Some pics that got left off the last post....

This one is for my sis!

And anyone else who wants to read it! =)  (She specifically asked for it though.)  Here's just a few pictures from the last few months in the Cooper household....  which is about to grow and raises the question of how I will change our blog name once we're not 3 anymore?  I guess we're not already!!  Here's a couple pictures of when I was on bedrest above (officially released after 14 weeks!!)  That's a long time to lay down and a long time for alot of people to be helping us out, so I really want to say THANK YOU for all the help!!  Specifically, I want to say thanks to my lab, who got us a gift certificate to get home-delivered food which was AWESOME and provided us with a way to eat something other than frozen pizza during the time when Jeremy was finishing his dissertation, thanks to Jeremy's brother Jim & wife Heather, who watched Ellie for us multiple times (during a few scary visits to Labor & Delivery and at other times to allow Jeremy to work on his dissertation), grocery-shopped for us and brought us yummy meals, thanks to Jeremy's sister Andrea, who came over and cleaned our house multiple times and cheered me up =), Jeremy's parents and sister Debbie, who brought us food, my friends Kavita & Lana, who came over and cleaned, my mom & sister who cleaned our bedroom and reorganized my closet, our friends Jen & Drew, who, despite being very pregnant, made and brought over dinner, my friend Steph (from Colorado), who ordered meal delivery for us, and then everybody else who has prayed for us, sent us supportive notes and called to check on us!!  We appreciate you all SOOO much!!  I will be 34 weeks this Thursday and our baby boy is growing well!  (Here's a couple photos of my belly 2 weeks ago, large & in charge!!)  At 32 weeks, the baby weighed 4.5 pounds, so now is probably around 5.5.  Considering we were in danger at one point of losing the baby and then having a 1 pounder, we are feeling SOOOOO relieved to be nearing the end!!!  Anyways, thanks again for EVERYTHING.  

So where was I?  Ellie has read alot of books with me these past few months!  I hope she completely forgets this whole experience ...  this has been pretty hard on her.  She's always asking me "if Mommy's owie can go away", telling me to go see the dr.,

 etc.  I cannot wait for the day that I can pick her up again!  (Only a few more weeks, yeah!!)  There's also some pictures of Ellie in her hand-me down Dora boots -- she wanted me to take a picture of the boots, but didn't want to smile for the camera -- anyways, she 

was so excited to go out in the snow.  We just got some and it was her first time (that she remembers) stomping around in it, she loves it!!  Here's some pics of a day my brother Brian got to spend with us (while on a layover here in Seattle).  Ellie LOVES her Uncle Bri and still talks about how he "fixed the airplane" so he could fly here.  Next we have Ellie trying

out her "Big Girl Bed", a hand-me down bed from our

 friends Bryan & Carrie.  She LOVES it!!  (To us, though, it means our baby girl is growing up...  which is fun and sort of sad at the same time...  I can't believe how fast time has gone!!!)  Then we have some pics of Ellie helping us make Christmas cookies and in front of the tree.  Finally here's a picture from this last Sunday of Ellie & my mom in front of our tree.  My mom came for 5 days or so and she and Ellie had SO much fun together!  It's so wonderful to watch them developing such a special relationship...  they have so much fun together.  Ellie really really loves her Grammy!!   

Other than that, right now, we're just eagerly awaiting the birth of our little boy!  We'll keep you posted.  We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!  Lots of love, the Coopers

Ellie turned 2!!

Hi everybody, 

You would really think that a lady on bedrest would update her blog more....  but it's  still just the taking the pictures and get

ting them on my computer thing that slows 

me down.  Oh well.

  I might start updating without pics 

sometimes....  Especially with the nature of my 

pregnancy.  I'll get to that in a second, 

but 

first check out how much fun Ellie's had this past few weeks!  My mom, sisters and sister Erin's boys (Drew and Drake, though there's no pics of Drake on here =( ) all came to visit for over a week.  It was great!!  Ellie could not 

have enjoyed their visit more, especially Drew!!  They are made to be buddies!  It's so fun to see, they play SO well together for 2 year olds, with nearly no problems sharing.  You can tell they love each other and WANT to share!  It was alot of people to have in a house and everybody is probably catching up on sleep now that they all went home.  I know I am!!  My sister Erin was such a trooper.  Both her boys were trying to sleep in the same 

