Super Hero's To The Rescue

The boys love playing super hero's.

They always argue for a bit about who is superman and who is batman. Luckily Teague has no idea right now but they "lovingly" assign him to the Wonder woman role. The boys tell me, "She is the only other super hero that wears a cape." (Don't worry I am working on it)

Teague was standing and jumping around but, each time I took out the camera to take a quick pic he sat right down to pose with his picture face on (face all scrunched up). He has such a fun life with 2 older brothers. Scary at times but fun.

Happy St. Pat's Day

Funny Memories

Yesterday Trey thought he heard something out the front door. So he threw it open and saw nothing. I asked, "why did you just open the door." Trey said "I thought I heard my dad coming to the door wearing a spider man mask dressed in his regular clothes." Me, "what are you talking about dad does not wear spider man masks." Trey, "yes, that is what he did for Taatjes' birthday party. He was pretending to be spider man but he forgot to put on the whole costume." Me, "OH really?" (you got us!) When I told Justin we just laughed thinking of our future...good try dad but that is sooo lame. Well it worked for Taatjes he still thinks spider man came to wish him a happy birthday:) Note: when Taatjes and Teague turn 5 throw away spider man mask.

P-A-R-T-Y!

Happy Birthday Trey! He had asked me if he could have a cake with spider man and sand man and candy on it. His eyes lit up when he saw the cake placed in front of him. He couldn't bring himself to eat a piece before he took spider man and sand man off to play with:) Cake, dance party, and gifts made for a great family party.

Trey woke up nice and early today. He was crazy excited to begin playing with his new stuff!

"Enjoy it the time will fly by"

This is exactly what my parents said to me a few years ago during Trey's second birthday and the arrival of baby #2 (when life gets hectic). It is only too true. It is hard to believe that my first baby is now turning 5! The time is flying by and it has been so awesome to watch Trey grow in so many aspects of life. To have him go from completely dependent to so independent blows me away. He throws spirals, scores goals, shoots baskets, and basically no longer needs us to pretend he is beating us. He is also learning to spell (we are no longer able to get away with spelling out things we do not want him to know) and read. I used to sit with Trey and read and read, now I look over at him and see him sitting all by himself trying to figure out the words in the book. He is a huge help to me with his brothers! He serves as entertainer, toy finder (really anything finder), and hand holder in times of comfort or for safety. Just yesterday when we picked him up from school he made pretzels and saved 2 for each of his brothers because, "I knew they would love some pretzels".

We all love him and are excited to celebrate his 5th birthday!!!

Shedd's Aquarium

Dad took all 3 boys to Shedd's Aquarium (by himself). Thank You Thank You Thank You!!! He left me at home to get in a work out, shopping, and see a movie all by myself = happy.

They had a great time together here are a few pics. I think any fish or lizard pics you see Trey took, not bad. The rest are dad's. Teague went crazy over the sting rays and made everybody smile. Trey loves the sharks and Taatjes the big beluga whales. Oh and of course the boys are crazy about any and all lizards. Really dad is the avid fan teaching them a plethora of knowledge in regards to their scaly friends. The kimono dragon was huge and Trey made sure to get a pic of him. They all returned home talking circles around me with excitement over everything they saw and did. I was informed that the snapping turtle could snap my arm off if he wanted to. A bald eagle could beat a hawk in a fight. And, whales can eat the seals whenever they want. That is what sticks in the brains of little boys minds.

Snow Man and Sledding w/Grandpa

Flying w/3 Boys

What an adventure. Flying with all 3 boys has given me many stories. For the most part the boys did great and most people were kind to us. There are always a few who simply do not understand.

We did not get off to the best start with missing our flight out because of baggage check-in policies by 3 minutes. Yes literally 3 minutes is what the lady told me from behind the counter as she ripped up my tickets immediately (she meant business). Even though we did not miss the flight we missed the time limit by 3 minutes to check your bags therefore we would not be allowed to take the flight out. It was a 6:30am flight. We had been up since 4am. She could not get us on another flight until noon! Justin had to leave to catch his own flight out of the country, so we had no choice but to be stuck in the airport. Oh well we would have to find things to do to pass the time in the airport. Multiple runs across the moving walk ways, watching the airplanes take off, and many trips to the bathroom to use the hand dryers! Oh and a lot of explaining why each plane we saw take off was not ours. I do not have pics of this part because I was just trying to make sure I did not lose anyone.

