Party at our house!!

OK so this fourth of July, mom had the great idea that we would be hosting our neighborhood party at our house....complete with a HUGE water slide, water balloon fight, lots of food and TONS of people!  It was a fabulous time, and I have the best neighbors who all stuck around and helped us clean up.  Matt was thrilled not too happy about the grass issue, as we had a mud pit in our backyard after the continuous splashing of the water slide, but overall we had a grand time.  We had over 70 people at our house, and my kitchen floors took the worst of it.  It made my night, though, to see Laynie having a blast with her neighbors and friends.  We are so lucky to live in such a great neighborhood! We also had a grand finale for the fireworks show that would have rivaled any on the Strip.  One of the neighbors pulled up with literally a truck full of fireworks.  I think like 57 of the big huge, shooting in the sky (ahem....illegal) ones.  It was pretty cool.

Other highlights of the day included the icky weather which threatened to ruin our whole day (see pics with water slide...clouds and rain all day until about 5:00pm), Gabi's meltdown at the end of the day (see above for pic), mom (me) getting stung by a wasp at the beginning of the party, the wonderful bike decorating contest and parade.  Good times!!!

catching up.....again

Wow. Has it already been 9 months since my last post? So much for blogging more often! Sheesh. Just wanted to make a quick entry about my little loves. Laynie is the most beautiful 6-year-old I know. She has the best heart. She finished kindergarten reading at the highest level of all her classmates! She is still my sensitive Susan, but she is gaining more confidence through spending more time with her neighbor friends and she has recently started karate. She is my BFF. She is also a paper hog, constantly making signs and art and all kinds of stuff. She loves Justin Bieber and has a wall full of JB posters!!

Frankie is still a little firecracker, but when she smiles, she can light up a room. She is learning more about how to be a big sister, and she and Gabi are having fun spending time together (when Frankie isn't hitting her). She loves her lalaloopsy dolls and these two little people dolls named Shinny and Barbara. She has a great imagination and can play by herself just making up all kinds of stories.

My Gab is certainly growing up. She is quite a little babbler (more than the other girls were at this age)and it is amazing to hear more of her babbles turning into words. She loves to say things like "uh oh" and "oh no" and I love to hear her say her own name. It sounds like "Gah-bee". Most importantly, she sure adores her Nana. I think her favorite place is sitting on Nana's lap, sucking her fingers.

I continue to be so blessed by these daughters of mine. Summer is here and we have had our moments, but I thank God for them everyday.

My little love angel....a mom's journey to provide self-confidence to her daughter.

