Hanukkah was early this year. It started on December 8th, so it fell right in between Riley’s Birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Emmett’s Birthday. We learned to light the candles on the menorah and to say the blessing. But let’s get to the point… The presents! We got a Pirate Ship House. (It’s kind of like a doll house, but it is a Pirate Ship.) We also got scooters, dress up wings, Nooks (e-Readers), and lots of other little stuff. We love the Nooks the best. We have all kinds of books on them. There are books about Pirates and Trucks; books about Princesses and Spiderman and animals; and there are Dr. Seuss books. We also have games on the Nooks that help us learn stuff, like spelling and reading and colors and counting.

Then, right in the middle of Hanukkah, was Emmett’s birthday. Because of this, after Emmett’s Birthday, every time we lit the candles on the menorah, Riley would say, “Happy Birthday, Emmett!” Emmett had already celebrated his birthday with his friends at an area indoor playground, so this is was a small celebration. We had cake and ate pizza. Emmett dressed like a Princess on his birthday… It’s one of his favorite costumes! He often puts on the Princess costume and adds in the Pirate eye-patch, the Pirate sword, and Spiderman boots. So great! Emmett got a karaoke machine for his birthday. It has a microphone so that we can all sing to songs like Jack and Jill and the ABC song and This Old Man. (This is actually a source of friction for us, as we argue over gets to hold the microphone and who picks the songs.)

Finally, after meeting the big, fat man in the red suit (where everyone asked for trains), we went to Pop-pop’s and opened presents for Christmas! It was mayhem. Just ask Mom and Dad. Tissue and wrapping paper went flying everywhere. Mom and Dad couldn’t even figure out who gave what to whom, as we were shredding with such speed. (Mom and Dad might tell you this was not our brightest moment, but, once again, the point was the presents, so we aren’t too heartbroken.) Santa must not have been reading this year’s blog too closely, because we hauled in the gifts! So many presents! We got books, and jammies, and a huge, floor piano that you step on to make music, and a Cars remote controlled race track, and a Princess tent (which is already ripped, naturally), and other great presents. We love them all!

Mom and Dad got wine and gift certificates to go out to dinner without us. We aren’t sure exactly what that means. Why does everyone feel that the best gift for our parents is time away from us? Because we are so wonderful and mostly well behaved that it doesn’t seem like they would need time apart from us… Anyway.

On the non-present front, we started skiing in the backyard. Tessa decided against potty training at this time (we will, of course, revisit this issue). We saw a movie (our second), A Muppet Christmas Carol. We lasted for almost an entire hour before the exodus began.

We wish everyone a Happy New Year filled with Love and Light!

Talk soon,
The (soon to be) Fantastic Four*

*Oh, by the way, Mom and Dad told us that we are going to get another little brother or sister! Stay tuned for more information…

I think that Mom and Dad are going to have a huge party. They are celebrating, maybe a bit prematurely, but celebrating nonetheless. Can you guess why? We are all (for the most part) potty trained! Tessa was the last domino to fall, and last weekend she asked to go outside and pee. Sound familiar? OK, yes, it does seem that we are potty training more like puppies than like toddlers. But, hey, pickers can’t be choosers.

In retrospect, it seems like a good move, allowing us to use the doggie door. In T-bone’s case, however, she’s still too little to get her pants down by herself. So, although she will get to the potty or to the backyard, once she’s there-if she’s there alone-then it occurs to her that she still needs a tag-team partner to be successful in this endeavor. Regardless, we have a well watered lawn, and if mistakes are made, they are largely made outside, which enables an easier clean up. Again, another reason to celebrate!

Because we are so very close in age, we are super supportive of one another. Tessa was just finishing up going potty and when Riley heard Mom and Tessa woo-hoo’ing he chimed in from inside his pillow fort, “Good job, Tessa!” And if Tessa opts to pee outside like the boys, Riley will show her where to go and say, “See, Tessa? Watch me. Pee here!” What a great role model. (Except that once Tessa started peeing outside, Riley decided that squatting looked like fun and he tried it too. Not only did he end up peeing on his own feet, but he fell over in the dirt. No fun.)

Anyway. If you have never had kids or if you only had one, you may not think that this accomplishment was worthy of a blog post. We invite you into our home, try it out for a few days, and then see what sort of things you celebrate. The bar is suddenly dropped VERY low and you take your hoorays where you can find them. Maybe it is getting dressed all by yourself, maybe it is a full nap that day, maybe it is just that you decided to sit at the dinner table for more than 5 minutes that night. These are all great things, depending on the situation.

