Lauren Elizabeth

Lauren is our smarty pants, do a little dance, computer using, outdoor loving, kindergarten going five year old.

I can't believe this when I think back on it, but Lauren was successfully using the computer at 2.5 years old. I can clearly remember her sitting at our dining room table in Fairfield and playing on the computer, using the mouse and everything. Now maybe this was because I was taking care of a newborn and needed to find an activity for her or maybe it is because she is a "smarty pants" but when I think about Kathryn using the computer it makes me a little nervous.

Lauren is quiet and reserved when out in a social setting, but do not be fooled...she is taking it all in and she will question me incesentantly when we are alone about things she observed. She has an unbelievable memory...just this morning she told me that she remembered what color our old house was...white....and that she remembered what color the flowers were in the backyard...red!!! I honestly do not know how she remembered this, we moved out of that house a few weeks after her 3rd Birthday, that was two years ago! I had not recently talked about that house or shown her pictures so this is just something she remembered. She has been enjoying socializing with her peers this year and gets excited to see them when we are out and about; it is neat to watch her grow from someone who was literally "stuck to our legs" into someone who will walk up to a classmate and start talking and playing. She LOVES to invite anyone and everyone over to our house to PLAY, she doesn't really get that she should ask me first. She also doesn't understand that she needs to be invited over to someones house, which can make for some awkward situations.

Lauren is a perfectionist when it comes to the detail of her work....if she is writing or coloring and something goes awry she gets upset and feels like she needs to start over. Unfortunately, her need for perfection ends with her work...she is not a (how do I say this nicely) neat person...that is where Kathryn comes into play. Lauren is extremely helpful when it comes to caring for her siblings...she likes to tell me what Kathryn needs and is great at getting herself and Kathryn snacks. She sometimes even prepares Kathryn's favorite breakfast for her (yogurt and blueberries). She loves to hold John, pick him up and carry him around. The other day I was cleaning in the kitchen and John bumped his head and started crying, Lauren immediately scooped him up on her lap and started hugging him and telling him "it's okay".

Watching your child grow up is such an amazing and wonderful journey. I could have never imagined the young girl that Lauren has turned into. I remember holding her as an infant and wondering what the future would hold for her...now I look at her as a little girl and I try to imagine what it will be like and feel like to have a child who is driving, going off to college, falling in love, getting married and having kids of her own...it brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.

My head is going to explode!

We have had so much going on the past couple of weeks that my head is still spinning. I will try to fill you in on the important stuff, or at least the stuff that I remember.

Let's start with last weekends festivities. On Friday night, both Keith and I attended a bachelor/bachelorette party for our friends who got married on Sunday. We both traveled seperately to RI since I was coming back that same night and Keith was coming home the following day. We both had a great time hanging out with friends whom we haven't seen for a while.

Saturday...I took Kathryn to her first gymnastics class of this season. I enrolled her in the class for three year olds because I thought she could handle it, and she did AWESOME!! Keith came home from the bachelor party in the afternoon, so I took Lauren out for a special afternoon with Mommy. We went and got pedicures and then we did a little clothes shopping, we are still working on her fall/winter wardrobe. She is so cute, she always wants me to buy her and Kathryn matching outfits...hmmm, wonder where they got that...Dwyer and Molnar twins, maybe!?! We came home around 5:30 and quickly changed into warmer clothes and headed out to the Guilford Fair. The girls and Keith kept busy running from one ride to the next while John and I followed closely behind. We got home around 9:30 and I think everyone went to bed by 10pm (Keith and I included)!

Sunday... Keith and I went to a wedding while the kids stayed home with my parents. The weather was absolutely perfect which isn't always the case for the middle of September. The ceremony was on the beach and the reception was outside under tents and we had a great time...although we stayed out a little later than we had planned and I think I am still paying for it. It's hard to catch up on your sleep in this house...and you will see why once your done reading this post.

