There's Something About Those Boys...

that makes them prone to being messy everywhere they go.  I'm beginning to notice that Joey makes a bigger mess of his meal and himself at any given point in the day than his 16-month old sisters.  He always requires a massive wipe up, hand & face washing, and often a change of clothes after meals.  He has recently taken up the less than appealing practice of playing with his food.  In the following pictures he was trapping his banana slices underneath the bowl and telling them that they couldn't come out until they were sorry. (geeeee, I wonder where that imaginary game came from???)  It is difficult to see, but his face, hands, arms, and shirt are all covered in banana goo.  So is the folding card table that we currently use as a kitchen table.  Maybe now you'll understand why I am in no rush to go out and buy a real table.  It'll just be one more thing for my kids to ruin.

Little Mommy

I've recently discovered that Olivia is the caretaker of the group around here.  She gets very concerned when one of the other kids cries, and always tries to find a way to soothe them.  She really is quite the little mommy, often patting their backs, finding their blankies, and sharing her toys without complaint.  Here are a couple adorable examples of her sweetness:

• Soothing:  At the YMCA Nursery, Katelyn started whining and Olivia walked across the room to find her blankie and binkie, walked back to Katelyn, handed her the blankie, inserted the binkie into her mouth, and sat down next to her.
• Patient:  While all three munchkins stood at my feet anxiously waiting for me to pour and pass out 3 sippy cups of juice, Olivia took each cup and handed them to her siblings before taking the last one for herself.  Just like a mom.  Serve others first, then serve yourself.
• Sharing:  When Katelyn's bowl of animal crackers was empty she started to yell for more.  Olivia, who was quietly sitting enjoying her own bowl of animal crackers, noticed this, and brought her bowl to Katelyn to for sharing.
• Helpful:  When we are getting ready to leave the house I can say something like, "Olivia, go find the shoes," and she will do just that.  She will bring me all 6 little shoes to strap onto 3 sets of little feet.
• Loving:  Olivia loves being loved.  She is a snuggler, a cuddler, and a kisser.  She shows such affection for each of her siblings and us.  As a mom I can never kiss and hug my kids enough.  Olivia is the same way.  She just never gets tired of being hugged and kissed. 
• Listens Well:  When we leave the house, I'll push the buttons on my key chain to open the car doors.  Then I'll say, "Everyone go get in your seats," as I collect the bags, lock the house, and try to keep anyone from getting injured on their way out.  Olivia will do exactly as I say.  She will carefully step out of the house, turn around to go off the 4-inch step from our porch, and walk down the little path to the car.  Then she will stand at the opened door of the car until I get there and lift her in.  She will find her way to the waaaaay back, climb up on the seat, and wait for me to buckle her in.

As our children get older their personalities show more and more, and it is truly fascinating to watch them develop from tiny babies to little people.  What I've described for you tonight is just one part of little Olivia's big personality.  She is also very opinionated, stubborn, spunky, silly, and lives up to that red-headed expectation of being a little firecracker.  I love my sweet girl for all that she is.

Mini Me

We've heard a lot of comments about Katelyn looking like me for the last 16 months.  And by a lot, I mean A LOT.  Pretty much everyone who sees her, from my closest family and friends to complete strangers in the Target checkout line can't get over the resemblance.  I've even gotten comments on this post about how much she looks like me as a baby.  So I thought it would be fun to share this photograph of me as a baby:

And one of my Katie-bug:

Yea, she definitely looks like her momma.  Lucky girl.

Look Who's Walking Now!

