Melissa’s Blog

Well of course even after going to bed late last night the kiddos were up at their usual time today. Bret was up late working last night and I am still tired from Sea World. This morning the kids were talking up a storm about Sea World. It was funny. They talked to grandma/pa all about their time yesterday; it was cute. This morning we ran to the store as we were out of apple juice and milk. The kids love pushing the little grocery carts. Although the people at Pavillions said people were stealing them so there were only 2 left. I hope those stays as it makes grocery shopping more fun. My car is configured inside differently so the kids loved the back row being up and played in the car a bit. They did so well listening to me saying not to go up in the front. Vena (Cole and Grant) came over this morning. The kiddos had fun playing together. It was fun watching them all. We met dad for lunch today, so he could spend some time with the kids. Bret had to do some side work tonight, so he wouldn’t be home before the kiddos went to bed. Then nap time. After nap I gave the kiddos a bath, since we missed bath yesterday. It was nice as they could stay in the bath as long as they wanted. They had a fun bath, coloring, playing with bubbles, etc. Then we had a snack and took the tricycles outside in the front. They had so much fun riding their trikes. Then grandma/pa came over to play a bit. The kids had fun playing with them. The kiddos were a bit sleepy tonight and went down fairly easily for me. They were so into reading books tonight. Nicole refused to wear a diaper to bed. Her night time diapers have been dry so hopefully no accidents.

What a fun special day I had with the kids at Sea World. Paula and I braved it to Sea World, out numbered by kids. It was fun showing the kids everything. The first show we saw was the dolphin show. The kids were just mesmerized, just sitting there and wouldn’t talk. I kept on offering to put them on my lap to see better, but they liked sitting on the benches. We saw lots of stuff, I think I have officially overwhelmed the kiddos. They really just enjoyed walking around slowly and looking all around. We saw flamingos, sharks, fish tanks, turtles, etc. We went to a lot of the shows, the sea otter show and the pet rules show. The kids saw their first little movie, 4D. Nicole wore her glasses upside down and I had to hold Justin’s on for him. It was a Sesame Street movie. The kids were silly with the theater seating. They couldn’t understand why their seat kept folding up when they got up. Anyway they had some special effects during the show vibrating seats, and water. Nicole was so upset about the water. She cried. I told her it was just rain and now she says she is scared of rain. I guess I wiped the kids out enough that they did take a short nap in the stroller (thank goodness). When they got up they were ready to go again. I think they liked the Shamu show the best. They were so talkative during this show. Justin kept telling Shamu to do it again. Nicole told Shamu she loved him. They liked watching Shamu splash, jump, spin, etc. I even bought them little Shamu stuffed animals. After we hung out with the penguins and watched them for a while. Nicole and Justin really wanted to see the penguins swim, they kept telling them to get into the water. It was silly. We left the park and decided to stop at Carl’s Jr for dinner. On the way home, Paula’s kids all fell asleep then Justin and of course Nicole stayed awake the entire time. We dropped Paula and kids off and Justin woke up. So when we got home Nicole and Justin told daddy all about their day. It was really cute. They talked about Shamu and the trainers swimming, the little boy who volunteered, scared of rain, dolphins, penguins, etc. Now they are sound asleep sleeping with their new Shamu stuffed animals. I feel like I have so much to write but I have been going since 7:00AM and I am exhausted.

This morning we went over to Vena’s for play group. My kids love her house. They had so much fun playing with new toys. They really liked the easel and drawing. Mostly the kids played outside. Nicole really liked seeing Christy’s baby, Sienna. It was a fun relaxing morning. The kids didn’t want to come home, so we stopped at the grocery store. They must have had excess energy to burn off as they were running throughout the stores. After nap, Justin was a little cranky. Finally after an hour I got a new toys from X-mas. It was a car race track thing. Oh my god I couldn’t put it together fast enough. He was still a little cranky but excited to play with the new toy. Bret came home from work and finished putting it together why I made dinner. They barely got to play with the race car set as we had to go to Paula’s. Paula and I decided to go to Sea World tomorrow. I am so excited. We are nut with 5 kids against the 2 of us. We loaded her car seats and stroller in my car, so we can drive together. Kiddos had a blast at Paula’s and were so wound up when they came home. I don’t think we got them into bed until almost 9:00.

