Mother's Day Weekend

Despite the illness in our house we were able to enjoy a nice Mother's Day weekend.  I was so lucky to get to see one of my oldest friends, Lindsay, on Friday.  What a treat to be able to catch up with her - we have been friends for over 20 years!

On Saturday, I had a bit of a "me time" and was able to go to a group exercise class at gym, take a nap (glorious), and eat meals Ryan had cooked for me.  I only regretted the exercise class the next day when I couldn't move.

On actual Mother's Day, I woke up to snow (?!) and Ryan took me to Lamar's donuts.  I had been wanting to taste Lamar's donuts so I could rank my favorite donut spots (I know - I think about really important stuff) and they are better than Krispy Kreme!  I didn't believe it could be true...but I swear!  They melt in your mouth.  So since you are all waiting with bated breath, here is my ranking:  1)  Lamar's, 2) Krispy Kreme, 3) Winchell's, 4) Dunkin Donuts.

I also got spoiled with a beautiful necklace with Copeland's name, birth date, and birth stone, and a lobster dinner.  The only thing that could have made the day better is if I wouldn't have broken my toe by walking right into the wine rack.  It takes skill to be as uncoordinated as I am.  So much for starting to train for a race.

Illness Be Gone

The past two weeks have been crazy in our household.  It all started a week ago Wednesday when I got a call from school that Copeland had vomited copious amounts for no apparent reason.  I rushed out of work and by the time I showed up at school he had vomited another 3 times.  So I took him home and gave him Mommy loving and he promptly vomited again.  A lot.  As in it soaked through all my layers of clothes and still was dripping off of us onto the floor.  So I immediately called the doctor's office and the on-call nurse said it was no big deal and I could give him Pedialyte and just watch him.  The pedialyte seemed to do the trick so I took him back to school on Thursday and didn't receive any unusual report until Friday, when he apparently was sensitive during the afternoon.  Copeland is rarely ever sensitive but I thought it might be residual from whatever bug he'd had earlier in the week.  Boy was I wrong.

Saturday was supposed to be a Mommy and Me day as Daddy was taking a training to be able to teach the Insanity class at the gym.  The day started off okay...  We went to swim lessons and he seemed fine.  He was a little fussy afterwards, which was strange but I didn't think much of it.

We got to go out to lunch together but I cut that short because he was...um...rather vocal.  (Sidenote:  The lobster from Phil & Ted's is awesome for the family that likes to go out to eat with their little one!)

And after that, the day just went downhill.  He developed a cough, runny nose, and fever and was very unhappy and fairly inconsolable.  He just kept getting worse as the day wore on and by the time Daddy came home he was full blown sick.  And he stayed that way for FIVE days.  We did visit the doctor twice (actually 3 times if you count the trip to get chest x-rays) during this time period and he said it was viral and there was nothing to do except let his body fight.  All we could do was snuggle him, give baths, give Tylenol, etc.  This non-stop soothing is a glimpse of our lives for almost an entire week.

Copeland finally broke the fever by Thursday morning but he still today doesn't seem 100%.  And THEN, Ryan got sick!  He is in the beginning stages right now of everything Copeland had and he is miserable.  I'm crossing my fingers that the dryness I felt in my throat this morning is just that - dryness - and not the beginning of me getting sick too!

Catch up

Now that we finally have reliable internet at home (bye bye overpriced, non-functioning Comcast) I plan to finally start posting more regularly again AND catching up with all my blogger friends.  Because I've been such a sporadic poster, I really have a lot of catching up to do, so some of my posts might be about events that happened a couple months ago and some of them might be about current happenings.  I guess it just depends on my mood.

Here are a few"firsts" of Copeland's that I want to share.

First hike in late March:

First cruise in The Church Lady in early April (also the same day as first time getting face painted like a cat):

First swim lesson in early April:

First time using his sippy cup himself in late April:

Perfect Weekend

My weekend got off to a great start because Ryan surprised me with a Mommy's night out on Friday.  He had scheduled a massage and mani/pedi for me and then when I got home he had cooked an amazing dinner of salmon croquettes.  What a relaxing Friday night!

Saturday morning we had Copeland's third swim lesson and Ryan got in with him this time as I had swam with him during his previous two lessons.  Basically the lessons try to teach how to be comfortable and safe in the water while having fun.

Copeland loves his swim lessons!  We knew he would because he always has such a ball at bath time.  He even thinks getting dunked is pretty funny.

Swimming sure is super tiring though.  Little man slept right through our trip to Dunkin Donuts and then some.  Those feet!  I just want to eat them up!

It was such a beautiful day that we wanted to get out and enjoy the sunshine so later we went on a hike not too far from our house.  We we were so eager to get out that we didn't pack a hat or jacket for Copeland so we rigged something up that we thought would protect him a little from the wind and sun.  (Don't worry - he did actually have sunscreen on).  It worked out well at first:

But then it turned into this:

Ha!  So we ended up hiking like this:

And he was just fine.

We ended the evening with another yummy meal by Ryan - beef stir-fry.  We had discussed going to church this morning but I slept too late.  Oops.  It was a perfect overcast day to hang out at the house in our pjs.  I probably never would have changed out of my pjs if I hadn't had a neighborhood tea in the afternoon.  It was lovely to catch up with some of the neighborhood ladies for a couple hours and then come back home to my boys.

What a perfect weekend.

