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!