Brotherly Love

There are times when I think that Brian and Sean will never stop fighting - and then there are times when they get along so well that it is eerie! They had one of the 'get along' times tonight. It was so nice to see and I got a few pictures before Brian started yelling at me. I guess he didn't want his buddies to see him playing nicely with his little brother.

First of all, they were both occupying the same chair without trying to push the other overboard. Usually, they complain when they are sitting somewhere first and the other tries to sit too close. This involves screaming and yelling and trying to push or kick the other person off of the chair or couch. Sometimes, while trying to push the other off, they both go flying off the chair. Then it is an all out battle to be the first one back in the chair. And the whole time they are screaming and yelling at each other and me for help. And they wonder why they have bruises all over! It usually ends with someone getting hurt and me making them both sit on the floor.

I have learned not to take sides. If the fighting hasn't gotten too escalated, I tell them to find a way to work together or they will lose what they are doing. If they cannot agree on a TV show or a game to play, not my problem. I don't want to solve everything for them. And if they cannot compromise, then I take away the games or the TV. They know I mean business and usually compromise. Brian more than Sean because he understands the all or nothing principle, but Sean is getting there too. So, if they can't sit together nicely, then they can sit on the floor all day.

Brian doesn't mind sharing a seat with Roc, but Sean will even complain if the dog is on the couch with him. Roc doesn't even have to be touching him! Sean's solution is to go to the kitchen and get Roc a treat. He says, "Rocky, do you want a treat? Come here Roc!" And of course, Roc goes running to the kitchen. Sean then giggles all the way to the couch and he sits where the dog was. I guess Roc forgot to call seat save! He should try to tempt his brother with cookies or brownies. Hey, there is a saying about catching flies with honey!

The second miracle is that they were playing video games together with one Game Boy. In the pictures, Sean was watching Brian but before that Brian had been watching Sean. They were rooting each other on and giving helpful hints - without the other getting mad! They even agreed on which game to play - Mario Cart. I think part of the reason that they are sharing is that we cannot find one of the game boys. What a mixed blessing, because if we had two they would have been playing side by side. Well, probably not side by side because they would have to be on separate pieces of furniture. And they knew that it was share one Game Boy, or have none.

It is funny how siblings have such different rules for each other. Their motto is basically fight to the death at home but out on the playground it is protect my brother at all costs. For example, Brian has a pack of gum with two pieces left. He and his friend and Sean are all playing at our house- want to guess who gets the gum? If you picked Sean, then you are wrong.

On the other side - they are all on the playground and someone is giving out gum. Brian will make sure that Sean gets a piece too. Brian's teacher told me that when they went to the pumpkin farm that he asked the farmer if he could have a pumpkin for his brother too! That just melts my heart! And if I am out with one and not the other, they want to get things for the other. Sean gets lunch out more often because Brian is in school all day. He always wants to order something for Brian to have when he gets home.

Also, Brian and Sean can pinch and kick and roll around on the floor wrestling over a toy. But if either one of them is being hurt or bullied by another kid, they are there for each other. And that is what is important - being there when it really matters. I cannot wait to see how protective they are of Justin in a few years. I don't expect that they will never fight or have disagreements, but my wish is that they will always have each other to lean on. I hope that all three of them always have each other's backs and remember that since they are brothers, they will never be heavy!

Sean and Brian

into the game
I love the faces they make
concentrating

I didn't get to run all day!

Brian was home sick from school today. He has the stomach bug thing - not fun. But as stomach things go - not too bad. He got sick when he first got up and then felt better. He actually cried because I wouldn't let him go to school. Whose kid is this? Then he said he was fine and asked for some lunch. He had to really plead and beg to get the soup - I didn't think he was ready. He had some chicken and stars soup which only made a brief visit in his belly. I am not sure it even ever made it all the way to his belly. He then says, "Mom maybe I shouldn't eat anything for a while." Do you think so? I had only told him this about 20 zillion times!

