Spring Break Fun

I decided to keep the girls out of school during Spring Break so we could get some bonding time, to go to all our routine doctor appointments and to save on some daycare costs.  I had some big plans, but I was overzealous.  I did get to do two of the big ticket items I wanted to get done: getting to the zoo for DinoTrek and pottytraining Mia! The first few days of potty training were interesting. Day one was amazing- she did great.  Then day 2 and 3 were progressively worse. We actually made it to the toilet only twice on day 3 and I was ready to give up.  I remembered I experienced the same issues with Makaela (actually I remember calling my friend Claudia on the verge on tears and she told me to just stick it out and sure enough, Makaela was pretty much trained by day 4).  Luckily, Mia followed in her sisters footsteps and by day 4, it was smooth sailing. Mia has had very minimal accidents and when she has, it has been because she had trouble taking her pants down or the toilet seat being down. On Wednesday, we ventured out to the zoo and Mia was dry the entire time. At the giraffes, she started saying "Pee pee" and we booked it through the crowds trying to find a restroom. Some people must have sympathized with me because I got a bunch of pity smiles.  She ended up holding it until we found an empty restroom. That was a proud mama moment.  

some slide fun at the zoo

Makaela as a leopard



Makaela as a chicken

climbing through the paleontalogist shelter

Discovering fossils

Mia was a bit scared of the dinosaur roars, but they both loved scouting the dinosaurs out amongst the trees

Now Mia is about 70% trained and only wears a diaper/pull up during nap time and sleeping.  I think she stores up her poop though (yes TMI) because she seems to have a surprise for me when we wake up all the time.  Still, it is a big improvement and I love seeing how proud she is of herself.  She going around getting high fives from everyone and jumps up and says, "I did it, I did it!"  So proud of her.

Ringworm!

The other night I had all three girls in the bathroom and was actually thinking "Wow, this night has gone so smooth; the kids might actually be in bed by 7:30."  I must have jinxed myself. As Makaela was getting out of the bath, she was complaining that she was itchy.  I assumed it was her eczema so I told her to wait and I would get her cream.  After I applied the eczema cream to Mia, I went to start applying it to Makaela and realized Makaela had some round rashes on her skin.  Remembering Weida and Buelow, I immediately thought "Ringworm".  I took a bunch of pictures and sent them to Monica and Brian and sure enough, Makaela had ringworm.  Problem was, I was by myself with the three girls and by the time I had some confirmation, it was 9:30 and the drug stores close at 10.  Makaela's eczema causes her to itch, so I was worried she was going to be spreading it as she itched her eczema spots (and she already had 7 spots of ringworm), so I wanted to get cream on her as soon as possible. Makaela also loves to "love up" on her sisters and I was freaking out that the other girls would get it too since I just had them all the bath together. Luckily, Matt was let out of work a bit early and headed to a 24 hour Walmart and got her cream.  We have been applying non stop since we found out.   Makaela has shed a few tears about not being able to hug her baby sister or cuddle in my bed, but she will survive. She hasn't been allowed to play with friends until yesterday and she has been announcing to people that "I got THE ring- worm". 

More of Madi

Madi is such a cutie, but it's kind of difficult to get good pictures of her. She is always squirming and she hates the flash.

I love this picture- she looks so pissed.



Mia thinks Madi is pretty special too.

Aunt Donna

Makaela enjoyed her Aunt Donna so much while she was here.  Here was a picture of their last night here.  We took Donna and Gerry out to Harry's and had a delicious dinner.

Gaelic Festival

The St. Augustine Gaelic Festival was the weekend before St. Patty's day so the girls, my mom, my aunt and uncle and I decided to go check it out (matt met us there after work).  There was a bunch of kids' activities and while the kids played, the adults took shifts and walked around the fair.  While my mom was walking around the Scottish clans, she saw our last name "Torrie" on one of the flags and found out a bit about the Torrie history in Scotland.  We belong to the Cawdor clan (I have to watch Braveheart again because they mention Cawdor quite a bit) and the Cawdors are part of an even bigger clan, the Campbells.  There is a Cawdor Castle in Scotland and as a Torrie, we can get free entrance (yes, now I have to plan a $2,000 trip just because I can get into a castle for free :-) My mom also found our family's plaid, so one day, I'll have to get some dresses made up for the girls.  It was pretty interesting.  My mom also experimented with some of the Gaelic food.  She was the brave one, and I was not- something about "meat" and "pie" doesn't appeal to me and anything called "haggis" can't possibly be good.
Of course, the girls were just excited to play, jump and jump some more.

Makaela enjoyed the water hamster ball rides- Mia kept getting tossed in it, so she opted to get out.

Makaela on the bouncey activity

she loved it!

and Mia, seeing her sister do it, had to do it as well

and of course, Matt had to make sure she got as high as she could go, so he helped throw her up

Afterwards, we let the kids run off whatever energy they had left at the park.  It was a great day.

The New Fantasyland

My aunt Donna and Uncle Gerald came into town and being big Disney fans, we headed down to Disney for the a day to check out the new Fantasyland- a new part of Magic Kingdom that has a new Belle attraction, a new Ariel ride and a newer version of the Dumbo ride. It was quite chilly so I left Madi home with my mom and Matt and took the older girls (pumping was so fun in the amusement park :-)  The girls were in heaven, as always. It was a nice way to spend the remaining weekend of my maternity leave.

Beast's castle in the background (it's just scenery but it's so pretty)

Waiting to meet Belle.  We got to visit her "provincial" home.

Checking out Belle's well

The Belle attraction is actually an interactive show, so Makaela got to play the part of "Chip". She passed up the part of the Beast earlier.

 Even though Mia wasn't in the play, she wanted to be and joined in when Belle started dancing with the cast.  When it was over, she ran right up to the line to meet Belle too.

 Disney finally got it right.  The newer rides have kiddie play areas so they have something to do while waiting.  It made the lines a bit more bearable and the kids didn't even realize we were waiting.  Here we are playing in the Winnie the Pooh area.

Mia loves the rides. She can't take her eyes off the animation.  I love watching her.

Happy Two Months Madi

Madi turned two months on Feb 28th, but she is more like a three week old in her behavior.  She is still sleeping the majority of the day and is still the ultimate cuddle monster. She doesn't care what is going on, so long as she is being held and snuggled. Two weeks ago she started experiencing major reflux which made feeding her a very long process.  After a bottle, she would throw up for the next hour or so until she fell asleep. We couldn't lay her down, because it was instantaneous throwing up. I've joke that I feel she has an ejection button on her back- the moment she is put down on it, it ejects other stuff.  I didn't rush her to the doctor because she has been such a pleasant baby.  She is not a constant crier from gas and even when she does throw up, she doesn't cry about it (she cries when she gets her diaper changed or when she is cold).  As a result, I have started spoiling her and she now sleeps solely in my arms.  In bed, she sleeps in the crook of my arm so I can prop her up or if we sleep on the couch, she sleeps on my lap propped on her boppy.  Needless to say, I am not getting a lot of sleep (although I do love sleeping next to her- there is something about snuggling with a baby that makes the moments you do get sleep, the best ever). 

During this "photo session" she throw up constantly so we had to have a few outfit changes. 

 When I brought her in for her well visit, she only weighed 6 lbs 11 oz which is only 7 oz more than she weighed at her one month well visit.  The doctor was not happy.  It's been difficult to get her to gain weight because she is throwing up all the time, so the doctor prescribed Zantac for her and from the first day, it has made a world of difference.  She is only having minor spit ups now and feeding is so much quicker.

 Such a cutie! We love her so much- throw up and all :-)