North Dakota fun!

 A sunny AND warm day? Time to head over to Medora for some good times with Nana and Bopa!!

They have the greatest playground ever there. Seriously love it. Even if you could lose a child or two there if you blink...

Then we headed over to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park while the weather held. The girls were working hard on passing off the requirements to be sworn in as Jr. Park Rangers (to be finished another day). Everyone else was just chasing prairie dogs. Except G. She was studying buffalo chips. "Hmmm..how do they feel? What do they smell like? How much taller can I be if I stand on them?"

"Then again, those holes sure are interesting too! Probably mostly because all the grown-ups keep telling me not to stick my hands or feet in them!" We're just no fun. However, neither are the poisonous spiders and rattlesnakes that can hide in the holes.

Look! Buffalo babies! They look just like cow calves. When do their heads go from tiny and cute to massive and hairy?

Time to hike to the second highest peak in the park! Those are some steep steps for tiny legs, even if the second highest peak is only so high.

Of course, it would be helpful if tiny legs would accept help instead of being all "I do it!"

Regardless, it's less trouble when you look cute in cowboy, I mean, cowgirl boots.

Ta dah! Even Baby L made it to the top!

 Is it any wonder this area is called "Big Sky Country?" Stay away from that edge kids!

Neener, neener, neener.

Blah! (Thanks to Dude, this is now what she does when you ask her to smile. Thanks a lot Dude.)

All safe and sound and having fun! Sure do enjoy exploring. And sure do enjoy having Nana and Bopa here!!

Thank you Pinterest!

"Finger painting" without the mess! GENIUS! And since we did this before ever doing real finger painting, they didn't even know what they were missing! And it was fun for all ages. We left them taped to the table for a week and nobody that sat down could help but swirl the paint around. Rather theraputic. Just pour paint into a ziploc, and tape it down onto the table on top of a white piece of paper (so the paint shows up better). And then swirl to your heart's content! Dude even had fun "writing" letters in his and drawing shapes. Good times!

Barely controlled chaos

I once had an art professor who said that when his kids drew on the wall, he couldn't get mad at them because he was so proud of their creativity, and didn't want to stifle it. I thought he was crazy. Then I started having kids. And I started filling my house with crayons, and markers, and stamps, and paint, and pencils, and glitter, and ... whatever else art supply stores have to offer, despite the potentially disastrous messes they can make on home and body. Of course I complained about the mess, but I never stopped. I just can't so "no" to art supplies and art making. There's very little in life I like more than those early, balloon-head people kids make where the arms come out of the head, and facial features are optional. You know, something like this (drawn by Dude):

Be still my heart. No seriously though. The name on the side, with that fantastic "E," spelling who-knows-what only adds to my general delight.

Yet somehow despite all this, we had never finger painted. I never really saw the point. Figured I'd give them a "real" art experience by providing brushes and palettes and such. So when I broke out the finger paints between conference sessions today as a reward for some pretty awesome behavior, only the older two had any idea what to do (I assume they picked up the messy habit at school somewhere). Even after I'd given Baby G paper and paint, she just sat there staring at it and looking at me expectantly. Or a little like I was crazy. Aaaaaaannnd, her first move was to paint her face. 

When I explained that he was to use his fingers to move the paint around, dude announced, "That is NOT okay!" Funny little 3 year-old boy who likes to be clean and orderly. He's the kid who refuses to put a sticker on himself because "they go on paper." No stamps on his hand either unless you want to see a major meltdown.

But after a bit, they all got into it. Like REALLY into it. I think I heard each of them announce at some point that they wanted to do this every day. Although it's difficult to be certain. G still sounds remarkably like a minion when she holds entire, serious conversations with me. To which I respectfully nod and smile. Unless that makes her cry. In which case, I do my best to look sympathetic. Or to find her something to eat. But back to speaking of minions ... hilarious thing. On the way back from the doctor on Friday, Dude, who had been incredibly nervous about getting medicine for his croup, let out a relieved sigh, and said, "If it had been purple medicine, it would've turned me into a purple minion!" Phew! Crisis averted!

Surprise, surprise - M had no trouble getting messy!

And J proved that finger painting is not just for preschool. She was as stoked as anyone, despite her natural affinity for perfection and precision.

Once over his initial reluctance, Dude really enjoyed this. He was not done until long after everyone had cleaned up. While he sat there alone, swirling the colors, he observed to me, "Mommy, in finger painting, my fingers are like ice skating!" Then on the way to the bathroom as I stressed the importance of not touching anything, he said, "I don't touch anything. That's because I'm a good boy." Which is true, even if he won't smile normally for a picture! 

1st Dental Date

Dude went to the dentist for the first time Monday! He wasn't completely thrilled by the arrangement as his slightly pained, I'm-too-cool-for-this look clearly said:

But they turned his personal tv to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he pretty much zoned everything else out (when daddy asked what the dentist did, he stated flatly, nothing), although he does appear to be eyeing her instrument here. 

However concerning it might have appeared, he protested not and the whole thing was over too soon, meaning the show wasn't done yet. He didn't want to leave. Whoever came up with the tv-in-front-of-each-dental-chair idea was brilliant. And thanks to it's distracting effect, he observed to me in a somewhat surprised tone afterwards, "Hey, my teeth are so smooth," as if to say, when did that happen? 

