Let me tell you about our boys...

...but first let me tell you about my amazing maternal grandmother who passed away last night.  She was surrounded by most of her 12 children when she did and I hope she knew.  My grandmother lived almost a full 84 years and was simply ready to go see her husband and daughter on the other side.  She had a bit of a rebellious past and every time I think of it, I smile and try to imagine my quiet solemn grandmother standing up for her 17 year old self back in 1949.  She, herself a French only speaking woman met my IRISH English only speaking grandfather, fell in love, got pregnant and married.  Yes, in that order!  Can you imagine the drama that this caused in a small rural community back in that era?  They could hardly speak each other's language but my grandfather (yes, the man), learned French for her and they made twelve beautiful children together (but who needs language to make babies ;) ) lol...  My grandfather was a hard working man and true to his Irish roots, very strict but loved his family to the core.  My grandmother was a strong willed woman (who wouldn't have to be to raise 12 children in a 4 bedroom house).  My funniest memory of my grandmother didn't even happen to me.  As I've said, her grandchildren only know the quiet part of her but we always heard stories from our mother that she was anything but quiet while they were growing up.  Anyways, the story goes that my sister and mother were playing cards with her one day and at one point said to her: "Toi ma p'tite maudite, je vais te passer à travers du mur!" which loosely translates to: "You my little shit, I'm going to throw you through the wall!".  My sister was apparently so flabbergasted, never having heard once my grandmother raise her voice!  One thing is for sure, she's lived a lot of life and she's loved a lot of people and those people love her just as much in return.  So here's to you ma belle Mémère, may you throw many people through walls up there in heaven... I will miss your amazingly soft cheeks as I pressed my lips on them as I told you every time I saw you how much I loved you... Repose-toi... xox

One of the last pics with my mom and her mom... xox

This was a while ago because my niece is now 10 but look at how radiant my Grandmother is... this is one of my favorite pictures. 

My grandma surrounded by most of her children (2 are missing)

When my mémère met the boys.  She was so proud of them!  Look at how tiny they were!! 

Now to the boys...

Let's start with Jacob...

Jacob  (or as his brothers call him Ca-Cob) is currently either just shy of 20lbs or just getting there.  He was the smallest boy at birth (coming in at a whopping 3lbs 1oz) and he is now in the middle.  He still looks tiny to me, but he's also the taller than Zachary.  He, like his brothers, still fit into a 9 month waist but a 12 month length so it's really hard to find pants that fit them.  He was my little monkey when he was born and he's lived up to his name.  He was the first to climb up on his baby jail, he was the first to crawl and the first to walk.  He's always trying to find ways to be the first at stuff.  He is a pleaser but a teaser.  He will often steal his brothers' toys but as soon as we talk to him and ask him to give the toy back or at least one of the multiple ones he's run away with, he's pretty quick to hand it over to his brothers.  He's curious, always needs to know what's going on and often the first one on the scene when one of his brothers is crying.  One of the things he was last to do was bite.  He's now the worst.  He's also decided to be a smart guy as he won't repeat anything we try to get him to say it because I think he's saying that since we've already said it, what's the point of him repeating it.  He just says "Yeah".  For example, we'll say: Jacob, can you say (or sign) "Help Please" as he's struggling to put something on his spoon and he'll just say "Yeah" with a huge smile and nod.  He was also our little tough guy but he's slowly becoming less and less tough.  It seems that now he'll cry at the touch of the wall and won't get over it for long periods of time.  He gets upset over something and holds a grudge.  We always have a very hard time putting him in his car seat and if he starts to cry, he'll normally be crying for the whole car ride.  On the other hand, when our little dude is happy, he's super happy and he LOVES to make everyone laugh.  He dances like a monkey with his arms swinging high and low and he will make the funniest craziest faces that just make us burst out laughing.  Jacob is not a lover of fruit or vegetables.  The only way we can get him to eat fruit or veggies is in his morning smoothies, otherwise, it's beige/brown all the way.  He'll eat bananas once in a while and that's about it. He'll even spit out the fruitty bits in the yogourt I try to feed him!! Little bugger!  He's lucky we love him to pieces because sometimes his refusal to eat anything healthy drives me up the wall!!  We do love our monkey though!  

Next, we have Samuel...

