Crash, Bang, Boom

Given the last post about Mr. Beckett tumbling from crib to crib, bet you thought this was about him? Well, he has had a few good tumbles. Just a few minutes ago when they were supposed to be napping I went in there because he was crying- this was about 30 minutes after I put them down. Every single last stuffed animal was in his crib and he was lying on top of them. I'm not even sure there was any mattress showing. He was crying because he dropped his passy on the floor between Addy and Eloise's cribs during the collection process. He also had a couple of mattress/sheet burns on his forehead from collecting all of the animals. Poor Eloise was curled up in the corner of her crib sucking on a lovie quietly crying. Eloise has 3 animals that she always sleeps with- a little Pooh Bear, a panda bear and a goat. Beckett was lying on top of all 3 in his crib. Once I redistributed the animals and crawled under the cribs to get the passy for Beckett, they finally went to sleep.
So this is not really about the big bangs and crashes coming from the cribs at naptime. It is about my camera. My camera took a little tumble down the stairs. I'm just sick to my stomach about it. This is the kind of stuff that happens with 3 wild hooligans running around. I'm just hoping it will be an easy and cheap fix. Yeah right.
Prior to "The Fall" my mom was in town so we met my sister Sarah, her son, Oliver and her husband Jim at Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The louder, the busier, the crazier, the better my kids do at restaurants so this really fit the bill. Eloise didn't stop eating for an hour and was pointing at food and drinks at the table next to us that she wanted. Addy was in heaven with her cousin Oliver and a plate of nachos, pasta, bananas, bread, grilled cheese, french fries, salad and what looks like a pat of butter. I'm one of those people at a restaurant that looks at the dessert menu before ordering my meal. How much/what I order is entirely based on what I am going to have for dessert. If it is my choice, I choose restaurants based on the dessert menu. I love sushi but generally steer away from sushi restaurants because of the quality of the dessert. Rich knows that if we go for sushi we need to plan a second stop for dessert. This may come as a shocker given my appetite for sugar but I'm not a big cheesecake eater so I was thrilled with the many, many options for dessert. I would have picked chocolate cake but the kids can't eat chocolate so lemon cake it was. What a surprising hit. Or maybe the whipped cream was the hit? Look at this kid. My kids just adore Oliver and follow right behind him in everything he does. We walked around after dinner and Beckett followed Oliver step for step, move for move, swinging around a tree, stepping on a bag of cement, looking in a window and so on. Like a little shadow. The next morning it was supposed to be in the 80's so we took the kids to the playground by the lake. It was still pretty chilly and foggy but what was amazing was that by the time we left an hour later all the fog was burned off and almost 80 degrees. You can see that as the pictures progress it gets less and less foggy and the camera is more and more broken :( From the swings you can only see the boats in the background- no Milwaukee skyline. Love, love, love this picture of my boys. I'm trying to show Addy that she can just brush her hands off and she does not need them washed if she falls down. Hmm, wonder why they are freaked out about handwashing????? Ahh, now you can see the super high Milwaukee skyscrapers. Addy wanted down to run, Beckett wanted to throw rocks and sticks in the water and Eloise wanted to be held because she was afraid of the sand. Can't wait for this summer to relax on the beach... Get a good look. This may be the last pictures for a while until I can figure out what is going on with the camera. Actually, don't look too close. I need to burn those pants and get myself a full length mirror in the house.

Captured on Film

This is from yesterday- the first day Mr. Monkey figured out how to go crib to crib.

*No one was injured although I'm totally freaked out that it is just a matter of time. Today at nap time he went from his crib to Addy's which I could hear because both he and Eloise were screaming with laughter. I knew he was in Eloise's crib when she started to cry. When I walked in he was sitting in her crib sucking on her lovies and playing with her beloved panda bear while she sobbed. Time to move the cribs to the middle of the room.

