Spring 2015

Spring pictures from the zoo, playground, and fun times at home.

John hanging out on the railing at the zoo.

Who needs animals when you have a fun railing to climb on?

Joseph and Michael

Joseph

Michael LOVES the swing.

Joseph and John show off the sunglasses they got in their Easter baskets.

Caught!

Someone found chocolate and LOVES it.

John swings!

Joseph swings!

Michael Moves

What kind of mother would I be if I didn't do a little post about Michael after my recent ones about Joseph and John?
That's why we're going to talk about Michael for a minute. I'm killing it not letting my third child slip through the cracks ;)

Michael's latest motor skills promotion was to crawler earlier this week. I was getting pretty antsy because he has been looking like he wanted to crawl for about a month now.

I was worried he was never going to figure it out and go straight to walking, because the boy's second favorite pastime is giving me heart attacks while attempting to pull up on things. He very much prefers to be standing than to be on his tummy.

 We recently started feeding Michael solids and he likes the ok. He prefers to self feed, but can really only feed himself rice rusks and puffs right now. We've tried Cheerios and had some success. We've also tried really soft green beans, but he pretty much just makes a mess out of those. Nothing really goes down the hatch.

First time riding in the cart and loving it.

Michael has sprouted two teeth, which makes his little grin that much more adorable.

Michael isn't "talking" much yet. He hardly makes any sounds, but hopefully he'll be "saying" something soon. He sure does like to giggle, though!

One more heart attack for good measure.

Did I tell you that he's already 7 months old? How is that possible?

All About John

I was thinking about doing an interview with John like I did with Joseph yesterday, but it's just too difficult to translate "John speak" into the written word. What I'm able to type just isn't the same as hearing him talk. So, we'll save his interview for later. I'd just like to note what John has been up to lately.

John's latest achievement is opening and closing doors. He gets great pleasure out of this new talent. Oh  the places he can now access! What adventure (and occasionally time out) awaits him!

John has always had a great smile. Will says he's the strong, silent type and uses his smile to get him out of having to speak - it works ;) (I'd like to note that it's hard to capture his adorable smile because every time he sees me taking a picture he comes running after me. So most of the pictures I have of him right now are ones where he isn't looking at the camera.)

He's very active and loves imitating Joseph. Although John doesn't speak very much his speech is coming along nicely. He has a good number of "words" in his vocabulary now. It's really nice not having to guess everything he wants. My favorite words that he has added to his vocabulary lately are gaga(Michael) and dofa (Joseph). I think it's so sweet that he knows his brothers' names.

Joseph, John and Will play hide-and-seek most nights.
This is a picture of Joseph and John covering their eyes to count.
It appears someone has a little learning to do ;)

John loves having books read to him lately. His favorite book is the one you're going to read to him :)

John is a very thoughtful little boy. He likes to bring people their things (phones, cups, toys, etc). Today he even took a football to Michael because he thought he'd enjoy playing with it.

I can't wait for John to start talking, so I can find out what's going on inside his little head. I'm sure we'll have some very sweet conversations.

Interview with Joseph

I decided to do a little interview with Joseph. I hope to keep doing this every year or so, but we'll see how that goes :)

Betsy: What is your name?
Joseph: Joseph
Betsy: How old are you?
Joseph: free

Who wouldn't want to eat those cookies?

Betsy: What's your favorite sport?
Joseph:
Betsy: Do you have a favorite sport?
Joseph: Yea. It's called to play ball. It's called football for me. I wike football.

Shoveling like a boss.

Betsy: What is your favorite food?
Joseph: Sandwich.

Betsy: What is your favorite toy?
Joseph: Cuhcuter (computer). Wike yours. A big cuhcuter wike yours.

Betsy: Is there anything else you'd like to say?
Joseph: No. I want to write on paper.

Let's Get Talking

John had his first speech therapy session this past week, and it went great. His therapist is so sweet and he warmed up to her really fast. She was able to get him to purposefully make the "b" and "m" sounds (we still have to work on exactly how he uses his mouth to produce these sounds, but still!).

He has made the "m" sound before. But I had only ever heard it when he said "mama," and that only ever happened when he was upset (except this past Wednesday when he said "mama" when I asked and without being upset - miracle). He also said the "b" sound when he was about a year old to say "bye bye." But that only lasted a few weeks before the "b" sound disappeared from his speech entirely. Until Thursday when his speech therapist helped him make the sound again!

I'm so excited that John is able to receive this help. And for the extra guidance for Will and me for how we can help John learn to talk. We now know a little bit more about exactly what's wrong (most significantly, he doesn't have any fine motor control with his mouth - he's only making wide, sweeping motions to produce sounds which is similar to what a 6-9 month old would do). And we're learning ways to help him develop these fine motor skills.

