Well…to no one’s surprised, winter is here! And not only is it here, but it decided to take over in epic force and beat us into immediate submission, breaking a couple records within the first two weeks. In fact, one more inch and it will be the snowiest November on record for Anchorage; this doesn’t even consider that the month is only halfway over. While I should be impressed and awed by the continual snow filled clouds that are sharing their joy (too much?), the lack of plowed roads in our neighborhood makes navigating very difficult, with many distressed vehicles and public school closures. While I don’t generally don’t mind the beginning of winter once it starts- I’m definitely over it by the end though- this year began with quite the bang and dropped two feet on us at a very expedited rate. Was it beautiful? Absolutely! Did it take FOREVER to stop falling? Yes. But we live in a winter state, so I guess we should try to embrace the chaos…as I’ve done in other parts of my life!
I had planned to give a brief update on our Halloween fun last month, and now it feels strange because the level of snow makes it feel like fall ended months ago, not two, short weeks ago. Halloween night weather was much more amenable this year but as usual, everyone wasn’t feeling their best, including me! Harper opted to be Ariel, Reagan continued as Jasmine, and Emerie as Alice in Wonderland. Harper, with her extreme cough and two-hour afternoon nap (which showed she really felt sick!), meant she was the first to want to go home; she made it a few blocks farther than expected before asking to go back. Reagan followed her sister and Craig and opted to go back home, while Emerie and I ended walked a few more houses along our street before heading home. The girls were happy Tyler drove in again this year and walked around with us, and overall the night was pretty uneventful.
Unsurprisingly, the girls don’t see an issue with all this snow. Well, maybe a little if we boot them outside in their winter gear when it’s not their idea…but they will survive and it’s good for them! When Emerie peeked out the bedroom window after a couple inches of snow finally stuck overnight, she instantly hollered at me it’s snowy! That means it’s almost our birthday! Once I calmed down that reality, which is still five months away, she was contented to know the change in weather meant Christmas would be here soon, and all we had to list off all the family’s upcoming winter birthdays. Harper continues to ask when we can put the Christmas tree up; if we get another foot of snow this week, I might just cave in to her request!
With winter comes daylight savings time, with fall falling back and prompting a dramatic shift to darkness in the evenings. The girls are much more attentive to the change this year, and have asked multiple times why we are going to bed before dinnertime, because it’s so dark out they assume it’s time for bed. Luckily the time shift didn’t mess with sleep routines much, but this is more attributed to the lingering cough, fevers and need for more sleep to combat it. As we slowly creep out of the current illnesses and winter plagues, Emerie and Harper are back to being content to sleep in their bunk beds, surrounding by a thousand stuffed animals, blankets and nightlights, and Reagan still makes it about half the night and then ends up in bed with the parents.
Emerie living her best life!Harper checking out the back deck. Look at that railing!
Everyone is thrilled to ride with Craig on the four wheeler and “help” plow the driveway. This snowfall is extremely heavy and very difficult to push with a shovel (especially as I still recover from my lung infection!) and so Craig broke out the four wheeler to clear as much as possible using the plow. He immediately broke out the new-to-us inter-tube and pulled the girls around the neighborhood. For the moment all three can snugly fit on it together and we will definitely have to invest in a larger one as they get older. Buddies Kaden and Oaki came over after the first snowfall and were excited to drive the kid wheelers, with the girls riding on the back of Kaden’s for runs down the street and back. In a moment of bravery, Emerie hopped onto one and proceeded to do an unplanned donut as the adults chased her, shouting to let go of the accelerator. She thought that was just hilarious.
On the school front, the girls are greatly advancing on their letter recognition. They are starting to read television show titles and can rapidly rattle them off; and frequently ask what words the letter spell out. We now have a new game to spell the letters on signs and buildings and they all want to do it at the same time. Kids learn so quick! They are also improving on sounding out what words start with and answering their own questions when encouraged. With the turn to cold weather, more time is spent coloring than in the summer time and that includes tons of inquiries on how to spell different words on their creations. I’m starting to think that we may spend a great deal more time than other families using markers, paint, sparkly or gel pens and combing through thousands of coloring book pages, while sitting at the table, all coloring and making creations together. This is a main activity in our house year round, but even more-so when we are inside during the cold darkness. Reagan is still my top coloring kid and takes the time to think out how she wants to design something, spending a lot of time perfecting it. Harper is still on her rainbow kick and brings many papers home with a rainbow theme. Her people sketches are also greatly improving and I love to see who she draws and the interpretation of who they are and why. The girls also enjoy using their school scissors to destroy my house with tiny bits of paper- ahem I mean make art- and cut out grass on their flower drawings. Emerie enjoys making Santa bracelets, no clue why she calls them that, and will sit on the floor and cut out strips of paper and tape them together into a colorful chain. They are popping up all over my house and she is very proud to do it all herself. We will certainly make some to hang on the Christmas tree this year!
