Our Baby Wolfs

Daddy, why did God make your hair fall out?

2012-01-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

Overheard in the Wolf household in the past month or so...

Moses, watching me wrap Christmas gifts: "Who's that present for?"
Joe: "It's probably for someone whom Mommy loves very much."
Moses: "Is it for Jesus?"

"Oh my gosh, guys, Caleb probably needs to burp." -Caleb

Joshua, asking about Mr. Popper's Penguins: "Does this movie have people in it?"
Joe: "Yeah."
Joshua: "Then I don't think I will like it. I only like movies that have animals."
Joe: "But this movie has penguins in it."
Joshua: "Are the penguins in Antarctica?"
Joe: "No, I think they're in New York City."
Joshua: "I only like movies about penguins that are in Antarctica."

Joshua: "When I grow up, I will become a man and then I will find a woman to be my wife. Maybe Hana will be my wife. Then Hana will have a baby in her belly and I will be his Daddy and you will be his Mimi and Daddy will be his Babo."

Me: "What did your teachers talk about at school today?"
Caleb: "We talked about Martin Luther King!"
Me: "Oh, wow! Who was Martin Luther King?"
Caleb: "He was brown. I colored his face brown."
Me: "Ok, and what did he do?"
Caleb: "I don't know."
Joshua: "He had really short hair."

Joshua: "I ate lunch with Jory and Keira today."
Caleb: "Jory? I think she looks kind of Korean."
Me: "Yeah, I guess she might be Korean.
Caleb: "Like Mimi and Yoojin and Yejin."
Me: "That's right. You boys are a quarter Korean, you know?"
Joshua: "Does Korean mean our skin is just a little yellow and brown?"

Joe, talking to the twins: "I'll give the iPhone to the first boy who can tell me what 3 plus 3 equals."
Moses: "six!"
Joe: "I guess Moses gets the iPhone."

Me: "Would you want to have another brother?"
Moses: "Yes. I want a baby sister and a baby brother. And then there will be five brothers."
To give you some context, Joe and I had just been talking about large families, and how people we know who come from large families seem to enjoy having many siblings despite the sacrifices their families had to make to accommodate them. So, we asked the boys their opinion on the matter, and this is what Moses said. By "brothers" we are sure that he meant "siblings", a word he is not yet familiar with. Anyway, we are pretty impressed with his quick mental math skills.

Joshua: "Daddy, when did your hair fall out?
Joe: "It started to fall out in college."
Joshua: "But why did God make your hair fall out?"
Joe: "I don't know."
Joshua: "Maybe so that Mommy would think that you looked nice and good."
Joe: "Yeah, it did work, didn't it?"

The Snowman Wus Shivrring

2011-12-21T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have quite a backlog of quotes from the past month:

"Samson ate lots of healthy food and became really strong". -Joshua

"No thank you Caleb, I don't wanna get fat". -Moses, politely declining a snack.

"No, Owen, Santa Claus is just a character. He's not real". -Moses, correcting his big brothers' friend's claim that Santa would come down his chimney. I quickly intervened and assured Owen that Moses was mistaken.

"Look, I drew a bat and a ice cream cone for my parents. Look, Mom, your son drew this for you." -Moses, showing me his artwork.

"Oh, praise God, Joshua! You drew a very nice snowman. That's a very good job!" -Caleb

"Ding ding ding! I made my snowman". -Joshua

"This place is very impressive!" -Joshua, upon arriving at the Christmas Tree farm.

"I had a bad dream about a peanut butter pizza that turned into an animal and started chasing me." -Joshua, in a state of consternation just after waking up.

"Is this soup?" - Joshua, referring to his Thanksgiving school lunch of turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy.

"I want a baby sister. I have too many brothers." -Moses, wishfully thinking.

"And a very, very, very metal tree." -Caleb and Joshua's interpretation of "And a partridge in a pear tree."

"See the green Christmas trees, growing up the pine. See the green Christmas trees, this one will be mine." -Joshua's seasonally appropriate version of a song they learned in school: "See the yellow pumpkins, growing on the vine. See the yellow pumpkins, this one will be mine."

Of course, this is just a tiny sampling of the billions of things the boys say each day. Moses talks so much when it's just me and him at home during the day that I sometimes want to just tell him to be quiet! Since the twins had language delays and were relatively reticent 2-year-olds, I am not accustomed to all of this talking, and it honestly wears on my introverted self. I've even resorted to begging him to watch movies just so that I can hear myself think.

Upon noticing a dearth of quotes from Caleb in my collection, I initially felt kind of bad for not recording more things he's said. but I actually think it's a reflection of the fact that he generally spends less time gabbing away than his brothers do. Caleb is probably the most introverted one of the bunch, and spends much more time drawing than the other two do. He continues to mass-produce drawings on a daily basis, his current obsessions being gingerbread men being chased by foxes, as well as snowmen assuming different occupational roles, such as a cowboy snowman or a policeman snowman.

Moses has followed Caleb's lead and has actually shown himself to be a pretty decent artist. He has drawn things like faces, horses, and skull-and-crossbones that are surprisingly recognizable, considering they were created by a two-year-old. Moses is also eager to emulate his big brothers' writing skills and has even written the word "MIMI" although I don't think he knew what he was writing. His favorite letters to write are "H", "I", "M", "O" and "E". He doesn't seem interested in writing his name, but I guess I can't blame him since those "S"s are pretty daunting. He also insists that his name is spelled "M-O-E-S". Moses has a stubborn streak and trying to convince him that he's wrong is usually a futile effort.

Unfortunately, Moses also seems to think it's his job to correct his friends and tell them they're doing everything the wrong way. After living in the shadows of two older brothers for his entire life, I guess he's realized that preschool is his long-awaited opportunity to be the boss, even though he's actually one of the youngest kids in his class. Even though I have been horrified to witness this behavior on more than one occasion at school and at play dates, the other children thankfully don't seem to mind Moses' bossy nature, and he is never at a loss for friends who want to play with him.

Unlike his bossy little brother, Joshua is most focused on discussing the virtues of kindness and striving to be a "model student." We've been amused to witness the inclusion of phrases such as "that was so kind of you" and "I am very impressed" into his everyday speech. And Joshua not only talks the talk, but he also (usually) walks the walk. It is no wonder that his classmate Hanna told him today that she is going to marry him! Joshua is also becoming a more confident reader and writer. The other day when I was volunteering in his classroom, he wrote the following narrative: "The snowman wus shivrring. He wus so so cod." Translation: "The snowman was shivering. He was so, so cold." It's cute to see that Joshua writes the same way he talks. I was also pleased to see that he finished his assignment early and had plenty of time for free play afterwards. During the first couple months of school, when the children's task had been to write a letter of the alphabet several dozen times and then color, cut, and glue a worksheet pertaining to that letter, Joshua would drag it out and barely finish the assignment in time to head to lunch. Clearly, he is much more motivated to do creative work, and understandably so.

The boys are very excited about the impending arrival of Christmas in a few days. Ever since we put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, Joshua has regularly proclaimed, "this will be the best Christmas ever!" Even though we've reminded the boys over and over again that Santa Claus is just a character, they still seem to partially believe that he really will come down our chimney and bring them presents. This doesn't bother me, it's actually kind of endearing, and at least they'll never be able to claim that we lied to them. Trying to keep Christ in Christmas has been more of a challenge this year than in years past, since the twins' public school Kindergarten curriculum would lead one to believe that gingerbread houses and gingerbread men are the centerpiece of what should be a celebration of our Savior's birth. I suppose it could be worse; at least the boys have come home with Christmas tree crafts and a lesson about the Dutch tradition of leaving shoes out for Saint Nicholas to fill. And this past weekend, all three boys bravely stood in front of the congregation and sang about Baby Jesus in our church's newly-formed children's choir: "What did the donkey at the manger say, to Baby Jesus in the hay? Hee haw, hee haw, Baby Jesus we love you."

Happy 6th Birthday, Caleb and Joshua!

2011-11-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

The twins are 6! On their birthday, they took Rice Krispies treats to school to share with their classmates, then that evening we had spaghetti and cake at Mimi and Papa's house, and the boys (including Moses) each got a rifle gun that they'd had their eyes on since they first noticed them at the Mount Vernon gift shop this past summer. Then on Saturday we threw the boys a pirate party with a dozen of their friends. Joe even dressed up like a pirate: he grew out his beard, wore a pirate wig that we found at the Variety Store, and stuck a toy machete in a colorful sash that he tied around his waist. Several of the boys' moms, including our friend Leah who has known Joe for several years now, thought that we had hired a "real" pirate! All of the boys had a blast digging for "treasure" in the turtle sandbox, "walking the plank", jumping on the trampoline, eating pizza, and play fighting with the boys' toy guns and swords.

Now that the boys are 6 years old, they are making progress along the road to self-sufficiency. They are finally wiping their own butts, although they still refuse to go #2 at school. In fact, a few weeks ago I got a call from the school nurse because Joshua was in the clinic, doubled over in stomach pain, refusing to use the bathroom. Before I could get to the school, the nurse called back to say that he finally went to the bathroom and was feeling better. Joshua, however, maintains that he never did poop at school, but that his tummy felt better because Jesus healed him.

In other areas of self-sufficiency, the boys can climb up on the counter, get a glass from the cupboard, and pour themselves a glass of milk or water. Heck, even 2-year-old Moses has started doing this. Caleb will often pour me a tall glass of water and bring it to me, unprompted, while I'm sitting at the computer or folding laundry. He is very sweet. He also likes to draw pictures and give them to us as gifts. Joshua is a sweet boy, too. He's always showing us affection and telling us things like, "I just love giving you hugs and kisses!"

I met with the twins' teachers for their first elementary school parent-teacher conferences last week, too. Both boys did very well on their first standardized test that is issued to all Kindergarteners in the state of Virginia. They both passed the Spring benchmark, which means that they already have all the skills and knowledge that they're expected to have before they finish Kindergarten. Granted, they attend one of the more competitive schools in one of the best public school systems in the nation, so I'm sure that most of their classmates did just as well if not better, and the teachers have accelerated the curriculum accordingly. If I remember correctly, Joshua scored a 182, Caleb scored a 178, and the Spring benchmark is 177.

Caleb actually could have scored higher, but he didn't give a single correct answer in the rhyming section. I could have sworn that he's known how to rhyme for a while now, so when I got home from the conference, I asked him to tell me something that rhymes, and of course he immediately rattled off a long list rhyming words. I suspect that Caleb simply did not understand what was being asked of him during this particular section of the test. After all, one of the items that was originally on his IEP was difficulty with "receptive language," or understanding what is being spoken to you. I will need to follow up with his teacher and make sure that she is aware of this. I really think that he has a very good teacher, but in a class full of 25 energetic kids, I can see how it would be very easy for a detail like that to slip through the cracks. Joshua's class is smaller with only 20 kids, and they have the added benefit of having a special ed teacher in the classroom for much of the day. So in addition to having fewer classroom distractions, Joshua gets a lot more one-on-one time than Caleb does. I am confident that Caleb will thrive nevertheless. His teacher said he is such a sweet, good boy and that he is trying very hard. Joshua's teacher told me that he is very sweet and kind, and his special ed teacher said that she thinks he's actually very smart. As a mom, you can't ask for better reports than those!

And now for a few quotes:

Joshua: "I guess I am the onliest boy who is listening and putting on my shoes!"

Moses: "Daddy! Mommy is not paying attention to me!"

Me: "Caleb, get your backpack!"
(Caleb completely ignores me and keeps walking while Moses puts on Caleb's backpack.)
Me: "Moses, thank you for bringing Caleb's backpack inside."
Moses: "Yes, because Caleb is not paying attention."

Moses, observing 2 egg yolks in a mixing bowl: "It's like a butt!"

McMoses' Healthy Halloween

2011-10-31T09:50:00.000-07:00

Moses has developed a strange habit of substituting the first syllable of certain words with "Mc". For example, he consistently makes the following adjustments:

McPuter = Computer
McTar = Guitar
McBrella = Umbrella

I'm pretty sure that he knows the correct pronunciations, but he still insists on saying things this way. Maybe it's his Irish heritage manifesting itself... and the only apparent manifestation of it, at that!

In other news, the boys are very excited about Halloween and going trick-or-treating tonight. The twins have been learning a lot of Halloween songs in music class at school, which they in turn teach to Moses. The other day I heard Moses singing his own rendition of a classic. I think I like his version better:

"Trick or treat, trick or treat, give me something good for me."

That's my boy!

Imaginative Moses

2011-10-24T07:06:00.000-07:00

Moses has quite an active imagination, and it has blossomed all the more now that his big brothers are away at school all day. Whereas he previously relied heavily on his brothers for entertainment, he is now content to play with animal figurines, blocks, cars, and Legos all by himself for extended periods of time, quietly creating dialogues and singing to himself as he plays. Since the twins always had each other to play with, I suppose they were never required to plumb the depths of their imaginations to the same degree that Moses has. That's not to say they were completely unimaginative, it's just that they almost always collaborated with each other, such as when they used to pretend to be a mother monkey and a baby monkey. Moses also enjoys pretending to be different animals, such as the other day when he walked into the kitchen wearing gloves on his feet, and when I asked him why, he told me, "I am an ostrich and I have ostrich feet."

One way that Moses' imagination is manifesting itself is through telling lies, and convincing ones, at that. A couple weeks ago as we were getting ready to sit down to eat dinner, I noticed that Moses had taken off his jacket, so I asked him why. He replied, "Daddy told me to take my jacket off so that I won't spill macaroni on it." While it seemed like a somewhat reasonable explanation, I was mildly perturbed to hear that Joe had told him to remove layers considering how cold it was inside the house. And besides, macaroni and cheese wasn't much of a stain threat to his navy blue jacket. Baffled by Joe's logic, I asked him if he'd indeed told Moses to take his jacket off so that he wouldn't spill macaroni and cheese on it. And what do you know, he hadn't.

Moses also claims to have vivid dreams every night about horses racing. He tells us that he dreams about thoroughbreds, Asian wild horses, the white horse of the sea, and fallabellas. Speaking of dreaming, the other day while Moses and I were surveying the pumpkins on our front steps, he provided me with the following analysis. Pointing to the three large pumpkins, he said, "That's the mommy pumpkin, and the daddy pumpkin is a little bigger. And here's Moses. He's a big boy pumpkin." Then, pointing to a couple of the smaller pumpkins, he said, "And here's his brothers. They are babies." So much for being the humblest man on the face of the Earth!

Prolific Caleb

2011-10-09T05:34:00.001-07:00

Caleb has blossomed into a prolific artist. The first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is make a beeline to the dining room table, not to eat breakfast, but to commence a drawing of whatever happens to be his subject of choice for the week. Likewise, the first thing he does when he comes home from school on most days is situate himself at the table with a piece of paper and a bucket of markers. You would think he'd be tired of sitting and drawing after being at school all day, but apparently not. Joshua, on the other hand, wants nothing to do with sitting and drawing during after-school hours. He would rather run around the house for a while before settling into the couch with his latest library book.

I first noticed Caleb's trend toward the end of the summer when he became obsessed with drawing David and Goliath: pages upon pages of pictures of David with his sling facing off with Goliath with his sword. Some time later, he started drawing cars: lots of cars, complete with details such as headlights and spirals of exhaust spewing out the back. From there, he progressed on to pumpkins: jack-o-lanterns with varying shaped eyes, noses, and mouths. Next came pirate ships, influenced by our voyage on a pirate ship in Baltimore. And Caleb's most recent subject matter has been the owl, his school's mascot. Specifically, he draws an owl slightly hovering above the branch of a tree, almost always slightly tilting to the left, with a crescent moon in the upper right corner and a black night sky in the background.

It's fascinating how consistent Caleb is, with only slight variations in each piece from each series, not much unlike how a real artist operates. Indeed, of the many printmaking works I created in college, there are quite a few series of a common image with only slight variations among the members of each set. Caleb demonstrates the perfectionist tendencies of an artist, too. If he accidentally colors outside one of the lines he draws, he launches into a fit of consternation, dramatically discarding the ruined piece aside and starting over on a clean slate.

A few quotes:

"Caleb, it's not good to talk to your friends like that. Only Mommy can talk like that." - Joshua

"Oh, come on Caleb, don't be sad. Let's get busy. I like to play trains with you." - Joshua

"He is really evil and not a good student and is absolutely bad." -Joshua, commenting on someone's scary Halloween decoration.

Woman, talking to the twins: "How old are you?"
Caleb and Joshua: *no response*
Moses: "They are 5 and I am 2."

"I love green, and brown is my favorite color, too, because I am brown." - Moses

"Those two squirrels are friends, like me and Desmond." -Moses, while watching two squirrels chase and play with each other

"Look, mom, it's a silent color." -Moses, while applying very light pressure to the crayon while drawing.

Twin in the Mirror

2011-10-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I took Caleb and Moses to Target while Joshua went to a play date at his classmate Owen's house. Caleb was upset that he didn't have a play date to attend, and decided that retail therapy would be the best cure for his blues. While walking through the shoe department, Caleb did a double-take as he strode past a full-length mirror. "What's the matter?" I asked him. "Oh, I thought that I saw Joshua but it was just me," he replied, smiling sheepishly. Only an identical twin could have that sort of problem!

It was also touching because I could tell that Caleb genuinely missed his twin. Their teachers have told me, and I've seen for myself while volunteering in the cafeteria at lunchtime, that they will call out to each other and wave happily whenever they see each other during the school day. I suppose that having them in separate classrooms is best for the development of their own individual identities, but sometimes it breaks my heart when I realize how much they cherish their unique bond.

Moses, on the other hand, announced to me this afternoon that he did not miss his brothers at all today. Every other day since Kindergarten started, Moses has asked me, "Where are my brothers?" or "I miss my brothers. Shall we go get them now?" I guess today I somehow managed to keep him well-enough distracted with preschool and errands. It's not an easy job, though, and I'm beginning to realize the significant role that the twins had in raising their baby brother these first two and a half years of his life. I've got to give them their fair share of credit for how well Moses has turned out!

The Kindergarten Conundrum

2011-09-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

September was a month of new beginnings, with the twins starting Kindergarten and Moses starting preschool. I am thankful to report that all three boys are thoroughly enjoying school. When the county decided to close schools on the fourth day of school on account of inclement weather, the boys were disappointed. The following Friday, when I told the boys that they wouldn't have to go to school for the next two days, Joshua exclaimed, "Oh no, but I'll miss school!" When I went to pick up Moses after his second day of preschool, he scowled at me and told me to go away. I suppose his classmates provide him with greater entertainment value than I do.

That said, I don't think I've been this exhausted since I had a newborn. Escorting three kids to and from two different schools, packing nutritious lunches, entertaining Moses in the absence of his brothers, and volunteering in three different classrooms have all proved to be quite exhausting. Meanwhile, multiple home improvement tasks are looming over our heads, dinner needs to be cooked and cleaned up after, the boys manage to make just as much mess in the few hours they're home in the evening as they did when they were home all day long (such as when they decided to paint their pumpkins with black paint yesterday), Joe has been working ridiculously long hours, and the bunnies keep pooping and trying to escape their porch prison. Every afternoon at around two clock, there is nothing I'd rather do than take a nap, but my non-napping 2-year-old always has other plans for me, such as pretending to be the bad guy that he repeatedly strikes down with a sword, or helping him build a barn for his horse. And to think that I had people asking me what I would do with all of my free time now that the twins would be in school all day!

Anyway, here are some things we've been hearing lately...

"Good eye, Mom. Good eye." -Joshua's trademark way of saying "Good idea, Mom. Good idea."

"Normally my mother pushes me four times." -Moses, letting his preschool teacher know that he was not satisfied with a mere three pushes on the swing.

"My butt swallowed the poop so that you wouldn't have to smell it." -Joshua, explaining why he didn't finish his business in the same bathroom in which I was taking a shower.

"Look, I'm a bunny." -Joshua, showing me the big fluffy wad of toilet paper stuck in his butt.

Me: "Don't go out in the front yard all by yourself. It's getting dark outside and you never know when there might be bad guys around."
Joshua: "Don't worry, Mom, I'll take my gun."
Me: "But your gun isn't real."
Joshua: "I know that bullets won't come out, but the bad guys will still see my gun and be afraid."

