Turtle

As I posted earlier today, Darren slept in our bedroom on the floor last night. I didn't pay any attention to him this morning as I go into the bathroom, but when I come out I do pay attention. There is enough light from the TV (which I turn on every morning to catch up on the news) and the bathroom that I see Darren laying on the floor. He has turned sideways so that all I can see is his body. His head is under the bed and he looks like a turtle with it's head in it's shell.

I gently try to pull him out so that he doesn't wake up and bump his head. He kind of growls when I pull him out from under the bed, but he does stay asleep.

Hat

Up until about May of this year, you could not get Darren to wear a ball cap much to Bruce's chagrin. He finally likes to wear a hat and apparently he now wants to wear it all the time. After Bruce and I get the kids to bed, we usually go to bed about 10:00. Last night we go to bed and about an hour to an hour and a half later, I hear Darren crying over the monitor. I get up intending to go into the boys room so that Darren doesn't wake his brothers up.

I was too slow as I met Darren walking into the kitchen. I pick Darren up and carry him into my room. He wants to sit on my lap in the living room, and I tell him no. I don't know if it is because I have only had an hour of sleep, but I can barely function. I lay him on the floor next to Bruce's bed and asks him what is wrong. He just kept saying "hat." Finally I go into the kitchen and get his hat. He puts it on and quiets down.

Not sure what that was all about, but if putting a hat on him helps, than he can sleep in his hat anytime.

I don't like that cup

Since I had Justin's doctor appointment yesterday, Mom picked up all three boys at daycare, meet me at the doctor's and then took them home with her. I go over last night to pick them up. When we get to the end of the lane, I ask Darren if wants to turn and go past Rich's house or turn and go past great-grandma's house. He chooses to go past great-grandma's. Nathan threw the ultimate buck because he wanted to pick. I told him that he could pick at the next intersection. Nathan started carrying on like a crazy man and saying that he didn't like me (at least he didn't say he hated me this time). He was being extremely disrespectful. When we got to the next intersection where a choice could be made, he said that he wanted to turn around and go the other way. I explained that wasn't possible and told Darren to choose since he was behaving. Darren choose to turn and Nathan went crazy again. Because Nathan is being so loud, it is scaring Justin and he is crying a little bit. At the next intersection, I told Darren to decided if we should go straight or turn. Nathan again threw a fit and I told him that he wasn't allowed to watch his shows when we got home.

Nathan goes into the house and is acting like a big baby. He immediately turns the TV on and I walk into the living room and shut it off. I get Justin out of his car seat, and I see that Nathan has the TV on again. I shut it off and take the remotes with me. I start to unload the dishwasher and go to see if he has the TV on again. He does and I tell him that if he turns the TV on again, or gets a smart mouth with me that he is getting a drink of hot sauce. I continue to unload the dishwasher (Bruce isn't home and Darren is playing) when I hear the TV on again. I go charging into the living room, shut the TV off and forcefully drag him into the kitchen. Darren is starting to cry because he does not want Nathan to have a drink of hot sauce and Nathan is crying and doing everything he can to prevent me from dragging him. I lay him on the floor, straddle his chest and put a glug or two of hot sauce in his mouth. He gets up and is getting ready to spit it out on the floor. I tell him that if he spits the stuff on the floor, he is going to get another round of hot sauce. He goes to the sink and is spitting, crying and taking the wash clothe to clean the inside of his mouth out. I grab a cup and pour a glass of milk because I have always heard that milk helps eliminate the burning.

I tell Nathan that the cup is on the stove and he says he won't drink it because, and I quote, "I don't like that color." I guess he would rather suffer a burning mouth than drink out of a yellow cup. Damn kid is stubborn just like his Mom!

Hair everywhere

I know that it is normal to lose some hair. When I was pregnant, I did not lose much hair at all and up until about a month or two ago that was still the case. I don't know if it is because my hormones are out of whack or what, but I have been shedding hair like crazy. I have thick hair, but with all the hair I am losing, I am almost starting to worry. If I brush my hair, I get a small clump that comes out in the brush and then I can run my hands over my hair and pull out some more lose hairs. I wash my hair and another small clump falls out. I get out of the shower and comb my hair again, and another clump. After I blow dry I lose another clump when I comb my hair. When I straighten my hair, I lose yet another clump when I brush it after straightening it. I keep a fleece jacket on my chair at work (for the days I have to go outside in the cold or in the shop for some reason) and I pick several hairs off my jacket daily. I pull laundry out of the dryer, and while I am folding clothes, I pull my long hairs off. Enough is enough. I am almost ready to go and see a doctor about it.

