Happy Halloween!

Our little Men...

a skeleton, Pirate and Mummy

 

  

  and from the Halloween party last night...

Sweetcheeks was a newborn baby, B was a Geek/Nerd

 Can you tell what I was?

Yup, a Teen Mom

From our family to your, have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Pookie says...volume 3

"It didn't just grow arms and walk away" said to his older brother while Bubba was looking for a toy that ''was right here"

"Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Booyah!!"

"I can't clean up my toys because my hands are too tired"

(you can find the original pooks says : here)
(volume 2 is here)

3 weeks old

(and 3 days late posting this...)

Sweetcheeks, how quickly you are growing and changing! Here you are at three weeks old:

 You are becoming more and more alert these days. Whether it's watching your brothers or watching your mobile, you are content just being awake. Really, that about sums it up...you are a very content baby. As long as you're fed, you don't mind if you're being held, if you're in your bassinet, swing, carseat or crib.

You are eating like a champ and I can't wait to take you for your 1mos appt to see just how big you are. Right now you're still nursing every 3 hours (or less) for 20-30 minutes at a time. You caught on to breastfeeding very quickly and you like to eat. Usually you eat so loudly that even your brothers can hear you gulping!

Your vision must be improving daily because you are starting to really stare at our faces and will even follow with your eyes. Your hair is growing and Mommy can't wait til hair bows will stay in. So far just the hair on top is growing and yes, it's growing in a slight faux-hawk/comb-over but at least you have hair! It's much finer and lighter than any of the boys' ever was...Mommy is very curious as to whether it will stay that way or if it will all fall out only to grow in thicker and curly. {If I could choose, I'd want it to stay light but be curly}.

You still love getting baths, even having water poured over your head doesn't phase you. In the last couple days you have even started to "coo" and "talk". You do this the most while in the tub. One of these days mom will have to get a bath with you in the big tub...I know you would love it!

Boo!

(I am terrible about finding the time to blog...I apologize! Things are hectic and we have some big changes happening at the Tic Tac household...more about that later though.)

one again, I took a pic facing the sun and no one wanted to look

Leaves are falling, temperatures are dropping and Halloween is just around the corner. Halloween in my favorite holiday and my kids are following in my footsteps. They decided last spring that they wanted to be Scooby Doo for Halloween. Well eventually that evolved to being the 'bad guys' from Scooby Doo. A Mummy, a Skeleton and ''The Ghost of Pirate Redbeard'' to be exact. Well on Saturday, they're costumes were debuted to them...Mommy had finally finished making them.{with the exception of Peanut's...his was Bubba's old costume from 2 years ago} If I had been thinking, I would have made up a tutorial for Pooks' mummy costume but I didn't think ahead...sorry!

On Sunday, we took the boys to the Zoo for their annual Halloween Trick or Treat trail. They were beyond excited to show off their costumes and "be spooky". So without further ado:

The Mummy

The Skeleton

Ghost of Redbeard (aka, a Pirate)

and while I don't have a picture, Sweetcheeks was a tutu-wearing Pumpkin :) She was super tired and everytime B would hold her up for a pic, she'd start screaming. We'll work on getting her pic this week...it will definitely happen though. 

The kids had an absolute blast at the Zoo. They raked in a ton of candy and compliments. We saw one other skeleton, one pumpkin, quite a few pirates and no other Mummy's. It was a gorgeous day and I'm really glad that we ventured out. It was our first real public outing as a family of six and it was a success. (I'm not counting quick grocery trips). 

 As if a group of six wasn't enough, we actually went with Hollie, baby Aubrey and Landon (above), in addition to one of Hollie's good friends and her 2 kids. Total we had 8 kids, 4 and under and they all did wonderful. No tantrums or meltdowns...it was a lot of fun!

 

 

bubba and pooks...

Are getting so big! Seriously.

Serious.ly.

When I started this blog back in July of 2007, Pooks wasn't even TWO months old. This was the first picture I shared of him. Say it with me now. "Awww". He's now 3.5 years. He went from being the baby to having both a baby brother and a baby sister. It just amazes me.

Bubba has {obviously} always been the oldest but it's just recently that I've started to realize how old he really is. When he says things like ''Next year when I'm five, I get to go to Kindergarten?". Um...*gulp*....''Yeah".

Currently they are both in the same pre-school class {well, at Wee Wigglers there is only one class} but because of their age difference and because Bubba went last year as well, they have different homework. Pooks is working on colors/shapes right now and Bubba is learning how to write his lowercase letters and phonics. I'll be honest, even though there is an age difference of 13 months, when it comes to most things they are equally knowledgeable...different homework or not. Both already know all their colors and shapes. Both recognize and know all of the numbers and the entire alphabet, upper and lowercase. They're both quite good at phonices and catching on quickly to the sign language they learn at school.

