And I will huff and puff and blow your salsa down!

Johnny is a very special child. He's not a child to be replicated, yet he'll be impossible to miss. He's got presence, he's got style, he's got his own style.

Tonight I attend a newer church in Appleton called the Core. http://www.gotocore.com/ Jacob was a fan because they served popcorn and drinks. It also helps that it was an old movie theatre and its just pretty awesome.

On the way home we stopped to get some groceries. I picked up some blackbean salsa and chips. I got home and the triplets tore into the chips and the salsa. Now, Brooke and John both liked the salsa. Matthew tried it, but decided chips were his thing. I gave John his own dipping bowl since he was drooling and very into the dipping process. I caught him blowing on his chips and salsa and then eating them. Just like we'd do if something were hot. The salsa was spicy hot, not warm hot. It was hilarious watching him eat because he was unaware that he was drooling and what was making his mouth so hot.

The children in this experiment were given milk to drink and they had their own napkins and ate on their own free will.

Roughage

Note to self:

After eating only foods on approved BRAT diet from doctor and having a fiber buildup... it can be quite straining on the system. Only now to be adviced by doctor's nurse to take a stool softener or laxative.

Stop calling the nurses and getting stupid advice.

Crossing the line -the state line

Its been so long since I logged on to this account, I almost forgot my logon. Or it could be that being sick for the last four days has taken its toll.

On Sunday, my friend Shell Dinter, Jacob, Matthew, Brooke and John headed out to Minnesota to see some friends. On the way over, I had some rumblings in my tummy and thought "oh, oh." No way could I get sick! Jacob had gotten over his bug four days before this. Well, after five or six stops (just for me) we arrived at our friends, Bob & Cindy's house. Shell and I used to work with Bob and Cindy for a long, long time. I think I met Cindy in 1995 and from what I remember, our first trade ever was TSA - The Sports Authority. She and Bob got married a few months before Scott and I in 1999 and we even had our children at the same time. Jacob and Luke are a month apart and Erika and the triplets are three weeks apart.

Its nice that we've kept touch even though I'm not working anymore. So, I regress...

We arrive at their house on Sunday afternoon and the kids played so nicely together, the four of us catch up, we have a little birthday party for the kiddos and have a few glasses of wine.
The next morning, Matthew comes up to me and his pants are soaked through. I change him and its diarrheaish. Oh no. So I end up taking him in the shower with me to clean him up. He acts fine and frankly, we had plans to go to the Mall of America and just about nothing was stopping me.
We head to The Mall of America and Shell and I go to Legoland with the kids. She rents a couple of double strollers for the kids so we can get around easier. We spend a gazillion dollars at legoland. Jacob picked out a Coast Guard set that he wanted, I got the little boys a SpongeBob lego set for their birthdays which everyone can share, and a ton on Lego plates so we can build a table for the kids to build their stuff on.

Then we perused Hanna Anderssen, Gymboree, Disney Store and Shell probably got 1.5 seconds in a store of her choice. The kids got sick of sitting in strollers and were tired from not taking naps.

We met up with Bob and Cindy and the kids and ate at Ruby Tuesdays. Well, before that Bob took Luke and Jacob on rides while the girls did a little more shopping. Matthew just cried and fell asleep on Shell.

On the way home, I said I'd drive and follow the trusty Garmin that I borrowed from the in-laws. Cindy also had written out some instructions on how to get from their house to the mall. So really, we just had to reverse the directions and follow the Garmin and we should be able to get home.

(Just to caution the readers, I may not still have my road names right in this story and it may contain graphic language and descriptions that may be unsuitable for small children or delicate palates.)

I got onto 494 and then as I knew, I KNEW, that I should stay on this road until 35E North. But I was looking at the Garmin and I thought it showed me on the screen to take a right. Shell's yelling, "No! No! don't get off the highway!" This was my first of many mistakes with the Garmin.

