The Coolest Slides Ever!

A couple weeks ago, I was reading a newspaper article about twenty-five things you should do if you live in Milwaukee. (http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/123665059.html) I was instantly drawn to number 20: Swoosh down the 32-foot slide built on the hill at Fox River Park, River Road, Waukesha. I had never heard of these slides, and decided we had to check them out. I pestered Jayson for a few days to go for a picnic at the park, and finally, one night the timing was right and we grabbed a B.O.S.S. sub from Pick N Save, some fresh fruit, chips, and juice boxes, and headed out to the park. 


We were impressed! Not only were there slides built into the hill, there was a whole "Nature Play Area" that had a lot of neat playground equipment we had never seen before. The weather was perfect and the girls really enjoyed the little picnic followed by some really fun play time.


Down the slide... 

Back up again! (repeat over and over and over again)

Enjoying our picnic.

It took a little while to figure out what this thing did. Then Jayson sat in it and realized it used your own weight to spin you around and around. It was so cool! Lydia took this picture of me.

I'm still not quite sure what this was. It seemed like a merry-go-round, but one that caused you to fall off on your butt, which is also why Audrey has a terrified look on her face and a death grip on Jayson.

Charlie loved these things.

Really, really loved them.

When I went down the slide, my mesh shorts caused me to fly at incredible speeds and then stick my landing like a little 75-lb Olympic gymnast. (OK, I almost landed flat on my face). Jayson decided to try to one-up me by going down on the picnic blanket.

He didn't quite stick his landing either.

It was such a fun night! I highly recommend it to anybody who hasn't checked it out yet.

911, What's Your Emergency?

Tonight was a milestone in our household. I had to call 911 because one of the girls was hurt.

Before I get to the story, we have been incredibly lucky in that we have never had to take the girls to urgent care, the ER, or call 911 ever. Lydia almost made it to the ER when she was three. She had not been feeling well, and then got a fever and started complaining that her neck hurt, so my first thought was, "Holy crap, she has meningitis!" I called the doctor on call for her pediatrician's office and he told me that if it's painful for her to put her chin to her chest, take her to the ER. So, I calmly asked her to put her chin down and she looked at me and whined, "I can't. It hurts too much."

I called Jayson (I think he was out with the guys after his softball game), and he came home to stay with Audrey while I took Lydia to the ER at Children's Hospital. As we drove, I kept asking her to put her chin down and she kept crying that it hurt too much, but then between the chin-to-chest requests, she seemed completely happy and as though she had make a remarkable recovery, until I asked her to put her chin to her chest, and the drama started again.

We pulled into the parking lot, and as we walked to the entrance, I had a brilliant mom moment. As the thought of staying in an ER for hours and holding my baby while she got a spinal tap went through my mind, we stopped outside of the automatic doors. I pointed to a monkey on the chest of Lydia's pajamas and said, "Hey, look at this silly monkey!" She immediately pressed her chin to her chest to look at the silly monkey and laughed. She looked up at me and I scooped her up and said, "Back to the car. NOW."

Lydia's dramatic side, which is enormous, almost got us through the ER doors, but I outsmarted her that time.

Tonight, again, Jayson was gone at a meeting for our Scenic Shore 150 bike ride, and I was getting the girls ready for bed. I put Charlie on the couch because she loves to play on it and throw herself against the cushions. As I reached for a diaper, she fell backwards off the couch. My hands reached her just as the back of her head hit the wood floor. She immediately took that long, deep breath kids take right before they start wailing, but she just kept breathing in and the wail wasn't coming and she looked terrified.

Finally, she let out a tiny little whimper and her eyes rolled back into her head and her eyelids fluttered shut. I immediately grabbed my phone and called 911 as she opened her eyes and started wailing. If it had just been the wailing, I wouldn't have even called, but the passing out scared me. She kept wailing as we waited for the ambulance. I was worried Lydia and Audrey would get scared, so I said to them, "Girls, an ambulance is going to come, but Charlie is fine. They're just going to look at her and make sure she's OK. We don't need to worry." My concern was for naught, because they instantly got excited and clamored to the window to wait for the ambulance.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Charlie was done crying. We live in a small city with not much going on, so two ambulances and once police car (for a total of four paramedics and one policeman) showed up to pretty much just stand there and look at my baby, who was perfectly fine. They did take her heart rate, which I'm pretty sure was just so they could say they did something and could leave. Don't get me wrong, if she had been hurt, they would have done whatever they needed to do, but I'm positive they thought I was an idiot and just wanted to do something to make me feel better about it.

