3 Kid Photos = Disaster

Trying to get a photo of all 3 of my kids is a debacle waiting to happen.  There is probably only one that is usable and still not one I love.  Sigh.  Typical kids.

Oh Caroline...this one was ALMOST it!!!

Squeeze her too tight....

get hit by the butterfly net!!!!

And it has degraded to tears....

Grandparents Return = Kids Crazy

My parents were in NOLA for all of last week and returned on Saturday afternoon.  The kids missed them SO much.  So much.  Bryce cried the  night before they left and sent my mom emails the whole time she was gone saying how much he missed her.  All week Bryce and Piper kept asking when they were coming back. (Caroline didn't need to ask since she knew it was Saturday.)  All day Saturday, Bryce kept asking what time they were getting back.  It was a little annoying.  Finally, the time came for me to drive down to BWI and get them so Bryce and Piper came along.  We pulled up to baggage claim and waited (my dad texted they were waiting for their bags) and so began the constant "worry" by Bryce and Piper that they wouldn't find us.  At last they appeared and the kids were SOOOOO happy.  Lots of hugs and kisses and we drove home.

However, upon arriving home the kids became lunatics.  They were so happy to have my parents home and so happy for the little gifts my mom brought them.  My mom brought a red boa back to Piper and based on the feathers around the house you'd think that a dead chicken was molting - they are EVERYWHERE.  (Piper loved it and said she felt so pretty in it.)

And while I wouldn't say that the kids were calm while my parents were gone, they were definitely way more amped up upon their return - especially Bryce and Piper.  They were running around like maniacs, fighting more, yelling more and getting into everything.  I could tell it was getting to my mom by Sunday morning.  (As you would expect it to!)  And then to add to it, Sunday evening we were celebrating my mom's birthday so my siblings and their loves were coming over which is another reason to make my kids act like idiots.

We sat down to dinner and they could not sit in their chairs.  They barely ate and before we knew it the younger two were crawling around on the floor and under the table acting like animals.  (Literally)  Clearly, Jason and I had had it.  I commented to my mom that while it was certainly not my parents' fault, their arrival home had resulted in the kids being poorly behaved and then add the excitement of my brother coming over (OMG, they LOVE him) and you have a perfect storm.

My mom's comment?  "Do you think it has something to do with them just feeling completely happy and loved?"

At first I thought no, they are just being jerks.  But then I really thought about it and I think she was right.  They were SO happy to have my parents home and then were SO happy to have my siblings over - they were just doing their own version of celebrating.  Exhausting, but true.  Thankfully, the night ended well and we got the kids settled into bed.  Here's hoping getting them back into a normal week will help.  But you know what would really help?  Spring.  Yeah.  Spring.  Please?

I can't believe how cold it has been for early March and now they are calling for a dump of snow on Wednesday.  Ugh.  Please let that be winter's final curtain call.  My kids need to get out of the house and RUN and BIKE and SCOOT.  I'm thinking a lot of this energy has been a result of cabin fever too.  Piper went outside for a little bit yesterday and then came back in complaining it was too cold and I totally agreed.

I'm just ready for spring.  I'm ready for warm weather and sunshine.  I'm ready to get into our new house.  I'm ready.  Winter can be done and behind us.

Chef Caroline

That's my new name for Caroline - The Chef.  Not because she's in the kitchen cooking, oh no.  She's busy cooking up schemes, big ideas, and all kinds of imaginative play scenarios to rope her brother and sister into a frenzy.  Tonight, she had the bright idea after their baths to stay in their hoodie towels and pretend.  They ran around like crazy people and it was so funny to see Bryce and Piper get totally into her game.  She does this all the time and often the ideas are half baked but they don't care, if Caroline came up with it, it's a GREAT idea!  Piper has the most gusto most times as she never wants to be left out of anything that her big sister and brother are doing.

It reminded me of something....me!  As a kid, that was my role - the leader.  I came up with more cockamamie ideas for things to do than you can shake a stick at and until my siblings got older, for the most part they played along.  Often they'd be more spirited about it than I was, just like Bryce and Piper now.  It's amazing to see the dynamics of the oldest sibling versus the younger set.  To them, she is brilliant and comes up with the best ideas - I often wonder if my siblings thought the same of me.

