In the news!

Check out Evan at 45 seconds in!! And then again around the 1:30 mark with Mom and Emmett in the background!

Pumpkins, pigs, and slides oh my!

Eric and I went to the pumpkin farm with his preschool last week. He really was a Sugar Pie Honey Bunch :-)

Three months! Right on time!

I have no idea how long I will keep this up, but since I happen to have some blogging time on Emmett's 3 month birthday...here we go.

• Weight: about 18 pounds, so he seems to be slowing down a little bit. Finally. The kid is wearing 9-12 month clothes and has started rice cereal, so I was getting a little worried about how long this gorwth spurt was going to last.

• Sleeping: about 9 hours at night, and not so great with the naps during the day. I am starting to see a little bit of a pattern though, so we'll work on it.

• Personality: he's such a little dude :-) If I prop him up on my lap, he sings and coos and makes all sorts of cute noises and gives these huge grins. His eyes are a gorgeous shade of blue with the longest eyelashes I've ever seen--combine those with a drooly, bubble-blowing smile, and I'm a sucker for whatever he's selling.

• Unexpected things worth mentioning: He LOVES the jumper/exersaucer/whatever you want to call it. I stick a pillow behind his head just to help keep his head straight, but the kid will sit in there kicking and dancing, and just as happy as can be. He is a strong little guy, and I can tell I'm going to be in trouble in another couple of months!!
  

You can be my wingman anytime.

As Evan and I were driving home from school the other day, he was telling me about a new friend he made in the cafeteria. It seems a boy named Cyrus was making faces at a girl named Regan, and Regan kept putting her lunch box in front of her face so Cyrus wouldn't look at her. And Evan kept pushing her lunch box down so Cyrus could look at her.

It won't be long until they break out into song on the playground...sometimes it's good to be a mother of all boys!

Intergalactic

Priorities

The bedtime battles have returned. We are back to the nights of running up and down the steps every 10 minutes, bribing, threatening...one night I actually left the kids with nothing but the fitted sheet on their beds. No pillows, blankets, or stuffed animals. After some discussion, Evan and I identified two key rules, wrote them on a piece of paper, and hung them in their room:

1. Be quiet
2. Stay in bed

Every night, I remind Evan of the rules, usually by asking "what are the rules?" Tonight when I asked him, he started to go into a long rambling spiel about how it's hard to remember and maybe if I moved the nightlight closer to the sign he would remember them. I asked him who the quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles was and--without taking a breath--he rattled off all THREE quarterbacks (McNabb, Garcia, and Vick).

When you have knowledge like that, how can you possibly have room in your brain to remember how to go to sleep at night?

Maybe I'm not to blame

A few days ago I told Evan he could keep a blanket in his kid-sized armchair if he took all the toys out of it. There's a pocket on the back of the chair that I'm sure is intended to hold a couple of books, but apparently it has the same quality as Mary Poppins' carpet bag because here's everything that came out of it:

• Mr. Potato Head
• $1 bill
• McDonalds Happy Meal puppies Fluffy and Otis and Teddy
• Puppy "Sarah"
• Usborne addition thingamabopper
  
• Usborne subtraction thingamajig
  
• Potty book
• Empty photo album
• Jack & Annie book
• card from Grandma
• Picture from friend Sophie
• Transformer
• 11 Hot Wheels cars
• Frog noisemaker

I felt a little guilty after seeing all this, because as crazy neat and organized as I like to be, I also tend to be a little tiny bit of a packrat. It runs in the family though, so that's my excuse, and I figured poor Evan was just another victim of the gene.

And then I looked in Ethan's swim bag because I suspected that Evan's "lost" sunglasses might be in there. Despite the fact that we have not been to the pool in well over a month, here are the contents:

• 3 kids t-shirts (1 for Evan, 2 for Eric)
  
• 2 pairs of Ethan's goggles
• 2 pairs of Evan's goggles
• 2 pairs of kids sunglasses
• 1 pair of Ethan's glasses (no idea how he has been seeing for the past month)
• 1 pair of Ethan's sunglasses
• 1 pretzel stick
• 1 diving stick
• 1 badly smushed bag of goldfish (thankfully there were no bags of fruit!)

