Volleyball

Abby rolled over by the volleyball today (she is now doing full rolls and moving herself a few feet). She actually touched it some and Jason is happy to report that both her knees appear to be fully intact despite the contact. How she will fare in her teen years is yet to be determined.

Back to volleyball. That's how it all began. Seven years ago about this time of year, Jason and I met at EagleBrook's young adult volleyball night (it's a large church that used to host volleyball every Friday). I remember he was wearing a gray t-shirt with cutoff sleeves and blue shorts and he claims I was wearing a "Science is fun" t-shirt. I don't recall that particular detail and I also don't recall wearing that shirt in public, but if he says so, it must be true. My first impression of him was "Cute, but too old" and his first impression of me was "Cute, but too young". I'm not kidding. That was that and we didn't see each other until April sometime when a friend asked both of us to play on the same sand volleyball team. We got to know each other better and started dating in July. That summer and the following we played volleyball two or three nights a week. We were in a couple of leagues, played pick up once or twice a week and had a great time.

Well, things have changed. We are now married. We have been blessed with three kids. We have had three knee surgeries between us since we've met (and one each before we met.) We play volleyball together hardly ever. I play in a women's league during the fall and winter and he plays some sand volleyball in the summer, but we take turns now as we have little ones to watch these days. Sometimes I bring the kids to watch Jason play in the summer and we will probably do that this summer too. The boys have fun, although it's tough keeping them out of the sand as sand="fun stuff to play in".

I miss playing volleyball with Jason. I miss the carefree fun and competition. But I love the kids. Things change and our lives look different now than they did seven years ago. But when I look at the picture of Abby with the volleyball, there is no question of what's really important in our lives.

"Exercise"

Me: Boys, do you want to go to the Y after Abby's nap? You can play with toys and get some exercise?
Sam: No, I don't like to exercise. Like you do. It's not fun.
Me: Well, exercise isn't necessarily just what Mommy does at the Y (the kids often stop and look at the exercise area at the Y when we're leaving...they see all the people on stationary bikes, treadmills, etc.)...like kicking the soccer ball is exercise and running around the house and shooting the basketball...that's exercise too.
Sam: Well, maybe.
Me: I have an idea! (I run around the house grabbing pillows and throw them in a big pile in the middle of the basement floor).  Here, this is what you do! (I run and throw myself into the pile and thus commences our morning exercise).

The boys loved it! They ran and jumped and rolled and somersaulted and laughed a lot. And I laughed a lot too.

Wow! Look at the mess in that last picture. That's what our basement regularly looks like. About once a week, maybe twice, it's completely picked up. Other than that, we just let the kids have it their way. Here's one more pic...Baa Baa got into the action too.

Ready for bed?

Last night Matthew grabbed blankie and went over to the kids' chair and indicated that he was ready for bed.

Sam, realizing that Matthew was getting photo attention for his antics, decided to get into the action as soon as Matthew vacated the chair.

And another picture of Abby. 

No more cookies, Matthew

A few weeks ago my parents came up for a visit and Grandma Sue made a bunch of cookies. Matthew had one or two, then I told him no more cookies. This is how he reacted.

Oh my...he's only gotten this face maybe two other times. Most of the time when Matthew is faced with a command he doesn't like, he throws his head back and wails. But this time and a few others, his lower lip quivers, his eyes narrow and he just looks terrible. Terrible. And it isn't just a momentary look, it builds, he looks around, quivering lip, droopy eyes, and it goes on for a few minutes. I mean, he did it long enough for Grandpa Don to grab the camera and snap these shots. It's a heart breaking face, but in retrospect it also makes me smile. Oh Matthew, Matthew, Matthew.

Abby's 4 mo update

On Wednesday Abby had her 4 month old appt. Can't believe the little girl is 4 months old already, but at the same time it seems like we've always had her and can hardly remember life before she arrived (although there are a lot of things I can't remember these days). Anyway, here are her stats compared to the boys. The percentiles are different for boys and girls, so that's why Abby weighs less than Sam at this age, but she's in a higher percentile.

