ONE FOURTH!

As of Wednesday, the boys are 0.25 years old!  :)

I did a little photo shoot with them to mark the occasion.  Michael is on the left.  Thomas is on the right.

I was thinking I’d like to put something in all the monthly pictures that stays the same, but I couldn’t think of something at one month and I didn’t really take two month pictures, but it’s not too late to start.  :)

So the sock monkey (which was mine waaaay back when) took a few pictures with the boys.

I love baby feet.

Thomas.  But he looks kind of Michaelish here.

Michael.  (And it totally looks like the dish on the quilt is looking at him.) :)

And of course everyone had to pile on the couch for a group shot.  Poor Michael was DONE though.  :)

Some three month things as I think of them:

• They will both almost always smile if you smile at them. 
• Michael has started laughing some.  Thomas isn’t far behind him though.
• They are wearing BumGenius all-in-one one-size diapers on the shortest rise with one row of snaps showing in the middle.  If/when we use disposables, they wear a size one.
• They can fit into some of their 0-3 month clothes, but 3-6 month fits best.
• They nap in swings during the day but sleep in a crib together at night.
• They are not great nappers. (I just heard Michael.  I think it’s been 30 minutes.  I went in, held and patted him, and he burped.  I took a chance on laying him back down, and he appears to have gone.  Phew!)
• They sleep pretty good stretches at night.  The last quite a few days have been something like this: eat around 5-6pm, go down for the night until about 1am, nurse, go back down until 5-6am, nurse, sleep another couple of hours.  They’ve done better so I’m hoping this is a phase because they aren’t feeling super great.
• It is almost always Michael that wakes up at night.  We wake Thomas as well, but I do wonder how long he would sleep if we let him.  It could be several more hours, but then of course it could be exactly seventeen minutes.
• They nap and sleep at night swaddled.  I have tried a couple of times putting them down without the swaddles but it just doesn’t work.  And I’m pretty much thinking I don’t need to fix what ain’t broke.
• They don’t interact with each other yet.  I’m sure in some way they know the other one is (always!) there, but they don’t seem to smile at each other or “talk” or anything.
• They are so stinking handsome, but in very different ways.
• They seem to prefer being carried facing out.  They look a little like sacks of potatoes when I carry them.
• We never go very far, but they seem to enjoy riding in the car.  If they’re fussy, they don’t like the car to stop.
• Michael is pretty easy to put to sleep on my lap when needed.  Thomas is harder.  Sometimes he just won’t give it up until we get in the car.  Then he’ll take an eight minute car nap.  We don’t go many places. :)
• Most of the time they want to eat about every 2 1/2 hours during the day.  Occasionally they’ll have a big stretch during the day – about five hours.  I never know when it’s coming though, so of course I never use the time productively.  :)
• They both still have one goopy eye each – their left.  They seem to be getting a lot better though, so I’m hoping that will be over soon.
• They each have a little cold.  They’re congested with runny noses and boogers.  They can still breathe well enough to nurse, and I’m very much praying it doesn’t get worse.  They’re being troopers.
• Michael spits up more than Thomas, but neither are crazy spitters.
• They are both (but I think Thomas is more) drooling already.  No babies! :)
• They are the perfect little additions to our family and we couldn’t imagine life without them!

Miscellany

A couple weeks ago I decided to sort of strip our diapers to make sure all the excess detergent was rinsed out and they were very clean.  I have fifty-one diapers and I’m not sure what made me think I could fit them all in my washer at one time.  For the record, I cannot.  Anyway, I decided I needed to take pictures of them all clean and stuffed and ready to wear.  I think they’re pretty.  :) 

These are my Bum Genius 4.0s.  They were favorites for a long time and we still use them frequently.  A few are delaminating and no longer work well.  As we come across those, I’m marking the tag and will set them aside for swim diapers.

Below are my Freetimes, my current very favorite kind of diaper.  I love them.  Even though we have 30, it’s not quite enough for two babies, even washing once a day.  This summer when we’re hanging them outside (and when the babies are needing less frequent diaper changes) they will be plenty.  And honestly, by then I’ll have probably accumulated a few more.  :)  I hang diapers in my laundry room these days, which is suuuuper convenient, but the Freetimes do take the better part of a day to dry inside.

