Music Time and some Tidbits

This week we made shoebox guitars with rubber bands.

Enjoy the aftermath.

I particularly love the highly uninterested dockie drumming on the cookie sheet.

We have had another busy week.  We went to a local parks program.

The view was gorgeous.  But the program...well, I'm pretty sure that a program geared towards ages 1-5 should not contain a powerpoint presentation!

Our favorite new snack:  apple petals.

Seriously, these kids have consumed an insane amount of apples in the past two weeks.

The Eagle's Nest

Yes, I finally convinced the kids to go to the babysitting center at Giant Eagle.  I was able to grocery shop, with only the baby in tow.  IT WAS AMAZING!  Just don't tell Giant Eagle that Ava isn't 3 for another two weeks.  

Kid Tidbits

Driving in the car one day, Carter out of the blue said to me, did you know that Santa Claus and my Dad can do magic?  I'm not sure if he is referring to your amazing quarter behind the ear trick, but he certainly puts you on a high pedestal Mike!

We also went to a local YMCA pool that has a shallow pool for young children with a very small water slide.  I was so proud of Ava, she was very brave and went down the water slide.  Although I was at the bottom to catch her, she had to plunge into the water.  Pretty scary for a non-swimming not quite three year old, but she did it at least three times!

Dawson on the other hand, DID NOT LIKE THE POOL.  He clung to me like a wet cat.  He cried and fussed and fussed and cried for the entire hour and a half we were there.  This surprises me because this boy LOVES the tub.  He splashes and splishes to his heart content.  But he wanted nothing to do with the pool.  It wasn't even cold, it was very warm.  Hmmm, we are going to need to fix that before this summer, because I am planning lots of time at our community pool.

Home

Life has been so busy lately.  I am constantly cleaning, organizing, working on projects, getting things to complete projects and that doesn't even include taking care of the kids and hopefully teaching them a little something too.  I want the house to be 110% completed NOW!  But as Mike keeps trying to tell me "You can't boil the ocean."  Although we have been in the house for almost two months it still hasn't felt quite like home to me at least.  I keep wandering around thinking "Wow, how pretty!  Is this really OUR house?"  I forgot that we needed to take time to enjoy it.  This weekend we made Saturday morning waffles, and cuddled on the couch with our little guys.  These little moments help.  Kids are so resilient, I realize they are having none of these same thoughts.  In their little minds, this is home from the second we moved in.  Although Ava did mention the other day, "remember Drew Drive Mommy, I had a friend Elliana there."  I was pretty surprised, I never imagined she would have memories of our first house.  But she was telling me about their swing set, Dawson's room and her little bed when she slept with Carter.  Anyways, here are some pictures of us settling into our new house.

Dawson has been learning how to agitate from the best.  He took off his sock and was sticking his toes into Carter's ear.  Looking at Carter's face he was not happy with this development.  I love the look of mischief on Dawson's face.  

     

Spring has sprung!

We have been outside and enjoying every second of it.

Setting traps

and smelling the flowers.

Life

We had a wonderful weekend with Meme, Grandpap Bob and Nana this weekend, celebrating Nana's birthday and St. Patrick's Day.  The kids had a blast this year making a leprechaun trap.  It consisted of a crate, with a rope strung through it, various items in the crate and hangars hanging off the rope.  It did indeed catch a leprechaun, and they were suprised with some candy, dollar bills and a book.  Carter tried to wake up at 6 am to go check the trap.  Luckily I was able to catch him and make him lay back down.  

Carter with his creation:  a sunflower.  The box below it is to catch the seeds when they fall!  I had just open a pot and pan set when he scavenged all the cardboard pieces.  Of course Ava used the circular cardboard pieces to make crowns.

I am sad to report that our new couch has become an excellent trampoline.  I am trying to curtail the roughhousing, but it doesn't seem to be working. Their favorite game so far:  "Hey Mom, do you want to play hot lava in your eyeball?"  Um no.  I think I'll pass.

Credit where credit is due:  Dawson is growing up and every single day he becomes a sweeter baby.  Mike and I have remarked many times lately, wow! Can you believe how great Dawson is being?  His first fourteen months were filled with crying and crankiness.  He was happy and sweet as long as he was on my hip or being held.  This makes it pretty difficult for a mother of three young children.  As he gets older it has become very clear that he also has a little bit of a temper.  The other day I allowed Ava and Carter to play on the back porch while I cooked dinner.  Dawson was not allowed outside.  The minute I closed the screen door and he realized he was not allowed to go outside he threw a fit and then BIT ME!  Although I just realized I started this paragraph explaining how great he has been recently and followed it up with a story about his temper.  So here is one about his sweetness:  today he played spider baby with me.  We put the spiderman mask on him and he crawled around while I chased him.  I would give him "spider baby tickles" and he giggled non-stop for about fifteen minutes.  There really isn't anything better than toddler giggles.  

