Fake Eyelashes?

The kids were playing today and the next thing I know I see this.

I don't know what on earth they were doing. I asked for more information from Lucy but she was like a vault. No info at all. All she would say is that she wanted to do it. And all Gwen will say is that Lucy did it. Are they eyelashes? Pretend makeup? I have no idea. Even Reid has some, although his is very faint. What on earth will they think up next?

Oliver Benjamin- 3 Weeks

 Oliver is 3 weeks old! Time flies when you are not 9 months pregnant anymore!!! He is doing great. He is a fantastic eater and a very sweet little boy. He loves to be snugly with mommy and sleeps a ton. Not long stretches at all yet but that will come in its own time. I keep meaning to take and post pictures but he is snoozing in his swing a lot of the time. And there is a limit to how many pictures of a sleeping baby I can post. Oliver finally was awake and happy this morning AND I had a moment of clarity that I needed to take a picture or two. He is working on his third chin right now. I love my chunky babies!

Gwen's Adjustment

The adjustment to adding Oliver into the family has brought an unexpected hiccup to our house. Miss Gwen has always been a good talker. She had words long before the rest of my crew and spoke in sentences/paragraphs by her 2nd birthday. She has a lot to say. She has had a mild stutter for several months. Mostly when playing with Lucy or if she feels rushed to get her ideas in. However, bringing home Oliver blew her stuttering to entirely new proportions. She is very dis-fluent when she talks these days. I contacted the speech therapist that the boys used at school and she seems pretty confident that Gwen will outgrow it. Only time will tell!

Blackmail Anyone?

The girls were having a marvelous time playing with the dress up clothing tonight. Reid really wanted to get involved too but sadly we mostly have little girl dress up stuff. I have very few costumes for the tiny little man. Andrew and Zane were never really into dressing up.

After Eric rejected the princess dress as a costume choice, Reid decided that stripped down with high heels was better than nothing. That kid can rock some mismatched heels, soggy diaper and a messy face. I see a very horrified teenage boy in my future!

So BIG!

The thrill of having a new little brother is still running strong. Oliver is such a good sport about being shuffled around to the many, many hands that want to hold him. Reid in particular loves his baby brother and always wants his turn to hold him. He does not like it when Oliver cries though. It is very upsetting to Reid and he almost immediately wants him off his lap when he starts crying.

Oliver is growing like an absolute weed though. I had to change his outfit today and I put him in this 0-3 month outfit. That sucker fit. And I don't mean a little. He was fully filling out the onesie and the pants were not too long. I can't believe how fast he is growing! At his check up on Monday they weighed him and he was up to 9 pounds 15.5 ounces. That was a full pound more than he had weighed the previous Monday. I apparently know how to fatten a kid up. It also makes sense considering how much sleeping Oliver has been doing. He has periods of awake time but mostly he sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. All that makes sense if he is really growing this fast!

Tea Party for Two

The girls asked to have a tea party this afternoon when Reid went down for his nap. I figured it would be a nice activity for them to do since the weather turned nasty and rainy.

The girls had so much fun. They both had a teapot, tea cup and spoon so there was no fighting at all. It was a great activity for them and they got some extra water in them!

RIP Hugo Viggo

Hugo Viggo (Zane's fish) has left our family. I think we weren't giving the fish enough light. Last week he started looking bad, swimming/burying himself in his rock. Laying on his side and not doing well. Midweek Eric and I noticed that he had died but Zane was in utter and complete denial. Friday night we finally broke the news to him and he took it quite well. Zane wanted to bury Hugo Viggo in the back yard near where Betsy was buried. Andrew went out to help him find a good spot. Zane had a small burial ceremony for him (and even kissed the fish before laying him in the ground).

We went and got a new fish on Saturday. This fish is named Hugo James and looks like he might be red and blue. Hopefully we have the problem with the fish figured out. I don't know how many more funerals/cemetery plots we can fit.

Just Like the Big Boys

The girls and Reid have been playing bus/school the past few days. This morning Reid watched the boys get all packed up and ready to leave and he insisted on putting his backpack on to go walk to the bus stop as well.

He really enjoys walking to see the brother's off for the day but I think the bus freaks him out a little bit. He waves but shows no inclination of running after Andrew and Zane when they get on.

Scrub a Dub-Dub

Oliver needed a bath. Not that he had been rolling around in the mud or anything but he definitely needed to get scrubbed.

We are still waiting for his umbilical cord stump to fall off so no full baths for him yet. But a sink sponge bath was a-okay fine.

I really wanted his sweet hair to get washed. It definitely needed some shampoo. Oliver was not too fond of the experience. He actually isn't very fond of being undressed at all.

Hooray for a super clean little boy!

Last Day of Leave with Daddy

Eric has to go back to work tomorrow and we are all bummed! It has been so nice having him home for the past few days while we got adjusted to Oliver joining our family. We also got several home improvement projects done (a new screen on our front door and new towel hooks for the bathroom) and even went to have lunch with the big boys at school. But I will miss having the extra set of hands around the house most for my very hectic afternoons when kids are waking up from naps, dinner needs to be made and homework help needs to be given. It is a crazy life but a good one. Can't wait until it is vacation time again!

A Lot of Snuggling

We are settling in nicely with Oliver in the family. The little ones have done great adding a new brother and the big boys are doing great too.

The little kids get more chances to hold Oliver since they are here all day long and he is quite cooperative with them.

