The house, my work, the twins still-cranky temperments. The fact that Jon and Kate Plus Eight is ending. All of these are areas of my life marked by complete stress and anxiety.
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I think I will stash her in my laptop bag when I run away to Bali.
But this little girl is my lighthouse in the storm.
I think I will stash her in my laptop bag when I run away to Bali.
You've been wondering how I'm getting settled, how the new job is going, and whether or not my sanity is still intact with all the Major Life Changes happening in one giant perfect storm of less-than-ideal timing. I've read your emails and I am so grateful for them. Of course, I've responded to your displays of kindness with the cold shoulder not just because I am a giant slacker who often spends her 10 minutes of kid-free time each day with her head in her hands, wondering which of the 14,000 items on her to-do list to tackle first, rather than, you know, actually tackling one of them items, but because to explain the ridiculousness of my life right now in an email message would probably max out the available storage in your Inboxes.
I am busier now than I've ever been in my life.
The House
We are moved in, but there are still unpacked boxes everywhere. The kitchen is settled, which I suppose is among the most important areas of the house, but there are unorganized toys everywhere, which makes me extremely anxious every time I see them.
This is the view from the cutout window in my kitchen. And yes, the family room/play area always looks like this, and more often, it looks worse than this.
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The kids' rooms essentially have their cribs (and Isabella has her bed) in them, a dresser, and the all-important white noise machine, and that's about it. I need to do some major unpacking and rearranging of furniture among the three rooms (for example: Isabella no longer needs her combo changing table/dresser, so she needs to swap dressers with Luci. And Nicholas' clothes are still in the dresser we had in the twins' room at the old house, which is located in Luci's room). These are only two of the several dozen little things that need to get done, but for which I have no time whatsoever.
There are walls that need painting, a rug that needs professional steaming, two fireplaces that need cleaning and many, many other projects. None are getting done anytime soon.
Most depressing for me is that my office is still in boxes and not set up. I finally have a designated space of my own, and yet being in that room causes me a great deal of stress since it's full of clutter.
The view from my desk calms me down a bit, or at least it does when I'm not being summoned away from it 400,000 times every hour.
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I despise living in a state of chaos. Of course, that's pretty much defined my life for the past year, but moving into this house and then not having the time to settle it because of having three non-sleeping kids around all day long and having tons of work to do (more on this soon) means that every time I enter a room, I see a project that needs completing or a box that needs unpacking. What I would not give for 24 hours in my house, alone.
Work
The deal with freelancing is that when it rains, it pours. Not only have I begun teaching for Large Online University, but I have three freelance projects queued up as well. Where were these projects when I was desperate for work and not planning on moving anytime soon, just four months ago? I have taken all of them on because we need the money, because I want to work and enjoy working, and because I am a complete and total masochist. The timing of all these projects could not possibly be worse, but it's also forced me to put some thought into getting childcare help beyond what my older relatives are capable of. They come over a couple times a week for around two hours to help out with the kids, but because they're in their 80s, they can't watch all three kids at once, which means I still need to be visible and watching one or more of the kids (more often than not, the twins). On the rare occasion that I need to make a quick 15-minute run to the store solo, I come home and all hell has broken loose. It's too much for them (hell, my kids are too much for ME most of the time).
I have the number of a friend's babysitter's friend (follow that?) and I am thinking of having her over to watch the kids for one or two hours a few afternoons a week. I'm also contemplating dropping off one twin each at my grandma's and at my great aunt's one day each week on a day Isabella is in preschool for the morning. The only problem is that they live about 15-20 minutes from me, and by the time I did the drop off and drove all the way back home, I'd have an hour before Isabella would need to be picked up. But then we would come home and then she'd be in her room for her "Not A Nap" for 2 hours, so I could work during that time (as opposed to listening to the babies take turns screaming off and on for 2 hours, which is what I do now during their "naptimes").
I'm still working on a plan, but something's got to give because I cannot take on as much work as I have and cram it into the cracks of my day like I've been doing so far. I need childcare help, and I need it now.
Me
I am a frazzled, exhausted, hot mess. My mom took one look at this photo from Halloween, which I had posted on FB, and immediately called me to tell me I looked like sh*t (in not so many words) and to ask me all the motherly questions as to whether I was getting enough sleep, rest, etc. Oh, hahahahahahahahhaha! Sleep and rest? What the hell are those?
