Happy Halloween

Tired, but happy. We had a terrific halloween. Hope you did too. More tommorow...

Caught in the Candy Jar

We are gearing up for Halloween trick or treating. Holden decided to get an early snack. Hope our gang are not gouls tonight, it's looking like no nap today.

Bikers

This is what you will find us doing every day after dinner. The weather has been beautiful and we have been taking full advantage of the new sidewalk around our park. Our path takes us down around the park and to our tennis courts. The upside to old courts is that no one minds that all the toddlers take it over with their riding toys.

Evan is really ready for a big bike, maybe Santa will bring him one.

The Patch

Last week we visited our local pumpkin patch. The same one where we took our sleepy pumpkins when the trips were just a month old. They all ran in different directions to explore the pumpkins, discovering to their delight and our dismay that they roll quite easily down the hill or in Holden's case keeping busy putting small pumpkins in people's bags. I'm sure someone came home with an extra pumpkin or two including the lady below in red.

Evan proudly displays his pumpkins. Later he decides he would rather have a gourd.

Memo carefully peruses the miniature pumpkin pile.


Memo ends up selecting a green pumpkin. No surprise there as he is into all things green these days.

Lily obliges me with a photo op and a smile, saying 'pumpkin pie!'. In turn GG made a delicious pumpkin pie for us in the afternoon.

Beach time in Port Aransas

Spending some great family time at Port A.

G.G., Grammy, Jennifer, and the trips

Holden warming up to the waves.

The big boys take comfort with their strong mother.

The kids are taking full advantage of having dad on vacation this week.

Running fools

We ran the Run Austin Run event this morning. It was a hilly course starting at The Triangle, heading west along Balcones and Scenic Drive before going east along Enfield, north through Pemberton and Brykerwoods, then east on 45th street heading back through Rosedale.

They put on a good race, but unfortunately the rain came down hard during the last mile and that put a damper on the post race festivities.

Jennifer completed the 10k and David finished his first half-marathon. Without pushing a stroller this is easy work. David finished in 1:52 at 8:33 m/m as he ramps up for the Austin Marathon in February. Updated to add Jennifer's time 1:05 at 10:35 m/m.

Party Time

What is your favorite color?

The kids have developed a clear preference for particular colors, they know their favorites and they know each other's favorites.

Evan has claimed the color red, Memo is loyal to green, and Lily is fond of purple. Holden is yet to be decided but he is showing some early indications of a preference for orange.

Lily also has dominion of anything pink, the boys will shout, no that's lily's! if I try to hand them a pink or purple cup or bowl.

Happy 3rd Birthday Little Loves

7am New Toys (Einstein's Rocket for Will, Handy Manny Fix It Radio for Evan, Beauty & Beast Tea Set for Lily and Dragon for Holden)

8am Waffles and fruit breakfast

8:30am Mark off heights on wall. All were very proud of how much they had grown....wish I had photos of their beaming faces. (Evan 38 inches, Will 36.5 inches, and Lily 36 inches)

9am Jog, with stop at Turtle Bridge

10am Park play time

11am Breakfast tacos at Taco Shack

noon Each selected a cupcake from Upper Crust, we ate on the bleachers across from our house.

1pm Grammy and Papa's house

2pm Swimming

3pm Football in the yard

4pm More cake

7pm UT Football on TV

8pm New story books

9pm Sweet Dreams for our kiddos

11pm Bedtime for momma and daddy

Boots

Temps are dropping, it is starting to feel like fall. 85 degrees means cool weather in Austin. Absolutely delighted to have the hot hot weather behind us. We had 20 days straight of 100 degree temps this summer breaking all records.


Get your boots out...

New York, NY

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to New York. David convinced me to tag along on a business trip with him for a extended weekend getaway. We headed up Saturday to spend some time in the city before the work week. We almost didn't make it, the kids were hit hard with a bad stomach bug on Friday night and we were up all night. I came down with it as soon as we touched down in NY. Thankfully I made it through the flight feeling well and even had a chance to read a book, Into the Wild (great book by the way, incredibly moving, couldn't put it down).

By Sunday I had mostly recovered. In the morning, David ran while I walked through Central Park enjoying the cool weather. That night we went out to a lovely dinner at Bella Blue in the Upper East side, with my Aunt Sol, Uncle Bill and cousin Paul. Paul is a bright and charming freshman at NYU in fabulous program that sends him to London for his second year.

Monday we spent the day at the US Open.

We watched Serena and Venus easily capture the women's doubles title and spied a handful of celebrities including Gwen and Gavin. Then we experienced the riveting four hour men's finals where ultimately 20 year old Juan Martin Del Potro (ranked number 6 in the world) overtook the dashing Rodger Federer, winner of the past five US opens. The rallies were incredible, I've never seen anything like it. And the crowd was wild, especially so for the dignified US Open. It felt like the crowd started to get behind the underdog Potro in the second set when it became apparent he was going to put up a good fight. He rode the wave to victory fighting for each and every point, surviving a five set marathon that included two tiebreakers.


We celebrated with a late dinner at Macao in SoHo.


And finally back home yesterday with our crew, here donning US Open hats. A special thanks to Grammy, Papa and Carmen who took great care of them while we were away.

This morning I managed to get everyone dressed, lunches packed and at school on time on my own. David returns tomorrow.

And also tomorrow, soccer starts and I will officially be a soccer mom. So it begins...

And gosh, the trips will be three in just over 48 hours.

