Two Times the Fun (and Then Some)

Things I Love about the New House or Less is More

2012-02-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

Is it sick to say that I'm downright giddy about cutting our square footage in half?

the buffet in the dining room

Over the last few years, the houses we've lived in have gotten slowly bigger. An extra bedroom here, an office there. Before I knew it, we had nearly tripled the size of the townhouse we started out in. And had acquired enough stuff to fill all of that space.

Sure, we had plenty enough room at the last house for my parents, my mother-in-law, my brother, and my brother- and sister-in-law to all come and have a bed to sleep on, each in a different room of the house, without batting an eye or doing any shuffling of our normal sleeping arrangements. But can I tell you how often all of those people came to visit at the same time?

Not once.

i love the little details that go into things like heating ducts

So for the vast majority of the time, we had several rooms full of furniture that we never even touched. A sofa I never sat on. Beds that were never slept in. Empty dresser drawers. Stuff. Sitting there. Collecting dust.

claw-foot tub

Even rooms that seemed "practical" when we were moving in (the play room, for example) really became a place to throw stuff and shut the door ~~every night~~ on nights that I didn't feel like cleaning. The space didn't bring more family together, it allowed me to shut the door on family when I didn't want to deal with them.

Not that I would ever send my kids to the playroom and shut the door.

Never.

detail of the buffet glass

So here I am, sitting in a house that is significantly smaller than anyplace we've lived in recently. And I love it. I love the charm that is built into a home that was constructed roughly a century ago. I love that this house was built by the man who founded the little village (neighborhood, now) where we live in order to provide housing for his employees. I love that supposedly he brought much of the wood down from the Chicago World's Fair rather than allowing it to be thrown away (we may be walking on the very stage Nikola Tesla stood on, for all I know).

dining room: bay window, corner cupboard, chandelier

I love that my family is here with me as I type this, crawling all over me, rather than in some other corner of the house. I love the forced togetherness that the smaller space requires. I love that I can't be as selfish with how I spend my time. I don't have a choice about being engaged in my children's play, for they are playing right here with me.

You know what? We have two bedrooms and one bathroom for 5 people, and so far there hasn't been a moment when we have truly needed any more. In fact, we feel like we have a lot of space.

I guess we just like being together.

come and have some coffee with me on my porch

Whatever

2012-01-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

When it comes to parenting, or kids in general, it seems like everybody's got some golden nugget they just can't wait to pass on to unsuspecting mothers.

It happens in grocery stores. At parks. In the doctor's office. Everywhere I turn I see someone staring me down, eyeing my 3 munchkins...some folks are practically drooling...ready to pounce with a tidbit.

Most often it's the same banal "You've got your hands full" that I've been hearing for 4 years. Yeah, thanks for that.

Occasionally it's to tell me that the kids could be triplets, or that they look nothing alike, or something along those lines. I've learned to smile & agree with whatever is said.

It also seems that everyone's uncle's sister's cousin had a set of twins. Great.

I heard a real gem while at a McDonald's in West Texas near the end of day 1 of our cross-country adventure. An older gentleman walked up to me while the twins were pushing & shoving each other enough to make up for the 18 hours they had been strapped into 5-point harnesses and unable to get their hands on each other and asked with no other intro: "You sure them kids is girls?" Um. No. No, I'm not sure of that at all. Since they have penises.

People are a hoot.

I have gone down a completely different path with this post than I had originally intended and I don't know why. Maybe just because I was looking for a way to squeeze in that story about the old guy at McDonald's.

What I was originally thinking about was the number of times I hear people talk about/read some parenting book discussing bedtime routines. Almost always, a bath is mentioned as a great part of said routine. This has never worked for my boys.

For some strange reason baths have always wound them up. Ever since they were tiny. Bedtime and baths do not go together with my kids.

Every once in a rare while, I think to myself that I've invented this whole idea that I must bathe my children in the morning. That they are wilder than the wildest of the Wild Things if I bathe them in the evening. It can't be true. This whole bedtime bath thing seems to work for everyone else. It worked for my mother, for my mother-in-law. I must just be doing it wrong.

Tonight was one of those nights.

As I listen to the shenanigans going on in the bedroom that I need to go put a stop to. Again. I remember.

I can bathe my children at night if I want to.

I can then also spend then next 2 and a half hours fighting with them to lie down, keep their hands to themselves, be quiet, stay in bed, close their eyes, and generally behave. Tonight I thought I was doing great. They were clean, changed, lying quietly in bed. We turned out the light and I began to read to them. I read over 60 pages of a novel to them. They were silent. Breathing steadily. Angels. Then I got up and left the room. The acrobatics started within minutes. Over an hour later they still aren't really sleeping. In fact, I'm pretty sure I just heard somebody either bounce off the wall or the floor. No tears yet -- it can wait until I finish this post.

Whatever.

Whatever works for your family is great. Mine? We are not bedtime bath takers.

It's Not Just Me

2012-01-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

I am constantly calling my boys by the wrong names. Today I was happy to hear this conversation between the twins:

N: You're always being bossy with me, Levi...er...Wesley!
W: Don't say that! I'm not Nolan...er...Levi! I'm Wesley!

I had to smile.

Advent: Week 4

2011-12-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

Day 22: Keep on Driving!! It's a long way from the desert to the Midwest.

Day 23: Marshmallow Snowmen (L was more interested in eating than in building). Sorry L & N are sideways -- I can't get them to stand upright.

Day 24: Make Birdseed Ornaments -- the boys didn't really like MAKING these this year, but they loved putting them up on the tree outside!

Day 25: Make Wrapping Paper Collages. In the aftermath of family Christmas #2 and opening presents, we were reminded of the gifts that the 3 Wise Men brought to Jesus (the true reason we give presents at this time of year).

What a fun-filled Advent Season it has been! Now on to the 12 Days of Christmas!!

Advent - Week 3

2011-12-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

It's been another busy week around our house, getting ready for Christmas:

Day 15: Bake Christmas cookies (it was hard to be patient for them to come out!)

Day 16: We put on our party hats to wish a very Happy Birthday to Jesus

L-R: W, L, N enjoying birthday cupcakes

Day 17: Donate food to a local food bank

Day 18: Family Christmas #1 - open presents. The boys were SO excited when they read the card with Daddy!

Day 19: Learn about the wise men who followed a (toothpick) star to bring gifts to Jesus

Day 20: Make Christmas garland to celebrate and welcome Jesus

Day 21: Road Trip! Headed to the Midwest to see friends and family.

Advent - Week 2

2011-12-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

It's been an amazing week. Here we go...

Day 8: Auntie Jo's Birthday...this is always part of our advent celebration, even when we can't be with her. We like cake. And birthdays. And Auntie Jo.

Day 9: Learn about the birth of Jesus and make manger pictures (they kept requesting more animals & people the surround the manger)

Day 10: See Zoo Lights (L-R: N loved the monkeys in the trees, the whole fam, W was a little afraid of the dancing trees)

Day 11: Watch White Christmas in Mommy and Daddy's bed

Day 12: Make shepherd scenes and learn how they worshiped Jesus and told everyone that "Jesus is born!"

Day 13: Everybody say "gingerbread house!"

Day 14: Choose some of our old toys to give away to charity (here they are going through their toys & giving me a "thumbs up" for helping kids in need)

I have to say that they were super sweet with this activity. When we opened the door and read it, they both thought it was a great idea. W then announced that he "would like to give away his sleeping toy, Woody, to another boy or girl." This is a precious toy to him. When I reminded him that he wouldn't have Woody any more, he said, "I know. But I will still be happy."

In the end, we decided that maybe Woody should stay at our house. But we have boxes and boxes of other great things to give away.

Advent: Week 1

2011-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

We have one of those fun advent calendars with doors to open. We don't put candy inside. We put activities to do together as a family. This is a quick photo summary of the first week.

Day 1: Decorate the house for Christmas. L-R The kids' tree; the "family" tree; our pesebre

Day 2: Hot chocolate with whipped cream, marshmallows, and sprinkles followed by a sleeping bag camp out on the bedroom floor.

Day 3: Go to the theater to see The Muppets (best movie I've seen in ages)

Day 3: Paint special Christmas ornaments (I think they look amazing)

Day 5: Bust out Jazz -- our Elf on the Shelf

Day 6: Make Christmas cards for some special friends we miss

Day 7: Learn about the (paper plate) angel that told Mary the good news of Jesus' upcoming birth

Anyone Need a Nap?

2011-11-15T19:26:00.000-08:00

I call this my "Sleeping Tiger" series of portraits:

Every afternoon for a week, N would wander out of the play room having dug this size 2T tiger costume out of the costume trunk. He would ask for a little assistance in getting it on, as it is 2 sizes too small. After wandering around for a while -- perhaps helping make PBJ, perhaps playing the accordion -- he would drop off into a deep sleep that would last for several hours. When I could, I captured some photographic evidence. I may be biased, but I think it's pretty cute.

Bedtime Adventures

2011-11-09T17:52:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember my friend Blanket Boy and how he wreaked havoc on our bedtime routine. Well it seems that Blanket Boy invited a friend to sleep over a few nights ago. I don't know his name, as we haven't been formally introduced. However, I have seen his handiwork:

I'm pretty sure his name is Captain Destructor or Demolition Man or something along those lines. That's just judging by what he did to N's bed. Apparently, the good Cap'n was jumping a little bit too exuberantly when -- in the words of a 4-year-old witness -- "the bed went down, down, down."

In case you can't tell -- that's one of the twins' beds, and the entire side of the frame is split in half.

Needless to say, they aren't sleeping on this bed at the moment.

Amazingly, and unlike Blanket Boy, no one was harmed by Capitan Destruccion.

Both bed frames have been temporarily relocated to the loft, and the twins' mattresses have been placed on the floor. The boys don't seem to mind.

An unforeseen result of this incident has been this:

There he is. Shorty. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor just like his big brothers.

The night the Captain visited the bedroom, after the twins were safely on the floor and sleeping soundly, the Little Man was still wide awake and shouting in his crib. When I went in to investigate, I found him grunting and shrieking as he attempted to pull his mattress out of the crib all by himself. While standing on it.

"This. Out. On floor. Off. OFF!" he insisted.

I decided to give it a go. The crib is still in the room. Sometimes he sleeps in it. Occasionally because he asks to. Other times it is punishment for raucous behavior. And sometimes he sleeps on the floor with the other big boys.

But when I asked him if he could give up sleeping with the binky -- since he is such a big boy -- he said "no."

It's the Little Things...

2011-10-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

I have found that -- in order to avoid feeling overwhelmed -- I need to break down my daily tasks into smaller steps when I put them on my "To Do" list.

For example:

I do not write "dishes"
I write "empty dishwasher" and "load dishwasher"

This way, I am able to cross things off more often & feel a sense of accomplishment. See? If I just write "dishes" and get interrupted, I feel like I haven't gotten anything done.

I think today I'm going to break it down even further:

put away spoons
put away forks
put away knives
. . .

I feel a productive day coming on!

"I'm having a party. . .and you're not invited!"

2011-10-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of testosterone in this house.

And the males are starting to bond.

The only other female is the cat.

And she really doesn't like me very much.

I guess I should get used to being on my own more when whatever activity says "No Girls Allowed."

But, I have to admit, it was a little odd last Friday night when the hubby came home from work & announced that he was putting into action a plan he had been formulating in his mind for quite some time:

The First Ever -- Boys Only -- Family Room Camp Out

After dinner, all the extra sheets in the house were located, furniture was rearranged, sleeping bags opened up, and a pile of books and movies chosen. Then a fort was constructed that pretty much encompassed the entirety of the family room. I got four kisses "goodnight," and was banished from sight.

I am either a control freak or just very curious, depending upon whom you are asking, so I sat at my upstairs desk ~~eavesdropping~~ working on the computer, and I could clearly hear what was going on. It was pretty cute.

I also sneaked downstairs on several occasions to ~~spy~~ check up on them, without being seen.

W was the first one to crash. He still likes an afternoon nap if he can get one, and he hadn't had one that day. So he didn't even make it beyond the opening credits of the movie.

The hubby was the second one out. tee hee.

N and L watched most of the movie before giving in.

Here's what I found right before I turned off the TV for them:

I did a bit more sneaking in the morning, and headed out to grab us all some Dunkin Donuts to celebrate their survival.

When I came back, all 3 kiddos were awake, but Daddy was still zonked. They were all staring at him, as if they could wake him up with the force and not get blamed for it. As soon as they saw me, they asked if they could "please come out."

I thought about saying "no" just to see how long they could be contained.

Instead I fed them sugar.

The Adventures of Blanket Boy

2011-09-09T15:02:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you about how I met Blanket Boy.

A few nights ago, I was chatting on the phone with the hubby, who was (once again) out of town on business when I had to drop the phone and run as fast as I could to the boys' room. Why, you ask? (and I know you are dying to know).

I had to answer the call of Blanket Boy.

Or, in terms everyone can understand, one child was screaming at the top of his lungs, clearly injured. Apparently, "as fast as I can" isn't too fast. Both of my parents had managed to come up from downstairs and turn on the kids' light before I was able to make the short trek down the hall.

What we all found there was a ghastly sight. N's entire face & both his arms were covered in blood.

Upon closer inspection, it became evident that he had banged his chin and his nose, resulting in a scrape and a bloody nose. Nothing major. But very, very bloody.

Later that evening, while we were all still recovering from the trauma, he told me he had gotten his injury on the side of W's bed. I asked if they had been jumping. They both assured me that they had not. What, then, were they doing? They calmly and casually informed me that they had been playing Blanket Boy.

That was explanation enough for the moment. They were ready to sleep, and so was I .

The next day I asked them to tell Yaya (my mom) what they had been doing when N had gotten hurt. Once again, the explanation was that they had been playing Blanket Boy. Yaya asked what that meant.

