All's quiet.....for now

Kaeli is having a sleepover birthday party tonight . Right now they are quietly watching an America Girl movie called Felicity. Steve just walked by and commented on how great they are all being. We haven't heard a peep out of them since we started the movie. I feel very fortunate that my girls tend to gravitate toward other well-behaved children. I know I can't count on that happening forever, but for now I'm relieved.

I think the girls have had a lot of fun--hope so, anyway. We took lots of pictures and I'm looking forward to getting them on here soon. I'm so exhausted, though! The girls have all been just wonderful. Jess, if you're reading this--your girls have been an absolute joy, as usual. I'm just exhausted because it's been very busy for the past 4.5-5 hrs. We've packed a lot into one evening. Let's see, here's a quick list: decorated foam flip flops, made pizza bagels, opened gifts, decorated and ate cupcakes, did a "banana/honey facial", painted fingernails and toenails, made chocolate snacks, popped popcorn and now watching a movie. The girls entertained themselves quite a bit in between events. The cutest thing was to watch them do each other's makeup and hair. Kaeli was just LOVING it! I really think I shelter her a little too much. Tonight was good for me.....I realize I need to lighten up a little. The girls absolutely LOVED doing makeup. For some reason I have never allowed any makeup other than clear nail polish and clear lip gloss. Kaeli was in heaven tonight because most of her gifts included makeup--blush, eye makeup, colored nail polish, etc. Those girls had the BEST time ever using all that makeup. What was I so afraid of? I guess some part of me is just afraid to see her grow up so much. But, it's my job as a mom to let go and I have to remember that.

I did underestimate how tough it would be juggling the party with Ryan & Aaron. Aaron's been pretty grumpy lately and tonight was no exception. We got him to bed early and then I had to worry about keeping the girls quiet. That is no easy task with 5 little girls who are just overflowing with excitement. I felt bad that we had to keep shushing them.....but they were very good sports and always quieted right down when we said something. Steve tried helping out, but the boys really wanted to be right in the middle of the action. And, of course, wherever mommy is.

Ryan seemed to really enjoy himself. I have the funniest picture of him trying to keep up with the girls. I just keep saying that he's going to be a fantastic husband one day. Females will not be an alien species to him.

It's now 9:00 and I'm thinking the movie will be ending soon. I might be heading to bed soon after them tonight. I'm wiped out! But, overall it's actually been fun.

**** I'm sure Bridget will want to do more with the pics....but until then, here's a link to all of 'em. **** Steve

All about Aaron

Aaron has really begun to show his amazingly cute little personality lately and he's becoming so much fun!! Even when he's being frustrating he's so cute about it that I can't help but laugh. Ok, not always, but often. :) For whatever reason, right around the same time he started catching on to sign language he also really started letting his personality show through. I'm wondering if it's the ability to communicate. Even though he still can't communicate with words (he's well on his way to being a late-talker like his brother), he has really caught on to the idea that you can still interact and talk to people in other ways. I'm sooooo glad I have been proactive with him. With Ryan I didn't even begin to get slightly concerned until he was 2. Up until he turned 2 I just gave him whatever he wanted when he started screaming. I didn't bother to do anything different because I felt sure he'd start talking around 2--I figured the screaming was just a phase and I just had to grin and bear it. I learned a lot over the past year about communication in young children and I've been working very hard to put into practice what I've learned. I would say the most important lesson I learned is that I can't try to pull Aaron up to where he should be, I have to meet him where he is. By that I mean that it's pretty obvious he's not at the verbal communication stage yet. So, instead of constantly trying to get him to talk I need to start where he is. He's at the stage of gestural communication. It really is amazing how well he has responded now that I've come down to his level. I can't even describe how exciting it has been to watch his sign language emerge. I'm already realizing what a smart little boy he is! We've been trying to teach him to do the sign for "daddy" and "mommy" lately. It's been a day or two since we've done it. Tonight when Steve got home from work he was saying to Aaron "say daddy" and Aaron did the sign for daddy. I was very surprised that he did it without a reminder. And, how cool that even if he can't actually SAY daddy yet, he can say daddy with his new language. I guess it's just exciting to really see how much he truly understands already even though he's not saying anything. I will forever be a HUGE fan of sign language for babies.

