Episode 16: I Spy....

Today's blog reflects why trying to clean or do any other project with three little ones is not possible and usually causes more trouble than productivity:

So let's play one of Max's favorite games! I spy...

I spy: 

*folded towels (strategically moved to try and obtain the TV remote)

*Changing Mat (set out by Sam to get my attention to change his diaper)

*train tracks

*diapers

*playmat

 

I Spy:

*Sammy!

*Baby Emily (look closely - I think that's her...)

*Winston

*monster truck

*one sock

 

I Spy:

*Max!

*Chicco carseat

*pink cup

*half of a tomato

*hair bow

*cell phone

*ceiling fan sweeper

 

 The boys did come together and build an incredible train track so I was able to get some of the mess cleaned up.  Max built the whole track.

 However, trains always end up in tears.  Callie the train would not stay on the spiral track and kept falling off.  This caused countless tears and consolation.

 Then Sam took Max's train.  More tears!

 And we rebounded...playing trains and happy again (know this is in like a 5 minute span...tears, no tears...tears...no tears)

 The funny moment of the day was when the boys played play doh together.  Sam wanted to spite Max for some reason and teased him by shoving everything in his mouth...play doh, candles, everything.  So wish I got a picture of that!  I was too busy fishing candles and play doh out of Sammy's mouth.  Needless to say, Sam had to leave the play doh table.  Then Max followed.  It is such a sibling relationship! 

 Ahhh....compromise and clean floors!!  All in a day's work!



Episode 15: Double Date

Rock, rock, rock...that's what I do at night.  I have to give some amazing shout outs to my husband who is working endlessly on our house and painting our bathroom.  I feel bad that I sit down in the rocking chair at 8:00 p.m. after the boys go to bed and rock, rock, rock Emily all evening.  She gets so tired and wants to go to sleep by 8 but requires constant movement for 2 or 3 hours before she finally is settled enough to sleep on her own.  I did commit to cutting out dairy and hopefully that will help.  It seems to be tummy troubles.  I am actually so sick of TV but there is little else I can do.  Currently, Em is in her carseat and I'm rocking her with my foot.  I just have to remember to switch legs at commercial breaks to ensure one leg doesn't get freakishly stronger than the other!

Today was a fantasticly fun Monday!  We had not one but TWO playdates!  Pam, Sierra, Wesly, and Micah came over this morning for a belated Valentines' Day party.  Yes...count that up....SIX children ages five and under and two adults.  And it was fabulous!  The best part was when Sierra said, "oh my, both of your boys are crying and so is Emily".  I looked around and thought, "Oh, she's right, they are!"  I've grown so immune to crying!  Another great mommy moment is when I couldn't figure out where Sam's whimpers were coming from and then I realized he was in his crib upstairs...in time out...for who knows how long...

Still, we had a great time playing bake shop.

The children made cupcakes out of playdoh and placed them in muffin liners.  They used candles and playdoh sprinkles to decorate them and we placed them in muffin pans.  It was a lot of fun and all the kids proved to be worthy to work at Scratch Bakery.

The kids also decorated "mailboxes" (small gift bags) with stickers and decorated Valentines and envelopes with "stamps" and stickers.  Unfortunately Emily got really fussy during this activity and it was lunch time so we didn't get to play mailman.  We will have to play again soon.  It is seriously one of Max's favorite games!

We had our rest time and then Hudson and Lincoln decided to stop on by!  Max was a goofball, loud, crazy, and purely and delighted to see his partners in crime.  They played superheros, playdoh, colored pictures ate snacks, and read books.  It was just like the good old times! 

The cute moment of the day is when Emily sneezed and Sam said, "Bless you, Emily!"  I know, its not that cute in this blog but if you heard him "Bess you, Em-I-leeee!!"  you would think it was cute too!

Episode 14: Friday Fun

This morning started off as a daddy day since I had a PT appointment.  I came home to a happy house and we had a playdate with Ashley and her adorable twins.  Then everyone took a nap and rested and we took pictures to show what we've been working on this month.  First, we needed a special snack of graham crackers and frosting :)

 I had to go check on Emily and came back to find Max licking the frosting off his plate...he loves sugar!

