Holidays!

Somehow the holidays seem to be steamrolling over me this year. Usually I'm super organized, have my shopping done, the presents wrapped, and am just enjoying the ride. Yet this year I have only a few giftcards bought, no real presents purchased, and am baffled at what to get. Lovely. I'm waiting until next week, when Amazon.com will spring their super crazy sale that they also had last year that left me amazed, and fully stocked for birthdays as well. We have been spending this weekend enjoying the christmas spirit by going to the holiday fest at our favorite dairy farm, and also going to the Christmas at the zoo. It's quite cold, like when I woke up the temp was at 11 degrees cold. The girls were bundled up nice and toasty (not I, for I discoved I own no sweaters and no outdoor clothes at all. Something about being pregnant since I graduated left me in this situation) so they had a blast. Celia LOVED the zoo, and I think she nearly lost it with joy over the trains at the garden. I'm posting a few cute pictures for everyone to enjoy. Hopefully they get you in the holiday spirit as well!

Bodily Fluids

I'm writing this post at the tail end (I hope) of what feels like the longest period of sickness in my house. Before kids, I envisioned parenting as a sort of Norman Rockwell painting. Reading books before bedtime, sweet little hands baking with me, and lots of coloring and craft time. The reality definately includes these sweet moments, but truth be told, there are large gaps in between. Those gaps seem to be filled with two things: lots of loud noise, and bodily fluids.

It's amazing the way bodily fluids of the parenting kind seem to fill your life. BC (before children), I watched a girlfriend let her daughter wipe her nose on her jeans because no one had a tissue with horror. Now I sit, covered in various forms of snot wiped on my jeans, rubbed on my shoulder by a tired baby, with the addition of drool, banana, and some other form of spit mixed with food. You see, our house has been ravaged by a cold that just won't die. It started on an apparent field trip home from a preschool friend of Sophia's, and decided that we were the perfect family for it, so it stayed. One by one we have fallen prey to it's cough, it's amazing verosity and talent to produce large quanities of mucus, and alas, it's vomit inducing stomach bug.

I'm no stranger to vomit. I had morning sickness with all three of my kids. The last pregnancy led to no less than 30 weeks of nausea and vomiting. However, there is something to be said for being vomited on by someone else. In your hair, in your hands as you desperately try to catch it before it hits the carpet while simultaneously carrying the vomiting child to the bathroom, wiping vomit out of door hinges (yes, it got in there)... It's amazing because, for the most part, it doesn't bother you. Being a parent has given lots of gifts, aside from strech marks and saggy boobs. It gives you the ability to love without bounds. You know that love it there all the time, but at times like these, when I honestly have lost count at how many times I have been puked on in the last few days, it really fills you in a different ways. BC, if I had to clean up someone else's vomit, I'd be bitter and angry. Now, I am filled with compassion, pity, and impervious to the smell and able to see entire chunks of dinner within without being disgusted.

In addition to those sick-time bodily fluids, there are the other kinds. You know, the every day bodily fluids that starts with the first diaper, and if you have a boy, will continue to fill many conversations until they leave for college. On top of the sickness in my house, bodily fluids continue to fill other parts of my day because I have one baby in diapers, and one just recently potty trained child, which means my thoughts are all about who pooped and peed when, and how quickly I must run to get Maia on the toliet before she forgets she is wearing underwear. It's worth it, even if I do occasionally get peed on.

Ask any mother of a young child, and she will tell you, yes, there are lots of lovely moments sprinkled throughout the day that could rival any pre-baby fantasy of parenting, but all of them will say that those moments are dripping of bodily fluids.

Standing, oh my!

Goodness, I can't believe I am posting this. Miss C is standing! At 7 months old, she is far and above anything I have ever seen for a baby. She will most likely be walking by Christmas. She started standing 4 days ago, has progressed to holding on with only one hand, as you can see here, and today stood independantly for a few seconds before artfully landing on her bottom. Anyone want to start taking bets on her first steps?

Halloween

Here are the girls on Halloween evening. They were very excited to go. As you can tell, Sophia was Alice in Wonderland. Maia is Ariel after she is a human, and poor Celia is a unicorn, who is desperately trying to pull the hood off! It was a bit big on her head, so it kept falling over her face. After the picture, we just took the hood off. Our house is now full of candy, and the candy fairy will be sneaking in and stealing it a little at a time to help get rid of it. James took me to dinner the next day for my birthday to Ruth Chris, which was delicious, and a nice break from the girls. My girlfriend Inna watched the girls for me, and deserves special praise because Celia decided to cry and freak out after I left, and Inna had to deal with all her drama. So thanks a lot Inna for watching them! We are also being swept by a new, and much appriciated, craze, fairies. Specifically, Tinkerbell and the Disney Fairies. Since the movie came out, there has been a lot of fairy behavior, which is a nice break from the last 3 years of princess rule in my house! I'll gladly take smart fairies over oo-la-la princesses any day! So huzzah for the fairies! With cold weather approaching, I'll be happy to play fall fairies inside all day long! I highly recommend the Tinkerbell movie for anyone with a little girl. It's very cute, and may just save you from the grip the princesses has had on us all!

