The Case Of The Missing Diaper

For the uninitiated, the past few weeks have been spent at my house without a dishwasher.

We have a new one on the way, but being that it was purchased in New Orleans and arranged for delivery in Shreveport, it has been much cause for confusion for the delivery folk.

This has meant that I have been spending quite a bit of time on the phone in some attempt at reaching someone who might be able to schedule the missing dishwasher for delivery.

Meanwhile, the babies have been busy in the other part of the house making mischief!

It's amazing the things that kids can come up with to do while Mumsy is busy on the phone trying to conduct some sort of business.

Kaiden managed to pull the decorate pieces out of the fireplace somehow.

He decided that they would decorate the dining room table much better, so he moved them in there.

Kian, meanwhile, has discovered that if he stands on the second tier of one of the end tables, he can see in between the houses behind us and watch the traffic and construction crews work over on Creswell.

Then, last but not least, there is the beautiful and very industrious Baby Vivienne.

She has been exhibiting signs of potty training readiness as of late, and has taken advantage of Mumsy being on the phone to demonstrate some of her new-found abilities.

This means that if another baby is dirty, or wet, and she discovers it, she will very kindly fetch them a diaper and wipes in hopes that they will somehow change themselves.

She knows it is possible, because as of late, she has mastered a new talent.

It's very much a talent that will lead to, later in life, her learning to remove her bra without taking off her shirt, really.

Yep, she has mastered removing her own diaper without even having to remove her panties or her other clothing.

I made this discovery quite on accident (pun very much intended) and found that she was soaking wet, yet there wasn't a diaper to be found in her pajama pant leg.

I cleaned her up, changed her diaper and her pajama's, and set out to find the missing diaper.

I looked through all of the toy bins. I checked the train table, its drawers, and the surrounding areas.

I checked inside the stove, the playhouse, and even inside the chimney of the playhouse, all to no avail.

The missing diaper was not in any of the doll houses, it wasn't in any of the toy trucks, or inside any of the babies cabinets or drawers in the kitchen.

I could not find it ANYWHERE! Keep in mind that at this point I had absolutely no idea if that diaper was simply wet, or if it contained more potent contents.

All I knew was that it existed, and that it had to be somewhere inside my house!

After Bregon got back from camp, I had him search as well, thinking that maybe I had overlooked it in my haste or that maybe I was just being dense in my frustration or something.

Bregon could not find the missing diaper either, and he looked EVERYWHERE that he could think of,too!

That diaper was missing for nearly two whole days before I finally discovered its whereabouts.

As it turns out, she apparently had taken it off, and rolled it carefully inside her blanket.

Then, when it was time for bed, she snuck that diaper upstairs into the nursery and hid it in the corner behind the stereo where she normally tosses her dollies when she needs more room in her bed to sleep.

But, at least it was finally accounted for, and thankfully it was only wet and not icky and stinky as it could have been!

I still don't have that dishwasher yet, but at least I know that my kids have new tricks and can head off any more incidences of diaper disposal or hiding!

Bregon's Week of Camp

It's been very hectic this past week at my house for some reason.

I'm not certain how I managed to forget, but Fencing Camp snuck up on me and took me by surprise.

I found out this past Saturday that it was going to start the following Monday.

There was just one teeny little problem. Bregon already was in the midst of attending film camp at The Renzi Center each day!

This meant that I would have to get Bregon up at the crack of dawn and get him ready (not an easy feat for any teen!)

Then I would load up the babies and run him to the Fencing Sal for early drop off so that the babies wouldn't get off schedule by too much and be home in time for their usual breakfast-time.

Nap time for the babies is usually at ten each day, and pick-up for Fencing Camp ended up being at noon.

This means that we have had some cranky babies all week, but somehow we have managed in spite of it all!

Then, after Fencing Camp, we run home, unload everyone, get Bregon changed, deodorized(yes it's that important) and fed a bit of lunch before heading to Film Camp for the afternoon.

Twice this week during lunchtime, I have also had to oversee the application of stage make-up for his film shoot as a zombie.

This made things a bit more interesting! Thankfully the babies remember Halloween and aren't scared by the make-up in the least.

In fact, they find it quite hilarious for some reason or another! Boy did we get lucky!

Film Camp ends each day at five which is the babies dinner time, so it's also been interesting trying to convince them that we have to go for a car-ride instead of chowing down on dinner.

They have been more apt to comply this week, however, due to the presence of rather large and interesting construction trucks along our route to camp.

I have taken to stopping in between the parked trucks so that the kids can oggle them and talk about them whenever there isn't any traffic to block!

