Not in it…ON it… this morning.

I ordered Baby Bjorn ones from Amazon and they came yesterday, so we opened the boxes this morning and the kids were having fun playing with them, sitting on them, using the little bowl part for hats, etc. I decided to let them be diaper free and sit on them for a few minutes, but they were far more into the stand up – sit down – run around game. Avery is a pee bandit – she goes anytime she’s naked, so I took her into the bedroom to get a diaper on. Alex came running down the hall a few minutes later and stood in their door saying “Uh-oh, Uh-oh!” Here’s the rest of our conversation.

Me: What?
Him: Butt-butt. (and grabbing his penis) Uh-oh.
Me: (thinking he pooped somewhere…lovely) Show me where.
Him: Uh-oh, butt butt. (takes my hand and leads me back to the potties)
Him: (pointing) Pee pee.

Sure enough, there’s a puddle right in front of the potty, and the outside of it was all wet. At least he knows what it’s for, I guess. I’m not remotely trying to train them yet, just thought I’d like them to get used to potties, play with them, etc. Buying diapers for 3 kids is going to be a fortune, so the sooner the better. But I can already see that trying to train 2 at a time is going to be very interesting!

As previously mentioned, here are a few pictures of the new family mobile.  So far we’re loving it and I think Jen has gotten used to the size as compared to the 4Runner.

Avery is talking up a storm these days, and she’s decided that every word she knows sounds better with -y at the end. So we regularly hear Beary, Daddy, Mommy, Poohy, shoey, go-ey, and of course, no-ey, among other things. The sad thing is that I find myself now putting -y on the ends of words, and I really have to watch myself when I speak to adults! She also is fond of saying “Hey You!” when she sees us, and “P.U” when you take her shoes and socks off, which sends her into fits of giggles. She sat on the potty for the first time ever yesterday, and while nothing productive happened, she was definitely proud of herself and didn’t want to get down. She can tell us when she’s about to poop by saying butt-butt and grabbing her diaper, so I feel like I should at least give her the opportunity to try the potty if she’s willing. We won’t be pushing the issue, though.

Alex is starting to talk more as well. He’s into taking role, which Avery did for a while too. When we get him up in the morning, or from a nap, we have to go through this conversation:

Dada?
Daddy’s at work.
Mama?
Mama is right here.
E? (his name for Avery)
Avery is in her crib.
Woof woof?
The doggies are outside.
Dada?
And so we start again. It’s cute, in a monotonous sort of way.

He’s also spent more than a few minutes in time out in recent weeks. He’s starting to hit when he’s frustrated. So far, it seems to work – he’ll sit there and look forlorn, and give a nice sorry pat to whomever he hit when he’s allowed to get up. He’s just like his Daddy, too – loves to help out, clean, and organize. He can follow multi-step directions, like to go pick something up from wherever and then throw it away. Yesterday we were working on cleaning out our storage room and he picked something up and trashed it before Don and I ever saw it, and throwing away good things is something I always get on Don about. He lives to have a mission to accomplish!

Whenever we park the van somewhere, they both say “doh” (door) and wait for them to slide open, which is cute. It’s hard sometimes to know what to count as words for them though. They both know a ton of animal sounds, but they cannot name a single animal other than an occasional duck. If you point to a cow and ask what it is, they say Moo. Same with a sheep, snake, chicken, horse, etc. And so many things sound alike without context – they can do initial consonants for almost everything. For Avery, “mee-oo” can mean Mickey Mouse, milk, or cat. “Pee-oo” can mean Little People, Pooh, poop, or PU (like something stinks)… “bah” can be bath, ball, or bear… Thank goodness they know how to do a few signs and gestures or frustration on both ends would definitely result. Life is mostly easier now that they can communicate better with us, and it’s very cool to see where their thoughts are at times, although it would be nice if they were as fond of saying yes as they are of saying no!

Thanksgiving turned out to be a beautiful day in every way. It was 70 degrees – unheard of! We had three stops to make as we visited Don’s mom’s, my dad’s, and my aunt’s house, and Don and I were both worried about how the kids would hold up. We left home around 10 and hoped for the best. Alex took a quick catnap in the car while Avery stared like a zombie at the Tigger and Pooh Christmas Movie playing on the dvd player in the van. “Poohy” seems to be her favorite thing to see on tv these days, along with Elmo and Mickey. As an aside, I don’t know how those marketing companies do it, but these kids who have so few words even for the most common things – they still say “woof woof” instead of “dog” – but damned if they can’t say Pooh clear as day, and Avery calls Micky “Me-oo.” She doesn’t even watch tv every day. Genius…

But anyway, both kids were happy to pose for pictures as they destroyed Grandma’s condo – driving (wrecking) her model car, smelling (picking and shredding) her flowers, etc. Grandma was very understanding and it was a nice visit. Then it was off to my father’s. We did our best to time leaving Grandma’s place at naptime so they’d sleep in the van, but they didn’t.

