As some of you might know, we played musical rooms recently, with Tessa and Riley ending up in the same room, and Emmett-as the elder statesman by almost 11 months-getting to sleep solamente. For some reason, in this specific situation Riley took to heart the responsibility of being the older brother. Once Mom and Dad leave the room, Riley (who sleeps in a toddler-bed and thus has access to the entire room) loads Tessa’s crib up with books, stuffed animals, blocks and even booty cream. Because of this, their room had to be cleared of everything that isn’t ok to make its way into Tessa’s crib.

Emmett, similarly, had a room purging. But of a slightly different sort. Because Emmett is a, shall we say, spirited young man who needs little rest, he is often awake while the little ones are still snoozing away. What to do with this extra time? First, the plan was to dismantle all monitoring devices. Both kids’ rooms have a video monitor, and Emmett, for a few nights in a row, disrupted the angle. That, apparently, was unsatisfying because the next move was to pull the plug on it. A few nights of this and the camera was removed from the room entirely. Monitoring devices gone? Check.

Second was an escape attempt. We all know that Emmett believes that there is something fun going on somewhere close by, and that he is driven to find that good time. An escape would mean that his possibilities were almost limitless. Emmett unlocked the windows and used the crank to open them up. Thanks goodness those little fingers, while obviously idle, are not strong enough to pull the screen free. Nevertheless, as the windows opening in the middle of the night sets off the alarm, the cranks had to be removed from the room.

Hmmmm. Escape attempt foiled. What comes next? If Emmett can’t find the party nearby, he will throw his own party. To begin with, he figured that he’d put the lights on all night long. What better way to see all the toys and books in his room? Although reading books is, generally, not frowned upon, if the choice is an exhausted yet literate Emmett or a well-rested and compliant Emmett, any parent in their right mind with three kids under the age of 4 will always choose the latter. So, the light bulbs had to be unscrewed.

The response to this over the next few nights was an unpleasant one. Anything heavy became a projectile that unerringly made its way to the door. An ability to ignore loud crashes and wood threatening to split is not easy to cultivate. Yet, we are sure Mom and Dad have been actively developing this skill. When playing deaf did no good, everything not fixed down to the floor was removed from Emmett’s room. This move, understandably, elicited first fury and then repeated apologies.

After two nights of nothing but carpet to play with, a sort of detente was reached and the toys were restored. We are all hoping for the end of this cold war, but as the key to Emmett’s modus operandi is to be one step ahead of his opponent, we are-none of us-holding our breath. What comes next for Emmett? Only time will tell.

As for Riley and Tessa, the first few nights of only having stuffed animals and a few books were hard ones. Riley, in the middle of the night, reached under his bed to retrieve a pacifier that had rolled away (he opts to sleep on the floor) and got his ginormous dome stuck under the edge. Thanks goodness Tessa and Riley’s monitor is still intact because when Mom and Dad heard Riley saying, Riley needs help! Riley stuck!, they could tune in, see what the problem was, and take action. A few nights later, according to Riley, a large monkey came out of the closet and took his bunny. This would seem bad enough, but the monkey actually gave the bunny to Tessa-in her crib. Although Riley can stuff anything grab-able into her crib, pulling things out presents a bit of a challenge. Tessa, being a loving younger sister who feels indebted to Riley for the cornucopia of toys he provides nightly, gave the bunny back to Riley. But Riley didn’t forgive or forget that mean monkey. Rest assured, Riley always remembers to close the closet door before going to bed.

Emmett, Riley, and Tessa

Hi All!

We have been enjoying our hot, hot summer. We got a new pool for our backyard, and it has a shipwreck theme, so there are sharks, a sunken ship, and treasure on it. Riley loves splashing water on the sharks, and Tessa just like splashing. Emmett, in the beginning of the summer, got used to going outside into the pool and striping down (because who doesn’t love a good skinny-dip?). This turned out to be a bit of an issue when we were at the mall and Emmett attempted to take off his clothes to jump into the fountain. But we’ve nipped that in the bud, and now everyone has to keep at least their diaper on to play in the pool. Since it has been super hot here, we all use Tally’s doggie door to go outside to get to the pool. We prefer it to the big door; it is just our size!

