Listening to the ocean

When Ken and Cheri got back from Florida they brought the kids some shells. So last night I was attempting to diffuse a Sam tantrum as he had some privileges removed because of bad behavior and I decided to try the distraction technique rather than ignoring or active engagement. Anyway, he was crying and tantruming so I picked up a shell and listened intently. Then I said, "Sam, I can hear the ocean!" He quickly stopped tantrumming and wanted to try it out for himself. He did and after awhile he said, "Mommy, what's that noise?" "It's sounds like the ocean," I said. Then he said, "No, I hear a whale!" I exclaimed that was amazing, then asked him what else he heard. He then made a hiccuping noise and said, "Mommy, someone is hiccuping in the ocean! There's a shark too!" I asked if there was a hiccuping shark, to which he replied that there was not. I then listened again and made a hiccup noise myself. "I hear someone else hiccuping in the ocean!" I said. Sam replied, "Mommy, that was you!" And we laughed. Tantrum diffused.

Matthew's appt and more

Matthew had his two-year appointment today. He really didn't handle it too well. I coached him ahead of time about what would happen (he would get weighed, see how tall he was and the doctor was going to look in his ears, nose, poke around his tummy, etc.) so I thought that would alleviate some of his apprehension about it, but alas, it did not. He really handles trips to the doctor much worse than the other children. He cries (and that boy can produce a flood of tears in a second), screams, thrashes about--and that's just when the nurse is trying to get his height and weight. 

When the doctor came in, Matthew would not look at her or talk to her for at least the first 5 minutes. He eventually warmed up and responded to a few of her questions, but mostly he kept to himself. He was at least tolerant of the exam, but the shots were another story. Just putting him down on the table was quite a challenge, but the nurses seemed accustomed to the difficulty and it went "well". Anyway, here are Matthew's stats:

Height: 37 in, 95+ percentile (again, what does that mean?)

Weight: 31 lbs, 90th percentile

And here are Sam's from 2 years old:

Height: 35 in, 75th percentile

Weight: 27 lbs, 25th percentile

The remainder of this post includes pictures from our afternoon activities. We had Popsicles on the deck, then played in the driveway and off to the sandbox. I got a new lens for the camera, so I wanted to try it out. Sam felt that BaaBaa needed to be in a lot of pictures, and here is the best one. 

Matthew was being his non-shy self, singing, shouting and playing on the kids' picnic table. Matthew is like two different kids: kid one won't look at anyone or speak around people or places he's unfamiliar with. Kid two is crazy, boisterous and funny.

And Abby was entertaining herself on the blanket when Sam stopped by. Take note of Abby's dark streaks of hair on the right side of her head (left side for us).

Here they are up close and personal. Those brunette streaks are all that's left of Abby's dark hair. The rest has all fallen out and she's gone blonde. The streaks are really quite striking--women pay lots of money to have such beautiful streaks in their hair. Pretty soon they will be all gone and I will be the lone brunette in the family. So much for blonde being a recessive trait. 

Here are some other pictures from our afternoon.

Parenting wisdom-This too shall pass

I've been a parent for 3 1/2 years now and I have acquired some wisdom over the course of that time period that I'd like to share. I'm sure my wisdom (well, I hope) will grow in the coming years, but I wanted to explain a bit about it now. I'm going to write out my current list, in no particular order, and chip away at them one at a time for a few posts when I don't have pictures or other stories about the kids over the next few weeks. Anyway, here goes.

1) This too shall pass. This is a saying I learned from Dennis Prager who said it's from King Solomon. With kids, things change so quickly. It's hard to remember that when it seems like you've gone for weeks without things improving, but before you know it, the kids reach a developmental milestone or something just clicks and they're over whatever challenge you were facing and on to another. Like I remember when Abby was horribly difficult to get down for a nap and bedtime. It seemed like I would spend sometimes 30 minutes or even 1.5 hours rocking, patting, holding her and bouncing and she would just scream. And this happened for every nap and every bedtime. And the boys would be going crazy in the hallway outside her door. And I would cry. And my wrists hurt from all the patting and my knees ached from marching around her room and bouncing around. But guess what her nap and bedtime routines are now? Naptime: take her upstairs, change her diaper, put her in her blanket sleeper, pat for 5 seconds and put her in her crib--awake--she does the rest. Total time: 2 minutes. Bedtime: go to her room, walk around saying "night night" to her pictures and stuffed animals. Read story and bedtime prayer. Change into PJs and blanket sleeper, pat for maybe 30 seconds and into her crib. Total time: 7 minutes. So this too shall pass. Now I don't get to spend as much time with Abby preparing her for bed, but I sure enjoy the time we do have together.

