Merry Go Round

We went to an outlet mall recently with a carousel. It was interesting because the last time the children had been on one was about a year ago. Andy (who you can just the remnants of his black-eye) was about the same as he was last year. Doug was braver and enjoyed sitting on a horse that moved (last year he sat on a bench). Josie (who had a great time on a moving horse last year) was just not quite sure about the horse going up and down.

Josie!

Riding on the range

I was looking at pictures since I finally got a new camera (and I actually have it in hand now....long story). Anyway, apparently I took this video back in August. Yes, there were still boxes upstairs at that point.

Weekend Project

So in addition to all of the normal stuff I need to do this weekend (laundry, dishes, grading papers, writing papers, etc.) I think I need to add converting Jo's crib to a toddler bed.
Twice last week she came out by herself after being put down for a nap, and yesterday morning she made her way out in the morning. It's a little earlier than the boys were but this is Jo and she is just trying to keep up with her brothers.

Pictures on the playground

No...we haven't had a chance to go get a camera (it's on the to-do list), but the kids are going to be included with some changes they are making to our church bulletin so my cute kids had their pictures taken.

More Milestones

Josie climbed out of her crib last night while we were getting the kids ready for bed....she did it in a very controlled and sure fashion....a good two months ahead of when Andy started doing it.

She hasn't quite managed to climb back in and I will be interested to see if she starts climbing out at bed or nap times.

She is also such a daddy's girl. Where Doug and Andy started calling mommy mommy to get someone to come get them out of their crib in the mornings, Josie calls daddy daddy. She also spent all morning on Monday asking where daddy had gone.

The Clothes Horse

I think it is because I have been trying to sort out the kids' clothing to get the winter clothes in and the old summer clothes that will likely not fit next summer in a different pile, and the stuff that will fit but is crowding the drawers put up that Josie is suddenly fascinated by putting on different clothes. While I am sorting (this has been a MANY week process...life keeps interrupting me) she will pick out clothes from the piles I am working on or go and find things from her dresser or from Doug & Andy's dresser.
We have gone through outfits after outfit and had layers upon layers. It looks pretty random...especially when she decides to take a pair of underwear and pull it on her head.

Pudding is not an exfoliant

Andy and I made pudding parfaits (chocolate pudding, Graham crackers crumbs he squished, butterscotch pudding, and whip cream). They were intended for after dinner. Josie thought hers was so great. She ate it ALL over the place. She even rubbed it into her belly as well as digesting some from the inside. Somehow she managed to miss her hair amazingly enough. She also looked at me (with her pudding goatee) and said "good".

Rosy Josie

I used to be known in my family for writing limericks. I don't know if that counts as a dubious distinction or not, but tonight as I was watching Josie stuff down her third...no maybe it was fourth or fifth helping of food while Jim put the "no nap twins" to bed, I realized it had been a very long time since I had composed a limerick. So of course I had to make one up.

I once knew a girl named Josie.
Her disposition was sunny and rosy.
She would eat a ton,
For energy to run,
For in her brothers' concerns she was nosy.

Perhaps not a perfect specimen of the limerick meter but hey, it's been awhile.

Dr. Brown can view, can you?

So Jo had her 15 month appointment today.
Dr. Brown (our ped) said nothing about us not coming in for a weigh check in June (it might have been a touchy subject because basically Jim got pissed at the office staff and refused to reschedule). She didn't say any thing about Jo's pacifier (our old pediatrician was adamant about the boys getting rid of theirs at this age).
Jo did just fine. She got two shots (she cried some but not terribly). We were still about the same 70% height and above average on head circumference, but the weight had gone from 25% to 35% so I was told she was doing fine (which I knew all along).
I had to laugh when she was going through the "checklist" for development because it was things like:

• Has 5-10 words (Josie has more like 25-30)
• Follows simple instructions (I can tell the child to go get her brothers for dinner and she will try to do it, and she regularly gets not only her shoes but her brothers' shoes also)
• And then Dr. Brown had me put Jo down so she could view her walking (I was thinking...she's been walking since about 10 and a half months and she runs these days).