"Let's make a jack-o-lantern with triangle eyes, a square nose, and a banana mouth." - Caleb

Joe: "This horse is a Selle Francais."
Moses: "No! That's a thoroughbred!"
Joe: "No, it says it's a Selle Francais."
Moses, crying: "NO! THOROUGHBRED!"
Me: "I told him it was a thoroughbred because I didn't know how to pronounce Selle Francais."
Joe: "Ok, you're right, Moses, it's a thoroughbred."

Moses: "Let's pray."
Me: "But we already prayed. We can go ahead and eat."
Moses: "No, we need to pray again!"
Me: "Why?"
Moses: "My food is still too hot!"

"Daddy, first you need to move the snowman mug, and then you can get your cup out." -Moses, directing Joe on the best way to take a particular cup out of the cupboard.

"Mommy, I just washing my hands because I touched the bunnies. I washing Thomas, too. He is so clean now, shall you feel him?" -Moses

Photos and Weapons in Heaven

2011-09-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

The following conversation took place today at breakfast:

Caleb: "When we get to Heaven, I will stand next to Caleb and Mommy will take a picture of me, ok, Mommy?"
Moses: "And I will stand next to Aaron!"
Me: "But remember, I won't have my camera because we can't take stuff with us to Heaven. We can only take our souls."
Joshua, excitedly: "Our swords?!"
Me: "No, you know... Our spirits."
Joshua, even more excited: "Our spears?!"

Shall

2011-09-02T07:18:00.000-07:00

These days, Moses prefaces most of his suggestions and requests with "shall." I'm not sure where he picked it up, but it's kind of endearing. Here are a few examples:

Moses: "Mommy, shall you get some unna-wears for me? I naked."
Me: "OK, I'll get you some underwear."
Moses: "But no pantses. Only unna-wears, ok?"

Moses: "Mommy, shall I have some honey on my bread?"
Me: "No, you already have jam. You don't need honey, too."
Moses: "But jam is not my best friend. I need some honey, ok?"

Moses: "Are those birds bad guys?"
Me: "I guess so."
Moses: "Shall we shoot them?"

Wary Wipers

2011-08-26T10:47:00.001-07:00

We have been having the hardest time trying to convince the twins to wipe their own butts after they poop. With Kindergarten starting in less than a week, I am seriously concerned about their refusal to perform this simple task of personal hygiene. Moses, on the other hand, has attempted to wipe his own butt after pooping ever since I started harping on the twins, and after a failed first attempt that ended with a mound of non-flushable wipes in the toilet, he was actually semi-successful during yesterday's attempt. I admire Moses' willingness to at least try it, unlike his older brothers who are often so averse to trying new things, especially those that require them to become more self sufficient. They argue that they simply will never poop at Kindergarten, but I don't think they understand that they'll be at school, away from their butt-wiper of choice, for seven hours a day. Sometimes I feel like we're potty training all over again.

Unrelated but recently overheard:

Joshua, while putting together the United States puzzle: "Moses! You're messing up the 'Nited States. Why? WHY?"
Me: *Giggle*
Joshua, angrily: "Mommy! What's so funny?!"

Moses: "Mommy! Look at the geese!"
Me: "Where? That's not a goose. That's a pigeon."
Moses: "No! It's a GEESE!"
Me: "No, it's a pigeon. Come on, we need to go."
Moses, in a fit of rage: "NOOOO!"
Me: "Ok, it's a geese. Now let's just go."
Moses, calmly: "That's right. It's a geese. You only call it a geese, okay?"

Moses is 2.5 and Blueberry Escapes

2011-08-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

Moses turned 2 and a half years old a few days ago while we were on vacation at the lake. When we asked him what he wanted for his half-birthday, he told us he wanted a candle and to have everyone sing to him. Since the actual celebration took place when we got home on my half birthday, Moses insisted that we light the candle for Mommy and have everyone sing to me, too. Caleb and Joshua hated this sort of attention when they were about Moses' age. I still remember Caleb running out of the room in terror when we started singing to him on his 3rd birthday. It's really funny to see how different these kids are.

Yesterday our big 2.5-year-old decided that he was going to start peeing in the potty without anyone's help. Moses took off his pants and underwear, lifted the toilet seat, peed, flushed, and washed his hands all by himself, not telling me what he'd done until after the fact. In effect, he is even more independent than his big brothers, who still insist that the bathrooms in our house are "scary" and always want to be escorted when doing their business. The only thing Moses needed help with was putting his underwear and shorts back on, but considering how much he likes being naked, he probably had little motivation to do so.

While on this topic, I might as well mention that Caleb is finally staying dry through the night. He went about 2-3 weeks without peeing in his Underjams, waking up to pee in the middle of the night a couple times. So he's been wearing underwear to bed ever since we got home from the lake, finally joining his twin brother who's been night-trained for well over a year now. As for Moses, even though he was waking to pee for a while, I decided to just put him in a diaper at bedtime so that I could get a good night's sleep. Hopefully he'll be able to re-learn to wake up when he has to pee when he's a little older and his bladder is a little bigger.

In other news, it looks like we've got an escape artist on our hands. Joe woke me up this morning to tell me that Blueberry, the white bunny, was outside on the sidewalk in front of our house! I decided to move the bunnies out onto the deck last night to put an end to the havoc they were wreaking on the porch. The astro turf carpet (which was honestly kind of gross to begin with) is now stained beyond repair, and in the past week or so, the bunnies have started gnawing away at the wood beams supporting the porch, as well as the door frames. Anyway, Blueberry must have jumped off the deck onto the ground, at least 8 or 9 feet below. He seems fine, and I am honestly amazed that he survived such a long fall. He started thumping angrily when I caught him and put him back on the porch. Thankfully, Cocoa had enough sense to stay on the porch, especially since it would have been much more difficult to spot a brown rabbit in the wild than a white one. While I'm tempted to lock them in the cage at night from now on for their own safety, part of me thinks that we should let the bunnies abide by the New Hampshire state motto, "live free or die".

Little Soliders

2011-08-12T13:55:00.000-07:00

Overheard in our house over the past few days:

Me: "Look, Moses. The banana turns brown when you put it in the refrigerator."
Moses: "Like I turned brown!"

All three boys in unison: "Oh, I love Joseph of Arimathea!"

Joshua: "Oh, I love Jesus! I really just do love Jesus! He is my favorite man."

Moses: "I'm going to ride a horse and kill Indians with my sword. George Washington did that. He was a very, very good man."

That last quote was inspired by a recent visit to Mount Vernon with Mimi and Papa which included a movie that featured George Washington fighting in the French and Indian War. Mimi tried to shield Moses' eyes during the more graphic battle scenes, but he persistently evaded her and was completely entranced by the images of war, as were Caleb and Joshua. Ever since Joe came home with "hard swords" from the Variety Store, the boys have been proudly walking around with swords and sheaths stuck down their underwear or secured in makeshift belts made with Daddy's old neckties. They all like to sing the song, "I'm in the Lord's army, yes sir!" and Joshua has declared that he is going to be a solider when he grows up. Today when we were driving around Fort Belvoir he excitedly pointed out all the soldiers he saw walking around in uniform. His loud voice certainly would make him a pretty good drill sergeant!

Twins' First Trip to the Dentist

2011-08-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

The twins had their first visit to the dentist last month. They were perfect angels and the dentist marveled at how cooperative they were while having their teeth examined and cleaned. He said they were the most laid-back kids he's ever worked on. When we went to have their cavities drilled and filled a couple weeks later, the dentist didn't need to use any anesthesia because the boys remained perfectly still the entire time, especially Caleb. I think the dentist was a little irritated that Joshua kept demanding, "Make it smoother! Make it smoother!" when he was polishing the filling, and said that he thought Joshua was destined to be a lawyer. I guess we can just add that the list of Joshua's career possibilities.

Ironically, one of the reasons I waited so long to take the twins to the dentist was because I imagined it'd be a total nightmare complete with screaming and handcuffs. I do think that their first visit to the dentist wouldn't have panned out nearly as well if I'd tried taking them when they were younger. Now that their receptive language skills have drastically improved, I was able to talk to them about the dentist ahead of time and make it sound like a wonderfully fun and exciting place, which they certainly thought it was.

The twins seemed to realize that their hygienists were a captive audience and didn't hesitate to talk up a storm before and after having their cavities filled. From the waiting room, I could hear them talking about Noah's Ark, Jesus, The Three Stooges, and a whole host of other topics. Afterwards, Caleb's hygienist asked me how old the twins are and was surprised when I told her that they are only five. She said she thought Caleb talked really well for a 5-year-old and couldn't believe it when I told her that they both had to attend a special ed preschool for speech and language. I guess they have made a lot of progress in the past couple years!

French Fry Beaver House & Becoming a Man on Sunday

2011-08-04T14:14:00.001-07:00

Joe: "See you later, Joshua, I have to go to work now."
Joshua: "On Sunday I will become a man and then I will go to work."

Moses, handing me the artificially blue popsicle that he was so sure he would enjoy: "It's nasty."

Moses: "Mommy, stop. That's enough talking on the iPhone!"

Joshua: "When Moses gets a little older, then he will flap his hands."
Me: "No, Moses doesn't flap his hands, but you've been flapping since you were a baby."
Moses: "No! After I become a big kid, then I can flap my hands."

Me: "Good morning, Moses!"
Moses: "What are my brothers doing?"
(He is really going to miss them when they start school next month...)

Caleb and Joshua, singing to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me": "Yes, Cocoa loves me, yes Cocoa loves me..."

Moses, referring to a pile of french fries: "It's like a beaver's house. It's like sticks."

Moses: "I don't want a hot dog. I want carrots and hummus."

Caleb: "You can pray to God and and Caleb and Joshua..."
Joshua: "No! You can only pray to God."

Beautiful Kindergarten

2011-08-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to registering Caleb and Joshua for Kindergarten this morning. The twins were apprehensive upon arrival, but began to warm up when they saw the big owl mural in the hallway and the portrait of George Washington in the office.

While we were in the office getting paperwork sorted out, Moses kept pointing to a sign in the hallway featuring the various sponsors of "Invention Camp" which was being held at the school. I didn't know what Moses was getting so excited about until we were on our way out of the building and he ran up to the sign, pointed to it, and said, "See, it's like at Daddy's work!" Sure enough, it was a black and white version of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office logo! I was pretty impressed that Moses recognized it.

On our way out to the car, I asked Joshua, "See, isn't kindergarten a nice place?" to which he replied, "Yes, I know it is beautiful, but I still don't like it." Hopefully he will change his mind once school starts next month. Meanwhile, the following conversation makes me think that Moses might enjoy a reprieve from his brothers' constant company (although in reality I know he is going to miss them terribly):

Moses: "How 'bout you stay here and I go upstairs and find my brothers."
Me: "What are you going to do when you find your brothers?"
Moses: "Scare them and hit them."

Introducing Cocoa and Blueberry

2011-07-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, a teacher at the boys' preschool emailed me and asked if we'd be interested in adopting a bunny. Every Summer, Tauxemont brings in several baby bunnies, kittens, and other animals for its camp program, then needs to find homes for them after camp is over. I agreed to come check them out, and by the time we got there, a white "lion head" and a brown "mini rex", both 3 months old, were still available.

Brownie perfectly fit my mental image of what a proper cute bunny should look like, while Frankie struck me as an unkempt anomaly with his wild white mane. It didn't help that I've never really cared for white rabbits. Mrs. Matthews told me that Frankie was more sociable since the campers requested to hold him more often than the other animals, and that he was further along towards being litter box trained. Two points for white. A few of the campers informed me that Brownie bites. Minus one point for brown. So despite love-at-first-sight with the brown bunny, and Moses' insistence that we "get a brown bunny because I am brown", I decided that the white bunny would be the more prudent choice. I committed to picking Frankie up when we got back from our weekend out of town.

When we went to take delivery of our new bunny, we found out that Brownie was still in need of a home. Once again, I found myself torn between the funny-looking white bunny and the beautiful brown one. Mrs. Matthews sensed my indecision and told me that we'd be welcome to take them both home for a trial run and then decide which one we'd like to keep. Perfect! We loaded them up in Pinky's old cage and took them home. Mrs. Bradley remarked that she'd never seen Caleb, Joshua, and Moses so happy to be leaving Tauxemont.

Once home, it became difficult to imagine giving up either of the bunnies. They snuggled each other, groomed each other, and the boys were simply ecstatic to play with them both. Being the indecisive person I am, I decided to poll my Facebook friends to see which one they thought we should keep, and almost everyone who weighed in cast their vote for the white bunny. But by this point, the thought of sending away the brown bunny was unfathomable. There were smiles all around when Daddy gave his consent to keep them both.

The first order of business was to decide on new names for our new bunnies. For the longest time, Caleb had been set on naming our next pet "Cranberry." You might recall that he had wanted to re-name Pinky, "Cranberry," but it never launched. More recently he'd told me he wanted a dog named Cranberry. So of course, he suggested we name one of the rabbits "Cranberry," which actually would have been rather appropriate for the white bunny if it had had the misfortune of being born with red eyes. But since good genetics had blessed him with blue eyes, I suggested that we name him "Blueberry" instead. Caleb thought it was a great idea, and the name has stuck ever since, although we occasionally slip and call him "Frankie," but usually only if he is being naughty.

As for the brown bunny, the boys thought that Brownie was a cute name, but that "Chocolate" would be even better. Seeing that "Chocolate" seemed like kind of a mouthful, I suggested a truncated alternative--one of the boys' favorite cold weather treats--"Cocoa". The boys all agreed that it was a good choice, and Cocoa he has been.

We have given Cocoa and Blueberry free reign of our screened-in porch and keep the ceiling fan on to make sure they stay cool during this heatwave. They are not litter-box trained, although over the past few days they have been gradually started to limit their pooping and peeing to one-fourth of the porch. I guess it could be worse, and hopefully over time they will learn to hone in on their litter box exclusively. Maybe then we'll even be able to let them roam around the house, especially since Blueberry has already managed to sneak into the house several times. Until then, I've been giving the vacuum a good work-out, and I've enlisted the twins to use the dustpan to sweep up the copious little round pellets.

Interestingly, all three boys have declared that Cocoa is their favorite, and Cocoa has warmed up to us more quickly than Blueberry has, in contradiction to what the teachers and kids at camp had told us. I guess we never have been ones to just go with the flow. Seeing how well the boys have bonded with Cocoa makes me especially glad that we decided to adopt him, too. Both bunnies are still slightly nervous around the boys, especially Moses, who is still learning how to be gentle. But when I go out on the porch by myself without the boys, both bunnies come hopping up to me for a snuggle and a pet. I don't think you could ask for sweeter pets than bunnies.

And now, a few unrelated quotes:

Caleb: "Mommy, can I read a book with you? I just really love you all the time!"

Joshua, flattening Cocoa's ears against his head: "Cocoa looks like a beaver!"

Moses: "Mom, babies have guns?"
Me: "No."
Moses: "Only just soldiers have guns."

Joe, listening to music: "Joshua, do you like this song?"
Joshua, after a thoughtful pause: "No, I don't like this song because it's not about God. I only like songs that are about God and Jesus."

Farmer Joshua

2011-07-13T19:45:00.000-07:00

It's been really cute to see how excited the boys have been about our garden this Summer. Last year I hastily planted an in-ground garden in the back corner of our yard, and while the boys helped me water it occasionally, it didn't hold their interest quite as much because the plants didn't yield much fruit, and it wasn't in the area of the yard where they normally play. In light of last Summer's meager harvest, I decided to switch gears and give container gardening a try. It seems silly since we have such a huge yard, but being able to keep all of the plants in pots on the deck by the pool has made tending and watering more convenient, and in-between dips in the pool, the boys like to monitor their growth. Granted, the plants probably drank a little more chlorinated water than they would have otherwise!

Moses loves to pick cherry tomatoes and eat them straight off the plant. Not a single cherry tomato has made its way inside of our house all Summer, and they usually don't even get a chance to fully turn red before Moses plucks them. Joshua is our avid cucumber harvester. Every morning he wakes up and asks if we can go check on them, and gets very excited when a cucumber is ready to be picked. I think he takes after his Papa, who has always been an avid vegetable gardener. Since cucumbers are our most prolific crop, the boys have been eating a lot of them lately. Caleb still insists that he doesn't like the taste and pinches his nose while eating them, which has prompted Moses, who actually likes cucumbers, to do the same. The funny thing is that Moses doesn't hold his nose tight enough to have any effect on his ability to taste.

Yesterday we picked our first bell peppers, which Joshua decided that we should use as a pizza topping. When we picked our first zucchini, the boys were so excited to help me make zucchini bread. I'm so glad that they have this opportunity to grow and eat their own food.

And a few unrelated quotes:

Me: "If we get a pet bunny, what color would you want it to be?"
Moses: "Brown."
Me: "Why?"
Moses: "Because I am brown."

Moses: "Mom, I need more salad. And more Catawina dressing."

Joshua, observing my messy hair: "Mommy, you look like a porcupine."
Moses: "You look like a squirrel."

Moses: "I don't need mama anymore." (That's right, Moses is officially no longer drinking "mama" as of last week! Of course it took me a while to convince him that he didn't need it anymore.)

King of Jericho or Caiaphas? Tiger or Lion?

2011-07-13T14:48:00.000-07:00

Lately Moses has been going through an argumentative phase. For example, today we were reading the story about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the boys' children's Bible. Moses pointed to an illustration of the king of Jericho and said, "That's Caiaphas." I corrected him and said, "No, Caiaphas was the high priest in the days of Jesus. That's the king of Jericho," but Moses stubbornly insisted, "No! That's Caiaphas!" And so we argued back and forth until I finally gave up. Whatever.

For the past couple days, Moses had been carrying around a toy tiger and calling it a "lion". I repeatedly told him, "Moses, that's not a lion. That's a tiger," to which he always retorted, "No! It a lion!" Then, when we were checking out at Trader Joe's today, the cashier asked him, "What kind of animal do you have there?" Moses paused, carefully averted his eyes away from me, and told the cashier that it was a tiger. So, just when I was beginning to wonder if he honestly believed the misconceptions he has been so fond of arguing in favor of, he showed me that he really just likes to give his mommy a hard time.

Sister or Dog? Gogi or Hot Dog? In-Utero iPhone Playing?

2011-07-09T15:31:00.001-07:00

Our boys say some pretty crazy things. And they have a remarkable memory... mostly accurate, but occasionally extremely inaccurate!

Joshua: "Mommy, you look kind of like an old mommy."

Moses, observing Joe wearing a scarf on his head: "Daddy, you look like a Christian."

Moses, looking at a coupon for Oreo look-alike cookies, and remembering the time Uncle Chris babysat him about 9 months ago: "Remember, Uncle Chris give me these?"

Moses, pointing to a bank that he went to with Mimi over 6 months ago: "Remember, I go there with Mimi?"

Me: "Moses, do you promise not to tell your brothers that I gave you Chick-fil-a?"
Moses, grinning: "Yes."
Me: "Really, Moses, do you promise?"
Moses, still grinning: "No..."

Joshua, almost every morning for the past 3 weeks: "C'mon, Mommy! Let's go check on the cucumbers!"

Joshua: "Mommy, do you have a baby in your belly?"
Me: "Um, no."
Joshua: "How 'bout you get one in there?"
Caleb: "Maybe a girl this time."
Joshua: "Yeah, I want a sister."
Caleb: "And a dog, too."
Me: "Which one do you want more- a baby sister or a dog?"
Joshua: "A cat."

Caleb: "There's another Caleb in my class at Vacation Bible School!"
Joshua: "And another Joshua! But not the Joshua in the Bible. It's another Joshua. He doesn't have a sword."

Joe: "What do you like more- gogi or hot dogs?"
Joshua: "Hmmm... gogi. And rice."
Me: "Awww, good answer!"

Joshua: "Remember when I was a little baby and I was in your belly?"
Me: "Of course! You and Caleb were both in my belly at the same time."
Moses: "Remember when I was a little baby in your belly and I played your iPhone?"
Me: "Um, no..."

Moses, prefacing each acquisition of my iPhone: "Look, Mommy. I show you something."

Moses, shaking a finger at me every time he sits on the potty to poop: "But remember, don't wipe my butt, okay?"