"I will show you," they quipped in unison & disappeared momentarily to find a blanket.

N put the blanket over his head and said (in a voice reminiscent of Bullwinkle), "Look at me! I'm Blanket Boy!"

W proceeded to run at him and hit him full force on the chest with both hands.

N fell to the floor. Hard. And cracked up.

Then they traded roles. W did his best Bullwinkle and said, "Hello! I'm Blanket Boy!" while completely covered. N hit him full force and knocked him down in a giggling heap.

Despite encouragement that Blanket Boy is a bad idea, this morning Shorty was standing up in his crib, blanket draped over his head, shouting, "Blanket Boy! Blanket Boy!"

Car Talk

2011-09-06T07:09:00.000-07:00

This conversation happened on the 5-minute drive home from lunch yesterday. I swear the twins didn't even pause for breath in between sentences. I wasn't paying attention and ran over a curb, which set this whole thing off.

Thing 2: Mommy what was that big bump?
Me: I hit the sidewalk, buddy.
Thing 1: Why?
Me: Because I wasn't paying attention & was being a bad driver.
Thing 2: Why didn't somebody beep his horn at you?
Me: Because I wasn't being dangerous.
Thing 1: You're supposed to beep your horn at bad drivers.
Me: Just when they are in your way or are being dangerous.
Thing 2: Mommy that light is red, you have to stop.
Me: Okay (said light was on the next block).
Thing 1: Mommy! You have to stop at a red light!
Shorty: Look. Light.
Thing 2: Mommy, are you being a bad driver again?
Me: If it's still red when I get there, I'll stop.
Thing 1: Mommy, look. A big crane.
Thing 2: Will it lift that big box?
Thing1: Why is it not moving?
Thing 2: Is this a job site?
Thing 1: Boss says, "Lift that stone!" (quoting a library book we have at home now)
Thing 2: I don't see any stones.
Thing 1: Mommy, what's a stone?
Shorty: Look. Stone.
Me: A stone is like a big rock.
Thing 2: I don't see any rocks.
Thing 1: Boss says, "Scoop that rock!" (more quotes)
Shorty: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: Yes?
Shorty: Look. Rock.
Thing 2: Mommy, what are those?
Me: Those are pipes.
Thing 1: Mommy, what's a pipe?
Me: It makes a tunnel underground for water or things to go through.
Thing 2: We could play in pipes.
Me: You shouldn't. If the water came, you could get hurt.
Thing 1: What?
Thing 2: Would we melt?
Me: What?
Thing 1: The wicked witch melts with water.
Thing 2: Would we melt?
Me: No. You wouldn't melt, but you could get hurt.
Thing 1: Witches melt.
Thing 2: Who threw water on the witch?
Me: Dorothy.
Thing 1: Why?
Me: Because her friend the scarecrow was on fire and water puts fire out. But she hit the witch with water.
Thing 2: Is there fire in pipes?
Me: No.
Thing 1: The witch has mean monkeys.
Thing 2: Are there monkeys in pipes?
Thing 1: The monkeys take apart the scarecrow and make him in pieces.
Thing 2: Do the monkeys take apart Dorothy?
Me: No.
Thing 1: Can the monkeys in the pipes take apart us?
Me: No.
Thing 2: The other wicked witch turns into a dragon.
Me: In Sleeping Beauty. Yes.
Thing 1: I don't like that witch.
Me: That's why we have never watched that movie.
Thing 2:I don't like that dragon.
Me: That's why we have never watched that movie.
Thing 1: Somebody needs to throw water on that witch.
Thing 2: Do somebody throw water on that witch?
Me: No.
Thing 1: Somebody needs to melt her.
Thing 2: What do dragons say?
Me: *growl* and they breathe fire.
Thing 1: They breathe fire?
Thing 2: Like Uncle Rick.
Me: What?
Thing 1: Like Uncle Rick.
Me: Uncle Rick doesn't breathe fire.
Thing 2: Uncle Rick does this *growl*
Shorty: Uncle Rick.
Thing 1: I don't like witches.
Thing 2: I don't like dragons.
Me: But you do like uncle Rick.
Shorty: Mommy, look. Car.

My head hurts.

scatterbrained

2011-08-17T19:45:00.000-07:00

just a few random thoughts that have been on my mind...

i went into Hobby Lobby yesterday and was accosted by Christmas. in August. and it's 107 degrees outside. i'm not sure how this whole life-in-the-desert thing is going to work out.
i adore it when Shorty sings himself to sleep. tonight it's Old MacDonald.
i don't like it when the hubby is out of town on business. i know he's working, but in my head he is snorkeling. all day long. while i'm dealing with crabby kids and having half-eaten fish sticks for my dinner.
i cracked the wine tonight to have with my soggy fish.
perhaps the wine is contributing to the random nature of this post.
today i volunteered to be room mom for the twins' preschool class. i thought it would be a great way to be involved and meet people. then i realized that i don't know the first thing about being a room mom.
middle school teachers (which i was, once upon a time) technically have room moms, but it is about that time that room-mom enthusiasm completely ends. middle school room moms are more of a theory than a reality.
i don't think a theoretical preschool room mom is going to cut it.
monday a scorpion dropped from the vent in the bottom of the microwave onto the spoon rest on the oven, where it got stuck.
tuesday the microwave blew up. okay, it just shorted out.
is it possible for scorpions to use those pinchers to destroy a microwave's wiring?
i despise scorpions.
i will blame them for everything.
including global warming.
while it's kind of fun rambling like this, i think i need to stop. it's time to curl up with my vino, my book, my cat, and my tempurpedic ~~sleep vortex~~ mattress.

good night and good luck.

Milestones

2011-08-15T15:51:00.000-07:00

Anybody remember these sweet little babies?

Well...they just went to their first day of PRESCHOOL today!

Mr. W made a bee-line for the door of the school and didn't look back. Mr. N turned around and asked, "Are you leaving? Good." Shorty was not so happy that his big brothers were abandoning him for the day, but I think they were thrilled to get a little time without him.

They put on a good show of it, but about halfway in, they did apparently start asking for me. According to N, he was "a good boy until [he] started crying for Mommy." He also said he didn't like his teacher because she told him he needed to stop crying. Glad to know he missed me.

The combination of a 3-hour jet lag (which had them up before 6 a.m.) and a very big day tuckered them out and they were asleep on the playroom floor before I could even get some juice for them.

They aren't so big. ;-)

off we go...

2011-08-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow morning we pack up all 3 munchkins & head to the airport for a flight to Boston, complete with one stop to change planes. While I am excited beyond words -- which is quite a feat for me, really, to be beyond words -- about our week-long vacation in Cape Cod with my cousin & her lovelies, I have to admit that I am a bit nervous about the flight with my 3 crazy boys.

They have all flown before. But never all 3 together. And never such a long flight. Both times it was to Ohio from Colorado.

The twins flew when they were about 18 months with both me & the hubby to keep them in line. More or less. I suppose it would depend on whom you asked whether they were "more" or "less" under control.

Shorty flew with me when he was just 2 months old. Easy peasy.

Now they are not quite two and nearly four. And active. And noisy. And bossy. And stubborn. And very, very excited about flying.

This time we are clearly going to be "those people."

You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones you look at while you are waiting to board and say a silent prayer that they are not on your flight.

Yeah. That's us.

I'm not sure I want to meet the new neighbors...

2011-07-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

I am positive that's what everyone on the block is thinking after this evening.

The evening started to degenerate when Shorty woke up crabby. This usually means he's still tired & should sleep another hour. There was no convincing him of this today, though. He had pooped. The nap was done.

A cranky Shorty makes for a high-maintenance evening. He wants his brothers' toys. Not that he wants what is officially "theirs" over "his"; he just wants whatever happens to be in their hands at any particular moment.

And he's not good at using words yet.

So, he screams.

If I tell him to use words, he screams "MOMMYYY!" Not sure that's better.

The twins were in rare form tonight, too. Maybe because Daddy is out of town on business (it's very convenient to blame him). Thing 2 had his Bossy Pants on and Thing 1 was going by the alias Whiney McWhinerson.

Needless to say, they did not take kindly to toys being taken from them. Screaming. Arguing. Whining. Even (dare I say it) hitting *gasp, not my children* ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

It all came to a head when, after dinner, a strawberry somehow migrated from the kitchen table to the playroom floor where at least 1 -- possibly 3 -- sets of feet decided to grind it into the carpet. We moved the party to the family room so I could clean...

And the screaming fits started. Three of them. All at the same time.

"That's it. Bedtime." I announced, knowing that they were tired & an early bedtime would be beneficial.

Cue more screaming.

Shorty was somewhat agreeable to being changed and put down. Thing 1 screamed for a while & then, decided to try his hand at listening. He became very sweet, asked for my help getting changed. And when I praised his listening...he requested M&Ms as a reward. Sly.

Thing 2. Oh, he's a stubborn one. Always has been. This is the child who defied everything all the infant books said about "self soothing." It didn't matter how long I let him cry. It didn't matter how many days in a row I "enforced" this "soothing"...he was not to be soothed. I would find him red in the face, little fists clenched, screaming in between gasping breaths. So much for "soothing."

Anyway. He did NOT want to go to bed. He screamed. He cried. He fought me as he made me change him like a baby into his overnight PullUp. He then decided that the best way not to go to bed was to strip down.

So. He was naked on his bed. Screaming:

I DON'T WANT TO BE NAKED. I WANT MY PANTS AND UNDERPANTS. I DON'T WANT TO BE NAKED, MOMMY.

I really hope he can't be heard from the street.

Not-So-Fresh Prince

2011-07-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

cue the music...

Now this is a story all about how
My house got flooded from the upstairs down
And I'd like to take a minute just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the queen in a house with damp air

In central Arizona wild and crazed
Chasing munchkins is how I spend most of my days
Playing games, craftin', keepin' my cool
And dreaming of the days when they'll all be in school
When a short little guy who was up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighborhood
He had a diaper blowout and mom just stared
And said, "You're getting in the bathtub that is upstairs"

I gave him a bath and cleaned up his rear
Then I turned on the faucet to clean up the smears
His brothers started screaming; I wish that this were rare
So of course I forgot it. I left the water on upstairs.

I took L up for a nap 'cause it was getting later
And I yelled; I was crabby, wading through the water
I looked at my kingdom I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Queen of Damp Air

It can't come soon enough

2011-07-22T07:15:00.000-07:00

Counting down the days until a little of this

A little of this

And some of this

And who knows, maybe even a bit of this

yee-haw!

2011-07-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

As we were driving back from somewhere (it's hard to tell where -- most likely there was a Dunkin' Donuts stop along the way, though), we passed one of the area's larger churches. At the intersection where they have their sign, there is an enormous cross. It is kind of tipped over on its side like this:

...but clearly not actually this cross.

Anyway, I digress.

One of the twins piped up from the back seat:

"Look, Mommy! A cross!
It falled over.
Jesus must ride on that cross a lot!"

I had never pictured Jesus as a cowboy in the Wild West before. But I will confess, that is the image that popped into my head.

We laughed. A lot.

And then we corrected his theology.

No, Jesus did NOT ride on the cross for our sins; He died on the cross for our sins.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16

The Devil You Don't

2011-07-08T07:01:00.001-07:00

There are plenty of creepy crawly things in the world, and, truth be told, a lot of them really freak me out. I am a completely independent, self-sufficient, 21st-century woman.

Except when it comes to bugs.

In the case of those, I really prefer to have a man take care of squashing it for me.

Here in lovely Arizona, I have come to be acquainted with a new variety of creeper. The scorpion.

He is not my friend. Truly.

When I was unpacking boxes here at our new house and generally getting things ready for us to move in, I happened to find one of these beasties hanging out in the master bathroom trash can. He was clearly alive. And -- praise be to the Almighty Lord who knew I would have dropped dead on the spot if I had found this little guy scampering playfully around the house -- he was trapped inside that trash can.

I promptly shut the door to the bathroom and refused to use it until the man of the house could take care of the problem for me.

Did you know scorpions can live for MONTHS without food and water?

We weren't going to starve this baby out.

And as brave and strong as my knight in shining armor is, he wasn't too keen on dumping the scorpion out and chasing him around the house. So he formulated a new plan.

Did you know that it takes a scorpion upwards of 30 minutes to die when covered in clinging lime-a-way?

He fought that lime-a-way with his stinger, with his pinchers, and with every ounce of strength he had in him. But -- be it from the corrosive chemicals eating away at him, or just plain drowning I can't say -- that scorpion finally gave up the ghost.

We are now taking precautions against further scorpion "attacks." Let me fill you in.

Did you know that scorpions fluoresce in blacklights?

Blacklights can be handy in keeping an eye out for these critters when it's dark outside. We wouldn't want to accidentally step on one. Rumor has it that folks who grow up in scorpion territory turn on the blacklights in the back yard and take the whole family outside for a good old-fashioned scorpion stomping contest.

Not sure whose idea of fun that is, but I don't think we are going to be doing anything like that any time soon.

We are also wearing shoes in the house.

Remember that my husband is very clean and very particular and has spent the last 3.5 years training our children that you take off your shoes in the house. Shoes are dirty. We want the floors clean.

But we also don't want to step on scorpions in our bare feet.

So off to the store we went to purchase special "house shoes" that the kids are only allowed to wear inside. For 2 reasons. 1) to keep the floors clean; 2) they are NOT stylish.
The boys LOVE them. Well, the tiny man loves to wear his brothers' shoes more than his own. This has caused many temper tantrums. But it seems that lately he only wants what belongs to someone else. In fact, earlier this week, he would not eat his own cereal. He only wanted what was in N's bowl. Anyway, this behavior is not limited to the shoes.

I spend an extraordinary amount of time checking places for scorpions. In the bathroom. In the kitchen. In shoes. In bed linens.

I dream about them.

The boys are convinced we need to be on the lookout for stingrays, too.

