Seth is 2 1/2 years old!

I don't have my computer with all the pictures on it or my planner with the calendar, so this might be a somewhat abbreviated post.

We are in Texas right now for Christmas. Seth has been SO excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. Every day this week, he would ask me like 20 times a day if we were going to see Grandpa and Grandma today. It was driving me nuts. We went to Branson to see Silver Dollar City on the way there and Seth was initially not so happy about that because he wanted to be in Texas right then. He eventually mellowed out and had fun on the rides and tolerated the shows. He liked the lights, too. Then, he was not so happy when he realized we had a long drive ahead of us. He did not want to sleep in the car and wanted to go to his own bed. Of course, now that we are here, Seth says he wants to go home and ride his tricycle. Typical for him, but he is really having a lot of fun, here. What can compare with Grandma and Grandpa's toys and feeding the ducks?

Seth is NOT a fan on Santa Claus. I can not convince either of the boys to go and see Santa at a shopping center or something. A couple weeks ago, Seth and I were at Barnes and Noble and there was a Santa there. Seth gave him the dirtiest look when we came in. (Santa thought it was funny). And then, he gave an even dirtier look on the way out and said "I want to kill Santa." Yikes! Hopefully, we don't have a psychopath on our hands. He told me he thinks that Santa is scary, so it must be that. I think he will still accept presents.

Seth is finally getting his second year molars. They are almost all in. So that has made him a little grumpy and he has been waking up at night and coming into bed with us because he is in pain. Poor thing. Hopefully, we are almost all done with teething.

Seth has done okay with potty training this month. He likes wearing underwear, but we are still working on #2.

Andrew and Seth continue to be antagonistic to each other. Both was to be the first, to have all the toys, to be the biggest, and the best. They also have started wrestling and horsing around in earnest. Seth loves to hurl out insults, but then takes everything that Andrew says seriously, even though Andrew is just trying to get his goat. Then, Seth will either scream that Andrew needs to go to jail or go to time out. Or else, he will start beating up on him. It is definitely an adventure having so many boys.

Seth is now obsessed with Cars 2. We finally saw the movie, actually a few times, this month, and now we are always playing it at home. The boys have decided which cars are "super cars" and which are "bad cars", plus they even have a couple Cars 2 cars (Finn and Holly, maybe) and so they play and play and play. I love listening to Seth talking while he plays, so cute. Seth also loves playing games now - Candy Land and Memory especially, though he is still a little fuzzy on the rules.

Seth loves riding his tricycle and is very determined that I am not allowed to push him. As he is very determined about doing everything himself. He dresses himself, often backwards and inside out with several layers of clothing. That is how he prefers it, with one layer being soccer.

Well, I'll do a more thorough post later, maybe. It is Christmas Eve after all.

Andrew is 4 years 7 months

PICTURES:

ANDREW’S ARTWORK:

UPDATE:

Stop the presses!  Big news!  Hell has frozen over, pigs can fly, and ANDREW SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!  Seriously, both him and Seth go to sleep in their own beds and stay there ALL night long EVERY night (occasionally, Andrew’s coughing will get the best of him and he’ll check in, but still …).  I am ecstatic!  I knew it had to happen eventually, right?  And get this – sometimes, the boys wake up in the morning … and don’t bother us.  I was pretty tired a week or two ago and Andrew looked at me at dinner and said “You guys are pretty tired … well, Mom looks tired.  I know!  Seth and I will wake up by ourselves and get ourselves some cereal and let you guys sleep”.  What a sweet boy!

