Easter 2011

Totally forgot I wanted to write a little blurb about our Easter.  First off, mom stayed up until midnight Friday night shopping for and putting together Easter baskets for all three girls.  Secondly, mom stayed up until 1am on Saturday night finishing up stuffing Easter eggs and going to icaughttheeasterbunny.com to get just the right photo of the Easter Bunny "delivering" the girls' Easter baskets.  It was exhausting!!  I had the best intentions of going to the early sunrise service, but all that went out the window with my 1am bedtime!  So, Easter morning arrives and what does mom decide to do?  Sneak outside and hide all the Easter stuff so Laynie would think the Easter Bunny did it!  I even walked the length of the house on the side without shoes to make this happen.  One day, I'm going to tell her in my best "old person" voice...."I walked one mile without shoes in the cold and through thorns to deliver your Easter eggs to you."  I loved seeing the look on her face though when we opened the door to the backyard and saw all the treats that were hidden for her and Frankie.  Totally worth it!

Frankie got distracted by some squishy colored balls I bought and hid, so she didn't want to look for any eggs.  Laynie's basket was so full of stuff she could barely carry it, but she kept on going.  What a trooper!  LOL.  A later egg hunt proved successful when mom hid the aforementioned balls INSIDE the Easter eggs...go figure.

Dad and I actually got a little time to ourselves too!  I agreed to go for a ride on Dad's motorcycle.  We went to Town Square and sat and had ceviche and beers at a little Mexican restaurant there.  I was scared to be on the back of the bike, and boy did my thighs get sore from squeezing them so tight to hold on while we cruised down the 215, but it was so nice to feel like ME again.  I love being a mom more than anything, but even a little break from it now and then to remind Jessica who Jessica is, is certainly nice.  Bonus that me and dad had a mini-date.

For dessert, I made an awesome rainbow cake.  It was time consuming, but so worth it!

Great, great day!  Next year, Gabi will be joining the egg hunt!!

XOXO

My sweetie pies.....

As things happen, I know I will forget all these little details...so I just wanted to take a minute to write down some of the things from the past few days:

Laynie:
-I bought Laynie some plain Jergens lotion at the store a few days ago because my mom and I just didn't like the smell of the J & J one she was using, but she has become OBSESSED with it!  The other day I came in from who knows where and the whole house smelled like Jergens....even Gabi!  Today I took Laynie to her little weekly playdate with her friend Lexi from dance and as I was chatting with Lexi's mom, Laynie was incessantly buzzing in my ear whispering something I couldn't make out while I was talking.  I finally stopped talking long enough to ask her what she was saying and she says, "Tell Miss Jessica (Lexi's mom) that I have Jergens lotion and that I love it."  LMAO!!!

- This weekend Laynie concocted her own "Hip Hop Moves".  She moves her feet around all crazy-like and jerks her upper body.  Maybe she'll create a future dance craze???


Frankie:
-Frankie is talking so much now.  I have a little song I sing to them while I am bathing her and Laynie to the tune of Justin Timberlake's "Rock your body"....but I say...."Gonna wash your body....." and then I say the name of the girl who I am washing.  For Frankie, I say "Gonna wash your body....Frankie J."  Since singing this to her just a few days ago, she now refers to herself not as Fa-fee anymore, but as the much more grown-up "Frankie J."  I love it!! 

-She also has really started responding to discipline.  She might not listen the first couple of times someone tells her to do something, but once the voice has been raised, she backs off with the cutest "OK".....(i.e Frankie hits Laynie.  Nana or I tell her not to do it, but she keeps on doing it.  Next thing, I finally shout out to stop hitting her sister....then comes the "OK".)

-I turned Frankie's crib around to prevent her from jumping out of it as I know she definitely could, but now she and Laynie have taken to hanging off the side of the crib that was in the back.  It is higher and sort of curves outward, making for a perfect bar to hang off of....NOT!


Gabi:

- Gabi isn't really napping all that well during the day.  She gets super cranky and we know she's ready for a nap.  She even falls right to sleep without us in the room, and just lays in her crib until she puts  herself to sleep (now that she's a thumbsucker).  Problem is, sometimes she only naps for like 15-20 minutes!!!!  I tried even letting her cry it out a few times, until she cried for like 20 minutes with no stopping.  She is my baby after all, and only a teeny 5 month old, so I give in.  I feel so bad to see her with tears streaming down her cheeks!  Breaks my heart.  So, we get her up and deal with her crankiness until a sufficient 1 - 2 hours has passed and she's ready for another 20 minut-er.  It makes for a hard day for me and Nana!

- Sad to admit, but Gabi loves Yo Gabba Gabba.  Frankie has us watching two or three episodes (Flying Saucer, Camping and Jungle Adventure) over and over and over and over and over, so my poor baby has become accustomed to this as background music.  She laughs and laughs when the music comes on and at random places during the show.  We lie her on her side and she turns her little head right on over and WATCHES the whole thing.  I feel bad that my 5 month old is already a TV-aholic, but on above-mentioned days that she is a tired, cranky mess, a few Yo Gabba Gabba episodes can get us from one nap to another.  =)

Catching up

It's been awhile since my last post, and in this house, LOTS can happen in just a few short days!!

Laynie is now READING!  Woot-woot!  I was berating myself for slacking on working with her on reading when I decided to head to the library for some easy readers.  I picked out one that was really easy for her....."Sam ran up the bag....", etc, etc... and her confidence just took off once she saw that she had really read her very first book.  Poor baby, she started driving us all crazy reading her one book over and over and over, but we all happily obliged because she was just so proud.  Needless to say, mama and Laynie headed back to the library the next day to procure a few more books.  I am one proud mama, and hope that Frank and Gabster are just as interested in learning as Lane has always been.  We are still working on getting Laynie to listen, which has turned into a huge task.  I gave her the (seemingly simple) goal of not yelling at Nana or getting in trouble for not listening for three days in a row and I promised a trip to Circus Circus.....we are now 5 days into it and not one day has gone as planned.  I think I need to adjust her goal a little, but it seems like something a 5 year old could handle, que no??? 

Frankie.....oh, my Frankie.  This little girl is my firecracker fo' sho'!!  She is a typical 2 year old who is just wanting to assert her independence.  She has changed so much in the last couple of months.  It seems like she has grown up since Gabi joined us, which makes me a happy, but a little sad.  I hope the whole "middle child" syndrome doesn't happen to her.  She is a much treasured and adored member of our family.  In fact tonight I asked Laynie to give me and Frankie just a half hour to spend together.  It's a rare day when Frankie and I get time to ourselves, and though Laynie wasn't thrilled, she actually agreed.  Frankie and I had so much fun just jumping on the trampoline and looking up at all the airplanes.  I found out tonight that she is afraid of bugs, because she kept on thinking all these little flying around leaves and odd sticks stuck in the trampoline netting were bugs and she would just hold on to me so tight until I would show her that they weren't bugs at all.  Frankie now loves the pinching cheeks game made famous by me and my mom.  She actually laughs the harder I squeeze and then wants me to tell her "I'm sorry" right after.  Ain't no sorry coming from her when she pinches the holy heck out of mine though...LOL!!!  She is obsessed with all the airplanes that fly over our house and calls all the jets/airplanes that leave that trail of smoke behind them "rockets".  I have officially given up on potty training for at least a couple of weeks.  She doesn't even want to try and cries for her diaper when I want to put her on the potty :::sigh::: so what can I do?  I know it'll happen all on "Frankie time".

Gabi continues to grow and change much to my chagrin!  I want her to stay a baby forever since she is my last baby.  We've taken to calling her "little bitty" which Laynie says in the funniest voice, I hope I record it so I never forget how she says it.  Gabi is now sleeping at the very least from 8:00pm until 4:00am.....what a Godsend!  A few mornings she has even made it as late as 5:15 or 5:30.  It is so wonderful, as only other moms who have gone without sleep can know.  Gabi does the CUTEST thing when she is getting tired or trying to put herself back to sleep and she rubs the back of her left hand back and forth across her forehead.  Oh, how I love it!!  She has taken to sucking her thumb, and I don't care.  We use the binky still, but she usually spits it out in favor of the thumby.  Now we're talking Jessica's familiar old stomping ground!  Finger and thumb sucking girls are my specialty!!! I honestly don't know what I was thinking trying the binky......I love to tickle Gabi and make her do this half laugh, half holding her breath thing.  Her body is telling her that it tickles, but her brain can't make the connection that she should laugh when I do it.  She actually even makes her whole face red from holding her breath!  As with the other girls, her lovely skin is just like butter.  I don't think I could EVER kiss those big ol' cheeks of hers enough.  They are so soft and yet so firm because they are just oh so big.  And her legs??  Talk about cottage cheese from thigh to ankle!  OMG...I love Gabi through and through as anyone reading this could tell. 

Other random things:

-Gabi is really reaching out and grabbing ANYTHING we put in front of her.  She loves all her little toys!  She is yelling and blowing raspberries and being her usual happy self most of the day, and is officially napping in her crib in her room during the day.  At night, she is still in the pack and play in my room, and I can't resist bringing her to my bed after she wakes at 4 or 5 in the morning.

