I've convinced Andy that we need to start trusting the girls a little more so we have been taking them out in the front yard (or rather the driveway). This may not seem like a big deal, but it is as our driveway is a deathtrap and very steep... I see 3 little girls tumbling down that hill in my dreams. So we've taught them they can't go past one of the cracks and they have actually been listening! Last weekend I actually braved it and took them all to the park myself and had them walk home vs being pulled in the wagon. Again, they need to learn this and they won't unless we trust them a little... They need to learn how to hold each other's hands when crossing the street, but otherwise they did great :-) Once they got the hang of it, Bria tugged on her sister too hard and she took a spill and skinned her forehead - after that Stevie wasn't going to trust her sisters...
Here are pictures from tonight while playing in the driveway as we waited for Papa and Grandma Judy to arrive for the week!
This was my attempt to get a photo of Aven - she was hanging out in the car seat in the garage so we brought it out and she still didn't cooperate :-)
This past Friday we had a busy day - luckily I was able to work from home most of the day so I could join in on the festivities... Early Friday morning Declan's school had a Boosterthon fun run. Basically you contribute a certain amount of money per lap and the kids run as many laps as they can. It caps the laps at 35 and Declan ran that amount plus some... It was fun as we took the girls who got a kick out of it and we met some parents in Declan's class (plus half our neighborhood was there :-))
Here are some pictures from the fun run... Thank goodness the kindergarten class was early as it was so hot!
Aven...
Declan and the other kids just before they were to take off running!
Aven wanting to get out - we kept them contained as long as we could... Notice the butterfly wings that Stevie is wearing... Hey - it's hard getting 3 2-year olds out of the house and somewhere before 8 am!
Daddy and Bri Bri...
The man - he looks so old here!
Telling them how awesome he did...
Right after the fun run, we had the girls first gymnastics class - basically it was a trial class and then we can decide if we want them to join the class. I think it went really well! Aven and Stevie went right out with barely a look back and it took Bria almost until the end of the class to venture out. She's usually our scary cat, so it wasn't a surprise... As long as she could hang onto her and her sisters socks she seemed to do okay :-) At the end of the class the parents get to go out with the kids for them to show us their moves. All and all, I considered it a success and looking forward to Andy taking them each Friday (especially since they napped awesome!)
Aven on the parallel bars - this did bring back memories for me when I was like 5 and in gymnastics - I remember hating it because I could never do the splits... I'm still one of the least flexible people I know.
Aven was the most engaged and really paid attention and listened to the teacher - Stevie was hit or miss and Bria, well she wasn't having any of it. But hey 2 out of 3 - not bad!
This was once Bria ventured out and her and Stevie did their own thing while Aven was over paying attention.
When thinking about what to call this post I thought of all sorts of naked analogies, but then I thought that the google search may trigger some creepers, so I left it pretty clean. The reason for it is that since my last post, which was several weeks ago, it's been on rare occasion that Aven actually wore clothes.... The other 2 as well, but they tend to not be as opinionated as Aven. I think I've written about her aversion to clothes before, but it's gotten to the point where we've just given up. The good thing is that currently they don't go anywhere so it's not that big of a deal and honestly I just thought Aven would get over it and it was just a phase. Well we are on about a 3 week run of it and we even took her out in public with just a diaper on (I know, parents of the year over here). But she still prefers to be naked. So in an attempt to do something "positive" with the nudity, we decided to start the potty training endeavor with them all... I personally don't think they are ready, they don't understand the concept, they aren't ever dry when they wake up, they don't show any signs for being interested, they don't hate being in a dirty diaper - basically, they have shown no signs of being ready, but we needed to do something with all this nudity :-) So far, nothing has happened. They like being in underwear (or completely naked) and they like sitting on the potties (had to buy 3 since we only had one bathroom on the first level of our house and I was just picturing pushing and falling and a lot of pee - everywhere). But there has been no pee in any potty - there has been pee on the floor, pee in the pants and some #2 on the floor, but no pee in the potties yet... But we'll get there - not going to push it and it will happen when it happens...
Here are some pictures - it may not be working, but they sure are cute! Aven at the store with no clothes on. This is so her... I kept asking her if she wanted her dress on because it was a little chilly in the store - her response "NO"
And here's proof of her not wanting to wear clothes...
L to R: Stevie, Bria & Aven... You would think we would get at least one little pee pee out of this... Nope...
So excited about the potty!!
She looks like she is doing something right? Nope... But at least she has her rain boots on :-)
I think Aven has it figured out ;)
We have not only been potty training these past few weeks, a lot of other things have happened as well... Let me summarize... Declan started baseball (which is adorable, but very serious down in the south), he won Super Bee (which means he was a really good boy in school and was awarded the top award for the week), we signed the girls up for gymnastics (they start this Friday - yay), we found a regular baby sitter (who starts this Wednesday and will watch the girls once a week while Andy and Declan do a boxing class) and we did a family day at the pool (which is a big step with managing 3 2 year olds and a 6 year old in a big pool :-)) It's been a busy few weeks! Here are a few pictures...
Declan with "Super Bee" - he got to bring home the class journal and had to do something with Super Bee and then write about it. He chose to jump on the trampoline with him :-)
Bria...
Stevie hanging out in her underwear and rain boots - just another typically Sunday afternoon...
Aven working on her fitness...
I'm not sure what this is...
Ready for the pool (L to R: Stevie, Aven and Bria)
+ Declan
Daddy and his kiddos...
And here are a few videos from the past few days... Bria is talking up a storm - I mean full on sentences... The other night she was in the bath and we asked her if she wanted to get out and she said "no I'm plain with bubbles!" and today I helped her with something and she said "thank you momma" and I said you are welcome and that I loved her and she said "love you too momma" - she just melts my heart... We also taught her to say "shake your booty," but when she says it it sounds like "shake your boobies" and it's hilarious - plus her little dance makes it even better :-)
And here are the girls cheating for the badgers - go Badgers! Too bad it didn't help in our victory :-)
I'm a little delayed with the girls monthly progress, so I'm putting two posts into one!
Since I'm not traveling for the next few weeks, I felt ambitious and proposed to Andy that we should do something fun this weekend with the kiddos... So we went to breakfast and then decided to go to a beach! Who knew there were beaches near us :-) Actually it's about 15 minutes from us at one of the big lakes in the area. And we had a blast! I wasn't sure how the girls would do with the sand since I'm not sure they have ever seen sand (sad I know). But for the most part, they did great - and Declan of course LOVED it. The girls did surprise us with how they reacted (or rather we expected that they would react a specific way, but they changed it up on us)... Steve was no fear and was walking around and in the lake (huge shock), Aven wouldn't leave the towels and wouldn't step foot into the sand or water (until right before we were heading home of course) and Bria was hit or miss, but loved swimming with Daddy and Declan. I liked building the sand castles with the kids since I'm not a huge lake fan (i.e. slightly terrified of what's in lakes) and Andy and Dec were water logs. Overall, it was a fun day!
Bria digging in...
Stevie and Bria...
Aven, very unsure about the scary sand...
Declan happy as can be...
Daddy and his girls (B, S, A)
Aven - the only way that she would play with the sand is if she was sitting on a towel :-)
Daddy and Bria watching Declan swim...
Our little skinny minnie Stevie...
Stevie and Declan - BFFs...
Mommy and Stevie...
The girls turned 33 months a few weeks ago and here is what they are up too... It's a little abbreviated this month :-)
Aven: Aven is still our spunky little girl... She's so much like Declan was when he was her age, it will be interesting to see if she's like him as she grows up.
