Smell a baby’s toes and then declare that they are “Peew, stinky toes.” Babies think it’s hilarious. Seadi and Gavin do this with Solvei and Nels sometimes, apparently often enough that they remember.
This morning I was sitting on the floor in the living room, watching cartoons with the kids, when Nels came up to me with an obviously dirty diaper. I told him he was stinky. Nels sat down, lifted his foot up to his nose and smelled his toes.
Nels LOVES his blanket. He loves to go to bed because he gets to cuddle his blanket. He loves to get in the car because there is another blanket we keep in there. Everything is right with the world when he has a binkie, a blankie and a Mommy or Daddy.
When we put him to bed we lay him down and then spread the blanket out over him. He has started to grab the corner of the blanket and rub his face with it, then put it up to his nose and sniff it. Such a funny boy!
You know how you can blow raspberries into a baby’s belly and make them laugh? This morning Nels discovered he can do that into the kitchen table and get the same noise. I started laughing at him so Solvei had to try it too.
Speaking of bellies, Solvei new nickname is “Belly.” She finds comfort in some weird places. She gets a lot of comfort from rubbing her ear that sticks out, or when you rub it. Recently she has been comforting herself by rubbing her belly button. So all the time she has her shirt pulled up and her finger in her belly button.
Out running to the commissary with Gavin, Solvei and Nels today, we stopped to have lunch with Nate. As we were driving, two people in uniforms (we were on an Army post after all) crossed the street at an intersection and we had to wait for them before we could turn. Gavin asked Nate, “how come your friends from work were crossing the street when we’re trying to drive?” I think it’s funny how, just because they work at the same place as Daddy, and they all wear the same uniforms as Daddy, they must be Daddy’s friends. So with those criteria, Nate has roughly 1,106,000 friends and 25,000 close friends. Hope they don’t all come over for dinner!
On this same trip for lunch, Gavin asked me something, I answered, but Gavin wasn’t listening. I am constantly having to repeat myself with the kids. I find it especially irritating when I have to repeat an answer to something they asked. Lately I am often saying, “I’ve just told you, you weren’t listening again were you?” So when I said exactly that to Gavin, he replied with “Mom, I have something to tell you. My ears are awake at night, and asleep in the mornings.”
Nate answered with “But it’s afternoon now so they should be awake, so you can listen.”
Gavin insisted, “No, because afternoon is still part of the morning”
Birthdays are big when you are little. They mean that you are growing up and can do more things. When I woke up Gavin on his birthday (after I sang to him), he said “I feel bigger today because I am four.” So now everything he does is different, because now he is four.
Walking to the bus stop everyday, he runs as fast as he can. Now he can run a lot faster, because now he is four.
He always likes to tell us how strong he is and how he can lift this or that. But now he is stronger, because now he is four.
His arms are longer now, he can reach “all the way to here” because now he is four.
He’s also asked me if his nose is bigger because he’s four, I asked him what he thought, and he said “I think it is?”
He reminds me all the time, or asks if he can do something better, because now he is four.
The daily routine is the best way to keep things sane around here. Everyday that we’re home the twins have lunch and go down for a nap, then Gavin and I have lunch before he takes a nap (sometimes I lay down with him because he likes it when I do and makes it easier for him to fall asleep). Saedi doesn’t need a nap anymore, but if Gavin knows that she isn’t napping he argues that he doesn’t need to either. Rather than get into that argument every time and to keep the routine in place on the weekends, Saedi has “quiet time” while Gavin naps. During quiet time she is usually allowed to play her Nintendo DS or on the computer, or read (she usually wants to play her DS).
So the punchline for today is? Saedi came up to me in the play room this morning and asked, “when are the babies and Gavin going to take a nap so I can have some quiet time?”
Happy Happy Birthday, my Gavin little boy,
you’re not so very little, because today you’re four!
I wanted to do something he would enjoy so we went to story time at the library. Not too exciting but he loves going. When we were leaving he wanted to play in the trees and insisted that I come and see.
Nate came home early from work and that was special for him too. After Saedi got home from school we all piled into the car and went to the store so Gavin could pick out a toy with birthday money from Gpa Gene. It’s fun to watch what he gets excited about because it’s usually really simple things. We had Wendy’s for dinner (which he kept calling Aunt Wendy’s) at his request but he still didn’t want to eat it – there was Spiderman cake and presents to be had!
So Gavin got a bath and Solvei and Nels got put to bed (it was now bedtime) before we even got to the presents.
The festivities ended on a good note. He very much enjoyed what he got, using words like “Awesome,” “Wow!” and “Cool.”
I just have to mention his reaction when opening the book from Gma Lori and Gpa Larry. He loves books so of course he opened it as soon as it was unwrapped. He was looking through it when Saedi told him it was bedtime stories and did he want her to read a little bit of it to him. He said, “Not right now! It will put me to sleep!”
On to the other milestone that I mentioned. So as not to be outdone by her brother on HIS birthday, in the midst of the bathing and the putting babies to bed, Saedi finally pulled out her first loose tooth tonight. The Tooth Fairy is now on it’s way. She even wrote a letter to go with her tooth. She is getting so big.
And just so I don’t leave them out, here are some pictures of Solvei and Nels. Nels actually, cheesily, posed for his picture as soon as I got out the camera, giving me a great big smile.
Gavin has been telling me for months that he wants to be a ghost. He’s even been practicing the sound they make.
Saedi decided last Halloween, when she got fangs as a prize from her teacher, that she wanted to be a vampire for this Halloween. Since she was going to be something scary Gavin wanted to follow suit, so ghost it is.
We got Saedi’s costume from the Halloween Store at the mall and Gavin’s would be super easy so I put it off to do after we got back from our trip. That didn’t leave me much time but it was only white fabric with eye holes in it. I ended up getting to the fabric store this morning and I spent naptime making his costume so it would be done for tonight.
We didn’t get costumes for Solvei and Nels but the ones from last year still fit (just barely).
So Saedi and Gavin went out trick-or-treating with Nate,
while Solvei and Nels helped me give out candy.
We ran out of candy pretty early, but it worked out okay because it made no pressure to get the kids to bed on time. All in all a pretty good holiday.
I’ve never been one to fill out baby books. A lady I used to work with could always recount something funny her grandkids had done or said and I could never think of anything from my kids. Wendy has always been better about remembering cute things from when we lived with her when Saedi was little. I always get asked by the kids grandparents what new thing the kids are doing lately and I can never think of anything remarkable.
Lately I’ve been watching the kids and realizing there are little, everyday things that I won’t remember a week later, but are worth remembering. So if I try to keep a blog, I might be better about remembering the details. As a bonus I will also have a better way to show off all the pictures I take, rather than keeping them all to myself on my hard drive.
I will also try to put up pictures and things I can remember from the past. To let me do this chronologically I am changing the date of this post to be the day our family started.
wadmanclan
Wadman Clan 
