Football time

We've got spirit.
Yes, we do.
We've got spirit.
How about you?

Toddle Phase

I do love this brief moment in time when a baby is getting around by walking, but is still not very steady on his feet. Ahhh, the cuteness! It doesn't last long - Graham took his very first step only a month ago, and as you can see, he's already starting to try to run. (Grant, meanwhile, is running all over the house so long as he is pushing something ... anything ... ride-on trucks, plastic chairs, toy pirate ships ... he is fast, but not on his own yet.)

Capital "I"

Guess Carter doesn't like sans-serif fonts.

2-Year-Old Preschool

So Miss E started her preschool year on Tuesday. Like Carter, she is at a new school this year (she's now at our church's preschool). And she stepped up from two days a week, to three days a week.

She was super excited to start. She knows at least one classmate from church. When we met her teachers and visited her classroom, she made herself right at home (as did Grant - haha). She chose her (awful) purple horse shirt for the first day. I try to let the kids dress themselves. I wouldn't have even bought this shirt, except she threw a fit for it. Oh well. She'll outgrow it soon enough. And I'm sure one day, I'll long for the days when our fashion struggles involved a horse t-shirt. (Or, in Carter's case, two different plaid prints, or two collared shirts worn layered.)

Weekend Roundup

We had a really fun, busy weekend. The weather was perfect! It took all of Monday for me to dig out from it (in other words, get caught up on laundry and dishes). And Tuesday marked Ellyson's first day of preschool for the year. (I promise a post on that tomorrow.)

Friday night, we played Bingo at Carter's school. Their PTA hosts events in lieu of selling fundraisers, which is nice. It was supposed to end at 8, but when we left at 8:15, they were starting another round.

 

Saturday, we had two dozen members of Jack's mom's family over for a cookout.

All of us in a picture together - what?!

Cousins

Second-cousins (plus Aunt Meredith)

Sunday, we spent the better part of the day at Stone Mountain. We didn't go to the top, but we did Ride the Ducks, the SkyHike (ropes course), stepped into the barn (E wasn't interested), and rode the train. It was a long, fun day.

Photobomb by Graham

 

Driving the duck

Ellyson on the toddler ropes course, while we were on the big one with Carter

Mommy's Little "Helpers"

When life hands you a Monday ...

... pour another cup of coffee.

I woke up early, but stayed in bed. When I woke next, it was too late for me to run more than three miles. I knew I wouldn't be content with that, so I decided to run during afternoon nap time.

All the kids slept in (could've run five miles after all!), meaning Carter was still eating breakfast when the bus drove by. So I drove him.

While I was tagging clothes for a consignment sale, Ellyson found (and put on) my maternity underwear. Two pairs. She's still wearing them, two hours later.

Both boys have chapped bottoms, despite breakfasts of bananas. So they're both walking around diaper-less. One will surely pee on the floor soon.

Grant apparently bit his bottom lip while he was in bed for morning nap. So he has a sore bottom and a sore mouth.

Is it time for my run yet??

Twins!

 

 

Back when we had two kids, I was in a monthly Bunco group. When I went public with my pregnancy, another mom-of-two said she'd like a third, and I jokingly warned her that sometimes #3 brings a surprise #4. Fast-forward a year, and she was - surprise! - expecting twins. She had her girls yesterday, at about 35-36 weeks (I'm not sure exactly, but it was somewhere in that range). The girls are off to a rough start, with one weighing 1.5 times what her sister weighs. They suspect twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. I have to wonder how the sonographer never caught the size discrepancy, knowing how closely twin sizes are monitored. We were so fortunate to have four healthy babies - a fact that isn't lost on me.

Growing up

Last weekend, Carter did Build-A-Bear with some friends. He's done it a few times before. But this time was different. When he was instructed to kiss the (monkey's) heart before stuffing it inside ... he got flush and shook his head. Guess it's not cool for big boys to kiss hearts of stuffed animals.

