Potty Time

Gavin is getting potty trained right now. And he is rocking it. The first day he had a hard time understanding how to go in the potty, but it wasn't bad. He literally sat on the potty for two hours. And he was cool with it! Yesterday, day 2, went muuuuuuch better. Today will be day 3. I am kind of nervous. I hope the 'newness' doesn't wear off and he just keeps getting better. This is actually our third attempt at potty training in the last two months. I'm not a believer in the whole potty-train-when-the-child-is-ready. You are going to end up wasting a lot of money on unnecessary diapers. Those times failed mostly because of me. I wasn't ready for the way Gavin needed to be potty trained and I wasn't ready for dealing with the other kids while potty training. This time, I was way more mentally prepared and was way calmer and it has gone so much better. Let's hope he keeps going!! Even if he doesn't... this is happening! I'm so tired of diapers...

Young Love

James has decided he's in love with me. It's quite adorable. There have been several funny interactions. Here are some of the latest.

James: Mommy, we are falling in love
Me: Oh?!?! That's sweet, honey, but I already fell in love with your daddy. You get to fall in love with someone else closer to your age. But we can still love each other!
James: *not buying it*

He was pretending to be Batman and Gavin was Superman. He and Gavin declared, "YOU ARE WONDER WOMAN!!" as they were racing around. James stops, thinks, and says, "No, you aren't! You are woman... my woman!!" I asked if I could be Cat Woman because she is friends with Batman. "No, you are my woman!" Later, I was Cat Woman :)

It's happening less, but there was a time when several times a week he'd ask me to be his princess and dance with him. I told him I'm the queen, so I can't be his princess. Nope. Unacceptable. I'm the princess and we're getting married. He loves the idea of marriage.

On that note, today I've been super busy getting the house and dinner ready for the missionaries to come over. James knew I couldn't play with him, so I heard him talking to Gavin about  them being princes. He then asks Gavin, "Hey Gavin... would you dance with me?" Gavin sullenly says no because he's two and stubborn. James asks, "What will you dance with then?" Gavin says, "Nuffing..." Then James yells (but not too loud), "I just want to get married!!" Bahahahaha! I didn't realize dancing and marriage were basically the same thing! I laughed so hard, so of course he said it again.

James is his mother's child- he is in love with love. He's been like this forever. Always been a love. Always has had a more sensitive heart than others. It's a blessing, for sure, but we'll have to keep our eyes on him once he hits those "fun" teen years...

ABC's

It's amazing what an older sibling does for a kid. Jack definitely is benefiting from his older brothers... especially having them so close in age where they are all in the learning stages. We watch Super Why in the morning, we work on our alphabet from time to time. Apparently it has been really sticking with Jack.

The other morning I was wearing a "Zoo York Est 1993 Unbreakable" shirt for my jammies shirt. Jack was the first to wake up so we got some fun morning cuddles in. As we were cuddling, he noticed my shirt and it had letters on it. He points to the 'O' and says 'o' as well as he can. What?? He then points out a few more o's on my shirt. Then says and points to some r's and e's. I was so flabbergasted. A little while later he also pointed and said "s" and "n". James and Gavin definitely did not pick up on the alphabet so young. 

Yesterday while we were outside, I decided to write the alphabet out on our driveway to see if he knows other letters and to help him learn some more since he's doing so well with them. He added "f" and "m". This morning he recognized "a". Oh man. 

Having these three close together is hard. But it's things like this that helps me see how beneficial it is, too. His brothers really help Jack see and try things before the others did at his age. These guys are all going to love going to school and learning!

Rabbit Food

Last night for dinner, I made (cheater) Korean beef/turkey. I made it before and loved it, and this time I wanted to try it in a lettuce wrap. Hecka good! James had leftover fried rice instead of the Korean turkey and rice. But once he saw me eating the wrap, his curiosity was piqued. By the time I was done with my dinner, he decided he wanted to try the turkey with rice... and lettuce! He tried a tiny bite of the lettuce and I told him he should put some turkey in it. He did,  and wrapped it up, and ate it. And then... then he ate MORE lettuce!! He did so well eating it with rice and the Korean meat! I was so proud of him.

The Power of Banana Bread

We love banana bread here. Love. I'm pretty sure it is James' favorite thing to eat. Whenever we buy bananas, he assumes it is to make banana bread. The logic of them having to go "bad" to make bread is lost on his little four-year old mind. Anyways, we had four ripe-for-the-making-of-bread bananas ready to go yesterday, but we didn't get around it. Today,we did! 

