"Auggies"

Cooper has had an obsession with planes and helicopters for awhile. Where we live there are constantly helicopters and airplanes flying over. Ever since he was very little he would point up and get really excited when he heard them. He used to just make a "pa" sound for planes and something that sounds a lot like helicopter but muffled. Well on our trip to Indiana Cooper came up with his own version of airplane. He calls them "auggies" I have no clue where this came from. But because we saw SO MANY airplanes on our trip he said it hundreds of times. He would point to one and say "auggie, auggie" over and over. Since we have been home it has continued. He will spot them when we are driving. It is unbelievable because sometimes they are far away so very tiny in the sky but sure enough he sees them. I love that he has made up his own word so now in our house airplanes are "auggies".

As I have mentioned we had quite the long flights for our trip (about 11 hours). Cooper refused to sleep in the airports or on the planes. So there was a lot of time playing and taking it all in. Here is a little view into our airport/auggie experiences.

Waiting to board our first plane at 6:30 in the morning

Getting out some energy before our long day of flying

So excited and taking it all in with daddy

decorating with window clings

Getting our fixes...diet coke and milk

Ready to board our flights to head home

Sticker fun

On our last and longest flight (4 1/2 hours) Cooper got his own seat.
He felt so big. We were so relieved it made things soooo much easier.

Pure content....he was so tired but refused to sleep.
He watched a full 30 minutes of Despicable Me....longest record by far!

Was obsessed with the buckles

Cooper was obsessed with the moving walkways in all of the airports. He played on them for hours between all of the airports. He would just run back and forward. The second one ended he would say "more" and was on his way back on it.

We really lucked out on our flights. The first one a little boy sat next to us and we entertained him with Cooper's toys. The second flight a lady in her 60's who couldn't get enough of Cooper sat by us. The third flight it was a 2-seater so no one was next to us. Then the fourth flight Cooper had his own seat. Cooper did amazing! It couldn't have gone better. I am definitely not ready to do it again anytime soon however!

First Sleep Over

So ready to stay at Grandmom's and Papa's house

A couple of weekends ago Brad and I left Cooper for the first time. I have gone out of town a couple of times and Brad has once since Cooper was born. But one of us was always home with Cooper. This was Cooper's first time sleeping away from both of us and at my parents. My parents were so excited to have him. I was a little nervous on how he would do when it came to naps and bedtime. Past experience hasn't been great with trying to get Cooper to sleep anywhere but at home in his crib. But Cooper was perfect for my parents! He was a happy baby and went down for his naps and to bed the first night perfectly! My parents put him in his pack n' play in their bedroom. I took his sound machine, blanky, binky, and pillow and he was content!

Saturday my dad took Cooper to the mall. First, is was the weekend before Christmas so was crazy busy! Second, Cooper hasn't been liking his stroller lately and has just wanted to run around. So I was a little worried on how Coop would do for my dad. He was an angel. He stayed in his stroller perfectly (he wasn't even buckled in and didn't try getting out). The best part is that my dad got half way to the mall and realized he forgot the diaper bag. The real diaper bag was left at his house when he went ot my house to get the stroller. So he had to put a second diaper bag together. Ha ha he's a bit out of practice but he went back and got what he needed and all was well. Saturday night my mom stayed at our house because it was hard trying not to wake Cooper up in the middle of the night so it was just easier. Cooper had a harder night this time. He is getting his eye teeth so woke up in pain a few times. I was just glad that he did so well the first night at their house and in his pack n' play so that I know he is getting better at sleeping away from home.

Brad and I were in Idaho Falls for his cousin Megan's wedding. We went up Friday and did a session in the Rexburg Temple, then the wedding was in the Idaho Falls temple so that is where we stayed. We didn't really do much other than the wedding stuff. We did a little bit of shopping and lots of eating! We missed Cooper like crazy. I was so tempted to come home Saturday night because I was missing Cooper. But we headed home early Sunday morning because my family was having a Christmas party that we needed to get back for.

Although we missed Cooper like crazy it was good to get away and know that he was in good hands and was having a good time.

Cedar City Trip DISASTER!!!

Well this weekend was supposed to be a fun little trip. Brad's brother turns 40 this week so his wife was throwing him a "Surprise" birthday bbq. She had invited us so we thought what the heck, we can take a little trip down to Cedar city for the weekend. Yeah right! Well the trip started off good. Cooper did awesome on the drive down there. He slept for probably a good hour and a half. Then woke up with about an hour left. I crawled in the back seat and just played with him and read books and what not. We got into town and checked into the hotel. We got settled and headed over to Brad's brother's house. My sister-in-law had already spilled the beans about his bbq so we didn't have to make up an excuse for being in town. We went to dinner and then headed back to their house to hang out. Cooper had an amazing time crawling around and playing outside with his cousin Abel who is 18 months old. Cooper started to get a little fussy so we headed back to the hotel a little before ten. We got Cooper ready for bed and thought we could get to bed ourselves. YEAH RIGHT! Cooper would not go to bed. I tried putting him in his pack n' play. He would just stand up and scream. He is tall enough he can see right over the top. There really wasn't anywhere we could put the pack n' play where he couldn't see us. I tried turning the lights out and having him lay in bed with us. He was just all over the place and fussy. We really tried everything. Finally he fell asleep around midnight. We went straight to sleep too. I woke up at 3:00 am and was wide awake. Then Cooper woke up at 4:00 am and was up for the day. I tried feeding him, rocking him, bringing him to bed, etc. Nothing worked and he was so grumpy. He woke Brad up at 4:30. Then at 5:00 am we went and drove around for 30 min and he still wouldn't fall asleep. We got back to the hotel at 6:00 and decided to head to the continental breakfast since there was nothing else working. We were both exhausted!

We had made plans to go hiking with Brad's brother, wife Jamie, and Abel. We knew with the night we had that wouldn't be a good idea. I was soooo bummed. We had bought a hiking backpack and had planned it all out. The bbq was at 6:00 pm and we were going to have to be driving home after it. I had forgotten my sister was speaking in sacrament so we needed to be back to church at 9:00 am. We decided that with how tired we were it wasn't going to be smart driving home late that night in the dark. Cooper was grumpy and we knew he wasn't going to be getting any good naps. So we just decided the smart thing to do was head home. We didn't even get to do any of the things that were the whole reason for us going down there.

We were out of Cedar City by 7:00 am. That means that total we drove 7 hours (3 1/2 each way) for a short 12 hour stay in Cedar. I was sure Cooper would nap most of the way home. At least that is what I hoped because I needed to nap. Remember I was going on 3 hours of sleep and he had only slept 4 hours to his usual 12-13 hours. Well Cooper slept for 40 min and then was wide awake. He was okay for the first part of the trip. Then we hit Provo. He SCREAMED bloody murder all the way home from Provo. That is about an hour of constant screaming. I was in the back trying to comfort him but nothing worked. He just kept reaching out for me to grab him. It broke my heart. But we had to get home because we were all exhausted and needed our beds. We got home and finally after about an hour Cooper laid down and took a 4 1/2 hour nap. This allowed Brad and I to get a few hour nap in. Needless to say it was the biggest waste of time and money (hotel, gas, food) for a disaster of a trip. I am really nervous because in a few weeks we have Brad's family reunion and Cooper will be sleeping in the pack n' play again. I am going to start putting him down for naps in the pack n' play and hopefully he gets used to it. Otherwise I don't know what we will do at the reunion.

It might not sound like that bad of a night, but believe me Brad and I were exhausted, stressed, on edge from all the crying, and just flat out worn out! And to add to things......I left my phone charger at the hotel.

This is where he went when I tried to lay him on the bed