Androol

Yes, our little one now has a puddle under his chin constantly. He also loves to do raspberries. As much as I hate his timing, it's really cute when he wakes up at 6am with a huge smile on his face after making a big raspberry. It's like he rediscovers his ability ever morning and he's so proud of himself. Gotta love baby boys!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yesterday was Scott's birthday, but since he left the house at 6:30am and didn't get home until 10:30pm, we had to celebrate today. Baloons and blueberry birthday pie!

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We love you, Daddy!

Four men in a tub

My sister always has her kiddos looking so cute, especially dressed up for mass. Around here, though, I'm lucky if no one has a streak of snot on their face, let alone being dressed cute. As we were headed to church this weekend, I was doing a last inspection of the boys. Every single little boy shoe was on the wrong foot! That's SIX shoes! How would I ever manage hair bows and ruffley socks?

Andrew has become very vocal lately. He loves to have conversations. If you ask him a question, he will look at you and respond with some sort of vocalization. It's like he really is telling you a story. He's so funny when it comes to sleeping. He's terrible at sleeping alone. His best naps are when he's all swaddled up and laying on the couch - in the middle of all of the action in the house. It's also hard for him to fall asleep at night alone. I usually have to lay him down in the co-sleeper and sit next to him on the bed. I can read or watch TV, or even chat quietly with Scott. Andrew doesn't mind, as long as he's not alone. Sometimes, if he wiggles a little hand out of the swaddle, he likes to hold hands. It's so sweet, I don't even mind being tethered to his bedside.

The twins go through stages of naughtiness. Lately, it's been getting into things. I found a big black streak on my carpet and realized that they had gotten into my mascara. Any tips on how to get that out? Joe traced his hand on his bedsheets with a pen, and the twins marked all over my pillow case with a pen. I also found pen marks on the fridge and several walls. This morning, Patrick wanted some juice. He brought the pitcher to me from the kitchen to the basement. The only problem was that he spilled a little bit of juice on every stair step along the way. He was really proud of himself for carrying the heavy pitcher such a long way, too. What a sticky mess!

We are working on potty-training the twins. I know it will happen eventually, but we still seem a long way off. No one has ever gone #2 on the toilet, so do I start them in underwear right away and just chance the big messes? Pull-ups are nice, but they treat them like diapers. It's not helpful in training, it's just more expensive than diapers! When Joe was potty training, we just had to bite the bullet and put on training undies and plastic pants. There were several yucky incidents, but he learned eventually. I am just dreading the "several times two" yucky incidents that the twins will have. My predictions are that Patrick will potty-train first. He's usually dry for the whole day if we remember to ask him about going potty often.

In other news about Joe, school is going just okay for him. He's been doing some, um, ... socially unacceptable things. He's hit and kicked kids, even a teacher once, and landed in the principal's office twice already. Scott and I are, of course, mortified. The teachers, etc, all assure us that it's perfectly normal (even though it's not normal behavior for Joe!) at that age. Most of the kids in his class were in 3-yr-old kindergarten and most were or are in daycare, too. They all had experience in a classroom setting before and have already gotten used to the rules of the game. Joe's just a little behind in that area, apparently, or that's what everyone tells us. All incidents happened after 10:00, which is when kids' attention spans and behavior break down for the day. We're taking it day by day now with an incentive program for him.

Andrew's First Photo Shoot

The best shots (not necessarily shown here) are on their way to family members. You always end up with LOTS of photos from this place, so expect multiples.

Birthday Wishes

Happy birthdays to Uncle Michael (Friday), Uncle Jeff (Saturday) and Uncle David (today). The gifts are in the mail. Oh, wait...
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We love you all!

Stay-cation

Scott wanted to go to KC for the three-day weekend recently, but I couldn't quite handle it. Instead, we opted for a "stay-cation" which, I guess, is all the rage because of gas prices. There were several things around here that we've never visited because the kids were too little. Our first stop: The Jelly Belly Factory tour!

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Everyone had to wear hats. I don't know why. When they say "factory tour" they really mean "drive around a warehouse in a tram watching videos filmed at the real factory in California"

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No problem. We still got to taste test all of the jelly beans we wanted and purchase some Belly Flops (what they call their mistakes - they're delicious!) They now offer flavors such as "booger" "skunk spray" "vomit" and "ear wax." Needless to say, we didn't sample those. Yuck!

That night, we played in the fountains at the local shopping area (think 'Zona Rosa' for all of you KC folks.) Joe loved spinning.

Luke didn't actually get wet. He asked me to take this picture of him. Nice pose!

There were no lifeguards to enforce the "no running" rule

We also visited Holy Hill, a Shrine and Basilica about 30 minutes from our house. They had the Stations of the Cross along a walking path outside. It was about a mile walk, mostly uphill. Everyone did great, mostly.

