Transition to Christmas

Somehow we are already creeping toward the end of December and fully into Christmas season. After a nice Thanksgiving dinner at cousins house in November- where the kids mildly grazed and pretty much ate cucumbers and carrots for dinner- the girls were thrilled to put the Christmas tree up on Black Friday and even more excited to hang ornaments on the tree. Quite a few ornament accidents occurred over the first weekend; mostly random bulbs that somehow walked themselves into their bedroom, became dollhouse ornaments, or managed to become decorations in a variety of less than amenable locations; didn’t cause too much bodily damage. In case you were wondering, stepping on a broken ornament hurts like a Lego, except it slices your foot open. And yes, we had to explain that sleeping in bed with your breakable ornaments is not allowed. That was not the popular opinion in our household, believe me!

We dove right into Christmas season with family photos. The first try was canceled as we were parking downtown, with the girls’ hair fixed and outfits ready. They were less than pleased on the lack of follow through, but it all worked out a couple days later. It is SO much easier to get ready and the need for less game planning is welcomed. In fact, everyone was on board with the idea and it didn’t take much forcing or demands (let’s be realistic- bribes!). After a 20 minute session with lots of smiles and insistence to have a turn in the middle (we had to do extra shots so each kiddo had a turn as the center of the sister sandwich), we walked a block over and explored the Christmas bazaar at the Captain Cook Hotel and everyone had a chocolately treat for cooperative behavior. And can I just say, aren’t these holiday sweater dresses are pretty much the cutest thing you’ve ever seen? I can’t even handle the cuteness and they are seasonally appropriate, all warm and cozy for the cold temperatures.

As the midway point to the school year nears, we continue to practice all the sounds the letters make, recognizing numbers in order forward and backwards, and a lot of different shapes. The girls are about to have their school assessments to see progression from the start of the year and it’s quite easy to see the change when you are around it each day. Even since my last blog, they already write words verbally spelled out to them better than a month ago and ask which letter is that less often. I still see some frustration when one sister answers questions faster than the other two and still working out a solution that solves that and ensures all three are learning individually and not relying on a sibling to answer a question when they don’t know it.

Night times with solid darkness seem to create very hyper five year olds. In fact, without sugar or even finishing their dinner plates, we’ve seen a number of wild nights the past few weeks, with screaming, fighting, running up and down all the stairs easily a dozen or more times, and all around chaos to burn off that energy. The garage has seen better days and while the mess isn’t mortar (thank heavens!), we’ve discovered a lot of ground up chalk water, a box of depleted apple cause pouches, and my car getting “washed” by makeup brushes.

At some point the wildness ends with crying and whining, and parents very ready for bedtime. I can’t imagine we are the only household in town dealing with that fun and guess it stems from the extensive darkness, cold temperatures, and excited for Christmas! The other night Emerie came up to me after some form of five-year-old bodily injury by a sister, and noted you told me not to do that and I should of listened. Yep. But when each kiddo finds an activity to do solo, things are far more calm. This happens every few days without any parent push. One decent night Reagan was in her room “playing Christmas” in her dollhouse, Emerie was in the garage building a train track around my car, and Harper was making a baby bed out of a black Friday shipping box in the living room. All things were quiet until one wandered away from their activity to check out what someone else was up to.

In addition to the chaotic and energetic nights- for the kids, not the adults mind you- we are seeing a few more emotional fits than in prior months. Harper is really taking it full throttle, and will stomp off to her room in a huff when she disagrees with a solution, and really milk it, peeking out to see if anyone is paying attention to her woes and then continuing at higher volumes. Craig and I are both ready to see Grandma Sue’s reaction to this new attitude. Emerie has her moments too, as does Reagan occasionally, but Harper really takes the cake on this one. Her strong willed insistence will be great for other things as she gets older; but yes, we need to break this before it gets too out of hand and hoping it’s just the latest phase. The constant bickering really inspires the fits too.

