Weekending

My goodness, another week and weekend have passed (past?)! I am thankful that February is a short month - March is ever so much closer to Spring than February, don't you think?

Since I stay at home, our daily routine is pretty much the same be it Saturday or Wednesday, so I try to make weekend days a little bit different - a little bit special - for all of us. I have been working on getting the things that must be done - laundry, chores, paying bills, etc - completed during the week so that weekends can be more relaxing and reserved for things that get to be done - sewing, reading, sleeping-in, etc.

Like I said, I am working on it, and still haven't managed to enjoy a weekend without laundry. And grocery shopping - imagine wrangling two almost-three-year-olds and an infant into a grocery cart and then trying to fill it with groceries - it doesn't work. So, Sunday afternoons find me at the grocery store with a latte and a list and actually quite happy to be by myself buying groceries. Sigh.

Anyhow, this last weekend found us at home, for the most part, enjoying the warmth of our wood burning stove, playing with play-doh, following the Olympics, visiting with friends, sewing, watching "the lion movie" (Madagascar) multiple times, and Matt even got to shoot his bow.

All the boys, except Baby Soy, were in need of haircuts. Matt let the little ones buzz his hair before they had their heads buzzed. Smith told us he was going to be "rear-ee bwave, guys" (really brave, guys) and proved so.

I sewed a pillow cover to match my new lamp. None of my pillow covers match each other, but it makes me very happy to have this particular pillow cover go so nicely with my awesome lamp.

I finally hung these bird prints that I've had, framed and waiting to be hung, for two months...at least. They are Charley Harper images that I found, for free, here. Loving that they are hung in a highly visible corner of my living room and that I can see them while I sit on my couch nursing my babe multiple times a day.

Speaking of the babe, this little butterball is now six months old! Handsome and happy as ever. If you haven't met this kid, you gotta - he's awesome.



My little Maser playing the piano. And not just banging and smashing the keys, but playing thoughtfully, swaying to his music. His song is called "A Different One". Bestill my little heart, I love this kid.

Play doh, Prince and Pears

Weekends are wonderful, aren't they?

After a leisurely morning, (Matt got all the boys up and let me sleep until 7:30am) the older boys played in the garage for an hour while I showered and Sawyer napped. Once they were back inside, I gave them one of their Valentine's Day gifts a little early...play doh! It kept them occupied and happy for almost an hour. I resisted the uncontrollable urge to keep all the colors separate and ignored the many pieces of doh that fell under the table and were ground into the rug. As they played, I fed Sawyer his first taste of pear and played Prince on my ipod...we both enjoyed it very much!

Hope your Saturday is pleasant and warm...and that Prince finds his way onto your ipod :)

Of late...

It's February...which means we only have 6 more months of winter here in Bozeman. I wish I were joking :). During the winter doldrums, I must remind myself, as I constantly remind my children, to be grateful for what is given...a warm home, yummy food, my family, wonderful friends, etc. I really have no (good) reason to bemoan a long winter.

To keep the boredom/whining/insanity at bay, we have been out-and-about our lovely Bozeman town:

• at the public library...it's bright, clean, free and a change of scenery...and there are books there, too :).
• jumping our little hearts out at the bounce house...$10 always very well spent.
• playing at our friends' houses...different toys, different environment, good company.
• wandering around Costco...the carts are huge and can carry all my children plus a few grocery items, and there are samples, of course!
• taking a walk down our street...we have set a goal to walk all the way to the end by Spring (it's 1/2 mile long). We walk backwards, we hop, we kick, we stomp on ice chunks until they're "dead", we listen to the ice crunching under our boots, we look for our neighbors' American flags, we listen for airplanes overhead. It sounds very rosy, I know. However, the monkeys' favorite thing to do on our little walks is look for dog poop/pee. Boys.

When the weather or circumstances keep us at home, we have been getting creative about our daily activities:

• learning how to use scissors...oh how they love to wield scissors. They each have their own pair of blunt-tipped scissors and ask many times a day if they can "cut". I have been very diligent about keeping the scissors out of their reach unless I am present - so far no cutting of hair, clothing, or anything of value.
  

Mason deconstructing a magazine with his scissors...I call it "recycling" :)

• playing in tubs full of rice/water...got this idea from Addie. I bought 2 plastic tubs, a 20 lb bag of rice from Costco, small toys, rakes, and spray bottles. We rotate between the tubs, taking turns burying the toys in the rice and trying to find them and spraying water into the water. They love this. The mess these activities make is totally worth it.
  

Smithy spraying.

Mason digging.

• PBS has great TV programs for toddlers. We usually start the morning off with Sid the Science Kid and Super Why...and then Dinosaur Train and Sesame Street. It's educational, right? :) (The theme songs from these shows have a sneaky way of getting into your head and NEVER LEAVING).
• all the usuals...legos, puzzles, coloring, building a "garbage truck" out of pillows on my bed, going to "work", pestering one another...you get the picture.

New Things

A number of new things have entered our routine lately.

• Sawyer has started eating solids. I use the term "eat" loosely. He has tried whole-grain rice cereal and bananas.

What a handsome boy!

• Wednesday mornings finds me and my boys at Bible Study Fellowship or BSF. The friends I know that attend this bible study have nothing but good things to say about it and the accompanying children's program. So, we enrolled in January and have attended 4 out of the last 6 weekly meetings. It is a real feat to get us all fed, dressed, and out the door by 8:45am. I am really enjoying the current study of the book of John and am looking forward to the Fall when we will study the book of Isaiah. The boys are warming up to their teacher and their class - their blankies must always accompany them. They call it "play-dough church" to distinguish it from our regular Sunday morning church, where there is no play-dough. BSF has been a very good addition to our schedule.
• Big boy beds! This particular "new thing" has been a very big adjustment at our house.
  

We bought a bunk bed set from some friends for a steal and set them up on Christmas day.

Testing out the new digs.

Mason pretending to sleep in Smiggy's bed.

Mase.

At first they were a bit fearful of the new beds, but they quickly became accustomed to their new-found freedom. There has been much bedtime discipline as the monkeys can't help but get out of their beds, play with their toys, giggle, jump, and generally not sleep. Night by night, Matt and I have fine-tuned their bedtime environment and routine to avoid/lessen the many battles. We have finally reached a bedtime zen that includes removing all toys/tools/stuff that screams "play with me", disabling the light switch using the pull cord on the light/fan combo, and a gentle reminder that it's time to sleep. These things seem obvious now but it's been a long road paved with discipline, tears, more discipline, and more tears (some of them mine) to get here.

Raising twins is not the same as raising two children...it's just not. I was surprised to find that I am still learning this. Just when I think we have a handle on things, we reach a new stage with new challenges (and joys) and we are befuddled once again. I know this is true of all parenting, not just twins, and my dear mother-in-law reminds me it's a process that never stops being challenging - even when the children are adults. So, I will take my own advice and just ride the wave...ride the wave.

My children really are wonderful little people...it's just hard to see this at 2 a.m. when they have woken up, turned their bedroom light on and are playing loudly and require discipline...FOR THE SECOND TIME THAT NIGHT. Ahem. Thankfully, they hadn't learned how to lock the door...YET. Oh the stories I could tell...:)