Typical

It's been a typical week as I continue to amaze myself with my nurturing skills. Four out of the last five breakfasts have included peanut butter kiss cookies, as evidenced by Cole's dripping chocolate goatee. I've come to the conclusion that some food is better than no food. Besides, if they see me pound 4 cookies for breakfast, how can I deny them the same privilege?

Strike two against me came in the form of Cole's first bloody nose. I was putting Keith in the car and Cole was standing right beside me, or so I thought, when he tripped and smacked his face on the sidewalk. It was bad. That's all I'm going to say about that fiasco. Fortunately, he won't commit this event to long-term memory and will hopefully still love me someday. I hope he can also learn to forgive me for not removing his fingers fast enough from the door jam at a play date and for not catching his ear infection before his ear drum ruptured for the second time this month. I know. If you want to nominate me for mother of the year, now would be a great time.

Keith continues to initiate regular wrestling sessions with Cole. He's reminiscent of a relentless little bull dog when he is on the attack. He does not shy away from kids much larger than him as he snakes their toys and makes them cry. I'm not proud of it. (well, okay, maybe a little.) He is a feisty little guy. But I am trying to teach him to back off when Cole and other kids don't want to play rough. This is Brent teaching the boys to kiss and make up after a wrestling session. Sadly, Keith has learned to use this as an "in" before assaulting his larger and unsuspecting brother.

And despite my best efforts to clear out the lower shelves of the pantry of anything harmful or messy, Keith discovered a box of lasagna noodles which he sneakily opened and then turned the noodles into convenient weapons of mass destruction, both to my kitchen floor and Cole.

Men at Work

Brent and I are back on the Home Improvement kick this week. Lucky for me, I have two little helpers who are really great at sanding, hammering and cleaning up (a.k.a. swallowing). When Keith began gnawing on sandpaper and Cole ate dried caulk, I decided it was time to switch gears for the afternoon.

The boys still love to go outside, no matter how cold the weather. I have to be careful when using the "O" word. They are experts at the pouty face...

and at bringing me their shoes when they need some fresh air. With weapons as cute as those, you can imagine how hard it is to keep them inside.

Survival

My mothering skills have been at peak performance in the last 7 days. Cole has bravely fought Croup, a nasty puking flu and an ear infection within the week. I don't know how Keith continues to escape each illness with nothing more than a cough and runny nose. I think all those gestational months fighting for his life gave him super-human powers.

So, today, I had to take both boys in to the doctor for their 15 month check. I was the mother in the waiting room that everyone pretends not to see, but keeps watching out of the corner of their eye in disbelief. Of course I hadn't showered and there's no possible way that I didn't wreak of vomit. Since Cole was on his fifth outfit for the day, his ensemble was not exactly out of a Baby Gap commercial if you know what I mean. And he only had one sock on because I ended up using the other one to wipe Keith's nose. Don't ask...
So, both babies were running in different directions while the receptionist took her sweet time with the co-pays and the insurance cards. I alternated holding them while I signed various routine documents to keep them from damaging any property.

Once in the exam room, Keith immediately started to scream. The nurse said he probably remembered last time we were here (ie: shots) and didn't exactly have fond memories. So now, I have two crying babies since Cole had been continuously crying since 5:30 this morning. Who can blame him? The nurse helped me undress the boys and then weighed and measured them, all while my offspring screamed their heads off.

Above the din, the doctor informed me of Cole's ear infection, probably a gift from the Croup he was getting over. I vaguely remembered the instructions of the anti-nausea and antibiotic medication, mixed in there somewhere with a few more hints on how to get my miniature children to gain weight. After 8 shots, (4 per child) the crying actually slowed to a soft whimper and I was able to get the boys dressed in relative quiet. I held both babies while I made their followup appointment since I didn't have to sign anything, much to the relief of the victims in the waiting room.

I then loaded them up and went directly to the pharmacy. Of course I didn't have the stroller with me since I had taken the boys for a walk yesterday and forgot to put it back in the car. So, here I go carrying both boys into Rite Aid. It took 25 minutes for them to fill two prescriptions, which is the equivalent of eternity when you are chasing sick toddlers around the hair-color aisle. Keith especially loved to knock down the brunette color boxes and chew on the hydrogen peroxide bottles. The louder my children cried, the slower the pharmacist moved...seriously. I think he was amused with my pitifulness. Thankfully, there were a few nice ladies who tried to entertain the boys at various points of the mayhem which was welcome relief. I hope I remember to be so kind someday--that is if I survive this life called young motherhood.

