alaskantriplets

Weekend at the Beach

Well, we finally made it out of town for a short weekend, to the Alaska version of the beach. You know, the version that is beautiful, but cold, and only has rocks, not sand, and is in no way the epitome of warmth, relaxation, and quiet!

Did it end up being rainy? Yes. Close to freezing temperatures? Why not. High crosswinds that made it feel twice as cold!? Well of course! But also loads of fun for the girls and nice to get out of town for a night to refresh from a busy winter of work? Yes, that too!

Family road-trip time with snacks and smiles.

We rescheduled the girls’ birthday weekend trip to Seward for this the past weekend, opting to wait until driving conditions through the pass were less wintery and icy than back in March. Packing up and loading into the car was easier this time around, even with the girls home from preschool, than it was for any long distance adventure last year. During the drive down the girls snacked on goodies, played with new My Little Pony sets and eventually watched a movie, as we slowly made our way down to the peninsula on Sunday morning. Road-trips continue to get easier, as I alluded to many times last year, and this year will be no exception. The girls asked more times when we will be there, but are also much easier to placate with toys, snacks and coloring books to pass the time.

Reagan was thrilled to see the waterfalls along the mountains melted and running and counted them throughout the drive. Harper was happy to sit on the inlet side of the car, constantly pointing out the sights to the rest of the passengers, who didn’t care nearly as much as she thought they should. Emerie, who fought for the coveted middle seat as we loaded up, didn’t say more than two sentences the whole drive, but wouldn’t tell us anything but she was tired. Everyone enjoyed viewing any construction activity taking place, seeing some of the larger vehicles, and three cranes at one spot down by Portage.

Luckily the clouds parted upon arrival in Seward and let brief sunlight in, long enough for a good park visit after sitting for the long drive. After running around for a bit, and Craig and I “playing Bowser” and chasing the girls (it was too cold to sit there and watch them play!), we ventured down and over the large rocks to find shells on the beach. All three excitedly looked around and climbed down much better than last year and with less complaints. Once the wind picked back up, we headed inside to grab a late lunch along the pier and everyone colored and looked out at the water and boats. The highlight of the meal- other than the demands for more ketchup for their fries- was the two wild seals swimming around the harbor. In true Harper style, she named them BOTH Harper. That seemed to be a naming theme over the weekend, every time an animal sighting occurred. The girls insisted on walking along the pier for a few minutes to see them up close, but it didn’t last long with the whipping wind and complaints of I’m cold!

Cute bed cutouts in the bedroom upstairs.

Eventually we found the rented bungalow; it took us just long enough to find it for Reagan and Emerie to fall asleep and catch some zzzz’s. Harper managed to stay awake and ask us one-thousand times if we were there yet. Apparently renting a property creates some major preschooler questions, the main one producing excitement that we got a new house. This prompted questions of, what happened to our old house (old by a whole three hours, you know)? Are we going to live here now? Where is my bunk bed; it’s not in my room? Why didn’t you bring it with us? Why can we only stay one night?! It took a bit of time to convince these crazy kids that we did not actually purchase a new house for them to live in, but rented it for ONE night to visit. Mind. Blown.

I do not have any epic triplet stories of the rest of our visit, other than it was nice and cozy in the bungalow and blowing and freezing cold out on the beach. We could not convince them to go play outside and collect shells, lasting maybe fifteen minutes before the mind-numbing cold hands pushed us all back inside to play. The girls did pretty well just hanging out for the evening, playing with toys we brought and running up and down the stairway a hundred times. We watching a movie on the couch and ate a light dinner and everyone washed and dried their shell collection at the table. I look forward to the day we can rent this place and enjoy the view and more time on the deck, when it’s not so cold and rainy.

The next morning Reagan was the only one convinced by Craig to collect more shells on the beach, while the other two insisted they were NOT going outside to succumb to the elements. Next time I should probably pack rain gear! We spent the rest of the morning at the Seward Sealife Center, our longest visit yet, checking out the animals and going in and out of the exhibit areas. Highlights include playing on the pretend boat (and blowing the horn continuously), shrieking in a combination of fear and delight at the touch pool (and asking the employee to touch the starfish for them because the water was cold haha), and watching the sea lion and seals swim in the water. And no, I was informed several times that all were seals and not sea lions, regardless of my attempts to explain they are different animals.

