The kids have been looking forward to this day all week. When they heard Aunt Janet was coming, and we would be going out to dinner with my family, they were SO excited. Everyday, Aidan has asked if we could "go to the restaurant," and I had to remind him that we could go on Friday, when Aunt Janet arrived. Today, when we woke up, Aidan asked what day it was, and he was so excited to hear it was finally Friday! He was ready to go for breakfast, but I was able to convince him we'd have to wait until dinner time. When dinner time rolled around, we packed into the car, and headed off to Biaggi's in Cary. Despite the fact that dinner was served very close to when they normally go to bed, and quite a bit later than they were used to eating, everyone did GREAT! We had no fatigue- or hunger-induced meltdowns, no craziness! Everyone ate really well too! The only remotely difficult moment was when Emory decided it would be fun to clang her fork against her plate as loudly as possible, but she listened when I said she needed to stop. What a fun night!
At dinner tonight, Emory was in a very silly mood, and Jason asked her if she was intoxicated. Alanna looked at me and asked "Why did Daddy ask Emory if she is constipated?"
That was pretty funny...and Emory does act as if she's intoxicated sometimes. Sometimes you just have no idea what is running through her mind. At the museum the other day, she ran in circles...literally...around Jason, Alanna, Aidan and me as we were walking from one exhibit to the next. She's even started trying to call herself "hilarious," which is what we call her when she is doing something she thinks is funny...but we don't.
After I checked in on the kids as I was heading off to sleep, I couldn't help smiling to myself. We had such a good day today...and a really good week, all in all. We've all had our moments, myself included. I decided I had to get it written down. Some highlights:
There have been little to no mealtime battles about eating fruits and veggies. Aidan has suddenly turned a corner, and he is eating his "healthy foods" without any prompting, or at least very little!
Alanna has been very snuggly with me, and I LOVE that. My girls are not snugglers.
Aidan and Alanna are getting themselves dressed while I blow-dry my hair in the morning. One less thing on my list of "to-do's!" This will be especially helpful when we are getting out the door to preschool in the Fall!
I've been testing the waters with allowing Emory to "roam free" while I shower and get ready in the morning. Normally, she goes in the pack n play for fear that she will get into something she shouldn't. This week I decided to see what happened if I let her sit with Aidan and Alanna and watch a video. Whenever I peeked out into the bedroom, she was sitting nicely with them. No one was screaming. No one was fighting. She wasn't getting into my drawers. And to top it off, she felt compelled to open the door to the bathroom and say "Mommy!...I love you!" 5 or 6 six times. Now that I can handle.
Everyone has just been in a good mood and being very nice to one another! I have tried to be very mindful of praising them for all this angelic behavior. I think I need to step it up a notch though.
We went to the NC Museum of Life and Science on Saturday, strollerless, and we didn't even have any situations where anyone would have needed to be isolated or confined. They had a blast, and it was great seeing them have so much fun. We even took them out for dinner to Cafe Carolina, and we all had a great time. No meltdowns. No mealtime battles. We need more days like that!
Oh yeah, I got my stroller back yesterday...and it made it home from the gym. :)
And on another note: Alanna and Emory have figured out how to open one of the gates that keeps them all confined to about 3/4 of the downstairs. (sigh) Emory HATES it when Jason comes home then goes upstairs to wash up after spending a few minutes with them. I was cooking dinner yesterday, and I suddenly heard her wailing from very far away. She had opened the gate, gone upstairs and was standing outside our bathroom door wailing for Daddy.
Oh. No. They will NOT have free reign of the entire house. Not yet, anyway.
Today at lunch, Alanna was asking how to say things in Spanish and French. I think it started when I inadvertently did something someone didn't like, and I responded with "Excusez-moi." So Alanna wanted to know what that meant. So I told her it meant "excuse me." After a brief pause, she responded with some nonsensical word and said "That's how you say 'excuse me' in Spanish." I responded with "Oh! Not 'perdon?'" Then I went on to explain that another way to say "excuse me" in English is to say " pardon me," and you can say "perdon" in Spanish (I think) and "pardon" in French.
A couple of minutes later, Jason was talking to Emory, who was talking back quite loudly. She was in a very noisy mood. In the midst of this, someone "let one rip"...a big one. Jason and I looked at each other, and we looked around trying to figure out who "cut the cheese." Then Alanna, a little flushed, with her chin tucked into her shoulder, looked at me and said "perdon" with a faint smile on her face.
Jason and I both busted out laughing. I know, this is NOT teaching good manners, but it was hilarious that she decided to excuse herself in Spanish...and that such a sweet little girl could bring the table conversation to a screeching halt just by breaking wind.
(I think I'll focus on her affinity for acquiring foreign language vocabulary quickly...and using it entirely appropriately. Now that would make any speech-language pathologist proud.)
NOTE: Jason insisted that this story be posted.
This afternoon, I had an unusual amount of free time to play with the kids. It was so nice to just sit and play for a prolonged period of time without a list of things to do running through my head. I was nervous that I was forgetting to do something! I'll probably figure what that was tomorrow. :)
Anyway, we got out some letter magnets the kids hadn't shown much interest in for a while. We started making little words on the dry-erase board that we put in the playroom. Aidan and Alanna had fun making words and helping me put the sounds together and figure out what the word was. They've shown a lot of interest in some pre-reading skills, so it wasn't shocking that they kept asking to do more.
