A little bit of Noah - what he says

You brought someone with you today?

Yeah

Well who is this?

Its my wittle sister.

What's her name?

Noah.

No silly boy she wants to know what your sister's name is not yours.

Oh her name is butter-bean.

Yeah, buddy that's her nickname, but tell her what her real name is.

It's Mar-giddy.

Well I tried, but Meredith is still ta-ta and Margot will forever be Butter-bean or Mar-giddy.

Spring Break - Lessons Learned

The sand is not my friend.

My kids love the sand.

The laundry doesn't take a week off too.

School takes up a lot of time.

Preschoolers do not get the term "sleeping in."

Neither do toddlers or babies.

Eating a picnic lunch at the beach is not nearly as fun as it sounds.

Other peoples children are a great source of entertainment for your children, almost like a babysitter.  However you will not feel anymore relaxed that day, then if you had to entertain them all day by yourself.

Being a mom is exhausting.

I never realized as a child that someone actually packed all the stuff we needed, kept drinks cold, fixed dinner, grocery shopped or all the other things that made my spring break vacations a vacation.

The beach is a fabulous place to be.

Call during Spring Break sucks.

The gulf is cold in March.  Very cold. 

Kids do not have an internal thermometer like adults.

I will never again go to the beach without my husband until everyone can carry their own shit, wipe their own ass, and feed themselves.

Kids have no concept on how much work it is for you to take them, they had an ABSOLUTE blast and so did I, once I was upacked.  Thank you so much Leslie!

Going somewhere with the older two is getting much easier.  Going somewhere with just Margot is easy.  Going somewhere with all three is like carting the circus around with you.

You are hard pressed to find a waitress wanting to take the table with 3 adults and 7 kids.

Sipping a strawberry abita in the afternoon with a friend while your children run wild is a spring break must.

I'm convinced if my house was smaller it would be less to clean and would always be neater.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Babies learning to crawl will do it at the beach and crawl off the blanket to load a fistful of sand into their mouth.

After they gag and choke on it and you fish it all out and clean them all up, they will inevitably do it AGAIN and AGAIN.

Babies can nap anywhere.

Josh does a whole lot more than I give him credit for.

Quantity does not equal quality.

Attempting Panera at noon with three kids by yourself is impossible. 

Three kids needing to poop in a public restroom at the same time is going to happen on spring break. 

Drive thrus were made for me. 

Traveling between meals is even better.

Unpacking is not easier than packing you can just take as long as you would like to do it, that is the advantage.

What lessons did you learn this spring break?

Beach Babe

Have you ever seen anything more peaceful?

Brownie Jane goes to school.

Meredith's school had a pet show last week.  My girl was so excited and we signed Brownie up immediately to participate.  Brownie was thrilled.  Preschool with lots of other animals....what dog wouldn't be thrilled.  I made sure Josh took the afternoon off that day to help me with Brownie.  I wasn't braving three tikes and an 80lb dog at a pet show alone...no way.  Have you met my dog?   She is quite the beast.

  Here is Brownie and Josh in her designated area.  Brownie along with the other Big Dogs were assigned a nice spacious, spot in the back.  Geared up and ready to meet some 4 year olds.  Look at her precious name tag.

All the parents arrived a little early with their furry and slimy friends waiting for the preschoolers.  I have to say the animals were very well behaved for having so many different kinds there.  There were big and little dogs, cats and kittens, rabbits, lots of turtles, a fish and a mouse hamster.  Although I agree with Meredith if it is looks like a mouse, than by golly it sure isn't a hamster.

When the preschoolers came out, Meredith found her way right over to Brownie to show all of her friends.  She loves that big, old,  brown, stinky dog.  She is a good dog.

She truly was so proud of her dog.  All her little friends thought Brownie was great too!

Brownie also really enjoyed the pet show.  She loved all the attention given to her by the kids.

The kids ran from animal to animal for basically and hour, it was great.

After Meredith showed off her dog she then ventured out with me to see the other animals.  One of the classes had a pet turtle that they brought to show.

There were also lots of little turtles.  And they were a big hit, literally.  I think they all went home with concussions from being dropped 4 ft to the ground repeatedly.  The poor dad manning that station couldn't keep up with the turtles or the preschoolers.  They went from hand to hand.

The mouse hamster hid in his cage, he was afraid of the wild animals preschoolers.  He saw what the turtles next to him were going through.

Noah loved being in preschool that day too.  He decided he really loved the mouse hamster.  Sorry Noah that's just one boundary I am keeping firm.

It really was a great afternoon, Brownie is already looking forward to her next two visits to preschool. 

A break....spring break to be exact.

Tomorrow I am taking this crew to the beach....minus the husband.  Wish me luck and sanity and an extra pair of hands.  It's gonna be a fun, wild ride.  I can't wait.  The yukon is loaded down and we pull out bright and early.  See you in a few days Josh and internets!

Good news.....no....GREAT news!

You may have previously read that Margot had an MRI scheduled and an appointment with a neurosurgeon.  I know I never specified exactly why that was.  I admit I was a little vague.  Partly because I am the type of person that believes if I don't mention it out loud, or type it for the world to see, it isn't real.  And I did not want it to be real. 

Margot was born with a sacral dimple, it was noted on her birth-day and then followed up on every well baby visit since.  At her 6 month check-up her pediatrician thought it was time we took a closer look at it and referred us on to a neurosurgeon who ordered an MRI before we saw him.  We weren't expecting anything since Margot was moving her legs and had good muscle tone, but we needed to have this test done and see a neurosurgeon to look over scans so that he could rule out spina bifida and spina bifida occulta.  And just reading the possibilities and could be's were scary enough....enough to worry this momma to death.

On Monday Margot had an MRI of her lower spine.  She required anesthesia to do this since she had to remain still for approximately 35 minutes.  She did great, but it was tough to see my baby so groggy and cranky afterwards.  We then had to wait until Thursday to get the results from the neurosurgeon.  The wait was unbearable, probably some of the worst days of my life.  It's amazing the places your mind can take you while you wait.  I needed to know Monday afternoon whether or not something was going on.  Each day my worries grew a new head and got a lot bigger.  By Thursday morning, when I was sitting in the neurosurgeon's office waiting for him to come in with the results I was ready to vomit all over.   It was the longest three days of my life.

 I am happy to say, her results came back perfect.  Her spine is perfect and normal.  It ends right where it is supposed to and her sacral dimple is just that a dimple.  A very deep dimple that we can't see the end of, but it is a dimple and absolutely nothing more.  We are completely grateful and have been celebrating the good news since.  And we thank all of you who have prayed for our sweet baby girl.  There are no words to express how thankful and happy we are and how much we appreciate it.

To celebrate we had cookies and milk Friday night, Margot even got an Oreo. 

Hmmm, what is this?

Dad are you sure this is for me?  Isn't it normally just for the bigs?

Hmmm, it's not so bad.

It taste a little sweet, mom....just like me.

Let me get another little taste.

Noah you do know what you are talking about.....I love it too!

This is some good stuff....I'm going to enter a sugar induced high at any moment!

Mom I may be addicted like my brother....this is really good shit.

Can I have oreos every night?

Milestones

Today my baby girl clapped for the first time.  She sat on the bed with me and the older two tikes and as we belted out three different renditions of "Pat-a-cake"  she clapped.   And we all clapped and cheered and a little part of me was very sad inside, because it is all happening too quickly....not that it was happening....just happening too quickly.  So I'm soaking it in and relishing in every. single. second.

She's clapping and waving......and I'm going to find three very heavy bricks, for three very little heads.