The month of March always turns into quite the busy few weeks, with family visits, birthday preparations and activities, a number of friend birthdays, and then you know…work and the normal, every day things. We attempt to make each birthday special and somewhat extravagant, knowing the girls have to share it and this momma doesn’t have any other kid parties in our household to plan.
Newly styled dolls for the win!
I hatched a plan this spring to replace the girls’ 18″, very ragged dolls with new ones with bright pink, purple/teal, and teal hair, especially since the current Babela (Haper), Moriah (Reagan), and “she doesn’t have a name” (Emerie) have seen better days. Of the three, Harper loves and plays with her doll the most and my attempt to replace it with a new one that “went to the salon” is working so far! I told the girls during the school day the dolls attended a salon day. This fabricated story expanded to include facials, spray tans, and a solid bath to remove existing band-aid and makeup residue, and create new hair. Surprisingly everyone bought the story, especially after seeing the photos when Mom and Grandma Sue took them there (which we actually did- go big or go home! Thanks April!!). Harper scrutinized her doll more, insisting differences but with beautiful hair, and I reinforced she had new contacts (eye color changed) and a solid facial to get all that makeup off, plus the hair dye and styling. Reagan noted the skin is darker on hers, which I responded was her new spray tan. And the white lie continues to grow….
Here are a few other activities that occurred the past two weeks:
My annual goal continues to create an exciting, custom themed birthday cake the girls will enjoy, since we only go big once per year. Grandma Sue made the cake and icing and like last year, I created the accessories and decorated. Edible grass, Oreo dirt, and a LOT of custom colored chocolate mushrooms, grass, and multi colored flowers, and topped with a million Trolls Band Together characters, from opening 20+ mystery packs to find the right ones!
On the big day we joined the family and had a “fire dinner” at Benihanna. The girls especially love this place and eat their body weight in fried rice. This time around Emerie did so with shrimp and the cook thought it was funny and kept giving her extra! Watching cousin Elliot and Corbin’s faces during the fire tricks was also a highlight of the night. For the first time maybe ever, Craig and I actually sat by one another while Reagan wanted to sit by Tyler and Sue and the other two with Papa Cliff at the other side of the table- so weird. By dinner’s end we had full and tired, giggly girls who were excited to go home and have cake, you know, after they had ice cream with dinner.
Professional birthday photos are another one of my favorite things each year. We trekked out to our favorite newborn photographer in Palmer and the girls were on their best behavior yet! As always, I can’t wait to see how they turn out and everyone fully participated. This time around was less of the I have to be in the middle or else attitude, which is predominant in almost every group photo I take these days! Who know order was so important?!
One handmade gift that deserves mention was from Papa Lon, who created custom colored deer callers in the girls’ colors. While kazoos and whistles and other generally loud toys mysteriously go missing in this house…Craig and I will let these slide. They are beautiful and the girls looooove wearing them as necklaces and ensuring the house never stays quiet. Emerie is modeling her purple one in this photo.
Another annual favorite timed with birthday events, the Daddy/Daughter dance. Craig typically receives questions about two days after this occurs, wondering when the next one will be. The girls wore fancy dresses from Costco (which half the kids did apparently!), silver flats and custom makeup by Grandma Sue, and Emerie rocked her new turtle necklace from Seward. Their late arrival home may be record setting at 9:30, but all were very happy and excited to attend. Craig noted no one wanted to take the cute group photos, and the girls were overjoyed to see Nichole and Sierra attend with their dads. Sue and I enjoyed leisure time, which is very rare, and finished up birthday preparation.
We spanned gift opening throughout the past week, after a good amount of toy cleanup and donations to make space. If I had to choose some favorites, it would be Disney princess play dresses from Mom and Dad, new doll sets (a cabin and furniture), the stylish “new” dolls, and instantly opened Polly Pockets (how fun is it they are still as fun as the 90s!). Custom colored scarves from Jordan were oo’d over; our kitten Winston adopted Reagan’s and sleeps on it now, and Uncle Will helped open surprise barbies and new clothing sets. We are very blessed for such wonderful friends and the girls are still playing with all the new goodies.
Sue and I attended the field trip to the Seward Sealife Center, picking up an extra six year old for the drive. A fourth kid meant best behaviors from mine, and all shared toys and snacks with Nichole. It was a nice visit; everyone tested the touch pool, oo’ed over the seals/sea lions swimming around, and laughed at the one who flirted with the group. At the gift shop before heading home, Harper informed the cashier she renamed the seal to Harper, and indignantly said it is now a girl. She loves seeing her favorite animal in action- thank goodness we live in Alaska!
