Westley Loves His Dad!

Westley REALLY missed his Dad when he was out of town last week and wanted to go with him to work today. Westley helped Ben get his shoes and lunch ready and when Ben told him to wave good-bye, Westley waved to me, not to Ben. He really thought he was going with Dad. When Ben left Westley threw a 10 minute tantrum, as shown in the video.

Bye the way: Why did I take a video and not comfort him... because he would not let me anywhere near him.

You have got to be kinding me!

I cannot believe this kid is MY son. So normally we keep the computer armoire locked up, but I was in a hurry to leave and did not have time. When we got back I let Westley in the house and then went back to the car to get the diaper bag and sleeping Charlotte (Jenna was at a friends house). During the 5 minutes it took for me to get Charlotte out of the car and into her room Westley proceeded to try to play a computer game. When I came back this is what I saw:

At first I thought "oh how cute, he knows how to turn the computer on by himself." Then I noticed the empty CD case (pictured on the chair next to him). I then found out that he shoved a bunch of CD-ROMs into a gap on the front of the computer (a cover plate is not on straight).

When Ben got home he opened the computer and got out all the discs (pictured below). There were 9 in there! I have no idea how he moved so fast. Once again the computer is fine, but man the kid is driving me crazy!

Rolling

So this video is like 6 months old and I am finally posting it! It took so long because it took half a day to upload it (well maybe not that long, but longer than I usually stay on the computer, which is usually an hour or less).

Swimming out of his pants!

Jenna and Westley have been swimming their days away. And apparently Westley is swimming his pants away too!

Swimming in our clothes

So last week I finally set up the kiddie pool. When I got around to remembering it was a kind of "now or never" thing. Which is what led to the kids getting in with their clothes on. Now they are out there everyday. Westley would be out there all day everyday if I let him.

Trains, Trains, and more Trains

This is what Westley does most of the day. It is nice that something so simple keeps him quite entertained. And he is requesting movies less, which is great.

"I just found some candy...

on the floor" (of Wal-Mart). I said "Open your month," and inside Jenna's mouth is a previously chewed, dried-up, hard piece of gum. Yuck!!! I immediately took it out of her mouth and threw it which led to it sliding under one of the freezer bins in the grocery section (sorry Wal-Mart). We then proceeded to have a discussion about not eating food found on the floor of Wal-Mart or anywhere but home. Da ja vu (I have NO idea how to spell that) hit me and a remembered that we had the same conversation about 2 months ago when she tried to eat someone's free sample of cereal that had been dropped.

Getting Big!

Charlotte is getting so big! I cannot believe she if four months old. Or that I have survived four months with her (and her big bro and sis). She even rolled over last week (two weeks earlier than either of her siblings). BUT she has not done it since then. I would say it was a fluke but it seems that that is how Charlotte develops. She does something once, waits a week, does it again, waits 5 days, does it two days in a row, waits a few days .... etc.
I am actually amazed that she did it at all since she has had a total 60 minutes (it may not even be that much) of tummy time in four months.

She is Free!

As you can see Charlotte is sleeping swaddle free. It has gone pretty good. She had a little trouble going to sleep at first now but seems to be sleeping well. Ben thought that if she had her arms free then she could suck on her hands to calm herself if needed, since that is all she does when she is awake. So far she seems to be sleeping about the same, maybe a little better.

I thought this picture was cute because I guess the first thing you do when you are swaddle free is sleep with your arm straight up in the air.

Happy Birthday Westley!

Westley is now 2! I cannot believe he is so old. I am interested to see how the terrible twos go, since he is so crazy already. But maybe it will not be so bad since he does not talk. Or that will just make it worse.
We went to Chuck E Cheese (yes, again) for his birthday. We kind of had to because I signed up for the Chuck E Cheese club last time we went and so I received some awesome coupons and free tokens for Westley's birthday. Only problem was that I just clicked to get them without reading the disclaimer of waiting until you are ready to go. Apparently the expiration date on the coupons is determined when you click on the link (so many days form that day, etc). It was okay because who can refuse pizza, games, and prizes! Not Westley! Well I guess he can refuse pizza when his parents allow him to pick ALL the pepperonis off the whole pizza and eat nothing else. That's okay because he was the birthday boy.
Westley enjoyed opening his presents but I think Ben and Jenna thought he was too slow. After he got to the present with trains that my Mom sent he did not want to open any more just play.
Also, he had NO idea what to do with the candles; he just wanted to touch them. I guess I should have practiced that with him. Oh well.

A Day at the Park

A couple weeks ago Ben's Homeschool Swim group had a picnic at the park and the kids and I joined them. It was really nice to have some older kids for Jenna and Westley to play with, especially because it meant that I did not have to chase them around.

It was great of Ben's swimmers to watch after my kids; I do not think Westley has ever had anyone watch after him like that. He usually has to fend for himself or follow Jenna because Mommy was to tired (pregnant or with Charlotte now).

One of the parents took these pictures and sent them to us. We were shocked to see Jenna climbing the playground equipment and going across the monkey bars. I guess gymnastics is paying off.

Finally...

Westley is attached to a stuffed animal. He was SOOOO attached to me when he was younger that we had been trying to attach him to a stuffed animal for year and a half. It never worked and we gave up when he started to become more independent and go to others with no problem.

Well, when we moved the kids to the bunk beds and he wanted to be with Jenna we decided to let him have one of her stuffed animals. At first he wanted Buster, Jenna's prized dog (it is actually a polar bear, but who cares). It worked! He slept better without her, but she wanted her Buster back after a few days. So we let him choose another one of her stuffed animals (she sleeps with about 4). He chose another one and has been attached to it for a few weeks now. He sleeps with it for naps and bedtime, and brings it out in the morning. He even takes it up to Jenna's bed when he joins her some nights.

The only problem is ... well, just look at the picture.


Yes that's right, he chose the most girly stuffed animal we own ... the pink CareBear with the rainbow on its belly. If he had chosen something with a pink bow we could have cut it off, but no he went to the extreme. It is actually quite funny, let's just hope that he does not take it with him to college.