This week

Nothing big happened this week, so here are the things this week that made me smile:

Aryana is in that stage where she is so excited to run around naked.  I don't know what it is, but each of my kids went through this.  Wriggling excitedly while I dry them from their bath, eager to run as soon as I loosen my grip.  I am not sure if it is being naked that feels good, or knowing that mommy wants them in their pajamas and in bed.
As soon as her pants come off for any reason, she has gotten good and quick at ripping off her diaper and heading for the hills.

Ignore the crazy messy entrance way.  I really am trying to come up with a better set-up.

My little angel also (to say it nicely) pretends she has boy parts.  Yup, just like her brothers, pretending to "go" on everything.  She is in for a rude awakening when she learns she will not be able to pee standing up.

Along the same lines (maybe I should have titled this "this naked week"), Nico made me laugh so hard a couple of days ago.
My Niconater.  I am hoping I can find time to write a whole post about him, about each of the kids, really, but he is my mischief maker.  My Dennis-the-menace.  I have been told it is the middle child or the second child, but whatever, he is hilarious and frustrating.
We went to the park earlier this week in the fog.  Not sure why I did not put two and two together, but the fog made everything wet and muddy.  The kids and Nina, of course, had a great time, but when we got home their clothes were muddy.  I took off the boys' shirts and pants, and was working on getting Nina wiped off and everything inside, when a car drove by...with my boys in the driveway in their underwear.  All those times in the past when I judged the woman with the baby just in a diaper, or with a daughter with horribly messy hair, in their pajamas or mismatched clothes, I'm getting mine.  It's hard to keep one person in order, now I have to keep FOUR?!?!?  And when I pick out nice, preppy clothes for Matteo, he says he doesn't like buttons and wears a burnt-orange UT jersey with hunter green soccer game shorts.  I have to grin and say "good job getting yourself dressed, bud" lest I give him a complex about his clothes later in life, or does letting him wear it make him sure of that crazy decision and when he does it in late elementary he will be shunned by all the popular kids and forced to eat lunch alone.  It's no wonder we blame our parents for all our problems, it IS our fault.
Ok, parenting is making me sound crazy.
Back to the story.
I told the boys to get inside because no one needs to see them in their underwear.  Matteo made his way to the door, but Nico stood in the middle of the driveway, looked at me.  looked at the road....and dropped his underwear.  Then he ran laughing and screaming down the sidewalk, while me, Matteo and Aryana chased after him, laughing our heads off.  I realize that was probably not the right mommy-call.  I shouldn't have laughed, but seeing his little butt racing past THREE houses before I caught him was hilarious.  I could just see teenage Nico doing it on a dare at a football game...he's so going to be that kid, with his brother laughing behind him in mis-matched clothes, Aryana not far behind with scraggly hair she will not let me brush.
Wow, this is so much fun! (in reading back over this, I realize that may sound sarcastic, but I really mean it...at least most of the time)

Matteo's new fish face.

Future football star. 

And look, Auntie, the jersey fits Nico now and not surprisingly, Matteo is insanely jealous.

So pretty.  Take note of the fantastically styled hair.

What I caught her doing one day after napping.

Check out those fine motor skills.  Who needs to set up fancy sensory bins and buy small-part toys when you can just have them pick off their dead skin.

Two more cute happenings I want to remember.  We were playing outside, and Nico was having a fit in the Cozy Coup (plastic ride-in car).  He would not stop, so we rolled him inside and shut the door.  Sounds mean, but you should have heard what he was saying to us.  Very mature argument, I know.  Anyway, Aryana saw this and ran to the door crying and saying "buuuubbbbbbbbyyyyy"  (brother in Aryana speak).  Those two really have a bond.
Now, I will finish with my favorite Matteo quote of the week.  We were playing bouncy ball back and forth in the living room.  I am not sure what prompted it, maybe he "scored" - please note, that his wonky rules do not allow me to score.  If I do, somehow, he automatically gets another point - but he ran to me and said,
"This is my best day ever!"

The Pumpkin Patch

We went on our yearly trip to Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch this past weekend.  It's getting busier and busier each year, but still lots of fun for the kids.  They have wooden cutouts of every fun character you can think of to take pictures by,

Aryana waved at every character she saw.  She's big into waving right now, a dramatic handshake that makes me smile every time

they have wooden tractors and trains for the kids to crawl through and pretend to drive,

Get ready for this picture comparison, 

Matteo on the tractor now

and the first year we went

Big knot in my throat.  Wow, sure grown up in 3 years.

On a lighter note, check out Aryana and Nico looking like an old, married couple:

the pumpkin patch also has 2 hay mazes, a hay ride, and bounce houses.

Nico coming out of the little maze

Matteo out of the big maze

And, of course, there are TONS of pumpkins

We are having a great time celebrating this beginning to the holiday season.  I am crazy-stressed right now, but trying to stop and enjoy with my sweet babies.

October Catch-Up

As I do endlessly with journals, I am going to commit to writing here more often.  And, as I do endlessly with journals, I am sure I won't, but here's a quick catch-up on the things that have been going on lately in the hopes that I will write more and future posts can be more well thought out and full of advice for my children when they are grown.  My fabulous friend, Jennifer, told me that is why she blogs, and although intimidating, it seems like a great idea.  And now for the middle-school diary listing of events:

Matteo is in soccer again this season.  And, pardon my lack of mommy humility, he is AWESOME!

Here he is sliding the ball into the goal.  One of the 21 goals he has made so far this season (Dan keeps track).  There have only been 4 games.  Pretty awesome, huh?

