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