First official steps

I think when Eisley woke up today she said to herself, "I want to walk today." She spent the entire day standing on her own and taking little steps. She has stood on her own for a couple seconds for the past few weeks, but today she went crazy! Anything she'd crawl over to, she would let go of and wave her hands in the air with her darling little toes frantically gripping the carpet. At one point she stood...took two steps...and stood some more! Later she stood...took two good steps...took too stumbling steps...and kept standing! Wow, I'm totally impressed. We'll see how the next couple weeks go!

The below picture is of her standing and making dinosaur noises, seriously, it was hilarious. One of those moments I wish I could have captured on video!

We met our dear friends, Melissa and Zander, for a play date. The boys play so well together and actually spent quite a bit of time hanging out with the "big kids" who were there with a YMCA camp. At one point I lost Emmett and was walking all around looking for him. I glanced down at a group of kids seated in a circle on the ground, I didn't see Emmett, so I kept walking. Upon revisiting this group, I saw Emmett sitting right in the circle with all of these 10ish year olds. It was so cute!

And then this morning we spent some time in our beloved driveway.

The kids singing "Wheels on the Bus", doing the actions and eating goldfish while sitting in the van. Such a precious sight.

And one of Emmett's favorite things to do, pull the Burley on his bike. It works quite well because the other kids enjoy it too!

Eisley's favorite position, standing holding onto the handle. She didn't let go the whole ride.

Chivalry is not dead

This has been a photo-less weekend! It's been a weekend of hard work but all in the company of wonderful friends and family.

My cute Emmett story of the day:

Emmett and his friend, Maisie, were playing on our friends' deck. Two guys were carrying the picnic table onto the deck when Emmett's friend started walking right towards the two men and under the table. I started going towards her to get her out of the way. Emmett, who was the closest to her, grabbed her arm and said, "come over here sweetie!" He pulled her out of the way just in the nick of time. It was so precious. This little boy has a heart of gold. And by the way, he often calls his girl friends and sister "sweetie" or "sweet girl." Hopefully someday he'll meet a girl who'll appreciate his heart and his chivalrous spirit.

Mental Photographs:

1) 3 boys huddled/smooshed around a tiny DVD player trying to watch their movie. I don't think they could have been any closer.

2) Eisley pulled herself up on Stellan (while he was laying down) and started "riding" him for lack of a better adjective. She looked like she was riding a galloping horse, but wasn't actually straddling him, just holding onto his shirt. He wasn't loving it. Oh but she was!

3) Our friend, Israel, was carrying Eisley around the house ever so calmly. Every once in a while leaning over to give the top of her head a gentle kiss. It's really sweet to see these manly men being so tender with the kids. (I just know the male readers of my blog are going to make some sort of joke about that comment, I don't know what it will be, but I'm happy to be the butt of a joke).

Weed Whacking

Who knew weed-whacking could be so exhilarating!

The kids and I spent the day at my parents' house working...hard, manual labor! I am so sore! I re stained the deck, because the first staining job I did was not quite satisfactory. I'm hoping the second try comes out a bit better. After that I weed-whacked or maybe we could called it brush-whacked all the way down the hill to the lake. For those of you who've been to my parents house you know that that is a big job. I only did the side by the swing-set and tire-swing though. Still a big job.

I found the whole experience to be rather therapeutic. I think any change from the daily routine is a nice breath of fresh air. My days consist of being told (asked) to do things by toddlers and infants, serving as a human jungle gym, wiping stinky bottoms, disciplining rule-breakers, picking up toys, and going to the bathroom with the door open (and why do I love this job so much?). So, the appeal of staining and weed-whacking was the relative silence, solitude, not being manhandled, not being told what to do, not having to speak at all, not even having to listen and seeing immense change right before my eyes. It felt really good! After about 30 minutes of weed-whacking my dad asked me, "Is it still fun?" I responded, "Yes! It's why I wait to vacuum until you'll actually be able to see the difference."

A couple hours after weed-whacking I looked down towards the lake and stood in awe at the true difference all my hard work had made. It was fabulous. I imagine some day, years down the road, maybe when I'm a grandma, I'll see the beautiful work that God has done in my children. I'll see that the years of hard work, tough love, prayer, consistent discipline and God's daily grace has made all the difference.

As for right now, I will go put my son back in his bed. He's been "going to bed" for the past 2 hours.

