Not Fun

I know I've told you over the past three years many of the things that are very fun about having twins.  You want to know something not fun? 

Imagine two, mostly potty trained three-year-olds.  Mostly potty trained?

Yes.  Mostly so.  Infectious diarrhea has a way of changing things. 

Opening The Pool

DJ (finally) opened the pool!  Well, by opening the pool, I mean he rolled back the cover, skimmed away the leaves, added a few inches of water, turned on circulation and rolled the cover back over it.  It's not nearly the production it was at the old house. 

 Those kids could not wait to play in the water.  Faith and Cawood were so bummed out they couldn't get in and swim yet (Eva probably won't want to swim in August.  Sigh.) 

Awesome!

Peyton

I was downtown the other day and happened to drive past Lucas Oil Stadium.  I poked my hand up out of the moon roof and took this picture to show you, just in case you haven't been downtown recently to see for yourself. 

We're going to miss him in Indy. 

Baby Chicks

I had a client call me out of no place, for no reason more than just to let me know she had some baby chicks.  She was wondering if Faith would be interested in coming over to see the little squirts.  Of course she was! We jumped in the car and drove over that afternoon. 

Faith held the chicks for a few minutes, then ran off to play on the farm (actually she ran off to see the bunnies - this child is still very focused on the bunny she is hoping to get for her sixth birthday.) 

I can remember playing on Grandma Gert's and Grandpa Jake's farm.  There's just something fun about being a little kid running free on farm land.  Good times. 

Jamaica Mon

I think it was last Thursday night when DJ said something about the Rediske's going to the Cayman islands with DJ's "boss" Roger and his wife Deb.  (Roger doesn't like being called DJ's boss, and if you get into the technicalities of it all, he kind of is and kind of isn't all at the same time. )  Awesome for them!  All four of them have grown children, so they can do such things much more easily than we can.  We didn't give it much more thought, except to think they'll have a great time.

DJ called me from work Friday and asked me if I'd like to go to the Cayman islands with Roger, Deb, and the Rediske's.  Uh. . . really?  A weekend full of arranging schedules with grandparents followed, and here we are: planning for a trip at the end of the month to . . .Jamaica!  I'm not sure how that happened, but what was a trip to the Cayman's on Friday is now a trip to Jamaica.  Either way, it's the same to us: beach, summer fun and tropical drinks . . . that's pretty awesome, right? 

OK, I know you are all wondering: Yes, I'll be a mess.  I'll miss my kids terribly, horribly, DJ's even told me I'll be absolutely no fun on this trip and he thinks I'll drag everyone down, . . . I don't like leaving my kids for any reason.  I called my mom and sister and they both advised me to go; they both said the kids will be fine.  Actually, last night I went to bed thinking I'd send DJ on the trip and I'd stay home with the kids because of some scheduling stuff, but we worked it out and now everything is in motion.  Yay!  The kids will be staying in our house, on schedule, with Dwayne and Robin the first half of the week and my parents the second half.  Faith shouldn't miss any school. 

Let's see how quickly the feds can get us new passports. . .

On Twins And Potty Training

First off, my "cold turkey" potty training of the twins was a huge success.  Just like with Faith, their third birthday came, passed and just like that they were potty trained without too much effort.  Win. 

Every so often Cawood will still have an accident, but it's always when he's throwing a huge toddler size three temper tantrum and he just loses control.  Understandable. 

Jessy told me a potty training story that I hadn't witnessed yet before:  She heard one of the twins upstairs using the bathroom so she went up to investigate.  Eva had pooped in the potty and there she hunched, butt-up in the bathroom,with Cawood doing the honors: wiping. 

Gross. 

Eva's Hands

Another one of those mommy moments I can't stop thinking about and don't want to forget as the years roll past. . .

I was laying on the couch reading my kindle and Eva was chatterboxing in my ear.  I have absolutely no idea what that child was talking about. . . chatter. . . talk. . . chatter, chatter, chatter. . .

Suddenly she threw her little hands in my face, palms flat, fingers extended and said, "and my hands are so small!" 

I sure wish I had paid attention to the first 98% of what she was trying to tell me. 

Faith's Special Outfit

Can you see Faith's purple chin?  I can absolutely, 100% remember doing this as a kid, except my purple chin was a perfect, very dark, very well-defined circle.  Everyone wondered how I did it, and it caused quite the concern, until my best friends mother took one look at me and said, "That kid's been sucking on a cup."  Better yet, I was sucking on a cup in the bathtub, so was able to really get some suction going.

Faith's chin was really not so bad.  She had been sucking on 1/2 an Easter egg and accomplished what you see below.  That's not too big a deal, but when she went to school the next day she was sent to the nurse for evaluation.  That's hilarious, in my opinion.  I forgot to fire off an email to Mrs. Harvey warning her about the chin.  I suppose Mrs. Harvey is just too new at this kindergarten thing (it's only her second year) and she's just never seen it before.  I know she'll see another purple chin if she sticks with kindergarten, and she'll recognize it next time.  Faith loves the nurse, so no big deal whatsoever.

When I say she's "me again," I'm not kidding.  This child is literally, "Cathy, part two."  

Do you remember when Grandma sent me the picture of the outfit she made Faith?  It came in the mail Tuesday night:

In case you don't remember, the story is:  On Faith's last report card she was graded with an "I"for "inconsistent" in appropriate coloring.  A copy of a Teddy Bear Faith had colored was attached to the report card.  The bear had hearts colored rainbow striped.  Grandma saw that picture and decided that she quite liked the way in which Faith had colored those hearts, and she transferred the picture to a T-shirt.   Faith had ripped a hole in a pair of old jeans, so Grandma patched them with rainbow hearts to match the bear.

Of course, Faith wore the outfit to school the very next day.  85 degrees, jeans and all.  I initially had her in a nice lightweight summer dress, but she cried until I let her change.  OK kid, just be hot. 

The Pool

DJ's been itching all winter for the pool guys to install the fence and be done with the pool.  We had the most mild winter in memory (maybe in the record books) and so I had to listen to DJ say about every third day, "It would sure be a nice day to install a fence. . ."  It's been at the top of his list since October

FINALLY!  The guys came out this week and got it done. 

I told DJ to smile, he's been waiting a long time for this fence.

 DJ chose not to enclose the back portion of the pool, as the retention wall technically serves as a fence/barrier.  Here, you can see how  the fence encloses the space on both sides and then opens up for a clear view of the woods.

A view from the back yard looking up:

Pinned

At last week's Daisy meeting, our troop was officially pinned as members of the Girl Scouts.  Most troops chose to do this last fall, right after the school year started.  Our troop leader thought it would be a nice gesture to the girls to wait until March, when GSUSA was celebrating it's 100th anniversary.  I think she had a great idea!  Our girls were pinned into Girl Scouts 100 years after the birth of the organization, to the week (but not the day.)

No, Faith did not have her ears pierced.  She is wearing little stick-ons.  Funny side note: Aunt Barb once told Faith that when she decides she'd like them pierced, Aunt Barb would like to be the one to take her.  Faith told her, "OK, but that will be never." 

Here are Kate and Faith, holding their petals (you'll see soon what those petals were for.)  Kate's mom is our troop leader and she's been great with the girls, Faith loves her (and Faith loves Kate.)  I think Faith and Kate look a little bit alike:

Here is Faith reciting her portion of the Girl Scout Law for the ceremony.  She then turned around and pinned her yellow petal to the daisy board (Troop leader Heather is dressed in blue, with little baby Calvin tucked up inside, waiting for summer.) Camdyn's mom (assistant troop leader) is behind the daisy board, wearing red.  We love Angel, and hope she'll agree to be troop leader if Calvin makes it impossible for Heather to do so again next year:

Camdyn, front and center with Kate, Faith, Angel, Gracie and Destyne behind her.

 This is the Daisy the girls were making, while reciting the Girl Scout Law: 

Afterwards the girls celebrated with a Daisy cupcake cake.  Faith chose a yellow center. 

That's it!  My child is an official Daisy Girl Scout.

Look What Happens. . .

. . . when you give Grandma an old pair of ripped jeans!

The twins and I were down at Grandma's house last week and I knew she was working on a project and she needed some old jeans.  I wasn't sure if Faith's were big enough but she had ripped a hole in the knee of a pair, so I brought them down. 

I gave the jeans to Grandma and told her she was welcome to use them for her project (or, if she could put a patch on the knee, that'd be great too.)  These jeans have been through Mackenzie, Madeline and Faith, so it's really not a big deal that they ripped: three girls later, these things happen. 

