One Shoe Blue Shoe No Shoe

Don't mess with these guys, remember there's three of them and only one of you!

Bad to the bone

Action shot!

The boys love admiring their friend Oscar...from afar apparently

For the love of ketchup!

 It took several tries for them to finally like ketchup, I think they grew to like it because of their love of dipping!

 The boys dipped their sweet potato fries, sandwich, pickles, and strawberries in ketchup. So glad they ate outside!

Thomas dipped his grilled cheese sandwich in the ketchup on his knee 

One Shoe Blue Shoe No Shoe

Putting Eli's shoe back on

Eli going back for his shoe

Eli throwing his shoe

Eli is upset that he's missing a shoe again...repeat

Baby Updates

When I went to pick up the boys at nursery school one of their teachers asked me if "Eli is the real emotional one?" Boy she couldn't have hit the nail on the head better. Then she said that "Eli will let you know when he's not happy!" So true, one morning long ago (don't even remember when) but Eli was being real clingy and Phil couldn't get anything done and so he yells to me to come help him and says "Eli's an emotional wreck!" Another excellent description of Eli (well just sometimes).  

As of the last couple of weeks time outs are working! I've always used them as a means to calm a baby down but now I can actually threaten them with it and they will immediately calm down (most of the time). I don't like screaming at the top of your lungs for no good reason. It works best on Eli but that might just be because he gets them the most (remember he can be a real emotional wreck sometimes). 

So more about Eli but this one is positive (not that the other stuff is all that bad). Eli has become such a star signer, he picks up signs so quickly! After showing him how to sign diaper maybe a handful of times he tried it and uses it appropriately now. He also sometimes combines two signs together (for example signing all done followed by more). That boy is as sharp as a whip!

Thomas was petting our cat Lankston when I asked if he could give him a kiss. He leans forward and kisses the cat on the head! So cute, pets are such a good thing for babies and kids, not only do they help kids learn empathy but they are also good for their health! Kids that grow up with pets have less allergies and asthma than those who don't (I'm not making this up, there are scientific studies to back this up). I was asked several times while I was pregnant if we were planning on keeping our cats, inappropriate question in my book. Of course not, it didn't even cross our minds, we love our kitties! 

The boys play together a lot more now. This includes chasing, wrestling, but mostly they love imitating each other like if one boy starts jumping on the couch and the other two quickly join in.

Ever since I quit nursing Thomas first thing in the morning (now he get's a sippy cup of milk in care of dad) he's become quite the papa's boy. If dad is home he run's to him and not me for comfort if he needs it. Phil pretty much has him attached to the hip until he leaves for work in the mornings. 

We have had two speech therapy sessions so far and already they are really helping. Their teacher thinks they are on the cusp but that they are such busy kids exploring that their hasn't been much interest to learn to talk. She has taught me some good techniques to encourage them to communicate. Like blowing bubbles and saying "down down down pop!" They say "dow" with some encouragement, repetition is key. And building up anticipation with a wind up toy by saying "one two three" pause "go!" They say "oh" with some encouragement as well. We need to work on giving them choices to get them to point at what they want but this doesn't work too well when you have three kids so need to think about this one some more. Eli very consistently says banana sounds like 'nanana.' The other two join in and say nanana but only after they hear me praise Eli for saying it. They learn very quickly from each other and always love being praised! Caleb has always been very interested when I stick my tongue out at him or say 'lalalala' he hasn't been able to do it until now and once they saw Caleb doing it the other two have joined in as well.