The Baby - day 2 of bragging about my kids

We are all in love with Baby Dodge. He is such a happy, smiley, sweet, easy-going baby. This easy-going-baby thing is a new experience for me. Search and Destroy were nothing like this kid and I didn't know that babies like this existed. At least not for me :) I feel SO blessed to have him and I love him to death. Here are some of the things he's been doing and learning:

1. He has a major tongue obsession. I think it's the age, but you rarely see him with his tongue actually inside his mouth. He got his Dad's tongue for sure, long and pointy. He loves to give wet kisses which I adore.

2. He's a good little hugger! But that doesn't mean you just get a hug, he leave a little love mark in the form of scratches on the back of your neck. But I'll take them if it means a tight squeeze from Baby D.

3. We're all a bit slow here in the Madsen house. Baby Dodge just turned 7 months and he has just mastered sitting up. But I still hesitate to leave him, so maybe he hasn't quite mastered it yet. He's slowly but surely learning to move around a get to where he wants to go. Let's be honest, I'm in no hurry for him to be on the go! That means baby proofing which I haven't even thought of yet!

4. He's huge! He's always been big, but seriously. The kid wears 12-18 month clothes already. He's a big boy.

5. He likes to suck on his toes. Note: please don't try this at home. It's only cute when you're a baby.

6. He's a good sleeper. He goes to bed at 7, wakes up around 5 to eat, then goes back to sleep until 7:30-8. He still isn't consistent with his naps, but I can count on a good 2-3 hours every couple of days. Other than that it's 40 minutes.

7. He endlessly adores his brothers despite their poking, sqeezing, dragging and licking (see previous post). They are not the hands-off type of kids so it amazes me that he doesn't complain more. He just seems to eat up whatever attention he can get. They drag him, roll with him around the room, try to pick him up, try to sit him up, leave him to fall over, the list goes on. These three were a match (matches?) made in heaven.

8. He LOVES to jump. He has a doorway jumper and a play-jumper and he'll sit for an hour in them at a time.

He loves it so much that it puts him to sleep...

9. He still has an odd-shaped head. When he was a newborn he favored turning his head in one direction and developed a severe flat spot on one side of his head in the back. And now, even though he sleeps on his tummy and side, it still hasn't gone away. I refuse to invesigate the correct-baby's-head-through-helmet though, so his head will just have to round out on it's own.

10. He does The Wiggle:

The Middle Child - day 1 of bragging about my kids

We love our middle child. He's sweet, handsome, energetic and smart.

And he has been doing all kinds of stuff:

1. It is not uncommon to find Search pretending he is a cat and giving his baby brother a bath by licking. Whether or not he thinks he is a cat is unsure, but the baby is often covered in lick marks of saliva.

2. He can successfully pee the bed every night.

3. He loves to spell three letter words. You give him a short word and he'll happily sound it out and write it down for you. He does not enjoy learning to read so much but can be coerced with a cookie. We're all about bribery 'round here.

4. He is proficient at changing his attire at least 6 times a day. He single-handedly keeps Mom's laundry business successful.

5. Drawing and creating are among his favorite activities. All people he draws have large hands with 5 long fingers. He loves using the stapler and the tape dispenser. Lots of tape.

6. He is ridiculously good at MarioKart. This does not reflect well on his mother because it simply means that I am too tired to find other forms of entertainment for him when he can so contently play video games. Because...

7. Other than playing MarioKart, watching a movie, playing games on the computer and licking his baby brother, he has a seriously difficult time entertaining himself.

8. When he does something that he deems brilliant, he triumphantly says, "genius!"

9. He does a wicked flip on the trampoline.

10. The child has yet to develop a sense of patience. For lunch. To get there. To get here. For Mom or Dad to jump on the trampoline. For a snack. For Mom or Dad to push him in the big swing. You get the idea. We will be forever grateful when he overcomes this.

11. His daily fulfillment of interaction is no longer limited to his family. We hear, "Can a friend come over today?" everyday. And most days the answer is NO!

12. He loves to eat. He'll eat practically anything (which is such a breath of fresh air compared to his older brother). One day I sent him to school with a sandwich, some apples, some broccoli and two little cookies. What came home? The cookies because he "didn't have time to eat them". What kid does that?

13. Search is the only kid I know who can discern pillowcases by their thread count. If you give him a pillowcase with a low thread count, he'll strip it and toss it on the floor. And as cute as he looks in jeans, he refuses to wear them. He clearly has a sensitivity issue.

14. He loves preschool and is a great listener. He loves being part of the group and following directions.

15. Search tells us everyday that he loves us - unprompted. It doesn't get much sweeter than that!

A Funny/Sad Story

My children have always had, um, soft dookie. This makes going #2 a not-so-clean experience. So, until kindergarten, I've always been there to help Destroy "take care of business" by doing the wiping. It helps to eliminate unnecessary messes. BUT it does not teach the child to take care of his own business which poses a problem for when the little bird has to leave the nest.

