We had a great Christmas with our families. We did Christmas Eve with the Castanheiras and the day after Christmas with the Rycrofts. That left Christmas day for just us, and we relaxed and let the kids play with their presents.
Kids slept till 8 and waited patiently to take a picture before opening presents
Elsie and Lana
It is so sweet how she looks at Lana
cousins
Santa came!
she loves figurines and playing pretend with them
playing with his excavator
one for each so there's less fighting!
opening their power wheels
love that Jimmy put this on their etch a sketch :)
playing with their new toys
Christmas family selfie before bed
Now that the kids are chatter boxes, and hold full conversations with you, themselves, and each other, we've overheard some pretty funny exchanges.
(While I was putting Sammy on the potty)
Elsie: Danny come and play with me.
Danny: no response
Elsie: Daniel I said come and play with me
Danny: NO! you come play with me!
Elsie: oh ok and runs over to play with him.
My mom shared this one with me. Sammy had a poop accident in his underwear and my mom rushed him out of the living room into the bathroom, she was cleaning him up when she hears...
Danny: Grammy! There's poop! I clean it!
Grammy: No! Leave it Danny! Don't touch it!
Grammy is in a panic but unable to leave poop covered Sammy. Luckily, when she went back in, Danny had listened (which in itself is a miracle) and pointed out where it was, but hadn't touched it.
Preschool is going well. Kids are really surprising me with all the stuff they are learning. They are identifying a lot of letters in the alphabet, singing lots of songs, using lots of new vocabulary.
They love to sing. This is new, and a complete 180. I've been trying to get them to sing songs for the past 2 years, and not only were they not interested they would yell and scream when you tried to get them to sing. Especially the alphabet song. They would listen to me sing a song to them, but zero participation. I think the peer pressure from preschool has played a part in this, and now they realize they enjoy singing. They sing everything, songs from TV shows, on the radio, nursery rhymes, muffin man, old macdonald, knick knack paddy whack, london bridge, even chirstmas songs like jingle bells and santa claus is coming to town. But hands down the #1 fan favorite to sing around here is the excavator song. It's on you tube, and is actually pretty cool. Here it is.
Danny must sing this 20 times a day. I took a video of the beginning of the month him singing it. I need to get one now because he knows all the words and sings it without it playing on the tv. Sammy is really starting to know the words enough too that he is spontaneously singing it as well. Elsie knows all of the words and must out sing her brothers at every turn.
Elsie trying tongue twisters
Sammy likes to sing and dance
She is so competitive. Her new thing is she has to go first. The boys acquiesced for a week or so, but soon it became her shoving them out of the way to go first, so now she goes last until she can show some manners. She definitely thinks she is the boss of 'the boys' as she calls them. She says 'Boys! Come sit at the table for lunch' and 'Boys! let's play in the fort'. It is constant reminding her to 'worry about herself'.
We are definitely in full swing of 'being 3'. By being 3 I mean saying no, not listening, doing exactly the opposite of what you ask, screaming, fighting, hitting, kicking, and throwing toys. Also, by being 3 I mean dancing, singing, laughing, playing, sharing, I just wish the percentages weren't 50/50 and more like 80/20 of the good stuff. Wow, they are making for some long days. I get why all the Mommy wine memes are out there, at 8 pm I'm ready for a bucket of ice cream or a stiff drink. At least I'm getting my exercise walking them upstairs all day for timeouts. UGH. Can't wait for this phase to pass. I feel like I'm yelling as much as I'm playing with them these days.
Danny's favorite line right now is 'you come snug me'. I love hearing him say it 'Mom, you come snug me?' He loves to snuggle. He likes to tell you he loves you, and rub your arm, or your back, give you kisses. He tells me if Elsie comes and snugs him in his bed overnight, and the other morning he told me he liked it when she comes snugs him. Another line he likes is 'that's crazy' or 'you're so crazy', which is funny because he is the one being crazy these days. He loves to ride his bike like Evil Knieval. Call him Danny danger.
so proud of himself up there with his bike
ok this video is a little long, but so captures what my day is like right now. the first part is Danny trying to ride his bike off the chair, then the last minute is him and Elsie fighting over who can let the dogs in. At least at the end you can see that as soon as I start counting, behavior improves. But the struggle is real. And constant.
This video = also long. But again a very good capture of our lives. The kids are into this whole I was in Mommy's belly thing, and now Elsie even puts things in her shirt and talks about it.
this video is short and sweet. and so Danny.
Sammy loves forts. But he wants his own fort, which is difficult with 3 toddlers. He definitely likes his own space. He grabs his 'blue nuggy' (he has a dozen security blankets, but the blue snuggy is his favorite) and crawls into his fort and lies down. He still naps when he can, even though the others are making lots of noise. And his little fort is the perfect place for a nap. Or to secretly play with a toy he has.
All 3 are totally into their tablets. We've had them for over a year, but a few months ago, they got into some puzzle apps and really liked it. Then they discovered You Tube. I can't believe all the crap on it that is geared toward kids. The good news is some videos are great and that is where we found the Excavator song. This has evolved to asking for their tablets all the time. It's become the new battle of limiting screen time.
another mom was selling these uggs at a bargain price, she was ecstatic to get purple boots!
love how peaceful he is when he sleeps
just a boy and his cars
and a girl and her tablet
selfies while snuggling
building a tower together before school
loves her Elsa night gown
wanted to wear her pom pom hat with her purple boots...so it begins
hates jackets. I put 5 layers on him. This was one of those 25 degree days
notice I'm inside and he's outside. He can play out there if he wants, but I'm staying inside watching through the glass :)
Sammy really loved the urinal. And I felt it transferred well to peeing standing up into the big potty
time to decorate the tree
playing with playdoh
The kids are finally loving swimming again. Transitioning to a 'regular' swim class where it's not Mommy and me playtime for 30 min was tough. They have to listen, take turns, and try new things, all without Mommy, Daddy, and Grammy in the pool with them. The first 4 classes were torturous, but now they are excited about swimming. Hopefully in another month they will be able to listen and follow directions in the class. One step at a time.
So Penny the fairy was chewed up by Emmie. Devastating. I looked everywhere for a replacement. Then I had my dentist appointment last week and asked them if they had another I could buy. So happy they had some left! She was over the moon excited to have Penny back.
a boy and his cheddar bunnies :)
So since we came home from the hospital, Elsie's new thing is wanting one of us to snuggle her in the middle of the night. She stands up in her bed, puts her face to the monitor and says 'snuggle me' in her best Darth Vader voice. Hard to catch on video, by the time I woke up, grabbed my phone and opened video she had said it half a dozen times and was just crying at this point. Luckily she is back to snuggling with Danny now
midnight snuggles with my girl
back to crashing Danny's crib
love love love this video. lined up all his machines and names them
I had NO IDEA about urinals! I'm a few years off, but I'm going to have to remember that one!
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