I'm Back!

Wow! I struggle more with the guilt of not keeping up with this blog than anything else. And I have a lot that I should feel more guilty about!!  But, every day, month (year!) that goes by without a post on this dear ol'  blog truly feels like time lost in space, forgotten forever. I have the worst memory, and also a common mommy malady that prevents me from printing our family pictures and placing them in albums. These are serious afflictions, especially the second one. And as the keeper of our family memories, I feel like I've created a gaping hole in our collective history. Who knows? Maybe I'll have seamlessly filled in the gaps through the magic of date-altering on Blogger, and everyone will say, "What gaping hole?!" For now, though, I'm sorry, Mary and Luke! I promise you've had a lot of fun and were really cute this last year, but  you may or may not have been responsible for my lack of posts during your babyhood and toddlerhood. Babies 5 and 6 have pushed me over the edge.

Yep, look who's a full-fledged toddler now! Sniff.

Okay, enough with the guilt. What I really want is for the kids to be able to look back and read about what they were like when they were little. We have two coffee table books of this blog that Matt so dutifully had printed. They serve as fun reading material for Megan, Bridget, Tessa and Annie, who all love looking back at pictures of themselves, and of course laughing hysterically at little stories in which they are the main characters. I love that they have these books to snuggle up with and read, but I also feel sooo guilty at the same time!  So here we go....

Mary, if nothing else is written about your second and third year, know that you were an absolute dream. Seriously, the easiest toddler ever!! Sure, you've had a meltdown here and there, like the time you threw such a tantrum about going to sleep that I put you in a time-out outside on Grandma and Grandpa's porch...in the dark...during our transition between houses...more on that later. I think any reasonable person would be susceptible to a tantrum under those circumstances, and most especially a tantrum-prone two-year-old! But, you always immediately and sincerely apologize. You are just so naturally cooperative and easy to please. I love the way you go to sleep telling me exactly what you want to eat the next morning (a bowl of Rice Krispies with no milk please, a sippy cup of apple juice and a little orange), and wake up eager to be my buddy for the day.

While you love to be by my side during the most mundane activities. from grocery shopping to blogging, you are also such a little angel about playing by yourself. You can entertain yourself for hours and aomehow not make a mess. You get dressed by yourself and "read books" for long stretches on your own as well. I will so, so miss you when you're off at preschool next year! Right now, you are under the desk drawing a picture of me. Actually, you were....now you're doing my hair. And Luke is draped across my lap, knocked out from nursing. Life is good!!

But, speaking of drawing, you drew this a few days ago. Suddenly, you can draw, at 3 1/2!! This is titled "Mary."

You spent the better part of your third year wearing your "work shirt," which is really an "I Love NY" shirt. This shirt, according to you, perfectly matched your purple, pink and white striped leggings ("White matches white, Mommy!") I'm sure most people who witnessed this ensemble did not realize you had a closet full of cute outfits that you could have been wearing instead. But, your mommy figures you have years and years of wearing an (albeit adorable!) uniform ahead of you, and if you want to wear your "work shirt" every day until then, I'll let you! Battles...I pick them!

And Luke, what can I say? I'm sure you know you're adored by those five sisters of yours! You go to them (almost) as willingly as you go to Mommy and Daddy, and they know just how to make you happy. They will lovingly sit and read the same story over and over to you, preferably "The Lady With the Alligator Purse" or "I Know a Rhino." Sometimes they are even better little mommies than I am, like the time Bridget suggested we give you a bath in the kitchen sink while I was making tacos (and you were being fussy...I know, you would never, right?). Genius! She even fetched everything you needed and happily cleaned up the lake you created on the kitchen floor. This same sister also plucks you out of our bed in the morning and gets you settled with a sippy cup of milk and a breakfast snack. She also gets me a cup of coffee, but I'll save those details for another post. It might be titled "Bridget: Surviving and Even Thriving After Ages 5-6." It might even be a book, and it would be a doozy. I'm so glad we made it to see the light of age 7 with her. She's a delight now....most of the time...but especially when taking care of you!

And they will gladly upturn an entire bag of soft blocks over your head to hear you squeal with delight, knowing that I will undoubtedly ask them (okay, maybe yell at them) to pick up those same blocks in an hour. That's love, little guy!

I've told anyone that will listen to my drivel that bringing a newborn home with 6-year-old girl and a 7-year-old girl is pretty perfect. Awesome, in fact. Life is hectic with six kids seven and under, but your first year was so much smoother with my very willing helpers, always available to hold you while I prepped dinner, or read to the twins, or help little girls in the shower. Now that you are 16 months old, they have been hefting you onto their little hips like a seasoned mother for months now. In fact, at 26 pounds, you weigh more than half what Bridget weighs, but she happily manages the task of carrying you, especially after school, when she's happier to see you than anyone else. They even relish the opportunity to push the stroller when they can. I do draw the line at diaper duty though. I figure that might scar them forever, and more importantly, I may never have grandchildren!

Even 3-year-olds can help with you! You two are quite the pair.

I hope this will be the start of some regular blogging, and that I can keep some momentum and do some damage control with that gaping hole I've got here!

Big Blue

It's official. Our family can fit in one car once again! Before little Luke came along, we fit just fine in our Dodge Grand Caravan. However, despite all of its great features that served us well (and continue to be very convenient) these past five years, the van's one flaw is the small fact that it only seats seven people. We knew we needed to get something larger, and had been putting it off as long as possible. Neither one of us loves car shopping, and both of us love not having a car payment :) Necessity won out, though, and we finally found a Suburban with enough miles to make it affordable and enough seats to fit our family plus one! It's a 9-passenger Suburban with three rows of bench seats, including the front row. As it turns out, the flat front bench seat is a very handy spot to change a newborn!

