I never thought I'd say

I think I need to start a list of things that I never thought that I'd say since there are so many of these things that come out of my mouth now that I have three little ones.  I should have started a long time ago.  And no they were not said the same child.

1.  Don't chew on your toenails.
2.  Don't eat my hair.

Love PBS

I am a big fan of PBS.  My kids don't watch much tv, but what they do watch is PBS or the Discovery Channel's Life Series.  They used to watch Noggin, which is now Nick Jr.  Most of the shows are not very educational and often they are highly annoying.  PBS shows on the other hand do problem solving, spelling, reading, science, etc.  Sugar's favorite show at the moment is probably their least (practically speaking, although my kids can tell you just about anything about dinosaurs) educational Dinosaur Train.

Today Buddy from Dinosaur Train was at a local mall, along with the woman who introduces all of the shows.  They had a program with the woman (Rosa) reading stories, singing and dancing.  Plus they had a meet and greet set up (unfortunately for which the line was far too long for my kids) with Buddy.  They also had lots of other organizations with kids activities and info.  It was a really nice program and the kids had a blast.

One of the groups had animals for the kids to touch.  They all loved the tourtise.  Sweet and Sugar liked the snake.  Bam was not about to touch it.  Bam did love the frog, but I didn't let him touch it for fear of him hurting it.

80s child

You have to love her fashion sense.  The pants had to be pulled up along with the socks to complete the outfit.

 Socks had to be pulled up all the way to go to bed tonight, but she just HAD to wear shorts.  She should have been an 80s child.

LOTS of Pictures and Cathing Up

Let me start off saying sorry for the sideways pics, too lazy to fix them now, too long of a post and I just up loaded too many photos.
Wow it's been a long time since I posted.  Kinda sad that I didn't document any of it.  I've pretty much given up on scrap-booking, the idea of hauling everything out when the kids are sleeping to work on it and then clean it all up before the kids wake up again just isn't very appealing.

Sugar loves the paints that Santa left in his stocking.  Bam and Sweet like the play doh more.  Sugar would paint all day everyday.  The kids also love the swords that Grandma and Papa got them and I think Dad does too.  Sweet loves the guitar that Sugar got, then again she's rarely not singing.

We did have a lot of fun in the snow this year.  Snow men and sledding were big hits.  Bam's favorite part was eating the snow.  Sweet liked sledding until we went down a bumpy hill.

I started potty training Bam in February.  We're still working on it.  He doesn't initiate it on his own, but he does stay dry, that is until the last two days.  We're still working on the rest of it though.  I was not a pull-up fan with Sweet and Sugar.  I think they're too close to diapers and they're weren't effective so I just used underwear on them, but we've ditched the underwear for now with Bam and gone to pull-ups.  Sweet potty trained in a day, Sugar in about two weeks, and I'm on two months with Bam so pull-ups it is.  To be fair he had started doing better at it about two weeks into it and then we all came down with RSV, which kicked all of our booties and ended up causing a set back.

We finally got some nice weather, which I was so desperately wanting.  We were all tired of being cooped up in the house.  Our yard, which manages to stay wet forever has even dried out which has made it very nice to get out.  We spent almost everyday at the park until it dried out.

We are in the hunt for an affordable power wheels for Bam.  We have two, but it would be nice to have another and it would cut down on the fights.  Everyone seems to have mastered steering them this year, at least when they're paying attention.  Sweet ran right into the septic the other night so hard that her head bounced off of the steering wheel.  I hope it's not an indication of what her driving skills will be in the future.  She's very easily distracted.

Easter was fun this year.  We died eggs the day before Easter, which was an event, just like most new things are with three little ones, but they had fun.  Easter eve was not.  It appears that Bam did not like the idea of the Easter Bunny coming in the house while we were asleep.  He would not go to sleep.  I finally asked if he wanted me to tell the Easter Bunny not to come to which he replied yes, much to Sugar's dismay.  Everyone did enjoy looking for eggs at our house and again at Grandma and Papa A's house.  Sugar was definitely the king of egg finding at our house.  We had to step in and help the other two find some before he got them all.  They were very happy to find that the Easter Bunny also put change and stickers in the eggs at our house and change and candy at Grandma and Papa's house.
We're currently in the middle of growth spurts which means lots of eating, sleeping, and bad attitudes.  It amazes me how they can be such sweet smart caring children until they hit a growth spurt and then they become little monsters.  I told Chuck that I think their brain takes a little while to catch up after a growth spurt because they don't use it as often then.

Bam is totally into Sweet's every whim.  She loves to play mommy.  As soon as she tells him he's a baby, he's on all fours crawling around cooing.  It's kind of funny and kind of scary that he'll already do anything to make his sister happy.  They usually play so well together.  Sweet and Sugar usually play well together too, it's just the boys who usually don't play well together.  But at times it's like they're best friends, usually when they're getting into trouble.  They do do that very well together.  Recently Bam has returned to wanting to give Sugar and occasionally Sweet hugs and kisses at nap and bed time.  It is very cute.
We signed Sweet and Sugar up for preschool this fall.  They're not going to my favorite program, because it was thirty minutes away when the weather is good.  But I think they'll do well and really like the program we chose.  They are so excited to go.  The program places the children based on the school district age requirements.  Apparently our school district just changed theirs from 5 by Sept 30 to August 1, which means they wouldn't go to kindergarten until almost 6.  I talked the preschool into letting them into the pre-k class, but I'll probably have to open enroll them in a neighboring school district for kindergarten, which stinks and I'll have to do the same thing for Bam too.

