Before I Had Kids, I Never..... (Part III)

If you haven't read the previous parts, click here for Part I and here for Part II.

Back by popular demand, here's Part III (I can't seem to stop writing these!)

Before I had kids, I never......

• had someone ask me what I was coloring as I was writing the grocery list.
• realized how little control I really have in life.
• knew that "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the ABC's song have the same melody.
• had a crowd watch me change a diaper.
• knew how long a box of raisins could keep a little kid busy.
• thought I would answer a question with "Because I said so!" (I made it 5 years until I caved in, though.)
• knew how completely amazing it is to feel your child move inside of you.
• had any idea how tired I could get of saying: "Stay away from each other!"
  "Where are your pants?" "Say you're sorry." and "Eat your vegetables."
• knew how tired I could get of hearing: "Mine!" "I do it!" "He pushed me."
• fully appreciated how gracious God was by creating young child that needed naps.
• thought my kids could reach locked drawers from underneath and pull out the pizza cutter.
• feared how powerful my parents curse was "to someday have a child that eats just like me".
• realized that leaving a box of wipes by a toddler is just as dangerous and giving them a box of Kleenex.
• had ballerinas and princesses parading through my kitchen as I cleaned up after a meal.
• thought of getting up at 9am as sleeping in.
• was told how important it was to pull the leg ruffles out on diapers.
• thought of refilling the liquid soap as something fascinating to watch.
• kept a box of Kleenex in my car at all times.
• wiped the nose of a teddy bear.
• saw someone drive a toy stroller up the side of a wall.
• thought I would hear "You're not bleeding - you don't need a BandAid" on a daily basis in my home.
• thought reading the phrase "party pooper" would make my 5-year old laugh for 5 minutes straight.
• had someone ask me to put pepper on their strawberries.
• noticed all the light fixtures and fans and other amazing things on the ceilings of all the places I visit.
• knew how annoyed I would get by little people walking in front of me when I'm in a hurry (and resent them deciding how fast I can walk).
• appreciated how much effort goes into pigtails look like someone older than 5 made them.
• thought about how I will never get sick of watching my kids spontaneously hug and cuddle with each other.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Jekyll & Hyde Day

Yesterday was supposed to be a good day. Really, it was. First of all, I had my check and forms all ready to turn in so that the trio can go to preschool next year TWO days a week (thanks to a multiples discount we can get!) Also, you may have heard, Denny's was giving away free Grand Slam Breakfasts. So I had it all planned out. I was going to drop Alyssa off at preschool, and then take Lauren, Drew and Jack to meet my mom at a Denny's by her house. I thought it would be a great way to break up the winter monotony, and celebrate that Lauren and Drew don't seem to have any food allergies anymore and Jack can at least eat wheat now!

Enter snowstorm. On the way to take Alyssa to preschool (and, of course, we were running really late), we almost slid off road during what is normally a 3 minute drive. So that made Denny's a no go, and I was trying to convince myself that it was better not to eat all those calories anyway.

So then we got home, and as the kids were unloading from the van, I walked out to the mailbox to mail yet another letter about the accident I was in (back in November '07). I think a little angel whispered in my ear, "Keep your keys with you just in case." Yet, even after making this conscious decision - because I have just about seen it all from these kids and don't trust them a bit - I was still surprised at what happened next. Just as I was the farthest from the garage that I was going to get, down went the garage door. I felt like I was moving in slow motion to get back to the door, and by the time I got there, the door was all the way down. Did I mention that there was a bad snowstorm going on at this time? So I kept banging on the door saying, "Hit the button!!!" "Open the door!" I didn't even know who had locked me out (there is power in numbers!), so I couldn't even call a name. I knew I had the keys with me, so I didn't panic too much. But let's just say my Dad calls our house Ft. Knox for a reason - it is a pain to open the front door. But after a few minutes out in the snowy cold, someone had mercy on me and hit the button and opened the door. I didn't think any of my neighbors saw me, but I'm sure they were amused if they did. It seems to be yet another one of those sitcom moments that I seem to find myself in a lot lately. Sometimes I feel badly for our neighbors, because we haven't exactly done the best job of keeping up the house the last few years. But yesterday, I thought at least getting to laugh at us like that makes up for it!

So after that, we all went back in the house and went about our way. I set about cleaning up the breakfast mess, with a slight modification. The kitchen sink was clogged, so I had to rinse the breakfast dishes in the bathroom sink and I used wipes instead of the more environmentally friendly way of scrubbing down the kitchen table. But, at least I knew the plumber was coming after lunch.

