These are actual comments that have been spoken around our house.
Our house full of boys.

"Honey, please get your penis off of my counter"
"Go put some underwear on, I don't want your penis on my chairs"
"Guys, we only play with our own penis', don't touch anybody's penis but your own"
"Please don't spray water at your brothers penis"
"Stop sticking your penis' out at each other"
"Hold on to your penis honey"
"push your penis down buddy"
"eeewwww poo poo." "no honey that's a penis." "ewwwww poo poo penis."
"look, he's stretching his penis"
"buddy, please don't grab your penis, it has poop on it"
"ouch, my penis ah stuck in my pants (zipper)" "well honey, you need to have your underwear pulled up before you do your pants up"

Cameron is doing better. He has gone poop in the toilet a couple of times (PROOOOOGRESSSSS)and he went potty at the doctors office. (big step going outside of the house)
We still put them both in pull ups at night.
Spencer is doing marvelous. That kid will go any and everywhere. even in a snow bank at the sled hill in the parking lot (not pictured:)

We found that you go much faster if you go together

Yip, that fast.

Whew, tough...Lay here....get pulled up....go down...lay here get pulled up and so on and so on.

The group.

OOW-T

What I know today.

-That mixing playdough and fish crackers doesn't work. Not EVEN if your intention was to give them something other than the playdough to eat.

-That a little boy who throws a MAJOR tantrum the night before....will most likely wake up with a tempurature in the morning. (which follows the pattern, back to school on Tuesday...sick by Friday)

-and, and, and...even if he's distrupting reading time with his screaming. It's best not to close the doors so that the others can enjoy the books, leaving said toddler alone, in the kitchen, with sissors. He WILL make little cuts in his jammies because he's pissed off. Oh yes he did.

-That if you make a new rule, each individual child will make sure the others are following it. and if they aren't will IMMEDIATELY let you know.
(this also applies to old rules)

-That I have failed miserably at any and all of my New Years resolutions already. I think I've showered 2 times. we've eaten take-out 3 times, I've actually gained weight and I've yet to work with the boys on their letters and sounds.

-Finally...that it's easier to sit here and type than it is to clean up breakfast and interact with my children.

Potty trained ?

Spencer is 99% potty trained. He goes potty at school and while we are out. We don't have to ask him or remind him.
He wears pull ups to bed and some mornings he wakes up dry, some mornings not so much.

Cameron is 83% potty trained. He won't go poop in the potty. (he has once though) He hasn't gone potty at school or while we are out and about, however he stays dry and hasn't had an accident. He wears the silver dollar a little bit more because he doesn't quite make it sometimes...I think he gets so busy playing he waits too long.
He too wears pull ups to bed and will wake up dry sometimes and wet sometimes.

They both stay dry through naps.

This is progress. Amazing progress. We are so happy and proud...and almost 1/2 way there to a diaper free house.

Watch out American Id0l !

Syd got a karaoke machine for Christmas.
'EYE' got a karaoke Karen Carpenter greatest hits CD for Christmas. oh mah gootness !
We've all had a really good time singing. Here are a couple video's highlighting some of these performances.

Nathan is showing off more than his singing abilities here.
Right before the camera went on, Ryan was pushed away for getting to close to Nathan's microphone. We had him apologize and then decided to get a few more words out of him. He did go along with it for a while.
There was 8 minutes of him singing...and several minutes of him bobbing his head from side to side. SUPER STINKING CUTE ! We caught some right at the end of this video, but you just don't really get the full effect.
It was either - show you all 8 minutes (which we would have had to charge you for) show you the cute head bob and screaming in to the microphone for 2 minutes. or a combination, documenting only some of the words he knows at 18 months old.
Without further ado. NATHAN !!!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Cam, who normally doesn't like to participate in these kind of things, but absolutely tickles me pink when he does it on his own, actually performed today. for the camera. and when we asked him to. (thump. jaw hit the floor)
He was singing a little bit of Carpenters "Sing" (without the music) and a little "song by Cameron". Such a sweet little voice :)
CAMERON !

