Tub terrors

Although I have lots of pictures and other things to write about since Christmas just passed, I had to write about our latest events during bathtime. The events mostly pertain to Abby being afraid of the bath, and the source of Abby's fears is Matthew. A few weeks ago the kids all took a bath together. We haven't been doing that much lately since they're getting so big, but we were short on time and I decided they could all go in the big bath (in Jason and my room) together. So they all happily got in, then after a few moments we noticed there was, um, stuff, floating around in the tub. After a few moments, I realized what it was (lets just say that Matthew, while he likes to take care of his own wiping on the toilet, is just not very good at it...) and we all got quickly out of the tub and took showers.

So fast forward to now and Abby is terrified of anything floating in the tub (other than toys). Anything. Hair. A speck of lint. And I mean speck...like the size of a grain of finely ground pepper. She gets in the tub and refuses to sit down, asking and pointing at every little thing in the tub, "What's that?" Then I try to scoop it out with my hands or a washcloth (which is not an easy thing to do), while she becomes increasingly terrified and shakes and starts crying as she says, "It's coming closer!" I try to tell her it's just lint from her feet, but she will not be persuaded that it's anything innocuous and continues to basically freak out when my efforts to remove every little bit of lint fail and they come closer to her. She won't even sit in the tub anymore. She used to love the tub. And now it's just a source of terror. Poor Abby. Oh how she cries and cries until I finally take her out of the tub and we decide to take a shower. By we, I mean that she and I take a shower and she's so distraught that she doesn't want to take one by herself and will only take one with me. (So I do feel that I'm being a little manipulated in the showering thing...but will deal with that later). Fortunately, she also likes showers and doesn't mind getting her face wet, so we shower up and she's happy and more importantly, clean.  I hope this phobia doesn't last long, but for now we're dealing with aborted baths and relying on showers.

Winter fun

We've been enjoying the cold and snow lately, and when we haven't been able to go outside much we've been enjoying making cookies. I gave each kid a batch of cookie dough to cut out cookies and the boys really did a good job. Abby mostly pushed her cookie cutters in lightly and repeatedly, not quite making a thorough cut, but she did do a thorough job of eating a lot of dough. In fact, she threw a fit of all fits when I took the dough away and told her she couldn't eat anymore. I had never seen her throw a fit like that, it was extensive and very loud. I have since experienced another fit when I made cookies again a few days later and limited her consumption of cookie dough. That girl really likes dough. 

Waking up

The kids all have their own distinct ways of waking up. Sam, almost every day, comes into Jason and my room at 6:30. That's when his clock turns yellow. I have no idea how long he's up prior to that time; occasionally when I get up before that time and peek in on him, he's already awake and other times he's not. Anyway, he comes in at 6:30 and sometimes he excitedly says, "This is your morning wake up call!" Other times he comes over to my side of the bed and asks to get in and cuddle for awhile. Other times he goes into the bathroom or closet if Jason is in one of those places getting ready. Regardless, Sam is a morning kid. He's happy, wide-awake and in a good mood. Unfortunately, I don't always greet him with such enthusiasm as I'm not quite so excited at 6:30 in the morning. But he's a good sport.

Matthew wakes up a little differently from Sam. While he used to get up really early, he now gets up a bit after Sam. And he's generally not as chipper as Sam either. Matthew is a slow-to-warm-up kid. He takes his time easing into new situations and getting comfortable with new people and he eases into his day as well. And don't you dare approach him in the morning before he's had an appropriate warm-up time which means that he has had plenty of time to lay in bed, sucking on the tags on his blanket for awhile and he will get up when he's ready. Often Matthew screams and hollers in the morning for Mommy or Daddy to come see him as he waking up and I've tried in the past to send Sam in to tell Matthew that he can come into our room. To which Matthew responds with a tirade of angry words for his brother. Sam doesn't go in to see Matthew in the morning anymore. Once Matthew has his warm-up, he's a chipper, quickly dressed kid and ready to go, but before then, you'd best stay away until your summoned.

Abby is much more gentle in her waking up. She generally doesn't make a peep in the mornings and the only way I know she's awake is that I can hear her bed creaking as she's rolling around. When I do go in to get her (anytime between 7 and 7:30), she usually greets me (or Jason) with a quiet, "Hi Mommy" or "Hi Daddy". Sometimes you'll get a gentle "Get me out." It's a simple command and is obeyed quickly. Other times, Sam wants to go in to "get Abby up" and he goes into her room and gets her riled up for the day. On those days, Abby usually ends up holding onto the side of her crib and excitedly jumping up and down as Sam is jumping up and down next to her bed (sometimes Matthew goes in to greet Abby too and they all have a jumping and hollering wake up).

