What a Weekend!

We ended up having quite the busy weekend.

Friday, my co-worker Beth asked if we wanted to join her at the Memphis homecoming parade. Her daughter is in one of the sororities that had a float in the parade and we always enjoy going back to campus. We decked Cooper out in all his Memphis gear and headed out. It was so much fun! What a great community event and the women's basketball team showed Cooper a lot of attention- giving him beads and basketballs that were the perfect size for him!


Talking with Mrs. Beth before the homecoming parade


The Boll Weevils!


Stan- a living University of Memphis legend- handing out candy to all the parade watchers.


The best band in all the land- the Mighty Sound of the South!

Saturday, we were up early for Race for the Cure. We were on Jeff's company's team and, in a change of pace for us, we were early. After walking around and checking at the established meeting place several times, we couldn't find any of Jeff's co-workers. Not to mention, it was FREEZING outside. Cooper is enough like his Mama that he was having none of it. We tried walking around, giving him a snack, and nothing was working, so we left the race before it even began. Maybe next year, but in the meantime, here's a pic of Cooper sporting his Race for the Cure t-shirt in honor of Sweet Mrs. Cindy, Ms. Debbie, Ms. Val, Aunt Cynkin, and in memory of Grandmama.



After running some errands and getting a family walk in, I headed off to Merry Marketplace with my mom while Jeff dropped Cooper off at Nana and Hondo's for a sleepover. Jeff and I were supposed to have a date night, but I was exhausted, so we ended up having dinner, doing some Christmas shopping, and coming back home for me to go to bed while Jeff grocery shopped. Yeah, we know how to party...

Jeff worked at the course yesterday morning. I was able to catch up on some DVRed shows after church and before my walk, then picked Cooper up from Nana and Hondo. I couldn't wait to get a hug from my sweet boy! He has perfected "Mama", "Dada", waving goodbye, signing "more", and playing peek-a-boo. After relaxing at home, we took our Cat in the Hat out for some trick-or-treating:


Cooper with Nana and Hondo


That Cat in the Hat with Pops and YaYa


Uncle Kyle trying on the Cat's hat

We are all exhausted by the time we got home, but it was a great weekend!

Fall Break

My school system was out all last week for fall break. Saturday morning, we left for Destin with Nana and Hondo. I've never been to Destin, but was really looking forward to checking out Baytowne and the outlet mall. Nana and Hondo wanted to spend lots of time with Cooper, so Jeff and I were out and about quite a bit. We ran into Kyle's best friend Scotty and his parents, who now live in Destin, so it was a great surprise to see them during one of our shopping excursions.


Nana and Hondo took us out for a nice dinner at Cantina Laredo. They had an awesome pomegranate margarita!


Cooper and Hondo hanging out by the pool.


Cooper and Jeff enjoying their after-dinner stroll.


Me and Cooper


Nana feeding Cooper at Another Broken Egg in Baytowne. See her breakfast? It was this insane combination of cinnamon roll and french toast. Nana said she'd had enough after a few bites- I can't blame her!

Even though fall break didn't turn out like I'd hoped with Grandmama's passing, I did get to spend some quality time with Cooper. I made biscuits one morning and what goes better with biscuits? Yogurt melts!



Baby Cooper is quickly turning into Toddler Cooper. In the span of a week, he's gone from taking 3-4 steps independently to being able to walk the length of a room on his own. He'll hold your hand and walk too, but would really rather be on his own. He's eating more table food and loves Gerber chicken and carrot ravioli, any type of bread (biscuits, toast, bagel, muffin), and has been practicing the sign for "more." We've tried eggs and chicken, but he doesn't seem to be a fan...at least not yet.

As always, his favorite pastime is pulling DVDs out of the entertainment center:

Please ignore the DVRed episode of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" being watched in the background...


"Look Mom! No hands!"

Cooper's 1st Birthday Part 2

Unfortunately, Cooper's 1st birthday actually fell on a weekday that wasn't during fall break, like it was last year. We had to go to work and Cooper went to Mrs. Lara's. Because Mrs. Lara is so great, she got Cooper a little penguin water toy to use with his pirate ship water table and also treated him to his own cupcake:


He definitely got into the cupcake more than his smash cake.

Jeff and I wanted to start our own birthday tradition with Cooper, so we decided donut holes might be the easiest since he'd already had 1 cupcake that day. He really enjoyed it:





Of course, no birthday is complete without presents:

An O-Ball from Avery


Getting the hang of unwrapping presents


A new book- Bats at the Beach!

It was a great birthday filled with lots of fun, excitement, and our family. It was the best!

The End of an Era

A bit of sad news to report- our beloved Grandmama, matriarch of the Bailey family, passed away yesterday afternoon. It was very sudden; of course, we knew she wasn't doing well and this was imminent, but she was doing okay until yesterday morning. The hospice workers called my dad and aunts, telling them they needed to get to the house, but dad didn't even make it before Grandmama passed away.

Jeff, Cooper, and I were on the way home from Destin and Daddy waited to tell me until he was sure we were home. We're all thankful that she passed away quickly, with what appeared to be very little suffering, but it's a shock to the system. I never thought that would be the phone call I received when we got home. My parents said when they visited her Sunday, she was just as chipper, alert, and happy as she'd been since she got home.

I am forever grateful for having the pleasure of being Grandmama's granddaughter. She was the classiest, most elegant, loving woman I've ever known. She's taught me so much, not only about how to treat people, but about life in general. Her and Alfie were the epitome of what a husband and wife should be and I know they are happy together once again. As you can see from this picture, Grandmama is sitting next to a blue armchair. That was Alfie's chair and the one he always sat in, notably on Christmas Eve when we got together as a family. After he passed away, no one ever sat in that chair, but Grandmama always sat next to it, just as if Alfie were there in more than just spirit.

