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!