I have a new blog site

I started a new blog which will make it easier for me to share pictures and videos. Please visit it at:

http://www.thechickletsandcompany.com

and let me know what you think!

Mars and Venus

As a way of getting to know one another, each week Cam's class has a "Star of the Week." During the week they get to bring in a backpack full of their "stuff" to show their friends, bring in a favorite book to read, or have read, to the class, and the parents get to write a letter to the class about their child. They also fill out a questionnaire about themselves and bring in family pictures, then at the end of the week the Star Student is sent home with a poster board signed by all of his/her classmates, stating what qualities their classmates like about them.

Cameron was Star of the Week during the first week of school and he really enjoyed it. He got to bring in his favorite magic tricks, his stamp collection, his weather station (he's a science geek), and a few of his other favorite toys to show his friends. He chose to bring in his favorite picture, which is one of him, as a baby, throwing up on Scott's face. The boys thought this was hilarious. I had a hard time composing a letter about him that wouldn't embarass and mortify him. As a mom, it's not easy to write about your child without getting all mushy and sentimental!

That Friday Cam brought home his poster board that was signed by his classmates. The sentiments are SO divided between the sexes! Check this out....

BOY: "You are nise [nice]"
BOY: "I think it's cool that you like magek [magic]"
BOY: "I like Cam because he is funny"
BOY: "You are good at building things"
BOY: "He helps others"
BOY: "He is a good friend:

Not much emotion, right? Just very matter-of-fact. Then there's this:

GIRL: "You are the sun in my eyes"
GIRL: "You are the love in my heat [heart]!"
GIRL: "You are sweet, loving and caring"
GIRL: "❤You are nice to people❤" (she added these hearts)
GIRL: "You are seshly!" Seshly? Did she mean "sexy?" What else could seshly mean? Do 7 year old girls know what sexy means? And if so, does it apply to 7 year old boys? Is Cameron bringing seshly back?

Oh my god, are boys and girls different! I read the board out loud with Cam when he brought it home, and although he did enjoy what the girls wrote, he was clearly embarassed, too! It didn't help that I had to tease him a little bit.

Me:"So you're the sun in ______'s eyes, ey?" (name has been ommited to protect the innocent)
Cam: "No"
Me: "And you're the love in ______'s heat?"
Cam: "No. Stop it!"

Scott comes home and sees the poster laying on the counter.

Scott: "What's this?"
Cam: "I got it from school"
Scott: "Oh, let's see what your friends have to say about you"
Cam: "Okay, but we're not talking about it."

Let me just say that I'm terrified of what I have in store when I have three 7 year old girls. If they think that boys are seshly at that age, what is it going to be like when they're 13, then 15, and 17.... It makes me shudder. We're so screwed!

We're Back!!!

I don't know if I have any readers out there anymore, but just in case, we're back! My computer died several weeks ago and it's taken me a while to get up an running with my new one. I went from a PC to a Mac, so there's been a slight learning curve involved with some of my programs. But so far, I'm a huge fan of my Mac!

So, where to begin....

I guess the biggest news is that all the kids are in school now. Did you get that? ALL the kids! Not just the boys, but the girls are going to preschool 2 mornings a week for 2 1/2 hours. That gives me 5 glorious hours a week to myself! To some, that may not sound like much. But for someone who hasn't been alone in her house in more than 7 years.....it's fantastic!!! A friend of mine asked if I cried when I dropped them off on their first day. I did, indeed. Tears of joy, that is. I think I had a perma-smile for a week!

The girls were pretty typical on the first day. They were all excited about going to school (not knowing what it meant, but knowing it's something the boys get to do), but once we got there and brought them into the classroom they all freaked. They cried for about 15 minutes, and Scott cried for about 20. We listened outside of the classroom until we knew they were calm and settling in, and listening to them cry made Scott want to run in, scoop them up, and bring them home. Of course I would have cut his legs off at the knees before he made it to their door, since they would be coming home with ME! Oh, come on, you all know how much I love my girls, so don't look at me like that! They only cried for about 2 minutes the second day of school, not at all on the third, and by the fourth day they were running into school.

