This week’s word of the week (WOTW!)? ICE. That’s right…ice ice baby.

Temperatures finally warmed up over 30 degrees and it feels like a heat wave. Compared to the negative numbers we’ve seen for most of January, it really is and it feels so great.

The warmer temps opened the door for the girls to don their snowsuits and go outside and get some fresh air. Much overdue! Once outside, all they wanted to do was scoop snow with their spoons or measuring cups (stolen from the kitchen) and eat it. That’s good hydration right? It’s not yellow snow and untrampled by the pups…so it’s fresh?!

This activity inspires great enthusiasm and lasted about 45 minutes on my solo Friday off. it feels like forever since we’ve been able to go play outside and the stimulation encourages a good nap.

My Friday off turned out to be a pretty great day. The girls are clearly feeling better from their winter colds and ear infections. They ALL ate both breakfast and lunch like little ladies. I was able to give them cereal with spoons and milk and they devoured everything without assistance or destroying my dining room floor (or walls?). That may not sound impressive to you, but it is HUGE progress considering the past few months, through stuffy noses and teething babies.

In fact, yesterday ended up being one of the best solo days I’ve had in over six months. There are only a handful of my Fridays off that I felt were smooth days that didn’t increase my stress about one thing or another, with happy babies that play nicely, ate the food given to them, AND napped. It’s about damn time I had another one, and the whole day went by smoothly.

When playtime consists only indoors, we try to get creative on new, toddler friendly activities. For example, taking a single ice cube from the freezer and putting it in a tiny Tupperware container entertains each girl for a good 15 minutes. They like to stand there and impatiently yell “ice ice ice,” then trade them back-and-forth. The best part is even when it spills it doesn’t make a huge mess! This means “ice” is now quite the popular word around here…and snow once we reintroduced it outside. This excitement also extends to cups of snow brought in from outside. It’s quite the fun time!

Cabin fever is giving the girls opportunities and confidence to test boundaries, to attempt to climb new, unnoticed things around them for months. For example, Emerie and Reagan now climb up on the kitchen set from Papa Cliff. Harper observed a few times and now does it too. After the struggle to pull up their total body weight to something a little bit high for them, they will sit in the sink. I’d course, they can’t seem to figure out how to get back down, since their feet remain a good six inches off the ground. The kitchen set is definitely not intended for climbing and not sturdy enough to prevent tipping. They’ve also figured out, thanks to Emerie, how to climb the high chair with the tray attached. Another thing to keep an eye out on.

Everyone is now in the habit of clothing removal; it varies who starts it each time, but if one baby starts to remove a shirt, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. The last few days everyone wears short sleeved shirts or dresses because they haven’t mastered taking them off! I’ve also tried putting vests over their pajamas to encourage leaving things on, and greatly discourage anyone trying to remove pants. They do like to put pants on, although get frustrated when they can’t quite figure it out. We are also at the point that only diapers is not an option. Only diapers equals no diapers and as you all know, that doesn’t end well in this house.

I believe this might be a glimpse of what this summer will consist of; at least I hope so! Lots of outdoor fun and happy babies.

Oh, and last night all three slept through the entire night. A baby has slept, at least several hours on a rotation of all three girls, in our bed 100% of the nights since about September. Now I’m not silly enough to think it will repeat tonight, but at least we’ve had one good night so far in 2020.

❤