Simple updates

We've been having an interesting time around here. Recently we had some friends over, and their little girl Lorelai is Christopher's "girlfriend". Also, whenever Christopher tells me about what he's going to do when he grows up, he includes Lorelai as his wife. He has even told me that he will buy her her very own car, and it will be blue (incidentally, MY favorite color). And he will take her to the temple - after his mission. It's very funny when he gets going.

Also, Christopher and his dog have succeeded in completely anihilating his room. I woke up the morning before our guests were to arrive to find reams of paper (yes reams, I found the empty packages to prove it) tossed around in huge stacks, mingled with all of the toys from his shelves, all of his arts and crafts supplies, his bedding, his clothes, and the stuffed animals from the toy hammock. Incidentally, the entire mess managed to stay in his room excepting the stuffed animals, which somehow - perhaps being the toys with legs enough between them - must have walked themselves throughout the house, as they were in every room. Seeing as how I had other things to do that day to get ready for dinner guests, I hacked a path down the middle so I could reach his dresser (which I then realized had no more clothes in it!), then I walked out, closed the door, and locked it. I just decided I was not going to deal with that right then.

And you know what? Between my three boys, I haven't gotten enough sleep the past few days to get up the gumption to clean it yet, so it's still there, and Christopher is quite happily having campouts on our couch until I can reach his bed. I really need to get to that soon though, because with the loss of the orderly clothes drawers I can no longer find any of his underwear or pajamas. Why I can find pants, shirts, socks, and even capes but not those is beyond my ability to understand.

On a baby note, Alexander is now a pro thumbsucker, but thankfully only when he's sleeping. And he's getting skilled at that rolling thing. I thought they didn't do that until they were older than this, but I must obviously be wrong since he has already rolled himself over in the mornings and rolled off of where I set him. He is also starting to chew on things. And he babbles incessantly. His favorite chatting partner (besides Mom) is that "other baby" in the mirror. That other baby is obviously a comedian in the making, judging by how much Alexander laughs at him. Somehow, everything he does seems to be sooner than Christopher did it. Maybe I forgot. Maybe I notice better this time. Maybe he's just faster and will be into things and into college before I can blink my eyes.

Speaking of which, people told me that Christopher would look huge after Alexander was born. Well, it didn't work. Alexander looked enormous, and Christopher as I remembered him suddenly seemed like such a tiny little baby. And it has stayed that way, until lately. Christopher has either grown, or I've just noticed that he had. Because he is suddenly SO BIG!!! I scoop him up to hold him, and he's more than half my size! Where'd my little boy go?!?!?!? Which is so weird to me, because his behavior is getting more infantile, and his size is getting more adult. Ever since I had kids, I've had so much more sympathy for my mother. And it's reaching a whole new level as I say to myself, "He's growing up!" One of these days I'm going to wake up and he'll be driving my car, or packing for college. I'm sure as my mom is seeing Joe pack up to head to BYU, she's thinking "Wasn't he just 4 yesterday? I was sure that he was....." and I'm sure I will be doing the same thing soon.

Speaking of the boys, about once a day Christopher gets this compelling desire to hold "my baby brother". It won't wait until the baby is fed, or awake, or whatever. When he has to hold his brother, it's an immediate, urgent need. I don't know what it is. When I mentioned it to my mother, she said that one of my siblings did a similar thing. About 4:00 in the afternoon this one child would say "I have to chase my brother!" and would go chase him! Weird! But whatever it is, Christopher has it. And so about once a day he holds his brother. Pictures below.

So, in other news, Bryan and I are the oddest couple. It seems that the best course of action is for me to find him a job and for him to clean the house. We have always agreed that I should be home with the kids. But still, just to go over some options, I asked him the other day if I could get a job if he can't find one by the time our finances have run out. Christopher overheard that and started crying and saying he didn't want me to go away and not be with him. That, of course, sealed the deal. I'll never go to work now! (We hope!) But back to me and Bryan. I decided one morning to just see what kinds of jobs are out there. Bryan saw me at it. And we've never stopped. I look for jobs, I fill out applications, and he does the dishes and holds the kids. Weird, huh? It makes me laugh. But then, who better to sell his good points to someone else than me, right?

We've all been going to the park lately as well. Sometimes I take the kids, sometimes Bryan takes Christopher and Onyx, and sometimes we all go together. It's been fun, and when it's not fun, it's still satisfying because we're out and about. Bryan and I are trying to be more active and get back in shape. I am determined to get in good shape again. Nine months of complete inactivity are terrible for a body. I didn't realize until I started working out how much pudge I have put on and how terribly unused to work my muscles were. Since I was married I've put on 35 pounds. Considering that I was about 10 pounds underweight before I had Christopher, I happily kept ten pounds after he was born and was a good healthy weight. After Alexander was born I weighed 20 pounds more than that. And in the last few months, I've added another 5 pounds. But I figure that if I have to gain a little muscle weight before I loose a little pudge, that's totally fine. And since I've been more active, I've noticed a great increase in my muscle tone, especially on my poor squishy tummy. I'm happy that at least I'm going to get THAT back. *Girly giggle!*

What else is new? Alexander is sleeping AT night, about 6 hours in a chunk, and then eating but not really waking up every two hours thereafter. So his sleep cycle is a total of about 12 hours. If only my other boys would let me use all of that time!!! Oh, what wishful thinking! Christopher has discovered the old "Inspector Gadget" series. Well, ok, he didn't discover it. Bryan started it. I blame him. And now Christopher wants to be given "missions" because he is "Little Gadget", and daddy is "Big Gadget", and I have been dubbed "Mommy Gadget". And here's a bad mommy admission: I don't play, and pull the "I don't know how" card as much as I can. Only Daddy Gadget can make up missions, in my opinion. Not only am I not a fan of such inately boy-all-boy-ish games, I am also even less of a fan of incompetent secret agents; although as I am exposed to more secret agents, I am beginning to believe that there are only super-smart or super-incompetent ones, both of which are mysteriously just as effective. Who knew?

I took the kids to the zoo with my friend Lisa last week. That was interesting. Nothing special, the boys mostly just got a kick out of being at the zoo. I base that observation on the fact that neither one spent more than .5 seconds actually looking at any one animal. They didn't even try to catch the convenient ones, like peacocks or pigeons. But wow, that dirt off the path! You'd think there was nothing more enticing! And that fake turtle! Wow! The real, living, breathing, even moving one behind them? Not worth noticing.

Well, I think that's most of the news I can contrive to share at the moment. I'm sure there are other tidbits that I'm forgetting, but I suppose that they will just have to wait - until I can remember them. With the amount of sleep I'm getting, don't count on it being soon. =)

Here's Alexander attempting to chew a toy that he commandeered.
He actually clutched that toy in his arm for quite a while.

Here's Lorelai and Christopher at the park together.
They were both having a blast posing for the camera on that slide.

Here's the kids having a pajama party while waiting
for the other set of parents to take away the pretty girls.

Christopher and his faithful companion settling down
for a campout on the couch.

Their faces say it all.
This is how they each really feel about this daily brotherly moment.


Although this one sadly turned out fuzzy, it's my favorite.
I love my boys.