indoor fun and outside ... finally!

We have had to be creative the last few weeks with all of us having some cabin fever. I even let them paint inside ... am I crazy or what!? We made a deal that paint stayed ON the sheet and they did pretty well though I think I had a few mini-strokes. The weather is getting nicer which makes us all happy! It is amazing how much happier I am when it is nice enough to get outside daily! I spent the better part of the morning cleaning off my porch and the better part of a nap a few days ago cleaning off my screened porch and I can't wait to be able to use them again! The girls have had a terrible cold the past few days and yesterday was particularly hard but Alan has a few days off at the start of next week so hopefully the girls will get better soon and we can all enjoy some time together. Here are a few pics from the week ...

... and Caroline sleeps through it all ... no, not really, she has been pretty awake and lively during the days. She is a morning kind-of gal and I get tons of good smiles in the AM and then she is a bit fussy in the evenings ... but I think that is pretty normal baby behavior. She is doing well at night. We can usually put her down between 9:30 and 11 and she sleeps until 5 and sometimes even 6 or 7! I don't know what "normal" babies do (as opposed to preemies) but I think that is pretty darned good. Days are tough because she is a cat napper which doesn't give me much time alone with the twins but at least I get enough sleep to deal with it all! I need to take some awake photos! 7 weeks old today ... hard to believe ... she is starting to thin out (with the hair ... not the cheeks and thighs =) but she still has more than the twins did at this age and I am starting to think that she will keep the hair on top and keep the dark color ... we'll see! She has this beautiful soft, blemish-free skin and I think we may be out of the woods with the baby acne as the Ped said usually they would get it by 6 weeks if they were going to (listen to me ... "they" ... I still think in terms of twins ...) All-in-all she is doing so well and is such a sweet addition ... the girls love to give her hugs and kisses and when she is up on my shoulder "gummimg" me like babies do they say "look, she is loving on Mommy's shoulder" ... it is so cute! They seem to love being big sisters most of the time. I am so proud of them.

We had a little playdate with one of the boys that goes to MMO with the girls ... how cute is he?! His Dad is the one that is the photographer and you can tell he knows what to do when there is a camera around! The girls, of course, picked out their outfits (what is it with those PJ shirts, they want to wear them everyday?!) ... including the shoes which is almost the funniest part ...

They love any kind of art project as I have mentioned before ... if anyone needs refrigerator art, let me know =)

Indoor finger painting ... these are meant to sort-of tell a story ... I remember a friend of mine (hi, Amy) saying this about her twins when they were dying Easter eggs. I asked the girls to put their hands in the paint b/c I wanted to get their hand prints ... Meredith was all about it and it became a fun thing for her to play all in her paint, Hannah, however became pretty upset that her hands were purple!

M-woo hoo! H-what?!

H-Mommy, I still don't know about this ...

M-woo hoo!!!

M-sissy, isn't this fun?! H-oh my goodness, my hands are purple!!

M-woo hoo ... look, Mommy, my hands are GREEN! H-I am really still concerned ... Meredith turned the painting into fingerpainting (they had brushes, too) and having fun and Hannah seriously just stood there and looked at her hands until we got in the bath and washed it all off ... so funny!