That is our lives in a nutshell. Equality and justice are what our four-year-olds are all about right now. Why did he get more? She said the prayer last time. I want to go out first! What were you just doing with him?
Nothing goes noticed around here. Special treatment is not tolerated by four-year-olds apparently. Sometimes I hesitate to sit and play with Leah when she is being left out from her brothers because the second I sit down, the boys literally spring over to us and won't continue playing anymore. They can't bear the thought of something happening without them. Anyway, the dynamic is tricky at this age and jealousy is rearing it's ugly head. We've managed to avoid MANY arguments through our 'kid of the day' program. The kids are very respectful of the schedule and when it's their turn to choose prayers, books, go first, run an errand alone, go to work with Dad, etc... But it's still hard for the other two who desperately want the same treatment. I'm hoping this jealousy stuff runs it course quickly but maybe it will never go away. We might still be doing 'kid of the day' when the triplets graduate high school!
Regardless of all that, I am immensely enjoying this age and am so optimistic of days ahead. The triplets continue to make me laugh. Zachary has taken a liking to wearing layered clothing similar to his four underwear incident. Two shirts, two pants. That sort of thing. Always makes me laugh when I find out and he says, 'I was tricking you Mom!'
We had a really fun month. It was my parents last few weeks here in the area and of course Valentine's was much anticipated. But before all that, we did a few fun school activities I wanted to document. Christie and I got lazy one week and decided to go to the zoo instead of do any school. Plus it was a beautiful day and admission was only $5! So we drove the 40 minutes and had a good time with friends.
The week before that we were focusing on the letter 'R'. Once school stuff and playing was done, we spontaneously decided to head to Red Robin to really drive home the letter of the week. Perhaps it was really just for Christie and I not to have to make lunch but either way, it was awesome. Not sure why it took us all the way to letter R to go out to eat though. I'm bummed we haven't taken more advantage. :)
We also opted out of school another week this month so that Hazel could throw her Valentine's party! Games, heart pizza, pink popcorn, cookie decorating, etc... The kids were in heaven. Zachary could barely play any of the games knowing that sugar cookies were just sitting on the table not being eaten! He waited patiently though and it was worth it. Hazel threw a great party and after exchanging Valentines, we headed home full of sugar.
Then the day that we all love finally arrived! Again it was a beautiful morning so we laid a blanket out and opened all the goodies that were sent from cousins and grandparents in the mail. The triplets had a blast and certainly felt loved.
Unfortunately we didn't see Clark that day but he and I made sure to celebrate the next night with pizza and a movie. Clark literally worked day in and day out this month. He even spent two nights at a hotel just minutes from his work. That way he didn't have to commute back and forth losing time before his deadline.
It was so nice having Grandma and Gramps around to break up the monotony and provide babysitting when needed. So even though Clark worked more this busy season than he ever has, everything went just fine here at home.
I made a book for my Mom's birthday full of memories from all my siblings. It included a lot of pictures to, some from when my Mom was in high school. I was so excited to give it to her but I knew once that time came, that it would be time for my parents to go back to Idaho. Her birthday arrived and we all went out to eat at Pie Five. Afterwards we came home for strawberry shortcake. She blew out her one candle while we sang and then we dug in. The kids were SO excited about Grandma opening her present that she didn't get to eat much before I presented the book.
A couple months ago the kids were looking at some pictures on the ipad with Grandma. They came across a scanned picture of my Mom that she's not very fond of. Of course she questioned why in the world I had that picture and what I planned to do with it. I said that I might be making some sort of poster present for her birthday. I played up the joke and even presented her with a covered piece of large cardboard just to make her nervous. So she opened that first and the triplets thought it was so funny that we tricked her.
Once my parents left, we chased away our blues by playing in the snow, cutting hair, visiting Clark's work, buying silly putty and going to KidMania and Metroplex Gymnastics. They made it home safely but not without having to drive through a massive snow storm. We are SO grateful that we were able to spend so much time with them these past few months. Not to mention all the little house fixes and mending responsibilities that they accomplished for us. We are definitely grateful for all that!
So we're back to the grind again, just trying to stay warm during this cold Texas weather. The kids are dying to play in the sandbox and just don't understand that even though the sun is out, it's just too cold. Caleb begs to wear shorts (see snow picture) every morning and who am I to stop him? He always says, "I promise I won' get cold!"
We'll see about that when we move to Michigan this summer!
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