Happy Birthday Dear Cooper!

Someone at Church once approached me after our normal weekly showdown of trying to keep Cooper sitting (sort of) still, and (sort of) quiet, and (sort of) like a normal person during the meeting.  She said to me with a smile; "That Cooper sure is the exclamation mark in your family, isn't he?  I had one like that too."  I had never heard that analogy before, but boy is it accurate.

When I think of Cooper I think of one HUGE exclamation mark.  Everything he does is done with emphasis.  When Cooper is excited you can feel it reverberate from within him, he throws his arms up, and does that little skip/hop/jump thing, and then he runs everywhere, anywhere, he just runs, and squeals and shouts with delight.  When Cooper is excited you can feel it.  Cooper is excited with emphasis.

Emily Maureen Photography

When Cooper loves you, he loves you hard.  No little half hugs, or pecks on the cheek.  That boy gives epic kisses and hugs.  Kisses where he holds your head still and closes his eyes (which makes me laugh every. single. time.), hugs where you are almost sure that those little boy arms have turned into boa constrictors, hugs that knock his brother and cousins to the ground.  Cooper loves with emphasis.

Emily Maureen Photography

And the other extreme?  The other extreme is just as dramatic.  When Cooper is mad, or frustrated, or annoyed...Oh boy do you know it.  EVERYTHING he does, he does with emphasis.  Our little exclamation mark turns three today.

Three years ago that spunky little boy changed our family and our lives forever.  I always say that Lucas is the boy that made me a Mom.  Well, Cooper is the boy that came along and changed who that Mom thought she was.

Cooper came along and showed me that I have love enough for two.  They laid him on my chest and I loved him so wholly and so completely.  It still bewilders me how I give every single ounce of love I have to Lucas, and then somehow I can give the exact same to Cooper.  He showed me that love multiplies.

He has taught me to be patient in so many ways.  How to be patient when he needed to eat, while Lucas needed to play, and dinner needed to be made, and Daddy was at work, and the kitchen was a mess, and there were toys everywhere, and I was just so tired.  How to be patient when the midwife heard a murmur "that might be nothing" and we needed to wait to find out what was wrong.  How to be patient when it took FOREVER for him to crawl and walk.  How to be patient when we waited and worried about December 13th, 2012.  How to be patient when he is just so mad, and just so frustrated, and just so unable to find words to tell me what is wrong that it pours out of him in screams and sobs.

He has taught me how fragile and perfect and wonderful our family and our world is at any given moment.  Our journey with him has shown me how everything can be going along just fine, until it isn't.  And that moment can rock your entire world.  He has taught me to love the right here and now.  He has taught me to soak in his babyness, and his toddlerness.  I know that he won't kiss me with his eyes closed forever ;)

So Happy Birthday to our spunky little Cooper.  We are so glad you're ours!