FIRST day of school 2010

It was the first day of school for ALL 3 girls.  Halle is now a 3rd grader and Katlynn and Audrie both started preschool.  All 3 love it.  Katlynn is already doing wonderful in this new school (which I will add I fought for hard for her to be in) and I really like her teacher.  Audrie really likes school and is doing wonderful.  The only real issues we have with her is dress code.  She wants to wear dress-up style princess dresses and flip flops or dress up shoes to school and it is not allowed, so it a morning battle with her to remind her the rules. Things are great,  we're finally starting to get used to the schedule of 3 being in school and so early in the morning.  Dave and I have already started volunteering in Audrie and Halle's class. I am blessed to be able to stay at home and be able to do these things.  Something that would not be possible without Dave.

Katlyn is still getting OT and ABA outside of school and Halle and Audrie are both doing gymnastics.  So our schedule is still hectic and busy, but overall we enjoy and are having a great time watching the kids grow up. For more information on Katlynn's progress, please visit her blog Seeing the beauty in Autism.

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Our first REAL kid-free vacation

David and I went on our first real vacation in July.  It was a much anticipated trip back East.  We started off with a stay at a beach house in Topsail, Ca.  it was a private beach known as Surf City, NC.  We met up with 5 twin mommy friends of mine and our husbands for a 4 day stay. I met all these women online in a group for twin moms.  We met up last year for the first time in person for a weekend.  It was a great time.  We are all from all over the US.  It's amazing I have formed some really great friendships over the past almost 4 year with these gals.  We had a great time together.  It was nice to catch up with them and get the guys to meet this trip.  We had a really nice time just relaxing and hanging out by the water.  We did a whole lot of nothing and for once it was really nice. Next Haute Mommas (that's our "group" name) trip is Las Vegas probably in a couple years.

The rest of the trip Dave and I went to Washington DC to see the sights.  We did a 3 hour Segway tour of all the national monuments and hit up a couple of the Smithsonian's, the Holocaust Museum and the Spy Museum.  We also visited the Arlington national Memorial (watched the changing of the guards) , the Pentagon memorial and the Law Enforcement memorial. All of it was pretty breath taking.

Needless to say it was a much needless and very nice trip.

Dave's parents took on the girls for a week and we are very grateful for that offer because without them the trip would not have been possible.

Friends

Sometimes I get to wrapped up in my world of mommy hood/wife I forget the meaning of friends and how hard it is to come by really great friends. I must say I am blessed in that department and I feel I have a very well-rounded diverse set of friends. We are all very different in many ways from styles to political opinions, but at the end of the day we're still really great friends. I have friends who I can go years without seeing and then see then for 1 day and pick right back up where we left off as if there was no time that separated us. I have newfound friends I have met online who have become very important people in my life and who are always there to support me, even from afar.

What is the definition of a really great friend? What is the definition of a true friend? Is there any real certain definition? I mean, we all have different aspects in friends we like/dislike and truly need. For me it is simplicity, minimal drama and competition. I am a competitive person, yes. However, I do not compete for image, friendship or attention. I know I have not been the greatest friend to many people for reasons I have no excuses for. There have also been times where I have withdrawn my friendship from someone feeling it was toxic and that as much as I wanted to be their friend, the jealousy and unhappiness I feel they constantly coveted lead me to a breaking point.

I consider myself a pretty simple person. I don't require a lot out of my friends nor do I get hurt easily over petty situations, but I do feel as though I require a friend who can just know when I need an ear or a break from everything else in life. A friend that will listen about my talking endlessly about Katlynn's Autism even if they could care less about the condition. Someone willing to go out garage selling with me even though I know they hate it (you know who you are) and someone who is willing to accept my quirks, loud obnoxious and tactless mouth and my attitude for what it is and not take what I might (or might not) say/do literally.

The saying is very true. Friends are going to come and go, but they will also be replaced with a new light of friendships. Doesn't mean you forget the past.. you just enjoy the present.

This is a quote I am trying to live by:

“Much of the vitality in a friendship lies in the honouring of differences, not simply in the enjoyment of similarities.”

Weddings!

Oh how I love weddings. I really do like them. Although I haven't actually had own yet. Someday I 'll get there and Dave and I will do it right. In the meantime I was a bridemaid (and Halle a flowergirl) in my cousin Nicky's wedding May 30th. It was beautiful and a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the fabulous night.

