You and Me

My parents gave Cooper his very own microphone and little amplifier for his birthday. It has been a very popular toy. The first day the kids used it I realized I didn't have batteries for it, so they used it sans power. That didn't stop them. I've made a few movies of their performances. Since it was his birthday, I'll post one of Cooper. I'll call it "You and Me."



Thanks Nana Cris and Grandpa Marc!

The Fifth

Cooper turned five a few weeks ago. He started counting down to the big day in February. Every morning he would stand in front of the calendar and ask how many more days until his birthday.

I stayed up late the night before wrapping his presents and putting up some decorations.

I had a hard time pinning down what he wanted for each of his meals. After many mind changes he settled on strawberry pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate milk for breakfast and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.

We spent a chunk of the day playing outside, which helped Cooper to wait patiently for Bryan to come home so the whole family could be present for the gift opening. I reached into my stash of clothes and books and pulled out a few things for Cooper.

Cooper asked for an apple pie instead of a cake. I made it, but we pulled it out of the oven shortly before bedtime. That means it was too hot for safe consumption. Instead we served the ice cream originally meant to go with the pie. A word of warning, lit candles in ice cream requires a very fast rendition of "Happy Birthday" to avoid melting the frozen dairy treat.

The kids ate the pie for breakfast the next morning. It's fruit, which is totally okay for breakfast, right?

One of the few gifts that we bought was a Lego Batmobile. He had fun putting it together the next afternoon.

I asked Cooper the same birthday questions that I asked Peter. Here are his answers:

FAVORITE FOOD: meatballs (True, he really loves meatballs)

FAVORITE ANIMAL: lion

FAVORITE BOOK: batman

FAVORITE COLOR: blue

FAVORITE SHOW: Wild Kratts

FAVORITE MOVIE: Space Dogs (I think he's seen this once.)
FAVORITE SONG: I Am a Child of God
FAVORITE BOARD GAME: checkers (I'm not sure if he's actually played this)
FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Mario Kart
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Go to dinosaur museums
FAVORITE MEMORY FROM BEING 4: Playing with friends
FAVORITE PLACE: Thanksgiving Point
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: sweeping (I have no idea...)

FRIENDS: Parker, Phoebe, Jaedyn, Jack, Eliza, Cat, Peter

He had a pretty good day. His celebration didn't end there though. In keeping with the age precedence that we set with Peter, Cooper had his first real birthday party. 

But that's a topic for another post.

Less Is More

What would you do if you were cleaning up your house and came across a box full of hair bows? Would you promptly put them away? Would you ignore them and leave them where they are? Or would you go in search of any bows in the house that aren't already in the box, then proceed to wear all of the bows?

And would your big brother decide that he should be in on the accessory action, much to his mother's chagrin?

Do you think we'll start a new trend?

Feel the Music

March Madness

Have you noticed that the last two weeks have been full of cop-out posts? March has been insane at our house. Bryan's schedule has been crazy, my schedule has been crazy.

In order to deal with the crazy we've been eating things like breakfast cereal and pizza for dinner (not during the same meal) and using disposable dishes. It took me six days to fold all the laundry last week and we wash the clothes every seven days. That means the laundry was put away for one day and now I have six more loads waiting to be folded. This is the lightest week I've had all month because I'll be home two of the five nights.

Why have we been so busy? Well,  there are a handful of reasons, but I'll give you a teaser for one of them.

Your Mom

Yesterday during breakfast Cooper looked at me and asked, "Mom, were you a kid for a short time? And are we kids for a really long time?"

 I smiled and responded, "Cooper, I was a kid for same amount of time that you'll be a kid."

He looked rather taken aback by this. Phoebe was not as fazed. Her reply to me? "Yeah, but I'm your mom."

Touche.

Leftovers

Yesterday in the car, the following conversation took place.

Cooper: (to Phoebe) Eat it.

Me: (realizing I haven't given them any food during this particular trip) Eat what?

Cooper: The food.

Me: (perplexed) What food?

Cooper: The food that was behind my chair.

Me: (thinking maybe I set down a package of fruit snacks in the back window behind his seat) You mean above your seat?

Cooper: No, behind my seat. Right down here.

Me: (panic rising slightly) What is it?! What are you feeding her?!

Cooper: (thinking for a moment) Chips.

Me: (unable to remember the last time we ate chips in the car) Stop! Stop eating! That's so gross! (flipping my mirror down to see Phoebe consuming yucky seat-cushion crumbs out of Cooper's open palm) STOP EATING THAT!

Time to clean out the car, wouldn't you say?

Followup

Cooper dutifully pulled on his costume just in time to get Peter from school yesterday. Phoebe was so inspired that she ran and found a crown, a tutu (which isn't visible in the picture), and her ballet slippers. I didn't even realize she had left the house in them until we were parked in front of the school and I turned around to take the picture.

Here's a better view of the footwear.

And here's Cooper kickin' it in the backseat, Lightyear style.

My Brother

I visited Peter's school today. While there, I read one of the journal entries he wrote this year. This was my favorite.

Need a transcript? It says:

My Brother

My brother's name is Cooper. We have fun together. Sometimes we get in trouble together. But I still love my brother. The end.

Space Ranger

Tonight during bedtime Cooper asked, "Mom, tomorrow when we go get Peter from school, can I wear my Buzz Lightyear costume?"

