21 posts tagged “coulson”
Coulson had his first T-ball game today. I was a bit skeptical about how this would work with a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. A few months ago I tried to explain baseball to Couson while we were at a minor league game. The concept of hitting the ball was pretty easy, but then I tried to explain strikes and outs and it got very complicated. Coulson's eyes glazed over and then he just wanted to go back to climbing over the stadium seats (it was a curiously empty stadium, probably because it was in South Carolina on a Sunday -- no beer).
So thankfully the rules for T-ball are a bit simpler than baseball. For each inning, the teams bat through the whole line-up. For each hit, the runners each advance one base (if the ball goes out real far, there is potential to go more, but that didn't happen today). In the field, once a player gets the ball, he holds it up in the air and yells "time." The coach explained the reasoning this way: "One - they can't throw the ball and two - they can't catch it." The game continues for about an hour, or four innings, whichever is less. No strikes, no outs, everyone scores, but no one keeps count. We made it through 3 innings today. It was mostly the coaches directing the kids what to do and where to go, but by the third inning, the kids were catching on a bit.
Enjoy the video Casey made. It's about 8 minutes long, but it's edited, so it's not boring endless taping. There is also some cute commentary by Charlie (examples of the endearing "oh man"). Coulson is number 4.
On medical technology:
Coulson: What if shots didn't hurt but they tickled? Instead of a needle, the shot could have fluffies. And then it would explode. BAM!
Coulson: Does the needle poke through your skin?
Me: Yes.
Coulson: Why doesn't it leave a hole in your skin?
Me: It does, but your skin heals itself..
Coulson: No! That's what the band-aid does. Band-aids keep the hurt in. It keeps the hurt in inside your body so it doesn't get out.
On tiredness or hunger?
I'm so tired I could barely eat a camel. A camel with two humps.
To Charlie on a tire swing:
You have to hold on real tight. You can't let go. If you let go, you'll fall through and knock your eye out. And your knocked out eye will be all yucky and then you'll die!
At the end of our bedtime routine, I sing a song to each of the boys before I tuck them in and leave the room. They are now sharing a room (yeah, we have enough bedrooms, so we did this on purpose, crazy, I know), so I'll sing to Coulson while we all cuddle in his bed and then I'll sing to Charlie right before putting him in his crib. Lately a favorite request is "Snuggle Puppy" a song from Sandra Boynton. (Sandra Boynton writes children's board books, but they are all very clever and funny, so it's not a drag to read the same book over and over and over again. She has also written some songs which are also very amusing and "Snuggle Puppy" is from the the book/music CD Philadelphia Chickens.)
The lyrics go like this:
Ooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine,
Everything about you is especially fine.
I love what you are. I love what you do.
Fuzzy little Snuggle Puppy, I love you.
After I leave the room, I go across the hall to the office to check email and do internet stuff. Sometimes Charlie wants me to keep singing, but I don't want to get stuck in a routine of endlessly singing to him till he falls asleep, so I have to say no more singing. But after I leave the room, sometimes Coulson will take over and start singing to him. So as I have been writing this, Coulson is singing Snuggle Puppy to Charlie and it's just the sweetest thing in the world, so I thought I would share it with you. Little moments like this are the reason we wanted them to share a room!
I love you so much!
I love you more.
More? How could you possibly love me more than I love you?
Because I have 2 hearts.
Two hearts?
I went to the heart shop and got two orange hearts.
Two orange hearts?
My red one wasn't working so I asked for two orange hearts and I threw my red one in the trash can. And then it went to the landfill.
It couldn't be recycled?
No, it couldn't. It had to go to the landfill.
(The landfill part was added while Coulson was helping me recreate this conversation as I typed it on the computer)
This video has been pretty popular on You Tube with over 37 million views. It's just a simple video of 2 little brothers doing brotherly things, you know, the stuff my life is filled with.
Coulson saw this video and, since he had a baby brother named Charlie, he wanted to make his own "Charlie bit me" video. We did this way back in February, but I am just now posting it to YouTube (unpacking procrastination?). Enjoy!
Whenever Coulson says something great, I write it down on a piece of paper and date. These pieces of paper end up stashed away in the bottoms of drawers and re-surface from time to time. I found this one while I was unpacking and of course I had to take a break from unpacking so I could post it here.
12/24/06 (Coulson was not quite three and Charlie was about 4 months old. I think I was feeding Charlie during this conversation)
Coulson: Sometimes I'm feeding Baby Bear.
Me: Oh yeah, what does Baby Bear eat?
Coulson: Ummm, chocolate milk. It's from my boobs.
Me: How do you get chocolate milk?
Coulson: I put it in the mixer and I mix it all up.
Me: But how does the chocolate milk get in your boobs?
Coulson: Ummm, it goes up the steps. Up the steps.
Yesterday was Coulson's last day of preschool and today everyone got together for an end-of-the-year picnic. He had a great time playing at the park with all his friends. As he told his father, "I had more funner at the picnic that you even know!"