I am writing to remember this because I hope that one day I can reflect on the strong, resilient, confident woman Laynie will become and laugh about incidences such as these that cause me to worry so much!  We went to our first Girl Scouts meeting last Friday.  Once we arrived, Laynie immediately clung to my leg and didn't want to venture out with the other girls, who had already all aggregated together and were happily playing together (of course....we arrived LATE!  It just wouldn't be me if we were ever on time!)  After a few minutes, she spotted her "BFF" from school and ran over to me to share this joyous news.  Of course, I did have a moment of pause when I saw that this BFF didn't seem to feel the same amount of joy Laynie did at realizing that they were both going to be in the same troop, but I thought she was just playing and would warm up to Laynie once a few minutes passed.  In fact, I could hardly pay attention at the meeting because I couldn't stop watching Laynie's interaction with this little girl.  The little girl was so blatantly ignoring Laynie it was silly, and what made it worse was that Laynie just kept on following her all over the place, trying to start a conversation, lavishing compliments on the girl, you name it.  At one point the little girl even called Laynie's name until she looked up from what she was doing, and then when Laynie started to go over to her, she walked away.  I tried directing Lane to play with some of the other girls that were at the park, whether they were in our G/S troop or not....anything to make her stop following this girl around!  But my baby is very determined when it comes to a friend treating her badly.  She will pursue that person to no end to try to get them to "like" her or treat her well.  It was so hard to watch.  Anyway, a few moments later, Laynie ran over to ask if she could go on the swings with the other girls.  As she ran over to join the others, her little friend sort of paused and held her hand out to Laynie and I silently breathed a sigh of relief thinking "She waited for her."  After a few seconds of talking, the girl proceeded on to the swings, but Laynie came back towards our table.  I got lost in the conversation of the troop leader for a minute, and looked up again only to see Laynie carrying the little girl's SHOES to her.  I jumped up from the table to ask her what she was doing.  She said "She asked me if I would get her shoes for her."  I felt like crying.   I did cry.  I told her to put the shoes down and tell her friend to come get them herself.  Had this been a random act of kindness of Laynie, fine.  Had this been a reciprocation of some earlier kindness shown to Laynie by the girl, fine.  But this?  The girl ignored her for a good hour and then only paid attention to her to request her to get her shoes?!?!?  I didn't know what to do.  Since there didn't seem to be anything to do, I just brushed it off since I didn't let her get the shoes for her.  Laynie continued following her around the park playground.  After awhile, Laynie asked if she could go climb on this mountain-y thing with the girl and some of the others.  I let her, but with some trepidation as there was a recent random act of violence in Las Vegas in which a young girl was murdered while walking home alone, and I wasn't going to be able to see her on the mountain thing.  After a few minutes, I couldn't stand that I wasn't able to see her, and had pretty much had enough of seeign all this by now, so I went over and carried her shoes to her to tell her it was time to go.  Laynie is deathly afraid of heights, so when I went over to get her, she was up on the mountain on her hands and knees crawling slowly while her "friend" was nowhere to be found.  Laynie needed me to help her down and she said "Mama, I'm so glad you came to get me.  I was so scared up there."  When I asked her why she had climbed up there knowing she was afraid, she said "She wanted me to."  How can it be that this loving, kind ,beautiful, smart little girl I have can be so easily persuaded by peer pressure already?  I am constantly questioning myself and whether or not I provide Laynie constant affirmations of her self-confidence and self-worth.  If she knew she was all the things I listed above and more, why would she continue to seek out the friends who don't treat her right?  I'm at a loss.  I ache for my girls and all that there is to come in the way of relationships with other girls.  I knew it would come someday, but at 5 years old?

School days, school days.......

Laynie has officially started school.  I can hardly believe 5 years have gone by so fast and my little baby is now a big girl.  I feel a little guilty for sending her to all-day Kindergarten when I am a stay at home mom, but I am confident that I made the right choice in doing so.  Many teachers have reassured me that all-day kinder is the way to go (for those that can afford paying $325 a month for their PUBLIC education!) and she seems to love it so far, so my mind has been put to rest.  My heart?  That's another story.  I walked away that first day of school feeling great.  She seemed happy when I left her, (didn't she?) and I am happy to have a little more time for some one on one with Frankie and Gabi, but as I started to drive away, I was so overcome with emotion!  When I pulled back in the garage, I immediately began to miss her and the countdown began to 3:26 when I could hurry to pick her up.  It didn't make it any easier to walk around the house that day and see her million and one notes to me.  She is really getting good with her writing and constantly wants to practice, so we go through a ream of paper pretty often.  Anyway, if this little babe of mine doesn't write at least three times a day a note that says "Mom I love you" or a heart with "Mom" in it or some other profession of her love for me, I would be shocked!  I love my little BFF. So everywhere I looked were all these love notes from her to me, and the house seemed so quiet (Then Frankie started her daily ritual screaming and I was brought back to my LOUD reality)!  Today marks the end of her first full week, and we have made it.  I can hardly wait for this weekend to be able to see her all day long, until Sunday night when I'm sure I'll be ready for school again.  =)

Catching up......

Wow, has it really been a month and a half since my last blog entry?!?!?  WTH?????  Well, that totally coincides with me going back to school...so it makes total sense.  This time, I'm back for a second bachelor's degree in nursing instead of the paltry ADN I was once going for.  I only needed a few more classes so figured why not go for the big kahuna and get financial aid while I'm at it!  Woo!!!  My summer schedule is Pathophysiology, Organic/Biochemistry, and English Composition II, so now you know why I haven't been on here in forever!

