Thursday, January 31, 2008

Indoor Fun

Happy Birthday to Aunt Katie! The card is in the mail (as soon as I can get to the store to buy one... :))
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The boys have really been having fun playing with all of their new train stuff from Christmas. The cutest part is that they sing the Thomas theme song while they are playing. I need to get a video of that. The hard part is that once I get a really cool track made (see below for one of my favorite creations of late), someone destroys it. They usually take 20 minutes to make and last about 2 hours.
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Luke found Daddy's swim trunks this morning and was parading around in them. He was so proud of himself!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

What's in a name?

"Just like Daddy!" was what Joseph declared when I noticed this crayon behind his ear. Doesn't he look so studious?
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I was looking up some of our favorite name possibilities for this baby and checked the other boys’ names’ meaning while I was at it:

Luke: light
Patrick: nobleman
Joseph: “God shall add (another son)” (direct quote)

Uh, yeah, God did add another son! If we had only known before we named Joe… Just kidding. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Frosty came to visit

Yesterday and last night, we got 10 inches of fluffy, sparkly snow. I actually shoveled some of it myself because it was so light. It reminded me that Scott had made a snowman before we left for Kansas City. No snowmen will be possible with this snow, but I thought you’d like to see a shot of Scott’s beautiful creation. We told the kids that Frosty had come to visit us. They were mildly interested, as long as they could enjoy him from the warmth of the house.

In other quick news, baby #4 is doing great and getting very powerful in his movements. This is not very welcome at 3 in the morning. We learned from the ultrasound that his kidney is one millimeter too large for how far along I am. It seems that it is the right size for his measurements, just not for my due date. So, we have to have a perinatal ultrasound in a few months just to recheck. If you remember, both of the twins had similar issues with all 4 kidneys. In the end, only one of Luke’s continued to be too large after birth and a few months later. It corrected itself (like the other 3 kidneys), which is what we expect this time around, too. My doctor thought that it was probably hereditary, but no one ever detected it before because ultrasounds were not that accurate in the past. Plus, the chance that it will actually be an issue is VERY slim. It will most likely be just an inconvenience and a few thousand dollars worth of ultrasounds.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Overheard

We’re a sad lot up here in Wisconsin. The Packers lost, and now it’s just cold and dreary while we wait for the long winter to end. In the meantime, our little ones keep us entertained. Recently overheard:

Luke’s latest request: “I want Muffets.” For a long time, I thought he wanted a muffin. Turns out that he wanted to watch the Muppets.

Whenever I get dressed up and put on makeup, the kids get suspicious. Luke asked me the other day, “Where ya goin’?” “Work,” I told him. Just to see what he would come up with, I asked him, “Where are you going?” He thought for a second and said with a smile, “Um, Gammy Ganddad’s house”

It’s hard for little kids to understand time, so I try to make things more tangible for Joe. He wanted to know when his birthday would be. I told him that it would be his birthday pretty soon after the baby came out of mommy’s tummy in the spring. He seemed satisfied with that answer. The other day, I was holding a friends baby – a 10-month-old little girl – when I went to pick up Joe from his art class. Immediately, he exclaimed, “Oh, is that the baby from your tummy? Is it my birthday?”

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Go Bucks!

Last night, some friends of ours had some extra tickets to the Milwaukee Bucks game. Feeling particularly adventurous (especially on such a COLD night) we got all of the kids out and trudged through the crowds and totally scary steep steps to our seats in section 434.
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Joe really wanted to sit with the "big boys" a few rows down. It was cute to see him interact with them as if he, too, were a big boy.
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Joe poses with Daddy.
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Luke was clapping along to some between-action entertainment. The twins enjoyed all of the interesting things to take in before the game and during time outs. The actual game, well... that's another story.
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Patrick enjoyed snuggling with his buddy Deb. He never gets that much attention from so many pretty girls!
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Finally, it's hard to tell from this picture of the rear end of "Bango" the Bucks mascot riding on a remote controlled blimp in the auditorium before the game, but he has a hunk of cheese on his head. These people are Packers crazy up here.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Our little Pike

This was a week of firsts for Joe – mostly, his first classes where he must follow directions from someone other than mom or dad. Art class was first. They smeared grape jelly on construction paper (a sensory experience they tell me – and one he certainly wouldn’t have ever had at home!) and they also made tiny cheese heads out of yellow construction paper and staples. Yes, only in Wisconsin.
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Wednesday, he had his first swim lesson - his class is called the "Pikes". Uncle Brian and Aunt Kelli would be proud. They blew bubbles, held onto the side and kicked, did “bobs” and floated. The last two, Joe was not one bit excited about.
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His teacher Miss Kate tried her hardest to get him to float, but he clung to her like a spider monkey.
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He eventually gave in, but with much fear, as you can see from this picture.
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Other than art and swimming, he is taking a "Sports for Little Ones" class. I got to watch that one from the walking track above the gym. They talked about in and out of the lines, "go" and "freeze", and other remedial but totally necessary skills one might need before beginning kiddy sports. Joe couldn't quite figure out the terminology for a while. When the teacher would say "freeze", Joe would keep moving until he ran into another kid (who was following directions). Finally, the teacher asked, "Joe, what do you do when I say 'freeze'?" "Um, I run around?" Yeah, not exactly, Joe.
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Finally, today, Joe and the twins took a class called "Wiggles and Giggles." I'm not really sure what they do, but when I peeked into the room, they were doing hand motions to a song while watching themselves in the big mirrors (it was in a padded aerobics room) It was SO cute to see all three of them participating with the rest of the class. Joe even remembered a girl's name - his new "friend," Grace. I have especially enjoyed my first real free time during the day with these kids. I've walked the track and on the treadmills, although, I'm embarrassed to admit, I couldn't even figure out how to turn it on at first. I'm not really the workout type. Surprising, I know.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Y, oh Y?

