Sunday, May 29, 2011

And, she's off...

We've got a crawler.  I can't believe my baby is already crawling.  I mean, she's 8 1/2 months, so it's definitely time and it's not like she's an early crawler by any means.  But I can't believe she's old enough to be doing this already!  Seems like just yesterday she first learned how to smile.  And now she's crawling.  She's not super speedy by any stretch of the imagination, but she moves.

And in pretty typical Elli fashion, she accomplished this milestone between the time frame that her older sisters did.  Livi was 8 months and 8 days old.  Addi was 8 months and 16 days old.  Elli ended up doing it at 8 months 15 days old.  Just like their birth times...Addi 7:05am, Livi 7:33am, and along comes Elli at 7:25am. 

I know Elli has done a couple other things in between the time frames that her sisters did, but I'm tired right now and can't for the life of me remember what!  Plus it's been a really long week.  So anyway, I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day!!

Monday, May 23, 2011

The story of the mismatched kids

This is just a short little story.  I have a lot going on right now and not much time to blog.

So yeah.  My kids.  And socks.  And their refusal to wear white socks.  Or their refusal to let me guide them in what colored socks they should wear.  Leads to many, many days looking like whoever dressed them was colorblind.

Sometimes I'm able to convince them to wear the socks that I pick out for them.  But it usually takes a lot of bribing and sweet talking.  And on daycare days, I simply don't have the time to do that while I'm trying to get myself ready as well as get 3 kids dressed, fed, teeth brushed, hair combed and out the door on time.  So it's not unheard of for them to attend daycare with purple shirts and blue socks.  Or pink shirts and orange socks.  Or polka dot shirts with striped socks.  Or red shirts and green socks (who says Christmas is in December?).

Anyway.  I pick my battles.  And quite frankly, that's a battle that I'm simply not willing to fight.  It's just socks.  I'm sure daycare will forgive me.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Randoms

I have so many stories to tell as the days go by, but by the time I actually get to sit down to write about them, I pretty much forget all of them.  Maybe a side effect of sleep deprivation?  Or maybe just a result of getting older?  Who knows.  But my memory really isn't what it used to be.

Addi:  Well, she has now had her second tick in her short 2 1/2 years of life.  I haven't had a single tick in 29 years.  So they're definitely attracted to her.  Unfortunately, the head of this second one is still buried in her scalp.  She was talking to grandma on the phone and I was rubbing the back of her head...wouldn't ya know it, I felt a lump.  Looked to see what it was and sure enough, that little bugger was really embedded in there.  I grabbed it at the base with a tweezers, but the head still broke off.  Triage told us to give it a day to see if it works itself out.  I tell you, if it's going to happen to one of my kids, it's going to be her.  Did I ever tell you about Addi swallowing a penny?  I didn't?  Yeah, that was another experience!!

Livi:  She is so sweet.  She really is a little caretaker.  She continues to load up Elli's lap with toys and brings Elli a nuk.  She also kisses Addi's "boo-boos".  She's just such a nurturing little child.  Not to say that she doesn't have her wild side or her cranky side for that matter.  She can throw a tantrum with the best of them!  But when she's sweet, she's really, really sweet.  In other news, each of the girls went through a phase where we couldn't read to them enough.  That was back when they were right around 14 months I think.  We're now back to that with Livi.  She wants to read all the time.  I love it!!  She's also such a polite little girl.  "Thank you, mama (or daddy or grandma)" is one of her favorite phrases.  She's just sweet I tell ya.

Elli:  She thinks that our cat Desi is the most awesome thing on the face of this planet.  If Desi crosses her line of vision, she squeals, she screams, she laughs, she smiles, her eyes light up.  She loves that cat.  Desi doesn't share the same sentiment though.  Elli tends to pull hair if Desi gets too close, so she just keeps her distance now.  And it drives Elli bananas!!  She wants to get at that kitty so bad!!!  If only she could crawl.  But she is making some pretty good strides at crawling.  I thought for a while there that she was going to skip it and just head straight to walking.  But now I think she'll probably be crawling within the next month. She's up on all fours just rocking away and she'll put one hand in front of the other, but then she forgets to move her knees.  She'll get there.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a fabulous weekend.  On Saturday, we woke up to find out that our big screen TV decided it served its time.  So we loaded up the girls and started our day at McDonald's for breakfast.  The big girls played in the Playland for a while and when they were done, we went TV shopping.  By the time we were done with that, it was nap time.  When they woke up from nap, we went to park #1 of the weekend.

Elli thoroughly enjoyed her first time in a swing.



After a good chunk of time at park #1 we came home and let the girls run around outside...one bonus to a fenced in backyard is that we left the patio door open and they could come in and out as they pleased!! Nate was outside working in the garage and I was inside tidying up, watching Elli, and getting ready for work.  We gave them a T-ball set to play with for the first time ever.  Not sure where they got the idea from, but they both grabbed a couple of Nate's old hats and put them on!!

Batter up!!!

Livi preferred to play umpire.

We're working on the swing - right now it's more of a karate chop.

Livi also chased down all the balls for Addi.

I actually had to work Saturday night from 5-11 so Nate was left to do bedtime routine by himself. And I'm happy to announce that he survived and it went quite smoothly!!

Sunday morning Nate took Addi for an hour long walk! He took her trike with him so she could either walk or ride. And when he came home, he took Livi to Menards to get a few things for the yard. Once they were home from that excursion, we took the girls to park #2. The fun ended when it was time for nap. And once they woke up, we took them to park #3!!

Beautiful.

They had to go down the tallest slide they could find!


Weeee!!  Having fun at the 3rd and final park.


Last but not least, we ended the day with a picture of mommy and her girls.  We all look a bit disheveled from playing at 2 parks that day, but I don't mind at all.  We had fun...and that's all that matters.  But this picture is so typical.  Livi isn't paying any attention whatsoever.  And Addi is so bored she's jamming a finger in her mouth.  Oh well. 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

"Hey, Nate!"

Alright, so I find this funny.  However, Nate does not.  The past couple of months, the girls have resorted to hollering "hey, Nate" every now and then instead of daddy or dad.  But the past couple of weeks it's been much more consistent than it used to be.  Here's a typical dialogue in the house...

Girls:  Hey, Nate
Nate:  No, daddy
Girls: Hey, Nate
Nate: No, I'm daddy
Girls: Hey, Nate
Nate: Whatever

I find it hilarious but that's probably because it's not happening to me. A couple months ago when they first started it, they would throw a "hey, Jess" in there and yeah, I hated it.  I want to be mommy, not Jess.  But I'm also a hypocrite because I can't help but snicker when they do it to Nate...and then listening to Nate argue with two 2 year olds before finally conceding is simply funny.