indoor fun and outside ... finally!

We have had to be creative the last few weeks with all of us having some cabin fever. I even let them paint inside ... am I crazy or what!? We made a deal that paint stayed ON the sheet and they did pretty well though I think I had a few mini-strokes. The weather is getting nicer which makes us all happy! It is amazing how much happier I am when it is nice enough to get outside daily! I spent the better part of the morning cleaning off my porch and the better part of a nap a few days ago cleaning off my screened porch and I can't wait to be able to use them again! The girls have had a terrible cold the past few days and yesterday was particularly hard but Alan has a few days off at the start of next week so hopefully the girls will get better soon and we can all enjoy some time together. Here are a few pics from the week ...

... and Caroline sleeps through it all ... no, not really, she has been pretty awake and lively during the days. She is a morning kind-of gal and I get tons of good smiles in the AM and then she is a bit fussy in the evenings ... but I think that is pretty normal baby behavior. She is doing well at night. We can usually put her down between 9:30 and 11 and she sleeps until 5 and sometimes even 6 or 7! I don't know what "normal" babies do (as opposed to preemies) but I think that is pretty darned good. Days are tough because she is a cat napper which doesn't give me much time alone with the twins but at least I get enough sleep to deal with it all! I need to take some awake photos! 7 weeks old today ... hard to believe ... she is starting to thin out (with the hair ... not the cheeks and thighs =) but she still has more than the twins did at this age and I am starting to think that she will keep the hair on top and keep the dark color ... we'll see! She has this beautiful soft, blemish-free skin and I think we may be out of the woods with the baby acne as the Ped said usually they would get it by 6 weeks if they were going to (listen to me ... "they" ... I still think in terms of twins ...) All-in-all she is doing so well and is such a sweet addition ... the girls love to give her hugs and kisses and when she is up on my shoulder "gummimg" me like babies do they say "look, she is loving on Mommy's shoulder" ... it is so cute! They seem to love being big sisters most of the time. I am so proud of them.

We had a little playdate with one of the boys that goes to MMO with the girls ... how cute is he?! His Dad is the one that is the photographer and you can tell he knows what to do when there is a camera around! The girls, of course, picked out their outfits (what is it with those PJ shirts, they want to wear them everyday?!) ... including the shoes which is almost the funniest part ...

They love any kind of art project as I have mentioned before ... if anyone needs refrigerator art, let me know =)

Indoor finger painting ... these are meant to sort-of tell a story ... I remember a friend of mine (hi, Amy) saying this about her twins when they were dying Easter eggs. I asked the girls to put their hands in the paint b/c I wanted to get their hand prints ... Meredith was all about it and it became a fun thing for her to play all in her paint, Hannah, however became pretty upset that her hands were purple!

M-woo hoo! H-what?!

H-Mommy, I still don't know about this ...

M-woo hoo!!!

M-sissy, isn't this fun?! H-oh my goodness, my hands are purple!!

M-woo hoo ... look, Mommy, my hands are GREEN! H-I am really still concerned ... Meredith turned the painting into fingerpainting (they had brushes, too) and having fun and Hannah seriously just stood there and looked at her hands until we got in the bath and washed it all off ... so funny!

can't stop taking pictures!!

We are all dong well! This is week 2 of being solo with the 3 girls. It is going well. The baby has to cry sometimes while I read stories to the twins or dry their hair but for the most part, life is good! Caroline is a bit in the middle of the "six week peak" of fussiness but she is still such a sweet baby! Speaking of, she is waking right now so I will cut out ... here are a few pics!

Tummy time!!

Here, Hannah is getting her "boogies"
Apparently, the twins thought she needed cleaning ... poor Caroline ... I guess she will learn early that getting messed with by your older sisters is just part of life!

Moral support ... tummy time is tough!

This is Meredith giving her sister some love ...

We are to the age where we like to pick out our own outfits ... cute, huh? At least they match!

All the chicks ... this is my SIL and niece Sylvia ...

Ry holding a sleeping Sylvia ...

How cute is she?!

Another sleepy smile from Caroline ... hope she is dreaming about something good!

one month old!

We had Caroline's one month appointment today. She is doing great. She is 9 pounds 9 ounces and 21 inches. 50% for weight and height. If she keeps in the 50 and the twins stay in the less than 5% then they may be mistaken for triplets in a year or so! Since I clearly don't take nearly enough photos of my kids (ha, ha), I had a friend's husband (who is a photographer) come take some pictures of the girls a few days ago. If they are not copyrighted or whatever, I will post some when I decide which ones I want to buy!

Here is Hannah being silly ... I asked her to smile and she did everything but ... Meredith was much more cooperative (for the moment, anyway=) ...

I keep trying to get that cute tummy sleeping photo that so many people have ... but, like the twins, she does not really enjoy being on her tummy all that much. This is good as it got ... these are her "one month" pictures ... as if I needed an excuse to take pictures of her!
She is a very smiley newborn ... I know they aren't true "social" smiles yet but I like to think they are ... she has her Grandmama Wright's dimple ...

... and just because babies are so cute when they are sleeping!

Caroline, Caroline and more Caroline and my fun 2 year olds!

