Christmas pictures part deux

Santa again. Jacob says he wants to dress up as Santa again next year.

My kids sat together on a chair at Grandma Plamanns. Brooke was busy looking bored and picking her nose. John was trying to reach for something on the divider and then he was goofing around and Matthew was just busy drinking his milk and then he decided that Brooke must have had something good with picking her nose and joined in.

Uncle Jim loves to tease Brooke. Brooke isn't really fond of Uncle Jim. Well, I think she likes him because he has a dog, but she does NOT like to be teased. So Uncle Jim likes to get really close to her and asks her if she wants to be held by him.

Is that chocolate on your face?

So today, I felt ambitious, I felt self-confident. I was going to tackle the Ghiradelli chocolate covered oreos and turtles today. With the babies. And not tie them down.

So I heated up some chocolate and gave them their own bowls and oreos.

As you can see, each child has a different way of dipping and eating their cookies. Some are a little neater than others and Johnny really likes to get his hands, face, sweatshirt and area all around him dirty.

John's two cookies that survived are on the top right of the pan. He did a good job considering he is two.

As I'm trying to make turtles (by myself) John and Brooke were underfoot. John was just trying to help. But Brooke was very whiney and cried a lot today. She didn't lay down for a nap and neither did Matthew and John. It was a llloooonnnnggg day.

Jacob had his Christmas program tonight and he did very well. The babies, surprisingly, did not make a peep. They were so tired they just sat on laps and really just zoned out.

"Bee"zy Day

Yesterday my family celebrated my dad's birthday and we had our annual round robin. We went over to Julie's house and then to Jim's house for lunch. I didn't bring over any highchairs/booster seats. I figured they could just sit on laps or sit at the mini table. Well, I think Matthew was thrilled to sit at the table. He climbed onto a chair right away and just sat there. However, Brooke wanted to climb the stairs and was pretty determined to get up those stairs. So, one of us had to sit on the steps to prevent her from climbing. The problem is she doesn't sit when she comes down. She just puts her hand on the wall and walks down. Which may help her balance, but doesn't keep her from falling. She's also been into jumping off things. She was jumping off diaper boxes on Friday and yesterday she thought she'd jump off the stairs. I saw her jump of the second set of stairs onto the floor and she made it without falling on her face. I swear to you, she makes my eye twitch! (Janet Evanovich reference)

Jacob and I dropped the babies and Scott off and then went over to "Shell Dinter's" house. That's what Jacob calls her. She's a friend from when I used to work outside the home and Brooke's Godmother. "Shell" is part of the American Britney Rescue program and she just brought home a new puppy. I was explaining to Jacob on the way over that some owners can't take care of their pets and then Shell takes care of them until she can find another good home for the dog. How did Jacob interpret this? Shell sells dogs. Oh well, I tried. So we met Millie and went to The Bee Movie at the cheap seats. It was a pretty good movie with the usual adult jokes. Jacob got antsy about 1/2 way through and then sat on my lap.

Then when we got home, a few hours later, I started to get a sore throat. I started to ache, my ears hurt, my throat hurt worse. I was getting sick. I really haven't been sick more than two or three times since the babies were born. I think its because of the hand washing Nazi's at the NICU. We also use a lot of hand sanitizer here too.
So the babies went to bed and the Tylenol wasn't helping that I took earlier... so I dug in my box of goodies and found some Oxycontin. It was from my C-section... but still worked like a charm.
I'm looking forward to today because 1) the packers are on and 2) we're taking my mom, dad and Scott's mom to a casino tonight to have a little fun. Wish us luck!

Christmas pictures

Here's a few more pictures from Christmas. As you can see Brooke likes to stand on presents/boxes. I've caught her today standing on her ride-on toys in the house. Maybe shes going to be a tight-rope walker.

There's a picture of our poor attempt at childproofing with boxes at Scott's parents house. They can climb over them, so we had to stack their highchairs right behind them so there was two layers that they'd have to climb over.

Matthew is just chilling with his raggies on Christmas Eve day.

The paparazzi got a picture of Brooke in the buff. She wasn't very happy and tried to kick the camera. She must have been watching video's of Tommy Lee and Sean Penn beating up photographers.

Back That Thang Up!

