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!

Random

Today, Matteo and I went to a water-park while Nonna watched the babies.  We went with two of our closest friends, Amy and Brady (Amy for me, Brady for Matteo), who generously let us use the free passes they received for having season passes.  It was so nice to spend time just me and my baby again.  He LOVES the lazy river.  We went around at least 10 times, and I almost had to drag him out crying.  We also swam almost all the way in the wave pool, like I used to do at Wet-n-Wild when I was young, and jumped over every wave.  Matteo went underwater much more than usual, so my fears of him being "that kid scared of the water" were abated.  We also rode a water-slide!  How amazing!  A big one.  Where we're in that double tube thingy, swishing up the sides, bouncing like we're going to flip over.  He's quick to qualify that he did get a little scared, but we rode it twice.  Must not have been too scared.  I'm just saying.
Kids really do just keep getting more and more fun as they get older.
Not much else to write about today, and sadly, no pictures.  My camera battery died just as I turned it on at the water-park.  Oh, wait.  One picture today.  Matteo, of course, went to bed early (no nap for my big boy even after a sun-filled day), so the babies, not quite ready yet, read books together in Aryana's room.

Some random so far in September pics...

 Baby girl loves waking up to brothers jumping in her crib

 And they hang out there with BIG stuff

 Baby bird noodle bites for bean,

 and Nico-bear,

 and Matteo (no more cute, tater-tot, baby nicknames for my big boy)

I am loving writing this blog.  Hope I can keep it up!

Bunk Bed

My first blog post.  I've been obsessively reading mommy blogs lately and have decided that this is the forum I want to use to document what happens in my children's lives.  I have ambitious goals to also make scrapbooks, but we'll see if that ever happens...
I intended to start yesterday, but wasn't sure how to do it, so beginning then...
The day started out fabulously because Dan let me sleep in until 9:00!!  Glory be that was late!  Was a time, of course, it was the crack of dawn, but I can't actually remember waking up later than 7:30.  We started the day by trapping Rocky, our cat, in the laundry basket.  Yes, I helped my boys trap the cat in their laundry basket.  Matteo drug it out of their closet, dumped the dirty clothes on the floor of the laundry room (thanks, bud!) and got down the cat treats as a lure.  He tried in vain to con the unsuspecting cat into the basket full of treats, but to no avail.  What to do??  Oh yes, ask mommy to do it.  Should I have?  Shouldn't I have stopped them?  (btw, of course, Nico is all over this.  Anything big brother does is awesome)  But this stunt seemed so, well, boyish, and I'm still an insecure boy mother having never been exposed to boy stuff as a child.  at all.  So, why not.  I sprinkled a line of treats leading into the basket and told the boys to wait quietly until finally, yes, Rocky went in.  Matteo sprang it up and...Rocky just sat there.  Very anti-climactic I must say.  I thought for sure there would be hissing and clawing at least.

For the rest of the day, Dan built the bunk beds.  The boys are SO excited!!  

We had to make a quick trip to Home Depot, but the beds were finished and the boys happily in bed by 9.  I can't believe we have kids with bunk beds.  We are so old.

 Neither of the boys will drink anything "with bubbles in it", but Aryana loves her some Cherry Limeade.

This morning we woke up to pleasant weather.  What a wonderful change.  The boys insisted I bring the Diego table outside for breakfast,

 and they proceeded to feed most of it to Nina. 

They played outside until Nico filled the birdbath with sand from the sandbox.  Wait, I think Matteo actually put it in there.  Anyway, they had to come in after that.
Matteo, as usual, insisted on no nap, and then fell asleep in his chair watching Nascar.

 The neighbors hosted a cookout tonight with a HUGE inflatable waterslide.  Tons of food, fun and friends. 

Really good weekend.  I sure love my babies.