Our Kids

While Phoebe happily played in the bathtub without a bath seat (with mommy right next to her) and splashing about with a mermaid barbie I was struck by how different baby number 4s life is as compared with baby number 1. Here are some examples:

1 had coordinating outfits with jeans, shirts, sweater, socks and shoes, 4 has a 4 pack of onesies
1 had specific baby toys, bath toys, feeding toys, 4 has older sisters barbies and a dixie cup
1 had homemade baby food for months, 4 went right to chopped up grown up food
1 had her own crib, a decorated nursery and a changing table, 4 has a co sleeper in her parents room

There are lots of other things that are different but the one thing that outweighs them all is that 1 (and 2) had a loving mommy and daddy to shower them with affection and 4 has a loving mommy and daddy and 3 uber loving older sisters to shower her with love each and every day. I think in the long run 4 wins the prize:)

Well Phoebe and Piper are still tracking each other with their teeth. Piper lost another tooth yesterday and Phoebe’s little tooth is coming right on in:) Piper bit down on a fork and was crying and there was blood AND we were at a restaurant, oy! Well being the strong willed mommy I am I just plucked that little booger right out! I had an almost empty tic tac container so we disposed of the tic tacs in Landis’ gullet and put the little tooth in there.

Now on to the rest of the story, the part that is painful for me to blog. The tooth fairy forgot!! We wrote a note, even Lela wrote a note and put the tooth in the container under her pillow. This morning she came in and was all tears because the tooth fairy forgot, OY! OMG I felt so horrible. Luckily I was quick and ran out of the room and got a dollar and rolled it up with a note in it from the tooth fairy and put it under her pillow. When she came back in (daddy had calmed her down) she found the dollar and said she had not seen it. The tooth fairy had written her a note and said why don’t you keep the tooth for a bit and show your friends and then I will come back to get it:) Sigh. Tragedy almost averted, she was happy but I feel crappy that we forgot. Tooth fairy lesson learned:) Please don’t repeat!

Okay so maybe the earth is off its axis or I have water in my ears but something is seriously amuck. Here are the things I have spilled on myself in the last 24 hours:

Iced Trenta coffee, all 32 ounces of it on the porch of the girls school
Bowl of cantaloupe in the den
Landis’ soy chai on the driveway
Big bowl of soapy water by the sink
Pipers milk from breakfast by the fridge
A Dixie cup of seashells from the beach in the garage
A bowl of dried cheerios in the den
A bowl of freshly steamed broccoli in the kitchen

If this doesn’t stop happening I am going to have to seek medical (or psychological) help:)

Well it turns out that tooth number two was right on the heels of tooth number 1 and is in position. It is taking up the spot right next to tooth number one. Hmmmm…..this feels like deja vu. This is exactly how Lela’s teeth came in and if memory serves me right (and it doesn’t these days) then Phoebe won’t get any more new teeth for quite some time:) She is happy to have this one over and done with though and it wasn’t as bad as the first but she was probably cutting them both at the same time which made the first one seem so bad.

In other news she no longer bends, ha ha. She is little Miss Stiff As A Board preferring to be standing versus her former favorite position of sitting. I don’t think she will be walking any time soon (bite my tongue) but I think she will be standing for a bit now and then and possibly even pulling herself up. Still no real interest in crawling although items in the distance do seem to be upping their appeal in her eyes.

Well we did it. We got invited by good friends B and Mary to accompany them on their yearly sojourn to sunny San Diego. On a whim I said heck ya we will go. I had several second thoughts about the trip after saying yes and that was on top of the poor scheduling (PTO meeting, parent teacher conference, first weekend barn duty at school AND school photos, talk about over scheduling!). Anyhoo, we went and I must say it was a smash hit.

B and M have twin girls P and Z that are less than a year older than Piper and Lela. It was so fun to have them along and so helpful. Thursday we left Phoenix after school and headed on our way. The drive is never the fun part since most of the trip you can’t play I Spy or Slug bug because there is nothing to spy and no bugs to slug, just desert after desert. Anyhoo, we made it there in once piece and promptly went to bed since it was after 8. The next morning we got up and all went to breakfast at a place called Brian 24. It was yum and then we set off to La Jolla for some beach time.

Usually Jason and I look at the beach and manage maybe an hour or two before we are off doing something else. But we got to the beach at about 10 and did not leave until after 3:30, unheard of for us. The girls had a great time, we had a picnic and generally got enough sand and sun. Phoebe even got a beach nap:) Lucky for me I had her SPF 50 HALO sunsuit and it worked out perfectly. After the day at the beach we returned to the hotel and showered and headed out to dinner at Buca Di Beppo. We were staying at the Marriott downtown so that was a different and fun experience. The hotel was next to House of Blues so we got to hear the music all night and the sounds of the street which was a new experience for the girls.

The next morning we got up and went to breakfast again at Brian 24 and then headed out to Sea World. The girls had an absolute blast. It is Halloween Spooktacular all month so they got to trick or treat. They also got to ride rides in Sesame Street Land and they LOVED it. We caught all the shows and just had a great time. By 5:30 we were pooped. So we all left the park and went to dinner in Old Town at a Mexican restaurant. That night we all slept well:)

The next morning we got up and headed home but not before going to breakfast at the Broken Yolk which was several blocks from the hotel. The ride home was a bit brutal but no more so than the ride there. Overall I thought the girls did super and I did okay:) Jason of course did awesome, driving us all and listening to us whine.

All in all I would have to say it was a super success!

Here are some funny things that happened:

Before we left Lela said she only wanted to go if she could take the whole house with us so she did not have to leave all her “stuff”

While in San Diego Lela said, “thanks mom, I like San Diego” ahhhh unsolicited thank you’s make me feel so happy:)

It was such a joy to see our girls have so much fun and to see them having so much fun with friends. These are friends they might have their entire lives which would be so cool.

Well Phoebe FINALLY cut that tooth. It is up through the gum and pointy. It is also causing her some discomfort and our wonderful friend the SOOTHIE pacifier is being shunned. Dangit! She has been such a dream to put to sleep, just feed her and place her in the crib with the soothie and off she went, but not now. I am hoping this will pass once her discomfort lessens. It is interesting because Piper’s tooth is coming in as well, the same one in fact, and she can tell us that it is bothering her so it makes me feel more sympathy for Phoebe because I know how she is feeling as well thanks to P.

Well the girls (Piper and Lela) are well in to kindergarten, in fact we have our first teacher conference next week! There are things that I have learned from kindergarten and here they are:

Don’t make stay at home sick days too much fun, this just causes everyone to want to stay at home!

Make sure your lunchbox can hold an ice pack (first ones I bought didn’t, duh!)
Don’t buy lunchboxes that are like cute little suitcases because if you put in anything liquid like yogurt, soup etc then it sits on its side all day (just two more lunchboxes down the drain)
Don’t over pack the lunch box or someone won’t eat anything. Less is more. The less there is in there the more she eats, the more choices she has the less she eats (the she in question here is Piper). Lela is the champion lunch eater:)

I am certain many more life lessons for moms will come out of our first year of school but right now I feel a little behind the rest of the class, lol!