Yay, us!
Emmett, Riley, and T-bone

Halloween was great this year. We were all old enough to start out a bit later, so we got to see all kinds of other kids dressed up. Some were very scary and we weren’t sure what to think about that. (Riley asked Mom to pick him up when he saw a skeleton trick-or-treating.) And some were familiar and we said hi, happy to be a part of a community.

We also talked a lot more this year when people opened their doors. Emmett, who is very into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, kept asking people for treasure. “Trick or Treasure!” he would say, once they held out their candy stash. And by the end of the evening everyone was good at saying “Please” and “Thank you.” Riley, however, took a different route and once he had his candy he said, “Peace.” Where he got that, no one knows.

Each little pig had their own method for picking out candy, too, as no one was familiar with what was being offered. Riley would choose anything blue. He ended up with a lot of Almond Joys. Tessa would take a fist-full of whatever her sticky little fingers could get, not paying attention to color or size. Quantity mattered most to her. Emmett was a bit more interested in what was going on inside the houses then he was in the candy. What sort of decorations did they have? Who was waiting inside, checking out the trick-or-treaters? Luckily, Pop-pop’s street was in full swing, so he got to take in all of the special Halloween touches. He ended up with quite a haul of candy, too.

There was a mechanical spider on someone’s lawn, that was lit up purple and yellow; There were a myriad of ghosts, bats, vampires, and skeletons in people’s trees; there were any number of sound effects, howling, hooting, creaking and cracking; and first thing out, everyone saw a live owl perched on a neighbor’s eve. Everything added to the ambiance, and together with the mild weather, it was by far the spookiest and most fun Halloween ever.

For about two days afterward, we were all asking for candy. We were allowed about 3 pieces per day. Often, as we are not accustomed to getting candy, we didn’t even finish the piece that we had. And after the novelty wore off, we stopped requesting candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This growing immunity to the lure of candy, however, did not extend to the Halloween costumes. We are still wearing them today…

For a time, Emmett was always Woody, Riley was always Buzz Lightyear and Tessa was always a Princess. But even before the big day, Emmett had tired of Woody and he broke out last year’s Spiderman costume to wear for trick-or-treating this year. Since Halloween, Riley has requested two years ago’s Dinosaur costume more frequently than others, Tessa goes back and forth between her Princess costume and Riley’s last year’s Doggie, and Emmett, who can’t settle on a look, jumps between the Dino, the Buzz, and the Princess. He rather enjoys the tutu. Regardless, overall, we like to play dress-up and we are good at sharing all of the available costumes.

The time change has meant that we are all a bit cranky, and we are getting used to waking up and going to bed an hour later. Give us a few weeks and we’ll be there… Right now we are looking forward to Emmett’s and Riley’s joint birthday party at an area indoor play area. We’ve invited all of the boys’ school friends, as well as some of our other favorites, and we can’t wait to run and jump and scream and eat. We all just know that it will be fantastic. How can it not be, what with all the balloons…

Talk soon,
The Three Pigs

We are all getting ready for Halloween. We picked out our costumes (or, more accurately, Mom picked them out for us). Emmett is going to be Woody from Toy Story; Riley is going to be Woody’s best friend, Buzz; and Tessa is going to be Rapunzel. These are all characters we know and love, and when Mom brought home the costumes, we were so excited that we couldn’t even fathom waiting until the end of the month to put them on. We wore our costumes for two-straight-days.

Emmett, actually, wore part of his costume for that time, as he prefers to be wearing only the bare necessities. As a result, Emmett ended up spending a long time in only his skivvies, his cowboy hat, and his belt and holster. It was quite a sight. All summer long, Emmett engaged in a power struggle with Mom and Dad over the need to wear so many confining clothes. He stripped down for naps. He refused to get dressed in the morning. Only so often will he even put on socks, regardless of the weather outside. Emmett just prefers to be nearer to the state in which he entered this world. Watching him, though, you can see the draw to this au natural lifestyle. He revels in the feel of soft blankets against his skin; he giggles when rolling in the grass, the cool touch of the blades eliciting a surprised intake of breath. Why put a barrier between experiencing everything that you come into contact with? Why ruin such fun?
Unlike Emmett, however, Riley and Tessa opted for their full costumes. Riley kept saying, “Tessa’s a pretty Rapunzel.” It was very cute.

We have all been working on our animals and animal sounds lately. Riley is a softie and loves to snuggle and play with almost any kind of animal. But, for some reason, right now he thinks that everything is mean. (“That’s a mean bird, Mommy.”) So, when we decided to get some fish for the pond, the first thing that Riley asked for was a mean fish. Mom and Dad tried to talk him out of it, but we think that the fish somehow heard him and when we got to the fish store, the fish knew about his request.

