Bobbing: June 2, 2014

Happy Memorial Day from the Keathley triplets! Devon's just a bit in the background to make them all look the same size...

This unpublished one shows the opposite effect.  Devon probably has about one more year until he is no longer the recognizable oldest.

We celebrated Memorial Day with patriotic popsicles and some outside time.  If you're wondering what it looks like to be a baseball "natural", just look at the way the girls are holding their bats. 

Devon amuses himself while the girls nap and I try to get stuff done by doing Bible App on my phone.  Sometimes I find that he's instead been taking selfies of me, the house, or often his own thumb.  Yesterday he posted an album of nine randomly selected pictures to Facebook.  It got nine likes and a comment before I even knew it was there. "Say cheese, Momdom!" he quips, lifting the phone and snapping a thoughtful shot.  These pictures are glimpses of life through his eyes.  Last night he snapped a bunch of stills and then tried to take a video of himself talking to Grammy on Skype.  He didn't turn on the video setting though...

His other new trick is nicknames.  He favors rhymes, like "Melina-Medina".  Carrie is "Carrie-Melina-Medina".  He still can't tell his sisters apart.  I'm not sure he's entirely sure they're different people.  But I am the one who gets most of the creative load of his nicknames.  His favorite is "Momdom", but he also favors "Mary Popcorn."

Mommy: Devon, Finish your dinner.
Devon: You got it, Momdom!
Mommy: Why am I Momdom?
Devon: Because that's your name!
Mommy: Then what is Daddy's nickname?
Devon: Daddom. 

A few times a week I give in to naptime temptation, put on a movie to keep Devon immobile, and rest in Devon's room since Carrie sleeps in mine. 

I used to call this The Bermuda Triangle.  Now that my kids are never asleep at the same time between the hours of 7am and 9pm I don't call it anything.  When they all passed out on the way home from our second zoo trip I had to document it.  Then I put up the sunshade on Devon's side.  Twenty minutes later we passed the outlet mall and Craig sat in the car with the kids while I shopped alone for thirty minutes.  My current love language is the little known sixth one that never made it into any of Gary Chapman's books.

"Leave Me Alone".  

I am never alone.

On Wednesday Devon burned the end of his nose on a light bulb.  He's never been one to take Mommy's word for things, so "That's hot, don't get too close" didn't make a difference, as usual.  On Thursday, Mommy decided to give Devon his summer buzz cut.  Cool, cheap, and excellent for nightly tick check weather. This caused some sibling issues.

Carrie: I want a buzz cut!
Melina: I want the buzz buzz to tickle my neck!

Girlies had to settle for painted toenails.  This after they were very impressed by Mommy's.  They asked at least forty times for their toenails to be blue like mine.  I lobbied for a pale purple that will hopefully fade gracefully.  They love the painted nails, but it has caused some sibling problems as well.

Devon: I want my toenails painted, Momdom!
Mommy: Painted toes are for girlies, Devon, just like buzz cuts are special for boys.
Devon: You can paint them blue.  That's a boy color!
Mommy: No, that's not how it works...
Devon:  Look, Mommy!  My toenails are a color!  Who painted them this color?  Did you do it?
Mommy: No.
Devon:  Well, then, who did?
Mommy: God.

We had a long talk about "girl perks" and "boy perks".  I think we may be clear on that...

 

The days are getting nice, so we're enjoying outdoor time.  One unexpected development is the girls mastering balance and steering on Devon's 4-8 year old bike.  I'm wondering if I'm brave enough to get Carrie and Melina similar bikes for their birthdays.  I'm not sure the world is ready for our three kids in big bikes...

Yes, the find of a pine cone really is that exciting.  And there are lots of pine cones in our yard.  This picture shows off the custom pruning job that Craig did on our beautiful but up-till-now neglected Japanese Maple.  Last week it touched the ground all around it in an amorphous blob about six feet larger in circumference.  Now we can see the rest of the bed.  The next big job is clearing out the debris, redefining the bed, and getting some plants and bark in there.  The bunnies are clearly miffed at us.

As the kids pop in and out of the garage to get a helmet or a digging toy I can see evidence of some small organizational projects we've been able to accomplish over the past few weeks.  Month five in the new house turned out to be the one where everything started to turn around.  Early on, the most urgent projects were also the most expensive. 

