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.

Adventures in Potty Training

As my friend Sarah Smith is fond of saying, "Potty training is a Special Time."
It seems like such a simple concept. When something comes out of the lower half of your body, please go to this room and sit on this special chair. However, there is nothing simple about it unless you happen to be one of those lucky parents whose children just potty train themselves. In other words, you are the parent of only very well-behaved girls.
For us this potty training adventure began shortly after we moved to Cleveland and we are only now seeing success. Let me just say that despite potty books and logic stating that children can be trained at 18 months, despite your desperate want to use all the money you are spending on diapers to vacation in Europe, despite the fact that all of your friends seem to have potty-trained children do not be discouraged if your child is not. It will happen, seemingly by magic. One day your child will just get it and you will step out of the world of diapers and into the world of underwear, accidents, and potty etiquette.
Potty-training is a Special Time. It is a time when all of the subjects you've been taught to politely avoid will be the main focus of your dinner conversation. It is a time when you will ooh and aah over things that are smelly and more than slightly disgusting. It is a time when your children will start conversations with strangers with phrases like, "Hi! Today I made a really big poop in the potty!" It is a time when your children will give each other potty-themed nicknames. "I'm the poop one, you're the pee one and he's the toot one."
It is a time when you will come to dread hearing "Uh-oh." What this phrase really means is "Mom, I left a puddle on the library carpet." It is a time when you might hear "Mom, the whole thing won't go down!" which means that your child has unrolled the entirety of a brand new jumbo roll of toilet paper and attempted to flush it down the toilet. The toilet will be completely clogged while a mound of dry toilet paper is still sticking out the top.
It is a time when "Mom, I made a mistake. I missed." means that there is pee on his underwear, pants, socks, footstool, bathroom floor, trashcan, hand towel and bathmat but none actually in the toilet. It is a time when your child might stand up during his church children's singing time in the very front row and moon everyone so he can scratch his bum. When you hurriedly try to pull his pants back up he will yell, "Stop, Mom! There's something wrong with my underwear!"
Yes, potty training is a Special Time. It's a good thing we are saving so much money on diapers because when all the adventures are over, and I know we're just getting started, I'm really going to need a vacation. If you need me, I'll be somewhere in Europe.

Gratitude

So, it might be a month late, but I still wanted to express our family's gratitude for the blessings big and small in our life. Let me first say, that I am grateful for family and friends who take fabulous pictures since I so often forget my camera or am too busy interacting with the boys to take pictures of them.

Gabriel is thankful for books, books and more books. This kid loves to be read to.

Marc is grateful for "help" with raking and piling the leaves by the curb so the leaf-sucker truck can take them away.

Marc and I are both thankful for 3 adorable boys and 1 on the way.

Marc (and particularly Opa) is grateful for massive amounts of free leftover movie theater popcorn. He scored this bag after we all went to see the latest Harry Potter movie on Thanksgiving.






























We are very grateful for Robert, Nancy, Oma and Opa who came to visit us during Thanksgiving and helped out so much with the cooking, cleaning, and child-wrangling.

All the boys are thankful for birthday ice cream- Opa's treat.

Elijah is thankful for stickers.

I am grateful for movie night and my husband who watched our kids and our friends' children so I could go.

David John is grateful for his first kiss from a cute girl. Ava is quite the go-getter.

We are thankful for all the great friends we have here in Cleveland.

The Week: Ricks Edition

Our Top Stories of the Week

Toy Story 3 Arrives at Dollar Theaters- Smallest Critics Applaud
Last Wednesday, Marc and I took the boys to see Toy Story 3 at our local "dollar theater" (it deserves quotation marks because the price is actually $1.50). Marc invited several colleagues and their families so we ended up with 19 people planning to come. Since it is a popular movie and we had such a large group we took the precaution of driving out to the box office early in the day and purchasing all of the tickets. We are not in Utah anymore, Toto. In Utah, this movie would certainly have been sold out. In Utah, sometimes you have to purchase tickets days in advance for the dollar theater and/or wait in really long lines. In Cleveland, we needn't have bothered. Number of other families who showed up at the theater for the movie: 1.
We all had a really great time. Gabriel and Elijah were completely engrossed although they asked far too many questions. Anytime a main character was off-screen we heard "Where's Woody?" "Where's Buzz?" or just random other questions "Where's Woody hat go?" "What that guy doing?" "Is Woody sad?"
David John was content to sit on a booster seat and eat sickening amounts of theater popcorn for the first hour before he became wiggly and fussy. No one minded, we were in a room full of pediatricians, and a binky fixed the problem. It really was a great evening. If only they had slept in the next day after getting home at 10 PM.... I guess we can't have everything.

Blue Man Group Comes to Cleveland: Marc and Sarah Leave House
Thursday, Marc and I got to go on a rare date to see the Blue Man Group at playhouse square. Fellow resident Stephen Mac watched our boys for us and by all accounts they all had a great time. We really enjoyed the drumming, black light effects, humor and total randomness of the show. It was highly entertaining and we definitely recommend it with only a small disclaimer: Some of the humor is definitely aimed at boys in the 10-14 age range. There was an entire song devoted to the various names for "bottom". Also- do not come late. You may be spotlighted and mocked. You've been warned.

Twins Discover Tether Ball
We walked to the playground after school on Friday to discover that someone had left the tether balls out on their posts. The boys were all fascinated by the concept and enjoyed hitting the ball back and forth. Some unusual moves were tried including hanging on the ball and swinging around the pole like Tarzan and walking the ball around the pole while holding onto it. I even played a game with my little brother Sam. It was very nostalgic including the part where I lost in spectacular fashion.



Doctor to Balloon Man, "Yous Gots Skills"
Our Library (the charming brick building in the background of Gabe's picture) held a family fall fest on Saturday. This included a maze, a beanbag toss with prizes, a puppet show, cookie decorating and the most amazing balloon artist I've ever seen. This guy could make anything. Pictured is Elijah with his dinosaur, Gabriel with Thomas the train complete with three train cars, a simple balloon toy made for David John and three other creations I snapped pictures of- Tinker Bell, Sponge Bob and a horse. When Marc saw the balloons (he was on call during the festival) he immediately said "I need an apprenticeship with this guy!" We'll keep you posted on Marc's possible midlife crisis and career change.







Primped Progeny Pose with Pumpkins
The boys got haircuts on Saturday, so I wanted to have a little photo shoot with their new hairdos, the pumpkins they chose earlier in the week and the pretty fall leaves. As evidenced here, it did not go well. I was unable to get all three of them sitting at the same time much less looking at the camera simultaneously. None of the pictures really turned out great but I thought these three examples of my efforts were pretty amusing.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

We've been saying "hello" and "goodbye" to a variety of things during this past month. Here's the rundown:

Hello Awesome New Camera
Thanks to Oma's early Christmas present we were able to finally get an awesome camera! Did I mention that it is orange and we even found a stylish matching orange-lined camera bag? (Eat your heart out Gina.) We are really excited- but don't expect fabulous pictures just yet. I'm still learning how to use the new-fangled thing.

Goodbye Old Camera
We bid thee farewell old camera... you served us for many years despite your often blurry pictures and tendency to randomly shut down at any moment. We will miss your rabbit-chewed camera case and strap.
Hello Flyswatter
This isn't actually new, more like newly rediscovered. Move over Mr. Miyagi, instead of catching flies one-at-a-time with chopsticks, I took out 50 in one session with this baby.

Goodbye Flies
Warning- the next picture is slightly graphic in nature. This is a message to all of you flies out there. My house is now a no-fly zone (please forgive the terrible pun). I am tired of you coming in uninvited and breaking the maximum occupancy rules for my house. I am pretty sure 25 individuals are not allowed to reside in one window sill- this is a serious fire hazard. I will no longer tolerate you landing on my food, making Elijah scream "Ahhh! Mommy, a bug! It scares me!" or tempting Gabe to try and smash you (what I am talking about- succeeding in smashing you) with his toothbrush. Enough said.
Hello Super-Bright Chalk
My Mom found this amazing sidewalk chalk for the boys to draw with. We had a great time with the bright colors and it kept my monsters busy for a whole afternoon while Marc was on call. They are crayola brand if anyone is interested in finding some.

Goodbye Clean Pants
Of course, the downside of chalk is that it gets EVERYWHERE. Luckily, this stuff is washable.

Hello School Year
Okay, so none of my kids are starting school for a while, but my friends kids are so it still affects who we can play with and it means the school playground down the street will be unavailable during school hours. I have to admit I feel a little jealous of those parents whose lives will be getting "back-to-normal" when school starts. Anyway, here is a picture of my guys enjoying a huge pile of books in preparation for future school studies.

Goodbye Summer Preschool
I really had a great time with this summer preschool. It reminded me that I do have a non-mommy skill set and I miss teaching in some ways. I even got a gift from my "students" aka their moms of some yummy candy and Kohls gift card. Woo hoo! Friday was our last day. I'm thinking about starting a joy school group in the fall or winter. Maybe after we've mastered potty training...
Hello Deer
Marc was on call AGAIN today (after being on call Friday) and David John started running a fever Friday afternoon so we've all been cooped up inside without Daddy. Today we couldn't go to church, but I had to get out of the house so we drove to a park with a stroller-friendly trail. The boys were thrilled to spot a family of four deer. We only got a picture of two of them but they sure were beautiful.
Goodbye Deer
Here is the last deer just before they all ran away through the woods. After the deer left, the boys asked, "Mommy, now we gonna see some cows and goats?" Obviously we have some work to do on categorizing woodland versus farm animals.

