Special Days

I took July 5 and 6 as vacation days, partly because I wanted a break and partly because I've guilted myself into thinking that part of the reason why the girls' behavior is so bad lately is that they get almost no "alone" time with us.

I kept Julie home on Thursday, and when I asked her what she wanted to do, she said she wanted to go see fish.

Go see fish.

I had no idea what she meant.

So, we went to Petco.  We looked at the fish, the ferrets, the birds, the frogs.  But do you know what her favorites were?  The mice.  Gives me the chills just thinking about it.  But she stood there watching them and narrating forever.

After that, I figured she needed a few suggestions for things to do.  So we walked through REI where she got a huge kick out of the bikes hung from racks - they were "upside down."  We walked around the craft store for a bit.  Then, she wanted to go to the burrito house for lunch.

I took her to Chipotle and got her a taco, and she went on and on about how good it was.  "This is delicious!  It has all my favorites!"  And when she tells the story, she likes to say, "And I had two drinks!" because we were carrying around a sippy cup with water that day, and I wanted to refill it before we left.  Apparently, a sippy cup + apple juice box = most awesome lunch ever.  She also was excited about the bag of chips.  She insisted on saving it to share with her sisters and her dad.

After lunch, we went to the bookstore to play with trains.  She said she wanted a train book, so I coaxed her in to The Little Engine that Could.  We went and got some ice cream, did a little more shopping for something for the wall for their room.  And then we headed home for a nap.

For Rebecca's day, I took her to Krispy Kreme first.  The first thing she wanted was a hat, and two for her sisters.  Then she declared that I must wear a hat.

For her, anything.

I talked her in to going to the other craft store with me, where she picked out little wooden birdhouses for herself and her sisters.  She started trying to get me to buy everything.  I talked her out of the package of stickers that she wanted that said "pregnant," but did let her pick out some flowers for her outdoor play house.

Next, she wanted to go bounce.  Luckily for me, she got bored with it after about an hour.

For lunch, she wanted to go to the chicken nugget house.  I tried really hard to make this be Chick-fil-a, but when we got there, she said, "No, the chicken nugget house with the tree in it."  I'm still not sure what this meant - if one of them has a tree in the play area or what - but she was satisfied with McDonalds.  After we ate, she played in that play area for a while, and then, even though it was 100 degrees out, she insisted she wanted to go to the playground.  I told her we could go for a little while, but then we'd have to go home and take a nap.  She agreed.  Of course, by the time we got to the park, she was sound asleep.

She woke up as soon as we got home, but we put on some Mickey Mouse Club House and crashed on the couch.

Greg stayed home on Monday and kept Emma home.  She spent all weekend planning her special day. She wanted to bounce, too, but apparently they got there before it opened.  So they stalled by going to Walmart.  She got bored of bouncing after not too long, and wanted to go to the park.  All weekend, she had been planning to go to the macaroni and cheese house (Panera) for lunch.

They went to the book store, too, and came home with what Emma calls her "favorite book," a Max and Ruby book with flaps, about costumes.

Definitely want to do more of this in the future.  It's so hard to find alone time with them, and I think it's really important, for them and for us.

Celebrating

Last week, we were invited to a birthday party for a little boy in the girls' class.  It was at a bounce house, one that we had never been to (but that I have since bought a Groupon for).  Anyhow, I took lots of blurry cell phone pictures of them playing.

But their favorite part?

Besides sneaking into the birthday boy's chair when he wasn't looking?

The food.

While all of the other kids were hanging on the birthday boy and trying to open his presents for him, mine were eating pizza.  And cake.

That would be race car cake.  With black icing.

Yes folks, black icing.

Or was it really bad black lip liner?

Fun

On Friday night, we went to a "family fun" night fundraiser for the local center for developmental services.  It's basically the agency that coordinated the girls' early intervention for developmental delays.  In the past, it's always been hot, or raining, or the girls weren't old enough.  But this year, the weather was absolutely perfect - 70, sunny, and dry.

It was held at the baseball stadium, or "baseball player," that we went to for a game a few weeks ago, so the girls recognized it right away.  They kept expecting a game to start.  But there were a whole lot of inflatables, art tables, little games, vendor booths, etc.  In part due to the weather, it was pretty awesome.

We paid a donation to get in, but the vendors were very generous - the girls each got a beanie baby from the Shriner's Hospital (Emma got a bear, of course.  Julie got a little blue teddy bear with snow flakes and a scarf, and Becca got a frog), packages of sidewalk chalk, little inflatable beach balls, yo-yos, stickers, etc.

Becca was all proud of herself - she was the only one who would go up the giant inflatable NASCAR slide.  It had a tunnel up the middle that you had to climb up, and the other two saw the dark tunnel and said "no way."

Emma made bunny ears.

Becca made elephant ears.

Julie made mouse ears.

We ran around bare foot for a little while.

