Gratitude

Sorry for the dry spell, it's hard to get motivated to blog when you don't have good pictures. Aside from that, the boys have been a scab show, its been a bad week for falls (an oh crap! post coming soon). Anyways, here are some of the best of my lame pictures for the week!

favorite activity #213: wearing shoes that are too big for me

Caleb is safety coordinator of the Pittsenbarger household

Thomas, incase you couldn't tell by his red dot or his shirt

escapees

Instagram photo dump: thanks for making crappy iPhone pictures slightly more tolerable

two's company but three is a party!

C at the kids museum

at the Dig Pit, ETC

Caleb would rather pick dandelions than sit through Sunday meeting

daddy's boy

This is what Eli's dreams look like

Helmets!

I had intended on getting the boys helmets but procrastinated since I had to make a trip to the children's hospital where they have a safety store and sell everything at a very discounted rate. I was very worried that since they'd already gotten a taste of riding their bikes without them and thought they might refuse to wear them. Nervously I showed them the helmets and then showed them a pamphlet that had a guy riding his bike with a helmet on. I explained to them that from now on they have to wear their helmets whenever they ride their bikes. They were quite excited and all tried their helmets on. Thomas wore his for about an hour without ever taking it off, and Caleb wore his for a good 20 min. Eli was satisfied just to try it on once and then he went on his marry way. I was still nervous the day we took them to ride their bikes, maybe they would refuse to wear them since the novelty of the helmets had worn off. Thankfully my nerves were quelled when everyone complied and we had no trouble getting them to wear them but I still made sure to point out other bike-passerby's that were also wearing their helmets : ) I'm also thankful that the limited selection at the store had at least three different colors so I didn't have to buy three of the same boring color!

Updates

When teaching the boys to sign 'thank you' I may have forgotten to explain what it meant. Maybe I just got caught up with getting them to learn a new sign, which btw I quit teaching them new signs since I really only cared for them to learn a few useful ones. In fact I rarely sign anything my self, but the boys do to tell me something. The sign for 'thank you' was learned by Eli and Thomas but I can't recollect if my reluctant signer, Caleb, ever did. And by learn I mean they would sign it if I asked them to (it was not applied). Anyways, the other day the boys were playing in the back yard and out I come with three plates of food. I called the boys to the table for lunch. As I placed a plate of food in front of Caleb, he surprised me by not only signing 'thank you' but also by saying it simultaneously! A) He learned what it meant by observation, and B) He'd never said it before (actually he did once several months ago never to be repeated till now). What a sweet gesture of gratitude! Now he tells me thank you various times a day. And since they see Caleb getting praised for it his brothers will sometimes join in to tell me 'thank you' (but Eli and Thomas don't say it they just sign it). "Mr. Caleb, mommy is impressed!"

Here is a cute video of Eli and his Truck book. He has me like this ALL DAY LONG! I have some serious street cred now if I'm ever on a construction site, which will be never. I've since memorized the name of every truck that exists. You'll get the idea after 30 seconds, but if you like to indulge on Pitts Trips then enjoy the rest of the video. Oh, and pardon my fabulous lounging attire : )
 
I got this book from the Goodwill in anticipation of a truck obsession, best $2 I ever spent. At first I thought all the boys were into trucks but I think Eli just gets them excited about them. Kind of like how Caleb pretends to like the stuffed dog I keep in his crib since he see's how much his brothers like their Roarski (Eli, stuffed lion) and Girafa (Thomas, stuffed girafe). Eli has a complete monopoly on this book and you don't want to see what he's like if one of his brothers gets a hold of it! I have to be choosy with my battles and this is one we (even his brothers) don't want to fight him on. We just let him have this one : )