Often, Jason and I will sit and watch their antics and think "that doesn't look fun at all."  But clearly, Caroline has tapped into what 5 and 2 year olds like because she's able to capture their attention more often than not.  And most times though, it ends up involving quite a mess.  A mess that NO sibling wants to clean up when all is said and done.  I remember dreading clean up as a kid too.  I wish she could get as enthusiastic about clean up as she does about set up - now that's a game I'd like to see Bryce and Piper play along with!

Hanging Out

Told you they like to watch TV in our bedroom....


We try to keep the remote stashed up high but sometimes we forget - little buggers are opportunists.

Summoning Summer

The kids playing "beach" this morning. Bryce and Piper in makeshift bathing suits and Caroline in her real suit that she found somewhere in her room.

New Hang Out Zone

The kids have claimed another area of the house for their personal hanging out - our bedroom.  sigh  Generally they have never messed with our room too much because there wasn't anything to do in there.  And while they all 3 have enjoyed grabbing the remote off our headboard and playing with it since they were babies, they would only do it when they would climb up into bed with us.  But now, they have figured out how to use the remote in our room and know specific channels they like to watch.  Their favorite?  Channel 44 which is Nickelodeon.  Not my favorite AT ALL.  In fact, for the most part, I despise Nickelodeon.  Two reasons, ICarly and Sponge Bob.  Ick.  ICarly isn't a terrible show but Caroline has seen a few episodes of it and liked it but I think it's too grown up for her.  Plus, it's on Nick a lot!  But even more detested than ICarly is Sponge Bob.  Ugh, I hate that show.  It is obnoxious, loud, and annoying.  Did I mention obnoxious?  When it is on, I am instantly in a bad mood and want nothing more than to turn it off.  I don't know why the kids think it's so funny because it most definitely IS NOT.

I also hate all the commercials on Nickelodeon.  A constant barrage of suggestive advertising aimed at making my kids think they need EVERYTHING they see.  Another reason to limit good old Nick - even though I did watch a decent amount of that station when I was a kid too. (Um, You Can't Do That on Television anyone???)

Generally, I prefer the programming on Disney, Nick Jr (formerly Noggin), and PBS.  I'll take Hannah Montana/Jonas any day over ICarly/SpongeBob.  Caroline doesn't even watch either Hannah or Jonas that much anymore and their storylines are less sophisticated than ICarly's even though I'm not in love with either of them either.  I realize that I can't expect them to watch the G rated channels forever, especially when Caroline tells me "all" the kids in her class watch Sponge Bob and ICarly.  But she's still only 6 and in kindergarten so I still can put the kibosh on it.

The other issue with them hanging out and channel surfing is that the TV in our bedroom is pretty old and isn't fitted with the good old V chip that would enable me to block any innapropriate channels.  Granted we don't get any premium channels on that TV, but still a few minutes watching E! might not be the best thing.  Last night Caroline was flipping channels while Jason and I were sitting there and she paused on a ghost hunter show which I made her change quickly and then on some nature man show were we watched a guy pick up a water snake, pull off its head and promptly take a big bite out of it (for real!).  I think that thoroughly grossed her out and she flipped it back to good old safe, 43 (Disney).  I don't worry about the TV downstairs where we do get HBO/Showtime because the remote is still pretty complicated to them and we are generally right there when it's on.  Plus, when the time comes we'll block anything we don't want them to watch.

I had to laugh this morning when she was flipping and turned on 44 expecting to see SpongeBob and instead found Nick at Nite playing "Family Matters" complete with a Steve Urkel scene.  She was interested and I told her how my brother used to do a decent Urkel impression back in the old days.  (Kevin, be warned, this might be requested at our next get together.)  

Oh and I also don't like the TV watching in my bedroom because they all get up on my bed and that includes Piper who thinks it's more fun to roll around, run, and slide off the bed - definitely not safe.

No Pants Sunday Morning

For some reason, the kids decided that the coffee table being pulled back meant that the family room was a play room today. C and B took their pants off because they were going to get hot running around and guess who took her pants off too. C and B rolled their sleeves up, guess who came running to me for help with pushing her sleeves up? They're still in there singing, running, and rolling around. Happy Sunday!

Harmony

I've always wanted all 3 kids to sit at the cute little table in the playroom and color. I even rearranged it a little over a month ago almost specifically for the purpose of allowing 3 chairs at the table. But so far, it hadn't happened because having all 3 of them want to color at the same time is rare.

