Cooper Catch Up: November 2014

November 2014 seems like yesterday! Our little ray of sunshine was growing like a weed and becoming quite the little Mr. Personality. This  little stinker makes his momma smile from ear to ear every second of every day.

November 1st: Crossing Clean Up Day! The men of our church spent the day cleaning the lot where our new church would be built. Cooper spent the day happily pulling a brush hog behind the tractor with his Pops. 

November 3rd: Cooper mastered the "Cheeeese!" smile and pose!

November 10th: Mommy might have gotten a little overzealous about planting tulips and bought a few hundred… Luckily I had a handy little helper who happens to specialize in hole digging!

The month of November means the start of non-conference basketball! Our itty bitty Baby Boomer was beyond happy to cheer on the Sooners! We love getting to be in the gym watching Uncle Awesome and our beautiful cousin, Hayden! 

November 16th: We are incredibly fortunate to be able to live in a place that is surrounded by amazingly beautiful scenery and wildlife. Each year the geese choose our local refuge as a place to stop and rest during their migration. We took Cooper to see the fields of snow geese and he thought they were the most fun thing ever! He practiced his "honk! honk!" and thought it was sooooo funny when an entire field would erupt into the sky. It's our absolute pleasure to get to watch him discover different, beautiful things in this big world!

I can't help but stop and stare… I know the days are limited before his feet reach the other end of the couch.

November 17th: It's not every day you get to have dinner with Cinderella! I asked Blake to squat down by Cooper for a picture, but of course if Blake end down Cooper had to too!

November 21st: 15 Month Check Up - 33 inches (96%) 23lb 5 oz (58%) 48.5cm (90%)

November 25th: Our dear friends, the Casts, came to visit us! Cooper and sweet little Loran    sweetly played together… and shared a few kisses! Loran's mommy and I have been best friends since college and it makes our hearts so happy to see our babies becoming friends. We look forward to arranging their marriage in about 25 years or so!

Cooper always wants Henry to feel comfortable so instead of making him feel left out since he can't walk, Cooper just crawls too. 

November 27th: We spent Thanksgiving with Pop-Pop! Unfortunately these are literally the only three pictures I have… but obviously, Cooper had so much fun he passed smooth out at the end of the night.

November 28th: Thanksgiving at Grammy's house! Highlights include: Coop getting to play with Brooks and Kamryn. Cruisin' in Brooks's hot rod! Coop thinking it was sooooo funny that he and Daddy had on matching boots! And last, but certainly not least, all three babies very sweetly sharing one ice cream cone. 

Nothing says "I Ball Till You Fall" like carrying a squeegee and wearing one rhinestone flat… Also, Cooper loves Ryan.

When we lived in the city there wasn't a single full grown tree in a five mile radius of our house. I love trees. I missed trees. I longed to be able to see the glorious colors of fall out my windows… so when we moved into our new house which is virtually in the woods, we celebrated the trees! When our neighbors grumble about having to rake, blow and burn leaves, we did the work with great joy! We are so thankful for the trees and the beautiful leaves they provide!

November 30th: Pumpkin Throw! Thanksgiving was over which meant it was time to ditch the pumpkins! Cooper and Daddy had loads of fun chunking them into the woods! A new favorite tradition!

Letter to Cooper's Daddy

Yesterday was Brandon's first Father's Day and Cooper's 10 month birthday... It amazes me that in a little less than a year, my husband has mastered being a Daddy! He can bring smiles and laughter to my sweet son's face when nobody else can. He teaches him and disciplines him and shows him true, unconditional love... and he's pretty darn good at changing diapers! 

Below is a letter that I gave Brandon the day Cooper was born. I've done my best to live up to my promises and without a doubt, he has exceeded all my expectations. As lucky as Cooper is to have Brandon as a Daddy, I feel even more blessed to have him as a husband and partner in this parenting journey. We are so fortunate and grateful to call him ours. We love you Daddy... Thank you for all that you do.

Husband,

Today is a day I've been looking forward to my whole entire life... Today we become parents! It doesn't seem real even as I write it. Nevertheless, it's true - Cooper Remington King belongs to you and me. Could life get any better?