Little 'Lijah

I certainly didn't want to deprive my "middle" child and major cutie Elijah of having his own post. Elijah is our resident lover-of-food (although David John is also vying for that title) and consummate organizer. Here are a few stories about my little Bug from the last few months:

One stark difference between Gabe and Elijah is their initial reactions to new foods. Without tasting it, Gabe will immediately declare "I don't like it!" while Elijah will say "I like it Mommy, I like it!" Elijah made this declaration about some hot sauce that I put on the table with dinner one evening. Elijah asked if he could have some on his plate. I explained that it was spicy and that it might make his mouth feel funny, but I put a little on his plate for him to try. He chose to dip his watermelon, of all things, in the hot sauce and ate it. He made a terrible face but doggedly insisted that it was "liscious" and that he wanted more. He continued to dip every piece of watermelon in the sauce and made a terrible face every time. I think it was some show of his manliness.

One evening, Elijah said our nightly family prayer and it consisted of entirely food-related statements. Elijah thanked Heavenly Father for breakfast, lunch, watermelon, peanut-butter and dinner. He then blessed the food (even though we weren't eating anything) and said "Amen."

Elijah loves to pick things up and organize them. He is unable to go to sleep unless every toy is in its place and all of the books are on the shelf and oriented correctly. Last week, he wouldn't start eating dinner until I closed an open cabinet door that was driving him crazy. Hmmm... Marc's son maybe?

Sometimes, Elijah's cleaning means that I can't find something he has "put away". On Thursday I drove to my parents' house since Marc was going to be on call for the entire weekend. I gathered everything that needed to be loaded in the car and put it in a pile in the living room. I then made a few trips to the van to pack it all in. It wasn't until after I buckled the boys in that I realized there were no diapers in the car. I knew that I had put two packages in the pile of things to go out but when I went back in the house they weren't in the living room where I left them. Finally, I spotted them on top of the diaper changing table where Elijah had put them away.

Lately, Elijah has taken to calling me "Honey". I think this is because he hears Marc call me that. I think it is kind of cute but after days of "Honey, I want some more milk." and "I need a hug, Honey." and "I busy Honey." I decided to start correcting him in an effort to get him to call me Mommy again. Yesterday at dinner, Elijah said "Honey, I want more blueberries." I said, "Elijah, my name is Mommy." He looked at me and smiled, then said, "Mommy, you Honey. Okay?"

Elijah has always been very sweet and concerned about other people. When Gabe is in time out (often for hitting Elijah) Elijah will go talk to him under the door and even passes him toys and books. One day, I went into the boys room and needed to look for a box of clothes in the closet. I locked the door so the boys wouldn't feel the need to come in and help take everything out of the closet. Elijah came to the door and said, "Mommy you in there?" I replied that I was. He tried the door but found that it was locked then said, "Oh no Gabe, Mommy in time out." He then pushed a few books under the door.

Last night, Jennifer and Chris Mahoney came over for dinner. They were here when it was time to put the boys to bed. As part of our bedtime routine, once the boys are all tucked in we give them hugs. They often request different kinds of hugs like a "daddy squish hug" or a "baby hug". This time, they asked for a "Christmas hug". It took me a minute before figuring out they wanted a hug from Chris. Pretty cute. Luckily, Chris was up for it.

Elijah is definitely his own person. We hope he knows how much we love and enjoy him and that he doesn't develop middle child syndrome. Marc insists that he is fine even though he was a middle child but sometimes I'm not sure.... just teasing.

Baby Davey's Big Day

Even though David John's birthday was on Friday, we celebrated on Saturday so Sarah's family and many of Marc's awesome colleagues could join in on the fun. Here is a diary of his day in pictures with commentary. However, I first wanted to mention that one of his birthday gifts was the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle (thanks Sophia!). Here is a passage from the book which I think is a fairly accurate description of David John's activities on his special day. "On Saturday he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice-cream cone, one pickle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon." In the book, the caterpillar ends up with a stomachache. Thankfully, that didn't happen but we paid the price today with a record number of poopy diapers. Woo-hoo!mmm... oatmeal with a spoon

Grandpa took me to the park and then we hit some garage sales...

...where we bought a new pool!

zzzzzzzzz

mmmm... cereal on the garage floor

mmm,... Gabe's snack

Is it time for my party?

Happy Birthday to me!

mmm... cupcake

I even shared with my brothers!

awww... aren't my guests cute?

I can't believe I ate that whole thing!

I got some serious loot, thanks friends and family!

My brothers got some too.

Check out my new stylin' boots.

I am one popular guy.

Michelle gave me this awesome balloon. You can see though it!

mmm... ice cream

Good one Joe, "Shovel it in!" ha ha

I definitely needed a bath.

Then it was time for PJs and more attention. I love birthdays!