The Third Child Syndrome

In our case, it is the third child. I presume in many other households, that do not have twins, it would be the second child. Not really sure if it is a syndrome or not, it just sounded good.

Today we are talking about our third child, Spencer. He is a very observant and persistent little bugger. And well, we think he is darn cute too.

This boy knows exactly when he hasn't been given fair and equal treatment. He has eagle eyes and can tell when there is something on the table that he hasn't been offered. He then begins grunting, like we are supposed to be able to decode it. If we don't respond appropriately or in a timely manner, he takes matters into his own hands. He is so much like Ellie in this regard! Fortunately Ellie is at an age where she can clearly request things and go about helping herself in a relatively safe manner. Spencer though, not so much. You can't turn your back for a second without the threat of him climbing out of his highchair and walking onto the table to reach whatever object he feels that he needs.

He also has had the pleasure of experiencing things far sooner than the girls ever did. We could have things, like dip, in front of the girls and they didn't seem to care or need it. Spencer needs dip. He likes dip. Carie was nearly mortified to find out that "I" had given him dip. She reminded me that the girls surely didn't get dip until they were almost four. Okay, well I don't know when the girls first had dip. It was well before the age of four (which they won't be for another week), but also well past the age of one.

But, I proclaim... The boy knows how to use dip, mostly. That is, until the remaining dip becomes smeared over everything within reach. That would be the mostly part that Carie has legitimate issue with. That is the part that makes us want to remove all dip from the house. Unfortunately, I don't think that tactic would set well with the girls. Especially Ellie who dips everything, literally!

Oh yeah, he has had many other things that the girls wouldn't dream of getting at his young age. But alas, he is the third child.

However, this past weekend I did put my foot down!

As we were preparing to leave on a road trip, the girls and I ran out to get a few things. On our way out the door Mommy made a request for "chocolate covered round things". I guess that was her code for peanut M&M's, hoping that the girls wouldn't figure it out. Surely they didn't, since I didn't. After further explanation the proper item was added to my list. How I was supposed to distract the girls while in the candy aisle selecting such an item escapes me. So, they totally helped pick out the perfect bag. They then took turns carrying it through the rest of the store and onto the belt at the checkout. They of course were interested in sharing such a treat while we were driving. Carie carefully and discretely distributed a few to each of us. She was being so so careful to keep the bag and its contents hidden. But eagle eyes spotted something he wanted. He couldn't have known what they were, but he wanted them. He began grunting at us and escalating his anger. I said absolutely not, he does not get peanut M&M's. Thank goodness they had peanuts in them or I may just have caved. He ended up thoroughly enjoying a granola bar instead.

The girls decided to "save" their M&M's for the party. When we arrived they took their cups with them, but they never ended up eating the candy. Wouldn't ya know, Spencer later spotted a cup with M&M's in them and he looked at me as if to say that he knew we were hiding something. I quickly got his attention directed elsewhere and I popped down the remaining candy pieces. Sacrifices, I know! He then discovered the empty cup, looked in it, looked at me, and grunted.

Birthday Shopping

Turns out we are doing some birthday shopping for folks other than ourselves.

The upside, we get to put the stuff together before hand. A key element when you consider the given assembly instructions and two four year old girls hovering over you with pent up excitement anticipating the precise moment that they will be able to use "the (insert toy name) that they have always wanted". We also get to avoid the drama over who's is assembled first.

Mom & Dad... here is a sneak preview of what you are getting the girls!

The assembly of these scooters wasn't all that bad, once you decoded their horrible instructions and beautiful diagram.

The diagram clearly labeled the footplate, frame, front fork, handlebar, and "pouch (attached to tbar)". Hey, I am just quoting the instructions! The pouch came attached. I didn't have to do a darn thing with it.

The important pieces, you know the one's that hold it all together, like the bolt, bushings, and washer were all jumbled together. They could have had one giant arrow for all three pieces and it would have been equally helpful.

