Kitty fur

We were in the ski shop today while I tried on some new ski boots, and I was joking with the salesman (Brian, a good friend of ours) about the slightly ridiculous trend this year of big poofy fake fur liners in the boots. One was white, the other was a shiny mid-tone gray.

Me: I don't know which I like better- the ones made from polar bears, or the ones made from kittens.
Brian: (laughing) The kitten ones are especially soft, although polar bears are well suited to cold weather.
Cooper: THOSE ARE MADE FROM KITTENS? (lip quiver)
Brian and Me: OH no no no we were just kidding! Just being silly. Not really made from kittens, buddy. Not kittens at all. Not even polar bears.

About 15 minutes later, while we were still trying on more boots, Cooper came back over and calmly asked, "Brian, how do the get the fur off the kittens into the boots?"

Remind me to NEVER make jokes about skinning cats, ever again.

Things that rhyme with snake

Cooper's classroom is doing a unit on rhyming this week, which was helpful to know when Cooper randomly said...

C: Mom, You know what?
Me: What?
C: I like to wake and bake.
Me: (stifling a giggle) Those do rhyme, that's cool.
C: And Snake!

When we got to Grant's daycare, I shared this tidbit with the daycare manager and she laughed and immediately told me a hilarious story about a conversation with her five year old on Halloween, when he was having trouble figuring out a clasp on an odd piece of costume jewelry.

Son: I need a hooker.
Mom: Excuse me?
Son: I need to get this hooker on me.
Mom: You know, uhhh, that's not called a hooker. It is more like... hmmm... that's more like a joint on that bracelet. And could you ask your Dad for help, I'm kinda busy.
Son: OK! Hey Dad! I need a joint!

And we're back

I got a reminder the other day that I've been neglecting the blog. I figure I'll get back on the horse starting now.

The new house is great, but feeling a little like a money pit. Our old place had really past the money pit stage quite a few years ago, and I guess I had forgotten what it is like to not even want to make a to-do list, because that list is so long you don't want to face it. But it is OK. We won't go broke. We have a plan, I swear. It just feels like a lot.

Cooper is thriving in his new school and his teachers seem to really enjoy his company. He doesn't apparently participate very actively in most things, which doesn't surprise me, but he loves to talk about all the things they do at school so I'm sure he'll figure it out when he's ready. He does some cool drawings, so that's a start.

They had a firefighter visit the school last week and Cooper was really impressed. We talked about the firefighter all the way home, about how he had a truck with a bucket that collected rain (I don't think this was actually the case) and a cool hat (probably true) and a special jacket (totally true) and he put out fires. And then we talked about it all again, maybe three or four iterations. After all that, I asked Cooper if he wanted to be a firefighter. He pondered and then said, "When I get to be big, like really really big, after I grow up to be super bigger taller than Daddy, I think I want to be a super tall Mommy."

Nothing makes me happier than to envision an adult version of Cooper as a "mommy," truly. I picture him as a tall thin handsome young man holding an adorable blond baby. Sounds utterly perfect to me. I figure it is like when he's a daddy, except maybe he's wearing an apron or something (in his mind).

Grant's vocabulary is probably off the charts by now, or at least I've lost count of what he can say. He's also starting to say some words in Spanish, because his new daycare is "Spanish immersion" which basically means the staff all speak Spanish to the kids. He's getting good at "adios!" as an alternative to "bye bye." He's getting good at stringing his words together in meaningful ways, like "More chips please" and so forth.

It is totally worth mentioning that right now, Grant's favorite words are "No!" and "Mine!" This was never the case with Cooper. I don't actually recall him ever learning the word "mine" in the stereotypical way that toddlers use it. And Cooper was never a "No!" kinda kid. He just cried instead (ugh). So that's pretty interesting to me.

Speaking of the kids, Grant is waking up from his nap. Adios!

Crazy busy

We've been maniacs around here lately, in a good way. We're selling our house, buying another house, and thus moving. We've got work trips and trips for fun and my parents just visited, too. And of course, Cooper and Grant are moving on up. Cooper starts school in about three weeks, and he's very excited about that. Grant is switching to a new daycare that is near the new house, and we are very happy with how it looks. Naturally, Grant is clueless, but Cooper has been trying to prep him. "You're going to a new daycare. There will be a new Shane and a new Autumn and new kids."

The two of them continue to grow up faster than we can keep up. Cooper tried to carry Grant piggyback today (I helped) and it was one of the cutest, funniest things I've ever seen. "Don't worry Grant, I'm holding your bottom. You hold tight with your hands and I carry you piggyback!" Meanwhile, I'm holding Grant under the armpits as he clings fiercely to Cooper's back, legs splayed like a professional, both of them teetering and giggling crazily.

Grant is learning to say words at quite the clip. His vocabulary now includes just about all the important words in toddler life- Dada, Mama, Brother, Doggie, Chicken, Ball, Down, Up, More, Please, Book, Shoes, Juice, Milk, Yay, Ouch, and then a huge variety of imitation words and miscellaneous sounds.

