Any Given Sunday

All dressed up to go to lunch.  This was the day she insisted on being called "Ballerina."

Out for lunch playing with our new-to-us Polly Pocket dolls.

It doesn't get much better than this.

We got some new flip flops in the mail last week and finally got to try them out.  They were more than I was usually spend on flip flops, but I love the little toe protectors.

And then a trip to the grocery store.  They love, love, love to stop at the deli to get samples of turkey and cheese.  They know us there.  :)  This week, they also talked their way into cookies from the bakery.

Phases

I know I'll look back and think that this phase wasn't so bad.  You know, when we hit the "I hate you" phase.  Or the "mom has no idea about anything" phase.  Or, heaven forbid, the Justin Bieber phase.

Let me preface this by saying that a lot of tv shows, and almost all movies, still scare the girls to the point where they don't want to watch them.  We tried to do a movie night a few weeks ago and watch Toy Story, and they were not enjoying it.  We didn't make it all the way through before bedtime, and they agreed that they didn't want to see the rest of the movie.

So, there are only a few tv shows that don't scare them.  Namely, Mickey Mouse Club House, Olivia (which is no longer available On Demand), and a new one, Max and Ruby.  In case you haven't had the pleasure of sitting through it, Max and Ruby is based on the Stanley and Rhoda characters created by Rosemary Wells.

Max is Ruby's little brother.  In every episode, Ruby is trying to do something, and Max is getting in the way.  Max speaks only one word in every episode.  But he says it over and over, with different inflections.  And, in the end, Ruby does whatever she was trying to do and says "I couldn't have done it without some help from Max and his ."

So Emma has started speaking one word sentences.  And it is driving me up a wall.  Today, it was "Pizza?"  "No Emma, we're not having pizza for dinner."   "Pizza?"  "Pizza!"  The whole way home from daycare.  When we pulled into the driveway:  "Daddy?"  "Daddy's not home yet."  "Daddy?"  "Daddy!" over and over and over.  And then it gets whiny.  And even more annoying.

I'm seriously on the verge of not letting her watch that show ever again.

Bedtime Routine

I want to write this down so I don't forget it.

We head upstairs around 8:00.

Our bedtime routine involves reading three stories up in their room.  Everyone gets to pick out one story, unless they've done something to lose their story.  Really, this pretty much the only punishment threat that works.  "Do you want to lose your story?"  They love story time, and they love getting to pick their story.

When it's my turn, I sit at the end of Emma's bed to read, and they gather around and sit either on their bean bags or on the floor.  After stories, they get in bed, and the girls ask if we can talk for a little bit.

I lay down on top of their beanbags, continually surprised at how comfortable a bed three bean bags can make.  Even though I tell her that she has to sleep in her bed, Becca gets up almost right away to bring her pillow over to lay down (and eventually fall asleep) next to me.

We talk about what we did that day, or what's coming up the next day.  We talk about how many school days are left until the next "stay at home" day.

Lately, after that, they start into a round of, "Mommy, what does start with?"  They'll talk over each other trying to get me to hear their word.  I usually give them the letter sounds, and usually someone will get the right letter.  

We talk a little more, and eventually it gets quiet.  Depending on whether they've had a nap, they usually fall asleep between 9 and 9:30.  A lot of times, I fall asleep in there.  I usually try to get anyone on the floor back into their bed.

Candyland

We still haven't mastered Candyland yet.  Or Memory.  Or really any game.

They vaguely understand the idea of taking turns.  But like, with Candyland, they spin and think that they have to go to the square that matches the number they spinned.  Haven't grasped counting up.  And then they just want to go up and down the ladders and slides.

With Memory, they just want to turn cards over until the find a match.  Or just turn all the cards over and find the matches that way.

Do Over

If ever there was a day (well, in recent memory) that required a do over, I think it was today.

It started with waking up late.

I took the girls into daycare, and pretty much wanted to cry by the time I left.  Emma and Julie did not want to go.  I was trying to push them in the room with one hand and close the door with the other.  I left to the sound of both of them wailing.

I checked my phone in the parking lot and had a message from my boss.  Someone (pretty high up) was looking for a file that I forgot to send out last week.  She had left me a message on Friday afternoon (I left early for the consignment sale) and started sending desperate messages and calling my boss at 7:45 on Monday morning.