room, with Drake still waking up all throughout the nig

ht, which would then wake up Drew....  it was not easy on her, but she still kept a smile on her face and chased the kids around all day long.  Amazing.  She's such a good mom!  She also worked with my mom to completely organize Jeremy and I's bedroom!  It was so nice to have them here, I just love my family.  And I have to say that Jeremy is amazing for putting up with having them all here for so long! He says that he likes having them here, but it's still got to be a bit crazy to have a house full of in-laws for that long!  And yet he deals with it SO well.  I love him for it!  Along other lines, Jeremy's been working hard since his defense...  He's written a paper that will be submitted for publication soon, is writing additional chapters for his dissertation and also i

nterviewing for jobs.  He just interviewed last week at a place in Lake City (just N. of Seattle...  really just part of Seattle) that would be AWESOME!  It'll be a while before we know anything about any of the jobs, but that's OK b'c he's finishing up things in his lab and probably will do that through December...  It actually works out well b'c he has alot of flexibility in his lab to work from home and work flexible hours, which helps alot when (with me being on pregnancy restrictions like that I can't lift Ellie) he needs to drive Ellie to Nandita's and home and also help me out.  So I guess that brings me to the pregnancy update (which is a good update, it's just getting old always focusing on it, if you know what I mean...) Anyways, I've reached a big milestone!  Last Thurs. I got to 24 weeks!  That means our baby boy is viable and has a chance if born soon.  But we're really hoping he'll stay in there MUCH longer!  I had an ultrasound at 23 weeks and everything looked GREAT!  None of my crazy contrac

t

ions have moved me closer towards labor, the baby is growing right on schedule and the abruptions (there were actually 2 separate ones on different areas of the placenta) are looking smaller.  I also don't have the 5 hour contractions anymore and if I do have one, it goes away instantly when I lay down.... just like a normal Braxton Hicks contraction.  I have way less pain, too...  I think what I am experiencing now are just the normal aches and pains of pregnancy.  So things are looking great! My dr. gave me the green light to go to work (just walk in, sit down for a couple hours, and walk out).  It's no more activity than I do when going to a dr. appt. and since those are not causing problems, she thinks going to work will be fine....  actually GOOD for stress reduction.  If that's not a wierd thought.  But laying around leads to different kinds of stress....  my body hurts, I worry about pains more than I normally would, etc.  Plus, it's SOOO hard to not communicate with anyone all day.  So I'm going to try going to work tomorrow.  I can't wait!  =)  To anyone who may worry about that, please don't.  My dr. thinks that if something is going to happen, it will happen anyways and that at this point, laying around isn't improving the situation.  I already laid down enough to get to a place where things are as healed as possible and now, really the only thing short of getting in a car accident or falling down the stairs that will cause things to progress is the actual growing of my uterus.  As it gets bigger, there's a chance the abruptions will irritate it more and throw me into labor...  but walking around won't change that or make it happen faster.  So please don't worry!!  I'll be super careful!  I'll probably use this blog to update the pregnancy status more, so that the people that are interested can check it out on here....  It's much easier than trying to remember who we've told what to

...  My next dr. appt. isn't until Nov. 6.  I have another ultrasound to make sure baby's growing well.  So unless anything happens, I've got about a 31/2 week break from going in there!!  Yea!  Anyways, that's about it for that topic. Otherwise, we're still just hanging in there.  Fall is settling in here in Seattle and we're coming to grips with the thought that soon, we may not see the sun for months.  We're sick of the Seahawks losing. =(  But we are still having as much fun as ever with Ellie.  She's so so much fun!  She LOVED being the center of attention, while being sung happy birthday to on 3 separate occasions.  She's talking all the time, learning to build train tracks, & she pretends to read books to us.  She LOVED cuddling with my sister's baby Drake and was trying to be such a good little mommy to him....  a vision of what's to come!   Anyways, I'm going to sign out now.  Hope you are all doing well!  Love,  Cristi

First post in months....

