Fall foliage fest

Two weekends ago we raked our front yard. This resulted in a huge pile of leaves, which the boys (all of the boys) had a fantastic time with.

U is holding Brody, Aiden is the one in the middle, almost completely covered with leaves and Colin is to the left of the picture.


Brody offering a helping hand:


Aiden in the huge pile and Brody in the front:


Aiden (need I say more?):


I *think* this is Colin:


Honestly, the red hoodies are great when you're at the playground trying to pick out the kids, but in the front yard under a pile of leaves it makes it a little hard to remember who is who.

The kids had a complete blast. I can't believe how much fun they had tossing leaves and getting buried in the piles. In fact, they had so much fun that this past weekend I raked up the few scattered leaves left and created enough of a pile to entertain them for about twenty minutes. They LOVED it. I can't wait for next fall!

Halloween

Yes, I know Halloween was last month, but this is honestly one of the few spare moments I've had these days. We didn't make it out to trick-or-treat, but I did manage to get the boys into their Halloween costumes and stroll around the neighborhood mid-afternoon.

Colin with Da-da


Colin was a little bit interested in the costume wearing. He was curious if the person he was looking at in the mirror was actually him or not! His brothers on the other hand were not that thrilled.

Brody, Aiden, Colin (front to back)


The hats stayed on for about 10 seconds after I snapped this photo, except Colin who kept his on for the whole ride. We saw a few people and the boys even waved at some of them. The costumes were entirely too big (we had to roll up the legs and the arms). I'm hoping that next year we'll get them in the costumes and maybe even take a short walk around the neighborhood.

18 months!

Pictures at the bottom of the post.

Last week (Oct. 14) the boys turned 18 months. On Friday morning (Oct. 23) we went to the pediatrician. They melted down. They were absolutely terrified of the whole visit. I couldn't fill out the paperwork. I couldn't speak with the doctor without holding two crying babies. Thank goodness C was there. She helped calm them down a little. Here are their stats:

Aiden
32.5 inches, 23 lbs 2 oz

Brody
32 inches, 23 lbs 4 oz

Colin
31.5 inches, 22lbs 14 oz

One of the questions we were asked is how many words they say. They said the boys should have 5-10 words at this stage. I didn't realize it, but they actually count animal sounds as words.

They all say:
Hi, Bye, More (Maa), Milk (Mee), Ver (Turkish-"give me"), de me (may may; Spanish-"for me"), Raahh! (to "scare" us), Brrrm (the sound for cars, buses, trucks), and Sh! (as in quiet, along with the finger in front of their lips)

Colin says:
Bus (with Spanish pronunciation)

Aiden says:
Eat (EEE)

It seems like one will "get" a new word or sound and the others "learn" it from him. That is why most of their words are in common and why Aiden and Colin only have 1 unique word each.

They asked if the boys pretend to do things. They all pretend to talk on the phone. They will pick up random toys and then mimic talking on the phone. And, whenever they get the chance, they steal C's phone. They can pretend, but I guess they prefer the real deal.

They also asked if the boys are:
Walking-
Walking? Nope. Running? yes, yes, and yes.
Climbing-
When they're not running.
Pointing-
Yes.
Playing peek-a-boo-
Oh my gosh, yes. They LOVE this game. In fact, U plays hide-and-seek with them. He hides in one room and they run into the room and look for him. They all laugh hysterically when they find him.

Here a few things about the boys.

Colin is in a physical phase right now. He was the first to go feet first down the slide. We have a small couch next to Brody's crib and Colin was the first to climb from the couch into the crib. He also likes to sort toys. We have a changing table in their play area with clothes on the first shelf. We put the crib bumper on the side panels so that the boys wouldn't pull the clothes out. Now Colin likes to stuff toys between the bumper and the point where the bumper meets the shelf. I've gone to get a pair of pants out and found 20 or so blocks. Just now I took a picture and counted--only 7 tonight (see below) When we go up for bedtime, he likes to play in the closet in their room. Sometimes he reads books to himself and sometimes he puts toys into the canvas shoe organizer hanging inside the closet. He also likes to put toys into the other canvas shoe organizer hanging outside the closet. He likes to close the closet door and play peek-a-boo with us or his brothers. When he finishes playing in the nursery at night, he likes to crawl into my lap and have me read him a book.




Brody has been super snugly the last few weeks. In the morning when we give them their bottles, he drinks a few sips in his chair and then comes over to sit in my lap. He wants me to hold him while he drinks his milk. He loves his bear. He is my meat eater. If I put a vegetable, fruit and meat in front of him he will almost always go for the meat first. When his brothers aren't eating their meat, he'll finish theirs. He likes to knock over the block towers either he or anyone else has constructed. He loves to watch tv. He sits on the couch, arm on armrest like a grownup. He is a little shy and a little sensitive. When he looks at me it's as if he and I have a special secret that he doesn't want anyone else to know about. Only when I agree to these terms does he crawl up into my lap and snuggle tight.




Aiden loves to roll cars or trains or buses or trucks--basically anything with wheels--around the house. He lines cars up and pushes the back one to make all of them move. When he watches tv, he likes to lie on his stomach, arms hanging over the armrest or on one of the doggie beds. His favorite activity these days is to bend over, arms on the floor and put his head on the floor. I've posted a picture below. He started doing this a few weeks ago and I guess it looked like a lot of fun because now Brody and Colin are doing it as well. Aiden really likes to "read" his book when I put him down for bed. He also has a bear who he loves to sleep with.





