Updates on Our Busy Crew

The past month has been lots of things, but I suppose the words I would use to describe it for us would be busy, busy, unpredictable, crazy, full of learning, and did I mention BUSY!?!


I'm throwing out my perfectionism and just putting this post out there... it's been sitting unfinished in my computer for weeks! I need to do better. I'm really, really going to try and post more often.


Maggie, Kate, and Sarah are all 3.5 years old and weigh in at just under 30 pounds, and they're 38 inches tall. They are constantly on the move and almost never stop talking... all at the same time.


Sarah is a little ball of fire. She is smart as a whip and yet sweet Sarah has to be one of the most generous 3 year olds I've ever met. She is always looking for ways to make others feel happy. She loves everyone, but she especially LOVES her sisters. She is often willing to give up something of her own to make a sister happy. Almost a month ago I overheard her tell my aunt Donna, "you're so beautiful... the most beautifulest....I love you forever, I love you to the moon and back, even when you die you'll stay in my heart." Sarah knows all her basics... colors, numbers, shapes, and most all upper and lower case letters. She constantly comes to me and says... "What does puh-puh-pancake (and virtually every other thing that crosses her mind) start with?" She almost always knows the answer before I tell her. Sarah has a full grasp of the power of being the baby of the family... even if she only claims that title by a about a minute, and she has a double wide stubborn streak!

Maggie is purely and simply the picture of mischief.... she always has been! She has the most precious voice and is quick to tell everyone we meet that she is "the shy one". Being second in the birth order ranks, she is very competitive with Ella. She can often be found lurking in Ella's closet trying on clothes. She likes to be able to do the things Ella does. She too knows all the basics preschool wise, and seems to have an extra special knack for math skills. She easily adds items, counts items, etc. She is also a great kitchen helper... follows instructions well and really enjoys getting her hands dirty. Maggie is usually the tomboy of the crew. She gravitates toward cars, machines, and figuring out how things work. She has a couple of girlie favorites... baby dolls and high heel shoes. She can't get enough of either of those!

One night after I had tucked the girls into bed I checked in on them and overheard the following. Kate had declared she was marrying her friend Luke C. and living in "New Werk City", Sarah planned to marry Luke G. and move to Chicago, but Maggie said, "I want to marry Daddy and live right here." Maggie used to be our most adventurous eater, but she is quickly losing that title to Kate and becoming quite picky. She has the very best imagination of the group and often blames her mischief on her pet dog lovey. Maggie gives the very best hugs ever!!

Drama girl Kate is always looking for something to elicit sympathy. This girl can really milk a boo-boo! She too loves high heels and all things girly. She's got preschool basics down pat. She has amazing rhyming skills, and her favorite game is the one where we say, "What is an animal that rhymes with __________ (fill in the blank with any word that we can come up with that rhymes with an animal). She beats the other three almost every time.... drama and quick wit! As I already mentioned, Kate has taken over Maggie's adventurous eater title. She is willing to try almost anything I put in front of her. As a result, she likes more foods than the rest. Kate is also the most eager and very best kitchen helper I've got. She loves to get her hands into flour, she works a microwave like a champ, and I thoroughly enjoy having my beautiful little half pint helper by my side! Kate also loves to do tricks with daddy. He can spin her around, toss her in the air, and hang her upside down, and she always comes back asking for more.

I can hardly believe how much Ella has changed this past year. She is now 5 years old and headed to kindergarten in the fall. I still can not believe it is time already!! She is such a great helper, an even better boss, and according to her preschool teacher only has kind things to say about everyone. She loves her sisters, but she definitely enjoys her time apart as the Big Sis. Ella has a keen sense of style. She is making rapid progress toward learning to read. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web together at bedtime, and according to Ella her new favorite books are "chapter books". We can't get away with spelling things we don't want her to understand anymore. She is working on blending consonant and short vowel sounds. Another recent skill of note, Ella is now able to "pump" and swing herself. She is super, duper tall, but still only weighs around 40 pounds.

Scott has been working lots... work stuff, ARMY stuff, and wood working. Yeah, you read that right... woodworking. He made a bar height island for the kitchen. When we removed the quad feeding table way back when I had no idea we'd leave a Little Tykes picnic table in our kitchen in it's place for so long. But we finally found a picture of a replacement we liked, and then with my uncle Greg's help, Scott made it for us. It matches the kitchen table really well, and we've already gotten tons of use out of it.... evidence above where all four girls are making homemade play dough together. We're still on the lookout for perfect barstools so if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears?!?

