pa-jammy
Just a little thing that I don’t want to forget…
Yesterday afternoon, I was walking to the back of the boys’ school where they were playing. Oliver spotted me and started running down the hallway, arms outstretched, yelling “Mamaaaaa!!!!” delightedly.
Suddenly he stopped, turned around, ran back to where everyone else was, and said, “bye bye!” and waved. Then he ran right back to me and practically dove into my arms.
Melt.
Well, that was a fun weekend!
Saturday, I took the boys to my friend Stephanie’s house, where we played with her triplets. Her triplets were born two days after mine, so it was fun to get them together like that. We don’t do it nearly often enough!
Here’s a cute picture of all six kids…mesmerized by Yo Gabba Gabba, of course. (Steph’s kids had never seen it before. My boys are like YGG pushers…getting other kids hooked on it…”c’mon, one episode won’t hurt…you can walk away any time…”)
After we left Stephanie’s house in a flurry of Froot Loops, we headed across the lake to spend the night at Ren’s house. She was kid-less for the weekend, so clearly she deserves a sainthood for actually wanting to spend time with my kids.
We made a yummy salad for lunch….put the boys to bed…vegged in front of the TV…perfect. The next day, we decided to head to the outlet mall to get the boys (and her girls) some fall clothes. I got a bunch of long-sleeved t-shirts and some pants. Cute stuff.
So that’s about it, really. A generally relaxing, fun weekend. With shopping. Yeah!
In other news, my mom requested a t-shirt for bragging about her grandkids, so I designed her this. Then, since that one’s a bit specific, I designed a few more for grandparents of triplets and twins.
Kristie is pretty much one of my oldest friends around. I mean, um, she’s not the oldest, just one of the friends I’ve had the longest. We go way back – all the way to middle school. Ohhh, the stories I could tell! (Ohhh, the stories she could tell! So let’s not go there, mmmkay?)
Kristie has this high-powered job for some software company. She’s all busy and important and stuff, but she’s never lost her creative side. She’s always dabbling in something artsy. Photography, cooking, painting the walls of our college apartment eggplant purple…ooh wait, I said I wouldn’t go there, didn’t I?
Anyway, she’s now channeling that creative stuff into an etsy store and this absolutely brilliant product. Genius. I wish I’d thought of it! I’m definitely going to get one. If I were v self-important, I’d think she designed this after living with me and seeing the tangled mess that my jewelry would become (but I doubt she could even see the tangled mess of my jewelry, since it was probably hidden under other crap.)
Look at this awesome jewelry organizer. Isn’t it genius?
She showed me a prototype last time she was in town, and it’s really quite smart. The fabric is loosely woven enough to stick your earrings in. The hooks at the bottom hold your necklaces and rings. The whole thing rolls right up. Love it! And the fabrics are beautiful and fun. Go check out her Etsy shop.
I’m so proud of her and excited to see the jewelry organizer finally hitting Etsy. Yay Kristie!
PS My birthday is January 9. In case anyone was wondering.
So another picture post it is!
(Note: I am not a good photographer like some of these mamas. So please keep your standards low for the actual quality of the photos, and we can all be happy.)
Let’s start with Linus, shall we?
Concentrating v hard on getting the lid back on the drum
With Daddy at a neighborhood block party thing
With Daddy in the playroom
Crossing his arms (imitating Daddy)
And now Oliver!
He was standing close to me at the block party, so I got lots of pictures of him.
Helping Miles buckle himself into his wagon. No kidding, they’re obsessed with buckles right now. Highchair buckles, wagon buckles, carseat buckles, monkey buckles (you’ll see when we get to Miles.) At least right now they can only buckle, not un-buckle.
Unmistakably Oliver:
Oliver crossing his arms, imitating Daddy:
And now for my Milesy!
Doing the arm-cross:
Miles and the monkey on his back. Har har. But seriously, he looooves this monkey! The fact that it has buckles is a bonus. Or maybe he loves the buckles, and the fact that it’s a monkey is the bonus. Not sure.
Miles was “reading” this little board book, and there’s a picture of a toothbrush. And he’s pointing to his teeth. Genius, or what?!?!?
Miles with Linus:
Miles getting the zombie treatment from Daddy
The end!
I’m a bit sore from my aerobics class last night (okay, really it was a step class with some weights, but I like how “aerobics class” sounds. So 80s, and like I was wearing a shiny royal blue leotard, white tights and leg warmers. And high top Reeboks. But don’t worry, really I was wearing a black tank top and black pants. All baggy.) so I think this will mostly be a picture post. Because who doesn’t like to see pictures of my boys? (Don’t tell me if it’s you. I don’t want to know.)
Oliver looking v sweet and innocent yesterday. Or puzzled. Something.
Linus looking very mad. I think this may have had something to do with Yo Gabba Gabba being turned off.
Miles giggling uncontrollably at the “fishie fishie fishie”s. (That’s a mobile that hangs above where the changing table used to be, and when they were tiny, we’d dangle them in the middle of the fishies and they’d giggle and giggle. Turns out they still like it.)
Oliver looking cute in his crib.
My stripey boys.
Just cute.
I know these pictures are pretty crappy, quality-wise. I really need to pull out my DSLR more. Oh well.
I know I do…so when I saw that my friend Lani, a fellow triplet mom, was giving one away (Coach, no less!), I was v excited. So perhaps I shouldn’t be sharing this link. Like I need competition in this?
But…she’s doing this to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Remember, back in 2003, when I ran (okay, walked too) the Marine Corps Marathon? Remember? And I had to raise some ungodly sum of money? And I did? Well, that’s what Lani’s doing, except she’s running her race at Disney World. (Lucky!)
So, not only can you help Lani raise money for the LLS, you can also possibly win that Coach bag! (And give it to me because I would love a red purse.)
