That's right, I'm blogging about Alaina. Again. That girl is one cheeky little monkey. What is it, exactly, about this mischievous little pixie that make the boys fall all over themselves to please her? Is it the sly smile? The perfectly round belly? The curls? Whatever it is, they can't seem to get enough of her.



Now most of you know what good eaters my monsters are. What you don't know is what we have to look at every time they eat. It isn't a pretty sight, let me tell you. All three have their own individual way of shovin' in the grub...and now I have proof.

Here is Alaina with the daring "Double Shovel."

Many have tried, but few have ever succeeded using Austin's trademark "Backwards Tongue Hook." Yeah, this boy has mad skills. (I don't think I've ever actually used the phrase 'mad skills' before, but I'm likin' it)

Ah, Ethan the dependable. You can't beat the classic, "Shove it in with your fist" method. Though not as flashy as the twins' styles, it's fast and efficient.


Now...this last picture is mainly just to showoff Ethan's gorgeous hair. Thick, soft, luxurious auburn hair. Seriously, this stuff is to die for.

I would have recognized the panicked voice anywhere. But since it came bursting out of the bathroom, not only did I know who it was but I knew exactly what had gone wrong. The kids have becoming more and more independent when it comes to using the bathroom lately. I know this because the toilet paper has been disappearing at an alarming rate and although I've yet to catch them in the act, I've come across the toilet many a times, packed with half a roll of soggy paper. I've have quite a few serious conversations with the kiddies, but since everyone points to someone else when I ask who the culprit is, I didn't know exactly who to blame.
All this flew through my head as I ran the 6 steps over to the bathroom. I was met at the door with a paniced, tear-stained faced Austin holding a plunger high above his head.
"Mama! It's still coming! I can't stop it!"
Sure enough, it was still coming. And coming. And coming. The floor had a good inch of not so clear water and random floating tidbits covering at least half of the floor. A fountain of water was happily gurgling over the top of the toilet as I sloshed over to start plunging. Sometimes I really dislike this job of mine. 10 minutes later I had a mopped up floor, pile of laundry and all four of us in a bath. Well, the boys were in the bath and Alaina and I were in the shower. At least now I know who to give the next serious talk to.

Yesterday the kids spent all day wishing it was summer. It's been too chilly to go outside and there is a rumored bad case of RODA virus cursing through town and so I thought we should avoid our usual petri dish play areas. So we were doomed to play with our own toys and use our own imaginations for the day. Of course, I should never underestimate the kid's imagination. They found their swimming vests, put them on and proceeded to swim around the house for a couple of hours. Crazy kids.

Yesterday I found Austin quietly studying the paper. He looked so serious which is ironic because he was reading the funnies page.

Just a side, funny note. I measured the boys' hands together and Austin's hands are bigger than Ethan's. A future basketball player? Pianist? Or just a kid with oddly large hands...

Happy Valentine's Day

Who says Valentine's day is only a one-day party? We spent the last two days making a ton of cookies and a relatively impressive mess in the kitchen. Yesterday our little friend Preston helped us with our first batch while Ethan was at preschool. Today Ethan was here and was prepared to personally eat all of the leftover sprinkles. The kids had a blast but the pictures pretty much sum it all up, so here ya go.

That Girl!

For the last couple of months we've been having a bit of a problem with little Laina. It started out with the midnight potty trips that invariably ended with her underwear shoved in my face to help her get back dressed. Once we got her dressing herself we thought we'd be sleeping through the night - no problem. It seems that once we gave her the independence to make her midnight journey alone, she believed that she could roam freely through the house whenever she felt so inclined. At first it wasn't too annoying. She would turn on a couple of lights on her way to the bathroom, wander back to her room, read a book on the floor for a while and then fall asleep either back on her bed or where she was reading. That moved on to a couple of walk-abouts a night, mostly to the play room to find her toys. Each night she seemed to stay awake a little longer. Last Saturday night her escapades had escalated to 7 trips out of her room. Seven times throughout the night I was woken up by all lights being turned on. The hallway lights, the kitchen lights and the bathroom light. Seven times either Robert or I had to get up to walk her back to her bad and hear her empty promises. "No mama, I PROMISE I won't do that again!" 1/2 an hour later one of us would be trudging back to her bedroom. We bribed. We yelled. We pleaded with that cute little twit. All for naught.
After only sleeping for 2 hours that night, I decided that drastic measures had to be taken. We'd have to lock her in if we were ever going to sleep again. And it was actually a hard decision to make. The main reason was that Alaina is potty trained and she sometimes does have to use the restroom. I didn't want her to go back to diapers at night, but if we kept the door open for her to use the potty then we were back at square one. To remedy the situation I put a little portable potty in her room.
Sunday night was pure drama. She was in shock that we'd even consider such a ploy. After 2 hours of kicking and screaming...literally...she fell asleep. I found her sound asleep sitting up by the door. Poor thing. Monday night and Tuesday night were pretty similar. Screaming, kicking, throwing tantrums for a good hour and a half. Tuesday night was made a little special because it turned out she needed the porta-potty after all. When I opened the door to check on her I was overwhelmed by the very strong aroma of poo. Good thing we had a place to put it. :)
Tonight I put he to bed and guess what? She didn't cry at all. Not one little bit. She just pouted for a few minutes and went to sleep. yeah! And the best part is that I've slept through the night for three nights in a row. Yeah for me! Now we'll just see how she does once daddy comes back into town.

Ethan came up to me today and said, "Look how cute we are Mom! Take our picture!" He was walking around the house holding Alaina's hand and when the mood would hit, they'd start dancing. They were cute, so I did take a picture. Doesn't Lainy look coy?











I don't know why, but I love this picture of Alaina. She is constantly in motion and looks like a little angel here with her pink halo.

Last weekend we took the kids to a special Norman Rockwell exhibit at the Discovery Museum. They had life-size replications of his work and all the covers that he ever published for Saturday Evening Post. They also had a couple of original paintings and a movie about Mr. Rockwell's life. It was fun to walk back in time and see all of the small-town moments of life that he captured so wonderfully.





The kids had fun with all of the usual Discovery Place exhibits. This is one of their favorites..it is a slow moving chair that goes up about 10 feet and back down. Kind of boring if you ask me, but the kids love it.