Even I've had lots of new things going on this past month. My friend Dena and I kept one another motivated, trained together, and then ran our first 5k early in March finishing with a time of 34 minutes and something. Two weeks later I ran another one in the rain. Apparently I don't like running in the rain because I finished with a much improved time of 29:44. Woohoo!

I have also kept very busy in the kitchen trying to have a little Food Revolution of our own here. I've finally ditched the pancake and waffle mixes and found homemade versions that the girls like to go along with our homemade pancake syrup. I'm trying to be more conscious about getting fruits and vegetables in with every meal, and I've been doing lots of homemade breads... so far French bread is a favorite. Next I'm going to tackle whole wheat sandwich bread. It's not huge by any means, but we're making our revolution one baby step at a time.

Hopefully there will be more to come tomorrow... we've had lots going on that is not being documented while I'm not blogging. I've got to get back into the swing of things!

Last night on our way home from church I was preparing the girls with the instructions I wanted them to follow when we walked through the door. When Scott isn't home I tend to act like a drill sargent in order to get the bedtime routine done. It was after bedtime already, so they were to take their vitamins, brush teeth, get jammies on, put the dirty laundry in the basket, and select their books. Five simple instructions... they've heard them so many times that when I started the conversation they all started rattling off the steps in order to me before I had the chance to finish.



Once we were all unbuckled and safely in the house they got amnesia. So I handed out vitamins and then told them to meet me in their room to read some books after all their other tasks were completed... oh, and I set the timer for 5 minutes. I had no idea what that timer was for, but they all have a pretty strong desire to beat any and every timer so it didn't really matter.



I went to my room to get ready for bed as they were all running off in the direction of their bathroom. Several minutes later when my timer went off (I suppose it was to pull me out of my own temporary amnesia) I walked down the hall to check on them. That's when I found all four of the girls lined up across their 2 sink bathroom counter half way brushing their teeth and whole heartedly singing "It's a hard enough life for us, it's a hard enough life for us" - their version of the opening number from the Annie movie.



So I pretended to be Ms. Hannigan and sent them off to change into their jammies while I cleaned up the bathroom. It looks like a walrus tried to take a bath in the sink after they are done brushing, washing hands, basically doing anything in the bathroom that involves water.... just in case anyone was wondering.



A few seconds later I found Sarah changing her clothes in her bedroom all by herself when we heard the other girls cutting up over in Ella's room. She nearly jumped out of her skin, was immediately in a hurry and said as she was running for the door, "The girls are all laughin' and I'm in here missin' out!"

***

everyday life with 4 sisters... always someone to sing with, always someone to dance with, always someone to play with, always someone to laugh with, always someone to love... you girls are not missing out on a thing!!

Fantasy World

We all live in a fantasy world here in the Four Silly Sisters household!

I can't count the number of times each day someone comes to me and asks, "Mama, will you be ___________ (fill in the blank with hundreds of random supporting characters in their imaginary worlds). I have even had to convince the girls that I can play multiple p-tend roles at the same time, since everyone NEEDS me to be part of what they are imagining at the same time.

The girls pretending fluctuates constantly between people we know in real life, to ballerinas, cheerleaders, brides, teachers, doctors, mothers... the list goes on and on.

I believe that the make believe play that they are constantly engaged in is great for their development.

As their mother, I try my best to make healthy choices for them in every aspect. I attempt to feed them nutritious foods.... limited fast food, very little processed, food dyes, additives, etc. However, today at lunch as they were going around the table exchanging greetings among their current personas I realized I'm living in a fantasy land of my own.

Sarah said, "Hi guys.... I'm Anna." (Anna our favorite friendly Papa's Pizza employee)

Ella was next, "Hi everybody, can I take your order? I'm Ms. Jan" (favorite waitress from the Waffle House)

Maggie then said, "Well, I'll be Annie from Chick-fil-A."

As usual, Kate was a non-conformist. She stuck with playing the role of Aunt Kari.

Anyone want to come over and play make believe with us? Or better yet, maybe we should just meet for breakfast, lunch, or dinner somewhere?!?

2008 Family Update

Tonight all four of the girlies are spending the night with Mimi and Pop so here it is as promised in the Christmas cards, our 2008 year in review.

