Birthday Party Pics!

The AWESOME Cake our friend Jen made for the boys - cake and new cars to play with - this RULES!

Aidan found a new way to use the basketball hoop from Grandma and Grandpa V!

This birthday was much easier on Brady than his first one - no tears! :)

Brady helps Aidan get ready for the party

Gavin makes sure to get every. last. bit. of. icing. off.

Happy Birthday to You!

Brady, Aidan & Gavin play in their new house from mom & dad

Aidan, Brady and Gavin are turning two today! It is amazing to think that just two short years ago, i was enormous and my water broke sending curt and i on the ride of our lives! Recently we took the boys to the park after dinner (it was moderately cooler) and I said to him "Just think, a year ago the boys couldn't WALK! Now we are trying to make sure Gavin doesn't go home with someone else!" The leaps and bounds by which these boys have grown is always startling and amazing to me.

Who the boys are today:

Aidan - what? Are my shoes on the wrong feet or something?

Aidan: Our oldest son. You are a dare devil, you are a momma's boy in the best sense of the word, you take forever to eat, but you eat pretty much anything all the time, you love having your back gently tickled when you wake up (as well as your tummy tickled before you go to bed!), you LOVE your rabbits and take them nearly everywhere we will let you, and you seem to have a deep seated need to be carrying multiple things with you all the time. I love your sweet giggles and your funny hats, how much you love to stick stickers anywhere you can and that your first action with a marker was to sit and draw on yourself, the way you ask us to wipe your hands while you are eating and how much you love to accessorize with hats, shoes, and sunglasses.

Brady gets ready for the party!

Brady: Our middle child. You are probably the most sensitive to how we respond to you. You are mischievous in the best sense of the word, you are funny, you are the family narrator and you are getting better at that every day, you KNOW that you are funny and you are becoming more confident every day as you become a little boy. I love your hair that sticks up all the time, regardless of how long or short it is, how you instigate play with me ("Mommy fall down" as you push me so you can crawl on top of me for snuggles), how you ask about all of the family members and friends (and their pets) whom you remember so that you can get a run down on their day because you love them, how you laugh that guttural, adorable laugh, even if you are just making yourself laugh, and how you freely give your brothers kisses just for fun.

Gavin can't BELIEVE Elmo came to visit him on his birthday!

Gavin: Our youngest son. You are one of the strongest kids i have ever seen. You are passionate and energetic, you love to dance and listen to all types of music, you love to figure out how things work, and you play by yourself very well (sometimes too well - we want to play with you!), you are loving and snugly and have the most outrageous laugh! I love that I can see your back muscles, that you love books as much as I do, that you love tickles and kisses and even when your passion takes over, I love that you are passionate. I love how much you love animals, and your push and ride airplane (with spinning propeller), and Elmo (or ernie, bert, oscar, etc whom you have mastered their names).

For all three of these boys I am at once excited and petrified of when they will eventually go to school or day care. What if other kids are mean to them? or they don't feel included (even by their brothers one day)? or school is hard for them? or a girl (or boy) they like doesn't want to be their friend? what if (ok, so i probably need to say "when") they grow up and don't "need" mom and dad any more? What if they don't live long enough to fulfill my hopes for them - that they are able to live a long and fulfilling life as adults doing whatever will make them most at peace and happy?

On your birthday, mom and dad wish you all the joy you bring us and more. Happy 2nd Birthday Aidan, Brady and Gavin!

Ole!

Aidan, Brady and Gavin LOVE homemade popsicles!!!

Today two of our RHDs held a "fiesta" dinner at their apartment. After we ate our dinner, we took the boys over to hang out. I had promised I would bring them with mustaches (completely non-PC - we were told to bring or wear anything "Mexican", hence the mustaches) :) but I had forgotten to use eyeliner on them. Luckily, they had some water based markers i used to draw on Brady first. He looked HILARIOUS and adorable and as soon as I brought him out of the bathroom, he was a huge hit. :) It of course made him a bit shy for a bit, but eventually he and Aidan and Gavin were pointing at their smudged mustache faces and saying "mustache" very proudly. i'm sure in the US this would be grounds for a call from child services. :) And no, they did NOT come off that night, OR the next day. oops . . .

