Cooper has Left the Belly!

Cooper is here! He weighs 6 pounds 14 ounces and arrived at 9 am.

He is a couple of weeks early, but healthy and alert. He looks a lot like Holden. Thick black hair and Holden's cheeks.

We will post a picture soon.

-Carmen

Cooper is on his way

Cooper is on his way. Carmen went into labor about 10:30, after we scrambled to throw things together for the hospital and drop off H it was about 1 am before we got to the hospital and settled into our room. Halloween party next year, anyone? Stay tuned! Jordan

New Nephew has Arrived!

Our new nephew was born just a little while ago!!!!!

Hopefully, we will have a picture and details soon.

-Carmen

Holden Speak ... the part I left out

I left this off of the Holden Speak post the other day (out of embarrassment) but after relaying the entire story to my husband and mom, I realized how funny it really is....

As mentioned, at the grocery store Holden randomly pointed to my stomach and asked, "who's that?"  

I responded, "Cooper, your brother."  

"Oh, baby Pooper?"  

"Yes, baby Cooper."  

"Oh."

The part I left off was that after he pointed to my tummy, Holden also pointed to one of my boobs and asked, "who's that?"

"uhhhh, NOBODY!!!"

"Oh."

Afraid of where this was going I started looking for something on the shelf to distract him, and he pointed to the OTHER one and asked, "who's that?"

Good grief.  I'm a whale!

-Carmen

Thank You for Wearing PINK!

Holden Speak...

Holden shows signs of being that kid that steals your toaster only to dismantle it in the backyard .... to see what is on the inside that makes it work ... hmmmm, sounds a lot like his father.

H was watching one of his favorite kid shows and when it ended, decided he could figure out how to start it over or find another one. Holden's attempts to find the right button resulted in a blank blue screen.

This translated to Holden as "it's not working." He proceeded to pull the box off the shelf trying to get to the back where the hook ups are located. After several minutes of trying, Holden begrudgingly admitted defeat.

H stood at Jordan's side, hands behind his back mumbling, "um, meum ma shumessga. Essten bur balag guh." Which loosely translates to, "um, I was watching this show and it just stopped," hands now up in the air, shoulders shrugged. "I didn't do it, I swear." Now tugging at daddy's hand and pointing to the doorway, "can you come take a look at it?"

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Yesterday, at the grocery store Holden randomly pointed to my stomach and asked, "who's that?"  

I responded, "Cooper, your brother."  

"Oh, baby Pooper?"  

"Yes, baby Cooper."  

"Oh."

-Carmen

Knitty Gritty

I love knitting and have made it a personal mission to find the perfect stocking pattern or to create my own.  

So far, I'm still not 100% happy.  Maybe the next one will be right.

I just recently completed this one for Holden.

I like to line my stockings so they can take a beating from the likes of little boys.  Thank you SD for letting me borrow your sewing machine!

-Carmen

Anatomy of Elmo

Holden has several variations of Elmo dolls that he likes playing with.  This morning he was cuddling with the larger plush version and talking to him in baby babble.

Holden became very quiet and looked and me and plainly asked, "where's Elmo's tongue?"

I never thought about it before.  "He doesn't have one," I replied.

To which Holden tried prying the fuzzy red doll's mouth open further for a better look.  

"No tongue."  He stated.  Satisfied.

-Carmen

Work It!

This is one of those times I really really really wish I had my video camera.  

And ONE, and TWO, and THREE, and FOUR......  Work it, Ladies!

On the Coop Front

We had an appointment with the OB, today.

Good visit.  Cooper is in place for delivering and he is weighing in at 7.5 lbs!  

I've got 4 weeks to go???  UGH!!!

I'm not showing any significant signs that Cooper will be here anytime soon.

Time to start pacing the aisles of Target to try and speed it up!

-Carmen

So Happy to be Happy

A few nights ago, after Holden and I played for a couple of hours we took a brief pause to change his diaper.

Still dancing and wiggling on the changing table, Holden looked at me and said, "I'm so happy."

Not sure he really said it, I asked, "are you happy?"

He again said, "I'm so happy."

Mommies like hearing that.

