Playing Outside

There is only a short period of time in which I feel comfortable allowing the kids to run outside and play. Thanks to Houston's bug populations and no screen door or see-through backdoor, our only option is to leave the door wide open while the kids play and I don't usually let that happen. However, with the recent freeze (if you're my Facebook friend, you saw the half inch of ice covering my car and there's a whole rant about my drafty, crappy, rental and its utter lack of insulation, but... we'll not go there) killing off most of the bugs still hanging around, I can let the door stay open and the kids go wild without fear of being eaten alive while tucked safely inside my house or Cadence and Connor coming in covered in little red welts.

Connor only recently began exploring the backyard. At first he stayed on the cement patio, but once he finally dared to go into the grass once and realized it wasn't that bad, he began exploring the entire thing. If the back door is open, he is racing for it. Especially if he hears his sisters out there. If they're having fun, he wants to be a part of it (there's another cute story about how the girls will have their heads together giggling over some joke only preschoolers find funny and he'll crawl over, sit next to them and laugh loudly, wanting to be a part of their little group).

Anyway, I had to take a moment to grab my camera and get a few pictures of them having fun and play with them a bit myself. Usually I kick them outside while I clean up the living room or do a quick load of dishes, . LOVING the last picture of the three of them together. <3

At the zoo (again)

With James's temporary night shift, it's best for everyone if I get the kids out of the house in the morning so he can sleep and they don't have to be unnaturally quiet.

Today, we went to the zoo, hoping to beat the rain (which showed up an hour early, darn it!). It was otherwise perfect weather, though. High 50's, overcast, and no real wind chill. With the looming storm, the zoo was practically empty compared to what we're used to, allowing me to relax a little and let the kids explore with a bit more freedom.

I originally planned to let the girls feed the giraffes again, but when I realized I did not have my camera, I decided against it. I want Connor's first up-close-and-personal to be caught on film. Besides, it started raining at 11, when the feeding was scheduled to start.

We had lots of unique moments thought:

We went to see the lions first, on our way to the giraffes. The lionesses were not in their usual nap spots, but closer to the viewing platform, chewing on the bones from their breakfast, allowing us a great view of them. I pointed them out to Connor and when I said "see the cat?" he became rather alert and sat upright in his stroller to try and see what I was pointing at. Once he saw them, he excitedly began saying "Ta! Ta!" and even waved at them. Too sweet.

The zoo has a spot in the children's park where you can climb through a tunnel and poke your head out in the middle of the prairie dog exhibit. The girls and I took Connor into one and happened to see a prairie dog hanging out, digging inches away from our faces. It was pretty cool and once again, Connor was super excited and kept banging on the plastic.

At the chimp exhibit, one of the chimps sat beside the large window in the viewing house and was responding to the people he saw. One kid clapped his hands and the chimp mimicked him. Cue several minutes of kids clapping and laughing as the chimp clapped his hands and then clapped his foot and his hand and made goofy faces. Of course, he abruptly got fed up with the attention and attempted to roundhouse kick one of the little girls. He only kicked the window, of course, but it certainly scared her.

Once past the chimp place, we wandered toward the elephants (with a visit to the African drums the little play village first). I had received an email from the zoo and learned one of the elephants is pregnant and due any day now! We happened upon a moment when they allowed the pregnant elephant's 3-year-old to spend some time with his older brother, where he will spend most of his time once the new baby is here. Initially, I thought they were fighting over territory, since that male elephant has always been alone, but the zookeeper set us straight and we watched the two brothers wrestle and play. Then the zookeeper pointed out the pregnant elephant. I'm excited to take the girls back when the baby is here. We were told that, barring any health issues, mama and calf will rejoin the herd within days of birth, so when the time comes, we'll get to see a newborn baby elephant!

Of course, when pointing to the pregnant elephant and telling them there was a baby elephant in her belly, just like I'd had a baby in my belly, the girls assumed all the elephants were pregnant because their bellies were so big.

