Sleepover

Last night, Baby George slept through the night! Yay! Here is hoping it's the beginning of a wonderful trend.

Sisterly love

Gracie takes the role of big sister very seriously.  Today when I noticed Baby George drifting to sleep in his swing, I told Gracie that we needed to help him sleep by being quiet.  Instead, Gracie found a pillow and a blanket and tried helping George sleep by singing to him. 

Once she was sure he was asleep, she occupied her time by trying out some new footwear.  She thinks a wedge heal is so practical!

When George awakened, she shared her stickers with him. 

We really need to start working on organized, scheduled naps, but poor Gracie will be heartbroken when he is out of her sight for several hours per day. 

The new swing (read: our sanity restored)

I stood in line at the Birmingham Area Mothers of Multiples consignment sale Friday afternoon for an hour, in 101 degree heat, to purchase the above (ridiculously overpriced) swing for less than 1/3 of the retail price. Granted, I was extremely hot and very sweaty after the ordeal, but Baby George thinks the swing is pure bliss.  

That night I overheard Gracie and Lauren discussing Baby George's swing preferences:

"Baby George likes to go HIIIIGH!"
"No, uh huh, Baby George likes to go FAASSSTT!"

Sunday lunch

Fun Friday

The girls were pumped about "fun Friday" today.  In Lauren's class, she gets to pick a treat from the "treasure chest," her reward for demonstrating good behaviors all week, and Gracie gets to watch a movie and munch on popcorn.  Good times!

Friday's quote

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

-Oscar Wilde

Weekly recap

In highly random fashion, here is the week in a nutshell:

1)  On the way to preschool this week, I overheard Lauren tell Gracie that she "doesn't like boys".  I asked her why, and she replied, "Because they aren't fancy." 

2)  I have broken a vow I made with myself a couple of years ago... I joined Facebook after being shamed/pressured by some fellow moms and realizing that I am completely out of the preschool social loop about happenings/developments.  For some reason, no one uses regular e-mail these days; they route everything through Facebook.  What was wrong with regular e-mail?  It's not as if I am trying to coordinate playdates with written correspondence via the United States Postal System. 

3)  Speaking of, I am already on information overload from my Facebook experience. 

4)  I am completely unable to process Steve Jobs' resignation.

5)  Ballet resumed this week.  Sadly, none of their friends from last year are in their class.  On a very positive note, several of their friends from church are in their class. 

6)   Baby George narrowly escaped being dressed in a pink leotard by Gracie and Lauren. 
   

Six weeks and first laughs

Baby George is six weeks old today. Over the last week he has become increasingly alert, and he is even enjoying some play time on the floor. He is better at tummy time, but he really prefers being on his back so that he can kick his feet and move his arms about. He is quite energetic. We introduced some toys today. They were immediately confiscated by Gracie and Lauren until we talked about how fun it would be for George if they would show him how the toys work. They were very happy to school him up.

In other news, Grammie reports that George laughed while he was napping today. (I missed it because I had taken Gracie to a doctor's appointment.) George is such a happy boy. He was probably giggling about planning to sleep all day so that he could be up all night.

He is a prankster, that one.

Sunday smiles

A boy and two princesses

I reorganized the dress up costumes recently. As any parent knows, once an area is in pristine condition (which, for the record, mine was not) that area becomes irresistible. Therefore, they have a newfound appreciation for the costumes. Somehow we have acquired an extra Cinderella dress, for a total of three Cinderella costumes. When Lauren saw the third dress she exclaimed, "That one can be for baby George!!!" 

Friday's quote

Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A word of optimism and hope. A "you can do it" when things are tough.

-Richard M. DeVos

One month -- photo shoot

The good news about the one month photos is that I was disciplined enough to take them at exactly one month, back on the 12th.  The bad news is that it was not a great day to take photos.  The only time available was when the lighting was far less than optimal, and I had Lauren and Gracie wreaking havoc on the room.  The above pic is probably the only salvageable one of George, and that was taken at the very end, after I had changed him into some super casual clothes. 

Here are some of the outtakes. 

