Happy Thanksgiving @ 5 months old !!

Happy Thanksgiving! Wow how quickly these little things grow and develop and grow up! Jaden is now 5 months old and had a wonderful 1st Thanksgiving with some of our family members. Dad, Mom and Jaden headed back east to NY to attend the Wright family reunion in Syracuse, visit Mom's childhood friend Bethany, visit the Morris's - Mom's Moms side of the family, and the Pietraszewski's Mom's Dads side of the family. Jaden had a wonderful time and had her first experience with Western NY weather - (although our 2nd day there was a beautiful blue sky day). Jaden first spent some time with Grandpa Paul P. Then et her Great Grandma Morris, met some cousins of Mom's, and had dinner with the Morris family. Jaden showed of her voice skills at Great Grandma Morriss when she met the stuffed doggie - she loves doggies!!! It was wonderful to see Bethany, Mommies childhood friend, and to meet her 3 kids, and talk to her about her own business ! Mommy is so proud of her bestest friend and so happy for her. Then Mommy, Daddy and Jaden drove from Liberty NY to Syracuse to meet Uncle Dave and Aunt Annie and the Wright family !! Wow - there was too much fun to even stand. Uncle Dave and Aunt Annie LOVED baby Jaden, so did everyone else!! Mommy and Uncle Dave even got to go for a special run together - that was great fun other than they got rained on! Jaden even got to go swimming in the big grown up pool!! Her first swim! Then we had a wonderful Thanksgiving meals together as the Wright family. Beth and Joe invited us over to there house a number of times, which was wonderful - Jaden had fun and she especially liked their new dog Copper. We got to see Aunt Paul, Uncle John, Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Mike, Aunt Pat, litte baby Margaret and the list goes on. Some group photos were taken, but have not been sent yet - shucks... Jaden tried her first bite of blueberry pie (ok blueberry juice in the pie) - YUM. .She loved pie juice!! Whew - what a trip! We are all glad to be back home in Colorado, where we are now getting some snow and we can concentrate on relaxing and getting better from our little cold we all caught. Jaden is about 14 lb at 5 months and growing like a champ! Next adventure solid foods and more sleep training ! Wish us well !!!

13 weeks and not so tiny !!!

Jaden is growing so very much in so many areas, she is 'talking', she is pushing up on her arms, and she has figured out that she has hands! Although she would rather play all day - rather than nap, we are getting a schedule down, especially now that Grandma Nancy is watching her during the day - while Mommy is at work. Mommy misses Jaden terribly, but at least she is able to nurse Jaden at lunch. Jaden has a number of adventures including lots of runs in her chariot, hikes in her baby bjorn, visits with Meadow ( 8 weeks ) and Xander (6 months old ), visit to the butterfly pavilion with Navon (2 1/2) and Niya (1) and lots of other fun places in Boulder. She is 'sleeping' well at night, although she still snacks on Mom up to 2x at night - some nights none, some nights 1 and sometimes 2... Hmmm.. must be nice!
Jaden also saw her first bear - in our front yard about 2 weeks ago... He / She was snacking on our neighbors trash.. yummy.. Sort of a very large bear... Photos are not too great but you get the idea!!!

Road Trip !!! (to Iowa)

On the Road to Iowa we go!!!

Family reunion was calling so we made the 2 day, 800 mile trip to Iowa with Jaden. She had to see Grandpa and Grandma Cooper again, meet many of Grandma Wrights relatives and friends, and meet Great Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.

Jaden did great and almost complained less about the drive than Mom did!!!

We had a wonderful visit to Iowa, stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Cooper and Janden met a wonderful group of people!! We even got to meet Maisie who shares a birthday with Jaden!

High Mountain FUN

********************************Dad, Mom & Jaden decided it was time to take a 'REAL' mountain hike - not just the daily hikes in the foothills that Mom and Jaden take.

So we headed up to Brainard Lake area, the start of many of our longggg training runs in the past few years.

On Sun am it was cold and rainy and just plain yucky in Boulder. However the clouds wete low in the sky - and although Mom worried it was rainy up high - Dad indicated he knew otherwise (checking some high mtn cams likely helped!!!)

Off we went - after 30 min of prep at least.. takes much longer to head out the door these days..

Beautiful blue sky appeared behind the clouds as we made our way up. What fun!!!

Jaden, Mom and Dad completed a 6 mile hike, along with 2 nursing breaks along the way. Jaden got to 11,000 feet ! Wow, what a mountain girl!!

The altitude made Jaden very sleepy!! Take a look at this relaxed girl!!

More Jaden Photos

So our little Miss Jaden is growing very fast on Mommies milk - today she is at 7 lb 12 oz (little more than 1 oz a day). Some of her newborn clothes do not fit her anymore! I expect next week, some of the clothes that fit her today will not fit any longer.

About 3 weeks ago, we had a professional photographer come and take photos of Jaden. You can view them on her website at the following link

www.abbyphotography.com

Click on SITE
Click on CLIENTS
type in password baby_jaden

The photos will be avalible for another week. After that, I will have to post some of the digital photos here.

Here are some photos Dad took that are really great.

Also - She has begun to SMILE at MOMMY and DADDY !!!! That is really neat !

