Topsy Turvey Thursday

Today was topsy turvey Thursday (crazy mismatched clothes and wild hair) at Ethan's school. I, of course, noticed it on the calendar this morning at 5:45 a.m. because I am so on top of everything lately (no, no sarcasm there!).

I left a note for Erin to have him call me when he woke up so I could partake in the outfit picking with him, since we didn't do it the night before. At 7:06 a.m. today I got a call from Ethan. He sounded tired (as he should since he is sleeping a whopping 9 hours a night now and days): "Hi mommy, what did you want?" I asked him if he remembered it was topsy turvey day and he informed me that he was already dressed. Apparently he woke up, knew what day it was (thank goodness he doesn't have my memory issues) and dressed himself much to Erin's surprise.

Me: "So, what did you pick out?"

Ethan: "Uh, my Marvel shirt and my OSU pants."

Me: "Are they the same color?" (already knowing the answer)

Ethan: "No not really, there's some red around Spiderman and Iron Man, but not really anything else to match my pants."

Me: "Uh, okay." (translated: 'Uh, okay...color blind like dad: check")

Ethan: "Mom, it's a MARVEL shirt and OSU pants, that makes them TOTALLY different and mismatched. Right?" (sounding a little bit like 'seriously mom... duh!')

Me (giggling): "Of course. Yes, you're right. Do you have crazy socks on?"

Ethan: "No, not really."

Me: "You should put on some crazy socks. And what are you going to do to your hair?"

Ethan: "My socks are fine and I am not doing anything to my hair." (clearly done with me at this point) "I love you mommy. Bye." (the classic pass off)

As I finish this conversation with him, Erin sends me a photo from her phone of him talking to me. I cry giggle every time I look at it, because I hear the conversation in my head and love the expression on his face (it's hard to see here, but his brow is furrowed).

BTW, check out the socks... he doesn't think those are topsy turvey. As a matter of fact, socks to Ethan are not something you match to your outfit, but instead something you pick based on your mood alone... and therefore, in his mind, they match whatever you are wearing no matter what.

Ahhhh, I LOVE that little boy.

Fixed...

Sunday at noon, right when Cookie Cutters opened, I called and made an appointment to get Oliver's hair fixed. Fifty bucks later (for all three), which is including the $6 in coupons we had, Oliver no longer looks punk with five different lengths of hair, straight across side burns and multiple bald spots. Actually, now that it's all smoothed out, he looks stinking cute with his hair so short. STINKING CUTE! It did take her 20 minutes to fix it though... considering how little hair he had when we were done it is sad it took 20 minutes for her to fix what we had done!

Collin and Ethan also got a cut, not a buzz though. Now they are no longer the bushy headed Moore brothers.

Wish I could get them to sit still for photos, but I can't, therefore these aren't the best photos. Oh, and in case you are wondering, Collin spilled something on his shirt at dinner and insisted on taking it off and NOT putting on another one...

We are so sorry Oliver

My dear sweet little O,

We made a very terrible mistake. Daddy insisted we do it and after a week, I caved. I thought if I helped surely between the two of us it would turn out okay. It can't be that hard to do it after all. We were wrong. Very wrong. All to save a few dollars.

I am sorry you were the first chosen and, as it turned out, our guinea pig. You know though, when it comes to matters such as this, you are by far the easiest. Yes, that shouldn't be a punishment, I know. But who else would sit through the drama as it went from "it might be okay"... to "stop cutting it, just buzz it"... to "oh no I took a chunk out (three times)"... to "just stop now before we do any more damage"... to "it's okay, wait until after his bath it'll be better looking"... to "okay, give it a few days to grow out, it'll be fine"... to "never mind, just give it a few days then we will pay someone to fix it"... to "there is no way we are touching the other two"... to "we're so sorry Oliver, so very, very sorry." All the while, you just sat there happily watching Little Einsteins letting us mangle your mane... for a half hour... in the name of saving money. We are so sorry. We won't do it again, we promise. Probably.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

p.s. yes you can probably use this to your advantage for a good week, at least.

What did YOU do to me?!!!

