update!

Okay so since we've come back from South Carolina things have been utterly crazy. My work, which is usually busy, has been insane. Everything has happened with our office from problems with insurance companys (which is my job) to problems with computers "frying" which I handle part of the technology as well, but thankfully we have a "computer tech" who does all the work. I'm just notified if there's a problem and try to fix it. When I can't fix it I call our tech. Anyway, I had hoped to update our blog with pictures from Thanksgiving, but the way things are looking now it's going to be a few more days. We were blessed by being able to travel to SC to see mom and dad over Thanksgiving. We left early Wednesdsay morning (around 3 am) and arrived in SC around 1 pm. It was a peaceful and nice trip, hardly any traffic until we reached Knoxville and even then traffic wasn't overly heavy. We spent 4 terrific days with my parents! The weather was perfect, 60 and 70 degrees each day. For those of you who don't know, my mom fell and broke her arm a few weeks ago so she and dad make a good pair (he had a double knee replacement about 6 weeks ago) so things were interesting in the Cooper household! I am so proud of both of them because they've both overcome so many obstacles and they just smile and carry on. My dad is getting around wonderfully (Praise God!) and Mom is more than just managing with her broken arm. She's able to do a lot more than I imagined. Anyway, I enjoyed cooking dinner with mom nearly every night and I really enjoyed watching Gabriel eat Nana's cooking. He loves Green Beans, Mac and Cheese and Potatoes! On thanksgiving he even ate Turkey!!! Sadly, the day after Thanksgiving I realized I didn't take any pictures of Gabriel eating his Thanksgiving dinner, so I'll have to take lots of picts this Christmas. On Thanksgiving night, I got this bright idea to go to Toys R Us' for their After Thanksgiving Sale, Ha! It was a madhouse. Matt and I got there a little before 9 and the crown was already lined up all the way down the side of the building and into the parking lot. After waiting in line for over an hour they finally started letting people in. Of course they could only let so many people in at a time so we had to wait an additional 15 or 20 minutes! By the time we got into the store there were no carts in sight. Needless to say it was midnight by the time we got home and we only managed to come out with 5 things (3 of which were diapers!) Oh well. It was quite an experience. I'll upload pictures from Thanksgiving later! Mom and I left the house around 6 am Friday to hit some of the sales at the mall and a few other places. We each got a little shopping done but not very much. It was wonderful getting to spend time with them. We look forward to when we can go back to see them again!

Pictures before surgery

Tube time

Gabriel has had nothing but trouble with his ears since September. He's had four ear infections, sometimes in just one ear, others in both ears. He's been on four different antibiotics, each having interesting side effects. At his 9 month check up it was discovered that he had a double ear infection. I felt at this point that no matter how many antibiotics his pediatrician puts him on, the infection will continue to come back. Thankfully we'd seen the ENT the week before so Gabriel was clear for surgery without having to be seen a second time. Dr. Logan is Gabriel's ENT. He is fabulous!

At 6:30 this morning we checked in to OMHS Out patient Surgery Center and by 6:45 we were already in Gabriel's room. By the way, he did wonderfully last night without a feeding (thank you for your prayers) I decided this week to start "sleep training" Gabriel. basically letting him cry, only for a period of time, if he wakes up during the night. Within 1 night we successfully eliminated the 2:00 feeding and by Tuesday night we eliminated the 5 am feeding. Last night I only heard him about 11 pm and after that didn't hear him at all. Needless to say I had to wake him up a little after 6 this morning. The pictures are of him waiting to go back for his surgery. He did so good. The procedure only took about 5. The nurse came and got him at 7:25 and by 7:35 Dr. Logan was back in the room telling us he did great! He was very upset when he came into the room but that is a side effect of the anesthesia. He fell asleep in my arms about 15 minutes later. About 30 minutes later we were free to take him home. Matt took the day off so he got to spend the day with him.

9 months old!

It's amazing how quickly time flies. Gabriel turned 9 months old on November 6th. His stats for 9 months:
Height: 27 inches
Weight: 20 pounds

He is pulling up to everything in sight. He loves crawling over to the coffee table and exploring. He has a new game, "let's see how many things I can throw off the table" and it's a game he plays every night. Sometimes 4 and 5 times a night. He has 6 teeth, well the 6th tooth is working on coming in. 4 on top and 2 on bottom. He loves to eat "big boy" food (mashed potatoes, green beans, mac and cheese, pretty much anything Matt and I eat.) We're working on getting him to sleep through the night. This week I've gotten him to sleep till about 5 am (he's been waking up hungry around 2 am) so we're making progress.

Tomorrow, Thursday November 18th he goes in at 6:30 am for tubes. He's had 4 ear infections since September and we've had enough. He's been on four different antibiotics and when he had his 9 month check last week he was diagnosed with a double ear infection. Poor little fellow. Thankfully he's very good natured about everything, he just plays with his ears.

Gearing up for Christmas

We took Gabriel to see Santa!!! He didn't quite know what to think. He kept looking at Santa as if to say "who are you and why am I in your lap?" The people watching him have his photo taken were laughing at his expressions.

Fun with family

On Sunday Gabriel and I went to Aunt Celena and Uncle Stephen's house to spend time with everybody. Tanner was playing a video game and Gabriel kept trying to get his attention. I have the two sweetest nephews ever!



Trying to get Tanner to pay attention to him!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

This was Gabriel's first Halloween. He was the cutest little dinosaur ever! The week before Halloween we went to Diamond Lakes and he did some trick-or-treating there and then for Halloween we were in Murray. We had planned to stay home on halloween but when Gabriel brought the stomach virus home from daycare and Matt and I both got sick at the same time, Grammy came and picked up little man and took him home with her. Thank you Grammy! So we went to Murray on Saturday to get our little Dinosaur and ended up staying the night.