I just reminded myself why I never take all 3 kids grocery shopping

So fast forward ohh maybe 9 months and Carina turned 6 sort of recently a while back. We finally got around to having her birthday party and with how busy we've been it became necessary to take all 3 kids to the grocery store earlier this week to order Carina's cake.

Our trip resulted in my laughing so hard I was crying (or was it the other way around? Definitely the other way around) and needing a drink before 5 PM on a Wednesday afternoon. 

We arrived at the grocery store and to my dismay not a single obnoxious race car double-cart was to be found. I put Serafina in a normal cart and the girls each grabbed one of the tiny carts. One had a "customer in training" flag and the other didn't and this was a HUGE PROBLEM. Argument over who had the right to lay claim to the fancy flag cart and who had to suffer the pains of the cart sans flag ensued. 

Since we were there to pick out Carina's cake for her birthday party I let her steer the cart with the flag and we headed over to the bakery counter. We flipped through the book of designs a few times and nothing piqued her interest. I asked her to please look again, and she finally settled on the Disney Fairies cake. I asked the employee how many people it serves and she didn't know and none of the other employees knew so she had to call the cake decorator to ask. After a few minutes she returned and Carina announced she didn't want that cake anymore.

I looked at her incredulously (like, why did we just wait 10 minutes and make her call the cake decorator, then?) Now she wanted the Minions cake. And the employee didn't know how many people it serves. She went to find out and I started filling out the order form in the meantime. Oh lookie there, it says right on the order form what size to get for our number of guests.

Cake ordered. Aurelia spotted one of the obnoxious race car double-carts that had since been abandoned about 20 feet away and clearly "we MUST go get it Mommy because I want to wiiiide!" In went Aurelia and Serafina. We returned the other cart and the tiny cart sans flag. We passed one of the sample "bubbles" with danish and I handed one to each of the ladies but Aurelia didn't want it. 

Off we went in the monstrous race car cart that takes way too much energy to push and of course the avocados we needed were as hard as cannonballs. We stopped for another "bubble" this time with strawberries and Serafina dropped hers and yelled "oh no!" so loudly people stopped to make sure she was okay. About 30 seconds later they returned to make sure she was okay once again when Carina's tiny "customer in training" cart somehow FELL OVER striking Serafina in the face with the plastic "customer in training" flag. I picked her up out of the cart and comforted her as she was crying hysterically. Customers and employees alike swarmed around us and asked if I needed any help. She was fine, fortunately. I, on the other hand...was about to lose my mind.

We grabbed the few remaining things we needed and as soon as we were all the way across the store Aurelia proclaimed that now she wanted a piece of that danish back near the store entrance.

After a danish detour and then the checkout line it was time to return to the car. I buckled in Carina, Aurelia, then Serafina and only after all clasps were fastened did I realize that we were missing Serafina's beloved monkey lovie. TAKE MY EYES BUT NOT "MAA-MAA" MONKEY. I prayed to God please please please let the monkey be somewhere in the vicinity because I am not unbuckling everyone and going back inside. I ran over to the cart return and breathed a sigh of relief as I found monkey under the seat. Time to go home. And have a drink. Cheers🍸

The party was today. I still can't believe she's 6 years old.

Broken arm story for another day 😭

Any time I'm crazy enough to consider running errands with all 3 please remind me that there's not enough wine in the world...

"I'm pregnant like Mommy!"

Back in December, it had been a year since Mike and I had started trying for baby G #3. My doctor sent orders to the lab for me to go in for a round of fertility blood work whenever I was ready.

But I wasn't ready yet. It had only been a month or so since I had completely weaned Aurelia and to be truthful, we weren't in any rush. With the possibility of Mike starting a new job in the Fall, we thought it might be smart to try to avoid for a few months so as not to have a baby popping out while Mike was supposed to be teaching his very first college class.

A couple weeks later Mike got his job offer and of course we had to celebrate and of course I wasn't charting or paying any attention to my cycle. And then of course when a few weeks later I realized I hadn't gotten my period in a while and decided to take a test there were two lines. I think I stared at the test in shock for a good five minutes before even showing Mike. Neither of us believed it until we saw the same two lines there a few days later.  

Okay so just three short weeks after Professor Mike embarks upon his career as a professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, baby G #3 will be making his or her appearance. We're all really excited. And pretending to be pregnant is now Carina and Aurelia's favorite game.

I'm pregnant like Mommy!

The next few months are going to be crazy. We'll be flying down to Charleston soon to look at homes and provided all goes as planned we should be moving in early July. Then comes Mike's job and baby #3.

So far, this pregnancy has been really different from my two previous pregnancies. With Carina and Aurelia, I only ever had some light nausea. Now I feel nauseated almost all the time and have become well acquainted with the toilet :(  And since the girls no longer nap, there is no chance for me to rest during the day.

More to come soon...that is, if I can stay awake at night long enough to write another blog post ;)

My princess problem

Sure, my girls love princesses. But I'm an enabler of the worst kind. If it's Disney and it wears a dress, they probably have its manifestation in doll form in not 1, not 2, but 3 sizes. And pajamas….books…and games. And 9 times out of 10, they didn't even ask for it. I can't help it. I think I love having these princess things around more than they do. As evidenced by the Disney princess calendar hanging in our bedroom.

There's princess bedlam in our house:

Clockwise from top left: 1. princess toddler dolls fill our shopping cart. Carina pretends they are pirates and they sail in the shopping cart pirate ship. 2. "squishy" princess dolls on Carina's bed. They are not all hers, she plundered a few from Aurelia's crib. This is a nightly occurrence. 3. princess orgy in the garage of their dollhouse. There are usually more naked ones than there are today. 4. princess figurines. I think we have close to 30 of them. Yikes.

I was mostly a tomboy growing up and couldn't be bothered with anything even remotely girly, so I'm not sure where this obsession has come from. As a matter of fact I much preferred animals (The Lion King was my favorite movie) to dolls and at any given moment until I was probably 12 15 you could find stuffed animals strewn about my bedroom.

And then I birthed girls. Maybe I'm living vicariously through them since I essentially ignored Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine when I was a little girl. No surprise -- I preferred Flounder & Sebastian, Lumiere (he's the shit, no?) and Abu & Rajah. After I saw Tangled for the first time I put the soundtrack on loop every day (even further confession: I LOVE Mandy Moore). Little baby Carina loved to dance to the songs.

Our trip to Disney in December only served to fuel the fire. We had dinner with the princesses at Norway in Epcot and I think we met and photographed the girls with each and every princess we could find.

Okay, not quite princesses - but hilarious nonetheless

And don't tell Mike, but I'm already looking into planning a return trip, hopefully right before Christmas 2015. Maybe? (Pretty please, Mike?)

Then we saw Frozen. I've been completely sucked in, and so have the girls. The fact that the story is about two sisters helps me justify watching it over and over again and thank goodness the merchandise is sold out everywhere or else I'm sure we'd have too much of it. I must have ALL THE PRINCESS THINGS.

They can thank the "Easter bunny" for our latest acquisitions:

Merida & Cinderella dress-up dresses

Sofia the First & Tinkerbell hair clips

::sigh:: I {clearly} need a princess intervention.

BUT HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE THIS?

The inception of "Rina"

I remember when telling our friends and family members the name we had chosen for our first daughter, they asked, "what will her nickname be?" And we had no idea. It wasn't something we were going to worry about, especially before she was born.

Until just last week, Carina has never had a nickname other than "peanut" and "tiny" and those were both relics from her newborn and infant days.

Aurelia has been on a roll with pointing at things and proudly announcing their names recently. "Kitty! Ball! Yake!" (what she calls Jake the pirate) Also "Mommy! Da-y!" (not quite "Daddy" but close) But her favorite? "Big sis! Sissy!" Then...

The first time she said it, we weren't sure if we had heard correctly. So we prompted her to repeat it. We listened and there it was, clear as day, "Rina!" while she was pointing to Carina.

Rina it is. Aurelia says it all the time now and it couldn't be more adorable.

Our Rina.

The Gs do Colorado

Brace yourself for a massive photo dump.

Last week we headed out to Colorado Springs for a close friend's wedding. The best thing about this locale is that my best friend also lives there. We stayed with her and her adorable family for a long weekend.

Truth be told we were a little nervous about how this was going to go. We have flown with Carina a number of times (and it usually involves projectile vomit), and this was Aurelia's first time in the air. They were better than we could have ever expected! People on the plane fawned all over Aurelia and remarked how well behaved Carina was. The secret? We brought new toys, books, and snacks and this occupied their time for most of the duration of both flights each way.

Our weekend consisted of lots of play time for the girls, a trip to my best friend Maggie's Mom's pool club at the foot of the mountains (gasp! GORGEOUS), an afternoon at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, a beautiful wedding, and a few drinks. We left feeling surprisingly refreshed and relaxed and wish we could go back already.

Only 3.5 months apart - Abby and Aurelia are going to be best friends someday!

