Kiss your kids 3 extra times today for the McConathy's!

I follow a lot of triplet blogs. At the beginning of March, Rachel and Kenny McConathy, parents I found on the Triplet Connection gave birth to their 3 babies at about 24 weeks gestation. Unfortunately, Courtney and Colin lived less than a week. Little Jaxon hung on and fought and fought unfortunately, this week he couldn't do it anymore. I really thought he would pull through. Please say a prayer for the McConathy Family tonight; they have endured what no parent should ever have to endure not once but three times. Rachel and Kenny never knew their babies outside of a NICU and nothing was ever normal or easy for them. I don't know them in real life but I know they are strong, remarkable parents. Please give your kids extra hugs and kisses and know how lucky you are to have them each and every day!

Our Little Ethan

I haven't updated on Ethan in while and I have some impressive (to us at least) news to share. First, we declined to have him tested for Sensory Integration Disorder (SID). I talked to quite a few people and read a lot about it too. I began to have a BIG concern about "labeling" him at such a young age. Labels are labels and just that which I know from my teaching experience but sometimes it is hard for others to "get over" the labels. We don't feel Ethan has a major case of SID; if he has it at all, we think he is on the low end of the spectrum. So we just didn't see the need to diagnose him at this point. We are still learning about his personality and since he doesn't speak a lot it is even harder to know him. I think it is hard to distinguish where Ethan ends and a disorder begins so I want to wait longer before we open that big ole can of worms. Now for the impressive part: Last week at school he was playing a computer game. You touch the screen and pop balloons to reveal a picture. He was saying "POP, pop, POP" as he popped them which that in itself is great. The picture was a car that drove away and then he waved and said "BYE CAR". I thought I was going to cry! He has NEVER EVER said 2 words together! I think this is a HUGE step for him!

Our developmental therapist was here yesterday and was reading a book with her about being a big brother (does she have ESP or what since she didn't even know we are expecting) and the front door was open and twice when he heard loud cars go by, he stood up and said "BYE CAR". Not only is his vocabulary increasing but his attention span is too. He looked at that book with Krista for probably 15 minutes or more and pointed to things on the pages, pretended to play "peek-a-boo" with the baby, pretended to popped bubbles, he barked like a dog for a long time when he saw one, and I even heard him try to say "baby". He really can say a lot more than we
know. It's hards because first, he's talks quietly on the sly and it's hard to pay super close attention to his talking when I have the "non-stop talking girl" around. I think he gets over-shadowed by his siblings too much. He is repeating a lot too but I think he is going to be a lot like Caden and be much harder to understand his words. His temper tantrums have definitely gotten better too. He still has them but not as many and they don't last forever like they used to (although yesterday he had a major meltdown about a zebra bingo card for 10 minutes during therapy but that hadn't happened in a long time). His frustration level is definitely a lot higher than it was just a few months ago! We are really pleased with Ethan's progress! I think developmental therapy and All Aboard School have helped him so much!

Two Big Brothers and A Big Sister

Here's how we shared the baby news with most people: I got the kids these Big Brother/Big Sister shirts. It's funny how some people notice them right away and others don't notice them at all. The funniest had to be Papa Ronn. After more than an hour of being around the kids someone pointed out the monkey on her shirt and he said "I thought Caden liked Monkeys" . . . five minutes later after the subject has been changed, out of nowhere he says "Did her shirt say she is going to be a big sister?" It was very funny.

So this is how nice and clean my children are after I spend $45 on shirts for them. This is also why I buy all our clothes on clearance at Walmart, Kmart, and Target and never spend more than $3 on one item. The kids have worn these shirts 4 days in a row now to spread the news and I have washed them 4 times. I think we've gotten our use out of them. I think I have used a whole bottle of spray and wash on them already.

School is still going well and today we had a field trip to the park. It started to sprinkle after 40 minutes so we all headed to our cars so we didn't get drenched in a downpour but it was fun. Tomorrow is a field trip to a farm but it's supposed to rain so it might get post phoned but it sounds really fun!

MIA . . . but I have a REALLY good excuse

Okay, I know I am sucking at keeping up this blog. I've even had people e-mail me because I haven't updated for such a long time. Who knows what some of you were thinking . . . lazy . . . depressed . . . really busy . . . forgot I was doing a blog . . . the triplets finally killed me . . . really all of them are good guesses especially if you know me in real life. Well here's my main reason:

Yep, we're pregnant!!!!

