Chloe's Band aid

If you did not see the blog last week, the Boy is attempting to walk now.  He took five steps this evening and his face lights up when you praise him like he had just won a marathon.  That statement is nothing more than a simile because let's face it,  Fat Boy will not be running too many marathons.  Based on the amount of times he hits his head, he won't be winning any spelling B's either.  Do you remember the movie Tommy Boy........classic Chris Farley movie?  At one point in the movie, Chris Farley's character gets hit with a 2x4 upside the face and he keeps complaining that it hurts.  "Not so much here, but here", he says as he points to a huge mark on his face.  Well Lawson Boy took yet another tumble down the stairs this evening, and after some time I noticed a big long mark on his face.  I started laughing because I could just picture my 1 year old son looking at me asking me, "are you sure I don't have a mark on my face, not so much here but right her."  Makes me laugh again writing about it, the kid cracks me up!

All this walking seems to have intensified his already large appetite.  You would think at some point, the child could not keep eating the way he does.  I can't go into the pantry and get a snack without him following me like my shadow.  The boy could be at the complete opposite end of the house and if you even think about getting up to get a snack, he can sense it and he'll come flying at you with his little food grunt noise that he makes.

Lily is growing up so fast and turning into quite the young lady.  She cracks me up with her stories from school and her explanation of her social interactions.  She tells us how her feelings get hurt a little when a certain boy and girl are playing and she thinks they are leaving her out.   She is only in kindergarten, I can only imagine the drama factor increasing exponentially as she gets older.  Hopefully she will continue to be open with us and tell us about, but I know that will all change at some point. 

You hear about phenomenons that happen between twins and stories about one feeling another's pain, and it is somewhat interesting to think about.  We certainly do not look for these type of things to happen with Abby and Chloe and frankly I don't put a whole lot of stock into the stories you hear.  I do believe that there is very special bond between identical twins and a closeness that other siblings and friends will never experience.  Maybe it's because they will spend very few days apart for the first 18 years of their lives.  If you spend that much time together, it makes sense you could finish somebody elses sentence.

Chloe has a sore on her thumb that looks a little infected so we have been putting antibiotics on it and this evening I put a band aid on it so she wouldn't rub it while she slept.  I put them down for the night and after about 5 minutes, I heard one start crying and then the other start screaming.  When I went up there to see what was going on, I found Abby literally scared and yelling, "Chloe lost her band aid, Chloe lost her band aid."  Chloe was crying but not nearly as hard as Abby.  I went to console Abby at first and she just kept crying about Chloe's band aid.  As soon as I picked up Chloe to see if her thumb was okay and put a new band aid on her, Abby immediately calmed down and laid back down to go to sleep.  In no way do I think that Abby felt the physical pain that Chloe felt, but she felt emotion and empathy for another person like I have never seen.  It was really pretty cool to see!

Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe and the weeble wobble

Lawson Steps

The Boy has taken his first steps.  Our after dinner ritual has been to crank up some music and let the girls dance around in hopes that they expend the cornucopia  of energy.  Lawson likes to stand holding on to the wall and show off his dance moves.  Kasey was sitting next to him encouraging him to come to her and he took his first steps before launching himself into her lap.  I think out of all 4 kids, the is the only one we both were able to see take his first steps.  We officially are out of the baby stage for the very last time.....woohooooooo!  Now if the twins would please just get potty trained.

Kids want to play, so cutting this one short.

Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe, and Lawson

Finish You Dinner!

My intentions are good as I write tonight, but you will have to forgive me as my brain has turned to mush after a long day.  So just a few facts and it's light out.  Lawson will cruise, do squats, dance holding a wall, but the Boy refuses to let go and walk on his own.  It's still OK with me because once he does start walking, he will have his hands free to grab and smash things at will.  He was feeling blah for several days after the stomach bug, but after watch him slam 3 large pieces of pizza last night it is safe to say the child is feeling better.  We had rotisserie chicken this evening and as I was cutting it  up I literally could not keep food on his high chair fast enough to make him happy.  So much for thinking I was cutting expenses when he quit the formula.  We are going to have start hitting the kids eat free buffet lines and just pull his chair up to the serving station and let him go to town. 

