Letter-Hat Day!

So today was Letter-Hat Day at school. It’s projects like these I imagine will be a HUGE challenge when it comes to having quadruplets. Art projects, science projects, research papers TIMES FOUR….Ahhhhh! Luckily we have close friends and family that I’m hoping we can depend on over the coming years for extra hands ;) The quads’ “Uncle Chirs” is SUPER artistic and helped us create Brody’s hat last year, he jumped at the chance to help with their hats again! Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin each chose their letter and helped us come up with an idea for each of their hats. The get to wear their hats at school today and show them off in a little parade! Here are the final products…

Brody was up first and chose to do a chef’s hat. He’s OBSESSED with Shogun, a hibachi grill type restaurant where they cook in front of you, so we did the letter “C” for Cook/Chef. Chris drew a grill, fire (because Brody is also obsessed with fire), a chicken leg, spatula, and other cooking items for Brody to color in! The poster board we used started off about 8 inches taller than what you see here. We debated sending him to school in a 4 foot tall hat but decided to make it a bit easier on the teachers ;)

Baxlyn is super into rainbows lately so we went with this… it’s a little on the… ahem… large side, but she loves it ;) She chose the random letter “N”.

 Kylee was dead set on a princess crown. She chose the letter “B” for Brooke (the dog) of course!

Ok Korbin’s, I won’t lie. Chris and I came up with this design. He originally wanted a Wizard hat but we couldn’t get the cone shape down just right. After some doodling we came up with elf ears, which you can clearly see, turned into Yoda. Although he has no clue who Yoda is, he LOVES his hat an enjoyed “scaring” the assistant principal this morning when she went to help him out of the van. Silly, dude!

Then we have sweet Blade. At 19 months old he has no idea he’s younger than the rest of them. As far as he’s concerned EVERYTHING they do, he does too. He insisted on wearing each hat, crawling up into Chris’ arms and cheesing for a picture like the others. Oh this boy!

Thanks again, Uncle Chris, for helping us with the second of MaNy projects!

All About Blade {15 Months}

Our “Sweet Number 5” is fifteen months old now and growing like a weed! His personality is shining more and more as he grows and he’s a little fireball that keeps us on our toes at ALL times! He currently has 8 teeth (just cut a molar – ouch!), wears a size 3 shoe, size 18month clothing and is still rocking his blonde hair. Love this cheesy grin while sportin’ his nerdy glasses while waiting for the quads to get out of pre-k…

As time goes on he gets closer and closer to his siblings. Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin all do really well at playing with him and including him in their activities. Sometimes that means Blade ends up in a tutu and a princess hat drinking pretend tea from a Minnie Mouse cup, but for now, he’s totally fine with that!

 

There is a gate blocking off the quads’ rooms from the rest of the house to keep little mister from getting a hold of all those little choking hazards. Bouncy balls, plastic rings, little trinkets… if it will fit in his mouth he will gladly give it at taste. I swear Blade was built with radar able to detect when the gate or ANY door is left opened. In a house of four year olds (with major selective hearing) doors are left open all.the.time. Baxlyn has always been a huge helper with Blade, especially in this area. She’s always been the one who was able to gently lift and slide him out and away from whatever he was getting into. These days, I’ve caught her several times attempting to beat Blade to a door or other “nono” only to see her be taken down by him in a matter of seconds. She still outweighs him by a few pounds but the dude is strong and can put up a fight for sure!

His favorite thing to get into, I think I mentioned it before, the TOILET. Just the other week he had been missing all of about 41 seconds so I went looking for him. The guest bathroom door was shut, as it should be, so I passed by it knowing he wasn’t in there. I checked the boys room, no Blade. Checked the girls room, no Blade.  Playroom, nope. Kitchen, not there either. A little confused I went back to the closed bathroom door and opened it to find this…

 The quads’ had plenty of bathroom invasions when they were this age (their first act of teamwork seen here) but somehow between the four of them, they always avoided the toilet.. perhaps that’s because there wasn’t a herd of four year olds around to leave the doors open and toilet lids up! Blade is making up for all of that, completely! Here he is, again, caught red-handed…