You’ll see on the bottom right a pretty florally patterned diaper that I have come to love.  I bought it back before I knew both babies were boys and just recently decided to pull it out and actually use it.  :)  I think they love it and take turns wearing it.  I may get some more patterns.  They’re kind of fun.

We also have a stash of prefolds and covers, but we don’t use them a ton, opting mostly for convenience with TWO babies needing diapers.  :)

We recently pulled out the 3-6 month clothes, and the boys are actually too big for some of it!  These outfits fit them so sweetly though, and I love the colors!  The hats are a bit snug, but I crammed them on for the picture.  :)

Joanna is SO SWEET with her siblings.  Here, she’s reading a story to the babies.

Another photography project I’m working on this year (what?! Another one!) is taking a self-portrait every month on the date of my birthday (the 21st).  I’m not too bad about getting in pictures myself, but I know I could be better.  And I’m quite terrible at actually taking pictures of myself.  Which, by the way, if freaking hard!  I used the tripod for this one.  I made the girls stand in for me by holding their arms way up high so I could set my focus and everything.  We were outside in the afternoon before the light quite got pretty, so I have a lot of really terrible pictures.  I ended up just squatting down because I was getting a good shot of Natalie in this spot, but I was too tall!  The sun was hitting by face in not a pretty way.  It was a fun exercise and I look forward to working on my self portrait skills this year.  I set an alarm on my iPod so I might actually remember to do it.

I am loving that we’re getting an actual taste of winter this year!  I got all bundled up for choir practice the other night and I made Matt take a quick picture of me.

I posted the picture because 1. I want to remember the cold when I’m melting this summer and 2. I want to explain why it’s blurry (not Matt’s fault) and how I plan to prevent that from happening again.

When I have Matt take a picture with my camera, I usually have him switch it over to Auto.  Auto means he doesn’t have to worry what setting I have it on, and the camera does all the work.  This also means that he can’t tell the camera where to focus, and that is frustrating.  Anyway, I was reading this post about photography for beginners, and there was a great tip that I think will fix our problem!  I haven’t actually told Matt about it yet, but maybe he’ll read this post and I won’t have to.  (I kid.)  So the plan will be to use the “P” mode instead of Auto.  They’re almost the same, but you can set ISO and a manual focus point in P mode.  I will have to remind him to set the ISO to Auto or it’ll mess with the other settings.  Anyway, I always have the manual focus point set in the middle, and Matt knows how to put it on what he wants to focus on, press the shutter part way down, then recompose the shot before shooting.  And this should fix our focus problem we often have.

And then maybe someday I’ll teach him how to shoot on Manual.  :)

Brother Pictures

Y’all.  I am tired.  It seems like it’s mostly been the last week or so, but I am just so tired all the time and I don’t feel like doing anything.  I don’t exactly have “down time” these days, but if I did, I would just want to sit on the couch during it.  My thyroid dose was lowered about a month ago, and I’m wondering if that might have something to do with it.  Maybe I need a leeetle more than I’m taking.  I go back in two months for more blood work.  For now I want to adjust some vitamins/supplements that I’m taking or not taking, and I know I need to eat better.  It’s just HARD!  I have seventeen things to do always RIGHT NOW that seem more of an emergency than fixing myself a balanced meal.  Or eight.  Because I am hungry all the time.

For anyone who may think I have it all together, I need to tell you there is a pumpkin on my front porch and a Christmas wreath above the fireplace.

It seems like there’s just always always something that needs doing right now, and I just don’t want to do it.  I want to sleep.  I think about sleep all the time.  And then I think about caffeine and how much can I have and when can I have it and in what form can I have it in.

I didn’t set out to whine in this post – ha! But it’s my blog and it’s good to keep it real around here.  :)

I know that this too shall pass.

Until then… some cute boys!

I bought the babies matching train t-shirts, and I made James wear his and take a picture with his brothers.

You can see how he was totally in the mood for that.  Ha!

He does love getting to hold them though.

Those eyes! (Michael)

Sweet sweet Thomas.

Goober head.

Baby snuggles!

I love putting them in t-shirts and babylegs.  Makes diaper checking and changing so easy!  I use onesies too, but they grow out of those so quickly due mainly to their giant diapers. :)

Even though you can’t see his mouth, you can totally tell that Michael is smiling!