I'm kinda of sad as this year ends because it means he's finished with three-year-old preschool. Which means next year he'll be in four-year-old preschool, which is the same as Pre-K. Which means after that he'll be in kindergarten. So really I'm sad that this year is over because in one and a half years he'll be in kindergarten. And after that, it's only twelve short years before he's leaving me for college. My little boy is growing up so fast!
In a recent post I declared that my family would be done with all of our illness by the end of February, thus enjoying March in complete health. Apparently the Powers That Be thought that declaration was a bit arrogant and decided to unleash a dreadful disease upon me. I didn't have the actual flu (my husband thinks he's an expert in these matters and insists that I did not have the flu) but it sure felt like it. I was out completely for a week (really hard to do with two small children!) and still dragging for a second week. Now I am finally on the mend and getting back to my regular routine.
Although I want to blog all about our trip to New York - visiting Casey's Aunt Mary and Grumpy (his grandpa) and my brother and niece and nephew, playing in snow, running a Shamrock Fun Run in freezing temperatures, and there's a great story about why for future plane trips I will pay extra for direct flights when traveling with children. (The story ends at 3:00 in the morning and still 90 miles from my home). But it's late and I really don't have the time for that right now, so I will leave you with a Conversation with Coulson -
On God:
"I know what God looks like. He has a beard. A big beard. Not a little one like Grandpa Bud. The biggest beard ever! It's even bigger than your hair!"
"It looks like juice is squirting from your mouth!"
as I'm throwing up in the toilet - I had a stomach bug today (feeling better, thanks).
Most people know about "the terrible twos." But most of the moms I've met agree with me on 2 addendum to the terrible twos: 1) The terrible twos start at age one and a half and 2) age three is much worse than two. (Oops, I may have just exposed a long kept secret to all my childless friends. Forget what this blog says- children are angels! Clocks are ticking.)
Coulson turned four on Monday! And in the past month or so, I have noticed a change in his behavior. He still gets upset quickly, but instead of throwing himself on the floor screaming, he can usually be reasoned with and calm down enough to "use his words" and talk about his feelings. And he can understand the consequences of his actions. Impulse control isn't so great, so understanding the consequences of his actions doesn't quite act as a deterrent yet. I'm not saying we'll never experience tantrums or irrational behavior ever again (ahh, the teen years), but I am hoping that the frequency has slowed. Of course now that he can "use his words," we have to battle rudeness and talking back and interesting variations of "what really happened."
We had a Safari birthday party for him on Saturday with grandparents, cousins, aunt, uncle and a couple friends from preschool. I had so much fun at the party that I forgot to take any pictures. I'm hoping that the grandparents can send me their pics and then I'll post some for all to see. The kids made binoculars and then we all went on an "imagination safari" looking for hand-carved wooden animals that my parents brought back from Africa. The safari was a bit like an obstacle course, designed to occupy the energy level of eight kids aged 1-5. Think stampeding with elephants and jumping over snakes and acting like monkeys. And yet, they didn't seem tired afterwards. They also got to wear animal noses, very important for Coulson. The theme of the party was all about Coulson getting to have an elephant nose. It was all he wanted.
Coulson loves being four. He's probably mentioned turning 4 at least once every day for over a month, and he still talks about it. "Now that I'm four..." he says. Lately, his favorite activity is pulling the mattress half-way off his bed and tumbling or jumping or rolling down it into a pile of blankets and pillows at the bottom. He calls it "playing clowns" and I have no idea what it has to do with clowns. He can do this for hours, as long as someone is with him to watch all his tricks and talk with him (yep, he still hates to be alone.) Charlie also loves this game and it's fun to watch the two of them rolling off the bed together.
He's still into Super Heroes. Spiderman is his favorite, although he doesn't really know much about him because he's never seen anything with Spiderman on TV. I just got some classic spiderman cartoons from the 60s from Netflix that I need to screen before I let him see them tomorrow. He also says that he likes Star Wars and knows all about Star Wars. "Where did you hear about Star Wars?" "I just know. I know all the guys, like 'Olfie' and 'Kiki'." I'm pleased to know that his imagination can more than make up for any real lack of knowledge, he'll do just fine when he grows up. Casey used to say that you don't have to know the answer, you just have to say it with enough confidence and people will believe you. (Interestingly, now that he's a doctor, he doesn't say this anymore - I think that's a good thing.)
He's growing up. He loves to do crafts with me and he's getting interested in coloring (yeah, he's a late bloomer on the coloring) and learning about reading writing. When he wants to "help" it's often more like help, instead of "help." Help is nice because I can get things done faster. (Whereas "help" makes me groan internally because I know it will take three times as long to complete a task.) The other day he helped me put together one of his birthday presents and he did a great job of snapping the little thingies into the little holes. We had to do like 50 of them and by the end, he was quicker at it than I was. He's more interesting to talk with and I'm finding that it's easier to enjoy playing with him sometimes. I think I'm going to like age four.
But guess who's one-and-a-half.
