Driving Ms. Daisies

I love my car.  I really do.  Especially since it has long since been paid off.  But when the day comes that I get a minivan, I will be ecstatic.   Currently all three ladies sit side by side in my back seat.  Not ideal because A. Emerson has to sit on the side since there is no way I could get her seat in and out with two car seats on the ends.  B.  Even though Ryan could technically sit in a booster seat, they are so jam packed that buckling and unbuckling the seat belt would be almost impossible.  Leading to C: they are so jam packed back there.  As in she's hitting me, she's looking at me, her arm touched my arm jam packed.   So every now and then I somewhat feel like riding in the car is a punishment, especially on extra ornery/crabby/sleep deprived days.  Yesterday was no exception.  Instead of quietly losing my mind, I turned on my video camera so I could 'see' everything that was going on after rounds of "Ryan kicked me....Reese elbowed me...Ryan's looking at me".  I drove in silence for the remaining 8 minutes of my drive (sped up for your 2+ minute enjoyment).  I especially like that they can ban together to do sort of a synchronized backseat driving routine (of which I had no idea they were essentially mocking me by playing into the camera the whole time as I was obviously driving and not watching them), I apparently need to tighten Reese's seat belt a bit more, and Ryan could be a mime.

But hey, they stopped fighting.  So granted my right arm was numb from holding the camera up for 8 minutes, a little physical pain is worth a peaceful car ride.  Am I right or am I right?

Colorado

We took our first family-of-five-road-trip-over-three-hours at the end of July to Colorado for Grant's birthday.   We'll ignore the coughs and head colds that may have made me slightly miserable and left Reese with what sounded like a 12 pack a day smokers cough.....overall we had a great time!   And that's what matters.  Everyone returned home alive and still friends.  While we only spent 3 quick days out in Denver, we did split up the 13 hour drive each way so all in all, it was a 5 day mini-'vacation', but let's be honest 'vacation' and 3 kids aren't synonymous.
Packed up and ready to go:

Sleeping through much of Kansas...

Grant and I don't mind the long stretches of 70 here.....honestly the wind farms keep us entertained.  

The beauty of small kids is that they find joy in the stuff we all take for granted.....bell carts being one of them.  These ladies still remember a road trip to Texas two years ago that included a stay-over in Tulsa, OK and the hotel had a bell cart.  So when we check into a hotel and Grant rolls out the bell-cart to the hotel - obviously we're not staying at the Ritz here people....do it yourself bell carts = Hampton Inn variety hotels:)  the girls light up with excitement.

Riding into the hotel on the cart is enough fun for them we very well could have turned around and headed home afterwards.  And beds you can jump on and not get in trouble???  Get out!

And indoor swimming pools that in a previous life I would have turned my nose up at.....well these girls were in heaven.  And frankly, with my head cold, the indoor steam was exactly what I needed.

Emerson and I enjoyed 'lounging' pool side with the hum of highway 70 as our view...

Roaming the halls...

Eating at an IHOP for dinner....jigga what?

Taking in the beautiful scenery:

Want to know what part of traveling isn't fun?  5 people sharing a hotel room.  We had Emerson in a pack and play, Ryan and Grant in one bed, Reese and I in the other.
Emerson no likey...

Fast forward to 11pm when Emerson was crying and spitting up, my head was wanting to implode and as I'm trying to rock Emerson to sleep quietly without waking the others, all of the sudden Ryan is at my feet, awake and as alert as can be saying "what should we do now mom?"......What else can you do, you stroll through the hotel lobby for an hour and go sit by the pool telling stories.  The three of us provided quite the entertainment for the random family checking in late that night.
Later Kansas, onward to Colorado....

Everyone got a chance to drive....

