F-U-S-S-Y...the Sequel....

Last night was bad. Really bad. And it was just ONE kid causing all of the trouble, but still incredibly bad. Fortunately, Mommy and Daddy were able to trade-off to get a mental break at times. Clark was coughing big-time so we (brilliantly) decided to try a breathing treatment. The noise totally caught him off guard and scared the bah-jeez-uz out of him. It was awful and he just couldn't find a way to recover....until Daddy took him for a drive in the van and they watched a movie. On the way to he van he said "bye-bye". After about 20 minutes, Daddy was able to get him to go right to bed. Ahhhhhhh.
Or not. He woke up again around 3a (I think. It's all a blur.) and I had him calmed down, but when I tried to return him to his bed he was not having it. Since I was so out of my mind, I thought I'd bring him to our room and he did fall asleep quickly. He was even giggling in his dream at one point and I wished I could have caught it on video because it was so precious.
And then he woke up. Again. For no reason that we could identify. Screaming. Howling. Whining. Bad. Again. The TV wouldn't solve his problem. Humming. Rocking. Cudding. Nothing was calming him down.
And then Daddy got out the PlayStation PSP and a car game and Clark was in and out of happy-mode. He did like watching the replay and seeing the car run off of the road (since Daddy was driving and helping manage a fussy boy). Finally he returned to his own bed around 6a and managed to stay there until 10a. Mommy and Daddy were not as fortunate.
The silence tonight is almost deafening. But it feels like angels are swirling around my head because it's so incredibly peaceful. I should be sleeping, but am blogging first. Dedication.
I hope that my precious ones are feeling better tomorrow. Mommy is not a fan of taking them to the dr and we are just about at that point. I think that Clark was definitely turning a corner today health-wise, so let's just hope that Kendall and Emma are back on track tomorrow too.
Mommy doesn't usually appear in pics (for good reason), but Daddy got a couple just before bed tonight.
Sleep tight my little pumpkins.

Three Babies - Three Fevers - Uh Oh

I have three kiddos with fevers. Kendall and Clark seem to have a relatively low fever (around 100 usually). Emma showed up somewhere between 102-104 earlier today, but it's hard to know because of the thermometer we use. We love it and often think its accurate, but today it just seemed funky.
Either way, we have very few other symptoms going on except for Clark's congestion and cough. It was MUCH better today but Ems did have a little stuffy going on mid-day. Oh how we love snot! (Uncle Tom, skip reading that part.)
Hopefully everyone will be better quickly because THEY CANNOT BE SICK ON THEIR BIRTHDAY next week (one week from today)! Nope. Not gonna have it. We are feeding them blueberries (super food, you know), sweet potatoes, bananas, grape juice and vitamin C just to try to keep them as healthy as possible.
Ironically they were in pretty great moods this evening despite their potential sick-state. Daddy got home just before bedtime and had fun getting tackled by all three at once. Emma looked pretty worn out by the time she rolled into her crib, so I'm hoping she gets some rest tonight.
I tried to get a picture of Clark's new (to him) cool-kid red Converse tennis shoes and his super-cool retro'ish Star Wars shirt. We are loving the Converse so much that we will probably have to find some for the girls too. We sort of hate the onesies at this point, but since they find ways to pull off their diapers, the girls have to live in them for now. Hopefully we can get past that and move on to fun shirts and dresses by the time Spring arrives.
And you can't really tell by looking at the picture, but Emma was freakishly strong picking up a large tub of Mega Blocks in the family room. She wanted to get Daddy to open up the container and play with her. We thought it was funny that she is just so petite and can lug a huge box of blocks from the hearth down to the floor and over to where he was sitting. She is incredibly strong for her size.
Time for me to go read more of my camera manual before my photography class begins later this week. Troy registered me for a class as part of my (belated) birthday present, so I hope to have much better photos to post in the next few months.
See ya tomorrow.

