Trees

We had a conversation about trees on our way home from daycare the other day.

Cory: "I like trees"
Mom: "Yes, they are very nice"
Tyler: "I like all sorts of trees"
Mom: "Yes, there are all different kinds of trees, aren't there?"
Tyler: "Yes, there are even trees in Denver"
Mom: "That's right, even in Africa there are trees"
Cory: "How many trees do they have in Africa?"
Tyler: "There must be millions"

Amber's 18 Month Well Care

Today I took Amber for her 18 month check-up. She is doing so remarkable that there really isn't much to say except that they are very impressed with her temperment and her growth. Here's a summary:

Height: 33 1/2" (90%)
Weight: 27 lbs. 8 oz. (85%)
Head: 18 1/2" (60%)

Compared to Cory and Tyler when they were 18 months (4/28/07):

Cory
Height: 33" (70%)
Weight: 28 lbs. 1 oz. (78%)
Head: 19 1/4" (75%)

Tyler
Height: 34" (90%)
Weight: 29 lbs. 12 oz. (85%)
Head: 20" (>95%)

Potty Training Update

Cory has started using the potty and wearing underwear all day with a high level of success. He still goes back and forth on what he wants to do at night, and I'm really all for diapers at night right now. One night he wore underwear and woke up and didn't make it to the bathroom in time. It severely upset him and he had a hard time getting into his day. He eventually came out of it and did fine the rest of the day. Yesterday he even went potty in a public restroom during a shopping outing. He also really enjoys being one of the 'big boys' at daycare and lining up at the bathroom door before lunch time.

Tyler wears underwear at home on the weekends and in the evenings when he thinks about it. He still wants his diaper on when he has to go poop and he will not wear underwear at daycare. I'm not sure if he's worried he'll have an accident, but I think so. He does really well at home so it's probably just a matter of time. He is very aware of the pecking order at daycare and is very sensitive to all the other boys. I think he wants to be confident he can do it before he makes the commitment away from home.

Amber, believe it or not, is also very interested in the potty. I think mostly because she wants to do everything the boys are doing. She has gone a few times, but mostly it's all about doing what the boys are doing. She does have awareness, though. I can tell when she's going and I ask her if she needs her diaper changed and she will say 'yes' when she does. I've read that there is a window of opportunity between 18-24 months and it would be a great thing to get all three done at the same time. I've also read, and experienced, that girls learn before boys.

It's such a big milestone and I can't believe that the kids are learning despite our rookiness!!

Another Picture Update

Because I just don't have the energy to write anything blog worthy. (I'm sure there's something!) But, pictures are so much better than words:

Summertime, Summertime, Summertime!

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already August 10. Where has the time gone? Where have I been? My new job has kept me so busy that I don't have any time for any of my blogging anymore. I'm bummed because as I go through my days and when I go to bed at night, I think, I have to capture this, I have to remember it!! And then it doesn't get done and then it's a week later and I can't remember anything!


So far we've had a wonderful summer. Since I got back from my trip, we've been having a wonderful time.

• We had our first camping trip with all three kids.
• Amber is growing like a weed and now attending the same daycare as the boys.
• We are slowing moving forward with our new house plans.
• We have been attending birthday parties.
• Boys are growing up and becoming quite the little polite helpers.
• My new job is keeping me busy and I'm enjoying it.
• Dad had his younger brother out and we had a mini 'family-reunion'.
• I'm going to start blogging again more frequently! (I promise, I'll try)

12 Months

So much to update now that I'm back to work and in our regular (and somewhat new) routine. The new being that I'm trying to add an exercise regimen back into my schedule. I'm trying to get up at 5AM every day so that I can exercise.

Anyway, back to the important stuff. Amber had her 12 month well check Dr. appointment today. Here are her stats:

Height: 31" (95%)
Weight: 25 lbs, 5oz. (93%)
Head: 18 1/2 (92%)

Big, healthy girl!

Precious

I can't believe our little girl is 11 months old. How did that happen. Miles said that it was the boys that keep distracting us.


I am so incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful family.

Mother's Day 2008

My sweet, sweet babies. How much I love you and how much I love being your mom. Each of you are becoming your own person and developing your personalities and how much I love each of you!

Cory

You are such a sweet, cuddly boy. I love our mornings together when I come in your room and you make up words and I say them back to you. You love to giggle at this. Then you roll around and say, "You can't reach me" and I pretend I can't and you giggle, giggle, giggle. Then you want to get dressed and go down and join everyone for breakfast.

