Ol' Hamster Head, Revisited

So the tooth fairy showed up here again.  And this time she left two dollars and... Are you ready for this?  A lip gloss!!!  Woo hoo!!  She's a nice lady, that tooth fairy.  Maleah lost another bottom tooth and it was a surprise to all of us.  We all knew it was loose and I thought it would fall out a long time ago but I kind of gave up hope on it because it never seemed to get any looser.  But we were both surprised when we were standing in the kitchen and it fell out onto her hand.

She had been casually chewing on a rubber bracelet while talking to me.  I guess that's possible anyway - to casually chew on a bracelet.  Haha.  Anyway, she was just standing around talking and occasionally putting this new green girl scout bracelet in her mouth and lo and behold when she pulled the bracelet out the tooth came with it.  The look on her face was priceless.  She was completely stunned.  She said "Um Mom?  I think I just lost my tooth."  I said "I think you're exactly right."

She had the new girl scout bracelet because she joined the girl scouts!  Yay for her!  She is excited and was surprised to learn that they did more than sell cookies.  She thought that was all there was to it.  She told me that after the sign-up meeting.  I thought that was funny.  "You mean they do things other than just sell cookies?  Hmmm."  She thought it over and was fine with that.  Crafts and visiting with other girls is right up her alley so we're good.  But she is also all about selling cookies.  I have a feeling she will be good at that.  She is a natural salesperson.  There is no doubt about that.  Plus she knows half the town.  So, fair warning all you blog readers - Maleah will be selling cookies this year.

Carissa has been busy getting into trouble this week.  She grabs things she knows she shouldn't have (examples:  ink pens, remote controls, telephones, etc) and runs with them as fast as she can and hides behind one of our living room chairs.  She thinks that we don't know she's there.  She is a terrible listener.  She doesn't listen to a dang thing I say.  It drives me crazy.  Her sister followed my every word from a very early age.  Carissa just doesn't care.  So she's been getting into trouble for not listening to Mommy.  By "trouble" I mean that she gets scolded.  She doesn't like that and it hurts her feelings.  You can always tell if you hurt her feelings because she looks down at her hands and walks around slowly like she's the saddest little girl in the world.  She won't look up for anything.  She is so cute even when she's been in trouble. 

In other Carissa news, her hair and her vocabulary are growing.  I am convinced that she can say anything she wants to - she just chooses not to.  Because occasionally she'll say a big word just plain as day.  And then she gets this look on her face like "Oh shoot!  Now they know I can talk!"  I don't think she's going to be able to keep that secret much longer.

On my last blog entry I posted a picture of Maleah on her first day of pre-k last year.  If you thought she had changed a lot in the past year, check out these pics of Carissa.  Wow!!  Babies change so much in the first year!  I wish I had a scanner because I would love to show you guys some of Jason's baby pictures so you could compare them to Carissa.  And I would love to show you a picture of him at age 6 so you could compare it to Maleah now.  It is unbelievable!  There is no denying they are his kids, that's for sure.  They look exactly like him.

And while I was reminiscing over the pictures from last year I found the funniest picture ever.  It's one of my faves.  I think I blogged about it when it actually happened but it's so funny I could blog about it every week.  This is the picture of Maleah and the hamster that Grandma Debby and Grandpa David got for her from Cracker Barrel.  It was pre-zhuzhu pets but it is basically the same thing as a zhu-zhu pet (if you know what those are) but it doesn't make all of the different noises.  It has tiny wheels on the bottom that make it go and Maleah held it up a little too close to her head and it wound itself right up next to her scalp.  It was there to stay.  She came and got me while I was in the shower to show me what had happened.  Her Dad had told her to go get her Mom.  I don't think he knew what to do with ol' hamster head.  I told her to go get me the scissors and the camera while I dried off.  This picture makes me laugh out loud every time. 

Have a great week and be sure to keep hamsters away from your head. 

No more evening ice cream for her...

Well, it's almost ten p.m. here and Maleah is still awake.  In bed, but awake - on a school night!  I put her to bed at 8:30 and she has been laying there for almost an hour and a half.  What's the problem?  She was so sleepy at supper that she could hardly hold her head up.  She was also whiny and sort of crying because she was so tired.  But then, Grandma Debby gave her ice cream.  A-ha!  The culprit.  I'll blame it on the ice cream instead of Grandma. 