Aaron is almost 18 months and I had completely forgotten how much fun this age can be. No denying this age can be VERY, VERY trying. It's especially interesting how they can be amazingly cute WHILE being amazingly frustrating. I recently decided that I have to start exercising. I'm doing really well with walking at least once a day, but the toning type of exercise is proving to be a challenge. On Monday morning I thought I would try to do one of my yoga videos. My original plan was that I'd do it on M, W, Th while Ryan is at preschool. During that time I'd only have Aaron home and I really didn't think he'd be a problem. WOW, was I wrong! If you know anything about yoga you know that there are things like the downward dog where you have your legs slightly open and you're holding your upper body with your arms. Aaron used that opportunity to crawl between my legs and put his little nose right to my nose. He kept doing that over and over. Then he started crawling up to me and head-butting me. I finally decided to call it quits when I had to lay on the ground for some position I don't even remember now. Aaron was climbing over top of my belly. The entire time he was doing this he had the most adorable smile on his face. I just couldn't resist his attempts at getting my attention any longer so I turned the video off and decided I'd have to find another time for exercise. Haven't found that time yet.....but I'll keep looking. ;)

The birds and the.......

Every spring we are fortunate enough to have robins that nest in our swing set. It's very exciting for the kids to watch and they look forward to it every year. It's been a really great learning experience for the kids because we have always looked up answers to questions like "how long does it take for the eggs to hatch", etc. Recently we've had some beautiful weather with temps in the 60's. The kids have spent a lot of time outdoors and have been watching a pair of robins that seem to have their eye on a spot in a tree in our front yard.

This morning the kids and I walked to school. It definitely must be mating season for the birds because we passed 3 nests within 5 minutes. Kaeli began telling me every detail about the robins that have been spending a lot of time in our tree. Then she hit me with "And we even got to see them mating!". This caused a moment of panic in me because that could definitely lead to a lot more questions. I was aready formulating my responses to those potential questions when Kaeli follows up her statement with "Yeah......I think we saw the mom and dad when they first met and decided to live together forever". WHEW!!!!! (wiping sweat from my brow)

Don't you just love the innocence of a child?

I'm hoping we get a family in the swing set again this year. The first year it happened we were worried about the choice the bird made and feared for her safety (we had an outdoor cat then). We took the nest down and put it in the garbage. The very next day the nest was back in the same spot. That poor mama bird had worked double time to get her nest done again. That's when we learned not to fight nature. It also taught me what a wonderful experience it is to have a nest so accessible. The nest is always in a little eve of the playhouse portion of the swing set. The kids are able to climb up in the playhouse and peer right into the nest. They look forward to checking the nest everyday to see if the there are any eggs. Then, they look forward to the the hatching. Once the eggs are laid I try to limit the amount of time the kids spend in the backyard because I know mama bird need lots of time for incubating. Then after the babies hatch she needs to be able to feed them. There have been times that the kids have been outside playing and the mama watches us from a distance--chirping and giving us lots of warning signals with a little worm hanging out of her beak. We always rush inside and watch from the window as she feeds her babies. One year we were even lucky enough to watch as the mama helped one of her babies learn to fly. Of course, the kids have also seen the unfortunate event of a baby's death. He was so close to the age of leaving the nest. We don't know what happened to him, he looked perfect.

So, this year I'm hoping that I can get pictures of each stage and journal it in my blog.
Wish us luck!

By the way, I have learned that it is a myth that the mama will abandon her nest if it's touched by humans. The kids know not to touch the nest, but it does make me feel better that if they "accidentally" touch it we aren't sentencing those babies to death. We did have a mishap one year when a friend came over and her son picked up an egg and accidentally crushed it in his hands. That was slightly traumatic for my kids. It was an interesting learning experience, though. The next day the shell and liquid had been completely removed from the nest.

Aaron showing off his sign language.

No denying the resemblance here!

I was looking back through some older pictures last night and came across one of Paige when she was right around Aaron's current age. I had to call Steve in and he agreed that the resemblance between them is just amazing! It's like they are twins born 4 years apart. The funny thing is that I always thought Aaron had a look of his own. He looked so different than the other 3 at birth. But, maybe he's not as different as I once thought.

Do you think they look alike?

Even when they're sick!

Aaron has the stomach virus with vomiting and diarrhea. He started with it yesterday late afternoon. I was bracing myself for a rough night, but fortunately he slept through the night as usual. This morning he was so out of it, though. We couldn't even get him to smile at us! Normally he's so smiley and laughs very easily. After his nap he seemed to be in a better mood.



