You better watch out (Santa Claus)

We visited Santa Claus at the mall this morning.  Cort and I think pictures with Santa is all about memorializing the kids crying and screaming in Santa's lap, and luckily Will and Helen did not disappoint.  

I also found it funny that Santa, who I guess was trying to figure where to situate the kids for the picture (because it's all about the picture these days, hardly even a chance for kids to tell Santa what they want), kept asking us: "How many kids?"  Each time, I answered him: "Four."  Then he'd ask again: "How many?"  Me:  "Four."  Santa:  "Three?"  Me:  "Four."  Santa:  "How many?"  Me:  "Four."  Then we piled 'em on, and I think he figured it out. 

A star is born

Two stars, actually. Or maybe, if we are stretching it, four. Last night was the holiday program at the kids' school. It was based on the book "Love You Forever" by Robert N. Munsch. It's the story of a mother who has a baby boy and rocks him to sleep singing, "I'll love you forever/I'll like you for always/As long as I'm living/My baby you'll be." As the boy grows into a toddler, teenager, and then grown man, she keeps singing the song. Then, one day, she becomes to old and sick to hold him and the roles are reversed, and he sings the song to her. Frankly, I've never really liked the book, because it's a little sad! But for the most part, the school made it very cute.

Will and Helen participated in the segment where the little boy was a toddler. Their class danced to the song "Splish splash I was taking a bath." Actually, it was more like one little girl dancing, most of the rest standing there, and a few of the boys discovering a little blow-up toy they had on stage and playing with it.

The girl in the foreground is the dancer. Helen is back there trying to figure out what this towel is attached to her wrist. She did finally give a little twist at the end. We were really surprised she didn't cry.

Will wasn't too phased at all with the crowd or the spotlight, but he wasn't into dancing either. Here he is figuring out that he's missing out on the blow-up toy - he's pointing to it. He did pitch a big fit when they made him leave the stage, so maybe he's got some future stardom in him after all.

Joseph played the little boy when he grew up and got married (which is apparently not in the book, but they had to add a few parts so that all the kids in the boys' class could have individual roles). He wore an adorable little tux and said his lines, loudly if not with feeling, "Will you marry me?" and "I can't wait for you to meet my mother." His bride Ava accepted and he put the ring on her finger -- which she promptly oohed and aahed over and showed to the crowd (which apparently was not in the script).

Joseph and Ava dancing.

Charlie then had the biggest role of the night. He played the son all grown up, when he goes back to comfort his mother. He took his role very seriously. He came up on stage and told his mother (Ellie), "Don't worry mother, I am here now." And then he sat down beside her. Then he went back home to his new baby and sang the theme song . . . solo! We were so impressed. Then in the last scene, in order to represent the new father with his baby, the entire nursery class was brought in by the teachers, one by one, and Charlie gave each one a (quite perfunctory) little pat. Adorable.

Charlie comforting his old mother, Ellie.


Charlie singing his solo.

And possibly prophetic? We've always thought our best bet was to have Charlie take care of us in our old age, and hopefully Joseph would make a lot of money and support us all.

Way back When-esday

This one is a picture from our pre-kid days. You know, the days when we could fly off to fun destinations at the drop of a hat. This is a particular favorite. After Christmas in 2001 we went to New York City. It was a great trip. It was only my second trip there, but on the first trip we had done some of the more touristy things, so this time we were able to really see more of the city. It was also only a few months after 9/11, and the tragedy was still very real when we visited Ground Zero. But this picture depicted one of my favorite parts of the trip. This is Little Italy all lit up for Christmas. In the heart of New York City, it's almost like a small town street festival. There are lights, holiday music playing on loudspeakers, people milling about the street vendors, and shop owners making holiday announcements on several streetcorners. And while we were there, it even started to snow. It was a perfect experience. We may not be able to make such trips at the drop of a hat anymore, but someday we will definitely take the kids to NYC during the holidays.

