Baby Mary is 2 Months Old!

Unbelievably, Mary is two months old! She continues to be the easiest. baby. ever.  Hands down.  I realize this whole post is just one big jinx, but she is just so, so good.  She's sleeping through the night most nights now, sometimes waking once around 4, but she nurses and goes right back to sleep.  She's easy to please.  She doesn't need a pacifier, a swaddle blanket, or a swing to go to sleep (go figure! I didn't know babies came that way!), and is the best car companion, thankfully!  She happily falls asleep in her car seat while out in the morning shuttling her sisters all over the place.  She only cries when she's hungry, or really tired.  She tolerates being roused, changed and stuffed into her car set at an ungodly hour for a brand new baby every day, and she does it all with a smile.  I've only nearly forgotten her once in the rush to get Megan to school - oops!  I blame her easy nature.  Since she doesn't make a peep in the morning as she watches the girls get ready in the morning, I forget she's there!  I really do need to start counting heads, or just confirming that the van is entirely full before we go anywhere.  That's an indication that we've got all of our kids :)

We really could not ask for a more mellow baby.  And she's so happy, too!  When she's awake, her favorite activities are smiling, getting talked to, and having her chin tickled.  We're happy to oblige.  As are four big girls.  Oh, wait, excuse me,  two big girls and two big babies.  You don't want to mistakenly call Tessa and Annie big girls, or you'll get a glare, arms folded across their chest, and a "You talk me big girl.  I'm a big baby!"  Did I mention how easy Mary is?  Maybe because she can't talk yet...

Good Help is Hard to Find

In this house, we take all the help we can. Often, it's from a willing and eager two-year-old, who is always nearby (unless she's not, and then I'm really worried, since she's probably doing something very unhelpful!).

When it comes to helping Mary, they jump at the chance. Like today, when Tessa informed me that Mary had spit up on herself in her bouncer in the kitchen. I was in the middle of washing breakfast dishes, so I tossed Tessa a towel, and she went right to work gently wiping her sister's chin.

This kind of help is free, so I'm not complaining. But, it would be nice to not have to scold that same help for being too helpful. "Don't sit on the baby!!" is what I found myself yelling not one minute later. These helpers try very hard, though, and only want baby kisses in payment. Those kisses are gentle, most of the time...

Poor Mary!

But, look -- she's still smiling!

And she has a little lamb :)

These little helpers are slightly more qualified:







and Bridget has come a long way since her own 2-year-old antics while helping Mommy :)
- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Attention Shoppers!

I think I've become immune to the barrage of comments I get on a daily basis when out with the girls. It's very normal for strangers to feel the need to point, make a beeline to talk to us, and usually ask lots of nosy questions, all while I'm trying my best to make my errands as quick and uneventful as possible. It's typical that a 10-minute stop at Walgreens will turn into a 30-minute adventure, as we politely answer questions from cashiers, shoppers, and even homeless people.  A few days ago, I even had a random older Filipino man pull out his wallet and offer me $20 to go get the girls a nice treat because he thought they were so cute.  Let me tell you, it took a lot to hand that back.  Who turns down $20?!  I don't normally, but that was just way too weird.  (The homeless man sitting nearby with his grocery cart full of recycling had to pick his jaw up off the ground as he muttered to me, "I would not have given that back!")

The twins definitely get the most attention, and I might be especially used to the questions in this arena. Maybe my lifetime's experience responding to the "Ooh, are you twins?", "Who's oldest?", "Are you identical or fraternal?", and "Who's the evil twin?" was really just preparing me for my current attention-drawing situation. While most moms of twins (or more) list these types of questions as a major frustration while shopping, I don't mind as much -- it's all very normal to me.

And since it's all so normal to me, I've never thought the girls were either listening or paying attention as I made small talk with curious fellow shoppers. Obviously, I wasn't giving the girls enough credit.

Recently, while at Target with all five girls for a grand total of about five minutes, Megan turned to me and said, "Mommy, why is everyone asking you if they're all yours?". I guess she was paying attention after all :)  (I'm not sure why this question is so popular.  Who rounds up extra kids to take to a store like Target??  I'm usually in favor of as few children as possible on errands like that.  I certainly wouldn't be volunteering to take my neighbor's kids, too!)

And a few days ago, after picking Bridget up at preschool, I recounted what we'd done while she was at school. When I told her I went to the drugstore with Mary and the twins, she said, "Oh, did the lady there ask if they're itwentical?" Leave it to a 4-year-old to turn the most annoying asked questions into a delightful combination.

And since I can't end this without some pictures, here are my little attention-getters. I'd probably stop to talk to them too :)

(these "coffee-store" loving girls were the near-recipients of that $20)
- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

The Fruit of Our Labor

We decided to really get into the spirit of Labor Day last weekend, and do some hard labor around the house.  And when I say "we," I mean Matt!  Since he made the mistake of asking me if there was anything I wanted to get done over the weekend, I immediately suggested that he do a project that's been on our to-do list for a while: creating frames for our bathroom mirrors.  (Matt was super excited about this!! This was going to be way more fun than watching football!)

