Yummy!

It must taste good. Just look at how he's going at it!!

Maggie loves Daddy

Tonight Daddy came home with a headache....that drive is taking a toll! Maggie rushed upstairs with him to comfort him since Mommie was busy with Jack.

Cautiously optimistic about medical miracles!!!

Those are the feelings of the day. This morning they went in to take another look at the transplanted heart, and miracle of miracles, it seems to be trying to pump on it's own. The doctors were so pleased with what they saw, that they were tempted to start backing him off the machines and devices, but Pop's lungs had too much fluid and they want to deal with that first before letting the heart out on its own. :) Hopefully over the next few days if things keep looking good, he will be off the machines and able to wake up and maybe even get out of bed. We are trying to stay strong and encouraged. Keep praying. The prayers are obviously working...we may be witnessing a medical miracle!
check out their blog and the updates on www.the-tinman.blogspot.com

Pray even harder for Pops and Bertie

Pops got THE CALL about his new heart on Thursday night. We talked to him and Bertie several times over the course of the night, and everyone was very excited. We tried and tried to get Bertie on the last flight of the night from BNA to BWI and nothing was available, but in a leap of faith, she went down to the airport and hoped something would come available on stand-by....and it did! As Mzee put it..."I suppose it's pretty easy to get a flight when you have all of Nashville praying for you!" Very true. Now we need even more prayers...Pop's new heart is not reacting well to being transplanted and he is still on the bypass machine, going on 3 days now, and the doctors have put him BACK on the transplant list at the VERY VERY top, hoping to get another one very soon. They still have Pop's sedated for various reasons, so hopefully he won't remember much of this. It's just a big, scary waiting game right now. The picture is of Jack helping Daddy find a flight up to Baltimore. Daddy flew up there Saturday night and Auntie Hannah got up there Saturday evening. The doctors say that this kind of situation is not common, but not unheard of. Please pray that Pop's body stay strong and ready for the next surgery that is coming (hopefully soon) and that Bertie stays strong to take care of him up there. We are hoping that this will soon all be over and a distant memory and that Pops will get to take Baby Jack fishing just as he hopes to. Keep Praying!

check out their blog http://www.the-tinman.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yes, it's the big 2-9....not the big 3-0 as he tried to tell me the other day! Unfortunately he had to spend his birthday on an airplane, in an airport and in a hospital. He is currently in Baltimore to be with Pops and Bertie during this whole ordeal. We love you and we miss you back home in Nashville. We are proud of you and can't wait for you to come home safely to us!
love, Baby Jack and his Mommie

Baby Jack and Uncle Daniel

Playing some teenage version of patty-cake (even though Uncle Daniel claims not to remember how...) Apparently Jack thinks Daniel is pretty cool, he couldn't keep his eyes off him! What a cool Uncle!

Before and After...

OOOPS!

What's Jeremy doing to that baby?

In Jeremy's defense, apparently Baby Jack was quite fussy and Granny Ruthie and Mzee's house that night....

Just a sweet grin

a little fuzzy because it's with a picture phone..but still the cuteness shines through!

Some hair issues

Well, it has finally started happening...Baby Jacks head full of dark hair is starting to fall out...or as our friend Mickey calls it "Baby Pattern Baldness". The worst of it is on the front left side of his head, thanks to Mommie, it is her favorite spot to rub while he is nursing. :) He's not the only one having hair issues....a few weeks ago, Mommie discovered GRAY HAIRS!!! 28 is way too young to start going gray!! In all honesty, they may have been around for a while, I've just not been coloring my hair for about the past year...other things to spend $$ on now, and I guess Georgia, my hair stylist knew better than to tell me....I guess pregnancy and motherhood is taking a harder toll than I thought!!

Insert your own caption here....

"Whew this diaper is smelly!"

"I just can't take it anymore"

Any other ideas?

Continuing a Cooper tradition

Anyone who has spent much time with the Coopers probably kows that we love to play games, and one of the favorites is Mexican Train with Dominoes. Here is Baby Jack helping out Daddy deciding which domino to play next. ps-I think Daddy won that game...but I'm not sure. Jack must have beginner's luck.

Poopie Diaper at 20,000 feet

Jack was such a trooper on this trip, especially during the plane ride. Thanks to our friends, Nick and Hannah, who are quite experienced flying with their kids, we got some good advice for how to keep him (and those around us) comfortable and happy. He did great, but no advice could've prepared us for a stinky diaper mid flight....and of course there are no diaper changing stations on a plane..not that I would've wanted to put him down in an airplane bathroom anyway. Daddy was sitting closest to the aisle, so he volunteered to scout out the situation. The flight attendant got us a blanket, and Jack got his diaper changed at cruising altitude, somewhere over Virginia, with the wind whistling right outside the escape exit near his head. If you look at Daddy's hands, you can see he was working so fast, he was a blur! :)

Streeeetching out

After being cooped up in his stroller and infant seat for several days, Jack enjoyed stretching out on our nice bed in our hotel room. Mommie liked the bed so much, she wanted to take it home. Who knew that the Marriot had such nice rooms and beds. Thank you to our Sunday school class for cashing in Marriot points and contributing to help us stay in a hotel RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from Pops and Bertie's apartment. It took longer to get from our room to the lobby than to get to their place. It was that close!!

