Colin's 3!!

Colin is so hard to describe. He is passionate and intense, so full of love and energy and very strong opinions. As busy as he is, he also lives life at his own pace. He takes 3 times longer to eat meals than the rest of us, 3 times longer to put on his shoes, or walk across the parking lot. This is a little tough since he was born into a fast-paced house, but I've accepted that we aren't going to change him.

He's also a hoarder. He hoards food in his cheeks. He collects rocks and sticks everywhere we go. He piles toys into his bed and carries around handfuls of coins. It's cute now, but in 30 years when he appears on a cable reality show about hoarding, I'll regret mentioning it here.

He has to copy everything Ethan says or does. Every word out of Ethan's mouth is immediately repeated, down to the exact intonation, 10 seconds after he says it. He's interested in everything Ethan thinks is cool.

There aren't a lot of pictures of him on this blog because in most, he is in motion or not looking at the camera, or like this one, where he's trying to open one of his presents but won't crack a smile for anything.

His two favorite phrases right now are "That AWESOME!!" and "No fair!" Except I don't think he really knows what "no fair" means, because he'll say things like, "You made dinner? No fair!" (Although maybe he's just being perceptive. There are 5 people in this house. Is it fair that I'm always the one that makes dinner?) He wanted a Thomas train cake from the grocery store that we had to visit every week. After he took his first bite of birthday cake he yelled, "Mom!! This Thomas chocolate cake AWESOME!!" So easy to please. I love it.

He loves Legos and will play in Ethan's room with his Legos alone for an hour or more at a time. Sometimes he'll come find me and say in this really cute, high voice, with his hands on his chin, "Mom, you want come play Legos me?" It's impossible to resist.

He'll just out of the blue say, "I love you, Mom." It melts me.

He's struggling with his middle child, 2nd boy role. He gets jealous of Ethan and Maddie. We try to give him lots of extra love and attention, but I feel like I'm always being pulled in 13 different directions, which I don't understand because I only have 3 kids.

He's had a huge emotional growth this summer. His speech has come a really long way after not being able to communicate well for most of his 2-year-old year. Along with it, he's a lot more mature and reasonable.

He still needs a nap more often than not, wakes up in the afternoon really rough (he gets that from his mom), and almost always has a smile on his face. He's cute and charming and sweet and I am completely in love with him.

He's been waiting all summer for his happy birthday, and I'm so glad it's finally here for him. We had my parents and brother Mark and his family over for dinner, cake, and presents. He loved the Darth Vader pinata, although I forgot I had hung it up in the closet, and was a little freaked out by the disembodied Vader head staring back at me when I opened the door earlier this week.

Happy birthday, darling 3-year-old. I love you SO much.

Good riddance

I've never been happier for a weekend to end. Madeline threw up Tuesday last week, while Colin threw up Wednesday and Thursday. Friday started with an early morning annual physical for Ethan and Colin, which went very smoothly. Ethan was a good sport (he knew he didn't need shots), Colin asked, "What about me??" any time the doctor did any exam on Ethan, and Maddie entertained herself by crawling around the floor of the exam room pretending to be a dog and saying, "Ruff ruff!" over and over. Colin didn't cry for his shot or the finger prick (I think that's a first for me/us). Friday ended with me staying up until 1:30 in the morning getting ready for Saturday. Saturday entailed Jason leaving at 7:00 am and arriving home at 7:45 Saturday night. We hosted a small church social Saturday evening that started at 7:30, so the downstairs was spotless before I went to bed Friday night, and I had pre-made breakfast and taken upstairs every possible thing I could think of that we would need. I didn't let the kids downstairs at all except to walk out the front door because we had to leave the house for 2 hours in the morning to run some errands that couldn't be put off. I told them we were having a fun "upstairs" day. This wouldn't have been a big deal except for: (1.) Ethan wakes up at 6:20 with horrible stomach pain. He never throws up but is running a fever of 102 most of the day and really wiped out. (2.) I am attempting to potty train Colin. Don't ask how it's going. (3.) Madeline is incredibly (and unusually) fussy all day. She spends most of the day crying. At the very end of the day I discover she's cutting FOUR molars all at once. Poor thing. Although I'm actually a little relieved because I was starting to worry that my easy going little girl was broken. Here's what dinner looked like: And the room got even messier than this. Here's a picture where Maddie is actually not crying, even though I swore she didn't stop all day long. Here's a random picture not from this weekend. I was reminded of it when I uploaded the picture above. Maddie loves chairs...I could fill the house with little Maddie-sized chairs and she would be in heaven. She's just hanging out in a car seat that was sitting by the front door. She makes us smile. We made it through the weekend. There are worse things in life than being home with sick/fussy kids all weekend. I know that. In some ways it makes me feel guilty for complaining at all, or for even acknowledging that I had a (relatively) bad day. Still, some days as a mom of young kids are harder than others, more stressful than others. I'm proud of myself because I didn't lose it and yell at my kids out of stress/frustration, which is the only thing I really regret after days like Saturday. Although I'm worried the kids may have gone crazy. This is where I found Colin Sunday evening. Not entirely sure what his plan was here. He's so funny. Tomorrow is Colin's much-anticipated birthday and I am determined to make this week better than last!

Colin's sick

So sad when someone so busy is so wiped out.

