25-day weekend

Today is the official start of Charlie and Joseph's 25-day weekend. They are the ones who named it that. They're so excited.

We pulled them out of daycare yesterday. Today we are off on a 10-day vacation to Grand Cayman. After that we'll be home for 2 days, they will spend a day traveling to Grandad and Gransan's house, 6 days there, and 1 day traveling home. Then they'll be home for another 5 days (3 of which their parents should be working, so we're not quite sure yet what we're going to do about that).

That will bring us to August 24. Their first day of school. Wow.

We're going to have a lot of fun before then, though.

Way Back When-esday

July 2006. Our first trip to Grand Cayman. Charlie and Joseph were two years old.

We leave tomorrow for our fourth trip. Will and Helen are almost exactly the same age as Charlie and Joseph were that first time.

Yippee!! We can't wait.

Goodbye preschool, and thank you

Tomorrow is the boys' last day at Cathedral House. The place they've been since they were four months old--so just over five years. Talk about growing up and moving on!

We are so grateful that we chose Cathedral House when we were looking at daycares for our babies. At the time, we didn't really think ahead to what kind of school it would be when those babies became kids.

But it has been amazing. We want to thank Cathedral House for teaching our boys how to put back what they've gotten out, to count, to take their dishes to the sink, to write their names, to clean up their own messes, to drink from an open cup, to recognize all the continents, to use the toilet (alone!), the days of the week and the months of the year, to follow the rules, to tell time, to handle challenges, to add, subtract, and even multiply, to be responsible for their own things, to identify homonyms, and many, many other things. And more importantly, we want to thank Cathedral House for making us realize that they are capable of all of these things - that realization has made our kids better people, and our lives easier!

The boys are super excited that tomorrow is their last day. They love their school, but I think they are just excited for something new and haven't really hit the stage of missing the old yet. Mom and Dad, however, will miss it.

Makes my Monday

Another girls' weekend. This time with all those high school friends I recently reconnected with via Facebook and our 20th reunion.

Again, all the kids are not only safe and settled, but they had a great time with their Daddy. What a wonderful husband I have.

Makes my Monday.

A different kind of observation

Joseph, at school the other day, was working with a lesson where the child has an ending sound -- such as "at" -- and has to make as many words as he can that end in that sound -- such as "fat," "cat," "hat," and so on.

Except that Joseph's ending sound was "it."

You can see where this is going.

Sure enough, when the teacher checked his work, one of his words was "shit." She okayed the rest of his work and quietly informed him that "shit" is not a word. But Joseph likes to be right. He insisted (I imagine quite loudly) that yes, "shit" IS a word. No, she said, it's not. Yes, he continued to insist, it is. As she told him one last time (ever so calmly and coolly as only a Montessori teacher can do) that "shit" is not a word, he told her, "Yes, shit is a word! My mom and Dad say it all the time!"

Crazy thing is, we don't. Ever.

But I don't think his teacher believed me when I told her that.

A thought-provoking observation

This morning on the way to school, Charlie observed that there aren't very many boy teachers and there aren't very many girl police.

Interesting that this observation bothers me more now that I have a little girl. And he didn't even say that boys can't be teachers or girls can't be police, just that there aren't many. Which is true.

I tried to use this to initiate a thought-provoking conversation about how anyone can be whatever they want to be. But Joseph responded that girls can't play major league baseball. That one was tougher. I doubt there is an out-and-out ban on women trying out for the big leagues. But has it ever happened?

Interesting that these things never bothered me growing up. But somehow, now that I have a little girl growing up with three brothers--three brothers whose butt she can already kick, by the way--I hate to think of her believing that there is something they can do that she can't.

Baseball knowledge, a year later

The other day Charlie asked me--in all seriousness like I would know the answer--"Mom, who is it who usually bats first for the Brewers?  I'm having trouble remembering who leads off for them."  When I told him that I not only didn't know who their lead off hitter was, but didn't think I could name a single Brewers player, he was perplexed. He simply didn't understand how that could be.

The boys' baseball knowledge has grown from last year, and in doing so has way surpassed mine. Thank goodness for Dad and espn.com.

Not sure time out is going to be effective anymore

I put Charlie in "time out" the other day. He immediately had company.

Gotta speak up around here

Joe (crying): Charlie hit me!

Me: Charlie, did you hit Joseph?

Charlie: Yes.

Me: You know better than that. We don't hit in our family.

Charlie: I was just boxing with him.

Me: Did he want to box?

Charlie: I don't know. I didn't ask him.

You think you know your kids . . .

Five years and four kids, and yesterday was our first trip to the doctor to deal with a foreign object stuck in a body orifice.

Not Will or Helen, who at 2 are really too young to know any better. Not even Joseph, who has a bit of an oral fixation plus is fidgety, and is constantly putting things in his mouth and other places they don't belong.

Nope, it was Charlie. Had I been asked, I definitely would have identified Charlie, our rule follower, as the kid LEAST likely to do something like that. Especially now that he's five years old and possesses reasoning skills and all. That was before the school called yesterday after lunch to tell me that Charlie had stuck a perler bead up his nose during nap (see below if you don't know what a perler bead is, and you too can wonder why he had this during nap time).

He was embarrassed enough to agree to sit very still while the doctor got it out. All is well now. Good times.

The offending perler bead, now outside the nose

Take me out to my first ballgame

We took Helen and Will to their first ever Astros game last night. They are only 23 months older than Charlie and Joseph were when they went to their first Astros game. Poor third/fourth children. Both times, the Astros lost. In fact, last night they stunk it up pretty bad.

