Bedtime Outburst

Truman is generally our best behaved kid when it comes to bedtime. Dinner ends, and he might play for a bit, but he is usually asking to "do all the things". That means that he wants to do everything to get ready for bed (brush teeth, read books, maybe the occasional video game), and he is generally willing to go to bed shortly afterward.

Tonight, James was taking Amelia to a basketball game, so it was just me and the boys. Shortly after dinner, Truman was already asking to "do all the things", so James offered to put him in bed before he left. He put him in bed, left, and I stayed with Jameson and Darwin downstairs.

About 30 minutes later, as I am preparing to take Jameson upstairs to bed, Truman pokes his face through the 2nd floor stair rails and yells, "bring me downstairs!". I am surprised to see that he's still awake, but I try to reassure him that I am on my way upstairs to bring Jameson to bed. He breaks down, falls into a fetal position, and starts crying. I pick him up, and I tell him that if he lays down, I will get him a drink.

As Jameson brushes his teeth, and I return with a drink for Truman, which seems to satisfy him for the moment. For a few brief minutes, everyone is at peace as we lay down to read a couple of books. Then, I declare it's bedtime.

Everyone is quiet as I lay down with Jameson for a few minutes. Truman begins grumbling that he doesn't want to go to sleep, but I am so tired I am fading in and out of sleep. A few minutes later, I wake up to more Truman grumbling, except he is escalating it now to yelling and threats, fairly out of character for him.

I ignore him at first, just listening to what he's saying. I wanted to be mad because it's late, and I still have to get Darwin to sleep. Then I really started listening to what he was saying, and I wanted to laugh.

In his angry stream of demands and threats, he orders that I "say something to [him], don't say something to [him]". I think that's his way of telling me not to talk to him. He demands the same about 20 times. When I don't respond, he begins to bang on the sides of the crib. (Yes, he's still in a crib due to our temporary living arrangements). I can tell that he likes the loudness of his foot banging on the wood panels. He bangs harder. Then he begins to throw out his threats, "I'm gonna break this bed!", and I can't help but giggle to myself.

"I'm gonna break this bed and then we don't have a bed!" I am still laughing on the inside, but I tell him to cut it out, and that it's time to go to sleep. He grumbles more threats under his breath, and I tell him I am going downstairs to get Darwin.

When I return with Darwin, Truman is still awake and continuing with his complaints and threats. I turn on the bedtime music, and this finally seems to settle him down. He is asleep before I can get Darwin to sleep, and I laugh as I remembered his angry little threats and how far we've come from the calm, quiet, agreeable Truman of days long passed.

So What If It's Not Father's Day

After a long blogging hiatus, I needed something like Father's Day to pull me out of my rut. Sadly, I missed the actual date, but I am still compelled to write my "Father's Day" post. After all, there's no reason we can't celebrate Father's Day any day of the year.

In this household, I am the one that fails to plan for birthdays, anniversaries, or any other special occasion. James is far better in this department, and the kids know it. Apparently, Father's Day deserves more hype than I planned. Jameson told me on Saturday (our chosen day to celebrate) that 'Dad gets to sleep late and eat breakfast in bed'. I told him that we were making cards, and he told me, "We have to make more plans than that". Like I said, I usually fall short in special event planning. Jameson was right. Our family owes James more than that, but James was happy to sleep in until 10:30 and eat a cold bacon, egg, & cheese biscuit in bed. The beauty of men is that they are simple creatures.

Well, I might have missed the actual day, but that does not make James's role in our family any less special any other day. Every day I come home to happy, healthy children (and maybe a cooked dinner) is another day I am thankful for everything he does for us. I know the children concur.

They each have their special bond with their dad, and it's always cute, sometimes even funny, to see it in action. For instance, one of Amelia's favorite rituals is to ask to hold his finger whenever we're in the car. Yes, it sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it's still kind of cute. I am not sure how this strange request ever came up, but I am sure one day she will laugh when I tell her that story.

Jameson's favorite pastime with Dad is definitely video games, specifically Mario Galaxy (or the more recently released Mario Galaxy 2). Strangely, Jameson doesn't even care to play so much as he does to WATCH James play. I'm not sure why or how it works, but Jameson loves to have some video game time with dad.

Truman's favorite time with Dad is just about any one-on-one time he can get. Truman is so good at independent play and is so low-maintenance (usually) that it's easy to just let him do his thing. He's happy to play on his own, but he loves it when James roughhouses with him. He will squeal in delight and his legs buckle when he's laughing hard, startled, or excited. Truman loves to curl up on the couch with Dad, his cup of milk, and a good cartoon.

Darwin is the latest addition to this rowdy bunch. He's no longer happy to sit back and watch all the fun, so he is demanding to get down and do what the other kids are doing. Like all those before him, Darwin is a big fan of Dad. I know James was happy to finally have one of our kids say "da da" before "ma ma".

Okay, so I'm a bit late with my "Father's Day" post, but is there ever really a bad time to say thanks, James, for being without question the best dad and husband possible? I don't think so.

What cakes?

It looks like we might actually be selling our house. We even have a closing scheduled at the end of the month, so at the risk of jinxing our potential sale, I bought our neighbors a gift. On my way home from work tonight, I stopped at a cake bakery, and I picked up a box of delicious cupcakes. We have one set of great neighbors. You know - the kind who mow our grass, snow blow our driveway, and cook for us after we have another baby. Anyway, they're great, and we will miss them. A box of cupcakes is just a small gesture.

Well, I couldn't go and buy cupcakes for our neighbors and not bring some home for our kids. I brought them cupcakes too, and I got them a few "cookie monsters". After dinner I handed out the cookies monsters, and Truman, as usual, devoured his. A short while later, after running about 30 or so races from the front door to the couch, Truman decides he wants to eat again. He says he wants more "cookie monter". "Sorry, Truman, but Mom just has cupcakes", I tell him. With his cute as always "Yup", he agrees, he wants "buttcakes". "Yup, buttcakes"!

Turdtastrophe

Yup, pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Good times - they went something like this

This weekend after feeding the twins lunch, Amelia tells me she's "poopy". I pull her out of the high chair and start to move her toward the floor, when I realize that she hasn't spilled juice or chocolate milk all over her pants. 'Great' I think to myself, and we head upstairs for a bath. I got her all cleaned up, and we headed downstairs thinking that was the last of the messes to clean up.

I set her down, and notice the kitchen and sunroom smell funny. I look at Truman and notice he has a toy and what appears to be poop smeared all over it. "James!" I say in disbelief, "There's poop all over the place!". James scoops up Truman and heads to the bath. I survey the damage.

In no less than 2 minutes, Truman managed to poop on the floor, smear it all over his toys, step in it, and leave about 40 poopy footprints all over our area rug. We had a showing scheduled for the house the following day, and I decided that the only way to take care of this mess quickly and decisively is to roll up the area rug and throw it out. That's exactly what we did, and even though we're down an area rug, I don't regret it one bit.

I know Truman didn't feel bad about this one. Somehow he managed to keep a clean diaper, and his pants were still on. I know he was thinking 'You guys think you're so smart with your backwards pj's. I'll show you.' He's like the poop Houdini.

Throwing Truman

I finally decided to do something with some of the videos from my camera that I had been keeping on disc for several months. This one dates back to January of this year, and we happened upon Truman's funny leg reflex when James was throwing him up in the air one day.

No Time

If you can believe it, I just finished up some work. Although working late at night has been rare while I've been pregnant, I used to be up at least one night a week until the wee hours working on some spreadsheet or another. The strange part is that I don't hate it. I will, however, hate getting up in a few hours.

I have been wanting to post an update of the kids since that's why I started this blog after all, but between, work, pregnancy, and the kids I don't know how anyone can find the time.

Without selling them too short, let me try to get this done in 5 minutes.

Jameson manages to make James and I laugh about something he does or says every day. He is full of words, and he says a lot of unexpected things. When I went to pick him up from school today, I looked in and saw him talking to one of the little girls, very involved in whatever he was telling her. Later tonight when I was giving him his bedtime snack, I asked him what he was talking to her about. He responds without diverting his attention from his cartoon, "I told her how I went swimming and drowned.". That was it - no more explanation. I laughed at his unexpected response, but I'm not sure why I was surprised. He is a lot of fun, and I love to see how he is a bit of his dad and a bit of me - makes for a funny combination.

Miss Amelia is Jameson-in-training. Interestingly, she is also full of words, although many of them incomprehensible at this point. Every morning she wakes up with usual call, "Dada, Dada, Dadaaaaa", and I think it helps James get out of bed when I tell him it's time to get up and get the babies. She is saying a handful of words, but she is great with communicating with hand signals and looks. She has a really expressive face, and she demands a lot of attention. I know I am going to have my hands full with this one, but the good thing is that she is going to tell me what she needs early. She is very affectionate, especially with her brothers and loves to give hugs and kisses.

Truman is developing a stronger personality lately, throwing fits when you try to feed him as he insists on feeding himself. He doesn't try to talk as much as Amelia, but he does have his own way of communicating. One day, we will have to record some of his "talk" since it's nothing like how Jameson and Amelia (so far) started to communicate. He is very sweet, loving, and ridiculously strong. He has been climbing everything in sight for months. I can barely carry him since he knows exactly how to twist his body when he wants to be put down. Considering that his head probably weights a good 5 lbs., he's not exactly easy to control. He is very mechanically-inclined that my dad might just get that engineer he's hope to get. He loves books, and he will study them for a long time, but he loves food and naptime even more. His temperament is like his dad's, which is both a good and bad thing. He is so laid-back most of the time, but he will, rarely, have an unexpected outburst for some unknown reason. Then I'm stuck trying to figure out if he's sick, or if he's just angry or frustrated. It's hard to tell since he doesn't do it very often.

I have a handful of pictures/videos from this weekend that I will sift through and post over the weekend, but we are having lots of fun with our kiddos. They are exhausting, and many days I think I may lose my mind. Those moments always pass though, and somehow it's so much easier to remember the good moments. It's easily been more than 10 minutes now, so I better get some sleep if I'm actually going to show up at work tomorrow.

Truman's First Volley

I come from a soccer family. My brother played for a top Division 3 university and coached at the university level. I played D1 soccer and grew up playing club soccer and olympic development soccer. My sister, like me, played all her life and choose not to continue playing the university level, despite her ability. My father played for the amateur selection for the Mexican National Team before he moved to the states. For many years, we talked mostly about soccer. I do not hold out any aspirations for my kids to be soccer players, but I certainly will not oppose it. My brother and father, on the other hand, I think can't wait until my kids are old enough to get them started.

Here is Truman's first volley. He seems to be enjoying it.

Why I'm Awake at 6:00 a.m.

The babies are all asleep, at least, now they are.  The dad is back to sleep.  I am still awake recovering from the shock of waking up to hear my baby bounce off the step I use to get into our bed (yes, it's that tall, or I'm that short) and roll onto the floor.  I heard a very small amount of crying, and I woke up like a madwoman yelling, "James, he fell out!".

I know.  Judge if you'd like, but we co-sleep with the babies.  No, not because of some crap I read in a book about co-sleeping and its supposed benefits but because I'm tired.  I started doing it with Jameson because I just couldn't keep waking up 3 or 4 times per night to nurse the kid after the first 5 or 6 weeks.  Jameson and I never had an incident; however, I do remember once waking up in the middle of the night to catch him before he rolled off the edge.  Unfortunately, I am sad to say that Truman broke our safety streak this morning.

At about 5:30 a.m., I heard a head conk against the wooden step we have laying next to my side of the bed.  I then hear a baby roll onto the floor, cry for about 3 seconds, then silence.  I dart out of bed scoop him up, and yell at James.  In my eternal clumsiness, I then rush toward the bathroom and trip on a chair on my way there.  Don't worry.  I caught myself on the loveseat before hitting the ground with my already injured baby.

I turn on the light, and there he is, just smiling back at me.  He has

 a red mark on the likely impact site, but he is totally alert and happy (no surprise there).  I apologize to him about 100 times, and James scolds me about letting them sleep in the bed.  I acknowledge my negligence, but I also inform him that I cannot get up 7 or 8 times per night to feed the twins and get them back to bed.  I promise not to let them sleep on the outer edge, and I will limit the sleeping capacity to 1 baby in the bed at any time.

Two hours later, I am awake and thankful that my baby is okay and back to sleep.  I am blessed a million times over, and we are all so lucky.

Who's Your Momma?

It seems that Truman definitely knows the answer to this one.  For about 4 weeks now, he has been making this "ma"-like noise when he gets very desperate for food.  Today, the word "mama" actually came out of his mouth.  I know he's only 5 months, and you probably think I'm crazy but James can back me up on this one (except for the "mama" part since he's out of town).  I ran over to see him since he kind of caught me off guard, and he gave me an open-mouthed smile.  It still melts my heart when I know my kids are happy to see me.

I thought I would get this "first word" down in writing since JJ started saying "mama" at 6 months, but I never wrote down the date.  I must say that I'm a bit surprised that Amelia was not the first to utter a word.  I was certain she would be first.  That just goes to show you that your children will never stop surprising you.