I want to remember how every night Caleb has to dictate the order of goodnight kisses. It usually goes kiss, nose kiss, noogie, back noogie (only Dad does those), eyelid kisses, then a hug. Although it's always exciting when he mixes things up.
If Leah was my only child, I'm afraid we'd lay on the couch all day and just snuggle up in blankets to watch movies. I want to remember how she LOVES LOVES hugging and snuggling and getting her arms or legs tickled. She especially likes to be nice and warm under a blanket.
I want to remember the day Zachary had been put in time out and was not happy about it. While he was waiting out his three minutes, I decided to run through a piece on the piano for our upcoming Christmas program. This upset him even more and he started yelling at me to stop. Then after a minute of that he screamed, "MOM STOP PLAYING!! I'M TRYING TO CRY!!!" Of course I stopped and busted up laughing.
I want to remember when I was introducing the raffle tickets to the kids. I was explaining how they earn the tickets which is through listening and obeying. They have to earn three tickets in order to get some of their Halloween candy. So I was reminding Zachary that once he had three tickets, he could cash them in for candy. Then he started whining and following me around. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I want some cashemins."
I want to remember when I went into Leah's room after nap one day and laid down next to her. She was quiet for a moment then said, "Mom...we're girls together. You're my best girl."
I want to remember how Caleb started to scream at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night. Of course I sprinted in there thinking he accidentally broke an appendage. Come to find out he had been having a bad dream. His two most recent 'nightmares' have been that Zachary ate all his eggs and that his Lightning McQueen car was lost. Those would be nightmares to a three-year-old I suppose.
I want to remember how the clothes in this house go on and off like a light switch. Between the kids totally undressing to go to the bathroom to shedding clothes because of the heat or a splash of water on a sleeve, I'm surprised they have anything left on by the end of the day. So when we said they needed to take off their shirts to bob for apples, they were all about it! For some reason bobbing for apples became an obsession for the kids when we started into Halloween books. So we made their dreams a reality. We had to do apple slices though because whole apples were a bit to big for toddler teeth.
I want to remember our friends Michael and Marisol and how they love to bake holiday cookies with the kids. Easter, Valentines, Christmas, etc... They've done it all. They don't care about all the mess so I just sit there and enjoy the show. This was the kids' first time to try candy corn. Of course Zachary loved it and smothered his cookies with them.
I want to remember how everyone was shirtless again to carve out our pumpkin. Sadly we didn't visit the pumpkin patch this year as we have in the past but now that the kids are three, they aren't free anymore! So all the sudden our pumpkin trip is over $50 whereas I can just get a $4 pumpkin at Walmart. The trio liked the activity to an extent. NONE of them liked the inside guts...but who does. Unfortunately our pumpkin suffered a torrential rain storm and went into the garbage shortly after because of mold. Yuck.
I want to remember how I hit up almost every city library to pick up all the decent Halloween books. We can only have them a week so I don't feel bad having a ton of them. The trio loved a book called Monster Mischief which was about monsters making Halloween stew. So we invited some friends over and made some monsters ourselves.
I want to remember the trio's first real Halloween. Although they like to pretend to be princesses and superheroes, we forget that they are still three and sometimes fantasy vs. reality isn't quite separated for them yet. I put on my witch dress and told Caleb I was Mother Gothel from Tangled. Then I tried to give him a hug and he flipped out. Literally flipped out. He went to his crazy place and I couldn't say or do anything to convince him it was me (I had a hood on but no mask). He was screaming hysterically and clawing at me while I tried to hold him. I finally grabbed his head, shook him and looked right in his eyes saying it was just mama. He came back from crazy town and kept saying over and over, "it was just you mama." I totally traumatized him...not on purpose but I didn't think he'd actually think I was Mother Gothel when he could see my face. I felt so bad. He was the same way meeting Santa Clause. Went to a total crazy, psychotic place and could not be reasoned with. He's never actually seen or read anything with Captain America in it so that's probably why he chose to be that for Halloween. It was merely an idea to him and he could make Captain America whoever he wanted. And he was a very brave heroic Captain America. One week later and he's still saying he doesn't want me to be Mother Gothel. Poor Guy.
