Leah, Emma and Claire (and Jen and John)

I had myself convinced it was just a fluke but then she went and did it again today at bookclub. So sad

We were talking about nicknames today and I told the girls I call Claire Clarence sometimes. It’s just something I find amusing but Emma has started to call her Clarence too so I’m going to have to stop! I’ve also probably never written that we call her baby Claire all the time rather than just Claire. Only a few more months of that as well. So very sad. 

Claire just rolled from her tummy to her back.

Things are well. Everyone is relatively healthy and the weather is much improved. We had a good week last week and a busy weekend. John and I went to his cousin Lauren’s wedding on Saturday and left all three girls with Bonnie and Tom. They all did well and there was nothing but glowing reports from both sides!

Claire is doing well. She is still a bit congested but it comes and goes. I pumped like crazy last week to get enough milk to leave her for 12 hours. I was scared of leaving a starving baby with Bonnie so I had prepared 6 4oz bottles. I really have no idea how much Claire drinks but I thought that was reasonable and would cover any puked up meals or sudden bouts of starvation. She only had 3 bottles and since I had defrosted all the milk she got bottles all day Sunday while I pumped and built up a new stash. I really don’t know how I did the whole feed, pump, sterilize thing exclusively for the girls. It normally takes me 10 mins to feed Claire now. It took me 45 mins to feed her on Sunday.

I have also started putting Claire to bed (in the co-sleeper). After her last feed I bring her upstairs and put her down semi awake. She’ll go to sleep no problem but she sleeps anywhere between 2 and 7 hours (usually close to 4). When she wakes up I bring her into bed with me. She’s been feeding twice in the night lately. Once she gets consistent at getting a good chunk of sleep in at first I will work on having her sleep on her own all night. I’m not willing to be exhausted quite yet. It’s funny because you can actually tell that she’s been sleeping on her own because she has a new bald patch on the back of her head.

Leah and Emma are all over the place with the nap. I had convinced myself that they had given it up and then today they went to sleep right away. When they nap they still go to bed at 8 but they play for sometimes up to 2 hours before falling asleep. Regardless of what time they go to bed at lately they are up before 7am. It still kills me.

I am no longer riding them when they don’t settle down at naptime. If they want to play then they can play. Once they start to fight I know they are going to fall asleep but somedays they happily play in their room for a couple of hours. Every once in awhile someone will have to pee and then they run back into their room and close the door. Once they are ready to get up they ask if they can wake up and I make them tidy up their room.

Potty training is pretty much done now. They still have accidents and need to be reminded when they are distracted but for the most part it has just become part of their normal routine. I have stopped putting them in pullups for their naps and I have yet to have to wash their sheets (watch me go in today to two wet beds for saying that!). Leah is still improving on the poop front and actually told us she had to go two nights ago. Usually I have to coax her to go but all in all there is a huge improvement. I can’t say enough what a relief it is to have her sorted out.

Emma and Leah’s vocabulary and imagination continues to grow. They come out with some pretty funny stuff these days. They are really into pretending lately and every day they take on a new character. Their favourite is Leah as Mommy and Emma as Daddy but they’ve also like Lady, Father Bear, Nana, Papa, Granny and Grandpa. They also assign roles. Claire is pretty consistently Patrick and I am Grandma. Today I was Father Bear. If you call them by name you are corrected. “No Mommy. I’m not Leah. I’m Mommy”. They also only refer to each other as their new name.

Two days last week they took off their clothes and peed on the carpet while playing in their room. I was not impressed. The first day I went in and they were lying side by side on Leah’s bed. Emma was fully dressed and Leah was naked. I didn’t even need to ask because I stepped in a puddle. Seeing as Leah had no clothes on I only asked her if she’d peed. “Yes Mommy, I peed on the carpet right there” she said with a big smile. Into the corner she went while Emma looked on and I cleaned up the mess. When we picked up John that night he asked if they’d been good girls. Emma piped up with “Daddy, Leah peed on the carpet and Mommy put her in the corner. I peed on the carpet too, but Mommy didn’t put me in the corner.”… I just pretended like I didn’t hear it. Little monkey. Emma peed the next day but threats of me telling John they were naughty and taking away the Dora dolls we got them for being big girls that use a toilet seem to have put a stop to it.

Yes, you read that right, we bought them Dora dolls. Sadly it was something I knew would motivate them.

Leah and Emma are also eating much better lately. They are more open to trying things and they are enjoying things they never enjoyed before. Nothing really earth shattering like brussel sprouts but a big improvement. I’m just happy they are willing to try things and I don’t give them a hard time when they don’t like it because they tried (I don’t say that of course!). It appears that it is in the selling. If I say here is some tuna they are not impressed. If I buy baby pita pockets and call them something stupid like super duper tuna pockets they get excited and want to like it.

