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.