Luckily the street is basically closed off due to the water-line maintenance!

Both camps will end as of tomorrow, and Bregon will be very sad, I'm sure.

He adores The Renzi Center and all his friends and teachers who work there.

In fact, he was missing it for all of the two weeks he had off in between the school session and camp starting!

Wednesday night, we will all go and check out the fruits of his camp labors and attend a screening of both of the movies that he has been working in and on during camp.

I can't wait to see what the kids and teachers have put together this year!

Fencing camp is almost over as well, but there will be one more session in a couple of weeks.

Thankfully, that last leg of Fencing Camp will be solo and won't run in tandem with any other activities (or so I hope!)

It's been a very hectic week with all of the Camp excitement!

A Quiet Evening At Home

Tonight was such a pleasant night! I picked Bregon up from The Renzi Center at five as usual.

He was all stoked about having had his zombie scenes filmed today and having been allowed to use his father's FX makeup to do his own special effects.

He accidentally made one of the little kids scream, and demonstrated in the car not thinking about the babies in the backseat.

There was an immediate answer from the backseat from Kai who screamed almost identically to his big brother.

It was followed by a burst of giggles from all three of the babies who, luckily, found everything super funny!

We got home, fed the babies, and waited for Husband to get home from work.

Once Husband was home, we noticed Kai was jumping all across the living room floor.

So, we decided that it would be okay to take everyone outside for an after dinner bounce on the trampoline(we were feeling adventurous!)

All six of us climbed into the enclosure and let the babies play away while we talked as a family.

The baby boys bounced all around and then into each other, bumping bellies like a bunch of pygmy sumo wrestlers!

Vivienne was quite upset over having icky leaves and dust on her feet, so she just sat there for the longest, fretting over the ick, with her feet straight out in front of her.

Finally, she stood up and decided to boingy along with her brothers! She even motioned for the rest of us to stand up and join her!

Meanwhile, Kian had started chanting, "Boingy boingy boingy" over and over again.

We must have looked quite a site with all six of us jumping carefully and chanting along with Kian!

It was really super nice and actually cool with the breeze that was blowing through the trees.

We had such a lovely, quiet evening at home together as a family tonight!

When Did This Happen?

Oh my goodness, this evening I had a startling realization while driving back from picking up my eldest.

I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't even noticed the difference until Bregon said something about it, either.

I should have noticed yesterday, and maybe a part of me did, but who knows now!

I had been sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor, playing with Kai and Husband, when Kian ran into the room, stopped short, smiled, then ran over to give me a great big Kian kissie.

He giggled the entire time, and seemed quite proud of himself and his kissies!

But, it wasn't until this evening that I realized how much Kian has changed.

He had started blowing Bregon Kisses from the moment he got into the car after film camp.

Then Bregon made mention that he was actually PUCKERING! Kian never puckers!

In fact, we have all become so accustomed to Kian and his wet, sloppy, open mouthed kissies, that I suppose we just accepted them as his social norm.

But, the fact is, he is growing up, and I almost was too busy and missed it.

This makes me sad to think that I almost didn't noticed any change in Kian kissies.

When did I get so busy that I stopped documenting those small but important little personal milestones?

Used to, I would try and make sure to blog about them so that I could print it out for the babies baby books, but it would appear that I am slacking a bit!

I'm not going to let myself get too busy again, that's for certain!

In fact, I have hauled out the camera, made sure that there are fresh batteries in it, and plan on taking a bunch of new pictures tonight.

It frightens me that I almost missed this! Now, I have to go and get some Kian kisses!

Baby Mr. Bill

Lately, Kian has a new answer for EVERYTHING that happens and everything that he sees around him.

This new phrase that he says is often used by him to herald the onslaught of extremely naughty behavior, as well.

Of course he also uses it just for the heck of it, as well! It seems that he is ALWAYS saying, in his best tiny guy voice of course, "Oh NO!"

He sounds exactly like Buck Henry when he used to voice Mr. Bill on Saturday Night Live, too.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out where he heard it from, until the other night.

Who knew that there had been a resurgence of Mr. Bill? But, he really has returned in his own commercial that apparently must have a run on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, because Kian now sounds EXACTLY like him!

It's killing me, too. It's super hard to keep a straight face when Kian is getting himself into trouble anymore.

I mean, he exclaims, "OH NO!" just before whacking his sister in the head with an empty water bottle freshly stolen off of the kitchen counter.

I hear, "OH NO!" just before a deluge of various balls come bouncing down the hallway from the living room side of the baby gate.

