Taking Cooper in the Middle to the Ducks game tonight. Poor dude is always getting it bad from both ends. Big brother belittles him, bosses him around, dismisses him, ignores him. Little sister for some reason chooses him to take out her frustrations at being a 2 year old, always yelling at him, hitting him when he's trying to be nice to her. And of course, with the way life works, he's the middle child in every way. Everybody dotes on little Hazel and praises Kellen for excelling in school.
And yet Cooper just wakes up every day smiling, does everything he is supposed to, nice to everybody, easy going, lets most things roll off his back (though one day, he is going to obliterate his brother and I might just turn a blind eye). Perfectly content to spend all day outside playing sports or just curling up on the couch to watch sports or the Simpsons. Treats his sister like a princess even when she's mean to him and is constantly being asked over to friends' houses on the strength of good manners and low maintenance.
So I'm taking him out of school early today (emailed his teacher Monday for approval to make sure he didn't have a test or an activity), road tripping with him down to Eugene and going to the Ducks/Arizona game. I rented Rocky II from the library and he'll watch that while we drive down. He saw Rocky this month and can't wait to see the rest of the series (I refuse to show him V, though). Little man is pumped up for the night and so am I. He deserves a little special treatment.
tl;dr proud dad, excited for the night, Go Ducks.