So many things!

My god, what a whirlwind these last few weeks have been! A few days after we returned from Dinseyworld, my lovely brother Josh came for a visit, then my mom got into town, my cousin Mandy got married and Sophia was the flower girl, and Celia started crawling and is now into everything, as you can see! We've been doing dance class and preschool most days of the week, and I am left panting in the dust! Every day I think I'm going to stay home, something happens and I am off somewhere else. Today I was on the southside and ordered a new crib for Celia, because her old one was recalled, and visited my grandparents while we were down there, so it was a nice bonus to the trip. Sophia is learning a lot at school, and I'm already getting the real insight on what being a mom of three girls will really be. We are already experiencing the "so and so won't talk to me today" stuff. I'm trying to realize that while as we grow older most women mature and don't do that anymore, all little girls will have to experience it and work through it themselves. I'll try and provide whatever gentle guidance I can, but it does break my heart to see Sophia the Bold become Sophia the Insecure now that she is in school. Maia is now asking to go to school as well, and it stings to see how quickly they are growing up and reaching out to the world. Parenting is the act of teaching a person how to live in the world without you once they are older, and if you are a good parent, you do that, but it is a sad and scary prospect. I think Celia learning to crawl has shown me not only though that they work so hard to leave you, but if you do things right, they will always be happy to come back, just like she does when she realizes I'm sitting close enough to crawl to. My, aren't I feeling sentemental today? Back on the track of news of exciting times in the life of us, we went to an orchard last weekend and picked our own apples and got apple cider. There is nothing on earth better than a glass of REAL apple cider, fresh and crisp, on a fall day. Delicious. We also recieved some suprise tickets today to the premire of the Tinkerbell movie for Saturday from Sophia's school, so lucky James gets to sit in a room full of preteen girls down to toddlers and watch it with us. He's a superstar. Speaking of him being a superstar, he got a promotion at work and now will be a manager in the Financial Reporting division. Yeah for James! No more travel either, so yeah for me! So congrats to my hubby for a job well done. Here are a few pictures of the recent fabulous fun we have been having. Enjoy!

Disneyworld!

We are back from our fabulous trip to Disneyworld. It was a memorable trip, if not a relaxing one! Every day the temperature was around 92, and when you add in humidity, which was over 70% every day and the fact that you are in a sea of cement, the temperature was more like 100+ degrees. Soooo hot. I could step outside and feel the sweat just dripping down my back within minutes. Even with that heat, we were able to enjoy most of the parks. We just had to come back to the hotel during the hottest part of the day, which worked out for naps as well. The girls had a blast, and were able to meet all the characters we wanted to. Every morning we had breakfast with Mikey, Donald, Daisy, Pooh, Tigger, or the princesses. So with that out of the way we were able to spend the rest of the day on rides and not hunting down Cinderella! With it being so ungodly hot, there were hardly any lines at all. We were able to just walk on all the rides with the exception of Dumbo and the new Toy Story ride, which just opened, so we were really happy with that. The girls loved everyone and everything, except the Mad Hatter, whom Maia saw and promptly freaked out, yelling "him bad!" We were on the dining plan, and the food was delicious, except when Maia vomited all over my dessert from either stuffing too much in her mouth, or just heat related. It's hard to say, the kid pukes a lot and very easily. Celia was pretty happy, b/c she spent a lot of time being held. She is super close to crawling. While we were there she started getting on her hands and knees and rocking, so it won't be too long now! I'm adding a few pictures of some sweet Disney moments for you all to enjoy. That's the magic of Disney, even with extreme heat, we still had fun!

Dance Baby Dance!

Wednesday was the beginning of dance class this season, and Maia was allowed to start class early because she so desperately wanted to join in this summer. Starting age is usually 3, but since she cried literally every time Sophia had class this summer, Miss Lori let her start. She is a natural, and danced just as well as the older girls. Here are some shots of her in her class, and Sophia in her new older girls class. Notice their fabulous tutus, which we made ourselves. Every girl needs a good fancy tutu!

