School

Yesterday was Erin's first day of Preschool, two days later than scheduled due to Tropical Storm Fay. She really liked it, but I was starting to question my decision to send her from 11-2pm as opposed to 8-11am. I had to strap all three kids in the car, unstrap them to take Erin in, put the other two back in and then take them out when we got home. And I had to do it all over again to pick her up (not fun with a kid that does everything when he wants to do it). It's not like I can just drop her off. No, I have to sign her in and leaving kids in the car would probably land me in jail or something. And of course Alex didn't take a nap until he finally conked out on a kitchen chair at 5:30.
Today was a much better day. I decided to take the "triple" stroller and walk to her school to drop her off. This eliminated the strapping in and out so many times and gave me 35 minutes of much needed exercise. The bonus? Alex and Marissa were both asleep when I got home so I got two hours of blessed peace. I mopped the floor, did some laundry and took a nice long shower. Ahhh... now that's how I imagined it. Hopefully I can get into a good routine like that this year.

Another thing is Marissa. She is an amazingly good baby (sleeps through the night, you can take her anywhere, doesn't have to be held all the time, etc.)... amazingly good until you try to give her a bottle. A good way to torture this kid it is to try to stick a piece of rubber in her mouth, bottle or pacifier. This is mainly a problem because I am supposed to begin school next week and will be gone for 6 hours at a time. I've been trying to give her one bottle a day. Every now and then after some resistance I get lucky, but mostly she refuses. Wish us all luck next week or I may have to drop out of school.
This morning I looked in her bed and she had her thumb in her mouth for the first time! I pulled it out several times but it kept finding its way back. I just don't want this to be a bad habit that will be hard to break, but some things I can't control either. What a rascal! We'll see what happens.

Universal Studios

This weekend we took a mini vacation to Orlando. The kids had fun sleeping on the floor of the hotel room and eating pizza on the bed. Simple things are so exciting for kids. We went to Universal Studios which I had never been to. Because we had one free ticket and the other two were cheap, we didn't mind not doing everything and leaving early because of our kids. We turned our double stroller into a triple stroller and it actually worked pretty well. Note how Alex is almost asleep and we are in line to buy our tickets! Oh, the joy of little kids.Jared's favorite part: Fear Factor Live. His least favorite part: Barney. You could probably reverse that for the kids.
Of course seeing the lovable characters was a highlight. Erin was so cute, she actually gave Curious George a huge hug (a big change from two years ago at Disney when she screamed when she saw any of the characters... they can be kind of freaky).
Alex loved this water slide. When Erin saw how wet he got on it she decided not to go, so Alex got to go a second time with me. Turns out she was the smart one because we were very wet all day. Her favorite ride was a train roller coaster that she was just barely tall enough to ride. I was amazed that she was brave enough to go on it, but she loved it.
We left in plenty of time to make the three hour drive and still get up for church at the crack of dawn the next day. Unfortunately three hours turned into six and a half hours due to a bulge in one of our tires. Long story short, we now have a nice new tire on the van. The kids were really good the whole time. It was a great little get-away!

New Post

I was reminded tonight that I haven't blogged for a while. I blame it on two reasons.

One, that I just joined Facebook and it is taking up my computer time. I have been amazed by how many old friends I have found in just a week. I really didn't even know I had that many friends. I have to say that social networking is really cool!

And two, my life seems a little mundane lately. I actually love being a mom and watching my kids learn and grow, but nothing of late seems blog worthy. I just don't want to bore people so please stop reading here if you don't want to get bored.

Marissa is now two months old and 10 lbs 9 oz. I could be wrong, but she seems like a really good and easy baby. She's smiling a lot and seems very happy. So we've decided to keep her.



Alex talks a lot. His nursery leaders were so amazed by how clearly he is speaking. It's no wonder, he thinks he is the same age as Erin. They are like Siamese twins after all. A few weeks ago I noticed that he was counting to ten and realized that Erin must have taught him since I never did. Hmm, so that's how it works. You just have to teach one kid and then you're good for the rest. Another funny thing was having him come up to me wagging his rear end and saying "shaking my booty, shaking my booty" (something he learned from Erin who learned it from her ghetto preschool last year... maybe it's good she's going somewhere new this year).

The other day I overheard Erin talking to her friend in the bathroom when she showed her one of the broken tiles on the floor (this is not the bathroom we tore up). Her friend asked how it broke and she said "Maybe my dad broke it, he's really good at breaking things!"

Boxes

So if anyone has ever wondered if they should buy toys for their kids, wonder no more. These kids have rooms full of toys and where to they spend the majority of their time? In a cardboard box. Well, two actually. This one is their boat, which sadly for them (and happily for us) is no longer sitting in the living room but is installed the the bathroom.Luckily they have this cardboard box which took five minutes for us to make into a house... also still in our living room.
So this one is not a box, but it's definitely not a toy either. By night it is the baby's bed, by day it is another boat for Erin and Alex. I thought this was a good representation of how they are connected at the hip. They spend every waking moment playing together. Erin says Alex is her "best brother" which isn't too hard for him to be as the only brother, but I think she means he's her best friend. I'm so grateful they like each other so much!
I had to throw in one of Marissa. She is a very happy baby. The other night she kept smiling in her swing when we turned on the music, the lights and got the fish going around in circles. Gotta love that swing. She's easily amused. Anyway, she seems to be pretty content with life and we all love her so much!
This week I have also made it my part time job to find a preschool for Erin next year. Seriously, I have spent so much time researching, calling and lugging my three kids around to visit different schools. What a dilemma! I will see one more tomorrow but I think I have found the perfect place for her that is really close, has a good schedule and seems to have a great teaching philosophy.