Outdoor play

Here are some pictures of our outdoor activities recently. We've been playing outside most every day, despite the heat, but have limited out time to early AM and before bed. Today we were able to be outside much more, though, so we had great fun being outside without sweating horribly and suffering through high humidity. Sam doesn't mind the heat much (since he likes being sweaty...), but the rest of us would rather avoid it. Abby has also started riding in the wagon which has been great fun. I'm looking forward to taking all the kids to the park in the wagon soon.

 Sam gets jealous of all the pictures I/we take of Abby and wanted to be the focus of our attention so he sat right between Abby and I. He takes good pictures too and at least he's getting away from the fake smile these days.

 The kids were watching the train across the road.

And here I was practicing my photography using some of the lisianthus from the garden. 

Unique traits

Sam wears socks to bed. All the time. Winter (what's so strange about that?), spring, summer, fall. In fact, he sleeps with a fleece blanket and used to sleep with a fleece pillow (from Great Grandma Verna) until we discovered he was getting heat rash around his neck and upper body and told him the pillow was his winter pillow. After we did that, he started sleeping with a fleece taggie blanket which he draped over his normal pillow. Ugh. One night I tried telling him to turn on his fan or take off his socks, explaining that he'd get sweaty and he said that he liked to get sweaty when he sleeps. I guess there's no winning there.

Some days Matthew changes his shirt and underwear once or twice a day. Not because they're dirty or anything like that, but just because Matthew sees different a shirt or pair of underwear (or thinks of another one) and decides what he's currently wearing is dirty and wants to change. I usually acquiesce as really, I don't care if it's another shirt to wash. There are other more important battles to wage and this isn't one of them. Besides, it gives him a chance to practice changing his clothes which means in the future I won't have to help him!

Abby dislikes loud and/or unexpected noises. I can't say that she dislikes loud noises all the time, as she has two older brothers who just happen to make loud noises frequently, but she dislikes them sometimes and especially when they're not expected. For example, the other day she was playing with this little guitar toy when it suddenly started playing music. Abby got terrified and started screaming and crying. I suppose she just thought it was a cool, colorful toy with buttons, but then it started making noises. That happened another day with a little microphone. Abby was happily playing with it when it too started talking and singing. Wow. What a change of heart toward that little microphone. Screams. Crying. Terrified. She also dislikes the vacuum although that doesn't have the unexpectedness to it that the other toys do. Last week I was vacuuming the stairs to the basement when the kids were in the basement. Abby was crying some while I was doing it, but I just had to get it done, so she cried and I finished. Then I picked her up and she settled down. Later that evening we were playing downstairs, all happily enjoying ourselves when Abby wandered over by where the vacuum was (I had left it out intending to vacuum the rest of the basement...it's still there). She looked at it and started crying. Then she looked at me, still crying. Looked at the vacuum again. Still there, still crying. Then looked back at me as if to say, "Aren't you going to do something about this atrocity in the corner? I guess I will just scream louder. Can't she see I'm serious?" It wasn't moving or making any noise, it was just there, but Abby was still terrified of it. Poor Abby.

Ummmm...potty trained?

Yeah, we're talking about Matthew. He is in underwear...all the time...no diapers anymore. He's not even 27 months old yet (as in just over 2 years old). And he did it in his own time, without much prodding or work by myself. As I mentioned before, a few times Matthew told me he had to go poopy (which means pee or poop), then I thought, well, if he can tell me he has to go and he has all these other signs of readiness (like dry overnight and naps), then lets just give it a go. It started out with me putting him in diapers (really, do I want to deal with messes with a baby crawling around?), and taking it off whenever he told me he had to go or I asked him to try the potty. After a few days of him wearing the same diaper all day without any messes, or just going in his diaper once, it was time to move onto the next phase. Underwear. He actually decided he wanted to wear underwear without me forcing it upon him. He just declared that he wanted to wear underwear. So that's what we did. Matthew is an independent, opinionated little chap as we all know and he was ready for underwear. Now, I was not really planning on potty training Matthew this summer. But he wanted to and I'm not one to miss the opportunity to get a kid out of diapers.

So now he goes in the potty chair all the time. He has an occasional accident, maybe one every few days, but otherwise he is doing very well. Matthew and Sam like to go to the bathroom together and sit on their stools, facing each other, completing their deeds. Sometimes, though, it takes Matthew quite some time to complete his deed (we're talking 10 minutes), but he is content to look at books or just sit there until he's done.

I really don't have too much to talk about regarding Matthew's potty training, no serious challenges, nothing really interesting or funny about it (other than finding what appeared to be a smushed Tootsie Roll on the kitchen floor the other day which was definitely not a Tootsie Roll...). He just did it. A few stickers, a few cars, but that was it. And now, we just need to get him on the toilet. But I'm sure he'll take care of that on his own, when he is well and ready.

