Dreamer

T1 has a friend who has decided that, like T1, he also wants to be an architect when he grows up. His friend told T1 that one of the best architect colleges in the country is in New York City, so T1 is now planning on going to school in NYC and sharing an apartment with his friend because he thinks staying in an apartment will be cheaper than staying in a dorm. (I'm wondering what happened to our whole talk on community college? :) Hmmm...) Little does T1 know of the correlation between the demand for prime real estate and the cost of rent. Maybe I'll have him google (yes, google is a verb in my book) apartment costs so he can see he needs to start saving his money now if this is something he wants to pursue. T1 talked about this nonstop today (surprised?), even expressing a desire to show his friend the briefcase he has with all of his designs and floor plans. He has stored all of his "work" in this briefcase, stamped his name on each piece, and has organized them into specific folders. He also carries a calculator, different colored pens, various architectural magazines, and extra graph paper in this briefcase. T1 got his friend's telephone number, so maybe we'll have him over after the Thanksgiving hoopla passes so T1 can obsess about architecture with a kindred spirit. One thing is for sure - I definitely want to help keep this dream alive. To do this, I'd like to find a way for T1 to meet an architect, tour his/her office, get an overview of what they do, and glimpse some of their finished products. Does anyone out there know any architects?

Random Ramblings

T1 has been getting in trouble rather frequently at school lately. Matt and I are torn because we feel the need to support T1's teacher (in principle) but neither of us think anything he's done has been that bad. As a result, we don't know whether to punish him or not. What gets him in trouble? Talking, laughing, making birds with his fingers, and minor stuff like that. Not that bad, right? Matt and I think we probably got in similar trouble just as frequently when we were young, but our teachers didn't send home a daily conduct grade so our parents just didn't know about it. Well, times have changed and now teachers communicate daily so we are apprised of every little thing T1 does. While that is definitely a good thing, Matt and I don't want to react to every single instance of trouble particularly when it's all evidence of a happy child enjoying school. Are we too relaxed? Should we punish T1 every time his teacher gets after him regardless of how severe (or not) the offense?

I've noticed T2 has been licking food a lot lately. He licks the color coating off his M&Ms, he licks the cream out of the middle of oreos, he licks icing off of cookies and cakes, he licks the different pieces in trail mix (and then puts them back in the bowl where they came from), he licks the peanut butter off his PB&J sandwiches, he licks the cheese off his quesadillas, and lately he's been licking the snot out of his nose if we don't wipe it fast enough. This kid is crazy!

T3 has been a turd bird lately! (Have I said this before?)I think he's tired of T2 picking on him, so he's frequently pushing and hitting for no reason. He does it over and over, smiling the whole time. It drives me nuts, as do the temper tantrums he regularly throws. I think this is just a phase, but T2 never acted out like this. The difference, I suppose, is that T2 didn't have an older brother who was constantly messing with him. Regardless, T3 better simmer down or his daddy might go back to work!!!

Matt and I got to go camping alone this weekend and we had a great time! The boys stayed behind with their Aunt Lisa and had a blast. Thank you, Lisa, for taking such wonderful care of them. We greatly appreciate your support!

They're all talk!

T2 talks nonstop these days. He doesn't care if you're in the middle of a conversation with someone else; he'll just calmly repeat your name over and over and over again until you stop your conversation and pay attention to him. This is typical, I suppose. At least for our crew it is... He's talking more clearly all the time and his vocabulary is expanding, but his language is still so new, sweet, and cute. Today at T1's soccer practice, T2 saw some of the other boys' little sisters and kept saying: "I want ta see te goils" (I want to see the girls). He loves the "goils"- he wears a cowboy hat and a red Super Man cape and chases them nonstop (poor things...) It's adorable. Something else he repeatedly said today was "I fotted" (I farted), to which I replied "I know, I felt it on my arm" since I was holding him during his gas attack. Fun. I reminded him to say excuse me after he "fotts", which came out "shoosh me". I love toddler talk!

T3, on the other hand, isn't talking much at all, but he does make tons of "da da da da da da" noises that I am sure actually mean something to him. What he's lacking in words, he makes up for in screaming -- that little guy is LOUD!!!!!

T1 also continues to talk nonstop. At 9:15 this evening as T1 was explaining to me in great detail the lesson on textures he had in Art class today, Matt interrupted and said he thought there was a filibuster going on. Basically, T1 thought he wouldn't have to go to bed as long as he kept talking. Did I catch on? Nope, but T1 smiled as soon as Matt made his remark and I realized I had been had! I should have known that T1 would only talk extensively and enthusiastically about school if doing so kept him from something less boring (i.e. going to bed on time).