The kids had a blast at Bop-Bop’s house. They managed to eat twice, steal his new Hess truck, dump the dog’s water bowl all over the kitchen floor, and take the dog for a walk around the block. But it’s clear that Dad and Nancy love having them around, even if they are into everything in sight. My dad finally understood what I meant when I told him that his house wasn’t childproofed. I wasn’t so much talking about safety as the million and two objects that are on display within their 3 feet of reach height-wise – fun stuff to throw, move, climb on, rearrange, etc.

Finally we headed to Jimmie’s for dinner. Both kids slept on the way there, which was nice. Jimmie’s remodeled house gave them plenty of room to run. I think Alex’s favorite thing was her bird, Houdini. He terrorized the poor thing all day by running into its room and yelling “Tweet Tweet!” at the top of his lungs. The bird was upside down, rocking its head back and forth within a few hours. Dinner was exciting – the kids were definitely hungry and put on a show. They each ate probably as much as Don did – turkey, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, corn, biscuits, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Avery was a little too distracted by it all to really eat at the dinner table, but Alex cleaned his plate quickly. He decided the cranberries were his favorite food ever, pretty much, and ate Avery’s and Don’s as well. Then he got a little nuts and started throwing food, so Don cleaned him up and put him down, then took Avery into the kitchen where she sat on his lap and finished her dinner. By dessert, they were ready to melt down from all the excitement. We left right at bedtime and they snoozed all the way home.

It’s funny how different this year was from last year, when they were still pretty much little lumps who just tasted a few bites of pumpkin pie. We are so blessed to have healthy, smart, funny babies who make us laugh and smile even when they are driving us crazy. We couldn’t help but think of next year, when our children will outnumber us. More craziness, but even more to be thankful for as well. Life’s good.

We’ve started our November album and uploaded our pictures here. We’re off to have our first family photo taken today for the holidays. Wish us luck!

The halfway point for baby 3.0 has come and gone. Jen had another bi-weekly sonogram and our boy is still doing great. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to make all the sonograms that Jen has had this time around due to work and babysitter constraints. It is nice though to see the pictures and know that he’s growing like a weed in there.

From what Jen says and I’ve felt this little guy is super active, especially at night. Part of the power behind his kicks may be this long femur that they caught on the sonogram at Jen’s appointment this week.

He actually looks like a little Karate kid in this picture. He probably just finished delivering a crane kick to Jen’s belly. If he’s half as active when he comes out as he is inside Jen’s belly we may be in big trouble when he teams up with his older brother Alex, who is already trying out some wrestling moves on Avery (which she doesn’t find amusing, at all).

It’s funny because this baby coming really only seems 100% real when I lay next to Jen and occasionally feel him kicking. At that point I quickly start thinking how hard it’s going to be and how I don’t know how we will manage everything. But it doesn’t take long for me to get to thinking about how wonderful Alex and Avery are and how much fun they have, and the fun we have with them. And it makes me excited to add another member to the gang and think about how much fun Alex and Avery will have with their new baby brother.

You can see all of the sonogram pictures for 3.0 here.

Here’s a clip of the kids eating yogurt with spoons. This is the first time they were really successful in using their spoons.  They’re getting better and better with utensils, it’s neat!

Jen took the kids to Picture People on Friday for some pictures. Here are the ones that we purchased. I scanned them in so the quality is I guess about as good as it gets. Unless maybe really expensive scanners do a better job, I don’t really know.

I really like this one of them together:

These pictures make them look so much older. Our little babies are growing up!

This Halloween Alex was a dragon and Avery was a duck. They definitely grasped the concept of costumes and that they meant something fun. When you asked Alex to go get his costume, he’d quickly come back with one or both parts of his dragon costume (we called it a dino costume since he’s into dinosaurs). It was especially funny on Halloween night when close to dark he came into the living room holding his costume without anybody even mentioning what the night had in store. It’s like he just knew.

Here’s a cute shot of Alex making what looks like a dino “grrrrr” or a dragon roar (I think actually he was in the middle of whining, but still looks authentic):

And here’s a good shot of the two of them in costume on Halloween. The only way Jen could get them to sit still was to give them both a lollipop. Even though they had it for a total of maybe 5 licks, avery managed to make a mess of herself and have it roll down the front of her costume.