More cute pictures

The kids lined up for pictures at the lake. This was last Tuesday at the campgrounds were Aunt Julie and Uncle Kelly were. We had a really good time. Very nice campgrounds.

Aunt Julie and Uncle Kelly at their camp site. The kids kept wanting to go inside the camper and play.

Mister Matthew is such an angel. For those who have met him you know what I mean. He has a kind heart.

Today he fell out of the cart and landed on his head. I could only buckle two in and he was sitting in the big part of the cart. I had been telling him all day to sit down, but I was preoccupied and turned the cart and he fell out. I can't tell you how I felt at that moment. You hear the thud of his head hitting the ground, you see him crying and in pain. And you know that you were responsible for it. I picked him up and comforted him. I carried him while pushing the others in the cart and Jacob yakking a mile-a-minute. Within a few minutes he had a goose egg on the top right side of his head. I went home and gave him some Motrin and then tried putting ice on his head, which he did not want. I watched him for any odd behaviors, but he was talking in sentences and his eyes looked fine.

I think tonight I finally felt the fear that I suppressed all day. He could have been critically hurt and I am so lucky that he wasn't.

I realize why kids are supposed to be buckled in and why kids are not supposed to ride in the big part of the cart, but what do you do with triplets? I could try pulling two carts, but that is really hard to do. If I bought the stroller all the time and pulled a cart behind me its still very hard to do. Its just not easy keeping them from harm sometimes.

This ain't a picnic in the park

My brother in law picked this up for FREE for us and the kids have been fighting over it since. Jacob was really helpful in giving them rides. He also sets up an obstacle course at the end of the driveway so that people can't get in and the babies can't get out. Well, this lasted for the first time and now they just jump over the cones. Its the thought that counts though, right?

We spent most of the night outside playing, eating, messing stuff up and waiting for Scott to come home from work. But at last, we had to take the walk around the circle by ourselves. Jacob rode the tractor and then he got off of it and pulled it all the way home.


Its rare that I get all my kids sitting by each other and not crying or sitting on another, so enjoy this picture. They were patiently waiting for me to feed them crackers that Luann had brought over. They were really hungry and ate 1/2 the box. Jacob didn't finish his meal so I he couldn't have any until he went inside to finish his Chicken Pot Pie. My chicken pot pie is to die for and everyone else likes it, but he hems and haws and is such a sissy about eating it. Its butter, vegetables and pie crust. Who doesn't like stuff with butter?

Since we went to Oshkosh to look at the airplane show. The kids have really noticed the airplanes flying by. The picture below is of the kids yelling, no screaming, AIRPLANE! over and over again. Its actually kind of cute when I'm not standing right next to them.

Not sure how they could see the airplane from sitting inside the garage, but I know they heard it. Brooke actually had the sense to get off her duff and go outside and look for the thing.

Jacob wanted me to take pictures of him sitting on the boat. He posed for me, which of course were all silly. He, daddy and grandpa callaway are going fishing again tomorrow on Lake Michigan. May they catch 3 fish.


So, the kids were really digging the crackers and I was holding the box and they were only taking one or two at a time. Great.
I put the box down to put the stroller back together and below is a picture of what I found. They had emptied the box in the back of the van (where the stroller was) and were stomping/grinding it into a floor. Resale on mini-vans should be at an all-time low with how messy kids are. I'll alert everyone when I buy a new van so you don't buy my old one. I think I probably have 10 lbs of ground up food in crevices and nuks that I cannot get at.

This post took me over an hour to do because both computers were not working. The laptop I couldn't get a network connection no matter what I did. The main computer was as slow as snail. Its really frustrating when I want to get something done and nothing is working. So while I kept rebooting, I did do the dishes, or at least put them in the dishwasher. Less work for me to do in the morning then.

The Finger

On Sunday before the finger incident Uncle Kelly and Aunt Julie came over for a bit. Kelly was showing the kids how to take off leaves and bark on the trees. Thanks Uncle Kelly.

Matthew was really liking this ride on toy. Although it has since stop working, it is still fun to sit on. Love the cheesy smile!


Look at the monkeys. Seriously, are John and Brooke two peas in a pod? They really get along well. Matthew is another level than those two are.

Playing musical chairs. Had to put these chairs away at the end of the day because they were trying to use them to get stuff on the counters.

The infamous finger.

Now for my pet peeve of the day. I get a call from the community blood center. Its 7:15 p.m., I sigh and pick up the phone. The lady, bless her, is a volunteer and she's just following up from the last time I gave blood and wants to schedule another donation. I tell her I plan on giving at a drive at the end of June. Meanwhile, John is screaming because he is hungry and Jacob is wacky and being loud and the other two monkeys are running around. She goes on about what drive and when and so on. The babies are just getting louder and I can barely hear her. I tell her that nows not a good time to talk. I plan on signing up on-line for the blood drive. I definitely threw her by telling her it was not a good time to talk. I mean, she could HEAR why it wasn't a good time to talk. But she still went on. I interrupted her and said, "its my children's bedtime, I can't talk. Thanks." And I hung up.

PEOPLE! You need to switch gears and hurry it up. I think when you try to hurry people up it only makes people slower. Jeez.

You'd think they'd pick up on the secondary clues... the crying and the background noise. She's a volunteer and I should cut her some slack... but this is a real pet peeve of mine.

I've been in stores with my children and they are crying and I'm trying to get through line or go through line you'd think clerks would want to hurry us through.

