Goodbye Daddy, Hello Grandma!

Grandma V and Aidan play at the park

My mom arrived last week to generously help out while Curt was "jet setting" to Indonesia with a group of 18 students for an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) to do a service project with one of ROTA's schools on the island of Java. It didn't take long for the boys to remember grandma and to get in the groove! They have certainly said "Daddy" a lot more often (and more emphatically!) they don't seem completely devastated he is gone yet. Gavin definitely wants more snuggle time with me in the evening, and I really think he has noticed Curt is gone the most. His monkey brothers are so excited about all of the new words they are learning they are practicing talking ALL THROUGH their afternoon nap. Gavin still manages to fall asleep, but you can tell he would like to sleep more THANK YOU VERY MUCH. we have done everything we can to try to get them to take their afternoon nap (because they are NIGHTMARISH by 530PM if they don't sleep) - short morning nap, put them to bed a little later in the afternoon - and still they chat for over an hour (at least they aren't crying), jump up and down in their cribs (2 more head wounds from tryign to run from one side of the crib to the other), throw thei rpacifier at each other, etc. It's RIDICULOUS!



Brady digs swinging . . .

One of mom's first forays into a trip with the boys was to take them swimming the first friday she was here. As we were getting them ready, Aidan and Brady both had a full on meltdown - for 45 minutes - crying, whining - it was OOC. I was pondering if they deserved to be taken swimming, or if i didn't get them into some different environment if I would be charged with infanticide. They have NEVER been like that and it was pretty awful. At least when we finally put them in the car they settled down and it was like nothing had ever happened. Do toddlers have the memory of a goldfish? :) They LOVED splashing around the pool at the Rec Center with our friends the Schellenbergs and I have definitely seen some increase in water confidence. Previously Brady would ONLY allow one of us to hold him in the pool without crying and freaking. He allowed BOTH Jen and my mom to hold him even though he was NOT into splashing or kicking or swimming. It's still a big step for him. Aidan and Gavin were over the moon with being able to walk on the steps, sit in the warm water, splash and kick and be thrown in the air and dragged through the water - too much fun!

Gavin Slides!

My mom taught Aidan a pretty cool trick - to walk like a monster. We have these awesome PJS with monsters on the pants and a huge monster face on the shirt and she got him to figure out how to make his hands into claws and hold his arms out like a zombie and make a grunting noise. It. Is. Hysterical.

Brothers' Day at the park

In other news, we have all kinds of communication going on. Sometimes it's positive, and sometimes not so positive. Like when Brady tried to headbutt me this morning b/c he was angry i wouldn't pick him up AGAIN. That gets you in the naughty hallway . . . it's one of the few places they don't really "play" in our apartment, so it feels more like punishment. :) Anyway, all of the GOOD stuff is GREAT! People are learning their animals like snake, dog, cat, cow, bear, pig, duck, chicken and the family favorite - Elephant where they all put their arm up in the air like the elephant's trunk would go (that was my addition!). Aidan has learned his brother's names and uses them ALL the time! Today he went over to where Gavin was playing and crouches down a couple of inches from his face and says "gabin. gabin. gabin" about 5 times. Gavin does not respond and Aidan sighs and gets up and does something else. So cute. Brady sounds like "Bay-bee" with an occasionaly "r" sound in the first syllable. And every itme we say "Can you say Aidan?" he says "me!". I also caught Aidan talking in his sleep the other night. I had gone in to make sure pacifiers were in close proximity to hands/mouths and put blankets on everyone when Aidan, who is SOUND asleep, rolls over and begins saying in full day time voice "blah-baybee-rath" and then goes quiet again. I just stood there giggling and wondering HOW his brothers can sleep through that all of the time and being thankful, of course, that they can!

Where Brady has figured out there is a name for everything (and he wants to be sure he learns it) Aidan is talking in full sentences. We don't know what he's saying, but he is using inflection and hand gestures and pointing. When that kid learns to talk, we are all going to be in trouble. Not only will he have LOTS of stories to share, but I doubt there will be many family secrets.