Tonight, as Cooper was settling in to try to sleep, he came out of his room.

Cooper: Mom, I can't go to sleep.
Me: What's up?
Cooper: Grant left toys all over my room. We need to clean them up before I can sleep.

I hadn't even noticed, but he was right. Grant had strewn three toddler puzzle's worth of little animals all over the floor of Cooper's room. Cooper and I gathered them all up and put them all where they belonged.

Me: I hope that's better, kiddo.
Cooper: Yeah, that's so much better. Thanks for helping, Mom. I love you.

When he's cute and courteous like that, it practically hurts me.

That's such a nice place

For some reason, the death of the lead saxophonist for the E Street band is a big conversation topic around here. Right before bed, Cooper and I had a deep discussion about it.

Cooper: The guy that played the saxophone died?
Me: Yeah, he died.
Cooper: What's he doing now?
Me: He's not doing anything. He's dead. Once you are dead, you don't do anything.
Cooper: Oh. People die. That guy died. That's very sad.
Me: Yes, but, people are saying nice things about him, so that makes it a little better.
Cooper: He's dead. So where did he go?
Me: Uhhh... well... when people die, usually they get buried deep under some dirt.
Cooper: Oh! That's such a nice place to be when you're dead!

A transcription

Matt is currently out biking with his friends. Cooper is in his room, fighting naptime, talking on his toy phone. I am on the other side of the door... right now. This is an actual transcription.

"Oh, you're there? I hear you. So you're going to be home after naptime. Good for you! I want to take a nap and after that you are gonna be here, OK Daddy? I'm gonna buy stuff for you with all these numbers and you hear that? You're gonna be home after naptime. OK sound good like a plan? Bye." (phone snaps shut)

"Oh hi. Yeah you're gonna be home after naptime. I have my naptime stickers and I'm gonna sleep with my new pillow. Are you biking with Ian? Ian is my friend too. He's very nice. After naptime you're gonna be home and play with me. Are you there? I hear you. OK bye." (phone snaps shut)

"Are you there? No? OK I'll see you later." (phone snaps shut)

"Hi Daddy. I'm gonna take a nap and then you need to be home after naptime so we can go play outside. Bye I taking a nap now." (phone snaps shut)

The end.

Grant's vocabulary

Grant is falling into the typical pattern for second child, in that he's mostly letting Cooper do the work of talking for him. He's remarkably adept at expressing his needs to Cooper, somehow. Big brother babble translator Cooper nails it on the head as much as I do, I think. Cooper often will be talking with Grant and then turn to me and say, "Grant says he wants a banana." And sure enough, the darn kid wants a banana. Of course, that's kinda cheating, because Grant will eat up to six full size bananas a day if we let him (rest assured we only let him do that once). But still.

One of the things I love the most about this is that Cooper is totally undaunted by Grant's five word vocabulary. You'd think it would be frustrating to live with someone that communicates exclusively by clapping, nodding, screeching, Doggie, Dada, Chicken, Blankey and You're Welcome, but somehow it works. Cooper holds complete conversations with Grant, including all sorts of input from Grant that may or may not actually be occurring in reality. I guess if you can engage a stuffed animal for two hours, an animate and babbling baby brother is a comparably delightful companion.

Our favorite part of the day, some days, is the early morning. On mornings when Cooper and Grant both wake up in a good mood, they'll chat with each other for easily 30 minutes, with Cooper handing various toys to Grant in his crib, laughing together, and being extremely cute. We often hear Cooper chiding Grant calmly about something in his big brother voice, "No Grant, we don't hit people," or "No Grant, we don't grab," which is always impressive. And recently, one morning, Grant got very agitated really quickly for some odd reason, and Cooper said, "Don't worry Grant! I'll get mama and she'll make you feel better!" and then he came up the stairs, told me that Grant needed my help, took my hand and forcibly dragged me out of bed to go get his brother. When we got there, Cooper announced, "See Grant? I got Mama and now you gonna feel so much better."

The sad kids

In the car, on the way home from daycare.

Cooper: Where is daddy?
Me: He's at work until after dinner.
Cooper: What does he do at work?
Me: Uh... well... uh... he helps kids that are feeling sad get better.
Cooper: How does he do that?
Me: I think mostly he talks to them.
Cooper: Oh, OK. That's great.

About 45 minutes later, out of the blue.

Cooper: Daddy helps the sad kids feel better by talkin' to them.
Me: That's right. Daddy helps them feel better.
Cooper: What does Daddy say to the sad kids?
Me: I don't know. What do you think he says?
Cooper: I know what he says. He says, "Hey guys, what's goin' on? What's happening over here that makes you feel so sad?"
Me: Then after that, what do the kids say?
Cooper: They feel better. And then they say "Thank you."

I told Matt about this and he said that essentially, Cooper is right. The only part that was kinda wrong was that teenagers basically never say "Thank you."