We started 2008 by officially breaking free of the serious haze and fog of having 3 babies and a toddler in the house and moved straight into the mayhem of 3 toddlers and a preschooler. The days are just as busy and crazy and fun as you can imagine in a house filled with four chatty little girls!



Early in 2008 Scott was cruising along as a captain at the airlines with a decent commute. He worked for a few days and then would be home for a few. People often asked how I managed while he was away, but really that schedule worked for us because when he was home he was really present, we had him all to ourselves, and he was very, very helpful.... enough so that I was able to get by in the between times with all our other wonderful helpers without even missing a beat.

By Spring we were out taking advantage of the local rivers, mountains, waterfalls, and great hiking. We really enjoyed Scott's flexible working schedule and would often together take the girls to their Kindermusik classes or the local libraries for story hour when he was home.

Then in June we found out that Scott was headed to Iraq with the Reserves, and by July he was gone for training. In August Ella and I met up with Scott in Hawaii for a week while he was doing some final training before the deployment. It was an amazing trip, but one I would not have considered taking all four silly sisters on!

We all spent a wonderful weekend together at home as a complete family in early September before Scott left the country.

Shortly thereafter life totally turned upside down for us for a little while for a number of reasons. The main ones were: I could no longer just pick up the phone and call Scott (that was a lot harder than I had anticipated), I wasn't getting any exercise, Sarah insisted on potty training herself, Maggie, Kate, and Sarah all had to be transitioned into toddler beds because of climbing out of their cribs, and preschool wasn't going well for Ella. I should say she just didn't enjoy going... she loved everything about it once she was there.

It was a rough month or so, but then we got our web cam set up and Skype access going so we can talk to Scott and see him via the internet every day, we joined the YMCA and go there regularly, the potty training thing was a non-issue because Sarah literally just did it herself, and we're finally over the big girl bed transition and back to sleeping at night. We're still working on the whole preschool issue, but even that has gotten a bit easier of late.

So, even though the view is not the same for Scott and I these days as we look out our windows, when we look inside our hearts things are still very much the same.

We are still blessed by the love and support of close family and friends, and our faith is still growing every day. The girls all continue to amaze us with their voices, their hearts, their differences, and their capacity to love!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year! Now I'm off to take advantage of this quiet house by turning on some Christmas music and transforming my kitchen into a cookie making factory.

Thanksgiving 2008

For the past umpteen years my mom's side of the family has celebrated Thanksgiving on the Sunday before at my aunt Janice's house. Since the girls came along we have tried to get a photo of them on this same couch dressed in some holiday duds each year for the sake of comparison.

Instead of simply linking to last year's Thanksgiving post, I thought I'd re-run the last couple of years photos. Here they are at 20 months and 3 months in 2006. That year we were grateful for healthy babies and any sleep we managed to sneak in.

Then there was last year. They were 32 months and 15 months, and this was the best we could do picture wise. If I remember correctly, last year we were extremely grateful for baby proofing devices, gates, and again healthy, happy babies.

This years photo efforts in no way compare with last years' cat herding session... needless to say, we ended up using four individual shots on our Christmas cards last year, but this one little group shot sans Ella from 2007 turned out pretty cute too, so I had to share it.

Thanks to a deal with Shutterfly, I had already ordered my Christmas cards for this year by the time we went to Janice's, so there was no pressure on our 2008 Thanksgiving photos to provide the perfect shot.... and then it ended up turning out pretty good, I think. The lighting wasn't great, but everyone was looking in the same direction and there was no motion this time. Here they are this year at 3.5 years and 2 years old.


This year, with Scott being half way around the world, one of the things we are most grateful for is the fact that God's love and protection extend throughout the entire world. The Sunday school song, "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands" really has new meaning for us this year!

We are so grateful to Scott and all the other soldiers who are serving all around the world and their families who willingly sacrifice time away from their loved ones for freedom's sake. The soldier's job is one of the most unselfish that I can think of.... we are grateful to them all and very proud of Scott!
We are incredibly blessed to be surrounded here at home by a loving, caring family, and further supported by the thoughts and prayers of family far away. We are so grateful! We are encouraged and growing in our faith thanks to a wonderful church family and ministry. We are grateful!

We are thankful that God gives us all the strength we need in every situation . We are thankful for laughter, love, friendships both old and new, and of course, cousins.

