My Butt Hurts

Arya is having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to having a new baby in the house. She's not misbehaving, but she's sleeping worse than she was (if that's possible) and she's a lot whinier. I talked to both kids yesterday about doing something with just me this weekend. I explained that I'd take each of them separately and that the other would stay home with daddy and Zia. Arya and Eiley had other plans though. They wanted all of us to do something together. They decided that ice cream at "Old McDonald" was the special thing they wanted to do. Cork and I bumped it up a little and even took them out for lunch. Nothing fancy, but they loved it. Both ate like champions since they've eaten so little the past few days.

This afternoon, we went to the farmers market and then ran some errands. Only sleep deprived parents would think it's a great idea to bring 2 over tired toddlers and one hungry infant shopping. Our trip to Kohls was interesting. I was so frustrated with the girls and then got to the point that I was just laughing at their bad behavior. They were licking each other in the store, imitating the twins who had a gibberish conversation that are on YouTube, making really loud screaming noises, rolling on the floor etc. You name it, they did it. Then I decided to sit on a couch type thing in the middle of the shoe department and feed Zia while they misbehaved. At one point, I have one hand holding Arya on the couch, the other arm holding Zia eating and my legs holding Eiley so she couldn't run off. I think I earned a bad parent award today.

Before we went to Kohls, we were at a shoe store. Arya announced very loudly, "my butt hurts". Multiple people heard her and started laughing, especially when she repeated it for me and then I asked if she needed to go potty. Yes, she did need to go and thankfully we were close to the potty. I guess after not eating for a few days and then gorging at lunch, her body was ready to get rid of some waste.

Poor Zia

Our dinner struggles continue. I made a cake with the girls today, with hopes that they would eat dinner so they could have some. They ate breakfast well and a small snack around 9:30 am. Arya refused to eat what I served for lunch, so I refused to give her a snack. She then refused dinner, so went to bed cranky and hungry, for the second night in a row. Eiley refused lunch too, but she did eat dinner.

Poor Zia.

It Happens

We were talking about mouths today. Arya told me "Zia not have real mouf". I think she said that since Zia doesn't have teeth, but I'm not sure. I don't always follow the 2 year old logic in this house. This was the best picture I could get of the 3 of them together.

We were sitting down to dinner tonight and Arya said "my not know where Corky is". I told her he was still at work. Eiley then responded "it happens."

My Got French Fry

I ran to the laundry room today and moved clothes from the washer to the dryer. I didn't put new clothes in and everything in the washer could be dried, so I wasn't gone long. I came back to find A&E sitting at their little picnic table, happily eating frozen, uncooked tater tots. Yuck! "Momma, my got french fry" they happily exclaimed.

Zia had her 2 week check up today. She is now 8lbs 4oz. That's about 1/2 a pound lighter than Arya was at 2 months. She's quickly growing out of her newborn clothes that the girls wore for 3 months. It's amazing how much faster she's growing than them. She also started 2 pounds heavier, so she definitely had a head start.

Despite being exhausted, the girls refused to go to bed tonight. I even tried letting them sleep in my bed, but they just wanted to play. Eventually, I kicked them out of my room and made them go to their room to sleep. There was lots and lots of screaming and then 15 minutes later they were both passed out in the hall. I was home alone, exhausted and just wanted to sleep. They kept waking Zia up and managed to wake her before I kicked them out of my room. She decided being awake for another 90 minutes after they fell asleep was a great idea.

Bye Bye Baby

We were hanging out outside today and as usual, the girls brought out their strollers. They tried to drag more toys out, but I told them no. They decided that the strollers and babies needed to take a trip down their slide. After snapping some pictures, I took some video as well.

We're having a couple struggles with the girls recently. Both are almost daily struggles for us. The first is a meal time struggle. They will eat a little bit at breakfast and lunch and shortly after start whining that they are hungry. They want to eat snack food instead of what I feed them at a meal. It's not like I feed them junk for snacks. Most of the time they're begging for almonds, dried fruit, or fruit. Recently they've been begging for "NoNo bars", granola bars. I bought a package as a treat before Zia was born and they know that we still have some. I should just let them eat the "NoNo bars" to get them out of the house. Dinner is another story. Every day they start begging for snacks around 3:30. Even if I don't feed them, they refuse to eat dinner. They're just being picky, but it's driving me insane since it's almost every night. I'm not making them a different meal from everyone else and I won't feed them at every meal like they request.

