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Today we did our part to stimulate the economy and bought a new bedroom set for the twins. Wyatt will actually be using the new bedroom set until Jonah and Samuel need to move out of their cribs, so he thinks that the new bedroom set is for him! Shhhhh don't tell him that it's actually for his brothers! We got the bunk bed with underbed storage drawers, the long dresser (but didn't get the mirror that came with it), and a nightstand (in black in the picture) in the toffee color! It will be delivered on February 17...hopefully before our other delivery arrives!!!!!p.s.Despite the fact that it looks like Wyatt dressed himself, John actually picked out this outfit for Wyatt this morning!
I bought the boys some new trucks this morning to combat the cabin fever that we have going on here. It worked and the boys played happily without assistance from Mom all day! Yipee!!!!
The talking is going to send me over the edge. Between Wyatt and Sammy I can barely finish a thought. They NEVER stop talking! My Grandma would have LOVED these two boys! Jonah is far more reserved...a lot more like his Daddy. I must have said "Please stop talking" 300 times today. At one point Wyatt said "Mom, I can't stop talking!" That's what I was thinking too!
The snow has arrived. First it rained today and then it snowed. The roads were fine this morning but by dinnertime the snow had hit and driving was tricky! I watched the news tonight and Wyatt's school is on a two hour delay for tomorrow! That means that I am supposed to bring him to preschool at 11am. He is usually in bed for a nap by 11:30am so I don't think that school will work out for tomorrow. Can you imagine a classroom full of 13 three year old's that have all missed their naps? Wyatt's poor teacher would have to come to school wearing football pads and a helmet to keep up with that kind of chaos! John thinks that I should take him anyways, but it would mess up Jonah and Sammy's schedule too. They wouldn't be able to nap on time because I would have to leave to pick Wyatt up again at 12:30pm! I don't know how working parents do it?!?! Our school district has already had at least 3 two hour delays and at least 2 cancellations this year already. That is a full work week to miss. If you only have 2 weeks of vacation, you have used half of it within 30 days of the beginning of the year....yikes!!!! Since the local schools were closed, I called the little boy across the street who is in 7th grade this afternoon and offered to pay him to shovel our driveway. I thought that it would be nice for John to have it cleared off by the time that he got home and I didn't think that I should be shoveling while pregnant. His Mom told me that she was having a hard time even getting him to shovel her driveway and that he probably wasn't up for doing ours! She said that it was cold and wet outside! I told John the story when he got home and we both laughed because the way we figure it, we will only have to do our own shoveling for about 4 or 5 more years and then our team of shovelers will be able to take over. And, for the record they WILL be shoveling our neighbors driveways even if they don't get paid.....especially when it is cold and wet!!!! Why else would we have 4 boys.....for the yard work and snow removal perks DUH???!!????!!!
The kids LOVE taking a bath together in the big tub! It looks like there is still room for one more kid in there too!
Wyatt came into our room this morning to deliver his normal morning wake up call which can be summed up mostly as incessant non-stop chatter. Usually one of us gets up with him and starts breakfast. Our mistake this morning was that we both fell back asleep for about 15 minutes after the wake up call. When I opened my eyes 15 minutes later I noticed something smeared all over the sheets next to my head. Then I heard John freaking out because Wyatt was COVERED in make up. He used up my entire purple eye shadow on his face! It was on the rugs in the bathroom, the tile floor, the bed sheets on my side of the bed (he must have come over to show me and I didn't open my eyes), and the carpeting in our bedroom. It was like a purple make up bomb went off in our bedroom. After washing the rugs, tile floor, carpeting in our bedroom, and going to the store to buy new eye shadow, I don't think that the extra 15 minutes of sleep was worth it!
Tonight we ordered a 14 inch and a 10 inch pizza for dinner. There are only 2 pieces left for lunch tomorrow. Maybe next time we should order 2-14 inch pizzas if we plan on leftovers!
It was warm enough today to take the kids to the park this afternoon. They still had to wear boots because there was still some snow and mud on the ground, but it was nice to let them blow off some steam for a change. It sounds like it is going to get cold again so that won't happen again for a while.
My little Jonah has taken it upon himself to find any pop-up books that we own and RIP all of the pop-up's off. He destroyed 3 books yesterday! It's a good thing that I wasn't a librarian in a past life or else he would be roaming the streets by now!
*I ended up giving Jonah the same haircut as Wyatt and Sammy. It is a little hard to get used to on him because it makes him look younger, but I notice his eyes more. I am not sure that it is the right cut for Jonah since his hairline is so far back compared to the other two boys?
*The bunk bed set that we like was discontinued and the sales guy called and said that he can't order it for us, so we are back to the drawing board. John keeps telling me that he can make them a bedroom set himself. Apparently he sees himself as an Amish Gepetto!
*I have to come up with something for Wyatt to bring to show and tell on Thursday. It's turning out to be harder than I thought!
*Wyatt watched his first presidential inauguration tonight! He wasn't really into it, but John and I thought that it was amazing! I was in love with the Itzhak Perlman-Yo Yo Ma performance. I wonder what a wind chill of 14 degrees does to a Stradivarius violin?
