Zac - Gotta love him!

I don't really know if the contents of this post are really appropriate so I apologize if this offends anyone.  It's too funny not to share though!!!

My brother and his family are still staying with us and we loaded up all the kids in their minivan yesterday and took them over to Celebration Park in Allen to play at the splash pad.  We stopped at Wendy's to grab them some quick lunch on the way home.  I was lucky enough to be sitting in the back between Zac and Isabel.  When Zac was little and would get hurt, we found that it helped him if we kissed the "ouchy".  I think it just validated his feelings but he still asks for kisses even now when he bumps into things and such.  It was quiet in the van (only because all the kids were eating) and Zac says, "My penis hurts".  That caught every one's attention and we all tried not to burst out laughing.  Zac follows up this comment with "Mommy, would you kiss it"?  Nobody could hold back the laughter at that point!  Poor kid!  He was simply stating a fact and asking for some sympathy but Mommy has to draw the line somewhere!

Later that evening, some friends of ours had flown into DFW and were headed out to Tyler, TX.  They wanted to stop by and meet Tyler, and see Zac again.  David and Andrea offered to watch all four kids so that we could out to dinner and actually enjoy it!  What a rare treat!  We went to Ra a sushi place in Legacy Center.  I highly recommend it if you like sushi - great place!  We had a great time and as were driving home, I got two picture messages on my cell phone.  The first was a picture of Zac on the potty with toilet paper covering his man parts.  It was funny until I saw the second picture!  The next one was a photo of a big turd on the floor of our bathroom!  Tom immediately called David to find out what the heck was going on.  He wouldn't tell us anything until we got home.  

Come to find out they were all out in our little pool in the backyard and Zac told David that he had to go pee.  David got him out of the pool and told him to go in the grass along the fence!  Thanks for that one David!  But as Zac tried to pee he said "Uh, I have to go poop".  So David sent him inside to go.  Apparently Zac hurried into the bathroom but the light wasn't on.  He has a little potty seat that he puts on the regular potty and we think that in his attempts in the dark to place the potty seat on the toilet, nature couldn't wait and he accidentally pooped on the floor!  David was kind enough to take a photo of it and sent it to us!  I'll spare you that imagine on the blog at least!

Demand, demand, demand...

It's been interesting having four kids around the house.  Every time you turn around, someone needs something.  Andrea and I have noticed lately though that it's the opposite of what you would think.  Alivia and Tyler (the younger ones) obviously can't do things by themselves so they need the usual.  Then there is Isabel and Zac who are 4 and 3.  You would think they would be pretty easy at this age but that would be incorrect!  I cannot believe how demanding kids this age can be!  I don't know if this is simply a normal stage or if they are feeding off of each other but it is exhausting!!!  Every time we turn around they are demanding something.  I guess the most tiring part is that it sounds like this:  "Can I have..?"  "Get me some..."  "I want that!"  They certainly know how to be polite but it just does not occur to them to ask for things that way.

On a cheery note though, the pretend play is really blossoming in Zac.  It's great for him to have Isabel here to play with!  They come up with their own situations and characters and it is SO funny to see the differences between boys and girls.  Isabel is into everything Princess' and Zac is into everything Cars!  So they manage to play together in an imaginary world full of Princess', cars, and random characters from Disney and PBS shows!

Solids!

Tyler has started eating all solid foods now!  It's very messy but in some ways much easier than worrying about baby food all the time.

He LOVES just about everything I've offered him - as you can tell by his size I'm sure!

Sometimes it even requires a hose down in the kitchen sink afterward!  Zac was anxious to help with this chore and ended up accidently squeezing the hose right at himself!!!

Cousins!

My brother and his family are in the process of moving back from England and he is going to training for a couple of months in route for the Air Force.  They bought a house in Mississippi but won't be living there until October.  His training is down in San Antonio so Andrea, Isabel and Alivia all came here to live with us for the next couple of months!  It was great to see everybody again and watch the cousins playing together.  Zac and Isabel are great together and keep each other entertained and out of our hair! 

Isabel is 4, Zac is 3, Alivia is 18 months and Tyler is 9 months.  Alivia is a MONKEY!  She is so petite and skinny - she actually weighs less than Tyler does!  Don't let that fool you though!  She decided that this would be a good time to start climbing out of the pack and play.  Andrea went and bought her a crib so that she would take a needed nap only to get it all assembled and find out that she can climb out of that as well!  Even with two mom's here (myself and Andrea) 4 kids is A LOT of constant work!  Thank God for Tom's vasectomy!  I will just enjoy my nieces while they are here and get my fill of little girls and their quirks as well as my boys!

Little Puppy

For Tyler's safety we have a couple of gates set up in the house.  They keep him in the kitchen, living room and our bedroom area so that he can't get up the stairs.  The main gate slides open and closed so that Zac can get up to the play room and come and go as he pleases.  Tyler is 9 months old now and has been itching to climb the stairs and about a week ago, we finally let him.  We stood right behind him in case he fell and he climbed right up all 16 or so steps laughing with delight the whole way!

Last night Zac and I were headed upstairs to play and Tom was holding Tyler and I thought he was bringing him up right behind us so I left the gate open for him.  Instead though, Tom put Tyler down and neither of us realized that we'd left the gate open.  Within minutes Tyler was up almost the entire flight of stairs all by himself and no one even knew he was doing it!  Scary to say the least!  What is this kid going to be doing by the time he's a year old???

Another funny thing is Tyler's favorite sound to make right now is this growling sound.  He crawls all over the place growling like a little puppy and we just laugh!  The other night, Tyler had already eaten dinner so he was crawling around while the rest of us sat and ate.  He loves to play underneath the table in the kitchen which is where he was when Zac dropped a piece of bread.  It was really like we had a little puppy under the table.  There was Tyler growling and playing and as soon as that piece of bread hit the floor, he snatched it up and spent the entire meal sitting under the table eating it!