baby steps

for the first time ever, peanut walked while pushing a toy. he's cruised the sofa before but has never taken steps pushing something. this is at nanaws house, naturally the first time he does it, i miss it! (ignore the mess, her and papa were watching all 3 boys while i ran errands. they destroy the place!)

oh my!

lions,
tigers,
and bears!

OH MY!

i spy with my little eye...

...a few homemade Christmas gifts for the kiddos! so far i've made bubba and pooks "i-spy" bags. these are basically a bean bag with a viewing window. it's filled with clear pellets and novelty buttons and small objects. a kiddo (or grown up!) can sift through the bag, looking through the window, and find the hidden objects. because each kid has one (with the exact same thing inside) they can even race to see who can find something first. i plan on keeping them in the car to use at restaurants, doctors offices, long car rides, haircuts, etc.

here is pooks (each kiddo picked out their own fabric)

and bubba's. apparently he's a bit of a rocker...skulls and all(i finished bubba's later and the lighting in this pic sucks, but you get the idea)
and the backside has a panel with a 'key' on it

i chose to take a picture including each item rather than make a list since the boys aren't reading yet. i was super excited to print directly on the fabric. there are over 35 things inside! different little things, charms, buttons, odds and ends and lastly letter beads that spell their names.

the great part is, they are very cheap cost effective to make. i purchased 1/3 of a yard of each fabric and that amount will actually make 6 bags. hello the fabric only cost $2 (each)! the little knick-knack things weren't very expensive either, i found a ton of buttons/charms on clearance at the craft store and the other stuff around the house. who doesn't have nuts, paperclips, zipper, buttons, straws, stickers, etc?

so now i just have to resist giving it to them before christmas! i also have 3-4 more to make for gifts but they are easy peasy. i made both of these during nap time today!
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okay and on a completely unrelated note, i have to share our fun "spooky halloween" dinner that we had tonight-
how stinking cute is that? little mummy dogs with fries, spiderweb ketchup and broccoli w/cheese. bubba inhaled his but pooks just picked off all the crescent roll strips and left the hotdog. (peanut feasted on leftover pasta, crescent strips and the broccoli) oh well, it was cute!

rub a dub dub

all 3 of my little men in the tub,
tonight's bath was smooth sailing. no fighting, no flooding, no peeing and no splashing. all the things you try to avoid while bathing 3 boys and tonight unlike most nights it was easy and fun!

pumpkin patch part 2

okay so today we went back to the pumpkin patch, but with nanaw instead of B.

sidenote: i never blogged about it, but B is washington d.c. for two entire weeks for work. two. weeks. so i've been a "single" mom for one week now and let me tell you, if we didn't live 5 minutes away from my parents, i would have probably lost my mind by now! nanaw and papa are a huge help and the boys just love playing with them. plus it gives me a chance to pee without 3 kids crawling on me!

okay, so where was i? oh yeah. last time it we went much later and after the hayrack ride we didn't have a chance to pick out big pumpkins for carving. so today, that was our goal. of course i had to take my camera and try to get more pictures of the kiddos having fun. after all, we promised nanaw phew phew that we would take LOTS of pics. so here they are. (and yes nanaw, i realize this isn't all of them. blogger is being stupid and taking forever to upload, so this is what you get):

peanut and i

farmer nanaw and turkey pooks

nanaw with all her boys
(and yes, unfortunately this was the best one)

♥brothers♥

my boys and i on top of the haystack

pooks climbing to the top

bubba claiming that he can't do it

looking JUST like his daddy

bubba driving the tractor

pooks' turn!

he really loved it

of course, peanut needed a turn. however initially he was not happy about nanaw putting him down (spoiled much?!)

"hey wait a sec....this is fun!"

