Girls' Day Out

Mike and I are trying to spend more alone time with Ethan and Mia. Last night, I decided to take one of them to the movie, "The Legend of the Guardians." It was hard for me to decide which one to take! I decided to take Mia, and as I was getting her ready, Ethan looked at me and said, "I go, too?" as he pointed at himself. It about killed me to leave him behind, but the point is to get some alone time with each one.

We bought some popcorn and pop. Yum! We were the only ones in the theater which was kind of nice. I wasn't worried about making too much noise. Mia wouldn't wear the 3-D glasses, but she still enjoyed the movie. She liked the baby owls, although they must have looked really blurry to her! She would watch some of the movie, eat some popcorn (I couldn't believe how much she ate!) and then get up and walk up and down the stairs.

After the movie, we made a quick trip to Target. I made the mistake of going down the toy aisle. Mia is in LOVE with zhu zhu pets. Target had almost an entire aisle devoted to them. I let her pick one out. She picked Rocky, a black hamster. She couldn't take her eyes off the accessories, so I guess I know what she's getting for Christmas!

Mia seriously smiled the entire time we were gone. It was fun to spend time alone with her. I remember when my mom took us to do special things by ourselves, so I hope that this is a special memory for our kids!

Mike is planning on taking Ethan to the movies tonight. I know he'll have a blast going! He loves popcorn and of course, pop. I think they're going to the owl movie too. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, by the way, when did the movies get so expensive? $8.50 for a 2 year old? Seriously?

Bucky is 19 Months!

Riley is a feisty but loving little girl! She loves to follow Ethan and Mia around and copy everything they do, especially Ethan. Those two are a lot alike. They either get along extremely well, or fight like crazy. Riley isn't afraid to get in there and pull his hair, hit him, push him, or scratch him. I have to watch him because he gets rough with her. I don't think he means to be so rough, but it's the boy coming out in him. What's funny is when Riley yells at him. It always makes me laugh. She yells, "ETHAN" as loud as she can. I need to try and get it on camera.

Riley and Mia usually get along pretty well. There can be a lot of fighting over toys which includes some hair pulling and scratching. Riley likes to tackle Mia. Mia will be walking in the living room and Riley runs behind her, grabs her around her middle, and down they go. It's so funny to watch. Mia either laughs or screams bloody murder. I guess it depends on what kind of mood she's in. Those two wrestle around on the floor too. They weigh the same but Mia is taller, so she has a little bit of an advantage.

Riley has been talking quite a bit. I think she talks more than the twins did at her age. She says, pop, juice, shoes, poop, pee pee, Ethan, Mia, Elsa, kitty, Mama, Dada, open, hair, drink, butt etc. There are more but I can't quite remember them all. Riley is very persistent when she wants something. If she wants something to drink, she'll say "drink juice" over and over until I get up.

She still takes one afternoon nap. Riley usually sleeps for 1 1/2 hours. She goes to be between 9 and 10pm and sleeps through the night! I can't tell you how good it feels to sleep through the night. My body is trying to catch up for the last 3 years!

Happy Friday!

I'm glad the weekend is here! It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to maybe doing some shopping?!? That's if I can get out of doing some yard work. We've been enjoying the nice weather, especially since we know it's going to come to an end soon.

-Halloween is right around the corner. I'm going to be cheap and have them wear the same costumes as last year. It's going to save me $100, and they have no idea! Ethan is going as an elephant, Mia is going as a duck, and Riley is going as a ladybug.

-Ethan's speech session went okay. He is back to whispering for half of the session and then finally starts talking out loud towards the end. I can tell he's learning a lot because he's saying and recognizing more words. He'll have another session on Monday to make up for the one when Laura was sick.

-Mia almost gave me a heart attack yesterday. We went out to eat and the restaurant was on a busy street. We went to get into the van, and I thought she had ran to the other side of the van. I got over there, and she wasn't there. I looked up, and she was standing on the side-walk with cars speeding past her. My heart dropped in my chest. One wrong move, and she would have been hit. Her guardian angel was obviously right there.

