A Brand New Day

Laney pronounced that today is a brand new day while sitting here at the breakfast table. So I thought I should let everyone know. Plus Kenna looks like she's going to shout "Freedom" at any moment and join the cast of Braveheart. It's smoothie day and the purple stuff is now everywhere. Perhaps smoothies aren't ideal baby food? Oh well, what the hell.
[massive smoothie explosion happens here]
Ok, so now it's after dinner. Turns out that smoothies really aren't ideal baby food. Griffin refused his but splashed it all over first. Kenna ate hers but when she was done she threw her glass over board and it exploded purple goop all over the kitchen. So I got them up and wiped off and hosed down. I had to strip K's diaper off too. I put her down to wipe up the floor and turned around to find a puddle of pee behind me.
We eventually got cleaned up and on our way though. We had dance class today and then went to a music class thing to try it out. Here's the thing they never tell you about mommy and me type classes: you work your ass off. Up down up down, dance, sing, clap, bounce baby etc etc etc. You work it even more with two babies. Then it was off to Trader Joe's for a quick shop. Laney pushed the mini cart for me and did a great job. We were with other play group moms and it made me realize that Laney does lot of things that I sometimes take for granted. I'm proud of her. We went to McDonalds afterward for lunch and they played like crazy. The twins are amazingly mobile and climbed up the slide to slide back down over and over. I was tired by the time we got home.
We did swimming this afternoon for the twins and they are doing well. All the little girls at the pool made a big deal about Kenna. That's pretty par for the course though. Kenna seems to attract girls that like babies. Sometimes I feel bad for Griffin because he's often left out of the attention. But maybe he prefers it.
I've got to go write an obituary now for convention. Yippee.

First Day of School

Today was Laney's first day of school and we only had tears for a short while (mine). She was so big but a little taken aback by the chaos. Lots of the kids were screaming and crying for their mothers not to leave, but Laney calmly used the potty and got into her seat to play. I told her goodbye and left, then I was shocked to find myself totally crying on the way out. It snuck up on me. I guess it was just a bigger deal for me than I thought it would be to leave my baby with others at school for the first time. It could have been worse though. My friend Richelle was totally wrecked dropping off Ella. The process of leaving your first is not as hard as that of leaving your last. I was going to take the twins to playgroup at the park, but decided I didn't feel like it. We went to coffee with Richelle and then shoe shopping. It felt so strange to be out without Laney.
It has been a busy week. We went to playgroup at Jaimie's on Tuesday and had a good time. Tuesday night we swam in our pool again and the babies doodled around in the yard. Until they discovered the super fun game of throw rocks in the pool for mommy to fish out. Wednesday was dance day again and Laney did well. We had a planning session for play group afterward since I'm a co leader now. Wednesday night I had to get back from swimming and cook dinner and clean up really fast because everyone was coming over for a sorority work night. We're working on favors for convention. I also have to work through the obituary stuff. We have to do a big thing on Bill Ross, but frankly I don't really get it. I don't know if I'm supposed to admit that as a good sorority member, but I don't feel the tragedy of losing Bill. The Ross family created the sorority in the 20s during the depression and while the sorority is itself a nonprofit, the family makes its living selling services and sorority stuff to the sisters. Which is fine and all, but hardly the noble calling that everyone makes it out to be. Bad Lori. I'll work on a better attitude for convention.
Mom talked to me this week and asked whether the babies had gotten teeth. I said no, but double checked later and sure enough Griffin had a new bottom tooth. Kenna also has a bottom tooth about to pop out and a molar on the way. We're transistioning out of bottles and between naps and I'm wondering if I shouldn't take a little more time. I guess they will survive. I also quit buying pull ups for Laney. She's having a fit about the diapers, but I figure she'll be that much more enthused to do a final potty training. She came home from dance yesterday and carefully removed her outfit and then peed behind the couch. I think it was an experimental thing so we had quite a talk about it. Today she pooped on the potty on her own before school (and peed twice at school). So there's the news. Now I need to go take care of the night time ritual with Laney before C loses his patience.

Toasted Buns

Kenna and I are sitting at the table to do our post this morning (and/or watch some Mickey Mouse). Her hair is standing up in a little tuft in the middle of her head and she's clapping her hands to the music. We were watching the wild kingdom in the back yard earlier. We've acquired a porch lizard and a yard bunny. The absence of the dog is notable. Laney and Griffin are jousting with the mop and broom, aka sweeping the floors. I'm ignoring them and their potential for chaos.

Laney has a little sunburn from yesterday. We went out to fish the toys out of the pool and she ended up swimming naked for an hour. I forgot to sunscreen though, so she has a case of pink butt. Griffin came out and joined us for a little while. He's done with that morning nap thing I think. Kenna demonstrated that she knows how to put together legos yesterday and I was deeply impressed. I don't think Laney figured it out until earlier this spring. I was going to put together the elliptical yesterday, but I read the directions and discovered it's a two person process at step 10 and 11. So I'll wait for Charles to come home I guess. Kenna took such a long nap yesterday morning her afternoon nap was short, so we had one on one time while the other two slept. We had suckers together. It was so cute. We ate our suckers and talked. She thought it was awesome.