We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's tonight to pick apples.  Grandpa David's apple trees are loaded!  We picked a five gallon bucket full and another gallon bucket full and we hardly put a dent in them.  The girls had fun doing that.  Carissa had a lot of fun eating the apples.  I'm not sure how many Grandma will find with teeth marks in them.  Hopefully not very many.  But she is sneaky so I'm not sure. 

Maleah had fun picking apples for a little while but then she lost interest when she remembered that another nearby tree had fuzzy leaves.  So then she got another bucket for her fuzzy leaves.  She picked a bucketful of those too.  I asked her what she was going to do with them and she said that she might make a compost.  Then later she said that "it was an experiment".  She added water and a few lilies and I don't know what else and had some kind of something going on.  She got dirty and she had fun.

Carissa got sidetracked too but not by fuzzy leaves.  She was interested in Grandma's fountain.  It looks like an old-fashioned water pump and has a bucket hanging that fills up with water and then dumps out over and over.  It is fascinating to Carissa.  Well, actually all the kids that visit love that thing.  She got dirty and she had fun.

So after all of that we stuck them both in Grandma's big tub.  They played and swam (the tub is big and they are little) and both of them smelled like a million bucks when they got out.  They got clean and they had fun.  So then I had two clean and very sleepy little girls.  Then came the ice cream.  Oh well. 

We had a fun weekend.  On Saturday, we went swimming at Uncle Craig and Aunt LuAnn's house.  The girls had a blast and we all had a good visit.  We always have fun with them.  We also went over to Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence's house for supper on Sunday.  Sherrel fixed a great meal and then for entertainment we all went outside to see Craig "drive" his new remote control car.  It was super cool and went like 45 mph.  It scared Carissa to death though.  She just clung to me.  I think it was the noise.  Both of my girls are very sensitive to loud noises.  At least Maleah is getting better about it as she gets older.  Anyway, it was a nice relaxing weekend with family.

My big news is that I finished my B90X program!  Yay me!  It was my 90 day Bible reading program, in case you don't remember.  But I am proud to say that I finished it in 84 days.  Woo hoo!  I had given up Facebook during that time and changed my computer time to reading time.  I think I needed the break from Facebook anyway.  I am so glad I did it.  I really learned a lot. 

Maleah is still liking Kindergarten.  They're studying colors for the next two weeks.  Yesterday was Red Day and today was Yellow Day.  All of the kids are supposed to wear the color of the day.  She came home on Monday knowing how to spell "red" and "stop" and she sang me a song about red.  She didn't say too much to me about yellow today.  Tomorrow is Green Day.  Not the band (I'd show up for that!) but the day to wear and study the color green.  Here she is all ready for Yellow Day.

I'll leave you with the quote of the week:  "Mom, you're a great mom for being 31."

Maleah's First Day of Kindergarten

Well, she loved it!  She absolutely loves Kindergarten.  Here are some pictures of her yesterday morning before she left for school.  Yes, that is the same tie that she wore last year on the first day of pre-k.  She wanted to wear it again this year.  I agreed.  She thinks it's stylish.  I agreed.  The skirt is one size bigger than last year's and the shirt is two sizes bigger than last year's.  She has grown a bunch!

Very excited about Kindergarten

Ready for Kindergarten

Maleah on her first day of pre-k last year.

Today was her first full day and I couldn't wait to hear all about it when I picked her up.  The first thing she said to me was "Can I bring my lunch tomorrow?"  I said "Yes, why?  Was your lunch not very good?"  And she said "It was terrible.  Horrible.  I liked my peas and my fruit but not the nachos and cheese."  That's fine with me if she brings her lunch.  If she doesn't eat she turns into mean/whiny/sick/grouchy Maleah.  I'm sure her teacher would prefer that she ate as well.  We bought her a very cute Hello Kitty lunch bag a few weeks ago, along with a cute thermos that she can't wait to use.  (Did you guys know she has a thing for cups and thermoses?  She prefers a new cup to a new toy.)  Last night I read to her the lunch menu for the rest of the week.  Today's choices were Nachos and Cheese or Chicken Patty.  Okay, first of all, what is up with that?  Nachos and Cheese?  Really?  That is now an entree?  Now I know why there is an childhood obesity problem in the United States.  Well, she hates chicken patties but she thought Nachos and Cheese would be great for lunch.  She has never had that for lunch before in her life and was probably thinking "Cool.  I can eat chips for lunch!"  Not that the meals I fix around here are always the healthiest but I have yet to feed her chips and processed cheese for any meal. 

