madelyn - self portraits

i should have known...

i had a meeting today and put a movie on for the kids while they ate snacks. they were still quietly watching the movie when my meeting was over so i made a few calls and worked at the computer.

 

occasionally i would check on everyone. maddux came and joined me in the office for a while and then went back to watch the movie - or so i thought...

quiet never equals good. love.

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portraits by mason

sleeping boys

everyone is still trying to recover from our crazy first week with manning.  i had madelyn snap a few pictures of all three boys sleeping on the couch (or on me).  i was trying to wake maddux up when he laid down on top of me too and went back to sleep. i don't like to let them sleep too long (if at all) during the day because then bed time is very difficult, but everyone looked so cute and were truly tired so i let them rest for about 30 minutes to an hour.  mason really was tired because he (and madelyn) asked to go to bed at 6:15!  mason didn't even want anything to eat - poor guy. love.

what we have learned about manning

i am (very) slowly getting caught up. and i need to update on manning. he still sleeps most of the time but is starting to show signs of an eat, wake, sleep pattern which is exciting to me. also exciting is that he is giving at least one 5-6 hour stretch at night; generally from 10/11 - 3/4.

the screeching (which has earned him the nickname "teradactyl" from daddy) seems to have decreased. he is still the loudest newborn of the four, but generally he only yells when his diaper is changed. i think that the screeching was caused by a little scrape in his penis that looks like it happened when curling up during a diaper change and touching the drying umbilical cord. i am sure that burned in a dirty diaper! the scrape is healed and the yelling has stopped - for the most part. we are thankful that we never had to deal with the screeching in public or someone might have asked what we were doing to him. and scratches shouldn't be a problem any more because his umbilical cord fell off today.

i think he is having his two week growth spurt because he wants to nurse a lot more all of the sudden with a few cluster feeds a day the past two days.

his brothers and sister love holding him and ask several times a day. most surprising is how gentle maddux is with him and concerned for his well being. when i change manning's diaper mason and (mostly) maddux come to comfort him and watch. maddux will also 'ask' me to take care of manning when he cries, even if he and i are in the middle of reading a book.

manning is starting to have periods of quiet wakefulness. here is a little video.

so far he has been the easiest to nurse which has been really nice because it helps me get more sleep. i have also done the best at getting to 'normal' nursing - very little engorgement, little let-down pain and very little leaking. i guess the fourth time was the charm.

i have only taken all four out by myself once and it went very well - we went to target. we are very blessed to not have any 'runners' and to have good listeners.

manning has dark blonde hair and lighter eyes (not sure if green, blue or hazel but seem lighter than maddux'). he seems to have a build similar to maddux though instead of 'solid' like mason - long and lean. maddux is the odd man out with all of the june birthdays having light coloring while he is dark, curly- haired and born in november.

mason turns 3

and today it's mason's turn - he turns three!  he has been very excited too.  we actually had to have a few discussions about how he didn't turn three on madelyn's birthday or on sunday when we had his party. he was not nearly as opinionated as madelyn about what to do on his big day.  he actually just asked for everything we had done for madelyn's birthday.  but it was a very nice day so i suggested the zoo instead of the museum and he whole heartingly agreed.

we all got a surprise when daddy told us that he would be staying home with us for the day!  that was a very nice treat.  he took mason and madelyn to the driving range after breakfast (mason just wanted cereal for breakfast).  they snuck out so that maddux wouldn't fight being left at home with me.  maddux actually found mason's golf hat as they were leaving and went to give it to him.  after some searching he realized that they had gone.  he was more sad about mason not having his hat than about being left behind.  he and i actually had a nice time at home.  we read books and sang songs together - very nice quality time.  then he helped me gather up and pack up lunch for the zoo.

they were a little longer at the driving range than i had expected so we left the minute they got home.  apparently a lot of people thought that it was the perfect day for the zoo because the parking lot was full!  thankfully, it did not feel crowded in the zoo at all and we had a great day.  (i really like the picture of mason with his feet up - his shoes even match his shorts.)

mason and maddux both ate lunch with their sunglasses on for a while. i was thankful for having brought lunch because the line at the 'cafe' was crazy long!  we were actually done eating before a guy about halfway through the line when we got there was still in line when we left.

i loved how mason studied the aquatic life in each tank carefully so that he could find it on the laminated identification sheet provided for the exhibit.  occasionally he would share the identification with us.

 this is maybe the one time maddux would not turn around and say, "cheese," for a picture.

