Life as a Ham: August 2014

Let's start with the oldest... Adam is doing amazing since being home with me and starting on a great probiotic. He is like a walking 10 year old at 4 years old, and his maturity just astounds me daily. I never doubted him for a second but in the last 4 months he has just been a huge blessing in our lives. He takes care of Colin and Claire and even offers to change diapers (but I don't want him to feel like that's his responsibility). His favorite memory this summer is going to the local water park with me on our "date" and getting to ride the big kid slides as many times as he wanted. He says, "remember that time we went to that park? That was fun. We should do it again sometime."

He makes his own toast, buckles his seat belt, and is even learning to pour his own milk. He loves being independent and helpful, and we both have the same love language -- Words of affirmation. So basically all day we tell each other how awesome the other is. It's a tough life. He can't get enough hugs and likes hearing what he was like as a "baby," and how proud I am of his big boy skills. He cannot WAIT to go back to school, but unfortunately we can't afford it right now since quitting my job. Claire is going to school three half days a week right now, and we're thinking about switching them.

He is the eternal entertainer, loving the game, "guess how I'm feeling?" and making faces so I can guess and guess and guess. He truly enjoys people and is especially bonding with Colin during the mornings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday while Claire is at school. He is witty and clever, and loves to get a laugh. He's struggled a little bit with being with the twins most of the time and regressing to baby talk (he NEVER talked baby talk), but it's an attention thing. I just tell him how much I love when he tells me stories like a big boy.

He loves the old 1990's show the Magic School Bus, and has watched every episode in all 4 seasons (thank you, Netflix). He loves anything science and is a natural problem solver. He only gets anxious now when he thinks something is broken, ruined, or lost forever, mostly because he doesn't want anyone to be sad or upset. His empathy is astounding and truly from the heart.

One day I was crying, and he hugged me for a long time, told me it was going to be okay, and offered to give me his "good heart" (because I tell him he has one all the time), because mine was broken. Needless to say, I teared up for different reasons. He truly is an original gem on this planet, and we often have long conversations about how I could never stop loving him, and he wants to know "why..." "Why do you love me more and more each day? Why can't you stop loving me?" My first instinct is just to say, "WHO COULD NOT LOVE YOU?!" But instead I list out everything I love about him and he lights up with joy. I think me spending more time with him has been the most positive choice for him. For the twins as well, but I know he needed the comfort of home especially with his ability to understand the world beyond his age.

My Colin... oh, that boy Colin...

Colin is a precious enigma. He was born with these eyes that study and break you down. He's become somewhat shy as he's been home with me more, and wants his mom, daddy, Grandpa (GO GO) and Mamie, but when a new person talks to him he doesn't look away and hide, he stares them down and doesn't say a word. It's unnerving and interesting.

Somedays he glares and me and hides when I want pictures, and others he's yelling cheese and giving the best modeling grins a photographer or mom could ask for. He eats when he wants to eat, plays nicely when he wants to play nicely, and usually finds something quite to do on his own to study and practice the art of destruction.

Yesterday, Colin stood up from the floor, looked me in the eye, pointed very intentionally at me and said:

"I'll be right back. I'll miss you."
Then he strode to the back door like he was going to get in the van and drive away. I told him I'd miss him and asked where he was going.

He said, "Mamie. Yeah, Mamie."

Poor guy, his exit was ruined when he couldn't get the door knob to turn.

This pointing intentionally thing is his trade mark. If he's in another room and doing something and you call out, "Hey Colin, what are you doing?"

If he sings back, "No-oo!" It means, "Go away, I'm busy and I'm doing nothing wrong, don't check on me." (Check on him).

If he sings back, "Yeah!" It means, "I'm fine, I don't need anything!" (Check on him).

If you ask him and he's IN the room already doing something with those mischievous dimples peeking out, he points at you... like, "No need to ask, I've got my eye on YOU and your wrong doings." Then he continues to do whatever his intended plan was, with especially big dimples and probably a little giggle will sneak out unintentionally. He LOVES to push buttons and he's better at it than anyone I know.

Colin hates, hates, hates shoes. He LOVES to let me put on his shoes, then take them off after I get him in the car. When I glare at him, it's the highlight of his day. This afternoon at the playground he was trying hard to keep them on, but it wasn't working. So he just ripped his shoes and socks off and tried to walk around in the wood chips.

He has seemed better since being at home. He's quit biting unless seriously provoked. Now he resorts to the strong full tackle to show affection, mostly to Claire. "Colin, do you love Mommy?" Nothing. "Do you love Daddy?" Nothing. "Adam?" Nothing. "Claire?"

"YEP! KEE." (He calls her Kee.)

