Preschool

About 8 (it used to be more but the numbers are dwindling) other moms and I got together in August and started a preschool for our kids. I am SO thankful Nicole invited me to join them. Josh has learned so much and I love being a part of his education and getting to teach him every once in awhile.

Well, this month, Nicole and I have been teaching together. It has been no piece of cake, but wow, so much fun. I love kids and I have a special place in my heart for the extra crazy ones or the "trouble makers." Well, they all have given me a run for my money on several occasions. But then there are moments where I almost cry because the things they say and know and the way they act is incredible.

All the kids are ages 4 to 5, Josh is the youngest by several months. He is quiet by nature, okay, not at home, but everywhere else it seems. His church leaders feel like they have had a break through when he actually speaks and if he participates, whoa, a miracle has just happened. Well, he is a little more open at preschool, but not much. He usually plays by himself or with a few of the quieter girls, but only once have I seen him actually joining in with the other boys. It makes me wonder if I was like that or if Tyson was.

Wait, I remember chasing a kick ball around the play ground in 3rd grade because it seemed like better company than everyone else and I thought no one wanted me to hang out with them. That just reminded me of Kip (Kristen) when she moved in right before 4th grade. What a heaven sent blessing she was and is. We have been friends ever since. Maybe I should just pray for a friend like that for Josh.

Anyways, so this month while I have been teaching we have been talking a lot about nutrition and keeping our bodies healthy. So on Thursday we went to the dentist office a few blocks away from the preschool. They were really awesome and gave a great tour and free toothbrushes to the kids. But there was a moment where all the kids were standing against a wall and learning how to properly brush their teeth. I looked at all the kids and they were so adorable and good. They all looked so different, some tall, others short, and there was my little Josh right in the middle. He is almost a head shorter than most of the boys and one of the few with brown eyes.

My heart just caught at the sight of him with his large chocolate eyes staring at the dentist, with the corners of his mouth slightly tipped up in a smile. His face is so round and young and so perfect to me. Part of me kept thinking how little he looked, especially with kids that are (comparatively) so much older than him. Then another part of me couldn't believe my own little boy was 4. How quickly he has changed from the baby they held in front of me screaming, covered in all kinds of gross fluids (all I wanted to know was what color his hair was), into a long, skinny crawler that growled all the time. Then without even blinking he was walking, opening doors, covering me in every shoe he could find in the house while I napped, pouring Hershey syrup all over the carpet. He had curly hair and loved to glare at everyone. Then he was the protective big brother of "baby guy" and ate "pawcorn" and loved everything Elmo. Then we moved and he played out in the yard every chance he got. He was afraid of rain until he got rain boots and then I couldn't get him out of the rain. He was daddy's best helper and had (and still has) absolute confidence that Daddy can fix anything. He went to nursery, then sunbeams and learned to live without diapers and cook his own oatmeal (he learned that at home). He vowed to marry any girl that came near him and tries to be good all the time and teach others to say and do good things.

He is only four, how am I going to handle him really growing up?

I am so lucky to have him and Caleb and Matthew. And of course, Tyson. No, lucky isn't right, I am so blessed. Some days I just want to hug them close and capture the moment like a potion and bottle it up so I can open it and relive it whenever I want. How quickly things change.

How quickly a baby walks up the steps to preschool.

Josh's Birthday Bash

So I'm pretty sure I wrote a little about Josh's birthday parties earlier, but here are the pictures. His friend birthday party I think there was 14 kids all total. It was crazy, but a lot of fun. Thank you Carmel and Cassie!! Cassie did all the decorating and they both kept me sane. Little kids are SO much fun!

Pin the beak on the penguin.

The igloo tent was very popular.

Penguin cupcakes made with nilla wafers, gummi orange slices and sprinkles. :)

Josh's party with the family. Marshmallow igloos on top. They slightly resemble pom poms, but it was fun, hehe.

And of course, my little mountain man helping me with the cake. I look up and he has taken some liberties with the spoon I gave him to lick. Haha. I LOVE my little four year old guy!

Happy Birthday Josh! I'm so glad you have been with us now for so long, waking us up early every day, talking our ears off, making us laugh like crazy at your insane comments and being such a protective big brother. Not to mention an incredible helper and wanting to learn everything about everything. We learn so much from you! LOVE YOU! Love, Mama (and Daddy too)

You Gotta Watch

Lyrics: "happy birthday to you" with a mash up of "wish away," however I don't know where that song comes from. :)

Preschool

Last week Josh started preschool. He loves it and was so excited to go he woke Caleb up super early "Caleb, wake up, it is preschool day!" So cute, but then Caleb discovered he doesn't get to go to preschool and has to survive without Josh for a few hours. He sulked the entire time Josh was gone. Hopefully this week will be better. :)

He looks so grown up! I love it.