The difference between the two kids is in actually caring about it. Bubba loves school and learning. He loves doing his homework. He does it perfectly, double checking with me before actually writing to make sure he's doing it right. Last year when he had to color his assignments he colored beautifully, making sure to stay in the lines and even drawing extra shapes on the back of the page. It'll easily take him 10-15 minutes for his one sheet. The sheets he's now doing are a connect-the-dots that form a letter, then he practices writing the letter below.

Pooks on the other hand, does his homework to get it done. Learning comes easy to him...he doesn't really think about it or talk about it or practice. He gets out his homework page, gets out his crayons, climbs up and asks ''What do I do Mom?". I explain it, he grabs his crayon, does it and is done in under 3 minutes. He does it correctly but quickly. "Color the squares blue" translates in Pooks' mind to "Scribble blue on every square as fast as I can''. I don't know if this is simply his personality or if it's because he already knows his colors and shapes so having to color them is a waste of time? 

I'm not sure. I do know that I've tried to teach him to write his name and to start writing the alphabet but he doesn't seem to have the dexterity {or desire} yet. To each their own...I'm not in a rush for him to grow up, plus he has another year of preschool to go and I don't want him to get too bored. 

Two weeks!

I can hardly believe it but Sweetcheeks is already two weeks old! Where does the time GO?

 Let's see in two weeks she's already:

-outgrown two of her sleep gowns

-is now nursing every 3 hours during the day

-usually nurses around 10pm, sleeps straight til 2am (yay! 4 hours!!) and then is up every 2 hours (we're working on it!)

-is starting to be awake for up to an hour, a couple times a day

-taken her first trip

-lost her umbilical stump

-had her first ''real'' bath

It's just amazing to me, how quickly she's growing up and changing already. Maybe I'm noticing it more than I did with the boys, since I *know* that she is our last but it's just mind-boggling. I am so glad that she is here with us and I know she was the missing piece to our family. The boys love her more than I ever thought possible; they want to know where she's at, they tell me when she's crying, help with diapers and clothes. When one brother gets too loud, another tells them to quiet down cause ''Sissy's sleepin!". They love to just watch her when she's awake, they shower her with kisses...quite simply, I think they're just in love with her. Bubba asked me the other day ''Now we got all the kids for our family, right Mom?" I said "Yep...do you think you'll have fun having two brothers and one sister?" and he responded ''Yeah Mom, I have fun everyday and I'm super happy that Maggie is now here."

Me too little dude, me too.

Six

Yep, six is good for us!

Spaghetti-What?

For lunch today I let the boys have Chef Boyardee for the first time ever. {Come on, don't roll your eyes...I have 4 kids to manage now and they've been nuts today}.So while this was new I didn't say a word. I tell them lunch is ready and they all climb up to the table.

Bubba: What is this?
Me: It's little ABC pasta noodles and meatballs, just try it.
Bubba: Yeah but what's this kind of food called?
Me: Well, you can call it Spaghetti-O's.
Bubba: Oh. I never did eat anything like this before!

Can you tell my kids rarely eat meals out of a can/box that require zero prep? LOL. We'll do Kraft Mac&Cheese but that's it. So meanwhile Peanut has inhaled almost his entire serving. Bubba is going on and on about how ''delicious'' the letters and numbers are and Pooks is picking out just the meatballs and telling me that the "hamburger is yummy."

Looks like I will proudly be serving the boys this 88 cent meal again!

Why "Hello" pre-pregnancy jeans!

It sure is nice to see you!

And not just see you but see you albeit a bit tighter in the ass on me just nine days after I gave birth to my beautiful little girl.

While losing my pregnancy weight has never been a huge concern to me and typically by 6 weeks postpartum I'm back to my 'normal' weight...it sure is nice to be there so soon! Especially now that fall is here...I can unpack my long sleeve shirts and worn-in comfy jeans just in time for the cooler weather.

A pleasant surprise that I will happily take {and apparently brag about, ha!} after my fourth baby. Now if only I could get my postpartum jelly-belly toned up as quickly...

Can you tell they are siblings?

When Sweetcheeks was born people immediately thought that she looks ''just like Mommy''. Which, don't get me wrong, it would be nice but I thought she looked most like Bubba, at birth. You decide...here are pics of each of my kiddos around one week old.

I think she has the same mouth/chin as Bubba and the same cheeks of both Bubba and Peanut; her eyes look like Pooks' and her nose looks like her own :)

Catch up!

Okay so we have done a bunch of fun things, taken good pictures and generally just enjoyed life since my last post but yet, I haven't shared anything. This blog is suppose to be a way for me to journal the things that happen to our family as they happen; hopefully so one day my kids can read all about it. Well guess what? When you have four kids under the age of five, it's hard to find the time to blog! So many cute things get said/done and never shared and then slowly forgotten because I just can't hop on the laptop anymore. So, to catch up...