When I got in to work, I ran in to my boss.  Not sure if he was looking for me, or if it was an accident.  Either way, I told him I'd send the file right away.

Walked into my cubicle.

And remembered that my computer was still at home.

Awesome.

So, I race frantically back home and try to log on from home to send the file.  But, due to a firewall upgrade last week, my messages wouldn't send.

And then I raced back to work to finally send it.

I had a meeting this afternoon.  For two hours.  Where the person I was meeting with didn't know what she needed.  Perhaps the most unproductive meeting in recent memory.

I sent a text message to a coworker instead of Greg with my Target list.  Luckily there wasn't anything too embarrassing on it.

And, my house still smells like burned brusslels sprouts from dinner last night.

Catching up

It's been a long, crazy week.  Thursday through Saturday was our Moms of Multiples Consignment Sale, which meant that a good chunk of the week was spent preparing for the sale.  I gave up after only tagging clothes because there were just so many.  I grabbed two toys in the garage left over from the last sale, but other than that, it was all clothes.  A good chunk of them sold, which was nice.  I found a couple of things for the girls, mostly shoes.  I was also on the sale committee, and we had a meeting early in the week, and then pretty much spent Thursday night through Saturday afternoon at the sale.  It makes for a very long week; luckily, it's only twice a year.

I also finally finished The Billionaire's Vinegar last week.  I went for my Kindle and the battery was dead again.  This was the whole reason I started the Billionaire's Vinegar.  Hmmm...  So I picked up South of Broad by Pat Conroy and became obsessed.  I finally finished it this morning.  A good, gripping story with characters that I could follow.  I wouldn't recommend The Billionaire's Vinegar unless you really like wine.  Really, really like wine.  There was a good mystery under there, so that I wanted to find out what happened, but it really wasn't worth all of the other stuff.  Unless you really, really, really like wine.

We have been staying busy for the past few weeks, but without a whole lot to report on.  We spent last weekend making sure Emma was recovered, so we tried to take it easy and stick around the house.  Well, mostly.

We did go out to an annual giant used book sale that the literacy association puts on.  That would be Becca sitting on the floor of an old mall, reading Cinderella Penguin and the Glass Flipper.  Yes, that one did make it into the take home batch.  I picked up a couple of books, too, even though I've tried to switch over to the Kindle exclusively, you can't beat $3.  We weren't there when they opened, because I couldn't face that crowd with triplets (though it was still insanely full when we got there after a stop at IHOP), but I think if I were to do it again, I'd take a list of books I was looking for.

Emma reading out loud to herself when we got home.  Of course it's a bear book.  She loves bears.  It's also a Christmas book.  I got a few pictures from her using my phone.  When I went to get the big camera, she said "No!"

As if she had to explain why they were wearing winter hats and rain boots in August.

On Sunday, we needed to get out of the house, and tried O'Charley's for lunch.  Yes, that's a tulle skirt. Or, a "princess" skirt.  Or, depending on the day, a "ballerina" skirt.  And Becca has on her cat boots.  Emma fell asleep in the 10 minute car ride there, since we haven't been seeing eye to eye on the need for naps lately.  She made me carry her in.

The most exciting thing about lunch was that it started raining while we were in there, and their umbrellas were in the car.  Greg got sent out for them, and then the little ducklings followed him back to the car.

Hoping to get back to posting more regularly this week!

Momento

Monday 11 June 2012
===================

7:55 PM Emma and Julie are shooing dragons by walking around yelling "Shoo!  Shoo!"

7:56 PM J:  I have two dolls named doll.

7:56 PM E:  Bear's name is puppy.

7:56 PM E:  Bear's name is Chandler.
People: Emma

7:58 PM R:  Emma can you get my cape?  (cake?)
E:  no, I don't want to get dragon poop on me.


Sunday 10 June 2012
===================

5:00 PM R:  I have dragon poop on my hand.  I have to wash it off.


Saturday 9 June 2012
====================

3:25 PM E:  My tummy hurt because it needed a venture. (after touch a truck this morning)


Saturday 2 June 2012
====================

12:46 PM G - is daddy cool or what?    E:  What


Friday 1 June 2012
==================

5:02 PM J:  I'm going to bounce like a whale.