Today I had the some of the girls over from the multiples group for a play date. It was fun. My kiddos of course wanted to be outside most of the day. They enjoyed watching all the other kids. Any time one child went to us the potty, Nicole wanted to watch. Justin and Nicole both sat on the couch and were entertained by all the kids. It was nice getting to know some of the mom’s. The house was a mess, toys everywhere! One of the mom’s and her triplets stayed and had lunch with us. The kiddos didn’t go down for a nap until about 2ish. After nap, I really wanted to get my car washed. So we went to Danny’s at the Market Place. I had to hold both kiddos to watch mama car go through the car wash-I was dying. While waiting for the car we went over to Toys R Us as I had to do a return and look for a gift. Of course the kids were too into everything to find a gift and I just couldn’t find the right gift. We took our time walking back to the car, looking at everything and just having fun. Then I decided to go to Costco. Scary as it was close to dinner time but the kids did terrific. We had a fun time out today. We came home and had dinner. Then we just played with the kids running around the couch and chasing them and them chasing us. We played catch for a while too. Then it was bath and time for bed. It is 10:00 and Nicole is still awake…I can’t believe it.

I went for a bike ride this morning with a friend. We took a long bike ride. I think it was about an hour and 15 minutes. I was dying but it was good for me! We went to the Irvine Regional Park as they were having an anniversary celebration. The kids had a great time. First we went into the bounce house. They had fun bouncing around. Of course we had to go on the train. The kids wanted to sit next to daddy on the train. Comes Sunday the kiddos get really attached to daddy. After the train ride Justin decided he wanted to go on a pony ride. Yeah Justin! It was so cute to watch him. He was kind of indifferent to the idea of riding it. When Nicole saw Justin she wanted to do it too. We bought her a ticket and she decided she didn’t want to go. We will try again next time. Then we walked to see the ducks. On the way to where we were going to picnic, there was a play ground. We let the kiddos play for a bit. It was nice to have a picnic in the park with the kiddos. Nicole didn’t want to sit on the grass, she wanted my lap. Of course they didn’t eat much until we put them in the stroller. We strolled through the OC zoo real quick. We were running out of time. We saw bears, coyotes, llamas, etc. Came home and we all took a nap. After nap we decided to take the kids and their tricycles to Castle Park. They first biked around the park. Justin is loving to be able to pedal now. They gathered pine cones and put them in the back of their bikes. Then we went to the play area for a while. The kiddos had fun. We decided to take the kiddos to Red Robin for dinner. They were really well behaved, so we took them to get dairy Queen. They loved it! We played on the escalators and by the fountains. The kiddos were pretty hyper tonight. It is about 9:30 and I think Justin just fell asleep-Nicole is still awake.

We didn’t do too much today. We went to the grocery store in the morning. The kiddos were happy to push the little carts. We put the groceries in the car and then played outside by the fountain. We went to Toys R Us to get Justin a tricycle too. Justin has learned to pedal too. So cute. He was so excited to get his own trike. The kids rode up and down our street together. Nicole is getting so fast pedaling her trike. We put little bells on their bikes too. We were afraid they would fight over the new bike so we wanted to spice the old one up. It worked-they stayed on their own bikes. At nap time daddy took a nap with the kids so they went right down. I ran out to get my hair cut. They took 4 1/2 inches off my hair. Right now you can’t tell since she temporarily straightened it. We had to stay home and wait for Cox (our computer line was cutting in and out). I took the kids to Kohl’s to get Justin some big boy underwear. He picked out Cars underwear. Of course when we got home and he got Cars, Nicole wanted them too. So now to work on potty training Justin. He did great in his underwear tonight. I have had him just naked before so since he goes when naked, now it is time to try underwear. It was bath night. It is 9:45 and Nicole is still wide awake in her crib singing Jack in the Box.

We went to the bounce house place again. Paula and Jacole went too. The kiddos had a blast. Jacole is a bit freaked out about driving on freeways so her and Nathaniel came in our car. The kids were excited to have a guest in the car. But now Nicole wants to sit in the middle seat. Anyway the kiddos bounced their little hearts out. It was pretty empty which was nice. No big kids as my kids would say. Then we came home and had lunch. The kids played outside while I got ready to go LA to visit my mom in the hospital. They still are unsure what is wrong with her. So the kids finally fell asleep on the way down. There was some traffic and it seemed to take forever. We finally got there. I surprisingly found my way with Vanessa’s help (our GPS we named Vanessa). The kids were happy to see grandma/pa. Nicole happily sat on grandma’s lap but Justin was a little more stand offish. He was happy to see grandma/pa but was also very happy playing with his water. The kids were pretending to take a shower in grandma’s hospital bathroom. After we left I decided to take the kiddos to the Santa Monica Pier. A little stressful but doable. It was cold but the kids had so much fun. They were just looking around like crazy. They both rode on some of the little animals that went around in a circle. Nicole wanted the lion and Justin got the zebra. Then we rode in some cars and just walked around. They were excited to see the ocean too. We walked on the beach a bit too. It was cold so we didn’t stay too long. The traffic is so bad there, not only on the freeways but the side streets too. I was hoping to make it to the Westwood Mall for dinner, but it was taking too long. So I found a McDonalds. The kids loved it! Then we headed to the mall. Of course it took about an hour to go about 3 miles and I am so not exaggerating. Nicole said she had to go pee pee so I had to pull over. Try pulling over in LA. Then somehow I lost one of her favorite Dora shoes. Finally we made it to the mall. I think we had to go up about 10 escalators before we got to the mall. The kids loved it. When we got there, Nicole was in socks. When I asked someone where a shoe store was, Nicole of course told everyone we lost her shoe. It was cute. We walked around the mall but Nicole kept on threatening to poop every time I went in to a store. Finally got back to the car and left to come home around 8:30. Finally the kids fell asleep on the way home. Just being out in a strange area is stressful but it was a little fun too taking the kids to new places.