*I had parent-teacher conferences with Wyatt's preschool teacher on Monday night. She thinks that he is really quiet and reserved! I double checked and yes, we were talking about the same kid!
*I cleaned out the closet in the spare bedroom to make room for Baby #4 and gathered about 10 boxes worth of stuff to take to the Goodwill donation center. Amish Gepetto-the pack rat seriously went through every box to make sure that I wasn't getting rid of "good stuff"!
This past weekend I made the kids french toast for dinner. I haven't made french toast for them in a while because of Jonah's allergy to maple syrup but it is one of their favorite meals. John and I are pretty convinced that it was one of the preservatives in the syrup that caused Jonah's allergy, so I decided to look up some homemade syrup recipes on the internet and make it myself. I looked up homemade syrup and the first recipe that came up was on a Michigan State University website so I figured that was the one. I made it and it was AMAZING. It was super easy and the kids loved it so much that after eating 6 pieces of french toast (2 per kid) I had to make pancakes too! I am definitely going to make it again. This is the recipe:
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup water
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
Boil until mixture becomes thick (3-5 minutes)
Simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes.
We spent the weekend attempting to get organized before Baby #4 moves in. On Saturday morning we drove to a furniture store in Ohio that has over 80,000 feet of furniture showroom to check out bunk beds. Our plan is to buy a twin over twin bunk bed, dresser, and nightstand for Jonah and Samuel. We will set up the bottom bunk, dresser, and nightstand in Wyatt's room and move Wyatt's crib and dresser into baby #4 room. Then when the twins are ready for big beds we can set up the bunk set as two twin beds, dresser, and nightstand in their room. We can then convert Wyatt's crib into the full bed and move his dresser back into his room, and then we will have to buy a bedroom set for Baby #4. It will be like musical bedrooms for a while and I might have to draw a flow chart just to remember what and who goes where, but in the end everyone should have a bedroom, bed, and dresser. We found something that we like, but it is discontinued so we are waiting for the sales guy to call us back and let us know if the set is still available. This link isn't the exact set, but it is pretty close to what we like.http://www.sheelys.com/showcaselist.php?item_id=250387&page=48&list_page=2&pagesize=27&columns=3&query_style=showcaselist&type_id=188
What a face!!!!
Everybody is sick again. John is still on antibiotics from illness #577 so he escaped this latest germ fest, but the rest of us are bonding while we sit on mountains of blankets on the couch catching snot with our tongues. Good times!
This morning Wyatt's preschool teacher told me that she was concerned about something. I was dreading what I thought she might be concerned about....hitting, not listening, throwing, or maybe even something worse that I haven't even thought of yet. Nope, she said that Wyatt has been getting completely naked to go pee at school. He takes off his shoes, socks, pants, underwear and shirt to pee standing up. She wanted to know if that was how he peed at home. I said that I thought he must be trying something new because he doesn't do that at home. He does, however, do a lot of experimenting with positions for peeing and pooping though so I am not totally surprised. His teacher hasn't even seen a glimpse of the real Wyatt yet, so she thought that this unconventional display was totally out of character for him and was surprised. How I wish that I could be surprised by my three-year-old's antics....but I have been trained to expect the unexpected! Speaking of which, Jonah has become a biter! He took a big bite out of Sammy today for stealing his blanket. I can't say that i am surprised about that one either. I am just hoping that they reserve their biting for siblings only and not other unsuspecting children who happen to touch the wrong thing! Do you think that I could pay someone to pretend to be me when they are old enough to have parent-teacher conferences because I think that I would honestly rather not know!!!
My kids love Keith and he is great with them! He is the person that we will call if baby #4 decides to make an early appearance and he is ready and willing to watch all three boys for as long as we need. I can't imagine having the courage to do that!
Check out this link to a bunk bed that I found that sleeps three kids! How chaotic would that be at night????? But, we would still have a spare room........
http://www.simplybunkbeds.com/loft-beds/wood-loft-beds/austintribunkbed.cfm
I used to use our double side-by-side stroller ALL THE TIME! Lately I use the front back double stroller. This week I saw the side-by-side stroller in the garage and thought to myself "I wonder why I never use that anymore?". It is so light and compact and the boys look so cute sitting next to each other in it. So this morning when I left with Jonah and Samuel (Wyatt was at school) to go to my OB appointment, I packed up my side-by-side double stroller and left. I got called back to my appointment room, parked the stroller, and jumped up on the table. When the doctor came in she immediately started talking about how cute Jonah and Samuel were and how they looked so different and her twin girls were completely different looking too and how nice it was for my boys to have their own identity, etc. Meanwhile, the boys sat there listening with big sweet innocent smiles on their faces and I thought "yes, you are right, they are cute". Then, the doctor started talking to me about me and the pregnancy. That's when the boys decided that it was time to start some serious cage fighting. Jonah slapped Sammy across the face. then Sammy bit him, so Jonah started pulling his hair, and Sammy bit him some more, and they both started yelling "No" at each other, followed by more hitting, hair pulling, and biting, and the doctor and I stopped talking and just stared at them. I couldn't think of anything to say other than "Yeah, so they just turned two last week" and she said "Uh huh, I remember age two". That's when I remembered why I quit using the double side-by-side stroller.....THE FIGHTING!!!!!!