- Frankie has also officially become a card-carrying member of the "We love Gabi" club.  She just wants to always hold her little sis' hand and give her gentle kisses and strokes.  Kisses from Frankie are a rare commodity for the rest of us, but she plants them on Gabi freely!

-Laynie is the chattiest of the chatters.  Oh my baby, I adore you...but you can go on and on like nobody's business!  You have the greatest imagination though.  Today we listened to "Just the Way You Are" by Bruno Mars on the way to Subway, and you couldn't stop smiling or keep asking me if I thought your eyes, hair, and smile are beautiful when I told you that this was my song to you.  You even asked Nana and Daddy when we got home if you would never need makeup and if you were the most beautiful girl in the world.  Of course, my love...you are!

I hope to post more frequently to avoid novels such as this one, but my love to my babies as always!!
Hugs and a million kisses from your mom who absolutely adores each one of you.....

A great Sunday!

So after getting off to a rough start...we had a wonderful family day together. 

First, the bad:
Laynie is having problems listening, especially to her Nana.  It's terrible, but Nana is the only one who is ALWAYS ready to play with her, and even ALWAYS ready to comfort her when she gets in trouble with me or her dad, but Nana is the one she listens least to.  Nana can ask her to do something multiple times, but she acts as though she doesn't even hear Nana talking!  She does the same to me sometimes too, but I will yell out what I'm saying in a loud enough voice so as to command her attention.  Nana just says something and then lets it go if Laynie doesn't listen.  Well, this weekend Daddy was home and he got wind of what was happening, and saw firsthand how Laynie is treating her Nana....and let's just say he was NOT happy!  We have been trying to plan a trip to Disneyland for awhile now, and today kind of told her we weren't going to be able to go if she doesn't stop treating Nana bad and start listening to us grown-ups more.  I thought the issue ended there, but when we got home from church, she started the same thing up again!  Nana asked her to get down from the couch because she was almost falling on Gabi, but she again acted like she didn't even hear anyone talking to her.  I had this big grandiose plan of planting flowers today, but even had to use THAT as a punishment and postpone it until another day since she continued with the same behavior.  I felt so bad, and thought surely the day had been soured.......but then......

Daddy decided to lift her spirits by taking her on a ride on his motorcycle.  My McGyver rigged up two belts as a sort of seat-belt to keep her on the bike and instructed her how to hold on and away they went around the block.  She loved it, and it was great to see her so carefree and laughing with her dad.  He got going pretty well and was even leaning into the turns as they wound around the block 3 or 4 times, and so was she that little lady of mine!  Then when the babies got up from their naps, we headed to Town Square to enjoy the sunshine and have fun together.  Daddy and I took turns chasing Frankie and Laynie around while the other stayed with Gab, who was just so happy to be out.  I am proud to report that daddy and I made it through our first sit-down dinner at a nice restaurant (Claim Jumper) with three kids.  It was a little crazy, but Laynie is getting so easy, Gabi is still a dream, and Frankie stayed relatively calm with some help from Mozzarella Sticks and mama's phone.  Hey.....we do what we can to get through a meal like that!  LOL.
Finally, it was off to Baskin Robbins for an evening treat.  It felt so great to be out like that, and I told Daddy that I felt a sense of accomplishment that we did it all without meltdowns!  Sure wish Nana could have joined us, but she was out shopping when we left and enjoyed her "me" time! 

Daddy and I made a great team together today.  We made some agreements between us that can only make us be better parents and better to each other.  Thanks for that, daddy! 

I love my family.

Other stuff I want to remember about today:

-Laynie is so cuddly to me.  We went to church together and she spent the whole time wrapped around my arm (when we were sitting) and leg (when we were standing) and kissing my hands and arms.  I want to live in this moment and be thankful I have her love now knowing she will inevitably not like me much later.

-Daddy was making loud noises while we were getting the girls ready for bed (kind of sounding like he was fake-crying), and Gabi got the cutest and biggest pouty-lips like she was going to cry, too.  CUTE!!!!

-Frankie was SO excited when we told her we were going to get ice cream.  She kept on saying it over and over and when we got there, she wanted to eat both out of her cup (Chocolate) and mine (Pink Bubble Gum) with the little bitty tasting spoon.

Crazy day.......

I should have known what kind of day today was going to be when Laynie came in and woke me up at 5:30am just so I could "cover her".  Ugggghhhh!  I was so mad to be aroused out of my precious sleep, but to make matters worse, she wedged her way in between the bed and Gabi's pack and play to wake me, and in the process....of course she woke up Gabi.  So, mama's been awake since 5:30, and then we had Gabi's 4-month checkup! 

