Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Bridget woke up at 7:30 am, and the Great Pumpkin had left her a bag of Halloween treats near her bedroom door. I heard her open the bag and take a peek, but she didn't take the bag with her when she came into our room to wake us up. I asked Bridget if she got a Halloween treat bag, and she said "yes", so I told her to bring it into our room so that she can open it up. 

She was excited to find a few Halloween books, stickers, Play-Doh, a coloring book, 3 small puzzles and a couple of pieces of candy. Of course, she wanted to read the books first. So we read, then did puzzles, then colored. 

I ended up falling asleep on the couch for an hour and a half, and fortunately, Bridget didn't get into any trouble. She continued to play with her stickers, puzzles and coloring. At some point, Shawn came upstairs to check on us, and saw that I fell asleep, so he took her downstairs. When I woke up, they were playing with Play-Doh, and Shawn was constructing a very elaborate Play-Doh pumpkin. 

Next up, lunch time, then we got ready for the Halloween party at Bridget's school. Bridget was excited to see her friends dressed up in their costumes. Her friends were dressed up as Snow White, Cinderella, Prince Charming (ironically, that was the boy who always bites Bridget), Dorothy, and a monkey. They all looked very cute!

So the parents were directed to the parking lot, where everyone brought in treats to pass out to the kids from their trunks. (Trick-or-Trunk) I guess we missed the memo about decorating your trunk, because almost everyone showed up with elaborately decorated trunks. It took about 45 minutes for all of the kids to do their trick-or-treating, and it was fun to see all the different costumes. Shawn took Bridget around to all the cars, while I passed out the candy. 

After that, we headed back home. At first Bridget did not want to go trick or treating on our block. She hung out with me and neighbor Jeanne as we passed out candy to all the children. Once things got a bit busier, Bridget decided to go trick or treating. So Shawn took her up and down our block. When that was done, she continued to help Jeanne and I pass out candy. She really liked running up to the babies in strollers that stayed back by the sidewalk with their moms. She'd give them a lollypop and Play-doh for a treat. The moms liked that too.  Overall, we really weren't that busy, and having Jeanne around to talk to made the time fly. 

Next, Bridget and I quickly stopped by a co-worker's house two blocks over. Unfortunately, she wasn't home, but I got to talk to her husband whom I've never met. He was very nice, and of course, everyone I meet is just so curious about the triplets. So we talked a bit, Bridget jumped in their big pile of leaves (the main reason we stopped by!) and then headed back home. As soon as trick or treating hours were over, we all headed to Grandpa John and Grandma Kathie's house. 

Bridget fell asleep about 20 minutes before we arrived, which was both good and bad. It was good, because she needed the sleep, but it was bad because it wasn't enough sleep, and she was a big crab most of night. She enjoyed spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and Austin too. I think she had the most fun reading the counting book with Grandma. She showed Grandma how she could count the pictures in the book. Then they spent a lot of time "eating" the candies on the last page of the book. 

When it was time to go, Bridget wanted no part of that. She screamed and shouted all the way to Route 53. Ugh! The funny part of her screaming, was that she'd just scream out one or two words at a time. "My bottle!" cry, cry, cry "Pumpkin!" cry, cry, cry "Candy" scream, scream, scream "Flashlight!" scream, cry, scream "Mama!" cry, cry, cry, "Milk!" over and over, non-stop. Right around Bolingbrook, she finally fell asleep. Whew!

And that was the end of our fun-filled Halloween. Photos posted at My Mobile Me Gallery. The link is on the right. 

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A delightful day

Bridget and I have had a delightful day today. Our morning started at the usual time, Bridget and Shawn were up by 7:30 and I waddled out of bed a bit later. We all had some breakfast and Bridget had a popsicle with her breakfast. See, a few days ago, Bridget watched an episode of Sid the Science Kid, and Sid made homemade popsicles out of juice. Last night, Bridget remembered that I said we'd make our own together. So this morning, she wanted to eat her creation. No problem, she had an orange juice popsicle-perfect breakfast food! 

After that, Shawn and Bridget went to the library for Lapsit and to select new books. I used that time to move toys from the toy box to the newly empty living room cabinet. When Bridget came home an hour later, she said she saw Miss Kathy, had lots of fun, picked out new books, and could I read the books to her. 

