coop hits 7.

cooper is 7. my baby is 7. wow. it's like once he hit 5 he has been growing at a ridiculously fast pace. he's in first grade. that's like legit school, no more baby stuff. he loves it's a lot of work. fortunately, cooper is a genius (it's my blog, i can brag if i want to). he is our rational & reasonable. he understands so much more than the average kid. in fact, if you want him to do something, or not do something, you just need to sit down & explain the reason why & hence forth he will obey. cooper is intellectual & fact driven. he loves to learn. we spent the summer doing science experiments, art activities, & learning spanish & sign language just to satisfy his need for knowledge. we go to the library almost weekly & every time i have to limit him to ten books-which he sees as an almost impossible demand. every book he pics in non-fiction & the topics range from archeology to marine biology. he loves to tell what he knows & make hypothesis & discuss these things. he is polite, kind, & well behaved. he always comes home with the best reports from school & aunties. he loves being the biggest brother. he teaches his brothers & is always the first to come to their aid. mylo has figured out that if mommy won't do something for him (i.e. open another bag of chips or turn on another show) he can ask cooper who always complies. his new thing is reading to his brothers. it's probably my favorite thing ever. he is very well rounded & succeeds at just about everything he does (he gets it from his dada). he is very in tune with his body & has incredible control over his movements-if you teach or show him how to do something he can mimic it almost instantly. he has always had an innate understanding of his physical limits & never pushes himself beyond what he knows he can handle. he always knows when to stop or when to ask for help. he loves sports & insists i cheer the loudest (which is a stretch for this shy mama's limits-but i do it for the sake of my guy) & often plays better when he hears his mommy & daddy yelling. he loves praise & affirmation. this summer coop started earning his keep with daily chores & weekly allowance. he's still pretty shy in one-on-one situations but his confidence shines any time he's in front of a crowd. he loves dominating on the soccer field or presenting in front of an assembly at school (which he was asked to do twice last year). coop has lost four teeth this year & only adult tooth has filled in the gap. i love his gappy smile. it reminds me of the gummy smile he strutted for nine months as a baby. i am amazed by how tall he is. it won't be long until he passes me up. actually, too soon we will be able to swap clothes (not that he'd ever wear mine, but truth be told sometimes i do wish i could borrow his). he's everything i could hope for in an eldest child. he's strong, smart, kind, helpful, & above all a great example for his brothers. he's well aware of the responsibility he has as the biggest brother & he gladly embraces it. he has a gorgeous smile but nothing warms my heart like seeing his eyes light up. his presence adds so much to our family & our days just aren't complete when he's away at school. tj & mylo ask at least once every half hour if we can go pick up coopy & tj constantly tries to trick me into going by saying that he just heard the bell. then tj, mylo, & i compete to see who can be the first to hug coop when we pick him up in the afternoons. when daddy gets home he always reserves quality time with his buddy to chat about cooper's day & read whatever nonfiction has currently captivated coop's mind. we love him more than the sun, the moon, & all the planets & stars. we love him all the water to pluto's farthest moon & back.

1.  cooper's best friend: jai, blake, & andrew
2.  cooper's name: cooper j watkins
3.  cooper prefers to go by: cooper
4.  cooper's favorite animals: megaladon 
5.  what does cooper want to be when he grows up: gemologist or marine biologist
6.  cooper's favorite movie: curious george & ninjago
7.  cooper's favorite song: all the songs on 98.3
8.  what makes cooper happy? getting surprised with something really cool
9.  what makes cooper sad? when it rains & we can't go to really fun places
10.  cooper's favorite food: "square pizza" (little ceaser's)
11.  cooper's favorite place: fun factory
12.  cooper's favorite color: green 
13.  cooper's favorite game: mancala & war
14.  cooper's #1 wish right now: to find a genie & ask for three wishes: 1. a shrinkamajigger to shrink        things 2. a time machine 3. a real megaladon tooth