Change

Emma has officially been transitioning to the toddler room at daycare this past week. It's frightening for us... I can't imagine how she feels. We see the kids in there every morning and think, "Those kids are big!" But I remember thinking that when she moved to the infant room. Ms. Brittanie finally told us that Emma was really bored, and they were just waiting for us to say it was ok to move her up. News to us... but I called that day.

I think the transition is throwing her off a bit. She's been really clingy for the past week or so. Even Miss Catie (IE) noticed it on Wednesday.

I dropped Emma off at her new room on Thursday. As soon as I opened the door, she froze in the doorway. I had to pick her up and carry her in. Her new teachers seem great, though, and Miss Stacey took her from me and took her over to look out the window so I could escape. When I went to drop off Becca and Julie's cups to their room, Becca was already sitting at the table and tapping the seat next to her. "Where'd Emma go?"

Emma was crying when I got there to pick her up on Thursday, although they tried to tell me she had a good day. She napped on her cot (no more cribs) and is working on sitting in her chair (no more table/high chairs).

Greg took her in on Friday, and she put the brakes on at the door again. And Becca had a meltdown in the hall when Emma went in to her room and Becca couldn't go. I can't wait until this gets easier for all of us. Julie and Becca still seem pretty happy where they are, but it can't be too much longer before they move up, too.

The reappearance of Emma's fever on Tuesday night seems to have been short lived. She was down to 99.4 on Wednesday morning, so we gave her some Motrin and sent her in to daycare. Parents of the Year. When I was putting her in her car seat on Thursday afternoon, though, I noticed a bunch of little bumps on her arms and legs. They looked better on Friday morning, so we sent her in as usual. Of course, day care called around 2:30 and said she had a rash all over her arms, legs and face.

Should I admit here that I was secretly glad to be busted out of work early on a Friday afternoon?

We made a doctor's appointment and went to get her. When we got there, they told us that Julie had a rash, too, so I grabbed her and we left... except that Julie's rash had faded by then. Once we got the full story, Julie had a red splotchiness around her mouth that went away about an hour after it had appeared. Which I'd seen before, the last time we gave the girls hummus: at least 2 of them got the red splotchiness around their mouths that went away a little while later. I think it's some sort of food reaction, but I don't know what yet.

Emma, though, had a virus. The pediatrician said that they had seen a lot of it lately: fever, then a few days after the fever breaks, a rash. Pretty common, nothing to worry about at this point. (On the way to get Emma, I started thinking, "what if she has chicken pox?") The good news: no ear infection (and even getting her ears checked wasn't the production it used to be), and she's not contagious... anymore.

We went out for pizza after going back to daycare for Becca. The girls were really good, but there was a guy coming in while we were eating, moving tables around and bringing carts full of stuff in to set up for some sort of band. Every time the guy walked by our table, Emma and Julie would freak out. I had to finish dinner with Emma in my lap, and Greg finally pulled Julie's high chair over next to him. Becca was cool, as usual.

Saturday was another uneventful Costco trip, and then the girls took a good long nap.


While they were sleeping, Greg moved the car seats into the minivan. Toys R Us was having a big sale on Crayola stuff, so I thought it would be good to start stockpiling crayons, and maybe look for a few more little things. So, it was our first family trip in the minivan. Becca and Emma were intrigued, but once I got Julie in her car seat, she looked around and started crying. She calmed down before we left the house, and after that, they all seemed to enjoy it. They are all forward facing now.





The toy store went fairly smoothly, though the cart situation was a challenge. I had Julie in one cart, and Greg had Emma in another. I was going to try to let Becca walk and hold my hand, but she's a firecracker lately. She just shakes me off and runs away. Most of the time, when she was running away, it was because she was looking for an unoccupied cart - she really wanted to push a shopping cart around. We finally put her in the back of Greg's cart, and I can't count how many times we said, "Becca, sit down." Once she had a toy to play with she would sit, though. We got Mr. Potato Head, some Play Doh, a bunch of crayons and bath crayons, and some new bath toys (because I think ours were starting to squirt some nasty stuff).

After Toys R Us, we tried a new Mexican restaurant that I had heard a lot about. It was a sit-down-and-order sort of place, which is a little more of a challenge for us... keeping them occupied. Luckily, we were there on the early side, and the food came quickly. While we were waiting, they bought out tortilla chips, and of course the girls all wanted some. I haven't given them chips of any sort yet, because I was afraid they weren't chewing things enough, and if you don't chew tortilla chips well enough, they have sharp edges. I held a chip and let Julie take a bite, and she did just fine. Totally surprised me. So, we wouldn't let them hold the chips, because I know they'd just shove the whole thing in their mouth, but if we held them and let them bite a piece off, they did fine. We ordered a cheese quesadilla for them, because it's one of our defaults for kid food. It wasn't a great quesadilla, though, and all of a sudden the girls only want to eat what we are eating. We ended up feeding them rice, beans, chicken, avocado, etc. I was really shocked at how receptive they were to new stuff, as long as it came off of our plates.

Today, we took our first family trip to the grocery store. It was a bit of a risk, because they only have 1 or 2 of the "super" carts that hold two kids (complete with racing car cover and two steering wheels). We had never used one before, and man, that thing is a boat! It's got to be as long as 2 shopping carts. Julie and Emma seemed to be having fun with the steering wheels. Becca was in the single cart, pointing to everything as usual. (She did that at Toys R Us, too.)

It's been so hot this weekend that we really just wanted to take it easy and stay inside. I'm really looking forward to the fall, when we can go back outside again.