What's new?!?!?  So much!  These girls are changing every single day and if I were better at this, I could surely make an entry everyday about something funny or memorable that one or all of them did.  Let me make one big catch-up.....

Laynie:  Since my last entry, Laynie has finished Pre-K.  She is so excited to go to Kindergarten next year, and I was super lucky to have her get our neighbor Pavlova as her teacher!  She had a bit of a rough time this year, bit I am so confident that all the trials and tribulations she went through are going to make her a strong and more empathetic person.  This year was all about Madi.  Madi, Madi, Madi....that was a name that will be burned in my mind forever!  Madi was an evil little girl who made Laynie's life hell this year.  She is a little meanie-pants, but I think that just by dealing with her everyday, Laynie learned a little bit about standing up for herself.  My little soft-spoken sweet girl was able to say "Stop, I don't like when you do that" and "Don't be mean to me!" like a champ by the end of the year.  While she would NEVER have it in her to be mean to anyone, I think it is so important that she learn to not let others run all over her.  She had a dance recital June 17th, and she is now an old pro at it!  This was her 4th recital!  She did amazing!  After school finished, she had a nice break and then we signed her up for summer camp ALL day at her old school.  It is a long day from 8-3, and mama freaked out the entire first day she was away, but she LOVES it!!!  She is having so much fun doing crafts and water play and movies and playing board games.  I felt so bad not having her here at home until I saw how much fun she had at summer camp.  This week has also been hard because VBS is going on from 5:30-7:45 each evening.  So, we haven't seen Laynie basically all week.  She is falling into a dead sleep the minute her head hits the pillow my little baby.  We miss her around here, but then she gets home and Frankie is crying within the first few minutes....Oh, sisters!  I can't forget to write that Laynie had her FIRST sleepover with her BFF, Carmella in June.  It went so well, we can't wait to do it again.  I also have to write about Laynie's "brownie-juice" stand she made one day while I was at school.  She has really amped up her creativity this summer.  She concocted the disgusting-looking brown bowl of yuckiness all by herself by mixing a brownie with water, then proceeded to set up a stand and charged me, dad and Nana a whole quarter for a drink of that.  Did she have any cups?? Nope, we all drank out of the bowl.  It was surprisingly tasty given the look of it, but really?  When no-one wanted seconds (shocking, I know) she proceeded to write "Closed" on her little sign and hung it up.  She wanted to make it again for a little playdate we had a few days later but I had to put the kabbash on that.

Frankie:  Frankie is fully potty trained!  Can I get a HALLELUJAH!!!!  Only one more in diapers to go!  She is actually doing so awesome she is wearing panties around the clock!  Laynie wore pull-ups until she was probably 3 and a half to get through the night, but Frankie has done it all by herself.  She has woken up crying early in the morning a few times, and when I go in to check on her, I find out that she's crying because she needs potty.  I take her out and to the potty and she falls right back to sleep.  She has amazed me at how "easy" it was to get her all trained.  She is deathly afraid of most other potties besides the one at our house, though.....I think the loud flushes are what frighten her, so I have to plug her ears before I flush and that usually works.  Frankie has also started going to a real gymnastics class.  She is a natural, for sure!  I saw the girls doing these bear walks on parallel bars the first class we went to and thought "Frank's never going to do that" and now she is doing that and more!  She has even swung by holding on to a big rope, is standing on her hands (with help, of course) and loves to jump in "the cheese".  Her vocabulary has just exploded in the last few months!  I jokingly told daddy that she is now a full fledged member of the family!  We can hold full conversations now!  The other day she told me "I don't want to go pee-pee in my panties anymore".  I couldn't believe she had strung 10 words together!!  A funny thing she did, is the other day she wanted Nana to ask her "What's wrong, Frank?" and when Nana did she said, "I going to bedroom by myself!" and crossed her arms all huffily.  Who is this little girl?!?!?  She is too funny, and even funnier because she is so teeny and such a firecracker.  She loves to throw things when she doesn't get her way, and poor Nana has gotten the short end of the stick on that one.  I think Nana even has a chip in her glasses from Frankie throwing something up in the air that hit her.  Frank loves to copy everything Laynie does (which drives Laynie nuts, of course) but it is so darn cute to see her trying to sing and dance just like her big sis.  A current favorite "game" of Frankie's is to pinch our cheeks as hard as she can (see daddy's face, below).

Gabster:  Gabi is still mama's chunky-monkey!!!  She is solid, boy, I tell you what!  Those cheeks and thighs are just my favorite things in the world.  We are still going strong with breastfeeding at over 7 months.  I thought for sure I would be done by now, but that little stinker hasn't really taken to formula!  I've tried a couple of times to mix it with breastmilk (mostly BM and a little formula) and she doesn't want to drink it!  The last couple of days have been rough as she is going through some weird phase where she doesn't want to take a nap!  Today she was literally up ALL DAY and went to bed at 7.  How could that even be possible?!?!  Well, mama did have a Venti Iced Mocha this morning from Starbucks which I'm sure had something to do with it, but geez...all day long??!?!  She is sort of starting to roll over, but really doesn't care much to do so.  At her last doc appointment her doc even said "Well, she's got a little more weight to deal with, so it may take her longer to actually roll."  Oh, my little sweetie pie!!!  She is sleeping all night like a champ, but her wake up time is now somewhere between 5 and 6:30am.  Mama is going to bed at 12:00 most nights after doing homework, so I consider myself lucky if I get more than 5 hours a night.  No wonder I'm such a grouch some days.  Matt calls Gab his "little chubby" and she gives him a smile that could light up all of Las Vegas.  She is so adorable I can hardly stand it!  Poor Gabi is already getting experimented on as a "real-life" doll to her sisters (see pic, below)!

Dad and I had a bit of a rough patch that I am happy to say we worked through.  Being married is hard work (I mean that!!) but we are both committed to doing whatever it takes to be happy.....together!!  Our family is the most important thing to both of us, and everything we do, we do for these girls of ours.  I love dad so much, and I guess you could say dad thinks I am the cat's meow.  Not an easy feat after 14 years together!!  He still refers to me as "his #1" and then each of you is "#2 (Laynie)", #3 (Frankie)" and "#4 (Gabi)".  All I can say is that dad is one lucky man to be surrounded by all these beauties (Nana, too - of course)!

I know there's more I could write, but I am so happy to at least gotten this far.  My goal is to write once a week, so let's see how that goes.  =)

Potty training weekend......

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....it was.... potty training weekend at our house the past few days.  I recently obtained a fabulous copy of an e-book which detailed this crazy 3-day potty training plan that I put into effect on Friday.  The book specifies that you will basically be on lockdown for the weekend, so I planned ahead and literally canceled (or no-showed) on EVERYTHING!!  The main concept of the book is FOCUS on your potty trainee, meaning...you are basically on them like white on rice.  Me and Frankie are literally the best of friends after spending 36 hours straight together!!

Day 1 - went pretty well.  We had her throw away all her diapers, which caused a little strife, but she let us put on her panties and then proceeded to hold her pee for like 3 hours with an absolutely full bladder.  The e-book said to "watch for signs" that your child has to go.  Frankie was crossing her legs and everything trying to hold in her pee, but when I'd take her...she wouldn't go!  Finally, I think it just got to be to much...she wanted me to carry her and she even started almost crying.  I knew then that she really had to go, so I ran her to the bathroom and she went - a bunch!!!  We had a few minor accidents that day, but I stupidly followed the advice of the e-book that she would be able to go through naptime with just her panties on.  She started crying so loud only minutes after I had checked on her and I went in to find her lying in a puddle!!  The day continued going well and even ended with a cherry on top when Frankie pooped in the potty!