Brady, not so sure about the mustache, Gavin getting his done . . .

At one point in the evening, Gavin climbed up on a chair vacated by someone that happened to be RIGHT in front of the plate of brownies - RIGHT at EYE LEVEL. His eyes got really big as he then began to reach for the plate. Someone saw him and pointed out that he picked the right chair to sneak into and everyone started laughing because he looked so cute (he did have the more Hitler-esque mustache). He immediately stopped and thought people were laughing AT him and started BAWLING. Poor kid. It was only a few minutes of snuggles in the bedroom to get him to stop crying.

NOW, Gavin is into it . . .

Aidan, loved the sombrero

I met a mother of triplets (2B,1G) in the mall the other day. Hers are 5 months old and she is from New Zealand. It's kinda fun to have some "useful" info, but just in talking with her it amazed me how much I had forgotten that I thought was burned into memory forever (feedings, sleep schedules at that age, etc). the other great thing is we can get rid of some of the bigger items that the boys are outgrowing - high chairs, a walker they now fight over as they climb into it, etc) sweet . . .

We had a consult from our dear friends the Carroll's the other night on how we can stop going right up to the edge when Brady pushes our buttons. We have begun trying some of the suggested options for when he decides he wants to hit, or throw or ram his motorcycle into a piece of furniture, etc. Today was a great one where I gave him the options of driving his motorcycle around the table, or into the TV area and instead of ramming the furniture, he then tried to run over Ariana. Rather than naughty mat or talking to him about why what he did wasn't nice or yelling and losing it, i just quietly picked him up from the motorcycle, put the motorcycle on the table and then ignored him. He stood there stunned for a few minutes and looked a little sad. He then walked over to the furniture he had been ramming, opened the door and asked to play with one of the toys (and said PLEASE!). he got the toy, i wasn't dragged into the downward spiral with him and there was no meltdown. it was CRAZY. and soooo good.

Gavin has been awfully snuggly lately - he wouldn't let go for almost 10 minutes before work in this picture

In other news, it is Ramadan again. Shorter work day, really frigging hot and unfortunately since it is earlier every year, the sun doesn't set until nearly the boys' bedtime. which means restaurants don't begin serving until the sun sets. which means until Ramadan is over, no going out to eat as a family. You have NO IDEA how annoying this is when we eat out once a week just to have something to DO in this nasty weather (we go and play on the indoor playgrounds before dinner at the different restaurants and can still get home in time for bed).

Moving Day - our three little convicts begging to get out of the backyard (A, B, G)

After moving out of our apartment the other day we had to go back over and make sure we had looked under all the furniture, taken off the furniture corner pads, etc. Curt realized that Gavin had put ALL of the animal magnets from the "fridge farm" under the old fridge, so we dug all of them out and brought them to the new place. The next night during bath time, Curt says "Guess who put half the animals under the fridge again?" of course, I said "Gavin, urrgh." Curt goes, "I guess he wants them to be free-range." I nearly died laughing.

I'm TWO!

There Ain't No Party Like a Run Up and Down the Ramp Party (Aidan, Brady, Gavin front to back)

The exciting news we have this week is we will be moving! NO, not back to the motherland, but to a new place with a yard. We are PUMPED - can you tell by the pic above? Basically we will have a 3 BR, two story duplex with a back yard big enough for a GRILL, baby pool and Curt to sit in a lawn chair with a supersoaker to spray the boys as they run past. We can't WAIT! It's also been a good chance to clean sweep our apartment and get rid of loads of paperwork and other junk we have accumulated over the past 3 years. It's only 3 speed bumps away and we have packed about half of our place so far for the "big" move.

In our packing I have found some stuff from the hospital when the boys were born. I can't even BELIEVE how tiny the little bracelet/patient ID thing was! And they used to slip it over their feet/ankles because it was too big for their hands/arms!!! Two years feels like an eternity ago . . .

We have been walking the boys down to the new house in the afternoons when they are squirrely and we can only bear to be outside for a few minutes at time. yes, it's that hot right now.

