My Living Room Divers

So much has been going on lately, both good and bad, entertaining and infuriating, funny and outlandish. An example of something bad-- I had a seizure a couple weekends ago. I'll probably write about it here sooner or later. An example of something entertaining from this morning absolutely had to be documented before the pictures got lost in the August picture file and I forgot about it.

Prompted by safety glasses in a chemistry set, Clark decided this morning that he wanted to dress up like a diver. He put on his astronaut suit, a pair of his underwear on his head, a straw in his mouth, and when he insisted he needed something as an oxygen tank I rolled up a couple pieces of foam board for him. Since the boys were highly influenced by Nemo (it's still one of the only full-length movies they've had the patience and interest to watch, and they're still afraid of Darla), Clark was a diver looking for fish to put in a fish tank. He found some little toy fish and had me hide them (at floor level since he'd be "swimming" on the carpet) in the living room so he could find them and put them in his plastic bag.

During the middle of the saga, Calvin, dismayed that there was only one set of safety glasses and that his goggles didn't feel right over the underwear and his glasses didn't look right over anything or under the catcher's mask, had a major meltdown and swore off being a diver ever for the rest of his life. Can't say my heart was broken over that.

The funniest thing about these moods Cal and Clark get in when they're dressing up is that they are so serious about it. It's hard not to laugh and not to act like wearing underwear on heads is completely normal.

Anyway, here are the pictures of my living room divers.

Divers suiting up

Testing the water

Perfect for carpet swimming

Oxygen tanks applied

And unsuspecting fish captured

P.S. I'm doing a handmade soap giveaway this week...enter here

Van der Hagen Soap Giveaway

As anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I'm not much of a giveaway person. The Playseum is one of my sponsors so I do giveaways for passes to the Playseum occasionally. I did a cookie giveaway once with a cool local cookie girl I met to promote her cookie business, and the other two giveaways have been for handmade soaps. One was a sponsor on here for awhile and the other was from a local woman I met whose farm I toured and who I watched make her goat milk soap.

Since I started this blog I've been assailed by all sorts of types of companies and agents wanting to do product reviews and giveaways and such. A long list of them every day. I have to admit that most of them I don't even skim over anymore, but some of them I do and most of the ones I skim over I'm not interested in. I did see a soap one awhile back and since that didn't appear to be as much of a form letter as most of them, I actually read it. Since I have a weakness for soap, I decided to go ahead and try their soaps and write about them and do a giveaway. I need to stick in here that I'm not being reimbursed by them in any way other than they sent me some soaps to try and some soap for a giveaway.

The company is called Van der Hagen and they've been in business for more than a century making men's shaving products. They also hand make natural glycerin bar soaps and that's what I've been trying for the past month or so. I've used them on the boys, who always say they smell beautiful, and lovely (they're so going to get beat up on the kindergarten playground for calling things beautiful and lovely) which is true, the scents are lovely. They also make an unscented bar. We've used the Fruity one at our kitchen sink and I've used the Floral on the boys and the Fresh in the shower. I've noticed I haven't had to use lotion as often-- they seem to have more moisture than my normal kitchen hand soap and shower soap. The soap is hypo-allergenic and mild for sensitive skin like mine. I have nothing but good to say about them and the company in general seems nothing but professional and has been great to deal with.

So, for the next week I'll run a little giveaway on here. Leave your name and comment below and I'll do a drawing next week to determine the lucky winner of three handmade bars of glycerin soap from Van der Hagen.

The three soaps Van der Hagen sent for the giveaway

Calvin for scale

Thursday Thesicle

There are good days and there are 

good, show-your-baby-brother-how-to-watercolor-on-the-balcony good days. 

(and paint your fingers and toes with watercolors days)

How Can I Make Myself Into a Girl?

Just checking in here. I'm trying to write more often, even if it's in small entries.

As I wrote about here and here, earlier this year, we field a lot of random, often unanswerable questions around our house. This morning was no different, but I wrote them all down. These are all just from this morning.

Is Spiderman nice to babies?

Does the dentist go to the dentist?

Who eats cardboard? Barbarians?

What if I could cross stitch with my feet?

Are we famous?

When can I nurse in your lap?

Can I make my own friend in my tummy?

Who were you in when you were born?

Do I look like a bouncing tornado?


And lastly, the question that spawned an hour-long experiment:

How can I make myself into a girl?

PHOTO BOMB!