Although we finished remodeling this bathroom shortly after the twins were born, we never quite finished the mirrors.  I had wanted framed mirrors, but we got these large ones with the intent that they would be temporary, and that we'd buy nicer ones when we had the money.  Well, over two years later, they were still bugging me every time I walked into the room.  They just looked so boring and unfinished to me, and there's always something more important to spend that money on in this house!

So, while I occupied our dress-up crew with coloring, Matt got to work.

Actually, they "helped" him a little.

We're all pretty happy with the result.  Even Matt, who thought they looked "fine" before, admitted that it was a good idea. 

And, the girls are in love with their handy daddy's work.  Or, in love with looking at themselves in the new mirrors...




some more than others!

Tessa

One Month Old

Mary: "What is this? I hope you're not suggesting we do this every month."

Unnamed Photographer: "Yes. That's exactly what I'm suggesting."

Mary: "We'll see about that."

One of these kids is doing his own thing.

Summer Fun, Continued

I know, I know.  Enough already witht the hot tub pictures, right?  But they're just so cute. I can't help it!  Plus, years from now, how else will we be able to prove to the girls that they weren't deprived children?  We need as many pictures of them having fun as possible.  And, these days, fun = playing in the water. Although school has started, there's still plenty of time left in the afternoon for a little dip in the hot tub!

Megan has been swimming from one end of the hot tub to the other.  Yes, it's a hot tub, and she's swimming all of the way across.  We've got an athlete on our hands!

This one's more of a sun bather.  Too bad she lives in the wrong city for that!

Annie's full of something.  I'm not sure what she's plotting here, but she thinks it's pretty funny.

A little more serious here.  Tessa's on the right.

Of course, fun in the hot tub should not be confused with this variety of water fun:

I think these days are numbered, since I'm not sure there's room for Mary here. 
 

I guess "fun" is relative.

Smiley Face

She eats.
She poops.
She sleeps.
And now...










She smiles!

Mary caught me off guard today when I took her to my OB appointment for my post-partum checkup. She was all smiles in the waiting room, and I was so glad I had my phone handy to catch this new skill that has eluded the camera until now.

I love this little glimpse of her personality!

Bridget's Turn

This back-to-school wreath made it onto our front porch in time for one child's first day, thanks to a random burst of creativity on my part, and inspiration from my new favorite time-suck Pinterest.  (I highly recommend if you're wanting to feel inadequate and unproductive.  There will be plenty of projects and ideas posted there by crafty strangers to make you feel both of those things, and more.)

(Megan helped with the writing, and they all helped put crayons on the wreath)
Look, not only did I make a cute wreath; I also managed to get Bridget to school on time with her hair done, and take a picture!  Maybe I'm productive after all.

Although Megan started kindergarten a couple of weeks ago, Bridget has been (not so) patiently waiting for her big day.  While she's been anxious to make her debut in the big-kid Starlite Room (and not so subtly detailing what outfits she'll be wearing while Megan wears the same uniform every day), I've secretly enjoyed having her at home being a little mommy to Tessa and Annie.  She plays with them in a totally different way than she does with Megan around. It's much quieter and there's much less drama without two kids who think they're the boss!  Bridget relishes any opportunity to be in charge, and has created many games that, coincidentally, leave her playing the principal, the mommy, the bus driver, the queen...you get the drift.  She's lucky she has two willing participants!

Yesterday was Bridget's orientation and a parent meeting. I wasn't worried about Bridget playing nicely in the Starlite Room during my meeting, but I was worried about wrangling the twins and Mary while getting to know the other parents. As it turned out, the twins were fairly quiet, only occasionally coming out of whisper mode with their, "No! I'm the mommy! You're the baby." Back and forth while shoving graham crackers in each others' mouths :) And Mary cried -- gasp! So much for all of my bragging about what an easy baby she is!

Of course, we couldn't leave without a picture. This is Bridget we're talking about, after all. And she needed to have a picture of her block creation. So I took this while I tried to keep Tessa from stuffing little wooden bears in her pockets. Little klepto! Meanwhile, Annie is already earning a reputation from all of the teachers as the Stecher spitfire. I can't really disagree with that assessment!





The 3 middle kids :) It doesn't look like too bad of a gig.



- posted from my handy-dandy iPhone, with Blogpress

Already?!

Nowhere in our kindergarten handbook did we receive information on how to handle a situation like this.

In the middle of dinner tonight, after Megan filled us in on what she did away from the house for 6.5 hours, she suddenly became extremely giddy but shy at the same time, and then dropped this bomb:

"Okay, I'm not sure how to really tell you this, so I'll just say it right now.  Well, Brendan asked me to be his girlfriend, and well, I said YES!  Do you believe that?!"

Homeschooling is looking pretty good right about now.

I guess I'm being kind of a killjoy considering how excited she was at this little conversation (I mean, if she could write, she'd probably be under her covers with a flashlight right now documenting this in her diary), but in kindergarten??  I don't even want the words boyfriend and girlfriend to be part of her vocabulary..  Maybe when she's, oh, 21.  Maybe. Since when is 5 the new 21?  And, how young is too young to enter the convent?