Gabi got her ears pierced today and also had to get shots.  It was the saddest thing!  First we waited over an hour in the room for the doctor to come in.....then they did the deed and pierced her poor little earlobes.  Before they came in, I was just kissing and kissing her little ears thinking about what they had coming to them!  She cried like crazy!  Enough for me to feel so bad about even doing it in the first place!  I mean, it is just about vanity....but so nice that she'll never even remember the pain and be able to wear earrings the rest of her life!  LOL.  They look so adorable.  I'm sorry for you, my little Gabster!  Then, I had just gotten her calm from the piercing when in walked the nurse with the shot tray.  Oh Lord......it just wasn't her day today!  To top it all off, today there are up to 60 mph winds in Vegas, so when we left the building, she just couldn't breathe one bit.  She's been asleep since 10:00 and now it's almost 2:00....she had a rough morning.

Other stuff from the past few days:

- Laynie pulled all the weeds from behind the trampoline because "that's what big girls do" is help mama.  Her reward after doing that was getting a magazine I had bought her the other day that had articles about her man...JB.

-We bought Frankie a nightgown the other day at the store and she LOVES it.  She literally didn't take it off for two whole days!  She is also getting a little hard to put to bed.  Now that she's really having fun, I know it must be hard to have to stop to take a nap.

-Gabi weighed in at a whopping 16.2lbs!  Those cheeks!  Those thunder thighs!!  What's not to love???

Gabi my love......

I just had to write about my Gabi.  She is a dream...the best baby in all the land!  Last night was the first night she slept all night from 8:00pm until 4:30am, and today she has taken an hour and a half nap, and now almost three hour nap!  The binky is still in effect for falling asleep, but she has taken to sucking her right thumb, while the rest of her fingers splay across her face.  For the past two nights, I haven't given her a binky while we're sleeping....YES!  I refused to be a slave to that little piece of silicone or whatever it is.  It paid off!  While she has officially become a thumb-sucker, she has also officially become a "self-soother"!

Yesterday we went to the mall, and even though it was a crazy experience (I of course, had the most challenging and difficult transaction EVER at the store we went to....the saleslady absolutely hated me by the time we left) of shopping and sweating my butt off in the store, Gabi still smiled and stayed absolutely amused by us while in her stroller.  We went through a whole 3 hour journey there, and I'm not kidding you, that child didn't cry even once!  She smiled and smiled and smiled, and smiles her way deeper into mama's heart everyday!!  I love her!

Other things she is doing:
-She found her feet!  I love seeing her playing and pulling on her little feet.  She even got one into her mouth and was trying to suck on it night before last!

- Gabi LOVES blowing raspberries!  It looks like she is gearing up to say a full sentence or something, but all that comes out of her mouth is "Pffft!"  LOL.

-At the store last night, we bought her some clothes that was 12 mo. and it FIT!  It is a little bit big, but of course will fit her all summer.  12 month clothes on my little 4 month old!  She is a chunky monkey!!!!

- We started her on oatmeal cereal and both bananas and apples.  She loves it!  No surprise there.

Potty Training Woes.....

Today I am in a mood....a BAAAAAD mood!  I have had it up to here with potty training Frankie!!  Potty training another human being has got to be one of the most challenging things any parent has to contend with.  I've heard the rumors about the "golden age" when a child is ready to be potty trained and how "easy" it is when they get there, but I haven't personally experienced that or know anyone who has!  Today is a perfect example of how frustrating it can be at times:  Frankie woke up, downed two BIG glasses of apple juice (I wanted her to have plenty that way she'd HAVE to go potty) and then didn't go potty for almost THREE hours!!!  My poor mom and I followed her around like potty hawks screeching "Do you have to go potty?  Sit on the potty! Let's go pee-pee on the potty!" and other such ridiculousness.  Anyway, mama had the bright idea that I would take her to her dance class in panties covered by a pull-up to decrease messes, and 1 minute before we left to dance class....you got it - she peed.  Lots of pee because she had been holding it all in for three hours.  Inevitably we were late for dance class, and I made a total idiot of myself by berating my little 2-year old with taunts of "OK, I guess you're a baby.  Come here BABY and let me put on your diaper!" to Frankie.  Hello!  What does Frankie know or care what I say?  In the back of my mind I thought about all the experts who say to not make potty training a bad experience and to always give positive feedback, and yet I just couldn't stop myself.  Geez.

I decided to just take a break for now to give us a little sanity....or at least I decided that until the next time she poops and makes a huge mess.  Then we'll all be back on the potty training wagon!