Riley and Emmett have continued in school throughout the summer. Each two weeks there is a new theme and we’ve had Camping, Search and Rescue, Firetrucks, and Pirates already. Riley made an ocean-in-a-bottle for himself and brought it home where everyone could argue over who gets to play with it, which was nice. Emmett has been painting fish and octopi and sharks and such. And Tessa can’t wait until she starts school in August! All of the other kids in her class have birthdays around the same time as her, early winter, and she’s already met a bunch of them while dropping and picking up the boys from school. She’s very excited and has already picked out her backpack and lunch box!

We’ve become a bit like the three musketeers these days… Always doing everything together. We make messes together and we fight over our toys together and we go outside together. When it is time to come inside, we all run away from Mom and Dad together, laughing and thinking that we are playing a wonderful gam. But when it is time to go upstairs to get ready for bed, we usually all head upstairs together because we like to run in the hall and play games before we get tucked in.

We had a great switch up with rooms last month: Emmett now has his own bedroom, and Riley and Tessa share a room. This worked out well for everyone as Emmett needs less sleep then the two little ones. Since moving in together, Riley has refused to sleep in his bed, and he sleeps at the foot of Tessa’s crib every night. In the beginning, he would put toys and books into her crib, thinking that he was helping her. But after a long talk (and a few time-outs), Riley realized that putting things into Tessa’s crib is dangerous and that he needs to play with the toys by himself. As for Emmett, he enjoys having his own space and when everyone wakes up in the morning, sometimes he asks the others to leave him alone in his room for a bit so he can have some alone-time before coming out to play.

Our latest endeavor is that Riley is potty training! (And Emmett is half-heartedly following suit.) We all have high hopes that Riley will be potty trained before too long and that Emmett will want to do it too. Right now, both boys want stickers and stamps and are working hard to earn them by sitting on the potty. But Emmett is very determined to do things his own way, and he doesn’t like to stop what he’s doing to go into the bathroom when he can just keep wearing a diaper. So…. We’ll keep you informed as to how that all plays out.

We are going to the Zoo on Thursday to check out the new elephant area, so we’ll let you know how that goes when we blog next month!

See you soon…

With love,
Emmett, Riley, and Tessa

Emmett is talking more, pleasantly doing things when asked, and being a very nice big brother. Not to say that he was not a wonderful little man before this month, but it seems like he has officially moved beyond the “terrible twos” and he’s gliding nicely into the three’s with a sense of confidence and goodwill. (As Emmett leaves this stage behind, however, Riley has picked up Emmett’s mantle and has run with it.) Emmett has developed a new fondness for all things-Barbie. Both he and Riley love to watch Barbie of Swan Lake, which they were given by their babysitter. And often, a poor choice can be nipped in the bud with an offer of watching Barbie.

We have a new flock of baby chickens in the garage. After an alarmingly high mortality rate during the first few days, we have managed to stay stable at 24 new birds. Riley LOVES the chicks. He enjoys checking on them every few hours. He snuggles them, pets them, and tells them “night-night.” Offering to see the chicks is a great way to lure all of the babies upstairs when it is nap- or bedtime. Tessa says “buck-buck” when asked what sound a chicken makes. And she has also been heard to ask to see the chicks. She is crazy verbal for a one-year-old.

Tessa is walking everywhere. Riley likes to yell, “Tessa is walking!” when she chooses to hoof it on two-feet. (Versus crawling.) her balance is developing nicely. Oddly enough, Emmett is more likely to give her hugs if she is standing. But Riley likes to push her over. He thinks that it is less of an issue if he pushes her over with something, like taking a toy and using it to unbalance her. Regardless, we are working on putting the kabosh on that one…

Riley likes to point things out to everyone. If Daddy yawns, he’ll say “Dada tired.” If he sees a bruise on Mommy’s leg, he’ll say “Mama ouchy knee.” He’s the resident newscaster, keeping everyone in the house up-to-date on the goings on and ensuring that no one misses anything. He has an important job and takes it seriously.

Do you know how sometimes you work and you work, and still you seem to end up in the same place at the end of each day? Sometimes this can be a frustrating thing, and sometimes-if each day, although the same, is a great day-it can be wonderful. Well, we are all mostly having great days. Tessa is walking; I am talking more and more each day; and Riley just started school and is loving it.

Riley and I are playing outside a ton and enjoying the warmer weather. Tessa is also playing outside, but since she’s just starting to walk, she mostly rides in the backpack when everyone goes out. Check out the pictures of Riley and I splashing in the snow melt. We were both mud-balls when all was said-and-done, but we loved every minute of it.