Hero worship

Grant looks up to Cooper like a god. We've seen some very funny results of this in the last few months, now that Grant is more or less able to imitate what Cooper is doing.

This weekend, we were all playing outside and Cooper decided he wanted to pee on one of the lilac trees. I told him to go ahead, so he pulled down his pants, grabbed the tree trunk so that he was leaning over appropriately to keep his pants dry, and peed. No problem- very well executed. Moments after Cooper had wandered away, Grant walked up to the same spot, pulled his pants up (from the ankle) to just above his knees, grabbed the tree, leaned over, and giggled loudly. He was so proud of himself. Look at me! I'm doing what Cooper was doing!

So proud

Another quote that had me stifling laughter this week happened as I was having lunch with Grant and Cooper. I was chatting with Grant and he kept reaching for my sandwich. After he reached for it a couple of times, I said, "Sure Grant, you can have a little piece if you want," tore off a small section, and handed it to Grant. Cooper looked at me and said, "Mom, I am so proud of you for sharing your shammish with Grant. That's what good mommies do."

I think we've probably said, "Cooper, I'm so proud of you for sharing your toys with Grant. That's what good big brothers do," about a thousand times. Apparently, it was heard loud and clear.

Two quotes

Cooper has said some gems since I got home from DC on Tuesday.

Over dinner yesterday...
Me: Do you want some string beans?
Cooper: Well mom, you've got two options. You can put string beans on my plate, or you can put string beans right here on the table.
Me: OK, uh (stifling laughter), I think I prefer the plate.
Cooper: That's great, mom. I'll have the string beans on the plate then.

This morning as I was helping Cooper get dressed.
Cooper: OUCH that hurts me!
Me: What? What hurt?
Cooper: Your hands are terribly icy. Please don't touch me with your hands. I don't like it.

Imaginary... friend?

Cooper sort of has an imaginary friend, except that instead he has an imaginary truck. His blue truck. Don't remind him it is pretend- he'll get really mad at you.

Cooper tells all sorts of funny and cute everyday narratives about his blue truck, each of which has its own set of ever-changing details. On a typical day, Cooper might tell us he's going to drive it to school with his lunch box that has fruit in it. And then later he'll inform us that he is going to drive the blue truck to daycare with Grant in his car seat and with the special daycare bags. Or he might pronounce, apropos of nothing, that he's taking his blue truck to the store to buy more brown ice cream and new pears.

I like to think of his blue truck as his sidekick, like a little person that is actually a truck. Almost like a pet. He very much treats his blue truck in the way that a good imaginary friend might be treated- it is the main actor in things that Cooper wants to do but can't quite figure out how to do all by himself.

"When I'm a big boy I'm gonna go to school in my blue truck to see my friends and write letters on paper and play on the slide."

Or my favorite, an exchange that happens in this pattern (although the details always change) nearly every day...

Cooper: I want a cookie for lunch.
Me: We don't have any cookies right now, buddy.
Cooper: Don't worry!! I will drive my blue truck to the store and buy some for you!

Our house

I'm entering our house in a contest and need a public link to a picture of our house. So if you want to see what our house looks like today on a cloudy afternoon, here you go!

Rollerskating?

"This little piggie went to market,
This little piggie had money,
This little piggie had rollerskates,
and this little piggie had money,
and this little piggie went weeee weeeee weeeee......."

Close, kiddo. Close.

Buttons

Cooper was cheerfully singing a little song to himself quietly at the breakfast table, while eating a bowl of cereal. I smiled and said, "Cooper, you are just cute as a button."

Cooper said, angrily, "I AM NOT A BUTTON."

The starling misses his daddy

Cooper loves Matt dearly. Very dearly. And having Matt gone for (gasp!) five days is hard on Cooper. Cooper's ability to tell us what is going on in his head is a huge asset here, even when sometimes it is underneath a layer of toddler brain.

Like yesterday, when Cooper heard a starling squeaking up on a telephone line.

Cooper: Do you hear that?
Me: Yup. It is the starling on the wire (points).
Cooper: I SEE IT! That's a birdy. He's squeaking.
Me: That is called a starling. They are pretty squeaky.
Cooper: The starling is squeaking because he misses his daddy. He's a sad starling. He needs to find his daddy and get a hug.
Me: Oh... (thinking extra hard) OK... Hmm... maybe the starling could get a hug from his mommy later to help him feel better?
Cooper: He misses his daddy. But mommy helps him feel better.
Me: That sounds good.

Or today, at a little friend's party.

Cooper: I WANT ANOTHER CUPCAKE
Me: Each kid gets one cupcake.
Cooper: I WANT ANOTHER ONE. I WANT ANOTHER OOOOOOONE.
Me: Just one. You already ate one. No more for Cooper. All done.
Cooper: NOOOOO I WANT ANOTHER CUPCAKE. I WANT ANOTHER ONE. I WANT MY DADDY TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER.
Me: Let's go get some strawberries instead. That will help.
Cooper: I miss my daddy and that makes me sad. Momma I need a hug. I miss daddy.