As much as we try not to have sugar and sweets around the house, we have gotten in the habit of bribing the kids with treats to finish the dinner.  We are miles away from the days when it was just Lily and we could stick to our ideals.  When I see new parents now and how determined they are to raise their kids a certain way to do this and not do that.....well I just have to laugh.  I still believe in all those things, but the little devils have a way of beating you down.  Anyway, we promised the kids a cookie when they finished their dinner and we generally wait until everybody is finished to pass out said cookies.  If Lily isn't pleased with the menu items, then she tends to take her sweet time finishing dinner as was the case this particular evening.  The cookie had actually motivated Chloe and Abby to finish their meals, and as you have heard, Lawson does not need encouragement to eat.  Chloe was not too pleased with Lily's progress and felt she was holding up the show, so with a hint of encouragement and a hint of rage in her voice she yells, "Lily, finish you dinner, NOW!"

I can't remember if I wrote about this or not, but Abby and Chloe's newest phrase is, "Daddy, you hurt my feelings.  Don't hurt my feelings."  It has really become a catch all phrase for anything they are not pleased with.  Should I scold them for something then I have hurt their feelings.  Should I pass the cookie out to one child before the other, then I have hurt their feelings.  Should I not respond to their 10,000th demand of the day in a timely fashion, then I have hurt their feelings.  Safe to say, with 4 women in our household and my propensity at times to not be in tune with others feelings, there are a lot of hurt feelings around here.

Lily has caught her bus every day this week.

Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe, and the Bottomless Pit

Where's my bus?

Where to begin?  Life has certainly changed in our household over the past 3 weeks.  Instead of working from home and being there when the kids wake up and have breakfast with them, I am usually at the office before most of them are out of bed now.  Lily rides the bus to school every morning, and home every afternoon.......well not every afternoon.  It is not my habit to answer phone calls from numbers I don't know, but I happened to answer one today and it was her teacher telling me she had missed her bus.  She tells us stories over dinner about her day and about some kid named Aidan who rides the bus and talks to Lily and her friend Lizzy.  I've not met this kid Aidan, but I can tell you I don't like the boy.  The realization is setting in that I can no longer be there to protect her from every bad thing in this world, but that doesn't mean I won't jump on that bus and scare the ever loving poo out of that kid.  Despite the occasional bad apple, Lily loves school and she love riding the bus.  She prays every night and thanks God for her wonderful day at school and for another wonderful day tomorrow.  We were getting home a little late from dinner the other night and while in the car she asked if she could please go to bed right away so she would be in a good mood for school the next day.  My prayer, as wishful as it may be, is that she keeps that same attitude for the next 13 years. 

Lawson Boy still refuses to take his first step.  The child is cruising all over the place and will even stand there not holding on to anything with his head full tilt back drinking from a sippy cup, but as soon as he wants to go somewhere he drops down and starts crawling.  The boy knows how to make his Daddy feel good after a long day of work though.  As soon as I walk into the house, he comes crawling over with a big grin on his face yelling, "da da, da da".  All the kids are good about making us feel good when we get home, and it's a pretty good size welcoming committee.  They also make you feel good when you are leaving as Ms. Lauren can attest to.  She was trying to leaving the other night and they were not ready for her to go home so they decided to climb into her car and strap themselves into her seat belts.  The only reason they did not end up riding with her is the powerful persuasion of candy lured them from the vehicle.

The twins are now on the downside of the terrible twos and we are watching them grow into there personalities.  Chloe appears to have taken on the role of the rule nazi.  Though it doesn't appear all the rules apply to her directly, she is more than willing to point out when you are doing something wrong.  If I tell one of the other kids not to do something, she is right there beside me parroting me.  She has even decided to start telling me what I can and cannot do, which as you might imagine does not really fly with me.  Both of them have apparently discovered their feelings.  Should I get on to them about something, it is now followed up with, "Daddy, you hurt my feelings.  You say sorry Daddy."  As tough and crazy as Abby is, she can be especially sensitive at times and you can expect Chloe to come rushing to her aid and giving me or Kasey the business.  Funny how they can fight tooth and nail with each other one second, and the next second have the others back and be ready to go down swinging for them. 

Kasey has been a real trooper the past several weeks as well.  She is working full time and coming home to the craziness for a couple hours until I can get home.  Unfortunately for her, she got stuck with the lions share of Lawson, Abby and Chloe going through the stomach bug.  After three youngsters are ralphing all over the house, I swear it would be easier to just sell the place and move.  The twins however felt it would be easier to try and clean the walls and floor with pink princess toothpaste.......and I shall let you take that mental image with you into your weekend.

Jeff, Kasey, Lily, Abby, Chloe, and Lawson Boy