Permission to Brag

I mentioned last night that the folks over at The Parent Bloggers Network have put out a request for all us parents to get out our brag books.... It doesn't take much to make me do that, in fact, that is a lot of what this blog is about! The request comes as part of a promotion for a new book by Jennifer Fox entitled Your Child's Strengths. I haven't read it yet, but the reviews on Amazon look good.


At almost 3 years old, Ella is incredibly loving and kind. She is compassionate about many things... her family, her environment, and her whole world. She takes great care of her three little sisters and also antagonizes them a fair amount. She actually tolerates much more than I would ever think possible for a 2 almost 3 year old. They climb on her, take her things, and have completely altered her once lone existence, and we've truly yet to see the green monster of jealousy from her in any serious respect. She is insightful, adorable, and I could just eat her up!!


Before starting on the little gals, let me say that I sat down just now to try and count up how many words they have and within 2 minutes I had written 60, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. They are all copying everything we say so new words that they actually know and use in "conversation" are popping up daily.

Maggie is our mischievous, little, trouble maker. She is a complete delight. You can see the gleam in her eye when she is about to stir up some trouble. She is just so cute in the way she goes about things. Maggie loves to dance and snap her fingers. She likes to twirl in circles (all these silly girls do). With a grand total of 13.5, she has the most teeth of the 18 month old crew here.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before or not, but I am smitten with Kate and her ability to be completely happy playing in the midst of the group or all by herself. Unless she isn't feeling well, she is content to do her own thing or play with the other girls, but either way she doesn't find it necessary to cling to me all the time...and she smiles all the time. She loves to dress and undress herself. When she is having snuggle time with me one on one, she loves, loves to have her arms and legs tickled. Kari, Adam, and I used to tickle each other when we sat on the couch together so I'm hoping the other girls will enjoy it as much as Kate one of these days. Oh, and Kate has 12 teeth.

Sarah is soooooo talkative. Of all the 60+ words that the girls have, Sarah was the first to use each of them. She is just like a little parrot... nothing is said in her presence that she doesn't try to repeat. She loves to snuggle. Often she'll walk up to me and say, "hold". Her elephant lovey has seen better days, but she loves the stuffing right out of that little thing. Recently, she has started singing Jesus Loves Me to me as I get ready to put her in bed for the night. She loves to wear hats and currently has several that are favorites. Sarah only has 8 teeth still, so we've got a ways to go in the teething department, but thankfully she doesn't usually have a tough time with new ones.


I guess that's it for a quick update on the Four Silly Sisters, and Mama's brag book is officially closed for the day. I will be excited to read the book Your Child's Strengths as we begin to discover each of Ella, Maggie, Kate, and Sarah's.

Our New Design

Lest I become confused with someone capable of creating something as nifty as my new blog layout by myself, I suppose I should announce a very special thanks to a complete stranger, and design genius behind our new layout, Hilary. While I loved the way the old black background made my pictures look, it wasn't doing good things to my eyes! Hilary very generously offered to help me when my eyes had reached their limit...
Thanks Hilary for the great new look. It really suites us well, I think.
What do you guys think?

18 Months and 1 Day

Kate

Maggie

Sarah

I intended to do a very cute post yesterday in honor of Maggie, Kate, and Sarah's 18 month b-day, but instead I got the flu yesterday morning! I mean the full out, run over by a mac truck FLU!! Thankfully I was able to get my hands on some Tamiflu by last night and am almost feeling normal again now.

Life is so much fun around here these days. The girls are all into everything, talking our ears off, and loving on each other so nicely. I promise to write more about each one of them and their new skills tomorrow. The good people at The Parent Bloggers Network have requested we all get out our brag books tomorrow anyway. (Guess that's nothing new around here!) I don't have the energy to type anymore... just didn't want another day to go by without posting my little cuties and their 18 month pictures!

Bed Head

I've just been following the girls around waiting to get the perfect 'after' pictures of their cute little haircuts for days now. So far, all I've come up with is these illustrations of the fact that they still have terrible bed head... at least Maggie and Kate, anyway. Sarah really doesn't have enough hair for bed head, and Ella's is too long to stick out in every which direction like M and K's do. Enjoy, and you'll just have to take my word for it about the haircuts!

No Fair, Mom

Earlier this afternoon I was checking email, the girls were napping, and Ella was supposed to be resting in her room. Instead E came running into the office, jumped up in my lap, and said, "Mom, I really need to do my starfall work- right now!" Well, I told her that she should finish up her rest time, and in a few minutes when I was done checking email I would come get her set up on the computer. She looked at me with quite a pout and said, "No fair Mom. You already know how to read."

First Haircuts

This afternoon Kim and Emma Grace made a house call to give the girls their first haircuts. I made them each sit on the hearth after they woke up from naps so that I could snap these fabulous BEFORE pictures.







We've been sporting some pretty fuzzy hair-dos around here for quite a while... despite Ella's best efforts with the Enchanted Beauty Parlor that she got for Christmas, things just weren't improving. I finally called in Ms. Kim for professional assistance.

I was not sure what to expect. I have taken Ella before to have A-Megan, Amanda, or Beth cut her hair at her most favorite booty paw-er ever, and once we've arrived she has flatly refused. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah have more than a mild case of "I want my mommy" when anyone they are not accutely acquainted with is around. However, I think sweet baby Emma Grace was a huge ice breaker because they all enjoyed her presence for a while before we set up the make-shift shop. Ella's beauty parlor chair was finally put to some good use. I stuck it on top of the kitchen table and that became the work area. Ella went first and set a wonderful example... she's all about being a good example to the little ones these days. It also didn't hurt that Ms. Sherry stopped by with some sugary treats for after the haircuts!

Here are the DURING photos...

It really was as calm as it looks in the photos. There was no screaming, no yelling, no crying, no sharp scissors in danger of poking a wiggly girl in the eye! I was amazed!! I think Kim was a little shocked too. Maybe she'll continue to make house calls here if the girls behave this nicely every time. That's what we're hoping, anyway.

In my excitement over how well things went, I completely forgot to take AFTER shots. But I did get a cute picture of Ella snuggling up with Emma Grace. I'll be sure to take some after photos tomorrow. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. Kim; their neat little heads look so much better!

Literal vs. Figurative Language and Preschoolers

I mentioned earlier that we visited a preschool on Tuesday that we have been considering for Ella in the fall. Today Kelli asked her whether she liked it or not. Her response was "a little girl had to go to heaven there for chewing gum". As a result, she said she definately didn't want to go to school there ever. I explained to Kelli...

While we were visiting the preschool, the director who was showing us around commented that Ella's chewing gum smelled very good. Ella said "thanks, it's fruity, isn't it?". The director then said that her daughter had just gotten her braces off and was "in heaven" because she was allowed to have gum and candy again.

Ella stopped dead in her tracks and said, "Why'd she have to go to heaven for chewing gum?" The director was suprised, but Ella wasn't going to budge until I fixed this.... or so I thought, by attempting to explain that she just meant her daughter was excited, it was just a figure of speech, etc.

We then moved on (perhaps to quickly) to the fact that the little girl had sucked her paci and her thumb and that was why she had to have braces. We're using braces and her teeth as the reason for not letting Ella have a paci anymore, so I thought we'd reinforce it with the director's daughter's braces story. Ella was very curious about it all.

I thought we had everything cleared up before the end of our tour that day. Ella said that she was excited to go to preschool with the other boys and girls when we got home that afternoon. I'm still not clear on whether or not she understands this particular expression, but early this morning Ella used the words "oh. my. heavens... I have to go to the potty" when she was playing after breakfast. Sometimes she gets that there are lots of expressions and figures of speech that are used to describe feelings, but when we least expect it she goes completely literal on us! I suspect we're in for all this and a whole lot more once the other three begin talking and thinking out loud the way E does.

Only a Daddy.....

would find this funny, AND have her do it again so he could take a picture!

