my swimmer, girls' trip, and generalness

so i have neglected you all again, but fully expect your pardon because...well, because i'm arrogant, i guess.

today was a good day. i've pretty much gotten the hang of taking care of three kids under the age of three, i think. most days are pretty good. yesterday, we had play group then went to lunch with friends. then i dropped noe and mali off at a friend's house and took landen to the grocery store (i'm not brave enough to try to shop with three little kids). today, i took them to story time at the library, then home for lunch and naps, then to the pool right across the street. everyone was good and happy for the most part, and we all had a great time. after landen went home, the girls and i played and ate dinner before bath time, then they cleaned their room and went to bed. tomorrow, i'm taking them to a movie, and i'm not the least bit nervous about it. either i'm crazy, or this really isn't that bad! there are times when i think it's the former, but most times, it's the latter.

mali has proven to be quite the little swimmer. she loves to jump into the water and could care less if i am ready to catch her or not (or even if i'm there to catch her, i think). she loves to ride on the boogie board while we pull her through the water. she likes me to hold her arms and swing her around the water on her back. she doesn't mind daddy bouncing her to where she gets her face into the water. and today, she took a boy's floatie (heaven forbid she be happy with her own that has a harness in it and is made to prevent her from tipping or rolling) and immediately laid on her belly, arms gripping the floatie, and started kicking. she swam around the kiddie pool like that, with no fear, for about twenty minutes before i finally convinced her to let the boy have the floatie back to try it for himself! noe refuses to jump into the water without help, prefers to just sit in her floatie and won't put her face anywhere near the water!

i went to chicago with some girl friends for the weekend. it's the first time i've left the girls over night with the exception of when i gave birth to mali and was in the hospital for two days. we had a really good time. we ate chicago deep dish pizza, visited the art museum (my first), took a 10 mile bike ride through the city, spent a couple hours in china town and took a ganster tour.

while i was gone, fai took the girls out to the zoo, to lunch with their first bites of sushi (unappreciated, of course), then to the pool and mcd's for dinner. the were so tired, they were easy to put to bed, and he wasn't home enough with them to make a mess, so he didn't have to clean. smart man.

again, i'm going to put off pictures because i'm lazy. maybe once i've caught up on all the updates and housework, i'll post pictures and try to write a funnier post.