Nickname: Avie, Ave
Favorite Thing to Do: Jump, off of anything and everything
Favorite Food: Cereal and waffels
Favorite Toy: Anything her sister has
Favorite TV Show: Yo Gabba Gabba
Favorite Book: All of them
What She Doesn't Like: When her sisters take something she has
Things She Likes to Say: She is talking more and more, but still overall is the one that is the most difficult to figure out what she is saying. She likes to say her sisters name (Bria) and will try to say most things that you ask her to say, just not much unsolicited
Therapies: She's getting speech therapy along with her sisters and she loves it. It's adorable that when the therapist comes, they all sit in a circle and they actually pay attention to her, I mean they listen to her - it's unreal :-)
Bria: Bria is a big Daddy's girls... She always has been, but is more so now. She also continues to take her aggression out on her face. Yesterday while Andy and Dec were out and about, she fell off a stool and her tooth (the one good one after knocking out the other one) went through her lip. Yes, you read right her one front tooth, went one through one side of her lip and out the other side. I was a little nervous that I'd have to take her in, but I finally got the bleeding to stop. And I was happy that she still had a tooth there! She may have a little scar, but I'm thinking it won't be the last...
Nickname: Bri, Bri Bri, B-B
Favorite Thing to Do: Be by Daddy
Favorite Food: Cantalope and muffins
Favorite Toy: Little People (or anything she can put in her mouth)
Favorite TV Show: Yo Gabba Gabba
Favorite Book: All of them
What She Doesn't Like: To sleep... Not sure what happened here, but she rarely sleeps through naps and is up at least 1-2 times a night
Things She Likes to Say: She is a jabber jabber now... The latest things she says are "I'm coming" or "come on" (to her sisters as she pulls them somewhere). She also has taken a phrase from her brother and says "oh god" (not a huge fan). She loves saying "muffins," but mostly because she wants to eat them all the time and "please." She's also saying more 2 word sentences like "mine please," "I coming," "love you."
Therapies: She's getting speech therapy along with her sisters and she loves it.
Stevie: Stevie is still our independent little peanut. She doesn't always like to get sucked into what her sisters are doing and she ADORES her big brother. I really think those two will grow up to be best friends... and I'm sure her and him will end up sharing a room at some point.
Nickname: Just Stevie...
Favorite Thing to Do: Reading books
Favorite Food: Bananas (again)
Favorite Toy: Minnie Mouse figures
Favorite TV Show: Yo Gabba Gabba
Favorite Book: All of them (she likes books the most and she has a stack of them in her crib for night and nap time reading)
What She Doesn't Like: When someone doesn't do what she wants them to do or when someone takes what she is playing with
Things She Likes to Say: No, mine, bye bye and many other things that we ask her to say. She likes to walk up to you and say her jibber jabber (sounds like blah blah blah blah blah) and then say bye bye - it's really cute because she's telling you a story, but you have no idea what she's saying...
Therapies: She's getting speech therapy along with her sisters and she loves it.
L to R: Aven, Bria & Stevie
I get one CHEESE from Stevie, nothing from Aven and Bria is gone.
And last but not least, Declan. He seems to be acclimating to school more and more each day. He has his days where he acts out or doesn't want to go, but all and all it's going as well as can be expected...
It's finally here, the day we have been waiting for what seems like forever :-) The day went off without a hitch and he got on the bus with no problems... He even let me take pictures and smiled (GASP!) Andy and I didn't shed any tears, but I think I came pretty close... I was more anxious about him coming home than anything. Since he's a man to the core, he didn't have much to say about the day (I so hope that the girls talk my ear off about all things that happened during their days), but he did say that he LOVES his teacher, that he was disappointed because they didn't have recess, that he was happy Jack was there, that the day was too long and that he was glad they didn't do the "bee" program (which made me think he didn't behave all that well). But overall, I'm going to chalk this day up to a success!
Here are some photos from the day.
Yes, that says his favorite move is Twilight - parents of the year here :-)
He's already tired of pictures...
Video of him getting on the bus - what a big boy!!!
