Three Sisters, Oregon

Sometimes, I feel like daily life is all about the relationships between my 3 little girls. And sometimes it feels as daunting as summiting a mountain, but lately, they have started to play together and crack each other up.  They genuinely seem concerned about each other when we are out in public places, looking for each other after waking up from a nap and running to show one another something cool they’ve found or discovered.  That has to be the best reward as a parent so far.  If only I’d known years ago when I actually hiked around on the mountains above that I’d be facing much tougher tasks than just negotiating endless switchbacks.  What would I have thought of my life now?

MY 3 little sisters: Lucy, Zoey and Stella

So, I’ve slacked on posting to catch up on some consignment stuff and work on some school work.  I’ve luckily made good headway in both departments (thank you nap fairy!).

So, here is a little about what we’ve been up to.

We did the Zoo on Monday and it was a bit nuts.  And we thought we were soooo smart going on a Monday when no one else would be there.  Riiiighht.  We actually only saw about 1 animal the entire 2 hrs. we were there.  I saw plenty of tears unfortunately.  Friday, JD is working from home, so we are going to get out of the house, let him work and are going to try for a zoo-do-over…

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Tuesday was a great relaxing day of shopping for me, thanks to Aunt Chris and Uncle Bill : ).  The Tuesday night Kenmore Children’s Concert series continues to entertain us too.  This week was some salsa and meringue music, which had everyone dancing.  We loved it and now we can’t stop listening to The Buena Vista Social Club…

We also camped inside this week; always a treat.  This time, the kids made a little reading nest in there and I caught some ultimate twin cuteness in action.  Both reading side by side without harassing each other with a rogue foot…

Then there are the many faces of Zoey.  Gosh she is so darn cute and funny.  She can turn it on and off though.  A bad combo.  Zoey was such a perfect name for her looking back.  A little clumsy, an independent streak, a handful of fearlessness and those big doughy brown eyes..

We made some of Daddy’s (milk containing) vegan blueberry muffins.  Lucy is an excellent chef and loves to cook just like her Daddy…

I am still running.  5 weeks now.  I can’t believe it in the least.  I also have brand new running shoes that JD got me for an anniversary present!  YAY!  I will be ready for my first 5k the weekend before school starts, if not earlier.  I am going to run one in the neighborhood and I am trying to decide if I want to run the Glen Iris 5K through Letchworth the weekend after the first week of school.  Now that might be hard core, but I would love to run the course through the forest.

Last night we even got out to take a “Thai Vegetarian with a Kick” cooking class at Delish on Elmwood.  It was a.w.e.s.o.m.e.  So awesome.  We came home relaxed, had a good time and were stuffed.  We can’t wait to try the recipes at home.  Something tells me 3 toddlers running around my legs while cooking these again just won’t be the same.

Today we went down to the Buffalo Harbor and water front, which I have never in my life been to.  We walked along the water, watched plenty of seagulls, saw some HUGE naval ships, chased each other, rolled down hills, ate bags of animal crackers and generally entertained the older folk strolling along on a nice summer day.  All that in about an hour.  We really pack it in…

Then there was the snuggle and coffee time.  I included the coffee picture above because I love our new solution to the waste associated with our Keurig machine.  Instead of using disposable pods we use a reusable pod that can take any ground coffee we want.  I fell in love with coffee after we got this beauty last christmas but just couldn’t stomach the packaging that came along with each cup.  I feel better about at least this small decision to reduce waste. With that said, sustainability curriculum is coming along, but going from a Regents course to a “anything you want” course is not so easy!

Stella and Zoey on their 2nd birthday…

Its finally here!  My squishy, funny little ladies turned 2 today.  I can’t even wrap my head around the last 2 years.  I think it will take even more time than I imagined!  Just a little to remind you and me what you both were like when you turned 2:

Zoey,

You are a sweetheart that takes most of life in stride.  You have an independent streak and are generally a happy soul.  You pick up things fast, especially any kind of mechanical,  hands on sort of project.  This can be great because you usually figure out things yourself before we show you or this can be challenging, if the thing you are figuring out is, say, the baby gate.  You LOVE to run around and sing.  In fact, I love when you run the most because your little cheeks and “chookies” (cheeks below your cheeks) bounce around too!  You are so darn cute and also very charming with those big brown eyes of yours.  You still have a baby buddah belly and your hair is finally getting long.  You love wearing pig tails and are often the first one to brush your teeth, get dressed and get your shoes on (you also love anything that sparkles!).  Unfortunately you sometimes have a hard time waiting on your sisters.  You have also taken an interest in the potty lately, to my delight.  Maybe you will be the first one potty trained?  You have a bit of a jokester streak in you too, pushing your sister’s buttons (especially Stella) and making your own sort of jokes, even different funny faces to suit the situation.  You are both funny and cute: a bad combo!  You seem to be very comfortable with other kids outside of our family too and its funny to see you start interacting with peers.  You love to cuddle on the couch at night and watch cartoons or read books, but you are always the first to hop off the couch after just 5 minutes and find something independent to do.  You don’t like to sit around and watch the world go by!  You love to eat all kinds of fruit, especially blueberries.  You also really like noodles and your milk and are learning to drink from a cup.  You especially like to do anything that Lucy does and often copy her playing, the things she says and how she does things.  You really love her.  Lucy really likes to play with you too.  There are a million reasons I like you, but these are just a few.  Happy Birthday my Zoe-Zoe!  You are growing every minute and I can’t wait to see what my little independent woman looks like at 3 years!  Love, Mommy

