Quick Update

We've had a great week! They haven't been sick in awhile now (knock on wood!) There was no ECFE this week because all the teachers in MN have a conference (or something) so we headed to library story time instead. The girls had fun and did a little better sitting still for most of the stories and songs.


A couple cute new tidbits:
*Josie LOVES puzzles! She will sit and do one of our many puzzles and is very patient in getting it right. The other two would try for a second- if that- and move on. Just a little too busy!

Josie looking serious

*All three, but Sofia in particular are having fun with new words. Sofia has a little bit too much fun with the word "no". At times it's helpful though- like if I ask if they want peanut butter for lunch I'd rather Sofia tell me "no" than have her not eat the lunch!

Sofia

 *The girls love to spin and get dizzy and dance to music. Watching them try to walk after spinning is hilarious. Why would you want to keep spinning after that!?

Madeline looking in the distance

Love this pic! They are chasing after Odin.

You want us to stand here and smile? Are you kidding me?

Have a great weekend everyone!

22 Months!

 The girls are acting a lot older lately! They will copy words a lot more. They also point and say "dog", "duck/quack", etc; not enough to communicate when they really need to tell me something, though. Tantrums are still the main form of communication...oh, and "uh-uh-uh" while looking in my eyes willingly. I usually know what they want but they should TELL me!

ECFE (Early Child/Family Education) is going well! We've only had two classes and we haven't separated yet. The girls seemed more comfortable the second class so I hope it only gets better and better. The girls had an "art" project the last class which was the teacher painting their feet to get footprints on paper. All three cried during it- "Mommy, WHAT is happening to my feet?!" The class is every Wednesday- something to look forward to! 

A couple days ago, Madeline weighed in at 21 lbs, 5 1/2 oz. I am eating my words when I said Madeline has been the easiest. Lately, she is pretty needy and is definitely a mama's girl at the moment. All of the girls have gone through cold after cold, and Madeline always gets hit a lot harder. I attribute some of her moodiness/neediness to that. She also has a hot temper lately. She will bite objects or pull her own hair when she's worked up. When she's sweet, she's really sweet though. When she practices saying all of our names and comes to mommy, she'll say it so nicely and look at me with those big blue eyes. I just melt!

Madeline

Peek-a-boo, Madeline!

Josie is great and weighs in at 20 lbs, 13 1/2 oz. She's catching up to Madeline! (She has been the best eater in the last week or two.) She can still get worked up with her tantrums but nothing worse than before. A cute, really new thing they've been doing is during story time. We read "Goodnight Moon" almost every night, and when Dan reads it he always asks "Where'd the mouse go? Where did it go?" (the mouse is in a different spot on all the room pages). Now, the girls say that on almost every page. Josie gets the most into it and uses her hands while asking. It is so cute! Dan and I love to take the girls on walks in the woods by our house and Josie is the most gung-ho. She is usually in front and can walk the longest without needing to be carried. She may be the cross country runner! (And all this time I thought that with her lungs being the weakest in the NICU that she may not.)

Josie looking extra pretty.

Josie getting ready to go down the slide

Sofia is doing well and weighs 19 lbs, 4 1/2 oz! I am pleased with her weight gain- the difference between her and her sisters is decreasing. With talking, she accentuates probably the best of all the sisters. You can really understand "where did it go?" Crazy! All of the girls love Elmo right now. All moms know you need a little help during certain times of the day (maybe not the supermoms, I don't know), especially getting dinner ready. I just put Sesame Street "On Demand" and they just light up! Sofia looks at me and giggles when she knows it's coming on.

Sofia is SO FAST the picture came out blurry! (Having fun at the park)

Sofia loves dolls lately!

Here is this past Sunday during a walk in the woods by our house. I love these woods and we are so lucky to have it close by. Yes, I am wearing a TANK TOP in October. I'm ready for real fall weather, Minnesota!

