Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Three Men in a Tub

Kanta Klaus is coming

Put a Lou Holtz-esque speech impediment on that title and you have our little Andrew talking about Santa! I never realized how much mileage we would get out of the statement:

"You better be good because Santa is watching you."

At 2.5 years old they know that bad behavior= no presents.
Tonight at bedtime Andrew told John, "John, you listening or Kanta Klaus not come see you John. No toys. Do you understand me? He is peeping in that window at you, John."

John, who is a little more skittish when it comes to strangers said, "NO! HE NOT. HE NOT."
It was really so much fun to watch them talk.

Last year I bought this book at the Holiday Market called Elf on the Shelf. Last year they were too young to appreciate it but this year they are golden. I can not wait!

Now if we only figure out when we are going to go Christmas shopping....

Another not so "well visit"

PatPat is now 9 months. I am not sure where the time went but last week he had his nine month well visit. The problem was that he was not well. Poor little bear was coughing incessantly. Had we not had the appt already scheduled, we would have had to go to the doctor that day anyway. No shots for P!! That sounds great except that he did not get any 6 months shots either because of his hospitalizations so we are falling behind. I do plan to have my child vaccinated but playing catch up makes me a little nervous too.

The doctor had lots of questions for us.
Is he pulling up? Nope.
Is he going from a lying down position to sitting up on his own? Nope.
Is he crawling? Nope.
Little P just sat there with a smile that said, "why rush things, Dr. Trey? I will only be young once".
Truth be told I am not encouraging P's mobility. Two in two directions and one on my hip works well for me. Three in three different directions is frightening.
He does clap. He does say "dada" and "mama" (who cares if he does not know what he is saying). He does have one little bottom tooth.

P is no longer off the charts in terms of size. He is in the 60% for height and weight and 75% for head circumference. That big brain of his needs space!!
He is still as sweet as a peach and adorable too. Some things never change.

CHEEEESE!

Three boys looking at the camera, smiling (or at least not crying), sitting still, sitting close, sitting down. This is a rare moment at the Gilfillan house.

Good thing Ashley caught it on camera.

Bedtime Stories

Every night we read stories to the boys before putting them to bed. They know the words to most of their books so I have a way of pausing so that they fill in the blank that is implied by my silence with whatever word is next in the story.

While reading Stinky Face last night I would leave out a word, just like always.

S: "Mama, mama, what if I were a meat eating dinosaur? Would you still love me then?"

"If you were a meat eating dinosaur I would make you a mountain of __________." (The missing word is hamburger).

Andy: "HAMBURGER STEAK"

This is probably only funny if you know that Ashley loves hamburger steak and eats it fairly often, but it definitely made Ashley and I chuckle!

Wyatt the PatPat

Some call him Wyatt, some call him PatPat...my brother's three kids call him Wyatt the PatPat! Our little P is getting his first tooth. At first you could only feel it, but now you can see it if you look closely when he smiles. Isn't P adorable?

Night with Granny Meg and Pop

Saturday night the boys spent the night with Granny Meg and Pop.

Tonight we were reading books before bed.
Me: "Tell me everything you did at Granny Meg and Pop's last night. I want to hear it all."
A: "We played outside, we walking wiff honey. We holdin' on to Pop and say 'stay on the grass'".
Me" "Oh, really. What about going to the mall? Did you go to the mall"
A: "Yeah and rode a horsey" (referring to the merry-go-round)
J: "No, I rode a froggy"
A: "Mana Meg went in time out."
Me: "Really??"
A: "No, Pop do."
J: "No, Andy go to timeout?"
Me: "Did anyone have to go to timeout...seriously boys"
A: "No, Pop do."

Maybe I will never know!
I love these little conversations before bedtime when the boys are hanging on me and speaking in whispers. So sweet.

Good enough

Good enough. Good enough? Good enough.

Those two little words can mean so many different things. When Andrew and John were in the NICU one of the nurses told me that I needed to familiarize myself with the words "Good enough" really quickly. That passing comment struck a chord in me and I find myself thinking about it a lot, even 2.5 years after she said it.
Is the house clean? It's good enough. Was dinner okay? It was good enough. Does this match? Ummm, good enough. So many things that I question do not really matter. So yeah, they are good enough.
Then the important things come to the surface. How am I doing as a wife? mother? sister? daughter? friend? Christian? professional? (not necessarily in this order) It's not okay just to be good enough. I hope that all those closest to me know how much I love them and want to be enough for them. Enough in a good way.

So now that I have that off my chest I can go on to other things.....

I managed to make it through the entire election without comment. Now that the country has spoken, I am so energized by what it can mean for the United States to have elected the first African-American President. Our nation has come so far in 50 years. I am moved at the thought that my children will never know the prejudice and segregation that my parents knew. Barack has an uphill battle ahead of him. His job will not be easy, but do I think he can affect change in this nation? YES HE CAN!