Kids and I went to monkey joes tonight. Our big thing was that we walked 20 feet to the entrance of the play area without the stroller or harnesses. I put them on the side walked and whistled for them to come follow me. Jacob rounded up the lager (Matthew) and he herded him to the store. We had such fun going down the slide and running around. The babies played with basketballs, but really aren't interested in going in the inflatables. Not sure why. Jacob likes the obstacle courses and the slides. We had to leave after 45 minutes because John was breaking through security and looking out the front door. He wanted to leave.

ER - the sequel

Its going to be a long one, so go grab something to drink, sit in a comfy chair and hold on.

Not in chronological order, but in order of importance.

I got a call at approximately 7:45 p.m. from Scott who was at his parents house. He said, "Could you come over and take Jacob to the hospital, he cut the tip of his finger off." So, luckily Luann and Mark had stopped by and I told them I had to take Jacob to the hospital and ran out the door. I sped all the way over to Grandpa and Grandma Callaways.

Jacob was crying and he had a rag on his finger. Scott showed it to me and maybe a 1/4 inch of his finger tip was cut off. It looked hamburger raw. Scott was moving the trailer which has a swing tongue and at the same time Jacob put his finger in the hole, which line up with the swing tongue to hold it in place when its straight. (Imagine a cigar cutter) Ouch.

So I sped all the way to the hospital - which I am very familiar with. I had been there once in February with Matthew, once for myself in March, we skipped April and now the third time in May. Jacob cried and shrieked all the way there.

So, knowing that waiting would make it worse, I wrote down on the 2 inch by 2 inch area to describe why we were there - cut the tip of his left finger tip off. I could have put, laceration to the finger, but I wanted to get in since Jacob was having a melt down in the ER.

We had such nice nurses. They were very caring and told him that they knew he was scared and it would hurt, but they had to look at it so they could make it better. The doctor was very nice too for the 30 seconds we saw him. We were in and out of the hospital in less than 40 minutes.

This will be described in unmedical terms. They put this piece of foam over the tip that was cut to help promote the growth of skin and stop the bleeding. Then they wrapped this gauze stuff over his finger and then put this metal thing that goes from the base of his finger to cover the tip so if he bumps his finger, he won't re injure it. Then they put this sticky gauze over that to keep it in place.

They also gave him Motrin with Codeine (bless them) to help with the pain.

Now for the normal Callaway stuff. Jacob set up a boat show today at the house. He made a sign and had Scott write on the sign, "Boat Show, please put money in bucket" or something like that. He put the minnow bucket and sign on the mailbox so people could pay and then come see the boat. Very entrepreneurial.

Brooke keeps taking her pants off. I have to be creative when I dress her because if her pants are elastic, she takes them off and tries to run around naked. We went outside today after dinner and they played on the swings and went down the slide and take everything out of the toy box for me to put back in later.

Then Aunt Julie and Uncle Kelly came over to drop off some stuff for the rummage sale and they played with the babies in the front yard. Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

Because of this emotional roller coaster and lack of self-regulation, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home from the hospital. Jacob had an ice cream cone and I had a small (small is somewhat a self-regulating move) doublestuff Blizzard with Reese's Peanut Butter cups and fudge covered cookie dough. It filled my emotional needs, but I may still have a drink too.

Jacob the fixer

I'll be posting some pictures on flickr later so check em out!

Alrighty. O.K. Amen. The end. I got out the magic 8-ball out tonight. I asked the 8-ball. "When will my babies start feeling better?" Reply Hazy, Try again.
O.K. "When will my babies stop pooping every 1/2 hour?" Outlook not so good.
Great. I was hoping it would be over by now. I shake the 8-ball again and ask, "Should I take Brooke to the doctor for her bad bad diaper rash?" Signs point to yes.
Alright, I'll make an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow. Next question, "Will I ever stop smelling puk and poop?" Better not tell you now.
And I dropped the magic 8-ball. Oops.

On to better things. Jacob and I had a deep conversation on the way home.
Jacob: Mom, I have a hole in my hat. We need to call Grandma Plamann and tell her.
Me: Jacob, I can fix it.
Jacob: No! I want Grandma Plamann to fix it.
Me: (Rolling my eyes as I'm driving) O.K. we'll call her when we get home.
Jacob: Yep, she's a fixer. Grandpa Plamann is a fixer too! He helped us build our house!
Me: Yep. ( I just agree with him because he talks a lot. I mean a lot)
Jacob: Yep. Grandpa Plamann is a fixer. He and daddy put in our floor.
Me: Yep.
Jacob: Uncle Kelly is a fixer too! He changes lightbulbs.
Me: Yep, Uncle Kelly is a lightbulb changer. (I'm laughing inside... Kelly is an electrician)
And Jacob keeps going on and on about who helped us build our house even though we just remodeled it.

And another cute Jacob moment.
The three of us are eating dinner tonight. Jacob is mumbling something to himself and I catch the end of it which is, "and make mom feel better." I asked him to repeat what he just said. And Jacob said, "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to Jesus." And I thought it was the sweetest thing that Jacob was asking Jesus to make me feel better. I said, "Did Mrs. Micheel tell you to pray for me?" And replied, "Nobody did, I'm asking Jesus to make you and the two babies feel better." It was probably Grandma Callaway saying his prayers with him then.

Weeelll, how sweet is that?