Happy New Year!

Happy New Year friends and family!

We celebrated early tonight with parents of one of Will's classmates. The girls were troopers and didn't cry one bit. Will started the night fine - excitedly bringing vintage Star Wars toys to Patrick to identify - and then went downhill quickly when we left the party. Not listening, not getting into the car, not getting into his seat, hitting Patrick, not obeying at home, and more hitting and kicking Patrick. 2012 can only get better...

Merry Christmas!

This was our first Christmas as a five-some, and while the work was worth it, it was WORK.

We stayed up very late the night before finishing off presents and making the home ready for Santa. Patrick and Will said their goodbyes to Will's elf on the shelf. Finally, the cookies were ready, the presents were under the tree and we got ready to see the kids' reactions.

Will only got as far as the stockings and innocently was happy enough with what he found there. Only when he chased a toy across the room did he notice everything under the tree. The look on his face was priceless.

We spent the entire morning opening stockings, presents from Santa and presents from our family. It was a great excuse to spend the morning in our pajamas.

Patti's parents arrived Christmas afternoon bearing even more gifts for the kids. It was great fun watching them explore each new thing - especially the noisy ones. Contrary to the week leading up to Christmas, Will was patient, loving and gentle.

Maggie was into EVERYTHING and Stella was fighting a fever so the night was interesting. Poor Stella was miserable (but not crying). She sat and watched the night unfold around her. Maggie was trying to get into everything, pulling herself up next to presents, and wanting to see what Will was doing.

It was a VERY merry Christmas!

Still alive

We've been too sick or tired (or sick and tired of each other) to post lately but here's a general update heading into the Christmas weekend. Will is doing OK with the potty training - averaging one accident a day (always when Patrick is at work). He won't let our sitter change him after accidents either, so that's a problem. Will has been more or less a terror this week for Patti - not listening, not picking up anything, aggressively taking his toys away from the girls, and then there was the biting incident. Stella was in her exersaucer and Will walked up and bit her hand. He didn't break the skin but you could see every one of his teeth hours and hours later.

Stella has been fighting a cold all week (we all have but her's remains). Because of that or not, she's been waking up every few hours during the night. Maggie often sleeps through it, but not always.

The five of us "picked out" our Christmas tree last Saturday and Will had lots of fun racing through the trees.

Because the whole minivan was full of Carey's we had to tie our tiny tree to the roof. All that room and we can't even fit a little tree in the van...

Stella and Maggie are getting more and more mobile by the minute. They still prefer the Navy Seal style shimmy across the floor, but we catch them on all fours from time to time. They love to scoot over to whatever Will is doing - much to his dismay. We're already challenged in keeping them away from things.

Stella has even been pulling herself up once she reaches something. She likes to kneel but she'll sometimes stand all the way up for a spell.

Will's potty-training: Day Three

Today was another success (only one real accident in three days) so Will graduated up to big-boy underpants! We fully expect some set-backs this week when someone isn't dedicated to sprinting upstairs with Will every hour, but he is so proud of himself that we think he's good "to go" (hee hee).

Will and Patrick spent some more quality time in Will's room today until Will got used to pulling his underwear up and down quickly. We're not sure who enjoyed the three days together more.

Will "helped" Bonnie make him this cake earlier today. He wasn't in underwear yet so imagine the watching that went into mixing and baking this cake...

Will's potty-training: Day Two

Will continued his hot streak for peeing today - almost no accidents (two close-calls - one on Patrick's lap and one on Patrick while Will was on the potty). He peed every 30 minutes until nap-time and then only when he needed to in the afternoon. He and Patrick spent much of today in Will's room, painting and playing inside of the box from Maggie's crib. FINALLY, around 8:00 pm, he pooped in his potty. Hooray!

The plan for tomorrow is for Will to go whenever he needs to until nap-time and then he gets to wear his first underpants in the afternoon. He loves his Thomas underwear so we think he's itching to get them on tomorrow.

Will's potty-training: Day One

We've been talking about it for weeks and marking the days off of the calendar and now it's here - Will's potty-training weekend! Three days of Patrick and Will trying to make the magic happen!

Despite weeks of talking about it with Will, Friday morning started off scary. Will flat out refused to go into the bathroom until we bribed him with the promise of treats and movies. From that point on, however, he was an A+ student.

Will went all day Friday without a diaper or pants so that he could feel if he was beginning to go. Despite our worst fears, he didn't have a single accident. We tried to use the potty every 30 minutes and he went pee all but two times. Better still, he ran up to us and told us that he had to pee three times. He was so proud of his successes.

Best of all, Patrick got to spend an entire day playing with Will. No work, no twins, no housework - just Will and Will LOVED that. So the plan for day two is more of the same, and hopefully Will will poop. He REALLY had to yesterday but he told Patrick that he was scared. It didn't hurt his appetite though so we're expecting something today...

Expanding boundaries

Stella has been shimmying around on the floor for more than a week but she's really getting quick now, especially when she slides onto the hardwood floor. She's starting to drive Will bonkers because she always wants to get into what he's doing. She'll crawl over to his trains, trucks or whatever and it's not long until we hear Will say "Mom, make Stella stop."

Maggie was content to sit and play for as long as we'd let her but in the last day or two she started crawling in earnest. On Wednesday night, Maggie grabbed onto a basket and she pulled herself to a standing position. Later, she pulled herself up next to the couch and then stood holding onto it for a few seconds. The girl might skip crawling.

