My little Gomer

Today I took Cooper outside for some vitamin D even though it was like 90 degrees. I lathered him up in sunscreen using the Laura method..where I barely even rub the sunscreen in..I just coat it on like a barrier. Anyways, I grabbed his hat and the minute I put it on his head he looked up at the bill and went cross eyed, so I turned it backwards and...tah dah..all was well. Head was protected and hat was on. The funny thing was that Cooper left this hat on for about an hour!! It was so funny, I would walk through the house and run into Cooper crawling somewhere with his hat tipped to the side. It was too funny. He reminded me of Gomer from Andy Griffith because Gomer always had his hat turned a little.

Staceys wedding

This weekend, Cooper and I traveled to McMinville for my cousin Stacey's wedding. The wedding was at this little bed and breakfast and had a beautiful place out back by a pond where the ceremony took place. I got to see all my Bumbalough family, which I have not seen in ages. Cooper even had a fun time...he was all partied out by the time I got him in the car and headed back to Nashville.
Here is me trying to see what Shane is having for dinner..look at our faces...can't you tell we're cousins?? We have that famous pointy Bumbalough nose.

Here is dad and Cooper on the dance floor dancing to Jack Johnson's "postcard"

I love that song, it was so sweet!

This is me and Kayla (my cousin Shane's wife) and their new baby Lane. He is beautiful. And yes, that is me with that dark brown hair!! (I darkened it because it gets so light in the summer.)
And here are all the boy cousins together

And then here are all the Bumbalough men (from left, my uncle Bruce, dad, Papa Bumbalough and my cousin Shane Rogers) They all look exactly alike
And here is Stacey and Jarrod

Cooper was burning hot outside, so after the ceremony I let him take his shirt off.


Here are the boys with Gigi and Grandad, it's impossible to get them all to look at the camera.


This is me and my aunt Elaine and Shane and Erin..before the wedding
And we actually managed to get a pretty decent family picture
This is me with Lane (he is Shane and Kayla's son) he is my second cousin.


And totally unrelated to this blog....Cooper cut his third tooth today!!!! Yay, so he now has 2 bottom teeth and 1 upper tooth. he worked very hard on it too.

Cutie boy

Cooper and I went to the Dr today to see if he might need a sleep study. It just so happens that once again he has behavioral problems. We have been instructed to leave Cooper in his bed and let him cry and scream until he goes back to sleep and gets used to sleeping through the night again. We are not allowed to even walk into his room during the night. That will just rip my heart out. But hey, if it will eventually allow me to sleep...then I'm all for it. Cooper loves going to this doctor's office because he gets to play with the cute boy in the mirror. Cooper also learned today that he can stand up in his stroller, I heard a thud..and yep, Cooper had stood up and then face planted into the floor. I felt like the worst parent ever. He forgave me as soon as I did my pirate voice and made him laugh...but it didn't help me feel better. The Dr also said that Cooper has 4 teeth coming in. Two center top and two right beside the bottom two. They are just taking a long long time to come in.

He did it !!!

Today...the day before Cooper's 17 month birthday, he stood up independantly. He cruises and pulls up all the time, but today he came up from the floor to a standing position. My darn computer will not let me put the video up, so I just put some random pictures up instead. The one of Cooper on the floor sleeping is so funny because we had just woken him up from his nap and all he wanted to do was go back to sleep....he definately gets that from his mama. And the dirty fingers?? Zac took him on a walk while I was at the gym, and that was what I came home to. He dragged his fingers across every parked car. And of course the cars were filthy because Nashvegans are still prohibited from washing our vehicles.

Play ball!!

This is Cooper on the way home from the pharmacy picnic the other day. He got sunburned within 10 minutes. I didn't think that was even possible, evidently for a baby..it is. He was such the life of the picnic and had a crowd at all times. And you know how Cooper loves a crowd. He has the personality of his aunt Erin.
I just had to show this video. Tonight, Cooper was getting so excited. We have never seen him so excited. He would yell with excitement until I thought he might bust.