All of this behaviour is to get my attention, of course! What's a Mum to do? It's super hard to suppress that giggle over everything, but I have to at least try!

The Wedding Trip: Day Two!

Day Two: Part One

Husband arrived home from his best manly duties of orchestrating the groom's bachelor party about six in the morning.

He very artfully scooped Vivienne off of his pillow, into the middle of the bed and slipped in for a quick nap.

Little did he know that he would only get about an hour and a half's worth of nap time before we would all be rudely awakened by a loud crash.

The crash came from both boys rolling off of their fold out bed at the same time. Lucky for them, they landed on their feet, just very hard (hard enough to rock the entire travel-trailer!)

That was about it for any attempts at sleep. Husband rolled out of bed and decided that he should go after breakfast for the babies.

He came back about thirty minutes later with bags full of McDonald's food. The babies had never had that sort of breakfast, so getting them to actually eat was extremely challenging.

Vivienne would toss anything that she didn't like onto the floor without any regard as to where it landed.

Kian quickly took to doing the same thing while Kai shoveled as much as he could get into his mouth.

I spent the better part of the morning trying to field flying food and make sure that everything was picked up so that my friend who loaned us his travel-trailer would maybe let us use it again one day!

Husband was soon summoned by the poor groom to head out to the festival site to help finish preparations for the reception and the wedding.

Meanwhile, I decided to keep the kids at the trailer in the air conditioning instead of letting them hang out on the very sunny site where things like poison ivy and fire ants lurked waiting to get them.

I did manage to find a spot inside the trailer where I could get all of two reception bars on my cellphone, so I called my dear friend and arranged a visit for after the wedding.

Next, I called my friend in Dallas to keep me company while the kids watched their movies on the portable DVD player.

While we were talking, I noticed that the bride's father had come outside, and wandered into the thick hedge into the overgrown lot next door, carrying only a wooden cooking spoon.

I couldn't figure out the why, or even the where of this because there really isn't anything in the lot next door except lots of thick bushes and trees.

It seemed every time I looked up, he was wandering across the driveway and into that lot, too.

We never could figure out why, but since I never saw him return to the house, only go out into the lot, we decided something must be amiss!

Husband eventually came back to collect his wedding party clothing, and we loaded the dressed up babies into the car.

We took a slight detour into the gas station around the corner for energy drinks and pizza before I dropped husband and the groom back off at the feast hall to finish getting ready for the wedding.

Before I could make my getaway and head out for baby lunch, it was decided that we needed signage so that folks could actually FIND the wedding.

Most of us had quite forgotten that not everyone is used to the winding maze of roads and paths that lead around the festival site.

And that was taking into account only the roads leading up to the actual site itself.

The wedding was to be at the Odeon stage which isn't labeled during the off season and isn't readily apparent even to your average patron.

So, off to the grocery store I went for poster board, markers and packing tape to make signs so that hopefully folks could find the wedding!

Thankfully, the babies fell asleep while I was getting my orders, and slept until after I was able to get their lunch and return to the site.

Oddly enough, the babies were gracious in accepting cups of chicken strips and french fries and didn't even think it odd that they were eating out of plastic cups in the van while they watched movies.

Finally, the time came when it was about fifteen minutes until the wedding. I unloaded the stroller as guests began to arrive.

It had been literally about three years since I had seen any of my friends from this area, and none of them had ever met my tiny trio before that day!

I did manage to get the babies out of the van and loaded into their stroller before the first of my friends found us.

I got lots of hugs and kisses, but then the attention turned towards my babies.

I know my friend meant well, but she decided that she wanted to get Vivienne out of the stroller and play with her.

Vivienne seemed receptive at first, but then decided at the last minute to lunge towards Bregon instead. Luckily, he was paying attention and caught her!

Next, as I headed across site towards the stage, Kai began to fuss, wanting out of his restraints as well.

The next thing I knew, we had all three of the babies out on their leashes. I had two of them and Bregon had Kai.

Oddly enough, Kai did the best of everyone. I was busy getting inundated with hugs and people which gave the babies enough distraction to be naughty!

Kian seized the moment to run around me, and tangle up a friend that I was trying to talk to in his leash.

Luckily, we are all used to maypole dances, and she just countered by ducking under it!

Faire folk can be crafty as it turns out, when it comes to babies trying to entangle and ensnare the unsuspecting with their leashes!

At one point, Vivienne pulled away from her leash because it was hot, and went exploring. She found another friend and had tried to convince him to help her climb the stairs to the stage so that she could see the wedding much better!