5:03 PM J:  I always dance like a spider.
People: Julie

5:50 PM J:  "Not quite" (when I asked her if she was done on he potty)
People: Julie

5:50 PM After denying she peed on the floor, R:  "you're right."


Monday 28 May 2012
==================

10:18 AM  J:   I'm sick and I need lots of strawberry banana juice.  (playing sick with nurse becca)

5:08 PM   J:  I see another candle!  (flame on the grill)



Saturday 26 May 2012
====================

7:35 AM   E: Mommy I need you to stay patient.

7:35 AM   E:  It's sunny in there! (staring into a flash light.)

7:39 AM   E:  Where's my crayon?  (crown)

7:40 AM   R:  I'm a fairy godmother.



Friday 25 May 2012
==================

9:54 AM   E:  I made you disakaper!

9:55 AM   R:  Mom can you put my clown on? (crown)

9:56 AM   R:  C'mon everybody, let's get on the ship!

5:44 PM   E:  Daddy, does orange mean go?  (That would be a yellow light.)

5:52 PM   J:  All our neighbors took all the money.  (ATM broken)



Thursday 24 May 2012
====================

9:26 AM   R:  Wearing a pumpkin pony tail holder as a clock (watch)

9:28 AM   E:  Daddy, you can learn to do ponies when you grow up like a mommy.  ('Do ponies' = put in pony tails)


Wednesday 23 May 2012
=====================

8:12 AM   J:  I saw some foggy down that path.  (fog down that road)

8:14 AM   E:  My mouth is getting tired.



Tuesday 22 May 2012
===================

8:08 AM   R:  I don't want to go to my big girl school because there are boys there and they bother me.

9:49 AM   R:  I had a great time at the doctor.  (ear doctor recheck)

Emma: In pictures

We tried a new restaurant last Sunday afternoon.  Thumbs up all around.  The girls actually loved the grilled cheese more than the homemade potato chips (which are fabulous), so I guess it was pretty good.  I had been in there once, and was a little nervous about taking them because it's always really busy.  Plus, there's no kid menu.  You have to ask for kid's entrees.  But all in all, as long as there are tables, it's a go.

Julie and her compostable cup.  

Becca and her grilled cheese.

I happened to be sitting across from Emma so I got a bunch of pictures of her.  When I looked through them, I had to laugh.  She has quite the range of facial expressions, and these pictures capture so many of what I consider "classic Emma" expressions.  (And I can hear my dad saying that she gets those from me.)

Monkey Carrier

My parents sent the girls a package - a Cabbage Patch Kids baby carrier that used to be mine.

Becca and Monkey modeled it.

It wasn't staying on too well on the front - I honestly don't remember if was supposed to be a front carrier or a backpack.  Regardless, when it got annoying, she started carrying the straps around like a purse.

Apple Picking with Pneumonia

See, she didn't look sick, right?  (And yes, Bear is wearing an outfit she used to wear (!), and a reindeer bib from her first Christmas.)

When we got there, they kept instructing us that you don't pick apples off the ground, just off the trees.

And then no pictures as she went into her coughing fit.  I carried her back up to the barn and got her a drink.

Oh, and a donut.  Did I forget to mention the donut?  The nice thing about going in mid-August is that it wasn't too busy (though it was MUCH busier than other times we've been there in mid-August).  Otherwise, the line for donuts is ridiculous.

This is an Emma look at the moment.  She's being tricky.  Or sneaky.  I can't remember.

And a chance for some self portraits with my girl.

Posing with her foot on the cinder block.

After Daddy got back with Julie and Rebecca (and two baskets of apples!), they wanted to go play.  Emma's coughing seemed to have subsided, so we let them.  Julie was in the big pumpkin, instructing me on something.

We got back in the car, and had some apples.  Becca ate all the skin off hers.

Becca, finished.  I'm not sure this picture does justice to just how little apple was left.  That whole piece in her hand was about an inch long.  She.  Ate.  It.  All.

As for Emma, we did end up keeping her home all week.  She slept through the night on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Nights had been hardest - she'd wake up, thrash around, and then end up in a coughing fit.  She's still coughing some during the day, and I think she's still really tired.  Her breathing rate has slowed down, but I'm still hesitant to let her run around.  We have a recheck in another week, but I'm thinking about taking her back in just to let someone listen to her and confirm that she's getting better.

