14 Months and Ready for Spring

Left to Right: Liam, Charlie, Luke, and Jack. This was taken at the Dome where I mentioned in an earlier post that we like the play. Luke and Liam are with our best friends Jack and Charlie watching the driving range on the other side of the soccer field. They cheered for this older man everytime he would hit the ball as if he was a celebrity and he thought it was hilarious!
AJ riding the infamous Mickey Mouse Car (one of Luke and Liam's favorite toys at the same age). In fact, I almost threw this little car out a few times since we had such a hard time sharing it!

I think I have hit my limit in terms of winter weather this week. It seems like the forecast is always for temps in the 20's and the snow seems to be never-ending. Generally, the cold and snow really do not bother me, but I think we are ready to play in the yard again! Luke and Liam are interested in getting bicycles after seeing some other friends ride bikes so we are getting ready to get outside. Aiden is all over the place and becoming more and more active and interested in whatever his brothers are doing. He will be 14 months old on March 2 and is not quite walking all the time yet, but he walks a little and then drops down to crawl. He is quite the picky eater and lets us know when he does not approve of what we serve for dinner. I am posting a few random pictures from the week. Enjoy!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Yep, that's AJ. At 13 months, he has already learned how to climb up on the shelves!

Aiden enjoying his popcorn and juice just like the big boys

Movie Night!!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Until recently, Luke and Liam really had no interest in watching television whatsoever and that was fine with John and I though it would provide a nice little bit of "down time" occasionally. However, they have started to really show an interest in the movie Toy Story. We started out buying Toy Story 3 and turned it on once and they were done in about 5 minutes or so. We tried it again about a month ago and they loved it. We have now purchased Toy Story 1 and 2 to go along with #3 and all of them are great movies. It probably helped that about half of our friends dressed up as either Buzz Lightyear or Woody for Halloween this year so the boys keep seeing these figures and they recognize them. Luke got a Woody for his birthday and Liam got Buzz so now they fly around holding Buzz and Woody screaming "To Infinity and Beyond!" We have already broken the legs off of Buzz by throwing him off the stairs thinking he was going to fly, I guess?

One night last week we decided to have our first official "movie night" so we made some popcorn and put in Toy Story and the boys loved it! I know that children who are Aiden's age are probably not supposed to eat popcorn, but if anyone has any suggestions as to how to do keep him away from the popcorn that the rest of us are enjoying, then let me know! Aiden sat with his bowl in his lap just like his brothers and ate every piece of his popcorn as if he did this all the time!

Mr. Mischief

Happy Valentine's Day! We got a Mickey Mouse card from Aunt Barbara and Uncle Ed and made some Mickey "panpakes" too.
Liam waiting for his Mickey "panpake"

Hey Mom, are you watching?
Here I go....

Up, up, and Away!

Luke and Liam at the Dome

Aiden at the Dome

More Walking!

Aiden seems to know he can get away with all kinds of mischief when I am busy. This has been especially true recently when I am helping Luke and Liam with potty training. Aiden loves to turn the t.v. on and off, climb the stairs, play in the toilet water when the bathroom door is left open, try to pull the phone off the coffee table, etc...He always turns and laughs at me while shaking his head as I say "no-no."

Several people have asked what we do all winter in an area that has snow on the ground and is so cold for many months of the year. Well, we try to stay busy as much as we can. It is really impressive how much there is to do in this area. We have several open gyms that we enjoy going to on occasion. We are a little limited with the timing of these due to Aiden's morning nap, but we manage to make at least a few of them. One of them is a huge soccer field with a big dome over it. They put several large blow up jumping things inside along with balls, goals, tunnels, and all kinds of things for the kids to do. It is specifically for preschool age children and is also relatively inexpensive. It is a great way to burn off some energy when you cannot play outside! I am including a few pictures from our week with Aiden climbing the stairs and our visit to the Dome. Enjoy!

Pee...Poop...Laundry...Eat...Sleep..Repeat

Friends Forever! Our good friends Jack and Charlie were nice enough to play with us last week while we were stranded at home! We were all getting ready for bed in this picture. (Left to Right: Liam, Charlie, Luke, Jack, and Aiden)

All Star AJ

Pee...Poop...Laundry...Eat...Sleep...Repeat. That pretty much sums up last week. Due to a somewhat last minute business trip, we braved the potty training without John last week. We started right before John left for Germany and Belgium and staying on top of things was not an easy task. I quickly discovered that we would not be going anywhere since it was far too difficult to take three small children into a public restroom and expect good results. So, we practiced using the potty and wearing "big boy" pants and in between that we did lots of laundry. After a little over a week, we are getting the hang of this and getting a little better at knowing when we need to potty. They still have to be told to potty most of the time, but it is getting a little better. Going to the public restroom, however, probably won't get easier until Aiden learns not to dig in the toilet or trashcan! We took lots of baths last week as well.

Aiden started taking a few small steps over the weekend. He is very similar to Liam in his walking. Both Liam and Aiden have taken a little longer to walk even though they have the ability to do it. They both use their push toys to get around and can coast around the room on the furniture without a problem.

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.