Stuck in my head on repeat

i

Why Does the Sun Shine?
I just love TMBG.  Seriously.  Adore.



And looking for the vid of it led me to this version, the original.  I am smitten by it's charm!  I'm totally looking for that at the library.

Four year olds say the funniest things

 

"Hmmmm . . . I think we need to go to Maliformia."

--- TJPS, looking at a scrap of fabric that he is using as a "map" during some heavy-duty concentrated play with Diego this afternoon.

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"Me and Diego have a TON of grandmas and grandpas!"

--- Truen, on the phone with his Grandma O. this past week.

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"I don't want to call him Stinky anymore . . . I just want to call him Babezilla."

--- Truby, in all earnesty, last week.

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"Mama, did we butcher Thunderheart...?  That is a chicken I used to love."

--- Truby, checking in about Thunderbird, his favorite hen (though he mixed the name up with a mama-bear in an audio book that we recently listened to).  We didn't butcher her, we sold her, which comforted him.

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"I was outside sniffing the air and it smelled nice and wonderful!"

-- TJPS, on a crisp October morning.

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"Take this away...  I is full and the bugs is not!"

--- TJPS, refusing to finish a donut his Daddy brought home for him.

Blowing out the candles on his 4th birthday,
Wearing his favorite "bowling shirt".

Dada: "Yuck!  These aren't sweet enough.  What a disappointment.  Here."  (Hands a Charantis melon to Truen, who is notorious for feasting on half-ripe melons of all kinds.)

Truen: "This is your fruit, so it is your problem to eat it."

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Truen: "My poop is yellow sometimes when my tummy hurts."

Diego: "My poop is black!"

Truen: "It's camouflage poop!"

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"My name is Truen Pun'kin Julie!"

--- You know who, this summer.

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It's been awhile

Oy.  Time flies.  Especially with my three bouncing boys.

Since my last post, Schtinky has started walking with purpose and intention.  He is now using it as his main mode of transportation.  Wow.  Amazing.  Especially since I feel like he should still be a sleepy newborn; but instead is he catapulting towards toddlerhood, and fast.

He's so cute, like a little drunk Franken-baby.  He can pivot in mid-stride and just this week he walked right over the vacuum hose without missing a beat.  Un-un-un-un.  He is obsessed with the stairs, climbing in general, and stray banana peels.

Meanwhile, Diego is obsessed with dalmatian dogs, specifically Pongo and Purdy and all the pups of Disney's 101 Dalmatians.  He is also pining for fish.  Fish, fish, fish!  "Alice, I like fish," he has said to the lady at the front desk at our library.  His two goldfish are not enough, he wants more.  His two goldfish, incidentally, were named by Truen and are called Orangey and Goldy.

Truen is intrigued by our dwarf orange and lime trees, snow and winter, pollination, and his "fruit book". Sound like anyone familiar? His daddy, I wonder...? He still needs to nap every day and is officially wearing 3T now that he is four years old. I love his little chipmunk smile and the way he says "I want a snee-ack, Mama".


Blaine and I are simmering down into late fall/early winter.  There isn't as much work to do, which is a blessed relief, but we've found that we both feel like we don't know what to do with ourselves. 

It is a strange sensation to not feel the pressure of "what needs to be done next".  Sure, there is still plenty of work to do, especially catching up on basic indoor maintenance, deep cleaning, organization and the like.  But it isn't with that same pressing urgency.  It is quite refreshing, though we are a little restless. 

I am hoping to melt into a relaxing, snowy winter.  It already feels so nice....

Mrar, then mrarweeeee!

It's been a rough week.  I feel like I'm still suffering burn-out from the mania of this fall.  I look around and see nothing but messes and work that needs to be done and re-done on a daily basis. 

Our house is a stye and my little babe sits in the backpack while I battle demon housework.  And in my brain, I wonder: shouldn't I be sitting and playing with my baby? shouldn't I be enjoying that little guy? all my little guys??  But if I did . . . what would we wear? and what would we eat? and wouldn't I feel all the more upset with the piles of junk and filth everywhere?

I'm sure it is more of a feeling than anything, because we did sit in the sunroom this afternoon and played Babezilla, where the boys built towers of blocks, then unleashed the fat, sweet, baby-talking monkey-do on it.  And then laughed and laughed and laughed.

Arise ye fool!  Up from the quagmire!