Aidan and Brady take a walk with Mom

Brady is a complete parrot right now. He loves learning new words and is really getting good at getting his message across. He still narrates everyones day and we still run through lists of people he knows and what they are doing right now. Brady has also begun exercising with me. Many mornings after breakfast he will come in our room while I am getting ready for work. He must have seen me do abdominal work a few too many times because he will lay on the ground next to me and pick his legs up. So funny! He also KNOWS when he is funny. Even if he's not. One thing curt and I have issues with is discipline with him. When he has to spend time on the naughty mat (and he exceeds his brother's naughty mat time by a HUGE margin) he will giggle and laugh and scoot off the map and drive us ABSOLUTELY INSANE. So what do we do? Ignore him? Yell at him (OK, so sometimes that is what happens)? Continuously sit him on the naughty mat for the length of the minute? Lock him in a closet? Maybe you can tell, this behavior exhausts us . . .


What are YOU lookin' at? (Aidan)



Aidan is learning all kinds of new human tricks. The other night when I said "who's going to help me clean up the legos?" (and I thoroughly expected all three boys to continue running in circles around the couch) Aidan walks over to me and begins to pick up legos! And not just the ones around the box!! he must have picked up half of the legos that had been strewn about. it was AWESOME!!! He also LOVES stickers. His first action after taking the sticker off the page is to put it squarely on his face or forehead. So cute. he has also begun putting them on mom and dad and occasionally his brothers. :)

He is a big boy too! He has begun trying to really get himself dressed. He often gets his own shoes on and tries REALLY hard to put shorts on. even if he already has a pair on. he's growing up so fast! :)

Gavin loves when Dad tickles him tummy . . . that's the most still he was all weekend!

We think Gavin may be getting his two year molars - at least we HOPE there is a medical reason for his tantrums and behavior lately. He has also been showing us how much he actually watches us. When he sees mom stretching, he will lay on his side and do the same stretches putting his arm in the air. He is becoming more verbal (though still not where Brady is yet) and LOVES to say Arianna's name - "NA-nana". I would say he probably says her name the best of the three of them and he CLEARLY loves her already. That is a good feeling because we were a little worried how the boys would react to Marie retiring without really having a chance to say goodbye.

Today when I came home, Gavin wanted me to pick him up so he could point out grandpa and others in pictures on our book case. When I did and he found Mommy in the picture, he then puts both of his hands on me and says "MOMMY!" and I did the same to him and said "GAVIN!" it caused him to giggle like crazy. He is also our little helper. Even though he was CLEARLY not interested in taking PJs to the laundry when we first began instituting chores for the boys, he now will take ALL of the laundry for us in the morning. It's like one day his light just turned on and he decided he it would be fun to do.

You may be wondering about the title of the post ("I'm TWO!"). I'm going to go ahead and out us as parents who are teaching to the test. I was thinking the other day that it would be cool if when they turned two (in just over a month - oh my goodness!) if someone asked them how old they were they could say "I'm two!". so rather than teach them "I'm one!" and have to then learn they aren't one anymore, but they are now two because of how aging works and the earth's journey around the sun and all, i figured i'd just start with what they should say. If you ask "How old are you?" all three boys will say in their own sweet little way "I'm TWO!" It literally melts my heart. :) It makes all of them laugh and they look so proud of themselves too. we will have to get some of that on video (which BTW, we just uploaded 68 videos to our external hard drive the other day. 68. at least we can start the process of editing them down a bit . . . 68 - bleh)

Summer ROCKS!

Gavin, Aidan, Brady


We had a fantastic summer vacation this year! My mom was kind enough to accompany us to and from the US and we had a niiiice loooong 15+ hour flight to Houston with the boys. They each slept about 4 hours of that flight and considering we trapped them in between the seats and the bulkhead the rest of the time they were pretty darn good.