Monday...I had my interview at Yale to become a volunteer in the hospital. I am hoping to volunteer on the pediatrics floor working with newborn to three year olds. They only have 15 spots available so I am hoping one of their openings can work with my day and time availability. I am also hoping to get all my paperwork back before all the slots are filled.

Tuesday...I went to get my TB test done as well as have blood work run to make sure that I was vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, etc...My children, as always, were perfectly behaved and did not cause any disturbances in the waiting room or doctors office...holding an almost 12 month old while you are getting a shot and having blood drawn is an interesting scenario considering he is very strong and wants to touch, pull and grab anything that comes within his radius.

Wednesday...I picked Lauren up at school so that she could go on a tour of the pediatric surgery center. She learned about all the things she was going to see and do the following day. She did great, she answered all the questions and actually seemed excited about the whole thing....UNTIL it was bedtime and then she broke down and decided she didn't want surgery after all. My heart was breaking but I knew that in the long run it was going to be best to go ahead and have her surgery now rather than wait until she was ready. I thought the Child Life Coordinator did a phenomenal job going over and explaining everything to Lauren. She learned how she was going to put a mask on and blow up a balloon, she even got to pick out what scent she wanted to smell in the mask...strawberry, in case you were wondering.

Thursday was a looooonnnnnng day, we had to be at the hospital at 6:30am for our 7:30am surgery time. Lauren chose Daddy to take her back to the operating room, which I was secretly thankful for because they told us what we could expect to see and just hearing the description made me tear-up. Keith handled everything magically, keeping himself and Lauren very composed. Meanwhile I gave a wave as my eyes welled up with tears and told her to "have fun" because I wasn't sure what else to say. Keith and I started to get a little antsy when an hour had passed and no one had come to see us yet, but just as these feelings were starting to overwhelm us Dr. T appeared...perfect timing! He told us everything went well and that we could go see her in recovery. While I was relieved that surgery went well the recovery process didn't start off all that smoothly, lots of thrashing around and the pain seemed to overwhelm her. After about four injections of medicine into her IV, three popsicles (2 purple and 1 orange), a dosage of Tylenol, a movie and a pair of princess shoes she seemed to settle down. Then she began asking if she could go home, it seemed like she asked this question every other minute. The nurse finally gave us the green light after about 1.5 hours. We had a hard time keeping the pain under control especially since she claims to HATE every flavor of Tylenol! We finally switched to Motrin and things have been going much better. She started to walk around this afternoon which I am really pleased to see...because I was convinced that she was never going to touch her feet to the floor again after a little episode we had in the bathroom yesterday...I tried to stand her up to pull her pants up and she decided right then and there that she wanted nothing to do with me and that I was the meanest person on the face of this earth...so glad we are past that.

Today...I took John to the eye doctor for his three week follow up appointment and I found out that we need to start patching his right eye again....oh my, this information was more than I could handle at the moment and the water works got turned right back on. I fear that we may be heading towards another operation since his left eye is pulling inwards again. It is very typical for patients to need a second operation for this procedure so I shouldn't be all that upset or surprised, but still just another "thing" to think about. When we had to do the patching with John earlier on he tolerated it fairly well...not so much today. He ripped the first patch off and when I finally got the second patch secured he grabbed at it and cried the whole hour he had to wear it. I am really hoping he gets used to it. Keith had a good idea, he thinks we should try to put him in his high chair after we get the patch on and give him his beloved CHEERIOS!! I have never seen a child shovel cheerios into their mouth the way John does...simply amazing. John will be going back to the doctor in a month to see what kind of progress we are making. I am going to check with my cousin Holly who is a physical therapist to see if she has any exercises I can do with him to work on strengthening his left eye.

So in the midst of this crazy busy week I decided to start going through all our baby stuff and I am trying to sell things on ebay and craigslist....feels good to clear out those bulky toys but it is a task to get everything cleaned up, photographed and then write descriptions. So far I have only sold one thing on craigslist and one thing on ebay. I am a little discouraged since I thought these used toys would be "flying off the shelves" so to speak with the economy being the way it is. I thought people would be buying things used instead of full priced but what I am realizing is that people just aren't buying!! I think I may be bringing some of the bigger things to a local consignment store if things don't take in a few weeks.

