Helpful big boys

We had heard that four was the magical age we should look forward to. We had also heard that our boys would grow up fast when Lucy arrived. Neither event seemed to do much to help.  But finally we are seeing huge growth from the boys! Before bed I like to recap a few positive moments of the day and this has always been a little tricky.  All of a sudden there are plenty of examples to pick from and we are SO thankful!

Areas of significant improvement:

Less beating on each other.

Better conflict resolution by themselves

Picking up toys

Fewer tantrums 

Desire to be helpful and self sufficient

Being quiet

It is lovely!

David wanting Lucy to sleep with him.

David and Gabriel have also become especially great at helping with Lucy. They are fond of her... Maybe even possessive as they refer to her as "OUR baby".

~David~

David loves to give Lucy toys and make her smile. He still tells her constantly how cute/pretty/beautiful she is!  David's still is very attached to me and sensitive at times but he understands Lucy gets first priority with me. The other night going to bed he realized he didn't kiss Lucy goodnight and was very upset. Choking up he said he should have kissed her sooner (before she went to bed). He also says that when she gets bigger she can sleep in the bunk beds with them.

David loves school.  He is especially interested in learning to read.  He asks me to help him spell words like "gooball".  David asks me everyday if it is Halloween.  He can not wait to decorate and make his costume.  He wants the whole family to be the scooby doo gang.  He thinks he should have a backup costume though (very serious) in case his other one "rips" which he wants to be a hungry shark!  Hungry indeed ... David must be growing because everytime i turn around he says "Mommy, I'm hungry"!

David is still very affectionate and the first to rise and wake me every morning. He gets confused between naps and night time and constantly wants breakfast when he wakes up!  He rarely naps however and that makes me sad... and yes... sometimes grumpy!

David likes puzzles and games and has a pretty good attention span for them. We know play junior monopoly a few times a week and he almost always wins.  Gabriel often loses interest a few minutes before we are done.  His favorite toy is duplos and he requests building with daddy very often.

David is becoming very good at deductions and sometimes they follow very naturally and other times I enjoy very much trying to figure out what is happening inside his brain!

David: Mommy can you see electricity?
Me: No
David: Is it invisible?
Me: Yes
David: Is there electricity in heaven?

... where is he going with this?

Me: I don't know.  That is a good question.
David: Angels are invisible and angels are in heaven.

I love moments like that.  So cute.



Recently during a conversation about haircuts, Gabriel asked if I would cut my hair.  I asked if I should cut it short.  David immediately yelled "NO!"  He still loves touching my hair.  He then declared that he was going to grow his hair long.  Gabriel told him "No, only girls have long hair."  This led to an argument which I stayed out of.  :)

~Gabriel~

Gabriel is very hands on with his affection of Lucy. He wants to hold/kiss/tickle her every time he notices her. Gabriel gives her so much attention that she may prefer him best to everyone!  He will do anything to make her laugh.  The latest is to burp constantly in the car.  It is hard to reprimand them for it when it makes everyone laugh and laugh.

Gabriel takes his big brother duties very seriously and is always full of questions about what is good for Lucy. If she is crying he is quick to help her and if necessary inform me that Lucy needs me "right, now!" Lately he has been calling me over quickly to see her accomplishments. He is very proud of her sliding around the floor and getting her first tooth. After putting Lucy down for a nap we were looking at pictures. The minute Gabriel saw a picture of Lucy he was wanting to go "check on her sleeping", aka "wake her up". He is remarkably sweet!! 

Gabriel has become very interested in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.  He steals my book and looks at the pictures very closely.  They are not all appropriate and I have to use the word "silly" often as a substitute for other words in the strip but we do read some of them.  The other night at dinner, Gabriel accused David of acting like Calvin at dinner because David didn't want to eat.  David didn't like this and began eating right away.  Gabriel has been mentally chewing on whether Hobbes is real or not for the last two weeks.  We talk about it from time to time and he can't seem to decide what he wants to believe. It is a very interesting internal struggle where Gabriel wants to believe that a little boy can have a dangerous pet tiger.  But he also knows that stuffed animals are not real and he trusts Calvins mom and dad and their take on the situation which is that the tiger is just a toy.  David's favorite parts of the strip are the 3rd aspect when Calvin is clearly pretending (to be a dinasaur or superhero or spaceman spiff).

Ever since he was little, Gabriel can make this one face that totally reminds me of Calvin.  (Below is similar to the face but I can't find the picture I am thinking of.)  You can imagine it though... it is the I'm wild and have a plan to wreak havoc face.

Gabriel has also started growling during the last few months.  He gets angry and growls.  Maybe this is a Jungle Book movie thing or maybe he is just part-beast... not sure but it can be quite rude!  The funny part is that if you call him out on it and tell him he does not need to growl, he will apologize right away and turn back into a sweet boy.  Boys can be so funny!  I guess we need to continue to work on appropriate ways to express our feelings. :)

Gabriel is very physical and always wants to wrestle everyone, even Lucy.  He loves screaming, talking, asking questions and telling stories.  He also loves duplo legos.

Lucy can sit! She is always mesmerized by her brothers.

This video is from June I think.

Here is the most recent video of the boys racing trains at the Mauldin train show.

David: Lucy is not allowed to eat baby food ever again! (angry)

Mom: Why?

David: She's too gross!  I don't want to see that.

Every time I get out the baby food.

Gabriel: We are allergic to that! That is only for babies.  That makes big boys sick.  

They are so worried I will try to feed it to them!

On the drive back from PA, the boys and their snakes talked for hours.  This is part of a conversation that I remember.

Gabriel (who had the Mommy snake): "Daddy! The babies are coming!"

David (Daddy snake): "Look at my new car."

Gabriel: "The babies are coming out! whoosh whoosh whoosh"

David: "It is a super fast race car".

Gabriel: "Daddy, here comes the last one out of my belly... whoosh.  All the baby snakes are here."

David: "The babies are driving my new car!"

...

Sometime later the babies crashed the car.

*****************

Sorry for the long post.  Hope you at least got to see the videos.  

Lucy catchup

This video is a little old... Lucy is about 5 months I think.  She is currently almost 7 months.  I just can't believe it!

Lucy is 5.5 months

 Lucy is growing up so fast.  At her recent six month appointment she weighed 15.5lbs. While she continues to grow (nice and proportional), she is already falling off the curve.  She dropped down from 37%tile to 20th%tile. This is fine, it was bound to happen eventually given her genetics.

She is flying through milestones.  Lucy's first tooth broke through last week.  There was no fuss about it.  We didn't even think she was teething.  She sits up pretty well.  She has good control over her arms and can grab things.  She has been on hands and knees for a few weeks but is not crawling yet. and is now crawling... see fast!  

She is babbling and is LOUD!  She can say "Mahhmm, mahhhmm, mahhmm...".  The boys are eager for her to say their names.  In the meantime, they like coming up with nick names for her.  Gabriel calls her his "cute little peanut" or "munchkin baby" or "sweet baby girl".  David thinks those are funny but likes when we use her real name. 

Lucy has started sleeping through the night (finally!) and eating three solid meals a day.  She loves her veggies and fruit with cereal.  She is also getting better at holding a cracker and feeding herself.  She is so different from her brothers.  We did maybe three days of baby cereal which was received so-so and then suddenly she was dive bombing our food at every opportunity and eating with us at every meal.  She continues to nurse well.

Lucy is also different from the boys because she does not snuggle.  It is so sad!  She doesn't like rocking to sleep or even resting her head on me after a feeding.  She is head up, looking around!  I wish I had got a picture or video of her trying to sit up from her back.  She has learned it is easier to get there from her stomach of course now but if her legs weighed more she could probably have done a sit up.  And even before she started crawling she has been trying to stand.  Strong little lady.

I took her to the nursery at bible study last week, hoping I was beginning early enough that she would get used to it and like it without all the fuss I had to deal with for the boys.  She hated it and cried and cried most of the time. Yesterday one of Peter's patients was holding her and she strong armed the woman, pushing off her and giving me a look that said she did not appreciate the pass off!  If this is the beginning of separation anxiety, I hope it passes quick!  

This video is old too... maybe 4-5 months old for Lucy.  

 

Big Boys Get Bigger. 4th Birthday!

David and Gabriel had a wonderful 4th birthday.  They were especially excited that Gmom could be in town to celebrate with them.

