Twice the Joy...Twice the Chaos

Gettin' crafty.......

2012-02-12T22:33:00.005-05:00

Have I mentioned I may have a slight addiction to Pinterest? I can confidently use the word "slight" because at the moment, work is crazy busy and there's not much free time to be had which means there's not much time to feed any addiction. That's the only thing saving me, though! So when I do find myself with a few free moments.....you know.....before going to bed at 1am....or delaying getting out of bed at 6:30am......I do love to do some pinning.

I was trying to think of something cute for the girls' Valentine's Day party at pre-school and I came across a pin for festive chocolate covered pretzels and I thought that would be a great Sunday project for tomorrow's party!

So we gathered the troops..........it's not a fun project without grandma!
Got out the sprinkles.........

Waited for the chocolate to melt........

And did a whole lotta dipping and sprinkling!

I must say......I felt quite crafty today. No matter that I managed to ruin two batches of chocolate before I realized that adding too much food coloring was causing my problem! Geesh -- all I wanted was some red chocolate!! But we were pretty pleased with the end results......

and now we're all ready for tomorrow's party!

Happy Valentine's Day!

If walls could talk....

2012-02-04T23:25:00.006-05:00

.....our walls would tell you some of the funniest stories about the conversations we have around here......

Olivia: "Mommy. When I throw up, I get bigger!"

Sofia: "Mommy....Bella's a baby. She likes to cry. We're big girls. We like to walk and run."

Sofia: "Daddy! I see three comets way up in the sky!"
Olivia: "No, Sofia. Those aren't comets. I believe those are airplanes."

Grandma, while helping the girls put a puzzle of the United States together: "Girls -- can you point to the state you live in?"
Girls: "Grandma -- we live on the planet Earth."

We have an app for the iPad that has pictures associated with 3-letter words and you are supposed to drag the letters to the correct box to spell the word. Olivia was playing one day and she goes "k......i........t"......"box!" (there was a picture of a first aid kit....and she was correct...it was shaped like a box - ha!)

At some point, Grandma taught the girls that when they eat all their dinner, they make a happy plate. The girls have modified that.......like when Olivia finished eating her chick fil a chicken nuggets..."Look, Mommy. I made a happy box!"

Me: "Sofia -- do you want to get your hair cut?"
Sofia: "No, Mommy. That will hurt me!"

Sofia: "Mommy, it's our turn to hide - you count to 100." and she runs away.

Then she comes back and goes "Mommy! We're going to hide behind the tree just like you!" and she runs away again - haha!

Me: "Olivia....did you know that Sofia is your twin sister? Do you know what that means?"
Olivia [shakes her head no]
Me: "It means you and Sofia were born on the same birthday."
Olivia: "But Mommy.......me and Sofia are different."

Sofia [pointing] "Daddy, what's that?"
Daddy: "Um. Uh. Um. You don't need to know about that right now."
(I should tell you that daddy was in the middle of getting dressed when Sofia had a potty emergency so he didn't make it to his pants before running with her down the hallway. Notice I said pants......not underwear.....pants!)

D:"Have you seen the (whatever brand of cold medicine he was looking for)? I thought we had some here."
Me: "We don't have any more of that, but there's another kind in the cabinet."
D:"Yeah. I'm going to take that one when I go nie-night."
Me: "Um. What?"

And! If our walls could talk, they would also tell you about all kinds of hugging going on around here.........

(I love the way Bella is looking at Sofia here!)

Although sometimes.......hugs aren't quite welcome!

Family fieldtrip

2012-02-03T21:26:00.003-05:00

Now before you go and get all excited about where we've been during my (unintentional) blog hiatus..........let me tell you that our fieldtrip was today........to the pediatrician's office. And when we weren't at the pediatrician's office, we were here............
Turns out there's a virus that brings cold symptoms....you know......fever, runny nose....an occasional vomit here and there. Oh. And I saved the best for last. Pink eye. Did you get that? Pink eye? Who knew. It all started last Sunday --- Olivia woke up with gunk in her eye. I found what is probably the only detriment to having such long eye lashes.......eye gunk. It wasn't until Sunday evening when Mom and I were giving the girls a bath that it hit me. D walked in and goes "Oh wow. Olivia's eye looks pink." [BAM]. Like a ton of bricks.

So I head out of town for the week and D calls the pediatrician on Monday to get some drops. By Wednesday we think we're in the clear.....pink eye has been contained to one kid. Success! Um. Not so much.

By Thursday, Livie's eye was no longer pink....but she was running a fever and vomiting every now and then. Sofia woke up with pink eye. And Bella was running a more-than-low-grade fever. Which is how today's fieldtrip came to be. It was funny.....we started out by making an appointment for Livie.....last night she was talking about how her tongue hurt and we finally figured out she was talking about her throat. (Note to Mommy......practice that body part.....) I looked in her mouth and she had white spots on her tonsils. Strep? So I called for an appointment and about 20 mins before we were leaving I realized just how warm Bella was. So we called and added her on to our appointment. Then -- I was getting ready to put Livie and Bella in the car and I looked at Sofia with her one eye all swollen and both eyes streaming tears. So we all get in the car and head to the pediatrician's office. Family fieldrip!

So yes......that's where we got the fantabulous news about this virus that has taken over my sweet baby girls. Oh. I forgot to mention. I think I have it too. Minus the pink eye, so far.......

Happy birthday, Daddy!

2012-01-21T22:18:00.002-05:00

There's not much better than hearing sweet little voices singing happy birthday to Daddy! We celebrated Daddy's birthday with a dinner date (for Mommy and Daddy)...and then home for presents and cake. When we got home, the girls were waiting for Daddy with Grandma and Papa to say "Surprise!" and to sing happy birthday. Oh. And to blow out candles.....over and over! Trick candles make every party just a little more fun!

Happy birthday, baby!

Parenting award

2012-01-12T12:45:00.002-05:00

Cute, right? Here's how this picture went down.......

Olivia: "Look Mommy! I'm making bubbles in my milk!"
Mommy: "Olivia.....it's not nice to play with your drink. Let's not do that anymore, please."
Olivia: "Okay Mommy."
Mommy: "Oh. Wait. Do it one more time so I can take a picture..."
[click, click]
Mommy: "Okay. Now we don't do that anymore, right?"

Parent of the year....right here!! Haha.

It just hit me this morning how independent Olivia and Sofia are truly becoming. I certainly don't wish the time away....but I must admit.....I kinda like it. They both were awake this morning before I left for work and they let me know they were hungry and wanted waffles. I was going to break my own rule (see Parent of the year section above) and let them eat breakfast upstairs since D had not gotten out of bed yet and I still needed to get ready for work -- but when I asked Olivia if she wanted to eat upstairs, she goes "No, Mommy. I have to sit at the table." Right you are, my dear. So we head downstairs and I make "waffles in triangles with stuff on it". That's toddler speak for waffles cut into bite-sized pieces with syrup. I set the girls up at their table and I head back upstairs.

When Sofia came back up, she's talking about her hands being sticky. D tells her to ask me to help her wash her hands and she goes "No, Daddy - I already washed them." I said "You already washed them?" and she goes "Yes, Mommy. I wash my hands with soap and then I use a towel to make them dry." Sure enough - her little hands were cold, smelling like soap and not a trace of syrup to be found. That's when it hit me that they're really doing things to help themselves. Again.....don't get me wrong -- a part of me wishes they would stay this age forever (well....minus the temper tantrums!) but the mommy-of-three-who-never-seems-to-have-enough-time-in-a-day part of me totally welcomes this kind of self-help.

Imagine my glee when I went downstairs and Olivia was coming out of the bathroom....having just washed and dried her own hands.....AND she was turning off the light and shutting the door (since our little Bella-monster loves to play with the tp........and in the toilet). Maybe I'm doing something right, huh?!

Look what I can do!

2012-01-09T21:44:00.006-05:00

It's so funny -- with the girls we were hanging on to each and every milestone.......and not that it's not important with Bella.....but I definitely understand the "youngest kid syndrome".....you know - the one where the older kid (or kids, in our case!) have the baby book filled with all the big events.....a gazillion pictures....and then the youngest one comes along and maybe there's a baby book....maybe not......and, at least in Bella's case, there's only half a gazillion pictures instead of the full gazillion - ha!

But! In an effort to get better about that -- how about this first........

We had no doubt that Bella would know what to do......... come on -- it's food! But it was cute and we were quite proud nonetheless! And she's so independent -- now that she's had one go with the fork, she doesn't want any help.

It's so interesting to see how much she picks up from O&S. She's much more verbal than the girls were at her age and she'll try just about everything they do. It was hilarious - the other day I got home from work and after saying hi to everyone I went upstairs to change my clothes. The girls were at the bottom of the stairs calling to me and I heard this other little voice...."Moooooommmmmmmmy!" Well. It wasn't little -- it was louder than all the others - ha! But it was so cute.....O&S would say "Mommy!" "Mommy!" and then just after them would come this loud "Moooooommmmmmy!"

In other, more pitiful news.....Bella has been sick the past few days and it's the sickest she's ever been. She gets croup every time she gets a cold and this time is no different. Yesterday she was so pitiful and just wanted to be held -- and even that wasn't good enough sometimes. She coughed and then cried -- we could only imagine all the coughing made her chest hurt. Her poor little eyes were all droopy and watery....oh. And she had a black eye, too. We're not quite sure how she did that one, but she did have quite the shiner.

And not to forget O&S -- they have both also been sick. We're going to be renting a pressure washer and will be spraying down our house.....the inside......with a Lysol / Clorox concoction. True story.

It's a bird..........it's a plane..........

2012-01-04T23:22:00.004-05:00

....it's SUPER PRINCESS!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T23:21:00.005-05:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from us!It's been a great holiday. I've been on vacation for the last 2 weeks and it's been awesome! We've had fun.....we've relaxed.....it's been great. I can't believe it's over....sniff, sniff!

We didn't go all out on the decorations, but we've really enjoyed what we did put out.....

We took everything down today - usually by New Year's day I'm ready for everything to come down and put the furniture back where it belongs, etc. And it totally just hit me.......we had wreaths on our outside windows and I just now realized that I completely forgot to take a picture of the house from the outside. And then, for only a split second, I totally wondered how long it would take me to put the wreaths back up so I could get a picture. Don't worry.....I'm not going to do it, but it did cross my mind - ha! We even had spotlights on the house this year to show the wreaths at night. I've always wanted to have them and finally decided to go for it this year. Ugh. I can't believe I forgot to take pictures!!

But! Back to Christmas! The girls were so much fun this year for Christmas. When we would ask the girls what Santa was bringing them, they would always say "presents!" and I would ask what kind of presents....and they would say "pink presents!" - haha. Santa doesn't usually wrap, but he just happened to come across a roll of pink paper so there were, indeed, pink presents.

Santa also brought a kitchen and a doll house.....or....a dog house, as the girls call it - ha! I think Olivia even said "Look, Sofia.......it's a house for Little!"

Sofia was hilarious -- I asked her what happened if Santa didn't have a kitchen to bring for them and she goes "Don't worry, Mommy. He can take his Christmas car and go buy us a kitchen at the shopping." Ohhhh. Just like that, huh?!?!!

We spent Christmas Eve day at Aunt Rah-Rah's house with Carter and Reese and Grandma and Papa which was a lot of fun. Then....we couldn't believe it, but we had time to run home for a quick nap before heading to spent the evening with D's family. We had lots of fun both places and when we got home, Olivia and Sofia weren't so tired.......so Santa was worried they were going to have a late night - ha. Luckily, Santa's workshop had been running for a few days before so by the time Christmas Eve arrived, everything was unpackaged, assembled, etc. so Santa had very little work to do.

On Christmas morning, the girls weren't sure what to think........But it didn't take long to figure everything out!
Olivia was funny both on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.....she wanted to unwrap all the presents.....she didn't care if they were for her or what was in them.....she just enjoyed the act of unwrapping - ha.

Even funnier......O&S tend to play with Bella's toys while Bella tends to play with theirs.

Speaking of Miss Bella......Santa brought her this cute little stroller so she can practice her walking......

And she's doing quite well! She's cruising along the furniture like a champ and it's so funny because we'll be sitting in the family room and she'll come walking through pushing her stroller!

New Year's Eve was low-key at home as Olivia has a pretty strong cold and lots of coughing, but low-key is not a bad thing! My mom always told me that what you're doing at the new year is indicative of how the new year is going to go......so she always tried to get all the laundry done - haha. I started trying to get all the laundry done......but then I thought "Who am I kidding.....we're a family of 5 with 3 kids three and under.......of course the year is going to be filled with laundry!" - haha.

So here I sit.........Christmas has passed....the new year is here.....and I have one more day off before vacation is over. I'm trying to hold off the "going back to work blues" - haha! But! It's been an awesome couple of weeks and we're looking forward to big things in 2012!

Look what we can do!

2011-12-18T11:39:00.002-05:00

O&S have known their letters for a long time - singing the alphabet, flash cards, puzzles....and most recently tracing letters on this handy dandy iPad app. We've tried writing a few times with big rolls of paper and crayons, but they've had less interest in that. And I know their teacher works with all the kids at pre-school.

Not to mention the fact that Sofia hasn't decided which hand she wants to write with........she still colors and draws with both!

So this morning I thought we'd give writing another try while Sofia was drawing on her magnetic board......."Can you write an S?" "How about an O?"..and so on.......until:

She was so proud of herself.....and I was even prouder!!

Of course.......you remember how Olivia can't be outdone, don't you? And this morning was no exception. We were making a big deal over Sofia and Olivia goes "Mommy......let me try, too. I want to draw THREE letters!" So we gave it a go..........and she did it! SIX letters, to be exact!!

And today was already a great day because it's Grandma's birthday! We like to learn new things on Grandma's birthday! Happy birthday Mom / Grandma! We love you!

The air up here.......

2011-12-06T17:47:00.001-05:00

Here's my view as I'm typing.............

We can be connected from anywhere........even the air! It's been a busy couple of months for us......and this picture is why. Lots of travel going on. We're all looking forward to the Christmas holiday for the fun times but also for some time to slow down. I hope! Do you ever slow down when you have a three-year old.......or two???!!!

I hopped down to South FL for a quick overnight trip.....and I have to tell you......Christmas trees and 80 degrees......I'm not feeling it! Separately....definitely, but they just don't mix!!

The girls are doing great although I believe we're getting ready to circulate a cold around the house - ugh! Yesterday one of the girls told D "I think I'm sick......I can't stop coughing!" But! I'm hoping it will make its way through the house and be gone before Christmas.....we shall see!

And on that note......I must return my tray table and seat back to their full upright position!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas......

2011-11-25T23:46:00.005-05:00

.......a pink Christmas at that!
Because if I haven't told you yet....pink is Sofia's favorite color. So when she looked at me with those big brown eyes and said "Mommy. I think we need a pink Christmas tree in our room.".....of course I had to find one. Yeah. You totally would have too! Have you seen those big brown eyes?

So we started the Christmas decorating today with the pink tree going up in their bedroom. The pink Christmas tree with the "bells". The girls absolutely loved it - we've been talking about the Christmas tree all day and they've been so excited.

And here they are quite proud of their work.

Now Santa Claus just needs to find "a biiiiiiiiiiig pink present." Um. Sofia, honey, Santa's going to need to know what goes inside the big pink present!

(Oh. And how can you have a pink Christmas tree in your bedroom without an S and an O Christmas ornament?!!!?!!?!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T20:58:00.002-05:00

From our family to yours.......
It's been a great day! Lots of great food and family. Bella....what do you think?

I think she agrees.....although I don't know if she was more excited about the turkey.....or the turkey dress...

We have so much for which we are thankful. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rub a dub dub

2011-11-20T23:17:00.004-05:00

three kids in a tub............
This was Bella's first time in the bathtub with the big girls from a couple of weeks ago. It'll be her last time for a while.......she's still too small to be in the tub with O&S....she got so carried away with playing that she forgot she shouldn't put her face in the water. Scary for Mommy....funny for the girls. All of them.

But! It makes for a cute picture, no?!!!

Only me......

2011-11-09T21:01:00.002-05:00

I know, I know.......bad, bad blogger. It's a crazy time around our house these days and the winds of change are a blowing..................add in the fact I can no longer upload pictures from my home computer and *poof*.....more than a week passes.

And today.....sitting in my hotel room without the pictures I want to post from Bella's birthday party. Poor, poor Bella. It's the youngest child syndrome.......

So. This time I have a funny story about me.

I'm working out of town on a new client so I'm learning my way around.....and the other day, I turned on the small side street that would take me to the parking garage. Only to find that, blocking my way to the parking garage, is a fire truck, an ambulance and a police car or three. My first thought was "I hope everyone is okay." My second thought was "How on earth could someone be driving so fast on this little street to cause an accident that required that much help." I never saw the ambulance being used so I assume everyone was okay.

That still didn't help me get to the parking garage. So I turn around.....and I have no clue where to go to get around. Traffic is crazy and there's no way I'm making the turn to go out the way I came in. So I turn the other direction...following a couple of cars in front of me. "Oh good," I think to myself "This isn't nearly as busy as the other way."

Oh it was busy, alright. It was busy because all of a sudden I realized I was at a school. In the car line. Where people wait to drop their kids off. I'm not even kidding. I'm sitting in traffic snaking through a parking lot --- I can't get out because there are cars parked on either side --- and I'm heading straight towards the front door where kids are being dropped off. I got closer to the front and I'm looking all over the place to find another way to go. I finally see a place I can turn to the right. So I did. And ended up in the bus lane.

A nice lady with a walkie-talkie finally helped me by moving some cones and showing me the way out. Of course the way out was back in the car line for the exit, but at least it was the part of the car line after people let their kids off. So I didn't stand out so much. Seriously.....I was dying.

Only me.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween from my three.....butterflies.....fairies.....princesses.....butterfly-princesses.....depends on who you asked and when!
We had a big day for Halloween which ultimately translates into "we have more candy than one should ever eat in a lifetime" but it sure was fun!

