A tooth!

Cooper has sprouted a tooth! Hooray! It's the bottom front, right-sided one. The one beside it is coming in too. Unfortunately, you can't really see the tooth yet, but you can feel it. He's also learned to sit up on his own. By that I mean that he can actually take himself from a laying-down position to sitting. It's really pretty impressive. Gabe never did that - we're having all kinds of new experiences with Cooper!

Also - this weekend is trick-or-treat weekend. I can't wait! They're both going to be little tigers (Gabe's request. He wanted Cooper to match him)

some cooper videos!

nevermind, I can't get them to load. It took forever and then said there was an error.

I'll try again some other time.

anyway, Cooper is about 7 and 1/2 months old now and is scooting around and saying da da, and na na, and some other garbled things. It's pretty cool. He's a very friendly baby, and is quite active. Loves Peekaboo

I'm a speaker?

So, I went to do another talk about adoption today. 2nd one so far. This one was at a local college for a family relationships class. I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm certainly no public speaker. So far I've just gone and been honest about our experience, how it's changed our family and anwered any questions as honestly as I could. Here's the thing though - I support adoption, but I don't feel called to preach about it. If you ask, I will GLADLY share as much as you're willing to hear, but that's about it. I like sharing our story, and I like answering questions about it. But I don't think I'm any kind of adoption expert or super-advocate. I don't want to make a blog specifically about adoption related topics, but I'll adress them here as they come up in my life. I liked speaking to that class today though. Not sure how informative I was, lol, but I enjoyed it. A large portion of it was Q and A though, so if there's something they wanted to know and didn't ask....... well, it's their fault. :o)

random

Just some thoughts I needed to get out there. We'll begin with my respiratory therapy related thoughts. First of all - I don't care if people smoke. Honest, cross my heart. Frankly, it's your choice (and it provides job security for me) :o) BUT dear parents: if you child is a patient of mine, that means they are having trouble breathing. Going out to smoke every 2 hours, or more, and bringing that residual secondhand smoke back into that tiny little hospital room is NOT helping. At the very least, put on a coat with a hood so it doesn't get caught in your hair and clothes, and then put the coat in a bag before you come back into the room. It's for you child's sake. Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea to put into practice at home either. Again, I don't care if people smoke, but if you're going to, protect your little one from it as much as you can. That's all I had to say. Also, on the respiratory related topics - sometimes I get sick of seeing our regular patients all the time. And I'm sure they're sick of being there and seeing me. But, when we're getting near the end I wish the families would just let go..... and let them go. It breaks my heart to watch them suffer - sometimes it's kinder to just let go. When it's the end, it's the end. I wonder about myself sometimes for wishing people could just die - but it's only so that they can be out of that misery. It's just hard to watch week after week. And for the families out there that did make that hard choice to let them go without prolonging anything I want you to know that most of the medical staff is silently applauding you.

inch by inch

Cooper's mobility is improving. I think he's pretty close to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth.......... and then faceplants. poor little guy. He can't get the forward motion down. But he seems to be getting around alright by rolling around and wiggling when he wants something. I'm a little nervous for the crawling stage because he's already into everything!

Gabe is doing well. Tuesday school starts next week, so that should be good for him. I think he's pretty excited for it this year. He better soak up all he can - kindergarten is not far away!

brothers

These kids are too cute together! Sometimes one will look at the other and smile, and then they'll both be smiling. I love it!

Today I asked Gabe if he wanted me to take Cooper with me so he wouldn't be bothered, and he said, "No, I like him buggin' me."

These little boys are the most beautiful, wonderful kids I've ever known. I'm not biased, I swear.