Harper was clearly thrilled the entire visit to see her favorite animal in action (seals and the sea lion because she thinks they are all seals), even more so than last year. She asked for pictures with them swimming behind her, with a huge smile on her face, named them all Harper, and commented and complimented at how super cute and super amazing they were. Her other main phrase as they swam by- I can’t believe it! Reagan and Emerie did NOT like the large crab crawling around and immediately avoided going near it, but did enjoy watching the birds dive into the water while we looked through the glass.

Reagan and Emerie were much more content running around and shrieking uncontrollably than their sister, but by the end of the visit they simmered down enough to warrant a stuffed animal for good behavior. Emerie and Harper chose mermaids (Harper already has two stuffed seals that are her besties) while Reagan opted for a white seal to “be like Harper.”

At the end of the day and on the way home, I asked everyone to pick their favorite thing during the quick trip. Harper instantly responded it was seeing the seals out in the water, while Reagan liked playing in the boat at the sea life center and Emerie liked the bungalow and playing with her pony toys. Pretty standard answers from all three, and you could tell everyone was happy to return home and play that evening. Before we left, everyone signed the guestbook- and received several threats NOT to write on any other pages on it- and collected just enough shells to make a mess at home.

It was a nice remind to Craig and I that we can better enjoy trips around Alaska and don’t require help to do them, even though we all enjoy when other family join in too. I look forward to having more trips soon and with more cooperative weather, and am very ready for summer to arrive! At some point Reagan will stop asking how many years until summer gets here!? So true kid, it certainly feels that way this year.

❤

Rehoming Kittens and F- Words

Last week we released two of the three kittens (Wallace and Winnie) to go spend their lives at the cousins’ house. At the last minute we switched up which kitten would stay with us, much to the dismay of Harper, opting to keep one of the orange boys and letting the black haired beauty go. Winston is the kid cuddler of the group and sleeps next to Rory, our poor adult cat whose life was ruined by the arrival of new family mates (his words, not mine?!). Some nights I also find him cuddled with a kiddo in their bed, or on the pillow next to Reagan, who is almost always in our bed at some point through the night. All the kittens tolerated the preschool torture pretty well for the most part; it wasn’t uncommon for me to find one wrapped in a blanket, sitting in a doll stroller or bed, or snuggled in a blanket and “going shopping” with a kiddo, until they found a way to escape.

The first night without Wallace and Winnie involved tears and anxious kiddos that “their” kittens were gone forever!! I’ll just NEVER see the baby kitties again. So very dramatic yes, even after constant reminders that we can visit whenever we see cousins. Harper is still upset, after about a week, that we gave Winnie away. The following day we brought dinner out and both kittens immediately came out to greet not only Craig and I, but also the girls! It’s good to know we raised them right….and they can handle kid chaos and loud noise…right?!

On the actual kid front, instead of just #kittenlife, the girls are finally over the two week cough and back into routine after our Juneau trip. They continue to share new personality traits, some more wonderful than others. For example, the latest insult to one another is no longer I’m not inviting you to my birthday, as it was last year. Now it is I’m not going to marry you, with a tongue sticking out and extreme attitude seeping toward one another. After a kiss the other night, Reagan told me that meant I married her, because kisses mean marriage, Mom, and you just married me! And to top that off, several times I’ve caught Emerie yelling the f-word, correctly mind you, but also muttering it under her breath, like stop f-ing doing that. I wonder where she learned that from hahaha…. Emerie also had an epiphany the other day on the word burger, explaining that her pronunciation sounds the same as her saying booger. Mom, like the boogers in your nose; they sound like a burger! Everyone is picking up so much more about the English language in their already excellent vocal skills.