We all approached the above-ground ponds, filled with koi, with a bit of excitement. Emmett, of course, right away removed the lid and tried to reach in for a fish. But when the store employee came over with a skimmer to select a fish, one of the fish darted up and out of the water, smacking loudly against Riley’s face and then back into the pond. For a heartbeat, Riley just stood there, unsure. Then he looked to Mom and Dad for some explanation. Seeing that this episode could go one of two ways, they assured Riley that the fish was not mean and that it, instead, jumped out of the water to say “hello” to him.

Riley, at first, was not convinced. But after continued reassurances regarding the fish’s underlying motives, Riley started saying-kind of unconvinced at-“Yeah, the fishy jumped up to say hi to Riley.” But, by the end of the morning, he was repeating that refrain with belief and gusto. It really wasn’t a mean fish. The fish was so overcome with joy at seeing Riley that he jumped out of the water to say hello, conveyed by way of a resounding, watery slap across the face. Unfortunately, due to the weather, once the fish were deposited into the pond, they settled to the rocky bottom to hibernate for the winter. Only come spring, when the koi thaw and begin moving about their new home, will we all be able to tell the color of that fish’s heart.

With the memory of the tail slap slowly fading, Riley started seeing animals everywhere. There was an elephant and a giraffe in the trees in the neighborhood. A fish was visable in the waterfall of an area lake. But the 300-pound black bear in the backyard kind of came out of nowhere.

We were all playing outside, with Emmett and Daddy moving between the kitchen making dinner and the backyard where we were rolling in the grass and playing in the sand box. All of sudden, Dad came outside whispering fervently, “Bear! Bear!” Mom looked up, and sure enough there was a black bear just sitting there, watching us. It wasn’t all that close-maybe 50 yards away. And no one was quite sure what to do.

Dad had a camera and was running to the bear, but Mom seemed hesitant to hang out outside with such mouth-watering appetizers (us) on display for the bear. Mom’s better sense won out, and she picked us up (Emmett was inside, in the kitchen) and ran to the house. Riley was impressed. “Mommy’s running fast,” he said, as if hardly believing that Mom was capable of such speed. But from the safety of the deck, we all peered out into the evening light, trying to get a good look at this new neighbor.

“Mommy, where are the bear’s eyes?” Riley wondered.

“Bear,” Tessa repeated, trying to open the gate to convey our welcome.

Soon, however, the bear wandered back into the trees and disappeared. And now, Riley often sees the bear when driving to school, although we’ve never confirmed these sightings. Regardless, Riley assures us that the bear is, indeed, a mean bear. But that the bear does have eyes.

See you soon,
E, R and T

Right now, we love all things Pirates, Peter Pan and Rapunzel! Emmett likes to wear his hat a bit higher on his head than usual, like the pirate tricorn; as he skips, he does little hops while extending his arms out, and he tries to fly; and he wears a sheet on his head to pretend that he has long hair like Rapunzel. When asked if he could fly, Riley said that he couldn’t because he doesn’t have strings on his back; but he stands at the bottom of a big tree out in the backyard yelling “Rapunzel, where are you? Let down your hair!” And Tessa loves to pick things up and waive them around and pretend that she is sword fighting.

Tessa also LOVES our new sandbox, which means that about a gallon of sand is brought inside every day. She likes to fill and empty the buckets, while flinging sand on any and all in the vicinity. It is not for the fainthearted. Or those that prefer to remain sand-free. In addition to sandbox play, Tessa is still working hard to keep up with the boys. Right now that means that she likes to wear their clothes and go where they go. The luster of preschool, however, has worn off and she doesn’t like to follow the boys into the building. After the first week, Tessa asked her teacher for her backpack so that she could leave.

Riley is big into bugs and squirmy things. He is a catch-and-release guy, though, which makes Mom happy. Often times Riley is unaware of his own strength relative to the little bugs and they end up squished. Rolly Pollys beware. Other times though, he steps on them on purpose and then says “Bug all done!” He is afraid of spiders and all manner of “sting-bugs,” as he should be. He loves to throw rocks, to Mom and Dad’s chagrin, and sometimes he throws rocks at the bugs he would rather not touch.

As always, Emmett is the leader of all pretend play. Whether he is dressing up like Woody from Toy Story, complete with hat and boots; or draping toilet paper around his head and trailing it around the house like Rapunzel from the movie Tangled, he loves to watch movies and the re-enact them. Good thing he loves being outside so much too, or he’d turn into a baby couch potato!

Birthday season is coming up next month, starting with Riley in October. Fast on the heels of that party is October, and we are still deciding what to dress up as. So stay tuned and see what we choose!

See ya,
Emmett, Riley, and Tessa

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.