New toys

Thanksgiving

Cooper enjoyed time with grandparents, aunts, and uncles. He especially likes clapping other people's hand together, and always does so with his mouth wide open.

But the biggest hit of the weekend really was my Dad and his dog Prince.

Continued mobility

The head tilt.

In yet another level of cuteness, Cooper now tilts his head to one side. An effort to be coy? Lazy neck muscles? Water in his ear? Who knows, but it's pretty precious.

It's an especially popular trick during meal times:

He had a little trouble going left at first:

But he got it figured out:

Hanging out with Daddy.

Guess the noise.

This would obviously work better if I had little sound clips I could play after each photo. But bear with me.

What might Cooper sound like when he makes this face?

Did you guess nasally whiny noise? The kind of noise that, in a year, will cause me to say "I'm sorry. I don't understand whining. You'll have to use your words." Then you'd be right.

How about this one?

After this one, I might say "Oh yes sir I am the boss of you. Now go clean your room."

This is a relatively new one. He makes little spitting sounds with this face. And then he makes sounds like he's imitating radio static. No clue what he means yet. But it's entertaining.

I know. It's humiliating to be photographed while doing your "morning business." And then for me to plaster it all over the internets. Poor kid. We'll start a therapy fund now.

Cooper's baby doll

But first a video of his latest skill.

There's no sound (my camera isn't that fancy), but the video works better than still pictures for this particular feat. (I took the video in the middle of a meal, which explains why he has food all over his face and why, at the end, he turns back to me like he needs something rightnow.)

Ok, now Cooper's baby doll.

See the baby's plastic pacifier?

So did Cooper:

And when I took the pacifier away:

Maybe Coop's too young to play with the baby just yet.

New things lately

We've been working on standing:

And on getting used to being on our knees, as a precursor to crawling hopefully:

Coop's got a roving eye, it appears. The moment before I snapped this picture, he was reaching out to touch the pretty girl. (She was a law student. We were at KU law school for a team research competition, and she was the spirit squad for her team.)


And we're having fun trying out different finger foods. Rice seemed to go over well, at least the part that actually made it in his mouth!

My son hates fall.

Can you guess what would make Cooper cry like this:

And cling to his dadddy for dear life like this:

Leaves. Yup, leaves.

We went outside to take some cute fall pictures, and as I was kicking a big pile of leaves around, Cooper started screaming. The same kind of scream he used when he got his first shots. Poor kid.

He eventually calmed down. Doesn't he look calm here?

I guess he's a little young for tossing leaves into the air or jumping into a big pile of them. He mostly tried to eat the leaves.

He seemed fine when Daddy was holding him though:

And luckily for me, he's perfectly content to sit in a big pile of laundry while I toss it around!

Random interesting note: Today, Cooper is 38 1/2 weeks old, which means that he's now been living with us for the same length of time as he was percolating inside my tummy. Strange. It seems like I was pregnant for such a short period of time and that he's been with us for something like four years or so.

Trick or Treat!

Cooper's parrot costume:
He makes the perfect addition to our pirate family:

And might Dirty Sam Cash working in his office: