Tenacious Tendancies!

My precious Payton has become quite obsessed with Zumba. She talks about it incessantly, tries to show Brooklyn the "moves", and tells any stranger that makes eye contact with her that it is her "new workout I do with my Mom, that's her." (pointing at me) (This is in addition to her name, her sisters name, and the fact that they are twins and that Brookie likes kitties. She is my social butterfly!) Brooklyn prefers to sit and watch us, so she is daily bombarded with helpful and exuberant suggestions from Payton. They are of mostly this nature; "Brooklyn, you should move your shoulders like this(shrugs shoulders) while you step like this( steps back and forth), or else you're doing it wrong! Here, watch me!" Brooklyn is normally in the next room by now, walking away shortly after Payton started talking!

Today Marianne is coming over with the girls for Zumba. Payton has been excited all day, cleaning and moving things from room to room in anticipation of their arrival. I found her at one point trying to push the couch back!! You would really have to see how tiny she is in proportion to the huge leather couch to understand the depth of my amusement. She is pretty ferocious for one so vertically challenged!

Payton has a pretty bad cough this week, and she was hacking away while wiping down their little table in the kitchen. Right in the middle of rearranging the vase of flowers sitting on said table she all of the sudden runs to the trashcan and gets violently ill! I held her hair back and then wiped her little face and asked her if she was Ok. Brooklyn was having a full blown freak out behind me, worried over her sister, but I knew it was coming because her cough is from choking on the stuff draining down her throat. She turned her little face up to mine and wiped her brow and said to me, "Mom, I can still Zumba, don't worry."

Oh, thank goodness!! That was TOTALLY what I was worried about Payton!

Watch out world, this child is fierce and deadly determined, once she gets her mind set on a goal!


On a side note, how much does it rock that my four year old sprite had the presence of mind to run to the trashcan!? I can't say the same for my nine year old, who actually changed the color of the carpet in the hallway last time she was sick :{

Sorry for the TMI!!

From the Mouths of Babes!

Just a quick share; Marianne came over today, and we Zumba'd(a Latin dance aerobic workout) our butts off in the living room. Our gym closed this Monday, so we are home-Zumba-ing for now! Payton did the workout with us today, and I must say she is dedicated, if not very skilled :) She muttered at one time, "I wish this was over...." or something to that effect, but she never took more than a 30 second break! We visited for awhile after the workout over our sugar-free Cinnamon Dulce Chai Latte's, and then the other Hiester ladies departed so we could all get to our busy days.
I took the twins in to put their hair up, and as Payton was following me into my bathroom she exclaimed,
"WOO!! There is no WAY Daddy is going to be able to do that Mommy, that was some HARD moves!" She then wiped her brow in mock exhaustion and rolled her eyes!! I love love love my kids :))

Cafe de la Mommy!

About a week ago, I was having some trouble with the twins. Now, nothing major, like the two of them forming a gang and skulking along the streets of Quail Lakes at night with their other tiny hoodlum friends; rather mundane and unimaginative trouble. They have been scoffing at my insistence that they pick up their room every night before bed, and have even gone so far as to stage little mini picket lines along their train table with My Little Ponies and other small toys of questionable character! Can you imagine? Well, we sat down with them and had a talk about doing the things that are asked of them in a "timely manner", so that everyone (meaning mommy) can go to bed happy and start the day fresh. They seemed to absorb the idea, with Payton actually stroking her chin in contemplation of the whole thing. Wonderful, thoughtful children. :)
The next day around 10 or so, they asked for a snack. Brooklyn came into the kitchen and said they wanted cheese and crackers, and so I obliged and cut up cracker-sized cheddar to accompany said crackers onto a small platter. I handed the tray to Brookie, and she smiled pleasantly and said, "Thank you". Then the little Diva carried the tray into the dining room where Payton was waiting and said, "Here is the food we ordered Payton." ORDERED? To which Payton replied, " Nice and timely!"
Genius! using my own words against me in the proper context the very next day! I honestly don't know whether to be proud of their quick minds, or insulted by the insinuation!

The Incredible Shrinking Bug!

