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!
And just like that, the final two weeks of summer vacation; meaning the time before our first school year kicks off, means some family adventures and activities to round out the season. I started day one of fourteen with kids home off with a bit of a bang- while Craig went into the office at the crack of dawn, I worked a couple hours before everyone woke up, made requested zucchini muffins during breakfast, completed a couple loads of laundry, packed up lunches and the car, loaded everyone up and drove down to explore the wildlife conservation center about an hour away, AND made homemade, puffy chalk paint, that the girls proceeded to make a HUGE mess with on the driveway (and themselves).
This was our first conservation center visit in quite a while and it was probably the nicest, least windy weather we’ve ever had there. The girls played with stuffed animals and counted waterfalls on the drive down, and saw the train twice! The shrieking for a train sighting woke up Emerie, who had drifted off to sleep. She excitedly watched it out the window and went right back to sleep. Everyone was more excited to pick dandelions and other flowers than get up close and personal with the rescued animals. Emerie walked around the center announcing I’m a triplet! to anyone nearby, whether or not they wanted to know or were remotely paying attention to us. Silly girl. We ate packed lunches at the picnic table by the playground; at one point a hornet- or some kind of massive bee related bug- drove all three away screaming. Now every time anything even close to the same species flies by; everyone scatters. Even dragonflies and mosquitos. Needless to say, there is more reactive screaming now than previously.
By the end of the day I was TIRED from overdoing it a bit, and the girls were asking to go to bed by the end of the night. Reagan and Craig picked up Grandma Sue at the airport and everyone snuggled into their beds afterwards and drifted right off to sleep.
The following day Sue and I packed up the car and headed down to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days of adventure. We are getting quite good at long drives with the kids and made it down in one straight shot, only stopping once for a random traffic backup. No naps, no screens, a lot of snacking and music, and of course, coloring. Tiny notebooks and multi-color pens are great for drives. The tunes for this whole week were the new Little Mermaid soundtrack- the girls ask for the songs Prince Eric and Ursula sing, not Ariel- and a lot of My Little Pony, the movie and the show. I recently introduced them to some “old” techno with Cascada, and they now ask for her by name, and a couple songs from Imagine Dragons. It’s cute that they fight over the band name; Emerie is convinced it is Magic Dragons and Reagan argues it’s Imagine. Harper just asks me to play the magic in my bones song!
Great photo with Grandma Sue
The girls were SO excited to see Becky and spend a few nights at her house on the lake. After asking for a solid year, you know since our last stay, they were more than excited to play in the yard and run up and down the stairs. Becky made her fancy pasta salad and brisket and all was well in the world! I may have eaten that salad for breakfast the next day…it was THAT good.
With no agenda for the trip other than to do whatever we felt like whenever we felt like it, we spent day two traveling down to Ninilchik for a quick visit with Cousin Brian and an afternoon in Homer. The farther south we went, the nicer the weather, so by the time we arrived on the spit, it was glorious. After a fantastic late lunch of burgers and fries (and soda sips courtesy of fun grandma!), we explored the docks and looked at boats, walked on the boardwalk and took pictures in about every cardboard cutout, checked out the catches of the day, tested out some sorbet, loaded coat pockets with shells, and reluctantly checked out the swing under the boardwalk, with a high tide underneath. All the random strangers entertained the girls questions and comments, especially those cutting or hauling fish caught that day, and we stopped to ogle at the 109 pound halibut hanging at one of the charters. The girls watched the experts fillet fish and toss the bones, with both interested and horrified expressions. Emerie announced a number of times to a crowd of fish professionals, that she hates fish and it’s DISGUSTING. Harper and Reagan watched with interested but also wouldn’t go anywhere near any of it. Maybe someday we will get them to like salmon…but for now they will eat halibut, especially when told it is chicken!
Cousin BrianLunch timeEw, fish!
We left the beach with less shells than our last visit, mostly with instructions that only whole and unbroken shells couldn’t come with us. You can tell the beach is one of their happy places the moment they see one. Emerie is instantly throwing rocks in the water with loud giggles of pleasure, hefting big ones with joy and watching the splash; Reagan immediately hunts for a good stick and scrutinizes the sand for treasures; and Harper hollers after finding each big shell and random bird feathers, which made it all the way back to Anchorage with us. Oh yes.
We tried Face-timing Craig on the return drive and they were so wild, it was just screaming and three kids yelling into the phone all at once. We stopped one time at the only solid fireweed patch we spotted the entire drive, and the girls entertained their mother’s request and smiled and wandered through it for a few photos.
