Do it by MYself!

The boys dress themselves for the most part. Writing that, I think to myself that is not true at all. They all can (usually) put on their shirts. Their heads may come out of their arm holes, but if I try to help them before they have exhausted all efforts, I get a nasty, "I do it myself!". More and more often though, they hit jackpot and get their shirts on fully by themselves. Usually easier done in tee shirts than their tank tops.

Underwear is another item we sometimes have to work on. Luke has no issues, since he still prefers the bigger blue underwear without the "penis pocket" -as we call it- in the front. Jax usually gets his underwear on without a problem, but the other day he had the waistband between his little cheeks, painfully yelping as he walked up the stairs to show me what was wrong. Wyatt still has trouble making sure his are not backwards. He lays his underwear out in front of him on the floor while talking to himself. "Penis pocket", he says as he makes sure he is laying them out in a way he can just slide them on, penis pocket on top.

So slowly, they are learning and getting into the groove of dressing themselves. They are much better at undressing themselves (Wyatt loves to be naked, ask anyone who has come to visit my mom while we are there and a mostly naked Wyatt has gone running through the room) but we are making progress.

The other day Luke walked up the stairs yelling, "Look, I did it myself". When I asked him what he did, he told me, "my socks. I did it myself".

No, you Rock!

I am not sure how the phrase, "You Rock" has become a daily saying we have at our house, but it is one that has come to mean good things. When the boys use the potty, we tell them they did a great job and the ROCK. When Wyatt goes poop, he will excitedly tell us he ROCKS! (included with his little fist shooting up into the air). When they clean up the living room, or are super helpful, I thank them and tell them that they really rock.

Really. Maybe it started with our Guitar Hero phase. Ahhh, yes I think that must have been it. At the time, we were even trying to get them to do the "rock and roll" hand gesture with the phrase. It is all coming back to me now.

Anyhow, tonight I was gone to my triplet mom dinner and Don stayed home with the boys. While they were eating dinner, Jaxon noticed his chair was rocking a bit.

Jaxon: "Daddy, my chair rocking. Look Daddy, it rocking".
Don: "Let me take a look at it buddy"

Don takes the coloring book out of underneath the chair, evening the seat back out.

Jaxon: "It not rocking anymore.
Daddy fixed my chair!
You rock, Daddy.
Daddy ROCKS!"

First day of Preschool

Today was the day. All three boys proudly sported their little animal back packs they had received for their first birthday from Gram Robinson, waiting for Nana and I to walk them into the school....

Don and I have been talking up school for the past two weeks. They were going to go back to school and see Mrs Theresa. Wyatt would ask me, "M-Mommy coming, too?" while nodding his little head up and down. I would answer that I had to go to the store while they were in school, but they would be together and Mrs Theresa would be with them. She was their teacher from the Mommy and Me Discovery class we took last spring, so it helped knowing they had a familiar face to look for.

Nana usually makes a visit over here on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but made a special stop over here this morning to see the boys off on their first day of school. While I was driving, the boys sang along to their new favorite car music, The Laurie Berkner Band while making their matchbox cars dance.


Finally, we were at school and the boys were all ready to go inside. Jax ran up the side walk and raced to be the first one to hit the automatic door button. Knowing it could have made or broken the morning for him, I was glad he had reached it before the other two. After filling out a bit of paperwork and getting the general system of signing the kids in and out of class, the teacher invited us all inside.

Nana and I helped the boys find the seats with their names on them and then showed the boys where the bathrooms are. Back at their seats we got them started on a worksheet where they could trace circles with crayons. Thankfully all three were seating by each other, so between Nana and I, we were able to give each child the help they needed without anyone feeling left out. After a minute or two, the boys were seated and tracing, so we gave them a kiss, told them we were going to the store and would be back in a little bit.

And the boys were totally fine with it. I was totally fine with it. Nana, on the other hand, was a bit nostalgic. I think it was eased into for me since the boys were familiar with their school. They have take classes there before, had the same teacher before, and this past spring, taken the gym class that I would sit outside of and wait for them. They had a great transition into this and I am so thankful that they felt comfortable enough to be able to enjoy the experience.

They all have their projects from the day along with some worksheets we can work on with them in their back packs. When the boys saw Don, they rushed to show him their backpacks and the work they did inside of them. They have not talked much about it -which cracks me up since it obviously means more to me then them- but they said they want to go back and that is all that matters.