So I guess Ethan and I get to share the blame on this one :-)

Two months! Still a little late!

Since the one month update was so much fun, why not do it again?

Emmett:

• Weight: 16 pounds, 11 ounces. The pediatrician believes I am producing Haagen Dazs.
  

• Sleeping: 8 hours at night pretty consistently (woo hoo!). Still not really getting into a daytime nap schedule, but seeing as how he sleeps 8 hours at night, and then goes back to sleep for 2-3 more hours? I don't really care!!
  

• Personality: Not quite as squeaky and grunty, but still a noisy little dude. Loves to be held, but also enjoys hanging out in his swing/chair. He is also handing out the smiles like candy, except when I have the camera out. The he just looks at me with this crooked frown.
  

• Unexpected things worth mentioning: He has amazing neck strength and head control...the doctor made a point to mention that because babies with big heads tend to not be very good at picking up their heads, and Emmett does it like a rock star. You go boy!
  

Jessica:

• Weight: minus 35 pounds. But before you start calling me mean names, I do have the pouch and I'm going to need to do more than laundry to get rid of it. I liked it better after Evan was born when the pouch went away by itself...
  

• Sleeping: Slightly less than what Emmett sleeps at night, which is my own fault. I really need to learn to go to sleep when he goes to sleep!!
  

• Personality: Apparently I'm pretty calm and laid back. A friend called this morning to tell me her son has what they are 95% sure is the swine flu and she said the reason she wasn't totally freaked out about it is because I was so relaxed about the topic when we had lunch a few weeks ago. Silly, but that made me feel pretty good!
  

• Unexpected things worth mentioning: I produce Haagan Dazs. No, I do not give out free samples.
  

My work here is done

Evan has mastered the art of buying lunch at school, but like most activities in his life, he has to find a way to be anal about it. I can call him anal, because he's my kid, not to mention the fact that he probably gets this 'bad habit' from me. I don't think it's a bad habit, but I'm sure it drives his father nuts ;-)

He also rambles a lot, but that could just as easily be blamed on Ethan's genetics.

Anyway!

Evan came home the other day and told me he got a cookie with his lunch, which is an 'extra.' No big deal, I know he eats pretty well, so if he wants to get a cookie with lunch, have at it. He then tells me that, since he got a cookie, he did not get chocolate milk because "that would just be too much chocolate."

Thankfully, Ethan restrained himself from telling Evan there's no such thing as too much chocolate.

One month! (three days late)

Emmett is a month old! I didn't miss the milestone, I just have not had a chance to blog since then :-) So, a month later, here's how things are going...

Emmett:

• Weight: approximately 14 pounds (holy crap, what is this kid eating??)

• Sleeping: 6 hours one blessed night. Average is a singe 4-hour stretch, and 2 hours the rest of the time. But we are making progress on a lengthy (2 hour) afternoon nap!

• Personality: Wants to be held constantly, and loves to look at the ceiling (??). Still extremely squeaky and grunty, to the point that I occasionally call him Wilbur.

• Unexpected things worth mentioning: He outgrew the newborn diapers when he was 6 days old. And then the size 1 diapers & 3 month outfits at 3 weeks. Moved out of the bassinet (due to excessive squeaking/grunting) at just under a month.

Jessica:

• Weight: minus 27 pounds. And constantly hungry/thirsty.

• Sleeping: Slightly less than what Emmett sleeps, and no more naps during the day. I'm just not a good daytime sleeper :-(

• Personality: Delightful as always (just ask my husband)!! Except when Emmett goes on his three hour feeding frenzy from 8-11 PM...

• Unexpected things worth mentioning: hmmm...nothing too exciting. I've gotten used to the 'routine' a little more than I expected and am making a slight dent in my random "to do" list...I am giving my closet a makeover, packed up a few bags of maternity/baby clothes to give away, nothing too exciting ;-)