Siegel's Cottonwood Farm Pumpkin Patch

We took Cooper to his first pumpkin patch with AJ's parents this week. They had some pretty cool petting zoo areas, and some nice pumpkins to pick from. However, many of their attractions that we were looking forward to doing were closed due to it being a weekday. Even all of their food places were closed! We were somewhat disappointed but, we did get some nice (huge) pumpkins. 

Feeding the goats! 

That cow kept trying to push its horns through the gate to get at us! 

He REALLY loves pumpkins. 

Jump Jump Jump! 

Cooper & Daddy

Pure excitement 

We're packing our bags!

I have officially been accepted into the University of Medicine & Health Sciences in St Kitts. It has been a long road getting here, with 5 years of undergraduate and post-baccalaureate study leading up to this point. The countless hours of volunteer work and interning has finally paid off. I will officially be Dr. Mari in just a few short years!

However exciting this news is, it was a family decision on whether or not I was going to accept the admissions offer. This would mean us living in St. Kitts for 20 months & then returning to Chicago after that so I can complete my 2 clinical rotation years and then move on to residency. We would be allowed to travel home every 4 months for about 2 weeks when I have a break from school. AJ & I decided that it was in the best interest of our family in the long run for me to take advantage of this opportunity.

Come the first week of January, we will be flying down to St. Kitts, AJ will be staying home with Cooper, I will be going to class. This whole transition is rather daunting as I have been home with CJ since he was born, so I am a bit nervous about leaving him for any extended amount of time per day. I know he'll be in great hands, but I'm still having some issues with it inside... I'm hoping as moving day gets closer I will be more comfortable with the idea.

For now, we have TONS of things to get done, including but not limited to: finding a condo, getting Cooper's passport, filling out Visa applications and getting all of our necessities.. the list goes on and on and on.. No literally, I wrote a list of things that need to get done & it's three pages long thus far.

I think I need to hit the tanning bed a few times before we go though since I wasn't out in the sun at all this summer because CJ couldn't be in the sun too long & although my skin tans very well, I don't think the Caribbean sun is going to be too forgiving on skin that hasn't had sun exposure in 2 years.

Cooper represents

Disclaimer: Cooper is too young to make the monumental decision of Packers vs Bears and since we have fans for both in the family, we have to appease everyone. Although personally I think he looks a lot better in Bears colors. He will, however, forever be a Chicago Blackhawks fan. 

5 Months

Happy five month birthday, Buckaroo!! You are getting SOO big! You eat your oatmeal like a champ. We cannot wait to start you on purees so you can taste all of the good stuff that you try and steal off of our plates every night at dinner. 

How old: 5 months

Looks like: Starting to look like more of a mix now

Weight: 17 lbs 2 oz

Height: 26 inches

Likes: Rolling over, playing with toys, eating his oatmeal, bath time

Dislikes: Sleeping.

Milestones: On September 7^th Cooper rolled over from back to belly! Yay! He is doing great with his oatmeal & we're hoping that we get the go-ahead to start him on purees at his six month check up!

Best Buddies For Life 

Rawr 

Hanging out with Daddy 

Cooper LOVES his oatmeal!! 

Messy messy baby 

Mama's new haircut 

Chillin' in Uncle Andrew's new car! 

Damn you four month sleep regression..

So ever since we got back from Wisconsin, where Cooper had his first episode of sleep issues since he was about eight weeks old, he has been an absolute terror when it comes to sleeping through the night. His sleep is so inconsistent now. Some nights he'll be up every hour, some every two hours, some he's awake from 11 pm-7 am... I just can't figure it out. We've tried moving his bedtime up, switching bath soap, moving him out of the bassinet into his pac n play for more room, and even resorted to swaddling the baby who wouldn't stand to be swaddled from the day he was born.

I even broke dow and did the one thing I vowed I would never do, I ended up with him in the car at 5:30am, driving around all of God's creation until 8am, just so he could get some sleep.

I'm at a loss. I am so unbelievably tired. All of the adrenaline that came with the sleepless nights with having a newborn has disappeared since he starting sleeping through the night at eight weeks. I don't want to let him cry-it-out, and even if I wanted to I really couldn't since he's still in our room until we move, and I don't want to wake AJ up since he has to be up for work at 6am. I'm really hoping the sleeping fairy comes back down and gives me back my nights filled with slumber...