school night

Avery loves her school!!! The other night they were having a parent education night. They were having a behavioral speaker coming to present to anyone that wanted to come. They were providing child care during it. I was not going to attend bc although we of course have behavioral problems it's nothing unmanageable but Av wanted to go. They must have talked about it at school bc she wanted to go and I could not talk her out of it. None of her close friends were even going but that didn't matter to her. She wanted to go back and play. So we did. Turned out to be a very nice night. Even though Camille or Everett do not go to school there they went into the classroom happily and played for the hour and a half I was gone. Av went into the "5 day 4's" classroom and was very happy to play and have the night at school. They provided dinner so not only did I not have to cook but I also got to sit in peace and eat my dinner with adults and not have to get up 50 times during my dinner tending to the every whim of my 3 monsters. The speaker was amazing and although I didn't learn anything new it did help to re-energize the methods I had gotten lax on.

ladybugs everywhere

Camille does not like bugs. At all. They are all ladybugs in her book and they are fine to look at but she does not dare touch. We have a lot of caterpillars at the parks and such right now. A lot of the kids will pick them up and let them crawl on their hands but not my girls. They like looking but no touching. The other day at the park Camille ran up to me and said, "that little girl has a ladybug." heheheh it was a caterpillar. Then on the slide at home she wanted to go down it but called me over bc there were "ladybugs" on it. They were ants. She would not go down it until I wiped each and every one of them off of it. She spotted them all, telling her it was clean when it wasn't didn't work. She seems tough but I guess she's just a girly-girl at heart.

some new pictures

The first pic is everyone enjoying Grandma's attention. The second is Camille sleeping in her usual position totally naked after a bath late one afternoon. More sleeping pic of E, love how he is curled up with his dog and has his paci. He also got a hold of his last night's pj's that were hanging on his crib (the yellow that's under him) Last on is a pic of cute girls in cute outfits.

baby boy

Everett is full fledge sitting now. He has been pretty unstable with it until today really. Today all the sudden he was able to sit wo falling once the 45 minutes we were at Camille's music this morning. Then all day he would sit and play w us. It's so cute. He's such a little boy now. So sad too. Watching my last baby learn to not be a baby anymore. They just grow up way too fast. He is eating anything and everything now too. Any baby food I get out and give him he will gobble up. He is going to eat me out of house and home. He eats lunch and dinner so far. We will add breakfast soon I guess. He is really just the cutest baby ever. Every Thursday when we go to Av's hbr he just has all the other moms eating out of his hands. He just hams it up for them and they all seem to love him. They all want to hold him and talk to him. He gives everyone the biggest smile. Such a sweet baby.

Dentist

I took all 3 kids to the dentist yesterday for the girls to get their teeth cleaned. It was Camille's first time ever. They did a great job. Av went first and Camille watched very closely. Then Camille hopped happily into the big chair. She looked so cute and little in it. They both got their teeth counted, cleaned, checked for cavities and got a protective seal on them. No cavities! No loose teeth for Av yet either. It was a great checkup!

omg is it really happening???

Kindergarden?!?!?!?!?! Avery's final year of preschool is coming to a close soon. She has come so far. It's truly amazing. At the beginning of this year I had meeting after meeting with her teachers about how she would not talk in class and how she would let her bff answer questions for her. Now you can't get her to stop talking. Her speech has improved so much she has the confidence to start talking to everyone. She will talk to anyone who will listen and even those who aren't. We were in the front yard playing the other day and some peeps riding bikes were riding by. She yelled, "hi bike riders!!" Her confidence is so high now. She takes to our adult friends, she talks to kids she meets on the playground, she talks to her teachers and our neighbors. It just warms my heart every time she opens her mouth lately. Finally she will tell me about her school day and I can understand her and ask question about it and really get a good picture of what when on in her day. She is the strongest little girl I have ever met and I can't believe she is mine. She has worked so hard to get where she is. She inspires me everyday and I'm so proud of her. She is excited for kindergarden. She has asked her speech therapist "which room will be my kindergarden?" Miss Angela (her ST) even walked her to the lunch room to see the kindergardeners. We drive by the school and she says excitedly, "that's my new school day." I can't believe it's almost kindergarden time.