His orneriness only improves with age, but is becoming more clever with wisdom.
Colin: "Mommy! MOMMY! I missed you! Mommy I missed you."
"Awwww. Colin, you missed me?!"

All I see is a huge, mischievous grin with big dimples.

Colin: "NO!!"
Me: "Hey! Rude!"
Colin: "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

He's so Shannon's clone.

Colin does give the best hugs though, sleeps better than anyone in the house, without needing too much coaxing, and loves cars, trains, and airplanes. He also loves blocks. He adores Joy to the point that Joy usually screams when he's "giving her attention," although she never scratches and only warning nips... and he calls her "Catty."

He hates his clothes being wet, LOVES baths and showers, and really is just the most to content to be a kid and be a BOY. I can't get enough of Colin.

My sweet, ferocious Claire...

Claire's teacher told me that on the playground she is very social in general, but prefers to play with boys. (Surprise, surprise). So she had one boy by one hand and one boy by the other and dragging them around saying, "come on!" Her teacher says: "She is definitely a leader, not a follower."

There's nothing submissive or baby-ish about Claire. She speaks in sentences almost as complex as Adam, although she needs a translator sometimes. If you don't understand her, she keeps trying. She is in charge around here. In a mood, will throw food on the floor and will scream "NOOOOOO!" when asked to pick it up. Everything requires a coaxing technique with Claire, from getting dressed to going to bed... don't ask her to take a nap. Convince her that singing and a leg massage is worth getting into bed for.

But truthfully, she's done with naps. She's a fiery, beautiful, sweet, smiley intelligent force. If she makes a mess and I insist she cleans it up, Adam will swoop in and do it for her. I once told her, "Claire, you are so SPOILED!" Adam asked what "spoiled" meant. I told him it meant that Claire was lucky that she had two brothers to take care of her bad attitude when she wasn't listening very well. He looked at her, looked at me, and told me he didn't mind at all. I love her teacher at school, but she is definitely teacher's pet and can do no wrong.

When asked, "But Claire, why??"
"'Cause."

(I'm going to start using that when I'm asked why. It works. There are no words.)

We call her "sturdy"... she could level both of the boys (and has... Adam tried to comfort her today by rubbing her back and telling her to take a deep breath and she sucker punched him in the chest.) Usually though, she picks her battles and decides when to make her point and when to come running to tell me "Colin bite!" (Half the time now, he didn't, and he tells her, "No KEE! No bite!!")

She's all banged up right now because she plays just as hard if not harder than a boy, and when I asked what happened to her knees she says . . ."MOSQUITOS BITE!" (Mosquitos love her just as much as the rest of us do.)

She loves her daddy and is fully able to comprehend our conversations. She is extremely bright, and as my dad, (aka Grandpa, ask Grank-o) says, "She's just smart... and she knows it." And she's a walking copy of my beautiful mom.

But they adore each other, all of them, and travel around in packs. Adam and Colin have baby fever, and ask for babies all the time. Adam even says he wants another of "his own" babies ... "I don't know about that Adam,"

... and although I've lost weight and work out, he pats my stomach and asks if we can have another baby..."But, it looks like there's a baby in there Mom. Babies are cute." Yes... they really, really are. And also, the way we breed them... smart, smartass, blonde, extremely active, charming, stubborn, and all A-type personalities.

These two are two peas in a pod. They are the same person, which would make you think they would fight... but really they just perpetuate the "leadership" in them.

Together, right now, their favorite activity is going outside, stripping off their clothes, jumping on the trampoline and having me spray them down with the hose. They also don't mind helping me clean the house. Well, Adam doesn't mind. Colin and Claire find other activities to entertain them... lately they are trying less and less to go into battle mode, but even in battle mode, these three travel in a pack and hate to be separated. They also love swimming and creating new games with each other.

Smiling at themselves in the mirror and making faces. Well, Colin is actually HAM-ing it up.

As for me, I am succeeding at a business that I never thought I'd be good at.
I'm loving being home with them, even though it's harder than I ever thought possible.
I joined a 5:30 am boot camp, which is just... well... astounding, and I LOVE it.
We're thinking about trying to put our house on the market so we can get into a house where everyone gets a bedroom, because right now Adam falls asleep in our room and then gets moved in with Claire. Plus we aren't zoned for a school district appropriate for them.
We're still in survival mode, but I'm happily enjoying what time I have with these goofballs.

I missed a lot that I wanted to say, but it will come to me, and I will write about it some more.

This is actually from over a month ago. There is no before/after, really... just documenting the experience.

This was Claire's first real haircut other than getting a little bang trim. She was nervous and not much was cut off. The boys LOVE getting haircuts... Colin always has, but Adam is enjoying it more with age (he just doesn't like the trimmer much. Mostly he enjoys the lollipops.