I can’t believe how fast it’s gone but today Ben and I celebrate 8 years of marriage. Everything in these last 8 years seems like it happened just yesterday. I remember the smell of my bouquet, the beautiful card he gave me right before we went up to the alter, the joys of seeing my family and friends celebrate with us, how handsome my new husband looked that day (and every day), the feelings of nervousness, everything (except where I put that pack of socks I’m missing!). We’re raising a beautiful family, we have people that care about us and generally are just all around in a good place.
I’m a lucky girl. I love you Ben, thanks for being part of my life.
I just realized that there are only 5 days of preschool left for Maia! She’s so comfortable and happy there and I think she’ll be so disappointed when it’s over. We did enroll her in a summer camp that starts in June so at least she’ll have something this summer to do besides just playing with me and her sisters! I also realized today that we only have about 3 1/2 to 4 months left until she starts Kindergarten! If we get into Parnassus we start August 20th, otherwise at RSI we’ll start the day after Labor Day. Time has just flown by. I’m a little sad but I’m more excited for the journey that she’s about to go on.
Potty training is going okay. Their biggest problems are pooping in their underwear (this happens 2-3 x/day) and for Lily, going on public potties. Any suggestions on getting a kid used to public bathrooms? I’m hoping we have it sorted out by September when they start preschool!
Ben left this morning for Seattle. He’ll be gone until Sunday but at least this week isn’t crazy busy. Tomorrow night we have skating but that’s our only evening activity this week so it’s certainly manageable! We missed our violin lesson this last week since Maia’s teacher was sick but I’m really looking forward to this Saturday’s. She’s made a ton of progress and can now finger the whole Twinkle theme while I bow. She has a recital coming up this month so that will be an exciting first for her as well! We’re still learning how to practice effectively together and I have to do a better job of making it more fun for her.
Also, Happy First Communion dear Emma! I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be there.
We had our NICU follow-up for Lily and Juliette today. They both did great! The testing took a little bit over two hours and since they didn’t sleep well last night they both “quit” before they were really done. They both scored 4-6+ months past their actual age in everything except gross motor. Juliette lagged just a bit in the gross motor and Lily lagged significantly but a lot of that was refusal to try things she knew how to do. They’re still small for their age of course – Lily weighed 22.8 lbs and Juliette was 26.6 lbs.
While we were at the hospital we dropped Maia off at her friend Sareena’s house for a playdate. It was great that they got some time to play together and Maia had an awesome time. When we came to pick her up she hid from me and didn’t want to come home so I guess it was successful!
Speaking of Maia, she’s been really testing limits lately. She’ll talk back consistently, throw fits and whine when she doesn’t get her way. She does NOT want to practice violin (which we do every day) and is acting quite bossy to her sisters. I guess she’s at that age but boy do I miss my sweet adaptable little girl! On the other hand, her assertiveness is good, she just needs to learn to demonstrate it better.
Tomorrow Maia and I start Wednesday night skating again. I’m excited to get back out there and she’s just excited because she gets to be in class with her friend Macaella! Here’s a picture of the two of them together from the ice show!
Well, we did it! We had a crazy week last week but we got through it and survived a long week of rehearsals and 3 performances and now it’s bittersweet that it’s over. Maia has taken to “posing”. She really liked dressing up and getting lots of pictures taken!
In other news, potty training is going pretty well. Lily is doing fantastic – she always remembers to go peepee on the potty but is scared to death of any public or unfamiliar toilet. We brought them to my parents house last week while we toured the Spanish Immersion school and she held it because she refused to go on their toilet. When I got back we found a big pot, put the potty seat on that and she went right away. This is a problem we’re going to have to figure out! Juliette is doing okay but she forgets everything when she’s wearing pants. We had a disgusting poop in the pants incident last week that I’d rather not remember.
I am teaching a lot the next couple of weeks. Hopefully my classes go well! I still enjoy teaching but it does suck up a lot of time at nights.
First of all I hope that everyone had a happy Easter! We hosted this year (well, my mom technically did, but it was at our house) and had a smaller group than normal but I think everyone had a great time. The girls had a blast coloring eggs on Saturday and hunting for them yesterday and the amount of candy that they ate was probably too much but all and all it was a successful holiday.
Lily and Juliette are napping and Maia is currently at a friend’s house. After preschool she was invited over and this is only the second time she’s been on a playdate (that’s not a birthday party) without me being there. Preschool is almost over and she’s started to branch out and make more friends from her class. It makes me happy because it validates her readiness for kindergarten next year since the social aspect is what most people are concerned about.
This is a crazy week for us because Friday and Saturday is the ice show. We have practice tonight, tomorrow, Wednesday is finale rehearsal, Thursday is dress rehearsal and Friday and Saturday are the ice shows. The dress rehearsal goes until 10 pm so it will be an extra late night for Maia!
Potty training update: Both girls are doing great peeing in the potty during the day as long as they don’t have pants. As soon as the pants come on they feel that it’s fair game to go potty in their pants. Oh well, it’ll happen, right?
Well, this has been an interesting week for sure! Maia didn’t have preschool at all and Lily and Juliette are potty training so we’ve been pretty much home-bound all week. We did have a playdate with Maia’s friend Sareena from preschool twice so that was great for her to get to play with someone her own age. This was the first time that I dropped Maia off at someone’s house for any discernible length of time and she had fun. She did want to come home a little earlier than anticipated but thankfully it worked out.