Interview Wyatt

Wyatt is a wild man. I have noticed a wild streak showing more often, but really became apparent while I was taping this. I considered doing it over, but eh, this IS who he is today. Let's celebrate it and pray he "relaxes" a bit more when he has things to fill his days with. :)

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!

Dancing boys

The other day we were putting the boys down for a nap. They are going through this stage where they like to do everything themselves. So Wyatt runs to the sound machine (before anyone else could do it) to turn the rain on and music comes blasting out. Big smiles and dancing all around.
You can see it here:

Chuck E Cheese

I came across this picture last night and couldn't not believe I had forgotten to post it on the blog!

While the kids were in town, Nana took us all to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. At first, I was skeptical -thinking there wasn't much for the boys to do, the food is yucky and the boys would be too young. But it just seemed in the cards for us to go and I am so glad we did. Surprisingly, the pizza was pretty good, and of course there were lots of things for the boys to do.

The boys loved riding in all the little moving cars and trucks. They totally understood the token concept and knew they were needed to make things work. Jaxon and Cathryn played air hockey when we first got there and for it being Jax's first time he had ever laid eyes on it, he did pretty good with a finishing score of 3-7 (Cathryn won).

At one point of the night, Luke was out of eye sight. I figured I would give it 30 seconds or so and got side tracked for a minute. Then I realized I still hadn't seen him and as I left the booth to go look, I saw him out of the corner of my eye. He was in the little car with Chuck E, feeding in tokens from a cup he snagged. Not sure where he got the cup from, but there were three little pictures of Lucas on the ride, this one even shows him feeding the car more tokens, so goodness knows how many he used in that minute or two.

We had a really good time and once in a while when we are in the car, the kids ask in a hopeful voice to go "play games". And even though the kids left to go back to California over a week ago, the boys still ask and talk about them being at Nana's house. It was a great visit and we can't wait to see them again!

What's in a room?

The boys have recently taken a huge interest in playing in our bedroom. Every morning, they come in and lie down with me until a respectable hour. When I finally am ready to pop out of bed, Wyatt and Luke ask me to open the window. They like for me to open the curtains and pull the blinds up so they can play on the windowsill with their cars.

If playing with their cars doesn't sounds appealing, they all really enjoy pouring the change out of two humongous glass bottles we put our spare change into. Since they have started this game, I have been able to keep it down to the smaller of the two bottles (whew!), but I have a feeling that smaller bottle won't be in one piece much longer.

Here Jaxon is playing every one's dream game, "It's Raining Money" as they stall putting all 346 pieces of change back into the jar and another new glass container they have just emptied. I really am not complaining though. This new game just bought me 12 minutes of content happy play. Who says money can't buy happiness?

Papa and Grandma's visit

Don's parents were in town for a few days. We pretty much hung out here at the house, but we had a really good time. The boys love wearing their Papa's boots around the house and run to the cubby so Grandma Vicky will read to them. If they had more time, I think we would have had some much needed help in the potty training department, but it was time for them to get back to Texas. Hopefully they weren't in such a hurry because the boys were trying to use Papa Don's boot for "target practice".

Aunt Rose

1919

This week has been incredibly busy. The kids just left this morning and Don's parents are still here in town. The boys have loved getting loved on and I know it will be hard for them tomorrow when it is just back to the same ole-same ole going on.

This week my family felt an incredible loss. My Aunt Rose passed away. Words can't even describe how sad I am about this. Not only is the world without a great person, my family has lost the last person in that chapter of our history.



In 1912, when she was 19, my Great Great Grandma Laura Borrelli (who I am named after) came to America from a small town in Italy called Casamassima, near Bari. The story has been told that she was very spirited and her parents sent her to America to live with family that had already made their home here. She fell in love with Nicola Festa and after they got married, they had four children.

First born in 1915, was my Great Grandmother, Arcangela Festa (Great Grandama Lee to me). Next came their only son Salvatore (1917), followed by my Aunt Isabelle (1919) and last born, my Aunt Rose (1921). I don‘t have many memories of my Uncle Salvatore (or Sam as he was usually called), he passed away when I was younger (in 1982). Neither Aunt Isabelle or Aunt Rose married. My Great Grandma Lee married Nunzio Gaggiano; the son of her parent’s best friend and they had five children.

When I was a child growing up, I had a huge family. My grandparents had a family of 9 children and still were close with family of the previous generations. Both Aunt Isabelle and Aunt Rose were as big of a part of my life as my Great Grandma Lee was. Birthday parties, Christmas, and some events in between, they were a constant presence in my life.

