Thomas, He's the Cheeky One

Look what David picked up this weekend! We found this Thomas the train table with tons of wood tracks and accessories and over a dozen trains on our local Craigslist for less than the price of a new table. We still need to get the 'Thomas' train and some of the other main trains because the seller couldn't part with those but what a great deal.

The kids have been spending lots of time playing with their new trains. I often hear Will in the playroom saying 'choo choo' while pushing the trains around the track. And these days we watch a lot of Thomas & Friends in the mornings and sing & dance to the Thomas songs.


The nice set up David created above didn't last long with the trio so we've simplified the tracks to make one long loop around the table and put most of the accesssories away for when they are bigger. Btw - the boys were still sleeping when I snapped these photos of Lily and David.



Holden likes the trains but prefers to play with our cat Max through the window.

Dining Room

I've ordered this dining room table from cottage home main stained in a dark brown (still need to pick out a minwax color). David was set on a round table and after hours of Internet searching I think I found one that will work.

Now I'm trying to select a chandelier and these are the top contenders.

Option1: from Circa

Option 2: from Currey and Co.

I don't think I'm going to worry about ordering chairs quite yet, seeing how I can't even keep chairs in my dining room yet without my toddlers moving them around and climbing on the table. But theoretically I like this one below from Wisteria recovered in a family friendly wipeable fabric like faux ostrich or something from Sunbrella.

Crackdown

The bad behavior has been escalating and it must come to an end.

My most pressing problem is that Lily has begun biting Evan. It's bad, real bad. He has three scars on his back and one on each arm. When she bites, she bites hard, breaking skin even through the shirt. We had a few some biting challenges early on. But that was different and short lived. Will occasionally bit but not necessarily maliciously, he would be snuggling up and then 'ow'. But we would tell him 'no biting' and pretty soon it passed.

They have a lot of fun together and often play well, but they also hit or throw toys at each other when they get mad and it has got to stop. Will has a calmer temperment and the least likely to get in trouble although he will see the others getting attention for bad behavior and he will cautiously step in to do the same.

They are much better when outdoors but it has been extremely hot. We have been forced to spend more time indoors where is harder to keep them entertained and out of trouble. Aside from getting bored, there are just so many things off limits inside - No jumping off the sofa, no playing with the stove, dishwasher or dryer, no climbing on chairs, no climbing on the TV console, no throwing food, no pulling on the blinds, no moving cribs....you get the idea - that we are constantly having to distract or say 'no'.

We discipline with timeouts but we haven't been that consistent and it's not working. It's time to get tough and we have instituted new rules.

• We now have a clear place for timeout, two minutes in chair in the corner, rather than just putting them in the playroom by themselves.
• 'No warning' timeouts for any kind of violence. One bite or one hit and they are in timeout for two minutes.
• Lesser infractions like throwing food and climbing on furniture get one warning and then time out.
• When we put them in timeout we look them in the eyes and tell them in most simple language why they are going in time out. When we take them out we repeat why they were in time out and ask them to acknowledge ('no biting' ).
  

Lily went in time out three times until she would say 'no biting' after a time when she bit Evan on the back so hard it broke the skin through his shirt and left top and bottom bite marks. Maybe I was too tough making her stay until she acknowledged no biting, but we are desparate for her to stop. I wanted her to give him a kiss and say sorry but she refused, although he was quick to forgive and give her a kiss instead.

Meanwhile we are trying harder to keep them entertained and distracted so that trouble doesn't have a chance to start.

I also talked to Carmen this morning about our rules so we can all be on the same page. I'm optimistic that if we stick to our rules we will see improvement. We have to do better.

Ahh....Naptime

Evan insisted on wearing his new Keens to bed. I think he is happy to have colorful shoes. His old Keens were brown and he was always trying to wear Lily or Will's aqua or red shoes which were unfortunately too small for him.

Oh, I hear baby. No nap for me.

Family Photos

photos by Scott Stater

Changes

photo by Scott Stater

The kids seem to be changing dramatically these days as they approach their second birthday.

Their vocabulary has probably doubled in the last couple of weeks and Lily started speaking sentences or phrases, like 'this is baby's' when she hands me his bottle and 'see you later'. She told the boys to 'settle down' when they were jumping on the sofa last night.