What surprised me is that Emory has learned a good number of the letter names, and when I asked her the associated sound, she knew about half of the ones I asked her about. She was pulling the magnets out of the box and showing me the letter and saying the names. Aidan and Alanna showed a lot of interest in learning letter names and sounds, so they knew them at a very early age without me ever spending time trying to teach it to them. Emory hasn't really shown too much outward interest in this, so I assumed she wasn't really paying attention when these things came up with Aidan and Alanna. Silly me...
Today Emory had her 2 year old check up, and all went well. She is just over 33 inches tall...she has leapt up to about the 35th percentile in height and is still hanging around the 25th percentile on weight for height. No surprises...that was good. After her appointment, all three kids had to have blood drawn to check their cholesterol because Jason's family has such a strong history of heart disease/high cholesterol. They had a very light breakfast, so they were hungry and itching for a snack.
That was NOT fun. Thank God Jason was able to rearrange a meeting to help me. I distracted two in the waiting area while he took the third in for the blood draw. Emory went first, and Alanna and Aidan seemed to know that she was not producing a defiant scream of protest (the usual). They asked what they were doing in there with Emory, and I tried to avoid answering the question and drew their attention back to the book we were reading, pointing out details in the pictures to keep them distracted. The techs tried their best to keep Emory happy (good luck with that), and she ran out with a strip of 5 stickers in her hand, but still very offended by everything. Aidan wasn't fooled, and when it was his turn, he was not happy. He sank to the floor like a wet noodle when I tried to pick him up, trying to avoid the inevitable. (He can do something with his shoulders when he holds his arms straight up that makes it nearly impossible to get a good grip. He just slides right through your hands. The girls don't do this.) He was a trooper though. Alanna occasionally glanced in the room where Aidan was, since he was within eyeshot...she seemed a little nervous. He came running to me when he was done...7 stickers in hand. He was a little "wounded," but nothing some snuggling couldn't fix. Alanna hopped down from my lap reluctantly and bravely took her turn. She didn't cry until they actually took the blood, I think. I was too busy singing anything to keep Emory from screaming. Alanna came out with ELEVEN stickers, not too thrilled, but she toughed it out. We were all happy to get to the car and have some snacks and juice! I don't know if the other people in the waiting area were smiling out of contempt, faking it while shooting me the evil eye as my children screamed, or trying to express empathy for the situation.
I'm happy that is over with! I think I probably got the easier job...poor Jason! He's good about the medical stuff, obviously, but I'm sure he didn't enjoy putting them in a stronghold in a situation that was scary and painful (however briefly.)
Credits:
Template (Emory): Racketty Scrappety #34
Template (treats): Andrea Gold #205 at godigitalscrapbooking.com
Kit: "Just What the Doctor Ordered" by Retrodiva at digitalfreebies.com
Credits:
Template: Racketty Scrapety #37
Kit: "Zen" by Retrodiva at digitalfreebies.com
The last several days I've been cleaning out clothing and other items to take to a consignment sale in a few weeks. It's a little sad to permanently rid our home of some of these things. Seeing the outfits...especially the preemie ones Aidan and Alanna wore...so tiny!... was a harsh reminder of how quickly time has passed. I came across the mobile we had on their crib, and I didn't think much of it as I set it aside with the other items that matched their crib set. A short while later, I wound it up and listened to it. I was not at all expecting the rush of emotions and memories that hearing the music brought forth. The crib set was the John Lennon "Imagine" set by Carter's, and the mobile played "Imagine" in that tinkling kind of music from a music box. Tears filled my eyes.
It immediately brought to mind the moments I spent in the nursery before they were even born. I remember one afternoon very clearly. Jason and I stood together in the room after the crib was put together, the sheets in place, and we just imagined what our future held. In mere weeks, God-willing, we would have two babies to care for and love, the babies we'd been praying and longing for over the previous two years. After that, I spent time in there organizing multitudes of onesies, diapers, wipes, clothing, toiletries and burp cloths while we awaited their arrival.
Then I flashed to the time when we first put Aidan and Alanna in the crib together. Their first six weeks were spent in a pack n' play because we always had guests in their room. Then, we were able to put them in their crib, which they shared until they were about 4 months old. They looked so tiny sleeping side-by-side, like little angels.
I remember spending a lot of time lulling babies to sleep, praying that they would stay asleep as I transferred them from my arms to the crib and tiptoed ever-so-quietly from the room. I remember Jason and I doing middle-of-the-night feedings together, one of us in the rocking chair, one on the bed, allowing only enough light to see while we changed a diaper. I'm quite sure I fell asleep mid-feeding here and there. Then we'd do "the baby dance" together, lulling them back to sleep, or at least a state of deep drowsiness.
I can't believe those babies are three years old, dressing themselves, getting ready to start preschool, entertaining themselves, and acting out dramatic schemes they imagine all on their own! Sadly, I don't think I took a picture of their nursery, but we are certainly not lacking in pictures of them!
I just went through our CD backups of Aidan and Alanna's first 15 months of life; they had been on our old computer before it crashed. Wow! There are some hilarious and sweet photos. I just uploaded a couple hundred into our Flickr account...check them out if you want to walk down memory lane with us. I will warn you, they are all out of order...sorted by filename. I will try to organize them at some point. Email me if you need access...
Kit: "Cupcake Cafe" by Karen Lewis and Danielle Engebretson at digitalfreebies.com
Template: Racketty Scrappety template #41
Credits:
Kit: "Flutter" by Karen Lewis at digitalfreebies.com
Template: Racketty Scrappety Template #37
Credits:
Kit: "Flutter" by Karen Lewis at digitalfreebies.com
Template: Racketty Scrappety #35
