Day in the Life in October!

So it’s the 9th and I’m typing up the DITL post from the 8th.  Go me!!

5:50am – woke up to a baby crying.  I got ready to feed while Matt changed their diapers and brought them to me.

This sweet face was up a little early as well:

6:00 – nursed the babies, then sent them back to bed.  They never went back to sleep (yuck!!), but it was okay for me because Matt didn’t have to leave right away.  I got to lay in bed until about 7:45 I think.

8:15 –  Nursed the babies again and Matt left for Jury duty in Humble.

This is my face while nursing.  :)

The big kids got ready while I was doing that.  After I fed the babies I changed them, got them dressed and cleaned up the dining room and kitchen somewhat from the morning.

8:50 – we left for Young Mom’s Bible Study up at the church.

By about 9:30 I had dropped off all five kiddos in two buildings and sat down at my table for some yummy breakfast.

We had Bible Study from 9:30-11:30, including a “Let it Go” sing along. (Oh I should have grabbed a picture of that!)

At 11:30, I picked up James first and found him singing along to an old VBS DVD.  Love it!!

We picked up the girls, then walked to the other building for the babies.  Sweet (ornery grouchy tired) Thomas was asleep in Miss Suzy’s arms.  I grabbed the boys and fed them one after the other on the big pew in the hallway. (I kept forgetting it was the 8th and that I needed to take pictures.)

We left the church about noon and Michael fell asleep in the car.  We drove through for some lunch for the kiddos (my Wednesday coping mechanism) and headed home to eat.  He actually stayed asleep until probably 1:00.  I brought his car seat into the laundry room while the big kids ate.

I read some to the kiddos while the babies ate their lunch.

At 1:30 Matt called to say he was on his way home!!!!  I was praying he’d get done early and be able to spend the afternoon with us, but I wasn’t counting on it.  He served on a petit jury for a traffic violation in the morning. 

Mom also called at that time and was headed over with some costume stuff for James.  She is helping me A TON to put together our Wizard of Oz coordinating costumes for the kiddos.  It’s going to be adorable!!

Joanna took the opportunity to read to Gran some things she’d written in her new journal.

2:30 – Gran left (Thomas is trying to follow her out), and Matt sat down for some leftovers for lunch.

We had a much needed lazy afternoon, including naps for the babies, a movie for the bigs (in the picture Matt is trying to clean the back of the DVD), and a little online Christmas shopping by me.

I nursed the babies around 4:00 and we headed to the church at 4:45 for dinner and children’s choir.

From 6-6:30 I taught my adorable three year old choir – The Lil’ Angels.  I have about a dozen this year – wahoo!

Then Matt and the boys and I headed home to get them ready for bed.

7:00 – nursed the babes one last time. 

Another nursing selfie! (Those are baby heads and hands, for the record.)

About 7:20 sweet Lisa dropped our girls off and everybody got ready for bed.  I headed out about 7:40 for a couple of errands, all alone! I went to HEB to grab a couple of things and then the library.

Joanna has gotten into the Nancy Drew mysteries so I picked up a couple for her.

This is one of those weird full-circle parenthood things, because those were my very favorite things to read as a child, and I got started on them in the second grade.  {Side story: apparently I didn’t enjoy reading, and my (PhD in Literature) father did not find that acceptable.  He found a copy of Nancy Drew #18 at a library sale and made me sit down and read it with him.  I was HOOKED!!  I’ve been a crazy reader ever since.}

Now, back to our post…

By 8:45 I was back home having cookies and milk with Matt.  We watched the Castle episode from Monday night.

Then I’m pretty sure Matt got up to get ready for bed and I crashed out a little bit.

We had lights out by 10:55, which is too late, but what can you do.  :)

This is a picture of the clock from my bed, taken with my iPod.

And that was it!

