Happy Birthday Claire!

Today was THE big fourth birthday party. It's 10:30pm, and I've just sat down after all the post-party clean up. We had a 2-hour party at MyGym, and then afterwards several of the kids followed us back home to bounce in the new inflatable bouncy thing that was Claire's birthday present from her parents and grandparents. We still had people at our house at 6pm tonight. Claire is so wound up she's not yet asleep. I fully misjudged that - I thought she'd be asleep within 2 minutes of being put to bed from all the activity today.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Even the twins had a little fun in the ball pit at MyGym and Molly seemed to like the moonwalk while Lily was a little overwhelmed by it.

I think we'll be the new hit of the neighborhood with the inflatable thing.

Sickness Not Allowed

It was confirmed. Lily did break her collarbone - she has the tell-tale "callous" (doctor's term) on the bone that signifies a break (it's a huge knot you can feel on the collarbone). So who knew a swelling could mask a break on an x-ray? I certainly learned something new.

I am getting a sore throat and slight runny nose. Oh great. If this progresses, this will be one of those horrible times when I don't feel up for childcare but have no assistance and will have to soldier on despite how I feel. I'll never forget the second year of being a mom and getting the flu shot, and the nurse asked me, "so you've now figured out moms can't get sick, huh?". Boy have I figured that one out.

I'm off to bed soon, hoping to minimize whatever I'm coming down with. Tonight's photo is of the kids enjoying some play time in the basement, where we placed the ball pit at the base of the slide.

Cleaning Up Is Hard To Do

[This posting title should be sung to the tune of "Breaking up is hard to do".]

Still having nanny struggles. The babies have been better fed, but the house is a wreck every night I come home. I spent at least 30 minutes tonight cleaning up four different rooms rather than playing with my kids. That's irritating. No, infuriating actually. So I'm about to have coaching session #16 with her.

Sunday, yesterday, was another amazingly low-key day. I did 7 loads of laundry to get through washing all the new winter clothes. I'm careful with new clothes to separate darks, whites, pinks, brights, and so forth, so it literally took seven loads to get through all the new clothes. So between searching for my wedding ring set all day Saturday and doing laundry all day Sunday, we wasted a beautiful, sunny 80-degree weekend. And then today it rained, as if to laugh at our loss.

Tomorrow is Lily's re-check appointment (for both collarbone and ears) and it's another WFH day for me.

First Pigtails

Today the twins' fevers broke and they were much happier. They looked mighty cute in their first set of pigtails (daddy's doing, not mine). I think Lily was letting me know what she thought of me in her photo.

And although we missed an absolutely gorgeous day - about 80 degrees and sunny, along with newly happy twins again - I am overjoyed we holed up in our house because we finally located my long-lost wedding/engagement ring set. They've been lost since January so this is a big deal! Our insurance agent will be happy.

Sunday looks to be another gorgeous day so we'll take advantage of the weather tomorrow.

Another Round of Sickness

This is a much overdue post. I haven't necessarily been busier than usual, but I have been trying to get to bed earlier to fight my fatigue and that has reduced my computer time at night.

I was hoping to post that the kids are improving - in fact, Lily is back to crawling normally and her pain level seems much improved - but today the twins both spiked fevers so we've got a new round of sickness hitting us. It remains to be seen what they've actually got, but I'm hopeful tonight (dosed with Motrin) we'll have a better night of sleep than last night. I was up 6 times last night listening to two different babies cry.

Work has been slow, so I've mainly been focused on getting Lily better. I've always liked the 12-18 month old stretch, and though I'm more overwhelmed this time with the twins, I see it might still have a few good moments. I like watching language blossom. The other night after bath time we asked Molly to 'get the brush and brush your hair' and she crawled over to the brush and started brushing her hair. Adorable! It's amazing to watch the light bulbs go off in their heads.

And we are in the countdown to Claire's birthday. 10 days. In fact, we need to get her a birthday present ourselves - we're a little late in doing that.

Well, my new 10:30pm bedtime is upon me so I must sign off. I certainly hope I get some decent sleep tonight but likely Molly will wake soon once the Motrin wears off.

A First Field Trip

Today Claire went to a pumpkin patch with her preschool class. Kyle dropped her off and picked her up at the pumpkin patch, so I was a little nervous about her being out in the 'real' world with only her teacher to monitor her. Fortunately Lauren's mom joined them and promised Kyle she'd look out for both the girls and that provided me with a lot of security. Photos are from the pumpkin patch event today, and most feature Claire and Lauren. Kyle stayed long enough to snap some photos.