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Granted, I do look like hell, but I've become so accustomed to looking exactly like I look in this photo (12-inch-deep dark circles under my eyes and a "I-had-5-hours-of-sleep-and-12-cups-of-coffee-this-morning" expression on my face) that it's completely normal to me. In fact, I think I have to look back to 2005 (pre-Isabella) to see a decent photo of myself.
As you might imagine, I have been working late into the evening to stay on pace with my deadlines. This is the only time of my day when I know that I will not be interrupted by needy, screaming children. I have tried to beat them awake in the mornings by getting up at 6am and trying to work then, but each time I've done this, someone is up shortly after.
It's like they are purposefully trying to thwart my plans.
I may try to switch up my schedule by going to bed earlier and then getting up around 5am, but I can barely get up at 6am. Why, you ask?
Well, Luci has been getting up around 3am and crying for over an hour off and on every night for the last week or so. The hubs attempts to get her back to sleep (he can settle her down and I cannot, because she wants only one thing from me, and it's something she cannot get from him, if you catch my drift), but she wakes up and starts screaming again the second she's placed back in her crib.
I have no idea WTF her problem is, but when Mama goes to bed at midnight, Mama does not want to be awakened 3 hours later every.single.night.
Luci and Nicholas have had colds for the past week-and-a-half, making them even more challenging and needy and whiny than they normally are. By the time the hubs gets home each night, I am damn near suicidal and ready to run far, far away.
My grandma was over the other day, gushing over Isabella and the twins as she normally does, and I told her I cannot wait until the twins turn 3. I am not a baby person, and I cannot stand the level of need L & N have for me right now. It's suffocating. She, of course, told me that I will miss their babyhoods when they are Isabella's age, and maybe I will.
But two years from now, Isabella will be in kindergarten (I'm crossing my fingers that my district switches to full-day) and the twins will be in preschool (I am totally opting for the 3-day plan for them), and then?
Then, I can have my life back. I might miss their open-mouthed, slobbery baby kisses and the way they always want to be held, but I will not miss the crushing responsibility and constant attention they require.
Until that point, I see a lot of boxes staying unpacked, a lot of late nights, and a complete dearth of time for myself in my future.
I am busier now than I've ever been in my life.
The House
We are moved in, but there are still unpacked boxes everywhere. The kitchen is settled, which I suppose is among the most important areas of the house, but there are unorganized toys everywhere, which makes me extremely anxious every time I see them.
This is the view from the cutout window in my kitchen. And yes, the family room/play area always looks like this, and more often, it looks worse than this.
The kids' rooms essentially have their cribs (and Isabella has her bed) in them, a dresser, and the all-important white noise machine, and that's about it. I need to do some major unpacking and rearranging of furniture among the three rooms (for example: Isabella no longer needs her combo changing table/dresser, so she needs to swap dressers with Luci. And Nicholas' clothes are still in the dresser we had in the twins' room at the old house, which is located in Luci's room). These are only two of the several dozen little things that need to get done, but for which I have no time whatsoever.
There are walls that need painting, a rug that needs professional steaming, two fireplaces that need cleaning and many, many other projects. None are getting done anytime soon.
Most depressing for me is that my office is still in boxes and not set up. I finally have a designated space of my own, and yet being in that room causes me a great deal of stress since it's full of clutter.
The view from my desk calms me down a bit, or at least it does when I'm not being summoned away from it 400,000 times every hour.
I despise living in a state of chaos. Of course, that's pretty much defined my life for the past year, but moving into this house and then not having the time to settle it because of having three non-sleeping kids around all day long and having tons of work to do (more on this soon) means that every time I enter a room, I see a project that needs completing or a box that needs unpacking. What I would not give for 24 hours in my house, alone.
Work
The deal with freelancing is that when it rains, it pours. Not only have I begun teaching for Large Online University, but I have three freelance projects queued up as well. Where were these projects when I was desperate for work and not planning on moving anytime soon, just four months ago? I have taken all of them on because we need the money, because I want to work and enjoy working, and because I am a complete and total masochist. The timing of all these projects could not possibly be worse, but it's also forced me to put some thought into getting childcare help beyond what my older relatives are capable of. They come over a couple times a week for around two hours to help out with the kids, but because they're in their 80s, they can't watch all three kids at once, which means I still need to be visible and watching one or more of the kids (more often than not, the twins). On the rare occasion that I need to make a quick 15-minute run to the store solo, I come home and all hell has broken loose. It's too much for them (hell, my kids are too much for ME most of the time).