As a side note, I will say Emerson rocked it in the 'traveling with baby' category (minus the sleeping at night in hotels and blowing out her diaper at almost every change - something about that car seat really 'gets things moving') - but for the car ride she was awesome....her nursing schedule was right on with the rest of us and our needs to stop for food/restroom/gas so she really didn't add any time to our drive.  I'd feed her in the car while Grant filled up with gas, took the other two in to use the bathroom, get some snacks and b/c Emerson is an efficient feeding machine, we'd all be done at the same time.  Two thumbs up Em!
Once we got to Denver the ladies had an amazing time playing with our gracious hosts and friends Mark and Nicole.  They just built a sweet new house that had the perfect layout for our traveling clan....a fully finished basement with bedroom and living room.   Ryan became obsessed with Nicole (rightfully so) and basically stalked her morning, noon and night - so cute that Nicole laid out a whole slew of costumes, party hats and mirror for the girls to play with.  And play they did.....

We went swimming, drove Ryan by the hospital where she was born "I know mom, I've seen it before" (?), had food from our favorite restaurants, went up to Boulder to celebrate Grant's birthday at our favorite brunch spot, stopped by the site of our wedding and took some family photos:

Hard to believe it's been almost 7 years (!!!!) and 3 babies later....nevermind the grafatti.

Comparison shot:

We saw my family and the girls got to meet some of their cousins for the first time.

My little trooper Emerson was OVER it by this point, so tired and just wanted to go to bed.

Ryan was in heaven when her cousin gifted her with about 15 old dance costumes that fit Ryan perfectly.

I'm embarrassed to mention that my cold was so bad and I have terrible allergies to dogs (which Mark and Nicole have two adorable ones), we used some miles to ship my a*s and Emerson's to a hotel for the final night.  I know, I know, pathetic....but seriously I was miserable and going on about day 12 with no more than a 2 hour stretch of sleep at night after dealing with the croup business and my own cold.  The fun part, Em and I had our own little getaway (even if it was only from 8pm - 7am) - it was cute and fun and our first official slumber party.

On the way back to St. Louis we stopped at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City so the girls could go crazy in the indoor water park.  The place is cheesy as hell but perfect for families - the rooms are fun and have built in bunkbeds (which, hello?  Why don't more hotels do this???),

the indoor water park is big enough to not get bored, but not so big that you feel like you're going to get lost.

Even Emerson got in on the swimming fun...

We got there around 5pm - ate dinner (don't get me started on the lack of healthy eating options in the Midwest), swam a bit, played in the bunk beds and then the girls SLEPT hard core until we woke them the next morning.  They swam again for a few hours

and then we hit the road and were back home by 4pm.   Just in time for Ryan to go through her bag of new dance clothes and come up with this winner to wear to the car wash with dad:

 All in all, a great trip!  The girls were awesome, they loved meeting new friends and family and they have been talking about Colorado ever since.

7 months!

How is this possible?  How is my itty bitty baby that much closer to being a year old?  Ugh.  But she is getting a personality this one.....sweet, feisty, hilarious and ready to move.  The girl can scoot backwards, rock back and forth on all fours and is oh so close to contemplating a life of forward motion.  I will definitely let a tear or two fly when we have to dig out the baby gates again.  One bottom tooth has finally popped through after what seemed like months of drooling, gnawing on anything she could and less than stellar sleeping habits.  She is also a lover of all foods now that any and all medical caution has been cast aside by her doctor with this whole 'eat everything' philosophy - it's basically a free for all, I believe the one thing I am to stay away from is honey.  Peanut butter, eggs, chicken, my smoothies, guacamole, basically any and all food the rest of us eat, Emerson gets a taste as well.   She had her 6 month checkup a couple of weeks ago and was 29 inches (95%), 16 pounds 14.5 ounces (57%) and head circumference was 17.5 inches (92%).   She is generally happy as a clam but I am seeing glimpses of a temper if you take away the remote she is trying to deface with her mouth, or basically any other electronic device that I don't believe is on the recommended food list of her pediatrician.  She still finds her sisters utterly hilarious and LOVES when they shower her with attention.  Overall, she gets an A.  I'm still keepin' her.

