Remember how Isaac had to get glasses? And then they got smashed? Well, ever since then, he has refused to wear them for more than a minute or two at a time. Over the past couple of months, we tried all sorts of things to convince him to keep his glasses on—to no avail. It seemed that Isaac was doomed to a life of blurry surroundings and crossed eyes.
Then Mr. Potato Head came into our lives:
For those who don't know, Mr. Potato Head is an incredibly well-accessorized individual. And among his many possessions are several pairs of kooky frames, perfect for playing dress-up. All it took was a couple of days of seeing how cool Lucy, Jude, and Dahlia looked in their Potato Head glasses:
And BAM! Isaac decided that he wanted to wear glasses, too. Being a savvy mommy, I instantly traded his Potato Head glasses for his real glasses—and that was that! Today marks 6 full days since Isaac started wearing his glasses full time again, and he hasn't looked back:
Mommy is very happy that her little boy's eyes will no longer be crossing when he watches TV, and Isaac is thrilled to see clearly things that are nearby, such as books and people's faces. And because we invested in a pair of Miraflex frames for him to play in, none of us have to worry about him smashing his glasses anymore:
If you'd asked me yesterday, I would have told you that Dahlia knows about 10 letters of the alphabet. Last night, however, Tia Harriet quizzed her and informed me that she can identify many more characters than that. So this morning—in the interest of giving credit where credit is due—I got out our trusty Magnadoodle and sat down for a little informational interview with Miss D:
In case you weren't keeping score, that's 24 out of 26. Looks like Isaac won't remain king of the ABCs around here for long!
Wouldn't you know it? After I exposed the Fab Four's alphabetical ignorance last month, Isaac got busy and learned all of his letters before I even knew what was happening. Check out our little alphabet whiz:
For this clip, I had Isaac name the letters in order because I wanted to make sure that I didn't leave any out. Rest assured, however, that he can identify them out of order, too—anywhere, anytime. In addition, at barely 28 months old, he has demonstrated that he can already read the words "book," "cookie," and "Isaac." While the other kids are also doing great at learning their letters, right now Isaac is definitely at the head of the class!
A couple of days ago I heard Isaac giggling in the playroom, so I peeked my head around the corner to see what was so funny. To my utter surprise, he and Lucy were kissing by the window! (Up until that point, the only other person he had ever kissed was me—more often than not during his dinosaur routine). So when I came upon Isaac kissing his sisters again today (yes, he was initiating the gesture), I hurriedly grabbed the camera in time to record some more smooches:
After I took this video, Isaac also kissed me and attempted to kiss Jude, who ran away laughing and squealing, "Noooo!" (must be a boy thing). Not sure what's gotten into the normally aloof Isaac lately, but I guess sometimes you just need to spread the love!
April got off to a great start with a visit from my parents, who stayed with us for a whole week. As always, I loved, loved, loved having my mom and dad here, and the kids had a great time with their abuelitos! Not only did the Fab Four get a whole lot more personal attention while my parents were here, but they also got to do some really special things like ...
Take their first trip to the zoo! It was colder than we'd hoped (the kids had to wear their winter coats for most of the morning), but a chilly day meant no crowds and lots of opportunities to view the animals up close. We got to see penguins, seals, a polar bear, sharks, a bald eagle, lions, giraffes, rhinos, elephants, cheetahs, a porcupine, and more! The best part? My parents gave us a membership so that we can go back anytime we want. Thanks, abuelitos!
The Fab Four also ...
Got their first tricycles! Rather than put a bunch of candy in the mail at the end of the month, my parents chose to give each kid their very own Radio Flyer as an early Easter present. The chicos weren't quite sure what to do with the trikes, but the adults had a good time helping them to figure it out. I think we're going to have a lot of fun cruising the neighborhood trails once they get the hang of it—my problem is going to be keeping track of all of them! Watch as the Fab Four check out their new rides for the first time:
And, last but not least, the kids got to ...
Eat at Mommy and Daddy's favorite pre-quads restaurant for the first time! The night before my parents left, we all went out to eat with Tío Ner, Tía Harriet, Tía Glenda, and Glenda's brand-new fiancé, the soon-to-be Tío Bill. The kids were fantastic, and a lady at a neighboring table even took the time to tell me that she couldn't believe how well-behaved our four toddlers were. Let me tell you, I was one proud mamá! Here we are enjoying some chips and some Chavo:
Thanks for celebrating your 40th wedding anniversary a little early by coming to see us, abuelitos! We love you and can't wait for your next visit!
Saying goodbye to the abuelitos (left to right: Jude, Isaac, Dahlia, and Lucia)
While on a walk with the kids yesterday, I was thrilled to discover that our neighborhood now has a swing set! Since the kids had never been in a real swing before (we don't have our own, and my one attempt at taking them to the park last year was a huge failure), I was itching to put them in the swings and see how they liked them. There was just one problem: This particular swing set has only two toddler swings. Clearly the neighborhood association didn't take our family into account when deciding how many of those to order!
Undeterred, I considered my options: I could turn around and go home (no way, Jose); put two kids in each swing, back to back (nope, the kids are already too big for that); or put two in the swings while the other two waited in the choo choo (possibly tricky, but probably doable). I knew what I had to do.