But, I figured it out... mostly. We weren't ever able to find the "minimum insertion mark on the handlebar". The handlebar is on and I figured we would need to adjust it once the girls are standing on them anyway.

The pool from Grandma should arrive on Friday. We plan to knock ourselves out blowing it up Saturday night so it is all ready to go on Sunday. Sounds like a fun thing to do after we get home from our friends party Saturday evening.

Thankfully their bikes come assembled!!! Though, those are reserved for gifting on their actual birthday.

Swimming Pools

Memorial Weekend seems to be the trigger for all things pool activity in our area. Not only are the public and private pools now open, but all the backyard pools are up and filled with activities.

Until the past couple of years the only pool that was viewable from our backyard was the neighbor friend’s house, Katie & Steve. They had invited us over several times to take the girls swimming and we had a lot of fun. It is a nice pool. It is a safe pool, as far as pools go. It is in a protected area behind locked gates. Most importantly, responsible adults owned it! Well, Katie and Steve moved last year... but the pool remains and while our new neighbor guy is quite nice, and responsible, I don't exactly see us going over to his house to swim. But really, it isn't this pool that is causing any problems.

The house next to Katie & Steve's house, Dopey's house, built a big pool and deck a couple of summers ago. But really, until this summer the girls really haven't taken an interest in Dopey. He is their youngest child and still quite a bit older than the girls. I'm not even sure the girls realize their is a big pool in their backyard. Bonus for us! Just like Katie and Steve's pool, it is safe and protected from little kids wandering into the backyard to check it out. We really appreciate that! I hope that whoever buys their house will continue pool safety.

Then the house next to Dopey's house also has a pool. But again, fortunately it hasn't drawn the girls’ attention.

THEN there are our other new neighbors directly to the West of us. They are relatively new neighbors as well. They have two daughters who are old enough to be terrible influences on the girls and for the girls to totally admire them. For this alone I would absolutely love to move. Not all kids their age are terrible influences, but these girls definitely are. They are living examples of so many things we reinforce as bad ideas in our daily life. But, as you can imagine, to the girls they are gold.

Guess who also has a new backyard pool? You guessed it! They acquired this pool at the very end of last years summer season. Well, they brought one home and set it up to discover that it wasn't big enough. Then a bigger one appeared. Glorious! Their lack of pool safety aggravated me last year, but we had time on our side. They setup their pool this weekend and we have a long summer ahead of us. Something must be done.

I think their girls asked our girls to go swimming, which was quite nice of them, but we just can't let them. First, the pool is too deep for the girls. They could touch the bottom but their heads would be completely covered in water. This is fine if they were proficient in swimming and the pool was actually big enough to “swim”, but they aren’t and it isn’t. I even took Abby into their backyard (see fourth gripe) and we stood next to the pool so she could see just how deep it was. We talked about it being too deep for her to safely get in without Mommy or Momma's help. She agreed! Second, these girls have terrible judgment. I just can't trust our girls to be around them without us being hawks watching their every move. I have to be more vigilant with watching the girls when the neighbors are out than I do if we are out by ourselves... and this is on dry land. Third, I'm not about to go swimming in their pool with a bunch of 7-9 year olds with no other adults around. It isn't my place to keep watch of their kids and friends. It completely escapes me how you can let these kids go swimming without even being in eyesight and/or earshot of them. I am shocked that our neighbors across the street let their son go swimming with the girls knowing that there was no adult supervision. They are smart people and clearly if both the parents are in the garage off the front of the house, the kids are swimming unsupervised. We have a better view of them from our deck than they do from their garage. Fourth, and this is the one that has me all riled up, they leave their gate open to their backyard. It is a tall privacy fence. It could be safe from little beings wandering into their backyard... but it isn't. Yesterday I found the gate propped open with a bucket of sand... intentionally! I closed it and asked the girls to keep the gate shut. While they were good about shutting the gate behind them yesterday, I don't see it doing any good long term! I see that I'll need to have a talk with the parents about keeping the gate shut and locked. Maybe our other neighbor who is better about confrontation will have this chat. If they don't put a lock on it, I will!