Meeting Miss L

And home at last! L is going to have to get used to lots of love because every time I turn around somebody is asking to hold her, or as G says, "I hold it!"

J and M love to sing to her and are pretty confident they can calm her down whenever she needs it and basically solve any problem. Handy in a tight spot, these girls.

Dude is fascinated by her but only ever wants to hold her for about 3 seconds. Then you better make sure you have a good grip because he just drops his arms and moves on. Classic. He's most interested in her belly button. About 100 times a day he asks, "can I see that brown thing again?" When he sees it, he always asks what it is, and then announces, "it hurts her so much." We assure him it doesn't and that it's going to fall off soon, to which he responds, "then THAT will hurt her so much." Doesn't matter how many times we refute this. He just keeps saying it. He does love her too even though a few days after getting home he referred to her as "that baby" and said he wanted her and me to go back to the hospital. I asked if he wouldn't miss me, and he shrugged his shoulders and said, "we could Skype."

And could G look any prouder of herself. She has the opposite problem from dude. She never wants to let go, and when you try to get Baby L back, she squeezes and tries to twist away. Not exactly ideal but at least she's doing it out of love at this point!

Nana and Bopa had been holding down the front at home and while they had got to briefly meet Baby L at the hospital, I think they were even more excited to see us back home to "try" to start getting things back to normal. Whatever normal is going to look like from here on out!

She's here!!!

Announcing the arrival of the beautiful addition to our wonderful family!!

 It's a girl!!! 

7 lbs 5 oz, 21 inches of perfect.

The morning started with them not being able to give me my IV. They tried 4 different times, thinking they had it a couple of times and releasing the IV fluid into the ever-puffier back of my hand instead. Man, was my hand lumpy and messy (and seriously bruised and swollen for more than a week afterwards)! But 3 nurses later, they finally got it in the side of my arm, painfully going through a nerve to get there. Not the best start! Made my superstitious side a bit nervous too since the last time they'd had that much trouble was when M was born, and things didn't really go too smoothly after that start.

But we got in there and before we knew it, our baby was crying! They brought her over for us to admire instantly and said, "here he is!" Coop responded, "a he? It's a boy?" The nurse said, "oh, I didn't look actually. Nope. It's a girl!" Unfortunately, her blood sugar levels were way low which meant her temperature was dropping so they had to whisk her away to get her stable.

 As they sewed me up, I started to have problems with my legs from the epidural and got miserably nauseated, so they gave me an anti-nausea medicine, which I promptly had an allergic reaction to! Poor Cooper. The things I put him through. For the next hour plus, I thrashed and flailed around like one possessed without any ability to control my own head or arms. It was awful. And pretty freaky for Cooper to watch. But they had wonderfully competent doctors closely monitoring me and my blood pressure the whole time to make sure it didn't get worse, reassuring him that I would be okay. And eventually things calmed down and we were able to hold and fall in love with our baby girl. She is so worth the long struggle to get her here!

She's such a darling little peanut! So grateful she's here!

Almost looks like a smile already. She certainly has been wide-eyed from the beginning. Actually the very first thing they said about her was, wow! She has some serious lungs! And she does. It's not just a tiny newborn squeak, but a full-blown eagle screech. Followed by a snort. Rather ladylike. She's going to make sure she's heard over the noise at home! 

And speaking of home, we decided to leave just two days later to get home and introduce our little lovely to the rest of the gang. Because the flu is so bad here in ND, the hospital was on lockdown and nobody under 13 was allowed to visit. The girls were devastated. We skyped frequently so they could see her (hearing G say her name was about the cutest thing ever, and the second the video was up dude would be demanding to see her. Looks like they might like her!), but it's not the same. So as soon as we were given the okay, we checked out, bundled up, and drove on home!

It's go time!

Nana's here to watch the other kids and have fun along the way:

And I'm certainly ready to go have a baby!

After a fun stay in Bismarck with the kids and my parents, and a very short night of sleep, we're off to the hospital at 4:30 am! Here we go! Checking in. Time to meet baby!!!!

Painting time!

 So I had these big letters that I wanted the girls to paint so we could decorate them for their new gallery wall, but of course the littles couldn't be left out of the fun! And by the way, don't tell dude I called him "a little." He no longer allows that. Highly offensive. He is "a bigger now." 

 They didn't care that they didn't have their own letters. The fun is in the painting of course. And I just thought they were too cute doing it. I might love watching them be creative. Even if it is messy and creates extra work. Totally worth it!

And speaking of creativity, I had a hilarious parent-teacher conference with M's teacher this week. Apparently she's doing very well, and the only time she gets math problems wrong is when she spends the entire time drawing an elaborate picture of the story problem and forgets she was supposed to solve an equation. She turns it in with a beautiful picture and no answer. Hilarious. And totally classic M to get so distracted. Luckily her teacher is awesome and thinks it's as funny as I did and always hands it back to her with a kind reminder that she forgot to write down the answer. She also has been getting distracted in their new skill of analyzing surveys and graphs. Instead of just answering simple questions like which kind of fruit do the most kids like best, she writes stories questioning the psychology behind the survey's answers or the likelihood of that many kids preferring apples over oranges. I know I should encourage her to stay on topic but instead I feel like applauding her for digging deeper and thinking outside the box!