Just pics.....and Kendall's Brick House Video Clip

F-U-S-S-Y

We had two very fussy girls on our hands tonight and ended up just scooping them up and putting them to bed. This AFTER a relatively fussy day because Clark is under the weather and the girls were just unsettled all day since he needed a little extra cuddling.
Clark couldn't sleep at nap time, so he had a quick road trip with Daddy to Books-a-Million and a couple of other errands. He is SO exhausted right now, but coughing and having trouble sleeping. Poor little guy. :( Initially, we had hoped this was a teething thing (low fever and fussy), but now that he's started coughing, we aren't sure what's up. Hopefully we can get it under control and avoid any trips to the dr.
Auntie Karen and Uncle Tom had to come over to help out for a little bit as I was stuck at Radio Shack dropping off my laptop for warranty service (I think it's dead, but we shall see. Weird since I didn't buy my laptop from them, but that's another story entirely.) Either way, it took almost an hour and the sitter needed to leave. Once I was home, it was almost nap time and the kids (ALL THREE OF THEM) freaked out when Auntie K and Uncle T tried to leave. It was bad enough that they stayed until I could get everyone down....everyone except Clark. It was pretty pitiful seeing the girls clinging to them and Clark upset because he just felt terrible. What a sad sight.
Poo-pa (Grandpa) came by to see the kiddos tonight, which was fortunate, since I was trying to get all of the baths done quickly so that Clark could get to bed a little earlier. We can't get Kendall to call him anything in particular, but Ems was happy to hang out with Poo-pa and watch TV and read books. It does seem that Kendall is calling Uncle Stevie by his name, though I think she just has the "Stevie" part down.
So, the girls are sleeping soundly.....knock-on-wood.....and we hope that Clark will be able to get some sleep.
All of that to say that there were very few pics to choose from tonight and what I have a purely the girls in F-U-S-S-Y mode. I just couldn't bring myself to torture Clark with the flash tonight when he was feeling so rotten.

No time to post....quick pics

I'm in a rush to get this done tonight. No big stories to tell for now, but I did want to mention that I'm surprised at how curly Kendall's hair appears in the one shot. I'm not sure how much longer her hair will get vs. curlier. I love the curls on both of the girls since I never had any of my own. :) Now if it would just get long enough to give them pig tails I would be one happy camper. And I will also say that I can't get barrettes and pig tails to last in their hair for more than about 45 seconds because they mess with them too much or another sibling pulls them out.

Good night!

Let's Seeeeeeeee........ Miss Kendall

Tonight is Kendall's night, despite her meltdown just before bath time.
She has been the talker. She mumbles entire conversations that we just can't quite understand yet. But SOMEDAY, we will hear all that she has to say. In the meantime, we enjoy her lectures from the bay window (and elsewhere) and wonder where this could lead....?????
Kendall is a dancer and a singer. She bobs her head to the music wherever we are and seems to have a wide range of musical interests. It is so funny to hear her try to sing the words to the songs and how she actually gets some of it right.
Unfortunately she does have a temper. She throws herself onto the floor when things don't quite go her way. I keep trying to tell myself that she is just passionate and doesn't quite know how to express it.
The "let's seeeee" in the title is because that is what she says when I start to put in a movie for them to watch. I am usually picking it out and she is saying "Let's seeeeeeee.....". It's cute, but it can take a turn down the wrong path if I pick the wrong movie.
She's artistic and loves to "cowere" (color)...a lot. I have to hide the crayon box from her because once she sees it, the passionate side strikes again and she won't let us pass up the chance for her to express herself creatively. If I could just convince her that eating crayons is not part of the fun, we'd be in great shape.
Kendall is also a Daddy's girl. She wakes up saying "Daddeeeee" and constantly says "Daddeeee" when she hears a noise from the garage (very much like when he comes home from work) or when she hears something upstairs and thinks that he is still home (though it's usually Teddy). Again, cute but it can go very bad. And sometimes Mommy wants her to say "Mommeeeee" in the morning, right?
Oh and the picture of the disaster in the playroom is my attempt to share with everyone how destructively messy my kids are! This relates to my Kendall story because she is my best helper when it comes to "Clean up. Clean up. Everybody. Everywhere." She is great at sorting similar things, picking up toys and also organizing the Little People in a row. My little helper.

Jumpin'

Nanny Barb brought over her bouncy-thing to provide a change of scenery/pace for the kiddos. They LOVE it! Especially Kendall. The most recent "good time" for them is to pull off the cushions and jump on the couch that is in their playroom. Fun, right? Gross. That couch is about 20 years old (or more???) and collects all sorts of crumbs. Plus it is just an accident waiting to happen. Yes, I sound paranoid, but Clark fell off just two days ago and it wasn't pretty.
Her offer to provide the opportunity to jump for hours at a time sounded great to me. Unfortunately, there is a small leak, so we will have to try to patch it first thing tomorrow morning.
I'd love to write a detail about another child, but had a long night thanks to the smallest-one-who-shall-not-be-named who thought last night was not bedtime, but party time. Ugh! We will just say that she (oops...the child-who-shall-not-be-named) wanted more snuggle time with Mommy and Daddy. I'm pooped and just want to get to bed for now.
I did want to share how Kendall wrapped up the fox stuffed animal in a scarf and then patted it night-night. When I said something about getting fox ready for bedtime, she put her finger over her mouth and told us "shhhhh". It was just so cute. And it was so neat to see her play pretend. Very special time.
More tomorrow.