The girls started off the day with a pumpkin party at pre-school. They got to wear their costumes and I couldn't believe it when D told me they didn't want to take their butterfly wings with them. You have to understand......Sofia has been talking about her biiiiiiiiiiig pink butterfly wings for weeks. But it ended up being okay because D and I were trying to figure out how they would wear their wings and their backpacks. I helped get them dressed (i.e. D insisted that I not leave for work until they had their costumes on) -- Sofia was first and as I was putting on her shirt she goes "Mommy.....don't forget my socks-pants!" I mean it makes perfect sense, right? They cover your legs like pants and your feet like socks. Socks-pants. Then it was Livie's turn.....and she wasn't having any of it. She didn't want the tights. She didn't like the pink shirt. The dress was too big. None of it. So I dressed her in a pair of jeans and a shirt -- pick your battles, right? As I was walking downstairs to head to work I hear "Moooooommy....I'm ready to put on my costume now!" Mmmmhmmm.

So the pumpkin party was followed by trick-or-treating at my office. D brought the girls and they were thrilled to walk around looking for candy. We practiced our manners...."Thank you!". We practiced our holiday spirit...."Happy Halloween!". And we practiced counting...."You may pick out one piece."

Aaaaand then it was home for the final event of the evening! We had friends and family over for a quick meal and then we hit the neighborhood for some trick-or-treating. We took the girls last year......Bella was a week old so I made it to a few of our neighbors' houses, and Olivia was done pretty quickly, but this year D and I set out with the rest of the gang and the girls made it up our street (which includes a giant hill as the girls call it) and all the way to the front of the neighborhood. There may have been a little carrying involved as we made our way back home, but they walked their little hineys off. Do butterflies even have hineys? Hmmm. And they were so cute! And all that practicing paid off......they would get up the stairs and say "Trick-or-treat!"......and once the candy was in the pumpkin it would be "Thank you! Happy Halloween!" Oh....and it was usually in unison. Haha!

Where was Bella, you ask? Well - she stayed behind with Grandma and Nana (my grandmother) and helped give out candy. 'Cause she and Grandma are cool like that............
So! An exhausting day to stay the least, but so much fun!

Oh. And here's Grandma with all five of her grandbabies.............

And let's not forget the two cutest things with wings ever!

Crazy they're only five months apart, right?!?!!!

Happy 1st birthday, my sweet Bella!

2011-10-21T22:38:00.000-04:00

Dear Bella........
I can't believe it's here already. A whole year since the very first time we saw your sweet face. I keep looking at the clock and thinking "This time last year.....we were heading to the hospital" or "This time last year, we were watching a Grey's Anatomy rerun waiting to find out if it was your birthday or if we were heading home". And even a little reminiscing about the day we realized you were growing in Mommy's tummy. Boy that was quite a day!!

What a great year we've had with you and so many changes you've already had! I think you picked up some tall genes from Mommy's side of the family since you're only about 6 inches shorter than your sisters. 6" shorter and only a few pounds lighter -- your sisters better watch out! Since you've been mobile, we joke about how you're like a little bull in a china shop. You do everything with purpose and you just take what you want. You're going to give your sisters a run for their money once you're up and walking. You love being around them, though. Some days you follow them from room to room -- and other days, you're perfectly content to play by yourself. Content is one of the best words to describe you. For the most part, you just sit back and go with the flow and we are truly thankful for that. But you're funny, too! You are usually all smiles and laughs and squeals.

I think we've pretty much given up calling you Isabella....I'm sure you'll go through life being Bella. But hey....that's way better than going by Chunky Monkey......or Turkey......Bellie.....Bells. We'll keep all those nicknames in the house, okay?!!!

You stopped taking bottles several weeks ago....and I must say. I really miss that nighttime bottle where we rocked in your room before you went to bed. We still rock, though. Even if only for a few minutes. I love how, as I start to sit down in the rocker, your thumb goes straight to your mouth and your head straight to my shoulder. I think you would still go to bed if I just put you straight in your crib......but if you don't mind, I'm going to hang on to that as long as you'll let me, okay? You're quite the Mommy's girl....and I don't mind that either! It makes me smile when, if I'm holding you and someone tries to take you from me, you turn your head and put it on my shoulder. Or you grip my arm or my shirt because you don't want me to let go of you. I'll take that one a little longer, too.

Did I already tell you what a happy baby you are? You start the day off with a smile....it's one of my favorite ways to start the day -- walking into your room and how you get a huge grin on your face when you see me. And now that you're able to stand up, I see your grin peeking over the crib railing.

Like I said......it's been a great year. And although my heart aches just the tiniest bit at the fact that my baby is growing up, I can't wait to see what's in store this next year! Happy first birthday, my sweet baby girl.

Love, Mommy

Bella v. waffles

2011-10-18T09:30:00.004-04:00

My $$'s on Bella! She has taken to "adult" food like nobody's business. We've been away from baby food for quite a while, but now we're even getting away from pureed foods......this girl wants some texture! It's the funniest thing. She usually doesn't want to be spoon fed and she'll pitch a fit until she can do it herself. Little Miss Independent, for sure!

Of course this independence thing causes us a struggle sometimes at meal times because she still only has two.....well 2 1/2...... teeth. We were having lunch the other day and I was tearing off little pieces (microscopic pieces, even by Papa's standards......because, Dad, even though I give you a hard time about your insane fear of choking, I have that fear, too! Perhaps not to the same degree.....but still!) of a grilled cheese sandwich. I wasn't going fast enough....and the pieces probably weren't large enough.....so Bella reached over, took the sandwich out of my hand, and ate the whole thing. Ha!

Another new adventure.....I swear I don't remember it being this difficult to pick out meals when O&S made the move to table food but, like everyhing else, how quickly we forget, right?!?!

He has returned!!!!!!

2011-10-12T00:14:00.005-04:00

LITTLE has returned! And we have one happy little girl...........
For the last several days we've had a search crew looking for Little and we were having no luck, then tonight I get an email from D "HE HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!". Seriously....I could have cried. Although....over the last few days we've had some pretty funny conversations.

On Saturday night, D had gone to the grocery store and I was home after everyone else was in bed. It's hilarious because when Sofia gets out of bed after she's been tucked in, she walks quietly downstairs and walks through the foyer into the kitchen with a blanket over her head. She looks like a little ghost. So I'm walking through the kitchen and I catch movement out of the corner of my eye and, at the same time, see a little ghost floating into the kitchen. Scared the $%^* out of me!! "Mommy I'm missing something. I'm missing my Little. I think he went to the lost city. We have to get a car and drive to the lost city to get Little."

Hmm. The lost city, huh?

Trust me when I tell you that we've turned our house upside-down. Seriously. Everywhere you can think of, we've looked. We've even looked in places you wouldn't think of, too. Little was nowhere to be found. And bless her heart....Sofia tried her best to replace Little. For about a day there was a little yellow bunny, but let's face it....as cute as the bunny was......he was no Little. Little was truly nowhere to be found.

Until tonight.

D went to the store and at some point, he was looking in the car and guess who appeared! Little had been driving around with us this whole time!! The funniest thing, though. When D got home from the store, he pulled Little out and said "Sofia....look who I found!" and Sofia goes......."Daddy! You found Little at Wal Mart!!!"

iKids

2011-10-07T03:03:00.004-04:00

I'm constantly amazed at how kids are little sponges. Especially when it comes to technology.

Exhibits I, II shown here - my iKids................(Olivia)

(Olivia-L, Sofia-R)

Seriously. The girls love our iPads. And they know exactly how to use them. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed it had gotten pretty quiet so of course I go looking for the girls. I hear Dora from their room........and I find the two of them.

Laying together in Sofia's bed.

Under the blanket.

Playing with my iPad.

They can turn it on and find the apps we've loaded just for them.

Seriously. They can probably work it better than I can.

Very first field trip

2011-10-05T21:39:00.006-04:00

Ohmygoodness! I've had horrible trouble accessing my blog from our home computer - as you can guess by lack of posting and the fact that I've yet to be able to add Bella's 11 month picture to my previous post. I finally figured out (I think) it has to do with the upgrade to Explorer that was done by someone-who-shall-remain-nameless-but-is-not-me. Ahem. Moving on.......

So last week we took a family trip to the beach. The girls (and the parents) had been looking forward to that trip for quite a while and we had a blast. I have some cute pics....and of course it was Bella's first trip to the beach. Those are coming soon, but today we had our very first field trip with the girls' MMO program!!!!!!

We made a trip to a local pumpkin patch / apple orchard and it was so much fun! Miss Bella hasn't been feeling well since Sunday so we were mapping out plan B last night (whereby Daddy would stay home with Bella and Mommy would take O&S on the field trip). Luckily, Bella was in good spirits this morning and was noticeably better so we decided to all go.

We started the trip off with a hay ride. Sofia was all about it. Olivia....not so much! After that, we headed to the pumpkin patch........................................................
The girls spent a lot of time picking out just the right pumpkin. Here's Olivia taking in her choices.......

And Sofia, who really wanted the smallest pumpkin out there because the others were just too heavy!

These girls crack me up!

Oh. Who knew there was popcorn at the pumpkin / apple farm, but there sure was. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.....there was also a corn maze.......hmm. It's funny - all of a sudden the girls started asking for popcorn. We've never given them popcorn but a few nights ago, Olivia goes "Daddy - I want popcorn!" I said "You've never eaten popcorn - how do you know you like it?" to which she replied "I have popcorn at school!". Oh. Well. Maybe they have.....maybe they haven't.....sometimes we're not sure if we're hearing an actual version of a story or not - ha!

But! The girls do, indeed, like popcorn.

After picking out the perfect pumpkin, playing in the play area, looking at the various farm animals, watching the train go around and around in the cute little store they had....and, of course, POPCORN!, we sat down for a picnic lunch. The weather was fantastic....a little cool in the morning but it warmed up nicely. It was a great day!

Before we left, we made one more trip to the store to watch the trains and I slipped out to get some pictures of Bella. A very nice gentleman must have felt sorry for me as I stood there calling Bella's name over and over and making funny noises and faces to get her to look at me and he walked up behind me jingling his keys which let me get some of the cutest pictures ever!

A great day for sure! We had a little bit of a rough start, though. It would seem that Little has gone missing. Sofia tells you he's hiding...and Livie even suggested he was hiding in the pumpkin patch, but we can't find that dog anywhere. He's not named Little for nothing! I'm a little scared, though......this afternoon, Sofia told me she dropped Little in the potty. If that is, indeed, true....we are so in trouble.

11 months!!!

2011-09-21T23:59:00.002-04:00

{Pictures coming tomorrow.............}

11 months down, one to go until the big first birthday. I better get planning.....there's outfits to find for the first birthday pictures (scheduled, of course, for the exact day she turns one. Would I do it any other way??)......cakes to pick out...... - Yes. That was cakes. Plural. You'll see. ahem.

We're going to have a small family gathering for our last ever first birthday party, but still. Go big or go home, right? Like I tell D.....it's the only first birthday we'll have. Oh. Wait. That's what I used when the big girls turned one. Aaaaaanywho.

Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, right? There's four whole weeks until then so I'd like to keep all that growing up business quiet for now thankyouverymuch. Eleven months. And I must say that Miss Bella-Bella isn't all about keeping the growing business quiet. Her latest thing........she refuses baby food! As in the jars you buy straight from the store with just the right consistency for little girls with only two teeth. I can't say I blame her, though......one taste of "real" food and baby food from the jars is quite bland. It's funny....it wasn't that long ago that we were moving the girls to table food but I truly don't remember it feeling that challenging to find things they could (and would) eat. D and I seem to have tons of discussions about food for Bella. Which is absolutely hilarious because girl can eat!!! We've already hit a few restaurants out where we've ordered Bella her own kids' plate. And she usually eats better than her sisters.

We're also pretty much done with formula, too. I can't say I'm sorry to see that one go...it's like getting a raise! Next thing we have to do is get her out of diapers and it'll feel like we won the lottery!! Ha!

Other big events in her journey to 11 months.......pulling up. On everything! I was sitting next to her last weekend with my attention turned towards one of her sisters, and when I looked back at Bella she had pulled herself up to standing! It's amazing how quickly she went from being a stationary kid to mobility and pulling up. Seriously. It was a matter of a couple of weeks it seems.

And oh how she loves her big sisters! She follows them everywhere they go. If they move to another room to play, Bella goes. If I can get them to play in the family room, Bella stays there, too. It's so cute. I still say she's going to be a bit of a bully with Olivia & Sofia but hey --- it's already 2 against one, right?!?!!

Her little temper is starting to come out, too. Well. There's nothing little about it. For as laid back as Bella is, when something isn't going her way......man oh man! D said Bella was crawling around the kitchen island opening the cabinets and when one of the doors wouldn't open because she was pulling on the wrong side -- it was all over! She pitched a fit! I know what you're thinking. "How can the sweetest baby in the world possibly act like that??" And to that I say "I know! I can hardly believe it myself!!"

11 months down.....one more to go and it will have been a whole year since we were blessed with the best surprise we've ever received. Sigh..........................................................

Mommy we love bubbles!

2011-09-19T23:03:00.002-04:00

Bubbles are, by far, one of our most favorite outdoor activities. Usually it involves me blowing them and the girls chasing them down and popping them. "Mommy....you have to make the biggest bubbles!" Have you tried blowing bubbles over and over and over??!! Makes me dizzy! So I figured it was time the girls started blowing their own bubbles. So we've been practicing....and practicing.....and practicing!

I think Livie got more in her mouth than she did in the bubbles....but that's okay! I kept trying to explain to her how to blow air out of her mouth and she kept going "Ffffffffffffffffffffff" Quite cute, and often it worked. See.........

And Miss Sofia got the hang of it pretty quickly as well.......

Love love love the cheeks puffing out!

Princess Bella

2011-09-16T16:12:00.005-04:00

She is, indeed, a princess. See......

She has a crown and everything. And this little princess is growing up right before our eyes. D sent me an email today and told me when he went in to get Bella up from her nap, she was standing up in her crib. Standing up!!!!! This is the kid that I have yet to see sit up on her own from when she's laying on the floor. She can do it.....because one minute she'll be crawling around the floor and then when I turn around again she's sitting there. Apparently she's really good in stealth mode.

{sigh} Another milestone for our little princess. She'll be walking before we know it......and then the big girls really better look out!!!!! Even if the crown is still a little too big.......ahem.......

Driving Miss Daisy(ies)

2011-09-13T00:07:00.004-04:00

We've given the Jeep a try a few times.......and they finally got the hang of steering. So now instead of going straight.....we go in circles. But that's okay because at least I'm not chasing them down the driveway. Or backing them out of a flower bed they couldn't avoid. I think it's been all that practicing we've had from having the big wheels inside the house...and riding around and around and around the island in the kitchen.

It's funny - typically Olivia is the follower, but when it comes to the Jeep, she's usually in the driver's seat and Sofia is content to ride. Although. I realized quite a bit later.....every time Olivia is behind the wheel, it's Sofia who is pushing the pedal to make them go.

I love how Olivia looks like she's flipping her hair in this one......

Sofia did get a turn at the wheel every now and then. "Mommy. Bella wants to ride with me!"

See how Bella's little right arm is stretched out? That's because on the end of that cute little arm(yeah. I'm so laughing at "little" and "Bella" in the same sentence, too!) is a big ole' adult making sure she doesn't fall out. That's the only way we roll. Oh stop it!

The funniest part was when the big girls would circle by me and go "Look, Mommy! We're cutting the grass!!"

It's been a while.....

2011-09-12T09:28:00.002-04:00

Surprise! It's a post that has nothing to do with my kids. Crazy, I know, but I'm just mad enough that I need to vent. Seriously.

If you've known me for a while, then you probably remember when I had the "I don't take customer service crap" attitude. Maybe it's because I was "younger" (ha. I'm not old now!). Maybe it's because I didn't have better ways to spend my energy. Whatever the reason (helloooooo three kids 3 and under!), I tend to let things roll off my back more now than ever before. Until today.

I was in a department store. Wait. I usually don't use names (people or places. well other than the girls.) to keep my tiny little corner of the internet just a little less searchable but. Sears.

I was in SEARS. So I was in Sears the other day attempting to purchase a cargo carrier that goes on the roof of the car. One of the collapsable ones. After waiting my turn, and then waiting no less than 10 minutes while the sales guy rummaged around "in the back", he offered me the smaller version of the one I wanted because even though their system inventory showed 3 in stock, they were all opened and missing parts. So our conversation goes something like this:

Me: "So you don't know when you're going to get any more in?"
Sears Guy: "Nah."
Me: "Can you have one sent over from another store?"
SG: "Ain't no telling when it'll get here."
Me: "Soooo.....you can't have one sent here?"
SG: (typing on his computer) "I'm showing 3 in stock at [the store closer to an hour away from my house]. You can go get one there."
Me: "How do I know they really have one there?"
SG: (pointing to his screen) "It says right here they have 3."
Me: "Well. Your computer says you have 3 here, but clearly you don't."
SG: Blank stare.
Me: Starting to walk away.
SG: "Uh. Do you want me to call [the store closer to an hour away from my house]?"
Me: Raised eyebrow stare. (and in my mind "I'd hate to make you put forth all that effort"). See. Still some rolling off the back. The younger me would have said that out loud.

After searching the internet, it appears as though Sears is the only place we can purchase this particular model of carrier. Sure there are other ones in the same family. But it's this one we've seen in person. So D calls customer service to try and get them to send one to the store that we can pick up. Fail.

So tonight I tried to call a different number. I reach a customer service representative who is extremely nice and sympathetic. Who is going to make another call to help me! So I wait. And then she comes back and tells me the best she can do is have it shipped to my house, but I will have to pay shipping. Hey. At least she was nice, right? So that's how it goes. You can't stock an item in its entirety. You can't override the system to replace the unsellable inventory. But you can let me drive out of the way to another store. Or pay extra to ship it. Customer service at its finest, no?!?