Anyways, both flights there and back went as best as I could hope for. One bloody nose, a few angry stares from Teague's screeching, and a few attempted escapes from our seats...not bad. I did tell one man in front of Trey a little piece of my mind. Trey did kick his seat at the beginning and I quickly told him not to and he would not receive his prize if he did this again (on purpose) the man saw this. Well he is 4 and his feet come right to the back of the chair. So again by accident this next time he hit the chair. The man became very upset turned around and looked at me saying he is kicking my seat again. Here we go, "yes I understand and I have no problem telling him not to you saw that before, it was an accident, he is 4 you know and his feet are at that level unlike your own, besides if you did not have your chair reclined strait back into his feet further it probably would not have happened. I can only do so much trying to keep 3 little ones happy and respectful in this tight space." Wow, I was clearly steaming because if you know me I am so non-confrontational but mess with my kids and I will speak up. Trey already felt bad enough and said sorry before he turned around to warn me. He was the exception, most people are very kind to them.

Really the success of both trips is due to one entire carry-on full of food and the philosphy of just kept it coming the whole time. You want it you got it and there is plenty more! Also, the flight attendants were great to us. The boys got to go into the cock pit meet the pilots, pretend to drive the air plane, and help the flight attendant with her clean up. (That was one brave flight attendant to take them on to help her. I did tell her repeatedly that she did not have to do this but she insisted.) They did great and felt very special.
It is all over now and it was worth the visit with Grandma and Grandpa:)

(Of course no one wanted to watch the movies we brought???)

Spitting Cobra

(Teague wanted to show his bravery as well)

So now that your 3...

"I have a bigger belly, muscles, and I can shoot spider man webs!" 3 doesn't get much better than that.
Happy Birthday to Taatjes! Every time we ask Taatjes what he wants for his birthday he tells us..."a spider man (check), cake (check), and a shark suit so he can swim with them in the ocean (um no)." Well hopefully he wont be too disappointed when he does not unwrap a shark suit with his presents. We will be taking him to Shed's Aquarium for the day, maybe this will make up for that. It's as close as he's going to get for now:)
Taatjes is in to sharks, dinosaurs, and snakes right now. So he was very excited this morning when Trey gave him a "spitting Cobra" rubber snake. Oh no it is not just a "snake" to him; it is a "spitting cobra he spits in your eye if you don't have your sunglasses on like Steve the crocodile hunter." He got me twice already!

Smile

Teague's new camera face!

Why do I love my brother?

Beacuse he gets me marshmallows!!!

Do you want the details...

I was grocery shopping with all three boys the other day (which I honestly do not like to do one of them at different times is always upset about something). Teague's new favorite thing to do in the store is to see how long he can yell from one breath. Oh the evil stares we get:( Really I try to wait and go in the evenings and maybe take one with me (maybe). Anyways, whenever I do take all 3 of them people always talk to us and make their funny comments. Mostly I hear; "3 boys you must be exhusted" or "busy, busy, busy". However you want to take that one, I just smile nicely. The other day an older gentleman stopped to ask how old they all are, what is it like having 3 etc. His last question caught me off gaurd a bit. He looks at me after talking to the boys a bit and asks, "so is the factory closed up yet?" I gave him a half laugh and a exiting smile. But aparently he wanted the real answer. "No, really have you closed up the factory (hand jesture included)?" Me, "Well, technically yes." Gentleman, "oh good you need a break!" Maybe I should have given him a more detailed answer for the shock effect:)
Really most people I talk to are very encouraging and nice. I have had a woman put her arm around me, in the grocery store, and tell me how much she admires me:) Made my day!

Almost 3...

