LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — Don’t tell a three-year-old to wait — for anything — especially when it comes to hugging mom.
Little Copper Waldvogel broke military protocol when he ran up to his soldier mom who had been in Afghanistan for the last nine months.
Kathryn Waldvogel, 25, along with other soldiers with the National Guard’s 114th Transportation Company, were told they needed to wait to be dismissed.
After nine months, more waiting.
“All of a sudden we had to file into the building and get into formation, and I just look up and Cooper and my mom are right there,” Waldvogel said in an interview with KARE-TV. “He just kept smiling like he was in awe of me,” she said.
It’s unclear how long Cooper stood there staring at his mom before he bolted out of the crowd. For Waldvogel, however long that wait was, was tough.
“I was longing to hold him, that’s all that I thought about,” she said.
And then Cooper’s little legs took off until he was scooped up by his mom.
Cooper asked if they could play all day long. Her answer? Of course.