Updates and Photos

To make up for my long absence from regular posting, here are some pictures for you! My brother was in town recently for business and we managed to get together for a quick dinner. Jack was suddenly very shy but Dean warmed up immediately and proceeded to charm the heck out of Chad. One memorable comment by Dean to Chad was, "You're hilarious! How did you get so hilarious? I didn't know you were so hilarious." I think Chad thought that was, well . . . hilarious!


Here, Chad is showing Dean how to do the Rock 'n Roll handshake. At the next table were some hard core rockers with black smudges under their eyes, tattoos, black fingernail polish and brightly colored hair. We had to show 'em how hip we are!


I haven't posted a picture of Kate in a while so here she is with her absolute favorite thing: her frisbee. She's still really sweet and eager to please. I'm looking into obedience training for her to start sometime in February. The training isn't for her as much as it is for me! She already knows sit, down, and paw but I want to make sure she comes to me when I call her - especially since she takes off if an opportunity presents!


This is Dean with Kate in our kitchen before I took a sledgehammer to it. Note the brick "thing" on the left? I hated that thing.

Here's Jack in the space where that brick thing once stood. He was my big helper. I knocked that thing down and he moved every bit of mortar, pieces of brick, etc. to the wheelbarrow parked just outside. He loved when large pieces came apart. He was my biggest cheerleader, best helper and absolutely tireless. He wouldn't take a break until I took one and hardly even wanted to eat in case he missed something. Don't worry about the missing shoes in the following photos. I shop vacced that whole place and picked up every stray nail or screw. Seriously, it's cleaner now than when the linoleum was on it.

See that door behind Jack? That will be removed and filled in. Who needs a door in the dining room?
And the view from the dining room looking through the kitchen towards the entryway. That countertop is on it's last breath. I can't wait to take the hammer to it this weekend! Yee haw!!Doncha want to eat Jack up in that photo? He looks like a little gingerbread man to me. I just want to nibble him! He's got a few tricks up his sleeve lately. The other day he was taking a bath and he washed his hair and body by himself, let the water out of the tub, got out and dried himself and then got dressed without my even knowing it. Yesterday morning while I was in the shower he got dressed for school, dragged the chair into the kitchen so he could reach the cereal, dragged the chair to the cupboard to get a bowl, took the milk out of the fridge and poured himself a bowl of cereal with milk. At school they tell me that he's the first to wash hands and wait at the table with his hands folded, patiently waiting for all the other kids to sit down to eat. He loves to sweep and does all the sweeping at the daycare. One day a parent commented to his teacher about what a great job he was doing and his teacher replied, "He's been doing this since he was 3!" He tells me that Jack does an exceptional job and doesn't miss even a grain of sand. Jack has a best friend at school and they spend every waking moment together. He told me he wants to move in with him and be his brother. And I found out that this boy's mother packs 2 of everything in a lunch whenever they have field trips - one for him and one for Jack. It's so sweet.

Dean is still a handful of drama. He's afraid of everything - windows, doors and (I found out today) chimneys. He doesn't want to go to the bathroom by himself or even go into the kitchen by himself! It's enough to make me crazy! Jack is kind enough to point out windows, doors and chimneys, thankyouverymuchjack, and Dean cries and clings until I finally give in and hold him. I'm trying to be all rational but clearly this isn't a rational fear and I'm sure he'll grow out of it soon. I've also been concerned about Dean because he's so quick to anger and his gut reaction is to hit, bite, push, etc. Every day I remind him to be kind with his words and kind with his body and still nearly every day there is some incident that happened at school in which he had to be removed from the group for some period of time. The teachers are all very nice and they don't "punish". The worst thing they ever do is remove the child from the situation. So it's my nightly practice to check in with his teacher to see how he was that day. In our chat last night I expressed my concern that when he enters kindergarten in the fall that he's going to get in a lot of trouble. His teacher told me that he thinks he'll be better when he's with all 5 year olds and that most of the time, it's his love-hate relationship with a 3 year old boy in the daycare that gets him in trouble. The other times he gets in trouble is when he is defending one of the younger girls in the daycare! His teacher told me that all the kids love Dean and he generally picks who he wants to play with each day and they do whatever he wants them to do. He told me that Dean would be fine and that his teacher is going to love him because he's so charming.

Finally, I asked him how Jack and Dean interact at school and he said that for the most part, they don't. Usually, the only time they do is if one of them is sick or upset then the other one will comfort him. Usually, the one needing the comfort is Dean and Jack does the comforting. His teacher said he loves to watch the way they come together when they need to but are otherwise completely independent.

As always, it's busy, chaotic, demanding and frustrating here at twintales but I wouldn't change it for the world.