But, sometimes, I feel that he is old enough to learn from his mistakes once in a while. He fights me on wearing a coat and then about zippering it! It is cold in December in NJ! But then I think, he will be cold and I bet tomorrow the coat will be on and zippered. Well, the next day the coat was on and zippered. He got out of the car and into line. I waited until he walked by me into the school so I could wave to him one last time. As he waved, I noticed that his coat was unzipped. I was talking with my friend Wendy and she told me that I couldn't be mad at Brian. I did tell him to wear his coat and zipper it - but I never said how long he had to keep it that way. So, next time I have to say, "Brian coat on and zippered and keep it that way until after you get into your classroom!"

On day three he finally got it right and went into the building with his coat zippered. I have no idea if it was unzipped in the hallway or the classroom, though. I can just see him unzipping his coat in the hallway - a smirk painted on his face - knowing he had outsmarted his mom! I will get him next time! (evil cackle)

Sometimes, it just isn't worth the argument. Pick you battles I always say. Kind of like snow boots in July that they dug out of the back of the closet. Halloween costumes in February. Way too many sprinkles on the cookies. Streaks on the windows that they 'helped' to clean. Too much salt on their dinner because they can do it! Shoes on the wrong feet and shirts on backwards. Not wearing underwear. Does it really matter and does it put them in danger of being hurt? If no, then I say let them do it.

Yeah, I know, you might say no coat in December might be harming him. But, I figure it could be worse, he could be asking for shorts! But it was only for one day and he did learn his lesson. Plus, for a short while, I was a biology major, and no matter what your Mom tells you - You cannot get sick from the cold or even from going out into the snow with wet hair. You can only get sick from germs! We do call having a cough, stuffy nose, and fever a cold. Maybe that is where the idea came from! There it goes - my brain is actually working again! Yipee!

But even when they do get a cold and if you insist that your Mom was right- it is maybe two or three days at the most that I have to deal with them. The fight about the coat will drag on all winter! I will take the few days of them lying on the couch and not messing up my house or fighting with each other over arguing all winter! I mean resting up and being pampered to feel better soon over arguing all winter.

So, by mid-afternoon he tries the food thing again. I ask him to sip a little water first. He manages to keep it down, but his face tells me that he will not be asking for food again any time soon. He hasn't moved from the couch all day - except to visit the bathroom. He says, "Mom you haven't fed me all day!" Oh, what a bad Mom I am! I bet I am up for worst mother of the year! Not feeding my kid who has the stomach bug! Shame on me! Then he gets a really sad face and I am expecting him to say that he has to get sick again. Then he says, "Mom, I didn't get to run at all today. Not even a little. Not even one run!"

I had to laugh at this one. As an adult, I almost look forward to being mildly ill. It is a free pass from doing laundry, making dinner, and cleaning the house for the day. It is a day to relax and lounge around and catch up on the Soaps you used to have time for. To a kid, being sick is torture. They don't have the words 'rest and relaxation' in their vocabularies! He did more whining today about not being about to do things because he didn't feel good, than he did about not feeling good.

People always say, "If I just had a little bit of the energy my kid has...!" You never hear kids saying, "If I could just rest up a little like Dad...!" I would love to run and skip and act like I had jumping beans in my pants for no other reason than I can. I love toddlers - they will spin and spin in circles until they fall down laughing. And then get up and do it again. And again. And again! No reason, just because.

I think most adults could learn something from this. Just once in a while do something just because you can. Take an early day to pick your kids up from school. Have ice cream for dinner. Bring home flowers for no special occasion. Finger paint with the kids. Take the long way to work. Eat popcorn with your toes. Crawl around with the baby. Make a snow angel. Snuggle up and read a good book as a family. Play dress up with the kids. Do a good deed. Call a friend you've lost touch with. Sit on the sidewalk and watch ants all day. Spin around in circles until you can't stand up - it really is fun! Especially with kids who are laughing so hard at you that they cannot stand up!

Christmas Pictures!

Here are the boys' Christmas pictures. I was so afraid this year that we wouldn't get any decent pictures. There were about fifty more taken and these are the best! I really like the last one - it is my favorite! It looked funny when she was laying them on the floor but she said to trust her. I did and it is great!