Reagan’s drawing for SantaHarper’s creation: Mom, Harper & Grandma Sue
All three have already started drawings for Santa and were overly concerned at our lack of fireplace. If anyone asks, Santa can and will deliver presents through a dog door…just go with it! Reagan interpreted my response a bit more graphically than I intended and told me the other day that Santa turns into a dog, goes through the dog door, and brings our presents through the door! Not sure that is accurate…but who am I to argue!?
Concentrating faces
In the midst of all the fun weather, the girls successfully made it on the ice skating field trip this week. While the majority of students in Anchorage are still doing remote learning because the buses (and normal vehicles) can barely get around the neighborhoods, we’ve been lucky to have no school closures and only one day we decided to keep everyone home instead of venturing out. Craig took the afternoon off to help shuffle kids out on the ice rink. I mean, who wouldn’t want to spent an hour out on the ice with fourteen five-year-olds?! That concept aside, it sounds like the event went well and everyone had fun.
I’m looking forward to starting the holiday festivities and getting all the decorations up around the house. We shall see if I can hold out through Thanksgiving to put up the tree and I’m doing my best to hold on out the Christmas pajamas and fancy dresses. Two more weeks!
Earlier this summer I complained about a lighter fluid incident with the tiny humans that happened outside…and let’s just say…you know what is worse to clean up AND off said children?! TILE (thin set) MORTAR.
God forbid Kid A (Harper) was chilling in a blanket on the couch, watching a movie as her Tylenol kicked in to reduce the crummy fever; me sitting with my laptop out working on emails, and Craig finishing up the tile in the bathtub and then pausing to eat some actual dinner.
In the span of 20 minutes, Kid B and C managed to explode, I mean explode, a full bag of mortar powder, to give the entire garage, and all tools, strollers, food, bikes, and so on in it a lovely layer of “snow.” It wouldn’t be nearly as bad if it were a bag of flour or sugar and covered in white; but the key point with thin-set is, adding water makes it do just that, SET. Craig’s reaction in this picture says more than any words I could say. Sigh.
Reagan managed to come back into the living room without us noticing the new layer of white on her right away; Emerie? Not so much.
Have you ever tried to get mortar out of hair, ears and eyes? Well I haven’t either….and it’s not fun. Hell, I didn’t even approach the mess in the garage and my eyes are on fire from it in the air! The garage explosion quickly spread to the downstairs bathroom and then to the one working shower we have, creating another lovely layer of white to scrub up before even trying to clean off those pesky monsters.
After multiple hair scrubs, shampoo, conditioner, soap, and a LOT of scolding, Kid B and C are confined to their beds with only one stuffed animal and didn’t put up much of a fight about it. But holy moley, I know we will chuckle on this in the future, but for now? How does one clean mortar off saws and tools without ruining them?
Only bonus I see is that only two kids needed scrubbing, not three; and the fact they didn’t bring water to the party before we realized their activity and caused cemented mortar all over downstairs. I used to dread the toddlers getting into flour or sugar and man, that would have been a nice result instead of this!
Harper sure enjoyed her popsicle while the other two were scrubbed and sent to bed. I’m not sure about any other positives to this…and with that. Good night? Want to come over and scrub some walls with us?
I can hardly believe it, but we are at the end of our preschool journey. No more toddlers or preschoolers reside in this house! I’m not sure it’s hitting me so hard simply because they are growing up so quickly, or because my brain recognizes the fact that I only get to do this transition once, because they are all the same age and we have no other children. After two different classes in two years at their current school, we are beginning the grade school journey with three little ladies starting kindergarten this week. It feels both surreal and like it took forever to get here; but mostly pulls a bit at the mom heartstrings knowing they are growing up and becoming more independent in this next phase of childhood.