All Those White Kids

2011-07-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I took the boys to the doctor to have him fill out their school medical forms. While we were there, the doctor did a quick check-up on all three boys. Caleb is in the 50th %tile for height at 3'8" and is in the 60th for weight at 46 lbs. Joshua is in the 60th %tile for height at 3'9" and is in the 80th %tile for weight at 50.5 lbs. Moses is in the 60th %tile for height at 3'1" and the 75th %tile for weight at 31.5 lbs. I was pretty surprised to learn that Moses is in the upper percentiles for weight, despite not being unusually tall, since he looks so skinny. I guess it must be all those swimming muscles he's put on recently!

I just need to get a couple more forms filled out and I'll be ready to register the twins for Kindergarten, something I probably should've done a few months ago. I guess I'm just not in a huge hurry to ship my boys off to public school. It doesn't help that Joshua keeps telling me that he doesn't want to go to Kindergarten and that he thinks the other kids won't play with him. After he attended orientation, he told me, "I don't want to go to Kindergarten with all those white kids." I am still trying to figure out where he heard that, although it's quite possible that he genuinely made this observation on his own. True, the elementary school he'll be attending is notoriously homogenous (or at least much more so than his current circle of friends) but it really surprised me that my self-proclaimed "white" son would say that he didn't want to go to school with "all those white kids!"

Tale of Two Missing Teeth

2011-06-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

Caleb lost his first two teeth today! The first one fell out while he was swimming, and my efforts to don goggles and scour the bottom of the pool were all in vain. The second one fell out later that evening while he was eating dinner, and when we couldn't find it, we figured it must've found a new home in Caleb's digestive tract. Thankfully, Babo later discovered it stuck to the bottom of his foot while he was walking through the dining room. So at least we have one of Caleb's first baby teeth, but the very first one is most likely forever lost in our pool's filtration system.

Meanwhile, Joshua's first two adult teeth are growing in nice and straight despite having made their debut while his baby teeth were still occupying their space. I'm trusting that the boys will inherit their mommy's good teeth genes and never need to pay any visits to the orthodontist, either!

PM Pottying: Progress or Pain?

2011-06-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

For the past two nights, Moses has woken up in the middle of the night to use the potty. Last night, he woke up to go four times! Each time, I said, "Moses, you can just pee in your diaper", to which he adamantly replied, "No!" as if he found the mere suggestion insulting. And then of course he refused to put his diaper (or even underwear) back on afterwards. While I am proud that he's doing so well, I can't help but wonder if I've created a monster. Before Moses was potty trained, at least I could count on a good night's sleep every night!

A few quotes:

Me: "Moses, do you want watermelon or strawberries for breakfast?"
Moses, probably remembering all the watermelon I force-fed him during potty-training: "Strawberry. I don't want watermelon because I don't want go pee."

Moses: "Hey Caleb, I pooped!"
Caleb: "Oh wow, good job, baby!"
Moses: "And I peed, too!"
Caleb: "Wow, Moses, you're really growing up!"

Joshua, not yet cognizant of double negatives: "Jesus is never not a ghost. Jesus is never not a witch. He is a good man."

Joshua: "I bet Jesus has a sword."
Caleb: "Hmm, probably! A sword to get the bad guys."

Good Sports & Spiders

2011-06-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we hosted the T-Ball Rockies end-of-season party at our house. Coach Brian gave each player a certificate and a trophy, accompanied by a superlative such as "Most Consistent", "Most Improved", “Most Athletic”, or “Best Hitter”. Not surprisingly, Caleb and Joshua didn’t win any of those titles. As Coach Brian presented the twins their awards, he noted that he could always count on them to greet him with a friendly, "Hi Coach Brian!” and after each game and practice, they always said, “Thank you Coach Brian! Bye, Coach Brian!" Therefore he granted them both the "Best Sportsmanship" award. I don’t think any other award could have made a mom prouder, and it was cute to see how genuinely excited the boys were to receive their first trophies. I suspect that they would have been much more enthusiastic about playing T-Ball at the beginning of the season had they known they’d be getting trophies engraved with their names when all was said and done!

Now that preschool is over, I'm adjusting to having all three boys with me all the time. There were a few weeks after Tauxemont Preschool ended, but before Joshua's special ed preschool concluded, where I'd have several afternoons each week with just Caleb and Moses. It's amazing how much more peaceful things were with just two boys instead of three. Trips to the grocery store were a breeze and playtime at home was peaceful and much quieter than usual. It's not that I think Joshua is any more disobedient or more of an instigator than the other two; the dynamics just seem to change when you don’t have an even number of children. You'll inevitably end up with an odd man out. In our house, it’s usually Moses and one of the twins versus the other twin, and it usually begins when the twins pick a fight with each other and Moses chooses sides. It’s actually kind of funny to see how the twins will pander to little Moses to try to convince him to be on their side. I've heard it said that the only way to remedy this situation is to have another child to even out the playing field. I'm not so sure about that solution!

In other news, Moses continues to swim like a champ. The funny thing is that he’s more interested in showing off his swimming skills to Caleb and Joshua than he is to me and Joe. Instead of pestering mom and dad for attention, he’s always saying, “Caleb, watch me!” or “Joshua, look at me!” I think it’s just his way of trying to prove to them that he’s one of the big boys. When we ask Moses how old he is, he tells us that he’s 5 years old. He also tells us that he has loose teeth, just like the twins. In Moses’ mind, he and his big brothers might as well be triplets.

Moses is also doing a great job using the potty. After several night-time accidents, we’ve gone back to having him wear a diaper at night (against his will, of course), but he’s definitely diaper-free during the day. We bought some brand new underwear just for Moses, since the hand-me-downs he’d been wearing were all stretched out, his brothers’ bums being significantly more rotund than his own! He seems to be pretty proud of his new under-duds.

And now, a taste of what we’ve been hearing around our house lately:

Joshua and Caleb have developed a habit of saying “Eew Spiders!” at random times during the day. I don’t know for sure, but I’ve deduced that they say this in response to something that looks kind of freaky, gives them the shivers, or simply is not as it should be--usually something with lots of little cracks or lines remotely resembling spider legs. I've heard them say “Eew Spiders!” in response to a wide range of things from lightning bolts to crumbling bread to hair. It's just one of those weird twin things that makes no sense to anyone other than themselves.

Caleb, admiring my new lip gloss: "Ooh, Mommy, I like your red lips."
Joshua, skeptical: "Mommy, you look like a different woman."

Joshua: "My staff doesn't work. It doesn't turn into a snake and it doesn't part the waters. I wish I could have Moses' staff. His staff was really, really cool."

Moses, while eating salsa and chips: "This is very spicy but I keep loving it. It my favorite!"

Joshua: "Are Hawaii and Hawai-oh twins?"
Joe: "You mean Hawaii and Ohio?"
Joshua: "Yeah."
Joe: "No, they're actually very different states."

Moses, while observing the plants in our vegetable garden: "When the zucchini turns red, then we can eat it!"
Me: "No, Moses, the zucchini is not going to turn red. Only the tomatoes will turn red."
Moses: "No! He did turn red!"

Our Two-Year-Old Sea Turtle

2011-06-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Moses started swimming with his face in the water while wearing his robot vest (his bulky Speedo floatation vest, which he thinks makes him look like a robot). He told me, "Look, Mom, I'm swimming like a turtle!" Indeed, his robot vest did somewhat resemble a turtle shell. I was pretty impressed and took a video of him "swimming like a turtle".

Then, this afternoon Moses got out of the pool and asked me to take off his robot vest. He requested that I get in the "baby pool" (the non-heated hot tub which is 3 times deeper than your average baby pool) with him, and he stood on the step and told me to go to the other side. Moses then plunged into the deeper waters, and I naturally reached out to catch him. This act of motherly propriety was met with a vehement protest. "No, Mom, don't catch me!" he ordered. "But I need to catch you! You can't swim!" I replied. "No! Don't catch me!" he angrily reiterated.

After several more attempts in which I dutifully ignored Moses' adamant demands to not rescue him while he flung himself into the depths of the hot tub, I finally obliged. I figured I would let him find out for himself that he couldn't swim without my help. Well, was I ever proven wrong! Moses in fact swam across the deep part of the hot tub right into my arms. I was so amazed; it was surreal. He proceeded to swim back and forth again and again, then went down to touch the bottom of the tub with his feet several times, too. Previously, Moses would ask me to dunk him so he could touch the bottom of the pool, since he was unable to do so while wearing his bouyant robot vest.

Next, I suggested he try out his new swimming skills in the "big pool" and he did just as well. Moses covered even longer distances than the diameter of the hot tub, completely unassisted with his face underwater (I was crouched at the edge of the pool capturing the magic on video). He kept proclaiming "I'm so brave!" and beamed with pride as he swam sans floatation device in deep water.

I am completely amazed that Moses figured out how to swim all by himself in just a couple weeks. Our pool has been open for less than a month, and while the husky twins braved the frigid waters from opening day onward, skinny Moses was reluctant to get his feet wet until after the Memorial Day holiday ushered in warmer temperatures. I never even expected that he would learn to swim this Summer, let alone before Summer officially even begins, and before he's even two and a half years old (just for the record, he's 2 years and 3 months). The twins learned to swim when they were 3 and a half, and I thought that was pretty impressive.

I guess this is just another example of Moses' determination to be "one of the boys". Never mind that he is over 3 years younger than his older brothers. If he sees the twins doing something, he won't quit until he can do it, too.

My Favorite

2011-06-06T16:09:00.001-07:00

This afternoon Mimi stopped by for a quick visit and brought a bag of kettle corn for the boys. Moses picked it up and walked it over to Joshua, saying "I give it to Joshua because popcorn is his favorite." Curious to see if Moses really knew what it meant to have something be your favorite, Mimi asked, "What is your favorite, Moses?"

Moses replied, "Ohhhh, I don't know... Maybe... Broccoli!" And thus we knew that he really does understand the meaning of "favorite" :)

P.S. I can confidently say that Moses indeed is fully potty trained! He's been pooping on the potty like a pro, and has even been sleeping at night without a diaper, accident-free!

First Lost Tooth & Potty Training Superstar

2011-06-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Moses is basically fully potty trained! He's even figured out #2 a lot sooner than I expected. He hasn't had a poop accident since last weekend, and at night his diaper has been dry all but once in the past week. He even stayed dry during the 3.5-hour car rides to and from Virginia Beach last weekend. We put him in a diaper on the drive down last Saturday as a precautionary measure, but Moses insisted on taking it off mid-trip. We drove nonstop without any pit stops, and when he needed to pee, he did so in a bottle while still buckled into his car seat. Moses also knows to get out of the pool and pee in the grass, which is a huge bonus since I'm the one responsible for maintaining our pool's chemical balance this summer. I seriously can't imagine an easier potty training experience.

Joshua experienced a milestone of his own today when he lost his first baby tooth! He is the first of the twins to lose a tooth. It had been taunting us for a while, and since his first two adult teeth had already poked through, we were eager for him to lose it lest his new teeth grow in crooked. Instead of leaving a dollar or whatever is the going rate under his pillow, the Tooth Fairy a.k.a. Daddy gave Joshua a "real" gun, per his request. According to Joshua, it looks just like Gospel Bill's gun. And of course, as soon as Joshua and Daddy came home from the Variety Store with his new "real" gun, we promptly found ourselves back in the car to get "real" guns for Caleb and Moses, too. After coming home with "real" guns all around, Joshua said to Joe, "Daddy, let's take a nap. Then when we wake up, we'll go shoot some bad guys." Thankfully, Joshua's interest in guns is tempered by his interest in emulating great men of the Bible. After finding a new "staff" in the woods, he matter-of-factly told me--as if he had no doubt that it would actually work--"I'm going to take my staff and go try it out by the pool. I'm going to part the water."

By the way, I apparently I spend way too much time at Target, as evidenced by Moses' recent perception of a credit card's intended use. We got new credit cards in the mail so I gave the boys the old ones to play with.
Caleb: "What is that thing called?"
Me: "It's a credit card."
Moses: "No, that not credit card. That for Target!"

Diaper-Free Before Age Three--Wheee!

2011-05-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

Moses is not yet completely diaper-free, but we sure are close! Yesterday he started telling me when he needed to go pee, as opposed to me putting him on the potty every half-hour as a preventative measure, and most of the time he made it to the potty without having an accident. In fact, his only pee accident occurred on the bathroom floor, which he considerately took the initiative to wipe up himself. Moses has yet to intentionally poop on the potty, though, and I have a feeling this might come a little later, as it did with the twins. Case in point: yesterday Moses came running to me and said, "I need a napkin." As that all-too-familiar stench wafted up to my nose, I asked him why he needed a napkin, and he urgently reiterated his request. I gave him a napkin and then followed him out towards the porch, where he instructed me to stay at the door. "No, Mommy, you stay there. I will clean it. You stay there, ok?" I of course ignored his instructions, but I admire his independent nature and thought it was sweet that he had good intentions to clean it himself.

This afternoon, when it was time to take the twins to preschool, I felt confident enough to have Moses leave the house without a diaper, and sure enough, after we dropped his brothers off and got back to the car, Moses told me "I need to pee at Tauxemont". He had peed on the potty at Tauxemont for the first time on Monday, and I guess he wanted to do it again. Rather than walk back into the school, I rummaged through the trash heap that inevitably spawns on the floor of our car and had him pee in an empty Deer Park bottle. Moses was thoroughly amused by the novelty of this new waste receptacle. I then decided to go do some shopping in Old Town, so I put him in a diaper since I thought he might fall asleep while in the stroller. Of course he stayed awake for the duration of our outing, but while we were out and about he did tell me that he needed to go pee even though he was wearing a diaper. I told him to go ahead and pee in his diaper since we were nowhere near a bathroom. Then that evening, to cap off a day of profound potty progress, Moses peed at the potty standing up "like a big boy" for the first time. Needless to say, I am so impressed that our 2-year-and-3-month-old is almost diaper-free!

Turning Water into Blood & Reining in Mommy

2011-05-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our second annual pool opening. After the cover was removed and the water cleared, one of the first things Moses did was dramatically touch the tip of a stick into the pool water and boldly declare, "I turn the water [insert dramatic pause] into blood!" Suffice it to say, Moses has been watching the movie featuring his namesake quite a lot lately.

Today, as we were walking across the field after the twins' T-Ball practice, Moses grabbed at the two long drawstrings attached to my hoodie and said, "Let me hold the reins! You a horse, Mommy!" Where does he learn this stuff? Mind you, he's only 2 years and 3 months old. This kid is something else!

Celebrating Differences

2011-05-18T17:39:00.000-07:00

I know I've previously mentioned how different Moses is from the twins, but sometimes they're so different that it's hard to believe they're even related. And I'm not even talking about their physical appearances.

First off, Moses craves fruits and veggies, while the twins crave carbs. Last night I made oven-fried chicken, broccoli, rice, and corn on the cob for dinner. Joshua ate his meal in the following order: Rice, chicken, corn, broccoli. Moses ate his meal in the exact opposite order: broccoli, corn, chicken, rice. Then, Moses of course asked for second and third helpings of broccoli and corn.

The twins never expressed much interest in playing team sports and are only participating in their T-Ball league because I made the executive decision to sign them up without asking their opinion on the matter. The hope that they will get something tasty to eat afterwards is the light at the end of their T-Ball tunnel, and they tend to run faster to the car after their games than they do around the bases. In fact, Caleb refused to participate in their first game of the season, and instead sat on the sidelines crying and moping. The consequence of his behavior was that he stayed at home with me and ate salad for dinner while Joe took Joshua and Moses to Roy Roger's after the game. Needless to say, he has been participating in the games ever since then. I suspect that Moses will never need such coercion, as he regularly practices "hustling" around imaginary bases and hitting balls with his big foam bat. To the twins' credit, now that they've gotten the hang of the basic rules of the game, their game play has markedly improved. Joshua still moves more like a tortoise than a hare when he's rounding the bases, but who knows, maybe that's because there are no "outs" in T-Ball... or maybe it's because we don't greet him at each base with a forkful of macaroni and cheese... or maybe it's because T-Ball isn't played underwater. The other day Joshua told me he didn't want to play T-Ball, he just wanted to go swimming. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree after all.

Potty training Moses has been a breeze compared to the nightmarish experience of potty training the twins. The twins were ridiculously stubborn and for the longest time they screamed bloody murder whenever I put them on the toilet. Moses, on the other hand, has been happily sitting on the potty from the get-go. He fully understands what he's supposed to do and will try his best to muster a pee, but if he doesn't need to go, he simply tells me, "the pee is not coming out" and he gets down and tries again later. There's none of the stressful emotionally draining turmoil that characterized the twins' potty training ordeal. Yesterday Moses only had one accident all afternoon and evening, and he's over a year younger than the twins were when they finally potty trained. He's at the point now where if he begins to pee in his pants, he'll realize it and stop, come tell me, and finish the job on the toilet. So, he isn't fully trained, but I am confident that he will be much earlier than his brothers were.

Don't get me wrong, I love my twins and I've been delighted to see them learn and excel in matters of eternal significance. Their teacher recently looked me in the eye and told me how lucky I am to have such nice, sweet boys. I'm confident that luck had nothing to do with how well they've turned out, but never mind that. I'm just thankful that they were our firstborn and that we didn't know any better that a lot of what they put us through was simply ridiculous!

And now for a few quotes:

Moses: "Mommy, where is you in the Bible?"
Me: "I'm not in the Bible. Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and Joe are in the Bible, but not Katie."
Joshua: "Oh no, I'm so sorry, Mommy!"

Moses, after hearing the story of Jesus turning water into wine: "Me don't drink wine."

Moses: "I need to go inside get some water. I be careful, OK?"

Moses, while looking at a picture of his backside and being asked whose butt it is: "That's my butt!"

Joshua: "Daddy! If you eat Cheerios with milk it could make you a giant!"
To give you some context, a few days before we told Joshua that drinking lots of milk would make him grow big and tall like a giant. Now, Joshua is very concerned about becoming a giant like Goliath, has cut back on his own milk consumption, and has been encouraging others to do the same.

Guns and Swords and Slings, Oh My!

2011-05-12T11:03:00.000-07:00

The twins are 5 and a half! It's hard to believe they are going to "graduate" from preschool in two weeks and will begin Kindergarten in the Fall.

Lately, all three boys have become fascinated with weapons. For the longest time, we didn't have any toy guns and so they'd turn coat hangers, toy drills, and drinking straws into guns. Then they were given water guns as a birthday party favor, and most recently they acquired some foam swords. Moses' newest catch phrase is, "Stand back!" which he sternly utters while flourishing his weapon of choice with his feet planted far apart and his brow in a furrow. I have no idea where he learns this stuff! The twins like to hold their guns while riding in the car with the windows rolled down, keeping their eyes peeled for imaginary bad guys hiding in the trees or flying overhead.

The boys have also recently started playing "David and Goliath". They like to hold their swords upside down and pretend that it's David's sling, with the handle being the pouch that holds stone. In all of their weaponry play, they always want to be the "good guys", so they tend to fight over who gets to be David. They've become very interested in their children's Bible, and the twins can actually read many of the words by sounding them out. One of their favorite stories is "Joshua and the Spies" which begins: "After Moses died, Joshua became the leader of the Israelites". Without fail, Moses always interrupts and vehemently asserts, "Hey! I not died!" They also enjoy watching Hanna Barbera's "The Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible" movies, which I also watched when I was a child. The premise of this series is that a trio of modern-day archaeologists (Derek, Margo, and Moki) travel back in time to witness Bible stories unfold before their eyes. The other day, Joshua had the Bible open in his lap while he was watching one of these movies. After scouring the pages of the Bible, he sighed and said, "Derek and Moki are not in the Bible."

And now, a few quotes:

Moses: "I combing my hair. I a girl now."
Me: "No, you're still a boy. You'll always be a boy."
Moses: "Moses is a boy. Mommy is a girl."

Joshua: "I think we need to get a new car. This car is getting really, really old. I think we should get a Jeep."

Joshua: "Thank you, Mommy. You're being a really good girl for getting me a cookie."

Joshua: "He ate a lot of grass!"
Caleb: "She! Pinky is a she, Joshua."
Joshua: "Oh, you're right, I'm so sorry, Caleb. It was my fault. Pinky is a girl."

