Musical Beds

We rarely sleep with our kiddos unless they are ill. That’s just what we've always done-our space is our space and their space is their space. Occasionally on the weekends, one of us may sleep with AJ if she wants us to.  (Actually, she frequently requests one of us to sleep with her, but she falls asleep before we go to bed so she never finds out we didn't actually sleep with her-yes, that probably won’t win us the Parents of the Year Award).  Most of the time it’s Justin who sleeps with her because I am such a light sleeper and don’t sleep well when my kids are in bed with me.  Heck, all three of my kids have tonsils the size of Mount Rushmore and, in my opinion, breathe SO loud at night.  Last night was my lucky night because Alena wanted me to sleep with her since I recently had a birthday-this turned out to be a bad decision.

Our kids hardly ever wake up in the middle of the night unless they don’t feel well or, on a rare occasion, AJ has to use the potty.  The night before, both twins were up at 4:40 (I’m guessing one twin woke the other twin up-can you believe that L is still teething?!?).  Last night, we decided to separate them, hoping at least one would sleep it.  So AJ and I slept on the main level of our “temporary house” in the bedroom while L slept in the P n P in the office right next to us.  The guys each had their own room upstairs, missing out on all of the fun we were about to have.

At 12:15, L wakes up. I quickly bring her into bed with AJ and me, hoping she will fall asleep quickly.  I could tell something was bothering her as she kept flopping around and moaning but I had already dosed her up with Tylenol.  Eventually she fell asleep, sideways on the bed with her feet constantly kicking me.  So I moved to the living room couch after grabbing a quilt from the basement.  Finally an hour after L woke up, I fell back asleep.

2ish in the morning: I awake to something poking me in the back over and over again.  It’s AJ. She needs to go potty. At what age do little ones get up in the middle of the night and use the potty without bringing mom and dad in on the fun?  Apparently, it’s not at 5 years old!  Although this girl RARELY gets out of bed without calling for one of us, so it shouldn't surprise me.  (It did make transitioning her to a toddler bed super easy, however).   To this day she will wake up in the morning and call for one of us to come get her before coming downstairs.  After a quick trip to the bathroom, I tucked her back in.  Seeing that L had crowded her side, we had to move her pillow and her thousand stuffed animals to the other side of the bed.  Again, I found the couch and fell asleep.

3ish in the morning:  I hear someone calling "Mom" and awaken from my dream.  It is AJ again-“My leg hurts.”  With the twins, any boo-boo we kiss and it goes away but that doesn't work with my oldest any longer.  I was too tired to ask why her leg was hurting but offered her an ice pack.  This sufficed.  I again tucked her in tight and left the room, this time telling her to sleep the rest of the night because I was tired.

3:40ish:  I wake up when something jumps on top of me.  If that isn't a wake up call, I don’t know what is!  I look down to see yellow eyes glowing at me and feel paws kneading my stomach.  Apparently, I didn't shut the basement door completely when I went down there earlier to get a quilt for my make shift bed in the living room.  I quickly threw Milo back downstairs, double checked that the door was shut, and then went to bed, again.

4:20AM:  I hear a little voice. AJ is upstairs now, talking to Justin.  Apparently she didn't want to bother me for a third time; how nice.  She’s scared so she decides to sleep the rest of the night in his bed. 

6:20:  I again hear a little voice-“Mommy?”  This time it’s my middle child, probably loving her new found freedom allowing her to get up and out of bed when she wakes in the morning.  She was bright eyed and ready for the day so we turned on the news and snuggled on my “bed.” 

Tonight, we’ll all try sleeping in our own beds!

Photo Shoot

For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in photography.  Since I've had children, it's been important to me to take many pictures, helping them remember all the fun times of their childhood.  Last Christmas, Justin got sick of me complaining about the slowness of the shutter speed on my camera and surprised me with a new camera.  I've had fun with it, ever since.

A few weeks ago, we had our first shoot and a second one the following weekend (just to see if I could get a few more good shots as the first shoot was actually pretty decent-except for the large goose egg on L's head which she suffered THE MORNING OF the pics!).

