Moo!

I love my little camera buddy... we were looking at Grandpa's cows.

"Mommy! Grandpa's cows! Hi cows!"

Countdown!

Here comes the countdown, we had a little trip into town and I picked up a few more things. I'm also working on going through the closet in what was Abbys room and will now be the nursery. I was quite thrilled with my purchases because I remembered at the last minute that I had a bunch of reward coupons so I managed to get everything 50% off. (hurray!)

Putting together a nursery however means.... sorting clothes... lots and lots of clothes. I sorted out a few things for baby boy that were either neutral or sports team apparel. Plus a few of the new outfits that I picked up.

Whew! Just one more tote to go through now! Hope there isn't another girl in our future or I've seriously downsized lol. All of the girls are napping and Tom is napping on their floor at the moment. I should get back to work but it's nice to have a coffee break.

I let the girls use their Christmas money from their Great Grandma today, here is a rundown of the purchase:

Abby: Two Barbies on sale (10 dollars each)
Kiley: One princess dress (19 dollars- she is obsessed)
Kara: One flashlight (2 dollars)

Kara has a green yucky nose so chances are... she just wasn't all that interested. She actually liked this goofy little fidget thing but they wanted 25 dollars for it and I didn't think it would survive for long. It sounds like tonight we will have company, it will be fun for the girls to see our friends again.

Single Parenting... sorta...

For the next two weeks Tom and I are trading off on single parenting. Interesting adventure and a little lonely at the same time. I work from 7, 7:30am-ish-5pm(ish)... then Tom brings up the kids and we switch. I take the kids home and he heads to work from 5:30pm-10:00pm. On the plus side, no childcare issues because we are able to trade off, down side... We really see very little of each other.

Thankfully it's just for a few more weeks.

I went in for an ultrasound on Monday and our newest little guy is measuring right around 4 pounds and is in the 30th percentile. I have one more ultrasound next week because I'm part of a research study with him (yay free ultrasound!)

(Awww!)

The sleeping is still quite frustrating, we are averaging 1.5-2.5 hours a night just sitting in their room and putting them to bed. I can hardly stand it sometimes because that eats up at least half of the night that I'm home. Not to mention it's still a lot of up down up down up down... and I'm already exhausted at that point. I wish we could eliminate naps but the girls have started falling asleep on the way home from work, so don't think thats an option (and it certainly doesn't help bedtime)

(Kara)

Guess we'll keep trying and I'll try to find more to do online when I have to sit in there. Hurray...

The girls are now all sleeping in the same room together. I wish that we could let them have their own rooms but we are officially out of space. Abby is sleeping on the top bunk and Kiley and Kara take turns sleeping either in her old bed or on the bottom bunk. They haven't decided which one they want to sleep in yet so seem to switch. And this of course means I've started (or Tom has) in preparing the nursery for when boy comes. I wanted a space that I could put him in the swing and have him be safe. I just didn't want to have to worry about the girls harassing him all the time. It is kinda fun to see the crib go up again... and exciting that it is getting closer.

Phew Abby is stinky (sorry for the side note!)

Miss Abby has been waking up every morning around 3 am SCREAMING. She seems to have nightmares about me being gone. She also tends to wake up at 6-6:30am and wake up the twins so that they watch cartoons together (which means they come to find us) Of course this is when I try to get ready for work... makes that a little hard!

Abby has a pajama party at preschool tomorrow... and they are going to wear pajamas and eat popcorn with their pillows. Tom and I met with her teacher the other day and it went really well. The teacher appreciated us filling her in about how to best help Abby and so far it is helping quite a bit. They are working on giving her more time to transition, working with her on over stimulating times and now are writing how her days go in her special notebook. This really helps us at home... because thats usually when we deal most with it. Glad we found a teacher that is so willing to step in and help Abby learn! She is really picking up things fast :o)

Looking forward to a quieter weekend coming up...

Tomato soup and an Octopus

Preschool Update  (wow that isn't a very interesting title is it)

Long overdue for an update on a few of the fun things Abby has been learning. She just finished up her 3rd week of 'school'  and looks to be loving it! I always knew she enjoyed learning and I hope that she continues to enjoy it.

My brave husband heads out into the cold every Tuesday and Thursday with three little girls in tow. Drops Abby off and then tries to entertain the other two for a few hours.

The first time we asked her what she did in school she stated "We eat snack, clean up and go home." Alright! I pay 100 dollars a month for snack time and for her to do something I've been wishing for since the early days of toddler hood... clean up... (just kidding) she does a lot more than that.

(By the way it is incredibly hard to write this article when I have six pairs of hands trying to point out the individual parts of Abby's artwork...)

Last night after I got home, Tom asked me to grab the papers out of Abby's backpack and show them to her. She can identify what letters objects start with... I mean I was pretty impressed when she knew that otter (a word I'm 99% sure she has heard like twice in her life) and octopus started with O... but I wasn't expecting her to tell me what the rest of the animals on the worksheet started out with. (Ok maybe it isn't as impressive but I'm her mom) I was just impressed that she could go beyond simple letter recognition to realizing that objects are attached to words and words have these letters.