Around 11am (an hour before I have to pick up Alyssa at preschool), Lauren lets me know that she has to use the facilities. She is doing so well with the potty training that I usually just let her in and then come back and check on her in a couple of minutes. Well, a couple of minutes later, she runs out to me and says, "Come see what happened." I thought that was a little odd as I had already heard the evidence being flushed away, but I knew I better check it out. She pointed to the toilet, and I thought said, "Look, it's blue." I thought that was strange, as all I saw was clear water. So I just kind of nodded my head. Then she got a little more emphatic and said, "No, it's blue." At least that's what I thought she said. I just played along and said something about the water. Then she got more frustrated and practically stuck her head in it trying to show me something. At this point, I noticed a toy on the counter that I hadn't noticed her bring in to the bathroom. I feared the worst. So I took a step back and sure enough, there was a screw from the "Build and Play" toy that she brought in there. She wasn't saying blue, she was saying screw!

Up until this point, I thought I did a pretty good job of handling all the curve balls and stress that had been thrown my way. But dealing with toilets like that completely grosses me out. I have cleaned up all kinds of messes since becoming a parent, but I don't do any kind of work with toilets (or clogs for that matter). Then I think I panicked a little bit. I was trying to think of a way to retrieve the screw using disposable tools, but I was drawing a complete blank. I think by then I also needed some adult conversation, too. Since Schlep was in class, I couldn't call him. So I decided to see if my old labmate would pick up the phone; he was always good with problem solving and engineering dilemmas. Luckily, he answered and helped me accept that I was just going to have to use a kitchen utensil that I could "take one for the team". Luckily, there was a pair of tongs in the drawer that were rusting and I had a dishwashing glove. So while I had some moral support on the phone, I plucked out the screw and threw away the sacrificial glove and tongs. Mission accomplished. (That was lucky for Schlep, as Plan B was to close off the bathroom until he got home to do the retrieving.)

I would also like to stop at this time and thank my friends on Facebook who offered me support and suggestions. I thought using a bread bag was an especially good idea. But best of all, it was good to know that someone was out there who cared. Thank you. Thank you very much!

At this point, I was thinking about how the day wasn't even halfway over and I wasn't sure if I could take whatever else it might bring. My imagination was running wild with what the plumber might find in the kitchen sink. At least I was too busy to dwell on it for very long.

I went to pick up Alyssa from preschool, and a friend offered to watch the kids in the van so I didn't have to unload them. That is such a huge hassle, especially on days with snowstorms, so I thought to myself that things were starting to look up. There was only one problem - I had let one of the other kids sit in Alyssa's carseat. She lost it! We had a lovely drive home. Sounds emerged from her "new" carseat that resembled an animal with a paw caught in a trap and provided the entertainment for the entire ride home.

Next, it was time to fix lunch and I really had it in for the environment and resorted to paper plates. It was really nice to have such a simple clean up! We finished just in time for the plumber to arrive while I was getting the kiddos ready for naptime. Well, 3 hours and $178 later, the sink was fixed. It turns out that the idiots who installed the pipes in the basement didn't brace them correctly, and they had a nice curve in them instead of being straight. So that is fixed now, too, and hopefully, our pipes won't get gunked up again. I'm not holding my breath, though.

During this time, I also called to check on the status of our the loan to refinance our house. I have heard of several stories where it has fallen through, because the appraisal came back too low. We had expected to hear something earlier, so I thought it might be bad news. At this point I figured I might as well get it all out of the way today. Well, it turns out that our appraisal came out great - even higher than expected. We should know in the next couple of days if everything went through, and then we can start getting estimates on getting our basement done. Yeah! Talk about my day taking a turn for the better.

So after that, things went pretty smoothly. We had fun playing golf on the Wii with the kiddos. It is hilarious to see how they swing. Or at least try to swing. We have to work our on putting a lot, though (especially before Uncle Mo comes for a visit). I am beginning to think the kids keep overshooting the hole on purpose, so they can get another turn, though.

The day ended well, especially when my husband gave me the night off. When I got home he had even vacuumed and mopped the floor! What a man! It just goes to show you that no matter how badly your day is going, it can always end well. And if not, you always get a fresh start to try it again tomorrow.

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Snippets

Here are a few snippets from our life that don't particularly have anything to do with each other, but I have to record them somewhere so I can look back someday and laugh. You, on the other hand, can laugh about them today.

 

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We've known for a while that Lauren doesn't need as much sleep as the boys. Occasionally on the monitor, we will hear her wake up first and say, "Dack, wake up!" or "Dewww, wake up." We figure she gets bored and wants someone to play with. But Dave and I were cracking up when last weekend we heard her yelling "STAY AWAKE! STAY AWAKE!" at the top of her lungs. She may be little, but she sure can yell. The boys must have been out cold, because we didn't hear a response.

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I've told you already about the problems we had finding childproof knobs that Jack couldn't open. (Click here for Part I and here for Part II.) Now he has figured out how to climb over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, how to turn on a lamp (that bugged him for a whole day) and how to open the big sliding door on the van. Eye yi YI! This picture is of him working on the gate over a year ago.

