The early days of being a new mom are so tough. No one can ever tell you how hard it is to have a newborn and you don't know how hard a new human being can be until you have one of you own. You have lofty dreams while you're pregnant of having this "dream" baby that sleeps through the night, a baby that smiles and coos and never cries...then, real-life hits and you look at this precious being that is totally your responsibility. I couldn't wait for this mommy thing to become easy...

Eh, it's still not easy 10 months in but the effort is totally worth the rewards. I experienced one of these rewards yesterday while at the park doing a school supply drive with my mom's group. Cooper was in a swing and was smiling and giggling so loudly as he would swing towards and then swing away. My heart hurt as I looked at him. I love him so much that sometimes I don't know how my heart can make it.


His smile is like a burst of sunshine! He can be driving me crazy when he's fighting a nap and he can give me one of those smiles and it's just about all I can do to just not bring him back down to the living room to play. The way he laughs when I pretend that I'm going to eat his toes is music that I hope my ears always remember.


Motherhood is the hardest experience that I ever signed up for but is the greatest journey all wrapped into one.

He's so funny to me!

We practice of our sitting up with our Boppy infront of him and a couch throw pillow behind him (I'm real high-tech, eh?)...I guess he decided he was done sitting up and wanted to roll away. Alas, his Boppy served as a barrier to his freedom! I just think he is a hoot and a half! The last picture is why he'll never be spanked (which I'm not a proponent of really anyways!) or grounded...who could ever get mad at that cute little face?

My living room is a baby's dream but a mommy's nightmare! We have toys everywhere but it's a happy house so excuse the mess ;)

Hip Helpers

Cooper has his very own pair of Hip Helpers support shorts for our exercises at home! He has a tendency to have "froggie" legs when on his tummy and he kinda just lets them flop around when he rolls. These help kids that have hip abductions and/or low muscle tone which is Cooper's case so his PT recommended that we get them for Cooper's home exercises.






As you can see, he still has the ability to roll around in them. We use these for all of his PT exercises with minimal whining :)

Who knew?

I bought Cooper a really nice winter coat and a fall zip-up sweater for the fall at a consignment sale and I also bought him a light weight jacket from Gap off the clearance rack last week. I washed them and put them on hangers...then, took them to the coat closet in the hallway and a smile came over my face...which is rare because who likes doing any steps of the laundry process?

I smiled as I hung Cooper's coats in the closet in between mine and my hubby's coats because it was just one of those *real* moments. Those moments where even the mundane becomes magical. He's here. He's our son and his coats are in our coat closet.

Who knew that coats could bring a smile to your face and to your heart?

Cooper and Aunt Aimee

My sister, Aimee, came for a visit yesterday because we were going to see Maroon 5 (!) and I caught some really cute photos of her with Cooper...

First, I should add that my sister is the best sister and aunt on the planet. She is genuinely one of the sweet people on the planet. We've always been close but grew even closer after I almost died, LITERALLY, the day that I lost Lily. We talk 2 or 3 times a day! She's awesome...really, no lie! You'll see on her wrist that she's wearing two bracelets, one is for October 15th which is the national day of remembrance for pregnancy and infant loss and the other one is for the March of Dimes. She participates in both of these events since we lost Lily...see, I told you she was the world's best aunt!

I'm going to have to face it...

I'm addicted to Cooper! His cheeks are like magnets to my lips!

OH, how I'll mourn the day when my kisses become cooties :(

So much to say!

Cooper recently started babbling and I caught this video during lunchtime today. He would stop everytime I would put the camera on him so I had to do a sneak attack...

One day, we'll work on our manners about not talking with our mouth full of squash :) Listen to him after I say I love you (around 1:50) because I swear it sounds like he's saying "I love you"...I know he's not but it's too funny how similar it sounds!