Happy Mother's Day 2013!

BAG - a nice book and icing an ankle are all we need for a good day!

This is my 5th Mother's Day and it has been special and it isn't even over yet! At preschool this week, the boys got to work on a painting for me attached to a fill in the blank paper about me and then gave me a lovely carnation. Their answers are hilarious and adorable and are scanned in below. Curt also gave me the gift of mowing the yard and letting me get my long run in this morning, even though he has a huge paper due in 3 days. He got me a new running shirt (all of mine stink, even after being washed!) and he and the boys gave me a lovely card with an even lovelier message. I am spoiled!

Aidan - so sweet . . .

Brady is right, i DO know everything. And when it's time for bed!

I"m noticing two themes with Gavin - trains and me asking him to clean up . . .

As i write this, I can't help but think of the family in Doha who lost their triplets in a mall fire just under a year ago. I have been able to stay in touch with Jane and know they have moved back to New Zealand and she is pregnant with twins right now. I could not be happier for them, nor feel more fortunate that we are not in their situation. Their kids were only two years old when they passed and I can't imagine every year thinking of all of the things we would have missed out on with the boys, had something that terrible happened to us. It certainly does make me hold my kids a bit tighter and a a bit closer.

The boys are trying out their banter with me and each other. Some days it is cute, other days it is NOT. "Button your bumper!" (from Chuggington) has morphed into "Shut your bumper!' to "Shut your butt!" Uh, no. They are also all REALLY getting into reading. I pretty much spell words every meal. And of course we read books, all the time. The library is actually getting "old" for them, if you can believe that!? At least according to Aidan today when, offered the choice of library story time and then hang at the library, or farmer's market and then hang at the library he says "but we ALWAYS go to the library. I want to do something different!"

As Curt and I are getting ready to swap roles, I am finding myself mourning these last two years a bit. I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend this quality (and quantity) time with the boys, and I am also really happy Curt is going to get to do the same thing this year. I am certain our lives will feel more balanced than they did this year, but I also don't want this year to go by too quickly. I like having preschoolers! :) 

A few pics that should have gone up last month:

A&B enjoy the Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier in April. This was an AWESOME exhibit!

B&G check out the climbing exhibit. It was two stories high and led them to an awesome rope bridge (see below) and shaky bridges they could run across. G would climb the two stories, then just do a loop on the rope bridge and shaky bridges on the second level for as long as we would let him.

Aidan in the rope bridge!

Lunch at Harry Carey's with Raber and Slabas! (G did not want to be in the picture so only A&B)

Aidan the performer on the bus on the way home.

Did I mention Aidan likes to perform?

Waiting for the el . . .  (from the top ABG)

Aidan showed us how he can stick out his ears to listen for the el! It looks painful!

I like pics of the boys sleeping - Brady

Aidan snoozes

Gavin is out

BAG - the "Birthday Rhinos" at Julie and Shelly's bday

Gavin chills while i'm running my race

Aidan does an "artsy" photo

Gavin did NOT want to get up from this nap. Even after using the toilet. :) He is SOUND asleep here.

Aidan also did not want to wake up from nap today.

Brady on the other hand was ready to roll and get his coloring on!

BGA - all wearing two hats! It was March, I swear it wasn't this cold out!

IRISH CHICKENS!?!?!? (Brady)

ON SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!?!?!?! (Aidan)

Ummm, i THINK they taste OK . . . (Gavin)

Aidan the doctor.

ABG - Happy Easter!

You Are a Bad Mommy!

GAB - showing off their cool socks before school one day. How cute are these kids?!

Well, at least I know I'm doing something right! Last week I took the boys to City Park to ride their Y-bikes, enjoy the nice weather and play on a new playground for awhile. We will be getting them new peddle bikes after Curt's semester is over so I want to make sure they get plenty of balancing experience now! When we got to the parking spot, I had told the boys they could ride on the bike path that went behind the little pond, but that they had to stay on the path and i would walk over to them once I was done getting stuff out of the car. After I had shut the car and begun walking toward Brady and Aidan on the path, I see Gavin has made the full loop around the pond and is RIDING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARKING LOT! Now, it is the middle of a weekday on the far side of City Park and there is no one in this area but us, but the point is I don't want to them to think they can do that anywhere! So I yell Gavin's name and for him to stop a few times and he doesn't stop. I begin running back to our car, which he is heading for and I meet him there and let him know why I am angry. I take his Y-bike and tell him he is not allowed to ride it for 10 minutes. He is angry. ANGRY. He stomps off toward the grass with his bike helmet still on, looks back and yells, "You are a BAD MOMMY!". I literally had to turn my head away to stop him from seeing me laugh out loud at that.