Our world has officially changed forever, but I want to remind you that a few things will always remain the same... (1) You are my #1 priority, the absolute love of my life. Some days it may feel like this little man has waltzed in and stole your spotlight but please remember that I truly believe I can't be the mom I want to be without being the wife you deserve. So if you begin to feel neglected, I want you to gently let me know while never forgetting that it is my heart's desire to please you always. (2) I am 100% your biggest fan. Sweet husband of mine, I know without a shadow of a doubt you are going to be the very best daddy in the whole wide world. I believe in you! From our beginning we have had each others' backs and that will not change. I chose you as my husband because I knew you would be the perfect man to lead our family. You have done nothing in the last two years but strengthened my faith in that... I promise to do my very best to always support you, to never allow an adorable little boy play us against each other and when the time comes that we don't see eye to eye (and it will come I'm sure) to never question or push you in front of him. (3) Finally, never ever forget how much I appreciate you. Thank you for letting me stay home and be Cooper's mommy. Thank you for always making me believe that I am still a contributor to our family, that this new "job" of mine is one of great importance and worth. Thank you for loving me always.

I read once "Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice." I believe this to be true and it brings me great confidence that our son will grow up to be an incredible, Godly man - one that we will be so very proud of. I know this because the example you will set for him will be an amazing one! You will show him what love looks like in the way you treat him, his mom, his friends and even complete strangers. You will teach him that wisdom, guidance and good judgment can't be found by simply attending Sunday service, but by walking with Christ daily. You will show him that he is important by giving him the gift of your time. You will teach him compassion, humility and what a caring heart looks like as you provide and care for your patients. You will show him the joy of being generous as you constantly search for ways to invest in people. You will teach him the importance of education as you are a life-long learner. You will show him the thrill of adventure as I'm sure he'll be tagging along on all our travels and trips. You will show him strength and courage as you will inevitably be forced to make difficult decisions and I am confident you will make the right ones even when they aren't fun or easy or popular.

Brandon King you have a whole lot of responsibility, from today on there will be little eyes always watching... There is not another person in the world I would rather have my son looking up to. 

I love you with my whole heart.

Love,
Raegan

My New Perspective: Cooper's First Boo Boo and Easter

**I have been struggling with this post since the week before Easter. I have written, backspaced, added and edited until I can't see straight and I'm still quite sure I haven't done the story justice. But alas, I hit "Publish" and have faith that God can use the message despite the messenger's inability to write a coherent sentence. 

You know how people always say everything changes once you have a baby... well, let me tell ya, they weren't lying. Yes, you'll most likely never enjoy a long leisurely shower again and running into the grocery store "real quick" will become a thing of the past and a wild night out on the town will mean you stay out past 8:30 pm - but that's not what I'm talking about. What comes to mind when I consider how my life has changed in the past eight months are bigger, more complex things, like how I have a completely new perspective on everything in life. 

Before Cooper I felt like my job was important... and now I look at this little boy who we are responsible for raising to be a kind, humble, compassionate, happy, loving, adventurous, generous, Christ-centered man. Now I understand what having a truly important job feels like.

Before Cooper watching or reading the news was something I did daily while basically brushing all the bad, scary stuff to the side and listening for anything that might pertain to or impact me personally - like a traffic report or ball game scores. Now the news of a child being abused or abducted strikes an absolute gut wrenching fear in my stomach. The story of a tsunami or mudslide or Heaven forbid, a sink hole, millions of miles away will leave me marking that destination off our "Travel To Do" list as unsafe. People, I've become a nut, I read recall lists like it's my job. 

Before Cooper, holidays were fun times spent with our families celebrating Jesus's birth or resurrection... Now the Christmas story brings tears to my eyes as I understand the miracle of childbirth and am in awe of the Baby Jesus. And Easter, oh Easter...

I am a firm believer that God uses different events in your life to mold you, shape you, teach you. It seems that Easter brings a new lesson my way annually. A couple of years ago, God used Easter and blogging to teach me a profound lesson on forgiveness (You can read more about my fight with forgiveness here). Last year, God used pregnancy hormones and a praise and worship service to teach me about the depths of God's love portrayed through the Easter story that I had failed to grasp before (You can read about that tearful experience here.) This year, God has used my precious Cooper and his very first little boo boo as a complete game changer for Easter. Here's the story...