There is something that happens internally to a little child who is about to turn 3. A growth spurt suddenly accrues deep within that gives them a magical ability that all mothers and fathers dread as they round the corner from 2 to 3. From deep inside their tiny throat the vocal cords begin to magically stretch and grow at super speeds producing the loudest shrieking new level of talking present at all times voice. Why, why, why is all I think as Taatjes' voice has turned up 10 levels louder. There is no volume control and it will not return for another year or more. Not a trace of quite will be found in his speech. He renders my Brain completely powerless to solve any problem he may be having with his ability to scream and cry at astronomical levels of loud! Imagine your common group of seagulls at a beach screeching for the piece of bread they see in your hands except you can not hear them because your little 3 year old is standing next to you screaming at the top of his lungs that he has lost his shovel in the sand. It takes a good 2 to 3 months for your ear drum to adjust to this permanent level of communication. Once adjusted you will soon recover your problem solving abilities. I believe this is natures way of reminding you my child is about to be 3 start planning his party:) (Just in case life gets crazy and in your possible state of sleep deprivation you forget.) Seriously though Taatjes is almost 3 and I am so excited! He can't wait for his birthday and is counting down how many more sleeps until the big 3. 3 is a great age (the vocal level an unfortunate side affect) full of passion and opinions on how life should be lived! Car rides hold many wonders that must be viewed by mom or dad. Retention of new information grows and student now becomes the teacher. More than before the ability to show others your own mood is strengthened. The wisdom to navigate through the year of 3 is greatly needed by all who interact with it!

Happy New Year

What does 2008 hold for the Belgiano's?
This is going to be a crazy year for us. The first and biggest change will be a move to the windy city of Chicago. We will all be moving out to Glenview, Illinois in one week. Justin excepted a job in Glenview, the company is relocating us, so off we go. New everything. So really the first change is a tiny snow ball that will soon be rolling into a huge snow ball of changing everything for us. New schools for the boys, new house, new city, new church, etc. I will be taking pics of the move to post and update our exciting change. Looking forward to blogging from Chicago and our explorations there!
The boys are excited but really they can't even imagine what moving really means. Their top concerns are: Can we still be Michigan football fans? - Yes! Do we still like the lions or should we cheer for the Bears? - Let's see if the Lions are better next year. I like the Black Hawks now, they beat the Red Wings anyways! And of course every kids dream...can we move to a house with a pool in it? -No! But the Wolgies have one. I know they live in Florida. OK, can we move to Florida?!
See you from Chicago or rather a suburb of it:)

Happy 1st Birthday

Teague is 1!!! Teague can be so serious when it comes to new things, except cake! He loved the frosting...frosting in his mouth, frosting in his hair, frosting all over the table:) Being the third child it is always strange for him to have everyone staring and cheering for him all at the same time. He cautiously smiled at all the attention looking up every now and then to see his family and friends still staring at him. His big brothers were so excited he was having a birthday and screamed "happy birthday Teague" every time he entered the room they were in (Note: this can be shocking to a groggy just woke up from my nap one year old). Overall it was great to celebrate our 3rd 1st birthday.
Teague - 8 teeth, walking for 2 months now, serious and yet very goofy with his brothers, won't be left out of a good wrestling match with dad , actually claps when mom walks in the room, is big on open mouth kisses, and spins on command for a piece of beef jerky (ha ha).
We love him like crazy and are so happy he entered our life one year ago on November 27th.

It's Time

Yes it is finally time to give Taatjes a hair cut. It kills me to remove such beautiful hair but it is becoming quite the maintenance nightmare. So here is one last look at his "doo". I will post his new, much shorter hair soon.

Celebration Lunch

Preschool is off to a great start. Trey was so excited and could not wait to get in the doors to his preschool room. His teacher walked out to greet them and Trey ran over to her and gave her a big hug! And, he was off. He had a great week, I could hardly get him to leave his room when I would come to pick him up. Heaven forbid I cramp his style with all his new friends so I waited off to the side. What a change from last year. Notably he is actually telling me what they did in class unlike last year when he said they did nothing and he sat by the door (which was not true). The one thing he is really excited about is homework. He thinks he is really older and cool to have homework just like our neighbor boy Zack. Will see how long this lasts:) The homework is really just activities to do to encourage learning outside of class and to prepare them for what they will be learning in the next class. There will be a lot of fun projects for us to do together.

