Friday, September 28, 2007

Clothing Hell and My Husband's Word Limit

I think one of the hardest things about having triplets is their clothes! That seems like the last thing I should say but I hate it especially the season/sizing changes. I don't have enough space for all their clothes! The photo above is our bed AFTER I had put away about 1/2 the clothes and zero space left. The boys are in 2 different sizes of pants, shirts, and socks. (Don't even get me started on the lack of consistency in children's sizing something Ethan can wear 18 month pants in one brand and 2T in another ARRRGGGHHH!) Then of course Addison has her own clothes and there's the PJ's, sweatshirts, coats, blankets, sheets, and clothing to grow into to keep track of in some sort of organized way. Now I don't have a shopping problem at all: I really don't buy much in the way of clothing for the kids. I only buy clothing on clearance keeping each piece $3 or less and to do that I usually have to buy the out of season stuff so I am buying for the next year which makes it hard to guess on sizes. We have lots of generous family and friends who give us clothing that their children have outgrown. My sister, Keely, picks us up clearance items when she is shopping for Jackson because he is basically the same size as the boys. So the clothing just seems to get out of control . . . I wish I had better storage options and maybe I will need to come up with something right now we have one 5 drawer dresser in their room but last night I could only get Addison shirts & pants, socks, and both boys' shirts in it. Boy's pants wouldn't fit and I have never put their PJs in there. There are 2 huge closets in their room but they are awkward as they have a regular door but are long and narrow. One closet is the baby equipment closet -- doesn't everybody have a baby equipment closet? The other one is clothes -- I have the clothes and shoes we haven't grown into yet, blankets, sheets, hanging clothes, coats, PJs, a couple bins to throw in the clothes that they have outgrown. It's pretty full and hard to get in and out of. I guess I will just have to go back up there this morning and maybe being less tired and less annoyed by my husband I can figure something out. At this point I think Ethan could wear a different shirt from now until next spring and never wear the same shirt twice!

You'd think I would love to spend some time with Aaron without the kids but last night he was driving me crazy! He talks a lot and always has and maybe I have forgotten this. After we were home together about a half hour I was ready to scream . . . he wasn't talking to me about anything specific but just making comments about everything and anything approximately every 3 -4 seconds. I swear he has to say a minimum number of words per day and yesterday he forgot both his work and personal cell phones at home so he didn't get in all his normal talking on the way to and from work. Now I am not so much a talker and enjoy just being quiet a lot especially without 3 screaming kids. I can remember before kids when I taught 1st grade and would come home, it was the same way Aaron would talk and talk and talk. I would have to explain to him that I was just with 25 people who for 7 hours each wanted to talk to me all day long and I now needed some quiet time. I think now that we have kids when he gets home, Aaron and the kids are doing a lot of talking to each other so I get a break. Addison is just like Aaron sometimes she just talks to talk so maybe one of the reason's that Ethan doesn't talk much yet is he is more like me and maybe he is just annoyed by the other two kids yakking it up all the time along with their dad!

I'm headed back upstairs to work in clothing hell in a quiet environment and now that I've had some rest I probably can figure out my clothing problems!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

FREEDOM!

I am currently in my home kidless! In about 3 years time this has happened approximately 5 times. It's very weird! My sister, Keely, is giving me last year's Christmas gift: free babysitting for a weekend which is about the best gift I could ever receive! She drove 3 hours to get here today and loaded the kids in our van since they won't fit in her car and drove away. She is even stopping along the way at my sister, Monica's house, to feed them and give them some stretch room. They've stayed overnight with her last summer without us too and it was for 3 days I think. This time it will only be 2 nights and I am going to get them on Saturday spend the night there myself and we will come home on Sunday.
I have a million and one things I want to do while they are gone: switch out their summer clothes to fall/winter (a HUGE job), clean out the baby equipment closet and get out what we will need in a few weeks, go through tubs of newborn baby clothes, make birthday invites, work on artwork for the baby's room, go shopping for birthday gifts, eat a meal out with my husband at a place we don't get to go with kids, clean our bedroom, and I'm sure there's more . . . I won't get it ALL done but I will get a lot of it done. I may even sleep in tomorrow morning! It's so nice to have time alone to do stuff like this even though it doesn't sound like "fun stuff" -- it's stuff that is always bugging me that isn't done and needs to be but hard to get done with the kids around with 5 million interruptions.