While driving home, I called Brent to report on the doctor visit. (He has conveniently been on a business trip and will return today, thankfully.) I tried to paint a picture of the doctor visit and obviously did not do a good job because the first question out of his mouth was, "So, how did the doctor say the boys were doing developmentally?"
Hmmm, well, it was a little difficult to have a shouting match with the doctor over our screaming children. I barely got the instructions down for all the medications or the directions if Cole gets dehydrated or if Keith gets the flu and so on and so forth. Clearly, I'm in motherhood survival mode here. I'm taking each second at a time and just grateful that I'm 1 mile from home so that at least if my kids are in misery, we can all be miserable in the privacy of our own home and not make a public spectacle of ourselves. So, no. We didn't discuss much about their development besides their weight. She had them walk around a little bit and I told her the handful of words they were saying and that was about it, or at least all that I remember. Hopefully at the 18 month visit I'll bring my "A game". Today it is all about survival.

Fortunately, I am not all doom and gloom today. Last weekend, we got to meet the newest cousin, Caden, and witness his baby blessing. (He is sooooo cute! He looks like a miniature Clint.) Well, most witnessed. I was in the hall with Keith, but I hear it was wonderful. Since I spent most of the weekend keeping my coughing children away from Caden, I didn't really get any good pictures. But I do have an updated picture of all the Burnett grandchildren. It's a little difficult to get them all together, so this is the best shot I could get. We had a fun weekend hanging out with all the cousins. We mostly battled to keep them from clawing at each other but it was still really fun to get together. It's crazy how fast the family is growing!

Caden, Jade, Cohen, Cole, Keith



Cohen licking the frosting bowl and "helping" Grandma make Uncle Clint's birthday cake.

Grandpa and Jade just hanging out. Jade is the sweetest baby ever. Keith dove at her several times and she never flinched.

Grandma teaching the 3 oldest boys how to play the piano. I hope it doesn't take her too long to degrease those piano keys...

Experiments

Motherhood requires the use of the Scientific Method every day. You are presented with a problem (typically several), you propose a hypothesis, you set up and facilitate the experiment and then you receive your outcome. Sadly, my outcomes are seldom what I intend, as proven this morning at 1:00 am.
My experiment went a little something like this...
I really wanted C and K to go back to sharing a room (in separate cribs). We split them up 2 months ago to get them sleeping through the night. It worked initially but has never been consistent until recently. We have had perfect nights for over a week. Therefore, I hypothesized that I could put them back together again. It took monumental effort to carry out my experiment. I went to Home Depot yesterday for the third time this week and finally acquired the right parts I needed to assemble the dinosaur crib that we borrowed from my parents. (Just because it is old, does not mean we are not grateful. :))
I spent the majority of yesterday afternoon assembling said dinosaur while two toddlers shook, rattled and rolled between and underneath all the loose parts. I think Cole may have swallowed a bolt. Time will tell.
So, I finally got the blasted crib put together and was ready to test my theory with the afternoon nap. Bad idea. I will spare you the details, but within 10 minutes, Cole was back in the pack 'n play in the guest room and Keith was so distraught that he never took an afternoon nap. I therefore never got a shower yesterday, which is beside my point but still important for dramatic effect.
I decided to reattempt my experiment at bedtime. Since Brent was out of town on business, it was a good night to test my theory. After about 45 minutes of chatting, yelling and trading pacifiers, they both finally fell silent and after an hour, they were both asleep. Victory!!!
After dumbing myself with 2 hours of The Bachelor, I retired to bed. My scientific hopes were dashed when my dream was interrupted by a child shouting for attention. I raced into the nursery just hoping that Cole had not awakened Keith. But once again, I was very wrong. He was leaning over so far into Keith's crib and yelling into his ear, it's a wonder he didn't fall on top of his brother or at the very least, deafen him.
There was no chance of them going back to sleep at this point, so I had to split them up again. Both boys screamed since each had lost his bed buddy, but seriously, I had to get some sleep. I didn't really mind that they had interrupted my dream though. It was really more of a nightmare. I had given birth to identical girl triplets. If night awakenings aren't enough birth control, dreams like that certainly are.


