Natalie laughing...kind of

I hesitated posting this video, because it looks like I am jerking Natalie up and down by her arms, but really I was bouncing her with my knees, you just can't see them. Before I started taping she was laughing so hard everytime she would bounce...of course when I started filming I barely got a giggle out of her, but she definately looks like she is having fun.

Bargain Hunter

Oh, and now that John's off my lap I just wanted to brag on myself for a moment. :) I found a great coupon for Gerber baby food, so I figured I should stock up since the girls will be starting food before we know it. So far I have gotten 90 jars of food, which originally cost $ 52.40. I only paid $ 9.40!! I am so excited I am going back for more today! I figure at this price, anything we don't use we can donate to a shelter. I'm paying between 1 and 2 cents an ounce, which is cheaper than I can even make the food for myself! Woo hoo!

Trip to KC

Well, we survived our first road trip and hotel stay with just me and the 3 kids. It really wasn't bad at all. We went to KC for my nieces and nephew's birthday parties. We borrowed a car DVD player from a friend for John and the ride down and that was great! We had a bit of an issue with the hotel...if when I make my reservation you want to know the ages of my kids, why would you put one adult, 2 infants, and a 2 year old on the 2nd floor when there is no elevator! That was a pain...oh, and they also changed my reservation from a king size bed (so John could sleep with me and not roll out of bed) to 2 full size beds without asking me! Agh! They got us switched though...but we were still on the 2nd floor. Oh well.

Mike's mom and sister stayed at the same hotel, so it was nice having a few helping hands when I needed them.

The hardest part of the weekend was when John got sick at 4:30 in the morning. I think it was just too long of a car ride and too much excitement seeing all of his cousins. At 4:30am he woke me up by throwing up all over me and the bed. So we had to strip the bed and wait for housekeeping to come change the sheets. It was a long night, but he was perfectly fine after that.

Sorry I'm not posting more today, but John is sitting on my lap, making it kind of hard to type. Here are a few pics of the kids.

Rebecca, John, and Natalie on the 4th of July.

John sitting in the girls exersaucer.

John eating ice cream and NOT wanting his picture taken.

John playing with the toy lawn mower at cousin Kendall's house.

John riding the pink tractor at the petting zoo in KC. (Mike would love that he picked the PINK tractor! :)

Here's a short little video of John playing with Kendall's jack in the box

3-3-3

I have now been a mother of 3, under 3, for 3 months. :) Here are the girls 3 month pictures...unfortunately Rebecca's is a little out of focus.

Rebecca - 3 months

Natalie - 3 months

Help!

So, things have been going really well as a mom of 3...I haven't been overwhelmed or anything...until Wednesday! Wow! It was the most trying day as a mom I have ever had. I was pretty much ready to give up this whole mommyhood thing by the end of the day. (Ok, I could never give up the mommyhood thing, but I was close!:)

The day started off fine with a trip to the zoo with me, John, and the girls. I had Natalie and Rebecca in the double stroller and John was walking...this was done intentionally in an attempt to wear him out. :) So, we get to the zoo, see the sea lions get fed, check out a few animals, and decide to ride the train. Since I can't take the stroller on the train, I get Rebecca situated in her sling, I'm holding Natalie, and John is holding my other hand. We get in line and he's all excited, and he takes off! I start after him, and luckily a nice lady helps me wrangle him back in line. I gave him a talk about behaving or we would not ride the train. He then very sweetly hugs the little girl in line in front of us...and then smacks her in the face!!! After making him apologize I drag him out of line...train privileges revoked! I was ready to leave the zoo at this point, but I knew the girls needed to eat so we stopped for lunch. John sat and ate fine while I fed Natalie, but when he finished I still had Rebecca to feed. Unable to sit still he went over to climb into a high chair which was fine with me, until he almost toppled the thing over trying to get out of it. Now mind you I am trying to discretely breastfeed a squirming baby so I can't exactly run after him. Again, luckily, some nice lady helps him down, and instead of saying thank you, John runs over to a field trip group and steals a sack lunch and milk out of their cooler! Agh! I packed everyone up and we left.

