Saturday Recap, Falmouth and Sickation

Pink-CJ left a comment the other day asking how I find the time to blog. I'll let you in on my secret. Well, it's not really a secret and I assume that other bloggers do the same. I usually have most of my posts planned and written in my head before I sit down at the computer. And I do commute in and out of the city to work on a train which gives me some free time to write as well.

I guess I'll start with Saturday. I wanted to mention that we attended a party at our former neighbors' house. A party with a bouncy house. I tested it out with Em, my jumping monkey, first and then Anna and Allie joined us. Within a few minutes, Allie freaked out and refused to come back in but Emily and Anna had a great time. I was impressed with Em's ability to jump. Poor Anna tried so hard but she just doesn't have the muscle strength. I ended up jumping while holding her hands and pulling her up in the air.

Sunday morning I started this Falmouth blog post in my head. I'll post what I was orginally going to post although the ending is far different from what I thought it would be.

I have learned two important facts this weekend. First, two year molars are a myth. Yes, that's right. There are no teeth. It's just something that parents have made up over the years to explain the crazy, fussy behavior of their two year olds. "Oh, it must be their two year molars." (Insert eye wink here.) We've been saying this for four months now and I have yet to see an actual tooth.

Second, crying it out does not work once your children reach a certain age. Say... 28 months. It's either that or my children have some sort of supertoddler powers or Rich and I have screwed up in our parenting along the way. I would like to think that it is the former rather than the latter.

I was awakened at four o'clock in the morning on Sunday to the sounds of one of the girls crying. Rich had two hours of sleep left before he had get ready to leave for the Falmouth Road Race. Allie was crying and wanted to go downstairs. Because Rich and I had decided to go back to sleep training, I left their room. That left all three screaming. I turned the noisy fan on high in our bedroom and told Rich to try to sleep. After twenty minutes, I broke my rule and returned to their room because Em was saying that she "did poo poos." I always tell the girls that if they have a dirty diaper, they need to let us know so I HAD to go back in. Also, because I had left their room so abruptly that first time, I thought by talking to them for a minute, they might settle down.

They cried until 6:55. Actually, Anna fell asleep at some point so it was just Allie and Em taking turns. That amounts to three hours of crying it out. I was baffled. Rich had hitched a ride with one of his brothers to Falmouth and I was supposed to meet some of his family along the race route. With the girls. And I was freaking exhaused.

We had a new Wiggles DVD (thankyouverymuch to some of our former neighbors) and that was enough to occupy Em and Allie while I showered and dressed. I waited for as long as possible before awakening Anna. I actually waited too long and I ended up racing around and then leaving a half hour later than I needed to.

Part of the delay was that I decided to feed the girls cinnamon toast for breakfast. I had dumped a ton of cinnamon and sugar on the top and then stuck it back in the toaster oven. Well, the girls had it all over their faces. I wiped them down with a wet facecloth and then locked them in the family room to spend a minute cleaning up. When I returned to the family room, I noticed that Anna's face was splotchy red. Allie and Em had some red patches too. I panicked, thinking that they had some type of cinnamon allergy that only came out now because I had dumped so much on the toast.

By the time we left, it had cleared and I now believe it was just from me wiping the granulated sugar off of their sensitive skin.

Another reason I was late in leaving...



Em dumping all of her milk out of her sippy cup and then finger painting with it.

The girls all slept on the drive down to the Cape. Allie was asleep within five minutes. Of course.

I knew approximately when Rich would be running by the area where we were supposed to be standing and I wanted to be there with the girls. I thought that if I could get to this certain street to park by 10:30, we would make it in time. Let's just say that Auntie P helped me back up the Choo Choo Wagon where Rich's family was standing and within two minutes, Rich ran up to us. Talk about cutting it close.





The girls and I stayed for another half hour or so watching the runners and giving Rich time to finish the race and walk to our designated meeting spot. Can you believe that with sleep deprivation and little time for training, Rich finished in just under an hour! That's 7.1 miles. I am so very proud of him for a job well done.

We then meet Rich's family at a nearby restaurant to enjoy a post-race lunch.

Em, Anna, Allie (this little girl was standing there saying, "Look at the triplets.")

Notice how I dressed the girls in their running clothes. They looked so adorable in those shorts.

Now onto the vacation (or sickation as I am now calling it). The girls slept through the night Sunday night. In fact, they were all asleep by 8:00, which is rare in our house. Something just wasn't right with Allie and after letting her cry it out for a short bit Rich went up to their room. He told me that he could just see that she needed something from one of us. All three were asleep with minutes of him sitting there on their floor.

We all slept until almost 8:00 am yesterday morning. Rich told me that I could sleep in for a bit longer if I wanted to. We had planned to bring the girls to storytime at the library. Rich came back to wake me up at 9:15 and told me that Allie had been whining all morning. I went to brush my teeth and put my contacts in. When I arrived downstairs, Rich informed me that Allie had just thrown up a little. On herself, the carpet and Elmo.

Now, I should note that two weeks ago Allie threw up a little bit just once and we thought it was from all of her fussing. This time though she was whining and lying on the couch. We decided to bring her to the library anyway. Well, she then threw up all of the couch, the rug and Rich. So I stayed home with her while Rich headed off to storytime with Anna and Em. It was so sad because Allie kept telling me that she wanted to go to the library. She chugged some water and threw up again. This time I had her sitting on a folded up sheet.

Rich was feeding Anna and Em lunch and it had been more than an hour since Alie had thrown up. She kept telling me that she wanted breakfast and cereal. We gave her some dry cereal to eat and she actually perked up a bit after. Then came naptime. I didn't want to leave her in her crib fussing so I allowed her to watch Sesame Street on the couch hoping that she would fall asleep. She did.



Allie improved throughout the day and ate so much at dinner last night. So, of course, I feel horrible for letting her cry it out for so long the other night because she most likely wasn't feeling well. Although, Emily was simply crying because she was mad at Allie for crying. I don't know how many times she said, "Allie, stop it."

Rich and I are at home this week for a staycation, which hopefully doesn't turn into a sickation. Today, Allie said to Rich, "Daddy not working the man."