Highlight Reel

It's a good thing I didn't write a blog post last night.  Because if I did this is how it might have started:

To Hell with this!

Those are the words I used as I stormed out of the house last night.  If I'd had a computer and an internet connection you might have been treated to a rant about the low rate of job satisfaction I sometimes feel.  Instead I stayed away from home until the kids were asleep and then came back and told Brandon all my frustrations.

I'm feeling better today.  Talking about stuff with Brandon always helps.  And I got a lot of sleep last night too.  That makes a big difference.

So you've been spared hearing about how tough it is to be a Mom - for now.  But don't for one second think that my job is easy or that I love every part of it.  Sometimes I think it's all a cruel joke.

Now that I'm in a better mood today you get the "highlight reel" instead of the "deleted scenes" of my life.

Here are Charlotte and Lydia ready to go shopping two Saturdays ago.  One of our stops was at JC Penny's so Brandon could get a new white shirt as his Father's Day present.  I told the girls it was a "fancy store" and they had to act really good.  All three kids actually did okay in the store.  I had them look at the jewelry counter while Brandon found and bought the shirt.

Brandon gave us a pretty good Father's Day present too.  He finished the sand table Saturday afternoon.

The girls loved playing with it right away. (Derrick would have too, but he was asleep when the table was finished) The sand table was my idea.  I wanted them to have a sand box, but I didn't want it to get infested with fire ants.  So I got the idea for the sand table and told Brandon to make one.

Here I am enjoying having all three of my babies on me.  (There are other times when I can't stand to have them all on me, but those times usually involve hysterical crying from at least one of them.)  The girls love the I-Spy books.  I like them too because there are so many things to look at and talk about.  If I have to read a book over and over and over again it might as well be one that is visually interesting.

Here are all three kids enjoying the sand table.  A LOT of sand has ended up on the ground.  I constantly have to remind myself that it is only $3.60 for a 60 lb bag so I don't need to worry about how much gets dumped on the ground.

I finally remembered to buy a nightlight.  I wanted to buy it to avoid scenes like this outside my bedroom door.  But alas, this picture was taken the first night we plugged in the light.  (Lately we've moved on to tying the kids' door shut after bedtime.)

Wednesday was the day we found out Baby D's gender (she's a girl in case you missed the post).  We also located the Women's Center at the hospital and took a tour of Labor and Delivery.  Brandon must have been feeling left out medically because that night he sliced his index finger while cutting up a pineapple.  

We put the kids in the car and dropped him off at the emergency room.  Five hours later at 3:00 am I put the kids back in the car and went to pick him up.  He got 5 stitches.  

Movie night continues to be one of our favorite things to do each week.  We've been on a Disney kick lately.  I figure if we are possibly going to go to Disney World then I want the kids to know their Disney history.  We check out movies from the library and watch them as a family for movie night.  Then the kids watch the movies ad nauseum for a week until it's time to return the movie and get a new one.  Movies we've watched lately include:

Lady and the Tramp - The kids loved the dogs.  Derrick laughed and pointed to the TV screen every time he saw Lady as a puppy.  Charlotte and Lydia now play a game called "Rat in the baby's room."  They put their baby dolls somewhere and then tell me "Rat in baby's room."  I tell them to go get it, and so they growl and pretend to fight it.  Then they say, "It's gone."  and I say "Good Doggie."

Dumbo - We probably watched this movie 4 times a day, and it NEVER EVER got old.  I'm serious, I loved it every time.  It helps that it is only an hour long.  Dumbo reminds me a lot of Derrick.  He doesn't say a lot, but you know what he wants, and he's super cute.  

We have a little Dumbo book that we read all the time, so the girls were familiar with the story.  They loved seeing the movie version.  Sometimes they would get the book out and look at it while watching the movie.  They'd say, "mean boys, Mom see." And point to the picture in the book during that scene.  

I got to the point where I could watch the whole "Baby Mine" part and not cry - almost.  There is a little moment right at the beginning where Dumbo cries and buries his head in his mother's trunk.  I always imagined him saying, "I've had such a hard time." And my own tears would start falling (I'm crying right now, if you can believe it.)      