I think they will do fine without us. We talked about it quite a bit. Last time Caden started getting a little "down" the last day and was really quiet and Keely was worried about him but he was just a little homesick. I aleady miss them (they've been gone about 1/2 hour) but I know they are in good hands and will have tons of fun and I do need the break. I owe my sister a huge thank you for this after all, she has a 2-1/2 year old, a 5 month old, 2 dogs, and her husband will be working more than 12 hours on Friday and Saturday! I hope she is sane by the time I get there Saturday!
So Thanks, Keely!
Meanwhile I'd better get off the computer and get busy!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Whew! 3 pound mark!

The baby weighs approximately 3.6 lbs according to the sonogram I had this past Monday. This is quite a relief to me. Babies who weigh over 3 lbs seem to do so much better healthwise if they are born early than babies who weigh less than that. Now I know you are thinking that I have 10 weeks left so why the heck am I making a big deal out of this but this is my mentality after having 3 preemies, one of which weighed 2.6 lbs and stayed in the NICU for almost 6 weeks, struggled with so many health problems his first few months and is now working through speech and developmental delays. The last 2 OB appointments I had I was measuring "small" when the doctors used a tape measure and I was concerned. I was worried that maybe the baby had stopped growing correctly or had some major health issues preventing its weight gain but the ultrasound is saying otherwise and I am feeling otherwise -- this baby is getting big. The technician even showed me how the baby has some fat on its cheeks and I want a fat baby! I know most pregnant women don't want to have a HUGE baby but I do! I would love to have a 10 lb baby! The triplets weighed 9.13 lbs altogether so I know a 10 lb baby will fit in there although I have no idea what I will be wearing if I do grow a 10 pounder -- I'm now down to 2 pair of shorts and 2 pair of jeans that fit me but I'll worry about that if it happens.


When we were getting ready for school a few days ago, I told Caden to get his shoes on. I went out of the room to go get something and came back and he had on Aaron's shoes and socks that were laying on the floor (Aaron thinks his clothes walk to the laundry hamper because he never picks them up). Caden was so proud of himself for putting on those socks by himself -- they are a lot easier to put on than his own tight little socks.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

An Apple Pickin' We Go!

We went to Tanner's Orchard today and boy, was it a neat place where we had a lot of fun!

They have a playground area that is really awesome with a wooden boat and airplane, real tractors to climb on, a real school bus, pony rides, barrel rides, and a straw bale maze. They kids loved the maze and ran around that for a little bit. It was hard in the playground area because they all wanted to go different places and with just Aaron and I we could only be 2 places not 3 and we lost a kid for a few seconds a couple of times. Some of the equipment was for a little bit old children and we didn't check everything out too well and Addison ended up sliding down a 5' fireman like pole in the pirate ship and immediately said "I'm okay" that was a little scary to me. The pony rides were hard too: a parent must stand next to the child and they wouldn't let 2 kids on one pony but the workers were nice and walked by Ethan so no one was left out and let me say ponies do not walk slow at all. Aaron said the same thing so that's not the pregnant me talking.

I would have to say the highlight for all of us was the apple picking. I wasn't sure how that would work. You cannot take strollers or wagons (in our case) out into the orchard and you ride a wagon to the orchard. So they drop you off and the kids were free but didn't run off. The apple tree were the short bush-like kind (dwarf) and just perfect for the kids to pick apples. We filled out little plastic bag that cost $10 and then each child carried about 3 apples back onto the wagon so we got our money's worth. We weren't able to go into the "market area" since there was this huge line but that's okay.