We are grateful for the technology that allows us to communicate frequently, freely, audibly, and visually with Scott while he's in Iraq. Without it we would be missing him even worse, and he would be missing out on so much more that the girls are doing and saying these days.

We appreciate the need to be silly every now and then, and we're grateful that we have a host of people around us with whom we are comfortable being exactly that.

The list of things we have to be thankful for this year could go on and on, but I suppose most of all I am grateful for the work that God is doing in all our hearts and lives. Over the last few weeks as we've done Thanksgiving projects, the girls have had ample opportunity to tell me what they are thankful for.... and without fail or any prompting they have all been thankful for people and not things. I think that we're headed in the right direction!

Hope you all had a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Praying for My Girls

I had a wonderful, lovely break being away for the weekend with 10 other fabulous triplet moms. I'm feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready to continue on with this most important of jobs... motherhood.

Before I left for the weekend I read a post over at Angie's blog about praying for our children. I have accepted this challenge, times 4, and now she's got a button I can post here so that you can all go check it out and pray for your children this week as well.

I think praying for the girls is one of the most important things that I can do for them as their mother, and I love her idea of praying these specific scriptures for them throughout the day. Check it out!

Raising Responsible Citizens

Last night when I sat down to bring Scott up to date on our daily lives here on the blog, I failed to mention anything about Monday. It was not an oversight... I just couldn't remember a thing about Monday. My memory, it isn't so great!

This morning as we were driving over to Kay-Kay's house the girls reminded me where we went Monday. From the back of the Expedition Maggie, Kate, and Sarah were discussing our trip to the "cork-house", or courthouse if you are over the age of 3.

Mimi and I met up at our local courthouse on Monday morning for early voting. Ella was at school, but M,K,&S got to make their first trip there. They were incredibly excited about "boting". So excited that I was a little worried we would disturb some of the other early voting patrons, but really no one seemed to mind. They reminded me of the first trip Ella made to vote. She kept asking who I was "boating for".... and everyone was so impressed that she could talk, let alone the fact that she cared who I was casting my ballot for, not that she really knew who was on there.

Every time I've voted in the local elections I've taken all the girls with me. I think it is very, very important for them to know that casting their vote after educating themselves on the candidates and the issues is part of being a responsible citizen.

While I think it is very important that everyone of voting age make their voices heard at the polls, I really don't enjoy all the politicking and campaigning and voicing of opinions that goes along with a presidential campaign. So, I won't be sharing who I voted for... in fact, I think FrugalDad summed up my thoughts exactly in his post about this year's election. Check it out if you have a minute!

Happy Wordy Wednesday for a change...

Which Is Worse?

I'm working hard on the issues I had a few weeks ago. Getting some exercise is really helping me to sleep better, and I'm making a conscious effort to go to bed earlier so that I get more sleep in general. We've also added a web cam to our arsenal of communication tools for chatting with Scott over in Iraq. I've actually seen his face while talking to him via the computer this week and that has had a tremendous impact on my outlook. All of the above are helping, and I'm feeling a little more empowered. I'm ready to make some positive changes where the girls are concerned.

Starting with their eating habits.

I'm sitting here tonight trying to decide which is worse.... feeding the girls junk and watching them gobble it up, or feeding them a nutritious meal and watching them fidget in their seats for 15 minutes, nibbling only 2 or 3 bites of buttered bread each before asking to be excused?

I read a great book, How to Get Your Kid to Eat... But Not Too Much, by Ellyn Satter and decided it was time for me to start cooking again. We eat out a ton, and I don't think that will change over the winter months because sometimes going to Burger King's playground is the only outing that I can come up with on a dreary winter day. I would be okay with the amount of dining out that we do if the girls were being introduced to and learning to like a healthy variety of foods when we are eating dinner at home. Per instructions in the book: we don't really discuss the foods on their plates, I aim to have at least one thing they each like available, and I don't push, force, or even encourage them to eat what is prepared. I also don't make anything else until the next meal or snack time. So the hope is that they will eventually be hungry enough to try something new, and at the very least, if I'm only offering basically healthy choices I don't have to worry what they are choosing to eat and not.

I'm just not sure how many nights in a row I'll be able to prepare a meal and then toss out 3/4 of it because they opted not to eat?!? This is definitely something that goes into the "would be easier to do if my husband were here" category because then at least 2 adults would be benefiting from my efforts at making a home cooked meal. Has anyone else out there tried to start healthy eating habits with 3 and 2 year olds? How long will these girls hold out for their junk food? Why, oh why, did I wait so long to get started?!?

