Wisdom from Joseph

Joseph is mostly a man of fewer words than his brother (who chatters nonstop), but his musings can be more "profound." Here are a few of the gems I've collected from Joe over the past few years:

Age 11 months, first word:

"Da da"

Age 2 1/2:

"Left is my favorite foot."

Age 3 1/2:

"Will and Helen aren't people. They're babies!"

"Two [thumbs up] is 'good job.' One [thumbs up] is 'Gig 'Em
Aggies!'"

"'One' is a weird word. It says 'w' but there's no 'w.' That's
funny!"

"Look, I made Australia!" (after taking a few carefully planned bites from a
Tasty Cake)

Age 4

When asked to name the opposite of "white": "wong."

"I love you 50,000 plus 50,000!"

"Mom, let me tell you something. "Keg" means "a lot of beer."

Walking for a cause

The boys' friend Lainey (you remember, the one Charlie had such a crush on when he was 2 . . . "Lllllaaainey") has invited them to join her on the Walk for Food Allergy: Moving Toward a Cure. Lainey, who is in the boys' class, has a severe peanut allergy. It seems like a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. Of course, this sort of thing also involves fundraising. I'm not ready to send my 4-year-olds soliciting door-to-door, or even soliciting friends and relatives, since they are a little too young to "get" all this. But it is for a good cause. So if you are so inclined, check out Lainey's page ("Team Sparkly Shoes" says it all), and then click on the "personal pages" for Joseph and Charlie. From there you can click "Support Me" and they make it ever so easy to put a few bucks for charity on your credit card.

Paging Dr. Maddux

Meet Helen Maddux, M.D.

Things we learned the hard way

The babies like playing in the toilet. The boys don't like to flush. Bad combination.

The crew reunion

We spent the past weekend at our friends' Chrissy and Roger's ranch, along with our friends Lara and Derek. And our ten (!) kids. Seriously, ten kids! Ages 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 22 months, 15 months, 15 months, and 8 months. I'm tired just typing that.

It was almost exactly fifteen years ago that Chrissy, Lara, Roger, and Amy met as we started law school. We don't all get to see each other as often as we'd like these days (obviously a little busy with all those kids!). But as Chrissy said, we are such good friends that when we do get together, it's as comfortable as an old comfortable pair of jeans. Except we aren't old, of course.

Here are some pictures, mostly of the kiddos, enjoying the weekend.

Joseph and Evelyn riding in the jeep.

Helen enjoyed riding around the ranch.

The kids went hunting for "dinosaur" bones. I think these were from a "blackangusasauraus."

Charlie and Beck pushing Helen and Will on the swings.

Audrey, Carter, Beck, and Joseph on Sunday morning.

The one-year-old brigade: Cullen, Will, and Helen.

Will and Helen found lots to play with. Notice Helen's first bow in her hair. Thanks to Chrissy for Evelyn and Audrey's hand-me-downs, and for showing Mom how to do girl's hair!

Will in Daddy's Astros cap.


Even the youngest, Rafe, had a great time.

Kids say the darndest things

For three years now I've been compiling a list of cute (and occasionally not-so-cute) things my kids say. Here are a sampling of some of my favorites from Charlie Barley, the nonstop talker:

Age 11 months, first word:

Uh oh!

Age 2

"A B C D E F G H I J K 8 9 10!"

"Daddy buy more wine?" (whenever we went to Costco)

Age 2 1/2:

"Mommy, not working. Need batteries?" (after trying to use a white
crayon on white paper)

"Where is my friend Daddy?"

"Where is my beautiful, beautiful football?"

Age 3:

"Mom, can you print it out please?" (after drawing on his magna doodle)

Age 3 1/2:

"Daddy, when you find it, say 'Aha!'" (as he and Cort look for a lost baseball bat)

"It must be late because outside is off."

"Daddy, what color are the Highlights' helmets? Who are the Highlights playing?" (upon being told that Cort was not watching an actual football game, but just highlights from one)

"The Texans made a touchdown! How fun is that for the Houston Texans?" (playing his own imaginary football game)

Almost 4:

Cort: "I'm a little disappointed with the way you guys behaved at dinner tonight." Charlie: "Yeah Daddy, I know. I was disappointed that San Diego beat Gonzago."

"Mom, I don't like spinach. I think when I'm 37 and you're 70, then I'll like it. Yeah, it might take me a long time, but I'll like it then."

Age 4:

"Mom, I think "bacteria" is Spanish for "germs."

"I'm going to love you forever. I'm not ever, ever, ever not going to love you."

"Look Mom, it looks like Idaho!" (upon finding an irregular shaped Dorito in his bag (and it did))

Where have we been, you ask?

Well, actually, you haven't asked. As far and we can tell, we have exactly three readers, all of whom are grandparents and know exactly what we've been doing. But for the sake of blog continuity, here's a quick recap of what's been going on since we left off two years ago.

• September 2006. We find out we are pregnant. Again. With twins. Again. Cort starts shopping for a suburban.


• October 2006. Cort and Amy take a trip to NYC, where morning sickness sets in. Charlie and Joseph are doctors for Halloween.

• November 2006. We find out we are having another boy, and a little girl. We continue our Thanksgiving family tradition - pajamas all day.

• December 2006. We have a wonderful Christmas. We realize that we are going to need a bigger house.

• January 2007. We decide to build a new house in the same neighborhood, which we love too much to leave. We are excited but sad, because we really love our current house.

• February 2007. Amy continues to grow bigger and bigger. The boys, who are avid watchers of the Today Show, decide we should name the new babies "Matt" and "Meredith."

• March 2007. Ground is broken on the new house. The boys turn three and have a "Go Diego Go" themed party at a local park. Amy manages to finish up the month at work and then goes on short-term disability for the remainder of the pregnancy.

• April 2007. Amy believes that surely the babies will be born this month. They aren't. Charlie and Joseph get "big boy" beds. We have LOTS of decisions to make on our new house before the babies are born.

• May 8, 2007. D-Day (and 38 weeks gestation). At 8:43 in the morning, William Francis is born weighing 5 lbs., 4 oz. Two minutes later, his sister Helen Elizabeth arrives weighing 6 lbs., 7 oz. Later that afternoon, Cort brings Charlie and Joseph to meet their baby brother and baby sister.

• May 2007. The family adjusts to its growth spurt. Charlie and Joseph prove to be excellent big brothers. Helen proves that girls really are more dramatic. Will proves to be a sweetheart. We learn that Cort remembers absolutely NOTHING about babies, much less twin babies, from the first time around. But he still proves to be excellent at it.

• June 2007. At five weeks, Helen sleeps through the night. Several times. Then she doesn't repeat the feat for months. Will develops reflux and isn't such a sweetheart anymore. This time around proves much more difficult in infancy than the first. The boys attend VBS at our church and have a great time (they love the songs). There are STILL a lot of decisions to be made for the new house.

• July 2007. We may be crazy, but the whole family takes our second annual vacation to Grand Cayman. We have a great time. The babies sleep in drawers from the dresser. The boys have a ball. It is so relaxing -- even with four kids! We make plans to go again next year.

• August 2007. Our babysitter, a college student who has helped for a few hours on weekdays since the babies were born, goes back to school and leaves us alone. With four kids. As it turns out we are happy to be together with just our family, and it also forces us to really get the babies on a schedule and sleeping well. We are still spending an inordinate amount of time working on things for the new house.




• September 2007. The babies are sleeping through the night and eating "solid food." Will gets his first tooth. The boys start playing soccer on a team through the YMCA. The whole family goes to Grandad and Gransan's house in Henrietta for Pioneer Reunion. We begin packing up for our move to the new house.

• October 2007. Will and Helen start "school" at the same place that the boys go. But we decide that Amy going back to work as a partner at a large law firm, even part time, just does not seem remotely feasible anymore. She quits and decides to remain off work for another month, through the move which is scheduled for the week of Thanksgiving. Charlie and Joseph are a Texans player and Astros player, respectively, for Halloween. Will and Helen are a hit as "Thing One" and "Thing Two" from Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat.

• November 2007. We don't move. We give the builder a drop-dead deadline that we must be in by Christmas. Helen starts crawling -- at six months, which is way earlier than we had expected. She also gets a tooth.

• December 2007. We don't move by Christmas. We buy a cheap tree and have a wonderful Christmas in an otherwise undecorated house (Christmas stuff is already packed up). Helen is completely mobile and Will gets around pretty well with a form of army crawl.

• January 2008. We finally move mid-month. Once we are there we are surprised at how we don't really miss the old house we loved so much. Moving with four kids is certainly an adventure, but the kids adjust even more quickly than we do. The boys love their new bedroom ("It has a bathroom INSIDE!") and are allowed to get up alone during the night to use the potty, meaning no more poopy pullups. Yay!

• February 2008. We spend much of the month trying to get settled. The babies, who have been sick for much of December and January, get ear tubes. Amy finally decides that she needs to get back to work, and accepts a job with much more flexibility at Shipley Snell Montgomery, LLP.

• March 2008. Amy starts her new job. The boys turn 4 and have a sports-themed party in our new back yard, which we are really enjoying. At just-turned-four, both boys are already reading. They also start swimming lessons. They are better at reading than swimming.
  

• April 2008. Helen takes her first steps. She does this a few times, but still doesn't really walk. Will and Helen both say their first word: "Hi." Will, who has strabismus, has eye surgery and shows great improvement.

• May 2008. Will and Helen turn one, and we leave babyhood (and bottles!) behind for good. We have a very small celebration at our house. Later that month, Amy and Cort celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary with a fabulous trip to Zihuatenejo, Mexico. If you had told us ten years and four kids ago that this would be our life, we never would have believed it. But we love it. Oh, and while we are gone on vacation Helen finally starts walking.

• June 2008. Charlie and Joseph enthusiastically attend Vacation Bible School again at our church, which includes us braving "family dinner" with four kids in the fellowship hall. The boys also become HUGE Astros fans, with a pretty darn good working knowledge of baseball for four-year-olds. Helen becomes a proficient walker, but we resign ourselves to the fact that Will won't be walking for our July vacation.

• July 2008. For the third year in a row, we spend an absolutely wonderful vacation on Grand Cayman. Will surprises us by learning to walk right before we go. Helen loves the water (but NOT the sand), Will loves both, and Charlie and Joseph go crazy jumping and swimming, at times even without their life jackets. We rent waverunners, which are the hit of the trip. Charlie also discovers Sportscenter on the trip.

• August 2008. Amy remembers that we once had this blog, and wonders whether she should start posting again. We'll see how that goes.