We began the preschool journey at home when the girls were a few month shy of age three. With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing and our decision to exit out of an unsupportive daycare environment, the girls stayed at home while Craig and I both worked full time; a scenario that lasted about six full months. We rotated work meetings, working bright and early and many late nights, to get our hours in and tasks done all while entertaining three small tornadoes at the same time. Reading over the blog I posted on that transition over two years ago, I remember feeling mighty overwhelmed physically and mentally, and very tired from getting up multiple times every night, all without the “break” of a kid-less work day. Not everyone would call that a break, but it certainly was for both Craig and I, allowing us to focus on work while sitting still, in quiet, and enjoying warm meals and hot coffee, something we didn’t get to do for a long time when the girls were very small.
Several months past age three, three spots opened up in the three-year-old class at Anchor, called the Ladybugs, and the rest is history. The transition into a new class environment went better than expected, something I was super stressed over initially, and I’m certain Miss Tawni and her kindness and support played a huge part in that. Emerie had several surgeries over the course of the first year and with each event, the school supported and helped us when we needed it and it was much appreciated. Her continual morning patching is still an ongoing challenge and their support- I’m not exaggerating here- has greatly contributed to the eyesight she has and is retaining in her left eye. Without all the patching and effort to keep her on track; it would be a much different story.
It’s ironic that changing life situations for your kids is so very stressful on the parents, and yet most of the time the kids ease into it like it’s no big deal; looking back and making you wonder why you were so stressed in the first place. I strongly felt this way as we moved into the four-year-old class last August, the Butterflies, and once again feel this same stressful anxiety as we transition out of preschool and into grade school. Luckily I know it will pass eventually and I just need to get out of my own anxious headspace. Deep breaths!
Looking over the past two years, SO much has changed in our day to day as well as in personality and life skills:
Potty training: We went from amateurs to pro status on all levels. Accidents are far more infrequent now. So glad to pass that stage!
Walking to the car: This was an epic (and potentially scary) task at pickup everyday, especially on solo trips. I am thankful to report within a month or so of going to preschool, they started going to the car and not running off and trying to take on the parking lot in three directions. Now all three know they are supposed to go to the car and are usually pretty obedient about it. At least they don’t run straight at oncoming traffic!
Adventuring and getting out and about: It is SO much easier to be out and about now and doesn’t take three hours to get out the door. Less structure means more opportunity to do things on a whim, something Craig and I really missed doing for a couple of years. This is likely the largest change we’ve had so far.
Napping: We lost our beautiful home naps when the girls transitions to toddler beds during the summer of age three. We had a bad track record for naps at the first daycare, whether that was my kids or some of their unreasonable rules, we will never know. All three eased into it fine and continued to nap almost every day for two years! I still don’t know how the teachers could convince them to doze off in the middle of the school day.
The talking….oh the TALKING. It’s constant. And endless. And some days I wonder why we taught them verbiage and nouns (and expletives!). Over the past few weeks I’ve really noticed how excellently they use sentence structure, adjectives, and even adverbs. Goes to show talking to kiddos without the baby talk goes a long way to helping them pick up more words and use them correctly.
Less structure– it took years, and I mean years, to get to the point we could go do things on a whim and do them safely.
Writing and coloring: The girls have all loved to color since they could hold a crayon, and this love continues to grow into pictures, shapes and letters, and now real words. We are mostly skilled at name writing but progressing on recognizing the alphabet and sounding out what different words start with.
While more fighting occurs everyday than prior to preschool, so much of that relates to the thoughts and opinions they more easily convey to each other now, and the disagreements that branch from it. Growing pains that happen for every sibling, I suppose. That, and being in permanently close proximity with family members.
The vivid imaginations also expand on the daily basis. They free play independently so much more every day, and come up with fun and random games with one another. We worked hard to limit the screen time, not allow iPads or video games (yet), and encourage creativity. Playing “kitties” and “mom and dads” are still the favorites, and soooo many weddings occur in our house.
The girls went to their 5 year old check ups in July- yes several months after their birthdays- and all have majorly grown since last year. Emerie and Reagan both had several vaccines, meaning lots of band-aids but overall good attitudes during it, and Harper wanted to know why she didn’t get to have them too, forgetting she did hers the week prior during an ear infection visit. Here are the latest stats for your viewing pleasure:
Harper: weighs 46.2 pounds (77%) and is 46.5″ tall (94%)
Emerie: weighs 42.4 pounds (56%) and is 45.25″ tall (83%)
Reagan: weighs 44.6 pounds (70%) and is 46.5″ tall (94%)
To put this into perspective, that means Harper gained 8.6 pounds and 4.25 inches in a little over a year; Emerie gained 8.2 pounds and grew about 3.5″; and Reagan gained 7.2 pounds and grew 4.25″. Considering the fact that they all trend on the slender side, that’s quite a lot! This is the first time with a significant (if two pounds counts as significant) difference in any statistics between Harper and Reagan, who have remained consistently the same for most of their lives on everything. And Emerie is working her hardest to catch up and eating everything. Her height gain puts her the closest she’s been to her sisters in quite a while.