Milk and Gogi Burps

2011-05-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of quotes I've been collecting over the past couple months...

Moses, talking about Mario after a recent visit to Granny and Babo's house during which he watched Daddy play a lot of Mario: "Mommy, does Mario fly? Moses no fly. Only Mario fly. Is star Mario friend? Mario has moustache."

Moses, lamenting the contents of his new piggy bank: "I don't have nothing!"

Joshua: "I want to dream. When you dream, you get to have a cloud next to your head."

Caleb, while pulling my hair up: "Mommy, you look kind of like a goat."

Moses, while wearing Joe's eyeglasses: "I look like a woman."

Moses, while watching a movie about the Easter story: "I don't want the bad guys to get Jesus! I want Jesus to get the bad guys!"
Joshua: "Don't worry, baby, we will take care of the bad guys."

Moses, looking concerned: "Mommy, why is this door open?"
Me: "I opened it to let the smoke escape. Why, do you want to close it?"
Moses: "Yeah, because I don't want Daddy to go somewhere!"

Moses: "My leg got hurt. I want Mommy to kiss it."

Moses, announcing Mimi's arrival: "Mommy, your mom's here!"

Caleb, reading a street sign: "It's King Street!"
Moses: "Just like King Jesus!"

Joshua, while playing with his long uncut hair: "Oh no, am I going to turn into a girl?"

Joshua: "I burped! My burp smelled good because it had milk and gogi in it."

The Twins in Japan

2011-04-29T08:27:00.000-07:00

No, we are not going to Japan anytime soon, but I just received the following message in my YouTube inbox this morning:

Urgent Request from FujiTV Network(yumi-arima)

Dear an9elkatie,

My name is Yumi Arima writing from Fuji Television Network. We are the biggest nation-wide broadcasting network in Japan.
I am currently working on a program titled "Tokudane," which is a weekly morning show (Mon-Fri), owning hundreds of thousands of viewers. In our program, there is a segment introducing funny and/or astonishing videos from around the world. We are known as the biggest TV broadcaster which introduces such videos in Japan.

For its upcoming episode, we are very much interested in your video " Twin talk ", and we wish to have your permission that allows us to use your video on our morning show.
Please contact me　by replying this message or via my email:yumi.arima@with1.fujitv.co.jp

I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you very much.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Sincerely yours

Arima Yumi

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Fuji television network
Yumi Arima
Tell:+81-3-5500-8383
Fax:+81-3-5500-8068

So, if anyone who reads this happens to be in Japan this week, make sure to tune in to "Tokudane" and keep your eyes peeled for Caleb and Joshua in Twin Talk!

The Twins on TV

2011-04-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

On March 30th, Granny called to tell us that she'd just seen Caleb and Joshua on "Inside Edition" of TV. As it turns out, the TV show had aired a video of the twins that I'd posted on YouTube about 4 years ago. It's entitled "Twin Talk" and features 18-month-old Caleb and Joshua "talking" to each other in their own twin language. This all happened in the wake of another video of talking toddler twins that swept the web a couple days earlier. I knew something was up when I started receiving dozens of notifications every few hours that people had commented on this particular video. It wasn't until nearly a week later, however, that I noticed the following message in my YouTube inbox:

Interview Request

My name is Sarah Rubenstein and I work for the US television show Inside Edition. I'm very interested in interviewing you about your twins video of Caleb and Joshua playing and laughing together

Recently a video of twins has gone viral where it appears that the twins are talking to each other. It brings up the age-old question about whether twins have special communication skills between the two of them.

We are on a tight deadline and would need to conduct the interview at a satellite studio within the next four hours.

Please call or e-mail me to discuss further. I'm reachable at 212-817-5472 and at Srubenstein@cbs.com

Sincerely,
Sarah Rubenstein
Assignment Editor
Inside Edition
555 West 57th Street, Suite 1300
New York, NY 10019

Alas, I didn't even see this message til nearly a week past the 4-hour deadline! Oh well, I console myself with the fact that I've already earned over $100 in revenues from ads aired on "Twin Talk" and that the video has over 400,000 hits. I never would have imagined any of this when I posted this video for the enjoyment of a few family and friends four years ago. It just goes to show that you never know what you post on the internet might show up on TV and be seen by nearly half a million people a few years later!

Twins Triumphant on Two Wheels

2011-04-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

March was a big month for the twins. They reached a major milestone when they learned to ride their two-wheel bikes without training wheels. In fact, they never used training wheels at all. It only took them about 30 minutes to get the hang of riding two-wheelers, having already learned how to balance on their Mini Glider balance bikes. Caleb and Joshua learned to ride on the very same church parking lot where I used to practice riding my bike (and later, driving a car) in the days of yore. The boys caught on a lot more quickly than I did, though, and within a couple days of first learning to ride, they were already navigating the neighborhood sidewalks along the dozen or so blocks to Mimi and Papa's house. Moses felt left out whenever the twins departed on their bike rides, so I bought a second-hand Burley bike trailer on Craigslist, and now we can all ride together as a family. After his first ride in the trailer, Moses proudly told Mimi, "I ride in a cage!"

Wearing a Necklace like Katie Wolf

2011-03-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Moses has been 2 years old for exactly one month! And what better day to write an update on all the clever things he's been saying than on the holiday that celebrates one quarter of his ethnic heritage.

Moses, while holding up a cheese stick: "It like a one!"

Moses, suffering from his not-so-well-endowed rump: "Oh no! My pants falling down!"

Moses, holding up a partially-eaten cucumber slice: "Look what I made! It California!"
Moses, after taking another bite of the cucumber: "It Mexico!"

Moses, holding a large slice and a small slice of cucumber: "Look, it a baby one and a mommy one."

Moses, demonstrating an understanding of the spirit realm: "Mommy, I have a angel?"
Me: "Yes, that's right, you have a guardian angel."
Moses: "Gospel Bill have a angel?"
Me: "Yeah."
Moses: "Pillow no have a angel."
Me: "Yeah, that's right! Only people have angels."

Moses, while wearing Mardi Gras beads: "I wearing a necklace. I wearing a necklace like Katie Wolf!"

Lastly, we have a doormat by our front door that has four penguins waddling in a line. A large penguin leads the way with three smaller penguins following behind. Moses reminded me of Old Testament Joseph the other day when he pointed to two of the smaller penguins and said, "That Joshua and that Caleb," then pointed to the biggest penguin and said, "and that one Moses!"

Justin

2011-03-17T00:14:00.000-07:00

"No, Mommy! No give Cody Maverick to Justin! That not a good plan!"

This is what Moses said when I told Caleb and Joshua that I'd give away "Surf's Up" if they wouldn't stop asking me to watch it all the time. When the boys shirk their responsibilities or otherwise demonstrate that their priorities are not in order, I have found it useful to threaten to give their cherished possessions away to a boy named Justin. "Who is this Justin fellow?" you might ask.

Before Christmas, the boys and I put together a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. As I'm apt to do, I completely forgot about it until the night before it was due to be turned in at MOPS, so I had to stuff it full of little things that I already had in the house--things I'd bought ahead of time and had kept hidden to give the boys for Christmas. The boys were naturally upset that I was giving away Lightning McQueen socks, pens, clothes, and other goodies to some anonymous child on the other side of the world. Observing their lack of enthusiasm, it occurred to me that personalizing this nameless child might help stir up some empathy. So, I told the boys that this box of treats would be for a boy named Justin who is very poor and doesn't have any clothes, toys, Christmas trees, or possibly even any parents. With this in mind, the boys' hearts softened and they agreed to give away the fun little toys and accessories that I'd originally picked out with them in mind. To complete Justin's persona, Joshua wanted to know whether he is white or brown, and I told him I wasn't sure. Joshua said he thought that Justin is brown.

A couple months later, we received a newsletter from the charity that organizes Operation Christmas Child. After perusing all of the pictures in the newsletter, Joe found a photo of a little Haitian child happily clutching a shoebox and told the boys that the child was Justin. Upon closer inspection, I realized that "Justin" was carrying a "girl" shoebox and was probably actually a little girl. Oh well! So, despite having their moments of selfishness, I think the boys are looking forward to filling another box full of treats to send to Justin next Christmas.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Moses!

2011-02-28T21:50:00.000-08:00

February has been a whirlwind of a month. Papa, Moses, Sooja Emo, and I all celebrated our birthdays this month, with Moses' festivities being spread out over a span of several days involving a party with family, then another party with a few of his little boy friends, and then a much-anticipated trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. Moses even stuck a candle in his slice of cake and insisted that we sing to him at Sooja Emo's birthday party, a good two weeks after his own birthday had passed. Anyway, I think I will be quite content not to eat another bite of cake until Joe's birthday in June!

Here are a few samples of the pearls of wisdom that have been coming out of Moses' mouth in the days leading up to and shortly following his 2nd birthday. I keep a pad of paper in the kitchen so I can jot down the things he says before I forget. I probably seem to be a bit obsessive about this, but I'm just totally in awe of this verbally precocious child who is speaking better than his brothers did when they were nearly twice his age.

Moses, after I gave him a towel to dry his hands: Thank you giving me towel.

Moses, after I came home from movie night at a friend's house: I missed you, Mommy!

Moses: My birthday coming soon! I wanna go Chuck-E-Cheese my birthday!

Moses, telling me what theme he wanted for his birthday party. Are almost-2-year-olds even supposed to know that they can have a "themed" party? We granted his request with a Pooh cake and Pooh gifts at our family celebration: Mommy, I want a Pooh birthday.

Moses, stirring water in the turtle pool with a stick: I cooking dinner.
Me: What're you cooking?
Moses: I making cookies dinner!

Moses, seeing some children riding bikes down our street: Where those kids going?

Moses, in response to his brothers' request to let Pinky run around on the porch: No! Pinky can't go on porch. He could die!

Moses, while eating a clementine: Pinky no eat that orange.

Moses, while eating strawberry jam straight out of the jar: Mmm, jam. I eat it. Praise God!

Moses, at dinner: We need to pray.
Joe: Ok, let's pray.
Moses: No, wait til Mommy comes.
Joe: Ok, that's a good idea.
Moses, observing that Joshua has continued to eat while Joe prays: No, Joshua! No eat. Pray!

Moses: Oh no, my drink all gone!

Moses, while lining up three blueberries in a vertical row, like a snowman: Hey Mommy, I making a snowman.

Moses, upset about being excluded: Hey Mommy, Caleb not playing me.

And we'll end with a mealtime prayer from Caleb:
Caleb: Dear God, thank you for this roll and jam and Mommy and Daddy and Joshua and Moses and Mimi and Papa and Uncle Chris and Granny and Babo and Texas and Idaho and Kansas and Alabama and New Mexico and Hawaii and Ohio. Amen.

The School Dance

2011-02-28T18:16:00.000-08:00

This past month Caleb graduated out of his special ed preschool. His teacher, Ms. Jane, said she saw no need to keep him there any longer and that he'd better be served surrounded by stronger language models. Each special ed class has two "model students", but as is often the case, the two model students in Caleb's classroom were girls, and they didn't want to play with the boys. Thus, the special ed students--all boys, none with exemplary language skills--were usually left to engage in sup-par verbal communication amongst themselves.

When Caleb first started to attend this preschool, he refused to dance or sing. When his teacher finally told him it was a rule that "everyone in Ms. Jane's class must dance and sing", he decided that he didn't want to break the rules, so he started dancing and singing. Apparently Caleb has become quite a stickler for rules, and was always quick to tell his teacher if someone was doing something they weren't supposed to be doing (as he also does with his brothers at home!). Even so, his teacher told me that he still managed to remain very popular with his classmates. He must have won them over with his smooth moves, because Ms. Jane said that Caleb finished his tenure in her classroom as the craziest dancer of the bunch. She also said that when she told jokes, they would go over the other kids' heads and that Caleb was the only child in the class who would laugh. She said he needed to be with other children who could also "get" jokes. So, even though she has told me on numerous occasions that Caleb is a wonderful child and a joy to have in her class, it would be in his best interest to attend the community preschool full-time.

So now Joshua reluctantly boards the school bus all by himself three times a week. He is fond of his special ed preschool, but doesn't like the idea of Caleb having fun somewhere else without him. He still refuses to sing and dance at preschool, and even though his teacher has told me that he's the most talkative student in her class, he is being kept there a while longer in hopes that he'll come out of his shell (and hopefully straighten out a few pronouns along the way). Joshua of course wanted to know why Caleb doesn't go to this preschool any longer, and I told him it's because Caleb obeyed the rules and sang and danced when his teacher told him to.

When I picked Joshua up today, his teacher told me that he said, "I'm still here because I need to sing and dance," but still refused to do so. She added, "he is just so shy!" The ironic thing is that "shy" is one of the last words I would use to describe Joshua. He's loud, gregarious, and has no qualms about striking up conversations with complete strangers. As I type this, he is upstairs dancing (in other words, bouncing on the bed) with his brothers while Joe plays the electric guitar. But for whatever reason, he refuses to dance at school. Granted, he is a pretty stubborn kid and whenever he insists that he can't do something (zipping up his coat, buckling himself into his carseat, and writing his name are a few examples that come to mind), then eventually does it after days, weeks, or months of prodding, he breaks down in tears as if he's angry that we proved him wrong. Similarly, I have a feeling that he is too stubborn to admit that he really can dance at school. But then again, I was never much of a social dancer, either, so I guess I can't really blame him!

Twins' 5-Year Check-up

2011-02-13T18:57:00.001-08:00

A couple days after I took Moses to the doctor for his 2-year check-up, I took Caleb and Joshua in for their belated 5-year check-up. Joshua now weighs 47 lbs and is 44.5 inches tall, which puts him in the 80th and 75th percentiles, respectively. Caleb weighs a little less but is still above average at 44.5 lbs, which is in the 65th percentile. He is in the 50th percentile for height at 43 inches. I have no doubt that the slight disparity in size is due to the fact that Joshua eats faster than Caleb, and therefore usually ends up eating more. The twins participated in a vision test for the first time (the one with the variously oriented "E's") and did a great job, passing with flying colors. Praise God for healthy boys!

I talked to the doctor at length about the twins' previously diagnosed language delays, and after conversing with them for a while, he said that he thought they seemed like perfectly normal five-year-olds. I told him that Caleb has made a lot of progress and is soon going to be graduated out of his special ed preschool program, but that Joshua might need to stay longer (which is fine with Joshua, because lately he's been telling me that he'd rather go to his special ed preschool than his community preschool). Of course, Caleb responded to most of the doctor's questions by saying "I don't know" while Joshua chatted up a storm and intelligently answered questions thoughout the duration of the hour-long visit. I tell you, just when we think we have the twins pegged, they always switch things up!

Moses' 2-Year Stats & We Have Sweet Boys

2011-02-07T11:27:00.000-08:00

He won't be 2 for another 10 days, but today Moses went to the doctor for his 2-year-old check-up. He is 35 inches tall and weighs 28 lbs. 10 oz., which is in the 60th percentile for both categories. He checked out healthy in all areas. Thank God for good health!

In other news, our boys are really sweet. And I'm not just saying that. People, ranging from complete strangers to acquaintances to close friends keep reminding me of this fact. For example, our neighbor across the street recently told me, "Katie, you have the friendliest boys. They always make my day." Whenever the boys see this particular neighbor, they always wave to her and call out "Hi Mrs. D___!" Another example is when I took the boys on a crowded tour of the mansion at Mount Vernon late one afternoon and a tour guide told me, "You have such a nice family." Even though Moses would have rather been napping and the twins were nearly as tired, I guess they were still better-behaved than many of the children who pass through there. A third example is when a friend of mine who has two girls invited us over for dinner and told me, "I normally wouldn't invite a family with three boys over to our house, but your boys are so sweet, I know they won't be a problem." And lastly, the mother of one of the twins' classmates recently told me, "Your boys are so sweet. They are so polite and nice to everyone, and they always say 'Hi Mrs. G___!' when they see me." So there you have it, I'm not just making this stuff up. Now if only they could be sweet to each other 100% of the time, wouldn't that be nice?

And now for a few quotes:

Moses: "What that man doing?"
Me, taking a wild guess about which man he's referring to: "He's running."
Moses: "Umm, umm, umm... No, he not running. He riding a bike!"

Caleb: "Smile, Pinky!"
Joshua: "Caleb, Pinky can't smile because he's an animal."

Me: "It's Papa's birthday today, boys."
Caleb: "Yay! I love Papa! He's a nice man."

Joshua: "Today I'm going to be six years old and then I'll go to Kindergarten."
(We are still working on the concept of yesterday, today, next year, etc.)

Does Coffee Make You Fat?

2011-02-03T09:27:00.000-08:00

Moses, in tears because Joshua drank all of his water: "Joshua drink all my water! Joshua, you no drink all my water!"

Joe sings his original "Moses please don't scream" song.
Moses protests, "No! Don't sing that. I don't like that, Daddy."

Caleb, at the dinner table: "Mommy, you can't sleep while you are driving." For the record, I have never fallen asleep while driving. The "you" was a generality not specifically directed at me.

Moses, after stuffing a napkin in his mouth and then removing it: "You can't drink a napkin."

Joshua: "Mommy, I think you're getting really fat."
Me: "Oh really? Where am I getting fat?"
Caleb, while patting my hip: "In the hips, Mommy."

Moses, 23 months old, asking the most age-inappropriate question to date, after enjoying 2/3 of a grande coffee frappuccino: "[Does] coffee make you fat?"

Lately the boys have been obsessed with knowing which foods will make them fat. I knew we had to start being vigilant when Joshua told me that he no longer wanted to wear his jeans because they are too tight in the butt even though they still had plenty of length left in the leg. And no, they are not "skinny" jeans--they are relaxed fit! So when the boys wanted to know why they couldn't have a second bowl of cereal right before bedtime, I told them that eating too much cereal could make them get fat.

I'd read several years ago that cereal was possibly the most unhealthy "health" food on the market. I didn't think too much of it until I was pregnant with Moses and my blood sugar level registered unusually high at a prenatal visit which had been preceded by a breakfast of Special K Red Berries--a cereal marketed towards women who want to lose weight (which, needless to say, was not why I was eating it). My midwife (who is also a naturopathic doctor) went on to tell me that she suspects that breakfast cereal is largely responsible for America's obesity epidemic. And what would the twins eat morning, noon, and night, if I let them? Cereal. And we don't even buy "sugary" cereals. Even the "healthy" cereals such as Cheerios and Corn Flakes are loaded with sugar.

Anyway, ever since I talked to the twins about not going overboard with foods that could make them fat, they (and apparently now Moses, too) want to know whether or not each morsel they consume will make them fat. So if the boys tell you that you're getting fat, or if they tell you that what you're eating will make you get fat, you'll know not to take it personally!

Will You Play With Me?

2011-01-20T05:27:00.001-08:00

Joe: "Caleb, what do you want to be when you grow up?"
Caleb: "Oh, I don't know."
Joe: "Do you want to be the President of the United States?"
Caleb: "The United States? Sure! I want to be Texas!"
Joe: "You mean, you want to be governor of Texas?"
Caleb: "Yeah! And Joshua will be Idaho. And Moses will be Wisconsin."

"I'm mad at you, Mommy. I still love you, but I'm mad at you right now." --Caleb, after I somehow offended him.

"Will you play with me, Mommy?" --Caleb and Joshua say this all the time. I guess it's something they've picked up from the preschool social scene. They ask this in lieu of "will you forgive me?" when they know they've done something naughty and want to make sure that we're not going to hold it against them.

"I need my own gun. Where'd my own gun go?" --Moses, looking for the toy drill.

"I shoot a very naughty bad guy." --Moses, while holding his "own gun".

Cody Maverick & Curious George

2011-01-16T19:44:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more Moses quotes from the past couple days. Tomorrow he will be 23 months old!

"Mommy, I am awake." --Moses, after being carried downstairs in his Daddy's arms after a nap.

"I don't wanna finish my egg, alright? Ok, Mommy, can I have cold pizza?" --Moses, lobbying that I overlook his uneaten breakfast and let him proceed directly into lunch.

