triplets

I know it's kind-of corny, but we found these matching shirts in an 18 mo., a 2T, and a 4T all on SALE and couldn't pass them up! Aren't they super duper cute!

We took these pics to update the framed picture of the kids that PT keeps on his office desk for Father's Day. Of course, after the fact, it occurred to me that he has the kids pics on his work computer wallpaper and it rotates through different pics and everything... so we could have skipped the 30 minutes of begging to try to get a good shot ;0) Oh well, he'll add the shot to the rotation! Now if I can just get B' to understand that they only sat on the table to take a cute picture and it's not a chair :0)

our superstar

"Mommy, are you soooo proud?"

"Yes, I am soooo proud!"

We keep having this conversation over and over again - every time N' finishes using the potty. Yes, N' is successfully using the potty. He's great at "tinkles" and even wakes in the night to potty. He's been dry overnight since he was 18 months old, but since potty training he occasionally needs to go around 4 am. That's fine though, he finishes and goes right back to sleep! What a fun blessing!

We're still working on consistently releasing poops into the potty. The first poop in the potty happened at church, just after service. Once a month we have a meet-the-leadership lunch right after church called the BBQ&A. The BBQ&A was just getting started and Patrick had just gone into the room when N' had his first poop-success and he REALLY wanted to tell daddy. Since N'always whispers when a lot of people are around I walked him down the hall, opened the door a crack, and let him slip in so he could share his news with Patrick. Well, that's the end of "always" with N'. He flew through the door, spotted his daddy, turned up a huge smile and announced full volume, "Daddy, I made a poop in the potty. It was a big snakey, stinky poop!" Yep. Mommy was soooooo embarrassed, but thankfully daddy didn't miss a beat he stuck his hand up for a high five and gave huge congratulations to our little pooper then looked at the folks gathered in the room and said simply, "we're potty training." Everyone laughed and then they applauded and shouted "good job" and "alright" -- talk about great reinforcement. Nehemiah was a superstar for a moment! Or at least you'd have thought so from the sound of things! ;0)

He chose these underwear himself. He chose from a whole display of underwear in the store and decided based on the fact that this package was all green-based and there was a dinosaur pair AND an alligator pair in the package. Our boy couldn't resist such a fabulous combination. Even red undies with puppies and firetrucks lost out. He's very excited about using the potty, but much more excited about the coolness of underwear! (He's making muscles in this pic... mmm hmm... well, at least he said he was making "really strong muscles." hee hee!)

outside

The kids all love to be outside. Here are some pics from a recent morning outside. It's too hot to go out in the afternoons now, but the mornings are bearable if we get out early. N' pretended to mow the lawn with a push-ride toy, B' pushed the shopping cart around, and J' practiced on the tricycle. We played outside for almost two hours before we had to go in for lunch. Ah such simple fun!

A Dress-up Day

My Aunt Necia and Uncle Joey sent this gorgeous, lemon-yellow, fluffy wonder for Judah's birthday. When we tried it on her the other day, the only way I could get her to take it off was to promise that she could wear it on "church day." She said, "I want to put it on my body." Hee hee! It's a 2T and she turned two in February, so you'd think it would fit just right by now, but it's still a smidgen big for our petite little lady.

Still, I promised, so I pulled out the sewing machine and made a quick pair of capri-style pantaloons for her to wear under it. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm all about pantaloons, long patty-pants, and knee-bloomers. It's ladylike and sweet and we want to teach her appropriate modesty at an early age. I am so tickled with how they came out. This is my first attempt at making capri pants for Judah. Her Nana (my mom) bought her a pair of summer sandals that she found on sale and they were a great match. This will be a favorite outfit all summer!

We took a couple of pics after church before we changed into play clothes. The standing pic is her idea of posing for the camera-- hee hee! She said, "Mommy, Judah is pretty." And I quite agree!

(click on the pics to enlarge for a close-up view!)

happy helpers

READY, SET, GO!











The "bigs" love to help! We bought a giant package of toilet paper at Sam's Wholesale Club. Nehemiah asked what we were going to do with it. I explained that I needed to move the individual rolls into the hall closet and my happy helpers launched into action.

Nehemiah announced that he would bring the rolls to the closet and Judah said, "I want to help too!" Suddenly a race was on! Judah only dared to hold one roll at a time as she ran down the hall. Nehemiah tried two and three rolls at a time, even though several attempts at three resulted in dropping all of them and having to start over. It was hilarious and oddly, actually helpful. If you look closely at each pic, you'll see in the background that "the competition" is working hard to pull more rolls out of the package at the end of the hall as the kiddo in the forefront of the pic is running. I couldn't have finished any faster by bringing the package to the closet and unloading the rolls into stacks on the shelf by myself. Besides, they had the best time with their invented toilet paper race!

I love how everything has the potential to be fun and exciting to a child! YAY! Left up to me, that giant package of toilet paper may well have sat on the floor behind the couch til the end of the day, but my cuties made it a great game to put it away as soon as we got home. I couldn't resist snapping a couple of pics to share -- even though Nehemiah shouted for me to hurry so I could "catch" those two rolls he was racing down the hallway with!

We Love to EAT

Sorry it's been so long between blogs. My camera is full of cute pics of things to tell everyone about :0) Here's one fun happening: B' enjoyed his very first peanut butter sandwich this week. Look at that smile! He thought it was great. I'm not sure which pleased him more, the brand new flavor and texture of peanut butter and pureed strawberries, or the fact that he could eat his whole lunch unassisted just like "the bigs." I had the best time watching him grab, giggle, and stuff bite after bite.


















Since I was sharing about food I thought I'd include a handy spaghetti-night help: the "bib shirt."

The bigs LOVE spaghetti (which they both pronounce "spagebsie"). I'm a stain-chaser: the kind who can't stand to let a stain linger on those sweet kid clothes. To get tomato-based stains out of fabric completely without chemical assistance, even if you strip it off and toss it in the wash minutes after they eat, can be a real challenge.

Now, N' doesn't like to wear a napkin draped under his chin, a bib, or a towel because he says, "I'm a big boy. A bib is for Benjamin because he's a baby boy." That means J' won't wear a bib either. So, I invented the "bib shirt." When we eat spaghetti we grab two of daddy's plain white undershirt-tees, pull them on, and clip them in the back with clothes pins (to hold the t-shirt collars close enough to protect even the collars on their little shirts beneath). The fun of wearing daddy's shirts works every time and the clothes pins release with a gentle pull so there's no risk of stangulation. Best of all, the t-shirts are long enough to cover them to the ankles so shirts, bottoms and all stay nice and clean! When we're done I just toss the two t-shirts in the wash with some bleach. Simple, easy, and no stain removal parties in my kitchen sink!

(Bib shirts are great for arts and crafts coverage too!)

Laundry Baskets

"The Bigs," a.k.a. the big brother and big sister in our house, love to play in their toy-storage baskets. We have two laundry baskets that hold the kids' toys: one in the kids' room and one in the living room. These two laundry baskets are more popular than bikes in our house! Sometimes they use them as cars, sometimes as boats, pretend bathtubs, as caves to hide in; I'm so impressed by their imaginations at 2 and 3 years old! In this picture, they had just announced that they were getting ready for bed and proceeded to pretend to sleep; making snore noises and laughing the whole time!

It puts the neat-nik in me to the test to smile and say nothing when they jump up and dump the baskets out. But, their sweet little giggles make it well worth overlooking the messy pile of toys on the floor... at least for a little while :0)