When I say junk I don't mean twinkies and donuts (at least not usually), but they sure do love carbs. They would eat waffles, pancakes, or cereal for every meal if I let them. Fruit is also fairly easy to get into Maggie, Kate, and Sarah, but Ella's adamantly opposed to trying anything she knows to be a fruit. None of them like many veggies or meats. Help!

I was looking back over the blog a few days ago and found a post from January that I wrote to my future self. The post Sanity Must Be Realtive still applies to my life today. If you had told me back then that when the girls were "2 and 3 and tearing the house apart" that Scott would be in Iraq, I would most certainly have told you that I couldn't handle that! And yet, again, through God's grace and His strength, I am making it just fine! So even as frustrating as feeding them can be, at least they are not eating off the floor all the time like they were last year! I wonder what 3 and 4 will bring?

Dear Lord, I thank you for yesterday and for the hope of tomorrow, but please help me to live and love well today.

This is the Face....

... of a Potty Trained Individual!!

I alluded to the fact a while back that Sarah was insisting on wearing panties instead of diapers quite often. I just sort of went with it.... bad timing and all. She has been wearing panties during the day time for a little over a week now and has had only one accident that I can think of. I am not sure exactly how it happened, but I realized yesterday at the pumpkin patch that she was officially day time potty trained.

Several events led up to the realization:

On Sunday night as we were leaving the restaurant where we celebrated my grandmother's birthday Sarah said, after everyone was buckled into their car seats, of course, "Oooh, I need to tinkle. I don't want to get my pity pink panties wet. I need to go potty!" She then HELD IT for approximately 15 minutes until we were safely back at Nanny and Pop's house. She made it!

For the past 3 days she has pooped in the potty.

My epiphany came yesterday morning while we were on a hayride at the pumpkin patch (pictures coming soon, though I don't think they are very good). After about 15 minutes, while sitting in my lap, Sarah looked up and said, "Mommy, I need to tinkle. I don't want to get my pity pink panties wet." The rest of the 45 minute long hay ride would have been completely enjoyable had I not been worried about Sarah's and my pants being wet at every single bump and jostle. But guess what? She made it!! Then she had to use a porta potty and almost decided she could wait until we got home. Can't say as I blame her!! I finally convinced her to go.

I am so proud of her! Maggie is hot on her heels as she caught on a while back to the fact that Sarah was wearing panties. Most days she now asks for a Pull-Up or panties instead of a diaper too. So I'd say she is having moderate success. Some days she does fine, others she wets and ends up in diapers before noon. Kate, on the other hand, is only slightly interested. She does, however, say frequently that she needs to poop on the potty.... sometimes true, sometimes not.

These girls are just growing up way too fast. Poor Daddy... there will quite possibly be no more diapers to change by the time he gets home from Iraq, but I'm sure he'll appreciate the raise we'll be getting when we are a diaper free household.

The Dentist

Believe it or not, I'm about to head to bed at the unheard of hour of ~10:30 pm! Before I do, though, I wanted to post a couple of cute pictures from our adventures today and brag on the girls a little bit. This morning Ella was scheduled for her second visit to the dentist. She was not looking forward to it, but I convinced her that she needed to be a good example for her sisters. She was eager to help. I took all four of the girls by myself... knowing that Mimi would be there with only a moment's notice if things got ugly.



I talked and talked on the way there about what the hygienist would do, how I wanted them to behave, what a big girl Ella is, and how maybe soon when "they are big girls too" they can have their teeth cleaned as well. Upon arrival I asked them to all find a seat in the waiting room, and they quietly did exactly that. Right then I would have given anything to have had my camera on me because I looked up after signing us in to see them all sitting nicely side by side on one great big couch.... like four scared little kids who'd just been caught with their hands in the cookie jar or something.

We were called back almost immediately, and in true Mother Duck and her ducklings fashion, we paraded back to the room where Ms. Wanda was awaiting us. We got the coloring books and crayons out for Maggie, Kate, and Sarah. Then no sooner had I sat in the chair with Ella on my lap than several people peeked into the open doored room to say "hi" to the girls. That was the point that every single one of my 2 year olds started screaming and crying with real tears and everything! It was a mess for about 2 minutes until Ms. Wanda started working her magic with Ella, and the girls became enthralled with what was going on.