Keith continues to also be moving at a frantic pace at work with meetings, presentations and dinners. The new website that he redesigned was supposed to launch this week but of course things have been pushed back and the new launch date is November 1st. So I think he will not have too many "slow" days until the new site is up and running. He continues to get lots of praise from his peers and executives at his company...it is about time people realize how AWESOME he is!

Oh, and if you are wondering what Kathryn was doing during all this, she was being dragged here, there, and everywhere. She has been handling all this commotion pretty well. I think things may have caught up with her today because she was acting out and being unusually fussy. I think she is sensing that a lot of my attention was elsewhere. Keith was able to give her some extra attention tonight when he got home, they went for a nice walk and she had hot chocolate when she got home and she was as happy as a clam.

I think we may have something else up our sleeves for next week...but that little tidbit is just going to have to wait until next week :)!

Have a great weekend!
Love,



P.S. I think I have given you enough reading material this week, it just didn't come in the daily posts that I was hoping for.

John Logan

John is our teething, standing, clapping, always smiling ALMOST one year old!!

Wow! how time flies. I don't know if it is because he is the third baby or because he is a boy, but he was definitely an easy infant. I know he will probably give us a run for our money in the next few years...well, I do expect him to pay his sisters back for all the abuse. I recently started bathing all three kiddos together and while I was busy washing Kathryn's hair, Lauren was also busy...spraying WATER in John's FACE. I told Lauren he is growing up fast and she better watch out because I fully expect him to retaliate for all those months of being her and Kiki's toy. The age that John is at right now is such an amazing age...he is constantly doing new things, saying new things, eating new things, understanding new things. Here are some interesting tidbits about John...only remember some of these because these milestones fell on important dates...

Rolled over for the first time on...March 26th (Kendall's Birthday)
He got his first tooth on...May 25th (Memorial Day)
Started crawling on...August 8th
Pulled himself up to a standing position on...September 11th


Born...October 28th, 2008
At...11:20am
Weighing...7lbs 3oz.
Length...20 inches



Things I remember about his birth are that it didn't start on time (scheduled c-section) and that it took a very long time...2.5 hours in the operating room...I heard the Dr. say at one point "so, now what do you think we should do?" I was so exhausted from the anesthesia and lack of sleep from anticipation the night before that I actually felt like sleeping in the operating room...kind of odd, I know. It was such a wonderfully awesome feeling to actually be able to see my baby and have Keith cut the cord and hold John right next to me. Both Lauren and Kathryn were whisked out of the room fairly quickly after their births...with Lauren I had to wait three days before I held her for the first time and with Kathryn it was almost twelve hours. I was able to hold John for the first time while they were wheeling me down the hall from the operating room into recovery...I had never done that before and felt like I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing...but it was actually the RIGHT thing to be doing!!

John has definitely completed our family. He is a true joy to be around...he can light up a room with his presence and bring a smile to every ones face!

Kathryn Paige

Kathryn is our outgoing, thumb sucking, blankie loving, loud talking, juice chugging, vegetable eating, potty trained 2.5 year old daughter.
















She can often be seen walking around our house with her blankie draped over her head like a little nun. The blanket and thumb attachment is something that is very new to us since Lauren, our oldest daughter, never sucked her thumb or had a possession that she was overly attached to. Blankie can work wonders when Kathryn is either hurt or upset...it is able to stop the tears even when I cannot. I try to limit where blankie goes...it generally does NOT leave the house, unless we are traveling or she is overly out of sorts.