Sharing blueberries on the kitchen floor

At the Zoo - LOOK AT THAT CRAZY TONGUE

Proof that God has a sense of humor

Carina wasn't afraid to feed him

They don't look alike at all, do they? ;)

 

My best friend Maggie

Oh hai!

Carina's first ever carousel ride

Sister high-five...or was she trying to hit her? Not sure...

We asked Carina where she was going in the car, and she told us that she had to go to work. Mike probed further, "what are you going to do at work, Carina?"

"I gunna go do science!"

And then Mike's heart exploded. What an awesome trip.

News and a serenade

It's official. There's no money in the budget to keep me on, so my last day of work will be September 27th.

I have mixed feelings about it. I'm really excited to spend more time with the girls again, especially now that Aurelia is mobile and beginning to speak. But I've loved being able to get back into the computer system and use my brain, and I know I'll miss it.

My boss at the consulting company will be looking for other opportunities for me but I'll wait for something local or that will allow me to work remotely. And part-time; I don't think I want to do full-time again. We'll see.

I'm looking forward to more of this...

Oh and P.S. -- she's basically potty trained. I changed her last diaper on Sunday morning and we haven't looked back. She's been in underpants round the clock since. Of course they're Disney Princess ones ;)

Big girl changes

Hey there. Got any wine? Ha, who am I kidding...no amount of alcohol could ameliorate this level of exhaustion.

So what else would be helpful...an extra mop, maybe? Better yet, a tried and true way to keep your toddler in bed? Oooh or -- who wants to come over Saturday morning at 6 AM when the girls wake up so Mike and I can get some sleep for the first time in for-freaking-ever?

Saturday morning we ditched diapers. It's been messy and frustrating but ultimately, pleasantly surprising. We've let Carina run around bottomless for most of the last 48 hours and with her peepee in the potty prior to bedtime just now, we've got more hits than misses on the weekend. And luckily for all of us {and our hardwood floors}, there has not yet been any ploppage outside of the potty.

With each successful potty encounter we give her a handful of chocolate chips and dance (or, shake my butt embarrassingly) to our made-up potty song. No joke, it's "peepee in the potty" over and over to the tune of Wade in the Water. Yep, I just shook my head at myself, too.

Then we put a "Way to go!" magnet on Carina's little chart. Except she must be the only kid on the planet who would rather take the magnets off and put them back with all the rest. When I put one in the brand new "Peepee on Potty" row she yells "no!" and takes it off. So, despite the fact that none are displayed below, she has been successful 8 times so far. Fingers crossed for continued wins.

Sad lonely magnet chart

We thought that turning her crib into a toddler bed should go hand in hand, so that if she feels the need to get up at night to pee, she'll be able to. Before her nap on Saturday we took off the front panel of the crib and hoped for the best. She LOVES her "big girl" bed but we decidedly aren't fans at this point. She won't stay in it. Or go to sleep.

Right now it's 9 PM and she's still awake. Every 20 minutes or so we'll hear her turning the door knob and/or calling out to us. And here she is on cue, doing it again. Last night she wasn't asleep until just before 10 PM. That wasn't all...shortly after midnight she strolled into our room and jumped up into bed with us. I think we were too tired to bring her back at that point.

I'm so proud of our little girl and am so glad she's happy with her big girl changes but OMG TIRED. Did you go through this? How did you get your little one to stay in bed? Momma (and Daddydoo) need some sleep. STAT.

Oh, and send wine.

Daddy saves Tinkerbell

On Saturday we made another trip to the Renaissance Faire. Last time we went, Carina wasn't even 18 Months old and I was just over 5 Months pregnant.

While wooden swords ruled her inaugural trip, this go around Carina was much more interested in the fairy wings, princess dresses, and magic wands. We dressed her in her Rapunzel costume (her uncle's Christmas gift to her) and pretty white sandals. She pretended to be Rapunzel for part of the day exclaiming, "I turn 18!" and "I gunna try to get married!" to which Mike responded by taking a {rather large} swig of Whiskey.

I made the mistake of forgetting to take out the camera, so we only snapped a few with Mike's smartphone camera.

We bought her a set of fairy wings and a wand and she ran around for hours, flitting from stand to stand admiring the wares and saying Hello to the other princesses. She was greeted as "your Highness" or "princess" on multiple occasions. She loved every minute of it...well, except for when she spied a Tinkerbell doll tied up over a spitfire at a metalsmith's stand.

That really upset her. So much so that later that night, she refused to go to sleep, yelling, "Daddy gotta save Tinkerbell!" 8 PM: "TINKERBELL!" 8:30 PM: "Daddddyyy! Gotta save her!" 9 PM: "We gotta go back to Faire! Daddy gotta save Tinkerbell!"

