6/23/07 We're doing pretty well this week. Nana came into town yesterday and is here all week. Then we drive back with her to Indy for the 4th of July week! The kids are having a blast with her, and I think she's enjoying herself too :)
We're headed to the March of Dimes awards ceremony today. We get together with all the other "mission families" (families who have had preemies or kids who benifitted from the march of dimes). We celebrate our success of this year's walk and individual successes too! Thanks again to all who donated to our cause!
Bella is everywhere and refuses to eat baby food now. She's eating lunch meat, cheese, mac and cheese, noodles, chicken, basically everything the big kids eat, only in smaller pieces. She couldn't be happier about it either.
Lucas and Soph are getting so big and such a great big brother and big sister. They are always helping feed, clothe, diaper, bathe, etc. Bella, and it makes it more fun for her too to have them help. The kds are talking a mile a minute and are telling me all sorts of things that I swear they shouldn't remember. It amazes me how much they know, and how much they learn every single day. Anyway, gotta run, gotta get ready for the MOD party, but check out our new videos! We have a BUNCH!
6/15/07 AND SHE'S OFF!!! Bella is crawling everywhere now, and fast too. I find her under the table, in corners, peeking around the doorway from other rooms, etc. I guess I had already forgotten how everything on the floor is game for little hands and mouths too. Things that the older ones have learned to ignore, like dirty shoes, pieces of lint, the occasional cheerio that got kicked under the table from breakfast, and that was just this evening! As if all this wasn't enough, Bella decided that it was time for another milestone today. SHE PULLED UP ALL BY HERSELF!!! She just crawled up to the little leapfrog table that Aunt NeeNee got the kids two Christmases ago and put her hands up and pulled herself all the way up to standing! Will and I were watching and we couldn't believe our eyes! Of course now that she's done it once, she tried the rest of the evening to pull up on everything she could get her hands on... the cabinet, the book bucket, my leg.... the list goes on and on. She's growing up WAY too fast for my liking :(
As for the older two, here is a rundown of the highlights of the last two days. I'll start with a laundry list of skills they have mastered or are mastering (some more recent than others) and then I'll throw in a few stories :). They are pretty much dressing themselves completely, saying please, thank you, you're welcome, and excuse me appropriately (although they need reminders sometimes!), eating withforks and spoons all the time, covering their mouths when they cough and blowing their own noses when they have runny noses, asking for help when they need it, riding tricycles (Lucas is, Soph is SO close), jumping WAY off the ground, counting and starting to sing the alphabet, and I know there are a bunch of others, but my brain is tired right now, so on to the stories.
The other morning, Lucas was dangling bites of his breakfast over the edge of the table while the dog was sitting under his chair. Sadie kept sticking her nose out to sniff the food, when Lucas all of the sudden yelled, "No doggie, MY breakfast. You go to another McDonalds!" Needless to say, I fell out laughing, so now he repeats it all the time.
Sophia was standing the bathroom with me this morning as I was "getting ready" for the day. I had put lotion on my face, brushed my teeth and was getting ready to brush my hair when I looked over and saw Soph holding my lotion bottle (lid on). She "squeezed" some in her hand, rubbed her hands together (just like I do) and then started to rub it on her face (just like I do). She was in her own little world, not paying attention to me at all while I watched her be just like me. :)
Also, this afternoon, she had gone into the laundry room and taken the lint shield out of the dryer (a forbidden fruit). She carried it into the kitchen and dropped it on the floor. I said, "Sophia, look what happened. That is why we don't take that out of the dryer. Now there is a big mess." I took the lint screen back to the dryer and by the time I had gotten back out to the kitchen (which by the way is adjoined through the hearth room (all open and visible), Sophia had gotten the broom out and was trying to sweep up the lint. I just stood there and smiled, I mean what do you say when a two year old is trying to clean up her mess with a full size broom that is taller than she is? It was so sweet and cute.
Speaking of.... today I caught all three kids sitting on the carpet having a cheerio and sippy cup picnic. All three were drinking out of sippies and all three were feeding themselves cheerios. They were laughing and "talking." I knew it would happen, just didn't realize it would be so soon.....
6/12/07 We have a new look and new pictures! Check out the June album in our photos and also there are a few new videos up. Still haven't figured out how to download from our video camera, but these are from nana and papa's camera when we were in Indy. Have a great one!
