Go, Dog. Go!

I seriously read this book about 37 times yesterday. Is it a great work of literature? Is it a children's classic? No, it's Go, Dog. Go! Cole's current favorite as you may have guessed. It is not even really a Dr. Suess book, just one for some reason is packaged like one. Who is P.D. Eastman? The puncuation on it, come on?!? It should not be Go, dogs. Go! Say it out loud. It sounds funny. It should be "Go dogs, go!" (how I usually read it) Or "Go dog! Go!" And since I've read it so many times I feel I have the right to complain about it a little more. The illustration, I have nothing to say about the pictures because I am not an artist, but the 2 front driving dogs change color from one page to the next. No really, if you actually have this book in your child's library too, go look at it. The taller driving blue dog with the yellow cap and the yellow shorter dog with the blue baseball hat switch colors while keeping their height and attire. Actually, I guess that this the editor that should have caught that one. Anyways, am I a terrible mom if I hide it for a few weeks?

Rocks

My almost 5 yr-old had a significant trantrum today because I threw away a rock she had brought in the house. Yes, you read it correctly. A rock. And don't think we don't have a big area of them in the backyard. I had no sympathy for this one.

Triplets

My long-time friend and maid of honor NA had the privilege of giving birth to triplets. (for all who wants to know they were naturally conceived, no fertility drugs needed in that house) Thanks to my awesome husband I got to go out and visit her on a weekend her husband would be out of town. Now, she also has 2 other pre-schoolers so it is an extra busy house now that the triplets are home. Mathew, Morgan and Cameron were about 6 weeks old when I was visiting and still not to their due date. But they were home and healthy.

It is different world with triplets. Forget how you scheduled things with 1 baby, because it's a full time job. Luckily, my friend has the world's best mother and some help from a lot of other sources, because I think you'd go crazy if it was just one couple. You don't even ATTEMPT to sleep at night. No, really. You pick which nights you can do and you just watch a DVD and go from one child to the next. You take turns with who stays up which night and hope for a few hours of sleep the next day. They are doing great with 3-4 hour schedules, but by the time one is fed and diapered and back to sleep, another one is ready. And you just hope 2 don't want to eat at the same time. And you're just happy you aren't caring for JA or RA because they are in bed! This is almost funny considering my friend and her husband are both BIG on sleep. Good thing for caffine and a family and church that is willing to help.

Grammy and Grampa T

Here are a few pictures from Grammy and Grandpa T visiting on their spring break. The trip seemed to go by fast. Cole still hasn't stopped saying, "Papa? Mimi?" Especially when I grab the platic plates or when he talks on a play phone, "papa?"

Online check in

I have suddenly become an advocate of on line check in. I had never done it before and never saw a reason. I am usually flying with kids so I'm usually checking in baggage and when you have a lap child you need to ask them to print you a ticket anyways, so I never saw a reason to do it. We came back from AZ on Easter Sunday. Not only was this a holiday, this was the end of spring break and a week that had bad weather which canceled some flights. We checked in for our flight 1 1/2 hrs early as usual, but we didn't have seat #'s printed on our tickets. Turns out they oversold the flight by quite a bit and we were part of the unlucky group that didn't make the flight. It was so frustrating to have PAID for a ticket, but not get to fly. We waited around for the next flight, 4 hrs later and attempted stand by. Not a chance. The playground picture is us attempted to let the kids move around while waiting for our stand by flight (on the not so large airport "play area"). The next TICKETED flight for the Swanks was two days later at 6:45 a.m. Did I mention that my parents are waiting at our house for us to get home to spend their spring break with us?

So we got someone to come pick us up, barrowed a carseat from US Air (not my favorite airline) and went to the Bakers for the night. My kids barrowed pjs and then clothes the next morning while their shirts were rewashed. We hit Walmart for toothbrushes, underware and deodorant. Chad woke up at 5a.m. to start calling and somehow got himself a ticket on the same flight for Monday. This meant he had to call work and go fax in his homework because he couldn't drop it off.