Unfortunately, both she and Kian managed to fall and scrape their knees at virtually the same time.

The howling that ensued meant that I needed to take them back to the air conditioning in the car.

Sadly, I managed to miss the rest of the wedding and the reception. But, then there was that already arranged hot date that I had made earlier with my friend for tea-time!

Midnight Tea-Time AGAIN!

It's happening again! The Beautiful Baby Vivienne is consistently waking up for her midnight tea-time.

It's been happening ever since we got back from our Houston trip (more to come on that later!)

For the past three nights, she has been getting up around midnight for whatever reason.

Sometimes it's because of a dirty diaper, other times it seems to be just because she wants a bit of moral baby support.

I'm getting sleepier and sleepier from all of this midnight tea! Each night Vivienne must have a spot of milk and a cookie or three before finally deciding to head back up to her bed.

Tonight, she sat and watched the extras on the Indiana Jones movie we had been watching earlier in the night.

Undaunted, she just now decided to head back up to her bed, milk and blanket in tow.

Hopefully, she will fall back asleep and stay upstairs tonight! I am sleepy from all of these late-night tea-parties!

The Wedding Trip Day One Continued

Day One: Part Two

Our groom was busy barbecuing for his reception for the morrow, and we had to make our way to the Feast Hall on Faire site by way of the cut-through.

For some reason, we thought it would be okay to get the kids out and let them run around.

It had been a few years since we last worked cast out there, or the booth for that matter, so I had quite forgotten how much poison Ivy grows out there!

Luckily, my kids didn't find any, but they did get super hot super fast. Kaiden basically found his way to the joust field and was busy trying to figure out how to make his way down into the arena and get to the pretty lake beyond the stage.

Vivienne also loved the idea of being a joust maiden, and tried to find her way down to the bottom as well.

By this point, all three of my little people were turning a pretty bright pink color and really needed to go back to the car.

My friend had been soo very busy with his cooking, that he had quite forgotten to move the trailer that we were to be sleeping in, so we had to stay in the van and wait for the rehearsal to start, end, and the dinner to happen as well.

Thankfully, I was able to run into Magnolia for some chicken strips and fries and appease the little people for a time!

They were surprisingly good considering they were in the van for nearly 9 hours with only a few minutes of time to stretch their tiny legs.

After the rehearsal dinner ended, husband and our friend moved the trailer back to his home across the street from the festival site.

We had a bit of trouble finding a circuit that could handle the electricity of the trailer, but eventually we devised a system that involved knowing which breaker to flip should we accidentally overload it.

By this time, it was dark outside. Next, the babies got to check out what would be their home-away-from-home for a few days.

It was fun at first. They were good and seemed okay with the idea that we had their blankies and their teddies with us.

They even liked the different beds that the trailer had. I went ahead and set up the DVD player on the kitchen counter and folded out the sofa into a bed for the babies.

I was trying to make it as much like what they were used to at home as possible in hopes that they would understand that I meant for them to go to sleep there.

It took quite a bit of convincing, actually. Kaiden just suddenly laid down on his blanket and teddy in a little ball, stuck his thumb in his mouth, and started snoring.

Vivienne and Kian wandered around for a few hours after Kai went to sleep, trying to figure out how things were supposed to work. They were very confused at first!

Eventually, Vivienne dropped everything where she was standing, and went to sleep all but standing up still.

Luckily, I was watching her, and caught her in time to get her situated on the bed.

Kian finally laid down in the middle of the floor under the pretense of playing with his car and watching his movie and fell asleep there.

Husband was off to orchestrate the bachelor party, so I was left alone with my babies and my eldest who also nodded off pretty quickly.

I found a decent radio station to listen to, but I was super lonely and soon grew quite bored sitting there.

Since I hadn't actually been able to go inside for the rehearsal dinner, I had managed to miss eating dinner that night.

This meant that I had to go after some sort of food. Keep in mind that the nearest place to get food is in Magnolia, a town only slightly larger than the one we were actually in, and about ten minutes away.

The trailer electricity threw the breaker, so I reset it on my way out, leaving Bregon in charge with one eye on the kids, the other on the fuse box.

Who knew that everything in Magnolia must close at ten at night on a Friday? This meant that I would have to drive another fifteen minutes into Tomball to find food, which I really didn't mind.

So, off I went, only to find that over the course of the past three years, a highway had sprung up and been run smack dab through the center of Tomball, making things a bit difficult to find!

I finally figured out what was different, and made the necessary corrections and found some semblance of dinner.