Whatever. I promptly found another model that's similar and looks like it will do the trick. And I'll gladly pay shipping.

So I used the last bit of my youthful energy to send an email to Sears customer service. Clearly I don't expect any kind of response given my experience so far, but I needed to get the last word in. I gave a quick summary of my experience and ended with this........

I'm truly disappointed at the quality of service from this store and sincerely hope my experience is not a common one. Perhaps a larger sale would qualify for extra effort to complete the transaction. If that's the case, I'm glad the economy has turned around so much that representatives do not need to be bothered with a mere $200 purchase.

I know. Rude. A bigger person would have let it roll off their back and move on to another store. But today I'm the littler person. And they deserve it.

What's that, you say??

2011-09-08T22:19:00.003-04:00

My sisters are going to be away? A few hours....three days a week?

Really??????
You mean the toys are all mine?????????

First day

2011-09-07T09:53:00.003-04:00

It's the first day of pre-school. It's all about the 3's. 3 years old. 3K. 3 days a week! Here's the best picture D could get.....our camera has something wrong with the flash....so we had to settle for the cell phone. Add in two 3-year olds who don't like posing for the camera and [poof] blurry first day picture!
That's okay, though. They're still cute! Sofia has her (only) favorite shirt on "Because, Daddy, pink is my favorite color!" Goodness knows what we're going to do when she outgrows that shirt! Find another one, I'm hoping!!

I'm working out of town so Daddy had to lead the charge in picking out the first day outfits. It's a little cool so long pants were in order.....and I was afraid they weren't going to fit, but it looks like they're still fine. Whew! You can imagine the horror, though, as I listened to D tell me they didn't want their tennis shoes or any other shoes. They wanted their Cwocks! That, so much, wasn't the horror....it was when he told me they were wearing said Cwocks with socks. It's like a bad Dr. Seuss story!! Hahaha. But D's right.......it was get them out the door kicking and screaming or give in to the Cwocks with socks and have happy kids walk happily out the door!

Aaaaaand happily out the door is about as far as the happy went. D said once they realized they were being left at school, they cried. I know it was hard for him to walk down the hall hearing the girls cry for him. But I'm proud of him.....I just called to check in and he was home. With Bella. And he didn't go back and get the girls and take them home with him.

So it begins. A new "school" year with a new teacher and new friends. I know D is thankful for the few hours of down time during those days. Bella is still home, but going from 3 to 1 for a few hours is definitely down time. Although Bella has now figured out that interesting things exist other places than at her level on the floor so she's starting to pull up on everything. It's quite cute, but we're going to have to get creative to figure out how to limit her to certain areas in the house. Amazing how quickly we've forgotten what we used to do with the girls once they were mobile!

Clean up on aisle 7!

2011-09-01T15:47:00.004-04:00

Ohmigoodness. I just can't seem to get back to blogging. And I have tons of things to say! Work has.......I guess it's finally slowed down.....except that it's slowed down while I'm in another state - haha. But it's all good.

So. It finally happened. What finally happened, you may be asking? Well I'll tell you. It's been a long time since we've talked here about potty training.......and that's a good thing. It's all good on the potty training front. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be....but I think it's because everyone involved was ready. I was ready to take it on. And.....D would argue.....I also went back to work after the first week of PTBC where I was on vacation. Ha! But the girls have been doing well. They usually tell us when they have to go. We're still doing the pull-ups at night (although we have these great zip-up plastic covers for their mattresses) and we still use them at nap time because they've developed this habit of getting out of their beds and going to our room and sleeping in ours for nap time......and I refuse to encase our mattress in plastic! But they usually wake up dry from both. Public places have been great as well. Except for the fact that we visit every.single.restroom in every.single.location we visit. But hey....that beats the alternative, right?!!

An then we get to this past Saturday.

We're in Target and the girls are happily walking along (Oh! Did I tell you that we're working on getting rid of the stroller for the big girls?! I know.) and we're letting them help us pick items off the shelves. As I'm squatting down to look at something on a lower shelf, I realize Sofia is standing there and not picking out the item I was pointing to. And then I realize she's staring down at her feet. And the big puddle that's forming at her feet. And the conversation goes something like this:

Me: "Sofia! What are you doing? STOP!"

Sofia: more staring. the puddle keeps growing.

Me: "Sofia! You need to tell me when you have to go to the potty!"

Sofia: who has finally finished "Don't worry, Mommy. We can buy some new panties here. Don't worry!" {insert big sweet smile}

Um. Yeah. That's all - we can just buy new panties! Problem solved! Except that it's Mommy who has to explain to the Target employee what just happened......and Mommy and Daddy who have to smile at all the other customers walking by. You know. Because it's not enough attention to have twins...and a baby!

Luckily. Um. Did I just say that? Luckily?? Sofia happened to be wearing a dress with leggings underneath so I rush her out to the car where I had extra panties (that we didn't have to buy!) and tons of wipes. I truly wasn't that upset....I was calmy wiping her legs down and she goes:

"Thanks, Mommy. Thank you for cleaning off my legs. I sorry I pee-pee'd in my panties. I sorry, Mommy."

How do you stay upset at that????!!!! So I reassure her that Mommy's not angry - it was an accident - and we talk about how we're supposed to let Mommy or Daddy know before we have to go potty so we can make it to the bathroom.

So. Hopefully we've gotten the public accident thing out of the way and we can get back to visiting every.single.restroom in ever.single.location we visit, right??!!!

That was Saturday. Then on Sunday, I had to leave to go out of town. I was saying goodbye to the girls and told them Mommy had to go to work in Alabama......

Me: "Okay, girls. Mommy has to leave to go to work and I won't be home for 3 night-nights. I have to go to Alabama. Do you know where that is?"

Olivia: "I don't know, Mommy. Where did you put it?"

Now on the list.....searching for a wooden puzzle of the states!

Happy 10 months, Bella!

2011-08-21T21:49:00.008-04:00

Another month has passed by and it's been another fast one. It's also been a crazy busy one, that's for sure. So! How about some bullets to see what Miss Bella-Bella has been up to, shall we?

After the past month, Bella is.......

officially completely mobile. Although it's not the on-the-hands-and-knees crawling, she's army-crawling......or slithering, as I like to call it, anywhere she wants to go.
losing some of those baby rolls. sniff, sniff. All that slithering around the house burns some calories.
able to wear hair bows now......and it's so cute. When she leaves them in her hair.
taking to a sippy cup like a champ. See........(um. I won't tell you that, after trying water...water with a little juice....formula....anything, to get her to drink from a sippy cup, I put real milk in it (well....1% is about as real as it gets around here!) and poof.....she drinks from a sippy cup!)

is eating like a champ. We've been introducing table food and, of course, Bella eats everything. I think she had to practice her "pincer fingers" for like two seconds before she was picking up the tiny little morsels of food we put on her tray. Here she is chowing down on peas and carrots.....
able to go from sitting to crawling - the part that truly makes her completely mobile because we can now no longer sit her down somewhere and expect that she'll stay! And although it makes things just a little more hectic -- I love watching and hearing her make her way around the house.
wearing 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diapers.
putting e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g in her mouth. Seriously. Everything.
quite vocal. She hums alot and jabbers and giggles. Love!
still the happiest kid ever.

Oh. Confession. Bella woke up early this morning.....so I changed her and dressed her to get her 10-month pictures done early. I got a few good ones....and later when I sat down and loaded them from the camera....I realized I had dressed her in the exact same outfit as last month's pictures. Of course I changed her and started all over!

I'll leave you with a few out-takes from our second photoshoot of the day......

I love the looks she gives me.

A nice chat with Sofia

2011-08-11T22:30:00.004-04:00

So. It's been a while, hasn't it? Work has been crazy busy and we have another couple of weeks....but I'll try to pop in when I can and soon enough we'll be back to our regularly scheduled program. In the meantime, I wanted to give you a peek at what Sofia and I talk about in the morning. And to show you that the "Why?" stage has begun.

Just this morning, Sofia was sitting in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready for work....

Sofia: "Mommy...what you doing?"

Mommy: "I'm putting on my make-up."

S: "Why you putting on make-up?"

M: "So I won't look so tired."

S: "But why you look so tired?"

M: "Because I've been working really late this week."

S: "Mommy.....why you been working really late this week?"

M: "Because we're really busy at work."

S: "But. Why you really busy at work?"

M: "Because, sweetie, [insert name of client here] has to file their 10K with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of August and we have a lot of work to get done before then."

......crickets and big brown eyes looking at me.....

S: "Oooooh."

Spending the night with Grandma

2011-07-31T23:04:00.004-04:00

Olivia and Sofia had their first sleepover at Grandma's house last night! Mom had been talking about the girls staying over for a while so we decided this weekend was the one. We've been away from the girls before, but they've always stayed at our house.

Grandma came Saturday afternoon and we weren't sure how it would go......especially Olivia. She can be touchy, you know - haha! When Grandma was leaving, Olivia all of a sudden was very concerned about Bella. "Bella has to go with us." "Bella don't wanna stay here by herself." "Bella has to go in the car, too." And when it was time for Olivia to get in Grandma's car, the tears came...................until they got to the top of our street and then she was fine - haha.

So D and Bella and I went out for dinner and then a little mosey-ing around town....and we ended the evening at this place that makes funnel cakes. Yum! And I must admit....it was a little......odd.....to be out with Bella and without the big girls. I mean. We did get to eat a hot meal and I only went to the bathroom once (and that was because Bella got those little puff things stuck in the back of her mouth and may have thrown up at the table. But. It went right on the plastic mat which was easily washable. Could that kid be any more easy going??!!). So it truly was nice.......but a little weird.

However. We clearly missed them way more than they missed us. I mean....when Grandma has roller skates.....who can compete with that???!!!!!! I have no clue where the girls picked it up, but lately they've been talking about roller skates. "Mommy! Did you bring me roller skates from your work?" If we said we had a surprise for them....."Is it roller skates?" So Grandma did, indeed, have roller skates waiting for them at her house! And they were so cute when Grandma brought them home this afternoon......walking on their roller skates. And Sofia was crying. Because she had to come home.

So! The first sleepover was a success! Grandma.....just so you know.....we're now the proud owner of kitty cat helmets to go with the roller skates. Because Olivia insists on it!

Catch up

2011-07-29T21:21:00.006-04:00

or.....ketchup. Did I tell you I sat at the table one evening at dinner and watched Sofia eat apples dipped in ketchup? True story.

It's been a whole week since my last post.....it's time for me to get really busy at work for a few weeks but I'm going to try to keep up. So! Let's ketchup.........you know I love bullets.

It's been so hot....and we've been having trouble with ants trying to cool down in our house. D had found a trail of them going up our stairs and cleaned them up. A while later we were getting ready to go out and as I came down the stairs I saw Sofia squatting down in front of the stairs. "Look, Mommy! These little ants are so cute!"

Papa has found a new career. As a manicurist. See..........

What Papa doesn't know is since he "painted" their fingernails, the girls have been trying to re-create his fantastic work of art. D told me that today....the girls drew all over themselves. They drew circles around their eyes.....lines down their face....on their hands. Now. D doesn't quite have the parenting skills I have because he didn't even think about grabbing the camera for pictures before taking the girls to wash their faces. I mean really. Sheesh...........

When we ride in the car, the girls always remind us "Red means stop! Green means go!" So the other night my mom was helping me with bath time and she was going to dry Sofia's hair. Sofia goes "Grandma! Red means stop! and green means go!.....and purple means NO!"

One of Olivia's favorite sayings is "Check this out!"

I knew it would come back to bite us......every morning the girls get out of bed and tell us "The sky is blue again." And of course at night......when it's not quite dark but we're trying to put them to bed....."But. The sun is still awake!"

Sofia usually gets out of bed after we've put them down. She sneaks downstairs and will stand in the foyer hall right at the entrance of the kitchen and try to peak around the corner. I usually hear her on the stairs.

Olivia.......oh my Livie Bug. I'm amazed at how quickly the tears still come. She's definitely upholding her diva reputation.

We went to Carter's 5th birthday at a local waterpark. The same one we took the girls to visit before. We ate cake. We ate pizza. We swam. D was going to leave with my dad to take Bella home so we were helping them get everything together. Which required Olivia to get out of the pool. Which started what became the worst melt-down we've ever had. She was screaming at the top of her lungs. She wouldn't stop crying because she wanted to get back in the pool. I tried to reason with her but she wasn't having it. I decided she would go home with D and Bella and Sofia and I would stay.....but when we tried to get them in the car, Bella didn't fit in the infant seat. I might have dropped a swear word or two. Not one of my finer moments as a parent. We all left. Olivia screamed half way home. It was a 30 minute drive.

We got home and insisted the girls spend time resting in their room. They came downstairs after about an hour and Olivia walks over and leans in to me......."Mommy! I happy. I not crying anymore." So we talked about how her behavior caused us to leave and it was unacceptable behavior. Olivia goes "But. Grandma hurt me." Um. Whaaaat?. Little white lies already??? So we had another discussion about nice behavior and then I hear "I sorry, Mommy." in the sweetest little voice.

I'm tired. All week long, no matter what time I go to bed.....I've been waking up at 4:30 or 5am.

Bella is army crawling. Or slithering. That kid can move it-move it!!

Until next time..........

9 months!

2011-07-21T22:13:00.003-04:00

Our sweet baby girl is 9 months old today..........
9 months! It's the end of the third quarter (hello....any accountants out there?!) . Only 3 more months left until the big 1. Sigh......

It's been a great month for Miss Bella. She's been practicing with a sippy cup and working on her hand-eye coordination by picking up and eating those little puff-things. And although rolling is still her primary mode of transportation, we're thinking she's almost figured out how to army-crawl. She's so good at rolling, though, that we have to say she's mobile. Her favorite place to go is the play room where she can reach all the toys in the bottom bins of the toy shelf. D said the other day we can no longer blame a mess of toys on the big girls - haha!

Oh! And Bella has 2 teeth. See.................................

I'm really hoping she's not going to be a biter, but I'm a little nervous about that one. She's already trying to put those little chompers to use. And I'm not talking about food, either!

We had her 9-month check-up today. "She's perfect" is music to my ears!! My guess on her weight was a little off...she was "only" 21lb 5oz. And 29 3/4" tall. At the top of the growth curve for both....she's definitely going to be taller than her sisters. The doctor suggested we start trying soft table foods so Bella can start getting used to different textures. Man oh man. Big people food.

Isabella's still a fantastic sleeper.....her bed time is anywhere from 7-8:30 (usually closer to 7) and she sleeps anywhere from 6:30-8am . We've gotten in to sort of a routine with bedtime which usually involves a bottle, the rocking chair, the projector on the ceiling and some music. And I love it. I really do. A few nights ago, my mom was over and she was helping me put the girls to bed. I gave her Bella's bottle and she headed to Bella's room for the routine. A short time later when I checked on them, Bella wasn't cooperating. Turns out she just wanted her Mommy. Apparently when I'm home, she only wants me. Love that!

Happy 9 mos, my sweet baby girl!

Ouch!

2011-07-19T22:43:00.004-04:00

The girls are really in to boo-boos and bandages these days and usually we're trying to spy the tiniest little boo-boo to make sure we get the bandage in just the right place. Until now. Today may be our first true boo-boo day with blood involved. It wasn't a lot of blood, thank goodness....but there was blood nonetheless.

And I must say.......this girl............

seemed quite proud of her boo-boos. D said she fell on the sidewalk this morning on the way to MMO. Since I knew he was talking about Olivia, I was totally prepared to hear the next part about how it took forever to get her calmed down. And I was sure that her legs were plastered with bandages. Imagine my surprise when he told me she cried for a very short time. I mean short. As in she had stopped by the time they go to the building short. No really! Olivia? My favorite drama queen?? D broke the rules and went into the classroom with her and spent a few minutes washing off her knees and then away he went and she was fine. And I think a little proud of her boo-boos. Whew knew?!?!!

We had a good outing this evening. Since we're always outnumbered, we typically don't let the girls walk when we're shopping. Usually that's not a problem even though they both insist on riding in the top part of the shopping cart. D and I each push a shopping cart and then one of us carries Bella strapped to us in a carrier. What is becoming a problem, though, is Miss Bella-Bella. Since we all know she's quite a healthy girl, it's getting more and more uncomfortable to carry her and she needs to start riding. So tonight.......we decided to let the girls walk. I think D was quite surprised when I suggested they walk. So while we were still driving, I told the girls they could walk in the store......but they had to listen to Mommy and Daddy or we would have to put them in the shopping cart. We get little smiling faces and some nodding heads.

I was quite proud of myself. I had an open mind and I brought my patience. And you know what?? It was a good trip! The girls were quite cute in their little pink baseball hats and they walked with us all over the store. Our new Wal-Mart is huge and we walked from one end to the other and I think that contributed to their willingness to go to bed as soon as we got home - haha. Well....that and I told them they had to go nie-night 3 more times before it was Carter's birthday party.

Makes me smile.

2011-07-14T21:57:00.001-04:00

Yes you do, my sweet baby girl. Yes you do.

3-yr check up

2011-07-12T21:50:00.004-04:00

Olivia and Sofia had their 3-year check-up this afternoon. We were glad for that after the long weekend we had, especially with Sofia. And I was even more glad when, as I was taking Sofia's clothes off at the doctor's office, I noticed a rash all over her body. That wasn't there yesterday! Diagnosis.......virus. Those yucky bugs that come around, wreak havoc in the form of fever, vomiting and other unpleasantness, and apparently goes out with a rash. Apparently the rash is a sign they're getting better. Huh. Interesting.

So! Aside from the whole virus thing, both girls got a clean bill of health and a big compliment on how verbal they are. Ah my little chatterboxes! Chatterboxes in complete sentences thankyouverymuch!

Olivia weighed in at 26lb 7oz and was 36.5" long. Um. I think we say tall now, right?!

Sofia was 25lb 9oz and was also 36.5" tall. Had it not been for the 4 days of not eating, I think she would have almost matched Olivia in weight, too!!

