Da Bangs. Da Big Bangs.

The first half of our first 4th in Arkansas was pretty much a bust. I got the kids all excited about going to the parade (not a real parade, per se, but one where the kid all wear their red and blue, decorate their trikes, bikes, etc., and march around the town square; in the center of the square, the Farmer's Market was going on) and rallied them for getting dressed up in red, white and blue. Piled everyone in the car, then put the address into the GPS so we could actually FIND the town square, LOL. We got there a bit late and it looked like a lot of the parade was over, but the kids were amused by the remaining kids riding around on their decked our bicycles. There were some fun ones! I was really enjoying myself by the time we crossed the street and got to the first stall at the Farmer's Market; the local farmer was extremely friendly, chatting up the three girls, and we found some really good looking cucumbers and zucchini to come home with. Across the way, there was a stall with adorable handmade, embroidered dresses with lemonade stands, flower appliques, etc. as well as pretty headbands (defintely my kind of place!). We were checking that stall out when the first drops of rain fell...and then had about a thirty second warning before the heavens just opened up and torrential rain ensued. The market goers pretty much ran for the hills, as did the Hedgepeths!

It rained pretty much straight from then until sometime around 3:30 or 4, when it finally cleared up and began getting hot again. Maddie and I took advantage of the rain and decided to run to Target to get a few more things we seem to have missed out on packing or needed for the pantry. We came out and the rain had let up quite a bit - but of course, as we headed for the car the skies opened up again and Maddie and I had a seriously good laugh over both of getting drenched.

*OH* *NEWS FLASH* I'm in danger, danger, danger. We are currently living about 1 minute from a Target. A brand spanking new Target, with a huge food selection. And a Starbucks. I'm in heaven! We're also about 2 minutes from a beautiful outdoor mall. My shopping options just got a whole lot better and more convenient! Bad for the wallet, but fun for me!

After the requisite 4th of July hot dogs, baked beans and watermelon for dinner (no hamburgers, alas, due to no grill at the temporary house!), we headed to Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, about 15 minutes away, for the big 4th of July celebration. They were having inflatables for the kids, as well as live music, ballpark food, and a big fireworks display. The ballpark also has one heck of a playground, as it turns out, so the kids had a ball!

A few things I learned about my kids while were were there:

1. Madelyn is getting to be quite the daredevil, and has seriously improved her coordination over the past few months. She wanted to go on the biggest, tallest inflatable obstacle course (with about a 20-25 foot slide drop) and scaled that thing with absolutely no issues. She also came back a couple of times to help her sister, who gave it a good effort but had to bail in the end because her little legs just weren't quite long enough to get from rung to rung.
2. Lyla loves fireworks. She clapped and cheered all through the fireworks show, saying, "Here comes da bangs! Da big bangs! I like fireworks! Where's the fireworks?" All day today, the day after, she has continued to ask when we are going to get in the car and go see the fireworks and "da bangs." I feel so bad that it only happens one night a year, since she enjoyed it so much! We do have a few sparklers, so we may light those tonight, very carefully. No bangs, but still a show!
3. Sienna continues to amaze me with her ever growing acceptance of her own allergies and the limitations that sometimes brings with it. She doesn't feel sorry for herself, and in that respect has taught me a few lessons about not making the situation worse by acting like she's missing out. She often suggests bringing her own wipes along, in case we need to wipe things off to keep from "getting her allergies." We don't go crazy with this kind of stuff, mind you, but in places like ballparks or airplanes where peanuts abound, I usually like to give her hands a good wipe before she touches her mouth!

All in all, a very successful day. Lots of fun had by all. We really enjoyed the ballpark and were so glad we took everyone, despite the late night. We finished the night with snowcones for the girls, and I think they felt like it was a perfect holiday. Madelyn did mention fireworks with grammy and grampy a couple of times, and I think over the next few days as it hits her that we've truly moved, she's going to miss them more and more. But I'm glad that our 4th was a happy one!

Potty Obsession

Lyla is completely fascinated by the toilet. I know kids tend to have a natural curiousity about it, and we definitely had a few instances with Madelyn and Sienna where we had to tell them not to get into the potty, let's stay away from the toilet paper, etc. But Lyla has a crazy interest in all things toilet related!

Last week, she put blocks in the potty, along with some Little People. Fun to get those things out and all, but no big deal - they went right in the dishwasher, then back into the toy rotation. A couple of weeks ago, she blocked the whole toilet up by putting about a half a roll of TP in the potty at once. Annoying, but again no big deal. This morning? Madelyn's brand new Stride Rite back to school sneakers. Yep, right in. GRRRRrrr!