Remember: for more classic Cal and Clark questions, go here: A Questions Sampling

and here: Probing Questions

Firsts

With children there are so many firsts. Some people wildly celebrate all firsts. I think we've commemorated and celebrated many of Cal and Clark's firsts, and a lot of them we've commemorated here on the blog. For example, here is Teddy's first walk. Awww.

Another example:

The first time Teddy showed us his Concerned Citizen face. Awesomeness.

But today I'd like to commemorate some not-so-awesome firsts.

First of all, there's this:

The boys' first broken window. The answer to your first question is a wooden block throwing competition. The answer to your second question is $156 and the answer to your third question is no golfing at the driving range for $156 worth of golf ball buckets at one bucket a week average. ("But the crack is so pretty. Like a spider web."- Cal)

We've also recently had:

The first time crayons went into various body orifices:

Then this happened. The first time every shirt the boys own made it onto the living room floor. (It's a tarp for a rain delay, duh.)

 The first time I got an empty fortune cookie (creepy)

Teddy's first night of crying himself to sleep

The first time one of the twins messed with an electrical outlet

The first through forty-seventh time Teddy spit up down my cleavage

The first time Cal and Clark asked their little girl friend to lift up her shirt (mortifying, since her parents were both there too)

The first time Teddy sucked on a brother's nose

The first time Clark put a pacifier in his mouth as a four year-old

Just keeping it real, people. Keepin' it real.

One Month Theodore

Teddy is one month old! It's gone quickly, but on the other hand it feels like he's been a part of our family for a long time. He is a calm, patient baby. He hardly ever cries; we've had about four nights out of a month where he hasn't slept well. He usually wakes up every three or four hours on the dot, eats, and goes right back to sleep in his mini crib in our bedroom. He loves his baths. His big brothers are excellent at calming him down. I think they're even better than I am at it, minus the boob factor. He loves them already. We couldn't have asked for a better baby.

Here is a collection of Cal and Clark quotes about Teddy and some pictures I took today.

"You can't take it home. It's our baby."

"Can you imagine all the hair he has?"

"Do you like his face?"

"I don't want us to have any more babies. Do you know why? Teddy is the best baby in Earth. I love him the best on all the Earth."

"I miss Teddy when we're not with him."

"We named him Teddy. Do you like that name?"

"He's cuter when you look at him on this side."

"He doesn't cry at all."

"Am I a better brother than Clark?"

"Am I a better brother than Calvin?"

Out and about town

Curly after-bath hair

I Went For a Walk

Seriously. I’m not even joking. All. By. My. Self. No stroller to push. No running, skipping, racing, galloping boys to herd. No skinned knees to tend to. No unborn child in my belly. No lingering C-section incision pain. I went for a walk and it was amazing.

The night was beautiful-- not humid like many Virginia summer nights-- and I could actually walk quickly in the twilight as Reston went to sleep. The cicadas didn't even sound creepy, but they were far enough away that they sounded, dare I say it, almost charming. Halfway through the walk, which had no direction, I was simply walking to walk and escape the loud, inside day, I decided I deserved some Trader Joe’s chocolate. My walk suddenly had direction. There is no chocolate like Trader Joe’s chocolate, and maybe my mouth started watering a little. I rounded a corner to the store only to see a virtually empty parking lot. It was 9:09pm. Who knew they closed at 9pm? I guess I’m spoiled with the 24 hour supermarket by our house. Shut down. I peered inside hopelessly at the stupid happy workers getting ready to leave. 

I took it as a sign that I didn’t really need chocolate and maybe deserving chocolate isn’t even a thing. I certainly don’t need chocolate and it would just be depressing to buy some other un-Trader Joe’s chocolate, even though there were other chocolate-buying options closeby. So then I walked all the way home feeling free and mentally strong. I had faced temptation and…well, been ruthlessly shut down, but also refused to buy other chocolate just to buy chocolate.

When I got home I nursed Teddy, and called it a night. Okay, and maybe I ate a few chocolate chips first. 

What Happens

Things That Happen The First Week You Have a Newborn with Twin 4 Year-Olds

1. The twins find your camera.

2. The twins' bedroom has a mysterious hurricane go through it...every day. 

3. They find those purple and black tights you forgot you had.

4. The twins need spectators for their fashion shows- they wear inside-out and upside-down costumes to get extra attention. They also pose and do slow motion plays in costume.

