Happy Birthday Halloween!

The day was a long one that turned out very well. Sydney went back to the doctor for a re-check and her urine was clear and they will be sending it out for a culture just to be sure. We will probably have to do some additional tests but we will make that decision next week. Jordan decided to get sick today. She vomited three times before I left the house at nine but was not running a fever and seemed to be in a fine mood. She got sick once more and did not eat a drop of food all day, her mood is good but you can tell that our littlest one just doesn't feel well. We hope she feels better tomorrow.
Tropical storm Noel put a little damper on the day. It has been raining on and off all day and it has been very windy, we thought Halloween was going to be a big bust. I decided to take the kids to the mall for some trick or treating only to find that it did not start until five. Some stores were very nice and gave the kids fists full of candy and the other stores turned them away. They had a great time and enjoyed eating their candy anyway!

Lior has been saying "Happy Birthday Halloween" for days and now she has added "trick or treat". Matt and I could not believe how much the girls loved trick or treating. Lior was very brave and walked up to houses and said "trick or treat". Sydney walked right up behind her holding a hand, said "trick or treat" and made sure to say "thank you" to everyone who gave her candy. Jordan enjoyed riding in her car and seeing all the kids running around. Everyone had a good time, even grandpa who sat in front of our house and gave away close to ten pounds of candy.

Getting ready

We are getting ready for Halloween and a trip to Disney World and I am tired, my feet hurt and I can not do another load of laundry because it will need to be folded and put away. Packing for our trip is a major undertaking. Matt and I figure that each girl will need two outfits per day and one extra or twenty one outfits. They do not have that many pairs of pants so they better just get their shirts dirty because I have plenty of those! All this packing for four days has me in a state of panic thinking about our two week trip to Israel in June. I'll have four kids to pack for, at least I will be able to do Laundry and break some of Danny's appliances.
Getting ready for Halloween is much more fun and far less exhausting than packing. The girls have had lots of fun looking for costumes.
Sydney tried on a chicken costume to please her father.

Matt tried to convince them to be Nemo.

Lior tried on Jordan's costume.

Sydney loved the Mulan costume.

And our little Jordan looked as cute as ever in her costume.

We went to a Halloween party at the gym

and helped Daddy carve a pumpkin.

I know the girls are excited about Trick or Treating, we just hope Tropical Storm Noel stays away long enough so we can have a happy Halloween.

Ikea bound

On Saturday Matt left very early in the morning and drove to Orlando for a trade show, leaving me alone with our three girls. We spent the day with my mom and dad, celebrating my mom's birthday. Now I am not sure I would have wanted to spend my birthday shopping for furniture but that is what we did. We decided to go to the newly opened Ikea, one hundred and seven thousand square feet full of great looking furniture and about a million people. The store was so crowded that they had trolley's taking people to and from the overflow parking area about three miles away.
Since we found out we are expecting another baby in April I have been trying to figure out where it will sleep. Right now we are hoping that the new baby will sleep in the same room with Jordan. I am planning on transitioning the twins to big girl beds and using the matching cribs in Jordan's room. That leaves us needing two twin beds and mattresses for the big girls and that is the reason we decided to brave Ikea.
The girls LOVED playing in the kids bedrooms they had set up. Everything was their size and they loved the beds. Sydney crawled into a bed and refused to get out. She would close her eyes, turn her head away and say "I sleepin". Lior climbed into bed next to her and they both just layed there and enjoyed the big girl beds. I am glad that we braved the crowds at Ikea because the big girls had a great time and I think I might have found furniture for their room.


They completely wore themselves out and fell asleep before we left the store. I can not remember the last time they fell asleep in the stroller!