We are getting a new flock of chickens in about 2 weeks, and Riley keeps asking, “Baby chickens?” They’ll live in the garage until they get bigger and until it’s warm enough for them to be moved into the coop, so we are all looking forward to being able to watch and play with them. Just another sign that Spring is on it’s way!

Sorry, there is nothing fantastically funny to report. Everyday high-jinx and wrestling and painting and dressing up and playing outside and exploring. More of the same. Treading water, but in a good way.

Talk soon,
Emmett

Tessa was super-cute in her new, purple tutu. And she dug right into her pink, frosted cupcake! In short, she celebrated her first birthday like a pro. We had the regulars come over to lavish Tessa with love, and she got some wonderful birthday presents. Stuffed animals, a talking soccer ball, a talking book, some clothes, a picnic basket… So many things to play with! Tessa still prefers the tissue paper to the toys being unwrapped, but she is slowly getting into the toys themselves.

We celebrated a day early, and that entire day was about Tessa. She got presents from Mom and Dad that morning, and she got to eat her favorite breakfast-eggs. We all played together around the house before nap: At the chalk board, with our farm animals, downstairs on the trampoline. And then right after nap, everyone showed up to play with us! As was each and every recent birthday, it was great.

Everyone else had a great time too. I was showing off for the guests, as usual. And although Emmett wasn’t feeling too well (we were all just about to get a cold that only now is making it’s final rounds in the family) he enjoyed unwrapping presents and eating cupcakes. Mom and Dad had a good time keeping an eye on us and chatting with everyone. Good times.

Talk to you all soon,
Riley

I would like to say, as a post-script, that Tessa does seem to be a bit advanced. She’s getting into her terrible two’s already, is what I am trying to get at. Diva-like behavior took hold right after the party, and although it’s not constant, it is fairly consistent. She’s more demanding than before. And, with a focus that’s kind of creepy, she will not be deterred. Finally, the tantrum that comes when she doesn’t get her way is reminiscent of, well, me! We’ll see what Mom and Dad do to nip this in the bud, so stay tuned…

Check out the new pics Mom just added. They are from Mom and Dad’s cell phone cameras, and some are from as far back as this past summer…

Enjoy!

The holidays this year were so much fun! For Hanukkah, we learned the prayer and how to light the candles on the menorah. We all wanted to blow out the candles, as if they were on a birthday cake. But after the first night, we caught on to the fact that they are supposed to burn all the way down. And although we kept it pretty low key for all of the holidays, we all loved going over to Pop-pop’s house to open presents and to have Christmas dinner.

Pop-pop gave Emmett a camera, which he is still figuring out how to use. But it’s great because he can take pictures on it, he can review the pictures he’s taken, and he can upload all of the pictures to the computer! So far, he’s mostly taken shots of the floor, so we haven’t uploaded anything. But he’s a really fast learner, and we are all sure that before we know it, he will be giving lessons on how to frame the perfect shot.

Pop-pop gave Riley a huge 4-wheeler. It rumbles, it plays music, it moves. Everyone thinks it’s fantastic. Even our little cousin, Ellie, loved playing with it. And she usually likes shoes and hand bags. That’s how cool it is.

Tessa got some clothes from Pop-pop, which is nice because she’s set up for a lift of hand-me-downs unless her closet is otherwise augmented through gifts.

Mom and Dad got us great stocking stuffers too. We got a Beauty and the Beast book, which Riley and Emmett constantly “take turns” reading. We got a bunch of things that roll or bounce or shake, and Tessa got a teething necklace that both she and Emmett like to chew on. Believe it or not, these little stocking stuffers were almost more of a hit in the house than the big presents were.

But hanging out at Pop-pop’s, helping everyone open their gifts, and eating dinner while watching Beauty and the Beast and Cars 2 on the television was what was the most fun. You can check out the pictures, we all loved the unwrapping (except for Tessa, who just loved the wrapping and tissue paper). And we loved playing with everyone who was there.

Next month, we have Tessa’s first birthday, so there is another present holiday to look forward to. Then, after January, we have a lull in holidays until next October. Mom and Dad were thinking of celebrating Emmett’s half-birthday instead, so we’ll see if that happens. They were also talking about just having one huge party for all three of our birthdays next December… There are a lot of ideas on the table. We’ll see which one works out!

Have a wonderful New Year’s!
Emmett, Riley and Tessa (T-bone)