Our other struggle is about cleaning up their toys. They make a huge mess every day and refuse to help clean up. This has been an ongoing battle, but it's getting worse. Tonight, I told them they had to pick up their toys before dinner. I gave them a warning 25 minutes before we were going to eat. They didn't pick up one thing during that time. I was nursing Zia, so couldn't supervise them the whole time. I did hear them putting their toys on a time out and having a great time doing everything but picking up. Eventually, I told them that if I cleaned it up, I was going to take their toys. They were both completely fine with that, so Cork and I packed up all their toys in the living room and put them in the basement. Of course they didn't care at all. I think because they have each other to play with, they could care less if we take everything they own. Cork mentioned gold star stickers to them at dinner (which they were again refusing to eat) and both seemed really interested. I may try to find gold star stickers and reward them with the stickers when they pick up and possibly when they eat dinner without whining and crying about it.

Brock Brock

It's only in the low 60s here today. I dressed the girls in jeans, short sleeve shirts and socks. I told them to pick out shoes. Both took off their socks and put on flip flops. i told them it was too cold for flip flops. Their response was to put on winter hats and tell me they had a hat on so the shoes were okay. Love the logic.

We were driving in the van and Eiley was asking for the chicken song. They were listening to a cd, but I didn't know which song it was, meaning which number on the CD. I told her that and she must have assumed I meant that I didn't understand her, because she started clucking like a chicken and then said "see mom". Her cluck is a very loud "brock brock brock" over and over.

I love that it's cool today because Zia gets to wear one of my favorite outfits from Arya and Eiley. It's a good thing I have two of these. She spit up all over the first shirt a couple minutes after I put it on her. I was able to grab the second identical shirt and swap them out. So, she still got to wear the outfit all day.

Ewwww PooPoo

This is Eiley's new favorite way to look at Zia. This is a thing that goes on her swing, but we never use it. Eiley's looking into a little mirror and then she can see Zia down below and in front of her.

Clark and Horse got a good workout today. The girls were sitting on them, putting spoons by their butts and yelling "Ewww, poopoo" as they brought the spoons toward their mouths. Yes, that was a very proud mom moment for me.

Little Miss Zia lost her umbilical cord stub yesterday. Her belly button still isn't ready for a full bath yet, but I'm sure once it is, Arya and Eiley will love helping give her a bath.

Twist Ties

I dropped a bunch of twist ties on the ground today. I asked the girls if they'd pick them up for me. Of course they didn't. Instead, they wrapped a bunch of them around their toes. I missed a good pictures of Eiley with almost all of her toes twist tied.

Crackers

The girls are doing pretty much exactly what I thought they'd do once the baby got here. They are taking advantage of the times I'm preoccupied. Today, I ran to the bathroom and they soaked towels and themselves in the kitchen sink. After everyone was cleaned up from that, we headed to the library. While there, a woman who has 5 girls noticed Zia. She said something about here, I can't remember what, but said it with a gender neutral pronoun. I let her know the Zia is a girl and her response was "are you sure?" Now I'm used to the weird things people say to me about twins, but I was not expecting weird comments about a single baby.

When we got home from the library, we did lunch. Part way through I had to change Zia. The girls used that time to their advantage and spread crackers all over the floor. My punishment solution was to make them clean it up. I wasn't expecting them to think it was lots of fun to use the sweeper.

Zia is my champion sleeper. She is giving us 2 to 3 hour stretches between eating at night.

YouTube

I occasionally let Arya and Eiley watch little clips on YouTube. They especially love to watch Sesame Street. I'd rather they watch short 1 minute clips than sit down to watch a full 30 minutes of a show on tv. Today, I put on one clip and then ran into another room. I came back later and a new video was on. Apparently, Arya has figured out the mouse fingerpad and knows how to move the mouse to the video she wants and how to tap the mouse to launch the video. I've never instructed her how to do this, but I guess eventually she was going to figure it out just by watching.

Sprinkler and Swings

It's hot here! We put out the sprinkler for Arya and Eiley today. They quickly grabbed some extra toys to play in the sprinkler with them. There were a few things I told them they couldn't bring in with them, but I didn't even notice when the cell phone made its way into the water. Thankfully it's an old phone and not a working one.

After the sprinkler, they moved onto the swings. I could hear their dolls crying and laughed when I saw why. I think I'd cry too if I was being laid on in a swing.

