Messy Faces

I just have to keep telling myself it's not right to prohibit my children from eating something just because they get soooooo messy eating it. Raviolis + Triplets = 30min clean up time

Dance Party Revolution 2011

Laughing and Dancing to the 80's (Video)

Yeah, he's pretty bad ass (Thomas' alter ego)

Anyone out there have or know of someone who has dark hazel eyes like this? I've seriously never seen eyes like these!

I've resolved in my mind that it's not getting easier, it's just different! Sure I don't have the physical exhaustion I once had due to lack of sleep but there's a whole lot of mental anguish and frustration. I'm out numbered by two! Six opposable thumbs, 24 fingers, and six little legs can do a lot of damage! Just as I'm through reprimanding one for being naughty the other two join in on the bad act. Time outs only work to distract them from what they are doing but it's no guarantee that they won't do it again. Oh yes and Eli has started hitting his brothers, they learn very fast from each other so the others are sure to follow suite. 

Thankfully the boys have always been very patient and aside from trying a few times when they were little I never found it necessary to double or tandem nurse the boys. It always felt awkward but probably because I just never perfected the art of double nursing. Lately though, first thing in the morning everyone is SUPER cranky, that is until they nurse. So I've seen no other way than to nurse two boys at once and hope the third boy can be soothed by dad for a few minutes while his brothers finish up. I have yet to feel very comfortable doing it but at least I don't have to hear screaming first thing in the morning : )

On the happier side of things starting at 14 months I revised our routine and it has gone very well. The boys always adjust so well to changes. Basically I just dropped one milk feeding but it feels way less hecktic than before. Every one nurses an equal amount of times and everyone gets one bottle of milk each day, everything is even steven now. I feel less guilty about forgetting who had more bottles and less time nursing yesterday. Here's how our days go now and probably for many months to come: 

6:30am wake and Milk feeding #1 (everyone nurses, no bottles)

7:30am Breakfast

10am Snack #1 

10:30am Milk feeding #2 (Two nurse one bottle), followed by nap time

12:45pm Snack #2 for whoever wakes up early and while we wait for everyone else to wake up from nap

1:30pm Lunch

2:30pm Milk feeding #3 (Two nurse, one bottle)

4:30 Snack #3 (3-5pm is our window of opportunity, when we 'do stuff')

5:30pm Dinner

7pm Milk feeding #4 (Two nurse one bottle), followed by bed time

During our window of opportunity: Mondays we stay home and just play or we take a walk weather permitting. Tuesday we go to the playhouse. Wednesday we stay home and just play or take a walk(this is our meeting night so the boys get out of the house at least once). Thursday we do errands if needed. Fridays the boys get a bath. 

I also forgot to mention that at 13 months I had to get tough with Eli. He was still waking up in the middle of the night to nurse once. It still was not bothering me until I read somewhere that kids that don't sleep through the night have more temper tantrums. So at some point it is beneficial and healthy for kids (and adults) to sleep uninterrupted through the night. Eli had not had any temper tantrums but I figured it's best to nip this one in the butt early on before there is a problem. With the threat of SIDS out of the way now I just stopped picking him up, he'd cry for about 5-10 minutes and then fall asleep again. He stopped waking after about 4 days. So we're done with that but I do miss snuggling him at night, oh well it's for his own good. 

Well dad is home for a whole week and one day due to mandatory PTO use. The boy's aunt Janet arrives tomorrow and uncle Chance the following day so we are looking forward to some fun times : )

Bunny Eli

Here is a video of Bunny Eli giving himself kisses in the mirror

Thomas' Dance Routine

This just couldn't wait until the next blog post...Thomas' dancing is starting to rival Eli's (the original dancing machine)!

Be sure to watch this in full screen : )

Playtime!

Eli

Eli

Thomas

Caleb

We took the boys to a nearby elementary school to play in the playground. It brought back good memories of grade school, the little cubbies with your name on it, crayons and paste! My aspirations of home schooling don't seem realistic anymore. Raising a family of five is very expensive, the boys aren't even over 20 pounds yet and you should see how much I spend on yogurt alone! We are scraping by for now but I just don't see how we will make it in the long run. I will eventually have to go back to work, but I'm holding my ground and don't ever want to go back full time. I want to be able to drop off and pick up my kids from school and spend the entire weekend with my family. Of course this is a long way off and won't happen until the boys are in 1st grade when they start going full time. The boys have a tricky birth date since they were born in September. I want them to have an advantage so I don't want them to start kindergarten early. So we are looking at the fall of 2015 when they start Kindergarten. Seems so far off but I know we'll be there before we know it. I checked out a few schools in our area and the one in the pictures above has a Spanish imersion program which would help tremendously my plight for the boys to learn proper Spanish, after two Spanish AP classes I still don't quite know where to put the accent marks!

