There is something in the air

Alrighty, alrighty, ALRIGHTY! I know some of you have thought I forgot to take pictures of my kids. But I've just been plain lazy about getting them on the computer. Well, and sometimes a week does go by and I realize I have not documented my children's life.

This is not such a travesty since some of us only have, like, three pictures of when we were babies. And sometimes those pictures were even shared with siblings, so I'm not sure that they even count.

Jacob is such a sweet boy. Today Matthew had a "loose" diaper and we had to change all of his clothing and bedding. Jacob immediately got him a bowl so he could throw up in and made him some toast. Then he got him crackers to eat because Matthew had a "fever". Fever is code for when Jacob doesn't feel good and throws up. So it doesn't necessarily mean that there was a fever involved.

This is probably the last time anyone will see the four of them in the bathtub. Its getting too crowded, its getting too rowdy (as you can see from John throwing a cup of water) and Jacob has been doing somewhat lewd things in the tub.

Now, that's my definition of lewd, not a 5 year olds. Hes obsessed with certain body parts and likes to make them jiggle. That's all I'm going to say.

I'll post more pictures in another post as I haven't figure out how to post more than 5 at a time.

Bathtime idiosyncrasies

Well, its day II of no more NUKs. Brooke took a shortened nap today so I put her to bed first. She was standing up and crying. I put the boys to bed and she was still crying. I read a book to Jacob and she was still crying. Soooo, I got her up and cuddled with her for 15 minutes. She was wide-awake and poking at my face. And now I hear her talking in her bedroom and Jacob is sleeping, or trying to sleep, in the bunk beds not one foot from her bed.

John didn't make a peep after I put him to bed. He looked for his NUKs and I told him that the NUKs were all gone and I can't believe he didn't throw a little bit of a fit. Not even a little itsy bitsy bit.

I worked at the Y today, not on the membership desk, but at the scanning desk. On my feet for five hours. I'm not used to that, so my feet were pretty sore, and it was the friday before a holiday so it was not busy.

I get home and the kids need a bath since I think they rolled in sidewalk chalk. The evolution of bathtime has changed a bit since they were first put in the tub at 10 months. They were bathed together, they had pooping issues in the tub, so they got separate baths due to pooping and standing up in the bathtub issues, their baths were 2.5 minutes long. Next phase, baths together again that lasted a little bit longer. I leave the water running just a little bit so they can fill their cups up and pour water over each other. Matthew likes to pour water from cup to cup and really likes to splash water at me. Brooke likes to stand up and jump. This gets her taken out of the tub. She also likes to splash, throw things and pour water over her brothers heads. John likes to lay down in the tub, splash water at me and sit by the faucet and watch the water come out. He also likes to pour water over the others heads. He also likes to touch the other babies butts and say "poop" and giggle.

No one likes to get out of the tub and this is usually a struggle. And then they try to run out of the bathroom, but usually end up slipping because of all the water on the floor because of the splashing.

Is it a one-man job? Yes. But I close off all the doors upstairs and open the gate so they go downstairs and don't get into trouble. I don't want them touching the toilet or garbage in the bathroom so I send them out. I wonder why toilets are a magnet for children?

Shell Dinter and I took the kids to the New Zoo today. We had a really good time. We got to feed the giraffes these crackers. Brooke was a little scared of the giraffes, but Jacob, Matthew and John gave the giraffes crackers. We saw, little lion cubs that are a month old, bears, bison, Japanese Macaque monkeys, moose, snakes, praire dogs, other children.

Then we stopped at Old McDonalds and got about 20 chicken McNuggets which no one ate. But they love french fries. Its one of the words that Matthew can say quite distinctly.

A new day

Today, I was all alone in my house for the first time ever. EVER. EVER! For two glorious hours I didn't have to listen for babies, take care of babies, be responsible for any two-legged things.

My sister-in-law and brother volunteered, no, asked!, to take the babies for the morning. So I dropped them off and was back at the house by 9 a.m. and I cleaned the downstairs toy box out. Seriously, this is a catch-all for anything. And one of my pet peeves is when, instead of putting the fisher price animals in the fisher price farm, they all get thrown in the toy box. If I, as an adult, would think twice before playing with something that doesn't have all the parts because I'd have to go find them, I'm sure that two year olds and a five year old feel the same way.

So I put all the constructions stuff in a sterilite box, all the fishing/hunting toys has a new home in its own box, all the play tools have their own home in a new box. All the Tinkertoy have been returned to their original container, all the matchbox cars put back into the car holders, all the train stuff put on the train table.

I want it to stay this way. Sooooo, I guess no one will be playing downstairs for awhile. I'm going to have to remind anyone that plays down there to put the stuff back where they found it.

