Bath time

Kendel went up to take a bath tonight. The girls went up shortly afterwards to see her and this was the result...it should be pointed out that no bath was planned for them tonight :-)

Random Pics

 They keep growing up!

Funny pic

This is Taylor's impression of Kendel when she hasn't had any coffee.  I think it is pretty funny.

Terrible 2's? I think NOT!!

 This was written by Kendel some time ago but never posted.  It sums up Erin pretty well at the age of 3.


Erin Erin....I love you so.....but you are driving me nuts!!!  :-)



Really..why do they call it terrible 2's when it's really age 3 that is a KILLER!!!  Erin is going through that terrible stage where she wants to do everything herself and yet she can't and gets SUPER mad if you try to help.

Sept Update #3 - Taylor

What a great kid Taylor is turning out to be.  She is in 1st grade now and loving it.  She rides to bus to school every day which breaks the seating up by grade to separate the older kids from the younger ones but Taylor sits as far back as she is allowed in the 1st grade seats and waves to us the whole time the bus starts heading down the road.  It is very cute.

What comes to mind when I think of Taylor is that she is always listening now so Kendel and I now have to watch everything we say.  As an example, I took the girls to dinner with my parents the other night.  My dad was talking about an Irish woman who lives in Australia and went out to a bar and never made it home.  It was all over the news in Ireland while they were home so he has been reading all about it.  Taylor never said a word throughout the discussion which went on for 5 or 10 minutes but as soon as we got in the car to go home, I was asked no less than 100 questions.  Why did she not go home?  Where is she?  Is she lost? What if they can't find her?  Are they looking for her?...I had to try to put a positive spin on it even though the woman was missing almost a week and in all likelihood, no longer alive. I could not say that to Taylor (made that mistake once about a boy who had a bad accident and died) so I kept saying that she was lost and trying to get home.  She seemed to buy it and the real test was that she went to bed ok that night.  With the story about the boy, I told her too much because we were going to a fund raising event for the family and I wanted her to understand why we were doing that.  She was asking her typical 100 questions about the event and she really didn't sleep well for a week after I answered most of them truthfully.  That will not happen again until she is older :-)

One of the things I am enjoying most about Taylor right now is that she and I do her homework together every night.  She is so smart and I love seeing her apply what she has learned in school.  The other day, she started her math homework while I finished something up in the office and had about 20 addition problems to do.  She brought me the paper completed before I got to the table and she got them all correct.  She has been reading to me each night too as she usually comes home with a book or two each night.  I love seeing her learn new words and read books that are quite difficult for her.  I love helping her to learn new words and watch her try to process the letters in her head as she is reading for the words that she doesn't know.  She is so smart and I love it!

Some pics of Taylor...

Pic 1 - Taylor you need shots today...

 Pic 2 - That wasn't so bad...

Pic 3 - Taylor's 1st and last day of kindergarten.  What a difference!

Pic 4 - Modeling a hat while shopping with mommy

Sept Update #2 - Erin

"Oh Erin"....that pretty much is what I say to myself every time I think of her.  She cracks me up.  She does and says the funniest things.  I often find myself wondering what goes through her mind that makes her do and say these things. 

She went to the dentist the other day and right to pre-K afterwards (more on school in a minute).  Kendel was away for the day eating her way through the Big E (her annual girls day out) so Avery and I had to pick Erin up at school.  She was really excited to show me all of the goodies that she got after her cleaning so she ran into the TV room when we got home to unpack the bag.  I was in the kitchen getting Avery squared away when Erin screamed from the other room...."Daddy, what the earth is this?"  She was referring to the appointment schedule that the dentist put in her bag but clearly that should not have been there.  It was very funny the way she said it.

It was akin to her recent comments on a girls night away with mommy in Providence.  Kendel tries to take Taylor and Erin away for a night once or twice a year because she doesn't get as much time as she would like with the older girls as Avery can be so time consuming given her age and stubbornness :-).  During the trip while all three were in the hotel room, Erin said to Kendel, "you know why it is good daddy isn't here?  Because of his stinky armpits".  Classic Erin.  It was followed by another comment on the same trip when they were all getting ice-cream..."hands off, this is mine stinky pants".  What makes that comment great is that Kendel and Taylor did not even ask for a taste.  The comment was followed shortly after with "Ow, brain freeze".  The bottom line is that when Erin speaks, you better listen because what come out of her mouth could be hysterical.

