Last week

It's mostly a blur.  Luckily, I have photos.

I can't believe that it was just last week that my parents were here.  Greg sent me this while I was in class on Monday night.  My dad is fixing the little flower bed at the end of the driveway.  And the girls are, well, helping.  They're eating ice pops, and wearing bibs.  I had no idea we still had bibs, and couldn't figure out how my mom got the girls to wear them, until she told me that they used the catch flap on the bib as an ice pop holder.  Check out Emma's stance, too.  

Becca had a follow up at the ENT from her audiology screen a few months ago.  Luckily this time, her ears were pretty clear, and we've confirmed (for now) that another round of tubes won't be necessary.  She insisted on 1) the headband, 2) the toy phone, 3) the bracelets, and 4) a small teddy bear that you can't see in these pictures.

She was SO excited to go to the doctor.  I guess it's the lure of the prizes?  She got 3 stickers that she shared with her sisters later.  But, leaving there, she kept saying, "I had a good time at the doctor."  Of course, that morning, Emma and Julie were screaming because Becca got to go to the doctor and they didn't.  E & J started having "tummy aches."

I had my last class last week (hooray!), so on my way home from my last class, I stopped at Walmart (which is notable in itself, in that I hate Walmart and only go there once a year).  I got the girls each their own watering can (and, in another "I hate Walmart" rant, one of them leaks to the point where it's trash) to help water all of the new flowers that they helped plant.

Hearing Test

Becca officially failed her hearing screening at her checkup last month, so the pediatrician recommended we take her to the ENT for a hearing screening.

Oh, the horror that ensued when Julie and Emma found out that only Becca was going to the doctor.  They think they are being horribly wronged by not getting to go to the doctor.  Um, because they want lollipops and stickers.

Becca was so excited to be going to the doctor.  She was even more excited when she got to push the elevator buttons.

We went to the hearing screening first, and someone had quite the difficult time being patient.  "Mommy is it my turn to see my doctor?"  Over and over and over again.

Why yes, those are sunglasses.  And rain boots.  Prepared for anything.

We finally got back for the hearing screening.  The tech measured some pressures in her ear, and then put little ear phones in her ears and put us in a sound booth.  She was giving Becca directions at different sound levels ("touch your foot," "touch your belly," etc).  And Becca did fine with those, but then she started this test with beeps and sounds in the corners of the booth.  And Becca wanted no part of it.  Not that she threw a fit, she just got bored and they couldn't tell anything from the test.

Then we went and actually met with her ENT.  Based on some input from me, he said he's not too concerned right now.  She's got some fluid in one ear now that she's lost the tubes, but he's not in any rush to put tubes back in.

We go back in 3 months to take another look.

Checkin' up

We took the girls to their 3 year checkup on Friday.  They've added a new building for well visits, and the new building has a couple of HUGE exam rooms.  It was awesome, I'll have to say, that the girls had room to run around in the room, and we were overheating.

It took some practice to get them to have their height measured against the wall - we made the step up from getting your height measured while laying down on the table.  If Emma had her feet together, then her heels weren't touch the wall.  But as soon as her heels touched the wall, she'd start spreading them apart.

We also did their first ever eye screening, with pictures instead of letters.  They thought it was pretty cool. The hardest part was getting them to keep one eye covered.  No, wait.  The hardest part was keeping the other two from yelling out the answer.

The girls are closer in height now, partly because I'm guessing the measurement was a little more accurate with them standing instead of laying.  But Julie's 36.5 inches, Emma's 37, and Becca is 37.5.

Julie weighs 31 pounds, Emma's at 36, and Becca weighs 35 pounds.

Everything went pretty well, with the exception of them telling the doctor that their favorite food was birthday cake.  No shots this time around, so it was a pretty easy visit.

Bec getting her hearing checked

We do need to get Becca a hearing screening, but that was the only major thing.  Oh, and getting Emma to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Look!  It's a family portrait!