Now... I am not water phobic in the least. The girls love to swim and that they do. They are in the water for a good share of the summer. If they aren't playing in their pool on our deck, we are at the lake at my grandparent's cabin. At the lake we have pretty decent water safety rules, I think. With huge amounts of water and small children as far as the eye can see, water safety is important.

I felt so sad for Ellie yesterday as she watched them swim through the slats of our deck. She didn't say anything about being sad. They didn't ask to go swim with the other kids. But still, I felt bad that she was watching them have fun. She is our water girl! She loves to swim! I got her attention away from that and we went and had our own fun. It may be a long week, but their new swimming pool is scheduled to arrive on Friday and they are getting it for their birthday on Sunday. We plan to have it blown up and ready to go prior to the party. Weather permitting the kids can actually use it at the party on Sunday. So... if you are reading this and are coming to the party and it isn't raining and you have kids... bring their swimsuits.

Soon they will be able to enjoy water play in their own environment! I hope it is enough to draw their attention away from the neighbor girls.

Last Day of School

We are sad to say that today is the last day of the girls first year of preschool. We are sad because they enjoyed it so much. It was a really great program, they made several new friends, and the teachers were excellent.

We think we have prepared the girls the best we can. We have been talking about the last day and what comes after that. We've been counting down to the last day. I know they have been talking about it in school too. We've been talking about summer coming next, then their birthdays, then more summer, then they get to go to their new preschool. We point out their new preschool any time we drive by. They are so excited about their new preschool.

They appear to be okay with it, we shall see what happens next week when the routine changes. For now they are on board.

As a thank you to the teachers, the girls picked out some flowers for each of their teachers.

They were quite adamant about which teacher received which color. They picked out each plant with much thought. Carie and I wrapped them up a bit and attached a little note of thanks. The girls handed out all their plants after school today. They had no problems remembering who got what plant, a good thing since neither Carie nor I could remember.

While the plant wasn't much, we wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you to them. I think it worked since tears were definitely being held back.

The note read:

You are the water

that helped me grow.

Water this plant and

you shall see

how full and vibrant

you helped me be.

Thank you for being

my teacher!

Lost

Last night was the season finale of Lost.

At the end of the two hours (minus the skipped commercials) both Carie and I looked at each other with the look that says "What the heck was that!?!?”

Without a doubt we saved it to watch again.

I don't know what I was thinking. Sure they gave us some answers... sort of. But I think they created as many new questions to leave us hanging till next season.

Argh, I was hoping for answers. I need answers people!

Dopey...

... and I'm not referring to one of the seven dwarfs.

Last night Ellie was caught out of bed, again, and was found in the dining room. She was super sneaky quiet since we had thought they were actually asleep. Generally speaking this is Abby's area of perfection... up and down and stalling any which way she can. Ellie generally remains in bed, or at least her room.

So Carie discovers Ellie. Carie takes Ellie back up to her bed and discovers that the blinds were cranked open.

Ellie says, “Mommy, I saw Dopey playing outside”.

For some reason Ellie calls one of the neighbor boys (who is 10ish) Dopey. This definitely isn't the first time. I've heard her shout across the street "Hey Dopey" before.

She can absolutely say his real name, Colby. We will remind her that his name is Colby and she'll look at us and repeat "Colby" clear as a bell but have an odd expression on her face. Like, are you sure Mom? I'm sure his name is Dopey!

Maybe this is why that family is moving?

Baby Crack... The Answer to Most Everything

So in my previous post I mentioned Spencer taking a marathon nap a couple of Saturday's ago. I think I also alluded to the fact that he has been cranky for a while. He's actually been Mr. Cranky Pants for a good couple of weeks with temperaments going from hot to cold in an instant. We've managed to work through it day by day hoping the next day would be better. Each day we would discuss what "it" could be... what could be bothering him so much? We kept coming up with a list of things that could be throwing him off (teething, developmental stuff, growing, allergies, etc...) and went with it. Most of all we were hoping that this wasn't his newfound temperament, surely our happy boy would return.