Back that Thang up! Baby won't you back that thang up!
After you back it up, then stopThen wha-wha-what, drop drop it like it's hotNow after you back it up, then stopNow, wha-wha-wha-what drop it like it's hotNow drop it like it's hot, drop drop it like it's hotC-M-B make you drop it like it's hotDrop it like it's hot, drop drop it like it's hotDrop it like it's hot, drop drop it like it's hotHa
I can't find my Gregg reference manual and I'm not sure when quoting a piece of work such as this by Juvenile that I should italicize it or put it in quotes.
And most people would think that I would blog about Christmas being its Christmas. Merry Christmas.
Back that Thang up was a theme for the last couple of days. First, if you've seen my kids lately (I did it again, called them kids) they have gotten really good at edging each other out because they use their behinds to move onto my lap and get the other little baby or babies out of it. So it goes like this - BEEP, BEEP, BEEP (sound of large vehicle in reverse) walking backwards with butt sticking out. Another baby? No problem, just sit on them or keep bumping up against mom before she finally makes room for you.
I think they have already mastered the art of defense. I can't wait to teach them how to dribble a ball and not just throw it.
Secondly, we got SO MANY presents that we almost had to get the trailer to haul them home. Jacob helped the babies open their presents. They were kind of interested in them, but Brooke was more helpful throwing the paper in the garbage bag, or my favorite, stepping on them. She must have thought they looked like steps.
At my Grandpa and Grandma Plamann's, Matthew was more interested in exploring the house. Only once did we find his hands in the garbage. John really wanted to be by me at first or someone else's lap later on. Nothing was broken, only a few crumbs were dropped. I'd call that outing a success.
However, today, Christmas Day we went over to Grandpa and Grandma Callaways. Well, for the first 15 minutes they didn't get into any mischief. But after that it kind of went downhill. Scott, Jake and his dad went to the hunting land quickly and left Kathy and I alone with the babies. Now, normally, I would suggest a one-on-one type defense against three curious and rambunctious monkeys in foreign territory. They turned the cable box on and off a few times, John broke a ceramic figurine (I think it can be glued), they found every open cabinet and just kept opening and closing them. John figured out how to get into the glass cabinet where the CD's and entertainment center is kept - twice. They figured out how to turn door knobs. So, it was a nice visit, but we went home after dinner.
While driving home, we went to look at lights. Matthew fell asleep right away because he was tired. Brooke fell asleep right before we got home. John was bright-eyed and bushy tailed like usual. He dropped him milk while we were driving and kept saying, "Ohoh,"pause,"ohoh,"pause, "ohoh" and it went on. During this Jacob was babbling and directing Scott towards houses that were lit up. After the 100th "ohoh", I finally went mad. I asked John to say something else - like dog, mom, cat, anything... It ACTUALLY WORKED! He said "mama" and stopped annoying the &*^% out of me. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I think 100 times is pretty accurate. And if you've met Jacob you know he talks ALOT. The apple never falls far from the tree!

Baths are for babies

I'm up late because I forgot to make the stars for our "star system" which translates into, you be bad, sassy, or deaf to mama and you get a star taken away. You be good, kind, share and polite to others and you get a star. Jacob is getting quite wound up from all the hype of Christmas that I'm hoping this works to keep him grounded. We used it last year before Christmas and it worked well.

I told him tonight that Santa will still come and bring presents, but he may not get to play with them until he has all his stars on the wall. He cooperated while going to bed, so I've got my fingers crossed.

Tonight was bathnight for the babies. I don't really look forward to bathtime for one reason - poop. I never had to worry about Jacob "relaxing" too much in the tub. But these little munchkins are another story.
Starting at 10 months they all used to get baths together in the tub. They loved to splash in the water and crawl around. This continued for a few months until someone would poop in the tub and I'd have to try to grab all the kids quickly, dry them off, drain the tub, clean the tub, disinfect the tub and all the toys, keep the kids out of trouble in the bathroom while I did all this, and then start all over again. Seriously, this must have happened 5 times before I decided to give them baths one at a time and they are literally in and out in 2 minutes. No play time, no "relaxing" time. I feel bad because they all really love to splash and play in the water. And really John is the culprit... but in fairness to all the kids, I don't want to give two really long baths and John only a 2 minute bath. And what would I do with him anyway when I'm giving those long baths?
Funny story about John is that one day when all three babies were in the bathtub, I was rinsing Matthew and Brooke and John were in the front part of the tub. Brooke started screaming bloody murder like she had been stabbed in the eye. I turned to talk to her and comfort her and didn't see that John had pooped right away. Then I looked where she was pointing and grabbed all the kids out. But it reminded me of those old movies when the natives saw Godzilla or the monster he was fighting and were pointing and screaming. I guess we know she doesn't like messes.
(Backstory) A few weeks back when I got done with a shower, Jacob was yelling my name (Mom, not Jean) and I could hear crying. Well, it sounded more like whining and it didn't sound serious. So, I got dressed before I came running down the stairs. There was John hanging by his head and one arm from the back of the couch, pinned to the wall. He wasn't choking or anything, his head was the biggest piece of him and couldn't fit between the space. And what helped was his arm grasping the otherside of the couch too.
So, I just give short baths and I've learned to put diapers and onesies on, not just diapers. That's another story though.
Getting back to my original story about bathing is that I've also learned that its hard to keep three slippery babies where you want them. They try to stand, they try to get out of the tub, they try reach up and grab something and they could really hurt themselves. So, I play one-on-one defense with them. It works a little better.