Because it's silly, silly, silly, silly, silly, silly time!

We had a zany weekend!  I spent the week and a fair chunk of the weekend moving my law office.  The kids definitely have spring fever!

It's so awesome to see how much fun they have together!

 They are loving the warm weather, and playing outside.  And running around like crazy monkeys inside!

 And Tori, who lately won't look at the camera, was quite the ham.

Tonight, when we were watching a bedtime show, she saw two characters, and remarked, "It's his best friend."  So, I asked Tori who her best friend was.  (No cute answer like it's you mommy). 

She replied, "The other Tori."

Daddy asked, "Is that the naughty Tori?"

Tori neither confirmed nor denied.

 Tommy is now nearly as big as Tori, and is totally ready to rumble with the girls.

 Bethany junior Dani is busy tattling on all of them, and being insanely jealous of any little attention they get.

Oh, and did I mention, I picked up the pre-kindergarten enrollment packet for her today.

Pre-K?

Pre-K?

Where does the time go?

 The kids were all sitting together Saturday sharing a bowl of popcorn and being silly.  Tommy kept demanding a "bite bite" and Dani would feed him.  Adorbs!

Took the girls to the new office on Sunday so they could see that there's a playroom there!  New office has as much square footage as my damn house, so I figured it was time for them to have a spot to themselves there!

Dinnertime silliness.

During dinner tonight, I asked Tori if she wanted any more.

 "This dinner is stinky!  PU!  I don't like cat food," she replied.

 They were bouncing off the walls tonight.  Got some great video of it, but blogger won't seem to let me upload it.

Silly, silly, silly!

 Funny things said this week.

Last night at dinner, Dani told us her tummy hurt and she didn't want to eat any more (after not eating much).  Big Man gave her the talk about not eating dinner meant she didn't get to eat dessert later.  I asked her what her tummy felt like.  She replied, "It hurts, and it feels like it's mad at me, and it feels like it's mad at my whole body."

The night before, we were sitting at the dinner table and Dani said something to me, and part of my response included calling her "honey".  As soon as I said it, she asked, "Why did you call me 'honey'?"  I responded something along the lines of she is my little honey, acknowledging that I usually call Big Man honey.  "Can we just stick with Dani?" she replied?

Meanwhile, Tori found a left over set of vampire teeth from Halloween.

And Tommy loves to put the girls' dress-up outfits on his head and play Chief!

They are counting down to Christmas.  Only one chocolate left in the advent calendar.  

Christmas Card Outtakes.

It's that time of year again!  Time to herd cats try to get my kids to (a) sit still; (b) look at the camera at the same time; and (c) make some type of smiling face.

We begin with the kissing of the baby brother, and his "help me" look.

 

 Tommy tries to flee.

 You can make me sit on this couch but you can't make me smile.

 Dani decides to sing some karaoke.

 Meh.  We will not smile.

 This is utter torture, Mommy.

 My foot says, "Merry Christmas!"

We took 65 photos.  Four were passable enough to make it to a photo upload.

Ho, ho, ho!

The things they say (and the cute ways they say it)!

 Sometimes is the mispronounced words that are the cutest.

Tonight, at dinner, Tori was telling us, "It smelled like a stinky stunk."  Dani kept correcting her, saying, "No, Tori, it's a skunk," to which Tori would say, "no, it's a stinky stunk".

 

And Dani is just downright conversational these days.

And. She. Never. Stops. Talking.

Tonight, as I was changing after work, she came bounding out of my bedroom saying, "Mommy, I put chap-stick on my face so it wouldn't get cracked up."

This morning, we were driving to Miss Ruth's house, listening to nursery rhymes.  "This Old Man" was on.  Dani yells out, "Mommy, stop the music!"  I mute the sound and she exclaims, "Mommy, knee sounds like three!  You can turn the song back on now."

 

We blink.

"We blink so our eyes don't get frozen'd," says Dani.

"Can we get a pet goldfish when Scrubbie cat doesn't meow anymore?" said Dani.
You can't make this stuff up.

We had a busy week. 

Getting ready for a houseful of family for Thanksgiving was a challenge.

Tommy challenged Daddy to a stare-down.

 

 And, I tried to get a group shot of my little turkeys.  Tori is all, "WTF is this", while Dani sings some opera...while Tommy is mister, oh yeah, baste me.

 And in typical Tori fashion, she smiles while everyone else is distracted.

 Dani, famous for her "crazy eyes", finally convinces Tori to just hide.  Tori's had enough.

 But WAIT!  Three little kids, in three silly hats, all looking at the camera at the SAME TIME?

 And Tommy is all "Screw this, I posed long enough.  I'm out."

Christ on a cracker, I'm going to need an intervention for the Christmas photo!

