Thursday, September 29, 2005

Shots

I killed another spider this evening. Another big one. How many more are there?

Cooper had his six month doctor visit today. That means shots. I'm not sure what they were for exactly. Diptheria? Parvo? Distemper? Beats me. One thing I know: he doesn't like the shots. Mommy reports that poor boy cried for at least 5 minutes afterwards.

The doctor was smart. She dosed him up with some baby Tylenol and he was on his way. He's actually surprised me. He's been pleasant most of the evening, if not downright laughy. Gonna call him "Laughy McLaugherson" tonight. Love Tylenol. Indeed.

The vital statistics are in: 28 inches long. 19 pounds, 7 ounces. For those keeping score at home, this means 2 inches and 4 pounds, 4 ounces since his last visit 2 months ago. He certainly appears to be eating a little more, doesn't he?

Apparently Cooper surprised the pediatric staff. They were amazed by his strength, how well he sat up, and how well he balances his neck. Said he should be crawling within a few weeks. Perhaps, he might even be walking when time comes around to his 9 month doctor visit.

A Wiggles bandaid.

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You almost wouldn't know that he got his shots today.

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Pappy got Cooper this shirt.

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He almost wiggled out of Mommy's arms.

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He's got some new jammies.

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If only there was a way to sell baby smiles... I'd be rich.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Post #250

Earlier this evening as I sat down on the toilet, I looked over and saw a huge hairy spider on the floor a couple of feet away. It surprised me enough that I just about... Well, let's just say that I was in the proper position to do what I was just about to do. I gathered my wits about myself and took off a shoe. I swung it at the hairy monster, missing him the first time, but with my rapid fire reflexes he was soon crushed and split into several pieces on the bathroom rug.

I've killed a bunch of spiders in my house as of late. Big spiders. Ugly spiders. I'm not sure exactly as to the reason that they've been showing up. There are a lot of crickets everywhere outside now and certainly we've found more than one indoors. Perhaps the spiders like eating crickets and have been drawn into our humble abode.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't like to kill spiders. They do some good by eating certain critters and so forth, so I don't want to mess with our delicate ecosystem. My wife on the other hand demands that I kill the spiders. She's completely afraid of the crickets, so imagine how much a spider scares her.

I use to have a non-agression pact with the spiders. Pretty much the agreement was if you leave me alone, I don't see you too much, and you don't scare the bejeezus out of me, I'll let you spiders live. I don't want the bad karma from killing anything. On more than one occasion, I've shooed a spider out the door rather than killing it. I'd rather let them live, but for my wife to have any peace, I must fight a war.

The other day, while sitting on the floor, a nasty looking spider crawled on Cooper's back.

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He didn't know it was on him, but I gasped when I saw it.

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I knocked it off him with my hand. The little bugger ran off to hide under our curio cabinet.

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With a newspaper, I forced the spider out into the open where he quickly met his demise from a magazine. Cooper barely noticed.

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It's a neverending war that I'm in with these spiders. They just don't learn. They can hide, but they can't run. They should just hide. (The pictures posted are from tonight and thus spiderless, which is the way we like it.)

A sad memory of my mother

It was the day she found out how bad her cancer was. Stage IV. The oncologist had just told her minutes before that it presently has no known cure. We were waiting together, just inside the the hospital doors, for my father to get the car.

Mom: Was there anything I could've done?

Me: Well.. Uh..(stuttering, because I didn't know how to respond)

Mom: You know, like anything that I could've done to find this out sooner?

Me: No, Mom... There was nothing you could've done.

It's really a sad memory, but it also makes me a little happy. Because she was there. Still alive. We shared a moment, even if it was a sad one.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Another day, another post

There's something about a television remote that draws all men in. It is completely instinctual. We have to grab, hold it, touch it, and love it. It holds all the power we desire. Cooper is no different. He loves the remote.

We have Tivo, which if you don't have, you don't know how much you need. Tivo is awesome. Anyways, I let Cooper play with the Tivo remote the other day and suddenly we're recording "All My Children" and re-runs of "The Dukes of Hazzard".

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He's one happy boy this morning.

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He got a little sunburnt today.