Brian

Sean
Justin my boys
my favorite picture

Ducks

I decided to search 'watched pot never boils' today. Why - well because I nothing else to do. Nope, no bills to pay, no kids to feed, no dusting, no beds to make, no homework to check, no diapers to change, no toilets overflowing, no messes to straighten. Nothing better to do but this. And if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you! Just reduced. Priced to sell. Great view!

So, in a previous post I said a watched pot will eventually boil - if you heat it. Well, apparently if you live in a quantum world, that might or might not be true. It depends on if you will it to boil or not. Huh? If your brain needs to be totally overloaded, read this.

It reminds me a my ninth grade Chemistry teacher, Mr. Lahr. He told us that none of us were really here. What? He thought that we all existed only to ourselves. Like the world around you was made up by your brain and only your brain. Everyone else had a different life experience. So, to you, you have kids and job and a house. But none of those things exist outside your own mind. This guy was never boring to say the least. He also had some strange theory about ducks but I cannot remember it.

Great, now I will be up all night trying to remember the duck thing. Why can't I have the ability to shut my brain off? I think if I ever got a few wishes that would be number one. Who needs money and fame and power when all you really need is a good night's sleep?

This is one time when I do envy men. It doesn't happen often because I love being female and wouldn't trade it for anything. But Brian can fall asleep like a baby with no cares in the world. He can lay down and I will go to brush my teeth and he is asleep in the two minutes it takes me to brush! This just has me dumbfounded.

What day is the school trip? Does Justin need diapers? What if I cannot find the dinosaur Sean wants Santa to bring him? Maybe I should go back to school? Did Sean put on a pull-up before bed? Did I pay the water bill? I need to remember to get to the bank. Brian needs a paper towel roll for school on Wednesday. How should I dress the kids tomorrow? I forgot to call my friend Meredith back. I left laundry in the dryer. Do the boys have underwear for tomorrow? Do we have enough milk for breakfast? What are we getting my in-laws for Christmas. I need to decorate the house. We need to get a tree this weekend. I need to bake six dozen cookies for Sunday. I have to send my friend a wedding card. Does Sean have to wear green on Wednesday or Friday? I need to schedule Justin's nine month well visit. We need to rake the leaves. The baby's clothes are getting small - I need to go through his drawers. The I need to pee and the whole thing starts over again!

Why doesn't he think of theses things? How can he just shut off his mind when there is so much going on and so much to be done? I have read that you should keep a note pad by your bed to write things down and then you can be done worrying that you will forget something. But then I would have to turn on a light, find the pen that rolled under the bed and somehow keep the boys from taking my notepad to draw a top secret pirate map. I will have to think of something else...afterall I have all the time in the world at 3 AM!

Justin is 7 Months Old!

Okay, here I go again saying, "Where have the last seven months gone?" I guess I know where they went, just not sure how they got there that quickly! Justin is still such a wonderful baby. He naps, he eats, he poops, he plays - what a life. He is a complete joy and really loved by his two big brothers! Here is how much he has grown from week one - same football!

Justin is rolling over like a pro and can really get where he wants. He is sitting up by himself - he still falls at times - especially if a brother runs by him at thirty miles an hour and his head moves too fast to try to get a glimpse! He is still doing the army crawl thing and getting really fast! He hasn't crawled on all fours yet - put he has pushed up on them for a few seconds.

Justin still doesn't really like solid food - neither did his brothers at this point. He would prefer to nurse. He is still going 3 1/2 - 4 hours between feedings during the day and then about 10 hours at night. So, until this changes, I'm not going to force solids. He does a few tablespoons a day, but I have to really work to get him to take it.

Justin loves to laugh and has a "squeaky" laugh like his brothers. He has two dimples, the left is a little larger than the right! His bottom teeth have come in far enough that I can see them when he flashes a big smile. His top two teeth look ready to pop out any day now!

the football picture

smiley boy
so cute
dimples!
really laughing
Justin Laughing!

Surfboards and Waves

One of Sean's favorite meals for lunch is a huge mound of ketchup with a side of chicken nuggets. He usually sits at the counter and watches them cook in the toaster oven. They say 'a watched pot never boils.' Well, the same is true for chicken nuggets - 'a watched nugget never bakes.'