Ring Pops

We have a basket of candy on the kitchen counter that dates back to at least 2 Valentine's Days ago.  Every time we accumulate random candy, it gets tossed in there.  The girls finally saw it last week, and decided they wanted lollipops for dessert.

They found some ring pops in there.  Princess ring pops, of course.  Sigh.

I remember back when we'd get lollipops from the doctor or something and they'd be dripping in sticky slobber in no time.  And then they learned to bite lollipops.  And now, there's no sucking - as soon as they put it in their mouths, they're biting it.

Which leads to these...

And a few more cute ones...

(Emma didn't eat her dinner this night...)

Library

I finally got around to getting some pictures off my phone.  I found these from our first trip to the library a few weeks ago.

We went on a Sunday, so the only thing open was the main branch downtown.  It took us longer to get there than we actually spent there.  Sigh.  So it goes.

Their only exposure to a library so far has been "Curious George Goes to the Library."  If you're unfamiliar with this one, the highlights are story time and George riding around the library on a library cart piled with books.

So, you see, their expectations were set pretty high.

First of all, there was no story hour.

There was, though, this big block toy that they were more interested in than the books.  Sigh.

Once they started pulling books off the shelves, I told them not to put them back and showed them where the library cart was.

The library cart!

Becca proceeded to pull books from the shelves and put them right on the cart without looking at them. The cart was getting full, and they hadn't picked any books to take home.

I grabbed a few books, and we were getting ready to go when Becca walks over to the library cart, like we were going to take it with us.  She looked truly shocked that we weren't taking the library cart with us.

By this point, they were cranky from no nap, grumpy about the stories, and mad that we didn't get to take/ride on the library cart.

So, it will probably be a little while until we go back to the library.

Pneumonia

Emma has pneumonia.

She was running a fever last week.  She'd be 99 or so in the morning, and then by the time she went to bed, she was up to 101 or 102.  By Friday, she wasn't above 99 or so anymore, so we thought she was on the mend.  She had an occasional cough, but nothing that would have made me raise an eyebrow.

On Saturday, we went apple picking.  She seemed fine, and was instructing us on the proper apple picking technique while we walked down the first hill.  When we got to the uphill, though, she started coughing and couldn't stop.

I carried her back and we sat down for a while and had a drink.  After dad, Julie, and Rebecca got back with some apples, they all wanted to play on the swing set.  Emma seemed to play ok, but when we got home, we got her started on the nebulizer.

Even with the nebulizer, she'd have some coughing fits, and I noticed her breathing really fast.

On Monday morning, I took her to the doctor, expecting asthma or bronchitis, but the doctor said she had no breath sounds in her left lung.  Poor kid.  The doctor said the infection (with the fever) from last week just seems to have settled in her lung.

watching Mickey while we wait at the doctor

She wasn't bad enough to hospitalize; he breathing rate at the doctor was ok.  The rate I had clocked her at on Sunday was at the threshold for hospitalization, if it were constantly at that.

lollipop and sunglasses when we got back in the car.  the band aid on her arm was from a mosquito bite.

She's eating some, though today she hasn't been interested in much more than chocolate milk and apple juice.

Beyond that, she's not getting the correlation between her running and jumping around and her coughing.  I keep having to remind her she's sick.  Trying to keep her calm is the biggest challenge.  She, of course, has no problem remembering she's sick when bed time comes around and she doesn't want to sleep in her bed.

I'm not sure if it's the medicine or what, but she has been acting like a brat for the past two days, too.

They didn't really give me a time when she can go back to school.  I don't think she's contagious anymore - - she was probably contagious last week when she had the fever.  Julie and Becca seem fine.  Really, for me, I don't want to send her back to school until she's breathing normally again, and sleeping better at night.  She's been taking close to 4 hour naps the last few days because she's not sleeping well at night.  Plus, I don't trust her to not run around at school.

And, as much of a brat as she is being, she is still breathing fast.  As of tonight, she's only got 2 doses of antibiotic in her (it's once a day), so I'm expecting she'll still be home on the mend for a few more days.  As long as we stay out of the hospital, I'm ok with that.

How we roll