One of my favorite Grandmama stories is that she had taken me shopping when I was little and a few days later, I was playing grocery store. My parents heard me saying, "Charge it!" and when I asked, I told them Grandmama said that when we went shopping. Jeff has never forgiven her for teaching me to shop!

My heart breaks that I wasn't able to say goodbye to Grandmama. It was sad, but nice to have her home so I could take Cooper to see her. I am thankful she and Cooper were able to meet and will always remember the sweet, loving smile she'd give when holding him:

Rest is peace, Grandmama. We love and miss you more than words can express.

Cooper's Birthday Part 1

I don't know who decided it was okay to speed up time, but I absolutely cannot believe a year has gone by since Cooper was born. A year ago, I was recovering from an emergency c-section after a badly botched epidural left me unable to move, swallow, or stay awake and caused mine and Cooper's heart rates to drop dangerously low. Poor Jeff- I can't imagine what he was going through. Thankfully, all's well that ends well, and when I regained consciousness, this is the beautiful face that was brought to me:


As Jimmy Buffett says: "I've had good days, and bad days, and going half-mad days..." and that's exactly what this year has been like. There were times Jeff and I thought we'd never be able to handle everything, but even though parenthood is much more challenging that we imagined, we're very thankful and lucky to have our sweet Cooper.

Cooper has been celebrating his birthday for a few days. We had his family party this past Sunday. We went with a farm theme:

Cooper's smash cake


Cooper's birthday cake


Westie cookies from YaYa and Mallie

Jeff and I had plans to make the backyard look slightly like a farm in autumn without going crazy. We were going to get hay bales for seating and lots of pumpkins and mums to decorate. Yeah, that didn't exactly happen. We couldn't find hay bales big enough for people to sit on (stand, maybe; sit, no) and Jeff and I had a little miscommunication about how many pumpkins and mums we were going to need. So...we enlisted our parents to bring whatever folding and lawn chairs they had to the party, we put out our lawn furniture, and I sped (and by sped, I mean driving carefully without the slightest bit of road rage or anxiety) through Germantown after picking up Cooper's cakes and balloons, arriving home 1 hour before the party starts. Did I mention I hadn't showered?

Anyway, the party starts and I'm only 20 minutes late showing up to my own backyard for the festivities. I figure that's pretty good. I plan on being at least 45 minutes late to my own funeral. Cooper was passed around to just about every family member in attendance, although all he really wanted was to get down and play.


Playing on Daddy's tractor with a little help from Aunt Mimi Jane.


Trying to figure out this whole cake thing...


Checking out balloons with Erin


A pirate ship water table from Mama and Dada!!


Being pulled around by Frannie in his wagon from Nana and Hondo

We were all exhausted by the end of the afternoon. Cooper got a bath, had dinner and a bottle, and was out and Jeff and I weren't far behind. We almost overslept Monday morning!

Stay tuned for Cooper's Birthday Part 2- his actual birthday!

Cooper at 11 Months

This post is a little late, but important nonetheless. Cooper turned 11 months old September 12th. I absolutely cannot believe how fast time has flown by. He's doing all kinds of cool stuff these days:

-Pulls up on anything, even if it's not sturdy enough to hold him.

-Is cruising everywhere and will let go, take a few steps, then fall.

-Still loves Avery and thinks everything she does is hilarious.

-Is saying "Mama" and "Dada", but only when he feels like it. :)

-"Gator rolls" whenever he's getting his diaper changed and wants to take all the wipes out of the container.

-Loves listening to music and dancing.

-Claps during certain parts of nighttime prayers. We figure it's his way of saying he especially wants to pray for that person/thing.

-Loves macaroni and cheese, applesauce, peach tea, biscuits, blueberry muffins, and Muddy's Bake Shop icing (could this child be anymore mine with his love of starches and sweets?).

-Gets feisty when it's time to sleep. He'd much rather fight it and be a grouch than give in to it and go to bed.

We're gearing up for his 1st birthday in a few weeks and can't believe the time is already here!

They're Baaaack!

What's back, you ask? Well, we're not quite sure. It's a critter of some kind, but whatever it is, it's not welcome in the Radford household.

Back in the spring, we heard rustling and scratching at night. I swore it was in the walls; Jeff swore it was in the attic. Personally, I didn't care, but knew something was in our house that didn't belong. A call to Critter Ridders and we were diagnosed with roof rats. I freaked. Rats? We keep the house clean! No matter, especially when you have neighbors who don't care about the way their property looks. They have a huge, gaping hole in their house that Critter Ridders says is housing no telling what and the "no telling what" made its way to us. Fantastic.

After a costly afternoon of having super-duper rat traps set and entry holes repaired, we were on our way to be roof rat free. We were told that if we were home, we'd hear the snap traps. WHAT EXCITEMENT! And yes, on a few occasions, we did hear the snap. We got to be pretty good friends with the Critter Ridder guys after all this, plus the "removal" of our rat friends.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, I hear rustling again. Jeff tries to convince me it's the refrigerator or dishwasher making noise, but he finally caught it at the right time to realize that yes, we have some form of critter again, but this time in the walls. Critter Ridders comes out again, says there are no entry points, so we're left to figure out what it is on our own. At 2am this morning, Avery decided she'd like to help and proceeded to bark at the cabinet under the kitchen sink until we all got up for good at 4am.

Now we're hoping for a better night sleep and that whatever it is, finds itself caught in a trap. Is that mean?