Aidan - during "nap" one day he did not sleep, but was putting hats on himself. Yes, he was wearing two when i went in to get him.

AAAAANNNDDDD . . . Aidan also put two on Gavin while sweet G slept. Little scamp!

Brady after the UI Pow Wow - apparently waiting for nap time to be over just wore him right out! Nice monster face paint, huh?

Now, all of my boys show their anger at me from time to time, and I am OK with that. I don't let them say rude or disrespectful things without a consequence, but I do let them know that if they are feeling angry with me, they have a right to feel that way, but they will need to work through it without making things miserable for everyone else. Gavin usually spits, which usually gets him a consequence he doesn't like. Aidan usually pouts (which is rare, he usually does what we ask). Brady is working up a whole volume of comebacks saying things like "I won't EVER think you are pretty!" or "I don't need you for ANYTHING!", which of course he almost immediately (ok, within about 10 minutes) comes and apologizes for. It does take a lot more self control for me to not react to him when he says crazy stuff like this, but since he knows beyond getting consistent consequences, he gets nothing else, his defiance is short lived and his apology is pretty immediate. I still think my favorite example of learning the boys were listening to me was the first summer I stayed home with them. We were arriving at the Carroll's and Aidan was whining about something, and Brady says, "Aidan, whining gets you NOTHING." LOVE!

BGA - a little trip to Molly's Cupcakes is a great way to start off the weekend! Gavin is the best at picking out "good" flavors. A&B weren't as impressed with the ones they chose.

BGA and mom - cool counter seats at Molly's

Dad's done with the week! Time to celebrate Gavin!

This evening I was washing dishes after dinner and the boys were playing in our sun room since many of their toys were moved up there after our basement flooded a few weeks ago. They had been listening to Peter and the Wolf before dinner and were on to Barbar the Elephant. Now, they have heard this CD about a MILLION times, since when we lived in Doha, we pretty much listened to it 8 times a week on our drives to and from Creative Child. Aidan shoots out of the sunroom and stops in his tracks at our recliner and says "MOM! Barbar's mom DIES." I look at him and I say, "I know honey." His eyes are WIDE. He says "Barbar is really sad about his mom being dead." I tell him I know, I think it is sad Barbar's mom died too. He quickly stomps over to me in his walk he gets when he is on a mission and THROWS himself around my legs which just MELTS me. We give each other a big hug and a few kisses and he says, "Mom, if you die, I will be sad and miss you, but I am giving you hugs and kisses so they can go in your body and stay with you even if you die so you will know I love you." OH MY GOODNESS, how sweet is this kid? I tell him that I was giving him kisses and hugs so that they would stay with him forever and he would always know how much I love him. It was so priceless and perfect and I'm so glad to be in a place where we could have that moment and take the time for each other.

Mom with her boys before the 2013 10K River Run (BAG)

Waiting to give me my high five to get me through to the finish line! (GAB - bottom to top)

Curt is in the final throes of the semester and thank goodness for that! :) For all of us! We have already started talking with the boys about how I am going to go to work part time (in a few weeks, YIKES!) and dad will get to stay home with them and my work won't involve as much night and weekend stuff that dad's school has needed. At first they were a little skeptical, but now they talk about it (especially Brady, our external processor) a lot and how dad loves them so much and wishes he could be spending more time with them, but he will when school is done and i go to work. I feel so blessed to have had these last two years staying home with the boys and i wonder WHERE THE TIME WENT. seriously, because it has flown by. even on the long days, it has flown by.

Aidan wearing his thobe from Sulayim and Hamad!

Gavin and Grandpa K eat fritos on their PB&J - WHAT?!

