Friday, January 27, 2012

13 months: Monkey See, Monkey Do

Well we are having an absolute blast here in Seattle. Owen has been increasingly fun by the day, and we've had a major vocab explosion. New words:

Dog: "Dah...."
Uh Oh: "Uh Oh" (this one is pretty right on)
Dad: "Dad" or "Dada"
Bath Time: "Ba Ba"
Car: "Gock" (I don't know.. but it's clearly what he means!)

We also LOVE to climb stairs and go back down. He especially loves to throw something down the stairs, watch it fall, and go after it. Mike informs me that this will never change. Boys love to watch things fall.. water balloons, balls, their spit, etc.

Love this Owen face. "What mom?"

Grandma and Papa Cooper gave Owen a Cadillac of wagons for his first birthday. You'll see that he brought some toys to ride with him. It's super cool because it has the capacity to buckle-in 2 kids!

Loves to climb in the drawers...

He loves to eat shredded cheese, and often saves some for later! Meal time is now aided by 'MORE'. He has conquered the sign and it's meaning.. and he's pretty aggressive about it =)

I didn't want to disturb the girls to capture Owen's first meeting of Eliya and Aviana Martinez (born 12-13-11). One was 4lb15oz, and the other just slightly over 5lbs!

"I love playing with balls"

On the 15th we had a 1st birthday party for all of the boys in our PEPS group. It's awesome to see how grown up they look! Many of the boys had already had haircuts, and they looked so sharp! It inspired me to make an appointment for Owen.

L-R: Owen, Madden, James, Clive, Will, and Kyle in the front. Ben is half cut off on the left side of the picture.

The party was at Madden's house, and they have this humongous school bus.. in their kitchen. The size of their house is ridiculous!

Owen is showing off his new favorite food, PEANUT BUTTER!

Love when I can catch a sweetsie smile!

Last week we had a lot of snow days. Will lives close, so he and his mama came over to play!

Climbing in the kitchen drawer. Instead of correcting him, I grabbed the camera. #terribledisciplinarian.

On snow day #4, I had to break out something new... so I put in a Baby Einstein for the 1st time. He LOVED it. Oh my goodness, he pulled up on the TV stand and shouted 'Di Di Di Di Di' and laughed and laughed. I guess it was a hit. Maybe it actually will help him learn numbers.

He likes to push both toys at the same time. This week, also, he's really been standing a lot on his own too. I'm fairly confident that by the 14month update he'll be walking.

Other big news is that we now have FOUR teeth! We went from 1 to 4 in the last 4 weeks! Here's his top two, and the second bottom one just came through on Tuesday.

Our first post-snow day outing was for Owen's first haircut! I made an appointment with Sarah, and we went to a super fun kids salon here in Bellevue. Owen got to sit in this neat fire truck, and she even let him play with a comb (his favorite). He tried to assist a few times by combing his hair.

Sarah was fast, and sweet, and totally worth the $30 I paid for the haircut. Ok, I didn't know it was going to be $30, but it's a special occasion.

Our little Seattleite and his mo-hawk.

All Done! So so handsome.

Owen wanted to show off his cool shirt.

Another 'classic' Owen face. His professor look continues and is now accompanied by pursed lips.

Double fisting the milk and water. He usually has something in each hand, and he usually doesn't put the items down to crawl, either. 


He is also imitating sticking out tongue, clicking his tongue, playing peek-a-boo, laughing, and most sounds that we challenge him with. It's amazingly fun!

Our sleep schedule has changed a bit, too. He's now sleeping about 11 hours at night, meaning he has woken up between 6 & 6:15 am for the last month. Dear God, will this change soon? Maybe I should be grateful, because it has stimulated a new onset of morning naps ranging from 60-90 minutes =)

Thanks for joining in our fun!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Thirty doesn't have to be dirty, does it?

Welcome 30, let's do this gracefully, shall we?
It's been almost a month now since I've turned 30, but we had a grand celebration, so it deserves a blog post for sure!

