wow

matty is 4!

seems like only yesterday that my guy was this small...all 8 lb. 9 oz of him...

..and i was so big (..little did i know)

our little pirate kept one eye closed.  

at almost a year his snaggled-toothed self was already showing signs of the fun he brings.

almost two and already getting some stylish payback from mom

almost three and snuggling his brothers. thankfully we seem to all love each other again

and today:

 

my heart is overwhelmed at the moment at how much i love this little matty monster

perfect days

how do we celebrate 75 degrees at the end of a fabulous october?

by going to the aquarium with our school in shorts and a tee.

by playing hookey in the afternoon with an ice cream sundae (part of our 4-days-til-4 celebration)

 by walking to the playground with a big stick..

.

..and the help of some old lady's hand

 by being just a little naughty.

 by crawling (!!!) after big brother.

 by welcoming little brothers into the bath.

 and by making funny hair

joy =

torture = waiting to find out if we are having boy or girl cousin!

halloween parade

matty picked out the costumes this year.

introducing a fireman and his firedogs. naturally :)

 the biggest, baddest fireman in boston!

 well maybe second biggest. but definitely the bravest! there was a reptile show after the parade and matty was draped in a large snake.

 the firedogs did not last the 4 minute walk home.

the neighborhood children parading through the west end.

gosh, we really love our neighborhood!

yum yum

we tried out baby mum mums today. funny this is the only thing that did not immediately go into their mouths.

 jack tore his up. although i did not find many crumbs, i can not be sure he actually ate any.

 B let his brother go first.

 and took a while to decide if he liked it. (he did, bit did not eat much.) this was when mom realized a hair trim was a good idea.

 this soon turned into fight over the mum mum wrapper. and then an alligator sock and then a small ball.

 "got it!"

 "mine."

relative calm can always be restored with the flip of a switch...the vacuum!



no one answered

so ben got a little hair trim...

where o where

mam's first outing to children's museum with three out of stroller was success thanks to this nifty little corral. it is similar to the one we are buying for home. yes, we are going to be that type of home.

 matty was not hanging out with other wizards at an H.P. convention but...

 ..at his first circus! which he actually enjoyed immensely. may be in part to the barrel of popcorn and giant cotton candy dad bought for him.

yet our little city kid was still most impressed with his view of boston and its roads from high up in the TD Garden 

 big brother loves making his little bros laugh. especially when they try to bite his nose! love how ben is already looking for mom's reaction. surely they can not be as naughty as matt, right?

 he is always monkeying around with their toys. and their attention is always on him so mama can enjoy her bonbons and daytime soaps in peace from the couch. actually, just time for a shower with soap would be nice.

 he loves being "attacked" by the babies and they just love any (positive) matty attention

 rooooaaarrrr! not yet sure who squeals loudest out of these two. we actually bought dad earplugs for his birthday. thanks patty for the tip!

 sweet jack still trying to master the crawl. like sitting up, this may take another month...

and ben may beat him to it. go ben!

two scary teeth

my sweet little gators. still only two teeth combined.

my favorite big guy playing with bigger fire truck! can anyone believe he is going to be 4?? in ten days??

what a beautiful weekend to spend our birthdays...with these three monkeys. a little more sleep would've been nice, but can't have it all! thanks for all the b-day wishes.
and mom still feels like a rock star after whooping her 10K goal (yes, i am bragging. 50 minutes!) now matty wants to do a "run-race" so we are going to do a family run next month!

much wine

is needed after letting two babies cry themselves to sleep. ben protests for a few minutes and remains pretty calm, crying only when he can not finagle the pacifier back in...roughly 25 times per sleep. jack however, may be trying to earn an oscar with his bedtime performances!

this better work. there are two of us here in great need of sleep.

yes

yes, jack is as crazy as his hair looks here. he's always moving: flaying his arms or legs or both, chewing on anything or scooching anywhere. always. and he screeches when ben takes what he is playing with. or matty. he can move from belly to sitting up and will be crawling by next week.

 and ben is as sweet as he looks here. he is the passive, calm, snuggly one. will play with anything you give him. he is just slightly behind jack on moving around. will likely be crawling by Halloween. the are both up on hands and toes and rocking back and forth. they both scooch under furniture.

 and they both watch matty and his friends all the time.

 just a matter of time before they are chasing them around the Great Lawn

 this is the bus stop for one of the schools, where kids congregate in the late afternoon/early evenings. this is also our backyard...how could we leave boston?