Leah is very loving these days. She likes to cuddle and tells me she loves me about 50 times a day. She tells us that she’s a good girl and that she’s not crying or whining. It’s very sweet. She has been pretty well behaved lately and her freak outs are not as frequent and quickly forgotten.

Emma is a little mother. She loves Claire and is constantly getting her a soother or a blanket. If Claire is crying Emma is first one on the scene  to see if she can help her. She sings her songs and tries to make her laugh. Claire loves every moment of the attention.

That’s all I can remember for now. I wanted to write it down because I know when they’re all in high school I will sit and read this thing and remember how sweet they once were. 

Lots more pics on Flickr from our monthly photoshoot!

John and I have a big long list of things we need to get done. We tackle it very slowly…so slowly that it always gets longer. It contains silly little things like put a new lightbulb in our closet and take our frosty wreath off the front of the house because it is spring (although you’d never know by the weather) and the neighbours are going to start to talk about us soon. Thing that normal people wouldn’t need to put on a list because they’d just do them.

I still can’t download pictures off our camera onto our computer. It is on the list. The computer is functional so it keeps on getting pushed. I have some pictures of the girls Christening and Claire at 3 months but the Grandparents and Godparents will just have to wait.

We had a very nice visit to Windsor. The girls slept downstairs with John’s parents so we were able to sleep in. The weather was terrible and for once we were stuck indoors. The girls didn’t even notice - John’s dad cleared out the crawlspace that Drew and John used to play in and they had a blast.

All three girls were Christened on the Saturday. John’s mom organized it at the chapel in the convent and all the Nuns were in attendance. The three of them were really good. They had a really busy day on Saturday and on Sunday they slept til 9:45am - a new record!

They were all very good for the drive. The three of them slept the whole way there. On the way back only Claire slept but the older two were good. We had to stop once for Emma to go to the bathroom. I think I am going to put a potty in the trunk for our next trip!

Not much to report from last week. This upcoming week Leah has a doctor appt, we have a speech group appt and my exercise class (with Claire) starts. I am using the treadmill although I still struggle to find time. The girls have pretty much given up napping but they still go in their room for quiet time. It seems every time I get on the treadmill Claire needs something or I hear “I FEEL A PEE PEE COMING”. I haven’t tried using it while they are in the basement but I might give it a try this week.

This weekend has flown by. We did all our shopping yesterday and then last night John went for an MRI on his back. He’s always had lots of back pain but it has intensified since we’ve had toddlers. Hopefully they’ll figure out what’s wrong. Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Today was Alicia’s 30th birthday. They all went out drinking downtown on Friday night but Jeff was nice enough to make loser plans for the boring people. We were supposed to go into the city and check out a park with the kids but since the weather is TERRIBLE (yes it is so cold it is worth mentioning 3 times!) they came here and we got some lunch. It was a nice visit. I miss being able to sit and have a conversation without telling someone they have to share. Alicia and I did manage to get stuck upstairs taking care of Claire and catch up on all the things that we never have time to talk about anymore…things like whether or not there will be another Big Brother this summer…deep meaningful stuff. 

Hair/Eyes:
It seems to be thinning out a bit to me. It also seems more brown. It is still pretty straight but I have already accepted it will be curly! Her eyes are still blue but not as light as the girls were at her age. They don’t look like they’re going to go brown but it’s still to early to call it.

Size:
She doesn’t have an appt this month but I’d guess she’s around 13.5lbs by now. She’s tracking on the 75th percentile for weight for breast fed babies. She’s got chubby little legs and a few chins. She’s actually thinned out a bit this month and I think she lost a couple chins. She seems very long (especially in the torso) and I’ve noticed that she’s growing out of shirts on the length rather than the girth. I pulled out the girls 3-6 month stuff and there is stuff that fits her pretty well already.

Sleeping:
Still co-sleeping so it’s still going well. When she’s feeling well she only gets up once a night and she is usually good for a good 6 hour chunk. She naps whenever she feels like it - there is no routine or schedule yet. Her sisters fell into their schedule so I am just going to let Claire do the same. She is pretty independent about falling asleep during the day and at night she sleeps beside me, not on me. She has taken to her soother this month and it helps her get to sleep.

Eating:
Still on demand. She is going much longer between feeds this month. I try not to let her go more than four hours. If she’s distracted while we’re out and about she still doesn’t seem to get hungry. At home, on a normal day, she eats every 3 hours or so. She is getting very efficient but sometimes she still gets in the zone where she wants to take her time.

Personality:
Claire is a really sweet baby. She’s full of smiles and loves to coo. She definitely knows John and the girls but she’s still willing to smile at anyone who so much as looks at her. She started laughing this month and it is really cute. She rarely cries or fusses unless there is something she needs. She is very curious and likes to look around. She sits in her bouncer chair during the day and just watches everything that’s going on around her. She’s a lot more vocal now and will yell for attention and then smile when she gets it.

