Thursday, August 28, 2008

More Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the boys playing and exploring the house. Aren't they so cute?!

Monday, August 25, 2008

We wore them out?

As I write this, the babies are asleep. No, that isn't unusual for this late at night, but the unusual part - they went to sleep almost as soon as they went to bed - all 3 of them! Usually, Nick is asleep by the time you leave the room; Logan plays for 5-10 minutes and then goes to sleep; and Alex could be up playing for a 1/2 hour before he's out. Guess we "played 'em hard" tonight!

This afternoon we took them to the park to walk around. They enjoyed watching all the kids playing in the sprinklers/playground. Adam and I got excited thinking about the day we could take them there to run through the water and play.


Tonight we let them go through the gates and play in the kitchen and dining room areas too. They were little speed demons going back and forth from one thing to the next. Twice in one day to be out of their play room for a while - and it was nice family time for all of us. At one point, Alex and Nick were climbing up the stairs together. Alex climbed all the way to the top of the stairs - and didn't stop as he went straight into our bedroom to see what he could get into. He wasn't so good at going back down the stairs. Back in the kitchen, they loved to play under the table, crawling through the chair legs and looking out the back window into the yard. It definitely helped to have both of us wrangling the boys as they were in different rooms (or blocking them from the areas that still aren't quite baby-proofed).

I have some cute pictures of them playing that I'll post soon.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

10 months old!

Okay... so technically they were 10 months last week.
Every day brings something new and it's awesome to watch them grow! It is hard to believe it has been almost a year. We're even starting to think/plan their birthday party! This time last year I was chillin' at home primarily playing video games and sleeping. How times have changed!

Alex:
Still only has 2 teeth, but looking at his bed you'd think whatever teeth he has must be razor sharp! He has been chewing the finishing off the railings. When it's bed time, he typically takes some time to stop playing and fall asleep. Besides chewing on his bed, he's also learned how to turn the ceiling fan off and on (since the light switch is within reach of his bed). At first I didn't think he realized what it controlled, but today I saw him switch it off and turn around to watch the fan slow down!

Within the last couple of days he has started standing on his own. He might be standing at the book case or his activity center and just let go. He will walk if you help him and the other day he even was walking with only one finger of mine for support. It won't be long now...

He enjoys squeezing in behind things or in between the activity centers or toys and then laughs that he was able to get in there. And we've found out the bouncy seats don't exactly contain him any longer. While watching some baby Einstein during baths this week, I came into the room to find him standing at the coffee table - buckled into his bouncy seat in the air behind him.
Logan:
Still no teeth.

Logan's bed is closest to the windows, which means he is within reach of the blinds. Good thing they are not expensive blinds. Catch 22 - raise the blinds so he can't play with them, which lets more light in, which keeps him awake. Put the blinds down so he can get some sleep and he can entertain himself by playing with the blinds until he's out.

He's a climber. He has tried to climb up the gates. He loves it when Adam brings out all the couch pillows to create a pillow mountain. We have been letting them experiment with the stairs (under supervision) and it didn't take long for him to figure out how to get up multiple stairs. Getting down without falling is still problematic. He even tried to scale the bathtub tonight to get into his bath!

Nick:
Finally has his first tooth - on the bottom. It has just started popping out this week.

Loves to talk when he gets excited or upset. The words aren't real intelligible, but it sounds more like he's swearing at you in a foreign language. Seriously - I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be excited or scared!

Nick also enjoys the pillow mountain, although he's not as interested in climbing it as Logan is. He enjoys just laying his head on the pillows and cuddling up for a nap - that's my baby! He also likes to go up the stairs. He is very fast at getting up on the first step (basically a landing of sorts) and was one of the first ones to figure out how to get up the other steps.

