Injuries - real and imagined

So we've had some injuries lately (does that happen in 3's or is that just death?). Anyway, first Lauren slammed her finger in our front door. I have the x-ray to prove it, but the scanners not working right now, so you'll just have to imagine the teeny tiniest hairline fracture on her ring finger. This happened the day before Halloween, so it was actually kind of cool since they gave us the x-ray skeleton of her hand to take with us.

Then last week Brooke was goofing around on the trampoline and slammed her foot into the neighbor girl's ankle playing trampoline soccer (I'm pretty sure Trampoline Soccer is being considered for the Olympics right now, ha). Anyway, the other girl's ankle won, breaking Brooke's pinky toe. Since the Dr (the real dr, not me posing as an internet dr, although I was already aware of most of the info at the dr's office, since I am in fact, an internet dr) anyway, you can't really do anything for a broken toe, so I did the only thing any loving mom would do, I told her that we should probably get crutches in case Brooke wanted to give her foot a break. Did I really think Brooke couldn't get around without crutches? no. Did I already pay my $20 copay and know that both Brooke and Ashley have wanted a pair of crutches and that it MIGHT help her foot to not be using it? Yes. Positive of the crutches - Brooke's toe was already feeling a little better for her soccer game a couple of days later (see, they worked) - she was actually still in a lot of pain, but she was insistent on playing anyway. Negatives of the crutches - Ashley has come up with every possible injury since we brought them home in an attempt to be able to use them at school. First it was her heel. Then this afternoon it was her ankle. I actually told her this afternoon that she could use the crutches for as long as she wanted, but I was going to LOSE IT if she made up one more fake foot injury. After getting over the insult of my accusing her of falsifying an injury (how dare I?) she happily wobbled around the house [Ashley, can you pick up your backpack? "Sure Mom," wobble, wobble, wobble, almost fall down going out the door, wobble wobble]

Since everyone was "injured" but wanted to go to the zoo this afternoon, we did something we haven't done in forever. We rode the bus tour at the zoo. It was actually quite entertaining. I thought Lauren was really enjoying herself because she sat so quietly the whole time staring out the side. On the way home we were talking about how fun it was and she says, "It was scary". Apparently, she was actually just terrified the whole time because you are up off the ground and there is just a thin little railing. I would have switched her spots if I would have known she was scared - I'm not THAT heartless!

Can't quite keep up

We had a very fun day at the beach yesterday - the only grumpy faces I saw were when I was trying to get them to pose for pictures and when it was time to go!

The water was cold but the kids didn't seem to care. When Brooke first went out boogie boarding she came back in and said she couldn't feel her legs because they were so numb from the cold. An hour later, they were back out there - die hards! Brooke was even mixing it up tossing the football around with the guys. And, of course, the absolute favorite is always digging and playing in the sand. Lauren seriously just dragged water, dug sand, and ate cookies and chips - thanks Lauras..

I think Fox had a good time - he actually took a nap since I was willing to sit and hold him for the majority of the time so he would stay asleep. More to come on his recent sleep issues but suffice to say, it was such a great day. I'm pretty sure I took a picture of him at the beach, but it must have been with Laura's camera or I might just be going crazy!

Is it seriously November already, though? I'm still barely getting warmed up to the month - and it's already almost half way over! Can you believe this guy turned 4 months on Monday?

She was right on that one

So at one point today I actually told Ashley that tomorrow was NOT Friday. Unfortunately, it is in fact already Friday. Honestly, I thought it was going to be Wednesday. The tides have shifted with the drama at school . Now Ashley is happy because she isn't sitting by the annoying boy in her class, and so of course, Brooke has gotten moved for this month to sit next to the most annoying boy in her class. Sadly for her, even I know how annoying this kid is (he's really quite infamous), but what can you do? I did actually call her teacher and ask if he could at least make sure that the child is not putting his grimy hands and notebook all over Brooke's desk (she said every day he gets there and just dumps his stuff all over even though she asked him not to). I didn't exactly use the word grimy, but this is the first time I've ever called one of Brooke's teachers and asked them to intervene on her behalf, which in 5 years I think is not too shabby. It actually backfired on me, though, because they did have a sitdown where her teacher helped walk the other kid through appropriate and inappropriate behavior and informed him that it was actually making Brooke not want to go to school. So then later in the day in the middle of a test, the kid leans over and says, "so, were you crying this morning? what about?" Brooke hates it when people see her cry, which she should probably just get used to if she has my genes, but anyway she took that as a direct affront to her ability to function as a normal human being so she gave me the big sarcastic, "thanks for calling my teacher" as she came in the door. Good thing this will all be over after elementary school (insert hilarious awkward laughing right here as I realize it is only going to get worse!)

Wow - the end of October

We squeezed a lot into our day today. Both girls were superstars at soccer. Each of their teams scored 2 goals and each girl scored one for their respective teams! It was Ashley's first goal since she usually plays defense. Coincidentally right before she scored, she was asking me what she got if she scored a goal. Cheering, a hug and extra encouragement were my answers - apparently she was actually shooting for $20 because that's what one of the other moms was bribing her child with. Brooke's team tied in her game. Don't worry - they were actually filled with joy, since they've lost all the other ones, so, hey, at least they didn't lose!

