Guess who went poopy in the potty today for the first time??  Yippee!!  Miss Paige!  The girl who never tells me that she poops (unlike Cole who tells me ‘poopy’ after he and his siblings poop).  Well, this morning she was passing gas at the table during breakfast and laughing saying “poopy” {Eric’s daughter}.  So I said “hey Paige, let’s try the potty”.  After about four books, there was the most massive load in the potty.  You go girl!!!  I can see that this potty training thing is going to be most disgusting for Mommy as cleaning out the potty bowl is GROSS!  At least with the diaper, you wrap it up and never look at it again.  Oh well…short term gagging for a long term goal.

Another funny thing with Miss Paige.  She still is waking up a few times every night so I can bring her back into her bed and tuck her back in.  The whole thing is pretty painless most nights, but I have those occasional wake-ups where I can’t go back to sleep.  So last night I was tired and she came by my head and did her usual “mama.  mama.  maaaama.”  So I pretended to snore.  She gave up after about two minutes and tucked herself back into her bed!!!  Yeah!!  I’m snoring every night now.

Other tidbits:  Cole likes to pick the green Cheerios out of his cereal bowl.  He woke up the other night crying for his “green blankie”.  Of course the green blankie was downstairs…so I figured it was dark in his room and I tried to convince Cole that his pink blankie (Paige’s blankie that we use as a back-up) was his green blankie.  He didn’t buy it and kept yelling “green blankie…..green blankie!!”.  Finally after a lot of lying and pleading…I convinced sweet Cole to go back to sleep with the wrong blankie.  Hey– it was dark and the middle of night.  The kid is smart.  He knows his colors (even in the dark) and he knows all his shapes.  They are blowing me away with everything they know nowadays.  Our kids are so freaking smart.

I feel like I could write so much more about how awesome they are…but it’s really late.

So I think I’ve mentioned how awful this weekend was with Drew.  He woke up screaming again this morning so we brought him in first thing to the doctor.  He has a ruptured eardrum.  This is supposedly incredibly painful but the doctor said it’s like a zit popping so you almost feel relief that the pressure is out of the ear when it pops.  The gross part is the amount of puss and earwax that was scooped out of my baby’s ear.  Yuck!  So he’s on antibiotics and should feel better by tomorrow.  Thank goodness.  The other bad news is that he has lost 2 pounds since his 12-mo checkup two weeks ago. 

Another source of angst for poor Drew-man…the doctor said he is getting his molars.  I can’t believe how many teeth this kid has.  At least he’s getting all this pain over with.  More teeth for eating bacon!!

First off…..wanted to let everyone know we’re still alive.  Barely.  I’ve never seen Drew so sick.  He just laid around like a limp noodle for the last 48 hours.  His temp this morning was 103 up his bum but he seems to be improving as the day is progressing so yeah!  I hate seeing him sick.  He just doesn’t deal with pain as well as P and C.  Must be that NICU pain management training program they were enrolled in that made them so strong.

So speaking of being strong….remember when P and C were infants and they were labeled as being “strong willed”?  And how everyone said that was a super great thing?  Well…it is for the most part.  I can’t get Paige to do ANYTHING she doesn’t want to do.  Of course I’m exaggerating.  I have trained her to sleep in her bed (though she still gets up 5-6 times a night and makes me tuck her back into bed), she now holds hands in parking lots without me ripping her arm out of her socket (now I just have to say “parking lot” and she’ll stick out her hand), she no longer tries to pull her poopy diaper out from under her when I’m changing her, and I can now blow-dry her hair (whoopee!).  Areas we still need improvement on:  toothbrushing, hair brushing, taking medicine.  I’ve done research about how to get her to open her mouth so I can brush her teeth…and if it comes down to her not getting pain meds so be it.  With this last sickness, she has not allowed us to give her any medicine.  The hair brushing is manageable because even though she hates me getting the knots out of her hair, she likes the attention of me sitting with her.  I’ll figure out this toothbrushing thing if it kills us.  And before everyone says what works for them….unless it’s totally novel…I’ve probably tried it.  I’ve tried her mirroring me, I’ve tried you’re turn, my turn.  I’ve tried you brush me, I brush you.  I’ve tried telling her bugs will crawl into the holes in her teeth.  I’ve tried her watching me brush Cole who willingly opens his mouth.  I’ve tried regular toothbrushes, I’ve tried battery operated spinning toothbrushes, I’ve tried singing to her.  I’ve tried distracting her.  Tonight I’m trying stickers even though she could care less about stickers.  I’m running out of ideas though.

Other news:  is this plastic lining in bottles scaring anyone else?  How serious is this?  Makes me very glad that I breastfed Drew this whole first year and that I was able to pump for P and C for their first six months.  We still heated the bottles for P and C quite a bit towards the last part of the six months when their consumption was more than my production.  I think the chemical that is toxic leaches out of the bottles more when they’re heated, but I guess it can still leach out even under normal daily use.  Yikes.  So much for advancement of technology.  Maybe those moms that breastfeed their kids until they’re 8 or 9 years old are on to something…… 

Oh!  Before I forget.  I can not believe that we got a phone call from our laboratory again this week that the hormone tests that the endocrinologist ordered on Cole need to be redrawn.  We got the phone call Thursday after he was discharged.  Unbelievable.  We could have had the blood redrawn in the hospital using his IV and he would not have even felt it.  It is unexcusable that the lab waited this long to call us and let us know that they screwed up his blood.  It is ridiculous that the last two lab orders on Cole were both messed up and required repeat specimen collection.  I used to work in a laboratory so I know how infrequent mistakes are made.  Except to now be on this end as a parent…it is infuriating and the lab should be ashamed.  Okay….whew!  Glad I got that off my chest.  When I go back to work in five years or so and become a lab manager once again….things like this won’t happen.  Mark my words. 

Paige is a snot ball and has a wicked cough. Drew has his first real cold and is wiped out. Cole, he’s probably the healthiest of all of us now (except me of course).