Then I headed back to the travel trailer to eat, and try and find some way to amuse myself.

When I got back, the breaker had to be reset yet again, but it was still cool inside the trailer, so it was all good!

After I had eaten my very late dinner, I decided it would be nice to try and call a friend to keep me company.

There was just one problem.Out there, in the virtual middle of nowhere, I don't get any cell-reception.

I finally found 2 spots where I could get two bars of signal which was enough to dial out on.

Sadly, I would have had to found some way to levitate and not move to actually maintain reception.

It was okay, though, because the friend that I was trying to call didn't have any battery charge left.

What a silly pair we made that night! I finally gave up on the call gymnastics and went to sleep.

Husband didn't return until right at six the next morning. I know, because Vivienne had rolled out of bed and started to cry because she woke up standing in the middle of a strange place and did not know where she was.

When husband got home, she was busily snoring on his pillow, very happy and snug and content.

It was six a.m. on Saturday morning, and we had somehow survived our first night of my trio's first real trip.

The Wedding Trip Day One

Day One

It's Friday, and I am up at the crack of dawn with the idea of getting my tiny trio up and playing in hopes that they will be ready to take a much needed nap once nap time arrives.

Somehow, we manage to get everything loaded into the van and the babies dressed and ready to go by our estimated time of departure which ideally was set for 10 a.m. which is nap time.

I ran into a slight snag with the addition of the second portable DVD monitor to our traveling movie theater set up.

It took a bit of rearranging and cord threading to get everything set up to where we THOUGHT that it would be safely out of harms way.

I blocked Bregon into his seat in the van with the ice chest full of milk and juice and a grocery bag full of crackers, cookies and peanut butter.

Then, we set out on our adventure with high hopes of a pleasant trip. I really should have insisted upon driving, really I should have.

But of course, men being men, husband decided that he needed to drive. He isn't accustomed to driving with all four of the children in the car at once.

Let me tell you, there is a very good reason I rarely take my tiny trio anywhere anymore!

There is just to much for them to do, all sitting less than an arms length away from each other in their car seats lined up across the backseat of the van.

Husband got a quick crash course in why we rarely go out these days! Kian started up almost immediately.

You have to understand that it is almost impossible to describe exactly what was happening and what was going to happen to a bunch of barely two-year olds.

So, Kian was greatly concerned (and rightly so) about the exact whereabouts of his "Night-night" which in Kian terms means his bed, or where he is expected to take a nap or sleep.

We had left at nap time thinking that the kids would take their usual nap at its usual time.

What we didn't realize, is how much creatures of habit my triplets really, truly are these days!

Kian simply couldn't find it in his heart to bring himself to fall asleep in his car seat for his nap.

He wanted his "Night-night" and it made him suddenly sad. It also didn't help that he had managed to drop his pacifier on the way out to the van and it was sitting in wait for our return on our front porch.

Kian began to cry. In fact, I consider it more of a wail of sorts, and he managed to keep this wailing up for a good two hours somehow.

Somewhere along the way, Vivienne decided to champion her brother's cause, and also took up a bit of wailing of her own just for good measure.

Kai just sat there watching his movie, sucking his thumb until he actually did finally fall asleep.

Eventually, they all three slept a tiny bit, but not before Daddy's brain became frazzled and confused and most distracted by the wails coming from the backseat of the van.

Somehow, we made it all the way to Livingston without having to stop for lunch. Once we did, though, we were all scared to turn off the van which would stop the DVD player from playing, so the car was left running and lunch would have to be obtained in shifts.

This is how I found myself standing in a very long line in a McDonald's with some very colorful people.

One of these people decided to share a bit too much of their lives with me. I know he meant well, and he was being cute, and probably even hitting on me a bit, but EEWWW!!

Let me tell you, this was a much older grey haired gentleman who was very large and had boils all over one side of his face.

Apparently, I must have looked friendly or something, because he immediately began to make small talk with me.

Over the course of my changing lines several times in an effort to avoid his most unwanted advances, I would learn how he lived at home with his mum still, and how he really wanted to have an ear pierced.

However, this man couldn't remember which was the correct ear to have pierced to avoid giving off the "Wrong Impression" of sorts.

I was ever so thankful for the lady who finally asked if she could take my order! It seemed this man really liked talking to me, too!

We did have a good giggle later on about it, but agreed not to stop at that McDonalds on the way back, lest I meet similar types again...

We finally made it to Plantersville about 4:30 and headed immediately out to the Renaissance Festival site to find our groom.