They established their roles in their "pack" on the first day of school, already. Tara seems to be the mother hen, barking out orders (No toys, girls! Sit down!) and trying to keep her sisters in line. Dru is the leader of all things naughty and doesn't believe that rules apply to her, and Dayne is caught in the middle. She seems to have an angel on one shoulder (Tara) and a devil on the other (Dru), both trying to pull her over to their side of the fence. Unfortunately, more times than not, she ends up on the dark side. Who can blame her? Toys or teaching? That's a no-brainer. The issue with the girls is at "Circle Time", a time when all the kids are supposed to sit nicely in a circle (hence the name) and listen intently to the teachers. When Dru isn't defying the teacher and leaving the circle to play with toys, she's rolling around on the floor like a rollie pollie. This seems to be her way of giving the finger to authority. Needless to say, she's spent a fair amount of time in their yellow "thinking chair" (aka "time out chair"). Oh boy....

Another big change in our house is that Ty is now in school full days. You can imagine how quiet the house seems without his presence. I'll admit that I was really worried about how he would adjust with full days of structure and discipline, but he seems to be doing a great job. Aside from the one teeny-tiny phone call from the elementary principal, he's doing great!
Don't all kids flood the boy's bathroom? No? Well, apparently, Ty was pulled over to "the dark side" when he was using the bathroom at lunch time a couple weeks ago. He was washing his hands when two of his little friends came in, and one of them showed him how fun it is to put your hand under the faucet and spray water everywhere. So Mrs. Jaberg, the principal, calls me, with my little angel sitting in her office, and tells me how they flooded the bathroom and had to miss recess to mop up the floors. She then puts Ty on the phone with me and he was crying so hard that I literally couldn't understand a word out of his mouth! She said he was the most upset of all the boys, and she didn't think he'd be doing it again! When I saw her a few days later she told me that she had to stifle her laughter and put on her stern face when she walked into the bathroom and saw them splashing and laughing, having the time of their life! Then she brought them back to her office and said it was the funniest sight, the three of them sitting stoically in the chairs with their little legs sticking straight out because they're too little to touch the floor! I'm glad she was amused! So was Scott. He couldn't have laughed any harder when I called him to tell him what had happened, and I had to remind him that this was a serious infraction when we talked to Ty about it after school. If Scott had talked to Ty about it alone I'm convinced he would've been high-fiving him and asking him how far he got the water to spray! Although I have to admit that I was laughing a little bit on the inside!

I wish I could tell you that all of my kids were perfect and never got into any trouble, but how much fun would that be?

Cam is working like crazy to prepare for a magic show. He's been obsessed with magic for 2 years and has more tricks than David Copperfield. He's ready for an audience and wants to have a big show and invite half of our community. We're going to shoot for sometime in November, so I'll let you know how the big event goes after then. He also started playing soccer this season, which is a huge deal considering he's always hated the idea of this particular sport. He decided on his own that he wanted to try it, and he is great at it! On the field he is so confident and focused. He really gets into it and goes after the ball. He's even swung a few elbows! It's so fun to watch him really enjoy and get into a sport.

I'll finish this update shortly. Now that I'm back, I have a head full of things that I want to post about. A lot goes on in this family in two months! Until then!

Why Didn't We Make International News?

This was my sister's question when she forwarded this article from MSNBC yesterday. My mom also saw it as a crawler on CNN. I know identical triplets are rare, but I don't think they're as rare as the article states (1 in 200 million). I thought it was around 1 in 25 million. Either way, I don't get why it made international news. It must have been a slow news day.

"Rare Identical Triplets Born in Austria"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20180886/from/ET/

Does anyone know how to change the appearance of a link (above) to display my own text instead of the web address?

What Would The Godfather Say?