HarperEmerieReaganTriplets!
Grandma Sue and I took the girls back-to-school supply shopping last week. The girls were excited to fill their grocery bags with all the goodies, including folders and glue and markers. Apparently I am old enough now that my recollection of school supplies is no longer reality. For example, as a kid peechee folders, themed like Hello Kitty or Transformers or really anything currently “in” were sought over and collected for school…how is that no longer a thing? I could only find plain, primary colored folders and certainly no My Little Pony styles. Instead the girls decorated those boring folders with a million stickers, because why not! Everyone was also given the opportunity to pick their own backpack; Reagan chose a teal star style, Emerie of course opted for light purple unicorns, and Harper looked right over the pink princesses and selected a teal and purple Little Mermaid one. Last year everyone had a matching princess backpacks and I’ve found it is easier to have each kiddo carry a different one so I don’t have to find the name tag to know whose is who for gear each day.
Emerie & Harper looking at books quietly!
We also visited Barnes and Noble, a first for the girls, and each picked out a book and all agreed on a princess (Sleeping Beauty, Tiana, and Merida) Lego set that we built later that day. All three did fantastic in the bookstore until we had to wait in line; as I perused books, I found Emerie and Harper sitting quietly on the floor, thumbing through new material and Reagan a few steps away playing with the assembled train set. I believe we finally found Emerie’s happy place: a bookstore!
Sue and I then organized all the crafting and artwork, puzzles and miscellaneous finds from the front hall closet and craft bins while the girls put the stickers and other cool finds to good use. The living room ended up completely destroyed that afternoon, but now I have a much better functioning front area, all ready and organized for school.
Are the girls excited for kindergarten, you ask? That is a resounding YES followed by shrieks of enthusiasm. There were countdowns. There were requests to know how many sleeps until the start! There were many questions about it. These requests started occurring the day they turned five; so you know…questions for months! All three were so proud to be in the big kids’ class for two days before we left for adventuring for two weeks prior to the year starting. Everyone enthusiastically shared they didn’t have to nap and went outside THREE times in one day. Another highlight- big kids are allowed to go to the bathroom unsupervised, and that one was quite exciting. Another epic piece of this life change is their 3-year-old classroom teacher is teaching kindergarten this year and we are beyond thrilled. I’m not sure who is more excited, the parents or the kids! This solidified our choice to keep them at the same school and not go to our zoned public school down the road, knowing they adore her and will hopefully start off their grade school experience growing a love for school and learning. We are also thrilled that only seventeen kids are in their class; and we make up three of them!
Their favorite teacher, Miss Tawni!
The first day went surprisingly smooth. It probably helped that we attended “meet your desk” the day before and they saw the new room set up and greeted their beloved Miss Tawni. With all the late nights the past few weeks, we accidentally managed to reset those internal clocks to sleeping in a little later in the morning too, from the typical 7 AM (or earlier!) wake up call for the past two years. If you are wondering, sleeping in generally means to 8 AM, and with school drop off about 8:45, it is a nice reprieve to have a quiet house for longer in the morning. I expected a little resistance at drop off, but after all the pictures and enthusiasm from the morning and seeing so many classmates from the preschool class, as well as new back-to-school dresses and hair ribbons, they were more than content checking out the new classroom and letting us head off to work. No parental or kid tears occurred, and that’s probably a milestone in itself! All three simultaneously answered the first day was FUN and that is about the only description I received. When asked if they sat at the same tables, I received three different answers and have no idea what actually happened.
I asked each kiddo their favorite part of their first two days of kindergarten: without a beat Reagan responded playing with Miss Tawni (although I’m guessing the 10+ drawings are probably part of that list too); Emerie thought about it and responded playing with Miss Tawni while she worked. We didn’t cross the line by her desk; she said we couldn’t cross the line. Nothing else was her favorite thing today; and Harper said only playing with Nicole! I managed to ask this question to all three so they couldn’t hear each others responses, but overall they all end up being quite similar.
Headed to meet their desk!
