A trip to a dinosaur museum!

Morrill Hall

Well, it wasn't really exclusively a dinosaur museum, but that's what the kids were calling it. On Friday, we, along with Emalea with her girls Hannah and Haylea, and my mom, went to Morrill Hall down on the UNL campus. I hadn't been there in years, and we thought the kids would get a kick out of the animals, so we braved the cold and spring break crowds to go there. It was a nice time. The kids really liked the elephant room, there were two real (stuffed) elephants and several wooly mammoths that were cool. There were a couple of dinosaurs that they also liked. There were lots of interactive displays, with animal sounds and things you could touch and play with. Afterwards we went for some lunch at Amigos, then home for a nice long 3 hour nap!

So speaking of long naps, the kids have been sleeping lots lately. They have also been eating record amounts. I believe they're in a growth spurt. Naps have been between 2 1/2 and 3 hours each day. Some nights, it takes the boys until 9:30 or so to fall asleep, but they're still sleeping until after 7 every morning. And, we have been going through tons of milk. We haven't used this milk since they were little drinking it in bottles. Even Grace has been setting milk drinking records. They're averaging 3 bowls of cereal (plus bananas) every morning and eating a ton of lunch like they always have. The difference is now they are eating tons of lunch AND tons of dinner (which they never did before).

Xander has been saying some great versions of words lately, unintentionally. His newest are "buffalopes" for buffaloes and "gamerican" for American. I think it's hilarious when he tries to use big words and gets them mixed up. Something they all three have been doing is mixing up their semantics in sentences. They'll say things like "I get a gummy worm, so I went potty" instead of "I went potty, so I get a gummy worm." Xander said in the car last weekend, after climbing up a down a ladder at the park for about 20 minutes, "I'm tired of climbing." But, since we weren't climbing anymore, we figured he meant "I'm tired from climbing." It is interesting how they experimenting much more with their language and expressing themselves more and more. Will was watching me clean up some scrapbooking things today and he said "That's your scrapbooking stuff. It's only for girls. When I turn into a girl, I can have some." After I finished laughing I informed him that he wouldn't turn into a girl, that he would always be a boy. He said "OK" and went back to his trains. Funny boy!

We had a nice week this week. The weather was nice last weekend and early in the week. We hit the park and then went out to dinner on Saturday. The kids think it's a big treat to go into a restaurant, instead of just driving thru. We need to get them out more. Sunday was church and movie night. Tuesday was storytime, Wednesday was haircuts, then lunch at McDonald's with Grandma Ellen and Carter. Then they stayed with the Niebuhrs on Wednesday night, because they had apparently been asking to spend the night. They came home Thursday morning and we laid low for the rest of the day, as both Will and I were not feeling well (small colds, I think). Friday was the museum, lunch and then nice long naps for tired, sick people. This weekend should be fun, cousin Camden gets baptized on Sunday, so we'll have some family time then. Thanks for checking up on us, and here's hoping the weather gets better so we can get back outside.

Rocky, Andy and Suzie - nice California bears

Grace and Suzie

Will with Andy.

Xander with Rocky.

Reading the bears stories on the couch.

So, my dad was in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and brought the kids these little bears from the airport. They love these bears! Brian helped them name them and now they treat them like another set of triplets in the house. They go EVERYWHERE with them (except when I draw the line and don't let them take them.) They read them stories, take them on rides in the cars/strollers/shopping cart, make them do chores and, sadly, put them in time out. I guess even stuffed bears are naughty sometimes. Today, they took them onto the front porch for fresh air (see last picture), because it was too cold and windy to go play. They call them by name and will say "goodbye" to them if we're leaving to go somewhere. They will also start saying "Rocky, I'm home." or "don't worry Suzie, I'm coming." when we drive up our street, coming home. Silly kids!

It was a busy beginning to the week, then the end of the week let up a little bit. We did hit the park several times this week, as the weather early on was GREAT! We love spring weather. The kids had a good time, ran off a lot of energy and are back to taking 2 1/2 - 3 hour naps (well, the boys at least. Grace never sleeps longer than 2 hours). They've been so good out in public lately. I can take them anywhere I need to run errands. It's kind of nice knowing they'll behave and I can get things done. However, the second we get home or in the car, they start fighting and whining again, so it must just be for my benefit that they do it. They must know I love the whining!

Not a lot of noteworthy things have been happening lately. They are just becoming more and more like kids rather than toddlers. They say super grown up things that amaze us and are losing their baby looks more and more. People have even been commenting how tall they are. I've been buying some summer clothes for the boys in bigger boy sizes, and not toddler sizes. (Which I'm kind of sad about, since they're more expensive.) They've all almost able to write the first letter of their names, they count objects pretty well now. If you give them 5 ducks and ask them to point and count, they can do it. They used to move their mouths faster than their fingers, and would end up saying there were 9 ducks, instead of 5. We've been working on mastering scissors and it is amazing to me how fast they're learning how to use a computer. They have that little Thomas computer from Kara at Christmas, and they're really good with the mouse. They are enjoying large floor jigsaw puzzles and can do those by themselves, too. Night-time potty training has not really changed. Will occasionally wakes up dry, we just hope it becomes more frequent. We talk about it all the time. We're just still trying to be patient.

So, I think that's about all. We're helping Oma and Opa move into their new house this weekend, but other than that, I think it will be a quiet weekend with lots of outside time if the weather cooperates. Have a great weekend, everyone! Thanks for looking!

Guess what?!?!?!