I have to share this before I forget! Last week I was driving Sydney Rae to school and we were playing our usual and ongoing game of slugbug(minus the slugging, being girls and all). She spotted an old one, and asked,

"Mom, why are they so small like that? Do they shrink when they get old? Man, I would hate to be driving one when it does that!"

She was of course referring to the difference in size between the newer model Volkswagen Beetles, and the older smaller bugs. I said, "What?" in my usual articulate and elegant delivery, and she said,

"You know, like how old people get smaller?"

Now what beautiful logic is that?! I laughed and laughed, and explained to her why they were smaller and more beat up looking, and then she laughed at herself! Do I laugh at my children too much, you think? I like to refer to it as "building emotional calluses"! Maybe it is more like "therapy-prep"!! :)

Silly Mommy, kids know it all!

This morning my little sprite of a Payton bounded into my room carrying the package of hot dogs Chad opened when he got home yesterday. She was beaming her beautiful little smile and breathing quite heavily(quite possibly because of all of the bounding). Silently, but with grand gestures she presented the hot dogs to me, and when I told her that "hot dogs are not for the morning baby girl." , she just threw her head back and laughed! If you have never heard Payton laugh, it is very much like being lost in the woods and hearing the bushes giggle and squeal, knowing there are forest sprites behind them, but never being able to see one for yourself!! (of course there are absolutely no such thing as forest sprites, but you can imagine it, can you not??) She then says to me, "Silly Mommy, hot dogs are for all the time, don't you know that?". I told her to go put them back and I would cut up an apple for her, and she was just as happy with that as a snack, but I could hear her mumbling to herself as she put the hot dogs back into the fridge, mostly things pertaining to how much I make her laugh, and how much I just don't know! :)

Witty Reno Trip Retorts

We traveled to Reno this past weekend to see a childhood friend of Chad's get married. The drive up wasn't bad, and we had a lovely weekend. We got to enjoy some adult interaction and spend some quality time with the girls. All in all a lovely weekend :)

The trouble started on the drive home(there is always some kind of trouble if you're a Hiester, usually of the hilarious variety). You see, Chad drove the whole way up, and so I very graciously offered to drive home. What we were thinking I will never know, because we both know I get horribly anxious around motorcycles and road construction, and there was an over abundance of BOTH the whole weekend. I mentioned several times throughout the weekend that being in Reno during a biker convention was like being in the 9th circle of hell for me. Not the 7th, the NINTH!!! It isn't the people on the bikes that get me, it's being on the road with the bikes. How they drive up between you and other cars, and how one wrong pothole and I might run one over!! but I digress.....

So I am driving amongst all of the road construction and motorcycles, and always picking the slowest lane when the traffic would get diverted, and my dear husband is giving me lots of helpful advice on how I should be doing things! We are bickering lightly and trying to keep it from escalating(which road trips can often do to a perfectly normal difference of opinion), when he gives me one of his big dramatic sighs about my lane choice. I said something brilliant and well thought out(I am sure), and he starts lamenting the decision to let me drive in the first place. I asked him to kindly stop talking to me so that I could concentrate, and he responded with, "In the next town we are stopping and I am going to drive."

Now, this is talking to me, which I had just ever so kindly asked him not to do, and so I started to laugh(probably maniacally) and said, "Why do you insist on chipping away at the part of me that doesn't want to kill you? Why?" Which after a short pause lead to a car full of raucous laughter, and loads of broken tension!!!

Needless to say we stopped for gas, and after a quiet mutiny, I resigned my position as captain. The drive went smoother after that, at least for me :) We all got home safe and sound, to a very broken washing machine and a ripped up rug(the cat has been awfully frisky lately!). Another beautiful Hiester Family outing!!

Burrowing Brooklyn Beth!