"I wanna close that door because it scary in there!" --Moses, explaining why he closed the door to the basement. In case you didn't notice, this is a 10-word-sentence! Just to give you some context, according to the "My Toddler This Week" email I received today, at around age 2 a child should be able to "form two- to four-word sentences" such as "Bird fly high."

"Cody Maverick splashes in the water, like Curious George." --Moses, drawing a connection between characters in a book and a movie. In Curious George, George tries to fly like a bird and falls into the ocean. Cody Maverick is the main character of Surf's Up, a movie about surfing penguins.

By the way, we first rented Surf's Up at the Red Box at Safeway a couple weeks ago and liked it so much that we bought a used copy on Ebay. The other day I could tell that Joshua was in deep contemplation, so I asked him what he was thinking about. "Mommy, I love the baby Cody Maverick," he replied (there is a touching scene in the movie that flashes back to when Cody was a baby). Anyway, it's a really cute movie. The Wolfs give it 5 stars!

Moses, 1 Month Shy of 2 Years

2011-01-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Moses won't be 23 months for another few days, but since he is taking a nap at home in bed for a change, I'm going to go ahead and post this now while I have the chance. These days he usually only naps if he falls asleep on our way home from running errands while Caleb and Joshua are in school, and he wakes up when I try to move him inside.

Moses, getting ready to hold Pinky: “See Mommy, it not scary.”
Moses, holding Pinky: “It scary! It scary!”

Moses, pointing to the whiskers in an illustration of a cat: “That cat has spiders.”

Moses, while eating sections of a clementine: “Look, it's a boat! Tchooo Tchooo!”

Moses, while using the Buzz Lightyear laptop that our friend Mr. Ray gave the boys for Christmas: “I checking my email.”

Moses, while pointing a toy drill at me as if it’s a gun: “Mommy, you a bad guy.”

Moses, while playing with a toy motorcycle: “I not ride motorcycle. Only man ride motorcycle.”

Moses, while rifling through my clothes drawers and pulling out my pink fleece pullover: “Mommy, can you wear it?” I asked him why he wanted me to wear it, and he smugly replied, “Because I want to.”

Moses, asserting his independence about a hundred times a day: “No, I do it!” This is a stark contrast to the twins who always wanted (and still occasionally want) us to do everything for them.

Moses: “I love Caleb. I love Joshua, too.”

Moses, on our way home from Sam's Club, reflecting on all the samples he enjoyed: "I had fun. Let's see, I eat chicken, and chocolate milk, and yogurt, and chicken, and chocolate milk."

Moses, while watching “The Phantom” episode of Gospel Bill: “It scary! Turn it off! I don't like it!”
Caleb, while turning off the TV for his little brother: “It's ok, Moses. Gospel Bill will get him. It's over, baby.”

New Pet for a New Year

2011-01-13T11:10:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday we got the boys their first pet, a guinea pig named Pinky that previously belonged to some friends from church. I honestly don’t know what possessed me to say, “Ok, we’ll try her out for a week, and if we’re not allergic, we’ll keep her.” Maybe it’s because lately the boys have been hounding me, “Can we have a cat in our home? Can we have a dog in our home?” and since I’m miserably allergic to cats and didn’t want the responsibility or cost of a pet that would ever require medical attention or grooming, I thought a guinea pig would be a fair compromise. I have a hard enough time remembering to take my own children to the doctor for their yearly check-ups (the twins' appointment is currently two months overdue), they have never been to the dentist, and it’s been over four years since I’ve had my hair cut in a professional establishment, so I couldn't fathom having to throw vet and grooming appointments into the mix.

When I agreed to take Pinky, I guess it didn’t occur to me that while guinea pigs may be more expendable than dogs, they still poop a lot and beg for food a lot. Pinky has far less shame than the demure rabbits I raised when I was a child, and will whine aggressively at us until we feed her. Thankfully, she seems to enjoy eating our discards (strawberry tops, carrot and cucumber peels, apple cores, and broccoli stalks). And since I’m apparently not allergic to her, and since the boys are so enamored with her, I have a feeling she is here to stay.

Unfortunately, I think her name is here to stay, too. We tried to encourage the boys to think of a new name for her, after all, “What was the name of your first pet?” is a common security question, and I was therefore concerned about the possible repercussions of a wussy name like “Pinky” haunting the boys for the rest of their lives. After some brainstorming, Joshua had settled on the name “Creed,” Caleb wanted to call her “Cranberry,” and Moses said he thought she should be named “Tigger.” But as soon as the original owners told the boys that her name was Pinky, they embraced it. Oh well. Now you will know how to hack into their online accounts twenty years from now.

22 Months Old at Christmastime

2010-12-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

Moses is 22 months old! He had a rather eventful 22-month-birthday, too. In the morning, he went sledding for the first time ever. He was initially terrified when I placed him on the sled and wouldn't stop screaming until I took him off, but after he watched his brothers gleefully glide down the hill in our backyard, he insisted on having a turn. Moses went down the hill head-first on his belly just like his brothers (I'm convinced that he thinks he's 5 years old, too) and loved every second of it. It never even occurred to us that our backyard would be good for sledding until it snowed, but it turns out that it's perfect! We are so thankful for our awesome backyard and the year-round outdoor fun that it affords our energetic little boys.

Later that day we went to Caleb and Joshua's school for their classes' Christmas parties. When we arrived at Caleb's class, Moses walked right on in and immediately made himself at home with the other children. He helped himself to a seat at the table and made a gingerbread house, and at circle time he sat in a chair and got up to dance to "Move It, Move It" with all the other children. The kids take turns dancing two at a time until everyone has had a turn, then they all dance together. Moses, however, got up to dance with each set of children, but took great care to return to his seat in between each session. He was the star of the show! Yesterday, when I dropped the boys off at preschool, he threw a fit and cried because he wanted to stay, too.

The Baby Center's "Your Child is 22 Months Old" email I received this week said that my child probably won't be able to jump with two feet or kick a ball for a couple more months. Moses has been doing both of these things for at least a couple months. He loves to play with balls and frequently asks me, "Wanna play soccer ball?" He is also growing like a weed. His 2T footie pajamas no longer fit because his feet are too big! Whenever we put them on, he quickly unzips himself and frees his feet from the captivity of the footies.

Moses continues to talk up a storm. By the way he talks, you'd think he had a good 4 or 5 Christmases under his belt. "Look at the snow man! Look at the Christmas lights! It no-ing! There baby Jesus! Can I have a candy cane?" A couple days ago while we were eating dinner, Moses grabbed his ears and pulled them so that they were sticking out and said, "I a reindeer!" He never ceases to amaze us with the things that he says. Here are a few more examples from the past few weeks:

One day last week Joshua came stumbling into our room first thing in the morning, as he is apt to do. "Do you want to sleep in mommys bed?" I asked him. "Yeah!" he replied eagerly. Moses, who had also just woken up, was quick to object. "No!" he protested, "Moses sleep in mommy's bed. Joshua no sleep in mommy's bed!"

Over the past few weeks, Moses has been smitten with my FONZ membership card. I guess it's hard for him to resist those cute pandas. Since it's expired, I've let Moses take ownership of it. The only problem with giving a 22-month-old a toy that's literally the size of a credit card is that he loses it all the time. The other day he was agonizing over not being able to find it, as usual. When he finally found it, he said, "Mommy, I found my panda bear card! Gimme five!"

One day last week, Moses was playing with a monkey Beanie Baby when the sun went behind some clouds. He said, "It dark! It dark, baby monkey." Then he turned to me and said, "Heh, heh, I talk baby monkey."

Yesterday I was driving around with the boys and Moses, for whatever reason, was being grumpy and unreasonable. Caleb scolded him, saying, "You're being a naughty boy, Moses." Moses snapped right back and said, "Don't say that me!"

Over the weekend, we were driving by our neighbor's house and Moses said, "Look at that orange car!" Sure enough, an orange car was parked in front on their house. Later that day, Moses asked me, "Where is the green Guido?" so I found the green Guido and gave it to him. "No!" he replied, as if exasperated with me, "where is the green Guido?" Suspecting my error, I found the blue Guido and gave it to him. "Oh, thank you, Mommy." I guess we'll keep working on those colors!

Can I Have a Gun? And a Sister?

2010-12-05T18:46:00.000-08:00

Recently overheard in the Wolf household...

Joshua: "Can I have a gun?"
Me: "Hmm, maybe you can have a gun when you're older."
Joshua: "Do you want a gun, Mommy?"
Me: "No, I don't want a gun."
Caleb, while patting me tenderly: "You don't need a gun because you're a lady."
Moses: "Can I have a gun?"

* * *

Caleb coughs in Moses' face.
Moses: "Don't coughing me!"

* * *

Caleb, singing after a miraculously quick recovery from a stomach bug:
"In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, we have the victory!
In the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, demons will have to flee!"

* * *

Joe, while holding Moses wrapped up in a bath towel: "Look, I've got baby Moses!"
Moses: "I baby Moses. No, I baby Jesus!"

* * *

Moses, while crouched inside an upside-down laundry basket, playing a new favorite game with his "zookeeper" brother Joshua: "I in a cage!"
Me: "Moses, are you an animal in a cage?"
Moses: "Yeah."
Me: "What kind of an animal are you?"
Moses: "I a zebra."

* * *

Joshua: "Can I have a sister?"
Me: "We tried to give you a sister, but we got Moses instead."
Joshua: "Oh, but I want a sister, too!"

Caleb's Ladies

2010-11-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

It all started when we attended the Trademarks Expo at Joe's work, the Patent & Trademark Office. There were all sort of trademarked characters in full costume walking around, including Popeye and Olive Oyl, the Green Giant, Pillsbury Doughboy, Berenstain Bears, Idaho Potato, Dennis the Menace, Geico Gecko, and more. The boys were fascinated with all of the characters, but one in particular caught Caleb's eye. "Mommy," said Caleb as he pointed to Betty Boop in her shimmery red dress, "I love that lady!"

A few weeks later we were at Mimi and Papa's house when one of those ridiculous comedies came on the TV. The movie had just started and we weren't paying close enough attention to discriminate whether it would be appropriate for little boys. Well, it wasn't long before the screen was displaying a young scantily-clad woman wantonly leaning out of an open window. Eyes wide with wonder, Caleb said, "I love that lady!"

Then, not long after Joshua and Caleb's 5th birthday party that they celebrated with their preschool friends and their families, Caleb told me, "Mommy, I love Konstantine's mom." I asked him if he loved some of his other friends' moms, and he was sure that he did not. Only Konstantine's mom.

We trust that as Caleb matures, he'll learn to take some other qualities into account, such as character and personality, when deciding whom he loves. Not that his aforementioned love interests lack good character or personality, but I'm pretty sure that was not the criteria Caleb used when he decided that he loved them!

Too Dry and Expensive

2010-11-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

Here are a few snippets of conversations heard in our house over the past couple weeks:

Moses: "Can I have mama?"
Me: "Yes."
Moses (singing): "Bob the Builder, yes we can!"

* * *

While holding a copy of Dick and Jane...
Moses: "Want to read this book, Caleb?"
Caleb: "No, baby, this book is too dry. And it's too expensive. I'm sorry, baby."
Moses: "Oh."

* * *

While watching a Gospel Bill episode in which Oogene is painting a picture of his house...
Moses: "Is Oogene drawing?"
Me: "No, Oogene is painting."
Moses: "Oogene painting a house?"
Me: "Yes, you're right, he is painting a house!"

* * *

Joshua: "Mommy, remember when I was a little baby and I drank mama?"
Me: "Yeah, you were such a cute little baby."
Joshua: "Mommy, can I be a little baby again?"
Me: "No, I'm sorry, sweet Joshua, you can't ever be a little baby again."
Caleb: "Joshua, maybe you can be a little baby again tomorrow."
Me: "No, you can never be a little baby again. You are just going to keep growing older."
Caleb: "But I don't want to be old!"
Me: "Why not?
Caleb: "Because I don't want to have whiskers!"

* * *

And now a small supplemental sampling of the eloquence of a certain 21-month-old. These are just a few Moses-isms I happened to transcribe today while sitting at our (new, virus-free!) laptop:

"I need a tissue."
"Percy begins with 'P'."
"I made a car."
"What're you eating? You eating coffee? Can I have some coffee?"

21-Month-Old Chatterbox

2010-11-19T19:03:00.001-08:00

Our chatterbox is 21 months old! Here are a few things we've heard him say in the past month. There are many others that I've forgotten, but I remembered to write these down.

"Look Mommy, I'm a squirrel. I'm a cat, too. I'm a dog, too." He said this while
crawling on hands and knees back and forth across the bathtub.

"Mommy, remember I was sad?" These were the first words out of Moses' mouth the
morning after he'd cried himself to sleep. I can count on one hand the number of times I've let Moses cry himself to sleep, so I felt so bad that he remembered!

"I want to say hi to the Cat in the Hat". Moses' reply when I asked him what he was thinking about after what appeared to be a moment of deep contemplation.

"Because I need to!" An all-encompassing argument which he unfortunately picked up from Caleb. He also says "SO-rry" with a hint of attitude that he's also picked up from Caleb.

"I eat it." We later discovered a few small clear beads alongside a torn, moist packet labeled "Silica Gel. THROW AWAY. DO NOT EAT."

"What's that noise?" When Moses hears something, such as an airplane in the distance.

When I picked Moses up from the one-year-olds' class at Bible Study this past week, he was standing at the table all by himself, flipping through the pages of Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? and saying "hippot-mus, zebra, f'mingo" and all the other animals. What a contrast to the other one-year-olds who were toddling around in silence with blank stares on their drool-soaked faces. Now, if I'd never been in the shoes of the parents those other toddlers, I would probably be giving myself a generous pat on the back right now for being such a superior parent. Thankfully, I have the twins to keep me humble!

I Don't Want Mommy to be Scared

2010-11-17T16:56:00.000-08:00

One evening a few months ago, Joe suggested that he take the boys to the grocery store after dinner. As usual, the boys cheered and scurried to put on their shoes. After all, going to the grocery store with Daddy was a huge treat, since it meant riding in Daddy's car and often resulted in the purchase of organic chocolate milk. Joe was in the habit of just taking the twins and leaving Moses at home with me, but on this particular evening Moses made it clear that he wanted to be included as "one of the guys". The boys had excitedly congregated by the front door when Joshua realized that if all three brothers accompanied Daddy to the store, that would leave Mommy at home alone.

At first Joshua tried to persuade me to come along to the store, but for whatever reason I needed to stay at home. Then he tried to persuade Moses to stay at home with me as usual, but that wasn't going to fly, either. And Caleb of course was not willing to budge. Joshua was on the verge of tears when he pleaded, "But I don't want Mommy to be scared! I don't want Mommy to be alone!"

I tried to assure Joshua that I wouldn't be scared or sad, and that they'd only be gone for half an hour at most, but he wouldn't stand for it. Holding back tears, Joshua slipped off his shoes and retreated to my side, telling his brothers and Daddy to go on without him, that he would "stay at home with Mommy so she won't be scared". At that point, I was the one holding back tears as I realized what a tender heart my four-year-old son had, that he was willing to sacrifice one of his favorite activities--going to the grocery store with Daddy in Daddy's car--to ensure that his Mommy wouldn't be scared and alone.

So Joe, Caleb, and Moses went to the store while a somber Joshua kept me company at home. When they returned from the store, Joe took Joshua for a ride around the block all by himself in Daddy's car. Even though this happened a few months ago, I haven't forgotten it, and every now and then Joshua will remind me of it, too. He'll say, "Remember, Mommy, when I didn't want you to be scared?" and he'll smile and give me a hug. I'm telling you, they don't make boys any sweeter than my Joshua.

Happy Half-Decade, Caleb and Joshua!

2010-11-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

The boys accidentally downloaded a virus onto my laptop a few weeks ago, rendering it useless. That's why things have been quiet here lately. While my iPhone has kept me somewhat connected, typing out lengthy blog posts is not something I'm eager to attempt on a handheld device. Hopefully we'll get the laptop fixed soon.

Yesterday was Joshua and Caleb's 5th birthday! They had a fun-filled day which included a field trip to a local nature center, singing cards from Granny and Babo (which provided a good solid hour of entertainment), and concluded with a "really cool party" (according to Caleb) at Mimi and Papa's house, complete with steak, angel food cake, and the biggest hit of all--Pillow Pets from Uncle Chris. Apparently Pillow Pets are not only wildly popular with the preschool demographic, but also with the boys' preschool teacher's 12-year-old daughter and her friends, and one of their other teacher's 16-year-old daughter and her friends. And of course Moses was so distraught about not having a Pillow Pet of his own that Mimi and Papa went out and got him one of his own this evening. At $20 a pop, we regret not having invented Pillow Pets first!

While we may have missed out on some material investment opportunities in the world of stuffed animals/bedding, we have been busily investing in the lives of our sweet boys. While parenting twin babies is probably the craziest and most exhausting thing we've ever done and ever will do, it has totally been worth it and our hearts have been full as we've watched our babies grow up to be little men. What a blessing to have such pure and sweet 5-year-old boys who happily exclaim, "Praise the Lord!" when they're happy and are quick to pray, "Be healed in Jesus' name!" while laying hands on a hurt family member. We are so thankful for the blessing of the past 5 years, and for the many more to come.

Farting, Framing, and Philosophizing

2010-10-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Moses is no longer a "teen" toddler--he is now 20 months old, and boy does he have a lot to say. I have given up on keeping track of all of his new words, but here are a few snippets from the past couple days. The first two stand out in my mind because of their common theme...

With a sly grin on his face after making a loud slurping noise while eating yogurt, Moses told me, "I farted, Mommy."

A few days later, in response to witnessing what must've been an alarmingly loud bout of coughing and hacking, Moses asked me, "You farted, Mommy?"
"No, I didn't fart," I replied. "What that sound?" he asked inquisitively. I told him, "I was coughing."
"Oh," he replied.

And now for our more modest readers, some dialogue that doesn't relate to flatulence:

While trying to get past his brothers who were sitting in the hallway with their backs towards him and therefore blocking his access to the laundry chute, Moses said, "Excuse me, guys." When "the guys" didn't immediately move, Moses hit Joshua (whose back was turned to him) and screamed "Move, Caleb!"

That must be one of the worst aspects of being an identical twin--you frequently get blamed for your brother's offences. I realized this the other day while the boys were playing with their classmates after school. Another little boy had brought in one of those dollar-store parachute men, and in the course of play Caleb and another child were both tugging on it, and the strings broke. When the toy's owner saw what had happened, he marched over to Joshua, shoved him, and angrily berated him for breaking his toy. Joshua naturally became angry at the boy for falsely accusing him and a scuffle ensued. Meanwhile, Caleb was happy to be off the hook and had no qualms about letting his twin be framed for his crime.

And speaking of the twins, I'll leave you with a somewhat philosophical conversation that caught me off-guard the other day:

Joshua: Is Jesus by the Sun and the Moon?
Me: Jesus is everywhere.
Caleb: Just like the bad guys?
Me: ...

I guess I should have explained to them that unlike God, bad guys aren't omnipresent, but rather that there are a lot of them out in the world. You see, I have been trying to get Caleb and Joshua to realize that the reason why we don't want them to wander out of our yard and down the street all by themselves--as they have been apt to do lately--is because "bad guys are everywhere". I guess I need to clarify from now. At least I know they've been listening to me!

I Naughty

2010-09-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today I caught Moses bracing himself against a chair, with that look on his face. "Do you need to poop?" I asked, while quickly taking off his pants and diaper. "Yeah, I pooping" he replied, so we hurried to the toilet where he sat for a few minutes before the novelty wore off and he demanded to get down. This happened twice in the span of about half an hour. Not long after he disembarked from the toilet for the second time, he waddled over to me and sheepishly said, "Mommy, I pooped."

"Oh Moses, you should have pooped while you were sitting on the potty!" I groaned. He somberly cast his eyes to the ground and said, "I naughty." How could I be upset with him? At least he is telling me he needs to go and is not entirely opposed to sitting on the toilet. After my experience potty training the twins, though, I'm not getting my hopes up too high that he'll be diaper-free anytime soon.