Ethan's favorite part was the goats. There is a bridge for the goats to climb above all the people and the goats even have a caged tree house which was very cool. We should have looked at the goats last and not first because leaving the goats was too much for Ethan. He called them "kitties" I think which makes me a little scared about what he thinks of our two old feeble cats which are about 1/10th the size of even a small goat. We are going to make some applesauce and an apple pie with our apples tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

My Bedtime Bubble Burst

Switching to toddler beds . . . well, Caden switching to a toddler bed . . . was really pretty easy overall. However, yesterday he got up several times during nap: once because he pooped the other 13 times I don't know and he was yelling from our bedroom to the other bedroom and Addison was doing the same. I put them down before 1 pm and they didn't go to sleep until close to 3 and by 4 they were all up! Needless to say, I didn't get much done during nap time other than some exercise of climbing the stairs countless times and exercising my lungs in a whisper yell because Ethan did fall asleep right away but that meant that he was awake by 3:45 to wake the others. And truthfully I don't think Addison EVER sleep anyway. Aaron and I had planned to put Caden back in the kid room last night and put Addison in our room in a converted crib in our room. So before supper we moved everything and put on the "precious Dora sheet" she wanted to badly. Then came bedtime. What a nightmare! Aaron decided he would lay in our bed for a while since it was Addison's first time in our room in a new bed. Ethan who didn't seem concerned about any of this bed switching before now was all confused. One crib missing out of their room, a new toddler bed moved in, Addison missing, and Caden back in . . . he didn't' know what was going on. He decided to handle it by screaming (not crying but screaming like he was seeing a monster) which in turn made Caden cry which made Addison continue to say "Daddy, what's that?" and "That's scary". My kids even at 2 years old know how to tease each other and do so (quite often) by just screaming. Now you think what's the big deal but if they scream and look at a particular person it can make that person cry which when you are 2 that's some major power! They all do it usually not at the same time or Aaron and I would be insane. The screaming thing lasted for about 1/2 hour and I don't know how many times Aaron and I went in there to tell Ethan to be quiet and for Caden to calm down. Then Caden kept getting out of bed -- good thing we have hardwood floors to hear the bare feet walking around. Then Addison would get up to see what Aaron was doing in the boys' room. Then Ethan started crying and Addison said it was too dark even though we had a night light on. I had to go up there and lay in our room after an hour so Aaron could go lay with the boys. After about 1-1/2 hours of all this nobody was even close to sleep and Aaron and I were mad and exhausted from it all. We put Addison's mattress back in a crib and put them all to bed in the same room. I think they were all sleeping by 10. I guess it was too much change all at once. Or maybe it was that yesterday was just one of those days . . . one of those days where it felt like there wasn't 5 minutes of peace around here . . . somebody was whining or crying all day. I don't know why either. I took them to playgroup which was fine except Ethan had some difficulty with circle time and Addison and Caden decided to sit in the middle of the circle and talk to the teacher like they were the only ones there. Ethan didn't want to pick up at the end and I had to take him outside the room and leave Addison and Caden there. Then getting them to cross the busy street to get back to the van was frustrating as 2 were crying and throwing fits and an acquaintance of mine from about 3 years ago got out of their van to "talk" to me while I'm trying to get 3 crying kids in the van who don't want to get in. I was trying to be nice but jeez I was a little busy at the moment. She even got back in her van which was parked next to mine and then said "don't you ever have any help?" Does it look like I have help and if you are thinking I need help why didn't she stop talking to me for 2 minutes so I could get them in the van and buckled? Like Aaron says some people just don't "get it".

Yesterday was one of those days when having triplets was downright hard! Three kids sometimes means three times the crying, three times the whining, three times the amount of hard work, and three times the amount of frustration. Although I have to remember it also means three times the love, kisses, hugs, and three times the amount of fun times too but yesterday was three times as hard!!!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Week 29!