3 years old... Where did time go?

5/15/07

 7/07

I can't believe my girls are going to be "3".


This past 3.5 years has been such a daze to me. From finding out I was having twins, to moving, starting new schools, new jobs, and health issues. It's all happened so fast, I haven't even had time to really get used to it all. Do you ever adjust? I am not sure any mother really ever adjusts to the ever changing lifestyle of motherhood.

It has been interesting to see the difference in developing personalities in both girls. Even though Katlynn is Autistic, she is so different from Audrie in many ways. I do notice they really do look out for each other and they know when one of them is missing from something. I am glad they have each other in that aspect. Audrie will always look out for Katlynn and she will be my second set of eyes.

Katlynn has blossomed in speech recently and is getting more into game play with peers and friends. She is still in her own little world, but she is not fighting the world so much anymore. She is accepting and learning from it. It is making things a littler easier on us. As she is learning new things and developing positive habits, she is also learning how to manipulate and work us. I am pleased with her progress and am glad she is doing well. In fact, she has been the best eater in the house and the best behaved out on public. She also now knows most of her letters by recognition and can say many letters and numbers orally. She's mastered all of her shapes and a few colors.

Audrie is also blooming academically and socially. She is such a leader and a friend to most everyone. She moved up to the 3-5 year old gym class a few weeks ago and is a great listener and very well behaved in class. She is still completing her 24+ piece puzzles with ease and is now getting into writing and cutting. We're moving at her pace, but she really seems to enjoy learning and being challenged. She will sit through stories and pick up really well with games. She knows all her number 1-20 both verbally and visually as well as all her letters and their sounds. We're still working on some lower case letter recognition, but she knows pretty much all of them. She can spell her name and tell you her birth date. We have been working with her on our city and state and then we will work on our phone number once she has that down.

They have grown up so much the past couple years. I miss my babies and it is all so bittersweet. Before I know it, I will have 3 teenage girls and I think I have a lot of stress now...

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY GIRLS!!

Kids say the darndest things

Audrie was cracking me up today with things she was saying. I wrote a couple of the things down to add to here. 

Audrie just told Halle, "I have to get someting special, I'll be right back sweetie." I said, "sweetie"? She said, "yeah, Halle's a sweetie".

Audrie also told me Katlynn is not a Princess. There is only one princess. She said, "ta-ta is a pretty girl not a pretty princess. I am only the beautiful princess."

We were grocery shopping and as we were in the check out Audrie has to go potty. I asked her to wait until we got home. So we were in the car driving home and she told me it smelled like pee-pee. I asked her if she still needed to go potty and she said, " Nope, I don't need to anymore". I said, "Are you sure?" She replied... with, "The sun dried the pee up and I don't need to go anymore". lol

This afternoon we were outdside and Katlynn started picking clovers and Katlynn was calling them flowers.  Audrie corrected her saying,  "Ta-ta, I think they're clovers".

Kids say the funniest things.

my love for laundry...NOT!

Laundry is a term most domestic housewives love and a word most real women HATE. I have 3 little people in my house (and 2 big ones, but I can assure you and I not a frilly queen or a clothes whore who changes 5x a day), yet they managed to build mounds of laundry that could probably reach the ceiling in accumulated into one space. How is this possible? I do not wish to have Mt. Everest in my house or standing tall in front of my washing machine.


I feel as though I never catch up. Yeah I know that is a cliché thing to say coming from a mom of several kids, but it’s true. If you think about what a huge task it is… it just sucks. I allow my kids to be kids. I don’t have them wear bibs anymore and I don’t stress about clothes getting dirty and I pretty much let them wear anything on any given day. Life’s too short and if you get “that” Easter dress specifically for Easter and they wear it that one time, what’s the point? This is coming from a mom who used to have Laundry OCD and a very serious case. Just ask my husband. I was the laundry police. Everything was perfectly sorted, pre treated and most thing hung dried. I am serious. I was incredibly anal about what the kids wore and when and about them getting dirty. Bibs were a must and grass was not allowed. Then, I got a reality check and just became a mom. A more fun, go with the flow mom. We’ll thank my mellow and chill husband for that.

I still find myself cringing at the thought of clothes being dried that “ I” didn’t want to dry or that a towel was not washed with the sheets, but now a days, I am just happy when I can see the bottom of my laundry room floor.

I hate laundry!