Why such a long break since my last post, do you ask? Sigh. Life. Here's a few of the happier moments.
Callum took ski lessons for 5 weeks at Mt.Baker and can now go up the chair lifts and down the hills all on his own! Wohoo!
We brought Max up one Saturday to do some sledding while Callum skied, though, after we got there we learned that there is no sledding on the hill, so we mostly just lied around in the snow...
...and plenty of hot chocolate in the Lodge, of course.
The last day of every month, Callum's school has "Party Day", and they celebrate the birthday's of the month. My iPhone doesn't take great photos indoors.
At the end of January, Jeff was able to take a week off work to go on a cycling holiday to Hawaii with my brother-in-law Sven. He claims it was a great trip.
While he was away, the boys and I continued with regular life, including a visit to the Dentist. I was so proud of both Callum and Max, who not only each got a full cleaning but sat for the fluoride too! They were impressed with the TV on the ceiling. 
Simon is getting bigger and heavier - 22 lbs now!! It seems like he has been perpetually sick for the month of March, which affects his already erratic and rather frustrating sleeping patterns. He still manages to make us smile, though.
Callum likes to use my phone to take pictures and video. Here is a sample of his work.
Max has been developing personality traits of a 3-year old. He tends to lose his patience at the littlest things, like getting his coat off or his fork won't pick up his pancake properly. In one particular instance, he got angry at me because I told him to eat his cereal by himself since he was taking so long and I couldn't sit around to feed him anymore. He curled up in this position and stubbornly stayed there long enough that he actually fell asleep like this:
Callum's patience, on the other hand, sometimes seems endless.
My Dad has been busy working in the freezing cold (it has been such a terrible February and March!) and I my skills have been intermittently called on for trim details, window details and lighting selection.
Otherwise, my sisters and I went to Las Vegas during the 1st weekend in March and had a great time (other than when I got miserably sick on Sunday). I didn't take any pictures but I'll hopefully get some from my sister sometime.
Oh!!!! AND MAX IS TOILET TRAINED!!!! But I will further explain that another time as he is currently dancing next to me while chanting "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry,"
My little boy turned 5 this month. 5 years old. Do you know what that means? I have a 5 year old kid, not to mention 2 other little boys in tow. Crazy.
Gratefully, Callum opted for a party with just his cousins this year, saving me from the more complicated process of planning a party with a number of his 5-year old friends. All he wanted was to decorate cupcakes and play board games, and I love him for it!
And here is Simon. He's a sweetie. A sweetie that drives me crazy, but sweet, none the less.
On another note... With the hope that most people don't actually read most of my blogs, I will take a moment to release some negative energy.
As of late, I seem to find myself drifting off in my thoughts, whether I'm washing bottles for the um-teenth time of the day, or I'm down on my hands and knees wiping up juice that was spilled off the table again, or I'm taking the cushions off the couch in search of the ever-elusive soother, or I've just finished repeating for the hundredth time that my son needs to get dressed, or I'm folding laundry in an attempt to keep myself preoccupied while my 3 -month old is screaming in his crib... Anyway, yes, I drift in my thoughts. I wonder to myself if I can feel some kind of comfort if I could think in absolutes, like "every mother feels completely defeated" and "every mother gets this angry" and "every mother lets their kids watch TV for 5 hours in a day" and "every mother loves it when her kids are not home"... But I have my doubts.
Ya, I'm in a rough patch now, and I try to remind myself that it's just a phase. I wish I could let it go, though, let go of the anger and the guilt, the self pity - why can't I enjoy this phase for what it is? I get the feeling that I'm kind of losing my mind, going a little crazy - if I hear one more complaint about what is for dinner or if I find one more thing that has been broken or ruined or if I have to repeat myself over and over and over and over again anymore, or if I have to hear anymore crying or whining or listen to the noise noise noise... - I'm gonna lose it.
But then, wait, what's that I hear? "I love you, mommy". "Thank you for lunch, mom". The sound of a baby giggling at me. The sound of 2 little boys playing superheros together and laughing. Phewph. I'm not gonna lose it. Instead, I break a big fat smile and a moment of sanity returns.
Uh ya. Nevermind. Max will not be toilet trained this year. So much for the 'good bye diaper' party. He. Is. Not. Ready. And neither am I, I guess.
