Way Back Wednesday

This week (October 4) in 2014. He was so little!

Trying on some Harry Potter glasses. 💜

Way Back Wednesday

This week's Way Back post is a re-run of a post I wrote way back on 5/29/2010. They are SO tiny!

~~~

Listening to Their Momma Like Good Little Boys...

We got the boys' new lenses today. I spoke to both Shawn and Jason at length about NOT THROWING THEIR GLASSES WHEN THEY GET UPSET ALREADY!!! I carefully explained that throwing said glasses will scratch the lenses again, and we just can't be running to the store every few months to replace them. They listened to me closely and have agreed to take care of these, their third pair of lenses this year. They swore up and down that this would be the last set we'd have to get until their next eye exam in November.

Ahem.

So they thought.

And thought.

They were hard at work trying to figure out the best way to protect this round of lenses and keep their mother happy.

They did come up with an ingenious plan, I do have to say so myself.

Here is Jason modeling their new idea...

With a plan like this, there is no way the lenses will get scratched this time.

It is not, however, a perfect plan, and Jason has started to realize their thinking was a little short sighted in the last picture.

Hehe.

Seeing might be a problem!

Waaaaaaay Back Wednesday

This week in 2015. He was so little!

In his favorite place - the dirt! lol

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

The boys had their 3rd grade BBQ today! Lots of fun was had!

Conversations With 9 Year Olds

Shawn's been working on establishing boundaries. This conversation at bedtime made me laugh.

Shawn: Mom, could you change the music to something else?

Me: Okay. I'll put in your music, but you need to go to sleep.

Shawn: Mom, please don't tell me what to do.

LOL. It caught me off guard and made me laugh. He wasn't trying to be disrespectful or snotty, he was just setting his boundaries. And then he laughed when I told him he doesn't get to tell me what to do, it doesn't go the other way around. Ha!

Conversations With 6 Year Olds

He can make me melt like no other...

Him (sighing): I can't sleep. Jason keeps telling me to go to sleep, but I can't sleep. 

Me: Just rest and listen to the music.

Him: Ok. Mom? Do you know what you know?

Me: I know I love you.

Him: I love you, too.

Cute Big Boy Saturday - Wild

Shawn's hair is a crack up. It is Wild with a capital "w." You never know what he'll look like when he wakes up in the morning or on those rare occasions when he naps.

Today he took a nap and woke up like this.

His version of Dragon Ball Z hair.

This picture doesn't even truly do it justice. Lol.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Sand

One of Shawn's all time favorite things to do is to play in the sandbox. He loves dumping sand, tossing sand (which is a no-no), and even making "sand castles" (which are more sand than castle). His level of fun is directly related to the amount of sand I find around, on, and even in this boy!

The other weekend, I had to laugh when I saw he had found a new place to keep some of his sand...

See it? Right there on his glasses?
No? Well let me give you a better look...

Ta-dah!
It's a mini sand castle!

20 Things About Shawn

Mr. Shawn...he's such a character! Here's 20 things about our boy, Shawn. (in no particular order)

1. He can drive me insane one moment, and in the next he is the sweetest boy on Earth.
2. He will do almost anything for chocolate.
3. His favorite foods are chicken, pizza, and bologna sandwiches.
4. He is definitely a morning person. He's the only one of us who will ask to go to bed at night.
5. He's wearing 5T shirts and 4T pants. His shoes are size 9.5.
6. He loves his Cars cars and LeapPad at the moment.
7. He lives for annoying his brother. lol. (To be fair, his brother lives to annoy him.)
8. He is a master charmer. He will talk to anyone at anytime.
9. He likes to clean up.
10. His favorite shows at the moment are Peppa Pig and Olivia.
11. He is definitely a momma's boy.
12. He loves the water and taking baths.
13. He is stubborn and wants things his way.
14. He is very sensitive to other people's moods. If you cry, he'll probably cry with you, because he hates when others are sad.
15. He is quick to laugh. He is quick to scream, too, when he's frustrated.
16. He will try almost any kind of food you offer him, much to his father's delight.
17. He hates loud noises.
18. He can say his numbers in Mandarin, knows quite a few words of Spanish, and sometimes speaks with a British accent. English is still his main language. :)
19. He likes to get dirty--the dirtier, the better.
20. The boy loves to craft!

Cute Big Boy Saturday - King Shawnie

All hail King, Shawnie!

Do you like being King, Shawn?

Shawn: Yeah, but I'm still a princess.

And a handsome princess you are, my boy. :)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Animal

He fell asleep on the couch this afternoon. It had been a long day after an early wake-up. Plus he did a pretty hard workout at therapy.

This is how Isaac found him when he came home from work.

Leave me alone! I wanna sleep.

You know, there is something so PERFECT about Animal covering his face just like that. He couldn't have made that blanket sit better on his own face if he tried. Plus, our sweet little Shawnie has been somewhat of a terror lately. Oh boy does he know how to push his mommy's buttons! Lol.

All smiles after an afternoon snooze.

Fortunately, Animal stayed on the blanket once he woke up and didn't become his alter ego for the evening. Yea!

Shawn's Day

Today we celebrated Shawn's Homecoming Day. We did everything we could do make this day special for him.

He woke up to his own celebratory sign, complete with balloons!

Oh boy were they excited by the sign!
We all had to go in and marvel at its beauty this morning.