4 month checkup

I had Justin's four month check up today. Everything looked normal. He is 26" long which places him in the 85th percentile and weighs 15 lbs 13 oz which places him in the 75th percentile. She didn't tell me what his head measured, but she did say that he was in the 80th percentile for head size.

While I am there, they hand me a slide chart and asks if he is doing everything on the chart. As I am reading the accomplishments they are supposed to have managed, the nurse said that she can tell he is an active boy from just the way he watched his brothers move about the room. I don't remember Nathan moving that much, but Darren was constantly moving once he got it figured out.

Out like a light

Last night was Bruce's birthday, so he asked his Mom if she would come over and watch the boys for a few hours so that we could go out for a while. We got home about 9:00 pm and Justin was wide awake, laughing and smiling at Grandma Joan. She told me that Justin had chugged about 4 ounces down, but I forgot to ask what time that was. Since he chugged that down, Bruce and I decided to feed him a little bit more to make sure that he wouldn't wake up that night.

After Joan leaves, I lay him down on the floor in the living room and go into the kitchen to make a bottle. I was probably only gone a minute, two tops, and when I walked back into the living room he was sleeping. I had debated waking him up to feed him, but I figured that I would rather him be awake longer then instead of getting up in the middle of the night.

He did chug down the 4 ounces I made him and acted like he wanted more, so I made 2 more ounces for him. After that was done, you could tell his belly was full. I burped him and he fell asleep while I was burping him. Apparently Grandma Joan (that's what the boys call her) wore Justin out with all the tickling and attention.

Roll, roll, roll

Monday evening I put Justin on his blanket in the middle of the living room so that I could read the paper. The older two boys were playing with their tractors in the living room and dinning room, so I knew that Justin would have a lot to look at. (You can tell he is used to having older siblings as he is happiest when he can people-watch)

I happened to glance at Justin on the floor while reading the paper, and he was like four feet from where I had originally placed him on the blanket and turned a 180 degrees. I just watched him for a while, and was amazed. He would be laying on his back and would crane his neck to watch one of his brothers. When he couldn't crane his neck anymore, he would roll over. Then he would watch again while on his belly and when they moved out of his line of vision, he would roll over again. He is already trying to keep up with his big brothers!

Bath time

Two nights ago, Darren needed a bath but he was bucking about taking a bath. So I asked him if he wanted to take a bath with Justin. For some reason both boys love to get in the tub when Justin is in there. I filled up the tub with the normal amount of water for Justin, laid him on his sponge, and helped Darren into the tub. Because Nathan had already taken a shower, he rolled up his sleeves and sat in the opening between the shower doors to watch and talk to his brothers. I sat on the floor leaning against the wall to keep an eye on things.

Nathan declared that he wanted to wash Justin up, and since he had just had a bath, I decided that was fine. As he is washing Justin up, he is talking in a higher-pitched, sing-song voice. I was biting the inside of me cheek to keep from laughing out loud. He kept saying with some variation, "You look just like me." I wonder if he has heard that much?

At least he's honest...

Every morning at daycare I ask the boys if they are going to behave today. Yesterday morning when I asked Darren that question, he said no. At least he's honest!

(He must have known that it wouldn't be a good day for him because he did get in trouble for trying to scribble on the carpet with crayons at daycare.)

Why? Why?

On Sunday we went to Sidney by way of Minster and Anna. Since it was a Sunday, we wanted to drop our cable payment off. We took our time and took back roads just enjoying the scenery. Nathan was convinced we were lost because he didn't recognize our route. Besides being worried about being lost, he asked a million questions.

Such as, "Where is that car going?" "Why does that house have three garage's?" "Why do people live in the woods?" "Why did they buy a red car?" "Why are they mowing grass?" "Why is that house so close to the road?" "Why are all the lights on in that house?" You get the idea of the type of questions he was asking. I know that they ask questions to learn, but jeez-Louise.

Cradle cap

I thought that cradle cap was something that happened to newborns or to babies a few weeks old. In the past two weeks or so, Justin has developed cradle cap. I have been trying to baby oil on his scalp, but I am terrible at remembering to do stuff daily. My kid has flaky skin on his head and I can never remember to put baby oil on his scalp. I bet I get Mother of the Year!

A successful potty-training weekend

On Saturday I thought that we could finally pack up the diapers for Darren as he did great wearing underwear this weekend. We even got him to "go stinky" in the toilet on Saturday. I made sure I made a big deal about it and I made Bruce and Nathan get excited about it also. I said that he could have two pieces of candy since he went stinky in the toilet.