I have the number of a friend's babysitter's friend (follow that?) and I am thinking of having her over to watch the kids for one or two hours a few afternoons a week. I'm also contemplating dropping off one twin each at my grandma's and at my great aunt's one day each week on a day Isabella is in preschool for the morning. The only problem is that they live about 15-20 minutes from me, and by the time I did the drop off and drove all the way back home, I'd have an hour before Isabella would need to be picked up. But then we would come home and then she'd be in her room for her "Not A Nap" for 2 hours, so I could work during that time (as opposed to listening to the babies take turns screaming off and on for 2 hours, which is what I do now during their "naptimes").
I'm still working on a plan, but something's got to give because I cannot take on as much work as I have and cram it into the cracks of my day like I've been doing so far. I need childcare help, and I need it now.
Me
I am a frazzled, exhausted, hot mess. My mom took one look at this photo from Halloween, which I had posted on FB, and immediately called me to tell me I looked like sh*t (in not so many words) and to ask me all the motherly questions as to whether I was getting enough sleep, rest, etc. Oh, hahahahahahahahhaha! Sleep and rest? What the hell are those?
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Granted, I do look like hell, but I've become so accustomed to looking exactly like I look in this photo (12-inch-deep dark circles under my eyes and a "I-had-5-hours-of-sleep-and-12-cups-of-coffee-this-morning" expression on my face) that it's completely normal to me. In fact, I think I have to look back to 2005 (pre-Isabella) to see a decent photo of myself.As you might imagine, I have been working late into the evening to stay on pace with my deadlines. This is the only time of my day when I know that I will not be interrupted by needy, screaming children. I have tried to beat them awake in the mornings by getting up at 6am and trying to work then, but each time I've done this, someone is up shortly after.
It's like they are purposefully trying to thwart my plans.
I may try to switch up my schedule by going to bed earlier and then getting up around 5am, but I can barely get up at 6am. Why, you ask?
Well, Luci has been getting up around 3am and crying for over an hour off and on every night for the last week or so. The hubs attempts to get her back to sleep (he can settle her down and I cannot, because she wants only one thing from me, and it's something she cannot get from him, if you catch my drift), but she wakes up and starts screaming again the second she's placed back in her crib.
I have no idea WTF her problem is, but when Mama goes to bed at midnight, Mama does not want to be awakened 3 hours later every.single.night.
Luci and Nicholas have had colds for the past week-and-a-half, making them even more challenging and needy and whiny than they normally are. By the time the hubs gets home each night, I am damn near suicidal and ready to run far, far away.
My grandma was over the other day, gushing over Isabella and the twins as she normally does, and I told her I cannot wait until the twins turn 3. I am not a baby person, and I cannot stand the level of need L & N have for me right now. It's suffocating. She, of course, told me that I will miss their babyhoods when they are Isabella's age, and maybe I will.
But two years from now, Isabella will be in kindergarten (I'm crossing my fingers that my district switches to full-day) and the twins will be in preschool (I am totally opting for the 3-day plan for them), and then?
Then, I can have my life back. I might miss their open-mouthed, slobbery baby kisses and the way they always want to be held, but I will not miss the crushing responsibility and constant attention they require.
Until that point, I see a lot of boxes staying unpacked, a lot of late nights, and a complete dearth of time for myself in my future.
Halloween in the House of Chaos and Insanity was a good one.
Isabella and I started the day making these Pumpkin Pie Bites. The fabulous Kristen (mom to adorable twins herself) posted about these on FB, and they were super easy to make. Our friends from the old 'hood who came to visit us and see the new house on Halloween afternoon really liked them.
Isabella's joie de virve just emanates from every pore of her being, doesn't it?
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After "naps," we dressed up the kiddos and began our annual Halloween road show to my grandma's, my aunt's, the hubs' mother's, and the hubs' father's houses. Next year we're issuing an edict: if you want to see the kids in their costumes, you know where we live.
Initially, Isabella was opposed to being The Cat in the Hat. Then we filled her head with things like, "The Cat in the Hat is the BOSS of the Things" and "The Cat in the Hat is totally in charge of EVERYTHING," which appealed greatly to the little benevolent dictator, and she acquiesced.
Isabella's costume was from Target. The twins' Thing 1 and Thing 2 attire was homemade, insomuch as you can call red sleepers from The Gap (thanks for all your suggestions about where to find these a few weeks ago, and thanks to Jenny for buying these for them!), hats made by my great aunt, and adhesive felt circles with "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" hand-written by me "homemade."
In the spirit of Halloween, Isabella took a break from steamrolling the twins into the fibers of our carpet to pose for a photo with Luci.