Little miss Zia is a week old today. She's doing amazingly well. I don't want to jinx us, but she seems to have her nights and days sorted out. She's waking every 2 to 3 hours at night, eating and going back to sleep. This is such a huge change from the twins who used to be up for hours at a time during the night, screamed constantly, and didn't eat well. I was lucky if I got 30 minutes of sleep at a time with them. If I got 3 hours during a night it was a good night. Zia is being much more kind to us at this point and I hope her current schedule continues. I know she'll start being more vocal over the next few weeks, but Arya and Eiley were not this chill at this age, so I don't think it'll get as crazy as it was with them.

I was laying down this afternoon. The girls came up the stairs and I heard Arya say "my lock momma in" and she shut the baby gate to my room. Then she said "Momma night night. EileyArya leave momma lone".

Pumping Helpers

I'm trying to let Arya and Eiley be as involved with Zia as possible. They love helping me and holding her. Today, I was pumping with a manual pump and Eiley wanted to help. Why not? When she was done, Arya took a turn. Arya wasn't as thrilled with it as Eiley was. Eiley kept coming back and pumping more. She had a ball doing it.

Bath Time

Zia got her first bath at home today. Arya and Eiley stood close by and offered lots of help. I'm really enjoying how much they seem to like their sister and how little jealousy we're seeing so far. Hopefully that's something that doesn't change.

My parents are still helping us out. I got to take a short nap today while my mom watched the girls. I got up and laughed when I saw this. I'm glad to know they do this type of stuff when others are watching them too.

Smores

We had a nice relaxing day today. The girls were super cranky from multiples days of not sleeping well. Cork got them out of the house a few times, which was awesome for me. I got to take a long nap and was almost ready to handle some of their crankiness when they returned. After dinner, they were invited to a neighbor's house for smores. They went, which meant another late night, and probably another cranky day tomorrow, but who can turn down an invitation for smores?

Before the smores, they were playing. Who doesn't like to play in a laundry basket?

Striders

Zia gave the girls their very first bike today. They were super excited and had to try them right away, in the house. After we pried them off the bikes, we took everyone outside and I got some cute video of Arya and Eiley "riding". It might them a little time to figure out how to sit on the seat and really glide.

Welcome Home

We got to go home today. Our insurance is horrible and I felt well, so we requested we be allowed to leave 24 hours after Zia's birth. We had to wait a few extra hours for some labs to be drawn and results returned, but sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 pm we were out of there. I figured I'd sleep much better at home than I would at a hospital with someone checking on Zia and me all night long and listening to all the other little noises that wake me up. Zia was not thrilled to be buckled into her car seat the first time, but she settled quickly and was happily settled for her first night in her crib by 8:00.

Happy Birthday Zia

Welcome to the world Zia Bjork. I woke up early this morning and figured I had a leak in my water. Shortly after it was definitely no longer a little leak. Cork and I got up, got ready, waited for some real contractions to start and I called my parents. I figured they get up early, and was hoping I wouldn't wake them. I was right and they were both awake at 4:45 when I called. The girls picked today to sleep in. When they finally got up, at almost 7:00, Cork asked them who was coming today. Their other grandparents were coming to help out this afternoon, so that was the response he was looking for. They both said "baby" in response to Cork's question. So weird. I have no idea how they knew. Yesterday, Eiley spent a good portion of the day yelling "come out baby" at my belly. Maybe Zia heard her and decided it was a good idea. We headed to the midwife's office at 9:00 to make sure my water broke, which seemed pretty pointless to me at that point, but I realize it's their regular routine. The midwife office is at the hospital, so we packed all our stuff and headed over there. By 10:00 we were checked into labor and delivery and at 2:05 Zia joined us in the room. Her June 13th birthday is perfect timing. Arya, Eiley, Zia and I are all born on the 13th of a month.

Cow Poop

Who wouldn't want to wear a winter cow hat to the park when it's 70 degrees outside? Arya joined in on the cow hat fun when we got home. Both girls grabbed a pillow from the couch and put it on the floor. They were sitting on the cushions yelling "cow poop" and then making farting noises. The potty humor is in full effect around here. I might be partly to blame. Their new favorite song is about poop or pee, sung to the tune of row row row your boat. I probably should have thought about that one before singing it to them while they were on the potty.

Remember Clark? Remember how I once said he gets put everywhere in the house and I'm constantly moving him? Well, I'm still moving him.