The puppy-chewed stairs that Mommy called a broken leg waiting to happen are now replaced.  That marks the last item on the list of things that could be considered safety risks.  We can now turn our attention (in the rare occasions we have a few minutes to spare) to making our lives easier and more organized or fixing something that just plain annoys us.  Last week I tackled a patch of peeling paint in the garage, a relic from the days where the dryer vented right there.  Scraping, resealing, and repainting cost $15 and took less than a half hour!  That's my kind of house fix: fast and cheap.  Something I can do to make me feel like I've accomplished something with my day.

I'm thrilled beyond words with my new pantry, except that then I read the first half of this sentence and realize how truly boring and domestic my life has become.  But, really!  I should've taken a before picture of the tiny, sagging boards that were supposed to hold all our household food.  And it's not like my three agile children don't get wise to the fact that all the treats in the house are kept on the top shelf and want to climb those shelves like a jungle gym to plumb their chocolatey secrets.  I no longer have to have a panic attack when one of them crosses to that part of the kitchen.  It's more than that, though.  It's as if someone accessed the part of my brain where "ideal pantry configuration" concept is stored and somehow made it come to life!  I have bags of unopened cereal stored behind the open ones!  I have a place to put a whole flat of juice boxes!  I am so happy!

I am so boring.

And yes, for the first time in what feels like months we have food in the house!  The fix was looming and got put off two or three times because of scheduling conflicts.  I cheerfully finished up every last can of corn and boxed cheesy mac, refusing to buy more because I knew I'd have to take it out of the old pantry and store it in the guest bedroom for a few days.  The unpainted picture represents--gasp--all the unrefrigerated food we had in the house at the time!!

 The kids have window coverings in their rooms.  The girls slept in until 8:15 this morning.  Ahhhh....  We're also replacing window screens one at a time, as they were missing when we moved in.  Mommy was ecstatic to learn that our windows open from the top as well as the bottom, as I could totally see Devon popping his screen out, leaping out the window, and running across the roofline of the garage just for fun... 

Craig says I never go wrong with house decisions, but there's a first time for everything.  Last month we replaced our leaking kitchen faucet with a fancy one with "touch technology".  It immediately became the bane of my existence.  It sounded so easy: touch the faucet to turn it on and off.  That ended up being the problem.  Everything turned the water on and off.  Swiveling the faucet to wash a dish.  Letting go of it after turning it on.  Water from the faucet hitting the sink and spraying back up on the faucet.  The side of the hose nozzle touching the faucet as it clicks back into place.  It took eight taps to fill the coffeepot every morning.  As if this momma isn't already trying to keep her sanity some days!!!  I called Delta to complain and they asked why I didn't just take it back to the store if I hated it so much.

So I did.  I went with Pfister for the new one, though.  I wasn't impressed by the way Delta threw Home Depot under the bus by expecting them to process the return of a very used but defective item.

This time we DIY'ed it to save on a plumber.  Mostly one night when the kids were in bed, although we did some leak checks they found very entertaining. 

 

We've been waiting for the season's first roses with great anticipation, only to find that the large bush by our doorstep was only a wild rose that probably grew up from a sucker.  We decided to pull it out, given that it was a very inconvenient location for a thorny bush.  

If you're wondering about the odd post title, it's the hope that our family is the cork that is finally starting to shoot back up to the surface of the water. This picture shows the kids enjoying a lemonade slush in the bath.  One of what facebook would call my "multiples life hacks" is to let them eat something messy, like a popsicle or a pudding cup, already in the bathtub since that's where the party's going to end up anyway. 

We've done a lot of the things that needed doing around here.  The ones that are left are not quite so looming and stressful.  We have some friends.  We're looking forward to the girls' third birthday when we can throw them a real party.  We've found a church.  Craig's parents have given us a concrete date for a July visit so I am anticipating sitting across an otherwise empty table with my husband at a restaurant without the kids! 

I go days at a time feeling like I'm keeping my head above water.  