On the bright side, strawberries did make it a little bit better, and Matt will be home on Monday.

Preschool thoughts

After some hand wringing and consideration, Cooper is attending a preschool this coming fall. He was eligible last fall for some programs because of his delightfully early potty training and mid-winter birthday, but given the convenience of having both the kids in the same daycare, we decided it wasn't in all of our best interest.

I picked the preschool because of several wrong reasons but also several right ones. We have a lot of friends that have kids (slightly older than ours, clearly) that go there, so that's one reason that is kinda ridiculous. I mean, c'mon, if every kid is different, and every set of parents is different, why would I pick a school because my friends sent their kids there? But hey, here we are.

Secondly, I picked this one because they have very little curriculum or formal learning in evidence. The day we visited the little kid classroom was building a fort with boxes, and the big kids were at an ice skating "gym" field trip. Their was a big vat of harvested (soggy) snow with all sorts of odd containers and food dyes next to it- clearly a fascinating science/art experiment. It looked a lot like a daycare without any diapers. And that appealed to me. Cooper is so particular, so careful, and so willing to follow directions and draw shapes and learn words that I feel like putting him in a preschool with a lot of formal instruction on writing, shapes, words, etc will be counterproductive. Do I really WANT him to be more inside his own head? No. No I do not. He's plenty good at that already.

And when we visited several of the other preschools, they were busily teaching things to the kids. How to write letters. The names of the planets. The words for different shapes. And the school administrators were EXCITED about things that I was sort of mildly horrified by. "We're teaching them the REAL names of shapes- like that this one isn't an egg, its an oval." Umm, lady, yes, it is an oval. But who cares? That's mindless vocab lessons- for energetic 3 year olds. Further, Cooper already knows its an oval, so it is worrisome to me that he'd be taught things that might bore him. He also knows squares, circles, rectangles, and triangles- and likes to find them in the landscape or painstakingly nibble them into his food for fun. "I bit this cheese into a triangle and a square, momma! Look at my cheese square!"

In the end, the schedule isn't the greatest at the preschool we chose, and it isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But I think Cooper will benefit from it socially, and probably learn quite a bit around the edges.

Not like his mom

Cooper decided last night that he wanted to sleep without his PJs. Or his clothes. Or anything on, at all. Matt and I were fairly sure that he'd just get too cold in an hour or two, and so we tried not to make a big deal of it. And there was our buck naked child in a 60 degree room, sleeping without any blankets or sheets, asleep on the bed. Time ticked on. After an hour, I went into his room and tried to ease some soft pants onto him. He got mad at me and ripped them off. Another hour later, I tried the same- again, he took them off while half asleep and murmuring "No momma no pants I don' wanna wear em." So I gave up and we all went to bed.

He slept like that, all night, in our cold house, naked as can be. Unbelievable. He was very uncharacteristically cranky at daycare today, so I suspect he slept really poorly because he was kinda cold. But man, that kid is stubborn, and apparently functionally warm under pretty cold conditions. Unlike me. I sleep in full flannel pj's, under two blankets and a flannel sheet, all night.

Tonight he's wearing his usual get-up of fleece pants, lightweight wool socks, a teeshirt and a soft sweater. Thank goodness.

The Big Three

Cooper is three now! His birthday party is tomorrow, and we are excited about that. He's excited too, which is refreshing. He's requested all sorts of very good things- chocolate cake, balloons, and his friends were at the top of the list. He also asked for a red truck, which we gave to him on his actual birthday Thursday. The cake is currently in the oven, the little fellows are both asleep, and Matt and I are running down the to-do list.

Grant is picking up speed these days, trying out new words and figuring out funny things. He's got the High-5, Low-5, and his goodbye wave down pat. He can nod 'Yes' and says sort of a half "yeah" when he does that. He says Doggie, Kitty, and Daddy pretty clearly, as well as a kinda swallowed Mama at times. He also, unbelievably, says "You're Welcome" when you say "Thanks" to him. I know, you don't believe me, but it is true. Cooper is very, very religious about saying his pleases, thank yous, and you're welcomes... and when he plays with Grant, and Grant gives him a toy, Cooper always says "Thanks Grant." It probably goes without saying that when Grant started saying a remarkably understandable "You're Welcome!" to him, I was really, really surprised. I guess we are pretty consistent with that around here (and the people at daycare must be, too.)

I should go stick a toothpick in a certain chocolate cake...

Nightmares and Pouts

Both the boys have developed something new this week, although I must say that I'm far more fond of what's been up with Grant than what's up with Cooper.

Grant has figured out how to make an unbelievably dramatic and funny pout-face. His lower lip sticks out a mile, and his whole face elongates until he looks completely preposterous. Of course, it is heartbreaking to see the pouty face come out when Cooper takes something Grant wants, but at the same time the theatrical element is just too cute and amusing for words. If it is really bad, he does the pouty face, followed by a lip quiver that could stop traffic, and then a big intake of air and finally a dramatic wail and collapse. Totally spectacular. And I just can't help but laugh at him most of the time.

