On A Walk

We do a lot of walks around the area. Partly because the weather is so nice, partly because it keeps the boys out of the house (hence a cleaner house) and partly because boys are like puppies and you have to walk them or they go crazy. Sometimes the walks are longer (about 1.2 miles) sometimes it's just 30 minutes to run around the apartment complex to work out the crazy.  

Either way, the boys go running, and Molly sticks with me.  I have two front carriers. One, the Ergo carrier is real nice because she is able to bunch up her legs and sit all huddled up (as she likes to be positioned) and it has a nice sun screen for her head. The other is a Baby Bjorn which means her legs are separated (she does not like this....her ankles are perpetually crossed--even before she was born!) but it has the advantage of giving her a little more visibility of the world around her. Disadvantage: no sunscreen. Advantage: Need for a cute hat.

 Here's me and my girl trying to keep up with the boys.

And here is Molly taking in the sights.

Movie Night!!

There is nothing positive about Michael leaving town. I miss him, the kids miss him, and doing all parenting and home responsibilities for several days without my cavalry is tiring, but it does give me the opportunity to spoil the kids with extras that would normally make me feel a little guilty...without the guilt.


So tonight we had a picnic movie night with pizza, snacks, and Charlotte's Web. The boys can stay up a little later, eat while watching a movie, and not have me badger them about "two bites of this before you have more if that.". They are thrilled. And since I can never compete with the fun-ness of their Daddy, it does give me a few points in the fun department.

After the boys go to bed, I'll have a little movie night of my own with a Bollywood flick I could never watch with Michael.

But, we still miss him and await his return!

Just Matthew

My baby boy:

Matthew is definitely the most rascal-y of the bunch (so far).  But boy, he is also pretty darn sweet.  He hasn't out grown just coming up for a hug.  He likes to pretend he is a little kitty, complete with a sweet little "Mew" as he crawls up for some loving (or even just a pat on the head). And he is by far and away (oddly coupled with his trouble-making tendencies) the most peace-making little child.  If Michael wants something Matthew has, Matthew won't put up the fight. He'll just say, "Here you go!" to make the other person happy.  

In fact, yesterday, and this is the dialog verbatim: 

Michael: "Matthew, I want that toy!" 

Matthew: "Ok...here you go Mah-doh"

Michael: "Thank Matthew, I really appreciate that."

Matthew: "You're welcome, Mah-doh, you're welcome."

I think sometimes his peacemaking skills are contagious.

He's still our little Moo!

Did I Mention She Was Beautiful?

Because She's Beautiful

Here's Molly sitting on my lap.

She is tired so we have a few yawns, but for those of you who don't get to see her, here are some of the expressions of our little girl.

Also, Matthew's in the background asking me to play the Airwolf song on my phone.

If you would like to see more of her, and also witness some of the daily crazy...click here.

I Want A New One

Some evenings are better than others. Tonight was one of the "others."

The details are pretty irrelevant, but the long and short of it was that I couldn't quite get to their Bible story right away (because of a tantrum here and there, me having to run to do some laundry, etc), but I promised the kids I would come back to their room after they were in bed, and if they were quiet, would come in and read them a story from their all time favorite Bible.

Apparently, 5 minutes was too long to wait because when I walked in to the room to read their story, Matthew had the Bible in his bed and Michael was sitting in his bed, as close to Matthew's bed as he could get.

Both boys had torn pages in their hands. Yes. They were both caught right in the act.

I was a little stunned, and definitely disappointed. I love this book. We read from it every single day several times. The kids love this book.  To have it destroyed was not only frustrating because it's a book.  Not just because it was a Bible (albeit a children's one), but also because it represents a lot of time together, it represents an important part of our bedtime routine and our naptime routine. Matthew especially would frequently get that book and flip through the pages reading the story during the day. I know we can buy a new one, but even still, that's a couple of days until it would get here, and we are not sure we will get one right away so they understand that these things have consequences.  I was so disappointed.

So I walk in the room and the look on my face as I saw the papers strewn all over said it all, and immediately Michael realized what he did. It's like, he just wasn't thinking prior to that point and then all of a sudden he realized what just happened and that he was responsible for it! He instantly broke down in tears and yelled, "I want a new one!!"

