2010: A year in review

January

We found out we were expecting again!

The girls looooved bath time.

February

Confirmation that we were only expecting one baby!

The girls sported some Brewers' gear.

March

Alivia got her very first hair cut (we're STILL waiting on Addi's!)

Standing on chairs to look outside became the best thing since sliced bread.

April

We played outside...and stomped on our wagon.

We found out how much we love apples!

May

We went to the zoo and watched the bears.

We got a a sneak peak at the new addition.

Who just so happened to be very flexible!

June

Snuggle time.

25 weeks

July

An Oreo mess.

30 weeks

August

We ate snacks at our brand new picnic table.

And we went to the park to swing.

September

10:30pm and on my way out the door to (hopefully) deliver a baby! (38 weeks)

Sure enough, baby GIRL arrived!!

So sweet.

Two weeks old.

October

We played outside in the garage with daddy.

Elli realized she has the same eyes as the monkey!

The big girls went Trick or Treating for the first time.

November

Addi held Elli for the first time.

Livi thought she was ready for daycare...even without pants.

The big girls had their 2nd Birthday party (they turned 2 in Oct)

Elli was baptized.

December

Such a chunky little girl all excited for her bath.

First Christmas with all 3 girls.

Elli tried cereal for the first time...she actually did super well!!



We've got a roller!

Elli is officially rolling from belly to back.  She did it for the first time over a week ago.  But now she's very proficient at it.  It's just a matter of time before she figures out that she can also roll from her back to her belly.  Then we'll have yet another child who won't be in the same place we left her after we return from a short bathroom break!!

She's actually a very late roller compared to Adalyn and Alivia.  Livi was a little over 5 weeks old when she started to roll from back to belly and Addi was 6 1/2 weeks.  But they were actually reeeally early rollers.  However, poor Elli never had much practice on her tummy.  For at least the first month and a half of her life, I was afraid to put her on the floor out of fear she would get stepped on by her sisters.  So she was in her swing, her bouncy, her carseat, being held by us, etc.  Finally around two months, I started feeling much, much more comfortable putting her on the floor when her big sisters were awake.  So yeah, she was two months later in accomplishing this milestone than her sisters were, but I'll take the complete blame for that one!!!

The other milestone that we reached in this house is that both of the big girls now have all of their teeth!!!  Addi has had all of her two year molars for quite a while now.  But Livi finally cut the last of her's.  It seemed like those buggers would never come through.  So the girls are now done getting teeth until 6-7 years when the first set of permanent molars appear.  Whew, we survived teething.  Oh wait, we now have another baby that's going to begin the process all over again here very shortly.  Hmmm.  I guess we don't get a break...another two years of teething.

A visit with Santa

After procrastinating until the last possible second, Elli finally got to meet Santa for the first time ever. Knowing that the wait was probably going to be fairly long, we decided against taking Addi and Livi. Plus we figured that they would be afraid of him anyway, so why torture them with standing in a long line? Of course I'm not 100% certain that they would've had a meltdown. But I like to think that I know my kids pretty well...and I had a strong sneaking suspicion that they would not have been fans.

So Elliana and I stood in line for an hour and 45 minutes!! Good golly. Thankfully a lady I used to play volleyball with was standing ahead of me and a girl I went to grad school with was standing behind me. So I had a couple people to keep me company during the long wait. Little Elli fell asleep in my arms for quite a while but she woke up right before it was her turn!! She was determined not to sleep through such a big event!

This is the professional picture. I'll try to take a better picture of it (our scanner is broken) so that Santa isn't obscured by the flash. Once I do that, I'll replace this one.

While we were standing in line, a little boy said to his mom "mommy, babies aren't supposed to have that much hair!" Haha. Too cute. His mom told me that all of her babies were bald. So he wasn't used to seeing babies with any hair...especially as much as Elli has.

Then I saw a teeny tiny newborn. And honestly, I thought Elli was still tiny. But all of a sudden, Elli seemed huge!! In my head I'm thinking "oh please don't let it be true that she was ever that small. She hasn't gotten *that* much bigger has she?" Unfortunately, it's true. These pictures prove it...

Just shy of 2 weeks old.

And 3 months later.  Wow.