Do you notice anything?  Grandma copied the rainbow hearts and the teddy bear from the picture I posted the day Faith's report card came home.  It's so adorable!! Who would have thought?  Other than Grandma, I mean. 

I can't wait until Grandma gives this to Faith this weekend!

Mrs. Harvey Calls

Have I told you how much we love Faith's teacher?  We just absolutely adore her, which is a good thing because after the public school teachers I had myself, I was dreading the whole thing with my kids.  Mrs. Harvey has made kindergarten a joy.  Any and all frustrations I have with Faith's school actually tread higher up than those individuals that work within the walls of North Elementary:  I just think we have too much regulation.  The people within her school are wonderful.

We love Mrs. Harvey.  So much so, that after all is said and done, after Faith has "graduated" from kindergarten and when final report cards are out, I'm planning on emailing the principal to let her know how much Mrs. Harvey has meant to our family and how much she's helped Faith grow (and by the way, wink wink, if she could somehow place one of the twins in Mrs. Harvey's class in 2014 . . . )

I was in Faith's classroom a few weeks ago and Mrs. Harvey explained to me the level reading system this school uses.  The kids need to be able to read at level "B" to graduate from kindergarten.  At that point she told me Faith had passed her level "C" test, but there was no level "D."  She had not yet passed level "E," so Mrs. Harvey explained that Faith was considered a "D," even though there really is no "D."

Anyway, Mrs. Harvey called me this afternoon and she was just about to burst out of the phone.  She was so excited.  Faith and Isaac are always paired together because they are the two best readers in the class.  Isaac was out sick today, so Faith and Mrs. Harvey were one-on-one.  Faith picked up a level H book and read it to Mrs. Harvey, and then she read it to the whole class.  Mrs. Harvey said the class was in stunned silence before little Andrew said, "Wow Faith!  Those are some really big words you're reading." 

Mrs. Harvey was explosively happy with my kid.  She could not believe that my little five-year-old is able to fully and completely read a level H reader.  Then, she went on and told me (for about the 100th time) how much fun Faith is to have in class.  "Faith's a blast.  She makes me laugh every single day.  I'm going to miss her so much next year."  That's actually the one compliment that makes me swell with pride every time: Please tell me how personable my kids are; how much fun they are to have around.  I love hearing that. 

Of course this makes me want to order her some J and K books, but we're moving in the right direction. 

Shorts: Yes. Slime: No

 I received this email from Faith's principal today:

Due to the unseasonably warm weather, we are lifting the dress code policy
of “no shorts”. Students may begin to wear shorts should you choose to
allow them.

I didn't know there was such a policy. I guess I theoretically shouldn't have sent her to school wearing this today (bike shorts underneath the purple dress.):

Now that we are on that subject, let's explore it a little further. Faith is *MY* child. Before today, she has not worn shorts to school since last fall, when it was warm outside. However, I am her mother and shouldn't I be able to make those decisions for her? Now, if the school had uniforms, that would be a completely different situation. But we don't have uniforms.

Furthermore, let's talk about school lunch: Did you see the press release on "Pink Slime?" Google it. Better yet, look for the Jamie Oliver YouTube clip on pink slime. Delicious, eh? That's what is going in my kid's lunch. Or was, anyway. I've started packing her lunches for her now that I know all about pink slime. 

I was at Faith's school during lunch a week or two ago and she was eating a chicken sandwich.  That was my first hint: I was so grossed out by the texture of that chicken.  It was very obviously not chicken.  I don't know what it was, but I'm guessing there was very little bird in that patty. Two or three days later I saw the clip about the pink slime and I immediately thought about that chicken patty.  It wasn't pink slime in the patty, but it certainly wasn't anything good.

So let's back up again: Pink Slime and shorts. School lunches are widely touted as "healthy" and I've been given a list of foods considered "inappropriate" for Faith's packed lunch, most items I wouldn't send anyway. But my point is I should be able to feed her whatever I choose! I should be able to send two snicker's bars and a coke, if that's what I want her to eat. 

Like I told my parents, I don't care if the government serves our kids junk for lunch - I'll just pack Faith's. What I do care about is how they tell us how healthy it is when it's really full of disgusting byproducts.  Furthermore, it irks me that they are telling me what I can and can't feed my kid, while they are spooning byproduct chili over her plate - meat that is even too low of quality for dog food.  That's not gonna fly with this momma.

