A Day in the Life...

Can't believe how big all the girls are getting, and growing right up!  It's fun to see. Yesterday Copper had her speech assessed.  I was worried because she almost always just says the first or last syllable of any word, and has a hard time structuring sentences on her own.  I'm glad I wasn't just paranoid; the speech therapist said my impressions were pretty accurate and she qualifies for services. They believe she's behind because the first two years of her life she was extremely congested so she only heard muffles, etc.  Once her adenoids and tonsils came out, she could finally hear right (and eat!), but had gotten so used to saying the very least possible that it's become habit.  It's worked for her, too, since we can decipher just about anything with one syllable of one word, instead of hearing whole sentences. I wasn't surprised she was above average in other areas, especially cognition.  She progressed through questions intended for kids older ...

Several posts this week, two even today! Life is really good.  It's taken me a LONG time to say that and believe it. So while I'm in a mood of peace and happiness, I think it's important to recognize three really fantastic people that are second moms to my three sweet girls.  No particular order. 1.  JULIE!  Our incredible baby-sitter.  She really is the most patient and loving sitter I've ever had for the kids (and only the sitter the babies have known).  All three girls grin when we get there each morning.  I've only had my kids (obviously), but they've seemed hard to me, and Julie takes hard times with stride like it's no big deal.  I'm glad she enjoys the little things and notices what my kids do.  She laughs with them and loves them.  Doesn't get any better than not having to worry all day about how the kids are doing- I know they're in the best hands! 2.  MY MADRE!  My mom is the very best mom I think there ever w...

Yea, ma. No, ma. Why, ma? Kay, ma. Oh, ma. Don't know, ma. Right here, ma. Ready, ma. Love you too, ma. Everything she says to me ends with "ma."  It's really, really cute and funny.  She also keeps smacking her forehead with her hand and saying, "Oh, man!" whenever she finds something, runs into something, or the babies do something crazy. She says "Beep a Boo" when playing hide and seek from the babies.  She notices letters everywhere and does pretty great at spelling her name.   She's awesome at entertaining herself and doesn't mind playing on her own.  She loves kids and has started cheering on the babies when they hit certain milestones.  Once, last week, she ate scrambled eggs.  It was a super big deal.  If she wakes in the middle of the night, she walks across the hall into our room, rubs my arm or cheek gently, and says, "Ma?  I love you too.  Pillow, ma?"  Then she climbs right in.  She's a rock-star kid. ...

Tim changed his work schedule so he's now home early on Monday and Friday nights.  Finally we can eat dinner together before 7:30 or 8:00 at night!  To celebrate, we taught Copper how to roast a marshmallow.  We realized we don't have roasting sticks, so we had to get pretty creative with kitchen utensils, tape, and skewers.  Copper's a huge marshmallow fan and thought catching it on fire was pretty sweet.  With lots of coaxing and reassuring, she still refused to eat a toasted one.  So we let her burn the crap out of it and gave her a raw one to munch on. The babies look super happy.  They're not.  Camera caught them at a good time- they always giggle at Copper, and she was trying to blow on her marshmallow fire and was laughing herself.  If it had been a little warmer, and if they wouldn't have had to share my lap, I think they would have had fun too.

Our yard is super cool but needs a whole lot of work.  There are so many flower beds, too many, really, and they are filled to the max with deep rooted weeds.  I started the task yesterday of clearing out a spot for a garden.  After an  hour of shoveling, I realized the area I was clearing was actually a sandbox.  The girls will have a ball, for sure, and I will just love  sweeping up all the sand that gets dragged into the house. I decided to use a large area right up against the back of the house for the garden. It was full of buried rocks, bricks, and cinder blocks.  It took hours and hours to just clear one 2'x8' area.  Notice our colorful window markers.  Copper has painted almost every window in our house.  At least it's fun, and easy to clean. While I dug, Kota played on the lawn and LOVED being outside. Copper played with everything in the yard, wearing her I-took-this-out-of-the-sitter's-DI-pile hat.  It's her favorite...

Wagon rides, dancing, dressing up, rootbeer floats in the backyard, going to the park, crying and crying, jumping on our new trampoline, and beautiful flowers.  Not pictured- sickness abounding, melt downs over hair washing, too many hours of working, a messy, messy house.

Kota is good at sticking out her tongue.  She does it throughout most of every day. Micah is good at getting ready to cry AND crying.  She does it every night for a long time. Copper is good at dressing herself (pants, shorts, skirt, and two shirts).  She is also good at getting stuck and making big messes.   Don't let the first pig tails fool you.  Despite being bathed, clean, dry, and fed, this is not a happy moment.

Copper loves to dress herself.  Backwards, inside out, summer, winter, mixed, matching, doesn't matter.  Sometimes she looks like a first class dork; usually it's pretty cute.  I've tricked her into trying pineapple, mandarin oranges, and peaches.  She liked them all.  Except for the peaches, which she chewed up and spit back into the full container.  Last week she finger-painted the kitchen with peanut butter, for the second time. She doesn't usually make messes other than her toys; I guess peanut butter is pretty enticing.  I can't tell if she knows the twins a part by name because she gets it right about half the time.  But she LOVES her sisters and they are still in awe over her.  Copper is one of the very few people who can really make Micah laugh. The babies tried yogurt for the first time tonight.  Kota made faces the entire time but ate an entire bowl full.  Micah loved it and ate double what Kota did.  We visit...