Makes my Monday

I love that the boys are AMAZING when it comes to cleaning up. Seriously, how many parents can say that about their 4-year-olds? Especially when their mom is the messiest person alive. I'm not sure they know that yet, and I'm not going to tell them.

Every night, it is their job to clean up all the outside toys and the inside toys. Sometimes we help, sometimes we don't. But 99% of the time, it gets done. And done well.

The other weekend when Cort was out of town, we had thirteen kids over to our house Saturday evening. Needless to say, the house was a wreck. Toys everywhere. Four kids can get out a lot of toys, but thirteen can really do some damage. Sunday morning I asked the boys to spend 10 minutes cleaning up. (It seemed like more of an hour-long job to me, but I didn't think it was reasonable to expect little kids to focus on such a task for that long.) Charlie worked respectably at it, but Joseph (who is his mother's child) read a book about Rudolph instead. So I told him he had not done his 10 minutes, and he had to do 10 more. While he worked, I was vacuuming, and several times he wanted me to come look at see how he had done. Honestly, I thought he was trying to see if I would pronounce his job "good enough" and let him play. But when I finished vacuuming and checked, THE ENTIRE PLAYROOM WAS CLEANED UP!

Seriously, who are these kids and where did they come from? No matter, the fact that they will clean up and I don't have to, is what makes my day.

I'm such a disappointment

Joe just discovered that although I went to college at Texas A&M, I didn't actually play football there. He's so disappointed in me.

Wait till Charlie finds out that Dad didn't play football at Baylor, either. They may disown us.

Let it snow!

Who'da thunk it? Snow in Houston. Big huge flakes too, just as I was picking up the kids from school. They loved it!

Wordless Wednesday

It's the most wonderful time of the year

That's the hangman answer: "It's the most wonderful time of the year." We had no correct answers. Of course, we had only one comment, so I don't know whether anyone else cared to look. Cort got it immediately, though. I guess he and Joseph think alike.

Makes my Monday

Hide-and-seek. The greatest game in our household. We switch it around a bit, and we have only one hider (with parental help if needed), and the rest are seekers. This can keep all four kids engaged.

Although they love it, the kids' giggles always give them away when hiding. And they aren't really that good at seeking either. They'll go into a room, give it a cursory glance, and decide that no one's hiding in there. No looking in, under, or behind anything.

I, on the other hand, am a very good hider. I can usually find a nice, cozy, comfortable hiding place and sit there silently for a very long time while the kids run around trying to find me. It is a great way to take a break. And that is why hide-and-seek makes my Monday.

Hangman

Both of the boys love to play hangman. This morning, Joseph and I were playing. The piece of paper below shows the letters he had correctly guessed when he figured out the whole thing. Took him about 5 seconds. A prize to the first person who can figure it out as well.

Wordless Wednesday

Soccer Mom

Soccer season came and went without much mention on the blog. But the boys truly enjoyed it this year. Charlie had enjoyed it last year. Truth be told, he wasn't as good this year as last year (or, more precisely, this time there were other kids on the team better than him). But he still had a really great time. And his celebrations for scoring a goal rival Brandi Chastain's. Joseph was more lukewarm about soccer last year -- he always professed to enjoy it, but he just never looked like he was having that great a time. But this year, he definitely loved it. He was often in the middle of things trying to get a foot on the ball. He also loved to fall down a lot, both inadvertently and intentionally. Both boys showed a lot of hustle. They even played a doubleheader (due to a cancelled game during Hurricane Ike), and both played both entire games. That's a lot of running up and down the field, folks. They were exhausted, but they never quit. We were proud of them!

Special thanks, once again, to "Coach Keith.," He is amazing with all the kids and manages to actually teach them a little about soccer too. The boys idolize Coach Keith.

