When Dad's Away...

the kids go crazy with play!  Not the most clever rhyme, perhaps... but it works.

Matt has been up in sunny Barrow again, this past week, for work. Do you think he will be pleased at the new play toys his little boys have taken up with while he's gone?

Jake has discovered Viva's purse, and both Jake & Viva have decided it's fun to wear my heels around the house:



Bentley AND Jake (more Jake, to be honest!) are going crazy with the tea set we picked up for Viva at the toy store today:




And Viva is wondering why her brothers can't just leave her toys alone and go play with their cars.

Wait?  They have time to monoplize her toys AND spend hours with the ones she doesn't like so much?!  Life just isn't fair sometimes, Viva!

Come back, Daddy!! You're missing out on great fun.

Block Mania(cs)

Built entirely by Bentley, with no help:


Hello.  I am Kara, and I am a bit obsessed with building blocks.  I'm not sure why, but it happened!

You may recall reading that Bentley has really gotten into building lately. He had been having fun with the Jenga set of blocks so I decided to use some of the kids Christmas gift money towards some nice quality building blocks.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I first typed building blocks into Amazon. I'm the type of person that tends to over research and analyze before committing (paralysis by analysis, anyone?!) to a decision, so it was a rough couple of days for everyone in the house while I shared all the fascinating block trivia I was discovering. I think my family members were ready to pay me $$ to be quiet about it and just decide!

I'll try to sum it up shortly. Some building blocks come in a "standard block size" (which is a specific unit measurement) or some ratio on the standard block size. This means that all the pieces in the set will stack nicely and fit together exactly.  The kids can "see" the ratios and fractions and how it all comes together.  Good for the brain, more fun for building! Some building blocks are not standard unit block sizes, more just a huge set of pieces that only kind of play together. I decided I wanted standard unit blocks. But, then, how to pick which ones?! Brio, Plan Toys, HABA... all make nice blocks, and fun sets you can "add on" to your blocks with, but all of them use a slightly different ratio of the standard block. So they won't play together nicely.

I'm sure you'll be interested to know I decided on Plan Toy blocks, because I found another brand with fun colors to make the basic block set a little more fun - and, awesomely enough, the other brand uses the exact same dimensions!  Quite a serendipitous discovery - and at the local toy store, no less!  Not online at Amazon!

My children have obliged their crazed mother, and they seem quite taken with their mountain of blocks. I am happy they are getting in some good unstructured play. They are happy they can build huge towers and then knock them over and hear a huge crash. It's a win win.





Looks fun, doesn't it?!  And you can see that boys of all ages love blocks. Even Viva started getting in on the block action today.  She isn't quite as coordinated as her brothers (yet), but that's okay.  She'll get there.

Want to know more about block sets? Email me and I'll save you hours of research.  :-)  I'm told I'm quite the building block sales gal.  The ladies at the toy place offered me a job because I sold someone else on the two sets I was buying while I was in the store!

Growing Up Fast

Jake is looking awfully mature lately:


That, combined with his cuteness, convinced the Grandparents and I that it was time to let him get behind the wheel!

I bet his 16th birthday will be all too soon for me. :-)

Could Bentley be Maturing?!!

As mentioned in yesterday's post, earlier this week I pulled out the finger paints. Genevieve, of course, was happy to participate in my newest art project. Jake was a little (a lot!) more on the reluctant side, but he did share his prints with us.

And the really weird part? Bentley volunteered to try it. And he's asked for repeat experiences since then. His idea of finger painting is rather literal. It involves simply finger tips being dipped in the paint. BUT, still, I'm quite proud of his newfound willingness to get his hands dirty in the commission of an art project!

His creation with those cute little finger tips? Gorgeous!

Sunday, Sunday; Not a Fun Day

Our church meetings start at 9AM. This is not fun when you have three toddlers in the household. You have to yank the poor little tykes out of their slumbers and stuff them in church clothes and stick them in a cold car seat and then the real fun begins: 70 minutes of refined tortured. How long will Viva hold out before she has to be taken out of sacrament meeting because she's too loud? Will Jake make it through the entire meeting? (Sometimes he does! Viva never does.) Bentley is an old pro at the game and does great. Except today...