Weight:
Abby: 14 lb 7 oz (80%)
Sam: 15 lb 4 oz (50%)
Matthew: 18 lb (95%)

Height:
Abby: 25 3/4 in (90%)
Sam: 26 1/2 in (90%)
Matthew: 27 1/2 in (100+ %)

So all the kids are pretty tall. And Abby and Matthew are pretty weighty. Matthew, goodness, 18 lbs at 4 months? Almost 4 pounds more than Abby? I remember Matthew being a big baby, but wow, that's big.

As far as other milestones, Abby is doing exactly what she should be doing for her age. She's rolling over (again), reaching for toys, laughing, squealing and of course, talking. By rolling over again, I mean that Abby started rolling over from her back to tummy a month ago. Shortly before Jason went on his work trip to Orlando in January I told him that Abby would probably master rolling over when he was gone. Well, she did master rolling over, and she did her first roll just before Jason left to catch his plane (and he witnessed it and I did not). And she rolled over probably 10 or 15 times that day. And then she stopped. She didn't roll over the next day or the next or the next or even for the 4 weeks after that. You couldn't help her or nudge her to roll over, she simply did not want to roll over again. And then this week she started again. Funny kid. Guess she wasn't really too into it. Guess she does what she wants when she wants. As those who've met Abby know, she can be quite opinionated. For those who've met Jason, you know where she gets it from.

Add a little water...

So Abby has been taking longer morning naps (sometimes), which gives the boys and I some time to be creative and engage in more extended activities. This morning we started off considering finger painting. We got the paint and paper out and then the kids just didn't get into it. Sam painted for maybe 3 minutes, Matthew preferred instead to just stack the jars of paint into little towers and I was left with partially engaged kids for less than 5 minutes despite about 10 minutes of set up.

 Then I moved onto my next idea: car/toy wash. I had planned to get out a tub of soapy water for the kids to wash their hands in post-painting, but since they didn't get into the painting, I decided to make the tub of soapy water the main event. I filled a dishpan with 1 inch of water and a little soap, brought over some cars and Little People figures and told the kids it was time for them to give their toys a bath. I gave them washcloths and instructed them to wash behind the ears and let them go. The toys I brought over were carefully washed and set on towels to dry and then more and more and more toys were brought over to the wash. Soon the tub was filled to within an inch of the top with toys and was surrounded by other clean toys. And the boys were occupied for almost an hour. And Abby was still sleeping. So we ended up with 1) clean toys, 2) slightly wet =, but happy boys, 3) a relaxed mom and 4) a well-rested Abby. All in all, a pretty good morning.

And of course, I have to include a picture of Abby...

On the move

I've been meaning to write about Abby's ability to move in amazing ways, and I am finally getting to it now. Anyway, Abby is a very squirmy sleeper. I thought Matthew was squirmy as a baby, but Abby has redefined squirmy. To give you an idea of what I mean, Abby slept in the Halo sleep sack swaddler until she was 1 month. Then she was consistently breaking out of it, so I had to try other options. Sam slept in the sleep sack until he was 4 or 5 months. So then I got what's called the Miracle Blanket, which is an odd shaped blanket that holds a baby's arms down and wraps around and around and around them. My description doesn't do it justice, just go to the link to see what I mean. That worked for maybe another month or so, then she was consistently breaking out of the Miracle Blanket. So it was a Miracle for a month. One night she even wiggled her arm out of her jammies and out of the Miracle Blanket. So the Miracle Blanket kept her PJ sleeve swaddled, but not her little arm.

At that point, I had to explore more options. One would think that maybe we should stop swaddling at that point, but really, Abby will not sleep unless she's swaddled. She is way to wiggly and wiggles, squirms and so on herself awake far too often or won't even settle unless she's swaddled. Eventually she will learn to sleep unswaddled, but we'll face that battle down the road.

So my next strategy was to try the Woombie. The Woombie is basically a baby-body-sleeve. You zip your baby into this little tube (with an opening for the head, of course) and they can move their arms around some inside the tube, but not so much that they're flailing around waking themselves. So Abby got a clearance Woombie that's orange with green ruffles. And we zip her into it and wrap the Miracle Blanket around the outside. She's been sleeping that way for maybe 6 weeks now. Lately she's stretched the head opening so much that she can get her hands out, but not generally her entire arms. And she's starting to suck her fingers, so access to the hands is not a bad thing.

