Happy Easter

The girls had a great Easter today, they really got into the festivities and excitement of the day. We went down to my mom’s house Saturday night and she offered to let them ‘practice’ egg hunting. They were too little to participate last year so this was their first experience. They seemed to figure it out pretty quickly and even though there was no candy they still enjoyed getting the eggs. The neighbors invited all of the kids over for their egg hunt that evening so the girls had a great time socializing and playing outside. The eggs at my mom’s neighbor’s house actually had candy and they enjoyed that. It was a good evening. The next morning the girls saw the Easter baskets the bunny left on the kitchen table. They were very interested in their goodies which included peeps, stickers, little pans for their kitchen, a stuffed animal, a mini shopping basket, and a coloring book. They loved the stickers and played with them for most of the morning. We then took them outside for an Easter Egg hunt, they were very good at finding the eggs. Each had their own tactic:

Emma ‘The Sharer’ : Emma would find one and put it in her basket then find another and put it in Olivia’s then another and put it in Savannah’s.

Olivia ‘The Hoarder’ : Olivia was very attached to her eggs and kept them close by at all times, she enjoyed eating the goodies (gold fish and marshmallows).

Savannah ‘The Grazer’: Savannah would find the eggs and try to hold them all, she refused to use her basket much and would often throw her eggs on the ground when she spotted others, running to get those and abandoning her old eggs.

After the Easter hunt we got everyone dressed and went to church, here are some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses:

Emma

Olivia

Savannah

After church we headed to my Aunt's house to celebrate with the extended family.  The girls fell asleep on the way there which was good because they needed a nap.  We arrived around 1:20, everyone was suppose to be there at 1:00 but we were running late from church.  Apparently so was everyone else as we were the 3rd family to arrive (even ahead of my parents and sisters).  We were able to socialize while the girls slept in the car and we even got a chance to eat our food before they woke up.  When we got them up they were so excited to see all the toys that my aunt had, that they were not interested in eating lunch.  They played in the sand box a lot, it was their first experience in a sand box and they had fun.  They each tasted the sand and decided it was no good to eat, you should have seen the funny faces they made.  We had another Easter egg hunt at my aunt's they divided the yard into 2 sections, one for younger kids and one for older kids and it worked out great.  The girls had fun getting the eggs and Olivia had lots of fun opening them, she was very attached to her candy and insisted on opening every egg she found to get the candy out.  They played at my aunt's until 5pm and really had a blast, we all had a blast actually it was a beautiful day (in the shade).

We figured the girls would fall asleep on the way home, but I guess they were too wound up to go to sleep.  They didn't eat much dinner which was surprising since they had been to busy to eat much lunch, we thought they were probably too tired to eat, but to our surprise after dinner they were full of energy.  They laughed and played and jumped and ran.  Scott and I sat on the couch watching these 3 bundles of seemingly endless energy invade our house.  At one point Olivia put her head on the ground between her legs and did a flip, just like that.  I have helped them do flips before but it has been a while and they have never attempted to do one on their own.  She was so proud and kept doing them, her sister's saw her and they did some too, I was impressed at how fast they all caught on. 

Even after going to bed that night we heard the girls giggling and laughing in their room, we are sure that they had really enjoyed themselves this Easter.  I have to say that Scott and I also had a great Easter and fun-filled day, we feel blessed.

Here are videos we took today:

This one is of the Easter Egg hunt this morning in our backyard.

This one is their new flipping trick from this evening.

A Funny Story - by Scott

Tonight Sarah and I decided to take a walk with the girls over to eat and make a stop at CVS to get a prescription for the girls. So We leave the house with the girls in the Choo choo wagon and walk straight to CVS. We pick up a couple miscellaneous items and then proceed to the back of the store to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription. Sarah then sees a lady in the store she knows so she goes off and talks to her for a bit. Meanwhile I am waiting in line with the girls. So we wait for a bit and Savannah begins to get a bit impatient and tries to get up. But of course she can't get up since the girls are all buckled in. Well Savannah is pretty determined and she continues to try to get up. She starts saying "I'm Stuck", I'm Stuck, I'm Stuck...continuously, of course I just ignore her, but finally the lady behind me in line taps me on the shoulder and tells me "I think she is saying that she is stuck". I chuckle a little and say "If having a seat belt equates to being stuck, then yes she is stuck". The lady was like, 'ohhh' but I thought it was funny.  At least we know that Savannah's language skills are good if other people can understand her.

Toddler Bed Update

The girls are still adjusting to their newly found freedom in their toddler beds.  We usually have to sit in there at night to keep them from getting up and playing.  Last night was the first night we didn't have to sit in their room, and they actually went to sleep by themselves.  We put them in at 8pm and heard them running around until about 8:30.  Then we didn't hear anything until about 9:45 I heard some footsteps for a minute and then that was it.  I went up at 10 to check on them and this is what I found:

They were all sleeping in Savannah's crib, isn't that so cute?.  Emma is facing the wall, Savannah is by the rail, and Olivia's head is hanging off (which I did fix after the photo).  I think at 9:45 we heard Savannah wake up and walk over to crawl in bed with her sisters. 