To answer all the questions that I know EVERYONE will ask:

1. There's one baby . . . look at the sonogram do you see more than one?
2. We were hoping for a 4th child (not 4th and 5th or 4th, 5th, and 6th).
3. No, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl and we won't be finding out. I want a REAL SURPRISE.
4. We don't care which sex it is either; first, we have 3 of most everything and clothes for either a boy or a girl and second, all we really care about is a TAKE-HOME BABY. I don't want any NICU time for this one and am hoping for as normal of a pregnancy as possible for a 36-year-old mom.
5. I'm due December 2nd and am a little over 13 weeks along currently. The triplets will be 3 years old when the baby arrives.
6. We really don't have room for another child in this house but babies are small; it's all the stuff that goes along with them that takes up so much room. We are planning on moving in the next year or two or so; but we have some more work to do on this house before we can do that. The baby will be sleeping in our room in the beginning and later moving in the triplet bedroom (good thing we have large bedrooms here, huh?)
7. I am feeling pretty good. I have been SUPER EXHAUSTED at times but for the most part I don't feel sick (unlike with the triplets). Aaron has not been the most understanding husband/daddy in the world during these past weeks; he really has had to help a lot more and he already helps a lot normally. He kept saying "I don't remember you being this tired with the triplets!" Well, that is because he only had to worry about himself and not take care of other children at that time. I was a lot more tired than this last time but like I said it is getting better. I can actually stay up past 8:30 sometimes now and don't feel the need to take a nap EVERYDAY anymore.
8. Aaron has threatened to divorce me about 5,000 times so far during this pregnancy. In his defense, I am one GROUCHY PREGNANT WOMAN and he did this to me so I tend to take this out on him. I keep telling him he can be this grouchy when he has another person living inside of him sucking the life out of him. He also threatened divorce if we were having multiples again, of course, he is kidding but the whole thought of it was a little overwhelming in the beginning until we knew there was one baby.
9. I think I am already showing which seems unbelievable cause I have only gained 2 pounds and the baby is only about 2-1/2 inches long. I had to start wearing maternity clothes about 3 weeks ago -- I just couldn't fit into any of my regular clothes. And boy is that hard when you haven't told people you are pregnant. I think since I had the triplets my stomach is like that memory foam they use in mattresses and pillows. I have ZERO stomach muscles to hold anything in so anytime there is some shifting in that area it just pops out (. . . maybe TMI . . . sorry).
10. Yes, we are excited and very happy!

Okay that's all the big news for now . . . I will hopefully be a little more motivated now that I am less tired and can update this blog more often.

Our New Toy!

Last weekend we bought the kids a swingset. Our yard isn't very big and we have tons of toys and a large sandbox but they love to climb and play outside so we thought this was a good investment that would bring many hours of fun. It took Aaron all of Sunday afternoon to put it together while the kids were napping. I finally had to wake them up and they were a little grumpy from spending the night with their grandparents and not getting a nap the previous day. Addison was not happy unless she had all her "boos", Monster, and Bunny.
We only bought one toddler swing and boy, was that a mistake. They are still fighting over that. They aren't cheap and I can't imagine that they will be needing them for that long so we are trying to make do for now. If somebody knows of swings that are like the plain flat regular ones but have a little bit of a back on them that would be much more appropriate for my kids at this age -- please let me know. I tried to look for
them on the Internet but had no luck. They have played on the new swingset several days now and the slide has become quite popular. They can all climb up the slide but Addison and Ethan seem to "fly" down the slide really quickly but they'll learn to slow down soon. It has been super nice here the last few days and we grilled out two nights in a row and ate outside. The kids really enjoyed that and so did we! We hope to get some more use out of swing this weekend as my sister,Keely, (who just had the baby) and her family are visiting. Jackson hasn't gotten a swingset yet so hopefully he'll get warmed up on ours. Keely is dying to get out a little and she and Jeremy went out to eat tonight by themselves while we watched all FIVE kids and tomorrow I am taking her to Scrapaganza in the Quad Cities so she can shop do a little scrapbook shopping. She's very anxious to get some pages of Jeffrey completed and I don't blame her -- he's adorable and growing already!

I knew this day would come . . .

but I still wasn't ready for it. I put the kids down for their nap and am trying to "clean" our house since my sister and her family are coming for the weekend. The kids were REALLY LOUD and laughing for a long time so after about an hour I go up to see what is going on and Caden is IN Ethan's bed! I put a diaper back on him and put him back in his bed and thought it was probably just a one time thing. Oh no! He did it 3 more times . . . of course, once I had to watch to see how he was doing it and another time I had to snap a photo so I could show Aaron. He's like a monkey! I moved their beds apart and thought he won't try to climb out all the way to the floor. WRONG! I heard a loud thud, followed by lots of crying and go up there and Caden is in my bedroom and had shut the bedroom door after turning off the radio and turning of the humidifier so Addison and Ethan were freaking out that he wasn't in bed. I don't know what we will do. Invest in one of those expensive crib tents that s0me people swear by and say they are great and others say they are junk and the kids tear them apart. We could take down his crib and turn it into a toddler bed but I don't think he will ever stay in his bed again and the other two kids are going to want that done to theirs too. I usually don't mind change but with the kids it's a different story . . . I remember when you put them in one place and they didn't move until you moved them oh those were the days!