The girls got to go first, while the boys looked on:
Then, when it was time to put the boys in the swings, I beeped (yes, you read that right) and switched everyone out:
Another mom who was there with her older kids remarked on how patient my kids were while they waited in the choo choo, so I explained my beeping to her: At home, we have a timer that we use to manage turns on our indoor trampoline, and I've discovered that—any other time I want someone's turn to end—all I have to do is make a "beep beep beep" sound, and they go along with it, as if I had used a real timer. I don't know how long they'll be cool with this charade, but so far it's been a lifesaver!
Oh, and by the way, all four kids LOVED the swings and can't stop talking about them. I have no doubt that we will be making good use of the neighborhood playground this year!
Almost every time Jude tells us that he needs to go potty, he follows up his request with a perfect imitation of the "Dora the Explorer" villain's catchphrase: "Oh, man!" We don't know exactly why he adopted this exclamation as a potty mantra, although I suspect that, at some point—perhaps after the millionth "potty gin!" in a row—I might have given him the idea by saying, "Oh, man!" in exasperation. One thing is for certain: We hear, "Oh, man!" a lot around here—and it makes me laugh every time. What makes it even funnier is that the phrase is always accompanied by a signature arm move and followed by the proper citation: "Fox. On Dora." Check out our little comedian in action:
Isaac is a pretty reserved fellow, and his public displays of affection are most frequently bestowed upon yours truly. Which is one reason that I was shocked (and delighted!) to witness these exchanges tonight, first with Jude:
And then—even better!—with Lucy:
Anyone who's met Isaac knows how huge this is. Perhaps Dahlia's friendlyovertures have finally convinced him that these built-in buddies might not be so bad, after all!
analphabet \(ˌ)an-ˈal-fə-ˌbet, -bət\ n: an illiterate person who does not know the letters of the alphabet.
Yep, I'd say that definition fits the Fab Four to a tee—or should I say, "a T"? Fortunately, it seems that you don't have to know your letters to love your letters:
I guess I need to get serious about teaching my kids the alphabet ... they're definitely interested!
A mother wears many hats—often in quick succession. Like the other day at the table, when I was an enthusiastic entertainer one second, and an amateur paramedic the very next:
Who knew that my silly sight gag could induce a case of actual gagging? The real head shaker, though, is why Ted kept taping instead of telling me that Jude was choking—I'm guessing he was just as distracted by Isaac's delightful laugh as I was. One thing's for sure: These kids keep us on our toes from one moment to the next!
From the beginning, I have been kind of a wimp about giving my kids a bath. At first—when they were fresh out of the NICU and I was still giving them sponge baths on the kitchen counter—I was scared because they were so, so tiny. As they got bigger, I dreaded baths because it was just so much work to stand at the sink and wash four squirmy little ones in a row. In fact, I disliked bath time so much that the babies were 4 months old before it even occurred to me to take a picture of them in the tub:
My bathing beauties, 4 months old (clockwise from bottom left: Jude, Isaac, Lucia, and Dahlia)
By the time the kids were 13 months old, we'd moved the baby bathtub from the kitchen to the bathroom, but I was still too nervous to put my slippery babies directly in the big tub for another couple of months. When I finally got brave enough to bathe them two at a time, I'd scrub the girls, and then Ted and I would each take one to dry/diaper/dress before repeating the process with the boys. That remained our mode of operation for almost a year—until yesterday, when I thought it would be fun to change things up:
(left to right) Isaac, Jude, Dahlia, and Lucia at 26 months
Managing four kids in a tub was a lot easier than I thought it would be—probably because they are well past the stage of slipping and sliding all over the place. And since Lucy and Jude are out of diapers, we could easily get them dried and dressed right there in the bathroom while watching the other two.
We probably won't do this every time (logistically, two at a time is still easier for us to handle), but I am glad that we tried it at least once—from the looks of it, it won't be long before they won't all fit in the same tub anymore!
Over the past few weeks, we've been seeing a special relationship develop between Dahlia and Isaac. It started with Dahlia feeding Isaac snacks to cheer him up, and it has progressed to her bringing him the books he likes or finding his pillow for him when he's looking for it. Dahlia will also randomly decide to sit down and "help" Isaac when he's working on a puzzle or shape sorter. She usually calls out the name of the puzzle piece or shape that she is handing to him, but yesterday I caught her letting him do the talking (much like we do for his speech therapy):
I think they demonstrate pretty good cooperation for 2-year-olds! And for the record: Both of the girls can name and pick out all of their shapes, and the boys are close (even though Isaac only names a couple of shapes in this clip). Thanks, Baby Newton!
They say that time heals all wounds, and I suppose two months was just about enough for us to forget how difficult the first round of potty training was. So today we finally took the plunge (no pun intended) and gave Jude his turn on the potty!
Because he's been showing signs of readiness for a while now, I was pretty sure he'd do well. I was completely unprepared, however, for just how ready he was to pichí in the potty: All we really had to do was put him in big boy underwear and let him see Lucy get an M&M as a reward for using the potty—after that, all he wanted to do was "potty 'gin!" He was so excited about using the potty that he did not have even one accident all day!
We'll see how the next few days go, but really, we couldn't have asked for a better start to round 2 of potty training. If Jude can keep this up, it's two down, two to go—wish us luck!