After taking out our little box of Christmas decorations, I realized that we may need a few more. They may have been sufficient for our 700sqft apartment, but they were lost in this big house. So I cut some branches off the Holly tree in our back yard then ripped up a Harry Potter book and ended up with these:
Callum was inspired at school to make some paper snowflakes for our windows, so I got on board too.
Just as a side-note, Max is currently sitting on the toilet and has been on there for nearly an hour. We had his "Goodbye Diaper" party yesterday since I am just disgusted by changing his diapers anymore. Well, by 9:00am, we had already gone through 3 sets of underwear and pants, hence why he is just going to spend the day sitting on the can until he figures out what peeing in the toilet actually means! (Yes, Samantha, you can snicker and feel satisfied that Max will challenge my patience in this endeavor!). I am SO unexcited about the next few days. I am tempted to give up right this very minute, actually....
Let's talk about Simon! He's so awesome. He had his 2-month birthday last week and I am loving every bit of him now. Ok, yes, I have to admit that my attempts to enjoy the newborn-infant stage were somewhat unsuccessful because I really just don't understand babies and I get too frustrated by that. So, when Simon hit 6-weeks and started smiling at me - Hallelujah! Since he turned 6-weeks, he's decided to stop crying anytime he is conscious, so he will often let me carry on with being a mother to 2 other little boys. Yes, he still has his quirks (I often need to use the kitchen hood vent fan at 500cfm to calm him), but Simon seems to be winning the battle for easiest Skinner baby! In Simon's bedroom I had hung this poster that Simon just loves - another way to calm him when upset is to let him lie on his change table and just let him stare at it:
I have to say that he excels the most in the category of night-time sleeping, as he generally goes to sleep around 7pm, and only wakes around 12:30am and 5:00am to feed (though he often thinks he is up for the day at 5am, but I forgive him since I manage to get enough sleep anyway). We have yet to come up with any regular daytime schedule, though, since he likes 10 or 15-minute naps, or 2 to 2.5 hour naps at irregular times of the day. He is very forgiving, though, as I have sometimes had to feed him by propping his bottle up while he sits in the carseat or even while in the stroller as we're taking Callum to school.He's looking more and more like his own person, not a little clone of Jeff or his brothers anymore. He has their 'big' gene, though, since he is already wearing 6-9 months clothes! Getting a photo of him smiling is difficult when he wants to look into my eyes but the camera gets in the way:
He has found his hands, and is rather entertained by them:
I tried him in the Jolly Jumper for the first time the other day. He wasn't so sure about it:
On another subject.... Christmas time is here!!!! You know that the countdown has started when the thick Toys'R'Us flyers start coming in the mail:
We brought Max up one Saturday to do some sledding while Callum skied, though, after we got there we learned that there is no sledding on the hill, so we mostly just lied around in the snow...
...and plenty of hot chocolate in the Lodge, of course.
The last day of every month, Callum's school has "Party Day", and they celebrate the birthday's of the month. My iPhone doesn't take great photos indoors.
At the end of January, Jeff was able to take a week off work to go on a cycling holiday to Hawaii with my brother-in-law Sven. He claims it was a great trip.
While he was away, the boys and I continued with regular life, including a visit to the Dentist. I was so proud of both Callum and Max, who not only each got a full cleaning but sat for the fluoride too! They were impressed with the TV on the ceiling. 
Simon is getting bigger and heavier - 22 lbs now!! It seems like he has been perpetually sick for the month of March, which affects his already erratic and rather frustrating sleeping patterns. He still manages to make us smile, though.
Callum likes to use my phone to take pictures and video. Here is a sample of his work.
Max has been developing personality traits of a 3-year old. He tends to lose his patience at the littlest things, like getting his coat off or his fork won't pick up his pancake properly. In one particular instance, he got angry at me because I told him to eat his cereal by himself since he was taking so long and I couldn't sit around to feed him anymore. He curled up in this position and stubbornly stayed there long enough that he actually fell asleep like this:
Callum's patience, on the other hand, sometimes seems endless.
My Dad has been busy working in the freezing cold (it has been such a terrible February and March!) and I my skills have been intermittently called on for trim details, window details and lighting selection.
Otherwise, my sisters and I went to Las Vegas during the 1st weekend in March and had a great time (other than when I got miserably sick on Sunday). I didn't take any pictures but I'll hopefully get some from my sister sometime.
