Noah took his first step tonight!!!! He did it 3 seperate times, just moving one foot forward while he stood all by himself!!!!!

Not The Same

Word to the wise (or to the exhausted parents just trying to get the dishes done and go to bed)...If you run out of Dishwasher soap, DO NOT use dish soap instead. They are not the same. Even if you think, "I'll just use a tiny amount b/c it'll probably get sudsy", DON'T DO IT! Not only will sudsy water be covering your floor in the morning, but your dishes still won't be clean! *Sigh*

Heaven or Hell?

(This is Zeze looking out our front window at all the action. He's brought his drink, his snack and a toy and put them on the window sill so that he doesn't have to miss a thing!)

They have been digging up my front yard/parking lot for the past two weeks in order to install a new septic system and leach field (or whatever it's called). There is an enormous excavator and dump truck, a medium-sized excavator, a mini excavator, sometimes a crane, a jack hammer, a couple of skid-steers, the poop truck (this is what Kai calls the septic truck) and a very large DEEP hole 20 feet from our front door. Every day I have to usher all 3 boys past all these "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA!!!" (Zeze exclaims this at least 10 times every waking minute of the day...it's like having 100 boys screaming, "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA", at me all day every day, but it's really just Zeze and Kai....I hate these big tractors!)...anyway, I have to usher the boys past all this to get Kai to school and then walk back again with the twins, then load the twins up, yet again, 2 hrs later, to go get Kai from school, only to walk past these "BIG TRACTOR, MAMA!!!" for the 4th time in three hours with 3/4ths of us still in our pajamas. While this is a huge pain in the, ah...bum, for me, these are heavenly things for boys to see ALL THE @#%@##& LIVE LONG DAY!!

It is driving me, and my mommy neighbors, CRAZY trying to get to our cars with all of our boys in tow. You can hear, "Don't go near the edge. Get off the rock pile. No, you can't take rocks with us in the car. Fine! one rock. No, that's not poop it's a tree root. Yes, you can kick it. Don't touch the excavator! Don't go near the edge! Yes, it's a big hole and it's for naughty boys who don't listen!(my neighbor said this to her boys...hahaha). Yes, it's a big tractor. Please, keep walking. Please, keep walking! Noah is dead weight in my arms and you've seriously GOT to KEEP WALKING! Leave the workers alone! You can't wait for the tractor to drop the dirt. The man is not going to move the digger while we're standing right up along side it. Keep walking! No rocks in the house. "....FOUR TIMES A DAY, PEOPLE! The only thing that would make this project more exciting for all our boys is if they were filling this monster hole with candy or puppies or something!!! As it is, rocks and dirt and cement slabs are pretty exciting, or maddening depending on who you talk to!

10 seconds

I could hear Kai and Zeze playing downstairs today and I heard the most amazing and rewarding thing! Here is their interchange...

Kai: "OWWW, ZEZE, THAT HURT ME!!!"
(I'm holding my breath at this point waiting for the hitting and screaming to start)
Zeze: "I'm sorry, Kai."
Kai: "That's OK."
followed by happy playing sounds.

1st - We've been working with Kai a lot about telling people when he doesn't like what they are doing to him instead of screeching unintelligibly. He did it!!!

2nd - Zeze apologized without ANY prompting or time-outing from me! AMAZING! And, he spoke a whole sentence SO clearly!

3rd - Kai, yet again, verbalized and said it was OK!

4th - Kai let it go and didn't carry on screaming and crying and yelling for me to come down and give Zeze a time out...which often is the other scenario to this interaction.

What transpired peacefully in 10 seconds could easily (and often does) become 1/2 an hour filled with time-outs and mean mommy voice. Thank you, God, that my boys are learning to interact like actual people and less like rabid squirrels! It was so nice to be "thanked" through a moment of manners and good behavior...all my efforts ARE sinking in!!