The weekend before Easter Brandon, Cooper and I spent the night with my parents at their lake house. To be completely open and honest, Brandon and I had been having an on-going little feud for most of the drive that was only heightened by the fact that sweet Cooper had woke up when we stopped for a quick drive thru dinner and proceeded to scream bloody murder for the remaining two hour drive. It was less than awesome. We pulled in, unloaded the car with obvious frustration and I took Cooper back to the bedroom to change him into his pajamas so that we could bring this dreadful evening to an end. 

He was feeling much better - happy to be out of his car seat, happy to have the full, undivided attention of his grandparents, happy to be in his comfy jammies... Baby boy was feeling good, stretching out and kicking his little feet like a horse that had been kept in a stall all day and was finally free to roam the pasture. The only problem was his kicking was moving my laptop dangerously close to the edge of the bed. So I sat him up, grabbed my laptop, said "Don't move." and turned to stick the laptop back in my bag... 

Well, you know how this story ends... with a "thump" and then a screaming cry. 

The Little Prince had not rolled, but instead dove, face first off the side of the bed. (Let's take a brief pause to say thank you Lord for letting us be at the lake where the bed is low and the floor is carpeted unlike at our house with wood floors and tall beds. Amen.) I snatched the little tiny up so quickly he may have suffered from whip lash following the initial injury. My mind was racing frantically - "He's screaming - that's a good sign... but it's also a bad sign, is something broke?! All his body parts are moving frantically - good sign... All of his facial features seem to have remained in tact - good sign... wait, his nose!" His little tiny nose was beat red/blue and starting to appear as though it might bleed. 

"BRANDON!!!!!!!" It's really, really nice to have a daddy that is also a doctor... more so for the Mommy than for the injured child. Brandon and I met running down the hall. I spit out the highlights - "I turned around for one second (infamous words) and he fell off the bed face first and I'm dreadfully afraid he has broken his little perfect nose on the side board of the bed! Is it broke?!" 

Brandon instantly switched into calm doctor mode and gave Cooper a quick exam. He assured me, despite the blood curdling screams coming from our Little Prince, he was just fine and his nose wasn't broke... it is still made up of cartilage that hasn't turned to bone yet... blah-blah-make-Mommy-feel-better-talk-blah. 

As soon as I was sure Cooper would live and his little face would remain perfect (once the giant carpet burn on his nose went away), I fell apart. I covered my face with my hands and burst into tears! Brandon passed the still crying Cooper over to my mom and came into the bedroom to console me... Yes, I know, a clear forfeit of the already long gone "Mother of the Year Award." 

Well, needless to say, I out cried Cooper. Not one of my proudest moments. Once I got control of myself somewhat, I went out on the patio and took Cooper from my mom... I squeezed that baby tighter than I have ever squeezed him before. Tears poured down my face as his little body melted into mine. I rocked and soothed and hugged and whispered "I love yous" and "I'm sorrys" over and over and over into his little ear. 

You know how your parents always told you that when you hurt they hurt worse... I learned in that minute that they were telling the truth. My heart felt like it had been cut wide open. It was a different type of pain that I had never felt before. Instead of putting Cooper in his pack 'n play as we normally do, he slept wrapped up tight, safe and secure, in my arms all night long. 

The love a parent has for their child is one you cannot grasp until you become a parent. What you would do for your child is something you cannot understand until you look into your baby's eyes for the first time and see the way they look at you - trust you, love you, believe that you can truly make everything alright. When I think about how much I love Cooper,  I can't help but wonder how Mary felt about her sweet baby, Jesus.

The Bible tells us that the night Mary found out she was pregnant with God's child she was very afraid... I've always assumed she was afraid because she woke up to a gigantic angel in her room - that would make me afraid! But this year I realized there there were other reasons she was afraid... She had just been told that she was pregnant by God - try explaining that one to your fiancé, not to mention the rest of the world. Maybe she felt the immense responsibility of raising JESUS, the Son of God, the Savior of the Universe - that is no doubt the most high pressure job of all time. What if she had the foresight to think of how her son would inevitably be met with hostility - criticized and mocked... Could she have possibly realized that the very people he had been sent to save would turn against him, spit on him, beat him and hang him on the cross? I hope, for her sake, she didn't think that far ahead... I hope she didn't ask the angel how it all would end... but as a mother, I know that worst case scenarios involving your child tend to occupy a large portion of your brain. 

I tend to put Mary in the "young girl in a barn with a sweet little baby Jesus" box, but this year it dawned on me that Mary was still the mommy of Jesus when he was hanging on the cross... and that changes everything. 

