Happy Holidays!

Yesterday we made our annual trip to the local mall to get our Santa picture taken. Last year both Grammy and Babaanne were here, but this year only Grammy was here to witness the chaos that is photography with Santa.

The plan--line up the boys in birth order and have them all be cheerful and delighted to be sitting on Santa's Lap and have the perfect holiday photo to share.

The reality--Aiden was ok, even pleasant sitting on Santa's lap. Colin was terrified the moment he realized he was leaving my arms for Santa's lap. Brody full heartedly rejected the idea of sitting on Santa's lap by arching his back and starting a temper tantrum. So, we started out by U holding Colin and me holding Brody. Neither one of them like that, so we switched kids. Almost instant calmness ensued. Instead of the second Santa photo being just the kids, it has the parents too. (We are obviously not dressed for the occasion!) But at least we have a family photo!

(Colin on my lap; Aiden on Santa's lap; Brody on U's lap)


Compare with last year:

Vist from Grandma (Babaanne) and Aunt D

We had a nice visit from Babaanne and Aunt D in the week before and week of Thanksgiving (and Bayram). U and I were really, really sick during the second week, so we couldn't do everything I planned to do. Nevertheless, the boys definitely enjoyed visiting with Babaanne and Aunt D and I think they especially enjoyed all of the tasty food. They are definitely exhibiting preference for Turkish food!

Here are a few photos of the boys with Babaanne:

With Colin:


With Brody:


With Aiden:


We love you and miss you and can't wait for our next visit together!

Finger Painting

Last Saturday (Nov. 28) I decided it was time to try finger painting. It was a ton of fun and I think the boys really liked it. Here are a few pictures.

First I gave out the paper.

Aiden


Brody (you can actually see his bloody nose...that I blogged about a few days ago.)


Colin


I put a dab of color on their paper, let them play with it, then put a dab of another color, and let them play with it and so on. It was really fun to watch what they did with it and how they navigated the paper and the paint.

Aiden






Brody






Colin






I also want to say sorry that we were not able to do this while Babaanne and Aunt D were here. I had a touch of the flu and it just sapped all of my energy. We really enjoyed their visit and I hope they come again soon.

Hot Chocolate walk/run

Today we went to a Hot Chocolate walk and run. The plan was for me to do the 2 mile fun walk with the boys and U to do the 5-K right afterward. Here's a picture of us all (well U and the boys) right before the start.
U is holding Brody, Aiden is in the middle and Colin is in the back.


Long story short, it was cold, cold, cold today and the walk started a little late. By the time we got going I think the boys, especially Brody who refuses to wear his hoody, were too cold, a little hungry and a tiny bit overstimulated from all of the people and the noise. So, after about 1/4 mile or so, they were all crying. After about a minute of that, I turned the stroller around and we proceeded to go back to the car. I cranked the heat, put on relaxing music, and after about 15 minutes, this was the scene:

Aiden, Brody, Colin (LtoR)


Then I busted out the rice chex, cheddar bunnies, and dried apples (and water of course). Colin slept through the whole thing, but Aiden and Brody were chowing down. They were reading books, hanging out and generally have a fun time. Eventually U called me and I told him where we were waiting for him. Pretty soon, I saw him coming my way with 2 mugs of hot chocolate:
U's just left of the ambulance


The satisfied runner:


All and all we had a great time together. I hope we can all do it again in the future, but I will not take the kiddos when it is so cold that it starts SNOWING during the race!

Brody and the stool

Today I took Brody to the doctor (had a few bloody noses over the last few days, which after the doctor visit seem to be nothing). He put his sippy cup on the doctor's stool that spins around. He was fascinated by this for a few minutes (well 15 minutes). Then he figured out that he could push the stool around. Then he decided he wanted to push it under the exam table. The problem was that the stool would not fit under the exam table with the sippy cup on it. The sippy cup would fall off of the stool every time he tried to push the stool under the table. He started to melt down. Luckily, I only had one kid at the doctor so I was able to distract him before he spun out of control. All and all he was incredibly cute and charming. He was talking in the sweetest tone you can imagine throughout almost our entire visit. Then when we left the office I ran into a mom with 3 kids, the youngest of whom was there for the 12-month well visit. Although her kids were scared and hid behind mommy, Brody said hi to all of them and then proceeded to "show off" what he could do, playing with the toys in the office and climbing on to and off of chairs. It was so sweet to spend a few minutes alone with one of my kids.