Oh well. Maybe next time we go to the zoo we'll have pictures of the baby elephant and pictures of Connor feeding the giraffes to share all at once. ;-)

Cleaning Our Room

According to my new weekly chore schedule, Tuesdays are the day we focus on getting the bedrooms cleaned. So, after lunch, the kids and I locked ourselves in their rooms and got them vacuum-ready (I'll be tackling my room later this evening when James isn't sleeping). I think the girls have too many toys, but since they play with most of them, I haven't bothered with sorting through them. Undoubtedly, they'll lose several once I start cleaning things out for our upcoming move (which has no details beyond "we're moving out of this house sometime before the end of summer, we hope").

The girls like to play more than clean, so it requires me sitting in their room frequently directing them what to pick up, but in the end, it does get done. 

Connor likes to play while the rest of us clean

Megan and her crazy hair. It gets combed every day, I swear.

Connor's way of helping sometimes results in tears from the girls.

Cadence's hair! I gave her bangs and it just transformed her, I swear.

And, to end it all, we got a little video of Connor's run-before-he-can-walk routine. :-) I know how much a certain reader of mine (Hi, Lynne!) loves videos of her cousins.

Another "first"

For the past month or so, Connor will eagerly bounce and point out every cat he sees and chatter at me. Over the past week, I've come to a realization... he's saying "Taz". Of course, to him "Taz" is the general word for "cat", since that's the cat he sees 9 times out of 10. Poor Hanna has been labeled as "Taz" in his little brain, but we'll rewire that later.

Just like his oldest sister, he is fascinated by the creatures and will chase them down. He's actually a fair bit nicer to them and will attempt to pet Taz on her head, which almost looks like he is smacking her, but not quite. As always, she is incredibly patient with his less-than-gentle affection.

So, his first word beyond "mama" (because he's been using the mama sound to indicate he wants me or my attention. Usually while crying, but he'll use it without crying on occasion as he comes to find me).

Actually, this morning, when he saw her, he kept saying it "Tda! Tda!" (The t sound is a little harder than the normal t sound, a cross between a t and a d). When she complied and hopped up to visit us, he got super excited and said "Ha Tda!", which I can only assume means "Hi, Taz", since "Hi" is another word I have suspected him of knowing due to my habit of greeting him with an enthusiastic "hi!" every time he wakes up from a nap or I return from running and errand, etc.

So, I guess we also get to claim his first two-word sentence? Kidding... ;-)

First Steps

I was right. He can do it.

For the past couple weeks, Connor has been cruising as much as possible, even using the walls as hand holds to avoid crawling. He'll crawl from the couch to the wall, get to his feet and walk along the hallway to get to his room. I've been avoiding the urge to grab him and shake him and say "walk already!" (Okay, so I only resisted the shaking urge, I've said the words many times).

He's been standing, when he's not paying attention. When I try to stand him in the middle of the room, he'll immediately squat and lower himself to the ground. He's been lifting both hands while cruising, using my hoody string (because it's oh so supportive) as a handhold while bouncing, etc. But, he's been refusing to stand. Over thinking it, or so I've been saying. You can see the wheels turning in his head when I try to get him to stand or walk. He thinks about it, looks around him, considers his options and then plops on his butt and crawls, even though I've been swearing he's 100% capable of walking if he wanted to and have been doing my best to bribe those first steps out of him.

Tonight, though, I finally won the battle of wills. I lifted him to standing, as I've done a dozen times over the past few weeks, while chatting with friends at a small get together, and took my hands away. He stood, squatted, stood, squatted, stood and took a step.

Unfortunately my exclamation of "Ha! I told you!" scared him and he plopped on his butt.

He did think it was pretty cool, though, because he tried it again (twice), but then he got distracted by the toy vacuum cleaner and lost all interest in anything but that for the rest of the evening. At least until he saw the brownie I was holding...

Happy New Years: Have some videos on us

James reminded me I hadn't posted these awesome videos yet for everyone to enjoy, so to ring in 2014, here are some fun videos from 2013.

When I dropped the kids off at the gym's childcare this morning, they set Connor into the infant penned off section with another kid. I had to warn them that Connor loves to wrestle, because I could see him eyeing the kid in a rather suspicious manner. But, then, this is how he plays with his sisters, so....

And, then, of course, there was Cadence deciding she was a dragon thanks to the sweaters Aunt Nicole made her. She got most of the kids to run around Nana's back yard growling, but by the time we grabbed the camera she was going solo and didn't care:

Christmas 2013

Every year, as Christmas approaches, I decide we're going to simplify. It never really turns out that way, of course. Between being determined to have new pajamas, new Christmas outfits, and wanting to give my children the world (and overgenerous grandparents allowing me to do my best to do so), Christmas tends to go a bit further than what I have written down on December 1st.

We were lucky enough to have Uncle Jon stay with us this week, but he's extremely talented at avoiding the camera and I didn't realize this until we dropped him off at the bus station this morning and couldn't find a single picture when I got home. The girls LOVED having him over.

All in all, the kids weren't too spoiled this Christmas, even if they did get everything they asked for and then some (in my defense, they only really asked for two things each).

Saturday night, we went to see the Zoo Lights at the Houston Zoo. I got two free tickets when I renewed our membership and the girls had developed a recent obsession with Christmas lights, so it was great. We didn't get very many pictures, unfortunately, but the girls enjoyed themselves.

Sunday morning they got their new outfits and shoes for church, which I did not get pictures of, but I'll dress them in the same outfits this Sunday and get cute pictures then. I bought the dresses, but the jackets (for the girls) were bought by their grandma and the shoes were from Grandpa Jim. Cadence's shoes had a little 1" heel on them and when she put them on and walked away I was floored with just how tall she suddenly looked. It was only an inch difference, but oh my goodness...

Monday morning was a special treat. Unknown to her, the girls' grandmother bought them a ticket to go see "Frozen" in theaters. They loved it. They had been seeing commercials and toys for the newest Disney flick for the past few months, and were ecstatic to get to see it in the theater.

Tuesday night, we baked cookies, drank cocoa, lit a fire, and wore new pajamas, then it was off to bed. Even Connor got the memo that Santa doesn't show up until everyone was asleep and cooperated.

We woke up to footprints and stockings and Santa brought our first "family present", a home theater system with blu-ray. It was set up a few hours later, though we did not put a lot of effort into it. With plans to move in a few months, it seemed silly to go above and beyond in setting it up.

After going through the stockings, it was time for presents. It was difficult to rein the excited girls in, but insisting they alternate between opening one of their presents and picking one or two for someone else, we managed to control it. Opening presents only took about twenty minutes and the girls were going nuts over pretty much everything they opened.

So, a quick rundown:

Cadence got a large Merida doll (from us), new sparkly jeans and a pink shirt (from Grandma), a new My Little Pony Equestria Girls doll (Fluttershy, from Grandpa), Snow White (from Lynne), and Candyland (also from Grandma).

Megan got a large Rapunzel doll (from us), her own pair of sparkly jeans and a shirt with ballet slippers on it (from Grandpa), a new My Little Pony Equestria Girls doll (Rainbow Dash, from Grandpa), Sleeping Beauty (from Lucas), and Hi-Ho Cherry-O (also from Grandma).

Connor got a Hulk and Iron Man action figure (from us), new clothes (from Grandma), a toy drum (from Grandpa), and a toy workbench (from Grandpa Jim, since Connor didn't get new shoes).

Grandpa Jim also bought the kids Despicable Me 1 & 2 (conveniently enough the value pack with blu-ray, DVD & digital copy) and Wreck-it Ralph (which the girls have been quoting/talking about nontstop since returning the library's copy).

James and I got a new crockpot, which is useful since the one we bought as newlyweds is way too small for our family now that the kids are actually eating. James got a new flashlight and an ice tray that makes ice in the shape of AK-47 ammo. I got a new hair dryer and hair curlers and James filled a gift bag with Lindt truffles (and I shall not mention how few are left 24 hours later).

Anyway, Christmas day was a blur of kids running back and forth with new toys, never the same one twice. They are in love with all of their new toys. And now, for those who are not on Facebook, pictures (there are a few that didn't make it to Facebook, as well)

Evidence of Santa, before the kids saw.