I'm sure you've all seen "The Godfather". You may or may not remember one of the first scenes that takes place during his daughter's wedding. In a conversation with his daughter and new son-in-law he says to them, "May your first child be a masculine child". Whether this is his wish because he believes this would be the preference of the couple, or he just wants to ensure the family "business" is carried on, I'm not sure, but he never mentions what the preferential gender is for the succeeding children. Maybe this means he doesn't care, and that he'd welcome these children into his family regardless. We obviously do not have a family as depicted in this movie, nor are we trying to follow suit (this wouldn't work, as I tend to ask too many questions), but it just so happens that our first child was a masculine child. And so was our second. Let me introduce you:

One of the things that I love the most about Ty is that he is totally uncensored. He will proudly and defiantly tell his big brother's friends "I love playing with girl toys", then he'll karate chop them.

Oh, and he asked me to delete all the pictures of him dressed up like a princess, but I can't. These will have to resurface at some point later in his life. He also didn't want me to show them to any of his friends, so please don't show them to your kids. Or mention to him that you've seen them. He woudn't be happy with me. I guess he's not completely uncensored.

Lazy Days of Summer....

Bring on the lazy days! This past week we wrapped up our last two "big" summer commitments, so now we have very little to tie us down to a schedule in August.

The boys both had a week of Camp YKoda, with the bus picking them up at 8:00 and bringing them home at 4:15. It was nice having the week with just the girls, although Dayne was sick for the first half of the week so we were only able to squeeze in a playdate and the zoo at the end of the week. We need to look into getting our own exhibit at the zoo, because the girls got more attention than any of the animals. You know you're an attention-getter when the Gorilla Keeper says to the crowd "Forget about the gorillas, look at the triplets!" I wonder when the girls are going to get sick of it. It happened for me a long time ago. Sometimes it would be nice to just enjoy a peaceful outing with my kids without being stopped by every other stranger asking personal questions and wanting to take pictures of my girls. One day I'll post a blog with some of the funny and obnoxious comments and questions that we've gotten over the past couple of years.

After Camp YKoda, Cam had a day of rest before he and Scott went to Cub Scout Camp for three days. I really missed the big guy by time it was all over! He's never been gone for more than one night so the house felt really empty without him. There was definitely less foot traffic without their friends coming and going all day!

My mom and Kenny have "date nights" with the kids, where they take one of them for some one-on-one time and to have an overnighter. Last weekend was Ty's turn, but he wanted to bring one of his sisters (this was shocking for us!) so he and Tara had a sleepover together. Cam didn't want to sleep in his room alone so he slept in Tara's bed. Dayne and Dru were so excited about their new roommate that it took 2 hours to get them to sleep. In these 2 hours they were working poor Cameron like a dog. They had him changing their pajamas, getting them water, bringing them to the potty, etc. etc. I told him they were playing him for a fool, which he thought was pretty funny. On my last trip up to put the hammer down and get the girls in bed (again) Cam was wrecked! He asked me "Mom, can I please have an Ambien CR?" Ambien CR is one of Scott's drugs (he's a pharmaceutical rep) but I didn't think he'd ever talked to the kids about them. Amused, I asked him why he wanted an Ambien CR, and he said "Because it makes you go to sleep and helps you stay asleep." I asked if Scott had told him about it but he said no, that he just sees it on T.V. That's good marketing.

Earlier I had asked Cameron to brush his teeth before bed. I haven't had to help him or supervise him brush his teeth in a couple years now, so I usually just have to remind him and send him on his way. This time I had happened to be in his bathroom cleaning, so when he started to use his ACT mouth rinse I told him that he needed to brush first, rinse second. He said "Oh, I don't brush my teeth anymore. I just use this." Eeeewwww! I said "What do you mean you don't brush? How long has it been since you've brushed your teeth?!" To which he replied "A really long time." Double eeeewwww. So I decided that I needed to brush his teeth that night and his gums were a bloody mess! Boys are gross.