Both girls were in great moods and were eager to stand on the scale and "see the numbers" to see how much of a big girl they were.

And then came the not-so-fun part. Apparently there's a booster shot at 3 yrs. I won't bore you with all the details, but "they" have changed the strength or dosage or something on a vaccine previously received (I promise we felt sufficiently informed before we went ahead with the shot even if I can't repeat the details now.) And if that wasn't enough -- they also had to have their finger pricked to test cholesterol and iron. Needless to say that whole thing went over like a lead balloon. Thank goodness for the cure-all.........Dum Dums. Who knew such a little sucker could hold so much power.

By the time we walked out, we were all smiles again and life was good.

Our big girls.

Of course tonight, as I was herding the girls upstairs for bed (ever heard the phrase herding cats? No? Do come over some night before bedtime), Sofia decided she didn't want to talk. I told her I wasn't carrying her and I was met with "Mommy.....I'm not a big girl anymore. You have to carry me." And then "You have to carry me. My legs are too short."

Where, oh where, do they get these things?!?!!!

Low key

2011-07-10T15:16:00.006-04:00

It's been a really low key weekend around our house. Earlier in the week we thought all 3 girls were coming down with colds.....and they've all had runny noses, but Olivia and Bella seem to be fine. They've been playing really well together. Well. Except for the occasional "Mommy.....Bella hurt my arm!"

I know what you're thinking. This face says it all, doesn't it?

Who. Me?
Bella has even been sharing her seat with Olivia...........
I used to try to get the girls to not sit in Bella's chair because I was afraid they would break it. Then I reminded myself that Olivia & Sofia are only about 5lbs heavier than Bella - haha!

And then there's my poor Pia. She's not been feeling well for a few days now. She's been running a fever off and on and she's been telling us her tummy has a boo boo. She felt a little better last night after we put a band-aid on her tummy, but this morning she slept until almost 10am and she's been sleeping off and on throughout the day........sometimes in more unusual places........

She's moved to the couch and is still sleeping. And we know she's really not feeling well because Grandma and Papa stopped by for a visit and she barely opened her eyes. And even then she only opened them after we were a little too noisy when the women's US World Cup soccer team scored in the very last minute of stoppage time play to tie the game with Brazil and send the game to penalty kicks. The US won, btw, but Sofia could really care less.......poor thing!

And now Miss Bella is calling me from her room so I must run.........a low key weekend for sure - a quiet way to start the new week.

Learn to tell time, ladies

2011-07-06T21:06:00.003-04:00

So I'm laying in bed. Sleeping. And I hear little voices in the hallway. I open my eyes and the first thing I notice is that it's still dark. Really dark. 4:30am dark. I get out of bed and catch the girls half way down the stairs and for the next 20 minutes, we have the following conversation. (Don't worry. I'm skipping some parts so it's not 20 mins worth)

Me: "Girls! What are you doing?"

Olivia: "Mommy. We have to pee pee potty downstairs."
Sofia: "We have to go downstairs, Mommy!"

Me: "No - we can pee pee in the potty in the bathroom by your room."

So they come back upstairs and we hit the potty. I wasn't surprised by Sofia being up and around, but Olivia never gets out of bed. So Olivia goes to the potty and while we're sitting there with Sofia, who is now on the potty, we continue talking.

O: "Mommy. We're thirsty. We need something to drink. We can't stop coughing."
S: "We need something to drink, Mommy. We like water!"

Me: "You do? Okay. I'll get you some water. But can we please use our quiet voices because Bella and Daddy are still sleeping and we don't want to wake them up."

S: "We can't wake them up, Mommy? We not wake Daddy and Bella up."
O: "Sofia! We have to use our quiet voice."

(Do I even have to tell you they're practically yelling at eachother?)

Me: "Sofia - are you finished?"

S: "Not yeeh-ehhht."
O: "Mommy, Sofia's not finished. She not done yet. But. We're thirsty. We need water."
S: "Mommy. It's really dark outside. Is the sun hiding behind the clouds?"

Me: "No, honey. Actually. The sun is still sleeping."

S:" The sun is sleeping? The moon is still awake?"

Me: "Yes. The sun is sleeping which means you should be sleeping too. We all should be sleeping. Now can you please finish so we can go back to bed?"

S: "Not yeeh-ehhht, Mommy. Not yeeh-ehhht."

So we continue this banter talking about how the sun is sleeping with Bella and Daddy. I finally get them back in bed. It's now close to 5am.

The funniest part, though, is later this morning D went upstairs to get the girls up. They were awake but still laying in their beds.

S: "Daddy.....the sun wake up? We can go downstairs now?"

Hahahahaha. Good strategy to keep them in bed, eh? We have to be careful, though. These are some smart kiddos we have and the whole "sun is still awake" thing could come back to bite us in the hiney when we try to get the girls in bed when it's still light outside - hahaha!

Thankfully, Bella stayed asleep..........................and it's no wonder she's not hearing anything when she's sleeping like this......
Oh yes. She's totally sleeping in this picture. No, no. I didn't take a picture this morning.....but I did take it recently because, for the life of me, I can't understand how she sleeps like this! I've tried to turn her head to the side, but she moves it right back.

Fun weekend but Livie hates fireworks

2011-07-05T21:08:00.004-04:00

What a nice weekend it was! I had Friday and Monday off from work which was awesome. We didn't overschedule by any means, but we had a fun time.

Olivia has started doing this.........thing.......where she says she's scared. Sometimes it feels like she's using that as an excuse to not do something I've asked her:

"Livie - let's go upstairs and brush your teeth to get ready for bed."
"I can't. I'm scared."

But other times, it seems like she's really scared of something. In the car, for example. During the week last week, she started watching out the window as we're driving and telling us we have to slow down -- we're going to fast. All the while she's gripping the sides of her seat and looking quite scared. We really don't know what to do about it. Is it just something she needs to grow out of? We try to talk to her......ask her why she's scared......tell her that Mommy and Daddy will always keep her safe. But nothing seems to work. Eventually she settles down but it's something I hate to see.

A funny thing the girls started in the car on Friday......as we approached a stop light, I hear Sofia from the back......"Mommy! Red means STOP???!!!" "Yes, honey, red means stop." "Mommy! And green means GO??" "Yes -- that's right!" Man....my kid is brilliant! "Mommy! Orange means GO, TOO???!!!". Hmm. We've got 13 years to correct that one!

Oh. Oh. OH! AND! Friday was also the first time the girls headed to the car.......and they wanted to watch something other than Dora on the DVD player!!!! Seriously. You just cannot imagine how excited we were for that one. But I have to be honest and say we were quickly back to Dora. I get that even some Disney movies aren't appropriate for small children.....but seriously, people.....it's Tinkerbell! You know. The cute little fairy?? But there was something in that movie that scared the girls so we turned it off and back to Dora we went. Operation Watch-Everything-First-Before-The-Girls has begun.

What else. Sunday I took the big girls to a local waterpark. I have a rule about having a 1:1 ratio of adults to kids around water so I was with my mom, sister and Carter. I was interested to see how the girls would react.....and they LOVED it! It was the perfect place for kids their size.....there was a zero-entry pool and the girls could go pretty far in and still touch (with an adult and a life jacket, of course!). They wanted to jump and jump and jump and then swim a little. Olivia kept saying "Mommy....this is so cool!" There was also a splash pad which was perfect. Olivia spent her time on the perimeter and Sofia finally warmed up and walked around all the fountains. Oh. There was also a toddler-sized water slide and....are you ready for this....Olivia went down by herself! Aunt Ra-Ra was at the bottom to catch her, but still. This is the same girl who is scared riding in the car.....and she went down the slide on her own! Sofia went down, too, with me. I held her in front of me and lifted her up before we got to the water (that was 3' deep) so she didn't go under. Neither of them wanted to go again, but we still couldn't believe they went at all!

And finally. The fireworks. We debated on whether or not we would try to make the downtown fireworks display. There was a lot going against it anyway........darkness doesn't come until late.....we would probably be running on little to no nap.......and there was "school" the next morning and we all know everyone else is cheerier in the morning when they wake up on their own. Yet. It's fireworks! On the fourth of July! Fireworks!

But. On Sunday night, there were some early fireworks going off and Olivia didn't do very well with them. She cried out for me and when I went to her room, she told me she had to go to my bed. Olivia never asks to lay in our bed. So I took her to our room thinking I could show her the fireworks outside our window and if she saw the colors and lights, she would like them. Not so much. I pulled up the blinds to get a better look and she squeezes her body around me and goes "Mommy....what are you doing??! I have to hide in your bed." I put her in our bed between me and D and she pulls the blankets over her head and wouldn't take them off until she fell asleep.

Decision made. No fireworks. But there's still the actual holiday to get through. We had the girls outside with those little popper-things.....you know -- that you can throw on the ground and they pop. Yeah - the girls love those. So we're outside poppin' away when a bottle rocket or something goes off in the distance. Olivia stops and goes "What's that noise?" and before D could even think, he goes "Honey, that's just a firework." Faster than I have ever seen her move, Olivia drops the bag she was holding and takes off towards the house yelling "I gotta get outta here!!" Poor poor Olivia. She ended up in our bed last night, too. Hiding.

Where was Sofia both nights, may be asking? She was passed out cold in her bed totally oblivious to the fireworks going on around the house. She was sweet during the day, too. "It's okay, Livie. It's just fireworks. They not get you!"

So there you go! A not-overscheduled-yet-busy-holiday-weekend! Oh. And Bella? The most content baby. In.the.world. See..........

I love this last one. She's talking up a storm to those fish. This is Bella's new "thing".....she loves this fishbowl and is very good at taking the fish (and balls) out and putting them back in. She takes them out and hits them together (clack, clack, clack) and puts them back in. Repeat.

What a great combination of fun and relaxation. How blessed am I.

Happy 4th of July!!!

2011-07-04T15:46:00.000-04:00

Olivia - Isabella - Sofia

Splish splash!

2011-07-01T14:26:00.002-04:00

Our downtown area has a really nice park and I'm ashamed to say we don't usually make time to visit it. But! Earlier in the week I made up my mind we were doing something fun today since it's the beginning of my long weekend off so we packed up the kiddos and headed out to the park for some fun in the splash pad! The girls were a little shy at first but a group of kids left and the area seemed to calm down so they finally ventured in to the fountains..........

Sofia (L), Olivia (R)

Sofia
Olivia

I think this picture of Sofia is hilarious.....

Olivia

It was impossible to get pictures of their faces since they spent most of their time crouched to the ground waiting for water to shoot out of the fountains. What a great place to go.....we'll definitely be heading back there! So great, as a matter of fact, that my toddlers who lately have been refusing to nap are snoozing away as I type. And I'm off to join them.............

Have you met Little?

2011-06-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

Remember when I told you Sofia had to call me at work because her puppy just had to talk to me? I don't think I've ever introduced you to Little, have I? How rude of me and Sofia would be quite upset if I didn't share her favorite pet.....er.....toy with you.

So! Not making you wait a second longer, I present to you..............................Little!

Sofia absolutely loves this dog and for the life of me I can't remember where we got it. But she takes that little dog (ah. the secret is out as to how Little got his name!) e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. and often times Little has to do everything Sofia does. Like eat. Or talk on the phone. Or use the potty. And heaven forbid we can't locate Little when it's time to go to bed. That silly dog always seems to be running off somewhere - hahaha!

Oh, and what's really funny is when she decides she's going to put Little in her pocket.......which actually means she puts him in the front of her shirt with his head sticking out of her shirt collar. Yeah -- we get some laughs for that one when we're out and about and Little just can't wait in the car!

D and I just shake our head and laugh at how attached Sofia is to Little!

Summer school

2011-06-28T20:27:00.005-04:00

Olivia and Sofia started their summer MMO program today. By the way......I wonder if I go back and look at all the times I've written the girls' names together, would I find that I always write it Olivia and Sofia.....or do I change it around and put Sofia first? Because I often have the discussion with myself about who comes first. Olivia seems the most obvious. You know. With the whole alphabetical 'O comes before S' thing. But then.....Sofia is technically the oldest so should she come first? That's a tough one for someone as symmetrically minded as I am.

Aaaaaaaaanywho. I digress.

So Sofia and Olivia (gotcha, didn't I?!?!?!!) started their summer MMO program today at the same church where they've been going. We debated on whether to send them, but we decided it would be something fun for them to do....and it would keep them on some kind of a schedule with the whole school thing so that when they start going 3 days a week in September, it won't be such a shock to them. We were a little worried about 2 things.......how they would react to being left at school.......and the whole potty thing. During the "regular" MMO program, they asked parents to not use pull-ups and since we've not ventured very far (for very long) from the house without pull-ups, we were kinda nervous about that whole thing. Of course, the teacher was wonderful and they have designated potty breaks throughout the day (in the cutest little kid-sized bathrooms, I might add!). And we were hoping for a little peer pressure as well.

When D picked up the girls this afternoon, he sent me this...........................
All signs.....and a little candy....point to a GREAT day! And although you'd never know it from looking at just this picture......these are the outfits they started the day in.....so no potty accidents!!!!! D said he was asking the girls if they had fun today and one of them goes "Daddy! I pee-pee in the potty at school!!" Ah the simple things, right?!?!

Another big change.....D gets to use the car line to pick them up now. At 2, we had to walk the girls to their classroom, and walk in to pick them up. Apparently now is the time to start "practicing" (while they have a smaller number of kids) with the car line for pick-up so when D got there today, the girls were waiting in the lobby area of the building. I think he's pretty excited about that because it's one less trip to make juggling Bella in her stroller, 2 kids running in two different directions and backpacks and lunchboxes!

Oh. And did you see all those stickers on their hats? Stickers! Candy! Playground! A good day, indeed.

Um. Really?

2011-06-27T21:00:00.001-04:00

We were in Target Sunday night doing some quick shopping. As we were heading towards the registers, Sofia let us know she needed a trip to the potty. And of course Olivia needed to go too. So I move Olivia to the shopping cart where Sofia is already sitting and we head towards to bathroom while D and Bella check out.

As soon as we walk away from D, the girls go in to total meltdown mode. (I forgot to tell you that we're on day 3 of no naps.....and by the time we get to around 5pm....meltdown city!) Of course this starts just before we get to the registers and the restroom is all the way on the other side of the registers so I push a cart filled with two loudly crying girls by all of the registers. I was focused on getting to the bathroom so I tried not to notice exactly how many people were staring at me!

We go to the bathroom. Have some more tears. And I finally get them calmed down. As we're heading out, a lady comes in and when she sees us she gets this huge smile on her face........

"I have never heard crying in unison like that before! That was hilarious! I wish I would have had my video camera!!"

Um. Really? Seriously???

So many comments crossed my mind but I settled on "Well it definitely wasn't hilarious from my end, I have to say."

But really. I'm very well aware of, and quite used to, the attention we receive but today is the first day I truly felt like a circus.......

Yaaaaay Bella!

2011-06-26T22:02:00.007-04:00

Guess who learned how to clap.....and clapped for the first time on her own today?! And I know you all will join me in thinking that it's just the cutest. thing. ever. Well. At least until she or the big girls do something else - haha! As you can see from her hands, she claps with her hand on the top of her other hand.......and sometimes she moves up her arm.

One or both of the big girls clapped like this at first, too. We practiced clapping a lot today -- I never get tired of seeing that sweet little grin!

In other funniness......the girls were playing in the play area this afternoon and I kept hearing one of them go "Are you ready, Ra-Ra?" and the other would go "Are you ready, Carter?" Then "Let's go, Ra-Ra." and "Let's go, Carter." This kept on and I finally had to go and see where, exactly, they were going with Aunt Ra-Ra and Carter. I almost fell over laughing because when I walked in to the play area, the girls were playing with their (stuffed) dogs and pulling them by the leash. Apparently they named their dogs Ra-Ra and Carter. You know I immediately had to call Aunt Ra-Ra and share the funny story!

Oh my goodness

2011-06-21T23:04:00.006-04:00

Seriously. 8 months already??!!! If I were to go back and look, I'm almost certain I say this every time.....but honestly. Where does the time go?

We've had another great month with Miss Bella and her personality continues to get big along with the rest of her. So what's been going on this month, you might ask?

Well. Bella's had her first ear infection. We thought maybe she had one and since we were taking Olivia to the doctor, we figured we'd take Isabella too. Turns out we were right. Except. It was in the other ear from the one we suspected.

While we were at the doctor, they took Bella's weight. 19lb 15oz. Let's call it an even 20, shall we? My 8 month old is 6lbs lighter than my 3-year old. CRAZY!!! She has the same dosage on her medicine as the big girls do.

D's sister was over with her girls the other day and she took Bella upstairs to change Bella's clothes. When Bella came back down, she was wearing a pair of the girls' shorts. And they fit!!

Miss Bella is a pro at sitting up now, when placed in a seated position, of course. And oh the rolling! That's her primary mode of transportation, you know. You can put her in the family room.....walk into the kitchen....and when you turn around, she's right there with you and she has rolled......all the way! D said he saw her in the kitchen and he turned his back to unload the dishwasher. Then he heard the jingle of some of the musical instruments we have in the play area. Bella had rolled her way into the playroom and up to the storage bins with all the instruments and was playing away. I love that! I have her on video rolling -- I need to upload that.

Bella also has exactly one tooth. One of the bottom middle teeth. I think the other bottom one is on its way in, but it hasn't broken through quite yet.

I said that Bella's personality is getting bigger and bigger. She's SUCH a happy baby. She screeches when she's really excited about something and I love that I can still make her giggle. And be prepared to have anything you bring near her taken away. She grabs everything.

No sign of crawling just yet....and we're totally okay with that. If you'll remember -- I said that about the teeth, too.....so I'm pretty sure I just set the crawling wheels in motion - haha!

8 months, my sweet baby girl! I better get to planning that big birthday party that will be here before we know it!

