Cooper meeting Semmes

In all honesty, I'm pretty sure Cooper was oblivious to the fact that he was meeting his little brother for the first time.  However, it was also the first time Cooper had seen Brad and I in about 24 hours, so he was REALLY excited to see us.  Because of this, I got some amazing, awesome, wonderful pictures.  Go Cooper!

"Mom, what is that thing?"

Cooper and daddy having a talk about new baby brother.

Yay for mommy and daddy!  Haven't seen them in FOREVER! 

Little brother!!

Daffodils

Saturday was such a nice day.  So we took Cooper up to Wye Mountain after Brad got off of work to see the daffodils.  The United Methodist Church in Wye plants a huge field of daffodils behind the church every year.  It's free to go up there; they just ask for a donation to the church.  Cooper was not too sure of the whole experience.  I think he's definitely an inside child.

This was when we first got there.  He started out ok, then had a brief meltdown.  So I took some pictures of the field while Brad was calming him down.

Finally, he just had to come hang out with mommy.  I sang to him and rocked him a little until he had fully recovered from his freak out.

Me singing to him:

Then, when he seemed ok, I stood him up next to me.  Lately, he thinks that being gently shaken from side to side is hilarious.  So once he had calmed down, I tried that and it worked!  He started laughing out loud.

Cracking up.

However, that was a little short lived and he REFUSED to smile or be happy when it was picture time with daddy.

Seriously, this was the best I could get.

And then one of the three of us.  May be one of the very last (or the very last) of us as a family of three.

"Walking"

For the past few weeks, Cooper has been using a gait trainer.  His is called a Pony.  His physical therapist warned us when he first started using it that, since it is much easier to move backwards, it takes a while to learn how to go forward.  Some kids never figure it out, but just get really good at moving backward.  Also, Cooper has been known to have a bit of a lazy streak (faking sleep to get out of therapy, for example), so he might just hate it and refuse to use it.  Boy were we off.  He LOVES his Pony.  And, he is already starting to figure out how to go forward.  If you pull him forward in it, he takes actual steps, not any of that bouncing stuff he was doing in other walking devices.  We even brought it home last weekend and he spent most of the time running into cabinets in the kitchen.  It was amazing.  His PT has also told us that mobility of any kind, even more passive types like being pushed in a wheelchair, increase cognitive functioning.  So he's getting smarter while exercising!  Double yay! And now, for pictures:

They can put toys in front of him so he can stand and play.  Sometimes though he pushes them over and out of the way so he can move.

Also, he's doing more work with sitting independently in the classroom and playing with stuff.  He's also got a bit of a girlfriend.  One girl in his class calls him Coop and pushes his pony around.  Too cute.