Traveling Time With Toddlers

I have been dreading this moment for months now. Sadly, the day has finally come when I, along with husband and eldest son, shall depart upon a minimum of a four hour road trip.

I haven't travelled with my trio since they were five months old and all three still fit lengthwise across one pac-n-play at bedtime.

My how they've grown! Now, for our next trick, we will be silly and haul them to the Houston area for a dear friend's wedding.

Yes, you read that part right, I am taking my tiny trio to somebodies WEDDING!

I am crazy. I know I have lost it, but he is insisting upon it for HIS sanity's sake. What he doesn't understand is that his house, and the site of the wedding shall never, ever be the same again.

Luckily for all of us, this is a non-traditional wedding for most (not to us) and will be taking place primarily on the site of the Texas Renaissance Festival.

That means that there isn't too much for my kids to actually hurt or too much damage that can be caused...theoretically that is!

Then there is the slight issue of the ceremony itself. Thankfully, a dear friend of mine will be officiating and she is well aware of the perils my tiny trio are prone to causing.

But, this should be very very interesting to say the least! I have the portable DVD player charged and ready to go.

The movies are in the bag, ready for the car. My friend in Dallas sent home an extra ice-chest so I have plenty of room for hauling milk and juice and the requisite hot-dogs and chicken strips and toaster waffles that my kids will require for their day to be good.

The cute clothes are all gathered, washed, and pretty much pressed, waiting for tiny bodies to put them on and dirty them. At least the thought will be there if nothing more!

I don't know what my friend is thinking, but he has just left to go and pull a mutual friend's travel trailer over to his house from site so that we have our own little spot to crash away from his future in laws.

Maybe he really does just want a place to hide when they toss him out of his house tomorrow night. They seriously don't want him seeing his bride before the wedding.

My poor dear friend just wants his life back. Little does he know, that this is only just the beginning.

He shouldn't despair, though. His best man, and my family will all be there with bells on to cheer him on and make sure that he gets to the church on time!

Lock-Out Time!

Baby-proofing is not the easiest thing to do or maintain when you have multiples.

It's somewhat different than what one would normally do for just one baby, actually.

I mean, how many people do you know that have actually had to raise their chandeliers just to keep your children from "Flying" from it?

Well, at my house, I have had to find a way to keep the lower oven closed so that my middle triplet doesn't tailgate from it, or have too much fun taking the oven racks out and dragging them 'round the house to hear the nice scrape-ie noises that it makes!

The fireplace is STILL giving me fits, as I have written much account of that major matter!

Then there was the day that Kaiden learned to open doors, and immediately set about luring his sister into the pantry so he could lock her inside it.

That resulted in those little stay-puff marshmallow doorknob covers being put on pretty much every doorknob in the house that we could imagine!

Well, lately, and out of pure accident, they have rediscovered that they can pull open the cabinet doors again and gain access to a multitude of breakable and fun things.

Used to, they would just grab the door pulls and shake them back and forth as fast as possible to try and jiggle the locks loose. We managed to tighten everything somehow, though!

That lasted for a time, too. Until today, when I heard the tell-tale banging of pots, pans and the onset of promised to result in breaky noises!

My solution came to me suddenly. It's probably not the greatest of solutions, and it definitely is a temporary one.

I took a yardstick, and threaded it through the cabinet pulls that already have the outside tether lock on it, and fed it into the lone problem cabinet pull.

It hasn't worked quite the way I had planned on things working, but it's holding at the moment!

They did figure out almost immediately that they could unthread the yardstick from the cabinet pulls.

The payoff, though, lies in the novelty of the yardstick. Apparently, it is interesting and distraction enough to warrant them staying out of the cabinet!

At the moment, this set-up is working. Now, tomorrow, I probably shall be in trouble once the novelty wears off.

Our Sandbox

I'm still not certain exactly at what point my children figured out that we had a fireplace, but for a time, it escaped notice.

Then, it seemed that EVERYTHING somehow found its way into our fireplace.

I have found sippy cups, matchbox cars, weeble's, pairs of Vivienne's shoes, sunglasses and even Ted (Kian's teddy bear and most prized possession to date.)

My little people LOVE to play pirate and bury treasure in our fireplace, then go back a day or so later and unearth it!

They make such a huge mess of everything when they do this, too. Some days, it's only a bit of soot on the hearth.

Other days, they have been known to empty their barrel of monkey's game and use the barrel to scoop soot out into the middle of the floor.

Then, they like to take their little cars and run them through the soot-mountain that they have created, thus tracking soot all over the living room rug!