So that was the first thing we talked about after I picked her up.  The second thing she asked me was "What does Google mean?"  Maybe they talked about computers, I don't know.  She said they didn't have to take a nap but they did have a rest time after lunch.  She said that they have art on Thursdays.  She said one of the teachers, not her own but one somewhere else, was really mean.  She's glad that lady isn't her teacher because she yells.  Hmmm.  I wonder what her definition of "yells" is?  I doubt there was some teacher in there screaming at a bunch of Kindergarteners on their first day.

She's a little upset with me because I won't let her keep flossers in her bookbag.  You know, those teeth-flossing thingies that have little plastic handles on them?  She loves them.  She can be a lot like her Grandma Debby.  They both like to floss.  Hanging out at the dentist office with Grandma has instilled that in her I guess. She's a little obsessive about keeping her teeth healthy.  I'm glad that she likes to take care of her teeth; I hope she always does.  But I don't think flossing at school is necessary.  I just don't. 

It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.  I hope she always loves school as much as she does today.  It can happen right?  Yeah, you're probably right, she is mine and Jason's child.  Fat chance.  Oh well, with God all things are possible.

Twas the Night Before Kindergarten...

Twas the night before Kindergarten and all through the house there was a little creature stirring who couldn't fall asleep.

She was tucked all in bed, not in a kerchief or a nightcap, but snug in her Tinkerbell pajamas. 

When out of her room there arose such a clatter, I sprang from my recliner to see what was the matter.  The moonlight through the window showed her dancing and singing "I can't fall asleep, I'm not even tired!"

When what to her wondering eyes did appear but her mother telling her to "get back in bed and be quiet.  You'll fall asleep soon, my dear."

Okay, so I'm not a very good poet.  But I thought this was fitting because Maleah has been reciting "The Night Before Christmas" all day today (when she wasn't singing Sugarland's new hit song "Stuck Like Glue") and because she is so gosh darn excited about Kindergarten.  She had Open House at her school tonight and got to go meet her teacher and see her new school.  She also got to take her school supplies with her and put them away and meet some of the kids in her class.  She was thrilled, thrilled, thrilled.  She LOVES her new teacher and LOVES her classroom.  She was afraid that she would never love another teacher as much as she loved her pre-k teacher last year and after meeting her new teacher I think that worry flew right out the window.  So now, she has been tucked into bed for almost two hours and still isn't asleep because she is just too excited.  And it's going to be an early morning for us so hopefully she gets up okay in the morning.  Better yet, hopefully I can get up in the morning.  It's been awhile since I've had to get up that early on a daily basis.  Yikes!  Here are some cute pictures from tonight. 

Maleah and one of her best friends, Erica, who will be in her class.

Maleah and her teacher.

Maleah and her mailbox

Tomorrow will be exciting for all of us.  I'll share pictures of that soon.

In other news, we went camping this past weekend.  We had a great time!  We went with our friends, Deb and Paul and their kids, and our friend/babysitter Calli went with all of us too.  We borrowed my Mom and Dad's camper and that was a good thing.  It had air conditioning and boy, did we ever need it.  It was super hot!  Us adults just sort of sat around sweating like crazy while the kids played.   Carissa walked around the campground picking up trash (a great assortment of bottle tops) and handing it to us.  Maybe she's headed for a job in sanitation?  I don't know.  She also played with her baby doll stroller and dolls a lot and pushed them around through the gravel.  She had fun and that's all that mattered.

Maleah and the older kids had all brought their scooters so they scootered around the campground and kept making a big circle around the campsite.  They did this non-stop and had a blast.  Who knew scooters could be so much fun?  The kids all had a blast doing that and going for boat rides on the lake.  We didn't really do any fishing but all of the kids got to go out on the boat and that was exciting for them. 

I don't think I have ever seen my kids as dirty as what they got.  Their feet were disgusting.  I took a picture of Maleah's because I was so amazed.  She had been wearing flip-flops all day and riding her scooter.  Yuck! 

Here's a cute picture of Carissa that I took.  I thought it turned out great. 