I must have jinxed us. Sunday after lunch he was playing and walked into the living room like he was saddle-sore and said he was wet. Actually he had pooped in his pants, so I take him into the bathroom and clean him up. I put another pair of underwear on him. A few hours later, him and Nathan were sitting at the bar eating watermelon and watching cartoons when he started crying. He had peed himself.

We are on the right track, and if I have a little patience, it will happen soon. At least I won't be buying him any more actual diapers. I will buy him pull-ups to wear at night, and Justin will wear Darren's diapers at night. I am going to have to buy the overnight diapers for Justin because he almost pees thru Darren's size four diapers at night already.

Old McDonald had a farm....

The other day Nathan was singing "Old McDonald had a Farm." When he got to the verse, "Hi Ho the Dairy-o" he sang it "Hi Ho the Cherry-o" (pronounced chair-e-o) instead. I told him that old McDonald lived on a farm so it should be the words are "dairy-o." He argued with me and told me that I had the words wrong and that McDonald could live on a cherry farm. I had to laugh as he is technically correct.

I told him to ask Joyce or another teacher at daycare what the words really were.

Liar, liar

Nathan has gotten very bad lately about lying. We will watch him do something and when we ask him if he did it, he lies. When he gets in trouble at daycare and we question him about it at home, it is never his fault. If I tell him that I am going to call MaryLou at home and ask here, all of a sudden he remembers that maybe he did something wrong.

Last night I had enough of his lying. He was sucking his finger and I told him that if he didn't take his finger out of his mouth, I was going to put hot sauce on it. He kept his finger in his mouth, so I dragged him into the kitchen. He begs me not to put hot sauce on his fingers, and I ask him if he is going to put his fingers in his mouth. He says no. As I turn to put the hot sauce back in the fridge, he sticks his finger back in his mouth. I had enough, so I got the hot sauce back out, held him down and put a drop of hot sauce on his lips. He kept his fingers out of his mouth and didn't lie again.

I told him that if he keeps lying, he is getting either soap in his mouth, hot sauce on his lips or a drink of vinegar every time if he keeps lying to me.

Helper

The same day that Bruce was in Versailles with his Dad, Nathan was my big helper. As soon as I got home from daycare with the boys, Justin was hungry and so were the other two boys. Nathan volunteered to feed Justin so that I could make them dinner. I took Nathan up on his offer and since I already had hamburger thawed in the refrigerator, I was finished making the sloppy joes (Nathan's request) about the same time as Nathan was done feeding Justin. I put some of the sloppy joes on their plates and burped Justin while they ate.

Nathan can be such a big help when he wants to.

Soup anyone?

Every Veteran's Day, Bruce spends the afternoon with his Dad making soup for the Vets club to sell. This year Bruce brought home about a half gallon of soup to eat. He had it sitting on the stove with the lid off because he was going to eat it after he took his shower. Bruce and I were in the kitchen talking, I was holding Justin and Nathan and Darren are in my peripheral vision. Forgetting that kids have to know/see what is in everything, we are not paying attention to the older two boys.

Out of the corner of my eye in slow motion, I see Darren get a toehold on the drawer of the stove and tilt the bucket down towards him. Next thing I know, Darren is wearing most of the soup that Bruce was so excited about eating. Darren immediately starts bawling. We both keep our tempers relatively cool. I take Justin into the living room to lay down on the floor and I tell Nathan to come with me. I give Nathan strict instructions that he is to stay in the living room and try to keep Justin happy.

I strip Darren's P.J.'s and take them to the sink to pick off the beans while Bruce attempts to scrape up the dumplings and beans. Most of the soup landed on his pajamas instead of exposed skin so at least we didn't have to throw him in the tub. We finish cleaning up the mess and I get a bucket of sudsy water to scrub the kitchen carpet where the soup fell. We all go into the living room to relax a bit before bedtime.

I have always hated my kitchen carpet and would much rather have linoleum or something since so much food is dropped in the kitchen. The next morning we have white spots splattered all around the stove. I am going to get some more sudsy water and scrub this weekend, but I think replacing the carpet is my next home improvement goal.

Potty training progress

It seems like I spend a lot of time writing about poop.... I must be a fun person to have a conversation with!

As I may have stated earlier, Darren had become very agreeable to wearing underwear everyday. Actually ever since I said that cowboys wear underwear, he prefers to wear underwear. He will not tell you he has to go potty, nor will he admit it when he is directly asked, but he usually goes if you set him on the toilet. We are making progress slowly, but surely.