Oddly enough, his plea and realization of what he had done was punishment enough. I didn't have to yell or scold. I just picked up the papers and walked out. It took him another while to mull that one over....

Haha. Toddlers.  Their emotional chaos can be so funny in a sad, pathetic sort of way.

Sayings....

I've been needing to do this for a long time.  Michael and Matthew are so talkative, I no longer really get a chance (or take the time to write down the things they are saying or the way they are saying it that will be unique to this stage in life.  I noticed this in particular when Matthew looked at his Lightning McQueen shoes and called them "Lightning McQueen" instead of the normal "Chee-Cha", Matthew's long-standing version of "Ka-chow!" which we say so often we no longer think it's weird.

Matthew is now defaulting to the proper names of things.

For instance, "stee" is rarely used any more. Matthew really does prefer "helicopter."

Matthew used to refer to himself as "Matt-ta-tee" or "Matt-ta-tim". He most certainly prefers the proper "Matthew" and will forcefully correct me if I revert back to his previous version.  He does, however, still call Michael "Mah-doh" and refers to Daddy as "Donny" a name we use so often for Michael Sr, again, we don't really think it's weird anymore and we hardly realize we're doing it.  Michael Jr also joins in and frequently adopts this usage.

The boys still call hot chocolate "Gak" but Matthew's version is more like "Dot". It is really hard to correct him to say it right when, after all, we have devolved "hot chocolate" into a somewhat gross sounding "Gak."

Matthew still has trouble with a lot of consonant sounds. He can identify his letters, but pronouncing them is still difficult.  The sounds C, G, F, J, and Y are particularly difficult and so he modifies as best he can, usually using a "D" or "T" sound, like, "Dross" or "Lello" (for yellow). You can tell he is trying to say it correctly, but just can't and so modifies as best as he can. It's "tute."

When Matthew does something he shouldn't like throw food and I ask him about it I'll say, "Matthew, what did you throw?" and he'll say "Nobody."  That's his standard "I didn't do it" (or I'm not going to admit doing it response).  "What did you do?" "Nobody."  Michael always looks at me waiting for my response as if to say, "Are you going to buy that, Mom? Come on! Get him!"

Michael's standard issue conversation-maker is, "What if" and "What will they say."  By they Michael means anyone that pertains to the subject at hand.  "What if you run the stop sign?" Me: "The police man will give me a ticket" Michael: "What will they say?"  "What if I bring a helicopter to Mass? What will the priest say?"

Michael's "what if" scenarios always tend towards the trouble-making. "What if I run the stop sign?" "What if I push the bad guys away" "What if you don't look both ways?"  "What if I don't give away my toys (to Good Will)?"  Trying to steer it towards the positive always stops Michael in his tracks because he likes to think of the drama of things being in trouble, but flipping it around gives Michael pause, "What if you do? That would be so nice....you'll make them happy."  He would rather let his imagination run into the slightly more dramatic.

Matthew uses the phrase, "It's not cooperating with me" a lot, but in his toddler talk it usually comes out, "It's not coperating me" That's one of my favorite phrases and we get it a lot when we try to get shoes on, for some reason.

I'm discovering that motherhood involves largely the same conversations day in and day out, especially with regard to Matthew. We add on new phrases (that I have to learn to decode from Matthew's little dialect!) each day or two, but for the most part, it's the same phrases and sentences that come up....the same responses to the same situations. It is amazing, though, to look back and see how far they've come  in so short a time. Having taken 5 courses of Spanish in high school, Matthew in 2 years time can say way more in English than I can say from all that spanish...They're amazing!

Related

.....But distinct

Cute and Plump

Molly had her 2 month old check up yesterday....she's coming in plump in the 83rd percentile for weight and 63rd for height. Not terribly surprised....

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

So I've been trying to wake up early and exercise. When the baby regularly sleeps till 9, it keeps getting harder and harder to make an excuse.

This morning, though setting my alarm a good hour before the kids awake time, they woke up crying at 5:15. Michael managed the situation and came back to bed, but I don't think they actually went back to sleep.

