Last night, we were eating dinner, and Alex was smiling about something, and I noticed something looked off, so I grabbed her and inspected one of her top middle teeth, and it is BROWN.

WTF?

I brushed her teeth the night before and it was white like the rest. I don't know WHAT happened. She told me she fell and bumped it the day before, but I don't remember that, maybe it happened while I was at work. But she showed me where and everything.

Could she have damaged a nerve or something? They have their regular check-up scheduled from next month but I am going to try and call today, see if I can bump it up.

Hard to tell with a crappy cell phone pic, but here it is:

It looks bad. I cried hard, I'm not gonna lie. What if they can't fix the color, or worse, what if they have to pull it? I am beyond devestated over this, and I know it sounds silly, but I am. Alex has the most charming little smile, and... I can't even think about it.

Me: You know what love does? It makes your heart feel so FULL...
Elizabeth: Mommy! You know why MY heart is full?
Me: Why?
Elizabeth: Because I drink milk!

The girls have been drawing a lot on their little Magna-doodles lately. They're getting really good at it, too. I have to share these with you because I love them so much:



Elizabeth's baby parrot



Elizabeth's baby bunny



Alexandra's pig face

Wow, I haven't posted any picture since August 19th.

Well, the girls are napping for the first time in god knows how long, so here are some pictures from the last few weeks. I'm not going to label them really, it'd take forever.

Also, if you have a Flickr account, add me there, as I upload their pictures there almost right away.

( My cutie pies this way )

I keep forgetting to post about the girls' 3 year check-up from Wednesday.

Both of my peanuts are 26lbs and 34 inches. That's it. They haven't really gained any weight in close to a year, though they have grown 2 inches. From what I understand, the "average" 3 year old is around 38 inches and around 30lbs. Their estimated adult height is now 5' 0" (it was 5' 2", like me). The doctor again asked if it's something I am worried about, and I said not really. They eat fine, they're just... small, you know? I was always short and skinny, up until I hit puberty and got fat (but stayed short, of course).

The doctor told me she wasn't really too concerned, either, given my short stature, plus despite their size, they are growing, albeit on their own (slight) curve. ALex does need to go back in 3 months for a weight check, since she was almost 10 ounces less than Lizzie (though still 26lbs), and then she said we'll just keep an eye on them. She said as they get older, if it looks like it'll be a real problem for them, we have "options", which I assume mean hormones or something. I guess we'll see.

The other issue we addressed with Elizabeth's little lump under her chin. She thinks it could be a few different things, though none of them are anyting serious. She mentioned submental mass lymph node or a thyroglossal cyst. My family gets cysts a lot (though I personally have never had one), so it makes sense. She said since we did bloodwork before and everything looked great, it's not anything to be concerned about. If ever it got infected or anything, we might consider removal, but not unless it causes a problem since that would be surgery. Still, she offered me the option to have an ultrasound done so we can determine exactly WHAT it is, though she stressed she probably wouldn't have it done if it were her kid since we're not going to remove it anyway (which I agreed with), but I want it done so I got the prescription. I just want to know exactly what it is, you know?

Otherwise, all is well. She seemed surprised that the girls aren't starting preschool this year, but then, most people do. I thought preschool generally started at 4, but everyone online with kids the girls' age are starting this year. I don't know, I didn't feel ready, and they'll be in school for 14 years at least, why rush it? They're developmentally superstars, and everything else looks good. The girls all drew pictures for Dr. Tierney while we were waiting for her to come in, and she hung them up in her office. How cute is that??

That's about it. I have pictures to upload later. These are the last two days of my vacation, and of course the weather has been horrific. I want to take the kidlets to the zoo Monday, so I hope the weather cooperates.

The girls had their 3 year check-up today (only 2 months late, it's murder getting a well-visit in that place, but so worth it, I love their doctor), but I'll write about that tomorrow. All is well, but I want to document some things.

I finally got the energy for a huge picture post, so here you go, our weekend:

( Chuck E Cheese on Sunday )

( Wildwood trip on Monday )

( Some artwork from tonight )

And I'm spent. If you viewed all that, you deserve a cookie or something...

Okay, pictures as promised.

( Pictures from Saturday )

( Pictures from Monday )

It's been an interesting few weeks with the girls. I mean, they're really starting to grow up. Lizzie has been completely potty trained for a few weeks, now. She is just so awesome, no accidents, she goes in public restrooms (I carry this around in the diaper bag). Did I mention we don't use potties? Nope. the big toilet all the way. The potties are down the basement somewhere, actually.

Now, the last few days, Alex has decided she's tired of her sister getting all the attention and has been using the potty pretty consistently. She's had a few accidents, but she was in panties at Clementon park and did awesome, and zero accidents today. She keeps asking to sleep in her panties, but she has yet to wake up completely dry in the pull-up, so we're holding out on that a little longer.

Still, I haven't changed a diaper in four days. That is amazing!

It's not just the potty, though. They've both become very insistent on doing everything themselves, and what's more amazing is they can DO so much more than I realized. They can dress themselves. They can put their dishes in the sink and clean up their own messes. It's so awesome to have these little.... people. Not babies at all.