All three are really getting into their drawings, numbers and letters. Reagan has almost all her letters memorized and helps her sisters learn theirs; she likes to draw them when instructed how to spell words. She has her name down and enjoys signing all her artwork. Her customized letter “R” still has the adorable circle with two lines dangling from it and is about the cutest letter I’ve ever seen. Harper is picking the alphabet up really quickly as well, but is much better at writing it if she sees it visually, which is my learning style too. She stresses over spelling her name out correctly and often replaces the “a” with the “e”, but is getting better by the day. She colored and made a fan at school last week and was thrilled to bring it home and model it. The next day all three had fans in their backpacks- coincidence? I think not. So far Emerie is the least interested in her letters and lacks the focus on writing and learning them, but every once in a while gets on a tangent and you HAVE to answer all letter requests immediately so she can write out words. She is still a bit unsure writing her own name, but is also improving, telling us she has lots of “e’s.” She has greatly improved on her numbers over the last month too, and can piece the whole train numbering puzzle together without any help, a big improvement from earlier this winter.

As you will see in the photo below, we are working on learning important words in the English vocabulary, such as french fries, tea, and how to write out the whole family’s name. “S” was the letter of the week at school two weeks ago and the girls all fought over bringing Grandma Sue’s picture for Friday show and tell. This past week was letter “T”, and a photo of Tyler was shared. They asked to bring him in person, but settled with bringing a photo. Good thing we have lots of family that has lots of different letter starts, so they pick them up easily and associate the letter with their names.

Our living room is now more of an art studio- i.e. Reagan discovered how to use scotch tape. She constantly brings home five to ten pictures from every school day and runs around the room, taping them up in different places so we can see them. Harper mostly adds her designs to the side of the fridge, and Emerie forcefully demands Craig puts them in his office.

Last week was a busy, out of the office week for me with a convention, so for girls’ night in (and Dad’s night out) I slacked and bought everyone happy meals from McDonalds. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve created the more fun (and healthy) charcuterie boards for the night, and when I commented that at school pickup, Harper and Reagan informed me I should make the goody boards and then you should leave and go to Shiloh’s for dinner, so we can have girls night with dad. Emerie disagreed with that suggestion, commenting I should leave and go to Jessie’s house instead, but definitely leave so Dad could join. What the f children?! No love.

And now, can you believe in only two more weeks my tiny humans will be five years old?! I surely can’t believe it ❤

Kickin Off the Summer

The Douglas household was fully embracing summer by the middle of May. A little optimistic, maybe, but also a nice break from the dreary and cold winter and spring. Harper’s obsession of shorts and dresses has passed to the other two and everyone now strongly demands such attire each day, regardless of the weather outlook. Fancy dresses were worn during gardening and throughout the long, sunny weekend.

The neighborhood will often witness three princesses biking down the street, in full-length princess dresses, heels (although they are learning heels are hard to bike in!) and bike helmets. Harper led the charge on the peddle bikes and training wheels and had the process completely down in about two days. For the most part her understanding of breaking is learned, other than when stressing down a “big” hill, freaking out and slamming into a curb. Reagan was right behind her and picked up the peddling a few days later. Her stuffed panda is mandatory for all rides. Emerie has no desire to climb on the bigger bike and races around her sisters on the pink balance bike. Occasionally Reagan will opt to ride hers and fly down the street with her legs out, balancing! We plan to let Emerie decide when she wants to transition to peddles, especially considering her balance is still off a bit from her recent surgery.

Biking to Jessie’s house
Reagan
Harper

In addition to the almost daily neighborhood bike rides, we are back to the constant water play. With dandelions in bloom, custom versions of dandelion soup and tea are the hits of the house. Every time you turn around you find dandelion parts, water, and flower petals. The girls designed some great food off the fallen petals on the floor of Bells Nursery this week. And those are free! A number of bouquet deliveries have also occurred and I can confidently say that our lot has no growing dandelions at the moment.

Another really cute moment during a bike ride last week; Emerie found a field of seeding dandelions on a nearby neighbor’s lot and abandoned her bike to collect them. By the time we caught up to her, she was hollering she found a bunch of wishes! So cute.

Reagan already mastered the art of swinging and while she knows how to do it, she still wants to be pushed sometimes. Harper and Emerie study their sister’s new skill and are starting to do it themselves too. New types of swings continue to pop up on our property thanks to Craig’s creativity and we now have a front tire swing and normal swing, and three regular swings, a trapeze bar and a fancy sun seat in the backyard. This week the girls all learned how to do a back flip holding the trapeze and are so thrilled to show it to everyone.

The Douglas family is also growing again (calm down, not THAT) with the arrival of baby chicks. As shouted at me when arriving home from work to them, we got Easter eggs! We briefly tried adopting some last year but quickly learned the girls weren’t quite ready to be gentle with them (and I might have threatened Craig’s life if we kept them). This time around is going much better. Craig told me he showed all three how to gently help the babies drink water while I was at work; Emerie’s first attempt was more like a shove-the-entire-chick-into-the-water type of “help,” but she will learn. Reagan and Harper are quite gentle with them but enjoy petting their heads more than feeling the scaly feet on their hands. A few have definitely tried to learn to fly in the moment from getting thrown by a stressed out preschooler; none of them have died yet either! When asked what everyone is named, the quick consensus was all names starting with ballerina (Ballerina Emerie, Ballerina Harper, Ballerina Grandma, Ballerina Tyler) or Ling-Fong. Yes, we will work on better names as they get bigger.

We are almost three weeks out from Emerie’s surgery and her eye is straightening nicely. Unfortunately this improvement is tied to a very droopy left eyelid (like her first procedure) and now that she’s a bit older, she has more opinions on it and tells people her eye is closed or that it won’t stay open. She asks to go to Dr. Winkle to fix it too. Her patching and wearing of glasses continues to be a daily battle; she is such a trooper while patched and distracted with an activity and while a bit less balanced, still works really hard to do everything her sisters do while wearing it. I’m thoroughly impressed at how well she handles her wobbles and continues having fun and try to give her credit and praise when it goes well.

A few more girls nights have occurred over the past month and I feel as though they are getting easier to navigate by myself. Maybe it’s because we are getting into a groove; more likely it’s due to the yummy food and ability to chow down on dinner with a movie in the living room, which we don’t do any other time. This week elevated temperatures resulted in a granted ice cream request to kick off girls night before dinner, and went really well.

The three day daycare closure and holiday weekend meant a solid six days with the kiddos home. While exhausting and very stimulating, the girls slept in later than normal due to efforts to tire them out all day, no naps and direct sun beaming down through most activities. Reagan even slept until 9:30 one morning! I’m guessing a growth spurt is right around the corner.

The majority of Memorial Day weekend was spent outside with lots of adventuring and activities. We played at the beach (an Alaskan beach with dry, cold sand!), played with the water slide and pool in the back yard, ran the sprinkler, destroyed the back deck with smashed orso balls, shopped for and planted flowers and vegetables, had play dates with friends, went to the park, explored Saturday market carnival rides, and so much more. The girls continue to be fearless and went down a three tiered slide for the first time. Emerie bonked her forehead on the second trip down and was less than impressed and Megan nearly broke her leg (again) at the same time. Everyone loved the carousel and boasted big smiles throughout several rides. All five kiddos joined Megan on a spinning apple ride and no tears or screaming occurred, much to my surprise. It is very likely all three will be fans of fair rides in the future and that state fair this year will probably cause us bankruptcy; here I was thinking they’d be nervous or hesitant (well Emerie and Reagan anyway- Harper has always had a need for speed!).

Now that summer is here, a few trips are in the planning stages and I look forward to trekking to a couple other towns on the road system this summer. I will certainly have three extremely tanned and super blonde girls in tow for most of it…and I can’t wait to see what shenanigans we get into.

❤

(Four)ces of Nature

For this year’s birthday blog I want to compare and contrast the differences and similarities to my three little minions, who are no longer toddlers and full on preschoolers (that’s for you Sara!). I have to continually resist the urge to keep calling them toddlers, probably because my brain still can’t agree so much time has passed into parenthood.

And while I can’t recall half of the major events and milestones we accomplished this past year, there are certainly a few that are easy to remember.

Turning three
Turning four

Age Three Changes

Bye bye binkies

I can’t decide if this or the toddler bed transition was the most significant change in age three. It was definitely a major stresser last spring when we cornered ourselves into taking them away under a deadline. Reagan needed her front tooth pulled and that meant cutting them off for all three, especially considering Reagan was our #1 binkie fan. If you’ll remember, we did an elaborate “binkie fairy” scheme over the span of a week and slowly required the girls to give them away to other babies in need. Looking back this went better than expected and after a month or so they stopped asking for them. The first week or two was a bit rough but we made it through!