Abby's 9 months

Abby is 9 months old (as of yesterday) and we went to see the doctor for her check up this morning. She handled it well, just crying a bit after her shot, and the boys were pretty good after being scolded by the doctor for jumping off of the step to the exam table at the beginning of the appointment. The doctor simply told the boys not to do that and to be quiet and calm in the doctor's office. Matthew's lower lip quivered as he was scolded, but he didn't cry and Sam calmly looked on. They quieted down and were good for the rest of the appointment and Sam watched what the doctor was doing very closely. So here are Abby's stats. I couldn't find Sam's, but I included Matthew's.

Abby:
Height: 28 in (60th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs 8 oz (25th percentile)

Matthew:
Height: 30 in  (90th percentile)
Weight: 22 lbs (75th percentile)

Mall of America and more

First of all, let's talk about today. The boys are at Grammy and Papa's for the day and Abby and I are having a girl's day. It poured for most of the morning and otherwise has been dreary so we haven't gone anywhere, but we did have some quality time in the kitchen. I started making some squash bread with the abundance of yellow squash that I have while Abby was finishing her lunch. She takes a really long time to eat, so I was able to get it all mixed up and in the oven while she was still eating. About Abby's eating, she is quite a fan of protein--meat and cheese and the like. And veggies. What she doesn't care too much for is bread and cereal. She tolerates fruit, but give her some pork and peas and she's a happy girl. Now she doesn't shun every carb (pasta is a favorite) but she really couldn't care less for bread. Between her and Matthew, they could eat a whole sandwich. Funny how the kids have their eating preferences.

So after she ate she played in the cupboards for awhile and I got out the camera. There has to be a picture of every child playing with mixing bowls and utensils, right? It's that a requirement of passing childhood? Picture of child playing with kitchen utensils? check. Moving on. So here is a picture of her playing. She was quite shocked at one point when she discovered that the shelves can move (we have pull-outs). Then she meandered over to the sliding glass door and looked at the dreary outside. Sorry, babe, no playing outside right now. Maybe later.

Moving on to the MOA. We rarely go to the MOA, but Jason needed a very particular belt which he couldn't find at the stores around us, so we headed as a family to the MOA. Sam especially loves going to the mall and Matthew appears to be undecided at this point, but from Abby's last trip to the mall, it seems she hates it. We gave it a go anyways and hoped for the best. Regardless, it couldn't be any worse than the last time we went this past spring and Abby cried/screamed abundantly.

So we went to the mall, Jason shopped for his belt, unsuccessfully as he refused to lay down over $100 for a belt that fit the bill, and I got to browse around one store for about 5 minutes and therefore, didn't purchase anything. It's not that I couldn't find something to purchase, it's that I had Sam with me. When we were in Nordstrom's Rack, Jason asked me if I wanted to browse some and he would take the kids to the corridor. I said sure, and Sam said he'd like to stay with me. I browsed around for about 30 seconds before Sam said, "bye, Mommy, I'm going to find Daddy." Yeah right, Sam. I grabbed his hand before he headed off into oblivion of the MOA and wondered where on earth he thought he would find Daddy and how he would get to him. The store was rather crowded as was the hall, so I just don't know what he was thinking. I attempted to browse around some more while holding onto Sam as he kept saying he wanted to find Daddy and trying to run off. I abandoned my fruitless efforts to shop and reluctantly left the store after about 4 minutes. So much for shopping for me. While kids do come with considerable expense, they also are very good at helping one to keep to a budget by impeding any efforts to shop beyond the necessities.

Then we decided it was time to eat so we headed to the food court and got Burger King. After our meal, the kids wanted to wear the paper crowns that came with their meals, so we got them out and Sam proudly wore his like a king (or queen, as he was calling himself) and Matthew proceeded to wear his upside down and insisted that was the way it was supposed to go. We forgot our camera otherwise I could have pictures to show of our "queen" and upside-down king.

We hit a few more stores in search of a belt but to no avail. Then we left. All we had to show for our trip to the MOA were some paper crowns from Burger King. Who goes to the MOA and doesn't buy anything but Burger King? Seriously? It was still a fun outing and Abby didn't cry a peep. I think she's warming up to the mall. Maybe we will try it again some other time.

