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"!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

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!