All the baby things are gone now - bottles and sippies, binkies and diapers, cribs and all that assorted baby paraphanallia. Gone. Most of the toddler-ish stuff is gone, too. I actually find myself going into the baby aisle in stores and feeling a bit sad, knowing I don't need to be there anymore. It's hard, to be honest. And I don't know if I'll ever have any more kids, which makes it even harder. It's all so bittersweet, really.

Despite all that, I am LOVING this age. The cuteness is too much, and the girls are so cuddly and silly and all the wonderful things that I can put into words. They can be difficult and their tantrums can be hell, but they're learning to listen to reason more and more. This summer with them has been SO much fun because they're really able to DO things now and participate.

So, yeah. Like I said, bittersweet. God, I love my kids. They're my world, honestly. I'm so lucky to have them...

We had SO much fun at Clementon Park yesterday! Alex was so adventerous, as always, and not afraid of ANYthing. Miss Lizzie, on the other hand, was quite nervous, much like me. But we all still had fun, anyway.

It wound up being 11 of us in all, in three different cars! It was me, Mary, Lizzie and Alex in my car, and then my sister and BIL, and Bronte, Gabriel and Sarah in that car, and my cousin Dawn and her "friend" Jake in the third car. We had so much fun, did I mention that? We got there at noon and didn't leave until almost 8:30!

Unfortunately, I forgot to put on sunscreen and am a lobster today. I was so worried about getting all five kids covered that I neglected myself, and I'm paying the price today.

I give you... the link to the photoset. Too tired to post all the pictures here.



>>CLEMENTON PARK PHOTO SET<<

And a video:



And... Sarah left today. I miss the lil bugger. She's so full of life and spunk, she has a cartoonish voice, I LOVE it. Mandy promised we'll get her again around Christmas time, so yay to that!

We had a great time at the zoo Saturday. I can honestly say it was one of the first outings we've had in a long time that didn't end up in at least one tantrum. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the girls have been sleeping better, thanks to me hanging out in their room until they fall asleep. Last night they went to bed 8:30 and didn't wake up ONCE in the night. It was BLISS.

Anyway, Bronte wasn't feeling good, so it wound up being me, Lizzie, Alex, Sarah, my sister Theresa and my mother. Did a ton of walking, of course, and it was kinda hot, but not TOO bad. The three girls got to ride a camel, which they thoroughly enjoyed. It was the one thing Lizzie and Alex were asking for the whole time. They all really liked the petting zoo, too.

All was well until we got home, when Alex started getting a fever, and proceeded to puke all over me. Luckily, she's been fine ever since, poor kid.

I took a TON of pictures, and have no desire to post them all. I'll just leave you with the link the the Flickr Set (I love making sets, greatest idea ever).



>>PHILADELPHIA ZOO<<

Yesterday we mostly hung around the house, as there were bad storms. When they let up for a bit, we went to Mickey D's to utilize the Play Place, that was about it. One things I did accomplish, however, was to get a good photo of the girls with Sarah fo rmy mom. She wanted to get a professional portrait done of all three of her grandchildren, but never set up the appointment, so today I went out and grabbed a mattress cover to use as a backdrop and snapped away. The one I wound up getting as an 8x10 for my mom is this one:



It got me into trouble, though. I went in to pick it up (ordered it online at Walgreens.com and picked it up an hour later), and the the guy tells me the package was flagged for possible copywright issues. He went into why they believed I was reprinting professional photos, and I assured him that I had, in fact, taken that picture only an hour earlier. He didn't seem to believe me, told me about lighting angles and whatnot. He even asked me if I had my camera with me!! It was frustrating, but eventually, I guess he believed me. I don't think it's THAT good!

The rest are ( under the cut )

So that was our weekend. Today is Clementon Park, and we're all SO excited!! More pictures to come when we get back from THAT trip, too!

We had a lot of fun at Smith Playhouse on Saturday. We got free water ice and the girls got their faces painted, plus the huge playground that they had a blast on. I love that place.

( Of course, I have pictures )

Also, for good measure, the "sketch" the girls and I got done today. My sister invited us to her neck of the woods to go to Chuck E Cheese, her treat. Who could say no to that? My kids love that place, and they're getting good at some of the games, surprisingly.



And that's it. I am SO excited, my niece Sarah arrives tomorrow afternoon, and we have her for a whole week! Shame I have to work tomorrow. Ah well.

The end result of our Picture People trip today (ignore the spots from the scanner, no idea what's up with that)?



Not bad for free, eh? They already look so much BIGGER than they did just last October. Any resemblance? I don't see it, personally, except they all have Eddie's hair and eye color.

Also, I trimmed their hair some, mostly to even the back out. I think it looks cute.

Wildwood was so much fun! It's been about 10 years since I was there last, and not a whole lot has changed (except maybe prices) which is a good thing. When I was a kid, we used to go there on vacation every summer (as is evident in my last picture post).