In my head, their names just flow together. As long as I can remember, they had even lived together. My mom has great memories of a cottage "the Aunts" owned in a small town called Highland (now called Derby), in New York. A few streets down from that cottage is where I remember waiting with my Great Grandma Lee for my Mom to bring my sister Leigha (named after Grandma Lee) home from the hospital.

Just over 5 years ago, my Aunt Isabelle passed away, and a little over a year after that –my Great Grandma Lee passed away as well. I remember being so heartbroken, knowing that they wouldn't have the chance to meet my children. Ever since Aunt Isabelle passed away, my Aunt Rose has lived alone. At about 83 years of age, she had a major surgery on her corroded arteries and came back stronger than ever. She was active in her church and we all knew it was important for her to feel independent.

Now she is gone and it just saddens me to know that chapter of our family is gone. No more going to their house, where -like most older Italian women- they would try to fill our bellies up with good food. No more big encompassing hugs, with their arms around me and the same perfume they have worn my whole life wafting around me. No more wandering around their house, asking them questions about the history of their furniture and knickknacks, or who was in the pictures they had out.

My family is huge and being added to all the time. My Grandma Bette (one of Grandma Lee's daughters and my Mom's Mother) has over 50 grandchildren, plus more great grandchildren. I have cousins two and three times removed that are my dearest friends, even though we are across the country from each other. This closeness was all originally fostered by these women that are no longer with us. It is an odd feeling to know that our generations are shifting, and now we have moved up a notch.

So sad that the chapter is over before I was ready to close the book.

Supersize Sunday

We had an awesome weekend, but I will skip to today and follow up tomorrow of the rest of the weekend.

First thing this morning, we made our normal run to Einsteins before starting our day. The boys were great and very excited about meeting Cathy and her crew at the water playground after breakfast. The playground was great! First off, it was fenced in, which is a huge plus to anyone with small children. Second, it was huge!

At first, none of the six boys wanted to play in the water. They all teetered around the edges until Jax decided he wanted to play. Soon followed Wyatt and Luke could only be tempted when I told him he would have to put his shirt back on or get wet. Then he would find the drain area and dip his head in to make it wet. Stinker!

Nana and the cousins showed up soon after and soon most all the kids were enjoying themselves, running under the water hoops and shooting each other with the big water canons. After over an hour of fun, it was getting hot and time to pack up.

After the boys woke up from their nap. Don and I decided to use the awesome gift card Cathy got us as a thank you for painting her boys room. We had a huge BBQ dinner at Lucille's (and I got great pics of the kids while we were waiting) and then walked over to a nearby carousel.


It was the first time the boys have ever seen one up close and they loved it. Jaxon picked out a frog, Lucas an elephant and Wyatt held on tight to a big horse. In the beginning of the ride it was a toss up of which way it was going to go, but all of them had big smiles on their faces by the end of the ride.

Pictures on my phone

Lately, I have been taking more pictures on my phone than I used to. Usually it is to try to keep Don updated about what is going on with the kids, what they are doing in class, or if just something cute is going on. Since they are mostly just everyday moments, there is no better place to document the everyday than here.

In order of oldest to newest:

My Mom and I took the kids to the Aquarium at a local Casino. See, casinos do have family activities :)


My little monkeys sleeping in the backseat.


Jaxon and I


Gymnastics class. Lucas (in yellow) and Jax (in red) are on the balance beam. Wyatt is on the edge in green.


I had to laugh at this and take a picture to show Don. I am not sure if you can read it, but it is a sign advertising for someone running for Senate.


Movie day.


Look what Nana and Pops got us for the boys birthday!


Lucas prefers to play in the box.

Night Owls

I just put the boys to bed, even with Lucas crying his new favorite phrase, "no night-night". He was crying (which he rarely ever does) and I took pity on him. Lately I have been staying in their room for about 2 minutes to be sure they are not playing around. Tonight at the end of the two minutes, I sent Luke to our room on the sly and stayed in the boys room a few more minutes to be sure our secret was kept.

After I made it to our room, Don and I were chatting a bit, and Luke did his little suction kiss on my arm with his tongue sticking out a bit and then he started giggling. So I rasberried his neck a little and was pleased to hear the squeals of delight. At that very giggly moment, Jax walked in -with Wyatt behind him. We were busted.

So right now, I have all three lying on my bed, at 9:30 at night, watching the Disney Channel.