In This Moment: Addie's Birthday Party

This weekend we took a trip up to Minnesota for Addie's Birthday Party. Our drive both ways went pretty fantastic. I can't complain. One stop each way for diaper changes & something to eat. We watched CARS, Elmo & Charlotte's Web in the car. Half of the way there I kept turning around thinking someone was gagging... but nope, just making pig noises while watching Wilber on Charlotte's Web! Ha! We drank a lot of "juicy." And ate a lot of "nack"s. Fruit snacks that is. But whatever works for non screaming in the car!

Sleeping & quiet AT Addie's house... a different story. I know we were all still up at 3:30AM Friday night. Something about a long car ride must make them not sleep well at night? It was a nightmare last time we went to Addie's too. It's not like that elsewhere! They did all get a good nap in Saturday at least. And did so-so Saturday night. I think someone fussed 5 or so times throughout the night?

There was lots of yelling, cring & fighting over Addie's toys. By MY kids that is. They are SUCH fighters lately. I told Jeff on the way home, I always feel like when we go places we have the worst behaved kids. But I have to remember, no matter what goes on we are automatically going to have 3 times the amount of fighting, tears & drama. But fighting mode is full swing at our house or apparently wherever we are. It.is.the.worst. Logan especially is in a mode of having a really, really hard time sharing. Might be that he is drooling a ton, {like if I was a good parent I'd change his shirt every hour amount of drool}. I know he has 3 eye teeth left... hopefully its a few of those making their way through?! And seperation anxiety is still in full swing. That lead to some tears too... heaven forbid I leave the room or close the door to go potty! People ask if it gets easier or harder as they get older? My resonse: Just different. 3 newborns was exhausting for lack of sleep. 3 toddlers is exhausting too, just for different reasons. And they were exhausting tots this weekend for sure!

We did have a few firsts on our trip.

First first: All 3 kids crawled out of their pack & plays. Yep! They sure did. Saturday morning Jeff was up. I was still in bed while the kids were awake in their beds playing nicely. I figured I'd just pretend to still be a sleep & have a few last minutes of lying still. Then Hayden started yelling "down, down!!" So I sat up thinking- ok, ok we'll get up. And when I got up & found LOGAN standing beside Hayden's pack & play! He crawled out, I was there 2 feet from him & didn't even notice. At least it must have been graceful! Saturday afternoon after their nap, I heard them giggling on the baby monitor. I was on my way down to get them. When I got there, Jeff who had been watching football on the TV downstairs already had them up. Or more like Jeff was watching TV... when all of the sudden Hayden came around the corner out of bed into the Living room saying "down" & clapping! Apparently he was proud of himself. Jeff went walking to the guest bedroom & met Logan along the way. He had gotten out too. And when he got to the bedroom, he found Livi out too! Oh my! Sunday morning I was woken up with Hayden sticking his face in my face saying "Hi, Hi!" He had gotten out again. At least they all waited to crawl out until after they had slept! We had not trouble having to put them back in (knock on wood). Wonder how much taller our cribs are vs pack & plays? I really am not ready for them to crawl out of those!!

Second first: The kids were enjoying practicing drinking out of open cups this weekend. They make a mess... so much ends up spilled on their shirts! I was bringing all the kids in the house for the evening & Hayden (whose shirt had just dried out) was standing in the dining room with a soaked shirt, smacking his lips saying, "Juice." Setting on the table beside him was 2 things. A big cup full of water. And a beer. Hum... I thought? Then I smelled his soaking wet shirt. And yep... Hayden's first sip of beer. Mark that one down in the baby books folks!

And thought its not a first, Livi this weekend is getting good at putting a few words together. "Melmo night-night" "Moye peas" (more please) "Da-ye bye-bye" (daddy bye-bye) And when we were loading up the car Grandma Candy was holding her & says she put 3 words together & said "Mommy go bye-bye." She gets to talking & throwing words out & it all ends up jibberish. Or she just starts stringing together every word she knows. "mommy, da-ye, Melmo, bye-bye, choo-choo, nigh-nigh..." I'm excited to see her put more phrases together.

And Hayden spent the weekend thinking it was funny to call me daddy & call Jeff mommy! Stinker!

Though we are exhausted... its always great to spend time with family. Glad we got to help you celebrate your birthday Addie!

Yep, we are cool. We play outside in our PJs.

Livi lunching...

Logan intently watching Addie open presents.

Logan wanted to help & took some tissue paper out of the bag. When we told him no that was Addie's present. Hayden helped by taking the tissue paper from Logan & putting it back in the bag. They can be so sweet when they aren't being terrors!