So we read books. She selected 2 Dr. Seuss books (78 pages each!) and one other shorter book. It took forever to read those books, but Bridget stayed focused on the stories better than I did. After that, she asked if she could watch the Dr. Seuss video she checked out at the library, and I said, "Sure." So she watched The Cat In The Hat. That was just a short video. After the Cat In The Hat, there was some other Dr. Seuss story called "Should I Fly a Jet, Should I Be a Vet" or something along those lines. The whole dialogue was just "should I _____", and various jobs were pronounced. Bridget said she's going to be a teacher, vet, hair brusher, clown, and elephant rider. 

Next was lunch. After lunch we colored some Halloween pictures. Even I colored a picture. It was actually really nice quiet time. Bridget can stay so focused on one task-it's amazing. After coloring, it was mandatory rest time, so I could nap. She stayed in her new room from 1:30-3:30 and was pretty quiet the entire time. She did get out of bed a few times to grab a book or a toy, but most of the time she was resting in her bed. 

Not so surprisingly, at 3:30 she was in pretty good spirits. The rest did her some good. So we finished up more Halloween coloring. Before coloring each picture, she'd say, "This picture is going to be for ___." And she'd then start coloring with that person in mind. "Grandpa's going to like my purple picture." or "Daddy likes pumpkins. I'll color him a pumpkin." She can be so sweet! I must say, her pictures are starting to look pretty good too. She is coloring different objects different colors, and doesn't stop until all the white spaces are colored. Grandpa John got a very special picture...Bridget attempted to write her own name at the bottom of the picture. Most people wouldn't recognize a single letter, but since I saw her as she was writing, I can make out all the letters, except G. She still struggles with G. And her E had about 10 horizontal lines instead of 3. 

Next up, Bridget wanted another juice popsicle. Ok, great, it was past afternoon snack time anyway. This time she had an apple juice popsicle. After that, but before dinner, Bridget played on her own. She spent a long time playing Connect Four by herself. She would just put the checkers in the slots and make designs. Then dump them out and start all over. She accidentally made the letter "L" with the checkers, and she thought that was really cool. Then she played a game where she put a little snack bowl on the floor, and tried to drop checkers into the bowl while standing over the bowl. Then she made up a game where she shot the checkers out from between her fingers by pinching her fingers together. They'd go flying across the living room and she was so proud that she could do that. 

Finally, dinnertime. After dinner, Bridget cleaned up her toys in the living room, then Bridget and I watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Shawn finally made an appearance to read a bedtime story and tuck her into bed for the night.  It's 8:30, and I think I'm going to bed for the night too. I'm exhausted. 

Here's a short video of Bridget's focus while coloring.

The end result. 













More photos from today are in My Mobile Me Gallery.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

The New Bedroom





Bridget's room is a-l-m-o-s-t complete. Shawn had me help him install the ceiling light fixture and put on the outlet covers, and help him haul all the furniture into her room---nah! Just kidding! He did all that stuff by himself. He was a busy little bee this weekend. What is not done just yet are the baseboards, moving her clothes into her closet and dresser, ordering the new blinds, and some small finishing touches, like what toys are going in her room and what is staying in the living room. 

We were both surprised by the amount of space left in the room after getting all the furniture in. There should be no problem having the 3 girls eventually sharing that room. Next step is to put the finishing touches on the nursery. The crib needs to be set up, and clothes moved into the dressers, and the closet needs to be cleaned out, because I don't even know what's in that closet anymore. 

So what did we do today? A few days ago, Bridget saw a commercial for Grands biscuits and she said, "Mama, could we make those together or something?" ("or something" is her new catch phrase. She adds it to all of her sentences now.) I said, "Sure." so today was Grands biscuits day. In fact, it was yummy real breakfast day. I started making bacon and sausage. When I got tired of standing on my feet, Shawn took over and finished up the meat and made some scrambled eggs. He also put the biscuits in the oven too. We each had our favorite juices: Bridget had apple juice. I had orange juice, and Shawn had orange-strawberry-banana juice. It was nice. We've been in a cereal rut lately.  

Funny Bridget quote. Shawn gave me a piece of sausage, and I said, "No thanks, I don't want any sausage." Shawn said, "Why?" I said, "Because it looks a bit underdone, and I don't want to take any chances." Bridget said, "Why, Mama? Why don't you want sausage?" I said, "Because it could make the babies sick if I eat it." Bridget said, "Why? Will they choke and die, or something?" Ah, kids!

After breakfast was when Shawn finished up the ceiling light, outlet covers, hung some signs on the wall, moved the bookshelf, moved the books onto the shelves, moved her kitchen and dollhouse in. Bridget helped out a little too. After everything was moved, Bridget must have spent an hour or two just playing and reading in her room. It was kind of nice! We're trying to teach her that if she takes a book off the shelf, she needs to put it back. She is responsible for keeping her room clean, which means no toys on the floor. So far so good. Sure, she needs some reminding, but she's not complaining YET. 