But if I am truly introspective, I know that the paranoia will wear off eventually and that these guys are no worse than other bugs with which I've spent my entire life.

This friendly brown recluse spider, for example:

He's nice and poisonous. And lives all over the Midwest. Don't get me wrong, I don't like spiders. But I think I can count on one hand the number of times I found it necessary to shake out a shoe before I stuck my foot in it.

The devil you know, right?

...at least it's a DRY heat

2011-06-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

The temperatures in our new desert homeland were starting to soar past the 100 degree mark.

More pieces of furniture and other things in our corporate apartment were starting to fall apart (lamp, dresser, closet doors), the boys' beds had seemed to develop teeth and had bitten both the hubby and Thing 2 on the heel, and we may or may not have had bed bugs or another small biting crawling insect in at least one piece of furniture.

We still hadn't found a church to call "home."

And the breadwinner of the family was going to have a crazy month of work and we were facing several weeks of barely catching sight of him.

So...he kicked me and the boys out.

He took a look at his schedule and my frustrated face and twisted my arm and forced me to take a road trip to The Lou.

It's a good 10-20 degrees cooler here. But OH.MY.GOODNESS it has been a looooong time since I've lived anywhere with significant humidity.

I looked at the weather forecast for a morning we were headed to the park and was concerned that we hadn't packed jackets and long pants.

um.

No need to worry. We were soaked in sweat by the end of our play date. Seriously. I am not used to this. I feel like I'm breathing under water. Or in the steam room at the gym. I've been running the A/C in the car just to pull out the humidity.

I'm not saying that 115 degrees is sounding good to me right now.

But I am wondering if the clothes I have hanging up to "dry" will ever get there...

quiet

2011-05-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

The 3 little ones are sleeping.

The TV is off.

This apartment has no radio, no CD player, and I forgot my iPod in Colorado.

The dishwasher has finished its cycle.

The washing machine is not washing anything (although it should be).

The hubby is at work.

Even the cat is MIA.

And Mama can breathe..........

life in the desert (so far)

2011-05-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

We've been here for almost a month and it seems like we are busy all the time. Doing what? I don't really know. But here are a few things I hear from the mouths of my babes nearly every day:

The men with trucks will bring all our toys and then we will be so so happy!
Are we going to our old house or our new house?
In-N-Out is Daddy's favorite.
Can we drive on the bumpy road?
Let's go to the frozen yogurt shop. I want worms and butterflies.
We made cards for our friends. The mail man took them in an airplane. Maybe our friends will say "thank you" to us.
I-K-E-A! What's it spell? IKEA!
You don't hug a cactus.

Go West, Young Man!

2011-04-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Oh! that the desert were my dwelling-place,
With one fair Spirit for my minster.
That I might forget the human race,
And, hating no one, love but only her!

-Lord Byron

oh my...we are gifted

2011-03-17T13:45:00.000-07:00

We love love love to sing at my house.

Whether you want to hear us may be a different story entirely.

The Dynamic Duo got guitars (um...ukuleles) for Christmas & just can't stop playing them. Or perhaps I should include quotes around "playing." I'll let you be the judge.

N was quite happy with his choice of "Play your Guitar with Murray" by the Wiggles. W is the bossy one who insists on changing to "I'm In Right Out Right Up Right Down" which he learned in Sunday School.

Don't you love their enthusiasm? ahem...

showings, staging, and stuff

2011-02-24T18:03:00.001-08:00

Well, we are officially "on the market" as of Tuesday afternoon and have had two showings so far. I feel like my whole being is preoccupied with the possibility that we'll get a phone call requesting a showing in a few hours and the knowledge that potential buyers want to see houses that look like someone could possibly live there but show no real evidence of actually being lived in. My heart starts beating faster & I start to sweat just thinking about it.

What about the dishes in the sink?

What about the laundry hanging all over the laundry room?

What about the floor that is covered with whatever the latest meal was?

What about the toys that are strewn all over the house?

What about the little ones clamoring for my undivided attention?

How can I possibly get the house ready?

I have determined that it can only happen if we're in a constant state of half-readiness. Which means my day is spent like this:

wake up and make sure the house is absolutely spotless before we begin to dirty it with our life
serve breakfast to the kiddos
clean up the boxes of cereal that Shorty has pulled off the pantry shelves and spilled all over the kitchen floor
break up the fight that has erupted between the twins in the family room
race up the stairs to find Shorty running all over the house with toilet paper he has dunked in toilet water; clean up this mess
head back downstairs to help Thing 1 or Thing 2 finish up whatever potty business he needed to take care of of; clean up the mess
go back upstairs to try to minimize the damage Shorty is doing as he dumps the box of cars out in the middle of the twins' bedroom floor, takes them to the top of the steps, and throws them down
run back downstairs to break up yet another fight and clean up the toys the twins have thrown at each other
return to the twins' room to find that Thing 2 has decided to unmake the beds and roll all over the floor while shouting "oh, no! oh, no! oh, no!"; clean up this mess
back downstairs to try to clear the table of breakfast and sweep an entire bowl of cereal off the floor
race up the steps to find out who is screaming and why
return to cleaning the kitchen just in time to make lunch for everyone and let the whole cycle start again

Did you notice there is no mention of personal hygiene or getting dressed? Yeah. We might smell bad right now.

But the house looks great.

Coming Soon

2011-02-17T06:21:00.000-08:00

That's what the sign in our yard says as of yesterday afternoon.

I've got some crazy cleaning to do before pictures are taken on Saturday (why am I blogging right now and not cleaning?) and the house is officially "on the market."

I am not looking forward to keeping it clean, that's for sure! Here's hoping the weather stays nice so we can spend some time at the park. Otherwise, you'll be able to find me most days at one of 3 places: the gym, the library, or Lil Monkey Bizness.

So far the funniest thing that has happened so far was when we were meeting with our realtor (working with the relocation company and their approved realtors and all that jazz is another story entirely). Anyway, the woman was asking my kiddos if they thought someone might want to buy our house. Mr. N piped up immediately: "YES! Jesus!"

Pretty sure we won't need to run a credit check if that's the case.

It's the Little Things

2011-01-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

It's the little things in life that make me happy...

a 3-hour nap from Shorty
twins cuddling in bed watching movies during said 3-hour nap
the smell of bleach in my kitchen

Bliss.

Oh, and let me add:

the gym + child care
an actual shower + child care (still at gym)
cereal for dinner

Evening Bliss.

Name that Tune!

2011-01-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

Shorty has been singing to himself nonstop lately. It's usually the same song. Let's see if you can figure out what his favorite ditty is.

Video #1: (he keeps getting distracted and saying "cheese" for the camera, but it's a pretty good rendition)

Video #2: (he's pretty busy in this one, but singing the whole time)

Did you figure it out?

Here We Go...

2011-01-11T08:20:00.001-08:00

So.

I am now one of "those women."

Those women whose husbands are out of town on business as many nights as they are at home.

At least temporarily.

Just to fill in those of you (I'm estimating 2 of the 5 of you who read this blog) who don't know our big news for 2011: we are moving to Phoenix.

Arizona.

There was talk at Thanksgiving of a possible promotion with relocation for the hubby, and a few weeks later the offer letter finally came with a start date of January 1.

eek.

That had me pretty freaked out. His company gives you NO TIME to process what is happening and the thought that the holidays were mere days away and that as soon as they were done we would be moving had me pretty shaken up.

Then I found out that the company would put our house on the market for us and buy it after 6 months if it hasn't already sold. In the meantime they would pay for B to fly back and forth from Denver to Phoenix on a weekly basis so that he would have 3-4 days there & 3-4 days here.

This was a great relief to me.

Until yesterday, when it suddenly hit me that he was packing to leave me alone. ALONE. with my 3 little monsters, er, munchkins.

So, now all I have to do is survive the week without his help at night...

Christmas (take 2 & 3)

2010-12-31T06:20:00.001-08:00

Christmas part 2 came to us after a LONG drive from Denver to the Lou. Leaving at 3a.m. is perfect for the twins. They sleep a good 3-4 hours at the beginning of the trip and then another hour or so after lunch and we arrive just in time for dinner & bed. Shorty is not quite as fond of going back to sleep, but he is in a zone for at least 2 hours. So it works.

The boys (and the rest of us) were inundated -- by my parents -- with enough gifts that they didn't even know what to do with themselves after a while. Buzz and Woody made appearances in the form of stuffed toys, blankets, books, and movies. Everything Buzz belongs to Mr. N, who keeps repeating, "Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" while Woody is Mr. W's favorite by far, and even has to be tucked into bed with the little man every night.

Christmas part 3 required another drive, nearly as long as the first. *barf* But involved lots of aunt, uncle, and cousin fun! N & his cousin Kayleigh are born buddies -- perfect playmates. Neither one has ever known a stranger. N's philosophy is "I'm here to play; tell me what to do." Kayleigh's is "Let me tell you the best way to play." She's going to get him into a lot of trouble one of these days! W had a great time, too & was able to remember cousins he hasn't seen in half a year just at the mention of names.

Me: We're going to cousin Drew's house. We love cousin Drew.
W: Yes. (PINTER PAUSE) He scary.

I found it hard not to laugh. W did eventually warm up to my cousin, but it took some doing. Shorty, on the other hand, is not fond of parties or strangers (and my family is strange). On top of that, he had a head cold that was making him extra-irritable. He napped in the corner for a while and then insisted on being held with a binky in his mouth and a blankie over his head for the rest of the evening.

As always, we followed up with karaoke & the LONG return trip to St. Louis.

Not looking forward to the rest of the drive back to the Rocky Mts.

Christmas (take 1)

2010-12-19T16:41:00.001-08:00

We had our first round of Christmases this past weekend, hosted by my fabulous mother-in-law. She always puts on a great feast & the kiddos LOVE her & all her energy. Here are a few favorite quotes from the day:

(in the car heading to Grandma's house)
W: That present for Auntie Jo?
N: NO! It Jesus' birthday! That present for Jesus!

(relaxing at Grandma's house)
N: (points to Auntie's pregnant belly) That's Baby Cousin.
Auntie: Yes, it is.
N: (looking very concerned) He too big. He has to come out now.

(opening a Thomas tent & tunnel from Auntie & Uncle)
W: (hands on his cheeks, Macaulay Culkin style) OH MY! OH MY! OH MY!

45 Minutes

2010-12-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

Thing 1 & Thing 2 have (mostly) given up their nap.

Occasionally, they will pass out from sheer exhaustion. And if we are in the car, they are out light lights. But for the most part, "nap time" has become "room time" until the Little One wakes up from his nap.

Now the older 2, when they switched to just 1 nap & up until just recently, would sleep for a good 2-3 hours. Beautiful. Time for Mommy to relax AND get some chores done.

Shorty, though, doesn't think he needs sleep. I put him in his room, have potty break for the twins, get them into their room to play, clean up their lunch, make my own, and sit down to eat. Just in time for him to wake up.

It's throwing off my mommy mojo.

Confession

2010-12-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

Today was a long day...and tonight is poker night...and there was a lot of cleaning that needed to happen before the basement was poker-ready...

Today's advent activity was supposed to be "Make a gingerbread train."

My children cannot read.

We told them it said "Eggnog for dessert."

Much easier. And they were still happy.

A Bit like Frankenstein...

2010-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

...but walking, nonetheless.

oh, their little brains.

2010-11-29T07:55:00.000-08:00

Scene: Thanksgiving Day. The appetizers are out. The grandparents, aunts, uncles all are present. The boss and his wife are walking up the sidewalk ready to join the party. The little ones are napping. Or are they?

Mom: It sounds like the twins are having WAY too much fun up there. I'll go up and see if I can settle them down and tuck them into bed.

Dad: That sounds like a great idea. They really need a nap.

Mom walks up the stairs to the children's bedroom and slowly opens the door only to discover quite a mess.

Twin A: Hi, Mom

Twin B: Mommy, I has poop in mine pants. And on a floor.

Mom: On the floor, buddy? Yuck. You know where to put your poop, right?

Twin B: Yes. On a potty.

Mom: Right. Looks around room. Notices poop on walls. Buddy, you didn't TOUCH the poop, did you?

Twin B: Yes! I THROWING AND THROWING the poop!

As curtain falls, Mom tries to look stern, but turns toward audience and chuckles.

RSVP

2010-11-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

Apparently, we have forgotten what those 4 simple little letters at the end of an invitation mean. You know the ones I'm talking about "RSVP."

I was always under the impression that it stood for "répondez s'il vous plaît," meaning "please respond." However, either this isn't common knowledge or people are incredibly rude.

Seriously, when the number of invited guests actually attending a party could be anywhere from 18 to 48 depending on whether or not those 30 people who didn't bother to respond actually show up at the door.

Is there some way we can have a bouncer at the door of weddings and showers and birthday parties stationed at a table so the non-responders can leave their gift and then head home? Or how about a wrist band method where only those on the "list" get a wrist band and are entitled to things like food, a place to sit, and a party favor?

I like it.

Let's do it.

But, somehow, I think WE would be the ones considered "rude" in this little scenario.

Let's do it anyway.

excuse me while i vent...um, i mean blog

2010-11-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. . . and all is still not right with the world of Daylight Savings Time (or lack thereof, I really don't know which is which -- I just know I "fell back" and have not yet gotten up).

Try as I might, I can't convince the kiddos that yes, it is light outside but no, it is NOT time to get up yet.

My mornings used to be so lovely:
5.30 a.m. -- alarm
5.45 a.m. -- out of bed followed by a leisurely cup of coffee, breakfast of whatever I wanted, and plenty of time for my morning devotional, maybe a shower (and perhaps even unload the dishwasher or get some laundry in)
7.30 a.m. -- bring the still-groggy little ones downstairs for breakfast and Super Why

bliss.

