Introducing Cooper!

It's been over two years since our beloved weaselful golden retriever Zoe breathed her last and went to the Happy Hunting Grounds.  We knew one day we'd have another dog, but for a while we were content to hang out in our dog-less-ness.  No doggie tumbleweeds rolling through the house.  No messes to clean up in the back yard.  No scratches in the wood floors.  No vet bills.  No worrying about racing home to let the dog out.  It was kind of nice.  But recently it began to feel a little empty.

Having raised two puppies once before, Steve and I knew what we were in for and decided we'd wait till next spring to get a new puppy.  The kids would have the summer to bond with it; and Libby would be going to kindergarten, giving me some time to train the puppy.  (Honestly, we weren't too excited about the prospect of going through the puppy stage, but we feel strongly that our kids should grow up with a dog.)  I realized I had no idea where to get a labrador retriever puppy around here (Zoe was a Buckeye, and Gabby had been randomly found wandering the streets of Charleston), so a couple months ago I started researching lab breeders.  That's when I stumbled upon the Lucky Labs Rescue.  I looked at their website, and it got me thinking: We don't have to get a puppy!  We could get a "ready-made" dog!

Once we settled on the idea of getting an older dog and not a puppy, the need to wait till Libby started kindergarten just sort of went away and our desire to have a dog in the house again got a little bigger. 

And so...I would like to introduce Cooper!

Cooper is a two- or three-year-old black lab.  But he acts like he's nine.  (That's how we know he's a Nichols at heart.)  He is a sweet, sweet boy.  He loves the kids.  He just flops down wherever we are in hopes of getting a belly rub.

Libby especially loves him.  Right away she showed him all the pictures of her recent tea party.  Cooper looked on with all the doggy interest he could muster.

We had Cooper here on trial for about two weeks.  When he first came to us, he really just wanted to flop in the corner and ignore us all...unless he was trying to dash out the front door whenever it opened a crack.  We figured he had "shelter shock":  he'd been in about four places (original home, pound, rescue foster home, and our home) in two weeks' time.  Poor boy. 

But each day he "woke up" and warmed up to us a little bit more.  By last week, we knew he was our dog, and I think I can say he knew we were his people.

So, today, it became official:  We signed the papers, and Cooper Rescue Dog is now Cooper Nichols!

Now we just need a middle name so I can start monogramming stuff for him.

"We're Rockin', Mom"

What I woke up to Saturday morning:  "We're rockin', Mom!"

On drums:  Andrew!

On drums:  Adam!  (What can I say?  We like percussion.)

On vocals/lead rubber band guitar:  Libby!

Cow Day, Year 3

Ages 8, 6, and 4 -- still fun to dress up like cows for Chick Fil A Cow Day!

Ladies' Man

Inconsistency, Thy Name Is Libby

My poor, poor little Libby is completely terrified of all insect life.  Even a random housefly spotted buzzing across the room will cause her to tremble all over in terror and cry with no sound.  It's pitiful.  And spiders...an imaginary "spider sighting" in her room in the wee hours can cause all of us to lose a good night's sleep.  She just suffers, and it's awful to witness.

However...

My girl with the extreme insect/arachno-phobia thinks nothing of scooping up one of these:

mole crab: the cockroach of the ocean

Yeah, I don't get it, either.

Another Kindergarten Graduate

Well, Adam has officially made it through kindergarten!  I have to admit that we headed into this year with some trepidation:  Our little Hedgehog has something of a reputation for being unpredictable.  But Adam positively amazed us in kindergarten.  This was his year to blossom!  He couldn't read at all on the first day of school; now he is reading fluently.  He had several little buddies in his class and did well socially.  His math skills are crazy.  (That certainly comes from his dad, not me!)  He came home singing phonics songs every day.  (Sometime ask him to sing the song about the sheep in the jeep.  It's my favorite.)

We went to his graduation ceremony on Wednesday.  Here are a few of my favorite moments from the day:

Standing up and reading a sentence about what he learned in kindergarten.  (It was "In kindergarten I learned to snap my fingers.")  Notice he held his paper upside down.  Classic Adam.  This makes me grin.

                                           

Holding hands and singing.  Adam's face conveys his thoughts about this.

Still reluctant...

Giving the closing words of the ceremony

Adam and Mrs. Nance, the teacher's assistant

Adam and his teacher, Ms. Norcross.  She thought Adam was a star.  I love you for loving my boy, Ms. Norcross!

Congratulations to Adam, our newest kindergarten graduate!

Libby is Four!

Well, Libby, after much anticipation and some completely understandable confusion what with a preschool birthday celebration at the end of May, a family celebration on Memorial Day weekend, and a friends celebration two days ago, today you are actually four years old!

All you wanted this year was a tea party for your birthday, and I had decided that this was the year I would farm out your party.  There were two cute little tea shops in our area, either of which would have been a perfect venue for tea for you and a few little friends.  We would walk in the door, everything would be set up, we would have a delightful tea and open a few presents, and we would leave.  I wouldn't so much as wash a single dish.  However, I discovered that both establishments had gone out of business right in the months before your birthday.  Naturellement.  And you were dead set on having that tea party.  Mais bien sur. So it was on to Plan B...a tea party at home.

And I have to say, I had a ball planning it for you!  We decorated hats, wore fancy gloves, put on "lipstick" (chapstick, but whatever) and jewelry, ate fancy sandwiches, and had a good time.  You and your little friends were such lovely little ladies.  It was all. so. girly. {swoon}

Party favors

Annual "waiting for the party guests" shot

Decorating fancy hats

All the sophisticated ladies going to tea

The birthday girl

I forgot. There was one other thing you wanted demanded for your birthday.

You may not realize it now, but one day you will know my feelings about gift wrapping (it's akin to a religious experience) and items featuring licensed characters (they should all be burned). So when we were out shopping one day last week, you glommed onto this awful, cheesy Barbie (I don't even think it's real Barbie -- more like a Barbie knockoff!) wrapping paper. You were enamored of it and begged me to wrap your presents in it. It was the wrapping paper of a four-year-old's dreams. Honestly, it was exactly what I would have wanted my mom to wrap my presents in when I was four. (My mom would have refused. With good reason.) I tried diplomatically to talk you out of it, but you were resolute. And, thus, THIS:

Hideous

Proof of my great, great love for our Barbie-loving, tea-drinking, bow-wearing, roughhousing, Lego-building, big-slide-at-the-pool-riding, brother-following, Mario-Kart-playing, scooter-riding, Mommy-hugging, precious FOUR YEAR OLD Libby.