Monday, June 15, 2009

Movie Premiere - Transformers

The weather on Sunday was perfect so we decided to take Cooper to check out Tiergarten. It's like the Central Park of Berlin. We had such a nice time walking around and playing on the play grounds.

On our way back to the train station we heard screaming coming from the Sony Center. We walked over to check it out and lo and behold, we were right in the middle of the Germany premiere of Transformers!
It was funny because earlier that week Sabrina was saying we should look up some movie premieres and see if any were gonna be at the Sony Center. I was a little surprised at how few people there were. I guess when I saw photos and news coverage of premieres it always looked packed, but at this one there weren't really that many people. We just walked right up to the front of the barriers and had a pretty close view of the celebs.
I'm kind of a loser when it comes to being in the know with movies and actors/actresses. I didn't recognize any of the people, except for the kid from Indiana Jones. I don't even know his name. Pretty sad, huh?

Pretty nice dress, huh?Check it out from this angle. Yikes!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Cooper Update - 12 Months

I try to do updates on my blog about what Cooper is up to and his stats (height, weight, etc.) whenever he has one of his "well visits" with the pediatrician, but he's not gonna make his 12-month check-up, so I'll just write a little about what he's been doing lately.

He loves to sing and lead music. Whenever he hears music you can hear him start to mumble along with the music and he waves his hands around. It's very endearing. (I have some good video of this but it's long and needs to be edited but I don't think we have the software on this computer to do it. I'll look into it to see if I can post it later this week.)

He loves things that start with "B". Blueberries, balls, balloons, buttons (both the ones that go on clothes and the ones you push), books, breadsticks, bread, bath time, boxes, bubbles, branches, etc.

He still does his "gimp crawl" with only one knee on the ground. He often stands for long periods of time unassisted and has taken a few steps on his own.


He likes to play peek-a-boo, especially around one of our chairs. He hides on one end and Pat or I will pop up from behind and say "boo!". He gets so excited and stomps his feet and bangs his face against the cushion of the seat. Sometimes he likes to bang his head against the wall or end tables or floor. I'm not sure what the draw is in this, but he keeps doing it. Hopefully one day soon he will learn. Just today he started covering his face with his hands and then pulling them away to play peek-a-boo with us.

Cooper loves to read books. Often in the morning he pulls out all his books and will "read" them intently. He has one with pictures of animals in it. He has learned what the cow says ("moooo"), the dog ("uf, uf"), and the cat ("eeeeee"). Even when Cooper is upset and screaming, when we ask him "what does the cow say?" he can't help but say "mooooo" among the screams.

He loves being outside and going to the park. We were at the park today and each time we did something on the playground he cried when we were done until we started doing the next thing.

Cooper loves to eat and will eat just about anything. He has learned the sign for more and often signs for more even before he's done swallowing whatever it is he is eating.

He's also become quite mischevious. He likes to go into the kitchen cabinets and pull out all the tupperware.
I caught him the other day with the fridge open and the carton of blueberries scattered across the floor. Then there was the roll of toilet paper he unrolled.
When I take him shopping I have to be careful not to push the stroller too close to items on tables or racks because he will pull them all off onto the floor.

We're so glad to have Cooper in our family. He brings us so much joy each and every day. This past year has been full of great memories and I can't wait to see what he's got in store for us in the coming year.

Happy Birthday, Cooper!

Cooper turned one yesterday. Since it was his special day he got to do some special things.

We let him eat as many blueberries as he wanted.
(When I say "as many as he wanted" I really mean two pints. We have to draw the line somewhere because Cooper never will. He will eat blueberries all day and night if we let him.)

We also threw him a party.

We played Wii.
And ate pizza and pasta.
And then some cheesecake (German cheesecake isn't very good, by the way).
Pat taught Cooper how to blow air out of his mouth so he could blow out his candles. He was doing quite good when we would tell him to blow at nothing in particular, but when we wanted him to blow out the candle he was way more interested in trying to touch it. Maybe next year?

The biggest surprise was the room full of balloons (when I say "room full of" I really mean a dozen or so). Cooper loves balloons. Whenever he sees them he lets out shrieks of joy and says "buhbuhbuhbuhbuh", not to be confused with "buh" which is ball. It's like he knows balloon is more than one syllable and that ball is just one syllable. Or that just likes balloons so much it makes him stutter.)
He even got some gifts. Thanks Sabrina! Thanks Mom and Dad!
Cooper had a blast and was not even cranky before his afternoon nap. What a fun day, too bad he won't remember it. ;)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Monday, June 8, 2009

Copenhagen - The Hotel

We stayed at a great hotel in Copenhagen for a smokin' deal. It was a one bedroom place with a full kitchen about 100 times better than the kitchen in our Berlin apartment. It also had a full size washer and dryer and dishwasher. So nice.

The pool was super nice also.
Only lame part (aside from no free internet) was that they wanted to charge us $30/night for a baby's cot! This is the first hotel that has tried to charge us for this. I decided there was no way I was going to pay that so I fashioned a bed for Cooper out of things I could find around the apartment. I think it turned out pretty posh, don't ya think?
Cooper didn't seem to mind.

Copenhagen

Ahhhh, Copenhagen! I love this place. It was good to be back and the weather was beautiful, if not a little hot.

First stop: Stroeget (anyone know how to do a "slash-oh" on a pc?)
And then the Little Mermaid
I mean, the Little Mermaid
This was a little canal by our hotel
The Kings Garden
We do let Cooper out of his stroller sometimes...
This was a fountain by the Little Mermaid. I, as usual, can't remember what it was called.
I love our faces in this shot. Like mother, like son...
And this is a statue erected for some explorer.
Apparently Monday mornings is not a very touristy time. Check out all the people at the Palace grounds.
I used to ride my bike over this bridge all the time.
This is the National Library on the left, also known as the "Black Pearl". Danes either love or hate the building, mostly hate, if I remember correctly.
This is Cooper looking intently at the kids crossing the bridge on a playground by the canal.
The park by the canal was packed full of people because it was nice and toasty. The craziest thing is that because it was a holiday there were no shops open. Even this ice cream shop was closed. It was just a little reminder that we were not in the states. Nobody wanted to capitalize on the situation. I think I would have paid $20 for an ice cream and yet there was no one around to sell me one. A real shame.
And what is a visit to Copenhagen without seeing Thorvaldsen's Kristus at Vor Frue Kirke?
The Twelve Apostles line the walls leading up to Christ. These statues are amazing.
Check out the organ
I'm really glad I was able to go back to Copenhagen. I was finally able to confirm that my Danish truly is as horrible as I suspected. I guess that's what happens when you don't get a chance to use it in 7 years.

Also, did you know that Darth Vader lives in Copenhagen? It's true, I met him. Here's the proof. He turns tricks for money.