Dino-Mania

It's official. 

The Dinosaur craze has finally reached our home.

I knew it would happen eventually. Have you ever stopped to think about how many things targeted at kids feature dinosaurs?  The boys have several outfits with "cuddly" looking dinosaurs printed all over, a unnaturally large percentage of children's books and shows feature them as the main characters, other usually non-dino related cartoons like "Dora" and "Go Diego Go"  have episodes on "rescuing" the extinct animals and the number of dinosaur toys in our house has climbed from 0 just a few months ago to almost a dozen in a very short time.

I'm not sure if the imbalance of testosterone in our house has led to the dinosaur explosion (how sexist of me to assume the dinosaurs are a boy centric toy, right?) but over the last few days a favorite game of our little princess, between reading books about dinosaurs and watching shows on them, is pretending to actually be a dinosaur. She especially loves ROARRRRRING  loudly at Max and Alex (who love it almost as much) and stomping around the house dino-like hoping to intimidate us with her scary roar and sharp "claws".

Somehow when I pictured my little girl playing pretend it didn't include mimicking an extinct prehistoric reptile.   Oh, well. At least I'm not having to deal with the seriously scary kid toys.... like Bratz. Yet.



 

Which is most likely to cause long term damage?

And Just Then Alex Realized What His Brother Meant by "The Wingman"

Better Late Than Lazy

After a quick glance at our poor neglected blog this afternoon I realized that I've only posted two other times in July! I guess we've been on a summer vacation of sorts and frankly when we've finally put all three kiddos in bed the last thing I feel like doing is sitting on our increasingly slower lap top (must be all those pics slowing it down.. note to self- burn pics to a CD before the whole thing crashes).

So for a rundown on the latest................

Patrick is forever busy with work, work and more work. In addition to his regular job, he will begin teaching a freshman level course next month. Luckily it will be during work hours so not a lot of additional time to put in during the weekends or evenings (besides prep) but it will be interesting to see how this new responsibility will play into all the other projects he has going on.

I've been contemplating taking a course in the fall (one of the benefits of Patrick's job being a couple of free classes each semester for self and spouse) but the trick is finding something I want to take in the evenings or weekends. So far I've found a Women, Politics and the Media class that looks interesting and another on Politics and Film with a concentration on the Middle East. Nerdy or not, I am a perpetual student at heart but I'm not sure whether I have the concentration (and time) available to dive into a course which will undoubtedly require several lengthy papers. We shall see. Something tells me I should probably sit it out at least one more semester.

Sophia is ,as always, her  wonderful, challenging self. She forever amazes me at the amount of knowledge she is soaking in daily and is by the same token constantly challenging me to stay one step ahead of her in terms of creative approaches to parenting a clever but willful little child. Although it can make it difficult for us as her parents, I'm definitely proud of her independence and her natural abilities as a leader.  They are traits that will serve her well as an adult.

Alex has transitioned from being a baby that most would likely describe as fussy to the most easygoing, gentle, happy of our three kids. Although he is constantly in motion (and on the verge of crawling any day now), he always has a very sweet disposition and easy smile.  In terms of personality it seems as though he'll likely be similar to his Dad... charming, down to earth and very calm.  Seems like he's becoming the  easy child I prayed for! (Who could handle three strongwilled children after all?)

Max is definitely the "baby" of the family and a momma's boy at that (which incidentally I love!)  He is most often described by others as a flirt and is constantly giggling or sharing his beaming smile with everyone.  Although he is not as mobile as his brother (but seriously Alex is crazy busy!) he is extremely curious and is constantly grabbing and pulling at EVERYTHING to investigate things further.  He's at his happiest being cuddled and held (and will loudly let you know know just how disappointed he is if feeling ignored) and reminds me most of a teddy bear... chubby, loveable and very sweet.

So that's it for now.. no exciting trips to exotic destinations to recount.  Just our ever evolving little family and the fun we have sharing daily life together.

One Eye Wonder

So there are a few reasons that I haven't posted in some time

1) We spent a few days back home with Grandma and Grandpa Campos (when did I start referring to my own parents as Grandma and Grandpa?) and had a great time visiting and celebrating Tia Sonia's birthday (there I go again..can't I just call her Sonia like a normal person?)

2) While in Carlsbad I forgot neglected to buy the one thing I'd forgotten while packing.. Contact Lens Solution... which led to my sleeping in contacts for a few nights resulting in a very nasty eye infection. (Not sure why I didn't just buy some contact solution. I was at the store plus it only costs a few dollars! Guess that's what I get for being lazy about caring for my eyes.)

3) While I was recovering from my nasty eye mess Sophia came down with a mysterious illness. No other symptoms other than a fever that just would not break. Even without additional symptoms the fever led to a few vomiting episodes (she always gets sick to her stomach when running a fever) and an extremely irritable two year old.

So in summation what's more fun than caring for twins and a sick toddler?

Caring for twins and a sick toddler with the use of only one eye.

Fun stuff!

Now that I've regained sight in both eyes and Sophia's on the mend I have to play catch up from the weekend and the few days since the weekend that we've been out of commission.

Somebody get me a job so I can take a break from all this work!

Swiper Strikes Again.

It's a well known fact that Sophia is a paci kid.  Always has been, and at some points I worried, she always would be. She not only loved the thing like a dear family member, she was truly addicted to it. Feigning for it is an understatement... she HAD TO HAVE IT to go to sleep, rest or otherwise function normally. Sadly I must admit I was her biggest enabler. Letting her have it at undesignated times (any time other than naps and bedtime) just so she'd be happy.  Honestly I felt like she'd been through so many changes in the last year (move to a new state, new home, new bed, potty training, new siblings etc)  that if she wanted her paci while watching Curious George far be it for me to take away her comfort item. Let the kid have some small joys in life. Hell, if I had an equally effective way to self soothe I wouldn't readily give it up either.

It was because of her notorious love of her paci that last week's events came as a complete surprise.

Monday morning she was on her usual hunt for a lost binky. Although we have a just in case stash of them she was looking for one in particular... the pink and orange one. I had decided to not play the enabler that morning so when asked as to the whereabouts of said binky I feigned ignorance (although I had just misplaced it a few minutes prior). Suddenly Sophia came up with the only explanation she could think of for what had happened to her binky...

Swiper the Fox must have SWIPED it!

And just like that she had created for herself a way to say good bye to her long cherished friend. No tears, no tantrums, no whining, no mention of the several other binky's waiting in reserve.....NADA.

Just a nice scenario, that we talked about in detail that day, in which Swiper came along and swiped her binky... for the good of a nice baby named Joe (also another element of her choosing) who was badly in need of a paci and who later thanked her profusely for being such a big girl and giving hers away.

And that was that.

Well that and the new Dora bike helmet she is getting in exchange for being such a big girl.

I must admit I have been lucky with that little one.  She not only adjusts to change amazingly well but with each milestone in her life has found a way to take a step forward without much assistance or intervention from us.  As a baby she weaned herself from nursing without any steps taken by me.. she was just done and ready to move on seemingly overnight.  Then later she transitioned from a crib to a toddler bed without so much as a complaint and a couple of weeks after the boys were born she decreed that she was done with diapers and virtually "potty trained" herself in a matter of days.  

This latest transition was the biggest surprise to me. Admittedly I was dreading it. I had anxiously  envisioned the hard and long fought battle that would surely ensue as a result of banning her long time, favorite lovey .. but true to form she did it in her own time, on her own terms.

I wonder what she'll outgrow next?

Goodbye and farewell old friend. My little girl is growing up fast.