Aunt Eaters

Okay, so they didn't really eat Aunt Gina but they certainly tested the extent of her love for our family when we visited with her this past week. I mean, I knew she was patient. She did, after all, agree to marry my brother and is still married to him after almost 3 years but seriously, give this woman an award. Not only did she watch my crazies so I could take a nap, not only did she take fabulous pictures since I forgot my camera, not only did she play with the boys until they were laughing so hard they couldn't breathe but she put up with several instances of baby and toddler grossery. (I think I just made that word up. Maybe it can be a new homonym for grocery.)
Amazing Gina patiently endured being puked on by little Benjamin. He puked in her hair- right after she took a shower. It ran all the way down to her ankle. David John wiped some choice selections from his nose on her during a car ride. Gabriel, as far as I know, didn't do anything to Gina but Elijah made up for that by peeing on her.
Yes- Gina and Elijah fell asleep on the couch during a movie and Elijah had apparently had too much to drink. When Gina woke up she noticed that she and Elijah were both wet. She wasn't angry- not even upset. She just laughed about it. I guess it is kind of funny. How often can you legitimately blame someone else for peeing your pants? I think I tried that a couple of times as a kid, but it was never true.
Anyway, my point is that a lesser mortal would have run away screaming and never returned. A lesser mortal would have disowned my children instead of continuing to help and play with them. A lesser mortal would have at least yelled a little bit. Gina did yell, but only on the last day when we were saying goodbye and I slammed her finger in the car door. Then she just yelled "ow!" She gave me a hug anyway. I got some blood on my shorts from her maimed finger. Did I mention that I love my sister-in-law Gina? She is not a lesser mortal. She's an angel.

Bandaid Boys

I rediscovered this picture from June when I was looking for a different photograph. The boys were in a bandaid phase in June. They would find any slight scratch and claim that it desperately needed a bandaid. After that, we had to make a rule that if it wasn't actively bleeding it didn't need a bandage.

More recently, we are having a difficult time getting David John to keep a bandaid on even if it features Buzz Lightyear. A few nights ago we had the following conversation: (Keep in mind that they were all tucked in bed and the room was dark. I guess it wasn't clear who I was talking to.)

Me: (talking to David John about picking the scab off of his elbow for the millionth time) Please don't pick that. If you keep picking that, we are going to have to get a really big bandaid and cover it up. Okay?
Elijah: No Mom! Don't put a bandaid on my nose!

The poor kid incriminated himself. Marc and I barely made it out of the room before busting up with laughter. Maybe the thought of a bandaid over his nostrils will discourage Elijah from picking in the future.

Wet and Wild

I love Benjamin's post-bath hair. It is completely wild and reminds me of Edward Scissorhands. Eat your heart out, Johnny Depp!

Our Block Rocks!

Today we had a really fun summer block party. The festivities started at 4 and lasted until about 7:30 just before it started dumping rain. We all had a great time. Here is a cute picture of my boys just before we left the house. Note the three bigger boys are all wearing Talbots polos which we got in three separate sets of hand-me-downs. How cool is that?

The first activity was bike decorating. My boys were really into this. They got to use SCISSORS! And TAPE! What could be better than that? David John was really not sure at first what to do. I asked him if he wanted to put some decorations on his little ride-on firetruck. He replied with his typical, "Yeah, sure." He brought over a roll of orange crepe paper. I asked, "Where do want this on your truck?" He put the whole roll on his seat with a satisfied, "There." then stood back to admire his handiwork. Stashing it in his seat didn't work any better, and I convinced him that the way to go was to tear off pieces and tape it on. After we finished he wasn't sure about actually riding it but got over his trepidation when he saw all of the other kids lining up for the bike parade.

After that we had a delicious dinner with food to spare. The boys loved the fact that they could get just about any adult at the party to pour them a sugary beverage. By working the crowd, I'm pretty sure they each drank an entire two liter by knocking back plastic cups full of soda in rapid succession. This was in addition to the two capri suns they each had. They skipped all of the yummy and semi-healthy foods that Marc and I enjoyed. We couldn't get them to eat the baked beans, variety of green salads or even the all-beef amazing hot dogs. No, they were too busy finding people to get them items from the loaded dessert table. Oh well, kids need to have an entire meal of sugar every once in a while right? I can still hear them running around in their room. I'm hoping the sugar high ends soon and leaves them in a complete stupor. Maybe they'll sleep in tomorrow.