Zoey eating her 2nd birthday dinner at Mississippi Mudds

Zoey

Stella,

Stella you have had quite a year.  Just thinking back, you haven’t even been walking a full year yet, but man have you grown.  You are even a little taller than Zoey, but have this tiny, light, skinny body….definitely a Dettbarn.  When I look at you, you remind me of Daddy and Grampy Dettbarn.  You are a spitting image of Daddy when he was your age, believe it or not- even the way you “sniff” your yellow blankie when you are really tired.  Lately, you have been working on learning more words with a speech therapist once a week and your family.  You are doing amazing and I’ve lost count of all your new words.  Just tonight you were dragging me around the park pointing at all the wildlife!  You seem much less frustrated and happier all around.  At the same time, you have really started to LOVE reading, probably more than either of your sisters.  You will sit and read all day with us.  You also love wildlife, looking for critters outside and notice the smallest details on anything nature-related- trees, in the sky, bugs, you name it.  You are a budding naturalist at heart, which makes me proud.  You are not a fan of getting your hair done or getting dressed, but when it really counts, like bandaging the cut on your foot lately or at visits to the dentist or doctor, you are excellent.  You are also learning to play with other kids your age.  You are shy when other kids are around besides your sisters, but you have also always been a bit closer and depended on Mommy and Daddy a little more.  You are especially close to Mommy and Daddy and you love frequent cuddles, being held a lot and being carried.  We are all working on giving you some more opportunities for your own independence and I can see you trying hard lately.  I know two years is a tough time.  You’ve been a baby for 2 years and now, all of the sudden you are expected to not only do lots of things yourself, but you are being physically distanced from us especially when there are 3 of you that need so much attention often.  However, you do like to have your own quiet space and take your own time to finish projects or tasks.  It is clear you enjoy working hard, are determined, motivated and are very proud of yourself when you do something you’ve set out to do.  Unfortunately, you get interrupted by any number of people and circumstances often and this is a challenge for you.  Luckily, you are learning to be adaptable, which I think will be your greatest strength.  Another thing everyone knows about you is that you love to eat!  You eat and eat and eat.  You love just about all kinds of food and will try anything, especially pickles and any kind of “dipping” condiment.  You were born in Buffalo after all!  Like Zoey, you love to snuggle, especially on the couch and you are quick to literally fall over asleep if you’ve been especially worn out.  You love your sisters so, its like glue.  You just can’t get enough of Zoey and chase her around with your funny faces, making her giggle non-stop.  I can even hear both of you up in your cribs going back and forth with laughs!  Your smile is infectious, your cute as a button and man, are you charming in your own quiet way.  Happy 2nd birthday my Stelley Belley!  I love you to pieces in every way and seeing you grow is a joy.  I can’t wait to see what your third year brings!  Love, Mommy

Stella eating her birthday dinner at Mississippi Mudds

Stella

Maybe I should work backwards to recap the rest of this weekend?

Today we celebrated Z & S’s birthdays by doing one of our favorite things- swimming!  We joined our other favorite set of twins, Wes and Andrew, and their hot Mommy, Aunt Margie, and Nana Stefko at the wading pool.  I could just eat these two boys up.  They are the cutest little red heads!  I also fell in love with those pink tutu bathing suits my grandma got the twins for their birthdays!

Sharing crackers

Tutu bathing suits from great gram

Nana Stefko and Wes

Pelczynski twins

2 sets of twins and a singleton

WES!

Girls and boys

Little Lucy in the pool

pastey-white redheads

2 sets of twins

Nana with a sleepy Drew-man

Zoey in her B-day tutu

Why, its a blue ball!

This morning we were lazy and it was grand.  We celebrated with dinner at Mississippi Mudds over looking the Niagara River and Niawanda Park and some playtime at the playground.  A perfect day when you are two!