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school. I had to bribe Evan to pose for the photo. I love the tradition of the first day of school pic, standing by the front door . Memo is showing off his typical cute grin and Evan has a mischevious twinkle in his eye. Lily was really excited, she was just a bit weary after standing there waiting for me to capture and coax Evan back into the photo.

Here is a better capture of Lily, my sweet baby girl, on her first day of school, proud of her new back pack with water bottle and lunch box.

Class was only 45 minutes today, part of a graduated schedule plan to acclimate the kids. My kids didn't want to leave of course. They won't have any problem with the transition. I am really impressed with both their teacher Mrs. Nooshi and her assistant Mrs. Bonnie. Everyone raves about Mrs. Nooshi, her assistant is new so I had not heard anything but I thought she was adorable. They both instantly had a connection with the kids. I feel really good about this school and expect it to be a great year.

Grammy Clare was so nice to come down early today and help us get ready for school. Since the class day was so short Grammy and I took Holden along with all the kids and went to class, followed by a picnic on the school grounds and a special celebration trip to Yogurt Planet for yogurt of their choice and all the toppings they wanted.

Fall Wardrobe

I've just discoverd Polyvore, an application that let's you create outfits from a variety of well known brands. It is a handy way to select your fall purchases. What's really cool is that if you find something you like, say a shirt from j. crew, you can click on it and see outfits others have created with that shirt. Here are few of my creations for fall...mostly compiled from J. Crew's fabulous fall lineup. I'll take one of each please.

Winter 09

Highway Robbery

This is a distant relative of Memo's beloved 'Puppy' that his godmother Julie gave him. It was made by Carter's 'Just One Year' brand in 2006 and is (was) a musical toy. Evan's lovey 'Pato' is a duck made at the same time. Now Holden has taken a liking to Puppy too. And I have come to discover this is a very popular toy. Upon searching for something similar I have discovered there are lots of moms searching for replacement 'puppies' and the going price is $35 to $40 (originally around $10). It is super floppy, a bit under stuffed so it makes for a good cuddle toy. The tie on the top of the head is fun to hold, and the tail has a handle which makes it fun to spin and bop siblings. Alas, Pato is now tail-less, and Puppy will be before long.

I was kinda hoping to find a Carter's musical puppy in a different 'model' aka another color or different enough so that it doesn't upset Memo, but still a puppy. If you come across one please let me know.

I like this one, but not for $50. Puh-lez. They are obviously trying to gouge someone in need to replace a dear lovey.

This one is a bargain at a mere $45 with shipping. And Pato for $50, pre-owned.

Brocoli Lovers

Our gang has this uncanny love for broccoli and will horde it or given the opportunity steal florets from their sibling's plates. And yet they turn their nose up to creamy mashed potatoes with butter. Nuts.

Big Sis

My Boys

Cow-bee Holden?

'Take my picture with my bear, mommy.' - Evan

Monkey Memo

Photos from tonight right before bedtime. We had triplet boys -same age - over for a playdate this afternoon. I wish I had captured some photos of that too. At one point all the boys were jumping in the toddler beds.

I wasn't so pleased with them yesterday, there was no nap and they were little terrors in the afternoon. As triplet mom Audrey told me today, sometimes she looks at her boys and thinks, 'someone is about to get voted off the island'. Although her boys are completely charming, social and fun but are not climbers, they are still in their cribs and haven't tried to climb out yet. Oh, the injustice! Ours were climbing out by 18 months.

I re-read my parenting discipline books before bedtime and realized it was me who had fallen a bit off track.

Today I focused on these three things:

1) Being very 'attentive' - giving almost a play by play of each thing they do like 'you are building a tower, wow, it is so tall.' The Spirited Child book says that we ask too many questions and give too many directions like, 'do you want to build a tower?' and 'which is the red block?' so try simply narrating to let them know you are engaged and paying them attention. That way when you need to give directions they will be more apt to listen and respond. It sounds a bit awkward to state everything they are doing but I have been trying it off and on for the past few months and it is kind of surprising how well they respond and how pleased they are to have my undivided attention.

2) Lavishing them with praise whenever they were showing good behavior. I tried to praise each child at least 20 times today, probably much more. It feel like I normally praise them often but I had to stay on top of it to step it up and after a smattering of praises they were quick to cooperate.

Just during dinner I worked on praising each child 4 or 5 times, normally it is more like once or twice. 'Thanks for helping me today with xxx', 'You are eating your dinner, that's great!', 'You ate your veggies, you will be strong!', they would help me along too, 'Mom, I am eating with out spilling!' and I would repeat whatever they were sharing with me and proud of.

3) I stopped nagging and pleading for bad behavior, instead I focused on giving simple clear directions without all the reasoning added in, then a warning that they would have to go in time out if I got to '3' (counting 1-2-3). 1-2-3 Magic says too much talk goes over their head, they get negative attention from 'you guys are driving me crazy' speeches which only reinforces the bad behavior. The spirited child book adds that if you need to give a reason, give it first then the directive vs the other way around so they don't get distracted and forget what you want them to do. For example instead of 'Clean up your toys now because grandma is coming over soon' try 'Grandma is coming over soon, so clean up your toys now.'

We did have a couple of timeouts but they were a TON more cooperative and not seeking out bad behavior to push my buttons. Not that all our problems are solved but things went much smoother today. I'm sure naps helped too. It seems so simple but it does take some discipline of my own to keep it up and stay consistent. I want to get good reports from school!

PS Lily sometimes joins in the mayhem but generally she is like, 'Wheh! those boys are being naughty'. Later I am going to have to encourage her not to tattle tail but right now it is helping me stem disaster.