So every night I put her in her crib with her feet touching the end of the crib. And every night she wakes us up once or twice with her head touching the opposite end of the crib. I wish I had time-elapsed photography to see how she manages to do this, because she is really a little sausage lying in her crib, but she makes it from one end to the other, every night, usually more than once a night. And sometimes she makes it to the end and has rotated a quarter turn or even 180 degrees. So she is a very squirmy baby and definitely on the move.

Happy Valentines Day

While Jason and I don't get into Valentines Day too much, we still chose to celebrate it today with the kids in our own little ways. We had a typical morning, other than I made cheesecake for our romantic dinner this evening. After Abby awoke from her afternoon nap, the Valentines festivities began. We started off with Valentine's crafts. I drew a heart on paper and the kids used glue and bits of paper to decorate their hearts. Sam then wanted to decorate a car, so I had to exercise my artistic skills to draw a car which he then decorated.

I guess that was our only festivity for the day, other than our cheesecake dessert. Matthew looked forward to the cheesecake all afternoon, while Sam was hankering for a Valentine's sucker that he got from Grammy and Papa. So after a romantic family dinner of calzones, we had our raspberry topped cheesecake. Abby even got to participate (she sat in the Bumbo chair on top of the table) as she stayed up until 6:15 or so tonight.

Child proofing

When you think of child proofing a home the usual dangerous elements come to mind: cover outlets, put gates on stairs, set water temp to less than 120, lock up cleaners, detergents, etc. What doesn't come to mind are the things that parents everywhere have to do to keep their kids safe, healthy and remain sane at the same time. Based on our kids' abilities to climb and their curiosity, we have to engage in many other child proofing strategies. One is that we need to hide all toothbrushes. If Matthew finds a random toothbrush, he will use it. Regardless of where it is, he will climb to it and use it. So all toothbrushes remain in the cabinet in our bathroom. Sam's toothbrush ends up wherever, as he also likes to "brush" his teeth throughout the day and at any time there is one or possibly two or three random toothbrushes around our house. The funny thing is that when it's actually time to brush Matthew's teeth, we can never find his toothbrush, so he rarely gets an actual brush from Jason or myself. Suddenly "baby teeth" makes so much sense. God is really smart.

We also hide our toothpaste. Both Matthew and Sam like to eat toothpaste if given the chance. The kids' toothpaste is on the top shelf in the linen closet in their bathroom. It was on the third shelf, about 5 feet up, but Sam managed to get it down, so I had to resort to the top shelf. So everyday when we brush Sam's teeth I have to retrieve the toothpaste from the top shelf, put some on Sam's brush and return it to the top shelf.

Another thing we need to do is hide electronic devices. I have a Kindle e-reader which Matthew, for some reason, likes to try to play with. Really, it just has words, so I don't quite see the appeal, other than Matthew sees me using it, so he wants to. Sam likes any electronic device--laptop, desktop PC, Kindle fire, cell phones, cameras. During the day I often keep my cell phone in the window sill by the kitchen sink. It's close enough for me to access it, but it's far enough away that it requires a number of steps for Sam to acquire it. Otherwise if Sam gets a hold of it, he will either 1) text my entire phonebook, 2) text random friends, 3) take pictures, 4) call Jason's office and hang up or 5) call random friends and breathe into the phone. All of the above have happened.

Other things we have to do: put any drinks up high--coffee cups, half filled cans of pop, glasses of water, anything attracts my little boys; hide plastic bags (the kids really do like to put them on their heads); hide the knitting--the kids will get into the yarn if you leave it out for them; don't leave baking items on the counter (the kids will begin either eating the sugar or dumping flour on the floor or counter). I'm sure more child proofing needs will arise over the next few years as my intrepid kids learn new tricks and start exploring more things around the house.

