A Better Bargain

The girls have been collecting points this summer. They used their points to buy things at the summer children's store. I set up the childrens store at our house and then Mr Mousache runs it for me. He is a guy in a silky open necked shirt, a green mustache with a purple hat and shades. Its weird because Mr Mustache looks and sounds a lot like mom but he has a deeper voice and a phony brooklyn accent.

Things to buy: A potato that you keep under your pillow for 3 days and it turns into a chocolate bar, some curious george figurines, coloring books, a lava lamp, (things I picked up from garage sales), a horse stable, bulk candy from Winco in little bags, oddities like straws that turn milk into chocolate milk or a popcorn seed that grows into a candybar if you plant it in the back yard. 

Horse and stable earned with points from the children's store. Thanks Mary Kate!

You can also buy an experience: Horseback riding with mom, a date with mom and dad (includes dinner, an activity like playing soccer and a dessert) Go on a walk with mom, make your favorite treat with mom and spend time reading with dad are examples.

How you earn your points: Lets say you are 4 years old and a total go getter, you would earn points for speaking kindly, doing unexpected thoughtful acts, apologizing freely, staying calm and making good food choices. 

Or lets say you are 4 years old and a tad on the reserved side. You could earn points for speaking up, doing unexpectedly kind deeds, not whining, being brave when you want to crumble, standing up for yourself and being actively helpful.

I don't remind the girls about the points, I don't draw it out or try to entice them to do things for me by the offer of points. I just tally at the end of day. I tell them when they have done something unexpected, thank you, I would like to give you a point for being so thoughtful. They look forward to the children's store with such anticipation  that I get a thrill being part of it!

At the children's store, Mr Mustache enjoys putting the girls in a bind to see if they can figure out their problems. When they figured out they needed to combine their points to have enough to buy the stable and horses, I felt a lift of triumph. Mr M. also tries to lure them into buying all candy instead of more memorable choices (Hazel bought the lava lamp, yah!) but they don't fall for it... most of the time. Through this experience, I wanted them to learn to be willing to wait for better, ask for what they want, count and pay for items and make decisions while Mr Mustache teases and terrifies them (only a little bit).

I have heard of various examples of this summer store enacted by other mothers, this is the version I cooked up. I liked the results. I felt like the girls were innocent and uncalculating about earning points but I did see an uptick in kindness and temperament. Hazel made my bed all by herself as a surprise and CC has made her bed 11 days in a row (and counting) without being reminded, she also gets dressed on her own without being asked as soon as she gets up.

Hazel and CC both chose the date with mom and dad last month. It was quite an expensive week as we went to dinner twice and needed babysitters twice but we loved it! Being with one little girl- no competition from siblings was bliss for all of us. I felt like I could really focus on her development and getting to know her better, I wish we could do it more often. Mostly, they are just sweet little girls with heads full of fluff, but we chuckled as I am sure my parents laughed at my pee-brain as a child, when all I could talk about was froo-froo nonsense.

One of my favorite quotes came from CC while we were on our date. She turned to me smiling, holding out her hand and said, "A date with CC means we hold hands!" We held hands the rest of the night.

Choo-Choo on the Go

We are so excited about our choo-choo wagon. In order to agree to this purchase, Nathan who feels hampered by belongings and hates "stuff" and probably would like to sleep on a hard wooden board every night with no blankets at all, had me get rid of the same "bulk and amount" as the cost of the wagon. Give it away, sell it, he didn't care- his poor little ascetic heart just couldn't take on any more stuff. (Thanks to my friend Rachelle Olmos for snapping this shot!)

The babies are not the only ones getting good use out of the choo choo wagon. Our street is rife with wagon teamsters. Early in the morning- the day after I assembled it, sweet innocent smiling faces knocked on my door and asked to borrow the wagon. It rumbled up and down the street for a few days til I finally put a gentle stop to it. Sorry guys.

This girl is positively delightful and serene...

...until you take her out of the swing, sorry Quinny.

Hazel got a sweet little Sunday dress and some kind, loving gifts from her birth mother Momma Jessica. Thank you Jessica. I can't believe how blessed we are to have a life joined with you. We will alway be your cheerleaders. We love you.

Our family travelled to Boise last week for a surprise 80th birthday party for Grand-D. It was a wonderful party and so fun to see how all the families are growing. It was good to see people we love from far away (Aunt Jennifer) and meet new people, like great- great- uncle James who had an enormous long mustache that our James yanked, yipes! (Thanks for your patience.) So nice to finally meet Ruby and sorry we missed the other triplet mom Danni.

Hazel and CC swam from morning til night and could barely crawl up the stairs for bed. As for me, I had vowed to swim the entire time as well. I did my best but it wasn't the entire time.

The triplets and I found a secret garden on a walk one morning and were overjoyed in its exploration! At least I was! I brought Nathan and Annette (sister in law) back to the secret garden the next day to fully explore its winding paths and it ended in a maze! I really enjoyed that little surprise.

