Here’s another video from Alex and Avery’s 4th Birthday from Uncle Bill.

Here are a few videos from the Twins’ 4th birthday party last week.  Photos to come shortly.

Happy Birthday Songs and Candles being blown out

Piñata smashing

Wow, it’s spring already.  How did that happen?  As usual we’re staying busy and have lots going on.

Alex and Avery are close to wrapping up another year in preschool.  Both got great comments on their report cards yesterday and have grown quite a bit this year in class.  Avery really seems to have come out of her shell and made many efforts to make new friends and play independently without Alex.  Alex’s teacher pointed out how much Alex loves to tell stories and how he’s quite the socialite.  The twins are both set for a 3 day a week all day program, which should be good preparation for transitioning to kindergarten after that (wow, I can’t believe we’re almost there!)

Adam, who spent almost as much time in Alex & Avery’s classroom as they did, is set to start his 1 day a week 2 year old program next year.  Considering how many activities he participated in this year with Alex and Avery in their class, I feel like it will already be old news for him when he starts his own class next year.  I’m definitely anxious to see how he does by himself in a class without his big brother and sister.

I believe we’re just about done setting up all the camps and VBS sessions for the kids this summer.  We’re trying to get enough things lined up where they have things going on all through the summer but also want to be sure that they do get to enjoy some time off at home too.  Hopefully it all balances out well and they have a great summer!

We’ve got Alex and Avery signed up sports this summer.  Alex and Avery do a soccer clinic now but it’s really not a team and game type environment.  They’re having fun now and learning some good skills.  This summer Avery will start the 4 year old soccer league and Alex will start the 4 year old flag football league.  They both chose what they wanted to play and Alex was especially psyched to play football.  Both sports will keep us all extremely busy with soccer having 1 practice a week and football having 2 (@ 1 1/2 hours a night).  Both kids will have their games on Saturdays.

Leaving the elementary school cafeteria where we signed them up last Saturday I quickly realized that Jen and I just made ourselves extremely busy for probably the next (10-12 years of our lives!)  While I’m sure it’s going to be hectic at first I’m very excited for them to get started and can’t wait to put some miles on the new camcorder we got a few months ago.

As for non-kid news, we’re right in the middle of having our backyard debacle fixed.  Our old retaining wall (which failed and fell) was taken out, the patio was removed and they’re about halfway done rebuilding it all.  We have a cool new design for how things are going to work back there and are adding maybe a total of 500 square feet of new patio/walkway area in pavers.  Both Jen and I are excited for it to be completed so we can get the pool open and start to get ready for the twin’s birthday party in less than a month.  I only pray that we can get the pool open and ready by then (it’s going to be close).

Lastly, a big part of the reason we don’t post as much on here is that we do much more “microblogging” on Facebook these days.  If you want to follow either me or Jen on there feel free to friend us on there.  If you can’t find either of us on there feel free to email me and I’ll help you out.

Here’s Mr. Cool Alex in his Thanksgiving day clothes (click for larger image).  More can be seen here in the November album.

Yes everybody, this is what my 3 year old son has been obsessing over for the past few months.  For whatever reason when we got a Halloween costume catalog a few months ago THIS is what he decided he wanted to be.  A Garden Gnome.  For a second we were relived that the biggest it came in from the catalog was a 2T.  Then this week while shopping at Walmart Jen saw it in bigger sizes.

So, Alex got his “Gnome Guard” and he will be a happy boy this Halloween.  Crazy kid!

You have to love the mind of a 2 year old boy.

Yesterday as I was getting the twins ready for their nap, or maybe it was up from the nap, I heard Alex say pee-pee. He had a run a couple of weeks ago where he decided he wasn’t potty trained anymore, so I’ve been more alert than usual for potty words. He was sitting in his bed, and I asked him if he needed to go, and he said, “No, my flying monkey pee-pee on my milk.” He has this toy from a Happy Meal Pop-Pop got for him:

I asked how his monkey was peeing on his milk. He held up the monkey and showed me. The monkey’s head was turned totally backwards so the wings and tail appeared to be in the front. The tail didn’t look like a tail from that angle. And sure enough, my son said, “See? There his penis, pee pee on my milk.”

Then there was the incident two weeks ago when we were headed into a store, and Avery and Alex were getting out of the back of the van. To do that, they have to sit down and hang their legs over the bumper before jumping down. Alex was first and Avery sat down behind him a little too quickly, accidentally kicking him in the back. As we were walking in to the store, with both of them holding on to Adam’s stroller like good little angels, Alex unmistakeably looked at Avery and said, “Aisy knuckle sandwich.” His usage was a little off – he was calling her a knuckle sandwich rather than offering to give her one, but I realized it’s definitely time to start watching what I say around them!