And here is a picture of our first snow (Oct. 16). Yup. Already. I know, you can't really see the snow, but trust me it was a flurry.

Fall Foliage Pictures

Last week the babies hit the 18 month mark. I took pictures, but they are still on my camera. We'll go for their well visit later this week, so I'll post those pictures along with their stats after the appointment. In the mean time, one of my colleagues who happens to be an amateur photographer took these AMAZING photos of the boys on Monday. I think he could go pro. What do you think?

Aiden



Colin


Brody


And here are a few more photos snapped by another one of my talented colleagues:

Brody


Aiden


Colin


Aiden with me


He was actually crying pretty hard in this photo, because he wanted to walk where he wanted to go, not where I wanted him to go. This was a repeating theme throughout the photo-taking process, not just with Aiden but with all of the boys. They are all blessed with the ability to think independently.

Here's how we managed to get the photos. My mom was visiting, so after the boys' afternoon (and only) nap, she drove C and the boys to campus. I met them there with my two friends and we proceeded to follow the boys around campus for about 45 minutes. They walked ran all over. I think we were all exhausted from chasing them. They were all over the quad, up and down stairs, up and down platforms and stairs at an outdoor atrium, all over the green behind the outdoor atrium, around and around various walkways and piles of rocks and piles of dirt and leaves and whatever else they came across.

One thing was especially cute. Brody was walking next to a curb and he noticed that his shoes were causing the crisp fall leaves to collect in front of him. After about 20 feet of walking there was a nice pile of leaves. He stopped, bent down, picked up about ten leaves and threw them up in the air. It was so cute!

I paused while typing up this post because my friend just stopped by with ALL of the photos. They are incredible! It's too much for me to post all of them, but the ones I'm sharing here definitely capture the essence of the day. Enjoy!

I should also mention that Babaanne, Babababa, and Aunt D gave the boys the clothes the boys are wearing in the photos. Thank you so much!

And Thanks again to my wonderful colleagues!

Belly laughs

Over the weekend, the boys and I were having breakfast together. Aiden looked over at Brody and then he started laughing. Not the tiny chuckle laugh, but the deep belly, you-are-seriously-cracking-me-up laugh. He would stop for a few seconds and then he would look at Brody and start laughing all over again. Brody and Colin started laughing with Aiden, and so did I. I never did figure out what made Aiden laugh so hard. I'm guessing that won't be the last time I don't "get" it. Kids, what a complete and utter joy!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

I'm sorry the posts have lacked photos recently. Honestly, the last time I took pictures with my camera was 9/6/09 and today is 10/10/09. My mom was here, so I do have some pictures from a little bit later than 9/6, but not much later. Things have just been soooo busy! (I do have some video from the last month, but I have never even put video from there onto my computer, so a post with said video won't happen any time soon.)

Today I took a picture of what our living/play room looks like these days. This is what it looks like about 30 minutes after the boys wake up:
In this picture, Brody is in blue, Aiden is in front (to our right of Brody) and Colin is in back (to our left of Brody). Right after I took this picture, Colin ran into the other room.




In both pictures you can see Brody hugging his "bear bear" as I have been calling it lately. He is so attached to this bear. He loves on it all the time. He sleeps with it. Sometimes he sees the bear and he goes over and lies on top of it, talks to it, and eats its nose. The bear stinks so bad. I washed it last week. It didn't help much. But, boy oh boy does he love that bear!

It's fall and the leaves are, well, falling. I took the boys on a walk and there were leaves on the ground everywhere. It was actually very pretty. I was pointing out the leaves and all of the different colored trees and then I decided to let them each hold a leaf. I pulled over the runabout gave them each a leaf. They looked at it and then each one promptly put it in his mouth! I told them "yucky" don't eat the leaf. But they insisted. Eventually I had to take the leaves away. But they had fun exploring them before I did. Here's a few photos of them on our walk:

They are in birth order, front to back: Aiden, Brody, Colin. I didn't do it on purpose. I never put them in the same seats. They wind up in whatever order they come to the door. Sometimes I start front to back and sometimes I go back to front. Today, though, they came in order :) By the way, you can see their cute shoes in this picture!

Round and Round and Round and Books

Yesterday when I got home from work Colin ran into the kitchen, stopped, and turned around in a circle. He made about three to four complete turns, then he stopped. He looked at me with a proud yet silly expression. Then he stood in the same spot for a few seconds after which he tried to walk toward me. He was dizzy. Of course, since this was the first time I've seen him spin himself around, I don't think he realized he was dizzy. As he staggered toward me, he nearly fell forward. He caught himself and managed to walk diagonally across the kitchen and eventually made it to me. How cute!

And the cuteness didn't end there. When I was reading Colin "Water Water Everywhere", I pointed out the octopus on a page. Colin pointed where I pointed. Then I pointed to the octopus on the next page. Colin pointed too. Then I turned the page and asked "Where is the octopus?". And Colin pointed to the octopus! I went to the next page and he proceeded to point out the octopus on that page too! We made it through almost the whole (8 page) book before he lost interest. I can't believe how fast they are growing up!