It's Been Too Long

It has been way to long since I have written on here, and I must admit, I'm a little disappointed in my self. I had intended to get on here at least once a week to at least document the happenings of Cooper and the entire Jensen Gang! So, here goes some long windedness (is this even a word?) to try to catch up.

Let's start with our big helpers. Jaxon is now 8 and started the third grade. He is keeping us on our toes by participating in both soccer and football this fall. He loves both sports. Today he had a hat trick in his soccer game. You couldn't wipe that smile off his face. It was fun to watch. Randy and I were a little late to his first football game last week (thanks in part to work schedules and early starting times for the games) but we walked up just in time to see him take the ball down the field for a touchdown! He is growing up so fast, it's frightening.

Lea has started preschool. She is going two mornings a week. Just getting her feet wet for school. She will have to do another year of preschool, because of where her birthday falls, but it will be good for her. She loves school. One of our good friends (Heather :) )works there, so this has really helped her transition in to school. She loves going to Jaxon's games. She is quite the cheerleader, but can't wait to be out there playing herself.

Cooper is doing great, except for his weight. He is eating like a horse, ok shetland pony. But the little fart is all over the place.

Around the Fourth of July, he was starting to crawl. He had been army crawling and getting where he wanted to pretty quickly. But now, he has the crawling thing down pat. It has been about a month and a half, and you CAN NOT take your eyes off him for a minute. We found out the hard way (well kind of anyway) that he could crawl up steps. I don't think he even knew he could, until he did it. Thanks in part to his big sister, Lea. Where she goes, he wants to go. He did not fall or anything, we just found him on the third of four steps. Now he's a pro at them. Crap!

We have 3 gates and an ironing board up to try to cage him in. A couple of them we can not secure, so there in lies the next problem. He wants what's behind those gates, usually cords of some sort, so he pulls the gates down. This tends to be on top of himself. He doesn't usually cry when he does this, but it sure is interesting watching him crawl out from under them.

Cooper wants to walk, but just isn't steady enough yet. I think it is in part to his weight. He's got a big head (he's going to be really smart like his mom) and no weight to help him keep it up. We haven't gone to the doctor to get a true weight on him, but by our scale, he still is only around 16 pounds. Not for lack of trying. The kid only wants real food most of the time. And easily can go through a large jar of food at one sitting, as long as it's something he likes. And we believe he is addicted to those puffs. Couldn't get the other two to eat those, but he can go through a container in 3 days if you let him.

He now has 6 teeth and is starting to chew like a pro. Unfortunately, it is usually not on food. Cords, boxes, us, and occasionally a teething ring. I have tried to look to see if there are any more teeth trying to come in, but that is risky. He likes to bite and those little teeth hurt.

His determination is...AWESOME! When he wants something, he finds a way to get it, most of the time. Of course we have to keep him in check, because what he wants is usually not something he should have. He has lots of bruises and scrapes to prove it already. His level of problem solving already has us a little concerned for what the future has in store for us. We see a lot of trips to the doctor or ER with this one. There is fearless (which Jaxon and Lea were) and there is Cooper.

I know, this sounds like most little ones, but I think for us, with Cooper it just is different. When you have in the back of your mind, every day, that you are just lucky that he is alive, because he wasn't given that great of a chance...it changes your outlook. We have been told and have read that he could have all these different developmental delays and may not ever do certain things, like crawl, that seeing his determination and how quickly he can problem solve (his way around gates and in to everything else) that we truly feel that God is Great! We know that we are not out of the woods and we have no idea what Cooper may or may not be able to do in the future. But for now, we celebrate all that he is accomplishing. We are celebrating all the little things that "people" have said he may never do, and does with gusto.

All children are miracles, but Cooper.....he is proof of God's greatness. We have a little fighter on our hands. So, watch out world!!!

Until next time...(I hope I will be back soon)

Cooper has been doing really well at his scheduled check ups. At 6month check his weight is still very below average. Everything else is above average!