So we passed and we get to go back for the ones vaccine they had a shortage on and a flu vaccine so we sort of get a bonus check-up at 18 months that we didn't get with the boys...and yes I did ask the important question...it is covered by insurance.

Swimming!

We have gone the last two days to the pool on campus. It is great because they have a children's pool that only gets a foot and a half deep, is partially shaded, and has fountains. However the issue is that Jo wants to "drink" the water. Last night I ended up giving her some Mylanta to settle her stomach....

Survival Instinct

I have decided that children who are the third child in the family have a naturally strong survival instinct. I have seen Jo scavenge snack food that the boys drop. She helps herself off of every plate that is within reach (and boy her arms seem amazingly long for her size). Somehow she has convinced her brothers to share food with her without using any words because they are always terribly concerned about sharing or getting her food. Tonight she climbed up, on her own, onto Doug's chair and grazed off his plate. A couple weeks ago she walked up to Andy, grabbed his poptart, turned around and ran the other direction.

Monkey see, Monkey do

Jo obviously is paying attention to her older brothers.
While Nana and Pop were here we discovered that Jo (13 months old mind you) is "jumping" off the bottom step of the stairs when she goes down to the basement. Somehow the arm motions look remarkably like those that her brothers do.

Today we were outside playing on the new swing set. After watching her brothers for awhile she managed to climb the rock wall and then went down the slide (on her tummy because she has more control that way).

Tonight after eating dinner she stood in the middle of the kitchen "singing" and spinning around on one foot. Gee that looks familiar....

The two sides of Jo....

Poor Jim ...Jo had a cranky morning with four diarrhea diapers.
When I came home she was asleep on our bed in a nest of blankets and pillows with only her diaper and her shoes on (I didn't ask....).
About 30 minutes after I get home I hear a slight cry and then nothing else...only to turn around and find Jo behind me (it is a fair drop from our bed....).
She ravenously eats...and then is perfectly happy, laughing, giggling, playing... with no diarrhea all afternoon. A very different child than whom Jim was dealing with in the morning.

Chaos Theory...

Well, today was not too bad. The boys did not nap, I really need to finish the paperwork on the teachers I am supervising, and it was the last night of vacation Bible school which always pushes our bedtime back a bit.
Hence...when we are getting ready for bed it was all going well and then chaos broke loose. We give the boys a choice of whether we say or sing our prayer and whether we use one from home (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John bless the bed....) or one from church (the Lord's prayer if we are saying it and the doxology if we are singing it...we figure it helps the kids learn them for the church service). Anyway, Andy is like the "prayer police" in that he gets on Doug about whether Doug is participating in saying the prayer or not. Jo has started participating. She recognizes prayers (and grace before meals) and usually says "memen" about 3 times before the prayer is over. She now reaches out to hold hands for prayers and is pretty insistent about doing it and during prayer before bedtime she will usually rock with the prayer if we are singing it (I think she gets this from Doug because he does the same thing).

So tonight we are going along getting ready for bed and we hit prayer time. Well, first Andy doesn't want to hold Jo's hand for some reason. Doug is happiest laying in my lap but does cooperate. Then Andy gets upset and wants be to make Jo say the whole prayer...I want to say "Dude! She only says like 4 words total!" Then somehow in the midst of Andy digging in his feet about wanting Jo to say the whole prayer...Jo up and bites Doug. Jim scolds Jo which offends her and suddenly I have Andy upset and sitting in my lap trying to convince me to make Jo say the whole prayer, Doug in my lap because he is upset because he was bitten (though not even enough to leave teeth marks), and Jo trying to get in my lap because she is upset about being reprimanded.
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Bed time happened pretty swiftly after that.

Dear Children...

Dear Children,
I love you dearly and I love watching you grow-up. However, there are a few things we need to address....
Doug- You are a smart and gregarious little boy; however, randomly choosing a "top" out of the first drawer (the PJ drawer) and a "bottom" out of the last drawer (the pants/shorts drawer) so that during the day you are wearing a pajama top and regular pants and at night you then choose a pajama top and regular clothes shorts is sweet now...but at some point you have to actually listen enough to realize that there is a difference between pajamas and "street" clothes.