Our Next Adventure Part II

So after much deliberation we decided...

1) Buy crib tents: This option is too expensive and they are getting close to 2 so I'm not sure we would get to use them long.
2) Try putting their mattresses on the floor surrounded by the crib: This option would be good except that our cribs have a wood piece that doesn't allow the mattress to drop any further.
3) Wait and see if they keep climbing out:  Emma will probably just keep climbing out and once the others see her do it they will also climb out.  Even though they haven't had any falls yet we are too concerned that they will slip and fall and possibly break something.  So this is not an option.
4) Convert their beds to toddler beds: This is my least favorite option but it seems to be the only one that we have left.  Can I just say that I am not ready for this adventure.


So now we have converted their cribs to toddler beds, they each have a railing that extends 3/4 of the way across the front of the crib.  Unfortunately we only had 2 toddler railings (see we really weren't ready for this phase) so we had to borrow one from my parents.  My dad was nice to meet Scott half way, but getting all of this done after work was pretty difficult.  Scott didn't get the last railing until 8:30 pm, but even though that was after their bedtime we knew the first night would be a big party anyway.  They were super excited with their new freedom, they went from crib to crib and giggled and jumped on each other's beds.  We put them all in their own bed and told them goodnight.  Then we left and I went to the computer to log into the camera to see what they were doing.  They sure were having fun.  At one point everyone was lying in Savannah's bed like they were sleeping it was cute, but they weren't sleeping they were just playing a game.  I went in a few times and put them back in their beds and told them it was night time.  Olivia and Savannah seemed tired so I went and sat in the chair in their room to keep Emma from disturbing them.  Finally I took Emma out and let the other two sleep, Emma's crib didn't have the railing on yet because Scott was still picking it up so I think that was making her want to get up more.  Scott finally made it home and we put on Emma's railing and put her in bed.  The other two were pretty much asleep so she settled down quickly and we were off to a good start in the toddler beds.

That good start didn't last too long, they did make it through the night but were up pretty early.  Around 7 this morning I started hearing them walking around.  At 7:30 I thought I heard the door open, but they can't open doors yet...or so I thought.  Next thing I see is an Emma coming into my room grinning.  Right behind her was Savannah and after a minute Olivia came in.  They all wanted to climb up onto my bed so we had a party in my bed for 10 minutes or so.  I then took them back to their room and shut the door, I thought maybe it hadn't latched well earlier.  I closed it good but 5 minutes later I had 3 girls back in my room, so apparently they really can open doors.

We are going to put a child safety on the door and we'll see how tonight goes.

Our Next Adventure Part I

The girls got some very bad virus this week and we have all been sick, it seems I got it the worst, but even Scott got a piece of this nasty bug.  So we stayed home this weekend and took shifts trying to get some rest.  So Sunday night (last night) we put the girls in bed, sighed and went to crash as we had survived the sickly weekend...or so we thought. 

At 11:30 I hear Emma crying so I tell Scott I'm going to go put some orajel on a tooth that she has coming in.  I make it to the door and then as I reach for the doorknob it giggles, I stare at it in disbelief as it giggles again.  I open the door to find an Emma standing their grinning, she comes walking out and starts talking to the kitty who was in the hallway.  I put Emma back in her crib and tell her goodnight, 10 minutes later I had settled back into bed and I hear knock knock, knock knock coming from their room.  I go open the door to their bedroom and Emma walks by she hands me her diaper and pants that apparently she had pulled off.  So there goes a bare butt walking down the hall, it is obvious this child has no interest in sleeping.  Scott and I go in there and take off her crib bumper and remove all her toys.  We then stick her back in bed.  We go back to bed but 5 minutes later we hear the sound of feet running on the hardwoods, we know she is up again.  So we proceed to remove the drawers from their dresser and double check the room to make sure it is child-proof.  We then put Emma back in bed and Scott grabs his pillow so he can sleep outside the door.  He puts her back in then makes camp outside the bedroom, this time though she actually stayed in bed. 

The next morning I got up early to take a shower and listen for Emma, I heard her running around at 7:30, at 7:45 Savannah was crying so I walked in there to see what they were up to and Emma AND Olivia were out of their cribs playing.  So now Scott and I have to make some decisions here are the options we have:
1) Buy crib tents
2) Try putting their mattresses on the floor surrounded by the crib
3) Convert their beds to toddler beds
4) Wait and see if they keep climbing out

I will post again once we decide how to proceed with this new adventure.

The Park

We have really had some lovely weather lately and have been able to let the girls play outside in the backyard a lot.  There is also a playground in our neighborhood that we visit a few times a week, the girls love to slide on the slides and they get really excited when they see that we are at the park.  Here are a few pictures from today's visit.

Another couple was at the park with their daughter who is 6 monhts older than our girls.  She was very timid of the slides and relied heavily on her parents to help her.  They commented on how good our girls were at climbing and sliding by themselves.  The fact is that they have to be more independent than other children their age, but I think in some ways that is good thing.  They seem to be very confident and happy to be able to do things on their own.