Posts and Pences

Our deck looking so pretty on the frosty Friday morning:

A few favorite reads from this week – enjoy!

22 Things I Learned in my First 10 Years of Parenting

Gender Neutral Parenting: 5 Ways To Avoid Implicit Sexism

Stop the Mommy Wars: Empowering Photo Series

A Sky High Bunk for Three (Not so much an interesting read as it is one way to stack three kids on a wall!)

Ballerina Princess

Thursday was Pirate and Princess day at Natalie’s school.  We don’t have any pirate garb, so a princess she had to be!  :)

Dress up clothes don’t typically wash well, so I don’t let the kids wear them outside or to eat in, both things I knew they’d do at school.  So we sort of compromised on the attire.

I’m pretty sure once I told her I would do her hair with the crown and bun she would have been happy wearing anything!

My gorgeous girl.

She became the Purple Princess, which made her very happy!

Natalie sure does love to dress up in pretty things!

Posts and Pences

So at least one blogger that I like to read does a post on the weekends with links to stories and articles she’s enjoyed over the past week.  I thought I might like to do the same, if only to have them in one place.  Some of these I’ve found through Facebook, others from blogs I read.  There are only three this week since I’m not in the habit yet of remembering to copy the address of posts I’ve enjoyed.  :)

• Give childhood back to children: if we want our offspring to have happy, productive and moral lives, we must allow more time for play, not less - Comment - Voices - The Independent‏

• How to Name a Baby | Wait But Why‏

• Top 10 Books for Crunchy Parents - Mama Natural - Mama Natural

And hopefully I’ve managed to put the right hyperlink with each post.  Ahem. 

I think post needs some sweet baby and kiddo pictures instead of just words.  So here we go!

Michael was suuuuuper sleepy after eating one evening.

My sweet five year old:

She’s in that fake smile phase; normally I tell her not to smile.  :)

A resident where Matt works matt the babies these adorable rainbow onesies.  I love them!  I’m even planning to cut and hem the bottom to make them into t-shirts once they’re too short for the bruisers.  (Actually I’m planning to outsource that, if you must know.)  They’re so precious! (Michael left; Thomas right)

The favorite!!

I love how they’re so independently handsome.  That’s probably the wrong phrase, but what I mean is they are each so stinkin’ handsome but they don’t look the same.

Michael got a hand free in his swaddle to chew on his fingers.

The day after James wears his footie PJs at night, he often keeps them on if we’re not going anywhere.  I love how he’s put his boots on right over them.

We decided to have him try out Natalie’s bike yesterday, footies and all.

He didn’t exactly give it the ol’ college try, but it is the right size for him.

As soon as we get a new bigger bike for Joanna, we’re going to put the training wheels back on her green bike and pass it along to Natalie.  I just need to figure out what size I need for Miss J.  And then to find it in a prettyish gender neutralish kind of color.  :)

We spent so much time outside yesterday – it was simply gorgeous!  It looks like rain at the end of the week, so I’m thinking we may go easy on school at the beginning of the week and enjoy the backyard, then finish up when we can’t go out with all the mud and wet.  That’s a little backward from how we usually do it, opting to lighten up at the end of the week when we’re all a little tired.  But I’m remembering last summer when it was so nasty all the time, and we really need to be outside now while it’s gorgeous.

Anyway, here’s Momma and her babes.  Thomas is a drool-machine lately!

I love this one, except that Thomas is looking away.  He’s still handsome though!

We’ve also grilled dinner out the last couple of nights and right now I’m smelling pork and potatoes from the backyard.  YUM!

Skin, Sleep, Sisters, and other things that don’t begin with S

Laaaaaast week, I had a dermatologist appointment (that I made six months ago and therefore was going to regardless of how many kids I had with me.)  I dropped the middle kids off at preschool and headed to my appointment with Joanna and the babies in tow.  We got there a little early and were actually seen early.

Thomas was asleep, but it didn’t last long.

Michael was not asleep.

It was not the best time in their “routine” and they needed to be either in their bed at home or on the boobs so there was much holding and jiggling.  Joanna noticed that the boys and I matched.  :)

I had so far avoided ever bringing a kiddo with me to the dermatologist and was a little worried it might be a problem but it very much was not.  I mean, all I can say is that we survived the morning, but the staff was suuuuuper nice.