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Drew, the big goofball, has now decided that it is fun to run around with his pants around his ankles. So out of the blue, he will just pull his pants down and start running around our yard until he trips and falls. I'm sure our neighbors probably wonder why we say "Drew, pull your pants up!" all the time.

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Alyssa had just taken some medicine when she realized she needed to use the facilities. She came to me to double check that this was ok. She was afraid she would wash the medicine out. I guess she thought there was a direct line from from her stomach to her bladder.

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This week, we were going through Alyssa's candy stash, trying to get rid of some things before Halloween. I was chewing a couple of pieces of bubble gum at the table while the kids finished up their dinner. Without even thinking about, I started blowing some bubbles. The kids were ooo-ing and aaaahh-ing at them and saying more and do it again. It never even crossed my mind that this would be something new and fascinating to them. So after about a dozen tries, I was able to get a really good bubble going. It was about the size of my head. Then all of a sudden it popped, as bubbles do. A ton of it stuck to my glasses (which I still haven't gotten off all the way - will peanut butter work on that?) and all over my cheek. As soon as the kids saw their Mommy with bubble gum all over her face, they broke into immediate hysterical tears. I guess I was a frightening sight. All Dave and I could do was laugh, and Dave is still walking around saying "That was awesome."

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One of the cutest things I get to watch is how Lauren just idolizes her big sister. She follows her around everywhere and tries to be just like her by putting her spoon in the sink like she does, putting her sippy cup of milk in the fridge like big sis and they even like to dress alike. One day in the back yard I noticed that Lauren was acting as Alyssa's little lackey by bringing sand back and forth between the sandbox and the treehouse on the top of their playset. That at least explained where all the sand was coming from. I love watching them play with their dolls together, though. It is too cute.

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Jack is by far my favorite to kid to clean up at the table. First of all, he is almost always the cleanest. He doesn't like to be dirty, and I can even tell when I am doing laundry which clothes were his. But I also love it when I wipe his face. He makes this "buh ba buh ba" sound as I wipe his mouth. I'll have to get a video of it sometime. It cracks me up!

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Drew is our ball fanatic. He sees balls everywhere he looks, be it a rock, cantaloupe or bald guy on the newspaper. One day in the backyard I was kind of bored and hit one of our balls with a bat. Drew looked at me as if to say "Mom, you've been holding out on me? I never knew you do that with a bat!" So I taught him how to hold the bat and swung a few times. Then I threw a ball straight up and we hit it. He got the sweetest smile on his face, like that was one of the neatest things he has ever done. So now every time we are in the backyard, he always brings me a bat and a ball. If I pitch him a beach ball, he can hit it back to me. See Mom and Dad, all those years of playing softball did help me later in life.

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Here's a conversation that Alyssa and I had recently:

A: Mommy, are you going to have any more new kids?

Me: No honey, I think I am done.

A: [Looks very disappointed and gets very upset.]

Me: Where would we put another baby?

A: Put it in the room with the rest of them.

Me: Where would we put its things?

A: In the room with the rest of their stuff.

Me: Well, how many more kids did you want me to have?

A: Five! I really like babies.

Me: I guess so! 

Once I got over the shock of this conversation, it made me feel better that she wasn't too scarred from having triplets join the family or she wouldn't be asking for another baby!

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Lately at our house, it seems like we have been having themes to our meals. One lunch became Knock Knock Joke Day. Of course, the jokes were only funny to the under 5 crowd, but the little kids at least got the jist of when to say "Who's there?" Another meal became Walrus Dinner Night. Just feed your kids sausage links and French fries, and you, too, can have Walrus Night at your house!

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Alyssa is now asking deep questions before she goes to bed at night. One night she asked me "Is Santa Claus real?" I started explaining about a man named Kris Kringle, and then she asked more questions. To one of them I answered, "Well, let's see what Daddy thinks." Then I ran downstairs, grabbed Dave by the hand, and said, "Help, she is asking questions about Santa Claus!" Tonight she was asking me all kinds of questions about how the sun comes up and down. The nerd in me couldn't resist talking about the rotation of the earth. She said she claims she understood it. We'll see. But who says you can't use a Biology degree when you are a full-time mom!

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Mondays are always tough days for me, as I am missing the help of my amazing husband as well as facing the prospect of me and the kids for the week. This Monday was particularly awful, though. The kids all had colds, and two of them were throwing up the day before, so a playdate was out. I'm not brave enough to take them many places by myself, so that meant another day at home. I happened to look outside as I was getting the kids breakfast, and my eye was drawn to a fluffy white tail. As I looked closer, it turned out to be a dead rabbit in our backyard. We do have a rabbit that visits us occasionally, and I wondered if it was him (that's him a while ago under the swingset like he owns it).