I swear we do watch her, and we try to keep the bathroom door closed. But this stuff happens in an instant - she is SO quick! Add to that the fact that a toilet lock isn't really an option with a recently potty trained 2.5 year old, and you can see where we get into trouble. Hmmm...too bad this fascination with the toilet isn't a sign that she's ready for some potty training!

Back to the Routine

So I haven't posted anything in a while (again!) and lately I really feel I miss blogging. Time is just flying by so fast, and I feel like if I don't write something down here every once in a while, I'm going to forget just about everything!

We're trying to get settled back into a fall routine, and so far it's going mostly ok, with a glitch or two here and there. Madelyn started her first full week of Pre-K this week and really just seems to be loving it. I didn't really think I would notice a difference between preschool and Pre-K, but I definitely do. There are three new kids in her class that weren't in the preschool class last year, and she's happy to come home and tell me all about her new friends. Last year, she was the oldest in the class; now, there are a few others older than she is, which I think is good for her. I keep warning her teacher that she seems to have turned into a teenager over the summer (with all the sass and attitude that comes with it, ugh!). After her first day, the teacher told me that they were reviewing the family pictures that the kids were asked to bring in, and half way through Maddie said, "Umm...excuse me Miss K. I really think that, um, now that we're, you know - OLDER - we should really call our mother's "Mom" instead of Mommy or Mama." All the while she's doing her hand new teenager-style hand gesturing thing, of course. Miss K told Maddie she thought it was ok if the other kids still wanted to call their Moms "Mommy" or whatever. But Maddie said, "Well, you know. I just think since we're four, we should probably call her Mom, you know?" What a character. The teacher said she was perfectly nice and polite about it, and really seemed like she thought they should have to graduate to calling their mother's "Mom." Where does she come up with this stuff??

Pre-K is three days a week...the rest of the weekly schedule is now taken up with gymnastics for Maddie and Sienna on Saturday mornings, then Music & Movement for Sienna on Monday (the babysitter takes her during the day while Maddie is at pre-K, and Lyla watches), and year two of dance for Maddie on Wednesday. She's in the 5-8 yr. class this fall, a bit early but she seems to enjoy the challenge and since at this age it's mostly about following directions, that class is a better fit for her than the 2.5-5 year old class.

As for Lyla, she's going through a tremendous language spurt right now, mimicking more and more words and jabbering up a storm. She's in that adorable phase where she'll throw out what seems like an entire sentence of gibberish, and then end it with a very real word like "puppy" or "baby" or "up." It's so endearing! She's cut all four molars in the past few weeks, which has made for a bit of a clingy baby. But since they've all finally come through, she's back to her fairly independent and strong-willed self. Her favorite thing to do right now is to look at books, practice climbing up and down stairs (and chairs, etc.) and push around the baby stroller with a doll in it.

15 months (or 16, as the case may be!)

Lyla had her 15 month checkup on Saturday, though she was actually almost 16 months. I guess it's fitting that the youngest is also the peanut of the bunch, and Lyla continues to be very petite for her age. At 16 months, she's only 20 lbs. 10 oz. and 29 inches long -- which puts her in the 13th percentile for weight and the 7th for height. Her ped thinks she's perfectly proportioned, but that she is definitely in a slow growth mode right now. While she's not worried about it, she thinks Lyla may be exhibiting a "constitutional growth delay" where she may get fairly behind in her growth for up to the next couple of years, and then all of the sudden shoot up to a different growth curve. She said it's actually not all the uncommon for kids her age, but of course it's just one more thing for mom to worry about. Anyone who knows me knows that I had such a hard time with my small height (personally) during my school years, so obviously I really hope that my girls end up taller than my petite 5' 1/2" adult height. Her ped said it's a bit early to tell and they'll have a better idea at age 2, but that it's not likely she'll end up shorter than me. Phew!!

But of course, in the end height is a small thing. And as long as my baby stays happy, healthy, and as gorgeous as I *of course* think she is, we'll consider ourselves lucky no matter how tall she ends up. Hopefully we have a nice growth spurt to report at 18 months. The ped was really very surprised by her height measurement this time around, so much so that she thought the nurse had mis-measured and felt the need to do it again. No such luck, but I swear the next day she looked like she had grown overnight. So maybe we just missed a growth spurt in there!