Megan wore this tiara pretty much all day.

The girls were so excited to get new dolls!

Connor loves his new toys too (look, Uncle Jon's elbow!)

The girls helped Connor open his present from Grandpa

Megan was so excited to get Rapunzel

Cadence loves her doll, we just made her stick her tongue out because all her smile pictures looked creepy.

Connor ate his fair share of most of the dinner, but he loved gnawing on the piece of ham we gave him.

The girls picked at a little of everything, but did get seconds of their favorite.

Connor loved his pumpkin pie so much he began growling for a taste of mine when his was all gone.

So, there it is. Hope everyone else's Christmas was as merry as ours!

Connor's 9 months

Connor is all over the place on these growth charts. ;-)

We had our 9 month check up today. Initially the plan was to send the girls to daycare so I could get the last bit of Christmas shopping done, but when I drove up to the daycare, they weren't even open. I was a little grouchy about that, since they changed their hours recently, but Friday is still a day they're supposed to be open.

ANYWAY, I did end up Christmas browsing with the girls in tow, then off to Connor's appointment. As usual, he's in pretty much perfect health. The doctor checked out the tooth he knocked loose last month, but had no concerns. They did a finger prick (well, on his big toe) to check his iron levels. Surprisingly, he is not anemic. So, yay!

Real quick updated stats:
Height: 28.5" (50th percentile)
Weight: 20.5lbs (50-75th percentile)

Looking at those stats, I wonder if he's gearing up for another growth spurt. I know he's due for one and, in my experience, they tend to plump up then shoot up an extra inch or so, and since his weight is once again at a higher percentile than his height. He has four teeth. After it took two weeks for the fourth one to cut all the way, I thought we'd get a break, but he's now working on his two eye teeth as well. No rest for the weary, I suppose.

As far as development, he's a breath away from mastering various milestones, but lacks the confidence to do so, silly boy. I've caught him standing on his own. I don't know how long he can do it, since every time I see it he realizes what he's doing, panics, and either sits (in a very slow, controlled manner, so not falling, but crouching and plopping the rest of the way) or reaches out for a hand hold. I also think he might be capable of walking if he tried. When he cruises he lifts both hands while moving, but lacks the confidence to move without support nearby.

No concerns, of course.

He's a foodie. James and I are constantly amazed at the sheer amount of food he can put away. Just last night he finished off two bowls (small bowls) of chicken stew, then once he was on the floor went exploring to find more stuff to shove in his mouth. He loves to talk... a lot. He'll sit in the middle of the floor and "sing" at the top of his lungs. It's easy to figure out where he is, when he's wandered off, because he can't seem to go more than a few minutes without shrieking or squealing. He loves to wrestle and will climb onto anyone that gets nearby, including the cats. Yesterday, I laid on the floor and he had fun climbing on top of me and doing an almost somersault (getting his head to the floor and sliding sideways) to get down the other side.

He stole a chocolate candy. Yummy.

It's Christmas Time

When we got back from California, it kind of threw me for a loop that Christmas was barely 3 weeks away. Admittedly, it was a bit overwhelming, since I hadn't even begun to think about what to get the kids. Sure, I had some ideas, but I hadn't decided on anything, and with only one car, I had only 2 days a week in which to get any preparations done (in between running the rest of the errands I usually cram into those 2 days).

Christmas got a whole lot easier with this unexpected purchase, of course:

We bought the truck on a Monday, but Sunday night we had zero plans to get a second vehicle until next summer. It was very much a spur of the moment purchase, but it gave me the freedom to run errands all week (which led to me overdoing it and being so exhausted I got sick last weekend, oops). Of course, one of the most important errands was taking the girls to see Santa. We stopped at Bass Pro Shop for the "Santa's Wonderland". The girls got to shoot toy bows, race cars, and color. Connor wasn't entirely thrilled with the experience, but the girls loved it.