But I thought we were on good terms! How could he up and die on me with no husband around to rescue me, especially on a day when I needed the kids to run around in the back yard for all of our sanity? So after two hours, I decided I couldn't let it stop us from going out. So I approached it with a shovel. It took me two tries (with coming back in the house in between) before I could get within two feet of it. Then I got the idea to try to shove it into a box so I wouldn't have to look at it. The flaps got in the way, though. I tore those off and tried again, but ended up shoving the thing halfway under the fence. I screamed like a girl, I jumped up and down, and I ran away several times, but finally went at it with a shovel. I got it back from beneath the fence, but flipped it over. At least the eye on that side wasn't staring at me. Then I got it almost in the box (after more girl screaming, parading and the kids asking what I was doing), and then when I went to lift the box upright, it fell out again. It was one of those moments that I am sure would have cracked everyone up if I really was on a reality show. I was so girly it was unreal! Finally, I got it into the box and dragged it just outside the fence and ran inside and scoured my hands (even though I didn't touch the thing). Yes, I have a biology degree and did research for 9 years, but I never dissected anything  and I never killed anything that had eyes that could look at me (that was my rule). But I conquered my fear and it seemed like everywhere I looked the rest of the day were toys or books with bunnies on them. What a terrible Monday. That's not all that happened, but it was the worst of it. Am I imagining it, or did stuff like this start happening to me when I had triplets?

 

Hope your Monday was better than mine!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Something is Wrong With This Picture

This was the sight we betook when we were trying to get dinner on the table on Saturday. Can you guess what's wrong!?

It's the little things like this that keep us laughing.

God bless,

Amanda

Jack is Back

Thanks for all your well wishes, everyone! Jack got back home yesterday afternoon. I am so relieved the worst is over. The second drive to the hospital was one of the longest of my life. I was picturing them putting tubes down his throat and hooking him up to IVs, but they didn't have to do any of that. (It was kind of funny, though, that we got there just as the night shift was coming back to work, so we had a lot of the same nurses again. I walked in and said, "We're ba-aack.") He is doing SO much better and slept through the night finally last night. He is taking a pretty good nap right now, too. He was wheezing a little bit this morning, but they sent us home with breathing treatments and some steroids and that all seems to be helping.  Little kids just amaze me. They get sick so fast, but recover just as quickly. In fact, he is feeling so much better that he is doing this. (He flips things over when he gets mad.)

Our night at the hospital was pretty rough. Jack had another one of those inconsolable fits for about 2 hours, starting at about 11:30pm. I almost got him to sleep at 1am, but the respiratory therapist came in and woke him up. He really did need some help breathing, though. I really liked the guy, as he completely explained the medicines to me, and even let me put on the stethoscope and compare my normal breathing (about the only normal thing in my life!) to Jack's wheezing. It was really neat. After that, Jack went to sleep pretty easily, so I think the trouble he had breathing was part of his problem getting to sleep. We made it through, but how did I make it for months with 3 newborns!? Two nights of not much sleep is just killing me!

When I brought Jack home, it was a happy reunion. Dave and Alyssa came out and greeted us at the car. Drew and Lauren were still sleeping. When they woke up, I took Jack upstairs with me. He got sidetracked in the hallway, though, by throwing a tantrum because I wouldn't let him into Alyssa's room. So when I got Lauren, she was pointing down the hall excitedly and said, "Crying. Jackson." When I got her out and told her to give Jackson a hug, she did and told him "miss you" and he said it back. It was so cute seeing two people under 3 feet tall talking like that. Dave said that when Jack was gone they were also pointing to his crib when they went to bed and got up and said, "Crib. Jack." They were also really quiet that night when he was gone, too.

We are doing breathing treatments every 4 hours right now. Drew and Lauren know the mask and the equipment well, and they say, "Jack's medicine," whenever they see it. Then when Jack is all done with his treatments, I have to take turns putting the mask on Drew's face and Lauren's. I'm not sure if they are just curious or jealous of the attention. They were sure fighting over the new sippy cup with Gatorade in it that Jack brought home. Luckily, they haven't fought over his new bear that he got at the hospital. Here he is with his two buddies that got him through the ordeal, his "Baba" and "Bear." (Bear's paw has a nice advertisement for the hospital on it.)

Well, now I am back to life as usual, but appreciating it much more this time. (I did end of up getting maid service in the hospital, though!) I jumped right back into insane mode when I got back home. I literally ran to get into the shower before Jack was even unloaded from the car, because Dave had to leave for tennis practice right away (he is still selecting who will be on the team this year). While I was at the hospital, Dave told me, "Something smells funny in our fridge." I think I found the two fruity-natural-penicillin-making culprits this morning. You gotta love baking soda at times like these. Next, I am off to order some crib tents, as Jack and Lauren were both out of their cribs when I got them this morning. I think you'll agree that we have tried every crib conformation possible. I am also hoping this will contain the books that Drew loves to throw at Lauren's head. Every time I go to get her, it seems like she is pointing to her head and saying, "Drew. Hitting me." Finally, I hope to find the instructions for our DVD player online. Movies are working well at keeping the kids occupied and Jack still during breathing treatments. However, the VCR choices are fewer. I am hoping they can tell me how to navigate through Spanish menus to get back to English. Then I will worry about the sound. I have a feeling they won't nap long enough for me to do all of this, though.

