Staying Busy

I have been trying to keep these boys busy, hoping to avoid making messes and driving me crazy.  I am still wondering if going in pubic is a good idea, but we are making small efforts to get out.  It does give the boys a break from being at home and tends to break up the day, making it much more manageable til Daddy gets home.  Here are some of the things we have been up to!

The boys got some bubble guns when Radley was born.  Here they are trying to figure out how to work them.

Klyer got some bubbles to start blowing.

Shooting one another

Radley hanging out with us.  He didn't last very long so the boys had to finish blowing the bubbles quickly.

Damon's first bloody nose.  I know there will be many more to follow.  I asked what happened, and Kyler said, "I threw a bowling ball pin at his face."  Yep, that will bloody a nose!!  Apparently breaking a window wasn't enough to learn a lesson about throwing things.  He had to try and break his brother's nose.  Thank goodness Damon is pretty tough.  He really didn't even cry.  I text Kenney to tell him and his reply was, "Haha, I shouldn't laugh."  I told him not to feel bad because I got the camera as soon as I realized he was ok!  We sound like great parents don't we?

The boys like to line up things.  They will do this with pretty much everything: books, canned food, blocks, cars, etc.  It does make cleaning up easier because they keep their lines very organized.

Damon likes to sleep in Kyler's bed now.  One night I went to go put Kyler in his bed and laid him on top of Damon.  I couldn't see him laying there because it was dark, and I just assumed he was in his own bed.  Oops.  Kenney still doesn't understand how I laid Kyler on top of Damon, but I really didn't see him sleeping there!

Damon smothers Radley quite often during the day.  Radley takes it pretty well, but Damon does not know what personal space is.  It annoys all of us!

Kyler's new thing is to pick out and change clothes multiple times a day.  He has definitely not caught on to the whole matching thing.  He doesn't care what his clothes look like.  I keep trying to tell him to stop getting out long sleeved shirts and pants because it is 100 degrees outside, but he does it anyway.  The other day he came out wearing his heavy winter coat.  Needless to say, that didn't last very long.  

Radley is making things more difficult too because he now rolls over really well.  He rolled over for the first time when he was 3 weeks old, but now it is a much more smooth motion.  I guess I can't leave him unattended now!  I was hoping he might be a little slower than his brothers and not be mobile quite so fast, but that doesn't seem to be happening!

This is the look I get when the flash goes off!

Just about to sneeze

Kyler can be found doing this quite frequently during the day.  He doesn't like Radley's crying!!

Damon decided to try and get some fruitsnacks off the top of the fridge.  He uses his bat to turn the light on and off in his room and to reach things that are too far for his hands.  Naturally, the bat would be his first thought to reach the top of the fridge.  Can you tell this is where I try and keep things out of reach?  There is a lot of junk up there!!

Surviving Hour by Hour

I have been asked a lot recently how things are going, and I have been saying, "We are taking it hour by hour."  And that is truly how I have been surviving.  Kenney is doing his clinical right now, and we both thought it would be easier in a lot of ways compared to school.  We were very wrong.  He has been gone for over 10hrs pretty much every day.  I was not prepared to handle these boys that much so soon.  It is nearly impossible to make dinner without someone to help with the kids!!

My new dilemma is between staying at home with the boys or getting out and doing things.  So far I don't have much positive to say either way.  We all go crazy staying inside all day (see broken window picture) because the boys need space to play, but if I take them in public one or more of them is crying at all times.  I had to pick up Radley's medicine the other day, and the three of us barely made it out alive.  All three of them were crying before we even got out of the car to walk into the hospital; We were all sweating because they didn't have the medicine ready until the hottest part of the day; Damon refused to walk in the hospital so I was pushing the stroller and carrying him; Kyler literally threw a fit the entire time (rolling around on the ground and everything), and to top it off they were handed suckers as we walked out the door to reward their 'good' behavior!!  I won't even mention our drama at storytime yesterday!!  So basically I am stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Any suggestions??  I really would like to enjoy this time with my boys, but it is proving rather difficult!

This picture is a little old, but I thought it was cute

Swimming with Daddy.  This is Kyler being 'brave'.  He is so scared of the water, and we don't know why.  It takes a lot of negotiation to get him to ride on Kenney's back.  He likes to go around and touch all the numbers.

Damon shooting Kyler and Daddy with the water gun.

Splash Splash Splash

Damon 'swimming' to the stairs.  Apparently, after I left Damon got really brave and started jumping in the water, but I didn't see any of it and therefore we have no pictures. 

Not the most flattering picture, but this is what I would prefer doing these days!

I know to most people this does not look like a chunky baby, but in our family, this is the chubbiest baby so far!

Radley has started smiling!!  I love it when they finally start acknowledging me. This is not the best picture, but it's hard to get them to smile at a camera.  The first time he smiled was a 3am.  It was an eventful feeding; he smiled, his cord finally fell off, he sprayed both of us with spit-up and filled his diaper!

Just an adorable little face!