 5. The newborn poops and pees twice in his first bath- to the sheer delight of the twins.

6. Whoever can feed the newborn best is the best big brother.

 7. The newborn tries to nurse on one of the twins.

8. The newborn gets coaching tips from his three coaches while working out in the baby gym.

9. You spend all day making cow costumes with the twins in between newborn feedings.

10. One twin can't find his pool pass so he draws one on the whiteboard.

11. The No Boys on the Table rule isn't enforced.

12. Pajamas stay on until unspeakable times of the day.

13. But mostly you feel blessed to have three healthy, happy boys.

Welcome, Teddy!

I'm happy to blog-announce that our Peapod was born Friday, July 5th at 8:06am. The C-section was no fun for me, but recovery hasn't been too bad. Brian got to see the doctor pull the baby out of me, which he said was cool. He weighs 8lbs. 14oz. and is 21 inches long. He came out with a mop of thick black hair that includes at least three cowlicks, so that will be fun for him. The nurse who bathed him gave him a mohawk and it has pretty much stayed that way for three days now.

We named him Theodore John, and we call him Teddy. The John is after my dad and Brian and I both just really like the name Teddy. We figured Theodore also gives him options for when he is older if he decides he doesn't want to go with Teddy: "Theo," "Ted," "TJ, "The Odor," etc. Brian is already enjoying calling him "The Odor," actually. He isn't exactly named after the Nationals racing president, though that Teddy is dear to all the hearts in our household as well.

My sister-in-law came to the hospital when Teddy was about an hour old and stayed until he was about seven hours old, armed with her photography gear, and came again yesterday to get pictures of the three boys. So she has somewhere around 500 pictures that we'll eventually get sorted out and I'll post my favorites. How awesome to have an eager photographer in the family!

Teddy and I will be in the hospital for another day or two. We've introduced him to his brothers, his stuffed turtle that Cal and Clark gave him, lots of aunts, uncles, Gammy, Poppy, baseball on TV, and some friends. He's a very calm little fellow and has taken to nursing like a champ. Teddy also loves gazing at his Daddy while he sings him funny songs. We're all in love.

The boys are already protective. They keep telling people who hold him, "That's our baby. You can't take it home with you." They're also in love with the idea of being big brothers. It means they need to eat more meat to get big strong muscles, Clark explained. Calvin took on a baby persona and has been talking like a baby and curling up in laps sucking his thumb in order to keep up with the attention Teddy is getting.

Here are the two favorite pictures so far.

Clark in the Batter's Box

The boys love baseball. This is largely due to the fact that Brian and I love baseball and also that we're teachers, so explaining things to kids is kind of second nature to us. As situations come up, we explain them, usually in detail. And we watch and listen to a lot of the Nats games. They know way more about baseball than I did at their age.

We play baseball with them at the playground, the park, the yard (though I've been pretty slow in this department this spring), we play baseball with them in the living room, we watch them playing baseball together all the time- inside and outside- and we overhear them talking about baseball too. But they don't only talk about hitting the ball and pitching the ball, they talk about intentional walks and old school windups and fastballs and sliders and split-finger change-ups. They wonder about bad calls and ejections and pick-offs and steal signs. Why isn't there a second base coach, only first and third? They practice their bunting and their diving catches and their double-play transfers. They work out. They slam into fences (walls of the house) and rob hitters of home runs. They slide head-first and feet-first into bases. And they do each play at least twice, because there's always the slow-motion replays that need to happen. It's a little out of control.

A couple weeks ago at the pool we ran into some friends from Blastball. Clark went over to the little boy, who was busy watching other kids playing in the water and hadn't seen us. Clark leaned over right to his ear, and announced proudly in his deepest announcer's voice, "It's Claaaaaaaark Crossssssson!" I realize this will only be cute for a little while longer.

Sometimes Clark will be gazing quietly into the distance and then ask me, "Do you know what I'm thinking about?" No, Clark, tell me. "I'm thinking about my diving catch I made in Blastball." (This catch, while impressive, was at least two months ago.)

Well, as of last night we have proof that they not only play and talk about baseball every day, they also dream about it. Brian got Clark up to take him to the bathroom at about 11pm. As he lifted Clark up out of his bed into a standing position on the floor, Clark said, in his announcer's voice, "Clark's in the batter's box!"

He did go potty, so I guess he had a productive at-bat.

I'm wondering how the little ball players will include Baby Peapod in their play as he gets older. I bet he'll develop into one heck of a backstop.

Blastball-ers in a scramble for the ball