Life is good! Thanks God!

God bless,

Amanda

Back At Work

Well, I am back at work now. After a summer of leisure (sort of), I am back to watching the kids by myself for long stretches now. Last Wednesday, Dave went into school to get some things ready for Monday (his first official day back at school) and he had a coach's meeting afterwards. We kind of split the day and he took the kids to the grocery by himself in the morning (brave man, I know). I got to have lunch with some of my buddies from my previous career. When I got home, the kids were already down for a nap. We usually put them to bed in their sleep sacks (backwards, so they can't get them off). However, we have been having the leftovers of another stomach bug that the kids caught (the poor grandparents and other friends had to deal with sick kids while we were gone). So, the sleep sacks were all in the wash, so Dave put them down for a nap without them. Two little children didn't sleep the whole time naptime. The third, meanwhile, was sound asleep with his hiney hanging out and his diaper on the floor when I walked in to get the other two. And, nope, I wasn't lucky enough to escape cleaning up a mess this time.

While I was changing the sheets, the kids were going nutso. It's almost like Dave gave them mochas before he left or something. So the phone rang, and it was a friend from church asking me to speak at the upcoming women's retreat (pray for me!). During our somewhat deep conversation, I had to interrupt our conversation 3 different times. The first time was to break up a gang hitting incident. The second time was because they had pulled our cheap shades off the wall again. They took the roller the shades were on and were playing tug-of-war with it, having sword fights with it, and hitting each other with it. Then finally, they were fighting because they found two pairs of my shoes. But, since, there were four of them and only two pairs of shoes, a fight ensued. So while I was on the phone, I went into my closet and grabbed two more pairs of sacrificial shoes. I threw them at the kids much like a zookeeper giving raw meat to the lions. 

Afterwards I thought, you know what, I didn't miss having adventurous phone calls like that while I was in New York. I didn't think about wiping off the table and cleaning up food 3 times a day. Other people cleaned up after me! I didn't miss the whining, screaming, fighting, and disciplining that are an integral part of my day. I didn't miss times like on Friday when I was laying on the couch trying to have an adult conversation with my husband and my son came up and headbutted me in the eye. Then drooled on me when his Dad picked him up and made him say sorry. In New York, I would put things down, and no one would move them, except for the maid tidying up! (The maid!!!!) I ate hot meals start to finish, I had lots of adult conversations that weren't interrupted, and I only had to change clothes when I was the one who spilled something on them! And I didn't have to fix 3 different meals due to allergies and picky eaters. Instead, I had people cooking awesome food for me! I would sit and read a chapter or two in a book - non-stop, without interruptions, and without having to re-read a paragraph to remember what I was reading about. Now I am lucky to get an article read in the newspaper. Ahhh, boy did I need a break from all that, I mean this! Now, I get to deal with fun things like our DVD player, which now has no sound and the menus are all in Spanish (after Alyssa messed with the buttons to skip a scene on her movie). Yo hablo Espanol?

Another thing I didn't mess while we were in NYC was the war on ants. We have had a terrible time with them this year. Has anyone else out there? I can't imagine why we they would like our house, with 4 kids living here. Maybe it's because of times like a couple of days ago, when Lauren dragged the Sit 'n Spin over to the counter to use it as a ladder. She had found the grapes, but when I noticed they were way past their expiration date, I grabbed them before they got to her mouth. I know, I am such a mean mommy by not letting my kids eat rotten food. And if Jack hadn't pulled the Sit 'n Spin over earlier to turn the coffee pot on, she probably wouldn't have even known about the grapes. In case you are wondering why our kids don't just climb on the counters using chairs like most kids in America, it's because we put the chairs in the other room. That way they don't climb up and find the remote for the car and honk the horn (not that we don't do that ourselves) and do things like turn the coffee pot on! I will say one thing for the ants, though, at least they were nice enough to let Dave know where the dead rodent was in our garage instead of springing that one on me!