We had hamburgers in the stadium for supper.  They weren't very good, but all three of them ate the whole darn thing.

And then we found another inflatable slide with no scary tunnel.  They kept coming down and saying "just one more time."  That went on for about half an hour.

We got to go down on the field for a little while, but it was getting late, and somehow we had promised ice cream.  I didn't feel like waiting for 3 of them to finish a big thing of ice cream, so they shared.  And they didn't have plain regular cups, so we had to get a waffle cup.  Oh, there were screams.  "I want my own!"  "I want a cup!"  But once they realized there was ice cream in the waffle cup, they were ok.

 They were totally amused that they could eat the bowl when they were done.

We did run into their interventionist, Catie, right as we were sitting down with ice cream.  The girls didn't seem to remember her, but it was great to see her and thank her again.

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.

Mama got a new toy

The weather was threatening thunderstorms on and off all day yesterday, and in our never ending quest for a solid nap, we decided to go bouncing.

The girls kind of seemed bored... finally we let them try this big huge slide that we had been trying to tell them was too big for them. Seriously, it's like 10 feet tall. There's a set of steps up the middle between two slides. Emma was the first one to make it to the top - Greg and I were shocked. She flew down the slide and was totally hooked. It took Becca a few tries to get up the steps, and then she was hooked, too. Julie climbed all the way up the steps once, but instead of coming down the slide, she came back down the stairs... and not very prettily. Luckily they were the only ones on it at the time. Julie tried again, and by then there was a big line of kids behind her. Eventually a couple of them helped her up. She made it to the top and came down the slide... and then wouldn't get out of daddy's arms again. I think it really scared her.

I got a new iphone app called Instagram this week that I hadn't had time to play with until yesterday. I didn't take a camera to the bounce place, so I busted out my phone. Instagram basically just applies some funky filters to your photos.

R

E

J

Mom and J

J

J. I love this one.

Someone on the slide... I think it's Emma

Becca at the bottom of the slide

Emma at the bottom of the slide

Emma on the bottom of the slide

"Rain go away"

We've had a lot of rain over the last few weeks, and I love the rain. On Saturday, though, the girls started singing "Rain go away." We'd been thinking of going to the zoo on Saturday, but "chance of showers" turned in to all day rain.

Emma and Becca have been really whiny and clingy lately. Daycare actually called me last Wednesday at work and said that Emma had been crying all morning long. Not what a working mom needs to hear. They all had a hard time going to sleep on Tuesday night after being all worked up at the gym, so after she crashed hard at nap time, we chalked it up to being tired. But on Thursday morning, she sat in the back of the van and cried "mommy mommy mommy" all the way to daycare. Sigh. She's doing a little better, but there are still times where she insists on mommy - mommy holding her hand, mommy strapping her into her car seat, etc. Becca has just been really sensitive (which is just Becca), but has been coming over to me a lot more often with her arms up wanting to be held. Lots of times she wants to be held after she's finished eating but I'm not. Or she wants to be reassured when someone else has gotten in trouble. I wonder if they're going through a growth spurt and getting really tired and cranky? Julie is pretty much oblivious, the same crazy little June Bug. She's got a bit of a cough right now, though, so she's not quite herself.

We've also had a harder time lately trying to get the girls some individual attention. More often lately we're trying to do things as a family, even just running errands. I feel so torn, pretty much all the time, between wanting to spend time with one of them vs. wanting to spend time as a family vs. getting some alone time.

Whenever we ask the girls what they want for dinner lately, Julie says "buh buh cute," (Emma screams "CHICKEN NUGGETS!"), so on Friday we finally went out for barbecue for dinner. And they mostly ate the mac and cheese.

On Saturday, I took Becca out to run some errands and then out for lunch. Naps when we got home were a bust. We were determined to get a decent night's sleep, so like way too many other people on a rainy afternoon, we went to bounce. The girls had a blast, but there were a ton of people there. And way too many people just letting their kids run wild. Seriously.

They really liked playing on the one that's got kind of a big rectangular "track" with a big blob mountain in the middle. Emma and Julie finally made it up to the top of the blob this time. Such big girls! That's Emma in the blue stripes, Becca in the light purple shirt, and julie in the pink and gray stripes.


I think the girls all slept through the night, but they were up bright and early this morning.

What month is it?

I guess I never got around to an update from last week, which is a pretty good indication of what life has been like lately. I spent a decent chunk of my "spare" time last week prepping stuff for our moms of multiples consignment sale. I took a half day off from work on Friday to drop off all of our stuff, and then work my set up shift. I actually roped Greg into going up there with me to drop stuff off, because we had 2 full car loads of stuff. It seems like a lot of stuff sold this time, because it only took one car to pick up the stuff that didn't sell. I didn't do a ton of shopping, because I managed to do a good job at end-of-season clearance shopping last year, so we're pretty well stocked. I got some "contingency" clothes in 3T, just in case. I also bought a set of decent dresses, just in case.