I had to wake Laney up to go to swimming. We went to Calle Concordia pool this time. It was hotter than the 7th hub of hell. Absolutely no shade. Pam, our new instructor, was super nice but the babies still weren't enthused about the process. They will come around though. I'm not all that excited about spending every afternoon for a month frying by the pool, but ultimately it is so worth it. Our car temperature was 117 when we got back to it.

The festivities have moved upstairs to Laney's room and I think I need to intervene.

Monday Monday

We had a good weekend playing in the pool. The Phillips clan assembled at our house yesterday for bbq and swimming. Olive and Debbie didn't stay very long though. I think Debbie was tired out after her weekend of watching kids at Roseann's. Happy 30th to Roseann by the way!! Charles left this morning for Kansas again. I imagine that he will be travelling a lot in the next few months. Laney was a pill all weekend. I'm not sure what has got in to her, but yikes.
We went to Trinity on Friday to do open gym with our playgroup and had fun. The twins explored everything and Laney had a great time. She walked the high balance beam herself about 4 times. For perspective, she was the only kid to do so... and there were kindergarten age kids there. She's so fearless it scares the heck out of me. She also thought that the bars were cool. Maybe in the spring we'll do gymnastics.
Laney and Leah had big fun yesterday (when they didn't fight). They swam and swam. Laney swam to the far end of the pool by herself with just a noodle. Charles about had a heart attack. He has a hard time relaxing. He needs to learn the art of relaxed vigilance--letting go while still being close enough to jump in to save them--both figuratively and literally. He either hovers over them or he isn't watching. I'm looking forward to having all of them swimming. We start lessons again today. It's a pain in the butt, but definitely worth it.
This is sort of a random post today, but I didn't sleep well last night and haven't had enough coffee yet. I'm still sick, which totally sucks. I'll probably have to go to the dr. Though I am getting better, just not very fast. I should go and do dishes and wash the toy piano. Laney has never thrown anything in the toilet. The twins are already starting. They threw in a toy piano. They also know how to flush so I expect some big plumbing bills in our future...

Preschool

A week of firsts for Delaney. We had our first dance lesson, complete with tutu outfit on Wednesday and went to preschool today to meet the teacher. I can't believe she's getting so big. I'm sick sick sick. Bleh. Thought I was getting better but I was wrong. Wrong! Anyway, I'm carrying on. Today Laney had to go to the doctor unexpectedly because she had her first ear infection. No kidding. It came out of no where. We came home from preschool and she suddenly started crying and telling me that her ear hurt. So we went to the dr and pharm instead of taking a nap for mommy. Twins were super cute today. Kenna was running around the living room twirling around to make herself dizzy and falling down. Griffin was busy playing with all the toys and making me help him put the parts in the right spot. I'm not doing too well in weaning them from the bottle and I think I need to step it up. We're all registered to start swimming again next week with our new teacher. Laney will just do a one week refresher and the twins will go for a couple weeks to learn the swimming part of the technique. So we will have three swimmers shortly.
Swimming, preschool, dance, playgroup. Should be a busy fall. And if I could just get well, it would be better.
Also, I had sorority last night. It was a late night but fun, mostly. Had a couple weird moments that made me wonder what I've been missing...

Flying Hoo Hoo

What? July 12 was the last post? It seems like just the other day. I guess I took a summer vacation from blogging. We are officially home again. We took the drive slower on the way back and stopped in Pocatello and then in Kanab Utah (Kanab rhymes with blab) before getting home on Saturday. It was a record breaking trip: no vomit!!! Not once. It wasn't a very eventful trip in general, however I will say that I had the worst meal I've had in a long time in Kanab. We went to the restaurant that looked family friendly instead of like it had good food and were so sorry. Yuck. The beer was good though. I had an Evolution Ale that was a Utah brew. Packing up all the kids at 5 in the morning though, I thought to myself that I wanted to remember that moment. The feel of sleepy baby bodies in my arms. That tiny heavy weight snuggled up to me. They are little for such a very brief time.
Prior to coming home we did the usual stuff--Art on the Green (I bought more jewelry from Spirit Lala. No kidding. Spirit Lala is actually her name), we swam in the lake and river, played in the backyard a lot, ate fresh picked green beans, that sort of thing. We've spent the last couple days trying to dig out of the massive mess that moving house 1500 miles with three kids creates. Laney was thrilled to be home and back in her room and all were happy to find their toys which immediately were strewn from hell to breakfast.
Today, while the twins were napping, Laney and I went outside to play. Looking at the pool led to some wading which led to a wet dress which led to getting naked which led to skinny dipping. I sat there and watched as my two year old swam lap after lap across the width of the pool. She must have gone back and forth 50 times. When she finally got out she was laying in a chair and yelled at me "Mommy! I just saw a hoo hoo!"
I was thinking she meant something, um, anatomical. No, she saw a hoo hoo. A flying hoo hoo. Then it dawned on me. She saw an owl!
All of the kids were playing later that afternoon and ran after a toy together. I watched them and thought that they looked like a little herd. I can't believe how much they have changed in such a short time.
Kenna can officially say a word now. Bird. She clinched the inheritance of my grandmother's McCoy pottery today. She looked up on top of the hutch and said "bird!". She was so enthused about the bird vase. Last night she stood outside saying bird and flapping her little arms.
This evening we all went swimming and ate pizza in the backyard. I've decided that I may have been too hasty in deciding never to have a pool again. I'm going to have three little swimmers by next year. Wow.