Yeah, I Make This Look Easy

Posted on October 9, 2009 by Abbie

I do declare that I now have four day-time potty trained children! Wooohoooooooo!

Two weeks ago, I decided to put Josiah in undies when we were home. I knew it was going to be a little work because we go to the gym twice a week and are out and about with other activities but we just had to bite the bullet and do what we could with what we got.

So, a week ago from Tuesday, I stuck Josiah in undies and set the timer for 15 minutes. If he went, he got jelly beans and I set the timer again. If he didn’t go, I gave him one bean and set the timer for 10 minutes. Wednesday we had gym and church so no undies. By Thursday, I had him in undies, didn’t set the timer, and he started telling me he had to go some and I was also taking him a lot. Friday was crazy, so I didn’t fool with undies until that evening after naptime. Still was telling us when he had to go and still taking him some. By Saturday, he was doing really well. Sunday was church so it was back in pull-ups.

And on Monday, he pooped, peed and did all the other things you want your kid to do in the potty so you don’t have to clean up their rears a ton every day! Monday was my official declaration of potty trained…especially when he said he had to go 100 billion times (“go pa pa” is his telling of choice) and only had two accidents.

Today, Thursday, he’s made it through two undies tests…church and gym and stayed dry through both. He has had two accidents today though because he’s in the concentrated play stage…but he has gone a lot. He realized what he was doing, stopped himself and finished in the potty. He’s also decided that he wants to stand up to go. Which is fine but given my incident with Liam earlier this year, I’m anxious to see what the outcome (no pun intended) will be when he does have to do #2 (I’m praying he’ll sit for that one).

Sew Lovely (or how we like to torture our kids)

Posted on October 8, 2009 by Abbie

My friend and I, on our excursion without kids and Mark’s lovely introduction to what it would be like with nine children six and under, found this adorable fabric and grabbed it up to be cheesy and make A-line dresses (not paid to link to them or give free stuff…just a disclaimer) for our girls who are roughly four months (the older ones) and four days apart (the younger ones). The babies were thrilled with this idea and chose to let us know by their cries of sheer ~~anger~~ happiness.

Okay, so they weren’t completely angry with us!

Yep, their best friends!

I used the different animals on the pattern in the girls’ shirts, cut them out, stuck some double sided fusible webbing on them and slapped them on some $3 long sleeve shirts for the boys! They turned out might cute and took about 2 minutes (but if anyone asks, it took forever and I gladly labored over it).
This here is James…he’s into a little bit of everything and is equally adorable…especially since what hair he has sticks straight up on his adorably drooly head.

And what photo shoot is not complete without Ceili Rain and Megan…

Screaming! In case you are wondering, I made Ceili Rain’s shoes too…they look a little better than last time…at least they keep her feet warm!

Daddy In Training or DIT

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Abbie

I think he’s going to make a fine daddy some day.

He even gave his baby a “pappy.”

Yep, adorable DIT! He’s also a pretty awesome big brother and loves to love on his baby sister.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Abbie

Obviously, I was not shoveling it in as fast as big brothers wanted. After taking something into the kitchen (which is a couple of steps away) I hear, “fee, CeiRai Mama.” And turn around and see this…
So then everyone else wanted to get on the act but only one other little person wanted their picture taken…

Is that a look of sheer terror on her face???

Ceili Rain’s Six Month!

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Abbie

Well, she’s pushing seven months, but I just took her in today.

Let me start off by saying, last night was a rough night. She woke up four hours into her sleep after fighting to go to sleep in the first place and cried a lot. She finally slept after I nursed her but still not as soundly as she usually does.

So I took her in. Got her stats. And found out she has an ear infection! I’m guessing she’s had it since Wednesday when I noticed she had found her hair on her left side and was tugging at it. We thought it was quite cute but because she has no runny nose, fever, or any other problems, I didn’t think much of it. Then yesterday she was really irritable and started this really loud yell that she held out. I’m guessing, that too, was from the infection. So, now she’s on antibiotics and we’re praying she sleeps better. And, now we’ll know what to look for!