And then there's the outdoors. They have gone outside a couple of times the last week and "played in the grass." This is some of the first time they've been in the grass. Usually when they're outside, it's to go for walks in the stroller. Basically, we've found the one and only thing so far that can truly contain them. All three of them HATE the grass! We put them on a blanket and they crawl like they are going to roam free... until they get to the edge. A little hand reaches over the edge of the blanket to keep crawling and it is withdrawn immediately! If you put him in the grass, without the blanket, he will attempt to hold his legs up so they don't touch the grass, or he won't move at all so that he doesn't have to touch any more of it. It's hilarious to see all three of them confined on a blanket - voluntarily!"
I updated the picture show on the blog with new pics... enjoy!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

My Husband, the author

Adam is a PUBLISHED author (again)! This month's American Libraries magazine includes an article he wrote earlier this year on the use of Wikipedia. Although the article is not available online (unless you have a subscription), the table of contents is available here.

Features
46 Dissecting the Web Through Wikipedia
The popular website offers an avenue to teach information literacy skills.
BY ADAM BENNINGTON

This is actually the third article he has had published. We're so proud of him!!!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Olympics in China

In honor of the Olympic games that are currently going on in Beijing, I present our Chinese babies...

Our friend John Davidson was over in China earlier this year and brought these outfits back for the boys. I finally got some time to put them in them and the help to kinda keep them still long enough for a picture. Kinda still anyway.

Go team USA!!!

And Thanks John for the cute outfits!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Welcome to our gated community

A couple of weeks ago, we pulled out the baby gates we got for Christmas to see the effort required to set them up. We were still using activity centers and other toys to block off the two exits to the play room. And not wanting to install the brackets that weekend, we decided the current situation was fine for now...

Within the past week or so, Alex started to learn how to crawl through the bottom of the activity center and escape! They had been reaching under there, but never sure enough to go all the way through. Now Logan can do the same. Time to install the gates.

It didn't take too long, but the first set of hardware that came with the gate wasn't as strong as I was with the hammer. So, we took the boys to Lowes for more hardware (the gate at the top of the stairs needed fixed too as we could pull part of it out of the wall). After that, it worked much better. Now we have one exit blocked off. The other is still open (hoping to get another gate for there this week - no hardware to install this time), but one exit is easier to guard than two!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Bipeds and Blisters and Bruises... oh my!

The boys are ever more mobile as the days go by. They are all now able to pull themselves up! Logan just started last weekend and just today, we found Nick in his crib standing. Nick is still a little timid though. Along with being able to stand up, there's the skill necessary to get back down. Alex has been doing this for a while, Logan has been improving this week and Nick isn't far behind. They can all crawl wherever they want to go - and fast! Nick started crawling on all 4s today... although he still prefers, and is faster at, the army crawl.

So, where was I going with this? Now that they are starting to display more 'bi-ped' behaviours, we've noticed more bruises and blisters all over them! Earlier this week, I noticed Nick had a big blister (turned sore) on his foot. Couldn't figure out what could have caused it until later that day while watching him crawl. The blisters are on the part of his foot that he's using to push off with. They have been playing a little more on the non-carpeted floors - a little too much friction it seems! And the bruises... Alex woke up Friday with a big one on his forehead! Usually they have them on their sides or legs from trying to stand up and falling into the toy they're using for leverage... or the wall... or a brother... whatever. I'm guessing we'll see more bumps and bruises for a while until they are better at standing/sitting/moving... oh who am I kidding?! They are 3 boys. If it isn't because they're falling into something, it's probably from their brother(s)! At least we have some Star Wars band aids :-)

Other fun things that they are doing each day...

They all (but Nick especially) like to play peak-a-boo with their tag blankets. If you put it over their heads, they try to pull it off... then laugh.

They love to play with a tupperware box. Adam read that a good game to play is to teach them to put things in the box and take them out. So we got a tupperware container and put some of the little toys in. They basically just dump the toys and chew/swing around the box. But amazingly play with it for a good chunk of time.

Nick enjoys spinning in his seat! He'll sit in his activity center and just spin around and around. He'll also sit on his bottom on the kitchen or hall floor (no carpet) and spin around. It's so cute!

Nick helps take his clothes off. I also noticed Logan doing it tonight too. They try to duck out of their clothes while you're undressing them (or dressing them).

Alex and the word no - let's just say he hears it a lot and we know he understands it. Still tries to push his luck, but at least he pauses before continuing on what he shouldn't be doing.