The Little Mermaid - I thought the girls would love this movie, but they didn't get that into it.  I guess a teenage girl falling in love is a little foreign to them.  We watched it the day before Father's day and I think King Triton is a great example of how NOT to be a Dad.  

The other day the girls and I had a little quiet time while Derrick was asleep.  My back hurt so all I did was read while the girls played.  They ended up putting me and their babies to bed.  Here they are reading scriptures and singing songs to their babies.

They would then take turns going to the door and singing one last song.  Lydia sang, "I'm tired of God" instead of "I'm a child of God" when it was her turn. I guess I use the word tired a lot more than the word child.

Here is Lydia reading to her baby. The girls like to read the stories themselves sometimes. The girls have never seen Cinderella (we haven't found it on the library shelf yet) but they know the story from the countless times I've read it to them. The other day I heard Lydia say, "It's okay, I have the other one" exactly how I say it.

 Here is more sand table fun. We play out on the patio every afternoon. The kids' goal is apparently to put all the water from the pool into the table and all the sand into the pool. 

And if you haven't seen enough of the sand table yet, here is a video of the kids playing with it. 

We usually go to the park every morning between 7:30 and 9:00. Derrick will run to the door if I even say the word park. My only rule is that everyone has to be wearing clothes before we can leave. 

I'm so glad Derrick can walk to the park on his own.  Going to the park is a lot easier now than it was in the days where I had to carry the girls down the apartment stairs, put them in the stroller, and then walk a few blocks to the park.  The girls like to bring their babies and or bears to the park.  

 Once we are at the park Derrick likes to spend a few minutes swinging.

 Charlotte and Lydia always go to the twirly slide and climb up and down that for a long time. They like to climb it barefoot so I don't even bother putting shoes on them any more. The park is so close I even go barefoot.

 When Derrick is done swinging his next activity is to put bark chips onto the steps of the playground.

 And then he inevitably will climb up all the stairs and go up to where the girls are playing. He never wants to slide down though. Once he reaches the top he turns around and wants to come down. I've been teaching him how to walk down the stairs.

 Here are all the kids in what they call "Lydia's Home." Charlotte's home is another part of the playground. (For some reason we didn't go over there the day that I brought my camera.) 

Charlotte showing off a trick.

 Today there were some rocks on the playground and the girls pretended they were food. 

When we got home from the park I did some laundry. The girls told me they would put these blankets away when we got them out of the dryer. I gave them the blankets and moved on to something else. A few minutes later I went to check on them and found them playing in the office. From what I overheard this was an "airpain." 

Potty training is  . . . . . continuing. It's a process of one step forward and two steps back. But every time I want to give up the girls surprise me with showing that it is sticking. Little victories include poop in the potty chair, asking to use the toilet at church, and peeing in the toilet at home. I wont talk about the little setbacks. I made this sign for our bathroom to help me feel better about what a disaster zone it has turned into. I really should put it on the front door.

A few weeks ago I impulse bought cloth diapers. Money was part of the decision. But the real reason is I'm just sooooooo sick of diapers. I figured I'd change things up a bit. The diapers arrived and I hid the last of our disposables. Technically the diapers are just for Derrick, but the girls are trying them out too. Once I've used these diapers for a while I'll let you know what I think. Right now I'll just leave it my review as "I have them" and "cloth diapers and potty training are pretty close together gross-wise." 

Derrick gave up bottles the exact same day I decided that I was going to wean him off of them. (In some ways he still is my ever-considerate baby.) I had Brandon do the honors of washing the bottles out one last time. Then I had him hide them from me. After 2 1/2 years of always keeping track of bottles I am finally free! Of course now I have cloth diapers to keep track of so I guess I'm still stuck washing something once a day. But at least I don't have to wash the diapers out by hand. 

So there you have the highlight reel of my life the past few weeks. And it really is a good life. But don't be fooled, in between all these fun things are some terribly tedious things that make me want to quit. Good thing the kids are cute or else I might.