Meat-a-saurus and other adventures

Sand is AWESOME . . . (Gavin, Brady, Aidan)

Some new friends of ours had us over for a casual dinner a couple of weeks ago and to return the favor, we came back to their house (they have a yard and grill - we live in an apartment - not as easy to eat outside), but brought the food! Stealk for the adults and kabobs for the kids with caprese salad, mango and salsa and chips - YUM! The adults were eating at a table and while food was set out for the 5 kids, they would eat, then play, then climb on our laps, then eat then play some more.

Mom and Brady goof around

At one point, Aidan had climbed on my lap and was eating tomatoes and cheese and mangoes off of my plate. He had started to grab for my steak and i gently moved his hand away. he eventually climbed down to play with the other kids some more. I looked down to have another bite of my steak, and my plate was pretty much empty. hmmm, i could have SWORN i had more steak left . . . i turn around and look and Aidan is in the doorway to her house and is holding my steak in one hand as he gnaws on it. Of course i said, "Aidan stole my steak!" and everyone bursts out laughing at the sight of him just chewing away on it. This is the kid who nearly ALWAYS chooses veggies over any meat on his tray, so i guess it just really looked good to him!

Aidan and Brady play with push toys(that IS a cleaning cart). And wear yogurt tubs for hats.

While Gavin has been the most obsessed with pushing things on wheels, the other two have finally caught up with the craze. So much so that we went on a little spending spree for some new toys. I found a cleaning trolley (complete with brooms and mops and buckets) they can push - since they love swinging our brooms and mops around and nearly knocking each other out with them. Curt found a baby stroller that was NOT super girly pink, a motorcycle they can pedal/push, and a trike they can push each other in and of course ride/pedal when they get bigger. Tess and Marie took them to the park the next day and i guess the boys FOUGHT over who got to push the baby stroller so much that she decided to buy them ANOTHER baby stroller (yes, SUPER girly pink with light up wheels!). Now just one of them is left out of the baby strolling - never mind the other 3 toys they can push . . .

Look at that booty . . . Gavin IS World's Strongest Baby

Aidan has now gotten himself labeled as the squirrely one in the bunch. the other day as we were starting their naps, curt & i realized we didn't have Brady's frog. yes, panic! we had put everyone down and had the music going as curt and i tear apart the house looking for this damn frog. i was in our bedroom and as i walked out i could hear aidan and brady giggling and i see that the overhead light to their bedroom is ON! Aidan had stood up in his crib and turned it on, the little sneak! he was standing in the corner of his crib with one arm over the edge like, "Yeah, i'm cool" and a huge grin on his face while Brady was standing in his crib laughing his head off. Sweet Gavin was laying in his crib very still and probably thinking "Turn the damn light off!"

Daddy's takin' us to the zoo today, zoo today . . .

We also took the boys to a zoo for the first time ever. Yes, the Doha Zoo is not as majestic as say, the Henry Dorley Zoo, or the Houston Zoo - but it has animals, yes it does! It only took us about 30 minutes to wheel the stroller around, which was just about the perfect amount of time for the boys to be cooped up. Brady kept giving the "more" sign as we would leave each animal pen. The first animals we saw were the SIX giraffes (including a baby) that came about as close as they could - VERY COOL. then some cheetahs, where some dude walking around with his teenage son had his hand ON THE WIRE CAGE as the cheetah was rubbing his head on the cage, probably thinking "if i look like a cute kitty, this fool won't know what hit him when i bite his fingers off!" we saw ostrich, a lion and lioness, oryx (national animal), some monkeys and a chimpanzee. and birds - TONS O' BIRDS. they had one huge pen that had geese and flamingoes and ducks and chickens all making the MOST racket. the kids LOVED it.

Gavin loves to slide!

We then took them over to their playground area to wear them out before we went home for a nap. The playground area has a little kids jungle gym with slides and then a BIG kids jungle gym with slides, etc. After some time on the little kids area Brady went to the swings and Aidan heads his little tail to the big kids area. I see him attempt the stairs and don't think much of it as i'm helping gavin off of the slides. I see Aidan has NO TROUBLE with the first set of stairs, so I begin heading his way. I then see he is headed to the TOP of this play area by himself. I call to curt for him to watch Gavin and TAKE OFF to get Aidan before he hurts himself. he sees me running and RUNS FASTER up the steps and to the two story slide which he then tosses himself down. just as I reached the top. All i could think was "i hope he was ready for that!" he of course loved it. And was then carried to the swings with me.

This is the slide Aidan went down by himself at the zoo - what a daredevil!

It is so funny how DIFFERENT each of the boys are. Aidan is by far the most fearless, and Brady the most cautious. and Gavin the most passionate. :) A couple of weeks ago we were at a little playground area in the next compound and some kid had left a stuffed dog under the jungle gym area. Brady begins making "woof' noises and pointing to it, but will NOT go within 20 feet of it. He is CONCERNED. in the meantime, Aidan just walks right over to it (brady's concern getting more intense) and grabs it and pulls it out to play with it. Gavin was playing in the sand, not noticing what was going on. :)

Don’t Negotiate with That Terrorist!