As you can imagine, my days are starting out the same way. Unfortunately, around 6.15 I am frantically trying to put the little one back to sleep (and failing) while the big boys pound on the door and shout about morning time. My coffee grows cold on the kitchen table next to a Bible study with only 1 question answered and a bowl of soggy cereal. There is certainly no shower. And getting anything else done? Ha! No way.

Let's not even discuss the crankiness that comes with trying to adjust meals and naps.

Whose brilliant idea was this whole time change business, anyway? It wasn't a mother of young children, I can tell you that much.

On the bright side, I guess I could theoretically get out & get my errands done and get home in time for Sesame Street at nine (don't judge my knowledge of morning PBS schedules).

That is.

If anything besides Wal-Mart were open before 9 a.m.

Birthday Business...a recap

2010-11-09T07:39:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, but here's a really speedy recap of 2 birthday parties for 3 little boys.

First, it was Shorty's 1st birthday. We had a lot of green stuff left over from last year's Oz fiesta for the twins, so that got me thinking about reusing some of it. Which led to all things green and what little boys love. Naturally, this led to frogs. I must admit that, as this party developed, I didn't really end up reusing much from last year. Oh well. It was cute anyway.

The cake & some of the party hats:
We also had cattails (chocolate-dipped pretzels), worms (veggie sticks), swamp punch, sandwiches with no clever name, and an assortment of green fruit to munch on.

The kiddos played outside with tons of toy frogs, sand, water, a bubble maker, and all of our other toys. They went home with little galvanized buckets with toy frogs and bubbles and kazoos.

Here's the birthday boy and his cupcake.
In case you didn't know, that is a squeal of pure joy.

Next, on to the Dynamic Duo. They love Batman & Robin and watch the old-school movie over and over again. So that made it easy to decide on a party theme (and Halloween costumes).

Here's the cake & cupcakes -- it's hard to see, but there's a Batman & a Robin action figure on top of each cupcake stand:
No, they didn't turn 33.

Also served up were Catwoman's claws (Bugles), Penguin's party chips & dip (served in a "top hat"), Hero sandwiches, Mr. Freeze's ice cream, and Poison Ivy punch (same green punch as for the froggy party). The kids made their own super hero capes & masks and played and played.

Here are the little heroes opening up some presents:
Hooray for parties!

Hooray they are D.O.N.E.

Super

2010-11-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just 2 quick pics from Halloween. It's going to be difficult to top this year's theme. We loved it (well, I'm not so sure I loved my pants). The boys were more than enthusiastic about their costumes. It was colorful & cute & not one bit scary (again, except perhaps for my pants).

Here are the cuties:

Here we all are attempting a family photo back home after Neewollah Palooza:

As for next year, we currently have 2 ideas in the mix and are, of course, open to suggestions. Got any ideas for our family of 5?

oh, yeah. in case you were wondering.

2010-10-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

It took me so much by surprise that I forgot to take a picture on the official "day of," but W is now POTTY TRAINED.

Here he is sporting his Big Boy Underpants:

Who's got the power, the power to pee?

Seriously, one day about 2ish weeks back as we were getting ready for bed, Stinky announced that he needed to "pee on a potty." I didn't take him very seriously, as he had been requesting to do this with no luck for a long, long, LONG time. I almost told him, "no," but I decided to indulge him that night. I wasn't even paying attention. Probably, I was working on getting one of the other 2 into pajamas.

All of a sudden, I heard a little tinkle and a proud voice exclaiming "Mommy, I PEED!" He was hit or miss for a day or two, then I switched him to cloth training pants and put together a potty chart just for him -- no twin to share it with this time.

Well, the potty chart is still pretty empty, since he prefers to wear his stickers on his face, but he is dry almost all the time.

Going #2 was a different story. He'd wait for a naptime or bedtime diaper & fill it almost immediately. I told him he could wear Big Boy Underpants as soon as he started to put his poop in the potty. Daddy even promised 5 stickers and 5 m&m's (as opposed to the usual 2 of each).

No luck.

Until suddenly, 3 days before his 3rd birthday, Grandad was headed upstairs to get some training pants for the little guy & told him to wait on the potty for him and W decided that was the perfect time to prove to us all that he could, in fact, poop on the potty.

After all of that, he's even better at holding it and getting there on time than his brother.

Stinker.

fuzzy teeth

2010-10-13T10:23:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here, thinking I should post about something fun (like maybe a month-overdue post about the Little Man's birthday), but the thought that keeps taking over my mind is that my teeth are fuzzy. I'm trying to remember when the last time I brushed them was.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Or because I have broccoli between my incisors.

Seriously, I don't know when I last groomed myself. I should probably go take care of that now, but I've waited this long -- what's another few minutes while I justify my filth?

On Sunday Shorty was cranky and fell asleep during church. The cranky part is not that unusual -- he is having a few months of hating the nursery -- but the falling asleep part was odd. We had some good friends for dinner (I could also be blogging about the close-enough-to-vegan-to-satisfy feast I cooked up in courses, but no). Then, as they were getting ready to head home, the little one started crying. He had a fever. Later he vomited (in my hair). He didn't sleep more than 30 minutes at a time all night long.

Monday morning he stuffed his face with Kix and then lost them (into my hair), but his fever was down and he didn't puke again all day. Around midnight, his fever shot way back up (way) and he puked 3 more times (in my hair). After spending some time on the phone with the nurse line, I headed to the ER with him. It was 3 a.m.

4 a.m. I was back home with him with the diagnosis of "just a virus" and the solution of "wait it out."

Tuesday at lunch W decided that he would rather go lie down than eat his mac and cheese. This is unheard of from the one who can't stop running long enough to think about a nap (the party is always in his bed) and just passes out while playing. Uh-oh. He woke up crying and writhing and burning up. He lay on the sofa in the afternoon until he puked (thank goodness, not in my hair).

Last night, 2 out of 3 were a bit cranky and fitful. Every few hours the crying had to be stopped. Today, we are without fevers, without vomit, but still pretty high maintenance with lots of tears and whining.

And that, my friends, is why my teeth are fuzzy.

glitches

2010-10-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Some folks like to complain about living as a lefty in a righty's world. Perhaps that is frustrating. But as I have learned over the past year, left handed folks aren't the only ones that this world of ours was not designed for.

Moms with three under three face our own fare share of glitches, frustrations, and general annoyances. Some might even go so far as to call it discrimination.

I'm not that girl.

Well, maybe some days I am. But not today. Today I just call it irritating.

Let's think about some of life's most basic tasks & how, when you've got three under three you become acutely aware that the folks who did the design work didn't have you in mind.

Should I start with cars, carseats, the LATCH system & the like? When you just have one of those rear-facing monstrosities to fit into your vehicle, it can -- if you are lucky -- go in the middle of the back and not cause too much discomfort to either of the front-seat-riding individuals. If you aren't so lucky, then it plops behind the passenger seat & really isn't even an issue most of the time. Now, when you've got TWO of those beasts to try and squeeze into the back of a car, there is no escaping the necessity of scooting the front seats forward & riding a little bit closer to the steering wheel than was previously necessary. Add to this that my hubby and I are both over six feet tall, and you've got some serious discomfort going on. We were actually car shopping when I was 8 months pregnant with the twins and were amazed to discover that even the biggest of the big vehicles were lacking in this area. Oh, and all of those adds that say it's safer to keep your kid rear-facing until he is two or even three . . . oh, I'm sure it's safer for the kid, but there comes a day when you climb into the car and realize that if you were to get into an accident, you are sitting close enough to the steering wheel that the driver's-side airbag is going to go right through you. That is the day you get on the scale with your 1-year-old(s) and thank the good Lord above that he(they) is(are) over 20 pounds.

And then we added one more to the mix. You know how minivans are supposed to be family vehicles and all of that. Well, would you believe that the vast majority of them only have LATCH systems for 3 car seats -- the middle bucket seats and then one more that takes up 2 of the 3 spots on the bench seat in the back. They also don't have locking seat belts as an option for installing car seats. Nice. So I have twins that cry when separated (so they are in the middle), and a baby in a rear-facer that I have to climb around and over to even get into his seat in the very back. Sure hope he doesn't need anything while I'm driving.

What about the grocery store now that I've got 3 under 3? With just the 2 it was usually okay. Most of the stores these days (at least the mega-stores) offer those enormous carts with the extension on the front that you can get 2 kiddos into and still have the whole cart free. Worst case scenario, one in the seat & one in the basket with food piled around him while I give constant admonitions to sit down, sit down, sit down. However, now that I've got one more, I have discovered a problem. It took a while for me to notice, though. When shorty was in the pop-out infant bucket, I just plunked him in the "seat" of the shopping cart, strapped his brothers into the big boy chairs, and off we went. The first time I went to the store after he had gotten too big for that car seat, though, I discovered that the leg holes of the "seat" of the cart were covered over, there was no seat belt, and there was a notice that said that area as for "merchandise only." Fantastic. The little guy is not nearly old enough to ride even close to safely in the basket. Now, the twins are old enough that they CAN walk beside me but it makes for a much slower trip to the store, a lot of fear that they are grabbing something breakable off the shelf, and the constant danger that one or both of them will wander away while I am not looking. They haven't quite become responsible citizens yet. Go figure. So, more often than not, I end up with a regular cart, the baby strapped into the seat, and two nearly three-year-old little boys kicking and pushing each other in the basket while I try desperately to pile the groceries around them in a way that will neither injure them nor harm the food.

Our community swimming pool -- oh, how much fun I had imagined we would have there this summer. Until, that is, I realized that there were absolutely no flotation devices allowed. Not in the big pool and not in the kiddie pool, either. So, there we were in the kiddie pool. It's a foot and a half deep, so it is up to the chins of the dynamic duo (who flail helplessly face down if they slip) and the little one has to be held. I was a nervous wreck. And we didn't go back. Do you think I can get some money back from the HOA since their rules make it impossible to use the facilities?

Speaking of swimming. We are finally getting Thing 1 and Thing 2 some swimming lessons this fall. We had wanted to do it earlier, but -- guess what -- it's not really set up for a family like ours. For kiddos under 3, the only classes offered are "Mommy and Me." That's fantastic and all, but how do you do "Mommy and Me . . . and Me . . . oh, and Me Too!"?

So. I should stop before this gets long. What? It's already long? So sorry. And to think, I only just scratched the surface.

what's up?

2010-08-30T12:30:00.000-07:00

Time is slipping away from me as we enter into our "busy season" here at the house.

September...Shorty's 1st B-day party:

frogs, bogs, and all things green and slimy for our little Prince Charming! Hop on by!

October...the Dynamic Duo turn 3! What was that? Did I just drop a hint to the theme? Why yes, I did. Grab your cape & drop in!

October, continued...Halloween. Need I say more? The hubby got to pick the costumes for this year after I made him participate in the Wizard of Oz theme last year. Let's just say I'm doing some situps in preparation!

November...a baby shower for the sister-in-law! Yay! I am sooo excited to be an Aunt and can't wait to throw this party for mommy and baby. However, I am a bit bitter that they aren't finding out gender. Boo.

November, continued...the whole fam comes to our casa for Thanksgiving. So fun.

December...Christmas travels!

After that, we are off the hook for a while. But in the meantime, life is a bit chaotic.

A Brief Ode on the Wiggles

2010-08-09T13:17:00.001-07:00

O Sam, Jeff, Anthony and Murray,
Of how you have saved my day
There is so much that I could say
If I weren't in such a hurry.

A baby's nap time screaming fit,
Tears, and wails, and stomping feet
Were there, my eyes and ears to meet
Until your songs put a stop to it.

A dog, an octopus, and a dino friend
Your silly songs and lively dance
Have joined together and by chance
My cranky baby's mood did mend.

yum & yum

2010-08-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning at the park this morning with my friend Lauren who only lives about 45 minutes away, but for some reason we only see each other 2-3 times a year (and that's if we're really on the ball).

There were 5 little boys with us, all under 5 years old. And it was fun & not too stressful, really.

I was reminded that I needed to check out her new blog (yes, that's the same link as above...I just really like the blog). It's all about food. That's relatively easy & affordable. But is NOT meatloaf.

I am glad that I haven't gone shopping for the week yet, because I am most definitely adding a thing or two to the menu.

huh?

2010-07-30T12:54:00.000-07:00

I've been home for nearly a week.

What have I been doing? (you mean besides dishes & laundry, of course)

nothing.

Sweet. Blessed. Nothing.

Wonder how long that will last?

Staycation?

2010-07-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Is it a "staycation" if you have to stay in the spot you were vacationing in? hmm.

On July 4th our holiday began with a 14ish-hour car ride from Our House to the Hometown. The big boys did very well. Mr. Fussy Pants, as the baby is now known, was a fussy pants. For 14ish hours. With nowhere for me to run to.

It is now July 18th and I am not back home. Nor am I going to be tomorrow. With any luck, we will be there Tuesday. Sixteen days after leaving.

We planned a few days to visit friends and acclimate to Granny & Grandad's house before I headed off to the Big Apple for 5 days for a lovely visit with my hubby. Then there were the days with Daddy back here. After that, we scheduled a few more "visiting" and "resting" kind of days before piling back into the car to head West.

What we did NOT plan was an ear infection, and not one - but two - barfing boys with fevers. Oh, and I forgot to mention the 3 nights of NO SLEEP FOR MOMMY that accompanied these unplanned adventures.

Our return trip was delayed one day when Shorty decided that sleeping was not something he could fathom while his ear hurt, no matter the amount of pain killers he was force-fed. It just didn't seem smart to drive after 2 sleepless nights, so postpone we did. Surely a full-night's sleep would help make the trip more enjoyable for all.

Then, as I was deciding where to pack everything, W suddenly had a fever and we were frantically changing sheets and pajamas and cleaning up the "essential" animals for sleeping. Not much later, N was highly upset because he had "made a mess" on the bed by regurgitating part of his dinner.

