We've been busy

We're only a bit more than one week out from our trip to the beach for Thanksgiving, but with all that's gone on in the last week, it feels like so much longer. In a good way, of course.

Julie started pulling up on the Great Wall the Sunday after we got back from the beach. She's still not great at sitting back down, and tends to fall. And cry. She is also crawling pretty much exclusively on all fours, with her belly up off the floor. We can't tell if she's talking. She was looking straight at Dusty one night last week, and both Greg and I heard her say "cat." But she hasn't done it again. And then Greg was taking Emma to bed, and we both swear we heard her say "night." And then when she was crying in her crib one morning, I swear she said "ok" as she was trying to calm herself down. We can't get her to repeat anything yet, but she'll be talking up a storm soon.

The first time I gave her a bath when we got back from the beach, she insisted on flipping on to her belly and "swimming" toward the front of the tub. She pulled the drain plug out, and thought it was pretty funny.

Julie standing:


Julie in her improvised Barcolounger.


By Tuesday of last week, Becca was standing up by pulling up on Greg. She'll pull up to her knees on shelves, The Wall, etc, but that's it so far. She has also started holding her own bottle, with supervision. Becca developed an intense fear of the bath tub while we were at the beach. The first few baths since we have been back have gotten progressively better. We try to distract her with toys.

Becca with a toy that used to belong to her daddy when he was a baby.


Rebecca. loves. buttons. If you've got buttons on your shirt, she goes right for them. Unless you're wearing glasses. Then she goes for those. Or if you've got hair. Still loves to pull it and squeals with delight when she does. Even when you yell at her and pull her hand away abruptly.

Becca found these pants of Emma's that have bright pink buttons on them. I had to tear them away from her. Now, obviously Emma is not wearing the pants at the time. But these photos aren't really representative, because we'll find her chewing on Emma's ankle.



Emma is into everything. Still. Constantly. She's such a handful. Wants whatever someone else has. She is also crawling with her belly off the floor now. Emma started transitioning to the next class up at daycare this week. She was SO ready. It was to the point where she was pulling up on all the swings in the infant room. So far, she loves it over there, but she's only spending a couple hours a day over there. She should be totally moved over by next week. Emma started waving today when we wave at her and say hi. She gets so excited and sometimes starts waving with 2 hands.

Did I mention that Emma is into everything? Because when we got back from the beach, she found part of a teething biscuit in one of her sisters' car seats. Treasure!



Remotes are a favorite toy all around right now. They are pretty good at pushing the buttons, too. We started pulling the batteries out of them after Becca tried to order from the Playboy channel, and Emma and Julie tried to set the parental control code.

Eating fun on sweet potato night.
Emma. That's a yogurt melt thing on her cheek. She still gags on anything with chunks in it. Occasionally she'll gum down a puff enough that she will eat it. But I can't even mash a banana and mix it with cereal - I have to put the banana through the food processor.


Becca won't eat chunks either. I think she plays with the puffs enough that she eats a few.


But Julie? This child will eat anything. And she LOVES puffs. Yesterday, she lost a few down the front of her bib, and they got caught in the pocket of the bib. When we took the tray off her high chair and she found the puffs, she got SO excited. She starts babbling and her eyes get big and her voice squeaks.


Greg and I have been congested for weeks now. I was attributing it to allergies for a while, but I think I've finally accepted that I have a cold. The girls find it absolutely hysterical when I blow my nose. They all stop what they are doing and turn to watch and laugh. (Why do I pay for toys?)

We took the girls to get a Christmas tree on Friday night. We kinda wanted to go cut one down, but the girls don't walk ... weren't sure if we could get the triple stroller out into a tree farm. So we decided that it was one of the things that had to go to simplify a bit. We picked the girls up from daycare on Friday night, and went out to dinner at Panera. Panera is already one of my favorites, but it gets another big plus in my book for having an ample supply of high chairs. We've been out a few places where there are only 2 high chairs in the whole restaurant. Things actually went pretty well. ("It could have been a lot worse.") The girls are still easily distracted when we try to feed them while they're out. And Becca totally doesn't get the "inside voice" thing yet. But they all ate, we ate, we didn't totally destroy the place, and they didn't ask us to never come back. So yeah, success. Then we went to Lowe's, loaded the girls into the stroller and baby carrier, and picked out a tree in about 10 minutes. We know our limits. The tree is up, and has lights on it. We're hoping to get some ornaments on it maybe this weekend.



On Saturday, we went to the Greenville Christmas parade. It was certainly chilly, but the girls really seemed to like it! Their favorites were the people waving flags. I though the marching bands (and some really obnoxious horn on a big truck) would have freaked them out, but no - - they did great. We tried to keep rotating them out of the stroller so they all got to be held and see some more. I wish I had gotten a picture of Julie up on Greg's shoulders, because she just looked so darn cute. But my arms were pretty full. We didn't stay until the end - - after an hour, we were reaching our limit. We left around 7. I'm not sure how much longer it went on. I was really surprised that it went on as long as it did!

Emma, Julie, and Becca at the parade with dad.


Emma


Becca


Julie


We have finally accepted that house cleaning is not high enough on our priority list anymore, and we need help. I've been resisting for a while, but we are going to start getting some cleaning help, starting next week.

Sleepwise, we had a good start to this past weekend, with all 3 sleeping through the night on Friday. But Becca was not sleeping well on Saturday. She wouldn't go back to sleep in her crib, and ended up in our bed. She finally fell asleep around 2:30. I took her to her crib, and got about an hour of sleep before she was back in our bed at 3:30. She was just wriggling all around. Emma started coughing on Sunday, and when we put her to bed, she slept until 10:30 or so before waking up coughing. She couldn't really fall back asleep without coughing and waking herself up. The only thing that stopped the coughing was to hold her up. So she slept in our bed on Sunday night, pretty much on my chest the whole time. I was going to take her to the doctor on Monday morning, but while being up all night long with Emma, I heard Julie coughing on the baby monitor all. night. long. So, I called to take both Emma and Julie to the doctor on Monday morning. Each had their first ear infection.

On my way home from the doctor, I got the call from daycare - Becca's got a 102 fever. To further complicate matters, we upgraded Becca and Julie to their "big girl" car seats over the weekend. Monday was going to be the first day that everyone was in their big girl seats. Well, with Emma coughing on Sunday night, Greg had taken one of the seats out of the wagon and put it in the Jetta. We don't have an "extra" big girl seat yet - - so I couldn't go get Becca. Greg had to go get her and take her to the doctor. Another ear infection. Apparently, her ear drum had actually burst.

We feel so awful - 3 ear infections, and we kept thinking "aw, it's just a cold." It's such a fine line between paranoia and looking like a bad parent. But honestly, the girls weren't acting much different. Emma and Julie didn't have fevers. They were eating and acting normal.

We will be printing up "Baby's First Ear Infection" t-shirts, if anyone is interested. (Greg also wants to order "Mommy/Daddy Smells a Hat Trick" t-shirts, but I said no to those.)

On a related note, has anyone ever dealt with a child that will not take medicine? Emma (was there any doubt I was talking about Emma?) freaks when we bring a syringe to her mouth, no matter if it's antibiotic or motrin. We have to hold her down, and fear it's just going to get worse.