First Day of First Grade

The verdict? "First grade is awesome."

Last Day of Summer

School starts tomorrow. I have mixed feelings about it. I've enjoyed slow, relaxed mornings and less time in the car. On the other hand, I'm getting tired of sibling fights from sheer boredom, and mother-son fights over why 6 hours of Wii Lego Star Wars in one day is excessive. Ethan will be gone from 8:30 to 3:00 five days a week...that's a lot, and I think it will be an adjustment for all of us at first. I know he'll love it, though, and will be much happier if he's in a stable routine and kept super busy (those are two of my firmly held beliefs in how to survive raising boys).

The last day of (our) summer, Ethan spent the afternoon at the pool. He has really struggled to learn to swim. It finally dawned on me that he might benefit from a snorkel/scuba mask (which is what I prefer myself) that would keep water out of his nose. We started using it two weeks ago and now he's a little fish and wanting to join swim team next year. Today he swam the entire length of the pool and then treaded water, earning his swim band, which allows him to go off the diving board "whenever I want." He is so proud and we are so proud of him, too. It was a huge accomplishment for him and he did so great. I told him at the beginning of the summer that if he went off the diving board on his own (into 9 ft of water) by the end of the summer, I would buy him the Lego Power Miners Crystal King. (This is referred to as "positive reinforcement" and a "reward system," which makes it sound like a legitimate parenting technique, as opposed to a "bribe" which sounds like lazy parenting. It's all in the spin, you know.) I've never been happier to have to buy him a toy.

After dinner we headed over to a local frozen custard place to celebrate his success and to celebrate/mourn the last day of summer vacation. Ethan wanted to get Maddie out of the car by himself and carefully walked her across the street while I was getting Colin out. My heart just melted. He shared his custard with her, too, after she decided that his Oreo version tasted better than the vanilla I got for her. He's a sweetie.

Scenes from a golf cart

Bald Head Island only allows electric cars, so when you rent a place you get a golf cart with it. It's novel and easy and the kids get a kick out of it.

One afternoon while Maddie was sleeping, Jason took the boys out for a GPS scavenger hunt on the island. We rented a GPS device, which Ethan helped read: And they got a paper with a series of clues, which they were supposed to fill out. And because they were with Dad, they stopped for snow cones and soda, of course. But they were still HOT and tired by the time they were done. My favorite thing about this photo is that it's completely un-posed. They are best friends when they are not fighting.

Beach Escape: Part II

We left the craziness of Myrtle Beach for the peace and solitude of Bald Head Island. We LOVE it there. Here's Myrtle Beach:

And here's the beach on the southern end of Bald Head: The kids had a blast: One afternoon while Madeline was napping, the boys and I climbed the lighthouse, Old Baldy. It was HOT at the top. Madeline is convinced she can get just about anywhere on her own. And determined to prove it. Hence the injured forehead: It ended up being "Pirate Weekend" on the island while we were there. We had so much fun watching the pirate ship sail into the harbor. Ethan snapped this self portrait of our family on our way in to dinner. We had a great time. (Other than when Jason had to take the ferry back to the mainland to pick up an oral steroid prescription to try to get on top of Maddie's asthma...do you see a theme here?)

All in all, it was nice to be together as a family, to get away from "real" life, and focus on what's important.

Our little asthmatic

Madeline has severe asthma. It's not fun. Her first attack was over Easter weekend in New York City, and since then she's been in and out of the doctor's office, hospital, ER several times. She always seems to get sick right around times when we are traveling (with or without her). I'm not sure if it's bad luck or a sign that we travel way too much; probably the latter. She is now on nebulized steroids twice a day to try to keep her healthy for at least a few weeks. She just finished her 4th round of oral steroids in 3 months. We hate putting her on them, for health reasons and because they turn her from our sweet little angel into a blond, petite version of the Hulk (in pink). The albuterol makes her hyper, while the 'roids make her irritable and really, really hungry. After finishing twice her usual dinner, she raided the pantry and pulled out mini bagels, which you can see her double fisting here.

We're hoping she grows out of it...sooner rather than later. In the meantime, please send prayers and packages of bagels our way.

Dah-Dah

Putting Colin to bed at night is a long routine of bath, pjs, prayers, teeth brushing, stories, songs, and various other manipulative stalling tactics. When you finally get him in to bed, he has two final requests: refill his sippy cup of water, and get him some toy he suddenly can't go to bed without. This was our conversation the other night: Colin: Mom, I need dah-dah. [rhymed with "ha"] Me: Colin, I don't know what that is. Is it a toy? Colin: Yes. It's dah-dah. Go get it. Me: Is it downstairs? Colin: No, it's in Ethan's room. Get dah-dah. Me: Is it a Lego? Colin: Yes, it's dah-dah. Go get it, Mom. Me: Is it a car? Colin: No. It's dah-dah. Me: Colin, I'm really sorry. I just don't know what that is. Colin: Mom, it's this:

At this point he starts moving his arms like some sort of marching robot and singing "dah-dah-dah-duh-duh-DAH-duh-duh-DAH". Which sounds just like this.

Me: Ohhhhhhhh...you mean Darth Vader? Colin: Yes, Darth Vader. Go get it. After I retrieved it, he said, "Good job, Mom. You found dah-dah."