It was clear that we weren't leaving any time soon.

After our recovery day, we are feeling better, but not great. Mommy still hasn't had anywhere close to a full night's sleep. One more day...surely everyone will be healthy and rested if we just wait one more day.

This is the trip that never ends. It just goes on and on my friend...

happy 8 years

2010-07-08T04:25:00.000-07:00

in just a few short hours, i'll be kid-free and happily celebrating my 8th anniversary with a trip here, oh yes, i will:

and, just like mr. billy joel, i am in a New York state of mind.

Ka-Chow!

2010-07-01T11:55:00.001-07:00

There he is. Mr. N sportin' his very own Big Boy Underpants. Complete with the always groovy Lightning McQueen.

Ka-Chow!

(could he get any cuter?)

That's right, boys and girls, 1/2 of Double Trouble is officially...dare I say it...Potty Trained! He has accomplished such feats as:

Travelling to Super Target in cloth training pants and keeping them dry.
Waiting (!) to use the potty in said store because Mommy didn't really want to abandon a cart completely full of groceries to use the inconveniently located restroom at the front of the store (please do not bring unpaid merchandise...blah, blah, blah...whoever designed that one had no kids).
Stopping playing with 4 big boys to come up out of their basement to pee.
Getting out of the bathtub while Mommy was attending Baby Brother and pooping for the first time on the potty.
Waking up dry from nearly every nap and overnight!

I think the other half of the Dynamic Duo, however, is going to need to start all over again with a Relaunch of Potty Training Weekend. We still don't know if he can't figure it out or if he just doesn't care. Or some combination of the two. Oh, well.

One down. One to go. (well, two to go, but Shorty doesn't count yet, right?)

La Copa de la Vida

2010-06-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

It only happens every four years.

And to be honest, this is only the 3rd time I've even given it any thought.

But the World Cup has invaded my house. And just like the other 2 times, it has taken over everything.

The first time I ever thought about it was 8 years ago when I was trying to plan a wedding date with this cute guy I used to know:

Anyway, I believe I was aiming somewhere around the beginning of June for the Big Day. He told me "no way" because that was the first round of something called the World Cup.

I was willing to be flexible. So I suggested the next week. And then the week after that.

That was when the handsome fella really started to push his luck. He told me that the competition lasted ONE MONTH and that we would have to wait until it was finished to get married.

It was either agree with him or spend the honeymoon watching futbol on the tele.

And that, my friends, is why we got married the 2nd week in July. In case you were wondering.

That memory makes me smile. And here are a few other things about the World Cup (a.k.a. the best sports tournament ever) that make me smile.

Shakira's song isn't doing it for me this year, but the official song of '98 always makes me happy.

I know some folks out there have complained about the noise, but, honestly, vuvuzelas don't bother me. Mini ones keep little boys happy for hours at a time. GOOOOOL!

And if cuteness could get you into the next World Cup, W would be in Brazil in 2014. Check out that skill!

ole, ole, ole, ole...ole...ole

How's that workin' out for ya?

2010-06-17T14:22:00.000-07:00

We have entered week two of the officially un-official potty training in my house. And may I say that it's rather inconvenient, to say the least?

In summary...the dynamic duo are on-again, off-again potty goers (well, W is mostly off again). N has successfully peed on the potty 7 times and pooped 1/2 a time (yes, that's not a typo...HALF a time... he had to finish up in his pants). W has not once peed on the potty and has pooped once. He screams and cries at the thought of actually putting something in there, despite the bribery. I'm thinking Shorty will be trainied before hard-headed W is. sheesh.

We may have to take some more drastic measures. What those measures are, I haven't a clue, but I'm about to take them.

I hear some stirring that signals the end of naptime and a trip to sit on the potty so they can read the books they like and get a happy face sticker for sitting there more than 25 seconds.

Ahhh the sweet smell of success.

La Dolce Vita

2010-06-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

The hubby has been dying to watch this movie with me. So Saturday night, after all the kiddos were in bed, he found it on one of our 2 favorite online movie-viewing sites.

However, as the movie began to play, we realized (quickly) that there was a problem.

No Subtitles.

Granted, we did spend nearly a year living in Italy & worked really hard to have a working knowledge of the language. That, though, was 6 years ago. And we were talking with human beings who could speak more slowly, repeat, and even rephrase if necessary. The classic Fellini film, on the other hand, was going to prove to be more of a final exam than a relaxing pseudo date night.

So a-searching he did go.

And seemingly found a site where we could watch this movie for free with subtitles.

Clearly, it was not our night. A very strange virus quickly attacked our little laptop, which was already on it's last leg -- what with missing keys, random freezes, and a 30-second battery life.

Hooray.

The price of a sweep to the laptop was not worth it, considering the aforementioned condition of said computer. We took a deep breath & purchased a new one.

Aren't unexpected expenses fun?

This weekend we didn't think la vita was all that dolce, honestly.

Potty Training Weekend

2010-06-07T07:49:00.000-07:00

Let the games begin!

We'd been talking it up for weeks. Bought stickers. Made the motivational chart. Picked out some Big Boy Underpants. Brought in some chocolate-flavored bribery. Practiced sitting on the potty like big boys. Learned that Elmo Can Use the Potty. Got the Pull-Ups and cloth training pants, too.

We were SO ready.

On Saturday morning, I rushed to the boys' room as soon as I heard movement. I reminded them about our Big Adventure this weekend where we would Learn to Use the Potty. They were excited to begin their morning with a bathroom trip.

On went the cloth training pants & down we went to breakfast. Within minutes, I noticed that both boys were squatting on their chairs rather than sitting. Upon closer inspection the reason for this was noted: each of them had a large puddle beneath them on the chair.

Yay.

Day 1 progressed with little change to the pattern. A timer would sound every 45 minutes. To the potty we would go, sit, sing, read. Pants would go back on. Several minutes later, someone would comment, "Uh, oh. Mess."

I was beginning to think they just might not be ready. Although the fact that they never peed on the floor gave me pause.

Day 2 started with a bang. As I escorted Mr. N to the bathroom for his first-thing-in-the-morning potty sit, I could feel that he was beginning to pee in his diaper. I quickly asked if he could stop. "Yes," he responded. We took off his pants, he hopped up on the potty and peed.

Everywhere.

But we celebrated. When I told the boys about N's reward for peeing on the potty, W stated matter-of-factly in his broken English, "He no pee potty. Pee stool." I couldn't disagree, but N got his reward anyway.

We had a short break from training so that the childcare workers at church didn't have a mess on their hands. In the afternoon, N had another success!

W on the other hand, informed me that he didn't want to pee on the potty. He wanted to save his pee for his pants. It may be a slow road with that one.

One Little Speckled Frog...

2010-06-04T20:28:00.001-07:00

sitting on a speckled log, eating a most delicious fly-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay!

The boys love this song. We sing it all day long. Frogs are pretty much an obsession around here. We sing about them. We search every drop of water in the hopes that we will find one. We pretend to be them.

Ribbit.

So when the hubby found one while helping to dig a trampoline pit (how cool is that) for a friend of ours, he decided without hesitation to bring it home and show the boys.

He put it in an empty planter.

In the sun.

Without water.

For several hours while they napped.

When they awoke, he immediately told them he had a surprise for them outside. They ran with him down stairs, out the back door, and into the back yard where they peered over the side of the planter and saw:

a very, very dead frog.

Did you know that rigormortis could set in in just an hour or so? It can. This poor little speckled frog was stiff as can be.

B even gave the planter a nice shake and a bang on the patio just in case the little guy was just sleeping so soundly he was unable to move (which, in fact, is pretty much what he told the boys the frog was doing).

What's funny is that seeing this dead frog didn't just make their day -- it made their week. They are still talking about the frog that Daddy surprised them with & how it was sleeping & that then it went to live at its new house, a.k.a the trash can.

blah-ging

2010-06-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

blah

We need to spice things up a bit this afternoon. I think we're going to pull out this baby:

There it is. Our ridiculously ornate, constantly sprinkling kiddie pool. The photo I found doesn't do it justice. It's silly, I know.

But I can honestly say that I didn't buy it myself. That's some consolation, isn't it? I think the boys would be just as happy if it were one of those $10 plastic pools they keep in the garden section of Wally World.

Oh, well.

It's either break out the pool or shop for underwear and training pants as I try to brace myself to actually TRY to potty train the twins.

Gee, I wonder which one sounds like more fun for the afternoon.

In case you can't figure it out, I'll give you a hint: I've been having nightmares about washing dirty big boy underpants.

Maybe I should just wait and train all 3 of them at once.

Or maybe we'll just play naked outside all summer.

I think I'll go set up the pool now.

Same as it Ever Was or Once in a Lifetime?

2010-05-26T16:16:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful house. Sometimes I tell myself, this is not my beautiful yard.But it is, in fact, my beautiful house and my beautiful yard. I feel like we are under attack by the neighbor's trees. That is a branch that is taller than I am and as big around as my forearm lying in our grass (don't know if you can see my size 10 there to try to give perspective). And, apparently, the trees can now shoot daggers down into the yard with such force that they pierce the earth and stand at attention. Perhaps Mr. Backyard Neighbor should prune away the dead parts of his trees. All I can say is that it's a good thing we decided not to play outside on this particularly windy day.

Well, that's not all I can say. I will also say that this particular Neighbor (and I use the term loosely) has the audacity to be upset that our fence sits a few inches off the ground. Hmmm. Last time I checked, that wasn't threatening the life & safety of anyone in his household.

On a completely different but also entirely random note. I think Mr. W is from Mars. Seriously. After dinner yesterday, this is what he rejected as "yuck":
He cannot possibly be my child.

It's Come Down to This

2010-05-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

It all started about a month ago when Thing 1 and Thing 2 discovered the joy that (apparently) is playing underneath the fitted sheets on their beds. Personally, I have never tried this, so I wouldn't know whether or not it's fun. They, however, were in complete agreement.

Night after night, we would find their toys still underneath there long after the boys had fallen fast asleep. If a car had gone missing, it was usually under the sheet. Occasionally, we even found one (or both) of them asleep on top of the mattress but under the fitted sheet.

Cute.

This fun-with-the-beds activity has matured and advanced during the last week, however. The boys activated their wonder twin powers of naughtiness and started moving the mattresses off of the bed frames and into places that allowed for better jumping and sliding.

The hubby and I were not too thrilled with this, envisioning limbs stuck in bed slats and other grave injuries. So we quickly set to work disciplining the munchkins and convincing them that the fun that ensues is not worth suffering the consequences.

We started with sitting in the corner. They cried. They wailed. They said they wouldn't move the beds again. You know what else they did? They moved the beds.

Next we took most of their toys from their room. They screamed. They begged for the return of their toys. They understood that they could earn their toys back by not moving the beds again. Guess what? They moved the beds.

After that, we took ALL the toys from their room (including the beloved Yellow & Blue, blankets and pillows). They cried. They wailed. They pleaded for their stuff back. They said they wouldn't move the beds again. They moved the beds.

This time, Daddy gave them each a spanking. They wept. They were beside themselves with grief. They said they were sorry. They promised to be good. And then...they moved the beds.

And so this brings us to yesterday afternoon. Daddy was cleaning downstairs. Mommy had had enough.

What did they do at naptime? They moved the beds.

So what did I do? I moved the beds. Out of their room. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. And naps were taken on the floor of a very empty room. I then spent much of their naptime fixing the problem the only way I knew how:

I DUCK-TAPED THE MATTRESSES TO THE BED FRAME.

And, boy, was that a bigger workout than I had anticipated. I was sweaty and cranky by the time all was said and done. But you know what? Last night...they didn't move their beds. Today at naptime...they didn't move their beds.

Now, it is a little bit hard to get the sheets on and looking nice...but I am pretty sure we will live. But I can't believe it had to come to this.

uh oh!

2010-05-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

it's official, shorty is on the move!

i wandered off to do something with his older brothers as usual. when i came back into the room where i had left him, he was in a strange location. how did he get there?

so i turned him around &, sure enough, he started sliding across the floor in search of toys.

he is lacking a little bit in style, honestly. but it is strangely reminiscent of his big brother n's early method.

it might morph into something classier, but for the moment that's not my biggest concern.

my biggest concern is that now, i not only have 3 children under 3 years old (all still in diapers, mind you)...i have 3 MOBILE children all under 3 years old.

life just got a lot more complicated.

How is God Revealing His Heart to You...

2010-05-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

...through Your Journey of Motherhood?

This is the question I had the privilege of addressing this Mother's Day (along with my amazing friend Christina) during our worship service. I thought I'd share my answer with you and I hope that you will share your own answer with me by leaving a comment.

Before preparing what I wanted to say today, I thought I should take a look at my day-to-day life and see what I could learn. As a mom of 3 boys under 3 years old, I talk in short little bursts of two to three words at a time. I discovered that I spend a lot of my time every day saying things like:

· stop that

· calm down

· stop whining

· use your words

· just wait

· it’s alright

· you’ll be okay

· shhh

· stop

· relax

· take a deep breath

· settle down

I don’t like to shout over the commotion., I try to wait for the boys to calm down and be still so we can put on shoes, change dirty diapers, solve a conflict, or whatever it is that seems to be causing stress at that moment.

How often do I wish my children would settle down and just trust that I know what I’m doing; that I have their best interest at heart; that I am not going to hurt them. Instead they fight, they scre4am, they hit, they run away, they cry and whine, they insist on being independent and trying to do it themselves. It’s like thye don’t understand that I just want to take care of them – that it really is better to have a clean diaper than to continue to wear a nasty one, that medicine may taste bad but it will help them to feel better, that it is much safer to get in the car than to play in the parking lot, that peas really are better than cookies for dinner, that I’m not going to drop them, that when I tell them not to touch the stove it’s because it’s hot and they’re going to get burned.