Cooper, on the other hand, has tragically (and I say that without being facetious) started having nightmares. I suppose it was only inevitable, given his combination of very active imagination and high background levels of anxiety. But still, somehow, I was hoping this wouldn't happen. Twice now he's woken up screaming loud and scary enough to wake the dead, been all shaky and sweaty, and then upon our rescue and inquiry ("what's going on, buddy?") with loud nonsensical statements of bizarrely fearful non-problems. So far, what he's been able to say makes zero sense in terms of a nightmare, but it is clear from his manner and the way that he says it that he's completely terrified.

It is hard to see him all worked up like that- and especially hard because it is the middle of the night so Matt and I are not always at our most functional or sympathetic. I can only hope that either this will pass quickly, or Matt and I will get better at recognizing the problem and calming Cooper back down (and getting him back into bed) quickly.

We havin' a tea party

We've had busy past three days, with a few particularly funny moments.

This morning as I was folding some clean laundry, Cooper said, "Wow! This is great! You cleaned my shirt. I LOVE my shirt cleaned. Thanks for doing laundry, Momma!"

Later this morning, Cooper's adorably precocious 2 year old friend Hannah visited us for the morning so her mother could get some work done. Hannah is unbelievably advanced for her age with her vocabulary and grammar, and she idolizes Cooper, so the two of them together are a total trip. They got into the stash of kid cups, bowl, etc and sat down next to each other in a big upholstered chair.

Hannah: I have a tea cup. I heat up tea in microwave.
Cooper: I have coffee like Daddy.
Hannah: Tea is hot. We havin' a tea party. I drinking my tea.
Cooper: I eatin' a pear for lunch with my coffee. HEY MOMMA LOOK we havin' a tea party!

It was so awesome with the two of them sitting there drinking imaginary tea and coffee from old measuring cups and dented steel mixing bowls. And all of a sudden it hit me that next year, Grant will be the age that Hannah is now, and he'll be SO much more ready and able to play games like this with Cooper. I can't even imagine it. Right now Grant really only can play in a very few specific ways with Cooper- but once he can (sort of) talk, and certainly once his imagination starts brewing, it is going to be a whole different ballgame.

The evil cough strikes again

Last week, Grant woke up in the middle of the night acting like he could hardly breathe. It was awful. Matt and I were seriously considering the E.R., when suddenly Grant coughed up whole bunch of fluid and just like that, poof, sounded totally fine again. So I put him to bed right in his little portable crib right next to me, and we went back to sleep. Well, he went back to sleep. I slept fitfully all night, listening to him breathe smoothly and effortlessly with the occasional sniffle and cough, freaked out that somehow he'd start to not breath. Of course, that didn't happen. He was fine.

Since then, both Cooper and Grant came down with a mild cold followed by a nasty amount of mucus, coughing, and what I think are sore throats (tough to tell). I really just chalked it up to the usual winter sick kid nastiness until I ran into a kid (and his dad) that go to our daycare. Little guy Bob (not his real name) was looking a tad haggard and suddenly started coughing the same disgusting and painful cough that Cooper and Grant have had for about a week. I sort of laughed in mutual parental sympathy and said, "Ugh, that's the same thing I hear in our house" and his dad looked very serious. "Really? Because we spent Friday night in the E.R. with him. Turns out he has RSV- highly contagious- and most likely all the kids at daycare already have it, too. I hear that some of the other guys at daycare are really sick."

Sigh. So that explains the cough, the phlegm, the poor napping, the perennial nose yuck. They both have RSV. And it explains the weird fluid incident with Grant- RSV is famous for making kids breathe poorly because of excess mucus buildup, especially little babies.

As I write this, during naptime, I can hear them coughing. Bleh. At least now I know why. And on that note, I'm gonna go wash my hands.

1 year and 3 year

We did our tandem well-child checkup today, and it was a success! My plan was to do it all at once, all four of us, and just get it done. So I scheduled both boys with their doctor (we use the same one for both) in adjacent slots halfway between their respective birthdays. Matt and I discussed the plan ahead of time (Cooper first, so that he doesn't have to watch Grant get any shots) and then off we went.

Of course, nobody could have predicted that Grant would sleep the latest he has ever slept in his entire life today. So that made morning nap go from a perfectly planned hour and a half to a counterproductive 20 minutes. That wasn't the greatest start. And I also didn't forsee Cooper getting extremely shy and nervous with the ear-nose-mouth stuff. In the past he's been so good about that, but I probably could have guessed it given his current stranger fears. Him saying things like "I feel nervous and I want to get down please" while struggling vigorously to free himself from my grip as our doctor gently attempted to listen to his lungs was kinda funny, given the earlier question "does he use sentences of 3 words or more in a row?"