Today Bentley threw up during sacrament. There we were in the middle of the row in the middle of the congregation and Bentley starts throwing up. I grabbed a diaper and we sat there until he was done because what else could we do? We weren't on the end of the pew so a quick exit was not possible. Eventually the entire Altman-Enzenberger Clan got up and left. Four adults and three toddlers parading out during the middle of the high councilman's talk. Kara and I brought the three little ones home and left Mark and Matt to make explanations for our circus performance and to try and clean the puke off the pew. (The pews are less than six months old!)

This is the first church meeting the children have attended this month because all three children and Kara and I have had vicious (super snotty) head colds for over two weeks. Kara asked Matt to let the nursery workers know the children are not purposefully avoiding the nursery. We wouldn't do that. They called a new nursery worker when Bentley, Viva, and Jake moved into the ward. Seriously.

It's an unusual ward. They had two nursery workers and maybe ten children in the nursery, four of whom moved on to Primary at the start of the new year. That left a walloping six children in the nursery, nine with our threesome. Nine children require three nursery workers? Just what rumors preceded the twins move into the nursery?! They are quite well behaved in nursery--when they attend. In our old ward there were only two nursery workers called for 10-14 children. Of course, I was always there with Bentley, so they had an extra set of hands.

Since I started this post Jake has thrown up, too. Maybe we will get "lucky" and all three will be sick simultaneously rather than in series. I know how to count my blessings even when the children are sick!

Bentley who tells us he's fine now. He hasn't thrown up since church this morning (four hours ago).


Jake who looks and acts sick.


Viva who we all are watching closely.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We did hand print art earlier this week. Jake & Viva each contributed to one half of the heart. Even Bentley got into the spirit of things and made a few valentines with his hands and finger paint!

Group Photos

It's very difficult to take a good photo of all three children. Someone is usually looking away or moving out of the frame. Here is a recent attempt:


I told Mark to grab the camera when I saw all of them sitting in the cupboard together. He didn't get the perfect shot, but two out of three looking is pretty good.

Here's another shot of the threesome playing together:


Kara's mini Dell computer has them captivated. Since the goal wasn't to get them to look at the camera but rather to capture a candid moment, this shot can be labeled perfect. The trio is perfectly happy and perfectly adorable. Yes, it's a perfect shot!

The VivaJake Pair

It's hard to talk about one twin without bringing up the other one. When I wrote my Viva! Viva! post, Jake's name kept coming up. I had to go back and edit out some parenthetical comments that I made about Jake because the goal of my post was to talk about Viva.

Obviously the twins interact together a lot so telling stories about one twin will often necessitate the use of the other twin's name, however it is not necessary to always be comparing one twin to the other. Viva likes the church nursery. Jake does not. Jake has a hard time teething. Viva does not. Viva mimics words. Jake does not. Jake likes waffles. Viva does not. It sure is hard to break the habit!

It's not just parents and grandparents who compare twins one to another. Whenever someone learns that I have a twin the first question out of their mouth is "Is she like you?" They aren't simply asking if we're identical twins and look alike, they are asking if she has my personality traits. Are there two of me roaming the planet? Why people think like that, I can't say. Perhaps it's a great fear of singletons that someone else is JUST LIKE THEM!?

Viva! Viva!

I've been devoting a lot of blog space to Jake lately. Bentley, too, got his fair share of print recently because it was his birthday. Viva has been neglected. I will try to make up for that today.

Viva is quite different from her brothers. She is not very interested in their favorite toys--balls, blocks, cars, and trains. She will play with the boys' toys for a short time, but not for nearly as long as the boys will. Her attention moves on. She likes stuffed animals. She enjoys watching the boys wrestle each other, but doesn't like being tackled herself.

She likes the computer and the phone when she can get her hands on them. The boys will sit and look at photos or videos on the computer, but Viva isn't as interested in looking. She wants to touch and experience.

