10 months

Yep, that's right.  We are 10 months old!  Ok, well, WE really aren't.  I'm much much older than 10 months, but the trio is 10 months old and surprisingly enough we DID take pictures.  They aren't the nice composed pictures of prior months because they are getting too mobile and too restless for that.  They are 10 months old ya know, who's got time for pictures when there are boppies to scale and tables to explore!

We started with Zach and Addie.  Zach is always Mr. Compliant.  You put him in the chair with his arm up, his arm is going to stay up.  He is Mr. Sensitive as well.  If one of the girls starts to cry about something, Zach's face goes from concerned to upset to maybe going to cry with them.  He weighed 18+ pounds at his 9 month checkup, so he is not lacking for cheeks, belly, and thighs to cuddle, tickle, or just plain kiss on.  Although he saves his smiles for rare occasions, he has the BEST smile and giggle.  He just started crawling while on vacation.  His motivation?  A bottle.  Yep, he woke from an off-schedule nap, saw a sis with a bottle and decided the best way to get it quickly was to crawl to it so off he went.  He is very deliberate in his crawling, like you can almost see him thinking "arm, leg, arm, leg."  After we got home he started pulling up to his knees and just very recently his feet.  Sometimes the feet still confuse him, especially if he gets too close to the couch.  John has a great video of him just not understanding why he can't get to standing.  Mind you he is literally hugging the couch.  Silly boy.  He is my cuddler, my snuggler, my boy.  Oh, and his theme song?  LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I Know It!" 

Oh that Addie girl!  Addie has always been a snuggler.  As a baby, even when swaddled, she would find a brother or a sister to cozy up to when sleeping.  Like so *Katie on left, Addie on the right*:

So, knowing Addie is such a snuggler, she has always complained a bit about being in her crib alone.  She'd really rather be with her sister or brother.  However, I'm so determined to limit sleep issues with them I wanted them to learn to sleep in their cribs early on.  Since vacation they have done AWESOME!  We pretty much take them up, snuggle, kiss, cover, and walk out.  Umm, well, except for their 9am nap.  For that one, well, confession time...I've been letting Addie nap with me.  :P  She LOVES it.  Instead of being upset in her crib for a few minutes she lets a big sigh loose and lays her head down.  I can totally see how people get sucked into co-sleeping!  Milestone wise, she has three teeth and maybe a fourth starting to think about it.  She is the BEST Army crawler around and just recently started pulling up to her knees or toes.  Notice I said toes, not feet.  When she stands it is toes only baby.  She is an awesome eater and has mastered the pinch grasp to put food in her mouth. She has a smile at the ready any time of day.  She is a total love.  My peanut.

Then there is my Katie girl.  Ah, my Katie girl.  I'm pretty sure she has no clue she is only 10 months old.  She's probably convinced she's two or three YEARS old and we're just holding her back.  She has mastered standing and in fact cruises along the couch even.  She has taken a few steps with a push toy, but isn't too sure about that yet.  She is quite the devious one (see previous post) as she has also mastered climbing almost anything to get to the side table or couch.  If electronics are in sight, she is actively trying to get them.  Case in point, we had the Infant Learning person here yesterday...Katie....climbing UP Crystal's bag like it was a ladder to get to her paperwork on the couch!  Needless to say Crystal confirmed little miss determined will be walking before she is one.  She is the one of the trio to investigate and discover the most.  At times, this can be crazy making, but it's clearly the engineer side of her shining through so she makes her daddy proud.

These are my littles.  We laugh, we love, we giggle, and we capture sweet sweet smiles/giggles from Zach.  Happy 10 months my too-fast-growing trio.

Happy Mother's Day

For a first Mother's Day, today was a pretty darn good one.

I was able to sleep in a bit
I baked (brown butter blueberry packed muffins ~ Joy the Baker cookbook)
I dressed my kiddos in ADORABLE outfits (pics to follow soon)
I skyped with my family
I enjoyed a brunch with friends
I ate the yummiest French toast roll ups
I received the best gift ever -crappy pic, but it's the trios birthstones and diamonds-



I saw my youngest daughter stand for the first time



I saw pictures of my oldest daughter not only crawling around the gate but also knocking it down



I cuddled my sleeping son. This is not a pic of us cuddling, but him being the first to discover end tables yesterday. Needless to say we are more aware of what we put on them now. Also note, coasters are great fun to play with!



I love my life. It is very difficult at times, but it's a pretty darn good one. I am a lucky wife, mom, sister, daughter, niece, cousin.....



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My Katie girl

Ah my Katie girl. I swear her first birthday gift is going to be a mini-oscar. She is a drama queen for sure. I know I've told you all about Zach's back and Addie's toes...with Katie, it's her eyes.