And now I'll leave you with a few more pictures that shows off that big personality in the only-slightly-smaller body!! Oh.....and just to prove that she truly is the happiest kid around, all of these pictures were taken around 9pm. Two good hours after her normal bedtime. It's also my sister's birthday today so we've been celebrating with Aunt Ra-Ra.......but you know I just had to have the pictures taken on the exact day Bella turned 8mos. I'm kinda crazy like that.

Potpourri

2011-06-16T21:31:00.001-04:00

- I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted......

- D and I had a long weekend at the beach. With no kids. It was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.

- I've had this sinus....."thing" going on 2 weeks now. Last week I couldn't talk.

- Potty training is still going. Some days are good. Some days are not so good.

- We thought Olivia had a urinary tract infection so we took her to the doctor. She didn't have one.

- Have you ever tried getting a (new) 3 year old to pee in a cup? Bribing was involved. That $10 toy was SO worth it.

- We took Bella to the doctor with Olivia. She had her very first ear infection.

- Bella weighed 20 lbs. At almost 8 mos. Sofia weighed 26 lbs. At 3 years.

- We couldn't get Olivia to stand on the scale. The nurse used Sofia's weight for Olivia.

- I've been traveling quite a bit lately for work. And I have a couple more weeks left to go.

- We're having an irrigation system installed in our yard. Yesterday when the guy opened the door to the crawl space under our house, a snake came out.

- It was a black snake. Supposedly those are the "good" ones. A snake is a snake is a snake if you ask me.

- While on out beach trip, we decided to take another beach trip in a few months. This time with the kids. And grandma. And aunt Ra-Ra and Carter. And baby Reese.

- I can't believe it's already mid-June.

- I believe that's all I have!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Fashion sense.......

2011-06-05T11:55:00.006-04:00

The big girls got a trunk of dress-up clothes for Christmas and they really weren't too interested.....until now. The trunk has a couple of fair princess costumes.....and I think it was the addition of various other "accessories" they have collected since Christmas that finally got them going. Well. I say "them"......but it's really been Sofia who has been the most interested.

Check out some of her latest creations!

I love this one.....she found a pair of D's socks and put them on.

As if she's saying it's so hard to be a princess!

Again with the jinxing........A.K.A. - Day 4

2011-06-02T21:51:00.007-04:00

A good day for PTBC.

2 steps forward........dry pull-ups after nap time.

1 step back.......who needs the potty when you're playing outside in your bathing suit with the water hose??

2 steps forward.........Sofia was upstairs alone and she went to the potty ALL ON HER OWN. She came downstairs.......wearing only her shirt and proudly proclaiming "I pooped in the potty!" (she really did! Which earned her 4 M&Ms and a sticker on the sticker chart).

1 step back.........I nearly busted my @$$ in the upstairs hall bathroom because she didn't quite make it to the potty to pee.

2 steps forward........Olivia was just crying from her bed (after having been in her bed for an hour and a half) for her Daddy. When Daddy got to her room, she let him know she needed to use the potty.

We'll take it. Day 5.......bring it on.**

In other non-potty-related news, we've had a few other firsts today.

You may remember that we've had a gate in the doorway to the girls' room since the beginning to keep our dog out. Well.....it's been a while since the dog has been gone but the gate remained. Until last night. After the girls were asleep, D took the gate down. Why last night, you may be asking? No particular reason..........it was just as good a time to do it as any, I guess. And eventually so they can have access to the bathroom on their own. So this morning I heard the girls talking in their room and when I went in, Sofia was laying with Olivia in Olivia's bed and they were playing their computers. As Olivia was walking out of her room, she walked over where the gate used to be.....took a few more steps.....then turned around and says "Hey! The gate is gone!" -- they didn't even know it was gone - ha! Nap time wasn't so bad either --- Olivia was tired and ready for a nap (see below). Sofia, not so much and I found her standing in the hallway on a return trip back upstairs. I took her back to her bed and she stayed there until she finished napping. Tonight has been great, too --- way better than I thought it would be. I was expecting something similar to herding cats.

And another not-so-fun first......we had our first insect sting today. We took the girls to the play area in our neighborhood and while she was climbing down from one of the platforms, Olivia was stung on her thumb by a wasp. I noticed a couple flying around her and when I saw 2 more I realized there must have been a nest nearby --- before I could get to her, one got her on her thumb. Poor thing. She cried. She wouldn't go near the playground again. We left. After we got home, there was ice.....a bandage (that's what the girls call them -- I have no clue where they got that from -D and I call them band-aids.........it has to be Dora - ha!).....and an episode of Dora and all was right with the world again. We watched her closely to make sure there was no allergic reaction but after a nice long nap, she's been fine.

A busy day for sure!

And just because she's so darn cute........

** Again........don't mistake my highlights for an indication of the ease of this task. We have yet to venture away from home and I've totally lost track of all the one-steps-back - haha!

PTBC

2011-06-01T21:07:00.004-04:00

So here we are.......the end of day 3 of potty training boot camp (PTBC). I'm going to jinx myself but I have to say it.........it's going much better than I was expecting. Now don't go mistaking that for my saying it's been easy.......because it definitely hasn't been easy. But. This time we were ready. It's amazing what being in the right frame of mind will do for you!

Just like anything else.....two steps forward and one step back. But we'll take it. I think the girls have really gotten the hang of it --- it's just getting them to pay attention and understand that the toys will still be there when they get back from the bathroom - haha.

So! We'll move along to day 4. Another day under their belts.......and one more day closer to my going back to work, which D is kinda dreading. I have to say.......I'm terrified I'm going to head back to work on Monday still in potty training mode........

"Yes - we can talk about the test plan on those key controls but first I have to go pee-pee in the potty."

Wouldn't that be just fabulous??

I have to say. I told a friend today that I've never been big on talking about bodily functions so this week has taken me waaaay outside of my comfort zone - ha! When D and I would dream about having kids, not once did I ever picture myself sitting on a stool next to the toilet talking about how 'the white paper is going to get all the yellow pee-pee'. And let's not even talk about the conversations we've had around poop this week. But hey --- at least those conversations were also while I was sitting on a stool next to the toilet so that's a big step forward - hahaha.

And although this week has been designated for PTBC, we've still been having some summer fun. Since it's been so hot during the day, we try to play outside early in the morning before lunch. Grandma bought the girls a water mat and it's a perfect way to let them get used to the water again........ (Sofia's in the red bow, Olivia's in the green bow):

A great ending to the birthday weekend

2011-05-29T21:32:00.006-04:00

We ended our birthday weekend celebration with a birthday party at Gymboree. What a great time it was! The activities were perfect for all the kids' ages and the girls had a blast! Usually it takes the girls a few minutes to warm up --- and I have to admit I was a little nervous since they were running on no nap. Well -- they did get a little power nap in the car on the way over - ha! But once we got them out of the car and inside, they never looked back.

Olivia, usually hesitant to try new things, was going down the slide before we were even settled in. And Sofia was jumping off of anything that would stay still, it seemed! It must be the "three factor." I'll take it!!

Here are a few pictures from our fun day (Sofia's in the red bow, Olivia in the green). Oh. And stay tuned because tomorrow starts potty training boot camp. We have our laundry detergent and carpet cleaner standing by!

Third birthday celebration

2011-05-27T21:57:00.007-04:00

We celebrated the girls' third birthday with a trip to the GA Aquarium and we had the best day!! We weren't sure how the girls would like it.....and they were a little overwhelmed at first with all the people around and with the fish coming so close, but once they figured out the fish were behind glass, they had a blast! As Olivia said....."Grandma! I'm not scared anymore!"

Grandma and Papa went with us, too, which made it even better!!

Family picture

Sofia & Mommy looking at the fish swimming over our heads

Looking at all the fish

Olivia (love this picture!)

Am I seeing double......double??!!!
This picture was just crazy with how it turned out. The girls were walking along a ledge at one of the windows and I snapped the picture thinking they were going to be turning around so I could get them standing together. It wasn't until after I had already taken it that I realized I had their reflection in the window of the tank.

After we got home, we had family over for cake. I thought the cakes turned out way cute.....we had the bakery cut a sheet cake diagonally to make 2 cakes.

Sofia blowing out her birthday candle
Olivia and her birthday cake
The girls were adamant about having a strawberry cake.....so theirs had a layer of strawberry between the cake -- yum!

It was a great day and everyone has fallen happily into bed. The "official" birthday party comes Sunday so we need to rest up tomorrow!!

Happy third birthday, my sweet baby girls!

2011-05-27T21:56:00.002-04:00

Birthday letter coming soon......I'm way too exhausted to get my thoughts down tonight!!

Spoke too soon; or.....first tooth!

2011-05-25T22:20:00.007-04:00

I was talking to my friend J today and I mentioned how there wasn't a tooth in sight in Isabella's sweet little mouth. And you know what. I was okay with that! And you know what else? I was totally wrong. [insert crazy Mommy tears here]. I was checking her little gums out while she happily chewed on my finger and there it was. Just the slightest bit of her bottom tooth already showing through her gums. My baby......sniff, sniff.......has a tooth coming in. It can't be!!!!!!!
Okay so there actually weren't tears. But can someone please tell me what's going on around here?? First Bella's rolling around here like she owns the place.......then she goes and gets her first tooth. And if that weren't enough.......the big girls are all trying to turn three on Friday. THREE.

I could totally cry!

Funny how different it is, isn't it? With O&S, we were doing cartwheels over every.single.milestone. Hoping for the day the first roll would happen. Ecstatic over that first tooth. Waiting anxiously for those first steps. And now?

Bella. You listen to your Mommy. Stop all this growing. Right this instant.

Well. Except for the rolls. Grow all of those you want!
Um. Those are totally crumbs of something on the floor at her feet. Don't judge.

I think that very well could be one of those pictures Isabella will hate when she's older. But I can't get enough!!
So yes. I totally spoke too soon. Now if you'll excuse me, my eyes seem to be watering just a little bit.

7 months.......

2011-05-21T14:13:00.003-04:00

Miss Bella is very quickly making her way towards 1!! Too quickly, if you ask me. My baby is getting so big!

So what has Bella been up to this month? I'm so glad you asked!! She can now roll from her tummy to her back.....which is a great thing because she was getting in a habit of rolling from her back to her tummy in her crib and then getting real mad when she couldn't turn back over. And not only can she roll back and forth, but Miss Bella has realized that she can roll across the livingroom to get anything out of her reach! We'll put her down on the floor and within a few minutes she's on the other side of the room. And often times she'll wedge herself some place where she can't get out.......like under her bouncy seat. Where Olivia is sitting. Or in the corner and she can't figure out how to get out. Well -- she's figured out how to get out........cry!

She's eating solids for most meals now although we still try to make sure she's getting enough milk, but regardless of what it is, this kid doesn't miss a meal!!

And oh my goodness the giggling. She giggles the most when she's laughing along with her sisters at something. I absolute love it!!

She continues to be our happy and content baby. And still no teeth in sight.......and I have to be honest when I say I don't mind that one bit! I'm not sure how much she weighs.......but the cute little outfit in her pictures...........18 mos.

We can't wait to see what the next month brings!

I wanna call Mommy

2011-05-18T13:28:00.002-04:00

So I just got back from lunch and saw I had missed a call from home. Of course I call back.

Sofia answers the phone making some kind of noise. I hear D talking in the background so I ask Sofia to give Daddy the phone.

D gets on the phone and goes "Sofia wanted to call you at work and talk like a puppy."

Ahhhh. Now I get it. I must tell you that Sofia's favorite toy right now is this little stuffed puppy -- very little. Who is, appropriately, named Little. Apparently she's all about puppies right now.

So Sofia gets back on the phone and barks at me a few times. Whimpers. Then hands the phone back to D.

As he's coming back to the phone I hear "Awww, man!" and then to me "Now she's licking me!"

I love my crazy kids!!

Retirement plan

2011-05-14T20:56:00.001-04:00

Although Olivia might get a little upset if she has to leave the tiara on the sidelines!

And if you've ever seen the Dora episode where she saves the soccer game, you'll find this funny........Sofia kept saying "Look at my super soccer kick!"

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Friday fun!

2011-05-13T22:16:00.004-04:00

What a great day it's been! Our original plan was to pick up lunch and head to the zoo where they have some pretty cool playground equipment. As we pulled in to the parking lot at the zoo, there were school buses everywhere and there were so many kids that you couldn't even see the playgrounds. Um....no thank you! So we immediately devised a plan B which took us to another area park........and it was fenced in!! Bonus! We're big on fencing around here!

So we played and played.

We had ice cream from the ice cream truck.........

Oh. See those "buttons" as the girls called them? The eyes on the Pink Panther? Yeah.....that was gum. I was watching them closely as they were getting closer and closer to the "buttons" and then I'd sneak in and take the gum away before they even knew what hit them. But then Olivia busted me as I was trying to get the last one from her......and I didn't get it. By this time there was ice cream dripping everywhere so I totally forgot about that gumball (shocking, I know).....until I had the girls in the bathroom washing their hands and faces.....and Olivia was just chewing away. Her very first experience with gum.

Bella loved Grandma's strawberry fruit bar!

We played and played some more. Including on the swings.

And I can't believe Aunt Ra-Ra was able to get the big girls in the swings. I was pretty sure they had already decided that swinging was not for them. How wrong was I?!?!!

"Mommy.........push me bigger!!"

After a very full day, we headed for home.

The sign of a good day, no?!

Oh. And just because she's so darn cute........

I'mnotfeelingcreativetodaysothere'snotitle

2011-05-10T17:58:00.003-04:00

I'm mentally drained at the moment so I'll apologize in advance for having nothing witty and funny for your entertainment today. Or....maybe I never have anything witty or funny to say.....so then it's just a regular day!! Haha. It's okay. You can laugh.

But! I do have a couple of cute pictures from Mother's Day I wanted to share. They're quite cute, if I do say so myself!

My 3 favorite girls!

(I love the look on Olivia's face - she's on the left in the picture)

Grandma (my mom) and her FIVE grandbabies!

Carter is so in trouble with all these girls!!! And he was quite funny that day.....he kept storming off upstairs because the girls wouldn't share with him so he was not happy about having his picture taken. He was totally serious....and it was so hard to not laugh at him for it!

Time to get naked

2011-05-05T22:34:00.003-04:00

Oh yes. You read that correctly. Although we are quite proud of the fact the girls are learning how to dress……well……undress themselves, I don’t think either of us were prepared for the girls to, all of a sudden, “no like the clothes”. To quote Sofia.

The other day, D sends me a picture of Olivia and Sofia. Standing in the family room watching tv. Naked. Well – Sofia was wearing a tiara. And there were clothes and diapers all over the floor. I totally laughed out loud...........and may have shared it with my co-workers.

D tells me about chasing Sofia around the house with clothes in one hand and a diaper in the other hand. “I no like the clothes!!”. How cute, right?! The down side to that is when they took their clothes off during nap time. Did I mention we’re not there yet with the potty training? Mmm hmm. Enough said.

So! Sounds like fun, no?!?!!! And since I do have some boundaries, I would never put up those pictures that made me laugh so hard at work......so how about a different one. Taken on Friday morning. You know…..during the royal wedding. Olivia was totally in the spirit and I must say she’s quite the candidate for Princess, no?!!!

What a weekend

2011-05-01T23:58:00.002-04:00

It's been a rough weekend around our house. It very well could have been that just today was rough......but if it was.....it was really rough. So much that I've forgotten about the rest of the weekend. Poor Sofia. Her fever has finally gone away but I can imagine the pain she's in from her little mouth.

Usually Olivia is our dramatic one, but we can only guess that her mouth hurts so much that Sofia isn't quite sure how to handle it....so it comes out in her behavior. Today, everything has caused a meltdown. Big meltdowns. Uncontrollable meltdowns. The kind where you can just look at her wrong and it sends her into a tailspin. It breaks my heart because I know she doesn't feel good.......but it's also a true test of patience. A test, I'm ashamed to say, I didn't always pass. Let's just say Sofia wasn't the only one in tears this weekend and leave it at that. Ahem.

I called the pediatrician on Friday because Sofia was basically refusing to eat and was getting close to refusing to drink. At our visit on Wednesday, the doctor told me not to worry about her eating but that staying hydrated was imperative. I knew then I should have asked her to go ahead and call in the pain prescription, but I didn't. So Friday I made the call because the ibuprofen / acetaminophen rotation just wasn't cutting it. (As an aside....it felt really odd to me to be calling the pediatrician and requesting hydrocodone for my toddler. 'Um yes. We were in on Wednesday. My daughter had sores on and in her mouth. I need to get a strong pain medicine for her.' You know.....like the nurse on the other end was covering the receiver with her hand and rolling her eyes at the parent calling for RX pain meds.....you know....for her kid). Our plan was to give it to Sofia about 45 mins or so before it was time to eat, in the hopes that she would be able to get something down --- because we think she really wanted to eat. Even now that we've had the pain meds, eating hasn't been that great --- and I was getting really worried today about hydration, but fun curly straws and some sweet tea seems to have helped.

She's also been spending a lot of time in her room. We've been waking them up from naps, or opening the gate to their room in the morning and Olivia has been coming down but Sofia has stayed upstairs. She definitely needs rest. But then.....possibly when the meds have kicked in......she gets a burst of energy and gets up to play for a while..........

But only for a short while before it's back to lay down.........

As if that weren't enough......we can't keep her from picking at her lips. When she does finally get up from a nap or from sleeping overnight, her face and her fingers are caked with blood. What do we do about that??

We are so hoping we have turned a corner with her and that she's on the mend. I know D is wary about tomorrow seeing how much attention Sofia needed today.

My poor, poor baby.

