Sunday Six

Six things I want to remember from the week:

1. There is nothing better than Jack yelling, "Mum, mum, mum!" and coming to me for a kiss. Perfection.
2. Jason spent the night at grandma's on Friday. When he came home, I asked him what he did. The only thing he would tell me was that he missed me. Such a sweet boy. :-)
3. Shawn has this apple letter game. It tells you how to spell different animal words like vulture, elephant,monkey, etc., through lit, flashing letters. We pulled it back out (after a few months on the shelf) while Shawn was feeling bad, and he started right back into playing it. The thing is. now the letters no longer light up or flash. Shawn still spells the words correctly, though! How cool is that!?!
4. The thing about sick boys is they like to be snuggled. Good thing I like to snuggle my boys. :-)
5. Jason has a habit of putting his cars right in the middle of Jack's play area. Of course that means that Jack has to climb over/totally destroy Jason's careful car arrangements. Isaac once commented that it was like Jack was Godzilla destroying Jason's little car city. It cracks me up that Jason refers to Jack as "Jackzilla" now. lol
6. Shawn is going through this phase of only wanting me to do things for him. (Anything/everything must be done by me if I am around. If I am gone, he obviously lets Isaac or my mom do whatever.) While it can be incredibly frustrating for him to constantly call me from the other room to do something when his dad is two feet from him, it does warm my heart. He really is a momma's boy, and he's proud of it! :-)

Sunday Six

Six things from the week that I want to remember...

1. The big boys were in quiet time earlier today, but I heard Shawn belting out random song lyrics at top volume. There is nothing quite like hearing "Hi Ho the Dairy O" out of the blue. I think he misplaced his memo on what quiet time really is supposed to be. And somehow, Jason continued to sleep. I have no idea how!
2. Jack's new found seating area is on his tipped Mickey chair. He likes to flip his chair on its back (so the seat is now the back) and snuggle back. It is too funny.
3. Jason is now officially reading signs around town. Before, he would "read" the signs that he knew. Now he reads everything it seems. It still boggles my mind to see him in action. Pretty soon, we may have to stop spelling the things we don't want him to know!
4. Shawn's new favorite song is "Over the River and Through the Woods." Puts me in the mood for Christmas...which is only 79 days away! Yikes!
5. Jack decided that he likes to wear hats. He likes to wear them and often brings me his hats to put on his head (when he can't get it on himself). Should I not be available, he's been known to put the hat on the floor and just scoot up into it as much as he can. lol
6. Shawn has finally started asking to draw. Actually, he asks to make presents for grandma (and only grandma--hey, what am I here? Chopped liver?). It is so nice to see, because for the longest time he didn't want anything to do with drawing/writing!

Sunday Six

Six things I want to remember from last week...

1. Jack has started a new thing during dinner time--he's started the head shake argument. lol. He's a notoriously picky eater, so I am often telling him that something is "yummy," so he'll try it. Now when I say something is yummy, he immediately shakes his head no. We go back and forth with me telling him how good something is, while he vigorously tells me it isn't. He'll try whatever it is and then shake his head the entire time he eats it, I assume to further convince me of my poor judgement. Cracks me up. This boy is a character.


2. This weekend, while the big boys played in the mud, Jack was happily sliding down the slide. He repeatedly held our hands on the way down and would belly laugh when he hit the bottom. After a few attempts, he got a bit bold and pushed Isaac's hands away from him. He could do it himself! He could, that is, until he actually started moving. Then he looked a lot like this:
   
   
   
   Heh, heh. Is that not the cutest face ever? I love that he is independent enough to think he can try something on his own!


3. While the boys were outside playing in the mud, Shawn belted out "I love dirt" over and over again in this melody. It was hilarious. After they were finished, we tried to get some of the mud off of them while they were outside. Shawn turned and said, "Daddy, why do we have to get clean? I like it!" He's such a boy!