horrible little sister, great big sister

All at the same time Camille was being both of the above mentioned things. She had ripped an eye off the ladybug (yes I said ladybug, told you ladybugs freaked her out. heheh) that Av had made at school and was refusing to say she was sorry about it at the same time she took off to Everett's bedroom to get his favorite dog bc he was crying. So sweet and so bad all at the same time.

crawling

Everett is obsessed. He wants to crawl so badly he is up in the night practicing it. He can't though so it makes him so mad and then he can't go back to sleep. Every time at night that he cries out we go in there and he is on all 4's. We don't let him fuss much either at night bc we are too scared he will wake up the Camille. We know Av would just go right back to sleep but we are not sure how C would do. Most nights he's up twice a night to eat but lately he's not up to eat he is up wanting to crawl. Ugh, I didn't want him mobil but now I just wish it would happen. He is just too frustrated and mad anytime he's on the floor or in bed trying to do it.

Tamille

That's how Camille says her name. "I Tamille" she says and its freaking hilarious!!!!

2 new songs for Camille

A few nights ago Camille was singing "B I N G O, B I N G O, B I N G O and bingo was his name o" it was too cute. Then the next night she was singing "take me out to the ball game." Neither of these are songs we sing at home so she must at school. She seems very musical. I can never hear a song a few times and know the words well enough to sing on my own. She is only at school 2 days a week. She loves singing. I am glad I have her in music. When she gets older we will have to see if she has musical interests.

tootsie rolls and potty training

We have had a roller coster ride with the potty training on Camille. It's been up and down. She has not gone back to diapers at all but we have had accidents and lots of motivation problems. We just keep working through them. About 2 weeks ago she just wanted to go back to being a "baby" and wearing diapers. She was done. I said, "okay but babies eat baby food as well as wear diapers. Do you want to eat baby food?" She happily agreed and to the high chair she ran. Well one small bit of rice cereal and one touch of peas to her lips and she was done with that. She has discovered that baby food is horrible. So back on the potty trained horse we got. Then one night while I was out Camille got her hands on a piece of gum. She is in love. So now we are able to use the "babies who wear diapers so not get to have gum, gum is just for big girls" card. So that has been working too. We are still bribing her as well. When she went on the potty she got 2 candy hearts. Well the candy hearts got boring and so I pulled out our old bag of candy from halloween and gave her a tootsie roll. She is HOOKED. She loves tootsie rolls but she cannot for the life of her remember their names. Now after peeing she runs to the closet where my stash is and starts making up sounds asking for them. I was pretending to not know what she was wanting. She would get frustrated and call them many different things. Now I just look at her and wait to see if she can remember the name. It's so cute bc she now knows I know what she is wanting but she can't for the life of her recall tootsie roll. One of these days she will get it right. She is just still very young and does not have full motivation to stop playing and go on the potty. We will get there!!

**She does not eat gum much and only about half the time she actually goes potty does she remember to ask for a tootsie roll or candy heart. I'm not a horrible mom with a kid living on candy. Actually the other day at the park she was running around playing and eating a bag of cut up orange peppers. I had to take the bag away from her she had eaten so many. **

sound asleep....

.....with a strap in his mouth

my 2 very cute girls

Everett working on sitting.....

and 2 little girls that must be in the pictures too. Everett didn't like sharing the spotlight in the pics I guess.