Hi everybody, I guess this whole blogging thing has proved to be a little too much work!!  I'm going to try to do a better job now though...  Here's a smattering of pictures of Ellie from the past few months.  They aren't in order... The most recent is the one with my brother which was from just a couple weeks ago in Montana.  Overall, we had a fun, laid-back summer.  We didn't do tons of traveling and although it's so much fun to travel, it's also kind of nice to just hang around at home.  =)  We did go to Jeremy's parents' cabin a couple times (see pics on the beach -- Ellie's FAVORITE spot and taking a bath in the cabin sink!!).  We (or maybe I should just say JEREMY) completely landscaped the backyard and it looks awesome!  I'll try to post a picture...  We went to Montana for about 10 days, spent about a week at my mom's house and then went to Big Fork, MT for my friend's wedding.  It was such a nice time for Ellie and I.  Jeremy wrote his dissertation most hours of the day.  (Actually, he did that most days this summer.......  He defends his dissertation on MONDAY!!!)  Most people have the question -- "what will Jeremy do next?" and I think right now the best answer to that question is that we don't know...  He's been slowing looking for jobs (as his primary focus right now has been to write).  Once he defends, he will stay on in his lab to finish getting papers published and while he does that, he'll look for a job.  We're hoping to stay here, so he'll focus on companies first here.  So we'll keep you posted!  I think most of you know that we're due to have a baby boy in January (the 29th)!   I am 21 weeks today and feel the baby kicking all the time!  Unfortunately, I'm at home on bedrest b'c I have a retroplacental hemorrhage (aka placental abruption) -- where my placenta is partially detached from my uterus.  It's somewhere between being small and big....  I guess it's medium-sized.  I think this started happening when I was lifting boxes to pack up my lab about 5-6 weeks ago.....  So to anyone thinking about becoming pregnant or who is pregnant -- seriously, heed the advice to not lift heavy things.  It's funny, b'c I was told that, but mostly ignored it b'c I thought "well, how have moms of multiple children done this for ages?  b'c you have to lift your kids, right?"  Anyways, take it from me, have help!, bedrest is not as fun as it might seem (to some of you overly busy folks)....  it gets old.  I will say this though, I'm SOOO blessed, lucky, happy (you name it), to still be growing a healthy baby boy at this point.  He's growing at the right rate and seemingly unaffected by the abruption.  I haven't been able to start up any kind of activity yet (or I have more trouble), so I'm just catching up on my reading, movie and TV-watching, talking on the phone, NAPPING =) , and Facebooking!  (Hey, on that note, those of you not on Facebook -- you should do it!  It might take a little more than ummm... 3 min. to get started, but after that, you can check it for only 30 sec. every once in a while and see how your friends/family are doing or what they're doing or whether or not they like Sarah Palin (though I haven't seen a "like Sarah Palin" post yet!!).  It's pretty amazing how many people are on there...  I've got "friends" on Facebook that I haven't seen in nearly 20 years!!)  I also want to say a huge THANKS (while tears come to my eyes) to everyone has helped out over the past 3 weeks......  We've had friends and family make meals, CLEAN OUR HOUSE  (seriously, probably only my mom knows what a labor of love that was and maybe the rest of you that could just picture how clean a house might be after 3 weeks of no-mommy help, daddy on dissertation and toddler-duty and toddler on toddler-duty.......  um. whoa.  it was disgusting!!), get our groceries, set us up with Comfortfooddelivery.com (that's my deliberate suggestion to check them out -- if you live in Seattle & surrounding areas; AMAZING food, great prices and a wonderful woman who runs it (and makes all the food herself!!)), and email me with pictures and stories, just to keep me happy!  It's really touching how caring & supportive everyone has been.  So THANKS!   We are so blessed by all of you and can't wait to be able to help you all out in return some day -- we are here for you!!  On that note, I think I'll go rest......   Doggone blogging wore me out.  =)  Since I have the time, I'll probably update this more often in the coming weeks & months.  Hope all are well and feeling as loved as we are.  =)

Our weekend at the beach

Hi everybody, 

Hope all are well!  We're doing great.  We've been so busy that it's been about a month since I posted...  I'm going to try to do it more often though.  Here are a bunch of pics from our weekend at the beach March 7-9.  We had so much fun!!  Ellie LOVES the ocean, she calls it "whale water" ...  (as an aside, she's qualifying many kinds of water lately, there's "kitty water" which is also "icky water", "milk water" which is milk, "please water" which is water for her to drink, etc.) --  she does love whales and we've told her they live in the ocean, so rather than "ocean" or "beach", the words that have stuck for the ocean is "whale

 water" ...  What can I say, it melts my heart.  Anyways, we went on lots of walks up and down the beach.  Jeremy would run towards the water with Ellie and then as soon as a big wave was going to come, he would pretend it was going to get them and he'd turn and run really fast back towards me and she would laugh the entire time. And really, is there a better sound than your child laughing hysterically?  I think not. 

 The beaches were so beautiful, I don't think these pictures even do them justice.  It was a clamming weekend and some nice people that dug out all these clams at 5am in the morning let us take a picture and ask some questions.  I was particularly bothered by the fact that DRIVING is allowed on the beach, such that every once in a while I'd find myself saying "honey, watch out, a car is coming" and then think - "WHAT did I just say?" - anyways, after talking to the clammers, I realized this is part of the industry, they need the trucks to drive out all the gear to the spots to get the clams.  I have to say though that for anyone else that just drives big trucks on the beach just for the heck of it....  well....   WHY?    