Dear two remaining very bushy headed brothers,

Be kind to your brother. Do not laugh, but instead compliment, embrace and defend him (with that hair, he's probably going to need it). It is he that saved you this horrible fate.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

The shiner and the scolding (two separate incidents)

Oliver got his first shiner on Friday. Our EI (early intervention) specialist was here on her bi-monthly visit (with the added bonus of budget, or lack there of, talk) and we were sitting on the floor with the twins. Collin was over by the step into the kitchen and was showing off when he fell backward and hit the back of his head on the wood step. I ran over to him to comfort him and then Oliver started crying. He was hopping around (showing off as well - boys and pretty blondes, what is it?) and fell into the sofa. She thought it was nothing serious, just shaken by the event, but his crying said otherwise. What we think happened was that he fell into the corner of the chaise, face first, while holding a plastic pterodactyl because he has a red vertical line in the white of his eye, a bruise on the side of his eye and of course under his eye. Poor guy! He's acting no worse for the wear though (after the initial pain subsided of course).

You can't really see it in the photo (the flash washed it out maybe), but it's there under his left eye.

I see my family in this photo, which is weird because he looked a lot like Steve at birth and also in his baby photos. I think it's the eyes. Regardless, I've always thought his eyes were amazing... of course I am a little biased.

Unrelated, but funny, bonus story...

This morning, while I was in the kitchen making their favorite whole wheat oatmeal blueberry pancakes, I overheard two year old Oliver scold five year old Ethan in the family room. Ethan was apparently making bad choices and Oliver said: "Stop Ephan, that is inappopiate!" I fell over laughing... silently of course. I'm still giggling.

Are you ready for some soccer?!

The first game of spring soccer was today. It wasn't too bad, well, since they don't take score. Actually, even given a sore ankle causing a limp, Ethan played pretty well. He had his moments of staring off into space, but he also kicked the ball quite a few times... in the right direction... away from the right players... it was awesome! And most importantly, he was proud of himself.

The pre-game pep talk... with Q & A apparently. I thought it was adorable with all of them sitting on their balls intently listening.

The first play.

Oliver, Ethan's mini me, desperately wanted to be on the field with Ethan, playing soccer as well. We could not convince him that this was just not okay. I'll tell you though, that boy is ready for soccer and I think he might be good at it (based on his kicking skills and desire). He, unfortunately, cried very loudly and dramatically about half of the game and nothing we did helped. Collin was pretty laid back (thank goodness), content eating, playing with a soccer ball and watching, with the occasional grab of a marker or dash on the field just when we had our guard down or were focused on one of the other two kids.

One of Oliver's calm moments, watching the game with his ice water.

One of Collin's ornery moments, taking a marker.

The brother's celebrating the first game.

The brother hug. Though it kind of looks like a wrestle move, this was a giant hug from Oliver, returned by Ethan. Oliver adores Ethan. He calls him "my Ethan."

It was a beautiful day today, sunny and cool. Looking forward to the season and more beautiful days like this!

Dinnertime conversation: the Easter Bunny

Tonight at dinner Ethan said, "So..." Now, not to take away from the story, but this opening typically means he is getting ready to ask dad some detailed super hero questions. Sometimes it will even start with "I love you mommy. So... dad can Blue Beetle's foot turn into...." The "I love you mommy" is the butter-up since I am not a fan of super hero talk at dinner. Oh and who else says "so" all the time... hmmmmm....

So, anyhow, the dinner conversation tonight started with this:

Ethan: "So mom and dad, where does the Easter Bunny live?"

I looked at Steve and he at me, neither one of us had an answer. Pretty pathetic huh?

Me: "I am not sure where he lives."

Ethan: "I think he lives in China."

Me: "Okay, that would be a nice place. Why do you think that?"

Ethan: "Because it says China on the bottom of everything we got."

Another one of those mornings...

There are days when managing three kids, specifically two two year old twin boys, isn't so hard... and there are days when... well... it is. It just is. Think about it, two terrible two aged boys, who are brothers.

Steve was away yesterday, so it was just me and the kids. We had a bunch of errands to run and I was hopeful it would go smoothly. I am so silly!

