Interview Luke

Here is Lucas. He is true to form in his video. A bit shy, doing his own thing, but a smart little boy. Luke has much to say, but takes him a bit to see if you are really interested in hearing it all.

Scrapping

So these past few months I have been working on my scrapbooking more than in the past. Mostly because I am on two design teams this past month and in the months to come. This basically means I get the products for free, in exchange for using them and showing of my layouts in the digital galleries. It is a win win. Especially since I am motivated to beat the deadlines and it pushes me to document the memories I have been meaning to preserve.

The other day I did a lift off a beautiful layout that caught my eye. I switched it around here and there, and am thrilled with what I ended up with.



This one means a lot to me since Don and I hit our first rough patch ever in the past 10 years we have been together. It lasted all of a week, but it was so disconcerting not being on the same team for that period of time. But we came up with a resolution and moved on and are stronger for it. It feels good to overcome and be reminded of all the reasons I love him.

Just thought I would share.

The new fan

We have been having issues with a fan in our room. It got so loud that it would wake us up from a sound sleep long enough to make us get up on our bed and hit it, trying to knock it back into balance -eventually waking each other up as well.

After going to three different Home Depots, we found one that took the four year old fan back and exchanged it for us at no cost. (insert excited squeal here).

The boys loved digging into this huge fan box. But not as much as Don loved all the extra help the boys offered. Eventually the five of us finished the fan and now the boys exclaim when they walk in the room, "Daddy fixed it!"

New Business

My mom and I have decided to go into our own business. Our supplies are purchased and this weekend I will be in the midst of setting up my work area in the guest room. I am excited about the prospect of bringing some income into our household and really excited to be doing something crafty with my hands. We are having name issues. Every name I come up with seems to be taken and I am trying to decide if it is wrong to add the word "the" to the beginning and add and "s" at the end to make ours separate. ie- "fuzzy bear" vs "the fuzzy bears".

We need a name so we can start our website and get business cards and such. Using such a close name is not how I would prefer to do it, but I am running out of options... what do you think? Is it all free for all since someone else is bound to have thought of "the (top 100) perfect" names first?


I will show the product after we get a few under our belt. :)

Interview Jaxon

I know I have been gone for a while, but I am hitting a bump with what to write. In the mean time I will let the boys entertain you for me.

Here is Jaxon. This is a good video of him since it shows what a happy guy he generally is. He is always a smiley boy like this and is really excited about life.

Water Park Fun

Two days this past week we have spent playing in the water at near by parks. Last week we were invited to join Nana's friend Debbie with her grand daughters at a big water play area. It is not a pool, but has many different areas of water spraying. The boys had so much fun playing with their new friends Katie and baby Laura.


Yesterday we met up with their new friends to play at another water park, but this one was a huge wading pool. It had an entry like the beach (minus the sand) and was very shallow all the way around. The boys loved it! Luke loved being so free in it without worries of it being too deep. All three would laying on their bellies and army crawl, pretending to be sharks.


We had so much fun that when Don came home, we woke the boys from their sun induced nap and went to the water park again! It was nice to have Don see the boys enjoy themselves in a different element.

First Haircut

Last night I did it. After debating about it for over a year, I picked up the clippers and finally gave all three boys their haircuts. Each of them were champs, trusting me so much they actually argued over who could be first. When they got antsy and tired of the hair falling in their face or up their nose, Don bribed them to sit still with small pieces of fruit roll ups. They did a great job, I am proud of all of us!

Preschool

For a few weeks Don and I were debating on if the boys should start preschool yet. We feel that since they just turned three, it wasn't high priority on our list yet. Preschool seems too old for the boys. Then we found out the way preschool works is if you are not enrolled in August, you couldn't exactly just sign up and come in in January. The currently enrolled children get first chance of coming back, so you have to be on a wait list and hope some drops out. In our case, three someones would have to drop out.

Then we began to have second thoughts. No preschool until next August? The boys will be four by then, but will they get bored at home for the next year? Our house is getting smaller every day. I know they are restless and I know the they are loving the classroom environment from the other classes we have been to. Then we got hit with a road block, and found out the boys would have to be potty trained. Well, that marked us out for good. After our disastrous attempt at potty training, I wasn't about to force the issue again. It just wasn't in the cards for us. Days after we decided we would have to wait until next year, the boys were basically potty trained.

