March: Just your everyday average chaos

March 26, 2010

It is amazing how well-behaved the big girls are when they are not together. Today, Helen went with Dad to get a new battery for my car. Ingrid stayed home with me and the babies and it was SO PEACEFUL! Meanwhile, I played at home with Helen and the babies. Ok, I mostly played with Helen and the babies played with themselves. They had a great time exploring the play kitchen in our loft while Helen sat on my lap. She has become very clingy to me the last few days. She went through a period like this a few months ago too…except she was being better-behaved then. Perhaps the nicer behavior will come with the attachment this time. We also played her comoputer Cinderella game – she made me an almond cake and a very hideous green and purple dress (why the game has a green/purple option, I am not sure). When dad got home we all went for a walk and I got to escape for a few hours at the end of the day to work on finishing up the babies’ ‘first-year’ calendars! There are few days that are so enjoyable, but this was one.

We have been trying something else lately…a penny jar. It is just the tiniest babyfood jar with Ingid’s name on, and one with Helen’s name on. Whenever they do something good, ANYTHING good, I drop in a penny through a slit in the lid and let them know they did something good. I do so as often as possible! When they hang up their jackets, when they say sorry to sister (in a nice way!), when they do something I ask, when they don’t tattle after sister was rude to them. When they help by bringing me a blanket or cleaning up a toy. When the penny jars are full and we can’t fit any more pennies in, they get to pick a fun place to go or thing to do! (movie theater, zoo, waterpark, beach, whatever!) So far, it has been working quite well – it helps me remember to praise them, and you don’t feel like your bribing them as with treats, or a sticker chart. Pennies for everyone! Tomorrow we are going to the waterpark with them while grandma sits the babies…I’m pumped!

Sunday morning Helen had another fit about cutting her hair. She says her bangs bother her and she wants to cut them off (and has in the past…leaving little stubby 1/2 inch bangs on her forehead to cover with a headband). So for an hour she cried, yelled and tried to get every scissors in the house – which I had to keep moving to more discreet, higher or more lockable locations! And people must wonder why we can’t make it to church on time now that all our kids are all at least a year old. We did end up going to Culvers because church was practically over by the time we were in the car. But, we were all dressed and ready to go in the car – I guess might as well take the opportunity to do SOMETHING, eh?

Nora and Stella enjoy going outside! I guess we need to rake the leaves finally!

Stella & Nora pose for a picture!

Stella and Nora sport real shoes for the first time!

Ingrid, Stella, Helen, & Nora

Helen & Ingrid helped plant seeds to start for our vegetable garden!

Other milestones this month:

March 19 – Stella gets her first molar!

March 25 – Helen sounds out and writes ‘HAT’ on the chalk board all by herself!

March 25 – Ingrid sounds out and writes ‘LIP’ on the chalkboard all by herself!

Then they teamed up to add the 'glos'!

March: Happy Landings Baby W!

March 17, 2010

So is it ever boring around here? Last week, I became an auntie to Kaleb Leo on St. Patty’s Day, so that is pretty exciting! He is GORGEOUS. He has the THICKEST, LONGEST, MOST BEAUTIFUL BROWN baby hair you have ever seen! It makes him look JUST like his dad! SO CUTE!!! I got to visit him the day he was born and he is just SOOOO precious! It’s so crazy to see how little he is and look at my girls and think it was only a year and look how BIG they are already. *sniff*

Kaleb Leo Wiplinger

March 17, 2010

March: On the babyfront...

On the babyfront… the last several nights, Stella has slept in her crib all night long!!! Yay! And she is the one I never thought would as she started waking around midnight when she was 8 months old. Of course, the night Stella slept through, Nora began waking up  every night! I didn’t used to mind when Nora would wake up because she was so easy to lay back down. So I could nurse her in bed and then go lay her in the port-a-crib and she would just roll over and sleep. She went though a few really rough nights of tossing and turning, now she wants to sleep in bed with me. Granted, she sleeps really well and doesn’t wake me (yay for our new King size bed!) but she wants the bed and nothing else! So far, we aren’t worrying about it I guess, After she falls asleep, I get some rest myself. I’m sure the sleep experts out there are shaking their finger…but when you need sleep, you take it however you can get it!

Another good thing for March is that the snow on our porch finally melted and it was warm enough to go outside without looking like a marshmallow! That is indeed a happy day in our house. Our porch has no access to the yard (by design!) so we jokingly call it our outside play pen. But really that is what it is!

Ingrid, Helen & Dad catch some much-needed vitamin D!

Nora gets her first ride in her dolphin swing. Ingrid and Helen used to love these too! But Stella wanted nothing to do with the swing! Helen was excited to blow bubbles!

At least Stella still likes the porch swing! Here with Grandma and Ingrid.

Stella goes for another new experience: Sliding!

March: Birthday Madness

March 3, 2010

Happy 5th Birthday Ingrid and Helen! We celebrated their birthday with the first friend’s party for them – we invited several of their friends and schoolmates to come to a party at Pump it Up (with inflatable slides and stuff). They had a HUGE BLAST!!!! There were a few tears with heads knocking together on the play equipment, but nothing major. They were SO excited and had a great time with all their freinds.

My proudest accomplishment is their cakes. They REALLY wanted a cake they saw at Target that’s made with a Barbie doll that has a dress made of out of cake. But I am WAY to cheap to pay $40 each for them! (especially spending money one the party!). So I ventured into a new world of the arts: Cake making.

They turned out AWESOME! I cheated by buying fondant from Joanne’s, so really it was SO EASY. I used the pampered Chef Large measure bowl to bake a cake mix in (I did practice one time a week ahead just baking a mix in the measuring cup so I knew how to adjust the baking time etc.). Then I also make a cake mix in to 9” round pans. So in the end, The dress was 3 layers. I put the rounds on bottom and the Pampered Chef cone shape on top with frosting between (you can bet I store bought the frosting though!). Then cut about a 1” diam. hole in the middle for the doll to go into. (But I didn’t put her in yet) I frosted the whole outside for taste. Finally, I colored some of the fondant and rolled it into a big circle with a rolling pin and draped it over the top, then folded it to look like a drapey dress and trimmed the bottom with a butter knife. I rolled and cut some white fondant scallop style and used water to adhere it to the bottom side of the dress to look like a petticoat. Then I put the doll in the top (her bottom wrapped in foil so as not to get cake on!). I made fondant sashes in the style of Princess Aurora’s dress and Cinderella’s dress to cover the visible part of the hole. And VUALA! WOW! I couldn’t believe how they turned out! Even if I was up all night, it was SO fun! Ingrid and Helen LOVED them of course and we had just been to Disney World and Aurora and Cinderella were their favorites.