Little duckies following Daddy at Niawanda Park

The fam celebrating Z & S’s 2nd birthday with a dinner overlooking the Niagara River

Lucy telling her new friend”my two sisters are Zoey and Stella and they are getting bigger and bigger all the time”

Saturday was a lazy day as well but we had a great time at Jonas (4th) and Nafie’s (2nd) birthday party.  We played in the pool, broke a squid pinata, played Pin the Tail on the Blue Whale and ate our hearts out, especially the yummy undersea themed cake.  Awesome party Creeds!  Unfortunately, it was so fun, I have no pictures!

Friday was a great day as well.  We got to visit the Aquarium and touch some real live sea creatures!  Lucy loved holding the clam (a safe bet), Zoey enjoyed the tiny fleshy tube feet of the sea star and Stella loved holding the hermit crab.  We also got to touch some turtles and learn how they like to be held too.  What an awesome activity and so glad we became members so we can do it again… like every week.

Learning how to touch turtles at the Aquarium

Creedlets

We also got some great presents from Great Gram, my grandmother.  She sent all the right things- sparkly and pink!  The girls love their tutus, dresses and glamour shoes, along with their new coloring books and markers.  Thanks Great!

Presents from Great Gram!

On top of that, I’ve made some good progress on the sustainability curriculum I am working on thanks to an awesome meeting with Don and Katy Friday night.  Thanks for the hospitality and all kinds of good conversation, including a glimpse into life with older little girls.

I’ve also been running consistently despite the heat and have been able to shave time off and will be starting into 2 miles next week.  I just have to remind myself why I am doing it (alone time!) to get out the door.  Some days I feel ready by lunch to just take off and run!  HA!  I am trying to pick a great first race and have my eyes on the Glen Iris run Sept. 11th at Letchworth.  That would be awesome.

Now, off to see what next week brings!

Anyway, just wanted to throw down a quick update post to let anyone following this sideshow on SixSmallHands.com, that I am still plugging away at my goal.

This morning, I made my first attempt at getting up early to exercise before work. I got up a little later than planned, so I only did 20 minutes on the elliptical. Certainly got me going, though, and feel really alert this AM. So I may have to do that more often – it would probably make it easier to exercise more consistently, since we have so much going on at night.

Stats: 4.51 miles and burned 357 calories.

Soundtrack

• El Torrente – Minus the Bear
• 7/4 (Shoreline) – Broken Social Scene
• Little Thoughts – Bloc Party
• October is Eternal – Of Montreal
• Can’t Think About It Now – Lifetime
• Present of Future End – Most Serene Republic
• E-Pro – Beck
  

Tonight I watched episode 3 of Lost Season 5 (Jughead) while working out on the elliptical.
Final stats: 6.23 miles and burned 639 calories

Haven’t weighed myself in like a day or two, but I was down to like 186 (-3 lbs)… not too bad in two weeks, with no diet change.

Anyway, going to try to get in some elliptical tomorrow and Friday AM, as we’re heading to Albany for the weekend to visit family. Hopefully I can get in Friday AM at the very least. If not I’ll be skipping two days in a row for the first time. Definitely want to avoid that as much as possible.

Jason:
Tonight I hit up the elliptical again and watched episode 2 of Lost [Season 5] – The Lie. Went for 6.04 miles and burned 619 calories.

Overall, I think I am making good progress. Been over 6 miles and 600 calories the last few times, it seems like it is getting easier (both flying by faster and physically easier), and I feel better. I think a lot better, actually… so that is real encouraging. I currently take blood pressure pills and have borderline cholesterol issues, so it will be interesting to see how much progress I can make before my next check up in November. If these last two weeks are any indication, it will surprise the doctor for sure.

Looking back at the last 14 days, I’ve done the elliptical 9 times, ‘play’ exercised 3 days, and skipped 2 days. Not too bad and pretty much what I hope to stay on after these 30 days… 4 to 5 days of exercise ever 7 days and never skip two days in a row.

And Melisa is pretty sore from running last night! Got me to re-think my ‘take it to the streets’ idea last night. I’ll stick with my lower-impact elliptical, thank you very much!

Jason:

Changed things up today, as I decided to start re-watching Season 5 of Lost instead of listening to music. Tonight I watched episode one – Because You Left. It really made the time fly, as I focused on the episode, rather than the clock/mileage/calories… I ended up with 6.00 miles and 616 calories burned. Not as good as the last few, but it seemed easier which I guess is good. The only negative to watching episodes, is it pretty much sucks the entire ipod battery for one episode… so I’ll need to re-charge each day to make sure I have enough juice. We’ll see how that goes…

Melisa went on a run with her friend Lis tonight [see Lis, I wrote about you! ], which ended up lasting more than 45 minutes… she seemed to think it went quick though. Maybe I’ll have to try an outdoor run one night, in order to compare it to the elliptical and see what I can do on the streets.

I’ll end the weekend with a quote from Lucy… (I think she is watching too much Electric Company!)

