Hello all,
It has been a while since we have written in our blog. This may be a bit long, but I wanted to be thorough. We have now been in our new home about 4 months now. The time has gone by so fast and the boys are getting bigger and stronger every day. The house still needs a lot of personal touches but it is just taking forever because we have no time to do it. I started finishing half of the basement around Thanksgiving time and I am still spackling. It is going to look great when it is finished and I know the boys are going to love it. I still stay at home with the boys and Tracey is at work. Logan is at school 2 days a week for half a day. It does break up the week, but it stinks when I have to pack up the babies in the morning and afternoon to drop him off/pick him up. But, in the end it is worth it because he gets out of the house and meets new friends. Playing with daddy and making pillow forts gets old after a while. We are bracing for the snowstorm this weekend calling for 12-18 inches. I am a bit of a cabin fever freak. I have to keep shoveling the driveway to make sure we can get out if we have to. Our driveway is very long so this really is not something I love to do. I am still enjoying staying at home with the boys and I cannot believe it will be a year in a few months that I have been home. I know it will be tough to get back to work soon, but that is still up in the air. Tracey and I are discussing me going back to school to be a teacher (preschool-3rd grade or up to 5th grade). I have a long way to go to get there, but now is the time for me to make a career change if I am going to do it. Tracey is still hard at work. She leaves in the early morning sometimes but makes sure she is home no later than 5:00-5:15 most days. When she stays later, I do miss her. Not so much for the help with the babies, but because I know she is going to be exhausted when she gets home. There are days that go by when I have to start writing things down to make sure I tell her or I will forget. It gets busy during the week but we have a great routine down.
The boys generally wake up around 6:00-6:30. Bottles and breakfast between 7:00-8:00, story time after that for about 15-20 minutes (depending on how many books Logan picks out). We generally go in the playroom or do some circle time. The babies go down for their 1st nap around 9:30 and sleep until 11:00. Lunch is around 12:00 for all 4 boys. Logan goes down for a nap from 1:00-3:00 and the babies go down from about 1:30-3:00. So, I get about 1 hour of quiet time which is mostly spent cleaning the kitchen up, cleaning up the toys, making some type of dinner for the babies for the next few days, or working on the basement to get ahead. The babies are on table food now which is great. They have had all sorts of pasta, ziti, meatloaf, veggies, fish sticks, hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, and whatever else I have time to make. When Logan gets up we generally have a snack and watch 1 or 2 shows that he likes. He generally picks Thundercats and pretends he is Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats and runs around chasing the babies. We head into the playroom after that and see who is in a good mood and wants to try walking or talking a bit. 5:00-5:30 I get dinner ready and feed the troops. 6:00 we start getting ready for bed and 6:45-7:00 the babies go to sleep. Logan generally gets to bed and falls asleep by 8:00 at the latest. Again, depending on how many books he wants to read. That is a typical day. So, by the time we get everything cleaned up, Tracey and I are generally in bed by 9:30 or so. Then just like the movie Groundhog Day, I wake up and do it all over again. I truly do love my job.
Logan is a little over 2 and a half years old now (June will be 3). He is adjusting to the new home and school great. He is such a joy to watch grow up and to watch him learn. Of course every parent thinks their kid is the smartest, so I have to say it. He is soooo smart! I catch myself talking to him like an adult sometimes and he listens so intently and asks so many questions. He asks them correctly and not just the general, why, how, what is that? He listens when you answer and then I test him the next night. He generally gets it correct. He loves to read books, color, paint, play ball (baseball and soccer). His speech is incredible for his age (So I am told by his school and a lot of friends). No bad words yet, but he recognizes a lot of words and uses them correctly. He seems to be a lefty with kicking the ball, but swings righty for now. He loves playing with his baby bros a lot more now. He yells at them to climb on him and drool on him. I do not love that part, but it keeps everyone playing together. There are so many things I could write about him, but I will leave it at this; He is doing great and I cannot wait until the next day to see what he will do or say to make me laugh.
Justin is doing much much better than 6 months ago. He was “problem” child with his reflux, not sleeping, and general discomfort. The only major change we made was putting all of the babies on whole milk on their birthday (Dec 16th) Since then he has pretty much been a different kid. He sleeps at night, he puts himself back to sleep, and he laughs so much more. He has the best belly laugh ever! He is the most advanced of the three at this stage. He chats a bit (not as much as Mason). He walks about 3-5 steps, and gets into everything! He is our explorer. One day, I could not find him and when I did he was at the top of the steps! Yes, the 2nd floor! My heart dropped and I immediately thought of what could have happened. Nothing did, and since then, the gate does not come down from in front of the steps. Justin loves and follows everything that Logan does. He laughs so hard when Logan talks to him. It is the cutest thing how he follows him around. He is the best eater right now as well. He eats everything and he is so clean about it. He hardly ever drops a bite of food. However, when he gets sick, man he gets sick. It takes him a few days longer than the other guys to recover and it is not pleasant during that time. He is definitely the least independent child of the 3.
Mason is our big meatball! He is the biggest of the three and the one that snuggles the most. He is a big teddy bear and loves kisses and hugs. He is also our biggest winer. If you take a toy away or something he is not suppose to have, man does he let you know with a scream louder than mine! He is also our swiper. He takes anything and everything from his brothers. He is cruising around on furniture and standing for longer periods of time now. No steps as of yet. He talks the most of the three. Mason is the most difficult to feed. He is constantly trying to grab your hand when you feed him or try to feed the baby next to him. He knocks the food out of your hand and it is sooo annoying! He thinks it is funny though. He needs a haircut desperately. His hair is over 4 inches! Mason plays the most independently. He just chit chats out loud and yells at his toys. It is very funny. He loves to look at himself in the mirror and just gets a kick out of it. It is as if he is admiring himself in the mirror. He loves rolling the ball back and forth with me. He sits up on his one leg like he is blocking a ball from going into a soccer net. That is his favorite stance.
Noah is our little pea. He is so damn cute when he smiles and laughs. Although it is not really a full laugh yet. He still grunts and makes the same sound. But, actually tonight I made him laugh a different sound for the first time. Tracey and I are a little concerned because he does not make other noises or sounds yet. He is the fastest crawler of the three. He takes off like lightning and puts his hand in anything that is near him. He has a death grip that does not let go. This is not so much fun when changing a poopy diaper. His hands wander into the cream, down his legs, he grabs his tushy..It can get very annoying!!! He is not standing on his own yet, but he is so close and you can see he wants to so badly. He loves playing with Mason and Justin. He eats their hands and tries to push them around. He is a little sneak. He will crawl by one of them and push them as he is passing by as if we don’t see him and then you yell his name and he just looks at you with his huge blue eyes and smiles and grunts (laughs). I could write a few pages on each kid, but no one would read that much, and my fingers would get tired. I mainly write this to keep a journal of sorts to go back and read. My sister-in-law got our blog made into a book with pictures for us for Christmas. It was an awesome gift and going back and reading it brought back so many memories that I forgot about. I hope all is well with everyone and stay safe