"I jus wanna be naket a lil bit"

Tonight, instead of hanging out with my dear friends, I chose to stay home with my darling children. After a long week sometimes all I want to to lay in bed with the windows open and read (Jodi Picoult is may latest author of choice), blog or window shop on the internet (Any one else do that? I put things in my "bag", or "watch" them on ebay and never buy anything. Somehow is satisfies my shopping urge while never spending a cent.)

As I was putting Eisley to bed I heard Emmett calling for me... repeatedly. Concerned that his calls maybe due to distress, I sped up Eisley's bedtime routine and went to find Emmett. I found him sitting on the toilet, "I'm going poopoo Mommy. I didn't go in my bedroom."

Yea! I was literally sitting in Eisley's room thinking, "Emmett has not had a bowel movement all day and here I've left him alone, diaperless, underwearless, pajamaless in his room. I will most certainly have a mess to clean up when I am done in here." Much to my surprise, delight and admiration, my dear little boy helped himself to the toilet. I am so proud.

Also, if you spent a day in our home, you would undoubtedly hear Emmett say, "I jus wanna be naket a lil bit." Whenever he's doing going to the bathroom, which by the way, requires the complete removal of pants AND underwear, he will declare, "I jus wanna be naket a lil bit" and off he runs with his sweet little hinder hanging out. Last night he desperately wanted to "jus be naket a lil bit" so I let him sleep in his birthday suit. He's gotta enjoy it before it gets all wrinkled! (Eric's Grandma GG said something about her "birthday suit" being "wrinkled" and it totally cracked me up. I have frequently stolen her joke. This time however, I will make sure she gets the credit.)

Another Emmett story. Today we went garage sale hopping. Emmett began naming the garage sales. "Now we're going to an Elephant Garage sale." We also attended a "Seal Garage sale", "Tiger Garage Sale", and "Lion Garage sale." I have no idea where that came from but it was certainly cute!

8/27/08

For a lack of photographing today, let's take a look back at this day a year ago.

I seriously can't believe how my little boy now looks so grown up!

It's hard to imagine life before Eisley.

A year ago I was at the zoo with one of my dear friends. Today I was hanging out with another dear friend, it was kinda a zoo, even animals.

Wow, life has certainly changed this year.

Yogurt Cones

My best invention ever.

Ingredients:

Yogurt (suggest either the "Whips" or the thicker one, but any will work fine)

Mini Ice Cream cones

Instructions:

Put yogurt into the cones and serve!

My kiddos love these and will eat quite a few of them. I'm sure they'd be really tasty put in the freezer too. What's your best invention ever? I'd love to try it!

Playing at the boulevard

As I've mentioned in other posts, we do not have a yard, so we get creative. We often play in our driveway. However, when we play in our driveway I don't usually let Emmett play with balls because we also live at the top of a slight decline which means that any stray balls go rolling down our alleyway and I'm left to retrieve them. And of course, for a boy, not playing with balls is pure torture. So today, we took a field trip to the "boulevard" to play "volleyball" which is actually baseball played with a volleyball ball. We also just played with a bouncy ball. So here are a few snapshots of the fabulous little people that I get to spend my day with, in the luscious green grass.

My nanny boy who was born on the same day as Eisley.

Eisley studying the grass.

My nanny girl, also studying the grass.

And Emmett, who doesn't have time to sit down and study the grass.

And if you remember my post from yesterday you will see where my son learned how to do this...

...that is Emmett putting both his and Flora's breakfast plates in the dishwasher. Totally his idea! Thanks Eric for setting such a great example!

Bike, Burley and Bjorn

Eric totally made my day, but I'll get to that later.

I had a wonderfully exhausting day with the kids. We embarked upon a "nature walk." The goal was to find as many different animals as we could, "wild animals" as my son likes to call them. So off we went. Two kids in the Burley, one in the Bjorn and one on the bike!

The animals the kids were most excited about included polar bears, an eagle, yellow birds, and "lots and lots of puppies." Unfortunately, of all these, only the yellow birds were real animals, the rest were statues.

As you can imagine the two toddlers played musical chairs, rotating from bike, to running to burley. Eisley stayed content in the Bjorn and my poor little nanny boy remained discontent wherever he was (I woke him from his AM nap so that we could go on our adventure, so the discontentment is really my own consequence).

By the time we walked back home (almost 3 hours later) all three kids were in the Burley, the bike was hanging out the back of the Burley (once I discovered that I didn't have to carry it) and Eisley was still content in the Bjorn. I, on the other hand, was singing, "This is the Day the Lord has Made" in an attempt to distract myself from how much longer we had to walk before I could rest and stop sweating.