This years theme... Shark vs Train.  Have you read the book?  It is one of the boys favorites.  It is the story of two siblings/twins who are playing an imaginative contest of which toy is better, the shark or the train.  It is clever and funny and many of their favorite phrases are from the book.  "Barnicle breath", "Squid slurper", "End of the line", "I think these cards are marked", "What do you mean it's a little watery?"

This is a space pet... balloon with weights so it can hover at the height you want (we hadn't put weights on yet.)

See their new desks... they were not always so pretty...

Yard sale haul... $3 each!  Despite my best attempts to ruin them, they turned out pretty awesome.  The boys especially like the chalkboard desks.

David showing off his new puppy (stuffed).

The perfect game for Gabriel.

Gift from mom and dad that will be so useful for upcoming car trips!

The boys had a great birthday... thanks to everyone who made it so special with their gifts, phone calls, texts and skype sessions!  

Favorite time of day

The boys favorite time of day... playing with daddy!


Lucy's favorite time of day... waking up!

My favorite time of day... loving it all.  God is so generous!

Lucy two month update

Stats from Lucy's 2 month check up:

Height: 22.75 inches
Weight: 12 lbs 1.6oz
Head: 39.5cm

She is 75% in every category... so very proportional!  She impressed the doctor with her strength and head control.  She is smiling and becoming more alert.

The boys have become possessive of her if not super interested.  They told Gmom "she is OUR baby, not yours".  Her largest chunk of sleep is 5 hours at night and naps and eats well during the day.  In short, she is still my dream baby and she makes us want to have another baby pronto!

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

In eighth grade I remember learning that the Romans used to celebrate Saturnalia for some extended amount of time (like 12 days) and was envious because it seems like we only ever celebrate holidays briefly.  Perhaps this is why I always make Peter celebrate my entire birthday week, ;).  In college I realized that I have nothing to be jealous of however, because Catholics have plenty of holidays (holy days!) of our own.  So many in fact, that one friend of mine recently decided to give up baking desserts except on holidays which turns out to be close to 1/3 the days of the year... so not as bad as it sounds.  Christmas & Easter are the biggest most important holidays and so are celebrated for 8 days. Liturgically, we celebrate the Feast the same for 8 days in a row... same readings at Mass etc to emphasize how important it is.  SO this year we were trying to appropriately emphasize Christmas &Easter by celebrating all 8 days.   The Easter season lasts even longer (50 days I believe)... but I digress.

Lucy's first Easter

Putting on sister's bunny slippers

Egg Dying on Holy Saturday

So many eggs Mom

David has become very camera shy.  Gabriel's posture reminds me of Papa :)

Gabriel is loving his new "coffee cup".  His lips/smile remind me of Aunt Stephanie.  Anyone else agree?

 Some friends taught us a new Easter Egg tradition which we tried this year.  Before cracking and peeling your egg, one person greets the other "Christ is Risen".  The other person replies "Truly He is Risen" and then they tap their eggs together.  If your egg cracks, you lose and the winner goes on to greet the next person/egg.  We really enjoyed this.  David was the winner this year.

We did a few egg activities through out the week.  This was the big egg hunt.  We also did a money hunt so they could learn how to put their money in their new piggy banks and a treasure hunt with the eggs where they had to read the clues.  Monster egg where they had to sneak past Daddy to get the eggs... haha, lots of eggs.  I can't remember all the activities but the last one for the Feast of Divine Mercy was building a painting their rocket ship.  While they hate coloring, they apparently love painting so this went over well.  And I was pretty impressed with the final product. (Even the inside was painted.)

my best friend

how David paints

how Gabriel paints

 Now that you have a sample of their work... it should be pretty clear who painted which parts.

how david paints over gabriels hard work but gabriel doesn't mind

Happy Easter!

Lucy's Baptism

On April 5th our little Lucy became part of the Mystical Body of Christ.  We are so grateful to all our family and friends who came to witness and also for all those who were with us in spirit.  Thanks for your prayers for our daughter!

Lucy got to wear my baptismal gown and my infant bracelet which was very special. 

Lucy didn't even cry!

Lucy with her godmama, Lynn.

Lucy's cheesecake made by Gmom