In addition to Christmas focused activities, we have hit up three build days over the past 3 weeks, one making wooden gingerbread houses at Home Depot and two at Lowes, for wooden turkey picture frames and Christmas delivery trucks. Harper really impressed me at Home Depot, free hand painting green garland across her roof and adding sticker ornaments on it. Reagan, being the practical girl she is on art projects, insisted to paint her already wooden house brown, because it’s a gingerbread. Emerie also jumped on that bandwagon. Everyone insisted on writing first, middle and last names on their delivery trucks; and of course using permanent marker…

We entered into the movie season, something rarely done during warmer months. I don’t know if it’s just me or something I learned growing up here, but I feel terrible seeing a movie when it’s warm outside, and definitely won’t step foot in one if it’s warm AND sunny (especially after our last two overly miserable summers!). After seeing Trolls Band Together the first time and downloading the soundtrack, everyone wanted to see it again after constant singing in the car. The girls enjoy almost all the songs and have picked them up pretty well, each having a specific favorite and request for it every time we get in the car. Not going to lie- I quite enjoy most of them too and that’s a bonus! Now that the band *Nsync is now back in “style,” we are jamming out to their new single. About a year or two ago I tried pushing some of the late nineties or early 2000’s pop music at the tiny humans and they insisted imminent death if it continued to play (tad dramatic maybe) and that was that. Now the game has changed and at our second showing of the movie, everyone was singing the song in their seats!

A Peppa Pig obsession also emerged this fall. I’m not sure how we avoided that one for so long, since I’m sure the girls learned what it was from friends at school. One sick day Harper conned me into watching it so I could conduct interviews without interruption (Peppa Pig and an oreo = quietness for about an hour!), and now it’s a constant request. There are about 1000 other shows that I’d prefer to hear in the background, so we try to limit our time; although not incredibly successfully.

Winter brings out more daily crafting and coloring than the summer months, something I enjoyed growing up and am happy to share with the girls. All three recently discovered the magic of our home printer and daily requests to color princess photos now occur. Emerie wakes up each morning and instead of her adorable good morning Momma she starts the day off with I told you I wanted a -insert princess here- photo to color. We are working on getting back to the good mornings and delaying future requests until formalities are said. Everyone will hover in front of the printer waiting for random requests to print; it’s pretty funny and results in a lot of fun pictures to display. Craig purchased a very nice pen set that they are putting to good use, like in the photo below of Reagan. We also receive instructions and requests for tape so specific drawings can be hung up on the correct walls in the house. Very specific!

Custom drawings continue to emerge. I’m really enjoying this phase of creativity, which involves more self and family portraits and freehand drawings. Reagan is into panda families, although that only extends to her, parents and grandparents, even after requests to include her sisters. Eventually I was able to convince her to include Emerie and Harper and she begrudgingly made one and taped it to the door. Harper’s stick figures are adorable and always involve crazy hair. She insists she can’t draw shirts so everyone is wearing a tutu of sorts in most creations, but insistence they are shirts! Emerie free hands the least of the three and really focuses on princess coloring. She is getting more creative on her color choices instead of everything purple and will make multiple colors for a dress or hair. She will yell at you if your eyes happen to go across her in-progress creation, and harshly remind you no looking until she is done and ready to showcase it.

This year’s school Christmas show was with the elementary and upper class grades, meaning we are no longer part of the pre-K adorableness. The two kindergarten classes sang four songs total, three at the beginning and the finale of Jingle Bell Rock with the entire school. All three were split up, which helped with behavior (I think!), and Harper and Emerie couldn’t help but share their goofiness in front of the crowd. Harper made multiple antler hands and kept sticking out her tongue and making direct eye contact with me. Clearly she does not know what stage fright is, as her silly side excels off being in front of a crowd and she never appears nervous when people are looking her direction. Reagan, on the other hand, focused on singing her songs and doing the hand motions, and is all around more shy on stage than her siblings. Emerie….oh Emerie, kept pulling her fancy dress up and purposefully flashing us her red tights, and thinking it was absolutely hilarious as we told her to stop. Two out of three threw their headbands on the ground for the final song, because apparently taking them off and holding them was an unacceptable option while singing. So funny.

Overall this is one of my favorite nights of the year; not sure why but it makes me really feel like a grown up and “real” parent, seeing my offspring singing on a big stage, all dressed up and excited to be there, and getting to enjoy the moment. Being able to sit and enjoy without fussing over misbehaving kids (because they are onstage) is a nice perk for the parents. The girls were all snazzy in their Christmas dresses, black boots and headbands and did great.