December Daily: Dec 14, 15, 16

Wednesday December 14 was another work day, with the girls home with Grandma and Papa again.  Greg and I came home early, though, because the girls had a 6 month recheck with the ENT to take a look at their tubes.  Emma's are still in, Julie's are barely hanging in, and Becca has one left.  The good news is that their ears look great, they will most likely not need another set of tubes, and we don't need to go back for 8 months.

We all went out to dinner, and Papa chose the restaurant at the airport.  We got there just as it was getting dark, and got to see a bunch of planes take off, and a helicopter land.

After dinner, we went to see Santa Claus at the holiday lights that we've been going to since the girls' first Christmas.  Becca was actually excited to see Santa, but Emma and Julie?  Wouldn't let Greg and I leave the picture.

On Thursday, Dec 15, Grandma and Papa took the ladies on another trip to the park.  (On Wednesday, they discovered that cutting off breakfast at 9:00 was the only way to have time to get them out and about.  And that fresh air and running around is one of the keys to getting them to take a nap.  So on Thursday, they weren't messing with success.)

Love, love, love this picture of Julie.

Friday the 16th was again another work day.  And at the end of it, my work Christmas party.  The location was fabulous, food was great, and we got a $10 Best Buy gift card (I'm working up to an iPad) and a little tote bag.  I was exhausted and had a head ache all day on Friday.  Seriously, it felt all week like I hadn't caught up after the drive home from the Polar Express the previous weekend.  I got a short second wind at the party, but by about 9:00, I was ready to crash.  They had a photo booth at the party, so I'll use one of the photo strips in my album.

Best doctor's appointment ever, except for the lollipop situation

The girls had an appointment scheduled last Friday afternoon for a recheck on their ear tubes. It was a quick appointment - Becca and Julie are each working on losing one tube, and Emma still has hers, and all ears looked fine. The girls were ok until the doctor came in, and then no one wanted to go first. They all did fine, though ... until we went to leave and Emma found out that the ENT didn't have lollipops. Can you say meltdown?

We decided to celebrate by going bouncing! The place was nearly empty - so nice! The girls tried out some things that they hadn't been brave enough to try before, and I think they even surprised themselves sometimes. They were struggling with the climbing up a the hills - generally, there are staggered "left" and "right" steps, and I think their legs are still short enough that they try to only use one side... and then the gaps between steps are too big. It's so hard to watch them keep falling down and getting upset.

J sliding

J climbing

Partners in crime

After we burned off some energy, we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner. In this family, you can't go wrong with chicken nuggets and juice boxes. Actually, we had to order a 2nd round of juice boxes. (Hm, maybe Old MacDonald needs some juice boxes on his farm...)

And we finished off the day with frozen yogurt. Mmmm, chocolate. With sprinkles. And a Groupon. Double yum.

Emma, with a oh-so-very-Emma look.

Julie

Oh Becca. Her interesting spoon technique (kind of using it like a lollipop) resulted in quite the mess.

Personality and Developmental Notes 3/17/11

Becca's anemia is now gone. She had some troubles with iron levels at her one year appointment, but we're back in the clear now.

Julie's got a tooth that has been discolored since she was a baby. It's one of her canine teeth, and I swear she chipped it right after it came in. Nothing to do right now, since it isn't getting worse, but we'll be headed for the dentist sometime this year.

Julie still likes to repeat things Greg and I say and act like she's in charge. The funniest one right now is when she says "Alright ladies!"

Julie's got one ear tube that has fallen out and her other one is on the way out. I hope we manage to stay infection free.

The girls are starting to get used to the idea of taking turns, particularly with THE SEAT in the van, meaning that there isn't as much yelling or crying when it isn't their "tuhn.". Julie at least seems to be developing a sense of fairness, and is our little enforcer. Becca had a basket sometime that Emma was trying to steal. We tried telling Emma to give it back (I try to stay out of it physically, when I can), but she wasn't budging. At this point, both Emma and Becca had a hand on the basket. Julie comes over yelling "Beh-uh hat it" and trying to pull it away from Emma. She got very upset when Emma didn't give it back.

