Cooper is coming up on four months. Right now, he’s about this tall:
And this cute:
We think he might be teething because of the drool and how much he likes biting things.
In general he doesn’t seem to have much interest in toys. Sometimes when I hand one to him he’ll look at it and then throw it to the side. He does however like playing with Noel’s socks,
Sitting in his Bumbo chair,
Reading the Ads,
and looking at himself in the mirror.
Oh, he also likes this noise.
Friday morning I awoke to NPR as I do most mornings. They played a segment from the Story Corp project that really tugged at my heart strings. The clip was of a man who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease speaking with his wife about his memory and living in the moment with his family. My thoughts immediately turned to my grandmother, Carol Jean Mitchell, who struggled with that disease before passing away in 2002. She was taken mercifully before it got to the later stages.
As I lay there in bed, trying to hold back the tears of emotion and memory, I got to thinking about what I was doing (or not doing) to preserve memories of loved ones who have passed on. Those memories have become less concrete and more fluid as time marches forward, and it concerns me that I might be losing them.
So, I got an idea.
What if I posted my memories of Grandma and asked all of you to do the same? Then maybe all together we wouldn’t forget. So here it is: a solicitation for memories. I’ll start.
I remember the tortilla chip and cheddar cheese apple pie debacle, complete with melted wax sprinkles. She had a way of improvising when the required ingredients weren’t available that was either a hit or completely flopped. Uncle John has never had such a creative birthday dessert before or since.
I remember stories of growing up in Alamo, Nevada during the Great Depression. She played the trombone in the band. She went with the band to play somewhere important. I can’t remember where.
I remember making her cry when we got frustrated as children that she couldn’t play the movie we wanted to watch on the VCR. I have never felt like such a horrible person in my whole life as I did right then.
I remember getting all excited every time a brown UPS truck drove by our house, hoping they would deliver a package from Grandma containing treasures like toys she got for us from Pic ‘n Save and Twinkies.
I remember all the neighbor kids there in North Las Vegas coming over for every fund raiser under the sun and leaving not only meeting their quota, but also with a popsicle or ice cream from the freezer. She was the grandma for the whole block.
I know there’s more, but it slips my mind right now. What do you all remember?
The days of summer are waning and we decided it was time to test Cooper and see if he really belongs in our family. We crammed gear into every spare inch of our little Honda and headed into the Rockies. (For a brief second we wished for a minivan, but quickly chased that unseemly thought away.) Cooper immediately began to display his love for the outdoors by giggling up a storm the second we set his stroller next to the fire pit. We hiked, ate dutch oven food, and got cozy in our backpacking tent. After two days of sleeping more than everyone else, not flinching when the wind whipped at the tent, and having the best hair, it was clear that Coop has what it takes to survive in the outdoors. We’ve decided to keep him.
One of my professors once told us, “You know you’ve written something good when you read through it and it makes you cry.” While this might be a good measure for callous scholars, I’m not sure it’s a good check for a young mom who has oxytocin swimming around her bloodstream. I cry when certain songs come on the radio and when I can wrestle into my fitted pre-pregnancy clothes. So, here are some thoughts whether well penned or not, just humor me.
Monday was the first day of school here. It was also the first time in 19 years that I wasn’t donning a backpack and spending too much time picking out my outfit. Instead I watered the lawn and made the bed before doing aerobics in a church gym with other moms who all have at least one kid over the age of 10. As I did bicep curls using my fussy baby as a weight I couldn’t help but ask myself, “How did I get here?” Yet, in some ways it’s hard to imagine life ever being different.
At this time last year I wasn’t even pregnant. I’d just finished putting together an International conference for engineers and was trying to come up with ways to make The Scarlet Letter interesting to 17-year-olds. I taught aerobics every week day and dressed professionally 5 out of 7. I was arguably in the best shape of my life. Life was a lot different then. Or was it?
As much as I sometimes try and chunk my life into eras, it’s fluid. I never end anything and then leave it behind, I just add to it. Events and people are all merging and helping me evolve. It’s amazing to think that once a memory has been lived it never goes away, even if you aren’t conscious of it, it’s always waiting with the ability to surface. While that ability to remember can be painful or traumatic in some cases, overall I find it comforting. Sometimes when I look at old pictures I wonder where that crazy dancing girl from my single days disappeared to, but then she makes an unexpected reappearance at a get together and I can’t help but smile. We’ve said a lot of goodbyes and “ended a lot of chapters” lately and though I’m glad to live in the present, it’s reassuring that in some way I get to bring a part of the past along with me. Here’s to everyone that’s donated a little part of themselves to me over the years.
Note: If you weren’t pictured above that doesn’t mean you haven’t made an impact. For example, I tried really hard to find a digital picture of me with any of my grandparents, but I guess I just don’t have one. I’m not always good at taking pictures.
This showed up today in my Gmail advertisements. Seriously?