Since we had a big breakfast, no one was hungry for lunch, so we just had an afternoon snack of cheese, crackers and grapes. Everyone was doing their own thing for awhile after that. Then we went to Target to buy a lamp shade for Bridget's big-girl lamp. Bridget fell asleep in the car, and somehow Shawn managed to get her into Target in the wind-storm and she didn't wake up. So we brought a blanket in with us, and let her sleep in the shopping cart. She probably slept for another half hour or 45 minutes while Shawn and I selected a lamp shade, and bought a couple Christmas presents. 

After Target, we had some dinner, then Bridget and I put the lamp together. She played with a white board and dry erase marker, and got black marker over her brand new white polo shirt. (That's not coming out!) Then it's rub-a-dub-dub, Bridget in a tub, and off to bed with her. Overall, a very busy but very productive weekend in the Morris house. 

Be sure to check out Tina's blog to see what Kaitlyn and Bridget did during their sleepover this weekend. Very cute, Auntie Tina!

Friday, October 24, 2008

A Kid-Free Day & Night

Ok, so we don't get a lot of kid-free days and nights, and I'm positive we won't be having kid-free nights once the triplets arrive, so I guess we should enjoy it.  Shawn drove Bridget to Tina's house at 8:45 am this morning. Dave, Kaitlyn and Bridget were going to a Halloween party event thing through the Bolingbrook park district. I'm sure they all had a blast. 

I really didn't do much throughout the morning and early afternoon. I watched the Today show for awhile. I took a shower. I did all things computer related. I took an hour and a half nap. I ate lunch. During this same time period, Shawn and Dad installed the laminate flooring in Bridget's new room. 

After lunch, I drove up to Plainfield High School for a visit. I've been meaning to visit for quite some time now, and I figured I'd be pressing my luck if I waited much longer. I got to school about a half hour before school was dismissed in order to get a decent parking spot before the busses blocked everything. That also gave me a half hour to waddle my way up to the second floor Math office. It was so nice seeing co-workers again! Even people that I don't usually talk to on a regular basis, stopped to say hi and see how I was doing. It's really a great place to work! I miss it a lot. So I talked to two hall monitors, a secretary, the copy clerk (all the most important people in a school setting) and all the Math teachers. I ran into 3 former students as well.  Again, it was very nice catching up with friends and just being in a school setting. I miss the students, I miss the familiar smell of the hallways (I'm not saying its a nice smell!), I miss living life according to bells and I miss doing math daily.

When I got back home, Shawn and Dad were still working on the flooring. They should be done by 6 pm. There were a few snags along the way, but they got through it, and the floor looks really nice. 

Don't know what we're going to do with the rest of our kid-free evening, but I'd like to go to dinner and a movie. Or dinner and a trip to the grocery store. Shawn wants to finish the baseboards so that they can be installed tomorrow. My oh my how life has changed. Before kids, we would have spent a day like today probably driving hours just to go to some mall we've never been to. Then we'd spend the rest of the day exploring whatever seemed interesting in whatever town we ended up in. Now, we get a "day off" and we're wanting to go grocery shopping or get house work done. 

Will update more later.

So we went to dinner at Max & Erma's because I had a coupon. They have a really good pretzel bread appetizer, so we ordered that along with our drinks. When the waitress came back, the gave me my drink and Shawn a beer. Shawn was like, "I ordered the same as her." the waitress thought he said, "I'll have the Sam (Adams)." No big deal, the waitress came back with the right drink quickly. Next comes our meal. Poor Shawn...he ordered fish and chips and his fish was WAY overdone. It looked gross! When the waitress came by and asked if he wanted another order or anything else, Shawn refused. He was full off of the appetizer and his fries. A few minutes later, the manager comes by to appologize, and she took Shawn's meal and the appetizer off of our bill. I felt bad for Shawn, he worked hard all day and he didn't even end up with a good dinner. Anyway, since so much money was taken off of our bill, I couldn't even use the coupon. 

After dinner, we headed to Dominick's to do a little grocery shopping. It was nice because it was rainy, it was Friday night, and NO ONE was in the store. So we made it home safely after the store. We watched a bit of tv and headed off to bed. 

Thursday, October 23, 2008

How I Have Adapted...

There's been several things I've had to change about daily life now that I'm 28 weeks pregnant with triplets.  Thought I'd share a few thoughts...