We decided to split up and let him take Cole and Makaila and I would go stand by. We head out for the same flight, a day later. We see the same desk clerk that knows we got the shaft the day before. Chad and Cole get on the plane. After it's all loaded they call one stand by. They call another. Then they call Swank and say they only have one ticket. We tell them Makaila will go if they can sit her next to Chad. Not a problem for her. I'm now freaking out a little because my whole family is on the plane and I want to go home too, but there is still a slight hope. There is a 5 minute hold on 7 seats from a connecting flight. But then I start seeing people rush to the gait. I think I'm toast, but I didn't go anywhere. Last minute they point at me and say, "come on". Someone from that connecting flight must have been too slow. I'm going through the tunnel and it felt like a Rocky movie. The desk clerks are in the tunnel giving me high fives and "you got on!". In my head I could hear the crowds roaring. The only better sound was walking by Chad and my children and hearing, "Mommy!".

AZ spring break

We spent our spring break in AZ. These are a few of the great pics we got from getting the cousins all together. Good times were spent getting ice cream, hunting Easter eggs, watching planes take off, several playgrounds, and riding a train. (Since I'm like a month late in blogging this, you get the short version)

pre-teen?

I got my first "whatever" tonight. It didn't have as much 'tude as I expect it to in years to come. We obviously didn't agree on something as we were cleaning up for bed tonight. . and out it came. "Whatever." That was followed by a quick, "I don't expect you to agree with me, but I do expect you to talk nicely to Mommy". Hmmm. . . hopefully we can avoid that now for at least another 5 years or so. Or at least 5 months?

Pancakes

I had to post these pictures. The pictures of Cole were taken on our recent trip to Arizona over Makaila and Chad's spring break. He was 19 months old. The pictures of Makaila were taken when she was just over 2 years old. I thought it was so interesting to get almost the same shot with both kids. Most of the time I don't think my kids look alike, but when you look at them like this, there sure are similarities. It is also interesting that Nana still uses the exact same tuperware for her pancake mixing!

Makaila lost her first tooth yesterday at school. I thought she'd loose it while I was out of town this weekend with the triplets, but she didn't. Before going to school it was bearly hanging on by a thread. I asked her if she wanted me to take it out for her and she didn't like that idea. She said she was walking down the hall wiggling it at school and it just came out in her hand. Her teacher put it in a bag for her. She was just so excited to put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Cole's words

In the last 2-3 weeks Cole has about doubled his vocabulary. Of course to the outsider you may not think he is saying anything other than mama and dada (his 2 favorite words to say), but when you are around him enough you will realize there is so much more. "ba-ball" is basketball which he will say anytime he sees a basketball, a beach ball, a basketball hoop, a ball on his shirt, and basketball played on TV. This is not to be mixed up with "bi boy" which is what he says when Makaila asks him if he is a big boy. He says "baby" and likes to point them out in public, even if they are close to his size but riding in a stroller. He likes to say "bubble" and looks for them everywhere - filling the bath tub, fountains, foamy soap, spit etc.

He can say "wa-wer" or WATER, "wowwy" which is FROGGY. He can say "lamby" for Makaila's stuffed animal. He can say "pop" and "papa". He can sometimes say something that is close to "sissy" for Makaila (but it sounds a little like kitty). He can say boger (spelling?), which he said clearly pointing to his noise today. He is able to say sorry (of course this has only been said to Makaila after pushing her). He whispers "wow" and "roar" (funny he whispers those, hun?). He can say "me!" but in a good way. We like to say things like, "who wants to go to the park?" or "who likes bread?" and we all raise our hands and say "me!".

He does sign language for thank you, please, and more. He is a very good pointer. He "un"'s and points to tell me about what he sees or that this object from our book is outside last we saw it. He points next to him when he wants me to sit or lay next to him. Which of course is very nice to know he wants me to be by him.