And here's a picture of Maleah trying out a new "cheerleading" move.  She's all into cheerleading right now because when I signed her up for the fall semester of her dance and tumbling classes I also signed her up for a cheerleading class.  She has wanted to do that for a long time.  She is super psyched about it. 

Does anybody want to call and give me a wake-up call at 7 a.m.?  Just kidding!  I will manage to wake up and get her out the door on time.  I think I can... I think I can...

The Two Cutest Dancers Ever!!!

Bust a Move video by maleah_ - Photobucket


This week I wanted to share with you one of the cutest videos ever. My two little sweet-peas were rocking out to some Bible School music in Maleah's room. Check out their moves by clicking the link above. It's the only way I could get the video to work on here...

Dreams Do Come True!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi all. Maleah has something exciting to tell you. She got all of her hair cut off!! She's been wanting to do this for about two years and I kept putting her off. But her persistence paid off and she got it chopped. She said she wanted it cut to her chin and I agreed to let her try it. The good news is that is it looks absolutely adorable and I love it every bit as much as I did when it was long. She has gotten loads of compliments on it and a few of her friends didn't even recognize her right away at her tumbling class. Plus when Jane cut it she put temporary hot pink streaks in it that thrilled Maleah beyond belief. (I forced her to wash her hair after three days.) These are direct quotes from Maleah that she has said to various people since getting it cut: "I feel like a movie star!", "I feel like I'm at least 16!", "It's my dream come true!", "Dreams do come true!", "Can you believe it? It's me, Maleah.", "Do you recognize me??", and a whole bunch of "I got my hair cut off!!" and "I love it!!". Each one of these honestly deserves about twelve exclamation points to be an exact quote because that's how much enthusiasm and excitement she had when she spoke. But to save blog space, I just used one or two but you get the drift. She was very excited.

I have realized that it only takes one episode of "Hoarding: Buried Alive" on TLC to put me in the mood to clean. After watching several episodes in a row last weekend I was on a complete house-purging roll. I cleaned out all of our closets, drawers, cabinets, etc. I am not a pack-rat and like to get rid of things. I do this at least twice a year but it amazes me every time that I have so much stuff!! It is really unbelievable to me that I can accumulate that many things in six months or so. Crazy! So anyway, big rummage sale at the Cooper's next weekend. BIG!

I took advantage of the state's deal on no sales tax on school supplies and clothes this past week and went shopping. Geez, didn't I just say that I didn't know how I accumulated so much stuff??? Anyway, Maleah needed a few things for school so we went. Yes, Carissa got some things too. Yes, I did too. But anyway, the girls got the cutest new pajamas and I wanted to get a picture of them together in them. Thanks to digital cameras (I am adding that to my best inventions ever list today) I can take a million pictures until I am sure that I got a good one. I usually take at least ten or twelve shots of them every time I take their pics and then just show you guys the good ones. But today I am going to show you all of them because this is a good example of how hard it is to get a good shot of them. Someone is always giggling or moving or breaking out in dance or talking or pulling the other's hair or pouting.

I don't know anyone else, other than these two, who can pull off the zebra-pants-look quite like they can. Have a great week everybody!

The Tooth is Outta Here!!!

Another exciting week with us.  Another first...

Maleah lost her tooth!  So, you're probably thinking "Oh my gosh!  I bet that was dramatic!".  Because any of you who know her (or have even met her) know that she can be incredibly dramatic.  She screams  if she skins her knee so surely losing a tooth would cause the neighbors to call the police.  But nope.  She did awesome!  The tooth fell out and she didn't even know it.  It was really loose so I told her to eat an apple.  By bite number three the tooth was barely hanging in there and she said it hurt and it was bleeding.  So I gave her a Kleenex and told her to hold it against her tooth.  So she did and she took the tissue out of mouth to show me how bloody it was and there was a tiny little baby tooth stuck to the tissue.  I said "Maleah!  That is your tooth!".  She was like "It is?".  Then she just started laughing like crazy.  She was so excited!  She couldn't hardly go to sleep that night because she was so excited.  The anticipation was almost as great as it is for Santa.  She was that excited.  I was sitting in the living room after she went to bed and I could hear the occasional giggle coming from her room after I tucked her in.  The tooth fairy left her a dollar bill and four quarters and even let her keep her tooth.  She put it in a gift box from the jewelry store and is very proud of it.  If you stop by to visit, she'll probably show it to you.  Just a warning. 

