Family portrait at 18 months

We bought a photo package from Holly McCaig and have just taken the last of those photos -- 18 month pics. I must say, I don't know why I bother trying to get a "family" shot. By the time I iron their clothes, get them fed, get them dressed, calm Joe down from the chaos, welcome Holly and jump up and down to beg them to smile and laugh, I am EXHAUSTED, sweaty, red and nasty -- nothing I want to see in a picture! But, nonetheless, that is a true "image" of the day -- I love all of the kids and Joe in this picture and it truly illustrates the joy we each bring to one another. I am SO blessed!

Grant's Farm

Every weekend, we are looking for a new place and adventure for the kids to take us on. Thus far, we have enjoyed McDonalds play yard, the zoo, grammy and poppy's pool, the park, a friend's house and recently -- Grant's Farm.

We are SO lucky to have this beautiful facility only 10 minutes from our house. Parking is $10, but it is free from there. You take a nice train up to the farm where you see elephants, birds, monkeys and more up close and personal. You also can buy milk bottles to feed the goats. We of course bought 1 bottle for a $1 and thought the babies could share it. Unfortunately, nobody tells us that the goats slurp down the bottle like a 21 year bday boy taking shots!!!! We quickly bought a few more bottles. The goats climb us and attacked all for the bottle.

Joe took the kids into the goat feeding area one at a time and mom took pictures. Crazy enough -- guess who was the most interested in the goats??? Colleen! She gave them lovies and pet them. Danny was cautious as usual.

After this, you go to a central area to eat lunch. Mom and Dad both get 2 free beers!!! That is a NICE advantage of being owned by Anheiser Busch.

Here are some pics from the visit....
http://picasaweb.google.com/3ManWreckingCrew/GrantSFarm

I need to figure out if this new photo album works...can you see the pics???

Nothing like starting your new job in the Ronald McDonald House

Well, I am officially emplyed by Johnson and Johnson! I am SO excited for the new adventure. I have to laugh though as I reflect on the last week. Joe and I have been running so fast and so hard for what seems like FOREVER the past year. On Saturday, we decided to have some friends over which was great fun. The kids played and ran around and our kids starting having a bit of the runny nose/allergy deal going.

Sunday, we planned to unwind and get ready for mommy's new job on Monday and a new week. Meanwhile, we have the rest of the twins club "stuff" to be tagged and prepared for the sale next weekend. I am planning a bridal shower for 120 invitees and our new au pair arrives in 3 weeks. So, our next month is certainly busy.

Well, back to my story -- Sunday morning we wake up (a little hungover actually) and Colleen is weezing. Yup -- breathing strong and shallow and I go into major fighting mode. We give her 4 treatments of albuterol and a nice dose of steroid and cross our fingers. She then spikes a nice fever of 100.3 and I get more nervous. We ride it out throughout the day and I decided to bring her into my bed to sleep at 9:30p.m. I laid there and said my prayers reflecting on the day and the week I have ahead and in the silence, I listened to her extremely loud breathing and counted her breaths. She was taking 4 breaths for every 1 that I took. I lasted about 3 minutes in bed and I sprung up, got dressed and off to St. John's Hospital we went. We got there in the nick of time because her breathing was getting worse and worse and she was losing energy fast!

We were admitted and stayed two nights. Monday morning came VERY quickly and I had several conference calls lined up for the new job -- remember, first day.

So, Joe came to relieve me and later Aunt Nellie and down the hall I went slippers and PJs and all to make my calls and start my first day of work from the hospital Ronald McDonald Room. I am SO grateful for that organization!!!!

Colleen is better and home now and I feel like I have a million stories that I could post starting with Colleen throwing up all over her treasured blankey and mom's only pants to me stumbling through the hospital with a sheet wrapped around my waist trying to find a washing machine. Or maybe I could talk about Colleen sitting up all night on the phone saying, "Dan...Dan...." until around 4:30a.m. Oh, how I love the circus.....

Gymboree Fun

Well, I have been REALLY enjoying my time off between jobs. I have taken the kids on walks, to the zoo, played games, cleaned out closets, found time to workout and today, went to Gymboree.

Gymboree is a cute little playspot for mom's and their babies. I wonder if dads ever go??? I suppose they could, but there were lots of moms with their one child and here Peggy strolls in carrying three babies. I looked ridiculous and in hindsight, I am not sure why they didn't discourage me from coming. I think it would be better to go one-on-one. There is something about "sit on mommy's lap" time that looks funny with three babies, especially when one has ADD and decides it is time to squirm off and go play with the ball instead.

