Monday

Kenna is being a pill tonight so I'm typing with one hand. Just a joe average day. I dropped Laney off with Diane and the twins and I went to Costco for diapers. Kenna has been grumpy all day, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Laney had a good time with Di and Leah and came home filthy. I got a migraine, so I felt pretty bleh most of the day. On the upside, I finally figured out how to get my slideshow thingy to work. Must go, motherhood calls.
One more thing. I've got to add that Laney says the cutest stuff now. She told Charles that "bubble baths are awesome" the other night. Cracks me up. She also greets me with the most random comments in the morning. I have no idea how that little brain works.

Desert Museum

We went to the Desert Museum today and it was nice to get out and do something with just our little family. We met a lot of people from Europe oddly enough and that was interesting. We always get a family membership at the museum because when we have visitors we often go there and it's the same cost to buy the membership as it is to pay for four adults or whatever.

They have just added a new exhibit about life in the rocks with desert landscape above and then all the little dens and holes that the creatures are in are in the rock with glass so you can see everything. The desert is much prettier in the spring, but it was nice today to get out. Laney had a good time. She picked flowers from the lantana and shared them with another baby in a stroller. She was most interested in seeing a butterfly and we lucked out and saw their first Monarch butterfly of the year. After lunch, I needed to change diapers so I took one kid at a time to the restroom. I kept going by this couple with a new baby in my arms, it was sort of funny. We also tried out the two kids in the stroller/carry one in the baby bjorn solution today and that worked pretty well until my back started to ache. I always get a low back ache when I use those carriers. I probably need to strengthen my abs a little more or something.

All in all a quiet day in Tucson.

Pump it up

We went to Leah's 6th birthday party today at Pump It Up, a sort of indoor jumping castle place. Laney had a great time even though it was during nap. She's so incredibly brave it just amazes me. I was such a chicken as a little kid and she is absolutely fearless. I believe that's her father's genes coming out. I certainly got a workout climbing through everything and bouncing around. You know you're 36 and not 6 when you bounce on those things and think "huh. My bladder does not seem to be quite the same anymore". The downside of having kids, particularly twins. The twins stayed home with daddy today since I can't climb through stuff with Laney and watch them at the same time. The inability to be two places at once when you have a very active toddler and two infants is the subject of another posting though.
Anyhoo, the babies didn't attend. I also went to Hallmark today for their open house and bought way too much stuff, but oh my gosh they have cute Christmas things! Holidays are so much more fun now, but I'm seriously needing to stock up on decorations. I opted not to purchase the cute ceramic gingerbread house that plays the Russian song from the Nutcracker. So sweet, but ultimately way too breakable. I'm proud of myself though--I've got 75% of the way through my Xmas gifts for Tucson family and secret sister gifts for the next two months (not all at Hallmark). I got these tap dancing ornament things that I think the kids will enjoy and the singing snowmen thing. We got the snowman thing last year and Laney thinks it's just the best.
I don't know what the deal is but I'm already feeling very holiday-ish. Maybe because it's suddenly got cooler. We've also bought tickets for our trip home to Idaho for Christmas. I even called the airline to figure out what to do about all the baby stuff. It's such a ripoff to fly now. The airline charges to check a bag and allows either a stroller or car seat but not both. But Charles hopefully will be able to use his status in Star Alliance to get all our stuff there free. They are also now charging for sodas/juice on the plane. Seriously. Add to that the logistics issue of going through security with three children and fun will be had by all. Security will just have to help us I guess since you must put your stroller through the xray machine and carry your child. I don't know what you would do if flying by yourself, since they aren't supposed to hold a baby for you but it would be nearly impossible to hold two babies and collapse a 40 pound stroller (takes two hands just to collapse the stroller). I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Next year we will not be flying up to Idaho for the holidays. It will be time to stay home. That kind of makes me sad but it is what it is. Celebrating the holidays in Tucson isn't quite the same for me. For my family, the holidays are a really big deal and it's quite the opposite here. For example, I have no idea what the family is planning to do for Thanksgiving this year. I know that Debbie will be here, but that's the extent of things. I guess I'd better take charge and make a plan.
PS - I'm going to go back and add pictures now. I finally downloaded the camera. I'm still trying to get a Flickr slideshow to work - that's what that picture thing in the corner is all about but it isn't working for me.

