Happy to be healthy

No more taking for granted a vomit-free weekend.



Poor Baby J. He, too, got to experience the "winter vomiting disease," then shared it with those left standing. So, to keep track, first Michael, then Jason, Joshua, me, then Doug. Let's just say Doug didn't worry at all about the added candle on his cake on his birthday.

Now that we're all better, the baby, though thinner, seems to be getting so much looonger. He's 10 months old now, and no, not crawling, but he's thinking about it.



When the baby sees something he wants, he goes after it.



See?

Gems of the day

Today, the surprises all came out of Michael's mouth. For example, on our way home from the Y, he said, "Mommy, I need my sunglasses. The sun is burning my eyes."

Then, during dinner, we were, again, talking about the senses. The sense of taste was the focus. I asked Jason and Michael what they needed to enjoy the sense of taste. Both agreed. Tongues and teeth. We moved onto a discussion of how people look better with pretty teeth.

Michael added, "Well, Joshua is pretty ugly then. He has almost no teeth at all. Just those two on the bottom."

Why we laugh

It's no secret. We laugh a lot, thanks to our three boys. Later on in this post, you'll hear Michael's reason behind our laughter.

In the meantime, here's a good example: We were at Jason's Deli this weekend, really a wonderful place for parents with rambunctious kids. It's one of those family-friendly restaurants that allows us to bribe our children with ice cream (it is a free treat for those who choose to eat in) in exchange for good behavior.

Jason was finished with his meal, he jumped up and started hugging the baby. Joshua was sitting in a high chair, and Jason came up behind him and gave him a big squeeze. It was one of those "aww" moments, when you really thought he was bonding with his little brother. He then lifted his head up, and said, pretty loudly, "Hey, I hear him farting!!!" Giggle, giggle.



Gassy or not, the baby continues to keep us smiling.

What's also a big treat--all THREE of our boys are beginning to bond. Really. Michael actually comes up to us and tells us he wants to help feed the baby. Here the three of them are "hugging" the baby while he enjoys playing with his newly-found favorite toy. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for getting this for Jason many years ago. It has certainly stood the test of time. We checked on the baby after this play session. He was fine.



It always surprises me to hear what happens in school. They're learning and I don't even know it! During dinner, Michael started talking about the five senses. He started with taste, he talked about the importance of the tongue regarding that important sense. You could tell he was having a great time telling us all he knew. I was pretty impressed because he had something to say about each one. Then all of a sudden he says, "Mommy, Ms. Dawn says to laugh you need a sense of human." A sense of human. I still laugh thinking about it.



Thankfully, Doug also had a "sense of human" this weekend. He was a good sport during a Valentine's Day surprise. I invited a quartet of lovely singers into our home for a serenade.



We all enjoyed it!

Hope you had a great weekend!

Progress report

Today was the chance for the kids to show off. And, boy, did they ever.
At their Montessori school, Ms. Dawn tells me how great Michael is, how well-behaved, and how he is a leader in the class.

And I say, "Michael who?"



But today, I got to see the Michael she sees everyday: he is persistent, smart, and pretty disciplined.



He showed me how the "knobbed cylinders" lesson works. It's a row of wooden cylinders of different heighths, different widths, and the kids must work on their spatial relations to put the right cylinders back in the right holes. And this is where Michael was really giving it all he got. He had four rows of them, with wooden cylinders that were slightly different from each other, laid out in a square. He took out all the cylinders and put them in the middle of the square, mixing them up as he went. He told me, "to make it more difficult." He put them all back in the right spots, pretty quickly. He did great.



Jason also impressed me.
The funny thing, he always starts with a lesson on vegetables.



His job is to match up the vegetables with the typed-up words. Cauliflower, cabbage, artichokes...you know, healthy food that he vows will not touch his lips. That is, unless I can figure out a way to puree them and turn them into a potato chip.



Jason really impressed me. He is learning grammar, can tell me what a noun, an adjective, and an article is. He is adding together sequences of numbers, and he knows his polygons. We are so proud of him.

As for Baby Joshua, he wasn't thrilled to be watching his brothers share their lessons with me. Don't feel sorry for him, though. I turned around and at one point, FIVE girls were all waiting to have their faces touched by the baby.