Aidan wrestles with Gavin . . . Gavin LOVES it!

The boys are also DEFINITELY talkign to one another. They will have an exchange and are waiting to hear what the otehr has to say, or they will come in and out of the kitchen while one is in his high chair and then they will LAUGH at what the otehr just said! When my mom and I were giving baths the other night, I had Aidan out to lube him up and get him diapered and he and Brady are calling back and forth to each other in sentences and then cracking each other up.

I got some great video today of Brady and Gavin wrestling around with each other for a few minutes, i will try to get it uploaded this week - they are 50+ pounds of fun!

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words . . .

Not much else going on . . . just thought i'd add some recent pics. Happy Valentine's Day!

Where is your belly button, Brady?

Gavin is super sporty!

Just dragging a couple of friends around . . . Aidan

Brady goes in for the kiss . . .

Aidan rides Gavin like a horse - giggles ensue!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are just a few of my favorite things:
Reading:
Curt had a work meeting the other night and had to leave just before we were putting the boys down. He was able to slip out without lots of fussing while I began reading to all three of them on the couch. Gavin was on my lap and Brady was on my right and Aidan on my left. After I had read a couple of books, Gavin wanted off my lap to flip through a book himself. Brady IMMEDIATELY got up and positioned himself on my lap to get read to. it was SO SWEET. After reading a couple of books, AIdan then tried climbing over his brother onto my lap. Brady wasn't budging so I just put Aidan on my other leg and everyone had to share. I also love that when one of the boys has a book they want you to read to them, they will sidle up to you and then scootch their bottom toward you until they are cozied up against you in perfect reading position. :)

Gavin likes climbing!

Kisses:

All three boys are on a kissing spree! Brady is probably the most prolific initiating kisses with his brothers when they are crying, reading, playing, whatever. He and Aidan also like to kiss animals in books - dogs, cats, ducks, whatever animal looks like it is fun to kiss. Gavin has begun giving his sweet, WET, open-mouthed kisses when you pick him up and it of course makes him LAUGH! After taking some of the shots on this post the other night, Aidan and Brady spent about 5 minutes looking at the pictures on the camera screen and then KISSING it over and over again making a "MMMMWAAAA" sound.
Brady gives Rosie love (Schellenberg's dog)

Learning what they need:

Tonight during the bath, Brady was beginning to have trouble toward the end of the bath. He pushed his brothers a bit, began crying after he tried to eat one of the tub crayons and Curt pulled the piece out of his mouth and just all around was DONE. Curt said "Are you done, Brady? Do you need to get out of the bath?" (because to be honest, WE were done!) and Brady sat there for a moment, then stood up and put his arms out looking up at Curt. It was SO NICE for Curt to be able to take him to get lubed up, diapered and PJd since that was obviously what he needed. There were no tears, screaming, etc AND his brothers got to continue to play without being pushed, cried at, etc.

Gotcha, Aidan!

Bed time:

Now, our boys are GOOD SLEEPERS. I mean, really good. It's gotten to the point that after we have done the nighttime routine (baths on bath night, teeth, books, etc) we will say "Who's ready for bed? is it bedtime?" and like a WHIP has been cracked, all three will get up from what they are doing and begin heading down the hall! sometimes they want to be carried, but more often than not they are just as happy to walk themselves down the hall. I just LOVE it. even though those are the times I most want to keep them with us and snuggle them even more than we already do. the other night about a half hour after we put them down we could hear some noise from their bedroom. I headed down the hall and as i was listening at the door i can hear Brady and Aidan LAUGHING up a storm! Making noises with their voices, wiggling around their cribs, etc. I can also hear gavin kind of sighing, but obviously well on his way to sleepytown. I couldn't help but laughing thinking of them entertaining themselves in there . . . i can't WAIT for night's before christmas, school, birthdays, vacations when they will be in their bedroom excited and doing exactly what they did that night . .. remind me of this post when that happens. :)

Hey there, Brady . . .

