We miss you, Daddy

Chicago Cousins

My sister has five kids (four girls and a boy). The oldest three are in school all day, so the younger four live it up. Pictured here are Cinderella (Lady), Snow White (Kyla) and Sleeping Beauty (Bell).
Going to the Brookfield Zoo.
Happy Meals make for happy everyone. Chicken nuggets, apple slices, milk and a Wizard of Oz doll. Such bliss.

Happy 8 Months!

Baby is 8 months. Where has the time gone? She is crawling, using her two arms (finally) in conjunction with her legs. She loves her big sisters. She also loves feeding herself sweet potato puffs. She eats green and orange pureed veggies, pureed turkey and chicken and can drink from a sippy cup. She's trying to talk saying "Da Da Da Da" and "Ma Ma Ma Ma" and laughs as she clicks her tongue. She has a contagious smile and the cutest giggle. But we're not biased.
Love that smile!
Happy 8 months, Baby. We love you!

Ballerina Girls

The girls desperately want to take a ballet class. They're still too young, but thankfully their cousins have plenty of tutus to make the girls feel like they're in a ballet class. My sister put on Swan Lake and put the girls' hair in buns. Here are the three ballerinas: Lady, Cousin Kyla and Bell.
Not sure which ballet move Kyla is demonstrating... kind of a jass/ballet combo step.
Bell is feeling the music
Lady just needs some point shoes and she's ready.
Lady checks herself out in the mirror
Ballerina Bell

Little Lady

My little fashion princess-- tiara, pink athletic pants and pink rubber boots
"Mom, look at me...take my picture."
She LOVES her Cinderella dress. When she's not wearing it, she's carrying it. She fell asleep on the couch and had it tightly clutched in her hand. I'm so glad I caught this on camera.

Happy Almost October

I'm not a fan of Halloween-- but watching kids get excited for the holidays is so fun.Bell dons her black kitty shirt
Baby
Lady did not want her picture taken
Still doesn't want her picture taken

House Rules

The girls have been doing this funny thing for the last couple of months that I will probably forget when I'm old and senile, so I had better write it down for posterity. They like to recite the "rules" of what we're not supposed to do (partly so they can do them).

Example: Dinner Time Rules
Girls: We don't make pig noises (proceed to make pig noises)
Me: Thank you, that's right
Girls: We don't eat like dogs (they proceed to pick up their plates and lick them to show me what they're not supposed to do).
Girls: No lions at the table (loud roaring by both).

Note: We do have other rules, such as chewing with your mouth closed, no talking with your mouth full of food, and no drawing on the table with sauce or food, but I think it's more fun for them to act like animals.

We also have forbidden words that they love to recite over and over...

Lady: We don't say "poop." No, we never say "poop." We don't say "boogers," and we don't say "killing." We never say "killing" or "boogers" or "poop."
Me: Okay, Lady, that's enough. We don't say those words. Why don't we talk about words we can say.
Lady: We can say "chocolate" and "cookies" and "kisses" and "love." (these are the replacement words that I gave them to talk about a while back)
Bell: We can say "eggs" and "pasta" and "toast." (Bell came up with those on her own... too cute).

Her favorite: Squash

The REAL reason you should never leave baby unattended in the highchair.

It's what's for dinner

Lady is serious about cooking in this chef outfit.

Bell enjoys cooking as well, but cannot resist checking out this princess shoe.

So this is what's for dinner... plastic princess shoe. I think I prefer squash.

Crawling...kinda

Baby G has been able to get on all fours for almost a month now, and last week she was actually doing some crawling motion. She takes one "crawl" and then goes down on her tummy. She's getting really good at it... she looks like she's a breakdancer doing the caterpillar. She's fast and she's close to getting all four limbs in motion. When she does get it, Daddy said "she's going to be one fast crawler." Uh-oh...

One more potty post... this is the last one!

Okay... I'm sorry to be so obsessive about the potty these days, but I just have to post this one last post and I'm finished with being public about the potty. A few moments ago, Bell went into the bathroom by herself, put herself on the potty and pooped. I hadn't even realized what was going on until she called me. I know it sounds ridiculous but I actually started to get teary-eyedthinking about not having to change any 3 year old's poopy diapers. This could possibly be one of the best nights of my life.

What they don't tell you about potty training...

1) You will never have privacy in the bathroom again. I went to the bathroom first thing this morning and in ran the two girls, who both broke into applause when they "heard" me.

2) You won't get anything done around the house. You're too tired running the stairs to accompany your child to the bathroom because she wants an audience (imagine this times two, btw). I am not exaggerating when I say that I have run up and down the stairs at least 50 times a day this past week. I'm going to write a diet book and make some money...