Ty had some deep thoughts brought on by a Children's Hospital donation dish at the store. It's one of those bowls that you drop a coin into and it circles around and around until finally dropping into the collection bowl at the bottom. After using up all of my coins he was pretty pleased with himself and said "That money goes to Jesus, right Mommy?"
Me - "No, it goes to Children's Hospital to help sick kids"
Ty - "No, it goes to Jesus"
Me - "No, the collection plate at church goes to Jesus, this goes to sick kids"
Ty - "But it also goes to Jesus"
etc, etc, etc, .....I finally let him have his way and believe that he just sent 17 cents to Jesus. Then he said something about God, I can't remember exactly what, but it turned into this..
Ty - "God died, right?"
Me - "No, honey, it's Jesus that died"
Ty - "Ooooooohhhhhh. That's so saaaaaaddddd. Jesus is one of our Presidents, right?"

Ouch. I'm so glad no one was around to hear that. It brought me back to when Cam was smaller and we went to my great grandmother's funeral. We were one of the last to walk in so the pews were full and the church was silent. We were getting ready to sit when Cameron pointed to Jesus hanging on the cross and asked loudly "Who's that?" At that time my grandmother thought that we went to church every Sunday, and I never corrected her, so he kind of outed me at that moment. I think I need to get my kids to church more often, ey?

After Ty's revelation about President Jesus, he jumped right into how babies are made. Nothing like throwing me from one fire into the next. Fortunately, he didn't ask any questions. He was more or less explaining to me his great knowledge of how babies are made. A better mother may have corrected him and fine-tuned some of the details, but I was perfectly content with him believing that the baby is always in the mommy's tummy, but it's when she eats a lot of eggs that the eggs go into her tummy and make a shell around the baby. Then the baby has to stay in there for a couple of days to grow before it comes out. Sounds good to me. He's only 5. The rest of the details will come in due time.

The girls are back in dance class and are adorable, if I do say so myself. I'm going to keep them in dance classes as long as possible so that they won't look like me on the dance floor. They don't have good dancing genes from either parent, although Scott can do a mean Backstreet Boys imitation.

Until later, enjoy some lazy days!

We have triple the triplets!

Welcome to the house of fertility! We are proud to announce the arrival of Tina-the-Guinea Pig's triplets. This picture was taken just a few hours after they were born. Look at how furry, cute and alert they are - and how BIG they are! How did they all fit inside of her? The kids haven't named them yet, as the determination of their sex is pending. With Ty giving Tina her name and Cam once naming a fish "Home Depot", the possibilities are endless. The second set of triplets are nesting in a flower pot on our front porch, though sadly, the smallest one died. The third set of triplets are upstairs sleeping in their twin beds. I don't know if it's something in our water, so visitors beware!

Our summer has officially begun. Though the boys have been out of school for 3 weeks now, it's been 3 weeks of running around from Safety Town, to swim lessons, to T-Ball, to baseball. We're now starting our lazy days of summer. This was the first week we would wake up and not have to rush to be somewhere, and we actually had to stop and think "What should we do today?" That's what summer is all about.

Ty had Safety Town each morning for the past 2 weeks. Safety Town is a great program for kids going into kindergarten where they cover every aspect of child safety, including bike safety, stranger danger, electricity, poisons, seat belts, playground safety, and animal safety. Cameron went to this program two years ago and came home paranoid that everything around him was surely going to kill him. I'm surprised he ever got the courage to leave his bedroom, because he was freaked out by the power boxes in our backyard, the cleaning detergents in the closet, the cars driving down the street, and the swings on the playground. He was rightfully fearful of the swings since a couple weeks later, at his birthday party, he broke his collar bone by walking in front of a swing in motion. Ty has taken his Safety Town training a little more in stride and is just more aware of wearing his helmet and buckling his seat belt, and I don't think he'll ever drink our dishwasher detergent.