Yesterday, the stars aligned and all 3 sat down to color. Caroline and Bryce shared their coloring devices with Piper and everyone was happy for about 10 minutes until Piper got bored, tried coloring on the wall, fell under the table, pulled Caroline's drawing off with her, and Caroline started yelling. Sigh. At least I got this photo to prove it happened.

Hey Honey

This is what I walked into this morning at 6:45am after getting my shower and getting dressed:


I heard Piper fussing right before I got into the shower but knew she would be okay until I got out but while I was in the shower, I heard a thump which told me someone was in the crib with her. That's not such an unfamiliar occurrence at our house but this morning they were in the midst of some imaginary play since they had a blanket, a pillow and a few stuffed animal friends in with them.

Caroline and Bryce were the parents and Piper was just one of their children that they were taking care of. Apparently Knuffle Bunny baby was the whiny baby and Caroline told me that it was tough taking care of SO many babies, especially one that was whiny.

I got Piper changed and we all went downstairs. They were really into their game because they didn't even ask for breakfast or drinks, which is unusual. So while Piper sat with me and had some nibbles, the big kids continued their game. The funniest moment was when Bryce kept talking to Caroline and saying, "Hey, honey." or "Oh honey!" It really made me smile because Jason and I don't use that term of endearment so I'm not sure where he heard it. I especially liked when he said, "Hey honey, I gotta go to work. I'm gonna take the keys and drive the baby."

Caroline also told me that she was a mom that was staying home with her babies until they turned 1 and then she was going back to work. sigh I wish I'd been able to do that. Canada, anyone? She also told me that her husband needed to follow her around a lot because the baby was so whiny and she needed his help.

The Good Stuff Around My House

Amidst the end of winter/early spring blahs, there is a lot of stuff going on in my house if you stop and really take notice.

Caroline - Current Obssession - Loose Teeth

A couple of kids at school are starting to lose teeth which has set off the "loose tooth alert" in Caroline. She is constantly putting her fingers on her teeth and attempting to wiggle them. Usually, she thinks they are wiggly because her finger moves on them and when I touch them and tell her they aren't loose, she's a little sad. But, this past weekend we had dental checkups at which point she talked the hygenist's ear off on an array of topics including the loose tooth watch. Well, the hygenist gave them all a look and said that one of her bottom baby teeth is starting the process of loosening. And then she told me (kind of aside) that it would still be a while before it fell out. Of course, this made Caroline ecstatic and she could not wait to get to school on Monday to tell everyone about this loosening tooth. She shows me every chance she gets how it's loose although it's still not loose enough for me to notice. She's also told me that MeeMaw (my paternal grandmother) is making her a tooth pillow just like I had. (It's a pillow in the shape of a tooth that has a pocket for the tooth on the back - makes it much easier on the tooth fairy!) I lost my first tooth sometime in the spring after my 6th birthday so we'll see if Caroline keeps up being like me since she didn't get her first tooth until later too - almost 10 months old!

Her other interest lately is in reading and she has come home from school so proud of the reading she is doing. She is absolutely hungry to read and memorizes everything she can so that she can say she's reading. Another funny thing she's been doing lately is memorizing other kids' addresses. They practice their home address/phone number a lot in school and Miss Caroline has taken to memorizing where other kids live too along with knowing all their parents' names too. She thinks it's hilarious to tell me where certain kids live and I'm shocked that she's usually right.

Oh and Caroline is also very interested lately in wearing summer clothes. She comes home, takes off her regular clothes and puts on any shorts or t-shirt that she can find. I think she's ready for some summery weather.

Bryce - Current Obsession - Letters and What Words Start With

Someone, save me please! While this new interest is a great one and very reflective of Bryce's intelligence and curiousity for learning, it's driving us a little batty. But, we continue to indulge him and play along because it's the alphabet for pete's sake! So how does this go around our house??? Well here's a sample script:

Bryce: Mommy, what does juice start with?

Me or Jay: What do you think, Bryce?

Bryce: (makes j sound) J! Juice starts with J!!!!

Me or Jay: That's right Bryce, very good!

Bryce: Mommy, what does bowl start with?

Me or Jay: What do you think, Bryce?

Bryce: (makes B sound) B! Bowl starts with B!!!!

And on and on and on. It's funny because he asks but if you ask him, he knows. Obviously he has trouble with discerning C and K and other "harder" words, but boy is he working hard on this. And of course, when he starts up with it, Caroline always joins in so that she'll get some attention for her smarts as well.

Bryce is also really working on getting himself compltely dressed/undressed on his own and combing his own hair too - he's a developmental fest over in these parts!

