Creative Wednesday

It was too hot to play outside this afternoon and the boys were bored with their toys. So it was time to get creative. Mommy pulled out the washable markers and stickers, and let them go at it. They had a great time and it held there attention for a good 45 minutes. When they were all done, they had as much ink on themselves as they had on the paper and stickers were for sticking everywhere. But it sure was fun.

Hot Nights and Tantrums

It's hot here and our old craftsman home does not have A/C and is not the best insulated home. So in the summer our house gets really hot. Even though, last summer we installed attic fans, which has reduced the temps about 5 degrees or so not enough to make us comfortable. We set up fans in the bedrooms to help the kids sleep but you can still here them tossing and turning. It's hard to sleep when your hot and sweaty. Miles has woken up this evening completely sweaty, beat red face and just grumpy. He has carried on screaming for about 20 minutes with no avail, waking up Aidan. Aidan called out to me asking me to get Miles to be quite. We tried everything, gave him milk, he refused it, cool washcloth to the face, he screamed, massaged his gums with little teethers, he screamed, patted his back, he screamed, motrin, he screamed. Finally, Max loaded him up in the van at 11:30 pm to take him out for a ride in hopes that this might calm him down. This is no ordinary tantrum, this is one of those huge knock down drag outs that frighten us, hoping they don't injure themselves during the event. They don't happen often but when they do, they are alarming.

Please, no couch potatoes!

This does not look good! My 3 boys sitting on the couch engrossed in a dvd....at least it's one of those educational ones by leap frog. That's ok, right?? I sure hope we aren't raising a bunch of couch potatoes. We don't have cable and the only time Max and I watch tv for our own personal enjoyment is when the kids go to bed. Really when you don't have cable, there's not much to watch. We do particpate in one of those dvd mail services but, we don't watch them very often because we're always too tired. We've often toyed with the idea of cancelling it.

The truth is though that we own tons of kids dvds, all educational, you know the leap frog and sesame street type. And, I'm guilty of using them so that I can cook dinner before Max gets home from work. Otherwise, it would be impossible for me to manage 20 month old twins and a 3 yr old while preparing dinner. I've tried on several occasions, setting them up with some toy, project etc and then trying to start dinner. It never seems to work out. I try to tell myself that it's ok, 30 minutes of an educational dvd just before dinner isn't so bad. Sometimes on the weekends we allow it as a treat for good behavior. It just allows us to get a bit of down time. Suddenly after seeing this photo I feel horribly guilty.

The Boys First 4th of July Parade

This is the first 4th of July parade we've taken the boys to, and if I'm correct, I think it's the first parade we've ever taken them to. We had front row seatings, our friends who lived walking distance had arrived early to set up lawn chairs for all of us. I have to say that was pretty nice.

The boys all really enjoyed themselves, especially Aidan. Aidan had a great time hanging out with his buddies from preschool. I brought little flags for them to wave during the parade. Aidan and his friends were quite a little group, playing and dancing on the sidelines, they were hard to miss. They sure caught the paraders attention resulting in tons of candy tossed to them. They had so much fun running into the street after the candy and other goodies they were given. One thing about Aidan is that he's really into music so when this float came by that had a band on it playing some 70's funk song, it really got his attention. He stopped all his goofing around and just watch intently as they performed, rolling by. I can't remember the name of the group it was somthing?? Shack. But,anyways they were pretty good and I'm sure Aidan thought so too. Miles had fun running in toward the parade and back towards daddy. He did this over and over, getting a good laugh about it every time. Liam sat on my lap the whole time, very mellow, taking it all in. He was quite absorbed in it all, very unusual for Liam.

I have to say, I'm not usually a parade kind of person but this was a really nice family event followed by a nice family barbeque with friends.

Imagination Soaring

I've noticed lately that Aidan's imagination is just soaring, it's becoming much more vivid. He tells stories about ojects he sees with great detail now, all from his imagination. We were at a friends house who had a doll house and he went into this elaborate story about the mailman trying to deliver mail to the doll house and how the little girl there was sad about her mail. We were all kind of amazed about the detail he came up with. He's also fascinated with the moon and has told me lots of stories that include the moon. He's told stories for a quite a while now but in the past they were much more concrete. He's also now playing with objects and creating other objects out of them like the train he made out of his beads, or the moon that he makes with his sandwich. I'm just so pleased to see the creativity that comes out of his imagination. I think he's pretty pleased with himself too. I can't wait to till he can start really drawing, I'm anxious to see what his drawing ability will be. His 4th birthday is just around the corner and we still aren't sure whether he's left or right handed. He seems to go back and forth often. In the meantime I'll just enjoy his fun little stories.

Liam reads to Miles

It's moments like this I wish I had a camcorder. Liam was reading this book in his own little twin babble language and Miles appeared to be listening intently. This went on for several minutes. To the observer it really seemed as if they understood each other in that babble of theirs. Most recently, it's been a few weeks now they both have become much more verbal. Sometimes, they'll be playing in their room together and there will be full length conversations in that babble, I stand in the hallway eavesdropping, it just brings a huge smile to my face and warms me in that special way. At some point I'm going to have to record it before it's gone because it's the sweetest thing ever.

My Little Cowboys

I took the twins with me on errands, I know that sounds crazy. We went to the post office, Costco, and Target. They did really well and really seem to enjoy the people watching. And of course they get lots of attention when we go out, as if they were the only set of twins in the world.

Anyways, I bought them this great little cowboy hat out of the dollar bins at Target. They both just loved wearing it and got a real kick at looking at themselves in the mirrow with it on. I just love costumes and playing dress up, so even a simple hat like this creates crazy fun for me. I'm so happy that the twins seemed to really enjoy it too!