After Alex went over the crib again last week and limped for three days, we thought it best to either put on the crib tent or convert his crib to a toddler bed, which meant just removing the front and replacing it with a small rail to keep him from falling out. So Saturday morning, Alex & Daddy brought out the tools and put on the rail. We also gated his room off so even if he opened the door, he wouldn’t have the run of the house. Here’s how the transition went.

Saturday: Nap was perfect, and so was bedtime. He climbed right in and stayed there. I was beyond shocked that it was this easy.

Sunday: Just like Saturday. So I was thinking this was going to be a breeze. No adjustment issues for MY son.

Monday: Nap was great, but somewhere around 2 a.m. it finally occurred to him that he could get out of the bed whenever he wanted. Like 2:00, to pee. And 2:10, to say he had to poop when he didn’t really. And 2:15 to open and close the bedroom door a few times. And 2:17 to play with books and stuffed animals. By then I said forget it about getting up and putting him back in bed – let him play and he’d eventually fall asleep, be it in the bed or on the floor. But I was tired, so I went back to sleep.

Tuesday: Woke up around 7 and stood at his door, saying “Mommy? Mommy! Assah wake!” Another good nap. And finally, a night when it took him a while to fall asleep. I am not remembering anything in particular, but I am sure he didn’t just stay in bed at bedtime.

Wednesday: Alex woke a little earlier than usual and knocked the gate down to come into Adam’s room and tell me he was awake. I made a mental note to tighten the gate. Naptime was fine. Bedtime was nuts. We could tell he was probably out of bed, but were letting it slide. Finally, at around 9 I went back in to tell them both to stop giggling and go to sleep. I found Alex sitting outside Avery’s crib, laughing, and Avery sitting on top of every freaking book they own. He’d thrown three little crates full of books into her crib. Oh, they thought it was hilarious. She couldn’t have gone to sleep if she wanted to – there was no mattress even visible. So I cleaned them out and put him back to bed and told the kids to GO TO SLEEP!

Thursday: Alex woke before 7. I snuck into the shower and planned to get him once I was clean. The gate was extra tight to prevent him from knocking it over. So, showing great ingenuity, he hauled over a chair and must have stood on it and gone over the gate, because he greeted me in the bathroom, and the chair and gate greeted me at the door to their room. Lovely, no worries for broken legs there, right? (Which is what the whole bed thing was about in the first place.) No nap because we went to the zoo. At bedtime, they were so exhausted, they did pretty much go right to sleep. But at 8:45 or so, Avery cried out, so I went to check on her and damn near stepped on Alex when I went in. He was crashed out in the middle of the floor with his binky in his mouth, so I moved him back to bed and he stayed there.

I cannot imagine trying to do this with them both at the same time. For now, I am thankful that their new pet fish, who live on their dressers, haven’t been upended in his wanderings. I’ll worry about Avery being in a bed in, oh, a year or so. And Adam will never have this transition because at this rate, he’ll be sleeping in a swing til he leaves for college.

No, we’re not wasted away in Margaritaville. But a mom can dream…

Earlier this week, we had a playdate at a friend’s house and rushed home just in time for a quick lunch for the twins. Adam was very tired, so after plunking the twins down at the kitchen table with some munchies, I took Adam to his room to feed, rock, and put down for a nap. It’s a quick and easy job when he’s so sleepy, maybe 5 minutes. And the twins are used to eating on their own at that table while I deal with the baby. They’ll wander in with messy hands to tell me if they need something usually.

In hindsight, I should have known it seemed too quiet in the kitchen, I suppose. But I enjoyed the peace and time with Adam. I walked back into the kitchen ready to wipe them off, hit the potty, and do the naptime routine. But I found piles of salt. Everywhere. Like a whole shaker full. On the floor. On their plates. On the table. On their clothes. On their hands and faces. In their hair. Oh, and they were sooooo pleased with themselves. And they were already headed for a late nap even before the mess.

“Who did this????” I asked.

Avery proudly replied, “Avery and Alex did this!” Huge smile. She was thrilled.

Alex added, “Assah needed peppah sauce.”

Oh, well, that explains it.

The real problem is that the salt shaker had been clogged. And I clearly remember last week when Don went to salt something on his dinner plate, found the clog, and cleared it. A little too well, I guess.
Lesson learned.