-Carmen

Rowdy's Helper

Holden helped his Rowdy decorate a pumpkin over the weekend with stickers.  As you can see, he was concentrating very hard.

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I made some changes to the size of the pictures and usable space here.  I like the larger pictures MUCH better.  Now they look here in blogland more like they do on my computer.

Revisit the Pumpkin pictures from a few days ago, they are more vibrant and yummy now.

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Holden has now added to his new vocabulary...

"I'm sorry."

Unprompted "Please" and "Thank You"

"ouch" which he whispers.

"Where's paci, momma?"

And a bunch of other new ones over the last week.

-Carmen

Happy 21 Months!

My favorite thing about life with Holden this month is ... well there are two things.

Holden has been making up his own games.  His favorite is to stand on the doormat, back against the front door, count "1, 2, 3 GO!" and run squealing toward you, arms out, and collapse into your lap, giggling hysterically.  

Sometimes he wants you to count for him, and if he isn't ready when you get to "GO!" he becomes frustrated and insists on a "do over."  

He can do this for HOURS!

Holden has also been TALKING like a big boy!  He has always been a talkative baby, but now he actually makes a lot of sense.  He uses 3 word sentences frequently.  

He clearly tells us "I love you" ... though he started telling the square-pant yellow sponge this before us.

Holden asks, "where is bear?" his favorite stuffed animal friend, and at night he will ask us to give him a bath.

-Carmen

So Many Pumpkins!

October through January is hand's down my most favorite time of the year.

I have been indulging on caramel apples, cider, caramel apple cider (notice a trend?), candy corn, slow cooked roast, chicken noodle soup, fuzzy pajama pants, a sweater on occasion and my new FAVORite candle that smells like firewood (it's called Bonfire and has a wood wick so it CrAcKlEs while it burns.)

But our new family tradition to kick off the holiday season (started last year) is taking Holden for pumpkin pics.

We had so much fun watching Holden run around touching, throwing and climbing every pumpkin in sight.

Feast your eyes... on these eyes.

Where's Holden??? .... click on picture to cheat (click even if you found him.)

This one cracks me up!

It was a good day with my two most favorite guys....

Here is a picture of me with my babies.  A dad at the pumpkin patch told his kids I was stealing a pumpkin under my shirt.   

And here's one for Cooper...

-Carmen

Baby Ben

We met up with some friends at the arboretum over the weekend.

Meet Holden's buddy, Ben with daddy .......

Isn't Ben's mommy GORGEOUS!

Ben was happy the entire day with this one exception.... I cannot resist.

-Carmen

My Shadow

This morning ... like many mornings during the last 35 weeks ... I made a mad dash to the restroom to make an offering to the porcelain gods.

Holden followed and stood behind me babbling.  

He reached out to pat me on the back and asked, "Momma, ok?"  

He's not even 2, yet?  How does he know?  He came around to the side and began mimicking mommy at her finest.  

It was hilarious and weird at the same time.

-Carmen  

Smile for the Day

I could not resist this........

Charming bundle of gushy lovin.....

Art by GDW

Performed by TBS

(Turn up volume, click on image and smile)

-Carmen

Cooper Napping

We had a 4D ultrasound yesterday to get a look at Cooper in action.  

He napped, face buried for about 10 minutes ... even after mommy had a hot dog and DP.  So, we took a break and I consumed a Twix and half a can of another DP (which all came back up an hour later ... what a waste!) to get him moving.

Cooper decided to roll over and even opened his eyes a little (that was super CREEPY by the way.)

He looks EXACTLY like Holden when H was born.  Which means he looks like Jordan.

Jordan even joked that he's not sure either boy is mine!

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I have had such weird mixed feelings about how another baby fits in.  I couldn't wrap my brain around how we could possibly make a baby any different than the one we have.  

Who is this belly invader that keeps kicking me, anyway?

I am so GLAD we had the ultrasound.  It made all the difference in the world for me to see his sweet chubby cheeks and chubby arms.  Cooper felt familiar yet unique.  

When we saw his face clearly, it was like seeing him for the 100th time, and like the first ...  all at the same time.

He is perfect and special and I am a lucky mommy.

Only 6 weeks to go!

-Carmen