So...to show Trey how proud we are of him going to school we have made it a family tradition to go out for a celebration lunch. Trey walked right in the restaurant telling everyone he was there to celebrate his first day of going back to school. After lunch we went for ice cream and he went in the doors, up to the counter, and ordered by himself his own ice cream. Here are some pictures from it.

School Begins

My Parents favorite Story From Our Trip

My parents had the boys in the car for one of their excursions and they had a little conversation that went something like this.
HeeHaw(grandpa): Hey guys we are going to have to clean my car. We can give it a car wash. When we get home you should get your bathing suits on so we can wash the car.
Trey: I am going to leave my shorts on, I don't want to put my swim suit on.
HeeHaw: Oh no you should put your swim suit on.
Trey: I do not want to put my swim suit on.
HeeHaw: Yes so you can get wet.
Trey: I want to wear my shorts, my dad never makes me change into my swim suit to go through the car wash!
Grandma and HeeHaw laughed all the way home.
I guess we should teach Trey the joys of washing your car at home:)

Potty Trained, Oh Yeah!

Taatjes is fully potty trained!!!! He is so awesome, he is only 2 1/2 and he is out of diapers (except at night). This puts me down to 1 diaper which I am thrilled about. He does everything himself and does not want help with any of it, unlike his brother. We did have a few rough patches along the potty training trial. Many wet pants and a few poops outside later and we are all set. Taatjes has been such an easy little man:) Now if I could just get him to clean the toilet and floor!

Trey's World Crashes Down

So lately Trey has been going through a sort of attitude problem. Lets just say he thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread. He has been extremely bossy and feels that many of the family rules do not need to apply to him. One piece of the attitude is that he truly believes that he is stronger than me. Because he is stronger than me he believes he will not be able to get in trouble due to the fact that he can run faster than me to get away, keep me from opening the door to his room, and hide under his covers which I will be unable to open to punish him for his behavior. Well he has been testing me with many little tests which I have been unaware of until yesterday when hindsight put it all into perspective. Yesterday included a number of arm wrestling (literally) battles between Trey and myself. I thought it was all in good fun...Trey telling me he is stronger than me and me telling him lets arm wrestle to determine who is the strongest. Well with each defeat Trey's pride began to buckle. During the day he and I had maybe 10 arm wrestling battles all followed by his defeat and giggles on his part. The last one came in the evening with Dad watching. Now you have to picture us playing Lions and Water Buffalo's to see that a storm was brewing. Trey can only handle not being the strongest Water Buffalo or Lion for so long until he gets pretty angry and begins to shout around the house that he is the strongest person much stronger than Mom. So, another arm wrestle battle was underway. It began with smiles :) :) :) It transitioned to cries of "cheater, cheater, moms cheating". (Uh no, he was the one using 2 hands of course) I let it go back and forth for a time until I finally put his arm down. Resulting in the end of the battle and bursts of tears as he laid his head into me. I knew what was happening and going on in that brain of his. How am I going to get away with not following the rules and doing what ever I want to? The self proclaimed Kingpin had just been knocked out. Dad asked him why he was crying so hard, knowing full well why, but wanted to hear it out loud. Trey, through his tears full of frustration said "I am so mad that Mom is stronger than me." This battle has allowed Trey's attitude to right side itself. He and I had been struggling with him not listening and following directions, and demanding me as well as others to do things for him. Today was a different story. He has listened and obeyed our rules for him. We have had a great day! If I only knew it would have taken an arm wrestling contest to get him to see that he was not going to beat me in this large game of life, I would have gotten it over with on Monday:)
For those of you who know Trey you know that when he thinks he is right about something it is the truth to him. So this left me no room to poke around and let him win! He had to know that his Mom can enforce the rules of our home if need be.