We watched our fair share of the Olympics every night til our eyes drooped and we each wandered off to bed wondering if we could have done that if we had gotten started young enough.

I cannot believe school is starting soon. Our neighborhood will be so empty. Everyday, we have children here helping and playing, Melissa, Lucy and Aaron, Marley, Hoggan, Beckett, Gibby, Isaiah, Elise and many others. We are really grateful for the wonderful friends and the parents that have raised such fine children!

N8 and I decided not to send the girls to preschool this year. I sure didn't want to pack up the babies in the car everyday and chase little girls with a hairbrush any sooner than I need too! This last year was umm, difficult. I am determined to make it better for me and for them.  I get another year to try again. I hope I can be more emotionally supportive of them and prepare them to be at school, learning from a teacher and gone from their momma.

I am glad I have one more year with them at home, hairbrush chasing can wait. I want my little girls for one more year.

Spilled Milk

The world I live in is muddled, although I love it, I am constantly juggling children and tasks and I can rarely break through the fog to finish whole tasks, is there a medicine for that?

If I want to play games with the girls, I have to go downstairs to get the games, going downstairs means I should put in a load of laundry, if I'm going to do the laundry, I need to collect it from each room. So I should separate the darks/lights too. While I'm downstairs, I'll just grab what we need from food storage for dinner and get the meat thawing. The babies will be up soon, so I should get their bottles ready. Okay, done, now I can play...oh sorry the babies are up, be back in a minute.

My day is constantly divided into 'how I can be more efficient' and 'how many things I can get done at once'. I am worried because there are so many interruptions in my thought processes during the day that I believe this is truly how alzheimer's really comes about.

Sometimes, I will be downstairs bringing up laundry and a fleeting thought will cross my mind that has been bothering me for days, something I am trying to catch, something I need to remember to do. I will drop everything to run to the whiteboard in the kitchen and trap it into words. Only to be interrupted by a request to fix a broken toy, read a book or play pbskids.org. And within that moment, the fleeting thought is lost and I feel like falling to the ground and crying over my spilled milk. Is this normal?

Paparazzi

These two belles accidentally wore the same dress to the ball and didn't care two figs about it. Sure made it easy for the kids to spot us!

I saw this sign and I thought of you...here goes...Nathan, I know I'm a crazy wife, don't stop loving me! I will always love you.
( Hazel took this picture, isn't she a fine 4 year old photographer?)

It always bothered me that Strawberry Shortcake didn't have a mom in any of the episodes. Well here she is and if I had a mom like hers, I might keep her out of sight too. By the way folks, in the off season Strawberry goes back to her natural blond but she rocks the tights and hat look all season long.

The Big Stinky: A Smell You Can't Get Out Of Your Nose

I have three babies in diapers. That being said, I want to mention that scented candles are part of my diaper budget.

I don't know how many sets of multiples in diapers there are in our city but I guess we have the stinkiest garbage can in the whole county! This sad can sits out in the blistering sun, sweltering in daytime heat, even as I took this picture I could feel its guts sweating great wafts of rotten yuck.

We call it the Big Stinky because you hold your breath, lift the lid, throw your trash in and run like heck before lid slams down, the smell swallows you whole and you die of asphyxiation. 

When I change the babies and all three of them are stinky, I ask the girls to run the diapers out to the Big Stinky for me. Not even in the beginning did they ever question, they knew instinctively where and what the Big Stinky was. I time them when they do diaper runs to the Big Stink, Hazel can drop a stink bomb in 24 seconds flat and make it back in the house! 

My sweet neighbor, who has lived here longer than I have lived and has taught us more about being a good neighbor than anyone else, washes her can about every 6 months. She also has a garden that is so beautiful she named it Winsong Gardens and I can slip into its shady peace for temporary relief when I need it. 

She says to me of her yard and garden, 'I never had anything this nice when I was a young mother.' I hope she knows how much I value her advice and non-judgment. I hope her compassion extends to the Big Stinky who sits and glares its abhorrent odor at her as she hand waters pots full of beautiful flowers on the other side of the driveway.

Highly Offensive

Hey! Hey you! Yah, the one looking at me, listen up...

I take total offense to the fact that you eat dirt and chew rocks

But turn your little noses up at my cooking! 

What's More American Than Captain America?

We found old garbage can lids in the backyard when we cleaned it out years ago. The girls have a thing for the Avengers, eh, could be worse.

For Hazel and Claire, Thursday nights have become movie night with dad. Starting on Monday they are jonesing for Thursday, 'Mom is tonight movie night?' They really look forward to it and Nate seems to enjoy having his little girls crawl on him with laptop in hand, turning on a Netflix and then falling asleep. 

In his attempts to stay awake he has introduced them to old cartoons he enjoyed like The Avengers, Spiderman and Superman. The other day Claire said that she didn't like princesses anymore only superheros, while I know that to be a pile of baloney, I appreciate that it isn't only about princesses anymore.

I, for one get a kick out of watching the My Little Pony series on Netflix (with the girls) and I have it on good authority that quite a few other mothers do. Just don't ever make me watch Dora again.