Remember the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray keeps reliving the same day over and over again? That was my day today with the poop incident from yesterday...except that instead of a pile of books, the boys branched out and poop was spread on every chair and much of the floor! I can't wait to see where they put their poop tomorrow!
This morning I got up with the boys, fed everyone breakfast, got everyone dressed, and took Wyatt to preschool. On the way home from preschool, Jonah and Sam took off their shoes and socks and put their socks on their hands like sock puppets! So glad that I wasted my time putting them on! When we got home, I locked the twins in the playroom while I went to take a quick shower. I was done in about 15 minutes and when I came down Jonah and Samuel had BOTH taken their pants and diapers off and pooped on a pile of books in the middle of the playroom. I am starting to realize that, despite the challenges, age three is actually a lot better than age two....especially times two!
John enjoyed a great birthday today! The kids picked out some gifts, decorated the house, and made cards for him, but I think that his favorite present today was from Keith. Keith babysat for the kids so that John and I could go out for a QUIET dinner at a nice restaurant by ourselves! That's what I want for my birthday too!
Every night the boys pick out books to read before bed. Last night Wyatt brought me the Children's Bible off the book shelf for me to read. I told him that I would only read a little bit of it since it is rather long (which is why he probably picked it in the first place... to stay up as long as possible). I opened up to the story of Moses and started reading about how Moses was placed in a basket and floated down the river which fascinated the kids. Then the picture on the next page was of Moses all grown up with a white beard parting the Red Sea and before I could say anything, Wyatt exclaimed "Mom, look there's Santa Clause!" Yup, I still have some work to do on that story.
Here are the official two year pictures!
Two, Two-year-olds are a lot of work! Don't let anyone fool you! It was melt down city at our house all day today. It probably doesn't help that everyone is sick again. Fevers and colds this time, plus John and I were infected by the little germ factories, so we have been sick too! I forgot what it is like to be healthy and breathe out my nose!
In between wiping noses, John and I have been trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for baby #4 since he is due in 6 weeks or so. Everybody still sleeps in a crib right now. Of course Wyatt can climb out of his crib, so we converted his bed to a semi-toddler bed a while ago. Wyatt's bed is a beautiful Amish-made set and converts to a full bed too! The twins cribs are not convertable and we have always assumed that we would buy them a bunk set when they are in big beds. Yesterday we got a Pottery Barn Kids catalog in the mail and I noticed that they carry a lot of bunk beds for kids. Twin over twin, twin over full, twin perpendicular over twin, and twin perpendicular over full. They had some beautiful bedroom sets for bunks! We were getting excited! Then we started looking at the prices....the most inexpensive bunk bed set (without any other furniture included) was $1500!!!!!! After John stopped convulsing, he decided that he should start building the boys a bedroom set (you know, in his spare time) so that they have somewhere to sleep after they learn to crawl out of their cribs! It may take him a couple of years, but I won't mind after I am carted off to the loony bin. Actually maybe Jonah and Sammy will stay in their cribs if they realize that Daddy doesn't have their next beds built yet! I could say "you better get back in your crib otherwise you will have to sleep on the floor. Daddy hasn't finished your bed yet!" So, this is where we are at.....Wyatt is in a semi-toddler bed, the twins are in cribs (soon to be the floor), and the new baby will be sleeping on the couch, or maybe the recliner if he wants. Everything seems to be falling right into place!
Tomorrow I will post Jonah and Sam's official two year pictures!
It's hard to believe that it has already been two whole years since we met Jonah and Samuel for the first time! I remember crying when we loaded the boys into their carseats for the ride home from the hospital since it was the first time that I had seen them together. Sammy was placed in the NICU immediately after birth and Jonah was my roommate. The hospital didn't allow us to take Jonah down to the NICU when we went to visit Sammy. So, seeing my two boys together for the first time side by side in their carseats was amazing! At two years old, the boys still share a bedroom and will not fall asleep without the other in the room. They are great friends, but very different little people! Jonah loves to cuddle and be held. He is very serious and it takes a lot to get him to laugh and be goofy. Jonah is convinced that he is three years old and is completly determined to do everything that Wyatt does. Jonah is technogically gifted like Wyatt and seems to gravitate toward toys and objects that require technical skills. He is more of a whiner than a talker, but has a mild temper compared to his brothers! He has always been smaller than Sammy, but he loves to eat food! Samuel is a social butterfly. He loves to talk and has a big vocabulary for a little guy to go with his big set of lungs! He loves to be the center of attention and acts silly and laughs at everything. Sammy is not motivated by peer pressure and is not competitive by nature, but when he gets his mind made up he wins every argument with his brothers using his size, his teeth, or his booming voice! I am so happy that our boys have developed into distinct individuals with their own personalities and can't wait to see how they change in the next year. Two years later my boys still amaze me! Happy 2nd birthday Jonah and Samuel!