At 9:15, Mike called Target and asked if they had any Tinkerbell dolls. The employee set one aside and Mike sped off to "rescue" her. By the time he returned home, she had finally fallen asleep. Mike put the doll in her hand and said something I'll never forget: "I won't always be able to save the day for her, so I'm going to do it while I can".

When she awoke the next morning to find herself holding an unscathed Tinkerbell, we heard over the monitor, "Daddy! You SAVED Tinkerbell!" and we melted. She's so thoughtful and sweet and I am so proud she is mine. And how lucky am I to be married to such a knight in shining armor? ;)

Sleep strikes & how we're staying sane (mostly)

It's a tired parent's nightmare; the sleep strike. Carina went from sleeping soundly beginning at 7 PM to fussing and calling out until 9 PM or later most nights. Half of the time she wakes up Aurelia, and then we're all in for a rough night. To make matters worse, our infant alarm clock has been going off an hour earlier than usual (6 AM). And that means Carina is up then, too -- the joys of sharing a room.

We tried earlier naps. We tried a later bedtime. We tried skipping the nap...today, actually, and it didn't go so well. After a major meltdown at the mall, both girls fell asleep at 4:30 PM, and guess what? Carina's still awake now, at 9 PM, and she's letting us know that she's ANGRY. We're crossing our fingers that Aurelia is able to remain sleeping, but it doesn't look good. I think our next attempt to "take our evening back" will be buying room darkening shades. Any other ideas?

Motorola MBP41 Monitor

Something that has helped our sanity is having a video monitor. We bought one shortly after Aurelia was born and we like it, but it interferes with our wireless network and there's no warning that the battery is dying - it just shuts off. The week we were moving Aurelia into Carina's room, Motorola asked if we'd like to give their new Motorola MBP41 Wireless Video Baby Monitor a try. After hearing that the camera pans, tilts, and zooms from the parent unit, I thought it would be perfect to set up in between their cribs.

The 2.8" diagonal color LCD screen is clear and the color is bright during the day, and uses infrared night vision at night. Mike calls it the "spy cam" and loves that we can see the girls at any time. Aurelia is very quiet after naps and sometimes we would have no idea if she was awake if we weren't able to see her little eyes open on the monitor. Also, when we hear a little cough or call out at night, previously we would run in to check on them, but would often wake one of them up in the process. Now, we can just peek in on the monitor to see if they are okay or if they do actually need us.

Aside from the pan/tilt/zoom function, my favorite function is the 590 foot range. Mike and I can grab a glass of wine and sit out on the patio without worrying that we'll be too far or won't be able to hear the girls if they need us. We can even press the microphone button and tell them to go to sleep if they're up too late giggling ;) If you do get too far, an out-of-range alert sounds. There's also a low-battery alert; the parent unit doesn't just shut off (like our other monitor does). We've rarely gotten to this point, though, as the battery life is really good. We've never had issues leaving it unplugged from 7 PM until well after midnight. The only room for improvement I see is that when it isn't plugged in, the screen goes to sleep after a few minutes. I wish this were optional; I'd prefer it stay active.

Night vision (Left) - Daylight (Right) P.S. LOOK AT THOSE HAMHOCKS!

Other features include volume and brightness control, auto shut-off, a support stand, and a sound level indicator - the little circular lights at the top of the unit: green is quiet (shown), yellow is louder, and red is OMG BABY IS NOT HAPPY.

The monitor comes with a parent unit, one camera, a rechargeable battery pack for the parent unit, and 2 wall power adapters. When we move into a house (hopefully in the next year - more on our plans next week!) we plan on buying another camera so we'll have one in each of the girls

 rooms. You can pair up to 4 cameras (sold separately) with the parent unit.

For now, though, putting our one camera in between both cribs is working out really well. After I check on Aurelia (we leave it aimed at her most of the time), I pan to Carina's crib. Check this out in action, and sorry for the blurriness...video camera skillz - I got none:

The Motorola MBP41 Video Monitor is exclusive to Babies R' Us and has saved us from many a run across the house to check on one of the girls. It gives me peace of mind and I like being able to look over and see their sweet faces at any time ;)

Up

Things are great right now...as evidenced by my absence here. I am loving my job and I'm having so much fun with the girls (and our extended family, who we've seen a few times recently). Most days I don't even have get a chance to turn on my computer. For the first time in a long time, I'm okay with that.

And now prepare for cute happy beach photo overload.

Sand...NOM

I can't believe how big they're getting. Aurelia is 9 Months old today, and Carina will be 2 1/2 next week. Weren't they just born??