A Whole New Level

Alright, this napping thing just got taken to a whole new level by my best sleeper- Mr. Beckett. I have all three cribs lined up and the order goes Eloise, Addy then Beckett. Addy naps in our room but sleeps in the middle crib at night. Take a look at this picture from my phone that I snapped when I went in to get Eloise and Beckett from their nap. Can you see the problem?

When I put them down to nap, the middle crib was empty. When I went in to get them, it was occupied by the little monkey, Mr. Beckett. I then witnessed him flip himself between the cribs many times landing on his head. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Same old, same old

We are just chugging along here, same old, same old thing. Still looking for a house, still struggling with naps and the weather is still cold. For example this is from Sunday.

It was not snow but hail. All of this hail came down in about 10 minutes just pelting the windows.

Sunday we finally got out with the kids as everyone was recovered from their colds. It was just a little trip to Target but to go somewhere and start to feel a little normal again, well as normal as we get, makes a huge difference. We also went to dinner with my dad on Sunday night which was our first real difficult restaurant experience with the kids. We were at a Mexican restaurant and dipping things is really popular during meals right now. The girls kept dipping their chips in the salsa and taking these huge bites. I figured they would learn their lesson from the heat because taking away the little bowl just caused even more drama. They didn't seem to mind it. Trouble started when Addy had it on her hands and rubbed her eyes. Then the jalapenos on the table were cut like long pickles and Eloise must have thought it was a pickle she grabbed it and went in for the kill. In slow motion, Rich grabbed it from her yelling, "NOOOOOOOOO..." Just in time to save it from her mouth but it startled her and she lost it. She ended up eating the rest of the meal on Rich's lap but that started the downhill slide. The restaurant only had 3 highchairs and we had all 3 so partway through the meal I offered Eloise's chair to the hostess to give to another family. When Eloise saw "her" chair being toted away, meltdown #2 ensued. Check please!
I'm sure people are tired of hearing about the napping issue but it truly rules how easy or difficult the rest of day goes. Now that Addy is all well, she is napping again. Not as long as I would like, only for 1.5 hours or so but at least she is napping. But, yesterday Eloise refused to nap. I finally went to get her after 45 minutes, Addy woke up 30 minutes later and Beckett didn't wake up for another 2 hours. So that is part of the challenge. I have 1 or sometimes 2 children awake and playing for a few hours and by the time the 3rd wakes up the first two are bored and want to go somewhere or do something but it is too close to start making dinner to go anywhere. That is where the day gets really long. The time between 4 and 5:30 can be nuts. I'm hoping that when we move we can spend that time outdoors in the yard.
Speaking of that, still looking for a house and it is driving me nuts. It has now been a year that we have kind of been living in limbo. I am ready to be settled, unpack these boxes and just get on with it! My big dream was that we would be in a house and settled by the time the kids turn 2 and have their 2nd birthday party at the new house but it doesn't look like that is going to happen unless we find something pretty quickly. But I'm very busily cutting out pictures from decorating magazines to get ready for our new house that is going to be oh so beautifully and meticulously decorated. Yeah right. That in itself is kind of a joke because I've come to the conclusion that investing money in anything nice at this point is a total waste of money. Between the kids and the dogs, everything pretty much gets destroyed. So we are probably going to have to sell a few things that are currently in storage like say our cream linen dining room chairs. I think they wouldn't even survive a week...



Especially since snack time now involves dogs, stuffed and real.

Speaking of new houses, I think a doll house is in store for the girls for their birthday. Addy just loves, loves, loves this dollhouse at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Hmm, for some reason I don't think a Frank Lloyd Wright inspired dollhouse is in the budget.

Addy loves the dollhouse but they ALL love the hallways. I understand the museum is not a children's gym. We are on our way to see the art. Yeah, that's right.



On your marks- get set- GO!!!!

So helpful

Remember on Wednesday that I said Addy had not been napping and I was pretty sure instead of napping she was ripping up magazines? Yep that is what she was doing.

Notice Beckett sleeping?