Samuel was my baby A in my belly but came out second making him baby B in the hospital which got confusing at first but we quickly figured it out.  He was the second heaviest at 3lbs 5.5 oz.  He's now the biggest (most likely about 21 lbs now) and the tallest.  I love his bigger belly because when I put pants on him, they normally stay on his waist!  He's the observer.  When Jacob and Zachary come play with me in the rain, he'll stay back, laugh, and watch.  When we play in the kiddie pool, he'll put one foot in, be satisfied and go do his own thing. He doesn't like to get too dirty or too wet.  He's also not a huge fan of water (which makes me sad) but I'll break him yet!  He hates to see his brothers cry and he will always come give them a hug and a rub on the back and say "C'est ok!".  Even if his brothers are mad at him because he's the one who made them cry, he'll come back to make sure they're ok.  Sam is sneaky where he'll come take a toy from J or Z and just sneak away and once he's safe, he'll run away to hide and get chased by his crying brothers.  When we ask him to give it back, it's always "NON!" and then when we take it away to give it back to whomever he stole it from, it's as if we took away his brand new puppy.  He gets so distraught... poor little guy!  He also bites when he doesn't get his way (mostly when his brothers have a toy he didn't want until they started playing with it) or when they're in his way to food.  Samuel is our most talkative of the three.  He'll repeat pretty much anything we say to him.  He's even starting to put two to three words together.  We'll even catch him at time saying both the English and French words one after the other like today he said "Butterfly, Papillon".  It's super cute.  When Sam eats, he doesn't chew... He just shoves it all in his mouth and makes the sign for more (simply because he can't say it as his mouth is full of unchewed food)...  When he can't fit the whole piece in, he'll take a bite, eat it and try again until it's small enough to go in.  When he misjudges the size of the piece, he'll use his hand to shield his mouth so he can chew and food won't fall out.  I used to panic over him choking all the time and try to teach him to bite but when I try to teach him or withhold food from him, the "taking away a cute puppy" cry fest starts and I just gave up.  When I know he's shoving too much in, I'll sneak part of it away and wait until he's swallowed to give it to him.  His mouth could be bursting with 10 pieces of Eggo but the moment I put another in front of him, he'll try to shove it in!  He also loves to dance, he loves get tickled and loves stickers.  We love HIM to pieces too...

Last but not least... our Zachary!

Zachary (or Ca-EE as his brothers call him) was our biggest baby at birth weighing 3lbs 8oz.  He's now our smallest and shortest.  I don't know how or when but his brothers surpassed him.  First it was Samuel and then it was Jacob.  Jacob isn't much bigger than Zachary; they are always within ounces of one another but Jacob's taller so he still looks smaller than Zachary.  He's our drama queen and the first to throw himself on the floor for a tantrum over not much.  That kid also has serious anger issues... When he's upset, it doesn't matter what toy we try to give him, he'll hurl it as hard as he can while grunting... Let me tell you though when Zachary laughs or smiles, it's with so much heart that it can lighten up a whole room.  Zachary is always very proud of himself whenever he does anything right.  He'll go throw a Kleenex in the garbage and turn around with the proudest smirk on his face.  He's our little soccer player.  He loves kicking around balls and he's surprisingly very accurate.  You can often hear him say "KICK THAT BALL" right before he'll kick his ball and then laugh as he's running after it.  He'll eat and try pretty much anything we put in front of him.  He loves grapes, bananas, strawberries, pears, you name it.  He'll often eat his fruits before anything else on his plate.  Can you say NOT JACOB!!  lol.  Zachary HATES getting his bum changed and we have to pretty much restrain him to get a bum change out of him.  He loves running back and forth on our couch and throwing himself in the cushions.  That's when he laughs the loudest.  He's not much of a cuddler, and it may come from when he was a baby and Pépére would walk around with him facing outwards.  He'll hardly ever cuddle with me facing me, every time he wants to be cuddled, it's glued to me, but he needs to be facing out.  He also used to be my best sleeper, never even waking up when his brothers did in the middle of the night.  This has changed of late and it makes me all out of sorts because normally between Gabe and I we could settle the boys (S & J) when they woke each other up at night but now Zachary decided he wants to join in the crying! What!?!  Not OKAY little buddy!  Maybe it was just a phase (please let it be just a phase!!!!).  If he'd wake up, he'd normally just appear annoyed, it's like I could see his eyes roll and his thoughts saying "Would you just shut them up Maman!".  Zachary is also very task and goal oriented.  When he has something in mind, not much will deter his focus (unless there's a puppy on the TV).  As exasperated as he can make us, we love HIM to pieces too...

I'm sure there are things that I missed that distinguish them but as I say to pretty much every strangers that talk to us:  YES, they DO have very distinct personalities!  They have from birth!

Here are some pics:

We had a lovely play date with our Ho twin friends Max and Xavier!

Jacob wanted to know why I kept putting that little bud in my ear... I never got it back... 

Climbing some stairs

Last time these babes were in a church they were in my belly... 

Church selfie!! 

Yes, Goldfish crackers is the way to get our sons to keep quiet during a wedding.  You could hear them say "Oh-Oh" after every song ended (or reading) and "Encore (again)" to try to get them to start again... cuties! 

Hanging with Papie

Playing with the big trees in front of the church

Zachary & Papa

Peek-a-boo Sam! 

Samuel, ever the observer, playing with a bug

At the reception for the wedding of my step cousin Alison and her new hubby Justin (who are both identical twins!!)

The family at the reception! Missing my mom who was with her mom and if you look to your right you can see Gab's elbow...

The way we try to divide their Cheerios... doesn't always work! 

They also like to eat them like dogs... 

The boys are having fun playing with the Shop Vac.  Zachary was having an off morning so he spent the rest of the morning snuggled with me and big blankets. 

Jacob was either analyzing something or upset... his eyes get small like that for both. 

Gabe was teaching the boys to dance with fist pumps on their morning walk.  Although it looks like he was the only one fist pumping, he assures me the boys joined him at one point... 

 Have a good week y'all!

Call your grandparents if they're still around my friends and tell them you love them...

Even through our rainy days of late...