Letting your husband be in charge of cooking and cleaning stinks! I'm trying to be patient, but let's face it...guys don't clean as well as girls do! And why is it that guys think the kitchen garbage can is the only can that needs emptying? Another thing I don't get is why are guys so incapable of working and taking care of the house? If women are expected to work full-time, take care of the kids and run a household, then why can't a guy do it too? I'm not saying that I keep an immaculate house, but it certainly wasn't as bad as it has been the past few months.

It's REALLY hard to do laundry with a pregnant belly! There's no way anyone but me is touching my laundry, that's just how it goes. So Shawn lugs the baskets up and down the stairs, and I take care of it from there. I never realized how many times you lean over the machine to get all those socks off the bottom of the washer! Then even trying to bend over to get the stuff out of the dryer is tough while pregnant. Being on my feet while trying to get all of Bridget's stains out stinks too. (See below)

Laundry accommodations...brilliant idea...I think I'm on to something here! So to cut down on time spent on my feet in the laundry room, I was inspired by Kramer on Seinfeld. If you recall, Kramer multi-tasked by washing his dishes while in the shower. So I figured, why not get the stains out of Bridget's clothes while taking a shower?  So let's say Bridget spills her chocolate milk down the front of her shirt. Now I take her shirt and just soak it in the bathroom sink and the next morning I bring it in the shower with me. Her tear-free baby shampoo works great on the stains, even better than Shout, or Spray-n-Wash. Seriously! Try it someday. I've been using Gerber's Grins and Giggles shampoo and it's gotten out chocolate milk, pasta sauce and various other food stains. I almost want to put grass stains on her jeans just to see if it will get out that stain too!

You probably wouldn't miss half of your house. Obviously stairs are not my best friend these days, so I rarely go to the basement anymore. I thought that would be really tough to handle but surprisingly it's not too bad. There's a few tv shows that Shawn records on "his" tv that we watch together in the basement, but that's maybe once or twice a week. Then there's the laundry. I have at least 2 weeks of maternity clothes, so laundry doesn't happen too frequently. Our arts and craft items are in the basement...I miss those!

Who needs socks or shoelaces? I haven't worn socks since at least June 2nd. I know that date well because that was the last day of the school year. I also haven't worn shoes with shoelaces since then. Only sandals. I don't think I could get socks or tie-shoes on my feet at this point anyway. I bought a pair of winter Crocs so that I won't have to put on socks until after I recover from the birth of the triplets.  Isn't life grand!?

Being pregnant and on "house rest" is really economical-well, sort of! Things we're saving money on since my confinement: make-up, gasoline, my spending money, entertainment (I can't go anywhere anymore, so no movies, trips to the mall, etc.), school supplies (I bought a lot of stuff out of my own pocket for school), soda, coffee. Now, once my paychecks run out, then this will all change, but for now, it's kinda cool.

When you have the opportunity to watch as much tv as you want, you realize it's not that entertaining. Most of the time that I have the tv on, I realized that it's just on for background noise. So I'm finding myself turning it off more and reading, doing puzzle books, napping and playing quietly with Bridget. 

No matter how hectic things may seem, everything that absolutely needs to get done eventually gets done. These will probably be the words I live by after the babies arrive, but its true for now too. So although our day-to-day lives have changed dramatically since August, we are dealing with it. Bridget, Shawn and I are happy and healthy and that's all that really matters. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A Much More Interesting Day

Ok, so I had to make up for my incredible laziness as a parent yesterday. Shawn woke up with Bridget, while I slept in for an extra half hour or 45 minutes. That was nice. Though I did hear Bridget ask Shawn where her iPod and headphones were. He said he put them away for awhile. She did some whining, but got over it quickly.

When I got up, Bridget wanted to read books. So we read a few together. A cute story stemmed from our reading Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3. Now, although I teach math, I prefer the story behind Chicka Chicka A, B, C. If you're not familiar with the Bill Martin Jr./John Archambault stories, in A, B, C, the lower case letters march one by one up the coconut tree. When z makes his way to the top, the weight of all the letters knocks everyone out of the tree and the upper case letters come and rescue their little ones. It's cute. In 1, 2, 3 the story doesn't make any sense. The numbers 1 through 20 climb up the apple tree one by one, all the while zero is crying "chicka chicka 1, 2, 3, will there be a place for me?" Then after 20 climbs up, 30-40-50, etc. climbs up. What about 21? or 35? Where'd they go? So 90 climbs up, then for some reason 99 gets to climb up, and triggers an attack from some bumblebees. All the numbers tumble out of the apple tree, and the story "counts" backwards from 99, skipping numbers as they wish. Then I don't get it at all...after all the numbers tumble out of the tree except for 10 for some reason, the whiny zero hops up the tree and joins with 10 and makes 100. Apparently all zero is good for is to turn a ten into a one-hundred, because zero proudly exclaims, "Here's the place that's just for me!" All the other numbers gather around the apple tree proclaiming zero as the hero of the number tree.  Strange! I don't get it at all! Maybe zero chased away the bumblebees in the process, the illustrations show bees flying away as zero climbs up, but I still don't get it!

