Resolution

These past few months have been admittedly lame for this little blog but hopefully not for the subjects it describes. While I feel badly that I haven't been good at maintaining it, I suspect I'll feel worse in five years when I'll be looking back and will be frustrated that I have little recorded of these busy, wondrous days. Thus I have two New Years' resolutions, one pertains to school and this other to this blog. I resolve to post here every Saturday or Sunday evening for the next year. As this is the first Saturday of the New Year, I am bringing you the first post. Presently, we are traveling down to Charleston to visit the aquarium. H woke up this morning with requests to go the beach. He's been pleading for a beach trip for a couple of months now. Usually it's accompanied with requests to go in Mimi and Poppa's car (the coveted minivan) and to wear bathing suits. Alas, we're packed into the Pilot (not the Odyssey) and there aren't a pair of swim trunks in sight, but we are nevertheless headed down to Isle of Palms beach and to the amazing South Carolina aquarium in downtown Charleston. So far the drive has been peaceful- B spent the first 45 minutes taking apart the CD holder. Deliberately, removing each CD, inspecting it and then handing it forward with a request to play 'Dat One!', he managed to removed all 56,000 CDs and we now have a large pile in the front console.

H has been admiring the large army vehicles that we overtake on the highway. 'That's a loud truck,' he appraises impressed. In other H anecdotes, I've been saving this little one for some time. Mimi went on a trip to Italy with fall with her coworkers. H repeatedly queried as to Mimi's location during her week long absence. 'She's in Italy. That's across the ocean- very far away. She's no doubt eating spaghetti [and probably drinking copious amount of wine],' we told H. Meanwhile, Kate (our lovely new au pair) arranged a playdate with the little girl down the street and her nanny, Emily. When they showed up at the house, Kate introduced them to H. 'Emme-ily' H said slowly then he took a long look at her, 'You are very far away. Across the ocean.' It took us a moment, but apparently, Emily and Italy sound a lot alike.

Update: We've returned from our Charleston trip- a whirlwind 9 hours in the car, 2.5 hours at the aquarium (90% of which was devoted to assuring H that we'd go see boats! and the beach! soon), 1 hour at the beach, and 1 hour at our favorite pizza haunt. As we drove away from the aquarium on our way to the beach (finally), H announced, 'We don't need to go back to the aquarium again... ever!' Geez, that was money well spent.

And now for a few pictures…

Brief update

I feel badly that I haven't been able to update you all on the happenings around here. Things have been busy but the boys are still being their ever mischievous, delightful selves. B & E cleared the two year milestone and H continues to be charming. I have pictures of their birthday party somewhere; to mention of Miss M, who is growing at a rapid rate. While I think it's lame of me to post without pictures, I wanted to assure you they're on the way and I should have some up by the start of next week...

Turkey Tell-All

Greetings from November. I am happy to report that we are all present and accounted for- despite some ear infections (yes, I know! with tubes and everything...) and some dissention in the ranks (our junior officer has been grumbling an awful lot lately... there is not enough cheese in Wisconsin to accompany the whining we've witnessed).

I'm not exactly sure why we're not the house of joy at the moment. It might have a little to do with lack of sleep. Thanks to colds and subsequent coughs, Little E has been having trouble catching his breath. Though he must hoard it, saving it all until the middle of the night to let out pitiful (yet blaring) pleas for 'Daaaddeeee' at 12 2 and 4. And he does sound like a little old man- a wheezy, phlegmy. pneumatic old man-- but despite those fog horn wake up calls, he is in good spirits most of the time.

B has his good days and his 'I'm in danger of being put up for adoption' days (only joking... of course). He also has been battling an ear infection and sinus infection. And to top it off, also has time change and antibiotic induced diarrhea to contend with. He really hates the time change as it messes with his nap schedule fiercely. Poor guy- but when he isn't beside himself in a puddle of two induced tantrum, he is busy germily loving all over his sister- he is certainly her most loyal subject and prides himself in prewetting all of her pacifiers before they touch her lips.

After reading over this, I'm beginning to think that my children may have inherited their ability to whine from a near relative... Oh dear-- in truth, this post is a reflection of present daily life- full of complaints, germs, exhaustion and most of all humor. The humor helps of course (so does the coffee) and despite the colds and the tantrums, we've been out to quite a few places recently: the state fair, the natural history museum, local parks and malls. This may account for some of the colds, but I'll be blaming school instead. The little boys are talking-- this of course allows for more verbalization of discontent- but that's a huge improvement over a horrific, toe curling tantrum. E even manages to give orders at this point, 'No, I want you to do it!' It comes out a little garbled, but clear as bell to me and A.

