new things

so there are lots of new things going on around our house.. mr. cope has learned pattycake and discovered his mobile. he absolutely loves anything that moves nowadays.

he learned how to buy wood at home depot and how to build a workbench with his dad. daddy is always teaching cope some new manly skill. he also learns about cooking with mama (only when she is cooking things that aren't hot!)

he got a new hat which is way too big but still really cute on him and yesterday we saw the very first new fawn of the year. our neighborhood is crawling with deer so there are many more to come, but it's always special to see the first one.

he was going to run in his first 5k this weekend during the red poppy festival here in georgetown, but it got rained out. here he is the night before getting warmed up with some of his buddies, evan and nick, who were also going to run the race.

all of these new things are great but the time is flying by. i can't believe my little buddy is 2 1/2 months old. i feel like he's already no longer a baby! i guess i will just try my best to cherish every minute of it.. he will be all grown up and running races with his own legs before i know it.

cope's paws

my best buddy cope has recently discovered his hands and feet. well.. more like his arms and legs because the fine motor control isn't quite there yet, but needless to say we find it entertaining. for those of you who haven't spent a lot of time admiring cope in person, he has paws in place of hands. if you have ever seen a puppy version of something that is going to turn into a giant bodied dog like a rotweiler or a bulldog, you know what i'm talking about. their paws seem disproportionate to the rest of their body. if you have ever seen steve's hands or his dad's or grandaddy's hands, you also know what i'm talking about. they are wider than they are long. when we first brought him home i really wasn't sure that there wound't be a time when i would count them and there would be 6 fingers there and that i must have just missed the 6th one all the other times i counted.
to this day every time i focus in on his hands i count his fingers because they are so wide i would swear that there are 6 fingers poking off of them instead of 5. after counting them at least a thousand times you would think i'd be convinced, but for some reason i still count them. don't worry.. still 5.

growing up fast

mr. cope is acquiring skills at a lightening pace. he may just turn out to be a whiz kid of some sort. he is doing new tricks everyday and growing so fast! i can't believe he is nine weeks old already. dad taught him how to jump start the mower with the car battery and where to aim at the deer with a bow (with close supervision of course).


mom is working on colors, the alphabet, numbers and a little bit of spanish too. he is also working on his hand coordination.

we went for our 2 month check up last week and he weighs 12.1 pounds. he also had to get his first round of shots and he didn't like it very much. i think his dad liked it even less. he didn't seem to mind the oral rotavirus vaccine, although the nurse told us that most babies hate it.. i think he likes anything he thinks is food, as evidenced by being in the 60th percentile of weight and the 40th in height. the doc said that means he is a 40th percentile baby but that he just really likes his food!

my first trip to jesup

mr. cope went home on a plane with dad a few weeks back to go to his dad's buddy sherod's wedding. they flew without mom on the way there, but mom was with them on the way back (hence the pictures!)

a family friend and professional photographer widget bennett richards took some awesome pics for us while we were there.. check them out at http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/Vj5SE5Zg

cope also got to hang out with his nana and meet lots of his family members that he had not yet met. he met his great aunt joby, his papa bud and barbara...

here he is with his cousin carson...

his great grandmamma, aunt ree and aunt susie..

his cousins allison and little donnie and patrick...

his cousins chrissie and marianna...

and grandaddy and granny copeland.

he got his hide practically scrubbed off from all the baths from his nana (she loves a clean baby and he loves her)

dad and aunt nancy tried to take a picture in front of the azaleas.. but they were in need of some of widget's skills! nancy said that daddy was holding cope like he had just foofed his pants..

all of the love and the hugs and kisses just wore mr. cope out, but he can't wait to see his family again.

springtime in texas

mr. cope meets a lizard

he loves to swim

and he has so much energy! it's spring and cope loves it.. so do mom and dad.

eat, play, sleep

so when we brought mr. cope home, we didn't exactly know what to do with him. one book said never let him cry and hold him 24 hours a day and feed him whenever he looked funny, even if that means every 30 minutes. the other book said feed him every 3 hours on your schedule, put him to sleep when you want him to sleep, and if he fusses, walk in and check on him and if he is still in one piece, turn around and walk out so he can figure out how to self-soothe. well, i'm definitely a black and white kind of person, but neither of those things seemed right to me. the one bit of advice that seemed logical to me was this: eat, play, sleep. if you do it in that order, you really can't go wrong. feed him, play with him till he's sleepy, put him down for a nap, and when he wakes up he will do it because he is hungry and you start all over again. he didn't read either of those books, but eat, play, sleep has worked pretty well. except for when you take him on an airplane to georgia and get him mixed all up.. but those stories are for the next post...

world's strongest baby

so mr. cope is growing like a weed. i always tease him about how when i'm holding him under his arms and he bounces up with his big hamhock muscles like he is going somewhere... i ask him, "mr. cope, where are you going? do you have a date or something?" then i tell him, "no dates til you are two.. that's the rule". but apparently he is already a rebel.

yes, he has a girlfriend, i'm afraid. it's a girl at "work". her name is alexa and she is 1 1/2....an older woman. she is the granddaughter of cope's "boss" and they see each other at work everyday. alexa loves cope and gives him kisses all day long. she even cries when he leaves work for the day. we were invited to a wedding last weekend; cope's boss's youngest son got married and they had the ceremony at cope's work. we went and cope got kisses not only from his girlfriend but from every other lady at the wedding. am i surprised? no. dad puts baby cologne on him (j&j baby lotion) which makes him smell delicious. i think that may attract the ladies. i think he also gets all this attention because he is the world's strongest baby. why is he so strong? well, protein packed smoothies go into making his dinners, and his dad has him on a strict workout regimen. he has also been busy working on all the things that make him so irresistible like his Mr. Stretchy Face maneuver

getting smart by reading books before he goes to bed

learning horticulture

and looking adorable in general. he is also becoming an ever-attractive world traveler. today he went on an airplane for a solo flight with dad (solo as in without mom). i'll be joining them in jesup tomorrow. i miss him like crazy already!