i didn't get a picture of me with the birthday boy but i did remember to have matt pose with him while we waited for tickets to ride the merry-go-round.

daddy rode with the kids while i stayed with manning.  madelyn is riding a lady bug next to maddux.  apparently she was very concerned that i couldn't see her over there (and i didn't the first few go arounds).

after the zoo we headed home for presents. i love this sequence of pictures where maddux attacks an unsuspecting madelyn (she actually didn't get hurt at all but you can see him getting ready to pull her hair).

mason is the only one who is so greatful for every gift that he takes the time to check out what the clothes look like; madelyn just says something like, "oh a shirt" and tosses it aside without even looking at it.

i really, really wish that this picture wasn't blurry (i took a few trying to get one that wasn't blurry), but i still thought that it was cute enough to post.

i love how sweet mason is most of the time. even though this is his birthday and daddy said he was getting him a present, he still asks if it is for him before getting excited.

and then listen to how he keeps asking where the petals are on his balance bike.  it says that it fits up to a five year old, but it still looks small for mason.

mason really likes all of his bike gear - especially the racing gloves.

isn't he cute all ready to ride?  so tough.

and last came the birthday dinner.  since mason didn't really seem to care what he ate or did on his birthday, we had homemade macaroni and cheese with sliced cucumbers (two things i know he really likes). then i made a pan of brownies since we still had left over cake from madelyn's birthday and ice cream cake from their party.  mason loved it.

our sweet, sweet mason.  it is hard to believe that he is only three.  he is growing up so fast and we are so thankful to have him as part of our family.  love.

week one

this week has been eventful to say the least. i am going to add posts covering it all but here is the general run down - manning was born, got home a few hours before my parents arrived, had my parents with us for five days, celebrated madelyn's birthday and threw madelyn and mason a birthday party (or parties) with their friends.

it was exhausting but i am glad i did it. and our fun isn't done yet - the next five weeks are going to be crazy busy.

updates will start back with father's day if you want to catch up (and see pictures). love.

last day with big pop and grandma

today was our last day with big pop and grandma. i had to run manning in for a check-up in the morning.  everything looked good and it was a pretty quick appointment.  he wasn't back up to birth weight (he was 8lbs. 13oz) but the doctor said that he doesn't worry so much with the bigger kids.  normally he would have us back in a week to make sure that manning got back up to his birth weight, but since i wasn't a first time mom he would let me wait until the one month appointment as long as i thought that he was eating well.  i have no question that he is eating well (lots of nursing and lots of diapers) so we went with the one month appointment. 

the kids had gotten $3 birthday gift cards from toys "r" us so we took them shopping with their birthday money from big pop and grandma.  mason couldn't find his gift card (he wouldn't let matt and i keep it for him) so he just had three dollars; with that he bought two hot wheels and a light-up bouncy ball.  madelyn had $8 total and got a mermaid with pink hair and a small doll with three outfits.  both were quite pleased to pay for their toys themselves.  big pop and grandma were gracious enough to let all three big kids pick out one toy gift too. madelyn picked a baby doll (because she came with a light up bug for reading at night), mason picked a dinosaur and maddux picked a steering wheel that makes fun noises.

then lunch at chick-fil-a as a way to kill time while waiting for them to head to the airport.  (maddux had been playing with the camera and obviously touched the lens.)  it got a little crazy in the play area so we decided to just go back to the house and play with the new toys instead of doing any more shopping (read: browsing).

going back to the house also gave me some time to make sure we had pictures of them with all of the kids.  that was how i realized that we didn't have any of big pop with manning.  big pop really makes him look tiny.

it was nice that they were both able to come and visit.  it was even nicer that i could get out of the hospital before they arrived.  the kids had a great time and matt and i were able to get away a few times with only manning.  thanks for coming!  love.

the birthday party/parties

and the day i had been working up to arrived - the kids' birthday party/parties.  we did one party with two themes at the same time (my little pony for madelyn and cars for mason).  thankfully we were able to use the neighborhood clubhouse so that i didn't have to worry about cleaning up the house too. matt and i had spent most of the day yesterday running around picking things up we needed for the party.  including balloons.  except for five (of the thirty we bought) they were all laying on the floor of my closet this morning.  erg.  at least they were still full so we tied them to the chairs any way.

