Another update from Neil

The kids were sick for the last few weeks.  It started with Lincoln, then Eliza, then Brendan.  I think that means that I am next.  Or I guess Traci is younger than me so maybe she is next.  I actually think that I might have started it.  It is quite possible that I brought it home with me from the clinic on my clothes or something and Lincoln picked it up.  But they are all doing better now.  

Nights are still tough because all of the kids are up at different times throughout the night.  Or at least that is what Julia tells me.  HaHaHa!  No I do help with the kids.  I try to help Eliza, but she just screams and gets mad if I try to do anything with her.  I don’t know what it is, but she does not want me at night.  We are cool during the day, but nada at night.  Which is fine with me, one more reason to wake Julia up to take care of it.  But Lincoln has become more of my responsibility.  At night he does better with me, because he knows that I have no baby chow!  So the only real option for him to do with me is to sleep.  Brendan fends for himself and comes and gets in our bed all by himself.  Both kids have been wearing underwear to bed and we just do a lot of laundry.  We found that Brendan used to keep his diaper dry at night, but we just kept him in a diaper.  Then he started to always be wet and it was expensive to go through so many pull-ups.  Now that we are trying to get him to keep dry, he cannot quite get back to his dry nights.  Eliza started out staying dry at night with potty training time, but started to do the same thing and so we decided to put her in underwear too to prevent her from getting in the bad habit of staying dry during the day and wetting at night.  Her and Brendan are about the same success rate.  About 50% of the time they wake up dry.  Therefore we are doing lots of laundry, but it is saving money on pull-ups.  It is awesome to only have one kid in diapers.  Lots of money savings. 

It sure was nice to have Grandma here with the kids and then to have Grandpa and Chad come and surprise us at 3 in the morning for Lincoln's birthday!  

And we are still enjoying Traci...the kids especially!

Some funny stories from the kids:  I caught Brendan and Eliza standing on the bathroom counter with the medicine cabinet open.  When I inquired as to what they were doing, Brendan replied and said, “We are playing Sid the science kid.”  

We played a game for family night.  It was taking way too long for all of us to make it to our “happy home” at the end of the board.  I started to alter the game pieces and cards to expedite the game.  Some cards said move forward 2-5 spaces and some said move back 1-3 spaces.  I was making them all positive.  It got down to Julia and I being the only two left to finish and we each had one or two spaces left.  Brendan and Eliza had gotten really into the game and were watching intently to see who was going to reach home next.  I flipped over the card for my turn and changed the piece to say that I had done something bad and that I had to move back 32 spaces.  Brendan, in disbelief, dropped his head into his open hands and just sat there shaking his head back and forth for about 20 seconds.  It was classic.  Traci and I were almost crying.  

Lately Julia came up with a sign to signal for the kids to be reverent.  She decided the sign the letter “R” which if you don’t know is crossing the index and middle fingers.  It works really well for both kids: for Brendan because he is a pleaser and wants to do right.  It usually gets Eliza to be quiet because she stops whatever she is doing and tries to mimic Julia by making the same sign.  She struggles with it for a little and that takes her attention away from whatever distracting thing she was doing.  Apparently making that sign in ASL means “where is the bathroom?”  

Lately whenever the kids hear the front door close they will ask “did Traci leave?”  They are so paranoid that she will leave and abandon them with their boring old parents again.  A few times Julia has answered jokingly that she did leave and Brendan and Eliza will respond, “but I love her” in the sweetest, nicest voice.  When I heard that it reminded me of, “but he likes it!” 

(Contributed by Neil)