Matt's theory

Sydney is sick. Lior is sick. Jordan is sick. I am sick. The only one who is not sick is Matt who seems to be fighting the cold off. It seems that we have been sick a lot lately and Matt has a theory about why we have been so sick. Danny isn't going to like the theory but here it goes...
Matt thinks our kids have been sick since his kids were here in August. It is true, the girls have been fighting off at least one bug or another since August. As soon as one kid gets better another one gets sick. It is a never ending battle and apparently it is all Danny's fault because his kids carried some third world germs into our germ free home. It has nothing to do with the fact that our kids started school and are exposed to those germs. Matt just doesn't believe it, in his mind Danny has created some kind of conspiracy to topple our home. First he attacked our appliances and now he is trying to get us by seeing how we cope with perpetually sick kids.
I got a call from the doctors office today which just about pushed me over the edge. They called to tell me that Sydney did have a UTI and that children her age don't get UTI's and they needed further tests to rule out something more serious. One test was to test her renal function and the other test would check to see if her urine was being flushed back into her bladder causing a bad infection. I really don't like to do any medical tests on the kids, especially ones that require them to be catheterized without sedation. I have seen one of my children scream in pain during that procedure and never want to see it again! When I questioned the nurse further and asked if this was really necessary after one UTI she scared the shit out of me by mentioning Kidney Disease, kidney failure and a kidney transplant.
When I called Matt he had me calm down while he called our pediatrician to find out the real story. After she called back we decided that Sydney is at an age that is considered borderline, if she were younger we would be more worried. We are going to wait until her urine is rechecked next Wednesday and then we would consider all of our options. Matt has wracked his brain and figures that this UTI is all Danny's fault because Sydney's immune system was weakened by the germs that his kids got off the plane with. Matt figures that if Eiton hadn't gotten off the plane with strep throat all of our kids would be healthy today!

Telephones and dogs

Today when we came home from a trip to the mall with my mom, I walked into baby jail and noticed the phone was off the hook. I thought nothing of it and hung up the phone, only to have it ring immediately. I was surprised to hear a 911 operator on the other end asking me if we needed any assistance. I told her all was well and apologized and told her my eleven month old daughter must have been playing with the phone. The woman continued to yell at me and tell me it was my responsibility to make sure that my children did not play with the phone. I apologized again and told her that my child was eleven months old and how she dialed 911 was beyond me. I don't know if this operator just didn't believe me or if she thought I was full of crap but she continued to yell at me. I had to tell her three times that we did not need the police, fire or any other service and finally had to hang up on her or she would still be lecturing me about my parental responsibilities.
Tonight after bedtime Lior and Jordan were playing in our bedroom while Matt and I were in the bathroom with Sydney. Lior comes into the bathroom coughing and wiping her tongue, a sure sign she has put something in her mouth that she does not like. Matt instantly runs over to her and bombards her with questions "What did you eat, did you eat something???... show me, show me". Of course Lior does not respond, instead she climbs onto our bed, coughs some more and throws up. Now we are really concerned that she really did eat something that made her sick. After cleaning her up, Matt asked her once more what she ate and got an unexpected answer. In a clear confident voice we hear Lior say "I ate the doggy bed". Both Matt and I understood immediately why she got sick, that bed of Cyrus' has seen cleaner days. After a good laugh we asked Lior if she would ever do that again, she just wrinkled her nose and walked away.

A day at the mall

Yesterday we took the kids to the mall to buy shoes for the no longer crawling Jordan. When we arrived at the mall all the kids were sleeping so Matt sat in the car with them while I had the opportunity to shop ALONE. The girls got a lot of really cute stuff at the Baby Gap, I really love a sale and now the girls have a few warm things to wear.
When the girls woke up we went to the food court where Lior pointed out oranges on the trees and a bird flying around. I don't think Matt and I would have noticed either without Lior's keen eye. After lunch we headed over to the shoe store, which took forever. The girls like to walk through the mall now and it seemed like they were trying to wear down our defenses by running every which way and listening to us by the time we counted to three. Maybe they were trying to see how long it would take to drive Matt up a wall.
Jordan loved being set free in the store and trying on shoes. We tried to get some sandals for the big girls but Sydney wanted no part of the salesman touching her feet or even looking at her. We heard a lot of "no, I don wan to" when we were trying shoes on Lior. Unfortunately we were too late in the season for sandals and Miss Lior will have to wait until next month for new shoes.
After leaving the shoe store with the cutest pink shoes for Jordan. We walked over to the Pottery Barn Kids where the girls immediately fell in love with all of the toys. They thought the retro kitchen was a great place to pretend to wash their hands and do dishes but it was the sixty nine dollar tea set that we could not tear them away from. We must have let them play with that tea set for twenty minutes before Matt and I started the count down to leave. They flat out refused to leave. Lior said "no we not yeave, we pyayin". I offered M&M's if the girls left the table quietly and they asked them for them in one of the sixty nine dollar cups. Matt finally wound up picking them up and carrying them out of the store without incident.
Between the tea set and the ride on the escalator with daddy, the day at the mall was a complete success.