This month Claire got her first cold. It didn’t seem to phase her for the first week but then she got really sick. She cried all night and I ended up taking her to the doctor to make sure she didn’t have an ear infection like her big sister Leah. She was pretty needy for a couple of days but settled right back into normal Claire once she felt better.

Claire really enjoys her playmat. She’s started to reach for things but her favourite thing is talking to herself in the mirror. She loves watching Baby Einsteins. She likes to kick her legs and wave her arms and just this morning she very nearly rolled onto her belly. She’s also started moving around a bit more when she sleeps. The other night she managed to get herself horizontal on our bed.

The girls are still good with her. Emma likes to get her soother or tell me Claire is hungry. They make up all sorts of stuff about her - their favourite is that Swiper (from Dora) is trying to swipe Claire and they have to stop him. They have decided that Claire’s favourite colour is green and they will tell you all the limitations there are when you’re a baby.

We are off to Windsor for the weekend tonight. It has been an eventful week.

Leah has another ear infection. I just put her on antibiotics so she would be well for Easter.

Wednesday night Claire woke up at 2am and would not stop crying. Since she never cries we knew that something was up. She was really congested and having trouble eating and then she threw up three times. She wouldn’t settle and I was up all night rocking her in John’s chair. I called the doctor  in the morning and they took her right away. There was no obvious infection beyond the snot and he just told me to keep on giving her Tempra for her discomfort. She was a bit better by last night and she slept well. She is a bit off today but nothing like yesterday morning. I’m just glad she is feeling better - that’s the sickest any of our babies have ever been at home and it was a bit worrisome.

Emma is now completely day potty trained. She tells us when she needs to go no problem. This weekend will be a big test seeing as she will have lots of distractions.

Leah isn’t eating much but she’s drinking. She’s pretty much pee trained now. She’s done really well considering I really didn’t push it with her.

We are all looking forward to getting away this weekend. All three girls are being Christened on Saturday - our Moms and the Irish can now sleep a little easier

Yesterday was my Mom’s 60th birthday. It’s hard to believe she’s 60 since she sure doesn’t act like it. I hope to look that young and have that much energy (and even be that slim!) when I’m 40 nevermind 60!

Happy Claire

This picture made me laugh. It’s my life captured. The three of them never stop and as you can tell by the look on my face I’m not overly impressed. That would be my fake smile

We’ve had a busy week. I’ve written about 5 posts but never to completion. Here are the highlights…

-Claire got sick. She’s a little trooper but it has still been tiring having the three of them sick at the same time. I got sick as well but I was able to function which was fortunate since I was dead set against John calling in sick on his first week of work. One thing I never considered when signing up for this parenting thing is how you never ever get a sick day no matter how crappy you feel. I often daydream about how much I would pay to send the girls off to daycare for the day and lie in bed all day in peace.

-Tuesday morning I decided to potty train Emma. I put her in undies. She peed herself 5 times but I stayed strong. After nap she just got it. She has been peeing and pooping in the potty ever since with only a couple of accidents. She even wakes up dry from naps and overnight (but I still put her in pullups). We’ve even taken her out in underwear and she used a public toilet no problem. Emma has been ready for a long time but I’ve been holding off due to pregnancy, newborn and then finally laziness. People are right when they say that when they’re ready it’s easy. Hopefully I haven’t jinxed myself with that statement.

-Due to all her recent issues, I decided to sell pullups to Leah when she asked for undies. Sure enough she is following Emma’s lead. She had no accidents in her “cinderellas” today and told us a few times that she felt a pee pee coming. She has pooped in the toilet for the past four days without major drama - which is a big deal around here! She has a follow up appt on Wednesday.

-So with all this snot, pee and the usual spit up from Claire, our washing maching broke on Tuesday night. It’s a front loader and the seal broke spewing water all over the laundry room. By Friday morning I was completely disgusted with the mound of dirty laundry but thankfully they were able to fix it. I spent Friday doing laundry to catch up.

-We had a busy weekend. John’s aunt Tina stayed over last night and we had a nice visit. Yesterday afternoon John went out shopping by himself and today Claire and I went out for a few hours.

-We are going to Windsor for Easter next weekend. The girls are getting excited.

-The computer is messed up again and I can’t download the pictures off the camera. I’ve got some good ones of Claire - she is such a happy little girl. All you have to do is look at her and she starts to coo and giggle. I’ve finally started putting up some old pictures on Flickr. John has always said Claire looks like Leah but I didn’t see it until I was going through the pictures from when the girls were first born. Claire’s face has thinned out a lot in recent weeks and the resemblance is very strong now.