The Jones Girls

On Wednesday July 1st our friends from Boston drove up to spend 5 days with us.   They have 1 year old twin girls.

We grabbed our walkie talkies and gave them a car tour of our area.    Nothing beats good old Cliff giving every little detail about the area on the walkie talkie tour.    Beware, you might hear all about his life history on the tour too.  God I love my husband, bless his little heart.

We ended the the day with making everyone homemade spaghetti and meatballs and my famous Kimberladas.  Let’s see if I get any questions about what Kimberladas are…

On Tuesday, June 30th, we took a pretty drive about 2 hours north of our house in Vermont.  We drove to Shelbourne, VT, home to the Famous Vermont Teddy Bear Factory.

The girls were so excited to make their own teddy bears.   They got to choose from over a dozen colors of bears.   Savannah and Miranda picked red bears.   Maryssa picked a pink bear.  Amanda picked the cutest bear.  It is a cute green dinosaur teddy bear.

They got to put a special heart inside their bears, then flll them with stuffing and there was a helper there to do the final stitching of the bear.  They got to cut the “umbilical cord” which was the thread closing up the bear.  The girls each received a birth certificate for their bear.   It was so cute.

Then we all got a tour of Factory and learned how they make Teddy Bears, the history of the teddy bear and all of the different and interesting things that we had no idea about Teddy Bears.

We got some great pictures too.  Then we drove off just when it started sprinkling.    About 15 minutes into our drive, we saw super dark clouds and then drove right into a thunder and lightening storm.  The storm was right above our car.   The girls were amazed and intrigued by the thunder followed by a flash of lightening.    We drove the whole 2 hours through the storm.  

When we were driving into our neighborhood, it looked like the whole place was ambushed.  Trees were uprooted and it was a mess.     Turns out while we were having a blast at the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, a category Narly Ass Storm hit our town and blew it all up.  The electricity had been out for about an hour. 

I have to admit I was happy to know that I was not home when that all happened.   I just cringe at the thought of entertaining our 4 girls with no electricity in a huge storm.   

We had locked our front screen door and locked our front door and the only other way to get in the house was through the garage door with an ELECTRIC  OPENENER.    We couldn’t open up the garage door so we were basically locked out of our house.  

We were about to high tail it out of there and Cliff managed to slip his hand through the screen and unlock the door.  See, I knew husband are good for something!!  LOL!! 🙂

I lit a bunch of candles and then walked the girls upstairs.  We got pajamas on and I got them all in bed.    The electricity finally went on.

Good times in New England for sure!!

We slept in till about noon.    Then I dressed the girls in their cute matching outfits and Daddy Cliff took them to a little fast food place called Scarlottas.  This place is also a car hop..something you just don’t see anymore these days.  A true gem of a place with good food and even better cheap prices.

While Cliff was showing off the girls, I unpacked the boxes of clothes.  Yes I said boxes of clothes, not suitcases of clothes.   You see, it is easier to pack the clothes in boxes and mail them out 2 weeks ahead rather than packing them in suitcases and schlepping them through the airport.

Besides, with all 4 girls in car seats. there is simply no room for luggage.   The airlines rape us for $25 bucks per bag each way to fly the suitcases.  It is more convenient and about the same price to mail them.

Now how did I get so side tracked about our boxes vs. suitcases?  Oh yeah, I remember, the airlines suck beans and don’t give a rats ass about their customers.   Ah, that felt good to get off of my chest.

We flew out of Los Angeles airport – LAX.    We brought our dog Teddy with us.  He was in a carrier and fit perfectly under my seat.   We had a really interesting and annoying experience departing on our flight.      All of the passengers on the plane were buckled in their seats, all ready to go.   Then the captain gets on the intercom and says there is a weather delay and we will have to wait at the gate for 2 hours before take-off.  This is the kicker – – the captain said WE ALL HAD TO STAY SEATED ON THE PLANE AT THE GATE FOR 2 HOURS!!!!!     Is this guy freakin’ kiddin’ me??!!!  Obviously he doesn’t travel much with kids, the moron.

Well as a travel agent I figured out the airline’s strategy.  If they can keep the passengers on the plane even though they are delayed taking off, they can still say that they are on time because they have all of their passengers boarded on the plane.    They really should have just let us all wait in the airport and then board a 1/2 hour before takeoff.    Those Rat Bastards….

So there we sat…for two hours that seemed to be more like an eternity.   I think I would have rather been having contraction in labor…LOL!!  

I took Teddy out of the carrier and he sat on my lap and then we played musical laps and he sat on everyone’s lap.  That lasted for maybe…20 minutes.  Ok…we had 1 hour 40 minutes to go.   

Thank God I packed a duffle bag full of BRIBERY food for the girls.    I think in the course of an hour the girls ate every morsel that I had packed. 

I need to mention that Daddy Cliff had told me why am I going to so much trouble with food on the plane.    I told him I want to be prepared.  He gave me a hard time about it.   Well, when we were on the plane, he had to eat his words.   That man scavenger-ed for a bologna sandwich and had some other goodies too.    I told him wifie always knows.  Oh yes, Wifie always knows best 🙂

So now we were down to a one hour’s wait.   Can someone please just throw me out of the Emergency Exit please???

