Updates...

Lydia is a drawing and writing machine. She was writing on random sheets of paper and leaving them all over the house, so Jayson gave her a notebook to use as her journal. She loves it. She draws pictures and writes word and does math problems. She likes to ask me math problems that she doesn't know (like 18 plus 18) and tells me she wants to remember them so she can ask the other kids in her class and she'll know the answer. She must be the life of the party.

Audrey has finally let us change her earrings. We went to Claire's and she picked out three cards of earrings for a total of about 20 pairs and she has worn new ones every day. She walks up to people with her hair pulled back and leans into them smiling until they notice. She was very picky about the earrings too. I figured she'd just pick out the first three cards she saw, but she really pondered the decision. We went to Sear's first and they had some kids character earrings and she wanted nothing to do with them. I asked her, "I thought you liked Dora?" and she told me, "Yes, to watch. Not for earrings."

Charlie is talking up a storm. She spouts out new words every day and has even started saying "I love you ____________" to people. She loves her sisters and yells for "Audie and Id-ya." She grabs the Roku remote and yells, "Roku!" I think her favorite word is "No."

Earrings Part Two

It's been two weeks now since Audrey had her ears pierced and she still cries whenever we put the antiseptic on them and try to turn them, but there is no sign of any kind of infection. They look great. We're trying to decide if she's just being a drama queen or if they really hurt, and I'm leaning towards her being an Oscar nominee in twenty-some years. Two things that have helped are allowing her to do the antiseptic herself (it's very amusing watch a two-year-old trying to get a q-tip to her ear - kind of like watching a field sobriety test) and letting her hold Lydia's hand while we twist them.

Jayson insisted my next blog post be about our incident yesterday morning. My mom was here (after watching the girls Saturday night so Jayson and I could have a date), and Audrey came tearing through the kitchen and ran into Charlie's highchair (this type of thing is a common occurrence with Audrey). At some point in the toddler to chair collision, Audrey's earring fell out. As you may recall, after a frantic incident shortly after Audrey got her ears pierced, Jayson got the earring back in unassisted and claimed his title as Father of the Year. So, Jayson said, "You do it. I did it last time." No problem! I sat down with a screaming Audrey on my lap and attempted to put the earring back in. No luck. I was shaking and all upset that she was so upset and I just couldn't do it. So, I held her on my lap while my mom tried and finally got the earring through. She couldn't get the back on due to her long glorious fingernails, so I had to do that part, and was successful. A smug Jayson sat in the kitchen.

So, I commend Jayson. He came through in a situation where I found myself too shaken to do the same. Usually, our roles are reversed. Each time I gave birth, the nurses seemed a little more concerned with him than with me. However, when it comes to earrings, he is king. I often hear women complaining about their husbands and how inept they are with their children. I tell anybody who will listen how lucky I am that he is such a great dad and does such an awesome job staying home with the girls. So, kudos to Jayson.

Her First Piercing!

Audrey asked to get her ears pierced several months ago, and Jayson and I decided she could as a reward once she was potty-trained. Well, that time finally came this past week. Much like her older sister, she did it on her own terms and one day was just ready to be done with diapers and onto the Tinkerbell underwear with no looking back.

This did not sit well with Lydia. At first, we thought Lydia was jealous as she whispered into Audrey's ear, "Don't do it. It's going to hurt." Then after talking about it more with Lydia, we discovered she just didn't want anybody to hurt her little sister. Serious. Does it get better than that? The thing is, it would take a lot to hurt little Audrey. This is the same kid who went to get her flu mist and asked to have the flu shot instead, watched the needle go into her arm, and didn't even bat an eye. She was ready for pierced ears.

So, off to the mall we went this past Saturday. Audrey sat still as the lady put dots on her lobes, and as the two workers slipped the little piercing apparatus over the dots. (Meanwhile, Lydia was hiding and refused to look). 1-2-3! and it was done. She then screamed and cried for a few moments until we told her how beautiful they looked and she was done!

On the way out, Lydia stopped and looked at the display case and said, "Mommy, do you want me to show you my favorite?" as she pointed to a sparkly pink navel ring. Oof.

I expected that after just a few hours, the pain would go away and she would be fine, but she did complain about her ears hurting and asked a couple of times to take a nap without her earrings. I turn the earrings twice a day, and she still isn't too happy about that. However, I thought we were going to have some major issues when I got this IM from Jayson yesterday morning:

Audrey's earring fell out, now what? Fell out in her bed and after about 5-10 minutes I found both pieces.

I responded:

Can you try to put it back in? If it hurts, put ice on it, and then try to get it back in.

This was apparently confusing.

Put the earring on ice or her ear?


There was a little more back-and-forth, and my helpful suggestion:

Put ice on it, try to shove it back in. It might hurt. Tell her she can have ice cream for breakfast if she lets you do it.

We reached the decision to just numb her ear with ice and wait until Jayson's mom got to our house in thirty minutes to watch the girls while he had a meeting. Then, Jayson finally got it back in on his own! Score one for Daddy.

Now we just have to hope that Lydia's sparkly pink navel ring doesn't fall out because I have a feeling Jayson won't be shoving that back in and giving her ice cream.