My Pathetic Baby

All three kids have been passing around a rather nasty cough/cold all week. Saturday and Sunday were Ethan's worst days, Monday was Alaina's and today was Austin's. Besides the whining and general crankiness that the other two kids displayed, Austin brings sickness to a whole new level by insisting on being held every minute of the day.

It is a proven fact that the more helpless you act, the higher chances you have of being babied. Nobody has this down as well as little Austin. And nobody babies him like Alaina.


Austin put himself to bed and Alaina decided to lay with him. Doesn't he look sick & sad? Alaina hugged him, patted his head and gave him little kisses on the forehead. She is such a little mother.

Austin didn't fall asleep until a couple of hours later while he was watching a cartoon. Tell me how anyone could fall asleep in a camping chair. Anyone besides Robert, that is.


Like father, like son, I guess.

Here is our cutest little bug. The twins tried to take the same picture, but all we saw of Austin was his nose and all we saw of Alaina was the top of her head.







Here is our little monkey. Despite the fact that she is about as big as pea, she manages to get everywhere and do anything she wants to. And we get a great view :)


Alaina was sporting her Shirley Temple hair-do in this picture.




Austin loves to hold Alaina's hand. He was pulling her around the entire house this morning, showing her all his toys (as if she's never seen them before.) Alaina loved every minute of it.

How do you keep them quiet?

I'm considering sewing the kids' mouths shut during church. They always seem yell out the strangest things during that one hour a week that you really want them to be quiet. We give the kids paper and pens to keep the volume down during Sacrament meeting. It doesn't always do the trick but it keeps them relatively busy. Today I drew 3 stick figures on a piece of paper for Ethan to embellish. He immediately recognized my great artistry as being a post-modern rendition of the three kids. However, it was clear that something wasn't right about it. He first added some extra hair on "Ethan's" head...but he still looked as if something else was missing. An "ah-ha" moment came and he quickly sketched an extra foot. A very large foot. And with an air of accomplishment he grinned up at me and proclaimed, "look, I drew my pee pee!" The first thing that crossed my mind was what a healthy self-image the boy has. A split second later I sheepishly looked up to see Rob and the row behind us trying not to laugh. But Ethan wasn't done reviewing his work and he concluded with, "oh...that's right, now he needs undies on!" And then a little louder, "Mama. Put undies on!" With a red face I quickly drew on underwear on all three of my stick figures. And for all of your information, I already had undies on...thank-you-very-much!

Huh....so what was the talk about? Anyone?

This afternoon was gorgeous. Warm. Blue skies. Nice breeze. Not quite as nice as a breeze as we first imagined when we packed up the kids and a couple of kites. But nice enough for the kids to run around and try to keep the kite in the air. Robert and I both exhausted ourselves trying to get them up for real...but nature was not being kind to us. The kids had a jolly old time, though. So did a bunch of other kids that appeared out of nowhere. No kid can resist a kite.

I didn't show a picture of the tag-alongs. Why should I? They aren't my kids.




The boys seemed to catch on the the whole concept of running pulling the kite along behind them really well. Alaina, however, was just funny to watch. She would start running and then become really surprised when the kite started following her. Instead of continuing on a straight line, she would circle back to get a better look at it. As soon as she did that the kite would drop, we would yell for her to run and she would take off again. That poor kite never had a chance with her little jerky dance.

Ethan turns 4

What a day! I went a little crazy on the cake, but it was so fun to watch the kids' reactions. They went bananas! :) Sorry...I am way too tired to be really clever. Here are some pictures of the big day.


I made a yellow sheet cake for Curious George. The number 4 was pieced together with the leftover cake.

Who is the MOST enthusiastic child in the whole entire WORLD?

That would be my Ethan.

When I'm just out of the shower, in my sweats, no make-up on and with my hair still dripping - I'd have to say, I'm not exactly looking my best. However, Ethan looks at me like I'm a celebrity wearing a ballgown and says, "Mama! You look SO beautiful! Your hair is so PRETTY!" He really looks like he believes it, bless his little heart.

He gets so happy whenever we start a conversation with, "Guess what I got for you." His response is always an excited, high pitch, "Fo-or ME?" Even if it is cereal or fruit.

Today I came home from the grocery with the usual food and a new can opener. I know...exiting, right? Well, Ethan saw that and it looked like he won the lottery. "For ME?!" he exclaimed. "Sure, why not" was my lackluster response. Ethan ignored my "whatever" attitude and held his prize up to Robert and hollered out, "This is my BEST thing, EVER!"

If we could only bottle his enthusiasm...we'd be rich!