You don't have to look too far back in our recent history to know that Sam has been a challenge at bedtime too. Just look at posts from a year ago or so. I remember reading my book in low light just outside Sam's bedroom door so when he peeked outside or tried to come out (for the 20th time of the night) I was right there to redirect (for some reason he would skitter back into his room if a parent was right outside). And I remember sitting there for an hour and getting maybe 10 pages read in my low light. And sending him back again and again and again to his bed. Now we rarely have a problem with him. We have our routine and he can keep his light on and read for awhile if he likes and he happily entertains himself until he falls asleep. This too shall pass. It's the nature of kids.

Here are my other bits of wisdom:
2) Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
3) Love your spouse.
4) Have reasonable expectations.
5) You can't (and shouldn't) make your kids happy all the time.
6) Keep up your own hobbies/interests/diversions (to a certain extent).

I know there are other floating around in my head, but remember things these days isn't a great strength of mine, so I may add or amend others down the road. I'll explain more about the other items in future posts.

Rainy day fort

Sunday was kind of rainy and dreary so Jason decided to have some fun with Sam in the afternoon and build a super-fort. Sure beats my "throw a blanket (or two) over the dining room table" fort and the kids have spent considerable time in the fort and destroying the fort over the past few days. They are too little to adequately reconstruct the fort by themselves so I am called upon to help them often, but have so far said I will only reconstruct it once a day. Here are some of the details. It's main support is a small table made for me when I was in college by Grandpa Don. A small storage ottoman is on top of the table. The back of the fort is supported by 2 folding chairs and a basketball hoop. The blankets are supported on the right side by the futon cushion. All these supports have created a split-level structure with a main level, upstairs, attic and basement. Sam enjoys playing with cars on the main level and taking fake naps in the upstairs (which is where he is in the above picture). Matthew enjoys playing cars on the main level and destroying the roof. Actually, both boys enjoy destroying the roof as can be seen from the picture below.

The boys also decided they wanted their pictures taken with doggie. So here they are with doggie.

Favorite photos of Friday

Here are two of my favorite photos from Friday. Abby and I were enjoying some time on the blanket on the deck while the boys were making a mess in the sandbox and otherwise causing destruction in the back yard. I didn't get any pictures of the boys as they were just a cupcake/sand mess from their snack and play activities. Anyway, Abby is just so darn cute.

Our afternoon and evening

I decided to work on my photography again, so pulled out the camera and a white sheet and shot away. Only Sam and Abby were awake at the time, so they were my subjects. Not exactly ideal subjects as Abby rarely sits still for more than a split second and she especially doens't like to be on her back, preferring to roll over on her tummy almost immediately upon being placed on her back. Sam also isn't the greatest subject as he is in the phase of fake smiles and he always wants to look at the pictures instead of holding still for them to be taken. Anyway, I got one that was relatively decent of Abby and Sam and here it is. 

 Later in the evening after we had supper, Jason decided to mow the lawn as it was growing like crazy with all the rain and warm weather we've had lately. Matthew always likes to take a turn on the mower when Jason is done and throws a complete fit if he believes Jason is putting the mower away before he's had a chance to drive. Jason has gotten to the point of turning over the wheel to him and so he steers by himself although Jason usually has to intervene before Matthew runs into the fence of deck. But he sure enjoys himself. Pure joy.

The quiet game

Sam has become quite the talker these days. As in he can talk almost nonstop for long periods of time. He often starts his statements with "You know what, Mommy?" then goes on about whatever happens to be passing through his 3 year old brain. And then a second later, "You know what, Mommy?" then on to another seemingly random thought. His mind must be going a mile a minute. The constant talking is a little tough on me at times, but especially when driving. We were driving through a construction site the other day and Sam kept on pointing out construction equipment and talking about what he was seeing. He not only talks about stuff, but he wants to engage in conversation about it and get louder until I acknowledge what he's talking about. Not a good combination when I'm driving in traffic through a construction site. I just need to focus on driving!

Anyway, on the way to the Y the other day I was seeking a little quiet for a few minutes of the 7 minute drive so I decided to try the "Silent game" with the kids. I know they are rather young for the silent game, but I really needed to try. So I explained that we were going to play a game and you needed to be quiet all the way to the Y. (We were only about 2 minutes away, so it shouldn't have been too tough). Then I said, "Ok, let's see who's going to win." There was silence for about 3 seconds, then Sam said "I'm winning, Mommy!" I was still in game mode, so I didn't say anything, and again he said, "I'm winning Mommy!" He clearly didn't get the game. I guess he's too young. I tried again explaining the game, but to no avail. Sam still thought he had won and kept saying so. Matthew wasn't saying anything for most of the trip which is unusual, and Abby was babbling away, so I guess Matthew was the winner.