Anyway, that's not the story. Here it goes...On the first and last pages of the books are the numbers from 1-20 and 1-100. So Bridget and I were practicing counting. She can count from 1-13 just fine, but then skips to 16, so the math teacher in me was showing her how 1-4 makes FOURteen and 1-5 makes FIFteen and so on. She really got that. So I let her read the numbers on her own and she did great. 1-13 was perfect as usual, she got 14, 15, 16 as well, then it fell apart from 17-19. She just said "one-seven, one-eight, one-nine". Ok, so that needs more work. I figured we'd try the twenties, since they're a bit easier to read. She picked up on that in no time at all. "twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two," etc.  and we stopped at 30. Awhile later, Bridget was playing on her own with magnet numbers on a lap desk, and she was making different numbers, and reciting the numbers she had made. I wasn't really paying attention to her, but my ears perked up with I heard her say "two-teen". I looked over and she had 12 displayed on her desk. I was quite impressed because I never mentioned two-teen, in fact I stressed twelve and thirteen and fifteen were "tough" numbers because they sound funny. So I let her go, and sure enough, the next number she displayed on her desk was 13 or "three-teen". Not bad! After that, I explained that there is no "two-teen" it's pronounced twelve and three-teen is really thirteen. We'll try counting later today to see if she remembers this. 

As we approach mandatory "rest time" here's what else Bridget has done to make up for the lack of activity yesterday...She played with me and her doll house. We read even more books. We began a Christmas arts and crafts project in which she had to glue things together and help me cut out shapes. Finally, she played in the basement while Shawn played Rock Band. 

After rest time, Bridget and I drew pictures in a notebook and practiced writing her name. She can make a decent B, I, D and E, but the rest of her letters need lots of help. She also doesn't get that she needs to write things from left to right in order for it to make sense when we read it. She'll just write her letters where ever there's room on the paper.  And that's fine. She's doing very well for her age. Since she loves to read books, I have been trying to teach her how to sound out simple 2 and 3 letter words.  Today we tried some so-called "sight words". I showed her the words I, a, to, in, of, and, the and or and then I'd say the word and she'd repeat it. After doing that for awhile, we took one of her books and found those words in the book and I asked her what words they were. She got a few of the words correct.  I figure with 3 kids on the way and several months off of work, I better take advantage of this time with Bridget to teach her all that I can. She likes it too. It's not like I'm forcing her to sit at the table and drilling her with words, letters and numbers. These lessons come up very naturally. Like today, she wanted to draw in her notebook. I wrote her name, and then she wanted to write her name by herself. Shawn is the same way with her. Only difference is that Shawn teaches her things like how a car works, what a construction zone is, or what all the things on a fire truck are. He's also much better at teaching her what new words mean using words she already knows. 

Well, not much happened after that. We had dinner. Bridget took a bath. Bridget got cranky. Bridget went to sleep. 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

An Uneventful Day

We were bad parents today. Seriously. What a horrible day for Bridget. Shawn was going to take her to Lapsit at the Library this morning, but Bridget said she didn't want to go. Why he listened to her, I don't know, because we both know she would have had a good time. So Shawn went to the library to get some work done, while Bridget and I hung out at home.

I don't think Bridget did much of anything in the morning. Shortly after Shawn left for the library, I took a shower. Bridget played with the pieces to her Cootie game while I showered. After the shower, we began the whole process of trying to leave the house. It took forever to get Bridget changed, hair brushed, shoes and coat on, and finally out of the house. I wanted to take Bridget out for lunch because it's been forever since just the two of us have done anything outside of the house together. (And we have nothing in our refrigerator suitable for lunch.)

Bridget was great at lunch. She ate almost all of her mini sub and stole a few of my chips, and ate most of her cookie. We were there for quite some time though, because she can be a SLOW eater at times. 

After lunch we came home, and Bridget played outside for about an hour. Since I can't run after her, she was confined to the back yard. That didn't seem to matter to her though, all she was interested in doing was playing with all the baby items we are currently storing in our garage. She played with two exersaucers and one of those little play gym things. I got tired of sitting, so I tried to sweep out the garage as best I could. Bridget wanted to help, so of course, she ended up just spreading around the dirt and leaves that I already had swept up into a pile. 

