Three Times the Fun: Happy Mother's Day! (#3)

Breakfast of champions, Brady, his pink bowl, cheerios and mom's flowers!

Well, on my 3rd Mother's Day, I've definitely been reflective. My boys are healthy and happy and HILARIOUS - who could ask for anything more? My day began yesterday with lovely tulips Curt brought home from my folks and the boys. They were so bright and cheery it made me feel like it was spring! Then this morning, i got some nice warm snuggles from the boys as they were getting up. After everyone had been changed and we were heading down stairs, Aidan says "I want to hold Brady's hand!" (they've started doing this when we are in parking lots and walking down the stairs together just for fun) As soon as he says this, Gavin says "I want to hold Brady's hand" as well and goes for Brady's other hand. Brady does as any 2YO would do and says "No!" and proceeds to get everyone crying as they clamor to hold his hand. Finally Aidan grabs ahold of it and they head down the stairs together. Poor sweet Gavin didn't have anyone want to hold his hand and mom and dad's hands just weren't good enough. This broke my heart into 100 pieces. He is standing at the top of the stairs SOBBING and throws his ducks down the stairs and just WILL NOT come down the stairs. Curt says to Brady and Aidan when they get down stairs "Boys, you hurt your brother's feelings. He wanted to hold someone's hand to walk downstairs and you wouldn't hold his hand. Brady, would you go upstairs and hep him feel better and hold his hand to walk downstairs?" Sure enough, Brady rounds the corner at the bottom of the stairs and says "Hey Gavin, come here! Come here, honey!" and begins to walk upstairs to get Gavin. Gavin immediately picks up his ducks and begins coming down the stairs and he and Brady hold hands giggling the whole way. Mended my heart up as good as new.

Cool glasses I bought at a yard sale for 1QR. worth all $0.27. Isn't Gavin SMASHING?

We had a lovely breakfast of the boys telling me they loved me and wishing me "Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" (is there anything better in a 2YO voice?) then off to work counting down my last SIX WEEKS OF WORK! WOOHOO! Curt took me out for a mother's day lunch - it was fun to get his sweet card and it still get to be just the two of us - is that ironic on mother's day? Then we got home from work, had friend's over for dinner and the boys went down surprisingly well after having ICE CREAM and friends over! :) It always makes for a more energetic night. As curt was getting ready to read a book to the boys, Aidan and Brady decide they want to put EVERY blanket and stuffed animal on his lap in the rocking chair and then climb in to sit with him and all of their stuff. He finally convinces Brady this is not a good plan and is able to move stuff and get Brady in his lap. Aidan is still persistent and finally Curt tells him "No. You may not put all of this stuff in my lap and try to sit here, you won't all fit." Well, this just sets Aidan OFF. He starts to cry and then decides to be angry when crying gets him nowhere. He takes his pacifier and violently THROWS it onto the ground and then looks at Curt. he then picks it up again and THROWS it a little further on the ground again and looks at curt with WILD EYES. Then he starts picking up the blankets and throwing them up in the air (i'm laughing as I type this b/c we both had to hold it in for this little spectacle) without really making any sound at all. He then grabs his little rabbit (which he has seen get taken from Brady for a whole night when Brady used it to hit Curt) and walks over to Curt and hold the rabbit up and move like he is going to hit Curt with it. Then do the same movement again. All the while - silent. hilarious. He then settles down after his show and gets on curt's lap for his books. As Curt said, "he WANTS to let it all loose like Brady does, but he has clearly learned that when that happens, things happen he doesn't want, whereas Brady is like "i'm a good boy! I'm a good boy!" after he has been really naughty."

Brady wanted Puppy to be able to wear sunglasses too.

Easter cupcakes from Lindsay Coco - Aidan likey.

Brady can't believe his luck - CUPCAKES!

Gavin and his creeper mustache from Lindsay Coco's cupcakes. adorable as always.

I must say I can not believe how incredibly lucky we are with these kids. Sure, they give us a run for our money some days, but for the most part they are pretty well behaved, they are already showing some signs of altruism toward their brothers, they are learning and developing something new and fantastic nearly every day it seems. Gavin is catching up in the speech department. He does a lot of mimicking his brothers (which is so cute) and I truly think he will be our first reader. He is able to pick out quite a few letters and has associated them with his brother's names/his name/animals etc. He definitely knows A, B, G, E and W by sight. (at least upper case) and is close on S, C and D. Gavin got up a bit earlier than his brother's from his nap on Saturday (so that's what it would be like with just one . . .) and he and I spent some time reading Baby bear, Baby bear. He was clearly trying to annunciate better (we practiced Mountain Goat and Striped Skunk A LOT!) and he was pointing to the words as we would turn each page to announce the next animal. he was on a tear . . .

Aidan thought it was HILARIOUS he could pull his PJ pants up so high. So did we. :)

Brady is by far our most sensitive. It sometimes comes out in bursts of anger, screeches, etc that are not so fun, but he truly wants to make his brothers and mom and dad happy. He has started saying things like "Play with me mom/dad" and he'll ask a question and then answer it with "Maybe Later" (i guess we say that a lot). He regularly brings his brother's their stuffed animals when they are getting changed and says "here you go honey". He also likes to insist that his BROTHER'S bring him his stuffed animals when he is on the changing table. I think he is truly surprised they haven't already thought of it themselves. Gavin is probably his go-to-guy in terms of actually doing it, but he gives them both equal opportunities. :)

At the QF sponsored carnival at Gondolania in Villagio. Gavin was ALL ABOUT getting his tattoo/face paint. Brady was content to be held most of the time (loud roller coasters)

I can't get over how grown up Aidan looks here. He loved running around the trampolines.

Aidan is our hobo child. He ALWAYS needs to have his pockets full of trucks (he doesn't like wearing shorts without pockets), carrying just about as much stuff as he can get in his hands if he is going to "go" somewhere (upstairs, outside, etc). He has even started filling the large yogurt buckets (see helmet/hats he likes to wear) with trucks, men, you name it, to carry around with him. He has also really taken to my dish washing gloves and likes to put those on as he pushes his trucks around in the little stroller. It is a sight to see. This weekend at the grocery store, I look down to see Aidan folding himself in half to fit UNDER the basket (where you would put flats of soda) with one of his feet dragging along in front of him and his head on his knee. I lean down and say "Aidan, honey, we have a few aisles to go, do you want to get out from under there?" he looks up at me with a big grin and whispers "no." and tries to shake his head from side to side. Giggling to myself, I push him across 5 or so aisles with Gavin riding on the side "like a garbage truck"(that always gives us looks in the store when they say that) and then stop to get whatever it was I needed. Curt and Brady come from another part of the store I look to see Gavin trying to get under the basket with Aidan, where of course there is no room. I then tell Curt to look at Aidan. It was quite probably the funniest and most shocked face I have ever seen Curt have with our kids. He literally stood there for like 10 seconds with his mouth open. After a few minutes, Aidan decides to unfold himself and crawls out to ride on the side of the cart like a garbage truck with his brothers. Good thing he is made of rubber.