Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Drinking and Driving


There is something seriously wrong with this picture. While Mike was cutting the grass over the weekend, Brooke, deciding to be very helpful, offered him a beer by driving it over to him in her Escalade. Completely her idea. Still, let's look at the positives: 1) She chose a Lager and not one of the crappy beers in the fridge and 2) She made sure to put the seat belt on the bottle of beer, just in case she got pulled over. Mike declined the beer and sent her back to the house to mix him a jack & coke.

Monday, September 22, 2008

The many hats of a mom...

We all know the many hats a mom wears: teacher, doctor, chef, taxi driver, referee, maid- the list goes on and on. Well under my hat today are a few extra (no, many) gray hairs. That is because today I was an EMT. As Brooke was sitting at the island eating her lunch and squirming (as Brooke does) she fell off her stool. She was hanging, practically upside down from the island with one foot up on the stool next to her and the other foot twisted behind her stuck through the rungs of the chair. She screams "help me" and starts to cry as I ran around the island and picked her back up to a seated position.

Just as I sit her up and am about to scold her for squirming so much she grabs at her throat and then *silently* starts digging in her mouth with both hands as she begins turning different shades of blue. I push her hands away and tried sticking my finger in her mouth. When that didn't work I quickly picked her up and performed the Heimlich maneuver folding her in half over my fist- her body hanging over my arms like a towel over a clothesline. Out pops the chewed up carrots and broccoli and she begins gasping for air and crying- so so scary!

She looks at me like "what the hell just happened?" and says "Mommy, you saved me." She still had no idea why I had to pick her up like that and hurt her little belly but I explained it to her. She kept saying how she couldn't breathe. Today I was the Higgleytown Hero (one of her favorite shows)!

Good thing I made an appointment with my colorist this morning.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Miss Independent


Well today was the first day of pre-school. I wasn't as sad as I thought I'd be but probably because Brooke was so cool about going. When we got there both classes were upstairs in the big room playing with play doh. I walked her downstairs to hang up her jacket and back pack (I had to make up things to put in there b/c a preschooler does not need a back pack).
I showed her where her cubby is and told her what to do. The whole time she kept saying "I know Mom, I know...I'm fine Mom." Then she says "Bye Mom, I'm going upstairs...Bye" without so much as a kiss. I told her that I WAS going to walk her up and help her find her place...a mother needs to feel somewhat useful. I'm not ready to send her off to college just yet but sometimes I have the feeling that she has such a strong self-confidence that she would be fine going.
She gave her teachers flowers that she picked out of my pots on the porch and found her place to do play doh. There were some major criers, but my girl didn't blink an eye when I left. I was probably more upset than she was. The 2.5 hrs flew by though and when I picked her up she was happily playing on the playground but was excited to see me- which finally made me feel needed.

Sometimes the best things are unplanned

We have been trying take Brooke to Dutch Wonderland all summer but things kept coming up. We thought we would spend two days doing the rides, water park, and outlets. As the end of the season started creeping near, I decided I'd be happy if we just got one day there. So we decided that Sunday was our day. On Saturday we woke up early to a beautiful day and when we saw how hot and humid Sunday's forecast was we decided to pack it up and go Saturday for the day instead.

When we got to Lancaster we had to hit a few "key" outlets first and then went to DW. We were surprised to see that the water park was open since I saw online that it had closed for the season. Mike and I looked at each other and said 'wanna stay the night'. Well, I did have a change of clothes for everyone and enough diapers. Definitely not everything I would have packed, but do-able. We decided to look at it as an adventure. We found a hotel down the road and then went back to the outlets to get a few more things we needed- $5 bathing suit for Mike, $1.99 pj's for Jared (Jenna wore her's for the car ride b/c she was napping), a $10 beach towel, and Target for tooth brushes. We were sort of roughing it, but it was fun!



We spent all afternoon doing rides and seeing shows at the park and then went back to the hotel for an early bedtime. Brooke got her own bed and Jared and Jenna slept in between Mike and I. They were so happy to be sleeping next to one another again. They had one of their best night's sleep ever! The 12 inches of space that Mike and I each had left made for one of the worst night sleeps for us. Brooke had an entire queen size bed to herself.



The next day was more fun on the rides and splashing at the water park. It ended up being a great mini-vacation!

The princess of Dutch Wonderland is named Princess Brooke.


Jenna's first ride.


Brooke FINALLY got to milk a cow.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Five Months


Well this is a bit late. But now that I've finally got this blog up and running I keep writing posts in my head but sitting down and typing them is another story. But tonight I had some time and wanted to brag about my babies. In turning 5 months Jenna and Jared have had some firsts.

Look at those 2 little teeth!

We have a sitter!!

And a MOVER! Not exactly a crawler, but she pushes up and flops down to get herself closer to a toy and she's getting good at going places backwards.


Hmm, a duck...

Let's see how he tastes.

On the way to Cape May....



Last weekend we went to the Cape May zoo.  It was perfect weather and we had a very relaxing and fun day.  I tried to get some good pictures of us since no pictures of me have been taken since Jared and Jenna were born. Guess who does all of the taking? 
They're almost doing "Speak no evil, hear no evil..."


Brooke pretending to be a flamingo.

Saturday, September 6, 2008

First One...could be the last


Well, I felt left out. Everyone else is blogging. I thought I'd try my hand at it and the MoMs (mom's of multiples) blog www.oprahmoms.blogspot.com  gave me the confidence to start my own. I think I'm usually the last at doing these things once the peer pressure finally gets to me. But, I thought this would be a good way at keeping everyone (who is interested) updated on ALL of us...5 is suddenly a BIG number.