They had LOTS of fun swimming in Aunt Pam's pool with Grandma and Grandpa and following their kitty Chloe and puppy Sadie. They did NOT adjust to jet lag as easily as they have done in the past. The first night, they woke up at 3AM and were UP for the rest of the morning. Aunt Pam was kind enough to hang out with us a for a bit - we took the boys out for a walk in the cul-de-sac at 3 AM so they wouldn't wake up the rest of the house. Curt and I then let Pam go back to sleep while we trapped them in our room trying to get them to watch cartoons and fall asleep between 4 AM and 6 AM when we finally felt like it was "reasonable" to be up. RIDICULOUS.
Brady, Aidan, Gavin had no idea how much FUN hoses can be!

They proceeded to wake up crying for a few hours a night for the next 4 nights in a row, with one child dropping off and learning to sleep again each night. Gavin was our favorite son this particular week. :) We even tried to drug Aidan and Brady with Benadryl in the middle of the night to help them sleep. it got uglier . . . bleh. The good news was that they were in great moods during the day even if they tortured us all at night.

Cousin Collin reads to Brady

Curt and I flew on our own from Houston to Iowa with the boys and they were pretty nice to us. Gavin snacked and read the Sky Mall the majority of the flight. We were welcomed to Iowa with rain pretty much every morning which usually cleared for a sunny afternoon. The boys are outside FANATICS and asked to go out at every point of the day. Between pointing out birds, the neighbors dogs (Hobo is now on the list of people/animals Brady asks about), squirrels, mail trucks, etc they barely had time to push the lawn mowers that we had to get THREE of in order to not break Aidan and Brady's little hearts. Basically there was one. And after Aidan got to push it, curt and I thought we could teach sharing. We then told him he would be giving it to Brady for his turn. Aidan, after practically ripping it out of his little hands, proceeded to follow Brady aroudn as he pushed the lawnmower screaming and crying and pointing at him. The minute he would stop, Aidan would try to grab it again. We then tried to give Gavin a turn. He preferred to lay on it or push it so her could lay on the ground and watch the wheels. This must have made Aidan and Brady angry because he wasn't playing with it "correctly", so they would try to push it with him either laying on it or with his head two inches from the wheels. We had to put it in the top of the garage because we COULDN'T get them to stop crying (at one point Brady actually threw himself in the grass and just CRIED). Aidan was still upset on the 15 minute car ride to the Carroll's for having it taken from him.

The next day, Brady saw it in the top of the garage and asked for the "mwer" about 80 times, so we got it down. The environment proceeded to disintegrate almost immediately, so grandpa said "They are $13, i'll be back in 20 minutes" even though Curt and I were CONVINCED we could teach them to share. In retrospect it was fun seeing all three of them mow the yard for as long as their little legs could carry them . . . :)

Aidan helping himself to some homemade salsa

We had a chance to go to some area parks, the Des Moines zoo (feeding the farm animals is FUN!, unless you are Brady), and of course the pool with the "bucket". The first time we went to the pool Brady asked me if Aunt Pam, grandma and grandpa and Sadie would be there. That was obviously his most exciting memory of a pool, and he was a little crushed they wouldn't be there to play with him. He did enjoy the bucket (and still asks for it) that fills with water and then dumps out a deluge of water on unsuspecting swimmer below. He didn't like getting hit with it, but he loved watching and hearing kdis scream when it would happen.

Mom, Gavin, Brady, Aidan and Jadyn enjoyed some pork chops and have moved on to popsicles! YUMMY

We also had some fun playing in sprinklers in Iowa. The first time we ran the sprinkler at the Kenoyer's, the boys had their lawnmowers and Aidan would drive the lawnmower over the top of the sprinkler so that the water would stop going up and then he would take it off when anotehr brother would walk over to see why the water had stopped, spraying his brother full on. It made for GREAT entertainment for the adults! I don't know if you remember, but hose water is COLD. And of course, our skinniest child (Aidan) was the only one who LOVED it. he would purposely put his head in it, or would be the one to go and rescue balls that had been kicked in the spray zone. LOVED it.

Gavin popped out the lens - fun way to see the world!

Gavin began saying some real words on our vacation. he now has mastered "help please, all gone, blue, green, ball, car, grandpa" and "ouchie". He still LOVES reading and will basically bring you as many books as you are willing to read before bed. he also likes figuring out how things work. Drawers, wheels, straws, you name it.