Brady at the HyVee cooking class and story hour

Last night I was cleaning up a bit after the boys went to bed and I found Aidan's big rabbit and little rabbit in the middle of the living room floor. It stopped me in my tracks and made me a little sad, but also happy at my little boy growing up. In the beginning of March, I found Brady's froggy in between the car seats, THREE DAYS after we had come back from Des Moines, where he must have thrown him. He hadn't even mentioned that he was looking for it. Now, even 6 months ago, not having their animals would have sent us into a whole house search in order for the boys to go to bed, and let me tell you, we have DONE that a few times. Now, they are big enough that their lovies aren't as NEEDED by them any more, which is a good thing, but just another reminder of how much further away from being babies and toddlers they are and how much closer we are to them being school aged and more. I read something from a blogger not too long ago that talked about how we have all of these milestones we celebrate for the "firsts" - the first steps, words, solid food, smiles, bikes, etc but that we don't do anything for the "lasts" - the last time your kid holds your hand as you are walking with them, the last time they let you kiss them before they go to school. I thought to myself, "the last time we have morning snuggles. the last time they ask for a snuggle on the couch after dinner. the last time they just want to sit and talk with you about their day or things they have been thinking about . . ." This blogger said, in some ways we don't WANT to memorialize those things, because if we knew they were the "last" would we ever allow them to end? and they might make us more sad than just being able to see it as a natural part of the maturation and letting go process that is parenting. This struck a chord with me in so many ways. Man, do I love these boys.

Paul Ramsay - Hypnotist extraordinaire (AGB)

Last weekend Curt and I were able to meet up with our old friend Paul in Amana, IA. He was in Iowa doing his college circuit and we were able to have lunch with him and the boys before his flight left that day. The boys were asking all kinds of great questions based on what we had told them hypnotists do, like, could he make one of their brothers act like a chicken? I'm sure Paul appreciated that. After a lively lunch Brady asked him if he hypnotized kids and we were all like, "uh, no, not usually." when he asked why (of course Brady asked why) Paul had such a GREAT response. He said "You know why? Because kids are great at just being who they are and having fun, but adults aren't as good at that as kids. So sometimes, adults need to be hypnotized to relax and have fun and just be themselves. So you should feel really good that you are good at being yourself." I just LOVED that.

After the lunch the boys didn't eat because they were too busy playing with or drinking their chocolate milk, we still had more time before Paul needed to go and Curt and I wanted to catch up with him. Fortunately I hadn't had time to return the library books, so Curt brought the whole bag in from the car. After trying to get our attention for a few minutes goofing around, we were firm about telling them they needed to read their books on the couches and allow the adults to talk for a bit. And they did. Not for 5 minutes, but for what seemed like a half hour. All three of them sat on a couch and looked through their library books and giggled at the funny parts and traded books and were SO WELL BEHAVED. Now, here it would be tempting to think it was all because Curt and I are awesome parents. and certainly our philosophy of helping them learn to entertain themselves and not always sticking them in front of a screen aided this moment in happening, but I really credit this to our kids. They love to read, they are interested in learning new things, they like spending time with one another, sometimes they like spending time away from dad and I (blessing and a curse all rolled up in one), and they like the independence I'm sure they felt sitting separate from us on cool, cushy couches just reading books like they saw other adults do in the cafe. I tell you, however long or short that was, it FELT like an actual break for Curt and I too, which does WONDERS for getting back in the game of parenting after a long week (or semester!).

Brady the photog!

Aidan Brings His Guitar to Pre-School

Aidan wanted to bring his guitar to school to show his friends his "rock and roll moves". (Feb 2013)

Brady with the jam version of "Home" by Phillip Phillips

Sweet Brady jams out to the "Home" song by Phillip Phillips.

Gavin sings "Home" by Phillip Phillips

Sweet Gavin sings the "Home" song by Phillip Phillips (Feb 2013)

Spring is springing!

While we have all enjoyed our first winter back in the midwest, we are READY for spring! We pretty much passed a stomach flu back and forth for nearly a MONTH, culminating in the worst ever family vacation the last weekend of Spring Break, that shall now and forever be known as the Great Chicago PukeFest 2013. Knowing that Curt, and the boys, and ME really could use a little R&R, and our friend Ameena was going to be in Chicago from Doha, we decided to do a little family trip to go to the Museum of Science and Industry and then to have dinner with her that Saturday night.  Aidan had gotten sick with the stomach flu Wednesday night, but when Curt and Gavin had had it, they were usually feeling well enough to be walking around on day three, so we figured Aidan would be fine by Saturday for our trip downtown. We had a delightful drive into Chicago, until about 10 minutes from our hotel when Brady says, "I don't feel so good mom." Luckily, we had brought the puke bucket for Aidan, because Brady began throwing up EVERYTHING into it. So, we get checked in, and poor Brady proceeds to throw up every 20-30 minutes for the next 8 hours or so. We of course got take out in the room, which turned out to be kinda crappy. Around 8PM I started to feel queasy and was unsure if this was the food or if I had finally fallen to the stomach bug. Sadly, it was the latter.

