handsome

For the most part Caleb and Logan can be trusted on their own in the bathroom (individually, not together...).  Sometimes they wash hands a little too long, but for the most part they do good.  However, yesterday I went to check on Logan after he went potty, and his hair was all wet...  I could tell he had a funny look on his face, and it didn't take much questioning for me to figure out that the wet hair didn't come from the faucet...  Yes, he stuck his head in the toilet.  He said he wanted his hair handsome!  I managed to tell him never to stick his head in the toilet, and to just ask me if he wants his hair handsome.  :)

Levi is learning the sign for "more"!  He just claps when I make the sign, but we're making progress.  :)

wrestle

The other night Caleb and Logan had what I'm sure will be the first of many wrestling matches.  It was actual wrestling, different from how they've played before, and it was kinda fun to watch.  Especially since no one ended up hurt in the end!

They have had SO MUCH fun playing in the snow this past week!  It was been a great way to tire them out.  The problem is, getting them tired out just tires us out, too!  Getting them dressed to go outside is quite an ordeal.  You know me, I've got it all nicely organized and laid out, but getting little boys to stand still to get all the winter gear on is exhausting!  Mike, of course, has had lots of fun playing outside with them, and I got to go out with them one day, too, and we had a blast.  I pulled them all over in their sled, they made snow angels, and we played hide and seek.  Sadie always has fun when we're outside, too.

Friday afternoon we had a sledding party with some friends from church.  It gets a little crazy with all the kids, but it was a good time!

 Olivia, Logan, Caleb, and Benjamin

 Boys will be boys.  Kids are in the sled, the two other dads are standing on a toboggan that's also hooked to the tractor - they took quite a long ride like this!

All the kids: (left to right) Ethan, Sophia, Logan, Levi, Olivia, Caleb, and Benjamin

Levi can pull himself up!  I wasn't really expecting that.  He can get himself up on his knees good when he's playing at the bottom of the stairs, but yesterday he was playing by the indoor trampoline in the playroom and got up on his feet!  Then he was doing it again later at the bottom of the stairs.  He's also gotten good at raising up his hands when you do it.  He loves scooting all around and checking things out.  Somehow he doesn't scoot around to play with his toys - he goes for the nearest electrical cord, or into the kitchen to open up drawers and cupboards, or into the bathroom to bang the door on the shower door...  :)

moves

Levi has started to dance!  He did it for the first time a few days ago, and has done it several times, but of course he stops as soon as I get the camera.  I have got to get video of it, though, it is SO cute!  He'll just kinda move his head from side to side with a big grin on his face.  :)

Caleb and Logan say so many funny things, but one recent one was when they called Mike an "onion giant" a few times.  Didn't really know what they were talking about until Logan said something about "Paul Onion" and I remembered that Mike had just recently told them a Paul BUNYON story!  Ha!

We had a nice weekend with a few activities, but nothing too crazy.  Friday afternoon Mike came home with flowers for me.  :)  Friday evening we had a meeting with our missionary group from church.  Caleb and Logan went to a friend's house (they had a babysitter as the parent's had to be at our meeting as well), and Levi came with us.  Saturday morning Mike, my dad, Caleb, and Logan went to an open house at Fillmore Equipment where they got to see lots of tractors.  Saturday afternoon I went to the salon to get my hair and make-up done (after one of the really bad days the week before Mike told me to make an appointment for whatever I wanted - within reason, of course!), and then in the evening Mike and I went out on a date.  We headed to downtown GR and it was a great night to be out!  Weather was still "warm" for January - kinda windy and a few rain drops, but much nicer to be out walking around than the snow and cold that we've got now (which we are very happy to have).  Sunday was one of those rare times where no one was sick, I didn't have nursery, and Mike didn't have to usher - it was great!  Caleb and Logan did very well in the morning service.  Evening is another story...  :)

180

This week is a complete 180 from last week.  THANK GOODNESS.  Last week was pretty bad with Caleb and Logan.  Mostly Caleb, but Logan goes off of what Caleb does...  I guess it was just a periodic testing of the boundaries or something - just had to push the limit and see if we're still going to be consistent with our expectations, consequences, etc.  Even Mike was feeling discouraged, so you know it must have been bad!

