Are we having fun yet?: sleeping in our own beds

Back home again. E is a surprisingly good traveler. I had the least issues with that one. Slept too much in the car so he didn't want to sleep as much at night, but was an amazingly good baby not crying even though there really wasn't anything for him to do on that long long trip.

When we went to pick up J from the airport, I heard W saying "when we see a papa that has two crutches, a knee brace and brown eyes, that is the one we will pick up" They were only mildly disappointed about the lack of crutches. All of us have done a victory dance about that for different reasons. Mommy can leave E at home with J awake. T can play wild with Papa. J can get rid of his extra appendages. E can have more papa snuggles. W didn't have a comment, now that I think about it.

Now that we are home and found out that everyone can sleep through a screaming child in the same room except mommy, I made a boy and a girl room. I think everyone is initially excited. T couldn't wait to be sleeping with E. E made the transition beautifully. He just crawls to wherever fuzzy resides and he is good. W has started decorating. And making plans.

She wants yellow hearts, purple and pink polka dots painted on the walls, pink and purple ribbons, a variety of her own creations, and her small items stashed on her own bookshelf. I went in there and found a purple star sticker already on her wall. I was planning on doing decorating stuff in the winter, you know, when I have to stay inside. But she will probably begin decorating now. Every day she has new decoration and arrangement of her things. And more ideas

It amazes me how talents and dispositions transfer from one generation to another. W definitely gets all of this from her Grandma. Definitely not me. I'm not really into all this stuff. But it is fun to do it with W purely for watching her creativity come alive at such a young age. Her drawings are showing more ingenuity.

She drew people with thinking bubbles above their heads. One of them was W "thinking about her brothers T and E". She drew a whole bunch of seashore pictures, complete with a sun each, sand, people with clothes on and various outfits (her with a flower dress and Papa with shorts on), and tons of different kinds of seashells in the sand. Every also has the appropriate eye color. (Mommy, I'm drawing your eyeballs blue). She drew a picture of all of us while we were at church. T and E have plaid church shirts at the moment, so she drew a "square shirt". The thing is covered in squares. I would never go to all the effort to draw a tiny square on the entire shirt, but she does. She hasn't figured out how to draw long lines to make plaid, so she draws each square one, just like she draws each flower.

E continues to amaze me at how fast he is growing up. He thinks he is the same age as his siblings. He absolutely loves slides. He laughs going down each time. He can also scale stairs no problem. So at the park he scales the stairs and I hold his hand going down, although he is very steady and probably wouldn't have a problem going down himself. His sister has offered to take him down the tall slides. Maybe but Mommy has heart attacks thinking about it.

He laughs at T trying to be rough with him. He thinks it is funny. He laughs at funny noises and loves the book "Mr. Brown can moo, can you?". He laughs really hard at it.

He has a sensitive palate. He wants only real and good food and knows everything by site. He can see if he isn't getting the same stuff as us and protests if his food is different than ours. Sigh. This morning he wouldn't eat beans because he could see a nectarine W was eating. Thank heavens he finally got the sippy cup thing. Now I don't mind giving him all this different food because he can take in the fluid he needs to counteract it.

T has finally discovered bike riding. He now (finally) goes outside by himself just to ride his bike in the driveway. Yeah!!! He will go on a walk anywhere as long as he can ride Fiery Flynn. Otherwise walks are dumb.

T continues to show how good he is mechanically. I showed him how to push one lever forward and pull another back to keep dirt in a park scooper. he got it! It is hard for me to do, purely for pushing one forward when the thing makes you think you should pull back on both.

He melts my heart when he wants to snuggle mommy, gives E a hug just because, plays with E like squirting him in the tub with the toys, lifts my windshield wiper blades while "cleaning" my car.

This one is for Dad. T said "Look! He is learning to glug!" once E finally got the sippy cup thing down.

J got excited about the meteor shower that was announced in the news. But it was cloudy, so he decided we should go over the mountains and watch it. I think T and W had a great time overall. They have incorporated it into their play. W asked if I like looking at stars. Absolutely. We drove out into the desert where there is plenty of sky. We laid out blankets on the ground and snuggled the kids (not E). He was fast asleep in the car next to us in his car seat) and looked at stars. I had let T and W take a nap in the car on the way there so T had no problem staying up until 11:30. He was very good. He stayed on the blanket and talked to us and played with us. W fell asleep around 10, when the sky finally got mostly dark to see a bunch of stars come out. A train also passed by us very close while we were waiting for meteors. T was in heaven about that.

J was disappointed about the number, but I was so happy to feel warm dry air, see the sky and see so many stars like I haven't in forever and snuggle with my family. We saw several small ones, which I'm sure the kids didn't see in time, and two big bright ones. It was fun!

We were supposed to go camping, but J was still recovering from too much travel, so we stayed in a hotel..... with a pool!! W loved it!. T ok. I tried having him practice his swimming. He didn't want to. That involves putting his ears in. W doesn't like it either, but she eventually relaxed and put her face in the water.

E loves peaches, oranges and watermelon. If he sees any on the table and we are not sharing with him, he throws all his food off his tray and cries for the good stuff. He can easily eat an entire small peach and a small slice of watermelon. He can really pack it down already. But not peas or beans from a can. Just like T.

E likes to reach up with his hands and talk using gestures. I have know idea what important thing he is saying, but it is really important to him.

The big kids are starting to like playing with E. E thought it was soooo funny if he threw all his socks off the edge of his changing table. The big kids were having fun throwing socks up on the changing table and he would toss them down and everyone would laugh.

E also thinks big kid "slugs" slithering down the hall under their blankets is funny, as well as them racing threw the hall.

E loves turning on the water in the tub and unplugging the drain to let the water out. I don't like it too much.

E loves to watch T "whoosh" down the driveway on "fiery Flynn". T drives really close, so E can't move, but he seems to do ok and laughs when he sees T do that. T tells me to have "E watch Fiery Flynn"

E tried climbing the rhody bush. Child loves to try his limits to the very edge.

And all E world problems are solved by sucking his fingers and snuggling fuzzy at the same time.

Oh yeah. Another idea from W for her room. She remembered that I had said we could paint her room once it was hers. And she was ready to paint that day. She spent lots of time collecting toys, beads, purses and anything she considers hers and putting it in her room. She also rearranges things a bunch through out the day. She woke up and said "I just can't stop thinking of ways to decorate my room! I even thought of more when I was sleeping!" Most of it involves pink, purple polka dots or bows and some yellow hearts or ribbons.

T was excited the first night E was there. He woke up and told me how E was sad the night before because he didn't like his previous sleeping spot. Now E is happy because his sleeping spot is in his room. But E wore out his welcome the next two nights when T wasn't able to sleep through all the screaming. I guess T is getting what he deserves with all that screaming in W's ears as a baby.

T and W were pretty helpful and even helped me move some furniture around and helped me re assemble the crib. Very cute.

T will do pretty much anything for a meal bar. He was pretty grumpy when we started our shopping trip, so I told him he couldn't have a meal bar unless he made good choices. So he pulled the cart around the whole store without running into anyone or anything. Then he reminded me that he did his part and needed a meal bar. He was right.

I gave into temptation and bought a whole bunch of sun chips on sale. I really like them at the moment. I let T and W have some. W ate some and said "Wow, Mom! These chips are REALLY GOOD, for some reason". I have to agree.

J took tons of pics in Thailand, but not ones I like. These are the only easily deciphered pics of people. Most of them were of scenery or the house or flowers or the river. I'm more interested in the people and he must be trying to capture the feel of the place or something. There are some pics of people but their faces are far away. And names??!! that is asking a bit much but I think I have some of them down.