Siblings

There's almost nothing better (at least at this point) about being a parent that seeing your kids love each other. And the kids, for the most part, really do seem to like each other a lot. Matthew and Sam play together quite often and while they fight at times and drive me crazy, they also hardly ever are apart, nor do they show signs that they want to be apart. At the Y, Sam loves it when all the children are in the same room together (during busier times the older kids go to the playground or gym while the little ones stay in the child care room) and he gets to stay with Matthew. And nearly every time I pick the kids up, Sam and Matthew are playing together. Today when I picked them up, I could hear them laughing together and found them playing hide and seek together with one of the child care workers. They were having a great time.

They come up with all sorts of diversions to play together at home too. Usually the play beside each other (like both play with their own cars), but sometimes they engage in make-believe activities together. Like when they play "nap"together. Last night the boys decided to play "Rocket ship" while I was putting Abby to bed as I had admonished them to find something to do so I could put Abby to bed (Jason got home late). So they got their "friends", some books and blankets and got their rocket ship ready for take off. When I came out of Abby's room and saw what they were up to, I was reminded of how my sister and I had set up all of our "friends" in our stairway when we were little and played "airplane".

And Sam and Abby quite enjoy each other too. Abby does her "happy to see you dance" when she sees Sam in the morning or after naps and she bobs her head around, smiles and squeals. Sam is equally delighted with Abby and calls her "Cheeky girl" and loves to pinch her cheeks. Today when Sam was lying on the floor reading, Abby crawled over to him, crawled up his legs and then belly-flopped onto his back before rolling onto the floor beside him. There was no crying, just Abby squealing and Sam being very tolerant of his little sister. Matthew was still napping when this happened, and at one point Sam and I went over to the stairway to see if we could hear him. Sometimes he reads to himself in his room before wanting to get up, so we just wanted to check. We didn't hear anything, but as we descended the stairs, Sam stopped at the landing and said, "Mommy, watch me whistle for Abby." Abby was playing beside the ottoman. Sam then proceeded to make a high-pitched screeching noise to which Abby responded with her own high-pitched squeal. So I guess that's how they communicate.

Things are a little more unpredictable between Matthew and Abby. I know I've mentioned this before, but Matthew will get excited to see Abby and try to pinch her cheeks as Sam does, but he's a little more rough and ends up making Abby cry sometimes. He just needs to work on his soft side a bit. And Abby does get excited when she sees Matthew, like she does for Sam, but she's a little less tolerant of him at times. And he's less tolerant of her getting into his stuff. I've often thought that Matthew and Abby are pretty similar in their temperament, so I don't know if that's affecting their relationship or if it's simply a matter of age. Only time will tell.

And here are some other "catch up" pictures from the past few days.

 Sam got stung on his foot by a bee on Tuesday, so he was resting with an ice pack and some books in the aftermath. Abby was keeping him company.

And just another cute baby picture.

Potty accident

So Matthew is potty training. He is doing surprisingly well, so I really don't have many good stories to tell. He usually has one accident a day, but otherwise goes on the potty chair and stays dry. Amazing boy. He even woke up this morning and wanted to get up to go to the bathroom, rather than pee in his diaper. Now although I am proud of him, I would have likes a little more sleep too. What a conundrum.

Yesterday's accident was a bit more memorable so that's what I'll write about. Matthew had just finished his snack and I asked him if he wanted to try the potty chair. He said, "Ok" so off we went to the bathroom. A few feet from the bathroom I stopped him so I could help him with his shorts and underwear. I pulled down his shorts, then got his underwear to his knees and he immediately started peeing. I was thinking he would get scared or shocked or whatever and stop or scream, but there was nothing like that. It just kept coming. In milliseconds, I considered my options: stand there and let Matthew pee a little puddle on the floor; carry Matthew the 5 feet or so to the bathroom, risking spraying the walls, the new tile, the woodwork etc.; grab a bowl and have him pee in that; grab a towel and have him pee in that.  Attempting to remain cool, I went with the first option and coolly said to Jason who was in the kitchen "Get a towel please." At least I thought I was cool and calm. And the pee kept coming. Jason asked something, maybe what kind of towel? "Are you serious?" I thought. "Any towel, I don't care." I responded calmly. Matthew finally finished and Jason brought a towel, set it on the rather large pool and walked away. I started mopping it up, then asked Matthew if he had to go anymore and wanted to try the potty chair. I was thinking, "if he seriously has any more liquid in him he had the bladder of an elephant". But he wanted to sit on the potty chair, so we finally made it to the bathroom. He sat down, then leaned forward and placed his hands on the floor in front of him for his pooping stance. I left to finish wiping up the pee. I got that done, wiped Matthew's butt, dumped out the potty chair, wiped out the potty chair, flushed, got Matthew dressed again, got the floor cleaner, mopped with floor where Matthew had peed by hand and continued to mop by hand the area around the island which gets pretty dirty. Heck, I was already on my hands and knees on the floor, what's another five minutes of mopping? Well, just another 15 minutes on a Sunday morning.