Literally within 2-3 days after changing my baby sign language strategy the boys are all picking up on it. Partial success but we are moving in the right direction. We have been working on the sign for 'more,' Eli seems to be the most consistent followed by Thomas then Caleb. They don't always use it but if I promt them by asking them if they want more while signing it myself they will usually respond by signing back. We've started on the next sign, 'gentle,' because they are too rough with the kitty and I'm afraid he'll scratch them someday if the boys go too far with him. The other cat steers clear of the boys so we don't worry about her.

The boys (well mostly Thomas) have been super drooly lately I think we have some molars trying to make their way in. Thankfully haven't had any more middle of the night screaming because of this.

We are having a record breaking dry December here and it has just been awesome! We are trying to enjoy every minute of it, I can take a walk at anytime I darn well please. It feels like since we've lived here we've gone through so many record breaking months but for rain! I feel like we deserve this : )

Eli sure does know how to use a sippy cup!

I can still pick up all three at once, check!

Sometimes you have to be creative to get things done around here : )

Thomas has at least two in his mouth, one in his hand and he's reaching for another one! I can't believe how much these guys love tater tots! I bought a humongous bag for them and in anticipation of Janet & Chance's visit : )

Oh Crap! moment #5-8

What better way to describe my 'oh crap!' moments than by pictures...

Oh Crap! moment #5

Caleb how did you get back there with all those dangerous wires?

Oh Crap! moment #6

I am SO not ready for you guys to outgrow the superyard! They can pretty much all do this now but Eli seems to have a knack for it : (

Oh Crap! moment #7

Partners in crime. Caleb and Thomas push the pack n play out and Eli climbs the little bench. Sticks + windows + boys = disaster!

Oh Crap! moment #8 brought to you by Caleb

Updates

My quest to teach the boys some baby sign language has proven to be unfruitful. Along with baby sign language I've been teaching them things where I sing a song and they do some repetitive hand motion (I'll try to get videos soon, it's too cute). I think I know why. I asked myself why they learned that so quickly but not the sign language? My first problem, I think one of the two signs we were working on is too complex, the sign for 'more' requires both hands. Second, I am not doing it often enough because when ever I ask them if they want more food I usually have both hands occupied with either a bowl and spoon or I have a baby in my arms while trying to distribute snacks. Third, it's not fun, which is why they learned that other stuff so quickly. So this week we are changing things up. I've come up with my own simpler sign for 'more' requiring only one hand and am trying to do it more often and in conjunction with fun stuff. Like asking if they want to be tickled more. I am really not asking for much just a few key signs to make life easier for all of us. Here goes round two...

The babies got weighed and measured right before they got sick and I'm sure this is not accurate anymore. With all that diarrhea they probably lost some weight but I'm happy to report every ones appetites are up and running like before and it looks like Eli is finally having more solid poops like his brothers but we are dealing with diaper rash now. At every dirty diaper Eli gets power washed with a squirt bottle filled with warm water after he had some bloody spots on his bum and berries, the baby wipes were hurting too bad, poor baby.

Everyone measures the same as last month 28.something inches

C 19lbs 11oz

E 18lbs 13oz

T 19lbs 8oz Everyone gained almost a whole pound in a little over one month!

Up until now I still had the boys in 9mo or 9-12mo pants but they started to look like high waters so I brought up some 12mo pants I had stored away. They fit so much better because I think the older sizes are meant for slimmer babies and I always had a hard time finding pants that fit around the waist. I can call off my search for baby suspenders now : )

This is how I get out my blog posts in the midst of ravenous hyenas!

Eli

So I know how the monkey got on your back but what happened to your pants dude!

Goodnight, hold your teddy tight : )

Crazy Week!

Eli

What good little kittens they have not lost their mittens! We got new mittens and they didn't even try to take them off, they must have realized it would keep their hands warm : )

Mama Sue with Mr. T and Caleb

Eli came up with this new game were he puts a toy in his mouth and then either I or Phil take it from him by biting the other end of the toy. There is usually a lot of chasing involved in between transfers.

