The Three Beside Me: The sound of silence....

Aahhhhhh...a quiet house (minus, of-course, the drone of the Wiggles show playing on the tv in the other room!) We've had my three nieces here since yesterday afternoon. We had SOOOO much fun with them here, but I must say, I will certainly not be having four children! :) Two sounds just about right for me.

Let's see....where did I leave off last time??? The animal park and our errands on Thursday? What on earth did we do the rest of the week and weekend???? Hmmmm....let me think back. Friday was a quieter day at home...just cleaning, doing mounds of laundry and the normal house kind of stuff. Once Ty got home in the afternoon, we headed over to Home Depot to purchase the materials for the chair rail in the baby's room and then came home for yummy home cooked meal....filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and veggies. Mmmm. The only thing missing from my meal was a nice glass of red wine! Missed that!! Friday night was date night for us, so once Luke was down for bed, Ty and I cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie. There's no better place than curling up with my hubby!

Saturday was the twin's birthday party up at Krystal and Will's house, which turned out to be really nice. The weather was great and all the kids ended up playing outside in the sunshine, drenching and dirtying themselves in the sand and water table. All, that is, except Luke. He played GREAT with all the kids, even willingly sharing his toys often, but somehow he managed to stay clean while all the others were pretty much soaked and muddied from head to toe. Way to go, Big Guy! The twins enjoyed their special day and we got a good belly laugh out of them destroying their cakes. I love first birthday parties for precisely that reason! Fun times!

After the party, we headed home for a nap and then hopped over to my parent's house for dinner and to watch Charlotte's Web with the girls. My mom was looking after them for the first part of the weekend, while I volunteered to have them last night and today. Jennifer (my sister) was on a much deserved kid-free weekend. All four of the kids get along so well now that they are all a bit older! They LOVE to play with Luke and he reciprocates. Our house was filled with giggles, laughter and LOTS of pitter-pattering little feet the last 24 hours! It was joyful and wonderful and very LOUD! :)

On Sunday afternoon, my mom and I took the kids to see the Great Y Circus performance. It seems to now be an annual tradition for the girls to go, but until this year, Luke was too small to appreciate it much. This year however, he was just old enough to go. He was awed by all the kids and especially loved the little tots (3-4 year olds) who did the cutest tumbling act! He nodded fervently when I asked him if he'd like to be in the circus someday. We talked a bit about how mommy used to perform in the circus like the kids we were watching, and I pointed out the things I used to do. I'm not sure that he understood, but in time he will. My mom asked if we plan to enroll Luke is circus. It would be a nice thing to pass onto our kids....since so much of my childhood was spent there, and my sisters and I learned much about personal discipline, teamwork and hard work...not to mention what great workouts we always got! We'll see. I see Luke as more of an outdoor sports kind of kid, but who ever knows. Maybe this little girl will be inspired to do some aerial acts (which would be very unlike her mother! I was more of a ground act kind of kid....handbalancing, acrogymnastics, unicycle, tight wire....you know, the things that don't involve too much height!) Time will tell.

Luke actually did quite well at the show, despite how LONG it ran! In total, its duration was 3 hours, but Luke and I opted to leave just after intermission 'cause he was just too restless to sit still anymore. Who can blame him! It was hard for ME to sit still that long! So we headed home to get dinner ready for the girls.

They arrived shortly after us, and our 'multiple kid experiment' began. :) I really wasn't sure how it would all go having all FOUR of them here at once and being preggy at the same time, but to my surprise, it was awesome! Getting Luke and Kailyn bathed and in bed at the same time wasn't too much of a hassle (I did that part on my own, while Ty hung out with the older two) and after the younger ones were soundly in bed, the rest of us snuggled into watch a movie.

I was up four separate times (once for each) between the hours of 9:30pm and 12:30am though, which was my only peeve. JUST as I would fall back to sleep, another one would awaken and need a drink of water, or to use the restroom or just be crying in bed. Hmph! I eventually got some sleep...somewhere in between midnight and 3:30, when my back started to ache so badly that I could no longer find a sleeping position that didn't hurt. :( That's been happening more and more lately. When Ty got up for work at 4:15, I was exasperated and in tears. :( He massaged me for a bit and I was finally able to snooze for 'bout a half hour longer until Luke got up. Guess I should consider myself lucky that I've made it this far without too much back pain or sleeping issues. Almost 6 months and I've slept pretty well, for the most part. I expect that the next several months won't be so easy, but so it goes. At-least it wasn't this bad from 6 weeks on, like it was with Luke.

Okay...onto the morning. Once the coffee had been brewed and I was a little more alert (yes...I still have just one cup each morning....my only caffeine) I made a special breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and we sat at the table, singing along to Laurie Berkner and being silly. Fun times! I threw in a load of laundry and cleaned up from breakfast while the kids played and then we headed over to the pool for a few hours. Luke was pretty hesitant to get in the water at first, but he eventually made it in with the girls and I. By noon, it was time to leave and he was the one who didn't want to go. Here are a couple of pics from our time together.....

Just a little amped up after those chocolate chip pancakes...