Emma has started spinning in circles to make herself dizzy.

The words that are coming out of their mouths continue to floor me. They know the word "rainbow" and we've got a crystal hanging in the window that makes rainbows on the walls, ceiling, floor. This past weekend, the kept trying to stomp on the rainbow. The cutest was when Julie got down on her belly to play with the rainbow.

We've got a shirt with a panda bear on it that the girls haven't worn very often. I have no idea where Julie learned the word "panda," but sure enough, when I put it on her, she immediately identified it. She also pointed out a panda in one of the ABC books.

When Becca is begging for a bite of something I'm eating, she sticks her tongue out and wags it back and forth.

A sit & spin came home from the consignment sale with me, after we had to pull the girls off one at Monkey Joe's. We also have a new booster seat that we're trying out before we buy 2 more. The booster seat is more of a toy than a seat at the moment. Anyhow, we added an extra element of danger to the sit & spin by putting the booster seat on top of the center post of the sit & spin and trying to climb on top of it. Unsuccessfully at this point.

The girls love raisins. They don't get that from me. They make little snack boxes of raisins now (even a store brand), and the girls love the little boxes. But with 3, it wasn't very economical, so now I'm buying raisins at Costco.

We went to Panera for dinner last Friday, and when Greg put the juice boxes on the table, we got a chorus of "oooooooohhhhh.". Even the people at the table behind us started laughing.

Becca is my berry eater. She caught me rinsing raspberries earlier this week, and begged for one. She also loves blueberries. Julie gave her raspberry to Greg. Emma chewed hers up, asked for more, and then spit it out on the floor.

Julie in particular likes to say "I need more" when she wants more. But if I'm giving them each something and Julie hasn't gotten hers, she say, "I need me."

The "pleases" and "thank yous" melt my heart, but they don't always know which one to use when. Julie tends to say "tank oooh Emma" even when she's giving something to Emma. And Rebecca likes to say "sorry" to whoever should be saying sorry to her.

The girls were stirring spoons in their spice jars earlier this week. I asked Emma what she was making and she told me "sammich." (sandwich)

Another favorite word right now is "everybody.". I've started trying to give them the same color bowls and cups all the time to avoid fights and "tade"s (trade). Julie likes to call out "eh body geen!" or whatever color they've got.

Speaking of colors, Emma's had them down for a couple of weeks, but just this week it seems to have clicked for both Julie and Rebecca. Their old standby when I ask what color something is is still "geen!"

They also understand the concept of "hot" and have learned to blow on things that are hot. But now they like to use the excuse that something is hot to blow on whatever they want to blow on. Like, say dry cereal.

Because I know you're concerned about the state of my ear wax...

... and because I don't have any new cute pictures of the girls...

I've had a clogged ear since Monday and I finally decided to go to the doctor to get it looked at. Not in any pain, but I didn't want to end up with an ear infection this weekend.

My clogged ear came from putting in ear drops on Sunday night for my itchy ears and falling asleep. I was starting to feel like my hearing was starting to go. Certain noises didn't sounds the same (rustling of plastic bags, for one), and I've been having a hard time hearing where there's a lot of background noise, like in the cafeteria at work.

So I finally went to the doctor and was informed that I had a whole lotta wax packed in there. Nice. At least it explains why the girls are constantly having wax cleaned out of their ears.

So the nurse flushed, I mean irrigated, my ears. It didn't hurt, but it was rather uncomfortable. But man... my ears are clear now, and I can hear again! Back at work afterward, and even now at home, the sound of keys clicking on my keyboard sounds totally different.

Apparently I am one of those people that makes a lot of ear wax. Which explains why they've been SO itchy. Because the itching is pretty much gone.

And now you officially have too much information.

Yes, we are alive.

So, by virtue of yesterday's post, you know we're alive.

December just feels like it has spun out of control. I don't know how it's the 21st already. I'm not even sure I can account for the time since my last post.