Mom and Dad enjoyed soccer again too. We always knew Cort -- as sports-fixated as he is -- would be into his sons' games. (I will say, though, that he is very good about realizing they are just 4 and not pushing them or going overboard.) I can't help but get really excited at the games, too, though. I probably yell more than Cort. And that may be why soccer never made the blog. I kept trying to take pictures of the boys in action, but I could never concentrate on the pictures for the game and kept getting shots like this:

Makes my Monday

I'm starting another blog "feature" that I stole from other blogs I read (yes, I spend too much time reading blogs now). This one is called "Makes my Monday" and is basically just something that I love that really makes my day. For this first one, I'm going to address something that has "made my day" recently with regard to each member of my family.

I love that Joseph got sooo into decorating for Christmas. And Joseph isn't the sort that will get excited about something just because you tell him that he should be. No, he was truly excited.

I love that Helen has recently started screeching "Da-da! Da-da!" at the top of her lungs, and when Cort responds she just smiles at him as if to say "Just making sure you are paying appropriate attention to me, dad."

I love how much Charlie exasperates me in the same way that his father does - he wants sports on all the time, doesn't pay any attention to anyone or anything else when sports are on, and despite saying "I'm coming, I'm coming," he stands rooted in front of the TV to watch "just one more" play.

I love that every time I vacuum, Will gets out Charlie and Joseph's old play vacuum and vacuums with me. He even moves all the chairs in order to vacuum underneath the table.

I love how even though Cort is generally a more go-with-the-flow type of guy, he almost always not only acquiesces, but fully participates, in my many elaborate plans to try to make our family run smoother and our kids be more well-behaved. Oh, and that he put up all our Christmas lights.

Deck the Halls!

We had a great holiday weekend. As soon as the turkey was eaten, we started looking forward to Christmas. Friday morning began the decorating, and it was so much fun! I've always had an idealized fantasy of Christmas decorating as a family, but up until now our kids have been so young that Christmas decorating was more a what-can-we-piece-together-during-their-nap type of event. But this year, it was a family event.

Will and Helen weren't huge contributors, but they had a really good time hanging out with us while decked the halls. And since they were in good moods, we chalked that up to Christmas cheer.

Charlie was a little more into basketball than Christmas, but he helped some.

But it was Joseph who really made the event. He LOVED putting up and decorating the tree.

We got some great shots that look like Will and Helen are helping decorate the tree.








In reality, they were taking the ornaments OFF the tree. So the tree is now gated.




Hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit as much as we are!

That was the first time that nobody cried!

Last night the six of us went to dinner at one of our favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurants. We had an absolutely wonderful dinner. Everyone behaved, ate well, and was generally cheerful. Maybe it had something to do with the naps yesterday -- Will's was 3 1/2 hours, and Helen's was 4 1/2 hours. But whatever it was, it was lovely. Really, we couldn't have had a better time.

As we were in the car leaving, Joseph exclaimed from his back seat, "That was the first time that nobody cried!" Was he right? We go out to eat a lot. Does someone cry or whine or throw a fit every single time we go? At the least, it has apparently been so long that we can't remember the last meal that no one cried. If eating out is so miserable, why do we keep going? Is it because we are determined not to be those people that won't go anywhere because we have small children, or is it because I don't like to cook, or is it because we don't really have time to cook?

All I know is that I hope this trend of cry/whine/fit-free dining out continues.

P.S. We had lunch today at Luby's. Helen had one fit and I had to take her outside. But she rebounded well upon our return, and everyone once again had a pretty nice meal.

Happy Thanksgiving 2008!

The Maddux family is stuffed and (mostly) napping.  We had a great Thanksgiving dinner.  We continued the Maddux family tradition of Thanksgiving at home, wearing our pajamas all day!  It is the only day of the year that we get to lounge around all day.  And we still have three more days of "holiday" before work and school resumes!  We are thankful for that, for our wonderful dinner, our many friends, and most of all for our family.