i had wanted to do the party on saturday but the clubhouse was already booked so i went with sunday thinking that i could set up before church and get back in plenty of time to make the lunch.  matt helped me realize that i was crazy.  instead we went to a saturday night service so that we could get everything done in the morning.  and we needed every minute.  i forgot that i needed to factor in nursing time (at least an hour) and transportation time of all supplies and then the kids.  i was still setting up when people started to arrive, but it all worked out.  matt worked the kitchen when i tried to meet and greet (i didn't know most of the kids/parents for madelyn's party because they were from school) and grandma helped the kids work on decorating their gift bags (big pop was on maddux patrol).  i didn't have all of the girls' addresses so i got their last names off the class picture, googled an address and hoped for the best.  thankfully, no one's last name was something like "smith" so i only got one match in the area and figured my odds were pretty good that it was at least a relative if not the girl's house.

there were two rooms so the parties were seperate, which was nice, but it made taking pictures and not missing anything much more difficult for me.

while kids were arriving and lunch was being prepared, i had crayons, color sheets, white gift bags and stickers set out for the kids to decorate their goodie bags and keep busy.

once lunch was ready we served the boys first and then the girls.  we offered corn dogs or hot dogs, fruit salad (madelyn's request), carrots and celery with ranch, chip bags and juice 'boxes'.  i was worried about not having enough food for all of the kids (13) and adults (i think 8 stayed the whole time) but it worked out fine.  i guess not all kids eat as much as ours!

after lunch the boys went outside for yard games because i thought that would go better than a craft.  they had so much fun - who needs rules or structure when there is stuff to throw?

the girls got to do a craft.  they could choose a bracelet or necklace of glitter, plastic 'thread' with heart beads and letters spelling their names (thanks for the inspiration, kellie).

madelyn was pretty excited about the craft and made a necklace.

the kids made it clear that they wanted an ice cream cake.  this was fine with me because i had no idea how i would have been able to make a cake (or cakes) before the party.  i went back and forth about one cake or two and settled on a sheet cake.  all i told dairy queen was that i wanted it to say "happy birthday madelyn and mason" and that i wanted a rainbow on one corner and a road on the other (the idea was that i could provide my own toppers).  i was very pleased with how nice the cake looked when we picked it up!  i had not expected it to look like two seperate cakes at all.  the kids were happy with it too.

here is a very excited girl that it was finally time for cake and presents!  she couldn't find the headband she wanted to wear for the party so i talked her into a 'headband braid' instead.

the clubhouse even had this small table with two chairs that worked perfectly for the birthday kids.  and there was pleanty of room for their friends to sit on the floor and watch - not that many of them bothered to sit down.

a quick picture of madelyn with her school friends - morgan and abby.  it just so happened that it was abby's fifth birthday today!  her mom was at home preparing for their family party while abby was with us.  it was nice to meet several of madelyn's favorite girls from school.  i know that she plays with several boys at school too (from her stories involving the same kids every day) but when i asked her who she wanted to invite she only named girls.  i never told her that she couldn't invite boys so she must have decided that on her own.

the cake was a hit!  one of the moms even told me that her daughter said that it was the best cake she had ever had and that i had made it.  while i was very flattered, i assured the mom that it was purchased.  i am a glutton for punishment but even i have to draw the line somewhere.  and, yes, several of the moms commented on how amazing (i am sure they meant 'crazy') it was that i was having parties so soon after giving birth.  you just do what you have to do...  honestly, i think it would have been harder to do while pregnant.

and then came the presents. we had the kids take turns but the boys didn't care too much about madelyn's gifts and the girls didn't care too much about mason's, but daddy and i wanted to watch both so we did them together.  the hardest part was keeping the girls from opening all of madelyn's gifts without her!

here is mason with his buddy, luke, from the neighborhood and benji from school.  they are both very sweet boys.

madelyn still opening gifts. or almost her friends opening gifts.

the best part?  manning sleeping through the entire thing!  i had hoped that if i nursed him right before the party that he would sleep for the whole thing - and he did!  it would have been that much more stressful if i had to sit and nurse him for 30 minutes in the middle.  he even lasted long enough for me to help matt with some of the clean up while grandma and big pop took our kids out to swim.

i don't think that the party could have gone much better.  we had just enough time to get everything done and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. there seemed to be some lull in the beginning because lunch was taking so long but the kids just played with the non-floating balloons.

i don't know that we will do a 'big' party like this every year, but it worked out pretty well doing them together.  and i am very, very happy to have it done!  happy birthday, madelyn and mason!  you are very loved.  love.