All in all, they had a great time. I am so proud of my kids for their great concept of sharing at this young age as well as their independence. I did get a lot of looks from moms that said, "I can't believe you are leaving your kid on that bridge alone." But, again, how can you be on the bridge, the slide and the trampoline with three different kids at the same time??? you just can't! Lucky for me, my kids don't expect me to be right there all the time.

They would get the ball and when I told them to give it to another baby, they did.

Our neighbor and friend Joe Jr. was also there which made for super fun and great photos!!!!

I am not sure who will miss mommy going to work more....the kids or mommy???

The Handy Toss Back

Well, I decided that I should really spend more time on my blog seeing as a.) I don't ever journal for the kid's baby books and b.) I am horrible at calling people and c.) I rarely send pictures ok and d.) my life is a little entertaining (or so I hope I laugh at it in a few years :)

I wanted to throw this story out there because I don't know if you have children or not, but if you do, you can appreciate driving with a crying infant -- no question a trying task. As a matter of fact, I just realized why they created drive through liquor stores!!!!!

So, what is a mom to do? Of course, you grab whatever candy you can find, or maybe you even drive through McDonalds and you start handing the baby food. The baby is generally conveniently right behind your seat....unless you have more than 2 babies.

We have the boys in car seats behind the driver and passenger seats, so I am able to reach them without too much work. Colleen is usually in the back and I just can't reach her. So, if I am handing the boys food and she sees it, she get a little pissed off (which is reasonable right??) Well, I finally starting doing what I like to call the toss back. I pulled out my old softball skills and I toss food at her hoping to get within a range that she can then pick the item up and feed herself. By the time I take her out of her seat, she usually has about 10 extra goldfish, cookies, grapes or fruit snacks in her seat that she couldn't reach.

Yesterday was particularly trying and Jimmy was just not pleaseable so I resorted to thin mint girl scout cookies. (on a side note, isn't it funny how before you have kids, you swear YOUR kids won't eat junk...no, not YOUR kids....)

Well, today, we were off for a family outting and when we got home, I went to get Colleen out of the car and she looked up at me with the BIGGEST chocolate smile on her face. She found a bonus thin mint in her seat and it was ALL over her face. I laughed so hard. You gotta love the toss back -- and Colleen loves cookies she saves for later!

Remembering THANKSgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Tuesday so that we could enjoy leftovers, which was lucky for us because come Thursday late morning, Colleen sounded a little congested and weezy. She had had a cough and bit of a cold, but we all had. We saw on the news that the Atlantic Ocean had a Red Tide where the algae levels are high and killing some sea animals and causing some sickness in people too. So, we all figured that was what it was from. I had put Colleen to bed with benadryl on Wednesday night and Thursday, she just sounded worse. I was mad I hadn't thought to bring the "just in case" nebulizer with me! So, off my mom and I went to find a pharmacy or acute care to help us out. She sounded worse to me with her labored breathing, so I decided to hit the ER. We got there and wasn't that an experience!!! Mind you, i don't really know where I am. Is Holmes Regional hospital any good? I didn't know!!! I had a few alarming moments there. First, they decided to admit her. Then, as they did her chest x-ray, they put her in the capsule they use for pediatric cat scans (which I felt was unnecessary) and really scared her!!! Then, I asked for some formula to feed her -- I asked for lipil. The nurse said, "honey, it's all the same to me -- I nursed my kids." Ok, well I guess Good Start will have to do! The final ER straw for me was when the 2 techs came into the room to start an IV on her and they said, "we are here to put your son's IV in." I explained that my son's name is COLLEEN. They said, "oh, well mom, you need to put BOWS in her hair!!!!" I looked at them and said, "you try putting a bow in your kids hair while they are weezing, don't like bows anyway and you are on your way to the ER! You know, we don't need to put in her IV!" I then called my pediatrician and asked him to help from far away. He said to stay put and listen to the local pediatrician. He said, IF colleen's breathing gets worse, we need to transfer her.

We got up to the floor and the staff there was very friendly, just not very good with their clinical baby care! The pediatrician introduced himself and said if we could get her under control, we would have to transfer her. I said, "don't let me hold you back!" Within the hour, the conversation moved to transferring her, the airlifting her, intibating her....They weighed me so they could get the best weight details to the helicopter crew. The Orlando transport team came for her (but they came by ambulance instead). They had been fully versed on our daughter and her situation. When the transport nurse, Chris, came into the room, she said, "I am Chris and I am here to take Colleen to Arnold Palmer." I felt like an angel had enterred the room and was going to save us and bring us to the children's hospital which is where we belonged!

