Story-time Magic

Tonight, Scott brought a flashlight to the bedtime routine. Maybe he's done this before, but I hadn't witnessed it. It was like a little magic. The boys made shadows on the wall and told stories. Joe started with a duck story. It included the main character, a problem (he couldn't swim) and a solution (his duck friends taught him to swim) I was amazed at his ability to come up with that on his own. Granted, it wasn't a particularly riveting story, but all of the basic story elements were there. Patrick told a story, too, about a dinosaur that spit fire (did he mean dragon?) and a scary monster, but the characters were all he could come up with. Luke made a bunny shadow, declared it "silly bunny" and proceeded to do a little bunny dance. Andrew watched the shadows, clapped and laughed right along with the other boys. He thought it was magical, too. I love little boys!
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Joe and Andrew are still good buds. Joe always asks when Andrew is coming to sleep with him. Eventually, we will put Andrew in his room, but Joe thinks he will be sleeping in his bed. "Don't worry, Mom. I won't let him fall out of bed."
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The twins and Andrew are not good buds. Andrew likes them fine, but they are a bit frightened of him. At least once a day, I find one or both of them on their beds with their legs drawn up and quickly trying to collect all of their precious belongings to themselves and out of Andrew's reach. Picture a woman trying to keep away from a mouse on the floor. It looks a little like that. "No, Mommy! He's going to eat my (insert valuable here)" I try to explain that Andrew getting a little slobber on their race car or a pair of socks they've left on the floor will not hurt them, but it's no use. They're terrified!
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Speaking of Andrew, he now makes kissy noises and clucks his tongue. He has been particularly attuned to the funny or silly things his brothers do. He likes to laugh along with everyone else. This morning, I went out the front door to grab the mail. I took the long way back in and came in the back door. When I crept back into the living room, I found Andrew sitting by the front door. I quietly said his name, and he started getting excited and tried opening the front door. He was genuinely surprised and let out a huge laugh when I came up behind him.
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Luke loves to go to the library. Do we have a bookworm on our hands? Um, no. Luke likes to go to the library for two reasons: 1) to push the button that opens the door and 2) to get new VIDEOS (not books) He talks about it almost every day. He often doesn't even watch all of the videos he's checked out before he's ready to head out and exchange them. All of the boys think of the library as their own personal video rental place. In fact, I had to go to a different library to actually read books with them. I had to tell them that we couldn't check out any videos there because it wasn't OUR library. The plan worked okay for an hour, but as we were leaving, Luke spotted a video that we already own and pitched a huge fit about not getting to go hold it.
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I don't know if I posted about this before, but last fall we took Patrick to get his hearing checked and then to a speech therapist. He was a little hard to understand and Luke wasn't at all. I know it's not fair to compare them, but we couldn't help it. Well, it turned out that he was just fine and on track with everything. But since then, I've been working with him on some sounds and Joe has been "helping" him make sounds the right way, too. He's doing so much better now. Today, he pronounced the initial L sound perfectly. He was so proud of himself - I think he could hear that it sounded right. We're still working on CH and SH, but he recognizes that it's not quite correct and will practice on his own sometimes.
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Andrew got his 9 month pictures taken last Thursday. Yes, I am aware that he's already 10 1/2 months old. All of the boys got their 3 month pictures at 4 1/2. An precedent has been set. No need to be exact here. They're great. I'll post them when they come in.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We went to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Milwaukee this weekend with Grammie and Granddad.  Patrick referred to it as "his parade" all day.  We'll post pictures as soon as we get them.

The Sweetest Word

All of the boys were sitting sweetly on the couch so I ran for the camera.  It only took a few seconds before:  

Things are starting to break down...

Then total mayhem.

Check out baby Andrew's curls!  It's time to chop them, but they are kind of sweet.  If only they didn't look so mullet-ish.

The best toy ever for our family has been this silly Fisher Price chair.  All of the boys have LOVED it.  Andrew is just big enough to sit in it and he loves it, too.  The big boys occasionally fight over it when Andrew is not using it.  We call it "THE chair."

So, Joe has started calling me "mom" instead of "mommy." I didn't realize before how much the word "mommy" really warms the heart and could possible be the sweetest word in the English language. "Mom" just makes me feel older.

Some quotes:

We tried chunky peanut butter for lunch.  Luke wrinkled up his nose and asked me: "Did you put worms in this?"

I asked Joe for a kiss one night while we were all goofing off. He was smiling and laughing so much that he couldn't muster a pucker. "I have to wipe off my happy first" he said.

Luke was having a rough day the other day and I asked Patrick if he new why Luke was so grouchy.  "I don't know.  He's my friend."

Good-bye triplet stroller, too. I sold it on Craigslist to a very happy woman who was starting her own daycare.  It's been in our garage all of this time, but once I pulled it out to clean it up, it was the most popular thing again.  Everyone wanted to hop in and go for a stroll.  Too bad there was 120 lbs worth of kid in there, and mommy just couldn't quite make it go.

Sorry for the terrible delay in updating the blog.  Thanks for checking in with us!

The Seal House

Yes, croup seems to have set up shop here at our house. With all of the older boys in one room, last night it sounded like the Seal and Otter Show at Sea World. Lots of barking, hacking and a little whining. (maybe the whining was coming from me...)
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Andrew had his THIRD ear infection in a row. So, no, he doesn't sleep through the night. We had just gotten him to sleep well by himself in his own crib in his own bed. That's enough for now. Poor baby. It seems like he's been sick since Christmas. That Y membership is kind of going to waste. They're never all healthy at once, and when they are, I'm not really anxious to take them into kid care where all of this sickness probably started. Grrr.
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In other news, Andrew is pulling himself up on the furniture and getting around via the army crawl pretty darn fast now. He's also totally immursed himself in the soft table food diet. He loves everything he's tried, from turkey and noodles to spaghetti, sloppy Joe's, scrambled eggs and even GRITS! My mom will love that one. When he's feeling good, his stomach is a bottomless pit... just ask Grandpa who spent almost an hour feeding him one night.
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Speaking of Grandpa, he came to visit us for a few days while Scott was out of town. We had a grand time eating out (Culvers, McDonalds and Cracker Barrel - the kids' favorites) , watching magic tricks, playing with toy airplanes and getting new balloon animals. We're expecting Scott's parents in a few weeks. It's nice to have those mid-winter visits to look forward to. Things get pretty dull around here when you can't go outside to play.