Soccer Camp

A few weeks ago our friend Courtney had a soccer camp for 3-4 year olds every morning. So we took Josh. It was the cutest thing in the entire world! He LOVED it too. He talked about Coach Courtney and how to cut and head butt and kick the ball with certain parts of his foot. I totally am not an athletic person, so it made me really happy to see him out there. I hope he always loves sports and having fun. It was so nice to talk to all the other parents and to see little Caleb wandering around the field enjoying his alone time. SO cute! I love my little boys!

Blue's Clues Birthday Bash

Dear Joshua,

I know your birthday was last week, but I am just now getting around to posting about it. Sorry munchkin. So, you LOVE Blue's Clues. I am okay with that because Blue is pretty cute and you learn stuff. You talk a lot about your thinking chair and finding clues and talking about the weather and going on nature walks. So I wanted to make a cake that looked like Blue. I kind of threw a party together, but all your friends and their parents are awesome and we had a full house. Tommy, Jack, Ethnie, Leo, Eleanore, and Zuri all came (and of course their parents), and Uncle Chanson, Aunt Cassie, and Adopted Aunt Tori. Not to mention Grandparents on the phone and such. Everyone loves you my little three year old. I sure do. Thanks for being my little buddy and keeping me company for the past 3 years and 9 months. :) You are crazy and dramatic and talk ALL the time until other people are around and then you will only make animal noises. Needless to say, you are crazy. But with your genetics, you didn't have much hope at being normal, sorry about that. :) I love you kiddo, I love you more than I can begin to explain. Happy 3rd Birthday!

Love,

Mama

My favorite Josh quotes

"Josh like butterfly, no, Josh LOVE it!"

"Oh no gracious, my puzzle!"

"Josh say shut-up, Josh go time out"

"I love you too, Mama. Oh, Josh made Mama cry!"

"Hehe, Josh smack Daddy on de butt."

I read Emilie's blog and I was thinking of all the funny things kids say when they start to talk in sentences. So I had to write some of my favorites that Josh says nowadays.

Nap Time

I go to put Caleb in his crib when Josh is finally quiet (if I put them in there at the same time, they play for hours and never sleep). However, the door won't open more than a centimeter. I think maybe Josh fell asleep in front of the door so I softly nudge it and see bars through the crack in the door. I'm thinking, what did he find to put in front of the door? Then after a little harder of a push, I find the crib. That is what he found to put in front of the door. Josh never ceases to entertain me.

My Kid Loves Santa?

So thanks to Emilie and Logan's fabulous camera, we were able to get this fabulous photo. Josh has been saying "Tanta fly in da sky" but I don't think he really understands. He really is afraid of Santa. I felt so bad because I was laughing so hard and I didn't even take him off Santa's lap. Kenni was the great one and took over the mom role for me. She held him and comforted him. I couldn't stop laughing. Is that bad? :)

Happy Birthday My Little Boy!

My Darling Josh,
How are you two years old already? Yesterday was your birthday and it was a lot of fun. You were so tired all morning and really grouchy. We kept trying to tell you it was your birthday so it was a "happy" day. I don't think you really cared, you just wanted your "elmo happy cake." So after church, we opened your presents, talked to your Cooper grandparents on Webcam, ate piggies in a blanket, then had Aunt Cassie, Aunt Kenni and Uncle Chris, "Nommy" and his mom and dad, Ethnie and "Bebba" over for cake. It was so cute watching you try to blow out your candles. Sadly, you didn't even want your cake by then, you had way too much fun playing with Tommy. :) You are so sweet and adorable, and so much fun. You love to talk and make tons of noise. You love Elmo and Fish and your little brother. You get so excited when Daddy comes home and you just love people in general (unless you are tired, and then you are up and down). :) We love you so much! Happy birthday!
Love, Mama and Daddy and K-K-Bebe

Balloon

So this is what Josh does with balloons, so funny. I have no idea where he learned it. Sorry, I often film Josh while Tyson is on the phone with his parents, so you get to hear him as well. :)

My Crazy Kid

So we just went for a drive on the Parkway on Monday. We pulled over because I thought I was going to hurl from getting carsick. Josh and Tyson found some sticks and had a duel, after playing pinecone baseball of course. They are so funny together. Tommy and Josh watching Sesame Street right before they went to sleep. It was their first sleepover and they had SO much fun!