Sometime last night Brooklyn snuck into our room and made a bed on the floor. I discovered her this morning when I got up to make Chad's coffee, and she had the whole top half of her body under the bed!! I left her there mainly because I was only half awake, and so it was a couple of minutes later when I heard her call for me, sounding slightly panicked. I went into the room and there she was, still tucked half under the bed. I asked her what she was doing and she replied, "Mommy, I don't know where I am." I laughed and laughed!! Man, these children of mine sure do make me laugh! I pulled her out gently and she giggled too when she realized she was under our bed! Priceless :)

Was That Applause?! :0

So I was helping my precious Sydney pick out which jeans she could wear to school the other day, sitting on the floor in her room in front of her pants drawer. We picked the best pair, and Sydney started to pull them on, turning her backside towards me and bending over to pull them up, effectively sticking her bottom in my face! (she is rather cheeky!!)
When this sweet, sweet child had her butt about four inches from my face, and while I had my hand halfway to it to give her a good smack, she farted!! Not just any old run of the mill toot either, but one of those forceful ones that makes your butt cheeks clap!! I was stunned into silence, but not Sydney. She stood up lightning fast and turned around to face me. We stared at each other in mutual shock for a second, and then she burst into a fit of sobbing!! "I AM SO SORRY!", she screamed into my face, "PLEASE DON'T SPANK ME, I AM SOOOOOO SORRY!" I couldn't resist, I had to burst out laughing. She had only meant to be sassy and flash her behind at me as she got those pants on, and had not planned the perfectly timed execution of gas passing!
I was so irritated, and yet I could not stop giggling, rolling over into a heap on the floor as my tear stained daughter stood there and fretted about her fate. When I had finally composed myself somewhat, I told her she was done for, that she wouldn't know when or where, but the revenge would be oh so sweet!! I have to say that when it comes to surprising me with unexpected bodily functions, that girl takes the cake!! Just ask Marianne(my sister-in-law) about the' "It's in my eyes!!" incident! hahaha

Parental Partiality!

My poor, sweet husband is very very sick! He had a fever of 104 for 32 hours, and even now it is staying at about 102. Why do men try to act like they can work through anything? I won't have any of his back talk about this though, and so I have quarantined our bedroom and ordered him down for the weekend, but the twins are having a hard time with this.
Payton lays down in front of the closed door and asks Daddy how he is doing, squinting as though if she just tries hard enough she can see him. I catch her repeatedly trying to sneak in when she thinks I am occupied!
Sydney is allowed into the room since she was the initial carrier monkey, and so she is mainly unaffected. Except maybe by the fact that she is his designated "fetcher" :)
Brooklyn Beth; well, Brookie is not handling the separation well, and in normal Diva fashion after complaining all day that she "needed" to see him, arranged a boycott of dinner tonight.
She proclaimed to her devoted masses(us) that she would not eat without her Father. Now, she did say Father, which implied her seriousness regarding the subject along with making her sound very big and grown up. I sat her plate down and turned back to the counter, telling her Daddy is sick(for the thousandth time today) and he has to eat in the bedroom.
"SICK?!" she cried out, making me drop the pot holder I was putting away. I turned to say yes, but the child was already at my feet. "Mom, Daddy is sick?", she asked, and then before I could answer, "I need to tell you something in your ear." I crouched down and offered up my ear for the whisper(none of my children whisper though, so it is always just more moist than quiet) and she pulled me down further and leaned in and asked, "What color is it?"
What?!
I laughed and laughed, and she stalked away quite offended by my rudeness, but how could I not? The things a four year old finds fascinating are usually very entertaining, but what color someone is retching up has to take the cake! :)-

My Amazing Firstborn!

Sydney Rae started her first day of third grade last week, and as always I am a little sad. She had a great week, "spectacular" was the term she used to describe it, but for me it just means she is growing up. It seems like with Sydney I couldn't wait for her to hit that next milestone, grow that next inch. I didn't really sit back and appreciate each stage as it came with her, because I was always so excited for the next one. Now I regret that. I am sure that every mother in existence has all kinds of regrets when it comes to their children, but please bear with me as I lament a little about mine!

We have taken the time to cherish the little things with the twins, and they have stayed little for so long. I think knowing they were my last gave me the desire to really hold on to their baby and toddler years, which in some cases was priceless, and in others just silly and prolonged :) So far with them my biggest sadness was only being able to rock them to sleep a handful of times because there are two of them and it simply wasn't going to be feasible very often. So far. With my Sydney I am constantly worried I haven't done right by her, that there may be something I missed, some opportunity I passed up. She is such an amazing person, this little girl that is growing up so fast. Her heart is so strong and kind, and she has such an amazing and childlike faith in God, that sometimes I am in awe of her. She will be a far better woman than I am, thank goodness.