The actual birthday party occurred the weekend after their big day, which allowed Sue and I time to get everything prepped, ordered and finalized well in time for the trek over to the party place. In the midst of all this, Harper came down with a cough and confirmed ear infection, but she managed to muster up enough strength to enjoy her party.
Singing happy birthdayBefore the partyPass the Parcel
We were unsure how many kids would show up to the party, and it turned out to be almost thirty! It was great to see cousin Jamie, Steve and Hayden drive up from Kenai to join us, Cousin Tyler and Uncle Will, Keegan and Jenny and the boys, Papa Cliff and of course Grandma Sue. The sound volume (and heat) level increased dramatically and the girls’ flushed faces showed it. We recycled the Halloween candy in a rainbow pinata (sorry, not sorry parents!) and played a Bluey favorite, Pass the Parcel, which everyone participated in with minimal crying. We ended up giving out all 48 Trolls themed cupcakes, which I call a success in itself.
The whole day was a great success; Reagan told me it was the best day EVER. Somehow this year felt a bit easier than the fifth birthday, not sure if that was because we prepped less food (much to the dismay of all those vegetable pizza lovers out there….Grandma Sue…) or because we did the full Trolls themed cake at home on their actual birthday this year; or simply because they are a bit older this year and getting things done while they entertain themselves is more of a common occurrence. Whatever reason, it was a busy month and we made it to the other side unscathed! Our house looked like Christmas morning by the end of the day and the girls happily sucked down their pho for dinner so they could return to the floor to play with new toys. My brain still can’t comprehend I have three kiddos a third of the way through their childhood- if you think about it- and who knows what wonderful adventures we will experience this year.
Last week Craig inspired me to do a fun visit to the girls’ school for an educational work demonstration, to show off my office’s new Boston Dynamic robot dog. The dog’s name is Aurora, named after her custom northern lights inspired skin, and will be testing out airfield wildlife mitigation in Fairbanks under a research and development project. For folks my age, the creep factor is real when you are up close and personal with such a “creature;” and at the same time it is really cool what technology can do these days.
At least ten parents have asked me questions the past few days about the visit so I thought I’d share more details on a quick blog. My colleague Ryan and I did the presentation, although most of the credit (and fun!) goes to him as our office innovator, and as someone who is great at presenting and explaining things to the younger generation. It was fun to leave the immobile visitor laying down on the floor of the gymnasium while we explained its intended use and other details about airport wildlife mitigation. The dog will have several programmed routes as well as the ability to operate by an operator, very much like a video game (according to the kids). We explained how airport sponsors try to keep birds and other wildlife off the runway and away from aircraft, especially the engines, using both lethal and nonlethal measures where approved. We purposefully started the conversation without walking it around, and answered a lot of questions. Everyone jumped when it stood up and began to walk around the room. We demonstrated how it knew to stop and walk around an obstacle or not run into the wall, using its front sensors. The kids thought that was really cool.
Ryan had one genius moment where he told a classroom of 5/6 years olds they could pet the dog, but not to click the red button. Would you like the guess what all their questions revolved around after that?! You got it. The red (reset) button.
My favorite part of this demonstration is very much the reaction of the audience. Adults and older age kids flinched far more than the younger grades, who weren’t apprehensive of the metal, headless dog walking toward them or down the hall. It goes to show that in this day and age, the girls’ age group are close to comfortable with the concept of artificial intelligence (AI), while older kids and adults are still experiencing this change in societal autonomy and not quite ready to live in that world yet. Or at least I feel that way a lot of days!
After the gym demonstration and showing a few teachers how well it goes up and down stairs (it operates like we do with bendable knees that make it more mobile), we walked it into different classrooms that might not have seen the first part. All the kids had great, inquisitive questions, and then we went to the kindergarten classroom, aka where the girls were doing stations right after the lunch hour.
I purposefully stood in the hall while Ryan walked Aurora in; no shrieks or anything! What was the first thing I did hear? One of the girls (I think Reagan but not sure) comment, hey, that is my mom’s robot dog! Mind you, I did not share I was visiting that day, assuming they would be wild if Mom was trying to present to the older kiddos. In the five minutes we spent in their classroom, Emerie barely cared enough to acknowledge it (I did get a hug) and went back to her schoolwork, while Harper and Reagan at least were semi interested. It was pretty funny.