Sick and Hot

Last Wednesday we came home from dinner and choir to a very warm house and a not functioning outside A/C unit.  Boo.  We survived the night, but I slept very badly (I’m not so good with hot).  I thought we would just stick around and wait for the A/C guy to come in the morning, but I kinda had a breakdown so we went to my mom’s to wait.  Did I mention I don’t do well with hot?  Also, this little guy woke up with a high (for him) fever and feeling yucky.

I hate it when they’re sick, I really do.  But I do love my snuggles.

We ended up at my mom’s for the whole morning, and even though we brought school work, I was pretty busy holding Michael so we didn’t get much done.  :)

At one point Grandpa David took the big kids to a little pond near by to feed the fish.

Michael did this most of the day.  He slept on me or Gran, then he nursed, then he slept some more.  It was like having a newborn again.  :)

I think it was a little after noon that our unit got patched up at home, so we left Gran’s after our house had a chance to get down to 76 or so. 

In fact, with the fan on, I had to put a little blanket over naked Michael while we snuggled.

Joanna was A LOT of help with Thomas for the few hours until Matt got home.  I was stuck.

By bed time Michael’s temp seemed to be lower and by the next morning he was back to normal – weird snuggly fever virus.

The next afternoon (this is Friday now), James put himself to bed.  I think that’s the universal signal for “I don’t feel good.” I had to move him to put Thomas down for nap, and so I felt that he was super warm.

He had the same symptoms as Michael – fever, sleepy, feeling yucky, and just wanted to be held by the momma.

I gave him some Tylenol, he had a nap on me, then he woke up like a new man.  He ate dinner and played before feeling crummy again and then throwing up everything he’d eaten all day.  He just threw up the one time, but it earned him a spot on our bedroom floor for the night.  Thankfully we all slept well, and the next day was Saturday!!

He seemed totally fine but later in the day complained of his mouth hurting.  He has a buddy who got strep this past week and described his throat hurting the same way, so I checked.  I used my handy iPod flashlight to see some nasty tonsils.  Ew. The RediClinic was already closed for the evening and thankfully James felt better after some Tylenol, so we waited until the morning to take him in.  I was already planning for us to miss church, since I really didn’t want to pass along anything or receive anything new, thankyouverymuch! Our friendly neighborhood PA did a strep test – positive! – and sent us home with a lollipop and a prescription.  Since then James has been feeling great and playing as usual. His throat is starting to look a little better.

So, in the last month, I’ve had thrush twice and been on Diflucan for a total of four weeks and Nystatin cream for some of that time.  The babies never got it but they were treated with Nystatin for part of that time just in case. (I don’t want it again!!!) Natalie got swimmer’s ear, which I didn’t pay attention to right away so she’s finishing up drops for that. Michael had a double ear infection the week before his fever virus and we just finished antibiotics for that.  James is on antibiotics for the strep.  Joanna is the only who has so far escaped taking any kinds of meds.  :)  We’re ALL taking probiotics.  And of course I’ve developed a great charting system for remembering all of these meds!  Goodness fall! 

So I guess I’m thankful for the chance to build up all of our immune systems, but I wouldn’t mind a break!

Thankfully I felt up for getting stuff done this weekend and spent quite some time just getting the house in order.  I had piles of things in our bedroom headed out or coming in or that just needed to be put away, and it all got done.  I managed to keep up with my to-do list today, and it just feels fabulous.  I don’t feel like I’m drowning like I have most of September.  Now, my bathroom is gross, the kids closets need a few cold-weather things thrown in, my pantry and kitchen need some serious organization, and I’m not sure my stove will ever be clean again, not to mention the patch of floor under the babies high chairs. :) BUT… I’m treading water.  Hallelujah!! 

And now, I’m going to sit on the couch with my husband, eat some cookies, watch some television, and then hopefully go to bed early.  Momma needs her sleep!

Beach Day!

