Cooper hit the 18 month mark last week. When we took him to nursery, his eyes got really big when he saw all the toys and he looked at us as if to say, “How come you’ve never taken me here before? This is way better than sitting through two hours of those boring meetings you guys go to.” After we gave him the okay to play, he settled right in and didn’t notice when we left or even seem to miss us at all. Definitely an independent spirit.

We counted and we think he can say about 8-10 words consistently and seems to be picking up new ones all the time. Amazingly “no” isn’t one of them, but he has figured out how to express that sentiment by vigorously shaking his head. His current favorite word is “ball.”

He’s a long skinny kid which we can only attribute to how much he runs around since he eats constantly. While he’s a bundle of energy, he’s still fairly mellow (definitely gets this from Noel, not me). The nurse at his 18 month appointment was training a student nurse and was really impressed with how cooperative and patient Cooper was even though everything took twice as long as usual. Even when they gave him his shots he recovered quickly, only crying for a few seconds.

He’s such a busy kid, but luckily his shenanigans typically make me laugh rather than pull my hair out.  Some of his recent capers include: spraying perfume all over his pajamas, drawing on the front window with crayon, sticking pencils in my shoes, and pulling things out of the garbage . . . He also has some wicked dance moves we may have to share sometime.

I know every mom says this, but it really is crazy to think he’s been around for 18 months and amazing to think of how much he’s grown. I’m just glad we could be along for the ride.