Even when they don’t listen, when they touch that hot stove and burn their hands, I’m there taking care of them – comforting them in their hurt. I know which medicines to use and how to put on a Band aid just right. They just have to trust me to do it.

I find myself saying over and over, “Shhh…be still. Mommy’s here.”

That sounds very similar to what God says to us in Psalm 46:10: Be still and know that I am God.

How often do I wish that I could just be still and trust that God knows what He’s doing, that He has what is best for me, that He wants to take care of me, that even the small things are things that matter to Him, that He’s got my back, that His grace is sufficient for me, that He ahs a plan for my life that is better by far than my own plan (even though it may be different).

There are so many different places in my daily life where I struggle to be still and to trust in Him. Day in and day out I fill my mind with things other than the word of God, things that can stand in the way of developing a closer relationship to Him. I place my confidence in things other than Him – my own abilities or finances, my husband, my friends, or my plans. I allow my emotions to dictate my actions, affect my decisions, or even justify inappropriate behavior. I let daily activities like laundry or dishes keep me away from quiet time with God.

God is saying to me, Meg:

· stop that

· calm down

· stop whining

· just wait

· it’s alright

· you’ll be okay

· shhh

· stop

· relax

· take a deep breath

· settle down

We moms are really good at calming down our little ones and taking care of them. Sometimes we forget that we need to stop trying to work everything out for ourselves in our lives. We need to sit down and be still, trust Him, and know that He’ll take care of it.

is it wrong?

2010-04-22T14:36:00.000-07:00

Is it wrong that since my last post the moses basket has become my new best friend?

Not only will Little Britches sleep soundly in it for at least 2 hours twice a day, he is also content to just lie in it for unspecified amounts of time while I:

do the laundry
take a shower
give his brothers a bath
wash the dishes
surf the internet
update my facebook status

I can carry him from one room to another and pile the basket high with all the other things I would normally have to make several rips to get.

It is the perfect "chair" for the Little One, too, since he can be propped up against the edges (he normally throws himself violently to the floor when sitting upright). He is contained if he does decide to no longer sit, so I don't have to fear toys with tiny parts or stray craisins on the floor.

In short, it is the best babysitter I ever bought at Goodwill for under $3 and I highly recommend it. I wonder if it would work on the twins?

**disclaimer, this post was going to be some long and rambling parody of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" but I thought better of forcing English teacher humor on the blogosphere. You can thank me later (cookies, for example, would be a great way to thank me)**

swaddle twaddle

2010-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

twaddle
1. -noun- trivial, feeble, silly, or tedious talk or writing
2. -verb- to talk in a trivial, feebly, or silly manner; prate

Looking for a clever title for this post, I learned a new word. And I love it. Since I participate in it all the time. This post will be no exception.

We've been having a rough go if it lately in the madhouse in terms of naptime and Shorty. Naptime and his big brothers is a story for another post entirely, so we'll stick to the little one. He's my Good Sleeper. He's my Mellow Man. He's my Easy Baby.

But, Houston, we have a problem. He cannot, will not, sleep unswaddled.

I love swaddlers. Not just swaddling with a blanket like they do at a hospital, but really using velcro to turn sleeping babes into burritos.

I used swaddlers on the twins forever. They were so happy to be snug and slept soundly while swaddled. When they got bigger, they started busting out in the middle of the night. they would end up with one or both hands free and manage to put themselves back to sleep without issue. (Or as was the case in this photo, one would use his free limb to beat his brother). The transition from burrito boys to free men was a smooth path for them.

And since it was about the only thing smooth about their infancy, I naively assumed that my Easy Baby would also make a seamless transition at around the same age.

(Do you hear that laughter? That's God -- he really enjoys practical jokes)

The little one is a worm. A flip-flopper. A roly poly.

Within seconds of being placed on the floor, he's squirming everywhere. And, apparently, being bound tightly with fleece and velcro is not enough to stop him. The problem with this is that he ends up face planted in the mattress without his arms free to help him get to a comfortable and safe position, which means no nap or night is filled with sound sleep. He flips over and screams his fool head off until someone comes to the rescue.

Fantastic.

Clearly, we need to make the switch to sleeping unswaddled. Clear to me. Clear to you. Not so clear to Captain Wiggles.

Not only does he not like to FALL asleep unswaddled, he also WAKES UP shortly after said sleep has been accomplished because *gasp* his arm moved.

Needless to say, this has been fun and games for all of us. My Easy Baby has been known as Mr. Cranky Pants around our house lately. Somebody help me! Finally...finally...after a week of crying and wakeful nights, he has managed to go to and stay asleep at night. It's dark. It's quiet. He's got it figured out.

Nap time, however, has been a nightmare. Over an hour to accomplish a fitful sleep state that lasts, on average 30 minutes. This is not acceptable to me.

I did have an epiphany this weekend, though. While refilling the diaper stacker, I saw the much loved but mostly unused for the past 5 months moses basket. Why was it much loved? It was snuggley and he would lie content in it for hours and often sleep.

Stop right there. Back up. Let's look at that again.

"he would lie CONTENT...and often SLEEP" in the basket.

Brilliant! I pulled it out and put it in his crib. Now at nap time, he sleeps unswaddled -- and not rolling over -- in the moses basket.

And there was much rejoicing.

cuttin' it up

2010-03-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

just look at that smile (yes, tilt your head to the right 90 degrees and look at that smile). it's one of the last times it's going to be that adorably toothless.
it's official. tooth number one is poking its little head through those precious gums. bottom left. it's at once tragic and exciting.

on sale now

2010-02-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

my wrists hurt.

a few weeks ago i was struck with the brilliant idea to set up a store on etsy and sell some of the very simple yet very cute things i know how to knit. this is a fantastic idea. however, in order to have some items to sell to get things up and running, i've been knitting nonstop for what seems like an eternity.

my forearms are going to look like popeye'squite attractive, i know. it's a look i think all women are truly striving for, most are just unwilling to admit it.

well, as of last night, the store is up and running. at the moment, there are only varying colors of baby booties for sale, but i'm working on adding some other fun things. in the mean time, the booties are adorable.
check out my shop and grab a set of booties for the next baby shower you have to attend.

as for me, i'm going to go eat some spinach.

Snow Day

2010-02-22T13:48:00.000-08:00

we've been struggling to get out of the house lately. the little one has switched to a 2-nap schedule, and his older brothers still take one of their own. i love that the little guy sleeps for more than 45 minutes at a time, but the logistics of this schedule are making things a bit difficult to do much of anything besides sit at home.

you see, about the time the twins are done with breakfast, the baby goes down for his first nap. he sleeps until, oh, around the time the kiddos are finishing up lunch and heading upstairs for their nap. then the tiny man stays awake for a few hours before his next nap, which begins just before his brothers wake up.

all of this means that -- if i have any intention of keeping a schedule -- there are very few hours in the day when everyone is awake.

and i don't know about your children, but mine turn into some pretty nasty beasts when their schedules are disrupted -- and THAT is no fun for ANYONE.

so today, during little l's morning slumber, the rest of us got bundled up and headed out back to play in the snow. w had been begging to build a snowman for days on end.

several inches of snow in the backyard...a small snowman should not be a problem before we get too cold to enjoy ourselves, right? so here's our snowman (the boys opted to eat the eyes and nose rather than give our "man" a face).

being from the midwest, i'm used to good packing snow. you know, the stuff that's great for snowball fights, snow forts, and snowmen.

i remembered where i live when we started to build our snowman and discovered that it was next to impossible to actually form a ball with the fluff that covered our back yard.

my boys, though, had no concept of the difference between powder and packing snow and continued to insist on a snowman.

thankfully, they were quite content with a snow midget.

Truly Rad

2010-02-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

The hubby got all nostalgic with his Christmas gifts this year & insisted that for his brother's present we find a copy of their favorite movie from when they were kids.

This is a "classic" BMX movie from the 80s starring Lori Loughlin of Full House fame. It's name? Rad.

Sounds like a winner, eh?

Well, the boys decided that they needed to watch said movie -- and that their wives should see this movie that shaped their youth.

Here's a clip for your viewing pleasure. The scene, a dance in the high school gym:

What can I say? The cinematography...the stunts...the man in a wig doing Lori Loughlin's bike riding for her...truly rad, I tell you.

my so-called life

2010-01-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

fish sticks cooked, served and devoured. nap time.

w needs every stuffed animal in bed with him, heads on the pillow, kissed, hugged, and tucked in.
n wants his "maff" (giraffe) and monster truck kissed, hugged, and in bed with him.
lights off, i leave the room, and a short party ensues.

the baby is changed, fed, played with, and content.

my lunch is put on the stove.

hearing that the twins' party is nearing an end, i open the door to re-tuck them into bed & give out the appropriate kisses once again.

"uh-oh, mess," n declares, grabbing his crotch. i notice that he has managed to remove his diaper inside his clothes (thank goodness it was a pajama day and the footie pjs kept the "mess" from being spread around the room). i take him out to the other room so i can work on getting him cleaned up.

"pee. diaper," his brother states matter-of-factly, insisting that i change his diaper, too. w gets a quick change, and then tucked back into bed.

cue the baby.

little britches has rolled over & gotten himself stuck in a position he doesn't like. screams ensue. thankfully, n isn't very thrilled about his predicament and is lying patiently on the floor while i soothe the screeching one.

the baby has been placated. back to the task at hand. i have no desire to describe in detail the "mess" in n's pants or the cleanup process. needless to say, it took a while. in the meantime, the baby is getting sleepy.

sleepiness & the small fry...if i catch his cues & get him down when his cheeks are rosy & his arms are flailing, we are all happy. i have about 120 seconds to catch those cues and start to get him down before my otherwise easy baby becomes a screaming, crying nightmare.

needless to say, it's difficult to see rosy cheeks and flailing arms when up to one's elbows in you-know-what.

cue the baby. (offstage screaming)

finally...the mess is clean, the clothes have been changed, and a happy mr. n is tucked back into his bed and ready for a nap. i rush to the baby's room, swaddle him up, give him his pacifier, and rock with him in my favorite chair until he has settled down and is practically asleep.

into the crib with that one. take a deep breath & head downstairs.

what's that smell?

oh, had you forgotten too?

my lunch was on the stove.

sooooo big!

2010-01-26T17:41:00.000-08:00

4 months old = time to introduce that tasty rice cereal. we waited a few weeks due to a nasty cold that we figured could only make the experience worse for our poor little man than it already promised to be. as per the tradition started with his brothers, we donned the bib made especially by Great Aunt Fran, mixed up the slop, and prepared to introduce "solid" food.

the confused look on his face says it all: what IS this stuff?

a quick swish around the mouth, and back out, caught on the spoon and shoveled back in for round 2

as i recall, the twins weren't thrilled with it their first time either.

Four Christmases

2010-01-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to us...our computer (which was already worse for the wear, having had several buttons shamelessly ripped off by some mischievous toddlers) decided to send me a message that I wasted entirely too much time looking at other people's lives on Facebook.

The screen went blank.

I could hear all the startup prompts and jingles, so I knew that the computer itself was working just fine...all the more frustrating for me not to be able to see what was happening.

We tried hooking up a different monitor, which the Geek Squad said should work just fine. Um...no such luck. I was about to melt down...my daily dose of adult contact was gone...what is a girl in the 21st century to do? I almost had to actually pick up the phone and call some people...

And then, a miracle occurred. Suddenly, last night, we experienced the resurrection of a formerly dead computer screen. I don't know how long it will last, so I have vowed to remove the Christmas music & background from my blog, post an entry, and attempt to upload some pictures to Facebook so that the family (mom) will be satisfied.

We were happy to celebrate four different Christmases this year...it could have been five, but that's a whole other story...so I thought I'd share a favorite pic from each one.

Christmas #1: just me & my guys at our house
W loves squishing his new Play-Doh

N's favorite toy was Mama's new shoes

Christmas #2: with B's mom & brother & sis-in-law
the gang's all here

Christmas #3: at my folks' house
Santa made a special visit

Christmas #4: with all my aunts, uncles, & cousins
at the karaoke bar

that baby's got some groovy moves!

2009-12-23T20:08:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from Us to You...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

in case you didn't know...

2009-12-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

cookie monster is also a fan of oatmeal

miracles of the season

2009-12-08T11:40:00.000-08:00

when the twins were starting out on solid food, they were such good little eaters. green beans...? loved them. peas...? couldn't get enough. spinach...? more, please.

but then we moved off the jars and on to real people food.

out of the blue, they decided that vegetables of any sort were not to even have a place on their plates. this was not just an issue of green-ness or texture. they wouldn't even touch the vegetables that taste like candy (baked sweet potatoes with butter, cinnamon, & sugar...hello?).

it had to have been some sort of twin conspiracy. they don't agree on anything except this one issue: vegetables are from the devil. perhaps i should just be glad they've taken the high road & have been resisting satan's wiles & refusing to give in to temptation.

i have heretofore been unsuccessful in my attempts to sneak those veggies into any meal. mac & cheese = delicious. with peas? no, thank you. broccoli cheese soup = a favorite. add in some extra broccoli? no way, jose. tuna salad = always enjoyable. throw in some carrots? get it outta here.

bribery occasionally works. do you want a cookie? take a bite of that green bean casserole. would you like some rice crispies (no sugar, soggy with milk -- ick)? choke down a bite of those candied yams (these are NOT my children).

but today...today we experienced one of those rare but wonderful christmas miracles.

that, my friends is yogurt. yogurt with fruit...and vegetables. i was at wally world the other day, shopping for things not completely devoid of nutrition to try to feed the boys -- when my eye was drawn to this green yogurt cup. green equals vegetables. my curiosity was piqued. i didn't get many, not wanting to waste my money on yet another failed attempt to balance the diet of my toddlers.

i broke it out today at lunch, hoping to get at least a few bites of it down their gullets before they realized that they were eating yogurt with pears & green beans. before i knew it, they had finished two whole cups of the stuff. and nolan was licking the table to ensure that not a drop went to waste.

yes, LICKING THE TABLE

all to get just one more taste of something containing green beans.

it's a miracle i tell you.

would i like them to actually eat vegetables without this sort of trickery? sure. but until that happens, i can console myself with yo-baby.