The family in their Thanksgiving PJs (three of four kids looking at the camera isn't bad)

Wordless Wednesday

We'll never take him to Disneyworld

Joseph has always been scared of certain things. When he was younger and would watch Dora and Diego on Noggin, there was a short commercial for some show where human hands had eyes and mouths drawn on them and talked. Whenever it came one, he ran screaming from the room. For a long time he wouldn't go in a room with a TV by himself. He is still afraid of the little "ding" sound that our friends' house alarm makes when a door is opened, and we have to ask them to turn it off every time we go over there. He is afraid of the nutcracker soldiers that abound at Christmas time, which is unfortunate because there is one that decorates the entrance to his school. And the Nutcracker commercials have started up again -- when one comes on he hides his eyes and asks us to tell him when it is over. He didn't like witches at Halloween, and when grocery shopping in October asked that I go really, really fast past the Halloween aisle. Last year he was afraid of the 4-year-old class at his school during the mardis gras parade, because they had made and were wearing animal masks. He didn't run the bases at the Astros game when given the opportunity, because the run-the-base promotion was sponsored by Chik-Fil-A and they had life-size cow mascots out on the field. We have realized for awhile that we are unlikely to take him to Disneyworld anytime soon. None of our kids (so far) are into Disney princesses, superheroes, or any other Disney characters. But no doubt such a trip would send Joe over the edge with all those life-size characters.

As he grows he is actually fairly calm about his fears. He covers his eyes, looks away, or moves, declaring that he "doesn't like" the offending character. But this latest one takes the cake. He has been wanting us to close their closet door at bedtime lately. And several times he asked me to come with him into the closet when he was picking out his clothes or shoes. Then he asked me if the "people" were in there. So I investigated, and this is what he has been afraid of:

These are little clips that are used to fasten a crib tent to a pack n play. They were in use for awhile, but we took the crib tent down and the clips have been sitting on a shelf in their closet. They are about an inch and a half long. And Joe is afraid of them.

Hats off to "Special Days"

Since I took a less-demanding job several months ago, I have tried to take one day off each week to spend with just one of the kids while the others go to school as usual.  When possible, Cort stays home in the morning while I take the rest of the kids to school, so he gets a bit of one-on-one time as well.  Or we often have lunch with Daddy.  We call these "special days."  The kids seem to love them when it is their day.  Not so much when it is one of their siblings' days.

Today was Will's special day.  In between eating, running errands, and getting ready for the "Family Feast" at the kids' school, we played with hats.  A good time was had by all.

Hats off to special days!

Way Back When-esday

I love this picture mostly because of the smug look on Joseph's face. Gransan took the picture. The boys were about 7 or 8 months old, and Joseph had just swiped that toy from Charlie. They were funny back then, because Charlie was much bigger, but anytime his brother took something from him, he just sat there and cried and never tried to get it back. Now that I look at the picture four years later, I also love it because I can see Will and Helen in it. In general, Will looks more like Joe and Helen looks more like Charlie. But that look on Charlie's face as he is crying is all Will, and the smug look on Joe's face definitely reminds me of Helen.

Childhood milestones

Forget first steps or first words. THE most important childhood milestone is being able to direct vomiting so that it is entirely contained within the toilet or a wastebucket. And Joseph has mastered this feat. God bless him.

What are the chances that this is the worst it gets?

