Hall Monitor

Do you remember your hall monitors in grade school? We've determined (ok I did) that Coop has inherited Jim's love of following the rules. Those little bottles I bought at Wal-Mart yesterday were a big deal in the house. The boys wanted to play with them and I wanted them to leave them alone so I could use them. Both boys tried their hardest to get them but I was consistent and found a way to hide them. Today I pulled one of them out and put it on the counter to fill up. Bear saw it tonight and he really and I mean really wanted it. We'd just returned from a late night grocery run and I felt like I'd pushed them to their limit. (Imagine blueberries rolling everywhere and Cooper chasing them trying to eat them. It took 3 adults to pick them up and stop him from chowing down. Whole other story there!) My point is that they were hungry and tired so I said fine Bear you can play with this bottle.

Cooper notices Bear with the bottle and runs over and grabs it from Bear which causes lots of Bear fussies. I tried to explain to Coop that I had given it to Bear and it was ok. That did not go over very well. "Mommy mommy Bear has the bottle!" we heard that about 10 times and he kept trying to take it and give it back to me. Bear was not letting go though. I think when the words finally sunk in that Bear was allowed to play with the bottle his eyes just became little puppy dog eyes and he reluctantly walked away. I got a chuckle out of it because it was just such a Jimbo thing to do. (He is so rule oriented it baffles him when people don't follow the rules that have been explained.) Just as another example as we were leaving for the grocery store Bear saw "The Puddle." I immediately start in, "Up the stairs please." Bear ignores me and starts making a be-line for the puddle. Cooper runs up and blocks Bear saying in his sing song voice (just like I say it), "Ah ah ahhhh!" If Bear keeps going Coop will say it louder and louder. So Jim and I were commenting on how Cooper was our little Hall Monitor but the kicker (at least for me) was Jim admitted he was always secretly jealous of the Hall Monitors and wanted to be one :-)