The good thing about being born the week after Christmas is that usually people already plan to take off work, and everyone is already in celebration mode. This was no exception for my folks who were already off on Dec 29 and offered to keep Owen (overnight!) so that Mike and I could quick trip it up to the Windy City. Chicago is one of my favorite towns by far, and an entire date day with my wonderful hubby in a great city = the perfect birthday present.

We took the 6:30 am train out of STL and arrived in Chicago around 12:30. We dropped our bag off at the Schusters' amazing downtown condo (so swanky!), and hit Michigan Ave. I got to pick the way we spent the afternoon, and Mike & my folks had the evening planned.
View from the Schusters' Condo.. Thanks again for letting us stay!


Love this city!

It was an absolutely gorgeous winter day, especially by Chicago standards! It was probably 40 degrees, and sunny! Lindsey had given me a real winter coat (not usually needed in Seattle), with matching accessories, but the wind was just too much for my hair and I had to wear a hat.

So since the weather was so nice, I picked to walk down Michigan Ave. I'm sure you're shocked. We mostly shopped for Owen.. bought baby boy Gray Converse shoes (oh.my.goodness), and a few things on sale @ Gap Baby =)


Well, hello, Marilyn!

 

I love walking over the river. Some day I'll be there on St. Patty's day... would love to see it green!

So handsome =)

I've never been in Chicago in December (I don't think...), and I thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas decor.

Mike planned dinner which was at the Signature Lounge @ the top of the Hancock! It was such a wonderful and memorable meal. The views were gorgeous... especially at night!

We were super impressed with our camera's night time photo work!

My cup runneth over....

AND, if that wasn't enough, my folks surprised us with tickets to Second City (Britt's Alma Mater). The show, of course, did not disappoint. We laughed and laughed.

What a full day! We caught the 7:00 am train the next morning so we could get back to that sweet baby boy. Thanks so my love, and Grandma and Papa Cooper for allowing the day to be so memorable! 

I am thrilled to see what God has in store for this next decade!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

When in Rome

When in Rome, Do as the Romans do.
When in Seattle, work in a Naturopathic Doctor's office. Do as the Seattleites do.
We won't live in Seattle forever, and I can almost guarantee I'll never get another opportunity to work with naturopaths if we spend the rest of our lives in the Midwest.... so I went for it!

I've been working 'away from the home' for 2 whole weeks now. This week we've had so much snow I haven't attempted to get across the bridge and over small neighborhood roads to Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.

Anyway, I've already learned a lot about how I'll refine my next nurse practitioner job search and the questions I'll ask during the interview process. Nonetheless, I am committed here for a year. I started out really discouraged because I had only seen 2 patients in 2 weeks (and I only get paid by the patients I see).. but I had coffee with a good friend "Danielle the dietitian" and she was really encouraging. She started her own business (building clientele, etc) 2.5 years ago.. and she really helped me to see how many opportunities I have at this clinic, and she gave me some marketing tips too. Thanks Danielle! 

To introduce myself to the patients, I wrote this Blog Post to explain a little bit about nurse practitioners and how they can fit in to naturopathic medicine.

Check out the website
Check out the blog
Check out the office door:

Like us on facebook! Naturopathic Family Medicine =)

I'll keep you updated!

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Giggle Monster


We've had a few snow days here in Seattle, and so Owen has had some neighbor friends over to play. Yesterday, Owen and Will had a blast playing.. or stealing from each other. I love Owen's giggles. He's so social!

Sunday, January 15, 2012

12 months: Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

I know that he is now 12.5 months old, and I am already taking notes for his 13 month post, but I think it's still important to highlight our little man's VERY FIRST BIRTHDAY! Here's the invite, for those of you who haven't seen it!


So we celebrated St. Louis Cardinal style. I wanted to have a theme to really separate it from all Christmas celebrations. Everyone wore their Cardinal red, and we had a great time!


Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks

I don't care if I EVER get back. For it's ROOT ROOT ROOT for the Cardinals!
 
Baseball Cupcakes for O and German Chocolate for Grandma Cooper!
 
Livi looks like a princess no matter what she's wearing!
Uncle Ryan & Steven really got in to it!