Around 9PM, we are called by Brady and assume he is once again getting sick. We had placed him in his own bed and had Aidan and Gavin share a bed until they were messing around so much and not sleeping, we moved Gavin to the floor on top of the sofa bed pillows. Brady of course is fine, but poor GAVIN is vomiting. again. Since he had the same stomach flu just two weeks prior. So we give Gavin a shower and put Gavin and Brady in bed together, each with their own trash can/puke bucket and let Aidan sleep on his own. In the meantime, i am vomiting regularly myself while curt is trying to drown out the sounds and allow me some privacy by "watching" the basketball game in the living room area. sweet. Around 11PM Aidan wakes up crying, and he throws up once. I think by then Curt had left me in my own sorrow on the pull-out sofa so he could "get sleep" and take care of the boys. This happens until at least 3 AM. For all 4 of us (except Aidan, since he only puked once). Yes, it was AWFUL. Luckily we were able to get the hotel and expedia to cancel our second night because we realize we are NOT staying another night. I think we SERIOUSLY scared the people bringing us extra sheets and towels.

So the next morning the boys are up at 7 AM LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED. WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Now, they still have queasy stomachs, but they are running around and having a grand old time. I tell Curt, "I cannot make any decisions today. You just tell me what to do or need me to do and I will do it." So after a shower for Curt and I, we head to the breakfast in the hotel. The boys and I share some fruit and that is about it. When we walk out to the car it is a BEAUTIFUL blue sky, Chicago day. A fantastic one to be out and about in. I begin crying. Curt is visibly upset. The boys have been watching the El out our hotel window and were really disappointed they couldn't ride it. Curt and I are trying to see if maybe we should just take them to Navy Pier (driving) and then meet up with Ameena shortly and then head back that night. We realize that per Murphy's law, if we head home, no one will throw up again. If we attempt to do anything that looks like fun, everyone will throw up. And we thought we probably did NOT want to subject other people to us any way. Still streaming tears, I agree he is right and that I am not in my right head and that we need to go home.

Not to mention that Curt and I are FRIED. He let me have a nap after breakfast, but I was so dehydrated I could barely see. He was up most of the night as well with the boys, so the idea of driving home at 6 PM FROM downtown would have been suicide. So we head home. We stop at a couple of stores I needed to return items to and we drive back, arriving home exactly 24 hours from when Brady began to get sick. Worst. Vacation. Ever.

We do at least have some funny stories from our last month and a half. A few weeks ago after lunch, Aidan had asked to be excused from the table. The boys are good little table clearers these days, usually only dropping their utensils on the floor. Every time. (sigh) Anyway, I am doing some dishes and ask Aidan to bring me his plate and cup. As I look up, I see him trying to simultaneously get down from his booster AND grab his plate with his cup on it. He then slips on this long-ish sweatpants. The first thing that hits the floor is his head, nearly directly UNDER his chair. His plate turns ON TOP OF HIM, complete with spaghetti sauce, green beans and all. He is crying (his head hit pretty hard) and I am doing everything in my power to not laugh out loud as he is now A MESS! Brady is trying to peer over and then under the table to see what the hell has happened. Gavin was over by the couch and begins saying "I was reading my tag reader and then i heard a HUGE BANG! and then I looked and couldn't see Aidan!" I am biting my lip, my tongue, my cheek, ANYTHING to inflict pain and to demonstrate care and concern for my boy who is COVERED in the remains of his lunch. I am PROUD of myself for not grabbing the camera as he is CLEARLY embarrassed as well as has some sort of mild head injury. Later that day, while having a snack, Aidan says to me, "Mom. Don't tell dad about lunch today." Giggling to myself i say, "Don't tell dad about you falling at lunch, you mean?" He says yes and I ask him why. He says, "Because he always says I hurt myself" with a cute little grin on his face. So I tell him I won't tell dad (which of course i did, SWEARING him to secrecy - sorry boys!), but Aidan ends up telling him at breakfast the next day anyway.