And it’s easy – for every dollar you donate, you get an entry into the contest. Sweet! Go check out her blog entry for more details….
Finally had a nice, relaxing weekend. Because the boys were at their grandparents’. Heh. What can I say? They’re at a busy age. Or something.
Oliver said his first two word phrase (I mean, that I’ve heard) this morning. “My cracker!” Heh. Those boys, they do love their crackers, and are fiercely protective of them. Mmmm, generic Ritz crackers…
So, what did we do? Well, we went out to eat Friday night. And Saturday I slept until 9 am! Woo! Then I did some cleaning, some shopping, some going-to-the-gymming, some “gardening”. (If you count filling a garden with rocks so that nothing will grow in it “gardening”. I do.)
And then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening lounging around with friends. It was really nice and relaxing. Just what I needed.
Yesterday, after I picked the boys up, I took all three to Whole Foods. While it is, of course, ridiculously expensive, they have nice clean carts that will easily hold up to four kids. How I love it so. We sat and ate lunch and they were good! I guess they knew they had to act classy in a store like that. Heh.
I wish I had some cute pictures to jazz this up…oh wait, I do!
One guess…
This one’s Oliver. Feeling tropical.
Linus, looking curiously at his goofy father:
This week, my challenge is to make it to the gym at least 3 times. I am unofficially training for a half-marathon on Halloween, and even though I’m just going to walk it, I guess I should be in some kind of decent shape, eh? I found out some of my friends do some of the classes at my gym, so I’m eager to try them out. Should be fun.
Okay, perhaps I am jumping the gun a little, but I prefer to think of it as prepared. Yesterday I booked the boys’ second birthday party. Yes, four months early. For a few reasons.
1. I was thinking about it.
2. I absolutely refuse to have their birthday party at home again. Too much work. I spent a lot of time (and some money) and energy on their first birthday party, and I have hardly any decent pictures from it. I have no pictures of outside (so much for the helium balloons and the flag pennants that were strung up – I didn’t even get to see them, much less take pictures of them!) and no pictures of me and the boys. And no good pictures of the boys. It was just…too much. So I vowed that for their next birthday, it would be somewhere else. Somewhere we could just go, have fun, then leave.
Not that I am going to do nothing. Of course I’m still going to have fun with it! I already got the decoration kits (they were on clearance) so I know the theme already. It’s cute, I promise. And the invitations were in the kit, which is kind of too bad because designing the invites is my favorite part. I’ll just design fun thank you notes instead. And cupcakes. And t-shirts. And favors.
Anyway. I don’t want to give away too many details just yet (because I know a ton of 1 year olds read this blog and I want them to be surprised) but I think it’s going to be fun.
I just hope I don’t forget in the meantime. Hmm.
Just because I hate posts without pictures, here’s an outtake from the 20 month photoshoot. I love Miles’s Flashdance pose.
You crazy twin parents. I made one for you too. You win, with your easy, decadent “two kid at a time” life.
(I kid, of course.)
(Mostly.)
(Unless you have more kids, then I’m definitely kidding.)
So as I mentioned before, I have set up a shop to sell t-shirts I’ve designed for (mostly) parents of triplets. (I’ve modified some of the designs for twins, just because I have a lot of twin mama friends.) This is my latest design that I’m liking a lot. The design’s on the front of the shirt, but I wonder if I should do a version with it on the back, because that way, people don’t have to stare at your chest to read it. Hmm.
I have it for moms and dads! (And in lots of other styles, too.)
Today the boys are 20 months old. And thanks, Sarah, for pointing out that we’re only 4 months away from the big t-w-o now. I was trying not to think of that. (Except when, last week, I bought the decorations for the boys’ birthday party. They were on clearance!)
Soooo, what are they doing now?
Well, they’re communicating a lot more with us now. They’ve been working on their signs with their speech therapist, and actually using them. Like, this morning, Miles asked George for help with his shoes. He patted his chest (the sign for help) and said “hep.” Hee! So cute. And he also indicated to me that he was hungry, doing the sign for “eat”. Their speech therapist has said that Miles is doing the best with the signs so far, but Oliver asked for help last week, too. And Linus too, but his communication mostly involves asking for Yo Gabba Gabba.
Miles has also shown a propensity toward removing his clothes. I thought it might have been a one off, when he took his jammies off that day, but he’s done it again, plus he made me take off his shirt at my cousin’s baby shower a couple of weeks ago. And just look at the picture above! Yeesh, child!
For some reason, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures of the boys lately, so let me share a few cute ones…
Eating pizza last night:
George and Linus snuggled on the couch:
Miles snacking on cupcakes at Grandee’s house last week:
Linus eating breakfast at Grandee’s:
All three:
Oliver being silly:
I love this picture from the wedding. Ellie was showing Miles how to stand on the fence. The romantic, blurry, fuzzy effect is from baby fingerprints all over my camera lens. Much easier than photoshop!
I know, I know, I haven’t posted in ages, but that’s because my mom and Larry got married this weekend. It was very nice (for them) but incredibly stressful and hard for me. But it’s done and they’re married and that’s a great thing.
The blushing bride:
Isn’t she lovely?
Okay, okay, I’ll probably get written out of the will for that, so how about this one of the happy couple instead?
The fun parts included seeing family like Ellie and Emily, my beloved nieces, as well as my siblings. And new step-siblings! How fun is that?
(Yeah, okay, there’s this weird family tradition involving Biore nose strips. Or something.)
Grandee and her granddaughters:
The not-so-fun part included screaming children. My screaming children, to be exact. But it’s all over with, and I’m mostly recovered, thanks to a mental health day I took today (not to mention a physical health day, since another not-so-fun part for me involved a raging sinus infection.)
Up tomorrow – the boys turn 20 months old! Holy crap!
