First Pumpkins

I have purposely held off on this weeks post so I could put up Halloween pictures. We have had a fun week and weekend preparing, so here goes...

We had a pumpkin filled week and weekend. We carved pumpkins on Sunday (the 28th) at home. We took a recommendation from Desiree and carved out a large pumpkin to put Cooper in for pictures. I am SO glad we did it because he is so adorable! He had a little green cap that was part of his Halloween costume that made the whole image (see last pic in this post). TAlso, I decided NOT to buy Cooper a costume-type costume for Halloween. Instead, I bought a cute little romper that was orange with a pumpkin face and the afore-mentioned green cap. The whole outfit was adorable and he was able to wear it to daycare all day.

I just loved the pumpkins that Danny and I carved this year. We have carved pumpkins every year since we started dating in 1997. It has become such a great tradition for us that we included the Venuk's last year for a GREAT time. This year we invited a few people to come over and join us, but it didn't pan out. Next year we plan to make an official party of it with all of our friends, but this year it was just the three of us. Anyway, Danny's pumpkin was kind of wide and so we carved it with three eyes. Mine was the one that we used for Cooper's pictures and had to cut the top off a little lower then normal. So, I had the great idea to make it a Frankenstein with stitches in his forehead. I know, pretty clever!

We did actually go trick-or-treating. Our neighbors invited us over for drinks and to help pass out candy. There were two other couples for a total of two 2-yr olds, and babies at 6 mos (Cooper), 5 mos, 3mos, and 2 mos. We took one of the two year olds out for candy and carried Cooper along to see the neighbors. But, for whatever reason, all of our neighbors turned off their lights! Bah Humbug! We didn't venture over to the other streets which apparently had lots of decorations. Oh well, we have LOTS of years of that ahead of us!

This last weekend was also Cooper's first official sleepover. We went to play poker at the Venuk's Saturday night and didn't want to mess up all the great sleep-training that we have been doing. So, I asked Mom and she was thrilled to keep him overnight. We dropped him off around 6pm on Saturday and I picked him up Sunday at about 9am. We had a great time at the Venuk's and got home around midnight, but I almost wish I had just come home and gone straight to bed!! I did get some good rest, but I was sick and had a stuffy head which interfered with my sleep on the baby-free night. Oh well, we will take advantage of Mamaw again in the next month or so! As far as sleep goes, Cooper did so well at Mom's (see sidebar).

And Cooper started big boy food a week ago Thursday. We are now eating breakfasts and dinners that consists of cereal and various fruits and veggies including pears, carrots, sweet potatoes and peas. Tonight he ate out with us at Mi Cocina and we fed him at the table. I am so proud of how well he is eating! He loves the homemade food, but the flavors do seem a little strong for him. I have been mixing everything with cereal and milk to mute the flavors which he seems to like much better. Mamaw thinks that he needs to start eating during the day, but I don't want to rush his little digestive system. So, I upped his milk to 6 ozs and we are working on hearty meals for breakfast and dinner until he gets into the swing of things.

Lastly, Cooper isn't quite over his ear infection. He did have a slight reaction to Amoxcycillin (sp?) where he broke out in a pretty minor skin rash that started on top of his noggin and ended up on his belly and back. So, I guess that is just one more thing! We'll do one more round of antibiotics to get rid of it completely. He is such a little trooper.

I am finally starting to work with all the videos that we have been taking, so lookout for Cooper's Top Ten coming to the blog soon!