For the first two years of the twins’ life, it’s been mostly a survival game. We did what we needed to do to get the kids fed, clothed, diapered, cleaned, rested and the cycle started all over again. Our “Family Fun” time was limited to McDonald’s Playlands and trips to the zoo, neither of which were very “fun” for mom and dad. Now that the boys are a little older and can follow directions better, new opportunities have arisen.

The first time we realized this was on our drive home for Christmas. We stopped in Des Moines to break up the trip and stayed at a hotel with an indoor pool. It was a little nerve racking, but the boys had a great time swimming and goofing around. Plus, all of us sleeping on two double beds reminded Scott and me of family vacations in our own childhoods. The boys, of course, didn’t get to sleep until well past their bedtimes. Everyone was in bed, and it would be nice and quiet when someone would make a funny noise or pretend to snore. Then all of the boys would break out in giggles. Who doesn’t remember doing that as a kid? As frustrating as it was to be the parent in that situation, we had to just laugh (to ourselves, or course) at the boys interaction and senses of humor.

Since we are back to sub-freezing temps here in Milwaukee, the boys have been driving me crazy in the house all day. They’re little boys… they need to get out and run. We did some research and decided to join the YMCA. One Y about 15 minutes away from us has a zero entry family pool that is just perfect for us. We visited on Saturday (during the Packer game – that place was a ghost town!) and everyone had a great time. The Y closest to us has swim lessons for Joe - he starts on Wednesday – and some little “padded room” classes for Patrick and Luke to run around and burn some energy.

Since those classes haven’t started yet, I had a stroke of motherly genius today while we were signing up there. I borrowed three balls from the front desk and took the boys to a racquet ball court. It’s totally enclosed, sounds make cool echoes, and they weren’t bothering anyone. They all ran around bouncing and throwing their balls and chasing them down for a good half hour. When they started lying down on the court, I knew they were tired enough to go home. What a good little workout!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Christmas Photo Gallery

Right on time, I know. Thanks for your patience. Here are some highlights from our family Christmas celebrations.
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We began at home in Wisconsin a few days before we drove to KC (just enough time to play with our new toys for a while, but not too far away from Christmas.) We celebrated with beef tenderloin, sweet potatoes and stuffing, none of which the kids actually ate. We opened gifts later that night. We got video of this, but not too many good pictures. Just Joe excited about his “Math Circus” video. Yay, educational entertainment!
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At Mom's side, we opened gifts Christmas Eve morning, had a grand dinner, took naps and headed to 4pm Mass. Here is Luke examining his cool new shirt. "It looks like my size!"

Luke: "These plastic covers are so hard to get off"
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Joe’s favorite toy – a tin Cars lunch box. Who would have thought? He tells us that he can't wait to take it to school so he can share his peanut butter sandwiches with his friends.
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Patrick: "Whoa! Is this one mine?"
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The cousins – Joe, Libby, Kolbe (back) Luke, Patrick (front)
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Not all of us could make it to Mass that evening. Jeff's father was in the hospital, so their family went to see him. Here's my parents with my sister Janelle.
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We left that night to head up north to Scott's parents. The boys LOVE hopping into bed in the mornings with Grammie and Granddad, although they seem to commandeer the entire bed. This was our grand plan to keep Christmas morning from starting at 6am. It worked!

Breakfast in bed on Christmas morning. Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no…wait… Luke didn’t get the memo.
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That’s better, Luke.
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Patrick: “Man, Santa was good to me!”
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The twins check out their cool new Wiggles video from Santa.
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Joe was pretty excited about the Thomas and Henry engines from Santa
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Luke with a bow on his rear. What a happy ending!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Dude!

Are all three of my kids high on something? I saw this picture in the Christmas collection and just couldn't help myself. At least Shannon's kids look normal. More real Christmas pictures to follow when I get my house in a little better order.

Senseless

While in KC, we all developed some nasty colds. Patrick and I seemed to get the worst of it. After flying to the FOCUS conference and back, my ears are totally clogged, as well as my sinuses. The biggest problem, besides not being able to take any medicine for it, is the lack of three of my senses: hearing, taste and smell. It seems that these are very important for the mom of boys. For example, we’ve discovered full diapers long after they needed to be changed. Unless a boy ‘fesses up to his poopy diaper, I don’t smell them. Figuring out if the kids' jammies need to be a little fresher is tough. Also, I’ve missed the oven dinger since I can't hear it (can you say “extra crispy chicken?”) and I’m sure some fights that I may never know about. Since we were out of town for 17 days, I have no idea if there is a nasty smell in my house. There could be a wayward potato rotting behind my fridge, and I wouldn’t know about it. Luckily, we haven’t had any visitors, and the boys never seem to complain about yucky odors.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year!

Boy, have we started with a bang. Scott had the good fortune of being able to attend the Cotton Bowl with a friend of his, so he's missing out on all of the fun at home. Of course, last night, I went to bed at 10. Super lame. I woke up to Joseph coughing so hard I thought he might throw up. As I stumbled out of bed to get the cough syrup, I heard fireworks and saw the clock - 12:00 exactly. Nice. When I think that just a few short years ago, that sacred time would have been put to such good use partying and having fun. How life changes.

We've spend the day wiping noses, checking temperatures, snuggling little boys and administering Motrin and cough medicine on schedule.

I'm sure we will have some lovely Christmas pictures to post and stories to tell when we get back home. Thanks for being patient!