I started my garden the other day.  The kids helped me plant some seeds, until they started fighting over them and dumping them.  I'm doubling the size of our garden this year.  I'm also going to compost again too.  I decided to plant the seeds in egg cartons since the egg cartons will break down in the soil and I won't have to disrupt the roots at much when I transplant them.

Last but not least, my beautiful tree is flowering.  It always flowers right before bad weather, which knocks off all of the pretty flowers so I have to show you how pretty it is before the wind and rain.

This is why we don't have a dog. Instead, we had a third child, who is probably worse than a dog is some ways. But we still love him.






I'm not sure if it's the fact that Santa is coming soon or if it's a result of kids suddenly deciding that sleeping in might actually be a good thing, but behavior has been pretty much on the up and up lately. Which makes mommy and Santa very happy. Look we even look like we like each other here.




Here's a few pictures I took in addition to taking our Christmas card picture. I absolutely love them.

A Month Later

Almost a month since I've posted last. That's pretty bad and it makes me a little sad to think about all of the cute moments that I didn't post an probably will/ have forgotten.

The kids are finally starting to adjust to being inside more. We have fewer fights and breakdowns, which I am so thankful for. It's not perfect, but they're 2 and 3, what do you expect? I felt a little guilty today when I realized that Sweet and Sugar are cutting molars again. Maybe that's been part of the reason for all of the fits, drama, and attitude. Maybe they're grumpy because their mouths hurt, not just because they're three and trying to rule the world. They never mentioned it, I only noticed it because Sugar's gums bled when he brushed his teeth tonight.

We had Sugar's nose cauterized a couple of weeks ago. The poor kid just couldn't stop getting nose bleeds and they lasted forever. They usually ran 30 minutes +. And once he got one, he would get them at night so when I went in to get him in the morning everything was covered in blood. Plus every time that he got upset, he would start again, so enough was enough. He did much better than I expected. He didn't cry at all on the first side. He cried as the Dr was finishing up the second side. He was handsomely rewarded with french fries (something my kids rarely get) and then we went to a pottery place to decorate Christmas ornaments. The only problem was that the stuff that they used had dripped when he cried so this is how he looked for a few days. He had a few mild nosebleeds in the days after wards, but nothing since.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the day at my parent's house and then went to Chuck's grandparent's house for the second part, before going back to my parent's house again. There was no way that I was going to take the kids home before bed time when they had a busy day and didn't get naps. Chuck's sister and her family were in from out of state, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them.



I was one of those crazy shoppers that was up and shopping way before anyone should be on black Friday. Mostly I went out to be with the other women in my family. I didn't buy much for Christmas, most of the stuff I bought was for the kids for next year pjs, etc. It was however eventful when I locked the keys in the trunk and had to call a tow truck to open the car, but they couldn't open the trunk. So two truck #2 eventually came and took it into the shop where it took over 4 hours to make a new key. Needless to say, it wasn't quite what I had planned for the day.

We have our tree up. Actually I put the tree up the day before thanksgiving. Chuck put garland on it the day after thanksgiving and we (kids and I) decorated it two days ago. I decided to do it in stages this year to hopefully acclimatize them to it. I think it has helped some. They didn't bother it at all until it was fully decorated and really it hasn't been that much. Bam did however love the tree skirt and decided that it was a perfect place to lay. They got to help decorate and absolutely loved it. It was a little over decorated at the bottom with all of the ornaments hanging below the tree, so I did go back through later and relocate some before the cat did.


We did a trial run of Santa pictures the other day. We had to go to the store and there just happened to be a very bored Santa there so we did pictures even though the kids were not dressed up. We will probably do more pictures in nicer clothes since theses went so well. When we asked if they wanted to do it, Sweet and Bam weren't so sure, but Sugar announced that he wasn't' afraid of Santa and walked right up, which gave the other two courage or maybe that was the candy cane incentive.



We've had our first round of colds of the season. Bam got it first and hardest. Sweet and Sugar really only had it for a day. Bam's still got it, but getting better. Sweet and Sugar finally get flu shots tomorrow. I had apts scheduled for them a while ago, but the Dr ran out so we've been waiting. We're not doing the h1n1 shots. Something so new makes me a little nervous, even if it is made the same way. I think we'll just practice flu prevention instead.

Blah!

Sometimes I don't like where we live. I love snow at Christmas, but I don't like that it's harder to get the kids out when it's cold. I don't like how grumpy my kids get when we're cooped up because it's cold and we're not going outside much or to as many indoor public spots anymore (due to my fears of the dreadful flu). Nor do I like how much meaner my older two have turned now that they are 3 compared to a few short months ago when my beloved Sweet rarely gave me any problems. I really hope everyone adjusts to the cold weather/more indoor playtime soon.