Eating:

Now, our boys are GOOD EATERS. Really. Occasionally one will decide he doesn't like a certain texture for a few days, but then they will eat it later without any fuss (except GAvin and Cheese since his first seizure - really, that is when he suddenly seemed to decide he does not like any kind of cheese. do you think the cheese loving part of his brain was affected?). Anyway, i am trying my hand at some occaisional baking and I made chocolate chip cookies over the weekend. Now, i'm no baker, but these were damn good. Gavin was at the store with Curt and Brady and Aidan were "helping" me in the kitchen. Brady says his version of cookie ("Ga-goo" - we still try to teach him the real word) over and over again after his first bites. Aidan looks like he is in black face from his nose down he has so much chocolate melted on his face. When Gavin got home and got his cookie he laughed the entire time he ate it. They behave much the same way with butternut squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, shepard's pie, home made mac and cheese, cherries, grapes, blueberry or banana pancakes . . . you name it. it's so great to see them enjoying such simple and important things in their lives.

PS Funny story alert: Aidan is afraid of more than his shadow. Tonight, the boys had tacos for the first time (well, the meat and cheese and tortillas, just not all at the same time). Curt had warned against giving them too much in case it activated their digestive systems way more than we wanted. About half way through dinner Aidan passes some WICKEDLY loud gas. he gets the MOST concerned look on his face and begins to make his scared cry. He then toots again, and again, the scared cry. Curt and I are practically in TEARS we are laughing so hard. He then gets distracted eating more, laughing with Brady, etc. Then a couple of minutes later - WICKED toots and the scared cry again. Yes, Aidan is afraid of his own farts. And yes, it was Curt's turn for diapers :)

Finally off the DL

Three little beggars for Dad's yogurt . . . G, A, B

If you thought traveling with 3 relatively healthy toddlers was tough, try having all 3 sick after a week of jet lag. Yes, I am going to milk this for all of the sympathy i can.

I know i have already summarized some of this in the last entry, but it was a REALLY tough week last week. The week after we returned to Doha, Aidan began with a fever and the snots. THat was on Friday. A Sunday morning Dr's appointment for meds to treat his symptoms was without incident. On Sunday night we put everyone to bed with NO OTHER SYMPTOMS of illness. 3 hours later, Brady sounds like a barking seal! the kid is coughing like crazy, breathing really shallowly, has the snots - it was ridiculous. So I took him to the ER where he was the LIFE of the party! playing peekaboo with himself, eating gold fish crackers while they gave him breathing treatments, talking to the nurses, etc. We were sent home a little more tired, but otherwise intact with a plan for breathing treatments to treat HIS wheezing and snots.

Brady does a little spring cleaning . . .

Monday, Gavin and Brady begin with fevers, Aidan is still on and off with fevers - they go up. and up. breathign treatments begin for Gavin ( and by this I mean, we have our own nebulizer to help loosen mucus as well as medication to try to reduce the irritation that causes additional coughing, asthmatic or otherwise).

Tuesday night, Gavin is getting a breathing treatment, then has a febrile seizure - to the ER. they reduce his fever and send him home. Wednesday, i stay home to manage everyone's meds - Aidan's first full day without any fever. Thursday, Curt stays home to manage Meds, Gavin's first full day without any fever. THursday night - Gavin is COUGHCOUGHCOUGHING - back to the ER. THe dr. tells me that she feels like he might need to be admitted, but he doesn't have to be since we have a nebulizer at home, but she is worried he may end up back in the ER. We are sent home with more meds, and a breathing treatment plan every hour for 3 hours, then every 2 hours indefinitely. CUrt and I do this RELIGIOUSLY. Keep in mind we now have not slept through the night in 2 weeks.

For once Gavin doesn't knock the blocks down . . .

Friday morning, curt and i both feel like we are getting sick. this is the most depressed we have been since having triplets. seriously. i can't even believe this comes out of my mouth: "I miss our life before the kids were sick. I REALLY miss our life before the kids" (when you boys read this one day, know it was said from a place of exhaustion and not from wanting to send anyone back. :) ) breathing treatments every two hours for Gavin continue, and we try to nap as much as we can.