At one point, it got pretty cold (well, for us, at least). To combat it, we finally cleaned out our fireplace and tried it out. Of course, you can't have a fire without some hot cocoa. Not that the girls really drank too much of it. More was spilled on the fireplace than drank. The cookies, however, were gone rather quickly.

 (He's actually eating a graham cracker, but he was stuffing his face so we took a picture)

Connor recently discovered that Taz is pretty much the coolest toy ever. He spent last night chasing her around and got pretty upset when she finally decided she was done and put herself out of his reach. I am constantly amazed at how tolerant she is of being dragged around by the kids. In fact, she seems to enjoy it and will walk up to them for attention, even though she knows what kind of attention they tend to give.

We also decorated our tree last night. We went tree shopping Friday night. We found a vendor that sells beautiful, fresh trees, but with the tree being up for less than two weeks, I wasn't willing to spend the money (they were a little pricey), so we hit up Home Depot. Next year, though, we'll get our tree at the beginning of the month and we'll definitely have one of those beautiful, full trees from the other place.

So, it's been an eventful few weeks, but always in a good way. We'll end this update with a picture of the kids playing together. Love!

California 2013

I almost don't even know where to start. 3400 miles, 11 nights, 4 different hotels, 3 congested reactions to Bakersfield air, 2 teeth cutting through, 1 baby with a cold...

We left Houston at 3 in the morning the Friday before Thanksgiving. The plan was always to get as many miles as possible between us and Houston on the very first day, expecting everyone's tolerance levels to drop drastically on day 2. Impressively, we put 1100 miles behind us and arrived in Tuscon Friday evening, though we ran into a few problems. The cold front hit West Texas around the same time we did and we had ice forming on the front of our car, the side mirrors, the antenna and the windows. Once we got through that, it was the strong crosswinds in New Mexico that ended in a dust storm James attempted to navigate while Connor, who reached his limit, screamed for the last 30 minutes of the night.

Munching on an apple slice as we drive through New Mexico

The original plan had been to leave Tuscon bright and early, but we ended up choosing an extra hour or so of sleep over an early start. Ate breakfast at the hotel, and headed out. Day 2, with its mere 600 miles, was a breeze as long as we stopped regularly to give Connor a moment to stretch his legs. We got in to Bakersfield later than expected and tired, but happy to see family. It took only a few minutes for our tired brood to relax and begin to explore the new toys Nana's house provided. More family showed up and it was a loud moment as Connor and Carter were introduced, I got to see Grandy for the first time in 5 years, the missionaries showed up, and we enjoyed a BBQ dinner for the evening (including the boudin James had us bring for everyone to try).

Two of three triplet cousins and their first meeting

Sunday was a quieter start. James and I snuck off for a date, since it was the only open time slot provided to us and our over-booked schedule with family for the rest of the week. We checked out a breakfast place suggested by Seth and Nicole and were extremely pleased with the experience. Good food and lots of it for a more than decent price. My chicken-fried steak was big enough I took half of it home for a filling lunch after church.

We went to church with mom. I wasn't sure how the girls would handle going to a different primary, but it went about as expected. I'm told Cadence did okay, which says so much about how much she has matured over the past few months. Megan, however, would not leave Nana's side. James and I sat in the foyer with a restless Connor and decided to leave after the 2nd hour (Though, after hearing how well Cadence had done, I wish we'd let her finish out the experience and go to 3rd hour, but Megan tends to get sulky and anti-social even in our home ward lately, so I doubt she would have flourished at all in the new ward).

Erin and her family arrived Sunday evening and the chaos doubled. The girls were exhausted by the whole experience thus far and put themselves to bed shortly after everyone else left.

Jelly donut. He ate way more of it than I expected. I snatched the last bit away, which he was not happy about

Monday through Wednesday were a touch quieter. Monday we spent the day at dad's house, visiting with him, Grandy and Chad. I took a moment to duck out and get my hair cut for the first time since June, as our recent pictures had only emphasized how much I hated my hair as it was (too long and unstyled). I brought back pastrami sandwiches from Frosty King, something I had been craving since my 2nd trimester with Connor. James then left to go spend the afternoon with his grandfather and we continued our quiet afternoon with my dad and Grandy, finishing off the visit with some gumbo, before once again going home so the girls could beg for pajamas and bedtime.

