Life as a Ham: Hilariosity.

I have delayed writing about how we are doing in our house because, well... there is SO much to cover, and each day brings new hilarious things that compound the problem. So here I go...

Colin and Claire - 18 months old
Adam - 3 and a half.

Colin
Colin is, quite frankly, hilarious. His favorite activity is stealing something that Claire loves (her blankie, her pacifier, her stuffed piggie, her froggie lovie), making sure she sees that she has it and then running laps around the house giggling uncontrollably while she chases him and screams. If that doesn't elicit the appropriate response, he'll resort to stealing whatever toy she is currently playing with. If that doesn't work, he'll just flat out tackle her, good naturedly, until she reaches the appropriate level of annoyed. Sometimes he turns his attention toward Adam, and Adam will make a good game of it for a little bit.

"A blue cupcake is missing? Gosh, no Mom, I haven't seen any cupcakes matching that description."

He is completely accident prone. I'm about to hang up a sign in this house that says "Number of Days since Colin's Last Incident." Most of the time, it will say ZERO. The worst was last Wednesday when he triumphantly stood up on a suitcase and Claire pushed him off. Into the TV stand. Head First. Then today he was fully clothed and playing in the bathtub and slipped (while crawling), and busted open his mouth... again. I swear he bleeds faster than anyone I've ever seen. I thought Adam was going to be the one showing us the inside of an ER all the time. I think I might have been wrong.

To be fair this was not a result of clumsiness but of him triumphantly climbing on top of a suitcase, standing up, putting both fits in the air and grinning proudly at Claire... who then pushed him off into the TV stand.

Colin's tantrums are dramatic and devistating. He lives a very hard life. For the most part he goes with the flow, but when he's upset... he's VERY upset. He's also got a lot to say, but mostly its a lot of scolding people by yelling "BUB! BUB! BUB!" Truthfully, I would say Colin has about ten words in his speaking vocabulary... Momma, Dada, Adam, dog ("ruff ruff"!), BALL, Night Night, No (nah nah nah nah nah!!), Bath, milk, and I've heard him call Claire "Cara" a couple times. It's the type of language that only the family understands, but it still counts.

We put up the Christmas tree this year, knowing that they would be drawn to it... but Colin's favorite thing to do is harrass me by taking the balls of the tree... in front of my face... so I can see him do it. But it doesn't stop there. His favorite thing to do (still) is get himself into trouble. Open the cabinets with all the glass (the childproof locks have all worn down on our cabinets... throw his dinner to Caley... tease Caley by pretending he'll throw his dinner down. Climbing the back of the couch, moving all the chairs, boxes, toys... anything he can find... and creating a stool to access the stove in the kitchen. The kids is ornery.

But he has the best facial expressions and is a tiny little comedian. He loves food, he loves tackling people, and he loves hugs.

Claire
Claire is a little sweetheart. She is obedient (for the most part), smiley and sweet, and her speaking vocabulary is smaller than Colin's (It mostly consistents of "DADDY?!" which she says very clearly.) She's working on saying Colin and has "Adam" down since almost day one. She's grown especially attached to Mamie and calls her May-May-mie. So I knew she could say Mama too... but she likes to tease me by intentionally NOT saying "mama."

That is to say... CLAIRE IS A DADDY'S GIRL. Shannon had been trying to figure out which of his kids would sit and watch football with him. We figured it out.

Last night I was curious to see how much they knew even if they weren't speaking much, because it really seems that Claire understands EVERYTHING we say. So I asked the twins where their body parts were (nose, hair, chin, cheeks, feet, etc.). I asked a lot, and Claire quickly and correctly pointed to each one (she got most of them right). Her vocabulary is incredible, even though she doesn't say much. Colin says more, but wasn't too interested in the game except for mashing his face together and laughing... and clapped for her everytime she did it. (She got extra claps and cheers for saying "mama.")

Claire has gotten into trouble at school for football tackling a kid (or two), and she can clearly take care of herself. At 17 months old she was wearing size 3T clothes, and if she hits another growth spurt, she may not fit into some of those after January. When the boys mess with her (mostly, when Colin feels like wrestling), we just remind them that Claire will finish it. She's no pushover.

But she's a more patient and enthusiastic shopper than anyone in the whole family. The Friday after Thanksgiving Robin, my Mom and I took Claire to Canton. We were there a good chunk of the day, and she was a champ. She loved every second of it.

I had an epiphany about Claire's chronic sickness about two weeks before Thanksgiving. I realized that all of her sinus infections were starting in her eyes and progressing from there. So I called the ophthalmologist and confirmed what I finally came around to... her tear ducts were blogged and causing the black eyes, the eye infections and eventually the sinus infections. On December 3, she had the procedure done to put stints in. They told me they were only going to do the right eye, but I convinced them beforehand that it was actually both eyes. I'm glad I did, because they said that the left actually was the worser of the two when they went into surgery. They said that it was so hard to "pop" (ugh, makes me shiver) it in there that it gave her a bloody nose for two days. The recovery was pretty hard on her... Claire comes out of anesthesia fast, and was fully awake and pissed before Shannon and I could even back to see her. She screamed and cried, mostly because she was mad, partly because people wouldn't leave her alone and definitely because of that stupid oxygen meter sticker they put on their big toe. She was awake before her body was fully clear of the anesthesia so she wanted to storm out and have a good dramatic exit but couldn't control her body... and because of all the medication in her system but lack of food, she felt sick and gagged for 30 minutes. Poor thing felt terrible, and didn't fully get back to 100% until about 2 days later, despite them saying it was only a inpatient surgery with no restrictions. It was tougher on her than they expected, and has had just as much if not more discharge from her eyes since, but I'm starting to see improvement finally.

giggly and loopy from the meds before being taken back for anesthesia.

Adam

Adam is really coming into his own lately. He tells everyone he's five or six, but he tells me be he feels like he's 5. It's hard to imagine that he's just barely three and a half, and I have to remind myself of his age most of the time.

I have heard Adam tell 6 different people when asked: "How old are you?"
"I'm five."
(Including one instance where he looked a snotty six year old in the face and told him he was a big boy too.)

Then Tuesday he came home and very sadly told me, "my teacher says I'm not five yet." I wasn't sure how she convinced him, because when I explained to him he wasn't even three and a half yet, he would get pretty defensive about it.

Then today he told us, "I'm not five yet."
"How old are you, Adam?"
"I'M SIX!"

That a way to bounce back, Buddy.

He is starting to read, he knows the phonics of most of the letters and is learning more daily, he is starting to tell time, and can put together sentences and puns like a pro. He told me he needed to eat something that was light AND dark... "I know! A waffle is light and syrup is dark!" Clever... but still didn't fly at 8:30 pm at night.

But beyond that he is extremely creative. He hates to color but loves to write and take pictures with my phone. He's interested in posing for the camera and doing videos so he can watch them, study them, and improve on his performance. He is a clever entertainer. He is sweet and thoughtful toward Colin and Claire and hates when they go to bed at night. He's also incredibly independent...

Adam began his new school on November 1st, and absolutely loves it. He's in a class with 3 to 6 year olds, so they treat him almost like a kindergartener. He's being given the opportunity to work on challenging things, he has the structure and the quiet to concentrate and they even worked on a Thanksgiving show with songs and rhymes to perform in front of the parents. He repeated them to us throughout the week but then stood quietly in line while everyone else performed.

Right now he's practicing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," and has it nailed. This video was from a few days ago... but by now he has every word down.

It helps that he is watching Elf repeatedly during the last few days while we are iced in over the weekend.

The last few pictures were from "Icemageddon 2013" -- Mamie and Grandpa lost power for several hours on Friday and stayed the night with us, and then Papa and Shane came into town. Our kids were in Grandparent heaven.

Adam: "it's snowy outside. I. DONT. LIKE IT. Take me to school."
Me: "we're going to eat donuts and watch Bubble Guppies."
Adam: "oh. Daddy, it's way too cold to go to school."