Big, Big, Big, Big News

Guess what?

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Do you know how hard it is to come here and blog almost everyday for 6 weeks and not be allowed to tell you the big news? I've been busting at the seams. I could barely hold back. It's been eating away at me for so long. Now I can scream it across the entire blogosphere!

WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER BABY!

I couldn't post it because Micole had to tell her boss first and she didn't want to do that until after the first trimester. About 6 to 7 weeks ago I had a post ready to go and she stopped me. Man, I've been wanting to blog this.


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The due date is April 23rd. For those keeping score at home that is one year and 30 days after The Mini Cooper. Thirteen months! We definitely wanted this baby, but we wished he/she could have made a little later appearance.



I think when we first found out (and I mean this in the best possible way, mind you) we were a little disappointed, timing wise anyways. Micole had just gotten done with being pregnant. I don't know how she did it the first time, but to have to turn around and do it all over again just seems cruel. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in the blog, but shortly after Micole gave birth to Cooper, I told her that I would never ask her to go through that again. We could adopt. She just laughed at me.

For me it was like I had two kids in reserve (we think we want 3), so this one only brings me closer to "The Big Snip" or "El Snipo Grande". Also, it seemed at the time like I was just starting to enjoy spending time with Cooper and soon my attention will be split between two children. I've been told going from one child to two, is not like adding one. The first one is 1 to the second power, while the second is 2 to the second power, so it's really like going from 1 to 4. Well, I would've found out eventually. On the plus side, if we wind up only wanting 2 kids, then we're done. Finito.

Names picked out so far: Colton for a boy. Charlotte for a girl. Colton is pretty much set, but we still debate on Charlotte now and then.

My money is on another boy. I had a dream that it was another boy. I also had a dream about 4 months before Cooper was born. In it an angel told me that we would have a baby boy. A feeling came over me, a warmth I guess you'd say, and I never once after that doubted that we would have a boy. So I tend to believe in dreams. I also blogged about the dream my mother had before Cooper was born, HERE . Yes, I truly believe in dreams. And angels.

I truly hope it's a boy, too. All the clothes we have are for a boy and they will all be in the same season. Being that they will be so close in age, I think having two children of the same sex will make for better playmates.

There's so much to do around here. We need a bigger house. We have to move, hopefully before the baby arrives. We have something in the works right now, so we'll see how it goes. It probably means moving to Kentucky which has the motto "At least we're not West Virginia." Sorry, Kentuckians. I just had to take one last swipe at Kentucky before I move there. Oh, well at least it's not Michigan.

I've thought about putting up another blog for the next baby, but I think we'll just keep it all here. Probably have to change the name of the blog. I'm thinking "The Mini Cooper and Friends" or "The Mini Cooper and Colt 45" or "The Mini Cooper and Good Charlotte". If anyone has any brilliant blog name ideas let me know.

In today's other lesser and minor news, we traveled to Toys R Us, where we spent a small fortune on toys and clothes for the boy. We got him this Incrediblocks thingamajig, which is cooler than any toy I ever had as a small child. I'm not sure I really know what it does, but I'm sure it requires broadband internet access to use all of the features.

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Checking it out.

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A little video with his new toy.

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We also got him this walker. Right now he can only move backwards in it.

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Annual Meeting

I almost forgot today was the annual shareholder's meeting of Procter and Gamble. Since I work in downtown Cincinnati and I'm a shareholder, I always try to stop in and get the free stuff. They hand out some nice products before the meeting. Gotta get my free stuff. Now they own Gillette so there is even more free goodness to be had.

P&G, some people around here it call it Procter and God, is considered a "granny" stock. A lot of older people own the stock because it's fairly steady and they're pretty consistent with increasing earnings and dividends. I've owned it about 7 years and I think with dividends reinvested it's about doubled, which would be about 10% per year growth.

At least 60% of the crowd was over 70 today and that might be a conservative estimate. It was pretty much like the early bird special at the Golden Corral. Let me tell you, elderly people do not like waiting in lines. You get to a certain stage in life and I suppose you don't want to spend the rest of your life in a line. They will run you over to get something free. It doesn't matter if they use a walker or if they are in a wheelchair. You gotta get out of their way.

It wasn't too bad this year, because P&G organized the event a little bit better, but last year I swear one lady with a walker was going to threaten me or something. She just had that look on her face. I'm sure she was thinking, "I get to go first, because I've been a shareholder of this company since 1937."

My booty from the meeting. I'd say the total retail value was about $40 or so. Definitely worth 20 minutes of my time and walking 2 blocks.

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I think I will buy Cooper a share or two of P&G for his 1st birthday, but I won't take him to the shareholder meeting. He might get run over. I like the song "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer", but I don't want to hear the song "Cooper Got Ran Over By A Grandma".

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Mommy tickles Cooper.

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I got a little bit of video of him laughing before the card on the digital camera ran out of memory.

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Cuddling up with Mommy on this fall evening.

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I love this picture. It looks like he's thinking. I always wonder what he's thinking. It's probably like "Ooh... That thingy over there looks shiny. Maybe I should put it in my mouth."

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Day Off

There's no reasoning with an infant. That's the hardest thing for me to understand. I want to explain to the young lad that I'm making the bottle, getting ready to change his diaper, we'll be home in just a minute, etc. To him that doesn't matter. He wants to be fed, changed, and held on demand.