So, we are in a big city with four precious children and I put my faith in the Garmin to get me back on track. So after a 1/2 hour of trying to get back to 494 or maybe it was 694, we finally got back to where we needed to be. During this time, Matthew had messed his pants, and it wasn't the ordinary messy diaper. It was the diarrhea diaper. Once you smell that kind of diaper, it will be engrained in your brain for the rest of your life. So we have our windows open a smidge and its pouring rain. Just as I'm merging onto one freeway to another, Michelle says, or screams, "Matthews throwing up!" And she dove into the backseat and tried to catch the vomit to lessen the mess. Shes a superhero.

As you know, you can't just pull over on a freeway, so I just open my window a little bit more and she cleans him up with whatever wipes we have and cleans up her hands. I don't think she realized it but she just held her hands up from her lap for quite awhile. Then we just started laughing hysterically. I mean, it really couldn't get much worse.

The Garmin gets us back to the house an hour after we left from the mall, while it only should have taken about 30 minutes.

I am going to write a strongly worded letter to the Garmin people. The thing would tell us to get off the freeway to drive on city streets and then have us get right back on that same highway. I'm not sure it tells us the shortest miles or what the logic is. The other problem is that if there is construction and the on ramps are closed, it doesn't recognize detours. So it will keep rerouting you to that same ramp that is closed. That's great in a big city you don't know.

On a positive note, it does tell you where the nearest McDonalds is.

So we enter the house, Shell puts the kids to bed, I give Matthew a bath, strip down the carseats and wash a bunch of stuff. O.K. how crappy is it to bring a sick child into another house?

So I get more sick overnight and we pack up to leave to drive home. Shell drives the whole way home. We stop to see her parents in Stanley, Wisconsin and had a really nice lunch. Jacob met the oldest person he know knows, Shell's Grandma. She's 93. The oldest person before that was Grandma Callaway's dad, Grandpa Ken. John wanted to be picked up by Shell's dad Dave and he wanted him to carry him around everywhere. John is such a stinker.

We arrive home and I get even more sick. Today I just laid on the couch and slept. With children running around. Go ahead, call social services. I need a break.

Things I learned on this trip.

Shell will probably never take a road trip with us again.
Shell didn't deserve to be puked on and I owe her a bazillion favors.
Bob and Cindy probably won't ask us to come back for a really really long time.
Jacob has now found someone else that he wants to marry, his new friend Erika.
Carry your own tissue because the toilet paper in gas stations or restaurants is really rough.

The BATY diet

So, today is day 7? of Jacob being sick. So today I made him stick to the BRAT diet. Or the modified BATY diet of Bananas Apples and Toast. And he could eat yogurt which helps build up the bacteria in his stomach and intestines, etc...

So tonight for dinner I made the kids buns with a little bit of butter and yogurt. Jacob wanted to eat fruit snacks or something else. I gave him his yogurt and he made some comment to me and I replied, "you need to stick to your diet." And he got mad and yelled at me, "I don't have a diet, I have DIARRHIA!"

Transformers

Jacob has been watching the Transformers movie, otherwise known as the "cars" movie by the youngin's.

In one scene "Bumblebee" stops working and Sam tries to start him up again. The girl - whatever her name is gets out and starts walking. The car radio tunes into "Baby come back!"

So now when we are singing songs around the house, this song comes up frequently.

Makes me smile.

4 days until Mall of America.

16 days until my babies are 3. That day will make me cry. (Joy AND sadness)

The digital age

Do you know how hard it is to take pictures of wiggly little urchins? Good thing cameras now have a feature that takes good pictures when the object is moving. But even cameras cannot solve the problem of getting your kids to look at the camera or even in that general area all at the same time. And not cry. And not pout. And maybe have a serene look on their faces? I'd settle for that, if I got smiles out of all three or four children at once... well, I don't know what I'd do. Probably the potty dance. (Its the same dance I use for all happy moments in the house)

St. Patricks Day

St. Patricks Day

What is this day? Why do we wear green and drink a lot of beer? I'm beginning to be a scrooge when it comes to holidays that gifts are not given.

So I googled St. Patrick's Day and this is what I got. "St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide." Apparently this guy died on March 17th so we are celebrating his death on this day. He drove the druids out of Ireland or something to that effect.

