Parking Lot Pumpkin Patch

The girls had their first trip to the pumpkin patch today. Well, okay not a "real" pumpkin patch. It was more like an unpaved parking lot with pumpkins in it. There are a couple of really great (or so I hear) pumpkin farms both within about 45-60 minutes from us, but since the girls wouldn't know the difference right now, I decided to save that trip for next year. They ended up having a blast. My mom and niece came with me, so we were able to let the girls out of their choo choo wagon to play. They ran around all over the place and had so much fun. 

Here are a few pics from our afternoon.........

Sophia and Morgan

Sophia

Sophia, Tiana, and Morgan

Silly Morgan thinking she could lift that big pumpkin!

Morgan

Rachel

Rachel ran almost the whole time!

Sophia is reaching for a pumpkin. Too cute!

I was so happy that we stayed so close to home. The girls were just so excited to run around outside and to see all the pumpkins, they wouldn't have cared if we were at a fancy farm or not. They lasted about 20 minutes before the cold wind picked up and it was time to go. I absolutely adored watching them light up while they were exploring. We brought three little pumpkins home with us. One for each of them. But then of course, Sophia thought they were all for her! Silly girl!

Overall, totally fun afternoon. I think we're going to have a really fun holiday season!

So much going on..

There has been so much going on lately that I don't even know where to begin. First, I wanted to show off my cuties. Let's see....... The girls started therapy, we got two bathrooms upstairs tiled, I just got back from another mothers of multiples convention weekend, we sold the girls' high chairs and moved them to booster seats..... Um.. The list could go on and on. So that's my explanation of why I haven't had much time to blog lately.

So......

The girls ended up qualifying for LOTS of therapy. To sum it up, they are all getting occupational therapy for their fine motor skills and to learn things like, eating with a fork and spoon, brushing their teeth, washing their face etc. They are also all getting speech therapy. Then on top of all of that, a speech therapist who specializes in food issues for babies who were preemies is coming in to help all three of them eat better. Rachel needs the most help, but Morgan and Sophia need help too. They have been eating the same foods for months and will not eat anything new. Morgan and Rachel are going to get some physical therapy as well. Morgan is pigeon toed and Rachel is still a very choppy walker. Right now, we have two therapy sessions a week with two therapists here at the same time. Next week, we will have three sessions because it will be our first with the physical therapist. We've been doing the occupational and speech therapy for two weeks now. It's taking a bit longer for the food and physical therapists to get here because our case has to be approved and budgeted for, which won't be a problem, it's just going to take up to 30 days. 

I have to admit that I was surprised that the girls need so much. Yes, I knew we were behind. I just didn't realize how far. They scored very low in speech and communication. Rachel's receptive language was "masters 3-6 month skills" and showing signs of 9-18 month skills. Sophia and Morgan were just a bit higher in that they "master 9-12 month skills" with signs of emerging 12-18 month skills. In most other areas of speech, they scored in the 12 month range. I thought that because I made it to 35 weeks in my pregnancy, we wouldn't have any issues with development. However, the therapists keep reminding me that even though I made it quite far, Rachel was only 3 pounds at birth and Sophia and Morgan were not much bigger at 4 and 5 pounds. They were a lot smaller than most babies born at 35 weeks. Even multiples. 

It's been difficult for me to see or hear about other toddlers the girls' age. I'm human and compare my kids to other kids constantly. I worry that we'll never fully catch up and wonder why my girls don't do "such and such" like other kids do. The hardest part is hearing what good eaters other kids are, or that they are pointing to their belly button or whatever, or GASP... peeing on the potty already. I've literally had to tell myself to STOP IT!!! The fact of the matter is that all kids are different. My girls are likely doing things that other kids aren't doing. I think it's just human nature to be envious or to make comparisons. I just can't let myself get upset over it. I have to focus on the positives! I've been doing the best I can with my cuties, and I'm just happy that we're getting help now. After just two weeks, I've already noticed progress! 

So much more to talk about it, but like usual.....I've run out of time! Will try and post more often!

When Mommy's away....

Bob posted this picture on his Facebook page last weekend. I was working all day at the clothing and equipment sale for my multiples group, so he was on triple toddler duty. This pic cracks me up. The room is a mess, Rachel doesn't have any pants, they are still in their jammies, and Morgan's hair is in desperate need of a brush and a pony tail. You can see Sophia's legs in the background. Oh well, at least they were all alive when I came home! 

I'm a drop out again....

Five months ago when I signed up for two classes at school, I was in a place where I thought I could do it all. My days seemed calmer back then. During their naps, I would eat lunch, read, play on the internet, prepare something for dinner or whatever. I just wasn't as stressed as I am now.

Now at 20 months old, the girls are exhausting me again. It's a very exciting and fun stage that they are in, it's just a challenge for me every day. By 12:30pm when it's time for nap, I'm completely wiped out. I usually end up eating something for lunch and then taking a nap. If I don't take a nap, I pass out and die. The end.  hahahaha....

Back in May, I thought I'd have the time and energy to do school work during nap time or at night... or on weekends. Turns out...It's just more than I can handle right now.

The solution? I'm halfway through this semester. My Human Development class isn't difficult at all. I'd actually call that class easy. I'm going to finish it for sure. However, my Anthropology class is kicking my butt and leaving me with bruises and a bad taste in my mouth. I bombed the first test with an awesome 65% . Let's face it. I don't have ten hours a week to read 60 pages and memorize things that I don't even agree with. Seriously, the book is telling me I came from monkeys! No joke! So I dropped that class. And I'm out...word to yo mutha.