The girls have thoroughly enjoyed having Daddy around all day today! Ella got away with tons more than usual, as you may have noticed in the photos above. I enjoyed having the extra set of hands this morning for our first Kindermusik Family Time class. I don't know if Ella will enjoy it as much as she did last semester when she went without her sisters, mainly because she really enjoyed all the other kids in her class last time and this time WE are the class!

After Kindermusik we toured a preschool that has a 2 day per week program we've been considering sending Ella to in the fall.

Finally we all went out to lunch together at Papa's Pizza. It was the first time in a very long time that just our little family of 6 has been out to a restaurant together. In fact, I guess that was probably the first time that we've been on our own. Crazy, huh?!? I can say that less than one year ago I couldn't even imagine going out to eat with our crew. Now we are on the go all the time... what a difference a year makes!

A Lesson in Perspective

I sat down at the computer yesterday prepared to post a picture of Sarah's pitiful face and tell about her nose, mouth, and head meeting the cement outside Saturday afternoon. I planned to tell all about the awful evening I had wherein Maggie and Sarah each took turns being up on and off all night. I was going to write about how miserable they were all feeling, acting, and making me feel.

However, before I went to blogger I checked my email and got a terrible shock. I had a message from a virtual friend with triplet daughters born a few months after my three. Keira's girls were miracles born at only 25 weeks who had survived and thrived and celebrated their first birthday back in December. They had been sick a good bit throughout January with the flu. One of the three, their little "warrior princess" Zoe passed away from complications of pneumonia this weekend at Scottish Rite. Though I've never met Keira in person, I know from reading her words about these girls that she is an amazing mother. Please keep the entire Sorrells family in your prayers over the days and weeks to come!

The After Effects

Yes, the fact that I am writing this post means that Scott left for the wedding in Austin WITHOUT ME. What was supposed to be our long awaited weekend get away has become an "I hope Scott and Lawson behave without Jessica and I at the wedding while I survive stuck at home with sickly children" weekend. I am so bummed, but I just couldn't leave the house this morning at 6am after being up from 1 to 4 am with Kate last night.

In the wake of Valentine's Day, we are still experiencing some of the after effects... not sure if it is the sugar, caffeine, or all the awful red dye. I would have no idea that stuff could be the cause of our problems if not for daily reading an interesting triplet mom's blog who often writes about the effects red dye has on one of her daughters. She talks about it both here, and in more detail here . Ella was really the only one who consumed Valentine treats other than the ones that I made myself, and she's the one I'm referring to... lots of fits, whining, tears off and on all day long. I know it is all normal two, almost three year old stuff, but since we've been using Magic for Early Childhood from Love and Logic, we had not been experiencing quite as much of this type of behavior. I have forever been guilty of overthinking situations, so I suppose in reality Ella could just be extra tired or something too, but whatever the cause, I hope things improve soon!

Before the mass consumption of sugary treats yesterday morning, I overheard Ella say to Kay-Kay, "Have a Valen-time cupcake." When Kay thanked her and replied that she was not hungry, Ella said, "Well, then... whenever you get ready, just go ahead and help yourself." She has also been using words that just plain sound funny coming out of her mouth a good bit lately. Like, ak'-chully (actually), often, and including, i.e. when I told her to get ready for a bath the other night she said, "so I have to take off ALL my clothes, including my shirt, including my pants, including my socks, " etc, including every stitch of clothing she was wearing (and you've all seen pictures of the way this child layers her attire). Even with all the bad attitude today she is still one of the sweetest little gals you could hope to meet, even if I do say so myself! I had quite the enjoyable afternoon with her, in fact. While Maggie, Kate, and Sarah were napping, Ella and I went outside with her little box and searched for 5 things that God made to put inside it. Then we drew on the driveway with our sidewalk chalk. We made some shapes, put rocks in them, counted them. It was completely fun one on one time outside. We both had a blast! When I got my sunglasses out of the car, she had to have a pair too.