Saturday morning around 5 AM - Gavin is NOT any better. He is coughing up a storm and curt is swearing as he comes back to bed from yet anotehr treatment. Brady is crying b/c he is awake after hearing curt come in and out and we decide i will take Gavin to the Dr. that morning (gotta love weekend hours for dr's here!) and get a long term management plan for what we are now thinking must be asthma. By breakfast curt is feeling MUCH worse - we decide to call Tess and Marie and ask them to come in and help out while i'm at the dr so curt can try to rest at least in the afternoon. By 915AM, the dr has admitted Gavin to the hospital with labored breathing. He says based on what we have been doing, we have done all we could at home and he is now having lowered oxygen saturation. in tears, but also somewhat relieved we head for another chest x-ray and then the room. gavin and i both sleep the whole morning (on oxygen he slept like a CHAMP!). curt brings me stuff to stay the night (thank goodness for tess and marie) and then heads home with a plan to switch at lunch on sunday.

Aidan LOVES wearing hoodies . . . all the time

Sunday, i head into work without a shower after a relatively uneventful night. i am now on the hospital terrorist list after a few run-ins with nursing staff who do not seem capable of understanding that when people are sick, they need sleep and kids struggle with going back to sleep after people keep coming in every 15 minutes for crap they could have done all at once. i'm sure they have a photo of me behind the front desk of the peds floor. i could care less.

sunday night curt is with gavin in the hospital - he is getting better, but still needs oxygen support. curt has a run-in with nursing staff over the IV gavin tried to rip out of his hand. he has now been raised to "person of concern". :) Being home with Brady and Aidan on my own was EASY. Curt and I both decided that having three has an exponential factor going on here - 3 is like having 5. there is no explanation for why it took me UNDER 10 minutes to diaper and put PJs on both of them, and yet it EASILY takes us 20+ minutes when curt and I are both there with all three of them. how does one child add up to an extra 10 minutes???

Monday - Gavin is released before lunch. I end up going to 3 different pharmacies and calling another before i find one with the right antibiotics. for some reason, they write all of your scrips on one sheet, so if the pharmacy doesn't have something, 1) you either can't get reimbursed for it with insurance if it's an OTC thing or 2) you can't get it at all from another place since it's an antibiotic and you need a prescription. what should have been a 15 minute side stop on the way home was nearly 45 minutes of driving and waiting. ANNOYED.

Wednesday post-release check-up, Gavin is doing well. the other two are reaching the end of their snots and coughs. one more week and another check up for gavin.

This is what we did last week. Good thing they are really cute. :)

Aidan and his necklace . . .

Happy New Year!

Aidan LOVES footie PJS and buses!

Sacked out after a long day traveling - Brady, Gavin, Aidan - but Brady seems to have his second wind!

Well, another month long vacation has placed a wedge in between me and this blog. :) It was delightful.

To re-cap our trip we had a 16 hour flight from Doha to Houston on 11 December. It was ROUGH. The boys were really good, but didn't sleep NEARLY as much as they could/should have or as much as we would have liked. We HAD tested out the Benadryl trick at home TWICE. apparently, new situations can blow their reaction out of hte water because Aidan and Brady were definitely on the EXCITABLE side of their benadryl dose - leading them to walk UP AND DOWN the aisles for the majority of the afternoon. Ever had to get your 15 month old to not touch a sleeping stranger? it's a little awkward.

We had a lovely few days with my family at Aunt Pam's house. She has an incredibly patient yellow lab named Sadie who had 3 little shadows for 4 days. We knew Gavin would be bonkers for her, but Aidan and Brady got in on the gig themselves and by the end of the first day were running down the hall to throw themselves on Sadie and her dog bed, sticking out their hands for her to lick them so they could pull them back giggling and shreiking, and just being near her any chance they could. THey also LOVED being introduced to all kinds of new things with grandma and grandpa and aunt pam - like horse (wooden horse that is their size), running circles through the kitchen, kid level windows, etc. They had a BALL and so did we. We also had some family pics taken by my incredibly talented friend Tracy G. Robinson - if you are in the Houston area and want pix taken of your kids/family - check her goods out here: http://www.doe-ee-bird.com/

