here I am!

Hello friends and family, here I am.  I occasionally remember I have a blog.  I try and keep you updated, but other things get in the way sometimes, apparently.  

Things are going pretty well.  I think I forgot to mention that we went to Ohio 2 weekends ago, or so..I think I've forgotten to blog quite a bit.  We went to Toledo at the beginning of May to visit Rick, Nikki, Noah and Bri, and that happened to happily coincide with my dear friend's bridal shower in Findlay.  So in our typical fashion, it was a fast but fun weekend.  Jesse was able to take all of Friday off, so we were able to take our time getting to Toledo, which was so nice not to be rushed to make it in before midnight.  When we leave for places after Jesse gets off work, it's a ridiculous dream to arrive anywhere by the girls' bedtime, so this was so much less stressful in that we could take our time.  We had a great time playing with Brennan's, and I had a great time at the shower celebrating Emily's upcoming wedding.  Of course, I barely took a single picture: also in my typical fashion when out places.  

We also left early enough on Sunday that we could kind of mosey home a bit, and stopped in at Easton so we could take the girls *cough Jesse cough* to the Lego store!  If anyone has ever taken a child into a toy store single handed, you know what I mean when you say I felt accomplished that we made it in and out with no temper tantrums.  Keeping that in mind, I felt like a superhero because I told Jesse to go have fun and take his time and I'd wrangle the girls.  So the girls and I built 3 mini figures, dug in the tub of bricks to play in and then left Jesse to buy our works of art and played at the fountain before heading home.  

Since then, we've been keeping busy.  We've been on a cleaning and organizing kick, which has been very refreshing to our house, and we're making progress.  Jesse has been working on our garden and getting that up built, planted and guarded by a fence.

The girls are doing great.  

Lily is getting so big and continually amazes me.  She has a few puzzles that she can do all by herself, which is impressive to me.  And while she has always liked putting her own shoes on, now she likes to do it "all by myself," which is fun to watch her grow and get them on the correct feet, but it's sad that she's already there and speaking correctly vs "all my byself."  Which I will greatly miss.

She has also been watching Justice League, which I enjoy.  Diana (Wonder Woman) is her favorite, "she's a princess."  My favorite conversation recently was about the dogs at the guard gate at the FBI center.  My answer to the question of why they were there wasn't sufficient ("to keep us safe and bad guys away"), so we tried a new tactic: the dogs are superheroes, and their super power is to smell bad guys.  She was a big fan of that answer, and asked if they could fly.  I think she gets it.

Emma is a trooper.  Not only did we kick her out of her crib and into a twin bed in December, uprooted her as the youngest in February, but we also took her pacifier away and have mostly potty trained her since then.  While I don't think she's fully there with going on the toilet, she's doing awesome.  I know my siblings love when I discuss these things, so you're welcome Joel and Jess.  She and Lily still love to love each other, are always playing together and that's how I want it.  However, we've also been getting a taste of breaking up fights and arguments between the two, and we're figuring out right along with them how to handle sharing, who had what first and discipline for tantrums.  Who knew having 3 kids all so close in age would be so exciting?  Since I refuse to buy duplicate sets of everything for the girls, they're quickly learning, and doing a great job, how to take turns and share.  

Emma cracks me up though, she's so similar to me.  And obviously I'm hilarious.

I tell the girls at the store to keep their hands in their pockets so they learn not to touch things.  Overall, this works ok, and Lily does a much better job at 3 than Emma is trying to do at almost 2, but we're getting there.  The other day, Emma was wearing a jacket at the store, and was having trouble keepings her hands to herself in the check out.  I told her to put her hands in her pockets, and she obeyed, and the next time I looked at her, she was reaching out to touch things through her jacket, hands still obediently in her pockets.  Clever girl.

Those two are hilarious together, and one minute, Lily will come crying out of their room that Emma is in her bunk at bedtime and the next minute, be crying because Emma won't come up into her bed.  Ah, 3 year old logic.  I can't wait until I have 3 little girls all trying to pile into the same bed.  

Kaylee is great.  We finally made it to her 2 month appointment...at 3 months...but she's looking great.  And big.  She was over 16 pounds and 26 inches long, which made her off the chart for height and in the 95ish percentile for weight.  Love my little chubbies.  Erin and I were discussing that we didn't have too much of an opinion on what newborns looked like, but we thought we'd like the small, petite variety.  This was of course until she and I started having little chunky babies with full heads of hair, and now we both agree, solid babies are our favorites.  We realize we're biased.

Poor Kaylee is still learning that her arms are connected to the rest of her: last night, she had a fistful of chunky cheek in her fist and ended up getting her finger in her eye and was screaming and upset without realizing that she was the cause of her own discomfort.  I couldn't stop laughing, Mom of the Year Award, thanks.

But Kaylee loves to wiggle, flail around, and yes, I realize she has a lot of hair.  Everywhere we go, she gets comments.  Fortunately, I must have a Crazy Momma Look about me because people mostly keep their hands off.  I guess they realize that if they touched my children, they'd likely walk (or crawl) away without their hand.  Ok, not really, but seriously, what's up with strangers touching babies?  Obviously my children are adorable, but come on.

We also get so many comments like, "you sure have your hands full!" regularly.  Yes, I certainly do.  It's incredibly stressful and taxing to keep a constant eye on 3 little girls 3 years old and younger, and it's only going to get increasingly difficult when Kaylee is walking.  Yes, I'm busy.  Yes, I'm tired.  One kind lady noticed how the girls were keeping me on my toes and commented on it and said, "But you're still smiling!"  Yes, I try to do that most of all.  I'm having fun, tantrums and all.  Those obviously are miserable, but we get past them.  I have two arms and 3 kids, immediate obedience is expected and demanded here, and that's how the girls and I survive when we go grocery shopping while Jesse is at work.  That, and also lots of smiles and an increasing amount and need for patience.

I can't think of too much else to report.  I had stories to share, but since I didn't write ideas down as they came, they're gone.  I updated my pictures, go check them out here!