Dancing Mommies

Over the weekend we were watching basketball while eating dinner. The subject of UNC came up and we had the following conversation with R.

J: Do you want to go to college at UNC?
R: YEAH!
J: What do you want to be?
S: Do you want to be a doctor?
R (in her most patronizing tone since we should know better): No, cheerleader.
S: You know, some people have two jobs. They are a cheerleader and have another job. Do you want two jobs?
R: No. One job. Cheerleader.

This conversation has actually been repeated since then. Aaaaugggh.

Busy Friday

Busy day! Took the boys to the doctor this morning for their four month checkup. All is was well, and right now they are sleeping off the effects of the current round of immunizations. M was 12 pounds, 6 ounces, which means he is finally officially on the charts (as compared to other, full-term, four-month-olds) when it comes to weight. He was 22 1/2 inches long which was just under the chart height, so he may catch up by his six-month checkup. L is up to 10 pounds, 5 ounces, which is obviously a lot less, but his weight has grown exponentially since his last checkup. He is 21 1/2 inches long, so he is staying consistently an inch shorter than M.

After their appointment, I brought them home, grabbed R, and she and I went out to lunch at Panera. She gets to go on father-daughter dates all the time while they are running errands, but she and I rarely get to do fun stuff together, so I decided to seize the opportunity. She opted not to eat off the kids menu because she was in the mood for soup. She managed to put away most of an adult-sized bowl of minestrone soup along with the huge chunk of sourdough bread they gave her. She also put a decent dent in my turkey sandwich and bag of chips.

On a total side note, each morning, she and her dear ol' dad look at the page-a-day calendar and discuss the date. She did not like February. She cried when it was time for March 1st and February had only gone until the 28th. That was all wrong! This morning she looked at the calendar and said the day was "twenty-zero." Ya know, you can't argue with that logic!

As we were checking out the baked goods at Panera on our way out, my phone rang. Our realtor was calling. Our home inspector had finished much earlier than anticipated and wanted to know if I wanted to meet with him then or keep our later appointment. I decided to go ahead and meet him early, so R and I left without buying a dessert (probably a good thing, although kinda sad), stopped at Subway on the way home to buy lunch for my poor husband, and headed home. I dropped off R, switched cars, and headed off to our new house.

I got there and met our inspector. Our realtor had actually encouraged us not to be present for the inspection. Our inspector loves his job, is very thorough, and is a talker. The realtor attended one inspection at which the buyer wanted to be present for the entire thing. It took six hours. I don't have that kind of time. I'll trust the signed report!

As it turns out, there was NOTHING wrong with the house. The inspector was a little overwhelmed and pretty apologetic about this. The best he could come up with was the sensors on the garage door opener that keep the door from crushing a child weren't working, but the inspector had already fixed that. The house has a sprinkler system (fancy-shmancy!), but the sprinkler heads were all buried after two years of no-use due to a ban on watering. The inspector dug them out, and they all worked. Other than the switch box missing a screw, everything else was fine. We got lucky!

Moving

Crazy times around here. We've been busy looking at houses, and as of late Thursday night, we are under contract to buy a house. Yes, we will be moving soon.

Moving at any time is always crazy. Moving with three kids under three will be extra crazy. We had feared that house hunting would also be crazy, but overall it went pretty well. We've been looking at houses online for months, and we spent several weeks driving around, determining where we really wanted to live. What we never anticipated though, were how strong R's opinions would be about the whole process.

Because we had done so much prep work, we actually only spent one day looking at houses, and R loved every minute of it. It helped that one owner had chocolate chip cookies out for us, and another had a fantastic wooden swing set that she got to play on, but I think she would've loved the process anyway. She really liked snooping and looking at people's things. She had fun in the one vacated house we saw too. She eagerly ran from room to room opening and closing doors. When we told her it was time to go home, she had a complete meltdown. She really wanted to look at more houses.

Knowing how she fears change, as soon as we got home that day, we started talking about how we might move to a new house, just like the Berenstain Bears did. She was okay with it, but she made it clear she would not live in the "sand house." She had fallen on the sand under the wooden swing set, and apparently that fall had ruined that house for her. She was very firm on not living there. Thankfully, that wasn't the house we picked.

The house we are buying was one of her favorites. They have a tween daughter, and her room is a bright, beachy blue. Our pink princess loved this room. In fact, she liked it so much, she tried to pull the covers back on the bed so that she could have a camp out under the covers. So I reminded her of this fact when we told her that we really were moving. Oddly, although she remembered the room, that was not how she remembered the house. She called it "cat door house" in reference to the fact that their is a cat door (like other people have doggie doors) in the door that leads from the kitchen to the garage. So that will be our new home. The cat door house.

Potty Time???

Because our lives weren't chaotic enough, we are now potty training R. It wasn't anything we planned (although she's overdue), but she decided it was time, and who are we to argue?