Daddy and Josie (in white) and Madeline.

Mommy and Sofia

Josie in the woods!

Sofia looks like she's strutting, not hiking. Ha!

What do you see, Madeline?

Here are a couple more random play/park/woods pics. Hope you don't mind!

OK, no more pics! You said we were going to the park!

We want to ride the horse! (Maddie in green, Sofia in blue)

They look so LITTLE on the path!

Group pics- a thing of the past.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far)! Have a great week!

Duluth is a Cool City

This weekend is the opener for bird hunting, so of course my husband had to provide for his family and bring us home some healthy meat! I went along for the ride to Duluth to hang out even though my parents and Dan's parents are all out of the country (mine in England, Dan's in Canada). Lara and her boys were around in the morning so all of the cousins got to play. This afternoon I brought the girls to the Lakewalk and Canal Park- touristy but wonderful! The girls squealed just looking at the huge lake..then they were even more excited with all the seagulls. Seagulls are no longer annoying when you see them through the eyes of a toddler! Oh, and we saw trains twice, and a huge ship go through the canal (from afar), complete with the ship and bridge horns. SO Duluth! Makes me miss the city so much.

Josie and Madeline right by the Aerial Lift Bridge in Canal Park

Sofia and Mama!!

Mama and her girls (thanks, kind stranger for taking the pic).

Madeline on the rocky pebble beach. It's even colder than it looks!

Josie with Lake Superior in the background. LOVE this lake (and look at the ship!)

What do you see, Sofia?

I also wanted to share some new tidbits...
 *Of course, Dan and I shower the girls with kisses all the time, and finally they are kissing back! Sofia and Josie lean with a closed mouth (not puckered or anything), but Madeline leans in with her mouth WIDE open and her tongue hanging out!! No thank you!!!
* They learned how to wave a long time ago, but weren't interested in doing it much until. It started when one time a truck came down the street and I announced it, and when it was out of view, I said "byebye truck. All gone." Sofia would wave and look at me. Now, she waves byebye at the most random times, like when we see a squirrel and then it becomes out of view, she'll wave. She'll wave bye or hi to trucks/cars a lot too. It is so darn cute!
*Josie has become a lot more aggressive lately and stealing almost more than Sofia! Madeline has been pretty permissive and less likely to fight for an object. I still have to say that Maddie is still the "easiest".
*The girls are in FULL BLOWN getting names for things. Plus, they bring me books to read constantly. They used to just page through by themselves and refuse to let me read aloud to them, but now they sit and listen to stories! Or they just have me name everything in books or in real life. Their word for when they point and wait for a response is  "dit". I'm excited, for when they tell ME what things are! Let's get talking (more)!

The best they could do for a group photo today. Way too busy for the camera! (J, S, M)

Well, Dan will be home any minute with some greasy Vietnamese food including the best egg rolls ever. We'll save the healthy game food for later. All for now!

FIrst Haircut!

The girls' hair lately was pretty much a mullet and I knew something had to be done about THAT... I bought the scissors a couple weeks ago but I finally bit the bullet and did the girls' first haircut! I have absolutely NO experience, but I could have done a worse job, right? The girls did really good sitting still... I found a nice long Elmo clip on YouTube. Here are some pics of their new hairdo. They look a little older!

Before... (J, M, S)

Back view before

Josephine modeling her new 'do

Josie!

Madeline!

Madeline's back. I could touch it up a little....

Sofia!

 

 

 

Sofia's back of head

21 Months!

In a couple days the girls will be 21 months, 18 adjusted! When strangers ask how old they are I have to stop telling them in months at this point!   Things have been really busy with trips and illnesses so I didn't get to the blog until now. I don't like getting behind! A couple weekends ago we brought the girls to my parents' cabin close to Ely (waaay up north, 5 hour plus drive from here with the freeway construction). Our friends Marie and Adam came with their two kids too (Luke, 4-almost 5 and Eva, 2 1/2). We missed some of the warm days they had been getting there, but at least it didn't rain during the day. I stayed an extra day because my parents and brother Ben were arriving the cabin. Ben lives in Portland right now so I don't get to see him much!