Collin has decided that only he can pick out his outfits now and days. I gave him a couple very nice choices, but his response was "NO!" in a loud screech to each and every. He then went to his closet and picked a shirt he wanted and handed it to me with a look on his face as if to say "You have no fashion sense mom, THIS is what I want to wear." I bowed to His Hiney...er... I mean... His Highness, and dressed him in his desired wear.

We headed downstairs for shoes, where His Highness dug into the closet and pulled out his water shoes from last year... which don't even fit (or I wouldn't have cared). Basically we had to have the "either you put on your sneakers or you can stay home" discussion. He eventually got on board.

Apparently we have hit the "don't touch me" and more stage because the entire car ride Collin was aggravating Oliver and Oliver was yelling at Collin. They can't touch where they are seated... nope... this was Collin being too loud (Collin is very loud period) and Oliver telling him to stop. Of course, being the ornery child he is, that only made Collin smile bigger and do it louder as Oliver started cry yelling at him to stop again. The. Entire. Ride.

Since the twins don't like the side by side bench carts, I have to put one in the seat and one into the basket area. As I handed items to Oliver (as I typically do), Oliver put them in the cart with Collin (as he typically does) and Collin proceeded to yell "NO!" and throw them either back up to Oliver who then started screaming his protest or out of the cart altogether. (that is not typical)

Then we only, heaven forbid, walked one side of the fish tank display at the store. Oliver freaked out. So, we backed up and went around the entire display. Then when I said, "Okay, say bye bye to the fishes" (as I typically do), he started scream crying all over again... for another five minutes as we made our way through the store... people staring. What? You've never seen a crying toddler before? Come on people.

To add to this, ornery Collin kept playing with the strap on the seat of the cart (where Oliver was sitting) which ticked Oliver off who kept saying "NO, don't touch it Collin!" Once the strap was inaccessible to Collin, he just started touching Oliver instead, which as you might guess started the "NO, stop touching me Collin!"

During this, Collin kept standing up in the basket area of the cart where I put him. Now, having worked retail in my much younger years, I recall vividly the movie they showed us of kids falling out of carts... so I have a no tolerance rule about such things. Collin needed to be reminded several (billion) times. It was hard to be too upset... at first at least... because every time I reminded him he said "Oh!" and sat back down, as if he had merely forgotten he wasn't to do that. I know better. This kid may have a speech disorder and not be able to talk well, but he is very smart.

I am certain at this point that we will be banned from this particular store soon. I just know it. Or at the very least, when we walk in they get on their little phones, spreading the word.

Meanwhile, my first born Ethan was perfect. Bless him. He actually kept giving me hugs all day. Just silent hugs. It was unclear as to whether he saw the distraught look in my eyes and knew I needed them or if he was just giving me a reminder as just how good he was being. Regardless, it was sweet.

After we got home and ate lunch, I put the twins to bed hoping for the best...clearly they were tired. No less than fifty trips up the stairs to discuss sleeping with them, and I had to give up. Now with Ethan, we didn't do that, we just let him talk and play in bed when he was their age. However, he was singleton. With the twins, you can't do that. Case in point, towards the end I just decided to let them be. I heard loud noises at some point but typically it's them laying in bed hitting their feet on their beds. After about 15 minutes of squealing laughter and noises, I decided to give up on them napping and let them come downstairs. I opened the door and found them sitting in one of their bookcases. All the books where all over the floor. The baskets holding stuffed animals, that also reside on this bookcase, looked like they exploded stuffed animals into the room. They removed a shelf - yes, you read that right - so they could fit into it and sit. (it's a three shelf short bookcase bolted to the wall) They were just as proud as could be. I, on the other hand, after they left the room just closed the door and tried to forget what I saw... saving it for Steve's return. Sigh...

Of course the whole aggravating each other started up all over again. At one point I made a great big smile, took a deep inhale and then exhaled slowly, getting ready to say my standard line to them "let's feel joy, let's be happy, let's take some deep breaths and push it out" (which is as much for me as them at this point). Right BEFORE I could get those words out, Oliver yells to me: "I don't want to feel happy!" That pretty much summed up the entire day to that point for them. Oh right, and clearly I need a new "calm down" tactic.

These are the days when I look at parents of grown boys and ask "it gets easier right? boys are easy when they get older, right? RIGHT?!"