 And I wake up, usually by Sam (occasionally by Jason when he gets up to get ready for work), at 6:30.

One week ago...

One week ago we had a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Sam was ecstatic. At 6:30 in the morning. So was Matthew. They came into our room full of joy at the white covering on the ground (which melted by the end of the week). When Abby woke up shortly after them, they showed her the snow and she then held up her nearest stuffed animals and dolls to the window and said "Look, Sheepie, snow!" or "Look, Baby, snow!"

After a bit of celebration indoors Sam declared, "I'm going outside now," and the boys went downstairs to get on their boots, coats, hats and mittens. I was still in my PJs and was about to tell Abby that she was going to stay inside with me, but her excitement about the snow got the best of me and I took her down and got her wrapped up in boots, hat, mittens, and coat. Then I bundled up a bit and went outside too. It was 6:50AM. 

The kids had a snowball fight with one of our neighbors and we were out for about 15 minutes before I got too cold and told them it was time to go in for breakfast. Later in the afternoon we were outside again, this time for a long time, building snowmen and throwing snowballs and just running around. Abby does quite well with her boots on and seems to enjoy the snow and wintry outdoors just as much as the boys. Here are some pictures of our afternoon a week ago, the snow is gone, but it will be back again soon.

Leaf raking

Every year raking seems to be a quite enjoyable time for our family. The boys are getting better and better at it and Abby is trying, although she generally ends up reducing the size of the leaf piles rather than contributing to them.  Despite the wet leaves from the rain earlier in the day, there was still a lot of fun to be had at our house today. After filling up the truck with leaves the it was time to decide who got to go to the dump with Daddy. Since he has only two car seats in his truck it's a contentious time for the kids. Who gets left behind? I try to spice it up by saying, "Who gets to stay with Mommy?" but none of the kids seem to buy my attempt at making being left behind a treat. They know better. Sam and Abby got to go this time around, leaving behind a dejected Matthew. Next time he'll get to go, leaving behind another dejected child with Mommy.

Happy Halloween!

All of the kids fully participated in trick or treating this year. Last year Abby didn't go out beyond one of the neighbors and Matthew only lasted for a few, but this year they all made it. We went to the trunk or treat at Ken and Cheri's church over the weekend, so Abby had the process down when we went around our neighborhood on Thursday. We visited our neighbors on the back of our property first. They welcomed us into their home and as we walked in, Abby held up her bucket ready for a treat. No small talk for her. We are still working on the finer points of manners. The kids all made it through all of our neighborhood and had a good time going from house to house. It got rather cold, windy and a bit rainy after awhile, but fortunately by that time we had already made it to the end of our street and just needed to get back quickly.

We visited about 10 homes and got plenty of treats. Abby is not too quick to share while Matthew and Sam are pretty generous. Either way, Jason and I get plenty of treats too with what Abby takes a bite of and decides she doesn't like and the boys' sharing. Abby was a bumblebee (or butterfly) after the walrus costume was rejected, Matthew was Thomas the train and Sam was a Ninja Turtle (we don't know which one).

Fortunately, we caught Abby with her eyes open as she still closes her eyes most of the time when a picture is taken of her. Matthew is still into the big open mouthed smile phase, thus the expression on his face. I don't know what face Sam was making behind his ninja turtle mask, but he sure looks like a tough turtle with his combative arms.

Doctor's appointment

Abby had her 2 year check up yesterday. The boys enjoy coming along for appointments these days as they have learned that they all get stickers, regardless of if they are the patient or not. Abby was a pretty good patient. She got a little upset when she was weighed, but during the exam she was very brave. She had to have her finger pricked for a blood sample and she didn't cry at all. Sam said she was braver than he was at his last appointment. I don't know if that's quite true as Sam bravely held back tears and only a few escaped when he got a shot and Abby saved up plenty of tears when she got a shot later in the appointment. Matthew was definitely the loser in terms of bravery and he cried quite extensively when he got the flu mist in his nose. Oh how terrible!

The boys entertained themselves during the appointment by playing doctor. One of them would lay on some of the chairs in the exam room while the other was the doctor. The doctor would then grab an appendage and bend it back and forth aggressively pushing it this way and that while asking "Does this hurt?" The patient would then laugh and wiggle around and try to escape from the doctor's examination. When comparing the two doctors, I would definitely prefer Sam as Matthew was quite rough and seemed rather more interested in causing pain than in finding out what was causing the imaginary pain.

Abby is growing up so quickly. Here are her 2 year stats:
weight: 25.5lb (53rd percentile)
height: 36" (94th percentile)