Ella did a fantastic job and even let the dentist check out her teeth this time. Last time she wouldn't let him near her mouth! She did such a great job as my little example that Sarah asked to sit in my lap and let the dentist check out her teeth too! Ms. Wanda was fabulous, and I hope we'll get to have her again next time! Maggie, Kate, and Sarah colored a tiny bit, but mostly they watched with a bit of fear mixed with enthusiasm as big sis starred in her very own teeth cleaning show. As a treat for such a glowing report from the exam and their good behavior, we went to Burger King to play on the playground for a while afterward. We ran into several friends there and ended up having a full morning play date. All the above photos were taken there. *Side note: Maggie has figured out how to climb all the way to the top of the play structure at our local Burger King. I wish I knew when Ella first made the summit, but I don't have it written down anywhere, so at least I'll have Maggie's accomplishment recorded.

This afternoon did not go quite as well so I'll be brief in my description. There was no nap for Ella, and the wee three only took a short one. Then when they woke up I stupidly gave them the cupcakes that were left over from Nanny C's birthday party last night. They were here and the girls were begging for them.... I caved. From now on I'm done with those kinds of sugary treats... their behavior was absolutely awful after the sugar had time to invade!! I'm throwing it all out tonight. Until all the sugary, nasty stuff hit their systems they were okay. We all played outside with their cars, bikes, strollers, and other goodies. They even pretended all together that a certain spot on our driveway was their campsite. They hauled chairs, blankets, strollers, and each other to and from the garage to the "campsite" for a good 20 minutes. The photo above is of said "campsite".... nothing special, I don't even think there's a crack in the driveway there.

I think I'll go back and label my previous post as "keeping it real" for when I want to go back and read about the rough times.... there are some of those even though I don't write about them often. I still prefer for the blog to remain our "Happy Place on the Web" for the most part because more than anything this blog is for me, Scott, the girls, and our treasured memories... not the ones we'd just as soon forget! Thank you for all the comments, emails, calls, and suggestions I've received. Things are looking up!

Convicted

Anytime my posting here on the blog becomes sporadic or non-existent, you can bet that I am either not here, sick, or stressed out. Over the last week or so these four precious children,

big sis,

and her little cohorts,

have been making me crazy almost non-stop. I have been so stressed out over their behavior, sleeping habits or lack thereof, and the terrible way that they eat that at times I find it incredibly difficult to take a deep breath.... Can you say stressed out?!?

I have also been coming to grips with the fact that my only connection to Scott is through the internet... oh, AT&T you have me so spoiled. I am used to being able to "reach out and touch someone." That someone being Scott. Now, I have to send an email and wait for him to respond or call. This little frustration is worthy of a blog post unto itself, but it is definitely adding to the stress levels around here. Maybe another day....

Anyway, last night, after a particularly trying evening with Ella and then an unusually difficult time getting Maggie, Kate, and Sarah to sleep, I finally ended up falling asleep sitting in the rocking chair in their room at about 10:15pm. After a couple minutes I woke with a start and looked up to find all three pairs of little eyes staring right at me. In that moment I was convicted.

Convicted because I realized that if they are eating terribly, I am the only one to blame. Convicted because if they are sleeping poorly, it is most likely a result of a mommy inflicted crazy schedule. Convicted because if their behavior is not the kind that makes me proud, I am the one responsible for "training them up in the way that they should go." They look to me to guide and direct them; they feed off of my stress and my fears.

Clearly, the problem is not theirs. They are good, no, great kids! Don't worry, I won't take this pity party any farther. I realize that I'm a good mother. I know that I am incredibly blessed to have four healthy, happy, adorable little girls. I just can't for the life of me figure out why I can't make myself get enough sleep to be able to deal with these turkeys effectively during their many waking hours.

Just like them, I fight sleep even when I know I'm tired. I wonder if I stay up because I require an inordinately great amount of "me" time and don't get much of that during the day? I wonder if I stay up because Scott isn't here to snuggle up to, or alert me to the fact that it is getting late and time to go to bed? Surely these things are minor issues that I could work out on my own, right? Wrong!

