Shrishmiss Tree

Oh Schrishmiss Tree, oh Schrishmiss tree, your needles are sooooo pointy.

Cooper's mispronunciation of Christmas is charming, and his delightfully innocent and clueless approach to the season is really fun. Matt and I are just not that into the whole buildup of presents, Santa, Rudolph, etc- so we've decided to just let Cooper do whatever he comes up with from his friends and peers at daycare. If he wants Rudolph, we'll know, and we'll do Rudolph.

So far, Cooper has informed us that "Shane has big socks with presents," which reminded me that I need to set out our stockings to keep up with expectation on that one. Cooper also randomly called Santa on the phone a few days ago, and when I asked him what he was talking to Santa about, he looked a tad puzzled and then said that Santa needs cookies and juice. Emphatically FIRST cookies, THEN juice, also. OK, so we're going to leave out some cookies and juice on Christmas Eve, it would seem.

Cooper also knows that we got some presents for his cousins, but I don't really know if he knows that he is also getting presents. I suppose it will be very exciting if he remains in the dark on that one until actual Schrishmiss morning.

Meanwhile, Grant has hardly even noticed the tree- partially because we set it up behind a couch so that Grant can't eat it or knock it over. He's too intent on practicing his walking (getting better!) and surprise attacking Cooper with vicious bear hugs and contagious giggles. Unfortunately, Grant has been having a really hard time sleeping lately, so that's been tough on Matt and I. But he's making up for it with good naps and lots of walking practice, so I think it will all pan out OK in the end.

Tell me the future

Cooper is currently missing some of the grammatical structures that the rest of us take for granted. Thank goodness he doesn't let that stop him from constructing jaw-dropping soliloquies. His most recent habit that is amusing me is how he tells long, involved stories of how he's going to do something in the future, and it is almost never apparent what on earth he is talking about until he gets to his "punchline." On the way there, he covers all the bases. And I mean aaaaaaall the bases. Alongside the funny dialogue, you have to imagine he's looking off into space and bobbing his head from side to side with each individual thought...

Cooper: Hey Momma?
Me: Yes, Cooper?
Cooper: I gonna go brush teeth and then I gonna get into Pee-Gees with dinos on them. Then I gonna go to sweep with doggie horsie blankey in my bed wiff my waterbobble. An Grant gonna sweep in his crib upstairs by the bed. Then I gonna get up and eat flakes and take my diaper off and THEN I use the potty and get dressed in my pants and two shirts and get in car with Grant and the bags and then we go to Shanes house for daycare. And THEN I GONNA EAT PANPAKES AND THAT WILL BE GREAT!

All that, to inform me he is looking forward to eating "panpakes" tomorrow morning. Wouldn't want to forget any details. Eventually, I know he'll figure out how to say, "Tomorrow morning..." Until then, bring on the soliloquies.

Bad example

Cooper was watching his favorite movie earlier today when he announced to me, "Momma- that little mouse pushed the big mouse. He don't do that. We don't push friends."

I told him that yes, the little mouse shouldn't push the big mouse. And Cooper said, "Yeah, that's not nice."

What a sweet kid.

Grant is walking!

It is official. With one day to go before he was 10 months old, yesterday Grant squeaked in under the wire to match his brother's impressive feat of really, truly, independently walking during his ninth month. Twice yesterday, he covered about 5 - 7 feet worth of floor space with a steady but slow and shuffling walk.

Congratulations Grant!

Sticker supreme

Yesterday's morning went extremely poorly. Matt had to leave at the crack of dawn, so all of the morning readiness was up to me. Things were OK with breakfast, but then Cooper took an active resistance role in getting dressed. At one point when he was almost completely dressed, yet angrily screaming and tearing at his clothing, I put him in his room to cool off so that I could get Grant in his car seat without losing my mind. I opened the door about 3 minutes later to an almost naked toddler in the middle of the room- standing in a small tornado style array of tiny clothing bits- that proudly, angrily, declared while looking me in the eye "I NOT WEARING UNDIES OR SHIRTS."

The next five minutes of my life are best forgotten, but nobody got hurt, and Cooper indeed was wearing fully coordinated, weather appropriate, clothing as I hauled him kicking and screaming across the icy yard.

During the workday I talked to Matt about it on the phone, and we agreed that something had to be changed, because nobody benefits from that sort of interaction. And right around dinner time, I came up with an idea.

Me: "Cooper, tomorrow if you can get dressed for daycare without being sad, you can put a horsie sticker on the calendar."
Cooper: "I want a sticker!"
Me: "You can have one! Tomorrow you just have to get dressed without getting sad."
Cooper: "Yeah! My love stickers!"


When Cooper woke up this morning, he asked me (essentially) if the horsie sticker offer still stood. I told him it did, and further, if he also got his boots and jacket on, and then got into the car, without getting sad, he could also have a horsie sticker on his jacket to show Shane.

And with that, after breakfast was over, Cooper happily picked out his outfit. He put on his undies and pants all by himself, then asked for help with his teeshirt and sweater. The first sticker was a lovely white horse, carefully placed on the calendar to cover the 1 of December 1st. Then, he selected some socks, asked me to put them on, got his boots, put them on, and then calmly asked if he could wear his blue hooded jacket today, which I told him sounded great. And then he walked out to the car, got in his car seat, and asked nicely for a sticker on his jacket. A brown horsie this time, please.

Why didn't I think of this, like, a month ago?