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Just a little rosy red on the cheeks.

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Monday, September 26, 2005

Sleeping Sounds

On page 29 of the October 2005 edition of Wired Magazine are some interesting facts about babies with my commentary in bold.

  1. Percentage of babies with sleep problems: 69 (So far from my personal experience the number is 100.)
  2. Average number of nights per week parents of infants are awakened: 4 (I usually can sleep right through his midnight crying episodes, so this number seems a little high to me, but for my wife this is probably a little low.)
  3. Average number of hours of sleep lost per night: 1 (Is that for the 4 nights per week that parents are awakened or for the entire week? When we lose sleep we lose it big time, in chunks.)
  4. Decibels of a baby's cry: 115 (Is that all?)
  5. Decibels of a jackhammer: 105 (Really? I've never been woken up while sleeping next to a jackhammer, so I wouldn't have thought to compare the two.)

Last night was quickly becoming a perfect, peaceful Sunday night. Around 11:30 as I was drifting tranquilly into a halcyon dream, my son decided it was time for a few blood curdling screams. My my mind was transported through several states of consciousness (I counted at least four) in a matter of just seconds from serene to alert. Alert, but somewhat exhausted.

Teething. Must be teething, I reasoned. Get the Tylenol. Dose the boy. Shut him up. Get some sleep. For all of us.

5:30 AM. Alarm. Wake up. Tired. Especially for a Monday morning. Usually refreshed. Not so much today. Cooper. Sleeping. Little bugger. So now you can sleep all you want, huh?

I was never able to function on this little sleep until now. Eventually, I might even be able to do without sleep at all. That would be good. I could paint, sculpt things, write Hollywood manuscripts, and drink more beer.

The winner of tonight's photo contest is this submission from Marty in Cincinnati. Look at the slick do.


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Runner-up.


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Third place.


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Sunday, September 25, 2005

It is the end of the world as we know it. The Bengals are 3-0.

It was a long weekend. Friday night Micole had Bunko, so Cooper and I were on our own. We enlisted Pappy for dinner at a local restaurant. At one point Cooper stood up on the table while Pappy held him. I just had the feeling Coop was doing it to intimidate the other babies in the restaurant with his gifted physical prowess. Yes, if the NFL drafted infants, Cooper would be a first round draft pick, a real life bonus baby. He is so physically active. It has gotten to the point where you can't leave anything within his reach that you don't want him to grab. If I weren't a little quicker than him, I would've had a basket full of french fries with ketchup on my lap.

On Saturday morning Micole left to do some work, leaving us boys together for a peaceful morning. I like having alone time with Cooper. I just wish he would wait to poop until Mommy got home. For awhile I thought it might take some Windex and 409 with a scrubbing pad to get all of that crap off of his behind and his other nooks and crevaces that had been breached. If it had been any worse, I would've been inclined to hose the poor boy down.

When Mommy got home, I got caught up in some things and completely forgot about the Ohio State-Iowa game until there was 6 minutes left in the game. Thankfully the Bucks didn't need my karma to beat the Hawkeyes. So no big deal. Plus, Michigan lost to Wisconsin. What a good day.

Micole and I started in a bowling league Saturday night. We had to take Cooper to stay with Grandma Stella, which required packing up almost everything Cooper has. We were staying down there for the night, but you would've almost thought we were going away for a weekend.

As far as the bowling goes, I'm not a bad bowler at all, but I have not bowled in a few years. It takes a little time to get back into the proper rhythm. Micole, however started off like gangbusters. She beat me in the first game. Of course I didn't think I was competing with her, but against the OTHER team. So I was a little perturbed at first by her attitude, but then I realize I usually beat her at everything, so I kind of understand.

The first game I barely broke 100, which I felt was really bad. I've bowled 100 left handed before. I got my game together and beat the crap out of Micole the next two games (we were playing the other team right?). In the last game I came so close to having 7 straight strikes to start off the game. On my first roll of each frame I had a total of 3 strikes and 4 9's. If only those 4 pins would've fallen I would've easily had a 220 for the game and I would've beaten Micole by almost 120, but of course it's about beating the other team and not my teammate.