You are a smart cookie! You know all your colors and you love to put different thoughts together. I don't know why I am so amazed at your brilliance! I try to encourage you and ask you all sorts of questions. "Hey, I have an idea." and "Don't ya" are two of my favorite sayings right now. You know what a grader, a loader, a dumptruck, a scraper, a roller, a tractor, a combine, a backhoe and a snort are. You correct me when I'm wrong.

You are starting to say, "I can't". This bothers me probably more than it should. I know you can do anything you put your mind to and I don't want to do things for you and ruin your self esteem.

You are a born leader. Everyone likes to follow you. In a new situation, you just jump right in and are in the middle of it in no time. You and your older cousin Kyran like to help Bumpa with the planting of the garden and both of you run around together. You are very careful and make sure that you are safe in the parking lot and around the streets.

You like to cuddle and I love our time together. I love you so much!

Tyler

You are such a gentle soul. You love your brother and you especially love your baby sister. I have to help you learn to be more gentle with her because you like to hold her and want to pick her up. She lets you do it because I think she loves you just as much.

You are a little shy in groups, but once you survey the situation, you are comfortable anywhere. You are a tall, handsome little boy. I worry about your teenage years because you are not afraid of anything. You go all out and are very focused. When you put your mind to it, there is nothing that you can't do.

You are such a good sharer. You like to give Amber toys to play with and you will give her your DeeDee (blanket) if she seems upset. You will give Cory a toy if he's crying about it and you have it. You like to bring things to me and help around the kitchen and the yard.

You are so smart! You know all of your colors and you can count to 8 all by yourself. You love to play Sudoku and you can draw little circles inside all the squares. You are very organized and can line things up very neatly, although you mostly prefer to dump toys all over the room.

You challenge every fiber of patience in me. I hope I can be a good mom for you and guide you in a positive way. Sometimes you don't want anything to do with me, but if I go away, you want me right back. I love our cuddle time together.

You are a quiet leader. You are a quick learner and others follow you just by your very nature. You have a quiet determination and a nack for getting things done.

I love you so much! You are my precious boy.

Amber

At 10 months you are starting to really let us know your opinions. I think you've realized that with both your 2 1/2 year old brothers, you need to start voicing your opinion. You have been such a blessing and so wonderful to take care of.

You love your mommy and get upset every time I leave the room. We have had a wonderful time together and I love having you around. You help keep us grounded. You really don't like to cuddle that much, but you want me right there by your side.

You are very sweet and very independent! You never did very well with us feeding you baby food, you went straight to the solid food your brothers were eating. When you were just born last summer you would cry and I would hold you and bounce you and nothing worked. When I set you down, you were happy.

You are crawling and getting into all sorts of stuff. You love to be in the middle of the action and will often times get close to being run over by a flying dump truck or fire engine.

You are very forgiving of your brothers and will let Tyler poke at you and try to pick you up. Tyler and Cory make you giggle and you love watching them.

You are my precious girl. I love you so much!

Great Weekend

I'm having trouble finding the time to post right now. I'm also having trouble thinking about what to write. There is so much going on for us right now. Working through the personal and closer relationship with my parents as they continue to provide care for the boys 3 days a week, getting through the city process so that we can start building our house and working full time. Also the pressure to try to write about something interesting. Although I know that I'll love coming back to read these pages years from now when the house is done, the kids are moving away and my parents are needing more care from us.

We did have a wonderful weekend. The boys are growing so fast and are starting to communicate with each other. Instead of just talking to us and including the other, they are actually asking each other questions and playing together. I had no idea it would take 2 1/2 years to get here. I got the video camera out a lot over the weekend and did get to catch some of the fun conversations. What a kick.

Amber continues to exert her presence on us as well. She is crawling all over the place and pulling things out of the cupboards. I wonder if the boys have communicated that to her in their own way...

I will try to post more often. I haven't forgotten about you, my blog, but I'm having trouble fitting you in. I will be back again soon. Maybe today or maybe tomorrow.

Crawling

Amber has been scooting across the floor on her belly for several weeks now. I realize how dirty our wood floors continually are! I guess I can at least blame the boys...