Then came Day 2 - we had more accidents this day!  I was a frustrated, horrible person this day.  The main issue we had was that Frankie would go in her panties....but just a little dribble....like not enough to have drip down her legs, but enough to wet her undies....and then stop.  Can you imagine the bladder control?  Think of a time when you needed the bathroom super bad...now imagine just dribbling out about a second of all the urine you had to get out and then stopping the flow and going on about your day for another oh 15 minutes or so with your STILL full bladder!  So anyway, then a bit later she'd wet her undies again, but when I'd take her to the potty, she still wouldn't go!  Finally, she'd do the above-mentioned crying and wanting me to carry her until I knew she just couldn't hold it anymore and then she'd finally go!  We dealt with this issue all day on Day 2.  After her nap, she hardly drank anything so we went outside with some colored bubbles I had bought.  Another stupid move on my part...these things were a total effing MESS!  They dribbled all over our patio and actually stained it.  Of course I gave Laynie one color and I used the other one so we now have BOTH purple and pink splotches all over.  I got so concerned about Matt getting mad about that that I totally let Frankie just run all over the year without doing a "potty check".  Finally, I helped her go up the ladder to the slide and got a feel of her undies which were of course wet.  We came back inside and I started getting Laynie and Frankie both ready for bed.  I finished up with Frank and sent her to the living room with Nana while I washed up and combed Lane.  Next thing I hear from the living room..."Jess!  Frankie peed on the floor over here!!"  Great.  Turns out the wet undies from outside were just one of her little dribbles.  The full flow came out on the floor!  I was hollering and hooting about how I wasn't going to continue this stupid program for about an hour, until I finally wised up and got real.  I gave Frankie more water, got Lane and Gab to bed, and just spent some one-on-one time with Frankie.  We ended on a good note when she went pee one last time.

Day 3 - not ONE accident today.  I took her and she peed every single time.  Her bladder muscles finally learned what to do.  By the end of the evening, she actually came and told me, "Go potty." and when I took her in the bathroom...she went!  I'm still a little shocked!  So happy I stuck with it, though...onward and upward from here!  So, so proud of my Frankie, and of Laynie for being mama's "helper" the whole weekend. 

Thank God it's over, and yes...it was worth it.

Patting my own back.....

As anyone who has kids knows, any family outing can turn suddenly from a fun-filled time of pure joy into the deepest depths of hell in a few minutes.  Happily, I can report that I have had two (count them...TWO) successful outings to birthday parties with all three kids and just little old me to handle everyone.  I am really coming into my own as a mom, I think, and learning to not stress the small stuff.  I think it's because I literally can't....I don't even have time to do so.

Outing #1 was to our friend Olivia's party.  This one was a good test run, as it was at my good friend's home who is another fellow mom of three girls (shout-out to Lauren!!)  The only mishap happened when I had to take Laynie to the bathroom, during which I got distracted on my way back to the backyard by who knows what and heard a cry I knew could only be Frankie's.  It seems she had walked right into the patio table because she couldn't see it due to a sun glare.  Other than that, I silently praised myself for bringing everything I needed to feed Gabster, getting food for both girls and actually getting Frankie to eat, and even making Frankie wear a napkin bib to avoid getting herself dirty with dripping watermelon.  Those were rookie mistakes I made when I only had two kids...now I'm a pro!!  (Yeah, right...until the next time I forget something and/or get to the scene of an accident too late - you'll see what I mean, below)

Outing #2 (and far more complicated) was to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Laynie's friend Carmella's 6th b-day.  I wasn't planning on bringing Gabi to this shin-dig, as I wanted to have FUN with Frankie, but since Gabi is on a bottle-strike...she had to come with.  I was so proud that I got Frankie all strapped into a high chair and brought Gabi her Bumbo.  I felt like a real mom as I whipped Huggies out of my diaper bag to clean up pizza and frosting and oatmeal from my girls' faces.  Sure, I lost Frankie for a few minutes, and had to leave her and Laynie to fend for themselves when I had to rush Gabi into the bathroom for a pooped out diaper...but we all survived...and actually had fun!  I thought ahead and brought in the stroller, and even though I got some crazy looks, I strolled Gabi all around the place until she fell asleep.  I gathered tickets and fed them one by one into the ticket machine so we could scram once the party was over.  I was awesome, and so were the girls!