Kate has been feeling much better today from what I could tell. I only had to give her Motrin once for fever, and she has played right along with the gang all afternoon and evening. Last night while I was up with just her, a little bit of her personality shone through that I'd never seen before. Prior to her being up I had had to get Maggie up and change a terrible dirty diaper around 11pm. In order to not disturb the other two, I snuck her out of the nursery and changed her in the living room then put her back to bed. I left the wipes and Desitin on the couch in case anyone else needed changing during the night. When Kate got up later on I brought her into the living room. She whined until she was able to convey to me that she wanted a baby wipe, which she could see only a few feet away on the couch. After I gave her one she began cleaning the wood floors, the furniture, the fireplace... everything within her reach received a good thorough wipe down. Then she picked up the diaper rash cream and started saying "high" over and over again. I usually keep it up on a high shelf in the girls room. She wouldn't settle down and sit still until I took it and put it back on that high shelf! She was too funny. Here's hoping that I have at least one little neat freak on my hands. How great would that be?

Sarah has repeated every word I've said today, or at least tried. She said Kay-Kay for the first time this morning (though I'm sure she's been able for a while and just holding out for affect), and then later on would not stop saying it! She's told me several times today when she was going potty... after the fact, of course, but still headed in the right direction. I honestly don't remember anything that I said in her presence today that she didn't parrot back, so it's only a matter of time before my ears really are burning at night before I go to bed, what with two "chatty cathy's" under one roof and all!

Maggie is still pure mischief. She is learning from the best of the best- Ella. Since E doesn't take a paci anymore and the little gals still do, I will occasionally find her with her face in a corner and her rear in the air. That is a sure sign that she's stolen someone's paci and run to hide. Well, a few nights ago, Maggie stole Sarah's paci in plain view, and then ran and hid behind the door to the living room. She assumed the position and put her face into the corner and her rear in the air. We laughed, and I still chuckle when I think about it. Prior to doing that I saw her offer her paci to Ella and then immediately begin whining that Ella had stolen her paci. She really delights in causing trouble!

The pictures of the girls are mostly from this afternoon over at Mimi and Pop's. We headed there after nap time for an adventure on the mule, Kawasaki- not farm animal. We rode out to the barn and all through the pasture. We stopped to talk to Joe and Jimmy while they were working on a water line. We went in to see Nanny and Pop C. before they headed off on their weekly Friday night date. Then finally headed back to the shop to visit with Pop Dickie and his buddies before playing in the yard. After all this I'm hoping that they'll all sleep all night long and so will I. Oh, and yes, all these photos in this one post were taken today, and yes, those are two totally different outfits that Ella is wearing... that kid really loves to "create clothing ensembles"!

Valentine's Day 2008

To make the day memorable, this morning I gave the girls each their own tiny heart cake that I made last night as their Valentine from Scott and I. We opened up cards we'd received in the mail from grand and great- grand parents. Kay-Kay arrived bearing Valentine's day cards and gifts. We dressed in pink... every shade available, and went to a Valentine's party at story hour. It was crazy there; I think all the kids there had a little too much of the red dye already! Kate began to feel ill and developed a fever. So we came home, gave Kate some Advil, had some lunch, and put the little ones down for a nap. Kate woke up feeling just a little warm, but she was acting like her old self again.

Then we all played outside.

This does not look like the face of a sick baby, I know!

Later Mrs. Sherry came by and took Ella to visit with Bethann at college. Maggie, Kate, and Sarah were all just a little hurt that they were not chosen to go with Mrs. Sherry, so Kelli and I got out the baby doll strollers and a couple of baby dolls and we had a full hour of pure joy.... minus a couple of uh-oh's and small oopsies.




This evening Kate's fever was back, Ella was beyond tired and full of sugar, and wouldn't you know I have to decide by the morning if all is well enough for me to escape with Scott to Austin for a wedding this weekend!?!

Oops, We Forgot...

Yesterday Scott and I took all the girls to the library for storyhour and the Valentine's Day Party. Ella had stayed up extra late the night before making her delightful, homemade cards for all her "friends" at storyhour. She had an especially cheery/sunny disposition on Monday morning as a result... insert sarcasm here. In our haste to pack everyone and our yummy treats to share into the car, we forgot to bring the Valentine's cards!! It was a bummer, but I guess that will keep us from having to stay up making new ones before going to storyhour at the other library on Thursday. Don't worry, in order to prevent the same thing from happening again, the cards are already riding around in my vehicle.