Almost a full smile

It is nearly impossible to get a reasonable picture with these three

I know I will always have protection with 3 little Spidermen.

The broken window.  Apparently throwing cars is a bad idea.  I was feeding Radley, of course, while this happened, and after they had been told repeatedly not to throw cars .  It took nearly 30mins to clean it up.  Kyler and Damon had to sit on their beds and Radley screamed the entire time.  Needless to say, it took 7:00 a LONG time to roll around this day.

All in ONE Day

So everyone has been telling me lately how good it is that my children are so close in age, and that they will be such good friends; it will be easier to take them to do activities because they will be doing the same things; they are all boys and will play so well together, etc.  All these things are true, and I am looking forward to those things.  However, none of the people telling me these things have 3 boys ages 3 and under!! 

I love my boys dearly, but they can cause so much destruction in ONE day!!  Right now Kyler and Damon are causing the destruction mostly while I cook dinner and nurse Radley, but what will my house look like when I have 3 boys doing these things together?!?  I have always struggled nursing and now my boys have added more reasons to the negative side.  Here is the proof! 

(I asked Kenney when he got home if he wanted to see my day in pictures.  I thought after the first mess it would be done, but I had to make sure and document ALL of the messes)

I thought the boys were playing nicely in their room, and I heard one container of toys get dumped.  I thought it was only one and didn't think it was a big deal; then I went back there to see what they were doing and found this!

They had dumped EVERY SINGLE toy that they have into the middle of the room.  Kyler came out asking me where his Buzz gun was because he couldn't find it.  I had no idea this is why he couldn't find it!

Both sides of their toy shelf looked like this.  Completely empty!!  The only positive thing about this situation was that they did not empty their dressers as well, which they have been known to do.

Next, while I was feeding Radley, they decided to take food from underneath our bed and make a train out of it.

They made sure to get out enough cans and other things to go through two rooms.  At least they didn't open any of the food until I was done nursing, thankfully, because Damon opened the peanut butter.  That would have been awful to clean up.

Luckily I was able to stop them before they got too much further.  I'm sure they would have gotten out every can under there if I would have let them.

Then while I was making dinner they decided to get out EVERY book we have and make a big stack.  Kyler was pretty proud of it.  Unfortunately, most of the counter space I have to work with in the kitchen requires me to turn my back on the kids.  This is the kind of thing that ends up happening, so I have to choose between this or two little boys on the counter 'helping' me!

Damon was not left out of any of these messes, but Kyler was the mastermind behind all of them.

Catching the stack before it fell.  After this one fell they made it even higher.

***Another 3 reasons why I need a backyard!!!

Playing in the Rain/Mud

We have not gotten much rain in Texas during the last 3 years.  So basically during our kids' entire lives, we have been in a drought.  Kyler was excited when he woke up the other day to rain.  He begged and begged to go play in the rain.  If we had a yard, I would have sent him out right away, but all of us, including Radley, had to go out to play since they had to run around our apartments.  I finally agreed, and we all went out.  Kyler had an absolute blast!!  Damon was not such a big fan.  He doesn't like to get messy.  I know I have said this many many times, but I CANNOT wait until we have a yard!  I never realized how much boys need to run and play outside until recently.

Kyler found this puddle immediately, before I even got out the door.  He quite enjoyed the mud!!

Damon's (and my) idea of a puddle.  I thought playing in the rain only consisted of playing in the sidewalk puddles.  Kyler went straight for the mud!  I was really surprised Damon didn't like the mud.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since he doesn't really like sand or other things.

Damon barely touching the mud puddle.

A little while after 'testing' out the mud puddle, he got brave and decided to try and stand in it.  He didn't realize that Kyler had made the puddle quite deep after jumping in it so much.  It was about thigh deep for Damon.  He got scared after stepping in and fell.  This was his reaction.  I know I'm the horrible mom that took the picture rather than comforting the child.  It was really funny.

The deep puddle Kyler created.

He had mud from head to toe.

Damon couldn't get over his dirty hands.  He definitely gets that from me.  I hate having dirty hands.  I never would have jumped in mud puddles as a kid.  I know, Damon and I are kinda lame!

Damon attempting to clean his hands off!

Big Splash

Even 15mins after the fall, he still couldn't get over his dirty hands.  His face sums it up pretty well!

Kyler won the dirty award for sure.  I felt bad that we had to end his fun, but Damon HAD to have his hands cleaned.  I think Kyler would have stayed out there for hours!

Kyler's socks compared to Damon's socks.  My boys are SO SO different!

We got free Sluprees on 7/11.  I probably like the Slurpees just as much or more than the boys!!

He is getting big already!!  It is weird to have a baby sleep so much.  My other boys never really slept like he does (during the day).  It is pretty nice!

This video shows just how different the boys reacted to playing in the mud. 

This is Damon's new way of shooting baskets. We found him doing this one night, and I guess we shouldn't be surprised by anything he does, but I swear he is going to seriously injure himself one day. Kyler then climbed up there and got a little nervous because it was so high.