Catching up

Now to update the more recent events. Last weekend my nephews, Kyle and Tyler, stayed with us. The kids LOVED having their 'big cousins' stay with them. Vinny was instantly like 5 years older. He would strut around like he was in charge. He got to play Golden Tee Golf with them and could really play it this time. They had so much fun. Whether the big boys thought is was that fun, I don't know, but they did get to play around on the snowmobile, so I think that was fun for them. Kyle had a basketball tourney in town and Linda and Craig had a party in Iowa, so it all worked out very well.
On Sunday we took all the kids to the mall. All 5! This took both our vehicles! With all the big carseats in our van and one seat we keep removed we only have room for the driver and one passenger these days. We can pop the other seat in and out, but we still would have been one seat short. It was a little chilly for strapping anyone to the roof rack. Kyle and Tyler looked at some things on their wish list and Kyle made a deal with mom and dad on the cell phone for a new pair of jeans:)
Sunday night after our guests went back home, we were going to get the kids ready for bed and Vinny said he had a tummy ache. He will say this sometimes and usually it means nothing (often it is just time to poop). This one was for real!! Yuck! He threw up a few times had a rough night till about 1am then he slept pretty well. Daddy slept in his room on the floor - yeah daddy!!! He was good to go on Monday and I got to clean up the bed that he threw up in, but I was very glad it was short lived. The girls have not had the same...yet. Elise got a cold and did not sleep all that well this week. Last night was good though, so hope we are getting through it.
Had a little icy snow storm yesterday afternoon. Hoping that is the last one (I doubt that though!).

Carwash anyone??

Well, this posting got started last week, but I will finish it up and move on....

Last week we had some decent weather so I took my van to the carwash on Thursday. It was soo soo needed! Poor thing had not been washed since last fall - yikes! Vinny and Addie were excited to go which was pretty surprising since Addie was not a fan last time. Anyway, we get into the carwash, the soap starts and Addie wants OUT!! 'Get me out!' 'Let me out!' 'Me need out!!' She was NOT happy. We get through the dryer and Vinny starts talking about how it was fun and Addie proceeds to agree. Then for the next two days I hear 'carwash fun', 'we go carwash?!'. So, even though i doubted that she would really enjoy it, we went again on Saturday with the truck. Again, once inside, we heard chants to 'get me out', 'let me out'!! Exiting the carwash was a new tune from her this time, one of 'we not go carwash anymore!'. Now, every time we are headed out someplace we hear 'mom, we not go carwash, we not go carwash, mom'.

Elise has taken to the stairs! She spent a good chunk of time in the basement working on the one-step landing to get her moves down pat. We have a one step landing between the main room and the bedroom. She figured out she could get down from this one-step too! It is not graceful and she goes headfirst, landing on her face/belly. Luckily she only did the down into the main room as the bedroom has a hard floor. She then moved her new found talent to the steps that head to the second floor. She made it up a few steps. So far no major falls! Big brother is a pretty good tattletale to let me know her sneaky moves. He tries to 'help' her back down. i think he does usually end up breaking her fall, so that is sort of helpful. :)

Productions and Random Tidbits

Vinny is very into putting on little shows. Sometimes for us, but often just to entertain himself. He will sit for hours and make up a storyline and pretend with various items. Sometimes it is a couple of his toys and sometimes it may just be random items like a stick and a fork that become good and bad pirates or whatever the characters of the day are. Seems most of the time 'the nice one defeats the evil villain'(his words not mine). This morning it has been a production that involves all of us. He assigns us a role. He has apparently learned that I am not an overly cooperative player and now assigns me to less important roles. The cast list this morning is:
Vinny.....kitty
Beasley..... doggie
Elise ...... mouse
Addie ....... rat
I am the crab. The crab is not part of the real show. It only comes out at the end when all the other fun stuff is done. Again, these are his words.
So, Vinny has been crawling around trying to get his cast members to cooperate. The dog just swiped half the rats toast, so doggie is on a timeout outdoors. The mouse is always a willing participant and LOVES when the big kids will play with her. The show is now in an intermission since Imagination Movers came on - a favorite show here!

The show a few days ago (I actually took a few notes since I didn't have time to post it right away) was very interesting. It was one of Vinny's solo productions that took place at the table. He was playing with his power ranger. It has a body and then all this armor stuff that can either attach onto the main body or create a shell of a second body. So, the main body is red and the shell body is gold. The main body was a boy and the shell golden body was the dad. As the show went on the boy and dad were busy doing their stuff. I wasn't listening to all the specifics then he caught my attention when he started talking about the rest of the family. They lived near a dangerous volcano. All the other people got hurt from the volcano so now it was just the boy and dad. The mom died when she got hurt by a volcano. 'That was a sad day.' (Words from his act). I was not involved in this one at all. He was just busy talking at the table with his toys.

Vacuuming is an interesting time around here as of late. Beasley is terrified of the vacuum and Addie is not a fan either, Vinny has to steal the attachments to use for his sword, and Elise is completely infatuated with the machine! She chases me around. I often have to stop, move her to a different room, go back, turn around and there she is again. I would guess she will eventually develop a fear of it, but so far she loves it, climbs it and likes to get in front of me. Ugh. Not a speedy process!!

Vinny and Addie had Valentine's parties yesterday. Vinny at school and Addie at playgroup. Elise was there too, but she is a bit young to understand any of it. They each got Valentines and treats. Vinny apparently is on a 24 hour sugar high. The kid is nuts. I let him have ONE treat last night and he was running around bouncing off the walls. This morning he started up again. I don't know how he can go so many hours on the little food he eats! If only I could bottle a bit of his energy!!

All the kids here as babies have slept on their bellies with their butts up in the air. Only after they can roll themselves into that position, of course. I have never gotten a picture of any of them doing it till now. I got Elise the other day. It was time for her to get up and she was still sleeping in that position. So cute!!!

Squeaky Clean!

So, apparently toys and games are not nearly as intriguing to my kids as the bathroom! Especially the master bathroom. I really don't know how many times a day I find them in there playing with various things. The other day they decided the shower stall would be a fun toy to go in and lock each other in. They like to get their hands on shampoo bottles for microphones. The most recent discovery is the sink. Vinny and Addie have discovered that if Vinny helps they can work together to wash Addie's hands or brush her teeth. Needless to say, Addie now washes her hands MANY MANY times a day. She uses ample soap -ugh! I have caught her a few times getting started with no one there to help with the all important part of turning on the water! so she stands with a handful of soap decided what to rub it on! This new bathroom time has helped with brushing her teeth. The girl can't stand to have her teeth brushed. She fights it every step of the way, but is slowly getting a little better from their escapades in the bathroom.

Elise has now put herself into a stand not using anything but her own strength. Friday night she got up all by herself and stood for a few seconds. The picture is not actually of the event itself. It is her playing in the toy kitchen wearing my favorite bunny-butt sleeper.

Saturday we took advantage of the great weather. In the upper 30's/ low 40's and still had snow, so we got a little sledding in. Vinny was all for it. Addie is usually not too keen on it, but after watching Vinny and I go down (wiping out 3 times before getting to the bottom) she wanted Daddy to take her down. About halfway down the hill she changed her mind and tried to bale, but they made it all the way to the road with no wipe-outs. Vinny and I snagged the 'good' sled and made it down in one try on our second trip. He had a couple more trips and we were pretty well wiped out. It is a long walk back up!
By Sunday, much of our hill was melted off from the warm temps, so no good sledding here for a while!