Sean asks and asks, "Are they done yet? Are they done yet? Mom, are they done yet? How about now, are they done yet? M-o-m! " This phrase is too close to "Are we there yet?" for me not to cringe when he says it. Saying that phrase is like nails on a chalk board to a parent. Okay, so the water eventually boils if you remember to turn on the stove and the nuggets bake if you remember to plug the toaster oven back in from charging the camera batteries.

Today, I put the nuggets in and went to tend to Justin. I heard Sean in the fridge, but no loud noises, so I figured all was well. I went back into the kitchen and he proudly announced, "Mom, I got the ketchup and squirted it all by myself!" I told him, "Good job buddy, but maybe you got just a little too much on the plate." Of course, he didn't agree!

mmmm, ketchup!

Sean waiting for nuggets to bake

ketchup with a side of nuggets

He is growing up so fast and can do so many things himself. I am glad to see him finally taking the initiative to try things on his own - even if it means using a whole bottle of ketchup for a few chicken nuggets! Brian was always very independent from a young age. I don't want to compare the two because they are both great just the way they are, but it is still nice to see Sean becoming a little more independent!

He ate five nuggets and then said he was still hungry, so I gave him some apple sauce. Then he asked for another apple sauce to eat while I cooked him more chicken nuggets! So, for lunch he had two cups of applesauce, 12 chicken nuggets, and four pounds of ketchup. I think he hit most of the food groups - ketchup is a vegetable, right? Or is a tomato the trick fruit that is put with the veggies but really a fruit? Grains - check! Protein - check. Fruit - double check! Veggie - maybe check! Dairy - can't have, so check! Fats - Check!

I left him alone for a few seconds while he worked on his second helping. I came back to find all the nuggets piled up in the ketchup. I asked him, "Sean, what did you do to your nuggets and ketchup?" He rolled his eyes and said, "Mom they are surfboards in the ocean not nuggets and ketchup!" Well, okay then! Big, round brown things in a pile of thick, red muck - how could I have not seen the resemblance to surfboards in the ocean?

surfboards in the ocean

I have to add that when he was younger he loved ketchup just as much but he couldn't say it correctly. He would say "chep-a." It was so cute and I miss him saying it that way! But he could say spaghetti - go figure!

The Other Eye

Sean has been fighting a cold lately. Well, actually the whole family has some kind of runny nose and cough thing going on. I say we are 'fighting' a cold because none of us are really sick - no fever or chills or aches. Just a stuffy nose and an annoying cough most likely caused by post nasal drip. You know the polite way of saying we have tons of snot dripping down the back of our throats. Yum!

Anyway, he has woken up the past few mornings with what we call eye boogers. You can say eye crust or goop, but it is all the same thing. He doesn't have pink eye - no tearing or redness - just a little gunk when he wakes up. The first morning he literally couldn't get one of his eyes open and Brian had to hold a warm washcloth over his eye. You might have thought we were sticking a hot iron into his eye. First the washcloth was too hot, then too cold, then too scratchy!

The next morning was a little better and by the third morning there was just a little bit of stuff in the corner of his left eye. Brian Sr. took his finger and got it out. You might have thought we were injecting Sean with poison. He screamed and screamed. And for effect screamed some more.

Then he looked at Brian Sr. with his best mean face and yelled, "Dad you took a piece of my nose off!" Of course this was my chance to be the 'good' parent. You know, when your kids are mad at the other parent and you step in to rescue them to be the favorite, I mean unselfishly and without ulterior motive help to make them feel better.

I went over to him, put my arms around him, and said in a sweet voice, "Let me see honey. Where did Daddy take off a piece of your nose?" He points to a spot next to his right eye and in his saddest voice says, "Right here." Brian Sr. immediately starts laughing but composes himself long enough to say, "It was your other eye Sean!" Sean quickly recovers and says, "Dad I was going to say right here, on my other eye!" Ooooh this kid is quick and smart! We are in so much trouble!