The real highlight of the evening arrived after dinner- the firetruck. A police man with police dogs and some of the firemen came with a police car and a firetruck. My boys were in total awe of the fire truck and weren't shy about touching everything. Thankfully they were not strong enough to open either the oxygen tanks or the water reserve tanks since they tried to do both. The firemen were very patient with my curious little people and even let them open and shut doors and sit inside the firetruck.
The experience ended abruptly when Gabe announced that he thought David John was poopy and decided to confirm this by sticking his finger in David John's diaper. Gabe was right, as evidenced by what was on his finger when he pulled it out. Marc rushed David John home to get a diaper change and I took Gabe to wash his hands. Several neighbors had hoses out and we also located some hand sanitizer. Earlier in the evening the mayor and other city council hopefuls had stopped by with election petitions to be signed and of course some freebies. One person was handing out little bottles of sanitizer which our neighbor dubbed "Political Purell". It seems kind of ironic to use a politicized product to wash your hands but Gabe didn't seem to mind.

Other activities our boys enjoyed were throwing water balloons and applying rub-on tattoos. Our boys refer to the tattoos as "attitudes". They each got a couple of piratical attitudes and Elijah put a sparkly butterfly on my shoulder. I might have some explaining to do at church tomorrow since I'm not sure it will be entirely covered by my short sleeves. Marc put a compass rose on his hand. He says it's his moral compass. I'm glad he finally has one. Maybe now he'll end his life of crime and do some good in this world.

The party ended with a special birthday cake for our neighbor who turned 81 today. We helped get everything cleaned up just before a big storm blew in. The winds were blowing hard as we walked home. It scared our boys, especially Elijah but Marc and I thought it felt great on such a hot day. As soon as everything was put away the rain just poured down. I think the weather holding off was a little miracle. The timing was too perfect. Speaking of blessings, did I mention how much we love our neighbors? We just couldn't ask for a group of nicer people to live around. Our block really does rock.

Artists in Residence

My little guys have been seriously into drawing lately. Their preferred medium would be markers, but I am mean and usually only allow them to use chalk and crayons. David John is still in the scribble phase, and what he is drawing changes by the second. He was drawing earlier today and he announced three different subjects for his picture. I can't remember what it started as, but it morphed into Clifford the dog and finally George the monkey.
On the other hand the twins, to my delight, are finally drawing pictures with distinct shapes. I can sometimes even guess what I am looking at. Elijah has finally realized that Mommy's advice on holding his crayons the right way and drawing several small shapes to make a bigger picture yields good results. His previous method of drawing was to loudly announce the intended subject of his art, "I am going to draw an elephant!" and then scribble furiously in hopes that an elephant would appear on the paper. When it didn't work, he would say in a frustrated tone, "Mom, I tried to draw an elephant but I just didn't!" Now, he is meticulous in his drawing and even colors inside the lines in his coloring book.
For your enjoyment, I thought I would post some recent samples of work from my two budding artists:

I was impressed when Gabe drew what I thought was this number 3. He quickly set me straight, "No Mom, that's the Mc-A-Donalds sign." Great. I admit we've been there twice recently for 50 cent ice cream cones (we can walk to one from our house) but I promise we are not that family that thinks McDonalds french fries count as a vegetable serving.
Simple drawings seem to be Gabe's style, but what he lacks in complexity he makes up for with backstory. He recently drew a single straight line on the driveway and proudly brought me over to see it. "Look, Mom! This is a branch and a storm came and knocked it off the tree and then a bird flew by and said, 'What a lovely stick!' and he picked it up and took it to his nest."

This is Elijah's drawing of Buzz Lightyear. To be specific, it is the Buzz Lightyear balloon from the Macy's parade.

Gabe claims this is a picture of me. I have eyebrows, cheeks and even toes with toenail polish. I seem to be lacking hair, however.

This is Elijah's version of me. I love the hair complete with my usual ponytail.

I love this little face that Gabe drew. After the fact, he said it was Daddy. Why does he get hair when I don't?
Finally, here is a series of four pictures by Elijah. He drew them on sheets of paper that were stapled together. When I asked him about the drawings he said, "Yes, that's my work." He's already got this art lingo down. From our conversation I gather the drawings have something to do with aliens and Earth. My first impression was that they looked like some sort of cell process diagram from biology class. Maybe someday they'll be worth a lot of money and Elijah will be famous. One thing is for sure- with all the art being produced at my house, I need a bigger fridge.

P.S. I realize that Gabe holding his frisbees has nothing to do with this post but I didn't have a picture of him with chalk and I knew that the next time he asked to see the blog he would be very upset if he wasn't included.