Leah was Cinderella this year although I was sure she was going to be Jessie. Caleb can be convincing and he kept telling Leah she should be Cinderella. She finally caved and tuned into her girly side. She still sleeps with her Jessie doll though. Zachary was Spiderman and he fit the bill. The muscles in his costume helped make his thin figure look more bulky. He felt pretty tough and liked to pretend to shoot webs.
We went down to Clark's office for their annual trick or treating family party. The kids made a haul considering almost every cubical had a bowl to choose from. Most employees had left for the day and just left the candy. There were five floors full of candy bowls multiplied by three pumpkins. Needless to say....we came home with a ton of candy.
On actual Halloween night, Michael and Marisol volunteered to walk the kids around their neighborhood which is apparently much better than ours as far as candy and participation. I happily agreed and they all left while I sat on the couch and read a book. The trio had just as much fun doing that as they did answering the door and handing out candy. They stayed up way too late and I paid for it the next day but it was a really fun night so I suppose it was worth it (Zachary is wearing a Transformers mask...we couldn't convince him otherwise).
And my last Halloween memory will be the craft the kids made at Michael's Craft Store. It was crazy chaotic in there and supplies were going fast but we managed to come away with three crazy-looking pumpkins that the trio were very proud of. The picture I took is about the 20th try. I just wanted all of them to smile normally, or at least I told them that, and this is what I got.
I want to remember all the fun and laughter we've already had on our 'new' tramp and we've only had it two weeks!! I love tramps. They are so full of memories for me and I can't count how many hours I spent on mine growing up. Looking at the sky, sleep overs, fake gymnastics competitions, etc... When I jump with the kids I go right back to my childhood. The first night we had the tramp it rained really hard. I had wanted to scrub the tramp because it was leaving a black film on everyone's clothes and feet. So when it started to rain I headed out there with a brush and dish soap. I scrubbed and scrubbed which helped tremendously but in the end I was soaking wet. As a result, I just started jumping in the downpour! It was so fun! Just one of those moments that are necessary to invigorate and rejuvenate you! Some get that through fast cars or bungee jumping...mine comes through jumping on the tramp in the dark, cold rain. :) Clark did join me eventually even though he might not admit that.
We were given this tramp from a ward family and of course Clark had to give the kids a rundown of how 'crack the egg' works. Then of course wrestling and tickling ensued.
I want to remember how hilarious Leah is when she plays with her tea set. She is SO proper and polite. We put water in the tea kettle and that just makes her day. She wants so desperately to play with her brothers and involve them but we've already had two broken pieces because they are not so tender with porcelain. So I wanted to do a trial tea party run with a friend to see if I could leave her for things like this in the future without her panicking that her brothers were abandoning her. Me and the boys played upstairs for the 20-30 minutes that the party took place and Leah did not want to leave when it was over. Obviously leaving her in the future won't be a problem!
I want to remember how the boys have a HUGE collection of PEZ dispensers from Marisol. Marisol somehow scores the coolest ones and loves to present them to the kids. PEZ dispensers are usually what Zachary chooses to sleep with. Ha! They've now added a Batman and Buzz to what they are holding.
I want to remember how funny it is that three-year-olds have no concept of time. So we could set our Christmas decorations up in April and they'd be super excited! We told them Halloween was over and now we are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas so they were more than happy to help get out all the Christmas displays for our annual 'first weekend in November Christmas kickoff.' Some would say that by doing this we are not giving enough attention to Thanksgiving and the purpose of it. However, we love the excitement BOTH holidays brings our home and the kids LOVE the tree. So why just enjoy it for only one month? Plus, we are incredibly grateful for the Christmas season so the two totally play in together. The first tree to go up was our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Then the big one went up. We'll wait to set up the kids' smaller tree when we go on our family Christmas getaway to Oklahoma.
Let the holidays begin!