The following day was the end of the fall dance session, where the girls did a tap and ballet routine and a quick bar routine to show the parents their new skills. Harper was not having it and stared straight at the floor the entire tap routine, finally cooperating a bit for the ballet part. She had a grumpy day and her love for dance class and her teacher was not emanating today, but overall her teacher noted she has learned a lot in the last year! Emerie quietly watched her teacher and followed the moves from the back, and Reagan was all smiles at the front and happy to smooch the camera videoing. So far this session went well overall with all three together, and far better than previous years according to the teacher. We have decided to keep them together in dance for the winter session and everyone is extremely excited about the spring extravaganza show at the end. We shall see how they do with three hours of performances, since we carried an overly tired, screaming Harper all the way to the car after it last year.

Later in the day after dance we went ice skating at the mall with a bunch of friends from school. The activity reinforced the thought of doing ice skating lessons again, something we did during COVID when they were much younger. Emerie likes it the least of the three, but claimed to have fun, even after multiple demands to go side on the side. Harper and Reagan both ventured out toward the middle without holding any hands after a bit, and have already asked to go again. Craig, being a more articulate skater than me (I need more practice to remember my skills!), took our kids, random Anchor kids, and some of their friends into twirls and speed skating, much to everyone’s delight (to everyone but Craig’s knees haha). We also had the pleasure to watch him chase the Brinkman twins across the ice as they tried to escape him. The girls only took me down once and I relearned that I can maintain balance holding one kid’s hand, but definitely not two. Each jerked a different direction and that was that, and they were less than thrilled that I pulled them down after me. Other than that snafu and a few falls from each, everyone did fantastic.

To sum up our weekend Christmas activities, we did a quick visit to Santa after breakfast at our favorite family spot. The girls have no fear of the jolly red man now and all went right up to ask him questions and explain what they’d like for Christmas. Reagan is still asking for a talking panda- and I reminded Santa that we can’t have a live panda live with us in Alaska. Ha! We also did our annual gingerbread cookies with Auntie Megan, Kaden and Oaki; this was the cleanest year so far and I can finely share the beautiful goodies with other people, without feeling so bad about impending kid germs. I also have to mention that Emerie decorated so much more this year than in the past, and everyone took a turn helping me roll out the dough into their chosen shapes. Reagan excelled at that part and by next year she probably won’t need adult supervision to fill the cookie sheet up. Pretty cool.

I can’t end this festive blog without mentioning the fantastic girls night Craig hosted solo last week. While I attended a Christmas dinner with the bestie, he did school pickup and took them on a fun filled evening, first stopping at Benihana for a fire filled dinner, then hitting up the library and returning books and getting new, AND ended the adventure with an ice cream treat. I clearly need to step up my charcuterie girls nights after all that activity! And I returned home that night and everyone was in pajamas and happily watching Bluey on the couch together. Impressive I tell you, it’s still not easy taking all three out solo and not looking like a crazy person handling a bunch of wild animals, let along three places in a row!

Merry Christmas!

❤

Dec 10

The Nutcracker

After five years, we finally made it to our first Nutcracker performance. I thought long and hard about taking them last year, but the winter sickness and RSV ultimately solved that question for me. I am unsure we would have made it through this type of performance when they were four and glad we waited. It helps that the kindergarten class has attended a similar staged show and we’ve recently gone to a few movies.

This year a friend suggested a more kid friendly Nutcracker show in December, as opposed to the fancier Eugene Ballet performance that happens over Thanksgiving weekend, and we went for it. How could I say no to cheaper tickets AND ages two and up welcome.

Unsure how long attention spans would go and knowing there was an intermission and a second half, I chose seats in the very top of the balcony area and on the very back row. My concerns we’d be too far away to keep the girls interested were not warranted and the view was perfect from up top. The girls could also fidget and couldn’t bother anyone seated behind us. Also glad to not have picked the front row of the balcony; way too concerned they would have messed around and fallen over. The back served us perfectly and allowed the parents to relax for most of it, with the occasional shhhhh when they shrieked at the pretty costumes or the crown on the snow queen, you know, the exciting things.

