Stories about my girls

Above: a preview of our many many pics from Utah.  We are having a blast!!

For a second time in a row I (Spencer) am contributing to the family blog.  So, once again forgive the lack of charm that Mardee normally brings to the site.

I'm home alone for a couple weeks as I just left Mardee and the girls out in UT. Abby (our new dog) has been my loyal companion in the meantime. She's a great dog and is perfect for the kids (more on that later).  I have been amazed at how fast my memories fade so I thought I would try to capture some snapshots of my girls' personalities.

Mardee
I wasn't going to include Mardee here, but in mentioning our UT vacation it deserves mention what a fantastic job Mardee did preparing for the 2 day car ride out there. I got back from Scout camp the night before we left and was exhausted.  I was impressed with Mardee's efforts for the trip. She had a treasure box and a box full of treats portioned out in little ziplock bags, as well as carrots and other healthy food. She had printed up some fake money and a menu and as we got started on the trip, she explained to the girls that for every 30 minutes of good behavior they would get a dollar, and they could earn money by doing workbooks, reading, etc. They could then use those to buy treats, toys, movies, etc. Cadence caught on to the program right away, and would ask for carrots and other things so she could earn money faster. Campbell didn't really care about the dollars, but would do what she needed to in order to keep a steady flow of sugar flowing into her system. And Layla was mostly happy as long as there was something to look at or play with and others were happy (she really liked her cookie sheet and alphabet magnets that Mardee gave all the girls). I was really not looking forward to the overall week and half-viewed it as my "sacrificial vacation time" with half of the week going towards scout camp (where leaders walk around making sure kids are where they are supposed to be each day) and 2 days of what I imagined to be screaming kids in the car. In the end I had a great time in the car with the kids and am looking forward to the trip back in a couple weeks. Well done Mardee! (BTW - Scout camp was a good time too).

Cadence
Cadence is perhaps too smart for her own good at times as she has a hard time being a kid and not being in charge. She has a lot of ingenuity and uses it to get what she wants. It will make her very successful down the road, but will make her mother age at twice the normal rate until Cadence grows up.

Silver tights: Case in point: About a month ago Mardee was sick, so I took all three kids to church. I was totally outgunned. In getting Cadence ready, she really wanted to wear these silver tights with pink hearts on them that completely clashed with her dress. I insisted she wear white tights. After arguing about it for a couple minutes Cadence walked off and then came back saying she changed and wearing the white tights. Once we parked the car at Church and started unbuckling the little kids, Cadence jumped up from the back of the car and was laughing with the smug pride of having gotten what she wanted. She proudly showed me that she had stripped off her white tights and had the silver tights underneath! She thought I would think it was hilarious to be tricked like that (I did, but I couldn't show it). She then got in trouble for not being honest.

Fire: On Mother's Day Cadence earned her keep in the family. As usual, she wanted to be very involved in the preparations for the day's celebrations, and that included being a part of the meal preparation. I was cooking a pork loin and hobo Joe's in the fire pit in the backyard, and she was hovering around trying to do anything she could her way to help. I appreciated the company. At one point while the food was in the fire I had to go inside to work on something else for the meal and Cadence was in the backyard herself. About 4-5 minutes later Cadence ran to mom and said, "Mom! The fire is somewhere it should not be!" Mardee mentioned that to me and I bolted for the backyard to see three foot flames shooting out from under all sides of the firepit (the extra wood had caught on fire). It was huge! I sprinted to the hose and hooked it up and within 30 seconds had things under control. If Cadence hadn't brought that to our attention, the fire surely would have spread.

Campbell
Campbell's major achievement of late is potty training. She's not fully there yet as she has accidents frequently, but she gets there more often than not. Right before we started potty training her we had a hilarious experience as she had walked into the playroom, took off her diaper and pooped on it, walked downstairs and then came walking into the kitchen holding it in her hand and proudly declared "Luk edy-body, its a my poop!" as half of the log started to detatch and was about to fall. Mardee screamed and dove for it to catch it with her hands, only to pull away as she realized she really didn't want the poop in her hands.

As Campbell began pottytraining she was very good with #1, but was completely freaked out about #2 in the potty. She got stage fright every time she tried. She did go once (and left me a very cute phone message announcing her accomplishment), but then didn't go for a long time. One evening I walked into the bathroom to find her sitting on the toilet grinning. She was very excited to tell me "I go poo-poo in da potty!". Just as I was about to make a big deal about it and cheer (as this was a major accomplishment for her - her first time doing it on her own), I noticed her hair was wet, but only in the front three inches or so. The reaction she got from her announcement was a very odd blend of extreme praise and dismay rolled into one "That's VERY Good! but did you DUNK your HEAD in the TOILET! WE DON'T DO THAT! IT's BAD! but VERY GOOD with the poo-poo!" Apparently my bipolar reaction worked on both fronts as she is much better at #2 (although not perfect), and I haven't caught her giving herself a swirley since then.

Layla

Layla is a ball of goodness. She is very social, very happy, handles being pushed around or climbed on by her sisters very well, and shamelessly in love with dogs. She gets so excited around them and hugs them tight, pokes their eyes, and for some reason loves to stick her hand in their mouths. We adopted a 9 year old dachsund named "Mr. Peabody" who had not grown up around kids, had a skin infection which made him stink, and loved Mardee deeper than any creature ever has (and would whine, and howl when he couldn't be by her side). Other than those issues, Mr. Peabody was a great dog. Layla could not keep away though, and was too big to hug him without him feeling overwhelmed. He bit her twice, so we had to get rid of him. Now we have Abby, a 3 (almost 4) year old staffordshire bull terrier who is as even-tempered around kids and loving of them as any dog I've seen. Abby is much tougher than Mr. Peabody, so Layla will freqently lie on her in her bed, hugging Abby, or while watching TV. She is so genuinely happy with her.

Layla is also unconditionally happy in water. Baths and pools send her into delirium. She loves to whip her head back and dunk it in the water, so she can be a handful to hold while you are keeping an eye on all three girls and she keeps trying to break away and drown herself. BTW - Cadence has started doing "flips" into pools. She runs, jumps and tucks and rotates about 3/4 of the way and does a backflop (on her floatie jacket) every time.

In spite of her goodness, no Yin is without its Yang. Layla is a biter. It is really funny when she loses it because she will flip a switch and suddenly go from cheerful to scrunching up her nose, opening her mouth (which doesn't have as many teeth as most 18 month old mouths) and try to headbutt someone teeth first to take a chunk out of them. She is, thankfully, remarkably ineffective and has not managed to cause any real damager. That being said, some kid in nursery was able to land a good bite right on her cheek and she had a purple circle on her cheek for a week.
One last funny thing about Layla is that she hasn't quite grasped the No/Yes dichotomy yet. If you ask her if she wants something that she obviously wants, she will give you a very confident "No." while reaching for it. Mardee will then reply "Say 'Yes'", and Layla retorts "Yes." while still reaching for it. No joke, this has been going on for a solid 2 months now and I have not once heard Layla answer "Yes" when she means "Yes".