Thursday, July 31, 2008

Fashionistos

Oh where to begin. I can't even remember the last time I posted or what I wrote about. Matt has just recovered from yet another summer virus. It's no fun having 1 or 2 sick kids. With only Matt sick, Will suffers just as much because I have to give 90% of my attention to Matt. Unfortunately for Will, Matt still felt well enough to bite, kick and hit.

Will has become incredibly bossy over the last few weeks. He has an opinion about everything. Every morning he agonizes about what to wear. It's worse than having a teenager in the house. Each morning we go through all the shirts in the closet. He looks them over, ponders, and holds them before finally commanding, "NO! BACK!" For the most part, he does a pretty good job at picking outfits that somewhat go together. But he's had some misses. Like the Hawaiian outfit in the photo.

The boys have been spending some time at the local library. Our wonderful nanny takes them every week or so, and they play with puzzles, run through the aisles, knock over books and sit for story time. When our nanny was on vacation I decided to take them and check it out. We were late and didn't get to play with puzzles, but we sat in on the story time. By the time it was over, I felt like gouging my eyes out or going out for a stiff drink. The boys were fine; I just couldn't handle the suzy sunshine-sing songy-storyteller.

The picture of Will and Matt in the stroller is one taken in the parking deck of the library. Our nanny said they insisted on wearing their rain boots, so she let them. She's a smart gal; there are some battles that aren't worth fighting.

I'm constantly asked if the boys have different personalities. For the most part they are pretty similar, but there are some definite distinctions. For instance, Matt prefers to bite while Will likes to hit and shove. Will has to eat out of a blue bowl with a green utensil; Matt settles for the red bowl and red utensil. Will is quite territorial when it comes to his highchair, his car seat, and any toy that he is playing with. Matt for the most part is pretty easy going. But a new difference that I discovered last week was their puzzle building skills. Matt very precisely stacked the blocks in the right order and then disassembled them by putting each piece in a certain place. Will on the other hand was creative in his methods and ended up with an abstract version of the same puzzle. See the proof below.

The last photo is of Will and Jake. Lately Matt and Will have been fighting over who gets to take Jake to bed. This was taken after nap time. Notice that Will turned Jake on his stomach so he could sleep. Awwww!

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Observations from the week

Matt and Will tend to mimic one another. Yesterday I put socks on Matt because he is nursing an in-grown toenail. (Don't worry, Dr. Chris is taking great care of him.) Much to my dismay, he insisted on wearing his crocs. I tried to explain that he would look like a Florida tourist, but he didn't care. When I tried to put Will's shoes on, he refused to wear them unless he had on socks too. Then later in the afternoon Matt decided to remove one shoe and sock, so Will had to do the same.

You'll see Will's birthmark in the 2nd photo. We don't even notice it anymore. Will doesn't notice it. In fact he can point out numerous boo boos on himself and Matt, but he has never pointed to his birthmark mistaking it for a boo boo. Two neighborhood kids asked about it today, and it reminded me that one day Will will take notice of it too. We met with a specialist last fall for a diagnosis and he mentioned the possibility of laser removal (though it probably wouldn't work that great on the ankle and foot, so what's the point). I'm going to feel bad when Will needs years of therapy as a result of us not having it removed and instead telling him it's what makes him special.

Chris was our hero for the day. This morning he awoke at 4:15 due to an odd smell. He discovered it was coming from the refrigerator but couldn't figure out exactly what it was. While I was googling "noxious odor from refrigerator" and only getting results about food smells, it actually started smoking. After returning to bed at 5:30, Chris kept reminding me that he saved our lives. It's a good thing I don't cook that much, because I was able to move the most important refrigerator items into our mini fridge that we keep in the garage for Chris's drink of choice- Mt. Dew. The best part (for Chris)- I was able to leave at least 6 cans of Dew in the fridge for him. It was the least I could do for him after he saved my life.

Discipline continues to be a problem for me. The problem is that you have to remain consistent. Sounds easy, but it is so much easier to just give up. Take the couch/counter/sink problem described in an earlier post. I spent all day telling them to sit on their bottoms, but they continued to stand, jump and crawl into the sink. By 7pm Chris and I had both had it, so we moved the couch away from the wall. When I told Chris they'd probably end up falling from the back of the couch onto the floor, he said, "well, I guess they'll only fall once." Let the games begin!







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