Piper - Current Obsession - Crawling and Pulling Up

Yes, she mastered crawling about a month ago, but man oh man, is this little girl on the go. She seems to be EVERYWHERE all at once and is pulling up on anything she can get her hands on. Bathtime, while fun for splashing and laughing, is a bit perilous since she's always trying to stand up. Not exactly safe! She loves to get herself standing up and then to yell or laugh at you. She thinks she's very talented.

She's also been entertaining us with the beginnings of clapping and her response to "How big is Piper?" (Sooooooooo big - with both hands over her head!) And lest we forget how much this baby bird likes to eat - that little mouth pops for another bite before you can even get the spoon back to the bowl to load it up again. She's totally loving Gerber Puffs, Wagon Wheels, and Cheerios too. Last night she even ate her first table food - banana! Overall, she is such a happy and easy baby - we all just love her to pieces. She's just so social and her brother and sister cannot get enough of her either. Piper was definitely the addition to our family we needed. What a sweet baby!

So that's what's been going on around here - busy, noisy, fun.

Just Cute

I think this will be one of those photos I look at in 20 years and just sigh over because I miss them being so little and cute.


We were home on Friday (between fevers) and Piper woke up from her morning nap. I asked Caroline to go up and "check on her" to keep her happy until I came up. I knew something was going on because of all the giggles.

Piper's Monkey Checkup

Caroline and Bryce were pretending to be vets this morning and were taking care of all their stuffed animals. So that I could play along while I took care of Piper, I told them to pretend that Piper was a baby monkey. Of course that meant she needed a checkup, so here are a few photos of that. I love that all 3 of them were playing together!




It was a really nice Sunday morning - the big kids were up around 7am and they went downstairs and something made them decide to clean up the very messy playroom! Then, the rest of the morning they played VERY happily together. No fighting or bickering, just lots of imagination. True sweethearts!

So Gentle

Based on this photo, you'd think they were so gentle with their little sister, wouldn't you?


But, they're not. Usually someone is pushing on her head, trying to lay on her, or putting their fingers in her eyes or mouth. But I'm sure when I'm old and gray, this photo will be how I remember the kids with their baby sister. (Or at least I hope I do.)

Oh and it's important to note that the kids have pretty much given up calling Piper "Baby Sister" (or "Baby Tister" to Bryce). After referring to her as that since February, I guess it was kind of a hard habit to break, but I just noticed the other day that they consistently use her name now when talking to and about her. Although Caroline has already assigned a nickname to her - "Pipes." And the last time she did that ("Brycey"), it stuck. Hmmm...

3 Kids in a Bed

This is what happens when all 3 kids end up in bed together. Chaos and cuteness, all rolled into one: And here's a cute one of Piper - she accepted a pacifier for a few minutes. Usually you put it in her mouth and she just gags on it. If she's not going to take a pacifier, I hope she'll find her thumb soon - I need a self soothing baby!

Dirt Ball No More

Well, not exactly a dirt ball, but her hair was looking a little greasy. Probably from the grubby hands of older siblings always patting it. But Miss Piper did have her first bath last night. Her cord fell off on Thursday night and I hadn't planned on giving her one right away, but Caroline was just obsessed with it happening last night. So much so that she went in and woke Piper up while she was sleeping in her swing. Poor baby! But I'm sure she'll get used to all the meddling on her behalf by her older siblings. We got the little tub set up on the vanity in the kids' bathroom and the kids were ready to watch and eager to help. But I'm sure you all know that bathing a very slippery little baby isn't exactly something you do slowly or with little helpers, so they just watched, asked a lot of questions, and tried to stay out of the way. You can see from this scene that they had a front row seat. At first, Piper didn't seem to mind and maybe even liked the nice warm water, but as soon as I washed her hair, she got MAD. So I hurried up and Jason came to rescue with her towel and took her into get dressed. True to form, as he was getting ready to put her diaper on, she peed. Jason changes her much less than I do and he has been peed on 3 times - I've only gotten it once. Clearly, she holds out for daddy. When all was said and done and her diaper and PJs were on, she calmed down and let me take a picture of her big sister and brother holding her. A first of many photos where I know at least one of them will be looking goofy. Piper wins the award for this one. But we'll forgive her. I'm just happy to see such genuine smiles on both Caroline and Bryce's face. It won't be long before I'm logging that we've seen Piper's first smile. Now that is something to blog about!