On a different note....
Matt and I took the two little guys to Lost Maples yesterday to see the local fall foliage. In addition to being disappointed by T2 puking all over himself while in the car seat (an icky and somewhat common bout of motion sickness for our middle guy), I was disappointed in the 5 maple trees we saw (whoop dee do!). That aside, we really did have a good time hiking and picnicking. Surprisingly, there were TONS of old people on the trails at Lost Maples. I mean OLD people, like old peoples' parents kind of old. It was crazy! The trail was steep and slick in many places - these folks definitely worried me. Lost Maples is in the middle of nowhere, so I'm sort of surprised that EMS wasn't on hand waiting for the next hip to break. Ay yay ya. Old folks aside, our little guys did pretty well. They hiked much of the time on their own. They fell several times, but never got too dramatic about it. They stopped for pictures (yep, I took over 100 pics - ridiculous, I know.). They smiled and waved at old strangers along the trail. It was pretty fun. Here are a couple of pictures from our trip:

(The picture above was not from Lost Maples; it was from a river crossing on our drive home. Pretty, huh?)

Put THIS to Music!

Fellow parents likely know this tune:

Pee pee in the pot-ty,

Pee pee in the pot-ty!

Yes, T2 is finally going pee pee in the potty (when prompted, of course!) -- YIPPEE!!!!!!

It's a jungle out there!

We recently took a trip to our favorite drive-thru zoo and had tons of fun feeding the buffalo, deer, camels, kudu, ostriches, emu, zebras, llamas, etc. The animals are so personable and harmless while you are feeding them. Of course, I could have done with a little less wild animal snot and slobber on my hands, but it didn't seem to bother the boys.

After we were done with the animals we drove to a state park that Matt and I first visited more than 1o years ago. Back then, it was only Matt, Garth, and I, but now we have our 3 little men to help make these trips so much more fun. Hiking, however, is now very short, safe, and slow-going!

Speaking of fun, we had a great Halloween! Both my brother and Matt's sister came over to go trick-or-treating with us. My brother brought his little brother (from the Big Brother program) and his little brother's sister, so there were 5 kids on our little neighborhood excursion. This was the first year T2 enjoyed Halloween and he was so cute! With few exceptions, he said trick-or-treat at every house and even said thank you when he was given candy. He was running so fast from house to house that we had a hard time keeping up. Of course, the bigger kids were moving much faster than us, but Uncle J (or Afro "J") kept up with that crew. T3, for the most part, hung out in the wagon we were using to cart him around the neighborhood and didn't really get into it this year. I bet next year will be fun for all 3 T's.



After we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, we went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. We didn't get there until 9:00, so the boys were already on an energy decline, but they hung in there and played until 10:30 or so. My friend had rented a huge Spider Man bouncer and while T1 was playing in there with another boy, the other boy bounced the wrong way and his knee hit his face really hard. Instead of running to tell the little boy's parents that their son was injured, T1 immediately found one of his other friends to tell him to come look at how big this other kid's face was swelling. T1 was all excited like this little boy's injury was a science project or something. I couldn't believe how T1 reacted, particularly since this little boy's face had swollen bigger than any injury I have ever seen. The whole left side of his face was huge and filled with blood. It was awful. I felt so horrible for the little boy and his parents. Needless to say, they left immediately and I haven't heard yet whether or not they went to the hospital. Also needless to say, I need to teach T1 a thing or two about empathy.

On a brighter note, we got T1's first report card and he did great! With the exception of one high B, he received all high A's. I am so proud of him! To celebrate, we cooked his favorite dinner last night - crab legs and shrimp. It was yummy! For some reason, Matt thought he needed to purchase 2 pounds of shrimp, so there was enough for 2 meals easily. Unfortunately, T1 (who had lost $2 earlier in the evening as punishment for drinking directly out of the water spicket of our refrigerator) bet Matt $2 that he could eat all the remaining food. At the time he made this bet, there were probably 2 crab legs and 17 shrimp left, so we didn't think he'd be able to do it. T1 must have really wanted that 2$ back because he sat at that table for an extra half hour while he forced every last bite in his mouth. We didn't think he'd be able to do it, but we must have underestimated how much the love of money can motivate him! In total, T1 probably ate 5 crab legs and 25-30 large shrimp! Surprisingly, he didn't even get a stomach ache....at least, not yet!