3) You can never leave the house if you want to keep them dry. I made them sit on the potty before we left for Costco. Although they tried, neither one had to go. We drive to Costco (a 15 minute drive), get a cart, and about 5 minutes past the entrance Lady says she has to go. Panic runs through me. If you've been in Costco, you know it's a far run, but forget it weaving through 1000 oversized shopping carts on a Saturday. And yet. I grab the baby, the diaper bag, Bell and Lady and we are running as fast as 3 year old legs can run and I'm telling her "hold it, hold it... wait til we get there." In swoops Dora, the nicest employee Costco has ever hired. She's a mother of four and she grabs Lady and runs ahead of me to the bathroom. She finds a stall and waits with Lady, holds the baby for me while I cover the toilet and of course, by this time it was too late, but dear Lady did save a little bit for the toilet. I'm exhausted and I have yet to make it through the store. We wash my hands, Lady's hands, Bell's hands, our neighbor's hands (just kidding), and went back to find our abandoned cart. The place was packed. Surely they must have been giving something away for free... I mean, more than the standard samples they provide, because everyone was shopping today. We get to the check out, which is about 30 miles long, give or take 10 miles. We're waiting, waiting, baby is getting fussy... I'm bouncing her, singing, jiggling, and finally we're two carts from the checkout when Bell says "I have to go to the bathroom." What? Are you sure? Can you hold it? Of course she can't hold it... she' 3 and she's only been doing this for 2 days. I throw the baby in the sling on my hip, I pick up Bell and tell Lady to run to keep up. We run to the bathroom, get the toilet covered, and wait, and wait, and wait. NOTHING. She tells me she doesn't have to go anymore (???) But we still have to wash my hands, Bell's hands, Lady's hands and I swear someone else's hands. Finally we get back to the cart but of course I'm back to the end of the swarm. By that time, my bag of frozen berries has defrosted and the chicken is on its way. I'm too tired to do anything but support my weight on the cart as I head back to the car. By the time we get to the house and the food is unloaded Bell peed her pants. Sigh. I guess we're potty trained as long as we stay home and do nothing else all day.

The tinkle fairy has landed!

I've heard those faith-promoting stories about how kids get old enough and they just come to you and tell you they want to use the potty and then it's like they're potty-trained overnight. Since I have been at this on and off for over a year, I thought it must be a croc. Until today. But let me begin with Lady. She has been able to pee in the potty since we started this crazy ride. She has been terrified of doing anything "else" in the potty, so I've had to be content with a slight reduction in diapers from her, and patient with having to change countless poopy diapers a day. Two days ago, Lady came to me and said "I have to poop on the potty." I didn't believe it, but I played along. I'm so glad I did... she did it. And I have to give credit to her brave friend Nomi, who paved the way. Lady said "Now I can poop on the potty like Nomi." Yes, you can, my little one. Bless you. Bless you. I asked Bell if she wanted to go, and she returned her standard "no thank you," at least she is polite about it. So this morning she tells her Daddy that she is going to pee on the potty. Once again, I didn't believe it, because frankly, been there and hasn't done that. Daddy reported she did it. I said "did you hear it, did you see it, do you have proof?" because Bell is infamous for reporting false drops. She came to me and said "I'm a big girl now and I need panties." I didn't want to put them on her, because we've had many a panty day and it just means many a laundry day for me, but I did it anyway. I kept asking her every 15 minutes if she needed to use the potty... nope. I was getting nervous, especially when I saw how she was drinking like a fish. And yet, she remained dry. Finally, she came to me and said "I need to use the potty," and she sat down and peed like it was something she has done all her life (I suppose technically that is true... only not usually on the potty). Maybe she will only pee for today, but we're so much further ahead than we've been before... holding, peeing on command, notifying me before she has to go. I was seriously starting to think that they would be the only kids going to kindergarten in diapers. Well, we all have to be famous for something...

A princess birthday

This year all the girls could talk about for their birthday was having a Cinderella cake for Lady and a Sleeping Beauty Cake for Bell. Daddy thought I was a bit ambitious to make two cakes (four really... each doll requires two cakes), but the look on their faces when I brought out the cakes made it all worth it. I won't win any cake decorating prizes, but the cakes thrilled the girls, which is what really matters in the end.

We had a low-key birthday by having pizza and grape juice in the yard with their best friend "Nomi" and her family.

Here Lady blows out her candles. I won't post the pic of Bell because you would have thought her hair was on fire.

Bell having her cake and eating it too!



Bell opening a princess nightgown from Mommy and Daddy.

Lady dons the tiara that Nomi gave her (along with a princess backpack).

Nomi and her first shiner. It may not look like much now... but after a few days she had a bonified black eye. Lesson: walking behind someone swinging on a swingset at dusk is a dangerous activity.




Princess gown fit for real princesses. Thanks to the aunts and uncles.

To the untrained eye, these "throwns" may appear to be carseats.