Two Year Check Up

Laney went to the dr. Tuesday for her 2 year appointment. She's 34 inches and weighs 25 1/2 lbs. She was a real trooper about getting two shots. She watched the nurse do both of them without really any reaction, though she was excited about the tweety bird "stickers" that were applied afterward. Hopefully she remains blase about shots always (ha).
G and K seem to be doing better. They are getting busier every day and play with toys a lot more now. They particularly like this big ball shaped rattle thing that is bigger than their heads. When I get motivated, I'll post picts of them with the toy. Kenna particularly likes to chew on it, no hands. She reminds me of one of those desert tortoises stretching her neck out to mouth the toy. Hilarious.
We're having playgroup at our house tomorrow for the first time. Hopefully all goes well!

Happy Birthday Part 2

So we skipped the Tea for Two party on Monday in favor of sending Mommy to the doctor. The diagnosis? Possibly pleurisy, an infection of the lining of the lungs. I'm waiting for blood work to come back and taking tylenol. That night I fed both babies cereal for dinner and then Griffin screamed for hours straight. We tried everything but nothing was making that baby happy. During the scream-a-thon, Charles checked on Kenna and found her face down in a puddle of vomit. He rolled her over and she projectile vomitted across her crib. So he cleaned everything up and took care of a puking baby while I dealt with the screaming baby. Meanwhile, the birthday girl had been sent to bed a little early and was also screaming for quite some time. After the Kenna thing, we decided to do a check on her and found her passed out in her crib with a majorly runny diaper spread everywhere. So I woke her up, cleaned her up, and Charles rocked her back to sleep while I dealt with Kenna (Griffin had gone to sleep). Did I mention that we have 3 cribs and 4 crib sheets? On a two crib disaster night, this did not work out well.
Sometimes you've just got to laugh. It seems like there are just times like this when it all goes south at an amazing rate and there just isn't anything you can do about it but carry on.

Happy Birthday Delaney

Today was Delaney's 2nd birthday. We had a family party yesterday and were supposed to have a birthday party with friends today, but my lung thing came back and I went to the doctor instead today. The doctor suspects pleurisy, but I'm waiting for blood work to come back. Laney's birthday was also highjacked by the dreaded Don and Olive drama about money.
Laney got a trike for her birthday and thought that was pretty cool. She also got a fairy Barbie sticker book with the stupidest story I've ever read. She of course wants me to read it to her over and over. Seriously the worst story ever. It's like someone took a bunch of the classic stuff and smashed it together into this awful mess of a story.

Halloween scare Laney

Happy Halloween! We made another attempt at the Tinkerbell costume for the playgroup party in the morning and it was a no-go. Laney thinks that costume was created by the devil. She will not, I repeat, will not wear it. In the afternoon, Charles explained that she needed to wear a costume and that she would say Trick or Treat and people would give her candy. Boy, she was all charged up and ready to go! She brought him her regular clothes and said put these on me and let's trick or treat. So I had to MomGyver a costume together at the last second. White tshirt, white shorts, bunny ears from Easter and some eyeliner and boom! you're a white rabbit. It worked.

We canvassed the neighborhood with the twins and Diane, Leah and Brandon. Everything went well, except one little thing. Some idiot in my neighborhood decided it would be super fun to answer the door in a Scream mask that literally ran with blood all over the face. Laney was truly horrified at the boo boo and after that house she stated over and over again that "Halloween scare Laney". I felt awful.
I cannot believe how much candy that child came home with. Seriously, a bagful from just close neighbor houses. What are we going to do with it all?