All in all, a fun visit and I hope all the kids learned something about artificial intelligence, or wildlife mitigation at airports. Birds are bad and don’t mix with airplanes! We only caused one adult to shriek at Aurora walking around a corner, which was pretty funny. The future is pretty cool…I tell you! And I keep telling these kids mom has a fun job…some days like today!
And Craig still wants a real puppy…and now the girls want a robot puppy too. Good times.
Somehow in the blink of an eye, a quarter of the way through the kindergarten school year i complete! How it passed so quickly I am unsure, and definitely not mentally prepared to be on the way to halfway through the school year. The past month was an unpleasant health roller coaster for me, meaning while I was down, driving to and from school, cooking and really doing anything was on Craig to handle. He took the girls to dance, other activities and birthday parties, and let me rest and try to feel better. While that isn’t nearly as hard to do as a couple years back (thank heavens I didn’t catch this when they were toddlers!), it is still quite exhausting, expending energy and mental stamina to solo parent for a time. I’m happy to report I am mostly on the mend and the cracked ribs aren’t as painful and healing up. I will be glad to have this month over!
This week Craig and I attended our first parent teacher conference with three kids in tow, and somehow managed to convince them to sit and color while we chatted with their wonderful teacher. It’s always fun to watch Craig sit in a 5-year-old’s chair and fit his legs against the tiny table!
Miss Tawni showed us each kiddo’s portfolio, including their self portraits, custom colored hand prints (Reagan’s even had nail polish drawn on it!), and paper collages that spelled out their names. All three self portraits boasted blonde hair and each kiddo’s color integrated into the drawing somewhere, which is pretty cute.
Overall nothing crazy to report on the first eight weeks of school; all three are progressing normally for their age and learning and developing on target for their age. As expected, penmanship in the last two months has improved dramatically for all three. While this is a great sign, I very much enjoyed seeing the custom lettering interpretation from each and will miss that short phase. I admit I saved an unreasonable amount of papers boasting their primitive penmanship as it morphed over time, and I’m okay with that. With a name full of letter “e’s”, Emerie made curly cues instead of an actual letter, but it was so cute and understandable to read! Reagan easily wrote her name by the time school started and truly enjoys writing, so her name continues to become clearer and neater each week and her capital “R’s” improving. At home she often carries a notebook and constantly writes notes and pictures. Harper often adds extra vowels in her name and is now spelling it correctly more often. All in all, I’m pretty please with their progress.
Emerie continues to patch most mornings- so half her school day- and Miss Tawni noted she doesn’t see any added frustration or limits from doing it each day. This is GREAT news, as we were unsure if patching would effect the school day and preferred to not patch after a long school day to get the time in. I assume the daily habit helps and she doesn’t question it anymore; Harper and Reagan still occasionally ask why they don’t have to do it. The kindergartners don’t have assigned seating in the classroom- at least not yet- and it sounds like the girls don’t always sit together and spread out, which is good. I can also tell they often sit by a fellow classmate, Nichole, because we see coloring almost every day with everyone’s names side by side and they tell me their favorite part of the day and it often involves her.
School pictures turned out really cute on the first try, and kudos to Craig for the cute outfit selection and pigtails since I was still sick in bed that morning. They all promised to smile big and did just that! And look, no eye patch stuck to a shirt this year- hahaha!
HarperReaganEmerie
The basic report cards for this age contain a scale from one to ten, with the majority of numbers under 7 since it’s their year one of grade school. This first quarter marks show music the highest for Reagan, followed by PE; Harper the highest for music and PE class; and Emerie highest in music as well. All three reports note continued improvement on writing and understanding their letters and an average rating for all other curriculum. We still need improvement on letter sounds, recognition, and word spelling, and need to actively practice more at home than we have recently. Now that my month long plague is easing up and energy is slowly returning, we will focus on the sounds of each letter and continuing to recognize them. When questioned, Harper claims her favorite subject is writing, Emerie likes gym class with Mr. Ivan the most, and unsurprisingly, Reagan’s choice is coloring, i.e. art class. They all sing the praises of their teacher too, as do us parents.
A few more days until Halloween and the girls are excitedly waiting for a real snowfall. I think they’ve forgotten with snow brings the cold and darkness, but either way they are excited for it.
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!
The Douglets 