After that, I just wanted to lay down, so we went inside. Bridget was in melt-down mode because she didn't want to come inside. So she was sent to her room to calm down. When she calmed down, she puttered around the living room for awhile. At 2:00, she had mandatory "rest time" in her bed. Since I was really tired, and Shawn wasn't home, I let her take her iPod with. She listened to music through headphones on her iPod. I can't believe my 2 year old is listening to music on an iPod! She figured out that she could play games while listening to the music too, so I didn't hear from her all afternoon. By 4:00, she was still quiet in her room. I asked her if she wanted to come out of her room, and she said "no" until about 4:15.  At least she got 2 hours of quiet rest. This was better than most days. Most days, she's in her room for two hours, but she's singing, reading books out loud, and moving around from her bed to the rocker and back again. 

Shawn was home before Bridget got up. When Bridget got up, she went to his office and hung out with dad for awhile. Then she tried to help Shawn make dinner, but lost interest in that pretty quickly. After dinner, she read a book or two with Shawn. I was tired and Shawn was working around the house, so she watched a couple of videos on her iPod. Unbelievable! I can't believe we let her spend probably 4 hours in front of her iPod either listening to music or watching videos. She's lucky to get maybe 4 hours of tv a week! I guess no tv the rest of the week would be appropriate. I just hope she doesn't throw a tantrum when she realizes that I hid her iPod after she went to bed tonight!

Monday, October 20, 2008

More ultrasounds and shopping!

Today Arlene and I went to see the perinatologist. Everything is going unbelievably well. The babies are 2 lbs. 7 oz., 2lbs. 4 oz., and 2lbs. 8 oz. All have strong heartbeats and plenty of amniotic fluid. They also checked Arlene's cervix and it is showing no signs of thinning. We have to talk to her OB/GYN about when to start the twice weekly fetal monitoring. So that probably won't start for another two weeks. We're not looking forward to it because we'll have to drive to Orland Park for it but it will be worth it for the health of the babies.

So after all that good news Arlene and I decided to pick up Bridget and head to the new Sonic in Aurora. Bridget had a great time eating in the car and enjoyed her hot dog and strawberry slush.

After that we decided to head to the Aurora Outlet Mall. I needed new shoes and Arlene is always looking for cheap baby clothes. Arlene and I both found what we were looking for. Bridget was a good girl so we let her go on a couple of rides and then it was time to head home.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Painting Bridget's New Bedroom



Today Grandpa Bill came over to paint Bridget's new bedroom. Grandpa was a bit annoyed that I wanted to take the baseboards off and get the paint stains off them, re-stain them, and put them back up, and he was even more annoyed that Shawn hadn't purchased the primer or paint. He wanted to go-go-go. So while Shawn fetched the paint, Grandpa took off the baseboards, took out the nails that we forgot to take out, and took off all the outlet covers. 

Bridget kept asking Grandpa if she could help paint. Last night she said she was going to use her little paintbrush to paint her bedroom. That was funny. Anyway, Grandpa said she could help him paint. She was overjoyed. So I put her painting smock on, she already had some yucky clothes on, and sent her into the room with Grandpa. Grandpa would primer all but the bottom 3 feet or so, and Bridget would paint what he left her. She did very well. She understood that she was supposed to make all the red walls white, and she was reminded that paint does not go on wood doors or frames. So the only damage was a little paint on her hands, one spot on her shirt, one spot on her pants, a few spots on the carpet that we're throwing out anyway, and a spot on her hair. Not too bad for an almost-3 year old. I found it funny because Grandpa Bill wouldn't let me paint a single wall in my bedroom until I was 17 and even then I was only allowed to paint the closet. 

After a long day of primer-ing, painting the ceiling and painting the walls, Grandpa had to leave. Bridget was sad to see him go. He kept telling him, "You can stay for 3 more minutes." Grandpa said, "We'll see you again on Thursday." He is going to see if the walls need a second coat of pink paint and the closet needs to be painted. 

Hopefully Shawn will be able to put the flooring in either Friday or Saturday. The baseboards too. Then maybe Sunday or Monday Bridget will be able to move on up in her world...out of the nursery and into her very first big-girl room. 