He is the only one who napped that day. When I finally went in to get Addy after an hour and 15 minutes she had thrown all kinds of stuff out of her crib and both Addy and Eloise were awake. So that was a step backwards. Only one of three napping.
The girls kept themselves very busy that day though. They helped me sort through the baskets of plastic containers, bibs and washcloths. It was extremely helpful (not!) that they took out all the clean washcloths and wiped/cleaned our stinky, stinky dog Pickles with each one. Poor old blind Pickles is so stinky that sometimes we go around smelling diapers trying to figure out who smells so bad and then realize that Pickles is sleeping close by. So the girls had the right idea but it just meant more laundry for me. With as much as I do 30 washcloths don't really make much of a difference.



They can't get themselves dressed yet but they THINK they can by putting things like washcloths, bibs, shirts, socks, whatever under their chins and walking around with no hands.
Love this picture of the girls huddling over a basket of plastic containers. Concerned about all the missing lids? Yeah, me too.

Beckett has become quite the little helper as well. Besides being an avid sweeper (you can see his two different styles of brooms in the previous pictures) he now has added wiping the table to his repertoire. Sometimes he even goes around wiping down the cabinets, the floor, the dogs, his sisters... So helpful.

After all of the hard work it is time for a proper afternoon tea. Cream or sugar anyone?

One more thing. I don't know if she is growing, bored or needs a watch so she knows that it is not time to eat but every time, and I mean EVERY TIME I step foot into the kitchen to do something, Addy follows me, climbs up on a chair or buckles herself in the booster seat and yells for food but mostly yells for cheese.She gets a lot of cheese. How could you resist a face (or curls) like this?

At first if you don't succeed...

Addy not napping is slowing wearing me down. I'm teetering, teetering, teetering on the brink here. She has napped separate from the other two for probably over a year because she has always had shorter naps and would wake easier. It wasn't a big deal in our other house because we had a pack n' play in the guest bedroom and that is where she would go. Here, we only have two bedrooms so the pack n' play is in our bedroom. So when she was napping I would have to make sure I had everything out of our bedroom I needed. It was kind of a pain but only temporary AND she was napping.
My thought now that maybe if she saw the other two napping she would understand, "Oh, this is what I'm supposed to do! I get it!!!" So the last two days she has been "napping" in the nursery with the other two. Yesterday after about 30 minutes of yelling, "Mamamamama and Baybeeee, baybeeee, baybeee" I ran out to look at a house while Rich stayed here. He said she was quiet for about 20 minutes before she got hysterical and got her before she woke up the other two. So MAYBE she napped yesterday for about 20 minutes.
She has been in with the other two for officially 54 minutes today. The first 30 minutes I could hear her laughing, heckling, and teasing up the other two. Normally Eloise and Beckett go down for a nap without a sound so it was unusual to her them hamming it up as well. Now for the last 24 minutes Addy is yelling, "Mama, Mamamamama, Mum, Mummy, Ma, Mamamama." Every variation. And there is an occasional singing or talking from Eloise. I can also hear that she stole the triathlon magazine that was in Beckett's crib and is ripping it to shreds. I can't believe he is not hysterical to see his precious magazine turned into confetti in the name of spite. I tell he is awake too because he is humming and chiming in with a "Mama" every now and again.
On another note why it probably was not a great idea to put Addy in with the other two is that we found out that Addy can crawl from one crib to the next. My Dad and Bambi were babysitting on Saturday and my Dad put Addy in Beckett's crib by accident. She flipped herself into her crib freaking herself out in the process. We are hoping she learned her lesson and was sufficiently scared because I'm not ready for the additional struggle of trying to keep them in their cribs. I know it is coming but please, one challenge at a time.
I'm going to give it another 15 minutes. I'm just pleased she is not crying. That is a step in the right direction.

How long do colds last?