And then somehow, poor Cooper thought that he got to play in the waiting room play area afterwards- a preconceived notion that ended very poorly with a remarkable tantrum and severe lashing out. He's actually never hit me that hard before, and it was tough not to put him down in self preservation. But you just can't drop a mad irrational toddler in a dark and dirty parking garage, I suppose, so there's that.

Final stats:

Cooper now has broken the 30lb mark! Big boy! He's just barely 32 lbs. And Grant is no slouch at 24 lbs. That's pretty big for 1, although not enormous. We didn't get accurate heights for either kid, because of nervousness and so forth, but who cares? I know Cooper is tall because he's taller than his peers, and I know Grant is tall for the same reason, so I'll just rest assured they are a nice height.

Good roommates

The room sharing situation has gone from 'rough start' to 'happy roomies' in what I feel like must be record time. Within about three weeks, they totally adjusted to each others sounds and cries and now both of them sleep through anything. Cooper sleeps through Grant waking up to nurse around 2:30am every night, and Grant sleeps through Cooper periodically freaking out in the middle of the night because he peed the bed (about once every 10 days) or because his nose is so stuffed up that he can't breathe (recent issue associated with head cold).

One of the best parts is that they keep each other entertained for a short period of time each morning. Trust me, the difference between two cranky screaming kids at 6:15 and two good natured awake cute kids at 6:30 totally transcends the 15 minute gap.

Most impressively, my month-long campaign to extend Grant's bedtime to 7pm instead of 6:30pm finally paid off, and he's adjusted by sleeping until 6:15/6:45ish instead of regular (jarring) 5:45 wakeups. This is a godsend in so many ways. Having them both naturally wake up at the same time, in the same room, and essentially sleep all night in that room, has totally changed the feel and flow of our lives.

Tired, with trains

Yesterday was a long day for Cooper. And when it was bedtime, he resisted quite furiously with lots of tears and frustration. After he was calm and quiet, I could still hear him behind his bedroom door, near-silently playing with his train set, for another 45 minutes.

Here he is after finally falling asleep. Note the rain boots. He slept like that until roughly 1am, when he got up, took off his boots, used the bathroom all by himself, and then went to back to sleep in his bed.

Party!

Grant is ONE! Amazing. We had a lovely birthday brunch for him today, and he giggled hysterically when we lit his tiny birthday candle on his birthday pumpkin muffin. Cooper was nice enough to blow it out for him when we said it was OK (what a good brother).

I'm so proud of Grant for being such a smooth tempered kid. He loved being at his party, ate his pumpkin muffin with gusto, and played with all the big kids like a champ. He's also quite tenacious when another kid takes his toy, which is a critical skill as a little brother, so it was good to see him stand up to the other toddlers and cling to things he wanted to keep for himself.

Grant now uses three words regularly- doggie, dada, and ball. He also has gotten really good at making pretty clear sounds of frustration or desire for various things, and gestures at what he wants. All of these things are very helpful at helping figure out what he's thinking. The baby tantrums are adorable, of course, and he keeps those pretty much to a minimum.

Cooper has added "Holy Cow" as well as "That's terrible" to his list of funny phrases. Amusingly, he pronounces the word Terrible very poorly, which makes Matt and I giggle. He says "Ter-bi-bibble" and also, for the word horrible (which he also says sometimes), "Hor-bi-bibble." The cuteness of this cannot be overstated when it is said by a little guy. "That guy fell down and bonk his head! That's ter-bi-bibble."

These are my bins

Grant and Cooper are starting the transition into sharing a room. This is a terrible week to try it, because both of them are recovering from being pretty sick and thus not sleeping well, but we are just rolling with it and seeing what happens.

Last night was pretty awful, with both kids awake at least 5 or 6 times to pee, cough, freak out, cry, nurse, etc etc. But after the fog of the morning lifted, I remembered a nearly hallucinatory moment in the middle of the night. I woke up listening to what seemed at first like classic Cooper monologue, but was actually dialogue between the new roommates.

Cooper: These are my bins. My pants are in this one. And you can use the changing table, but not the bins. They are MINE and you don't get to have my pants.
Grant: Squeak!
Cooper: NO GRANT these are my bins. No touchin' them while I use the potty, 'k? 'K?
Grant: Squeak!
Cooper: 'K. I go pee now.

Then I hear Cooper run off to use the potty. I come downstairs to make sure everything is OK to find that Cooper has turned on all the lights. Great. So much for letting Grant sleep. Grant is standing up in his crib, bouncing up and down with glee, and babbling non-stop, presumably about how cool his big brother is to share his room and talk to him at around 1:30am. Cooper runs back into the room, and tosses himself back onto his bed. I remind him that Grant needs the light off to sleep, and either I can turn it off, or Cooper can turn it off. Cooper opts to turn it off himself like a big boy (excellent) and pops back into bed and flips over, his butt waving in the air, to fall back asleep.