Poor Sofia

2011-04-27T23:14:00.003-04:00

Remember back in October, a little more than a week before Bella arrived, when Olivia was under the weather? When she had boo boos in her mouth? How long ago that seems, but really just 6 mos ago. We are re-visiting that illness again only this time it's Sofia........
Monday night we thought she was a little warm when she went to bed, but she slept fine that night. Tuesday, her fever creeped up during the day.....it would break with medicine and then it would come back a little higher than the time before until around midnight, Sofia had a fever of 104.7 degrees. I freaked just a little and then I remembered how her gums were swollen and bleeding when I brushed her teeth.......and I knew. We called the night nursing line for our pediatrician's office and the nurse told us that if her fever hit 105, we needed to take her to the ER. Thankfully, after about 45 mins after a dose of ibuprofen, it came down to 103. And boy 103 never looked so good. Her little body was just radiating heat.

She didn't have a fever when she woke up, but by the time we arrived at the pedi's office, she was shivering. Bless her little heart.

The pediatrician confirmed my fears. And there's nothing we can do but manage her fever and the pain from all the sores in her mouth. And most importantly, keep her hydrated to keep her out of the hospital.

So far she's been a trooper and has spent the day laying on the couch or floor with an occasional burst of energy every now and again. As I was telling D what the doctor said, he goes "Well......at least we know what to expect and I'm glad it wasn't so bad with Olivia." Um. What????? Do you not remember? No really. What part of that horrible week do you really not remember? So after I brought up a few points he quickly remembered and joined me in dread. We're crossing our fingers, though, because Sofia had a decent day today.

My poor sweet baby!

I'll remember that

2011-04-26T21:16:00.006-04:00

For as smiley as Isabella is, when she's concentrating on something she gets this very serious look on her face. See? And as serious as she looks in this picture, I don't think this picture does her look justice! It's.....well.........serious.

So I took Bella for her 6 month well visit last Friday. Oh. I don't think I've updated her stats....but if I remember correctly (Go ahead. Laugh.) I predicted she was about 18 1/2 lbs. How close I was! She weighed in at 18lb 5oz (86th percentile)......was 27 1/4" long (94th percentile) and her head was 17 1/2" around (96th percentile). Hello my chunky, tall and smart baby girl! I never put the girls' percentiles because.....well......they were never on the growth chart.......so I'm totally enjoying Bella being on it....and at the top!

Then came the part I always dread. Shots. D will never admit it, but I think he secretly calls ahead....finds out if she has to get shots.....and then figures out a way to get me to take her without my realizing his intentions. Seriously. So anyway - Bella was all happy during her appointment and the nurse came back in. The nurse had to do a little extra holding because Bella is usually practicing for a career in sprinting or cycling with as fast as her little legs are usually moving -- so she already wasn't so excited about that. The nurse was quick with the 2 shots but Bella's smiles quickly turned to tears and she was quite upset. The nurse was so fast that I didn't really have time to get upset because it was time to pick Bella up and as soon as I picked Bella up, she stopped crying. Instantly. And as I looked at her, she was tracking the nurse as the nurse was walking around the room..............

Ooooooooh. I told the nurse I felt pretty sure Bella was committing her face to memory and this day would not be forgotten. Luckily there are no shots for the next well visit.......but I really don't think Bella cares!! Pooooooor poooooor nurse!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T22:40:00.003-04:00

What a great day we've had! I'm happily exhausted and not feeling so creative. Which means nothing is different, right?!?!?!! It's okay...you can laugh. So. How about a list to see what we've been up to today....

* We didn't have huge discussions about the Easter bunny....so this morning when we told the girls we should go downstairs to see if the Easter bunny had been by, Sofia immediately proclaimed she was scared and wouldn't walk down the stairs.

* Candy was on the menu for each and every meal
* I was putting tights on Sofia as I was getting her dressed for church and she goes "These are my socks-pants." I laughed so hard I had tears. She was kinda right!

* We went to church with my sister and it happens to be the church where the girls go to MMO. As we were driving, the girls recognized where we were driving and immediately became upset because they didn't want to go to school. They wanted to see Grandma and Aunt RaRa.

* We sat down in the sanctuary and the music and singing were beautiful....but very loud. Olivia was scared. She alternated between crying very loudly and hiding under Bella's blanket. Luckily the music covered her crying and I was hoping she was going to make it. When the music and singing stopped, Olivia proclaimed "I gotta get outta here!" Yeah. People could hear that.

* We ended up leaving about 20 mins into the service. At least they got to wear their Easter dresses!

* Part of the service included someone who walked into the back of the church and down one of the aisles and he was portraying Jesus. He walked to the front during singing / music. As we were driving away from the church, D was telling me that when he went to the bathroom before sitting down in church, some guy and "Jesus" came in. "So I'm in the bathroom and I look over and "Jesus" is fixing his hair and talking with this other guy who is complaining about his wife."

* We went to Wal-Mart. On Easter Sunday. I'm quite embarrassed about that but it was a necessity. The Easter bunny totally forgot C-batteries.

* We had about 25 people over to our house after church including lots of kids. We had an Easter egg hunt in our front yard. There must have been 400 eggs. It took us longer to put them out than it did for the kids to pick them up....it was hilarious --- it was like a swarm of kids and once they passed over an area, it was cleaned out.

* Sofia learned how to blow bubbles. Soap bubbles...not bubble gum!

* Bella sat up for the first time today! With lots of help from the Boppy....but it definitely counts! And she was so sweet today.....she was all smiles and jabbering!

* The girls were totally exhausted by 7pm. Olivia was sound asleep when I put her into the bathtub. Sofia fell asleep on the stairs waiting for her turn in the bathtub.

I told you it was a great day!!!
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A whole half a year!

2011-04-21T22:15:00.013-04:00

I can't believe our Bella is 6 months old today! I might have shed a tear or two. A whole half a year has gone by since she joined our family........I don't think it could have gone by any faster. Just look at how much she's grown!

And I have to say. Even if I have said this before. The girls were great babies. Happy babies. We were so scared Bella was going to be our "payback kid". I say that with all the love in the world....but seriously. Who gets lucky more than once with great babies? Apparently we do because Bella is the most laid back and happiest baby I've ever seen. She's so easy-going. So smiley. Loves to "talk" and (now that we've had reflux under control for months and months) rarely cries.

I'm totally biased....but just look at this sweet face!!

So! What's been going on with Bella? Well I said the other day that I was pretty sure Bella had rolled to her tummy for the first time......and it was probably the last time for a long time. Boy was I wrong! D said she's been rolling all day today! She still hasn't figured out how to get back on to her back, but that's definitely progress!

We're also making progress with sitting. Although she doesn't sit on her own just yet, she's "thiiiiiiis close!"

We've tried most fruit.....she's loving some applesauce and bananas.

She has the "grabbiest" hands. She reaches for everything with purpose and takes everything straight to her mouth just as forcefully.

She loves to sleep on her side...with her legs curled up and her thumb in her mouth. (Must. get. picture!)

She loves her sisters. She lights up when she sees them!

We've just moved her to a size FOUR diaper. (Yep.....she's ha-youge!).

We go for her 6-month check-up tomorrow so we'll see how much she weighs....but I'm guessing she's tipping the scales at a good 18.5 lbs!

We are so incredibly blessed with this sweet baby girl!

It's a little blurry, but......

2011-04-18T23:58:00.001-04:00

D sent this picture to me last week.........

Miss Bella is working on sitting up. I'll be the first to admit........she spends a lot of time in our.....ahem.....my arms....which doesn't help the whole sitting up thing. But I tell myself that she won't go to kindergarden not knowing how to sit up. That makes sense, right?! I thought so, too.

Can I tell you that Sofia's new thing is telling us what she likes and doesn't like. "Mommy...I no like flowers on my shirt." "Mommy....I like ice cream." "Mommy.....I no like to go to bed." I can't remember if I've said this already here, but all of a sudden it feels like Sofia has been talking up a storm. I mean......I think she's been speaking clearly for a while......but it seems like over the last week or two we've been having more conversations with her. I have a feeling we are approaching that stage where she asks a lot of questions...........like tonight. I dropped a carton (with the two remaining eggs inside) on the floor. Of course the eggs broke..........and Sofia is right there. "Mommy......why you drop my eggs and make yellow all over the floor?" (I was making eggs for dinner) "Mommy.....you cleaning up a mess? You cleaning up the yellow mess?". "Mommy......what you doing here (with) my eggs?". "Mommy....I love my eggs."

Cute........but I think we're in for a lot of questions. Did I mention Olivia came running up to where I was cleaning up the eggs and goes "What you doing here, guys?"

Too funny!

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Guess who.......

2011-04-17T22:05:00.001-04:00

..........mmmmmhmmmm. Me either.

I think when Bella catches up to the girls' size (notice I said "when" and not "if"!!) we're going to be answering questions about our triplets. Ya think?!?!?!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Rolling rolling rolling.........

2011-04-15T22:45:00.001-04:00

Guess who did her first rolling today! I'm pretty sure it was an accident and it probably won't be repeated for a while, but Bella definitely rolled from her back to her tummy today!

And once she got there, she wasn't quite sure what to do....or how to get back........

Still exciting!!!

I had the day off from work today. We slept in (you know....until 8:30)...had a late breakfast and then took the girls to a bounce place to burn off some energy. Except at the bounce place they had a television turned to the kids' channel and Dora was on. For a moment I was afraid they weren't going to play at all but they finally realized they could watch Dora anywhere and we jumped and jumped.

It's the craziest thing - all of a sudden it seems like we are having full conversations with Sofia. And she says the funniest things! Last night we went for a walk.....we walked up the hill to the end of our street and then crossed over to the cul-de-sac across from ours. When we got to the cul-de-sac, Sofia stood in the middle of it and says "Hey! Where my house go?" To cute!!

So. That's all for now......gotta go and prepare for the storms that are rolling in. The girls are terrified of thunder, but so far, if they've been sleeping when the thunder starts, they don't wake up. Um. I totally just jinxed myself by saying that!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Again?

2011-04-13T00:49:00.001-04:00

We're trying to catch a break around here......I think we need a Lysol explosion in the house. D took Bella to the doctor today. Another round of croup.......the barking seal has returned. Poor thing has been coughing so much it's making her throw up. I should say "poor Daddy" because have I told you about the fantastic talent Bella has for throwing up on everything and everyone around her, yet she manages to keep herself clean? That's our girl!

Of course, this morning D was getting the girls ready for MMO and as they were on their way out the door, Bella did manage to throw up all over herself. Hey.....everyone has an off day, right!

As an aside, the girls did return to MMO this week after missing both days last week so maybe we ARE turning a corner.

D called me after he dropped the girls off and I could tell he was frustrated. So he's telling me how he had to carry Sofia in......and then apparently Olivia decided she needed to walk with her blanket over her head. Now. I know D was frustrated, but I totally busted out laughing at the visual I had of Olivia walking down the hallway covered in her blanket. I got in trouble for laughing........but I'm sitting here laughing as I type!!!

D sent me this picture last week with the following message...."9 mos pants I could barely get over her legs......12 mos shirt." That's my big girl!!!!!

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I'm baaaaaack

2011-04-10T21:03:00.003-04:00

Wow. I totally didn't mean to be gone that long. I had a long week working out of town....and now all of us, except D, are sick. Fevers. Coughing. Ear infection (1 that we know of anyway). Lots of runny noses. To quote Olivia......"It's not good!" Seems like I have a lot to say, but I either can't remember or I don't yet have pictures to go with my posts. But! How about some bullets to get you by until I remember and / or have pictures..... So in the time we've been apart...............

I had dinner with a fellow MoM whose kiddos are almost the same age as O&S. It was a Monday night and we were the last to leave the restaurant. Seriously. They locked the doors behind us. Total enjoyment and a must-do again! Soon!

I turned thirty-ahem-yeah-right-like-I'd-really-confess years old.

We had birthday dinner out with the family......there were so many of us we had to split tables. I wondered why people were staring....then I looked at our seating arrangements.....in a round booth in the corner it was: D, me holding Bella, Sofia, Carter, Olivia, Daniela, Gabriela, and D's sister and her husband (as an aside....I always debate....my sister-in-law and her husband? my sister-and-brother-in-law?). Yep. 4 adults and 6 young kids. I think I might just stare, too. But! We had the portable DVD player and it was all good.

We went back to our house for cake.

The gifts were very generous including a 2-hour massage(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and D surprised me with an iPad. I didn't need an iPad....but can I just say "How friggin' cool!!!".

The girls spent the day singing Happy Birthday to me.

Olivia also spent the day insisting it was also her birthday but she didn't want chocolate cake....she wanted strawberry cake.

Baby Reese attended her very first family birthday celebration! She slept.

I had to spend this past week out of town working last week. It just so happened to be a client located on the coast. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "Have fun at the beach!".

I didn't see one grain of sand. Or the ocean.

I didn't eat seafood either.

While I was gone, D put on his superhero cape and braved the doctor's office with all 3 girls. By himself. I'm not being sarcastic about that superhero cape.

I worked until midnight or after every night I was gone.

I came home Thursday night.....hoping to get into bed before midnight. I stayed up with Olivia who was coughing like crazy. When she stopped, Miss Bella decided it was time for a party at her crib. It was 2am.

Although I was so tired I couldn't see straight, I totally enjoyed the quiet time with Bella while she had a bottle. I actually debated on letting her sleep with me. But I took her back to her crib. It was after 3am by the time I laid down to sleep.

My voice is pretty much gone.

I worked most of the day on Saturday. All 3 girls were running fevers when I got home.

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already.

That just about does it! Oh. I can't leave you without pictures, right?! So. The girls have tons of toys. T.o.n.s. We have a whole room dedicated to toys. And there are some pretty cool ones, too. So guess what they really want to play with. Bella's toys. See...........

I'm almost back.................

2011-04-06T01:13:00.000-04:00

Bliss

2011-04-01T14:33:00.001-04:00

Neglect

2011-03-30T09:04:00.003-04:00

Oh how I have neglected my blog! It was totally unintentional.....days passed which turned in to a week......you know how it goes. I've been working out of town for the last couple of weeks so there's really not been much to say........after all, you don't want to hear about debits and credits, right? So while I've been working, D sends me pictures like this one....... and this one.......... and I know everything is good at home. It's hilarious...we can't keep Sofia out of the bouncer. She can climb in all on her own. Getting out? Not so much! So she bounces for a bit and then "Ayudame!" It's hilarious -- she always asks for help in Spanish when she's gotten stuck in that bouncer. So! My apologies for not being so entertaining this morning, but hey -- you got to see cute pictures of my kids, right? Oh. Are you thinking what I'm thinking about the picture of D and Isabella sleeping.........if I'm out of town........and he's sleeping.............mmmmhmmm.

Back to debits and credits I go!

Speaking of five......Bella is 5 months old!

2011-03-21T22:07:00.005-04:00

.......aaaand another month has gone by "just like that." Wow.
It's getting harder to take pictures of Bella in this chair.....when I was taking these today, she kept leaning forward trying to sit up away from the back of the chair. She's not sitting up on her own yet, but you can definitely tell she's getting better with her balance.

So. What have we done this month? We've started rice cereal and she loves it......she's getting closer and closer to rolling from her back to her tummy.........she's really good at reaching and grabbing toys and then they go straight to her mouth. Everything goes straight to her mouth. See?

And oh my goodness...what a happy baby! She wakes up in the morning and I could stand there for hours listening to her "talk". When she sees us....any of us - me, D or the big girls - she lights up. Love that.

Oh! Another milestone.........we may have taken our last outing with Bella riding in this.......

Yep.....we may just be finished for good (this time - ha!) with infant carriers. Miss Bella has pretty much outgrown her car seat.......and it's getting harder and harder to carry her in it......so we made a trip this evening and bought a big girl stroller......to go along with the big girl car seat that will very soon make its way into the car. Do you think Isabella is upset about this??!!

Yeah....me either!!

I can't believe it's been five months.......and although our baby girl is growing (and that makes me just a little sad!!), we can't wait to see what she's doing next!

And then there were five.......

2011-03-19T22:56:00.004-04:00

Miss Reese decided she was ready to join us today!! And when I told Bella that her new baby cousin was on her way, here's what she said.........

Oh yes. We were all that excited since we weren't expecting her for another 2 weeks. So...without further delay.....I introduce:

Caroline Reese
6lb 14oz & 19" long

She's so adorable and so tiny! And her arrival was quite some drama for such a little girl! R had been shopping this morning when labor pains started.......and C and Carter had gone fishing. Apparently they write down the time when they "check" you in to the hospital....and R was checked in at 11:16am.....and Miss Reese was here at 12:02pm. Uh huh...you read that right....less than an hour. R had not even been formally admitted before she was here -- they had just checked her in to triage. And *poof* it was over. Well. My sister will probably strangle me with her bare hands after reading the *poof* part since they had no time for the epidural to take effect. She said afterwards "People who choose to do that willingly are crazy!" I think one of the nurses is walking around the hospital still trying to regain feeling in her hand!!

But! Reese is here and we're all so excited. Carter was so funny today -- any time a nurse was with Reese when Reese would start to cry, he would look at the nurse with this matter of fact look on his face and say "She doesn't like you." hahaha!

So! The full moon worked......and to top all that off, she was born on her Daddy's birthday. How cool is that?!

Grandma and Papa sure do have their hands full now with FIVE grand babies!! I think it's fun to say they have 5 grand babies under the age of five. But then I say it again and it makes me really tired to think about - hahahahaha!

They miss me not......

2011-03-16T17:27:00.002-04:00

I'm working out of town this week.....it's my first week away since Miss Bella joined us.....and it wasn't my favorite day when I hopped in the car to drive 3 hours away. But! You gotta do what you gotta do, right? So D has been sending me pictures throughout the week and I have to ask......

Do these look like faces of girls who miss their Mommy??!!!!!

Yeah. I didn't think so either!!

Tell me what you think........

2011-03-11T22:08:00.004-05:00

Does this face........
look like it belongs to a sick baby? I didn't think so either! But alas.........our sweet baby girl has croup. I woke up early this morning to Bella coughing and I knew we needed to take her to the doctor. The only way I could describe it was that her cough sounded like she was......barking. I knew it couldn't be good, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what illness that kind of cough went with. So while I was driving to work, D was getting an appointment with the pediatrician this morning. And that's where the above picture was taken. At the doctor's office. And she's still happy!