So, I felt better about it, and they left, and thankfully, it was a pretty anti-climatic night.

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day, which is a bittersweet holiday for me. My father is not in my life, and I feel there is a huge hole in my life and the girls' lives where he should be. Father's Day makes that hole a crater. I have fond memories of my grandpas when I was growing up and how fun and silly they could be and I really hate that my girls are missing that.

However, they have an amazing dad, and I love that today is a day to celebrate him. Jayson is a stay-at-home dad. Not really by choice, but by circumstances, and he has fully embraced it. He shows the girls unconditional love and in heated moments when my temper is lost (like, out the door, headed for a beach vacation in Mexico), he can step in and calmly diffuse the situation. And, to be fair, I do the same for him. We are an excellent team. After years of me being the one more in charge and more knowledgeable about what's going on, mostly due to summers off and maternity leaves giving me plenty of time at home, I now find myself asking him the best way to get Charlie down for a nap, what to do when Audrey throws a fit, and what Lydia needs for school. He does diapers (many more than I do during the school week), he reads books, he cooks, he cleans, he drives Lydia to school when she has snack day, he even does hair!

I knew he was amazing when I married him, but seeing how he is when he is taking care of his girls, and clearly seeing the love he has for them, makes me realize just how lucky the four of us girls are.

One year down, thirteen more to go!

Lydia completed her first year of school, 4k. It was such a great experience for her. I was definitely nervous when she started, mostly because she would be riding the bus by herself. It turned out to be such a positive experience for her. She has learned so much, and made many friends, including a few who ride the bus with her. She only missed one day of school, in April when she was sick, and the way she cried when I told her she needed to stay home, you would think it was the end of the world. She can't wait to go back to school in the fall.

Here are some pictures from her last day.

This is her with her teacher, who was so amazing. I hope she has another great teacher next year!

Baby Steps...

Charlie is following in Audrey's footsteps. Which is to say that she's not making any. Audrey did not walk until she was 15 months old (one week AFTER she was supposed to walk down the aisle in a wedding). Charlie has shown similar laziness. (Because really, what else does a fourteen-month-old have to do? It's not like she's busy.) She does walk around on her knees, flailing her arms around, prompting Grandma Deb to call her "the Thalidomide baby". We asked the doctor about it and he said he actually hears that a lot about babies in homes with hardwood floors like ours, (not that their grandmas call the kids socially unacceptable names, but that the babies walk on their knees) and in addition to that, Charlie is apparently very flexible and often babies who are very flexible walk late.

Yesterday, Charlie started doing a new trick where she would just stand up in the middle of the room. No holding on to furniture or anything to help her up, just straight up standing in the middle of the room. She would do it over and over again, and laugh as we applauded her, and clap for herself until she fell and then start it all over again. Tonight, she did it again, but also took a couple steps! So, I think within the next few days, she'll be walking. Apparently, she wants to be impressive about it and skip the part where she hangs on to furniture first. We'll have to see how that works out!

Happy Birthday, Audrey!

Today, Audrey turned three. She was very excited about turning three and has been asking for the past several months, "When am I going to be three?" so it was very exciting today for her to finally be able to say she is three!  Audrey is unlike her sisters in the fact that she can be grumpy. I don't think this is a bad thing. Lydia and Charlie are very easy to please and laugh at anything. Audrey is more conscientious and has a very serious analytical side. Sometimes, you can almost see the wheels spinning in her head as she checks out a situation with great care and thoughtfulness as she decides how she is going to proceed.

Audrey was born during a tornado warning. I would say she has many of the same qualities as a tornado -- unpredictable, serious, dangerous. That's not to say she doesn't know how to have fun. Audrey is hilarious and has a very funny sense of humor. She loves to tell jokes and has a belly laugh that just kills me. She loves her sisters very much, but as Jayson recently told me, "She's done taking Lydia's crap." Yes, the days of Lydia telling Audrey what to do and Audrey happily complying are over. Audrey has started yelling back at her, "No Lydia! You not listening. You need a time out!"

Audrey is also unlike her sisters in that she has green eyes and straight brown hair instead of blue eyes and curly blonde hair. I'm still not sure how curly Charlie's hair will be, but it will at least be curlier than Audrey's. Audrey also has her quirks, like the fact that one of her favorite birthday gifts was ice packs for her to sleep with. One of my favorite recent Audrey stories was the other day when she was doing something very impressive, but I was busy, so when she asked me to look at her, I made a typical mom move and kept looking at what I was working on and said, "Yes, Audrey, that's great!" and she yelled at me, "LOOK AT ME WITH YOUR FACE!" That's my Audge-pants!