Silly monkey.

Tori got ahold of a fun hat tonight, and pranced around the house in it all night, even during dinner.

 

 She was quite the ham.

 She was so happy she indulged me in a photo shoot, something she usually runs from!

 This one's at the dinner table.

 She is our little ray of sunshine.

Our little Tori-nado.

Anatomy of a family photo.

As you all know, I'm always taking pictures of the family.  I swear, the only pictures the kids will have of me when I'm gone are the silly, stick my arm out while hugging a kid headshots, because unless I ask Big Man, he doesn't take pictures of me and the kids.  We were at a party this weekend, and I was snapping pics, and my friend Melissa offered, "Why don't I take some family photos?"

AWESOME!  I thought.  Climb into seats, drag children over, assemble on laps and tell them to smile.  Bribe--if you kids sit still and smile, we can have a cookie.  Threaten--you guys better sit stil and smile or no cookies for you.  Beg--please, smile for mommy?

First try....are there three different cameras, because there are three different directions everyone is looking.  (Who knew this would be the best of the bunch?)

Okay kids, let's try this again--look at Melissa and SMILE!

Still three different directions--except this time, Tommy's watching the ants on the ground, and Dani appears to be waiting for the Rapture.

By this time, the squirming has commenced.  No one wants to sit still.  Tori's almost gone, and Dani's dress is bunched up as she slides down my leg to freedom!

At least Big Man's sorta smiling in this one! 

What's the trick?  I'm thinking I need some sort of toddler glue trap (like they have for mice) to keep them still and allow for dozens of photos--odds are that if we take enough, we'll end up with one with everyone looking at the camera, right?

Dani's Big Week.

Dani had quite the busy week.  To start, she got a haircut.  The at-home kind.  I was putting on my makeup Wednesday morning, with Dani and Tori "helping" me as usual.  Dani informed me she had to go do her hair and headed off to the bathroom.  She came back with a few hair clips haphazardly placed in her hair, and I thought nothing of it.  Later that morning, we were getting the girls ready for a day at Miss Ruth's.  Big Man was combing out Tori's hair, and I sprayed down Dani's and started to comb.  Huge pieces of hair were coming off in the pick.  A lot.  Like the way people describe their hair coming out after a few rounds of chemo.  I got Big Man's attention and held up a chunk so he could see, all the while standing behind Dani so she wouldn't panic.  Upon closer inspection, I realized the hair wasn't coming out at the root, but had been cut.  After breathing a sigh of relief that my child didn't have some mystery illness, I asked Dani whether she had cut her hair.  An instant, "NO!" followed by a follow up question by me and then an embarassed admission that she had used the scissors.  (And then the Big Man's question to me...."And why were the scissors accessible, mommy?")  Ugh.  I made a little pile of all she'd cut--good thing her hair is curly so it's hard to notice that there's a ton missing from the right side of her head.  We could have made Grandpa a nice little toupe with all there was!

We've been really struggling with Dani and the potty.  She's been in underwear for a few months now, but has steadfastly refused to poop on the potty.  She holds it all day, and then at night, sits on the potty and cries and begs for a diaper. It is a battle that she always, eventually wins.  As bedtime  creeps up, I just cave--we put them in overnight diapers to avoid nightime wets, and she will just wait until bed and poop into the (way pricier than a regular diaper) overnight diaper, which keeps her and Tori up, and drives me batty.

Last night, she had a little accident in her underwear, and I put her on the potty and told her to finish the poop there.  Tears, crying, and no more poop.  She admitted she had to go, but was scared.  So, mommy decided it was time for some tough love.  I put her to bed in her underwear, and explained that if she needed to pee or poop she should get out of bed and get me.  I knew that the odds were very good that she'd wake up wet, at a minimum.  This morning, she was soaked, but she didn't poop in her bed--that was my solace as I stripped her bed and gave her a quick bath in Tommy's toddler tub.  A few hours later, while I was in the basement folding laundry, Big Man opens the door and says, "Your eldest child is pooping on the potty and I think we're out of flushable wipes."  And she was!  And she said it was easy!  And that she wasn't afraid anymore.  For months she has been asking for this pink picnic basket toy, and I promised her that once she pooped on the potty, we would go get it.  So when Tori went down for a nap, Dani and I went to Target to pick up the reward, and a slushie (of course).

We came home and Dani reveled in her big-girl-ness!  We made cupcakes, and she helped me decorate them.  They were blue cupcakes with red frosting.  We all had one after dinner.

The red frosting was intense.  Tori looked like she was wearing lipstick, and Dani looked like she had walked into a door and was bleeding from her mouth.  At one point, she remarked, "Look mommy, it's like I have nail polish on."  She has absolutely no idea what this means:

Meanwhile, during Dani's big week, Tori provided much-needed comic relief.