4. The boys got their first exposure to tacos tonight. (What? Don't judge!) Isaac took a big bite out of one while Shawn watched. Isaac asked him if he wanted to try some. "Yes, daddy! I want to kiss the taco, too!" lol. He did and he liked it. :-) (Jason wouldn't even try it. Sigh.)
   


5. I've started talking to the boys about their upcoming birthday. (How can they almost be 5?!?) Specifically, I've been trying to narrow down what they might want for the theme of their party. Jason is all over the place when it comes to the theme he wants, but there is one thing he has down for sure. He figures he should have said party tomorrow. He was generous enough to say that if we did have the party tomorrow, we wouldn't need the decorations. lol. He's helpful like that!
   


6. J: Dad when are we going to go?
   Isaac: In two minutes, Jason.
   J: How many is that? (while he holds up his hands)
   Isaac: You have to count to 60 twice.
   J: I don't have enough fingers for that. Can you show me?
   Isaac: Just count your fingers six times.
   J: (fisting and then opening his hands) 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60...10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60. Can we go now?!?

Sunday Six

Six things I'd like to remember from this week:

1. J: Dad, what are you making?
   I: Eggs. Do you want some?
   J: No.
   I: So you don't want any eggs?
   J: Eggggss actly! (and he took off)
   
2. Every now and then, the boys come up with a mispronunciation that is too cute to correct. Shawn has one at the moment, which he'll often use when he's trying to be funny. (He knows me too well.)
   Me: Shawn, here's your lunch.
   S: I don't want that! It's ess-cuss-ting! (Then he starts rolling with laughter.)
   
3. Jack continues to climb on everything he can. I am so not prepared for this development, I tell you! Anyway, this afternoon I caught him pulling papers off of the refrigerator. He had pushed Shawn's chair to the fridge from the table, climbed into it, and gave himself easy access to the things I "thought" were out of his reach. Got to hand it to him for the creativity. :-)
4. Somewhere, somehow, Jason learned about chores and allowance. So, this week Jason got to do his first chore, cleaning up the living room and their bedroom. He just about died from excitement when I gave him a dime for his piggy bank afterward. lol. I do have an idea on how to handle chores in the future, but I haven't yet got anything together to do it. So...look for a post on it at some point.
5. I love watching Shawn's tender side blossom. He has always been a snuggler, but recently, he has taken to giving lots of extra affection to Jack. If Jack is near him, Shawn will stroke his head or give him hugs. He shares his toys with Jack in a way that Jason won't even consider. It is way cute to watch.
6. I thought Jack was going to follow in my black eyed footsteps this week. While he was climbing on Isaac, he hit his eye on daddy's knee. He had almost the exact same mark I did. It was puffy and red, so I thought for sure he'd have a shiner to match mine. (Unlike me, he hardly even reacted when it happened. The boy has a hard head!) The good news is that he's a much quicker healer than I am, and he was perfectly fine the next morning. It was a funny coincidence, though!

Sunday Six

Six things I want to remember from this week:

1. I cut the big boys' hair this weekend. Jason did really well, and barely shed a tear. Shawn struggled with the anticipation of the cut (while Jason was getting his done), but while I was actually cutting his hair, he was much better than he has been. Maybe this means that the days of teary/hysterical hair cuts are in the past!
   
   Jack did not get his hair cut. I just can't bring myself to cut all of those curls. I love his curls! See?
   
   
   
2. Jack has added "night, night" to his word list. He says it in the sweetest high pitched voice. Makes me melt.


3. We do a "detour" on the way home from work everyday. I turn a little early and wind through an area neighborhood which happens to have a kiddie park. After one of our trips, Jason insisted that we come home and write a check on the calendar so we could go to that park. He counted down the number of sleeps until the big day and talked constantly about that check mark. He nearly exploded with excitement when the day finally came. Thank goodness the park was able to live up to his expectations.


