Painting

At 7:10 this morning, I awoke to the sounds of Ben jumping on his bed and yelling, "Outside! Outside!" Unfortunately for both of us, it's a rainy day today so we are stuck in the house. So, after lunch, we had 'Art Time,' according to Mairead, and we tried painting. Mairead is quite an accomplished painter, but this was a first for Jack and Ben. They had fun with it and only tried to eat one or two bites.

Just to be difficult- Ben is on the left and Jack is in blue.


So serious about her work.

After about 20 minutes of painting, Mairead announced, "And, snack time!" Maybe snack time is after art time at school... who knows? She had a good week at school and we can already see a difference in her. The more structure she has, the more her language improves. We are hoping that school does great things for her! When I brought her yesterday, I told her we had to bring her backpack to her cubby. She led me over to it, pointed to the correct hook, and said, "That one." She then helped me to hang the bag on the hook before running off to play. This is all new for her, so I was very happy to see that! Also, when she arrived, a very cute classmate named Amelia said, "Yay, it's Mairead!" I was so happy that she is making little friends. This is a huge concern of mine because since her language is not as strong as other kids', I worry that they will get frustrated or bored with her and not want to be her friend. So, seeing another little girl excited to see Mairead was very exciting for me!

The boys are great. They are into trouble a lot, but they are so much fun right now. Their language is unbelievable- they have new words and phrases every day. They love to give each other hugs and they comfort each other when one is crying. They also fight to the death over toys, but I guess that is to be expected.

Have you eve wondered how many cards are in a box of Trivial Pursuit Questions? The answer is a lot. An awful lot, when you have to pick each one up off the floor.

Double trouble!

Busy, busy!

We knew that September would be hectic with both Dave and Mairead going back to school, and we were right! I'm not even teaching my online courses this month (I start again in October) and things are crazy from sun up to sun down! We have a lot of fun things going on. For example, this past weekend, Lily came to visit with her mom and dad. Jack loves Lily and even shared his juice with her. She can't quite drink from a sippy cup yet at 8mos old, but she knows there is something good in there and she wants it!

I am impressed with Jack's sharing. Apparently, Jack and Ben are great at sharing, just not with each other. At the playground, there is one Cozy Coupe car and they fight over it every time. I took them today and while Ben was in it, Jack grabbed Ben's head with both hands and tried to drag him out. When Jack was in it, Ben pulled on Jack's shirt and whined. Interestingly, when other children were in it, there was no crying, no whining, and thankfully, no assault. They were fine with other kids using it, just not their brother.



Lily inherited this Brady jersey from Mairead. It is a size 12 mos, but both girls wore it from about 6-9 mos. I guess we just have tall girls in our family! We realized the other day that Lily and Mairead were the exact same weight at their 6mos pediatrician appointments.

This is what happens when twins help you do laundry.

Note the red fire truck boots in these pictures. I bought them at the MoMs sale this past weekend and the boys LOVE them. Ben brings one over to me and says, "Shoes! Shoes on!" until I put them on. They both wear them all around the house, even though I bought them for playing outside.

This is quite the ensemble on Jack. I think this is a blackmail picture when he is older!

Ben and Jack are both learning to sit and color a little more instead of just eating the markers.

Ben and Lily.

The babies are NOT morning people and it takes them a while to fully wake up. They need their blue blankets and each other.

While I was at the MoM Tag Sale, Mairead helped Grampy in the garden.

The kids are all doing well. The boys had their 18mos appt yesterday and are now 23.9lbs (Jack) and 24.5lbs (Ben). Ben is a quarter of an inch taller, and their heads have the exact same circumference. It's funny-some days I think they look so different, and other days I have to look twice to see who is who! The cutest thing is that when each one looks in the mirror, he says his brother's name. Ben started a few weeks ago with, "Jack. I see Jack!" when he saw his reflection, and now Jack says, "It's A-Bee"(what he calls Ben) when he looks into a mirror. It's very sweet!

The pediatrician was really happy with their growth and development. She was especially impressed with their language skills. It was nice to hear that! They had a lot of factors working against them in this area- they are preemies, they are boys, they are twins, and they are younger siblings of a child with poor communication skills. Still, they are advanced for any 18 mos old, and we are very proud of them! We work so hard on Mairead's communication skills that I think the boys really benefit from all of our techniques and strategies.

Mairead had her second day of preschool today and it went pretty well. The teacher is very kind and very patient. She did comment on the fact that Mairead is not so great at sitting still, and that Mairead lets her know when she does not want to do something. Is this news surprising to anyone? Definitely not. As teachers, it is hard for Dave and I to accept that our kid is not a 'model student,' but we know she is doing her best and that's all we can ask for.

I would love for Mairead to be able to tell us about her day and we are working on that. If I ask the right questions, she can sort of piece together things and tell me, "Snack time. Make a sun." That's a start!

Starting tomorrow, Mairead will have speech for 1 hour a week through the public schools. And next week, she starts an hour of Occupational Therapy on Tuesday evenings. She is one busy kid. I know that she needs all of this, but sometimes it's hard that she can't just be a regular kid and do regular kid stuff. I also need to find activities for the boys since they are getting older and need to socialize with kids their own age. I feel like a mom/teacher/activities director/limo driver!