Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Hide and seek at the doctor's office

When you have a twin, you have a built-in playmate wherever you go. Even the doctor's office can be fun! Unlike those boring grownups, a playmate your own age never tires of fun games of peekaboo and hide-and-seek.


"Where's Helen?"


"There she is!"


"And there's Will - peekaboo!"

We had a perfectly nice trip to the doctor's office, with two almost perfectly behaved toddlers. (Unlike the poor woman whose blog I read because she also has two sets of twins, though I have had doctor trips eerily similar to the one she describes -- but Cort doesn't believe me, because he was able to join me today and, of course, everyone was on their best behavior for some reason!) Will has two ear infections and the crud (my medical term) and Helen has just the crud, but no wheezing or anything and we got antibiotics for both (love our doctor - "Do you just want some antibiotics for Helen too?" "Why, yes, what a splendid idea!"). We should be good as new in a couple of days. Not that they look very sick in these pictures anyway.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Makes my Monday


We now have four stools in the bathroom.  I have no idea why it took us so long to do this.  Having four stools GREATLY simplifies our life.  No more crying, whining, pushing, or pulling to try to get an open spot at the sink.  It is, truly, the little things in life that make the biggest difference.  Having a full set of stools makes my day--or at least my mornings and evenings!

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Newest accomplishment


Helen has learned how to jump.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

So you think we're into football around here?



A post in honor of the end of football season this past weekend. This actually may be a good thing, since I've been seeing a few signs lately that maybe we are watching a little too much football. For example:

When looking through a picture book, Will identifies a ball, orange, onion, egg, and wheel as "ball." He identifies a football as "football."

We can only understand a handful of what Helen says, but one of her understandable words is "touchdown!" Maybe that's because she throws two hands straight up in the air when she says it.

My birthday is January 19. On January 12, Charlie told me that it was only "a touchdown and an extra point" until my birthday.

This is what Joseph did at school during "free work."



This is the scoreboard for an imaginary game between the New Orleans Saints ("N.O.") and the San Francisco 49ers ("S.F.). Note that it shows the number of points, first downs, "intersepshuns," fumbles, time outs, safetys, "saks," and just about any other statistic you could want to know from a football game.


This is Joseph's list of Texans players, with their numbers. #90 Mario Williams, #1 Matt Turk, # 37 Domanick Davis (I know, he doesn't play for the Texans anymore, but Will has to wear hand-me-downs so still has his jersey), #1 Kris[t] Brown, #12 Jacoby Jones, #20 Ste[a]ve Sla[y]ton, #81 Owen Dan[y]els, and #80 Andr[ay] Jo[h]nson.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Trouble





Can't you just tell we are in for it with her?

Monday, February 02, 2009

Makes my Monday

This weekend I had planned a girls' weekend in Austin. But I didn't realize it was the same weekend as the Superbowl. And we were hosting a Superbowl party. Oops.

So, I went to Austin, and left Cort with all the kids and all the party preparation. (And having to take the boys to a sugar-fest birthday party at a candy store, which seems like a terrible venue but that part was not my fault.) I arrived home just a little over an hour before the party started. All the food was prepared and set out. The kids had all been bathed that morning. Cort had remembered to wash the kids' bedrolls so that they would be clean for Monday morning. He had also washed an extra load of clothes so that all the kids' football jerseys would be clean for the party. And although I'm hoping the kids missed me just a little bit, it certainly did not phase them at all to be left at home with just dad for the weekend.

I know that not every woman is lucky enough to have a husband who can take care of ALL FOUR of her children just as well as she can. Many of the girls who went on the Austin trip had scheduled help for their husbands from grandparents, or planned activities for them. And none of them have four kids. But I am just that lucky. So, today, my wonderful husband "makes my Monday."

Friday, January 30, 2009

Is ketchup a vegetable?

Three of my kids are great eaters.  Charlie loves salad, and tomatoes are hands down his favorite food.  Helen can eat her weight in broccoli.  Lately, Joseph will eat just about anything, and usually ask for seconds, thirds, or even fourths.

Then there is Will.  We consider it a victory if he doesn't scream at the dinner table. For most of his short life, he has refused all vegetables, unless you count french fries. And meat, unless you count the breading off chicken nuggets.

Following the advice of the "experts," and because we really didn't want to hassle with it, we have largely let him be. And sure enough, I think he's becoming a tiny bit more adventurous. For example, last night Cort gave him a little ketchup, thinking it might encourage him to eat his fish. And he ate it, by the spoonful.





I'm definitely counting this as a vegetable.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Random things about my kids

On Facebook, which I joined a few months ago and am now totally addicted to, it is all the rage to post a note entitled "25 Random Things About Me." If you are my Facebook friend, you can see my note here.