Last Friday the preschool also walked the kids to a Price Chopper grocery store and then McDonald's, but that concerned me less maybe because I am personally familiar with the store and that McDonald's. I guess this field trip thing starts early!

Lily still refuses to crawl or put weight on her bad arm/shoulder. She had an OK day and only screamed when I picked her up the wrong way and caused her collarbone pain. The downside of her not being able to crawl is that it's making her more bold about figuring out how to walk, which sounds great, until one realizes that newly walking toddlers fall a lot and how, exactly, is she supposed to catch her fall with a bad collarbone? So I foresee another bad accident happening in the split second someone isn't watching her like a hawk. It's tiring to feel so over-vigilant with her along with taking care of the other two kids.

Molly had a really cranky day - is this from the shots yesterday? - so I continue to be fried from all the baby crying the last three days.

I still haven't made a final decision about the new nanny ... whether to keep her and ask her to improve or jettison her for the French girl. The French girl is still calling (about 5 times today, to be exact), but she is seeming a little more unpredictable and opportunistic than I originally thought so I'm not sure what to do. But it's eating at me as I know my Plan B, the French girl, will be employed and unavailable any day now.

Claire and I did get outside today to enjoy the amazing weather during the babies' second nap. We played on the swing set, hit baseballs, and made up a funny bouncing game. She was out like a light at bedtime tonight for the first night in a long time. Guess the pumpkin patch did its job.

X-Rays and Pink Medicine

I don't want to repeat the last two days. I really, really don't.

Yesterday, Lily fell while I was on my laptop, out of my sight, so I'm not really sure what happened. She screamed obnoxiously, and I assumed she was just being her usual drama queen self. Recently her drama has ramped up a little and I thought her screaming was more of the same. But then she wouldn't nap well (woke up crying) and then she wouldn't crawl. I could tell she was in pain. I watched her through the day and decided she needed to be seen.

So Tuesday at 4pm we ended up at the after-hours clinic. I had all three kids there, and the doctor found a double earache for Lily (which I had guessed after putting two and two together on her recent drama behavior) and sent us to the hospital for x-rays on her left collarbone. It was swollen and bruised. This is the same collarbone that she broke at birth. I was so anxious I couldn't eat dinner.

Kyle did the x-rays with Lily while I fed the other two kids dinner at home. After the x-rays, we had to go back to the clinic doctor to read the x-rays. I had Kyle swing by home to pick all of us up, because once I gathered my thoughts somewhat I realized that Molly's ears should be checked too. At the last minute I threw in a check for Claire because she had mentioned a sore throat a few days ago.

Molly is fine. But Claire has strep throat. And Lily? Well, there is no visible fracture. We were all floored because it looks like a classic collarbone break. After spending quite a bit of time talking to the doctor, we got three very overtired kids home and in bed at 9pm and both Claire and Lily got a dose of the pink medicine.

Coincidentally, the babies had their one-year well baby check-up today, so we were able to check on Lily today. Again, their regular pediatrician was floored that no break was showing in the x-ray films. Her opinion is that once the swelling goes down, if we re-did x-rays again, it would show a break - that it's the swelling itself that is masking the break. Given that there is no real treatment for a broken collarbone, that just means we help her manage her pain and watch her. We've got a follow-up appointment to check the area in a couple weeks. I'm supposed to call them if I'm not seeing any improvement.

Molly is a short chunky monkey! She weighed in just under 20 lbs (and right on the 20-lb mark at the after-hours clinic last night), but she is about 2 inches shorter than Lily. Of course these height measurements aren't exact, but she's definitely a good bit shorter. And Lily weighs 19 lb 7 oz, less than her shorter twin. So my characterizations of their body types, 'long and lean' Lily and 'short and stumpy' Molly, are pretty accurate. Lily is 80th percentile in height while Molly is 25th. Go figure.

The twins got 4 shots apiece, and I listened to ear-piercing double screaming in a tiny examining room, so between today's and yesterday's crying, I'm fried. Truly fried.

The only other noteworthy part of the appointment is that the doctor noted that Lily's palate is becoming long and narrow from those "Soothie" pacifiers she is addicted to, so we were told to stop use of those and the bottles pronto. This will come as a life-ending proposition to Lily. She adores those pacifiers, so this will be one more battle with her. I told Kyle we wouldn't start until next week, when hopefully her shoulder is feeling better. Why kick her when she's down?

My greatest hope is that the earache has been causing Lily's extreme drama recently and not that we're in a new, difficult phase with her. Even after two doses of the pink medicine she had calmed down today so I'll let myself be a little hopeful.