I'm growing right along -- gained 14 pounds and I'm sure more to follow. I thought I was feeling a little more tired but the last few days I've stayed up pretty late (one night until 2 am!) and not felt tired one bit the next day but I'm sure that's right around the corner. The hip pain went away for now too. So things are great at that moment and I just need to hold on for 11 more weeks!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Thrill-seekers!


Last Friday (over a week ago), All Aboard Preschool took our class to the Warren County Prime Beef Festival in Monmouth. It was "Special Persons Day" and we got to ride all the rides we wanted for free. The only time the kids have ever been on a ride is the carousel at the zoo a few times. I wasn't sure if they would be afraid or not because you never know. They rode everything they could more than once and were not afraid in the least bit.

The loved fast things, high things, scary things, and even the slow ones. It was really hot but I'm so glad we went and Aaron took the day off to go so he got to ride with them. I unfortunately didn't ride anything but the carousel because all the rides said not recommended if you are pregnant which was fine. The teachers and therapists were there and helped out and rode with the kids. It is so nice of them to always help us since we are always outnumbered and it makes things like this hard when the kids are still so young.

This event happened during our nap time so I was concerned about that but they did okay until it was time to leave and then we had some meltdowns but they just didn't want to stop.


This slide was really high and there were a ton of stairs to walk up. All three of them did it twice and they loved it. They would have done it over and over if the adults hadn't pooped out on climbing the stairs.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Sewing Frenzy

I went and bought the fabric for Addison's quilt on Wednesday night and washed it all. While I was folding it she fell in love with it and wanted her "blanket". I started cutting at 12:30 and by 5:30 I had the top completely finished. I think it turned out pretty good (but don't look too close). Since she wants Dora sheets (which we will buy this weekend) the orange and pink are perfect for Dora. When she woke up from her nap, she and Caden agreed that it was "pretty". Now I have to do the harder part of quilting and binding it but I plan to try to do it this weekend as I think we may started her big girl bed training next week. Now I am a little more motivated to do a quilt for the baby and I still need to get Ethan's quilt done too but it only needs some borders and to be quilted and binded and I'll be caught up -- it only took me 3 years!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Future Surgeon?

I think Addison is going to be a surgeon. She washes her hands more times than I can count each day. I think that's why she is doing so well with potty training just so she can wash her hands. She can do it all except push the pump down on the liquid soap which is a good thing otherwise I would be buying soap by the gallon each week. She can turn on and off the water and scrub and dry. She is must have the door shut when she goes to the bathroom and says "Mommy, I shutta the door" She doesn't like anyone in there with her but sometimes I insist. If I say leave the door open she will say "Few minutes, Mommy!" She really has never done anything in the bathroom that she shouldn't but you never know so I try not to leave her in there too long. Hope her good hygiene habits continue!


Yesterday we went on a nature walk at school and it was fun. The kids were encouraged to pick up sticks, leaves, pine cones, etc and put in a bag and I think we are making a collage with them on Friday. They had homemade binoculars that we made too to "look" for stuff. They had fun. Ethan is talking up a storm. Mostly labeling and repeating but he does say things on his own too. Lately he's been saying "I cry" when he is crying in case I didn't know and a couple days ago he said "Kitty sleep". He has said some number words like "two" and "four". He is naming lots of animals, their sounds, his and his facial parts. I am very pleased although we have a ways still to go and I think his new speech therapist, Amber, is happy with the progress too.

Caden did well in his toddler bed with day #2 too. We just put him in bed at nap and bedtime and he stayed there and went to sleep. I love it when the kids are "easy"!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Almost a Big Boy!