Then finally early last week it became totally apparent what was going on. Sunday night his sleeping pattern had much to be desired. Though he wasn't awake looking for comforting cuddles, he totally wanted to play. We were again perplexed. Then Monday night things were significantly worse with him waking every 1-2 hours with a definite need for cuddling and soothing. It was then that I also noticed his breathing was a bit off, a bit labored. This was the first that Carie had noticed as well. We make it through the night and agree that a trip to the Ped is in order. By the time I get him into the Ped on Tuesday morning he sounds wheezy. Our Peds nurse made reference to the big bad wolf... as she was bringing in a nebulizer to do a treatment in the office. Fortunately the treatment did wonders for him and we were able to go home to continue treatments and bypass the hospital.

Turns out he had a nasty virus and another ear infection with a clogged tube. Poor guy!

After several rounds of breathing treatments his breathing is sounding much better, he is sleeping much better, and in he is in better spirits overall. It took several treatments to get into the routine. He really really did not like me for the first 3 treatments. He finally did better with the 4th treatment and with each one after that. He even got to a point where he would wear the mask without us holding it.

Of course it probably helped that we broke out "baby crack", as we adults are now referring to it in our house. Spencer has discovered the joys of Baby Einstein and he is in undeniable love. He bops back and forth to the music, flaps his arms, and talks to the TV. Every time we walk into the room now he looks at the TV as if he is expecting us to turn it on for him.

We have learned that we can do nearly anything to him so long as he is entertained by baby crack. One night we even trimmed his nails while he was getting his breathing treatment. Wow!

The ear drops appear to be opening up the clogged tube. Based on the drainage we are starting to see we hope that that is the case, we will know for sure at his follow up appointment. Hopefully the antibiotic is doing its work on the ear infection. He hasn't been on any oral antibiotics for a few months so hopefully it will have an impact this time.

Mother's Day

Wow, it has been a while. Better late than never???

So our Mother's Day weekend was quite nice and rather uneventful. Well... I was prohibited from climbing any ladders.

Friday evening we got together with Carie's family and enjoyed dinner together. The weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed playing outside. Spencer was more himself than he had been in a couple of weeks. That alone was quite refreshing!! Saturday we were going to do something, just the five of us. We didn't really have any firm plans going into the day. The weather looked good so we decided to make a trip to the zoo. While Spencer was taking his morning nap the rest of us got ready to go. The girls decided they wanted sandwiches for lunch so we went with it and made a picnic lunch. All the while we were thinking that Spencer would wake up "at any moment". Finally after a 3 hour marathon nap he woke up. We quickly loaded up in the van and headed to the zoo to enjoy our picnic lunch (very much past normal lunch time) and check out some animals.

After the zoo we headed home so Spencer could take his afternoon nap. We played outside with the girls while he took his nap. Again he took another awesome nap, which is pretty normal for his afternoon nap except that he had already took a 3 hour nap in the morning. But, he seemed happy! We then went out for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day (any excuse works around here). The girls got to choose our dining location and of course chose pizza. They negotiated back and forth about which pizza place we were going to go to before it was finally decided that we'd go to the pizza place with the brownies and cinnamon rolls (for dessert). Not really our top pick of restaurants, but hey... whatever makes them happy makes us happy.

Sunday turned into a relaxing day as well. Given how much he had napped the day before we wanted to give him full opportunity to have great naps this day as well. It seemed like he needed it. I ran out to get yummy bagels for breakfast that were super tasty, we looked over the paper, played with the kids, and processed a crap load of laundry. It took what seemed all day to get through 6 loads of bedding laundry and just the basics at that. The upside... clean sheets for all!