Today, we went to Grandpa Mike's house to watch the Bengals beat the Bears and celebrate Aunt Heather's "43rd" birthday. Actually I think she's only 32 or 33, but she figures that if she tells people that she's older, they'll think she looks really good for her age.

Cooper was pumped up and ready for the Bengals-Bears game.


This little Bengals fan slept through most of the game.

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Cooper hangs out with his cousin Logan.

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Sometimes it seems to me like Cooper is getting so big, so fast. This picture with Uncle Mikey, puts that thought into perspective.

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The word on the street is that Cooper no longer likes peas. At one time they were his favorite. It won't be much longer before he'll be eating solid foods. He's got two teeth in. I haven't seen them yet because he always sticks his tongue out at me when I try to look in his mouth, but I have felt them.

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Saturday, September 24, 2005

Happy Half Birthday, Cooper!

Six months have already gone by, big guy. Hard to believe. We've seen so much from you already. I could never explain to you the joy you have brought into our lives.

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Here's a collage with pictures of you from almost every week of your life.

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Must See Thursday

Cooper's back!

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And he's playing the drum.

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Video proof, but of course when I upload the video from my digital camera onto Jusspress, it looks like he's on speed.

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I'd post more tonight, but with Survivor, The Apprentice, and CSI all on TV tonight, along with other things I've been too busy. But not too busy to play with Coop.

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Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Cooper Learns To Type (Sort of)

I gave Cooper the opportunity to write tonight's post and this is what he typed up for us.

. V CB II / M M ` , ../KJUMNKUNJMHTUJMKI L0JKM0IL;.[;P;JUMJUKI90IUMN.NK 6YTHBGV TCYGBHVN56DHYB5

There are some typos and grammatical errors, but it was pretty good for the 1st time. He really likes hitting the keyboard. Somehow he nearly turned the computer off. I'm not sure I know how to do that with just the keyboard.

A collage of September 21st, 2005 pictures.


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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

My Name Is?

We've probably confused the heck out of poor Cooper. We have so many names, nicknames, and variations of his name that we use. I'm pretty sure he won't figure out his actual full name until sometime in the first grade. Some of the names he's been called are Coop, Coopie, The Mini Cooper, The Coopster, The Coopmeister, Cooperooni, Cooperoni, Cooperino, Coop-A-Loop, Cooper Duper, Super Cooper, Cooper De Pooper, Coop Dawg, Coop Doggy Dog, Mister C, C.D., Cooper D, Cooper Cabana, and Crusher. Pappy once said that he was going to get too big to be called The Mini Cooper. He said that he would have to start calling him Cadillac. I say no to Cadillac, but we can call him Cooper Deville.

Micole had open house at school tonight, so I had the pleasure of taking care of Cooperino on this fine evening. Now that C.D.'s no longer the lump he once was, he's much easier to care for. He can sit up on his own and play with toys. You don't have to stand right over him every second to keep him occupied.

I picked Coop Dawg up from the baby sitter at about 5:30. Mister C was already asleep when I got there and he stayed that way for the duration of our trip home. The Coopster and I stopped off to see Pappy. I had to help Pappy with some financial transactions. Coop-A-Loop showed him how he can pull himself up by using Daddy's thumbs. Unfortunately, The Mini Cooper was up to his old ways and cried constantly when Pappy would hold him.

My wife often says I can't do more than one thing at a time. Ha! When I finally returned home, I gathered myself, Dobie, a plastic bag, The Coopmeister, and his stroller for a walk. So in one hand I had the dog's leash and poop bag, while pushing Coopie in his stroller with the other. But darn it! I forgot to bring the camera so I could have proof for my wife that I am capable of doing more than one thing. I don't know how I would've managed to take a picture (no hands available), but I wish I had the opportunity to try. Surely there is someone in the neighborhood that saw me perform this amazing feat and can tell my wife. Hopefully I won't have to bribe them.

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Coop and I played together for awhile with all of the toys. Even my drum. He's getting the hang of it.

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Crusher is really getting the hang of playing with that toy. Just a few days ago I had to spin it for him, but now he can spin it a little bit by himself.