I thought it might be interesting to do the same for my children.  Since none of them are even half a decade old yet, it seems like 25 random things is a little much.  So, ten for the big kids and five for the little kids.

CHARLIE

1.  If you name any of the Houston Texans opponents for the 2008 season, he can tell you not only whether the Texans won, but also what the score was and what date they played.  The kid is 4.

2.  As a baby, he was very, very, very, very fat.

3.  He slept through the night at 2 months.  To this day, he's a great sleeper and will often ask to go to bed if he's tired, even if we are in the middle of a party and there are tons of other kids running around and playing.

4.  When I was in the hospital with the babies, he was incredibly sweet and concerned about my well being.

5.  He looks, and acts, EXACTLY like his father.

6.  He watches nothing but sports.  If he is home sick from school, he watches old games on ESPN Classic.

7.  He's been going to Astros and Texans games--and watching the entire game with interest--since he was three.

8.  He is a perfectionist, and sometimes is not willing to try things for fear that he doesn't know how.

9.  Like most of my kids, he is very cautious.  For example, he stayed in his crib until he was over 3 and he never tried to get out.  He can also be shy around adults, although he's more social than his brother with his peers.

10.  At a little over a year old, he got involuntarily moved up to the next class in daycare because he was biting all the students in his class.

JOSEPH

1.  He was my smallest baby, weighing 4 lbs. 14 oz. at birth.

2.  When he was 2, he cut part of his finger off in a door at daycare.  In all, he has had one finger surgery, hernia surgery, three ear tube surgeries, one adenoidectomy, five trips to the ER, and three cuts worthy of stitches - one of which got a staph infection.  

4.  He taught himself to read before he turned 4.

5.  He is allergic to dogs, and we have two.  He is also allergic to cats and oak.  

6.  He has a deep-rooted fear of many things, including team mascots, the Chik-Fil-A cows, witches, skeletons, most Halloween costumes, masks, and the faces on Will and Helen's bath toys.

7.  Like most of my kids, he is very cautious.  He also never tried to climb out of his crib.  He is often afraid to try something new if it involves something physical.

8.  He has an incredible knowledge and understanding of geography for his age.  He can pick out most states on a U.S. map.

9.  He loves to write things.  He will write out entire songs, lists of sports teams, and sports statistics.  He makes his own lists, and adds things to my lists.  He spells pretty darn well, but I find it interesting how he will spell words phonetically if he doesn't know how they are spelled.  For example, he will list "innersepshuns" by the Seattle "Seehox."

10.  He is not very social, but also is not shy or self-conscious.  He easily talks to adults, but isn't always that interested in other kids.  Charlie is definitely his best friend, but he is also a much better big brother than I thought he'd be.

WILL

1.  He loves, loves, loves books.

2.  Before he goes to bed at night, he leans over to his sister, takes her pacifier out of her mouth, gives her a kiss, and then replaces the pacifier.  We have GOT to get this on video.

3.  He has strabismus, possibly due to a problem with his third optic nerve.  It is treatable, but not fixable.  He has had one surgery, and will have more in the future.  His opthamologist says he'll probably never have much depth perception.

4.  He has plagiocephaly, which means he has a misshapen head from laying too much on one side as a baby.  We opted not to have him wear a helmet to fix it, but when we made that decision it hadn't occurred to me that he could end up bald like his daddy someday.

5.  Like most of my kids, he is very cautious.  So far, he does not seem very social, but seems content doing his own thing.  He is incredibly sweet though, and he loves his brothers.

HELEN

1.  She is more coordinated than all three boys combined and was my earliest mover.  She started crawling at 6 months and walking at 12 months.  It surprised me, however, that as a girl she didn't talk earlier.  But it also surprised me how well she could/can communicate without talking.

2.  She slept through the night at 5 weeks.  Several times.  Then she didn't do it again for months.

3.  She is the only one of my children who preferred me over daddy as a baby.  She doesn't anymore though.  Frankly, she's pretty self-centered now.

4. She has wispy, fine, strawberry blonde hair.  Where in the heck did that come from?

5.  She is the one who is not cautious.  We find ourselves saying, more times than we can count, that she may be the death of us.  She likes to be in the middle of things.  In a way she is one of our more social children, but only if everything revolves around her.

Way Back When-esday


I just think this is a funny picture. I'm not sure when it was taken, but it was pre-kids, so before 2004. Tracer and Maddie are our first "kids," and until they got too old to enjoy it, we took them everywhere. This was a stop at a roadside park to feed them during a road trip.