May in a Big Nutshell

5.22.10 11pm

I have been dying to write a new blog and just haven't been able to. I was determined tonight and in the 3 hours its taken to get me here, I have composed several different blogs in my head. This may be a huge jumble so brace.

First of all, thank you to everyone who commented! I love it! Yay! Thank you, thank you. Really.

I have missed so much! I thought that I would just open a word document and leave it sitting on the counter so that when something momentous happened I could whiz by and type it really quick and post it later. That didn't really work out. Typing one handed is a huge pet peeve of mine. Its sooo frustrating to labor over typing when you know you could type whatever it is in seconds if you had two free hands. The only things I managed to type were:

#1 "Who ripped this roly poly in half and put it on the kitchen counter?" I did ask that question out loud and Michael Jr./ Abe Lincoln /Yates said, "I did!!" Ewww, gross. He is completely honest ( just like his daddy) its funny.

#2 The kids are loving the garden!

So, I'll keep searching for a good solution to my blogging dilema. I would like to blog in bed at the end of the day, but guess what... Our bedroom has some sort of force field around it and the internet won't work in there. Of course.

Mother's Day weekend was big. We had all of the grandparents come to celebrate Mother's Day and Rex's baptism. The weekend was great. Rex had a little cold, but he did beautifully. We had Mother's Day brunch at Fearing's at the Ritz and it was very nice. S and Y acted like angels. The sad thing is that the pictures of the day are not so good. Yates was the only one that took good pictures, but if he was posing in a group, he would make a terrible face and ruin the entire photo for everyone else. Ahhh... We also managed to squeeze in a couple of birthday parties that weekend. It was buuuusy, but great!

Rex is a total angel. He had his 4 month check up last week. S and Y sat patiently in the chairs in the exam room and read books and played iphone games. Dr. Neely came and was surprised to see them in the room b/c they were being so quiet. He complimented them for being so nice and quiet. Back to Rex.

His stats were: Height - 26 1/2", 92% Weight - 16lbs 9oz, 80% Head Circumference - 42.5, 55%

He is an amazing little baby. He seems to think that I am only his Mommy. Its hard to explain, but he looks at me like I belong to him. He wakes up in the morning talking sooo loud with his deeep voice and he is just smiling away. We go into the kitchen and start getting breakfast/ coffee going. He'll just ride around on my hip or sit in his bumbo. When S and Y sit down to eat, he sits at the table facing them and watches them from his bumbo. When I get breakfast cleaned up and get Rex out of his bumbo, he makes this noise, like "Ohh-OO-there-you-are!" Again, impossible to explain, but its really cute. He is also so easy. Its like he knows when I need him to take a nap and he just does it! So fabulous!

before school - after school

The next huge event was the last day of school. I built it up and up and up and Stella and Yates were like, "Yeah, whatever." They didn't care at all. They weren't sad or anything. I was sad. I love their school and all of their teachers and I really think I'll miss them.

And finally, this week has been ballet recital week. What an ordeal. We've had 6 rehearsals and a dress rehearsal (in addition to regular classes). Hopefully we're ready. Stella's ballet school is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The founder, Mrs. Denise Brown has an amazing life story. The Dallas Morning News wrote a great story about her this December. You can read it here. Anyway, if you don't read it, Mrs. Brown's family is Jewish and suffered through the holocaust. I have always had an enormous draw to this period of history and a severe hatred of any and all Nazi's, past or present. I will never understand why humans would treat other humans so terribly. Anyway, Mrs. Brown is still involved with City Ballet and she and her daughter choreographed this year's ballet to tell the story of her life. There are beautiful movements from renowned ballets and wrenching ones depicting holocaust scenes. I have cried at every rehearsal and like I mentioned, we've had 6. The real recital is tomorrow at 5 and I can't wait to see the whole thing. Enough about that. Lets talk about Stella Jane. She got to wear full out stage makeup for the dress rehearsal on Friday. She couldn't believe how fabulous she looked. I told my mom, that if I were one of "those moms", I'd sign her up for a pageant tomorrow. She lit up and did look very pretty. Stella is a perfectionist and danced beautifully. She also got a compliment for being the quietest, most still and best behaved back stage! Yay! Nothing makes me happier!

Poor Yates has endured, not only a year of weekly ballet classes, but now all of these rehearsals. He has been very good and patient. He watches the dancers, asks lots of questions and does a little dancing of his own. Pretty cute. He examined the theatre and told me that he "didn't like this place b/c its ugly." And then he decided that he needed to climb to the ceiling to just be up there. You know all of the weird wood work and" decorative goo-gah plastered all over theatres? He just couldn't get past it. As we were leaving the last rehearsal, he managed to rip a chunk of tutu off of Stella's costume and then declare, "Look Mommy, a limo hummer, when I get big, I'm getting on the roof with daddy." That was one sentence. He is such a dude!

Two more things and then I'll stop.

Look at this picture below, they couldn't be more opposite:

Girl / Boy

Straight hair/ Curly Hair

Pink Pony Tank Top / Grey Bulldozer T-Shirt

Disney Princess Panties / Spider Man Underwear

Silver Glitter Flats / Camo Boots

Lastly, I want to be Cortney Novogratz. She is my new hero.

Super Duper Pooper 5.6.2010

So what I get for complaining about poop is a record breaking poop-a-thon. Fortunately, all of the real drama happened two days ago and out of self-preservation my memory has erased most of the gory details. To sum it up, Oscar Butter got the Number 3s and throw ups and I have cleaned up 14 disgusting accidents from him alone in 3 days!!! Some other biggies were: Rex did one of those poops up to his shoulder blades and needed a bath and new clothes. While I was trying to clean him up, Yates threw up all over my feet. The other doozie was the first rattle out of the box, the morning after I typed the last post I was sitting up in bed with Rex. He was just waking up and was sitting on my stomach leaning back on my knees and he pooped all over me and it went in my belly button! I mean! Gag! It hard to get anything done around here with all of this scrubbing and cleaning and sanitizing I’m doing. I’m nearly germaphobic too, which doesn’t help. Most normal people could probably wipe most of this up and be done with it, but not me. I am spraying everything I can find on this stuff and topping it off with some bleach. Eeeewww….

The babies have all been extra good today. I only had to clean up one dog #3, so that was nice. Rex has learned how to put his pacifier in his mouth on his own. He’s not 100%, but it’s a good thing he’s learning. He also is loving his little giraffe binkie that Erinn gave him. He hugs it next to his face and its sooooo cute!

This weekend, we are having Rex baptized and are having both sets of grandparents in for the big day and Mother’s Day. (We also have a ballet rehearsal and 2 birthday parties to squeeze in) Yay!

Lastly, I get very nice random surprise comments from people who have read the blog. Thank you for reading! I love it! But, what I would really love is for readers to comment (if you have a second.) I never know who is reading and would love to. Thanks!

Poop Bloggy Blog

5.3.10

I have said this a thousand times, but the days just fly past me. During the day, I’m thinking, “OMG, I’m not going to make it through lunch if I hear my name one more time,” or “What am I going to do with all of these kids for 12 hours?” or “I can’t even keep my eyes open I am so tired… Oh its only 11am.” I’m trying to say that the days feel like they drag on and on, but then I look up and its May. I swear I missed all of April and whatever those other months were after Rex was born. Are we sure we had April this year? I know we had my mom’s birthday and Easter on the 4th. The rest of the month I don’t think happened. So weird.

So I’d really like to blog every day. And I’m thinking of renaming the blog Poop Bloggy Blogg. Doesn’t that sound fabulous? It does to me, but then I remember a few things. There are a lot of basic, normal things that I don’t do every day like make my bed, take a vitamin, let me think… bathe! I also remember that not everyone loves Snoop as much as I, or deals with as much Poop as do I. It makes sense to me, but might sound atrocious to a passerby.

"breakfast on the go"

On this poop tangent, I wonder every day how blue I would glow if a CSI wanded me for fecal matter. No matter how much hot water, soap and sudsing to the Happy Birthday song I do, I still feel like there is just too much poop around here. Today I made the mistake of taking SYR into a store with no one trapped or tied down into or onto anything. S and Y were on foot (not crammed in a buggy) and I was carrying R. Guess what. Yates needed to tee tee. This is great, but the boy as I mentioned before tries to completely disrobe and touches the potty as you would a steering wheel… all around. SICK! I tried my best to make a toilet paper nest and keep him on it, but it was futile. He also managed to wriggle out of his underwear and shorts despite me squatting there, squishing R, trying to hold Y on the potty and keep his clothes on his foot. I just take a deep breath and think, one thing at a time. We’ll get him 100% perfect with this potty thing, then we’ll work on his form. What’s a little more fecal at this point? I do still get the chilly willys at this thought as I feign stoicism. Its just disgusting and I do apologize for sicking anyone out.

The good parts about this particular errand are:

1. Yates fell in love with this Spider Man book that your mommy is supposed to insert a picture of your face into everywhere Spider Man’s face should be. He carried it around, tried to make me carry it around, but I told him we weren’t buying it. I’m sure we could have, but it never ends. They always want something and have more toys than anyone should have. Anyway, at the door I told him to put it down. I did not want to, but he did it!!! No fit, no tears. Amazing! Yay!

2. As we walked out the door Stella exclaimed, “That store was so beautiful and filled with so many things I couldn’t even choose what I wanted!!!”

We were at Michael’s…

Yay Yates!!!

Guess who is potty trained... YATES!

Its been 2 1/2 weeks and it just kind of happened on its own. On Wednesday after school, I took his diaper off and let him run around for a bit while I hunted up a new one. I told him not to tee tee on the floor and he nonchalantly said ok. I got a diaper and a pair of underwear and asked him which one he wanted and he chose, "Unda-bayer"and basically that was it. He hasn't been back in a diaper since. He is sleeping in pull ups but only wets them on occasion. He has been getting treats for going on the potty each time and he got a big prize that first night, fire fighter gear. I am soooo excited to have him potty trained. I do not think its any easier though. Its quite a trick to get a heavy little boy undressed and redressed every time he needs to potty while holding Rex. I had heard that little boys like to take all of their clothes off to go potty, but hadn't given it much thought until now... now that I'm living it.

checking out his new fire extinguisher

The strange thing is that Yates will hold it forever!!! The first day back to school I sent him in underwear with plenty of options to change into if they ran into trouble. He refused to let his teachers take him to potty and they were so worried about him. They put him in a pull up for nap time and said that he really wet it while he was napping. Not so. I took his pull up off and it was dry as a bone. He wouldn't go potty after school so we ran to the grocery. I was sure we'd have to go in there, but we didn't. Poor baby waited until we were all the way back home. He still hasn't gone potty at school, but thats ok with me. As long as he isn't having accidents.

Stella Jane is under the weather. Poor thing. I thought we were done with sickness now that the weather is warming up. I had to force her to take some medicine this afternoon and she literally gagged 5 times. Once she recovered from her hysteria, she said, "That medicine actually tasted kinda good." Mercy. She has been on a medicine strike for... her whole life and now its "kinda good!!!"

I admit, I am the mom who thinks my kid is really smart. I don't think she's a genius or necessarily the smartest, but I am always so amazed by her thought processes.

As we were having breakfast the other day she was staring out the window at "blue slide" and said:

S: "Mommy, who built my slide and the big house on top?"

M: "Daddy and Bop did."

S: "Hmmm, that sure looks like a lot of work. I bet it took forever."

M: "It did. It took 2 whole days."

S: "Well, how did they build the blue slide part? Did they build it all out of blue bricks or did they just buy it like that from Lowe's and stick it on?"

M: "The bought it like that from Costco."

S: "Ahhh."

I'm wondering how she knows what a lot of work is.

She also informed me while drinking lemonade from Chic-fil-a that, "If you ever have anything in your lemonade when you're drinking it, don't worry. Its just the 'nades.'"

I guess she was referring to the pulp... If its in lemonade and its not the lemon part, what else would it be? Nades, duh!

Stella and Rex holding hands and watching tv

One of the best things Stella and Yates do right now is show me how much the love me. They hold hands and stretch their arms out wide and say, "Mommy, we love you this much." Its pretty cute. For a while Stella was saying, "Mommy/Daddy, I love you as long as a rope." I loved that one. Right now she loves us both "never end."

Baby Rex is a big boy. He is so strong and has the most enormous chest and a deeeeep voice. Yates was the same way, but its so shocking to me for some reason. He is at the point that he can buck his way out of any bouncy seat and even his bumbo and I do mean buck. If he doesn't want to do something, he just throws himself around trying to escape. He has started to get into a good schedule that is more predictable and doable and is taking real naps instead of random 15 minutes here, an hour there. He really is the happiest little thing. He wakes up smiling and laughing and loves to watch S and Y and laugh at them. He is still so patient and will sit and watch everyone while we eat or clean up. Thank goodness!

ebay...

We are so excited to have been getting some warmer weather and its making me need to shop! So I've been doing a big clean out and listing things on ebay (inspired by Kelly). If you need any spring clothing. Check out what I've listed. I'll be putting more up soon. My seller id is mgrabham.

so sleepy...

So I have learned (as a mom of three - hilarious) that as soon as you figure out your baby, something changes and the thing you figured out doesn't work anymore. But for now, Rex is officially figured out. He was going through that terrible over tired, crying and batting his arms until 2am thing at night, but it seems to be over. I was reading and reading, trying to figure out what to do and trying all of the things I was reading. None of them were working and I think everything I tried only made it worse. The general consensus was to get "the baby" on an Eat, Sleep, Play cycle and try to keep them awake during the day. Well no thanks! This boy does not want to be kept awake for any reason at any time. The more sleep he gets, the better he sleeps. My mom said, "Well, he is yours." I do love my sleep! I guess I should have thought about that before going and getting 3 kids! Anyway, Rex did not enjoy being messed with and woken up to eat or get a new diaper or play. It looks like I might have another little boss on my hands. He knows what he wants and when he wants it. I'm just on standby which is great for me. Oh and hallelujah, the boy loves the baby bjorn! Stella and Yates probably spent a total of 3 hours combined in one. Rex is more like 3+ hours a day! Love it!!!

shhhh...

No one looked good... oh well

I have all 3 babies sleeping at the same time for the first time ever and I feel like its Wednesday. Its not Wednesday. Its a bad sign when you starting rushing the week away so early on. Today is absolutely fabulous outside! Its 70 without a single cloud in the sky. I want to be out there in it, but opted to fold clothes instead. Ahh the life!

Poor SJ is sick. She came to get in our bed last night and had 102 fever. Since Rex sleeps in our bed, sweet daddy Michael took her upstairs and slept with her. She has a yucky cough and runny nose and is taking the first nap she has had in ages! Thats how we know she's sick. She always says she feels fine until she just can't go on and passes out somewhere. If she knew she was missing ballet right now, she'd feel perfectly fine. I'm glad she is getting some rest.

This may come out kind of weird but yesterday I decided to try an experiment with Yates. He has been just a little ornery lately and seemed like nothing was getting through to him. It was starting to look like he was enjoying being in trouble and Stella was getting used to it too. He was randomly asking me if he was in trouble even when he wasn't and even asked me for a spanking. It was kind of like he was expecting to be in trouble, so if he wasn't he would just do something bad. He was comfortable there. So sad. We had gotten into the habit of snapping at him and even Stella was doing it. I told Stella what our plan was and so we started to just love on him and treat him the way we treat him when he is at his best. I made up a story about him being a good boy that repeated over and over and he really lit up. The entire evening Stella and I tried really hard to be extra sweet to Yates and you know what? He was an absolute perfect angel. He was hugging and kissing everyone, even the dogs, using perfect manners, sharing, not whining, obeying the first time, he was amazing! I feel terrible that we were encouraging him to be bad and am so happy that I was able to see it sooner than later. The days are so hectic sometimes its hard to slow down and concentrate on what is really going on.

This morning we were making our grocery list and Stella said, "Mom, don't forget the dots (periods) after all of the stuffs on our list." She was wanting me to punctuate our bread. milk. cheese. yogurt. . Once again, I haven't taught her about punctuation b/c I didn't realize it was necessary or time. So I attempted to explain why and where we use a dot/period. She sighed a long sigh and said, "...ok mom, just give it to me, I'll do it." And she did. So funny.

"Don't tee-tee on Spider Man"

This is big. Really big. (First a little background. Yates is not potty trained, but I really think he could/should be.) Last night Stella, Yates and I were all in the powder room going potty when Yates decides that he wants to sit on the little baby potty. So he takes off ALL of his clothes and sits on the potty. Nothing happened, so I didn't make any big deal out of it and offered him a diaper or underwear. He chose underwear and we went to pick them out. He chose Spider Man and I told him, "You can wear these underwear, but don't tee-tee on Spider Man. He will not like that." So a bit later, Yates gasped, "Ahhh, Mommy, tee-tee!" So, I just said "Well, ok, go to the potty. Do you want me to help you?" Yates, "No, I do it. Not want mommy to hope (help) me" A minute later he comes out, "I did it!" Sure enough. He totally did. We celebrated and give him the jelly beans and cookie dough (yes cookie dough) we've been promising for months. I can't believe he just did that all by himself. Obviously the make a big deal out of going to the potty approach was not his style. The man needed some privacy. He's been in a diaper today b/c we've been out, but we'll see how he does after his nap today. I didn't get a picture due to his privacy issue, but we did get a video of him running around in his new shoes and underwear afterwards.

Stella's latest:

After I mentioned that Rex has his days and nights mixed up:

"Mommy, I have a great idea. Since Rex likes to sleep in the day and be awake at night, I will come and sleep in your room with you, so I can babysit your baby for you and you can have some rest." What a sweet girl!

When seeing the spotlights on the Olympics figure skaters:

"Mommy! Mommy! See those big circle lights following them?! I need some of those!"

Randomly in the car:

"Mommy, I really want to be on a stage. When can I be on a stage?"

"Mommy, when is there going to be another fashion show? I really want to be in another fashion show."

Should I be worried?

Yates has no idea that boys don't generally do this. I use at as manners practice for him. Lord knows boys need all the help they can get, before its too late and they're full grown and doing something embarrassing at the table.

Rex is 7 weeks old. He has his days and nights mixed up pretty bad and is going through this terrible night time thing where he fights sleep and gets completely overtired and nutso when we try to get him to sleep. He ends up crying and crying and batting his arms really hard until he falls asleep. Its so bad. He also got cradle cap two days ago. Poor baby. He is still so sweet and has been smiling so much. He makes the cutest noise when I come to get him or pick him up. Its like he is so excited that its me. Love it! I would have a picture of him, but all he does is eat, dirty his diapers and sleep...

paybacks...

So I walk into the living room yesterday and this is what I see.

They were totally laying down together on the couch peacefully playing with a calculator! What is up with the calculators around here?!?

So I'm thinking I might have hit my stride. Or maybe "it" just hasn't happened yet. Three kids is still doable. I feel like its just the right amount of busy to keep you going all day and make you totally ready for bed at bed time. Thats not to say that things wouldn't be a little better if I were a morning person, but I'm not, so... whatever. Our regular mornings are great, its just school mornings that are rushed. For some reason, even though I do prepare for things in advance, and get up super early, I'm still in a rush. What is like to just mosey out the door? I've never moseyed anywhere.

Another thing that I think is really weird is that I am generally terrible about cooking dinner. I can cook. I don't mind cooking. I honestly would rather eat out or just eat cereal or ice cream or something. But, since Rex has gotten here I have cooked dinner almost every single night. Unprecedented and seriously weird.

It also isn't too hard to go places and do things. We all went to run errands yesterday and it wasn't any big deal. I keep up-ing the errands and nothing happens. I just don't get it. I can't figure out if Rex is still so little that he isn't any trouble or this is just the way three kids is. I'm going to choose to believe that this is the way it is.

Would anyone like a nice black kitty cat? He's really nice and well adjusted, good with kids. He survived living with me through college and he's been through it all. However, Deion has pooped on my rug for the last time. I don't know what his problem is, but he will not stop pooping on my rug! It has become part of my routine to go pick up the poop pretty much every morning. It is seriously foul and not an ok way for me to live. I asked Michael if I could take him to the vet for a "long nap" and he was not happy about it at all. He and I were raised differently when it comes to animals. I'm thinking that the animal is ruining my stuff and inconveniencing me, so he has to be excused. Michael says "you don't kill things for pooping." I would like for him to have a nice place to live and can't imagine him sitting in a sad little cage waiting to be adopted.

This is what happens when daddy is in charge. First of all, he dressed them. Then they wanted to color on a paper plate. So Michael said that when they finished coloring they could go "nail them to the tree." What?!? That is the most random thing I have ever heard!

Deep Thoughts

What is it about people who aren't quite "all there" that is so easy to recognize? Is it the fact that these working age people are hanging out at the library during work hours? Is it the strange hat? Is it the monotone-bla-eige colored outfit? Is it those lug sole shoes that look way too big? Is it the handle bar moustache? Is it a far away look in the eyes? Is it all of those things crammed on one person? Its hard to say what "it" is that makes you sure with only one tiny glance, but whatever suspicions I had that this particular gentlemen was "off", whatever ran through my head in a fraction of a second, was confirmed when he let me hold the door open for HIM as I carried Rex in the big cumbersome infant seat on one arm, a huge bag of books in one hand, my big purse on one shoulder, had the door with one foot and was holding onto both Stella and Yates by the only free hand. Oh here, let me hold the door for you ma'am... Nope, not this guy. He just ambled on through like it was nothing. Sweet.

Would it be possible to put my kids on some sort of IV instead of feeding them 3 meals + snacks every day? I'm pretty sure it can be done. I need to look into it. Every meal at our house comes with a 100% guarantee that several messy things will splatter, fling, drip, crash, slip, sprinkle, trickle, tumble or just plain get thrown all over the floor. That does not include the things that are smushed, dripped, glopped, smeared and smudged on the faces, clothes, table and chairs. And its not just the messes, its the noise! Do you know how loud silver ware slamming on the floor over and over and over is? It makes me so crazy! I just finished a minor freak out after the 400th thing hit the floor at lunch today and accidentally said, "This is ridiculous! Ya'll are going to have to start eating outside." To which Stella replied, "Oh great! I love eating outside." Ok fine, so maybe eating outside might be a little much, but it would be better than an IV I guess. Either way. Seriously. What do I do? How about I put their meals in a blender, pour it all in a cup with a lid and duct tape the dang lid on?! I've tried, if you drop your fork, you don't get to use a fork for the rest of the meal; or if you drop your drink and the lid flies off and the dogs drink it, you don't have a drink anymore. I've also tried making them clean up the messes they make, but that isn't always an option. Like when its milk (its milk at least every other day, but then again, sometimes its 3 times a day) or when its someone's entire meal that accidentally slipped down off the table b/c an elbow was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe I could get a huge tarp and just cut 2 little head holes and 4 little arm holes in it. Its also pretty disgusting the way the dogs just hang out under the high chairs. If its so obvious to a dog that food will rain down, then there is too much food raining down!! Uuugghh...

Ahhh, nature. Well our lady squirrel is ovulating and mister squirrel got the memo loud and clear. At breakfast lady and mister squirrel ran all over the back yard, up the tree, down the tree, up on the stage, (the huge stump) down on the grass "hugging" each other over and over. Stella said, "I think the one hugging in the back is the daddy." Oh Dear Jesus! No, no, no nature! Couldn't they be normal and do that in the dark instead of all over the place, at breakfast, in front of my babies?!? I guess I should have run out there in my gown and shooed them off with a broom or something. Next time I WILL.

Anyway. Rex is big. He wants to be carried facing out all ready. He still sleeps a lot and his belly button is not 100% yet. I'm a little disturbed by the belly button. Having him reminds me of some of the little things that Stella and Yates did when they were tiny. Rex likes to hide his face when you hold him. Stella did that when she was itty bitty. It doesn't seem like he can breathe, but he will just squirm around until his face is totally under my arm. I had also forgotten what it was like to have a sleeping baby in the infant seat. Sweet baby Yates would scream from the second we put him in there, the entire time he was in the car and wouldn't stop until he was released from the torture seat. Rex is more like Stella, they are/were completely cool with the infant seat. Put 'em in there, give 'em a little jiggle and voila! Now you are free to fold clothes with two hands! Lucky!

"CALCULATA"

This is my all time favorite SNL sketch. It may have a little something to do with the fact that I have seen Michael - my little enginerd - get excited about a calculator in real life at least once...

And maybe this love was only reinforced when "someone" (Steve) actually put "TI-82" or something on their Christmas list THIS YEAR and GOT one : ) Love it!! Nerds!

4 weeks old and It got me...

Today Rex is 4 weeks old. I'm not counting it as one month until the 13th. Between last week and today we've had a whirlwind of things going on. Unfortunately, I got mastitis and it was pretty debilitating. Its crazy that mastitis can be so overwhelming, but it is and I was in bed with 103 fever for 2 1/2 days. We're still working some of the "kinks" out, but at least I'm back in the game and feeling good. The worst part of it was not that I was sick or that I was sick for Super Bowl weekend, but that it was Michael's birthday and he spent it nursing me and tending to all 3 babies. : ( Poor thing. Some happy birthday... Luckily Gigi and Gabby were coming through town and were here to help. We were able to run out to a quick dinner alone and that was nice. Even nicer, we were surprised by my parents who called to pay our bill. We came home to peace and quiet with Yates and Rex sleeping, but that didn't last long. About 10 minutes after we got home Yates started crying in his bed. We knew he had a fever so birthday boy Michael went up to check on him and Yates threw up all over him. He really was covered from head to toe and had to strip down and parade down through the house in a towel. Next was an hour of cleaning up throw up, changing clothes and trying to get Y comfortable again. To top of the birthday night, M slept on the couch with Y : ( Sweet Daddy.

He's back now!!! Big muscles and all!

Playing an iphone game together... without fighting : )

2.11.2010

Didn't get to finish this yesterday because Rex turns into a pumpkin at 9p sharp, but we had the best school morning yesterday. Slowly but surely I'm getting good at this three baby thing. We were right on time and didn't even have to rush around. It was fabulous! I got lots of things done on my list and had a great day in general. Those productive days have been few a far between lately, like for the last 4 months! S and Y came home with their Valentines and loved going through them and eating all of the candy. They both designed and made the ones they gave out and they turned out so cute. Yates' were bulldozers with hearts in the scooper and Stella's were... "abstract-one-of-a-kind-numbers." I don't know how I didn't get pictures of them... weird.

This girl never ceases to amaze me! "Look mommy! I cut up some paper and built an Eiffel Tower!"

Today we are having a Texas blizzard! It has been snowing since at least 6am. I dug out the babies' snow suits cut all of those "room to grow" seams out (took forever!!) and they had big fun in the snow. (Side story) Yates cut his finger earlier on a pipe cleaner (who knows) but we had some GI Joe band-aids that Gigi brought us that were Michael's when he was little (for real) so he was fine until he got snow in his mitten and on his boo boo. He then started to cry because his "pingo" (finger) hurt and he had to go back in. It was fun either way! I can't believe how much snow is out there!

3 weeks old

Rex is three weeks old today. He is still being super easy, sleeping well, eating well, snoring here and there. This last week flew by! Yesterday we had sweet friend and photographer Kelly Pollard come over to take pictures of the babies. Kelly is amazing. Not only are her photographs beautiful, but she is an amazing person and is unbelievable with the babies. They love her, I love her and I think I'm going to start stalking her. (Sorry Kelly) Click the link and brace yourself... they made me cry, again. http://www.lala-photography.com/blog/

The best thing about today is that we made it to school on time! Yay! I had to use every ounce of self control I could muster to keep from running through the hall at school with my arms raised in the air in celebration! ...like I just crossed the finish line. We were actually 2 minutes ahead of schedule. I knew I could do it. Last week we were late Monday and Wednesday and I was not ok with it. I do not want to be that mom. Anyway, hopefully the late days are behind us.

Also at school, Yates' new teachers are so nice! The entire "vibe" is just so much better, more positive and sweeter. At his old school the teachers expected him to act a certain way (fussy) and so he did. Now they have a nice little story to tell me at the end of each day about how good he is. Today the story was that Yates is so sweet, he helped another little boy pick up a mess he had made and was not wanting to pick up. I didn't know Yates would pick up a mess, much less help someone else pick up their mess. Like my mom said, as long as they do what they know is right in public, I've done my job. Yay! I am very proud of him for adjusting to his new school so well, for fitting in with the older kids in his class and for being a good boy.

Stella came home with a special sticker on her shirt for picking up at school today too. Michael has been making them pick up really well at night. I guess its starting to get ingrained in them. Hallelujah!

A couple of cute things the kids have been saying...

Stella - "Mommy, I love you as long as a rope."