Happy Easter!

Here are some highlights of our Easter morning egg hunt in the house...

Collin discovering his first egg filled with a raisin box... he was on a quest after that.

Oliver carrying sidewalk chalk he just found (and asking if he could color with it NOW). Collin holding an egg and his stash of raisin boxes.

Ethan opening his eggs: stickers, cars (he ended up with tons of those eggs), raisins, balloons, stretch frogs and fruit leather.

Collin kissing his raisin boxes (I am not kidding). Somehow he ended up with all of them. I think, but we were too busy to know for sure, that he snatched his brother's. He loves him some raisins.

Mommy's favorite Easter bunny gift... the live butterfly net (you have to send away for caterpillars) so we can watch them grow into butterflies and then release them. (I'm a geek, huh?) Collin was eying the build a car box.

Oliver's favorite thing, crayons and coloring book. He colored most of the day.

Ethan's favorite, the new Joker Fun House.

Other than the balloons all popping within an hour (they were the big balloons on a rubber band that you bounce off your hand), fun and happiness was had by all.

Coloring eggs with family

We went to Grammy and Papa M's house today for a little Easter celebration. They hid eggs for hunt after lunch, which almost never happened since Collin could hardly help himself from finding them all before we ate. It appears that last weeks egg hunt stuck with him and he knew to expect some chocolate..and sure enough to his glee he found it. (I am wondering what he will think tomorrow when the Easter bunny leaves eggs filled with raisins, cars, stickers, stretchy frogs and the like...instead of chocolate... hmmmm...)

Collin was all about the eggs and what was inside. He also loved the big "hiderman" (Spiderman) egg.

I didn't get any great photos of the hunt, again, this week. I did get some cute photos of them coloring eggs though.

The boys helping the boys color eggs.

I am not sure if it was finesse or balance, but Ethan had his hand up most of the time.

They loved the cat. He only made a brief visit to see what was going on, then grammy saved him, uh I mean "he went night night." The whole way home Collin said "titty tat ent nigh nigh." In an old Lego set that they had, Ethan found a Lego person that looked like Robin Hood, which he immediately called Green Arrow (he even had a bow and arrow - it was a very cool Lego guy I must say). He managed to talk them into letting him keep it, which is why Ethan's Easter basket full of eggs (he put it in an egg) was never far from him. Ever.

Collin loved this Jack in the box. He got papa to do it with him and then Aunt Lisa (below) too.

Oliver playing with his new Batman sticker coloring book. He loves stickers!

Lounging with Uncle Ben, or as Oliver calls him, Hunka Ben. Ethan was actually relentless with Ben questioning him on all things Superhero. When Ben got it wrong, he would correct him. Poor Hunka Ben.

Snuggling with dad.

We also learned a very valuable lesson about chocolate and the twins: they can't handle a lot of chocolate. Collin had the most, as I said he was all about finding the eggs with the shiny foil wrapped things inside. Grammy also had a basket of different chocolate on an end table which Collin found quickly and began slyly stealing chocolate. All in all, he probably had four pieces, five if you could the cookie with candy in it that he had. Considering he has never really had candy until last weekend, that was a lot. A LOT. Oliver probably had three pieces. Ethan maybe two. Collin and Oliver were bouncing off the walls, both there and when we got home. Add that to no nap (= very tired) and whoa... it was a sight to see. By 7 PM (early bedtime) Collin was snoring... loudly. Poor Oliver was still on his high however, undressing himself three times and talking to himself for an hour. Poor little dudes. Ethan, though he had only two pieces, also had cherry pie which he devoured and was up multiple times the night before, he too was out cold within minutes.

It's a good thing they think candy only comes in plastic eggs (twins) and Ethan thinks it's only a special occasion thing. Those are the only times, when all the treats are around and people are eating them, that they get some of those items (like candy). For as hard as I try to give them only whole, fresh, healthy food, I can't forbid them these treats when everyone else is eating them... at least not at the knowing age they are at now... they will want it all the more. I think the next candy holiday is Halloween... and I am glad it's a LONG way off.

After their sugar high today, I am kind of wondering if they will wake up with a chocolate hangover tomorrow morning...