Its a Learning Process

Skating Lessons! Luke is in dark gray/black coat with lime green and Liam is in orange coat
Luke and Liam are the two in the back

More Skating

Coloring with Markers on the Ice

Daddy and the Boys

On Friday, we started potty training Luke and Liam. We have been talking about this for awhile with them and purchased our big boy pants, bought some candy for bribes, watched a couple of Elmo potty movies, and read several books about going to the potty. Both boys were more than ready to do this. In fact, as I read a book about how to potty train them, I realized that we were already on about Day 3 of the training process. We understand the concept of going to the potty and we can do it ourselves, but we are still working on when to go to the potty. If I take them every 45 minutes to the potty, then we don't have any accidents. If we get distracted or try to go places, then we run into some issues because they don't quite know how to tell us that they need to potty.

We are also learning how to skate and finally managed to get a few pictures at our last lesson. The boys have really improved in the last two lessons. They are now standing without assistance on the ice and moving a little. The teachers are very helpful and have lots of fun games that they kids really enjoy on the ice. They color on the ice and throw little balls to get them into the lessons. The hockey helmets, by the way, are courtesy of our cousins Zach and Seth who both play hockey. The boys like putting on the gear more than anything else right now.

Aiden is getting closer and closer to walking. He is still not walking on his own, but he will stand for a second or two and is not sure what to do next. He walks behind all of his push toys and will walk while holding your hand, but has not quite taken a step yet on his own.

Luke, Liam, and Aiden all had their three year and one year check-ups recently and they are doing well. Suprisingly (or maybe not), Aiden has almost caught up to Liam's weight. Aiden weighs 24.8 lbs. (31 inches) and Liam is 27 lbs.(35 inches) while Luke is a hefty 39 lbs.(38 1/4 inches). Aiden is 2 ounces heavier and a half inch taller than Luke was at the same age.

Sunday Morning Panpakes

Aiden enjoying his Pancakes
Mmmm I love some pancakes!

Luke and Liam making the Panpakes

Taking turns helping Daddy


Our Panpake plates (courtesy of Aunt Sarah)

Do you think he watches his brothers at all?

No, I actually did not mispell "pancakes" in the title above. Luke and Liam always refer to them as "panpakes" and they love to help Daddy make them every Sunday morning. Luke, particularly, loves to "cook" in the kitchen. He is a maniac at times when it comes to mixing, flipping, and tasting the pancakes as he gets a little too excited to help out. Aiden loves to eat the pancakes and it is probably good that he has no desire in making them because I think two three year olds is about all the "help" we can handle in the kitchen.

In other news, the boys started skating lessons about two weeks ago and they are really enjoying it now. In the beginning, I think it was a bit overwhelming for all of us. We walked into the community center to what seemed to be hundreds of 3, 4, and 5 year old kids running around. It actually was pretty organized looking back on it, but we were not prepared for the chaos. Now that we are on our third lesson, the boys are warming up to the idea and working a little harder to skate on their own. They have shown an interest in learning how to skate for about a year now, but you have to be three to start actual lessons. So, we turned three on the 11th and ironically started lessons on the 12th! Parents are allowed on the ice for the first two lessons, but this week will be our first lesson without Dad to help. Mom has been entertaining AJ on the sidelines which I will say is not a fun job with all the gross wet floors and sharp blades running around everywhere! The thought of taking pictures of Luke and Liam has not even crossed my mind until now, but we will try to get a few pictures before the end of our lessons in mid February.

We are Three!

We are having record snowfall amounts this season. We have already reached the average snow amount (55 inches) for the entire season and it is still January! Snow piled up on the driveway.
Not our mailbox, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Opening gifts at the party

Luke got a Woody doll and Liam got a Buzz doll, we love Toy story right now!

AJ eating cake at the party

This is how it started....

Mmmm Cake

Lunch with pizza and cake

Blowing out the candles

Jump, Jump!

