Chocolates NEED to be higher

Bedtime Part Two:

I came out of Kiley and Kara's room last night, feeling a little proud of myself, wrote that nice little blog article... suddenly I see Abby walking down the hallway with my beautiful, tasty, luxurious Lindoor Truffle, milk chocolate bag. (I'm pregnant lol)

I asked her if she ate all of my candies. "No." (We're working on the lying) Me: "Abby don't lie. Did you eat my candies?". Abby: "Yes." Me: "That makes me very sad Abby, those were my special candies."

And suddenly it dawns upon her. Abby: "Mommy, next time you need to just put your chocolates up higher."

Yes she just blamed HER eating MY chocolates on ME! Thus begins a long conversation about taking responsibility for her actions... most of which I'm sure really isn't getting through, or some of it. She is three but a very smart three year old. In the end I tell her she needs to appologize, I forgive her, send her off to bed.

Exit back to bedroom. I hear a little sad crying.

A few minutes later she comes back out. "Mommy I thought of a  way to buy you more candy."
Me: "What's that Abby."
Abby: "You can give me money and I will go buy them for you!"

hahahaha--- I think the conversation born out of her eating my chocolates was far more entertaining then eating those last few pieces of chocolate would have been. Two take aways from this: 1) Mommy needs to put her chocolate higher or start hiding it.... 2) I know she did genuinely feel bad about eating the chocolate despite her trying to 'blame' me... and i'm not so sure she was trying to blame me, more rationalize the situation as she saw it lol.

Ok I had better get to work...

Sleeping through the night.... literally...

What is that I hear?... little girls sleeping peacefully in their big girl beds? So whether the book has magical powers... just nudged me a hair in the right direction (aka I was ALMOST doing everything right)... or I just managed to get a really good night... time will tell. So far I've really only read one chapter... lol. The most striking comment to me was regarding schedules (something always very daunting to me with three small children) ... if scheduling your day is too daunting... start off with the morning and bedtime.... something I think I could do.

So my current goal if you hadn't figured it out yet... is to get the girls and bedtime to co-exist. We were on a fast downward spiral... 30 minutes of bedtime turned to 1 hour... even 2 hours. And we are not talking about, peaceful sitting next to their beds, singing or patting their backs. This was something much more akin to a professional knock down, drag down, hair pulling match of wills.

NOT. FUN.

So what did I do.

Bedtime Routine. Uh yeah we kinda had one of these. I did find one minor but potentially fatal flaws. We were going directly from Start to Finish. What? ---- we weren't explaining steps.

1. We gave a 5 minute warning till bedtime (accompanied by many groans)
2. We walked them through the routine: (Pajamas, brush teeth, bedtime story, kiss and tuck in, music on)
3. If they get out of bed, take off pajamas or bounce on the bed there are consequences... no yelling, no getting upset. It is an automatic removal from the room and friend (aka twin). Where do they go? Dark bathroom.... it doesn't take long for them to realize this is NOT a fun thing.
4. Hugs and kisses... sitting on a beanbag outside their door... and zzzz ... happy sleep routine

(Ok... Kara still ended up partially naked... I still count this as a success) 

Disclaimer: This worked for Kiley and Kara... they did run around more outside because it was nice out today but I like to think that if we continue it might just work. I would at least like to have it calmed down a little before baby #4 comes. It will be a nightmare if he comes and we are still spending 2 hours putting our eldest three to bed.

Abby is a whole other bedtime tale. One that might not get solved until I can be home again. Naps might need to vanish for her. Otherwise I believe bedtime will continue to be a struggle. Time will tell...

Abby's 1st Day of Preschool

Abby's first day of preschool! Wow... where did the time fly off to? It was quite the morning getting her up and dressed and ready to go. A wonderful nurse friend of mine covered clinic for me so that I could run her to preschool on her first day. And I am so glad she did!

Abby wasn't quite sure WHY I wanted or needed a first day of school photo... I'm not sure she understood what exactly school was and why we were going in the first day. But this is the photo I got.

We got there early hoping that I could visit with her teacher or the director of the preschool a bit before class and I had to go back to work. No luck. We did a lot of wandering around and such but the teachers have devotions before school starts so I wasn't really able to visit with them. Abby jumped right in though and I couldn't help but laugh a little that I was the one ready to cry leaving her there...

I told her goodbye and she said "Ok Mommy, see you later."   There are 8 other students in her class and it looks like she had a good time. There was a little discussion about how she needed to pick up even though she didn't want to... (imagine that) but otherwise things went well.

She even brought home extra coloring sheets because she knew her sisters would want to color too. (I thought that was pretty sweet) Preschool is every Tuesday and Thursday morning. It will mean a busier schedule for Tom until I'm on maternity leave but it will be good for everyone to get out of the house too. So on to another busy chapter in our lives!

New Year... New things

Well... we had a wonderful time at Tom's parent's for Christmas. The girls weren't feeling 100% which didn't help. They were quite cranky when opening presents! Hoping that this bug doesn't hit everyone that was there this weekend. The girls are happy to be home and in their own beds tonight I think... I know I will be! It is wonderful to be away but oh so nice to be home.

The tree came down and Abby was at first a little sad... but now she is excited for her birthday (which of course is very soon... like in May...) We still actually have one Christmas celebration left, and still no snow on the horizon. In fact Thursday is supposed to be 68! How odd....

Abby has her first day of preschool tomorrow, I had a wonderful friend agree to watch calls for me for an hour so that I can take her on her first day... I would have been so sad to miss that. So for now I had better get things ready for tomorrow and crawl into bed myself. Pics from this weekend tomorrow ;)

Happy New Year everyone!

Mid-Week Musings...

