Quotables

We are talking about what we would name the babies if we had had triplet girls.

Me: How about Tess, Bess, and... er... Empress?

Lance: No, Tess, Bess, and Mess!

Spencer: No, I know!  Tess, Bess, and Rudolph!!!

*****

I have put Tess on the kitchen table so I can swaddle her.  (Hey, don't judge - it was the closest clean and flat surface.)  Josh is complaining about being hungry even though he has just finished eating two pieces of Father's Day cake.

Me: Who's hungry?  I know, we can eat Tess!  Nom nom nom...

Lance (teasing): I want her legs!

Me (joining in): I want her tummy!

Josh (in all seriousness): I want her FACE.

Mr. Cole at Two

Mr. Cole had is two year check up the other day.  He weighs 30.5 pounds and is 35.25 inches tall, making him in the 75th percentile for each.

Mr. Cole is still as busy as ever.  He never walks - it's running or nothin', baby.  Just this morning I couldn't help but notice how he looked like a little puppy running around, with feet and chubby arms and legs that just seem a bit too big for him!  It made me want to catch him and hug and kiss and squeeze him to death.  So I did.

Thankfully, Cole has started to accept the fact that Tess is here to stay.  He'll often come up to her and yell "Hi, Tess!" and then give her a kiss.  This of course startles the poor infant, but she's getting used to it.  Just the other day I caught him putting an extra blanket on Tess. 

He was also stealing her pacifier.  For the 295th time that day.

Mr. Cole has finally stopped climbing into the bathroom sink.  I think he got tired of getting stuck up there while I was nursing Tess.  I'd hear him in there babbling away, with an increasingly frequent "Mommy?  Help.  Help, Mommy." when he wanted to get down. 

But this didn't stop him from enjoying a dip in the kitchen sink last night.

Josh has a cut on his foot that's a little infected, so I thought soaking his feet in warm, soapy water might help.  (Plus, Josh refused to take a bath.  Better this than nothing, right?)  Of course Cole had to join in on the action.

Making a mess... a toddler in his natural element.

Apparently bonking your older brother on the head is also natural for a toddler.

Cole's latest trick is to climb into his booster seat and then buckle himself in.

I'm not sure why, but this seems like a good idea to him even though he can't unbuckle himself yet.  I'll be somewhere in the house and hear him hollering "Mommy!  Stuck!  STUCK!!!"  Then I'll unbuckle him and he'll climb out.

Only to repeat it again in 10 minutes.  This seems to be a toddler's MO - do something over and over again, even if you get in trouble for it and even if it gets you stuck.  Especially if it gets you stuck.

Mothers Are Multitaskers

Today I found myself:

• thinking about what I needed to do for dinner tonight
• reading a book to Cole
• putting sunscreen on Josh and Spencer
• nursing Tess

... all at the same time.

I may not have gotten the laundry folded or put away, but I did get a few things done.

To The Busy-Bodies at Wal-Mart

**What I actually said.**

**What I was really thinking.**

Yes, all four of these children are mine.

What woman in their right mind would ever take children who weren't hers to the grocery store?!

Yes, they're all behaving pretty well.  They're pretty good kids.
You should have heard the combination of threats and bribery negotiations in the mini van on the way here.  I should work for the U.N.

Yes, I have my hands full.

What a stupid phrase "having your hands full".  My hands aren't full - my LIFE is full.  Full of diaper changes, feeding a flock of children, cleaning, refereeing, chauffeuring, laundry, hugs, kisses, laughing, and playing.

Yes, three boys.
Dur.

Yes, I guess we did "finally got our girl".

We were trying for a puppy.  Imagine our surprise!

Yes, we drink a lot of milk in our family!

Have you already forgotten how many children I have even though they're right in front of you?  Also, quit looking in my cart.  It's creepy.

Yes, she does sound hungry.

Quit bothering me with your inane chatter and let me finish so I can feed her!

Yes, that is my son who just ran around the corner.  I'd better go get him!  Good bye!
Bless you, Josh!

Blessing Headband

Tess is finally being blessed this Sunday.  Do you remember the dress she'll be wearing?  I soaked it in OxyClean and all the yellowness is gone.  I'll think she'll look super cute.  Well, super cuter.  (I'm not biased or anything...)

As I mentioned before, I'm not a huge fan of the bonnet.  We'll definitely get pictures of her in it, but I don't know that she'll be wearing it to church that day.  I was thinking it would be nice to make a special new headband to match the dress.  Since it's made of fabric with a tiny pink rose print the headband definitely needs to have roses on it.

I've been working on these little felt roses this afternoon.

Aren't they cute?  And teeny-tiny?

I love cute and teeny-tiny things.

But I'm not quite sure how where to go from here.  I think I'd like to bunch the roses together somehow and add little green leaf petals here and there.  I don't want to use one of the big, white, stretchy headbands that I have.  I'd like something thinner and more delicate.  Would regular elastic be too informal?  Is there such a thing as stretchy, satiny ribbon?  I wish I could just go down to Hobby Lobby or Michaels and just browse, but with four kiddos that's not really an option.  (Well, not one I'm willing to consider anyway.)

Any suggestions?  Seen any cute headbands lately that I could copy?

New Haircut

My hair was completely out of control.  Layers everywhere and frizzy and long and short and THICK because none of it ever fell out while I was pregnant (it'll all fall out in a few months, though!), and in short, awful.  I only wore it pulled back and was just sick of it.

So today I took care of it.

What do you think?

Tess liked it at first.

Then she got jealous because all of her hair is falling out and she looks like a little old man.

 

That, or she was hungry, one of the two.

Who knows what it will look like tomorrow.  I wish I had a stylist who could blow out my hair every day!

P.S. Margot, I still always think of you when I have Kailey cut my hair!

Lunch with Tess

I've been trying to teach Tess to sleep in her crib for naps.  I've been failing. 

Which is weird, because she sleeps in it just fine at night.  But during the day?  No way. 

To get back at me Tess has decided she needs to be held all day, especially while she naps.  Pesky baby.  So she's been in her sling for quite a while, including while I ate lunch.

For lunch I had a rather messy sandwich.  Tess is now liberally sprinkled with crumbs, specks of mayo, and at one point a bit of lettuce.

The crib's not lookin' so bad now, is it Tess?