Some of the words they say are 'blueberry', 'vitamin' and 'vegetable'. They can say all their names now and they call Will 'memo' and Evan 'Eba'.

Lily knows her numbers in Spanish...at least to cinco but Carmen says that she knows all ten. They all know one-two-three in English. Lily knows ABCD - E, although half the time it comes out ABCB-E. Will says A-B. I'll ask Evan later. I haven't been pushing this, but they learn a lot from Sesame Street in the morning. Lily has learned the most because she shows interest in it so I work with her more. The boys are a bit more 'kinetic' as Jenny would say and are more likely to be running around than talking and practicing with us.

Speaking of shows, we have been watching Sesame Street in the morning which I think is a great program. In the afternoon or evenings they watch Thomas the Train and he is a bit hit. We like to dance to a couple of the Thomas songs like 'Strength'. I find myself humming it during the day. When Sesame came on one day this week. Lily said, 'No, Thomas' so we watched that instead. We also just discovered Teletubbies which is mesmerising and they get a big kick out of the weird sun with a baby's face.

The way they mimic everything we do is a humorous reminder to the things we do. Last night they were walking around with wet wipes 'washing' the windows and walls. Lily told the boys yesterday to 'settle down' when they were jumping on the sofa.

And their pretend play is kicking into high gear. Lily is getting more into her dolls, wanting to put diapers on them, bath them, dress them to shoes, feed them bottles and put them to bed.

I've already mentioned numerous times that Lily and Evan can climb out of the crib, they now can also climb over the fence.

Security Breach

Lily can get out of her crib despite the crib tent. I found her in Will's crib after nap yesterday.

Head Bump

The kids do this funny thing where they stand put their foreheads together. They will stand like that for a few seconds. I haven't been able to catch all three on camera yet but here is a snapshot of Will and Lily.

Bye Bye GG

All good things must come to and end. After a long nice visit, grandma GG had to go back home to Florida. I'm sure she needs lots of rest to recover from her extended trip. And maybe she would like to have breakfast without three toddlers wanting a bite.

The kids were really sad when she left. She has been with us for a couple months and was part of their daily lives and they have a lot of fun with her. They still tell her night night each evening before they go to bed.

GG teaching the kids how to walk on an old oak in Blanco, not too far from San Marcos where my mom grew up.

Tackling GG.

Holden Six Months

photo by Scott Stater

Holden will be six months old this friday. He is the cutest little thing. I'm a bit sad that our baby days are numbered.

He had his six month check up early, they let us fit it in last week when I took all the kids to the doctor for their bad colds.

Stats

• Weight 18 lbs 6 oz (50%)
• Height 25 3/4 inches (25%) this is the same height as Evan and his six months
• Head 44 cm
  

The doctor was surprised to hear that not only is Holden rolling over as expected by six months, he is sitting unassisted and crawling and has been for a few weeks now.

The other day I was bathing the trio in my bath which is near the family room. Holden crawled all the way over to check on us.

Holden is also beginning to pull him self up to standing so we had to lower his crib this week to keep him from toppling out.

He is still as happy as ever and the picture above captures the grin he gives freely. Every morning when he wakes up in our bed he smiles bright and starts cooing and squealing. He is irresistable.

photo by Scott Stater

Dreaming of Decor

The house project is plugging along and our completion date is in less than two months. Unless we want a great but empty home, It's time to get going on ordering a few furnishings.

I love the modern and a little bit bohemian look to this living room, by Tia Zoldan in her own home. It is layered, casual and comfortable, easy not forced. But why is it never really that easy to do?

Surviving

All the kids got hit with a nasy bug this week, runny noses, croupy cough and fever, even Holden. We had been healthy for a while and I though we were through the bug season.

They really feel rotten. I took Will to the doctor yesterday because his breathing was a bit labored. He was wheezing a bit and having slight retractions in his chest from working too hard to breathe. The doctor prescribed nebulizer treatments for him. We did one right away in the office which was quite traumatic but did seem to help a bit. It was really sad. He had a high fever and was scared from the moment we got in the patient room. I had to hold him down while he cried desparately 'mommy, mommy...daddy'.

I didn't give him another treatment last night because he seemed to be breating ok and I didn't want to traumatize him unneccessarily. Will had this same issue at Christmas time when they all got that lingering respiratory illness. The doctor has mentioned athsma but is not diagnosing him with that yet. We will wait and see but I hope not.

