Our Kids

I couldn’t be more pleased with how our summer camp plans are working out. The girls are having so much fun and so am I that I haven’t even noticed that we are almost to JULY! CRAZY! We do summer camp 4 days a week and some days I have all the girls, some days Mary has all the girls and some days we all get together and the girls play and Mary and I dish! So fabulous. We are really enjoying it. Maybe having good friends isn’t so horrible after all (I am pretty anti friend but I am slowly seeing the value in my old age:)

Piper snores. Piper has always snored.

Last year I brought it up to the pediatrician and we started watching it. Lately it has been bugging me more and more for lots of reasons. Piper is growing very slowly. She is almost 7 but can still fit in her size 4 clothes. She is growing but she is now the smallest one in her class and she knows it. Then she had a sleep over and the mom of the friend mentioned Piper’s snoring and how it was keeping the girls awake, she also mentioned how she could hear Piper laboring to breath. Not in a asthmatic way but as if there was an obstruction. I have heard all these things before but now I am starting to wonder if her sleep troubles, slow growth and snoring are all related.

It’s tough to diagnose my kids because we keep their environment and diets very clean so many symptoms don’t appear. When she eats dairy she usually ends up with a sinus cold, strep throat or an earache so we avoid it as much as possible. Those things would be signs of enlarged adenoids.

So the pediatrician and I are investigating. Right now we have her on a nasal steroid spray to see if we can reduce the size of her adenoid. She also has “generous” tonsils so that could be what is causing the snoring/obstructive breathing. If the steroid doesn’t work we may do an xray or see an ENT for more clues:)

Anyhoo…that is where that stands.

Phoebe is like a whole batch of sponges. She copies everything anyone does in the whole family. It makes her quite hysterical to be around. The other day we were at the doctor’s office for Piper and I was pretending to blow my bad breath in Piper’s face (yeah I know, stellar parenting) anyhoo, Piper and I were giggling up a storm so Phoebe thought she should get in on the action and started to blow her breath in everyone’s faces. She is soaking up all the actions and words of 5 other folks and she is chock full of fun.

Poor Landis. After a super duper day at swim where both Landis and Lela put their face in the water (put them in but did not go under, no ears went in;) Landis got stung by a wasp.

I was sitting by her at the water’s edge and I saw a bee on her leg. I went to shoo it away and at the same time she started crying. I thought for a minute it was because of the bee and she was scared but a minute or two later the sting was visible. She was in a bit of pain but is such a trooper. It has been a day or so and the sting area is about 4 inches wide with yucky red splotches. Of course the same day she had runny poo and today she took a 3 hour nap. I know that is coincidence but I don’t like it.

Well we are back from Flag and I am in full on recovery mode. My folks left and I had some sad little girlies. They could not express what was wrong but Lela cried for about an hour because we did not have Puffins cereal, Landis cried herself to sleep and Piper was just a grumpy bear. I knew what was up but it didn’t help dealing with all the meltdowns. Good for me I have good friends. We were able to meet friends for muffins at a bakery and then we headed to my friend Mary’s where I proceeded to be a vegetable for the whole day, I was either an eggplant or a zucchini:)

We got there about 10AM and did not leave until 5PM (sorry Mary for staying so long). It was super, Mary and I did nothing but chat and the girls played, they all play so well together. I picked up some pizzas from Papa Murphys and Mary cut up some melon for lunch. It was super. We did get home to an empty fridge and no food but we made it through.

Today my car is in the shop to get my navigation fixed before we head off to Santa Barbara. I am furiously trying to recover the house and beat back the laundry! I am so grateful for a stay at home day. The girls are being super and playing nicely even though they seem to mess up a room as soon as I clean it up but c’est la vie:) I think one more day of cleaning and replenishing the food stores and we should be good as new.

Our first trip to Flagstaff is complete. We had a great time but I am pooped and longing for my home routine. I have a touch of OCD and my life is run by spreadsheets and lists. I run better on a schedule:)

Anyway, we had a super time and we did soooo much stuff. It was awesome to be able to go to things with the girls and have them so engaged.

The pollen in Flag was INSANE, you could actually see it in the air and feel it coating you if you stayed outdoors for even a minute. The cabins we stayed in were awesome. There was a cool retro playground right outside the door and I think the girls loved that the most.

Some the sights we hit were Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater and volcano, Snowbowl and the skyride, Walnut Canyon and the Lowell Observatory. It was a jam packed trip. We had the added pleasure of great company with my nephew and folks who are leaving for Texas tomorrow:(

Funny thing is happening with the girls lately. They are generally thick as thieves and love to play together, they have started to get upset because one wants to play this and the other wants to play that and they can’t compromise but that is normal. What has been happening is that they are beginning to comfort each other by proximity and it is kind of weird to watch.

For example, Lela swallowed some water at swim lessons and anyone who reads this blog knows that Lela does not like water (yet). Lela was upset. Piper was sitting at the other end of the pool but without saying a word she got up and walked to where Lela was sitting. She didn’t say a word or touch Lela but what she did was wrap her legs to one side of Lela and her torso around the other side and she just sat there. It was like she was shielding her or guarding her. It was bizarre to watch because Piper’s facial expression looked totally indifferent and she wasn’t saying anything to Lela. It was almost like they were magnets with no choice in the matter.

We have seen it a few other times where one is upset and the other just comes by and places a hand on her twin and then goes on her way. I definitely think that Lela and Piper have some special connection that not all twins have.

Well here is how the sleepover went down.

First of all Lela was super excited to go on her first sleep over, Piper was happy to but Lela was all a twitter. She actually sewed her very own overnight bag complete with blanket stiched edges, a heart detail, straps and buttons! I will have to get a picture of that. She also wanted to make a sleeping bag but I put the kibosh on that one.

The girls packed their bags and when I did a quick check they had actually packed really well. My littles are getting big.

The big day arrived and I took them to swim lessons. Then they stayed to watch their friends and went home with them around 11:30AM. They had an under the sea themed camp day with fun polymer beads, a groovy mermaid craft and a make your own taco buffet! They were in heaven.

I was not so much in heaven, a little anxious and completely wasting my time alone. I think we went to Costco or some such time suck:) That evening bedtime was super easy with just the two. I stayed up late and was talking with jason in his office which is really unusual. I am generally in bed at 9:30 but it was almost 11P and I was partially dressed due to our houseguests. Anyway, the phone rang, it was Lela. I did not understand a wood she said but the net of it was that I was to come and get her and she would be waiting. Seems like the sleepover was just a bit too much.

I arrived at the sleepover about 30 minutes later (their friends live across town) and Lela was calm but packed and ready to jet. It was so cute because she asked me if cars could still drive this late, seems my kids don’t get out much after dark, lol. Then in her sweetest Lela voice ever she said, “I am not quite ready for sleepovers.” That was the end of that.

Piper was sawing logs when I got there so I just left her be. They all woke up and went about their merry way even though Lela was absent. Lela slept on her mat in my room that night and she seemed right as rain the next day.

So my sweet Lela missed mommy but that was okay because I was missing her too:)