Happy Birthday to All 3 Kiddos!

We had a joint birthday party for Frances, Grace and Moses on Saturday. The weather held out for the most part, but we all still huddled up indoors to avoid the heat. I had already made some allergy free cupcakes for the girls on their actual birthday, so my kids were set. I swung by Wegmans to get cupcakes for everyone else. Then we ordered pizza from our fav local pizza place, Philly's Best. All in all it was fairly easy and the kids enjoyed it (maybe not Moses so much - too many people, but the girls had fun).

Thank you to everyone that was able to make it all the way out to our place. I realized I didn't get a single picture from the party! Doh! So if anyone has any, please send them along. Thanks.

Just a little over a week before Moses officially turns 1 year old. Crazy!

Happy 3 Years Old!

It's official, the girls are 3 years old. I can't believe it. I can still remember the day they were born, like it was yesterday. And what a crazy day it was. For some reason the hospital thought it was a good idea to give two people with zero parenting experience TWO babies to take home and, of course, keep alive. And here we are, surviving, three years later! And what a crazy life these little monsters have given us. We love them so much. Today I looked at them and teared up, because they are growing so fast. And MiMo won't be a baby forever either. Even though there are daily challenges dealing with the kiddos, we still try and soak up the good parts as much as possible.

We got new bedding for their birthday: Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse and Doc McStuffins. Nana got them some new dresses (see in pic below). And we also got two Radio Flyer Big Flyers (like big wheels) but we haven't assembled them yet (lazy mom and dad). I know the girls will like them, when they get them... eventually.

Happy birthday to my silly little ladies...

Grace (L) and Frances (R) birthday morning!

Sunset Serenade and Farm Time

Ohhh we’ve had a fun-filled week. On Wednesday we went to Centennial Park for the Sunset Serenade – a free concert every Wednesday evening through the summer. The Grandsons Jr. were playing this past week – they are a kids band that plays a nice mix of Americana music. The girls loved it. They were dancing around.

Grace and Frances = Junior Park Rangers!

We decided to pack up at about 7:50 p.m. We trekked back to the car. It was hot and humid, and the kids were hot and tired (and MiMo was hungry). We always start the car before loading the kids in, just to get the AC going. I turn the key and nothing – just the typical clicking that accompanies a dead battery. Crap! Well, while it was terribly inconvenient for the kids, we were fortunate that it happened on concert night. There were several park rangers around. Richard ventured off to get some help. He came back with jumper cables that the rangers loaned him (state policy won’t let them jump us). And due to so many people being around for the concert, we had no problem finding someone to give us a jump. So a ½ hour later we were on the road. We didn’t want to turn the car off, so Richard dropped the girls and I off at the house and continued to the auto parts store with Moses. He arrived there 15 minutes before they were set to close. They had a long line of customers and told Richard it was too late to change the battery. He pleaded with them, and I guess his charming personality prevailed (or maybe MiMo gets some credit here)… and they obliged him. Richard arrived home, parked the car, got Moses out and the torrential rain downpour started. Poor dude. All in all though, we did luck out. Thank God it didn't happen on our way back from NY!!!!! We felt that we had dodged a bullet there.

Saturday afternoon, my cousin Joe, his wife Carrie, and their kids, Ben and Juliet, met myself and the girls at the local petting farm. It was hotter than all heck! And the humidity was insane. The girls, of course, enjoyed traversing the farm, yet again! Ben enjoyed all the animals too. I think the animals had had enough of heat and kids for the day (we were there closer to closing time). As a result, Grace got full on head-butted in the stomach by the cow – she had a big ol' cow slimy nose print on her shirt and skirt. And the donkey was hee-hawing up a storm which scared poor Juliet. Ben, Grace and Frances each went for a ride on Spice, the pony. Then Joe and I took the big kids on a nice hayride where we looked for the faces in the trees. Carrie stayed behind to give Juliet some much needed nourishment. The time went by really quick. We didn't have time to see the story book houses or go through the pine tree maze. But we can save that for another visit by the cousins!

Ben and Gracie (photo courtesy of Carrie)

After the farm we went back to our house for some pizza, drinks and air conditioning!!! Richard had stayed home with Moses while we were at the farm so Mo could catch some zzzzs. Ben enjoyed checking out the deer that were grazing behind our house. Moses woke up as we were finishing our dinner. We then headed out in the heat and humidity to a little park and pond near us to get some photos. Carrie had graciously offered to take some photos of the kids, and us, since we've never ever attempted such a feat. The kids were a bit less than cooperative, but Carrie put up with us all very well! However, I think the mosquitoes enjoyed our adventure the most!