Caleb vs. 6

2010-09-23T11:44:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I noticed that the digital alarm clock on our bedside table was facing the wall. I assumed that someone had accidentally knocked it that way, so I turned it around. After all, the clock does share tight quarters with a cluttered assortment of diapers, wipes, lotions, tissues, books, and toys. But the next time I came into the bedroom looking to see what time it was, I noticed that the clock was once again facing the wall. This continued on until one day when I finally caught Caleb in the act of turning the clock towards the wall. I asked him why he was turning the clock, and he became a little flustered and told me that he didn't want to see the "6". I asked him why he didn't want to see it, and he gave his classic reply, "Because I don't need to!"

When I turned the clock back around so that we could see the numbers, he started to freak out and yelled, "No! No! The 6 is coming! I don't want to see the 6!" and struggled to turn the clock back towards the wall. Even though the number 6 was not currently displayed, he knew that the numbers changed every minute and it was due to reappear soon. When he failed to thwart my efforts to keep the clock in a viewable position, he dashed out of the room. I can't help but wonder if it's some sort of spiritual thing? We have never told him that 6 is the devil's number or anything like that, and he has never before or since then shown any sort of aversion or favoritism towards any other number. Interesting, isn't it?

19-Month-Old Vigilante

2010-09-18T14:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not so sure how I feel about Moses' first 6-word sentence, spoken the morning after his 19-month birthday after repeatedly beating a whiffle ball with a dinosaur Pez dispenser: "Mommy, I killed a bad guy!"

Bug Love

2010-09-17T10:58:00.000-07:00

"Sweet daddy long legs! Moses killed you and now you're dead! It makes me so sad!" - Joshua, talking to a smushed daddy long legs.

"Here you go, fuzzy caterpillar, have a nice snack! Bye bye!" -Caleb, after picking a clover and setting it in front of a caterpillar he found on the sidewalk.

Earlier this week, Joshua found a cricket in Mimi and Papa's house and whacked a shoe at it until it was dead. When I explained to him that crickets are basically harmless "good guys", Joshua became very remorseful. "Oh dear, I killed the cricket! I need to find another cricket!" he insisted, as if he could redeem himself by finding another cricket and sparing its life. While he grieved, mourned, and frantically tried to find another cricket, I tried to reassure him that it was ok because there are plenty of other crickets in the world. Joshua was unable to find solace until a couple days later when he found another cricket and graciously spared it an appointment with the underside of his shoe. Sweet Joshua.

TOMY

2010-09-17T09:16:00.001-07:00

Over the Summer I'd occasionally help the twins sound out letters in an attempt to read words. This morning Caleb picked up a Thomas train and asked me what its name was. For those of you who aren't familiar, most wooden and metal Thomas trains have the name of the train imprinted somewhere on the bottom. Well, this particular train was plastic, unlike most of our other ones, and I couldn't find its name anywhere. I handed it back to Caleb and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know what his name is." Less than a minute later, Caleb said, "Mommy, I think his name is Toe-me". Surprised, I took the train back from him and upon closer inspection of the engine's underside, I saw the toy brand name "TOMY" subtly embossed in the black plastic. "Wow, Caleb, did you read that?" I asked. "Yeah!" he replied, smiling and beaming with pride. I knew he must have, since it was a proper noun that he's not familiar with. So there you have it, Caleb officially read his first word all by himself, and of his own volition, too!

Moses' 18-Month Stats

2010-09-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today Moses had his 18-month check-up (a few weeks late). He is 33 inches tall (60th %tile) and weighs 28 lb. 4 oz. (75th %tile). I think this was the first time his weight was a higher percentile than his height! I'm kind of surprised because he still seems like a little stick figure compared to the twins circa 3 years ago. Where does all of his weight come from? Maybe he's pure muscle? ;-) But in all seriousness, we continue to thank God for blessing us with such a healthy and bright little boy.

Verbose Moses

2010-09-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Every week I get an email from BabyCenter.com telling me what kinds of milestones my baby should be reaching each week. Today I got the following email for 18 months, week 3:

Now that your child has mastered some key words, she'll soon figure out (if she hasn't already) that saying those words in a REALLY LOUD VOICE is a surefire way to get what she wants. Some toddlers can even make simple two-word sentences such as "No more" or "All done." And, as a sign of your child's growing self-awareness, she may start referring to herself by name: "Claire go," for example.

Now, I realize that these generic emails probably err on the side of very gradual development so that if you have babies who don't like to talk (a certain set of twins comes to mind) you won't feel so bad. But Moses keeps blowing us away with his conversations and sentences which are definitely more than two words long. Here are just a few examples that come to mind from the past couple days:

Joe: Moses, do you want to get in the pool?
Moses: No.
Joe: Why not?
Moses: Cold.
Joe: Because it's cold?
Moses: Yeah. Because cold.

Moses: Mommy, get it!
Me: What do you want me to get?
Moses: Goggle.
Me: Where are the goggles?
Moses: Pool.
(Sure enough, there was a pair of goggles at the bottom of the pool.)

Moses: Where'd Daddy go?
Me: He went to take Caleb to the bathroom.
Moses: Why?
Me: Because Caleb needs to poop.
Moses: Ohhhh.
(I don't think the twins started asking "why" questions until they were close to 4.)

I tired!
(He actually says this when he is tired and ready for a nap or bedtime.)

Me: Sweet Moses.
Moses: Sweet Mommy.
(We go back and forth telling each other how sweet we are.)

Where bikes go?
(When he realized that his ride-on trikes weren't in their usual corner in the basement.)

'sat? (what's that?)

Where Joshua go? Joshua, where are you?
Where Key-eb go? Key-eb, where are you?

Excuse me, Daddy. Excuse me, Joshua.
When you're in the way and he wants to get by.

Where are you, al-gator? There you are, al-gator!
When playing with an alligator.

M! Moses!
When he sees an "M" somewhere. He realizes that his name begins with "M".

I Don't Want It!

2010-08-27T05:59:00.000-07:00

Last night we went over to the Stewarts' house. After dinner, the older kids got ice cream sandwiches. Moses, upon realizing that he hadn't been offered one, came to the kitchen and the following conversation ensued:

Moses: Some? Want some?
Us: Oh, would you like some ice cream?
Moses: Yeah!
(We give him an ice cream sandwich)
Us: What do you say?
Moses: Thank you!
(He disappears into the next room with the ice cream. A few minutes later he marches back into the kitchen with the melting, merely nibbled-on ice cream sandwich.)
Moses: I don't want it! I don't want it!

So there you go, 18-month-old Moses is now officially speaking 4-word sentences. When we took the twins to be evaluated for speech/language therapy about 6 months ago, the test results claimed that they could barely even speak 4-word sentences (we of course knew that they could very well speak 4-word sentences and more, but what did we know? We're only their parents, after all... sigh...) Anyway, I only mention that to give perspective on how amazed we are with Moses' verbal skills. We're just not used to having such a little person who has so much to say!

Miss Lana

2010-08-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

A recently overheard conversation:

Caleb: I love Miss Lana. She's my girl.
Joshua: Yeah, she's pretty cute, isn't she?

For those of you who aren't familiar, Miss Lana is the main female character on The Gospel Bill Show. She is a sensible, matronly woman in her mid-40's.

From the Mouth of an 18-Month-Old

2010-08-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Since Moses' 18-month update didn't actually include much information about Moses, I decided to compile a list of some things that Moses has said today, just to give you an idea of what we've been hearing lately.

Cay-eb! After saying Joshua's name for several months now, Moses finally started saying Caleb's name last week. The very first time I heard him say it was last Monday when we went to pick up the twins from VBS and he became very excited when he spotted Caleb across the classroom.

Scary! In response to a "suspenseful" segment of an episode of The Gospel Bill Show.

Back? Back? When he wants me to give him a piggy-back ride.

Mama all gone. When he was nursing and milk was all gone.

M-O-B-S. He dictated these letters to me while the twins were practicing writing and drawing this afternoon. I'm sure he had no idea what he was spelling, but I was amused that he spelled an actual word. He does seem to understand that his name begins with an "m", though, and asked me to write "m" over and over again.

Here are some more Moses-isms that don't require an explanation:

All done poop.
Mommy, where are you?
All right.
Apple num num num.
Okay.
Here, Mommy.
Yeah.
Eeew, bug.
See it?
Shoes on. Help me.
Shoes off.
I do it.

Playing Mother-Baby & Moses is 1.5

2010-08-18T13:48:00.000-07:00

At 18 months old, Moses continues to amaze us with his verbal communication skills and dexterity. For example, the other day he was playing with some interlocking plastic blocks and was having difficulty getting two blocks to interlock, so he turned to me and said, "Help me? Help me?" but before I had the chance to help him, he had figured it out on his own and proudly told me, "Did it! Did it!" Even the twins sometimes have difficulty building with these particular blocks, so I was pretty impressed. Moses is quick to figure things out on his own, and if he can't figure something out right away, he doesn't give up easily. As far as he is concerned, he can do everything his brothers can do.

For this and other reasons, I'm so glad that Joshua and Caleb are interested in things that seem to be younger than age-appropriate. While many of their friends are swooning over Spiderman and Star Wars, the twins are still wild about Thomas, Cars, Sesame Street, Toy Story, and Winnie the Pooh. And lately they've been going through a mother-baby phase where they'll find a large and small version of a stuffed animal and one boy will play the "mommy" and the other boy will play the "baby". It all started with a Curious George "mommy" and a Beanie Baby monkey "baby". The boys create dialogues between the mommy and baby in which the baby rides on his mother's back (they learned in a book that this is how mother monkeys carry their young), the baby gets thirsty and drinks "mama" (nurses), takes naps, waits for daddy to come home from work, etc. Sometimes when they're engaging in their imaginary mother-baby dialogue, I will mistakenly respond when I hear someone say, "Mama" and the boys will become exasperated with me and say, "No, Mommy, the baby monkey is talking!" Oh, of course, silly me. While I know this type of imaginary play isn't typical behavior for almost-5-year-old boys, I think it's very sweet and is a lovely respite from the rough-housing that usually goes on around here.

White or Brown?

2010-07-29T12:03:00.000-07:00

Today, out of the blue, Joshua patted his cheeks and said, "Mommy, I'm white."

"Oh really?" I replied. "What color is Caleb?"

"Caleb's white, too," he said. "How about Moses?" I asked.

"Moses is brown."

"Oh, is that so? What about Daddy?"

"He's white," Joshua replied confidently. When I asked him what color I am, however, he had to deliberate briefly before deciding that I, too, am "white". Joshua concluded that Mimi, however, is "brown". He told me that Babo and Sooja Emo are also "brown", as are his friends Branden, Catalina, Bryce, Logan, and Ryker. On the other hand, Papa, Uncle Chris, and Granny are all "white".

What a blessing it is to have such a diverse group of friends and family! Our boys may not be colorblind, but there's no question that in their minds, color really is only skin-deep.

17 Months on the 17th

2010-07-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

Moses has been a busy, curious boy this past month. He asks to "see" everything, from the boiling pot on the stove to the rain dancing on the surface of the pool from the kitchen window. He also requests to "try" everything, from cracking an egg to throwing ice cubes into an overflowing pot of boiling rice noodles. Moses' desire to see and try everything is demonstrative of his inquisitive nature. This evening, for example, he asked me, "where Daddy?" after Joe left for worship team practice.

One of Moses' favorite pastimes is peeling things. He can easily occupy himself for a solid 30 minutes by peeling the paper labels off of crayons. Another one of his favorite activities is collecting small twigs and sticks in the yard and bringing them inside the house (Joe likes to say that Moses is looking for his staff). The other day while he was outside with Joe, he found a small Y-shaped branch, held it up, and said, "Y". I didn't believe Joe when he told me, so I asked Moses what letter he was holding, and was impressed when he replied, "Y". It's amazing to see what he picks up on the sly.

In addition to his covert independent study of the alphabet, Moses is also becoming very good at counting. He usually counts "1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9." He can drink from a cup without spilling, feed himself milk and cereal with a spoon (and make less of a mess than his 4-year-old brothers when they do the same), helps me hang laundry to dry, and thinks that he can swim all by himself. Most people guess that he's 6-12 months older than he really is, and it doesn't help that he's a good bit taller than some of his 2-year-old friends. Seeing that he's so much more bronzed than the rest of us, most people probably think he's adopted, too! I affectionately refer to him as "my big brown baby." Moses is still pretty skinny, though. We just weighed him tonight, and he rung in at 25 lbs. Caleb is 40 lbs. and Joshua is 45 lbs.

Caleb and Joshua are nurturing older brothers and deserve a lot of the credit for Moses' quick development. For example, Caleb often uses the time that he's sitting on the toilet as an opportunity to educate his baby brother. While Caleb is pooping, Moses will loiter outside the bathroom door while his brother drills him. The drills sound something like this and will go on and on for quite some time:

"Say horse."
"orse."
"Say chicken."
"chi-en" etc.

Joshua will sometimes "read" books to Moses while they sit together on the couch. Since Joshua can't actually read yet, he usually opts for books that involve numbers. This is probably one reason why Moses demonstrates such an interest in counting things. Joshua will ask Moses, "how many flowers are there?" and they will point and count the flowers in unison. Moses loves his big brothers and missed them dearly while they were in Vacation Bible School last week. When I would tell him it was time to go pick up Joshua and Caleb, Moses' face would light up and he'd yell, "Jahhhhhhh-shwa!" while running towards the door.

Of course, Moses also picks up undesirable behavior from his brothers, such as pretending to shoot his brothers with coat hanger "guns" and hitting each other in the head with large blunt objects. Whenever the twins come crying to me because Moses has assaulted them in such a manner, I am quick to remind them that he learns from their example. This doesn't seem to curb their desire to act this way, unfortunately. Boys will be boys, I suppose!

Elimination Experts

2010-07-08T21:03:00.000-07:00

Upon reflecting on the previous night's episode of The Gospel Bill Show in which Miss Lana worried so much that she nearly developed an ulcer and had to go to the doctor, Caleb asked me, "Mom, does Miss Lana have a potty?" (Yes, in Caleb's opinion I have now graduated from "Mommy" to "Mom.")

"Yes, I'm sure she does have a potty," I replied, unsure about why he needed this information. Caleb replied, "Then Miss Lana needs to go poop on her potty so her tummy won't hurt anymore." And Joshua chimed in, "Miss Lana needs to eat lettuce so she can poop."

That's right, folks, next time save yourselves a visit to the doctor or pharmacy. Drs. Caleb and Joshua Wolf have all the answers!

Uncle John is Sleeping

2010-07-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week we drove to Pittsburgh to attend my Great Uncle John's funeral. He was 86 years old when he passed away on the very day of his 63rd wedding anniversary. Both of my grandfathers died before I was born, so he was the closest thing to a grandfather I ever had. And since Uncle John and Aunt Rosine were never able to have children of their own, we really wanted to be there for Aunt Rosine, even though it was a long drive for three little boys. Just a couple days earlier our mechanic had told us not to take the Santa Fe for any long drives before we replaced a broken ball joint, so we decided to rent a minivan and ride together with Mimi and Papa. The novelty of riding in a different car definitely helped make the trip go more smoothly. The boys kept insisting that the van was ours and that we would not have to give it back, even though I warned them otherwise.

At the viewing, when the twins saw Uncle John lying peacefully in his casket, they were quick to announce to the whole room that "Uncle John is sleeping!" Joe took them outside during the ceremony, and then when they came back inside and found that the casket was missing, Joshua declared that "Uncle John woke up!" We had already explained to them that Uncle John died and went to Heaven to be with Jesus. "Is Uncle John in Heaven with George Washington?" asked Caleb. We confirmed that he was. "I want to die and go to Heaven and see George Washington and Uncle John," replied Caleb. We assured him that he would someday, but not for a very, very long time.

Uncle John was my Grandma's youngest brother, the last remaining of eight siblings who were born and raised as missionary kids in pre-Communist China. I will certainly miss hearing their memories about growing up in China and hearing them speak Chinese to each other. Not to belittle the sacrifices made by modern-day missionaries, but I can't even wrap my mind around the sacrifices my great-grandparents made when they transplanted themselves half-way around the world, without the internet or even the ability to make a phone call home to America, for over 50 years, all for the sake of spreading the good news of Jesus to an unreached people. It sure does make my life of raising twins plus one in the suburbs of DC seem pretty boring and inconsequential. But I guess there's always a possibility that I'm raising a future missionary or two, in which case I suppose I'll keep plugging along!

Three Twins Praise the Lord

2010-06-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

Today the boys and I went to Trader Joe's. Over the past nine months, I've grown accustomed to going to the grocery store with just Moses while the twins were in preschool, so I wasn't used to the attention that twins seem to generate while out in public. Two little girls, in particular, kept pointing and saying, "look at the twins!" and their mother eventually stopped and asked me, "are all three of them twins?"

"No, just those two," I replied, pointing to Caleb and Joshua who by this point had pushed the cart (and Moses) half-way down the aisle. "The one in the cart is three years younger." It didn't even occur to me until later that her question really made no sense at all. But knowing what it's like to be a frazzled mom at the grocery store, I of course understood her perfectly!

Later as we were going down the chip and cracker aisle, the boys caught sight of their favorite treat, white cheddar cheese puffs (a.k.a. "cheesies"), and asked if we could get some. Feeling generous, I tossed them into the cart, which launched all three twins... I mean boys... into full-fledged celebration mode. "Yay! Cheesies! Oh, praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!!!" they loudly exclaimed, drawing even more attention to themselves. What can I say, they're our little evangelists!

Peas Way Goggle

2010-06-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

This evening while we were playing in the pool, 16-month-old Moses spoke his first 3-word "sentence": peas way goggle? Translation: please wear goggles? He was holding a pair of goggles and asking Joe to help him put them on. I was rather proud of this sentence on more than one level. Naturally, I'm thrilled that he is learning how to be polite and say "please" and "thank you", especially since he knows he can get usually get what he wants regardless. And of course it warmed my swimmer's heart that my baby's first sentence was a request to wear Speedo goggles!

Moses - 16 Months Old

2010-06-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

Moses' vocabularly has really taken off in the past couple months. Just this evening, for example, he asked for more of his favorite vegetable at dinner, clearly saying, "broccoli? broccoli?" Then after dinner, during our evening swim, Moses clearly requested to wear "goggle". This afternoon when I told him it was time to go pick up his brothers from preschool, he happily exclaimed, "Jooooshua! Joooooshua!" He hasn't mastered "Caleb" yet, however, and I'm not sure if it's because Caleb is a more difficult word or because Moses simply favors Joshua.

That reminds me of something funny that happened a couple months ago, when Moses was about 14 months old. We had just arrived at Safeway and put Moses in one of those carts that has a "cozy coupe" car attached to the front. Moses was happy as a clam until Caleb claimed his coveted passenger seat, relegating Joshua to drive solo in another car, a move which prompted Moses to start crying hysterically. In an effort to keep a low profile (which, we realize, is basically impossible when you take three little boys at the grocery store at 9 pm), we moved Moses to Joshua's car, and he immediately stopped crying. Upon suffering rejection by his baby brother, Caleb launched a crying fit of his own. While I of course felt sorry for Caleb (he's a very loving big brother who just happens to have unusually stiff competition from an equally loving yet perhaps slightly more fun and engaging Joshua), I couldn't help but marvel at Moses' ability to tell his twin brothers apart, a skill which most adults have yet to master.

In addition to broccoli, another one of Moses' favorite foods is Cheerios. The other night Joe and the boys were dancing to Old School Sesame street songs and Moses fell asleep in his arms while listening to "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon". While cradling a sleeping Moses in his arms, Joe asked the twins if they wanted to eat some Cheerios before bedtime. As soon as Joe said "Cheerios", Moses' eyelids popped open and he perked up and said, "Cheerio? Cheerio?" quickly regaining alertness just in time to join his brothers in partaking of their favorite evening snack.

Moses wants to do everything that his brothers do. When we're outside swimming in the pool we let the boys pee in the shrubs so that we don't have to take them into the house every ten minutes. (I don't know if the boys are hydrating themselves through osmosis while they're swimming or if they're drinking the pool water, but for some reason they need to pee three times more often than usual while they're swimming). Moses has observed the twins' outdoor potty ritual often enough that he now tries to copy them. He'll say "potty! potty!" then walk over to the grass and assume the same posture that the boys assume when they relieve themselves, with an arched back and stuck-out tummy.