She throws little tantrums when she doesn't get exactly what she wants. She's not loud or obnoxious, but she makes it very clear that she's not going to settle for less than what she had in mind. The problem is we adults aren't always clear about what's in Viva's mind. What does she want?!

She's still a great wanderer. She likes to move about. She likes to explore the house. She doesn't sit in one spot for very long. She will take out a game or puzzle and spread the pieces around and then leave. She loves to go on outings. She's very excited when it's Friday morning and Grandma Karen comes to get her for some one-on-one time.

I call her the chaos creator. She likes making messes. But, to give her credit, she is better at cleaning up than her brothers. She likes to help out. If you ask her to do something, she usually will. She's very sweet.

She likes her doll and sometimes takes her for stroller rides. She has to outrace Jake when she does so because when she uses the stroller Jake then wants it. He's not interested it when it's sitting stationary in the corner, but once Viva puts the wheels in motion it becomes a desirable object. Viva fights Jake for the stroller. Lots of other toys she hands over to him or even throws at him while running in the opposite direction, but she doesn't hand over her stroller.

She likes to color with her brothers. She usually enjoys the church nursery. She doesn't enjoy puzzles yet. She likes books, but would rather read them herself than be read to.

Viva is starting to talk and will mimic words if she's in the mood. Today she called Jake by his name. It's so cool when little toddlers start talking. It's simply amazing--what a phenomenal feat it is to learn to speak English (or whatever your native tongue is). I wonder what tales she'll share with us when her vocabulary is large enough to describe her thoughts.

Jake the Despot

This post is part two of a series. Part one (which you should read first) is posted below: Jake Rules. There had better not be a third in the series. DO YOU HEAR ME JAKE?

Jake was at it again last night. Having practiced two out of the previous three nights, he was in top form while the rest of us definitely came into the contest tired and beaten down.

It started at the usual hour—between 1 and 2AM. I was woken up from my slumbers by a few pitiful shrieks from the room next to mine. I listened to see if he would roll over and go back to sleep. Nope, there he went again. I got up and went down the hall, but by the time I got to his door he was quiet again. All right! I listened at the door and heard lots of labored breathing (all three toddlers currently have head colds), but I heard no more shrieks. I happily went back to bed. Five minutes later he started up again, this time in earnest.

I headed back to his bedroom hoping to get to him before he got to his sleeping siblings. At first I thought I was successful in my goal, but when I reached to nab him from his crib, his twin popped up in hers. She took one look at me rescuing her sibling and she started wailing. She was serious about her discontent. As I stood there and pondered my options (I was tired and couldn’t think what to do), she got louder and louder. Jake at this point was quiet because he’d scored a rescue.

Then Kara made her presence known. I think she had been standing outside the door listening to the mayhem, waiting to see if Viva would lay back down. Bentley meanwhile was starting to make a few noises, so we skedaddled out of the room with the twins. I took Jake and Kara took Viva. Jake was quiet as long as I held him. I could hear Viva crying and crying and crying. She was not willing to be pacified even if she was in her parents’ bed. I heard footsteps come down the hall for a diaper and then come back and go by the door for bottle. Eventually Viva quieted.

Meanwhile Jake was being quiet, but not going to sleep. After a while I told him to be good (i.e. don't disturb his opa) and I’d go get him a bottle. He slowly downed the bottle, taking it out of his mouth every so often and shaking it. He did not fall asleep while sucking it down--bummer. I was running out of tricks to get him to sleep. I tried to put him back in his bed, but he started crying before I even got to my bedroom door. I didn’t want to risk waking Bentley, so I gave in to his blackmail and let him stay.

Eventually Jake slept and I slept. You’d think a toddler who kept you up half the night would be tired and sleep in, wouldn’t you? But no, he was up early. Or at least earlier than I wanted to be up. He woke up shrieking. I tried cuddling him and that did stop his shrieking, but he wasn’t very cuddly. He was into head butting me. He likes to arch his back and use his head as a ramming butt. It’s not very comfortable at the receiving end of the butt. One of his favorite targets is another head.