Did I mention how much I enjoyed having a maid clean up after us while we were on vacation. It was wonderful to come back to our room after seeing the sights and sounds and having the bed made, trash dumped, and the bathroom cleaned, including nice little V's folded onto the ends of the toliet paper. Now that I am home, I have decided that not only do my kids have new-dar, but they also have clean-dar. Clean-dar is when an alarm bell goes off in our children's heads to mess up something we have just cleaned. Like when I wipe off the door to the stove, then they come over and get fingerprints all over it. Or when I actually take time to wipe down the walls in the kitchen (this is not very often, I assure you), there are always new food spills on just those walls by the end of the day. Before we left, the kids put some really cheap stickers on the windows on either side of our front door. Well, with my I'm-all-refreshed-from-vacation burst of energy, I decided to get ambitions and scrape them off and get the Windex out. I had wrongly assumed that since these stickers barely stay on a paper for a day that they would come right off my windows. I'm sure the sun baking them on didn't help, but can anyone tell me why cheap sticker adhesive stands up to Windex but not the treacherous likes of a piece of paper?! Lucky for me, I have my trusty Pampered Chef tool, that also works great at taking concrete hardened oatmeal off the crevices of my kitchen table, too. And speaking of stickers, the other day I also found another cheap little sticker behind Lauren's ear that had been there most of the day. When I inquired why (that was my first mistake), I was told that Drew wanted to give her an earring. Again, why can these cheap little stickers stay put behind a triplet toddler's ear all day, and yet I am still left with stickers on my windows? Am I on Candid Camera?

The cribs were in this new formation when we got home from our trip (don't mind that little boy with toliet paper covering his tushy).

Why? Because when my mom went to get the boys up from their nap, and Drew was not only in Jack's crib, but bouncing on Jack's back! Just before we left, he had started doing a superman dive across the cribs, ending with a somersault landing in another crib.We tried another formation (not pictured) that also didn't work. What was my first clue? Dave asked me who was in what crib when I put them to bed after he got them up from their nap. Then we tried to go back to my mom's configuration (above) which would have been fine, except for one crib blocking the closet door. Evidentially, we put them too close, because Drew was landing in Lauren's crib again, and we weren't sure how he got there. I peeked in and saw him lean across (just the corners of their cribs were in the vicinity of each other). Then I heard Lauren grunt, like she was pulling hard on something. Then she said "Excuse us. Excuse us." (I have no idea where that came from. Maybe she thought that's what you say when you are coming through a tight space with something heavy.) Then I heard a thud and they laughed excitedly and started to play together. Mystery solved.

So now we have them in this configuration.

And check out the progress they have made on stripping the border. Jack has even made it down to the paint in one section.

We hire them out for very reasonable rates, if you are interested. I bet some of those home improvement shows could use them.

I don't mean to complain. I've just got the Monday-after-vacation blues. Except for today is Wednesday, and I've been back a week now. But I did start writing this on Sunday. But we had a pediatrician appt Monday (more on that later), and yesterday I threw my back out, and well, that's why I am finishing this on Wednesday. I really do love my kids and enjoy this crazy life we have, but I just wanted to reminisce about the good ole' days of vacation. Thanks for letting me vent!

God bless,

Amanda

PS Have I mentioned that 3 of my 4 kids now have a cold? I hope it's from the shots from Monday.

PPS How about those Olympics. I've gotten in the habit of thinking "Hey, let's watch the Olympics tonight and see Michael Phelps win a gold medal and break a world record!"

Flashback

Here's a family favorite we have watched many times. This is a video of Alyssa bouncing on Daddy's shoulders to a song he made up. She used to absolutely love this as a baby! It would make her so happy and smiley. This was filmed back in May 2004, when Alyssa was only 5 months old. Don't you love it when you actually catch moments like this on video?

Enjoy!

 

 

God bless,

Amanda

Pass the butter

So today I was scurrying around the kitchen trying to get lunch for all 5 of us. Alyssa had eaten most of her lunch before I sat down, and she was still hungry. So I made her a second English muffin half, and as I went over to the table to put butter on it, I opened the lid to the butter dish and was greeted with this.

I should have been mad and disciplined her right away, but I just couldn't keep a straight face with this one. The thing that really got me was that I was there the WHOLE TIME she did this; it was a perfectly normal-looking stick of butter 10 minutes earlier when I made her first English muffin half! I didn't hear the clang of the butter dish, and she didn't even utter a sneaky little giggle as she did it. I asked her if she ate it straight off the dish or if she picked it up and ate a hunk and put it back. She did the latter. Nothing like straight, plain, unmelted butter. Yum. Makes you really want to eat at our house, huh? God bless, Amanda

It's the Little Things That Make You Smile

As you can imagine, life in our house is pretty chaotic these days. The workload alone keeps me hopping and I have accepted that my house will never win any "Housekeeping of the Year" awards. But as I stopped to catch my breath, I realized that there are lots of little things throughout the day that make me laugh or smile. Here's a sample of some moments that made me smile the last 24 hours in our house:

* As we sat eating dinner, we looked over a Drew, who was supposed to be happily eating his yogurt out of the suction cup bowl we bought for such an occasion. Instead, he has stuck it on the patio door behind him.

* In the morning, before I get the little kids out of their cribs, I have to give Drew his medicine for acid reflux. I give it to him by syringe and then rinse it out. I forgot to shut the bathroom door, so when Jack was out of his crib and noticed it, he stood looking at the door saying "ut oh, ut oh."