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I thought by now I would've gotten better at feeding Coop Doggy Dog. I thought wrong. I'm not sure if I got any food in his mouth at all. Maybe there's a class at the local community college I can take. Yes, I'd like to request a syllabus for Babyfeeding 101 for Daddies.

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What ever we call him, Cooper D, Cooper Cabana, Cooperoni, or The Little Loveable Beast That Empties Daddy's Bank Account, we eventually have to call it a day. It was a good day. A very good day.

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Monday, September 19, 2005

Guest Blogging

I'm guest blogging tonight for my friend Theresa at her blog, Flying Piggies. She's working on writing a novel, so I thought I'd help her out by freeing up some time for her to work on it. My post over there is on Blogging, The Lottery, and Ohio State versus Michigan. I try to be eclectic.

It was really a pleasure. I think will offer my services to all bloggers in need. Maybe I can even make a career out of guest blogging. Then fame and fortune will follow me wherever I go.

We got two toys tonight for Cooper at Target. One cost under $4 and the other about $20.

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Which one did he like the most? The one that cost under $4. He almost completely ignored the drum that I liked.

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I think the drum is cool. I've got it right here beside me and I'm playing with it when I can't think of what to type. Best $20 I ever spent.

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He did at least give it a try.

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

Who Dey!

Cooper's sleeping in the swing right now. We haven't put him in it for quite some time. It used to be the first weapon in my arsenal for calming him down when he got all fussy. I haven't done that in months. If he's fussy now I just take him into the bathroom and put him in front of the vanity mirror. He just stares at himself. Sometimes he even smiles, sometimes to himself, sometimes to my reflection. This technique works most of the time. When it doesn't he probably needs a diaper change or a bottle or he's sick. The sick part you just have to wait out. The other two I always hope I can let Mommy do, especially if there is football on TV.


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A little closer up.

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My weekend was all football. Yesterday, I prepared myself for a trip to Mount Everest. I climbed all the way up to my seat in the top section of Ohio Stadium, aka The Horseshoe, to watch the Bucks play San Diego State. It was a lot of work just to get to seats that required you to squint to see the play. Today, my neck got sunburnt while watching the Bengals trounce the Vikings. I'm not going to gloat, because one of my blogger friends is a Vikings fan. So I apologize to all Vikings fans. We shouldn't have beaten you that badly. Sorry.

That sunburn is going to kill me tomorrow. I've got a little bit of the raccoon eyes going, but mostly my neck is burnt.


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Things I Think I Think or I Think I Learned This Weekend But I'm Not Sure
  1. Buckeyes QB Troy Smith, doesn't make very good reads on pass plays. He looks at the first option and doesn't ever check down to the next available receiver. Guys were often wide open and he either completely missed it or he threw to someone who was covered.
  2. I'd love to take Cooper to a football game. I can't wait until he's old enough. He'll get a real lesson at the game. I'll be like, "As you can see they're set up in the power I formation with double tights. It's probably going to be a run or play action pass to a tight end..." and "As a defensive end you have to maintain containment of the running backs on all plays. That's going to kill you every time if you don't..." and "Never ever return a punt that goes inside the 10 yard line. You put your feet on the 10 and if it goes over your head you act like you're going to fair catch it." With my luck he'll probably want to be a figure skater or really like crochet and never give two hoots about football.
  3. QB Carson Palmer of the Bengals, mostly makes the right reads on his passes. He doesn't look like a rookie anymore. The Bengals finally got the right QB.
  4. The Bengals were sloppy. They made a large number of mistakes. They had a touchdown taken away by a penalty, they had several false starts, a couple of delay of games, they lost 2 turnovers because of penalties, Chad Johnson dropped 3 passes in a row, and Palmer threw an interception in the end zone when they would've had 3 sure points. Despite all this they won 37-8. Good teams can make mistakes and still win. I point to the Patriots. They're good enough that usually any mistakes they make don't cost them the game. Of course, they lost today. Hopefully, this is a sign that the Bengals are good enough that they can make mistakes and still win.
  5. What's up with people who wear a Broncos jersey to a Bengals vs Vikings game? I wanted to go up to this guy and be like, "Hey! You're at the wrong game! Denver is playing San Diego in Denver!"