Old man Coop

Today Cooper and I traveled on over to the United Cerebral Palsy association and got him a walker. They give walkers away to children that need them and then when you are finished, you just donate the walker back to them . I got a better video than this one, but blogger only lets you put up a few seconds worth of video. He did much better once I put the walker on the carpet. I think this will help him and he'll be walking in no time.It has helped a lot of other Downs kids, so I'm giving it a try on Super Coop!! Enjoy

Cardiology check up and...a hike?

Today we met our friends at Edwin Warner park for a hike. Our hike turned into us walking around the parking lot because the park trails were all flooded and damaged from last weeks catastrophe. It was a hot and muggy day, we had fun anyway though. Here Cooper is enjoying his shadow.
Here is Piper, Etta and Coop...after our "hike". Cooper is trying to get the Smoothie King cup.

Here we are at a little pond. This was probably the most natureful part of our walk.

And for the cardiology appointment...the verdict on his heart is...

GREAT!!! He will be staying on the enalapril for this year, but we do not have to be seen for a whole year. His mitral valve is still leaking, but thanks to the enalapril, it is now in the mild range instead of moderate. The narrowing of his aortic valve looked fine as well. Not really any changes there. Fatty Magoo also put on a little weight. He is now 23 lb 11oz and 29 inches short. So we were very happy with his outcome. It is never right to mention his heart without thanking Jesus. So..thank you Lord Jesus for our precious and now healthy Cooper. He is a blessing from you.

Just like my dad

I took Cooper with me to the Dr office today and he saw me pull out the pill bottle. He immediately tried to climb out of his stroller to get to them. I gave him the bottle and he shook them like a rattle and threw them all over the room. Ahh, medicine..a boy after his dads own heart. Then I went to Vanderbilt to get Cooper's medicine and I ran into his heart surgeon and her nurse in the hallway. The surgeon didn't speak to us though..( I told you before she's a pleasant woman) but Coop flashed her one of his famous grins anyway and we said hi to Kelly and then went on our way. I'm sure Kelly told her who we were later...if she even remembered who Cooper was.

Happy 80th Papa!!

Yesterday we celebrated my Papa's 80th birthday!! He steals the hearts of everyone he meets...as you can see he has even won Cooper over with his bunny face.

I love this one of him blowing out his candles..and the one of mom and Greg. What a sweetie!!!

These two of Cooper and I were this morning before church on mothers day. I spent the night in Sparta and sang with my aunt and cousins at FBC Sparta. It's a mothers day...Vaughn family tradition. They probably dread the Vaughn quartet by now.

This is Cooper looking at the memory book that the kids made papa for his birthday. He was fascinated with the picture of Papa.

And here he is still...yelling at the picture and patting it. I think he sometimes really thinks that pictures and mirrors are real.

And Sadie with David.
Papa played in the floor with the boys, I bet they wore him out.

And then here is Cooper with his papa. Cooper is feeding him...kind of.








And uncle Jerry played ball with Cooper. You will win Coop over for life if you play ball with him. It is the most important thing he has going on at the moment.

Moon sand

In the waiting room the other day at therapy, Cooper discovered a car. He kept crawling over to it and standing, so I finally put him up in it and he shot me the biggest smile!! He sat there and turned the wheel and yelled for all to look at him. When I took him out of it, he crawled right back over to it and banged his little hand on the side of it.....and they say this child has no communication skills.

Cooper also played in moon sand with his early intervention teacher the other day and he really liked it. Today Zac went to Walgreens to pick up anti malaria pills for our Dominican Republic trip and guess what they had.....MOON SAND. So we all played in the moon sand and Cooper still loved it. Cooper has also cut himself twice this week. The first time, he was standing at his play table and he plopped down on his butt and those sharp teeth of his went right into his tongue. It bled for a second and he cried for a good 30 minutes. The second time, he was just crawling and fell on his face and his bottom teeth cut into his upper gums. It bled a lot and he was so pitiful. Those little jagged teeth are such a pain.