Thanksgivnukkah

The kids were sick the week before Thanksgiving. Monday, Max was acting especially quiet and when his temperature was taken it was quite high.  By the time Joe got there to pick him up, the other two had exhibited fevers as well, so everyone came home.  Luckily, they weren't too symptom-y - just a question of fevers that refused to consistently stay down.

By the weekend before Thanksgiving, they were all cooled off and feeling better, and were excited to get to go back to school and participate in the Thanksgiving luncheon that was planned. But, of course, this was the day that the boys decided they had to wear matching tshirts, so you'll have to use one of your other tricks to figure out who is who in the pictures.  The food was brought in by parents, with the exception of some of the cranberry sauce, which was made by kids in the class.  Everyone got a taste of everything on their plate.  The big hits with the 'Teenies were cranberry sauce, corn on the cobb, and corn muffins.

The Salvateenies were seated at the end of the table so that I could sit near them.

First clue - which boy almost always has a photo-perfect "CHEESE" for the camera?

Second clue - whose hair is crunchy and flyaway?

"OK - who am I?"

Everyone enjoyed trying to eat with their utensils.  Check out Caroline's studious focus.

Here's your answer - I think DANIEL really enjoyed that pumpkin pie!!!

Perhaps more than the Jell-O

Max wasn't sure about the Jell-O

After lunch, I watched while the kids lined up and went outside for playtime and then stayed for a little bit to help clean up before sneaking away before they saw me again and wanted to come play with me.

This year, Chanukah coincided with Thanksgiving,  so the kids were able to enjoy presents and traditions at the same time.  This year, the kids really got into it, asking each night if they could "do Chanukah" or "light candles".  We let each kid choose candles to put in the menorah and everyone helped out using the shamash to light the candles.  Then we gave them a gift each night (I didn't wrap them - they have color coded tote bags and each night they would bring us the empty bag, ask to do Chanukah, and we would put a gift in the bag for after candles).  Max, my little Maccabbee (his Hebrew name), got the most into the candles themselves, insisting that we turn off the lights so we could see how pretty the candles looked as they burned down.

One of the first gifts they got were these ski-cap and mitten/glove sets.

Caroline in her Minnie Mouse hat and mittens

Monster Max in his Monsters U outfit

Daniel let Sportacus try on his Thomas the Train set.

On Thanksgiving Day, Joe went to spend the holiday with his parents, who would be alone after Auntie Lee Ann moved to Chicago at the beginning of the month.

Max is enjoying his Thanksgivnukah with a new dreidl on Thanksgiving morning.

The original plan was for the adults (Grandma, Boppy, Mommy, Uncle, and Cousins Ravi and Djivan) to sit at the dining room table and the kids to sit at a smaller table in the den.  The kids rebelled against this instantly, wanting to be part of the action, and we dragged the table in to sit next to us.  The highlight was learning to eat whipped cream out of the aerosol can!

Pumpkin Pie!

More whipped cream, please?

Mmmm....whipped cream....

 Caroline really, really wanted to play outside in front of the house, so we all headed out to enjoy the sun (and flag down passersby for a family photo).

The whole gaggle of Kellys, Salvatores, and Abcarians

One of the additional activities that day was exploring Grandma and Boppy's hat collection.

Please don't bother me while I'm drawing, Boppy.

Being sick...

Two weeks ago, I got a call from the kids' pre-school.  Normally, when they call me, it goes something like this:  "Edith? It's Kim from the school.  The Children Are Fine.  I just wanted to…"

This time, it wasn't Kim.  It was their teacher.  And she was calling to say that Max had been acting strangely, sort of withdrawn and un-Max-like, so they took his temperature and it was a whopping 102.7!  I called Joe, who'd missed the school's first call while he was in the shower, and he ran right out to pick Max up.  By the time he got there, Daniel's temperature had been verified in the same range and Caroline was close behind in the mid-100 region.  So all three came home.

