she's a giant (& other news).

em, that is. the girl is looooong. she's now officially in 12 mo clothes. (she'll be 5 mos on sunday, if anyone is counting.) funny how one day the jammies fit & the next you couldn't squeeze a little toe in there with a shoe horn.

sigh.

on to random baby updates:

emmie is *almost* rolling over. we hold her so much i think it's slowing her roll a bit, so to speak. she just really likes to be in the midst of the action & sitting up, & if she's not, we're all subjected to a high-pitched siren/howl/nails on blackboard scream. so she usually gets her way. :)
she found her toes recently & is totally delighted with those. her favorite toys are still her brothers & mom, but she does love a little lamb blanket that karianne sent us. she's teething right now & it's the only thing she'll chew on, so that little lamb is saving my sanity.
still zero interest in cereal, but we'll give it another whirl this week & see how it goes.

the dudes--
conrad is talking MUCH more. it's awesome. val & i appear to be the only people who can understand him, but words are words, so i'm not complaining. one of his favorite new games is to bring me one of em's blankies & have me wrap & hold him like a baby. it's adorable & means i get some extra cuddles, so i love it. he's also VERY into trucks. the garbage truck is big doings at our house, as is grampa's giant truck.

val is really into sharing right now, so he brings everyone their "special" toys (like em's lamb & conrad's trucks), & con will actually say thank you when val gives him a toy, which makes me smile every time. val also now sings the meow mix song. (yeah, it's only one word, but he has a little dance he does with it & it's freaking adorable. not that i'm biased.)

& now the boys have gone from playing in their cribs to complaining in their cribs, so i'm off to start our day.



UPDATE: suddenly we have success with rice cereal! there's norushing this girl, but when she's ready, she's ready. :)

gratuitous pumpkin pics

here we have the guys in the pumpkin patch, & painting their picks (super messy but sooo fun! conrad even did emma's pumpkin for her.) & a random picture of em with our singing devil bear., bc we don't want to leave out the little girl!






i just realized after psoting that em is making an obscene gesture in her picture. heeheehee...

climbing to new heights

the boys are total dareveils. anything they can climb (& most things they can't) they will do their best to reach the top of, & then do something really fun like leap off, wrestle, or dangle head first over the edge.
for a while, i spent almost all of my time yelling "sit down on your BUTT!", but i've since given up & let them climb as long as they aren't in horrible danger. & they now actually listen to me (usually) when i tell them to sit, maybe bc i'm not telling them to sit so often anymore that's it's lost all meaning.
in part, i just don't think it's a battle worth fighting, & i think controlled "risks" are good for kids. i don't want to raise kids who are afraid of a challenge.
don't get me wrong, i do supervise, i just don't want to be one of those parents you see constantly following their kid around, saying "no no" or whisking them off of slides & shopping carts bc they *might* fall.

what's on your bedside table?

i'm totally stealing this from another blog iread, but i thought it was a fun idea. :) hopefully she doesn't mind!

right now, i have about 10 different books & a big stack of national geographics. i never know what i'll feel like reading, so i go for variety. at the moment, there's an ancient copy of a james herriot book, a biography of a 19th century new england sea captain's wife, outlander (thanks iiri!), a history of the plague in england, a book on gothic cathedrals & a few assorted others.
i also have a bunch of a box of kleenex, baby wipes, triple paste & a few diapers for em, & a water bootle bc i always seem to be thristy at 3 in the morning.

(i have to add-- one of N's pet peeves is the state of my bedside table. his is toally barren, except for ONE book & his service gun, which is never far from hand.)

so-- what's on your bedside table?

holy boobies batman!

so i've been struggling with ill-fitting bras for ages, & finally decided i was going to splurge & get a couple nice ones. that really fit. i'm sick to death of falling out of my bra every time i lean over.
so i took myself to a nice lingerie shop (not VS, but one that sells nursing bras & specialty stuff too) & got measured. & boy, was i ever off. i was much smaller in the chest size & much bigger in the cup size than i had thought. so much bigger it's a little scary, but the girls are MUCH more comfortable.
i do wish some one had warned me about the super drastic boob changes, pre-pregnancy. wouldn't have changed anything, but it would have been nice to be prepared. or not so blind-sided at least.

i started life 2 and a half years ago as a B cup. i could go bra-less. i loved my little boobs. & now, i'm an E. going bra-less is out of the question, & i'm still learning to love these new giant boobs. altho, as N pointed out to me, they are "functional" & there is beauty in that, just not the kind of beauty that comes in pretty lacy bras. se la vie, right?

little victories

i love love love when i find a new food the guys will eat. today's it's sweet potatoes & i feel like a super hero, since they're actually a VEGETABLE! (actually, i think the guys would eat almost anything i put cinnamon on, so i'm not really all that clever.)
i even had them eating broccoli last night! covered in thai peanut sauce, but whatever. it was broccoli!!!

of course, tomorrow, they'll pry throw everything i try to feed them right back in my face, but today-- mom triumphed over the toddlers!

the nature channel-- LIVE!

felon the ex-barn cat caught, killed & ate a mouse this morning in front of all of us while i was feeding the kids breakfast. it was just me & the kiddos, or i would have made N remove the carcass before it became breakfast, but i was so grossed out i just told felon to be quick about it & not leave me any mouse parts to clean up, then explained to the boys that cats hunt mice & eat them, & that felon was a very good kitty. i have no idea how much of that they absorbed, but they did clap for felon.

ick. ick. ick.

confessions of a bad mommy

- i let my kids hang out in their cribs after they wake up, just so i can have a few more minutes to myself.