On a random and funny side note, on the drive home from pickup yesterday the girls were asking for the millionth time when it will be their birthday now that they started kindergarten. We listed off the family members ahead of them…Papa Lon, Uncle Will, cousin Jaren, Papa Cliff and then Craig, cousin Chatum and me, and cousin Corbin, and then it will be time for their party. After grumbling sighs that it’s too far from now and will take forever, Reagan went off on a tangent about knowing other families at school who have 3 kids in their family and they have three kids but don’t have to share their party. They all have their own birthdays. It doesn’t make sense! (her exact words). It doesn’t make sense that I have to share my birthday party with Emerie, she’s littler than me. When I retorted with everyone is the same age, she disagreed. Funny to see her brain churning and trying to figure out how their age sharing affects their birthday. Everyone was then arguing over who is oldest, youngest, or “middlest.” I’m not sure I fully convinced her to agree with me. More discussion is ahead of us I’m certain.
The third day of school I attempted drop off at the front door and not taking them inside to the classroom. Everyone gave me a hundred hugs and kisses and stood on the curb as I drove away. My prompting to go inside was not helping and eventually one of the school staff shuffled them in the door. Now we just have to learn what gear and shoes need to come home each night and to remember to bring lunch boxes each day. We will be there in no time!
After several requests to know what new activities happened each day and no success on a real answer; all the practice drawings and writing came home on Friday. Reagan had the most, as usual throughout preschool, and a compilation of coloring pages in addition to practice pages. Harper was excited to show off her rainbow drawings. Emerie brought one drawing straight into the car and demanded instant attention to look at it and hang it up at home.
Even after the first week, their letters are already changing slightly with the adorable curly cue for Reagan’s “g” and Emerie’s “e.” I looked through the workbook pages and all three did pretty well, marking out bad behavior on the one pictured here and hopefully following directions during class. I’m excited to see what else they work on; after all, I’ve never had a kid in grade school before, let alone three of them at once!
As I finish writing this blog, we are officially out of all things preschool and diving into the next stage of childhood. I’m excited to see vocabularies continue to expand, improvement on reading and writing skills, and the ability to do more things without as much pre-planning and total chaos. It is already a game changer from three months ago and finally feels almost fun to adventure to new places and try new things, without as much stress involved.
And how much they’ve grown in only a year. At least we haven’t yet lost the requests for hugs and kisses and willingness to see parents in public. If anything, they are asking for more snuggles after being gone all day in a new experience. Here’s to Kindergarten!
While weather this summer is still cold and overall dreary, our activities and adventures are anything but! The girls are much more self sufficient this summer season and find ways to entertain themselves, sometimes together and sometimes separately, and while the fighting and whining is still pretty constant, the parents also have more opportunities to do activities themselves that were impossible a year or two ago with three littles. It’s so nice, but also a little sad that my babies are now so grown up and independent!
We finally broke out the princess Lego sets, a first for all three. In years past many hours were spent with Duplo blocks and Craig even built a customized duplo table so building was off the floor. We held off on the smaller Legos for quite a while, knowing they will probably play and create with them for a number of years in the future and we didn’t need to rush into it. We also wanted to avoid stepping on those tiny pieces for as long as humanly possible; and here we are!
I started the first age-four set with Emerie, letting her choose which one she wanted to build. Not shockingly, she chose the tiny Elsa castle set. I was quite impressed at her ability to understand the directions without too much prompting; her hardest part was finding the pieces in the parts box, not the actual construction of it. This is likely due to seeing things close up with her weaker eye; and she powered through and had fun putting it together. She will likely be a Lego builder in the future!
By that point Reagan and Harper were hovering and up close and personal, trying to see exactly what Emerie was building. Craig started the next princess set with Reagan and I opened one for Harper. Reagan was much happier to let Craig build the parts together than do it herself. Harper did pretty well finding pieces but also wanted more help snapping them into place. We will get there.
The girls also asked for pretty colors in their hair again, and since I’m not about to actually dye their beautiful blonde locks that I assume will be either dirty blonde or light brown by the time they’re teenagers; Craig pulled out the temporary pink, purple and teal hair dye. He added stripes to one side of each kiddo head and they all sat still as it set. With all three colors, that meant he also had the joy of climbing in the shower and washing colors out one at a time, kid by kid. I definitely caught Reagan and Harper posing, singing and brushing the fancy locks in front of the mirror in the master closet later that night. Emerie’s colors ended up the most faded. We may have to add some more this weekend. This week the girls kept taking out their braids, claiming that they needed to show classmates and aides the fancy colors.
