Go Mighty Raiders!

Future Cheerleaders of America. Carlisle and cousin Julianna practicing their JA cheer. I guess Julianna is really a second cousin, or cousin once removed, or something like that - she is Charles's first cousin's daughter. But we'll just stick with "cousin". Especially considering it is the closest my girls will get to real cousins anytime soon - unless Bonny and/or Brian get on the ball. ;) Anyway, she is 5 months older than Carlisle, but a grade ahead of her at JA. The other red-head at the end is Elizabeth, Julianna's sister. She's in 3K at JA, so a year behind Carlisle. When Rainey gets there next year, we will pretty much have a whole squad of Copeland cheerleaders.

In Response to Megan

This post is in response to Megan's names post on her blog. When I woke up and saw the post this morning, I just had to respond. I had already started a names post last week, when Carlisle started school, but had never finished it. Like Megan, children's names interest me and I think they do say a lot about who chose the name, and I think the name has a big influence on the way the child is perceived. For example, imagine a Bertha and now imagine an Alexandra. Right or wrong, I think most people have pre-conceived notions about what certain names or types of name represent.

I started a post on names because I had been pouring over the 96 names of children in pre-primer at her school, and noticed that there was a child named "Anna Carlisle". A double name, but still the same name as my little angel. I don't know why it bothers me, but I just don't like other kids to have the same name. I suppose it bothers me because one of the big reasons I chose to use family names that are a little different is because I didn't want there to be other children in their classes with the same name. Although there were two Carlyles in my sorority, one my age and one a year younger. So I suppose I had warning that the name was not entirely unique - and that's not what I wanted. I would have had to completely fabricate a name to completely ensure uniqueness - and that's a scary thought. (Insert the Lemonjello and Orangejello jokes here).

And now Megan, for your fix, here are the kids names in Carlisle and Rainey's classes:

Carlisle's Class
Girls:
Madeleine
Fowler
Carlisle
Caroline
Libby
Lilly Grace
Emma
Ellis
Yasmine
Annalee

Boys
Matthew
Gunner
Blake
Hudson
Samuel
Davis
Ben
Cameron
Cole
Jackson

Rainey's Class:
Girls
McClain
Vivian
Rainey

Boys
Liam
Will
Charles
Stader
Cole
Cannon Gage
Luke
Vincent

Uncertain
Wesley
Landry

Since Rainey just started yesterday I haven't had a chance to meet everyone just yet, that's why I'm not sure if Wesley and Landry are boys are girls. I was going to guess they are boys, but surely there are more than 3 girls in her class, so that made me start to wonder if maybe they are really girls.

First Day of School - numero dos

Rainey's first day of school was today. She had a great time. She said she played and danced. Here she is before we left this morning.

Out for a stroll

Out for a stroll
Originally uploaded by sscopela

2020 Olympics Here We Come

Okay, maybe not. But Carlisle did have her first gymnastics lesson today. She really loved it. I can't say that I saw any obvious raw talent (hard to believe I know, considering her mother can't even touch her toes), but I was just so happy to see her actually go out there and try and have fun. I'm not sure if I blogged much about the soccer fiasco - but let's just say it will be many years before she ever convinces me to enroll her in soccer again. She can be really really shy and I was afraid I would just be throwing away a bunch of money, yet again, for an activity that she won't even participate in once she gets there. Not the case however, she announced after class that she loved it and wanted to know if she could go again tomorrow.

She selected the leotard herself, if you hadn't already guessed. Shiny purple leopard print, purple velvet, and rhinestones - the stuff of dreams. Here's a video of her doing the balance beam obstacle course. She's the girl in the front, not sure why that blonde is following so closely behind her. Guess she realizes greatness and just wanted to be close to it. ;)

Oh, and ignore the commentary on the video. Charles had just called when I started the video, so I was talking on my cell. And the quality is really bad because I filmed it from the observation area which is up above the gym and behind glass.




Here is a close up of the leotard, and a picture of Carlisle "teaching" Rainey how to do the balance beam. She constructed her own beam out of our dining room chairs.

The captain and her first mate

The captain and her first mate
Originally uploaded by sscopela

>
>

>
>
>
>
>

How do I look?

How do I look?
Originally uploaded by sscopela

Hunting deer

Hunting deer
Originally uploaded by sscopela

I guess we need some guns, they love them. Here they are "hunting
deer". And yes, Rainey is outside wearing a tshirt, panties, and last
years black patent dress shoes. She has her own sense of style.

Stick em up!

Stick em up!
Originally uploaded by sscopela

We have lots of baby dolls, stuffed animals, toy strollers, dress-up
clothes and such but we don't actually own any toy guns. For some
reason there were 6 guns on our front steps last night when we got
home. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the eight boys that
live either next door or across the street. Yeah eight neighbor boys
and no neighbor girls - we are already worried.

Ironing

Let's see, we've lived in our house for 4 1/2 months now and this morning I finally got around to unpacking the iron. There are still about 10 boxes in a closet that haven't been unpacked, so I knew the iron had to be in one of those - just to clear up anyone that was thinking I haven't ironed because I didn't know where my iron was. I knew where it was, I just didn't want to unpack it.

I totally despise ironing. The only reason I decided to do it this morning is because I was pulling out a shirt that was really too wrinkled to wear (which is a pretty low standard around our house). I was about to put the shirt back in the closet, when I realized that I would probably never wear this shirt again unless I got the iron out.

My mother-in-law LOVES ironing. She irons everything, pillow cases, jeans, t-shirts... Don't get me wrong, I would much prefer our clothes to be ironed, but apparently I don't care enough to actually do any ironing more than a few times a year.

I don't usually solicit comments - but drop me a comment and let me know where you stand on ironing. I'm wondering if this is a generational thing and most women my age don't really iron - or if I'm just lazy and need to get my rear in gear on the ironing.

First day of school!

First day of school!
Originally uploaded by sscopela

My big girl in her big girl uniform!

Only in my dreams...

Only in my dreams...
Originally uploaded by sscopela

> Jessica has really cool software on her iPhone that made me look
> like this. Nice huh?
>

>
>
>
>

A defeated man

A defeated man
Originally uploaded by sscopela

Poor Baxter

Almost Famous

Click THIS LINK.

It's an article and pictures from a party we went to for a family friend. I know that Leslie, Jessica, and I pretty much steal the show with the fab picture at the top of the page, but make sure you scroll down to see our husbands featured as well.

Put on your big girl panties

Well, I *think* Rainey is well on the way to finally being potty trained. I mean, she's not 100% by any means, but she hasn't worn a diaper except to sleep in since Sunday. This is very good news, especially considering she will be 3 in two months.

I was just adamant about not pushing her to use the potty until she was ready. When Carlisle was 2 years 5 months old we moved in across the street from our pediatrician whose son was a month younger than Carlisle. Molly (our pedi) decided she was ready for Matthew to use the potty and just took his diaper off and that was that. I decided that if Molly was doing it, I should probably do it too. So off came Carlisle's diaper. After several days of puddling on the floor she pretty much caught on. And after those first few days she NEVER had an accident away from the house (school, walmart etc..) But at home was a different story. It was over a year later until she stopped having "accidents" at home. She actually didn't stop until we went to Spain and after being away from home for over a month, I guess she finally got out of the habit.

I was convinced that the year of struggling with home accidents was pretty much to spite me for *making* her use the potty, and I swore that I wouldn't make Rainey. Of course I also thought that since Rainey is pretty much a prodigy ;) and since she really looks up to her potty using older sister, that she would be ready fairly early to potty train. Wrong. She has had basically no interest in the potty, actually pretty much disliked the potty and any suggestion that she should attempt to use it.
But Sunday morning she came in and told me she needed to go to the potty, she used it, put on panties and we haven't looked back.

So, I'm sure this post is of little interest to my friends and family who don't have children of potty training age. But for those that do - don't let other people (your mom, mother-in-law, best friend whose child potty trained at 18 months etc...) stress you out. It will happen.