As you would expect, dressing up was a given for the occasion. I pulled out the fancy dresses purchased from another triplet mom about a year ago, that are not Alaska practical at all (sleeveless!) and full of glitter. Yes, that glitter now covers the house and my car and us. Buckling into the car seats was also quite the endeavor, with all the red and green under garments, but we made it; and the enthusiasm was fantastic. All three were quite the matching spectacle walking around the Performing Art Center in those fancy things and boots and hair ribbons and it was sweet to watch some random people smile and their faces light up as they realized one, two, three. Everyone fully entertained mom throughout and took a few photos, inside and outside, and seemed to enjoy twirling around and being fancy. The effort was absolutely worth it!

We managed to arrive fifteen minutes before curtain, found our seats and then ran them across the entire building for a quick bathroom break before the start. This meant only five minutes of when is it going to start questions on repeat until the lights went down, same way they do at the movies. The first half fully entertained all three and produced only mild fidgeting, some questions, and interested little faces watching the lights, fancy outfits and dancing. All three observed the light beams from above us down to the stage and kept pointing that out, and excitedly commented on the colors of the dancer’s outfits. Reagan thought it was pretty funny that the mice (the youngest dancers that went onstage) kept stealing all the Christmas presents away from the Christmas tree through the beginning of the performance. Harper was in awe of the sparkly pink ballerina and I’m not sure what Emerie’s favorite part was, but she happily sat through it and held my hand.

At intermission everyone collected a sparkly snowflake wand and ran around the waiting area to burn a little energy. The poor, starving children each ate a fig bar and some apple juice, which prompted the start of the second half complaints of hunger and thirstiness. I did choose a 5:00 PM show time, knowing dinner hunger would hit part way through, but that was better than missing their morning dance class. The second half could have been worse and other than two bathroom breaks, fidgeting and the start of some grumpiness, we made it through without leaving early. Any longer and we wouldn’t have made it, with Craig and I exchanging the typical “should we go before sh*t hits the fan looks” a couple of times and the girls shifting around in their seats, laying against us, and a few Reagan complaints that she didn’t want to watch anymore (because I wouldn’t give her juice in the auditorium). If you ask her a day later, she claims she liked everything on the stage. Harper’s favorite part was the pink ballerina (shocking) and Emerie liked the opening scene with all the people attending the party. It felt wonderful going out on a Christmas activity with the whole family, one I have fond memories of growing up, and not to have any major public meltdowns or true chaos. Just a nice occasion with the family and we made it!

I will save all our other fun Christmas activities for another blog and keep this one to this cute and successful afternoon.

❤

Nov 15

Snowstravaganza

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.

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!

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!?

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!

❤

Oct 28

One Quarter Down!

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!

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.

From our fall photo shoot earlier in the month!

❤

Oct 08

Into the Swing of Things

The past month and a half since school start means long, busy days and lots of outdoor activities as we wrap up the summer and ease toward the cooler, winter months. End of August equals many late nights for Craig to finish budget deadlines, and early September wraps up the federal grant season for me and starts the next program budget round; all this on top of school and life activities and house projects. Let’s see how much of the past six weeks I can remember, since I didn’t write down nearly as much as I should have!

We ended August with a fun trip to the fair- the girls were pumped to go and wander around, get customized face paint, eat all the food (especially the dip ‘n dots!) and ride a bunch of rides. This year we managed to not immediately drop them on the ground! Somehow we timed the trip perfectly with the weather; the whole day was cloudy but no rain or wind like the prior week. Since early morning lines were short, the girls convinced the kind ladies to do customized creations. Emerie asked for a combination of her two favorite things, an “Elsa themed turtle,” which translates into a blue, “frosted” turtle and sparkles. Harper wanted a “rainbow seal,” which is quite specific and her own creative idea, and the lady laughed and looked up a seal to mimic. It turned out really cute! Reagan went all out and wanted a full panda face, but in rainbow colors. She walked around with black lips and eye shadow the rest of the visit; by the end of the day it morphed into more of an angry, tired panda.