The ride there seemed so much shorter than it was when I was a kid. I used to loathe that drive, but then I'd just listen to my walkman. This time, my sister and I had a lot of fun, as we always do, and the girls slept the whole ride up since they'd woken up at 5:30am.

We hit the beach at about 12pm and stayed for several hours. The only other time the girls had been to a beach was when we went to Cape May in the summer of '07, and then were afraid of the water and the sand that year, but thankfully they love it all now. They splashed and ran to and from the waves, and got covered from head to toe in sand. We built sand castles and made creatures from molds (bought them a ton of beach toys with a TRU gift card from their birthday). They had so much fun, my kids have turned into mermaids! They did not want to leave, it was pretty cute.

The place we parked at also had showers, so we all washed the sand off of ourselves and got changed, then it was off to the boardwalk, which was always my favorite part of Wildwood. Essentially, it's a long strip of shops (a lot of dollar stores, beach-themed shops, and specialty stores like food, henna, art, etc) mixed in with stands and then, the peirs - huge amusement parks! We just walked up and down the boards, really. Got some pizza, and I found 3 Wildwood t-shirts for $10 total, so got one for each of the girls and myself (theirs are too big, maybe they'll fit next year), and again, just lots of fun, goofing around with my sister and all.

It was so awesome, and loads of fun going with my sister. Gave me a bit of the old, nostalgic feeling of the beach and boards with my sister, mixed with the newness of seeing everything for the first time through my daughters' eyes. I'd like to go back there for an overnight trip maybe, if we could scrape the funds together for a motel.

Anyway, I took way too many pictures to post, so here's a link to the photoset, with just one teaser picture (videos are uploading right now):



>>WILDWOOD FLICKR SET<<

Since I did it last year, why not, huh? Since The Fourth of July was the first holiday the girls were alive for, I guess?

The two most notable things to me is how long their hair has gotten, and how much better quality the pictures are on my Rebel Xti.

ALEXANDRA



ELIZABETH



I owe you all a real post, which I'll be working on tomorrow I hope...

Elizabeth has begun to potty train herself, while Alexandra has zero interest right now, but that's okay.

Lizzie just started telling us she had to go, in pull-ups and all, and just going to the bathroom. Even yesterday, she was in a swim diaper in the pool and FOUR times told me she had to go potty. All this without me prompting her. So, all day today (except for when we went to Chuck E Cheese), we did panties, and she only had ONE accident, while outside playing, and it really upset her. But otherwise, she's been nearly perfect, poop and pee! Yay! So the deal is if she has a whole day with no accidents, we'll go buy her the Tinkerbell panties she wants, and go from there.

Now, if only Alex would catch on, but man, that kid is stubborn as hell. Tonight was the first night since the binkies got taken away that she didn't give me a terribly rough time going to bed (and the night's still young, I'm sure that can change). Ugh. I'm just heaping the praise on Lizzie and hoping Alex decides she wants it, too.

Once they're potty trained it's official, I don't have babies anymore. No more bottles (taken away by 13 months), pacifiers, cribs (taken away at almost 2 1/2) or anything like it. They drink sippies before bed but we've tried to use their Ariel water bottles and it works the same, so the sippies are going too (they've zero attachment and drink form cups easily all day). I go through the baby aisles in stores and it's kind of sad to me, seeing how less and less of it is useful to us. Who knows if I'll ever have another kid, you know? It's kind of sad, and if I WAS with someone, I'd definitely be thinking about having another baby...

Oh well. Point of this post was, wow, Lizzie is doing it all on her own! So exciting!

Our weekend was pretty  nice. Didn't do tons because the weather has been so on and off crappy. There were some rays of sun and that's what we tried to take advantage of, which I think we did pretty well.

Friday consisted of tons of running around since it was pay day. Saturday Eddie and I took the kids to Chick-fil-a, since it's been a while and they love the play area there. Lizzie and Alex haven't been eating much at all lately, even their favorites. I'm not freaking out, as I know this is normal and was waiting for them to stop eating so well, but still, it's a bit unnerving. Yesterday all they ate was a bowl of Kix and some Goldfish all day.

(Of course, it wouldn't be me if I didn't include pictures, now would it?)

( Saturday, playing at Chick-fil-a and bye binkies )

Sunday we didn't do much really, mostly played in the house or out front. Dealt with the fall-out of from getting rid of the binkies (still am actuall,y last night it took Alex an hour to go down). I'm glad their gone, of course, for their teeth's sake and all, but man, they were finally starting to sleep well at night! I just knew it had to be done, the dentist told us a year ago to get rid of them, but I was a wuss. Still, it's not been easy, though like I said, it could've been worse I imagine. After this, the finaly baby-thing is potty training. Lizzie is so ready and already uses the potty a lot, but Alex, man, that kid is stubborn!

Yesterday was the first day of the play street. In Philly, you can sign up to have your street a play street if you have a certain number of kids, etc. They block the street from 10-4 (residents can park and move their cars, though) and they get free lunches and a snack later on. The girls likes being able to go in the street. And later on, we met my sister at Franklin Mills Mall, which was really nice - I heart retail therapy.

( Monday, playing outside and mall pictures )