Catch up

Here's my attempt to "catch up" with all the blogging I haven't been doing in the last weeks...

Cooper is ALL ABOUT the shoes. His shoes. My shoes. Clean Shoes. Dirty Shoes.
He's not picky - he is just in love.



He's also pretty fascinated with stickers. Loves to stick them on himself. Often his shirt, but other times he puts them on his face or in this case, all over his legs.


The other day the boys were eating breakfast, and I had cut some slices of apple up for them. Cooper was looking at one of the slices, obviously thinking hard about it. He looked at me, then picked up the slice, held it to his ear and said, "hello!" So adorable. In his mind the slice looked just like a telephone.


Believe it or not, our sweet, sweet boys sometimes don't act sweet. I know, it's hard to believe. But, recently, I feel like I have repeating myself ALOT. I am sick of hearing myself give the same instruction 10 times. I know they must be really sick of it too. I try to always reward the boys with praise when they listen well, but lately it didn't seem to make any difference. Just to get them into their carseats meant telling them to "GET IN YOUR SEAT!" about 5 times. Pretty annoying. So, I was brainstorming what I could do ... A while ago, my friend, Adrienne, shared with me how she uses a reward chart for her girls. So, the other night, I got out my glue gun and got made some charts. I used some little cardboard Cars that I bought - and just cut up some magnets from our fridge. So far, so good. Jackson can't stop thinking about it. He's in love! They get to pick out a race car everytime they do something great - listening, sharing, cleaning up. And sometimes they lose one if they aren't behaving. Just a little reminder of the chart seems to help alot. The first time Jackson got five race cars, I gave him a tootsie roll. He was in heaven.


Today, Charlie was in a "special" mood. As Jackson would say, he was having a "rough day." Anyway, our sweet, gassy baby took a nap with Colin on the couch, so I put the older boys upstairs in our bed and turned on Bob the Builder. They watched a little tv while I vacuumed and cleaned the baseboards upstairs. They looked so adorable all tucked under the comforter.


As I was cleaning Cooper's room, I decided to look for Grover. You see, we have a little Sesame Street house with little characters. However, Grover has been missing for a month or two. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't find him. I had looked everywhere. I had lifted up his nightstand at least 5-6 times to check underneath. No Grover.
Well, today I pulled the nightstand out from the wall so I could clean the baseboard behind it. And this is what I found -


I couldn't stop laughing. I was perplexed. Had to get the camera.


He's just hanging there. Hiding from me! Turns out that he was stuck to the wall. I guess he had fallen back there, and then when I had lifted the nightstand and placed it back, I squished him into the wall. I just can't stop laughing about him just hanging there. I almost hated to take him down. Anyway, now he is happily reunited with all of his Sesame Street family. Cooper was so happy and couldn't stop saying "go-ber" a million times while he played.

As I was taking this picture I realized that Cookie Monster is missing now. Bummer!

Later today I went outside with Jackson to try and learn to ride his tricycle. I know what you're thinking. He's 3 1/2 and I haven't taught him to ride it yet. He got it for his birthday (or Christmas - can't remember) last year. Anyway, I think this was our second attempt to learn. I know, terrible. If I would just takehim out once in a while, he's catch on really fast. At the end of my pregnancy I didn't feel like it. And then once I had Charlie I was too crazy. And it's been so hot. There, I got out all of my excuses. Anyway, he did great. He can pedal really well. He can steer really well. Just not both at the same time : )


I don't have any pictures to post of Charlie - but tomorrow he will turn 3 months old! So, I'm sure I'll do a little photo shoot of him.
I'll have lots to post next week, because Jackson starts both of his schools! Today I told him, "Jackson - only 3 more days until you start school." And he got super-excited and said, "3 more days?!?!" And then after a few seconds ... "I'm going to miss you, mommy."