Every day she would get up on all four, rock a bit, then plop down and scoot. She wiggles her legs and feet and looks like a fish out of water. Both Cory and Tyler scooted before they crawled too. Tyler started crawling pretty quickly, but Cory had the army crawl down so well, he could zip across the floor almost as quickly as Tyler. I think he finally saw that crawling was more advantageous and got up to crawl.

Today Amber took about 10-15 crawling steps across the floor to come see me. I have such mixed feelings about these huge milestones. I love watching them grow and I can't wait until she says, "I love you Mommy". But she's our last baby and it makes me sad to see her growing up so fast.

Getting There

At Amber's 9 month appointment, the Dr. asked if she was sleeping through the night. She's not. She does sometimes, I know she can, but mostly she wakes up anywhere from midnight to 3AM for a tasty bottle in the middle of the night. I've posted about this before. It's frustrating because she's only gotten up once since the day she was born. She started out as a really easy baby, only wanting a feeding once at night from day one.

When I explained to the Dr. that the reason I'm still getting up when I was able to let the boys cry it out by the time they were 9 months old, is that the truth is I don't want her to wake up Tyler. Spending 15 minutes in the middle of the night to cuddle and feed her and put her right back down is no big deal. Dealing with a full on toddler tantrum in the middle of the night is an entirely different story. So, I've been getting up and quietly hoping that she'll eventually grow out of it. But she's not.

The Dr. thought that she's probably now just using me, or the bottle, as a pacifier to go back to sleep. She certainly doesn't need it from a nutrition standpoint. (Which is another post, she's already eating table food...). I digress. The Dr. suggested that I slowly decrease the amount of formula that I offer her in the middle of the night. If I'm giving her 6 oz., then the next few nights go to 4, then 2, then 1 oz. of water, etc. I thought that was a very reasonable thing to try and something that I can certainly do.

So a few nights ago, I decreased the amount of formula to 4 oz. She was angry when she drained it. She cried, grabbed the bottle, tried to get more out of it, threw it, then I laid her down and she put her thumb in her mouth and went right to sleep. Good. :-) About 4 days of that, then I decreased her amount down to 2 oz. on Saturday night. Again, she was really mad at me, but when I laid her down, she went right back to sleep. Last night she peeped a little bit, but went back to sleep. I didn't have to go in at all.

I know this won't be the last, she'll probably wake up in the middle of the night again, but I feel like this approach is working for us. If she wakes up again tonight, I'll give her the reduced 2 oz. again. I'll do that for a few more nights, then go to water.

A friend of mine said that when she gave her baby water in the middle of the night, she never woke up again.

After we get Amber straightened out, we'll have to work on Tyler. He's getting up anywhere between midnight and 4AM to come sleep the rest of the night in our bed. I don't have the energy to focus on both in the middle of the night, but once Amber is sleeping, Tyler will have to sleep all night in his own bed.

9 Months

Amber had her nine month appointment this week. Again, she's still tracking right in between both Cory and Tyler at their 9 month appointment.

Amber
Height: 28 3/4" (85%)
Weight: 21 lbs. 11oz. (90%)
Head: 18 1/4": (96%)

Cory (9 month appointment on: 7/27/06)
Height: 28" (40%)
Weight: 21 lbs. 1oz. (55%)
Head: 18 1/2": (85%)

Tyler (9 month appointment on: 7/27/06)
Height: 30 1/4" (97%)
Weight: 22 lbs. 14oz. (75%)
Head: 19": (>97%)

Sudoku

This is a quick post because I don't have a lot of time right now, but I wanted to get some thoughts out since it has been so long!

The boys like to play Sudoku at night as part of their nightly ritual. They will pick a page, "This is a good puzzle." And then start to fill in the squares. Cory likes to scribble over the whole puzzle and Tyler likes to make little circles in each one of the squares. If they see a finished puzzle where I've had to make some changes by scratching out a wrong number, they'll ask "What happened, Mommy?"

I think we need to call Mensa or something.

Wednesday Wisdom

I had so much fun writing down quotes from the boys, that I decided that, as long as I can, I'm going to include a list of wisdom on Wednesdays... Here's this week's list:

• Hi Tyler, is there any room for me? [Cory wanted to sit in the moon car with Tyler]
• Where's the convertible, Mommy?
• What's up there Annie? [Asking the dog why she's looking up into the tree. Annie spends most of her day staring at the squirrels that run along our back fence and then up the tree.]
• I've got it in the other hand so Amber can't reach it.
• My birthday is in October.
• Daddy has a pink shirt on. [Dad refuses to call it pink, but Cory nailed it.]
• Look at these cute knees. [Tyler playing with Amber with only a onesie on.]
• Santa's a boy.
• Mommy's not a boy.
• I'm a twin. [First time I've heard that acknowledged.]
• Look at this truck. It has black wheels and green wheels.
• It didn't snow last night. [Tyler looking out the window and noticing no snow on the ground. The day before, it had snowed and I pointed it out to him.]