So, rewind to wednesday. Destroy comes home, tells me about his day.

D: "Travis got a bruise this long on his leg today", showing me with his hands down on his shin where this alleged bruise was.

M: "How did he get it?"

D: "Oh, he got it in the bathroom."

M: "In the bathroom? What was he doing?"

D: "Well, he slipped and fell."

M: "Was he running or something?"

D: "No, he was just walking into a stall to go to the bathroom."

M: "And he fell and got a huge bruise just from walking into the stall?"

D: "Yeah. Well, and there was water on the floor."
M: "Water? Why was there water on the floor?"

D: "Well, it was from me."

M: "Did you pee on the floor again?"

D: "No, the toilet overflowed."

M: "What? Did you put something in the toilet that you weren't supposed to?"

D: "No, I had to go poo. Then after I was done I wiped myself but then the thing ran out of toilet paper. So I had to go out and get some paper towels."

M: envisioning Destroy waddling out to get some paper towels with his pants half-way down (he has yet to develop a sense of modesty)"So you used paper towels to wipe yourself after you used up all the toilet paper? How much toilet paper did you use?"

D: "I think about 12 wipes. But it (the poo) was still there so I needed some paper towels."

M: "So then you flushed the paper towels after you used them?"

D: "Yeah, and then the water started coming up and then it overflowed onto the floor. And then Travis walked in a slipped on it and got a bruise this long on his leg." Showing me once again how long it was.

M: writhing in disgust thinking of the poor kid who had a run-in with sewer water. "Well, did you tell your teacher?"

D: "Yes. She just said that next time I should tell her that I need toilet paper and she told me not to use paper towels ever again. Oh, and she also said that I don't need 12 wipes either."

Moral of the story: Always teach your children how to wipe themselves before they head off to kindergarten. If you don't, you might be liable for other children's injuries.

Kindergarten and Who's Who?

Here's our big kindergartener! They started Aug 12 (I know, crazy) but he's still adjusting. He's learning the ropes: listening, following directions, sneaking toys to school and getting as many girlfriends as possible. His favorite teacher? The bus driver. Not even a teacher.

School is from 8-2:30. No half days here! Early mornings, with lots of coaxing, and short afternoons at home.

We all make the trek out to the bus stop twice a day. Sometimes some of us are sleeping, but it's usually a family event :) Search was probably goofing off in the street or something.

The youngest and oldest look a lot alike! Who's who???

Our youngest and our oldest look a lot alike! Who's who? They look a little different, but the smile is the same.

And the summer ends. Or already ended.

Aaron turned the big 3-0. He wasn't too thrilled about it. I think I'll be indifferent. After all, it's just a number, right? Unbeknownst (is that a word, and is that how you spell it?) to us, it was a pirate party. Arrr!

The pirates were a little crazy. I didn't know pirates were so whiny and messy!

I knew he'd love this one. At least it was ice cream cake so it wasn't a total loss.

Little dude found the thumb since mean mommy won't let him sleep with his binky.

We spent a long day at the King's Island kiddi-land. Some day we'll be able to do adult rides again.
This was their favorite ride. They couldn't stop giggling. Maybe just because it was so late by then. Anything is funny when it's late.
And anything makes you volatile and angry too. Like trying to get out of the ride at the same time when you're 4 and 5. You can see the worker thinking, "Ah! Intervention needed!"

He saves the day and lets them unlock the seat belt with his special key. Wow, I need a special key like that. I think I'd throw it away. You laugh, but I'm serious.
The little drooling, mosquito-bitten, snot-nosed baby did great for such a long day. Seriously, what kind of mother allows her 5 month old to get 6 mosquito bites on his forehead?

Had lots of slip-n-slide fun.

Say no to crack, Search!

And the fun summer ends. Ended.

Just finish this already.

I have zero pictures from our trip to Chico. Auntie Elana takes them all so I don't. But now I don't have them. That's a problem.

So here are some pics from Medford.

Papa, Blake, Seth.

My mom and her two newest grandkids.

Green. We planned it.

Cool babies. Don't you just want to eat those thighs? On both those little munchkins?

My sweet mom and Grandma (Amoo).

One cousin...

Two cousin...

Three cousin, four. But don't you worry cause we have more! (It's a chant. Get it? I crack myself up sometimes.)
We got to see our best buds from Irvine! Search and Tiger Lilly's engagement picture. Perfect. Search looks a little bit freaky.

They are hillaious. We came out into the living room and the two of them were just sitting there on the couch, Search has his arm around her like they were on a date or something. Yeah, I guess they learn things young these days...

Destroy and Snap Dragon making mischief like old times!



The Gardener and Calle Lilly. The garden is expecting their fourth flower next month. You're almost there Gardener!

We had so much fun hanging with our buds. We miss you but we'll see you next june! duh! So there's no need for pictures, Megan :)

My cute boys.

Do these two not look so much alike?