Kathryn enjoys dancing and gymnastics. Keith recently taught her to take a bough after she is done twirling around and around. She places one hand on her stomach and bends that tiny body in half so that her head is almost touching the floor and says "thank you"....it is so darn cute! Oh, and you should see Kiki run, she high-steps it like nobodies business all over the neighborhood. She really enjoys looking at books and she makes up little stories as she is flipping through the pages...she can actually (much to our dismay) be heard "reading" her books until well after bedtime...luckily Lauren is a heavy sleeper.

Kathryn brings a lot of laughter into our household...she is a lot like her Daddy in her stature and personality so I know she will grow into an amazing little girl and woman!

Good Company + Good Martinis = Good Times

Okay, we will start with the company first....we had the pleasure of hosting my Aunt Nancy for a visit this past weekend. We LOVED having her here for several different reasons...(in no particular order)...the girls would wake her up in the morning instead of us, she provided us with some great "late" night conversations, she has great insight on life, love and raising a family and most of all we just straight out enjoyed having her in our home.

Next, the good martinis....yummy. My all time favorite martini is of the pomegranate variety. This martini is so smooth and tasty you hardly know it has alcohol in it and it is pretty healthy for you too...pomegranate juice is loaded with antioxidants! Here is how I make mine...

1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce cointreau
(this recipe makes enough for two martinis)

The good times were shared by many...my Mom, Dad, Jason, Maura and Gavin came over for dinner on Saturday night. The kids played outside and jumped in the leaves, the guys drank beers while the girls had martinis and we feasted on a delicious meal prepared by my Mom and Dad.


Cheers!

Guess what...

....Lauren lost her first tooth yesterday!!!!

I couldn't believe it, she came over to me and said, "I think I have a crumb stuck in my tooth but don't worry I got it out." And then she opened her mouth and I did a double take...couldn't believe my eyes as I stared at the big space in between her teeth! She was so excited, she immediately skipped to...what is the tooth fairy going to bring me...can I make a list!?! After asking a couple of questions about the "crumb"...like where is it...did you swallow it? She wanted to call Daddy to tell him about the tooth...so I got the phone and dialed Daddy's number and as I knelt down to be at her level I noticed her tooth on the kitchen floor. WOW! How lucky is that!

P.S. In case you are wondering...the tooth fairy gave her $5 and a special half-dollar coin! Not sure whose child she is but she wants to go to the bookstore and get a book so she can learn to read.

Have you ever?

Have you ever cried over spilled milk?

Well I didn't exactly cry, but I wanted to...and it wasn't exactly milk, it was formula...which is probably why I almost cried...that stuff is too darn expensive! It was a cluster of things that were simultaneously going wrong...Kathryn had to go to the bathroom and didn't exactly make it, and John was beside himself fussy. I went to go fetch his bottle from the kitchen counter and I had not secured the top all the way so you see where this is going...all over Kiki's blanket, the kitchen floor, cabinets and my flip flops and pants...UGH! If you know Kiki you know how precious her "blankie" is, so washing blankie can sometimes be a traumatic experience...which is why I have to wash it on "quick wash". I LOVE using "quick wash" for blankie, it only takes 25 minutes and whalah! you have a whole new blankie!!

Have you ever had a prescription delivered to your door?

Don't worry if you haven't...it is actually not a good thing. I called in a refill for John's eye drops this morning using the automated system and was surprised when about a half hour later I got a phone call from Walgreen's. The gentleman started out by asking for John, so I had to explain that he was too little to come to the phone but that I was his Mom...he then cracked some joke. After the awkwardness of the not very funny joke had passed he let me know that there was an error with the prescription we had been putting in John's eyes four times a day for the last week. What!?! You see, when they filled his prescription last week they gave him the wrong eye drops...I was not happy to say the least. Thankfully the eye drops that we had been giving him (tobrimycin) are an antibiotic ...which is very important after having eye surgery. But what he was missing was the anti-inflammatory part...which explains why his eyes are still super irritated and the poor little guy has such a hard time opening them in the morning. So a lovely lady showed up at my door with tobradex, the new eye drops...oh and they were FREE!

Hula Hooping, bike riding, stroller pushing, kick balling...

