2 days down

Well we are done with 2 full days and so far it isn't as awful as I thought it would be! Yea!!

They have gone down now 3 nights without any fight and the last 2 they have stayed in bed all night with no problems. Naps are a little different but not as bad as it could be I guess. They really aren't doing anything different than they did in cribs except now they can get out and run around the room.

They have always talked and played in their cribs for a while before falling asleep and they are doing the same in the beds but James is getting out and running around. The girls do great they never get out of bed until someone comes to get them which is what I told them.

I've ended up laying on the floor and taking a little nap in their room the last 2 days to keep them in bed but I'm really hoping we can get past that soon because honestly the floor ain't that comfortable!

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement I'm really grateful to have you guys supporting me.

In other news James is gonna drive me to drinking soon. The boy is just crazy and God sure knew what he was doing when he only gave me 1 boy that's for sure. He does everything I tell him no to and no punishment seems to stop him. I've tried time out, I've tried yelling, I've tried whispering, and I've tried spanking and the child just laughs at me. I'm really at my wits end with him and ready to ship him off to the zoo so I can have a break.

Tonight after he peed in the potty he climbed in the bath tub with all his clothes on and emptied the bottle of shampoo on his arms and legs and then got out and ran around the house! I just don't know what else to do with him, any suggestions?

It's Done

Well we have done it. The baby beds are gone, 2 on the curb for the trash man and one hiding in the garage. Toddler beds have been put together, new pillow cases on them and my now "big kids" are sleeping in them.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

waaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................................

Jim laughed at me when I fled the room crying, Abigail was so excited to put herself in her bed, James jumped right in, right out, and so on, and Katie had a small melt down but Abigail gave up her teddy bear and Katie settled in.

Fingers and toes are crossed and I'm praying to the Big Man upstairs that I don't seriously regret this decision.

Here are some pics of the monumental move for our household.

The last time they all slept in one bed almost 5 months old. Its funny but I can't remember now why one of the girls is naked?

I probably cried that day too!

Mommy made us all get in here together for one last shot!

Abigail loving on the teddy bear in her new bed

Abigail ready to go without the teddy bear!

Katie with the prize teddy bear and all her other sleeping buddies heaven forbid we take one out and now we have a new one.

Look at how excited he was!!! Can you believe that before we got home he told me he wanted his baby bed?

Feeling Bad

I feel so bad and unsure how to explain differences to my children. While at McDonalds this morning there was a small group of children ages ranging from probably 4-15 along with a couple of adults that came in. My first instinct was they shouldn't be playing here they are to big (there was only 1 little one). My second thought was why aren't all those kids in school and finally maybe they are evacuees from Ike.

The kids had been playing as I visited with my friend and I hear Katie screaming coming down the slide. No big deal I think and really it wasn't but it is stuck in my head. Katie comes flying to me with James right behind her telling me "that boy scared me", "great I think to myself those big kids need to get out of here". She was really scared clinging to me and asking for yaya (her beloved lovie that stays at home) and I kept telling her it was ok I'm sure he didn't mean it it's ok. The woman with the children yelled to the boy to come down he had scared that little girl.

The boy came down and very quietly said he was sorry (he may of been around 10). I told him it was ok and thank you and told Katie see its all ok he didn't mean to scare you. She then says he was making noises. The woman with them is telling someone else that just came in what had happened and I over hear her say you know that growling noise he makes. So I tell her "ya she said he was making scary noises".

Ok so here is where my heart breaks and why several hours later I can't get the thought out of my head. She explained to me that the boy stutters a lot and makes noises and gets frustrated. OMG that poor child!! My baby was scared of him and all he was trying to so was talk! Katie obviously doesn't understand and I can understand why it scared her but I feel for that little boy. How awful to have little ones run crying to their mommy simply because of the way he talks.

I so want my children to have compassion and I know that there will be many times that we are faced with people of all kinds and that is really the only way they will learn. I can explain differences to them all the time but they are only 2 so they need a visual to understand and then how much can they really understand!!!

I don't want my babies to be scared but I also hate that their fear can hurt someone elses feelings. This mommy business just keeps getting more and more complicated!

I have NOT forgot

How I felt that day 7 years ago or how it felt to watch those towers fall with all those people inside. I have not forgotten all the hero's that ran inside thinking they would be bringing people out and instead ran into their own death. I have not forgotten watching people jump to their own death hundreds of feet in hopes of what.

I will always remember the way I felt when I turned on the television that morning a normal morning like every other and the pure terror I felt realizing this would not be a morning like any other.

I worked for a Dr's office and half our patients called to see if we were even open and the other half canceled their appointments to stay at home with their families close by. We had a TV in the office and kept in on all day for updates. I lived in another state away from my own family and I remember simply wanting to know that they were all at home and safe. When I found out my own mother was out of town and no one knew where she was because she was just on another business trip and forgot to mention it. I remember fearing for her alone and having no way to get home but at least she was safe.

I lived in an air force town and I remember the eerie quiet that night with no planes in the air or people on the road. Every channel was showing coverage of the attack on our country even the cable channels and in my lifetime I had never seen that before.

I still get chills thinking of that day and all the people that died. I also can't help but feel a great sense of pride that I live in America and am an American. There is no other country as great.

So today please take a moment to remember how you felt that day and say a prayer for all the families of those that gave their lives then and since and for all those that are fighting to protect us.

GOD BLESS THE USA!!!

Toddler Beds

I'm just a little stressed about the thought of toddler beds. I've always known that someday my kids would have to be moved out of their cribs but I was really hoping that day would be closer to kindergarten (only half kidding here). I'm not exactly sure what it is that stresses me out so much but let me tell you I'm having nightmares about it.

Potty training seemed way less scary to me than going to big beds. Part of it is that I get up at 3 AM to go to work 4 days per week and I don't want to fight them staying in bed. Part of it is that I have had so many people tell me that once they made the move to big beds they lost naps or naps became a challenge and since I get up at 3 I need MY nap! Really though I think that this is really the last part of the baby stage. I know in my head that they are almost 3 and not really babies anymore but cribs are the last line before the babyness is all gone I think.

Once I make the move I will no longer have babies and I'll never again have babies. I know that unless there is a MAJOR act of God I will never again have cribs in my house. I'm not ready to be through with the baby stage and move full force to toddlers.

The decision has been taken from me though and now I must make the jump and take the cribs away. I'm going to have surgery in October and I've been told I can't pick them up for 6 weeks afterwards thus they need to be able to get themselves in and out of bed. I'm going to have a part of my c-section reopened to have an incisional endometrioma removed and a hernia repair.

I'm happy that after pain for 2 years I finally have a diagnosis and finally a plan to make it go away. I'm even a little excited that there is some answer and it's not in my head. However I'm still a little scarred, not about the surgery but by the changes that must take place before hand.

I'll let you know when I get the beds and get them together and I'm sure I'll need lots of encouragement to get through it!!

Toddler Triplets can be fun!

Some days I can't wait for nap time and then I count down the minutes for bed. Sometimes I start thinking about opening a bottle of wine long before 5o'clock anywhere! Then there are days maybe even just hours that I think "wow this must be what true happiness is".

We go through phases of each some are very short and others last a while. Potty training triplets is definitely not high on my list of fun things and certainly not one of those things I'm sad I won't get to do again. However who ever said that diapers were more of a pain than having them potty training LIED! I may never again have a meal in a restaurant that isn't interrupted 50 times with "I need to potty". I may visit every bathroom between here and Oklahoma at least once and I will miss the ease of changing a diaper in 5 seconds and being done with it!

James is doing awesome, we had some tough days going through every pair of underwear the boy had and the girls love to remind him to "push your penis down". today we ran errands and were gone for about 3 hours and James kept his pull up dry the whole time and Katie wore panties and kept them dry! This was the first time I've attempted to leave the house without a pull up on any of the kids but she did great. Abigail still has a poop accident every couple of days and she couldn't really care less if her pull up gets wet while we are out but she does great at home.

I signed the kids up for gymnastics today and I'm so excited they are finally big enough to take any classes, up until now there had to be one adult per child and well, I'm a little out numbered!

Tonight after bath Katie snuggled on my lap and played with my hair and "cut" my fingernails and patted me. Then she said "I love you mommy". I'm hearing more and more of those precious, wonderful words these days without prompting and wow it feels good! They also like to tell me I'm pretty and I'm a good cooker. Is this what it feels like to be popular? Being looked up to and having a "group" think your cool? I never was the cool person in school but I sure feel like one of the cool group now!

They are so much fun when they aren't so much work! If only I could get them to clean up their messes and I could figure out a way to make them sit at the dinner table without a thousand spills. They love to play chase and hide n seek, and my personal favorite is watching them play ring around the Rosie with daddy. They comfort each other when they are sad and hurt and they talk to each other like real people.

I know this post is a lot of rambling today but I can't help but feel overwhelmed with love and appreciation for my children tonight and I really just wanted to share with everyone how much fun my kids are!

Pee Pee in the Potty!!

My baby boy is now pee peeing in the potty!!!! I'm so excited in 24 hours he has only had one accident. I'm so excited and proud of him I can't hardly stand it.

He is very proud of himself and even more excited to wear "panties". I keep trying to correct him that boys wear underwear but he has heard panties so long with the girls now he just isn't getting it.

Now if I can just figure out how to get him to hold it down when he pees so he quits peeing everywhere we would be doing wonderful. Poor Abigail was standing in front of him yesterday when he peed for the first time and he peed on her! It was very funny. I've told daddy that he has to teach him I can't but since daddy is only home for an hour in the morning and an hour at night before bed it is going to be really hard.

The really tough part is rewarding him and not the girls they don't really understand. It was one thing when they were potty training and I told him he couldn't have a treat because he didn't pee pee in the potty, they do so I can't use that line now. I've been using group rewards so far as in if James pee pees on the potty all day they all had m&m's last night. If James poops in the potty we can share I pack of smarties. Not sure what else to do since he isn't really into stickers like the girls were/are.

As for swimming I now have 3 future olympic swimmers! They have all lost their fear of the open water (not sure this is a good thing since we have a pool in our backyard). They all jump in the pool from the side and Abigail can even swim without her floats and loves to be pushed down so she can sit on the bottom. I insist she wear arm floats when I'm by myself but when there is someone else in the water she is doing great all by herself.

If I could only figure out now how to get them in swim lessons. I don't have any help and everyone requires 1 adult per child at this age so I guess we will have to wait one more year. Thats probably fine anyway since they would most likely forget everything in a year anyway.

Ok I gotta go buy some potty treats and boys pull ups! Yay maybe I can quit buying diapers by the time they are 3!!!!