Reid has been a big surprise. He really loves to hold Oliver and kiss him. He is very gentle with him too. Eric has been home this whole time and Reid has definitely glued himself to his side. We will see how tomorrow goes when Eric returns to work.

Gwen and Lucy are still totally in love with Oliver. I think Gwen may have even forgiven me for having a boy. There has been no mention of a little sister so I am going to just cross my fingers that Oliver has proven to be an okay addition to the family.

Lucy reminds me of Andrew at this age. He always wanted to hold the baby (Lucy at the time) and was very helpful to me when things needed to get done without the baby in my arms. Hopefully she continues being helpful. And it has been so nice to have a smooth transition with her. She was a whirlwind of naughtiness right before I had Oliver but now that he is here we are back to business as usual. So nice.

Oliver!

Jeanette came over and took these wonderful pictures of Oliver today! Love this little man so much!

Mother's Day and Tummy Time

It was Mother's Day today and the kiddos and Eric spoiled me rotten. We went to church and got to show Oliver off to all our church family. Then we stopped by Eric's mom's house to see her and wish her a happy Mother's Day. Then we went home. And Eric took care of pretty much everything all day. He made lunch, changed diapers, ran to the grocery store, changed more diapers, baked dessert, made dinner, handled bedtime. He even let me take a nap with Oliver. It was a great day. I didn't get a picture with all my kiddos but I did get this sweet one of Mr. Oliver having some tummy time.

Fishing with Daddy

Andrew has been asking to go fishing for months and Eric has struggled to find a good weekend to go with him that it wasn't freezing cold or pouring down rain or so packed with activities that there was no time left.

But since this weekend was nice and Oliver is home and doing well, Eric decided to give fishing a try. He took the boys to the juvenile pond at Jennings Park so they could give it a try. They had freshly stocked the pond so the odds were good that they boys would catch something.

At first it was slow going and nothing was biting but then Andrew got a bite and things got really exciting from then on.

Zane ended up catching one big fish and Andrew caught two smaller fish. They were both so excited but they showed it in different ways. Andrew was excited but in a calmer, more reserved way. He probably would have stayed at the pond and fished for the rest of the day.

Zane was apparently so excited that he started doing a dance. A jig, right at the side of the lake. I didn't see it but he is pretty wild so I can only imagine that it was quite a sight to behold.

Once they got home they faked me out with dejected looks about how they didn't catch any fish. Then Zane comes flying up the stairs and THROWS a bag of dead fish into the living room. After the initial shock (and yelling about how fish guts don't come out of carpet and stink to high heaven) we headed outside to take some pictures and clean fish.

The girls and Reid were all very excited for the boys. Although I think Gwen was a bit like me (slightly disgusted) and stayed inside. Lucy and Reid watched the fish cleaning and helped prep the fish for eating tonight. It will be interesting to see if the boys actually eat their catch. Last time they caught fish, years ago, they wouldn't touch it afterwards. But they are so proud of their fish maybe they will manage to eat it this time.

Settling In

Everyone is starting to get used to Oliver being in the house. There has been a lot of baby holding going on and a little bit of tantruming over laps being occupied but nothing more than I expected. Reid has been quite chill about adding a brother and other than the few times that I have been nursing and he wanted me he is pretty good. Although mostly Oliver has just slept and my hands have been quite free.

I offered to let Zane hold Oliver since everyone was taking a turn. He said he wanted to and then promptly opened up his book and started reading. Such a difference from when Reid was born. Then Zane only had a 3 minute attention span for holding a baby and if I wasn't watching he was inclined to just dump Reid on the couch and walk away. Now that there is something he can do while holding a baby it seems to keep him still a lot longer.

Oliver Meets His Siblings

The kids were SOOOOOO excited to meet their new little brother. Andrew and Zane were at school all day and then had to wait even longer until Oliver decided to make an appearance so they could come to the hospital and meet him. Eric let the kids hold their new brother in order of age. Andrew got to go first and was as proud as could be. Zane was a very close second. He really does love babies and has gotten so much better about adding them to our family.

Lucy was over the moon. Seriously and completely enthralled with her new baby brother. She has been such a nervous wreck for the past week while we waited for baby to come that I didn't know how she would react but she was all smiles and so thrilled to see him. She seemed frustrated that Oliver wasn't an easier name to say but she got all the sounds out and in the right order and that made her go from crying to laughing. Gwen got on board with the name right away and for all that she said she "hates boys" she surely seemed to like her little brother. I bypassed the 'boy' part and just asked her if she thought he was cute and very sweet. She smiled and said yes. Then she wouldn't stop touching his sweet little face and head and checking out his little ears. I think all is going to be fine with her and Oliver.

Reid was a total quantity unknown in this puzzle of kids. He would point to my tummy and say baby but it is hard to know exactly how much of it he understood. However he was so excited to see Oliver and wanted to hold him right away. He walked over to Andrew (when Andrew was having his turn holding Oliver) with his arms out as though Andrew was supposed to just hand the baby over to him. Yeah, we are going to have to watch him like a hawk! When it was finally his turn he was enthralled. And he was less excited to see me than I thought he would be. I think me being in the bed and wearing something unfamiliar was unnerving to him.

The next few days will be a big adjustment at home. The kiddos are all so excited and it is going to be a three ring circus of people wanting to hold Oliver. But we will survive it and the thrill will eventually wear off and it will be back to business as usual with all of us.