This Easter, I realized that I cannot begin to grasp the pain that Jesus went through for me. For my husband. For my son. For my family. For YOU... And that's what makes the gift of his life even more sweet - He did it for each and every one of us, just as He did it for Mary, his own mother.

I think it's safe to say, mothers as a whole, tend to struggle with guilt. Every time I saw that little red mark on my precious Cooper's nose, pangs of guilt hit me over and over and over. I should have never sat him on the bed. I knew better than to turn and put something away with him sitting so close to the edge. It's all my fault he fell off the bed. I could have prevented him from this pain. This year, I believe I had to feel pain so that I wouldn't take the sacrifice of the Son for granted any longer.

It is impossible for me to fathom the hurt that Mary experienced as she saw her baby hanging on the cross... I think about how much I hurt over Cooper's little skinned nose and my heart just begins to ache for Mary. The thought of seeing my son in that kind of pain makes me sick to my stomach to even think about, and then to pause and let it soak in that He died on the cross for her. He took the beating, the mocking, the lashings, the humiliation for Mary's sins, as well as the sins I have committed... To try to put myself in Mary's shoes just makes my heart feel like it's being ripped into a multitude of pieces. 

What I would give to take away any little tiny second of pain from Cooper... How Mary must have felt like she too was dying as she watched her baby hanging on that dark, heavy cross... and for her sins.  

To be completely honest, my mind still hasn't put all these feelings, emotions and thoughts into a logical order. I'm quite sure I haven't got to the bottom of what God is trying to show me this Easter as he has revealed the well known story to me from a totally new perspective, from the view point of a mother. 

But I do know this - seeing Jesus as Mary's baby made him much more real to me this year. Seeing Jesus as Mary's son made his pain, his sacrifice, have a much heavier toll on me. 

This year Mary showed me just how human Jesus was... 

Before this Easter, I had the tendency to envision Jesus just like the pictures in the children's books where his feet don't quite touch the ground and he has the big halo glow around him. This year, I saw a man who stopped to take care of his mother right before saving the whole wide world - past and present. 

This year, Jesus became real to me because I got to know his Mommy. What an overwhelming gift we have all been given... 

Jesus paid it all

All to him I owe

Sin had a left a crimson stain

He washed it white as snow.

Be Blessed,
Raegan

The Littlest Scarecrow

Cooper's first Halloween was a great success! I thought long and hard trying to dream up a costume for the little man's first costume - I wanted something cute, but nothing that he would hate me for when he turned 18. So a handsome little scarecrow seemed to be the perfect fit! With the help of Gabby/Mama Shawna (yes, the name debate is STILL taking place), we were able to whip up a costume in no time! To everyone's surprise, Cooper didn't seem to mind it much at all! He really wanted his hands in his mouth and the straw was interfering with that a bit, but other than that he was a happy little scarecrow! 

Since his big cousin Blake had a wonderful dress up birthday party, Cooper was able to see pretty much everyone in the family and take LOTS of pictures! Thanks Blake! Below are all the fun costumes from Blake's birthday party!

On Halloween day, I thought it'd be fun to take Cooper back to Pumpkinville for pictures in his costume. The second we walked into the patch, my little man passed smooth out for one  of his longest naps to date. I tried to wait him out by sitting on a park bench but rain eventually forced us back to the car. Some kind stranger took our picture sitting on the bench, other than that we left with one picture of the sleepy scarecrow!

We spent Halloween night at Grammy's house so we could see Cooper's cousins - Brooks and Kamryn. That many babies cooperating for a photo session is kind of impossible so we only snapped a few quick pictures! Nevertheless, it was a fun time hanging out with Batman and Robin!

I have never been a huge Halloween fan - it took a pretty serious hit when I realized the parties and bags of candy ended after elementary school - but Cooper brought the joy of the holiday back for us! I decided that Halloween as a mommy is much more fun than Halloween as a kid! I'm looking forward to many, many more costumes, candy and fun with this sweet boy!

OH, one more thing... the one thing I LOVE about Halloween is the Jimmy Kimmel segment, "I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy."  You can watch them HERE and HERE. This is totally happening to Cooper in the future. I am praying that he acts like the sweet little kids that they show at the end... and if he doesn't he will be in biiiiig trouble!