Sadie and one of her shadows - Gavin

We then flew with my mom to Iowa. Overall, again, the boys were pretty good. Brady slept on grandma's lap most of the flight, I nearly put Aidan in the overhead compartment sicne he was being rather annoying (up, down, look out the window, get down, wrigglewrigglewriggle, up, snuggle, window, down - you get the idea). Aidan finally fell asleepabout 20 minutes before we landed - sigh. And Gavin - he did not sleep for pretty much the whole flight - poor Curt. Gavin was being so squirrely and kicked the seat in front of him so hard the woman ahead of them turned around. She was very nice about it, but I think she was surprised that munchkin could kick so hard! The next morning, during breakfast, Aidan seemed to be having issues eating the raisins and toast. At one point, my mom decides to pull some food out of his mouth(he kept trying to put it in and chew) when she sees something green in his mouth. not veggie green - plastic green. Yes, Aidan had put the letter 'F' (for food?) that is a refrigerator magnet in his mouth and THAT was why he couldn't chew/swallow very well. It was a little bit of a shock to everyone, including Aidan.

Aidan LOVED wearing Uncle Matt's hat . . .

Brothers don't shake hands . . . Brady kissing Aidan

Over the course of the month, Brady began speaking in swedish tongues like CRAZY(he sort of sounds like the Muppets' Swedish chef when he puts words together)! through the presence of the grandfather clock he mastered CLOCK, and discovered CARs, and continued with HORSE (from Aunt Pam's). Aidan began singing at meals (la, la, LA, la, la, LA) and Gavin increased his babbling, as well as his physical prowess in leaps and bounds. all three boys are now climbing up stairs (with adults safely behind them), climbing up the couch, and are so steady on their feet - it's AWESOME! THey got LOTS more stimulation and visits with family and friends coming over a lot, so they are SUPER bored with us these days. :) I feel like I can see a difference (especially in Gavin) with all of that stimulation. THey definitely began doing more stuff developmentally - maybe it's coincidence, or maybe it was a catalyst.

Don't eat the yellow snow Gavin!

Gavin did NOT want to come inside, even with his cheeks this red!

Since we got back all three have come down with a NASTY something. The first night Aidan threw up in my hand. that was awesome. Then of course we have had fevers like crazy (all the way to 104 folks), snotty noses, coughs, etc. Brady and I made a trip to the ER on Sunday night for a few hours because he went from going to bed with NO ILLNESS WHATSOEVER to barking like a seal in 3 hours time. When the breathing treatment didn't seem to last more than a couple of hours and he had labored breathing, i took him in. He was Mr. Personality the whole time. Really. Talking to the nurses, giggling, playing peek-a-boo by himself, swishing his feet on the crunchy paper, eating goldfish during his breathign treatments, etc. The ER Dr. thought he was being so cute he asked to take a picture of him on his phone. Brady rewarded him by saying and waving BYEBYE when we left, scrips in hand. At the pharmacy at 3 AM he was chatty with the pharmacist, playing with the potty training devices, etc.

Fun with Auntie Slabas and Auntie Raber - G, B, A!

Tonight before bedtime, we were goign through all of our meds for each kid (it's exhausting BTW) and Aidan had something taken from him he wanted to hold (honestly, i think he wanted to hold a piece of the nebulizer machine). He began with his infamous SILENT cry as he leaned backwards against my leg and then slid down to the floor to end up on his back with his head on my foot. I was trying my best to not laugh but COULD NOT HELP IT. At least my head was turned and I was quiet. Curt was also doing his best to not laugh. THe best part is Brady walks over to him, lifts his shirt and says "arrgh?" as he pokes him in the belly button - his new favorite body part. He then goes and gets a pacifier and shoves it in aidan's mouth. This is not to silence him, but they boys have begun giving each other things when one is crying. The other day Aidan brought BRady some socks. Gavin will often get down on the other boy's level and get about 2 inches from their face - and then begin giggling. It's very intentional to try to make the other one feel better. As Aidan continued to cry, even on my lap after his little shindig, Brady then came over and gave him about 5 kisses on the forehead, mouth, etc. over and over again. it seriously just warmed my heart. even if I wanted to stuff Aidan in a cabinet.

