These guys.....

....make me laugh.

New haircuts

Amelia and Cooper can fight well, but they play together really well, too. This is a picture of Cooper outside the bathroom door. He and Amelia had been pretending to text each other, and when she had to take a restroom break, Cooper just couldn't wait so he text her through the door.

I've decided I will miss the funny things little kids say. Amelia and Cooper are getting to the age where the things they say are more sassy than cute. So here are a few little still-little-kid comments:

Amelia: Mom, how many days until my birthday?
Me: Ummm, about 45, I think, why?
Amelia: When I turn 9 I'll get all adult-like. (She hasn't realized she's been "adult-like" since she was 2).

Me: (after Cooper had misbehaved) Cooper? Cooper! Look at me! Do I look happy?
Cooper: No, but your hair looks good.

And the Cooper Answer Is...

Cooper asked everyone in blog-land the question:

Why did people make sweaters?

Many of you answered valiantly and creatively--but incorrect. However, according to Cooper:

They make sweaters so people get hot, they sweat, then they drink lots of water, and drinking lots of water gives them strong muscles.”

Now you know. 

This Is Cooper

This is a post from Cooper. He wants to ask everyone this question, to see if they get the right answer:

Why did people make sweaters?

Ah, Cooper!

A few weeks ago, Cooper asked me, "Mom, when an elephant drink water through its trunk, does it taste like boogers?" At the time I laughed and laughed and laughed. Tonight, the kids were watching "Ice Age, Continental Drift" and I heard that same comment from the movie.

I turned to Cooper and said, "Is that where you heard that?" He smiled and said, "Yes, yes I did. I can't be original all the time."

 However, I am a quick learner, so I asked him, "Cooper, do you even know what original means?"

He rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, mom, it means there is no one like me."

No, Coop, no there's not!

Bad luck streak

Are you ready for a whopper of a blog entry? Cuz I’ve had a couple really bad days, and you get to hear about them. If you don't want the details, please scroll down to the bottom of this post for a succint recap.

If you're still with me, here goes:

Friday is when the stars aligned, the planets were in sync and my BAD luck streak began. I was running a little late to get Cooper out to the bus. Because it's cold, I drive out to the street and have him wait in the car until the bus arrives. Well, we had received four inches of snow the night before, and to not get stuck getting out of my garage, I have to back up with a tad bit more speed than normal. I feel like I am safe when I do this---I check for oncoming cars and the kids are belted in. So, I reversed quickly and swung my steering wheel to the left. I did not factor in the ice under the snow. The steering wheel turned, but my tires did not. I heard a crunch and looked up to see the side of my garage door dented. Crap (That’s not what I really thought, but I’m censoring because of regardless of your age, you probably shouldn't hear those words). I got out of the car, walked over and tried to close the door. Three-fourths of the way down it stopped. I left it there and made a mental note to call my landlord later; hoping my car or renter's insurance covered the damage. I turned back to my car and got a look at the passenger side of it. Oh. My. @#&%. The garage door was not my biggest problem. I had caught the front bumper on the garage door frame and RIPPED it off the front of my car. Then driver's side was still intact, but the rest of my front bumper was lying on the ground.               
  
My first thought was "Cooper is gonna miss the bus!", then "how will I get Amelia to school?", next "how would I get to school?", and lastly, "this was a pricey mistake." I rushed into the garage looking for rope, twine, tie-downs, bungee cords, anything to tie my bumper up enough to limp out to the bus stop. 

I had nothing. 

I ran upstairs and passed my bathrobe hanging in the bathroom. I whipped the sash from it, raced outside, tied up my bumper enough so it wouldn't drag (fury and massive irritation gave me super-strength to achieve this) and sloooowly drove to the bus stop. As I parked, I noticed my landlord shoveling the walks. I told the kids not to move or touch anything and ran back to ask him to look at the garage door if he had a chance. He agreed, asked how my car was, then came out to look at it. To his credit, he did not mention anything about women drivers. Cooper's bus came, I drove Amelia to school and came back home.
 
Let's take a small break, yes? You might want to get a drink or snack, as this has just begun and we are only half an hour into the day. I'll wait.

 Alright, so I was back home with only half an hour before I had to be up to BYUI for my carpool to the elementary school we were meeting at that day.  My wonderful landlord began fixing my garage door, hammering out the dents while I got ready. I called my insurance company to put in a claim. Nothing humbles you like explaining the damage you inflicted on your car by only going 7 miles an hour. After I finished I rushed down to the garage to see my landlord had paused from his hammering to tie my bumper up higher off the ground. He even pulled out mangled black stuff from underneath. He said he'd keep working on the garage door and let me know later how it all worked out. I thanked him profusely, climbed into my wrecked car and CAREFULLY backed out of my dented garage. I made it to school, my carpool and my classes. I called my insurance agent who assured me I was covered.....with a $500 deductible, of course. I picked up Cooper and went through the Taco Time drive thru (because really, if I was gonna be $500 poorer, I might as well be $507 poorer) for lunch.