I think I took Emma on some errands 2 Saturdays ago. We went out for lunch together at Chipotle, and I remember thinking it was really our first impromptu lunch date. I didn't plan anything ahead of time (gasp) - we got there with no sippy, no placemats, no bibs. And we survived! Emma had some rice and chips (and acted insulted by the pork) and drank from a juicebox. It's like we're entering a new era.

The girls have been coughing for a while now, and they started sharing a fever and eye gunk last week. Greg kept Emma home on Wednesday because daycare had called a out her fever on Tuesday afternoon. He took her into the doctor because she sounded a little raspy, but it's probably just a virus. I ended up with all three of them at home on Thursday because Emma was still running a fever on Wednesday, Julie had eye gunk (I wanted to keep an eye on it and make sure it wasn't pink eye) and Becca would have been miserable at daycare on her own.

We also had our 6 month recheck at the ENT last week. The girls all still have their tubes and they look fine. He said to expect them to fall out in the next 6-12 months. Looking forward to not fighting that battle this winter.

I myself have been obsessed with finishing The Girl Who Played with Fire. I've been reading in every spare minute I can find. I'm hoping to finally finish it tomorrow. Wednesday is my first day of vacation, and I don't go back to work until the 3rd.

It doesn't feel like we've done much really Christmas-y this year. Greg did get some lights up outside, which is more than we managed last year. He also got the tree up and put lights on it the Saturday before last. We let the girls hang some of the non-fragile ornaments that we could find. Of course, they want to constantly rearrange them. Or wear them like bracelets, especially these little seashell ones from Grandma S.

That's honestly all I can come up with. The girls still aren't sleeping well, and we end up with at least one of them in bed with us every night. Our most fabulous night was on Sunday night, when Emma started crying. Greg went to get her and as soon as he walked in, all 3 of them started yelling. 3 screaming kids. 4 am. Nice.

I still don't really think that they "get" Christmas. They know that there's a tree in our house, but I don't think they know why.

New and Used

I took Rebecca to the ENT last week for a recheck on her new ear tube and everything checked out ok. There shouldn't be any reason why this one won't stay in. When we were leaving, one of the nurses gave her a little beaded bracelet and a plastic ring. Well, actually the nurse had to give them to me, because Becca wouldn't take them from her. We got all the way to the elevator before I realized what a disaster taking home *one* bracelet and ring was going to be, so we turned around and begged for two more sets. Of course she cried when we got back to daycare and I had to take the bracelet away from her.

Cell phone pics of R at the ENT:

Getting ready to start up the pony.

After her appointment, we stopped for ice cream. I was reminded how easy one kid must be, because I could actually take her inside and not use the drive thru. She sat on the chair and looked around a bit, but was really good ... until the ice cream ran out. Then she cried.

It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I'm still a little disappointed that Dusty took a swat at (and scratched) both Julie and Rebecca, within about 20 minutes of each other. Dusty was laying on the back of the couch, and Julie got up on the couch and was excited to see the cat. She started waving her hands around and must have gotten too close. Becca did the exact same thing a few minutes later. When Dusty got Becca, Julie started crying all over again, too. For a dAy or two afterward, Julie would get scared when she saw the cat, but they don't really seem to be afraid of them now.

Our big news of the weekend is that we bought a minivan! We've been talking about it and putting it off for a long time now. We finally got serious about a budget a few weeks ago and have been doing the research ever since. By the time we went out on Saturday morning, we knew we were getting a used Honda Odyssey. It was just a matter of where we were getting it and how much we were going to pay. We ended up with one with slightly more miles than we would have liked, but it was a better fit for our budget than the first one we looked at. Plus, they wouldn't budge at all on price on the first one. I kid you not, the guy came back and said the best he could do was the sticker price. Plus he showed us a Kelley Blue Book report saying the car was worth $29,500. Except Greg found the original (new) window sticker and it said the car was $29,500 new. At that point we walked out and went to the dealership that was recommended by multiple people, and bought one.