  

Pictures from this week

Goodyear Blimp Baby

Hmmm, wonder who got him that shirt?

Hand me down ballerina costume from cousin Riley.  HUGE HIT.

Fierce.  Fearless.  Four.

Mom, seriously I can have this?  It's great!

I had to take a picture of this, one of the very few moments when all three were playing peacefully together.  Ava and Carter can play well together, but usually adding in the baby leads to yelling because he's touching something, moving something, eating something.  The usual for a baby.

Thanks Aunt Tiff and Uncle Jay for the great St. Patrick's Day gear!

This is his nonchalant puppy face.

Well, we are off to enjoy more of this beautiful weather.  Although Dawson and I will have to wake the big kids up first.  They are still sleeping at 3:45!  All this fresh air has really taken it out of them!

Gorgeous Spring Day

Today we had gorgeous spring weather with highs in the mid 60's.  It was amazing.  The kids spent almost the entire day outside.  They took a walk down to the pond in our neighborhood to look at the ducks with Daddy.  They also were invited by some neighbor kids to play in the woods.  Carter, Ava, Dawson and Daddy spent lots of time playing with these kids.  Apparently there was a stick fighting contest, although the kids weren't actually fighting each other, just showing off their awesome moves.  Our little two year old Ava was declared the winner by a group of 6 and 7 year old boys!  That is hilarious to me!  But she really does have some amazing moves.  As the winner of the stick fighting contest she was declared the boss of the day, a title that suites Ava well.  I can imagine it was wonderful soaking up a little vitamin D and fresh air.  Of course it was my luck that I was in the house all day with a nasty stomach virus.  I didn't even get off the couch until after four o'clock.  Luckily the rest of this week should be equally beautiful, so I should be able to enjoy it.  I'm praying and crossing my fingers that no one else gets sick.

Memo to my children re: the grocery store

Dear Children,

I want you to know that you are my favorite people in the world, including your Daddy.  I'd rather be spending time with my family than with anyone else.  

BUT, sometimes, I'm not entirely sure that you all like to eat.  Here is why I say that: WHY WON'T YOU LET ME GROCERY SHOP? 

Ava: asking to go to the restroom four times in one grocery trip won't make the trip go faster.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to ditch your half full cart of food, take three kids into a restroom, help you while praying that the baby doesn't touch anything too disgusting?  I'm too scared to call your bluff on going to the restroom so off we go.  Also, you can not sit in the basket of the shopping cart.  I need to put FOOD in that cart.

Carter:  I'm pretty sure that your feet will not fall off.  It's amazing how you can run all over a soccer field for an hour, but if I ask you to walk around the grocery store for 30 minutes it's all over.  Whining and crying about this won't make the trip go any faster.  

Dawson:  You are actually the best behaved in the grocery store.  But it would be great if you could not touch anything in the shopping cart.  As my attention is being pulled in a thousand different directions I did not realize that you had picked up the glass bottle of cinnamon.  Boy, did that ever make a loud noise when it shattered on the floor!  

So, what should be a short 30 minute shopping trip quickly turned into an hour and a half.  Although I must mention that I received a wonderful compliment this very same day about how my children were so well behaved in the store.

Thankfully, I'm able to blog about it.  And drink some wine, lots of it.  I'm not entirely sure there is enough wine in the world to convince me to go grocery shopping with you three again!

Love,

Your Mommy   

Learning the hard way and other stories

Let's start with the first born:  my beanie boy.  Recently Mike was explaining to Carter how we would be visiting another boy that was four years old.  Carter responded "Dad I'm four so I'm almost ten!"  That had Mike and I laughing pretty hard.

Then my Roover girl.  Today we were walking through Carter's new preschool to drop off some paperwork.  I looked at Ava who was walking forward with her head turned completely sideways.  I corrected her and said "Ava, make sure you are looking forward while you are walking."  Sure enough no less than a minute later I hear a big BAM and Ava had walked straight into a door.    If only my kids would listen to me, they wouldn't have to learn these things the hard way.  Can you see the big pink bump on her head?  Although I'm sure Meme is laughing at this, because she has said the same thing about me a hundred times.  Oh well, we all have to make our own mistakes.