 Our big man still takes 2 naps a day and sleeps 12+ hours each night. Like the quads were as babies/toddlers he is on a pretty strict, predictable schedule. One thing has always been sure for my kids is that they NEED their sleep. When it’s time to sleep it is time to sleep and he must have his bed, pronto! When it’s time for nap, Blade gladly takes one of his 24 little blankets and heads to his room. We’ve always laid him down awake which has TRULY paid off. We love being able to kiss him goodnight and have him go down (most nights) with a smile as he puts himself to sleep. He still eats just about anything and has a great appetite, too. I  have always been a MAJORLY picky eater myself so it’s crazy to see my kids chow down on things that I wouldn’t even dream of eating. When we order pizza, its the kids who eat the supreme while Mama enjoys the traditional cheese or pepperoni! That being said I’m glad they eat a healthy variety and a lot of it, even if it means our grocery bill is hard to look at.

 

 

 

Blade doesn’t have much of a vocabulary yet, which I’m totally fine with – no rush, buddy! His first word and favorite word to say is “Uh-Oh” but he pronounces it “Ahhh-oooo" and he says it over and over really fast. He will walk around the house “Ah-ooo-Ah-ooo-Ah-ooo-Ah-oo” SO FRIGGIN CUTE! While sometimes he says it just to talk he uses the phrase appropriately when he drops his food, purposefully of course,  onto the floor at dinner time. The only other thing he says (that has meaning) is “Da'”. He LOVES his Daddy… almost too much lol. I love watching Bret come home from work and then watching Blade as he unexpectedly lays eyes on him. He starts with a huge smile and a fast waddle towards Bret, says “Da! Da! Daaa!” and then proceeds to BAWL as if he’s been reunited with the love of his life after being apart for years. Quite the emotional thing, I tell ya, and repeats itself every single day. We signed quite a bit when the quads' were babies. Although I haven’t been as adamant with the signing with Blade, I have introduced a few to him. The one he has picked up on and uses on a regular basis is “more”. Obviously a good one for use at meal times ;) Below is a picture I snapped at Target last week. He saw a tall, bald man from a distance and just KNEW it was Bret. Poor buddy yelled “Da… Daaa!” over and over only to have the man completely ignore him and leave the store. If only we could know what he was thinking at that moment!

Slowly but surely Blade is starting to take after his siblings. He’s starting to help pick up toys and put things “in” when asked. Sure, he dumps everything out after completing the task, but he’s learning :) He has also started throwing away his diapers. He loves to pick up the old diap, march to the laundry room and put it in the trash can. That being said, we’ve found many other non-trash items in the trash can as well but that’s ok! Blade also recently learned to use the stick vacuum that the quads use on a daily basis (speaking of it, thanks Hoover, for sending me the ‘thank you’ package I received in the mail last week!). He’s not the most efficient but you’ve gotta’ start somewhere! At almost five years old, the quads are just starting to realize that vacuuming is work. While they usually don’t mind, I am starting to get the occasional eye roll when I ask one to vacuum and rarely do they fight like they used to on who “gets” to vacuum. Those sweet days of thinking chores are privileges  are coming to an end. Luckily Mr. Blade is following right behind them and can live it up when asked to vacuum ;)

My sweet boy and I got our very own date just the other day to visit Dr. Reyes for his 15 month check up. Here he is enjoying the van ALL to himself as he waves to me from the back seat. Hellloooooo back there, Bubby!

 Rockin’ back and forth on the little horsey in the waiting room. The germaphobe in me cringes to think about how many (some sick) kids touch that thing each day. I’m realllly hoping it’s wiped down multiple times a day...eww.

 I love this one of him standing on the big boy scale for the first time so proud of himself…

 In the short amount of time we waited for Dr. Reyes to come, Blade managed to make it look like a tornado had hit the place. He nearly emptied his diaper bag, climbed up & down off of the exam table a few dozen times and shredded the white paper that was tightly stretched over the table.

