This week....

This week, I am excited about:

-playdates with some of my favorite people!

-finding out how much Liv has grown at her checkup.

-an organized pantry, with labeled shelves.  (Who put twelve bags of chocolate chips in my pantry is beyond me...goodbye old chips and Halloween candy!!)

A baby that will entertain herself on the floor for half an hour...

The triple pack of Lysol wipes from Costco....

A daughter that will hold the baby and NOT poke her in the eye...

A playmate for each of my 2 1/2 year olds to play cool games like "rocketship" with.

(Note the "space helmet" on Bub)

 My newest project....nursery art! (forgive the glare...)

This book..."Keeping House"...it has a section for EVERYTHING....how to clean every room of the house, and checklists for tasks that need to be done daily, weekly and yearly.  There is info on how to clean every surface imaginable, how to get out every stain imaginable.  It is my Bible this week!  I am done with dirt and clutter!!

A bee-yooo-ti-ful stack of felt just waiting to be cut up and made into something...

A husband who finally chopped down the crappy mesquite tree in our back yard to make room for the new playscape for the babies!  

(I took a picture of him hauling the cut logs off...but the state of our yard is not yet something I want immortalized on film, so I refrain from posting it.  You can thank me for that.)

Sissy at 32 months...

To a random man at a hotel in Albuquerque:  "Don't believe it!"
To mommy in the car: "Don't get mad, get glad!"
Outside the grocery store:  "Mommy, something stinks.  It's probably Bubby.  Or my hiney."
To me in the grocery store:  "Mommy, you look like a ragamuffin."
After I colored my hair brown:  "Where did your white hair go?"
To me, while I was trying to break up a fight....(I was shirtless because I was coloring my hair):  "Mommy, where did your clothes go?"
To her Daddy: "Daddy! Ayudame!" (we had no idea she knew a single spanish word.  See Bubby's post for more on this topic)
To me at bedtime:  "Mommy, tell me baby stories.  MY baby stories."
"My boobies are pink!  Look at my boobs!!"  In a restaurant.  Loudly.
"De nada!" Spoken to me, after I proudly told her "Gracias" meant "Thank you" in Spanish....apparently she's more than one step ahead of me in the foreign language department.
"He knows what he's doing....this is going to blow his mind!" Talking about the little boy next to her in art class.

This baby is hilarious, exhausting, energetic, full of smiles, brilliant, stubborn, and ADORED.  Every day we are blown away by what she has learned, remembered or said.
She still takes a paci at nap and at night, and tries to sneak it during the day as well.  One day, she snuck in to get it and I caught her coming out of her room....she knew she wasn't supposed to have it, so she tried to walk past me with her blanket over her head.
She loves her little purse and carries it everywhere.  Today the contents include:  sugar and splenda packets from a restaurant, a pink and purple Cinderella necklace, a few broken crayons, and some of her pretend food from her kitchen. (which she calls her "real food")
Her favorite foods are:  fruit, (especially cantaloupe and bananas) Breakfast bars, milk, sweets, anything italian, chicken nuggets, waffles, cheese.....
She has a TEMPER....she is MAD when she gets hurt and any attemps to comfort her only make her more mad.  She tells us to "Stop talking" when we are correcting her.
.....she loves to sleep, loves books, loves taking a bath, loves TV, loves playing pretend.  Her favorite games right now are "Doctor" and "Pirates".
She is still scared of being left at the church nursery, or ANYWHERE without one of her family members.  When we talk about preschool, she always asks me, "You come too, Mommy?"...I have a feeling this is going to be a hard transition!
She loves her friend Logan, and talks about her all the time.
She loves Mimi and Popo and wants to ride in their car everywhere we go....she knows how much they love her too, because once when she was getting "corrected" in the car in their driveway, she started hollering "I WANT MY PO-PEE! I WANT MY PO-PEE!".....(hoping for a rescue)
When prompted, she will make all her faces for us: happy, silly, excited, sad, scared, nervous, mad....we are not trying to create an actress, but I think she was born one!
She loves the show "Lazytown"....it is the weirdest show from Iceland....there are live actors combined with puppets and it is WEIRD.  The little girl's name is "Stephanie" so she has decided she wants to be called "Stephanie"....the hero's name is "Sporticus" so on occasion she calls bubby "Sporticus" or makes Daddy be Sporticus, as well.  When she realized there was a real life "Stephanie" in our music class, the look on her face was priceless....she thought she'd run into a celebrity.
She's still a little conflicted about the newest member of the family.  Half the time she is baby talking her, wanting to hug her...the other half is not so rosy.  Let's just say there might have been an incident where she tried to whip her with a Mardi Gras necklace......she doesn't have the necklace anymore.
It is really, really hard to remember this baby is only 2 and a half....she talks like she's five, and she acts like sixteen sometimes....I think we might have our work cut out for us!