Big girl beds

We pulled off this change last August and decimated our wonderful nap time in the process. The girls were very excited to have big girl beds, even trying to help Dad build them out in the garage, but once reality set in, they only slept uninterrupted (all three) maybe two nights since then.

We miss you naps!

The girls were (mostly) fantastic throughout age two at giving us a nap from 1:30 to 3:30 time frame, sometimes stretched to 4:00 but no later than that or bedtime was rough. I believe we earned those longer naps, since they barely gave us any stretch in the earlier days. Age two nap success only occurred when one parent sat in the nursery arm chair, which was okay because it gained two hours of greatly appreciated silence and a strong mental reset for the adults each day.

I remember wondering how we would survive the loss of the afternoon nap and now that it’s happened, it just means grumpier girls in the late afternoon and early evening and longer days, but not the end of the world.

The girls still nap at school, although not as long. We decided pushing it at home wasn’t worth the stress when they wouldn’t settle down and that was a good call, And we still get the occasional afternoon car nap on a busy day- which is amazing- but most afternoon quiet time looks more like this (picture).

New Preschool!

As you all know, we were not drama free on childcare for the girls. We rolled into age three without one altogether, with Craig and I both working full time from home at the same time and Grandma Sue popping in and out from Juneau to keep us all alive and sane. We transitioned to a new place in early July and it has been truly wonderful. The girls adore their teacher and teacher aides and school setting, they feel comfortable and excel at their activities and in the atmosphere, and Craig and I can rest assured that they are treated well and loved while we are at work.

Weekend trips!

I was so excited to do a couple weekend trips last summer and finally felt they might be survivable and (while stressful) fun for the whole family. I undoubtedly looked like a complete basket case (or lunatic) preparing for the multi-day trips (and packing for them), but I am very glad we went and made the memories. The first trip meant set net fishing down in Kasilof for one weekend, with lots of playtime on the beach, fresh air and kiddo avoidance of the questionable “icky” fish. The second went into backcountry Alaska by four wheeler, adventuring to an off-the-beaten-path cabin sans electricity. Everyone made it back in one piece and we will definitely attempt more trips this summer!

Other Mentionables!

Car seat buckling

The girls all buckle themselves into their car seats now. It doesn’t sound like a major life skill, but it’s such a timesaver when loading three kids into the car constantly. This life skill can be contributed to lollipop “encouragement” at daycare pickup every afternoon, but nonetheless is a win in my book! We have come a HUGE way on getting to the car without any random parking lot running and minimal meltdowns in the past year and it’s amazing! Those lollipops also greatly helped in learning our colors…

Surgeries, Patching & a Tooth Pull

As noted above, Reagan had her front tooth pulled back in May and was a rock star throughout the whole procedure, even proclaiming her love for the pediatric dentist who freed her broken tooth. The donut she demanded afterwards indicated her pain tolerance is pretty great for a kid!

Emerie had two Botox eye procedures over the past year, one in June and another last month. As usual she was a total trooper and came out of anesthesia like such a big girl; it’s really nice it’s easier as she gets older! She also continues to proclaim her love for Dr. Winkle and Harper and Reagan both jealously demand to attend her visits. Morning patching continues to be a bit of a fight but overall she cooperates greatly and is such a strong girl.

Covid & Quarantine

It might be fair to say those two weeks were the toughest for the whole year (until I remember working full time with no daycare for five months), although the intense sicknesses around Christmas might be a close second. Timing worked out nicely for our brush with the pandemic, meaning it was deep into fall but not winter and we could play out in the yard while stuck at home. Craig and my symptoms also managed to be a few days apart and that helped tremendously with keeping kiddos entertained (and survival). And, of course, it’s no surprise to say we were thrilled the girls had mild symptoms and felt okay.

More Cousin Visits

The last thing to note is the more frequent visits from the cousins, now that Tyler and Jaren are in easier proximity to Anchorage. The girls adore their cousins and while they can’t seem to ever call them the right names, they constantly request them to come play, pretend call them and talk, draw pictures for their fridges, and carry their photos around the house (and fight over them).