We went to Raven's daughter, Audra's, third birthday party recently.  Great to see them and lots of fun.  Baby girl's first good jump in a bounce house.  No way the boys would have even set foot in one at 16 months, let alone had this much fun.  Girls rock!

In looking at this picture now, I realize it may seem like she's screaming to be rescued from that prison, but I promise you, she was not.  BIG smiles.  Plus, that's me sitting right behind her.  I am attentive to my third baby sometimes.

 

Also newsworthy, I bought the kids new sidewalk chalk.  I'm teasing, not newsworthy, but they do love it.

Nonna has been busy lately making army costumes for the boys, and Halloween costumes for all of them.  How great did they all turn out?!?!?!

We are so lucky that Nonna not only enjoys to make these, but does it on our schedule, bringing the costumes to our house for fittings, making 3 masks only to settle for store-bought, letting Matteo help with his, watching Aryana pitch a fit until she gets used to being a flower, and on and on. 
Thanks, Nonna.  We love you!

Zoo Trip

Yesterday, I took the kids to the zoo for the first time.  All three of them I mean, so I guess it was Aryana's first zoo trip.  We went with some friends, and had a wonderful time!  I even bought us a membership at the end because FINALLY it's manageable.  I even feel good about taking them by myself.
Ok, I need to record two Matteo quotes because that's what this blog is really all about, right?
On the way to the zoo, we passed a car and Matteo said, "What is that stick that people put in their mouth and it makes fire?"  How awesome is that?  He's two months shy of 5 years old and doesn't know what a cigarette is.  I tried to explain, and realized just how much harder this parenting thing is going to get.
Me, "It's a cigarette.  They put smoke in your mouth and hurt your lungs."
Matteo, "Why are some people so strong that it doesn't hurt their lungs?"  What a clever question.  He so often gives me pause.
I tried to explain what a habit is, then Nico saw a truck with a picture of a bat on it.  So easily distracted.

Second Matteo quote.  We were looking in the lion exhibit and none of them were out.
Nico, "Where are all the lions?"
Me, "Maybe they're eating or sleeping."
Matteo, "Or maybe they all died."  What???
Me, "I don't think so."

Nothing can really top that from the rest of the day.  They loved feeding the birds.

And the MOLA, museum of living art (I think?), where the snakes, lizards, frogs, etc. are.  This was really the only time I got a little stressed because they were running all around, so excited to see the next exhibit, they forgot about me.

I hope we have a lot of these days in the next year.

Playing with the kids

I read an article the other day about a woman who gave advice on they way to having well-behaved children is to ignore them.  She didn't mean any harm, and I can actually see her point on encouraging independent play but I just can't do it.  I love playing with my kids.  It was my birthday last Friday, and we had a really playful weekend for mommy.

Swinging first thing (as you can tell by her bed head) on Saturday morning:

Matteo loves to play pretend.  Here he and Nico are selling Daddy some books at the bookstore.  A pleasant break from the usual game of superheroes and bad guys

And the good parenting just kept on coming with paper airplanes, paper footballs and the boys doing lunch dishes.  We rock!

Not sure how I got my camera to take this picture, but it's so cool

The flowers are part of my birthday present

The day before the flowers showed up was actually my birthday day.  It was a TOUGH day with the kids.  Not sure why everyone was acting up (why is it they don't realize mommy should be pampered on her birthday???) but we didn't make it out of the house because of it.  So, despite their "not deserving it" we went out to dinner on my birthday night.  Fastest dinner ever, maybe 30 minutes tops, before we threw our credit card at the waitress and raced out.  No cake or ice cream at home for me (thanks, Dan! at least he made up for it the next day with the aforementioned flowers and mini-cupcakes on a baking sheet in the shape of a heart).  The boys were very disappointed that they could sing and have me blow out candles, so they found some big candlesticks in the china cabinet and begged until we lit them.  Then they sang, I blew and it was perfect.  I love my thoughtful kids.

So, I just (Sept. 24th) realized I never finished and posted this.  The rest will just be really quick.  Dan and I actually went out to a nice dinner for my birthday.

While we were out, we stopped at a bookstore and bought the boys water-coloring books.  The next morning, they painted with water colors for the first time.  We've finger-painted plenty, but never water-colors.  I can't believe what I was missing.  So much less mess.

Then, after church, we went to the park by our house where they recently added some exercise equipment.

My parents had another birthday celebration that night for me at their house.
I had a GREAT birthday!

Preschool

 Matteo has officially started preschool (well, a week ago, but close enough).  I called it preschool for the last two years, just as I do Nico's this year, but let's be honest, before the year before kindergarten it's mom's day out...or two days out.  He and Nico both seem to be enjoying it.   

Aside:  I took these pictures while pushing Aryana's stroller, so ignore the camera strap that seems to be in every picture.  Guess I didn't look at the camera screen. 

Aryana and I get to have some girl time every Tues/Thurs.  It's been really nice.

Plus she naps for 1-2 hours of it, so I get free time with no kids!  I actually watched a television show today.  Gasp!  I honestly haven't eaten lunch by myself in front of the tv since it was just Matteo.  So, no more complaining that I'm so busy with all these kids.  Ha, yeah right.
They are all very happy to see each other after school

And good and cranky for mommy from little or no nap.
I'm so happy to have all of them still at home with me for another year.  Then begins the big kid school stage...
FYI-Aryana is very eager to join her brothers at school.  The afternoon of the first day, she wore a backpack around the house for at least half an hour...that sounds a lot less dramatic than it was in real life.  A half hour is a looooooooooooooong time for a 15 month old.  Which reminds me, happy 16 months today to my baby bean!