Potty update: This morning was a bust. We had music/violin classes and they didn’t go at all on the potty before we left for class. When we got home of course their pull-ups were soaking wet. We’re just not ready to leave the house with 2 sets of 3 pairs of clothing for each of them and wet carseats! This afternoon was better. It’s easy to tell when Lily has to go – she starts dancing around but she still won’t spontaneously go sit – I have to ask her. Today the girls got baths and Juliette told me she had to go potty. I took her out of the bath, put her on the toilet and she went peepee! I was very excited. We’re making progress!
This is going to be a crazy busy month. I teach 3 classes in April, we’re hosting Easter, we have tons of ice show practices/shows, I have a Wilton half-day instructor meeting, and gymnastics starts for Lily and Juliette (a precursor to being exposed to other kids in an environment that has a teacher). I really like keeping busy during the days (even the nights) but 3 classes a month gets tough on us, especially since I’m gone several evenings!
Happy belated 5th birthday to my dear niece Annabelle. We love you!
Potty training twins is certainly an experience. I was really hoping that they’d “get it” by now but no such luck. They are both getting better but today is day 3 and we’re still having plenty of accidents. I’d say that Lily is doing better than Juliette. She does the “peepee dance” when she has to go but won’t spontaneously sit on the potty yet. She waits for me to recognize and ask. Juliette seems to just piddle wherever she is then come over and ask me to wipe her. When she sits on the potty and I ask her to go, she’ll only try to poop so I don’t think she recognizes the muscle yet that controls the bladder. She did pee tonight in the potty though so that was a plus! I haven’t even mentioned the poop trails or Juliette’s horrible butt rash yet…
In other news, I’m sick. Today was pretty miserable for me and I hope that tomorrow is better. I have sinus issues and a faucet for a nose now and I’m just praying that the kids don’t get it as bad as me.
Off to bed. We have a busy week coming up with classes, ice show practices, music, etc.
If any of you know me you know that I’ve been very scared of potty training Lily and Juliette. I think the prospect of doing two at once has just been daunting and knowing that I’d have the majority of the responsibility of handling it put me off to doing it until now. I’m not sure what the kick in the butt has been (probably the fact that they turned 3) but yesterday after nap I said “no more diapers” and took off the pants, got out the potties and the stickers and the water bottles and went for it. There were accidents but yesterday both girls peed in the potties (Lily was first!) and today they both pooped! So far we haven’t had success with spontaneously recognizing they have to go, holding it then going to the potty but I’ve been able to recognize the signs and plop them on there so progress has been made! I’ve resolved not to go anywhere for the next couple of days until we get this under control but they’re not really resisting so I’m convinced they’re ready. It will be SO nice to be done with diapers! We will still do pull ups at nap and bed but if we can get daytime under control we’ll be in a good place.
We had Lily and Juliette’s well child visit this morning. We adore our doctor and I always feels like she takes her time with us and we never feel rushed. Here are the stats:
Lily
- Weight: 23 lbs, >3rd percentile
- Height: 33.75″, >3rd percentile
- BMI: 14.2, 5-10th percentile!
Juliette
- Weight: 26 lbs, 3-5 percentile
- Height: 34 1/4″, 3-5 percentile
- BMI: 15.6, 50% percentile
I’m mostly satisfied with their progress. I realized I didn’t blog last year’s stats so I’m not sure what they were but Dr. Sprenkle was happy enough! All 3 girls got their MMR shot. We delayed Maia’s 1st one until she was 4 (normally it’s given at a year; today’s shot was her second MMR) and we delayed Lily and Juliette’s until this year. There are some family health things going on that prompted the vaccines now so I think everyone is up-to-date.
Yesterday my beautiful girls turned 3. These last 3 years have been a whirlwind and it hardly seems like we should have reached their 2nd birthday – much less their third!
Yesterday was low-key. Maia went to preschool then for dinner we took everyone to the Old Spaghetti Factory. Today we all had music classes then this afternoon we did a big party for Lily and Juliette. The party was great – since the weather was so nice we did a bouncy house and the kids had the best time playing in there! Both girls were timid in the beginning but by the end they were having fun and actually playing with other kids. It was a good day!
Happy Birthday Lily and Juliette!
The kids and I had a great day today. This morning we took Ben to the airport (which was sad and elicited a meltdown from Lily on the way home) then went out to breakfast at McDonald’s. We NEVER go out to breakfast so this was a nice treat for them! We took Maia to preschool then picked her up early because she and I had a meeting with Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion. In the meantime I dropped off Lily and Juliette at Grandpa’s house and afterwards we all played at the park.
All the kids took great naps, we went to our local park after nap then walked to dinner with our neighbors and had a fun time and good conversation! The weather was perfect and it was really a great day.
The meeting at Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion was with the principal and the Gifted Specialist for the school. They were both very supportive of Early Entrance for Maia and said she is the type of child that the Early Entrance policy was made for so it made me feel better that other folks agree with us on her readiness. The meeting was technically for them to meet Maia and approve or deny entrance but it was just as much me interviewing them! The vibe I got from the school was very “happy” so it was nice to feel welcomed and see the kids enjoying themselves. I was honest with them that they are not our first choice school and that we would probably withdraw her if we got into Parnassus and they were okay with that so that makes me feel a little bit better too!