Well, it's official. It's a baby!!! (No, not mine!) Kara and Wes are going to be parents!!! She's due on October 3rd and is doing great. They're excited and maybe a little freaked out. Congrats Kara and Wes, we're excited to have another little cousin in the family.

Dancing Machine

So, here's some more video of them dancing. I took this over the weekend. The song is called "Dancing Machine". You dance like common machines: washing machine, egg beater, oil well, robot, airplane, and train. My favorite is when they try to do jerky movements like a robot. It's hilarious. Will still took some drink breaks, he drinks so much! Notice they're wearing the same outfits as the last time I took video of them. I promise, they do own other clothes. The only difference is that Brian put the boys in the wrong outfits....he said they chose which ones to wear (yeah, right. I think he just can't remember which outfit belongs to which boy.). Enjoy!

We visited the follow-up clinic at the NICU on Monday. All in all, a very good report. She thought they were doing wonderfully, right on target for their age. They did all sorts of things for the doctor, (willingly, I might add!). She had them putting together puzzles, drawing, playing catch, answering questions, imitating different shaped towers she built, and lots of other things. The only thing that confused them in identifying "biggest" vs. "big". We'll work on that. We did storytime twice this week, once on Tuesday night for family story time, Brian went with us. And once on Wednesday. Storytime on Wednesday was about "imagining" and the first story was called "The Big Brown Box". Well, it also just happened that Grandma Ellen had a gigantic cardboard box at her house and they were so excited when they saw it "Just like the book, mommy" Grace said. Apparently, they spent all afternoon on Wednesday playing in it. Xander told me he fell asleep in it. Come to find out, he took his nap in it. They colored on it, and pretended it was all sorts of things, but most commonly, it was a McDonald's drive thru. They freely handed out french fries and chicken nuggets.

Grandma Ellen graciously watched the kids again Thursday morning while I had a dr. appt. Tomorrow we have a playdate with Hannah and Haylea, then we are looking forward to warmer weather this coming week. Outside, here we come! Will has himself a bit of a cold, runny nose and all that. So far, his cough is not too bad. I think Grace may also be picking it up, I've noticed a slightly runny nose. I hope it doesn't last too long.

The night-time potty training for the boys is not going well. We started putting Will in underwear and a cover, but he is still waking up wet/soaked. I've been washing his sheets pretty much every day. We're also pretty sure now that he's peeing in his sleep, as is Xander (although we still have him in diapers). I spoke with the doctor about it at the clinic on Monday. She said there's pretty much nothing we can do about it right now. I am hoping that time will take care of it. Will's little bottom has a pretty bad rash on it from sitting in pee at night. We have him back in diapers for a little while until the rash heals, we'll try again later. Anyone have any brilliant ideas? Well, that's all for now. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Busy days

Here's a couple of pictures from our trip to the children's museum a couple of weeks ago. They have a new interactive jungle display. The kids have fun wearing hats, binoculars and backpacks and walking around exploring the animals. My camera battery died, otherwise I would have taken a lot more pictures. It would make a cute scrapbook page!

We've been out and about a lot this week, now that everyone finally feels better! I think I mentioned that Xander had a lot of tests done last week. I finally heard from the doctor and all the tests came back normal. There's nothing wrong with him, which is good. So, the recent throwing up was probably still residual effects from the virus, and the throwing up in January and early Feb was probably just overeating or a touch of something. The doctor wants to know if if he throws up anymore, if he does they'll do more upper GI tests, which are more invasive. But, for now, everyone is over the viruses and has their appetites back (as evidenced by the 4 bowls of cereal, each, they're eating for breakfast every morning!)

Most of our time out this week has been spent at Oma and Opa's house helping them and Grandma Ellen prepare for their garage sale. Luckily the weather cooperated on Thursday and we were able to play outside while helping with the sale. (And the sale did brilliantly, by the way.) We also went to church on Monday to talk to the preschool director and get them signed up for preschool in the fall. The director is Karen, one of the ladies that came over once a week to help me when the kids were babies. She is great, and while the kids don't really remember her, she remembers them and is thrilled to have them in preschool (and she has room for all three of them in one class!) I have no idea what will happen with my going back to work (I hear there are some openings in LPS, so I think my chances are good). But, we decided to go ahead and enroll them anyway and try to work out details of additional childcare if and when I get hired. We'll go for a visit to the preschool later this spring, I think it is going to be great for them.

The kids have been very into helping lately. So, we've started giving them jobs, like clearing and setting the table, putting silverware into the dishwasher or taking it out and sorting it and picking up around the house (more than just their toys). We figure we might as well start them early on chores so then they won't ever remember a time when they didn't have chores to do. Their other new thing is the making up of words. It's getting worse, or better, depending on how you look at it. Their made up words are more creative, but they way them ALL the time. Xander even inserts them into songs "Rasher, rasher, rash. Rasher, rasher, rash. Hi Ho the Derrrio, the rasher, rasher, rash." They will also throw something, or hit something and say "I sponked it!" of "I tinked you." I don't know if this is good or bad, but it's happening a lot, though.

Grace is doing marvelously with no diaper at night, only one accident since we've been doing it. We decided just to put Will in underwear at night to see what happens. He can wake up dry, he just doesn't. So far, he hasn't woken up dry ever, but we're hoping it's just a matter of time until he figures it out. I am getting tired of changing sheets on the bed, so let's hope it's not too long. I'll try to get more video of them dancing, I've heard that people were amused by the last video. More soon! Thanks for checking up on us.