Cooper is 6!!!

We can't believe that Cooper is seven! He is such a big kid! Here are some fun things about Cooper at seven years old: 

1. Just last week Cooper lost his top front tooth. His other top front tooth is super news. For a while both of the front teeth would wiggle together as a unit. But one held on strong.coupe has a hard time parting with his lost teeth. When he loses a tooth he is worried that the tooth fairy will come. He does not want her to come and take his tooth away. So he has dad keep it protected in our bathroom.  Maybe one day soon he will be ready for some cash.

2. Upward basketball started again this year just last week. Nate decided he would give coaching a try. He is coaching Cooper's basketball team for first and second graders. Cooper is loving every minute of it. He got new basketball shoes for his birthday. He is way into the sport.

3. Cooper loves to go to primary at church. Michele Metcalf always sit with me and the kids to be some helping hands. Cooper really likes Michelle. She has been helping him work on division problems.

4. Cooper is such a thoughtful boy. He is always concerned about what someone else feels or needs or wants.  He can notice when someone needs help or is feeling sad.  He is very sensitive to his own feelings and the feelings of others.  He is very able to recognize when someone needs something and he is very confident in helping to meet others' needs.  It is a quality that is so precious to Cooper. 

5. Cooper is very hard-working. He is very determined. He gets that from his dad. He will work his heart out at something that is important to him and then he has mastered it. He does this with piano, schoolwork,yard work, and anything else that is asked of him.

6. Cooper is becoming a really good at the piano.  He really really enjoys learning it.  He is one that will practice and practice till a piece is perfect before he will stop.  At first he was almost OCD about it.  He would run through an exercise and if he messed up in the middle, he'd have to start over from the beginning until the whole thing was done from top to bottom without any mistakes.  He's not quite as obsessive as when he first began, but he has a determination to succeed just like his dad.  He hopes to be able to play like his cousin Jared someday.

7.  Cooper really likes to cook.  I love to cook, so I am always cooking different things for our family.  Cooper loves to help.  One evening, it was apparent that I was not in the best of moods.  Cooper announced that he was going to make breakfast for dinner.  He is such a thoughtful boy.  I know that he noticed my demeanor and wanted to help.  He is so much like his daddy.  So he got to work and he would not let anyone help him.  He wouldn't even let anyone in the kitchen.  I't took a while, but he did the whole thing:  scrambled eggs, fruit salad with marshmallows and cut up fruit mixed with yogurt, bread & butter, and orange juice.  I came to check on him several times, and he assured me things were good and he needed no help.  I really was so proud of him.  He even set the table.  The whole deal!  He is smart as a whip!  He is the most prone to spills than any other kid I've ever known, but he also can accomplish a dinner for 7!  

8.  Cooper is such a confident kid.  His classroom at school consists of 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders mixed, with a total of 22 students.  He is used to being the younger one (because of his brother Jaxton), so it was interesting when he gravitated toward a group of 3rd graders as his best buddies at school.  Fernando, Jackson, Cameron & Cooper are such good buddies at school.  They are great kids.  I'm so glad that Cooper has a confidence about him that allows him to just be who he is with everyone. 

9.  Cooper has become a great reader.  He can read so well.  Its amazing how a kid can be taught to read, and then can teach himself by reading and reading and reading more.  I remember trying out our reading lesson book with Cooper when he was barely four.  He wasn't quite ready, but I thought we could try anyways, just for fun.  He struggled with sounding out words.  He couldn't blend the words.  So we put the book away and pulled it out during his pre kindergarten year.  And Alas!  He could blend words.  I learned that a kid can learn just about anything when they are ready.   And now, Cooper is such a fluent reader and he loves to read.  He is reading Harry Potter #1 and is almost all the way through.  He knows the story because of the movie, so that helps him get through the difficult words and phrases that are way out of his reading range.  Yet he can follow the story and is so proud of himself.  Way to go, Cooper!

10.  Cooper loves to wrestle.  It is his favorite thing ever.  He loves to wrestle until he's crying, and then he gets up and keeps going.  He is such a fighter, such a determined winner.  His drive is incredible.  He is super strong.  He is lucky to have 3 brothers to wrestle with.  I don't know what he'd do if he was in a family of sisters.  !!

Here are a couple cute things Cooper has said or done lately:

Cooper said, "in real life do dreams really come true??"

One day, to be camouflaged so a bird wouldnt see him, he put his boots on backwards facing behind him. 😄