Patrick investigates a daddy-long-legs spider

Most of the stations were built right into the hillside. They were very beautiful.

Push the play button to see the above VIDEO. When we stopped at each station, we asked if the boys wanted to say a prayer. Sometimes, they said a Hail Mary, sometimes they just ran to the next station. Usually, Patrick very solemnly prayed our before meals prayer. It's was funny and so sweet.

Outside of the Basilica - you could see all the way to downtown Milwaukee. The Basilica itself was under construction, so we didn't take any pictures of it. We were surprised at the amount of tourists - especially foreign tourists. There were busloads of people and several different languages spoken. I think we dropped in on a Polish Mass. I had never even heard of this place until we moved here. Don't worry, grandparents. We will take you the next time you visit.

Speaking of visiting, we were lucky enough to see our friends Vince and Melissa again Monday night to complete our fun weekend. Can you believe everyone was smiling AND looking at the camera at the same time?

Tidbits

Patrick can now fasten his own seat belt. Praises be! This is such a relief to me. I can’t wait for them all to be able to do it! The twins can mostly put on their own shoes (Joe is still working on it) and dress themselves, although the socks end up upside down more times than not. Good enough. This is a chore I’m happy to relinquish.

Speaking of chores, the twins have taken over Joe’s chore of sorting the clean silverware into the drawer. Luke especially loves it. I caught him trying to put away the dirty silverware twice one day. This morning, I caught him kissing each fork as he put it into the drawer. Yum!

Luke bounded down the stairs the other day to ask Scott if he could have another jelly bean. I piped in to tell him “After dinner!” Apparently, this wasn’t the answer he was looking for. He hollered back in his best teenage girl tone, “I was talking to DADDY!”

Andrew has some nasal issues. He’s a very boogery little boy. One day, a booger ended up on his forehead. Luke came to tell me: “Mommy! (sounding very concerned) Andrew has nose on his face!”

Luke’s little scar on his forehead is fading a little. Joe noticed and said, “Luke’s boo boo is gone. Now he just looks like Patrick.”

School has been great for Joe. He doesn’t always want to talk about his day, but when he does, it’s pretty cute. He had to bring two small rhyming objects to school today. When I told him to look through his toys to get some ideas, he immediately remembered his green Army guy that Scott just gave him. Here’s his stream of consciousness conversation: “Oh! I know! I’ll take the Army guy. What rhymes with Army guy? Humm… Carmy guy! (very proud of himself) Oh, no. Not Carmy guy. Mommy, what rhymes with Army guy?” In the end, we took a pair of socks and three Duplo blocks.

Every morning, the whole school gathers to say prayers and the pledge. They also mention birthdays and offer a chance for the kids to include special intentions. Scott drops him off and had never stayed for prayers until yesterday. Apparently, Joe says it’s his birthday everyday. “No, I’m just kidding, it’s tomorrow!” Luckily, everyone is very understanding, and there are a few other 4K kids that do the same thing. Also, he raises his hand with an intention everyday: “I want to pray for my Grammie.” Most of the other intentions are pretty cute, too. Today, a little first grader prayed in thanksgiving for her new tooth. I asked Joe about praying for Grammie every day, and he said: “I’ll pray for you tomorrow, Mommy, because I love you.” Heart-warming.

Bay Beach

We took a little day trip to Green Bay the weekend before last. Our destination: Bay Beach, a wonderful amusement park that was just perfect for smaller kids. All of the rides were a reasonable 25 cents. Patrick sat next to a lovely girl on the rolley bugs ride.
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The sky fighter ride was also popular with the boys. They loved pretending to shoot their guns while flying through the air.
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Ace pilot, Joe.
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This ride seemed to look like train engines to me, but the kids just called it "Tractors" They could ding the bell all they wanted - and boy did they ding!

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Patrick intently "drives" his bug by the antenae.

Joe the speed racer.

The cars were quite a favorite with all of the boys.

Luke checks his blindspot. Grandpa says, "nice defensive driving!"

The boats were also very popular with our boys. They loved when we called them "Captain Luke, Captain Joe and Captain Patrick"

A quick ride on the carosel.

They also had a train that rode right along the bay's beach (hence the park's name) It was very beautiful.

Andrew was smiling the whole time, enjoying the only ride for which he was big enough.

Another Birthday/Anniversary Combo

Today is Grandma's birthday. It is also Uncle Brian and Aunt Kelli's anniversary. We love you guys! Have a great day!

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There's something about Scott's siblings getting married on my family members' birthdays. Chris and David, your options for wedding dates are: April 1, July 10, and Feb 4. Please do your best to keep the streak alive!

Check the previous posts, please

I just finished a post that I started a few weeks ago. It's called "Vacation?" so scroll on down!