This is our last 24 hours. Last night I was thinking about the fact that Will and Helen had their 18-month doctor's appointment today, which meant shots for the poor guys. Cort and I had gone to great lengths to make sure we could both go to the appointment today, so I confirmed the plan with him. He assured me that yes, he would be there. In fact, he had even moved his deposition from morning to afternoon so he could make the 8:00am appointment. Um, the appointment is at 3:20pm. Great. So today I pick them both up and take them to the doctor alone. We wait forty minutes in the waiting room. The whole time, Will is running away from me, through the newborn waiting area, the lab area, and into the examination area. While I chased after him, Helen would go into the newborn waiting area and climb up on all the chairs. Then while I went to get her, off Will would go again. Great. I finally just stationed myself in the doorway using sort of a zone defense. I swear everyone in the waiting room was laughing at me. Then my phone rang and it was Charlie's teacher telling me that he was throwing up at school. Great. As soon as I hung up, I realized that one of the babies had a dirty diaper. I checked. It was Helen. It was diarrhea. Great. So I had to take both babies into the public restroom, where I got to change Helen's absolutely disgusting diaper while Will wandered around touching things. Great. Then I got a small reprieve -- Cort finished his deposition and came to the doctor's office so he could switch cars with me and go pick up the sick Charlie and his brother. He stuck around for the weighing and measuring (Will is still a pipsqueak, but Helen hit 50-75% in height!). It is soooo much easier at the doctor's office with two parents. But then he left to get Charlie the puker. I fed Will and Helen goldfish, which they mostly threw and then ate off the floor. And I'm sure the floor at the doctor's office is super clean. Great. After their examination, they got three shots each. They were NOT happy. Poor Helen went first, then had to sit and cry by herself when it was over, because I had to hold Will down. Great. Then they wouldn't keep the bandaids on and kept bleeding on their clothes. Great. After the shots I had to take them both, by myself, to get Will's blood drawn in the lab -- the lab that isn't closed in so my other kid could run around unchecked with all sorts of needles and medical equipment. I decided to put her in a chair, but while doing that I had to let Will go and he hit his head on a sharp piece of metal. Great. Helen did well on the chair though, and we got the blood drawn and got the heck out of there. I picked up groceries on the way home, and Will and Helen cried all the way home. When I got home Cort was finishing up dinner. I heard Charlie calling from the bathroom so I went to check on him. He was sitting there on the toilet with a confused, teary look on his face, saying "it just keeps coming Mom." Poor guy. So I spent dinner going back and forth from putting up groceries to checking on Charlie, who was apparently afraid he was going to be stuck on the toilet for infinity. After dinner, Cort was checking on Charlie (still on the toilet) and, as I was giving Will and Helen some Motrin for the shots, the dog threw up all over the kitchen and living room. Great. I scooped Will and Helen up before they waded through it and put them in the first place with a baby gate that could contain them -- the stairs. At that point, my wonderful, terrific, outstanding husband -- who is definitely in the running for husband of the year -- said why didn't I just take Will and Helen upstairs for their bath? I high-tailed it out of there and he cleaned up the dog puke, put a pullup on Charlie so he wouldn't be scared to get off the toilet, and settled the boys down to watch some sports. Everyone is in bed now, and quiet. But this sort of thing usually gets worse before it gets better, so we're not looking forward to the next few days here.

Wordless Wednesday

Way Back When-esday

In addition to the Wordless Wednesday pics, I've decided to steal from other blogs that have created a "Way Back When-esday" series. The idea is to post a picture from the past and describe it. I couldn't think of a better picture to start with than this one -- my absolute favorite picture, and the last one we probably have in which all of our kids are looking so perfect (of course, we did only have two kids back then). This was taken on the hospital bed four days after Charlie and Joseph were born. We tucked a wallet-sized version of this picture in every announcement we sent out. Back when we took the picture, we were amazed at our ability to get both boys looking in the same direction, with their eyes both open, etc. As time has passed, we tend to forget how hard it is for two newborns to have their eyes open, as we've moved on to things like trying to get two active boys to just be still! Nevertheless, it remains, to me, the epitomy of a really perfect picture of my baby boys. (We tried to recreate the picture with Will and Helen, but to no avail.)

Animal Sounds

Will is learning the sounds that animals make. So far he knows the following:

"What does a cow say?" "Moooooo."

"What does a horse say?" "Neigh."

"What does a lion say?" "Roooaaaar!"

"What do three singing pigs say?" "La la la la la la la!!"

(Any Sandra Boynton fans out there?)

Happy Halloween!