Josh's new church shirt, he looks like such a little stud. I am so glad Tyson insisted that his little boy needs to have a white button up for church, it just couldn't be cuter!

Kenni's boss, Cari, gave Josh a little jock outfit. He loved it until he realized that the pants are too big for him to walk in so he started freaking out. But they will fit when it starts getting colder, so we are good. :)

My friend, Sister Dryden and her little girls were cleaning out their toy room. The girls wanted to give their toys to Josh, which I thought was so sweet. So did Josh and he is loving them. Little people are the coolest!

So yeah, there are photos of my little dude. Hopefully I will be able to put up some videos, but who knows if it will work. :)

A look at the past

So, a few months ago, our friends Emilie and Logan gave us a CD of pictures they took of Joshua right after he was born. I never got around to looking at them until just now, and they are so cute! Josh looks so different and like an old man, all wrinkly. :) It is so weird we are going to have another one. Josh kept saying "bebe, bebe!" at every picture. I wonder if he knows how much his world is going to change in a few weeks. I worry so much about him. But I am finally getting so excited to have this kid. Being a mom of two is going to be different, but so fun, I know it. Especially when they are both big enough to rough house and be crazy together.

P.S.- I am only able to write this because the screen is minimized and we are watching elmo at the same time. :) I woke up this morning to Josh standing at his door yelling "ELMO!" Hehe, and even though I vowed my kids would never watch TV, it still is pretty cute how much he loves the weird little red creature.

So I finally have a minute

So my son has become aware of TV. It is very weird and I'm not sure how to handle it. We don't have cable or anything like it, but we have the internet. Well, Tyson wanted to show Josh a little song from sesame street that he used to listen to as a kid. Josh usually will ignore anything we are watching, but for some reason, he saw Elmo and he was hooked. So every morning he will bang on his door until we come and get him and without much of a greeting he will run to the laptop saying "elmo, elmo." If we ignore him too long, he goes to "cookie, cookie" which sounds more like "cooka, cooka." Then if he gets really desperate he goes to Ernie's laugh, which I can't even type how that sounds. It is really cute and hilarious. So we watch little clips of sesame street on youtube while Tyson gets ready for work. So yeah, who would have thought that I would get an elmo obsessed child? He is for sure Tyson's kid, that is all I got to say. I don't ever think I liked sesame street. But I do however, love this one song, the link is on my side bar. It is by Feist, whoever that is. But it sure is catchy. So oh yeah, that is why I don't blog much anymore, if I go anywhere near the laptop Josh thinks I am getting Elmo for him, and well, there is only so much of it I can handle, so I just steer clear of the laptop these days. So perhaps I will get time during his naps, who knows. :)

So...a few funny stories

Let me tell you a story. It is about a young mom who has been attacked by, well, let me just tell you. So yesterday, she decided to take a walk with her young son down to the library. So on their way there it was bright and sunny, pretty warm and humid, but that was normal for August. So they make it to the library, stop for a little while at the park, then start heading back home. On the way there, it starts getting REALLY humid and the nats attack this poor mother like crazy. She is seven months pregnant so the heat really doesn't agree with her and well, who likes nats? So she says a little silent prayer that it will just rain or something. Well, out of no where, it starts getting really cloudy. Then she hears this noise that sounds like a running stream, it gets stronger and it sounds like there is a river coming down the road. This little mom looks up, and suddenly they get pelted with rain drops. It continues to get heavier and heavier and within a minute the poor mom and toddler are completely soaked to the bone. (except the underneath portion of her belly which remained dry throughout) They hurry to the closest place, her sister's work, which took about 5 minutes walking in the pouring rain. The poor toddler was in shock and trembling from the cold shower. But what else could that poor mother do? All the cars driving by must have thought, "how selfish and sad, that mom making her child get wet like that." But, it was completely an accident. She couldn't help but laugh, and she laughed harder when her sister saw her when they entered her store like two nearly drowned rats. However, shortly thereafter they made it safely home and got dry.