Then we got everyone up at 9PM to begin the next rounds of breathing treatments and fever reducers. I SHOULD have gotten Gavin up at 8PM (even though his dose should have lasted until 11PM) for the different medication, but I didn't and yes, I will still be kicking myself for that many moons from now. He had another febrile seizure just after curt gave him his breathing treatment, so Curt is at the ER with Gavin as i write this. I KNOW he will be OK, but I am kicking myself because we should know better to not go the full 4 hours in between difference medications so that the fever doesn't have a chance to spike again. and of course since I KNOW that this has happened a second time, i am even more stressed for the otehr two and their fevers, so you can bet i will be setting an alarm to get up and check them tonight.

In other news a couple of significantly LESS painful things sicne we have returned home. Aidan now likes to be FULLY dressed for the day every day. It used to be whatever we put him in and maybe a pair of socks. He now brings us shoes (usually matching, but not always), some sort of hat (baseball, sunhat, etc) and a hoodie or sweatshirt he would like to wear for the day. it is hilarious. and so sweet. and he is happy as a clam if we do this for him. it kind of reminds me form the movie Big Daddy, where the kid wants to wear crazy stuff and Adam Sandler lets him wear fishing boots and a colander for a day. i can just see that coming. :) Aidan is also afraid of his shadow, and i am not kidding. curt and I had the boys walk to a little play area a few buildigns down from us since the grass was being watered at the park this last weekend. Aidan's shadow was in front of him and he was walkign behind me. When he noticed it, he bagan to cry and try to slide to one side or another to get away from it (the sun was behind him, so his shadow DIRECTLY in front of him). I ended up having to carry him because he was FREAKING. then, on the way home, he did NOT like that shadow walking so close behind him! He was glancing over his shoulder at the ground and try again to move side to side to get away from it. THis morning Marie was doing shadow puppets on the wall and he was hiding behind her wanting to look but so scared he couldn't get any closer. poor kid. can you tell we don't take them outside much during super sunny (read - hot) days?

Brady on the other hand, still loves to close doors, but he is being a bit more helpful in doing so. I have had the fridge shut on my head/body more than once, but at least he is helping! He is also busy asking questions about EVERYTHING. Car, clock and bye bye are his best words, but he has begun mastering "grape" as well. Who doesn't love GRAPES?!

Fall Has Arrived in Doha

A taste of what our lives are like now - everyone in different directions at once . . .

Well, our lives have picked up quite a bit since Aidan finally got independently mobile. Everyone is on the move and has their own ideas about how and when and what they want to do. a few recent stories:

Gavin goes for a ride in the toy box!

We had taken a walk over to the clinic that has opened for our compound to get the boys their followup flu shot. There is a HUGE open space outside of the clinic (there will be a medium sized grocery there soon) and curt was goign to let the boys walk around while we were waiting. Some of the ladies in the reception were entertaining Aidan and Brady and Gavin were having a blast running around. All of a sudden Curt sees Gavin walking toward the side of the GLASS doors. he began to slow down as he approached them as though he saw them and then apparently sped up and BONK! walked right into the glass. OF course he got lots of cuddles, but we couldn't help but laugh a little bit too. poor kid . . .

Brady Boy!