Now, I'm all for spiritual renewal and thanking others for witnessing all around the world. But is that what the St. Patrick's revelers are doing? No. They use this as an excuse to get together (or not) and drink.

So I'm now thinking about this and when I say my prayers tonight I will add prayers about the missionaries throughout the world (and hope I don't fall asleep before I do so).

Oh, I forgot to mention that I am German 100% and that Scott is a mixture of French-Canadian, German, Polish and English. There is NO Irish in our blood. We are from the English Callaways, not Irish. This is deceiving due to the color of my husbands hair, his fair skin and his sky blue eyes.

Ear cleaning anyone?

The little ones had their 4th swimming lesson tonight. The good news is that Matthew and John know now that they can touch the bottom of the pool and walk around (and have the confidence to do so). Brooke clung to Shell and then me the whole time. She was being a little difficult. But then at the end of our swimming time she actually got in and stood and held on to the pool.

John needs his ears cleaned out because he doesn't listen well. I think I saw him fall two or three times as he was running around the pool. Poor Luann. Even though John talks about "Guann" all the time, he still was running away from her doing his own thing.


The other good news is that after their 3rd birthday they get to go into the pool by themselves in the Shrimp class. I talked to Miss Julie (not my sister) about it and she said that as long as they can touch the bottom of the pool and listen, they can go into shrimp. Hmm... listen. Well, that's what the instructors get paid for, right?

I took the little boys down the slide at the Y. Brooke did not want to go down the slide and cried. I do not think the boys really liked it, but they sat on my lap and I made sure that they did not get dunked as we went down.

Jacob is still sick and was not able to go to swimming lessons. He's got some energy at times and so I'd like him to go back to school, but not until he stops having bathroom issues.

But its been nice playing outside with all the kids, even if it is muddy and icky and we take baths right after we get in. I wish this 50 and 60 degree sunny weather would stay.

The numbers game

5 days until we leave for Minneapolis to see our friends Bob, Cindy, Luke and Erika

4 Children traveling with us

2 "Us" being two adults, myself and Shell Dinter

4 days that Jacob has been sick

12 days since I started pottytraining. (Well, Brooke started to potty train. I've been potty-trained for awhile.)

17 days until the triplets are 3

4 number of swimming lessons we will have had after tonight

Its all about the potty...

This is what has consumed most of my days and even a few nights. Potty training. Something I have blogged about and have dreaded for about three years.

Last Thursday was the first day of Brooke's potty training. She got padded underwear a shirt and not much else. The first day we had a bunch of accidents as she probably was figuring out how to use her muscles to not go every 15 minutes. Then the next day we only had three accidents. The weekend was a bit busy as Scott was gone and we had birthday parties and church so she did get a break from the underwear.

Now I've noticed that she gets up in the morning, wet, and yells for me to change her wet diaper. And sometimes in the middle of the night she wants to get her diaper changed because she's wet. Good recognition.

But she will wait until 11 a.m. or 12 p.m. to go potty. She's got the bladder of steel - which will change when she has children. Then we do the potty dance (o.k. I do the potty dance) and she gets M & Ms while she sits there along with water to drink. She'll ask for a diaper if she has to poop. Which I don't really mind since I don't want to clean it out of her underwear. Then she takes her nap and she is wet again and then she won't go until late in the evening.

I'm not depriving her of liquids. As a matter of fact, she had a variety of fruit tonight for dinner. I personally don't think she can now relax enough to go. But hey, no accidents for two days. I'll take it! I'm guessing that gradually she'll want to sit on the potty to poop.

For those of you who really don't care about potty training and really don't want to read about it. This is my life - deal with it. One down and two to go.

Did you see the pig tails? Isn't she a doll? Too bad you can't hear her screaming and throwing tantrums through pictures.

I really really really dislike my job

Potty training is not fun. I have dreaded this moment since I heard I was having triplets. Really.

Brooke is slowly getting it. I think if I'm consistent that I can get her potty (not poop) trained by the end of the week. I've decided that I'll do all the girls and Scott will train the boys. That's fair right?

How come kids don't just have this sixth sense like cats do about keeping their litter area clean?