* Alyssa likes to hold blank photo albums and flip the pages as she "reads" stories that she has made up for us. (It really confuses the triplets when she is done and they grab the same album and see nothing on the pages.) One of my favorites is the story about Daniel from the Bible. She ended it with "and Pharaoh hit him with the car."

* Lauren fell down the stairs (she only has access to two of them). I wasn't there to see what happened, so I was quizzing Alyssa for some clues to which injuries I needed to nurse. When I asked Alyssa where Lauren hit, she said, "on the wall." I guess next time I'll have to specify "Which part of Lauren's body was injured?"

*Shortly after I got Lauren to stop crying, Jack changed from quietly sitting next to me on the step to balling his eyes out. Then when I thought out loud "Why is he crying?" Alyssa said, "Mommy, he's got a ball stuck in his mouth." After I was sure he wasn't in any danger (it was a ping pong ball that we had confiscated a while back), this made me laugh out loud. He kept getting madder and madder. It reminded me of the scene in airplane where the woman has eggs coming out of her mouth. You just never know what you'll see around here - especially when you think all the ping pong balls have been hidden for months.

* A couple of minutes after Lauren and Jack both calmed down, someone decided it was a brilliant idea to bang their head on the wall. This made the other kids laugh. The next thing I know, all 4 of my kids are purposely banging their heads on the wall and giggling about it the whole time. At least I didn't have to worry about their injuries anymore!

* In the morning the kids like to look out the window and watch the bus go by. The triplets can all say "bus" now. It's so cute to look at them all from behind staring out the window. But now when they look out the window they say bus. They seem confused that it's not there all the time.

* When it's time to get dressed, Alyssa often likes to pull her nightgown down just below her shoulders and wear it hula style and do a little dance. But today she has gone through a growth spurt and can't wear her nightgown that way anymore. She cried hysterically, because she can't do the hula in it anymore.

* The kids fight frequently over the toy of the day. Today it was the giggle stick. There is something about these little people with big heads, not much hair and short stubby legs duking it out that makes me laugh sometimes. You don't have to teach them to act like siblings. It just comes naturally.

* Alyssa and Lauren were walking around the obstacles on the family room floor. Alyssa informed me that they were mermaids and they were trying to avoid the sharks. Who knew we could fit in an aquarium in that room, too?

* Thanks to several generous people, we were able to cash in 3 gift cards and get a small bounce house for the kids to burn off energy in. It's so fun to watch them bounce around and see their hair stick straight up as the static electricity builds up. Lauren is a manic in that thing and her little body bounces so high, that sometimes I think she will bounce right out of it.

* Alyssa loves to dance all the time, so naturally, the triplets want to be just like their big sister. Whenever we put music on now, the triplets bop up and down and twirl around. It's really cute when all 3 of them do it at once.

* As I was in the kitchen working, I looked over and Alyssa and Lauren were sitting on the Dora beanbag chair together. Alyssa was "reading" her little sister a book. A few minutes later, the boys joined them and I had all 4 kids perfectly posed for a picture.

* I was holding Drew on my hip and we were near the kitchen counter. He decided out of the blue that it was just hilarious to bend backwards and rest his head on the counter. I still don't know why that was funny.

* The triplets are just getting to the point where they are starting to run everywhere. They are still pretty new at it, so sometimes their little legs don't work too well. It's cute to see as the stumble a bit on the way to their new adventure. Sometimes they like to run to the front door and back. Sometimes they make a sound like aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh. They seem to enjoy hearing how the sound changes as their feet hit the ground and change the vibration of it.

* As I was going about my daily chores, I happened to look across the room to see Alyssa hopping across the floor like a bunny.

* Before we eat, I load the triplets in their booster chairs and put on their bibs. This is something we call "lock and load." Jack got a little impatient today and for the first time just crawled right up into his chair and was sitting there waiting for me to buckle him into it.

* I remember a time when the kids didn't even know how to feed themselves finger food. Now, as I dish out the food, they point to a spot on their tray and show me where they want it.

* I forgot to space out the kids enough when I put them in their seats for lunch today. Next thing I know, Drew is grabbing Jack's bib and strangling him with it.

* During lunch time Alyssa fielded a phone call for me. She said, "Mommy, it's for you. It's the operator."

* A little bit later into lunch, Alyssa asked me, "So mommy, how was your day?" You would have thought she hadn't been with me all day, including first thing in the morning when she woke me up!

* Often when Jack is sitting in his chair, he will say "Mommy!" If I respond with "Jackson" he says "Mommy again and we go back and forth. The really funny thing is that the way he says it, you would think he was in the mafia or on the show "The Sopranos."