OK, we need some help on this one . .. Brady seems to have some "self-injurious" behavior. In the last month or two he has begun banging his head on the floor when he doesn't get something he wants or when he is upset that something was taken from him. in the last week or so he has escalated things. now, if there something he wants but doesn't get (full water glass, remote control, book, to climb something dangerous, etc) he will hit is head or face several times in a row on something, or he will PUNCH himself in the head while he stares at you. I was changing his diaper the other day (he was upset b/c he had to stop playing to get changed) and he hit himself in the head so hard i could HEAR it - 2 or 3 times. WHERE DOES THIS COME FROM?! The only reference i have seen on self-injurious behavior was around Autism Spectrum Disorders and 1) it didn't define it and 2) he doesn't have any of the other symptoms they discuss associated with ASD, so we just aren't sure what to do. we thought maybe it was for attention because we will see Tess and MArie freak out a little bit when he does it, but we have been with him all week and we try not to react when it happens and it almost seems like it is getting worse. There was one part i read about having to do with self-soothing and head banging - it said 6% of kids do this (the top 6%?:) ) , but this punching himself in the head seems to be 1) not very self soothing and 2) just plain weird. should we be stopping him? ignoring him (what we are doing now)? giving him whatever he wants even if it is dangerous?! any advice will be taken lovingly . . . :)

Brady likes reading!

Brady also is in need of a haircut - he has a SERIOUS mullet going on - business in front, party in back. Curt calls him Billy Ray. but we don't want to get a haircut now since they will be having pictures in a week and a half - not enough time for it to grow out if something happens! The funny thing is we stopped at a place that supposedly focuses on kids cuts and when I tell the woman that they are really wriggly, she says "Oh, no problem. I have a Sri Lanken boy who is very fast. cuts VERY fast!" i just didn't know what to say . . .

Aidan and Gavin enjoy reading in their new easy chairs!

And Aidan. people here say the craziest stuff that is totally rude when they mean it to be nice. This is the second time someone has said to us about the boys that "he [Aidan] is the most handsome/cutest [of the three]". why would you say that even if you thought it?! do you actually expect a parent to agree with you - publicly or privately??? "Why yes, he is the most handsome - the other two had better deveop killer personalities or they will have no chance at finding mates in life . . . " i mean COME ON. at least it is equal opportunity rudeness - i had a woman tell me as a pregnant woman i needed to now wear dresses as pants were unattractive on pregnant women. i was wearing my favorite pregnancy pants at the time. Or they will ask you in the middle of the hallway (or at the pediatrician's office): "My, it looks like you have gained weight - how much?!" umm, none of your frigging business, thank you very much . . .

Aidan the baby rapper . . .

It's finally cool enough for hoodies and socks and shoes! We thought this picture was emblematic of our family - parent trying to get them together while they are trying their darndest to do whatever the hell they want.

one month until vacation . . .

Curt and Belle enjoy the Brazil-England Football match - a night out without the kids!

Aidan is COOL!

Life has been relatively good these last few weeks. About 2 weeks ago, everyone came down with the snots - no fever (thankfully), just snots. Then it began to turn into a cough for brady and gavin. then it was labored breathing for gavin and no one was getting better, so we took them to the dr. THe treatment was at home breathing treatments. and then 3 nights later the poor kid did not stop coughing for more than a half hour at a time. after a 2:45 AM breathing treatment, we decided that we couldn't wait until the dr that morning, so I took him in.

His oxygen saturation was fine, but basically he had 1) so much snot that was irritating his airway that 2) he had to cough a lot which in turn 3) irritated his airway. VICIOUS cycle. so we were admitted around 5 AM , but they spent nearly 45 mins trying to take blood from the kid but couldn't find straight veins. he was poked 3 times and they then called nurses from the NICU (who remembered us from when they were born) to do the IV (since they deal with difficult IV insertions more often). They stuck him 2 more times and i finally asked if he really NEEDED the IV, or if we could just get blood work from a heel prick. so he was stuck a 6th time on the heel and they sent us to get a chest x-ray and to our room.

Gavin is a pacifier salesman - he knows his merchandise!