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C-section

Funny things I want to remember :

Syd performed a C-section on Spencer with his jigsaw.
She had him lay on his back with his legs up and out looking ready to push.
She reached through, told him, "this is gonna hurt real bad buddy....are you ready ?" and quickly pulled the saw across his stomach and said, "look....it's your newborn baby Spencer." presenting him with Ryan who proceeded to slap Spencer on the belly, giggle and run away.

Syd is OBSESSED with child birth. She doesn't know what happens...and is still under the impression that the doctors either cut the baby out or stretch your belly open...but she is 100 % sure she wants to do it. NEEDLE FREE.
She is so afraid of shots that she almost gave up the dream of becoming a mother.
Spencer. now he's not afraid of needles or having his stomach cut open with a plastic playsk00l jigsaw and bearing a nearly 23 lb baby. That's my boy. I think the genetically inherited wide hips helped too :)

I suppose the only reason this story makes sense is because I took a before and after picture.
No, that just makes the story better and helps me confirm the facts.

It all started after dinner. Spaghetti and chocolate pudding.
Thoughts did circulate through my head when I handed them the silverware. Little voices normally whispering began screaming warnings of mess and disorder. but like most of the voices in my head and the ones not in my head I ignored them.

I am almost certain that he didn't get any in his mouth.

What happened next is why I feel these photos can and will help me when entered in as evidence.
J took the older 3 to the gym and left me to clean up the mess. After all it was I who ignored the voices (one of which may have been hers)

I bathed both boys and put them in jammies and headed to the laundry room downstairs to quickly wash the clothing that was also destroyed during our dinnertime fiasco.

While in the laundry room, I heard Nathan scream. It was a hurt scream. The scream that tells me that his brother probably bonked him on the head with something or possibly grabbed half of his face while trying to take his binky away from him. I was seconds from being done and after finishing headed upstairs. Nathan was sitting at the top of the stairs. He points to where he's been hurt now. He pointed to his head and cried "ow" I headed up the stairs saying something comforting I'm sure...when around the corner appeared his brother Ryan brandishing a huge 12' serrated edge knife. I believe it was at this time that my heart dropped through my body and landed on the floor. I don't really remember how many stairs I missed getting to the top. I grabbed it out of his hands and threw it in the sink and then ran back to Nathan to find out where exactly his brother had hit him. Sure enough. Right on top of his old noggin was the slightly bloody line. I tried to pull it apart...it was just a superficial wound. It didn't even bleed very much. but wooo was that scary.

So on that day Dec 29th at approx 7:30 pm, Ryan tried to scalp Nathan.

Note : the knife was left out from cutting the bread for dinner and was set a little too close to the edge of the counter. Lucky for us this was a lesson with a good ending.

Wishing you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR !

ah poop ah comin

These are the only Christmas pictures to share. This is the BIGGEST not a Christmas present picture that I have.

TA-DA !! FINALLY, Spencer earned his boat. You know, the boat that sat on our book shelf for MONTHS and then ended up gathering dust and taking up WAY TOO much space in our closet. Yes THAT boat.

Spencer is OH-fishally a potty trained boy. meaning....he goes pee AND POOP on the toilet. 3 times he has gone poop. The second time he came screaming out of his room, "ah poop ah comin' mom. I feel ah poop comin'" music. MUSIC people...to my ears. He ran in to the bathroom, did his thing, washed his hands and was back to his boat without skipping a beat.

After Spencer went poop, as I entered the boys bedroom I smelled what could only be poop and Cameron quickly directed me to his lovely offering that he had discarded and thrown in to the garbage.
He's having a hard time going poop on the potty and going pee outside of our house. It will come. There is still the pirate ship to earn after all.
They both have done such a great job. So far, no accidents for Spencer.
Cameron will even wake up from naps dry and sometimes in the morning he'll be dry. Both boys are wearing diapers to bed.

It's gonna be a great year.
We might even have EVERYONE out of diapers this year. Can you even imagine it.