Finally Mr. Technology.  Mike allowed Dawson to play with his phone today, while it was locked.  He came back into the room because Carter was yelling "he's taking a picture of somebody!"  Sure enough, Dawson had figured out how to unlock the phone and had decided to face time our realtor.  Apparently she was laughing and Mike apologized for the unauthorized face time.  He's going to be reprogramming my computer any day now, I'm sure.

Spiders

Little known fact about me: I have a recurring nightmare about spiders.  My dream is always the same, I'm sleeping and wake up to an enormous spider on the ceiling, or on my hair.  But I don't actually wake up, I'm just screaming in my sleep but I really believe I'm awake.  Poor Mike has to shake me awake and then turn on the lights to check for spiders.


Fast forward to last night, Ava woke up crying.  Mike went in to check on her.  She was having a nightmare, and after trying to reassure her for a couple of minutes she ended up in our bed.  In the morning Mike filled me in on her dream, she was scared of the spiders!  Like mother, like daughter I guess!

15 months old

Dockie Doodle Noodle Poodle, you are 15 months old today!

My apologies for the nickname, but I think its sweet.  

Every day we love your sweet little smile, delicious little giggle and precious cuddles just a little bit more.  You are growing so big and strong, there are so many new things you are up to now.  Since turning one so many things have happened:  you received your first haircut, started walking, wearing big boy shoes and moved into a new home.  Dawson, you are an expert at climbing up and down steps, climbing ladders and brushing your teeth.  Brushing your teeth will entertain you for HOURS.  Well, at least a good five minutes which for a baby is HOURS.  Speaking of teeth you are currently sporting three teeth on top, with a fourth about to poke through.  You have two teeth on the bottom in the middle, but you already have your first molar in the back.  It's funny how every kid develops differently, your teeth have come in totally different from your siblings.  You are using all kinds of new words:  mama, dada, banana, uh huh, A for Ava, and night night.  You will occasionally tell me baa for sheep, moo for cow, roar for lion and oo oo for monkey.  Your world revolves around angel baby.  It's  a small white angel  blanket/animal that you carry around ALL DAY.

Mom, I know you hate floaties in your water.

But water out of my cup just wouldn't taste as good.

Delicious!

Today we went to the park.  I strapped you into the baby carrier, so that I could better supervise your brother and sister.  You wanted nothing to do with it.  It was like trying to carry a squirmy baby bear.  Finally I let you down and you took off for the nearest climber.  You spent the entire time climbing up the steps and sliding down a little miniature slide.

I almost forgot to mention your favorite toys:  lights.  Whenever you are upset I can easily distract you by letting you turn on and off a light.  In particular you love the lights in the basement that are on strings.  Meme told me I need to add string onto the current ones and just park you underneath the light.  I'm positive that it would entertain you for hours, which lets be honest is baby code for five minutes.  

You also love any toy that has buttons to push and makes sounds.  I have to regularly put away Carter and Ava's computers because you love them.  Unfortunately you love them so much you try to spike them, which isn't great for their computers.  I love to watch you with any toy that plays music.  You will bounce, dance and groove to the music.

Since you turned one you also learned how to throw temper tantrums.  Boy, do you have a temper whenever I try to take away your toothbrush or give you water instead of milk.  I want you to keep your spiciness baby doc, but use it wisely!  The other day you took matters into your own hands.  We were at a restaurant and I hadn't served you fast enough.  I glanced over and you had wiggled out of the straps on the high chair and were standing in the chair so you could reach across the table to grab your sister's chips.  You are a kid that knows what you want!

Well, my little boy my sweetest joy, we love you so much.

Mommy and Daddy

Go Roover Girl!

Our morning routine is as follows:  TV and juice on the couch, eat breakfast and then go upstairs to change for the day.  The big kids generally beat me upstairs, and Carter will go to the restroom and get dressed for the day while Ava waits for me to help her.  Today Ava came strolling up to me, and I was stunned!  She was completely dressed for the day!  This means she took off her pull up and pajamas, found a way to pull down the dress she wanted to wear, and then dressed herself.  I'm proud of my Roover Girl!

The outfit of choice:  inside out white sundress and black leggings.  I did turn the dress the right way and added a sweater to complete the ensemble.

I have to admit there are times when I become the parent that I couldn't stand as a preschool teacher.  In my classroom it was expected that each child perform every adaptive skill to the best of their ability every time.  As a Mom I find myself putting on shoes/taking them off kids who are perfectly capable of doing it, but it's just faster to do it myself.  Thanks Ava, for reminding me that you are perfectly capable of doing these things yourself!

  

Hair Gone!

Mom I'm feeling a bit melancholy.  

You cut my hair a bit shorter than I had anticipated.

Oh well, it'll grow back.