The next day though, the mom was perched on the couch, relaxing a little before her day really began. She watched her toddler playing in the cupboard with cans and other things. She noticed him holding a bottle of chocolate syrup but thought nothing of it, because kids can't get those open right? So she started drifting off, when she happen to glance over and notice a large murky puddle on the carpet. Her first reaction was, "there has to be a delete button, an undo button. What am I going to do? WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?" She raced over to her little boy holding the empty chocolate bottle, his little hands and feet covered in the sticky mess. She set him aside and ran for the paper towels. It slowly got less and less chocolate covered and after a google search on how to get chocolate stains out, the carpet grew to a relatively normal color. The sweet little boy sat nearby, happy but a little fearful of his moms frantic scrubbing. He couldn't possible understand why she didn't like his dark brown gooey mess that tasted so good. He tried to help a few times by smacking his mom on the head with a spatula he found in the dishwasher. (Don't ask me how he thought that would be helpful, but he had such a "i'm helping" look on his face) So now, thanks to our wonderful neighbors, we have a childproof cover on the pantry door, so no more chocolate syrup for this little toddler...at least not until he is older.

So moral of the story, unless you want to get soaked, down pray for rain, and keep your children away from chocolate syrup. Either that or just laugh at what happens to you, it makes living with the crazy times so much more fun.

Another blog, about Josh :)

Okay, I know, this is a lot of blogging in one day. But I have a lot of different thoughts in my head. :) This one is just a funny story. So I am sitting here typing on the computer earlier and I look up to see that Josh has completely unloaded the dishwasher of all the dirty dishes that are in it. (Obviously, I kind of space out when I am typing). All the dirty silverware is in the silverware drawer, and the floor and countertops where Josh can reach are littered with the other dirty dishes. He has opened the pantry and pulled out some cans of spam and cream of chicken soup, and had found the can opener and was trying to open the cans. True, the kitchen was a complete disaster and setting it all back in order not only took some time, but confused Josh to no end. He couldn't understand why I would ruin all his hard work. But it was so cute to see how much he watches Tyson and I. He tries so hard to be a good helper, even though most of the time it turns out to kind of be the opposite. But how could I mind? It is so precious to see him learning, I just can't believe he is so big. I keep telling him he is my favorite little baby boy and I realized I probably shouldn't say that much longer, being that there is another baby boy coming in two months. It is so weird to think of Josh no longer as a baby, even though I see him everyday. But anyways, I am done with all my blogging. Josh has now poured mass amounts of water on the kitchen floor trying to transfer it from different pots and is mixing what is left with a spoon (from the dirty dishwasher). I wonder what he thinks he is making. :)

Josh's life, as we now know it.

Hello, my name is Joshua. This here is my mom. She is usually pretty nice, but lately, she has been acting kind of funny. She will randomly start crying, or get cranky. But the thing that bugs me the most, is her lap is getting smaller and I don't fit like I used to. Aunt Kenni also cut her hair, I think that looks pretty good though. This is me. I make the best faces in the world and I love to eat. I especially love to be outside and this is my sitting spot on our deck. Mom doesn't like me to be out here by myself, and I don't like that. I scream when she takes me in, but she doesn't seem to listen.

This is my dad. He is the coolest in the whole world. Every day when he gets home from work he chases me and finds new ways to make me laugh. On this occasion he wasn't paying enough attention to me, so I pushed him, then he chased me and "hog tied" me to the broom. That was really fun, I liked it a lot.

My dad lets me eat popcorn with him. It is my favorite food. It is actually pronounced "Paw-cawn" but nobody says it right but me.

Besides eating I love to read. My favorite book is the "Little Blue Engine Saves the Day." I drag my blanket around and read books and I am full of knowledge.

But I do other things besides reading, I love to sweep. I especially love it when my mom makes a pile of dirt with her broom and I get to scatter it back all over the floor with my broom. It is a game we play, but I don't think my mom understands sometimes.

This is a good shot of my hair before my mom cut it. It is pretty sweet, huh?

This is another way my dad chose to torture me. I couldn't move my arms, and I thought it was really funny for a little while. But then my parents made me take it off.

One day my mom was in a really good mood and gave me a sucker, the very first I have ever had. I got super sticky and my mom even let me have a lick of hers. Mine tasted better though.

I am also very social. My very best friend is Tommy. He lets me come over and play with his dog Diego. But when we are at my house, we have fun too. He taught me how to wear couch covers on my head like a hat. We love to yell and scream and chase each other. He is a great best friend.

So that is pretty much my life. I think it is a lot of fun. My mom says I am having a baby brother soon. I don't know what she is talking about, but if he is like Tommy, I think it will be okay. I just want to be able to sit on her lap again. But that is all from me for now. Have a nice day!