I have a couple of different outings coming up that are just for me. I'll be getting out with old friends for dinner soon and have a weekend away with some other triplet moms that I'm looking forward to early next month. I'm also hoping that some exercise will help with both the stress and the sleeping issues. I'm going to sign up at the YMCA next week. But beyond that I don't really know what else to try.

So, I'm asking for your suggestions, not for my adorable girls who sometimes eat, sleep, or behave poorly, but for their mother who needs to relax a little bit and get some sleep herself. How do you other mothers deal with the teeny, tiny amount of time that you have to yourselves to unwind at the end of every day?

Duct Tape....A Triplet Parent's Best Friend

Over a month ago now Scott and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary while Ella and I were visiting him in Hawaii. Nine years, really?!? Just a few weeks prior to that we finished off our first roll of duct tape. By now you are certainly wondering where this is going....? It just seemed very surreal to me that we made it through an entire roll of duct tape in our lifetime. I mean, I suspect that if we had not become the parents of triplets, that one single roll of duct tape would have quite possibly lasted for our entire married lives.

Having triplets certainly brings out the "resourcefulness" in a person. We started working our way through our rather fat, severely underutilized, probably-part-of-a-wedding-gift, roll of duct tape at the beginning of the summer when our three little stinkers wouldn't stop taking off their diapers at naps and bedtime every single day. I had read on the message boards about other triplet parents having to tape their kids diapers on and thought it just sounded awful, but after a day or two of cleaning sheets, beds, and children covered in pee and/or poop, we made the plunge.

All summer long at bedtime you could hear the girls saying, "No dup tape, no dup tape, pease." But it had to be done in order to keep those little tushies covered. Until I was forced to try it for myself, I couldn't even imagine how duct taping a child's diaper would actually work to keep it on... or how you'd keep from hurting their skin with it, for that matter. We ended up tearing the tape into strips and simply covering the tabs of the diapers. That was all it took, and they were unable to, or more likely uninterested in, removing their diapers.

Somehow, since the time that Scott left, they have become big girls. They may still be wearing diapers while sleeping, but they are so much more aware of what is going on with their little bodies that they wouldn't think of removing a diaper with poop in it. "Poop's yucky and smells yucky!", they now say. I don't know exactly when I stopped taping their diapers on them.... I just suddenly realized a few days ago that I hadn't taped anybody for quite a while.

I realized the change had been made when duct tape once again seemed a logical solution to a small problem here in our household... and I couldn't locate it anywhere near it's usual spot by the changing table.

Now that they are in big girl beds Sarah has realized that she can stretch up and turn on the lights whenever she wants. After Kate woke up screaming a few mornings ago because Sarah threw on the light bright and early when she awoke before the others, and I had to go in a couple of times to turn off the light and stop a party in the evenings after I'd sent them to bed, I decided something had to be done.

: Cue the handy-dandy duct tape:

Now at night instead of taping their diapers on, I'm taping the light switch plate. So far Sarah hasn't been able to remove the tape, and there's been no more blinding, screaming awakenings for Kate and Maggie.

Perhaps duct tape could be used to keep clothes on as well?!?
*I'm going to include this post over at Rock's In My Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday... as it may be useful for someone else with diaper removing, light blaring, bandits in the house.

Sarah

Whew, I'm finally about finished posting the girls' two year updates. Up last, but making plenty of headlines on the blog lately, is Sarah.

Here are her favorites: food- KayKay snacks, color- red and pink, song- Do Lord, dvd- Signing Time ABC signs, activity- reading books.

When asked about best friends she said, "Kelli is my best-est fwiend and KayKay too". Kay nicknamed Sarah a 'sick puppy' some time back, and Sarah tells everyone who asks that she is KayKay's sick puppy. The rest of us call her Sarah Bug... I have no idea why?!?

At her 2 year well check the first thing the doctor did when she came into the room was ask Sarah a question. For the life of me I can not remember what the question was because Sarah's response made my heart swell to 2 times it's normal size. Sarah's sweet southern little miss manners lessons have paid off because her answer to said question was "Es ma'am". Like I said, I thought my heart would burst with pride right then and there!!

Now that I've got that blatant bragging out of the way, on to the stats. She weighs 23 lbs and is 34.5 inches tall.

As I've previously mentioned, she loves, loves her sisters, her "clipity clop" shoes, getting smileys on the chart, and being in charge. She is feisty, independent, and stubborn one minute, and then in the next she can be snugly, lounging on the most comfortable lap, and quietly taking in whatever is going on around her. Just like Maggie, Kate, and Ella, this little fireball is pure love!

