Quick 5

Do I really see leaf buds on the trees, or are my new contacts messing with my brain?

1.  This Spring Break has been lovely.  Not remarkable, but quite lovely.  Lee has been able to work from home most of the week, so we've all been together.  I love the slower pace and not having to get a lot done.  On Monday we went to MOPS and I had to stay for a meeting afterward, so I brought lunch for the girls to eat.  Eating at the church may have been the highlight of Alaina's week.  Or life.  She was pretty excited, so it's hard to tell which. 

2.  I suppose another highlight was our time at the park.  The girls love the park so much.  Even Bria grinned in her Stink Face the whole time.  It was the first time Bria had been to the park when she was able to be out of her stroller.  As soon as she gets the walking thing down I'll let her toddle all over the place.  She'll love it even more then.

3. I've learned that if one of the girls asks "Do you want to take a picture of me?" then then answer should always be "Yes!"  Here is one such occasion:

She was pretty proud of the tower she made

4. Things I thought I wouldn't have to say to Bria until she was at least two years old:  "Bria, please don't rub hot dog in your hair!"  Speaking of Bria, that girl will probably be walking within the next two weeks.  She's taking tons of risks that we've never seen before, like standing freestyle in the middle of the room (it only lasts about 20 seconds, but she's trying!) and taking one step before chickening out and dropping to the floor.  But she's doing it on her own, so we give her two weeks before she takes many steps. 

Look Ma, no hands!  (Yes she IS leaning against the fence.)

5. Perhaps the biggest news of the household is the fact that we are now the proud owners of an unlimited texting plan.  I don't really want to talk about how or why it took us so long to make this change.  The point is we can now text without fear of the 20 cent charge each time AND we can communicate with the world in the way that most people feel the most comfortable.  Apparently we may need to learn texting lingo, but I'm hoping that it comes with time.  (I still don't know what LFTBIT means, Becky.  Believe me, I've googled.)

Good bye March!  We send you on your way with many smiles.

Quick 5

The idea that winter is over and spring has begun does wonders for the soul.  (Even if it does snow tonight.)

1.  Last weekend was the annual Missions Fair at church.  It was the best Missions Fair I had ever been to.  The format was excellent.  I wish you all could have been there.  Alaina and Joya were able to help out too, by  handing out programs and kid bags.  The kid bags were full of coloring books, crayons, maracas, and snacks because the service was a family service and all kids over the age of 3 were in the service with the adults.  Alaina did her job well, even chasing down kids who didn't make it to the table to pick up their bag.  I believe her exact words were "There's a kid!  I'm gonna get em!"

The Russian Twins

Alaina and the beloved Gillett girls

Clearly these two are from China

2.  I got to volunteer in Alaina's class on Monday.  It was my second time volunteering, but my first time with Alaina actually in the class, since the first time I went she stayed home sick.  I went with the class to PE and watched them play a game of Space Tag.  It was fascinating.  Basically the coach set up a couple dozen "space stations" (hula hoops) in a large circle around the gym, and put mats in the middle.  Then two kids became the "aliens" and had to tag the other kids with their "alien fingers" (foam noodles.)  The kids then run from space station to space station, trying not to get tagged.  Once they're tagged, they have to go stand on the mat in the middle until someone else rescues them.  Alaina, it turns out, likes to play it safe.  She would just hop from station to station, or jump outside the hoop, taunt the alien and jump back in at the slightest concern that the alien may or may not be headed her way.  Most other kids just ran around like crazy people, because it really was no big deal to get tagged.  They'd stand on the mat for about a minute before someone came to get them off.  But Alaina didn't want to risk it.  That's probably exactly how I would have played too.

3.  Bria had a rough few nights of sleep for some unknown reason.  Maybe she's teething or growing.  I don't know.  All I know is I would put her to bed at 6:40 (like usual) and then I'd hear her start to talk around 7:30.  And then she'd chat with herself until about 10:00.  Then she'd get bored and start to yell.  Then she'd get mad and start to scream.  And I've trained her in such a way that she doesn't fall asleep on me, so if I went in to rock her, it would just prolong the falling asleep.  So I'd have to let her scream it out.  And that usually took an hour and a half or so.  So for two nights in a row we were finally getting to sleep around 1:30.  It was fine and all for her; she still gets to take her 4 hours worth of naps during the day.  But this momma was a bit cranky.  Thankfully last night was back to normal.

4.  Next week is Spring Break.  And I have zero plans.  MOPS on Monday.  Alaina seems to have her heart set on going to Target.  That's it.  Part of me feels like I should make the week amazing, and part of me is just looking forward to getting up at 5:50 every day instead of 5:30.  Maybe it's the poor sleep talking, but I feel like I just want the week to be a week of rest.

5.  Once again, this seems to be a quick 4.  So I'll let Joya see you out:

Welcome Spring!

Quick 5

Question: does having pizza (pie) count as a valid celebration of Pi Day?  Does anyone actually celebrate Pi Day?

1.  The name of the game this week has been Sort and Throw.  We've been talking forever about getting our basement in order and planning a garage sale this summer.  For some unexplained reason both Lee and I were extremely motivated this past weekend and we knocked out our basement.  It helped to come up with a plan (and don't ask me why it took almost TWO YEARS to come up with this plan.)  The plan was to move all the stuff we wanted to keep into a room and move all the stuff we wanted to sell into the great room.  Simple right?  Just the act of finally separating it all was so awesome.  Also, it helped to set aside boxes of memories and all my craft stuff boxes to go through at a later date, because you can get bogged down for days on stuff like that.  Anyway, our basement now has the look that our places always got when we were moving, because it is cleaned up and boxes are stacked nicely.  I don't know where this motivation came from, but I'm trying to ride this wave as far as it will go.

2.  In other home improvement news I finally got curtains for our bedroom.  Our bedroom has had ONE thing on its walls for these past 21 months: the Chick-fil-a Cow Calendar.  But I found curtains that I liked.  And now we love having curtains.  How did we live so long without them?  First, it blocks out the lights that shine from the apartments behind our house right into our bedroom.  Second, I believe it's made our room so much quieter, again since there is a parking lot behind our house and whatnot.  It's the little things.

I never really envisioned having a purple room, but that's the way it seems to be going.

3.  Slowly but surely I'm adding chores to Alaina's repertoire.  Her newest is drying the dishes after they've been washed.  She's tall enough and responsible enough not to drop them.  And I love having her help out.  For some reason she's in a honeymoon phase with it, and if she hears me at the sink she runs over and grabs the towel.  Mostly I love having a completely empty sink at the end of the night.  I knew having kids would pay off eventually.

4.  These days of late winter/early spring are sure moody.  The temps will climb up to a pleasant height, only to be dropped the next day by cold wind and snow.  So we're trying to take advantage of the warmth as we can.  Lee got home from work yesterday and asked me if the girls would want to go for a walk.  The answer is OF COURSE.  And he took all three, so I had an hour of peace and quiet to cook dinner and do whatever I felt like.  AND it got their wiggles out.  I know, we're slow learners, but maybe this should be a regular thing.

5.  Looks like today's Quick 5 is a Quick 4.  I'll let Bria see you out:

Thanks for stopping by!

Quick 5

Everybody ready to spring forward?  No?  See why March is the worst?

1.  We've been driving in silence for three weeks.  The radio/CD player/Tape deck died in our van three weeks ago.  We should have seen it coming; it fritzed out for a few weeks before it kicked the bucket.  But on a Tuesday, as I was backing out of the garage to run errands before picking Alaina up from school, it just died.  No clock.  No nothing.  I miss the clock.  But I really miss the music.  Joya and Alaina have been filling in when they can, but it's not the same.  But tomorrow we will have our new one installed.  Our Musical Exile will come to an end.  And there will be much rejoicing.

2.  I ended up taking Alaina to urgent care last Saturday.  She had been complaining of a headache, but I thought it was just her getting used to her glasses.  But after her nap she was still complaining so I took her temp.  I kept getting readings of 105.4 and 106.  I called the doctor to see if I should be concerned, because that is a pretty high fever.  And I never want to be one who freaks out about fevers, but I'd love to meet a parent of a kid who has had a febrile seizure who doesn't feel the urge to panic.  Anyway, after asking Alaina a bunch of questions, the doctor recommended that I get her to urgent care.  I know she was concerned about meningitis.  The point is, she didn't have meningitis, and we still don't know what her deal was, but I did learn two things.  First, a high fever for a kid Alaina's age is not life or death, like I felt it might be.  They do want to know what causes that high a fever, but her brain was not going to fry.  Second, the new Children's Hospital with an Urgent Care at Lucent and C-470 is a really great facility.  I highly recommend it for all your urgent kid health needs.  It also has an ER for kids, but you can just tell them you're there for urgent care and they'll bill accordingly.

3.  I know it's not supposed to be a big deal, but it is.  I've been getting used to soft contacts all week.  It's been one of the more frustrating experiences of my life, right up there with learning to type and learning to drive a stick shift.  But I consider those two things two of my greatest accomplishments, and so I know I'll feel the same way about these blasted things soon.  Not yet.  But after a demonstration from Lee last night, I feel like today might be the day that I conquer it. 

4.  Along the soft contact lines, I feel like maybe I taught Alaina a great lesson this week.  She came with me to get the contacts, because we needed an adjustment on her glasses.  I knew it would take a few minutes so I brought the Kindle for her play on.  I didn't realize it would take a full hour.  They made me put them in three times and take them out two times.  And I had to do it with Alaina watching me.  Watching me fail and get so frustrated.  But I hope she learned something about not giving up and about how making mistakes is okay.  I didn't swear or anything.  And maybe she won't even remember it.  But I'll always remember that she was watching.

5.  That's it.  I'll just leave you with my smiling pretty girls: