Sneaky Boy

Wyatt is causing some trouble over here.

The other day as I was vacuuming, he walked by me with his hands behind his back. After giving him "the look" and letting him know I will find out what he is up to, I got back to vacuuming. When I had finished, I went in to the living room to see what he was up to. He was laying on the couch, face down and his arms were under his little body. He was trying so hard to hide from me!

When I picked him up, I saw he had the huge orange handled scissors and my measuring tape -now cut in half.

Later in the day as we were loading the boys into the car, Wyatt ran past Don and I with his hands behind his back. Right away I yelled freeze and he knew he was busted. He had about 4 trains in his little hands, even though he knows we have a one toy in the car rule.

That night Don had given the kids Oreos. Wyatt took a couple in his hands and ran out of the kitchen. When Don asked him what was in his hands, Wyatt replied "trains". Little fibber!

Luckily Don is home and can help me catch Wyatt each time. I am hoping that Wyatt will realize his attempts to sneak will be thwarted by us and will stop trying before there is only one parent around to watch.

The $3 Date

Recently a new casino/resort called M opened in Las Vegas. It is on Las Vegas Blvd, but was South on the Strip, intended more for locals, but really knocks the socks off of anything I have seen on the Strip. A very European feel to it, not gaudy and over done like so many others.


When my mom signed up for their "club" they sent her a coupon book. It has coupons for $20 credit at each of their 4 main restaurants and then $10 and $5 off a few others. The coupons expire at the end of the month, so Don and I made a night of of it last week.

Eating appetizers at one place, skipping over for dinner at another and finally dessert at a third restaurant -the whole night cost us only $23 including tips. Luckily they also had a coupon for the pharmacy in the casino as well, so picking up Wyatt's Singular was on the house, saving us $20. The whole night only cost us $3!

It was the most fun Don and I have had in a while. Maybe because we felt a bit sneaky getting so much free food, also because we felt free to order something that we normally wouldn't because it was "free" and last, it was fun to be on the move so much and not just sitting at one restaurant the whole night.

Now we just have to wait for "our" coupon book to come in the mail and do it all over again.

My Silent Mind

Today I took the boys to the playground. As I have mentioned in the past, they know no limits to their own abilities. They climb with the big kids and love every minute of it.

Today I was helping Lucas across the monkey bars. Just as we reached the other side, I heard Jaxon crying. Quickly I walked over a few feet until he was in my sight and then I ran to help him out. He had woven his arm through a few bars and was basically hanging by his stuck arm. He was in obvious pain, but luckily nothing was broken.

His little face had clean lines from where his tears had rolled over his cheeks and he just cried as I held him. I just kissed his little face and rubbed his arms until he felt better, then coaxed him back out with promises of pushing him on the swing.

Somewhere over to the walk to the swing I realized during the entire incident, I did not have one thought in my head. No underlying panic, no worries about what other parents felt about me not being there when he got hurt, no thoughts what so ever.

Is this a bad thing that my mind is becoming simplified from the rush and all of having the boys? "Mommy brain" if you will. In the past few years things started taking priority in our life and there was no time to even think about things that didn't have to do with the next need that had to be met. What time should we start bottles, what time is the next nap, when is the Dr appointment, where is the Drs office, are all the plugs covered, are there any sharp edges, (I was going to write who bit who, but it didn't matter WHO bit, it only matter who GOT bit so we could take care of them). Besides the immediate issues, everything else just got left behind.

So that is what I saw happen today. I witnessed a blank moment in my mind where even though I was holding and consoling Jaxon, my mind was without a thought. There was no "next" thing to be concerned with. They are finally at an age where I can start to think out of our family box and contemplate about other things in the world.

To compensate and stretch my mommy brain I have begun an ongoing commentary in my brain -noticing more details about trees, plants, building and even sinks in different bathrooms we have been in today.

I feel so out of the loop and hate forcing myself to think, seems to be wasting so much energy on mundane thoughts.