Aidan also asked if he could bring his guitar to school so he could "show his friends his rock star moves". Umm, yes. yes you can. His teacher was totally agreeable to it and I got to video it. I wouldn't say he shows us the moves he usually has at home, but he does look every part the four year old rock star. it is ADORBS! This experience led Brady to indicate he wanted to bring his wooden clacker to school to "play" it for his friends and Gavin to also ask to bring his guitar to school to show his friends. they lost interest in it and so it hasn't happened yet, but i'm kinda hoping they will remember it one of these days. :)

Brady has been picking up lots of slang as well. The other day he replied to something i said with "whatever." and then in the next breath says "What does 'whatever' mean?" When we went to Des Moines for Grandma K's birthday, Brady was ADAMANT that he wanted to bring his violin/guitar to play for grandma's birthday and help her celebrate. He proceeded to pretty much stand there bobbing his head in front of her, but it was so sweet. While Gavin was sick with the flu, Brady drew him a picture of our whole family and told him he was sorry he felt sick - completely uninfluenced by me. If only he could bring that brotherly love into more of his everyday interactions with Gavin . ..

Dear, sweet Gavin had a ROUGH month for March. In addition to getting the stomach flu twice in 2 weeks, he then had some other secondary infection and an ear infection. BLEH! With his first stomach flu, we were in Des Moines for Grandma Ks' birthday and he proceeds to TALK with me every time he sees the lightening or hears the thunder. at 3 AM. "yes honey, I know, I hear it too shhhhh." "I see the LIGHTENING MOMMY!" aaaarrrgh!

Gavin has developed an affinity for Phillip Philips' song from American Idol, "Home". He can sing pretty much all of it and even has the different intonations - LOVE IT! My video of this prompted Brady to ALSO want to get in on the video stuff. I will post both in the next post because they are just too sweet. Gavin does seem to be grumpy about just about EVERYTHING these days. His teachers will tell me "Gavin had a really good day today! He was playing with lots of friends and he worked on his rainbow really hard and ..." and then Gavin will walk over to me with his lip stuck out and say "I had a BAD DAY." NOW, we have read a book by this title recently, but his bad mood just seems to be about EVERYTHING. I'm hoping this is a phase. Please, say it is a phase.

BGA - testing out rocking chairs at Lowe's. reminds me of that chick from SNL in the 70s.

Aidan the Engineer Dentist checks out Brady the Nutcracker. yes, that was what they were dressed up as.

Our nature walk (BGA) before snow melted.

This is what we find just before we go to bed - little scamps! (A&B)

Our visit to the Falcon Center near Lake MacBride (ABG)

We have also been liberally using our membership at the Iowa Children's Museum. It is AWESOME! Their favorite places (at least as of this last visit) are as follows:

Aidan - the theater/costume area (the Performer!)

Brady - the Ambulance (the Helper!)

Gavin - the model trains (the Engineer!)

Aidan the vampire - he was chasing other kids around with a spooky voice!

Brady the pit crew for Lightening McQueen

Gavin was a ... sheep Darth Vader?

B&G are "Squirrels" in the tree

BAG and snuggle each other

I think we have found the Yeti. Sasquatch. Abominable snowman. Whatever you want to call him - he IS our Gavin. As you can see from the photo below, Gavin likes to get up close and personal with snow. His brothers will be trying to make a snowball, he is rolling himself around the yard. He LOVES putting his face in it, and that was BEFORE he saw our neighbor's Husky do it! About three snowfalls ago, I was snowblowing the driveway and the boys had their shovels out doing their thing. I look and see Gavin standing RIGHT IN the path of the thrown snow. Face first. Laughing his head off. It was adorable. Until I of course realized a rock or stick could be in there and thrown out at his sweet face. This doesn't stop him from trying to stand in the way of the snow, just at a farther distance. (sigh)

Gavin checking out snow

Family sledding - WOOHOO! (ABG)

Gavin's first ice skating!

Watching a hockey player put himself through his paces (GBA)

AGB in the middle of the ice

Our neighbors who are HUGE hockey enthusiasts offered to take us ice skating (i.e. provide 3 skaters for three kids) and it was a BLAST! The hockey guy in the picture above offered advice to just let them sit in the middle of the rink and watch you skate around. "Their butts will get cold enough they will get themselves on skates!" And it worked! Within 10 minutes, all three had at least gotten up onto their skates and he was kind enough to offer some additional pointers in the middle of his workout.  Nile and Marla were kind enough to both help out with the boys, but just help them enjoy skating since I am about one level ahead of the boys in terms of ice skating. Aidan seems to be the most comfortable on his skates, even though all three of them were totally into it. We all had a blast!

GBA and mom!

Gavin REALLY wanted another chance to skate by himself after we were taking our skates off. He went from the entrance all the way to the red dot and back by himself! I love the determined look on his face!

And Gavin naps . . .

This was how Aidan napped that day . ..  I can just see him fighting it until the very. last.. second...