A Big Fat Mess

I think that's the only way I can describe last week. I just couldn't wait for the week to be over. It just felt like one big failure.

I was sick on Monday. Again.

Slept late on Tuesday, and consequently showed up 15 minutes late to a meeting with my boss's boss.

Had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday that I've been waiting two months for, hoping to get some answers. But after all the poking and prodding, I still don't have any answers.

I had so much work that I spent Wednesday and Friday nights doing work at home after the girls went to bed. I hate that. And I'm still behind.

Two accident reports - Julie's head and Emma's finger. They called again around noon on Friday and said that Emma was really cranky and wouldn't let anyone touch her finger. It was still hugely swollen, and she hadn't been letting me touch it other than to put a band aid on it. She also had been avoiding using her whole hand - making me pull her pants up, snap her in her car seat. Very not like her. To make a long story short, because her dr appt was at 2:30 and because we carpooled and because there could have been a late x ray involved, I had to leave an all day meeting 5 minutes after my boss got there. Nice move on my part. The good news, of course, is that her finger isn't broken. He called it a "crush" injury. And it actually looked a lot better on Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, I pretty much slept all day. The girls were up at 6:30, and after trying to get them to calm back down in our bed ("sshhhhh, the cows are sleeping"), Greg took them downstairs, and I didn't get up until 9. I crashed again at nap time (we turned the monitor off), and didn't wake up until almost 5. In the short time that I was up, poor Greg had to go out and get two nail holes in the van's tire patched, and go to Costco on a Saturday morning.

So, there ya go. Exhausted, overwhelmed. Ready to start a new week.

Saturday's Non-nap

I slept through most of it, but the end results were:

-Becca had no shirt, and actually napped for a little while.

-Julie emerged with no shirt, pants, but no diaper and no nap.

-Emma emerged with no shirt, no pants, no diaper, a wet bed, and no nap.

When they don't nap, they tend to crash later, like in the car on the way to dinner. We're planning to move nap times to pack n plays and separate the three of them for naps. It's just out of control, and I know they're just egging each other on.

Life in pictures

Rock on Emma. Rock on.

The Little Gymnasts

I can't believe I hadn't posted these yet. Last week was a bit of a blur with Grandma and Grandpa here. But it also meant we had more hands at the gym... which meant I finally got to take some pictures.

Ok... Becca in blue, Emma in purple, and Julie in pink.

She looks SO big to me here.


If Becca's going to do it, then Emma's going to do it too. These stairs up to the beam are the ones that still scare me.


Parachute fun.



Monkeys. They were loving this bar this week.





Becca on the "risk taking" activity ... stepping down big steps and then tipping over at the end.


Julie thinks about trying the springboard.


Emma and the coveted purple ball. She had Grandma rolling her back and forth in this big circle for quite a while.


More beam for Becca.


She already has her "ta da!" pose down.

(Another) Accident Report 4/13/11, 4:00 pm

Location where the incident occurred: playground
Equipment involved: door
How did the injury occur: Finger in the door.
Part of body injured: finger
Type of injury: cut, bruise or swelling, blood blisters
First aid given: TLC, ice pack (and a lollipop)

Poor kid. She can bend it, and it doesn't seem to bother her too much as long as there's a band aid on it. If there's no band aid, she may as well be missing an arm. It was swollen up pretty big on Wednesday night, though.

Mama had a duck... and some puppy dogs

Accident Report 4/11/11, 3:45pm

Location where the incident occurred: playground. Fell off little bike.
Equipment involved: playground surface. Friend bumped into her bike.
Type of injury: little bump
First aid given: ice pack


Check out that noggin!
I think this second pic gives you an idea of how big it swelled up tonight. We now understand the term "goose egg.


And wouldn't you know... Tuesday was picture day at school.

Triplet Easter Egg Hunt

Our local triplet club has an annual Easter Egg Hunt, and this is the first year that we've been able to make it. It was rainy and wet last year, and we still had one who wasn't walking.

It didn't take too long for them to figure out what was going on. Candy is the great motivator.






I'm really hoping someone got a family picture of us where Julie doesn't have a finger in her nose. Oh, and note Greg's new haircut!


Neither of us saw Julie pick up this "egg."





The only pitfall of cupcakes at picnics? The dreaded cake foot.

Nap time

This is how nap time went down today.

12:00 Girls lay down with blankets. As soon as we leave, the chatter begins. They also started singing ABCs and Becca kept saying "Shake your body" and "Jump in the water."

12:33 Greg reports that Becca is now singing "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed."

12:39 Crying. Sounds like someone could have an arm stuck or something. But no. EVERYTHING (stuffed animals, blankets, pillows, books) has been thrown from the cribs into the middle of the floor. Emma is doing a forward roll in her crib. Becca has no pants on. Emma has Becca's pants on (backwards), and one arm up through the neck of her shirt.