After getting home and taking a nice long nap..well, John and Rebecca napped, Natalie refused sleep, he got up rearing to go again. I had to run out to my car to get my diaper bag and John followed me to the door. I asked him to wait there for me, but when I turned around he was DRINKING OUT OF THE BIRDBATH! Nasty! We went inside and I started feeding Natalie, and sensing he was not the center of attention for the moment, John took this opportunity to hit Rebecca in the stomach with some little McDonalds toy! Time out for John! He was sent to his room, and when I went to get him, I found he had emptied out every single dresser drawer! After putting everything back away it was time to make dinner. I decided this would be a good time for John and I to have some one on one time together. I was making meatballs and wanted him to help me mix it up. I told him not to eat it yet, we have to cook it...and of course the raw meat went directly to his mouth! Come on man! Give me a break! So, no more helping mommy make dinner tonight. After dinner he was actually pretty well behaved, but after 9 hours of misbehaving I was spent!

On, a good note though, he has tinkeled in the potty twice at home and once at daycare in the past 2 days. We're not really working on potty training yet, but at least he's getting a little start on it.

Here are some new pics.

Rebecca helping mommy at work

We have a thumb sucker!

John, watching the sea lion feeding (he kept calling them fish)

This is part of the dresser explosion during his time out

Apparently, Rebecca didn't want a hig!

Natalie doesn't look too hip on this whole hugging thing either

No matter what happens, at the end of the day, I wouldn't change it for the world!

On a Roll

Well, both the girls are rolling over now. Natalie rolled front to back a few weeks ago, and has been doing so ever since. Today Rebecca rolled front to back for the first time. We thought she might be a while, given that she is pretty chunky, but nope! She had to catch up with her sister.

People are always asking me if I notice differences in their personalities, and really, I've been so busy just keeping them fed, and their diapers changed I really hadn't noticed. I don't think one is fussier than the other...that pretty much just depends on the day. But lately I have been realizing that Natalie seems to cry when Rebecca does, but not the other way around. Neither of them wake each other up crying, which is WONDERFUL! But if they are both awake and Rebecca starts to fuss, Natalie will stick out her little lip and start to cry. I don't know if she is upset that her sister is crying...or if she knows that Rebecca is going to get picked up and she doesn't want to be left out! :)

John has a new obsession, Barney! I told myself, my child would never watch Barney (because I really can't stand him) but when he picked out a Barney video at the library the other day I said yes. Now that's all he wants to do! Seriously, the moment he wakes up, his first words are, "Hi Mommy. Watch Barney?" It's driving me crazy! He also is saying his whole name now. It's really cute, but he has to be in the right mood to do it. He also is really into spelling John. We won't even begin to tackle spelling his last name yet. Heck, I can barely spell it!

Here are some pictures I took of the girls the other day. John has been camera shy the last few days and won't let me get a picture of him.

Rebecca

Natalie

Natalie eating Rebecca

Rebecca eating Natalie

Natalie almost smiling (I can NOT get a good picture of her smiling for some reason!)

Rebecca not smiling at all!

Botanical Gardens

Today, John, and the girls and I went to the Botanical Gardens. If you have kids and you haven't been there, go! The children's garden is great. John had so much fun in the fountains. He was screaming and laughing hysterically every time one of the fountains shot water. He played there for quite a while and then changed into some dry clothes to play on the huge playground area. He climbed and ran all over, and made friends with a little boy. They followed each other around forever! After playing we had lunch in the little cafe, and I was rather impressed when I offered John a cookie for dessert and he begged for an apple instead! How could I say no to that (although I had been hoping to share the cookie with him!) We stopped in the gift shop as we were leaving and bought John a little rake so he can help Daddy in the yard this summer. The girls were so well behaved. I was a little worried about taking all 3 of them by myself, but this trip gave me the confidence to possible tackle the zoo next time. I had been worried about keeping John occupied while I fed the girls (since I can't exactly get up and run after him with a baby attached to me), but we didn't have a problem at all. Oh, and I think I need to get a shirt that says "Yes, I do have my hands full." I swear, every person we pass, anywhere we go, makes this comment to me. Actually, I should make a shirt with a list of answers on it. How about...

• Yes, I do have my hands full. (better full than empty)


• 2 girls (it really bothers me when I have them both in pink dresses and people ask if they are a boy and a girl...seriously, who puts a boy in a pink dress?!)


• Yes twins run in our family, my sister in law has boy/girl twins


• No I did not have a C section (it amazes me that people ask about this...why do you need to know how these children came out of me?)


• Yes I am breastfeeding (again...I can't get over strangers asking about how I am using my boobs)


• No, we were not on fertility drugs (again people! Why do you need to know this?!)


• The little boy here that you are ignoring is John and he is 2 1/2

So, I guess that was a bit of venting...sorry. Had to get it out. Anyway, I don't have many pictures today, but here's a cute one of Natalie in her Bumbo seat.