Big Boy tooth

Caleb and I were talking at the kitchen table before bedtime and I noticed somthing looked different in his mouth. His big boy tooth was coming in on the bottom. His excitement was SO adorable.  He was holding his fists tight and saying 'YES!' over and over again.  It was almost as if it was an official right of passage into big boyhood.  This was clearly a big deal to him and no one could take this away from him. 

Red head rage?

A lot of people ask me who rules the root and I'm not exactly sure because all of my kids can pretty much hold their own. This video is an example of something that happens often and this time after listening to the fight for several minutes I decided to document the experience to share with everyone.

Cohen and Cecilia are fighting over the weed eater. At one point in the video I tell Cecilia to stop and that was because she started to bite Cohen. They are not big biters, but occasionally they will lash out on the other person and sometimes they even bite what they are trying to get. I only tell you this because when Mark watched it he said 'wow, you really tried to stop her huh?'.

The video stops when the doorbell rings and everyone ran upstairs to see who it was. The weed eater was left behind and forgotten.

Updates on the kiddos

Caleb-Caleb is soon to be 6 an couldn't seem more grown up. He loves school and seems to be doing well also. Don't get me wrong we still have struggles with his school work since we try to supplement at home, but I think we are more recently in a groove with that. He knows many words, can count to 100 and identify numbers. He is great at problem solving and really thinks about what he says and expresses his thoughts well. I sometimes laugh that he is a little chatter box. He loves to talk to people about what is going on and asks lost of questions. He always seems to be listening and has the best memory when he wants to.

He has lost two teeth since the beginning of school and has two others that are really loose. I think just today that his one top tooth is about to pop through his gums. He is going to start playing indoor soccer soon and have a practice and a game each week which is a change from the hour long practice and game split. I am anxious to see how he does especially since Mark is not the coach. My hope is that there are some kids on the team that will push him to excel.

Christian-Christian is the one I refer to as the mamma's boy. He seems to always want me and is super cuddly. He loves his Christmas bear, sing-a-ma-jig and of course his blankies. He knows what pacifiers and drinks are his but tends to 'borrow' anyone's cup that have juice in them and suck it down in seconds. He is the one that drinks the least amount of milk, but still drinks a lot. He reminds me of Caleb in many ways, but in many ways not. I think he is going to me my train lover. He really likes the little cars and has been found organizing hot wheels. He still has his moments where he has to be put into time out or into his bed until he can calm down, but now that he can get out of bed he just comes back when he is better so that is nice. He likes to hug and says hug. He can be a stinker at nap time because he pretends to be sleeping

Cecilia- She is out little princess and not that we call her that all of the time I think she is going to be. She definitely knows there is a distinction between her and the boys. The other day I tried to give one of the boys a purple bowl and she flipped out and screamed 'MINE'. So now she not only knows the purple and pink cups are hers, everything else that are those colors should belong to her as well. She got a set of triplet babies for Christmas and she loves one of them, the pink one. I was worried about it getting dirty so I put one of her preemie outfits on her and she likes that. It has a hat too and she is obsessed that the hat be on at all time. Some days I think about gluing the hat on but don't. She definitely has the motherly instinct and still brings the boys their lovies when they are hurt or upset and passes milk out in the morning. She had the funnies laugh and at the same time lives up to her red hair. She will fight it out until the end. She walks with a waddle. I finally convinced her to wear these one barrettes in her hair but I still can not get her to wear bows. This is important since her bangs are finally long enough to get into her eyes. I put her in pig tails today and it was adorable. She still is very tiny and I would be surprised if she weighs 22lbs. I think she has gotten taller, but no bulking up. Not worried at all, but there is a definite weight/height difference between her and they boys, I think they are probably closer to 28lbs at this point.

Cohen-Cohen is the stuffed animal man. He took a liking to the stuffed animals that were brought out at Christmas time and still have not given them up. I think we could be a bit more disciplined about his obsession, considering he has about 30 in his bed at a time. He just snuggles in and falls asleep so he is a happy guy. But he still loves his blankies too. His hair has gotten a little darker since the summer, but also seems to have lightened a bit lately. He is out figure it outer. At Christmas he mastered the train, can play pinball by flipping the flippers even though his arms are barely long enough and can be found 'working' on things with a butter knife (which is why the second round of locks were just installed on the silverware drawer). He is a great jumper and can jump with two feet at the same time and has been able to since he was small. He is a 'mans man' meaning he loves men and clings to them when around, especially grandpas. He likes to wrestle and seems to be an instigator of such events.

All of the babies LOVE Elmo however I think they love Barney just as much. I love them all very much, but oh how they test me and my patience.

More to come because I am going to get back into this!!

I'm back

So I totally suck and hate the fact that my blog has been so neglected. I decided at the beginning of the year that I was going to update it, and even go back if I could, but I was not going to set myself up to fail either. So much has happened since August when I last updated. I have gone back and added photos and comments with the correct date, but it is just not the same. The photos bring back memories, but not the complete details which is why it is so important that I keep this current-ugh!

Life seems to have gotten the better of me since the end of August. The babies moved from 2 naps to 1 and that whole entire process was not fun. It was around the time Caleb started school and needed to be done since they were not napping in the afternoon, but I lost my hour in the am to get things done. Not that life wasn't busy to begin with, it just seemed to get worse. Constantly trying to keep them moving so they would not fall asleep all the while getting Caleb up and out the door to school and then picking him up at the bus stop just a short time later. Taking the babies places so they had a change of scenery, but not too far otherwise they would nap in the car and that would be a disaster. Unfortunately since August that has not changed a whole lot especially since Cohen thinks it is time to get up at 5am. Now he can fall asleep at 8am because he has been up for so long rearranging things in his room.

The babies can get out of their beds which makes us crazy. Yes, I still call them the babies even though they are almost 2. I could buy them crib tents, but they are 50 a pop and I need 3 so we are just dealing. They are almost 2 and Caleb was in his big boy bed by then too. Most of the time is it not that bad and we have figured out that if we sit 'on guard' in their room they will stay in bed and go to sleep. Sometimes at nap time I too nap in the rocker until they all pass out.

They are very challenging, more so now than when they were infants. When they were babies I was tired, very very tired, but they were very good babies and I was blessed. Now, they wear my butt out. It is a mental and physical exhaustion. The constant battles, constant clean up, constant control, constant correcting along with the constant fun and laughter. Most days I don't know whether to laugh or cry. As of recently we have added more locks to drawers that were never locked before, added bungee cords to gates and chairs to keep them safe, locks that were thought to be good failed and had to be replaced with newer fancier magnetic lock and now we need a key to access our utensils.

Potty training has started, I think they are ready, but I am not sure that I am. I just never thought it would happen so soon. Someone said to me how wonderful it would be for them to be out of diapers and yes if I could snap my fingers and that would happen that would be great, but this has been a total nightmare. Everyone wants to help each other and someone is flushing while the other is waiting for something to happen. Toilet paper everywhere. Concerned helpers and celebrators at the same time. Christian is probably the most ready, Cecilia is on the verge and Cohen I haven't even attempted with him but he is definitely an active participant. He has gone in the potty several times, but could really care less other than the reward. I actually moved the potty chairs to the living room since that is where we are mostly but they still seem to fight over the same potty chair even though they are EXACTLY the same. Being naked seems to work the best for them however now is the time I wish all of my belongings were covered in plastic and I didn't have any carpet. I guess just like with anything else there is probably not a 'great' time so I just have to work hard on the ones that are ready and go from there.

Caleb is still the best big brother that we could ask for. He is rough at time, but he is also very generous and caring at the same time.