Kate

Since Kate has been out of the spotlight for a while, at least on the ol' blog, I decided that I should not let another day go by without also posting her 2 year old update. Here it is:

Kate's list of favorites: food- pizza, color-green, song- Happy Birthday and He's Got the Whole World In His Hands, dvd- ABC Signs from Signing Time, activity- riding the mule (can you tell all the girls were within earshot of one another when I asked these questions?!?)

When asked about a best friend, Kate quickly responded "my Kay-Kay is mine shavorite".

Kate goes by lots of nicknames... Katydid, Katie-Lady, Kater Potater, and Katie-Poo. I still simply stick with Kate.

Her stats from the doctors visit for her well check up were good. She was the smallest little 2 year old peanut that we've got at only 21lb 10oz, and she is 33.5 inches tall. Recently, I'd say she is quite possibly the best, most consistent eater in the bunch, but that has not always been true. Perhaps she'll catch back up soon at her current rate. That's a big cup of chocolate ice cream she's eating in the photo above... Just like her sisters, she could not have possibly been more charming or delightful on our trip out together! She is such a sweetie!

Kate is the "swiper" of the group. She still adores the spotlight, and is always the first to get up on stage to perform. Lately, she's also the most eager to make new friends with the people we meet. All the other girls are much more shy and reluctant, but Kate is a very fast friend maker, indeed.

Since the transition to big girl beds, Kate is the only one who I can count on actually finding in her bed at night when I go in to check on them. She loves to horde things. She collects piles and piles of stuffed animals in her bed each night and then props herself up on them. During the day time she is currently working to perfect what I like to call her "cry for dramatic effect only" face. It is something to see, and if I can catch it on camera sometime soon I will definitely post it for posterity.

The gleam and sparkle in her eyes is sometimes the bright spot in my day. She is one of the easiest to love children I've ever met.... but of course, I'm biased!

Maggie

I asked all the little girls to help me collect some information to share about them since they are now practically grown up 2 year olds, and here's what I got from Maggie.

A few of her favorite things: food- breakfast pizza, color- orange or blue, song- B-I-B-L-E, dvd- Signing Time ABC Signs, playtime activity- riding the Kawasaki mule outside.

When asked about a best friend, Maggie gave a great answer and responded in her sweet gravely voice, "Mommy". The girls all have tons of nicknames and mis-pronunciations for Maggie's name. They call her "Mammie, Mookster, Mah-mah" and lots of others.

Maggie was the last of my 2 year olds to go in for her 2 year well check. She got a great report from the doctor. She weighed in at 23lbs and she's 34 inches tall. The only downside to the doctors visit (aside from the 2 vaccines) was that her hips were making a popping sound and had to be x-rayed to be sure there were no problems.

After they were finished with the x-rays, (which turned out to be fine, by the way) while still lying on the table, Maggie pulled up her dress to expose her two little band-aids on her legs. She looked over at the nurse and then with the saddest little face said, "My two boo-boos make me sad." Then she turned back to me and said in a much brighter tone, "But Chick-shall-a would make me happy!"

Needless to say, Maggie and I enjoyed a nice lunch together at Chick-fil-a afterwards.

I was thrilled to be able to take them each in individually and enjoyed actually hearing every thing that they said for a change. I knew that my ears were tired at the end of each day, but until I had those opportunities I didn't realize how pleasant, talkative, and charming each of the girls is on her very own... what a gift from God! We are so blessed.

Divas

I had the great pleasure of taking out two very special ladies for dinner in celebration of very "big" birthdays tonight. Gamma is visiting for the weekend and just celebrated hers, and Kay's isn't until early next month, but Mimi offered to keep the girls so that the three of us could go out.

We had a great time. Dinner was excellent, and the company was even better.

Then when I got home Mimi gave me a good report on all the little cutie pies, and I went in to check on them before heading to bed myself. This is how I found Maggie and Sarah-
... they are all diva'd up in their silky night gowns and "clipity clop" or "clip clopity" shoes, depending on which child you ask, fast asleep in the floor. Sweet little momma Kate had all the stuffed animals removed from the shelf and in her bed. She was propped up and fast asleep on top of them all.

So after a wonderful evening, I removed the slippers from my little Cinderellas' feet and placed them gently in their beds.