Everett's 6 month stats

Everett is 27 inches which puts him in the 75th percentile for height and 16.10 lbs which is the 35 percentile for weight. After his shots he got his first fever ever. Poor little thing. He is sleeping soundly now. I hope it stays that way.

crazy everett

Av's PT used to tell me that you didn't want your baby to walk early. Parents of very early walkers love to brag about it but sometimes its not the best thing. Before their brains catch up with their early mobility they are reckless which can be dangerous. Their brains just do not tell them yet to be careful. I am starting to see that first hand with Everett and his need to crawl. He is crazy. Just dives all over the place and does not know yet the consequences of any of it. He really has no interest in sitting. In the boppy he throws himself forward to get on the floor so he can move all around and get what he wants. And forgot about the bumbo, he's been throwing himself out of that one for months now. Or maybe it's more of a need to keep up with his big sisters? Either way he is going to keep me on my toes!

2 teeth and sleeping

The last 2 nights Everett has slept all the way through!!! 830 to 730. It has been so wonderful getting consecutive hours of sleep. There are a few reasons why maybe. I started him on 2 meals a day this weekend but it's been almost a week of that and the sleep has just been 2 nights. So not sure that's it. He is really getting close to crawling and is moving all over the place. Maybe the increase mobility is making him tired. Crawling did coincide with Camille sleeping through the night but really he's not moving much more than he was a week ago. I also thought it was bc of the swimming the first night but he did it again last night and we had not swam. It finally came to me this morning though. His 2 bottom teeth have busted through. I think he is getting a little reprieve from the pain. I think until they came through he was uncomfortable and that was waking him through the night. I could totally be off and he might go back to his usual 2 a nights tonight but for now I'm going to enjoy the sleep!!!

swim

The girls speech and swim lesson were canceled on Monday due to the rain and lightning. It was not safe to be in the pool with it lightning outside. Camille was so sad. She wanted to swim so badly and could not understand why she was not going to be able to. I felt so bad. I was talking to John right after I found out and told him C was sad. He said, "tell them I will take the swimming at the JCC tonight." What a great idea and a great dad. So I looked up open swim. It was from 730 to 830. Not ideal as their bedtime is lights out for sure by 830 and since it was a no nap day usually earlier. On the other hand though we were able to have a nice dinner and then get dressed to go wo rushing. So off we left about 715 to be there right on time. The kids LOVED it. All 3 splashed and kicked and swam for as long as we would let them. What a great idea J had. As soon as J got home last night Av asked if we were swimming again. I see us there a lot more in the future.

SSL

Sesame Street Live was AWESOME!!! The girls and even Everett loved it. We bought the tickets from Av's school auction and got them for a great deal. They were really good seats. Center stage 5 rows back. We were so close. We got all comfy in our 4 seats and as soon as they started coming out C freaked. She was scared of course. She climbed on daddy's lap and was fine then. She just loved watching all the "friends" she watches on TV. Everett was just mesmerized by all the moving colors and lights. Camille brought her Abby doll and happily waved it around when Abby was front and center stage. We watched till intermission and at that point both girls had spotted snow cones so off we went for those. They could have picked big Elmo balloons but the snow cones won out. Both of them ate/drank every ounce of those snow cones. I was pretty darn worried Camille was going to pee all that ice back out on my lap but she didn't. At that very end they shot out confetti. At first the loud noise scared us all but most of the confetti fell right on us in our good seats. That might have been the best part for both girls. They loved being covered in it and of course Av had to collect some and take it home with her. Some of the songs were songs on the show a lot and watching the girls sing a long was so cute. Av knew names of the charters that I didn't know. At one point 6 ladybugs came out and were dancing around and John and I just looked at each other. Oh no!!! It didn't bring back any ladybug dreams though thankfully. It was a beautiful day outside so all 3 of them got to wear cute new summer clothes and all looked too cute. It was a great night and a great end to a fun spring break!!!

"ladybugs are on me"

Camille hates bugs and is so scared of them. She is scared of a lot for as tough as she seems. She also calls all small bugs ladybugs.