A few LIFE NOTES --

• Eating with a 10 month old is like trying to tame a cantankerous caveman.  It's all hollering, pounding, and exuberant signs of "more" mixed in with clunky, fat hands shoving the food into a little slobbery mouth as fast as he can.
• He's so cute, he really is.  Jamie is doing all kinds of funny things these days.
• He will fight his brothers for something if/when they try to take it away.
• He signs "more" and "milk"
• He hollers through diaper changes more often than not.  And tries to get away.
• He plays peek-a-boo.  Really!  He holds his shirt or a clean diaper up in front of his face while I say, "Where's Schtinky?" and then flops it down in his lap while I say, "Oh! there he is!" over and over again.  Precious.
• He likes to clap and say, "yayyyyyy", though it sounds more like, "ahhhhhhh" :)
• He puckers up his lips and makes whining noises.  To be cute and funny.  No joke.  I thought it was a fluke but he keeps on doing it and it becomes more animated by the day.
• He loves his daddy.  He wants to snuggle with him as soon as he gets home and often lunges for him if/when he hasn't seen him for awhile.
• He is OBSESSED with the shower.  It is an almost-daily tradition for the boys to shower with Blaine (I don't know how he stands it) and Schtinky has joined the ranks.  He will make a bee-line for the shower when he hears it turned on and will lunge towards it if/when I am holding him in the bathroom and they are in there.  Loves it.  Loves. it.
• He is standing by himself for several seconds at a time.  !!!
• He loves walking behind the little push-car and laughs happily the entire way across the living room.
• He also loves his brothers, who I call his "brudders".  His brudder and his udder-brudder.  He gets super happy and wiggly whenever they enter on the scene.
• I can always tell when he is intrigued or excited by something when he is on my hip, because he immediately starts paddling his legs and starts rocking up and down.
• Diego said his alphabet 100% correct the entire way through.  Yesterday.  For the first time ever.  He was pretty pleased with himself, as he should be.  And I was very proud. ♥
• We have started formal "schooling" of sorts. 
• I worked with Diego on his numbers this summer while the other two were sleeping, mostly because numbers seemed easier for him right off the bat.  He is counting, reconizes the basic numbers, and can do simple math.  I used combination of cards from a number-match game and buttons for manipulatives.
• After this fall, I've realized our school year is going to run from October through May or June.
• Within the last couple of months I've started getting serious about a structure for the beginnings of reading readiness.  He has never shown much interest in the ABCs and I was always just kind of waiting for his interest to ignite casually.  Nothing much has happened, so now that he is six, the waiting game is over. 
• Each week is a different letter: Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, and so on.  This week is Gg.  I keep the Gg flashcards on the table on a prong-thingy so they can see the front and back.  Think, "g-g-g-gate, and g-g-g-garden".  Both boys are excited about the picture, though Diego is also interested in the letter itself.  Over breakfast we talk about all the "g" words and ask them to point out "Big G" and "Little g".  Throughout the week, I have him practice writing the letters he's learned on the chalkboard or on paper. 
• It is going very well, I am rather pleased.
• Truen, I realize more and more with each passing season, has a very hard time with change. 
• This is something I don't relate to at all, but have started getting a better understanding for as I get older.  Change is hard at times.  But for this little guy, it is hard ALL the time. 
• A prime example.  This morning, I put applesauce in with their oatmeal.  (I actually try to mix it up all the time -- raisins, honey, maple syrup, etc., but we haven't had applesauce for while.)  Truen came in, saw it, and immediately started wailing, "Wahhhhh!  I didn't want applesauce in my oatmeal!" like he was traumatized. 
• I had him sit down, told him that while it is different than he is used to, he might just like it, so he had to try it.  By the end of the meal, he was proclaiming, "Mama, I want applesauce in my oatmeal every day!" with his spoon in the air. 
• Uh huh.  Change.  It can also be good. 
• (We'll be working on that.)

So yes, life is good.  I love my little boys, even when the going gets tough.  (And the tough get going, right?)

Zee boys

 Diego has had a lot of fun setting up his "shop" this fall.

He organizes the vegetables so beautifully, doesn't he??

He has even "sold" several items to his Gramma --

And as you can imagine, it pleases him endlessly.



 Truby is a sweater guy this fall.

He wears them almost every day . . . so cute.

He also has a rotating collection of small stuffed animals

that he totes around and lavishes affection on.

I can't remember this one's name, but

his other two favorites are "Honey" and "Berry".

Talk about meltin' a mama's heart. ♥

Oh Schtinky.

I love your fat little ankles. I love your little tippy-toes.

He was very interested in the bark of this tree.

Which reminds me.

I found a CATERPILLAR in his poop last week.

The second worst thing I've ever found in baby poop.

The worst thing ever?

A watch battery.  Last month. 
GAK!!!