The following day we wandered around the area and searched for treasures at random garage sales. Nothing crazy, but some great scores and a good way to explore Kenai and Soldotna. Grandma spotted an amazing old dollhouse with tiny furniture that was worth more than the fifteen bucks we spent on the house. Packing that into the back of my SUV, with all our trip gear and bikes, was quite the adventure in itself.
After a delicious lunch at a recently discovered restaurant in Soldotna with Craig’s cousin Jamie and Steve, with noodles and oodles of egg rolls, fried rice and broccoli for the girls, we meandered over to the park across the street and did the traditional stroll down the riverbank boardwalk. The riverfront beach area that we played on in June was completely submerged underwater, so instead the girls checked out each fishing group at the bottom of the access staircases. One group caught and released several red salmon and everyone sat quietly at the top of the stairs and surveilled. Another kind lady brought her catch over for the girls to see up close.
Jaren and Savaya stopped by after a bit and broke out their fishing poles, so we put life jackets on the girls and let them carefully walk along the riverbank while the experts reeled some fish. Harper had the one snafu of the afternoon, who lost her footing going down the grated, metal stairway and would have tumbled fifteen feet down and into the flowing river, except that I happened to be standing several steps below her. Some tears, a bloody knee and bruised leg and foot later, and they were back to exploring.
The rest of the day was spent playing on the dock and in the yard, soaking in the sun. With only a light breeze and intermittent clouds, the lake was smooth as glass. Over the three day visit they must have biked the driveway loop a hundred times, enjoying the hill and practicing how to balance on the way down while in traffic. It stayed warm enough for swimsuits and Jamie’s kiddos Amber, Hayden and Maddy swam in the water and played on the floats with the girls. Hayden attempted to catch a fish and bucketed minnows for them to play with. You could hear goofy giggles from afar on the float as the girls sat with Amber and devoured a snack, and also somewhat tortured her! The girls wouldn’t commit to swimming, even given the warm weather and great water temperature- well Reagan tried for thirty seconds and was not a fan- but they did enjoy splashing their feet, scooping buckets, and playing with the dock ropes. Watching Hayden jump off and into the water was also quite the hit; about as much them torturing him on the float out in the water or later on the grass. Lots of snacks, chit chat with family, and silly kiddos made for a nice and relaxing afternoon. It’s wonderful now that we are at an age they can play and mostly entertain themselves and the adults can actually converse with each other! For the most part they fully entertained themselves and played with family. Other than the minor whining and meltdowns throughout the day, everyone was mostly on good behavior and having fun and everyone patiently waited to go down to the dock until adults were ready to go. Kids don’t float!
Enjoying the sunFinally broke out the rompers!Silly kids
In case you were wondering, Harper also learned how to whistle this week. She now walks around whistling about as much as Reagan breaks into random song, and it’s pretty cute. She is very proud and also announces to strangers at the store that she can whistle! Reagan and Emerie are less thrilled that they haven’t quite figured it out yet; Reagan’s missing front tooth certainly isn’t helping her learn it. Reagan managed to find all kinds of cool treasures this trip, that would all end up in my pockets somehow. She picked unripe cranberries and put them in her purse, green pine cones, and tons of clover and other flowers so she could use them later.
I also discovered that Emerie still chatters in her sleep; at one point I woke up enough to hear her snap I told you the color was purple! and then settle back down with a grunt. She said another phrase at some point that night, but I wasn’t awake enough to remember it the next morning. Emerie was also a good sport about patching a couple hours each day of the trip, since she does that for the mornings at school. Throughout she was still biking and running around doing her thing, her only request to sit behind me or in the middle in the car, so she can see out the window with her left eye.
More fun activities continue during our staycation before kindergarten starts next week, including a visit to the you-pick farm in the valley and meeting up with more cousins, this time Tyler and Chatum, for a quick lunch and minor torturing. We also snapped a couple photos sitting in Uncle Chris’ vintage teal truck (Reagan has told me it’s hers but I don’t think the boys will agree with that!) and everyone is looking so grown up. Grandma taught them how to climb up the side of a less vintage truck in the driveway (since you know…Tyler has multiple options!), and now all three proudly pull up on the tire and hike a leg over the side of the truck bed and taunt us to come get them.