I wouldn't mind so much, except that Kian appears to have developed quite an allergy to the soot, somehow.

He breaks out all over his legs from crawling up onto the hearth and sitting down on it to play.

He has it on his arms, too, where he has reached into the fireplace to dig something out and then tried to carry his treasures stacked in the crook of his little baby boy arms.

So, I have taken to trying to bathe him every time I catch him in the fireplace. This is easier said than done, too.

Poor little guy just does not understand that even though the fireplace is fun, it really shouldn't be used as a sandbox!

Maybe I should finally give in and get my little people a sandbox for the backyard. The problem is, I don't think that would deter them spontaneously climbing into the living room fireplace!

Piracy In My Living Room!

This weekend, my little people came up with new ways to use their toys and an entirely new game to play!

They took half of Vivienne's playhouse (she has the Rose Petal Cottage) and turned it on its side.

Usually, they just flip it over and use it like a tent and crawl under and play house that way.

Now, they have figured out how to turn it over the OTHER way and climb inside that way.

Yesterday, Bregon noticed that the boys were each wearing their foam pirate hats and that Vivie had on her foam princess tiara.

They all climbed into the overturned half of a house, and began saying, "Yo-ho-ho" and "Rrrrggh!"

My babies were playing pirates! How funny is that? Then, this morning, we woke up to Pirate day on Nickelodeon!

They ran episodes of Dora, Diego, Wonderpets and Backyardigans all with pirate themes!

My kids were just ecstatic over this programming change! The house was flipped over immediately, and systematically dragged into the center of the room and became a pirate ship!

Even now, my little people are "Rrrrggh"ing and plundering in the living room. I even caught Kian burying treasure in their living room sandbox!

Too Many Road Trips!

It seems like all I do now a days, is go on road trips! With the price of gas being so very high, it seems sort of silly, I know!

But, I did renew our season tickets with the Dallas Summer Musicals way back in December, before I knew that gas was going to be super expensive.

Hopefully, my road trip situation should slow down soon enough, but I just do not know.

One trip seems to produce and breed yet more trips, and the possibilities of end being in sight seem very dim.

Last Thursday, I drove to Dallas to pick up a dear friend of mine so that we could both be there to see our Asa-Baby graduate from High School down in the Houston area.

Yep, silly me, I actually drove to Dallas, then turned around the next morning and drove to Houston. We only stayed the night, too.

Which meant we got up early, visited with our friends a bit, then turned around and drove back to Dallas.

I did try and make the most of the road trip, though, and hit the mega-book store that is right by my friend's house before driving back to Shreveport last Saturday night.

Guess what I am doing tonight? I bet you can't figure it out. Yep, I'm driving to Dallas to see "The Drowsy Chaperone" tomorrow afternoon.

It's really nice of my friend to let us stay with him so we don't have to drive back at midnight.

You see, it's really not fair to Bregon to drive all the way over there, and NOT let him do anything be catch the show at Fairpark.

So, we have been systematically checking out all of the malls and arcades in the Dallas and surrounding area.

That way, he feels like maybe he has done something over his summer...other than helping me take care of his siblings that is!

Next weekend, we will drive to Houston to attend another dear friend's wedding. In fact, my husband is his best man, so this should be different!

I haven't traveled with my trio since they were 5 months old and all three easily fit into the pac-n-play together. They weren't mobile yet, either!

So, the Houston trip should definitely be interesting! Then, in about 2 more weeks, we go back to Dallas for another show.

We also are kicking around a field trip to Canton for the Mums on our site...so I shall also take advantage of that, too!

I miss getting to do girlie things with the Mumsies! I have been missing all of the night outs and things because of my theater group meetings lately.

Of course, the main reason I need to go to Canton is to look for props and decorations for my theater fundraiser coming up in October.

Then, sometime in early August, I shall embark upon another one of those mega-Dallas to Houston then back again trips.

It will be so that I can visit with my friends after they finish working the Colorado Faire, so that we can go through all of the storage units from the old haunt and see what we can find for the new one!

I never realized exactly how busy of a summer this was going to end up being! Hopefully, gas prices will either level out or get cheaper somewhere along the way.

Baby Thoughts

I learn so much from watching my little people. Today, we took my eldest to the doctor for his ADHD check-up.

Since we have been traveling as of late, I was a bad Mum, and hadn't yet reinstalled the car DVD player to date, so the babies has to settle for listening to music instead of their usual movies.

But, we found out that the soundtrack to "The Wicked" keeps them just as quiet and happy as one of their "Backyardigan" DVD'S.