Andy- You have such a vivid imagination; however, at some point you have to realize that your father lowering the bucket on the boom arm of your fire truck without you in it really just means that it happened in your imagination and all you have to do is hop down off the bed...don't hold a grudge and refuse to hold Daddy's hand during prayer because of something that happened in your imagination.

Jo- You are sweet and as cute as can be; however, some behaviors such as playing in toilet water and eating dry cat food need to stop...mommy is a little worried about how the diapers will be the next few days.

Jim (yes...you the big, big kid)- I love you dearly; however, encouraging your offspring to blow zerberts (raspberries...whatever you want to call them) all over mommy's bare legs does not endear you to mommy however much they tickle and it makes the children laugh...you may want to think about where you will be choosing to sleep after such an episode.

Sincerely,
Your tired Mommy

Super Heroes!

What better use for a random roll of painter's tape then to create some super heroes! We even had capes at the back (tape stick on only at the top). Josie was trying to make the tape stick to her but every time I stuck some to her she would pull it off in curiosity and then of course it wouldn't stick again. They (Doug & Andy) had something about sticking pieces of the tape to the wall (thank goodness it was tape that was MEANT to be stuck to a wall) to make a doorbell that was for a door to keep monsters out. The red marks on the kids from pulling the tape off quickly faded....

Growth!

When you are around your children all of the time you sometimes don't notice things that appear tremendously different to people that only see the kids once a week or once a month. I remember when the boys had turned one and we went down to visit Nana and Pop. At Nana's and Pop's house there are lever handles on most of the doors. During our Memorial Day weekend visit the boys could just barely touch the door handles. Then we went back for a visit a month later, for July 4th, and all of a sudden both Doug & Andy could get their little hands all the way around the lever door handles and I knew that we had grown.
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I notice today that Josie has had a growth spurt. We have been trying to do more snacks since the doctor commented on her weight, but she was a good eater before the doctor started trying to double up her calories. We have a refrigerator that has the freezer on the bottom. Even as of a day or two ago Josie could stand at the fridge and you could swing the door above her head and it would just glide right over her. Well...today she had to tilt her head for Jim to close the fridge door. I guess we are growing.
It really makes me wonder, however, when we go in for our "weight check" if they will also check her length. They will be happy if her weight has gone up...but what if her length also has gone up and she still has the same discrepancy ....hmmmmm.

Doctor, Doctor

It was doctor day for us. Even with all of the kids with birthdays so close together the doctor wouldn't let all three come in at the same time (they have a policy that only triplets can come three at a time). Since the first appointments they had after Josie's birthday were also after the boys' birthday...I went to the doctor twice today. Once with Josie and then once with Doug & Andy.
Everyone looks pretty good. Josie is actually above average on her length but below average on her weight so I get to add calories to her diet. The doctor said "Anything that you wouldn't eat on a diet to lose weight, she can have...but don't promote unhealthy eating habits." Josie actually weighed in at 19 lbs 15 oz. One ounce shy of the "official" weight to be able to ride forward facing. So I think I will stuff her over the next week and see what she weighs then. We actually have to go back for a "follow-up weighing." The doctor wasn't overly concerned but this tends to be a cautious (and very talk-a-tive) doctor.
The boys were good. We talked dentists...that will be an interesting next adventure. I am proud to say that neither boy cried for the finger prick to do the blood work, and that Josie only cried for the shots but not for the toe prick for her blood work.

Little Problem Solver

I don't know if it is advanced or not, but I don't remember the boys doing things like this starting at this age.
Jo, of course, just turned one. Tonight she took the plastic stool from the kids' bathroom and carried it into the boys' room so that she could try and get up on Andy's bed. I know Andy and Doug moved things to help them get up but I am remembering it as being at a much later age (of course their first year to year and a half are sort of a blur anyway...)

We used to debate about which, between Andy and Doug, was going to be the one who came up with the ideas and which one was going to be the one who got talked into doing the trouble-making. So far it has turned out that they work together pretty well and no one seems to be the instigator just yet.
Now I am wondering if Jo is going to figure things out and talk her brothers into doing them. I guess only time will tell.