But, like everything else she has done, R has to do this in her own, special, perfectionist way. Normal, oops, other kids can't wait to try out their new pull-ups or training pants. Not our daughter. While she loves trying them on, she is refusing to wear them until she can go accident-free. So for now she is practicing. Every time she has to go, she runs in the bathroom and sits on her little potty - with her diaper and clothes on. She goes, and then she requests a diaper change. She and her dear daddy were at the mall the other day, and when there wasn't a little potty to use, she ran and hid in the corner of a sporting good store so she could have some privacy while she went. Last night she even stayed dry all night. As soon as she got out of bed this morning, she froze next to the bed. I asked her if she was going, and she said, "Yes!" then squealed, "Me no pee in big girl bed!!!" She was so proud of herself! I said tomorrow we could go on the potty as soon as she got up. She gave me a patronizing look and shook her head, "no." Of course we can't do that Mommy. We're not ready for that step yet.

Perhaps someday, before she graduates from high school, she will be able to use the potty in a more, um, conventional way.

Three Months

I think it's pretty natural with a first child to compare his or her development to a milestone chart (and every other baby you encounter). With the second child, you compare the little one to the older sibling as well as the milestone chart and peers. And we're finding that with two at once, we compare the poor little guys to the milestone charts, their sis, and each other. Further complicating matters, the boys development is not based on their actual age, when they were born, but on their corrected age, based on when they were due. They just can't catch a break! Thankfully, for now they are doing just fine, and here is where they stand (or lay, to be precise) three months after their birth.

Since we haven't been to the doctor since their two month well-baby appointments (hallelujah!), we don't know exact weights and lengths. But M is still our chunky monkey. The boy loves to eat, and it is safe to say that he is well over 10 pounds. He was the first to coo, and he still gets mad when we catch him cooing. We're pretty sure he's just embarrassed to be caught acting like a baby! He is the more physical one, and he is in constant motion when he is awake. If he's sitting in his bouncy seat, he kicks and punches like mad. When he is on his tummy, he is often in a push up position looking around. Well, for the first few minutes, then he starts screaming.

L is still noticeably smaller, although we're not sure he's that much shorter in length. He has finally outgrown his newborn clothes, and the sleeves on some of the clothes in the next size are even a little short. He still spits up a lot, but he is keeping more food down, and we're finally noticing at least a little bit of chub on his arms and legs. He was the first to smile, and when he is happy, he gets a huge grin on his face. He likes to sit back and observe the world around him, and when he is in his bouncy seat, he generally is busy trying to process all that is going on around him. He was doing very little when we placed him on his belly, to the point that I was concerned because he wasn't even trying to lift his head. Then, out of nowhere, on Thursday night he got angry and rolled from his front to his back. He, like his brother and big sister, is full of surprises!

Baby Blues

We have a Baby Blues treasury that I got eons ago. As our family has grown, we have loved reading it. We seem to struggle with all the same things as Wanda and Darryl. In short, the comics are funny because they are true.

R is also a fan, and we've found this to be both a blessing and a curse. While we hate to discourage a child who loves books, and it's fun to watch her tear through a newspaper looking for the comics, the kids aren't the best role models. Zoe seems to teach R an awful lot about how NOT to behave. But, R loves the comics, and so we read them over and over to her. In fact, R can also recite some of them, and it's pretty amusing to listen to her recite a comic, including the silent panels in which characters are thinking.

Yesterday, while she and her dad were at Barnes and Noble, she decided to recite one of the comics. In this particular strip, Darryl is holding Hammie, who is still a baby young enough to nurse, and Darryl is trying in vain to get Hammie to open his mouth. Zoe, the always helpful big sister, tells Darryl that if he wants Hammie to open his mouth, he should do what Mommy does. Darryl inquires as to what that is. R was quite proud to shout out the punchline in a nice, clear voice. Zoe then says, "Show your nipple!"

Last night, as we read the comics, we could really relate to the ones about the kids humiliating their parents in public...

Por Favor

We have long known that R is a sponge, absorbing and repeating anything we say or do. While overall, this is a great thing and means she's learning, it also means we really have to watch ourselves. And sometimes we slip up, like the day I happened to use a great quote from Dazed and Confused over lunch, and she repeated the whole thing, potty words and all. But nothing is as amusing, or as surprising, as when she repeats something in a different situation.

Last week R asked me to open something for her, and she was pretty darn demanding. So I asked that age-old parent question, "How do you ask nicely?" and she replied with something that sounded like "por-pah-purr." So I repeated my question, and she repeated her answer. Finally, on the third try, I realized she was saying, "por favor," and that she was replying to me in Spanish. She got a big high-five for that one!

It's not like we've been trying to teach her Spanish. But we have been reading lots of books about Dora the Explorer, who happens to be bilingual, and R managed to make the connection that "por favor" in Spanish means the same thing as "please" in English. We are quiet impressed. And glad that Dora doesn't cuss!