Bubby at 32 months

Some gems from this month....
"Daddy!  Vaminos!" (Apparently he knows Spanish)
"It means "Please can I have more crackers in the living room?" when we asked him what "Bitte" meant in German.
"I will be a pilot guy.  Like my Popee."  his answer when we ask what he is going to be when he is bigger.
"My poopie is making music!!"
"Mommy, I'm going to the radio. In two minutes." (said while wearing cowboy boots....I'm thinking he meant "rodeo")
"Don't sit by me.  Don't hold my hand."  Apparently he has a newfound sense of independence.
"I like to eat wind!"-said while gleefully walking outside on a windy day.
While explaining to us the rules of his new train set.  "Do you put the pieces in your backpack? No! Do you put it in your playroom? No!  Do you put it in your armpit? No! Do you put it in your diaper? No!"  (the rule retelling started out with the actual rules, and got more ridiculous as the conversation went on!)

This little boy is so funny....smart, remembers everything, loves to make us laugh, LOVES being rough housed (especially by his daddy), is tender hearted and cries if he thinks he's in trouble, loves to draw and paint, loves pretend....just like sissy he is into "Doctor" and "Pirates", loves books, remembers all the words to his favorite books and songs (and corrects you if you try to change the words to either), hates having water poured over his head at bathtime (even though we've done it every night for his entire life), sleeps with his teddy bear "Zoolie" every night and at nap, and will cry until we find him.
He decided on his own to call us "Mom", "Dad" and "Sis"....where this came from I have no idea! He prefers to be called "Bubby", and introduces himself as such.  I realized this at the playground the other day when I heard a nice grandma talking to him.  "Buddy?  Did you say your name was Buddy?"
He LOVES bread and would eat nothing but rolls and tortillas if that is what we allowed.  He is really hard to feed right now, and has some weird patterns.  He won't hardly try anything, but every once in a while will ask for someone's guacamole and eat the whole thing.  He isn't a breakfast eater, and would rather just have a glass of milk in the mornings.  He might be the only kid on the planet who isn't crazy about sweets.  He'll eat a bite of cookie or one forkful of cake and that will be enough.  (He did NOT get this from me, or his daddy!)
He has pooped on the potty ONCE.  Apparently once is all it takes because he isn't interested in doing THAT again.
He doesn't love to go to bed, or take a nap...but does both when asked.  Even if he's trying to be ornery and say no, he says no while he's following me down the hall to his room.
He loves trucks.  All kinds of trucks!
He loves being outside, picking up sticks and rocks, digging in the dirt...(with a little bit of rock and dirt throwing mixed in)
He loves to sword fight, jump off things, jump out of the car into your arms (even if you aren't ready for him yet) tackle and get tackled, and throw things (even inside the house)
He is no longer pushed around by his sissy.  He retaliates now, and sometimes even instigates, which is an interesting turnaround.
He is only affectionate when HE feels like it.  He'll let you hug and kiss him, but doesn't initiate very much. He adores his Mimi, Popo and Grandma and Grandpa.  He has recently decided he doesn't want to have his hand held....he wants to walk with his hands in his pockets or behind his back.  After a day full of telling me not to touch him, he'll love on me at bedtime and tell me "I love you, Mommy!" or crawl into my lap and let me love him.   Are we already in the throes of a complicated relationship??
He is always asking "What's that?" or "Why?"....especially WHY...all the time!
He is so much fun, and so special.....I love, love having a little boy.....

Almost mobile....

This one is all over the place nowadays.....not crawling yet, but scootching backwards all over the living room rug.  This is okay because we bought a new vacuum, so I am relatively secure in the fact that the rug is "clean-ish".  She is such a mover, rolling one way and then the other, pushing all the way up on her arms, and yesterday, a new move:  lifting her whole body off the ground in a push up position!  She is so ready to get up and GO somewhere....