He did have fun dressing Supermonkey, though.

Wordless Wednesday

Group Work

On the tenth day of kindergarten, Carter said to me,
"I don't like group work because they don't keep up with me."

Apparently Carter worked ahead of his literacy group (and parapro) to finish the assignment, because they were too slow. Can't say I blame him there, but it still meant a note about following directions.

He does his own stunts

Later, I found him standing on a push toy, with Grant pushing it.

Conversation of the Week

After seeing Carter's behavior chart, having "clipped down" two days in a row for excessive talking ...

Jack: Do we need to talk to Mrs. W about separating you and M--?
Carter: She already did. I sit beside A-- and C-- now.

And with that, week two is a wrap.

12M Checkup

Grant and Graham had their 12-month checkup today. Developmentally, they are right on track. They were lagging a little at nine months, but have caught up.

Grant:
28.5" (9%)
18 lb, 11 oz (8%)

Graham:
29.25" (30%)
19 lb, 3.5 oz (10%)

Don't worry; Graham's head is still a tiny 2%, as it always has been.

Based on Grant's egg reaction and prior bout with wheezing/croup, the ped gave us an epi-pen prescription, and suggested we see an allergist for a pediatric allergen panel test (a single blood draw that tests for the eight most common food allergies). The hives and prior wheezing mean he has higher risk of anaphylactic reaction if he does have another allergic reaction. So we will play it safe and have him screened, and carry an epi-pen for him.

They got three shots and a needle prick. Graham is our tough guy; he was only mad that the nurse held his hand still. Grant was dramatic as always. But they're both sporting superhero bandages now.

Beans

This kid likes black beans so much that Jack would deny him if Graham weren't his "mini me".

I Do Love Little Boys in Overalls

Weaning and Bedtime

Grant and Graham both have weaned now. They're drinking sippy cups of warmed breastmilk at breakfast, but cow's milk at lunch and dinner. We made this switch at their birthday - a little more than two weeks ago. I continued pumping once a day until about a week ago. One night, a couple days after the last time I pumped, I was putting away clean dishes, and went though a pumping supply purge. I've regained so much space in the kitchen now! 

 

I am trying to determine whether some recent fussiness by Grant is related to the cow's milk in particular, or just weaning ... the timing coincided with the switch to sippy cups and cow's milk. So far, the jury's still out. He had a really fussy week, then I cut out cow's milk (did just cups of breast milk for him) for three days. He was a lot less fussy. Yesterday at dinner, I reintroduced cow's milk. We'll see if the fussy baby returns.

 

So dinner time has shifted a little later, closer to bedtime, since there's no more bedtime milk. But these two cuties are now sitting for storytime in the rocking chair (and I'm rejoicing that all three of us fit)! And Jack has been able to catch some of the bedtime story snuggles, too.

Physical Therapy for Diastis

Perhaps an overdue post ...

I started physical therapy for my diastis, about three weeks ago. I've had three sessions, during which I underwent some evaluations and muscle testing, which confirmed my midwife's diagnosis. The therapist is hopeful (sort of) in the sense that the level of hormones and collagen in my muscles, will remain elevated for about six months after weaning. (I just stopped pumping about a week ago.) So during the next six months, the muscles will still be "settling" post-babies. She recommended that I give it at least that long before considering surgery.

So I've been doing very specific ab exercises (crunches, planks and heavy lifting without proper bracing will worsen the condition). And on my most recent visit, she also showed me how to put kinesio tape on the muscles, to add a little extra tension, pulling them together.

She only had beige tape. It looks very medicinal. Don't worry - I already have a roll of flashy pink tape for re-application. ;)

I go back in a month for a follow-up, and *hopefully* we will see some level of narrowing in the muscle gap.

Baby Steps

Not his very first steps, but pretty close. Carter and Ellyson both started walking by being urged to come to our waiting arms. Graham took off in the opposite direction while we weren't really paying attention (despite the fact I was provoking him here, specifically to get it on video).