Moving on…stats:
15 lbs. 1 oz (40%)
26 inches length (60%)…although, like I told a friend, I’m guessing that might be a little short, she was wiggling and playing and twisting while the nurse tried to measure her
17 inches head (70%)

She continues to grow…is sitting up and eats twice a day…pretty much anything we shovel in her mouth. Still nursing great and sleeping like a pro (with the exception of last night and then she had a great excuse). Could not ask for a better baby.

Sittin’ Pretty

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Abbie

Last Thursday, I pulled Ceili Rain up on my bed to sit and she stayed. To my utter surprise! By Sunday, this is what she was up to!

Look Ma! No hands!!

And yesterday, she’s still doing so well. She’s working on turning around where she sits. She never really wobbled and bobbled when we sat her up. She can still lose her balance and topple but she catches herself either with her hand or just by sheer balance and manages to make a smooth fall. I think she’s super happy to be up where she can see (and even participate) in some of the action around the house.

I’m not bias, but I think she’s pretty adorable!
And, just between you and me, I think she knows it.

Bamapalooza Wrap Up

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Abbie

And now we’re ending our Gatlinburg vacation with group pictures (wipe those tears away, I’ve got some cute pictures of the kids coming up).

Yep, this is par for a family picture. Someone making silly faces. Check. Ceili Rain screaming because she’s hungry and tired. Check. Josiah with his finger up his nose. Check.

This is all but one of the kids. Zoe is holding A and Ace gets the screaming Ceili Rain…although she kind of looks like she’s smiling. One of the kids, R, decided he didn’t want to get a group picture. It didn’t help that we were all getting ready to leave the kids with the BDs as well. Here, we also have Josiah finishing off what was in his nose in his mouth (ewww, gross).
When we all went out to eat, we attacked found an older couple sitting at the gazebo to get our picture. I must say, if you are ever in Pigeon Forge you must eat at The Pottery House at Old Mill Square. Wonderfully beautiful atmosphere! The food was excellent. My only qualms was that it was raining and we couldn’t eat outside by all the pretty waterfalls!
Group picture! Ten couples and nine children six and under!! What a good time!

Putt Puttin’

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Abbie

On Wednesday of our vacation, all the ladies (including the baby ladies and BDs) headed out to shopping. The boys’ headed out to play putt putt. It was raining but Gatlinburg took care of that with indoor mini-golf. Mark said everyone had fun. Since I wasn’t there, I’ll let the pictures (mostly) speak for themselves.

J with his daddy R.

M with R and E.

Uncle E discussing his scorecard with his mummy (I crack myself up!).

No trip is complete without finding something to climb on!

A Bushel not a Peck

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Abbie

To top off our week, we went to the Apple Barn. It had been raining and we didn’t really want ot push it by trying to go some where outdoorsy only to have to turn around and come back…so we went here instead. It’s an apple orchard/apple cider/yummy apple pies place…with a little bit of a general store thrown in. To top it off, I bought our annual bushel of apples while there. Fresh off the trees and a little cheaper than getting them at the chain stores. While the fried pies and apple cider were awesome…there was not much to do but it was relaxing as is.
What a sweet picture of one of our BDs with Josiah. I wish we could’ve gotten all of Josiah in but you take what you get.

Another BD givin’ some love to the fake birds.

She’s so smart, she can figure out them hard thinkin’ puzzles…I do declare.

See, Cindy, we did have some school!! I actually, I think we bored her to tears with all this shopping.

They had this plastic painted Santa so all the kids just had to sit on him. We humored them, since they’ve never had their picture taken with Santa (gasp all you want to…not a big deal to us, nor them).

In a freaky sort of way, he looks real!

At the Cabin

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Abbie

Funny, how they kind of have the same look in their eyes. This is Uncle S with Ceili Rain. He was pretty much a baby whisperer and loved getting another baby in the cabin asleep! Practice for later.
Last minute, I told Mark we needed to take some toys, so we loaded up the box of trains. What a hit! Josiah loved sharing them with R and J who are both close to his age.

We forced the BDs to play Horton Hears a Who. Not sure if they enjoyed it but we enjoyed making them act silly!

My kids enjoyed acting silly too.

Our BDs were delighted that the pool table was right outside their door. They played quite a bit and got pretty good at it. Here is the final tournament as Zoe looked on in suspense.