Afterwards, she promptly stole her snack.
Once the road trip was over, we headed to our old neighborhood (because we will not accept the fact that we don't live there anymore, Oh No We Won't!) to meet up with some friends and go trick-or-treating. It was a Dark and Stormy Night, windy, cold, and starting to rain. I didn't plan on staying out long (especially with the twins) anyway, but the weather cut the trick-or-treating time down even more. We hit the houses of most of our favorite neighbors, including our fantastic former next door neighbors. We spent awhile talking with them in their front yard and gazing longingly at our house next door, while simultaneously plotting the best time to return later that night to slash the tires of its new owners.
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The twins? Didn't know what to make of Halloween. I'm thinking perhaps all their brain cells were frozen into a state of inertia.
Isabella came home with a sugar high...
Isabella and I started the day making these Pumpkin Pie Bites. The fabulous Kristen (mom to adorable twins herself) posted about these on FB, and they were super easy to make. Our friends from the old 'hood who came to visit us and see the new house on Halloween afternoon really liked them.
Isabella's joie de virve just emanates from every pore of her being, doesn't it?
After "naps," we dressed up the kiddos and began our annual Halloween road show to my grandma's, my aunt's, the hubs' mother's, and the hubs' father's houses. Next year we're issuing an edict: if you want to see the kids in their costumes, you know where we live.
Initially, Isabella was opposed to being The Cat in the Hat. Then we filled her head with things like, "The Cat in the Hat is the BOSS of the Things" and "The Cat in the Hat is totally in charge of EVERYTHING," which appealed greatly to the little benevolent dictator, and she acquiesced.
Isabella's costume was from Target. The twins' Thing 1 and Thing 2 attire was homemade, insomuch as you can call red sleepers from The Gap (thanks for all your suggestions about where to find these a few weeks ago, and thanks to Jenny for buying these for them!), hats made by my great aunt, and adhesive felt circles with "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" hand-written by me "homemade."
In the spirit of Halloween, Isabella took a break from steamrolling the twins into the fibers of our carpet to pose for a photo with Luci.
Afterwards, she promptly stole her snack.
Once the road trip was over, we headed to our old neighborhood (because we will not accept the fact that we don't live there anymore, Oh No We Won't!) to meet up with some friends and go trick-or-treating. It was a Dark and Stormy Night, windy, cold, and starting to rain. I didn't plan on staying out long (especially with the twins) anyway, but the weather cut the trick-or-treating time down even more. We hit the houses of most of our favorite neighbors, including our fantastic former next door neighbors. We spent awhile talking with them in their front yard and gazing longingly at our house next door, while simultaneously plotting the best time to return later that night to slash the tires of its new owners.
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The twins? Didn't know what to make of Halloween. I'm thinking perhaps all their brain cells were frozen into a state of inertia.
We were home by 7, and I quickly put the twins to bed. Isabella had a blast handing out candy to the kids in our new neighborhood (you know, the one in which we did not trick-or-treat).
The next morning, she kept telling us that "kids were trick-or-treating in the middle of the night!" because we told her that it was a special night and she could stay up late to pass out candy.
Isabella came home with a sugar high...
Exhibit A:
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but I may not even have to employ Amy's fabulous suggestion of the Sugar Plum Fairy to remove the vast quantities of candy Isabella scored not so much from the houses where we trick-or-treated, but from the relatives we visited before starting. It seems she's all but completely forgotten about the candy, and has only asked for a piece once.
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but I may not even have to employ Amy's fabulous suggestion of the Sugar Plum Fairy to remove the vast quantities of candy Isabella scored not so much from the houses where we trick-or-treated, but from the relatives we visited before starting. It seems she's all but completely forgotten about the candy, and has only asked for a piece once.
I ran to the store this morning to pick up a few things I forgot during my weekly grocery run on Friday. I immediately experienced a panic attack when I saw two store employees stringing lights on a freaking Christmas tree in the store's entranceway.
53 days to go.
Frankly, I don't think I've ever looked better.
Happy Halloween from my ghoulish gang to you and yours.
Happy Halloween from my ghoulish gang to you and yours.
The following is what occurred when I attempted to take the quintessential fall-and-pumpkins photo of one three-year-old and two 12-month-olds. Honestly, after a year of this, I really should know better than to even try.
I had slightly better luck when I separated Isabella from the twins.
I have nothing witty to say about this one of Isabella. Considering she is photo-phobic 98% of the time and generally runs from the camera screaming, this is a pretty decent photo of her.