My kids are not early walkers.  Not by any means.  I thought Joey would never walk.  He was 16 months old by the time he was vertically mobile.  I thought Olivia and Katelyn would be different.  I thought having an older sibling would make them want to get up on their feet and walk around.  I was wrong.  Olivia has been a cautious learner when it comes to walking, and she wasn't taking any steps until she was absolutely sure she could do it.  She learned to pull her tiny self up to a stand a loooong time ago, and she was able to stand by herself around 12 months, but she just started walking full-time about a month ago. (at 15 months old) 

Katelyn has been a different story altogether.  She wants to walk.  She tries to walk.  She LOVES to walk.  But she has terrible coordination and balance.  She flops forward after just a couple of steps and has done quite a bang-up job on her knees in the process.  I've actually been worried about Katelyn because of her odd stance and peculiar way of sitting.  To make a long story short, Katelyn is a "W sitter," which means that instead of turning her knees in to sit with her legs "criss-crossed," her knees and hips are turned out with her feet on either side of her.  Sometimes this is called "frog sitting."  Unfortunately for Katelyn, sitting this way has left her with weakened core muscles, and turned out her hips quite a bit.  That makes it difficult for her to stand up unsupported and walk unassisted.  Don't worry, it's not as terrible as it sounds... At her 15 month visit the doctor and I agreed that we would wait until she was 18 months to pursue any kind of physical therapy in hopes that she would correct herself and begin steadily walking within the next 3 months.  Since that visit (roughly 6 weeks ago) I've seen very little progress, and have even contemplated calling to set up a physical therapy consult.  Until tonight.

I'm super proud to say that I finally feel like my girl is getting it.  She still has a very awkward stance with her feet spaced wiiiiiiiide apart, but she can make it across the room by herself, and has even stopped to steady herself in between steps.  She also corrects her "W sitting" quite a bit, even rewarding herself by saying "good girl" when she puts her feet in front like she's supposed to.

Here are a couple of funny pics of my silly Katie-bug practicing walking tonight:

And one more, just to show off her curls:

Rustic Crust and American Flatbread Winner

Congratulations to Arla, post #59, who said, "#2 I follow your blog on facebook, id- Lighthouse twentyseven."  I told you, it pays off to be a registered follower!  I hope you enjoy your Rustic Crust and American Flatbread Pizzas, Arla!

Tabatchnick Soup Winner

I'm so sorry for being late in posting the winners... the past 3 weeks have been very busy, and I have spent very little time on the computer.  So without further ado, congratulations to AmyD, post #53 who said, "follow 1." Thanks for following Amy, I hope you enjoy your Tabatchnick Soup as much as I do!

Remodeling

is something that I am not planning to do for a very long time.  I am so excited to announce that we are officially all moved in to our new home.  We love it here.  Like, seriously love it.  The house has plenty of space for all of us, and I am so excited to be settling in.

There is one teeny, tiny, little thing that I might want to switch out in the future.  (sssshhh... don't tell my hubby!)  Our downstairs half-bath has a pedestal sink that the builder installed when the house was built 5 years ago.  It is very nice looking, but I have recently discovered that it leaves me absolutely no space for storage.  No where to store the antibacterial wipes, cleaners, extra toilet paper, a few extra hand soaps and towels, etc.  So someday I hope to look into buying a new bathroom sink.

Perhaps one like this would work:

Or this:

I'm sure I'll be able to find something that fits into the space at by checking out this selection of bathroom sinks at CSNStores.

But other than that, the house is pretty near perfect for us.  I'll throw some pictures up soon.  I'm just too tired to edit and upload them all.  They're coming soon though, I promise.

Brugo Coffee Mug Winner

Congratulations to post #93, Lindsay C, who said, "I follow publicly #1."  I'm glad you are a follower, Lindsay and I hope you enjoy your new Brugo Coffee Mug!  Look for my email in your inbox!

For those who didn't win, please make sure to enter my other giveaways for free pizza (here) and soup (here.)

The Peter Pan Complex

I've decided that if Joey could get on the next flight to Neverland, he would.  He is very determined to "not get big," and "stay wittle."  I'm not really sure where this "I don't wanna grow up," state-of-mind came from, but every time we say anything about being a big boy, he says, "NO. My friends get big.  I need to stay wittle."

