Tales of the Cormier family

The work is done, the carpet is in...

and the door is open to our family and friends who want to come and visit us! 

Here are some pictures of the remodeling we did in the stairs to our lower level, the new carpet, and the wall we tore down :) 

The stairs before:

The stairs after:

View from the bottom of the stairs before:

View from the bottom of the stairs now:

Looking into the family room from under the stairs before:

Looking into the family room from under the stairs after:

Fireplace before:

Fireplace after:

New play area at the end of the new family room:

New spot (old but very beloved Bly family table) for writing letters and working from home:

The boys ready to break in the new space with movie night tomorrow:

What a stay-at-home-mom might do on a Wednesday morning

I took a day off last week and took A and E to the farm.  It is a nice local farm, a lovely short drive across the floating bridge to the East side.  We met up with several other moms of young multiples and said multiples at the farm for a short tour with Farmer Jayne - so fun!  We got to meet several animals, pet some of the animal babies born this Spring, and learn about the barn and the garden on the farm.

Miss A decided to make a new friend :)

We started with these 4-month old piggies - so cute, but stinky and not popular with my two at all!

Then we headed to the barn to meet some goats and chickens, of course!

The bunny was cute, soft, and definitely wanted to hop right out of that plastic bin!

At the end of the tour, the kids get to plant a pumpkin seed in the garden (and come back in the fall to pick their pumpkin - smart marketing plan!). 

Before we headed to lunch, we got a few of the twins together for a small group shot.

And then Kara, our family photographer (and a multiples mom!) snapped a few pics of us before we left.

Another milestone

So, it's hard to say who is the happiest about our latest milestone, but I might give it to our babysitter, C.  She likes spending time with our kids a few Saturdays a month, but she dreaded the words from E's mouth after dinner, "I have to go poo.  Can you please put a diaper on me?"  Now you may not be familiar with all of the "normal" stages of potty training, but this particular stage of potty training is supposed to last a few days, *maybe* a few weeks, according to the books on this subject that are written by the experts.  But I'm pretty sure it was about a year for my little E.  Yep. A whole year.  He never went at school.  Nope.  Just at home.

One day a long time ago and shortly after he started wearing underwear (because he was a quick study about peeing in the potty), he pooped in his underwear. I was so grossed out and upset...and I guess I sent a strong message to him because he never did it again.  But after that, when he had to go, he asked for a diaper.  Lest you judge, or simply wonder why we did not tell him to use the potty, I can assure you that insisting that any of my children sit on the potty is just a plain waste of time.  They have wills very strong, and bodies even stronger!  Reading on the potty, not having any of it.  Begging did not work.  Alas, this was the same stage that A went through, and after a few weeks (well, yes, to be honest it was several months, although my memory sincerely does fail me)...one day she just decided she could go in the potty and that was the end of her diapers.  But this young man, my baby boy, he takes the cake.  I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I might have to pack a diaper in his kindergarten back pack before he would get past this stage (I'm only kidding, Nana!!  I swear!!!!).

So, one night a few weeks ago, after dinner (yes, we like routine around here)...E asked me for a diaper.  He said he *really* had to go.  So I thought I'd give it one of our semi-regular attempts to put him on the potty, since you never know when the timing just might be right.  Well, he sat on the potty, and he said he had to go...but he just wanted his diaper to go in so he asked to get down.  So next came my semi-regular begging for him to go in the potty.  About this time his brother and sister finished dinner and decided to be the cheerleading squad at the doorway.  And finally, there was my semi-regular BRIBE.  For many months now, I have told E that when he goes poo in the potty he will get a toy.  And so will his brother and sister (this part was just to encourage them to give him some peer pressure, which they did semi-regularly but just as unsuccessfully as everything else).