4. While at the park, two ladies sat down and started playing a hand held drum. (I don't know why, but whatever.) I asked Shawn if he wanted to go somewhere else to get away from the noise. "No mommy. I think I'm digging it," he said and then started swaying to the beat. The boy loves music, even bad music. It was too funny.


5. For the longest time, when I go to pick up the boys I have asked whether they want to spend the night at grandma's that night. The answer was always an immediate 'no' until just recently. Jason started saying 'ok' to the question, but just before we get ready to leave him, he says that he has to cancel because of some random reason. This week's excuses: 1) we have school tomorrow, 2) he'd miss his show, 3) Shawn would be lonely, 4) I don't have any clothes, and 5) grandma needs her sleep. Got to love that he's sacrificing for others, right? lol


6. Shawn is in this phase of telling us (usually me, Isaac, and my mom) what to ask him so he can answer. He did it to Jason this week, though.
   
   S: "Jason, ask me if I want to play cars with you."
   J: (all excited at the prospect of playing cars) "Shawn, do you want to play cars with me?"
   S: (after thinking for a moment) "Um...nope."


Sometimes you can't win with this kid!

Sunday Six

Six moments from the week that I want to remember...

1. Sometimes, Jack needs a little "encouragement" to try his food, so if he refuses to try something, I put a little in his mouth so he can at least taste it. (This method has about a 50% success rate, in case you're wondering.) Anyway, I gave him a bit of food to try while telling him how good it was and using lots of "mmm's." He looked me straight in the eye, shook his head no, and told me "Yuck!" After I picked my jaw up off the floor, it cracked me up. Looks like I have another food critic on my hands!
2. Jason loves his newest joke: "What do you tell a cow on his birthday? Happy Birthday to MOO!" He laughs hysterically every time. If he tells you, you better too. Just saying.
3. Shawn has a new favorite show, which sounds so cute when he says it! Could you tell the characters on the show are British? :-)
4. Shawn is starting to embrace his big brother role and knows just how to push Jason's buttons. (If Jason says something, Shawn immediately says the opposite. Drives Jason batty!) He's a minute older, and he takes every opportunity to remind his younger brother of that fact. lol.
5. Jason has put himself into time out in his bedroom two times this week. He comes out saying, "Ok. I'm calm now. I'm ready to say 'sorry'." And he does! I think this new development is AWESOME, let me tell you. There are plenty of adults who haven't mastered this skill, and my boy's done it at 4! 
6.  Jack's just starting to give me "high fives" as a way of celebrating. LOVE it!

Sunday Six

Six moments I want to remember from the week:

1. On Thursday, I went in to get Jack out of bed and found him like this.
   
   
   
   I think we can safely say the boy has reached the undressing milestone!


2. Jack has started his own version of a hunger strike. He doesn't want to go without food, mind you, be he is pretty picky about what he'll put in his mouth. Rather than throwing the food on the floor, he's decided that it's much cuter to feed what he doesn't want to me. Of course I had to let him do it, too. It was too cute to stop! (Yes, I'm a sucker. Sigh.)


3. Jason has pretty amazing articulation for a 4 year old. That's why I LOVE that he says, "bee mem ber" for the word "remember." It makes me smile every time I hear it.


4. I asked Jason to do something for me while I went to change Jack's diaper. When I came back, he was sprawled out on the floor. "Mom," he said, "I'm stumped. I think I'm too little to do that." How do you argue with that?


5. Shawn is our dancer. He loves music and loves to dance to just about whatever he hears. The music could be as long as a song or as short as a few seconds on a commercial. Music still needs to be danced to according to him. He also loves for mommy and daddy to dance, too.