(by the way - that brings me to a whole different subject - we should all be very careful about the dog/cat food products we are purchasing. . . but I'll leave that one alone for now.)

She's been mostly buying lunch this year, because I've always thought her lunches were at least as nutritious as those they offered me as a student. I certainly didn't expect them to be less so than 20 years ago.

I can understand completely why so many mom's of my generation are moving toward home-schooling. And it's a sad day when you figure out that those things that were good enough for us, really aren't good enough for our kids. 

Beautiful Night!

It was such a beautiful night last night that DJ promised the kids I'd take them to the park after I got home from work.  When I arrived home at 6pm, I had three little ones begging to go to the playground.  Could a momma possibly say no to three little faces, just begging to go play outside?  'Course not.  We went to the park. 

Oh, Lord.  How I love these girls. 

Would you like to know why Cawood is not wearing socks? Because a half-hour prior he took his shoes off inside the slightly damp, slightly muddy ground.  It wasn't even enough to creep up on the sides of their shoes, you'll notice, but it certainly wasn't dry ground.  He ran around on that wet ground for ten minutes while I chased him and barked orders to "find your shoes!"  Of course, his socks were not wearable. 

Shake It

I know I've told you that DJ does his shake-weight almost every night, and it's really working.  I haven't mentioned that the kids LOVE to shake with him.  It's family time.  Whoever is around will grab something to shake. 

The other night I walked into the basement to find DJ and Eva shake-weighting together.  By the time I grabbed the camera, she had already put down her own little red (2 pound) dumb bell, but you can get the idea:  Shirt off, shake-weighting with her daddy. 

Hilarious.

Three Year Checkup

Well, now that the twins are officially three years old, I took them in for their three-year checkup. 

Officially, Cawood is 34 pounds, 4 oz (76%); and 38 inches tall (66%)

Eva is 31 pounds, 4 oz (51%) and 37 inches (51%)

For comparison purposes, I checked the blog and Faith's measurements at three were:  29.6 pounds (50%) and 38.5 inches (90%.)  I'm noticing a little discrepancy in the percentages between Faith and Eva, but who knows.  Different doctors, different ways of reading the same chart.  Or, maybe it's right and there really is a 40% difference in that inch and a half between three-year-old Faith and three-year-old Eva.  Either way, Eva is shorter and chubbier than Faith.  I can already see it in her thighs.  She has her momma's thighs.  Poor girl.

Healthy kids. 

Of course, my kids are totally healthy and completely brilliant!  No problems there. 

 Want to know something funny/odd?  Do you remember when I had to switch pediatricians because our old pediatrician wasn't willing to split vaccines?  She threw a little tantrum and told me if kids aren't on her vaccine schedule, she isn't willing to see them at all?  At the twins two year checkup, Dr. Walters noticed they had fallen behind on one of their hepatitis vaccines because of the great pediatrician debacle/switch.  Anyway, she asked me to confirm the hepatitis thing and I did: twins are off schedule for it. 

I went in expecting her to give them that vaccine.  Former pediatrician made sure every single vaccine went in to every single kid.  I was expecting more of the same.  I even had Eva and Cawood all geeked up for their "shot."  Dr. Walters totally brushed me off (but she did it kindly.)  Her answer to the hepatitis question was, "These kids are low risk.  We'll worry about it later."

Awesome answer, doc! 

Cookie Sales are D-O-N-E!

Yay, rah.  That's all done.  Faith's Daisy troop sold 2,596 boxes of cookies this year and collected $1427.80 for her troop.  We also collected $7658.20 for the council. 

I sure wish that was divided a litte more in favor of the kids doing all the work, but I'm new at all this and Miki reassures me that that council money is actually very well spent, so I'll have to take her word at it. 

Anyway, I'm done with the cookie mom thing.  It was an experience.   I'm glad I did it, but I won't be doing it again (unless that one mother is not involved in Girl Scouts some year in the future, then maybe . . . oh, talk to me in 3 years, for Eva.)

Decorating The House

For every significant holiday the kids and I decorate the house.  I know I've told you before that I purchase decorations for 90% off during after holiday sales.  I have thousands of dollars of items for every holiday that I've collected over the years for maybe $200-300.  The kids love it.  I love it too.