Super Boy

Sean has really taken this being naked thing to a new level. He never wants to get dressed in the morning. They only way for him to agree to get dressed is if we are going somewhere or if someone is coming over. I have never seen him move so fast as when there is a knock at the door and he is naked!

Brian Sr. said, "Sean you need to get dressed, naked time is over." Sean replies, "I am not naked Dad. I have slippers on!" Duh! Never in Brian Sr.'s LBK (life before kids) did he think he would ever be saying, "Naked time is over!"

As I tried to take the picture below, he kept jumping around. This jumping caused too much of him to be seen in the pictures. He thought that it was really funny and kept moving his blanket at the last second! I finally got a shot with enough covered, but it took about twenty pictures! Don't mess with a Mom and her camera! Especially when she is trying to capture a moment that will forever embarrass her kids!

Sean not naked

Don't mind the mess in the background - we were having a lazy morning! Sean loves to pull out all the blankets and pillows and cushions and just settle right in to watch some TV. He needs all of this out because the wind chills are near freezing outside and he is turning blue while his teeth are chattering.

But if you ask him, he is not cold. Nope. You touch his skin and get goose bumps yourself, but he is not cold. He even asks for popsicles to eat while naked and is still not cold! There are icicles hanging off his nose. Not cold. Brian Sr. told him that his butt was so cold that it was purple. He got up and tried to look at his butt. No, not by twisting around to look behind him like a normal person. We are talking about Sean here, so he decided to try to look up and around through his legs. He bent over and stuck his head through his straddled legs and then tried to twist his head to look up at his butt! It was a not a pretty sight! He tried a few times and then gave up.

Oh - I think I even see the remote on the floor in the picture. I know we will be looking for it later! Especially now that Brian and Sean have become proficient in the use of the remote control. Brian can work On Demand and the DVD player better than all his grandparents put together! I would be a millionaire if I could come up with come kind of remote control finder. It would have to be big and in a semi-permanent location or I would just lose the locating device too! Maybe some kind of paging system like they have on cordless phones...

The problem is that we have a phone system with three cordless phones. So, when we lose one, we just go and get another one, without first finding the lost one. Then we use the other phone for a while. When we finally decide to search for the old phone, days and weeks have passed and the battery is dead, so then pager does us no good. We eventually find them all. But it is a rare day when all phones are present, accounted for, and hung up on their respective chargers.

Brian Sr. told him to just find some underwear to put on. He came back in the room to find Sean still naked. He said, "Sean where are your underwear?" Sean said, "They weren't my size and kept falling off me." He had taken a pair of Brian Sr.'s underwear out of the laundry basket and tried to wear them. He showed his Dad how they wouldn't stay up. Pull them up. Fall down. Pull them up. Fall down. Again. And Again. And Again. Sean thought that this was really funny and did it about one hundred times more than necessary!

Sean wearing Dad's underwear

(the little blue lump is Justin)

The next pictures are now at lunch time. Yes, Sean is still naked. He says, "Mom can I have toast for lunch? I want naked toast, like me. You know, with nothing on it!" Yes, I know. He is such a character and I honestly don't know where he gets his material.

He later asks me to get my camera and take a picture of his toast that looks like an E. He is really catching onto this blog thing. Both he and Brian love to see their pictures on the computer. To them, it is almost as good as being on TV.

Sean also really likes to make letters out of food - maybe an O is a bagel. He puts pretzel sticks together to make an X, a T, an L, an I, and a E and F! Toast has so many possibilities! I love that he is really exploring letters. But sometimes he just doesn't get it - like when he made the E and said, "Look Mom, E is for toast!" Not quite, but good effort buddy!

That reminds me of this Fisher Price toy that we have. It is a zoo with all kinds of animals and each animal has a letter on its chest. Like A is for Alligator and S for Seal. But then there are some that confuse Sean. Like Q is for quail but he says, "Q is for bird." Or the X is the skeleton of a fish and for x-ray but he says, "X is for fish!" Seriously, what kid knows quail? I guess there are only so many Q animals. Come to think of it, I cannot think of any others. My brain has no space for that.

E toast on the plate and

working on another E!

the E toast