I lied in my last post when I told you that he sometimes flails his arms and inadvertently hits you. There is nothing inadvertent about it. He purposefully aims to hit someone. Sometimes he even tries to gouge out eyes. He can be very ornery some nights. And not only at night--when Jake has had a bad night he gets furious the next morning when you unzip his sleeper to change his diaper and put on his day clothes. He screams and kicks and does everything in his power to keep that sleeper on. Not the smartest move on his part since tempers are already short from lack of sleep.

My goal today (after taking a nap) is to find a dentist who specializes in toddlers. Surely they have some method for speeding along teething?!

Jake Rules

One night last week Jake had us all up. Every last member of the household--even his great-grandma whose bedroom is two floors below the rest of our bedrooms.

It was 2AM(?) and everyone was happily sleeping until Jake woke up. He shrieked a few times. I heard him. His parents heard him. We decided to see if he'd go back to sleep on his own. Big mistake.

Jake escalated his shrieking. I broke first and went in to see what the problem was. By this time not only was Jake awake and unhappy, but Viva and Bentley were also awake.

As soon as I came into the room Bentley asked me if he could come to bed with me. (Bentley has a deal with his mom. He has to go to sleep in his own bed, but if he wakes up during the night he can come to our bed.) I told him that I had to take care of Jake first, but then I'd come back for him. Bentley did not trust me. He's discovered we adults often get sidetracked and don't always come back. He wasn't letting me leave the bedroom without him.

Kara arrived in the bedroom about then. She went over to comfort Viva. I had Jake, so I headed out the door to my bedroom with him and Bentley. Kara trailed after us with Viva trying to convince Bentley that he ought to go to bed with her instead. (She was concerned about her father's reaction to gaining two new bed companions.)

Bentley lost it and started sobbing. He didn't want to deal. He just wanted to go to bed. Mark woke up. He's not at his best in the middle of the night. He barked out some statement about being quiet or leaving. Meanwhile I'm standing there with unhappy Jake and Kara has unhappy Viva. I bark back at my spouse--"Don't you think we ALL want to sleep?!" Even Jake wanted to sleep, I'm sure.

All the children calmed down with a little extra attention and then we all went to sleep.

Jake's been going through a bad patch lately. He's had a bad head cold and he's teething. Again. He is an agonizingly slow teether. He can work for weeks on cutting a single tooth. He seldom cuts two at time. He'll be a little fussy during the day and very cranky at night until finally a tooth will pop up--and maybe disappear again for another few days. It's miserable.

Viva cuts teeth with incredible ease. No one is even aware that she is cutting teeth until a perfect little pair pop out and sprout up overnight. Then another pair and another pair. She has a nice, complete (for her age!) set of teeth.

Not so Jake. He's still working on his canines. They keep him up at night. Then he keeps us up. I trade off with his parents. Sometimes they take him to bed with them in their queen-sized bed. Sometimes I take him with me in our king-sized bed. Those extra sixteen inches of bed are important when you have a toddler or two join you!

Jake's not the best bed companion. He's usually restless and he throws his hands out inadvertently hitting you in the face. Over and over. Or he wants to play. That is so not going to happen in the middle of the night. Not even I, the grandma, indulge that wish.

The next night Jake slept straight through the entire night without waking. HOORAY! The following night was another bad night. I went and got Jake from his crib when he started shrieking. He was quiet for a while (his mom brought him a bottle), but then he started his arm flailing. It was Saturday night which is the one night a week Bentley is allowed to go to sleep in our bed. So who do you think Jake hit in the face? Bentley sat straight up, rotated 90 degree and flung himself across his opa. I'm not sure he even woke up--it was an unconscious, defensive move.

Unfortunately Bentley is too tall to sleep perpendicular to us (a king-sized bed isn't that big!), so I had to move him back to his original position next to Jake. Then I moved Jake to the bottom of the bed between our feet. He couldn't roll off and he couldn't hit anyone in the face. Brilliant! I should have figured this out weeks ago. After Jake was deep asleep, I slipped him back into his bed.