The kids have been spending a lot of time in the water in the past few weeks. Scott's parents (Mimi and Papa) have a boat and the boys and Tara went tubing a couple weeks ago. Cameron is VERY brave in the water and loves it, and he's really turned into a natural swimmer. The boys tried kayaking this past weekend with Kenny and really enjoyed it. Cam is old enough to go out on his own, with the kayak attached to a rope so we can pull him in, and Ty went out with Scott. Tara, our water baby, has even gone tubing and kayaking. All the girls love the swimming pool, but Tara is the only one brave enough to leave the shore.

Today is the 4th of July and we're going to be going to our friend's house this afternoon before going to the Village (we live in a Village!) concert and fireworks. Dayne has a fever, so Scott and I will be tag-teaming staying home with her today. Fortunately our friends are our backyard neighbors, so we can bounce back and forth easily.

Have a great Independence Day!

Happy Birthday, Cam!

Yesterday Cameron turned 7! I still find it impossible to believe that I have a second grader. Scott and I reminisced with Cam about our eventful day 7 years ago, telling him about how I had to ride in an ambulance, lights and sirens and all, from one hospital to another because he was determined to be born early. He loves hearing the story about how he just couldn't wait to meet his daddy (Scott's version of the birth) and seeing pictures of himself after he was born, connected to all the wires and tubes.

Today Cam's having a party in our backyard with 10 friends. It's a "water fun" party, complete with a double slip n' slide, sprinklers, inflatable pirate pool, and a couple hundred water balloons. It should be pretty easy for us. I think if you turn over control of the water hoses to a group of boys they can pretty much entertain themselves.

You all remember our newest member of the family, Tina the guinea pig, right? Well, she's becoming an even bigger addition than we thought. She's pregnant. At first I just thought we were over-feeding her. I knew she was still young and had some growing to do, but this was ridiculous. Then when I felt her belly moving I realized that she had the worst case of indigestion ever, or she had been a busy little girl before we bought her. When I told Scott about the impending birth his knee-jerk reaction was "Well, we're bringing her back to the store! We can't take care of baby guinea pigs." I think the horrible memories of the late night feedings with the triplets had come rushing back to him, and he panicked. When I reassured him that we weren't going to be responsible for feeding the babies every two hours, and that there would be no additional diapers to change, he was comforted. So now we just wait. This will be a great learning experience for the kids. It'll be interesting to see their reactions when the babies are born. So far, their insight is like this:

Ty: "Number one, she's a mommy. Number two, she's going to have babies."
Cam: "She can't be a mommy because she's not married." (My work here is done...)
Girls: "Babies? Belly? Babies? Belly? Babies? Belly? Babies? Belly?..........."

We'll let you know when the blessed event happens. Please let me know if you have room in your homes and hearts for a new member to your family. We'll be looking for good homes for 2 to 5 little ones......

More later - I have a few hundred water balloons to fill.

I Couldn't Have Said it Better Myself

Quote of the Day provided by Ty:

"It's a great day for sitting outside and drinking."

A Medley of Events

We have been so busy the past couple weeks! The kids have had a busier social schedule than I've ever had, even when I was single and living in Chicago! The boys have been wrapping up the school year with performances and concerts. Ty had a spring concert with the elementary classes, and he was in all his glory. Fortunately he was in the front row, because he definitely wanted to be seen and heard! Then Cameron's class put on performances for the parents in their music room. The kids got to choose their talent for that day and most did a song & dance as a small group, but Cam, not being a big singer, chose to play the xylophone solo. I was really proud of him, because he's never been a kid who's comfortable in the spotlight and I would think playing by yourself would be more stressful. So he played Mary Had a Little Lamb about as quietly as the instrument could play and spoke in a whisper when he introduced himself. It was so sweet. He would have rather been anywhere else in the world at that moment! He's like me in that respect. I don't do center stage well, either.