6/11/07 The kids are talking so much now and are saying all sorts of fun phrases. They definitely keep us laughing. Lucas has started to say NOPE to everything. He often responds with the "NOPE" before we even get the question out. He also likes to inform us everytime he stops and gos on his bicycle with a loud, "STOP! GO!" Are we ready for Red Light, Green Light? He likes to sing the alphabet, but when he gets stuck on a letter, he just starts repeating whatever letter he's on, for example, "ABCDE-E-E-E...." His other favorite phrase is, "It's H-O-T HOT outside!" I said it once, now it's stuck. Does he know he's spelling? Probably not, but he loves to say it! Sophia calls everyone a potato. This started one day a few weeks ago when she just busted out with, "My Dada is a potato." Well, we laughed since it was so random, and now she says it all the time. However, it has evolved to calling prople sweet potatoes, hot potatoes, little red potatoes, mashed potatoes, etc. Daddy also taught her to scream, "Dyno-MITE!" which is her new favorite word. She also has started to "soothe" me when I am upset, which completely cracks me up. If I am frustrated, sad, angry, etc. she will lightly pat my hair and say, "OK Mommy...". I realized that is what I say to soothe them (It's ok Phia...). Bella is crawling forward now and has developed her own method of getting to sitting. She goes from hands and knees to stretching her legs out to the side. She sits in the complete splits (side to side) and then pushes her body back over so she is sitting on her bottom in the splits. Then pulls her legs forward to balance herself and Voila!, She's sitting! Oh to be that flexible.... Bella has gotten tastes of real food now too, and for the first time yesterday, she actually SPIT the baby food back at me. Oh how fast they grow up!
6/4/07 Hey there strangers! We've been gone a while! We are back in Memphis from our trip to Indianapolis! It would probably be easier to tell you what we DIDN'T do while we were there, rather than try to list all the things we DID do. The kids got to visit the Children's museum (sit in a real racecar, play in sand and water, ride the carousel, look at dinosaurs, etc.), ride a pony at Uncle Randy and Aunt Lori's farm, take their first boat ride at Aunt Jenny and Uncle Rob's house (Which the kids insist is Kelli's house and boat - their daughter), touch/hold a snake for the first time at NeeNee's house, and visit and meet many firends and relatives. In the rest of our free time :) the kids made cookies and brownies, fished and swam in the hottub, poured water in the baby pool, rode tricycles around the house, learned to roller skate and pretty much tore up Nana and Papa's, as well as NeeNee and Ryan's houses.
During the trip, Bella also did some amazing things. She learned to sit VERY steady AND.......drumrole please....... Started CRAWLING!!!!!! That's right folks, I now have three mobile children. What am I going to do with myself? She is alsobabbling all sorts of sounds and learned to rub her hand over her mouth when she talks to make the buBUbuBU sound.
Lucas and Sophia's vocabularies also exploded while we were away. They learned all sorts of fun phrases, such as "More McDonalds Please!" (hey, they have a playland and it's an 8 hour drive!), " I love Nana Papa howwwwwse!" and "My mommy is a sweet potato, but Dada is a hot potato." (don't ask).
We made it home and recovered briefly yesterday, so today we decided to "kick" ourselves back into our usual routine. The kids had school (mother's day out), and mama went to the doctor. (don't remember if i mentioned this before but I threw my back out before we left trying to pick up Lucas). Turns out it's probably a muscular problem and not a spinal one, so that's good news. It's anti inflammatories, PT twice a week (in my free time....) and a back brace for mama. After I picked the kids up from school, we raced to the ear doctor, with Sophia and Bella screaming pretty much the entire way. We got there late because of traffic, and I jumped out and attempted to put the seats back in the triplet stroller, which we have to use now that Bella outgrew her infant carrier. (I have to take the seats out every time because I haven't figured out yet how to close the stupid thing with the seats in). So while I am frantically attempting to assemble the stroller, both kids manage to kick off a shoe (the tennis shoe lace kind) and Bella manages to fill her pants. I piled all three kids into the stroller, threw the loose shoes into the bottom of the stroller, grabbed the diaper bag and ran for the elevator to the second floor. Once up there, I signed the kids in and plopped down in a chair to rest. After a two second rest, I started to get snacks and sippies out for the kids when a man walked up to me and asked, "Do you drive a blue Expedition?" I said yes and he asked, "Would you like me to close your door for you?". Yes, that's right, I am losing my mind. I got the kids all the way upstairs but forgot to close my car door. The man was nice enough to leave his two daughters in the waiting room and go all the way back down and close my door for me so the "crazy lady" wouldn't have to take all three kids to do it. It's nice to know there are still some good people in this world. Anyway, after an hour wait and cruising circles in the waiting room 5000 times, we managed to get out of the office and listen to Bella wail most of the way home.
The good news is, the kids recovered after we got home and we spent a considerable amount of time this evening giggling and rolling around on the floor as a family. Apparantly our pest control guy forgot to spray for tickle bugs :)
(Also, either Lucas and Sophia have learned to tickle, or Bella just thinks it's hysterical when they poke her and say "tickle tickle" because they even had HER belly laughing!)
Always an adventure at our house. The kids are already asking for "More Nana Papa Howwwwwwse!" so we may try to make another trip this summer, maybe for the State Fair! I hope that your day is not nearly as eventful as mine has been, but that you get to hear the sweet sound of giggling toddlers and babies... you know, that sound of just absolute pure joy :)
