Our new bed

2010 and my ability to blog have not gone hand in hand. But I'm attempting to get back on track now that it's April? Is it April? Who knows.

Some time back (I could say days, but it probably more like weeks, maybe months), Rob and I gave our bedroom a makeover. We painted walls, trim, and ceiling. I can't even remember where the boys were. I think they stayed overnight with Grammy and Poppy? We bought our first real bed, new rug, nightstands, curtains went up. It is wonderful. So great that all the boys want to do now is wake up at 5:30am and come climb in bed with us. And no, they don't sleep. Or cuddle. Yesterday, Wes started poking at my face (including the requisite "boop" every time he made contact), fighting over which pillow they get, elbowing/kicking/singing. It's all quite sweet. But 5:30am?
Wesley, Winston and Charlie

Family!

Back in mid-March, my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew came up for a visit. It happened to be during the worst weather we've had in years. (I've heard it referred to as the 100 year storm - a storm so bad you see it only once every 100 years. The rain lasted 3 of the 4 days of their visit and flooded most every road to my parents' house, making it nearly impossible to drive out to them to visit. Oh, and did I mention this is when the boys were all drastically sick, so only Wesley could visit with me at first while Win and Charlie recovered.)

Anyhow, despite all of this, it was a wonderful visit. Here were a few pics from our trip to the playground, once the sun came out.
Christian

Alexandra

Grammy, Wes and Charlie

Robots!

While out for a girls night, Rob sent these adorable photos to my phone. He made the boys their own "robot" costumes out of paper bags. The boys LOVED it!
Wes & Win

Charlie

Sneaking Bunny!

Wes' new favorite activity is sneaking into the hall closet (our makeshift pantry) to sneak dry cereal and juice boxes when no one is looking. If he hears my footsteps, he'll even pull the door near closed, with the hopes I won't notice he's in there.

Wes shoveling cereal

Getting caught. The boys have learned to use their adorableness to try to get them out of trouble!

Theta Beta Beta Poll Question

Dear Friends:

We are asking you to weigh in and vote on the toddler quote of the day:

#1 Wes: "Charlie, you get Mommy and I'll get Daddy." (Notes- Mommy and Daddy were both soon tackled while sitting on the floor of the boys' bedroom. If anyone had doubts that one could conspire before the age of legal majority, this should remove them. )

#2 Charlie: "I love scotch!" (Notes- Mommy has resolved never again to take a nap that close to 5:00 pm and Daddy has officially withdrawn his application for Father of the Year, though he continues to protest that Charlie quite slyly dipped his fingers in Daddy's drink while Daddy was not looking.)

#3 Daddy: "Shut up, Charlie." (Notes - spoken about .5 seconds after #2. While Daddy is technically not a toddler, it somehow seems appropriate to include here.)

Long live democracy! We can't wait to see which wins.

Happy Easter

We had a glorious Easter weekend! It began with a beautiful Good Friday service. This service was especially poignant due to the death of our neighbor that same day. I had only met this woman once - she had been housebound since the time we moved in. But I would always see her head in the window, so her presence was known every day, and her husband is a remarkable man who has spent years caring for her. This is the same man, who even in his advanced age, shoveled our driveway when we were away in Virginia, just so we would be able to park the car and carry the boys in. But as we were leaving for the Good Friday service, we saw a hearse pull up in front of their house. Shaken by the reality of death, the service was a beautiful reminder of how Jesus' death (and resurrection) was the greatest gift ever given.

Saturday morning, our neighborhood all gathered for an Easter egg hunt for the kids. The boys had such fun finding the eggs and would stop and eat them along them (great sugar high...). We then headed off to my parents' house. Another beautiful service for Easter morning, followed by another Easter egg hunt. I forgot my camera for all these fun events, but was able to capture a few with my phone.

This is Wes smiling with a mouthful of jelly beans

Win stopping to eat his candy

Hooray!

Charlie with a mouthful of candy

The happy parents

And Julep was there too!

"...so that you will not grow weary and lose heart"

Today I had the joy of attending my weekly Mom to Mom group and hearing Linda Anderson (the founder) speak. Her talk centered around Hebrews 12: 1-3, likening motherhood as a marathon race that God has marked out for us. To get through it and "not grow weary and lose heart", she reminded us to free ourselves from unrealistic fears/worries or fantasies (I will be a joyful mother "as soon as" or "if only"...) and focus our eyes on Jesus. (God uses imperfect people - us - to raise His children).

This talk could not have been more timely. As some of you may know, we transitioned the boys to toddler beds (due to a broken crib tent) in February. These were some of the hardest weeks I've had yet as a parent - this includes when they were newborns and needed to eat every 3 hours!!