And in case you need me to decipher who is who….Tyler is Tyler, Jaren is Tyler, and Chatum is Jaren. Someday they might get it right….

Tell me about the girls!

Keep in mind that while they are all the same age and mentality, they are all very different. Their likes and dislikes, while constantly changing at this age, greatly vary between the three. It highlights that they are individuals while also sharing many other things together. Here’s are some individual details for each kiddo!

Harper Anne

Harper is an easy going girl that loves to be on the go, speeding on her bike or adventuring around town. She appoints herself the boss a lot and can be stubborn when she thinks she is right on something. She excels at sleeping in her bed, always wants to wear shorts and dresses, and has a love for her ballet flats.

Height/Weight: 42.25″, 37.6 pounds

Favorite Activities: riding balance bikes (speeding around on them really), dance class, anything relating to princesses, and playing dress up. She loves to spend her day in dresses, fancy shoes and a crown and making silly faces for pictures.

Dislikes: anything that moves slowly, the fact she has to wear pants ever, and being woken up abruptly when in her bed. She hilariously dragssssss herself out of bed, limbs not working and mouth sassing.

Favorite movies/shows/music: Fancy Nancy, Rapunzel’s Adventures, and pretty much any princess movie. Her favorite song is “Northwind” from Frozen II, that the mom sings to Anna and Elsa at the beginning of the movie.

Favorite Princess: Aurora and Belle

Favorite Color: black, then pink

Favorite Food: black olives, steak and french fries (pretty sure this is close to my favorites too)

Favorite Animal: When asked, her favorite animals are animals with stripes. In reality, she adores her Little Seal and Big Seal (because we somehow bought the same stuffed animal in two sizes!). She also loves petting her kitties, who have warmed up to her presence after four years.

When asked what she wants to be, she responded instantly, a ballerina!

Emerie Faye

Emerie is our go getter that constantly sings let it goooo or demands we don’t talk about Bruno! She can be introverted and enjoys independent play, being at home and spending her days in Elsa dresses. She adopted the guest bedroom and gets up in the middle of every night to relocate to it, promptly going back to sleep.

Height/Weight: 41.75″, 34.2 pounds

Favorite Activities: Independent play in general, collecting and carrying tiny things around, any water activities (and drowning our bathrooms constantly), building magnatiles, dress up, and watching/coloring anything relating to Elsa and Anna from Frozen. She is a homebody and enjoys staying home and playing, often requesting to go home to play when we are out and about.

Dislikes: wearing her glasses all the time and eye patching in the mornings, wearing socks with her shoes, sleeping in her toddler bed, being outside in the cold, hair bows (usually), and black olives and pizza.

Favorite movies/shows/music: She also loves Frozen I and II and pretty much all princess movies; if she had to choose a favorite to watch, Cinderella and Snow White are towards the top. Hands down her favorite song is Let It Go, which she calls the castle song! PJ Masks is also an up and coming favorite, as well as Encanto and Cinderella II.

Favorite Princess: Elsa and Aurora

Favorite Color: purple, duh! She also has a purple unicorn dress she wants to wear everyday.

Favorite Food: Cheese quesadillas with sour cream. She would eat them every day if allowed.

Favorite Animal: When asked she claimed caterpillars and raccoons (surprisingly), but I would also claim her beloved “Monk” monkey and her stuffed owl are on that list.

When asked what she wants to be, she responded a purple Elsa! Who am I to deny that creativity?!

Reagan Jean

Reagan is our shyest of the three and more emotional than her sisters. She adores all crafting, painting, coloring and cooking and excels at staying in the lines on her creations. She also loves Daddy’s four wheeler and bringing her stuffed pandas everywhere.

Height/Weight: 42.25″, 37.4 pounds

Favorite Activities: Coloring daily, painting, dancing to music (she’s a booty shaker, what can I say!), creating with play dough, cooking with Grandma Sue and taste testing the flour, playing dress up and playing pretend with her stuffed animals. Now that it’s light outside after preschool, she really enjoys playing by herself on the back deck.

