If you give a boy a camera...

he will want to take a picture of something really important.

He will search high and low, and will finally decide to take a picture of a scrape on his leg.

Taking a picture of the scrape will remind him of Grammy and Poppi's RV step, where the scrape happened.

Thinking about the RV step will remind him of how much fun he had helping Poppi fix the RV. He will talk about all the different tools that Poppi had, and how he needs to go back to the Blue House soon so he can help Grammy and Poppi some more.

Talking about Poppi and his tools will remind him of the other fun things he did at Grammy and Poppi's. Like the airshow. He will want you to find his Thunderbolt airplane and his little brother's Flying Fortress airplane so they can fly their airplanes around the house.

Flying the airplanes around the house will remind his little brother about all the fun that he had at Grammy and Poppi's, too. He will say "I miss Poppi" and then will talk about all the hair that Poppi has on the back of his hands.

Talking about Poppi's hands will remind the boys about playing Spider with Poppi. They will want you to play Spider, too, and they don't mind too much that you don't play as good as Poppi does.

Playing Spider will make the little boy think about Poppi's watch, since that is also close to his hands. He will have fun remembering how he borrowed it from him and pretended it was a camera.

Thinking about the pretend camera will remind the boy of taking a picture with a real camera. He will want to use your camera again.

And chances are, if you give him your camera, he is going to want to take a picture of something really important with it...

___________________

(written with apologies to the author of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..." (who really knows how little kids' minds work!), and based on a compilation of funny things the boys have said since their visit to Grammy and Poppi's last month.

Happy Sunday!

I'm not sure which photo I like better ... this one, because of Peter's adoring gaze at Thomas:

Or this one, where Jack is "helping" Peter to say "Cheese!".

In honor of this weekend, which has been a little rough because Jack and Thomas have both been very tired and very cranky, I wanted to share a few of my favorite things about the kids that I think about when they're particularly trying my patience:

Jack: I love his hand gestures, especially when he's pontificating about something (which is... pretty much everything). Yesterday at dinner he wasn't saying anything, but he was gesturing as if he were, and it was hilarious. Oh, and if you ever want to see something really funny, wink at him. He'll wink back at you, but it's very involved -- there's a wind up of the head, and then he fast-pitches the wink right back to you!

Thomas: lately he's been adding "ses" to the end of everything to make it plural. Like "feetses", "kneeses", "sockses". It's cute, and it probably won't last long because I try to repeat the correct word after he says it incorrectly so he knows the right way to say it (and I'm sure he'll catch on quickly), but I love hearing his made-up grammar rules all the same :).

Peter: I love feeling that happy, rumbly vibration in his back when he laughs, or "talks" while I'm holding him.

Awestruck boys

Take two little boys, ages 4.5 and 2.5, and let them:

• sit in the back of a police car
• climb into an ambulance
• sit in the driver's seat of a fire engine and pretend to drive
• be hoisted up into a fire bulldozer by a real firefighter
• hop into two fire helicopters

and you'll score some serious WOW points. We took the boys to an open house at one of the Ramona fire stations this morning, and we had a great time. Thomas even hugged a firefighter and later said "I love you guys" to the fire station as we pulled away in the car. Jack did try to hide from Smokey the Bear (he put his hands over his eyes and I'm sure was thinking "if I can't see him, he can't see me" :) ), but I can respect that -- I've always thought there was something a little creepy about big costumed characters.

We saw a tiny 7-week old baby there, and I looked at Peter and realized how big he's getting, but it truly seems like he was *just* that size. Amazing. He likes rolling onto his tummy to play and is raking toys (and whatever else is nearby on the floor -- now I've really got to watch what the boys leave around!) to his mouth to taste. He also will spin in a little circle when he's on his tummy, and has been spotted trying to get his knees up under him and his rump in the air (he's got a little ways to go yet, but I bet he'll be crawling by the time he's 6 months old).

Peter has been sleeping in the boys' room for the past several nights, and it's going very well! We initially put him to bed in our room since Jack and Thomas tend to chat for a while before falling asleep, and then we just move Peter to the crib when we're ready to go to bed. So far, Peter has been sleeping soundly through the night and they've all been waking up around 6:30-6:45AM, which is respectable. Thomas, however, has not taken naps 5 out of the last 6 days (which is not good, since I think he really does still need that sleep in the afternoon), but I can only encourage him so much. He may be heading toward no naps, and it's just going to be a rough until he adjusts to less sleep. On the other hand, his potty training continues to go very well and I'm very thankful to have just one kid in diapers again!

A little peace of mind

This week's project was updating and completing our family emergency kit, and after today's shopping trip, it's done! We started out with one of these 4-person emergency starter kits a couple of years ago:

and I sort of haphazardly threw together some food in a box and a few gallons of water and called it good. It's been tugging at the back of my mind that I really should make sure I have a complete emergency kit on hand, especially now that our family size has increased.