As for school, I am home with Avery again today because Erin has school and it is a volunteer day for Kendel to participate in the classroom.  Erin was very excited to have mommy attend.  Kendel had to get her fingerprints taken at the police station over the summer to be able to volunteer throughout the year which makes sense I guess but is just something that would not have crossed my mind before kids.  This year is going much better than last.  Erin loves school and is excited to go everyday.  I think part of it is because she goes to the same school as Taylor so it probably makes her feel like a big girl, like she is in the big girl school.  Last year Erin attended Connecticut College in New London.  What was funny about that school was that Erin always used to say she was not in pre-K, she was in college.  One of my favorite stories about that school was that the kids had two tasks every morning...wash their hands and write their name.  Erin with her short name and all the practice she had writing her name was very good and usually done very quickly.  While I was waiting to talk to the teacher one day, another kid was asking for help with his name and when he held up his paper which had his name typed at the top so he could copy it (as did all of the kids' papers), I couldn't believe my eyes.  The kid was trying to write "Mhi Blessin".  I was convinced it was a nickname or a significant typo so I called Kendel on the way to work.  She told me I must have been wrong but she confirmed the name later that day.

To make the story even better, not long after that, I attended a parent student event that involved lunch and doing some of the day to day activities the kids were involved in.  One of those activities was yoga so Erin and I were doing yoga with the rest of her class in a big circle.  Not all of the parents were there and one of the kids that was sans a parent was Mhi Blessin.  To say he was out of control was an understatement.  By the end of the yoga session I think he had 2 aids trying to keep him under control.  I came to the realization that this boy clearly had no structure in his life and as I thought about it more, the reason was very easy to figure out.  When you name your child Mhi Blessin, he clearly walks on water at home and does whatever he wants! 

Anyway, with the end of the school year and having an opening in the school that Erin was going to end up in for Kindergarten, we thought it was a good time to make a switch.  Erin is clearly much happier.  While I was typing this, she arrived home from her day so I asked her how it went and she just said "it was great!"  She is a great kid and makes me laugh everyday.

Some recent pics of Erin...

Sept Update #1 - Avery

It has been a while since we posted anything so here are some daddy updates...

Avery's vocabulary has exploded recently.  Not all of it is used correctly (e.g. "uppy" means put me down) but she is talking non-stop now.  It is worth mentioning that I am using the word talking very loosely here.  Most of what she says is screamed all the time especially if you don't listen to her right away when she starts talking.  It can go a little something like "Daddy, DAddy, DADdy, DADDy, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY" and it doesn't stop until you acknowledge her.  It is pretty funny.

As for her words, I know I'll forget some but here is a bit of a list...Daddy, Mommy, Mama, Car, Kodi, LaLa (Taylor), Uppy, Duice (Juice), baby, nigh night, loud, bouk (book), more (naturally), bink (her binky), woa, out, no, no way (her new favorite phrase) and many more.

It should be worth pointing out that I have been trying to get her to say "I love daddy" for months now and it is not going well.  The conversation goes a little something like this.

Me: Do you love Daddy?

Avery: shakes her head yes (most of the time but not always)

Me: Say I love you Daddy

Avery: No, no way

Anyway, Taylor was close to two before I got my first "I lul lou" and I will continue the fight with Avery because when she finally caves (and she will) I'll be very happy.  Kendel approaches this very differently than I do.  She has always waited until I break the baby in with an "I lul lou" and then just says "say I love you Mommy" and she gets a quick response.  I like to tell myself that my I lul lous mean more considering I badger the children for at least 6 months before I finally hear a proper response.  Here is a quick video of one of these encounters...

As you can see, I still have a long way to go.  Good thing I am dedicated...I will break her eventually.

Avery is a little over 1 1/2 now and she is so much fun right now.  I do feel she will be the hardest 2-3 year old of the three of them because she is the most stubborn but right now is a lot of fun.  One of my favorite things is watching her walk to the bus stop every morning to get Taylor on the bus.  She pushes her baby stroller and baby to the bus stop every day.  It is very cute.  I am really enjoying watching her grow and how much she loves her sisters and how much they love her.  It is great to see.

One other fun thing about Avery (before I forget)...the girl is obsessed with shoes.  In the past 3 hours, she has come into the room wearing no less than 5 different pairs of her sisters shoes and my flip flops

Some other pics of the goofball from this year...