Being out all day yesterday must have worn me out because I took two naps today. An hour nap at about 11 am and another one at 3 pm. Shawn spent a good portion of the afternoon working in the yard, picking up leaves, mowing and edging the lawn. Bridget spent most of the day "helping" Grandpa or Shawn. The cats spent all day hiding since there was a "stranger" in the house.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Chris and Claire's Wedding Shower




Today Bridget and I went to Chris and Claire's Wedding Shower. It was lots of fun and they got lots of very nice things! Bridget had a blast. She conned many people into reading books to her. She also really enjoyed letting Henry the cat chase after the string she carried around the house. Bridget and Great Grandpa spent a lot of time together too. 

At the end of the shower, Shawn came over. Bridget wanted to be a "cooker" which meant that she would serve cookies to everyone in sight. I'm not sure if she called that job a cooker because she was serving cookies or because she thought that was part of a chef's job.  I think she ate several dozen cookies throughout the afternoon and evening!

We didn't leave until about 8 pm, and Bridget was so sad to leave. In fact, she was in melt-down mode because she was absolutely exhausted. We got stuck in traffic before Weber Road, and by then Bridget was passed out in her car seat. 

Friday, October 17, 2008

A Visit From Auntie Tina, Kaitlyn and Ann




This morning Bridget finished decorating her pumpkins, FINALLY! I must say, she did a great job on them. I guess I scared Bridget by telling her that I had to do the gluing because I was using a hot glue gun. Next thing I knew, she was crying and telling me to stop using the glue on the pumpkin. I don't know why it freaked her out, but it did. She then was quite happy gluing on the googly eyes herself and painting on a small red smile. 

For the other pumpkins Bridget used glitter, feathers, buttons, and paint pens to decorate the already painted pumpkins. She really seemed to enjoy herself, and she was so focused on the job that nothing would pull her attention away. When there was only one pumpkin left, Bridget suggested that I write all of our names on it. What a great idea. So I began writing "Mom, Dad..." Bridget butted in, "Don't forget the trip-a-lets!" of course not, I wouldn't forget them! "Bridget and the Triplets" then in the little space that was left, Bridget suggested I write "Boo!" So that was it...all pumpkins have been adequately decorated for Halloween. 

Next, I wasn't feeling so great. I actually felt like I had a stomach ache, and I never get stomach aches, so I asked Shawn if he could keep an eye on Bridget while I took a half hour nap. Before I went to lay down, I let Bridget watch "Leap's Letter Factory" a 35 minute video all about the alphabet. I told Shawn that when the video was done, come wake me up. 

Well, I guess Bridget watched the video then got showered and dressed by Shawn and it was almost noon by this time. Auntie Tina, Kaitlyn, and Ann were due to arrive any minute now. So I rushed in a shower, Shawn fed Bridget, and by the time we both finished our tasks, the doorbell rang.

It was Ann's nap time, so she took a nap in Bridget's room while Kaitlyn and Bridget played in the basement. Me and Tina supervised and talked. Eventually, the girls ended up painting paper plate pumpkins and turkeys. They turned out really cute! (The pumpkins are red and purple, but the turkeys are brown.) They still wanted to paint some more, so we broke out the roll of paper, and each girl painted their own scene. Even those were cute. Kaitlyn painted a sort of rainbow, and Bridget painted what looked like the scrubbing bubbles icon but I guess it was supposed to be a face. 

After those pictures were complete, we all got cleaned up and the girls danced to the music playing on the television. Even though Kaitlyn and Bridget are only 11 months apart, you can really tell the difference in skills and abilities. Both girls could listen to the music and follow what was being said, like "head, shoulders, knees and toes" but Kaitlyn is far better at touching all body parts in time to the music. Bridget's lucky if she touches her head and toes. Also during "If You're Happy and You Know It" the song says wiggle your ears. Bridget usually just ignores this. Kaitlyn, who never heard this version of the song before, looked at her mom with such an inquisitive look on her face as if to say, "how the heck am I supposed to wiggle my ears?" Tina said, "Wiggle your ears, Kaitlyn." And she did. She just put her hands behind her ears and flopped her ears back and forth. Very cute!

After awhile, Ann woke up, so we all moved upstairs for snack time and more playing. I think Ann ate most of the apple that I cut up for the girls. She can really eat! Kaitlyn loved being "cooker chef" at the play kitchen. She made Tina, Shawn and I all bowls of vegetable stew. Bridget was nearing her breaking point, because she didn't have a nap, and most of what she did was just naughty. At one point, Ann was trying to climb down from the sofa and she kicked Bridget on accident. Bridget turned towards Ann and was about to hit her until both Tina and I told her she needed to stop. Ugh! Why won't the girl just take a nap? She's so much nicer when she does!

The visit was over at about 5:15 and the rest of the night included dinner, a brief play session and then bedtime. 