I couldn’t sleep last night-I think I finally fell asleep around 4:00AM-UGH! It rained last night and was dreary this morning. We went over to Vena’s this morning and played for a while. They were really into this one puzzle..I may have to look for one for my kiddos. It had all these latches, hooks, and doors, etc. After playing for a while we ran to the Laguna Hills Mall. I had to do a return. The kids had so much fun playing at the mall. They loved the lights on the ground-I love watching them play on that. Then we played on the cars, trains, etc. Nicole didn’t want a ride in the car but Justin did. The minute Justin’s car started to go, of course, Nicole wanted in too. We did some shopping and came home. The kids took a good nap today. But the minute I went out to do some gardening Justin woke up. I got him back down on the couch. After nap, we got into the bike trailer and went to Blue Gum Park. The weather cleared up and it wasn’t as dreary as this morning. We ran into Krish and his dad and Jacole. Then we went over to Christine’s (Joshua) and played there for a while. The kids jumped in their bounce house and enjoyed playing with all their toys. We rode home and had naked spaghetti night. We ran to the store after dinner and the kids played at the fountain until Nicole had to use the potty in the car. She is still afraid of public restrooms. While putting the kids down to sleep, they told daddy they were scared of when Christine blew up the bounce house (the noise). So silly of them. The kiddos are doing well counting to 20 and sharing their toys.

I had so much fun with Justin this morning while Nicole was still sleeping. We played ball and played puppets. This morning we went to a place called Jump N Shout in RSM. Oh my god, my kids had a blast. I think they jumped for 2 hours straight. They basically had the place to themselves for a bit. The excitement on their faces was great. It was amazing to watch them having a blast. We were all smiling! They first went into a bounce house, then a trampoline, then another bounce house, then the slides…they were running all over the place. I wish I brought my camera. They had the biggest smiles on their face while sliding down the big bouncy slide. While in the bounce house they loved coming to where I was then I would push them down. We had the greatest time ever. I kept thinking I should give them a break and leave but they just wanted to keep on going. On the way home we stopped at Wal Mart. Nicole fell in love with a princess shirt, so I bought it for her. I bough one for Justin that say says my mom rules. They went right down for a nap today and it was great. I have to go to this bounce house place again soon. After nap we just played for a while then our friend Nicole came over. We had a good night, quick bath, and off to bed.

This morning we went to Vena’s for a little playgroup with Candice, Victoria, and Stacie. The kids had fun. They liked the tricycles. My kids love playing at other people’s house, guess it is all the new and dif’t toys. Then we went to the zoo. Our play group went to the zoo today. We saw the baby monkey-too cute. Anyway the kiddos had fun at the zoo. Justin loved the big geese. He was so cute saying hi to them. They both liked climbing up to see the monkeys and play in the tunnel. The line was too long at the train but the kiddos really wanted to go. So we decided to have lunch at the zoo. I should have brought lunch as the place was so slow. But the train was empty by the time we went back. Nicole was really into Christy today, so cute. She wanted to ride the train with Christy, Lexie, and Baby Sienna. Justin and I rode together; he was so excited to go in the tunnel. Since Nicole wasn’t too happy about getting off the train, they let us go twice. We stayed at the zoo until 1:15 can’t believe we stayed so late. The kiddos took a short nap but a nap none the less. Then we went to Hicks Canyon Park. The kids love that park, mostly the see saw. Neyha met us there. Her husband came too and the kiddos got to play in her hubby’s car. They loved it, of course getting Nicole out was hard. Then we came home got the mail (their favorite thing to do), ran down driveways, then played in the yard. It was a fun day.