Assuming roles

It's so funny watching the big girls interact with Elli.  They have their moments where they simply can't get enough of her.  But they also have their moments where they completely ignore her, which is absolutely fine.  They're two years old - they need to be doing their own thing.

But I've noticed that Adalyn and Alivia are assuming specific roles with Elli.  Adalyn has become Elli's teacher and Alivia has become her second mother.  More times than not, when Addi interacts with Elli, she's trying to teach her something.  She'll sit down right in front of her, point at her own hand and say "hand."  Then she'll point to her own nose and say "nose."  She'll point at me across the room (as though Elli understands where she's pointing) and say "mama!"  This same process continues with as many body parts as she can name, kitty, sissy (Livi), chair, couch, socks, shoes, etc.

Then there's Livi.  What a little mother hen.  It seems like she's always bringing Elli her necessary gear.  She loads her up with blankets, burp rags, nuks, clothes, and gentle pats on the belly.  If I pick up Elli and don't have a blanket with me, Livi brings me one.  If Elli is in her swing and Livi finds a nuk on the floor, she runs it over to the swing and tries to put it in Elli's mouth.  If Elli is laying on the floor and there's a burp rag nearby, Livi has to pick it up and put it on her chest.

I think Elli should consider herself a very lucky little sister.  She's got two wonderful big sisters looking out for her!

I'm a working woman again

So I survived my first 4 days back at work!  And so did all of the girls. The very first day back, Elli was pretty much on a bottle strike.  She really didn't eat much while I was gone.  The second day, she maybe took 1-2oz more.  But then the last two days, she finished off all the bottles that I made for her.  So hopefully she'll continue with that.  I was off today and then I'm back on for another 3 days till I get a little time off with my girls.

It was hard being away.  I think it was harder going back to work this time than it was last time.  Partly because twin infants are tough and it was a bit nice to escape the chaos for a while!!  But also because I know that a bunch of "strangers" are taking care of my kids this time.  When I finally went back to work after the twins were born, my mom was here most of the time to watch them.  I sometimes had to bring a sitter in the house, but that was rare.  This time, the big girls go to daycare and I have a sitter come to the house to watch Elli (except for my work weekends when Nate gets the pleasure of watching all 3!).  So I worry a lot more this time around than I did last time. 

However, the girls are doing better and better with daycare.  They continue to cry a little when I drop them off but their primary teacher has told me that it lasts about 5 minutes and then they're done.  And the fact that Elli continued to do better with the bottle each day that I was gone was also reassuring.  So maybe within a few weeks I won't worry so much about all three of them.

And speaking of worrying...I'm taking Addi to the doctor tomorrow.  She's had 6 epidodes of vomiting in the last 6-7 weeks.  The stomach bug that ran through this house accounts for one of the episodes (the episodes can include multiple pukes per day), but we're not sure what's going on the other times.  At times I've felt as though she has a very sensitive gag reflex because it seems to be sparked by her coughing - which there's been a lot of since both girls have had constant colds since starting daycare.  But this morning, she was sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing when she simply threw up all over herself.  She's not feverish, she usuallty acts completely normal afterwards (high energy, talking a mile a minute, etc), she doesn't "look" sick and so forth.  I called the triage nurse this morning and she definitely thought it warranted a visit.  So we'll see was the pedi has to say.

Here are some pictures from the past couple of weeks.  The snow pictures are from the fun we had outside BEFORE we received a record high of 22" of snow in a 24hr span.  We have soooo much snow now that the girls would probably get lost outside!

They weren't quite sure what to think! Livi left, Addi right.

Addi.

Livi.

Addi left, Livi right.

Elli is talking to daddy.

She's still working on finding that thumb!

She's getting too big, too fast.

She's my little peanut.



Professional pictures

Sometimes I seriously think we're crazy.  Of course, a lot of people thought that a long time ago when we decided to have another baby so quickly after having twins!!  But anyway.  We took all three girls to have their pictures taken yesterday.  We were finally getting around to the big girls' 2 year pictures and we had Elli's 3 month photos done.  And we wanted all three of them together for a picture as well.  I tried to line up a little help so that it would be one adult per child, but that didn't happen.  Nate and I were outnumbered.