She posed for me after she lost the tooth.  She looks so cute when she smiles and you can the see where her tooth used to be. 

Here's a cute picture of Carissa.  This headband stayed on for less than twenty seconds - just long enough for me to snap a picture.  When Maleah was a baby and had bows in her hair or barrettes in her hair I would have other mothers say to me things like "Oh, how do you get her to leave them alone?" or "Doesn't she try to take them out?".  I always replied that she didn't and just left it at that but I was always thinking "No, why would she?  I told her not to, so she doesn't.  If you want her to leave them in, you just tell her to leave them alone".  Haha.  I was so naive.  I truly thought those moms were just being too easy on those babies and not making them wear a barrette/bow/hat/sunglasses.  Well, I now have one of those babies who won't leave a barrette in her hair.  Her and I go round and round about that.  We are both extremely stubborn but I am sorry to say that I think she is winning the war on this one.  I've won a few battles but overall she is winning the war.  Even though I tell her to leave them alone and not to take them out she doesn't listen!  Can you believe that???

The girls were sitting together in our big recliner the other day.  They were being really sweet to each other so I decided I had better grab the camera.  Usually if they are within touching distance of each other one of two things usually happen:  1.  Carissa pulls Maleah's hair, Maleah screams, calls her "bad baby", and moves away from her, or  2.  Maleah "accidentally" knocks Carissa over or takes whatever Carissa is holding at the moment away from her.  Sometimes #1 is the cause and #2 is the effect and sometimes #2 is the cause and #1 is the effect.  I am not tolerating this well and I am trying to raise them to be loving and kind to each other.  I have no idea if I am succeeding at this. I guess time will tell...  Anyway, here they are sitting and laughing together.

Update on my B90X program:  I am almost done!!!  Woo hoo!!  I have about 20 days left!  I am finally in the New Testament.  Yay!

What else is new with us?  Well, we finally got a DVR.  I know.  I think we were the last people in our age group who didn't already have one.  But hold onto your seats because the Coopers have moved out of the stone age and are all caught up with the rest of the world (not including my parents or Jason's parents, who are the last people in their age group to not have a DVR).  Maleah is excited because we can now tape Arthur, which is one of her favorite shows and we always seem to miss it.  I am excited because now I won't have to make one of the hardest decisions in my life:  Idol or Biggest Loser?  I can watch them both!!!  How cool is that?  Jason is excited because now we can record Top Shot, which is a reality show about men and women who compete in marksmanship (is that the correct word?) for about 6 weeks.  It's sort of like Survivor and each week someone has to leave.  They shoot lots of different kinds of guns, archery and other random weapons.  Jason could sooo do that show.  I wish he would and win us the $100,000 grand prize.  Too bad he doesn't have 6 weeks of vacation.  Do you think his company offers a "reality television leave of absence"?  Have you guys ever seen the quarter that I keep on my keychain?  He gave it to me when we were dating (yes, that long ago).  He can throw coins (and other random things) up in the air with one hand and shoot a hole through it with the gun in his other hand.  Pretty tricky!  He is a good shot and I'm willing to bet he could win that show if they'd ever let some good 'ol boy from Southern Illinois on there.  But I think they like to pick military men and policemen with HUGE egos.  Oh and the host of the show is Colby from Survivor.  Maleah and I are both huge fans of his.  She thinks he's handsome.  She has good taste.

Maleah came to me the other day and said that she has decided that "when I come out with my first album, I'm going to call it Bird in My Hands."  Okay.  I have no idea where she got that but isn't it interesting that she thinks about things like that?  She mentioned it to me in a very serious tone and I could tell that she had put a lot of thought into it.  And, by the way, she had absolutely no doubt that there would be an album one day.  It's totally a given in her mind. 

She also asked me the other day where the Jordan River was.  I told her it was in Israel (it is, isn't it?) and she asked how far away that was.  I said "really far away".  She said "as far away as the Duggars?" (they live in Arkansas).  I said "Oh yeah, waaayyy farther than that.  All the way on the other side of the world".  She said "which side?  This side? (looking to her left, out the car window) Or this side? (looking to her right, out the other car window).  Hmmmm.  I told her I had no idea but I thought you could get there from either side.  I think I need to bring the globe upstairs and give her a lesson on geography.