Last weekend was just rainy all weekend long. I wanted a fun family activity to do for my birthday, but I couldn't come up with anything that didn't involve going outside. So, on Saturday morning, we went to Monkey Joe's (inflatables) and let the girls wear themselves out. I bought some discount passes on livingsocial recently, so we used those. I'm not sure if it was the rain or if it's normally that busy, but I think we liked the place we went last time better. We got there early, and honestly the girls were starting to get bored once it was getting really busy. But they definitely had fun and wore themselves out. That 3 hour nap last time wasn't a fluke! Our only traumatic moment was when the girls were playing in this one that had a piece with two hills and a valley in between them. Becca got stuck in the valley and couldn't get out. I could see the look of panic on her face. Then, an older boy started bouncing and yelling on the hill next to her and she just started screaming and crying. I made Greg go in for her.

Some pics...

Em


Becca



Julie


This is the valley, shortly before Becca got stuck. That's Emma in there. She figured out that she could climb over the side to get out. Becca freaked out before she figured it out.


I've just been dragging this week. I've fallen asleep a couple of times this week on the couch. So glad the weekend is finally here.

How to Wear Out a Toddler

My weekend got started a little early last week, which was just such a nice break. Work has just been draining me lately. Things are going ok, but I'm juggling so many different things during the day that I'm just completely worn out at the end of the day.

Anyhow, I had made an appointment to get my hair cut at 4, and I had the March of Dimes lunch at noon... which gave me the chance to run to the mall and Costco. Nice.

We took the girls out for pizza on Friday night. It's so funny - we turn at this one traffic light and they start yelling "pea-tha!". And they cheer when we pull in the parking lot.

And then they turned into little monsters. Julie refused to sit in her booster seat and insisted on sitting in Greg's lap. And as soon as the pizza comes out, they all start screaming, and continue until it is in their mouths. We go through the same thing every time - "It's hot!", "I have to cut it!". But still they act like we're the meanest parents ever because the food is not in their mouths the minute it hits the table. And then they start running around like crazies when we try to leave. It's nearly impossible for the two of us to drag out 3 kids who don't want to go. And Becca insisted on sticking her hands in the trash can every time she wiggled away.

I fell asleep on the couch on Friday. I really like to just grab a blanket and lay down and fall asleep in front of the tv on the weekends right now. Life of the party, that's me.

We went to our Moms of Multiples winter party on Saturday morning, at one of those bouncy inflatable things places. We tried this about a year ago, and even though we got on their with them, they screamed the whole time. Then, sometime over the summer, I tried taking just Emma (back when she seemed really bored and needed some attention). She yelled and cried for me unless I held her on the edge and bounced her, and she was really more concerned about someone taking her shoes than anything.

So my expectations were low, and for the first half hour, they really weren't interested in anything but playing with the baby toys, or running the length of the building in their socks. Eventually, Emma was okay bouncing in the doorway of this massive inflatable in the back corner. It was a big square, with a track around the outside with a blobby mountain in the middle. Then Emma took off running and laughing.

Still, Becca and Julie weren't buying it.

Greg put Julie in once and she crawled forward a couple of feet, and then she backward crawled right back out again.

Eventually, Greg convinced them Becca and Julie to get in. I was too busy taking pictures.





Ohmygoodness, when they got going, they were having a blast!


We took the girls to Chick-fil-A for lunch, and they got kids meals. We actually planned to *not* bring our usual arsenal of supplies, and we dis just fine, even if we did have to buy the girls a second round of juice boxes. It's a small price to pay.

And then they took a 3.5 hour nap. So, um, we will surely be doing that again. Soon.

The rest of the weekend kind of paled in comparison. After the girls finally woke up, we went out to dinner to our favorite kids-eat-free-on-Saturday meat & 3 place. I guess actually it was meat &2. I didn't know that was a type of restaurant until I moved to the south. But again, no diaper bag, no sippies. The girls got their own cups with lids and straws, and did better than usual with the "don't tip it" thing.

Sunday was the usual trip to the grocery store, and then lots of playing with our new shopping carts. (And that's Julie in the new Bilibo seat, thanks to Em's recommendation. Although the pink is a *little* much.)




On Sunday afternoon, we busted out the Valentine's Day gifts from grandmas and grandpas. Heart glasses, sunglasses, bracelets and a necklace, cookies, cards.




We also taste-tested some of my chocolate covered pretzels (for daycare teachers and to take in to work). I think they were a hit.



The girls had a "Valentine's Ball" at daycare on Monday. I'm not sure how it was different than a party, but I do know that they each came home with a gallon size bag of candy. They can now unwrap candy, for the most part, so by the time we got home, they were covered in lollipop. Who's idea were the blue lollipops???



They sure are something.

And we sure are lucky.