It was a long ride to Orlando -- even in an ambulance! We warmed up to our new little home with a crib, loveseat that extended for sleep and a crappy chair that I would sleep in for the next 3 nights! I held Colleen pretty much the whole time. Friday was rough, but we were hopefuly to go home Saturday. She started doing better during the day on Friday, but she de-satted Friday night and had to go back on oxygen. She hated it -- she kept pulling it off her face and then she would cry like the dickens because the tape hurt after she pulled it off! We did pull her IV out on Friday because she was eatting well!!!

Friday was a big day to make some travel plans for my other 2 babies. See, the whole family was planning to leave on Saturday morning. Mom, Joe and I were supposed to fly the babies home early Saturday morning. So, here is how we swung it....Dad rented us a car and brought it up to Orlando. He brought with him mom. Aunt Nellie and Uncle Ted flew into Orlando arriving at 7p.m. where they met mom, Jimmy and Danny at the airport and turned around flying back home at 7:45p.m. The rest of the family left Saturday morning by car.

Saturday was tough because she felt better and was really active. I couldn't put her on the ground because it was nasty! I did get out and went to Target to get some new clothes, some bottled water and a few clean toys for the little princess! Saturday night, we knew that if she did well through the night (they wanted an O2 sat of 92 or better), we would be headed home Sunday. If not, we were stuck another day!!!! Joe and I watched the monitor like a juicy football game! It would drop and we would cheer her on to get it back up. It did go to 86 once, but quickly came back up and was really around 87/88 up to 92/93. The nurse was happy with that! I also was able to put her in the crib for a few hours and I got to sleep without her in my arms. I sort of missed her in my arms! She was so tired and in such a deep sleep that Joe picked up her foot to fix the O2 sensor on her toe and her foot was such dead weight, that it floppped right back down on the crib.

Sunday morning, the nice Irish attending doctor came in and said we could go home!!! YIPPEEE!!!! We were so excited! We packed up and left the hospital. Colleen enjoyed being the only baby and starting a new mini-vacation! We went to visit Joe's friend, Steve, who had just gotten engaged in Orlando. We had breafast at FirstWatch and then headed back to Melbourne. We are staying at the same place which is absolutely amazing! The large beautiful windows overlook the roaring ocean and we are really enjoying a little downtime and fabulous sleep!!!! We will fly out on the next available flight which is tomorrow at 4p.m.!

Poor Colleen has now spent her first Christmas and First Thanksgiving in the hospital! Hopefully, her First birthday will be less dreamatic!

The Not so Magic House

So, i was really looking forward to the triplets night at the Magic House. We rented the joint and I was told there were great activities for babies. So, Tuesday night -- off we went. We played in the ball pit, put everything in our mouths, played in the water area and wore ourselves out. It was certainy a BLAST!!! By Wednesday, we all had runny noses and mom learned that shared toys meaned shared germs.

Saturday morning, I was headed to the Lake with some girlfriends. I woke up, helped Joe feed and change the monkeys and i was off by about 9a.m. We shopped, dined, talked, karaoked, drank too much and I crashed on the couch around 2a.m.

Around 6:30a.m. Sunday morning, my cell phone rings. Joe says he is a little concerned about colleen because she isn't sleeping and is really cranky. I figure he is just overwhelmed, but i do the right thing and drag my butt to the car and hit the road by 7a.m.

My sister is a night nurse and got off at 7a.m. so I called her and she said she would go by to check things out and rest Joe's wild mind. She got there around 8:30 and called me for the doctor's exchange number. I was cruising!!! I couldn't get home fast enough. At 8:45, I am really close to home and she calls saying she would meet me at St. john's ER. you know, i made it back from the lake in 2 hours! i arrived at St. John's at 9a.m.

They thought it was RSV. Her poor little belly was pumping soooo hard to get the air in! Her pulse was up to 200 and her O2 stat down to 85. She was really listless and quite upset at the prospects of putting oxygen in her nose. My sister THEN tells me she almost called 911. She was amazed how well joe was doing with the boys crying and crawling ALL over the house and Colleen in such a horrible state.

they did xrays that came back looking like a bacterial infection and through out there possible pneumonia. At that point, they decided to admit her, start her on an antibiotic and breathing treatments. WOW! Who would have known my day would take such a turn, eh?

so, Colleen and I snuggled into St. john's and she was released today. The bacteria seems to be negative and she is back to her playful self. QUITE A SCARE!!!

the boys have colds too, but haven't had the extra bonus of breathing issues YET!

So much fun here!!!!