Anyway, it's all together now -- 15+ gallons of water in the garage (at least 1 gallon per person per day), first aid supplies, and 3 days worth of food for us all. I even thought to pack away the 2 large cans of formula that Evenflo sent me after Peter was born, just in case I can't nurse him for some reason. I do feel a bit of peace knowing that we've got the basics covered in case we need them.

Stretched thin, but grateful

We've had a lot going on in the Campbell household lately!

Sick house

I managed to catch a cold a couple of weeks ago and felt a bit out of it for a week. Everyone else seemed OK until this past Friday evening (argh! I really thought I was in the clear!) when Jack came down with a sore throat. Then the night before last Peter had a stuffy nose and didn't sleep well, and today Peter is still stuffy and Thomas started up with runny nose

:(. So that has not been fun. BUT, I am very grateful that it's just a cold and not some gastrointestinal bug, and I'm very grateful that now I'm healthy and feeling well enough to care for the sick kids.

Potty training

Thomas is out of diapers except for naps and bedtime! He's actually doing very well, although it was a rough first week or so. At the point that I was about ready to give up and put him back in diapers until he was closer to 3, something clicked and now he seems to get it. Hooray!! This leads me to ...

Out of the crib and into the bed

In honor of potty training, Thomas now sleeps in a mattress on the floor, next to Jack. Once again, we had a rough couple of days convincing Thomas to keep napping in this new arrangement (and some days he still fights it), but overall the transition has been smoother than I expected. I needed more sheets, so I bought construction sheets for both beds, and the boys love them.

Reading

Jack is about 1/4 of the way through his reading book, and he is doing so well. He's reading short, simple sentences, but we still have a bunch of letter/sound combinations to learn. He really seems to enjoy it, and he's eager to learn more. My biggest surprise so far is how excited *I* am to watch him learn this new skill, and to know that I'm his primary teacher. It definitely gives me hope that he and I can work well together in a teacher-student relationship for when he starts charter school next year.

Rolling

Peter is rolling all over the place these days, although he usually gets "stuck" on his tummy and forgets how to roll onto his back, so he'll squawk until someone comes to rescue him. His head control is excellent now, and his sleeping schedule is really evening out. I can usually count on 3 naps a day, right around 8:30AM, 12:30PM, and 3:30PM. It's great that he has a good routine now, but it makes planning outings difficult ... I can't usually get big outings (like grocery shopping) done between his naps because there just isn't enough of his awake, not-eating time available. But he doesn't usually take good naps unless we're at home, and if he misses a nap, he gets cranky. So I'm trying to limit my big outings to just a couple times a week, and then spend the rest of the week at home if I can ... I know when Jack starts T-ball and kindergarten, my weeks will be busier and less flexible, so I'll try to enjoy spending time at home while I can.

The Citation

Remember that silly registration ticket that I got early in September? Would you believe that it's STILL not settled?!? I've gone by the courthouse twice already, but my ticket is "not in their system", which means they can't clear it now that I've fixed the violation. Apparently Ramona only has court on Fridays, and the court date written on my ticket was not only a Monday, but it was Columbus Day (yesterday!). So the ticket got sent back (to where? I have no clue!) to have a new, better date assigned. And until then, I just have to keep calling or visiting the courthouse to see if I'm in the system yet. David wondered if maybe the cop never turned in my ticket -- maybe he had pity on that lady driving around a minivan-full of little boys after all!

No thanks, my plate is full

I'm slowly coming to terms with life with 3 kids. I think the day-to-day reality is finally settling in. In the early weeks of Peter's life, people would ask me if having 3 kids was harder than having 2, and I usually answered "No", because it didn't seem that different, still crazy but not too much more so. But that was when Peter slept pretty much all the time, pretty much any where. Aside from feeding him (which is kind of nice, because it forces me to sit still in one place for 15 minutes) changing a few extra diapers (Peter is blessed with an amazingly slow digestion, so those are 99% easy diapers), and extra laundry, it wasn't too different from life with 2 kids. But I can definitely say that things ramped up over the last month or two, and they haven't showed any signs of slowing down. I do have time to cook meals, keep the house reasonably clean, play with the boys, and do the usual maintenance chores, but I really and truly do not have time for extras (my less-than-frequent blog posts are proof of that!) I'm supposed to start teaching an NFP class in the near future (whenever I feel ready), but the thought of it makes my heart sink -- even if David were able to get home in time to put the kids to bed, and Peter were to take a bottle, I do not know where I can squeeze out the extra time for class prep, teaching time, student follow-ups, etc. Something else would have to give, and I don't think I can afford to give up anything else right now. It's frustrating, but I suppose it is the season of my life right now. The NFP class will still need teachers in a few months, or a few years, but my family needs me (especially my littlest and most demanding members) now!

The twins

I hate to post and run, but here are a few great shots of the "twins" from when Kim and Michael visited last week. They're both growing so fast!

I do have a handful of updates to post, so hopefully I can get around to a real post in a few days.