So now I start opening up the girls backpacks.  I had packed all kinds of fun things thought I bought in the dollar section at target.    So they had lots of fun peaking through their loot. 

Thank goodness I had packed their Mickey and Minnie Mouse plush toys.  They all played with those for a good 20 minutes.

The stewardess had mentioned they were going to be bringing COMPLIMENTARY food and beverages on the plane while we were crammed in like sardines on the plane.  Well, no dice!!   No food and no drinks.  We were stranded like starving and parched scavengers.  It sucked beans. 

Finally at the T Minus 10 minute mark before the 2 hours were up, we finally got to hear our almighty captain announce that we could get going.   Then the witch of a stewardess who promised us the free food and drinks announced that food would be available for $10 and said nothing about when the beverages would be handed out.    Ok, I was getting pissed.    American Airlines is screwed up.    Maybe they should change their name to Fucked UP American Airlines.

Thank goodness we had a nonstop flight to Boston.  Could you imagine what it would have been like to try to catch a connecting flight to Albany, NY?  We would have surely missed it and then would have had to beg or even cut off our leg for compassion.for stand by seats on another flight.

So our original arrival time in Boston was supposed to be 9pm which then turned into 10:30pm.

We got to our car rental at Alamo just fine.   Of course the girls had to use the portable potty before loading up in the car.  We set off for Vermont at about 11:45pm.

The ride went smooth.  Teddy was so happy to be out of his carrier.   He slept like a baby in my lap the whole 5 hour drive.

What a way to start out our vacation!!

On Tuesday I took all 4 girls to Children’s Hospital for Amanda’s 6 month follow up appointment with Dr. Joan Wright.    This was to check on Amanda’s progress with her thumb since her surgery in September of last year.

The Dr. says she thinks Amanda might need another surgery to rotate the thumb bone to make it more in an “opposed” position.  She also wants to loosen the tendon/ligament in the new thumb to allow her to bend her knuckles of her new thumb.  Currently Amanda is not able to bend the knuckles of her new thumb.   Then Dr. Wright wants to transfer some tendons and ligaments from one part of her hand to her new thumb.  She said that Amanda would really benefit from this procedure.

We have another appointment in 4 months which is on October 20th.     We will confirm if we will do the surgery.  If we do the surgery, I would elect to do it right after Christmas and have the major recovery time be the 2nd week of Christmas break.     Amanda will be in preschool in the Fall and she will be out for the 2 weeks of Christmas break.

I trust Dr. Wright’s reommendations.   Her outlook on orthropedic surgery is to be the least invasive and offer the best quality of life for the patient which is exactly the same thing I want for Amanda.

Amanda was fitted for another new brace that she wears at night.     Amanda is using her hand really well and uses her new thumb about 50% of the time .   We are hoping this surgery might offer Amanda better movement for her new thumb.

Amanda has a hard time pulling down her panties and pants when she goes to the potty.   Most times I have to helpher.   I starte giving her a reward system to give her more encouragement to use her new thumb and centralized hand to pull down her panties and pull up her panties.  She gets a Skittle candy every time she successfully can pull her panties up and down.  So far it has been a successful reward system and she is trying each time now to pull down her panties and pull up her panties.

Here is Maryssa’s progress with potty training – nothing.    She doesn’t quite get it yet and has no interest in the potty chair.   I have to get her potty trained before preschool starts in September so I will be working diligently this summer getting her potty trained.

On a happy note though, she only goes through 2-3 diapers in a 24 hours period.    I am thinking  I will start working with her this week and get her up and running.

Maryssa is going to be my baby longer which is ok for me!!    I know she won’t go to college in diapers so this will all come in the right time for Maryssa.     We love you our adorable and precious Maryssa!!

I haven’t had to purchase any diapers in almost 3 weeks.   I only go through 1-1/2 packages of pull ups a month for Miranda and Amanda.   So my diaper bill is FINALLY going down!!   Woo hoo!!

Miranda is now interested in going pee pee and poop in the toilet.     She still loves her potty chairs, but I would say once or twice a day I might see her on the toilet.

I saw something hysterical a few days ago .   Miranda came to me and said mommy, I pooped!!  So I went into the bathroom to empty out the potty chair.   Guess what I found!!  Not one, not two, but all THREE potty chairs had poop in them!!   Miranda puffed out her chest and proudly said, I pooped in all 3 potty chairs Mommy!!    I was cracking up so hard.  I had to take pictures.    

Miranda wears panties at the house during the day.  When we are not home, she wears a pull up but has not had an accident yet in her pull up.   At night she wears a pull up and she still pees in her pull up at night.  So she will still be wearing pull ups at night, but maybe during the day when we are not home I will try her wearing panties and see how she does.

I have a really cool travel potty chair in the minivan and they love using it.    I usually have them use the potty chair in the minivan before we go into the store or to the park.    I bought this travel potty chair when I was potty training Savannah when she was 2-1/2 and it was so helpful.    This is a link where I purchased the potty chair so you can see what it looks like.    http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=361755&cmSource=Search

Way to go my beautiful darling Miranda .  We are so proud of you precious!!