 We then started our science experiement.  We used our senses to observe vinegar.  Max said it looked like water but smelled yucky.  Sam wanted to taste it and I let him.  He then wanted to drink it!  I wouldn't let him!

 We had fun mixing food coloring in the vinegar and watching what happened.

 Perry even joined us!

 We observed baking soda with our senses.

 Then the fun began and we mixed it all together!  Pink volcano!!

 We journaled about our observations.  I had to give Sam a "pop" (St. Croix - carbonated water) because he so desperately wanted to drink the volcanoe :)

 Max drew a picture of himself next to the pink volcano.

 Emily read her new book.

 We've been practicing reading names such as Max, Sam, Emily, Lena, Isaiah, mom, and dad.  We played matching with them.

 Then to get our wiggles out we placed them around the living room and called out names and jumped on the right name.

 Finally, Max has been working on ABAB patterns.  He's really into it and can think about his patterns on a deeper level.  He put a green one on the end and said, "ABABABC...nope!  C's not correct...that is not a pattern then".  He also discovered he could make a pattern using AAABBBAAABBB.  Again, he put a CC (two greens) in it and explained that it wasn't a pattern because there were only two greens and not three.  What a good little math student!

Episode 13: Valentines' Day Love!

We've been doing Valentines' activities all month.  Sam has been working on colors and shapes and Max has been working on reading names and patterns.  Here is what we've been up to and how we spent our Valentines' Day!

Emily is wondering if she'll get chocolates and roses.

 So she decided to roll over!



 How did this happen, she wondered!

 The boys and I worked hard to make daddy a special Valentines' Day meal of homemade soup, grilled cheese sandwiches (the first food I cooked for Paul :), green beans, and blueberries :)

 Max snapping the green beans.

 Max helped to set the table.

 Max was so excited for daddy to come home!

 Sam helped make all the grilled cheese sandwiches.

Episode 12: Styrofoam is not an appropriate toy

So it finally has hit us.  I've waited years for this phenomenon....the chance to make Valentines for Max's class!!  Pinterest came to my rescue for some cute ideas and we took Max's photo, made a card, wrote a cute saying about bubbles, attached the bubbles and sent him to school.  He didn't really get it at first as he originally thought he got to keep all the bubbles.  However he came home from school with giggles, smiles, and excitement as he recapped the events of his first Valentines Day Party.  How exciting!

Tomorrow I will recap all our Valentines events as I need more photos as supporting evidence so this post will just be a quick recap of the missing blog days of this week.

On Tuesday, Emerson came over to play with Sam.  Sam can now say Emerson and its so cute.  At dinner when we were reading our "conversation hearts", I asked Sam who his friends were and he replied, "Emerson!"  On Tuesday afternoon we had Max's school conference.  We left feeling so proud of him as he received glowing remarks from the teachers.  We had a quick supper at Pizza Ranch.  Then Sam, Emily, and I went to zoo tunes and Max and Paul went to basketball.  Emily was quite fussy on Tuesday but she loved the music class and activity!  Sam just adores the zoo music class and had a smile on his face the entire time.  Max loves going to basketball with Paul and bounces as much as the basketball up and down the court :)

On Wednesday, we went to Graham's house in the morning and had a fabulous time playing with his trucks and balls.  Tiffany introduced us to the Wii game Just Dance and I immediately saw the value of purchasing it for the boys for V-day.  It is an awesome workout and GREAT way to get out energy and exercise during the winter.  Here's what we did in the afternoon:

Emily took a 3 hour nap!

 

Max and I made his Valentines.  He wrote his name 25 times!!

 The end result...the white text says "I'm bubbling with excitement that you are my friend!"

 We played outside!  The sun felt amazing and we soaked it up!  Look...no jackets!

 Sam played with the red ball.

 Max played with the digger in the ice and water....so much fun!

 Sam played with the green ball!

 Max played with the dump truck.

 Max was swinging on the rope and swung into the wooden playground which led to lots of tears and our time outside ending.  We made cocktails (juice and ginger ale) and felt much better!