When we got to our room there was ONLY a crib - no bed for the parent. there was the long couch on the wall of the room - but no pillows, blanket, etc for me. i asked for them to bring in a bed for me since a month prior when we had been there (same room if you can believe that) i had been given a bed. they said it was a 2 week old policy that they no longer gave beds to parents and that i could talk with the head (Qatari) nurse if I wanted to. They said it was a "safety" reason - they didn't want people to put their infants/toddlers on the adult beds. I told them I would be HAPPY to talk with the head nurse, and they needed to go ahead and send one of the guest relations people to talk with me as well - they would hear about how ridiculous this new policy was. And another thing - if this was about safety, i wanted to talk with them about their crib. In the first two minutes I put Gavin in it, he had slipped one leg between the mattress and the side of the crib, which was about a 4 inch GAP. We had had this same situation when he was admitted with the seizure, and we had used all of the blankets and sheets they had given us to fill the gaps. I said that I had done my best with the blankets and sheets they had in the room, but this crib was unsafe by design. It also did not seem to have a mattress that could be lowered. as the crib was about chest height on him (maybe lower now) all he had to do was drop something over the edge and then look down to see where it went (you know, like 14 month olds do) to then topple over with his giant head. so if they were concerned about safety - they needed to get a new crib for toddlers. they didn't know quite what to say. i got a bed a couple of hours later after i had gotten in the crib with him to calm him and try to get him to sleep (and try for shut eye myself).

he ended up staying overnight with curt and came home after lunch the next day. he and brady are still having breathing treatments with their at home nebulizer and aidan treated us with getting a fever thursday afternoon. and passing it on to brady friday night and gavin woke up with one this morning (sigh). Gavin was also diagnosed with our first ear infection. like my friend tracy said, "i'm actually kind of glad there was a medical reason for his behavior", otherwise i would go hide in a closet until he was 8 years old . ..

Happy Birthday Daddy!

otherwise, aidan's light turned on last weekend with walking. we were at the Education City (EC) soccer league games and our friend's daughter Leila is 2 days younger than the boys and has been walking for over a month now. I think Aidan saw her being able to be so independent (and wanting to follow her around?) that he decided to get with it. Being sick he has slowed his efforts a little bit, but he is definitely making it happen for himself - it's very cute!

Halloween 2009 - we dressed as a Hawkeye Family! OR each of the boys dressed up as each other . . .

there is a little girl in the park named Johanna whose family is from the chicago area. mom was a former german HS teacher and speaks german to her kids. it's AWESOME to see. Anyway, brady and aidan have a CRUSH on this little 10 month old. Brady leaned over and kissed her forehead the other day (a big open mouthed slobbery kiss) and she leaned her head into his stomach really gently. Then Aidan toddled over and leaned down and gave her a big open mouthed kiss on the cheek and stood up again. She GRABBED his t-shirt and pulled him down to her and she gae him a big kiss on the cheek. it was SOOOOOOO adorable! Gavin has made a friend with an older boy who he just thinks is the bomb. The boy will try to hug him and talk with him and Gavin just shrieks with delight and falls on him. so funny. i'm sure he will have lots of fun with cousins when we are back in the states!

THe boys are also really beginning to give us some animal sounds. Gavin's favorite is a bear sound - he does it over and over again with a book grandma and grandpa V sent about how these three bears are "all my favorites" - it's so sweet. Brady likes to quack like a duck - only it sounds more like "Caa! Caa!". And Aidan likes to roar like a lion. it takes a few tries to get him going, but then he will just keep doing it. too funny. :) Aidan also likes to talk on the cell phone. He will be blathering away with the cell phone held . . . about 4 inches behind his head. he gets the general area it is supposed to go, but not quite . .. :) Aidan has also begun picking up on the basic signs we have been using for everything from "more" to "food" to "thank you". that last one was a shocker because we have only been using it for a couple of weeks and I know Tess and Marie aren't using it at all. guess he is ready to communicate!

Today curt and i decided we ALL deserved some time watching a Baby Einstein video. I have no qualms about this. I also have no ill-conceived notions it will make me or my kids smarter. though curt and I think they are magic. there are certain parts of the DVDs we both SWEAR we have never seen before. i mean, this is a 22 minute video and there were at least three 30 second scenes today that both of us were like "have you seen that monkey before? me neither" so anyway, the happy family was cuddled up on the couch coughing and breathing heavily through our snotty noses (yes, curt and I are sick too) while we watched Vicent Van Goat do some Van Gogh paintings, and some orangutang stuffed animals play the drums, etc. i think it was my best 22 minutes all day . . . :)