Allow me to attempt to describe my misery. I would put the boys down for their nap. Winston (typically the first one out) would hop down, perhaps climb into Wesley's bed, perhaps hide under his crib. Charlie would get down, and sometimes Wesley would as well. They would just play! And sadly, this was often the best playtime of the day. They pulled down the curtains. We literally have a hole in the wall where the curtain rod was once screwed in. I once went in and couldn't find Win and Wes - turned out they were hiding behind the rocking chair. Their favorite things was to all go to Wes' bed and strip off their clothes and wrestle. Wes learned he would get punished if he got out of bed, so he would ask Win and Charlie to come into his bed. Hence, we now call him the Puppet Master.

We tried everything: taking away blankets, giving them books, taking away books, going to bed earlier/later, taking away treats for later (dessert, videos), sitting in the room, moving Win to a pack n play in the guest room (he would just get out and go back to his room)! Nothing could keep them from turning naptime into playtime. The one tactic we settled on is the "silent return" (thank you Supernanny). I would stand outside their room and every time they would get out of bed, I would go in and silently return them to their beds. This would go on constantly for up to 2 hours!! Everyday!! For 3 weeks!! There were days I returned them to bed, I'm not joking, 60 times. Needless to say, I nearly ripped my hair out, discovered I have little patience, pleaded to God for help, called up Rob crying every day. It was awful. No, awful doesn't describe it. I had lost all joy. I was weary and had lost heart.

But right after I had spoken to some friends at church about feeling like I lost all joy, I put the boys down for their nap, preparing for another doozy. And after an hour of the "silent return", I was really losing it again. I was putting Charlie back in his bed and could smell a dirty diaper. As I changed his diaper, he started singing "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart"! We hadn't taught him that song - he must have learned it at church - but instantly my joy returned. God was encouraging me through a 2 and half year old boy!

Then, miraculously, things slowly got better after a few weeks. Sadly, they got better when the boys got sick and had 102 fevers. But I'll take it. Now, we have the occasional horrible nap (often when I put them down too late and they get a second wind.) They tend to stay in their beds until they wake up. And as I type this, I hear little feet shuffling upstairs in the hallway.

But I'll take it...

Ask a stupid question...

So Rob was giving the boys a bath a few days back, and he engaged in the following conversation with Charlie:

Daddy - Charlie, do you love me?

Charlie - No no. I love dumping water in my bucket.

Nice job, Chuckles. Good luck getting the bucket to put money in your college fund.

Sick, sick and more sick

It seems I have only been able to post about once a month. Hopefully that might explain how awful the last 2 months have been. 2010 has brought sickness, a great visit from Poppa, sickness, more sickness, transitioning to toddler beds, and now more sickness.

At the start of February, the boys (one by one) came down with a horrible virus. They had fevers of 102-103 for 4-6 days each, along with an awful cough. It started with Charlie, and I made the mistake of calling the doctor early on and getting the advice to come in if it got worse, for an extended time. And as Charlie started to get better, I figured it was just a bad cold. But it took two weeks for all the boys to get better. I am not exaggerating: we were housebound for 13 DAYS! Awful.

Sick activities? We built a fort out of a parachute, built cars out of cardboard boxes, painted, put stickers everywhere, etc.

We had about 2 weeks that the boys were healthy - and now they are sick again!! All the boys were fighting a cold, but Wesley has had a fever again nearing 103 for 4 days and his barking cough was back, so off we went to the doctor. After a nebulizer treatment, we were given an antibiotic to treat an ear infection and possible pneumonia. Pneumonia! Oof. Poor guy.

Sledding

The boys went sledding for the first time on New Years Day, while we were out at Grammy & Poppy's house for our final Christmas celebration. They loved it!!
Wesley, Charlie and Win all wanted to go down on the sled at the same time.

Winston and Poppy

Charlie having a snowball fight with Poppy

Wesley

Winston

Grammy took a turn on the sled!

Daddy and Win spin out

It's been too long...

I can't believe it has been well over a month since we've updated the blog. And we still need to catch up on posting Christmas photos! Here are the rest of the photos from our Christmas in Virginia...
Poppa set up the train set that he has had since he was a young child. The boys loved watching the steam come out of the train and listening to the whistle.

They even had signs for all of the grandkids! Charlie Town

Winston Place

And Wesley Circle!

Poppa and Win

First trip to Chick-fil-A! (Well, the boys and my first trip. And I still want to pronounce it Chick-a-fil-a.)

Charlie

Always climbing

Another milestone - yippee!