Dislikes: sleeping in her bed overnight or being left alone, getting her hair brushed, and her socks not fitting right!

Favorite movies/shows/music: While Reagan likes princess movies, her absolutely favorite is the movie Abominable, about her beloved Everest, the yeti. Sleeping Beauty is likely her favorite princess movie if she had to choose, and she’s also a fan of PJ Masks. Her favorite song is Pink’s Cover Me in Sunshine, which is renamed Grandma’s Song.

Favorite Princess: Elsa and Aurora

Favorite Color: blue, then green, then white!

Favorite Food: Her favorite food right now is hash browns, which she wants each day for breakfast; otherwise cheeseburgers and apples top the list.

Favorite Animal: Without question, this girlie is panda everything. She sleeps with two stuffed pandas every night. When asked her favorite, she responded pandas and bunnies.

When asked what she wants to be, she immediately answered a painter! Given her creativity and artistic ability we already see at age three, this could be pretty realistic.

And some other fun questions to ask, just for memories’ sake!

What are some similarities all three share? What are the biggest differences? Of the three, Harper is the most outgoing by far, Emerie is the most stubborn (if I had to choose one!) and Reagan is the most in touch with her feelings. Harper adamantly wants to go fast ALL the time while Emerie wants the opposite, and Reagan goes back and forth depending on the day. Reagan extensively enjoys coloring in the lines while Harper and Emerie continue their “eclectic toddler style” creations. All three enjoy cooking and baking, but when it comes to decorating things, Emerie is speedy and done in five minutes, Harper goes back and forth depending on her mood, and Reagan will insist you leave her alone until the masterpiece is completed, which may be a while.

What is the biggest personality difference? Emerie is a homebody and loves to stay home. The other two are more up for adventuring. Harper seems best at going with the flow while the other two often whine about things.

Who is the best sleeper? Worst? Harper maintains her status as the best sleeper of the group, which is nothing new for the last few years. She loves sleeping in her bed and being cozy, unlike Reagan and Emerie, who want parents nearby or prefer to wander into the guestroom to finish their night of sleep.

Who is Team Mom and Team Dad? Harper seems to still be on the mom train, while Reagan shifted alliances over the past year from Dad back to me. Emerie, on the other hand, is a complete daddy’s girl now. Everyone continues to be completely enthralled by Papa Lon and adore their Grandma Sue and Papa Cliff. Grandma Anne visited twice last year and the girls still ask about more tea parties. And of course you can’t forget about Auntie Megan weekends, Auntie Janelle visits, and all the new friends that were made this year.

If you ask them who is the boss…who is it?! 100% of the time the answer is Grandma (Sue) is the boss! followed by Mom and Dad and Miss Tawni. We’ve got this down!

Who is the cutest? Um, silly question there, it’s ALL OF THEM.

And I’ll end our fourth birthday post on that fun note. I still can’t believe they are so cute. And four. FOUR! What?!

❤

Veins of Glitter

The past month passed in a breeze! Not sure if that credit goes to a busy work load or the increased sunlight. It was a nice break to have no major illnesses like during the holidays and a visit from Grandma Sue brought excitement for the girls and a welcomed break for us tired-out parents.

Fancy Grandma

Everyone is on a major dress up kick, begging to wear princess dresses after school, showing up to school with bejeweled crowns and tutus, fancying up their outfits with lots of necklaces, beaded bracelets and sparkly rings, and don’t forget Grandma’s fancy princess heels! Tutus are not easily found these days and I’ve likely purchased every single one I could find locally, encouraging the girls to choose their color preferences and wear them whenever they’d like. Sometimes a princess dress just isn’t enough and they require an additional tutu to complete the full look. Lugging around backpacks and purses, like mom does, also helps accessorize the styles and occasionally I’ll find them adding hats and mittens for a more winter friendly feel. The worst part about this dress up stage? Getting your foot stomped on by one of those damn heels- it hurts!!

In addition to getting so beautiful (their words), they inflicted the “beauty is pain” mantra back on their grandmother during an extended hair and jewelry session one afternoon. Luckily for them, Grandma Sue boasts a great head of long hair to play with, resulting in many hair clips, bows, fake colorful hair and adorning necklaces to complete her upgraded look. It is safe to say it also included some ouches and possibly loss of hair or skin cells; but hey, beauty is pain…right?

