nurse audrey

jacob gets these really terrible migraines and one morning he woke up with one that was definitely going to get worse. so he stayed home, much to the delight of everyone, especially me:) we all LOVE when jacob stays home from work, especially jacob:) the kids thought this was just fabulous, especially since he stayed in bed the entire morning. at one point, audrey started playing nurse to jacob, relaying messages and getting them completely wrong- "mommy, daddy says he's all better now", and jacob's response was, "audrey, i said i WASN'T better":) jacob also had sunglasses on, to combat the light even with the blinds drawn, so audrey decided she better get her sunglasses on as well. she also insisted that she have a cold cloth on her forehead, too:) while none of this made the migraine go away, jacob was extremely happy to have the kids all around him- "i can still be happy while miserable"- was his reply:) love and laughter really are the best medicine sometimes:)

lying in bed with daddy:) jacob was soooooo happy:)

walking boy

sammy walked today from the high chair to the fridge!! that about three feet between the two objects!! yea sammy!! he's been taking a few step here or there, but whenever we congratulate him, he just sits down and gives us the "i have no idea what you're talking about so pick me up now already" look:) we think he was in denial since being carried is so much easier:) but sammy's heavy!! i'm so happy he's finally seeing the benefit of walking! not surprisingly, he walked for food- something all the kids have done so far:)

different

the kids are so funny:) they do the strangest things:) we're so happy that each of them are so very different and have their own little quirks-each little personality adds another dimension to our family that just can't be replicated any other way:) jacob says that he remembers being called "different" when he was growing up and how he felt left out, so now, he's encouraging each of our kids to think differently. their differences really show up in their play and helps them learn from each other while expanding how each of them sees things, plus it helps us be better parents. we have to be more attentive to the personality of each child and tailor our parenting style to suit their specific needs so that we don't pigeon- hole, compare, or force them to do things that aren't necessary. jack likes to sing and make up songs, something jacob says he did when he was little, while audrey's our little actress and likes to act out her favorite characters. sammy's personality is still in the starting out phase, but he's definitely a little chatterbox and he makes the weirdest sounds:) it's such a blessing having kids that are so very different!

sammy stuck the head of the seal in his mouth- we had no idea his mouth was that big. explains where all his food goes:)

raiding the fridge for milk. he just sat there drinking every sippy cup that had milk in it:)

one of sammy's birthday presents- they each grabbed a different favorite toy- sammy's sheep, jack's mario and luigi, audrey's koopa and yoshi- and pushed different buttons for over an hour!

someone's happy and someone else wants to get away!

i forget why she did this- it's just funny:)

watching mario on the ipod. they sat like this for 45 minutes.

i don't know. he just does these things:)

this is how he came out of his room when he woke up from his nap. i guess he didn't have enough hands:)

just sammy

sammy's turning one in april!! i can't believe how fast time is going by! here's some pics of the HUGE cutie)

he LOVES animal crackers

my curious toddler- to-be:)

putting toys into his bath

daddy dressed sammy as fire mario for church- that's a mr. potatohead mustache:)

baby richard

here are the ultrasound pics of baby richard:) audrey's so excited- she keeps talking about how "guy is my brudder and sammy is my brudder and baby richard is my brudder and you my mommy":) jack just knows my stomach is getting huge and that is he pokes something pokes back:)



it looks like he's waving at the camera:) jacob's already calling him his little chub:)

shutterbugs

audrey and jack love to take photos with our old digital camera. audrey's actually pretty good! jack's terrible and usually takes pics of his thumb:) here's a sampling of some of their work:)

daddy loves to make silly faces:)

audrey will tell me to say "cheese":)

she learned that we can turn to camera around and take pics of ourselves!

jack was VERY interested in the flash- i was showing him where the shutter button was

isn't he a cutie?