The visit also re-established that I have two thrill seekers, but certainly not three. To be clear, Reagan might not love the thrill of going fast, but she sure is brave. After the first (kid-sized) roller coaster ride, Emerie was laughing and smiling and Harper had her hands in the air excitedly, while Reagan had a death grip on the handle and a look of desperate survival- definitely not enjoying the moment- but she did go a second time with her sisters even though she was scared. We clearly gave her the choice, stating she did not have to if she didn’t want to, and she simply asked to sit in between her sisters to make it less scary and went up and did it. She didn’t appear to enjoy it the second time either, but she did it and that says a lot!

Several trips to Pyrah’s you-pick farm this summer meant lots of veggies to eat and fun to be had. The small zip line, used by climbing up the side of an old pick up truck, was quite the hit. The girls and cousins probably went down it 20 times each, and did a good job taking turns with other kids. More notably (and hilarious) was the girls’ response to some of the fresh veggies growing out of the ground. At one point Craig and Emerie were cutting fresh broccoli and Emerie was sitting in the dirt, eating the plant like you would an apple. Maybe the added flavor a dirt made it taste more authentic? Not my cup of tea…. Reagan helped me and Aunt Jenny pick two rounds of bulging snap peas and was more than happy to not only carry the bucket, but continue to “taste test” as many of them as possible. All three also insisted on running around with their fans- i.e. a rhubarb stalk with the biggest leaf possible on the end- and running around the farm yelling hello your majesty! and I am the queen!

This year’s trick-or-treat in the heat was a fun event with cousins and we managed to avoid any rain. The epitome of laziness, we didn’t go searching for any new costumes, but allowed everyone to choose a dress-up dress to sport for the night. Harper opted for her pink sequin “Aurora” dress, the hit birthday present from Grandma Sue this year, requested her hair be down and to have a dash of pink eye shadow. Emerie also wanted her hair down and insisted on the Ariel dress and corresponding Ursula necklace and purple eye shadow. Reagan asked to be Jasmine with her outfit coordination to the tee; matching headband and bubble braid, gold ballet flats, and sparkly teal eye shadow. This year’s walk was far less whiny than last years, probably because they are better at walking longer distances now, and they were more than happy waiting in line and going up to the front doors without parental participation.

The routine change into school hours started off a little rough for me personally, with tired monsters at pickup and throughout the evenings, but I believe we made it through and now it’s going better. If I plan some kind of activity or craft to do right when we get home, that seems to help with the earlier transition from school to home each night. My attempts to keep them off screen time in the afternoons is definitely raising my blood pressure, but also resulting in great sister play time (in between the fighting). Taking them to the park, which we’ve done on several sunny days this month, is not necessarily an enjoyable activity after a full school day; in fact, they get all worked up and act crazy and rude to others; and corralling them back to the car by myself usually results in some yelling, timeout threats and a lot of frustration.

One major steps in the “big kid” transition is drop off and pick up each day. Everyone is much more comfortable hopping out of the car in the drop off line, grabbing their coats and backpacks, and after fifty hugs and kisses, marching inside to their classroom. They have a password each week, a specific word of the week if you will, that they must repeat to come in. They are also so proud to switch their names on the board to show they have arrived for the day and if it’s a hot lunch day. We are also seeing great improvement on letters and what words start with what. Craig and I receive constant questions on what things start with, or the brain teasers when you have to come up with 700+ words that start with the letter “h” off the top of your head. After only several weeks, I can already see writing improvement from all three on worksheets and requests how to spell words has increased by 1000%.

Some nights, the non crazy attitude evenings, we will do letter or math flashcards at bed time. All three enjoy competing to see who can answer first, which often gets everyone riled up and yelling, but also shows they are retaining the information. The basic math- you know, 2+2 and 5+9 type numbers- result in a moment of silence while they count it out on fingers, and then extreme yelling when solved. Eventually everyone gets mad and overly competitive and we rotate who answers. Whew!

Grandma Anne came up for a fall visit for two weeks and all three enjoyed sitting upstairs on the guest bed and reading books, making chocolate chip cookies, and her trip’s sewing project- curtains for their bunk bed, with snowflake fabric and pink, purple and teal ribbons tied to the frame so they can easily make a fort or open it up when not playing. Not only is this just something fun for the cool bedroom setup, but Craig and I are hoping this will reduce the destruction we see almost everyday and have to clean up every night to go to sleep. We also probably need to purge some stuffed animals!