Now, the toy I have always had in my mind was a power tool.  He likes tools, he likes noise, and he likes things with batteries and power.  But I never told him what this toy was because I wanted it to really have he wow-factor when he earned it.  So this night, he actually perked up a bit when I mentioned the toy thing.  So I told him this toy was not just an average toy, but something remarkable and awesome.  His brother and sister got on the train and talked about how much fun it would be to have a new toy.  BBC was especially cute and earnest.  He said things like, "Come on, E, you can do it!  I know you can!" and "It will be so cool when you see your poo in the potty and you can flush it down." 

Well, the stars aligned, the encouragement flowed, and it doesn't hurt that I think he really had to go.  So, he did it.  In the potty.  Well, the party in the bathroom was hysterical.  E was so excited and happy and surprised that he almost cried sitting there, really.  BBC danced a spontaneous dance and he and A were in the halls screaming with excitement and calling for Daddy.  Daddy did the best potty dance of the past 4 years of potty dances I can remember.  I was in shock and almost speechless.  And thanks to Auntie M and Uncle S, I had the coolest blue power tool toy hidden away in the closet just ready for giving for the reward of it all.  

The best part was, that once it was done, that was it.  He insisted that the very next day we take every single diaper out of this house to his preschool.  We had about 10 left, and he gave a couple to each and every room in the daycare, starting with the baby room, the Willow room, the Apple room, and the Treefrog room.  I tried to skip a room if no one was around that morning, but he wanted to go find the teacher for that room and be sure she had the diapers that she needed that he no longer needed.  And so, another milestone comes in like a lion around here.  He has been using the potty like a champ ever since. 

Happy Mother's Day 2012

I have lots of pictures to post here and some stories, too, from the past few weeks.  For now, here's a few pictures of me and my three blessings on this Mother's Day - with special thanks to Daddy who snapped these before he went to the airport today. 

My handsome-est #1 son giving up his best smile for me...love him so much.  He gave me a sweet card he made at school and a very special watercolor painting of a bleeding heart flower.

And here's me with E and A over the years - they are so big now. 

Bubbles

When we went to see the tulips a week or so ago, we bought some really big bubble wands.  We made a big jug of magic bubbles to use in the new bubble tray with the giant bubble wands, and the kids played with the bubbles for two days straight!

We did some bubbles in the neighbors driveway one afternoon - E was loving chasing the huge bubbles all the way down the driveway, then running back and doing it all over again and again.

Kindergarten Classroom

A few weeks ago it was World Cultures night at BBC's school.  Each classroom studies a different country or part of the world for several months, and they present their work and learnings in an evening at school. It was a crazy night because Daddy was out of town and I got a babysitter for the twins, but then I had a miscommunication with her about the time I needed her and she got stuck at the Ballard bridge and then we were running late and we had to park so many blocks away from school it was almost not worth driving at all.  Then I got so rushed I left my phone in the car accidentally which meant I was out of touch with the sitter and also I could not take any pictures of BBC and the cool things in his classroom, so he was a great sport and agreed to walk all the way back to the car with me to get the phone and then took these pics for me. 

Here is BBC with his wonderful teacher - she has been the best kindergarten teacher a child or parent could ask for (how funny that their shirts and hair match!).

Here he is in front of the huge Kapok tree the class built - they studied Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.  This tree a occupies a very important role in the rainforest ecosystem.  It provides food and shelter to insects, amphibians, birds, monkeys, as well as other Amazon rainforest plants dependant on sunlight for survival.  It is an emergent tree that rises above the canopy of the rainforest, and it can grow up to 13 feet in a single year.

They also learned about pottery and painting pottery, as well as fabric weaving - crafts that are native to Ecuador.  Here he is showing me his art pieces.

Then, this week he is the Super Star.  Each week of the year, one of the students gets to be the Super Star.  Here is the poster he colored and filled out by himself, which will be displayed in the classroom this week.  He also brought some photos of our family to put up next to the poster, and he brought a LEGO car he built as his special show and tell item.  He was just glowing when I woke him up this morning, and the first thing he said to me was, "Mom!  I am the Super Star today!" He is proud of all of the colors he used on his poster.  I am proud how much time he put into it.  Several mornings last week he woke up early before we had breakfast and got out his poster and markers and worked on the poster before school. 