Will has been trying more and more new things at school. He's finally started taking part in art projects - before racing off to play. It doesn't seem like he sings much at school, but he appears to know most of the words when we catch him singing around the house.

Teething bites

Howdy friends.

Stella and Maggie's teeth are coming in and that's as fun as you can imagine. They're a little more irritable and one or the other will wake the other up during the night, but otherwise they're making the best of things. Maggie's bottom two teeth came in first and then one of Stella's bottom teeth came last weekend.

We thought you could see it here, but we guess not...

Here's Maggie's bottom teeth. As Patti's chest can attest, they are sharp.

Thanks to their teeth, the girls can now eat Cheerios and other treats. They especially like hard pizza crusts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We have lots to be thankful for this year - when we're not too tired to realize it.

We maximized our Thanksgiving yesterday with a day full of hiking, cooking, cleaning and eating. Will started the day with a "turkey" breakfast.

Stella and Maggie enjoyed some of their first Cheerios. Maggie's bottom middle teeth have come in and Stella's first teeth aren't far behind.

After a short hike and some quality time in front of the TV watching the Packers, we settled down for some of Patti's fantastic cooking. The girls enjoyed a puree of sweet potatoes, apples and cranberries and Will ate a ton of turkey. He didn't care for the green bean casserole or the stuffing so Dad "sacrificed" and ate it for him. Will was very huggy and he thanked us for no good reason, which was pretty sweet.

Why Will should nap

Will didn't nap the other afternoon and he ended up falling asleep at the table during dinner. Patrick couldn't resist taking this picture.

This goes without mentioning, but Will wasn't drinking the beer (he has higher standards)...

2 out of 3 ain't bad

The quality of each day seems to be measured in how the kids sleep and whether they're all asleep at the same time. By the end of the day everyone is exhausted, but getting all 3 to nap in the afternoon is a rare occasion unless we do the nurse-n-nap routine with the girls. On Wednesday afternoon, I got 2 out 3 to sleep and enjoyed some one-on-one time with Stella.

Will still takes a 2-3 hour nap each day and when he doesn't...wow, it makes for a long, painful evening. Today, after a busy day at school and some play time in his room Will finally fell asleep (on the floor). Meanwhile, Maggie slept on the couch for hours (usually its minutes).

And Stella and I played on the floor, practicing her new skill of crawling (albeit still very rudimentary) and perfecting that ear-to-ear smile of hers.

Quality forecast for the evening: enjoyable!

And as an added bonus, the girls slept through the night from 10pm - 6am.

Will's Lambeau leap

Will kept asking yesterday "where G guys Dad?" He's too young to fully appreciate Monday Night Football, but trust me little guy - it's a good thing.

Will jumped at the chance to put on his jersey and watch with Daddy and then he jumped into the stands (our couch) to celebrate a touchdown. Take a look here.

Goin' on a hike!

The kids were tiring us out last week and Patti and I needed to get out of the house. On our way back from a diaper run on Saturday, we stopped and took a short hike as a family. Patti slung Maggie and Patrick Bjorn'ed Stella. Will was very proud to be leading us around without being carried.

One of Will's shows had a hiking episode recently and Will must have repeated one of its lines - "Goin on a hike!" about a hundred times (maybe more). He was so cute, though. We had him collect different leaves that he liked so that he could compare and contrast them at home later. He told us all of the different colors he saw on trees. He pointed out tree roots to us. It was pretty awesome.

These huge leaves were elephant ears on Will a second before this shot.

Patrick likes this trail a lot because it reminds him of home. He and his cousin spent most of their time in the woods near streams and creeks. He's thrilled that Will seems to like it a lot too.

Happy Halloween - your parents will not mind if you do!

Happy Halloween everybody!

Will followed up a great third birthday with a fun Halloween today. Despite waning interest all day, he dressed in his Cat in the Hat costume and didn't regret it. Adding to the fun, Stella and Maggie were Thing 1 and Thing 2 and we turned the girls' stroller into the thingamajigger.

Check out this smile only moments after a meltdown over having to wear his hat.

Will went trick-or-treating with his little friends on the street.

Stella and Maggie didn't care for the stroller (after only 2-3 houses) so Patrick took Stella and the thingamajigger home and Patti, Maggie and Will continued on up the street. Will ended up pretty happy with his stash.

Here's Will's Carson Street pals hitting up our neighbor's home for treats.

Will is 3!

We were freaking out a little yesterday afternoon as we watched snow and sleet coming down for an hour or two, but today turned out to be perfect for Will's third birthday. It was sunny and a balmy high 40s but Will didn't mind at all.

We decked the yard in a Thomas/train theme. Patrick dressed up as Sir Topham Hatt. Grandma, Mimi and Pop were all here. Will dug his homemade train signs and train tracks leading up to the house. Check out the new slideshow for more pictures.

Will's friends played with our homemade trains (they were very fun while they lasted, which wasn't long...). Only Toby survived the afternoon intact.

Patti rocked the yard with themed goodies and cake. We're overly proud of the "3".

Most importantly, Will had a blast running around with his friends. He's been fighting a cold for the last few days and being cooped up all day yesterday was rough on him. He ran and ran and ran, and then ran some more. He even made sure to say goodbye to all his friends when they left and to say "thanks for coming!"