Last night Ava said, in a conspiritorial moment with Chris at the dinner table, mommy is terrible isn’t she dad? I was in the bedroom changing one of the babies and waiting for what seemed like a really long time to hear just what Chris’s response to that question would be.
The events that had led up to that comment boiled down to a long day and perhaps mommy was terrible that day. It started bright and early when Nanny Laura’s new lip earring got caught in Ava’s uncontrollable mane of hair and then she refused to sit still while Laura tried to retrieve it. The problem with this is that it is a new lip ring and will close up within an hour and Laura didn’t want to go through the agony of getting a needle forced through her bottom lip twice so Laura, Chris and I were on hands and knees scouring the carpet and every baby item possible to find it. Ava, who caused this whole ordeal, was of no help. She sat in a 10-minute time out for her contributions to the fiasco. We looked high and we looked low, we looked under and we looked around, and alas, there was no lip ring to be found. All the babies were crying during the search. Violet was crying so hard that Chris asked us if we think the lip ring happened to fly out of Laura’s lip, then out of Ava’s afro, only to fly down Violet’s throat. After a hard stare, I had to go with no on that one.
The lip ring incident caused Ava to miss her fun playdate with Nathan and Ryan and instead Laura and Ava took a drive to Placerville to get a new lip ring while the babies and I regrouped.
The day didn’t get much better. By the end of the day I was running around the kitchen like a maniac making Ava’s favorite, Chicken Picatta, complete with fruit salad and green salad. Ava took one bite of the Picatta and deemed it unworthy of her fine pallet. She picked at it and then she said she was full. I was furious. I told her to get out of the kitchen and go upstairs and don’t come down. When she begged for her dinner back I told her no. I was not going to be manipulated by my three year old daughter who would rather sit and pick at her imperfect dinner than go upstairs by herself. It had been a long day. But Chris demanded we give her the dinner back. I got mad and told him he was being manipulated by Ava, threw Ava’s stuffed animal at him and went to the bedroom. That is when I overheard the personal attack. About an hour later at bedtime she wanted me to say goodnight to her and I told her that she was going to have to find a mom who wasn’t so terrible to say goodnight to her. She came down and apologized for calling me terrible and all was better.
Life around the Woolsey household is usually more loving and peaceful, but yesterday it was a hostile environment. I can already look back on yesterday and laugh which means I must be maintaining a sense of humor amidst the madness.
The triplets are doing fabulously. They are happy babies, they are sleeping well, they smile and laugh all day long, the observe curiously, and they are always happy to go out and see the world. Yesterday I took Preston out and today I took Elsa. Ava, Elsa and I met some friends at the park and played and then we went to Target for some shopping. Elsa was so perfectly happy the whole day. Also today I took Preston and Elsa swimming in the pool. They loved it. They were troopers about the cold water and seemed very comfortable. Violet misses out on a lot of things because she is always sleeping.
I also started feeding them some oatmeal and they seem to like it fine. Preston likes it the most. The picture of Preston above tells you how much he likes it.
We have a busy weekend ahead of us starting with Ava’s montessori open house tomorrow morning, then we have a photo shoot with Brenda, and later that evening is my bunco dinner with my friends. Saturday I have Emili’s wedding shower and then my cousin and his family (four kids also) are coming for dinner and some swimming. Sunday we have Kendall’s birthday party. All fun stuff. I must be organized. I have already gathered about 4 outfits for each baby in preparation of the photo shoot. I just don’t know what they should wear.
Ava-ism for the day:
questions asked to mommy while driving in the car – “mommy how did they put your belly back together after it was in pieces,” asks Ava. “Do you mean after they cut it to take the babies out,” asks mommy. “Yes,” says Ava. “Well, they take a needle and a long piece of thread and they sew the skin back together,” explains mommy. “Well, I think they should’ve used glue,” replies Ava.
Until next time, the terrible mothership is signing off. . .
Woolsey Family Chronicles 