How long do colds last? I was thinking a week should be max but we do things big around here. According to our pediatrician if the kids are still sick in 48 hours we need to bring them in. I called to just confirm that there is not some miracle cure that I hadn't heard of. I had been spraying saline in Addy's nose and using a bulb suction syringe to help with congestion. I'm sure Addy is happy that our pedi said I should lay off the suction- down to once or twice a day. They don't even have to see the saline spray bottle in my hand and they all know that I'm coming with it and go running screaming from me. Also, I've figured out that I absolutely must wear clothes with pockets to I have quick access to tissues. If I wait the ten seconds to grab a tissue and come back, my target has been either wiped on a hand, face, furniture or lovie or even better, licked off.
If you are counting, and I am, Addy has had a cold for 8 days and hasn't really napped in 9 days. That last number is what is what is making me just teeter on the edge of insanity. I'm hoping that she just can't nap because she is so congested but funny, she sleeps 12 hours a night without a peep. So we'll see what happens when she kicks this cold. Addy is really even tempered, wild, but even tempered. Surprisingly even when she is sick with no nap, she is still pretty good if not a little unpredictable. One minute sweet and calm.
A few minutes later fake smiling, posing for the camera, pretending to blow her nose, wiping boogers everywhere, gobbling down blueberries and then I found out later was smashing them into her seat and pants.
Eloise seems to have kicked the cold for the most part.
She is a little more clingy and pretty much just wants to be held and lay on the floor with her lovey. Excuse me, a pile of lovies. We have 9 lovies around the house and they all share the lovies and just grab the closest one(s). No one owns any. Until now. The last two days Eloise has been very particular about lovies and wants the yellow duck and the blue elephant. If anyone else grabs one of those, she goes bonkers. So she has been a little unpredictable as well.
Guess she was done coloring.

Beckett has had a runny nose (and screams with terror when I wipe it) but that hasn't been such a big deal. The big deal is that he thinks that everything is his. For example, at lunch he wanted his plate AND Eloise's plate of food even though he refused to eat any of it. He'll scream if someone take anything off of his plate even though he is not eating. He wants whatever Rich is eating, not anything off of his plate even if it is the same thing. He doesn't want anyone to touch the Legos when he is playing with them and even if he is playing with Legos, no one is allowed to read the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear. That book and every other of the 100 or so books are his and not to be touched. If the girls get something he wants it too. If the girls get their hair done, so must Beckett. The other day he wore a barrette most of the morning. On Saturday, Eloise had pigtails and of course, Beckett wanted them too. He doesn't have enough hair for pigtails so the Samurai look had to suffice.


Tonight I was washing dishes and Rich yelled, "Come quick and take a picture of Beckett's face before he eats it." He would never pick that off of his face and eat it. First of all, I'm sure he doesn't even know it is there. And secondly, something that size is at least 1 calorie. He doesn't like nutrients or anything with calories, remember?

Just like a glazed donut

BTW- this is the fourth attempt at writing this post...
This week I feel like I just can't get caught up. We had a great weekend with Rich's parents visiting from Texas, then I took advantage of the extra hands and headed up to Green Bay for a day of shopping and eating with my mom and Aunt Rita. Ever since I got home Monday morning I feel like I've been playing catch-up.
It started with Addy only napping a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes this entire week. She didn't nap on Monday or Wednesday and her nap on Tuesday was short. Tuesday was also the day that Eloise decided that she needed to be held to fall asleep. So by the time I got Eloise down for her nap on Tuesday, I made one phone call and Addy was up. Then yesterday I don't think anyone ever slept because they were all fussing so much after an hour I just gave up and set up blankets and pillows on the floor and we pretended to sleep.
This is what Eloise looked like when she got up from her nap on Tuesday. She went to sleep with straight hair and woke up with curly hair. What did she give herself a perm in 2 hours?