Sometimes when I think Jake's asleep, I get up to take him back to his bed and his little eyes pop open. If I take too many steps towards the door he starts protesting. Loudly. He's a sharp one. It's a good thing I totally feel for him and his teething problems. I HATE TEETH PROBLEMS.

His mom's not nearly as sympathetic as I am. She thinks he should toughen up. At 19 months?! This is why children need their grandmas. Parents can be so harsh. It's a parent's job to prepare their children for the cold, cruel world. Grandparents are helpful to cushion the process--make it a little easier for child and parent. Especially at 2AM.

Table Manners

If you don't have any toddlers in your home right now you've probably forgotten just how entertaining their eating habits are. I prefer to use that term to others that are equally appropriate: lacking, messy, appalling.



First there's the coordination problem. A young toddler needs lots and lots of practice to build the skills and muscle memory to successfully take a spoon of food from their bowl to their mouth. Depending on the day, they can lose as much as 80% of their food to the table, highchair, bib, and floor. I understand now why a lot of cultures prefer sticky rice. The other day when we fed Jake and Viva buttered long grain rice it was a mess to clean up. After making the mistake once of feeding Bentley couscous, I've not ever served it up for the twins--tiny, dry, round balls?! What was I thinking? It took weeks to find all the hide-outs.

Jake is much more skilled than Viva is with using a spoon. This might be because he has had more practice because Viva often chooses to use her hands rather than a spoon. This is okay when eating large pasta noodles, but not so great when she tries to scoop up soggy corn flakes. Jake sometimes eats with two spoons.


Here is a rare shot of Bentley eating:


I say rare because the boy rarely eats. When he does he's a very neat eater. He does not like getting his hands or face dirty. Jake tends to be like that, too. Viva likes to be messy. She has no qualms about getting her hands sticky, gooey, slimy, greasy, whatever. I'm sure that's a useful trait in lots of career fields. I don't see Bentley becoming a sculptor or massage therapist or meat ball roller.

Here's a final shot of Jake demonstrating his newest eating habit:


He makes us laugh when perhaps we ought not to. Ms Manners would surely find his antics totally unacceptable. Yet, how is a toddler to make sense of our eating customs? You can eat bread and cookies with your fingers, but salad and pasta must be eaten with a fork or spoon.

Will it be harder or easier to teach them table manners when they are older and we can discuss the whys and wherefores with them? Our conversations with Bentley lead me to believe it won't get any easier.

Stashing

What is with little boys and their treasure hoards? Both Bentley and Jake like to hide the match box cars. Bentley used to do it to keep the babies from playing with them. Now Jake does it to keep Bentley from playing with them.

The other day I was in the kitchen when I noticed Jake was doing circuits from the family room to the living room. I followed him to see what was up. He was taking one car at a time and hiding it in the oven in Viva's Little Rose Cottage.

He had built up quite a pile when Viva became interested in his journeyings. She trailed him to the living room. A short scuffle ensued over the oven. Viva would open the oven door and Jake would slam it shut. After a few rounds of this Jake had had enough. He picked the oven up and moved it five feet away.

This was a brilliant tactic except for the fact that the oven is missing a bottom, so Jake left his hoard unprotected in the cottage when he moved the oven elsewhere. Some days are like that.

Here's a couple of shots I took a little later when Jake had once again moved his hoard and Viva had once again attempted a take over.



Viva really couldn't care less about the little cars. It's tweaking her brother's temper that's fun.

Unstructured Play

Kara was reading an article yesterday that asserted that young children who enjoy abundant unstructured play grew into more intelligent and well-adjusted adults. I googled to find out more on this theory. Not only did Scientific American run a recent article on the topic, but wikipedia discusses it, too. I read that unstructured play is voluntary, repetitive, personally directed, and with no clear goal. Play time here at the family home usually meets all those criteria. (Unless you're the adult that is recruited to play hide and seek yet again--then it's not really voluntary. Pressure is definitely applied to keep you in the game.)