Quick update

I think Sydney is feeling much better today. Her cold is still hanging on and she is very tired but she is not crying every time she has to pee. When Matt went up to get her this morning her body was so warm that he came running downstairs with her so I could feel her and confirm that she had a nice temperature. After some Motrin and well timed Tylenol the fever was gone and her mood improved greatly. She spent her day sipping cranberry juice and decaf iced tea while she played with some friends. Hopefully she wakes up without a temperature and has a great day tomorrow.
While we out with our friends today someone commented on how much Jordan is talking. She had seen Jordan at the gym on Thursday while she was there with Matt and could not get over the size of her vocabulary. I decided to let Jordan show Matt all of her new tricks tonight and I think even he was surprised by everything she was doing. She says "Momma, Dadda, bye, dog, duck, and more" I am sure that she said "bathroom" the other night and Matt and I have both heard her say "Jordan" before. She plays peek-a-boo, claps hands, gives high fives, and waves goodbye. She loves to do raspberries especially if she is getting your undivided attention. She is growing up so fast, I just can't believe how much she has changed in the last few weeks!

Sydney is sick!

Well we now know why Sydney has been miserable the last few days. She has a UTI, a bad cold and a rash. To add insult to injury she had to get a shot in her leg and it burned and made her leg ache. The shot should make her feel better within the next twenty four hours and really attack the infection which is great because if she spikes a fever she is hospital bound. I have been in the hospital with a sick child and I don't want to do it again. So keep your fingers, toes and anything else crossed that the antibiotics do their job!

I am so glad Sydney and Lior are such good friends. At the doctors office Lior was waiting with my mom and Jordan in the waiting room and all Sydney wanted was Lior. "Mommy, I want Eeor, I want Eeor, and dordan toes!!" I do not know who cried harder when Sydney got her shot, Lior was crying just as hard if not harder. When we got home today, Sydney wanted Lior to kiss her boo boo and Lior looked at her leg said "aww you got boo boo on you yeg", and bent over and kissed it. It's great to have a sister who loves everything about you!

He strikes AGAIN!!

How could he have done it again? The man lives half way around the world and he still manages to break my appliances. This time it is my dryer. He has not been here since August so he must have set booby traps. What will he break next? I can not take anymore, the idea of calling the service company makes me sick to my stomach. I need some time away from those people! If the dishwasher breaks next Matt will completely loose it.
Danny what ever you are doing... STOP, UNCLE, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!

Mom's have birthdays too

While I was brushing my teeth this morning I had a wonderful surprise. Sydney, Lior and Jordan came running into my room screaming "Happy Birthday Mommy!!!" over and over. It was such a great treat to hear how excited they were. The surprises did not stop there, Matt placed my birthday present on the front lawn, so I saw it as soon as I walked out this morning. He had iron statues made of our family. I tried to take a picture of them today but it was raining. They are wonderful, a great-great birthday present!
I had great plans for the days I walked the big girls to school. Mommy and Me with Jordan, grocery shopping with my mom and perhaps something fun in the afternoon after I picked up the big girls. I could not wait.
Needless to say my plans changed. While I was at Mommy and Me with Jordan Sydney threw up at school. It is a good thing My class is the classroom next to Sydney's and I was able to run next door as soon as they told me. She was just so sad. She would not let me put her down, thank goodness my mom had come to the temple to meet me because I would have been walking home carrying both Sydney and Jordan. As soon as we returned home Sydney threw up on me. Happy Birthday Mommy! She was so upset as I stripped off our clothes she was screaming for me to pick her up and she outright refused to take a shower and she would not let my mom hold her as I got dressed. Sydney spent the next two hours with her head on my chest either sleeping our crying. After her nap she felt much better with a few bouts of stomach pain and crankiness.
We had a very nice dinner with my parents and an ice cream cake with candles. Lior was very excited about the cake. After her bath we asked her if she had fun on mommies birthday and she said "Lior's birthday" and then went on about blowing out the candles. When I asked her what she wished for she said "cake". All of Liors dreams came true today, what more could a mom ask for? Sydney was feeling better, Jordan was as happy as ever and Lior had cake! What a great birthday!

