christmas 2013 & entitlement.

I pretty well failed at taking Christmas pictures this year. Kind of like how in January I completely failed at writing any blog posts. Here they are in all their glory. The very long overdue Christmas post in {a few} pictures.

This picture pulls at my heart strings.

Milk and Cookies for Santa - "by the door because we don't have a chimney."

Can you tell which cookie Cooper iced?

I did get some video of Cooper coming down the stairs on Christmas morning for all you far away family and friends.

Andrew and I started the discussion of "what do we get rid of/how do we store these/there's so much stuff." Cooper has a lot of toys. And while we love giving him things he loves, we don't want him to become entitled.

When Cooper was a baby, I remember complaining about how hard it was. A dear friend of mine kindly foretold me of my future. "This is the easy part, Chandra. It only gets harder." And I'm often reminded of this truth as we continue to navigate parenting. Each stage is hard. Each stage has it's own difficulties.

The reality that Cooper has the ability to become very entitled hit us, scared us, and made us future think to problem solve. I've also added it to my Cooper prayer list.

Teaching him not to become entitled is going to be hard work. I mean, have you seen his dimples? He basically just flashes those right under his blue eyes and he gets whatever he wants...even from total strangers! 

Here's kind of where we've {currently} landed in the "don't become entitled" department:

• We are having him help us sort through the toys. He's actually spoken names of children who he thinks some things should go to.
• We are focusing on teaching him compassion. People who are compassionate and giving are not entitled and selfish.
• We have him save his money for things he wants.
• We talk with him. So much of my day is spent talking with his sponge-like mind. Teaching him truths and how-to's has become my what I do most category. Andrew has been putting him to bed a lot lately. Their recent bedtime topics: grace, truth, and integrity. Hopefully he's using his sponge to absorb it. Hopefully one day I'll get to see him wring out all the knowledge as he navigates life when he leaves home.

Oh, and how could I forget this? Cooper LOVES his new dojo bag. He's becoming a real life ninja.