This is probably the best of the bunch. No one is looking at the camera, but no one is crying, tipping over, or crawling away either.
One of these days, it will be possible to take a decent photo of my three children together. In the meantime, I think it's high time I learned to use Photoshop. The annual Christmas photo shoot is coming soon, after all.
I had slightly better luck when I separated Isabella from the twins.
I managed to capture this, where Nicholas looks great! Sadly, Luci looks...drunk.
Then there's this one, where Nicholas is either declaring the pumpkin to be tres magnifique, or is trying to figure out how to flip his sister the bird.
I have nothing witty to say about this one of Isabella. Considering she is photo-phobic 98% of the time and generally runs from the camera screaming, this is a pretty decent photo of her.
This is probably the best of the bunch. No one is looking at the camera, but no one is crying, tipping over, or crawling away either.
One of these days, it will be possible to take a decent photo of my three children together. In the meantime, I think it's high time I learned to use Photoshop. The annual Christmas photo shoot is coming soon, after all. 
If you've read here long enough, you know my extended family thinks I am Captain of the Food Police. Quick refresher for any of you new to IW: I feed Isabella and the babies mostly organic food, sweets and treats are not an everyday thing but instead a once-and-awhile thing in my house, and healthy nutrition is a big deal to me. I am more concerned (those related to me would say obsessed) with what my kids eat than most people I know, but I am also completely unapologetic about it. I don't judge the way other people feed their kids, and I expect the same respect from them (of course, I receive nothing of the sort from my own family, but I digress).So, it was interesting to read this article, which Sasha recently posted to FB. Sasha mentioned in an email to me that most of the people in her city (she lives in Boston) don't let their kids go trick-or-treating, and if they do, they abscond all but five pieces of their candy. I must admit that I laughed when I read her email, because honestly, I think I ought to live in Boston, because Bostonians sound like my kind of people.
Now, of course I am letting Isabella go trick-or-treating. I did last year (the first year she was old enough to really grasp the concept) and she had a blast. I would never deny her that experience. But I will also readily admit to giving away 95% of her candy to the hubs and his students. I let her have one piece of candy a day for a week or so, and then that was it. She didn't ask for it, and frankly, at barely two-years-old, she didn't even miss it when it was gone. I realize this may be an unpopular opinion, but I don't see any reason for a two-year-old to have more than one or two pieces of candy a day.
I realize I am not going to be able to get away with quite the same degree of subterfuge as I did last year. At three, she is very aware of the things I buy when I go food shopping, and our new house has many more kitchen cabinets than did our old house, so she knows where food is located now too. I know she will ask for her candy, and I know she will not always like my answer. But I plan on handling her Halloween booty the same way this year. She can have a piece a day for a week or so, and then the rest is being given away. If only people gave away cakes and muffins instead of candy. I don't like chocolate, so a bag of Halloween candy is virtually no temptation at all for me.
The Babble article offers a lot of great suggestions for dealing with Halloween candy in little-to-no-candy households, including talking about Halloween more in terms of costumes, parties, and pumpkins than in terms of candy, limiting trick-or-treating time, and educating your kids about why candy is not good for their bodies. Since Isabella is obsessed with her dentist, I plan on telling her that Dr. Kelly says that candy isn't healthy for her teeth.
Am I the Grinch of Halloween? Maybe. My family certainly thinks so. But I also want all three of my kids to grow up with healthy eating habits, something I did not, mainly because of my childhood illness and overall picky ways.
I'm curious. What is the Halloween candy policy in your house?
Isabella has had a wonderful month, in what has most decidedly not been a wonderful month for the rest of us, what with the stress of the move, my new teaching gig starting, and the everyday insanity of life with twins and a three-year-old. She has her moments, as all kids do, but seriously, she has breezed through the transitions to preschool, to her new house, her new room, and the various other small upheavals that have been thrown her way.
Thank you, baby girl. Mommy needed this.
Isabella loves preschool. Actually, "love" isn't strong enough of a word. She adores it. She's excited to go every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and barely notices when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom because she's so absorbed with rolling Play-doh or threading string through cardboard. When I pick her up from school, she comes running toward me (dismissal is via the playground) yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" with a huge smile on her face, and she cannot wait to show me the art projects in her bag. I am kicking myself for not enrolling her in the three-day program. She would have done just fine going three days instead of two. We'll definitely do three (or more) days next year.