Then I did remember. And I broke my very own rule for medical issues. I googled. And then I promptly had a mini freak-out. First my googling confirmed that I wasn't crazy when I thought our sweet little (um...well...big!) girl had been replaced by a barking seal, but they actually say that on the site I found. Then my googling informed me that croup was caused by a virus........and could possibly be RSV. That was all I needed to see to bring on the mini freak-out. I realize now that RSV is never good, but it doesn't have to be as severe as I assume it would be. I'm so sensitive to RSV because that's what we were warned about with the girls......that's what led us to keep the girls homebound until they were almost one.

Thankfully, while she does have croup, Bella doesn't have RSV. We have steroids for her and instructions on what to do if the coughing gets bad or if she has minor trouble breathing. And for all of that, Bella is still such a happy baby!!

Oh. Even better. It's contagious. And it would be best if we could keep her in a room separate from the big girls. And we can.....when they're all sleeping. Other than that......not so much!!

Show me your silly face!!

2011-03-10T21:09:00.002-05:00

I give you.......the silly faces:

Olivia

Sofia

Oh look, you might be saying.......they're so playful during breakfast. Uh-uhh. That's dinner. Otherwise known as "We pick our battles and we didn't pick that one". But! See what happened.....we went for cereal for dinner and we got silly faces! The funniest thing is when I say "Where's your silly face?", Olivia gets her silly face and then tries to talk with her fingers in her mouth "Ith riiiiiiith 'ere, Ommy!"

But those silly faces are also sick faces. D took the girls to the doctor yesterday since we felt like their coughs were getting worse. Sinus infections for both and Olivia had an ear infection. We were totally surprised by the ear infection......Livie is our most dramatic at the moment and we knew for sure she would have told us if she was in pain. So. Home they came with stickers and antibiotics and hopefully that will knock the infection out. But I must say....they're in quite good spirits for being sick so we've been thankful for that.

And now.....we're afraid Bella is coming down with something.........ugh. I'm so ready for nice weather where we can get outside and open the windows and let the germs be gone!

Nom nom nom

2011-03-08T20:29:00.004-05:00

Guess what we tried for the first time this evening...........
I think we like it, no?

Um. Maybe not??

"Look, Mommy. If you're gonna get it all over my face, I'm just gonna eat these rings......"

"Actually......this stuff is really good.....I need more!"

"Nothing like thumb after a good meal!"

I think that was pretty successful! And of course followed by a bath!!

You're hiding? Really?; aka...How dare you post without pictures

2011-03-03T06:00:00.002-05:00

So D calls me at work yesterday and he's laughing.......he tells me he was playing hide & seek with the girls. The big girls. Because how can Bella find a hiding place if she can't walk. Or crawl. Or even knows what hiding is.

By the way. I can't stop myself from using "the girls" for Olivia and Sofia. I'm sure you can usually tell when I mean O&S versus all 3 girls...so excuse me for the confusion. If there is any. And I promise I'll tell you if Isabella has turned into super baby and is actually included with "the girls" for something you're just certain has to be Olivia and Sofia........

But I digress. Moving on!

So he's playing hide & seek with the girls and he tells them to hide while he counts. They run off to our front living room and when he goes to look for them, he finds them on the couch. Olivia is laying face down on the couch and Sofia is sitting up with her eyes closed. HA! I think it's so awesome how little kids think they can close their eyes and everything around them disappears.

I'm sure D is now on a mission to teach them to hide better. I just hope he doesn't teach them too well! We've already had a few instances where, all of a sudden, we realize that we're missing a kid. We know they're in the house (our doors are set to beep through the alarm system when one of them is opened, and we would definitely notice that. That's a pretty great feature, btw) but still...they're missing. We usually find them in a closet just standing there quietly. Well except for Olivia. You can usually call her name and she goes "Yeeesssss?!" - haha. And we did find Sofia "hiding" in the pantry once. She was so worn out from all that hiding that she needed to help herself to the miniature chocolate bars left from Halloween that were in there. When I opened the pantry door, there she stood with wrappers in her hands and chocolate on her face.

"Mommy...I hiding!"
Mmmmhmmmm.....and you're eating, too!

Bathtub serenade

2011-03-02T08:14:00.002-05:00

It's been a while so I thought I'd put up another cute video of my amazingly talented kids. : ) I know what you're thinking. I seem to always know what you're thinking, don't I? "Another video in the bathtub? Don't you film your kids anywhere else?" And to answer your question....I do! But....those videos aren't nearly as fun since, these days, they end up being a shot of the floor in our house with little voices off-camera going "Lemme see, Mommy!" "I can hold the camera, Mommy." "Mommy...you taking a picture of me?"

So! The bathtub it is! Where else can you contain two active toddlers in a small space with no room to run, but they're still having fun?!!

I love how Olivia starts singing....then needs to start over, but she apologizes first. I also love at the end when she's finishing the song, her face gets so serious like she's hitting the highest note ever!

One of these things.....

2011-02-28T21:04:00.004-05:00

......is not like the other. One of these things......just doesn't belong...........
I was going through my gazillion pictures looking for ones to load to my digital picture frame and I came across a few I had forgotten about. Including this one. Funny, no? Yeah. You're laughing, too. Unless, of course, you don't know which one doesn't belong.........hmmm.

So we're back to the swing of things. It's week 3 of work for me and I'm thankful that my evenings haven't been too late. I expect that to change. Like tomorrow. But that's okay. I mean I did take almost half a year off. Ahem.

So the girls are saying the funniest things lately. Sometimes it's just funny because it sounds so.....adult coming from their little mouths. I thought I'd share:

"Mommy.....I can't fly either. I don't have wings." (Olivia as we were watching an airplane flying across the sky).

"Mommy - I love medicine!" (Sofia) "Mommy! I love medicine, too! I need more medicine!" (Olivia)

"Mommy - you going shopping?" (as I'm leaving for work.) "No, sweetie, I'm going to work." "I gotta go work, too!" (Sofia)

"Andra......are you Mommy?" (Olivia)

"I'm a princess!" (Says Olivia as I'm getting her dressed). "Sofia's not a princess." (oh my...is it starting that soon??!!)

"Mommy, I so pretty!" (Sofia)

"Look......these are my coke-y dots" (says Olivia about the polka dots on her shirt)

"I need another shopping" (both girls after we were in the car from leaving the mall)

"What's the friends doing?" (both girls call any group of people friends)

"Guys! Guys! What you doing here?" (Sofia)

"Olivia - stop screaming, please." (Sofia)

"Mommy......I wanna go time out!" (Sofia. I guess we need to find another method of discipline)

"Where's my Livie?" (Sofia waking up from a nap and not seeing Olivia in her bed)

And finally: The girls were playing and I heard Sofia say "Oh my God!" I have no idea where she got that because neither D nor I say that around them (and I'm hoping not at all!). So I said to the girls "We don't say that. We say 'oh my goodness'". A few days later, Sofia says it again and before I can say anything to her, Olivia goes "No, Pia, we don't say 'Oh my God', we say oh my goodness" and Sofia goes "Yes, Livie, I say oh my goodness." "Oh my goodness!"

"She looks perfect!" - a.k.a. post # 500!!

2011-02-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Words we all like to hear, right? And it's exactly what I heard when I took Bella for her 4-month check-up yesterday afternoon. I mean....I know she's perfect......it was just nice to be validated, ya know?!? In all seriousness, though. After going through physical therapy with the big girls, I'm super sensitive to the whole "tummy time so their head stays round-strengthen the abs-strengthen the neck-because they need those muscles to crawl" thing. And Isabella hates tummy time. There's no other word to describe it but pure hate. She's good for maybe 5 minutes before she gets so mad it takes 45 minutes to calm her down. So we've been trying tummy time in small amounts many times throughout the day and I was anxious to her what her pediatrician thought, both about our approach and about Bella's progress. And the verdict?? She's perfect!

So! How about some stats. Remember THE rolls? I wasn't kidding! Miss Bella weighed in at a healthy 16lbs and she was 26 1/4" long. Her last check-up was at 2 mos and she weighed 12.5lbs. That's THREE AND A HALF POUNDS in two months! I know, I know -- it's all normal. I just can't get over it!! The nurse and pediatrician both commented, before they knew how long she was, that she looked tall.

Here's a fun comparison. I found the post I wrote about the girls when they went for their 9-month check-up almost two years ago. When the girls were 9mos old, Olivia weighed in at 16lbs and Sofia at 15lbs and they were both 26" long. Seriously!! Even when you adjust their age for being born 2.5 months early, that's 6 1/2 months compared to Bella's 4 with almost exactly the same stats. I'm thinking she's going to catch up to her sisters and then I'll be answering questions about my triplets - haha! While it's obvious that it would be different, it's so amazing to me how different our experience with Bella is!
Adorable, no?! So. We keep doing what we're doing and Bella goes back for another check-up at 6 months. We're going to keep up her reflux meds until then and try to wean her off after that. We're also free to try rice cereal by spoon if we'd like, but at this point it's more for the experience for Bella and not necessary for nutrition. Then at 5 months we can start fruits. Wow. I don't know if I'm ready for that!!

In other news, as I was starting this post, I realized it is post number 500!! I can't believe I've had enough to say to fill 500 posts!.......What's that?.......You're not sure I really have had enough to say to fill 500 posts?!?!?! haha. Hey.....at least my kids are cute!!

Mommy...I love cupcakes!

2011-02-24T02:20:00.003-05:00

Yes, my dears, I believe you do!

Sofia

Olivia

Guess who's 4 months old........

2011-02-21T20:54:00.004-05:00

This girl!

That's right......another month has flown by and Miss Bella is growing, growing, growing. She has her 4-month appointment on Thursday so we'll get a weight check (I'm guessing in the 16lb range) and some shots (shhhh.....don't tell her!). We were actually on our way for her 4-month visit about a week and a half ago when my cell phone rang.....it was the pediatrician's office. Instantly I was worried that "BabyBrain" had struck again and our appointment was actually at 8:20 and not 8:40.....but instead, they were calling and asking if we would reschedule. They had a waiting room full of kids they thought had the flu and were trying to keep all of their well babies away. Yes please! So.....Thursday it is.

We've seen some cool things from Isabella this month. She's reaching for toys deliberately now and getting them straight to her mouth. Her motions have gotten much smoother and you can tell she doesn't get as frustrated. She's also found her feet! I can't believe I don't yet have a picture of that, but when she's laying on the floor.....or anywhere, really, her legs are in the air (think a sitting position, except she's laying on her back) and she's grabbing her feet. We've also seen her start rolling to her sides to reach for the toys on her activity mat. I don't know....we may see some rolling over in the coming month!!

It's so cool to see her learn new things, and every new thing we watch makes me remember back to the big girls. Speaking of the big girls -- Bella loves her sisters. Whenever they're in the room, Bella is turning her head to keep her eyes on them and she gets the biggest smile on her face! She's tracking everyone really well and it's cute to see her squirm and try to follow people when they walk behind her.

Funny story. It's been a running joke between D and I that, of our 3 kids, I have to have one who favors me over him. Olivia and Sofia have him wrapped around their cute little fingers and they know it....Daddy is definitely the favorite. So of course that makes me Isabella's favorite, right?!?! D might have disagreed until last night. I was in our room and he was putting Bella to bed. I could hear her crying.....he was trying to rock her....talk to her.....walk with her......nothing was working. As he came into our room to talk about what could possibly be wrong with her, when Bella saw me she stopped crying and got the biggest grin on her face. D walked out of the room with her and the crying started. Back into the room -- see me -- crying stops. Yep......I'm the favorite!

Except for tonight..........

when she was totally over pictures!

Happy four months, Bella!!

Catching up

2011-02-20T17:26:00.005-05:00

You know those great friendships where you may not talk (whether by phone, email, FB or whatever) with someone very consistently, but once you make time to get together, you can spend hours talking like old friends? I've known Miss C (well....she's actually Mrs. C, but we laugh because my dad calls her Miss C......so Miss C it is!) for 10+ years where I met her where I worked during college. We were laughing back then......and a couple of weeks ago we got to spend the day laughing over lunch like it was another day at the office.

Miss C was nice enough to hit the road for the 2-hour drive to our house 2 weeks ago and we spent the day catching up. I had told the girls that Mommy's friend was coming over and they were going to get to meet her. Usually the girls take a good 10 mins or so to warm up to people but within a couple of minutes of Miss C's arrival, the girls were showing off like they had known her as long as I had! It was so funny.....and I think they're just an excellent judge of character. Sofia kept pointing to Miss C and saying"Mommy....is this your friend?" and Olivia was doing this funny little laugh while she was drawing pictures on her board. They were quite entertaining!

We had a fantastic visit - it was so awesome to catch up for the day! We grabbed some pictures when we came back from lunch and before Miss C hit the road back home.

Me and Miss C

Isabella enjoyed meeting Miss C.....she was napping before we left for lunch but she was wide awake by the time we got back. The big girls had just gotten up from their nap and they weren't too excited about getting their picture taken. Hey....you have to take what you can get, right?!!!
In other catching up.....it's been a busy couple of weeks around here......we had a baby shower for my sister and Baby Reese who is due in just a few weeks.......Tio A came home on leave from his deployment in Iraq.......and I went back to work after being out for 5 months for Bella's birth. Wow... 5 months. It sounds so long....that's almost half a year.....but boy did it go by so fast! I must say.....going back was pretty uneventful. The day before I started back, I had some quiet time with Bella before everyone else woke up and I will admit that I shed a few tears......but when the actual day arrived, I did well. I was proud of myself!

Pictures of the last couple of weeks coming soon.....but for now I have one hungry baby who never ever gets to eat. Ha!

Abort mission.....I repeat.....abort mission!!

2011-02-08T20:54:00.007-05:00

I'm a little behind on blogging and my type A-ness requires me to go in chronological order. And besides.....I can't blog about the potty and catching up with a great friend in the same post. That's just rude.

And heads up.....there's lots of talk about the potty and big girl panties coming up. Don't say I didn't warn you!

So. On Friday, D and I decided it was time to go cold turkey with the potty training for the big girls. We've tried all kinds of strategies and rest assured it included bribery and even some begging. And none of it worked. We talked about it during the week and decided the BIG day would be Friday so we could have 4 whole days before they went back to MMO. So Friday we brought out the big guns. Dora panties. Oh yes. Just when you thought they couldn't possibly put Dora on anything else. We made a huge deal about the Dora panties and the fact that there's no more diapers. The girls were excited about "no more circles" (their diapers have circles on them) and "big girl panties". We also made a huge deal about how we don't pee-pee on Dora. I can't wait until they bust that one out in public.

We start our day with a pact to make sure each of the girls is on the potty every 20 mins or so and when they're not on the potty, we're asking them if they have to go to the potty. We get a resounding "I no have to pee-pee potty" from Sofia......and Olivia starts to cry "I no wanna pee-pee potty". That's okay...we're just getting started. After our first round of visits to the potty, it's a tie at 1-1. Sofia was excited to go....she wanted candy. She got candy. Olivia cried and refused to sit on the potty. Then she wanted candy. She didn't get candy. She cried some more and set up camp on the kitchen floor outside the pantry doors. D and I settled in for a long day and a short time later, I hear "Awww Olivia....you're not supposed to pee on the chair!" Accident #1. We jumped into action. It was like a beautiful choreographed dance. D ran for the towels.......I grabbed the stain remover.......he pulled the cover off the chair cushion.....I grabbed Olivia. No problem.....we have 10 more pair of big girl panties with Dora's smiling face. I also have to wonder.....Olivia was no longer crying for candy. Did she just get revenge?? Is that why she's smiling?

Time for round 2. Sofia needs a little more convincing this time. Olivia flat out refuses and cries. D and I start talking about how maybe Olivia's just not ready. We certainly don't want this whole experience to be traumatic for her....and we weren't about to tie her down to the potty, but it was looking like that was the only way she was going to sit on it. While we're discussing, accident #2 happens which really just speeds up our decision for Olivia. We replace Dora with circles and Olivia smiles and goes on her way. Punk. I say that with love. I really do.

No problem.....let's focus on Sofia. We continue trips to the potty throughout the morning. She's happy. We're happy. Everyone's happy. Dare we hope? Even one would be a big success and then she could help us with peer pressure, right? So we're busy hoping and getting on with the day when we hear "Daddy....I pee-pee on Dora." (and the couch.) NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I won't go in to the rest of the details which made us ultimately decide that both girls just aren't quite ready, but trust me. They're just not ready. So we're sort of back to square one where the Dora panties have gone back to the drawer.....the circles came back out........but we're still constantly talking about the potty and "Don't you want to be a big girl??"

Here's Olivia's response........
Oh. And all the "big girl" talk has also backfired on me. Olivia looks at me and says "Mommy....are you a big girl?" It would have been much cuter if I weren't sweating away on the elliptical machine when she asked.......

Say Uncle!

2011-02-02T15:31:00.004-05:00

We've had such a great day today. These past few weeks have been filled with whines and melt-downs....such is life with 2-year olds, I guess, but today was a really good day. It's days like this that make me really sad to have to go back to work. Not just the normal sadness at the thought. And we didn't even do anything spectacular.....the girls are getting taller and although their pants still fit in the waist, they truly do look like they're waiting for a flood. (Can I just tell you....they're...well they were....still wearing 18 mos pants. My almost-three-year-olds. Well - 2 years, 8 mos and 6 days, but who's counting, right?! 18 mos pants!) So we headed to the store and found some great deals on pants. I love a bargain- - especially when you're buying 2 of everything! The girls were sitting nicely in the cart saying "Hi" to everyone who walked by. When we were paying at the register, the cashier handed us our bags and Olivia looks at me and says "Thank you for my clothes, Mommy!" I'm not even kidding. Totally unprompted. Melt.My.Heart!