First up, George in his best "Roll Tide" stance. George's Bama bear was a gift from Uncle James, Aunt Melinda and Lexy, demonstrating that it is never too soon to start the indoctrination.  If you were to bet I am too conscientious of a parent to put that Build-A-Bear helmet on my son, you would lose.  Oh, how you would lose. 

George has blessed our family in innumerable ways.  Most of those are significant, but even the insignificant ones are special.  For example, Lauren and Gracie had grown very tired of the camera and had a longstanding practice of avoiding any type of posed photo.  Suddenly, now that George is being photographed daily, they are much more cooperative.  Thanks, George!

The above shots were just for fun.  I had intended to have the one month photo in the below attire, but this was about the time the energy reached a fevered pitch.  Shortly, after the sweet moment below, Gracie started bringing in all sorts of toys from the playroom as additional props.  She was inspired by the Bama bear being used, and had some ideas of her own.

George found the toys and paraphernalia disconcerting.  This (below) is his expression after being assaulted by a Gloworm.

After 200 photos and many close calls with toys, I abandoned the idea and changed George back into some comfortable lounge wear.  Note the below smile.  I feel the same way when I am dressed comfortably.  Actually, I attributed this smile to George being, well, gaseous.  He flashed another smile, in an appropriate context, Sunday, and he has been smiling all week.  Such sweet smiles!

After George surrendered, Gracie and Lauren cooperated for a few additional poses.

Sure, they look innocent enough, but George will tell you not to let those sweet smiles fool you -- especially if they start lobbing toys at you.

Bath stories

About three months or so ago, Gracie found a couple of extra prints in a drawer. The photos captured them taking baths in our guest room sink. The vanity in the guest room, which is now George's room, is twice the size of the vanity in their bedroom -- a fun fact to consider when they are all teens.

Anyrate, they loved the pics, and they have been displayed on the refrigerator since rediscovery. Also, they immediately made the connection that "baby brover" would take baths in the sink, and they waited patiently for healing of the umbilical area so that he could be submerged. Once it healed, Lauren immediately exclaimed, "Now he can get in the sink!!!"

Too bad George did not exactly share her enthusiasm.

When I posted the photo of George, I looked all over my computer for digital copies of their photos as well. They were nowhere to be found. Clearly, I had the pics on display in the kitchen so I knew the photos were taken and had to be captured somewhere. But, the photos were taken and originally uploaded four+ years and three computers ago; recovery seemed like a remote possibility.  (Sure, I could have scanned the hardcopies, but locating them became an obsession.)

Finally, I clicked around long enough to find them, and here they are.  First up, Gracie:

And, then there's Lauren:

Those photos were taken in December 2006, when the girls were 2+ months old.  We forget how tiny they were, how we brought them home from the hospital weighing 4 pounds 10 ounces, how they might have been eight or nine pounds in those two month photos.  Having George to feed has reminded us how we systematically fed the girls.  We created forms to track their feedings and kept records on two clipboards, in a makeshift, home version of charts.  We finally realized that Gracie simply does not like milk -- would not drink formula -- and simply waited for food to be proffered at six months.  Before that epiphany, we purchased every type of bottle and feeding system available.    Lauren outweighed Gracie consistently the entire first year of their lives.  Gracie started bridging the gap once fruits and vegetables were introduced.  At the introduction of most foods at one year of age, her growth soared, and she has been consistently taller/heavier than Lauren since then.  She finally made her peace with milk, but she prefers water.

Now we are in the constant feeding phase with George, "Groundhogging" (blatant "Groundhog Day" reference coined by Skip to capture the essence of the never-ending quality of caring for children) each and every day, making batches of formula, preparing bottles, cleaning bottles, etc., although, admittedly, there is only half as much work this time, i.e., having only one baby to feed means half the number of bottles, half the crying, half the diapers... you get the idea. 

Tonight, as Skip was mixing formula and getting the bottles prepped and staged for the next 12 hours, he wondered aloud about how many bottles we have prepared over the years.  The math is straightforward:

1)  Lauren & Gracie

Feedings every four hours = six bottles per day x 2 babies = 12 bottles per day x 7 days per week = 84 bottles per week x 52 = 4,368 bottles

2)  George (projected)

Feedings every three hours = 8 bottles per day x seven days per week = 56 bottles per week x 52 weeks = 2,912 bottles

3)  Grand total = 7,280 bottles.  Approximately.

