Such a big girl...and boy...

So, it is official, I really AM...officially...a big girl...yesterday I let Cooper ride the school bus...and I lived. OK, so it's not so much about me as it is him, but HE loved it - mama, on the other hand, wanted to jump in the car and chase the bus down, or at least quietly follow him to school. Seriously it was ALL I could do not to do that. And the ONLY reason that I didn't was that I was afraid he would see me and it would confuse him (before if he ever saw me at school he was pretty sure the school day was over and it was time for "why-we-go-home?")

The idea is that riding the bus will help him to be more independent from me. I don't LIKE that, but I do agree it's a good thing for him. It's a small bus and there are only a couple of other children who ride it AND there is an attendant (both she and the driver seem like very sweet people) AND I have both of their cell numbers! ALL the bus-bases are covered :)

The reports from both his teacher and the driver were that he did great. He came bouncing off the bus yesterday afternoon just chattering away, "school bus! skateboard! Read-a-book! I want school today!" I had been waiting on the front porch for like 45 minutes? You know, just in case they might be early... He had a great afternoon/evening and seemed no worse for the wear. I, on the other hand, think I added to my "worry lines" more than a little.

Oh, by the way, the adorable art at the top is by our precious friend Remy, I thought this was the perfect time to spotlight this amazing piece of art.

And just a few more from the cuteness files:

Last week I took him to school and we were waiting in the lobby area and someone said "hi" to him, so I prompted him to say "hi" and when they had walked on I asked "who was that?" no reply, "who did you see?" and he quickly and confidently sort of made up a name "Lurta" in the way that he does if he doesn't know the answer, but wants you to think he does. Then without missing a beat he breaks into "Cole, Cole, who do you see? I see Kelsey looking at me!..." and so on. We've read the butterflies book many, many times since we've been here, and it's so amazing, it's just as good the billionth time around as it was the first time!

When we were staying with my parents (the week between the times the movers picked up and delivered) any time my little nephew Tyler would visit Cooper would get all excited and basically attack him (Cooper LOVES him and Tyler is without a doubt the most patient child I have ever met). Cooper would pull on Tyler's shirt (or any number of other methods to get him in the floor) and try to get him to pretend to fall down. So, again, I started working on "hi" with him. And in no time he was saying "hi" THEN attacking, so I started working on "how are you?" and "let's play fall down!" which he didn't seem to get just at that point. But since then he's realized that "Har-YEWW?!" often follows "hi" and he's started using that a good bit. He's even added "do-ing" to it on occasion, and it's much less "har-YEWW" and more "haaar you doing?" This is expecially precious when we are tucking him in for nite-nite and he's breaking out all of his tricks to keep us around OR at 3 AM when he's decided it's time for us all to wake up for the day.

And a new development. In the past if we were upset with him because he made a "red choice" he didn't seem to realize that we were upset, or if he did he didn't know how to respond. NOW he "gets it" and if he perceives that we are unhappy with him because of something he's just done he looks kind of embarassed for half a second then he breaks out the "hi, hi, haaar you?"...so that's something to work with and kind of exciting news! :D

Greetings from "Ginia" (Virginia)

We are SO not in Alabama anymore! We had four inches of snow last weekend, big, fluffy, feather-like snowflakes all day on Saturday. Cooper kept going to the door, peeping out and reporting "It's snowing! Snowflake!" Grant took him out to play in it a bit which he seemed to enjoy, but it was bitter cold (at least by my standards) so they didn't stay out very long. And no, I didn't take this photo, I borrowed it from Ansel Adams, our snow - while beautiful - didn't look quite like this (and anyway I've just now unpacked my camera charger).

As most of you know this was sort of a sudden move, planned quickly and with much apprehension. The teachers and therapists at Mitchell's Place did their best with the short time that they had to prepare everything to make the transition easier for Cooper (and we love them for it!). And the school here in VA was very receptive to their suggestions so even thouh it seemed like all of our ducks were neatly in a row I admit I was preparing myself mentally/emotionally for a potentially significant regression. Just as we'd waited for that "one step back" a few months ago, which thankfully never happened, we've been waiting for something, I'm not sure what, just some sign of regression I guess. However, I'm happy to report that it's the last day of his second week of "big boy school" and we've seen no regression, no steps back, in fact just the opposite. He's been a complete champ about all of this! He's happy, he's making progress, and oddly so much more able to "go with the flow" (NOT something he's ever been known for).