Afterwards we went for a late lunch and met Uncle A who is home on leave from Iraq. The girls have been so funny -- when I told them Uncle A would be home yesterday, they spent the rest of the day asking where he was....was he here. When he got to our house, they turned all shy. Sofia finally warmed up almost before Uncle A left and as he was walking out to his car, Olivia came tearing down the hallway going "Where's Uncle A's going?!?!" The warm-up period took much less time today!

And here's where the story turns into a fairy tale.......as we were sitting at the table eating, Olivia (who was rubbing her eyes) says "Mommy....I wanna take a nap!" And the heavens opened with rays of rainbows and the angels sang. Neither of the girls ever ask to take a nap. I had to resist the urge to throw all of our food in a take-home box and run for home. Had it not been for the stern look I got from D as I went to yank the sandwich out of his hands, we really would have been outta there - haha!

So anyway -- as you can see just a regular day where everyone was happy and well behaved. They're usually very happy. If you could see the hilarity in the evenings around here. Case in point..........
This is Sofia. Proving she is, indeed, the big sister!!

Holy roll-y

2011-01-30T19:08:00.003-05:00

You've read about Isabella's rolls.....but have you seen them??!!!! They're just.....edible, I tell you! So much so they needed their own blog post. So without further delay........

Don't you think her expression is like "Really, Mom? You're seriously going to do this??" Yes, my dear....I most certainly am! I mean just look at these legs.....

E.D.I.B.L.E. You should see her without her diaper -- more rolls! But no......I do have some idea of when to stop. Usually. Like when D is telling me I'm not posting pictures of our daughter's hiney on the internet. Ahem.

So there you have it......THE rolls. I couldn't get her to stop kicking long enough for me to get the little rolls on her toes!

And what, you're asking, were the "big" girls doing while I was snapping away at Bella's rolls? Let me show you:

Those, my friends, are the faces of 2 little girls who skipped their nap and are now exhausted from all the fresh air they had while outside on this unusually gorgeous January day! Skipping the nap was a little painful as the evening wore on, but it did mean that bedtime came an hour earlier.....and boy were they ready!

Ya can't make this stuff up, people

2011-01-27T22:15:00.007-05:00

I love where we live. I really do. I grew up here and although I initially had not planned to move "back home", I hope we get to raise our kids here.

But sometimes......you just gotta shake your head at people. I mean really.

Today Isabella and I made a trip to our discount store and it was way more interesting than I expected. I was getting Bella's stroller out of the back of the car - I was aware there was a car behind me but I didn't think anything of it - and I hear a lady ask me if I was leaving. She was stalking my pretty fantastic parking space......but I was so confused because I was wondering what was wrong with all the empty ones that were just a few spaces past me. It was a pretty nice day today......walk just a little, people!

So we're heading inside and although it's a pretty nice day, it's still winter. I mean....40 and sunny is nice compared to the 20 and snow we had the other week, right? So you can imagine my surprise when I see a kid wearing a t-shirt and sandals. While (I'm assuming) her parent is all bundled up....fleece, hat..the works. I totally get that you have to pick your battles with kids....but I'm thinking I'd fight that battle pretty hard....or we'd be staying home. Yeah....I totally judged.

We get closer to the entrance and I'm marveling at how the couple saying goodbye to eachother managed to both fit on the moped they were standing next to. They're average sized people....I just never thought of a moped as a 2-person mode of transportation. That had to be a scary ride for the person hanging off the back. My pondering was interrupted when I realized that she was kissing him while he had a cigarette hanging out of the side of his mouth. I've never seen that before. I must really have no talent.

We make it inside and I realize that my shopping partner has fallen asleep under all the blankets. And you have to see just how she was sleeping.......

Classic, right?!!

So we're wandering and I hear "Oh what a sweet little baby! What is his name?" I'm surprised at how often this happens.....but I'm always polite because let's face it....I love showing off my kids! So I smile and say "Her name is Isabella"......and she coos at her for a few seconds more and, as she's walking away, says "He sure is a cute one."

I'm telling you....you can't make this stuff up, people!

Espanol, por favor!

2011-01-26T17:52:00.003-05:00

I know, I know -- enough with the videos already, right?!!! But I just can't help it. I'm on a video kick and I'm taking you along with me! Besides -- have you tried to get pictures of 2 year-olds recently? Trust me -- it's a lot of pictures of the backs of heads or other body parts as they're running away because, apparently, they're just so over pictures. I had to tell you that because I was looking back over recent posts on the blog and I noticed there were many more pictures of Isabella recently. You know....the stationary kid! But don't worry.....there's video of her coming soon, too!!

This video is Sofia showing off her counting skills. If you're impressed that she's counting, can I just tell you that she's counting in Spanish? It's just been recently that D has been speaking to all the girls much more in Spanish so they're getting better and better, but they're quite good with their numbers and colors. Well - the big girls are. You'd seriously be impressed if I was also talking about Isabella. And I'd seriously be trying to get her on Oprah as the smartest kid ever........but alas I'm still planning on heading back to work in a couple more weeks. Unless we win the lottery. But I digress.

So! As promised......Sofia and her Spanish!

How could I possibly forget.....

2011-01-25T21:52:00.006-05:00

In my last post I said there wasn't much to report. Well.....there's still not much to report, but I did forget a (now) funny story that happened last night.

So we have *this* monitor for Bella's room......we used it for the girls. I loved it then and I love it now. I'm sure there's some false sense of security involved, but I'll take even the slightest bit of peace of mind. And it's no worse than not having any kind of monitor at all, right?

Anyhow. So early this morning as we were sleeping soundly, the monitor went off. There's a sensor pad under the mattress that's so sensitive it detects the movement from Isabella's body breathing while she's sleeping. The sensor is under the center of the mattress and it doesn't reach the extreme edges of the mattress. The funny (now) part is my reaction when the alarm went off (I did this with the girls, as well) --- the beeping starts and I manage to jump 5 feet in the air and land on my feet on the floor (very cat-like, no? and I hate cats).....stumbling to our bedroom door before I even get my eyes open. By this time I've bruised myself on whatever was in my way....oh - and the monitor has stopped beeping, too.

I've yet to lose my footing and hit the ground during my sleepy dash through the bedroom door, but there was this time with the big girls when, allegedly, I was beating up on D to beat him out of the bedroom door. I say allegedly because I was asleep.....and he could be making up anything - haha!

So anyway. Nothing earth-shattering or even that juicy, but if you know me hopefully you've gotten a chuckle from the mental image of me flying through the door. Oh. And this morning, our little angel had managed to scoot herself to the very bottom of her bed and turn herself sideways. Who knew!

Oh. And it just occurred to me that this whole experience, each time that monitor goes off in the middle of the night, is double for D.......the surprise of the monitor and then I'm sure I scare the crap out of him when I do my acrobatic leap out of bed. Poor guy!

Yummy in my tummy

2011-01-25T15:19:00.003-05:00

When the big girls are eating, I'm always asking them if whatever they're eating is yummy. "Is it yummy in your tummy?" I have no idea where I got that from -- it's just one of those things, I guess. And it's even cuter (assuming it was cute to start with - ha!) when I hear the girls talking to eachother....."Livie - is that yummy tummy?" "Yes, Pia, it's yummy my tummy!"

Not to be left out, Isabella has found her own thing that's "Yummy tummy!" Well....she thinks her bottles are quite yummy, but she can't have those whenever she wants........well - actually, she can if she yells loud enough -- oh you get my point!!

Yep......the dreaded thumb sucking! And she does it quite well, don't you think?

Mental note.....make sure she sleeps looking over her right shoulder. Moving on.........

I thought she was going to be a paci girl --- and she still really likes her paci, but now that she's realized her hands are always there, she's starting to prefer her thumb. I've had this great plan for when it was time to give up the paci - we were going to take Bella to the Build-A-Bear store and let her build a bear to keep her paci inside to give it up. Looks like I now have to figure out how we're going to get that thumb inside the Build-A-Bear............ha! Oooohhh - mean Mommy putting mitts over her hands! I promise I wasn't being mean - her little hands are always so cold!

I think this picture is hilarious -- it's like she couldn't figure out which she wanted, so she tried to get a little of both. She ended up putting her thumb inside the paci and I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get that shot!

Oh well - there are worse things, right?! And admit it -- it's kinda cute. For now. Not so cute when she's in kindergarten.........but we'll deal with that when we get there. Remind me I said that when it's time to deal with it and I'm wondering why on earth we didn't make her stop sooner!

There's really not much else to report.......it's a dreary cold day.....the girls had MMO today and are supposed to be napping.......but instead they're jumping off the bed. I know this because their room is just above where I'm sitting.....and it sounds like they're going to fall through the floor. I know they're fine -- I hear them checking on eachother "You okay, Pia?" "You have boo-boos, Livie?" "Pia - no no jumping on bed!" [BAM] "Whoa! That was really high!"

Let's hope Olivia doesn't learn to scale the dresser.............

Funny funny girls

2011-01-24T12:07:00.004-05:00

Now that I've found (well....my dad found) the cable to load the videos from my camera to the computer, we've been taking many more videos.........and apparently we had a lot stored on the camera -- it's been fun watching the girls from several months ago.

Here's a video of one of our favorite games -- "What does ______ say". If you can make it past the animals, you'll get a glimpse of how the girls see everyone around them....."What does Mommy say?" "What does Papa say?" - haha.

Happy 3 months, Bella!

2011-01-21T21:15:00.003-05:00

Even though we're just finishing up the first quarter of her first year (spoken like a true accountant, eh?!), Isabella's first year sure is flying by. I'm not sure which is faster....time or the rate she's growing! We don't have another doctor's visit for a few more weeks so I don't have an exact weight for this month, but I'm guessing she's in the 14lb range. I'll have to do a post on her leg rolls!

So in keeping with what has become a monthly tradition (you can see months 1 and 2 here and here), here's Isabella at 3 months. I think I'll show the progression at 6 mos and then again at 1 year....I may cry if I start doing it now - haha!
So what's going on with Bella at three months, you may ask? Well let's see.........
* she's sleeping through the night fairly consistently, although we're still working on the starting bed time.
* she's such a smiley baby --- my favorite start to the day is getting her from her crib and she's looking up at me with a huge smile and her arms and legs kicking like she's sprinting.
* she's starting to find her voice -- when she's laying on the changing table we "chat"...which involves me talking in a really high voice and making goofy faces, and she smiles, kicks and coos. She's also started screeching - it's quite hilarious! I'm trying to get it on video but whenever I have the camera out she stops what she's doing and stares at me!
*she's starting to figure out she has a tongue and she does the funniest things.......

* she hates tummy time. we've had to be creative in the things we do to get her working on holding her head up from being on her stomach. Even though she hates it, she's definitely showing progress.

* she's doing so well holding her head up in an upright position that we've brought out the bumbo seat............

* she's found her hands which make a good substitute when there's not a pacifier around. A few times I've caught her sucking her thumb.

* she's started tracking people and objects - when any of us walk by her, she usually turns her head to follow us as we go by.

Wow -- Isabella has had a busy month! It's nice to report something other than "she's sleeping and eating!" although I know that means she's growing.......sniff, sniff!

She absolutely loves her big sisters. When they hear her crying, they'll go over to her and she usually stops and will smile at them. Totally melts my heart!

Happy 3 months, Bella!!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

2011-01-20T22:09:00.003-05:00

It's Daddy's birthday today!!
After a little bit of convincing, Olivia and Sofia finally stopped singing "Happy Birthday" to Grandma and started singing to Daddy. Although as we were talking about it when they were in the bathtub last night, they insisted on making a (bubble) birthday cake for Grandma. I'm sure Daddy was fine holding out for the real thing today - ha!

Daddy wanted pizza and cake at home with family tonight so Aunt R and Tia E came over along with all the cousins so Olivia and Sofia were in heaven.

Olivia wanted to help blow out the candles...
And they were really excited about eating some birthday cake. We actually had 2 birthday cakes!

It was a great birthday celebration!

Happy Birthday, D --- I love you!

Peace and quiet

2011-01-16T14:15:00.003-05:00

There's not much sweeter than a precious sleeping baby, no?
And how about sweet baby hands??

I could just eat them up!

I wish I could say it's been this peaceful all the time around here these past few days - ha! You know.......the sun is shining and the snow is melting......the big girls, with their halos shimmering, are playing nicely together......the house is spotless. Can't you just hear the angels singing??!!!

Yeah.....me either - haha. I don't know what it is, but we've hit quite a rough patch with Olivia these past few days. I keep reminding myself "She's only 2" (well....2 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 6 days.......but who's counting, right?) or "This, too, shall pass". But is that really it? Is that all I can hang my hat on? I mean I really want that to be it, but boy oh boy.

Example #1. We had lunch at D's mom's restaurant yesterday.....the girls ate and were smiling at the people around us. We had fruit. We had juice. We had mini muffins. All was right with the world. Then D took Olivia to change her diaper and all of a sudden I could hear her screaming from the bathroom. The restaurant isn't that big, mind you, but still. The door was closed....the place was busy....and I could hear my daughter screaming like he was taking her limbs off. D and I traded places after he tried for a few minutes and that seemed to set her off even more. Apparently she didn't want the diaper with the circles (regular diaper)- - she wanted the pink diaper (a pull-up.......potty training is equally as unsuccessful right now and that's a whole 'nother post!). We had no pink diapers. Cue the fit. But then.......she didn't want her tights on......she didn't want her shoes on......she didn't want to sit up......she didn't want to walk.....she didn't want me to hold her......she didn't want me......she didn't want Daddy. And then it finally happened. D picked Olivia up and she managed to wiggle herself sideways so he carried her out of the restaurant under his arm.....with her kicking and screaming all the way. I was mortified and watching other people as he walked by. All of the parents were giving us a totally sympathetic and knowing look. All of the non-parents by choice were secretly smiling at the confirmation of their choice......and all of the non-parents who are planning to be parents one day were all of a sudden wondering if they wanted to be - haha. I kid, I kid.

Imagine the looks as I stopped at our table to get our 2 other children!!!!!!! D and Olivia were in the car when I got out there and she was still screaming. She alternated between screaming and sleeping all the way home.

How do you discipline that????

Example #2. Today we just put the girls down for a nap.....or these days it's a couple of hours of quiet play time because they seem to have decided they no longer need naps (please, no!) when all of a sudden Sofia starts screaming. A pain scream, not a throwing-a-fit scream. When I got to her, Olivia had a huge clump of her hair in Olivia's hand. It hurt my head to see how much hair she had pulled out.

Sigh. This, too, shall pass........they're only two. And a half. Plus another month or so. Haha!

Don't get me wrong -- we have many more good days than bad but boy-oh-boy we've had a couple of doozies!

Childproof THIS, Mommy!

2011-01-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

I had changed Olivia the other day and she was mad when I took her down from the changing table we keep in our dining room (you know....the room most people have and rarely use....makes a great changing room!). So I leave her and her fit she's throwing on the floor in dining room and go about whatever I was doing. Until I hear "Heeeeeelllllpp!" We always check this out because you never know with 2-year olds.

I go to check out what all the fuss is about and I find Olivia.........sitting on the changing table......and she can't get down. I asked D if he put her up there (not that he would put her up there and then leave the room!).....and I put her down only to watch her climb back up the table. I was totally shocked. Out of both of them, Olivia is the one I would think would be least likely to do something like that.

So I did what every responsible parent would do. I grabbed the video camera, of course!

After the repeat performance we had a big discussion about how we don't climb up the furniture like that. Thankfully, she's not tried it again since.

My oh my.

Cheater, cheater!

2011-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure this is not how tummy time is supposed to go...........

Reverse psychology, people!

2011-01-12T01:51:00.007-05:00

Reverse psychology works.....it really really works! At least this time it worked....I need to figure out how to apply that to potty training....but that's a whole 'nother post!

So yes-- snow!! Lots and lots of snow!! By southern standards, of course. I think they were saying it's been since 1988 since we've had this much snow. I was discussing this fact with my neighbor as he was shoveling his driveway........and thinking he was done with shoveling for good when they moved here from "up north". Hey-- once every 12-13 years can't be that bad, right??!!!

Speaking of driveways -- ours is in there somewhere.......

On Monday, we waited for my parents and sister/BIL/nephew to get here before taking the girls outside -- I thought they would love it, but you never know so I wanted them to be outside with everyone in case it was a one-time deal. I was right, though -- they loved it. Even Olivia who still isn't always excited about walking places where she isn't too sure of her footing, but she was actually the first one to want to walk solo through the snow. Even if it came up to her knees sometimes.......
Our street has one of the biggest, if not the biggest, hills in the neighborhood so there were a lot of people sledding and we made the walk to the hill to join in. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera with me but the girls loved that, too! They rode with Uncle C....together by themselves and with Carter. They made a few runs down the hill and we decided it was time to head back to the house and get out of the cold. But not before stopping in the yard to make a few snowballs........

What a great time! The girls so didn't want to go inside -- despite wet pants and frozen noses -- so that was quite an ordeal, and as soon as they got up from their nap we heard requests to go back outside......unfortunately by that time it was raining and sleeting...and Mommy wasn't about to go out in that!! So we've been enjoying the view from inside.

When Grandma and Papa were here, Papa introduced the girls to snowcream. It was quite a hit, but they were also happy with a big ole' bowl of plain snow..........see........

This morning they both came walking towards me carrying bowls and spoons and Olivia was saying "Mommy, me have my snow, please?" Hey -- 45 minutes of good clean fun?? I'm in! Our deck and backyard is still a nice untouched blanket of snow....minus the scoops out of the snow on the deck where we've filled bowls at their request. They're happy.....I'm happy........score!!

Unfortunately for Miss Bella, we declared it too cold for her to be outside so Grandma and D took turns staying inside with her while the rest of us were outside with the big kiddos.......but she didn't seem to mind as long as Papa was around to make her smile!!

So there you have it --- the Great Snow of 2011!! My neighbor had the right idea with the shoveling business......since we had some rain / sleet and some melting during the day, our driveway is now a sheet of ice. This stuff is going to be around for a while!