We then met my folks for dinner at a local restaurant. It was nice of them to drive up to meet us for dinner. Nice to just get in the van and go down the street not having to think about all the extra gear we'd need to take on a road trip. The restaurant was offering free meals for Mother's so the place was packed, as expected. The wait wasn't too bad and dinner turned out great.

Stay tuned... more updates to come on the rest of the week.

Maybe We Need To Sing More???

The girls celebrated their 4th birthday with their preschool friends today. Their actual birthday isn't for several weeks, but school will be out by then. So today it was! Fortunately they understand that it isn't yet their birthday and more celebrations will follow at a later point. Though they were confused this afternoon and kept asking Mommy if they were 3 or 4. Also fortunately they were quite excited by the simple celebration at school with their friends that we can bypass a huge kid party for yet another year. Whew!

So today we took special treats (cupcake cakes) in to school to celebrate their birthday. They were super sugary messy treats, but everyone absolutely loved them.
Abby chose a caterpillar cupcake cake and Ellie chose a butterfly cupcake cake. At drop off this morning I helped take everything back to their classrooms and I had a chance to take a quick picture of each of the girls and their cupcake cakes.

All the kids were excited to see the treats. In Ellie's class her classmates were so excited and interested, they all gathered round to check it out. As we were putting Ellie's cake up the teachers started singing their song. I don't remember the words, but it was clearly a cue to transition to circle time. The results were amazing!!! Ellie, and several other friends - but not all, transitioned immediately to circle time.

No one asked her directly. No one had to specifically get her attention. No one had to repeat or remind. She just did it!

I'm still shocked. Ellie, our dear dear spacey Ellie, heard the cue to transition to circle time and she JUST DID IT.

Clearly we need to sing more!

Cool Shades

Cute boy looks better in Mommas shades than Momma does...













Possibly the happiest moment of his sad little day...

Getting On Board

We make it a practice to involve the girls in whatever plans we are making. They just seem to have a natural curiosity and interest in what we are doing. They like to know where we are going and what we are doing. I love that they are actively engaged in our activities and they aren't just tagging along. Their level of participation in the decision making varies from event to event. Sometimes we do what we need to do. Sometimes we are selling them on a plan that we have formed. Sometimes they get to decide.

Tonight we were outside playing and it was quickly approaching dinner time. We, the adults, were exhausted and decided that dinner would be prepared by someone else. We were going out!

Me to the girls: Would you like to go out for dinner?
**While I know I was opening myself up on this one, they have never ever turned down going out to dinner. Next to shopping, this is a favorite activity.

Ellie: To a restaurant?
Me: Yes, to a restaurant
Ellie & Abby: Yeah!
Me: Where shall we go? I suggest going to the pizza place that has the dough (they give the kids dough to play with)
Abby Counteroffers: How about the pizza place with the brownies?

We get loaded in the van and start driving to our unknown destination. I fill Carie in on the dialogue between Abby and I. We recap the discussion and the conversation continues.

Ellie Pipes In: Old McDonalds!!!
Mommy: Old McDonalds is absolutely denied
Me: How about the chicken place????
Abby: NOOOOOOOOOOO (I can't emphasize how emphatic she is about this)
Silence
Abby: "I was JUST thinking about the chicken place"
Mommy & Momma: Oh really? (Hysterical internal laughing in the front of the van)
Abby: Let's go to the chicken place
Mommy & Momma: Okay, let's go to the chicken place

No further vetoes are heard from the back seat. We head to the chicken place. We are about to pull into the parking lot of the chicken place and we hear from both girls "NO, not THIS chicken place". It is a darn good thing they were restrained in their car seats. So much for being on board!

It didn't help that they were both starving and tired. I took Spencer in to order dinner and find a table while Carie talked them down a few notches. It didn't take long and they joined us.

