Birthday Miracle #1

Our bedtime routine had gotten bad.  Just bad.  The girls insisted on one of us staying in the room with them until they fall asleep.  I am so wiped out by 9:00 that I was falling asleep before they were a lot of the times.  It was basically to the point where I was sleeping on the floor in their room (well, on a "bed" of bean bag chairs).  Depending on how tired I was, I would stay in there all night, or get up in the middle of the night and move to my bed.  Typically, within an hour of me waking up and moving to my bed, one or two of the girls would end up in our bed.  So I wasn't sleeping well, no matter where I slept.  Greg was able to stay up a little better than I was, but he would fall asleep in there some as well.

Whoever didn't have bed duty was downstairs, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, cleaning up from dinner, cleaning up toys, making lunches for the next day, and just generally keeping us functional.

It was really taking its toll.

So, a few weeks before their birthday, I said, "Four year olds go to bed by themselves."

And they said, "Ok."

And seriously, since their fourth birthday, I'll go up and read stories, tuck everyone in, and then I can go fold laundry or something.  We have to go back and check on them at certain intervals, but for the most part we turn out the lights, they quiet down, and go to sleep.  It's crazy.

Now, most nights Rebecca will still wake up in the middle of the night and climb into our bed (Emma and Julie sleep in their own beds all night 95% of the time).  But Becca will now climb in without waking us up, and curl up next to one of us.  By morning, she's pushing us out of bed, because she likes to be practically wedged underneath us.  If you mistakenly move by a fraction of an inch to try to get more space, she's right behind you.  On bad nights, she'll get perpendicular between us, and you just have to hope you're not on the feet end, because she's a kicker.

Keeping it real.

I started working on a post catching up on all the photos from the wedding.  But right now?  I just don't feel like it.  I'm so exhausted/fed up/overwhelmed/bitter/cranky.  The girls are testing every last nerve.  Sunday was awful.  Today wasn't much better.

They are whiny.  They don't listen.  They scream or shriek when they don't get their way.  They hit each other.  Today, Emma pushed Julie down the last three stairs (backwards).

I am trying not to raise my voice or spank them ... because that's the exact behavior I don't want them mirroring...  But I'm at my wit's end.  Mostly they just laugh at us.  Or scream.

Perhaps I'm missing having the support of our family when we were home for the wedding.  I miss my parents.  I miss my brothers.  I miss my sisters-in-law.  I'm bitter when I hear about other peoples' parents "taking the kids for the weekend."  I feel like we never get a break.  For as much time as Greg and I get to see each other, we barely spend any time together.

I'm exhausted, and can't remember what a full night of sleep feels like.  Even after one of us falls asleep in their room every night, there are usually 2 in our bed by morning.  When all 3 are in our bed, I get minimal sleep, and there's usually a fight involved.  On those particularly fun nights, I get kicked in the head.  Lately, I've taken to sleeping on the couch, since it gives Greg and the visitors more room.

And as I hit submit, at least one of them is kicking the wall upstairs.

Stuff I Missed, Part 1

With the December Daily, there were some other random pictures I missed sharing throughout the month.

The grocery store "toddler club" sent some glasses in the mail that make Christmas lights look like snowflakes.  Pretty cool.

 Julie's idea of coloring right now is to put a little scribble of crayon on every single page in the coloring book.

 Becca was counting her crayons as she put them away, and she'd say "Count with me, guys," which I think she's picked up from Mickey Mouse Club House.

 Sleeping on the morning of Christmas Eve.  They had a rough night and all ended up sleeping on the floor.

Emma's first identifiable drawing - that's a "pot-a-miss."  She added the circle stamp right before I took the picture, and she told me the circle stamp was his belly.

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.

Thanksgiving Part 3

So, on to Thanksgiving itself. Still cold and blustery, and we actually saw some snow flurries during the afternoon.

The girls ate, almost exclusively, tons of mashed potatoes. The other stuff they could take or leave.

You can see where Julie scratched up her head in this one.





I wouldn't normally eat with Becca sitting on my lap, but she just wasn't quite herself for most of the week. She was kind of clingy and whiny, and it seemed to start the day we left. I don't know if she was just afraid the whole time we were there that we were going to leave her or what. She's back to normal now, though.

They sure do keep us entertained. Becca in Grandpa's shoes.


Emma studying the fan with Grandma.


Combing Grandpa's hair.


The girls slept horribly all week. Just about every night, we had at least two of them in bed with us at some point. The nights where all 3 of them were in bed with us were pretty rough, because we don't all fit in a queen bed. Greg moved his pillow to the nightstand, and I was hanging off the bed. I guess it's a good thing we sprung for the king size bed a few years ago.

On Friday, we all were ready to get out of the house again. We took the girls to a children's museum for the morning, and they had a blast! For them, it was just a chance to explore. They had a bunch of little stations.

Of course, before we left, Emma put on a little fashion show with my sneakers and Uncle Dan's hat.

Becca. My mom trimmed her bangs while we were there, and with her bangs cut, it took me a long time to realize that she looks a lot like this one picture of my mom as a kid.

Everybody loved the horse.

Emma loved it so much she tried to drag it around with her.

We spent a long time in the grocery shopping station. Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds ... just like Mommy.

If only Julie would actually eat all of those foods...

Oh, the look on her face! If only I didn't know where she gets that from.

We put on tutus and danced.

Surprisingly, Emma was really into this one. I thought Julie would have been all over it because she's the one most likely to start to just start wiggling in public. But she was more interested in trying to get at the ballet and tap shoes.

We did some arts and crafts.

And we painted.

I have no idea how she did that.