6. The boys were watching Sprout TV earlier and listening to a Gerber Life commercial for saving for college. When the commercial ended, Shawn added, "I wanna go to college." Looks like we need to keep adding to that college fund! :o) 

Sunday Six

Moments I want to remember from this week:

1. I loved, loved, LOVED how Jack flew across the room to me when I came home from a three day conference. The moment was made a hundred times better when he started saying, "Mum, mum, mum, mum..." over and over again. Made for a happy me!
2. I made a few videos for the boys, which Isaac played at dinner while I was gone. They were simple videos in which I told them I loved them, to be good for grandma, and how many days it would be until I came home. After they watched the first one, Isaac sent me this message: "The boys loved the video. Jason wanted to watch it several times and commented, 'Mommy loves me!' with a big smile on his face. Shawn was talking back to the phone and said, 'I love you, mommy!'" Awww...
3. I love how literal everything is at this age. Our conversations often go like this (with variations due to whichever idiom I've used): Me while pointing to his stomach: "Did that hit the spot?" Jason: "Yeah. Um...wait..." (he looks at his belly) "Which spot was it supposed to hit?"
4. Jack found a lemon off of our tree on the ground. He picked it up and immediately put it in his mouth to chew it.

   

   80 year old in a toddler body...

   Afterward, he threw the lemon, chased it, and continued to throw it until it was a sufficient distance away from him. Clearly, he was not a fan!
5. All of our boys are polite, but Shawn is our boy with mega manners. He regularly uses "excuse me" when he's trying to get some one's attention and is all over "please" and "thank you" like no body's business. Friday afternoon he was enjoying a chocolate coin. He offered it to me like the sweet young man that he is: Shawn: "Mommy, do you want to have some?" he followed that with a quick, "Say no, okay?" :)
6. I posted this on Facebook, but I wanted to add it here. This is the commentary from the boys watching the Olympics (wrestling):
   
   J: So we want the blue guy to win?
   Me: Yes, he's from the USA. We want him to win.
   J: Uh oh. That red guy looks like he wants to win, too. How come they both can't win?
   S: Yeah. How come?
   Me: Well, that's not how it works...
   J: In my games everyone would get a medal!
   S: yeah!
   Me: (happy sigh)

Sunday Six

Moments I want to remember from this week:

1. Since we've been back from our trip, Shawn asks to go to Disneyland every day. I think he enjoyed himself. :-)
2. I keep finding Jack in the craziest places--on tables, behind chairs, etc. The boy is everywhere. I'm going to need to put a LoJack on him just so I can track him down!
3. We bought Jay's glasses at Target. After we got them, I picked up a few other things before we headed home. While standing in line, Jay was his charming self with the checker. I think she would have talked to him all night if she could have. She was so enamored, she told us to make sure we come back to her line the next time we came. lol. Is this a hint of what's in my future with this boy?
4. I will never tire of Jack making a beeline for me and getting up into my lap for a hug. It is one of the best feelings in the world! (Hugs from the big boys are pretty amazing, too.)
5. We've watched the Olympics every night this week. I had hoped the boys would take an interest in them, and learn to love the games as much as I do. Oh they love the Olympics alright. The commercials for the Olympics that is. I guess that is a step in the right direction?
6. Favorite music this week:
• Shawn is still all about the group Fun, and their song, "We Are Young." He has also added Rascal Flatts' "Life Is a Highway." He has been known to rock out to pretty much anything on the radio.
• Jason, on the other hand, is a bit more selective about his tunes. His current favs are "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye and "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry.
• Jack enjoys whatever his big brothers and parents make him listen to. Ahem. ;)

Sunday Six

Six things I want to remember about the week:

1. Jack has a new found love for playing catch. He's been rolling the ball back and forth with me for a while, but this week he's decided that the game is fun! and he wants to play it all the time! It's too cute!
2. Like I said, Jason had an opthamology appointment this week. I am so excited that his eyes are also now improving drastically, just as Shawn's eyes did. When they had first got their glasses at 12 months old, the opthamologist said that there was the possibility that their eyes would improve enough to no longer need glasses. That is looking a little more realistic now.
   
   Yay!
   