Watch out, world! This little guy is going to be talking up a storm before you know it.

The Talker and His Brothers

For the sake of preservation I give you a post of conversations with Joseph, one conversation with John and some pictures thrown in for good measure.


While in a stand-off with John waiting for him to eat his broccoli I see Joseph encouraging him to eat his broccoli. I look away for about 60 seconds, look back and see all his broccoli gone. I ask Joseph, "did he eat his broccoli or did you eat his broccoli?" to which he responds "I help him." 

While playing in the back yard:
Joseph: I got four a dem!
Me: Four of what?
I look over and see he is picking up rabbit poop pellets.

During lunch one day:
Joseph: (to himself while on the floor picking up a noodle) Please sit up.
Joseph: (to himself while getting back on the chair) I will not please sit up.

Shortly after having me put a band-aid on his finger because it hurt (no idea why):

Me: Joseph, would you like some stickers?
Joseph: Well, I have a band aid, so I'll jus take da stickers.
Me: Ok. (hand him some stickers)
*60 seconds later after walking into the living room and back into the kitchen*
Joseph: Well, I have a band aid, so I don't need deese stickers.
Me: Ok, just put them on the counter if you don't want them.
*20 seconds later sulking into the living room*
Joseph: Well, I have a band aid, so I'm jus gonna way down.

The morning after Halloween:
Joseph: I want to pway wiff my bag.
Me: Ok, just let me take the candy out first.
Joseph: (as I'm putting all the candy in a bowl) Akshawe, I jus want da bow.
Me: So, you just want the candy?
Joseph: Yea. I jus want da candy.

"Braking weaves" with daddy.

While Will is changing John's diaper:
Will: Can you say "da da da"?
John: Da da da! (giggles)
Will: Can you say "ma ma ma"?
John: Da da! (giggles)
Will: Can you say "la la la"?
John: (incoherent jibberish) (giggles)
Will: Ah well, we'll let the state take care of you.
Speech therapy starts tomorrow :)

Watch out Tiger, they're coming for you.

I will say that John has the "d" and the "s" sound down pat. Pretty much all of his words are made from those two sounds. Here's what he can say and any explanation trying to make clear what we hear, which is hard considering some of the sounds he makes. If only I knew how to write phonetically :)
"ish" = fish, trash
"dis"(said really quickly/slurred together) = this
"da" = that
"s" (it sounds more like "uhs" but the "uh" is hardly heard) = yes (usually with a head nod)
"a da" = all done (but he only says this in response to me asking if he's all done)
"da da" = da da (daddy)
"ma ma" = ma ma (mommy, but only on occasion and only when he's crying/upset)

He won cutest voter on the block :)

Driving to the polling station:
Me: We're going to go vote then go to Safeway then go home to have lunch with daddy.
Joseph: We're going to a boat?
Me: No, we're going to vvvvote.
Jospeh: Oh! We're going to boat!

As we're walking into the polling station:
Me: See? We're going to vvvote. We're going to pick who we want to be in our government.
Joseph: OOOOooohhhh, we're going to boooooaaaaat.
Me: No, vvvvvvote. Like vvvvvery and vvvvvvvvictory!
Joseph: Oh! Wike bery and bictory!

Inside our polling station (an elementary school):
Joseph: Wook, mom! A boat! (points to a picture of a boat on the wall)

Life with Three (Part 2)

I typed this beauty up a LONG time ago. Not sure why I never published it. Oh well. Hope you enjoy the pics of the boys anyway :)


Will's first day back to work I took all three boys to Toys R Us and bought a baby pool in the hopes that I'd be able to relax in the backyard while the older boys wore themselves out. They seemed to enjoy the pool well enough, but weren't quite as tired as I had hoped.
Joseph was a bit timid about getting in - he doesn't like getting messy.

Will indulged my request to go to Fuddrucker's a few many weekends age. The boys, of course, love the fact that they get to "play" with the arcade games after dinner.

John likes to wear Will's hat when Joseph and Will are wearing theirs. It's a little big, so I finally got him his own hat (picture will come eventually).

Joseph and John showing off.

We went to story time at the train station/museum a few weeks ago with some friends and a train went by right in the middle of story time. Naturally, all the kids had to go out to watch it go by.

While eating his ice cream from Chick-fil-a:
Me: Is it yummy?
Joseph: Mmhmm. And dewicious, too.

I look over at Joseph who is sitting in his Elmo chair on the couch (his usual perch for TV watching) - it's still only 10am. I ask what he's doing and he responds "I'm waiting for Mickey Mouse." Too bad for him I had already told him there would be no Mickey Mouse until the afternoon before his nap (when he typically gets his one show per day).