Well … most of the time.  I think adjustment to the baby is manifesting itself in the boys as hating each other.  Andrew has a bit of a short fuse and when Seth is bothering him (i.e., not doing things exactly his way), he will try to explain why his way is superior, and when that does not work, all hell breaks loose.  Pushing, biting (!!!!), and choke holds are Andrew’s coup de grace.  I suppose, if I always watched them and lived in their bedroom, I could avert the worst of it, but like that would ever happen.  And of course, the rest of the time they play okay together.  I am hoping this is just a rough patch, because I have a hard time disciplining Andrew.  Punishment of any kind just makes Andrew really angry and then he gets destructive and overturns everything in sight (and yes, I make his pick it up afterward, but that doesn’t seem to be a deterrent) or screams in this high pitched voice.  Incentives and rewards work better, but doesn’t work so well with crimes-of-passion.  Sigh …  We keep trying things, hopefully this will pass or we’ll find something that works.  I am hoping that maybe giving him lots of one-on-one time with me and Katsu will be more effective.  Hopefully.

The other big issue in the house is … getting out of the house and getting ready for bed.  Andrew does things at his own pace or not at all.  For example, at dinner, every night Andrew is still eating when everyone else is done.  And yet still eating 15-30 minutes later.  And not because he is picky and just procrastinating.  No, just because that is how long he takes to eat.  Getting ready in the morning is the same way.  And then, I feel like this endless nag.  We are trying a new sticker chart.  The first reward is that if he gets dressed, eats breakfast, and brushes his teeth, then he has time to play before preschool.  Yesterday, he did not get to play and he told me it was too bad that he didn’t get ready in time so that he would have time to play.  Hopefully, it’s sinking in.  Andrew is pretty good at picking up, but it still does take quite a bit of reminding.

In other areas … Andrew has been having allergy issues.  It mostly presents itself in compulsive burping.  But then, if it gets worse, it’s lots and lots of coughing.  It got pretty bad last month, but we’ve been trying to figure out the right combo of medicine to get him better – Nasonex, Claritin, Flovent … so much medicine.  But the good news – he went to the dentist this week and NO CAVITIES.  Yay for brushing and flossing all the time.

Andrew is such a ladies man.  The picture from his preschool teacher of him surrounded by all the girls and a huge smile – so true to form!  He loves Peyton especially and is not afraid to say it.  One day when I picked him up from preschool he had told Peyton he loved her about 10 times just over the span of a couple minutes during pick-up!  This week, he told me that they are getting married (though thankfully when they are Katsu’s age) and when I said his feelings might change, he said that he would always love her.

He is also all about the bling.  When he went to get a prize at the dentist’s office, he opened the drawer and with a voice of pure glee, said “Jewelry”!  He came home with his first costume jewelry ring.  Which he shows off to everyone about how beautiful it is.  His favorite color is pink.  He loves to wear necklaces.  And we can only floss with blue flossers because they are so beautiful.  Ha ha ha.

Andrew is in love with Logan.  He is constantly on the floor holding Logan’s hand and talking to him.  It is a little aggressive, but otherwise very sweet.

FUN THINGS ANDREW DID THIS MONTH:

- Spending time with Grandma during the week she was here.  Andrew liked making cookies.  And he was SUPER excited when Grandpa was here for a day.  The highlight for them was definitely showing Grandpa and Grandma the Chinese buffet they love so much.

- Watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV (loved Dora’s float), watching the dog show later, eating Thanksgiving dinner (mostly in love with the cranberry sauce and ice cream), watching football with Daddy, playing at the park with the whole family, and riding his bicycle.  And making all his Thanksgiving crafts.  Andrew spent like a whole morning making turkey pictures from tracing his hands.

- Putting up the Christmas tree with Seth and Daddy and then going to the park and Sonic together.  And a morning of watching Cars and Curious George.  A great day-after-Thanksgiving.

- Some park visits, a trip to the zoo, and spending lots of time at home with family.

- Baby’s Go Bach – a free concert where the kids got to meet and play with instruments in the a jam session and then there was a little concert afterwards with pieces less than 5 minutes long to keep the kids interested.  Andrew was very well behaved and enjoyed going with Daddy.

- St Charles Christmas Traditions.  They get the city all decorated and then there is a Santa parade with all different kinds of Santa from here and all over the world.  Andrew was not that interested.  He liked his ice cream cone, but was disappointed by the 5 minute parade.  Where was the floats?  The bands?  The candy throwing.  Oh, well.  The kids were way more excited about shopping at Trader Joe’s afterwards.