Delirious from being sick and woken up for around the 4th time, I wandered back upstairs without so much as picking up Grant, let alone reassuring or nursing him. And somehow the next time I woke up it was at least 3 hours later. The lights were all still off, Cooper was still in bed, and Grant was just on his usual schedule of 4am nursing session. So that gives me hope that these guys will share a room just fine, eventually.

Jello?

Me: Hey Cooper, do you want some jello?
Cooper: Hey Mom! I love it! I want some of it pleeeease! That looks so great, and I will love it.... Mom, what is this stuff?
Me: Jello. It is kinda like juice, but you eat it with a spoon.
Cooper: I can't eat that. It's yuck.

Ah, toddlers.

Snowboarder!

You know those little green plastic army guys? The ones with guns, bayonets, and hand grenades? These guys?



Well, a while back I found one in the garden. A regular fellow bearing what appears to be a rifle with a bayonet, positioned in a pretty upright stance with gun held vertically from the hip. I stashed him in the junk drawer (god knows why) and Cooper found him yesterday.

But Cooper has NO idea what the little fellow is. And I wasn't about to tell him. So the discovery went like this;

Cooper: WOW!
Me: Whatcha got?
Cooper: WOW! A TINY GUY!
Me: Oh, yeah, that is a tiny guy.
Cooper: He's a snowboarder! With a ski pole! And he wears a ski helmet.
Me: (stifling the urge to giggle) That does look like a snowboard, Cooper. So, what is your tiny guy gonna do?
Cooper: He's gonna go slide down the mountain on his snowboard!

So, my question is this; Did you ever notice that the blob of plastic below the little green army guys, if appropriately blobby, looks like a snowboard? I did not. And the little guy that Cooper has is situated on a blob that is much more symmetrical than the ones in this image I just grabbed off the web- it is actually quite nearly snowboard looking. So the whole thing is funny to me. He's never seen any of the Toy Story movies, nor any other gun or army stuff, so I love the immediate conclusion of what the tiny guy was doing... snowboarding! With a ski pole! And of course he was wearing his ski helmet, I mean, c'mon- you gotta wear that.

Exact quote

Cooper: Hey Momma, where's Grant?
Me: He's in your room, hon.
Cooper: Oh, that's great! I love him. He's my FAVORITE brother.

Trains

Cooper thinks his train set is super cool, and I agree. He very much anthropomorphizes the train cars, which is particularly funny to me because I'm the one that insisted on getting Cooper a couple of little boy dolls and some tiny cute people figurines- and yet he pretends his trains are people and narrates their adventures as they apparently do things like eat lunch, get cold, take naps, etc.

Today I overheard Cooper in his room while he was supposed to be napping, "This one is the mommy train car. It's name is Leigh. It gets snacks for all the kid trains."

I'm glad my avatar train car is so thoughtful and prepared.

Almost to 1

I'm in shock at the apparent rushing of time. Why the rush? But here we are, almost at Grant's first birthday. Wasn't I just pregnant a little while ago? Didn't Grant fit into a sling, like, yesterday?

But no. My big fast baby has turned into a big fast miniature toddler. He walks! He runs (poorly)! He uses Cooper's high chair to climb ONTO THE KITCHEN COUNTERS! He waves Bye-Bye to his adoring fans at daycare, every afternoon! He says Doggie, Dada, and does the "motor" sound for any sort of vehicle (boat, car, truck, helicopter) toy that he can find.

In some ways, he is still very little. He still really needs three naps a day. He still only has legitimately slept all night about three or four times. He still likes to nurse at least 4 times in a 24 hour period. And his habits of sucking his thumb when he's nervous, and collapsing in a heap on top of his favorite blanket, are so dang cute.

And Cooper, oh man, he's getting funnier, and more fun, by the day. His latest favorite phrases are "I LOVE IT!" and "That makes me so happy" and "This is how we do it." He applies all of these quite liberally to his day, usually all at once, so you might catch him saying something like, "Cheese with lunch? I LOVE IT! I want to cut it, with a knife, like this, this is how we do it... Momma, cut it like this, in big pieces. I LOVE cheese in big pieces. That makes me so happy."

We spent a week in Utah recently, and poor Cooper was an utter mess without his regular routine, schedule, day care staff, etc. He had a near nervous breakdown during the one day of fancy ski-area daycare, but in the end he survived and the staff was kind to him. We did have fun as a family, and Grant was adorably unflappable as always (you could see it in his eyes at the ski-area daycare, "Oh! New people! And new babies! I like these new toys, this is going to be fun. Bye Mom!"), so it was just a small glitch in the big picture.

click!

Grant is rapidly learning to talk, which amazes me. Isn't the classic paradigm that the second child, especially if it is a boy, doesn't say a word until 18 months? Not at my house. He's remarkably attentive to what we say, and says all sorts of interesting multisyllabic babble in response to events and things we say to him. His only word that is firmly placed in the true language realm is "Doggie," as he says it whenever he sees the dog, and often while pointing to the dog. But he also says "Dada" upon request, and if you ask him to say "Mama" he laughs at you (truly) and says "Dada" and then laughs again. Every time. So I'm quite sure he understands what he is doing, and that it is somehow funny. Grant also does the "motor" sound when he plays with cars or trucks, and can very nicely imitate a clicking sound for his amusement. When he's in the right mood, you can have an entire sound conversation with him.