And hopefully I will never again have to nurse two babies on an exam table in a slightly coolish room while I myself am, well, not at all dressed.  I mean, I’m sure thankful that I could do that.  But it wasn’t my favorite.  :)  And coming from someone with experience, do not jiggle your babies while someone is putting a needle in your back.  Just don’t.  I don’t care if they’re crying.  (Only kidding.  I didn’t do that.  But it was hard not to.)

So true Michael – so true!

Joanna snapped this one of me and all my boys.  Ignore Thomas.  I’m sure he wasn’t that sad.  (And my hair was braided in lots of random braids to create ripples. I didn’t leave the house like that.)

Last Friday was enchilada night and if I remember, it was sort of a rough afternoon before then.  I put all the kiddos (including two babies who wouldn’t sleep) in the car so I could get a Dr. Pepper around 4:00.  I was intending to go right back home, but everyone got happy in the car so I drove around drinking my Dr. Pepper, until it was time for enchilada night.

James fell asleep.

He’s cute.

And since we were at Grandma’s, he was not grouchy after his nap like usual.

Natalie brought Hootie along of course, and he got to have some enchiladas.

I looooooove this one of Thomas.  He was having his diaper changed on Grandma’s bed.

James found a little etch-a-sketch and had so much fun with it!

He’d draw something and run over to show it to me.

When Natalie got a turn, she found Christiana’s baby bump a perfect resting spot to draw.

I was jiggling the grouchy boys when I noticed Michael had fallen asleep sitting up!

After I passed off Thomas to someone, I got to sit back with my sleeping boy.

On Saturday the girls went with friends to the movies so James and I hit Target to pick up a few things.  I promised him a treat and he picked popcorn.  The boy did not want to share, either!

Later that day Aunt Mindy and Uncle Steve came over to bring Natalie a present.  They also brought a little something for Joanna and James.  James got a glowing car, and he’s been obsessed with it ever since!

When one baby wakes up and it’s time to eat, I usually wake up the other one so I can feed them at the same time.  Sometimes I take that opportunity to snap a few pics without worrying about waking up the sleeper.  Michael had wiggled his hand out of the swaddle blanket and had it just resting by his face.

He’s a cutie, that’s for sure.

And the other hand…

So the last two pictures I’ve posted of Joanna doing schoolwork have involved this math workbook.  I feel like I need to state that she does other stuff!  :)  I’m not really worksheet gal, so this is a small amount.  Anyway, I let her go outside and sit in the sunshine yesterday to finish up some math.  It was very pleasant outside, but she does love to get all her winter gear on anyway.

I put the boys in their womb mates shirts today.  :)  I loooooooove this one of Michael (right).

Thomas was out of focus since his bouncer is lower down (and I didn’t want to adjust my f-stop because it’s a dark corner of the room and I would have had to up the ISO and slow down the shutter speed and I just didn’t want to do that, okay?)  So, I put them in the same bouncer. 

Seems reasonable, right?

I thought it would bug them, but it did not.  :)

The girls have started stealing the swaddle blankets for their babies and stuffed animals.  Today it occurred to me to have them use the ones that are too small for the boys.  Cutie pies.

This morning was Young Mom’s Bible Study (which I loooove!), and my mom let me drop off all the big kids at her house!  There is nursery at the church, and it’s wonderful, but it was a whole lot easier not to have to herd them to their classes.  And James’ class is as far away as you can get from the Bible study.  So I just brought the babies along.  It is hard to nurse two babies in a little chair under a cover, but I’m determined to do it because I don’t want to miss time with my table group.  Last week I brought the big pillow, but this week I decided to try bringing two boppies instead.  I’d say they worked just about as well.  I’m going to need some more practice though.  I didn’t drop anyone, but let’s just say I’m glad there are observant and helpful ladies at my table.  :)

Here are my bubbas after surviving being nursed in a little chair under a cover on two boppies.  :)

Natalie brought me this bee and said, “Look!  I dressed him all by myself!”

I’m not sure what was up with Joanna’s face.  Scary!

And I believe that puts us completely caught up with the old blog.  That’s what a long nap from the boys get you!  Wahoo!