Many of my favorites are when my subject isn't looking at the camera-a child's face is so innocent and such a joy to photograph!  You can see the personality of all three in their pictures and smiles.  They were troopers with the assistance of suckers and M & M's, (and of course my husband).  Maybe with time, I'll learn more about my camera, but for now, I'm OK with being a novice :).  We all had fun!

 

I LOVE B and W (one of my favorites)

A Good Reminder

Why we rarely go out to eat!

Today, we had a great morning at Merle Hay Mall, enjoying the free breakfast, movie, train ride, and visit with Santa and the Snow Princesses, (eh, from afar-the lines were way too long).  My parents then took A with them to spend some time with her cousins, leaving us with the twins.  After their nap, we decided to head out and do a few errands, (grocery shopping, Home Depot-we had a "pretty nice Saturday planned"). Things are much different when you have to play zone defense so being able to play one on one was easy peasy!

Things were going so well we decided to get some dinner out.  We soon found out we were pushing our luck:  It's been so long since we've had a bad eating out experience, but maybe that's why we decided it was a good idea-the horrors from previous experiences were not etched in our minds!  With the snow, we were seated right away and ordered our food as soon as our waiter came to take our drink orders.  So far, so good.  The restaurant will remain nameless, but we seemed to wait more than your average length of time during a Saturday night when a restaurant is less than busy.  Surprisingly we kept the two toddlers entertained without any problems.  (Thankfully my entree came with chips and salsa that were brought out early).  L could have cared less, but our little buddy enjoyed himself some salsa-not to mention most of it ended up on the make-shift bib I made for him!

Finally, our meals arrived. We ordered all of their favorites:  mac 'n cheese, corn, pizza and mandarin oranges.  What could go wrong?  First of all, L thought her cold mac 'n cheese was "too hot" and kept screaming this over and over.  No amount of convincing her it was fine could help.  Then, she had to have both spoons, leaving her bro with none. He managed for a bit, but eating corn with a fork is challenging.  When she set one spoon down, I quickly grabbed it for it.  She noticed and immediately her crying screaming intensified.  We pulled out all the tricks to re-direct her, but it wasn't happening. I then told C I would get him a new spoon and gave his back to his sister.  You can imagine what happened after that.  Yep, two toddlers having melt downs, while we sat in our little both in the corner, surrounded by other patrons.

To make matters worse, Justin's burger was under cooked so it had to be sent back to the kitchen.  After a few minutes we realized we were at the point of no return and decided to scram.  Justin grabbed our crying toddlers, one who started crying harder when we told him he needed to put his coat on, and ran as quickly as he could to the vehicle.  I'm sure the watching patrons were saying "Amen" under their breaths.  Our waiter came by and asked if I needed anything when he saw me sitting at my table alone with plates full of food:  "Boxes for everything and a bag to carry it all out, please.  And our check."

It will probably be another 14 months before we go out again. I look at it as a money saving strategy :).  Happy dining!

Cheese Curds Anyone?

We had our inaugural trip to Wisconsin to see my brother and his family this past weekend.  What a quick 4.5 hour drive it was, (and beautiful, along the Mississippi river), compared to our previous 11+ hour trip to CO.

Here's a quick synapses of our weekend there:

• Saturday we spent a few hours at the Madison Children's Museum. This was perfect for all 6 of our little ones (the littlest who slept most of the time).  Everyone enjoyed the arts and crafts and the adult-sized hamster wheel.   C could have spent all of his time playing with the cars and trucks.
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• We enjoyed a quick lunch at a local pizzeria that had a variety of pizzas available by the slice (macaroni and cheese and Thanksgiving dinner were two of their most interesting types).
• The twins were still going strong, so we decided to take a tour of the capital before heading home.
  
  
  
  
• It was chilly out, but the older girls and I went on a quick walk on their nearby trails.
• Sunday, Justin and I watched all 6 little ones, giving my brother and his wife some chance to catch up on some Zzzz's.  We managed to get the 5 older ones fed with out too many mishaps.  There was some fighting over the two Frozen plates and a little potty accident but nothing we couldn't handle.  Whew, I can't imagine having 6 kids under 6, but that was a little taste.
  
• I then took the older girls to Target to get out of the house for a bit.  They each picked out a little toy/craft to work on at home. 
• It was great meeting our newest nephew and we are so glad they live closer now!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Everyone was spent...