What kind of things do you find yourself think about during the day -that is NOT child related? I need some ideas to feed my brain :)

Lowered Expectations

Once upon a time lived a proper King and Queen who always had an understanding to leave the toilet seat down. They vowed they would not partake of the peasant way and have to stare into the insides of a toilet bowl upon walking into a bathroom. When they would visit homes of toilet lids up, they would agree about the necessity of better sanitation with lowered lids.

Then the happy couple had triplet boys -triplet boys who needed to be potty trained. Somehow in the lesson of weeing in the toilet, the children have found ways around putting the lid down. Usually in a form of a loud boisterous slam of a lid attacking the porcelain rim. The queen would rather not hear it, nor make the boys touch the toilet and have to rewash their hands, so she has deemed it to be placed on the "wish it away" list.

But slowly the tolerance for not demanding the lid be put in it proper place (down!) has extended to tolerance for finding the toilet not flushed (number ones only thank you).

It is said the queen has lost all sense of properness now that she justifies the non-flushing children by instead thinking of the of water saved from lack of flushing.

She excels at finding the silver linings, don't you think?

Getting Scrappy

This morning we washed the car. Afterwards Don and Ed took the boys to Chucke Cheese. So for the first time in about a month, I am home ALONE! So between just cruising the internet and jamming to songs that have lyrics not appropriate for 3year old ears in it (yay for 90's music mixes!) I thought I would make a post of my recent scraps.

Stud Muffins

We got their pictures taken last week at Picture People. The boys did a great job and it was so hard walking away with only the free 8x10 in hand! Luckily they keep pictures on file for a while so maybe later if our situation changes, we can purchase some.

Our Retirement Plan

Today Jax got sent to his room. He wasn't being especially naughty, but he was doing that annoying whine/scream he does when he is not getting his way. Use your words. Use your words. Use your words. At least 20 times a day we say it, but that annoying whine/scream had made it's way through yet again.

Don was upstairs online when I sent Jaxon to his room. Only a moment after I sent Jax up, I heard the rhythmic boom boom boom of the drums. A few minutes later I heard Jax ask if he could come out of time out -I assumed Don had tempted him out with his drum playing. Once again I heard the booming of the drums and came up to see what the two of them were up to.

It was Jaxon playing the drums (even when he was supposed to be in his room)! This is about the third time I asked him to play, so not spontaneous at all, but here is the little man playing his drums. I think he has a great rhythm.

Or am I a bit too optimistic about the possibility of having our own little Jonas Brothers?

Productive

With a total of 6 weeks off work, Don and I are thinking it is a great time to tackle our "to do list". First and foremost was the task of cleaning our garage. The boys love when we clean out the garage, they find all sorts of long forgotten (and outgrown) toys.

After 9 hours of emptying and repacking our garage, we have a huge yard sale pile down the center of our garage. A clean garage and a chance to make some money, that is my definition of productive!

Anything Butt

The other evening Don and I were working on our 9 foot backyard, trying to cut some plants back so our little garden will get more sun. The boys hadn't had a nap and it was very evident by Jax's constant whining. After a particularly difficult five minutes of everyone arguing, I told the boys to get into the house.

Don and I stayed outside long enough to cover the grill and sandbox. When we came inside the boys were all silently kneeling in front of the couch playing with their trains on the couch cushions -all sorts of angelic looking with their blue eyes and silent mouths. I remarked on the strong contrast of the boys outside to these sweet innocent acting children. Don laughed and said as of the past half hour, they were "anything but".

Jaxon jumped at the chance to bust Don and use a potty word at the same time.

"You can't say that, that's a potty word. You can't say butt Daddy".


And instantly the angelic moment was over as the other two started laughing and all three wrestled and gigglied about butts.

Only Babies Bite

Many moons ago, we were thinking of getting a new dog. For months we went over it again and again. I was in favor of it and no one else usually was. I would try to bribe the kids into telling Don they wanted a puppy or I would not get them any more Thomas trains. It would work for about 5 minutes and then it was a forgotten subject. Wyatt especially wanted none of the puppy business -telling me that "puppies bite".

Don and I are huge dog lovers, we have had Belle since before we got married and the idea of our child saying "puppies bite" was just not right. So I told him puppies don't bite, cat's bite. Cats and babies. Yeah, they are the ones to fear.

For a couple more months I tried to get the boys to back me up with the whole getting a new dog thing, but we would have the same conversations over and over again.

Puppies bite
Puppies don't bite! Babies bite.

Finally I got Wyatt over the puppy biting thing. We took a trip to the animal shelter and found a dog named Lola. She was perfect for our family, but unfortunately didn't react well to Belle when she met her. Lola growled, her hair stood up on her neck. Not such a perfect fit after all. I deemed it meant to wait until we get back from our trip this summer, and our getting a new dog/puppy conversations have all but disappeared in the past few months.

Today I was downloading pictures from this past week on to the computer. The boys love to look through the pictures with me, so they were piled on my chair. I came across one of my brand new niece, Elise ("Da-leese" as the boys call her), I kept her picture on the screen. As I was oohing and ahhing over her, Wyatt said "aww, she so cute, but babies bite".

Oops.

**looking around the room** Where do kids pick up this stuff?

That 'neaky bunny

At our house, the Easter Bunny comes at night and fills the kids Easter baskets up and hides the baskets. We aren't yet at the age where we are hiding eggs, because honestly, hiding the baskets is what the Easter Bunny did for me, and I loved it.

Last year we just placed the baskets in the kids cubby, this year we hid them where we felt was a bit more challenging for the kids. The boys ran all over looking for their baskets. In this video you can see how quickly they run from the sides of the room and into the next area to frantically search.



At this point, they are looking for the very last basket (Luke's). Jaxon declares that the Easter bunny took it, while Luke just repeats that the Easter Bunny is very 'neaky. The basket is hiding in that black cabinet right behind Luke, just above the instruments I was trying to get him to put away.


And last, the baskets have been found! Now to see what the loot is!


So what is with the videos and why don't I have any pictures? Well, it would seem I deleted them all right before dinner thinking I had already downloaded them earlier in the day. I am really bummed about it, but am satisfied to at least have the videos. Aunt Leigha and Ed came over for dinner tonight (my parents went out of town) and I am glad to have at least these pictures from Easter day.



Happy Easter!

Dye it

After a busy morning at the mall complete with getting a free 8x10 at the Picture People and giving the Easter Bunny high fives, we went home to dye the Easter eggs.

With our motto of being prepared, we had the boys undress down to their skivvies. Armed with egg dye kits that expired in the year 2000(!) we got down to business. The boys loved choosing which colors to make the eggs and we gave them spoons to "bathe" the eggs with dye so they could feel like they were doing more than just watching the eggs sit.

When we were down to the last five eggs, we were feeling adventurous and got the tie-dye egg kit out. The boys chose which colors dye and even though they all chose different colors, their eggs ended up looking all the same with a pink/purple hue. Still feeling incomplete -it all had ended only 20 minutes after it began- we took out the stickers that came with one of the dye boxes. Unfortunately, being that the sticker were no less than 10 years old, the adhesive on the back didn't really work anymore. When the boys tried to press them on their eggs, their little fingers would crack right through the egg shell!

No worries though, they were edible after all! With a quick snack of a pretty boiled egg, the boys looked over their new creations with a new appreciation.

Easter this year

The Easter Bunny brought the boys some fun things this year. Each of their baskets included...
chocolate bunny
Reese eggs
jelly belly jelly beans
hershey kisses
a fun egg shaped straws
racquetballs
small hacky sack ball
and...
a measuring tape!

The new 2 picture rule

It wasn't until we were running out the door the other day that Don and I realized the camera card is missing. I don't stress too much when we lose things, whether it is $20 or my wedding ring- they always turn up.

Days have gone by (it could be a week- I have lost all sense of time between lack of school and work!) and the card still has not turned up. But we are resourceful and have found a few lying around. One is 4MB! We can take two whole pictures on it, woo hoo!

So until our camera card situation is resolved (not likely any time soon with our lack of funds), my picture taking will be reserved for important events -like the boys running around today buck n@ked except for their underwe@r around their ankles. No public pictures of that though, a bit too private for blogland to see. More of a show it to your girlfriend when you are 16 type of thing.

Today I will leave you with a phone picture of Wyatt talking to his Uncle Jeremy on Don's cell phone before the n@ked running started. I do believe his exact words at this moment were "Where's my ice cream, dude?". They have caught on that Uncle Jeremy only talks about ice cream to make life difficult for us. He better watch it though, or they will attack him like wild savages when we make it out to Virginia this summer. :)

What deese are?

"What deese are?"

This is Jaxon's newest phrase.

He asks it a few times a week- generally when there are other people around- and asks while patting on my chest.

I calmly answer him that "these" are my breasts. Then we get in the whole "You don't have a penis momma." "Nana has no penis either". "Girls don't have a penis, only boys."

Half of me just wants to shirk the question and change the subject, but I KNOW that if I do, he will know it is taboo and bring it up all the time. Maybe 5 times a day instead of once, or goodness knows- ask Nana or a teacher at school what "deese" are called as well.

How do I know you ask?

It became obvious a couple days ago he walked in my room holding a strapless bra in his hands, eyebrows lifted all the way to his hairline, but an expression I could tell he knew what he was asking. "What diss is?"


Oh yeah little buddy, I know what you are up to.

Did you know...

When I wash the boys jeans, I have to shake out Wyatt's pockets because he puts change in them?

Jaxon has such an unlimited amount of happiness in him that he sometimes starts dancing and jumping happily for the smallest reasons?

That we call Lucas "Mother Luke" because he acts like a little mom to his brothers?


These boys just really make my day.

Easter Egg Hunt

Aunt Leigha called us and invited us to the Easter Egg Hunt at her work. The catch was it started in twenty minutes! All four of us were in the car and on the road in FOUR minutes! That fact alone deserves it own blog post, but I will spare you the details :).

On the way to the egg hunt Lucas talked about seeing the Easter Bunny. Jaxon responded with, "That's pretend. You're so funny Lukey". They went back and forth a bit and I happily kept quiet since they didn't involve me in the conversation. When we got to the hunt, they walked up to the Easter Bunny to get pictures taken with him, and I could tell by the look on Jax's face he is a believer again after seeing the bunny in person.

After some cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn, the boys were sufficiently sugared up enough to race like little bunnies on crack through the egg hunt. Getting some of their sugar high out playing with their balloon swords and jumping through the bounce house obstacle course, the boys still had plenty of energy left to be excited about the egg hunt.

They whipped their eggs in their little baskets, Wyatt even grabbed the broken eggs in the quest for more, more more. After we sat for a bit letting the boys eat their goodies -unwrapping piece after piece- we decided it was time to go visit Aunt Leigha.

Visiting Leigha at work was a first for all of us. I know it had to be such a fun experience in the boys eyes. They got to sit in these huge chairs while Aunt Leigha made them special drinks with cherries inside. Lucas drank his so fast, I felt bad that he was obviously so thirsty until Don pointed out he was just trying to get to the cherry!

Soon after dinner, the boys got restless and started chasing each other around with their balloon swords -that was our cue to start packing up. With full tummies and all faith restored in the Easter Bunny again, we drove home. What a fun afternoon!

It'll be okay

For almost 2 weeks now, Don has been on a suspension from work, pending termination. Hopefully he can be back to work in the next week or so. I can not say much about it because it is possible people from his work read the blog, but suffice it to say he has been wrongly accused of something along the lines of having anger issues.

If it wasn't so disgusting that we are losing weeks of pay while he is of work, it would laughable.

The silver lining of this is that we have had LOTS of time to hang out. We have been to many parks, especially making use of our pass at the Springs Preserve. The boys are fully bonded with Don again, constantly trying to get him to wrestle with them when they aren't asking him to help them with putting train tracks together or something equally important to them. They have loved having him around everyday, almost as much as I have.

With all things that suck, we are hoping there is a reason to this madness that will be shown to us further down the road. To stop from going nuts obsessing, we are just trying to lay it in the Lord's hands and just keep on keeping on. It will all be okay.