 

 Pop!  Pop!  More pop please!

 Max LOVES cardboard boxes and wanted to build a parking garage.  I thought it'd be a great idea to bring in styrofoam and build ramps.  It was!  Until the boys decided to break it all apart into tiny messy pieces all over.  Sam literally would take bites out of it and chew it.  Oh...this mama was not pleased!  It took forever to clean it all up!

Emily woke up and said, "sheesh, mom, really?  You gave the boys styrofoam?"



Episode 11: Dentist, Bats, and Princesses

All three children are awake so this will be short :)  Today started off with an early morning dentist appointment for me.  I used to hate the dentist.  I can't say I enjoy dental work but it is incredibly relaxing watching TV, listening to pleasant conversation, and just laying in a chair for an hour!  Good way to start a Monday.

(Chips, chips, chips.....that's Sammy's two cents for the day)

We played the rest of the morning.  While reading a book about bats, Max observed a bat eating an insect.  Max said, "Awww, that looks like a princess."

Hmmmm.

I didn't see it and realized that we are quite boy at our house.  When I questioned him how the bat looked like a princess he said it was because they both have faces.  Yes, that is true!

The boys and I did sit down and have a talk about rules today.  Sam is entering his Terrific Testy Twos and Max has slipped up a bit with behavior.  So we went to a no nonsense behavior policy today.  Here are our rules.

No Hitting.
No Kicking.
No Screaming or yelling.
No telling mom or dad no.

All these behaviors end automatically in their rooms...Max in his room and Sam in his crib.

I also added that if Max gets too crazy and silly and has had a warning, he must have 10 minutes of quiet down time in his room.

This is great for me because I'm getting awesome workouts going up and down the stairs.  The kids just respond so well to such clear and consistent discipline.

(Milk, milk, milk...that's Emily)...time to go!

Episode 10: A quiet day

Today has been a very quiet and uneventful day.  Max had preschool this morning and Sam, Emily, and I came home to play.  Emily played for a long time on her play mat and Sam and I read books, played ball, and did the dishes.  We picked up Max from preschool and came home for lunch, more books, and rest time.  It's nice to have a quiet day and accomplish a few things around the house!

I'll take advantage of this quiet day to update on what everybody is up to:

Emily (2 1/2 months):
*Loves playing on her play mat
*Grabs objects
*Prefers quiet and cries during loud and chaotic times - startles easily (sorry sister, you're just going to have to get used to it!)
*Gives huge smiles
*Taking 3 hour naps during the day!
*Coos and is very conversational
*Settling down around 9 p.m. (THANK YOU!)
*Working on....sleeping on back, tummy time, sitting in Bumbo (she is not a fan on the floor)

Sam (21 months):
*Can count to 20 (I know!  We were surprised to!)
*Is singing songs (Twinkle, Twinkle, ABC's, Row Row)
*Loves, loves, loves to play ball
*Starting to mimc Max's meltdowns (ick)
*Sits on quiet step for a minute when not listening
*Starting to test more boundaries and tell mommy "no!"
*Loves to read books - he usually is persistant and has one book in mind but will pull all the books off the book shelf to find it
*Loves his daddy!
*Only 1 year old that can say "tarantula" and "Perry the Platypus"
*Working on....no pacis during the day, not screaming at meal times, sharing with Max

Max (4 1/2):
*Loves dramatic music
*Favorite game to play is Perry the Platypus
*More interested in reading books
*Wants to learn to read
*Loves doing projects that are self-led (his idea, not mine)
*Plays fierce cars
*Is starting to add in head (He took 5 bites of hotdog and I told him to take 5 more...without counting he said, "Mom, that would be 10 total bites!")
*Working on:  Quiet voices, not saying "no" to mom or dad, following directions first time, writing "Maxwell"

One of my favorite things is seeing Max and Sam's friendship blossom.  They are starting to play interactively now.  Sam likes to play fierce cars and follows Max's lead :)  They also love to stand by the windows and say "Ready, set, go!" and run together into the couch.  Sam follows Max when they play Perry the Platypus and they go through tunnels and pipes together. 

Emily's awake...there's my cue!!