Tonight Nana and I had another crazy outing (with three....they almost all are this way!)  I had promised Laynie I would take her to the Bellagio garden.  I decided we'd all go at the last minute, and though I'm glad I made that decision...it was rough going at first.  Trying to avoid traffic on I-15, I took the airport exit and ended up going through the acutal airport instead of bypassing it.  I then took a series of wrong turns and missed opportunites until we ended up going to eat first..it was getting too late!  We got to In-N-Out at a crazy busy time and my poor mom had to stake out for a table while I went to order food.  We made it through the meal though (I even NURSED whilst eating...go Jess!) and had a good time at the Bellagio.

Other highlights:

Frankie started gym class at a real gym this week!  She is so athletic and daring that I think she's going to thrive!  Within the first minutes of walking into the class though, she wandered over to these little parallel bars they had and toppled over them, landing smack on her face.  I saw this happening from afar, and arrived on the scene seconds AFTER she fell...doh!  She also had her first fall from her swingset this week.  What sucks is that me and her dad were both outside, but thought the other one was watching her.  She didn't get hurt really, though....this time!  We were lucky, and I vow to be more vigilant when she is climbing up that thing!

One of my favorite moments ever happened one night this week when daddy was home.  Me and him and Laynie and Frankie all squooshed into Laynie's bed to sing our lullaby "Johnny's Daddy" together.  Frankie just LOVED it.  She sat up after we sang and said "Friends.....singing." When I asked her who her friends are she said, "Mommy, Daddy, shee-shee, Fa-fee" as se pointed to each one of us. Me and daddy just awwwwed and hugged her. 

We also set up the good old tent this week and told spooky stories when daddy stayed home on Monday.  Frankie was so cute holding the flashlight up to her face and saying "Once...ty-eene" for once upon a time, and then "Beee...ennnn" for The End.  Nothing in between, just once upon a time and the end.  My kinda story!!!

Laynie is finally coming into her own as a big sister.  She guides and holds Frankie's hand wherever we go, and has really been entertaining Gabi.  The other day she was playing like she was going to tickle Gabi while Gabi was on her swing and Gabi laughed like it was just the funniest thing!  It is the best thing ever to see this whole "sister" thing finally happening!  Today Laynie put stickers all over Frankie's legs telling her that they were "badges".  I'll be darned if I could get Frankie to take them off..even for our outing to the Bellagio!  I kinda had to sneak them off one at a time, but she was so proud that she had gotten those! 

Frankie has taken to saying EVERYTHING that Laynie does, and Laynie takes full advantage of it by making her say silly phrases that she just makes up like "Poky wawa"....WTH?!?!?  Frankie has been roaming the house saying this for weeks now and I did not know what she was saying.  Luckily I asked Laynie and she said it was just "something she had made up."  Great.  Laynie also has made Frankie say "tushie" and "poopie" more times than I care to admit.  It is so cute, though!  Again, I am just happy to see the sisterly bond so I kinda let some stuff slide if they are having fun.

Gabi has officially started playing in her Jumperoo and boy does she love it!  She continues to be the best, most loving and happy baby ever.  Only when she is truly tired can I not coax a beautiful smile out of her!  It is readily apparent when she is hungry or tired, because she is so happy otherwise that we know something is wrong when she starts being a crank-monster.  Her little crying face looks so much like Laynie's!  I literally am not going to be able to tell these two apart in their baby pics.  She is constantly trying to sit up!  She loves watching Yo Gabba Gabba episodes, and she still loves to EAT my little chunk!  Daddy has started calling you his little "Chubby", and it is so cute because you ARE and we adore you!

We had a wonderful time last weekend at our church's fair.  Daddy had to work before and during it at times because he was performing community service there for a "no passing" ticket he got in Hoover Dam when Mar passed away, but he still had plenty of time to play with us, and I was so happy we were all together...and at a church function!  God has his ways of answering prayers, I think.

I'll have to make an effort to blog more often so as not to end up with a novel everytime I make an entry!!  Mother's Day this weekend, so I will try to write after the weekend with my thoughts.