Yesterday we were talking about a girl in her class that is sometimes mean for what seems to be no reason. I asked Sydney what she did when the girl was rude to her. She said, " Mom, I figured the best thing to do was just be quiet and walk away, because when someone is mean for no reason, there is ALWAYS a reason, and maybe she just needs attention from her parents, or a friend. We should pray for her." Now I have tried to teach her about people and the reasons they do things, but at 8 to have actively applied it at school was pretty impressive. I was so proud of her, and so very, very thankful she has God in her heart. That girl has had a grasp of Jesus that has taken me 29 years to build since the day she could communicate it, and yet still she surprises me with it. She makes me want to be a better person. I love my girl!!

Another Broken Bone!

Well, my oldest child has now broken her second bone! At least this one is a small one, in her left pinkie, but still. I had ardently hoped that my penchant for accidents would skip a generation(or two), but alas, that was never to be. This is the child that chipped her front teeth on her father's head not once, but twice(playing peek-a-boo behind him on the couch........both times)!! The baby who gets her finger obliterated by a rabbit. The child that gets teeth knocked out on trampolines, and on bicycles. The sweet girl who broke her wrist two years ago just playing at recess. This girl weighs heavy on the part of me that wants to curl up and cry like a baby when I see injury or blood of any kind. You know those people that curl in on themselves, swooning and moaning when they see other people's blood? Ya, that's me :) I am so inconvenient to have around during an accident!

So, I woke up with a headache and a full day ahead of me this morning! I missed one of my very first assignments for my English class, and we didn't eat dinner until 9:00 last night, but all five of us are present and accounted for today, so things could be worse! The assignment was only worth five points, so hopefully it won't put too big of a dent in my grade. I can only pray that my two littlest girls will fare better in the injury department, thus sparing me from the constant agony of seeing a piece of my heart wounded!! Either that, or that they at least wait until Daddy is home to start bleeding!! :0

Lots of Hearts :)

This morning very early a tiny little body climbed into the bed beside me. I turned to cuddle this precious child, and she sighed sleepily and told me, "Mommy, I have lots of hearts ". When I asked, "Lot's of hearts?" she nodded her head in affirmation and explained. "I have a big heart for you, and a big blue heart for Daddy, and a sister heart for Sydney, and a giraffe heart for Payton, and one for Grammy." So cute!! What a fantastic way to start a Sunday morning :)

A Budding Politician

Today Payton got sent to her room for yelling. When I went in to talk to her about why she was in trouble, she had a very interesting way of explaining her offense.

When I asked her if she understood why yelling at someone was the wrong way to get their attention, she acted offended. "I wasn't yelling at her Mom", she stated with tiny hands on tiny hips, "I just like talking at people very loud."

Priceless :)

Oh The Things They Say!

As the mother of three darling girls, I can attest to the fact that females have a natural inborn flair for the dramatic. Well, at least MY girls do, and can you all just hear my mother snickering over her long ago declaration that she"hopes I have three girls just like" me? She always said three girls, because there were only the two of us for her, me and Janna, and so she figured even one more for me would be fair and justifiable payback. Well Momma, sometimes you do get exactly what you ask for! :)

Last night I was laying in bed reading a book(shocking, I know) with Chad, and at a full trot enters Brooklyn, effectively demolishing our blissfully serene state. She is sobbing and exasperated, wisps of hair hanging in her face. She slams into my side of the bed and throws her pretty little head down onto the mattress.
"Mommy, Payton is ruining my life!" she muffles into the sheet, but somehow still effecting quite the long-suffering wail. Keep in mind this child is four years old, FOUR! Every time Brooklyn is upset, she is able to express her innermost feelings with her whole body, mind and possibly soul, all the while peeking up at me to make sure I am paying rapt attention. It is a thing of beauty. Now I asked her very calmly what Payton could have possibly done to "ruin her life"(without laughing I think you should know). She has now weaseled her way onto the bed and buries her face into my neck. "She won't go with me to the kitchen, and I'm thirsty." This is also a wail. Effective.