Out and about in Baltimore

Baltimore is a very interesting place! On our first day there Pops and Bertie took us on a walking tour of Downtown. Just walking on the sidewalks was an experience! There sure are some "characters" in Baltimore. We went to Lexington Market, which was..um..interesting...very busy and loud and not like anything we had ever seen before. We also saw where they do their grocery shopping. In a big city without much room, it was very interesting to see how creative the stores have to be with limited space. Merchandise is crammed in every nook and cranny.
These pictures are from our second day's excursions. You can see in the first picture that Pops was ready to get going, and he took off with Jack in his stroller to explore. Once we were able to catch up with them, we went to the Inner Harbor and saw a street performer and went up the Baltimore World Trade Center.You can see a lot of cool things from up on the 27th floor. We were even able to see our hotel (see the black arrow) We were going to go to the Aquarium, but decided against it since it is not stroller friendly, and I guess no one felt up to carrying this big boy around. It was chilly there most of the time, so you can see how bundled up Jack was.

Breakfast in Baltimore with Pops and Bertie

On our first morning in Baltimore we met Pops and Bertie at the restaurant in our hotel. We had a nice leisurely breakfast and got lots of cute pictures, and even talked with Auntie Hannah on the phone while we were there. It was (almost) like the whole family was there.

some Q.T. with daddy!

awww...I think Baby Jack may be starting to pose for the camera:)

Poor neglected puppy!

I figured since this blog bears her name, perhaps there should be A FEW pictures of her on it....I thought this picture was pretty funny, just shows how she thinks she is a little person. She lays around the house and does a fairly nice job of not getting in my way with Jack, sometimes she follows us around, sometimes she doesn't. And let's just say I'm not the only one who is excited when Josh comes home at night. She always meets him at the door to be the first one to get some Daddy lovin', then does a few laps around the living room (careful to avoid the new baby swing...but not always successful). Josh is really good about giving her attention, I'm afraid that when I am home alone, she feels pretty lonely. You should've seen her last night when Daddy had to spend the night in Cookeville and wasn't home to dote on her. She was visibly depressed....she may not have been the only one!

It's cool...

I just think its funny to see all the ways he poses his hands while he sleeps. Both hands were in this pose, I guess he was trying to be The Fonz. Aaayyyy!

On the market

After many late nights and lots of hard work, our house is officially on the market. If you know anyone who is interested in a very reasonably priced townhome with ALL appliances included, send them our way! Our new place should be ready after we get back from Baltimore, and we should be moving soon thereafter, so time is of the essence, but as I've been learning over and over again, God's timing is perfect...even if its not what we think is perfect timing!

some tummy time...

It's rare these days to have tummy time where he is not screaming mad (which happened just after the video stopped) or falling asleep. Just look at that head control, he reminds me of a little turtle. I know these may be boring to some of you, but to parents and some grandparents, it's priceless! :)

One more video...some smiles, kinda...

I got a few grins out of him at least. Don't make fun of my "baby talk", sometimes it takes a bit of encouragement to get him to perform! I don't think he quite understood why he was smiling for this strange silver box instead of at Mommie.

Bobble Head Jack

Let's see how I did uploading video..this is Jack practicing holding his head up (with a little help from Daddy!) Hope you don't get sick from all the camera wiggles, I'm defintely not a expert cameraman! :) And it certainly didn't occur to me that all my silly baby talk would be heard on the video too...it won't hurt me feelings if you decide to turn down your audio! Just in case you are curious, no, Josh is not comatose at the end of the video, its just about all the energy he has at the end of a long day and a long drive. This is our life right now, but that will all be changing.... soon....more to come!

Almost a smile...

Baby Jack has been smiling more and more lately, but they sure are hard to catch on camera...we're working on it!

Baltimore Bound!

The Lord Provides!! We are a testament to that in so many ways! When Pops and Bertie were sent up to Baltimore, we knew Josh would want to go up to visit, but we had NO idea how to manage it. Several of ya'll have probably heard the saga of how my (former) employers messed around with my sick days, and therefore money is even tighter than we imagined it would be...and we knew we couldn't begin to afford a round trip ticket to Baltimore....but THE LORD PROVIDES! Our AWESOME Sunday school class cashed in some Southwest free tickets for all 3 of us to be able to make the trip up there, and another church friend provided for Bertie to fly back up there...so we are going to have a (short) family vacation with Grandparents in Baltimore!! WOW!! Josh was able to take an extra day off work, and we have a long weekend to go up there! Even if we don't understand how, or why, and even if it's not in the way we think it will happen, the LORD PROVIDES!!

2 month check-up

Happy 2 Months! Today we went to the Dr. for Baby Jack's well-baby check-up. Thank goodness it wasn't as traumatic as I feared! He weighs in at a healthy (maybe 'husky') 14.5 pounds (93rd %ile) and 23 1/2 inches (65th %ile). According to one of my baby books, the average baby doesn't reach 15 pounds until around 5 months!! He seemed to handle the immunizations and after effects pretty well too. Praise God for healthy babies!

The shirt says it all.....

Thanks for the "custom made" shirt, Aunt Abby...I'm sure she isn't biased about her husband, Uncle John.

At one of my showers, instead of silly games, one of the activities was to decorate onesies for Jack. I'll try to get a few more of them on him before he out grows them...just look at those chubby arms!!

I only have eyes for you, Daddy!

awwww......Jr. loves Sr.

(I promise, this wasn't posed! He just couldn't keep his eyes off his Daddy!)

oh, and by the way, the shirt says "I'm gonna grow like a weed" NOT "I'm gonna like weed" as someone thought earlier!! :) All his little fat tummy rolls have skewed the view. :)

See, I do open my eyes!!!

This picture is for Pops and Bertie. They are convinced that I never open my eyes in my pictures...well, here I am!! Mommie tried really hard, but I just didn't want to smile for the camera..I am getting less stingy with my smiles lately though.