- Dentist and NO CAVITIES!!!

- Going to Logan’s baby book shower and making gingerbread houses.  More like a gingerbread plane maybe or a tent.  My visiting teacher sent us home with the frosting since the boys had licked it all.  Yuck!

- Making gingerbread houses at the library with Katsu.  They turned out pretty well.

Logan is 1 month old!

I can’t believe it’s been a month already.  It’s funny, I was looking at posts from Andrew and Seth at one month, and Logan is more like Seth than I thought (though a much better nurser), though I guess all babies are mostly the same.

So, Logan basically eats, sleeps, pees and poops, and looks around.  He sure is a sweet little guy though. 

Eating … Logan loves to eat.  He has been a pretty good nurser from the beginning.  He eats every 1.5-3 hours.  It has been spreading out a little bit more this week – every 2 or 3 hours (about half every 2 hours and half every 3 hours) and has even been going a 4 hour stretch at night (this week only).  His nursing sessions are getting a bit longer now, so it’s about total 25-30 minutes.  He didn’t spit up at first, but now he spits up a lot.  He also seems to have an upset tummy quite frequently in the evenings and cries, but it helps to lay him on his tummy.

And boy is Logan growing.  He is so chubby!  We took him in to the doctor at like 4 days old and he had already gained weight from the hospital (a couple ounces) and then again at almost 3 weeks.  He was 10 lbs 15 oz!  So, in less than 3 weeks, he had gained 3 lbs from his birth weight.  I can only guess he is probably 12 or more lbs now!!!  My back is starting to hurt already, ha ha ha.  Logan was super chubby with huge double chin earlier this week, but he must have gotten taller, because he looks a bit skinnier now … a bit.

Sleeping … Logan sleeps most of the time.  Yay for typical newborns!  At first, he slept ALL the time.  Now, he is awake longer.  He is awake for awhile in the morning after he wakes up.  About half the time he is awake for up to an hour after he eats.  In the late afternoon he is awake a lot of the time from 4-6ish.  He goes down for bed somewhere between 6 and 7, generally.  Then, he sleeps his longer stretch from like 6-10 or 11 and then he goes right back to sleep after eating until around 4.  He will stay asleep after that but is LOUD – he is grunting and who knows what.  He wakes up for good between 6 and 7.  He is sleeping in a brand new crib right next to our futons.  Like practically on top of it.  I have to step on the futons to get to and from the crib or the door and we can’t fully open the door when the futons are down – oh, well.

Crying … Logan is pretty mellow – kind of more like Seth was.  Logan doesn’t cry too much, but the last week or two he has started to cry and be fussy from like 4-7.  Otherwise, he is happy and just looks and looks and looks.

He can reach up and grab things and it seems pretty intentional to me.  I’ve seen a couple smiles, but he hasn’t started smiling regularly.  He can track moving objects pretty well.  He is not a fan of tummy time (unless I give him a back massage at the same time), but can lift his head up 45 degrees.

Loan likes to be outside and have a change of scenery.  He loves to look at me and also at pictures and especially at the big window with the blinds in the living room.  He is not sure how he feels about the sling, but oh, well.  It keeps him from prying hands (our ward loves to hold babies, but it also not very vigilant about staying home when sick).  He likes the swing when he’s happy, but is not so interested otherwise.  He loves to stretch and stretch.  He likes being massaged.  He loves having his hair touched and even watched.  He does not like having his diaper changed.  He loves wearing socks, especially when he was first home from the hospital.  He does not like hats.  He enjoys being swaddled, but not too tight – then he is just indiginant if he can’t get his hands out with sufficient effort.  He is especially enamored with Andrew who loves to spend time talking to him and holding his hands.

I am totally in love with Logan.  I love holding him and watching him.  A 3rd child is so fun – you just get to enjoy them (especially when the older 2 boys are playing nicely together.