Coloring at Grandpa's house

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the mornings and afternoon in Taft to visit with James's family. Tuesday evening we briefly met with Emilee and Jeremy at the park after moving in to our hotel and Wednesday evening was busy with Thanksgiving preparations.

Swinging at the park in his snazzy new jacket

Thanksgiving was... chaotic, as was most of the week, but pleasant. Between trying to get some family pictures taken and playing board games with family and just sitting in the living room and trying to keep the kids from destroying the place, everyone was kept busy right up to the moment dinner itself was served.

Only a small portion of the chaos Tuesday night

By Friday, we were ready to go home, at least I was, emotionally/mentally. James, unfortunately, got sick from the stress of traveling and had to stay at the hotel to recover. I took the kids out to Taft for one final visit on our last day, then we went back to the hotel for lunch and a moment to get as much packed/prepped as possible for our departure the next day. Then it was back to Nana's house for one last evening. I left the kids to pick up a few things for James and drop them off, then swung by the hospital to visit Grandy (who had picked up Chad's cold and had to be admitted on Thanksgiving, unfortunately). James, by this point, was feeling a bit better, so he ventured out with me and spent the last couple hours at my mom's house, where we had a drawn-out cutthroat round of Uno before we herded our tired brood back to the hotel.

Cousins +1 at dinner Tuesday night

Saturday might be the longest day we had all week. Though we were out the door an hour earlier than initially planned, the day took way too long. Connor did not have the patience he'd had on day 1 of travelling. We landed in Phoenix for a visit with an old friend of mine and a chance for the kids to run around for an hour or two, but it wasn't enough of a break. Our goal was Las Cruces, but between sleepy truck drivers making us nervous and Connor getting extra fussy, we pulled over about 120 miles short of our goal. The receptionist was sympathetic and gave us a discount, though considering we had pre-pair for our hotel in Las Cruces, it was the most expensive EconoLodge we ever stayed in, but it was clean and the beds were comfortable and we were tired. It was perfect.

Grandpa Jim & Connor. This picture is so getting framed.

Sunday went surprisingly well. Partially because Connor had picked up his uncle's cold and as long as we kept him supplied with tylenol, he was fine with sleeping most of the way. We made it all the way to San Antonio in decent time. Knowing we were only 3 hours from home and had no need to rush, I think we were able to really relax for the first time in awhile. We ordered pizza, watched movies on the TV and even dragged our suitcase out instead of our overnight bags so we could all shower/bathe and dress in clean clothes.

Connor and Carter "fighting" over a toy

We took our time leaving the hotel Monday morning, enjoying the breakfast (where I almost broke their waffle iron, oops). James and I browsed the "things to do" brochures and discussed a return to San Antonio for a simpler family vacation in the future. We meandered our way back to Houston, even stopping about halfway to rearrange the carseats, hoping having his sisters back beside him (instead of in the backseat as they had been for the rest of the trip) would ease Connor into thinking all was back to normal to give us the last hour and a half we needed. It worked, by the way. He fussed a bit, but lulled himself back to sleep until we got home as long as Cadence reached over to touch him and talk to him.

Complete meltdown because I left him behind to run into the gas station and pee.

We are glad to be home! I might be a bit happier if Connor had slept well or if the laundry was already washed and put away, but the kids are in a good mood and I'm giving myself permission to take it easy today. The kids are also liking the fact that I took out my bucket of Christmas decorations and have already put up our stockings and James's shotgun shell lights around the fireplace. We'll go tree shopping next weekend. I also browsed Cyber Monday deals and found an great option for buying dolls I'd been considering for the girls (I got both for $50 instead of the $80 total they were originally!) and picked up a few things for Connor that James really wanted to get him.

There are more pictures, but they're on other people's cameras and I don't have access to them yet, which is why there are so few of the girls. I do have video I shall attempt to upload for a "California 2013 addendum" post.