cabinets

when we first moved into our current apartment building, audrey discovered the lower kitchen cabinets. she would just crawl inside and sit. this led to jack playing this odd game and pretty soon, they both would just sit in the cabinets and laugh and each other. we never got the joke, but i guess it wasn't for parents:) sammy thought this game was just fantastic and wanted so badly to join in, but he could never figure out how to crawl in. well, after two days of trying, sammy did it! he was so pleased with himself, he wouldn't stop smiling:) now all he has to figure out is how audrey and jack close the cabinet doors when they're inside...

big kid potty

now that jack potty training, we needed audrey to start sitting on the big potty. she loves it, especially since she gets more chocolates for sitting on the big potty:) it all started when jack got two chocolate eggs one day, one for sitting on the potty and the second for actually peeing into the potty. audrey was only getting one, and she didn't think that was so fair. so, i told her that if she sat on the "big daddy potty" she could have two, too. ever since that day, she's been on the big potty every time:) she even flushes and puts her little potty seat and stool away:) of course, she's rewarded for this with THREE chocolate eggs:) life's pretty good when you're three:)


this is audrey showing me what "mommy and daddy do on the big potty":) after i took this picture, i laughed and laughed and laughed:) note the betty and veronica comic:)

pockets

audrey and jack recently discovered their pants had pockets. jack thought this was great and would walk around with his hands in his pockets:) we tried to convince him pockets were also for objects, but he's happy with hands. audrey's obsessed with pockets now. she thinks everything has a pocket, even when there isn't one. then she discovered that she could stick things into the waistband of her undies if she didn't have real pockets:) apparently, that's a pocket too:)

pretty sure his hands are stuck

they stayed like this for at least 10 minutes. weird little kids:)

this is her newest pocket- her undies. who knew undies could be multi-purpose?:)

sammy and the strollers

audrey and jack love their doll strollers. we bought audrey's for her second birthday and jack liked pushing it around so much that we got him one, too. then they discovered they could sit in the strollers and push each other around or pedal with their feet. sammy thought that was hysterical and would follow them around:) now that sammy's starting to walk, he's shown and interest in the strollers, as well, much to the delight of the other two. they'll sit in their strollers and sammy will push them around. he can't steer very well, so they help by steering with their feet:) i'm just surprised sammy's strong enough to push jack! audrey's much lighter- sammy's already close to her body weight:) i guess sammy wants to pay audrey and jack back for all the stroller pushing they do when he's sitting in his big stroller:)

this is when we had one stroller- they took turns being pushed:) it was audrey's turn to sit:)

jack's turn:) audrey had a really hard time manuevering the stroller with jack in it:)

now, sammy's turn to push! sammy had a great time and so did the older two. audrey keeps asking sammy to push her in the stroller now:)

audrey's first haircut

so, a week after jack's haircut, i went for one. audrey thought this was great and kept saying she wanted one, too. we thought that after watching jack cry and fuss all during his, she wouldn't want one for a loooooonnnnnnggg time. boy, were we wrong:) just goes to show, as a parent, you never really know what's going on in your kid's head:) audrey had her haircut all planned out- she wanted to go to "the place with the pony and sit on the pony and get my haircut just like guy(jack)":) when we got there, she did sit on the pony, until she told me, "the pony not safe mommy- i sit in the flower car" and ran over to this really girly car and asked, very politely, to be put in. she played until it was her turn. she didn't seem to mind the water being sprayed but she froze when the clips were put into her hair. she was great during the haircut; she sat still, looked down when the stylist asked her to, and happily read curious george books. it was the blow-dry that kind of scared her. then jacob handed her some hair clips to look at and that solved the being scared problem;) she chose two orange butterflies for her hairstyle:) then she and jack both got candies, which made jack happy since he DID NOT want to go inside melonheads:) when we got to the salon, jack just turned around and walked away. it was pretty funny:) jacob had to take him and sammy for a walk while audrey and i were in the salon. guess the salon is going to be a mommy-daughter thing;)

sitting on the "not safe" pony:)

audrey LOVES this car

getting ready for the cut

choosing her hariclips- it was a really difficult decision!

so proud of herself:) she talked about nothing else for the rest of the day- "mommy, i got my hair cut and TWO butterfly clips":)