 Mom, seriously, enough with this shiz.  Hand me back my remote.

And now a series in black and white.....basically because the lighting was bad this morning, the girls gave me about a 3 second window of cooperation and thus I never got my camera adjusted correctly and no amount of editing was going to fix it....so black and white you get: 

 Never mind Emerson's face plant in the bed.....she survived.

Waking the beast

My little Reesers loves LOVES her sleep.  You don't have to ask the girl twice to take a nap or go to bed (when she's ready).  Anyway, she starts afternoon preschool (2 days a week) later this month so I haven't been pushing the naps - if she wants one, great.....if not, fine by me.  On days she does though, they tend to be later and later in the afternoon....fine and dandy until she's like a crack addict at 9pm because she slept so late in the day.  So I wake her up, usually no later than 4pm.....even if she just fell asleep 30 minutes prior.  Yesterday I filmed it so I had another excuse to play around with my Vintagio app.  A couple notes:   Yes, she naps in our bed.  Yes, she sucks her thumb.  I could care less about the first, but working on correcting the second.  Her beloved blanket (which goes hand in hand with the thumb sucking) has been relegated to sleep time only and sometime in the near future will be sent off in a farewell party to hopefully help kick this habit to the curb.  If anyone out there has any tips or advice, sent it my way!

Texting

Not Anthony Weiner style, thank god, but Ryan style.  Awhile back I got Grant's iPhone when he was eligible for an upgrade of his own.  So my old phone has been sitting around getting no love.  Ryan found it and deemed it hers, bummed that the 'internet is off' but happy about the photos and videos she can now take any ole time she likes.  We'll ignore the time she filmed me in the shower, unbeknownst to me.....Anyway, two nights ago she brings her phone into me just before she's about to go to bed...
Ryan:  Mom, will you please hold my phone for me tonight?
Me:  Sure.
Ryan:  You know, in case I get any text messages I don't want them to wake me up.
Me:  laughing
Ryan:  I mean Shelli might try to text me back (cue the crazy memory music of when she texted my friend Shelli MONTHS ago on accident), I know her number, remember?

And then again last night:
Ryan:  Mom, will you keep my phone again tonight?
Me:  Sure.
Ryan: Amelia might try and text me.
Me:  Of course.  Amelia is four, why wouldn't she text you in the middle of the night.

*the drop cloth isn't a permanent fixture....we had some work done on two sets of doors in our house.  But those outfits, oh yeah, those are permanent fixtures now.   Jealous?  

Jumping in....

I'm so far behind with this blog that I don't even know where to begin to backtrack and catch up....so I'm not going to worry about it and just jump on in with this fun new app our friends turned us onto.  Vintagio.  You can take your video(s), set them to music and give them one of a few vintage finishes.  For whatever reason the way the video was edited down it cut-off the girls' heads in most instances....but you already know what these ladies look like so imagine them with full craniums.   It's my first post back, you can't expect perfection...  While we were out in Colorado we caught up with my cousins one night and Ryan was gifted with the motherload of old dance costumes.  It was raining Jon Benet outfits.  At one point, Ryan came up to the group of adults sitting around outside and proudly announced that the 'show' would soon be starting in the basement and we were all to come down and watch.  Here's the recap.....

Radio silence....

That's what this blog has been the past few weeks....silent.  I promise to change that.  We've had a busy and sick last few weeks.  We caught a nasty little bug that was going around that culminated in three little ladies having croup at the same time.  Listening to that cough is one thing, but listening to that cough on a 6 month old baby....oh break my heart.  This stinkin' bug has affected someone (or often multiple) people in this house for the past 10 days or so....and still going as I have had one of the worst head/sinus colds I can remember having.  Tack on a 5 day road-trip to Colorado and you can imagine the chaos and sleep deprivation around here.  Let me find my sanity and collect some pics and I'll be back to share.  Till then, lots and lots of this....