Just Around the Cornor

My first born is almost four.  I can hardly believe it.  I know it's two months away, but still, four years is A LOT closer then 3, or 3 1/2.  Yikes.  It's somewhat unbelievable that sleepless nights were that long ago, or that he was just learning to crawl, and then we were excited he started to walk.  Let's not forget the teeth and the solid food!  And then I fast forward to the present, and well no wonder it doesn't seem like four years because I did it all over 2 1/2 years ago, and am doing it again right now!  I guess that's the thing with having three kids in 3 1/2 years, once you get one out of a stage, there is another one following closely.

There are perks though to having an almost four year old. His temper has really "mellowed," well as much as boys can :) He keeps his hands to himself a lot more now. He also is making good choices more then bad. He loves saying I love you, giving hugs and kisses. He still likes to snuggle. He helps his brothers.  His speech is getting better everyday.  But I have a running joke with the speech therapist that I'm really pulling for an "r"!

 

And here is my 2 1/2 year following in the footsteps of his older brother.  Unfortunately for my ears, his terrible twos are manifesting in whining, not in temper tantrums.  I think I prefer the yelling!  His speech is also delayed, however it's due more to his stubbornness and not due to hearing issues like his older brother.  Just the last couple of weeks he has begun to repeat most of what I, and his older brother, say.  He now says two colors: bue (blue) and wewwow (yellow), and currently trying to remember eeen (green)!  He is super busy and a daredevil.  The newest adventure is jumping down the stairs.  He's going to kill me!  He thinks he can keep up with #1.

 



 

My baby!!!  He will be six months old next week. NOOOOOOOO.  I swear with #1 every new milestone was exciting because he was the first.  With #2 is was a little less novel, but he did everything so fast.  With this one I don't want him to grow up!!!!  I can't believe he could be eating solid food already.  That he can roll over and do pushups.  That he is getting his first tooth.  That he will be crawling at some point.  It just can't be!  I want to bottle him up and never let him out.  He LOVES his brothers and is such a good sport with them.  He doesn't even mind if they stand on him, it's great.  He is just precious.  And soon enough he'll be moving at the speed of light like the others and then I'll be nostalgic for those sleepless nights all over again.

A Hunting He Will Go!



This first pic isn't the best of Husband, but, if you can zoom in you'll see #1 sporting his favorite look, a wink topped off with a thumbs up!  Husband went hunting a couple of times in September but could never find that elusive moose.  Total bummer because we really needed one this year.  The boys helped Daddy get packed up and were rewarded by receiving a ride on the 4-wheeler.  #1 has been eyeing the trailer and I thought, what the he**, let's put his helmet on and let him ride.  He had a great time and we all earned a little brownie points!

 



Here is #1 giving Daddy a nice send off.  All packed and ready to go!

Below is my food cache for the winter.  I froze five bags of raspberries, seven of lowbush cranberries, and 10 or so of blueberries.  The raspberries were picked just up the road where we live (must pick more next year) and about half the cranberries are from our "front yard."  I convinced Husband to pick blueberries out at moose camp and he came through!  I'm so excited to have freshly frozen local berries for muffins and pancakes for those cold dark winter days that are coming. 

Two Boys in a Room

Way back in April we finally bit the bullet and put both boys in the same room (#1 and #2, #3 wasn't here yet!).  This decision was not made lightly.  We had thought about it for awhile, but then as luck would have it we were sort of thrust into it by two separate events.  The first was our domestic water pipes going out the day after Thanksgiving.  To accommodate all the exposed holes in our walls we moved #1 up into our bedroom (oh yeah, I must write about this) and #2 into #1's room.  #2's room became what I affectionately called our hoarders room because all things in our house went their to collect dust, disappear, then die a lonely death.  The sleeping arrangements stayed as such all the way until April.  I had politely, gently, subtly, and then not so subtly pointed out that I was 37 weeks pregnant and that soon we would have a third child (second event), who would be sleeping in our room and that it was time to get things moving to get #1 out of our room.  I didn't want #1 to feel as if the baby was replacing him and the cause for him being moved out, and we were quickly loosing time!  Husband quickly patched up the one room.  I made a cute calendar to countdown to this momentous occasion.  As it turned out, it was more for me then them.  Husband and I both dreaded them sharing a room.  We imagined endless nights of them laughing, playing, hitting, kicking, yelling, etc, etc, and that they would never get enough sleep and be grumpy and miserable, therefore making us miserable.  Thankfully, this couldn't have been farther from the truth and was in fact an easy transition.  The first night they laughed and played for an hour; the second, 30 minutes.  After that smooth sailing. 

Now fast forward five months to the present.  It's still going well.  However #2 decided it was a good idea to start screaming, crying, and jumping in his crib when it was time for lights out.  This prompted #1 to scream, cry, and pitch a fit at #2 to stop, "#2 be quiet, go to sleep."  They would do this for five minutes then silence.  It SUCKED.  It was loud and it bothered me to no end.  I felt bad that #1 was bothered by #2's racket.  I also felt bad for #2 because getting yelled at when you're sad sucks.  Finally I started to tell #1 that instead of yelling to calmly tell #2 that it'll be okay and to go to sleep.  Now I just simply remind him of this every night, and voila, no more yelling, and no more crying on #2's part, I'm SOOOO smart!  Now when I close the door I hear kindness, "#2 it's alright, mom will be back in the morning, go to sleep.  It's okay, go to sleep." Thank goodness!