   Of course, a weaker script means that Jason needs new glasses. We went off to order them on Friday, and for the first time, he chose his own pair. (Which shocked me because Shawn could have cared less about picking his own glasses 6 months ago--I guess I thought Jay would be the same.)
   Blue glasses at that. He loves them.
   
   Sometime when I wasn't looking, my little guy started to grow up for reals. (sniff, sniff)
3. I love, love, LOVE it when Shawn will tell me out of the blue that he loves me. There is nothing better than that!
4. Shawn is doing really well with his potty training and is getting closer to being done. He thinks he outsmarted me like his brother did, by trying to get more rewards if he asked to go to the potty all the time. (He earned a Team UmiZoomi video or some time with Siri listening to "We Are Young.") But what started out as him wanting to go because he wanted to watch his show has morphed into him wanting to go because he actually needs to. Ha! Who outsmarted whom, buddy? Lol. I will admit that with Shawn I was a lot less aggressive about the whole thing. I am letting him dictate how quickly we go, which I think is working out better for him. He has a tendency to resist when he thinks things are not his idea.
5. Jack loves to move everything around. He pushes the kitchen chairs all over, takes all of the hand towels and cushion covers off, and generally leaves every room in a state of total disarray. It's crazy!
6. Tooth number two has started to loosen. It won't be long before the tooth fairy makes a return visit!

Sunday Six

Six moments to remember from the week:

1. It was brought to my attention that I sort of left you hanging on the whole lost tooth celebration. The tooth fairy wrote a note to Jason and left him a dollar coin. He woke up at 6:30. We heard him suck in his breath and exclaim, "She came!" It was too cute. He opened up his box, found his coin, and made a beeline to our room to show us what he got. He ended with the sweetest, "I love her!" I think he's sold on the tooth fairy.
2. Jack is a little whirlwind around this place and ALWAYS on the move. I am just not used to the energy this boy has. He is so very different from the big boys at this age. That is a very good thing.
3. The boys continue to show me at every opportunity how different they are. It always makes me smile. Take pizza making for instance. Shawn likes his pizzas with sauce, cheese, peperoni, and black olives. Jason prefers his pizza sans sauce and with only cheese and cut up hot dog. LOL.
4. Shawn is our early riser and is most usually up and about by 7. Thankfully, he is happy to go play in the living room for a while so we I can sleep in for a bit longer. Now that I've been out for summer break, the second Isaac leaves Shawn comes into my room and wants to get into bed and watch NICK Jr. snuggle with me. The boy is smart. How can I refuse a snuggle no matter how early it is?
5. Jack totally loves balls. I think we have a future ball player in the family! He loves to throw them around the house and then chase them all over.
6. The big boys are now pretty adamant about choosing their clothes lately. They could have cared less about what they wore before. It never fails that Shawn wants to wear short sleeve shirts while Jason always wants long sleeves.

Sunday Six

1. There is nothing quite like a momma's kisses to make everything better, or so the boys think at least. They are always asking me to kiss something or other (I did draw the line at tongue, though). On Thursday, Jason took the idea of healing kisses and created a "Kissing Hospital" so they could make each other's hurts feel better. (I think I just about melted away at the cuteness of it all!)
2. We were teaching the boys how to roll their "r's" Friday night. I am going to recognize Shawn as the person with the cutest "r" roll ever. Seriously. It is adorable. (For the record, his "r's" sound a lot like mine. Only my "r" rolling is decidedly not cute.)
3. The new vocabulary word around these parts is 'similar.' It is too funny to listen to Jason tell his brother (or me as the case may be) how something is 'similar' to other things. It's even funnier to listen to Shawn reply about how interesting what he's saying is. lol. ;)
4. I have finally started to potty train Shawn, and he is doing so well! He isn't 100% yet, but he is getting there (which is a great relief because for the longest time he'd just scream when we even suggested him going on the potty). The one thing he loves to do is sing "We Are Young" by Fun at the top of his lungs. Well, I have to admit that I get to sing, too. (Potty training is a team effort at our house after all.) Unlike Jason, who we bribed with Matchbox cars, Shawn's choice of prize has been a lot easier, too. He simply wants to watch 'Team Umizoomi" episodes. I can now recite verbatim every single show in existence. Lucky me!
5. We've been heading out back to play every afternoon. For the longest time, Jack was sort of anti anything backyard. On Thursday, he decided he can go outside and to play. He even touched that nasty green stuff. Oh, and he likes to try to eat rocks. Yea?
6. Jack's found a new game. He has started building towers and knocking them down. It cracks him up, especially if he knocks over a tower I made. He's such a silly boy!