Her new room (which is palatial in comparison to her old room and also when compared to any bedroom that I've ever called my own-I think it was actually the master bedroom at one time, and my bedroom was added on at some point) is lavender, and Isabella keeps telling me she does not like lavender and wants the room painted red. She is definitely more of a primary colors girl than a pastel girl. But painting her bedroom red scares me a little. I'm planning to paint our living room and kitchen brick red, but I don't think this color will work for a bedroom. We'll have to work on a compromise (not pink) so she can have a room color she likes and I don't have to shade my eyes every time I walk into her bedroom.
Drawing and painting are definitely her passions, and it's been very cool to see her work evolve over the past year from scribbles to lines to circles to actual, recognizable objects. She draws a pretty decent sun, dogs with exceptionally long tails, and even faces with eyes and mouths. And she is very, very proud of the paintings and projects she creates in preschool. Isabella will not let me give any of them away, even to her most favorite relatives. She wants each of them mounted on a corkboard on the back of the basement door. I want to get something like this and hang it on a wall in my kitchen. Anyone ever do something like this for their kids' artwork? Or something different? Now accepting suggestions!
We've had a lot of fun doing fall-related activities, including apple-picking, visiting some local farms for cider and doughnuts, and a hayride to a pumpkin patch for gourd-and-pumpkin- picking with her preschool peeps. Isabella's had a blast, and I've decided that three is my most favorite age yet. She's having so much fun, learning a ton, (Isabella: "Are there seeds in gourds like there are in pumpkins?" Me: "Uhhhh...let me get back to you, okay?), and is fun to be around (except when she pulls out every bedtime procrastination tool in the book).
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Current Likes: Hide-and-Seek, "dance parties," and made-up stories about her dentist
Current Dislikes: Grapes, sharing the twins' toys with their rightful owners
Thank you, baby girl. Mommy needed this.
Isabella loves preschool. Actually, "love" isn't strong enough of a word. She adores it. She's excited to go every Tuesday and Thursday morning, and barely notices when it's time for me to leave her in her classroom because she's so absorbed with rolling Play-doh or threading string through cardboard. When I pick her up from school, she comes running toward me (dismissal is via the playground) yelling, "Mommy! Mommy!" with a huge smile on her face, and she cannot wait to show me the art projects in her bag. I am kicking myself for not enrolling her in the three-day program. She would have done just fine going three days instead of two. We'll definitely do three (or more) days next year.
Her new room (which is palatial in comparison to her old room and also when compared to any bedroom that I've ever called my own-I think it was actually the master bedroom at one time, and my bedroom was added on at some point) is lavender, and Isabella keeps telling me she does not like lavender and wants the room painted red. She is definitely more of a primary colors girl than a pastel girl. But painting her bedroom red scares me a little. I'm planning to paint our living room and kitchen brick red, but I don't think this color will work for a bedroom. We'll have to work on a compromise (not pink) so she can have a room color she likes and I don't have to shade my eyes every time I walk into her bedroom.
Drawing and painting are definitely her passions, and it's been very cool to see her work evolve over the past year from scribbles to lines to circles to actual, recognizable objects. She draws a pretty decent sun, dogs with exceptionally long tails, and even faces with eyes and mouths. And she is very, very proud of the paintings and projects she creates in preschool. Isabella will not let me give any of them away, even to her most favorite relatives. She wants each of them mounted on a corkboard on the back of the basement door. I want to get something like this and hang it on a wall in my kitchen. Anyone ever do something like this for their kids' artwork? Or something different? Now accepting suggestions!
We've had a lot of fun doing fall-related activities, including apple-picking, visiting some local farms for cider and doughnuts, and a hayride to a pumpkin patch for gourd-and-pumpkin- picking with her preschool peeps. Isabella's had a blast, and I've decided that three is my most favorite age yet. She's having so much fun, learning a ton, (Isabella: "Are there seeds in gourds like there are in pumpkins?" Me: "Uhhhh...let me get back to you, okay?), and is fun to be around (except when she pulls out every bedtime procrastination tool in the book).
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I only wish I had more time to spend one-on-one with her. The twins are so high-needs, and now that they're basically mobile, I can't leave them unattended for much longer than 30 seconds, so they're getting 90% of my attention.
It's my goal this month to find time for her. Yes, my life is insanely busy with work, unpacking, and trying to keep my head above water, but as so many of you have told me, my kids are only going to be little for a very short time. And I need to enjoy the essence of my amazing daughter as much as I can while she's still willing to let me.
Current Likes: Hide-and-Seek, "dance parties," and made-up stories about her dentist
Current Dislikes: Grapes, sharing the twins' toys with their rightful owners