They both ate a phenomenal dinner. Abby decided that she liked to dip her chicken in honey. Ellie decided that she liked to dip her chicken in butter. I simply like that they ate and ate and ate. Oh, and they voluntarily sat like angels through the entire dinner. It was beautiful.

Obscene

On so many levels this is obscene...

Five car seats.... three of which are Marathon's and two are Parkway's. Thank goodness we only footed the bill for our three seats.

Transporting five children who are currently all ages three & under... two of which turn four in four weeks. The girls sit in the back and the boys sit in the middle. They love it!

Currently, two of the seats are temporary and after today we will return to our normal capacity. But wow, five very large car seats actually fit in our van.

Pediodontist

If you are like me and didn't know what the official name of a Pediatric Dentist was, you now have your answer.

The girls had their 3rd visit yesterday afternoon and it went wonderfully!

Their appointment was at 4:30 and in less than 30 minutes they were thoroughly examined, cleaned, next appointment made, and all ready to go. Personally, I'm all about getting in and out of appointments like the dentist, haircuts, etc... I want them to do a great job, but I want it to be quick! I think it is cool that they can take care of both the girls at the same time, no taking turns. Even when Spencer starts going, it looks like we can have one appointment time. I can't tell you how excited I am about this!

While we have finally gotten into a pretty decent tooth brushing routine, I know both Carie and I were still worried. She didn't tell me and I didn't tell her, but I could tell. While I watched and waited I was anxious. I was hoping that they would both get the "everything looks great" report but feared the "we've got a cavity" news. The girls, they just laid back and watched PBS with headphones and sunglasses on.

My anxiety toned down a bit after I saw a very minimal amount of the purple stuff remaining on Ellie's teeth. The downside to both of them getting cleaned at the same time is that I didn't see how Abby's teeth looked after the purple stuff. They rub this purple stuff on the teeth with a q-tip, then they rinse it off, and whatever is left highlights any plaque on the teeth. It is pretty cool stuff! Even I, the non-dental expert can tell whether or not we are doing a good job brushing just by looking at the purple stuff. Maybe I should find out the official name of the purple stuff rather than continue to refer to it as the purple stuff. Next time!

Fortunately both girls were given great reports. Their teeth looked fantastic! Sparkly clean as the girls would say. Whew! They both got their picture taken for the no cavity club, which gives them a shot of winning a $100 gift certificate to Toys R Us.

As soon as we got into the car I called Carie and shared our great news. I could hear her huge sigh of relief.

They also each walked out with a bag-o-stuff from the dentist. One of the items in the bag was their new toothbrush. They were quite excited about getting new toothbrushes... to add to the 6 that are already in the toothbrush holder. Thankfully Spencer has only one. Pretty soon Carie and I will have to move our toothbrushes to a new location due to lack of room.

The girls were excited about their new brushes until it came time to brush their teeth. The toothbrushes were not the same and because of that we nearly had WWIII combined with intense Broadway drama in our bathroom. They both wanted the pink and purple one. The green and yellow one didn't cut it. So we make it through teeth brushing alive and get everyone into bed. I make a mental note to see if I can find these toothbrushes so we can avoid future nightly drama. I also wouldn't mind finding more of them to get us away from all the characters that have taken over the bathroom.

So today I make a quick visit to crest.com to find out the name of the toothbrush. I easily find what I am looking for, the Whale Kids' Toothbrush. The trick seems to be finding them available for the general population to purchase. So far it seems that I have to be a dental professional to get these things. Figures! Next time Momma shall remember to ask if I/we may select the toothbrushes.

Blueberries

The boy loves blueberries! Actually, all our kids love blueberries.

He has had them before and he has loved them before, but not quite like this. Now that he has the skills to clap, he also has the skills to sign "more". He kept asking for more, I kept giving him more, and he kept eating them one by one. He was a very happy boy!

Then he started alternating... one in the mouth, one in the high chair. We took that as today's "all done" sign.













We will soon find out how much of an effort it will be to get these blueberry stains off of his body and out of his clothes!