I actually think this came about when we started talking about him giving up his beloved binkie.  We said the typical things that parents say to their sometimes-agreeable 3 year old, like "you're a big boy now," or "you're not a baby, and only babies have binkies."  Surprisingly, Joey quit using his binkie about a week ago and the transition has gone pretty well.  But I do think that the whole, "you're too big for a binkie" discussion sparked this fear of growing up in my boy.

Joey's worry about growing up has prompted him to ask me if certain foods will make him big when I them to him.  This also started from my seemingly harmless statements about eating so he can get big and strong like daddy.  Perhaps I used that line too frequently to coerce him into eating.

We are trying to talk Joey into thinking that growing up is actually a good thing, and sometimes I feel like he agrees with me.  (Like when I tell him that big boys get to eat gummies and ice cream, but little boys don't.)  But most of the time I think he's just ready to join Peter Pan and The Lost Boys in Neverland.

*UPDATE: Joey gave up his binkie for about 1 week.  No one got any sleep, and he was kind of a nightmare to be around.  To make our move a smoother transition I gave it back to him.  I won the battle but lost the war. *

Rustic Crust and American Flatbread Review and Giveaway

I love pizza.  Just about any kind of pizza.  Cheap, expensive, homemade, takeout, delivery, frozen, I like it all.  Luckily, so does my family.  In fact, Joey asks me if he can have pizza for dinner every night.  Imagine his excitement last week when my answer was, "YES!  We can have pizza tonight!"

I made the pizza we had myself.  Well, no, actually I didn't make it myself.  I assembled it using already-made ingredients.  I was recently asked to review two delicious products: Rustic Crust and American Flatbread Frozen Pizzas, which came in quite handy for Joey's requests for pizza.

I used my Rustic Crust coupon at our local Whole Foods Market and decided on the Cheesy Herb variety.  Anything that has "cheesy" in it's name is a go in my book.

I loaded it with some sauce, cheese, and mini pepperoni.  Here's a shot before it went in the oven:

Ten minutes later, dinner was ready:

It was a hit.  Katelyn licked the plate, Joey asked for more, Ron ate 3 pieces, and Olivia pushed all the pieces into the corner of her tray, but ate the crust with delight.

A few days later we tried the American Flatbread Frozen Pizza for lunch.  (Joey loves this whole blogging thing because it allows him to get pizza twice in 1 week!)  Also at Whole Foods, I didn't have much of a choice, so I took the only kind that was in stock: Ionian Awakening.  (3 other varieties were sold out!)  This individual sized pizza has red onions, garlic, fresh rosemary, feta cheese, and olives on it.  I'm not a huge fan of olives, but I was willing to pick them off for the sake of reviewing what sounded like a fabulous product.  And it surely was.  This tasted like a real greek pizza that you would order in a restaurant.  The toppings tasted fresh, the crust was crispy but not overly so, and the pizza had lots of cheese on it.  Even Joey liked it despite it's unique flavors that are quite different from his usual peanut butter and jelly lunches.

Are you wanting pizza yet?  You are?  Great!  I've got a prize pack including coupons for FREE Rustic Crust and American Flatbread products, as well as other goodies for a lucky reader!  All you have to do to enter is tell me what your favorite kind of pizza is.  Then do some or all of the following to earn up to 10 additional entries! (leave an additional comment for each entry.)

• Become a follower of Thou Shall Not Whine (3 extra entries!) *Just click the little "follow" button on the right-hand sidebar, then leave me 3 additional comments stating, "follower #1, follower #2, etc."
• Follow my blog on Facebook (2 extra entries) *click on the networked blog button on the right-hand sidebar, then leave 2 additional comments stating that you did!*
• Grab my button and display it on your blog (2 extra entries!)
• Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back to it. (2 extra entries!)
• Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post. (leave an additional comment here to count as your entry!)

This giveaway starts now and will conclude on Monday, August 9th, at 11:59pm EST. Winner will be selected via Random.org and contacted via email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen.