The Jones Girls

Lately the girls have been fascinated with bugs.   They are in the backyard exploring under rocks and bricks looking for all kinds of different bugs to collect in the special bug houses.

This is silk worm season so Savannah’s preschool has been focusing teaching them about caterpillars turning into cocoons and then into butterflies.  They are also learning about polliwogs and how they grow up to be frogs.  

Last week the girls were so proud.  They had collected over 50 rollie pollies and brought the container in the house to show them to me.    They forgot to take the container back outside and they left the container – with the lid off – and the rollie pollies got out and are living amongst us in the house.   Eeeeek!!!

We are teaching them not to touch spiders and Daddy Cliff has taught them that worms are fine to play with but don’t play with a worm that has legs, they are dangerous!!

On May 7th I took Savannah to her school, EL Portal, where she will be attending Kindergarten.   

I had to provide a huge packet of paperwork before they would give us the appointment for Savannah’s enrollment.     I was amazed at how much information I had to provide.  They even wanted a dental oral exam certification filled out.    After I gave them the completed packet, they school gave us an appointment which was on May 7th.

So on May 7th Savannah and I met with a 3 person panel at the school.  The first person we met with was the schoo nurse to go over her health and discuss any issues.  Then we moved onto the school psychologist who performed and evaluated Savannah’s academic skills.   Then we moved onto the school principal who did some more evaluating.   The appointment took almost 2 hours.  Whew!!

I am proud to say my baby girl Savannah is now enrolled in Kindy!!    We will be attending the KIndy Open House at school this Wednesday.   Savannah is so excited to see her classroom, meet the teacher, and best of all – check out the playground!!

Another step for my baby girl to become a big girl….

Yesterday Miranda was playing in the pool in the backyard.  A bee flew right on her finger and stung her.   That MEAN bee!!  She screamed so loud I thought her tonsils were going to spill out.  She was in so much pain.  Cliff and I both had to work on getting the stinger out.   That stinger was in her finger pretty good.

She scored a really cute Curious George band-aid out of the deal though.   All is well now in Miranda Land.

My poor baby girl….

Well the Big Day has come – a huge milestone for Savannah.  She has surrendered her blankie to mommy and daddy for safe keeping.   We are trying to help her overcome thumb sucking and she LOVES sucking her thumb and cuddling with blankie, which she calls her FiFi, at night.  

Now that her two bottom teeth have fallen out, this is the time to have Savannah stop the thumb sucking.  We don’t want the thumb sucking to make her new teeth come in crooked.

She cried and told her FiFi bye bye.  I tell you, I had to hold back the tears.  My heart just ached for her.    It sucks to have to help your kid grow up.  Some things are just so precious to see them do and enjoy, and to take it away from them hurts the parent more than the child.

Why did Savannah name her blankie FiFi?  When she was 10 months old, she became fascinated with Fish.  She would pronounce them “Fi”.   She slept in her crib on top of a soft, white, eyelet lace crib comforter that she became attached to at 10 months.   She began sucking her thumb at 9 months and began cuddling with her crib blanket and sucking her them at 10 months.    At 11 months she had a huge attachment to her FiFi and it had to be wherever she was.   She named her blanket, FiFi, after the thing she loved (and still loves) Fish.  She loved to rub on the eyelet lace holes.  

We are so proud of our Big Girl Savannah!!  We love you!! 

Wow, I made the news again!! You have to check this out on CNNBC!!!!  Woo hoo!!

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=jYrxVmjtLhhT_rqwsCJnADc4NzA4NDg-&referred_by=16244502-fq8J9hx

Yesterday I was out running errands.  While under the WATCHFUL eye, or should I say not so watchful eye of Daddy Cliff, the girls had a fun time wanting to be like mommy.

They sat in front of my vanity in my bedroom and searched through all of my drawers.  They discovered my make-up.    They drew with my liquid foundation that has SPF sunblock in it, they colored themselves with my different colored lipsticks, and they decorated all of my make-up on my closet doors, antique vanity that was my grandmothers and the hard wood floors.   I also found guilty finger prints sprinkled on different walls throughout the house!!

When I got home from my errands, Cliff said he wanted to show me some pictures and video.   Savannah was there and she had a very guilty look on her face.  So, I watched at first in fascination which then turned into horror as I saw what my 4 little angels had been up to.   They certainly weren’t angelic during that fiasco!! 

Savannah swears that she was “forced” by the coercion of her sisters to do the deed.  Hmmm…really?  I asked her, well then why do I see smiley faces and Mickey Mouse drawings on my closet door that are your height, and much taller than the triplets could have drawn.   She was silent.    I tell you, Savannah is a young 5.  It is more like have quads that are toddlers rather then triplets that are toddlers and a preschooler!!  Sheesh!!

They foundation, powder, lipstick and all of the other kinds of make up were encrusted in their hair and all of their bodies from head to toe.   Cliff gave them a cold shower to teach them a lesson no to do it again.   Then he gave them a regular warm bath and shower.  He shampooed their hair 3 times each and their hair got sticker each time he shampooed.  He was dumbfounded why the shampoo wasn’t working.  Well, hello, their is SPF sunblock in the makeup which is meant to STICK on the face to protect against sun damage, that is why it is STICKING to their hair!!  The shampoo just made the sunblock work even harder to stick to the hair.  At least now I know the $$$$ money I paid for all of that Shiseido makeup with the sunblock really does work.

He put them in their bedrooms after the baths.   I visited Savannah and Miranda and they each got a shower and a bath.  It took me 7 times of using conditioner to cut through the makeup in her hair.  Conditioner is what gets the foundation out, not shampoo.    Soap didn’t get all of the make up stains on her skin in different parts of her body.   That will just take time to get off I guess.  Savannah took 8 hair washes.  Her hair is curly and she somehow had even more make-up than Miranda did.

Amanda and Maryssa had crashed out and I was not about to wake them up from their much needed “beauty sleep”!!   So this morning they each got showers and baths.  Maryssa has super curly hair and it took 6 times of condition treatments and tons of hair brushing.  She was miserable poor thing.  Amanda has the shortest hair of everyone so she took a mere 3 times of condition treatments.  

I had to break out with a steel wool pad (SOS pad), cleanser, lots of soapy hot water and tons of rags to clean up the mess in my room.  The varnish on my antique vanity is ruined and I could just cry.   I got the makeup off of the closet doors and walls.  I see a few little foot prints on the floor that are embedded in the hard wood floor varnish and I am hoping that in time that will get rubbed out.

So now I want my girls to be just like me – have no makeup and since there is no makeup to wear in the house, I won’t be able to wear any.  This means my girls will want to be just like me and not want to wear makeup either.   

Actually, I will invest in a little makeup bag and get some more makeup.  This time it will be locked up in my bathroom cabinet, safe from my little stinkers!!

Tonight we all sat on the couch after dinner and Savannah mentioned her tooth was really loose and she wanted to pull it out.    She asked Daddy to help twist it around a little and then Savannah grabbed hold of her tooth and pulled it out!!   Her sisters stared in amazement as they saw Savannah calmly pull out her tooth.

I tell you, Savannah is becoming a real pro at tooth extractions.  Her Uncle Ned would be so proud (he is a pediatric dentist).

She was asking if the Tooth Fairy would come tonight  I said she sure would.  So we put her tooth in the special tooth box and put it under her pillow.  She will get another $1 for her tooth.  Wow, she has made some good money this past week!!

She talks a little funny with both of her bottom teeth out.   

This is all just a constant reminder that my baby girl is no longer a baby….