Brady likes his new sunglasses!

Brady is a parrot. He has been stringing words together in sentences for a few weeks now and will say things like "grandpa truck byebye" (grandpa went to work in his truck), "ride ina car" (i want to go for a ride in the car), "hidenseek" (the squirrels are playing hide and seek). the other day he wanted me to wave a fan at him after he had hit himself in the head with it a few times and says "mommy do it" as he hands me the fan. It is so COOL seeing the boys put these pieces together. he also goes through a near daily list of all of the people he knows so that we tell him where they are and what they are doing. The nice thing is it is usually in the morning so we can just say "they are sleeping". :) He also has developed quite a little temper and screeches when things don't go his way. His sadness is almost palpable when he has taken your discipline very seriously (which is rare, he STILL giggles when you say no, or the first time or two he goes on the naughty mat - INFURIATING).

Aidan covered in grass and apple. YUM!

Aidan still seems to need mom the most. He is definitely talking and using lots of words, though not quite as clear as Brady. He also speaks in sentences and loves to play on the phone and wear mom and dad's shoes. Aidan also seems to hold his frsutration longer than the other two, so he may have stopped crying, but he will have such a serious ANGRY look on his face like he is BROODING over the injustice. you can't help but giggle a little bit. He is also by far the squirrely-est. When he would see a brother set a toy down he had tried to steal earlier, he would race over, yoink it from wherever/whoever and then run away clutching it to his chest and he looks back to see if anyone was in pursuit. Gavin rarely would go after him and Brady nearly always did. Because the brother HAD set it down, it was often hard to tell if it was truly a theft or if he had rightfully claimed it. I'm sure this is only the beginning.

Brady, Gavin, Aidan play in the cool mist in Houston

In more recent news, the three boys have become lemmings. We have 2 lady bug chairs (see pic on earlier post) that are up against the couch. They LOVE climbing up the ladybug chairs and climbing/launching themselves onto the couch. over and over and over again. it is adorable and we got tons of giggles, but it also winds them up like nobody's business. and of course they prefer to do this before nap/bedtime and hopefully with something hard in their hands so they can accidentalyl hit themselves/a brother over the head. Yesterday at lunch, Brady and Gavin were tryign to go over at the same time and fall in the same direction. CONKED HEADS!! The funny part was both of them just lay on the couch for about 10 seconds rubbing their heads. they had some nice red marks, but no one cried (until we tried to ice them). we have gotten to see all kinds of acrobatics as they get more and more daring in this game. keep your fingers crossed they will remain (relatively) injury free.

Plain tuckered out - Brady, Aidan, Gavin

The countdown is on . . .

What could POSSIBLY be keeping the attention of my ENTIRE family? (Gavin, Brady, Curt, Aidan)

Oh right. Baby Einstein Video.

After a long hard day at the ranch (i.e. the weekend) dad and the boys were chillin' watching a Baby E. video. We have to put the coffee table in front of the TV or they will stand 2 inches from the set (if we are lucky they are that far away) and then fight b/c someone can't see. THey have finally reached an age where they will watch for the full 20 minutes. And Aidan is our addict b/c he is now turning the TV on whenever he can so he can watch (not just play with the buttons like Brady and Gavin do). we have lots of tape on the front of our TV now.

Gavin recently had his follow up visit to the nuerologist at the public hospital. Long story short - the dr. thinks the seizures are solely from fever and that we just need to anticipate and plan for fevers. so we didn't learn much. The LONG version is that we also didn't feel so comfortable in some of the others things he was suggesting due to some comments he made. Like when he asked us MULTIPLE times if we (curt and i) were "blood relatives" (OK, so it is more common here even if it doesn't make sense biologically). Like when he said he thought curt looked like he was from New England from the size and shape of his head. Like when he told me I was "dangerous" after I told him i grew up in TX (ok, so he was right on that one)

Gavin and I also started a fun game when he is in the lower high chair where i put my t-shirt over his head and cover it completely. He now asks for it by grabbing my shirt and trying to pull it over his head as he laughs like crazy. Curt is worried he will do that in public and people will think we are perverts or something. It's just too fun to stop doing though! :)