  I came home and talked with Cooper while I ate my taco and drank a very large diet Pepsi. I asked him how school had gone and he said fine. He was quiet a moment and then said, "Shad, Hunter and I had to go to Mr. Jepson’s office....and he wasn't happy." I almost choked on my taco. Mr. Jepson is the school principal. My KINDERGARTENER had been sent to the principal's office?! I asked Cooper a few more questions, but if anyone has a 5-year-old, they know extracting information from them is tougher than getting information out of a seasoned CIA agent. Finally, I sent his teacher a quick email asking what had happened and put the matter aside. I had bigger problems. I limped my car to the adjuster/body shop who was quite nice and even attached my bumper a little more while he was recording the damage. He said to bring it in on Tuesday night and I'd have it by Friday. Yep, it was that damaged. So, to finished the night, I ordered in pizza (I wasn't driving my car anywhere else) and drowned my sorrows in carbs and more diet Pepsi, then threw in a medicinal two hours of Jeremy Renner. I felt pretty good by the time I went to bed. After all, what else could go wrong, right? WRONG.

Let's skip to Monday shall we? Monday morning began at 5:30am when we lost power. Long story short, we were without power for three hours, in sub-zero weather. School was cancelled, campus classes were cancelled until 11:30, and my kids were going crazy with nothing to do while the electricity is out. Finally, at 9:15 the power comes back on. I quickly got ready and ran my kids to my friends’ house while I attend my 11:30 class. After picking up my kids, we drove our wrecked car to Cooper's gymnastics and dentist appointment (no cavities!) and then we came home. I fed the kids dinner, put them to bed, and spent the next four hours doing homework.

Tuesday. Tuesday began early at 4am. I woke up because Cooper's breathing was really shallow and stopping altogether for 3-4 seconds between breaths. I picked him up and he immediately starting coughing---the croup cough. I carried him out to the front door wrapped in a blanket and cracked the door, letting the frigid air seep in. He woke up completely, and the cough stopped. His breathing improved a bit, but I was still worried. I carried him back to my bed and watched him breathe for the next two and a half hours. I got Amelia to school and took Cooper to the doctor. Diagnosis? Yep, croup. I shoulda been a doctor. They gave him some steroids and told me to watch his breathing again tonight.  He spent the rest of the day watching DVDs and sipping a McDonald’s shake that “was like swords cutting through the stuff that was in the way in my throat.”

So, do we need to recap? Wrecked car (by my own hand--that just makes it worse), $507 poorer to fix car and eat taco, croupy son and three more days in this week. I'm frightened. Very frightened.

Update: My fears have been confirmed. Last night I woke up at 1:00 am to throw up, be dizzy enough to trip and fall---and pretty sure I sprained my ankle and broke my big toe from said fall. 

Oh, and I have parent/teacher conferences today.....super excited to hear about my sweet kindergarten delinquent.

Sledding

After weeks and weeks and WEEKS of begging, I took the kids sledding. Now, in case you think me a meanie mom, the weeks I said no were the weeks I was up every single night with one or both children dealing with coughs.

When we arrived, we lucked out and had the hill to ourselves. Not that I was surprised, it was a balmy 21 degrees outside; everyone smart was inside sipping hot cocoa. I told the kids they had 25 minutes before frostbite set in and they scampered down the hill.

Amelia poised to shove off.

There she goes!

Cooper's first run was a little rough. I neglected to tell him how to brake. He went down the hill, across the sidewalk, down another small hill and stopped when he slammed into the gazebo. Whoops.

After a quick tutorial on slowing and stopping, he was off again, with only a small bruise hampering him.

They would RUN up the hill. I got tired just watching them.

After 35 minutes of sledding (yes, I am a wonderful and lenient mother) we packed it in. I was worried they were getting cold, but as we stripped off layers, both kids were sweating! Unless the coughs return, we're looking forward to many sledding days ahead.

Random bits from 2012

I'm cleaning up my picture and video folder for 2012, and here are a couple pictures I don't think I've posted:

Cooper worked carefully for over half an hour to balance all his cars on the edges of the storage cubes.

In Amelia's class every student has a job. She came out late from school one day and I asked why she was so late. She said, "I had to empty Billy Bob Joe."  I started laughing and asked her to clarify. There are three garbage cans in the room--Billy Bob Joe, Ducky Mo-mo, and Funny Bunny. In case you couldn't tell, the kids named them.

Amelia's solo in her Christmas program. She did a great job! I'll be excited when I can go to her program next year and not have a Cooper boy yanking on my arm.