Just Shut the Water Off Already!!!

I don't get what their obsession is with the water. More particularly, what Cadi's obsession is with the water. What's a mother to do? There are things I have to do during the day. I can't just sit around, staring at my children all day long to make sure they don't do something awful can I? I can't leave everything for when they're in bed. I'm not keeping up with the day to day as it is. I have to work on my chores during the day. I don't see a way around it.

This afternoon I took a mountain of laundry upstairs to fold. The older girls were working on a craft. The little girls were having some cartoon time. The baby was taking a nap. What's to worry about? Especially since the little girls followed me upstairs and made themselves comfortable in my room where I could see them. They left a few times to check on Chloe and Madilyn's crafting progress (thank you Grandma Henry for the CTR ring painting kit. They had fun!), but for the most part were intrigued enough by the cute puppies on "Groomer Has It" to hang out with me.

I was very surprised (who am I kidding? Does anything really surprise me anymore?) to find blue paint on the back of Cadi's legs on her last return trip. Ugh. Those big girls didn't put the paint away when they finished. While scrubbing the paint off I noticed her soaking wet shirt. Oh. No. I went downstairs for an inspection and confirmed my suspicions. She'd been playing at the kitchen sink. Again. Using the sprayer. Again. With the big girls in the same room, doing nothing about it. Good grief! My dishwasher is STILL broken from the last encounter.

So once again I wiped the cupboards down, soaked up the water from the counters and the floor. I pulled the stuff out of the cupboards and dried the shelves, leaving the items normally hidden from view out to dry. I poured the water out of the toaster, squeegeed the water off the window sill, and patted down the bubbling paint. All this while trying to find a phone number so Chloe could call her school friend. This is where we discovered a new feature to the water works game, the phone wasn't working. After I pull it off the wall, dry it off, and check all the connections it occurs to me to check the plugs. Sure enough she'd sprayed enough water to trip the outlets. Thankfully it was an easy fix this time.

What's a mother to do? I don't know, but I'm sure getting tired of this game.

Some of Cadence's Favorite Things at Age Three

Cadi loves cartoons. She gets away with watching way too much television. Her brain is going to turn to mush. Her favorite show is, "Dora the Explorer."

Cadence loves the fuzzy feel of feathers, or anything soft and fuzzy for that matter. She can often be found "petting" (or as she calls it, "softing") babies' heads, stuffed animals, blankets, furry fabric, the dog... you name it, it's "soft-able".



Cadi loves chocolate. I guess I taught her something right (I miss it)! Mmmmm.... as Dora's backpack would say, "Delicioso!"

Cadence has a love for stuffed animals. She has a tendency to "love 'em and leave 'em" once their fuzziness has worn off. There is a long succession of snuggle buddies starting with black and white puppy. The names are all very literal; pink puppy, Grinch (as in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" so ugly, I know), princess frog, and her current cuddle bug of choice, Sneetch.

She loves to ride bikes and scooters. She had been riding a princess trike that was passed down from her older sister. She and Camden got new "big girl" bikes with training wheels for their birthday and she is absolutely thrilled that she can ride it around. She is proud to show anyone who'll watch.

When I asked Cadi what her favorite color was her response was, "peanut butter and syrup." I tried several times and got the same answer. After a while I listed all the colors for her and she chose red. She looks good in red.

Cadence is not a picky eater. She frequently asks for seconds and sometimes thirds (to which we say "no"), so I was curious to see what she'd choose as her favorite. Chicken nuggets was her immediate response. We rarely visit the drive through, but I guess some people are just born as with typical American kid taste buds.

Cadi loves music. She loves to sing and tinker on the piano. She knows a lot of songs. I'm very excited that at such a young age she can carry a tune. Singing on pitch is typically learned a little later in life. If you ask her what she learned in nursery, she'll report the songs they sang. Her favorite bedtime songs are "Hush Little Baby" (which the twins call "Monkey Bird"), and "Jingle Bells."

Swinging is a favorite past time. She recently picked up the skill on her own. She is very proud of her accomplishment, and I am very happy that there's one less kid to push at the park.

Omigosh! If I had a dollar for every time Cadence made a water mess I'd have enough money for a swanky new outfit from Nordstrom. Complete with shoes, handbag, and any other accessories I might want. The girl is a mermaid in disguise.

Both the twins like to help in the kitchen (when I can stand it). Cadi is just more vocal about it. I can't keep her hands out of the bowl, off the spoon, away from the eggs. I guess I should be more patient with her and encourage it while she's young.