Day #1 was a success in my opinion on switching child #1 to a big boy bed! Caden did so well. We have one toddler bed that our friend, Sonia, found for $15 on clearance and somebody has to be booted out of a crib in the next 3 months for the baby. So we put the toddler bed in our room to get him used to sleeping in it before he is "free" in the party bedroom. The best part was I got him Spiderman sheets and that made all the difference in the world -- Caden is in love with Spiderman. He carried the package around for a day before we put them on the bed. We made the bed yesterday morning and at 8:30 am he was ready to go night-night. Addison was too and I heard several protests of "I want Dories!" which means I want Dora the Explorer sheets on a big girl bed. I even let him use the baby quilt I made him while I was on bedrest and it needs a few more inches of stitches to finish it but he liked it. At nap time Caden was super eager to get into his bed and Addison was more than upset to not be getting in that bed. I laid in our bed for about an hour and he didn't get up but he flipped around a lot and I finally had to go to the bathroom so I left him there saying now stay in bed. Once I heard him walking and he had snuck into the hallway and grabbed his old Thomas sandals and when he heard me coming he went running back to his bed. I left again and he fell asleep for at least 2 to 2-1/2 hours. He came downstairs when he woke up. We went back upstairs to get Addison and Ethan. Addison woke up in as bad of a mood as she went to sleep screaming "I want my Spiderman bed too!".

He was really excited to show Daddy his big boy bed when he came home too. At bedtime he crawled right in and we tried to plan ahead a little: set the alarm clock to a lower volume and get our clothes for tomorrow out so we wouldn't wake him at 5:30 when we usually get up. He fell asleep in about 45 minutes which is normal for him and I went to check on him a few times and even though we was awake, he stayed in his bed. He slept all night and we didn't' wake him up this morning when we got up and he woke up promptly at 7:30 and came downstairs happy and he and I got to spend some time alone together which never happens. I had to wake Addison and Ethan up finally at 8 so we could get ready for school. So far it's a success and I hope that it continues -- I was planning on keeping him in our room for 2-3 weeks but I think I may be able to move him back to his room in a week and Addison can then join us for her big girl bed training. But I have to get sewing Addison's baby quilt isn't even started yet!

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Another Zoo Trip

We made a third trip to the Niabi Zoo this past weekend. My sister: Keely, BIL: Jeremy, and their 2 kids: Jackson and Jeffrey, and my Dad hadn't been so we made a morning out of it. Even though we've been quite a bit it was still fun and the kids enjoyed it. I am going to make one little scrapbook about our 3 trips this summer. I can fit a lot of photos in it and then pick the best ones from our 3 trips. I already have the book made just have to add the photos and embellish.
We got a surprise at the zoo too. Keely and Jeremy had bought the kids zoo passes for the next year for their birthday. The kids' admission is free until they are 3 so once their birthday comes around in a couple months we probably won't be able to afford to go to the zoo at all. I think this is a great gift. Our whole family gets to go to the zoo as often as we want for the next year. We got some other perks with it too, like some free train rides, guest passes, and discount to the gift shop and other programs. The kids can enjoy this for a whole year and it is good at some other zoos not too far from us so we will be going to those too. Keely always comes up with great gifts like that -- I can never think of anything!

Grammy and Papa let us borrow their bounce house and the kids jumped in it for quite a while. Keely, Jeffrey, and I got to go to Scrapaganza to shop and I picked up my prize: I got Reminisce Genuine Boy paper line and stickers. They had a lot of different papers for me to pick from but since I own sooooooo much girly pink stuff for Addison, I thought it would be nice to get some cool paper for the boys for a change! We also went to Michael's where I started buying stuff for the kids' 4th birthday -- yeah I know we aren't even close to number 3 yet but I like to get a head start.
On the pregnancy front, I had another doctor appointment and things seem to be moving along but I get another sonogram in 2 weeks which makes me happy. However the tiredness is creeping back and that may be due to the fact that my hips started hurting when I sleep. I'm sure this is for 3 reasons: 1) I hardly move during the night as it takes a lot of energy to flip over in the flat position so turning over once is about all I can manage; 2) I haven't gained that much weight about 12 pounds but it is all in the "baby area" and that is right in line with my hips; 3) my pelvis is probably stretching out preparing for childbirth. This also happened with the triplets but a lot sooner plus I gained 62 pounds in that pregnancy and MOST of it was in the belly area too. My doctor said nothing much to do about it. I think I will go get a new egg crate mattress pad since our old one is over 3 years old and I may plug in the heating pad as recommended by the doctor. Only 12 weeks left -- I can do it!

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Bragging . . .

Sorry, but I have to brag a little because I'm so excited! I entered a scrapbook challenge posted on Scrapaganza's blog. This is the first challenge/contest I have ever entered and I WON!!!! A challenge is basically like a little contest where you are given "rules" to follow and using your own creativity you come up with your own page design. I almost didn't enter because I thought my layout turned out "weird" but I have been scraplifting so much lately that I am not used to doing my own thing. I am so glad I did because since I made this page I have created 3 more layouts all on my own. Giving me inspiration!

(Click on the page to see it bigger and to read the journaling.)

I don't know what I won yet but hey anything scrapbook related is exciting to me especially since I haven't been buying much lately so Saturday I plan to go get my prize!

The next challenge for Scrapaganza is posted here if you are interested. Last month was their very first challenge so they didn't have a ton of entries but the more people that enter, the better the prizes they say. Why not give it a try? You could be bragging next month!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Give him a hand . . . or several

Ethan likes to collect alike things sometimes and he is a hoarder (hope that just because he's a triplet). Yesterday morning he carried all the Mr. Potato Head hands around for a while which he's done before. I think it a good sign cause he only picked out the hands but maybe I should be concerned. Hmmmm . . . He also collects the 3 Elmo's we have and other things that are alike. Then when Daddy was home he took all the stuffed toys and buried him and then kissed him and when Daddy asked him if he pooped -- Ethan sat on his head! Such an odd duck (but maybe he just has a REALLY good sense of humor)!

Addison and Caden enjoyed it when Daddy built them "beds" out of the blocks and they laid their for a while -- we don't need toddler beds! What was I thinking??? These blocks are just as good!
Before Daddy got home yesterday they were having a blast doing some half naked galoshes dancing. They love those boots!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Our First Day of {home} Preschool


Today we had our first day of home preschool! Last night I was scrambling through the box of stuff I ordered from The Learning Box. I should have been a little more prepared and that was my intention but with us being sick over the weekend it just didn't happen. I didn't even have a very good place to set up all the posters and charts they send you so I just put it in the dining room for the time being. Caden noticed it pretty quickly this morning and I told him it some "games" we were going to play. Then Addison noticed too and they both played around the area for a while and Addison said she was excited! Good sign!




I love this program! It gives the kids some basics on numbers (this month 1,2); Letters (a,d,u); colors (red,green); and shapes (circle). Then there are a couple themes which now is apples and later is dinosaurs for September. This is exactly how I liked to teach first grade with themes while going over and over the basics and adding extra info for the kids who were a little more advanced. Now this program is for children 3 to 5 years old and we won't be 3 for 2 more months. There are some parts that are WAY over their heads and I did cut out a few things that I thought would be too hard and confusing. We did talk about 1, 2, red, green, circles, and the beginning letters of their names. It was very evident just how much Ethan is behind the other 2 kids which I knew but it really stood out today. I told Addison to sit on the "A" mat, Caden to sit on the "C" mat, and Ethan on the "E" mat. Addison and Caden would sit there; of course, they got back up but when reminded they could sit back down and remember where to go. Ethan probably never even heard about his mat because he was throwing a mega fit. He's not good with transitions at all and he kept wanting to go to the playroom so I shut the door and that freaked him out. It was very frustrating and realized today I could not/will not be a preschool teacher in this lifetime (well, just at home with my own kids). We did the pledge, calendar, and weather. Once we got off the floor and sat at the table, Ethan calmed down and participated. We talked about the beginning letters of their names and I helped them trace their first letter. Then we painted with apples. They loved that! We have learned that Ethan has become quite the creative guy and he loves art time at our regular preschool. He painted the longest and was very creative by mixing the paint colors to make his print. He said "Apple" while we were working and later I incorporated apples into our morning snack by making apple smiles with marshmallows, peanut butter, and apples slices. They loved it and Ethan said "good" while eating too( normally he just says "Mmmmmm")! So although it's going to be super hard to get him to do some of the stuff but I think if I try to be consistent with it; it will get better. After all he is the main reason I decided to do this anyway. He will love the creative part and I think he will soak up some of the info about colors, numbers, and letters. I just have to keep up but I sure am glad I ordered from this place -- all the ideas, curriculum, and most of the supplies (like cut outs) are already done for me. I don't have the energy or time to come up with all that right now although if I dug through all my school stuff I have it all somewhere in our basement. So it's going to take some work and LOTS of patience to get this going but I think it's going help and I just hope we can find time in our schedule to work on it everyday.