Closer to His First Birthday Than His Actual Birth Day

Yikes!  Another month older and another month closer to being an entire year old!  At 7 months old Copeland has reached the stage where he changes and learns something new each and every day.  Here are some of his 7 month accomplishments:

• Sitting up!  He still sometimes topples over, especially to the side, but is doing a pretty good job of sitting up and twisting his body to and fro without supporting himself with his hands.  
• Scooting!  He's definitely getting more mobile and can turn circles and scoot short distances.
• Very enthusiastic eater.  He pretty much attacks the spoon and smacks his lips loudly.  He's kind of a slow eater and seems to savor whatever he has in his mouth.  He also gets food pretty much everywhere...hair, eyebrows, ear, etc.  He has tried so many fruits and veggies now and has liked everything.  He even decided he liked sweet potatoes after he tried them a second time.  He eats solids two times a day in addition to drinking milk about 6 times a day.
• For a short period he thought it was super funny to make fake coughing sounds.  Being the mature parents we are we immediately began referencing "Zoolander".
• Fast hands!  My goodness he can latch on to things so quickly!  I've almost lost an asparagus spear or two when I thought my plate was out of reach!  
• Outgrowing 6 month old clothes.
• Went through a phase of not sleeping.  We had always been so lucky that Copeland was such a good sleeper but for about 3 weeks he was keeping us up a lot of nights.  I thought perhaps he was teething but he still doesn't have any!  I also thought maybe he was having growing pains because it seemed like I could almost see him grow on a daily basis.
• Favorite toys are noisemakers.  He loves shaking anything that rattles or squeaks - especially his cage ball that has another ball inside of it that has rattles in it.
• Head shaking - Copeland thinks this is the greatest thing ever.  He vigorously shakes his head from side to side.  I get so much enjoyment out of having conversations with him where I ask him a question and he violently shakes his head "no".  
• Johnny Jump Up - Copeland has figured out how to bounce in the Johnny Jump Up that Dion and Amy gave to us.  It's pretty hilarious to hear his little feet tapping on the ground.
• My goodness is this boy vocal.  He has this noise that I'll call his war cry because it kind of sounds like what I would imagine pirates getting ready to take over a ship sound like - "arrrrgggghhhhh".  He also has what Ryan and I like to call the "Lloyd Christmas", a la "Dumb and Dumber".  He will just sit and make this loud, monotonous sound for what seems like an eternity.  Especially when he finds a tag on anything.  We knew he was doing this at home and then have had several reports that he does this at school too.  In fact, one day we got the report that the preschool teacher (two rooms away) came over to the infant room to check that everything was ok because he was yelling so loudly.  Oye.  One super fun thing about him finding his voice is that he started saying bababababa and dadadadada.  Exciting changes!

We love this little guy more than words could ever express and are having the time of our lives.  I never thought I'd be so happy saying things like "Did you poopy?" or "Please don't bite Mommy's arm", but I couldn't ask for anything more.  

Copeland's First Flight

The past month and a half we have been very fortunate to spend a lot of time with family.  Over Valentine's/President's Day weekend we flew to Branson to visit Ryan's grandparents and were also able to see his Mom, Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.  It was Copeland's first flight so we weren't sure what to expect but he handled it like an old pro.  For three of the four legs we were able to take his car seat on with us so he had his own seat.  Also, those flights weren't full so it was really easy to nurse him inconspicuously.

On the underground tram at the airport (I didn't know Ryan was taking a picture):

Partying at the gate:

On the plane!

Another stealth picture by Ryan

Getting all kinds of loving:

Grammies

Nanaw

Grammies and Great Grandad

Uncle Gary

Grammies and Aunt Kaye

Tyler and Heather

We had such a wonderful time visiting with everyone and it passed by much too quickly.  It seemed like a whirlwind but we're so thankful we got to spend time with everyone and that Copeland was able to meet so many family members.  He seemed to have a great time and was happy to visit with everyone.  Also, travelling with him was pretty easy because he was so calm and we didn't have to pack much since Aunt Kaye had a pack and play for him to sleep in.  In the future I would probably plan things a little differently, such as NOT FORGETTING the baby carrier.  It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult but carrying a 15/16 pound little guy all around an airport in your arms can really be tiring.  I remembered about halfway to the airport that I had forgotten his carrier - I was not happy.  Also, it was super nice for Copeland to have his own seat for when he wanted to sleep or when he just didn't want to be held.  While we lucked out and didn't have to pay for his seat on this trip, I would definitely consider purchasing a seat for him on future trips.  

Like father, like son

When I was pregnant with Copeland, I often said "I think he's going to be just like his Daddy" because I could feel how BUSY he always was.  If I only knew then how right I would be that he is SO MUCH like his Daddy.  Let me just list some of the many ways:

• Face shape
• Zero body fat
• They are both that creature I once thought mythical called an "early bird"
• They both fall asleep at the dinner table (unfortunately for Ryan, these incidents aren't isolated to when he was a baby - see prior bullet point)
• SO ACTIVE
• Love music
• Sleep on their stomachs
• Love bananas (yuck)

This picture makes my heart sing :)

The very few things where Copeland is similar to me:

• Smiling.  Smiling's our favorite.
• Auburn hair and dark eyes 
• LOUD TALKING

Of course, while Copeland may share some similar characteristics with his Mommy and (more so) Daddy he is definitely his own sweet, wonderful, individual person.  We love seeing his emerging looks and personality and learning about all the things that make him uniquely Copeland.