Notre Dame

We visited Notre Dame this weekend! We were there to attend the profession of final vows and deaconate ordination of a college friend of mine, Greg. The two ceremonies were so beautiful. It was great to be back at the Basilica. They had a reception under the golden dome afterwards, too. We had a wonderful time strolling around campus and taking a few shots.

Mommy and Joseph lighting a candle at the grotto

Saying a prayer for our special intention

Joseph: "Touchdown, Jesus!"

I had to include this shot of Joseph climbing the staris as fast as his little legs could carry him. We saw a lot of him from far away this weekend. The trip was a little rough on Joe, who missed a nap on Saturday for the ceremony and didn’t sleep well that night. All five of us were in the hotel room together and at one point, all of us were in the bed at once, too. Not much sleeping went on for any of us! I notes some of his funnier naughty moments...

The naughty Joe chronicles:

• Taking his pants off in the middle of Mass at the Basilica
• Running everywhere but toward our immediate destination
• Shoplifting at the bookstore by running as fast as he could out the door with merchandise in hand
• Causing mommy to also shoplift as she ran after him
• Two huge throwdowns with strangers watching
• Climbing out of his pack and play
• General thievery of his brothers’ binkies, Cheerios, etc…
• Removing his shoes every time we got into the car
  

Watch me!

Such a boy. Joe loves to do all sorts of adventurous things in our living room now – all preceded by an excited, “Watch me!”

Last night, Scott took his turn getting absolutely clobbered by the boys. A parent lying on the floor is just an open invitation to climb on, wrestle, drool on, pick at, poke in the nose and mouth and generally render totally incapable of defending him or herself.

Daddy enjoyed reading while lying on the floor with the boys until the twins saw what was going on and had to be a part of it. They want to touch, grab, lick and poke the book so that no reading can get done. Usually, paperbacks don’t survive the twin treatment, so we have to be extra careful with them.

Joe wanted to stand on Scott's stomach (like he was surfing), then jump and land on his bottom, full force on poor Scott’s belly. Ugh!

A word about Joe’s pants: In case you didn’t notice, Joe isn’t wearing any in the above few pictures. Joe has lately learned how to remove his own clothes, something he particularly likes to do after his afternoon nap. The first time getting the clothes on in the morning is a struggle enough that sometimes I don’t even bother to do it again. Plus, he’s halfway to being ready for getting his bath! Confessions of a lazy mom….

Speaking of being lazy, I love this picture. The twins look like little men with their button-downs and blue shoes. The lazy part is that this is one of the first times that they have worn shoes in their lives. I just don’t have the energy to put them on, make sure they stay on, find and match them, or pick them up when they fall off.

Today on JoeSpeaks: “Wait a minute!” Joe has started saying this all of the time now. It sounds ridiculous coming out of such a small person, especially since he says it so matter-of-factly.

Joe has caught on to my nifty tactic of diversion. “Mommy, I want candy (or ice cream or coffee or whatever he’s not about to get)” I always try to respond with, “How about Strawberries? (or yogurt or whatever seems like it will work)” Now Joe just begins with “How about (insert request here)” It’s pretty funny to be imitated like that.

Mr. Smarty-Pants

Patrick: “Let’s go camping!”

Joe and I were snuggling yesterday. He had his face right by mine and we were pretending to be asleep then surprising each other by waking up suddenly. Then he erupts into giggles, and we snuggle some more. In this sweet moment, Joe looked right at me and touched my nose softly. “Mommy has boogers!” he exclaimed. Thanks for ruining the moment!

I can totally see how little siblings can be so annoying to their big brothers. Joe and I were reading a flap book and Patrick just wanted to crawl right in the middle of the book every chance he got. It took so much attention to keep him from tearing up the pages. Poor Joe is going to get his stuff messed with and torn up by two little brothers – a double front. I think sometimes the twins annoy each other, too. They always squawk and whine when one is climbing on or wrestling with the other.