For all intents and purposes, I did intend to post last night... I just happened to fall asleep on the floor of Kiley and Kara's room while I waited for them to fall asleep. I think I was in there for 1hr 45 minutes before I lost count. Tom finally came in to wake me up so that I could go down to bed. Needless to say I didn't accomplish much.

Does that mean baby was growing more last night? I'm not sure... but I sure was tired!

Tom has Kiley and Kara tonight while I have Abby. Of course she needs to do a little more playing before bed. 2 more minutes! Tom took the girls outside a bit this afternoon to the park. The weather here has been just gorgeous! I guess we shouldn't complain but it would be nice to have a little variety once in awhile. I wonder if winter will ever come?

We are discussing the possibility of taking down the Christmas decorations tonight, the spread of love and ornaments everywhere is just getting to be too much for us. I think the tree at least will go along with the lights on our window... if not tonight. Tomorrow.

My room is being taken over by laundry... eeks! But on the plus side Abby hasn't wet the bed in...5 nights? I really don't understand how we can go for almost 2 weeks wetting the bed. every. night. Sometimes twice a night. (not to mention multiple daytime accidents) ... and then suddenly we are back to an accident once in awhile. I don't mind the non-accident phase though!

(Kiley)

In a few days we head down for another family Christmas... can't wait! The girls are so excited already to play with their cousins. It sounds like it will be unseasonably warm too. :o)

I think this means it's time for Abby to go to bed....

Christmas Eve

The night before Christmas... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring... not even a... wait... yep, Abby is still awake. She has had a harder day today with several significant meltdowns. I hope that she isn't coming down with something. It sure made the Christmas Eve service interesting... Tom sang in a quartet during the service and it was wonderful... I loved the bell choir too.

And one strange thing I discovered today, Kara is incredibly good at the matching game on our phones. In a last ditch effort to preserve our family-ness at the service we pulled out our phones to let Kiley and Kara play. Kiley doesn't really get it yet and just taps the phone. Kara however actually plays! She went through round after round after round of matching. She was quite upset when my phone died and she lost her game. She didn't want Tom's phone because it wasn't her game.

I managed to get the house back in a little order again, well a few rooms. It's a work in progress. I think it will take awhile. But it's a start. We also opened a few presents and made Christmas cookies for "Santa".

All I want for Christmas ... is for my husband to have a job he loves... and for me to cut back the time I'm working.

I miss being M.O.M.        it just isn't the same when you work full time. Sleep well everyone!

Through the Years...

Merry Christmas everyone! Hard to believe how much they have grown... 

Ponds & Puddles? "Ribbet!"

Tonight after work I picked up a little something at Target.... it went over so well that I am almost regretting the purchase and at the same time wondering if I should have another. Can you guess what that is?

I bet your first guess wasn't a froggy potty chair.... who knew?

 No work for me tomorrow. I can't wait to have a few days home with the girls. My house is so due for a massive cleaning!

Dancing Lights

My girls love the beautiful Christmas lights. They get a kick out of the racing colors and combine that with a little music and you get three very excited girls. Kara I have to say was the most thrilled with the display of lights we went to tonight. I think hormones got the best of me... I was nearly tearing up with Kiley snuggling on my lap, Abby snuggling up close at my side and Kara dancing around to the music. It was pretty special.

Abby had her therapy appointment, we went out for a little pizza and then Christmas lights... Tom had a church choir practice so I took the three home and bribed them to pick up the living room. (fruit snacks are wonderful things)... actually, I think they were more excited about playing play dough (which I let them do if they picked up)

Needless to say it isn't perfect and there is still plenty of crayon all over my walls, boxes and dvd cases strewn all over my living room. But it was nice to have a few small hands put away their toys. (goodness I need to sort through their toys before Christmas!)

I just realized tonight that I have taken 0...Zero... photos of myself pregnant with baby boy. I think things have just been too stressful and wild and crazy that I haven't had a chance. Perhaps over Christmas weekend I can get a few in if it is semi-nice. I was hoping to have some snow to do a few pictures in! So far no luck. It will probably be a brown Christmas this year.

I cannot wait to have 4 days home with the girls! I think they are as ready as I am. My sister is coming to stay with us awhile this weekend to help me out a little (yay sister!!). I just didn't know where to start on my home... so many projects and I'm just so tired
after working all day!

Abby is still up... hopefully she decides to go to bed soon... for my sake!

We must eat! (But do we have to go to the grocery store?)

I think I need to bring my camera with me everywhere.. seriously. I mean... how can it get better than driving three kids through HyVee in a giant.bright.pink (and yellow) shopping cart shaped like a race car. Did I forget to mention that my children are in no means shy.

Kara's favorite thing to do is say hello, and get people to say hello back. So if you are a secret spy trying to blend in, stay far far away. This girl loves to get people's attention. Cranky old man? Busy business man? Fancy pants woman on her cell phone? You can't resist the power of "Hi!" from Kara.

Kiley also enjoys shopping. Her list consists of whatever she can grab faster than I can move away from. Powdered sugar, glass jars of pickles, taco seasoning mix.... watch your things when you are checking out. You never know what you might make it home with! It doesn't help that Kara opens the doors of all the freezers as you walk by thereby distracting me enough for Kiley to grab things.

Abby has become my little shopping buddy, I love going with her most of the time. She likes to look at things, really look at things now and finds the time alone with Mommy wonderful. It's fun to have a 'buddy' to shop with once in awhile. She is learning how things aren't free, that we need to pay for things, and that money takes work to get. I really want her to appreciate what she has and what it takes to get things. I would love to try and avoid my girls thinking they will get everything they see. So far so good!

And if you think of a way to get Kiley to stop throwing trash and other things down my stairs... I would appreciate it. Eventually no one will be able to get in the front door!