-We went to the eye doctor today. It was something. Let's just say I'm glad we don't have to do it anytime soon. Mike, Ethan, and Riley needed their eyes checked. (Mia and I had ours checked a few months ago.) The eye doctor said he could hear Ethan screaming from a few doors down when the nurse was putting the eye drops in. The good news is is that the kids checked out fine. The old man needs some stronger glasses, however. ;)

Jude's 1st Birthday

My niece, Jude, turned one on Saturday. I had to work this weekend (go figure--why is it that every weekend I work, there's something fun going on?) I woke up early so I could go to the party for a couple of hours. My sister, Sarah, had a pinata FULL of candy. The kids had a blast when it finally broke open. All three of our kids stuffed themselves full of candy. (Mike said that they were jumping off the walls later that night!)

My favorite part is the birthday cake. I love watching little kids dig right in. It didn't start out so smooth. Steve set the cake in front of her and then lit the candle. Janai and Noah blew it out before Sarah could get a picture and make a wish, so Steve re-lit the candle. We could see Jude staring at the flame and before any of us could react, she reached up and extinguished the flame with her chubby little fingers. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that it was super hot, and she started screaming. Poor thing!

I didn't get to see her get really messy with her cake because I had to leave for work. I did get a couple of good cake pictures though. It's always fun to spend time with family!

Mia, my little hoarder. She took a pile of candy and sat by herself on the step.

Mouthful of candy.

The birthday girl chewing on cardboard trying to get nerds.

Yes, I would love to pick you up while you're holding a sticky sucker.

Our Disasterous Trip to the Apple Orchard

Mike's parents were in town last weekend, so I decided to drag Grandma Andrea and Uncle Mark with me to the Apple Orchard. I always feel guilty because our kids don't get to do things a "normal" family gets to do. They are all so little and I can't take them places by myself, so when there are people around, I try to arrange little outings. All three kids had a cold and I should have known better than to take their crabby little butts anywhere! Lesson learned.

The local Apple Orchard was having their Harvest days. They had tons of bouncy houses, pony rides, train rides, and all sorts of food. Sounds like a good time? I thought so. We walked around for awhile and the kids were pretty decent during that time. I thought I'd buy them a ride on the choo-choo train. We waited dang near 45 minutes to get on that little train. During that time, Ethan accidentally bumped Riley and she did a complete back flip off of a hay bale. She surprisingly didn't cry that much. It gets to be our turn, and Ethan throws a complete fit. I'm trying to stuff him in the train cart and he's kicking and screaming and trying to climb out. This went on for a couple of minutes and I finally gave up (after a little kid came up to me and said he'd take Ethan's place. Okay, kid, I got the hint!) Mia was starting to cry too, and the train driver (aka Santa Claus, he seriously looked like him) asked me if I wanted to take her off. I said nope. I was thinking, I just waited in line for 45 minutes. The girls are going to ride this train and have a good time. Santa Claus takes off and goes over a bump and stops. I don't see Riley in her cart. She had fallen over backwards in her cart when he hit the bump. Now she's screaming bloody murder. I go and get her. Santa Claus takes off again and stops again. Now Mia is screaming and wanting off ,and Santa Claus is scanning the crowd for me to come get her. I wanted to hide! Haha. It's funny now, but it wasn't at the time!

Mia wanting out of the train.

Riley in her cart right before she fell over backwards.

Mia is wondering what the heck is going on.

Trying to get that elusive perfect picture. Can you tell their crabbiness level by the look on their faces? Not one smile.

My family always makes fun of me because when we do family pictures, I'm the only one looking at the camera. If Mike were in this picture, he'd be looking to see what the kids were doing. I figure, one of us should look good! Hahaha

Ethan's Speech Therapy

Ethan is doing really well with his speech therapy. This last session was interesting. I sent him to time-out right before Laura arrived. He was very ornery during his session. He wouldn't let me leave his side. He was back to whispering and mouthing words. Towards the end of the session, he finally started talking out loud. Laura brings a container with shapes in it. When she first started working with him, he couldn't put the shapes in correctly the first time. It usually took him a couple of times to get them in right. He can now do it correctly the first time. I've seen such a big improvement since Laura started coming!

The Dolphins vs The Vikings

Mike, his parents, his cousins and I all went to the Dolphin's-Viking's game a couple of weeks ago. Mike is a huge Dolphin's fan, and his cousins are huge Viking's fans. It was a fun and exciting game! The Dolphin's ended up winning, which totally made Mike's day. The Viking's fans were pretty crazy. Mike was brave and wore a Dolphin's shirt, but he didn't get hastled at all. It was fun seeing Brett Favre play. You can see him in the top picture. He's #4.

Surrounded by a sea of purple.