Joe’s understanding is growing by leaps and bounds. He can sing most of the ABC song – it breaks down around G, but picks back up around T. It’s really cute. He sings it to himself a lot, and he can identify some letters and numbers (just a few) He also tries to count. When I ask him how many of something there is (under five items) he starts with the right amount then starts counting from there. Eg, “How many boats, Joseph?” (there are three) He’ll say, “Three, four, five ….” The other thing he’s been interested in lately is story books. He can finally sit through a book and seems interested in the actual story – not just the pictures or the attention and snuggling that accompanies story time.

Movin' on up

Patrick pulled himself up to standing! I was very proud. He got back down by doing the splits.

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Ouch! Luke’s poor ankle, too!

I found Luke here inside the laundry basket. What a good climber. He escaped by tumbling out head-first.

Ker – bonk! I’m okay, mom!

Funny junk Joe has said lately:

“Just a minute!” after I told Joe that he could get out of time out. Apparently he didn’t have enough time to reconcile.

“Which baby is that?” he asked. “It’s Luke.” “Oh, OK! Hi, Luke!”

We were learning letters the other day. I would say the letter, then the sound it makes then I would make that sound and find a word he knows that starts with it. “R says Ruh, ruh, like Ruh ruh racecar! Or ruh ruh ricecake!” He looked like he got it and said very enthusiastically, “Ruh, ruh, Kay-Cee-Dee-ya!” (Quesadilla – his favorite lunch) He also tried some friends’ names – “ruh, ruh Ryan! Ruh, ruh, Christian!” We’ll keep working on it…

No pity party here

Joe got a little racecar launcher (Lightening McQueen, actually). The “bumper” of the tiny car has a hole in it that you insert part of the launcher – kind of like a wind-up mechanism. Anyway, Joe was pointing at the hole this morning and said, “Daddy, Racecar go potty!”

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A friend from church – actually one of the wonderful ladies that came over to help out when the twins were born – came by to visit with her daughter and niece. The twins and Joe had a wonderful time playing with them. Joe wasn’t shy at all and was actually running around the house like a mad man. What a ham!

Kathy and Patrick

Tara swinging Joseph

Gracie playing with the babies.

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We had a wonderful time at the zoo on Saturday. Joe had seen their dinosaur exhibit before and couldn’t stop talking about it. It was just a display of mechanical dinosaurs complete with their noises. We decided to take him again, but this time he was totally scared of them! Leave it to an unpredictable two-year-old!

At the big cat house, the cheetah came right up to the window and was nose to nose with Joe! He totally loved it! (I was a little bit freaked out, though) He wanted to watch them all day long.

Joe, Daddy and Luke

We also ventured on to the train. Joe loved it, but we had quite a time trying to get him off of the train when the ride was over! With each of us holding a baby, dragging a screaming toddler out of the train station was quite a struggle. We got lots of sympathetic looks.

Mom and Patrick

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Speaking of sympathy, Scott and I were talking about the totally inappropriate things that people say to us. It happens pretty often now that we have a family that is already larger than the average family. Here are some of our favorites:

“Oh, my goodness, you have three! Is your husband getting what I’m getting for Christmas? A vasectomy?” (He thought he was pretty funny)

“We would love to have another kid, but I don’t want to end up like you!” (Yes, someone really said this to my face!)

“They have too many babies!” said by a preschooler being pushed past us in a stroller as her parents commented on how busy we must be.

“You’re going to have more? Are you crazy?”

“God bless you!” said with a mixture of sarcasm and pity – to which I usually reply cheerfully “Yes, he has!”

Okay, granted, we know that having kids this close is not for everyone. We didn’t choose to have twins – that was just a bonus! But there are many people in this world that have way more kids than we do. Many people have struggled through these times like we do. Yes, I don’t get out of the house very often (even getting them all to the back yard is kind of rough) and Scott and I don’t go on vacations just the two of us – heck, we hardly get date nights. We choose not to think of what we are “sacrificing” by having these children. Who can think of what we can’t do when we get to see these beautiful smiling faces every day. Would I trade any one of them for a little more freedom and not having to drive a minivan? Of course not! Raising little children is a LOT of effort, but we have a LOT of love in the house that I know not everyone has. We are grateful for our sweet little blessings from God!

