Study Time!

Even with E going to school 5 days a week now, he still seems to want to "play" school all the time when he gets home!  I'm so thrilled he enjoys it so much....I hope this is always the case! 

And today he called me into the living room saying "Mom, it's writing time!"  When I get there, he says "Ok, this one is yours (handing me one of the other day planners Andrew has given him to play with)....you write your name here and then do your pluses!"  I think they may be starting to do some math and adding at school...so he calls them "pluses"....too cute! 

Such concentration! Our little lefty!

"Wow Bubba, this school stuff is hard work!"

Bubba's schooling sure does make me hungry!

Cooper tries out school for the 1st time!

So, Coop has made the leap....he is officially a school boy!  We tried it out for the first time yesterday for about an hour. Evan met us when we arrived at the school and he quickly told us we needed to go upstairs and go to the baby class.  Once upstairs, he says "Cooper, this is the baby class...you go in here!  I'll be right over here in my class".  Wow, where did my babies go!?!?!?  I spent the first 15 minutes with him to see how he was going to adjust.  I had thought he was going to be very clingy and not want to participate with the rest of the kids, but he refreshingly suprised me.  He sat right down in a chair and started playing legos along with the rest of the kids....and never said "mama" once (which was a real shocker because I think that may have been the first time that he has gone more than 5 minutes without saying "mama" while I'm around!)  So after getting the feeling that he was going to be just fine, I slipped out and left him for another 45 minutes by himself. I do have to say it was much easier to leave him by himself for the first time than it was the first time I left Evan.  Guess that is just what happens with the 2nd child!   When I returned, I went upstairs to collect him and peeked into the room to watch him before I let him know I was back for him.  He was just looking so precious and like such a big boy.  The teacher was singing some songs and he was just sitting in his chair playing with some blocks.  Just an adorable sight to see!  Of course, as soon as some of the kids noticed me, he turned around and started shouting "mama, mama" and wanted me to hold him.  The teacher said he did cry a bit when he noticed I was gone, but quickly became distracted by what they were doing and was fine the rest of the time! So all in all, it was a very successful first try at this whole school thing!  We are going to try another hour Friday morning and then he will start going half days 1-2 days a week.  Ms. Shareen will be his teacher and he will be in a class with 8 other 2 to 3 year olds.  He will be the youngest, but a few of the 2 year old girls seemed just as small as him, so he fits right in.  His 2 other buddies we have regular playdates with will both be going to school full time starting in March, so I thought this was a good alternative to the playdates.  The principal of the school disagrees with only sending him part-time (must be that Asian schooling mentality), but I still think he is much too young to be going 5 days a week (especially when I'm not even working)...so we'll try it out once or twice a week for now. 

So very, very proud of you Cooper!  You did an awesome job at your first try at school!  I hope you enjoy going as much as your brother does! You are learning so much these days and are really starting to pick up some vocabulary, it is just a matter of time before you'll be having full conversations with us!!

Now....I just can't wait to see him in his new school uniform!!!

Here are a few pics before we headed off to school:

Trying out the new backpack

Let's go Mama, I'm ready to do this school thing!!

E's Ouchie

At Dani's party yesterday, E took a spill while running and bruised his lip and his nose.  It actually didn't look too bad....that is.... until he and Cooper were playing on the bed this morning and Coop accidentally kicked him in the mouth.  It started bleeding and caused it to look much worse.  For some reason, he couldn't wait to get to school this morning to tell everyone about how "I tripped while running at Dani's party and got a big bruise on my lip...see!!".  Surprisingly, he didn't manage any scaped knees or hands, so he must have landed straight on his face. He was even a big boy about it, only minimal crying!

Daniella's 4th birthday swimming party

More birthday parties....it seems like it's been the month of birthday parties!! This weekend it was Dani's 4th birthday party.  She had a pool party... and who doesn't love a good pool party?!?! I think the boys must have played in the water for nearly 2 hours!! Great...but that also means Mommy and Daddy played in the pool that long too - ugh!  They have a great slide at the pool and Evan and about 5 other kids must have gone up & down it a hundred times....with me playing slide monitor the entire time!  Cooper even had his fair share of slide time, which he absolutely loved. That child has no fear what so ever - he would be ready to go down before there was even anyone at the bottom ready to catch him! So while I monitored one of the boys in the kiddie pool with the slide, Daddy took the other one into the big pool for some swim time.  Fun times were definitely had!  After swimming, there were a couple of games and then we had some yummy food.  After eating, the boys got in some good playtime running around (where E tripped while running and bruised his lip..ouch) and playing at the playground.  We finished up the evening with some yummy cake and then finally headed back home.  As with all the birthday party days we've had lately, the boys had a great night's sleep....once they finally settled down and the sugar high wore off!!

Dani and Evan

Fun game time!  Evan participates while Cooper snacks (that is him in the chair in the red shirt)

Singing Happy Birthday

Dani, the birthday girl!

Daddy and Cooper having some fun playground time

Yep, that is our little snacker!

MORE Haircuts!

It seems like that is all we ever do anymore...haircuts, haircuts, haircuts!  The boys' hair seems to grow so quickly that they really need haircuts about every 4 to 6 weeks.  We let it go a couple of months sometimes, but they start to look like little hippies with their hair growing over their ears.  So during one of our latest visits to KL,  we made another trip to the hair salon.  As I said before, E enjoys getting them so it isn't an issue at all with him.  Before, we never knew what we were going to get with Cooper, but the last 2 visits have gone very well. He sat all by himself again this time and did a great job!  It took a little coercing to get him to sit alone at the very beginning, but once he was okay with the idea and saw that Bubba was doing the same thing (luckily we managed to get them cut both at the same time by 2 different stylists.....which is so much better because we get out of there much quicker!) he settled in and let the guy do his job!  20 short minutes later, both boys had nice clean cuts and were looking more handsome than ever!!  We then headed to the playgym for some fun!

Someone was in dire need of a haircut!

All done...look at me now!

Say Mom, what do you think?!?!

Oh so handsome!

Having some fun now at the playgym

This picture was taken to show the boys what a good mom they have....I must have taken E (Coop only once - I think it was a bit too fast for him!) up this LONG slide 4 TIMES!  It is quite a climb through the tiny tunnels that aren't really made for adults to go through...so your welcome boys! 

Sliding on one of their favorite slides with Marte

FUN TIMES!

A memorable "Evan conversation"

So I thought this was definitely one for the journal.  Last night during playtime after dinner and before bathtime/bedtime, Evan and I had a conversation that went something like this...

Mommy:  Evan do you have to go pee?
Evan : No, I don't!
Mommy:  a little later...... Evan, are you sure you don't have to go pee?
Evan:  No, I don't have to go!
Mommy:  Then why do you keep grabbing your weiner?!?!
Evan:  Mom, I keep playing with my weiner because it gets big and then small, and then big and then small, and big and then small!!!!!
Mommy:   as I'm practically rolling....well Evan, your weiner gets big BECAUSE you play with it!
Evan:  yes, but I can't play with it when it's small!!
.....I had no response for that one!

OH THE JOYS OF LIVING WITH A HOUSE FULL OF BOYS!!!

And by the way, yes I know how far behind I am on my blogging.  I have several posts in draft form that I need to add pictures to....more about our December to come real soon!!

New Christmas presents are so much fun!!

In a prior post about our time in Texas for Christmas, I mentioned how my Honey brought over her dog, Jake, when she visited and that Cooper had loved him having him there.  Well, coincidentally my mom had bought Cooper this toy dog for Christmas too.  So when Jake left, we started calling the toy dog Jake and Coop would pull him around the house.  Well today, I caught him taking Jake for a walk again and thought it was just too cute!

Evan was also playing with one of his new Christmas presents today.  He got a new Leap Tag reader and several books from his Nana and Pop. I finally got the software loaded up for the additional books so I could transfer them to the pen. He was pretty excited when he got up from his nap and found that I'd finally done that for him.  He quickly began using it to read each and every new book.  He said his favorites were Spiderman, the dinosaur one and Dora goes to school. I'm so thrilled he enjoys reading so much, I hope that he always does!