In other monumental news, P just started crawling! Okay, so this might not be as monumental as the election of the first Black President, but it is pretty big for the Gilfillan family. Instead of having two boys going in two directions, we now have three boys going in three directions...almost. He is not totally mobile yet, but getting there quickly.
What will we do?
How will we keep up with them all?
We will do it together.

Tagged

Ashley tagged me and asked that I post the sixth picture in the sixth folder on my computer. Most of our pictures are saved on Ashely's Mac so I bent the rules a little. I went to my personal folder in hotmail and found the sixth email on the sixth page. It was a picture from my step-mom. She emailed me this after a day visit. I remember it well. Andrew was asleep in the other room while this picture was taken of John. He has grown up so much.

Unfortunately, it ends here. I do not know who else actually reads my blog so I can not tag anyone. Ashley, thank you for jogging my memory.

Our precious boys

I am going in birth order and just citing some things that were said/done this weekend that made me smile. It would be so horrible to forget this stuff.

Andrew:

It made my heart smile so big to watch Andrew with Granny this Halloween. She has been having some health problems lately. Nothing too serious, but nevertheless it has been a reminder to me that she is getting older. If Granny has ever loved anything in her life, it has been our boys. She adores them. As anyone could tell on Halloween, the feelings are mutual. John was thoroughly thrilled to see everyone, but Andrew was beside himself with excitement over seeing Granny. He literally climbed up her to get into her arms. He hung from her neck, held her hand, land aughed with her. She went with us on a hay ride at the end of the night. It had gotten very cold and Andrew and Granny sat together keeping each other warm. Andrew across her lap, facing her, cheek to cheek, holding her around the neck. In the dim light from the tractor they both looked so peaceful. I wished I had a camera with me. It made me think...I know Granny won't always be here and I hope that Andrew will remember how much joy they brought each other.

John:

I was tucking the boys in tonight. We were picking out PJ's and taking off the pull-ups (they call them "undies") and putting on night diapers. I was changing Andy on the bed and JD was on the floor pulling off his shoes, socks and "undies" all by himself. I put him on the bed to put on his diaper.

John: "Andrew not take off his undies?"
Me: "Nope, I took his off for him."
John: "I take mines off."
Me: "I know JD. You are such a big boy for taking off your undies all by yourself."
John: "Daddy gonna be proud of me?"
Me: "Yes, little bear. Your dad is so proud of you."

Then the biggest smile broke across his face. So happy to make his daddy proud.


JD also did something really funny yesterday: picked his nose and offered it to his dad!!
Ash: "No thanks buddy"
John: "You not want my booger?"
Ash: "No, I do not want your booger. Thanks anyway for sharing."

Wyatt:
Wyatt and I nap together every Sunday. Today was no different. Ashley always puts the twins down for their nap while I take PatPat. I hum the same song every time and pat him on the bottom. He gets all warm in the crook of my arm and within minutes, his dark eyes start getting too heavy to hold open anymore. He dozes off in my arms and his breathing steadies. I am usually not far behind him. I hope that he will still nap with me when he is 5. I love that time together.

Potty time

So we bit the bullet this weekend and started potty training the boys. We started Saturday morning bright and early. Three hours into it, Andrew had gone through like ten pull-ups. He was not catching on at all. Introduce C-A-N-D-Y!! It's amazing what 2.5 yr olds will do for a few candy corns. We made it through the day with Andrew about pottying in the right place about 50% of the time and John about 75% of the time. John even told me he had to potty once and he actually did. Andrew faked urgency in an attempt to get more candy but we stuck to our guns; no tinkle, no candy.
So I was thinking, hey, my boys are doing pretty well. This is not going to be so bad. Then in Sunday School this morning Brian Comer told me that they are still trying to get AM to poopie on the potty and it has been 5 months. So now I am wondering if their teeth are going to rot out in the process of potty training. I guess baby teeth are not that important, right?!?!?

Halloween and playing catch up...

Our little Curious George with Nana!

PatPat looking over Pop's shoulder...

Our Halloween crew...minus Ash (taking the picture).

We celebrated Halloween in Chapin this year. Crooked Creek park had a Halloween carnival that was fabulous...and most importantly, indoors (mostly). Our night started on the Trick or Treat trail. The boys were more interested in the sticks and the candles along the trail than they were the candy. We held up traffic a lot.

Once we were finished with the trail, we went inside for games. The boys fell in love with a big inflatable slide and that was the highlight of the night. You would think that having two adults for every child would make the night easy, but we were still busy. The boys got special treats from Granny Meg and Nana and Granny. It was a great night.

Now for the playing catch up part...I have a lot to write tonight, so bare with me as I ramble.