The kids favorite part of their day is when Daddy comes home...this is also my favorite part of the day! Keith is such a great Father and we all feel blessed and super lucky to have him in our lives. When he comes home he is met with shrieks and screams (he could probably do without the shrieks, but he tolerates them to an extent). He promptly changes his clothes and he and the kiddos head out for their nightly walk. Kathryn usually runs, Lauren rides her bike and Keith pushes the stroller which is loaded down with balls, hula hoops, juice boxes, toys for John and any other essentials that might be needed. They walk down to the cul-de-sac at the end of our street and play various games like running the bases, throwing rocks in the drain, kicking the ball and most recently hula hooping. If you are wondering what I do during this time...well, I like to use this time to decompress and make dinner. So last night I made dinner and it started getting dark and Keith and the kids were not home yet. So John and I set out to see what they were up to (John stayed home with me last night because he was a little cranky). I found them having a grand ol' time down in the cul-de-sac, but I had to break-up the fun because we had one cranky baby on our hands and it was getting late and we all needed to eat dinner. On our walk home Lauren announced that she had something she "needed" to show me, she stopped her bike in the middle of the road and announced that she would not go any further until she could show me the new task she had mastered. Keith told her we needed to get home because John was getting fussier and fussier by the minute and Kathryn had just fallen in the road and was crying...As you can imagine, Lauren was not happy with this answer and also started fussing...great three fussy kids in the middle of the road!! I immediately gave into her fussing because I wanted to get home, but Keith quickly corrected me and told me "that she should not get what she wants when she fusses", he is right, so after a few minutes of prodding she started peddling back home. When we got home she jumped off her bike and picked up the hula hoop and just like that she had her pink hula hoop swinging around her hips...my mouth just about fell to the floor...and she kept hula hooping and hula hooping. I can't even hula hoop but she has mastered the task and now that is all she wants to do. I have to see if I can get a small video of it to upload here. It is the cutest thing to watch...she really gets those hips swinging around...it is very impressive to say the least.

Only a couple of hours into the day...

And I thought that I wouldn't have enough material to write about....I always think I have nothing interesting to share with others...And well, that still may be the case...this may not be interesting or entertaining material but it is "something". I am hoping that writing this blog will help me to remember some of the funny things that happened (or were said) during the day as well as to keep track of milestones and memories....

....So here we go...this morning started out as a fairly routine morning...two little girls come stampeding into the room and climb into bed with Keith and I...Lauren usually snuggles in on the left side and Kathryn is on my right...somehow they allow Keith to keep sleeping. After about ten minutes of snuggling we got up and made our way downstairs. John was still sleeping which is a little unusual for him. We think he is still recovering from his eye surgery that he had last Friday. I would normally let him keep sleeping but we needed to get his eye drops in before Keith headed off to work for the day. The eye drops are definitely a two person job since he knows how to squeeze his eyes together with the strength of a sumo wrestler! Poor little guy still has a hard time opening his eyes in the morning, the drops definitely help but the corners of his eyes are very red and irritated looking...all of this is normal according to the doctor.

Lauren and Kathryn entered into their normal morning play and outbursts of arguments routine...until I finally gave into their multiple requests to paint their fingernails. So while I enjoyed a few minutes of peace and finished my coffee they were busy "caking" fingernail polish onto their fingers and hands and paper towels...you get the picture. This few minutes of peace costs me a good 15 minutes of clean up...oh well...at least they had fun doing something they wanted. While I was cleaning Lauren's hands off I noticed she had something very sticky in her hair, she proceeded to tell me that it was tree sap. So, I did what any other Mother of this generation would do and I immediately typed "tree in sap in hair" into the google search. Her options were mayo or peanut butter...she picked the mayo! So, that brings us to where we are now...I am typing this while she is sitting in the chair watching TV with mayo smeared into her hair. Next up, bath time and then lunch and she will head off to school...oh, and Keith has to come home from work so he can assist me with John's eye drops!

Hope you enjoy your day!