Jaden Hope Cooper - The Beauty

Jaden will celebrate her 2 week old milestone this evening!!! What a 2 weeks it has been - both wonderful and exhausting. Jaden has been steadily gaining weight - which is our parental priority thru both nursing and bottle feeding breastmilk. Of course she prefers the bottle since it is no work, but she needs the calories....so we provide both thru much effort. She is worth it!!!!! So enough talking lets look at some photos...these some 2 weeks old, some much more recent.

Welcome to the World Jaden Hope Cooper

On June 30th, Lori and I checked into the hospital to start the process. The week prior our doctor decided to set the date because of continued concerns with the growth of the baby. The overnight stay was to prep Lori for the induction in the morning. We watched a lot of TV and just tried to sleep (Ryan slept really well, and Lori was crampy all night).

In the morning we openned the shades and took a few photos of our great view. Ryan went for a run before the doctor came in to start the induction drugs. For the first few hours Lori didn't notice anything. Around 11 am, she noticed small contractions every 3 min, but they was not thatsevere. Ryan headed out for lunch (which took longer than Ryan thought it would), and when he got back there were doctors and nurses surrounding Lori. Evidently, things had really got started, and the doctors were concerned with the drop of the babies heartrate during the contractions. They broke her water and started to monitor the baby and Lori's contractions internally (and the nurse was there the whole time after that).

Lori was a real trooper for the next 3 hrs, with significant contractions every 2-3 mins. This photo was after Lori received a little bit of narcotic. After a whirlwind of events - really a blur, they decided they needed to take the baby out by c-section since the baby's heartrate continued to drop too much during contractions. It was a good thing, since they figured out the cord was wrapped around her neck 2x ..... too many acrobatics in utero!

Although c sections are not fun, they are quick! In less than 5 min Jaden Hope Cooper was born, and 30 min later, Lori was being wheeled out with her new baby girl!

Mom, Dad and baby Jaden are doing just fine - learning about life together. (What changing diapers means, getting a 1st bath, and yes - how to eat Mom's food!)

We are just going to hang out at the hospital for a few days, it is actually very nice, the nurses change diapers, teach you things, answer questions, and basically make sure you are doing well. (Can I take one home with us??)

Recent Photos and Update

Sorry for the delay in more posts, we will get you updated!

In Early June we finally got our new camera out on a little hike up in our foothills....

How nice a kiss from Ryan (that really was not a kiss but a Zerbert (or whatever you call it!!! ))

Notice the slight clouds in the background.. - we have had MORE rain in Boulder CO in June than Ryan and I ever remember since we came here - 14 yrs ago.. wow, that is a long time...

We had some friends with us - Thank you for taking those photos - Bob and Cindy!

Lets see on Monday of last week, they took some measurements and thought the baby was not 'fattening up' - (tired placenta), and they were going to induce us on June 19th.. my Brothers (Dave) Birthday... Then they took more measurements 2 days later, the baby was in a better position + we had a higher skilled technician, and all measurements were fine. Of course that meant no induction - Dave, you still have your birthday to yourself! Since Dr's are conservative, they did tell me to 'rest', start working from home (ok so they said no working, email does not count!), and no mowing lawns or really much activity. Exact words 'be like Cleopatria, get waited on'... Well, I am doing a fine job for being Lori, Ryan will agree. So now it is just a waiting game!! Ps. Kid, I would like to have my birthday and you to have your own Birthday (we can have Ryan make us 2 cakes !!! ),, so please pick another day other than June 29th... Hmm... Lets see how well they listen in utero!

More recently we finally got some more decent belly photos!

We will share more as Ryan figures out our new camera and captures some more - of me... Here are a few more of our rainy June!!! (from deck)

Ok.. It does not rain all day, I will admit! But boy our grass is green!

Baby Party (aka Beer Party)

Thank you so very much to Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Mike Wright - for hosting our baby party at their house in Longmont CO! We had a blast and hopefully let Nancy and Mike recooperate from the party! Thank you all to our friends and family that attended - it was YOU GUYS that made the party great! Thank you as well for all of the wonderful gifts- we are really honored to have such great friends!

Lots and lots of beer drinking - was this a beer party or baby party???

Family History

Grandpa Cooper (Ryan's Dad and MaryJo) visited from Iowa City over Memorial weekend. They brought with them a number of special family items! Paul brought with him a very important cradle that was part of Nancy's family from when she was a child. What a beautiful cradle!

Ryans' Grandfather (Leon Cooper) the expert woodworker he is, handmade a special wardrobe for his daughter Pat in 1943. Great Grandpa Cooper and Grandpa Cooper decided it would be a special treat to refinish this wardrobe for the new 'mini Cooper'! Grandpa Cooper (Paul) spent a great deal of time re-finishing this wardrobe for our 'mini Cooper'! They transported the disassembled wardrobe from Iowa to Boulder, CO and spent Sunday afternoon putting it together!

Ryan (Dad) hard at work while Paul (Grandpa) Cooper is drilling !

After some unexpected turns, some compromises and changes of plans the wardrobe came together beautifully!

Here is a photo of the finished wardrobe - Thank you to Great Grandpa Cooper, Grandpa Cooper and Dad who all contributed to this beatiful piece of furniture!

Profile photos of the 'belly' changes

So, we thought we would share with you some photos of the 'belly changes' that accompany the 'mini cooper' adventure, here is what we have to date !

Thanksgiving 08
Early January 09

Late Feb 09

April 09

Memorial Day Weekend 09