My stay at home dad day was fun though. We played and took pictures. We went to Kohl's to see Pappy's friends. We shopped. We went to a bar. Yes, a baby in a bar! We went to the bar for lunch and nothing else. No beer for the kid or anything like that. Then Pappy bought his guitar. Cooper cried all the way home. We got home, Cooper got a bottle, and we made a video. Then Cooper slept. He woke up, demanded a bottle. Now I have him watching the NFL channel on Directv, so that maybe (hopefully that is) he'll get an early understanding of the intricacies of the 4-3 defense.

There have been many hugs and kisses. It has been a good day.

I'm getting a little bit better at feeding him. I'm definitely not making as much of a mess of him.

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Well the Bengals lost, but we did get this good pic today.

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I had all of these toys put away in his basket this morning.

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I like this video from the digital camera.

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Look Out Hollywood

I bought the Pinnacle Studio AV/DV last week. I got it set up on my computer today. So here's my first take on making a movie. I'm sure I'll get better when I figure out all I can do with the software.

I present to the world my first short "film", titled "Crying Song".


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Pappy bought a new guitar today and was playing it for Cooper. The song on the video is Travis Tritt's "The Whiskey Ain't Working Anymore".

Long Weekend

I have Monday off for Columbus Day, so it's a long weekend for me. So far all I've done is watch football and take pictures of Cooper. Something to note: Cooper nearly stood up today by pulling himself by using the recliner for support. I think he might skip crawling in favor of walking.

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Aunt Kelly came over on Friday night to see Cooper. He really likes her.

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I've got a bunch of photos like this one, because he just stared and stared at Kelly.

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Disheveled hair.

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Saturday night dinner. Aunt Kelly and Pappy came over to eat with us.

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We can't get him to sleep on his own.

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It's not quite Xmas time yet, but Mommy couldn't resist getting the hat for Cooper.

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Engrish

I've been throwing all of our poop away. I never thought to collect it.

For Dad

My dad asked me to post these photos of Mom's tombstone.

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Messing Around

I'm messing around with some blogger templates so you might see this site change from time to time till I find the one I like the best. I was getting tired of the old lighthouse theme.

Down and Out

I skipped blogging last night, because Blogger was down, we got in late, and Jusspress was acting funny. It was nice to take some time off and relax. I enjoy blogging, but it's almost an addiction and it can be work. In the end the pay stinks, but I have a pretty good digital scrapbook of our lives.

We took Cooper to get his 6 month photos at JC Penney. It went pretty well overall. He didn't cry and he sat up and behaved pretty well, but we could not get him to smile. He smiled ONE time and the photographer was about a half of second late. The appointment was at 6:30, so I think Cooper might have been a little tired and wasn't in a real playful mood. The pictures came out pretty good though and when they're up on Smiles by Wire, I'll share them with you here.

We bought this outfit about a half hour before his photo shoot.

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I've been in a blah mood this week. Nothing seems to be that interesting to me. I'm just bored. On top of that I've got so many things to blog about right now, but some of them I'm not allowed to blog about, yet. Hopefully I'll feel better this weekend when Ohio State beats Penn State and the Bengals beat Jacksonville (and if Michigan plays they lose). If all of these things happen my mood should be elevated.

Some photos from this evening.

Phoning It In

I'm getting really lazy with the blog. I'm just going through the motions tonight. That means we have another collage. It's so much easier to post all of the pics as one picture than 5 of them separately. There was no drought of picture taking tonight though.


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I even have several things that I can write about but I'll save some of it for another night.

One thing I will write about: Cooper the Pooper. I love it when the kid poops. I really do. I just don't like changing the diaper (or the smell). At all. He's so funny when he's pooping. He'll grunt and scream and grind his teeth (both of them). His face gets all red. You'd think he was really mad or possessed by an evil demon. It's too cute. I always ask him, "So, are you trying to squeeze one out?". He'll look at me. I'll smile at him and then he'll grunt and scream and grind his teeth some more.

For Grandma Stella

I'm going with the easy way out for showing tonight's pictures. That's right it's collage time! These are ALL of tonight's pictures. Usually you don't get to see all of them, but we got in late and with Cooper's evening fussiness, the situation was not conducive to a normal photo taking evening. The collage even has two pictures twice. Yep, only 7 pics taken tonight.


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Who Dey Little Baby! Who Dey!

The Bengals have started the season 4-0 for the first time since 1988, the year they last went to the Super Bowl. We went to O'Charley's tonight for dinner. Cooper wore his Bengals onesie. As we were leaving, a Bengals fan was walking in. He saw Cooper in his Bengals outfit and said to him "Who dey, little baby? Who dey?" If you don't know what the heck "Who Dey?" means check out today's Cincinnati Enquirer article Who dey! It's back, but where'd it come from?.

A relaxing Saturday, spent playing on the floor.

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He's got a whole box full of toys that he can play with now.

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Curling up with Mommy during the Bengals game.

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Cooper discovers his shadow. It kept his attention for a few minutes.

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Cooper gets to sit in his own chair just like a big boy at O'Charley's.

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Even though they have very little on the menu that Cooper can eat, it does not stop him from trying to read the menu.

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Pucker up.

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Cooper likes O'Charley's potato soup. A lot. This video makes it look like he really likes it. When I upload video from the digital camera to Jusspress it speeds up the video, but keeps the audio at it's correct speed.

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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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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.)