Once inside, Kaiden started his wailing as is his usual habit when going anywhere he feels that he shouldn't.

Luckily, "Alvin & The Chipmunks" was playing on the monitor in the waiting area, so he was happy.

He got to watch one of his favorite movies AND it seemed to travel from monitor to monitor as it was nicely playing in the little examination room as well!

Once the nurse turned the volume down, though, Kaiden began to wail again.

I relented while Bregon went to have his lab work done, and let Kai out of the stroller in some attempt at keeping the peace.

He immediately climbed up onto the chairs so that he could see out of the window and watch the cars go by.

I didn't know he could count to four yet, but he can! He also knows several of his colors (even in English this time!)

Kian also insisted upon being set free, and immediately climbed up onto the chairs to join his brother in the window.

Kian showed me the birds, the bushes, a tree, and a guy! Usually he doesn't say that much all at once, who knew!

Vivienne eventually had to get out of the stroller as well, and immediately set about to emptying the stroller basket into the seats.

Then she set about trying to put everything into the trashcan after seeing me toss Bregon's band-aid...

Needless to say, I was able to stop her from throwing away the rest of her toys, sort of!

I was so proud of Bregon, even. For once, he had blood drawn and didn't even kick or punch the phlebotomist in reflex.

But, he did come back from the lab with a little post-it note that said, "Kick me, PLEASE!"

So, all in all, all of my babies are growing up and learning new things!

Sleep, Sweet Sleep!

I finally feel like I can relax a bit and get some much needed, nightmare-free sleep.

Today, the letter I have been anticipating and actually sort of dreading arrived in the mail.

I finally got Bregon's final report card. I just stood there, at the mailbox, staring at it in awe.

For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to actually open it at first, so I just looked at it a while. I don't really know why!

But, finally, I took it inside, and tore open the darn thing, knowing what was inside would either give me a new project, or relieve all those fears and ease those pesky nightmares of mine.

I can breathe now. His final grades were as originally reported. He was actually telling the truth!

And, yes, if you have been reading and keeping up about my nightmares on the subject, this report card was actually in his name, and actually did contain his classes and I am assuming, his actual grades!

Yippee!!! His GPA is a 2.8, so he still gets to keep his spot at the magnet school!

He even pulled a 100% in piano, in spite of the flood waters and the electrical set-backs the poor kids had towards the end of the year.

Bregon is so excited and so very relieved to finally have the verdict in. I can't tell you how happy and relieved it makes me, too!

I look forward to actually getting some sleep tonight after many long and tedious weeks of wondering and not knowing!

Baby Humor

Tonight, we learned something knew about Kaiden. His sense of humor is a bit more developed than we'd originally thought.

He woke up after hearing husband out front mowing the grass, so we brought him downstairs to have some milk.

Bregon put something kid-friendly on the television for him, and really didn't give his choice much thought.

It was "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," and Kaiden was mesmerized by that movie.

He just sat in the recliner and watched, silently, sucking his thumb. He was very serious.

That is, until the Alamo scene. That's when we noticed that he had started laughing.

It turned into hysterical laughter after a bit, once the bar scene came on.

In fact, in between giggles, he started trying to mimic the dance that Pee-Wee was doing on the table.

He almost couldn't breathe because he was laughing so very hard at Pee-Wee and his antics.

Who knew that a 2 year old would find Pee-Wee so very funny? Or rather, that we as adults would find the 2 year old finding Pee-Wee funny so very funny!

My How Fast They Grow!

I have been out of town for the past three days. I only left on Thursday afternoon, too!

It feels like I have been away for what seems like forever! In my absence, my children seem to have grown by leaps and bounds.

Last night, my daughter's internal Mumsie-alarm must have gone off, because she woke up about one in the morning.

I brought her downstairs, and took a good look at her while she was having her midnight-milk.

She looked soo much older than she did when I left the other day! I know its only been a tiny bit of time, but the changes are immense!

She seems taller somehow! Then, this morning, I found that my boys have started using all sorts of new words in my absence.

Kai's new favorite thing is to watch "Alvin And The Chipmunk's" and stand in front of the television and scream, "ALVIN" every time Dave does.

I asked Kian what he wanted for dinner, not expecting any answer, and I heard the word, "Pizza" come out of his mouth without hesitation!

Bregon and I had noticed earlier that Kian was munching on something after lunch, so we asked him what he was eating.

He tilted the teapot towards us, smiling the entire time, to show us what he had squirled away inside as he told us, "Chicken!"

Wow! I am totally amazed at how much my little people have changed over such a short time!