Thursday, July 3, 2008

Partly Cloudy, Partly Sunny

You know when you have those mixed days? Those days when you realize that there has been forward progress made, but you can never go back to what was easier.

So today, I'm upstairs putting clothes away (which is a whole another story) and I heard the gate open. Thinking it was Katie or Sam, I didn't say anything until I heard the pitter-patter of footsteps. Little footsteps. And Brooke came running into Jacobs room and then ran out. I heard the gate wiggle and then open again and I walked out of the room just in time to see her close the gate all by herself and go down the steps.

The boys have no clue how to open the gate, but Brooke, she's detail-oriented and a girl. She's got a couple of good things going for her. I just knew when I brought her home that she'd be the first to try to sneak out of the house and I still don't think I'm wrong about her.

So now tonight, I have to clean up my spare room, which is Brooke's room, which has a hodge-podge of stuff all over. I need to put the little stuff away that they can't swallow or just wreck.

Why can't we just lock them up and leave them? Why do we have to let them spread their wings and learn to fly?

I'm a planner. I love for things to be orderly and done on my schedule. I didn't plan for this. I plan on keeping the crib tents on until they are three and keeping them in their cribs even after that. I'll just lower the one side so that it will be easier for them to get out, but they still won't fall out. By the time they are three I hope to have one potty trained and will be working on the other two. I don't want them out of their rooms at the crack of dawn because sleeping in is all I have left.

Come August 26th, Jacob will have to be school before 8:00 a.m. Which means that either Scott or I have to leave here by 7:30 a.m. to get him to school. Which means that I'll have to start getting up earlier and get Jacob ready to go to school. I have had four years of being able to sleep in to some extent. I guess my vacation is over.

Today Katie, Sam, the babies and I went to Target to pick up some Vanicream sunscreen for the adults and the babies. I had just heard that some chemicals in some of the sunscreens have some bad side effects. So I did a little bit of research and realized that zinc oxide is the safest physical blocker of the sun. It protects from UVA/UVB and all the junk. But Vanicream also has titanium dioxide in it which on some sites it says it is safer than the chemical blockers, but also may be linked to some cancer or DNA stuff. What to do, what to do?

Some of the "all-natural" sunscreen is so expensive. Since I have four very pale children, I go through a whole tub in about four or five applications. And since I'd like to stay looking like I'm 25, I've been using a whole bunch of screen too. And if you've seen my husband and happened to see him put on sunscreen, you know we really should buy it by the case.

After Target, the crew and I head over to Stride Rite. Matthew got new sandals less than a month ago and I don't like how they fit. I even mentioned it to the girl when she put them on and she said that they looked fine. But after watching him take them off all the time, I decided to see if they'd take them back, even though they were worn. I happened to pick a day when a girl was in training. I told her that I was unhappy with the fit, that they had been worn, etc... and she said that she was told that as long as they look pretty new and its before 30 days, I could exchange them. Whoohooo!

So we picked out another size 8 water sandals for my boy and we got next years sandals for Brooke.

Then we stopped at the pretzel place to get a bite to eat. Its in the middle of the mall where you sit and as I got back to the tables where the kids were, Katie said to me, "Everyone is looking at us." And I nodded my head and said that it happens all the time. People don't normally see triplets and its obvious in the stroller. I think we get more looks when I have more kids with me too. Because you know what everyone is thinking... God those kids are cute! Or maybe more realistically, God that's a lot of kids! Did you ever hear of birth control? And all those canned phrases.

Because before I had kids that's what I thought when I saw people with a bunch of kids. See what happens to ignorant people? They eat their words.

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