Moses is enthralled by "Elmo", which in his mind is an all-encompassing term that refers to any googly-eyed Sesame Street character. For example, last weekend he was beside himself with glee when we allowed him to bring home a new "Elmo" aka Cookie Monster plush toy from our friends' yard sale. Moses has never even seen a modern Sesame Street episode featuring Elmo (we don't have cable and only occasionally watch 1970's pre-Elmo Sesame Street episodes on DVD), but he has somehow become obsessed nevertheless.

Moses has started trying to count. He especially loves counting to 3 (he usually skips 1 and 2 and just says "three" three times), especially if such counting is followed by jumping in the pool or being tossed up into the air, or if he is looking at pictures of himself, Caleb, and Joshua, he'll want to count the three brothers. When we drive by Mount Vernon on our way to church on Sunday mornings, the twins like to count the dozens of tourist buses that are parked along the road (interestingly, Chris and I used to do the exact same thing every Sunday on our way to church when we were little... not much has changed over the years!). Moses tries to count along with them, although he usually gets lost after "three". Moses also tries to sing the ABC's. He has the melody down pretty well but the letters are still a bit muddled.

Overall, I'm very impressed with Moses' ability to communicate. One of our friends recently gave us a very thoughtful gift of a baby signing DVD, and while baby sign language is something which probably would have benefitted our tongue-tied twins when they were Moses' age, we honestly don't see the need to teach Moses how to sign because he already speaks and understands language so well. Indeed, in retrospect there are many things I would change about how we raised the twins during their formative first two years. For one thing, I would have forced myself to talk to them more, since I suspect that my own reticence is at least partially to blame for their recently diagnosed language delays. But looking back, we were still in survival mode well into the twins' second year, and were probably still too precoccupied with trying to get enough sleep and preserve our sanity to explore alternative communication options. What can I say, you live and learn!

Jesus Gave it to You

2010-06-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

This morning, as usual, Caleb and Joshua were chatting with the men from the pool company while they conducted their weekly cleaning of our pool. As usual, the boys drilled the men about their equipment and wanted to know everything they were doing each step of the way. Then, apparently feeling the need to state the obvious, Caleb informed one of the men, "I have a swimming pool!"

"Yes, you have a very nice swimming pool," the man replied, to which Caleb immediately responded, "Jesus gave it to you!" (Of course what he meant was, "Jesus gave it to us"... the correct use of pronouns is one of the things we're trying to work on with the boys). Anyway, the man, certainly not expecting to hear that, smiled and chuckled to himself. As humorous as it was, Caleb's bold witness couldn't be futher from the truth--Jesus did give us our pool! I can only imagine how different this world would be if all believers shared Caleb's boldness in telling others about Him.

Worm Vitamins

2010-06-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, as usual, I asked the boys what they did at preschool today. As usual, the boys answered this question by telling me what they ate at preschool. In addition to their typical fare, Joshua added that he'd eaten a "worm vitamin". It only took me a second to figure out that they must have given the kids gummy worms. We regularly give the boys gummy bear multivitamins at home, and that is the only context in which the boys are familiar with gummy "candy". It warmed my heart to know that my boys' familiarity with gummy bears is limited to the vitamin realm!

Switching to Flickr

2010-06-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of trouble with our hosting company (among other things, they deleted all of the images from this website without telling us!), so we're closing down shop and moving over to Flickr. Not only will it cut down on maintenance time, but you'll also be able to comment on individual photos, see photos in high resolution, and even order prints if you'd like. The only catch is that, for a variety of reasons, we've decided to go private. I know it's more inconvenient than the existing setup, but we think it's worth it for the sake of our boys' privacy and safety. So come be friends with "Our Baby Wolfs" on Flickr! If you'd like me to send you an invitation to be one of our contacts, leave a comment here or send me an email. Thanks!

We are hoping to keep up the blog, too... we're not sure where or in what format, but we'll keep you posted.

Moses - 13 months

2010-03-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

In the past month or so, Moses has developed a great interest in animals. Last week he impressed me when he heard a dog barking somewhere outside, pointed towards where the sound was coming from, and said "dog!" Today while we were at the park, he saw a woman walking her two dogs. He pointed at them and said, "dog! dog! woo-woo!" (by "woo" he of course means "woof") Whenever he sees a cat he points at it and exclaims "dat!" (he can't quite say words that begin with "c"). He also gets very excited whenever he sees a squirrel, which he also calls a "dat".

Moses seems to understand a lot of things for his age. For example, he understands the meaning of "hot". He often touches the space heater in our bedroom and says, "Hot!" The other day he touched some of my food at dinner and said, "Hot!" He also impressed us a couple weeks ago when he put the cap on a milk carton the correct way. He knew without even having to experience trial and error that he needed to turn the cap over to fit it correctly over the spout. He did the same thing with the cap that goes on my bottle of moisturizer. I know these things all sound mundane and inconsequential, but I'm just recording them here for posterity, so please bear with me.

Moses is a very good eater. For breakfast he can eat nearly an entire fried egg all by himself. The other evening I was dropping the boys off at Mimi and Papa's house so I could help Joe get some work done on our new house. Joshua was feeling tired and didn't want me to leave, so Mimi tried to distract him by offering him some veggie chips. As soon as Moses heard her say "chips" he perked up and pointed across the living room at the pantry doors and began to get excited. "Chih! Chih!" he happily exclaimed. He knew exactly where Mimi keeps those chips hidden. Thankfully, Moses' taste for chips is tempered by his love of vegetables. As noted before, he likes asparagus and will feed himself several stalks of asparagus in one sitting. More recently we've discovered that he really enjoys steamed broccoli. The other day at dinner he fed himself several large florets. What a contrast to his picky older brothers, who even to this day will protest most vegetables. I've often agonized over the theory that children's preferences for certains foods are not innate, but rather a product of their environments--meaning that if your kid refuses to eat vegetables, it must be your fault for letting him eat junk food all the time. But now that I have a child who was introduced to junk food at the same time he was introduced to vegetables, but has already voluntarily eaten more asparagus and broccoli in 13 months than than his junk-food-deprived older brothers have in 4 years, I have tossed that theory out the window once and for all.

Sold!

2010-03-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering why I've been neglecting this website lately, it's because we bought a house last week and I've been kind of busy getting ready for the move!

Ok, let me back up a little. We put an offer on our house at the end of January, which the sellers accepted the very same day, even though our offer was well below the asking price, the house had been on the market for less than a month, and they were already in negotiations with another buyer. Our home inspection occurred the February morning that "snowmageddon" hit, and then we closed this past Friday.

During the settlement, the seller (a kind, elderly man with three sons of his own who had grown up in this house and were also in attendance) told us that he had arranged and paid for the pool company to open the pool in May, have someone perform weekly maintenance all summer long, and then winterize the pool in September--the highest level of service that the pool company offers. Both our realtor and the settlement lawyer told us they'd never before witnessed such a generous gesture at a closing. That's right, our new house comes with a pool! As most of you know, I grew up swimming and have always loved to swim, but I never imagined I'd own a house with a pool. I feel like I'm living in a dream and I keep having to pinch myself to see if this is real. All that I can say about this whole situation is that when you give to God, He always gives back!

Here's a picture of the boys that our realtor took in front of our new house on the morning of the closing. As you can see, Joshua had just rolled out of bed and was (and still is) in dire need of a haircut. Anyway, we hope it'll tide you over until life settles down and I get a chance to edit and upload the enormous backlog of pictures which are waiting impatiently to make their long overdue ourbabywolf debuts.

The Third Child

2010-03-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

This evening, in between bites of freshly baked homemade brownie, Joe turned to me and asked, "are we supposed to give Moses chocolate?" I glanced at Moses, who was standing at Joe's feet, earnestly begging his Daddy for a morsel with an outstretched arm. "Sure," I replied, "that brown stuff that's all over his hands is the chocolate chip I gave him earlier while I was baking."

About half an hour later, I walked out into the living room to find Moses, alongside his big brothers, hovering over a bowl of grapes, nonchalantly popping them into his mouth. God only knows how many hours of my life I've spent peeling and meticulously quartering or halving those infamous little choking hazards for my two first-born, but here was 12-month-old Moses feeding himself whole grapes like an old pro.

So this is what it's like to be the third child. I don't think Joshua and Caleb had their first taste of chocolate until they were at least two years old. I don't think I let them feed themselves whole grapes until they were close to three. Yet Moses, at the tender age of 12 months, is all too familiar with chocolate and whole grapes, and a whole slew of other delicacies that I won't mention lest we be judged unfit parents. I can only imagine the kinds of things a fourth, fifth, or sixth-born child would get away with! And now when I think of the story about the time when Mimi (who was the youngest of seven children) was a baby and had a near-fatal encounter when her well-meaning big sister Sooja mistakenly gave her a drink of alcohol, it makes total sense! :)

Happy 1st Birthday, Moses!

2010-02-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

I seriously can't believe that Moses is already one year old! It seems like it was only yesterday--not exactly one year ago--that I was laboring at home in the birth pool, in full swing of my second sleepless night of labor, with still more than 12 hours to go before rushing off to the hospital where my 9 lb. 14 oz. gentle giant finally made his unplanned debut. I guess you could say that Moses' birth was a character-building experience that has made me a stronger person, but I sure am glad it's one that (God-willing) I'll never have to repeat!

Fast-forward one year. Moses has a busy (but thankfully much less dramatic!) birthday ahead of him, starting with Bible Study in the morning, followed by his one-year-old doctor's visit in the afternoon, and then dinner and birthday cake with Mimi and Papa in the evening. I'll update later with Moses' one-year stats and any other fun facts that come to mind, but first I'm going to go do something I wasn't able to do exactly one year ago: enjoy a good night's sleep snuggled up in bed next to my sweet one-year-old baby boy.

* * * * * * * *

Moses behaved very well at his 1-year check-up this afternoon, happily "talking" to Dr. Irwin all throughout the visit and not making a single fuss. The doctor remarked that Moses seemed to be very verbal, especially considering how it's often difficult for younger siblings to get a word in edgewise with the older siblings doing all the talking. We are also thankful to report that Moses' hydrocele has vanished. We'd been told he would probably need to have it surgically removed, but delayed doing so since the pediatric urologist who had been recommended to us wasn't in our insurance network. When Joe got his new job, we switched insurance companies, but as it turns out, we won't be needing the urologist's services after all. Thank you, Jesus, for healing Moses!

By the way, here are Moses' 1-year stats. He is 30 inches long (75th %tile), weighs 22 pounds (35-40th %tile), and has a head circumference of 19 inches (90-95th %tile). And for the record, he has the biggest feet and hands of any other baby I've seen. I forget how huge they are until I see him next to another baby the same age, and then the dichotomy becomes quite apparent. Also, every time I change Moses' diaper or give him a shower, I am in awe of how tan his skin is, even the skin that never sees the light of day in the dead of winter. It's even a few shades darker than mine, and obviously a lot darker than Joe's. Also, Moses has the cutest brown (yes, his hair is getting lighter... oh well, I enjoyed having my dark-haired baby while it lasted!) curls gracing the back of his sweet head.

Please Stop it, Snow!

2010-02-10T04:11:00.000-08:00

This morning after breakfast I found Joshua perched on the window sill in the living room, gazing somberly at the whirldwinds of fluffy flakes falling upon the existing 2-3 feet of snow already blanketing the ground. "Snow, please stop it. Please stop it, snow," Joshua sweetly implored. Today marks day 6 of our impromptu blizzard-induced family "vacation". It's the third consecutive day that the federal government has been closed, which means Daddy gets paid to stay home with us! And by "stay home with us," I mean "shovel snow for hours on end (not only our driveway, but also those of our elderly and disabled neighbors, as well as the trampoline), only to come inside and referee our cabin-fever-plagued boys' fights". Hmmm... maybe this isn't much of a vacation for Daddy after all! Either way, we are so thankful that Joe got his new job before this crazy winter, since at his previous job he would've had to make up the hours or burn through his precious saved-up vacation time.

Since mid-December, we've only had about two days when our yard was completely void of snow. That's nearly two straight months of snow, virtually unheard of here in Virginia. I'm so glad that the twins' snowsuits I found at Marshalls the night before the first big storm are getting plenty of use. At first I was skeptical about spending $25 per snow suit, but in retrospect they were definitely a good investment! And this time around, I was thrilled to be the recipient of some second-hand boys snow boots on Freecycle. I usually plan ahead and buy the boys their clothes and shoes a year or two ahead of time on end-of-season clearance, but I've never bothered stocking up on snow gear since we usually only get a few inches at most each winter. I guess I should start scouting out some duds for next winter, although I suspect there will be slim pickin's at the stores after this year's whirlwind of wintry weather!

Num num num

2010-02-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

While Moses' Biblical namesake was not much of an orator, we have been quite impressed by our 11-month-old's verbal communication skills. "Num num" is what Moses says when he wants to eat or drink something. Usually, he will point his index finger at the object he wishes to consume and say, "num num num" until we figure out what he wants and give it to him. He will even refer to some of his favorite treats by name, saying "baaah-na num num num" while pointing at a bunch of bananas sitting on the counter, or "joooo num num num" while pointing to a glass of juice on the table. We are so pleased that Moses has figured out how to effectively communicate with us this way instead of crying (which is what a certain set of twins often resorted to when they were about the same age)!

Happy 70th Birthday, Papa!

2010-02-03T16:48:00.000-08:00

Today we helped Papa celebrate his 70th birthday! Caleb and Joshua helped me bake a carrot birthday cake (Papa's favorite), and Caleb assumed the honors of inserting the candles into the cake when I wasn't looking (but that's ok, he did a decent job). The boys also selected a gift for Papa--a toy red '57 Corvette, which was the same year as the red MG he used to drive back in the day. Maybe we'll get Papa one of those for his 80th birthday ;)

Moses' gift to Papa was wanting to be held by him the entire evening. If anyone else offered Moses their arms while Papa was holding him, Moses would avoid eye contact, turn his head, and nestle it against Papa's shoulder. He really does love his Papa! By the way, this evening Moses also set a personal record in the walking department, taking 13 consecutive steps.

Most people who know Papa cannot believe us when we tell them that he is already 70 years old. He is certainly the most youthful 70-year-old we know. Happy birthday, Papa, and may God bless you with many more years of excellent health! We love you!

Favorite things: Moses' pillow & Joe's O's

2010-02-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

Last week Moses and I went to Trader Joe's while the boys were at preschool. As we were walking down the cereal aisle, Moses started pointing and fervently exclaiming, "neh neh neh!" I looked and saw that he was pointing at the Joe's O's, Trader Joe's version of Cheerios. Even though we only have Cheerios at home, Moses used his keen intellect to determine that the contents of those bright yellow boxes must closely resemble one of his favorite treats. His sweet enthusiasm melted my heart and I couldn't resist indulging him with a box of $1.99 Joe's O's. I know, I know, today it's Joe's O's, next it'll be Thomas Trains, but when it's an 11-month-old asking for generic breakfast cereal, how can you say "no"? As I handed Moses a box of O's, his face broke out in a wide smile and he clutched it gleefully throughout the rest of the duration of our shopping trip. When it was time to check out, Moses reluctantly relinquished his box of Joe's O's to the cashier, who detected his infatuation with the cereal box and was kind enough to promptly return it to him immediately after she scanned them. We went to Trader Joe's again today and it was like dejavu: the persistent pointing accompanied by "neh neh neh!", resulting in the blissful possession of his favorite treat. Our Moses is definitely a boy who knows what he wants (and knows how to get it, too)!

Moses' other favorite thing is his plush Restoration Hardware travel (i.e. baby-sized) pillow that Mimi and Papa gave him for Christmas. He loves to bury his face in it, hug it, and roll around the bed while clutching it, all the while grinning from ear to ear. When we lie him down on the bed to dress him or change his diaper, he immediately rolls over and looks for his pillow. Trying to dress or change him before he's found his pillow is basically a futile effort. A few nights ago, he woke up in the middle of night whimpering. He sat up and groped around in the darkness for his pillow, found it, then thrashed around while clutching it against his body several times before falling back asleep. It's definitely one of Moses' favorite things.

Steppin' it up

2010-01-25T03:22:00.000-08:00

Moses has been taking one step here and there for a couple days, but today he took 4 steps! He stood up and then walked towards his Daddy. He was so proud of himself!

Elevators and Steps

2010-01-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

This morning the boys and I, along with another woman and her daughter, got stuck inside an elevator in the church where our Bible Study meets. We were trapped for half an hour. Being the kind of person who steers clear of the long tunnel slides at water parks, it was quite possibly one of the longest half hours of my life. Neither of our cell phones got a signal, and after the other woman frantically pushed all the buttons multiple times in vain, I discovered a hidden door that opened to an emergency call box that connected us to an operator somewhere across the country, who then dispatched a repair man to the church. We breathed a huge sigh of relief, although we still had no idea how long it would take him to find us, especially considering rush hour traffic on a weekday morning. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse. The boys and I bided the time reciting Psalm 91 and some other Bible verses we've memorized and thanking God for delivering us out of the elevator. I knew I had to maintain my composure for the boys' sake, and as far as I could tell, they didn't have a clue that anything was amiss. It probably helped that an elevator seems like a much larger space to a small child, and that they are yet unaware of what would happen if six people in a small airtight room ran out of oxygen. Needless to say, I don't care how heavy Moses is getting... from now on we will be taking the stairs!

After that, I knew the day could only get better, and it did. This evening, Moses took his first step! I was in the kitchen rolling pizza dough at the time, but Joe witnessed him stand up all by himself in the middle of the living room and take one step forward. He was so proud of himself. Maybe he will be walking by his first birthday after all!

Moses' Skills - 11 Months Old

2010-01-16T17:36:00.000-08:00

There's no doubt about it--Moses has got great skills! While he may not have nunchuck, bow hunting, or computer hacking skills, he does seem to be somewhat advanced in certain areas. But it's likely that we are just biased, so we'll let you be the judge. Here's a brief run-down of the kinds of things Moses has been doing that have impressed us:

Moses can hold a pen and scribble. He enjoys drawing on the Magna Doodle.

Moses likes to play "catch" and is quite good at throwing and catching a ball.

Moses is very talkative, and unlike his brothers, who even to this day will speak nonsense in their own "twin language", Moses speaks a few real words that actually make sense. For example, he can say and accurately identify his "Papa," and he says "ow!" when he hits something hard.

Moses can feed himself with a fork or spoon. For example, the other evening during dinner, he grabbed Joe's spoon and helped himself to soup. This morning, he used a fork to eat pancakes (putting to shame his 4-year-old brothers who were eating their pancakes with their hands). Moses is adamant that he should be the one maneuvering the utensil, and will forcefully yank it away from you if you don't surrender to his grasp right away.

Forget sippy cups. Moses prefers to drink water out of a glass that he is holding without anyone else's assistance.

Moses is very inquisitive and regularly uses his index finger to point to objects of interest and asks what they are by saying "deh?"

Moses can crawl up the stairs, walk up the stairs while holding the railing, and he can scoot down the stairs on his tummy. We don't have stairs at our house, but he has picked this up during the few hours a week when we're visiting Mimi and Papa.

Moses will eat just about anything. Some of his recent favorites have been chili, spaghetti, cantaloupe, honeydew, french fries, carrots, bananas, fried eggs, yogurt, and oranges. And don't bother pureeing any of these delicacies for Moses--he wants to sink his eight teeth into big solid chunks.

Moses pays close attention to detail. For example, the other day he removed the stem from a cherry, then carefully tried to put it back in the "hole" from where it came. Similarly, he removed a drinking straw from a Chick-fil-a cup, then diligently tried to re-insert it through the "X" in the lid.

This last point is particularly noteworthy because Mimi likes to tell the story of my first birthday nearly 29 years ago, when I tried to re-insert a birthday candle into the tiny hole where it had pierced the cake. Legend has it that my Great Aunt Sinnie was so impressed that a 12-month-old would be captivated by such a subtle detail. Considering Moses' interest in the proper placement of cherry stems and drinking straws, Mimi is convinced that Moses will take after his Mommy in more ways than just physical appearance, heavy birth weight, being a good sleeper, and having a calm disposition. She predicts he'll also be scooping himself grapefruit with a spoon at 18 months... we'll just have to wait and see!