Yates - "blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, __(insert long story about anything at all)_____, blah, blah. Know that?"

I can't remember if I've posted about Yates' imaginary kitty cat and bulldozer. He has decided that there is an invisible kitty cat that lives on top of or behind the headboard in our bedroom. He pretends like the imaginary cat scares him so that he can fake scared. He always says, "Kitty cat getting me" then dies laughing. The imaginary bulldozer lives in his hand... of course. He will hold out two hands for you to guess which hand the bulldozer is in, then when you choose the right hand he will whisper, "bitty bitty bulldozer." Hilarious.

One other thing I didn't want to forget. Between Friends. Stella designed and made a baby doll the day before Rex was born. She sketched the way she wanted her baby to look, chose the fabrics, buttons, thread colors and placement of everything. When it was finished she announced that her name is Between Friends... so that everyone can share her. Oooookay...

I just love these pictures...

Playing with the Tag, which is fabulous!

Pink and Bop gave this to Rex. S and Y love to find money to put in it, but all of a sudden Yates has figured out a way to get candy out without putting the money in... hmmmm.

Stella drew this picture of Rex, for Rex.

Helping me make rocky road. yummy!

Two Weeks Old and Yates' First Day

Rex is two weeks old today! Actually in 22 minutes he will be 2 weeks old. He had his 2 week check up today and did great. He is back up to his birth weight 9lbs 13 oz, 90%, was 90% in height and 80% in head circumference. I love our pediatrician who said today that Rex looks great other than he looks like a 2 month old. If thats the worst thing, I'll take it. Rex has been a really easy baby so far. I guess there's still a chance he could wake up and be different. He sleeps really well, eats well and is learning to be very patient with his older, louder, more demanding siblings.

Yates had his first day at Good Shepherd today. He was pretty excited about getting to go to "Stella's school." Michael and I decided to move him from his one day a week parents day out to Good Shepherd, where Stella goes. We are very happy with Good Shepherd and having them at the same school will simplify my life. Today was a little bit of a mess. I clearly did not budget enough time this morning, but thats ok. Everyone made it only a few minutes late. When I picked him up from school his teachers were very sweet and went on and on about how good Yates was and how nice his manners were. We had to put him in a class 2 age levels above where he should actually be, but the school went ahead and did it based on Stella's performance in her class. They were expecting him to be similar to her and luckily he put on a good show for everyone today! Yay, Yates! Good job!

Happy Birthday Yates

Sunday afternoon, Yates celebrated his 2nd birthday at The Little Gym. He had a bulldozer themed party and it turned out great for everyone. Gigi and Gabby came and Gabby held Rex the whole time. It was perfect b/c he also held Yates for the duration of Stella's 2nd birthday party. I was determined to have a real party for him b/c he went to Bob's last year and skyped his Gigi and Gabby at cake time... not the best birthday for a 1 year old. This year was much better. He was so excited about his "bu-do-du pa-ty" and is still talking about it.

Here are a few pictures from his party.

Monday Yates had his 2 year checkup. Yates, Rex and I went for the check up after dropping Stella off at school and it was a breeze. Everyone was good, we made it to school in one piece, nothing major happened. Rex is such a good, easy baby. He is really making this 3 baby thing a non-issue. Yates did great at his appointment and his stats are: Height - 73%, Weight - 40%, Head - 88%.

I also need to report that the emotional rollcoaster ride only lasted for one day which is fabulous! I think I cried for several days after Yates and Stella were born. I feel so much better physically now that Rex is on the outside, I feel like a new girl! I can move my legs without wincing and can actually hustle around. Its great!! He is 2 weeks old tomorrow. Sweet, sweet boy!

I'd like to get off please...

Tools of the trade

I think I got on the post-partum emotional roller coaster this morning and I'd like to get off. I have the hardest time letting go even when I am partially incapacitated, like if I have a baby glued to my boob or something. Sweet Michael keeps saying, "just go rest, take a nap" and I can't. I feel like a worthless lump of bad hair and boobie pads. Not good. I know in my head that I should take advantage of my fabulous husband that can do everything and does, but I kind of think its embarrassing or something to just loll about. There is a list of things I ought to be doing scrolling through my head that just won't turn off. Waaahh...