Even Eisley's leg made it into the picture.

Some other pictures I took

Ok, now to my wonderful husband. He made us a delicious grilled walleye dinner served on turquoise plates (even Emmett had one) served in a turquoise bowl. He made us some homemade Spaetzle for lunch. It was an experiment to see what it tasted like so that we could plan on it for a future meal. He unloaded and loaded and unloaded and loaded the dishwasher. He watched my 2 nanny kids at the end of the day so that I could go do some "research" for his birthday. Am I forgetting anything? I felt so special and loved. He's a wonderful man and I'm lucky to be his wife.

Who's Diego?

I used to take a bit of pride in the fact that my son didn't know who Dora or Diego were. We don't have cable and I carefully censor which TV shows the kids watch. Word World and Super Why are among my personal, educational, favorites. Anyway, let's just say, that after this weekend, my son not only knows who Diego and Dora are, he is having a sleepover with them (as I was recently informed).

"Dora's here with me. Dora's asleep."

"That's great sweetie, it's time for you to go to sleep."

"Dora wants some water."

"Tell her she'll have to share with you. Good night Dora. Good night Emmett."

After watching the Diego video 4 times between the past 2 days (due to his fever and me attempting to get some laundry done) I can confidently say that Emmett knows what porcupines eat, can make a llama noise and could pick a Macaroni penguin out of a line-up. He cried when we returned the Diego DVD to redbox. Hey at least it's educational right?

Laundry

Sunday! The beginning of a new week. It's always been kind of a sad day for me. The weekend is over and the rigamarole of the work week is about to begin.

Being a full-time mom however, the days aren't a whole lot different (except of course the wonderful company, playfulness and helpfulness of my husband). I put clothes in the washer, cook food, put clothes in the dryer, change diapers, fold clothes, wipe spit up, place laundry in the appropriate bedroom, play outside, put some of the laundry in the designated drawers or hangers, load the dishwasher, put clothes in the washer, unload the dishwasher, put clothes in the dryer... and I still hear the dryer and the washer going as I type this. I feel like laundry is the never ending story, a cycle that never ends, a pile that I never get to the bottom of. I consistently have a pile of (clean) laundry just sitting up in our loft surrounded my piles of folded laundry. My mental block is not in the washing, drying or folding. It's mostly in the putting away. If you were to look in the kids' rooms right now you'd see Eisley's changing table piled high with (mostly) folded clean laundry (good thing I never use the changing table) and Emmett's dresser in the same disarray. I like to hang alot of the kids' clothes, it seems to keep them more organized and we can actually see what we have without digging and messing up the drawers. But by hanging the laundry it adds a whole nother (I guess "whole nother" isn't a real word) step to the laundry process: wash, dry, fold, UNFOLD and HANG.

So that is my laundry rant. Any laundry tips or advice no how to streamline the laundry process? If you know me well, you know that I love efficiency. Why do something in 3 steps if you can do it in only 2? So, I'm in dire need of a laundry efficiency make-over.

Here are my numerous piles (that is after a day of putting MOST things away) and the wooden box that is almost always piled high with loads of clean clothes.

Cancelled plans and Lillian's

Eric always gives me a hard time, because come Saturday I'm always so excited to get out of the house and do something fun. We of course do all kinds of fun things during the week, but there's just something different about a Saturday. However, from Eric's perspective, come Saturday he would like to stay home and relax.

Today, out of no control of our own, we mostly stayed home and relaxed. Emmett woke up numerous times throughout the night with a raging fever. It was 102+ under his arm and the tylenol only lowered it to 100. Poor little guy. During the day his fever would go up when the Tylenol wore off, but with Tylenol he was doing pretty well.

The biggest bummer of all was that we've been trying to get together with our friends for quite sometime. The last time we were going to get together their son had to be hospitalized and now this time Emmett got sick. We're going to keep trying though! We've already got another date scheduled.

This morning we took a walk around downtown Chaska. One of our favorite things to do. We get coffee, stop by the little bakery (that's now closed) or get ice cream. We admire the architecture and picturesque homes and curbs (yes, there are very unique cobblestone curbs). Today, I lost my Lillian's virginity. To those of you who don't know what I 'm talking about, don't worry, I'm not being dirty. There are a chain of purse stores that I've been wanting to check out for quite sometime. Today they were having a special sale so I purchased my first Lillian's purse. It's orange! It's so fun! Anyway, back to the virginity thing...If it's your first time buying a purse at Lillian's they ring a bell and shout, "Lillian's Virgin!"

