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Mom 'Mortified,' Obama Amused When Baby Grabbed President's Mouth

President Barack Obama got a mouth full of fingers from Cooper Wall Wagner, 8 months, as he posed for a photo with Cooper and his parents on Christmas Day in Hawaii. Mom, Meredith Wagner, is at left.Â
Carolyn Kaster
/
AP
President Barack Obama got a mouth full of fingers from Cooper Wall Wagner, 8 months, as he posed for a photo with Cooper and his parents on Christmas Day in Hawaii. Mom, Meredith Wagner, is at left.Â

She says now that she "was mortified ... I was so embarrassed."

But we have to think that in coming years as Meredith Wagner looks back at how her cute little boy stuck his hand right into the president of the United States' mouth, it's going to be a family moment that she'll treasure.

In case you haven't caught up with one of the more precious video moments so far from the first family's vacation in Hawaii, when President Obama was visiting with some U.S. troops on Christmas Day he came across Wagner, her husband Marine Capt. Greg Wagner and their 8-month-old son Cooper.

As the president was holding Cooper while posing for photos with the Wagners, the little guy made a grab for the president's teeth. Obama cheerfully played right along, as this Associated Press video shows.

Today, Meredith Wagner told ABC News' Good Morning America of her embarrassment. But it appears the president would say she need not worry.

"He kind of laughed and said that Cooper looked up and saw his big nose and just wanted to get a hold of it," Capt. Wagner told ABC. "He played it off really well and got a good chuckle."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott
Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.