She's such a ham.

After I wouldn't let her put on the dance shoes, she found this pair of wooden shoes that fit like they were made for her.

And, the best part about the museum....


Greg and I did manage to get out on Friday night and did some Black Friday shopping. That's about the only time I can handle Black Friday shopping. By 5 pm, there are too many cashiers but the crazy shoppers have gone home. We got a couple of little things at Toys R Us. We also went to Old Navy because neither of us brought a hat or gloves. Of course we also ended up getting new hats and gloves for the girls. It's so much more fun to shop for them.

I can't sleep

I can't sleep.

Doesn't that sound absolutely ludicrous coming from me?

It's not that I have trouble falling asleep at night. In fact, I tend to crash into bed and fall asleep before I even mean to.

But I wake up over and over and over. On average, I'd guess I wake up 5 or 6 times a night. But it can be as many as a dozen. I wake up, look at the clock, figure out what day it is, and go back to sleep. I can't remember the last time I slept through the night. If I were a toddler, I'd say I was overtired.

And I don't have much trouble falling back to sleep. But waking up repeatedly leaves me feeling exhausted. It's a vicious cycle.

Emma has been doing much better in her new room at daycare since Julie and Becca came over. They normally transition them a few hours a day for the first few days, but they were all doing well and there was so much drama when they tried to separate them again that, by Monday afternoon, they were transitioned. We dropped them all off together on Tuesday morning. Lots of tears all around, but at least they were together. Tuesday afternoon was the first time that Emma wasn't crying when we picked her up in the afternoon.

Things went pretty well at the consignment sale. I got some winter coats in case we need them (we can get through the bulk of winter with some fleece jackets I got on clearance at the end of last season). No costumes, though. I'll have to think about those some more. I am open to ideas... I'd like all 3 to be different, but to coordinate. Last year we did a monkey, a turtle, and a lion.

I did get the girls some clothes at the consignment sale, too. I'm pretty sure I sold more than I came home with, at least in terms of volume.

I worked at the sale on Saturday morning. Sometimes it was hard to see things go... Julie's winter coat, the outfit Emma wore for their 9 month portraits. I'm trying not to keep too much for sentimental value. Makes me realize how fast time is going.

We went out for Mexican again on Saturday, but it wasn't quite as successful as the last time. We ordered the girls their own burrito to share this time, but they weren't terribly excited about it. They still were loving the chips, though.

No family Costco trip this weekend because I was gone all day with the sale. We did get a family trip to the grocery store in after naps on Sunday.




It was cloudy all weekend (and actually rainy on Saturday), and was actually bearable outside on Sunday afternoon, so after throwing the groceries in the fridge, we took a quick trip to the park. I think the girls had fun, but they weren't drawn to the slide the way they had been in the past. (Except for Julie wanting to stand at the bottom of the slides and climb up.) Maybe because there were more kids there this time?

The girls have all been congested lately, and Julie has not slept in her own bed since Friday night. Daycare called on our way to get the girls and said Julie was running a low fever (100.2... Just below what the doctor considers a fever.). She has been cranky and clingy on and off, but her fever never went up from there on Monday night. Of course she woke up at about 9pm and refused to sleep in her crib. She tossed and turned and tried to push me out of the bed. On top of that, I had a meeting at a plant on Monday afternoon, and as soon as I walked in, my throat started burning and I got really congested. I didn't get a chance to get any medicine before Julie woke up, so I was coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose all night long. My throat was killing me, my head was throbbing, and I was so stuffed up that my teeth hurt and I had an earache. Needless to say, I got maybe an hour or two of sleep. It was one of the worst nights I've had in a long time. And don't think that Greg got off easy - I was in bed with Julie when he got home from the gym. He had just enough time to take a shower and make the lunches I was supposed to have made before Becca woke up coughing. Her coughing was waking up Julie, so Greg slept on the couch with Becca.

I fell asleep right after we put the girls in bed on Tuesday only to have Greg wake me up at 9, because he already had Becca, and Julie had started crying. I took Becca, and she was having one of her night terror episodes. I finally thought to get it on video this time for the next time we go to the doctor. It has been a while since her last one - months, probably. It's frightening because there doesn't seem to be anything we can do to help her. We just try to keep her from getting hurt as she screams and thrashes around. My guess is that it had something to do with the changes at daycare this week. I think they happen when she is either stressed or over exhausted.

She had another one on Wednesday night. It's been one of those weeks where we just can't catch a break. Greg and I were talking about it in our exhausted stupor, and agreed that, with both of us working full time, anything that throws a kink into our routine kind of has a landslide effect. Laundry doesn't get done. The dishwasher doesn't get unloaded, so no new dishes get loaded. Lunches don't get made. Showers don't get taken. (I'm just keeping it real here.) High chairs don't get cleaned. And the house in general just seems to stink. (I think it was the garlic in the garbage disposal.) I get so frustrated when I feel like I just can't do anything. Obviously we're tending to the most important stuff, and I recognize that. But it's still overwhelming. Just when you feel like you're getting your feet under you, the ground gets ripped out from under your feet. (Does that even make sense? Between the exhaustion and the Sudafed, I can't tell.)

After the milk-in- our-chairs-before-bed situation continued to degrade into trying to dump as much milk out of our cups as possible so we can wipe it up, and standing or tipping over our chairs at every chance we get, we finally decided to implement Project Storytime Before Bed. They are doing pretty well with it and are actually staying on the couch and listening to the story (lots of grabbing for the book, though). A few tears when we put them in bed after the story, but it doesn't last long. Another big change! By Wednesday night, we were tearless.