So this morning (at 6:00am no less) was the online registration for preschool. It is very competitive and only about 12 spots open, which I needed to reserve 3 for us. At 5:51 I began compulsively refreshing the page to see if registration was open yet. Refresh. Refresh. refreshrefreshrefresh. Seriously. For 10 minutes straight. When the clock hit 6:01, I could feel my heart beating, wondering, it is 6:01! What kind of #$%^ game are they pulling? Worrying the new page was stuck, I added the Alt button to my refresh regimen. Refresh.refresh.refresh. Finally at 6:02, the site was open!

Quickly, as fast as my shaking finger would let me, I type in all the magic numbers to sign into my account. Then even faster, over to the preschool class. Holy crap, only 8 spaces left in. Add to basket, add to basket. Wyatt. 6 spaces left! Add to basket add to basket. Jaxon. 5 spaces left! Crap! Add to basket, Laura. Shoot! Argh, I clicked on the wrong name! Lucas, click on check out.

After I got my credit card info typed in I sat there all bug eyed and the suspense of the processing page was too much to bare. Finally the heavens opened up on me and the screen said my transaction was complete!

So as of 6:04 this morning, the boys are going to preschool 2 hours a day, twice a week! Woo hoo! I feel like jumping around waving my arms in the air like Rocky after he finished his run.

Preschool, here we come!

Life is a blur

I am still here, and we all are doing great, just been busy. I try to think of something to write about and realize I can barely remember what we did today, let alone yesterday. No pictures to show for it either.

We have been trucking along with our free Tuesday movies at Regal cinemas. Monday morning I took the kids to my moms house and stayed until 7pm. For the first time ever, the boys skipped their nap. very liberating and wow, was it nice to have them fall asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Not like tonight when Jax caome out twice because he "had to go potty". Five minutes apart.

Tomorrow calls for a fun day at the water park with Nana's friends, the same ones we played with Monday at my moms house. All the kids played downstairs with a sitter while all the adults went upstairs and did crafty things. Surprisingly, the boys did really well, and it was fun to hear them being kept busy by someone other than my mom, myself or Don.

I feel like my to do list is getting longer everyday. Laundry to be done, vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms (a daily chore now that we are potty trained, but their aim could use some help), and there is so much to scrap. Everything all sits unfinished, as only about 10% of my list is getting done.

But the boys are happy, Don and I are happy and life is good. At least the parts of it that I remember.

Baseball

After the boys started playing tee-ball with my candlestick holder, Don and I decided it was time to teach the boys about baseball. Sure, they had played it on the Wii -but they had never before actually hit a real ball with a real bat.

We took out the baseball bats, balls and tee ball stand they had gotten at their birthday party and had a picnic dinner at the park. Our dog, Belle was so perfect on this outing since she is a master ball fetcher. The boys would take turns placing their balls on the tee and swinging away. They did really well for their first time, actually managing to hit the balls without knocking down the tee every time.

Here is a video of Wyatt and Luke taking turns. Keep in mind this is the first time they have ever played on a tee. Do you hear Jax cheering them on?


After they had their fill of pizza and baseball, we played in the playground for a bit. After taking care of our dog, Belle, I turned around and saw Don encouraging Wyatt to run by the swings, while his brothers were swinging! Thinking I had to be having a nightmare, I took a video to be sure. Listen to Don calling Wyatt "Frogger" and also be sure to notice that Luke and Jaxon are in big kid swings! Look how high they like to go!

Sleepy Boys

Since they have been in toddler beds, Jax has taken to cuddling with Luke at night. Sometimes I wake late at night or very early in the morning to Luke tiredly telling him, "My blanket, Jax! That's mine!". And on those occasions I will get up and put Jax back in his bed. With those few exceptions aside, the boys really love to sleep in the same bed.

A few nights ago, we saw that Wyatt was joining their party. Jax is usually across the bottom of Luke's bed, and Luke will be crunched at the top of the bed. This particular night, Luke had his head at the foot of the bed by Jax's and Wyatt was upside down in his bed so his head would be close to his brothers. The following night, Wyatt made to move to Luke's bed.

This has lead to some late night giggling, but it is sweet to hear and usually we don't mind. On the nights we need them to go to sleep quickly, one of us will stay in their room for a few minutes to make sure they are quiet before we leave the room. And of course there has been many a nights that we have to go in and restore order with threats of taking away the cars they are sleeping with or separating them and sleeping in the baby bed (this still works even though we no longer have a crib up!).