Another milestone for Moses on Saturday… I had been reading a picture book with him in the morning. It had a picture of a baby. I said, “baby.” And Moses repeated it! Frances and Grace heard it too and we all looked at MiMo. Richard didn't really believe me and I couldn't get Moses to do it again. But then when Mo saw Juliet he said, “Baby.” Ha! The first time he said it, he said it really low and creepy. Poor Juliet. But then he commenced saying it in a bit more normal and several times at that. At least this time everyone heard it! He’s been saying it ever since. His little voice is sooo cute.

As far as the girls. I’m still finding I have to say the weirdest things, “Don’t lick your brother’s eyeball!” And “Your brother is not a horse [or chair or carpet or…]” These girls are killing me, and their little brother. Haha. Also, I find they are picking up on Richard and my snarkiness towards them. We’ll often say, “Okay! Okay! Ree-ow (like a cat)” when they just keep picking and picking at us. Welps, now the girls do it to us! I try not to laugh. But man, it’s funny.

And Francie is full on potty trained! We started a week ago Saturday. She had 3 pee pee accidents the first day. A poopy accident on Sunday and a poopy accident on Monday. BUT she had no more accidents the rest of the week! I think she transitioned faster because she had been “practicing” more on the toilet thanks to Grace using the potty all the time. So yay for us!!!

Looking forward to the girls turning, get this - THREE years old - on Thursday!

11 Months Old, Ajanja's Birthday, and New Pool

What a busy week. We came back from New Berlin on Monday (see previous post for our trip details). That was the same day Moses turned 11 months old! Wow, I can’t believe he’ll be a year old next month. Even crazier, that his sisters will be 3 years old 10 days from now. Crazy!

On July 4^th, we both had the day off from work for the Independence Day holiday. It was also the day of Ajanja’s birthday party – he turned 1 year old on the 3rd. Really, time is flying by. Last year Tiana was a new mom and I was large and in charge with Moses still cooking away in my belly. I still can’t believe it… it feels like it was yesterday.

In the morning the girls helped me to make some allergy-free cupcakes and frosting. I figured I should bring something for them in case they got sad that they couldn’t partake in the cake eating. We made the trek down to DC after Moses woke up from his nap.

We arrived a bit sooner than most guests. That worked out fine for us because the kids were able to settle in a bit before being thrust into a throng of people. There were lots of kids for them to play with. And they had a lot of fun in Uncle Freddy’s kiddie pool. Moses LOVED the water. Ajanja wasn’t enjoying it at first, but eventually warmed up. Oh we had fun seeing some faces that we hadn’t seen since last year around this time. And some more familiar faces. And everyone in between. We even met another couple with twins about a year younger than the girls.

I didn’t get a lot of pictures because I was too busy with the kiddos but I snapped a few.

 

Ajanja, Grace, Francie, Moses enjoying the pool

We met another set of twins (a year younger than our girls - fraternal boy/girl twins)

The birthday boy and his cake!

Moses enjoyed the other kids, not so much the adults.

On Friday I worked late. The nanny called to tell me Frances woke up from her nap, complained that her belly hurt and began puking. Oh man. When I got home they were eating dinner. Francie looked rather paled. Richard told me he had tried to give her hotdog but she refused. I told him it was better to stick with something blander anyway, and I gave her applesauce and jello instead. She kept it down. I began my mommy detective search for the culprit in her misery. I didn’t know if it was a viral thing, an allergy thing, or what? Well I remembered the nanny told me they had hotdog for lunch. So I asked Richard where the package was, pulled it out of the trash, and saw one of the main ingredients: soy protein. Doh. Richard had bought them thinking they were "turkey" hotdog, nothing else. He felt horrible. Soy really is in everything. Just reaffirmed that we have to read every package. Anyway, that’s why I buy a lot of organic, because they use less chemicals, antibiotics and fillers. It may be more expensive, but the alternative is illness. So yea, she still hasn’t outgrown that soy allergy yet! Poor Francie and poor daddy. She felt better later, and by Saturday, was back to normal.

Saturday, inspired by Uncle Freddy’s kiddie pool, Richard decided we’d upgrade from our plastic Dora pool to something a bit bigger. The kids all enjoyed this new addition!

The girls enjoying their new pool, with daddy.

Moses is a water baby, for sure!

We invited Senora Esther, her granddaughter Claudia, Aunt Signe and Ms. Sharon over for BBQ on Saturday afternoon. The girls had fun running around with Claudia. Moses tried to fend off all the extra love from the 3 girls… he failed.

Playing with Claudia.

Saturday also marked Francie’s first full day sans diaper. I had told her all week that she was going to wear big girl underpants all day starting on the weekend. She, like Grace, had been going since February, sans diaper at night. With only a rare accident (unfortunately one of those was the night before we left grandma’s – sorry grandma!). She refused to go without diaper during the day. She was going super long stretches without peeing in her diaper though. So I knew she was ready. We just have to get her over the mental hurdle. She had 3 pee pee accidents on Saturday. No pee pee accidents yesterday, but 1 poopy accident. I know she’ll get it, Grace did. It took Grace a week with accidents off and on and then an extra week for mommy to feel 100% confident. And now I don’t even have to remind Grace, she just goes when she needs to. It’s so liberating. So once Francie gets it (hopefully soon), we’ll be better off – and financially, we’ll save a lot on diapers! Wish us luck!