This is Rob, and I have high jacked the blog since Ginger very cleverly got me to agree to let her go shopping for the very first attempt at having the boys sleep in toddler beds. Well played, Sweetie. Very well played.

So here is the rundown. Ginger and I took off the crib tents this morning and converted the cribs to toddler beds. The boys also got their first pillows! Right now it is 1:45 and the past hour has gone something like this:

12:45 - Win ends story time in the middle of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish because he stood up in his crib for the 528 time. Daddy's gotta enforce some boundaries, right?

12:53 - Daddy back into the bedroom for the first time. Win has ripped down the paper lantern over his bed and is now playing catch with Wes. Win was perched on the corner of his crib leaning over toward Wes with two outstretched arms. Traumatic head injury narrowly averted. Daddy collects lantern, moves cribs farther apart, and tells the boys to lay down and go to sleep using his serious voice.

1:03 - Ginger calls. Doesn't seem to be gloating, but I think it is a facade. Sounds from the bedroom: THUD.....Waaaaahhhhhh! Charlie takes the first header out of his crib. When Daddy comes through the door both Win and Wes are riding their crib rails like horses. More serious voice. Comfort Charlie. Head wound, yes. Traumatic, no. Boys lay back down

1:06 - 1:38 - Monkey party rages in bedroom. Daddy sticks head in at 1:31 to get Charlie and Wes off of the mini-blinds.

1:39 - Daddy enters to survey situation. All pillows are on the floor. All sleepers on are the floor. By the grace of God, all diapers are on. Daddy smells poop. Changes Winston. More serious voice in a lower octave. Sleepers go on backwards. Corporal punishment is threatened (but in an appropriate manner, consistent with MA DSS guidelines for beating your children).

1:45 - Daddy begins to blog to a steady stream of unhappy editorial from upstairs ("All done big-boy bed....Daaaaadddddy! Blaaaannnkkkeeee!). Editorial comments devolve into indiscriminate crying.

1:55 - Daddy ends blog post to collect blankets and otherwise soothe grumpy tots. Contemplates Tylenol for the boys and Jack Daniels for himself.

I am giving 5:1 to anyone willing to bet that the boys will sleep this afternoon. Somebody wanta piece of that action?

Christmas

And the long overdue updates continue...

Christmas Day began with a bang. Literally. Rob and Poppa drove to Lori and Granny's street to fire off the annual shotgun at 5am. This tradition has gone on for around 60 years, to signify the start to Christmas.

The view out the window Christmas morning

Presents!

We went over to Traci and Bruce's house to celebrate with everyone. I just realized this photo has all but one (Brett) of the cousins! Of course no one is looking, but there is Ann, Charlie, Wesley, Winston, Liam and Abby!

Lala and Liam

Christmas Day is also our niece Ann's birthday. Her party was the day after - the boys LOVED the cupcakes! The boys will always associate Aunt Traci with cupcakes!

Granny, our newest nephew Brett and Uncle Raymond

Charlie, Winston and Wes

Christmas Eve

I am quite behind in posting photos and memories of the holidays, but I'm going to start with Christmas Eve and try to catch up over the next few days. We drove to Virginia (thanks again to Uncle Raymond for helping us drive!) to spend Christmas with Rob's family.

It was a wonderful trip, filled with lasting memories: the boys first real Christmas Eve at Granny's (more on that below), Poppa's trains, playing with cousins, feeding/chasing the seagulls at the Lion's Bridge (the sign only specified to not feed the ducks), driving through the Celebration of Lights, visiting the Virginia Living Museum with Nanna & Poppa, massages for Rob & Ginger, first visit to Chick-fil-A (boys' & Ginger's!) and most of all, visiting with family!

Christmas Eve was a blessing. It was such a joy to see the boys take part in the tradition has taken place for the last 50 years. The played with family they hadn't seen in 2 years, listened to the Christmas story (Luke) read by Granny, played Granny's piano, and ate the traditional meal (no, they weren't brave enough to try collards).

Playing Granny's piano (Charlie, Wesley, Winston)

Winston liked to "sing" along with the piano

And Wesley would clap at the end. It was a hysterical sight (and sound)!

While we were singing carols, Win and Wes discovered that Kaci and Phyllis would give them sips of Diet Coke. After which, they would twirl around in the middle of the room and fall to the ground (and then go beg for more).

Winston loving his first sips of soda!

They then helped Granny hand out jingle bells, and the moment Granny got up from the piano bench, Charlie stole her seat and started playing!

Charlie made his move for the empty seat

After singing, Winston giggled hysterically as he played with Kaci. She would hide under the table and jump out - and he LOVED it!


Playing with Uncle Raymond - the same home that he and Poppa grew up in!