Quilt #2.....

Some of you might remember the quilt I made for sissy....It was about a hundred and four years ago, and it was my first attempt ever at quilting.  I actually really liked making it, but the pattern was a bit ambitious for a first timer.  Not that it was too complicated, it was just too time consuming.  I wanted to start it, finish it, and marvel at my creativity in a manner of days, and it became quickly apparent that it was going to be painful to finish it in that manner.  Let's just say I sewed rather than slept....which wasn't smart since the twins weren't even one yet.   Rookie mistake.  I've lived and learned, and when guilt finally drove me to complete Cale's quilt, I had a much easier pattern going on.  I made this one up myself: squares and dots!  Not going to win any quilting awards, but it was easier.  I started hand stitching the blanket stitch around each circle, but then realized I had lost my mind with THAT idea, so I used several of the one billion available decorative stitches on my machine to finish that.  It is crib quilt sized, which won't exactly keep him warm at night, but is perfect "lovey" sized....it is super softie because of the minky dot, but I remembered once again why I don't like to sew with it....I got a refresher course on cursing during this one....

Anyway, it's finally done, and I think he likes it because he roared like a lion and jumped off the ground to snatch it out of my hands when I showed it to him....
Now the guilt is driving me to start one for the baby.....but THIS time I am buying the charm pack of already cut fabric squares....

Zoo day!

On a whim, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and run to the zoo for a quick look.  It was a fun way to spend a morning!  The babies are so full of questions and ideas.....we entertained several other zoo goers with their commentary.  (i.e.: "Mommy, is that one a spectacled bear, too?" and "Is that the daddy monkey or the mommy monkey?" and "Mommy, I smell a stink!")  They also thought it appropriate to make noises at each of the animals, and sometimes they were actually the noise that animal might realistically make.  It was pretty funny!

Gymnastics!

We went to open gym last week at a little gym near our house....in the past I have taken the babies to J&R in New Braunfels, but it is SO FAR to drive from our house, so we decided to try something new.  This gym didn't have quite as much "fun stuff" as J&R, but they were happy anyway!  One nice thing....there were only about four other kids there with us, so they basically had the run of the joint.  Hayden loves the trampoline the best, and Cale loves to roam.  If I tried to help him with anything, he got upset.....he is in total "by myself" mode.  He wanted to climb up on a big mat and swing on the rope that hangs from the ceiling, which was pretty brave....neither baby is ready to jump into the foam pit (they sort of slither into it!) or swing off the trapeze into the pit (which I'm not sure I would try either!) Sissy is super proud of her leotard, tutu, and ballet slippers, which she has enjoyed wearing on her hands all week in the car.
Mimi and Livi were there, too.....Mimi lifted her up in the air a few times, and we decided that was her "exercise" for the day.

I think we'll definitely do this again...only fifty minutes long, VERY uncrowded, five minutes from our house, and only five bucks!  This is a great alternative to organized classes, which I think would NOT work yet at their age...

Things we should say to our kids....

Thought my mommy friends might like to peruse this.....I loved it and need to print this out and put it on my fridge!  Maybe I'll say these things more, and say a little less of the "norm" ("Did you poop?", "Don't stomp on the baby!", "Why is every sock you own on the floor?", "Did you step in the dog water AGAIN?")

19 Things we should say to our children

1. I love you! There is nothing that will make me stop loving you. Nothing you could do or say or think will ever change that.

2. You are amazing! I look at you with wonder! Not just at what you can do, but who you are. There is no one like you. No one!

3. It’s all right to cry. People cry for all kinds of reasons: when they are hurt, sad, glad, or worried; when they are angry, afraid, or lonely. Big people cry too. I do.

4. You’ve made a mistake. That was wrong. People make mistakes. I do. Is it something we can fix? What can we do? It’s all over. You can start fresh. I know you are sorry. I forgive you.

5. You did the right thing. That was scary or hard. Even though it wasn’t easy, you did it. I am proud of you; you should be too.