Happy Birthday 'Merica

Last Monday was 'Merica's birthday. Did you know? My boys were very excited about this. Anything that involves the word "birthday" is a good thing they've decided. I don't think they quite got the concept that 'Merica is the name of our country and not a person but they certainly enjoyed the holiday.
We drove down to my parent's house for the weekend plus a couple of days on either end since Marc was working a bunch of hours anyway and had two overnight calls during that time period. To break up the drive down, my parents and brothers met us at COSI, a museum in Columbus. COSI stands for Center Of Science and Industry, although based on the kids area that we spent most of our time in the acronym could also stand for Caution: Overly Stimulated Infants. The place was huge and there were kids everywhere. Thankfully there is only one entrance/exit with an employee who has to let you in and out. While this does prevent kids from escaping I think the real purpose is to stop parents from sneaking out to play with all of the other really cool stuff in the museum. All of our boys had a good time. This water table was a big favorite for Gabriel and Elijah.
After a morning at COSI and a picnic lunch, we finished the drive down to Fairborn. The boys love Grandma's house and we were thrilled to see my brother Joe who recently returned from training for the Army National Guard. All four little guys wore army man shirts and we got this picture of them with their real army man uncle.

I spent the weekend catching up with old friends (it was my 10 year high school reunion) and even found time to get my hair cut. My parents and brothers graciously agreed to babysit my four wild ones while I was out and about. My dad got these two cute pictures of David John finding extra snacks and Benjamin playing.
Monday, of course, was the big day. We went to the parade in the morning which featured plenty of flags, cool cars, bands and people in costume. We enjoyed the mini cars and mini motorcyles and the trick roller skaters but my favorite was an old school bus that was completely covered by live plants and flowers. The boys' favorite was anyone who was throwing lots of candy. Gabriel and Elijah became experts and darting out into the road to gather up the candy that hadn't quite reached the sidewalk. Gabriel was especially enthusiastic and we had to rein him in a bit when he started trying to get the trampled candy between the parade marchers or filching from other people's candy piles.

We had a lot of special 'Merica treats including patriotic cupcakes, cool red white and blue flashing lights that I was sure might induce seizures and spinning toys that made sparks. We had the boys take a late nap so they would be awake for fireworks. When it got dark, we let them do sparklers which I confess was very stressful. They seemed completely oblivious that what they were holding was on fire and very hot. Gabe did end up with a small burn on his finger but they didn't set anything ablaze so I counted the experience a success. The fireworks started at 10 pm and we were able to watch them from the lawn in front of my parent's subdivision. The boys were a little scared at first. Elijah kept saying, "Help! The firework is getting closer! It's going to get me!" After a while they all decided that fireworks were awesome and joined in the oohs and aahs with everyone else.

We finally drove back home on Wednesday, tired but happy we came. Marc was really happy to see his family. Just for fun, here are a couple of cute pics of Benjamin with his Daddy and Mommy. We sure love that kid.

Out and About

We've been enjoying the long-awaited beautiful weather in Cleveland. Most of these pictures are from last month, but I was pretty proud of some of them so I thought we'd share anyway. Better late than never, right?

Marc had some vacation in May so we took the boys to the zoo. We were excited to see the elephants that just recently returned to their new and improved habitat.

Are these the cutest meerkats you've ever seen or what?

This polar bear says "Rarrrr!" just ask David John. Of course, all we saw him do was take a shower.
This sloth bear was my favorite. He was so fun to watch play with that tire. He got it stuck on the tree branch at one point. This is his second attempt at getting it over the branch.

I think this giraffe was a little confused as to the identity of this pole. He spent some serious time talking to it. "Hello there, I've never seen such a chic, modern giraffe."

Here is our trooper Elijah who turned out to be sick. We thought he was just complaining about all of the walking and the drizzly weather when he kept saying "I'm tired. I don't feel good." Then he threw up. We let him ride after that.

Speaking of Elijah, we think he wants to be a librarian or own a bookshop when he grows up. He set up this lovely display in our living room. Any buyers?
We hit the Blossom Festival in Chagrin Falls when Robert and Nancy were in town. Here is Gabe with his awesome giant squid balloon.

We also enjoyed the annual Memorial Day parade which comes down Green conveniently close to our house. David John had a front row seat and almost had an aneurysm when Elmo, his favorite, came over to say "Hello". The boys collected record amounts of candy.

Here is Benjamin looking like a baby bird. I love this smiley 2-month-old phase.

My parents came to visit last weekend and we went to the playground next to the Beachwood pool. It has an awesome sand pit and play equipment that even adults can enjoy. My Dad decided to show off and do the splits on this teeter-totter. We were impressed that he did it and even more impressed that he was able to get back up.