So they were up when I got up to exercise. I didn't want them underfoot when I was exercising so I told them to stay in their room and this is what  I saw when I was done with my routine:

So, this room was tidy last night when they went to bed (tidy as in no toys on the floor whatsoever).

Now I can't decide which is more unpleasant: just cleaning it up so we can move on with our day or making them clean it up which means holding their breakfast hostage and hounding them over and over again to get it down (because usually their method of cleaning is put a few things away.....play with that toy...I come in and crack the whip....they put a few things away....play with another toy...my kids are the ultimate dawdlers).

Trying to muster the focus of two over-tired toddlers to pick up this mess is not how I envisioned spending the morning. Ugh.

Baby Boy and Baby Girl

More Molly

We haven't had Molly in a while...so here she is!

So, basically, Molly is the easiest baby in the entire world. There is no area she could be any easier.  Does she eat like a champ? Yes.

Does she sleep like a champ? Yes.

Is she cheerful and smiley and talkative? Yes.

Can she tolerate the affections of her ambitious brothers?  Yes.

Michael and I frequently say what a gift her easiness, especially compared to the, how can I put this? lengthy adjustment period of the other two boys.  

Today, we were talking about what on earth we possibly could have done to deserve such an easy baby.  Michael, while Molly was resting in my arms, said, "Maybe it's because we didn't give back the other boys." We both laughed hard, and as if in on the joke, Molly added a perfectly timed chuckle.  

She is a sweetheart of a little girl and we are so blessed!

A Weird Idea of Fun

Yesterday, the boys and I had a morning in the house...Molly slept the better part of the morning (from 9am-10:30 she was awake, then from 10:30-1 she was asleep..yes that's right, between 7:30pm the night before and 1pm, she was only AWAKE for 1 hour and 30 minutes!) so the boys and I had lots of time to play.

We did our normal routine, had some good reading time, Airwolf time and whatnot and all of a sudden I asked what they wanted to do next and Michael said, "Go in Matthew's bed!"  Ok...so we can play games, color, play with the train, go outside on the patio, but THAT is what they want to do?

Yes. They wanted to go in Matthew's bed, pile on all their stuffed animals and just lay there hanging out.

I tried to get them to play with me by having them throw things out of the bed into a bin, but they were not interested. They didn't want to play with me, they just wanted to hang out together. So, I went in the next room and did my own thing. Bonus!  While attempting to be an interactive parent, I get excused to have some quiet time of my own....all the glory of some "me" time but none of the guilt!

Matthew's Helicopter

Not bad for two: complete with a tail rotor, main rotor, cockpit and pilot (the pilot is one of the two dots in the front).

My suspicion is Matthew will be a good artist, not because this particular work is so amazing and I have delusions of having a child prodigy based off this little scribble (I don't) but because Matthew focuses so diligently on what he is drawing. He holds the pen like a grown-up would and really tries to be accurate.  I've also seen him write letters pretty accurately. I could be wrong, but that is my guess.

Red Hat Society

Over the past few weeks, I'm discovering the importance of getting the kids a chance to burn some energy.

We did gymnastics for a while, which was great but it was expensive (especially compared to the park!) and it is hard to predict how the Molly factor is going to play out so having to commit to something where I had to be on the floor with Matthew and also had to tend to Molly was a little stressful.  So we are taking a break from that.

But the boys are not suffering one bit from it! We have really taken to exploring the area on foot increasing the energy output and, I don't think coincidentally, increasing the amount of good behavior around the house.

I think, despite frequenting the parks even before Molly came and having weekly gymnastics, the boys were physically understimulated and I am working really hard to remedy that.

We've been going on hour-long walks, and when we go to the park, we don't just play in the sand as we used to do.  

But we run.

Michael couldn't get enough of running. After he was running from one end of the field, he turned around and ran back.

Matthew was down with the running too!

It's been a lot of fun and the boys seem to look forward to their excursions. Molly loves the hour or two hour naps she gets strapped to my chest, and we all love the fresh air.

I'm starting to think having boys is like having a puppy: Don't forget your daily walk!