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?)