The Trip Out East

It took us 2 days and only 12 hours of those days were spent driving. We decided that we only wanted to be driving when the kids would be sleeping and give them plenty of time to eat, run around, and get all their "energy out" (this word became Trey's demand on our way home when he had decided that he was done driving at 8am we had just started). So we made a few stops on our way out to Mass. 1) The Lile's and their beautiful girl Maeva. Teague and Meava are the same age but she really loved Trey and Taatjes. Thanks to them for entertaining us and the boys. The boys think its super cool that we have friends who live in Ohio:) 2) Erie, Penn Toys R Us - where all the boys spent to much time running around, climbing into every vehicle there, and riding any ride on toy that was of the shelves. Thanks to Toys R Us for unknowingly letting us run around your store and not buy anything! 3) Aunt Darcy's house in New York with Victoria and GG Belgiano. Darcy called up the Belgiano clan and had everyone over for the day. It was sooo great to see Justin's cousins and their kids. Trey especially loved "his cousin Hallah" whom he ran around with for the day. Both first borns and knew how to handle each other quite well:) And; Thanks to Darcy for having us to your house to crash and entertaining all of us for the day. 4) Mass - we made it! My parents have the pictures from the week; so no pics yet of that part.

1st pic - Maeva and Teague

2nd pic - Victoria, Hallah, and Trey

3rd and 4th - Hallah, Trey, and Taatjes

Sleepy Boy

This is the boy who asks for his nap times:) If we were not in his room he would have put himself to bed, but, the couch is a good alternative.

Learning to Walk

And he's off....he thinks he is hot stuff.

Lunch

Lunch time is one of my favorite times of the day. It is a a time when we all sit around the table and talk about funny things that we did or want to do some day. Today the topic of conversation was about being a daddy some day. (This topic comes up frequently)
Here is a recap of some of that conversation.
Trey: "Mom how many days until I become a daddy?"
Me: "Well it is more like 20 to 30 years until you will be a daddy."
Trey: "I think it will be more like 2 to 3 days until I am going to be a daddy."
Me: "Oh really, well who is going to be your baby in 2 to 3 days?"
Trey: "I will have 2 babies, your Teague and my own Teague! Teague needs another daddy and I will make the best daddy!"
Me: "What about his daddy you shouldn't take him from his daddy. That will make him sad."
Trey: "Well he can still have Taatjes, that's good enough for him."
Taatjes: "No, I am a dragon."
Pause (for giggles)
Taatjes: "No I will be a daddy and be the best daddy because I will take my babies for rides in my wagon!!!"
I simply love lunch time it is always full of great questions and answers.

Honestly Can I Just Go To The Bathroom!

Normally when I have to use the bathroom I put Teague in his crib to play. This particular time I saw how happy Teague was playing with his toy and the boys were content eating a snack while playing trains, so I left him there. Big mistake:( I am off to the powder room (lets make it sound nice and clean) for a quick trip. In the course of 1 minute I hear Trey yelling to me; "MOM Taatjes is feeding a chip to Teague"! This is not a soft chip of sorts it is a hard, sharp, pointy tortilla chip. So I began to use my really scary yelling mommy voice; "TAATJES stop, do not feed that chip to Teague or I will take your kitty away from you (kitty-his most treasured possession). Which is followed by Trey; "Ah MOM he did and Teague is chocking" whack, whack, whack, screams and crying. Quick as I can, if you have been there you no what I mean when I say quick as I can, I run to the 3 of them. Poor Teague is streaming with tears and fear in his eyes. Trey repeating, "I had to , I had to whack him on the back he was chocking." I scooped Teague up, took Taatjes' kitty and tried to let Trey (who is also crying) know that he did the right thing and everything is ok. I am throwing in the towel in regards to using the bathroom. I'm just going to hold it until Justin gets home:)

8 Months

Teague is on the move! Not only is he standing in his crib every morning when he awakes, he is all over the house. He has been doing his army crawl for about a month but has quickly moved to a hands and knees crawl. He loves to hold any ones hands to walk himself around, Trey absolutely loves walking him around. Teague has also found the furniture to be of great use to get himself around, or do a little dance when the music is on. My new challenge is to get Teague to play somewhere away from me while I cook. If he is with me he insists on using my legs to hold himself up. This puts me at a literal stand still. Or Teague will be happy playing with his toys and then Trey walks him to where I am and now Teague wants me to pick him up. Between Trey and Teague's new walking abilities I can't seem to get a minute away from him:) I just keep telling myself to enjoy it while I can before he is off chasing his brothers.