Danny strikes again

I think I may hate Mondays and it is all Danny's fault, again. I finally attempted to have the oven fixed a week ago Friday. It turns out that the entire control panel had melted in August while my brother was here. They needed to order the part and set up an appointment for today between eight and one. Well at one twenty I called to find out where they were. I chatted with a customer service representative who could care less that I was sitting in my house with three kids all day and said that the tech was not answering his phone so there was nothing she could do. I explained that there was probably something she could do and that I needed to hear back from someone in thirty minutes. I waited over an hour and no response so I called back and asked to speak to a supervisor. After a small amount of lip service I was told that the reason the tech was not there was because the part had not been delivered to the house.
I think that is when my head exploded because the part had arrived by a member of their staff earlier in the day. Apparently there had been a miscommunication that had me sitting in my house all day. I forcefully explained how this was unacceptable and that in the future all service calls would be the first appointment of the day because they had wasted enough of my time. She apologized and said she had no problem scheduling my next service call between eight and ten in the morning. I restated my demand, perhaps a little louder than I should have because a sleeping Jordan started crying and she immediately said that would be fine.
It is not that the girls were getting in trouble all day because they weren't. We played outside with the sidewalk chalk in the morning and then painted. I just thought that we would be able to get out of the house in the afternoon and get some chores done. If I had planned for a day in the house it would have been much easier to sit all day long.
When the tech finally arrived I pushed the girls into the backyard to play, thinking it would take him hours to complete the repair. Twenty minutes later he was asking if we had a bathroom he could use because he was done. I sat in my house all day, spending at least forty minutes on the phone tracking these people down and it took him twenty minutes! The girls were having too much fun to go inside to get ready to go to the store so I wrote the day off and decided to enjoy the cool breeze. As soon as I asked the girls to stay away from the swings because there was a wasp nest Lior came running up to me screaming in pain holding her forehead over her right eye. She was bitten by one of those nasty wasps. I called our ex-paramedic neighbor and he came over with some spray Benedryl and told me not to worry. He also took care of several large nests under our swing set. I took the girls inside and noticed that Liors bite was now the size of an egg and she was complaining that it hurt her. I called Matt and then I called the pediatrician. Thank goodness they call back right away because the nurse talked me down off the ledge and assured me that Lior would be fine, if there was going to be a reaction it would have happened already.
The day was over and I was more than done. Thank you Danny for breaking my oven and making poor Lior get hurt. It is not like the time where you slammed Sydney's finger in the door and blamed Eric, this one is ALL YOUR FAULT!!!

Haircuts

We took the girls for haircuts today. Matt and I were a complete wreck! I thought Matt was going to throw up while we were walking to the haircut place and my heart was beating out of my chest. The girls had no idea where we were going so they were laughing and running. They were less than thrilled when we walked in and told them to sit in the chairs. You would have thought that the chairs were on fire by their reaction. They calmed down when they told Matt and I to sit with the girls on our laps for the haircuts. With lollipops in hand and a tight hug from mom and dad the cutting began and there was not a tear in sight, except from mom and dad, OK maybe just mom. The end result was very cute. Lior had bangs that are a touch to short and Sydney has a layered cut that just frames her face beautifully and will hopefully help reduce the amount of knots in her hair.

The girls look very cute and the cuts took about three minutes from start to finish so imagine how shocked we were that the haircuts were forty bucks! I probably would not have been upset about the cost had the hair place lived up to the hype. We went because the kids could watch cartoons to distract them while we chopped off their hair. They had regular television on and they could have watched Thomas, Diego or Sponge Bob nothing that interested our girls. We did get little bags filled with hair and a card to commemorate their first haircut. While we were not overly thrilled with the first haircut experience we think our little princess's look beautiful.