She also told us all about the Bible story of Jesus healing the blind man with mud on his eyes and that the story summary was that "Jesus can do anything." (simple theology but she's three) No prompting... no pictures... my little girl is growing up!

She even made Tom tomato soup last night.... 

Must... Find... Motivation

Tonight is one of those, "If I make it off the couch for necessities it will be a miracle" nights. Necessities being of course cereal and the friend I have spent most of my 9 months getting to know. Pretty much everything needs to be done at this point... dishes, folding laundry (tom has wonderfully washed 99% of it) and a variety of other things.

Will they go away if I stare at them? *stares harder* .... maybe the pizza crust moved a little.

But I miss most the interaction and play time with my girls. I last 5 minutes on the floor playing before I lose all feeling in my legs and they (my legs) begin to scream in agony.

In case you missed it...

Yesterday Abby explained to me that her hands were brothers and that one of them was trying to break the other's evil spell.

She is a hoot to be around right now with story after story. I want to do a better job of writing up the entertaining portions of the last few days but for now cannot really do them justice. Perhaps after I lay down...

Play Dough Cookies...

Tom and I found this the other night while we were cleaning up and got a good laugh out of it. Apparently Barbie had a little bit too much fun driving around the kitchen. Life can be pretty rough on a Barbie that lives in a house with three little girls.

Home for the weekend and loving it! I have so much more energy early in the morning then I do in the afternoon so I finally feel like I can get a little bit done around here. So far all of the dishes are done, pots are washed and the counter tops cleared. How long it will last in our tiny kitchen I'm not sure but it's a start!

All three princesses are wearing dresses and dancing around the house to either the fridge magnet toy or Angelina Ballerina television show. At the moment Abby is making dolphin Play Dough cookies with Kara's help. Kiley got banished because she isn't very good at sharing this morning and has already been in time out for bouncing on the beds.

Tom took the three girls into the ENT (Ear Nose & Throat) doctor yesterday to have Kiley's ears checked. She is such a wonderful doctor that she checked all three because of course after Kiley was done, Kara said "Me too!" And then Abby wanted to be checked too. Kiley's right ear had fluid and was retracted (infected) so she earned herself an antibiotic. Kara's has fluid so they want to see both girls back in 3 weeks.

Hopefully that means an end to some of the 3am screaming! Might be part of our problem with bedtime...

We are home all weekend, at some point I need to visit my grandma to see if she can help me with my dress for next weekend. Tom and I will be heading up North to a wedding while Tom's parents come to hang out with the girls for the weekend. I'm the Maid of Honor in the wedding so it would have been difficult to be in the wedding with the girls. I'm sure they will have a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.

I think Tom is nesting a little himself again ;) He is finding more projects again around the house to do. We are thinking of having all three of the girls room together again so that when baby boy comes we have a 'nursery' or place where he can be without being harassed constantly. It might be interesting to try the bunk beds...

Abby's Snow Angel from our walk this afternoon :o) 

32 weeks and starting to feel it!

This week is a bit of a killer at work so the posts will be short and quick... I'm falling asleep at 9pm, I just have absolutely no energy.

We watched the end of Tangled tonight with the girls and after Flynn Ryder and Rapunzel kiss... Kiley kept giving me kiss after kiss after kiss. She would kiss my cheek and my head and my ears... she tried for the lips but that's where I drew the line!

All three of the girls are getting very good about picking up their toys at night. I bought a few plastic totes and I have them pick up before bed. It really cuts down on the amount of bending that I need to do. They love getting high fives after they are finished.

Tom had a job interview this afternoon so I got to spend two hours with the girls. It would have been nice if this would have been yesterday before the nasty weather kicked in. Sadly we spent most of the two hours in the car watching movies. It was still really nice to see the girls, they weren't very happy when I had to go back to work.

Hoping I can get off a little early tomorrow night so that I can see them a little more without being exhausted. Friday will be a long day so I could use the break!

Weekend ... and Gone

End of the weekend... sad!

So far bedtime battles have been progressing nicely. Kiley and Kara have really settled into the routine (Kara better then Kiley) It took three bathroom trips for Kiley and 0 trips for Kara. We are almost to the point where we can lay them down and ... *gasp* leave the room. (wow wouldn't that be nice)

We had a lovely weekend of Christmas and just being together. Our Christmas's have finally reached the end and now we look forward to Baby boy and birthdays (Abby: "My birthday is coming in a few weeks!")

The wedding ring finally had to go, my fingers were dangerously swollen and I wasn't sure if it would COME off. I miss it though and cannot wait until it makes it back to my finger.


I will be back later to post a few photos from the weekend... first I have to track down my camera lol :o) First I think I need to get a few things done before bed.

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...