As evidenced by this picture he was back to making messes. I was in the kitchen and thought to myself that he was little too quiet. Sure enough, he was so quiet because he was getting into something he shouldn't be. Doesn't he look so proud of himself?


I can only imagine what he is thinking here. I'm sure it's something along the lines of "you are interrupting me from this FUN stuff for pictures?"



By now he's remembered that he LOVES the camera and enjoys hamming it up. It's so funny that he already runs to the camera to look at his picture after each shot. It doesn't take long for them to learn that.



And now he gets back to the task of making messes. He just took a handful of those little balloons and threw them in the air.

8 years ago today......

Kaeli surprised us by making a slightly early entry into our lives. My due date was March 21, 2000. The fact that I was HUGE should have tipped me off, but it didn't. Even the constant "you must be due any day now" didn't really tip me off. My response was usually, "nope, I have another month". To which they would usually respond "I don't think you're going to make it that long". Sure enough, those complete strangers knew exactly what they were saying.

The morning of Feb 25, 2000 (a Friday) I decided that the guest room just had to be finished THAT day. I spent the entire day painting. I honestly don't think I rested very much that day at all. Steve got home around 5PM as usual. He seemed a little surprised by how much I had accomplished and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. Looking back, I should have said yes. But, there was something in me that was driving me to get that room done. I asked Steve if he'd put all the furniture back in place and help me get the room completely finished instead. He dared to question my need to do this RIGHT NOW, but obliged anyway. It obviously didn't take him long to learn that a pregnant woman is not rational and there's no need to even TRY to rationalize her behavior. The last thing that needed to be done was the ceiling fan. I will never forget holding up the fan blade for him and then feeling that huge gush of water.

The moments after that are a little blurry. There was no doubt Kaeli was coming soon. Well, I should say there was no doubt to a rational person. I still had my doubts. But, the on-call OB said to come in and I did as she said. Steve and I rushed around packing our bags. Yep, we looked like one of those movies where the couple is running around like crazy with nervous anticipation. I sure wish I had packed sooner, but I never imaged I would go any earlier than my due date.

I changed my clothes a couple of times, grabbed a towel, and headed out the door. I walked in the maternity triage door and told the nurses "I think my water broke". They actually laughed at me because I didn't seem sure. But, I'm guessing my soaked clothing gave my little secret away. They sent me straight up to the labor/delivery floor.

At this point I knew my little girl was coming, but had no idea when. I was only having TEENY-TINY contractions that barely registered. We waited for a few hours before the decision was made to start pitocin. This is where my memory gets a little fuzzy. I think the pit was started around 11PM. After about 2 good contractions I decided an epidural sounded really good. The rest of the night Steve and I slept.

7:59 AM on Feb 26 Kaeli was here.

How did 8 years go back so quickly? And, even more amazing, we managed to squeeze 3 more births in those 8 years!

Unfortunately we didn't have a digital camera back then. I have to find time to scan *real* pictures in order to get newborn pictures on here. I can't promise that will EVER happen. I will try, though.

Another visit from the tooth fairy

I was brushing Paige's teeth before bed tonight. When I brushed over the front teeth Paige yelled, "OW!" Thank goodness I had enough sense to realize that OW could have resulted in a missing tooth. I immediately looked into the sink and found her 2nd little baby tooth glimmering in the light. That was a first for me to have it fall out while brushing their teeth. But, it sure was a lot of fun to be a part of that special moment. I guess the tooth fairy will be visiting our house again tonight. Thank goodness she only brings money for the 2nd tooth. AND, thank goodness she just happens to have a couple of dollars in hand.

The girls got their awards for their essays today. They sure were very proud about their certificates and medals. I will try to get pictures on here ASAP.
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Pictures are uploaded.....here

Found out the subject of Paige's essay

Paige wrote about a time when she scraped her knee and Kaeli got a band-aid for her. So sweet! I love these moments when I realize they really DO love each other. :) Sometimes it's hard to see for all the arguing and all the complaining they do about each other.

Paige's first visit from the tooth fairy

Paige lost her very first tooth on Monday, Feb 11--Ryan's birthday. Her tooth fairy left 2.00 and an outfit for her Webkinz. The tooth fairy always brings a special gift for the first tooth and for the top front teeth. Those are special teeth and the tooth fairy doesn't get many of them for her castle, so she always gives something extra special in exchange. Paige was so sweet that she left the tooth fairy a quarter. Paige told me that the tooth fairy took her quarter and left another in its place. I thought the tooth fairy just left it for Paige to keep. What was I thinking?