Either way, I think it is sweet that they like to stay so close, even in the wee hours when they would be so much more comfortable with their own space in their own beds. They are so lucky to have each other.

Typical Day

Today we had a typical summer day.

First thing this morning I woke up to both Don and Wyatt in bed with me. Wyatt must have snuck in early in the morning, but thankfully he knows to close his bedroom door when he sneaks out, so the morning sun doesn't wake his brothers. About ten minutes after I noticed Wyatt was in our bed, I felt Jaxon slowly climbing into my side of the bed. Quickly I tucked him under my arm, telling him it was still "night-night time". Jax quietly used my arms and face as a road for his Doc Hudson and when I finally realized he was not going to go back to sleep, I told him he may go downstairs and play quietly.

Soon Wyatt stopped snoring and woke up. He wakes up quickly, as soon as his eyes pop open, he is going 60 miles an hour. Luke was still sleeping in their room and Don opened his door to slowly wake him up. Once everyone was up and ready, we headed over for breakfast at Einstein Bagels.

After the boys "help" Don get our breakfast and orange juice to the table, it is time to eat! I get a spinach bacon panini that I split with the boys. Jax ends up having most of their half while Luke and Wyatt tear into their Asiago bagels covered with cream cheese. Sometimes we take this over and have breakfast with Nana and Pops as well, but not today. We have errands to run.

After a few stops, the boys are asking about Nana and Pops so we decide it is a beautiful day for a swim. They just swam yesterday at Brain and Charlies birthday party (the party was so much fun, too!), but it is so hot out and swimming sounds like fun.

So over to Nana's we go. Wyatt's eyes get big and his head is nodding yes when he asks Nana, "You go swimming too, Nana?". How could she say no to that? So in she comes with us.

Luke is getting much braver in the pool, even holding his head back in the waterfall to let his hair get wet. Sometime he puts his mouth in the water to drink or try to blow bubbles. I am not sure which he is doing. Could be both. :) He likes to jump in from the side of the pool, but tells you to "come closer, closer" and has to be practically holding your hands as he jumps in. Once he is in, he likes to hold on to us while kicking to makes us pull him around like he is a speed boat.

Wyatt is still making more of an effort to not swim, than he does to learn how to swim, but he is still having fun. He likes it if I take his arms and dance around in the water with him while singing the alphabet or jump up and down so he can feel the water rush up against him and then drop back down. He also jumps in from the sides to us when we say the first couple lines of the Humpty Dumpty rhyme, making his jump when we say, "Humpty Dumpty had a great FALL!".

Jaxon is a wild man in the pool. But I think that surprises no one. He likes to jump in from the high side of the pool, with his arms and legs spread open in a huge belly flop position, but with the biggest smile on his face while he does it. Jax is able to hold on to the side of the pool with both hands and walk his hands around the entire pool -telling us all the while, "I be careful!".

Nana made the boys some pot stickers and tater tots in the shapes of letters. When they were done eating it was time to go home. The boys are still napping (3 hours later) but I know they have had a busy day and will be getting up soon. It has been a great day and I hope we have many more like this before the summer is over.

Trained

Do you know what Jax is doing?


USING THE TOILET!

That's right, we are potty trained! Not sure how it happened without a full blown potty training boot camp again, but it just happened. One day about a week and half ago, I decided it was time to try Luke in underwear again. I asked him if he'd like to wear underwear or a diaper. He decided underwear. His brothers heard and decided they wanted underwear also.

We have plain blue potty training underwear and Disney character underwear and the deal was if they could keep their blue underwear clean and dry all morning or evening, the next shift (after bed or naps) they could wear the Disney ones. By the first evening, two had Disney underwear and the last one caught up the next day.

We have had a couple accidents, but not many at all. 95% of the time they are waking dry from naps as well, so I think we are almost all the way there.

I would like to thank the makers of M&M peanut candies as I know the motivation of 2 or 3 little morsels was enough to make them run to the bathroom when they needed a sugar fix. Bob the Builder, who supplied the cooshie potty seat upstairs. Also, I can't forget Mr. Licorice, who the boys loved as their reward for their um, number 2 acts. And lastly, The Cool Sippy Cups, who didn't complain once that we kept them put away during the first week of training. What a great team!