James is such an awesome little helper. He absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen. If I'm in there, it is for sure he will come behind me within a few minutes asking me if he can help me make whatever I am making. As usual, he was an awesome little sous chef today. We got the batter all done, added our chocolate chips (and, as sous chef, he enjoyed test tasting said chocolate chips), put it in our pan, and popped it in the oven. An hour later we had deliciously warm banana bread. But it was out of his mind for the moment, while he played in his own little world until dinner time. 

For dinner, we had macaroni and cheese and broccoli. Homemade mac and cheese is probably everyone's favorite meal. Broccoli... not so much. James will nibble on the good part and be oh so proud of himself. Gavin will say he is going to eat it, but then tell us he doesn't want it. No matter what. Jack downs the stuff. It's so nice to finally have a veggie lover. Tonight while eating James said, "I'm going to eat all of it, so I can get a special treat... get banana bread." I was surprised he said that- I hadn't said anything about having to eat all his dinner to get banana bread. But hey... you said it, buddy. He finished his pasta and then ate all the tops of his broccoli (I don't blame him for not eating the stalks... shoot, I didn't start eating those till a few years ago!). He never does that. Why did he do that? To make sure he got his banana bread! Then he proceeded to peer into the broccoli bowl, looking for more. Upon seeing it was empty (I just gave the rest of it to the chunky broccoli lover), he gave me the best sad face ever and cried out, "Oh NO! My broccoli is gooone! Where did it gooo?" It was too cute. I asked him, "Did you want some more? Is it so good?" He said, "Yes. Broccoli is yummy in my tummy!" I just laughed- he cracks me up! He quickly moved onto the fact that he needed his banana bread now, but I said we had to wait for Jack to finish eating. Once he was done, everybody got a good slice of banana bread for a treat. And boy, was it enjoyed. After everyone was done, Gavin and Jack got out of their seats. James, on the other hand, asked me for more pasta. "You want more? Ok!" He then goes, "Yes, I want more pasta so I can get more treat!" Ha! Yeah, this household doesn't work that way, buddy. Sorry! I told him that he could have more, but that didn't mean he would get more treat. He was so sad. He insisted again and I said no. I had to go take care of something with one of the other boys, and when I looked over James was trying to serve himself some more mac and cheese. "Do you want more afterall?" He gave me a cute smile and nodded  yes and enjoyed another plate of pasta... with no banana bread after, but the promise of some tomorrow!

It's so crazy seeing the logic forming in these kid's minds!

Use Your Words

It's quite hard to keep things balanced around here with some things with the age difference between Jack and Gavin. Part of it is Gavin does not miss a beat. He notices that Jack gets praise for learning new words, speaking gibberish but we understand what he's trying to say, pointing, etc. 

One of our fave books is the big book of animals and big book of letters, numbers, colors, and more. Jack has really caught on to things lately. His favorite phrase, by far, is, "What's that?" But not said so well :) When he is around that book, it is constant pointing and a yell-fest of, "What's that? What's that? What's that?" and responding with an attempt at a word or just straight up gibber. Gavin loves the book, too (as does James still- they are awesome books) and will come up and try to baby talk us like Jack. "Blasdhf?" I know he's trying to get the same attention and praise Jack is getting, but gol... this kid has a ridiculous vocabulary and grammar comprehension. He can talk. We'll ask the question back to him and he'll generally respond. But sometimes we'll say, "Gavin, can you please use your words?" His response, "No, I do not want to use my words." Nicely played. I'm trying now to praise how awesome he speaks and tell him he needs to help Jack-Jack talk. He loves that- breakfast time is a lot of "Jack, say Mama. Jack, say Gavin. Say Gavin! Jack, say dada..." These brothers sure love to help one another. 

I Will Wait

The other day on the way home from a quick run to the grocery store, Mumford and Sons song I Will Wait came on the radio. I love that band. Anyways... the song ended about 10 seconds before we were in our driveway. As I was closing my car door and opening theirs, I hear Gavin start singing, "I will wait, I will wait, I will wait for yoooooooouuuuu!" I busted up laughing. I have been waiting for my kids to pick up on lyrics! Needless to say, they loved making me laugh so James and Gavin kept singing the chorus over and over again. So dang cute.
And today... the song came on again and they started singing it. Ah, love it!!