They didn't seem too sick, just a little tired and with no appetite.  They were also unusually willing to take naps and stay asleep for long stretches.  We kept them plied with ibuprofen and fluids but their fevers kept bouncing up and down.  And since the school's policy is that they have to be fever-free for 24 hours before they can return, they ended up staying out the whole week.

This was doubly upsetting because Tuesday afternoon was the mini-performance for Caroline's dance class and Wednesday evening was parent/child night (when we get to go to school and watch as the kids interact as they would in a normal class - like Open House) and we'd miss both of those.  Luckily, if you can call it luck, more than half the class ended up being out sick so both events were postponed until after Thanksgiving.

We've been fortunate that (knock on wood) none of the kids have really been very sick.  And now that they're older, they can generally tell us when they're not feeling well, though not always in time to prevent them from throwing up all over the living room.  In fact, during this bout of illness, Caroline coughed herself into gagging and started to throw up and my self-preservation instinct kicked in as I quickly cleared things off the gymnastics mat we have on the living room floor and aimed her face in that direction.

Whenever we get a cold in our house, the congestion goes straight into Joe's chest and straight into my ears (I had serial ear infections as a kid -- thank goodness these guys seem to have inherited Daddy's ear canals!).  We can always tell when a cold is in the kids' chests as they hack and cough, but a stuffy head is harder to diagnose in the pre-verbal set.  Now that their vocabulary has advanced, though, I had this wonderful interaction with Max.

"Mommy? Mommy!  I can't hear! Mommy! My ears don't work!"

I asked him to look at me, which he did (so his ears were working, a little at least) and to pinch his nose and pretend to sneeze.  It must've done the trick and popped his ears because his eyes widened and his mouth popped open and he exclaimed, "Mommy! I can hear! My ears are MAGIC!"

Mama, I want something...

Since they started talking, all three kids have called me "Mommy".  Until recently.  Out of nowhere, Caroline started calling me "Mama" from time to time.  I'd like to think it's because that's what I call my own mother and my daughter and I have a sort of bond.  Or that she's heard me call my mom that and wants to copy me.  But I'm pretty sure it's because some other little girl at school probably calls HER mother "mama".  Either way, it's interesting that she's chosen to do it and the boys haven't.

Caroline has also gotten to be pretty savvy about "the shops" as she calls them.  The other day we were reading a book about a little girl getting ready for her first dance class.  She goes with her mother to buy ballet slippers and a tutu.  This prompted Caroline to turn to me and say, "You could buy me swippers for my dance cwass, Mama.  You could buy them at the shop!"

She's always so thoughtful that way, making sure I know I have permission to get her what she wants.

Two nights ago, she saw an ad for a Little Mermaid doll and instantly decided she HAD to have it.  Mind you, she's never seen the Little Mermaid aside from the fact that she's pictured on some of her diapers, but nonetheless, she LOVES her.

"Mommy, I want my mermaid doll."

"You don't have a mermaid doll, sweetie."

"But I WANT it.  Pweeeze, Mama, I want a mermaid doll."

"Not today, Caroline, maybe for Christmas."

"Maybe tomorrow?  You could buy it for me tomorrow.  You could buy it at the shop!"

"No, sweetie.  Tomorrow the stores will be closed for Thanksgiving.  We're going to Grandma and Grandpa's house to eat turkey, remember?"

"NO!  I want my mermaid doll! You go to the shop and you buy it right now!"

After an hour of this, she'd forgotten, until we watched the movie again the next day and the ad came back on…

Tonight, at least, she attempted to use her powers of persuasion for her brother's benefit.  As I was tucking everyone in for bed and asking which of their MANY stuffed animals they wanted to snuggle with, Caroline asked for her unicorn.  Then Max asked for a unicorn and I laughed and teased him, "You don't have a unicorn, Max!"

"You could get him a unicorn at the store tomorrow, Mama."