I can kind of roll with the punches on everything else but 2 things really freak me out are:
1. No naps or short naps; and
2. No eating (throwing food specifically).
I need that nap time to do dishes, make phone calls, fold laundry and just generally regroup and organize myself. After they go to bed just doesn't cut it. By that time I'm so wiped out that I don't want to do anything besides veg out and watch TV with loads of laundry in front of me.
Now I'm adding a third item to the list of things that freak me out- all 3 being sick at once. That's right. It finally hit us this year. All 3 kids have runny noses and are sneezing. Thankfully no fever or coughing so I'm pretty sure it is just the common cold. This week has been a perfect reminder of why we were so careful all winter and so extra cautious last year with exposing the kids to potential germs. Three sick kids at once is just plain brutal.
Addy started with a runny nose on Tuesday and was a little sensitive and cranky but no big deal. Yesterday the other two woke up with runny noses and sneezing like crazy. They were all in pretty good spirits besides the no napping so I thought we had dodged a bullet. Then last night Beckett got up in middle of the night and after playing for two hours and giggling at the sleeping dogs in our bed I couldn't take it and he had to cry himself to sleep.
Today started with Addy crying for 30 minutes over nothing that I could figure out and everything just followed in that vein. Every time they sneeze snot goes flying everywhere, they rub their noses with the back of their hand rubbing snot all over their faces, it dries on super shiny and then their faces and the back of their hands look like glazed donuts. Thanks to my sister for the perfect analogy.
So they have been super sensitive to any sort of insult that they normally would just brush off. Addy in particular as she seems the sickest although Beckett looks the sickest. Normally Addy is the most even-tempered and if Beckett takes something from her she just will brush it off and move on to the next thing. Not today. Even the smallest slight ends up in screaming that seems to go on indefinitely. Eloise seems to be tolerating the cold the best although she looks the most "glazed."
The other challenge with all three having a cold is I let them have unlimited access to water and juice which means more frequent diaper and clothing changes because these little rascals can really chug the liquids. Yesterday by noon I had changed 12 diapers and had to put a totally new outfit on 2 after they had already been dressed for the day. I was worried all the liquids and the colds would decrease their appetite but that hasn't really happened. Beckett can be hit or miss at mealtimes even on a healthy day but Eloise and Addy both just gobbled down food all day today. At one point Eloise cleaned her plate so well in a shockingly short amount of time I accused Rich of stealing her food.
It is amazing how our tolerance for whining and fighting seems to increase with illness. It is exhausting and there are definitely moments that you just kind of stop and look around and wonder how you will muster up enough patience to get through the next hour. But generally just looking at those pitiful little faces with snot and Rudolph-red noses from me chasing with the tissue is enough to face any amount of whining. I have to say though that I'm eying up the bottle of wine staring at me in the kitchen and Rich is part-way through his second workout of the day. So we are managing.
The other challenge is not going anywhere. Well, we don't stay in the house because there is always Starbucks drive-thru, stalking newly listed houses and stalking houses with recent price reductions but we don't go IN anywhere with the kids when they are even slightly sick. But when everyone is healthy we normally do something everyday so I can see where we are all going to get bored pretty quickly. I did drive past one house that recently came on the market 3 times in less than 24 hours so this is quite an opportune time to be looking for houses.
Let me out! Let me out! I'm boooooooored!! If you don't let me out I'm going to suffocate myself with this bucket and my stuffy nose.

Addy thinks that upping her protein intake will heal her faster. After her "nap" she ate tons of cheese with hummus on rice crackers. Maybe she eats so much cheese because it is one of the few foods she can ask for?

Beckett will use any distraction to get out of eating. Today he had to stop eating and get down and give Pickles and hug and kiss. Either that or he is telling her to run if I come after her with a tissue.

This is Addy's version of resting. No relaxing on the couch or snuggling in blankets for this one. I can tell she is tired and sick here because she is not trying to get someone to push her.

Uh, oh. Someone left the blocks in the kitchen. I better put them back where they belong. I'm very tidy and very busy.


And the three little crusty faces from today. Excuse the food on the faces, I guess it sticks to snot.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Addy representing the Newman crew with the only green of the day although we did have bangers and mash with edamame for dinner. I guess they felt like celebrating after dinner because this is just a few seconds of the chaos that went on for about 30 minutes.


Giddy up little girl!