Cooper for President

I am losing my marbles. I have raised many boys and seen them turn into fine young men. I am not sure I can pull this one off. I may have met my match.

This is Cooper in our hotel room.

My youngest child, Cooper, was adopted along with his sister, after we had them as foster children when they were 5 weeks and 17 months old. Cooper has never met a stranger and has no enemies. He is kind and funny, and makes you feel like you are the center of his world whenever you are with him. He is a mechanical genius. He is video game champion 2008. He reads on a sophomore level. And he has never completed a chore since he was 6. He gets me side-tracked and I don't notice the half-ass job until he is asleep, looking so innocent and angelic. And he is flunking 2 classes.

I had the dreaded teacher's conference with ALL my 12 year old son's teachers this week. It started at 3pm ,and I anticipated being done by 3:30. A simple, "Your son has so much potential, but he doesn't work to capacity", "His average is extremely high, except for daily grades and writing assignments", "I think he is so cute. I am amazed you didn't really birth him" were the expected phrases I anticipated. And I got those, okay, minus the 'amazed you didn't birth him' phrase, and just as I expected he is lazy at school AND home. Each teacher was allowed to tell me what the issues were. Each teacher said he read too much. And rushed through his work and can't write legibly.

He was the top student of the Accelerated Reader program last year, and this year is like 3000 points ahead of the closet competitor. He would rather be reading than doing anything else. The reading teacher confessed to never having this issue before. She hates to make him stop, but he is avoiding his school work.

And he is a schmoozer. He schmoozes his way though, avoiding having to do what the others students are required to do. He is cute and charming. The teachers all confessed to having problems making him do required work because he can make them see it his way and his excuses make sense at times. He side-tracks them as well. All the teachers. All five of the seasoned experienced teachers.

So, after two and a half hours of "conferencing", all of us agreeing that he needed to go into politics, these women that I have never met before now get him every Tuesday and Thursday after school for tutoring. The conference will go down in history as the longest and most fun. And our next planned conference, I am in charge of bringing the wine.

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We went to Oklahoma on the 10-12th of this month. We have been home 11 days. Cooper has apparently been without his toothbrush for 11 days. He finally confessed this morning when I asked him how long it had been since he brushed his teeth, since they looked like kernels of corn hanging from his gums. 11 days, people. He is smart, but not clean.

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So in thirty years, when you see a cute, charming, highly intelligent Presidential candidate with yellow teeth and the name of Cooper, please vote for him. I think I would look cute in the White House. And think of the blog parties we could throw...