Touching traditions

It hit me today that my grandparents have a birthday tradition for me. Every year without fail they call me and sing Happy Birthday to me over the phone. Usually my grandma tries to pull a April Fool's joke, too. Today I got such a touching phone call, early. It was my grandparents singing me Happy Birthday. I missed the call, but now I can listen to their song again on my voice mail. Here's hoping my Birthday is as Fabulous as they wished it.

"I didn't do it"

Of all my kids Garrett is turning out to be the biggest shirker of accountability when things go wrong. That's putting it nicely. The other way to put it is that he is our biggest liar when mishaps happen. These are two conversations we had today.
First. I walked into the kitchen and Garrett had made a huge mess on the floor. I didn't even have to ask what happened. He just said, "me no do it. Emma did".
I knew for a fact that Emma did not do it, so I told him I knew he was lying. He said, "I no lie, Emma lie". I had to laugh at that.
Later. Garrett and Jude are playing and pull out a bureau drawer. I ask what happened. Garrett says, "me no do it, Judy no do it. I no know who did it". Please.

On to other matters that we're not supposed to talk about (for good reason) but I just can't NOT talk about it. I bathed the twins, took Jacob out of the tub and wrapped him up while John was standing up on the side of the tub waiting for his turn to get out. I dry Jacob off and turn around to get John and he hands me a log. Can you think of a better way to start the day than getting handed poop?

And lastly, I have to have oral surgery next week to extract my wisdom teeth. One is coming in and I've had a headache for over a week as a result. So, Monday is the big day. I'm a little scared, but feel kind of like I do at the end of a pregnancy. I know that what is to come is going to be painful, but I look forward to it because once that pain is over, the other aches and pains will be gone. I'll be glad to be done with these headaches.

A Mouth Full of Money

Grace showed me her wallet yesterday.....full of money. From what? Loosing teeth....lots of them. I think she's up to 8 now. At the same time she lost 2 teeth, the twins each got two more on the bottom taking their totals up to 8 teeth a piece each for the twins and 8 lost teeth for Grace. This is beside the point of my post though.....I've been thinking. Why is Grace getting paid for her teeth? Shouldn't I (or Jeff and I) be getting the money? We buy her tooth brushes and toothpaste, we take her to the dentist and pay for cavities and cleanings. And WE have to make sure she brushes them twice daily. So, I want to talk to the original Tooth Fairy and ask what SHE was thinking?

First (but perhaps not last) Mohawks

Jacob (L) John (R)

John

Jacob

The boys got their first haircuts today....well most of their hair, that is. What was left made mohawks, and I think they are so cute I made Jeff leave them for the day.

the shatoe beehind me

Grace and Emma were very busy last night writing their very first pop lyrics. They sang it to me, and it was amusing, but mostly just adorable. I had to record the words as copied from the original:
the shatoe beehind me
the shatoe's beehind me look't so scary so I triyde to tell them they are butifel butt thay wudend say a thing
no! no! no! no! no! no! no!
ya thay wudent say a thing
ya!
thay wudent say a thing

In case you need a little translation, shatoe=shadow and wudent=wouldn't. I love the contraction she made out of looked (look't), too!

How does one fall asleep eating?

Had to add this one. I couldn't believe it when this happened the next day. John (L) Jacob (R)

One of my favorite scenes is a baby who has fallen asleep in their high chair while eating. Grace did this all the time, but the twins NEVER do. So, I was a little surprised when I saw that John had fallen asleep eating. If you look closely, you can see a green Cheerio in his mouth. Too cute.

Portrait of a sick kid and his sidekicks.

Jacob doesn't look very sick, does he?

John

love this shot of Garrett

Emma decked out for spring

Grace-our resident school ditcher. She claims her stomach hurt this morning. I claim she was faking.

Just had to capture all their mugs today. Poor Jacobs' cold/virus settled in his lungs and he has pneumonia....I guess this is a testament to the fact that premature babies who needed breathing assistance really are more suseptible to respiratory virus' even if they are fat little sausages 15 months later.

Spring is in the air!

It has been a gorgeous week. Spectacular. Clear skys. Sunny. Perfect temperature (65 degrees). Look what's popping up in our yard to wish us a happy spring.

My heart stopping moment....

I think the title of this post says it all. I came downstairs to see what John-scratch that, Jacob was doing and found him like this. My heart literally stopped....for a second and then I realized what a perfect photo op it was. Luckily I had a helper that stood by the table to make sure Jacob didn't fall off.

What would I do?

What would I do if I was stranded on a desert island with no vacuum? The same as I am now....dying a slow death. ha ha. As each day passes I'm slowly going insane. My vacuum belt fried and so rather than find an Oreck store locally, I ordered new ones on-line. Big mistake. This means that I haven't vacuumed in two weeks. IT'S KILLING ME....just so you know.