Sunday Six

It was exciting to see that Shawn has overcome his fear of the slide. He loves that thing now. He is definitely the daredevil of the two big boys.

The boys rhyme everything. We say something; they say it back using words that rhyme rather than the original words. It makes them laugh, so we all play along. I giggle to myself every time I say we need to go to the kitchen. They can only figure out one word to rhyme with "kitchen." lol

Shawn is in this phase of saying excuse me all. the. time. so much so that I hear, "Excuse me, momma," about fifty million times a day. No joke. He says my name a LOT. I think I am ready for said phase to be over now.

Jack was learning how to eat his dinner with a fork tonight. I helped him stab his food and then let him do the rest. Too cute! I got it on video, so you get to see the cuteness in action.

You also get to see Jack's pickiness in action. Sigh. If I could feed him waffles for every meal, we'd be all set. Unfortunately, there isn't a whole lot of nutritional value in a continuous cycle of waffles, so that plan is out. Feeding a picky boy when you don't particularly like to cook can be challenging, especially when he nixes several of your specialties!

The boys do exercises every night as part of our nightly routine. The reward for their exercises is to play with my phone. It is amazing how motivating this phone is for the boys! Good grief. If only they found me as motivating as Siri. (I also love hearing Shawn grunt like a tennis player who has just hit a ball BEFORE he does the movement of the exercise. I have no idea where he learned that people grunt when they exercise, but he has to do it, too!)

Sunday Six

A few memories from this last week:

1. Jack has this thing he does that melts my heart. When he is in the middle of playing, he'll stop what he is doing and come crawling straight to me for a hug and snuggle. He'll sit with me for a little bit before he'll get down and again go on his way.
2. One of Shawn's favorite pastimes is to put all his toys out the doggie door that leads to the garage. He tells stories about each of the toys as he's putting them through the door. Sometimes, he'll ask me to rescue them once he's finished putting them all through so he can do it all again. lol.
3. Jason is on a painting kick this week. His favorite subject is a rainbow and he loves to mix his colors. The only problem is after a while, all of his colors look exactly the same so his rainbows don't look like rainbows to anyone else but him. (He thinks they look beautiful!)
4. Jack has discovered our cat. Annie. Anytime Jack sets eyes on her, he laughs and chases her all over the house. I swear the cat knows what is going on, too, because she goes out of her way to get his attention when she enters the room.
5. Shawn loves, loves, loves talking on the phone to grandma. He always knows when I am talking to her, and INSISTS on talking to her, too. He tells her what he is doing, what Jason is doing, and then ends with a routine about her taking dirt off of his hand. It's hilarious. Once this week I tried to convince him that I was talking to a salesman instead of my mom. He insisted on the phone anyway and had the funniest conversation with the "salesman/grandma." He knew it was her, but kept calling her "salesman" anyway. We still crack up when we think about it.
6. Jason has become very protective of his brothers over the last few weeks. It is one thing if he does something to his brothers, but he is the first to their defense if he thinks Isaac or I are doing something to them they don't like (like giving Shawn medicine for example). He'll rush over and tell us over and over again, "Shawn doesn't like that, mommy!" until we stop the "injustice." He'll sometimes even give alternatives for us to do instead of whatever is causing his brother's stress. Perhaps he has a future as a lawyer?