Bath time - that tub is getting too small! (B, A, G)

Tonight was lots of fun in the bath! Aidan decided to hug on his brother a bunch. Gavin was allowing it even when Aidan was alittle rough for our taste. It then devolved into an all out wrestlemania while brady looked on. This is one of the few pics that doesn't show penises. :)

The boys are also showing lots more emotion with each other - both affection and annoyance. The other day Aidan was set on the naughty mat for trying to climb the drying rack for the umpteenth time. Of course he cried and complained and a few seconds later, BRADY shows up, gives him a kiss and then sits on the mat with him and they begin to talk. I guess with the extensive amount of time Brady had spent on the mat in the previous week, he knew Aidan might want a friend to visit with him. :) OK, so it was REALLY cute.

Aidan and Gavin - What? You aren't supposed to sit in the library cart?

Aidan loves riding the motorcycle - i bet he can't wait until his feet can reach the pedals!

How cute is Gavin? He likes his cape! :)

Gavin's tantrums have toned down a little bit, but he has decided he doesn't like to come to the table when it's time to eat. After his complete meltdown teh otehr night where he screamed and cried everytime we came near him for dinner, we have been much more easy going about bringing him to the table. He will start to make his way into the dining room and then if he sees one of us at the door, he will run the opposite direction babbling like crazy and hide by the couch. It's the WEIRDEST thing. Sometimes (when he has hidden long enough?) he will come to us and wait for us to pick him up and will be as sweet as can be . . . i'm not quite sure what to make of it. but he's still pretty dang cute (when he's not throwing a fit).

Juliette and Brady on some other kid's trike

One of my RHDs saw this picture and laughed and said "He looks like such a badass". This is sweet little Juliette - she seems to have a crush on all three of the boys, depending on the day. She speaks THREE languages as fluently as a 2 year old can - English, French, Russian (russian mom and french dad). The boys may be a little out of their league! :)

Brady has a WORD EXPLOSION right now. It is ridiculous and so adorable at the same time. he has begun to sing the ABCs when we do, the Raindrop song, etc. He loves repeating words after us and is learning colors too. He is also bringing his brothers their lovie (though it's usually b/c he stole it from their crib) when they are upset or sometimes if they are jsut sitting on our laps. Aidan is getting there - the other day out of nowhere he sings ee-i-ee-i-oooo with us. and we hardly EVER sing that song to them! Gavin is still babbling a lot, but only a couple real words now and then. He is still asking us to name pretty much everything, so i'm sure when he starts talking, it will be in paragraphs. :)

Just a few days until our month long vacation. I truly hope that I neglect this blog while we are gone - if only b/c that means i'm having lots of fun with my family and maybe my husband and I are getting out on some date nights!!! Pray for curt, my mom and i on our 16 hour direct flight from Doha to Houston this friday. Let's hope the boys are good to us and our fellow passengers . . ..

Happy Mother's Day!

Are you lookin' at me? (Gavin)

Happy Mother's Day! This mother's day was spent with me at work (sunday-thursday work week and all), but we DID have a fun filled family weekend. People were getting over illness (mom and dad included) with only snots to contend with, so we did a family grocery run that ended with Brady trying to crawl out of the cart and falling on the tile floor. Seemingly no concussion, but MAN did it shake him up! We hope the silver lining is he won't try to climb out of things like his crib, amusement park rides, etc in the future. :) On Saturday we went to our new pool with a friend (Thanks Jill!) and the boys and they just LOVED it! Lots of people, outside, cool water. it was THE BEST. Gavin loved kicking, getting splashed and for me to jump in from the side while i held him. crazy kid. We also went to a picnic along the corniche with some friends. LEss relaxing for us as the boys were continuously heading for the parking lot, garbage can, other people to beg for food. One woman pulls out a KitKat bar and just hands it to Brady. I could NOT beleive it - who gives other people's kids candy??? (well, other than child molesters) Curt says as he is coming to move Brady away "He doesn't know what that is" and she looks at him like HE is the crazy one . . . (sigh)

Our new "tent" (Gavin, Aidan, Brady)

This tent is getting it's money's worth - the boys have tried to drive their baby strollers in it, their trike, etc. They like to read books in it, play with the balloons we filled it with, squish it on one another, play in it like it's a fort with a blanket over the top, etc. loads of fun!

