Lights at the Wazoo

Somewhere recently, Veronica picked up the phrase, “Up the Wazoo” and is quite smitten with it. Last weekend, while she was playing, I must have heard her say it at least 20 times. “This car is going up the wazoo.” So on Tuesday, when we went to see the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo, I should have been surprised to hear her say, “We’re going to see the Wazoo Lights tonight!”

It was the warmest day of the week, and I work from home on Tuesdays, so we decided if we were going to make it this year, it was our one opportunity. The only problem with the Zoo Lights and our schedule, is they don’t start until 5:00 (because it’s not dark until then), and we pretty much have to get there right away if we want to do much before the witching hour that is also known as bedtime. 

Being there when the zoo reopens isn’t a problem. It’s actually better because it’s far less crowded. It’s just that 5:00 is also dinner time. So we ended up eating (mostly junk) there, almost as soon as we arrived. 

After we finished our snack/dinner, we went back outside and almost immediately ran into Santa. Veronica was very excited, but stayed glued to my side as she kept waving at him and saying “hi.” 

Once we got Colin pulled of the sculpture he was climbing in/on/through, he immediately marched up to Santa and stuck out his hand. It took Santa a minute to realize what Colin was after, but then he took Colin’s hand and shook it. Unfortunately, I was laughing so hard I didn't think to pull the camera out to get a picture. 

I’m not sure why Colin suddenly decided on the formal handshake greeting. He’s normally more of a big hug kind of kid. But it was definitely the funniest part of the evening. 

Zoo Lights 2013. Nighttime photos from a phone really
aren't the best approach. 

Christmas Frenzy

The twins are now at the age where they are able to anticipate things and wait a little for gratification. (Just a little.) That makes the holiday season very, VERY, exciting. We, as a rule, don’t start decorating for Christmas until after December 1st, and often not until the following week. But many of our neighbors took advantage of the mild weather around Thanksgiving to get their outdoor lights up.

Loving the snow (and our snow pants).

Trying to make a snowball. 

This put Veronica into a frenzy of excitement. Nearly every day she was asking us when we were going to decorate. Colin was not immune to the fun, either. Before it got so bitterly cold, we were going out for nightly “lights walks,” just like we used to do with Ethan. After dinner, we all bundle up and walk down a different street in our neighborhood to admire people’s decorations and lights. 

Unfortunately, that excitement didn’t hold up as well on the day we finally went to get our tree. We decided that, because we’re just in temporary digs right now, that we would store most of the Christmas decorations (including our tree) at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We don’t have an outlet outside at this house, and the tree is very large and would overwhelm the living space here. 

So we headed off to Mennards to pick out a tree for this year. (I know. We go all out, don’t we?) We had just picked up our new van that morning (replacing the 1998 Grand Caravan that was starting to fall apart — literally; Veronica slid out of the door the other day and knocked a big old rusty piece off as she went). So between making the first outing in the new van and getting the Christmas tree,we thought the excitement levels would be high. And they were for Ethan and Veronica.

Big kids carrying the tree, while their brother
chilled out in a time out in the van.

Colin, however, was having nothing to do with it. He had such a tantrum in the parking lot, that John ended up taking him back to the van while the rest of us got the tree. 

After Colin snapped out of his “mood,” he was able to
join in the fun.

Luckily, Colin snapped out of it, and we were all able to decorate the tree together. 

With the super high ceilings we have in this apartment, our little tree looks positively tiny. But it’s pretty, and festive, and ours. 

Celebrating decorating success.

Just like big brother

Colin and Veronica are very enthralled by their big brother — even if they seem to spend the bulk of their time yelling at him and telling him to go away. Several things they’ve done recently reinforce that. 

We limit Ethan’s screen time to an hour or less a day, and he can only take it in half hour intervals. (We’ve found that allowing him to play games for an uninterrupted hour is not a good thing.) So he’s always asking if he can use his screen time, and requesting that we start timing him. 

A while ago, we picked up a Barbie “computer” for the twins at a garage sale. It’s one of those things that looks like a laptop, but comes pre-programmed with all sorts of basic educational games. The games are still generally too advanced for the twins, but they like playing around with it and pushing the buttons. 

Over the weekend, Veronica came up to me with their laptop in her hands, and said in a very serious voice, “Mommy, can I take my screen time now?” I had a hard time keeping a straight face when I told her she could — it was too cute. (Even cuter was her and Colin laying on their bellies trying to play the games together. “No, try pushing that button.” “Good job.”)

Then tonight, Colin had his “big brother” moment. Ethan’s other passion right now is the Yu-Gi-Oh cards. He collects, he plays, he sorts, he trades, he spends all his money on buying more. It’s really an obsession right now. (And where he got his head for strategy, I’ll never know.)

So tonight, before bed, I saw Colin gathering up four or five Matchbox cars and carefully wedging them together in a stack in his hand. He brought them over to the bed, where I was getting ready to read to them. “These are my cars Mommy.” 

“Your cars?”

“No. My cars!” (Colin still struggles a bit with his enunciation and when I’m tired, especially, I have a hard time understanding him.)

Finally I realized what he was saying. “Oh, they’re your cards. Like Ethan’s cards.”

“Yes!” And with a big grin, he proceeded to tell me about each “card,” just like Ethan does. 

They’re so fun sometimes. 

Imagination

Colin, being less of a chatterbox than his siblings, often is overshadowed by them. So when he has an opportunity to be out from under their shadows, he really shines and I’m reminded of what a funny little boy he is.

This morning, as I was getting ready to leave for work, I overheard this conversation between Colin and John:

Colin, singing Happy Birthday, stops and says, “Happy Birthday Daddy.” (It’s not.)

John, playing along: “Thanks Colin. Did you get balloons and streamers for me?”

Colin: “Yes. And eggs too. Lots of eggs.”

John: “Eggs? What for?”

Colin: “For throwing around. And then they’ll turn into ducks.”

The conversation continued for a while longer, but I can’t remember what else Colin threw in. But it was very inventive, and very funny. (And then Ethan and Veronica started fighting, and Colin’s moment in the spotlight ended.)

Settling in

Sorry for the long absence. Big changes have been afoot in our lives: we sold our house and have moved into temporary (probably a year) digs up the street. This has led to an abundance of chaos and little time for things like blogging. 

We decided to try to sell our house this summer because not being tied to that house frees us to [eventually] pursue our longer-term goals — like moving back to Wisconsin. Trying to do everything at once seemed overwhelming, so we felt like seeing if the house would sell in the price range we wanted was a good start. 

It was a very trying process (how did we accumulate so much stuff?) that had us showing the house nearly every day for more than two months. (Have you ever tried keeping a house that clean with three kids? Crazy.) Just as I had given up hope, we hit the jackpot with three offers on the same day. (Again, crazy.) We closed on the sale on October 1st, and moved into a rental up the street (really, just at the other end of the block) on the same day. 

We’re starting to get settled in now. One room remains filled with boxes and we can’t locate a few of our essential items (receiver for the baby monitor, second phone), but overall I think we’re getting close. We have the top two floors of a two-flat, which is nice. The kids can go upstairs and be as loud as they want without us worrying about disturbing the guy downstairs. And it gives us a little separation so we don’t feel like we’re in each other’s laps all the time. 

The apartment is a little smaller than our old house (we lost about 300 square feet), but we have the entire basement for storage, and a garage space that’s also currently being used for storage. And while we got rid of a TON of stuff before we moved, we still have too much that we aren’t really using. My goal is to continue to weed out stuff while we’re here, so that we move only about two-thirds as much out of the house as we moved in. 

In the midst of all this, Ethan started 4th grade and the twins started preschool (I’ll do a complete post on that, including some pictures soon). Chaos! Colin seems to be having the hardest time adjusting, both to school and to the move. The school adjustment doesn’t surprise me; we knew he would have to adjust to following the more rigid structure a classroom demands. Him having a hard time with the move caught me a little off guard. I guess because he is less expressive of his feelings than the other two, I sometimes forget that he really is a sensitive little boy. I need to keep that more firmly in mind. 

So Colin tells me daily how much he hates this house and wants our old house back, and when we’re back at our old corner playing with friends, it’s hard to keep him out of the yard. But overall, the adjustment has been less painful than I feared. 

Random bits I'm enjoying now

Colin and Veronica are at a very fun, very trying stage. So while I would be happy to lose the nearly daily tantrums (times two), I am enjoying the happy times very much. Here are some random fun things the twins are up to now:

Veronica calling Colin “Bud”
This probably stems from our informal "buddy" for Colin and "baby" for Veronica. But I think it’s so cute to hear her saying, “Look at this, Bud.” Or, “Hey, Bud … Do you want to do [this]?” 

Hide and seek
Not sure when this started, but they’ve been playing hide and seek a lot. Last night they were in rare form, and it was the cutest thing ever. One would go into their bedroom and “hide” under a blanket, and the other would count. “One, two, three. I’m coming to find you!”

Colin’s big smoochy kisses
Although on the surface he seems very rough and tumble, Colin is my snuggle love bug. I love when he comes over at random to whisper “I love you” into my ear, and when he puts his hands on my cheeks and give me big smoochy kisses. (Of course, I also cringe when he does that — he sometimes doesn’t realize how hard he’s squeezing.)

Amazing
Veronica has discovered the word “amazing” and uses it somewhat regularly now. My recent favorite: Last night after dinner she told me she was out of clean underwear and asked if I could wash some after she went to bed. I told her I would do that, and then I heard her in the other room telling John, “Mommy said she could wash some clothes so I would have clean underwear. Isn’t that amazing?”

Photos, finally

Well, I finally found the cable for my phone. So, as promised, here are some photos from our beachy fun:

The twins, building their fort from the inside out.

John, chief construction foreman.

Ice cream! And sand! Everywhere!

In the sun, the ice cream was melting faster than
Veronica could eat it. That didn’t slow her
down one bit though.

Mom and Colin

Mom and Ethan. (Not the most flattering self portrait of
either of us, but the best from the day.)

The girls, windswept and sun kissed. 

More construction.