For more pictures of the party.. click on this link: Cupcake Master. I couldn't figure out how to post the slide show this time. It used to stream out of Picasa Web Albums, but now my options have changed once I joined Google +. (Sorry Chelsea, I am helpless!). You can also check out Alison's blog for some great shots!


He did an impressive job with the cupcake!

And kept his shirt clean! He's his daddy's boy!

We had an amazing time visiting with family and friends! Thanks to the Willards, the Wrights, Nina, Frank, Ali & Tyler for making the trek to St. Charles to celebrate with us!

Unfortunately Owen ended the party with a fever of 103. We got some more cuddle time in, though.
Also, don't you love this picture?!


In other 12 month news, our little squirt weighed in at 21lbs 6oz (25%) and is 30.5 inches long (75%). I forget his head circumference, but it's still small (10%)! He is a Cooper-Wade, that's for sure!
  • At his 12 month birthday, he still only had ONE tooth, but stay tuned for the 13 mo post. We've made some progress in that area!
  • He is starting to imitate more which I find to be so so exciting! He imitates brushing hair and some vocal sounds. 'Dog and Bop'
  • He says 'DOG' constantly.. and he actually knows what a DOG is!
  • He LOVES to be chased. We crawl after him and he just takes off. He usually finds sanctuary underneath a chair or table. Somewhere we obviously can not get. Smart little fella.
  • He CAN stand on own, but it's very occasional and he can't be concentrating on it. He still seemingly has no interest in walking, but I have noticed his feet are flattening out, and his toes are uncurling. As little as even a month ago his toes were still so curled under that the skin would macerate!
  • He has mastered going forward UP the steps and backward DOWN the steps.
  • He still has his eyebrows raised all of the time.
  • When he wakes up in the morning and I pick him up out of the crib, he sticks his hand straight up in the air like he's hailing a cab. I've yet to figure out what this means!
  • Oskee is still his best friend (much to her dismay), and he loves to 'deliver' toys to her while she is lying on her bed.
  • When he plays he breathes really loud and hard.. like he's working out. We crack up. 
  • It is so much more fun to see him in action than to try to describe it in words. Though I like doing this so that I can look back and remember, I really hope 2012 is the year in which we move closer to most of you so that you can know him like we do.
Happy New Year! Love, The Wades

Thursday, January 12, 2012

A Crazy Cooper Christmas

On Christmas morning we had some home made cinnamon rolls at the Wades (thanks to Dax for whipping those up), and then we headed over for a fun-filled day at the Coopers.

I tried to get Owen to wear his Christmas hat just one last time!

Look at that baby boy standing. We are working on the 'no-hands' stand. He's still pretty tentative.

Love this wrapping job by Uncle Steven.

Starting to finally getting the hang of unwrapping.

This year Ryan, Steven, and I all had one thing in common: budgetary restraints. So my mom came up with a new family tradition to play a game. I'm not sure what it's called.. maybe White Elephant? Either way, we had a blast. We each contributed a few cheap gifts, and then took turns opening, stealing, and laughing hysterically. My mom bought ridiculously random gifts, and it seemed my dad opened all of them. We'll keep this tradition for sure!

Steven got some MTN Dew.. a perfect gift for him!

Uncle Ryan with a coffee mug.. a perfect gift for him!

My dad opened up dog bones, flowery lotion, and a loofah.... dare I say perfect gifts for him?  

Later in the day, the Wehmeier Party of 5 came over for dinner. Sometimes I don't know how my Uncle Jay has survived so long living with Aunt Sharon, Katie, Kelley, and Kayla! They are hysterical, and once again wore Owen out. He really liked cousin Kelley, and he even fell asleep on her shoulder for 30 minutes!

The whole gang in the living room. Great-grandma enjoyed all of the commotion too!

Abbey is still kickin it. She'll be 16 this year...

We stayed with the Cooper clan for the remainder of the trip and celebrated the mega-birthday week from their home base! Owen's fever really kicked it up a notch on the 26th, so we had a quiet Mizzou bowl party. We also had a VERY special visit from Kim Dodson who got to meet Owen for the first time. Thanks so much for spending time with us!

Stay tuned for Owen's 1st birthday party post extravaganza!