A Weekend Full of Wisdom from Two Amazing Toddlers

Here is a list of quotes taken from C & T over the last weekend:

• Mommy, you get 'em, Daddy won't get 'em, he's reading a book.
• I think I'm done working Mommy.
• This is heavy Mommy. [Mommy: Do you want me to carry it for you?] No, I don't. I'm very strong with this.
• I'm checking this out.
• The dogs can't lick the beaters because they don't have hands. Only boys have hands. Dogs have four legs. On the front and on the back.
• Cars have wheels on the front and on the back... and some lights on the back.
• Because I like this.
• Because I was born in Texas. (Um, no you weren't...)
• Because I was born in a hospital. (ok, yes, you were...)
• [Daddy: What do you think about my bike?] I do think about it. A lot.
• That's a big bite Daddy. (yes, it was!)
• Daddy missed the fox.
• Mommy can't say cooperation.
• This is not a democracy.
• Applesauce isn't for eating. [Mommy: It's not?] No, it's for lunch.
• I'm teasing Bumpa.
• I made Amber laugh.
• I made Amber giggle.
• There's a bumper on the front and on the back.
• Okey, dokey.
• Daddy didn't park very good.
• I actually want a BIG pony. (my emphasis)
• I did.
• This isn't our street.
• Go home.
• Don't say that to me. (I can't remember the context on this one.)
• These are pliers - then I pinch your nose.
• Yes, it IS a cactus. (his emphasis)
• It ran out of D volt batteries. (huh?!)
• Thanks, I do want some of these. What are these called? (M&Ms)
• I actually like these.
• That's an air compressor.
• That's a shop-vac.
• I think it doesn't fit. I think it's too big.
• We're out of gas. Bumpa had to get gas.
• I'm situated.
• I turned the vacuum cleaner on. (uh oh)
• Don't worry, man.
• This car can fit under my house.
• There's a white chair in the house.
• There's a corner for my nose. (about time out)
• Bumpa and Grammie have a white truck. and a red truck too.
• This car is too big for this hole.
• Up and down on the track.
• This is a Honda motorcycle.
• Ha ha ha, we made the funny ghost laugh.
• We can't break these tools.
• I don't bang it hard, I bang it soft for you.
• Let me spin this backwards.
• Put it back together. (This one is a common one. Even when they shattered the back window on our truck...)
• Will you change me? I have a poopy.
• I want a cracker-cookie. (Girl Scout Thin Mints).
• We need to eat 'em or Annie will get it.

I can hear them say all these things with the cutest little voices.

Infant B

Amber moved up to the Infant B room at daycare yesterday. I remember when the boys moved up -- it was dramatic, stressful and final. I couldn't believe they were already ready for the bigger infant room where babies were crawling, pulling themselves up and some were walking! They were eating solid foods and interacting with each other. They were getting ready for the toddler room. I was tearful.

With Amber it was calm, inevitable and celebratory. She's not crawling yet, but she's rolling around to get what she wants. She's sitting and reaching for toys. She's very clear about what she wants and lets you know. She enjoys her friends. She's getting ready for the toddler room. I was joyful.

I think the difference is that I've been through this before. As much as I love each stage, I know what else is coming for her and I'm excited for her. She wants to keep up with her brothers, she wants to be mobile, she wants to stand. She can stand on her own if I pull her up and give her something to hang on to. I've had thoughts of her skipping the crawling stage and going right to walking. It wouldn't surprise me. She watches her brothers and she wants to keep up.

Last night the boys were chasing each other around the kitchen island. I was holding Amber and she was following them with her eyes and giggling and laughing. She would lunge out and I know she wanted to be running around with them.

But this is still bitter sweet. As much as I want her to be able to walk and keep up with the boys, I don't want her to skip her crawling stage. I'm not ready for my last baby to become a toddler. Such mixed feelings, but also excitment about the future. How fun this is getting!