Charlie (tin man), Helen (Dorothy), Will (scarecrow), and Joseph (cowardly lion)

We had a nice Halloween, and the kids indulged me by agreeing to my Wizard of Oz theme for costumes (although the tin man was pretty reluctant). We went trick-or-treating on our street and around the esplanade that is a couple of blocks away. Halloween is somewhat tough for Joe, who is afraid of any sort of character in costume or wearing a mask (hmmm, just now realizing how appropriate his costume as the "cowardly" lion was). He's become braver lately, which means that he's now afraid of only the scary costumes. Things like spiderman are okay now. This means that when he helped hand out candy at our house, he perched himself on the porch as a lookout, loudly asking, as a group approached, whether there were any scary ones. Only if we got a group of princesses and fairies would he assist in candy distribution. Nevertheless, I think he had a great time, and he certainly enjoyed the getting the candy part. Will and Helen enjoyed that too. Will, who loves to put things in buckets, loaded up his plastic pumpkin with most of the candy from our own bowl, along with some toy cars and books from the playroom. He didn't really seem to care about eating the candy. Helen was another story. She instinctly knew that the candy was for eating -- although that instinct didn't tell her to take the wrapper off first. Despite the fact that we told all the kids that we had to inspect all their candy for safety before they could eat any, Helen managed to have five lollipops before we even got home.

If it were only made of yellow bricks, this would be the perfect picture.

The Human Body

There are two things that come to mind today when I think about this topic. The first is where in the world do little boys learn that certain body parts and bodily functions are so funny? Why are they funny? They really aren't to me. I just don't get it. But Charlie and Joseph are very interested in their p____ (can you say that word on a blog? it just doesn't seem right, but then again I never imagined the ease with which that word now rolls off my tongue in seemingly ordinary conversation). They want to wash it at bathtime (not so much washing on other body parts), put lotion on it after bathtime (I refuse), and tell anyone if they get hit there (as Joe announced to his soccer team the other day). And then there are the bodily functions. Charlie tries to slip the word "poopy" into as many conversations as possible. He then laughs hysterically. Joseph doesn't say it as often, but he still laughs. Come to think of it, Cort often laughs too. Oh, and they all laugh about "toots." Even the word "toilet paper" is really funny to Charlie and Joe right now. What is it about males that make all this funny???? Can anyone explain it to me?

The second thing that comes to mind is Joseph's new fascination with a book on the human body that we picked up at Costco. He is particularly fascinated by the skeleton, and can name many of the bones in the body. They had to color the front page of their journals at school the other day, and Joseph drew a skeleton. He then proceeded to point out for me the femur, the spine, the humerus, the radius, the rib cage, the lungs, and the phalanges (that's fingers and toes, if you didn't know).

Wordless Wednesday

A post to make Dad smile

On the way to school today we discussed sunrises and sunsets, time zones, and what college football teams are in Texas. Charlie was beyond thrilled to learn that the Baylor Bears are in Texas (it never occurred to me that he didn't know this). I explained to him that Baylor is located in Waco. They know Waco because it is halfway between Houston and Grandad and Gransan's house, so every time we make that trip we stop in Waco for lunch. Charlie was so excited. "Mom, next time we go to the Luby's can you show me where the Baylor is?" Sure Charlie, it's right between the fried okra and the macaroni and cheese. (Maybe you'd have better luck if you asked Daddy.)

This is the way we carve a pumpkin

I don't really get into holidays much, with the exception of Christmas. I don't decorate for other holidays, and I'm certainly not a crafty mom. But the holidays are magical for children, right? The boys have been noticing that houses in our neighborhood are decorated for Halloween, and they learned all about pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns at school (and skeletons, which fascinates Joe, but that's another story . . . ). So, I decided that we should carve jack-o-lanterns as a family on Saturday. A wonderful family holiday activity that everyone would enjoy, right? Not so much.

Here's what Dad did during jack-o-lantern carving (note the lack of any kids in this picture):







Here's what the kids did during jack-o-lantern carving:





Football

Golf


Hockey



Baseball

Lacrosse

Happy Halloween anyway!