He showed off his baseball skills as he played a little ball with Dr. Reyes before starting his check up – so sweet :)

Blade’s 15 month stats:

Weight: 27lbs (80%tile)

Height: 32 1/2in (86%tile)

Head Circ: 18 1/2 (45%tile)

Overall a very happy, very healthy baby growing right on track and hitting his milestones within average time frames! We are so thankful to be blessed with such an incredible little dude <3

 

A few firsts – Fishin’ & Boatin’!

    So I’m WAY late on blogging about this but want to document it for sure! The quads got to go fishing for the first time this summer while on our annual trip to Kentucky – so FUN! Our KY family lives on a beautiful piece of land that has a creek that runs right through it so Jennifer and Linda thought it would be fun to let them fish. We took them one at a time so they could have undivided attention, something that’s hard to come by when you grow up a quadruplet. Although I like to fish, I don’t do the whole hook and worm thing so I left that up to the others and stood back with the camera, of course :) First up was Brody. How cute is he in his lil hat and boots?!

His catch came pretty easy!

One by one the others took their turns but unlike Brody, they were having a hard time catching anything…

After a while (and realizing there were still 2 kids to go) we brought in back up. If you look to the top right of picture below you’ll see Austin, one of their cousins, with his own pole on the other side of the creek. Austin would catch a fish then pass it down and across the creek. We would then tell the quads “Let’s try this pole”, make the exchange, give it a few seconds before pulling the line out of the water and WA-LA they caught a fish!

Kylee and “her” catch!

Next up was Korbin…

 

…and then we have Baxlyn who was probably the least excited about fishing. She’s a different kind of girl, that’s for sure, and she’s not easily impressed. She gave it a whirl with Linda anyways.

  Although excited about her fish (again, mad props to Austin!) like her mama, she wanted nothing to do with touching it. I love how she keeps a good distance between her little body and the slimy fish!

   

Another huge highlight and first for this year’s trip was getting to ride a Pontoon for the first time! Mamaw, Wayne and his brother had this planned for months and the quads LOVED it! Despite rain being in the forecast we stayed dry and had a great day out on the water jamming to one of their favorites, Pontoon, by Little Big Town. L-R Korbin, Baxlyn, Brody & Kylee.

  The smiles on their faces say it all. Love this one of Kylee absolutely thrilled to get to steer the boat by herself. God bless her little happy self – notice her left side super tensed up? That’s a sign of pure excitement!

My Sweet Baxlyn <3 (yes, that would be our potty seat aboard. we still go nowhere without one!)

One of these days I’ll get around to framing these next two pictures. Seriously, they loved every minute of the day!

 

Brody & Mamaw having some special time taking it all in…

   

Sweet Korb passed out in the back of the boat!

Bret and I love experiencing all the firsts with our little people and look forward to many many more! So blessed and (incredibly thankful) to have them all here with us today <3

Rewind–Preschool for Brody & Kylee!

I mentioned a while back that Brody & Kylee started preschool. They qualified for the PPCD class at our local elementary school due to health impairment/cerebral palsy/prematurity. The approval process is quite extensive and we got a start late so they only caught the last two months or so of school, which was a good way to ease us into the whole new world. They did great in school and loved every minute of it and Bret and I were happy as well. We had the opportunity to sit with their teacher, their principal, assistant principal and several other of the staff members to discuss everything about Brody & Kylee. From their issues in NICU to the long term effect it has had on them to their spunky personalities and struggles today, we covered it all! Much like their earlier days in ECI we came up with a game plan for each of them and set goals that we would all work on together, as a team, with Brody & Kylee. I was SO relieved to learn that they would work on things like putting on and taking off shoes, putting on/taking off shirts, climbing stairs, washing their hands properly…etc. along with basic learning like letters and numbers. I work with all of them at home on a regular basis but have a hard time teaching different kids in different ways to be effective with each one. We’re hoping that we can have PT and OT on board when they start in the fall which would only help even more. Brody and Kylee still struggle with tasks that their peers have had down for a while but are making process as time goes by!

Our sweet peas on their last day of school!

A little hard to see but here is Mrs. K’s person and next to it, Kylee’s!

