recent events

i have decided today's post will encompass a couple things that have gone on lately as i am not good at blogging on a daily basis and there are a couple of things that have occurred to me that i would like to document.

we recently celebrated st. patrick's day here by going to philadelphia's parade. all three boys marched with my husband and were so excited to throw candy at people along the parade route. they really did look so cute, i couldn't even stand it. and, they did a great job! all three marched the entire length with no tears and no complaints. that is a red letter event in the rafter household! no tears is definitely something to blog about. hell, that's almost worthy of a billboard! the girls did not get to march this year, so they watched from the sidelines with the rest of the family in all of their parade finery. they, also, looked too cute for words. i love parade day (now, for the three years straight that i was pregnant for it, it was NOT my favorite day). to me, it is such a family-oriented celebratory day. and this year was expecially fun, because we had a really large group with us. for me, the st. patrick's day parade is the perfect example of being irish catholic in philadelphia and i am happy that i have this opportunity to show my children about the roots of our heritage. i don't know why i identify so strongly with the parade. i don't remember going myself as a child, but i do have pictures of my father in it when he was young. i guess i just like the tradition of it and the fact that we have it. i think i also like that it is a pretty irish american tradition (from what i understand, st. patty's day in ireland is nothing like it is here) and we are most definitely irish americans. plus, it's a day when i get to dress my kids up really cute and they all keep their hats on all day (and in the long run, what is more important than that? haha).

so, the next point that i thought i would share is something that the girls did this weekend. saturday was a very productive day here. i cleaned the first floor and decorated for easter. the kids were in and out of our postage stamp sized backyard all day (in a temporary fit of insanity on thursday, i bought a huge bubble bucket, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk). at one point, i looked out back and did not see the girls. i checked through the house, no girls. at this point my husband went outside to look for them. they were still not in the yard, nor were they in the alley. he did, however, manage to run them down on cedar street. we do not live on cedar street. it is the cross street at our corner. it's a reasonably large street (a septa bus route runs up it) with a good amount of traffic. apparently, the darlings were able to sneak through the gate out back, escape up the alley and go hang out the corner. great. if that is what they are doing at 2, what do you think is in store for us when they are 16? i kind of hope that i will have already been institutionalized by then.

so, i now have three potty chairs in my living room. great. i know that the end result will be super incredibly awesome because, honestly i can't even imagine what my days would be like if i didn't have diapers to change; but potty training is THE ALL TIME WORST JOB EVER. it is almost worth it to go on changing diapers forever. that is how much i hate it. it does seem, however, that the girls may be a little easier to train than the boys. for instance, today, when i went upstairs to pee (i was trying to sneak and see if i could actually get the bathroom alone for a minute) and before i even got the door closed, katie showed up with her potty in tow. alright, i'll take one for the team here and share the bathroom in the interest of never having to buy a diaper again. i get katie all situated and sure enough, cara shows up with her potty. apparently, i'm taking two for the team. so now, the three of us are all in the bathroom and only one of us is actually using the facilities. the other two are sitting down and standing up like they are playing a game of musical chairs while asking me for "toilet paper towels." dennis, at this point has expressed no real interest whatsoever in being potty trained, and in fact, actually thinks he is trained. he tells people all the time that he pees in the toilet. i'm not sure if he is delusional or not, but that is simply not the truth.

it does promise to be an interesting couple of weeks here. hopefully, what everyone says about girls is true, and i will have no problem getting them potty trained. keep your fingers crossed for me!

ps - i have included some pictures of the kiddies at the parade. thanks again!