Bible Study

2010-01-14T17:52:00.000-08:00

The boys and I have started attending a Bible study at a local church one morning a week. It's the same Bible study I have fond memories of attending with my mom when I was little, so I was excited to have the opportunity to participate again. Caleb and Joshua are enjoying learning about Jesus' boyhood, singing songs, and eating goldfish crackers in their Bible class. I am enjoying reading the book of Acts and participating in a Bible study group for the first time since college. And then there is sweet Moses, who has not been so fond of being away from Mommy in the nursery. The first week, he was happy to explore his new environment and play with new toys, but the second week he knew what was going on and wasn't too thrilled about it. I think next week I'll try to minimize the trauma by waking him up extra early so that he'll take a nap during most of the Bible Study.

Two of Moses' classmates in the nursery are adorable identical twin girls who are about a week older than him. This past week I found myself staring at them and thinking, "Oh my gosh, that would be crazy to have two babies at the same time," and then I quickly reminded myself, "oh yeah, I had two babies at the same time!" I can't say enough how nice it has been to just have one baby this time around... it has truly felt like a vacation!

Moses' Twin?

2009-12-18T13:48:00.000-08:00

Today the boys and I and the rest of Northern Virginia invaded Wegman's in preparation for the impending blizzard. It was only my second time at Wegman's and since the store was so crowded and chaotic, I decided it'd be best to put all three boys in the cart. I put Moses and Caleb in the upper seat and Joshua sat in the main compartment. This of course left very little room for actual groceries, and we were the subject of quite a few stares. As usual, I got many comments about having my "hands full". One lady said, "wow, you've certainly got stair steps" and I told her that they technically aren't since two of them are twins. "Oh, these two?" she asked, pointing to Caleb and Moses. I know that Moses is a little big for his age, but seriously? And of course the conversation couldn't end before she told me that her daughters were born 17 months apart, which, according to her, "was just like having twins".

The funny thing is that I hear this sort of thing all the time: "my babies were x months apart, which was even harder than having twins" or "my wife had our kids the hard way- one at a time". Yes, people have actually said these things to me. Now, I am completely in awe of parents of triplets and higher order multiples, and I would never dream of telling a triplet mom that having twins and a singleton is just like having triplets. I'm sure the lady at Wegman's meant well and was just trying to make friendly conversation, but unless her 17-month-old was nursing, pooping, crying, and spitting up all night long alongside her newborn, I think it's safe to assume that her experience was nothing like having twins!

Moses' 10 Month Update

2009-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

Shortly after Moses' 9-month birthday, we had to retire his infant carseat because we could no longer buckle him into it. Joe managed to squeeze one of the twins' old UVA carseats rear-facing into the back of the Santa Fe, which has alllowed us to postpone the purchase of a third extra-narrow Radian. The UVA carseat will not fit forward-facing, though, so Moses will probably be rear-facing for a while, even though his weight already qualifies him to sit forward facing. Apparently a growing faction of parents are passionate about "extended rear-facing" since statistics show that children are less likely to suffer injuries while secured in a rear-facing carseat. I guess we'll just hop on the bandwagon!

Moses continues to be a sweet, calm, playful baby. People are often surprised to see how quiet and mellow he is compared to his rambunctious, loud older brothers. He loves to give us hugs and pats our backs while he's hugging us. He's also very generous. When I give him a cookie or a cracker, he alternates between gnawing on it and offering me a bite. If I don't take a bite, he persists in offering it to me until I do. Moses is also very attentive to detail. If I put on a different pair of earrings, he immediately notices and wants to touch them and examine them closely.

Cheerleaders

2009-12-09T17:21:00.000-08:00

A while back I had my first parent-teacher conference at the twins' preschool. Let's just say that a few decades down the road we'll probably be more likely to find the boys behind a podium or pulpit than behind a pile of books or a microscope. While the boys' listening and sitting-still skills apparently leave something to be desired, Mrs. Lavergne reports that Caleb and Joshua are exceptionally happy, sweet, exuberant boys who are well-liked by their classmates.

Every day when I drop the boys off at school, they greet each of their classmates with a loud, boisterous salutation: "Hi, Lucy! Hi, Mila! Hi, Connor!" etc. They also have all of their friend's vehicles memorized, so when they see a small red coupe pull into the parking lot, they know to shout, "Hi Anais!" or when they see a green sedan, they exclaim, "Hi Auggie!" Then, when I come pick them up from school, as soon as I open the classroom door, the boys stop whatever they're doing and start hopping up and down and shouting, "Mommy's here!!! Hi, Mommy!!!" repeatedly at the top of their lungs before dashing towards me and lunging at me for a hug. I've been informed that prior to my entrance, they likewise announce the arrival of each of their classmate's parent or guardian, gleefully yelling, "Bryce, your mommy's here!" etc. Needless to say, from what I have observed, the other children are a lot more reserved than our boys. They're no doubt happy to see their friends and mommies, but they tend to express their delight with quiet smiles or hugs as opposed to our boys' raucous cheering and yelling from the rooftops. It's no wonder that this past week Mrs. Lavergne referred to Caleb and Joshua as "cheerleaders for life".

While it has never occurred to me that our boys would take an interest in cheerleading, since neither Joe nor I ever fit the "cheerleader" stereotype, with each passing day I gain an increasing realization that there's no guarantee that our boys will turn out to be anything like us at all. What an exciting journey we'll have ahead of us as we discover what great and unexpected things God has in store for our little cheerleaders.

Somersaults and Standing

2009-11-30T01:26:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, around the time of his 4th birthday, Caleb went all the way across the monkey bars all by himself. In the week or so leading up to this grand accomplishment, he'd been dangling from everything--doorknobs, towel bars, Mommy and Daddy--building up his upper body strength. Conquering the monkey bars seems to be a sort of rite of passage amongst preschoolers that few have mastered, so he was very proud of himself. Joshua isn't quite there yet, his progress being no doubt hampered by the extra pounds he carries! Both twins, however, can do a perfect somersault. We're pretty sure they got the idea by observing our neighbor Lily somersault around the front yard, and decided to try it out for themselves. Now they're always saying "Mommy, Daddy, watch this!" as they tumble all over the living room floor. Given the boys' flair for acrobatics and high energy level that isn't easily contained within our little house, we've been thinking about asking Santa for a trampoline for Christmas!

Meanwhile, we have caught Moses standing up without holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time. When he realizes that we're watching him, he'll become bashful and drop down to his knees. Who knows, maybe he's been standing for even longer periods of time when we're not looking! In this respect, I wonder if Moses' personality will turn out to be more like Caleb's, who likes to make sure he's got a skill nailed down perfectly before showing it off. I looked back at our blog archives, and as it turns out, Joshua had been standing independently and for longer periods of time even earlier than Moses! We'd predicted that Moses would be an earlier walker since he started crawling so early and since he is just so big in general, but maybe he'll follow in his brothers' footsepts and wait until after his 1st birthday. Only time will tell!

Nine in, Nine Out

2009-11-17T04:36:00.000-08:00

Moses has now been out of the womb for as long as he was inside of it. Our sweet 9-month-old weighs 25 pounds, has 5 teeth with a sixth one poking through, and enjoys crawling and semi-cruising around the house. His favorite places to play are outside in the grass, the toilet (I usually catch him before he gets wet), and the refrigerator. Like his brothers before him, Moses loves taking vitamin bottles out of the fridge and shaking them. I'm sure it won't be long before he's feeding Papa his vitamins, too!

Moses has a good sense of humor and likes to play games. Whenever I change his diaper on the bed (which is most of the time since I've never understood the need for a designated "changing table"), as soon as I remove his diaper he flips over onto his tummy and quickly crawls to the nearest pillow. He plunges his face into the pillow and lies motionless until I exclaim "Moses!" and tickle him, sending him into a fit of laughter. If I don't tickle him right away, he looks up at me as if to say, "here I am, aren't you going to play my game?" He also loves to play with his big brothers, especially Joshua, who is partcularly good at entertaining Moses and finds great delight in making him laugh.

This past month, Moses has started eating solid food on a semi-regular basis. I wanted to wait til he was one year old, but he kept grabbing at our food and has been attempting to taste all kinds of edible and non-edible morsels, so I decided it'd be cruel to deny him any longer. Some days he wants to exclusively nurse and other days he insists on having a taste of every single thing I put in my mouth, so we just kind of go with the flow. His favorite foods so far are fresh pineapple, apples, and carrots (I "grate" carrot sticks and apple slices against his bottom teeth and he eats the resulting "puree"), yogurt with frozen wild blueberries, and baby crackers. He eats very few cooked foods. He also loves to chug cold water and diluted juice from a cup. If I'm holding a beverage glass, he'll grasp my arm and forcefully yank it towards himself so he can take a few sips.

Moses has started saying "ball", which actually sounds more like "bah." The first time I heard him say it, he was holding a toy orange. Other times, he said it while holding a whiffle ball, a kiwi fruit, a bouncy ball, and while staring at the globe-like pendant lamps hanging in Mimi and Papa's foyer. Since then, he's said "ball" at times when there were no ball-shaped objects nearby, but it could have been that he was just thinking about a ball, right? That's what we tell ourselves, at least :)

The Elusive Deuce

2009-11-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

Potty training has probably been my least favorite aspect of parenting thus far, rivaled only by the infant twins phase in which I rarely slept for more than one or two hours at a time for several months. Yes, it has been that bad. Caleb and Joshua have been peeing on the potty since early June and they've been pooping on the potty since early October, but there was a time not too long ago when I honestly believed that they would still be pooping in diapers on their 4th birthday.

Even though the twins wore underwear full-time during the day, when they needed to poop, they'd beg for a diaper. Any attempts to get them to sit on the potty to poop were met with blood-curdling shrieks and violent protest. When I eventually stopped caving in to their requests for a diaper, they'd schedule their poops around their sleeping schedules, since we still put them in diapers at bedtime. They'd either sneak in a poo right before bedtime or first thing in the morning before I even realized they were awake. Instead of their usual tradition of running into our bedroom and jumping into bed with me as soon as they woke up each morning, they'd stealthily poop in their diapers at their bedside, then postpone the inevitable scolding by lurking silently there until their stench wafted out of their room to greet my beleaguered nose. I would berate them, change their diapers, then we'd get on with our lives until the next morning. It was a vicious cycle.

Then one mild early October morning, I had not been feeling well and was lying in bed trying to get some extra rest when the boys staggered into our bedroom with soggy, stinky diapers, pestering me to change them. I buried my head in my pillow and refused. They continued to whine and plead, and that's when I decided enough was enough. I got dressed, escorted them outside, removed their diapers, and hosed them down, calmly explaining to them that this is what would happen from now on if they pooped in their diapers. The boys loved being sprayed with the hose in the context of playing outside in their swimsuits, but this time they knew I was not playing games. Meanwhile, Moses had crawled up to the screen door to see what all the fuss was about. I went to greet him, only to discover a sticky brown substance on his hands and knees. Upon further investigation, I concluded that he had crawled through poo that had leaked out of his brothers' diapers and fallen onto the living room rug. I was furious!

I ushered the twins back into the house and escorted them directly to the bathtub, where they proceeded to take a cold shower. Just like with the hose, they have previously been known to enjoy and even request cold showers, but this time they knew it was not for fun. While they were in the shower, I washed off Moses and gave him a new change of clothes, then cleaned and disinfected the rug. After a few minutes, I let the boys out of the bathtub and dried them off, explaining to them that from now on, every time they pooped in their diapers they'd get a cold shower in addition to being sprayed with the hose. They earnestly promised they would poop on the potty from now on, and a couple days later, after much coaxing, a few tears, and ample reassurance that "you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you", they did it! They haven't even had any major accidents since then.

Just as we suspected, the twins were fully capable of being potty trained a long time ago--they were just too stubborn and it took some rather drastic measures to break them of their stubbornness. They now take great pride in pooping on the potty. Caleb still likes for us to sit with him and coach him through the process, but Joshua requests that we close the door and give him privacy while he takes care of business. We're so proud of them both, and are so relieved that this unpleasant chapter of parenting our sweet twins is finally over.

Twins' 4-Year Check-up

2009-11-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

The twins went in for their 4-year well child doctor's visit the day after their birthday. Considering their usual aversion to answering questions and speaking in complete sentences, Joe thought it'd be beneficial to drill them with some practice questions that the doctor might ask them during the examination, such as "what is your name?" and "how old are you?" We were a little concerned when, on the way to the doctor's office, Caleb answered one such question by replying, "my name is 4 years old" :-(

Thankfully, Joshua kicked off the doctor's visit with a confident display of mental aptitude when he cheerfully exclaimed, "Hi, Doctor!" when the doctor walked in the room. Phew! Then at the end of the visit, he asked the doctor, "why are you washing your hands?" which surprised us since the boys don't usually ask "why" questions. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), our preparations were in vain since the doctor didn't ask the boys any of the questions we drilled them with, but at least they should now be able to accurately report their names and age to the legions of people who will invariably request this information from them whenever we go to the grocery store. I'm still waiting to find out at what age our (presumably) identical twins will stop drawing so much attention in public!

Anyway, this was the first year the boys were willing to stand to be weighed and measured. They were not perfect angels and squirmed enough to make us question the accuracy of the results, especially the heights, since I'm pretty sure that Joshua is significantly more than half an inch taller than Caleb. At any rate, this is what we were told: Caleb is 40.75 inches tall (55th %tile) and weighs 37 lbs. 4 oz. (70th %tile). Joshua is 41.25 inches tall (75th %tile) and weighs 39 lbs. 4 oz. (80th %tile).

Happy 4th Birthday, Boys!

2009-11-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

As of today I can no longer say, "I have 3 boys ages 3 and under," because Caleb and Joshua are four years old today! Happy birthday, sweet boys!

The twins have had a busy year. Among other things, in the past year they became big brothers, they started sleeping in their own bedroom, they learned to swim, they potty-trained, and they started going to preschool.

I'll write more on this topic later, but I must go to bed now :)

Catch Phrases

2009-11-05T03:13:00.000-08:00

I've been keeping a running list of some of the twins' favorite catch phrases. Considering that these phrases are already old news, I figured I ought to crunch out a post in their honor before they become totally obsolete.

Put some glue on it. "Glue" is pronounced "ga-looooo." The boys learned this catch phrase from the many incidents involving broken toys in need of repair. Now they (especially Caleb) like to just say it for fun.

Want some milk? "Milk" is pronounced "meeeee-yulk." For whatever reason, the boys tend to break out in a Southern drawl whenever they say "milk". We called them on it, and now they like to say this just to make us laugh. I guess it's their Shenandoah Valley heritage making itself evident!

You have chocolates at home. "Chocolates" is pronounced like "choc-letts," and the entire phrase is droned out in a robotic monotone, repeated several times in unison, usually in the check-out line at the grocery store.

Mushroom. Joshua came up with this gem. He bends his index finger slightly backwards and holds it in place with the tip of his middle finger, so as to resemble a mushroom illustration in his "Moonbeam Bear" book. He's been doing this for well over a year now.

Wanna go get Chinese food? "Chinese" is pronounced more like "CHAI-ness". The boys don't expect us to take this suggestion seriously, they just like to say this to get us to laugh. They were besides themselves when Joe and I actually used this catch phrase on Sunday evening and proceeded to take the family to the local Chinese take-out place. Caleb chowed down on lo-mein and rice, but Joshua would have none of it. His only request was to "see the big smiley face" on the plastic bag.

George Washington's Lap

2009-10-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

A couple days ago the boys and I were driving down the GW Parkway, and as we approached Mount Vernon, I told them that we were about to drive by George Washington's house. Caleb got very excited and asked, "want to go sit on George Washington's lap?" I explained to him that he couldn't because George Washington died a long time ago, but the boys have yet to grasp the concept of death, so he's asked again several times since then. He probably got the idea because recently we have been talking about sitting on Santa Claus' lap this Christmas, and the boys have assured me that this year they would sit on his lap and not cry. We'll see whether or not they follow through... I for one am not placing any bets. Anyway, I guess the boys have assumed that you're supposed to sit on the lap of any old man with white hair. When you look at the world through the eyes of an almost-4-year-old, you realize that a lot of our cultural norms are really pretty strange.

In other news, you should once again be able to leave comments on our blog. I know that most of you are silent lurkers, but comments are always welcome and appreciated!

Mischief at 8 Months

2009-10-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Moses is now 8 months old and is getting into everything. His favorite variety of mischief is playing with his brothers' shoes. Caleb has become quite the tattle-tale, frequently informing me that "Moses is touching the shoe" or "Moses is eating paper." It amazes me how the complusion to tell on one's siblings is so innate, since I'm sure that no one explicitly taught him to do this. I guess Caleb feels it's his duty as the eldest to keep his younger brothers in line. Joshua likes to keep me up-to-date on Moses' activities, as well, but his reports usually have a more positive spin, such as, "Mommy, Moses stood up," which actually happens so frequently now that Joshua doesn't even bother telling me about it most of the time anymore.

Sometimes Moses surprises us with other forms of mischief, such as the other day when I found him sitting on the kitchen floor sprinkled with a flaky green substance. Upon closer inspection I determined that he used his four enormous teeth to bite through a tea bag. After all, how could he have resisted something that so closely resembles his favorite delicacy, paper? Then today we caught him standing at the toilet, happily splish-splashing away. Miraculously, the toilet and toilet water were relatively clean, which isn't often the case in our one-bathroom house where two little boys have recently learned to pee standing up. To give you an idea of the kind of abuse our toilet suffers, the twins' favorite thing to do is stand at the toilet side by side and "make a cross" with their pee streams. But I digress. I'm sure we sent splash-happy Moses mixed signals when I asked Joe to go run and grab the camera and snap a few pictures while he was still in the act!

Moses is so much different than his big brothers were at this age. In addition to putting everything in his mouth (we were thankfully spared this common phenomenon when the twins were babies), being a lot bigger (he now wears the same clothes the twins wore when they were walking), and being developmentally advanced, he also seems much happier and is always smiling. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that he sleeps much longer stretches than his brothers did at this age. Moses also seems to have abandoned typical baby babbling and instead prefers to communicate by growling. The first time I heard him growling I could have sworn there was a grown man in the room, but no, it was our sweet Moses. It probably doesn't help that I tend to growl back at him, while hugging and kissing him, of course. I'm sure he now thinks this is a normal way to communicate!

Daddy Slop

2009-10-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

In light of the cold, rainy weather we've been having recently, we decided that a dinner of homemade chili--something we haven't had since last winter--would hit the spot. So I threw a batch together, and when the boys came home from preschool this afternoon, Joshua peered into the crockpot and proclaimed, "it's daddy slop."

"What's that?" I asked, confused. "Daddy slop", Joshua reiterated. And then it hit me. The chili looked exactly like the sloppy Joes filling that I often cook for dinner, and of course Joshua is well aware that his daddy's name is Joe. From now on I think we'll have a new name for sloppy Joes in our household!

And now for a slightly less palatable anecdote from today. I asked the boys what they did at school, and as usual the first thing to come to mind was what they had for snack. Caleb told me that he ate crackers and oranges, and that the worms ate oranges, too. At first I thought he was making stuff up, and then remembered catching a glimpse of a new addition to their classroom--a worm composting bin. The children must have put their orange peels in the composting bin after snacktime. Caleb then went on to tell me that "the worms look like red spaghetti." Lovely. I think I'll stick to daddy slop for the time being ;)

Hummus Tummus

2009-10-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about the boys' preschool is that the parents take turns bringing in healthy snacks to share, and the children serve themselves family-style. While I think I'm pretty good about exposing to (or should I say "forcing upon") the boys a variety of healthy foods, there are some things I've never bothered with, one of those being hummus. Yesterday's school snack consisted of whole wheat bagels, carrot sticks, and hummus. Much to my surprise, Mrs. Lavergne reported to me that Caleb, who is usually suspicious of new foods, simply couldn't get enough of those smushed chick peas. Joshua, of course, wanted nothing to do with the stuff. So after school I asked Caleb, "what did you eat at school today?" and he told me he ate, "bagels, carrots, and tummus."

"Tummus?" I asked. "Don't you mean 'hummus'?"

Caleb grinned and replied, "No, Mommy. Tummus. Tummus Jefferson!"