Anyways, we did find a little town that is currently being built where cars will not be allowed to drive on the beach.  We'll definitely go back there to stay.  The whole weekend was just great -- it's weekends like that that punctuate the year. It's so important for us to do things like that, everything else just seems to run together.  Oh and by the way, the picture of Ellie in her swim suit is NOT to get in the ocean, it's far too cold, but to get in the pool at the place we were staying.  It cracks me up how tall and skinny this girl

 is.  We've even been advised at her last dr. appointment to drench her veges in butter, mix her cereal with cream, etc. to try to fatten her up.  Funny thing is, she doesn't seem to like the extras...  She's a purist like her daddy.  Lucky girl.  I wish I didn't like butter or cream!!  Anyways, we've got to get to bed, but we'll update more this week and then after we get back from Mexico (going next week for a wedding, just Jeremy and I, while Ellie stays with my mom).  Hope all are doing well, we miss you!!  xoxoxo, Cristi

Just abuncha pics....

Hi everybody, I'm too tired to write very much, so just thought I'd at least update the pics. Ellie is so busy busy these days... She loves to draw, is alerting us that she either has the urge and is about to poop or that she is in the middle of pooping, at which time, she walks over and sits on her potty, fully dressed, and poops in her diaper (then on some days even walks then to her changing pad, grabs a diaper and lays down and tries to put it on...) (is that TMI?) ... Anyways, she likes to go up and down the stairs all by herself, making sure to always close the gate .... And has also decided that this certain squished up nose face is her "camera face"... I'm pretty sure this strobe light thing my camera dose is what elucidates this face.

Anyways, we're doing pretty well... now. It's been a rough couple weeks. Ellie and I were both sick (as I wrote about in my last post)... Ellie got better & I didn't (right away). I have mono ... Being sick, any of us, is hard on the whole family... Jeremy only got an abbreviated version, thank the Lord. But man, we think we have this whole child thing under control and then we get random curve balls. (I hear that we need to just accept this now.... that's what the "pros" we know are telling us....)

The good news is that we're all on the up-swing. We're going to the beach this weekend for a little R&R, leaving Fri., coming back Sun. We'll take lots of pictures. We realized that this is going to be our first vacation as a family all alone (although we will be meeting up with some friends for a little while on Sat.). Jeremy and I took little weekend vacations like this before Ellie was born and we just haven't done it since! So it should be fun. When she naps, we'll nap. & not feel like we should be cleaning or working......... oh..............soooo........... nice!! I know a few friends who could probably use a weekend like this... We'll let you know how it is (in this tiny town of Westport) and we can go together next time!! Hope all are well!! xoxo, C & J

Kudos to the people we know....

who actually upload pictures every few days!! Impressive. We can't barely keep up with grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. to keep us all fed, clean and wearing laundered clothes.

Our week has been a little rough. Both Ellie and I have had this nasty cold/flu thing that started with a fever and muscle aches followed by the full-blown head cold thing. Yuk. Jeremy was awesome this weekend, took Ellie to the park so I could sleep. She actually walked the whole way (5 blocks), played soccer (Jeremy says she was actually dribbling the ball.... I'd have to see it to believe it), then played on the jungle gym and walked 2/3 of the way back. Jeremy said when she was done walking, she didn't say anything, she didn't complain. She just sat down. =) So cute. Anyways, we also had a date last Fri. night, went out to the BEST Mexican food I think I've ever had, except in Mexico. (We're so far from Mexico too.... Previously we had rated Seattle as the city with the worst Mexican food in the universe, but this little family-run restaurant just about 20 blocks away was AWESOME....) Then we tried to go to this U2 3D show at the Seattle Center, but it was sold out. Darn. We had a babysitter and everything and we just came home and went to bed. Yes, we are in the "lame old-marrieds club" at a young 31 and 32. Sleep sounded better than anything other than U2. Oh well. Other than our weekends, I don't feel that we have much to say about our week. Work, dinner, CNN Debate (as tonight's case may be), clean, sleep, work, etc. A few things we took care of... got the car fixed, got new electric toothbrushes, Jeremy's been building shelves in the mud room. We have no huge plans for this weekend, plan to get take-out Mexican (um, yes, from the afore raved-about restaurant) tomorrow night, play on Sat., maybe go to the beach, don't know yet. Sunday we have a Cooper family event at T and J's in the morning which will be good, hopefully many of the Coopers will be there as we missed the Valentine's party last weekend b'c we were sick... Ellie will be happy to actually see Nana (since she got the bait and switch last weekend). Anyways, hope all are well! Oh, these last pictures are of Ellie from tonight, where she decided shirts were out, hats were in and spent too much time (for Sammy's taste) trying to rub his oh-so-soft tail on her bare belly. =) Oh the joys of parenthood. =)