The move itself went as smoothly as moving can go, all things considered. And then our first night in the new house was a bit of an adventure... Cooper fell off our bed and bonked his precious little heart shaped face on a dresser, blood everywhere, Grant grabbed him and after I took a quick look at the "owie" it was pretty clear we would be spending the next couple of hours at the hospital getting stitches. My train of thought was sort of "oh, OH, this needs stitches, oh it's bad, so much blood, wait, where is the hospital? where is the hospital? WHERE is the HOSPITAL?! 911"... So, yes that's right, I dialed 911 and explained to her that we had literally moved to the area that very day and what had happened and as I did this her partner dispatched an ambulance to our house. Now, it wasn't that I really thought we needed an ambulance, although he had his eyes closed and I couldn't check his pupils which did alarm me, we just didn't know where to go! (and in hindsight, I wouldn't have done anything any differently). The ambulance came and the paramedics were great with him and confirmed that yes, indeed, our FIRED UP, squirmy little man did, in fact, need stitches. At this point I still wasn't thinking they would expect him to RIDE in the ambulance (which I was sure would terrify him) but they DID, however after signing some papers they agreed to let us take him in. When we got out of the car he saw the ambulance in the driveway and got all excited "Am-lance! Am-lance!" Hmm, Ok, so much for my theory that he would be afraid of it. Things went smoothly at the ER and we were back at "Cooper's new blue house" by 9:30. The next day the DirecTV installers came and when Cooper saw their van pull up he got all excited "Am-lance! I want Am-lance!" (the photo is after we got home from the ER)

A few days later I took a tumble down the stairs, socks on stairs, not OK, lesson learned. All I remember was popping, snapping and cracking sounds all the way down. I felt so old crumpled at the foot of the stairs. Grant came running expecting to see bones sticking out (he was literally patting and checking me all over) fortunately nothing was broken, just a little whiplash. That was followed by a round of food poisoning the next day, which I totally could have down without, and I have to admit at that point I was thinking "SERIOUSLY?! What's NEXT?!" But we are all healed up now, Cooper's bandage came off last weekend and the cut looked maybe a little worse than I expected, but it's healed quite a bit over the last few days.

Since it HAS been SO LONG since I last posted, I thought I would quickly list some highlights from the cuteness files from the past several weeks, just to sort of catch up.

First of all, he's constantly talking about 'big boy' stuff, big boy school, big boy underwear, "It's BIG boy!"

The other day on the way to school..."Cooper, what's your NEW teacher's name?" "It's Whitton." "No, honey, Ms. Whitton WAS your teacher at MP, but you have a NEW teacher now, what's your NEW teacher's name? "It's Big Boy Whitton!" Ok, I'll give him that one, I can see the logic.

The next day. "Cooper, what's your NEW teacher's name?" "It's Keef!" (Mrs. Keith)

He's developed an appreciation for "physical comedy" - Chevy Chase falling off the roof on Christmas Vacation, simply HILARIOUS, he laughs so hard that I get cracked up "I want THAT part, I want house FALL!" Alvin and the chipmunks, when Theodore squirts breath freshener in Jason Lee's eyes and he falls back "I want THAT part! Funny Part!"

"It's Chrish-mush" (Christmas)

One random morning completely out of the BLUE "I want Sama!"

"It's contending" (pretending, and he usually IS pretending when he tells us this, so that's really exciting)

We stayed at a hotel for a couple of nights when we first came up to look for a house, it had an indoor pool (strategically planned by dad in an effort to make it a fun trip for Coop since water was his first love, Sama was the second). That went so well that we stayed there again while we were waiting on the movers. So now, should he get bored we hear "I want HO-tel!" and he says it with that coy-i know-i'm-not-gonna-get-it-but-i-think-I'll-throw-it-out-there-anyway grin :)

Last week he was playing with an "ABCs toy" - something he's done hundreds of times, and I hear it say "spell the word egg" and then I see him pushing buttons and I hear "E" "G" "G" "That's right! You're a genious!" (I didn't even know it said that) so, that's one word he knows how to spell. Won't eat one, but he can spell it" :)

And this one is really too hard to believe that I almost didn't list it... but here goes...

He and I were playing on Youtube. He wanted to "watch monsters" so I found a little clip of Monsters Inc, but he saw one off to the side he wanted to watch so I hesitantly clicked on it (you can't be too careful with that, right Whitton?) and it was the little girl "Boo" and a song starts playing in the background (seriously, who has time to make these little clips? much less bother to post them?) anyway, the song, it's a Journey song, (only a little ashamed that I know that) and Cooper hears it, perks up, points and says "It's JOURNEY!" ... Now, I know he's listened to music and various people's Ipods etc at school, but I just can't imagine that any of these young women had "don't stop believing" on their Ipod, now, it DID say "Journey" in small print in the lower left hand corner... I'm really not sure what to make of that :)

OK, enough, sorry for the epic.

To our friends and family in Birmingham, we love you and miss you and think of you often. Thank you for all that you've done for us, for Cooper. Happy Holidays and all the best to you! Stay in touch :)

xoxo