Shawn got to play the game of his choice (a fishing game) this morning.
He played this game off and on all day long.

Jason took his turn.

Jack was taking his turn, but I was too late
taking the picture. All I got was him leaving the game. lol

 Then this evening, Shawn got to have his favorite dinner. He even got to go with daddy to get it.

It's PIZZA!
He was pretty excited. :)

Chowing down at dinner.

After dinner, Shawn got to blow out a candle on his "cake." He insisted we sing him "Happy Birthday" instead of "Happy Homecoming Day"...which, I guess the day is sort of a variation of a birthday, but still.

Yea! Hurry up and turn out the light, daddy!
I want to blow out my candle!

Blowing out his candle...
LOVE Jason's expression over there.
He was not enjoying the whole "Shawn's Day" idea and was sad
he has to wait a whole NINE days until it's his Homecoming Day.

A high-five for blowing out his candle.

Then he got to open up a few little presents...

A movie

An App card for his LeapPad (Jason has it here)

And some cars!

Then we got to have some cake. Shawn's cake was a giant chocolate chip cookie! It was yummy.

 

 

He was so excited. It made my heart happy to see him having so much fun. I think he had a really great day!

P.S. I know that celebrating a Homecoming Day may seem a bit excessive, but I personally love celebrating this day. It's our chance to focus our attention on only one of them and make him the star of the day, and there really isn't any other chance to do that the rest of the year when you have twins plus one. Besides, it's always fun to celebrate the ones you love!



Happy Homecoming Day, Shawn!

On this day five years ago, our little Shawn came home from the hospital! We were so excited to get the chance to finally be parents without the watchful eyes of the hospital personnel.

Picking him up without having to juggle wires was pure bliss. Sigh. I'm pretty sure all I did that first night was feed him every three hours and stare in wonder at him the rest of the night.

Happy Homecoming Day, Shawn!

It blows my mind to look at how tiny he was -- and he was
four times his birth weigh here!

Tomorrow, we get to celebrate! ;-)

All on His Own...an Observation

Jason spent the night at grandma's this evening, so Shawn (and Jack) got lots of extra attention tonight.

Let me just say that Shawn LOVED it. I swear he literally did NOT stop talking for the entire evening.

He talked to me.

He talked to daddy.

And when both of us were occupied in some fashion, he talked to Jack or even himself!

It was really fun to see how animated he became. (That isn't to say that Shawn isn't pretty darn amazing while Jason is here, but the behavior is different when Shawn shares the spotlight with his brother.) I guess I hadn't really realized just how much the personality of one affected the other, especially in relation to Jason being the more dominant of the two while Shawn is more passive.

Shawn did ask about Jason a number of times, wanting to know when he'd come home. He even told me that Jason was supposed to come home now, which I'm pretty sure he really meant. I do think he enjoyed his evening, though.

Fostering the relationship of the pair while giving each the ability to shine in his own way AND on his own has been a unique challenge. Now that I've seen Shawn's reaction tonight, I'm more determined to give them opportunities like this in the future.

This whole twin business is fascinating to me!

Cute Big Boy Saturday

This is what one looks like come morning after a night of riding fast cars in your dreams...

 

 

I told you he has a need for speed now!

A Need for Speed

One of the therapists brought this baby to school today.



This is awesome!

As you can see by Jason's face, he thought it was the best thing EV-ER. Hit doesn't even begin to describe how well this car went over with him.

Shawn, on the other hand, was a bit more apprehensive. He saw the therapist ride the car into the building this morning and was leery of the noise the car makes when it's on. Shawn's still pretty sensitive to certain loud noises, which this car certainly was. (To be fair, Jason was worried about actually getting near the car at first, too.)

Imagine Isaac's surprise, then, when he looked up to see Shawn sitting IN the car!



Hey, where's the radio on this thing?

His reaction to it when it started to move was even better! Just watch his face. :)



He went around the entire building (in the fastest gear even) and loved every minute of it!

Shawn's definitely developed a need for speed to match his brother's!

I think now we may be in trouble.

Conversations With 5 Year Olds

At grandma's house today...

Grandma: Shawn, tell mommy who you talked to on the phone today.

Shawn: ...

Me: Shawn? Who'd you talk to on the phone?

Me: Shawn?

Me: Shaaaa-awwwn. Who did you talk to?

Shawn (quietly): Lightening McQueen

Grandma (laughing): No! You talked to your aunt Eileen!

Shawn (laughing): Oooooohhhhh!

Apparently even he couldn't believe Lightening McQueen would be calling him! lol.

Morning Conversations

Overheard in our bedroom at the crack of dawn this morning...

J: (whispering) Shawn, come here.

S: (whispering) Are mommy and daddy awake yet?

J: No. You go to the left and wake up daddy, and I'll go to the right and wake up mommy.

S: But I want to wake up mommy.

J: No, I do.

Daddy: Shhhh...

J: (whispering again) You're supposed to go wake up daddy.

S: Awww...I'm so justappointed. (my guess is this meant he was "just disappointed")

J: Ok. You go wake up mommy.

~~~

And so the conspiracy begins...

Wait. Who am I trying to kid?

The conspiracy continues!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Worth It

Totally worth the early morning...

Shawn loves his LeapPad phone. :-)

Him having his own "phone" has made me happy, too. I get my iPhone back!