"seriously mom?"
pooks insisted on pulling the wagon

and finally (minus picture of the choosing) we loaded up our pumpkins

while we were there, the weather was wonderful! 65 degrees and a light breeze. by the time we arrived home, it was overcast and gloomy. it was much cooler and we couldn't have timed it better!

tales from the toddlers

these are 2 separate conversations that i had with bubba and pooks today-

me: hey pooks, come over here so we can get your shoes on.
pooks: no mama, i pay [play].
(he proceeds to continue playing with a chip clip and his blanket--completely ignoring me)
me: please? we need to get to target before peanut's nap and we have to go get groceries too. let's hurry.
(he stops playing to give me the look of death)
pooks: ma, i'm just busy.

seriously? i mean seriously? because i'm not attempting to change a babies diaper, put 8 shoes on 4 people, and get jackets on all of us. while mentally making a list of what we need to take with us and a separate mental list of what we need to buy. i'm sure that chip clip really just can't wait.

and bubba wasn't much better. we were sitting at the table over lunch, talking about numbers. this week was the number six and i was attempting to help him count.

me: bubba what's this? (holding up a number 6 magnet)
bubba: da letter six.
me: it is a six, good job! but remember how things that we count are numbers. letters are----
bubba: MOM, stop talking!
me: excuse me? bubba we don't talk to grown ups that way, it isn't nice.
(rolls his eyes at me)
bubba: mom, we'll just talk about this later, i'm done. as he pushes back from the table, climbs down from the table and walks into the kitchen.

i was speechless. me, speechless. i mean how do you even respond to that? i know where he got it; when B and I are bickering/arguing in front of the kids, one of us will say ''okay, i'm done talking ...we'll have to talk about this later." we're really working on not arguing around little ears. i guess that's a good thing, he just proved to me that he does listen.

speaking of 'off the wall things that people around here are saying' here are some phrases that i say all. the. time.

-no! don't touch the toilet. seriously, don't touch the toilet. pooks i'm not kidding, it's not funny, we do not touch the potty.

-don't touch your brother's boobies. if you want to touch boobies then you can touch your own! no they do not have milk in them, only mommies with babies have milk in their boobies.

-we do NOT eat dog food. yuck! yuck! yuck! no, no, no!

-get your finger out of your butt...get your hands out of your pants and come wash them. we don't play with our booties!

-i am not an elephant.

-stop growling at your brother/dog/hamster/, you're scaring him. you are only a lion/tiger when your costume is on.

-do not throw that book/toy/blanket/cup/snack/ behind the couch!

-no i will not just ''cheese'' it, it's not funny. (they mean take to take a picture)

-no, i am not pooping. girls always sit when they go potty. yes sometimes i poop, no i'm not right now. i can't stand up to pee like you and bra-bra because i am a girl. girls do not have penises. no i will not get one when i get bigger.

-sit down before your chair tips and you fall on your head.

- how do you think your brother feels when you punch his head like that?

- are your ears on? are they working? you need to listen.

i would love to say i'm kidding, but i'm not. sometimes i say the above phrase over and over and over in one day. sometimes in public. oh the surprises that come with motherhood!

an attempted photo shoot...

i thought in an effort to save a little money and be able to spend more on peanut and his birthday party that i would just take his one year portraits instead of shelling out $100 (at least). i mean how hard can it be right? i take a million pictures of the kiddos all the time, i have to be more talented than some ''trained photographer'' at sears. yeah well....maybe not. while i managed to get some cute pics out of the 232 photos that i took in less than one hour , none of them are "1 year portrait" worthy.

super cute, i love all his little teeth showing but not the one

i tried bringing in a prop but that kind of distracted him...

love the glimmer in his eyes but not perfect

yeah he wasn't feeling that one either!

cute but he's not showing his teeth

and the #1 sign your 11 month old is over it....

he physically slides his body down til he is laying flat while making the above face.

uh-oh

was what i heard coming from the kitchen today. PEANUT was standing at the fridge throwing off letter magnets, then saying ''uh-oh'' when they hit the floor. i didn't get a video then but i did get a short one at dinner. by this time he had said it approximately 400 times to he's not saying it as clearly as he had been but it's still cute!

happy 11 month birthday peanut!

cheese!

aww, i ♥ that kid!

okay, okay...i ♥ all my kids...
this one-
just started smiling like this:
when you say ''cheese''. he'll just do this over and over and over again.

and pooks has a recent obsession with walking around in his daddy's boots. he does it randomly and thinks that it is hilarious. (probably because we all laugh because he does look hysterical).
and whenever we all start laughing at pookie, bubba follows suit. then we have 2 sillies walking around here.
know what else?

this one is the silliest of them all:
nanaw may be the sneakiest of them all. she told me that she was "giving peanut a wagon wheel. " really? cause that looks a lot like an oreo to me.