- i let the baby sleep until 11 in the morning.

- i let val dip everything (including cheerios) in ranch dressing as long as he eats.

- sometimes i don't get dressed for multiple days in a row.

- i don't force clothes if some one wants to be naked.

- i let them eat dirt.

- i'm not above using sesame street to regain peace in my household.

- i let conrad watch tv with me in the morning, just bc i like to cuddle.

- the boys still get bottles at bedtime & i have no plans to take them away yet.(yeah, yeah, i brush their teeth. whatever.)

- i still cuddle emma to sleep at night.

- i'll pass off a poopy kid to N without saying anything. i figure i change enough poop.

- i'm not above serving pudding & pickles for dinner if that's all they'll eat.

- sometimes i hide "borwn bear, brown bear, what do you see?" bc i just can't take it anymore.

mama

conrad said mama!!! & meant me! i've waited 18 months to hear some one say mama & mean me. they said dada, they said ga (gram & grampa), they said kitty, they said bird, but they never said mama.
after a week of 3 really sick kiddos, hearing "mama" from one of my babies was medicine for the soul. i was so thrilled i actually teared up. (proof that i really am a sentimental softie at heart.)
right now is one of those rare times i can say without a trace of sarcasm-- i love my life!

sickies

the boys have matching sinus & ear infections, & em has her first cold. my house is full of boogers.

soliciting...

tattoo ideas.

i have one i got when the guys were about 6 mos old, that has their initials on either side of the twins sign (just a roman numeral 2), & i'll be getting a tat for em as well. (eventually. i won't get it done til she's weaned, so it could be a while.) i thought i knew what i wanted, but i'm open to ideas. any thoughts?


as an aside-- i love tattoos. one of the biggest perks of never planning to practice law ever, ever again is that i can tattoo myself with abandon. :) most people are shocked at how many i have hidden, but i love that my most recent one can actually be seen when i have clothes on. ink makes me happy :)

traveling with 3 & the infinite wisdom of daddy

taking all 3 kids anywhere always involves a certain amount of planning, but taking them out solo is another story all together.
in addition to getting everyone freshly diapered, packing the diaper bag, & loading everyone into the van, there is also the ever present consideration of our means of mobility once we get where we're going. do we need the double stroller? emma's stroller? am i carrying some one? wearing some one? if i'm wearing, which wrap is best? will i have to nurse em while we're out? how many hands will i have free at any given time? how many & what type of doors will we have to navigate? spinning? automatic? manual? are they likely to be skinny doors, or will i be able to fit the stroller?

this may seem like an unhealthy preoccupation with ways and means (& especially doors), but there are few things worse than being trapped outside a building with a stroller that can't navigate the automatic door & no hands free to manuever a infant car seat carrier plus double stroller thru a entrance way while one or all of your kids are crying in some sort of distress. it also similarly sucks to try to nurse a baby while your 18 mo. old toddlers are not safely confined to their stroller, or being unable to wrangler one or both of said toddlers bc your baby-wearing apperatus doesn't give you sufficient maneuverability & you have no secure place to set down the littlest baby, who cannot yet sit unsupported. all of these are very important concerns when planning an outing of any sort with two 18 mo. olds & a 4 mo. old baby.

i mention all of this bc i have to take conrad to the doc this afternoon (persistant sick of some kind that's been getting progressively worse over the last 2 weeks) & have no one to watch the other 2 during the appointment. i am the only person i know who has braved taking all 3 kiddos somewhere public on their own, & while it can be done, it is not something any one in their right mind would choose to do unless they had to.

anyways, people often seem to take for granted just how much work it is & how much planning it takes to accomplish even the smallest errands with 3 babies. for instance-- my darling husband, who has never taken all 3 kids anywhere by himself, nor been alone with all 3 for longer than 2 hrs, very nearly escaped a frying pan to the head after a "helpful" sugestion. when i mentioned last night that i was running out to get milk so i didn't have to take everyone to the store today, the dear man calmly informed me that i really should just start running errands with all of the kids, bc, after all, i AM a mother of 3. i won't mention the immediate aftermath of such a stupid remark, suffice to say that if he ever tries to tell me how to do my job again, he may find himself a SINGLE father of 3.

i do love the man, but sometimes i wonder if he's swapped his brain for a sausage.

pointless pics

here we have conrad doing his best hugh hef.ner & val in his sister's hat. silly, silly boys :)