Meanwhile we are not getting much sleep. Thank goodness David is back in town. He was gone an extra night than expected because of weather delays. He was able to do most of the night duty last night which was a big relief for me. Even Holden has been up screaming. Poor thing, I think he gets scared when he can't breath well through his nose. He have him sleeping at an incline to help the drainage but he is still having trouble.


At times like this we are just trying to get through the day.

House Status

Shingles - check
Stonework - check
AC - check
Plumbing - check
Electrical - in progress
Inspections/Dry wall - next week

The stone work turned out beautifully. We were able to salvage the original house stone from a rockwall in our back yard for the new second floor. It looks like it has always been there.

Four years ago we moved into this house. One day I was musing that wouldn't it be nice if we had the stone that was removed from the back of the house when it was remodeled in the early 90's. Almost a year later we realized that the rock removed from the back of the house was indeed in our yard in the form of a low garden wall.

What a nice find. Thanks to the previous owners the old stone was able to be reclaimed and is now part of the house again.

Happy Independence Day!

We kicked off the day with our annual neighborhood parade (decorations provided by GG). Last year the kids were just babies and I was pregnant with Holden. This year the kids are now toddlers and Holden made the caboose to our train. Lily was able to wear her 4th of July dress one more time.

The big kids enjoyed the post parade festivities. Here is Evan fishing for treasure with Dad.

Will with a big grin.

And taking juice break on a cool old radio flyer tricycle. Lily participated in the bean bag toss and made her first throw through the target a few feet away!

Holden got some cuddling from our neighbor Melanie.

In the afternoon Will and Evan headed to Grammy and Papa's house for their first sleep over.

While my mom, David, Lily, Holden and I went to our friend's Ranch for the day.

Lily spend most of the day swiming and exploring. David taught her how to blow bubbles under water.

My mom spent some quality time with her dear friend Sandy.

We enjoyed some delicious barbeque at dusk. One the way home we passed through several small towns and caught bits of their firework displays on the horizon. Driving past downtown Austin we had a great view of our fireworks and even caught the last 10 minutes from the bleachers in our own park.

Playschool Gallery

...for mom

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Family Photo

Our talented photographer friend Scott took some more family photos for us last weekend. He shared this one shot with us as a preview.

It's a great shot of us at the original Taco Shack around the corner from our home. I can't wait to see how the rest turned out.

Mischief Managed

We caved, the 'cozy' crib tents are up.

Evan was upset and Lily was mad as a hornet for about five minutes, then they went to sleep. It has been peaceful ever since.

I also ordered their toddler rails, so we may reconsider the tents when moving back to our house in September. But I'm just relieved that we can get back to regular naps and avoid the two to three hour bedtime.

The event that pushed me over my limit was when Lily and Evan moved their cribs up to the very high changing table and knocked everything off the dresser and were sitting there hanging out, Lily waving the blind rod around.

Party over. Mischief managed (for now).

Jessica's Back!

Jessica was on vacation last week so no playschool. But she is back this week. You should have heard the squeals of delight when the kids saw her arrive. They know that it means three solid hours of messy fun ahead.

This week they played in a big tub of flour - possibly their favorite 'sensory activity' so far. Each week they have been exploring something new. Jessica says that most kids will want to touch whatever is in the tub first but that Lily always just jumps right in. She has an adventurous spirit.

They pasted glitter on toilet paper tubes and added colorful tissue paper to make a festive thingy that they strung along the lights in our yard.

This week was also the messiest I have ever seen them. By the end they had flour, glitter and paint over almost every square inch of them. And big smiles. I'm so glad Jessica has the energy to come over and do this with them. Each week I wonder if she will really come back and pleasantly surprised when she returns.

I'm getting great ideas from her like this homemade kool aid playdough.

Fruity Playdough
(this is a recipe I found, assuming it is the same or similar to the kool aid playdough Jessica makes)

1 cup flour
1 package Kool-Aid (any flavor)
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup salt
3/4 cup boiling water

Mix all dry ingredients in bowl then oil, then pour boiling water in and mix thoroughly.

Wrap in cellophane or air tight container and store in fridge. The play dough should last a few months.