Curt on the bike trip in Indonesia

This entry should have been over 2 weeks ago, but time in an airport actually allows for indulging my blogging and traveling to and from the US in 6 days makes me too sleepy to finish what i started. :)

While Curt was riding water buffalo in Indonesia, grandma V and I were holding down the fort. The boys did really well, even if they said “Daddy” at every opportunity – while brady was the most vocal about it, I am certain Gavin felt curt’s absence the most acutely. By the end of days, he needed to sit in my lap with more books than normal and would then turn in to me to snuggle and have me walk him down the hall – very unlike him when the whole family is together.
Gavin became our cautionary tale during this time. I was baking some biscuits (refrigerator ready, people) to go with dinner and he was playing in the drawer below the oven. He and the boys have played in there DOZENS of times while I have been cooking. Apparently, below the door to the oven (when you pull out the drawer) is a vertical metal panel that is as HOT as the inside of the oven itself. You can see where this is going. Suddenly Gavin begins crying REALLY hard and I can tell just by the way he is holding his hand, he didn’t run over it with the drawer, but that he must have burned it, though I have no idea HOW. I scoop him up to comfort him and pat my hand around to find this SAFETY HAZARD! Of course we begin first aid at home (cold water, lots of kisses) and within an hour the blisters that are formed on all four fingerpads are nearly as thick as his sweet little fingers themselves! He was somewhat inconsolable for about an hour – I think he was more scared than anything, though I’m SURE it hurt a lot, not knowing exactly WHY his hand hurt and how suddenly it was hurting was probably more difficult for him. Of course, had I known it was that hot there, I would NEVER have let him play there. The drawer is now duct-taped shut. :)

Cars in sandboxes are cool (Aidan, Gavin)

The day after Curt got home, one of the blisters popped while we were at the pool, and the skin was SOOOOO red and raw underneath that we decided to take him to a real Dr (the local clinic had given me sketchy advice I had ignored – they wanted to pop the blisters the DAY AFTER it happened!) to make sure we had all the ointments we needed and were doing everything we could. He had been using his hand to eat and hold spoons and toys until the blister broke, so I knew there was no long term injury. The dr. helped clean it out really well and gooped on plenty of ointment and then wrapped his hand like a mummy. Did this slow Gavin down? NO. He just shoveled food in with his left hand a little faster. :)

A few days after my mom had left we were at dinner and Gavin was being incredibly fussy. He did NOT like his hand being wrapped in plastic (to avoid food all over the mummy hand), he did NOT like his hand being wrapped in general and was just letting us KNOW about it. Basically making dinner NO FUN for anyone. He eventually had ripped the plastic AND the bandage off, but was still crying and throwing his body around his booster chair. I decided I would feed him to avoid getting black beans and rice all stuck in the now popped blisters. He began making cute faces at me between bites, so I would make them back. After the SUPER annoyance he had just made for the whole family, curt busts out with “Don’t negotiate with that terrorist!” and I almost died laughing.

Could this sweet little face say "no"? (Brady)

Since then, Brady has learned the word “no”. He hasn’t really said it to us about stuff yet, but he likes to practice. The first time, we saw him climb on the couch and read through a book saying to himself, “no.NO.no.noooo.no.NOOOOO.” he sounds like he is from MinnesOOOOta. Very funny. Aidan LOVES to walk like a monster, which my mom taught him when she was visiting. We have some sweet monster PJs and she taught him to make a growling sound and put his hands out like a zombie with claws as he walks around – it is HYSTERICAL! The boys have also begun really learning how to wash their hands. In the bidet. It is SUCH a pain to lift them up as high as we need for the sinks and then we are crushing them with our bodies as we lean them forward to soap hands, while they are just supporting themselves so they don’t feel like they are tipping over, so I decided to just do it in the bidets we never use. They LOVE IT. It’s their own personal, Aidan/Brady/Gavin sized sink! Gavin has begun an infatuation with turning the electrical outlets on and off - i know, safe (they all have switches that have a red light on them when you want to turn them on for power). We have all of them covered in the house, but each of the boys has them right at crib level in their room and Gavin’s are always the opposite of how we left them the last time e put him down for nap/bed.

Grandpa reads to the boys (A, B, G)

I have been in Boston for a conference for the last 5 days and while it was SOOOO good to see some old friends, eat some chowdah, attend some sessions and just have some time where no one was looking to me for shoes/diapers/food/refereeing/etc, I MISS them so much! I did get to see them on skype twice, which helped a lot, but by the 3rd day when I would see other people with their toddlers/babies, it took all I could do to not go and pick them up for a snuggle. (I didn’t though, I’m not like the people who always touch/pick up our kids). Curt was so sweet and put together a lovely card for me with lots of recent pics of the boys. It was so fun to do a PMA (Proud Mom Alert) with people who indicated any interest (fools) and show off the fam – especially the one of curt riding a water buffalo in Indonesia! J As I type this I am almost home on the plane and I REALLY hope we land early enough to get me home before bed . ..

Aidan is a pacifier ADDICT - those are on a cord to keep them together in the dipaer bag!!!

Curt may have gotten to wear cool hats on his trip, but I had some yummy wine in the North End of Boston!

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?!