I admit it, I’m a competitive person. I like being good at things, preferably the best. Sometimes I wish this wasn’t true, but it is. Unfortunately for Cooper I’ve noticed I’m kind of competitive with him. If other babies his age are doing Algebra you better believe I’m going to have him working on string theory.
Lately I’ve been trying really hard to convince Cooper that he needs to roll over. Noel kept reminding me that all kids are different and that he’d roll over when he felt like it, but that didn’t stop me from helping Cooper practice this skill. Yet despite all the exercises and endless encouragement, the kid just wouldn’t roll over.
Today I was letting Cooper air out from some particularly hideous diaper marks and left the room to grab some laundry. When I came back he was on his stomach (Sorry no pics, I don’t put pictures of my child like that on the internet:)). Supposedly babies feel freer to move the less they wear, so maybe that did the trick. The truth is though, I think he’s just stubborn or maybe overly independent and doesn’t like being told what to do. I’m afraid he may have gotten that from me.
So lest you all think that I am dead and/or really boring with nothing to say, I am here to post pictures of the baby. Our little family had the pleasure of going on a two-hour vacation to Golden this last Saturday. (Probably our first of many.) After hitting up the library and purchasing over-priced produce at the local farmer’s market, we made our way up to Lookout Mountain, which is incidentally the final resting place of William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. We got to try out the hiking backpack and Cooper really seemed to enjoy the vantage point for a while anyway. He also enjoyed kicking me in the kidneys. All of us enjoyed getting out for a change and enjoying the weather up at 7500 ft. (Audrey was there as well in spite of her lack of appearance in the photographs. She was the one behind the camera for the pictures you see here. I will work on taking the camera from her in the future since we all know she is more photogenic than me.)
Our house is finally ready for the long awaited grand tour. (Getting it to this state has been at least long awaited by me.) Come on in and let me show you around.
If you need to take your shoes off, please feel free to sit on our antique church pew (my 16th birthday gift; At the time I was so disappointed that it wasn’t a car.) and store your shoes in our handy cubbies.
Then have a seat on one of our couches or plunk out a tune on the piano (courtesy of the Merket storage unit). If the lanterns look familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen them before.
Hungry? Let’s whip up something in the kitchen. You can also check out the small gallery of my mom’s art.
Oh, the bathroom? First door on the right. It’s even elderly and disability friendly (there’s also a bar in the bathtub).
While we’re down here, let’s check out the baby’s room. I slept in that crib when I was little.
And the Master Bedroom (it’s the first time that we’ve lived in a place big enough to use the bed frame). That beautiful dresser was our big splurge.
Here’s the guest bedroom. If you’re interested in staying let us know and we’ll quicken our search for an extra bed . . . and find homes for the things in the last few boxes.
There’s also a laundry room.
An enclosed patio/sun room.
Outdoor patio.
And a good sized backyard (we’re still getting used to using sprinklers . . .).
Thanks to all our family members that generously donated their old furniture, people on Craigslist that decided to sell their stuff for cheap, the guy at Wheatridge Used Furniture for allowing Noel to barter, and a few big box stores for evilly being able to sell things at a low profit margin. If you’re in the area, let us know; we’d love company.
My little sister (okay, she’s no longer little, but still younger) got hitched this past week.
We all flew back to Utah for the occasion. Cooper was the perfect baby on the plane. Slept during take-off and smiled every time the plane descended during landing. The Scentsy saleslady sitting next to me (A big Scentsy convention had just ended in Denver; needless to say our plane smelled good and I now have a catalog if anyone wants to order something) thinks Cooper’s going to be a roller coaster jockey. Cooper and I were there for a week so I could be helpful with wedding preparations and Cooper could be loved and adored. Noel crashed the party the night before the “Big Day” because he had to be responsible and go to work.
To pull off the wedding dinner and the reception we cooked 28 lbs of chicken, baked ~500 Norwegian cookies, framed a million photos, made 6 boutonnieres, erected scaffolding, washed 60 eclectic plates, folded 60 napkins into lotus flowers, salvaged dying plants from Lowe’s, assembled 80 paper lanterns, purchased all the rice at a local Chinese restaurant, and moved tables that weighed 1/2 ton each among other things.
It was nice to spend time with family, have a few short visits with friends, dance like sleep deprived goons after the reception was over, and be there for such a special occasion - even if it wore us out. Oh, and welcome to the family Joe!
PS: Hope + Joe = Jope
For some reason I find it sort of relaxing to do repetitive activities that don’t take a ton of thought (i.e. mowing the lawn, vacuuming, running, etc). I just like to let my mind wander through topics great and small (what to eat for lunch vs. how to raise a child) while my body goes through the motions. My new favorite is hanging clothes on the clothesline; maybe the novelty of doing laundry in my own home just hasn’t worn off. Luckily for me Cooper doesn’t mind helping . . . by making dirty laundry.
Chilling while mom hangs up onesies and diaper covers.
