cooper's first 4th and he proceeded to light them off periodically throughout the day and Cooper really did enjoy them. It was a good thing too, since those were the only ones we saw. Cooper hates going to bed on weekends so two hours past his bedtime, and several multi-faceted attempts to get him to sleep, we finally both took him to bed and waited him out. Unfortunately, since he kept us up the night before we conked out with him. I woke up at 11:00 to hear the happy sounds of a neighborhood a-light with fire power-and I promptly went back to sleep. I woke up this morning wondering what on earth we will do with the pile of fireworks since it is so tacky to light off fireworks on days other than the 4th of July.

Cooper doing his patriotic pose-and no eating the flag does not count as desecration.
How happy is this guy??
Quite the clam digger, this one.

Reunion Time

Last weekend was our annual Durfee-Brackenbury reunion and it was a busy time. Friday Cooper threw up on me (twice). It was a little ironic since I packed multiple outfits for him, but not so many for myself! It was also freezing cold, even in the trailer that Cooper and I commandeered from my parents. And Saturday he exploded in my cousin Rhonda's baby's walker! Then he woke up screaming at midnight and as I stood up to turn on the light he dove past me out of the bed and onto the floor! EEK! Then he screamed for two hours (I promise not because he fell out of the bed) but because his teeth were bugging him and he was really stuffed up.

But we really did have a great time. It was super fun to see everyone and we had a huge crop of new babies, so that was exciting. We had horseshoes, kids games, finger painting, face painting, a dismal craft project that I put on, an excellent talent show, and our ever popular auction. It was a fun weekend, but I am still tired from it!

Cooper getting a little crazy with sponge painting

Eating his ever handy snackins with cool sunscreen hair

Gloria and Dick and their respective mean and fat dogs

Cousin Vicki, or a crazy hillbilly (or both??)

Durfee girls doing a little ditty