I am back in my WW maintenance range, thank goodness. Last week I had strangely gained 2 lbs more than I should have, which I couldn't really figure out. I think maybe some of it was water weight, because with Christmas this last week there really wasn't any reason for me to have lost 2 lbs. Oh well, as long as I'm on track I won't worry. I do need to get more consistent exercising, though. Now that my sickness is almost over I have got to get a consistent time for running and the gym. I'd like to go to the gym right at 4:00 PM to take advantage of the childcare so I can use mornings for computer work. And jogging, I think my best time is going to be immediately after the boys get in bed. I can go out jogging then and get back before Ben is going to bed. I WILL get my life organized!
Tonight we went to On the Border for dinner with the Curtises. Our boys are very good at restaurants, I have to say. Even with the sometimes tempting examples of the Curtis girls (who took great fun in racing up and down the wheelchair ramp next to our table), they sat nicely and behaved nicely.
On the way to dinner, though, Ben told the boys that they could not eat or drink in his truck (we took the Hummer). The boys (I think it was Brigham, but not sure because I wasn't there) immediately informed Ben that *he* wasn't in charge, mom was! I got a chuckle out of that one. I wish!
After dinner we went to Barnes and Noble so Ben could use a gift card he got for his birthday. The boys are very interested in space (all stems from the Going to the Moon book at Grandma Frandsen's house) and really wanted to find a book on Mars. There weren't any childrens books specifically on Mars, but I did get a good one about the solar system. They both sat on my lap and I read a good portion of it (it is pretty long) to them at the bookstore. Later as we were going up to buy our books, Joseph actually DID find a book on Mars! I was amazed. It was in the bargain books section but we didnt' end up getting it because it would have been quite a bit beyond their comprehension level. We also got Sylvester and the magic stone, a book I remember very fondly from childhood. And an Arnold Lobel anthology in the bargain books section. So, a good haul. But really, I need to get in the habit of taking the boys to the library. I need to go every week, regularly, on a particular day. The boys love books and always want to buy books, but most of the books they want to buy I don't necessarily think are worth the investment (Scooby Doo books and the like).
I heard Mosey say Joseph's name for the first time today. He has been saying Brigham's name for a while now ("Biiig-un!"), but not Joseph's. I only heard him say it once and I think it was something like "Jos-us," but I'll have to see if I can get him to say it again so I can listen closer. Moses was playing really well with Joseph this afternoon, wrestling on the bed while I folded clothes. I love seeing how much Moses loves his brothers. What a lucky boy he is!
One more interesting Brigham story, this one actually another story he told. As we were driving around tonight trying to get the boys to sleep, Brigham calls from the back seat, "Let me tell you a story, dad." After getting the ok from Ben, he says, "Once upon a time there was a light that came down from space. It was a meteorite and it fell into a volcano. Fire came up out of the volcano and pushed up the meteorite into the sky and it fell down, down, DOWN! until it hit a mountain and rolled down into a monster city. And the monsters came out and the meteorite flew away and then the monsters flew away because they were bats. The end." Pretty good story, huh?

Now here is Mosey on his bike. Actually a hand-me-down bike from the boys, this is one of the bikes they got when they were 2 1/2. He's not quite big enough for it (feet don't reach the pedals), but he wants so badly to be like his big brothers that I can't convince him to try the littler ride-on Fisher Price toy that the big boys loved so much at his age. He sort of scoots himself along with his feet, but he doesn't get the concept of steering yet and pretty much just gets frustrated pretty quickly. Poor guy! I have a feeling his whole childhood will be about him not quite being able to do what his big brothers can do...

Here is Brigham racing around on his Bigwheels. He was going too fast for me to get a clear shot of him! The bigwheels were a big hit on Christmas. They can go way faster than their older bikes, which are getting way too small for the boys anyway. Brigham especially loves to get going really fast and then crash into things. I remember spending many happy hours on my bigwheels as a kid.

Here is Joseph peering through his magnifying glass. I tried in vain to find magnifying glasses for the boys' stockings, and then Christmas night my friend Melissa told me she saw them at the dollar store. So yesterday off we went to the dollar store and sure enough there they were! The boys have been pretty much entranced by these magnifying glasses. This morning they found a squished bug by the front door and then spent a good 10 minutes examining the poor thing. Entomologists in the making?

I'm thinking of converting my daily (or at least almost daily) emails into a blog. It will be easier to add photos correlating with the text and will also free up some space in a lot of people's email boxes! Anyway, I figure I will try it for a while and see how it goes.
I have a lot to catch up with re Christmas, etc., but I think I'll just take today for now. We have all been sick the past several days (me in particular), which accounts for how behind I am! But today I felt pretty good (I even went running last night, first time in a week) so hopefully I'm on the downhill-side of this thing.
I have to share a "story" Brigham told us over dinner. Here it is, as close to word-for-word as I can remember:
"Once upon a time there was a pool and there were people swimming in the pool. The people got drained and went into the sewer and they died. Then there was a dog that went into the sewer and ate a bone. It was a bone from one of the people."
Eek! What kind of child am I raising?? Sounds like some horror movie. Ben really likes to make up stories with them, and they are kind of catching on. And I suppose it is better for Brigham to express the dark side of his imagination rather than just keep it inside and wake him up in the middle of the night with nightmares.
Tonight after dinner we went to the rock climbing park to play for a while and try and wear the boys out so they would go to sleep. Ben was feeling pretty bad so he stayed home and went to be early (like 6:30!). The boys had the best time! We brought their big wheels (big Christmas hit) and they raced around like maniacs in the parking lot. They had a few races and Brigham and Joseph are still very evenly matched, both running and big-wheeling. Some of their races were pretty funny to watch, though, because one of them would shout, "Marks, get sets, go!" and both would start running in no particular direction, eventually ending up sort of following each other in a meandering race course around the parking lot. Mosey got in on the fun, too, running around and scooting around as fast as he could on his hand-me-down bike from one of the boys which is a bit too big for him yet. He can't reach the pedals and has to push himself along with his feet. I just love watching little kids run. Brigham still runs with this funny gait, one arm curled up by his chest and the other pumping like crazy.
I think I need to make an effort to do fun things like this every day. Even just 1/2 hour of concerted playing just with them, not with me also trying to do 3 or 4 other things at the same time. It would probably improve behavior, especially in one little snickerdoodle named Joseph.
Oh, a big brag about Joseph, though. He is getting to be an awesome speller! He can sound out simple 3-letter words pretty consistently, and tonight I told him about the silent "e" at the end of a word making the vowel say its long sound. He totally got it, too, and sounded out slide and site and ate and a few others. If I work with him every day I'm sure I could have him reading pretty quickly. I need to do that with him for sure.
Ok, that's it for tonight. I have to get out there and go for a run before I talk myself out of it.