It was dark you see, and these precious children were supposed to be in bed. None of my girls will walk around in the dark, so we keep all of the lights off in the front of the house to discourage getting out of bed, with the exception of a night light in the bathroom. I guess thirst got the better of her and she was going to go get a drink of water, but only if Payton was willing to accompany her and turn on the light. Funny. Who knew water fetching was such a life altering thing?

So even though I knew it was happening I still got up and got the child a cup of water, which is exactly what she wanted in the first place. Dramatic and diabolical!! Watch out world, here come the Hiester girls :)

Pebble Extraction!

Never a dull moment at my house! Yesterday Sydney comes running into the house with Payton and Brooklyn running behind her, all of them screaming and crying. They are all giving us random information simultaneously, but we got from Syd that Payton had a rock up her nose. Now there was blood everywhere, and I don't do well when my children are bleeding, so Chad scoops her up and carries her into the kitchen while I gave myself a mini pep talk about stepping up. :)

Chad looked up her nose with a flashlight and declared that there was nothing up there, but Payton was so insistent and upset, not to mention the breakdown Brooklyn was having over the rock that I took over. I swabbed her nose with a Q-tip and some hydrogen peroxide and then made Chad hold the light while I pushed her nose up and back and peered inside. Sure enough there is this dark pebble lodged waaaaaay back in her right nostril, and she must have been trying to claw it out because there was a lot of blood and her nose was in pretty bad shape. She is a bleeder.

I went into "clinical" mode then, and ordered all of the unhurt screaming children to go outside, made Payton lay back on the counter and close her eyes, and made Chad go get the tweezers and bend them way out and then back together at the tip (for more resistance and a better grip) and then proceeded to dig around in her nose for about five minutes until I extracted the nasal intruder! Go me! the fact that I did it without tears or fainting is such a big thing(and I am talking about me, not Payton)!! The child was so grateful to be free of it that it broke my heart :(

Then I had to pour salt water up her nose to clean it out and ward against infection, which feels like you are drowning and which she took like a champ. Later we determined that the big kids(Sydney had a few neighbor girls in the back yard) had been putting pebbles in their nose and then blowing them out at each other, which is so gross I cannot even tell you, and that Payton had tried to do it, but sucked it into her nose instead of blowing it out! Can you imagine?! What happened to girls playing house or dolls? Well, that was my fun story for the week hopefully, have a great day!

Royalty Among the Masses!

The day before the twins birthday party was a mad jumble of activity, loud noises, and seemingly life-altering decisions. I spent the day out with the twins, which in and of itself is an exercise in patience on a good day. You just cannot expect two preschool age children to be buckled in and out of their boosters to traipse around store after store all afternoon without some resistance.

All in all they were great, only really testing the limits in the cake decoration store. I think I may have said, "Hands to ourselves, please" in that [you will rue the day I first saw your father if you don't remove your hand] tone of voice well over thirty times in the thirty minutes we were there. You know the tone, the one where it comes out all sweet and sing-songy, but is tainted with a menace only a Mother can render! but I have to give them credit, they always pulled their hand away and never actually tried to take anything from the shelves. They only wanted to touch each and every thing within arms reach!

After picking up Syd and Chad I had to get the house ready and dinner on and the following days outfits set out( we had my great-grandmother's funeral to go to before the party) and put together the party favor bags and get everyone showered and pick up the cakes. I fit in an appearance at the tea party being thrown in the twins room, complete with plastic cookies and chicken legs and peas. It was lovely, and so I left for the store a half hour later in a great mood, nothing brightens the day like pretend tea with pretend sugar :)

I picked up the cakes at Von's with what I thought were my sunglasses on my head, chatting with the lady at the bakery about Payton's passion for giraffes and Brookie's preoccupation with princesses. I then meandered through the aisles, happy for a few minutes of solitude, perusing the frozen foods and the cheeses. I picked out three kinds of ice cream next to a lovely mother and her two teenagers, and then stood in line at the checkout behind a father and son, with a young couple behind me in line. I exchanged pleasantries with the woman behind the checkout, and then went out and got into the car to go home. I tell you all of that to tell you this;
My cheek itched terribly as I put on my seat belt, and so I leaned over to look into the rear view mirror to check it out, and discovered that what I thought were my sunglasses was actually a PLASTIC SILVER TIARA!, complete with huge pink plastic stones, which had been bestowed upon me during the tea party!!

