Enid, OK

Our family took a trip to Enid, OK, to visit Nate's family this weekend. What a trip!! Enid, OK is a dream town for our boys. It is a farming community, and there are tractors everywhere! There are trains on land and military jets in the sky. A spray plane buzzed the house the first night we were there. The highlight of the trip, though, was seeing Grandma, Pupaw, Uncle Wade, Aunt Lauren, Aunt Hanna, and Uncle J.


Before we left, we had been explaining the trip to the boys. When Miles woke up on Thursday morning, the first word out of his mouth was, "Papaw." That boy was ready to see his Grandpa!


On our way into town, we passed the John Deere Implement. cooper said, "Isn't a Gator a sensible machine? It can do work in small spaces." His explaination continued, but he ended with, "A Gator is such a sensible machine."

The new house is beautiful! Here is the front view:

1

Here are the boys riding a 4 Wheeler.









Miles LOVED Aunt Hanna's kittens.






Uncle J took the boys on a ride in a combine AND a tractor. Cooper got to help steer the tractor.







What a trip! Thank you, Bethell Family, for hosting us!!

Writing...

Here is a note that Cooper wrote to Ms. Rachel for her high school graduation. My favorite part is the E. Notice it has 8 horizontal lines instead of 3. As Cooper was writing it, he said, "Mom, check out this 'e'! It's going to be a great one!"


This is the bus Cooper drew for Aunt Lauren:




And last but not least, this is Cooper first attempt at writing the alphabet.


This stage is so fun!

Freak Out!

The boys and I went to Quarrels Supply yesterday to pick up a paint sample. When I told them we were going, Cooper ran, got in the van, and buckled himself in. This is not yet a skill that I expect him to accomplish on his own, but I was very appreciative! (As an aside, I am trying to figure out what responsibilities I can delegate to my children so they can help me more!)

After we were finished, we were loading up in the van. I said, "Cooper, hop up in your chair and buckle yourself in." He got in his chair, and he said, "Oh, Mom I can't do it! My arms won't reach!" After several times back and forth, I said, "Cooper, I'll wait for you to buckle yourself in. If you need help while you're doing it, I would be glad to help you! But I know this is something you can do." And we waited. Man he's a stubborn guy. I wonder where he learned that? So as we sat there, I started giving myself some positive self talk, "It's okay, Carey. We don't have anywhere to be. Wait it out. He can do this. It's okay." After waiting longer, I turned around and said (with some increased intensity), "Cooper - buckle yourself in!" He looked at me and said, "Mom - did you just freak out instead of disciplining me?" And without missing a beat, "Deep breaths, Mom. Deep breaths." Guess who buckled the seat? I gave in...he out-waited me. What a booger.

Video

Cooper learned everything you see in the video below from Jeremy Scowden. :)

Fridays...

Fridays are fun around the Bethell house. We buy the boys doughnuts every Friday, and what a treat! Cooper wakes up WIRED just knowing it is Friday and Friday means doughnuts! His volume level is set somewhere around 10 (on a scale of 1 to 10) and he has a song in his heart.

Friday mornings are unique for another reason, too. Cooper has B.U.M. kids from 8:30 to 11:30, so I have to have the boys and myself ready to leave the house by 8:20 or so. (At this point, I want to pause and acknowledge the working moms out there who have to do this EVERY day. You are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. There's no other way to say it. I don't know how you do it.) Most days, I just ask the boys to get themselves dressed by Sesame Street at 9:00, so we have to hurry to be ready by 8:20. This morning, it looked something like this:

Me: Miles do you need to go potty?
Miles: Yes. Be bean. (Jelly Bean...he gets one when he sits on the potty.)
Me: Okay! Let's go! Run and stick Miles on the potty. Wait for 3 minutes while he decides what color of jelly bean he wants. Run back to Cooper's room.
Me: Coop, here are your clothes. Please get dressed.
Cooper: Mom, I need help. Will you help me?
Miles: MOMMY!
Me: Run to check on Miles. Are you all done going potty?
Miles: Des. (Yes.)
Me: Okay - let's get you down. Remove Miles from the potty.
Cooper: Mom I need HELP!
Me: Run to help Cooper, and grab a diaper while I'm at it.
Miles: MOMMY!
Me: Cooper - you're going to have to get dressed. Run to check on Miles in the bathroom.
Miles: Be bean. (Jelly bean.)
Me: You want to sit on the potty again? Do you need to go potty again? Stick Miles back on the potty. Wait while he selects his color of jelly bean.
Cooper: MOMMY!
Me: Run to Cooper's room.
Miles: MOMMY!
Me: Run to the bathroom.
Repeat.

So by 8:30, I had all of us dressed, Cooper at B.U.M. kids, and I was exhausted. But on Fridays, when Miles and I have time to ourselves, we clean the house together. He LOVES to spray the Windex on the glass. If I try to touch the bottle, he jerks it away from me and gives me a passionate, "I DO!" Okay, okay. You spray the Windex. We clean glass and dust together. Then he watches a little Sesame Street while I clean the bathrooms and kitchen. That's usually all I get done before I have a very special hour of time with Ms. Amy, a college student I meet with weekly. She is so amazing - I love seeing how mature she is and how much the Lord has already taught her. I have much to learn from that girl!

After Amy left today, Miles and I had only a short time together before we went to pick up Cooper. Then we flew through lunch and it was time to head to Ms. Lisa's house. I picked the boys up at 5:00 and we headed home for dinner.

