Morgan’s 4th Birthday

Morgan is 4 years old today!  I can’t believe that he is already 4.  That seems like such an older age since I have memories of when I was 4.  I guess that makes parenting even scarier now that I know that he will have lasting memories of the good times along with all the times that I mess up.

My birthday is in the summer and I always loved having swimming parties.  We meet up with his cousins last night for a swimming party.  It was originally intended to just be a party in the hot tub.  It ended up being a fairly cold day.  Mary and I sat on the side of the pool and watched the bright idea unfold from the kids to jump in the pool.  We just let them do it.  You know how you get so hot in the tub and then can jump back and forth from cold to hot.  The pool was in the 60s.  I’m sure that it was freezing.  I’ve attached videos to permanently memoralize my great parenting skills… hardy har har.  Still, what kid in Dallas gets an outdoor swimming party the first week of March?

Afterwards we told everyone to take showers & baths.  My new technique for still shooting the boys in the tub is to tell them to put as many toys as they can in their laps.  Privacy issue solved!

Morgan had a Batman cake last year.  Thank you Dan for picking this up.  I didn’t feel like putting together a cake this year.

This is the beginning of the tent

I made for the boys.  They have been playing in it for the past hour and calling it their bathroom.  Who knew that a bathroom has so much play appeal to preschoolers.  Here’s Andres crawling through the “door”.

I'm Not Your Friend!

I'm sooooo tired of hearing "I'm Not Your Friend!" from the two older boys. It's a constant banter around here.  I just did a little desparation research online and evidentally this is the most common taunt thrown around by 4 year olds. There's an article that teaches responses. "I'm not your toe!" So, now we are practicing how to respond when someone tells you that they are not your friend. We've gone through all the body parts now and the boys think that it is funny. The article goes on to talk about breaking the mean cycle and diffusing it with humor. I've also already been doing something like this with the name calling which is constant. I'll hear one of them call the other one something and it goes like this:


Morgan: You are a stinky face!
Gabriel: No I'm not!
Me: No, I AM a stinky face!
Morgan & Gabriel: NO! We are the stinky faces (break into fits of laughter!)

Gabriel just told me that he learned the word idiot from transformers.  Great... uggg. I'm tying to ignore the boys now calling each other idiots right now. They are also telling each other words that are bad words.  You know, the usual 4 year old cuss words: butt, shut-up and poop.  I swear, I never use these words around the house.  If anything, they should all be saying crap.  I accidentally say that all the time. 

Both boys are now pretending to have birthday parties at Chuck E Cheese.  They are hanging bead necklaces that Morgan made on Andres and pretending that they are candy.  Then, they drape a dishtowl on his head for the crown.  Legos are the birthday cake.

This picture is a month or so old. But, I'm too lazy to upload a new pic from my phone right now.

Ok Moms!  I'm open for advice.  Tricks of the trade anyone?

New Dog!

Soooooo.... we have a new dog.  Our sweet little pomeranian died this past Christmas.  Dan and I had talked about getting another dog and decided to wait a few years.  That was until last night.  Dan went to the ranch this past weekend and brought this little cutie pattootie home.  I told him no on the phone and then fell in love with her.  Drat!  Ironically, we had talked about a lab.  And, Morgan's favorite color is black.  We haven't come up with a name for her yet.  And, we have a vet appointment in an hour.

I have three very sweet but VERY much boys age 3 and under at the house.  Morgan's friends Gabriel and Andres are here with us during the week.  Here is a video of Gabriel's big freak out when he first met her.  He is obviously also in love with her.  He wants to name her Buster.  I wasn't able to catch Andres on video.  But, he was hugging and hugging the dog until the older boys just booted him out of the way.

This dog is such a sweetie. 

This is Morgan's first introduction.

All three boys had their own cart at Petco and the cashier complimented me on their behavior.  She said that she's had moms in with just one child that were more rambunctous than my three.  I'd hate to meet that child!  I felt like I was herding cats.  But, I will agree with her that they did a great job.  I was very proud of them. 




Mom, I know that you get these updates via email.  Remember that there are vidoes in them :)  Go to http://www.morgancox.blogspot.com/ to see everything!

Zoo and Other Wonderful Pics

We’ve been having a pretty serious Lego problem in our house.  The problem is that Legos are ALL over our house and it takes me 45 minutes to clean them up each day.  Then, I still find Legos for days and days.  A quick trip to Ikea for a cheap-o table and the Lego store for the Lego plates solved that.  Now at least the mess is contained.  Yea!  Problem solved.  Next!

Morgan’s newest thing is making insanely crazy faces.  So, of course I tell him to make a face every time I take a picture of him.  I actually tell all the boys to make a silly face.  You’ll see lots of silly face pics in the future.

Now, this is just plain wrong.  We had a ton of snow days last week and the week before.  I saw this while driving.  Yes, look closely.  Those are two girls walking down the street in bikinis.  What!  Where are their mothers?!?  Now, I just sound old.

Morgan’s cousin Bret joined us for a couple days.

He sleeps with his booty in the air just like Mary did when she was a kiddo.

 

 

 

Is this the Star Trek sign?

Silly Faces

 

Here’s Andres and Gabriel with the Lego table.

We went to the Dennis Lee puppet show again this year.  The kiddos wear PJs.  I think that the theory is that they will go right down for bed afterwards.  I roped Cathy into joining me and she took Morgan and myself out for Mexican food afterwards.  So, it ended up being a late night for Morgan.

Morgan said that he is a strong man!  He wanted me to look at his muscles.

 

 

Lollipops from the bank.  Yum!

This is my new favorite pic of all time.  I took Morgan for a blue slushy at Sonic.

Morgan spent the night with his cousin Darby and Mary took them out for dinner.

Bret got into the stickers.

The boys LOVE to go to Costco.  I think it’s the samples.  Morgan calls this the cold room.

We joined the Kelsey kids for a playdate and lunch.  Thanks Melissa!  That made for a very quick and fight-free, complain-free and whine-free morning…. so nice!

This is just such a sweet picture.  The weather has been so beautiful.  We’ve had the windows open for the past few days and all three boys have been napping in their undies/diapers.  I remember napping in my undies with the windows open when I was about their age.  It’s funny how I can actually feel the memory.  It’s one of my favorite ones.  I love the sounds the wind makes in the screens and the birds outside.  We are also close to the elementary school and we can hear the children playing outside at recess.

Andres really loves yogurt.  But, he can’t yet quite figure out how to push the gogurt up.  I freeze them so they are more like push ups.  I usually end up dumping his in a bowl.

I swear that I give Gabriel a bottom sheet, pillow and blanket every day.  This is what he was down to when he finally fell asleep.

Andres pulled our barstool over on himself.  Morgan, Gabriel and I waited in the waiting room while Andres was x-rayed.  No broken bones!  Yea!  I was so relieved.  This picture is very deceiving.  They actually sat still and watched the video for just long enough to take this picture. 

I can’t seem to get the kids to keep their clothes on!  Ha!  They are always way too interested in seeing what each other has on their underwear.  They are VERY into transformers and super heroes.  They pretend to be whoever is on their underwear.

Dan and I took the kids to the zoo today.  It was a huge success.  The boys love the zoo.  I’ll have to elaborate more later.  I can hear an escalating, “I’m telling on you!” coming from the other room. 

Yep, I now have two little boys in their underwear jumping up and down at my feet.  Gabriel is yelling, “we are nudeo!”  It’s a good thing the weather is turning warm.  I give up on clothes on them.  Ha!