Humbled heart

I have a humbled heart and tears in my eyes this morning! We've raised another $900 for Team Lily Angeline over the last 24 hours!!!! I'm speechless which is another miracle in itself! Our total team total is $1805!!!

I wondered at the beginning of our fundraising efforts if people would be "over" giving to our team this year since it's the third year that we've participated but God bless all of you that still love both our babies and give so generously of your hearts. You give for my babies but your donations also will give other families hope...hope for a healthy baby and hope to bring their baby home. Believe me, from a mother that has been on both ends of that spectrum, having the hope for the reality of bringing a healthy baby home is what sustained me!

Thank you. Gosh, the tears are now running down my cheeks! Love all of you!

March for Babies 2011!

Our March of Dimes' March for Babies walk is this Saturday! It truly is an emotional time for me. We started doing the walk in 2009 in memory of Lily and we had just found out that I was pregnant with Cooper a few days prior to the walk. I cried during the opening ceremony the first year because I missed my girl so very much. I wore her little purple hat on my shirt and had the chance to talk to so many people about her because of that little hat. Then, last year I cried because I missed Lily and because I was so very thankful to have my Super Cooper to walk with us! This year, we continue to walk as a way to remember our Lily and to celebrate the precious life of our miracle baby because that's what he is a miracle!

You still have a chance to donate to Team Lily Angeline by clicking on the MOD icon to the right! The pic is of Cooper the day that he was born...

Please, help us raise money so that maybe another family can have their preemie go from this~

To this!

The bunny...

that "poops" jellybeans. Maybe, I have a warped sense of humor but I find this bunny to be hilarious!

Easter 2011

We had such a busy Easter Sunday! I went to church for the first service to work in the nursery and the little kids were so cute in their Easter outfits! So, my hubby was responsible for getting Cooper in his Easter outfit and to the church in time for the second service. Then, we went to lunch since all 3 of us were dressed so nicely. Poor Cooper was exhausted when we got home so he took a 2 hour nap! The Easter bunny didn't come see him until about 4 PM but it's not like Cooper even knew he had an Easter basket full of goodies coming his way :)

Coop's Easter basket (his gram and grandpap bought him the bathtoys in the back) so you can still see that mommy doesn't know how to do anything on a small scale...

What a cute little bunny!

Daddy reading Cooper his Easter card...

Coop was ready to get into those Ree.se's cups!

This bunny was more of a joke actually! It "poops" jellybeans! (no worries, Coop won't be eating the jellybeans)

Two years ago today!

We found out about our surprise rainbow! What an awesome day and what a joyful journey! We love you, Super Cooper!

April 23, 2009

April 2010

April 2011

Someone has a sweet tooth...

Cooper follows me around the house and his favorite spot to be right behind me is when the refrigerator door opens. The bottom shelves are his favorite as homeboy isn't able to stand (on his own) so the ice cream toppings are always what he steals...

You gotta watch the cute ones ;)

"Hey, can you help me get this open?"

"Fine, I'll do it myself..."

Cooper's new sandbox!

Cooper had such a good time playing in the sandbox at the park last week that we decided to buy him one for the backyard! He LOVES it already! This turtle sandbox is Little Ti.kes 30th anniversary edition and it's so cute! It has a little moat that goes around the turtle that you fill up with water and little toy turtles float around while he's playing. It also has a little dial that he can turn around so that the moat has a current to move around the perimeter of the turtle. Super cute and super fun for only $35! It's worth every penny to me :) All that our little backyard is missing is a swing which we will be getting very soon! We live in a townhouse so our backyard space is limited so we're trying to only put stuff that we know he loves...So, I think he'll be totally set up once we get the swing between his sandbox and his little pool.

Cooper is not a fan of water beds...

I shutter to think of the germs on the blanket of this waterbed at the Imagine It museum but I just had to try it! Luckily, we've had no symptoms of a communicable disease!

Cooper crawling through the tunnel at Imagine It!