In case you're wondering, you can fit six car seats in the back of a Suburban!


We're getting used to driving a bigger, taller, more gas-thirsty car. We kept the van, too, which means that Matt and I can both fit more than a few kids in our cars if need be on a daily basis. This is purely handy right now, but definitely essential as we rapidly approach the years of shuttling our own kids and other kids around for a million activities. In the meantime, the van is a good baseball gear schlepper as well :)

The license plate BIGBLUE would be a very appropriate one for this beast of a car. Many eons ago -- okay, maybe just 9 years ago, but it feels like lifetimes ago -- we were a kid-free, fancy-free couple who bought a brand-new little blue Acura that was the perfect baby blue color. I ordered the license plate BBIBLUE for that little baby of ours, mostly because of a catchy George Strait song by the same name and because we apparently had money to burn. BBIBLUE proved to be a source of irony as we brought pink baby after pink baby home :) As nice as that car was, it was not meant to stay with our family for very long, with its little back seat and sporty ways. We sold it before Mary was born, bought Matt's little green commuter car and pocketed the difference. Little did we know that a real baby blue would eventually make his way into our family ;)

BBIBLUE's cousin Big Blue seems like a keeper so far. Something tells me this car will see our family through many adventures!

Crowd Control

Who decides to bring their brand new 3-week-old to the grand opening of the zoo playground that's been under construction for the past year? Yes, that would be us. We fought the crowd which included everyone else in San Francisco with the same idea, and entertained the girls with the complimentary carousel rides offered that morning. This was a fun treat, but the new multi-million dollar playground was even better and worth the wait!

Okay, maybe we contributed to the crowd just a teensy bit.

 Poor Luke thought he could just have the stroller to himself.

Nope. These girls are masters at hitching a ride any way they can!

Week 2

We have over two weeks under our belt with little Luke in the house, and we're getting used to a new CRAZY normal, especially with a certain threesome back home from their week in Arnold. Matt is also back to work, and had three late nights this week. Incidentally, Mary's newest word is "meeting," as in "Daddy. Meeting." I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to updating about Mary, but she is speaking more and more. "Meeting" joins "gross" and "coffee" as her most recent favorites... not to be confused with her all-time favorite of "NO!" But, enough about my giant baby. I'm here to post about my tiny baby. Although, before I go on to post some cute baby pictures, I should say that some things haven't changed a bit around here. This girl is still taking every last opportunity she can to read, even in the few minutes before we run out the door in the morning before school. I love it!

Luke is 1.5 weeks old here, and he is a bit chunkier now. At his 2-week check-up this week, he weighed 9 lbs 5 oz, and I think he might have gained all of that weight in his cheeks :) He's become a little more mellow at night, but that could be because he's now sleeping in our bed and nursing whenever he wants!

It's a rough life :)

Five More Mommies

Raise your hand if you ever wanted a real live baby in your house when you were a little girl.

Yeah, me too!

I should never have worried about how the girls would adjust to having a baby brother. They are the absolute perfect ages to want and love this new addition, and I couldn't ask for five better little mommies to help me out. Their abilities with him run the gamut, but they all love him equally. At one end of the spectrum, Megan is completely capable of holding him, walking around with him and could probably change his diapers if I wanted to give up all claim to him. She is the official baby holder in pictures of all six, and offers help even when she's reading :)

Meanwhile, down at the other end of the spectrum, Mary wants to do everything she sees her sisters doing, but gets upset when we put limits on what she can do. She's constantly saying "ground" so she can play with him on the floor, and she is always all over his car seat if he's in there.  I mean, she may as well be buckled up with him for how close she wants to be. It takes every ounce of self control to stay patient with her as she mommies him, as she is super sensitive when we dare act like she's being too rough with him.

Little Miss Bridget is always in the wings. If Megan gets to hold Luke, then she must have a turn too. She is already mastering different ways of holding him, and insists on "holding him like Mommy."

Wherever Luke is, these little mommies want to be. During his first week home, he attended soccer games and doctor appointments, and the girls wanted to be right by his side in the car. Being the one to replace his pacifier is pretty exciting stuff around here!

I can't forget Tessa and Annie. They love Luke, but they prefer to call him Bucky. They also quickly correct anyone who simply calls him Luke. He is "Luke Patrick Bucky Stecher." Yes, Bucky, as in the pirate ship in their favorite cartoon, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Why not name him after a cartoon ship? Sounds reasonable to all of the four-year-olds in our house! 

(a real live baby to bathe! incidentally, this was Luke's first bath, at 2 weeks old)

I have to say that the most special motherly attention Luke receives is from big sister Tessa. She is as funny and jolly as they come, but she is also our most sensitive and cuddly kid. She is especially in tune to little Luke when he's upset, and insists on singing to him. Her songs are usually some variation of this:

"If my little brother Luke starts to cry, I'll get a star from the sky. If I fall down, I'll call Wonder Woman and get a star for my little brother Luke for a night light."

Imagine a croaky, out-of-tune voice singing this run-on song ;)

She's also been known to whisper to him while she thinks no one else is listening. Never have I been more thankful for my stellar hearing :)

"Luke, do you know what? Someday when you grow up, you're going to be a daddy!"