Hair...

About a week ago Cooper comes up to me after he takes his bath and says, "Mommy, I think I am starting to lose my hair."  He then showed me the bath and sure enough there were several long hairs sprinkled all over the bath. Not chunks but definitely noticable. I asked how he felt about it and with one word he responded "sad".

That night I did not sleep well. I kept having dreams about his hair and waking up every hour. I couldn't figure out why his hair falling out was throwing me this much. We know this is a common side effect, I guess I was just hoping he would be one of the "lucky" ones who got to keep his luscious, thick, dark hair. The sadness comes in two parts for me.  One is seeing another thing taken away from Cooper that he doesn't want. The other is that his sickness will be much more visible to us and everyone else. If you didn't know better he still just looked like a typical 9 year old boy.

Since then, his hair loss has increased. Now wherever Cooper lays down somewhere it looks like we have a dog that is shedding. It's starting to annoy him as strands will fall in his face randomly.  

On the flip side, there is some comfort with his hair falling out because that means the chemo is doing it's job. If it's killing his fast reproducing hair cells then it has to be killing those fast reproducing cancer cells! Right?!

Each additional day entailed his hair coming out more aggressively. Today was the day, time to say good bye to the hair he had left! We took advantage of the last warm day before the freeze coming up this weekend. A few of his friends wanted to shave their heads too so we made it a little event. :)

Here is Cooper's Crew pre-shave time!

Cooper said he wanted his dad to go first! I'm not gonna lie, I hope he keeps it bald for a while! I kinda like it ;) David would do absolutely anything for him!

Cooper's cousin was SO excited to be bald he was the next to jump in to get his head shaved! He really brought the laughter and excitement!! We were all belly laughing at just how awesome he thought this all was :) He also looked SO good and gave Coop the strength to maybe even be a little excited to shave his own head.

And now.... "IT IS TIME" (in my Lion King voice)

Our wonderful friend and one of Cooper's coaches happens to be a barber! He was a shaving rockstar today and made the whole event successful (even brought a chair so we were legit!!) Thank you SO SO much Pat!!! That patchy hair was ready and needing to be shaved :)

Coop's buddy Will and his dad Nick had a major transformation! Their hair was SO long before but jumped in excited to go bald for Coop too :) How cool is it that another dad even wanted to do it?! Will has always been such an amazing and encouraging friend and that has shown even more over this past month!!

Cooper has known Bryden and Brexten literally his entire life. They are the brother's he never had! I know what a big deal it was to shave off those golden and curly locks but dang they are still super cute!! They have shown up SO big for him throughout this whole process, from day 1! Seeing them both choose to do that meant the world to him!

Coop's buddy Parker and his older brother Cam were also all in! How cool is it that an 8th grade boy was wanting to come and shave his head too?! These young boys really look up to him and I know that was so impactful to Cooper! They also have taken so much action for Coop and loved on us over and over throughout this whole thing!

Cooper has also known Stratton his entire life! Literally, as we were walking into the hospital they were walking out of the hospital after just giving birth to him a few days before! This kid has supported and loved on Cooper in so many sweet and thoughtful ways! Coop always gets SO excited when he gets to hang out with him!

Last but certainly not least Cooper's buddy BB joined in! He has been such a huge support of Coop through this whole process too. He has the sweetest and biggest heart! He's so kind and gracious and one of Cooper's biggest encouragers!!

He really does have the BEST friends!! I know each one of these boys are processing Cooper's cancer through their own young eyes. It's their friend, their teammate, their schoolmate, their cousin. Unsure of what is happening. I'm guessing a little nervous and scared listening to their parent's talking about it. Seeing their friend struggle in front of them. It breaks my heart that this has to be part of their story too. Watching them choose to go out of their comfort zone for their friend, there are no words to fully describe experiencing that. I know some walked into it today 100% sure they wanted to shave off their hair and some unsure. Yet, in the end they all said yes on their own. These are some amazing young men right here!

Bald boys unite! Now they all look so tough (just missing those head tattoo's!) Ha!

When I look at him bald, I am going to choose to see his strength and not the sickness. His body has been able to endure so much and is still fighting. His body is incredible and strong. The hair will come back one day. Cooper learning just how strong and resilient he truly is, that will last a lifetime. I won't ever let him forget it!!

Coop- I love you with every ounce of my being!! 🧡 and so does your entire CREW!!