Imagine It is a really awesome children's museum in Atlanta and I highly recommend it if you're ever in the city! It has tons of hands-on activities for kids and had a really awesome play area for the little ones. The funniest part about our first trip to this museum was Cooper learning how to go through this crawling tunnel. I bought him one about 2 weeks ago that he has avoided like the plague! It attaches to a playhut and I've used every toy imagineable to entice him into this tunnel...but, he LOVED the one at the museum! I'm hoping the love of this tunnel will move into love for the tunnel that we have at home. I love the end of this video where he gets stuck trying to get out...I don't know why I find it funny but I do :) I have a few videos from this visit but Blogger won't let me attach more than one video to this post for whatever reason! I've had a few problems with Blogger recently but whatever!

Cooper's new game :)

Cooper's fun new game! We play it in the car...he wants to play it with random people at the grocery store...

But, it's ridiculously cute so whatever!

Cooper's new pool :)

It was 87 degrees in Georgia last weekend so I blew up my $2.00 consignment sale baby pool for Cooper to enjoy some time outside. Our subdivision has a great pool but it is such a hassle to get us both in our suits, remember to bring towels for both of us, the baby float, something to drink, yada, yada, yada so this pool is great for us. We live in a townhome so it's in our little backyard and we still have some shade, too! The only thing that I don't like is the airconditioners are constantly running so it's a little noisey!

PT fun!

This contraption is called a Lite Gait and I think it's pretty self-explanatory about what it does so I won't bore you with details...

Cooper "walked" for 3 minutes the Lite Gait at PT this morning! We have to help him with his legs because he doesn't know how to walk really but I'm so freaking proud of all his hard work! He's been going to PT for almost a year and he's come such a long way. I can't wait to see him walking on his own free will one day and I just know that I will be crying bucket's full of tears of joy!

Doodlebugs

We went through a Ta.co Bell drive-thru for lunch (yes, he ocassionally eats fast food but hey, I'm the mom that fed her kid formula...) and we were waiting at the window for what felt like forever. Cooper is still rear-facing so I kinda turned around so that I could ruffle his hair and started singing the chorus to Doodlebugs by Laurie Berkner. I got through the entire chorus (shoop, shoop! part included) when I released that the clerk was watching this whole scene with a smile on his face... He forgot to ask me if I needed hot or mild sauce...

I picked this funny shirt up at Wal.green's of all places! It's perfect for our mini Casanova who goes out of his way to get the attention of surronding ladies! He even winks..oy vey! I'm going to be in trouble!

Cooper having fun in the sandbox!

Well, really it's a volleyball court but whatever! We met our friends from our Mom's club at a local park for a picnic and had a really fun time! Cooper has never played in sand before so this was a learning experience for both of us. I'm going to buy him one of those turtle shaped sandboxes after seeing how much fun he had today :) I had a lot of fun cleaning sand out of his diaper when we got home...and, he ate some sand while playing so the diaper tonight should be a load of...fun? I don't know but it'll be a load of something that's for sure!

Cooper's hyptonia and neuro follow-up...

This video was taking on St. Patty's day so no worries that he's out in the world looking like a leprachaun! Cooper has been so active these last few weeks! He's an avid (commando) crawler these days and is now (finally) able to push himself up from the floor into a standing position! He's also (finally) feeding himself which is awesome because now we can eat together! He's also mastering his eating with utensil skills which is super adorable :) We went to the neuro today for a check-up and he was impressed with Coop's recent physical gains. He also doesn't see walking in Cooper's future until he's 2 but ya know, you gotta just not worry about those types of things when you have a special needs baby. You can't boggle yourself down with timetables because he'll do it when he's ready AND not before... He gave us a new set of tests to have done to try to figure out the cause of the hypotonia. One of the tests is a needle being inserted into one of his muscles to test for impulses, maybe I'm not explaining it right! Here's a video of Cooper crawling and then pushing himself up into a sitting position :)