The thing that gets me the most, other than my dorky obliviousness, is that no one said a thing!! Not the lady at the bakery, who talked to me for five minutes at least! Nor the woman at the checkout, who I should point out never made eye contact with me, and I can see why!! So either they all thought I was some crazy person it would be unwise to upset, or their professionalism is such that they were afraid to embarrass me. TOO LATE! I went and did that all by myself! :) Or, maybe they were fooled by the plastic stones and thought I was a princess worthy of their respect and admiration!!............lol!

What I hope is that some tired soul was having a bad day, and the sight of a grown woman wearing a tiara while buying princess cakes and acting as if that were not a bit weird gave them a laugh and brightened their day! Hope it brightens yours :)

Another Backseat Debate!

We had another car argument this morning, you know the kind! The one where it starts with a statement by Brooklyn, followed by a snide contradiction by Payton, followed by a high volume retort to the contrary by Brookie, and so on and so forth until the backseat is a puddle of tears and people driving next to us are gawking because they can hear my sweet girls over the music in their cars with their windows rolled up! Oh if only my arms were just four inches longer.......not that that would have mattered today, given that they were in the third row and taking full advantage of their remote location. Let me share the subject they were so vehemently debating; cows.

Now before you double over in raucous laughter at my predicament, hear the whole sad story. The twins have sides of the car that they claim as their own. Claiming territory has been going on since birth, and the car windows were certainly never going to be an exception. Well, due to some unforeseen decision by two unrelated but nonetheless connected farmers, there were cows in the fields directly across the street from each other. So when Brooklyn saw "her" cows, she squealed with precious four year old delight that she had cows!!(some mornings one will have horses, one will have goats, etc.) Payton was watching for critters on her side and is seeing only the cows outside her window so naturally assumes Brooklyn is trying to claim what are rightfully(due to the rules of the car) HER cows! Can you see the storm coming?

Poor Brookie thinks she is being robbed of her coveted cows and starts to raise her voice right away. "They are MY cows Payton, not yours!!", and Payton would never back down from a challenge when her property is being threatened, so of course she screeches back, "MINE!", and there starts the one word war for the duration of the ride! "MINE!", "NO!", "MINE!", "NO!", and when I try to input reason into the scene, I get lots and lots of that funny gibberish girls talk when they are really upset and crying over something, and I get it from both of them at high volume simultaneously. Whew! I was never happier to pull into the garage and deliver the necessary comfort hugs! Needless to say I will be using my alternative driving route to reach our destination later this afternoon, and may the cows stay as forgotten as every other thing they get heated up about! True to form, they are now sitting and putting a puzzle together, thick as thieves. I wish we all could forgive and forget so easily.

Thank Heaven for spirited little girls! :)

Biliferous Birthday!!

Hello people! I hope you all had a beautiful Mother's Day! I was vomiting and racked with fever, but other than that mine was lovely. :) The Advil would kick in and I would have about two hours of halfway normality, and so I squeezed in as much fun as possible between doses. I went and explored old boats and ships on the San Francisco Bay, meandered through the Aquarium, got sick on a park bench, and then took some more Advil and watched everyone else eat lunch and then did a little shopping before we had to leave. The weekend was actually pretty lovely considering my bad turn of luck and the unfortunate reality of Brookie sleeping literally the entire time we were there. We just bought a stroller when we got there and pushed her little sleeping body all over San Fran for two days! We have pictures of her sleeping all over the city, to show her all she missed. I got to spend some time with my Mom and my girls, so all in all it was a great day.