It should be noted that I did not take these pictures. I found them on a google image search.

Some of Camden's Favorite Things at Age Three

Camden loves to read. This is her favorite book right now. She always points to a flat spot on the crocodile's head and asks me if she can sit there. I have to say it's one I don't mind reading over and over. I love the artwork in it.

I don't know why she loves it so much, but oatmeal is one of her favorite things to eat. She use to call it, "moat-meal". So cute!

Camden loves the feel of silky textured things. Pajamas, blankets, you name it. She sleeps with a silky piece of cloth. It's called, you guessed it, a silky.

Camden likes polka-dots. It's funny to me that she notices these details. A girl after my own heart. She has purple polka-dotted sheets on her bed.

If you ask her what kind of sandwich she wants, she will most often say, "peanut butter and jelly." Often times she will sneak the jam out of the fridge when its open, run to a corner somewhere and suck it out of the squeeze bottle as fast as she can before someone catches her.

Camden's favorite TV show is "Dora the Explorer". We watch waaaaaay too much of it.

When I asked Camden what her favorite color is she said, "Pink!" A true girly color. Too bad she's a red-head. I always dress her in "red-head colors" like blue, green, purple... they really make her beautiful hair pop!

I asked Camden what her favorite food is and she said, "French Fries!" which is odd because we don't have them very often.

She loves our trampoline. Camden tries her best to do the tricks her older sisters do. We are frequently an audience to spectacular shows.

Camden is also a master climber. I need to enroll her in gymnastics, or take her to a climbing wall, or something. She gets into so much mischief! What a monkey.

Since I don't have a working camera (most of the pictures for this post were found on google) I don't have a picture, but Camden likes to dress herself. Which means that most of the time she looks like an orphan, but it's all in the name of self-sufficiency.

Finally Three!

The twins' third birthday came and went with hardly a blip on the radar. Making a big deal about birthdays (or anything for that matter) is not my specialty. I'm constantly living in the shadow of friends and family who spend their time making life fun for their kids while I just try to get through it. I've seriously thought of putting my kids on the "Do Not Invite" list of everyone I know just to avoid the comparison, but they love the cool parties so I'll endure it.


Stuart made them a special breakfast in the morning. They requested waffles with strawberries. The rest of the day was spent the same as any other day, just hanging around and doing a few chores here and there. They checked the mail after breakfast where cards were waiting for them from Nanna and Pa-po. Camden's came with a princess crown that she wore the rest of the day. Cadence's card had fuzzy feathers (fuzzy feathers are a favorite of this girl)on it, and she now sleeps with it from time to time.


They played in the water in the back yard with the big girls most of the afternoon. At some point after lunch I remembered the cake mixes they'd picked out a week earlier, mixed them up and put them in the oven. After they cooled we frosted them. Cadence chose chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Camden chose strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.


Once the cakes were taken care of I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries and a last minute gift. I couldn't get them what I wanted to and spent an hour agonizing over what to get them that fit in my budget. Nothing was jumping out at me. I finally decided on a swimming pool for the back yard. I got them each a little book and a bag of bracelets so they'd have something of their own to open. Stuart called me wondering where I was because it was waaaaay past dinner time. I had no idea I'd been there so long.


I picked up the twins' requested pizza and root beer for dinner and went home. The poor girls had missed their nap that afternoon, and were now having a late dinner on their birthday. I hoped they wouldn't be too cranky to enjoy the small celebration. I forgot the balloons I'd intended to get to make things seem a bit more festive. Once I finally arrived everyone enjoyed their pizza. Afterwards we lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" to my beaming three year-olds. They were just excited to have cake and blow out the candles. Camden and Cadence had fun tearing into their presents that Chloe and Madilyn had so carefully wrapped. They wanted to go swimming right away, but since it was already dark out we talked them into waiting. We managed to snap a few pictures with Stuart's phone (still no camera). We had to re-light the candles several times because the girls kept blowing them out before the picture took.


We tucked them into bed, happy we survived another year with twins! I can't believe they're three. Where has the time gone? I still have vivid remembrance of being pregnant with them. I have images burned into my memory of their hospital days. This year has been a challenging one. This is the year "The Adventures of Camden and Cadence" was born. I wonder, did I take the time to enjoy them? Did I revel in the uniqueness of twins? Or did I just muddle through and complain about the challenges of two at a time? I'm not sure I appreciated them near enough. Despite their adventurous nature, I love them. I'm glad they're here. Happy 3rd Birthday Girls!