Grant: Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrr...
Me: (click)
Grant: (click) (click) ba ba ba
Me: Say Mama!
Grant: (heeeehh heeeh) DADA! (heeeehhh heehhhh)
Me: You are being silly. Say Mama!
Grant: (hheeehhhh) DADA!
Me: OK, say Dada.
Grant: DADA!
Me: What's this? Is this your shoe?
Grant: Da da ba ba bbbbbbbrrrrrrrr squeeee! DAW-GHEEE!
Me: Who is this? Is this the doggie?
Grant: DAW-GHEE! DAW-GHEE!

And so on.

Grant also is teaching himself to run. This is a violent and painful process, but he's hellbent on it, so I'm just trying to make sure that he doesn't poke out an eye. It is also pretty funny to watch, although the push-pull between laughing at the kid, and comforting him when he face-plants, is pretty tough.

Cooper is having some adjustment issues with Matt's new schedule, and for whatever interesting reason, has decided that the best thing to do now that Matt isn't home for dinner four nights in a row, each week, is for Cooper to not eat dinner. I am displeased with this. A cranky hungry exhausted toddler that refuses dinner is not really who I want to spend my evenings with. I'm hoping that as Cooper adjusts to the new schedule, this will improve greatly. In the meantime, I'm trying not to get freakish about forcing him to eat, and the folks at daycare informed me that he's eating very well there, so in the big picture I'm sure it will be fine.

I talkin'

A few days ago at dinner, I interrupted Cooper while he was holding a side conversation with himself (he does that) and he got all mad at me.

Cooper: I usin' a fork, eatin' my din...
Me: Cooper, could you...
Cooper: HEY! Mom! HEY! Stop talkin'!
Me: Um?
Cooper: I talkin'. Not your turn, my turn. When I done talkin', it'll be your turn, ok? OK? Ok. That's better.

Sassy! But he was right, I suppose. It was rude of me to interrupt him while he was talking to his dinner. And evidently, I need to be a bit better about asking him to stop talking, because his mimicry isn't at all flattering.

2011

Grant's birthday is in early February, as you know, and that makes me feel like it is coming right up. I mean... this is JANUARY. February is the next one! I can't believe my little buddy will be one year old, so soon.

Grant has been surprising us lately, mostly by growing teeth when he has no business doing so. He's got 12 of the darn things now. Why? No rush, buddy. It isn't like you are eating steak every night. But there he is, growing more teeth again. At this rate I think we'll be done with teething by May.

He's also walking faster, better, and did I mention faster? He's quick. This week he figured out how to stand up from a sitting position in the middle of the floor, so now he's unstoppable. For a while he had to crawl to something that would help him pull up to a stand, but nope, that's over. Now he gets up like a big kid and just walks off.

Grant is also a climber, and may in fact be more of a climber than his brother was. I've already found Grant: standing on his toy garage (quite remarkable), in the process of climbing onto the top of our house heater by way of an adjacent coffee table, standing on my nightstand at 5:30am, and of course, standing on the little art table chairs in Cooper's room. Gotta keep an eye on that kid.

And Cooper. His ability to hold a conversation and explain himself has grown by such leaps and bounds lately. He'll tell me almost anything, and is getting SO much better at controlling his often explosive and difficult emotional ups and downs. He's even starting to cry less, which is a relief for all involved. Turns out telling Cooper he doesn't really need to cry unless he's sad or hurt, for the last YEAR, is finally paying off. He'll tell me "I gotta go settle down in my room with my blankie" or "I fusstated so I no gonna cry" or "I got hurt so I need to cry" or "I got scared and I gotta cry" between sniffles, gasps and/or sobs. It is awesome to be able to finally understand what is driving him- and to actually be productive in fixing or helping the situation. It is a lot easier to be empathetic to a little boy that is telling you a toy fell down and he got scared, rather than a little boy that is screaming non-stop for no apparent reason for the tenth time in an hour. Sometimes, I have to laugh at him for why he's upset (like being so mad at not being the one that put the cap back on the orange juice jug- THE INJUSTICE!!!) but hey, laughing is so much better than getting mad at a miserable child.

Last but not least, I remain blessed by my napping kings. Cooper still takes a 3 hour afternoon nap almost every day, and Grant still regularly naps 3, yes 3, times a day. Grant's naps are typically 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours around noon, and 45 minutes at around 5pm. No wonder Matt and I are still capable of keeping the house in some sort of order and clean state.

2011 is going to bring us into having to little kids that walk, talk, and eat fruit leather by the box. As Cooperstar Raddow-see says, "That'll be great."