The moral of the story is ...

Do not leave the boy alone in a room with a new laptop! Why??? Because he will become curious and then he will destroy. He was being too quiet, we should have known!

So, he ripped off most of the keys on the keyboard, opened a million pages on the web, renamed "Microsoft Word" to "3", and a bunch of other crazy things. Sadly our dinner party turned into "help us fix our 2 day old laptop party." Luckily everything seems to be fine, except 3 keys need a new part. It definitely could have been much worse.

How can I post so often?

Because I have a boy named Westleywho continues to do crazy stuff again and again. This time he got halfway through, maybe next time he will make it all the way through. However, that will only work until he gets to big to fit through at all.

Eiffel Tower

Jenna has been wanting to go to the Eiffel Tower for a few months now. She seems to think we are taking her for her fifth birthday. Too bad we cannot even afford the plane tickets! She will have to wait a few more years.

Ben told some of his swim parents about Jenna's expensive desire and one of them bought her an Eiffel Tower puzzle to hold her off for a while. She really does like her Eiffel Tower and we already had a picnic there.
Speaking of the Eiffel Tower... since neither Westley or Charlotte say anything we can understand Jenna say that Charlotte speaks Spanish and Westley speaks the Eiffel Tower language. Jenna apparently speaks English and the two other languages so she can translate.

I'm Stuck!!!

Westley was coloring the other day when all the sudden he started crying. I looked over and this is what I saw.
Yes, his head (and one arm) where stuck between the piano leg and the piano. It made my heart skip a beat at first because it was one of my worst fears about watching children come true. I have always feared that my child (or a child I was babysitting) would get their head stuck between the rails on the stairs and I would not be able to get them out. Then I would have to call for help and the child would be stuck for hours! (This seems to happen often on TV shows).

Anyway, I really did try to get him out at first, but since I was holding Charlotte it was not working (yes my fears were coming true). Since I had to go set Charlotte down I grabbed the camera on my way back to take a picture. I figured he could last another second while I took a picture. One day he will find it funny that I took all these crazy pictures of him.

My Girls

The girls look very similar (well actually all 3 kids do) so I took a picture of Charlotte in the same outfit as some of Jenna's pictures to show the similarities. Can you tell who is who?

Hint: Charlotte is actually a good mix of Westley and Jenna, so if you remember how Westley looked in baby pictures you should be able to figure it out.

Running in Circles!!!

Anyone who has been around young children knows that they love to run in circles. The only spot we have to run in circles is around our kitchen table, and they run around it a lot. Well, I thought this day was particularly funny. So enjoy the video. By the way that is Charlotte fussing in the background, she does not like to lay by herself while I make dinner.

Warning!!!

When I first saw this sticker on the lid of the tote I was a little bummed since I was planning on making it a bed for Charlotte. Yeah right ... I thought it was hilarious. I was thinking why would I ever put my kid in the tote and then put the lid on. It is not like a child could get inside and then put the lid on themselves. Well then Westley got in the tote ...
and then someone put the lid on! Well actually the lid is just sitting on his legs and Jenna and I put it there so we could get a picture for the blog.
But really, I am glad the tote company is looking out for my families safety and warning me that that my child could die if I put him inside the tote.

Where a Kid Can be a Kid

For playgroup we took a trip to Chuck E Cheese (yes I took all three kids by myself). We started out at the Skee Balls where I learned that Westley only needs one token to keep himself entertained. Since he cannot through the ball hard enough it kept coming back, which was fine to him. Jenna was actually pretty good, except that she kept riping her tickets off after one game leaving us with a bunch of two ticket strings. Next we went to the toddler section where the kiddie rides were located. Westley really wanted to try the Stuart Little ride and really liked it ... until I put the token in!

Yes, instead of saving him I made him wait so I could find the camera (which took a minute since I was holding Charlotte) and take a picture. Poor boy. Jenna then informed me that she could do it happy.
After eating some lunch the kids found their favorite game from when my Mom was here. I do not know what it is called, but all you do is pull a lever and hit a button. I think they like it because it is easy, you win a lot of tickets (3-5 each time), and it has lots of fun lights and sounds. They were doing so well that I decided to play the game next to them and when I looked by over there were tickets everywhere.
They won the 100 ticket bonus and Westley kept trying to ripe the tickets off as they were coming out. When all was said and done they won over 260 tickets! I do not know how many tokens they used, but we still have a ton left.

Swimming in the Blocks

So I have mentioned before that Westley likes to dump out all the toys, particularly blocks, play food, train tracks, legos, etc. He then sits in the middle of the piles and spreads it out like a crazy man. It reminds me of Scrooge, on the TV show Duck Tales, who swims in his money. The video is a clip of what he usually does. At least now that I bought a bunch of totes he can only dump out the ones I open for him.

Swim Lessons

So we finally started taking the kids back to swim lessons. We had not gone for over a year and a half because Jenna was not learning anything. Well, now there are new people in charge so we have returned. (You know it's bad when people who get it for free do not even come).
I thought that with all the time off from swim Jenna would have regressed, but apparently not taking swim lessons for her makes her better. I was kind of shocked that she was doing skills she would not even try before. I guess being older and wiser helps (not to mention the confidence she has gained from gymnastics).
Westley is doing swim lessons too and he LOVES it. I guess after watching Jenna do music, soccer, gymnastics, etc he is excited to finally have a class he can do. Not to mention he has always loved water. (Not surprising considering how much fluid came out when my water broke).

I Can Sew!!! (kind of)

Charlotte has ALWAYS been swaddled for sleeping, but has been able to get her hands out for most of her life. She is very strong, she wiggles her hands out and the blanket will still be tight around her. Anyway she always wakes up when her hands are out and will not go back to sleep. She wants more movement, but is not ready to let her arms go free. So here is my invention:
Considering I have never really sewed before (I always make my Mom sew my projects, and she willingly does. Thanks Mom!) I was quite happy with the outcome. Originally it was quite the hack job (I tried to get it done during her nap, which was only 45 minutes, but it took an hour) but yesterday I fixed it up. It looks weird because I took a footed sleeper and turned it into a sleep bag with no arms. I had to add some material on the end to make it a little longer.


It is nice and cosy, just enough room to wiggle a little, but a enclosed neckline so she cannot escape! I know it is kind of crazy looking but it works, she has slept till 5am and 5:30 am the last two nights! 7 hours of sleep for me is great.

Westley Loves His Sisters

Westley has always LOVED to cuddle, especially for sleeping. As a newborn he wanted to sleep only on my chest. Well for 1 1/2 years he has been banned to his crib, but now he has a big boy bed with freedom to go about and the ability to climb. As I have mentioned before we always find him sleeping in the top bunk with Jenna. Now he is also "sleeping" with Charlotte. When Charlotte woke up from her nap yesterday I heard Westley go in her room. I figured he was playing with her or something. This is what I found when I went in:
After I got them out he "carried" her (with my help) to the couch and then laid down next to her on the couch. He is a sweet boy sometimes.