The last few days we are finally getting over this monster virus. 5 weeks. 5 long weeks that our sweet, adorable babies were replaced by some mean, mean monsters. Fortunately, they have been filling the last few days with their cuteness, so I have things to share other than sickness.
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/Kimball loves to play with my ears when we are cuddling before naps. I don’t understand it, but I don’t have to. He also wants to touch everyone’s faces (preferably while his fingers are covered in saliva), but we’re not such fans of that. Brinlee and Sawyer don’t much care for the face touching either. Kimball hasn’t mastered the concept of gentle and usually goes for a handful of face.
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/Sawyer looooves my laptop. Loves it. Whenever he sees me pull it out he squeals with delight and makes a beeline for me. If I close it and put it away, he stops in his tracks and turns back. He finally figured out that the direct approach wasn’t working, so he started coming from around the couch. The only problem was he laughed like a maniac the whole time. His new approach is to lie low, sneak around the corner of the couch and then pop up right next to me, laughing like a maniac and dive for the computer. It is so funny I can’t help but laugh every time. He knows how sneaky he is.
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/Brinlee has also become obsessed with touching faces, but she is more concerned with sticking her fingers up your nose or touching your eyes or putting her hands in your mouth. She is much more gentle than Kimball in her approach, but a lot more invasive.
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/The kids all got their front bottom and top teeth around their birthday, but nothing since. A couple of weeks ago Sawyer cut another top tooth, and I think he’s working on another right now. Since our kids never have the red, swollen gums, I have no idea which one. Iw ouldn’t know Brinlee had a mouthful of teeth unless she decided to show them to me. She won’t let us in her mouth for anything. I peek includes lots of screaming and thrashing.
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/Last week Kimball ran a high fever of 103 for 3 days. He had no other symptoms, and he tested negative for strep and flu, and his ears were fine. So this morning as my sweet Kimball is grinning his biggest I see something in the side of his mouth. It’s a molar! I check the other side and there is another one! I have to say, I think that is why he had that super high fever last week with no other symptoms. I don’t care what the doctors say. He got 2 molars at once. That’s hard on a body. They might say it’s coincidence and he had a bug at the same time, blah, blah. Whatever. When I get the opportunity I’m going to check the other two (that’s like saying when I get the opportunity I’m going to check Fort Knox).
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/All three of them are into clapping for themselves. We all clap when we knock over towers, when we throw balls out of the ball bin, when we throw balls into the ball bin, when we take steps. We don’t have to start it anymore. They do it for themselves.
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/Kimball and Brinlee are working on walking. Kimball started with 3-4 stumbles at a time, but this morning he has taken 16 steps in a row several times! Brinlee’s method is much more controlled (the way a good dancer should be). She’ll stand for a while, laughing her head off, then take a step, then laugh some more, then take another step and laugh some more. All the while we’re coaxing and begging for another step. She is just so tickled with herself she can hardly stand, literally. She hasn’t taken more than 4 steps. Sawyer isn’t interested, but I imagine he will be once these two get going. He does love to walk with the push toys, just not on his own.
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/All three of them love to dance, especially Sawyer and Brinlee. They turn on their toys and boogie and laugh. DJ Brinlee will sit by this one toy and restart the music whenever it goes off so they don’t lose their groove.
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/The kids got a belated birthday gift of a rocking horse that makes galloping and neighing noises. Brinlee has loved it from the very beginning. Now she even rocks herself and gets off by herself. It will be a long time before she is tall enough to get up there on her own. Sawyer didn’t mind the horse, but really didn’t want to be on it, and Kimball hated it, especially the noises. Now the boys don’t mind it, but don’t love it like Brinlee does. Daddy better start saving for her real pony. I suspect the request will come sooner than he thinks.
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/Our newest accessory is their big kid shoes. They weren’t crazy about them at first, especially Kimball. We put them on when we leave the house, partly to keep their feet warm, but also to get them used to wearing them. Now they know that shoes mean we’re going somewhere, and they get so excited! Sometimes Kimball bring us their shoes to let us know it’s time to leave the house for a bit.
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/The vacuum, blender and grain mill are huge hits around here, especially with Brinlee, but the boys love the loud noises too. They laugh and clap and chase whatever is making the ruckus.
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/The two first words our kids are saying are dada and nono. I try and try to get them to say mama, but I’m met with a chorus of cackles and an even louder chant of dada! They know what I want them to say, and they take great pleasure in torturing me. This week Kimball has added byebye to his waving, and all done (aw duh!). All three like to wave, but I’m not sure they get that it has meaning, other than something fun to do
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/Brinlee was the first to climb, with her chair being the object she first experimented with. She likes to climb up in her chair and sit there with her cup and lounge, or stand. Kimball likes to have a foot on each chair and move back and forth between them, or just straddle the two. All three like climbing up on what we call the stage. It’s a plastic bin we keep some of their toys in. They like to climb up there and dance and stand and do things that make us nervous.
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/I see a future of wise saving for these three, because they like to put toys in various hidey-holes around the house. The two favorite stashes are the choochoo wagon (which is usually parked in the dining room) and the fireplace, which is blocked off by the perimeter we’ve made of the baby jail. Between the perimeter and the firplace is also 2 foam mat squares. The like to reach behind there and drop toys. If we are missing anything, including remote controls, those are the first two places we check.
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/It actually snowed here right after we got back. That rarely happens, but the kids were too sick and too young to care. We were well into the second round of ear infections when that happened.
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/One of their favorite games is pulling things out of something (the dump truck, the ball bin, anything) while we try putting them back in. They finally figured out that if they pull it out and throw it back over their shoulders, mommy and daddy have to go get them, which slows us down and they win. Mommy is going to tire of this game soon when her pregnant belly starts dragging the ground as she crawls after toys.
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/Their other favorite, and most annoying, game is to push the kitchen chairs all around the kitchen. It’s noisy, and they always leave the chairs in the most inconvenient places. The kitchen becomes an obstacle course, which is not fun when they are hungry and I’m trying to get food ready.
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/The obsession with buttons and button-like object continues. I wore a dress that had some buttons scattered around, and Brinlee only has two hands. She was beside herself trying to decide which ones to play with first.
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/Kimball is still into tackling and chasing. Sometimes Brinlee and Sawyer like the game, but only about half the time. We’re trying to teach him that if they fuss, it means they don’t want to play that game, but it’s hard because he’s just trying to play with them. It was worse when those two were still sick and he wasn’t. When Kimball attackes Brinlee, she wisely uses her legs to defend herself and keep him away from her face.
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/We had a great report at the OB’s office. Everything looks good, and we’re right on track. I can’t believe our new baby will be here in 3 months!
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/I literally took no pictures this month. They have been too grumpy and sick to do anything, and I’ve been too tired and worn down to think about it, but here are a few more from Christmas, just so this post isn’t naked.
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/Brinlee and Sawyer cleaning up on Christmas morning.
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/Four sick babies, looking every bit the part. The fifth sick baby was taking the picture.
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/Kimball, cousin Ben, Sawyer and Brinlee looking up over the back of Grandma’s couch.
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/Ok, so I felt really bad about not having a single new picture, so as I was about to post this, Kimball climbed up on the stage and was about to drop a toy into the fireplace, so I grabbed my camera. Sawyer is assisting him.
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/So of course Brinlee saw the flash and scrambled over here and got in my face and insisted on having her picture taken too. And as usual her eyes are half closed from the brightness of the flash. But there she is in all her cuteness.
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