Bullet List

• Yesterday as Chuck was roughhousing with Noah, Noah said to Chuck, "Settle down!" Sometimes I wonder if they understand what I say (since they don't seem to do what I say). Apparently they are getting, "Settle down!"
• Noah and Samuel are still in diapers. I haven't tried potty training them yet because, honestly, I'm not ready. I just don't have the energy to take them to the potty every 5 minutes just yet. One day as I was changing Samuel's poopy diaper I said, "Samuel, don't you want to put your poopies in the toilet?" Samuel replied, "Ummmmmm (long dramatic pause), no." You kind of have to hear Samuel say no to get the full effect. It sounds very nasaly and French. I love that he thought long and hard about his answer, though.
• Shoes and socks. Shoes and socks generally mean we are going somewhere, or lately, outside. I keep the boys barefoot in the house so that they don't wipe out on the hardwood floors. They ask for socks when they get dressed. They start jumping up and down when they see socks and begin to talk all about shoes when the socks go on. They love to go places. That is, until they are at the place. Then they may ask to go home. Especially Samuel.
• Food trick. I've learned recently that if I want the boys to try something, they need to catch me snacking on it. If I put it on their plate at mealtime, they scoff at it. But, if they run across mommy having a little snack in the kitchen, they must have some. Believe me, I'm using this tactic for all it's worth!
• I recently took all three boys on a few shopping excursions. This took all sorts of courage on my part. Our first trip was to Food Lion to get some eggs. I realized Monday morning that I needed eggs for the meatloaf I was making for our small group that night. I couldn't have Chuck pick up the eggs because the meatloaf needed to be cooking before he'd get home from work. So, after nap time (and much prayer...) we went. I put Tristan in the Baby Bjorn and I put the twins in a cart. It went well. Then, on Thursday I knew I needed to hit BJ's with the kids for diapers. I wasn't sure how I'd do it, so I prayed. We ended up able to park right next to a cart with a car on the front. I put the twins in the car and the baby in the basket in his carrier. I'm sure we were quite a sight each time, but we are making progress. I never ever plan to do full-fledged grocery shopping with the trio. That would be insane and I'm not sure where I'd put all the groceries once I had them in the cart. I seriously don't know how single moms and military wives do it. You ladies have some level of strength that I know nothing about.
• We had campout last night and added a new movie to the mix. Chuck and I can just about recite, line for line, Cars and Finding Nemo. Last night we watched Monsters Inc. The kids loved it, but Samuel had to cover his eyes a few times.
• Last night Chuck found two stuffed animal rabbits (the boys call them their babies) tucked into his side of the bed. The boys love to play bedtime and naptime with each other and with their stuffed animals. At naptime we give them the following rules: No playing, No talking, No sitting, No standing, No touching the toys, and Stay in bed. They tick them off when they play naptime. It is hilarious.
• The boys have started putting each other in timeout. And the funny thing is - they obey each other. We are working on putting an end to this, but we do turn our heads and laugh.
• The boys are all about playing fishies. They have some plastic fish that my friend Stacy passed on to them. They call them Nemo and Dory. Usually just Dory. They fly them around the house. I thought they were swimming them around the house, but they make airplane noises, so I guess we have flying fish. They also sometimes yell out lines from the movie.
• Tristan, we think, is really close to crawling. He gets up on his hands and he gets up on his knees, he just doesn't put them together yet. He does get around by getting up on his knees and pushing his face across the floor.
• Daylight savings was not good for bedtimes. There was a lot of crying from the twins.
• Tristan has recently dropped his late night feeding. He nurses at 7ish and then goes to bed. I have been waiting for a long time for this! That means we have all our kids in bed by 8-8:30ish. LOVING IT!
• The boys REALLY love playing outside and so do I. I have a tendency to be an indoor person, but being cooped up inside all winter has drastically changed me. I would way rather be outside than inside. No TV or requests for TV. The noise level is drastically reduced just by being outside. I love watching them burn energy by just running around and being crazy. It is fun. Too bad the weather keeps going up and down. The high today was 41. The high on Wednesday was 83. I'll be glad when the weather warms up for good. I have a feeling we will be outside even when it's really hot.
• We replaced the valances in the boys' bedrooms with curtains. We have miniblinds, but the morning sun is very bright in their rooms. This isn't a problem anymore since we changed the clocks, but soon it will still be light at bedtime. So, the curtains are up. We got some fun striped curtains for the twins' room and some blue curtains for Tristan's room. We just need to make some adjustments to where the rods are hung and we'll be all set.
• Unswaddled update. This is going well. We went through a rough week, mainly because Tristan was pulling the pacifier out of his mouth and then crying for us to put it back in. We let him cry it out a few nights and now he doesn't cry anymore. There have been a few episodes of crying here and there, but those first few nights it was 7 or 8 times throughout the night. Sometimes, especially if he is trying to wake up too early, we will put the pacifier in his hand. It's amazing how good he is at shoving it in his mouth!
• We are working hard on getting the boys to say please instead of just demanding things from us. Samuel, in particular, will say, "Water" or "Fruit" or "More" or "Snack" (which sounds like 'nack'). It is like pulling teeth to get them to add the word please. If we can get them to say please, then we will work on "May I have some..."
• Our church recently moved to a movie theater. It is a very cool venue in every way except for the fact that my kids are freaked out in their class. The music from the neighboring adult service freaks them out. They are distracted by noise from other classes and teachers moving in and out of our classroom. The lighting is not so great and creates a shadowy environment, which I think is adding to their discomfort. It has been hard for me. Samuel cries hard and will not move from my lap. Noah has gotten to where he only fusses a minute and then joins in the class activities. Samuel wants nothing to do with what they are doing. I'm not sure if he is truly scared or if he is manipulating me. Either way, it has been very hard on me.
• Tomorrow Tristan will be 7 months old. Seriously, where does the time go? I'm not sure if I blogged about it, but Tristan was 18lbs 4 oz at his 6 month appointment. My arms and back will tell you that he's surely gained another pound since then.
• That's all I can think of to share. Sorry there are no pictures. I don't have the energy right now to download pics from my camera and then upload here. I'll try to get to that this week, but we haven't been great about taking pictures lately.
• Goodnight.