A Letter to Cooper on his THIRD Birthday

Today is my little boy’s third birthday.  My how time flies.  It is unreal to me that he was born three years ago already. 

Cooper,

You amaze me a little bit more each day.  You find ways to make me smile even when you are asleep.  You make me the happiest, proudest mama.  Your daddy and I hear compliments about you nearly everywhere we go.  “He speaks so well.” “How old is he? Really, only three, he is so smart!”  “He is so cute with his glasses.” And many, many more.  And you know what?  They are right.  You do speak very well, as in – more clear and with a larger vocabulary than any other three year old I have ever met.

 You are like a sponge, you soak up nearly everything you pay attention to, it is quite amazing to me.  You can remember things that I do not expect you to remember and I don’t quite know how you do it.  You can drive me bonkers faster than your daddy, which is saying a lot.  I’m so in love with you my little boy.  You are at such a fun age, I love our days together.  It’s been so fun listening to you talk nonstop for the last year.  You talk more than me!  I didn’t think that was possible.

You are a baseball fanatic.  You cannot get enough.  If we let you, you’d play baseball  24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Recently, you’ve actually started liking basketball and football, so you’re reaching out – but still really obsessed with baseball.  I’ve been asking you what you want for your birthday, and all you keep saying is “a bat and a glove and a fence and a ball and some bases.”    You say that EVERY time I ask.  Consistent at least.

Your favorite books are Just Like Freddie, Let’s Go Hoosiers, Grumpy Morning and Me and My Dad.  You love Row your boat, my God is so Big, Zaccheus, Little Bunny Foo Foo, Old MacDonald Had a Farm. 

You know so many nursery rhymes and songs by heart.  Last night you just started saying Little Miss Muffet out of nowhere.  You knew every word.  You have a nursery rhymes book that your Nana got you, and if people didn’t know better, they’d think you could read already.  You go through it page by page and recite the rhyme, and you can tell which one it is just from the picture.  You are Mr. Smarty Pants.  Speaking of being smart.  Your brother asked you how smart you were, and he said you were “too smart”, you immediately told him that you were “three smart” because you were almost three.  Adorable.

I seriously cannot get enough of you, each new day you show me another reason why.  Yesterday morning, even though you woke us up at 5am having to go potty, when Daddy put you back into bed because it was still night, night time, you didn’t cry.  Not one bit.  What you did?  Started singing songs.  Your daddy and I heard you sing “we’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo, how about you, you you?” and I just had to smile.  Sitting in your bed, in the dark at 5am singing to yourself. 

You LOVE music and singing.  In my car, you constantly ask for “my songs” (aka a bunch of kids songs and Wiggles songs all in a playlist on my iphone).  One night last week, we put you to bed like we usually do, and you didn’t want to sleep, so you sat in your bed again in the dark and sang songs to yourself.  It was 10pm and I was going to bed, and I had to come and tell you that it was time to sleep.  We rocked for a minute and then you passed out.  You’re such a silly little guy.

You do have trouble listening and doing what Mommy and Daddy tell you to do, and that is driving us crazy right now, but we just have to be consistent about how we discipline you.  We’re working on teaching you to do what we tell you to do, when we tell you to do it.  That is NOT easy.  Not in the least.  We will get there, little by little.

Within the last month, we’ve introduced you to some new TV shows and it seems like you’re obsessed at this point.  (Bad mommy!)  They are all educational or lesson teaching (Blue’s Clues, Super Why, The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot about that, Dora the Explorer, Curious George).  You still like Sesame Street and the Wiggles, but they are not all you want to watch anymore.  We try to only let you watch 30 minutes in the evenings, but sometimes we give in and let you watch some in the car too, especially Charlie Brown, you LOVE Charlie Brown.

Cooper James Johnson, your mommy and daddy love you so much.  I hope you are as happy as you seem to be, and I hope you continue to be happy all your days.  You bring so much light to our lives and we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

I love you,

Mommy