And we discovered this morning that Moses has two new teeth on the top. So 6 teeth total so far. Much less than his sisters had at this age. Slow and steady wins the race though, right?

Fun in New Berlin

Frances, Isaak, Savannah, Grace and Moses (l to r)

Well in looking at our vacation days for the rest of the year we realized we had a few days to use. Given my co-workers’ vacation schedules I was looking at a limited time frame with which to use those days, so we made a last minute plan for a quick vacay up in New Berlin.

I was stressing about the travelling, especially with 3 kids under 3 years old. And after discovering on our last trip north that the twins suffer from motion sickness – our stuck-in-car distractions were limited (even with the aid of Dramamine). We planned on leaving at 4 a.m. on Thursday so that the kids would sleep a good 3 hours of the trip. BUT we both thought the other had set our alarm and alas, we hadn’t, so we didn’t leave until 6:30 a.m. when the kids were wide awake. Fortunately though, the kids actually traveled really well. We made 3 stops so the girls could use the potty and so all the kids could eat. The girls started whining the last 20 minutes of our trip. It took us 7 ½ hours to get to grandma and grandpa’s house. So only 20 minutes of whining was quite a victory.

Oh we had so much fun in New Berlin.

We played in the sprinkler, a lot...

Grace in pink and Francie in zebra print

Moses trying to drink the water

We helped grandma plant some flowers...

Francie in pink and Gracie in white water the plants

We ran on Ms. Pardee’s old yard...

Frances in blue and Grace in pink - so much space to run!

We played with bubbles and chalk. We played with my old Barbies. And we played on the porch with Uncle Tommy’s old Matchbox cars.

In fact, we spent A LOT of time outside.

Outside at grandma & grandpa's house

It rained the whole time we were there, so it amazing that we did spend so much time outside. We went by NAPA twice to look at the swollen Unadilla River. There was a lot of flooding in the area with the constant rain. Grandma and I kept a death grip on the girls as they wanted to get as close to the edge of the water as possible. It was raging!

We spent a lot of time with Uncle Tommy, Aunt Amber, and Isaak and Savannah. We even met their dog, Rollie, he was very sweet with the girls. And I was able to see Tom and Amber’s new kitchen. Wow, what a difference! They even found a letter in the wall that was written by one of my grade school acquaintances when he lived there. Makes me think about the little time capsules Tom, Alex and I used to put together and bury in the yard. Maybe someone will find them one day (if only we had Mr. Hine’s metal detector on hand!).

Isaak, Aunt Amber, Moses, Uncle Tommy and Savannah

Grandpa got the fire pit going one day and the girls had their first s’mores (sans chocolate thanks to the soy allergy).

Gracie at all of hers, "I like!"

Francie didn't like hers, but had fun making it.

We also made a trek up to the town park to play. Unlike our local parks, crawling with a sea of kids, we had the whole place to ourselves. The climbed on everything and jumped off the swings. Grandma Chris (Aloi) even stopped by to say hello.

Gracie, Grandma and Francie (l to r)

Moses enjoyed his time in New Berlin as well. He liked the wagon grandma filled with water. And he liked the sprinkler too – he spent a lot of time trying to drink the water. Savannah loved “baby” a lot. She even played pat-a-cake with MiMo.

Savannah plays pat-a-cake with MiMo

Grandma and MiMo

Aunt Karol, Eddie and Shannon came by on Sunday. All the girls were interested in Aunt Shannon’s pregnant belly. And wondering when the baby was gonna come out (October, btw!). Grandpa did a nice BBQ for everyone. The bigger kids played in the rain. It was fun to see the kids interacting more. Soon Moses will be more and more in the mix too.

Aunt Karol, Gracie and Uncle Tommy

The only issue we had with Moses (besides stranger-danger) was that his schedule changed. All of a sudden he was waking up at 5:30 a.m. every day. Since we’ve been home he’s back to his 7 a.m. schedule (whew!). We think the pack-n-play was too hard for him. Ah well.

Mo and his daddy

Our ride back wasn’t too bad either. We left at 6:30 a.m. – again. Frances was whining/crying from the get go. She didn’t want to go home. We stopped after one hour driving. With her crying, the car ride felt like FOREVER, but we actually made it home in 6 ½ hours - quicker than the drive up.

The girls miss grandma and grandpa, their cousins, and having a nice big yard to play in.  We hope to head back up to NB in November for my friend Becky’s wedding. Moses will most likely be well into walking by then. Crazy how time flies and these kiddos change!