I absolutely wish I had a tape recorder handy at all times so that I could capture the funny things said, the cute conversations between brothers, etc., etc., etc. that occur on a daily basis around here but my sleep-deprived memory will have to do!
Let's start with sweet Carter. I am truly blessed to be his mom - he has the kindest heart of any 5 year old I know and is definitely wiser than his age would indicate. My sister-in-law Sarah's dad passed away last week after a long and courageous fight with leukemia. Carter knew he had been sick but he'd become progressively worse in the past few weeks and was in the hospital in Boone. I think we all knew his passing was imminent but just didn't know exactly when and our hearts were breaking for Sarah and her family dealing with it all. Carter had just gotten off the phone with my brother Brian one night before bed and was particularly sweet, telling him how much he loved him and Sarah. When I put him down that night I was telling him a little about how Mr. Fields was really sick and had something yucky in his body that would probably take him to heaven soon. Carter is pretty sensitive so I was expecting tears but he looked at me with his little insightful look and said, "Mommy, I know one thing Sarah's daddy won't need when he's in heaven! He won't need anymore medicine because God will make him better again!" I think I had chills to my toes to hear such sweet, simple words that absolutely summed it up.
We've had lots of heaven talks in our house with our dogs both dying last year so Cooper's first comment was that Mr. Fields would take care of Woody and Hallie in heaven and make sure they had lots of dog food! He was quite the dog lover so hopefully he's living it up and doing just that. Cooper's been very inquisitive about it all and has asked lots of questions about where heaven is, what it's like, do they have houses there, what do they have to eat, and on and on and on. We were in the car when Coop started asking all this and according to Carter, heaven has everything you could every want: big houses, lots of fruit, veggies, and fish sticks for Cooper, and even a Geo-Trax train for the little kids but the really old people don't care about that because they don't really like toys:).
The boys were unbelievably good for our trip to the mountains for the funeral and we had such a special time remembering an amazing man. The weekend was much more of a celebration of Mr. Fields' life instead of dwelling on the sadness of it all and it worked out perfectly. We heard awesome stories about him from friends and family and cherished every second we were there. If you would like to read more about him, here's the link to his obituary. His was posted on 3/3 so you have to scroll down a little and his name is Hugh Andrew Fields and what a legacy he left behind!
http://www2.wataugademocrat.com/obits
Some other quotes in no particular order:
~Cooper, you're the best little brother I've ever had in my life. ~
Cooper talking about a bank he saw out the window ~Mommy, look! It's Mexico! But what is Mexico Mommy? ~ (Thank you Dora for teaching my children geography)
~Mommy, Philip in my class, he call me Coop, but no my name Coop! My name Cooper Tison Bass so why him call me Coop?~
We could hardly wait for NC State's Farm Animal Days this year and as usual, the boys had a blast but word is apparently out about our little find because it was ridiculously crowded. They held baby chicks, saw horses, cows, pigs, goats, rabbits, turkeys, etc. and loved every second of it, well almost!
Cooper needed my help to hold them but Carter was so sweet to let Coop check out the one he was holding:).
Now for the unhappy part! Cooper was eagerly awaiting the strawberry ice cream after seeing the animals and was less than thrilled when they informed us they were out of strawberry. I got him vanilla instead but that just wasn't going to cut it for Mr. Stubborn (where could he get such a trait!).
My sweet pouting boy.
Hold on a second, maybe vanilla isn't so bad!
Yeah Mommy, I actually like it!
He thankfully came around and was nice enough to share with Carter so we could head home as Hudson's patience was running out.
We have a beautiful tree next to our driveway that Carter likes to climb. It's so sad to me that the blooms are only really pretty and abundant for about a week but we enjoyed it while we could!