Now this week is going SO MUCH BETTER.  The boys are playing wonderful together and in all have great attitudes.  Okay, they're not perfect, we still have plenty of "fun" moments to deal with, but overall it's such an improvement over last week that I can handle it!  When you have small children it's hard to believe this is possible, but I can actually get some things done around the house while they play nice together - wow!  Now that I said all this I probably jinxed today...  :)

Levi continues to scoot around like crazy.  He sure is curious!  Last night he kept busy playing at the bottom of the steps with the gate - I almost thought he was going to pull himself up a little bit.  He loves interacting with Caleb and Logan (for the most part, sometimes he gets sick of having Logan in his face...) and it's so much fun to watch.

word

Some of my favorite things that Caleb and Logan say right now:
"eye-peelers" = binoculars
"picy" = spicy (This is Caleb, he often leaves off the "s" on "sp" words.)
"payloom" = playroom (This is also Caleb.)
"orport" = airport

They've also both gotten into saying "my dad" or "my mom" when talking to Mike or I about the other person.  So, if they're referring to something Mike told them, they'll tell me "My dad said...."  :)

We had all three boys in the tub at once the other night for the first time!  Levi doesn't quite sit up good enough to be in there without being steadied, but he seemed to enjoy the activity.

new year

I'm not sure I can catch up!  Life is going so fast and I don't seem to have a chance to sit down and reflect on it all.  :)  Christmas, as expected, was pretty crazy.  What we didn't expect was to all be sick.  After Levi started getting better the rest of us started getting sick.  Christmas Day we spent most of the day at home as a family, and the boys had fun opening their presents.  That evening we went to my parent's to hang out for a bit.  The next day in the morning was my niece's birthday party - fun to have a breakfast party!  Just Levi and I went to the extended Steenwyk party that evening.  Thursday evening, against our better judgement, we all went to the extended Krol party, but made a quick exit after supper.  Friday night we rallied and all made it to my family's party at my parent's house.  We weren't feeling great, but were starting to get better enough to enjoy it.  Other members of my family were getting sick as well, but thankfully we just went ahead with the party and were all able to be there (we considered rescheduling a couple days out, but by then other people were sick, so it wouldn't have been any better!).  Saturday we made it to Mike's family's party.  Phew!  That was it for "official" Christmas parties, but since both Mike and I had siblings in from out of town we did extra stuff to spend time with them.  Sunday we went for dinner to my parents, Monday morning Mike played ping pong with his brothers, and Monday night we got together with my family again.  It was definitely a challenge handling the kids at these parties, but not TERRIBLE (until Monday night that is...).  We struggled with some bad attitudes and the like here and there, and Levi still needs an evening nap but doesn't do well napping different places, but otherwise it all went okay.  Monday night, though, is when we hit our limit.  We had a few discipline issues and then ended up leaving my parent's with Caleb and Logan in full meltdown mode.  Pleasant!  A big chunk of the day yesterday was like that, too.  But, today things are getting back to normal!

Levi has a top tooth coming in that I think is also messing things up.  Overall he's doing fine, just seems a little off.  Right now he's not napping as long as I'd like...  :)  Caleb and Logan ARE napping, so we'll see what happens at bedtime tonight!  They haven't been doing as well at bedtime lately - staying in their beds, thank goodness, but just getting too rowdy and staying up late.  I'm remembering what bedtime was like last year over the holidays, though, and they are doing SOOOO good compared to that!  It's actually kinda hard to believe that we can put them to bed in big boy beds and they'll actually stay in them.  :)  We got them a new clock for Christmas that I'm pretty excited about. We're still working on it with them, though.  The clock has a light that turns on when it's okay for them to get out of bed in the morning.  I've explained to them several times that when they see the green light they may get out of bed on their own and come downstairs (and, of course, now that they're potty trained they can get up if they need to use the bathroom - this privilege hasn't been abused yet....).  Every morning I still hear, "Mommy!  The light turned green!  Can I get up?"  And I'll explain again that, yes, if the light is on they may get up and don't have to ask.  :)  We'll get there!

Levi is definitely scooting around now.  And the spitting up hasn't lessened.  Yuck, yuck, yuck.  I guess if he didn't spit up he would just be too perfect, and we can't have that!  :)

Stinker's not going back to sleep.  Gotta run.