Yesterday I was just as sick, and so I tried to stay down and rest. Brooklyn still wasn't feeling quite like herself however, and she was pretty frank about her feelings. She wanted me to hold her, but I had the shakes so bad from the fever that I asked her to just sit next to me instead, explaining that Mommy wasn't feeling well. She turns the full power of her deep blue eyes upon me and starts to cry these big crocodile tears. "What's wrong baby?" I inquired, and she responds with this heart wrenching wail, "I don't want you to be sick, I want to be sick!" No sympathy from the masses, I'm afraid. Mommy doesn't get a sick day.

Now yesterday was the day when four years ago my two precious little ones entered this world! I was so pitiful I had to ask my own Mommy to get a cake for the girls so that we could sing to them properly with candles and a few gifts. I guess being a mom is a forever job, because even at almost 29 I still ran to mine when I was sick! Thank goodness we postponed their actual party until the 23rd. Thank goodness that even after all of these years, when I needed it Mom still had the power to fix anything! I just hope that when my girls are grown they can say the same of me.

Another update on the sickies!

Well, last night Brookie's luck ran out and right in the middle of a pouting session in the hallway her dinner exited her body much much quicker than it had been previously put in!(the child eats like a snail) She doesn't seem to have it as bad as Payton, but we are leaving for San Francisco tomorrow at 6:00 a.m., so in my book, it is just as bad! Her immune system has always been stronger than Payton's, so we can hope for a quicker recovery time. Sydney is still healthy, so that's a plus, but I am now running on pure adrenaline and diet Pepsi after three nights of cleaning, cuddling, and cooing, not necessarily in that order. Not so good for Momma. Or Daddy if we are being totally honest. :)

After about the third time Brooklyn "visited the bowl" by her bed she reaches for me, and as she hugged me fiercely she says, " I decided I don't want to be sick no more Mom, I better." So cute and sad :( The poor girl thinks because she kept asking and pretending to be sick to be with Payton that she can decide to be better too! Not even Brooklyn can make that happen!

Wish me luck on this relaxing Mother's Day vacation, and I hope you all have a beautiful day whether you be mother or daughter!

Update, and It's a Twin Thing!

Today Payton was as sick as before, only she switched from vomiting to having a high fever and sleeping literally all day. We have seen the doctor, and at this point are just trying to make her as comfortable as possible until it runs its course. She can drink today, so my dehydration fears have been put to rest!(at least something has, Goodness knows I haven't the past two days!)

I have kept Brooklyn and Sydney away from Payton rather successfully so far, but not without effort, and it has shown me another interesting thing about twins. Though they are fraternal and two different little people, they identify themselves as a unit, and as a unit do not function properly when separated. This afternoon after Brookie had lunch she was following me around the house like a lost puppy, so I told her to go outside and play.
"I can't go outside Momma", she says to me "you have to have two kids to play outside".
"How about playing with Ponyville then?", I ask.
"No, you have to have two for that too."
"OK, then lets put a movie on for you".
"No mom, you need two for that too, I can't do anything without Payton, I need her!" she cries, and then covers her face with her arm Sarah Bernhard style and leans into my leg. I picked her up and tried telling her about germs and fevers, but she just fake coughed and claimed to be ravaged with sickness and asked if she could go to her sister. It broke my heart to tell her no, but I did let her wave from the doorway!

Tonight I was putting Payton into a cool bath, and she cried for Brooklyn the whole time while just leaning there motionless. I am ashamed to say I caved, and let Brookie get into the bath, warning them not to touch each other. Payton perked right up at the sight of her sister, and they talked and giggled while I washed them. Payton's fever broke while they were playing, and she went to bed cool and happy, something cool rags and Pedialyte Popsicles and Tylenol and Ibuprofen couldn't accomplish. I am just saying..........

You know, Payton started to get better in the hospital the minute they let me touch her and once we let the two of them touch and smell each other they got released from the NICU, and neither one can sleep well if the other isn't close enough to touch even now. Maybe they need that when they are sick too. How lucky to be made with a built in best friend! I am always learning from these two precious ones, and so grateful for the opportunity! :)

P.S. Sydney has totally rocked and helped me pick up the slack these last two days.....without even having to be asked! She is the best kid, I tell you :)