6. I’m sorry. Forgive me. I made a mistake.

7. You can change your mind. It’s good to decide, but it is also fine to change.

8. What a great idea! You were really thinking! How did you come up with that? Tell me more. Your mind is clever!

9. That was kind. You did something helpful and thoughtful for that person. That must make you feel good inside. Thank you!

10. I have a surprise for you. It’s not your birthday. It’s for no reason at all. Just a surprise, a little one, but a surprise.

11. I can wait. We have time. You don’t have to hurry this time.

12. What would you like to do? It’s your turn to pick. You have great ideas. It’s important to follow your special interests.

13. Tell me about it. I’d like to hear more. And then what happened? I’ll listen.

14. I’m right here. I won’t leave without saying good-bye. I am watching you. I am listening to you.

15. Please and Thank You. These are important words. If I forget to use them, will you remind me?

16. I missed you. I think about you when we are not together!

17. Just try. A little bit. One taste, one step. You might like it. Let’s see. I’ll help you if you need it. I think you can do it.

18. I’ll help you. I heard you call me, here I am. How can I help you? If we both work together, we can get this done. I know you can do it by yourself, but I’m glad to help since you asked.

19. What do you wish for? Even if it’s not yet time for birthday candles and we don’t have a wishbone, it’s still fun to hear about what you wish for, hope for, and dream about.

From  The Maternal Lens.

Art Class

Today I took the babies (all three!) to art class for the first time.  Before you feel yourself puffing up with pride for me, know that my mom came with us.  Kelly had off today for MLK, so her and Logan met us there.  The babies had the best time....even though Logan almost had a seizure when the guy tried to make her wear a smock....Let's just say she took a walk on the wild side and went smock-less.

The little art studio was so cute!  They had a variety of stations set up, and all the babies got to move around to whatever activity they wanted to do.  The little activities were very age appropriate, and my kids LOVED them.  I was so proud of the little projects they were doing, and really proud of myself for not getting too involved in "making" their art for them rather then helping.....and then they spotted the "Play dough Room".  At that point, all interest in art was done.  They smooshed and rolled and cut and poked and sliced that play dough until it was time to go.  Lessons learned:  Art was fun and we'll definitely do it again.....and if I need any free time to myself at home, all I need to do is get out some play dough and that will surely buy me an hour or two!

The baby we call "Livatino"....yet another nonsense name to add to the list!

At five and a half months, Livi is:
-going to bed at nine and sleeping until five thirty or six.  Praise God!!  There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!:)
-taking her paci out of her mouth, and putting it back in.
-rolling all over the place!  On her tummy, she can rotate herself in any direction she wants to look.  I learned this today when she banged her head on the coffee table leg.  Oops!!  Didn't know she was quite that mobile yet!
-still LOVING nursing, and I'm still hanging in there, so for the time being.... we continue!
-loves to have her hands held.  She has a kung-fu grip, which makes it hard to pull your hand away sometimes...plus, it calms her so much to have her hands held that you don't want to stop.
-tried solid food (rice cereal) once and hasn't tried it again yet!  This is attributed more to her mother's lack of trying rather than her disinterest in it.
-so wiggly that she has to be watched like a hawk.  She can get herself out of her carseat and bouncer if not strapped in, and can almost bow her back enough to pop herself out of her bumbo.  She even tries to roll off the opposite side of the boppy while nursing.....I can see an early walker in my future!
-loves to be held.
-drools more lately....can't feel any teeth in there yet, but I don't think it's too far off...
-blinks and laughs when I pretend to sneeze.
-has no interest at all in my singing.  Singing doesn't calm her or even get her attention when she's mad.  In fact, I think it might infuriate her further.
-cries prolific real tears when she's mad.  I don't remember bubby or sissy doing this, but she really puts on the waterworks.  She either has extremely well working tear ducts or she is gearing up to be the next Meryl Streep.
-is very attentive....watches her siblings, the dogs, and most of all: Mommy!
-is very vocal and babbles all the time.  Nothing sounds like words yet, but she sure loves to make noise. (Did I mention I am her mother?)  Bad news:  She LOVES to talk to Daddy when he leaves for work (seven a.m.) and wants to stay up with me talking, when the big babies are still asleep in bed!
-is SO easy to coax a smile out of....she loves to be talked to, and held high in the air!
-is already so steady when standing.  She holds on to my fingers and balances perfectly with hardly a wobble.  It makes me laugh every time because she looks so proud while she's doing it-like she invented standing!
She is more fun than I ever imagined her being....and she is a reminder that you CAN indeed love another baby as much as you love your first one.  (In my case, first ONES)

This picture is blurry, but I couldn't help but post it because she looks so cutie smiling in it! Even her little eyes are smiling!