Simply Having a Wonderful (Christmas) Time!

2009-11-30T13:57:00.001-08:00

it's a pajama day. the christmas music is blaring. the pumpkins and autumn leaves are in a pile on the kitchen island ready to head back to the basement, and their replacement decorations are piled in the living room just waiting to be un-boxed. our new (repurposed sweater) stockings are stacked on the table with care with hopes that i'll hang them, though i know not where.
i may even have a hot cocoa later and snuggle up under a fuzzy blanket to watch a cheesy feel-good movie with my honey if he will allow it. he would probably prefer the matrix trilogy, though, and since he actually went with me to see new moon last weekend, i suppose it's his turn to choose. there's only so much a girl can ask of her man, and i think edward and bella just about did him in.

in the spirit of the holiday season, the boys wanted to sing...unfortunately, they don't yet know any christmas tunes (we will be trying to remedy this dilemma in the next few weeks). so...instead they decided to show off for everyone with a rousing rendition of the "abc's"

and n suggested that his fans might enjoy a little "ants go marching" (or, as he calls it, "hurrah")

in case you were wondering, they will be opening for the wiggles on their next tour.

Gram Flo

2009-11-23T12:19:00.001-08:00

we will miss you

where's waldo?

2009-11-09T12:55:00.001-08:00

can you spot the twins in this picture?
i was not invited to this pre-nap fiesta.

a rare occurrence

2009-11-06T13:13:00.000-08:00

all 5 of us in a picture...and no one is running away or crying

Munchkinland

2009-10-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

I'll give you 3 guesses what our Halloween costume/Birthday party theme is this year.

LIONS?

TIGERS?

BEARS?

Oh, my! You guessed it.

While the kiddos are still young enough for me to impose my will upon them, we will have matchy costumes & parties to go along with them. This year, we were off to see the wizard!

The party was lots of fun, with good friends, cake, goodies, movie references galore, and a house full of kiddos. I was slightly concerned about how to entertain all those children (while B was more worried about the condition of the carpet after the consumption of rainbow cupcakes), but was pleased to discover that balloons can provide hours of fun for kids of all ages (and B was pleased to discover that all of our friends are very aware of his obsessive cleanliness).

Dorothy, the Scarecrow,
the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion
all enjoyed their time in Munchkinland.

Toto even got in on a bit of the action.
Can you tell how much the hubby loves this sort of thing?I promised him he can pick his own costume for next year and we will work with it.

Yes, that's right, I'm already plotting for next year:

how to please the hubby
how to incorporate 4 other costumes into his plan
how to have a party for the twins with those costumes
and how to get the littlest guy in on the action for his birthday without getting sick of the theme by Halloween.

another sneak peek

2009-10-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

we had photo shoot #2 to capture the boys' 2nd birthday & maybe some of the whole family...check out the preview here.

birthday party pics coming soon...

mama, if that's movin' up then i'm...movin' out!

2009-10-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

we are moving up in the world! this morning my big boys graduated from their big, ugly, cumbersome (rolling!) high chairs to lovely, compact booster seats. my kitchen table has never looked better.
to celebrate their graduation to official "big boy during mealtime" status, they let mama choose the breakfast entertainment. no educational (or not-so-educational, for that matter) videos for us this morning. mama chose to put on her music of choice...this morning it was billy joel (the stranger, to be exact)...ah, to not have to endure kiddie music or videos for just a moment was glorious.

the boys even seemed to enjoy it...here they are, singing along (they were dancing too, but apparently got camera shy):

unfortunately, after breakfast, i seemingly misjudged their level of maturity. i headed upstairs to put the baby down for a nap...

and things got very very quiet downstairs.

that's never a good sign.

i put the baby in his crib and tip-toed down the stairs, hoping to catch the rascals red-handed. they weren't in the living room...not in the kitchen, either. i didn't even see them in the family room. but i spied a clue in the foyer.
toilet paper!

i opened the door to the powder room and saw
toilet paper everywhere (mostly in the toilet, though)! and a roll that had been two-thirds full when i had headed upstairs now looked like this:

it took 3 flushes to get it all down the toilet, all the while, mr. n was gleefully pointing to the toilet and exclaiming, "PEE PEEE PEEEEE!"

i don't think he gets it.

eviction notice

2009-10-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

some of you may know the details, others may not care...but in case there is anyone out there who is curious about little l's entrance into the world, a-bloggin' i will go.

i love my darling husband to death, but as the we got closer & closer to my due date, it really began to annoy me when he didn't answer the phone when i called him while at work. what if it were TIME? i kept saying. he was pretty good about getting back to me as soon as he could, but in my mind that wasn't good enough.

then there was the issue of limon.

he has to travel to limon once or twice a month. the possibility of his being a little more than an hour away (and possibly under a dish machine somewhere) when i went into labor didn't please me too much.

on top of that, there's this big prison out there. and he's responsible for keeping all those inmates sanitized and germ-free. this is a task which requires several hours every time he visits.

no cell phones allowed.

for hours at a time.

this was my recurring nightmare: the hubby, in limon, shuts & locks his car (cell phone inside), gives his hair a passing glance in the car window (and tweaks it just a bit), and turns to walk inside limon correctional facility. at that moment, his cell phone rings. i have just gone into labor & am headed to the hospital. nearly 4 hours later, he comes out to the car and checks his messages, he immediately starts for denver, but with rush-hour traffic it takes nearly 2 hours to arrive. by this point in time, i have already given birth and called him names which cannot be printed here.

so, when my doctor mentioned an elective induction at 39 weeks, i jumped on it.

we checked in on 9.9.09 at 9p.m. and i was already contracting regularly (unbeknownst to me). apparently, this caused some sort of last-minute change of plan. it was 11p.m. before the started the pitocin. all night long, i kept hearing the same thing, "your contractions are looking pretty impressive, on a scale of 1-10, how's your discomfort." they would look at me, a bit perplexed, when i responded over and over again, "maybe a 1." each time i was told they were increasing the pitocin because we wanted it to hurt.

sure we did.

at around 8 in the morning, i finally felt uncomfortable so i asked for my bff to pay me a visit -- the man with that glorious creation, the epidural. by noon my doctor arrived. at quarter past i started pushing, and the little guy made his appearence at 12.38.

his big brothers are adjusting. acting out a bit,

and watching too much tv,
but adjusting (and learning the alphabet to boot -- thank you cookie monster, thank you big bird) to this little sweet pea.

that time of year again!

2009-10-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

fall, my favorite! love the weather! love the colors (although i have to say, it's a little better in illinois)! love the food! love the decor!

so down to the basement i went (love that it's not a crawlspace anymore) to fetch my boxes of autumn stuff. stuff which seemed plentiful in the townhome. i was a bit dismayed to find that if i put ALL of it out (including the things which will inevitably go back in the box) it didn't even fill up my kitchen island. i'm afraid my plethora of pumpkins isn't as prodigious as i had previously thought. sigh.
to make matters worse, i have expressly forbidden myself from spending any more money on decorations this year. no more pumpkins until next year. and i certainly can't have the lovely fall wreath i'm dying to make & hang on the door.

on a brigher note, i have the family halloween costumes nearly finished (with a little help from ma this year) and plans for the boys' birthday fiesta are under way...

i know i haven't posted much about the newest addition to the family...i'll give details about how things have been going soon. until then, ponder this sweetness:

i've been blogged

2009-09-24T17:18:00.001-07:00

we had a newborn photo shoot with our newest little guy & our favorite photographer. check out the sneak peek of our session here!

inspiration

2009-08-14T12:55:00.001-07:00

most of the rooms in this house i've got some sort of vision for...usually that vision comes accompanied by the very vocal opinions of the hubby.

the master bedroom & bathroom, while not done in reality, are nearly finished in my head. the family room, we've been looking at furniture for a while & seem to agree (if what we want isn't gone by the time we get around to buying it).

my kitchen, however, is another story entirely.

i'll not be doing anything major with it until probably 2010, but i would like to have a plan. at least a sort of a plan.

the kitchen now is inoffensive...neutral...a bit on the dull side...
i would love to paint those cabinets...but what color?
i would love to update those countertops (if it's within the budget)...but to what?

i have had a love affair with all things spain, as you well know...so i would love to incorporate this
into the feel of the cocina without going overboard.

beyond, that, i haven't a clue.

so start thinking...we've got a little bit of time & i need your help!

rock-a-bye

2009-08-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

in my efforts to get this house turned into not just a home, but our home, i have not forgotten that there is a countdown underway. t minus 5 weeks and counting until #3 makes his appearance, if all goes as planned.

needless to say, the timing of all of this has left me little choice as to what room comes next in my decorating plans...

the nursery...

if you want, i'll give you a guided tour...the crib/changer combo thingy is the same one that we used for the twins...nothing fancy, which is good, because they chewed that baby up once they started getting teeth. but you can't even tell from this angle, thankfully. mobile and bumper pad(s) (that's actually 2, one on the inside so the baby can see the pretty stuff, one on the outside so i can) are also hand-me-downs from thing 1 & thing 2. their room ended up mostly red in the long run, this one i'm shooting for brown, blue, & white, in case you couldn't tell. curtains were some extra brown fabric i had from a valance i made for the master bedroom in the old house plus some cute checked stuff & trim to make it all come together. don't know how well you can see, but wrapped around that lamp cord is some leftover checked material from the curtains. i call it a "cord cozy" and the hubs calls it an "eyesore." oh, well. it's better than extra cord all over the place & he hasn't found it so offensive that it's been removed yet. that rocker in the corner is as old as dirt, has been recovered a million times, and is still the comfiest thing i've ever sat in. star pillow on the floor...mr. w picked it up on a trip through babies r us & wouldn't put it down. it happened to match, so i bought it.

here's another angle. those bookshelves, much like the ones in the twins' room, are hand-me-downs from eons ago (except these are actually real wood). i think they belonged to my dad before he married my mom. a fresh coat of paint, and voila! perfect for the baby's room. all 3 lamps in the room were cheapies from wally world whose shades i added cute things to.

i still have some organization to do (the closet, for example, is nowhere near photo ready), but i think i'm getting there...

busy busy busy

2009-08-06T10:21:00.001-07:00

trying to get this house put together takes a lot of our time & energy these days (well, i didn't have much energy to start with, so i don't really know where that leaves me). but we've managed to make some more progress...

the living room is where most of our furniture from the townhome now resides, so i have to admit there wasn't a TON of work to be done here, but we did have to purchase a few things to fill up the space & then figure out how it was going to be arranged. it feels pretty good to have it done & be ready to have some company over. what do you think? want to come have some coffee?

and a view from the top (i love the height of this room)
our family room...i guess that's what it's going to be called...is largely unfurnished at the moment. doubling our living space has left us a bit empty in some places. the vision is to have this be the room where the kids can romp around & make a mess (check...right now it's their empty run-around space) and we can sit comfortably on a sofa (sleeper, preferably, to host more out-of-towners) and watch tv or listen to music as a family. it will also house my desk & sewing machine (check, check) for all my crafty ideas. besides the sofa, we wanted an armoir to house the tv, vcr (yes, we still have one), dvd player, & b's stereo system (he's so proud of it). but we knew that it would be a long while before we could really afford to get one. until, that is, i found this...this baby is pure craigslist love...$20...AND they delivered it!
granted, our 14-inch tv looks a little ridiculous in there, but it'll do. b thinks his speaker stands flanking it "look like they were made for it, they match so well." men & their electronic equipment. sigh.

projects

2009-07-29T11:27:00.001-07:00

one room at a time...

i am trying to get the new house put together & looking more-or-less the way i want it, but being 7-months preggers slows me down a little bit.

my first goal has been to get the boys' room done so i can move them out of the nursery & into a cute new BIG BOY ROOM! that way, i can put the crib back together and (hopefully) have a nursery ready for baby brother when he makes his appearance.

i don't have a "before" photo, as there was nothing really before. just an empty room waiting for us. but here's the "after":
thanks to our friends from church for putting those TWO big boy beds together for me! hooray! see those white bookshelves? i kid you not, i had them in my very own big-girl room about 30 years ago. only they were dark brown then. they were, however, still the same low-quality, particle-board-covered-in-a-layer-of-veneer-so-thin-it-could-be-contact-paper shelving units that they are today (with a fresh coat of paint). a big shout out to my folks for investing in the high-quality stuff that lasts for generations.

i was a bit nervous about how the little dudes would do sleeping in individual beds. we all know how much they love cuddling, after all. but they did great...even fell asleep in separate beds.

however, a peek in on them in the morning revealed that mr. w had apparently gotten a bit lonesome in the middle of the night & decided it was time to join his brother. mr. n didn't seem to mind one bit. even big boys need a little love & togetherness sometimes.

seven years ago today...

