My World right now

I've been wanting to write about what my life is like right now. It's funny how there are things that are part of your life and then gradually fade away and you don't even realize that they're gone. Then I am reminded of that time and remember the way life used to be. For example, a few years back, Nathan had to always have his curious george stuffed animal. He couldn't go anywhere without it or go to sleep unless he had it. Then it kind of faded away, but I smile when I see this picture:

So, right now Nathan can't say his R's or L's and it is so cute! He is extremely obsessed with numbers--counting and math. He loves to play the computer game World of Goo and would play it all day if I let him, but they only get 30 min. of screen time. He still likes to sleep in our bed, and does somehow sneak his way in there most nights. He is scared of going places alone in the house, so he likes to take Rocket the dog with him, and good ole Rocket dog obliges obediently. He still gets his shoes on backwards and his pants and shirt on inside out, backwards or both. He is learning to ride a bike without training wheels. He still has a vivid imagination and spends a lot of time running around the house with some weapon, cape, or random object he imagines to be something extraordinary, making shooting and blowing up noises (which are really good, by the way). Nathan's favorite color is still orange, but it changes occasionally, but it's most consistently orange. He really loves to color. He is most definitely a night owl. He sleeps heavily and is the last one awake in the mornings. At night, he gets a burst of energy and Alex is always asleep before him. Alex and Nathan love to play with Katie and can make her smile. They are so sweet to her. Nathan really hates to go to church. I think it's because the kids in his class are a bit crazy, and because he has a short attention span.

Nathan always asks me, "will you play tag with me?" Nathan loves stuffed animals right now. When he goes to Build A Bear, he tells me when his animal will come alive (when we leave the store or the next morning). Nathan will make up with names for big numbers. Yesterday he said that a number as big as infinity is called "tank of fire". Dot-org is another name for a big number. The boys hate to wear jammies-- they can only be in underwear when they go to bed or they say it's too hot.

Alex is the sweetest child ever to be born. He always tries to be so sweet and please us. The other day we gave the boys the last of the bluberry waffles and Alex shared with me. Alex gave Nathan one of his tooth fairy dollars without us saying anything. He is always so thoughtful and sharing and caring. Alex is very good at reading. It came very natural for him. He likes to read at night and has a very good attention when I read to him. He is very good at spatial reasoning and can build amazing things with legos, follow directions I can't even do to fold paper airplanes and put things together that I can't (literally). He likes music like me and he feels the emotion in music.

Right now Todd is doing "oobie and Lanae" with the boys. One night Todd pretended his hand was a puppet and the kids were giggling their heads off. After doing that a couple nights, Todd went to the store to get stuff for all of them to make sock puppets, which they did. And now Oobie and Lanae are sock puppets that the boys keep in each of their night stands to have fun with Daddy before bed. Why this is so funny I don't know, but they love it and I love to hear their giggles and see them have fun with their dad. They love to hear stories and todd is the best storyteller. Lately Todd makes up "door stories" about Alex and Nathan in a hall of doors, and each door leads them to a different place in a different story. The boys will say "tell us a door story!"

The boys also love going to visit daddy at work because there is a candy closet there and daddy will get them a candy. Alex said he was going to work their when he is a daddy so his kids can visit him and he can give them candy.

Alex and Nathan always want me to lay with them at night before bed. Right now Alex and Nathan, but especially Alex, love playing with the neighbor friend Winston. Either he is at our house or they are at his house. I like them being here because I get lonely without them. Alex likes to play Lego Batman on the Play Station, but he's not as obsessed as nathan is with World of Goo. Alex and Nathan love playing imaginary games together, usually involving fighting bad guys. They are the best of friends and rarely fight.

Alex still wants to learn how to play the violin. Both boys like me to massage their legs, scratch their hands and face. With Nathan, if I scratch his face, I always have to say the colors. Scratch my face is called "paint my face" because a long time ago Nathan said it felt like I was painting his face. If I don't say the colors, he has to say them in his mind, and he doesn't like that, so he whines until I say the colors. The boys really hate to get their hair cut. I cut their hair and they scream and cry like I'm chopping off a limb!

Katherine is called Baby right now, but I'm trying to call her Katie or Katherine instead now, since she's one, and it was so hard to stop calling Nathan "nay-nay". She is lately WILD AND CRAZY. She gets into anything and everything and grabs at everything when I'm holding her walking around. She throws her food, her plate and her sippy cup. She gets out of her straps and gets on the table. She takes the books off the bookshelf and takes all the board games out and makes sure they get all over. etc. etc. etc. The day before yesterday she officially decided to be a walker! If she falls down, she'll get back up and walk instead of crawl.

I think she is going to be girly. She likes to put things around her neck and crawl around, so I went to the fabric store and got 1/4 yard of different colors of sheer type fabric for her to play with. She'll put it around her shoulders and neck and crawl around. Today I had a necklace out and she tried to put it on. Anything round goes on her wrist like a bracelet. She doesn't like her hair done, though. She screams when I try to do her hair and all bows, ribbons and hair things are out of her hair in 2 seconds flat. She likes to play with dolls. She'll find the dolls in the toys and hold them. The other day Alex was holding a doll (trying to find something else) and she screamed at him like he had taken it from her! She also likes to be in a blanket fort. In the morning I'll take her in my bed and she likes it when I put the blanket over both of us and hold up my arm so that it's a "fort". She loves it. She's is such a snuggly girl. She'll lay her head on my shoulder and also give real hugs, even patting my back. She is such a happy, smiley, playful girl. she loves loves loves her brothers and they play together. One thing they play is: at night when it's time for her to go to bed, I put her in her crib and before she has to go to sleep, the boys will go by her crib and she will stand up and push on their faces and they will pretend to fall down. They will do this for a long time and they are all laughing. She won't sit still for a book, but she will mimick me pointing to the pictures, and she will stick out her puggy pointer finger and point to things on the page. Before she goes to sleep, after she is in her crib, I read her nursery rhymes (so she can't eat the book). To sleep, she curls up her arms and legs under her body and sticks up her little diaper bum-- so precious! Speaking of sleep, she thinks she never needs to sleep. Things I read say she is supposed to sleep so many hours, but she doesn't think she needs sleep. Lately she's been waking up at 6am. Too early for me! She's a very light sleeper, too. maybe she doesn't want to miss anything. She loves rocket and other dogs. She goes over to Rocket and lets her lick her and she will hit him and pull his ears or tail or climb all over him. If she sees other dogs, she wants to go over to them. "Dog" is one of her first things she is saying and knows. She says "do.." she also says "mamamamama" when she's crying and wants me. sometimes she'll try and repeat what we say, but she's not really saying anything but babble yet. She loves tomatoes and her bottle and fruit and I don't think there's anything she doesn't like to eat. She still puts everything in her mouth, but she's finding out that she can explore with her hands, too, so thank goodness it's getting less and it's not the first thing she does usually. She is such a great, fun, lovable, happy baby!