Countdown to Preschool: May 27, 2014

There we are, all buckled in and ready to go somewhere.  Where, exactly?  Well, we go lots of places lately.  We're anticipating becoming a preschool family in late August, with the promise of lots of stimulation and new experiences for Number One Son.  In the meantime, giving him and his not-too-much-younger sissies enough to occupy themselves from six in the morning until eight at night is a tall order.  Yes, we're a stay-at-home family, but lately one outing a day isn't enough so many times we're contemplating two.

That isn't to say that we never stay home.  Playroom mornings are becoming increasingly fun and peaceful as the kids venture more into the age where they are all at a similar stage and able to play together.  They make food in the kitchen.  They play hide and seek.  They are even pioneering some complicated imaginary games, like one where somebody is running around and can't slow down.  The other two catch up and bear hug, causing them to slow down and resulting in much thanks. 

We try table time.  We try.  It's usually a fast ten minutes before everything is on the floor and the kids are bored and ready to move on.  I blame the pinball effect: it's really hard to engage a single child in learning a task while the other two can be up and needing attention at any moment.  Devon, especially, needs help holding a crayon or scissors, and since ne's a lefty I don't really know how to give it to him!

The main reason for the outings is to keep everyone off the couch and TV to a minimum.  My minimum is more than I ever dreamed my maximum would be.

Thankfully, the girls still nap most days for a solid two hours.  We're reluctant to mess that one up, so we try to plan a big morning, enforce quiet hours in the middle of the day, and then possibly have another outing planned to occupy them and make "THAT time of day" go more easily.

We've taken a lot of mall outings lately.  If I'm lucky enough to have a friend along, we can even take turns popping into a store for five minutes for a quick return before unloading our entourage, playing in the play place, and having lunch in the food court.  Right now the girls walk pretty well on their leashes and Devon stays close by.

Chick-fil-A is still a favorite stop.  They take such good care of parents, even high maintenance ones like us.  My routine never fails to confuse the afternoon staff, but they always handle us with such grace and patience.

1.  Order and pay in the drive thru.  Explain that I want to do Mom Valet but NOT have my order filled right away.  Take receipt to show them later.
2.  Park, walk in with three in tow.  Go potty.  Present receipt and ask for half the food on it: our ice creams and my Coke.  Sit and eat with the kids.
3.  Kids ask to play in the play place.  If they follow the rules, I watch from outside the window at Devon's request.  If not, I sit in there with them and referee.
4.  Daddy arrives from work, we sit down, claim the rest of our food, and eat.
5.  If all is still going well, we play again.
6.  Our playplace-to-car extractions are the stuff of youtube videos.  Thankfully, the last two have gone pretty well on Devon's end, with him actually putting on his shoes and walking out without needing a hand laid on him.  Amazing!  Hopefully that means it's going to get better.

Shortly after we joined the YMCA, we tried the bounce room and decided our kids couldn't handle it.  They were too young and fragile to navigate the equipment with all the rowdy older kids.  What a difference a few months makes!  Now our kids ARE the rowdy older kids.  We tried it last week and it was the best thing ever!!!  On the miracle days that Devon naps, two hours in the bounce houses are just what he needs to be in bed asleep before ten pm.

We still go to play group on Thursdays, sometimes with "Miss Karolina and her Widdle Tiny Baby" (what the kids call Baby Victoria).  It's SO nice to have a friend to come along, with the safety in numbers that it brings.  I can potty ONE child in a public restroom without having to round up the other two.  BLISS!!!!!

We're over the winter outing drought and had a wonderful trip to the Philly Zoo for Craig's birthday.  We were prepared to be impressed by the oldest zoo in America.  We found it very reasonable (membership is the same price as the much smaller Brevard Zoo in Florida and even covers parking fees) and very small kid friendly.

The kids enjoyed the replica of an ant tunnel and an insect exhibit with a clear bubble that the kids could enter to be in the middle.

By far the coolest thing was the wandering peacocks, although I think we were far more impressed by them than they were of us.  The best thing about the zoo is that we saw less than half of what they had to offer and all our visits for the rest of the year are free now!  So cool!

Ahhhhh.  This is the main reason for all the activity.  Carrie and Melina are turning into toddlers after Devon's own heart: full of energy and not very sleepy.  We try for lots of time outdoors, but with two in the wandering phase you can't just keep up by following.  We have a small but growing list of things we can do and so we do them.  Hopefully soon we'll add many more.