We still hadn't carved our pumpkins, so no better time than the present, eh?

then it was time to prep for Halloween. After getting some tips from a friend, we set up to help make Ashley look like a punk rocker. Brooke had actually chosen that costume, then changed her mind to be a strawberry, so Ashley snatched it up. Unfortunately, she had NO IDEA what that meant or what she wanted to look like, so Robie and I just had to help her pull it together. I think her hair full of Elmer's Glue might have been one of the favorites of the night.

Brooke had a rough start to the night when she saw some older boys playing around outside and decided she didn't really want to be a strawberry anymore. She said it would be "humiliating" because it was a baby costume. Uh, Hello, its a little late to decide that now! So after I assured her that I would destroy anyone that tried to make fun of her (and reminding her of my really lame "nerd" costume that I had worn for the ward party the night before and how I survived), she was back in costume, and ready to party.

Lauren has been talking all week about her Aurora costume. Someone at some point must have told her that Sleeping Beauty's real name was Aurora because all week she has been telling me about Aurora's real name, but that they call her "Sleeping Beauty". She seemed really confused until I told her it was like her real name is Lauren, but daddy calls her "lollipops" or "popsalot". Mystery solved.

And here's how the night ended. So much candy. A few of the neighbors on our street actually give each of the kids that they know a full size candy bar. Of course the one I saw Brooke get most excited about was the tiny A&W Root Beer hard candy. Fascinating. Robie told them to sort out what they wanted, but they mostly just heard him say to "sort it" so they didn't exactly get rid of any candy, but they did sort their candy into different categories - chocolate/sugary/toys, with subcategories for the common ones (Snickers and Kit Kats seemed to be really popular). Maybe they have a chance to grow up and be more organized than me after all :)

Lauren's Fabulous Day

I guess I'm not the worst mom ever (at least not today). Lauren's birthday ended up being a fabulous day. I was trying to make it a "whatever you want" sort of day, which for the record does not mean that she didn't cry 3 times...

She started by taking pictures - lots of Fox, of course, a few of me and a few impressive self-portraits:

We went to the zoo and I just did whatever she wanted - she wants to play on the hippo with her favorite snack, the Goldfish, no problem (I had to feed Fox, so I encouraged her to take her time on this one):

I even pushed her in the stroller (i think she's getting lazier as she gets older), so I carried Fox in the baby bjorn thing.

We went to see the animals she wanted. For some reason she was very focused on the koala. I don't blame her, they are really cute.

Then it was on to a hair cut. She loves getting it cut and obviously there is a limit to how many times we can do this one, so no better time than the present, right?

Another pampering treat - getting her nails done. They offered her the massage chair, but the largeness of the chair was daunting, so she stuck it out in the little chair. As a side note, this is the one that bugged her sisters the most :) Brooke tried to be kind to me, but she couldn't help but notice the difference in the flowers they did and my measly attempts.

Final excitement of the day was a fun trip to Chuck E Cheese (hand sanitizer in tow). We even ended up getting some of her neighborhood friends and her cousin to join us - thank goodness the 4 year olds have mostly open socia, so we had a party! (by now, the camera and Lauren were pretty much done for the day - both with dead batteries, lol:)) Luckily for me Jenn brought both video and regular cameras, so I should have some other cake/party pictures later.

I generally think of Lauren as "DESTRUCTOR" (all caps because you say it like you are introducing a cartoon character). she just really loves to get into things and it seems like it always ends up in disaster. I wouldn't say she has totally moved out of that phase, but she is definitely starting to master other talents. Already she is working on being a soccer player and is in ballet and it seems like she has more natural talent than her sisters did at this age. She is also a beautiful singer. She picks up songs very quickly (keeps me honest in only listening to appropriate music) and can actually sing relatively on tune. She loves having someone read Curious George or Olivia to her and she LOVES playing with her sisters. She also loves cooking with me - if she even hears me mention making cookies, she is not going anywhere else until she has helped me make them. We love you Lauren.

And the Worst mom award goes to..

Lauren's birthday is tomorrow. She is very excited. On the way to church today brooke and Ashley asked her if she was going to have a princess party. Her response was, "Duh". I didn't realize that Brooke has been saying that a lot lately, but Lauren did! It was so funny - except for it was also sad, since, in fact, there is no princess party planned. I've been thinking about it for like 2 weeks, but seriously I could not find a time when I didn't have to have other things going on (tennis, soccer games/practices, Primary program practice, Legoland). Is it weird to have a birthday party on Halloween?

I guess my guilt over not having planned something yet helped her out today - she got to clean off the beaters and the bowl and the spoon all by herself today when I was making her cake for tomorrow.

those little words

I just love the little words that the kids always say incorrectly. Ashley used to always say the word 'forehead' as 'head-fore", I'm pretty sure she has only recently started saying it correctly, because neither of her parents was going to correct her. Lauren has had one for a while, hers is related to these:

As with her sisters (and her mom), she likes to get her nails done, and every time she refers to it as the "paint nolish" I love it - its just so endearing. How can I say no to her request for me to help her with paint nolish?