Well, I need to make this quick so I will cut a lot of my normal chatter ... Caroline is doing well ... she is becoming more aware (which means also more fussy) but she pretty easy to soothe and does still have her moments of being relatively "easy" as far as newborns go. She is a champion eater and already nursing in like 10-15 minutes flat ... it was still taking the twins an hour at this age. She has been rolling from her tummy to back since she was 3 weeks old and already has some impressive head control ... this full-term baby thing is great! She was 7 pounds 11 oz at her last bilirubin check which was when she was about 2 weeks old so I think she will be my little chunky monkey. She has her month appointment on Thursday so we will see how she is in the ranks by then. The girls are doing better with the change. They like it when she is awake and looking at them. They like to take baby wipes and clean her hands and face. They like to "give" her stickers (by putting them on her clothes) and involve her in their stories they like to tell (which are constant ... they are a running dialogue of chatter ... wonder where they get that from? =). They are getting to be more fun and love to play tea party, follow the leader, hide and seek, they love any kind of craft (especially if it involves stickers or glue sticks), they love to "twirl like ballerinas" and to generally be girly with dancing around the house and carrying their purses and putting on dress up clothes and Mommy's lip gloss. They are going great in school and recently were the only ones in the whole class who earned a sticker for the day (if they are behaved, they get a sticker on their hands when they leave.) They crack me up daily with the things they say and the way they say it and with their general silly selves. They make me want to scream sometimes, too, but will turn around and do something endearing just before I decide to give them away ;) Here are some photos of the past few weeks ...

These are from the photo shoot for the announcement picture ... I just took them myself but thought some of them turned out pretty good ...

I did warn, Caroline, Caroline and more Caroline ... it is just so hard to stop myself from taking pictures of her ... I am trying to savor this age as now I know how fast it goes by =(

Alan likes to tell the girls he is going to eat their noses and they will run around and scream "No, Daddy, don't eat my nose!!!" and he will chase them around the house ... well, I guess Caroline is trying to save her own nose here ... 3rd kid learns early ...

Just another cute one

The girls got some mini m&ms in their Valentine's Day treat bag at school ... well, here, Meredith is putting all her baby critters in their "spot" (they have spots they have to sit in at school and when we play school they tell me "Mommy, don't get out of your spot!") and giving them each an m&m =)

Meredith

They have decided that Hannah's favorite color is pink and Meredith's is purple ... so I found these cute skirts and couldn't resist. The shoes just top off the whole outfit here.

Hannah found my sunglasses in my bag and walked up to me with them on her head like this ... so sassy!

Hannah is a little more into the baby than Meredith at this point ... M is getting there though ... here is H giving her a kiss

setbacks and transitions ...

Thanks to my wonderful husband who is such a great Dad, I have some time to update this blog! I hope to keep it up now that I am a Mommy to 3. Alan has pretty much taken on the twins and let me rest and recover and take care of Caroline. The twins are doing OK. They are very gentle and generally interested in Caroline (love to pat her head and say "its OK ... she's OK now ..." if she was crying and is not anymore.) They think it is too funny when she burps, poops, etc ... They, however, do not much like it when it is time for her to eat. All the sudden they want in my lap and nothing else will do! They are getting a little better about this every day. They are funny in their limited understanding of things and trying to put what is going on into their "world." They thought that since they put some bandaids on Mommy's boo-boo then I would be better and able to carry them again. Unfortunately they don't really understand the concept of time (as in "it will be a few more weeks before Mommy can carry you") and it makes me sad to think that maybe they think I will never be able to pick them up again. Anyway, the main issue with their transition has been picking fights with each other. I think this is their way of acting out and either they are becoming sassy, talking-back 3 year olds before their time or they are just trying to figure out how to become "OK" with our new situation. Either way, it is frustrating and heartbreaking for me. I feel like half of their days, some days, are spent in time out or crying because I had to take this or that away. I guess it is all part of it and I hope my sweet, sweet girls come back soon! As for me, to make a long and messy story short, I had to be readmitted just for the day for an outpatient D&C due to some retained "stuff" in the uterus. I had been having lots of abdominal pain and spiking fevers and the way my body finally "told" us what was going on was to have a really frightening hemmorhage in my kitchen! Yikes! All is well that ends well and we are all home now. Caroline came home on a bili blanket but she went up and up with her bilirubin ... then ...YAY ... started to come down. She is off the blanket now and I am off the narcotics ;) That glass of wine last night was yummy! Here are some random pics from the week ...

Mer Bear and Caroline ... a friend gave the girls their big sis shirts and Caroline the stuffed doggy ... Hannah put the stuffed doggy in her chair and Meredith patted her on the head ...

Meredith being her silly and cute self ...
Bribery ice cream and TV ... Mommy should have a new baby more often!
Hannah

Meredith

Hannah ... TV and ice cream coma ...

Not getting anything outta those little girl!!

My little "glow worm"
(thanks to Amy and John for the term)

with Aunt Kristi and Uncle Lee

On my super soft snuggle blanket from Aunt Tricia!

Still glowin' ...One of the causes of many an arguement ... the girls L-O-V-E this chair that their Aunt Sara let us borrow for Caroline ... Sometimes they play well (here, Hannah is rocking her "baby" Meredith) but other times they just both want to be in there waaaaaay too bad to share! Its hard being 2, eh?

Hannah checking out her baby sister ... it is funny ... sometimes they will pat my tummy and say "she came out!"

going home!

Lucky for us, so far, we don't see this too often ... Caroline is a good baby so far. I will give it a month before I decide if she is chill or just still a sleepy newborn! I am a seasoned enough parent to know that the jury is still out ... we really don't see this very often unless she is hungry, tired or needs to burp ... well, speaking of ... little miss is hungry and I hear the troops coming down the stairs! When it rains it pours =)