Good Golly

Well, I have nothing interesting to post. I'm too tired because my kids can get out of the bed and are not sleeping anymore. Carmen said to me this morning that maybe they don't need naps any more, I replied 'good god, no, the definitely need a nap!.' we must resolve this.

Anyway this crib climbing is getting dull. I promise to be back soon with an update on the house remodel progress and some thoughts on cleaning. Ok, that is not much more interesting.

Maybe I'll get my camera fixed and update with some cute photos. Don't give up on me - you three readers out there...

Mischief Magnified

Now Evan can get out of the crib. There has been lots of running around the room, screeching, little sleeping. They had no nap yesterday.

Last night I had to sit in their room until they calmed down and went to sleep.

More Mischief

Nap time today is going down hill fast.

It started out well and all was quiet for a half an hour, then I heard talking. When I checked in Lily was out of her crib and had pushed the boys cribs around. She had Evan's crib barricading the door.

I took Lily's paci away and told her that she had to be in her crib to have it back. It worked for a moment but then she and will began throwing their animals back and forth. When I went back in she was trying to climb back into Evan's crib and he was in tears.

She is now in a pack in play in the playroom.

I just peaked in and she was half way out, I told her to lay down, she did.

I still hear the boys, I'm going to head in and see if I can get them calmed back down.

**UPDATE**

I gave the boys bottles of milk and they fell immediately to sleep.

Lily ended up in and out of the pack and play many times. She finally wore herself out and passed out on the twin mattress in the play room.

Mischief Maker

One of our children has figured out how to climb out of the crib.

No, not Evan. Our adept climber is Lily this time. She pushes her body over the railing and lowers her feet on the outside of the crib, standing on the mattress, then jumps down. She's quick and rather graceful about it.

And I was just getting smug about how smart I was that I had purchased these fabulous cribs with high railings...

Worse, she can climb back into the boys cribs. Twice last night she climbed into Evan's crib and again this morning - much to Evan's dismay.

We are temporarily leaving the door closed so at least she can't escape in the night and wander around the house but we need a better solution, pronto.

I had thought we would buy crib tents when this day came, but now I'm having second thoughts. I'm leaning towards buying the toddler bed conversion kits for our cribs and just working through the painful transition now.

What is your vote?

Toddler bed rails...

or baby jail cozy crib tent?

Inspiration

Do you need some inspiration to get fit?

If yes, read this: 'Mom of 1 year old sextuplets runs marathon'.

OK, no more excuses, it is time to get that baby jogger for Holden and hit the trails as a family. Although, David will probably still be faster than me even while pushing the triplets.

I have only been going once a week to mommy and me yoga with Holden. Last week I took Lily. It has been a nice way to ease back into exercising but I'm ready to take it up a notch.

This week I finally had an appointment with an orthopedist for my hip pain. Have I mentioned that? Anyway, three months after Holden was born I started having the exact same deep hip pain that I had about three months after the trips were born. I also generally feel achy all over. I have assumed that it is just normal wear and tear from two back to back pregnancies and caring for four children.

Last time the doctor gave me a steroid pack and within the week 80% of the pain was gone! I'm hoping for similar success this time.

They also gave me a prescription for physical therapy. Last time it was limited to heat treatment, massage and some simple stretching. This time she prescribed a more robust therapy including strengthening and aerobic conditioning. I go for my evaluation next week. This may be a good jump start to getting my strength back.

I will also be visiting an arthritis specialist for the body aches just to rule out any other issues. But I have a feeling that exercise and more sleep will be exactly what I need to start feeling better.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my lovely husband.


Daddy Top 10
Thank You For...

10. changing diapers and dressing wiggly kids
9. buying supplies: milk, diapers, wipes, wine and chocolate
8. refilling bottles, sippy cups and wine glasses
7. jogging, waggon rides and trips to the park
6. tucking in to bed and checking in the middle of the night
5. dancing, wrestling and playing ball
4. reading favorite books again and again - 'dora the explorer', 'monster trucks', 'a potty for me'
3. making scrambled eggs and toast in the morning
2. playing favorite game 'Hop on Pop'
1. loving us and being a wonderful dad

We love you,
Jennifer, Lily, Evan, Will and Holden

David with Lily, Will and Evan

and baby Holden.