The plan was to take the group shot first and then take Addi and Livi's individual pictures while I changed Elli into a different outfit.  Well, the big girls were having absolutely nothing to do with it!  They screamed, they cried, they bolted for the door, etc.  It didn't help that they were hit with cold #3 that morning.  And because of the new colds, they only took a 25 minute and 45 minute nap (normal is anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours)!  So I told Nate to just take them home.  But as he reached the door, I changed my mind and asked him to stay to see if they might be interested in watching Elli have her pictures taken.

Much to my surprise, they were very interested in watching Elli and seeing the big flashes go off.  All of a sudden it became fun and they each wanted to take their turns!!  I knew right away that Addi had hair in her eyes (she actually has enough hair for that now!) and Livi's hair looked crazy.  But the fact that they were sitting and smiling big and having a good time...well, I wasn't going to disrupt it just to fix hair.  Otherwise I feared we wouldn't get any pictures at all!!  So yeah, they looked a bit disheveled.  But I'll take that over no pictures! 

So while they were getting their individuals taken, I changed Elli BACK into her original outfit for the group photo.  Little peanut was such a great sport about the clothing changes.  At least one of them made this whole ordeal easier!!  In the end, it all worked out and I'm glad that I decided not to send the big girls home before giving them a second chance.  But I can also tell you that I'm glad that they're done with professional pictures until they're three!!  I've had theirs taken at 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 (roughly) months.  And we'll do the same for Elli.  But from the age of 2 years on, we'll just be doing them yearly.  Oh, and doing yearly photos after the age of two was determined a long time ago...it was not a result of the meltdown we had!!

And in case you're wondering, I'll be headed back to work in roughly 36 hours.  But who's counting, right?

I know, it's been forever

Sorry for not writing in over a week.  We did some travelling over the Thanksgiving weekend.  And then throw in a sick house (again), there just wasn't much time!  Once the bug came in, it seriously feels as though it never left.  The big girls have been dealing with colds for over a month.  I know a lot of it has to do with the start of daycare.  The minute they recover from one cold, they get another.

But then throw in the stomach bug and we're just one happy family!!  *insert heavy sarcasm*  To make a long story short, we had vomiting toddler #1.  Then we had vomiting toddler #2 a couple days later.  Then we were back to vomiting toddler #1 a couple days after that with a side of vomiting daddy thrown in for good measure.  Oh...and the colds continue.  Elli and I are hanging tough.  But I'm honestly waiting for the bottom to drop out.

Thanksgiving was great though.  It was the first time we travelled with all three girls.  And holy cow did we have to take a lot of stuff!!  Packing definitely was not fun.  Unpacking was even less fun!  I should've just left their suitcases packed since Christmas is just around the corner and we're going to be doing more travelling!!!

Oh yeah.  I go back to work in exactly one week.  Boo.

The Great Bottle Battle

Well, I go back to work in just over two weeks.  And little Miss Elli is still hit or miss with the bottle.  At times she'll suck down 3-4 ounces in minutes.  However, more times than not it's a huge battle just to get her to take an ounce.  She fusses, screams, cries, etc.  We had switched from Avent bottles to Playtex Drop-Ins several weeks ago and she seemed to be doing better with those.  However, after she was giving Nate a really hard time last night, I switched her back over to an Avent bottle...and she gulped down 2 1/2 ounces.

So I don't know what to do when I go back to work.  Maybe make sure both types of bottles are available and simply tell the babysitter "good luck."  We'll see.  She has 16 more days to figure out what she wants (besides mama!!).  I know that she'll eventually eat when she's hungry.  But I feel bad for the babysitter who will have to listen to her scream until she finally concedes to the bottle.  And I'll feel bad for Elli knowing that she will cry until she realizes that the bottle is her only option for 9 hours.  Like I said, we'll keep working on it...and I can only hope that we see major improvements in the next two weeks.

In other news, Elliana found her fists about a week ago and constantly tries to suck on them now.  Sometimes she wakes me up in the middle of the night smacking her lips on her fists.  It kinda looks like she might be trying to get at her thumb, but she obviously doesn't have the coordination for that quite yet.  It'll be interesting to see because Addi was a thumb sucker and Livi was a nuk baby. 

I definitely like my hands!

I've been working hard during tummy time.

My smile can't get any bigger than this!!