As most everyone knows, Bruce has absolutely no patience. On Sunday, Darren wanted to wear underwear. Bruce takes him to the bathroom to sit him on the toilet and Bruce comes out of the bathroom all mad saying that Darren is going to be wearing a diaper because "he's not ready." When I asked some more questions, I realize that while Darren was sitting on the toilet he did pee. Unfortunately - on accident or on purpose - he did not hold his penis down and he peed all over Bruce. I thought it was quite funny, but Bruce didn't think it was that funny.

Last night after his bath, we put a diaper on him. All of a sudden we see a look of panic on his face and he feels the front of his pajama's saying "diaper?" I realize at this point that he probably has to poop and started to panic thinking that he is pooping in his underwear. I ask him if he has to poop as he tries to hide in the corner and he denies it with a look of scared denial. I rush him into the bathroom, but he already pooped in his diaper. I tried not to be too disappointed as he has been trying, but it just seems like this process takes forever.

Christmas dilema

Bruce and I try our hardest not to buy the boys toys during the year telling them that they don't need them and that is what their birthday and Santa Claus is for. Since we don't buy them things for no reason, Nathan's Christmas list is HUGE! Nathan is at the age where he will count all the gifts for himself, Darren and Justin and if one of them got more than him he would be upset. If he got more than his brothers, he would lord it over them. There is a bunch of things that I would like to get for Nathan, but not so many things to purchase for Darren or Justin. I don't know if it is because they are at a bad age or because we may already have that certain toy. I could easily not buy anything for Justin because I really don't want any more baby toys around the house, but I don't think that Nathan would allow that.

I'll have to keep you posted.

Can't poop

Justin was kind of a fuss-butt over the weekend; specifically Sunday. Maybe his belly hurts, or maybe he is getting a cold, but I think his biggest problem is that he needs to poop! He did have one dirty diaper on Saturday and one on Sunday, but they were hard and probably didn't make him feel better.

I am trying all the old wives tale remedies to help him poop. I am giving him water. I am giving him a mixture of apple juice and water. He is getting dark Karo syrup in his bottles. It really only started for him in the past month or so. He just has the same digestive system as Nathan and he may always have troubles with bowel movements. He really is a mini-Nathan!

And over again

Last night I laid Justin on the floor on his belly as the boys wanted me to look at something in their room. When I got out of their room, Justin had rolled onto his back. Then we went into the kitchen to do something and when I checked on Justin again, he was back onto his stomach. He rolled back over! I seen him trying to do it later that evening, but then his brothers sat down to encourage him so he stopped trying. I told the boys to move and leave Justin alone so that he would try to roll over, but that was impossible for them to do.

I was suspicious as to if Justin really rolled over on his own and asked the boys if they "helped" him. I didn't see them leave the room, but that doesn't mean they didn't. Both boys said that they did not help Justin rollover. I believe them because before they got into Justin's face, he was trying to roll from his back to his belly and he got close several times. He is 16 weeks old and already becoming a little man! Where did my baby go?

Underwear

This morning Darren is wearing underwear to daycare. I ask him every morning if he wants to wear underwear, and he always says no. This morning though, he said yes. We will see if he does better today than he did this past weekend....

Cookie Monster

The other while in the grocery store, they had the tubes of refrigerated cookie dough on sale and since I had a coupon I picked some up. Sometimes I feel guilty because I do not make cookies and cakes with/for the boys like my Mom did. That is where the pre-made packaged cookie dough comes in. I bought three tubes and made one of the tubes that day leaving two in fridge.

Last night while I was making dinner, Darren grabs one of the tubes out of the fridge and says that he "wants this." I gave him the whole spiel about how I am making dinner, and maybe we will bake them after dinner since I have a meatloaf in the oven. As I am peeling the potatoes I see Darren back in the fridge. I didn't think too much about it. He goes into the living room and I hear Nathan yelling at him. I go in the other room to play referee and discover Darren had taken the unopened tube, bit a hole thru the packaging and was eating the cookie dough. I reprimand him, but not to much because I thought it was a little funny but I didn't want him to see me laughing. As I am getting a Ziploc bag out to put the tube of cookie dough in, my back is to the refrigerator. The little cookie monster apparently grabbed the other tube and made off with it. When I went to put the chewed tube away, I noticed that one of the tubes was missing. I chase Darren down and sure enough he bit through the packaging again and was getting ready to eat the raw dough. Darn cookie monster!

"Get me a piece"

If you let kids, most will eat candy all day. Therefore we had to take the boys Halloween candy and put it on top of the fridge so that it was "out of sight, out of mind." They can push a chair up to the counter and get to the candy if they really want to, but they know that they aren't allowed to climb on the counter so they know they will really get in trouble if they are caught.