Odds and ends

Today when the kids were watching Little Einsteins before dinner Matthew was relaxing in our big, cozy chair. After a few moments, he said, "I need ottoman closer!" so I went over and pushed it near the chair. He was finally able to relax at that point and stretched out and touched the tips of his toes on it. When I took the picture he had relaxed his feet, but he still needed the ottoman.

Although we've avoided being outside for most of the past two days, prior to that we were getting out the swimming pool daily, making a routine out of filling it each morning, letting it warm up during the day and swimming after naps. After the boys have sloshed out most of the water in the pool, I let Abby "swim" as she loves being in the water. The boys are pretty good about being careful around her, and usually they have lost some interest (and energy) by the time the water level is appropriate for Abby, so it works out okay. The other day our backyard pool was littered with naked bodies as I couldn't find Abby's suit (does she even have one? does she even need one?), Matthew had 1) peed in his swim trunks and needed them taken off, 2) didn't like the feeling of his other shorts when they got wet, so they were taken off and 3) ripped off his swim diaper when he had to pee again. So he was naked. After so many clothing changes I just give up. Is it really a big deal if a 2 year old is running around naked? Now, people older than maybe 4 or 5, hmmm, not so cute, but a naked Matthew is still okay in my book. Sam was dressed for most of the afternoon, although he tried keeping his trunks off after he went to the bathroom (in the house). He likes being naked, but he's just getting too old for it. 

However, we still let Sam run around in his underwear if he feels like it. I tried getting both boys together for a picture in their underwear, but it was not to be. So here's a cute Sam in his skivvies. 

And one last one. Matthew was throwing somewhat of a fit the other day and he wanted to be held, but it wasn't anything serious so I took his picture before picking him up. What a horrible Mommy I am sometimes. About Matthew's fits, he has only had a few of them but I noticed today that they always occur when Jason's around. When it's just me, he will throw a brief fit (generally less than minute), but around Jason he really lays it on heavy. Loud. Screaming. Tears rolling. Crazy. Today he get it into his head to throw a fit after nap. We came downstairs and he was fine, but as soon as he saw Jason he started screaming. I tried to figure out what was going on, offered him snack, water, asked if his tummy hurt and so on. But then suddenly he stopped. Jason had gone to the garage. When Jason returned (he was cutting tile for our bathroom so was going in and out frequently), he started crying and screaming again. He kept asking if daddy was going to work and I told him no, then he'd go crazy. Then Jason would go outside again and Matthew would stop. Very strange behavior. I still haven't determined his motivations, but it was like Jason's presence and exit were an on/off switch for Matthew's  tantrummy behavior. 

Supermen

Lately the boys have been in the habit of jumping. Off of things. Seeing how high and far they can go. While Sam is a pretty good jumper and can handle himself pretty well, Matthew is a little unstable when it comes to jumping . However, that doesn't stop him from trying to jump like Sam does. When I set up the swimming pool today, they found a tote, overturned it and used it to jump into the pool. They then ran to a small boulder (it's maybe a foot or 15 inches in diameter) on our property, climbed on top of it, jumped, ran back to the pool, climbed on the tote, jumped into the pool and repeated the cycle maybe 10 times. Indoors, their favorite way to jump is off the stairs onto the landing below. Sam can manage four steps, maybe more, but he never gets hurt doing it. Matthew can safely manage two steps, maybe more, but he often ends up injured in some form, although the injuries have been fairly mild to date.

This morning I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast and the boys decided to go into the stairway to the upstairs and jump. I couldn't see them, but I could hear very loud thuds (indicating jumps of considerable distance) and then peals of laughter, so I wasn't too concerned. After a few jumps I decided I'd better check on them to see how they were doing and as I approached the stairs, I saw Matthew flying. At least he appeared to be flying, leaning forward with his arms out, then his feet caught the bottom step and he belly-flopped onto the floor below him. And there was no blood, no tears, no injury, just Matthew pulling himself up with a big smile, and me admonishing him to jump from a lower step. I have no idea how high he jumped from, but it must have been from a stair about as high as he is tall because it really appeared that he was flying momentarily.

They still frequently pile up pillows and blankets and run and jump into them in the basement. That has become a regular activity since I first introduced it this winter. But they also have started playing "nap" with the blankets and pillows too. After some serious running and jumping, they will each pull out a pillow and blanket and gather some books and relax for awhile. It used to be that quietness from the boys meant trouble (it still does sometimes), but sometimes they're just playing "nap." And with all that jumping, they certainly need a nap, and they sleep well at night too. So kiddos, jump on...