But speaking of talent, Ty has found his. He came into the kitchen the other morning and showed me that he could squeak just like Tina, their guinea pig. After he forced the sound from the back of his throat he looked at me with a really excited expression and said "I have a talent!" I'm so proud of him. I'm sure he'll make millions from it.

My dad came and visited from Colorado for a week. It's always nice to see Grandpa Jack, and the kids really enjoyed it. The girls had him wrapped around their fingers. All they had to do was look up at him and say in their sweet Minnie Mouse voices "Grandpa Jack" and he melted. He's so easy. He brought the boys to see Shrek 3 while he was here, and from that movie we've planned our Halloween costumes for this year. For those of you who haven't heard, Shrek and Princess Fiona had triplets (sorry for the spoiler) which gives us the perfect head count. Scott could be Shrek, myself as Princess Fiona, Cam as Puss 'n Boots, Ty as Donkey, and the girls, obviously, as the triplets. This is all just talk, though, because I don't see myself and Scott dressing up for trick or treating. And why I'm already thinking about Halloween, I don't know.

Memorial Day weekend was pretty low key. My mom and Kenny took all of the kids for the day on Saturday so Scott and I took advantage of the free time by sorting kids clothes. This was obviously Scott's idea. Sunday the kids played at home in the morning then I brought the boys swimming while the girls were napping. Scott was sick with the flu that day, as was my girlfriends husband, so they both spent the day moaning on their couches. Now don't get me wrong. I'm very sympathetic when Scott's sick. If you're sick, the couch or the bed is where you should be. But what's up with the moaning???? Why do men have to moan when they're sick? Scott swears that every time he moans he gets a bit of relief. I'm just wondering what the Labor and Delivery ward would sound like if men had to go through childbirth.

The boys are taking swimming lessons now to get tuned up for summer. Cam became a great swimmer last summer so I just want him to take one session of classes to get used to the water again, and Ty is just really getting the hang of swimming, and not just playing, so he'll need a couple more sessions for me to feel comfortable. The girls have never been big fans of the pool until last weekend. I took the girls to the pool by myself, since it was Scott's reserve weekend, thinking I would only be there long enough to get them all in the water kicking and screaming one time. Well, for whatever reason, ALL THREE of the girls decided that they LOVE swimming, and as soon as they saw the pool they started running to it to get in. At that point I was in over my head because I wasn't expecting to have to try and restrain 3 toddlers from getting in the pool without me or floaties. But it worked out great. Since I'm physically unable to hold all of them at once I had to dress them head to toe in floatation devices. They looked like the Michelin Man in their vests and water wings, but they had so much fun floating around the pool like little ducks. They're going to be in for a rude awakening the first time we take off all the floaties and realize that they can sink like rocks!

Cam had a bad day in school Monday. They had a substitute teacher and he decided he was going to goof off all day. He was in a lot of trouble when he got home and spent the afternoon in his room writing apology notes to the teachers, and he lost TV priviledges for a week. However, I made the mistake of making him tell me everything he had done wrong that day. He told me that his friend had been encouraging him to make noises, one of them being to bark like a dog! So my mood went from furious and surprised by his behavior, to slightly amused at the image. How bad of a parent is that?! Then he demonstrated the bark and I busted out laughing! I couldn't help it! I was trying sooooo hard to keep a straight face, but the demonstration pushed me over the edge. So I completely unraveled the seriousness of his behavior. Mother of the Year.

Another Mother of the Year moment was last weekend when I turned around and noticed that our back door was open and two of the girls were gone. Now they'd only been out the door for a few seconds because they had just been in the kitchen with me, so I walked outside and found our neighbor walking them back home from ACROSS THE STREET! Oh ya. I'm good. Their balls had apparently rolled down our driveway into the street so they went into the street to get the balls and decided to stay out there and play!!! I was sick to my stomach thinking about what could have happened in those few seconds. I've ordered a mesh fence to pull across our driveway to catch any balls or kids that come rolling down the hill.

Have a wonderful weekend. My next post will have pictures of the girls new big girl beds!!!