Sledding

We took the boys sledding this morning. They actually went sledding in our back yard last year, but this time we loaded them up and went to one of the local hills to take a crack.

At first, Aiden (green) wasn't so sure. He had no idea what was going to happen.


Eventually, we got up the hill and Dada was waiting with the sleds. After a few minutes they caught on and were excited to go down.

Here is Brody and DaDa:


Here is Colin and DaDa:


And us all together:


I didn't get a close-up, but you can also see our au pair (Susana). This was her first time sledding ever. I don't know who had more fun--her or the kids :)


And the best way to get back up the hill? Have Dada push you of course. (Brody is getting pushed and you can see me with the other two in the way way background).

ismas and claw claw

We recently celebrated Christmas (ismas) and the boys were very excited when Santa Clause (claw claw) brought them new toys. Here they are playing with their new train table (A,C,B,and Dada):



They started ripping the train tracks apart, so we decided to put those away for now. But they LOVE playing with the trains and the cars.

Next we skyped with Grammy and Papa so that they could watch the boys open their Christmas presents (Aiden closest to Christmas tree, Brody to Aiden's left and Colin to Brody's left)--if you look close enough you can see Grammy and Aunt Amie watching intently:



And Christmas wouldn't be complete without eating homemade gingerbread cookies with icing :) (B,A,C) They LOVE these cookies. They are still talking about them. I blame Grammy. She spoiled them by bringing them their first gingerbread cookie ever back in early December when she and Papa visited.



If you haven't been living under a rock the last few days, you know that the east coast was slammed with a pretty severe blizzard. Knowing that it was coming, I took the boys out for a bit of an adventure on Sunday morning. First we went to momma's work and ran around in an pretty empty building. Then we went to Dunkin' Donuts and ate glazed donuts (mmmhhmmm donuts). Then we spend about 36 hours couped up in our house going mad. I was so happy when the blizzard warning was lifted.

(Colin, left, Aiden, right)


(Brody, way ahead of them, running for the car)


And this is what our house looked like post-storm:

The big boy potty

Tonight, I was sitting calmly on the couch with Brody reading "Hello Calico" when I heard some slightly more joyful than usual noises coming from the bathroom. So, I walked over and what did I see? Aiden and Colin with their hands IN THE POTTY. I guess this is where I should be counting my blessings. They have been potty trained since mid-September ;)

My favorite part of today was being snowed in and having Aiden sit on the counter and watch me make soup and smell each vegetable as I was putting it into the pot. Half an hour straight of Aiden-momma one on one time. Colin and Brody demand their one on one time. With Aiden, I make time because he is a such a happy kid he would never let me know he needed it.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays. We have been missing from blogland for quite a while, but I hope everyone is well and the holiday season is joyful for you.

Below is our 2010 Santa photo. Dada, Aiden, Mama, Brody, Santa, and Colin.


We *tried* to get the picture with just the boys, but the boys were having none of that. We all had to sit next to Santa together. Thanks Grammy for the cool Holiday vests. Aiden especially liked that his had a truck. Colin loved the penguins on his and Brody was thrilled that there was an entire Christmas tree on his. It is super fun to hear them try to pronounce all of the new words: Christmas, Santa Claus, Snow man. They generally drop off the leading and trailing sounds, so I feel like a language detective most days, but it is so much easier to understand them than 6 months ago (about the last time I posted!). Guess what my New Year's resolution is?

Watermelon and a swim

Here are the boys yesterday evening after a swim in the pool (Aiden and Colin jumped in the big pool) and splashing around in the little pool and the water table. They are obsessed with goggles (gul-gul).

Colin, Brody, Aiden

sleepless nights

I'm cleaning my office and I'm embarrassed to say that I found a disc of photos my mom took while on a trip to visit us in October of 2008. Yes. 2008. Here's what the boys looked like then:


I am reminded of this period because the boys weren't really sleeping through the night at this time. Last night, I didn't get to sleep through the night either. Brody would.not.sleep. It took us an hour to get him down last night (8-9pm). He then woke up again at 2am and did not fall asleep for about an hour (after I finally brought him into our bed, which I have NEVER done with him before). Then he was up again at 6:15am, at which point he woke up the dogs, who then woke up his brothers. All told I got about 5 hours of sleep. But they're so freakin' cute aren't they?

Some pictures

The pictures in this post are from May-June 2010. I had some issues retrieving the pictures from our new camera (bad chord connection) so I had to go to the store and get a dvd made and have just now loaded them on to my computer....(I went a little crazy picture-posting today, but at least I'm not too far behind any more.)

Aiden learning how to hit the t-ball:


Brody (stripes) and Aiden (blue) on the see-saw


Adien (blue) and Colin (stripes) on the swings--their new favorite activity


Brody with Grammy-he likes the swings, but he *really* likes to sit on someone's lap while swinging


Da-da in the pool with Colin, Brody leaving the pool and Aiden sticking his tongue out at the whole thing-


Choo-choo train on ma-ma's lap (Aiden, Brody, Colin front to back). Yes, they say "chuu chuu chuu" while sitting on me.


Brody and Da-Da (and Colin too)


Aiden


U and I went to an exhibition game-Northern Ireland v Turkey


And guess who we saw there?


And guess how hot it was that day?


For the boys' birthday, my triplet mom mentor (a wonderful, wonderful person) gave us her kids' (BGB) play kitchen. I asked if her kids climbed on it? "Oh no, never." Our kids have gotten hours of entertainment out of the kitchen so far, and some of those hours even involve playing with the plastic food and the kitchen as intended. (The kitchen exhibit at our local children's museum is one of their favorite exhibits.)







Watching the cars go by (Brody, Aiden, Colin, left to right). Yes, we do have clothing for them other than pajamas. No, we do not have monkey-free pajamas.


Watching the carousel (Colin, Brody, Aiden)


Colin in the fire truck at the playground at the local elementary school (which everyone LOVES to play on). They are all obsessed with anything that has wheels (including our grill).


Brody (red shoes) and Colin (blue shoes). The boys like to run around and then look in all of the doors/windows. (We always go when the school is closed, but it's still quite interesting for them to look inside.)


Taking a small break...


Aiden, after Papa's heart


A little blurry, but this is how we get out with the boys these days-(Brody, Aiden, Colin, left to right)


A few weeks ago, we went out for pizza and ice cream (at two different places). Here are all of my boys enjoying desert. Brody (who was sitting with me until I got up to take the picture), Colin-to U's right, Aiden-to U's left. They were truly enjoying this summer treat.


Getting ready to go in the big pool (Yes, they have life jackets on.)


Tunnel fun this past weekend. This tunnel entertained them for a good hour. I highly recommend something like this if you have active toddlers on your hands.


These days they really enjoy going up and down the stairs. Since the stairs to our basement are carpeted and their risk of injury is lower, they go up and down these much more often. They are so good at it that we don't have to hand hold, but simply watch them while they're doing it. I can't believe how much they have turned into little boys. Just yesterday, Colin and Brody were wrestling and tickling each other and laughing like crazy. They love to bounce on anything (their cribs, the couch, our bed). They like to stand up on the arm of the couch and jump down to the doggie beds. Fortunately, they are scared enough that they typically don't do anything beyond their comfort zone. Age two is a lot more fun than age one.