Our apple prints: Addison's, Caden's, and Ethan's

Monday, September 3, 2007

Lots of "plans" spoiled by "colds"

So Aaron hardly ever gets any days off but Labor Day is one of the days he doesn't have to work (without pay of course) so we were going to have a 3 day weekend and I was thinking we can get some things done around here plus have some fun time with the kids and maybe even have a "date" and watch a movie one night while the kids are in bed. Well we had a big wrench thrown into our "plans" when I came down with a cold and pretty much felt rotten since when you're pregnant there isn't much to take medicine-wise to make you feel better although Tylenol did help a little. So I felt bad since Saturday afternoon and was in bed almost all of Sunday and now today Aaron is in bed. So since both of us can't be sick at the same time, I have made a miraculous recovery today (not really but what can you do?) Of course the kids are to blame for all this -- they had runny noses last week and if they ever felt like Aaron and me you would have never known. There were some "classmates" at school who had runny noses and I'm sure that's where we caught it. It happens but I really try to avoid all illnesses. There are 2 main reasons for this: first if Aaron and/or I are out of commission things seem to spin out of control really fast. We can't afford for him to miss work due to illness (no sick days for union plumbers) and I can't hold down the fort while he's at work and I'm sick. Second, if the kids get sick life is hell! There's no ideal situation on this either: having all 3 sick at once or having them get sick one at a time over a period of time. It's so frustrating and it just plain "sucks". And I KNOW kids get sick but if one more person tells me "it's good that they are sick, it builds up their immunity", I'm may punch them or better yet make them come over and listen to 3 whiny kids who are throwing up faster than you can clean it up or I'll just wait until they're sick and have them babysit 3 wild 2-1/2 year olds who do not care that you are sick. None of the people saying this have ever had multiples so how do they know it's "good". Yeah, later they will probably miss 1/2 their kindergarten year, but oh well, I'll worry about it then.

Needless to say that we didn't get a lot of our "to-do" list done nor do any of the fun things we had planned like attended the Labor Day Parade. Aaron did manage to put together the toddler bed we have. I think we will start transitioning Caden next week. They love the bed and it looks like it will see more playtime than sleep time; but I've got to try to do this so the baby has a place to sleep since I refuse to own 4 cribs! I doubt this bed lasts too long at all (they are considering it a small wrestling ring) and they are already fighting over who it belongs to. All our cribs transition to toddler beds so I was hoping all we needed was one toddler bed for the time being and the other 2 kids could just use the cribs/toddler beds until we get a set of bunk beds for the boys and a twin bed for Addison but we'll have to see how that goes.



The kids haven't been fed the best in the last few days good thing they can go a while missing a few meals -- oh, we've offered meals but because we are low on grocercies the pickings are slim here at this time. Good thing Addison is loving cereal in a bowl with "water" as she calls it (I do use milk.) She can eat 3-4 bowls in one sitting which she ate this morning. I wish the boys liked it too. We never have any food item that they all love except candy and even that can be iffy sometimes.

Here's our "boy". He's a "princess" as he says and is having a grand time dancing with Ethan. Too funny. Notice how messy the playroom is -- that's just from one day of us not picking up so as you can tell things fall apart here quickly (well with the help of 3 people tearing it apart).
So we're hoping we're all feeling better tomorrow because life just seems to go on whether you feel like it or not!