It's so crazy how different all of my kids are in this department. We've got Maddie who's very average height and always in the 50th percentile, Sienna who is the biggest of the bunch and is more like 70th percentile for height and always seems tall for her age, and now Lyla who's at the opposite extreme. I'm so curious to see where they all end up in relation to eachother and to Brad and I! Maybe Sienna is like Daddy, Lyla is like Mommy and Maddie is the true mix, height/build wise. Funny.

Hose Her Down!

What kid doesn't love a nice, messy bowl of spaghetti? Lyla seems to be no exception...you give that girl a bowl of spaghetti and it's a recipe for instant mess. Not much news to report on this front, but last night she was so cute stuffing spaghetti and red sauce in your mouth and wearing half a bowl down the front of her. When all was said and done, I had no choice but to throw her right in the bath -- and sink the sink was handy, we opted to put her right in the sink for a bath so as not to trail pasta throughout the house on the way up to the bathroom.

She loved being in the sink -- probably because she was guaranteed to have the space all to herself, with no possiblity of having to share with her sisters! But even so, Sienna stayed close by and was happy to help shuttle soap bottles, toys, etc. to make Lyla's bath more enjoyable.



I had taken Lyla for her 15 month appointment yesterday morning, a bit late since she'll be 16 months tomorrow! She is still very much a little peanut, and has dropped even more in her percentiles. She's only inthe 7th percentile for height (which explains why everyone wonders if she's really old enough to be walking) and in the 13th for height. So very proportionate, just petite. Not too surprising given the short genes that her mother donated to the mix! The ped isn't too concerned at this point, but hopefully she'll have a growth spurt soon to catch up a bit. She's right on track or ahead with all of her other milestones, so she's doing great overall! She's been a bit cranky today after having several shots yeterday, but I guess that's to be expected. She's also working on her one year molars and her eye teeth, so I guess we'll forgive her crankiness a bit.

Her sweetest milestone yet

Yesterday, Lyla started giving me hugs. She took a few steps towards me, reached out, and put her head on my shoulder. Awwww!! So sweet!! I don't remember when the other kids started doing this, but I know it was later than 14 months (yes, she's 14 months old today -- how did that happen???). Now, when I ask her for hugs, she reaches out and snuggles her head on my shoulder. And then...as if that wasn't just the way to make my entire day...today she actually started saying "hu" "hu" when she does it. Seriously, my heart could just melt. She's not really a snuggler, so to speak, so this is such a nice new development for us!

Okay, okay...

The anonymous poster who keeps "whispering" in my blogging ear has won out...and I'm dragging myself back to update after a two month break! I just can't seem to find time in the days anymore, and once you've been out of the habit for a week or two, it just seems easy to let it go. But that said, I have no shortage of stories and updates these days, so I'm going to try to keep it up. I'm not sure how many people even read this... so if you're out there, please do post and let me know you're here! :-)

I swear, the kids have grown so much since I put up the three pictures on the top of this blog that even *I* barely recognize them. Lyla has of course turned one since then, and is now 13 months old and heading straight into toddlerhood. She's not walking yet, but she's extremely mobile and get very much into the climbing stage. She says a few words -- mama, dada, more, up, clap, buh-bye, no -- but not too much yet. She's got a pretty funny sense of humor and is most amused by her sisters, but she has an awful attachment to Mommy that results in a whole lot of screaming if I step more than two feet away from her in any direction. Hopefully this separation anxiety phase will pass soon...but it's been going on for a while now!

Madelyn and Sienna are very busy with activities this spring. Maddie is totally immersed in rehearsals for her dance recitals, which are coming up on Memorial Day weekend. That will be a whole other post, though... Sienna started gymnastics this weekend and just loved it. She's already asking when she can go back again.

I will definitely post more soon, including hopefully some updated pics. But for now, this post should at least serve to say the blog is not *entirely* dead!

Baby Talk

Even though it hasn't been all that long since Sienna was in this phase, I had forgotten how unbelievably cute the "baby talk" phase is. Lyla is constantly making noise these days, using all sort of consonants and different mouth positions to get as many interesting sounds out as her little mouth will allow. She says a couple of simple words, one of which is her name! It's very cute to hear her copy you and say "WhhhhhyyWaaa." Not as reliable about Mama, but she'll use the word pretty liberally when hungry or wanting to be changed! It's hard to believe that she's going to be one in just a few weeks. Where has a year gone??

Speaking of turning one, I need to get on the arrangements for her birthday celebration. Since we'll be in Aruba, I'm thinking of having a little get together around the pool. Very casual, but maybe some hamburgers and hot dogs and - of course - a fun tropical beverage or two. We'll be in Aruba with a number of people that we know, so it will be fun for L to have people to celebrate with while we're there!

Two weeks already...

That's how long it's been since my last post. Didn't I resolve to be better about this in 2008? (Maybe that's why I shouldn't bother with resolutions...)

Hmm...what's been going on with us?

- Madelyn has been working away at her dance recital piece, and I still don't really get to see any of her classes. Bummer. But they did schedule her recitals, and they are taking place May 24th and 25th. I'm so excited to see her! We had to order her costume a couple of weeks ago, and we got to see pics of it. She's going to be adorable! They're dancing to that old song, "Lollipop" (think "Stand By Me") and have frilly pink tutus. I don't know if I can handle that much girly-ness! LOL.

- I went out for a girls night out with my good friends Allison and Kristen this past weekend, and we had a great time. We went out for fondue at The Melting Pot and had the most interesting, relaxing night. No kids, a nice glass of wine, and yummy cheese, coq au vin, and dark chocolate raspberry fondue. Mmm, I'm drooling just thinking about it again! :-) As much as we all love to get our kids together - since they are all girls and are all relatively close in age - it was so nice to go out and just have some adult time without the 7 little princesses. Definitely gotta do that again sometime soon!

- Lyla is growing up right before my eyes. I can't get over how much she's changed, even in the past month. She's pulling up now, and even letting go and standing unassisted from time to time. She seems desperate to walk, and it all totally freaks me out because she's still not even 16 pounds! You look at her and think she's 5 months old or so, and then you see her crawling across the room, pulling up and trying to cruise/walk/stand. It's too funny. She's also eating more finger food, waving, and chattering away. She does her own little version of dancing when the put music on and go to town. I'm biased, but I think she's just adorable.

I need to post some videos and pics at some point, but for now that's all the news that's fit to print!

sweet baby talk

Little Lyla has gotten quite vocal in the past week or so. She has developed this really LOUD cry/yell/laugh combo which is really kind of funny. You never know whether she's really happy, really ticked off, or just sad and wanting some attention. But you definitely know she's got something to say.

Yesterday, she began using her voice in another way - and started babbling! I just love baby voices, so I'm so thrilled to hear hers so regularly now. It's like something clicked, and she went from just making baby noises to "ba-ba-ba-baa"ing and "ma-ma-ma-MAAAA"ing all over the place! Of course, in our house (as in most, I think) Brad and I have a bit of a "friendly" competition going over whether the babies say Mama or Dada first, and he's conveniently reminding me that she doesnt' really mean anything by "Mama" yet. Thanks, I know that...but score one for Mommy!

Here's a video of chatty little Miss L. It's such a fun phase, I just couldn't resist putting a video up.

Out of the mouths of babes...

So I have to 'fess up... we left the below mentioned toy store with toys for all three girls. How the heck do you go to a toy store and not buy them all something??? Maddie had asked if she could get a toy, and I told her that when she was Sienna's age, we did the same thing with her - and she traded her paci's in for her baby doll. Now it was Sienna's turn, because she was giving up her paci's, etc. etc. Well, Maddie quickly figured that she could get a toy too -- she just needed to give something up! So she runs upstairs and comes back a few minutes with a baggie of her own, stuffed with her two yellow silk "lovies," which are little 1 foot square security blankets. She's had these since she was about 1, and I honestly wasn't even ready to have her give them up. I wouldn't even care about paci's if they didn't interfere with speech and teeth. So I said, "Are you sure you want to give those up? I'm not sure you're ready..." And she said, "Why, are you worried I won't have anything to love on, Mommy?" In any event, we brought them to the store, and she fell in love with a Disney Princess cash register. She was so cute, and so willing to give up her lovies to get it. But in the end, she said "Mom, I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my lovies. Maybe in a few more weeks..." My heart just melted, she was so cute. There was no way on earth we were walking out of that store without the cash register. She was so well behaved, and didn't ask for anything while we were there because she knew that she needed to give up her lovies to get a toy. I was really, really proud of her - and I didn't want her to give up her lovies. You're only a kid once.

When we got home, we let all three kids play with their new toys (because of course Lyla had to get one too!) and it was the first time that I've really seen them ALL fight over toys. They played well together for the moest part and were so excited to have new toys. In our house, it gets a bit desperate by fall because both Maddie and Sienna get all their gifts during the same time of year, wheras most kids have birthdays that are somewhat separated from Christmas time. So our toys are really "stale" by this point in the year, LOL! But man, Lyla is becoming quite the scrappy little thing, especially now that she's mobile and can pretty much army crawl her way anywhere. She was all over that Disney Princess cash register! At one point, I saw Sienna push her little arm right out of the way and say "No Lyla, that's not yours!" Guess the third one has to fight for everything, huh?