We were up for an hour last night. With Camille. The first time we went in there she said, "there is something in my bed." She was pointing at something and since she had recently "spit up" my first thought was she had again. In my sleep haze I was afraid to investigate so I got J to do it. heheheh there was nothing there. We showed her, calmed her down and left. The second time she was still saying something was in her bed. She was pointing to the same spot. So I asked her if she wanted to put her pillow at the other end of her crib and sleep that way. She said yes so that's what we did. She still cried out a few minuets later. That time she said, "there are ladybugs in my bed." heheheh we had to laugh at this. J had went in to her but I heard her from our room. J pulled everything out of her bed to shake it out and show her nothing was there. He got her settled back down and again we got comfy in our bed in hopes that was the end of it. It was not. One more time, "there are ladybugs on me!" I went in there and she was pointing to her pillow. It is a monkey pillow case and it does have black dots on it. So I finally turned it over and put the plain side up and forcefully told her there was nothing in her bed and to go to sleep!!! It would have been soooooo easy to bring her in bed with us and I am sure we would have not spent an hour trying to get her to sleep. I know that would be the end of us though so I resisted. Finally she went back to sleep. Wow what a night. It's neat when they start dreaming but it leads to a whole new sleep world.

crazy mom

I took the kids to the zoo on Wed. It was a beautiful day but it also happened to still be spring break. Wow is the zoo a different place when the masses are off. I am soooooooo lucky I have been able for the last 4 years to stay home part time and now full time. I never realized how wonderful the zoo was on a work day until I went last year on a Saturday with g&pp and then now on spring break. It was so crowded. Basically a nightmare with 3 kids. I was anxious the whole time making sure I didn't lose anyone. Since it was so crowded the girls wanted to ride in the stroller instead of walk which was good bc it made it easier to keep track of them but that meant I had to carry Everett the whole time in my carrier. I got a nice new one for him but he still got heavy and hot. Camille is so used to seeing the zoo her way and on her time and she did not understand why she could not do what she wanted. Usually we find a nice spot and park it there for awhile and let the kids run and play. It was just not possible this time. And the park at the zoo, forget about it. Too crazy. Crazy mom for even thinking the zoo on spring break w 3 kids was a good idea.

fake cough

Everett has learned how to fake cough. He does it all the time. He mimics you doing it too. Pretty cute. He also does it when he's excited about something. That is the funniest. An excited cough. Never thought to cough when I was excited.

"spit up"

We had a BIG 3 days. A lot of excitement, not much sleep and WAY too much junk food. On the way home yesterday Camille said, "my belly hurts." She has never said that before but she does have lots of boo-boos so I didn't really think much of it. She kept lifting up her shirt in her car seat and saying it hurt. She does that when she has a cut she has to life up her clothing so show me. Anyway about 5 miles from home she "spit up" as she called it. It was more like throwing up everywhere. All over herself and her carseat. Nasty!!! After it happened in a pitiful little voice she kept saying, "I spit up momma, I spit up." It was kind of cute. Then she would say, "my shirt dirty, my jeans are dirty." When we got home and cleaned up she was fine. Ran around and ate cereal for dinner. Just too much for her little system.

Cute fam pics

spring break - Indy Children's museum

On Monday we went to the Children's Museum. Again we had a great day. The second pic is C hoarding only the green balls at the water table. She held as many as she possibly could. The girls loved the sand table. We had to drag C away from it. We played and played until Camille fell asleep in the planetarium. She stayed asleep when I put her in the stroller. A big few days for a 2 year old.

The last 2 pics are of Av and Opa and E looking up at the glass celling that is in the 3rd to the last pic.

spring break - train car

The hotel we spent the night in in Indy was a train car. It was part of the old Union Station and trains still actually go through it. We heard 5 of them through out the night. Or should I saw felt them, It think they were right on the other side of the wall from us. Anyway the kids had a blast!!

spring break - Indy Zoo

We got up early Sunday morning and drove to the Indy zoo. We were meeting Opa, Shelly, Maddie Rose, Alex and Mimi there. The girls were soooooo excited. We had a great day at the zoo. Saw a dolphin show, touched little sharks, rode the merry-go-round, ate huge ice cream cones, fed giraffes, raced a cheetah (a machine Av, C and John all did it), watched Daddy be silly and saw a baby lemur and baby monkey. It was a great day.