They are also enjoying standing up at the windows or front door and looking out. Of course they also bang on the windows/screens but thankfully our neighbors think it's cute, not annoying! They can also sometimes be seen licking the windows. The windows now get cleaned a lot more than they used to!

And more, but that's all for now. I'll try and get more pictures up soon. I've been taking a lot, but as soon as I pull out the camera, they all come crawling to it and want to grab/eat it.

Monday, August 4, 2008

What a weekend!

I know... this is late, but better now than never. It's been in draft since Monday... The boys kept asking me to publish it, but I'm just now getting around to it...

Whew! What a weekend! Alex, Logan and Nick here. Mom and dad are off "putting the house back together" after our busy weekend, so we thought we'd tell everyone in blog world hi. Where is blog world again? ... Stay focused Logan! ... right...

Friday night after dinner and some play time, mom and dad loaded us in the van again for our weekly trip to the store. This time you two (Nick and Logan) went with dad in the stroller and I (Alex) stayed in the cart with mom. They put tons of stuff in the cart and we were there for quite a while (although I guess we haven't learned how to tell time yet... seemed like a long time anyway). You two kept disappearing down different aisles so I kept singing for you so you'd come back. I actually got a couple of compliements on my voice! Of course there were a couple of people that looked strangely at me... guess they didn't like the song! Then it was time to head home. The lady checking us out sure took forever (and mom even said the same thing). She talked a lot too. It gave plenty of people time to walk by and say hi. Most of them kept asking "are they twins?" I had to sing even louder for them to notice me in the cart!

Saturday it we went for another ride in the van. We got to go to someone else's house to play, Jennifer and Derek's. They are expecting a baby in September, so they already had some stuff set up for us. But, as always, we brought more! There were plenty of people there to give us attention. We got to play in their basement. The carpet looked so clean and was cushiony... Yeah, mom said they just finished it last year while she was in the hopsital waiting for us. Everything down there was so nice and new. Good thing we kept our food down that day! But it was huge down there... we could crawl for miles... and we did! We had a such good time playing with all the adults, we didn't want to take naps. Mom and dad tried to put us down, they even had the new crib and baby Kohlhagen's pack n play (plus our pack n play) set up for us, but how were we supposed to sleep when 8 people were ready to dote on us!? Logan, was it you that was set up to get married already? I know dad was talking about if Lauren's baby (due in January) is a girl that maybe she'd be my wife. Guess we'll see! Eventually it was time to pack up and go. Alex, you fell asleep on dad before we left and we all slept in the car. And yet we were all ready for bed after we got home and had some dinner.

We slept good that night... well, the two of you did anyway. I (Logan) was so excited that I am finaly able to stand myself up in bed that I woke up in the middle of the night and pulled myself up! Unfortunately, I'm still working on how to sit down, so I had to call mom in to help me get back down.

Sunday was another big day! It was Grandma Judy's birthday so they came down and we all went out to eat. Aunt Audrey's birthday was also this week so we celebrated her birthday too. We got to go to my roadhouse... It's not your roadhouse, Logan... It's Logan's Roadhouse... I know, that's what I said... Anyway, mom gave me (Alex) a couple of small bites of the bread that was brought to the table. It kinda tasted weird, but I ate it. Logan, you had a bite of it too, didn't you? Yeah, but I must have liked it better... You must have, you kept yours down. Alex, you threw yours up (along with most of lunch) and it went all over the table! If it would have been much more, Grandma would have had it in her lap... Yeah, mom didn't give me any more after that! Between that and the singing... tell me again why they have to sing that silly birthday song so loud - I don't like it! After dinner we went back home and got to play with Grandma, Grandpa, Audrey and David for a while. That was pretty cool. Of course, mom and dad tried to put us down for our naps again, but we resisted. Speak for yourself, I slept just fine. Yeah, Nick, you slept right through everything! Alex and I were laughing so hard at each other - again, I was pretty excited to be able to stand up and see Alex across the room! I think they were listening to us laugh on the monitor, but it didn't matter. We kept at it for a while. Next time you'll have to join us Nick!

Well, it's back to another week. Weekends go so fast. I wonder what we'll do next weekend?!