A funny picture of Cooper.

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Sunday Morning Blogging

Micole: "Will you put the dishes away? Grandma Stella's coming up today. I want to straighten things up."
Me: "Sure!"

15 minutes later...
Micole: "Mom's not coming up today. She's sick."
Me: "So you mean I put the dishes away for nothing?"


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Friday, September 16, 2005

This is the extra special Friday edition of "The Mini Cooper" blog.

I don't normally post on Fridays but I'm in good blogging mood tonight.

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Very Minor But Important Accomplishment #1239
The kid's gone and done it again. He's always one upping himself. An overachiever, he is. Today he went from sitting to standing by pulling himself up under his own power while using Daddy's thumbs for leverage. Then for good measure he did it a few more times to show Mommy.

Ah, time goes by so fast. It seems like just the other day he started sitting up all on his own... Oh yeah... It was just the other day. At this rate I'm guessing he's going to be crawling pretty soon. That is, if he doesn't start walking first. As far as that goes, I've said before he'll probably run before he can walk. I sincerely hope that is not the case. I need the time to adjust to these changes in his evolution.

I do like the whole sitting up on his own thing. It's kind of nice. What I'm not going to like is now we have to buy him some more toys to play with.


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A thought: Why does it seem like the phone always rings when Cooper is throwing a fit?

A Little Funny Story to Tell

Yesterday our babysitter Joyce made us some peanut butter cookies. They're very good cookies. Oh, to die for. Some of them even have a Hershey's kiss on them. Thank you, Joyce. They are so great.

Well, one of them apparently (with a Hershey's kiss) had fallen out and was on the back seat. Micole found it this morning smashed when she was getting Cooper out of the car to take him into Joyce's house. She thinks to herself, "I better call Marty and let him know." Then just as quickly, she forgets.

About 5 minutes after she picks me up from work this evening, she remembers. So I'm thinking, "Oh great. You're telling me that I may have a brown stain somewhere on the butt of my pants. Worse, I've walked around with it all day on my pants. I took a two mile walk at lunch. I even had a short meeting with the executive vice president of our business line and I'M WALKING AROUND WITH A BROWN TURD-LIKE STAIN ON MY BEHIND?!?!?! This has the potential to be the most humiliating day of my life. People will be talking about me at work for years. 'Yeah, he was the guy that had a turd on the outside of his pants!'"

So in the backseat, next to Cooper in his carseat, while Micole is driving 60 mph down the highway, I pulled my pants down and looked for a brown stain, on the outside of my pants, of course. I found nothing. A heavenly sense of relief set in.

Now I'm sitting there in the backseat with my pants down to my ankles. I can't leave them that way. But pulling them up is a much more difficult maneuver than was the pulling down. I'm squished between Cooper's carseat and the door. The only way I could get them up and then only halfway up, was to stand up. So I basically looked like I was some 17 year old kid with my butt smashed up against the window getting ready to moon everyone.

Later on after I got out of the vehicle we did find a stain, but it was very mild and not as noticeable as I originally feared. My fragile psyche is okay.

Cooper, there's no vitamin B in it and the apple on the other side is not edible.

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Thursday, September 15, 2005

Can't Think Of A Good Title Post

Not much to say tonight. It's been a quiet evening around here. At least Survivor is back on the tellervision. We love Survivor around here. Life doesn't seem to be the same when we're without it.

We all slept better last night. We needed it.

Cooper is getting so active. He's almost too much to hold when he gets moving. Sometimes I'm afraid he's going to squirm right out of my arms. Anything he sees he wants to get into. He goes nuts for the camera. He jumped up and down in his Exersaucer while trying to grab the camera from me.

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Somehow I took 85 pictures tonight. Normally I take in the 20-25 range. Sometimes less. Sometimes more. It's really been awhile since I took that many in a day... let alone in a few hours. I guess I just keep pressin' the button fast and it doesn't take that long at all.

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Live long and prosper.

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I just love him so much.

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WARNING! SMILES ARE CONTAGIOUS.
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