So then, I picked up the babies, they got their Daisy dog fix, and we went through McDonalds drive through to get some cheeseburgers. Brooke ate a whole cheeseburger by herself. She loves cheeseburgers and hardly even eats the french fries anymore. Matthew on the other hands loves the french fries and really doesn't touch the hamburger. Not surprising because he has more texture issues and also takes awhile to try something new. (Sounds like another 5 year old in my house)

Then it was after one, I put the kids in bed and John, the ringleader, started jumping up and down in his crib and the other two monkeys followed. He was wound up so much I took him out and rocked him for awhile so the other two could fall asleep. I put him back and noticed that Matthews foot was through the crib slates. About a 1/2 hour later and into my nap, I heard some crying and it was Matthew. He couldn't get his foot out. Its what happens when you have wide and pudgy legs and feet.

So then we cuddled and I tried to get some more sleep.

After all the naps were done we went outside and I filled up the pool. Interestingly enough, Matthew is very comfortable in the pool. While John sat on my lap pressing against me until he felt comfortable enough to get in. Brooke isn't all that thrilled about the water. She doesn't mind it, she's goes in for a minute and then goes and plays something else.

We ate dinner outside and then I got the ice cream cones out. Amazingly, Brooke didn't want hers so John had two in his hands. He steps in the pool with the ice cream cones and he starts doing this dance. Matthew was in the pool with his ice cream cone and he starts dancing too. It was hilarious. I wish I had the video camera. We had a really good time outside.

Then during bath time, which didn't go so well, I noticed John started mouthing things, his arm, me and he was getting almost hyper. So I got out his chew toys for his oral issues and then he stopped licking me and his arm. Its really weird to have a child lick you. When I got him out of his crib after bath time he had licked his whole left arm. You got to wonder about him...

The BIG day!

We sang Happy Birthday to each child (separately).


So far, after two weeks of trying, this is the best group picture I have.


Happy Birthday Matthew, Brooke and John! They turned 2 just four short days ago, but after their naps today, I think they knew something was special about this day.





When everyone showed up we opened presents, well, Brooke opened presents. Matthew whined and sat on my lap and John was either on Grandma Plamann's lap or his cousin Michelle's lap. Jacob played with the trains HE got for a present. He wasn't interested in opening presents. So basically I and my niece Katie opened presents. That will change next year.


The babies got enough clothes, sand toys and bubbles to last them until next birthday. It was a haul.


I'll post more pictures on flickr tomorrow (I promise). But here's a few of today. These are their unofficial Two year shots. I'd like a few more options to put on the wall and Scott has some touching up to do...





Oh, and after most people left, I found Matthew in the brownie pan. He's got a certain fondness for frosting and chocolate. Hmmm, I wonder who he takes after. All three got baths after digging into their cupcakes.
We did the annual "hide the Easter eggs" outside this year since the snow was melted - mostly.

And my friend and Brooke's Godmother Shell Dinter gave the babies this book called, You're all my favorites, which fit them to a T. Its about three little bears and their parents love them equally. Its awesome! I think Kohls either had it or has it now. If you have more than one child, this is a really nice book.

Three "men" in a tub

First of all, why are all of you at one end of the tub. 3/4 of the tub is empty. What is soooo magical about water coming out of the spout? Being crowded like this only leads to fights and skirmishes because someones elbow ends up in someones face or someone doesn't want to be touched.

Doesn't Rod Stewart say a picture tells a story? I think these pictures capture the personalities of my kids. Especially the portraits.



Since its two, TWO weeks until the big birthday, there will be four or five sessions trying to get that one perfect picture to put on the wall. Check flickr out later for some of the other pictures that I took.

Bathing experiments part II

I think my cold has passed on to John. He's got a fever of 101.1 So I gave him some Tylenol and an hour later it was down to 100.6 He's in a good mood, but just a little more cuddly than usual. Which means he's a monkey's baby (facing in, arms and legs wrapped around midsection of mama).



Matthew didn't take a nap today. He screamed and screamed when I put him down. So I rocked him to sleep and then put him down and he did the same thing again. Then I tried putting him down a couple of hours later... with the same results.



So, I'm hoping its going to be an earlier bedtime tonight for ALL my kids and so Scott and I can get some stuff cleaned up. O.K. probably Scott will do more than me. I'm pretty wiped out because my head feels like a block of cement. But Together Everyone Achieves More!



Since my post a few weeks ago, I've been feeling a little guilty about not giving the babies playing time in the bathtub. So I've increased that time from about 2 minutes to 5 to 7. It gives them time to play with their new bath toys (thanks to Cindy, Matthew's Godmother). They love to take those alphabet foam letters and put them on the wall and off and in their mouth and out. John tries to drown the wind-up floating giraffe. Matthew isn't interested in the wind up toys and Brooke just holds them in her hands and then tries to put them back into the netting.

Another interest bath observation is that Matthew must be really, really thirsty when he's bathing because he stands up and licks the bathtub walls. Which right away make me think that I need to clean them more often. He's the most content to sit and play in the bathtub.
On the other side of the spectrum is my little Johnny. If you pour water on him or over his head he flips out and starts wiggling and standing up and giggling and is out of control. So he's basically a slippery moving target to try and get clean.

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.