Those eyes tell you all you need to know, whether happy, sad, or simply trying/pretending to be sad. What's that you say? My oldest wouldn't pretend...well, you just need to see her in action.
It all starts with the perceived wrong. This could be her not getting the phone, ipad, remote control; her getting her hair pulled, toy taken, paci taken out; her falling from standing, getting frustrated from standing, ... do you get the point? So, perceived wrong makes this:



Go to this:




This face is usually accompanied by a 15-30 second silence. It really is quite funny as she silently screams (it makes me think she will also inherit the famous silent Hermann laugh). One she finds her voice again, oh boy bring on the ear piercing scream.




Followed by the sobbing.




Now that sobbing. Most of the time our sweet Katie girl sobs, then squuueeeezzzzeeeesss her eyes together for this effect.




Did it work? Those eyes are asking. For those who aren't experiencing this multiple times a day, it might. But me, I try not to smile as I give her a hug and wipe away the tears.

Those eyes can also be filled with mischief. As you recall, I mentioned electronics. These are what her eyes look like when she spots said electronics.


Those eyes hold the answers to many of the world's questions. I can't wait until she can tell me just what's behind them, how about you?



Love my big girls eyes, my boys back, and my itty bitties toes. Those are my littles.

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The Land Before Time (Slette addition)

So we all know Mom and Kim buy some of the cutest clothes, but according to John Kim's fleecy rompers for the kids are the absolute cutest things EVER! As the weather has been beautiful here lately it was time to break out the fleece and take our kiddos for a walk. This walk killed multiple birds with one stone. First, our kiddos got to wear their fleece outfits and be the cutest-babies-ever!, second, we got to test our strollers sans carseats in preparation for Seattle, and third, we got to look at some new housing options we may need to select from.

Attack of the dino-babies!



Did I mention, these Columbia fleecies are the cutest ever? Just want to make sure we have that covered. In case you aren't sure yet, here's Zach to convince you.



And Katie


And Addie




Unfortunately, we didn't get any pics of them in the strollers, but maybe tomorrow. The walk did teach us many things though. For instance, my babies get their post-dinner-must-nap from their daddy. I'm sure it had something to do with the fresh air, but at some point all babies took a snooze. We also learned that the strollers going up to 50 lbs and our babies not being 20 lbs yet means they swim in the harnesses, must tighten more than we did already. We also learned it is quite the process to load all babies, walk to first destination, unload all babies for approximately 5 minutes, load babies, walk to next destination (45 seconds away?), unload babies for approximately 5 minutes, load babies, walk to final destination - wait, I mean third destination (did anyone else think of Final Destination, the movie, which freaks me out?), unload babies for approximately 15 minutes, load babies and walk home. Whew. Somehow all of this took us 1.5 hours, past their final feeding time by about 15 minutes. That was all fine and dandy on the walk, but not quite so once we got home. Maybe also because mom wanted more pictures...





















To leave you with a cute cute image. John and I, holding Zach and Addie,
roamed an apartment looking at the layout...come back to find a hot pink hiney in the air, dino head on the floor. Katie, eyes closed, snoozing away. LOL Again, wish we had taken the camera with us.



Loves to all!!

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Addie's Toes

Well, last week was Zach's back, this week, Addie's toes. That girl has loved her toes from the minute she was born I do believe. Mom and Kim will remember that when they visited in late Nov/ early Dec she spent her every waking minute with her legs in the air using her feet to kick the toys or just grab on and inspect them.




Since then she has become enamored even more with her toes. As an earlier post indicated, they are often a palate cleanser between bites for her during meals. We have to constantly stop her from tasting a big toe since we know it will really mean an avocado, carrot, or sweet potato covered digit.







All of this was super sweet, albeit a tad annoying. Until last weekend. Funnily enough, I read a facebook post where someone asked how to keep the feet of sleepers from getting ruined. I read the post perplexed, as this had never happened to me. Until...



I was on the phone with my mom I believe and noticed this. I then looked over at Katie and noticed




her big toe was sticking out as well. *can you spot it?* What? These sleepers are only since December!?! Yes, they are some of our favorites, but I didn't think we were wearing them out already. Jeesh!
Addie was of course LOVING that she now has access to her favorite toy.




Now, I must side track into something she has started that is SO endearing it melts my heart. Do you see how she is inspecting her toe with her index finger. I guarantee you she is very very gently touching her toe. She has begun to gently touch to inspect. I will hold her and next thing I know she is pointing out/touching every mole or mark on my arm, shirt, pants, foot, floor, toy, etc. She is so very gentle when she does this. It is true curiosity.
Now, back to the toes. I thought we had taken a picture, but I can't find it. The next day Addie was in Zach's dinosaur sleeper, what do I notice? Toes peeking out! Today, she is in the cutest pink snowman sleeper, again, from Dec/Jan...what do I notice? I'm hoping by now you are getting the trend, but if not...