Dedicated to the ones we love....

Three special messages:

Happy Birthday, Grammie!!

Happy Anniversary, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Shannon!!

Good luck to Great-Uncle John on his Primary Election tomorrow!!

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Armload of baby

Fr. Joe came to visit us! He bought his friend Fr. Dennis who works at the seminary in Chicago where Matty attended. They were headed to the Upper Peninsula for a much needed vacation

All of the boys really love their baths now. Since the bath is part of the babies’ bedtime routine now, it’s just easier to throw them all in together. It’s a feat that must have both of our full attention. Joe enjoys pouring water on the babies and pretending to cook with the cups and toys.

Luke: “Yum, I love Cheerios”

Joe: “Let’s wrestle, little brother!”
Patrick: “Hey, get off of me!”

Patrick has started climb-crawling. His two favorite spots: under the coffee table (it has two levels) and under the changing table.

Luke: “I’m a green bean fool! Keep shoving them in!!”

Patrick: “I love green beans, too!”

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Those darn teeth are still working their way out. I don’t remember Joe being this uncomfortable with his teething, but I guess it’s worse because the whining and crying are multiplied by two. Scott and I had to have a “we got through the week” celebration dinner on Friday. Nothing exciting, just take out Applebee’s, wine and some candles. It’s our new version of a date.

Full House

Cousin Andrew and Libby

Grandpa with Patrick

Joe saying his heartfelt goodbyes to Grandma

Grandma with an armload of baby (Luke on left)

We had so much fun with my family. My cousin Andrew came up, too. I don’t get to see him very often, and we really enjoyed having him here. Joe enjoyed sharing a room with Kolbe every night. Not so much sleep was going on, but it was hard to get mad at them for having so much fun together. We had a monitor in the room when we put them down so we could hear all of their shenanigans. We would listen as they jumped on the beds, whispered and played with the window shade. When someone finally did go into the room to get them back into bed, they couldn’t move fast enough. Kolbe would bounce back down on the bed and hide his face. Joe would sit on his bed and grab fore his covers. (he hadn’t quite figured it out yet – he just new he was about to be in trouble!)

The kiddos went to the park almost every afternoon, and one morning we went to the children’s museum in town here. I thought I was taking pictures during the week, but apparently, I had my sister’s camera. To see pictures of our adventures, please click on the link to her blog.

Poor Miss Libby cut a tooth that week and the twins are still working on a few of their own. It certainly was a zoo around our house – especially at meal times! When they left, Joe spent 15 minutes bawling. “I want Kolbe, Mommy! I want Libby!” When we explained that they went back to Kansas City, he said, “I want city!” It was very sad for us all to see them go.

Joe’s latest feat is in the language department. He answered a “why” question with “because.” I believe the question was, “Why did you push Libby?” The answer came out, “Because, uh….. uh…..” He looked up like he was really trying to think of a reason but just couldn’t. Just this morning he started asking his own “why” questions. I was explaining our wedding picture (we FINALLY got it framed and hung it in the living room) and all about what people wear in weddings – we are trying to prepare him for his role in Brian and Kelli’s wedding in a month. “Daddy’s wearing a tuxedo, Joseph” “Why, mommy, why?” “Because he was getting married. Brian will wear a tuxedo in his wedding” “Why, mommy?” “Because that’s what people wear when they are in a wedding. You’ll wear a tuxedo, too” “Tuk…seedoe, mommy. I wear tuk….seedoe” We’ll see how it goes. It’s tough to get him into his swim suit and he loves to go to the pool. This tuxedo might be rough on him! At least he will look like his daddy and uncles. He’ll be very proud, I’m hoping.