Smiles and snacks

 This is how we enjoy our snacks these days. Abby joins us on the counter in her Bumbo chair which she loves. Matthew assumes his seat on the end of the counter (which is covered in various globs of goop that has been unsuccessfully wiped off) and Sam sits two chairs down. He's in my chair for the pic so everyone could fit a little better.

Abby has been smiling a lot lately (and talking a lot lately too), but I finally got a good picture of her smile. Abby has been working on pitch lately and exploring how she can make high pitched squeals and other noises other than "ah ah ah" which is a favorite of hers. Very cute.

And this is my parody of a food blog. I love to cook and bake, and peruse some cooking blogs from time to time and get a kick out of the series of pictures showing the cook adding their ingredients one at a time and so on. So I thought I would document my preparation of tater tot casserole and I took a pic of my ingredients. I thought it looked so funny that I abandoned my parody, so you are not going to get to see step by step how I browned hamburger and onion, mixed it with condensed soup and layered it with veggies and tater tots in a casserole dish.

Laundry

In an attempt to organize my laundry better I got each child their own laundry basket. They are actually just storage cubes that usually are used in wall storage units, but even the small size fits plenty of small clothing and they are small enough that Sam and even Matthew can carry their own around.

And Sam is certainly excited to carry his around and do his own laundry. After one day he wanted to do his laundry and started taking his cube downstairs. I told him we needed to wait until he had more clothing in his cube. Later that day I was doing a load of laundry and Sam ran into the laundry room and exclaimed, "Mommy, I wanted to do my laundry!" I reassured him that I wasn't washing his clothes, I was only washing mine and Jason's and told him that he could do his in a few days. When the aforementioned clothes were washed, but not dry, I took advantage of Sam's enthusiasm about doing laundry and asked him to put them in the dryer and start the dryer. He did so and I sat on the couch.

So a few days later I told Sam it was time to do his laundry. He dutifully carried his laundry cube downstairs, put his clothes into the washing machine, put laundry detergent into the dispenser (with my help) and started the washing machine. When it was done, he put his clothes in the dryer. When that was done he put them back into his cube and he and I folded them. Then he carried the cube back upstairs to his room and put his clothes away. Wow! All that work for a 3 year old? And he was excited about it? I only hope his laundry enthusiasm lasts for 15 more years...not likely, but who knows?

Winter activities

How do you keep a 3 year old and 1 year old occupied in the winter? How do you help them burn off all their energy? Well, they sometimes make up their own ways to burn off energy. Matthew, for example, likes to throw a ball while standing next to a wall in the basement. He then runs after the ball, picks it up and throws it again. And chases it again. And repeats. All while wearing something on his head. Sometimes it's a hat, other times it's a small plastic toy tote (the toy totes are rarely filled with toys...usually they are being used as hats, lined up as pretend train cars, stacked up to use as a step stool...I'm sure there are other uses, but I can't remember them at this time), unfortunately times it's a plastic bag. Silly boy. Doesn't he read the warnings?

Both boys also like to run around. They sometimes are chasing each other (or being chased by Mom or Dad), other times they are just running in circles. This generally occurs in the evening for some odd reason, but they will simply run around the perimeter of the main level of the house. They will do this for at least 5 minutes, sometimes even more. They just run.

Other times they like to play bumpity-bump down the stairs. It goes like this. They run to the top of the stairs, then figure out various means of getting down the stairs. Matthew is a pro at the tummy slide. I wished I could have captured his sliding on video the other day as he was really cruising. It was amazing. Sam likes to go head first on his tummy. He doesn't go for speed, but rather for finesse and difficulty. Other times they sit on their bottoms and go "bumpity-bump" down each step.

Sometimes the boys need encouragement to get some exercise. So we play "hall ball". This is one of Jason's original games and involves a parent sitting at the landing at the bottom of the stairs. The children are usually at the top of the stairs. The kids throw a ball down the stairs, parent tries to catch it and throws it back. However,  I often "miss" and the ball rolls around to the main level, under the couch or somewhere else. The boys then need to go down the stairs, retrieve the ball, go back up the stairs and start the process over. And this process repeats. We have a lot of laughs and get some exercise too. And the kids go to bed before 8. Another day of winter done, one day closer to warmer weather and time outside.