Second-Day Productivity

I had physical therapy on Carter's first day of school (more on that later), so on his second day, I cleaned the house and even organized his dresser. Look at these before and after pictures! He was so happy with his long-sleeve and short-sleeve shirts, shorts and pants (three drawers), that he requested the same change to his pajama drawer. Now he can see all his clothes without digging through them.

Short-sleeve t-shirts, before

 

Short-sleeve t-shirts, after

Carter's First Day of Kindergarten

We all survived Carter's first day of kindergarten, and he was even happy to go back today (whew)! He was pretty quiet after school, and we had to pry information out of him.

Carter is riding the school bus. He gets picked up at 8:05, and gets home at 4:15. I am trekking all the little ones to and from his bus stop twice a day. There's one other girl at his bus stop: our third-grader next-door neighbor. I'm actually kind of irritated about the bus stop locations in our neighborhood, and am working on stating my case for an appeal to the county. We have one stop at the front of the neighborhood, and one at the back. But half the kids in the neighborhood, live smack in the middle ... the placement just doesn't make sense. Five years ago, it did. But not with the ages of the kids in school now.

Carter packed his lunch for the first day. He'll probably pack it almost every day, since a) most of the lunch options don't look appealing to me, and b) the few that do, might run out by the time the kindergartens get to lunch (they're last). I'd hate to plan for him to get lunch specifically for one thing on the menu, only for it to run out before he gets there. He ended up sitting with the other kids who brought their lunches - and his BFF bought school lunch, so he didn't get to sit with her.

He was disappointed that he didn't get to go outside or to the gym yesterday (it was kind of drizzly, so no outdoor recess). He did have computer lab for specials. He said he played with Ashlyn, and made two new friends (Mason and Austin).

He has a Cooper Elementary School water bottle, which he was really excited about when we bought it at Open House. But he said he was afraid to use it yesterday because another kid had the same one, and he was afraid the other boy would try to drink his. Jack pointed out the bright orange name label that says "Carter Dillard," so I'm hoping today he'll actually use his water bottle.

He said his teacher is funny (after I prompted him - is she funny? loud? grumpy?), and that he read a book to her yesterday. He said each child read to the teacher alone, so I'm guessing they did reading ability evaluations. *Correction: He now has elaborated. He read it quietly during playground time, since the rain kept them inside. So I guess it was not an evaluation. 

He drew this picture of our family. From left to right, it's me, Marley (at the bottom), Jack, Carter, Grant, Ellyson, then Graham. That's about it.

First Morning of Kindergarten

I know we probably have some grandparents wondering about Carter's first day of kindergarten. He was really excited this morning, and I choked back my tears as I handed him over to the bus driver. But here are some pictures from this morning.

He asked why the sign was missing "First Day of" ... I told him it didn't fit.

 

 

Bus stop entourage



Waving to Carter

Kindergarten, Here Comes Carter!

Yesterday was Open House at Carter's new school. He was sooo excited. He has a clock in his room that turns green at 6:45 a.m., letting him know it's "okay to wake". He normally trots into my room between 6:45 and 7:00. Yesterday morning, I was getting ready to get in the shower, and he came staggering in - eyes still half-closed - at 6:25.

Me: Is your light green?
Carter: No.
Me: Then do you think you should go back to bed and rest a little more?
Carter: Well, I don't know what time it is, and I don't want to miss my meeting.

I let him stay.

He wore cowboy boots to meet Mrs. W. She loved them. Oh, and one of his BFFs is in his class.

Today I read him "The Night Before Kindergarten." I started crying in the middle, and he had to take over reading it. He asked why I was "acting like those parents in the book."

He will be fine.

Grant and Graham's Birthday Slideshow

It took almost a week, but we finally have Grant and Graham's birthday slideshow available on YouTube! For some reason, Blogger still isn't recognizing it in my YouTube uploads, so I'll have to just link it here: Grant and Graham's First Year.