That's our new ride. Not crazy about the look of the bug deflector on the front and the shield things on the tops of the windows... but it's cosmetic. I can live with it.

April came and stayed with the girls for the day. We are so lucky to have her baby sit for us! The girls do great with her. Plus, she washed our dishes. I was reading on some message boards recently about what people expect their babysitters to do for them, and I told Greg that I just expect my kids to be alive. I don't know that I could get dishes done if I was home alone with the three of them.

Not to fear, we did manage to get our family Costco trip in late Saturday afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting from this trip.

Julie at Costco from a few weeks ago. Just found the pic on my phone.

Emma and Rebecca from this past weekend. Have you tried those Sahale cashews with vanilla and pomegranate? I can't stop eating them.

I did take the minivan out for a bit on Sunday morning, "to fill it with gas" and go get groceries. We haven't had a chance to get the car seats moved in there yet.

We had some friends that we don't get to see very often come visit on Sunday. Scot and Nanditha got to meet the girls and we all went out for pizza.

Where did I leave off?

Becca went back to the ENT last week, and he said her ear drums have healed enough for surgery.

We had to fill out a survey while we waited. Becca didn't want to play with the toys again. She wanted to help fill out the survey.



When we were done, I let her walk down the big long hallway by herself. Both of the windows to check out were occupied, so we had to wait. She turned around and headed back down the long hallway, back toward the doctor. I thought she'd go a few steps and realize I wasn't behind her, but she got almost to the end of the hall. When I finally got her to turn around, she went all the way in the other direction. I'm trying to not grab her hand constantly... trying to let her develop some confidence, but grab her hand when we're in the parking lot or something so she knows the difference. I thought she'd be a little more hesitant, but she kept taking off. And my phone is so slow at taking pictures that she's pretty much out of the frame every time I took one.


I wanted to get the tube done ASAP, while I have time to be home with her, because I'm going to be starting a new job next week (topic for another post), and it will probably be harder for me to be at home, at least in the beginning. Greg's swamped at work, too, and while we both have flexibility to do some work from home, it's often hard to find the time for it. Anyhow, Becca's tube replacement is scheduled for tomorrow. We have to be there at 6:30; please don't let me oversleep this time. She's on antibiotics at the moment to make sure she doesn't have an infection going in to the surgery, like she did last time.

And... since I crashed last night and didn't get this posted, we are now home from Becca's tubes, and she playing like normal. Well, not quite like normal since her sisters are at daycare and she doesn't have to fight for the toys. But she's acting just fine. She woke up a little easier this time, less thrashing around. She was mostly just whiny, which was fixed by an oatmeal raisin cookie in the car on the way home.

Still didn't take the camera, but I grabbed a quick photo with my phone while she was playing. It was a much longer wait with just one kid, so she got a little antsy. She wanted up and down out of the chairs, and wanted to play with everything in the diaper bag. And then she dropped my keys behind the bed that I couldn't figure out how to move.


We really didn't do much over the weekend. It was SO hot. Can't believe it is this hot out already. We did a family Costco run on Saturday again.
"I. am. fabulous."


"I can get how many shoes for that price?"


Other than that, we mostly stayed inside.

We played with buckets.





We loved our daddy.


We fought over who got to sit in the Julie Cave.


We turned toys into bracelets.



We played with the dinosaur puppets book.



We played peek-a-boo.



We wore the cloth book like a scarf.





We hid under the blanket. (And made a fort under it with daddy.)


And we played with buckets some more.



Seriously, we need some ideas to get us out of the house this summer. Things to do when it's too hot to be outside?

I think I'm going to take a photography class at the local technical college this fall. Once a week for 8 weeks. I want to learn for real the stuff I fake. I want to learn to use manual mode, and learn about lenses and filters. And I want to justify a camera body with an ISO16000 setting...

Julie seems to be picking up words pretty quickly these days. All weekend, she walked around saying "BAW" and holding a ball over her head. We've also caught her saying "hello" on the toy cell phone.