For us, however, the game was a success. At least, it was if you define success as coming home with the same number of kids we came with. It's all about lowering your standards.

Really, it wasn't so bad, but it was a LOT different than going with just Charlie and Joseph. We lasted until the end of the 6th inning, which was an hour past Will and Helen's bedtime. We got seats in the outfield so there was plenty of room. The little ones didn't pay any attention to the game, of course. But they did occasionally point to the "aseball game!" the "choo choo train!" or yell, "Go Astos!" And we couldn't have done it but for the fact that Charlie and Joseph continued to be effortless at baseball games. They spent most of the game sitting two rows ahead of us with their eyes on the game.

We'll definitely do it again. In 23 more months.

The "ase-ball game"


The whole family, decked out in our Astros gear


Charlie and Joseph, concentrating on the game


Sweet Will


Cute Helen


Dad and Will


This looks like we had everything under control, doesn't it?


Helen dumping out potato chips and eating them off the ground


Will trying to clean them up


Helen showing off her jumping skills outside the ballpark


Our four little Astros fans

What I learned during my day with Helen

Today I kept Helen home from school for some special one-on-one time. She spent the morning doing almost nothing except asking for Will, Joe, Charlie, and occasionally Daddy. It's very sweet how much she loves her brothers. But really, I think she just loves being the center of attention, and I'm not enough of an audience for her.

I also learned from her that every shape is a "circle." Every number is a "2" or an "8." And every letter is an "H for Nonny." Hmmm, that last one could get confusing in the long run.

We had a fun day, and even got to have lunch with Dad before he headed out of town on a business trip.

How big does he need to be?

Tonight when Cort was reading the boys a bedtime story, he stumbled over the name of a dinosaur: Quetzalcoatlus. Charlie reassured him, "Daddy, when you're bigger, you'll be able to read it."

Way Back When-esday

This picture has been laying around our house - I don't know why. It cracks us up that every time Helen sees it, she identifies it as Will. But when we show it to Will, he correctly identifies it as "Joe Joe." It certainly shows how much Will looks like his big brother Joseph!

Makes My Monday Not-So-Much

This morning, Will--who usually wakes up between 5 and 6am--slept past 7. Right before I woke him up, I took this picture of him snoozing away. I thought him sleeping in (and, consequently, us getting to sleep in) would make a perfect "Makes My Monday" blog post.

That was right before I took him downstairs, and he barfed at the breakfast table.

It's all in how you ask the question

Cort was giving Will and Helen a bath this morning . . . .

Cort: Will, are you ready to get out of the tub?

Will: NO!!

Cort: Helen, are you ready to get out of the tub?

Helen: NO!!

Cort: OK. Who wants to get out first?

Helen: Me!
Will: Me!

The Maddux family goes bowling

Another one of Cort's recent good ideas - we took the whole family bowling last weekend. Other than the fact that it's more expensive than I would have thought to take a family of six bowling, it was great. And air conditioned.

Joseph taking aim


Charlie letting 'er go


Charlie's got a fancy little follow through


Even the little ones enjoyed it

And now, what everyone has been waiting for, the live action shots.

Morning in Galveston

Cort keeps coming up with ideas of things to do and places to go. Last weekend, in the middle of record heat, he decided we should take the kids to the beach at Galveston. I thought he was crazy, but I kept my mouth shut. And I'm glad I did, because we had such a great time!

It's less than an hour to Galveston, and we should take advantage of it more often. It's not the best beach in the world, but it was still a lot of fun. We'll definitely be going again!

Part of our strategy was to acclimate Helen to the sand, which she hated last year


She warmed up pretty quickly with the "let's bury our toes in the sand" trick


By the end of the morning, she had clearly gotten over her fear


Will was, well, just Will - cute and sweet as ever


He's supposed to wear sunglasses due to the drops we put in his eyes for strabismus


He just thinks he wears them because he's cool


Doesn't Joseph look old here? He's like a regular kid


All the boys built a big lake on the beach


Charlie gathering water for the lake


But Will was the official water gatherer


And hauler


Surprise, surprise - Charlie played a little beach baseball


Will LOVED the ocean


He walked right in, and didn't want to hold Daddy's hand


And kept walking - no fear!

B-Ball

So the boys are playing basketball this summer. I was pretty dubious, but it's been fun. The rules are very relaxed, and everyone has a good time. At the last game, both boys scored. Plus, it's air conditioned, and at this point, with record heat in Houston, you can't get much better than that.

Pass it to me bro

Joe taking a break on the bench and talking strategy with Coach Dad

Charlie making a not-nearly-as-fast-as-it-looks break

Last week's game was the perfect opportunity to play with the new flip video camera. The first clip shows Joseph throwing the ball in to Charlie, and Charlie dribbling down court. The second clip shows Joe looking for the ball (never mind the part where he covers his head instead of going for the rebound). The third clip shows off Charlie's persistence (which, unfortunately, is not rewarded) and Joseph "stealing" the ball. The next clip (look quickly!) is Joseph's basket. The next clip is Charlie dribbling down, shooting, and getting his own rebound. The next one shows Joseph running all around the court and making his defender work. The last clip is Charlie's basket.

Clearly, you can see that there are very few calls made by the referee in these games. Still, I think they are doing pretty well! These are my progeny, and they are playing sports! And, did I mention the air conditioning?

Wordless Wednesday