I took home some 4 week old kittens once (Laura, Gayle? you know this story) and I gave them cats milk from a can, I washed them and I just showed them their litter box, put them in it, showed them how to paw around with their paws and they got it. So why is this so hard for toddlers? Don't they want to be clean? Do they really like stuff running down their legs and in the crevices of their privates?

If this was approved by the APA, I think I'd use electric stimulation. They wouldn't pee in their pants twice.

Soccer anyone?

Whatcha been up to?

Well, I'm potty-training Brooke. But its hard when we have to take her somewhere so it only was for a 1/2 day today. I'm hoping to have her trained (knock on wood) soon. She has figured out not to pee every 10 minutes in her underwear now.

Jacob had soccer today and I helped coach. I know nothing about soccer, but I do know how to give positive support to the kids. And I'm good at giving high fives.

Sam turned 8 this week and we had his birthday party today. Its so nice to be able to sit down and let the kids play in another room.

Then Katie and Sam came over for a few hours and played with the kids. Its nice to have a few extra hands to clean up.

Scott is gone on a boys weekend and will be back tomorrow. He's been working a lot of hours and this is a well-deserved break. I'll take my break over mother's day. :)

I really like this warm balmy 30s and 40s weather we are having here. But we're supposed to have a snow storm tomorrow. And its daylight savings time. More like, momma loses an hour of sleep or something like that.

One less ...

Do you think I'm talking about Gardasil? I'll cross that bridge when Brooke is 12 or something like that.

Actually I'm talking about my shopping trip with Brooke and John. They wanted to go out with me today. They kept saying "my turn!" and I promised if they took a nap that I'd take them somewhere.

So we went to Menard's to pick out new cabinet handles because ours have fallen off one-too-many times. And this was my second trip. I got polished silver and realized our hinges are a brushed brass? so those two didn't mix. So I took the 40 handles and 9 nobs back. I told the customer service lady right away that she wasn't going to be happy with me. But it only took 5 minutes and a temper tantrum by John to get the stuff returned.

So we get the stuff and go into the check out aisle. They see the Easter candy and just flip. They start screaming "num nums!" over and over. The pitch of their voices was almost freaky. So they got M & Ms. As the items came down that moving belt, John took the M & Ms out of the store bag and was trying to rip it open with his teeth. Yeah.

So Scott and I and the kids are in the middle of changing out the hardware. But the Bachelor has got all my attention...

And another weird thing. Last night I was looking on Craigslist for preschool tables or children's tables for the kids for their birthday. I forgot that on Craigslist they have the "Personals" site. Once awhile back I got curious and was reading the men seeking women, women seeking women, men seeking men site.

Obviously this site is not very regulated because as I was reading the titles, I noticed that there were pictures attached to some of the advertisements.

Do you see where this is going? Do you wonder why I went there?

So, I open up one that says Dom (?) man seeking 18 to 25 year old. O.k. What does Dom mean? It means dominator I find out as I read through the ad. I'll make this as clean as possible, but this what it said.

(Talking in first person) I want a slave to uhh, excite me but expect nothing in return. I want to watch you do my laundry, clean and wait on me. And then it had letters after it probably like SWF NIV stuff.
I don't know what it means, but it floors me that 1) its on craigslist 2) people post naked pictures of themselves and 3) they breathe the same air as the regular joes out there.

So this is soooo 8mm. I am so naive. Thats all I can say. And actually I think this guy is too. If he can't find a woman to do his laundry, clean and wait on him, he expects to find a man to do it? Now, I think he IS naive.

My future daughter in law is ...

my own daughter. Jacob and I were talking about me being a grandma someday. I told him he'd have to marry a girl and then they could have their own children. He said that he wants to marry Brooke.

While I know that this is pretty common for kids to like siblings and cousins, its still shocking to hear.

I asked him if there were any girls at school that he'd like to marry and he said, "No, just Brooke."

I mentioned that brothers don't marry their sisters. We all love each other, but we need to marry people we are not related to.

I'm going to ask him this question again in a few years and I hope the answer changes.