Photos of today:

Video from today:

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Croup...Again!
















Last night, actually this morning at 12:30 am Bridget woke up crying and barking like a seal. Croup again! So Shawn ran the hot shower while I rocked with Bridget for awhile. Then the three of us sat in the hot steamy bathroom for about 15 minutes while Bridget's barking cough subsided. Poor kid! Fortunately, she fell asleep a short while later and slept through the rest of the night. She even woke up about an hour later than usual. 

First thing in the morning, Bridget got in to see the pediatrician. As suspected, it was the croup and she was prescribed one day of steriod and 5 days of breathing treatments with the nebulizer. She's been a bit crabby today, but overall, she's doing well.

Office update: Bridget is going to move into the office once it's renovated. The triplets will move into Bridget's current room that is already set up to be a nursery. Painting is supposed to begin tomorrow, though Shawn still hasn't finished clearing out the room, and he's bowling tonight. Maybe, just maybe the renovation will be done next weekend, though I'm not holding my breath!

My job for today is to pack away all of Bridget's 24 month and 2T clothes. She still fits into some 2T clothes, but what we have is summer stuff, so it's time to pack it up. If I get that done, then I'd like to reorganize her drawers with all of her 3T winter clothes. That might not sound like much to you, but that's a tall task for me!

Rewind to yesterday: Bridget and I had lots of fun painting pumpkins. While Bridget was at school on Tuesday, I painted our big pumpkin green. Then yesterday, Bridget and I added black hair, and I finished it off by painting eyes, a nose and mouth. Finally, we topped our green-faced pumpkin off with Bridget's black witch's hat. It turned out pretty good! While I was putting the face on the witch, Bridget painted some small pumpkins. One pumpkin was painted all black because it's going to be turned into a spider today. The other pumpkins that she painted were brown, purple and pink. We'll spice those up with feathers, buttons, bows and googly eyes today. 

Last night was also Bridget's curriculum night at Chesterbrook Academy. Of the 10 kids in her class, only 3 families showed up. According to Bridget's progress report, she's doing just fine. She's mastered several tasks such as putting puzzles together, shapes, counting to 5 and using sentences to convey her thoughts. Even many of the tasks that the teacher only listed at "developing", Shawn and I know she's mastered already. It just may be that on that particular day of observation, Bridget did not perform those tasks. There's several of her classmates who are potty trained already, and Bridget is not, so that's one thing we really have to get her to do. I got the "3 day potty training boot camp" booklet, so we're going to start that. According to the book, for the next 2 weeks we're not supposed to mention the potty at all. She just gets to go in her diaper unless she tells us she wants to go potty. And every diaper change we're supposed to act very disgusted by having to change her yucky, gross diapers. Then in 2 weeks, boot camp begins. Two of her classmates used this method and were completely trained in 3 days, including no diapers overnight. So I hope this works. Keep your fingers crossed and check back in 2 weeks and 3 days to see if it worked. 



Monday, October 13, 2008

Welcome to our New Family Blog

I always knew that Bridget's blog was going to be a temporary thing. I started her blog when I was already pregnant with the triplets. It wouldn't be fair to the triplets, that I blog their lives on bridgetmorris.com, so it's time to move on. So this will be a time of transitioning. I like iWeb...it's easy to use but it takes up a lot of my hard drive space and it takes FOREVER to upload. Blogspot should take care of those problems. It's just going to take me some time getting used to it. Plus I have to come up with some overall vision for this site. I don't want to be redesigning the whole site every month. While I'm figuring all of that out, I...oops, I mean Bridget will continue to blog on bridgetmorris.com.   Anyway, welcome to our new family blog! The plan is for this to be a site about the whole family: Shawn, Bridget, the triplets and myself. 

So be sure to ask Shawn how he pronounces the word "tantrum". It's driving me absolutely crazy. He says "tan-troom" and Bridget is beginning to pronounce it that way too. Of course, since Bridget is in the terrible twos, we're constantly telling her that if she's going to throw a tantrum, then she needs to go to her room. (Or something along those lines.) When she calms down and comes out of her room, she will apologize and say, "Sorry for throwing a tan-troom." Ack! Shawn's so smart...why can't he pronounce a simple word!

Ok, so now I'm going to go crazy because Shawn is in the basement playing the "drooms" instead of cleaning the kitchen and living room like he said he was going to do. 

It's late and I'm off to bed to read. Be sure to cast your vote in the right-hand column for your favorite names. I'm not guaranteeing that the babies names are listed because we change our minds almost daily, but it will be interesting to see what your favorite names are!