And tonight, at bed-time, Dani was suddenly afraid to poop on the potty again.  Fingers crossed that she was over-tired and tomorrow she's back on track.

Bouncy house!

Hmmm, Tommy looks pensive.  He is, no doubt, thinking of new ways to keep mommy up all night.  

Despite the fact that he's almost ONE, he continues to wake up, wailing, at least once or twice per night.  Thankfully a bottle of milk puts him right back to sleep, but it's killing me.  Eleven months of not sleeping through the night is starting to take its toll on this old broad.  And, yes, we've tried letting him cry it out.  That worked with Dani and Tori.  For Tommy, it's just a challenge, and one that he is ready to win.  So, I do what gets me back to sleep the quickest--which is feed him.  If juggling knives were faster, I would enroll in circus school to learn how to do it.

We had a special delivery yesterday--I bought an indoor bouncy ring. I don't know what really compelled me to do it, but I thought it would be fun to have something the girls can burn some energy in (because it's impossible to take all 3 outside at night). It's like a personal bouncy house.  So, I was just cruising along on amazon.com, and thought that a 6 foot round structure would be a great addition to our playroom.  I was literally cringing at what Big Man's reaction would be when I ordered Saturday delivery and hit "confirm".  Nothing says impulsive like paying for next day shipping.

And despite the fact that it took hours for our air compressor to blow it up, even Big Man seemed to think it was a pretty fun idea.  It's designed to hold two kids, so it's perfect for Dani and Tori.  It's got walls so they can't launch themselves out of it.  And, you can flip it over and it's a fort--it looks like a little smurf house when you flip it. 

Tori literally got out of bed this morning saying "bounce".  I just wish it were big enough for me!

Time for a Wayne's World throwback...Scooby Doo ending to my post
And even Old Man McGhee (below) gives it the seal of approval.  "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you darn kids," she bellowed.

Da na da na da na da na, da na na na

Tori Batman! 

While no one was looking, Little Dude decided that he wants to take some steps.

And, sweet little Dani shows us that a bad pair of glasses can make even a little cutie look like a supernerd!

Doctors, and Lawyers, and Pirates, OH MY!

By now, you all know that Big Man's a police lieutenant and I'm a lawyer (or "liar" as the kids say).  Inherent in that is we both see really awful things every day.  This was a particularly difficult week for me, as a matrimonial case I'd been working on for almost two years was scheduled for trial.

My matrimonial and family law practice often reminds me of how blessed I am, and makes me so thankful for my healthy children, my supportive spouse and my upbringing.  There are just days that I come home and need to hug and kiss everyone, over and over again.  It really makes me appreciate what I have.

 I've got pirates!

Future WWE superstars!

And, just the sweetest kids and husband anyone could want.

And, let's not forget GIANT BABY.  Yes, Tommy is GIANT BABY.

At his 9 month baby visit thiw week, we learned that he is in the 90th percentile. That means that if you line up 100 nine month olds, he would be bigger than 90 of them.  Let me break it down for you:  he's 23 pounds 8 ounces, and 30.25 inches tall.

When Tori had her 1 year visit, she was 23 pouncs 6 ounces and 29.5 inches tall.
When Dani had her 1 year visit, she was 19 pouncs 6 counces and 28.5 inches tall.

Little Dude has outpaced them by months!

He is such an amazing cross between Dani and Tori.  I was telling that to Big Man tonight.

Dani was the cautious baby.  She crawled when she could walk, when it looked like walking might be tough.  She didn't try to climb things, didn't try to put things she shouldn't in her mouth, and basically was a scaredy-kid.  Easy peasy.  She looks before she leaps.

Tori is the opposite.  Tori climbed the stairs before she could crawl proficiently.  There was a mantra with Dani, "no kitchen, no bathroom, no stairs" we would say as she crawled toward them--and she would hear us and turn around.  Tori, not so much.  When she was crawling, she would just keep crawling because dammit she wanted to crawl into the bathroom.  When she was walking, I swear she would hear me say no and she would pick up her pace just to defy me faster! She figured out that the radiator cover tops can come off and that CDs and toys fit into the VCR opening.  She bounces on furniture until she lands on the hard floor.  She wriggles away from me to run naked through the house because she can and it's fun.  She is baby McGuyver.  We will eventually put a top on her crib to keep her contained at night.

Tommy is the middle ground.  He'd really like to walk but he knows he's not ready yet.  So, he cruises the furniture, and crawls.  He moves chairs and stools so he can climb higher, but he is deliberative.  He's not reckless.  He just wants to check things out.  He's not limited by fear, the way Dani is.  And he's not bolstered by fearlessness, the way Tori is. 

Which is pretty much perfect. My little dude.