Kids say the most hilarious things! I was teaching a 2nd grade group today and we were working on words that end with "unk." When I got to d, I asked if "dunk" is a word. One little girl said, "Yes, you know how when you're dating somebody and when you break up with them, you dunk them!" Well, there you go!
On another note, when I took Cooper to the doctor about his arm, his nurse had a beautiful accent-sort of South African or English sounding. I almost asked her where she was from, but decided not to. Yes, this story has a point-stay with me...We have finally settled on a church after visiting around for the past year. I went to Sunday school for the first time this past Sunday and it just so happens that the same nurse was in my class. For some reason, she mentioned that about a year ago, she had an illness that results in leaving your voice with an accent. It's a very rare illness and only 40 people in the U.S. have it. I have NEVER heard of such! I was so interested in it, that I tried searching it on the internet, but I don't know the name of it, so if anyone out there knows anything about it, please tell me! I just think things like that are amazing!
About church, I'm so glad to start feeling like I actually belong again! I really enjoyed my Sunday school class and Carter enjoyed his. We went to church last night, too. I am taking a class about women in the bible and Carter is learning about Bible heroes.
We had a babysitter for the first time here tonight because David and I had to go to a YMCA dinner. Her name is Mandy and the boys called her "Handy Mandy" all night! She lives in our neighborhood, which is great for her to be able to walk here and it's nice knowing her parents are a few houses down. It went really well! They had a great time and played a game where Cooper was a fish and the couch was the water so they kept trying to "catch" him. What a relief for us that everything was great!
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Christmas Day!
On Christmas morning, we opened our gifts at home. Santa brought Cooper a bike, an easel, and a play-doh set. From us, he got a Fisher-Price computer system, clothes and other little things. Carter gave him a book about a big and little brother. Santa brought Carter a TV (since that's the ONLY thing he asked for, Santa decided to go for it!), motorcycles, and Battleship game. From us, he got clothes, shoes, and other little things. Mommy got clothes and jewelry and Daddy got clothes and a photo calendar. Even Raleigh got new bones and treats!
At Grandmommy & DD's, we opened even more gifts! Carter got a scooter, helmet, gameboy game, playstation game, wolfpack stuff, clothes, etc... Cooper got the Noah's Ark playmobil set, those cute camo/dinosaur rain boots, clothes, those adorable camo pj's with a little Raleigh on them, etc... Mommy got more clothes, boots, house stuff, etc... Daddy got clothes, wolfpack stuff, playstation game, etc... Our family gift was an original numbered Bob Timberlake framed print called "Carter's Quilt." It was given to us with instructions to give it to Carter when he marries. So, of course, I boo-hooed!
At dinner, we were each surprised with one last gift...MONEY! Grandmommy & DD decided to carry on Gran's tradition of the money giving each year! When I politely informed the boys that they would be putting theirs into their college accounts (because this is what we always did with Gran's money!), we were surprised with yet another gift...they told us that they had set up college accounts for each of the grandkids on their first birthdays! WOW!
We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with all of the people that we love the most!
Christmas Eve!
My family came to our house on Christmas Eve. The boys got lots of Cars stuff, playstation and board games, and all kinds of other stuff! Cooper is in to Diego so he got some of those toys and he got a scooter that lights up and makes sounds!
We had a wonderful lunch together. It's tradition that I always read the Christmas story from the bible before we open presents, but somehow we forgot this year. I think it's because we've always had to travel before so I've had to pack my bible and being at home this year, everything was different!
Christmas Eve is also my mom's birthday so we always have a double celebration! The blue tickets she's holding are to see Karen Kingsbury, who's coming to a church in Kernersville in January. I gave them to her, but I'm so disappointed that I'm going to have to miss it because I'll be at the beach scrapbooking!
That evening, we went to church. Then, it's always been a tradition that we open 1 gift before bed. Carter's was Mack and Lightning McQueen (Cars) from Cooper and Cooper's was a wolfpack shirt from us. The boys scattered reindeer food on the lawn and left cookies for Santa.
The end of my rope!
Here's a picture of the boys before we went to the church service. How can someone so cute act so ugly???
Ok.......I've always heard that when you get to the end of your rope, you tie a knot and hang on, but I'm hanging on by a thread here!
Cooper and I went out to eat with Grandmommy, Laurie, and Elizabeth tonight after the Family Christmas Service at their church. Cooper was absolutely TERRIBLE and I was MORTIFIED! He wouldn't eat, wouldn't sit in a regular chair or highchair and finally decided to get down and crawl around on the floor before taking off running from me around the restaurant! NO pops, warnings, or threats worked.
I remember watching people, like myself, before I had kids, and thinking "I would not allow my child to act like that!" Well, now I'm one of them and I totally feel their pain! I don't think that it's my parenting skills, it's just Cooper's personality traits. The reason I think this is because we have raised him no different than we've been raising Carter and he did NOT act like this!
We were supposed to go to Laurie's house afterwards so Cooper and Elizabeth could play, but instead I took him straight home. When we got here, I immediately took all his clothes off and wore his cute little butt out and very firmly explained how he would not ever run from me, hit at me, or tell me no again. He said "yes, m'am." Hmmm, we'll see how long this lasts...
Anyway, if anyone else out there has a little Cooper and has any ideas for me, please send them my way! I will gladly take advice!
Cookie Party
Decorating the cookies
Cooper, Ellie, Skyler, Carter & Aiden
We had a cookie decorating party with our friends and neighbors, the Shewcows! We ordered pizza for dinner and then the kids decorated cookies that they had cut out and baked earlier. They used all different colors of icing and all kinds of sprinkles and M&M's. It was so much fun! Santa will LOVE them!
More Cooper Stories
I have to update everyone on Cooper's latest antics! The last time we were at my sister's house, he took a pen and wrote all over the soft screen of their fairly new flat-screen computer! I was so afraid we were going to have to buy them a new computer! Luckily, they got it all off. Don't you ever wonder why your kids do things like this at other people's houses, but that he never once tried to write on our ancient computer that I would have been more than happy to throw out??? Thank goodness, we have a new one now anyway!
Also, he was watching Toy Story one evening and when Buzz and Woody started fighting and Woody told Buzz to "shut up," I heard him say, "No, Woody, you shut up!" Ok...that's one complaint that I have about the Disney movies! I thought about it and decided not to say anything b/c I didn't want to draw attention to it. Well, that was a big mistake! When I picked him up at preschool the next day, Ms. Becky said that he was telling everyone to shut up all day long! So, we had the talk about it. That same afternoon, he got in trouble for something and I spanked him. He looked at me and said, "You shut up, you shut your mouth!" Oh, no...needless to say, he got yet another spanking, a time-out, AND a little soap in his mouth! He hasn't said it since! Carter asked him if the soap tasted good and Cooper said no so Carter said, "Well, I guess you won't say shut-up anymore!" This, coming from our child who is 6 years old and whom I have never heard the words "shut-up" come out of his mouth!
Toothless Grin
Carter finally lost his first tooth! He's been dying to lose one for the longest time. It was very loose anyway, but Carter and Cooper were "rough-housing" and when they bumped heads, it fell out! Leave it to Cooper to knock Carter's teeth out! Carter would've cried had his tooth not fallen out! He was so excited that he couldn't go to sleep and then he woke up at 6:30 am! You would've thought it was Christmas! The tooth fairy left him $5 (only because it was his FIRST tooth and Daddy said that makes it special!) along with a trail of gold magic dust on his pillow! She also left him a note telling him that since he took good care of his tooth, she would turn it into a beautiful star in the sky!