Today an old friend of mine from school dropped by to see the girls. She is expecting her first baby in March. Her due date is the same as mine was with Ella. She brought along with her a 6 pack of cup cakes from the Ingles bakery... the ones loaded with frosting, frosting, and more frosting. I actually let the girls enjoy them (minus the frosting for Maggie, Kate, and Sarah) this afternoon. Here's a photo of the damage so that I won't forget to return the favor when baby boy is around 2 years old. Ha, ha!!

Notice Ella has taken a big glob of the purple frosting and done some finger painting on my table.... again, she's so sahwee.

Finally, a few pictures from our stellar "Daddy's not home dinner" tonight, where we ate cereal and Sarah FORGOT her manners.

Sahwee (Sorry)

Ella's new favorite words are, I'm sahwee. She said it this afternoon while repeatedly painting my kitchen table with her paint filled brush instead of the huge piece of paper I'd provided. She said it as she stole Maggie's paci and ran, many times throughout the day. Finally, this evening when Scott was heading to work and asked for a kiss she said, "I'm sooo sahwee Dad. Mimi, Kelli, and Doodah already got all my kisses. You'll just have to wait a few days till you come back. So sahwee!"

Blessed and Busy

Yesterday at Babyland I experienced my first awful comment. We get lots of comments and stares from total strangers when we're out in public, but most of the time people just say... "You've got your hands full, don't you?" or "How do you manage?" Yesterday I actually overheard a guy say to his wife that he would shoot himself in the face if he were me! Really!?! The girls were being busy, but not too loud, not too clingy, not too wild, actually just enjoying their surroundings... Babyland General Hospital is many a little girl's dream place, afterall. I did not let on that I had heard him because I wasn't quite sure what to say. My thoughts and prayers were immediately, Thank you God that I am blessed with these little girls and not that fella over there!!!

Moving on to a much more pleasant topic... Ella has been working on her "school work" again this week. In the afternoons when the little ones are napping, she and I have been coloring, doing her starfall work, as she calls it, putting together puzzles, and cooking. She is a complete sponge! I am amazed every day by her capacity to learn, remember, and absorb new things. Even though she says she isn't interested in going to school, I think she will really love it once she gets there.

On Thursday Scott was working. In the evening before bedtime Ella and I were chatting. She mentioned missing her daddy all day. I agreed with her. Then she said, "Well, we got to see your dad and your mom, Mimi and Pop, today." I said, yes indeed, we did. Then she said, "You are one lucky girl!". Don't I know it!!!

I realized tonight at dinner time that Kate has a new word. Mom was trying to help all the girls get started eating while I was fixing my plate. Kate kept trying to hold her Mimi's and Maggie's hands while saying, "ble ble ble" over and over again. When I sat down at the table I realized that she was simply reminding us to say the blessing! How sweet is that?

Maggie, Kate, and Sarah are almost completely feeding themselves with utensils now. It has been (and continues to be) a messy transition, but it is also quite freeing. Now we are able to sit down and all eat at the same time. So nice.... it's the little things that make a mom happy, you know?

Small Town Benefits

... or reason number 173 why living in a small town works for us.

When we woke up Monday morning it was raining, and it had rained all night long. So any hopes of going to the park after story hour were dashed. Ella was pouty and didn't want to go to story hour anyway, and I didn't feel like driving 30 minutes in the rain and then dragging her in to story hour if she wasn't up for it... not to mention Maggie, Kate, and Sarah are still just getting used to the idea of going and getting in with them without being soaked in the process would be very tricky.