And yes, more and more toes keep escaping. At the most three have escaped. We were wondering if the whole foot was going to make an appearance as well, but alas, it did not. So, those are Addie's toes. They are now apparently desperate to escape from every sleeper. We put her in a 6-9 mo sleeper earlier this week. Silly me thought it would be a bit big, but it fit perfect so I just have to wonder how long it will be before her toes make a grand entrance from that one too. I will leave you with a pic of the trio in their new, bigger sleepers.




I love my littles...all the way down to their toes.
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Zach's Back

This is a post I've wanted to do for a while.  It's old info, but I was thinking of the pictures today and they made me smile so I knew I wanted to get back on here and create it tonight.  Oftentimes I feel like one child gets left out of the mix.  I'm sure that is common with multiples and increases with the higher number one is blessed with.  How MoMs of quads do it I honestly have no idea.  Lately, when I think of photos or the blog I feel like Zach gets left out.  Well, in all honesty for a while I was capturing pictures of him in all sorts of funny circumstances.  It's time I share them with you.  I present to you....

Zach's back:

Ever since he was a baby Zach has liked laying on his belly.  In fact, I believe when I was wheeled into the NICU to meet my trio he was on his belly - mere hours after being born.  By the way, can you believe he used to be this tiny?  Sigh.

During my mom's visit over Thanksgiving, Zach was the first to roll over.  It was a complete accident.  He was so mad that we put him on his belly he just flipped back over.  (At that time he was not a happy tummy boy). He did it twice during her visit then not again for quite a while.  However, once he did master the flip boy oh boy, then he LOVED being on his belly (I think it was a control issue, he was now in control).  There was no stopping this boy!  We found him flipping over everywhere we put him!

It would take him a few minutes, then you would hear the sounds of a boy working to get out of his current predicament.

Then he'd see me grab the camera.  "Mom!  Help me, don't take pictures!!"

We saw that face often.  Of course, I never stopped taking pictures.  We have pictures of him flipped over in every bouncy chair, the lounger, heck - even the swing I believe.  This is a determined boy!  But don't let him fool you.  Many times he was very very proud of himself once he was flipped onto his belly - as he should be.

Zach was also the first to sleep full-time on his belly. This does not surprise me, but makes for some darn cute pictures.  Yes, Kim, he is covered in a pink blanket.  It happens.  :)

As I finish this up, I think of my dad.  I have many memories of him grabbing a pillow and laying on the floor for a nap...on his belly.  I have a feeling as Zach gets older he will do the exact same thing.  It will be a site that will bring a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.  That is my boy and his back.  I love his little back (and what a cute diaper butt he has!).

I will leave you with one more picture.  One of my favorites.  My boy.

Food, food, toes!

Our trio has been eating solids for a bit over a month now, and they love it. So much so that I've recently added lunch to our menu. Right now, lunch is only some brown rice cereal or oatmeal with a bit of veg...ok, and maybe a taste of applesauce for a treat. :) I'm a sucker!
As with all meals, Addie prefers the smooth taste of toe between courses.




So of course, her toes end up covered in food. When we are unable to keep her from the special toe-treat that is. Her washcloth routine is toes, fingers, face. Of course, now that I'm typing that it sounds totally wrong. Like it should be face, fingers, toes...but really the face is the messiest so it is the way it is.




As we have already introduced cereals (rice/oatmeal), carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, green beans, and apples I decided it should be time to truly introduce them to food. Up until this point we have done the feeding. Last night I chose to change that up. Getting out their trays for the first time we let them get involved in their feeding. This pic is of just the girls because Zach was napping and so we fed him at the end of their feeding.








To prepare for this, we stripped them down to their diapers. They didn't really know what to do with the food on the trays at first. They played with it - avocado - and drew it all around their trays. Addie was the first to put a finger to her mouth, which was a tad surprising. Zach however, well, we could only find two of the three trays, the third being hidden in the basement somewhere, so he was given Addie's tray. Where the girls were a tad hesitant to dig in, our boy showed no fear! He dug right into the avocado on her tray and loved it when I added a touch more for him. He had avocado finger paint up to his elbows and loved every second of it!

To continue with our night of adventures, I also steamed some red pepper strips for them to experiment with. The meaning behind a lot of this is to introduce them to different textures and to allow them to start connecting the dots with them feeding themselves. Up until now John and I had been feeding them from a bowl ourselves, no trays, no real child involvement at all. The end goal will be them moving on to finger foods in a few months.
While all three enjoyed the pepper, Katie really really enjoyed it. (I hope the video works). If it does you can hear me talking about Addie getting the pepper and her belly. Both girls did that quite a bit. It made me smile.

So, these are our new adventures in eating. Messy, fun, learning adventures in eating.
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