Well, yes, I could.  Or I could tuck him in with his puppy, teddy bear, rabbit, broccoli, pink monkey, reporter dog, otter, Goofy, horsie, and two Sportacus dolls and assume he's covered.

Vocabulary

The Salvateenies have been in pre-school for two and a half months and their vocabulary has been building steadily.

As you might imagine, Caroline is striding more quickly than her brothers and the gap between them is growing linguistically.  She started school speaking in nice, toddler sentences - there were subjects and verbs happening all over the place, often even agreeing with each other.  And then she started adding adjectives.  And then adverbs.  She LOVES adverbs.  "Mommy, can we draw with markers at the big table today?"  "This is really fun!"

Tomorrow came to mean "in the future" and Yesterday represents any time before right now.  She was playing with Boppy one day when Max brought in some magnets he'd brought them some months earlier from a trip to New York.  She saw the magnets and said, "You bought those for us.  You bought those for us yesterday."

She has also taken to giving me permission to do things for her.  Just a few days ago she and I were reading a book about a young girl starting ballet class.  She slyly turned to me and said, "You could buy me swippers for my dance class.  You could buy me swippers tomorrow."  There have been a lot of things she has pointed out that I "could" do for her.

Daniel and Max have not gotten quite so adventurous.  Max is having a wonderful time parroting still.  My favorite is when he tells me, "Good job, Mommy!"  When he's upset now, he will beg not to do something, pointing out that it can be done "tomorrow"  - "I no take bath! I take bath tomorrow!"

Daniel is branching out in the adjective department.  Max's favorite adjective for a while was "dewishus" - delicious!  Daniel made the jump to "Amazing!"

They also really like to take ownership of things.  Those are MY brothers.  You're MY mommy.  And, my personal favorite, every time they see a representation of the Golden Gate Bridge, they tell me, "Mommy! That's YOUR bridge!", which quickly morphed into "that's MY bridge!"  In fact, when we were pressed to come up with an outfit for International Day at school to represent our cultural heritage, I chose to dress the kids in variations of "The City" tshirts which they call their "bridge shirts".

They have such an affinity for the Bridge that when they noticed a photo on my computer, they piled onto my lap to see it.  We jumped onto Flickr and checked out everything we could find tagged "Golden Gate" and they would point at pictures to zoom in on, at which point they would ooh and ahh and, invariably, Max would say, "Your bridge, Mommy!", Caroline would say, "So pretty!", and Daniel would sum it up with a succinct, "Amaaaaaazing..."

You're Breaking My Heart

The time change was hard on the kids.  I didn't think it would be.  I mean, they aren't on as strict a sleep schedule as they used to be as babies and an hour shift isn't really that much to absorb, but apparently they are more sensitive than I gave them credit for.

In background for this, I should explain that Max has turned into a little affection magnet at bedtime good byes.  In general, he is a "love max-chine" and gives hugs and kisses readily, eagerly, and often. But at bedtime he becomes a little greedy.  He has a definite pattern.  He wants kisses on his back (not sure why, but he has convinced his siblings on occasion to ask for "back kisses" too), then hugs, then paci kisses.  This sometimes has to be repeated multiple times, between hugs & kisses for Daniel and Caroline as well.  And when I finally peel myself away, Max will cry for more kisses as I turn off the lights and sneak out.

This only intensified with the time change.  A couple of days into it, and after having lived through ten or so minutes of wailing after the final nighty-nights, the kids were finally asleep.  I busied around getting ready for the next day and then settled in to watch a little tv.  And then there was a thunk.  And then a new set of wailing.

"Mommy!"

"Mommy!"

"Mommy?"

And it sounded different than Max just trying to calm himself down, so I snuck in to see him.  He was still crying, so I brought him out to the darkened living room, where he told Daddy his head hurt.  Aha!  The thunk!  He must've hit his head on the bed.  So I got him some ibuprofen and then we hugged for a while until he decided he wanted to walk to bed.  Crisis averted, right?

Wrong.