Well, the other night we all decided it was time to decorate for St. Patrick's day and we pulled out the big green bin.  I was hanging the wreath over the fireplace, garland over the mantel, setting out little green candy dishes, etc, etc. 

Eva asked to help.  I handed her a little green shamrock and told her to find a place to hang it. 

"Where?" She asked me.

"I don't care, just hang it anyplace you can find a spot." 

The next morning I discovered her spot.

Sleeping Children

Last night as I was making my final checks on the kids before bed I thought they looked too sweet.  I had to take pictures.  Here's Little Miss Faith at 10pm:

And of course, my twinnies.  DJ thinks we shouldn't let the twins sleep together, but they are three, twins belong together, and they actually go down better together than apart.  It used to be that they would have a party in Cawood's room late into the night, but now they are used to sleeping together and they go down much easier.  Besides, just take a look at this picture and tell me I should separate them. 

Awwwww. . . .

Waiting on Eva

I remember when Eva was born, she was screaming.  Not a little bit.  Not the first little baby cries of life you would expect.  Eva was screaming.  She was telling us she was displeased, and that's stood constant these past three years.  Eva screams.  Eva cries.  Eva tells us what she does not like.  She is not shy about that; not one bit.

DJ and I have been talking about this a little bit lately, and I'm not sure what to do about it.  Eva's screams have turned into demands for us to wait on her hand and foot. 

She'll tell anyone available, "Go get my dream blanket. . . Bring me my pet pet (pillow pet). . . Carry me downstairs. . . I want my milk (it's sitting about three feet from her). . ."  She believes the other four members of this family should behave as if they are her personal wait staff. 
I'm not sure what to do about it, really.  We've been consistent and firm with all three children from the moment they were born: if you are capable of doing something for yourself, you are expected to do so. 

She makes her demands, we tell her, "no" and explain how she can do it for herself.  She screams.  We put her in time out and she stays there until she's done screaming. 

DJ pointed out this won't be fun during the teenage years.  Ideas?  We're firm, but so is she.

***********
On potty training:  I cold-turkey trained the twins on their birthday.  They are doing great!  We're about at 95% right now.  Cawood still struggles to poop in the potty, but Eva has nailed it these past few days.  Although, now that I think about it, I'm surprised she hasn't asked us to poop for her too.

Report Card Time!

Faith came home with her second report card today and she was "Proficient" in everything except for a few "Inconsistents" as follow:

• Can color appropriately
• Is able to print letters
• Is able to print numbers
• Honesty - tells the truth

The first three I'm not too worried about.  Regarding the coloring, Faith can color.  Sometimes she chooses to color the sky green, or a heart rainbow striped.  It's not "correct" but again, it's not one of those things I care about and to be frank, I'm surprised they grade the kids on it.  She can color but sometimes she chooses to do so with a vision different than the rest of us.  I don't care and I don't think it matters.  Here's an example from her trimester exam:

I know my kid and I know she can write.  I'm not worried about her, she just doesn't 'get it' with the guiding lines.  You may disagree with me on this, but I quite simply don't think it makes much of a difference as to what she will ultimately do with her life.

Here's an example.  The following is another snapshot from the trimester exam. 

Comments from Mrs. Harvey include:

• Faith needs to work on letter formation.  She needs to work on using the lines to help form the letters. 
• Faith continues to read above grade level and she is reading short vowel words without having to sound them out.  (Side note from mom:  Test her on more than short vowel words and you'll see she can do more than that.) 
• Faith is a joy to have in class.  She is a hard worker and gets along well with others. 
• Faith doesn't always tell me what happened in situations where she thinks she is going to get into trouble.

Now.  For that last item of inconsistency. . . honesty.  Yes, that's a big deal and all I can say is I'm working on it.  Faith doesn't necessarially lie, but she walks a very careful line between telling the truth and not telling the whole truth.  Usually if she thinks she is in trouble, she just turns off completely and will not talk to you.  When Faith decides not to talk to you, there's just nothing you can do to get information from her. 

Anyway, I'm ok with everything except the honesty bit.  For the schoolish bit of school, she's fine.  She's bright.  She can hold her own.  She'll be able to do anything in life she chooses, and isn't that the point of school in the first place?