In mid-September after school activities started and we signed up for two clubs. While the school is definitely still working out the school day to after school activity transition and we’ve had several days all three never made it to the club, the girls are absolutely enjoying both Book Club and Puzzle Club when they go. Each week a different book theme is shared during Book Club, and from what I can tell, they all greatly enjoy trying out new puzzles. We opted to wait and do intramural sports club next session and I’m hoping that will peak their interest at some point for good physical activity in the winter. Speaking of winter activities, all three are in the same dance class this time around and while we questioned how well that would go (as opposed to splitting them up), so far so good. It helps we know a couple others in the class so the moms get to hang out while the tiny humans learn ballet and tap. At the beginning Harper was not on board sharing her favorite teacher or “her” hobby, but she’s come around with friends in the classroom and so far the fighting isn’t too bad.

Amazingly, we didn’t catch the first back to school bug until several weeks into the year. Lucky for us, everyone was back to normal after a few days and somehow Emerie managed to miss the first one altogether. The girls now all have a terrible sounding, throat cough, but with no other symptoms; all appearing fine otherwise. Let’s hope that cough doesn’t stick around the whole winter because the judgmental “covid glares” definitely still exist when out in the public, even when we know they aren’t contagious. And I managed to contract bronchitis (from them or my September conferences, who knows) that as of today, still can’t manage to kick. Craig incredibly picks up the slack when I’m down for the count and it’s a lot to do on top of full time work. Fingers cross this is my worst one of the winter and we make it through the colds months without going down again!

Much to her joy and delight, Reagan now has a couple weeks of speech practice under her belt. The pediatrician suggested she be evaluated after her five year checkup; she lost her tooth before she learned to form most words and the expansive vocabulary she shares now, so we can’t confirm if the slight lisp relates to the tooth or how her tongue forms the words. The evaluation session was a bit of a shit-show on my part, the school messed up and didn’t take Harper and Emerie to puzzle club after class and wouldn’t go for me, so I arrived late like a hot mess of mom, with all three in tow. It might surprise you to know, but I really don’t like to be THAT mom out in public and in general Craig and I have greatly improved over the years to not be a total hot mess in public. Not an easy task with three, I tell you! Thankfully the staff there were kind and provided coloring and toys for the other two while Reagan was assessed. It went so much better than imaginable with all three there at once! Now Reagan, of course, is thrilled to go to something solo, and after three sessions bright and early before the school day, she is excited to see Miss Mari and do an activity, which was painting last week while they talked. They are practicing word completion and enunciating the end of some words (I can’t remember what sounds exactly). She leaves the session happy, not realizing it’s actually physical therapy!

While pronunciation might be a little more of a battle than the expansive vocabulary we hear day to day, it is fun to hear other random phrases they randomly pick up at school or off shows. A main one right now is sister, can I have a moment of your time? which is often said to one another during playtime. Marriage proposals back and forth, or the more negative I’m not going to marry you might be the top phrase each day and still cracks me up. Multiple pet names are also chosen at random toward each other and include baby, honey, my love, darling, husband – not wife though, they can’t get behind this word- sister, and the usual nick names. Thank goodness they haven’t picked up the silly names Craig and I use on each other… 🙂

I will end this long and random update on the fact it’s finally fall time and the beautiful leaves are out, according to the girls. In fact they’ve mostly fallen since I started writing this blog last month, and temperatures continue to dip as snow creeps down the mountains. The girls still fight wearing coats during the day (at home), but are starting to get the picture it’s not warm outside anymore. My favorite pumpkin dresses that were big last year still fit, so we did a second annual and impromptu photo session in the woods after school one day. I revel in the fact their baby faces are nearly gone and smiles are much more grown up than I’m ready to process; otherwise we had some cute ones and a lot of candy bribery. My little girls are really becoming little ladies, and we are almost through the first quarter of our kindergarten journey….already!

❤

The Douglets

Triplets in Alaska

tripletlife