We took advantage of the first beautiful sunny weekend of the summer this past week; saddest part being it didn’t happen until almost the end of July. On Saturday we went the easy route, going to a local park with lake beach front, and the kids played in the sand and dove right into the kiddie swimming area. The water was “warm” in Alaska standards and I was surprised how quickly they played in it; last year it was received much less enthusiastically. Friends brought floats to play on, teenie-tiny fish were a hot topic for kid conversation and collection- with parents trying to keep them alive and well in water buckets and kids more interested in checking them out- and the ice cream truck stopped by for a nice, midday treat. We played outside for the rest of the day, washed the cars in the driveway and the girls wore dress up and played with their sun umbrellas. We ended the evening picking up the trailer at cousins for the real adventure the following day.
Day two of the weekend continued the beautiful sunshine and 70 degree temperatures so we loaded up two kid and one adult four-wheelers and headed out to Eklutna Lake, about an hour’s drive from our house. When I was a kid the ten-mile road was full of potholes, scary overlooks and absolutely no pavement; these days it’s much easier vehicle access with two lane, freshly painted asphalt. The girls fought over marker selection on their coloring for most of the drive there, and if you exclude the whining, the day went pretty well.
All the kids abandoned shoes and climbed on logs and played in the water a bit. The driftwood teepee on the beachfront was also quite a hit and they happily played in it and tried to build it bigger. Craig became an unofficial four-wheeler mechanic not too long after we were out and about and by the end of the day, he was manually hauling them back to the car due to a variety of issues. The boys in the group, meaning cousins and Kaden, are all pretty good drivers when they pay attention, so parking lot loops and some basic trail riding was a hit. The girls aren’t quite there yet and probably need another summer before we can trust they will go straight by intention; we will get there. We had several kid crashes off-trail, but none that caused any bleeding or too many tears. At one point five kids and an adult were riding the adult four-wheeler- that’s impressive in itself! Craig installing the back bench was the best decision ever and let’s us easily cart four kiddos on the back safely, all strapped in with seat belts.
It was a fun day and we all returned home with new sunburn lines. Now I just hope we can have at least one more weekend with warm temperatures before we head into fall. Harper keeps telling me summer hasn’t started yet. You said summer was warm and it’s not warm. She makes an excellent point and I don’t have a good argument against that!
Emerie Eye Update
Emerie’s eye specialist checkup this week went great after no visit for six whole months! This is the longest stint without an appointment since cataracts were diagnosed at twelve months in her left eye, and the outcome is looking better. Emerie was on her best behavior; I kid you not, it was the smoothest appointment we’ve ever had! She sat all by herself on the patient chair (past demands involved a parent underneath) and told the nurse all the letters she put onscreen across the room. In January she was seeing 20/40 out of her weaker eye, even with glasses on, and this time she was able to see a few of the letters in 20/25! After a couple in that size she declared they are too small to read!
This visit she also listened to Dr. Winkle’s requests obediently and maintained eye contact while holding still. For the first time he looked in her eyes with the fancier equipment typically used for adults- she is getting so grown up. And she did great! Dr. Winkle said patching must continue for several more years. The nurse did a quick light test before the doctor came in, a test that informs whether her eyes are working together or operating separately in conjunction with her brain. She couldn’t see both red and green, which tells us her brain is still fighting the connection between the eyes and patching will continue to help remedy that. He also praised our efforts to patch daily are paying off and her eye alignment is staying straight and not drifting out; if anything she is slightly inward on alignment. This is largely encouraging and means we don’t need another checkup for six months and no surgery on the docket. Very exciting!!
Dr. Winkle and Emerie ❤
The plan is to continue patching in the mornings like we do now, and giving her a break on the weekends so she isn’t operating with one eye while we go on fun adventures. I’m not entirely sure how well this will go for kindergarten so I plan to see how she does with school while patched, and reassess if we need to start doing evenings or afternoons instead so she has less hardships during school activities. All in all, she does everything her sisters do while patched and it’s really impressive, knowing that eye is weaker and still trying to get stronger. She’s a rock star.
Lastly, in case you were curious, Dr. Winkle’s favorite color is green. This is not to be confused with teal or blue. He and Emerie had a deep conversation about favorite colors, and she loves to talk to him when we go. She also went off on a My Little Pony tangent and discussed the princesses and different ponies; it was pretty funny. His favorite color was quite the topic of conversation later in the day as well, and I could hear her telling Reagan and Harper, Dr. Winkle told me his favorite color is green! It’s not teal like Reagan’s color, it’s green like the color of Mom’s pants today. He loves green. So, very cute.
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.
The Douglets 