Daddy days

When Matt does not have to work over the weekend it is cause for celebration. My top five thoughts for the day:

1. Waking up to the sound of three giggling girls playing with their daddy.

2. Sleeping 'til eight forty five and getting to cuddle in our bed with the whole family.

3. Watching Matt play with the girls in the morning instead of watching him run out the door.

4. Having help all day long.

5. Spending time together as a family.

Pumpkins

Ann and Martha win the prize. I am not sure what the prize is or if there is even a prize but if there is a prize, it's theirs! They needed no extra clues to figure out our cryptic post from yesterday!
Yes, Matt and I are expecting another baby in April. Much to our surprise and delight, we could not be more excited and thrilled to welcome another member to our family. We will have four children under three and hopefully two of them will be out of diapers. Keep your fingers crossed!

I took the girls to the "pumpkin patch" aka pumpkins on pallets today with some of their friends to help get them excited about the upcoming fall holiday. Since we have no noticeable change of season, no leaves on the ground and no chill in the air explaining fall as we try to find some shade so we don't get a sunburn is kind of silly. So rather than telling them all about the changing season I told them to run around and find a pumpkin they wanted to bring home. They did not care about bringing home a pumpkin. They thought it was great fun to climb on the pumpkins and watch them fall off the pallets and I had great fun watching them!

In one hundred and eighty nine days

Matt thought he should print balloons or t-shirts with some cute slogan on them. We even started to rewrite the words to one of our favorite Sandra Boynton books, Moo Baa La La La, but I thought no one would get it and the t-shirt has been done before.

Wednesday

Wednesday is a very long day for us. Today was even longer than usual. It started right around six in the morning when Matt woke me up and asked if he could go to work because he could not sleep. After he woke me up I could not fall back to sleep, actually I did fall back to sleep for maybe five minutes until Lior started to cry at a quarter to seven. She calmed down and I managed to fall back to sleep for another five or ten minutes when Jordan started to cry. Now there is NO sleeping through Jordan's crying because she shrieks at the top of her lungs until you acknowledge her.
I was awake about two hours longer than I normally am and I am no morning person. The second I walked upstairs Lior and Sydney popped up and were ready to start the day. I decided to let the girls play in their room with Jordan because they always have so much fun when Matt does it. Mistake, big mistake. I should not have delayed breakfast because these girls were not happy campers, they needed to eat and they let me know by screaming at me at the top of their lungs.
Now I mentioned earlier that Wednesday's are long days. The cleaning lady comes on Wednesday and I like to have the laundry done and put away so that there is less clutter for her to put away and loose for me. I also have to put everything away and leave notes so that she does not empty the dirty dishes into the cabinets or over stuff my washing machine with a combination of dirty rags and baby clothes. I usually do all this while I run in and out of baby jail changing diapers, bringing Lior to the toilet, filling milk or juice sippies and making sure they do not kill each other. Today there was lots of crying and complaining about the clothes I picked out. Lior refused to wear the pants I picked and wanted pink ones. When I brought out a pink shirt and pink overalls she picked up the shirt but refused to wear the overalls "I don wan dose, I wan pink pants". I finally found some pink pants that were not too small and we were set. Actually we were set but Sydney refused to put her pants on after I changed her poopy diaper. I actually had to wrestle them onto her.
I pushed the girls into the car and Jordan was asleep before we even left the driveway. Lior was asleep ten minutes later. Sydney held out another twenty minutes but finally fell asleep just as I was giving up hope! I had a few minute to eat Matt's lunch while the girls slept in the car and we were off the the gym.
After the gym I took them to the mall to look for Halloween costumes. After forty five minutes of the girls trying on every costume and telling me "no, I don wan dat one." I forced them into Cinderella costumes that I am sure I will return. Sydney was more interested in trying on every shoe she could find and Lior was more interested in the dolls. I just wanted them to fall in love with a costume and have to have it. Maybe next year.
I had them home by five and fed by six. I popped in a movie and let the kids turn into little vegetables while I dressed them for bed. I let them call Matt to say goodnight and Lior and Jordan were asleep before eight. Sydney did not fall asleep until at least nine thirty, after she got to have a cuddle with her daddy.
Another long Wednesday is over and I am relieved because the house is clean and she did not put the dirty dishes in our cabinets.