1:02 Becca crying. I go in and check, and she tells me that Emma pulled her hair. Kind of random, but ok. So I lay down on the couch and start threatening to take away their "special treat" (our Easter egg hunt; more later).

1:05 Julie stands up and walks over to where her crib meets Emma's and says "Emma, do me. Do me." And Emma gets up and walks over and grabs a handful of Julie's hair and pulls while Julie's hair slips through her hands. They both laugh. Repeat. So... apparently hair pulling is not a game. So not good.

1:57 Greg finally brings the girls downstairs. Becca is in just a diaper, Emma only has Becca's pants on, and Julie is still in her own clothes and fully dressed.

More shopping with Becca

This is from last week. She stayed in the cart for the first half of the trip, and then all of a sudden in the middle of the store, she remembered that she wanted to get out and walk.



In contrast, Greg took Emma to Costco today, and she stayed in the cart until near the end, when she then demanded to be carried.

Well hello there, spring.

Whew, another weekend gone in a blur.

We did decide to try out the Little Gym for the remainder of this session, and then re-evaluate. The girls were totally at home this past week. They wandered all over and wanted to try out everything... including when they were supposed to be doing other group activities. They were particularly in love with these steps up to the top uneven bar. We're supposed to let them explore and wander but try to encourage them to come back to the group, but we were pretty much chasing them around all night. We had to drag Emma out of there at the end. She wanted to go play on everything again. Glad that it's a new experience for them to be exposed to, and that they seem to be enjoying it.

We've been trying to get to a bigger zoo for the girls to see some different animals, and just go on a family adventure, since Christmas time. We finally got a chance to go on Saturday. It was just a gorgeous day out - perfect to be outside - but a bit windy. The girls got to try out their new hats, but they didn't last all day because they kept blowing off.

I seriously did a double take when I saw this pic... Bec.. but she looks a LOT like Julie here.


"Em, do you climb like a monkey?"


Pretty smiley Becca


Watching the turtles.


Bec and the lion cub


Em riding the lion cub


Em watching the elephants with dad


We brought a picnic lunch, partly because there's a picnic in the ABC book and we've been trying to explain what a picnic ("pick-uh-nit" to Julie) is.

Grandma and Grandpa got here for a visit on Saturday evening, and met us for dinner. The girls are in heaven. I've noticed Emma in particular is kind of putting on a show. :) They took a trip to the playground on Sunday afternoon to enjoy another day of good weather.

Becca shops

Becca insisted on getting out of the cart and walking at Costco last weekend. It pretty much went like this.

Personality and Developmental Notes 3/30/11

"Marvin K Mooney" ("Mah knee") is still one of the girls' favorite books, but there are "in" to different parts of it now. Julie likes the words "please," "jet," and "get." Both Emma and Julie do the "zumble zay" and "crunk car." Julie also likes to point out "Mah knee" on every page.

"Go Dog Go" is near the top of the list right now. The like the "Good byes" at the moment, and the colors. They still like the alphabet book, too, and like to say "jack in the box."

The top of the list right now, though? That would a Curious George book ("George" or just "monkey book") about a snowy day. They just love it, and we read it almost every night.

Emma is obsessed with clothes with circles ("suh kuls") on them.

Still not a lot of progress on the potty front. We're still waiting it out. Occasionally Emma and Julie will ask about it, usually right before bed. Becca's still scared, I think.

Julie got a new toothbrush this week and she was almost speechless. Then, out of the blue, she said "That's pretty!"

When Emma wants to do something herself, she'll say "My do it."

Julie found a pinecone in the front yard and called it a "fow-wuh." No sense in convincing her otherwise.

Daycare now requires that we bring pull ups in for the girls. We've still got a stockpile of diapers at home, and since they're cheaper, we're going to use those up before the girls wear pull ups at home. But we have to put pull ups on them in the morning on weekdays. At first, it was a battle, because they "don wan puh-yups." But on the weekends, now, unless I can distract her, Emma says, "No wan dye-puh. Wan puh-yup."

When we're in the car now, the girls have very strong feelings about which way we go. "Dat way" or "udd-ah way" get shouted at us all the time. They are most concerned about it when we leave daycare in the afternoon. We turn right out of daycare to go home, but turning left out of daycare takes us to all the "fun" stuff - we pass the school bus parking lot, the pizza place, Moe's, the Little Gym. When we go past the bus parking lot, they've also started saying "busses," using the plural which I thought was interesting.

Julie has picked up "lee me lone." Emma and Becca were going crazy with the tent over the weekend, turning it upside down and walking it around. Julie wanted no part of it - - she was playing with baby dolls. Whenever they bumped into her, she's say "lee me lone."

Who would have thought that chicken noodle soup and corn muffins could be so messy?

Meals have certainly been messy lately with the girls sitting at the table. But I think corn muffins were even worse than rice.

Emma's shirt was tiered ruffles ... perfect for catching crumbs.