The girls continuing to play together more and show creativity in their free play. For example, Harper will get all dressed up and accessorized, find a purse, shopping cart and animal or baby companion, and let me know she is going to the shopping store! This usually entails getting foods to “cook” for dinner and when questioned on what type of store, she always responds a shopping store. When they were smaller she always responded with Lowes or Target. Reagan often goes down to the family room and plays solo with her toys; seemingly enjoying her own space and playing islands, a game Nolan and Josiah created a couple weeks ago on a play date, or with her princesses. If you sneak up on her, you can witness her singing to herself! Now that daylight exists after school pickup, Emerie wants to play out on the deck or spiral in circles on the swings in the backyard. This is a great step from her adamant disdain for outdoor cold and gets her some space when her sisters are doing other things.

Life is a party, so why not dress like it?!

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The expanded independence on free play also shows Harper and Reagan becoming thick as thieves and teaming up against or excluding Emerie more often than I’d like to see. They will lock themselves in the bathroom (you know, to make a huge mess) and purposely won’t let Emerie, who really wants to, join; even when they are being naughty. They seem to come up with other little games and not readily let her in on them; a cycle I plan to break quickly and discourage as they get older. Having two kids, any two, generally results in good play; adding in a third is a constant issue that I’m not sure will ever really go away.

Reagan and Harper playing outside together

The tattle tailing saga continues, and while annoying, it can also be so hilarious. For example, two were downstairs playing nicely the other night until I could heard some sort of disagreement and Emerie hollered something indistinctly. Reagan, the CEO of the tattler department in our house, comes running into the kitchen to inform the adults that Emerie said Daddy’s word! She said daddy’s word! Now all of you that know my explicit and creatively worded husband know that, well…that could mean anything right? We tell Reagan to stop tattling and Emerie to calm it with the explicits; but in true Douglas style, Harper, who witnessed all this from the kitchen table, looks at me with a smile and responds in a serious whisper, Mom, Daddy’s word is f&$k. I about died laughing at her very dead-serious face. At least they know they aren’t supposed to say it!

Moving on from the lovely life expletives, Grandma Sue’s visit was full of all kinds of baking fun. The girls cooked in all kinds of attire including aprons, tutus, full princess decor and even sunglasses throughout the almost two week stay. Each kiddo requested something specific from the moment she set foot off the airplane, including breaded Olaf’s, cookies (Reagan claims Craig and I don’t make them for her which is funny!) and lots and lots of homemade donuts. All participated in different steps for each goodie and you better believe all wanted to eat them! Sue even placated their color demands and made black, green AND purple donuts, as requested by those irresistibly adorable faces. If you were wondering, the colors looked like a Halloween party was about to happen. The M&M cookie bars were also quite the hit, with everyone starting super slow, placing one M&M at a time into the batter. After a few minutes watching each kiddos’ separate pattern, Emerie decided the start “the Emerie method,” meaning throw everything in at once with super speed and vanish to do something else.

Harper
Emerie
Reagan

The girls attended their second theater movie but first time with Craig and I. Right after they started at the new daycare last summer, the whole class attended a real movie and they claim to remember going to it. Only one other family was in the whole room as we watched Trolls World Tour and munched on mounds of popcorn. By the end everyone visited the bathroom at least once and switched seats to snuggle with a different adult. All three are already asking to go again- we might have to make that happen since they did so well sitting and being quiet throughout.

The big fourth birthday is right around the corner, which means the work stress I’ve felt from the last month is converting into party planning stress. It also means we are almost out of winter and spring is (almost) on it’s way. I cannot tell you how excited I am for this next season; we’ve waited a long time to be able to go out and about and have fun without worrying they will run off or not be able to handle new routine!

All three are aware that the next birthday is theirs (even though all claim to be turning five!) and explain after them is Tyler and then Kaden’s. My mind still resists the idea that my fourth year of parenting is about to begin and then other times I forget they are still so young, since vocabularies are as expansive as their thoughts and opinions!

❤