Last Saturday Mom and David took the three big kids to Galveston for the day.  David took lots of pictures so we could enjoy it too.  :)

David has a friend with a beach house, so they drove down there first.  They didn’t actually borrow the house, just the area down below it with showers.  And it had great beach access.  It was perfect!

James has a regular swim suit, but he was recently passed this floaty suit down, and he loooooves it.  I’m not sure how much he actually made it in the water, but he was ready!

I’ve got a couple of beautiful beach babes!

Apparently this is how James felt about the waves.

But eventually he got out there on the board!

I get the impression he spent most of the time doing this:

The girls were great surfers!

There was kite flying by all!

And lunch at Fish Tales, a favorite.

Then they rode on the ferry.

Look at James feed a fry to the seagull.  One moment it’s here:

Then it’s gone!

Look closely at Natalie here. This is the face of someone who’s just been pooped on.  :)

They came back tired and having had a wonderful day!

The Babies are 11 months!!

This was our money shot this month.  :) (It’s also the only one I edited.  It’s almost been a month since I’ve posted – gotta streamline!)  They turned 11 months old on September 29th.  Now, we’re in the month of their birth.  Wowza!

It’s getting HARD to take pictures of these boys, especially Thomas.  See?

This one basically stays where you put him though.  :)

Basically, they’re adorable.

So.

The babies are 11 months old now.  Here’s what I can think of about them this last monthly post before the big OH ONE!!

• Thomas is all over the place.  He crawls for real on his hands and knees and can pull up on anything. He does this cute thing where he can scootch around 360 degrees while sitting on his bottom.  I’ve seen him let go briefly while holding on to things and also take a couple of steps when something he’s holding on to moves.
• Michael is scootching – he pulls himself across the floor with one arm and pushes with his toes.  He can sit but can’t get himself into or out of a sitting position on his own.
• The boys can both wear 12 month size clothes, but mostly Thomas wears 18 month.
• They’re sleeping from 7-something at night to 6-something every morning, pretty regularly.
• They take two naps, though sometimes the afternoon one gets dropped. 
• They eat three meals of food each day and nurse 5-6 times.  Their favorite things to eat are Cheerios, bananas, and anything in a pouch.  At home they pretty much eat what we’re having but out I will usually send along those baby food puree pouches.  They love ‘em.  And it’s a pretty good way to get some veggies into them.  Veggies aren’t they’re favorites.  :)
• Thomas likes to get into and explore things.  He’s pretty much not happy unless he’s stealing my phone or eating some schoolwork or other such things.  :)
• Michael’s more content with standard baby entertainment but less content without me close by.
• We went in last week to the pediatrician’s office to have the babies treated for thrush (which they didn’t have but I did) and discovered that Michael had a double ear infection.  Boo.  He’s on antibiotics and was doing better for a couple of days.  Then this morning he woke up with a fever, which he hung on to all day.  He felt totally miserable and spent the whole day sleeping, nursing, and moaning.  It’s very pitiful to see my littlest baby hurting so much.  Hopefully it’s a short-lived virus!
• We got their weights at the appointment (fully clothed).  Michael is 15lbs 7oz (0th percentile), and Thomas is 19lbs 6oz (27th percentile).
• Thomas is so strong. He throws himself back or down when he’s fussy or frustrated.  I don’t think he’s been getting quite enough sleep lately, and he turns in to kind of a monster in the early evening sometimes.
• Thomas loooooves to dance.  His particular favorite jams are the opening and closing songs of Gilmore Girls.  It’s pretty adorable.  He stops whatever he’s doing so he can dance when the music comes on the television.
• They both have the most adorable smiles.
• Thomas has three teeth on top and two on the bottom.  Michael has two on the bottom and finally cut that second one on the top.
• They both love their daddy and their brothers and sisters.  I love that so much.
• They really have started interacting with each other in the last month.  I catch them staring at the other one sometimes.  Poor Michael is always at the bottom of the dog pile, but he doesn’t seem to mind toooooo much.  They pat each other; it’s sweet.