September Highlights

I put Stella in the Bumbo this morning to "just see" if she could sit up in it and be happy - and she was! I can't believe we are to this milestone already. Stella is about 3.5 months old now. I was having flashbacks to all the fun I had with the girls in the Bumbo seats. They'd sit on the bathroom counter and watch me do my hair, they'd take turns sitting on one on the changing pad while I changed the other one, etc. Stella seems to enjoy being able to sit up and look around.


This weekend we took the girls to another fall festival and bought pumpkins on the way home. We decided to paint rather than carve this year since sharp knives and toddlers do not mix! The girls LOVED IT! They were very proud of their final products that now proudly sit on the front porch.


Addie discovered a hole in Alex's shorts when he was cooking breakfast on Saturday morning. This shorts had put in their time and need to go to Goodwill or even just the trash, but Alex couldn't let them go. So when Addie started grabbing at the pocket with the hole - I cheered her on and she ripped away! Mina got jealous and wanted a pocket to rip as well - so we were finally able to say goodbye to these lovely threads....at last! : )


Here's one of Stella's sweet smiles caught on camera - she's giggling now and we are loving it. We are having trouble not tickling her to hear her charming giggle when we are suppose to be soothing her for bed or naptime...unfortunately it is not so sleep inducing!


A few weekends ago, Alex and I went out to dinner with friends to celebrate Danae's birthday. It was a fabulous adult evening and it was nice for all of us to get a break from the 2 and under crowd!


Addie and Mina have become inseparable playmates lately. They are coming up with new games to play together on a daily basis. Some sweet...some not so sweet. Today's game was one of them would lie down on the concrete step going outside and then the other would walk over the sister lying down (but of course stepping on her). They'd laugh and then it would get rough and someone would get mad...game over!

September Picts

The girls need pictures of themselves for their cubbies at school (Parent's Day Out) so Alex took some of all of us together at the same time. Ah - I love my girls! They are looking so old these days. They are only 2.5 years old, but moving into 4T clothes for fall!!!



Not quite sure what started this underwear fashion show, but Addie and Mina both were making us laugh so hard we couldn't breath by tugging their underwear up as high as they could get them and walking through the house.


Stella's first boyfriend? This pict is from my friend, Nikki's birthday party. At one point, Bryse actually grabbed Stella's hand and held it for a little bit. Pretty forward for their first introduction! : )

At Some Points It Is All About Survival!

Some of my friends say that I always seem so calm and collected - so go with the flow. Here are the details of a day from this past week that I was anything but collected! I'm hoping to not have a 24 hour period like this one any time soon!

8:00 pm - Tinsley poops in Stella's room (Disgusting)

11:00 pm - Tinsley wakes us up to go outside (Annoyed)

1:00 am - Tinsley wakes us up to go outside (Seriously Annoyed)

1-3:00 am - I can't fall back asleep and eventually go lay on the couch in the living room (Pissed)

3:30 am - Stella wakes up to eat (Relieved to have something to do since I'm awake anyways)

6:30 am - Stella wake up to eat (Bummed - hoping for more sleep)

7:00 am - Toddlers wake up to start their days (Ugh...the day starting already)

7:30 am - Alex leaves for work and Addie pees her pants in Stella's room (Not a good sign for the day)

11:00 -1:00 am - Host play group, referee toddler fights while trying to eat and talk to friends (Provides momentary distraction in a yucky day)

1:30 pm - Get Addie & Mina down for naps (Looks like the stars are aligning and all three kids will be asleep at once)

1:35 pm - Stella wakes up screaming (only been asleep for 30 minutes)

1:40 pm - Tinsley vomits in the office (Seriously!!!)

3:00 pm - Addie & Mina wake up (Not already)

3:15 pm - Addie poops in her pants (Great! They are potty trained and even go to the bathroom by themselves...where is this coming from!!!!)

3:30 pm - Addie spills a huge cup of hot tea all over herself and the floor just as I'm sitting down to nurse Stella and drink the tea (which was suppose to soothe my sanity - instead I lose it).

4:30 pm - Come out of Stella's room after putting her to sleep to find Addie eating Dessicant - the stuff in the paper packages in new shoe boxes that say DO NOT EAT! (At this point I'm so beyond reason I just stare at her in silent amazement and eventually tell her to go to her room so I can Google dessicant).

4:32 pm - Google dessicant and find out it is not toxic - just labeled do not eat because the package size is a choking hazard! Whew! (Ah, the things you learn...)

5:30 pm - Sit down to dinner with Alex & the girls - and they won't eat a bite (veggie tacos)

6:30 pm - Leave Alex with the girls to go to a friend's house to gather some sanity (Sweet relief)

8:30 pm - Return home to find that Stella has screamed most of the time I've been gone and has finally fallen asleep! (So glad I left when I did...may have really wanted to crawl in a dark hole if I had stayed).

Life got drastically better the next day - it was Thursday - Parent's Day Out. The girls happily went off to school and I left Stella with a babysitter and had my haircut. It never felt so luxurious to simply sit and have someone cut my hair and have adult conversation! Ah...the little things in life!

Where is the Time Going?!?!

Here's Stella giving her best (almost) 3 month pose. I can't believe we are at the end of summer and Stella is only 3 months away from eating solid foods - crazy! I was feeling bad for her yesterday as the girls went off to Parent's Day Out and she and I went on errands. With the girls, I was a slave to their nap schedule (mostly out of a desire to have to happy babies - making less work for me)! However, as a mom of three - if an opportunity to get out of the house/get things done arises and doesn't involve me schleeping three children along - nap or not out I go! I had to wake Stella up from a nap to drop the girls off at PDO and again wake her when it was time to go to the gym later that afternoon. We are staying home all day today (with one outing this evening) in hopes to get give her some sense of routine...and of course she hardly wants to sleep at all now! : )


This is the typical scene whenever I put Stella on the play mat. She's immediately flanked by Sister #1 and Sister #2 who both usually push and boss each other around for the best position next to Stella on the mat. This usually ends up in Mom declaring a no toddlers on the play mat rule! The problem is Stella enjoys having them next to her - added entertainment - I'm just worried she's going to get squashed in the process.


The girls were riding their tricycles in the garage while I was busy with Stella. It got quiet for just a little too long and this is what I saw when I came out to check on them. They've been obsessed with this octopus since we hung it up in the garage. We hung it so we'd know how far to pull the car in in order to get the garage door closed. They'd tell us to "bang the applesauce" - translation "bang the octopus" when we'd pull into the garage. They'd ask us to lift them up so they could touch the octopus, and now it appears they've figured out how to get the octopus on their own. It was hilarious to watch their toddler aim 20+ strikes for every swat that actually made contact! Ah - but they were happily occupied for quite some time!!! The best part!