Gavin, Aidan, Brady heading to a picnic on the Corniche and singing "Lemon drops and Gum drops"

We haven't had a good pic of the three of them in awhile, and this one doesn't look like it will be either :( They all wanted baseball hats on to go to the picnic - not sure why as they ripped them off as soon as we got out of the car . . . They were certainly the life of the party though!

Brady is pooped without a morning nap today

Down to one nap a day is good for the most part. We still have some EXTREME whining around 10 -1030 am that can stop ANY day now, but we really are enjoying doing some longer morning activities. The bad part is dad and I are so exhausted we sleep almost as much as the boys do during THEIR afternoon nap! THis shot is just after the fall out of the grocery cart incident, so we weren't sure if his crying for 20 minutes wore him out or if he had a concussion. or both. either way he took a 25 minute nap (because he just NEEDED it) that morning and then still slept a couple of hours in the afternoon. Hallelujah!

Yes, that is a cheerio in Aidan's ear. Yes, he put it there. And ate it when i pulled it out.

Aidan is just FUNNY. He was SOOOO proud of himself for having found a nook to put something in. and then to have it stay there. and then to be able to eat it after i got it out. He hasn't put anything in any other body part, but i'm sure this is just the beginning.

Brady and Daddy ROCK OUT!

Brady's hair spikes THE BEST by far of the three boys. His hair is so light it is like filaments that stand up straight all the time in a big poofy mound on top of his head. he has the best bed head - makes you just want to snuggle in with him!

Aidan does a little light reading (he set the pillow up for his head)

Gavin and mom read a favorite book - "Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck"

I think Gavin is on the verge of beginning to talk like Aidan and Brady are. In the last couple of weeks he has been pointing at EVERYTHING for us to name, much like Brady was doing in January/February. Books now take much longer as when we get to the end, he goes back through for you to name things over and over again. And he is our puzzle boy. He loves to sit at the table in the mornings before breakfast and point at the pieces or show them to us and have us name them over and over again. He has also been having a lot more full out tantrums that Touchpoints (child development book) says is an indication they are getting ready to go through some new milestone of development (T. Barry Brazleton says that reverting to "disorganization" in behavior is how toddlers/babies are then able to "re-organize" at the higher level of development. Says this has been shown in chimps. If he's right, Gavin will be writing poetry before the end of the month . . .) :)

A hand-me-down potty makes a nice reading space (Aidan)

For my reflection this Mother's Day I am realizing a few things. 1) in some ways i think having all three at once is the ONLY way I could have had a family. I think of how TOUGH those first few months are and thank God we only had to do it once. I really don't know if I could have handled having another kid knowing what hell you are walking directly into and having no way of knowing if it will be better/worse/the same hell you had the first time. even if I still get the googly baby eyes when i see newborns. :) 2) I am more patient with these boys than i am with ANYTHING and ANYONE in my life. I feel like I owe it to them since they were born onto a "team" they didn't get to decide they wanted to be on for themselves. For the most part, I see their (sometimes insanely annoying) behavior as the way they are learning about the world and their path through it. the least i can do is shepard them along at the pace they need. 3) I have a completely amazing husband who is such a good dad. He may not always have the patience for their shenanigans (like when they decided they didn't want any dinner last night, so decided to throw food and then cry while we cleaned them and then closed them off from the kitchen so we could eat in "relative" peace. I think curt was thinking about moving to New Zeland) but he loves them with his whole being and shows it by doing all the little fun/boring stuff you do as a parent to provide for your kid (and not just in the way you go to work to provide for your family - i mean diapers, games, tickle fights, sucking snotty noses, etc) 4) I am much more able to enjoy any time we have away from the boys than I did before. I was so exhausted at times, that it felt like more work for curt and I to get away than anything else, even if I always came back from our time happy and refreshed. Now, our routine is such that i don't feel like I'm always on my last leg before we are going to have a night out. THAT is a very good thing. :)