2009-07-08T04:18:00.000-07:00

i married the man of my dreams

proactiv

2009-06-24T10:22:00.000-07:00

just like the anti-zit medicine. only not.

remember back in march when we conducted this little experiment and put the boys in a toddler bed to free up the crib for #3? well, we had been progressing nicely for several months, the boys were learning to climb up on their bed as exhaustion began to set in (therefore passing out in bed rather than all over the place). it looked like the experiment was working wonderfully.

but.

there's always a but, isn't there?

over the past few weeks, playing themselves to sleep began to look more and more like pandemonium and actual sleep time began to move later and later past our theoretical "bedtime." and, of course, morning still came at the same time. so my over-tired little guys have recently turned into cranky little monsters -- no more sweets & joy & joyness around here. (on a side note, i find it ironic that exhaustion in small people tends to lead to less sleep rather than more, thus compounding the problem -- hurrah).

yesterday i had had enough. it was time to get proactiv.

like the zit medicine's mission is to seek out & destroy unsightly acne & to restore a healthy complexion to the teenager, mine was to seek out & destroy pre-sleeping pandemonium & to restore peace & order to the bedtime universe.

i wasn't sure how it was going to happen, but i knew i had to try. i started by firmly placing the boys back in bed every time they crawled out. they had a blast for the first 15-20 minutes, let me tell you. lots of giggles. i held my ground & didn't say a word or even make eye contact. finally, they realized i was serious & stayed in bed. when i left the room, however, it took about 3.5 seconds for them both to land all 4 feet on the floor & take off to find a toy. so in their bedroom i decided to stay. every time a toy was tossed to the floor, it was removed from the room. there were many attempts to flee and even more tears. but, in the end, we achieved sleep...and after only an hour and a half -- about 30 minutes earlier than they had been putting themselves to sleep.

not fantastic results. but not shabby, either, for the first attempt.

move to today's nap. we had our story, our prayer, kisses all around -- the usual. then, i turned to sit on the sofa rather than leave & one boy tried to slide out of bed. i told him "no" (didn't even have to get up) and he climbed back into bed without a fuss. his brother never tried to get up. a few of the same toy issues happened, but in under 30 minutes, both boys were out cold.

so far, so good.

it's more time-consuming for me than i like, but sleep is a wonderful gift from god. not just to the kiddos. moms need the sanity break, too, you know.

and the prosecution rests

2009-06-19T15:32:00.001-07:00

EXHIBIT A: N's leg
EXHIBIT B: N's back

EXHIBIT C: N's hand
EXHIBIT D: W's angry face & a mouth full of chompers

Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached a verdict?

negotiations

2009-06-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

can it really be called "negotiating" if only one party involved is willing to be a touch flexible? i don't think so.

i think that's just called being pushy.

is it wrong to think about stuffing dead fish down the air ducts when we leave this place as a nice "welcome home" present for mr. pushy himself?

the hunt is on...

2009-06-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

after a VERY long week and a half, our townhome is under contract.

it was very long for me & very long for 2 little boys & very long for the poor cat.

for me, i had to keep things -- not just tidy -- spotless around here so that i could pack up and leave at a moment's notice. that's really quite difficult with 2 toddlers who want to pull out everything that i want to put away. but somehow we managed.

managed to blow my cover, that is. up until the past 2 weeks, the hubby had resigned himself to a house that didn't quite meet his expectations in the cleanliness department. i had him thoroughly convinced that there was just no way it was going to be that clean. not with the rugrats demanding all my time and energy, that is. now he knows that it can, in fact, be done.

darn home staging.

for the boys, it was a long 2 weeks because i took away half of their toys, was constantly telling them not to do something messy, and made them ride & nap in the car more than they really like to do. poor bubs.

and then there is the poor cat who had to spend hours locked in her kennel while strange people visited the house. the last time we tried to stuff her in there, i thought she was going to take b's arm off.

needless to say, we are all relieved that this phase of moving seems to be drawing to a close.

but the next task is just as daunting: find a house that's a bargain in an area we want to live with a floor plan we adore. oh, and hope nobody out bids us!

thank goodness i have a god who is bigger than this dilemma.

trust in the lord with all your heart & lean not on your own understanding.
in all your ways acknowledge him & he will direct your paths.
proverbs 3:5-6

behind closed doors

2009-05-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

i often get curious as to what the little guys are up to when i put them "down" for their nap but before they get bored enough to actually sleep. today was no exception. behind a curtain, behind a gate, behind a door, i heard hysterical laughter. at the risk of spoiling their fun, i had to peek...and i had to share with you.

it appears to be a rousing game of peek-a-boo. love them cuties.

the name game

2009-05-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

since we still don't get to use either of the girls' names we had picked out when the twins were still little bean pods, we have been playing the name game again. we find naming little boys to be arduous.

here's the way it works around my house: i come up with a list of about 50 names that i think would work -- usually with about 2-3 that i actually love. i give the list to my darling hubby who, without hesitation or much thought, begins to cross off every single name from the list.

yay.

needless to say, i love this process.

so, today as i was searching an internet database for boy names, i began a list to present to b this evening as we are sitting down to dinner. i don't think it will take him very long at all to notice that this list is different.

at the risk of offending some of you (although i doubt it), here is my list of names that i would absolutely never under no circumstances consider naming my little boy, although someone must have, since they were on a very prominent baby naming site:

Banjo - not even sure i like it as an instrument, let alone a name
Cactus
Calico
Cannon - the camera or the weapon?
Chilli - delicious, but not for a child's name
Clever - i'm all about names with meaning, but, really?
Cocoa - for a BOY?
Columbo - why not? his brother magnum p.i. thought it was a great name!
Curry - again, the food thing, yummy though
Darth - vadar?
Dong - um...
Durable
Fell
Flan - a tasty mexican dessert...
Gattaca - as in the movie with ethan hawke & jude law?
Gizmo
Hades - seriously, people, who does this to her child?
Heinz - admittedly, the best ketchup, but...
Humvee - who loves a car this much?
Hyman - hymen? nice
Ice - ice, baby...
Jedi - some sci-fi lovers out there, i guess...
Kevork - ian, as in dr. jack the dr. of death?
Lavender - really? for a little boy?
Lucifer - why, oh why would someone do that?
Oma - german for grandma?
Oscosh - b'gosh
Peanut
Philander - look up "philanderer" in the dictionary...
Phuc - um...
Pooh
Pooky
Rad - very 80s, dude
Rong - i agree, it is rong, very very rong
Satchel
Scoop
Shrek - he was a green monster, for goodness sake!
Starbuck - has the world really come to this? how about caramel macchiato?
Suave - rrrrrico.......suuuuaaaveeee
Torn
Uzi - automatic weapons, fantastic
Yogi - bear
Zero - you've got to give your kid a little something more than this to live up to, people

so...do you have a favorite?

snips & snails & puppy dog tails

2009-05-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

that's what little boys are made of!

stupid questions

2009-05-06T07:17:00.000-07:00

"i see here that you are scheduled to have an ultrasound here tomorrow morning."

"yes."

"well, the ultrasound technician isn't able to be here tomorrow. is it okay with you if we reschedule?"

um...no.

no it's not okay with me. if i have my choice i'll keep it so that i don't have to rearrange babysitting and the hubby doesn't have to change which morning he is taking off of work. not to mention the fact that i'm ready to know if this baby is a boy or girl. so, no, it's not okay with me.

on the other hand, doesn't it seem like it might be a waste of my time to come hang out in the same room with the ultrasound machine with nobody there to run it and tell me what there is to see?

logically, i don't have a real choice in this matter.

i dislike stupid questions.

just one of those days...

2009-04-24T12:05:00.000-07:00

it seems like it's going to be, anyway. but i hope not.

really, it's not too bad.

yet.

i haven't felt the full wrath of napless kiddos at 3 in the afternoon.

like i said...yet.

i put the little guys down for their nap &, as always, they played for a while. mr. n was clearly more tired than his brother & crawled up into bed & passed out. not 15 minutes later, i was spying on them, and witnessed mr. w putting every stuffed animal he could into the bed, stuffing 2 more into his mouth, and trying to climb up to join his brother.

needless to say, with the crowd already there & an encumbrance hanging from his mouth, he struggled.

finally, he grabbed hold of his brother's hair, kicked his leg over his brother's head, & managed to hoist himself up to a seated position. on top of the sleeping one's back. surprisingly, this did not wake the little snoozer. then mr. w decided that the sleeping lump was warm & soft enough to be a pillow. and promptly used him as one, curling up practically right on top of him and giving him a little poke & shove to get him in the right position.

this did wake up mr. n.

and the 2 of them decided that naptime is over (or, i am hoping, has not had begun -- but i'm not going to hold my breath). there are lots of thumps & thuds overhead as i type this, but the dominant noise is that of little boys makeing engine sounds.

vroom, vroom, vroom

do you think toy cars & the noises of imaginary motors are as effective at lulling little ones to sleep as the real thing? i sure hope so.

can you tell we've been practicing?

2009-04-08T07:02:00.000-07:00

such big boys...learning how to eat with spoons & to feed themselves. and it's working so well.

just look at the technique mr. w demonstrates, holding the spoon so carefully in his right hand...

...while actually EATING the oatmeal with his left.

and mr. n, showing he knows exactly what to do as he pokes at the food in his bowl with the spoon...

...and then has to work AROUND it, to get at the food with his fingers.

such fun.

phase 1

2009-03-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

the countdown has begun at our house already.

t minus 6 months...

perhaps this all seems a bit preemptive, but there's an awful lot of adjusting to be done around here, and we want to give ourselves enough time to start all over again should something not go according to plan (or should the little dudes decide to be difficult).

our little angels difficult? never! you must be thinking.

ah, but let me remind you that these boys both had acid reflux, one had colic, and rather than learning how to self-soothe, they would scream themselves into a frenzy. in fact, they were 5 months old before they were sleeping through the night.

so, i have reason to fear that they are not going to like the role they must play in this transition.

the biggest change for them will be giving up their crib for #3 and moving into toddler beds. this has been waking me up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat as i think about the fact that my sweet boys love to play in their crib for sometimes an hour (or more) after they go "down" no matter what time we put them in there, how tired they are, or what measures are taken to get them calm and sleepy. how is it going to work when they have freedom to get out of bed & do whatever they want? will they ever sleep?

well, yesterday we took the plunge & moved on to phase 1 of this big experiment: taking the crib rail off their crib. that way, they can get used to the freedom, but still be in "their" bed for a while & still totally share with each other. eventually, they will move to beds of their own.

in theory.

i felt victorious already as the boys played on, in, and around their "new" bed, hopping up and down with ease & giggling like mad. this would be no problem.

then, around 12.30, we started in on our naptime routine. things were going according to plan. until i turned to walk out the door. at which moment both boys began to scream so loudly i was sure the neighbors were going to call the police.

it only took 15-20 minutes for the screaming to stop & for the party to begin. and by 1.15 they had even turned on the radio. what i would have given for a secret spy cam!

at 2.00 the radio was off again & i could hear some of the goings-on. as i listened, i was sure they had decided that they could do everything they would never do while i am in the room. i heard them desperately shaking their piggy banks, trying to get out enough money to head to the store for some milk, i'm sure. it was then i decided that something had to be done before they swallowed a dime.

doing my best to rouse the spirit of supernanny, i walked into their room, didn't make eye contact, took out all the pictures, banks, and anything else that didn't resemble a plush toy, and walked back out.

this time the crying only lasted a moment.

by 2.20, all was silent, so i decided to peek in and see what had happened. that's when i saw this:
yes, that is in fact thing 1 asleep like a cat on the window seat. i knew i couldn't leave him there, one foot dangling off the side, but when i tried to open the door a little further, i found this:
thing 2 must have been waiting for my return & passed out right at the door -- completely blocking my entrance. thankfully we started this whole process now, because if we had waited a month or more there's no way i could have squeezed my belly through the door. as it was, it was a feat of acrobatics & sucking in (too bad there's no way to suck in your backside).

naptime was short yesterday, but not a total failure. bedtime wasn't terrible either. daddy is very good at keeping them happy as he leaves the room. #1 didn't cry at all and #2 just for a moment. it did take an exceptionally long time before they fell asleep and it looks like a bomb went off in their room.

but they fell asleep. curled up next to each other on the floor.

maybe we only need 1 toddler bed.

a taste of the madness

2009-03-06T16:37:00.000-08:00

so...it's been a while since i've updated this blog & i don't even know where to begin.

life has been busy.

busy, but normal.

not much exciting, not much funny, not much at all. but here i go, blogging about the madness that is my life while the boys sit in their chairs wondering if the bread they are snacking on is really all they are getting for dinner.

why is it i can never time a baked potato correctly?

that bread may, in fact, be it guys. sorry.

in the past month, we've all suffered with a bout of the stomach flu (no need to go into details -- "ick" should be sufficient), found out for sure we're just having ONE baby this time (and there was much rejoicing), and been visited by the flying dutchman (no not the ship)

although that would have been exciting.

more like this guy:
lucien, the dutchman we met while we were all living in barcelona, who then drove me across europe (with screaming cat -- yes, in case you didn't know, cats are perfectly capable of screams) so that i could join b when we moved to padua, italy, who then moved to glasgow, scotland and has been m.i.a. ever since.

perhaps not as exciting as if a ghost ship had suddenly appeared in southeast denver, but fun for us, nonetheless.

after he left, we all suffered round 2 of the stomach flu. once again, ick. since then, i've been trying to think of ways to get the munchkins to eat something other than oatmeal, cheerios, and blueberry waffles. not that i have anything against breakfast food, but i feel that perhaps it's time to branch out.

so i started racking my brain trying to think of things i liked as a kid. that's when i remembered "cheese stuff." i wasn't sure about the real name for this meal, but i remembered how to make it. it just sounds delicious doesn't it -- CHEESE STUFF. i was sure the boys would like it.

and i was right.

i have since discovered that the truly correct name for this delicacy is Welsh Rabbit (or Rarebit as it has been americanized into, as it contains no rabbit at all).

if you think it sounds fancy or hard to make, you don't know me very well.

it is cheese sauce on toast
b thought it looked horrid & wouldn't touch it.

what's not to love, though? cheese. toast. yum.

there seems to be no online consensus of how to make it, & i don't claim that my way is the best or the most authentic, but it sure is easy & tasty:

melt a pat of butter & add flour to make a paste
add milk & bring to a boil while stirring constantly until the consistency is thick
add beef bouillon to taste
add mustard to taste
add lots of sharp cheddar cheese
stir until it's melty & yummy
serve over toast

and, well, there you have it. my life for the past month.

maddeningly exciting.