Seth is 2 years 5 months

Pictures:

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Monthly Update:

Wow – this has felt like a long and busy month.  And I guess it has, between Halloween events, a new baby, and Thanksgiving.  The biggest new change for Seth, of course, is the baby.  He at first seemed mostly ambivalent – would always want to know where the baby was when he came in the room and whenever he didn’t want the baby around, he was sure to tell me – “The baby needs to be in his crib”.  For the first week or so, he called the baby Jonas, because our friends had a baby named Jonas a few months ago.  He finally figured out it’s baby Logan now.  And he likes to kiss the baby and say hi, but I think he would still prefer if Logan was sleeping in the crib 95% of the time.  For awhile there he would tell me ever morning “I love Logan, but I do not love him at night”, so I wonder if Logan’s crying is bothering him.  He has started waking up and wanting Katsu at night most nights now, but I think is more a transitioning thing than a getting woken up thing.  He hasn’t showed any violence or anger towards the baby yet, so it is going better than expected.

Otherwise, Seth has gotten pretty whiny.  Although Seth’s voice is naturally so high, sometimes it’s hard to tell a whine.  But he is kind of whiny/grumpy lately.  It’s so nice when he cheers up and is happy and you get to hear a happy voice out of him – like a breath of fresh air.

Seth had hives again this month – for like 5 days or something, pretty bad and all over his body.  At first, we thought maybe a food thing, but not when they stayed around that long.  Thankfully, they didn’t seem to bother him, but they sure looked awful.  I always get worried taking kids to the park when they have stuff like that, even though I know he isn’t contagious.  I mentioned it to the pediatrician and she said it could be environmental – probably related to the stress of having a new baby … interesting.

Seth’s new favorite thing to do is to hide things.  The only reason I know that he did it, is because he will say, “I swiped it.  Ha ha ha ha ha”, with like this really evil laugh.  Of course, he is fascinated with Swiper from Dora – definitely his favorite float during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Seth is getting a little more stubborn lately.  He refuses to pick up toys.  We have gotten the Gunny Monster out this week and he takes away all the toys that aren’t picked up.  But that doesn’t seem to motivate Seth and then Andrew just suffers, too.  I guess we will have to try something else.  We have really been trying to push potty training this week, but Seth is also really not motivated about that.  It’s a little frustrating – kind of wishing I had pushed it more when I was pregnant even though I was super exhausted.  I know he can do it if he will try.  Some days he comes to me wanting to put on underwear “so I can get candy” he says, but most days he just wants to wear diapers.

Seth is definitely a love/hate sort of person.  He never hesitates to tell me if he is tired of me and wants me to go to work.  Lately, anyone he is not happy with, he will tell to go to jail, which I guess is in Mommy and Daddy’s room (not sure why).  He also told Grandma when she was here helping with Logan that he wanted her to go home half the time.  On the other hand, he will also just come up and say that he loves you, too.  Not sure why.  He also is having a love/hate relationship with Andrew.  Half the time they play together well, the rest of the time they are beating up on each other and Seth tells me how he does not like Andrew and (again) he needs to go to jail.

Seth is really into building his train tracks and does really great tracks that are elevated, even.  He loves to play with his shinkansen on it.  He also really loves doing his Dora puzzle, looking through books, and building things with Trio blocks, and playing with the large trucks – especially the fire truck.  He is still pretty shy and prefers not to go out places without Andrew along.  Well, he says he always wants to go to the park, but actually he gets lonely/bored without Andrew and doesn’t like to play much with kids he doesn’t know.

Seth really really loves the new tricycle he got this month (after playing with it at a friend’s house) and wants to ride it every day! 

He really loves Nursery.  He wears the craziest clothes to church because he refuses to be dictated into wearing clothes.  The days I have tried to make him wear church clothes (and I am pretty lenient), he throws hour-long fits and once threw up in the car on the way to church.  Just not worth it.  But he is supposedly the best kid in nursery.  He knows all the songs, talks and participates and plays nicely.  So at least my kids are well behaved somewhere!