Sofia on left, Maddie on right. The background is my parent's cabin.

Josie on the dock

Madeline (and Sofia's profile). What a pretty lake!!

Mom, we found some flowers! (Josie on left, Sofia on right)

The girls have been doing well besides the sicknesses (fevers and bad cold/cough).

Sofia is obsessed with shoes. She'll try to get in the mud room where we keep shoes and she'll muster all her concentration to say "shoes". So, I'll put some sandals on her... but that won't keep her satisfied for long. She'll want to put a different pair on. Sometimes she'll go through 3 or 4 shoes in an hour (only outside because some are too dirty for inside). She still babbles a bunch- working on real words!

Miss Sofia!

Madeline was the sickest with her cough. Every time she gets a cold, her cough sounds like croup, but the doctors agree that the specific sound of her cough is from the surgery way back in the NICU (she had a gap between the esaphogus and trachea, and a gap between the esophagus and the stomach that they fixed). She must have scar tissue or abnormal structures still but it's supposed to get better with time. 

Madeline!

Josephine is working on words, along with her sisters. Among the words they say/try to say: mama, daddy, baby, hello, dog, duck, quack, woof, shoes, Elmo, diaper... I know there are more but I can't remember them all! Oh, and of the three, she loves to give "sister hugs" the most when we ask her to! I have to show a video of that!

Josie managing the rough terrain!

Josephine and Sofia holding hands. *heart melts*

Lara, Charie and their boys Dane and Peter came to stay with us for almost a week since Charlie had to work in the cities. We had one busy but fun house! It's great having another adult around during the day too!

Awwww... Sofia and Dane (what a good big cousin!)

Awwww again! Dane, Sofia, Josie, Madeline

Pools are fun to play in even without water!

The cousins watching Sesame (Josephine, Dane, Madeline, Sofia, and Peter)

   We all went to the Minnesota State Fair when they were in town. What a zoo! It was so crowded and we still brought our triple stroller. You would NOT believe the looks and overheard comments! I don't know if I'll ever be fully used to it. I'm sure we'll be back next year, though. Fun times!

Little farmers at the Minnesota State Fair! (on top: Peter, Dane, bottom: Sofia, Josephine, Madeline)

They look thrilled... :)

Ok, I have to add this video of my nephew, Peter! Isn't he the best dancer?? (It's also on YouTube)

Happy Little Toddlers

The girls have been little characters lately. Usually very happy but also getting more stubborn. They are usually easily distracted though!

We've been going to Story Time at the library again. Last week, they sat like little angels (until towards the end when their attention span got the best of them). This week they wouldn't let me hold the book to read along and were up and about most of the time. Who knows! Good thing it's practically expected for this age group to act like that. It's really great talking with other moms though and the play time after is fun for them. 

If these pictures don't make you smile, I don't know what will....

Group photo....?

That's a little better! (J, S, M)

Josie just relaxing and smiling away!

LOVE this picture of Madeline!

Sofia looking more and more grown up. So pretty!

Just try to resist Josie's smile!

If I look away, it is not uncommon to find Madeline on the dining table! Look how happy she is!

My good friend, Marie, has been giving me hand-me-downs (really really cute I have to add). One item was this winter jacket. I had Sofia try it one and now whenever she sees it she wants it on! Doesn't she look proud?

Popcorn feast! The video is SOLELY of them eating popcorn, nothing too exciting. It's just cute to see how into it they all are!

The feast! (S, M, J)

It can't be all done, it just CAN'T!

Sofia signing more popcorn!

He's a good dog...

Dan and I at the latest wedding in Duluth. What breathtaking views of Lake Superior! Congrats to Blake and Joy!!!