Standing Tall

In a first for all of our kids, Andrew was diagnosed with an ear infection this morning. A staple of childhood ailments, the ear infection had eluded us all of this time.

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Sorry to be sideways, but we wanted to show you Andrew's teeth. Another one just pooped through, bringing the total to five.

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Luke is enjoying his bedtime snack on daddy's shoulders. Joe is just being a ham.

One of my favorites: All of the boys in the tub. Someone must have splashed Andrew. He returned to his happy self as quickly as he had departed his good mood.

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Praises be! For those of you that are wondering: the potty training has been quite successful. We've probably only had two accidents this week with no diapers at naptime and even three dry diapers after an entire night! I guess they were ready, even if they were stubborn about it all. It's SO nice to only have ONE in diapers. What a change. I've been triple diapering for almost three and a half years. Ahh... I can see a light at the end of the tunnel...

2 times 2

So many things have been going on around this house lately. Potty training, new bedrooms, new activities and new rules.

The potty training has turned an important corner today. For the first time *ever* Patrick and Luke both went #2 in the potty. Funny it should happen on the exact same day, within hours of each other. Personally, I think they've been holding out on me. They've probably had the ability to do this for months now. When Patrick accomplished his big feat right after lunch, we hooted and hollered, called grandparents, did a dance and proclaimed that cupcakes would be made in honor of the occasion. This must have been what motivated Luke. He got the same reaction after his accomplishment at bedtime. To be perfectly honest, Patrick hopped right up, flushed the toilet and ran around the house claiming "I go poo poo!" to anyone that would listen. (very funny to see him go right up to Andrew's face and make his announcement - "Hey, Andrew, I go poo poo!" Andrew seemed unfazed) I never actually saw the evidence, but other circumstantial evidence was convincing.

As I mentioned previously, the boys had a little bit of a slow start with underwear. We went through almost every pair we had in the house - 16 maybe - since they didn't care one bit about making it to the bathroom. The worst thing out of their mouths at the time: "I have a poopy diaper." Not an accurate statement since they weren't wearing diapers. I guess my sort of mean plan of cleaning them up in the tub with some not-all-that-warm water must have been a good disincentive. They disliked their undies so much that this morning, when I got the boys dressed, Luke looked with disappointment at the pair I was holding out for him. "Underwear? Not again!"

Enough about potty training.

Andrew is making the transition to sleeping in his own crib in his own room after sleeping with us all of his life. It's not going well. His fourth tooth popped through - perhaps part of the sleep problem and he has a cold. He had his first cracker yesterday, and he also "army crawled" for the first time. Baby-proofing will be a whole new challenge this time around! I'm not quite ready for the gates and trick doors again because it means I will have to open them all of the time for the big boys.

The twins are taking their first "class" at the Y. It's a sports for little kids class. So far, it's all boys. The teacher said they all get tired after about a half hour and don't want to play anymore. That's the main reason I picked the class, because it was an hour long. Get them good and tired!

Joe's newest thing is what teacher Aunt Katie calls "blending" He knows all of his letters and their sounds (usually just one of the sounds if a letter makes two, like G), so I've been trying to get him to sound out words. Blending is when you sound out letters but say them all together to say the actual word. "buh, ahh, LLL... ball" He read about 20 words for me. I'm so proud.

Finally, some quotables, lest I get too wordy and you don't want to read any of this.

Dr. Luke using his Sesame Street Doctors kit to look in my ear: "Mommy, you have a skunk in your ear!"

Patrick when we were asking him to identify color names: "That's Joe's color (it was yellow, Joe's favorite) That's Pasrick's color (green) That's Yukie's color (blue) "

Luke into Papa's ear right after finishing a fantastic Christmas Eve feast "Let's go to McDonalds!"

Finally, we've instituted a new rule in our house regarding dinner. Mom got sick of hearing all kinds of complaints and no one having a nice thing to say about dinner. Now, the boys all have to thank me for dinner and tell me what their favorite part of the meal was. Scott is usually in charge of making sure this gets done. Scott: "Luke, what do you say to Mommy?" Luke: "Thank you, Mommy." Scott: "And what was your favorite part of the yummy dinner Mom fixed?" Luke: "The milk" Don't let anyone ever tell you it's a thankless job!

Pictures next time, I promise

Under the Mistletoe

Little cousin Molly in her Christmas best tries to smooch Andrew. He wanted no part of this show of affection. Aren't they cute? And only 11 days apart in age. It was a good year!
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Our family after a stressful Christmas Eve mass. Some praying went on, I'm sure, but it wasn't in our row (or the row behind us...)

Potty Draining

Yes, I'm attempting to potty train the twins, but so far, it's only draining me of all of my patience and energy.
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The boys just plain refuse to put on undies. I have to hide the diapers or they'll bug me to death whining and crying to have them on. Patrick decided he wasn't going to wait for me the other day (before I figured out the hiding thing) so he diapered himself. He did a fine job, too. I think I'll let them take care of their own diapers from now on. Except for the poopy ones. My carpet can't handle that.
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Even with their favorite character undies on (Cars, Buzz Lightyear, Kung Fu Panda, Chicken Little) they still treat them just like diapers. When they have an accident (seven today alone), they are responsible for tossing the wet clothes down the laundry chute and finding new undies and pants to wear all by themselves. This may sound a little harsh, but I know they can go on the potty. We've had several "Practice Days" before the holidays and they did great - dry all day long. They're just being pig-headed now that I'm ready to train for real.
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Will they eventually get tired of the mess and start to go in the potty? We have incentives: stickers for #1, a party with cupcakes for the first time going #2 (still hasn't happened), candy dispensers for a full day of being dry... you name it. What are we doing wrong???

The Little Prince

I got a wonderful compliment the other day. Scott and I had taken Andrew with us to dinner with another couple. After a while, he needed a fresh diaper. On my way to the bathroom, a couple stopped me to tell me how cute he was. The husband said, "We were watching you with him. He must be the little prince in your house!" I couldn't resist the temptation to tell the nice man that Andrew was, in fact, my fourth little boy. He was honestly shocked and said he could have sworn that he was my first baby with the way we were playing together.

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I hope every one of my boys feels like mommy's little prince. It's hard to be as affectionate and playful as you want to be when so much needs to get done just for everyone to survive in the household. Lately, I've been really trying to make more of an effort to hug, snuggle, kiss, tickle and giggle with each on of the boys. If the day is long and stressful, at least I know they each get kissed at bedtime. I ask them where they want their kiss, and they have a fun time being silly pointing to their nose, cheek, forehead, chin or ears. Someday, they'll be teenagers and affection from a mom will be mortifying, but until then, I have to make hay while the sun shines!