Well, we love our little Seth – he is a sweet boy (though a bit grumpy).

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Fun Things He Did This Month:

- Halloween events (which I already posted about):  Trunk or treating at the church, trick or treating and costume parade in the Central West End, Andrew’s Halloween preschool performance, and trick or treating in the neighborhood.  Another year with our cute Seth dragon.  Seth would have been happy wearing his costume all month long.

- Visiting Mom and Logan in the hospital and also getting to spend a couple days at Matias’ house and a day at Owen’s house.  The boys were so excited about spending time with friends that they were disappointed when my induction happened later than scheduled.  Seth was pretty hesitant when he first met Logan all by himself (while Andrew was at preschool), but he has quickly warmed up to him.

- Spending lots of time with Dad the week he took off work.  He especially is enjoying riding his trike and playing football and frisbee in the front yard. 

- Spending time with Grandma during the week she was here.  Seth really enjoyed helping make cookies!  And he was excited when Grandpa was here for a day.  The highlight for them was definitely showing Grandpa and Grandma the Chinese buffet they love so much.

- Watching the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV (loved Dora’s float), watching the dog show later, eating Thanksgiving dinner (mostly in love with the cranberry sauce, though Seth liked the turkey, pie, and ice cream, too), watching football with Daddy, playing at the park with the whole family, and riding his tricycle.

- Putting up the Christmas tree with Andrew and Daddy and then going to the park and Sonic together.  And a morning of watching Cars and Curious George.  A great day-after-Thanksgiving.

- Some park visits, a trip to the zoo, and spending lots of time at home with family.

Andrew is 4 and 1/2 years old

Pictures:

Monthly Update:

This seemed like a pretty busy month for Andrew.  A month full of birthday parties, Halloween events, sickness, and of course, the new baby.  Andrew came down with some really nasty vomitting/diarrhea illness and had to take a few days off of preschool.  I was getting worried because he threw up for a couple days and quite a lot – he just couldn’t keep anything down, poor kid.  We spent a lot of time watching TV and movies just to keep the kids still so they could get better.

Andrew is still enjoying preschool, but this week was a little harder since Katsu was home and I think Andrew wanted to stay at home and play with him the whole time.  He still much prefers the girls at preschool, but it sounds like he is starting to play with some of the boys, too.  There were parent-teacher conferences this month, but just like 2 days after I had Logan, so they just sent home the paperwork.  He is doing really well – drawing/coloring and working with scissors still need some work, but as I said before, he is now really interested in them.  He enjoys doing crafts and coloring at home now and spends a lot of time making pictures for his friends at preschool and writing their names on the pages.  His letters have gotten much better.  His teachers also say that he prefers the quieter activities to the more active ones.  I’m a little surprised (though he is a lot less active than Seth) mostly because at least 50% of his play times is doing shows or making forts.

Andrew is still very talkative, especially to adults.  He seems more hesitant to play with children he doesn’t know, to the point of being unkind sometimes.  He’ll say, “But I don’t want to play with other kids, I only want to play with Seth”, but of course, he doesn’t want to share <toys, play ground equipment, etc.> with the other kids in the meantime.  This has caused some conflicts, especially a huge one at stake conference which resulted in me (only a few days away from having a baby) carrying a kicking, biting Andrew down the hall, while trying to cajole Seth into following me.  Yikes!  So, yes, the tantrums are still here, though I think I am coming up with some better strategies to deal with them.  Sometimes, I think the world would just be so much better if I could be a perfect follower of the book “How to Talk so Your Children will Listen” … some day.

Andrew was pretty hesitant about the baby, but seems to be warming up.  He really enjoys holding Logan and tells me about how good he is at holding him.  He also likes to talk to him and always wants to see his face.  He is constantly asking me “What is the baby thinking?”.  On the other hand, sometimes he gets his face really close to the baby and makes really loud noises – kind of aggressive.  We’ll see how it plays out.  He still is sort of disappointed that Logan is a boy.