Sickness and Bad Behavior

We had a crazy week, I threw my first baby shower (yay!) and I was consumed with making 75 cake pops for three days straight (it's quite the process). Phil was going to fix a leak in our plumbing and ended up unearthing a much bigger problem were he ended up replacing a huge section of piping that had rotted so bad you could poke a hole through it with your finger. Then as you know from my previous post the babies all got some kind of stomach bug and were all barfing for a couple of days followed by diarrhea which hasn't entirely cleared up. Phil's parents saved the day though (week really), they were visiting and helped us with all the happenings of the week. Sadly we didn't get to do much fun stuff with them but we are very grateful for all their help and they were very good sports about it. The boys get sick a lot but usually it's just a runny nose and cough. If the grandparents had not been here we might have been tempted to fly them in cause it was brutal! I have lost track of all the loads of laundry we have done, every poopy meant a new out fit change. We went through our entire weekly allotment of 150 cloth diapers two days before our next delivery. And let me tell you, nothing can contain diarrhea, not disposables or even cloth diapers. Ugh so gross!

The smells are slowly dispersing from our house and the last few days the boys have been awful bad. After we have people visiting they seem to go through a withdrawal from all the attention they get. They have all been ganging up on me. The day after Phil's parents left there was so much screaming, fighting and extra destructiveness. I tried playing with them, giving them snacks, putting on their favorite videos, even ignoring them and nothing seemed to make them happy. I have never been so close to throwing in the towel and calling someone to bail me out so I could get a few hours break from them. Even when Phil came home they were no happier and he even agreed with me that they were being really bad. To top it off last night Thomas was up in the middle of the night just screaming his head off for what seemed like hours (I think he might be getting some molars). Anyways, I think they are getting over it now though (BIG SIGH of relief). We'll see how tomorrow goes when Phil goes back to work.

I stole this idea from another blog, I used the boys' newborn clothes and tiny pastel colored clothes pins to decorate the room : )

My pretty cake pops, I'm so proud of myself!

Random Act of Kindness

The other day I got a call from the cloth diaper service saying that someone anonymously transferred the remaining credit on their account to ours, which by the way covers almost a months worth of diapers for these guys. We are really touched by every ones generosity, besides many friends and family, some who have donated more than once, several persons I've never even met have donated to our diaper service. Here we are at 14 months and we have not yet had to pay for diapers! Thank you, thank you, thank you! A few months ago I wrote that once the donations ran out I would just bite the bullet and start washing my own diapers but the boys are sooooooo much work (I'm afraid to say more than ever) that I don't think I'm up to the challenge anymore. I am praying and hoping the boys will potty train by age 2, I hope that's not wishful thinking and it is indeed a realistic goal. Lots of boys don't potty train until they are 3! Ok so I guess I better start reading up on potty training, two is coming up fast : )

If the boys need an outfit change I put them down while I pick out some new clothes and for whatever reason they love running around like this and Caleb in particular hates it when we chase him down to re-dress.

Picture Update

Don't even think about messing with us!

Caleb

Eli

Who loves me?...

Daddy loves Eli

Mommy loves Thomas

Grandma loves Caleb

I love?...

Thomas loves mommy

Caleb loves daddy

Uh Oh!....Eli loves everybody!

No time to write much so just a cute picture update, can you believe it the boys are sick again (sarcasm!). We are knee deep in baby puke and diarrhea (not the typical cold). My house smells awful. Thankfully papa Ed and mama Sue are visiting so we are not overwhelmed by all this, it's a bad one : (

I'm 29 years old, I'm 29 years old, I'm 29 years old! Ok, got that out of my system, how sad I turn 30 tomorrow, life ends at 30 right? : (

Cameo appearance by Don Elias

the Bad and the Ugly

I've given you plenty of good, now here's the bad and the ugly...

You see this face above, well he backed up his brother in a corner and...

Little did he know that his brother doesn't like being pinned up in the corner so....

Eli bit Caleb!

(ladies and gentlemen we have our first biting incident ever and many more to come I'm sure)

Eli's response to all this, "nobody puts baby in the corner!"

Baby safety devices are death traps for parents! The picture below is of my knee after I ran into into a safety gate. Stupidity you ask? Well maybe, but in my defense it was really dark. That isn't the first time something like this has happened. A few months back when we still had the baby prison (superyard XT) I needed to make an important phone call to the bank and had been procrastinating for a really long time. The babies had just woken up and eaten, at their happiest and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally make my phone call. While I'm in mid conversation the boys all start screaming, well more like high pitched squealing, they are all in a tug of war for who knows what toy. I need to break up the fight to continue my conversation, so I start to climb over into the baby prison when I just can't quite make my foot over it and fall right on top of the thing, completely flattening almost three panels. My phone flies out of my hand and dies. Oh and the best part is that the babies stop dead in their tracts and laugh at me! That time not only my knee was bruised up but also my butt and shoulder. OUCH!!!