We had another first this week, channeling back to our three-year-old days of mischievousness. Craig refilled the tiki torches on the back deck and I set down lighter fluid container with about half left. Little did we know later that night the girls spent a good amount of time making flower and grass soup outside in their playhouse…with an added element of the REST of the lighter fluid. A little more flavor?! How the toxic smell didn’t stop them from playing with it is beyond me. We didn’t notice the occurrence of this activity until right at bedtime that night, when Reagan ran outside to get her beloved “tiny panda” and it came in wreaking like strong paint thinner. She was NOT pleased that into the washer it went; and even less pleased that the smell was irreversible and Mr. Panda’s new home was the outside trash can. Thank goodness for eBay; a new one is on order and in the mail!
Fourth of July weekend was uneventful overall and we mostly stayed close to home. The girls rode bikes and played outside, did some crafts and we watched them disassemble their new Lego sets. For some reason they refuse to let any of the Lego figurines keep their hair and we continue to find those pieces all over the place. Pretty sure I will glue those in place before we permanently lose them. We spent the afternoon of July 4th out in Chugiak, about 20 minutes out of town, at the holiday parade, with great seats right along the roadway. The girls did not appreciate the police and fire sirens ten feet from them, but otherwise enjoyed waving flags and demanding candy from the brigade passing by. Reagan was especially excited over the vintage teal colored cars that went by while Emerie was much more enthusiastic about picking ALL the flowers in the right-of-way and “making” fireworks with them, and Harper just wanted to snuggle and eat snacks on my lap. At one point one of the homeowners shot off a couple fireworks and all three jumped out of their skin and ran to us. Clearly we’ve never been that close to loud fireworks, since last new years we didn’t successfully keep them outside to see them.
I’m happy to report no one ran out into the street during the entire thing and the rest of the day was spent with the cousins, building forts in the driveway out of kitchen remodel boxes and grilling out. Everyone was so tired by the end of the evening that we loaded all three into the car in total meltdown status, and everyone silently watched a My Little Pony episode the whole way home.
Social media photo that would display a cute three minutes of our girls night evening:
The real life, less social media worthy evening with my girls?
The girls went into the house like a heat sinking missile, or rather three of them with a trajectory toward chaos and commitment to prevent me from accomplishing anything. I unloaded the bikes and backpacks from the school day and pulled in the trash cans. By the time I made it inside, they were already fighting over who would get the chicken eggs.
Reagan meets me at the back door with three chicken eggs, one she drops on the floor into a goopy mess. At the same time I step on a dead mouse that one of the kittens left at the back door for us, and as Reagan is freaking out over the cracked egg, and Harper over the mouse in the doorway, Emerie is also channeling her inner three-year-old and having a total meltdown because she can’t get over the chicken fence out in the yard, while holding more eggs.
This is all the first two minutes home from preschool.
I finally get Emerie out and she stops wailing, clean up the cracked egg and dead mouse, and finally get the water boiling for the fancy, post busy work day dinner of Kraft Mac and cheese, chicken fries and green beans.
I turn around to them water fighting on the deck and dunking the new My Little Pony matching card game, still in the box, into a bucket of water. Sigh.
I then snapped the cute photo referenced above after opening their cute MLP hats from the mail, that we ordered after walking around the farmers market in Soldotna two weeks ago. Hence the cute, Facebook worthy photo of the evening.
But in reality I went back inside to stir the pasta and turned around to a screaming Reagan, who was hit in the face by a bin of who knows what by Emerie- who is also hiding from me afterwards- and Harper goes by in a blur with a new dress on and an umbrella.
That sparks Reagan to stop crying and ask for me to get down an umbrella for her and go through my shoes to finish her outfit, and I see that Harper managed to knock everything off the top shelf of the closet to get hers as I pull them down for the other two.
Emerie finally succumbs to my demands and gives Reagan a hug and a half felt apology, and then wants an umbrella too.
Miracles happen and I finally get food finished, pour myself a glass of wine, and sit down to nibble on my extravagant Mac and cheese meal, because what’s the point of trying to make anything else. All three eventually join me and start eating, asking for more chicken and ketchup. Bonus mom points for everyone clearing their plate.
We are still 90 minutes from bedtime…and now everyone is sitting at the table and coloring pony pictures while arguing over what the “real” color brown is. And for some reason my foot is dyed blue from something…At least they are cute!
The Douglets 