I also bought some fabric and am working on making some wash clothes for the kids. The ones we have now are getting so grimy even bleach hasn't been able to spruce them up. So getting some inspiration from Etsy I thought, I can do that myself! And I'm doing just that!

Eisley's new wash clothes (Emmett's are the same pattern but blue).

New wash clothes to use on the kids hands and faces for our kitchen.

Emmett has a fever and Eisley tries to walk

I loved the weather today. It was warm with a cool breeze. A slight picture of the beautiful fall to come. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. We played at the park. Emmett rode his new bike. He's now graduated from his trike to a 2 wheeler with training wheels - dare I call it a 4 wheeler? Probably not, he's ridden his friend's Hot Wheels 4 Wheeler and there is quite a difference.

We had a bit of drama after our park trip. After getting back from the park Emmett declared he was cold and then completely broke down in hysteria. He started gagging and I thought he was faking it. He was crying "I'm sleepy. I need to go night night." So I obliged and told him he could lay in his room until lunch was ready. When I went to go get him for lunch he was sound asleep. I let him sleep. About an hour later he woke up crying and boiling hot. He had wet the bed so I laid a towel down and told him to go back to sleep. When he woke up later he was still very warm so I took his temperature, 101.2. I was a bit concerned because on Wednesday when we went to the doctor about his leg, they asked if he had a fever. A fever in conjunction with the leg pain could be indicative of an infection in the bone or tissue. I called the nurse who talked to the doctor and they said to just keep an eye on him. I was very relieved to not have to go back to the doctor again! So we'll just keep an eye on him and hope he fights off whatever bug he has.

Eisley started pushing a little walker toy around today. It's so cute! See the video.

Eric's parents and brother came over this afternoon. The guys went to a movie and my mother-in-law stayed to play with me and the kids (and fold laundry). Emmett must have asked for Papa about 100 times before Papa finally came home from the movie. It was so cute. At one time he was just standing by the couch and he declared, "I love Papa. I love Papa so much."

Touch a Truck

Our community hosts a fabulous event called, "Touch a Truck." I've wanted to go for the past 2 years and we finally made it this year. Emmett got to climb into an ambulance, fire-truck, zamboni, excavator and many other trucks. I don't even know what they were all called. There was also free food and games. We had a blast.

We all went as a family and had so much fun together.

Jammie and her boys came too! We didn't think they were going to make it and were so surprised when we saw them there!

The rare family photo...

Emmett didn't walk today

Emmett didn't walk today. It was an interesting day.

Homemade oatmeal playdough. "The animals are going to the ark."

Cinnamon Apple Shakers

"Playing" in the rain. This one kinda breaks my heart.

About 30 minutes after waking this morning, Emmett declared that his leg was "owie" and couldn't walk on it. He didn't walk on it all day. Whenever he tried to put weight on it, he'd collapse and start crying.

During nap time I called the nurse line and she said we needed to come in "immediately." I told her maybe I could wait till my nanny kids went home and I could go to urgent care. She said that I should probably call their parents to have them picked up and that they would squeeze Emmett into his pediatrician's schedule. Well instead of sending my nanny kids home, we all went together. All 5 of us. In the pouring rain.

"Wow, you have a slew of children with you today." "How many of those are yours?" Sympathetic smiles. Disgusted grimaces. "Let me help you mama." "Wow, how do you do that?" "It's so fun to watch you do that."

So that's what it's like to be a mother of 2 sets of twins. That would get old fast!

... Waiting room for 20 minutes. Doctor's office.

... Empty plastic cups. Water filled plastic cups.

... Reader's Digest aka Animal Book. Name the animal game. Name the food game.

... Emmett weights 29 lbs fully clothed and shoed.

... Pulling on leg. Twisting leg. Pounding leg. Not a wince of discomfort. "Ok, let's go get a sticker."

... He can't walk.

... Xrays. More x-rays. More x-rays.

... Emmett so fully fascinated by the xray machine that he didn't miss me when I stepped out to do damage control of the other 3 children.

... X-rays show nothing out of the ordinary. No knee cap, don't worry, that's normal.

... "Ok, let's go get a sticker. Princess or Cars?" "Princess."

... He can't walk.

... Sprain? Motrin, rest, warm bath.

Two and a half hours later we're on our way home. I'm exhausted.

I can hear Emmett singing along with his music in his room.