So Mimi, the girls, and I headed down to the local Bowling Alley & Skating Rink instead. I had made up my mind after reading my friend Kim's post about the Tot Roll at their skating rink to just go in and ask about having something like that at our local place. The very nice people at our skating rink explained that they don't do Tot Rolls (where you apparently go and take riding toys and play for a few hours with tons of other people in a big playdate fashion) because of the gravel in the wheels of the toys. However, they kindly said that they are closed throughout the week days on the skating side and wouldn't mind to let us go in and let the girls run whenever we want. Can you believe our luck? At least in my mind, things like this only happen in small town America. You city folks may have Tot Rolls, but we've got an entire open, flat, loud area all to ourselves! Ha, ha... really I'm just kidding, we would totally love to have others join us when we take our occasional roller rink break, maybe I'll have to ask Ms. Rae about that the next time we're there.

Anyway, so today when we woke up to rain yet again, we packed up and headed back to the skating rink with a garbage bag full of balls to chase and throw. Once we were all in and playing nicely, Ms. Rae came in and offered to put on some music for us. Imagine our surprise when she put on The Laurie Berkner Band, one of our favorites!! The girls ran, danced, snapped their fingers (especially Maggie), crashed into each other, and generally had a wonderful time. I've got lots of great video and virtually no regular photos, so hopefully I'll be able to make the short videos into a little montage to share with you all!!

In other news... Ella dressed herself today in a very cute, pink, sized 9 month dress (she used it as a shirt) that I had packed up in the girls' closet because it is too little for them, plus lilac tights, and a blue jean skirt. This kid has a keen fashion sense for sure!

Please forgive the horrible videography... I'm pretty terrible, but somebody's got to do it!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I guess the video will be better to view once it gets down below all the other junk on my side bar... unless I can figure out how to fix it before then.

Dressing Themselves

Hat and boots... Sarah's idea

Maggie is the only cutie who will actually wear a hairbow

Another cute hat shot

Kate and Ella- Mug shot photos

Many days I cringe as we walk out the door to go somewhere because Ella is now dressing herself almost full time. This particular day was not too bad, but most days she parades around as a Punky Brewster look-alike. I do try to gently persuade or coax, but more often than not, I am satisfied if she is wearing weather appropriate attire. Summer will bring new battles, and I'm certain of this because she is already insisting that she intends to wear her jeans (many pairs which she absolutely is refusing to touch these days) when summertime gits here. Over the weekend I found myself trying to convince Ella to put on a cute little aqua shirt -it's a great color on her, but she said to me, "Mom, it's just not MY color!" What could I say to that ?

I have had several people ask me recently about dressing Maggie, Kate, & Sarah all alike, and like my triplet mom friend Dorinda, I tend to dress them either alike or coordinated simply because it is easier. It takes so much less thought and effort to pick out one "set" of outfits vs. finding three equally comfortable/dressy/weather appropriate outfits for them. However, I suspect it will only be a matter of time before they are all telling me what they want to wear, or better yet, just dressing themselves. They are beginning to develop their own sense of what looks good, and I suppose I should just be greatful that we'll eventually move on to dressing as opposed to only undressing one of these days. Guess I'll continue to grin and bear it when the time comes X3 just like I do for little Punky now.... I certainly don't want to squelch their delightfully independent little spirits in any way!

Sweet Thankfulness

We had an incredibly fun and busy day starting with a sleep- in for mommy until 7:30am, a nice visit with Nanny and Pop C., playing with Joan, seeing lots of the family out in town this morning, grocery shopping, and finally celebrating baby Noel's baptism with Chris, Amanda, and Chase. As a result, tonight we sat down to a fast, easy dinner of pancakes, bacon, bananas, and milk. Ella asked the blessing, as usual. After she had a few bites of her pink pancakes, she looked up at me and said, "Thanks for my supper, mom. It's good!" Then Sarah immediately started signing Thank You. Next I looked over and Kate was also vigorously signing Thank You to me.... all this greatfulness was completely unprovoked. These girls are so sweet that sometimes I could just eat them up! It made my mommy heart smile!! Maybe we'll eat pancakes every Saturday night?!?

Random Winter Videos

We can't keep pants on these girls (and it's wintertime), but somehow they manage to keep these little plastic heels on?!?




All lined up reading... and looking for Dora.


As you can tell, we are all still anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring!!