I came home the other day to find Brent teaching the boys how to carry out some experiments of their own. They were catapulting toys from the top of the banister--all under the pretense of teaching his sons "cause and effect".
This was all well and good until Cole realized that his favorite bear was now in the entryway and he would have to slide down the entire flight of stairs to retrieve him. I guess he is learning dad's lesson the hard way.

Catch up

OK. Brace yourself. This is a long one. I'm pretty sure my family is going to kill me for allowing so much time to lapse between posts. I know it's bad when even Brent is harrassing me to update our blog. He is usually satisfied with ripping on me for catching up with all of my "blog buddies." I'm struggling to keep up with all of my New Year's Resolutions and therefore blogging has slipped to about number 50 on my list. Here goes...recap of Christmas vacation:

Brent and I had an amazing get-a-way to Leavenworth right before Christmas. We left C & K with my parents and took advantage of being sans toddlers for 24 hours. Leavenworth is the cutest little town. It looks like something straight out of a Norman Rockwell setting.

We were all ridiculously spoiled on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. C and K are certainly never lacking in the toy or clothing department. Here they are making the rounds on the truck "Aunt" Alison gave them.

Brent took them for their first sleigh ride which was fun until he face-planted both of them in the snow. Perhaps next time we'll try putting them on a real sled instead of a boogie board.









Brent made the most of the freezing temperatures and copious snowfall over the holidays. He went ice-climbing twice with my dad and went skiing for a few days with his brother and dad. Here are a few pics of him scaling the frozen falls.















The boys and I made our own fun hanging out with the fam while Brent was away.










One of the highlights for me was getting professional photos taken of the boys. Mary was AMAZING! She just followed the boys around the house while they did their thing and she got some incredible shots. Here are a few of my favorites:

Keith














Cole














Undoubtedly, a fabulous Christmas vacation. Now we are back into the full swing of things at home. Here's to more frequent posting for the rest of '09!

The Squirrel Slayer

One of the squirrels that recently inhabited our attic finally met his match this week. Armed with a Pay Day, a headlamp and raw gumption, Brent successfully trapped the beastly pest and released him in nearby green space.
Unfortunately for us, our foe had a friend. We didn't even have one day of peace before another squirrel was scratching and clawing its way among our rafters and wreaking havoc with our wires and insulation.


Like any true Man's man, Brent suited up once again and dared to enter the squirrel's lair. Armed the second time with wire, gorilla glue and newly acquired trapping experience, he sealed up any possible pest entrances around the roof and reset the Pay Day trap. Hopefully our home can now deem itself a true "Rodent-free" zone. But now that Brent has effectively battled birds and squirrels, he's prepared to take on any creature that dare defy him.












Incredibly, my husband boasts talents even above squirrel trapping. He somehow made time in his busy rodent-hunting schedule to take us all to Zoolights. The zoo puts on a pretty spectacular light display for the holidays. The boys loved it in spite of the cold weather and drizzling rain. They kept pointing at all the lights and babbling incoherently.













Brent also took the boys to their third and final football game of the season. I'm preparing for his football withdrawal come mid-January. How will we possibly fill our time on Monday and Thursday evenings and on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 9 pm?











The boys are up to all kinds of new tricks lately. One of which is wearing this Santa hat. They love to put it on and take it off of themselves and each other. Then they want me to wear it and then take it off. It's an exhilarating game as you can probably imagine. It's a good thing they look so cute in the hat or I would tire much more quickly.

Give Thanks

I'm grateful for a husband who lives to entertain his sons.



And who strategically leaves his coke cans in low-lying places.

I'm grateful for Uncle Bryce, who takes great care of his nephews.

I'm grateful for a mother-in-law who patiently teaches me the ropes of cooking turkey and prime rib. Only the Burnett men cannot survive on turkey alone.

I'm grateful for grandparents who love spending time with their grandsons.




I'm grateful for the most perfect and happy sons I could ever imagine.


And for a husband who is man enough to set the table.