We have been letting the boys have a piece or two of candy in the evenings since Trick or Treat. Last night they each got their piece and they wanted more. We said that since they eat their dinner so well, that they could have another piece. They wanted more, but we told them that they weren't allowed to have more. The next thing we see is Darren pushing the chair up to the counter and him trying to climb up. We pull him down, lightly swat his butt and tell him that he is in time-out and has to sit on the couch. He is sitting there, and the entire time he is crying and looking at Bruce or myself saying, "Get me another piece." We tell him no and I told him that he doesn't deserve another piece with that attitude.

Nathan is taking all this in and so when the next time Darren demands another piece, Nathan smugly said, "Not with that attitude!" After Darren was done with his timeout, he kept demanding another piece of candy. I wouldn't have let him have another piece, but if he could have said "please" without being prompted I would have been a lot happier.

Whose diaper?

Justin wears a size two diaper. Darren wears a size three during the day (at daycare) and a size four. The reason for the size difference with Darren is that he sleeps on his stomach at night, therefore the front of the diaper is soaked in the morning.

The past few mornings, Justin, who also sleeps on his stomach, has been waking up soaking wet. That is usually a clue that I need to move him up a size in diapers. Since I thought of this as I was getting Justin ready for bed one evening, I didn't have any size three diapers on hand. Knowing it would be too big, I put one of Darren's size four diapers on Justin. It is too big, but it will work until I can get to the store and buy some size three diapers for him to wear at nights. He has not been soaked thru the past two mornings!

Imagine that - brothers who are two years apart are sharing diapers!

Rolling over

My baby is growing up! Friday night during dinner, Bruce went into the living room to eat (don't ask) where Justin was laying on the floor on his belly. I was sitting there eating, and Bruce yelled from the living room that Justin rolled over. I didn't believe him, so I yelled back at Bruce to quit kidding around. Bruce yells back that he isn't kidding. I get up to look, and sure enough Justin is now laying on his back. I was kind of upset because I did not get to see it and Bruce never called me in when he seen that he was attempting to roll over.

Later that evening, Mom called and asked the older two boys if they wanted to come over and ride in the combine. Of course they said yes, and so I brought all three boys over to Mom's. After telling Mom that Justin rolled over, she lays him on the floor on his belly so she can see if he will roll over for her. Sure enough, Darren is standing in front of me telling me something and Justin rolls over. I missed it again! After a bit, we put him back on his belly and he rolls over again. My little baby is growing up. (sniff, sniff) He is supposed to be my baby and not grow up.

That was the last time he did it all weekend, so I am glad I got see him do it. He was 15 weeks and one day when he reached that milestone. Actually I am kind of surprised that it took him that long to roll over. He sleeps on his belly, so he has good stomach muscles, and he has been attempting to roll over for a while now.

Potty training

I thought this is the weekend that I would work with Darren on potty training. Why is it that everything never goes according to the plan I have worked out in my mind? While I was in the hospital having Justin, he did so well at Mom's and it is four months later, that I figured he should do pretty decent. WRONG!

When I got him dressed Saturday morning, I put underwear on him. He was throwing a huge fit about wearing underwear, but I told him that he had to wear underwear because cowboys (see previous post on how much he loves being a cowboy) wear underwear. I asked him right away if he had to go to the bathroom and he said no. I bet I asked him every five minutes for the first half hour. I had just asked him if he had to go potty, and he said no as usual, when he came up and said that he was wet. I took my time getting him some dry clothes in the hope that he would realize that it was no fun to be wet. I grabbed some more underwear and another pair of jeans. He bucked a little bit until I reminded him that he was a cowboy and cowboys wear underwear. He probably made it two hours before he wet himself that time.

I finally gave in and put a diaper on him. He currently only has three pairs of underwear, and I didn't want to get all his pants dirty in one morning. He was always ahead of schedule on getting teeth, walking and crawling that I am shocked that he isn't doing better at this. We figured he would be easy because of he walked so early and he watches his brother do it, but he refuses. Next month will be the age that Nathan was when he got out of diapers, and unless we see a miracle, Darren will still be wearing diapers until he is three.

Which side?

Yesterday, we had the annual Sunday Thanksgiving dinner at Walkup. Nathan was looking around and he asked me who owned the building. I explained that MaryLou's husband Ken owns part of the building with a bunch of other guys. Nathan then looks at me and asks "which side of the building does he own?" He was completely serious. I laughed and told him that when a bunch of people own a building together, no one owns "a side." I don't think that he really understood, but he ran off to play with his daycare buddies.

Kids really do say the darnedest things....