The whole gang, well sort of. Its hard to get a picture with everyone

AJ enjoyed the party

Luke and Liam celebrated their 3rd Birthday on Tuesday. We met John for lunch and then Liam had a doctor's appointment to get his cast removed. His hand is healing well; however, the doctor felt that he may have actually broken three fingers rather than one. He is still wearing a splint periodically for a few more days, but doing well.

On Saturday, the boys had their birthday party. This was our first big party with friends. We had a family party when they turned a year old and celebrated with Calvin while we were in Arkansas over Christmas. Their second birthday party was postponed due to Aiden's birth. We originally planned to celebrate with a small group of close friends on Saturday, Jan. 2nd but Aiden's arrival postponed that a few days. This year we had a party at Pump it Up with some of our neighbors and twin friends. The boys had a great time and seemed to understand more about birthdays this year. They couldn't wait for the cake and the presents!

Another big milestone was giving up our pacifiers this week. We had previously given them up with the exception of night time and naps; however, we have been telling Luke and Liam that when they turned three we would give them up entirely. Luke kept reminding us, "I am not a big boy, I am only two" when we reminded him about the pacifier date. On Wednesday after their 3rd birthday, we gave them up and the boys did relatively well and much better than expected. Luke had a bit of a harder time so I suggested we take them to Build A Bear and we would put his paci inside of a bear. The boys did not like the idea of throwing them away or cutting them off so we thought this would be a good solution. I took all three boys on Friday to Build A Bear so Luke and Liam could pick out a bear and put their pacifiers inside. The funny part of this is that when John got home that evening he was feeling the bear and trying to find the pacifiers. He quickly found Liam's, but neither of us could find Luke's though I assured him that I had watched the boys put them in the bears. On Sunday, we finally found Luke's pacifier and it was not in his bear. Actually, it was in Liam's bear! Both pacifiers somehow ended up in Liam's bear despite our efforts to do this for Luke. Neither of the boys know about it and have not really said anything about the pacifiers so John and I consider ourselves fortunate and as John pointed out, at least we only need to keep up with one bear now because only one of them holds the pacifiers! I am still not sure I see the humor in that considering the effort to get those bears with the boys.

Happy 3rd Birthday Luke and Liam!!

Brothers

AJ opening his big birthday gift last weekend


Very patient big brothers waiting for AJ to open his gift

Liam (yellow) and Luke (white) in the NICU shortly after their birth

They love their Daddy!

Liam (left) and Luke (right)-3 mo

Luke (l) and Liam (r)-1 mo

Day 1: Luke (left) and Liam (right)

It is about this time three years ago that I went in for a routine OB check-up at 36 weeks and was sent immediately to the hospital because I was already about 5cm or more dilated. The well-seasoned physician on call asked me if I wanted to have a c-section or try to deliver naturally. I told him I wanted to try and deliver naturally despite the fact that Liam was transverse (Luke was head down). He then asked me if I was a morning or night person which seemed like an odd question, but he wanted to know if I wanted to deliver the boys on the 10th or try to get a good night of sleep and start fresh in the morning. I opted to go home (it was early evening by the time we left the hospital) and come back early the next morning. We called in our friends to take the pets, packed our bags, and ordered pizza. I was having some contractions and was mildly uncomfortable, but not too bad. We left the next morning for the hospital after I started going into labor early that morning. The boys were here by noon on January 11, 2008. Oddly enough, their cousin Calvin was born shortly before midnight on January 11th as well.

The past three years have gone so fast. There are days and weeks like feel like an eternity, but when you look back it is so hard to believe the boys are already three. Although our lives are nothing like they were before we had kids, we have a hard time thinking about what we would do without them. We love their different personalities, their laughs, their funny way of saying things, but most of all we are so thankful for the opportunity to be their parents. Happy 3rd Birthdays to Luke Allen and Liam Carey Carrithers as well as to our cousin James Calvin McClure!