Kara (and I totally support her in this) believes that children should be allowed to run wild for a good portion of the day. Oops...maybe I should state that a little differently. Kara works hard to make sure that the children get the perfect combination of supervision and freedom to explore their world. The main floor of the house is as safe as we can make it for toddlers and they are allowed free reign.

What do they do with their freedom? Last week when my mom's dresser was temporarily stashed in the living room near the couch, here's what Jake and Bentley did:




Bentley was quite disappointed when his mom moved the dresser downstairs. He wanted it back in the living room.

Recently I took out an extra play pen that I owned. I wanted to take some photos of it so that I can sell it on craigslist. I set up the play pen and got out the camera and -- very odd! -- all three grandchildren demanded to be put in the play pen. HUH? I let them play for a while, but then I took them out to get my photos. They pulled their high chairs over from the table to climb back in. Craziness.


Then Bentley decided it'd be fun to stuff all the couch cushions in the play pen. It was a tight fit and Viva decided it wasn't so fun any longer.


Here's a Viva and Jake play moment:


Aren't they the cutest pair?

I think we at this household have unstructured play down to a fine art. The toddlers are very good teachers.

Wild Jake

Two weeks ago I told you about Jake's new trick of climbing into Viva's crib. I had to put a stop to it, but I gave him one last chance to perform his spectacular stunt so that I could get the in-house photographer to record it. Opa did a great job of catching the action. Jake performed with a big smile and great style.





Is that boy wild or what?! Bentley has been heard to say "Jake, You're such a boy!" It's quite amusing when little children pick up our sayings and use them appropriately. Bentley says this when Jake is acting wild. He never says it to Viva. Viva, while the adventurer of the family, is not wild. She is careful and keeps her distance when the boys are on a rampage. She enjoys watching them go wild, but she does not usually join them.

My Three Year Old

Is....

a logical little guy

a bit defiant sometimes

gentle on occassion

still wanting to please me

known to say thank you with out prompting

a bit more commercialized than I had planned (obsessed with Thomas, Cars, and Kung Fu Panda - how did this happen?!) :-)

eager to say the night time prayer

a crazy kid running wild with his little brother

always (mostly!) looking out for his little sister

still a very picky eater, on wild days will try something new

incredibly articulate

possessed of some very funny thoughts

happy and full of energy

a DELIGHT!

Bentley & Birthday Fun

Bentley is 3!  I find it hard to believe, myself - I'm not sure where the time went. Gone is the tiny lump of a baby and here in his place is witty and charming three year old! Craziness.

As has been the case for the past few years, not only was today Bentley's birthday but it was also Great-Grandma's birthday.  How cool is that, to be able to share your birthday with someone in the house?  I think it helps him relate to the twins better.

On Friday night Aunt Karla, Koltan, and Cheyenne (cousins) came into town, to take Great-Grandma to dinner.  Or was it to build with blocks and play hide and seek with Bentley?  Bentley, and the twins, have a great time with their cousins who are good sports and play lots of fun games with them.  It made the birthday weekend even more special to have them stay at our place Friday night and be here for part of Saturday too - thanks guys!

Great-Grandma had a strawberry cake on Saturday (birthday day!):

We had a party in the early afternoon with extended family, it was a great rambunctious time.

In the evening we had another cake, a brownie one at Bentley's request.  To make it more festive I outdid myself this year and put M&Ms on top of it.  :-) He blew out all 3 candles at once, what a pro!

Bentley is an excellent present open-upper now.  He quite enjoyed ripping into them.

I did a good job picking the matchbox car racetrack.  It's a good thing it has 4 lanes so it can, if the kids are being friendly, be shared!

On Sunday evening we had a delicious dinner, more cake, (a brownie/toll house cookie checkerboard one) and presents with Grandpa Tim, Grandma Karen, and Tyler.

It was a great birthday weekend full of sugar - it might take us a full week to unwind from all that extra goodness we consumed.  :-)

And how did Bentley end his birthday fun? Suited up in his new Thomas sleeper, he played a game of bowling on the Wii and then played a game of Go Fish with Grandma, Dad, and Mom.  A good way to start a new year of being three!