Winter trip 2010

I guess we are gluttons for punishment, because we attempted another looooonnnnnngggg car ride with three babies under three.  My brother and his wife are stationed at Kirtland AFB and are about to ship out to Okinawa next month, so we decided to spend some time with them before they left!  It was a short trip (only three days there) but we managed to pack in a bunch of activities.  We took the babies to Sandia Peaks to sled, only to find out that they don't rent or allow sledding.  Boo!  On to option number two: playing in the snow and getting in the way of other skiers!  Yippee!!  I thought they would poop out after about twenty minutes in the snow, but it was a really warm day so they played and played and played.  They threw snow balls at everyone (including a strange man that walked by), make a "snowman" (term used loosely...basically it was a stack of ice blocks they found), ate a ton of snow, made snow angels, etc.  Daddy got the super idea to use his snowboard as a sled, and that entertained them for a good half hour.  I learned that my babies love snow, but I will NEVER drive to snow again....we will definitely fly next year!

Aunt Holly had her first foray into snowboarding, and Andrew and Shawn said she spent more time on her feet than on her hiney, so that is a good sign!  We got a chance to ride on the world's longest tram to the top of the mountain, which is a tiny bit scary....I had visions of my kids kicking out a side panel and plummeting 10,000 feet down, but I entertained myself with picture taking enough to cause a distraction.  Livi screamed the WHOLE ride up the mountain, probably because her ears were popping...I pity the people that had to ride the tram with us!  The sun was setting as we made our way up the mountain....it was SO beautiful!  Popo treated us to a fancy dinner at the mountain top restaurant.....  

The car ride there and back was next to unbearable, but the fun we had there made it worth it!  The babies actually loved staying in a hotel, and their new favorite thing is riding the elevator.  Every time we came down, they wanted to get back in and ride again!!  Despite traveling like the Beverly Hillbillies, we LOVED our trip and the time we got to spend with Andrew and Holly!

Diaper bag: Attempt one

I got a crazy whim to make a diaper bag with a fold over piece...don't ask me why!  It's not like I don't already have enough to do around here with all the Christmas decorations still piled up on the bar.  I think the guilt of carrying the free hospital diaper bag around finally got to me.  (Hey, at least I monogrammed her name on it)

This is how it turned out! This was a pattern I made up (and required me to think really hard and cross eyed at times)  I wanted a pocket inside of some sort....I made one big one, and then a little bottle pocket.  (Cause we all have when the empty bottle tumps over and leaks out all over everything)  Well, clearly the bottle pocket didn't work out too well, because it would only fit a bottle made for an insect.  It is too small!!  I figured out what I did wrong, though...so I am good to go on bag number two!  I lived and learned on this bag....I used the iron on vinyl for the inside pieces so that it would be waterproof inside.....but I inadvertently bought the "lite" version.  It's better than nothing, but next time I'll use the heavy duty vinyl.  I'll make two bottle pockets next time, and I will NEVER make the mistake again of trying to sew on the velcro with the sticky backing.  It COATS your needle with the grossest goo imaginable, and takes FOREVER to clean off.  I was down to one needle left, so I spent a good thirty minutes cleaning my needle and rethreading it.  This project took almost a yard of the outside fabric (with enough left over to make a diaper case) and the pink was some I had left over from a dress of Hayden's.  I think I used less than half a yard.  I used about a third of a yard of batting to give it a little substance, and about two feet of pink bias tape to top the pockets.  I know it's girly, but I have LONG ago gotten over the idea that I wanted the diaper bag to look manly enough for Daddy to carry it.  Let's be honest, it's mostly me carrying it, and when he does, he's man enough not to care that he's carrying hot pink. :) I'm trying to develop this into something I can put on my website....suggestions?  I know the two bottle pockets will be an improvement, but I was also thinking of adding a little paci pocket to keep the paci clean.  What do you think?  I'd appreciate any input!