Andrew spends most of his quiet play time doing elaborate play with his trucks and animals and his new army men that Logan “gave” him when he arrived.  He is really obsessed with army men.  I’m not thrilled about it, but oh, well.  Of course, he also thinks that all army men are “bad” guys – I am trying to give him a more nuanced idea, but I guess 4 years olds are bad at nuance.

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Fun things he did this month:

- Another Music and Movement class at the library.  Andrew is too cool to join in most of the time, but enjoys it when the good songs are on.

- Crazy birthday party weekend.  Andrew went with all of us to a bounce house party at Monkey Joes.  He loved it.  He went on almost everything and had so much fun hanging out with a girl (one of Katsu’s colleague’s daughter).  He also went to his first drop-off party on the same day at a gym.  I think he had fun, but he complained that he didn’t get enough “free play” – sometimes I laugh at the thins he says.

- Magic House – Seth has not been here since he was under 1, so we all went for the monthly free night.  It was crazy and packed, especially so since it was (unbeknownst to us), a Trick-or-Treating night.  The boys collected a few toys from the costumed workers, but mostly had a blast checking out the exhibits.  Andrew LOVED the huge slide.  He and Andrew always went so they were together and you could hear them coming because they were laughing so hard.  He also really loved the construction site part and worked really hard there.  It was a really fun evening and the boys were exhausted when it was all done.

- Weekend with Daddy!  Morning at the Clayton Vehicle Fair – the boys LOVE this, seeing the trucks and the helicopter coming in (how cool is that!).  Then, they went to a Chinese buffet and also went to their favorite rocket ship park.  Unfortunately, Seth spent the rest of the day throwing up – poor kid and then Andrew came down with it a few days later.  But it started out fun …

- Halloween events (which I already posted about):  Trunk or treating at the church, trick or treating and costume parade in the Central West End, Andrew’s Halloween preschool performance, and trick or treating in the neighborhood.  Another year with our cute Andrew dragon.

- Visiting Mom and Logan in the hospital and also getting to spend a couple days at Matias’ house and a day at Owen’s house.  The boys were so excited about spending time with friends that they were disappointed when my induction happened later than scheduled.  And Andrew only missed a half-day of preschool from me being in the hospital – not bad at all.  He even brought in a footprint from the baby to preschool to show his class.

- Spending lots of time with Dad this week.  He especially is enjoying riding his bike and playing football and frisbee in the front yard.

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Funny Things he said this month:

- to Seth, “Pierce Morgan, why are you eating popcorn?” – yes, Andrew I realized knows the full names of each America’s Got Talent judges

- Andrew (as walking up to a girl on a playground): Hi! I am Andrew, I am four. What is your name?
Girl: I am Samantha.
Andrew: Samantha? That's a pretty name. What are you doing. Can I be your friend?
Girl (Looking somewhat uncomfortable): Ok
Andrew: Do you like going on a slide? We can go on a slide!
Seth (Noticing that Andrew's introducing himself, comes running over): I'm SETH! I am two I am two I am two I am TWO!!!! YEAHHH!!!

- We were talking about a friend’s mother who didn’t cook, but always got carry-out, delivery, etc. 

Amanda – Yeah, she never cooked for her children.

Andrew (wide-eyed) – Did they all die?

- Andrew (talking about Logan): Well, I think we will be friends actually because he is a lot cuter than I expected.

- Andrew:  I want to be a girl.

Mom:  Why?

Andrew:  So I can be a mom.

Mom:  You can be a dad.

Andrew:  I want to stay at home with the kids.

Mom:  You can be a stay-at-home dad.  Some dads stay at home.

Andrew:  No – not just some days.  Every day.

Followed by a longish conversation about stay-at-home dads.  Andrew is still skeptical, which I find funny because I know we see stay-at-home dads around town quite frequently.