George is negotiating with the girls for more bottles in exchange for giving them vanity space.

Chefs

Now I want the girls to grow up and become chefs so that they can frame and display the above pic in their first restaurant.

Office visit

George returned to the pediatrician for his one month, well visit today. Everything is looking great, and he has packed on two pounds since the last visit. The new formula is working!  When George told us he was hungry when he arrived home from the hospital, what he meant to stress is that he was really hungry. We have gotten the message loud and clear, and he is packing on the pounds in response.

We are not pointing fingers, but somebody was cranky following his appointment.  The only things that would soothe him was the George Winston music that the girls listen to at night and anything by Nora Jones.  He is a sensitive soul.

 

He finally relaxed enough to take a brief nap.

Otherwise, it is business as usual for the thunderbolt of lightning otherwise known as Gracie, who is demonstrating a "forward roll" in the below photo.

Lauren is riding high on the back-to-school euphoria and is practicing walking on the balance beam in the below photo (Skip's back is serving as the beam). 

Look out, K4!

Today we suited up and embarked on the K4 year.  Lauren was antsy to get the school year started, whereas Gracie looked as if she would have preferred another couple of weeks of summer.  To really kick off the school year, we celebrated by serving the girls breakfast in bed this morning.  The breakfast in bed idea came to the girls courtesy of the "Mother's Day Brunch" installment of Fancy Nancy.  They adopted the concept, and they graciously prepared breakfast in bed for Mother's Day.  (They also repeated the gesture a couple of weeks later.)  They also wanted to celebrate Father's Day with breakfast in bed.  Finally, Gracie asked, "When is 'Sister Day?'"  Since there is no such thing as sister day (that I know of), we told her breakfast in bed might be a nice treat for their birthday or some other special occasion.  Today was the day.  We took some photos, but we are not really morning people.  As excited as they were about having their breakfast on trays in their very own beds, the photos basically show two very sleepy children staring at their breakfasts. 

Like so:

Nothing says "we're ready for K4" like tutu's so we built an ensemble around their favorite pink and lavender skirts. 

The girls were open-minded, big sports about dining in the lunchroom for their summer program, but we're sticking with packed lunches for the school year.  Enter Hello Kitty lunch bags.

On the drive to school, they were so excited.  Lauren kept rocking back and forth in her seat and periodically saying, "We're almost there!"  Her excitement was infectious, and soon rubbed off on Gracie.

They reported having a great first day and are very excited about the upcoming year. 

The trio

Family day

Saturday has been dubbed "family day," since Skip does not work on Saturdays (at least not usually and/or at least not a full day).  Saturday is Gracie and Lauren's favorite day of the week for obvious reasons.  Until George's arrival, the day consisted of an outing or adventure of some shape, form or fashion, but we have scaled back the activities slightly to reflect a newborn's schedule.  Over the last week, we have been struggling to avoid coming down with some type of summer cold or bug. Since George did not appear to be feeling well today, we played it safe and stayed home. The girls had a rare treat of having pajama day, and then we topped the afternoon/evening off by picking up Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Of course, by late afternoon, Gracie and Lauren had layered Snow White and Cinderella costumes on top of their PJ's, meaning we were that family. 

We didn't venture inside the establishment, and, as Skip pointed out, our windows are tinted so we were not busted.  Even though we were that family, the girls loved it!

Geoge's musings

Hmmm... I keep getting nap time and tummy time confused.  What is it I am supposed to do during tummy time?  Wait, I know this one!

No, I don't remember...

That is definitely the sun shining on me so it is day time.  When in doubt, always sleep during the day, right? 

How else am I going to be able to stay up all night?

Y'all...

...that meet-the-teacher event this morning wiped me out.

Granted, I was only awake for about five minutes out of the whole two hour experience...

...but it was a very intense five minutes...

...it was intellectually draining...

...it was exhausting!