In one month

Jordan will be one in one month. It is hard to believe that she is eleven months old. It seems like just yesterday she was this tiny creature who could not hold her head up and needed to eat every hour and a half to two hours. Today she is a speed demon who still needs to eat every two hours but at least now she can feed herself.
In the last eleven months Jordan has learned how to clap hands, wave, give high fives, hold a bottle, drink from a sippy cup, hold up her own head, roll over, crawl, and walk. She has cut seven teeth (four on the top and three on the bottom) and is getting ready to cut another another tooth on the bottom. She has gone from eating baby cereal and baby food to chicken nuggets and bagels with cream cheese over night.
It is hard to remember what life was like before Jordan arrived, she fit in like a missing puzzle piece. The girls welcomed her with open arms and love her more than we ever expected them to. They can not go to sleep without giving Jordan at least one kiss and a hug. On the rare occasions when we do something without her they ask about her constantly "where Jordan Toes?" When we asked Lior what her favorite toy was, she sat and thought for a minute and replied "baby". When we asked what her babies name was she smiled and said "Jordan Toes!" and looked at us like we were crazy, of course that is what her babies name is. Sydney has also named all of her babies Jordan Toes and takes great pleasure feeding her anything she is eating and helping change her diapers, even the stinky ones!
In the last eleven months Jordan has managed to steal our hearts with her magnetic smile and overall happiness. It is hard to imagine that she will be one in a month. She is our baby and our baby is growing up in front of our eyes!

Shopping

edited to include photo
I took the three girls to Costco by myself today which is usually a lot of fun and today was no exception. The girls sat in the cart without complaining while we walked around the the store. The girls enjoyed looking at the pre-lit Christmas tress and assorted decorations. Even when they decided to get out and walk they listened beautifully and stayed by the cart.
The fun began when we had to change Jordan's VERY STINKY diaper in the dark and dingy bathroom. Jordan was not thrilled about laying down on the changing table but she never is. While I was trying to wrestle her onto the changing table the girls discovered that they had unlimited access to the "toopa-towel". By the time I was done changing the squirmy wormy the girls had pulled out a several arm length sheets of toilet paper and were running around the bathroom screaming that they wanted to wash their hands. I could not wait to wash their hands and would have preferred boiling their little bodies in bleach fearful that they were now infected with the plague.
It is days like today that I wish that I had grabbed the camera that was sitting on the kitchen counter. I could have captured some very funny pictures of Sydney and Lior running out of the bathroom trailing several feet of toilet paper and running circles around me while I apologized to every Costco employee I saw. They all laughed and thought that the girls were adorable and they are I just wish they would have their fun away from the bacteria infested bathroom.
When we were done with our bathroom antics we headed to get a frozen yogurt to share. This is always a huge hit because there is not much we enjoy more than a frozen yogurt. The girls enjoyed eating their yogurt while countless people commented on how cute they were. The comments only increased when Lior started to feed Sydney across the table. They really are cute!

Baby jail: CLOSED

I woke up this morning to Matt asking me to get out of bed because he needed help. I picked my tired cranky butt up out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I stepped in a puddle of water. When I called Matt in he said "it must have come from baby jail!" Somehow I did not react to that statement and paddled out to the dining room where my three girls were quietly eating breakfast. Matt was in baby jail sweeping out at least an inch of water. If this had not happened before I probably would have been more upset.
How did this happen you ask? Well apparently Matt decided to run water in a pot and did not remember that he did not turn the water off before he want upstairs to get the girls and play for thirty minutes. Notice that I did not say that Matt "forgot" to turn off the water because he specifically told me he did not forget, he just doesn't remember "not turning the water off". Now if you think that I am picking on Matt, I am not. He payed me his dollar so I will not pick on him. He simply does not remember.
I am not even worried about his memory because Matt is just over extended and scatter brained these days. His mind is on other things. Some things I know about and others I don't even want to know about!
The girls could not wait to get into baby jail today, because they were not allowed in. When Sydney was finally allowed in she said in a panicked voice "my toys, my toys, what Daddy do my toys?" Things did not really improve when they saw all of their toys and books sitting out on the patio to dry out. Later in the day the girls wanted there we toys back and we had to tell them the toys were in time out. Sydney and lior spent the next ten minutes or so counting out their toys, "dat one, dat two, tee, tour, you time out!!!" while their noses were pressed against the sliding glass door.