On Sunday, we all piled in the Swaggerwagon to go visit the Grandmas. After all, Sweetcheeks is named after her great great grandma and hadn't yet had the opportunity to be properly introduced. So, we made it happen and Grandma could not have been happier. Seriously.

(look at that smile! I hadn't even gotten Sweetcheeks out of the car seat yet!)

 She held her for hours. Ate her lunch while holding her even...

 Nanaw Phew Phew did get a turn but it didn't last long

 5 Generations of Girls

 5 generations with all the kids

How freaking blessed are we? I mean seriously. There is a 99 year and 6 month age gap between G.G. Grandma and Sweetcheeks...that does not happen everyday and I'm not about to let the opportunity to visit and have them share in a relationship, pass by unnoticed. Is it always easy/convenient to pile up the kids and head down there? Maybe not. But is it always worth it? YES!!

So that was Sunday. On Monday, Sweetcheeks was officially one week old. Thus, she had her one week well baby visit. She was born weighing 6lbs 13oz, and one week from her birthdate she weighed 6lbs 12oz but then nursed for 20 minutes so really, add an ounce or two to that. Basically, she is gaining, not losing. Since newborns aren't suppose to lose more than 10% of their body weight in the first week, she's doing great! Here she is sleeping on daddy's legs at one week old:


At the doctor's we also discovered that Peanut has an ear infection, an upper respiratory infection and both have caused his Reactive Airway Disease (aka, Asthma) to flare up. So he's on an oral steroid, an antibiotic and breathing treatments. Fun stuff when you add in 2 preschoolers and a newborn to also take care of. But overall, despite being sick, he's doing good. Snotty and coughing, but his behavior and energy doesn't seem too effected by his uckiness. 

So, that was Monday. Today {Tuesday} is my first day home alone with the kiddos. B was able to stay home for a week and a day but it's back to establishing a new routine. I got off kinda easy because they skipped school today. Both got their flu shots yesterday, Bubba is on breathing treatments for his Asthma and today is a ''gym'' day at school. {while he's wheezing, running around is less than ideal} They overslept slightly and I gave them the choice to stay at home or hurry up and go, both Bubba and Pooks agreed to just stay home and rest.

So far, the day has gone well. Sweetcheeks nursed at 7:20, the boys woke at 7:40. I got Bubba and Peanut their breathing treatments started and finished and around 9am, Sweetcheeks nursed again. After that, we had breakfast (yogurt, cheerios and a banana) and it went well, no messes or spills. The morning was spent playing with cars, playing with a box and watching Scooby Doo. I snapped a few super cute photos of the kids all together:

We ate lunch, again no messes {yay!} and did another round of breathing treatments before naptime. Sweetcheeks woke up during Peanut's breathing treatment but was fairly content waiting to nurse until after her brothers were settled in their beds. So the boys are napping, sissy is in a milk induced coma on my lap and I'm thinking I might take this opportunity to shower. All in all, a success so far!

My daughter....

Squee! I get to say that now :D 

Is now five days old. We've been home since Wednesday and overall, things are good. She sleeps through everything! Brothers hollering, phone ringing, dog barking...none of it seems to phase her and she'll sleep right through it...thankfully!

Her bilirubin levels were slightly elevated when we left the hospital so we've had to keep her in the sun as much as possible and nurse every 3 hours {whether she likes it or not!}. She is a very sleepy baby and would like to sleep 4-5 hours at a time then nurse for 40 minutes straight. While that sounds ideal, in order to help those levels go down, we have to nurse often...getting her to wake is not an easy task. It usually involves a little tickling, a diaper change, and sometimes a wet washcloth. But she is a good nurser and she only cries when her tummy hurts/needs to burp. We've had a few latch issues since my milk came in, but I think she's getting the hang of it.

Her brothers absolutely love her. Love to give kisses, love to help bring diapers, tell us when she's crying, watch her when she's awake and talk about how much they love her. I was really nervous about how Peanut would handle sharing us but he is doing awesome. Really loves her and we haven't noticed a single regression. Pookie however, while he absolutely loves his little sister, is having some attention issues. Basically he wants attention and he'll take it whether it's positive or negative. We've had a few instances where he's hit/slapped/squished one of his brothers. He's been caught with my cell phone/iPod/computer on multiple occasions. We're working on giving him more attention, before he shows signs of needing it. I've been asking him to help me with little things, helping him do things {even though I know he can do them himself} and today was much better overall.

So, on to pics...here are a bunch from the hospital:

 And some more pics meeting all her brothers once we were all settled in to our postpartum room:

 Meeting Sissy!

 

 

 

 

 

And as long as I'm at it and while miss Sweetcheeks is still sleeping, here are a few of her since we've been home:

Sunbathing....

 and a few where she was awake {a rare moment}