Right at the start of the month, Cooper took his first overseas trip. Nanny came with us so that I could compete with my pipe band in the New Zealand Pipe Band Competition. Cooper was going okay until he projectile vomited on the plane all over me.
The smell was so bad that the air hostess came asking if she could spray some air freshener! Needless to say, I was glad to get to the hotel to shower and change. He did the same thing another two times that we were there, and I realised that it was a reaction to the baby food I’d been feeding him, as he is used to home cooked food. The organic baby food seemed to be better, and I bought some bananas at the supermarket that went down extremely well.
Cooper was an angel for the trip, and when he was dressed in his pipe band t-shirt and cap was truly a little mascot for the band. Everyone loved coming up and talking to him, and judging from his reaction, he enjoyed it just as much. Despite spending so much time in his pram, he did really well. On the flight home he screamed a lot because of the early morning (we had to be up at 1.45am our time), but luckily not many other people heard because of their ear phones.
|
The grade 4 band that I play in came 2nd in the championship and 4th out of 23 bands overall, and the grade 3 band came 2nd overall, winning in the drum corps.
Coming back from NZ, Cooper’s appetite picked up a lot. He had been fussing more and more at meal time before we left, but when we got back he seemed to appreciate my cooking even more. He had toast for the first time, and at first didn’t know how to hold it. He has got the hang of it now, and makes a really big mess of things. It’s funny to see him hold his food in his fist. He’ll eat from one end of his fist, then the other end, open his fist a few times to see the food, close his fist and try to eat it again, even though there is no food protruding from his fist. Then he’ll open and close his fist again…… It’s only when he drops the food that he can pick it up and keep eating.
By the end of the month we had discovered that Cooper will blurt during meal time if he has had enough or is bored with what he is eating. To stop the blurting we either have to stop feeding him, or offer him dessert, which is normally fruit or yoghurt. He doesn’t have dessert with every meal, so we won’t let the blurting become a habit just so he gets his own way.
A tooth surprised us on the 16th. We were blessed with a good start to teething, as Cooper still slept through the night, and only had a bit of a cough and was more sleepy. I know that the worst could still be to come, but we’ll deal with that when we get there.
Cooper has started to scream to get our attention. I first noticed it when I was watching a bit of TV and not paying attention to him crawling around the floor, when suddenly he started doing short screams until I looked at him. He also screams at strangers when they have not smiled at him.
Cooper’s crawling is getting quicker, and he will crawl all over the house, especially when he sees the cat (he gives little squeals of delight whenever he sees her, so we know where he is). I have still not moved the vase or the wine rack, but we have discovered the need to shut the study door, otherwise we will find Cooper in there turning the computer on and off or ripping wires out of the USB port in the front. He started to crawl over top of some of his toys and onto his foam couch, and at the end of the month surprised us by pulling himself up on a stool to stand beside it.
|
He still has a fascination for wheels, and will even grab his toy bulldozer and move it along the floor as if he is driving it, although I’m sure he doesn’t know what he is doing.
Sleep is still good, and sometimes Cooper will sleep on and off until 8am when I wake him. On those few days I have tried to cut out his morning nap, but he normally falls into a deep sleep at around 11am, so I still need to keep up with a short morning nap.
Sometimes he won't have an afternoon nap, but that's hit and miss at the moment.
Nanny came with us for the eight-month health assessment and we found out that Cooper is 72cm in length and 9.03kg.