The sweetest moment of all for me today was after dinner. Cooper and I swept the floors and vacuumed so that we could relax together and watch a movie. We had popcorn with M&M's and watched WallE together. Cooper sat on my lap and Miles snuggled right next to me. It was such a sweet moment. This is what being a Mommy is all about!

Soda

The other morning, Cooper was going to run with me to get a soda. I was grabbing my stuff to go, and I heard him say, "No, Humphrey, you can't have a soda because you aren't real. You're pretend."

Miles is learning words so quickly. He has two of my favorite words down - M&M, which is pronounced "num num" and soda, which is pronounced "weeda." If you asked me, he doens't need any other words. He'll make it through life just fine with those.

It's Gone

We (Nate) gave Miles a big buzz cut today because it was driving us (me) crazy. Here is the damage.

Before:

After:

Update

I am working hard to enjoy our kids. It is so easy for me to get wrapped up in the "job" of having small children and not think about just enjoying them. Loving them. Laughing with them. So that has been on my mind recently. Care less about dirt. Care more about fun. :)

Here are a few fun stories from recently:

Cooper and I were driving home from Wal-Mart and had the following conversation:
Cooper: Mom - are there bladders in heaven?
Me: I'm not sure, buddy. We know God created us in His image, but I'm not sure we'll know the answer to this question for sure until we get to heaven.
Cooper: Oh. Well, do they have toilets in heaven?
Me: That's a good question! We won't need toilets if we don't have bladders, but I think we'll just have to wait and see!
Cooper: Will we have our private areas in heaven?
Me: Not sure, bud.
Cooper: Will someone rip them off?
Me: Cooper - look! Hay bales! Did you see those hay bales in that field?

Miles is in a difficult stage and a really, really fun stage, too. He is growing in independence. Two of his favorite words are, "I do!" His language is growing so much every day. I bet I could write down two or three new words I hear him say per day. Yesterday Nate had him saying, "oh baby" in the bath tub. Too cute. He says, "kay" after he is given a request - sounds something like this: Nate: "Miles, you need to leave your blanet inside if you want to come out." Miles: "Kay!" Notice that I used Nate in the example - Miles is in love with his Daddy right now. Both boys are, really. They can't get enough! So when Daddy gets home from a hard day of work, he has two boys ready to wrestle and play! At bedtime, both boys want Daddy to read books and tuck them in. The other day, I was putting laundry in the washing machine, and Cooper was asking me for something. I told him I would in just a second several times. After repeated requests, I said, "Hey, Cooper. Let me finish the laundry. I can only do one thing at once. I'm not superman!" He said, "Yeah but Daddy IS superman." :) Sure, Buddy. I'm sure Daddy could start a load of laundry AND get you some milk to drink at the same time. Daddies are just good like that. :)

Okay - I don't have much Sesame Street time left, so I better get a few things done...

A day of firsts

I left Monday mid-morning for San Francisco, CA for a lunch meeting on Tuesday (flying home Tuesday afternoon). Everything went pretty normal, a few delays out of Springfield due to a late plane from Chicago and bad weather in San Francisco. In fact, San Fran was listed as the worst city to travel to on Monday because of the rain they have received in the past few days.

When we arrived in Chicago, while boarding the jet to San Fran, I noticed that the plane was incredibly clean. Even the outside (what you can see of it while boarding from the jet bridge) was very shiny. It looked like it had a fresh paint job. As it turns out, I was on the maiden flight! I think it had that new plane smell...

Speaking of flights to San Francisco, if you've never been, you should go. You don’t have to wait to arrive for entertainment – it starts on the plane ride out. Let’s just say it seems there are an unusual number of strange people on the flight. As an example, one of the guys next to me was in a full sweat-suit, bright turquoise, with matching turquoise hair to go with it. That doesn’t do him justice. You’ll just have to take my word for it.
For a number of reasons, we stayed in China town Monday night. My boss is Australian and in Australia, they eat a lot of Malaysian food. So, of course, he wants to eat Malaysian. It’s not so bad, but lots of curry and strange flavors, meats, soups, etc. And if you’ve read my earlier blog post, you know how I feel about curry. To top off the food experience, the client I met with today is Indian and he took us to lunch. Guess where? An Indian bistro. Again, what’s with all the curry? I’m always up for new experiences, but if I have my choice, I like the curry experiences spread out a bit!
Finally, after a long day of traveling back (fortunately no issues getting through security in San Francisco), I’m now sitting in Dallas for the last flight home. I should pull into the house around midnight. I can’t wait to see the family!

The top 5 signs that Cooper is growing up:

1. His vocabulary continues to develop. Cooper was helping me make breakfast the other morning, and he said, "Mom, can I put the cimanon, I mean cinnamon in?"

2. He is willing to try new things! We went to the playground today, and he crossed the scary bridge and went down the tornado slide ALL BY HIMSELF. No promting from Mom.

3. He is so brave. Cooper fell off the ladder of the big slide and cut his leg a little bit. He was upset, but when I tried to comfort him, he wasn't interested. He started back up the ladder again - ready for more.

4. He is asking hard questions! He is very concerned about the crown of thorns that was placed on Jesus' head when he was crucified. We are memorizing Psalm 1, and verse 1 mentions that wise men do not join a group of mockers. Cooper asked me, "Are the men who put the crown of thorns on Jesus' head a group of mockers?" Wow - great connection!

5. He is a great big brother to Miles! I often hear him saying, "See, Miles! This is how you..."