Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Just one of the boys

As we were unloading all of the birthday loot from the car, the boys started shooting off Liam's new stomp rocket. Sadie was still in her car seat, cackling away... until we realized that she cackled every single time the rocket popped up into the sky. We decided to conduct a little experiment to see if it was indeed the rocket that was setting off her cute little giggles. You can see the results of our highly scientific study below!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Birthday Bash

In the interest of green living and crop-sharing and all that, here is our rendition of a home-grown garden (the closest we'll see this year, minus some tomato plants maybe). Who am I kidding? This is all because Eamon asked for a tractor cake, plain and simple! He is all about vehicles, the dirtier the better. After an entire day of making Starburst candy veggies, I have exhausted my artistic abilities for the indeterminate future, I do know that!

Eamon with his favorite gift, kissing his favorite person, classic Liam making a "fart" noise (if I have to hear the word fart ONE more time during dinner, I am going to squeeze the air out of all of them... apparently potty humor NEVER gets old with boys), present time, Baby Jake is not a baby anymore!

Sadie getting spoiled by yet another cousin who likes to hold her all day, Eamon and Liam blowing out their respective candles, Jake leading the crowd in applause, the "big kids" didn't seem nearly as enthused as their mini cousins!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Spring Flings



Some miscellaneous fun from this past month. Don't worry, the raised metal shovel over Liam's head... it didn't end badly. At least not that time. We've given up having a yard, at least until the kids grow out of their excavating phase. Yes, that is Liam IN a hole they've dug.

More fun in the sun. Sadie's first foray into sun hat territory!
Liam makes an excellent carousel cowboy!

Can you guess this view?
It's a tiny bloom placed behind the ear of a wee sister by a sweet big brother.

It Ain't Easy Being Three!

Our "little" Eamon is officially THREE years old! It was a BIG week for him. First we celebrated his birthday in true Eamon style with a lot of... dirt! He plays outside for hours and hours at a time and has dug holes that are deep enough for his brothers to bury themselves in (needless to say, no, we don't really have a lovely lawn in the back. Or anywhere in the yard for that matter.) His absolute favorite toy so far is Chuck, the Dump Truck. Chuck talks and drives to you on command, and wiggles and shakes his dump truck back around. I am just waiting for the day that Chuck gets left outside in the rain because I will not be sad when Chuck can no longer talk and rumble around the house. Any loud noise sets Chuck off and as you can imagine, there are a lot of loud noises around here! I whipped up some "dirt" cake for Eamon in his very own little dump truck, complete with gummy worms and chocolate rocks. The rest of us enjoyed a scoop or two from the big wheelbarrow full. Chuck also came with a book about him and his friends. When I check Eamon's blood sugar in the middle of the night, he never ever used to wake up before. Now, even in his sleep, he raises his little finger and then says: "You read me my Chuck book while you wait?!" It only takes five seconds for his meter to pop out a number but I MIGHT read a page or two o him.... just because he likes it. :)

A few days after his birthday, Eamon started preschool! In the top row of pictures you can see him coming out with his backpack (it's probably heavier than he is!) He had no qualms about leaving us for school and although we were (and still are) a bit nervous about it, he charges right in and gets busy playing before we can even say goodbye. On the top right, you can see him getting ready to hop in the car on his first day (half-eaten breakfast in hand... mornings are not even MORE... uh...fun... with another kid to get ready on time). We figured we might as well warn the teachers what they were in for, so we let him wear his new "handful" shirt! Alas, he is still really shy and so far only really talks to Miss Linda. When I asked him who his favorite little friend is so far, he said "Miss Chris... she is on my team! My soccer team!" Apparently he is recruiting older women because 1) he doesn't play on a soccer team yet, and 2) Miss Chris' boys are in college now so she's thrilled to learn she's the best "kid" in his class.

In other big news, the crazy little guy decided to potty train himself with nary any input from us (just the way we like it). The first week he insisted on being naked from the waist down, but since he didn't have any accidents and we didn't even have to remind him to go, it was fine with me! Now he can wear pants and still be good, as long as he doesn't have on underpants or a diaper. (Great, yet another Arnold boy who insists on being commando all the time). He doesn't do so well at school or out in public because I insist he wears underpants or a pull-up and when that happens, he has absolutely no interest in keeping them dry. But this week he did use the potty at school a few times so it's just a matter of time! I just bought some swim diapers for Sadie for the pool as I put back the ones in Eamon's size, I realized that I only have ONE MORE CHILD in diapers to go. Amazing! One more milestone past on the Path of Chaos!

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Friday, April 2, 2010

Luck o'the Irish.


This year, the boys were absolutely determined to catch the Leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day. Last year we managed to get a bit of the little man's green vest, but this year, the boys pulled out all the stops and went for broke. We decided to use an old birdcage we had in the house. Of course, there's no way to catch a leprechaun without a rainbow and some gold under it! So we set to work with that, some green Easter grass that Liam found hidden away in a closet and some heavy duty velcro that Colin thought would super-duper-double-latch the door shut and keep the guy inside for sure. We attached some super secret spy invisible string to one gold chocolate coin and fastened it to the door. Wouldn't you know it, that clever little leprechaun sprung our trap, crashed the whole roof in and escaped with a wee bit of our gold! He did get his shoe stuck in his hasty exit and left some footprints behind in his rush to break free from the Arnold boys' awesome trap. Next year we'll catch him for sure (or, according to the boys, he'll soon be naked what with all the clothes he leaves behind and all.)

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