* After lunch, loading the dishwasher is quite a challenge. Not only do I have to keep little people away from the knives, but I also have to keep them from crawling into it. So instead I turn it into a game that they can help me close the door. Then I thank them by "giving them dawg" (hitting our fists, kind of like gimme 5). But I have to give dawg to all 3 of them then.

* Later I looked over at Lauren, and she is just babbling away on her toy cell phone. I don't know who she has to call at the age of a year and a half, but it sure did seem important.

* We have some of those plastic frogs that you push down the tail and then they jump up high. The kids were bringing them to me and just giggling as they flew threw the air. They were trying to do it themselves, but just don't have the finger strength yet. We also found the windup bunny that goes around in circles. You would have thought I had taken them to a carnival!

* I had a bit of a cold, so Alyssa spent the day nursing me back to health with homemade pretend plastic cherry pie soup. It was delicious. I think.

* The closet in the kids' room has become a mess of once sorted shoes. It was all over when the kids decided that was a fun place to play. Lauren brought me a shoe to put on and it was a summer sandal I had been wanting to check the fit on anyway. It fit just right, but I told Lauren that I had no idea where the other one was. A couple minutes later she came back from the abyss of the closet and handed me the other sandal to put on. She wore them for an hour, too!

* Later, as I held Drew again on my hip, he decided that he had to have my thumb to eat. It wasn't time for him to eat, he just thought my thumb was a luscious thing to chew on at that instant.

* In the family room where the kids like to play, Lauren decided to climb up on one of the little shelves and laid down for a bit. Life is rough at her age.

* It is so precious when the triplets want something like a ball and I give it to them and they get the sweetest smile on their face.

* Alyssa did a curtsey. Lauren wanted to be just like her sister, so she tried to do a curtsey, too. The only problem was that she had pants on and didn't have much to grab to do a curtsy with.

* For some odd reason, the kids think it's really fun to take off my shoes. So when I actually sat down for a minute, there is Drew taking off my shoe.

* Last but not least, I even had a moment to laugh during naptime. I was enjoying the peaceful calm time of the day, but I was also looking out the window to see if it was freezing rain or snow coming down at this point. I happened to be looking when the mail lady came by. Evidently, it was freezing rain, because as she went to deliver my mail, I noticed her pull out a mallet and pound on my mailbox to get it open. Isn't it a federal crime or something to beat a mailbox with an object like that? Yet it was the mail lady who did it! That explained why our mailbox was so bent. I thought it was so punk neighbor kids. I never would have guessed it was a federal employee!

I just never know where my laughs will come from around here!

God bless,
Amanda

This was copied and edited from our previous site on Babysites.

Grocery Rescue

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dave here again. We've had a fun Christmas experience so far, and it's been fun to see the babies and Alyssa open presents and play with new toys. Amanda and I sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus with the triplets, and we look forward to the day when we can explain to them the real meaning of Christmas.

Amanda's family came over for Christmas dinner, and being the genius that I am, I did some last minute grocery shopping the night before Christmas. Oh yeah, by the way, all the stores apparently forgot to call me to let me know they close early on Christmas Eve. Isn't Christmas Eve the day when all males go shopping for gifts? How dare all these stores close and deny us men time to shop! Thankfully, Walgreens was open, and they had the items we needed, and Amanda made an incredibly tasty lasagna that would have made Garfield proud.

Yesterday, the day after Christmas, I decided to take Alyssa and Drew to the store with me for a quick grocery stop. It was about 10:30 in the morning, and I told Amanda that I would be quick because lunch for the triplets was at 11:30. Being the experienced shopper that I am, I even made a grocery list in the form of a map, so I could fly through the store.

Alyssa likes going to this particular store, because they have these little kid cars attached to the grocery cart, so that she can pretend to "drive" the grocery cart. Well, usually, there are two steering wheels, but this one only had one because one had broken off.

So, we're flying through the store at an efficient pace, when Alyssa whines to me, "Daddy, my wand fell." (Alyssa was allowed to bring her little princess wand into the grocery.) Now, the problem was that she was placing the wand in a hole where the steering wheel normally is, and she dropped it into the plastic encasing (the kid's cart). I'm not sure even how to explain it, but basically, her 6 inch wand was inside the kid's cart, and I had no idea how to get it out.

This happened right next to the customer service desk, and fortunately for us, the head honcho was right there, and he was determined to rescue the wand for Alyssa. We used Allen wrenches, Phillip's screwdrivers, and needle nose pliers to rescue the wand. We tore apart this cart for about 45 minutes just to get the wand out for Alyssa. Now, some of you may be saying... "All this just for a wand?" ABSOLUTELY!!!! A 4 year old's princess wand means quite a bit to her, and as the mission control director said in Apollo 13, "Failure is not an option!" So, they will continue to get our business because of their desire to make a little girl and her daddy happy.

Well, that's it for now. We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!!

Take care.
Mr. Mom

This was copied and edited from our previous website on Babysites.