Wheels!

We've had a fun few days with some new and exciting toys. Amelia, Abigail, and Gabriel finally have their own set of wheels! These pictures aren't the greatest, but they do show the lastest addition to our toy collection and the latest cause of non-stop entertainment. On Sunday Garrett blessed me with an afternoon off, so I got several hours with which to run errands, play, and enjoy some peace and quiet. One of my errands was to go to Toys R Us to spend Nana's birthday money for the kids. She had picked out these riding toys and the kids absolutely LOVE them. They have insisted on sleeping with them for the past couple nights. I finally put the kibosh on that tonight after they ransacked their bedroom, from their cribs, at naptime today. They had their "bikes," as they like to call them, in bed with them and I think the things just kept them awake and wired and looking for trouble. Anyway, they may not get to sleep with them any longer, but I have a feeling the riding toys will be a hit for some time to come.

In addition to the inside riding toys, I also pulled out a couple tricycles for my kids to play with at the playground today. I mentioned in an earlier post that we had one tricycle, and Garrett and I found a second one on the side of the road a week or so ago. We have no room in our apartment to store these tricycles but I figured I would at least take them to the playground and leave them there. Hopefully they will stick around, and if they don't at least we can play with them until they get hoisted. It's better than leaving them in our apartment or car waiting to get some play time. Amelia absolutely loves the trikes, and Gabe is a big fan too. Abby enjoys a joy ride here and there but luckily she seems to be okay with forfeiting a turn so her siblings can take a ride, so having only two seems to be working out so far. It's been very fun letting them get their hand at mastering some new skills with the ride on toys. They really love it. In fact I've had a couple pretty easy days this week because the kids are completely absorbed in their new toys. I haven't had to do much in the way of entertaining. It's a nice break!

No major news in the potty training arena this week. Amelia and Gabriel have had a few more successes, and Abigail continues to show her interest when the others do. I have decided, at least for now, to take a very laid back approach to this potty training thing. I'm in no rush, so I'll just follow their lead and see where it takes me. It's pretty cool to see them taking the initiative on it really. I mean, you hear all this hype in the parent world about potty training--how it's horrible, or long, or time consuming, or takes a ton of planning and clock watching or whatever. I suppose it's like anything else. You can tie yourself in knots about how to do it "right" or you can just take it as it comes. I've come to the conlclusion that in general, parenting is best taken as it comes. I have enough on my plate without inviting more stress, and so far my kids seem pretty capable of letting me know what they need and when. So for now, I'm pretty proud of Amelia when she tells me she has to go potty and then she actually does it when I give her the opportunity, but I won't put any expectations on her that she has to progress at any certain pace. They'll get it when they're ready.

If only I could be so patient with their language acquisition skills. Sometimes it seems to take so long for them to really talk! They are doing great, don't get me wrong. They each have a lot of words in their repertoires and their receptive language is clearly improving. But I'm still impatient to really see that exposion of language that everyone seems to think is right around the corner. I see hints of it. Gabriel especially seems very astute at picking up nuances and inflections. The other day Amelia got into the elevator in our apartment building by herself and traveled to another floor (long story). But while she was gone and Gabe and Abby and I were waiting for Garrett to find her and bring her back, I was asking the little ones where Amelia was and Gabriel looks at me and lifts his arms in a questioning shrug and says "where?" I said "I don't know" and he looks down and says "don't know" in his cute little baby voice. So he's getting it. They are all getting it. I just wish it could all happen a little faster, especially in the moments of frustration that still seem all too frequent when someone wants something and is about to have a tantrum about it and I can't elicit a single request. Seems like, when your world consists of stuffed animals and crackers and milk and diaper changes that it wouldn't be too hard to convey what you want. But I suppose that is a simplistic view of my kids' world. Perhaps what they wish to convey is that there is so much more to their world than stuffed animals and crackers and milk and diaper changes. I still have so much to learn.