I know we'll be sorry soon. This is Baby Joshua, on all fours, just itching to move.



Uh oh is right.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ode to the healthy

I won't take healthy children for granted anymore.

Overnight, Jason followed in Michael's footsteps, and is sleeping right now.



The absence of one brother leaves time for the other two to bond.

They both seemed up to it. Baby 'Oshie, as he is now called, was happy to sit next to our #2.

Michael was so chatty this morning. I guess he had stored up so much conversation that he couldn't share yesterday, he spent much of the morning telling us anything and everything.

I told him that we were sorry he was feeling so poorly yesterday.

He looked at me, smiled, and said, "I was just being silly."

Sick, Part 2

We had been very lucky the last few years. The boys really didn't get sick much.

The operative word is "had."

Michael woke up this morning with the "winter vomiting disease." Sounds so clinical and antiseptic. As you know, the results are anything but. What a mess.
I took this picture a few days ago. Was it perhaps foreshadowing anything for Michael? He was in mid-cough, I think, and miserable even then, for other reasons.



As we speak, my poor baby is resting in front of the television, with Little Einstein rolling on over and over and over. That rocket ship is getting some mileage today.

In healthier times, the three boys are really bonding and acting like brothers, who for the most part like/love each other.

I know in years to come if I don't write down the things they say, I will regret it. I will have forgotten these gems, but, I'll know I should have put pen to paper. This may be even better.

Jason and Michael have conversations all the time that don't include us parents.

Sometimes I'll hear them screaming at each other, "You aren't the boss of me!"

"Well, you aren't the boss of me, either!"

Then,

"Mommy, who's the boss of me?"

"Boys, that would be me."

All is silent after that.

After which, they return to the real issue at hand. "Jason, you aren't the boss of me!"

"And Michael, you aren't the boss of me, either!"

These days, if Jason isn't having these frank discussions with his brother, he's talking about Star Wars. All Day Long.

It's as if he wants us to live in a galaxy far, far away. I thought his interest would have waned, but, no. No chance.

The other day, he told me that I would be Princess Leia. Appropriate, yes. Jason told me he was Anakin, Michael was Luke, and Baby Joshua would be Han Solo.

"How about Daddy?" I asked him.

"Daddy is Chewbacca."

Nice, huh?

What's really been nice is watching the baby grow.
At nine months old, Baby Joshua is growing like a weed. Really. He's in the 80th percentile for height, at 28 inches. He's in the 10th percentile for weight, at 17 pounds. He'd enjoy those stats more if he were a teenaged girl.

He is sitting up confidently. Of course, we have to put him in that position. No complaints, though. He is not moving otherwise. He sometimes flips over on his stomach, and does the "superman." He knows he should be crawling, but, mercifully he is not yet.

The cutest thing he is doing now is waving. Understand, we don't really teach him anything. We coo at him, we kiss him, but the "lessons" we shared with Jason, or even Michael at that age--not happening. So, it surprised me the other day to see Joshua throw out his hand in greeting to someone at the boys' preschool, as if to say, "Hey!"

I thought it was a fluke. Then he did it again. He threw out his hand and started to wave his arms like a chicken. The people on our path LOVE it! And he does, too. I think our #3 is kind of a ham. He feeds off other people's energy. So, if people smile at him, he will do the same back. He is delightful.



And, as you can see, he is adding clapping to his list of accomplishments.

How can I forget our bedtime routine?
Daddy is the one to read them stories before lights out these days.

Of course, Star Wars books come first.



But, recently, Michael has started to branch out a bit. I have a book in our library given to me by a friend on getting a job in pharmaceutical sales.
And, sometimes, that is the only tome that will put him to sleep.



As I am running around before bedtime, sometimes I'll hear Doug reading to Michael, "The best way to get an interview is to be persistent....."

Super Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday was an outdoor affair--a glorious day in the 60's. So, we went to the park to get the boys tired before the big game.



Michael was so proud to climb the ladders.



The baby enjoyed some fresh air.



Jason took some time to enjoy the swings. Lately, he hasn't been able to get enough of that twisting in the swing, around and around, until he gets dizzy.




We just watched.