First day of school

Today was the first day of preschool for Miss Sophia. The last week has been filled with a vat of emotions ranging from extreme sadness over my baby leaving home to pride in how very amazing of a young girl she is becoming. It was very very hard driving her to class this morning, and took every bit of courage not to swing back around home and keep her to myself for another year. I am so grateful that I have been able to stay home with my girls and watch them grow and develop every step of the way. It was a bittersweet moment when we walked into class and without looking back she stepped into the circle and started becoming part of the action immediantly. I know I have worked hard to raise her to be independant and to adapt to any situation, but it was sad when I left and she could care less! I know that this is going to be great for all of us. Celia is now able to take a nice solid morning nap at home without being dragged to gymnastics, and Maia will get some one on one attention that she so desperately needs. I am sure I'll spend the rest of the day on the verge of tears, but I will be much better the next time. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. Before you know it, I'll be blogging about her last day of high school...

Holiday World

We went to Holiday World this past weekend to meet up with James' dad, Jim, and his girlfriend Suzie. It was a LONG drive, 4 hours, and we arrived during the girls lunch and nap times. Even with that, the girls were absolutely fabulous. They listened, they followed directions, and by 9:30pm, we had made it through the day with not a single meltdown! Miracles do happen! We all had a lot of fun, and got an idea of what to expect for Disneyworld in less than a month from now. The kids had special time with their grandparents, and we all left happy and feeling good about the day. I'll try and get the video up on the blog from the day, but I am having some problems uploading it to the site, so that is a maybe on video! I'll keep trying, but meanwhile here are some pictures of the day!

Asleep

Little Miss Celia fell asleep in two great places yesterday. One was in the pool while I was holding her. Couldn't get a shot of that, but I did get this one of her alseep on my bathroom floor while I was giving the other fabulous ladies a bath. Precious.That's the bathroom rug she is cuddling by the way!

Super Cute Happy Girl!

Having three girls has really made me appriciate the differences between individuals. From Sophia's very serious demenor to Maia's goofy love-fest, I was very intrigued at what Celia would develop in her quest for a personality. Now, at almost 5 months, I can say she is going to be an easy-going for the most part kid, who is quick to protest but quick to get over whatever bothered her. She laughs at everything; she is always smiling, and seems to be content with life. I really appricate that! I had a really tough time when Sophia was a baby because she was very demanding and fussy, and when Maia was a baby I physically had a lot of issues. This time around, Celia is a great baby who is only waking up usually once a night, and I'm getting back to normal physically and mentally. Only improved, since today I ran 2.4 miles straight. When you are a mom, there never seems to be a finish line. I can clean a room and go upstairs to put something away, only to return to a totally demolished downstairs. When one thing is done, three more things beg your attention. So running is starting to become the thing that makes me feel like I have accomplished something during my day.Giving this to myself is not only great for me, but also for the girls. Sophia and Maia love to walk on the treadmill, do situps, and otherwise pretend to exercise. Since I never mention losing weight or feeling fat, and always mention being healthy and getting strong, they are equating exercise with feeling good. Even Celia is getting in on it, with all the pushups/roll overs she is doing! She is close to crawling, so we'll have to start having crawling races around here. I've got to get us all in shape because I don't want kids falling over exhausted when we get to Disneyworld in a little over a month! So happy baby + feeling healty= one happy momma!

2 Miles!

Three short weeks ago, I decided to try and run. The first time I couldn't do even a quarter of a mile. I set a goal to do two miles straight by the end of September. It's been a challenge to get any workout in, so this was hard from the get-go. Plus, having nursing mammoires makes the act of running a bit painful. (on a side note: If anyone has sports-bras recommendations, I'm all ears!) Anyways, this morning I got up early and did it, two miles straight running at a 10-minute mile. Then a extra quarter mile. So I'm super proud, and kicking it up to running three miles straight by the end of September. How do you all fit in the exercise and what's your level of fitness?

This is Sophia doing a suprise dance number on her last day of summer class. She did AWESOME! The little girl on the left is a friend of hers, who also did great, and the girl on the right is austistic and has a muscle disorder, and did amazing given that she is easily overwhelmed. So watch out world, Sophia now wants to be a famous dancer!

The beginning....

I am offically moving my blog over here to blogger to better serve you all, my dear friends, and get more out to you more frequently. I've tried a number of different blogs but none of them was really easy or convient. Here I should be able to post videos as well as pictures so everyone can see exactly what is going on in my little corner of the world. I'll try and update every week. Notice the title of the blog is Momtabulous, since having three girls everything is fancy, fantastic, or as we say in our house, fantabulous. So there you go, and welcome to our new blog!