So as I said, we're into November with December on the horizon. Promises of new colds, hopefully another set of ear tubes, and the Holidays are in the future. We're looking forward to spending these quality moments with friends and family, probably giving them something to be thankful about (like their own homes), and to sharing a good laugh. All I can say is bring on the Thanksgiving wine (err I mean Turkey...)!

Recap

October 2008 on Vimeo.

The No No Game

Sometime in the last few months, E became two. While he still has another month before we can celebrate his birthday, E has embraced the two with fervor. His favorite words, though he knows many, are simply: 'No.' and 'MINE!' H never encountered this stage. In fact, he still uses the word 'mine' incorrectly as he thinks it should be 'mys' following the logic of 'yours' and 'hers'. Thus, such stereotypical behavior rarely has described our boys but E is breaking the mold.

Lately, he answers all question initially with a 'No' if he likes the sound of it, or if he feels that perhaps we didn't hear him, he'll repeat it a few times for good measure. 'No! No nonono' with some vigorous head shaking thrown in for emphasis.

And he also has developed a new game for himself. As he is winding down after a long day, trying to fall asleep, you can hear him talking to himself in his crib (the soliloquy goes something like this):

E [looking up at the pictures on the wall, querying the room]: Wass that?

[long pause for sucking on fingers]: Is it a doggie?

[lightning fast response to himself]: No! Nonono! Is it a duck? No! No! NO.

Is it a bird? [when clearly it is a hummingbird that he's pointing at]: No! [chortle chortle]

Somehow, A and I find this mightily amusing. Though I suppose it will start to become irritating soon enough. Hopefully, he'll have moved on to something else by that point.

the m show

We get a lot of questions as to how the boys are adjusting to M. Not surprising I suppose since we got a lot of questions beforehand in regards to whether the boys were looking forward to M's arrival. H was really excited about M- from her birthday, her sleeping in his room, to having a gurl [his way of saying girl]. The little boys were oblivious.

H was also a little apprehensive, 'M is coming. She won't bite me?'

'No no,' we reassured, 'she doesn't have teeth. '

I'm not sure if this stems from B taking an occasional not-so-loving chomp out of his brothers or if instead it is simply H's way of processing impending danger (as he frequently looks for reassurance that various objects and/or people won't be biting him... 'That fish can't bite me!' ).

Regardless, H is excited. But somewhat surprisingly, so are the little boys. B and E are ever running around yodeling 'Baaaaaaabbbyy!' And chortling with delight at catching a glimpse of her. There has been much inspecting of head, hair, ears, nose, hands and eyes. A ritual that involves one the boys pointing out M's parts and then follows detailed pointing to everyone else's parts in the room. M's ears, Daddy's ears, B's ears, E's ears.... and so on and so forth. It is particularly cute the first time and then a little tedious as are most 2 year old's rituals. :)

Other than that, M continues to make nary a peep (yes, I know these halcyon days are numbered). She is a stellar nurser and tires herself out with all her eating. Simply said, we are enjoying her and her brothers immensely.

the much anticipated arrival of Miss M

EWT
7 lbs 12 oz
20 in

Miss M was born at 6:02 yesterday (October 2). We arrived at the hospital for our induction at noon after several delays. Things started out slowly. While we waited for my pitocin drip (the medication that brings on contractions) to be started, A read to me. My mom joined the party around 1:30 and the pitocin spiced things up at 2. Being an old hand at this induction thing (haha), I requested my epidural immediately. Not for pain, but because my doctor won't break water until the epidural is inserted. Since waiting for the anesthesiologist was the longest part of the twins' induction, I opted for sooner rather than later. The epidural team was quick and efficient; my water was broken at 4:15. Alas they must have put saline in the epidural at first because my contractions were feeling intense. By 5:15 I had gone from 4 cm dilated to 6. Yes, a lousy six. The doctors wisely suggested calling the anesthesiologist back in to increase the dose a touch. Viola that did the trick. At 5:40, I booted [kindly directed] my mom out of the room to find the nurse and the doctor. Shortly thereafter, little M made her way into the world. It was an extremely rewarding and straightforward birth.