I said yes.

And I hope he does.

Awesome

Chances are good you've already seen this since it was published almost two months ago, but I saw it for the first time this morning on a friend's blog. It made me smile and gave me a nice little boost. So just in case you haven't seen it yet either, I'm sharing.



Awesome.

Jumping Jacks

Cooper and Phoebe and I have been trying to exercise at home. We've been using this workout plan, specifically the leg and ab routines. Instead of barbells, we use cans of peaches and tomato sauce. We don't always time the wall squats, instead we sing The ABCs twice. And Cooper really loves doing jumping jacks.

We haven't exercised much this week. We spent today watching Netflix and sleeping. Well, the kids watched Netflix while I tried to sleep. We might do the same thing again tomorrow.

But I do hope to get back to those jumping jacks soon.

Pity Party

I'm sick. Really sick. Voice-gone, achy-all-over, coughing-up-a-lung sick. Bryan and Cooper had it, then Phoebe, now me. Peter remains unscathed.

The worst part of this particular illness (other than not being able to rest and recuperate) is that I can't sleep. I lie in bed, almost asleep, then jump up choking and coughing. Too much information?

Tonight I'm doing my dishes instead of not sleeping. I'd definitely prefer to be blissfully slumbering, but I figure if I can't sleep anyway, I might as well be productive.

Okay, rant over.

You Spin Me Right Round Baby Right Round...

Wide Open Spaces

I think I might be tired of living in a little tiny apartment. I had this epiphany as I was walking crab-like around the outside of my bed, because there's so little space I can't walk normally.

Granted, there are benefits to a little house. There's only one bathroom to clean. I can hear what the kids are up to no matter what room I'm in. I'm sure there's a third benefit, I just can't think of it right now.

We'll only be here for, what, five more months tops, so I can handle it. And there are so many more things that I'll miss, like all of our friends that are staying in the area. But a bigger apartment is looking real good right now.

Storytime

We had a short visit from Uncle Isaac and Aunt Falisha tonight. They got here in time to read bedtime stories and they were very helpful as I got kids into pajamas and brushed teeth.

Hooray for aunts and uncles!

Repeat

We watched the movie from yesterday's post at least a dozen times today. Sometimes Phoebe would sing along. Sometimes Cooper would talk over it and Phoebe would shush him and say, "I'm watching Phoebe."

And she put on an encore performance while standing on the ottoman in our living room.

For the record, Cooper started using our futon as a stage and putting on shows at least a year ago. So maybe Phoebe was following his example more than mine.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

On Monday we went to a sports activity for kids put on by MBASA. It was in the cultural hall of a church building. After the activity was over, most of the kids took advantage of the space and ran wild. Phoebe saw another opportunity. She climbed the steps to the stage and put on a show.

I realized part way through that I should be filming, so I pulled out my camera, which is why the movie starts halfway through the song. Thankfully she cycled back to her opening as soon as she finished singing.

In case you can't understand her, here's a transcript.

Lead me, guide me walk beside me. Help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.
Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the little show of awesome! I am with... I'm on the stage (more minutes?)! Oh yeah!
Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the-

And then I stopped filming, probably because she was getting close to the lip of the stage and I didn't want her to fall off.

This movie makes my heart melt and sing and almost burst, all at the same time. I'm not trying to push her into performing (nor am I pushing either of the boys), but I do think it's interesting to see what they inherent. Or what rubs off because they see me performing so often.

This is my new favorite movie.

Climate Change

We spent three and a half hours outside today because the weather warmed above freezing. It was lovely and the kids enjoyed it.

And I have my first sunburn of the year.

Working for the Weekend

Guess who mopped their floor, did massive amounts of dishes, and folded multiple loads of laundry this weekend?

Can I get a weekend to recover from my weekend?

That is all.

Peter's Day Off

Peter woke up this morning insisting that he was too sick to go to school. He's been doing this lately, trying to stay home from school. It's pretty easy to tell if he's really feeling ill, and today he was tired but not because he was sick. Usually we tell him we'll just take him in his pajamas if he refuses to get dressed, but today we decided to play along.

To Peter, a sick day means that he gets to watch movies while he convalesces. I know that we're to blame for this since that's what most sick days have been.

So we told him he could stay home, but that he would need to stay in bed so he could recuperate. And we warned him that he would need to stay in bed, whether or not he felt better.

At first he agreed, then as the time for school to begin drew nearer, he started to say that maybe he was feeling better. Five minutes before the bell was to ring, Peter said he thought he was well. We informed him he would need to get dressed, eat breakfast, and make his lunch in about two minutes in order to make it on time.

He stayed home.

The first few hours were fine. He read The Hobbit and a National Geographic fact book for kids. Around eleven o'clock he started to get antsy. From two o'clock until four o'clock, it was almost impossible to keep him sitting on his bed, or even in his room. He kept telling us how much better he was and how he thought he should be playing with his siblings.

Today was the warmest day we've had all year. Bryan took Cooper and Phoebe out for a walk in the late afternoon, but he told Peter that, due to his sick day, he couldn't join them. I stayed home with the nearly hysterical Peter.

I heard him say several times, "I just wish I had gone to school! Why didn't I go to school?!" He did finally join the family for dinner and a movie, so his day wasn't a complete loss.

I wonder, will the lesson stick?