Word up, Momma.

She’s also said “hey you guys!”, like they do on Electric Company… if you have seen the show. Ha, too funny!

Jason:

OK, so I skipped yesterday. My first, I didn’t really do anything active skip. I was beyond beat last night, so I decided to get rest instead. That seemed to pay off. Tonight I got back on the elliptical, though. I got off to a seriously good pace to shatter my previous best, but hit a wall at five minutes to go and kind of coasted my way to the end. The 30 minutes seem to be getting easier to do, so I definitely am making progress.

Exercise of Choice: 30 minutes on the elliptical (6.08 miles and burned 625 calories)
Soundtrack:

• You Are – Built to Spill
• Out of Routine – Idlewild
• Unguided – The New Pornographers
• Runaway – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• The Radiator Hums – Cursive
• The Embassy – Mos Def
• Third Cross Salute – Falling Forward
• Hotel Arizona – Wilco

Melisa
Exercise of choice: basement elliptical while staring at fake wood paneling
Distance: 5.87 miles? km? not sure on the units..
Calories burned: 604
Soundtrack: I’m a constant skipper of songs that come on that I don’t like so today it was a mix of M. Ward, Band of Horses, Silversun Pickups, Conor Oberst and Superchunk.

Jason

Back on it tonight. Was way too tired last night… so I skipped a day. Tonight, I hit up the elliptical.

Stats: 5.63 miles and burned 597 calories

Weight: haven’t in a few days…

Soundtrack:

• U-Trau – Jawbox
• The Conversation – Elliott
• Plans – Bloc Party
• Complications – Broken Social Scene
• Skeletons – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Unsalted Butter – The Long Winters
• Slugs in the Shrubs – Les Savy Fav
• Cruel Swing – Jawbox

*Day 6*

Played in park for 2+ hrs. and cleaned for 2+ hours, but no formal exercise.

*Day 7*

Went to bed at 8pm!  HA!  Studied the inside of my eyelids instead of exercising!

*Day 8*

Weight: Not telling, but I think I lost a pound miraculously!

Exercise of choice: 50 min. walk around neighborhood with Lucy and Zoey in stroller and Stella in hiking backpack on my back.

Soundtrack: Lucy narrating the walk

Just a note on wearing your baby for a walk.  Obviously it doesn’t work to jog/run with a baby in sling, although its entertaining to think about that visual.  In the evenings I can start running, but for now my only option from about morning until 7/8pm is walking with the kids- at least as far as I can figure out (suggestions please!)  But I am having an issue deciding how to carry either Zoey or Stella on these walks.  For what its worth..

The backpack aluminum frame carrier for hiking that we have is great, but heavier and not as comfortable.  It does allow me to put one of the twins in it and “stand” her there until I can get everyone else in the stroller.  This is good for Stella since she is so fast at crawling and hard to contain.  Zoey still doesn’t crawl and only walks when you can get her to standing.  However, Zoey likes this one more since she can move around a bit and sits up higher.  It also has a sun hood, which is so nice, along with a small pouch on the back to put keys, etc in.  I also like how I can sit down and undo the waist belt and it can free stand with the baby in it so I can get her off easily and safely.  However, its the heaviest option and when the baby falls asleep, she rests her head on the padded bar or the back of your head, which makes it kind of off balanced and harder to carry and move your head.  I tried this today and Stella slept the whole 50 minutes in it and was leaning heavily to my right side, giving me a neck cramp!

The new Ergo carrier I found is sooooo comfortable for me, but hard to get the baby into solo since it doesn’t have a frame that is stiff. I basically lay it flat, put Stella in the middle of it where her butt fits and quickly put on the waist belt and shoulder straps while sitting in front of her.  This has only worked once.   The other times I tried, she wiggles away, stands up holding onto my shoulders, etc. and then gets irritated when I try to get her into it again.  The Ergo seems best with another person to help you do it.  However, when the baby falls asleep they make a nice little snuggle between your shoulders and you can bend your body with theirs.  Zoey hates being this confined and won’t ride in it and the only other negative is getting baby’s hat on her on a sunny day, especially if your kids are like mine, and hate wearing any clothes they can get off themselves.

I haven’t tried the Moby Wrap while on a long walk in a while since I have to wear the baby on the front when I am solo.  Wrapping the baby on your back requires another person’s help definitely.  It takes a bit of practice to wrap it right, but I’m a whiz with the front wrap after almost 2 years.  The problem with walking is that the girls are too big to put on my front without seriously hurting my back after a while.  Plus they are so tall their heads come up to mine and their bodies get too close to the stroller handle bars if i should hit a big bump in the pavement, especially when going fast!

So, for what its worth there are some thoughts on baby wearing and long walking.  Any ideas from Moms that have tried other carriers, or these carriers other ways?