We decided to go out and have some fun since it was finally a nice sunny day. We drove by my parents to check on their house as we heard there was a tree laying in their driveway. When we arrived sure enough there was a beautiful yellow flowering tree laying across their driveway. Matt used his muscles and pulled it off the driveway and will have to go back another day with a chainsaw to take care of the tree.
We wound up at Lion Country Safari where we drove through the preserve and listened to the girls point out and name the animals they saw and listened to them plead to see more animals when there were none in view. They waved hello and goodbye to the deer, ostrich, lions, monkeys, zebra's, elephants and giraffe's and were thrilled when we got out of the car to see more animals. They had a great time until the heat overcame us and we had to go home.
After the morning we had who would have thought that we would have such a lovely day!

Dinner

On Tuesday the girls and I made chicken soup. I should say that I made the chicken soup and the girls named the vegetables I put into the pot. They actually did very well naming the veggies, I was surprised. They thought the parsnip was a carrot and the dill was broccoli but they were very close. They had a blast saying rutabaga and asked me at least ten times if I put chicken in there.
We had the chicken soup for dinner tonight with noodles and grilled cheese sandwiches. They hated the sandwiches because I burnt them, even Jordan threw it on the floor for the dogs. They loved the noodles, I do not know if they loved the soup. Maybe they did not love the soup because they took one look at Matt's chicken tender sandwich with barbecue sauce and thought it looked much more interesting than a lousy bowl of soup!
Since Sydney wakes up asking for dinner their reaction was less than thrilling, especially since I worked so hard on the soup. I can't say that I am disappointed, I was disappointed on Saturday night when we handed the girls home made pizza bagels for dinner and they both burst out crying. That was disappointing!

Sick days

I had big plans for the girls this week while they were off from school. I planned to have Lior in "big kid pants" and I planned on getting the girls to nap at home, in their beds. I have accomplished nothing! Both girls have been feeling so rotten, their moods have matched the way they feel.
The first day of potty training started with Lior asking for "big kid pants" and doing really well going to the bathroom without having an accident but as the Tylenol wore off and it was getting closer to nap time she broke down. She stood in the bathroom and begged me for a diaper. I can usually joke with her and get her to stop crying but this time she would not leave the bathroom without a diaper and she would not stop crying until she had that diaper. It took her some time to calm down once that diaper went on and she was not taking it off without a fight. So, no more potty training that day.
The rest of the week has been spent trying to keep up on the green noses and trying to keep the coughing at bay. Nap time has been in the car even though I really want to get them back into their beds. They have been so miserable, for my self preservation, I have thrown them in the car and wished them to sleep before the first red light.
Now that they are starting to feel better (not sounding better), I hope to get some potty training done. I do not think I will get them to nap in their beds because we will be out and about but I am going to have Matt help with that task over the weekend.
I can not wait for them to feel better so we can go back to doing all the fun things we usually do without worrying about infecting all of our friends.

Jordan toes

Yesterday Jordan climbed into the dresser after her bath and decided to sit in there for awhile.
Today I walked into "baby jail" and Lior immediately started yelling "yook Debbie, yook Debbie, yook, yook- you baby!!!" while she pointed to Jordan crawling across the top of the book shelf. When I looked up and saw Jordan crawling across that book shelf, my heart jumped into my throat and I instantly looked for my camera. That is right I thought of the blog and catching the moment to share with all of you. The camera battery was charging so I scooped her up and called Matt to tell him that we were completely doomed! I think our big girls were at least a year or older before they were scaling the walls. I did place Jordan on the book shelf later to get a picture to share.
I finally caught Jordan walking on video, it is not very good but here it is!


Our little Jordan toes is just a movement machine! After I walked into baby jail I thought to myself "why do we take her to the gym?" and then I thought we had better get her crib tent up this weekend or we are in some serious trouble!

Camera shy

I have spent the better part of the last few days trying to get video of Jordan taking a few steps. Jordan spends the better part of the day trying to walk across the room. She stands up, gets her balance and takes as many steps as she can either falls or catches her balance again and takes another step or two. She is usually smiling away and laughing while she is practicing this new skill. What she is NOT doing is showing off this skill for the camera. The second the camera comes out Jordan hits the floor and crawls at lightening speed away from view.
It is very frustrating, even the big girls are trying to get her to walk for the camera but Jordan is not interested. We now have tons of video of Jordan waving, clapping, high fiving, crawling, and talking just no video of her walking.