He wanted another round of hugs and kisses.  And he wouldn't let go - literally, holding on to my shirt and screaming, "More Kisses!"  I was nervous he would wake the others up, so I tried to appease him, but he wouldn't let go.  I heard some rustling from Daniel's bed, so I decided to snatch Max up and take him out of the bedroom to calm down.  And that's exactly when Daniel woke up.  Just in time to see his screaming brother being carried out of the room.

And so he started screaming.

And crying.

And so Max and I went back in.  Max still wanted hugs and kisses and cried whenever I wasn't touching him.  Daniel was gulping for air and sobbing in what I can only imagine was part terror that Max had been abducted and part jealousy that Max was getting extra attention.  And there I was bobbing between the two of them.

"Mommy! More hugs!"

"Mommy! Talk to Daniel!"

"Mommy! More hugs!"

"WAAAH!"

After ten minutes, and knowing that my efforts were not improving anything and just getting everyone more frustrated, I told them it was time for bed and walked out.  They wailed and moaned and hurled every sort of guilt a three year old has at his disposal.

"Mommy!"

"Hug me, Mommy!"

"Talk to Daniel!"

"Mommy, I need you!"

"Mommy, turn on the light!"

"Mommy!"

So I retreated from their doorstep and hid in the darkened living room, hearing their only slightly muffled pleas.  I turned on the TV to drown them out for five minutes.  I let it stretch out to ten minutes.  And then they were quiet.

I know it was the right thing to do.  I know they need to learn to soothe themselves to sleep without the crutch of me patting them on the back or kissing the tops of their heads.  I know I wasn't helping them when I was in the room.

I know it was the right thing to do.

But I still felt like the worst Mommy alive for those ten minutes, and quite a few more after that.

Oh, and Caroline slept throughout the whole thing.  Not a muscle moved.

Halloween 2013: Welcome to Lazy Town!

We have been pretty lucky to have success dressing our kids in "theme" outfits for Halloween.

Their first Halloween they spent as tiger cubs, in honor of their birth in the Year of the Tiger.

Cheering for the Giants in Game 6 of the World Series

At age 1, they were zoo animals.

Daniel Tiger

Caro-lion

Monkey Max

On Halloween night, Caroline decided to wear her butterfly outfit instead.

And then for the photo shoot, we went lions and tigers and bears

At age 2, we became the Peanuts gang.

This is a composite picture - Max isn't really that much taller than Daniel...

So there were times I was wondering if we would be able to get a theme for this year.  But it was easier than I thought, considering how much the kids LOVE Lazy Town.  Lazy Town is a town inhabited mostly by puppets, but there are three human characters - Stephanie, an active young girl with pink hair who wants to play outside and eat healthy "sports candy", Sportacus, a "better than average" hero who encourages a healthy, active lifestyle and occasionally saves the residents of Lazy Town from the local Lazy villain, Robbie Rotten.  And they sell actual pre-packaged costumes!  YAY!

Max got to be Sportacus

Daniel was Robbie Rotten

Caroline was Stephanie (that wig did not last long)

Max really enjoyed his "sleeves"

Walking down the steps with Grandma the Witch

We hit the street for some trick-or-treating with our posse - Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Boppy, and Auntie in tow...

Neighbor Randy made sure they got candy right away!

I love this picture - they are their own little Janus - two sides of the good/evil coin

The kids got really into getting dressed up and wanted to do it again and again over the weekend.  And they couldn't wait to try out each other's costumes (or the "back-up" superhero costumes I bought "just in case")

Daniel wanted to check out what it was like to be Stephanie

And here he is as Sportacus

And here he is as Spider-Man

Caroline as Sporta-Stephanie

And Captain Caroline America

Max as Iron Man (with Daniel in the background)

Caroline as a suspicious, pancake-eating Iron Man

Daniel as Spider-Man enjoying a pancake breakfast

Captain Max America eating pancakes

And, yes, all those costume changes happened within about forty-five minutes.  Mommy was a tired lady that weekend!