Maddie eventually wanted to play with the Dora castle, but Sienna was still very much engrossed in it and was having a hard time sharing. So Maddie says, "Hey Si Si, why don't you go play with my castrator??" OMG, I almost died laughing. I asked her to repeat herself, and she said "I want Sienna to go play with my castrator!" Guess cash register isn't quite an everyday part of her vocab yet!

We made it through Halloween!

I was very nervous about Halloween...this was our first year having to think about Sienna's allergies, and I honestly could have just skipped the holiday altogether (and that's without even taking into account the fact that I really don't even like Halloween!). But what's fun for the kids is usually fun for me too, and Halloween was no exception.



Madelyn dressed as - what else! - an adorable princess. Sienna fit so well into Maddie's turtle costume from last year, and loved it so much, that we decided to use it again. And Lyla was a cute little tiger (also worn by Sienna last year, but who's keeping track? LOL).



We began the festivities the day before Halloween with a preschool party for Maddie. She and I had a lot of fun baking Halloween cupcakes; cooking really seems to be our "thing" to do together and I think we both really enjoy it. She's such a good little helper in the kitchen. We dropped her off in her costume, then all the parents came back at 10:15 for a costume parade around the cul-de-sac where her preschool is located. Parents and kids had yummy treats, then did some Halloween crafts together. All in all, a very fun time. Maddie marched hand in hand with her friends Olivia and Katrina, and they were all just adorable!

Halloween night, the kids all got dressed up in their costumes, and Maddie and Sienna headed out with Brad while I manned (sp?) the door with Lyla the tiger. I think I literally saw about 1,000 Disney princesses. Guess that's what happens when you live in a neighborhood where there are kids under 5 in almost every house! My parents came over to see the kids in their costumes, so all three girls had a lot of fun with Grammy and Grampy when they came back from trick or treating. Sienna was really good, and the allergy issue was manageable, thank goodness. I packed a bag of safe treats for her, and she actually didn't even take any treats from houses (for fear of cross-contamination from candy with peanuts). As it turns out, Maddie was so quick running up to doors with her friends Jonathan and Theresa, that by the time Brad and Sienna got anywhere near the door Maddie and cronies were already done! Sienna just had a ball dressed in her costume and being out and about in the neighborhood with all the big kids.


Madelyn's primary question before going trick or treating was, "Mom, where's your costume? What are you going to be?" And, true enough, I hadn't even thought about a costume. So next year, I guess I'll be thinking a little further ahead. I'm sure it will make Halloween even more fun for them.

Cereal...yum!

Not quite the first time Lyla had cereal -- but the first time she really got any in!

The latest...

Pics of Lyla, at Christine's request! You're right Christine, I haven't posted any new pics of Little Miss L lately, so here she is! Looking pensive:

Rolling happily on her playmat: (Do these shots all look familiar? We're on child #3 with these toys and this one in particular seems to have made it into SO many photos, LOL!)

The Babbler & The Roller

I think certain toddler phases are just so adorably cute that it's hard to want to move past them. Right now Sienna is in the phase where she is talking up a storm, in many full sentences, but she still spends a decent amount of time having an entire conversation of jargon that seems like she has something very important to tell you, but only has a word or two here or there that actually make sense. If she stops to think about what she wants to say, she can generally say it. But when she wants to go for speed and full chit chat, we start to get the toddler babble. I LOVE it. She's likely to come up to me, gesturing hands and all, and say:

"Goodble duecelks blakeuullley GOLDFISH. Gooodswerttbl umberloofy UPSTAIRS."

And she'll tilt her head to the side, wide-eyed, and look at me like I am absolutely crazy for not understanding her. If I could bottle up those cute little non-sensical conversations and store them forever to bring out when I was feeling down, I'd totally do it. You can't help but smile.

Now Lyla, on the other hand, is going through a somewhat less enjoyable phase: the rolling phase. She rolls both ways, and rarely stays on her back anymore if you put her there. This is fine during the day, but at night it's like she forgets how to get herself OFF her belly, even though she can, and wakes herself up by practicing rolling all over her crib. I end up having to go in at random hours and pick her up off her belly, help her get back to sleep, and usually end up feeding her. It's like we've gone back towards the newborn days again all of the sudden, which I really don't mind except for this nagging tiredness. Hope she masters this skill soon so her little mind will let her sleep again at night (maybe even -- dare I say -- through the night?) and therefore let mommy sleep again at night!