So that's not all. After the girls went to bed tonight and I sat down and worked on the Hum. Dev. class for an hour, I decided I'm not going to school next semester. This wasn't the right time to try and finish. I'm not in a rush to go back to work at all, so why am I kicking my own butt trying to do this now?! There just simply isn't a reason for me to stress myself out over this. Bob and I have never planned on me going back to work until the girls are well into elementary school or possibly later anyway. There's plenty of time for me to finish later.

I'm a little sad that I couldn't just stick this out, but my girls come first! They don't need a mommy who is always tired, busy, and stressed! So until the girls are 4 or 5 years old, I'm just a student of the mommyhood. Not the collegehood! And I'm okay with that!

Rachel update

We had the follow up appointment with Rachel's pediatric surgeon today. He confirmed what I thought. The tumor is growing back. Not only is it growing back, it is also not healing normally from when it was cut off and biopsied by the dermatologist. Dr. D now agrees that it is a "Spitz Nevus" and that we do need to go in and do a more invasive procedure to remove it 110%. The thing about these growths is that if they are not fully removed, they grow back. When they do grow back, they can be harder to biopsy. They can show possible malignant behavior without truly being malignant. Because of this, it can sometimes lead to treatments that are questionable. We don't want to get to that point.

It's confusing. Right now, the plan is to see Dr. D again on December 1st and plan the surgery for sometime between Dec-Feb depending on how the growth is doing. Dr. D wants it to heal just a bit more before he does anything. If he were to remove it all right now after just having done the original biopsy a month ago, the tissues will be too irritated to be able to biopsy the current growth. It's hard for me to explain. I really trust Dr. D's opinion and knowledge on this. He's operated on these types of growths numerous times and knows what he's doing. I really do feel at ease with him.

So that's where we are. I have had a pit in my stomach all day thinking about the day she will have to do the surgery. I'm really not comfortable with the fact that she has to be put under anesthesia. At least she is up to 24 pounds and 1 ounce! That's really good for her!

It's going to be an outpatient surgery. I can be with her when she is waking up. I'm going to need a lot of prayers and comfort while they have her in surgery. Just thinking about it now makes me feel so uneasy. The only thing that made me chuckle was that Dr. D told me how they start to administer the meds to put her to sleep. She will have to drink some tylenol that has sedatives in it. All I can say is good luck getting her to drink that. It's not going to be a fun day at all. I'm going to try to just put this at the back of my mind for now. We're just going to have to wait until her follow up appointment in 2 months and see when she will be scheduled. So surgery is definitely needed, it's just a matter of when. Ugh!

Life is never boring!

Welcome to our day. The girls are just a few days shy of 20 months old. I simply cannot believe that in just four short little months, we'll be celebrating their second birthday! They have grown so much. It's unbelievable. In the Spring, I was going through their clothes and put some size 18 month stuff away to use this Fall. I was just SURE they wouldn't be in a bigger size even though they would be older than 18 months. The girls have always just seemed small to me. Imagine my shock when I pulled these clothes out and realized there was no way any of them would fit. Not even Rachel! The girls are so tall now! I cannot believe I've been buying clothes in the 24 month and 2T sizes. 

Anyway... Just wanted to share some cute pics of the girls that I snapped a few days ago. Here are Rachel and Sophia fighting over their new laugh and learn chair. My dad picked this up at a yard sale and gave it to the girls. They LOVE it and fight over it all day. It's too funny.

Morgan offering me some juice from her sippy.

 Our happy little Rachel

Sophia playin with the pig and cow puppets and making a silly face

I tried to get a pic of all three looking at me. They were out of "position" as soon as I backed up to try and take the picture. *sigh*

I know I write about our hard days more often than not. I tend to use this blog as an outlet for me as well as a journal about the girls. I like to keep it real and write about the raw truth and not just the peaches and creme part. The truth is, there are days when I want to pull all of my hair out and run away. That's real life.

The truth is, whenever I am away from my girls for just a few hours, I miss them like crazy. I love seeing their smiling little faces. I love it when I lay down on the couch, they all climb on me and we snuggle up and watch one of their shows together. I love it when I open the door when they wake up in the morning or after nap and they start running back and forth in their cribs with excitement and hold their arms up for me. Even though this is the hardest job I've ever had, I wouldn't trade it for the world. My girls ARE my world!

How do you think high chair boot camp is going?

Yeah.... It's not going so well. We really did give it our "all" for quite some time. This pic shows an excessive amount of food on the floor. We had a rough day today. lol... They did learn a little from the boot camp. Usually, they only toss about a quarter of what you see here.

They know not to throw food. Sometimes it's a lot. Sometimes it's a little. Once in a while, it's none at all. It depends on whether I'm trying to get them to taste a new food or not. Either way, we just stopped taking them out of their chairs. We're almost done with the initial evaluations for the therapy that they're going to receive. So far, I love the therapists we have met. All three of them are such a good fit for our family. They know about the issues we've had getting the girls to eat and how picky they are, and they are excited to help us. I'm going to hang on until we can get some advice that applies to where my girls are with their development. I think we'll be more successful that way!

Stay tuned.... One of these days, I'm going to post a pic of clean NEW tile floor!