Tulip Town 2012

On Friday I took the kids and drove north about 60 miles to Mount Vernon, Washington, and we visited Tulip Town.  The fields of tulips in April are one of my favorite things in the Seattle area, and for some reason we did not make it to the fields last year, and I really missed it.  So this year I was determined.  I had last week off work to do some work at home (yes, we have new carpet in the basement - woo hoo!) and decided to use Friday for fun instead of work.

After breakfast, we piled into the minivan and started watching mile markers until we got to 226.  They did great on the drive.  When they would ask me for something to eat or drink, I would tell them they would have to wait until we stopped.  They couldn't understand where the red lights were, because they are used to me stopping at red lights to hand them things.  We talked about it and they discussed how "there are no red lights on this speed way."  Clearly, we stay *very* close to home most of the time since the interstate was quite a novelty!

There was a street fair in the town of Mount Vernon, so we stopped there first.  We wandered through some booths and one of the booths had these cute hats:

The favorite part of the street fair for the kids was the local cat shelter booth.  They had a large cage with 4 or 5 six-week-old kittens, and they had a feather cat toy that they let the kids use to play with the kittens through the cage.  E was in love.  He is such an animal lover.  The shelter volunteer took the mama cat out of the cage so we could pet her.  Then we had some street fair fare, like mini donuts, corn dogs, french fries, and the very popular cotton candy.  They can be pretty patient under some circumstances and even waited without complaint to have the cotton candy until we got back to the car to head out to the tulip fields. 

And here we are at Tulip Town.

Here they are waiting to ride on the Tulip Trolley.

Then we wandered through the rows of tulips and mud, just because we could.  The kids didn't want to go in the yellow ones because they saw some bees hanging out near them, but this row was the least deep with rain water and mud so I insisted. 

But in the end, my insisting was for naught because E landed in a huge mud puddle when he was jumping at the end of the rows.  At least he was only upset for a few minutes and then seemed to almost forget about it.  When he first fell and was crying, BBC came running over to him and said, "It's okay, E, when you're muddy it means you've had the most fun!"  Sometimes that older brother really surprises me. 

Happy Easter 2012

Here is the gang at our house, dying eggs (yet another shout out to Auntie R and Uncle G, who sent us a little Easter care package including the fun tie dye set with glitter!). 

Baskets in hand, they headed off the steps into their very own back yard egg hunt.  A had a new Easter dress and sweater that she had planned to wear today but since she was still under the weather she decided to hunt in her pajamas. 

Inside, they opened the eggs and found candy and stickers - the most popular candy was the gummy candies (the red Swedish fish brand of candy, but they make pastel eggs to go with the fish for Easter!) and the Laffy Taffy.  The chocolate bunnies remain intact although the boys discussed what part of the bunny they were going to eat for dessert tomorrow night.  A is still not really eating, poor girl, but that would never get in the way of her keeping up with her brothers when it came to the eggs...she just has more candy left to eat!

Pinkalicious

With Miss A not feeling too well this weekend, she and I spent a lot of time together indoors trying to let her body rest and heal.  We did this puzzle 3 times in 2 days at her request - here's a shout out to Auntie R (she's the greatest, you know) for sending it to us.

I swear I did not stage this photo shoot, either.  In her feverish state of mind, she still insisted on getting dressed all on her own, and she chose her favorite color, of course.  The only reason the headband is not pink is that I picked it.

Here she is admiring her work after she placed the last piece:

T-Ball Season Opener

Saturday morning was BBC's first game of the season - Daddy and E went to cheer him on.  Miss A was not feeling well this weekend so she and I stayed home.

Here are my boys on their way to the ball park.

And some action shots (or as much action as you get with t-ball...).

Later that night, BBC decided to build one of his LEGO sets - he had fans for that, too!