Hands-On Children's Museum--part 1

Today, we went down to Lacey to visit my parents and check out the Olympia Hands-On Children's Museum that I had heard so much about. A lot of my twin mom friends had recommended that we go there as they had all had a fun experience, so since my parents now live close-by it seemed a natural destination. There were so many cute pictures, I decided to break them down into two posts.

They had all kinds of stations around the building and they were so fun! This was the craft room and the twins got to paint with things other than paint brushes. It was messy, but they loved it!

Josiah and Caleb are seated here at the table in the play kitchen area. Many of the other children had loaded the table up with lots of food and other items and Josiah has a very gleeful expression here that I was able to capture.

There was even a smaller tot room where Naomi could crawl around on a soft mat and look at herself in the mirror. I always love getting the mirror pictures and she did not fail to prove that mirror shots are super cute!

I was pleasantly surprised to find they had a kid's stage station where they had lots of dress-up clothes with mirrors for the kids to view themselves, and then a stage with a wooden microphone to perform as well. Caleb of course was the first and only one to dress-up and make his way into the limelight. I didn't tell him he should talk on the microphone, but he knew just what to do! I suggested he wear the cow costume and he willingly tried that on and then found this wooly vest and decided that would be his hat, hence the cow/sheep appearance.

And Daniel who refused a costume, promptly found the "sound booth" and began pushing sound cues for his brother Caleb who was up on stage. It had some fun noises like "thunder," "ta-da," "trumpet," and those kinds of things. You can see how proud he is here that he is running the sound. Somehow I don't doubt we might have a comparison picture in future years with Daniel at a real sound board and Caleb on a real stage. Time will tell!

Caleb tried on the firefighter costume and went back to the microphone to perform again!

Naomi hung out with Grandpa for most of the time because she had fallen asleep in her carseat, but when she woke up, she was very curious and wanted to see all that was going on. She loves to play with Grandpa's hat and was trying to reach his toothpick here.

They had an entire wall of those push pins that make an imprint of your hand or whatever you put on them. Naomi and Grandma are exploring those together.

There was also an ambulance and a trauma unit station and Caleb was very emphatic about calling for help on the red phone. He also took the stethescope to examine one of the sick baby dolls in the doctor's office area.

Hands-On Children's Museum--part 2

Daniel and Caleb found this delivery truck first and were fighting over who would get to drive it. Mommy had to intervene and institute some turn taking to solve the dispute! Daniel was thrilled to get his turn as you can see!

At the building site area, They had some plastic rocks to shovel into the back of the dump truck and Josiah didn't waste any time trying that out! They also had these long boards with which the kids could build a large house. They reminded me of Lincoln Logs, but flat boards instead of round. They had hard hats and pretend tools here as well for the kids to play with.

There was a long train table with wooden tracks and trains for the older kids and they had some buttons that you could press to make various train sounds. Daniel is listening intently to hear where they are coming from. When I showed him he could make them, he spent some time pressing all the buttons over and over.

Josiah liked this area the best and requested to come back there after we had seen the rest of the stations at the museum. He said, "Goodbye" to his trains when he left the area as well, which was really cute!

Daniel was having fun making meals for me in the play kitchen area and here was encouraing me to taste his latest dish he brought over. I love his beautiful blues in this shot!

Josiah was in the garden area here near the store picking some fresh produce. I loved all the walls how they were so intricately painted to fit each area. It was all very colorful and fun!

At the veterenarian station, they had stuffed dogs with leashes in numbered cages, weighing stations to examine the dogs, and a place to give them a bath (minus real water of course). Caleb was getting ready to wash one of the dogs with the long, green gloves.

After the fun day we had at the museum, we went to a little bakery/cafe just down the street and the kids had some donuts with sprinkles to enjoy. It was great fun and it was well worth it to check out the museum! This will definitely be a place to go again and again in the future. Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun time!

Sick Family!!

So, the morning of Jan. 8th, David and I got a BIG surprise....and not a good one! Three little boys with three piles of throw up.....yeah, I know....TMI (too much information)!!! Thankfully the first two piles were on wood surfaces and the 3rd was caught in a towel and not on the couch (thank you sweetheart for that one!) These guys were down and out for that morning and just sat as you see them here (or slept for a bit too) and then come afternoon they were up and at 'em again as usual. I was sort of hoping for a slightly longer respite with them being ill, but it was short lived. I was also hoping that the dreaded bug would pass over me, but come Monday night I discovered that I was not going to be spared. Tuesday was pretty much a non-day for me as I was recovering and then we were all done with it. Daddy and Naomi were the only two that escaped!

Good news for the year though, we seem to have had LESS illnessess than ever before thus far. (Shall I knock on wood just to be safe? Ha ha!) For this, I am very thankful!

Uncle Brent Fun!

We had a surprise visit from my brother at the beginning of January when he was on his way back from visiting our parents. He stayed for couple of hours and we talked and he interacted with the kiddos. Caleb and Daniel decided to try out their new "medical equipment" on Uncle Brent and were checking his ears and blood pressure here. Uncle Brent truly DOES have ear problems, so it was kind of ironic and he was trying to keep Caleb from irritating his ears further and was laughing during the "exam."

It was nice to see him again! We had a visit planned to come up and see him on the 22nd, but he actually got sick and had to cancel, so we will re-schedule again for some Saturday in February to go and visit he and his wife Katie.

Special Moments

Daddy is getting hugged here by all three boys at once and he is sporting his mischievous grin to boot.

Naomi girl is hugging tight to her sweet little BunBun right before going to sleep at bedtime.

Josiah found a fun way to entertain the baby. He got her to sit in the Lego Duplo box and then pushed her in it on the rug slowly with Mommy's supervision. This face says it all...and notice the gripping of the box. She fit in the box very snugly and was giggling and enjoying her new ride. Josiah is doing his silly pose in the background on this one; a very characteristic look for him.

Cute Bath Time Comparison

Naomi is finally getting used to taking a bath now (she used to hate the water and cry when I put her in it). She loves to play with the water and makes all kinds of happy noises now when I give her a bath.

Here is Josiah on what WOULD be in 4 years Naomi's birthday. Thank you for time stamps on the photos! He is about 9 months here in this one, so they are very close to the same age. I looked for pictures of the twins too, but wasn't able to find them off the top (we have LOTS of pictures), but I did find a blog post of them in the bath to share (just click the link).

Naomi Show & Tell--10 month Check-up

I was a little late at scheduling Naomi's 9-month visit, so it ended up being a 10-month visit instead. You can see here if you click on this photo to make it larger that she still only has 2 toofers (as we call them) on the bottom. The doctor said we will likely see the upper two come here soon, but she didn't feel any poking through there at this time.

I took some pictures of her in the little dress that I put her in for her appointment this morning and here she is with her typical happy face playing with her little kitchen that Grandma Walker bought for her.

She makes the funniest expressions and here she is with a nice "ooo" shape to her mouth. She weighed in this time at 17 pounds 9 ounces, which is only a little above the 10th percentile this time (she was nearing the 50th last time). The doctor wasn't super concerned, but gave me some ideas to get some more calories in her, so I will go ahead and do that. She eats a LOT though, so I am thinking she inherited Daddy's fast metabolism OR I have been told by my mom that I was a tiny little thing too at her age (only 17 pounds at a year old). She does LOVE to move and crawls everywhere, so it could be she is just burning the calories!

She dropped off a bit in her length growth too, from the 75th down to a little above the 10th there too. The doctor said it is common to see grow spurts and then lulls in the growing from visit to visit and this didn't bother her at all. You can see her with her serious face on here. I thought this one also accented her beautiful blues too. Her expression here also resembles Josiah years ago when we put a bow on his head for Christmas.

As per the Carpenter clan kiddo usual, she still has a big ol' head! It is 18 1/4 inches around and she is now nearing the 95th percentile in that area. Overall, the doctor was pleased with her progress and just advised to plump this baby up a bit! She loves to eat, so this shouldn't be an issue. We love our sweet little mellow, happy baby girl. She is such a joy! She is definitely living up to her middle name!

Christmas Fun-4

The boys had a blast playing with their toys and of course there were some squabbels about who would play with what and when, but that is just par for the course! Daniel is playing his first computer game here (this is an AWESOME toy that hooks up to your TV and is WIRELESS and he works the games sitting there with the keyboard in his lab and the little mouse). Caleb is still wearing his policeman costume and Josiah is observing the new computer game.

Josiah and Daddy are building the Lego airport here together. Josiah is getting to the point where he can pretty much follow the instructions and build himself. We let him do that on the small items as the only thing that is hard for him now is to sit for long periods of time and finish the project.

Caleb is playing with his boat that he got here. All the boys will enjoy this toy I am sure. They have lots of Imaginext figurines now and so they will be able to use them all with this and the other things they already have.

Daniel is gleefully enjoying his first computer game. I REALLY like this toy as it has them working with the keyboard and all the letters as well as asking them to spell words by prompting them to type certain letters. This is a really great buy for kids in this age range! It was SO easy to set up too...just a few batteries, hook it to the TV and you are good to go and NO extra outlet needed.

Right away when we took the blankets off the mini-tramp, the twins took to jumping. It has a musicbox on it that is supposed to have 5 different games, but as of yet I can't get the setting right to make the games work properly. There is music that plays, but the actual games are not seeming to work yet. I may be able to adjust the settings to where it will work, but it says that depending on the weight of the child that it may have to be adjusted. Since all the kiddos are of a different weight, this may be a challenge. I do like the fact that it has handlebars though as they are safer when they have something to hold onto and haven't gotten any bright ideas yet to jump off of it I think because of the handlebars in the way. They DO love jumping on it though!

The easel will be something we will use for many years to come I am sure. It has a chalkbaord on one side and a whiteboard on the other. You can see the many bins for art supplies beneath it as well as the places for cups of water for painting. On the top, it has a roll of paper that comes down for painting/coloring/drawing as well. This is a very sturdy easel and I would highly recommend it!

And lastly, we have Daniel pushing Caleb out of the way to play his computer game. I thought this picture was really funny and very characteristic of the day. Learning to share is an ONGOING lesson here at our house and days like this give us opportunities to teach that concept. Merry Christmas to everyone of our friends and family who reads the blog! Hope you had a great one!

Christmas Fun-3

Grandma and Grandpa Walker got the boys three costumes for dress-up play. Josiah was an unwilling subject for photography, so I had to be sneaky to get this shot of him in the fireman costume. Later he tried to be a policeman/firefighter by mixing different accesories of the costumes.

Caleb as anticipated was the one who enjoyed the costumes the most. He is giving a mighty, "Yee-Haw," here in the cowboy costume.

This one was so cute on him! He absolutely LOVED the whistle and went around directing traffic around the house and whistling at people. He wore this one the longest by far!

And of course he HAD to be a firefighter at one point too!

It took some coaxing to get Daniel to dress up as it is not his favorite thing to do. Soon after this shot, he said, "I want it off," and proceedd to try and escape the costume by taking his arms out of the sleeves. I had to unbuckle his coat, however, before he could officially escape costume play.

Christmas Fun-2

Here we see Josiah RUNNING down the hall for Christmas morning! There was a false start earlier when we heard me up, but I had to feed baby first before all the festivities, so Daddy went in and reassured Josiah that we would be starting soon and entertained him until I was finished feeding Naomi girl.

The twins weren't quite as exhuberant, but they were still happy for Christmas morning as well. I actually had to wake them up for Christmas morning though.

Here is Miss Naomi on her first Christmas, smiling in Daddy's arms. He didn't want to be photographed in the early morning hours.

Josiah is opening his first gift, an airport Lego set from Mommy & Daddy. This was soon built later after we cleaned up the living room and prepared a place at the table.

Caleb is looking at his doctor kit from Grandma and Grandpa Carpenter here. Right away, we taught him how to examine some patients (AKA stuffed animals with owies) and he was excited to play doctor!

Daniel is opening his gift (a puzzle) from Grandparents Carpenter here and as usual is giving his winning smile to boot!

Naomi is opening her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Walker, a mini-kitchen. Her eyes just lit up when she saw it. Though of course she had no concept of how to unwrap her gift.

Here she is again with Grandpa Walker opening her gift from Uncle Brent and Aunt Katie. She was very interested in this one too as you can see (shape blocks that go in a little box).

Christmas Fun--1

Since there were of course a LOT of photos for Christmas, I decided to break the posts up a bit for an easier read! These are some pictures from both Christmas Eve and one from Christmas day (the above picture). Naomi just LOVED playing with Great Grandma Walker's boa scarf. She was sporting the "diva" look here with her fabulous smile.

In order to get some last minute presents built (cough cough...easel...cough), I asked Grandma and Grandpa to come over and take the boys out of the house. Great Grandma Walker is in town for the holidays and so she came along too and played with the great grandkids.

On Christmas Eve (after they came back from lunch), we got out some of our old puzzles and were playing with the boys. Daniel noticed here that Great Grandma had an "owie" and was asking her about it. I thought it was a precious shot of them together interacting.

Meanwhile, Grandpa was playing with Caleb and Naomi on the other side of the table with the Toy Story 3 toy that the boys got for their birthday. Naomi is smiling at Momma here.

Naomi's attempting to make a call here apparently. I am sure she has a lot to say and who can go wrong with a pink phone! :)

Twin Potty Training

Doesn't that post title just make you tired already? It does me! As per our usual way of doing potty training, we do a "crash course" day where we give the kiddos in question some undivided attention to work on this MOST essential life skill. We pump them full of fluids all morning, and keep the potty chairs in the area where messes can be easily cleaned up; in our case, the dining room. We plan lots of fun activities to keep them occupied and then proceed to set a timer and make them at least "try" every time it goes off. For each attempt, they get one M & M and for success they get two M & M's. We also had a chart with some stickers and they could pick a sticker and put it on the chart for success also. This first picture is of them watching a movie on my computer and Daniel is multi-tasking playing his Leapster 2 as well.


When they have an accident, we have them take the underwear to the laundry room and help clean up the mess with a rag to understand that they made the mess. They also have to do all the work (ie: pulling on and off pants, dumping the potty pot into the toilet, washing their hands, etc.) During the morning we had MANY accidents and one of the twins who shall remain nameless blew threw around 10 pairs of underwear in under an hour. I was pretty exhausted in the morning, but thankfully I only had to care for them and Naomi as Josiah was staying with my parents for the weekend. David was available also and he stepped in during some of the more hectic moments of the day.

The twins really enjoyed the undivided attention for sure and after their nap (Mommy took one too!) they were getting it much better than in the morning (THANKFULLY!) We had fun playing with their new toys that G-ma and G-pa got them for their birthday, and I could tell they were really thriving with all the fun we were having together. The week following we have had our ups and downs, but my new method to tackle it has been working well. I make them go in the morning when they wake up and then set the timer for 15 minutes after a meal, then 30 minutes after that, then another 30 minutes and then every 40 minutes until the next meal and then I start over with the 15 minute timer again. They were resistant at first to having me make them go, but now I just motivate them by either taking the toy they were playing with away and promising its return afterward or giving M & M's and that works. With this method, they have had only one or two accidents, and so I think it is going well. I am hoping at some point they will feel the need to go on their own, but until then we will keep on the schedule!

Not to be left out, we have little Viking Naomi here who was determined to check out the potty room as well. She frequently had to be picked up and moved to the other room as Mommy was working with twins in the bathroom.

This is one her faces that is my favorite. So cute!