Brody has very little  interest in coloring, tracing or writing at all. Creativity is not his thing. One task, specifically for him, was to draw a line between two given points as well as copy a “plus” sign. HUGE progress!

At this age, if they all do the exact same task, color the exact same picture or do the exact same craft, Bret and I can tell you whose is whose (if they are unmarked) with almost 100% accuracy. Their little personalities SHINE when it comes to their artwork. Here we have Kylee on the left who completes the task, leaving a few blank spots and Brody on the right who glued a couple of pieces on his number 5 and called it a day… I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw these. Yes, that would be Brody!

Kylee on the left & Brody on the right. They have stations at school and painting is a favorite for sure…

Brody copying the letters to spell his name

One of my favorite things about them being at school is obviously the fact that I get a break. Not only is it such a difference having 2 less kids, but these two kids are the ones I need the break from. Forgive me if that sounds horrible, nobody loves those two sugar plums more than their Mama, but they require a lot of individual attention and it’s tough sometimes. I think the hardest part of school was getting them up so dang early. They only went for a few hours a day but waking them up at 6:30am was new for all of us. Despite being up super early, they were always full of energy and had huge smiles on their faces each time I picked them up. Every day Kylee would tell me that “so and so helped me put my jacket on!” “so and so helped me with my backpack!” “my friend helped me and lefty put on my shoe!” – the fact that she has made friends and that they happily help her makes me SO so happy. I can only hope kids continue to be sweet and helpful as they get older. Brody never talked much about “friends” at school. He was always in a rush to jump in the car to see his “Tug” (yes, that would be Blade’s nickname around here. Not t-u-g as in tugging on a rope, but “Tug” as in SUG-ar…does that make any sense at all?). Another one of my favorite things is looking at their folders each day. I’m like a kid on Christmas, seriously. I love seeing their work and the sweet notes their teachers leave me. This one brought tears to my eyes…

While this one cracked me up. Inquisitive, yup, that’s Brody!

They had a day during their last week of school where they had to make a hat to wear with a letter of the alphabet on it. We chose “B” and “K” for their names and decorated them with things that also started with those letters. They’re were so excited to wear them to school. Kylee ran around frantically before we walked out the door that morning “MOMMY! WHERE is my hat?!?!” not realizing it was on her head! Notice Brody’s overalls? He thinks he is one cool farmer in them

“K” is for Kylee, kites and kittens!

“B” is for Brody, banjo, boots, and beans! –Shout out to Uncle Chris for the help on Brody’s sweet hat!

I had to include this picture of the construction of Brody’s hat. Uncle Chris (seen on the floor carefully tracing Brody’s ahem…unique head shape) is a perfectionist and wanted his hat to be just right! I’m not sure Brody understood exactly what was going on as his Papaw and Uncle Bradley held him upside-down! Oh gosh, just thinking about it cracks me up…his arms out straight to the side like that…bahaaa!

Thought I would share some of their Teacher Appreciation Week gifts. In addition to a couple of small hand-made tokens of appreciation made by Brody & Kylee (which I forgot to photograph, shame on me) we sent along some goodies too! Although I wish I could take credit for these adorable gifts, pinterest deserves the recognition!

Chocolate chip cookies in a jar with a note that reads “Thanks to you…We’re Smart Cookies!”

What teacher can’t use new pencils?! My favorite part is that this is CHEAP to do!

Pinterest may get the credit for my homemade laundry soap, but putting it in a jar and tying a cute little measuring cup to it with a satin ribbon is allllll me ;) Props to my sister for the cute wording “We’ve had loads of fun in your class!”

I added the recipe and directions on the back…

These two amigos have had a blast having some alone time too. If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you know Korbin and Baxlyn have a special bond. That bond has no doubt strengthened since getting more time away from Brody & Kylee. They love their brother and sister, don’t get me wrong, these two have just clicked in a way that’s hard to describe. You hear about that “twin thing” that some multiples have and these two have it for sure. It’s bittersweet that these two don’t qualify for the PPCD/Preschool class. They have no concerns of major delay which is good, but they don’t get to join their brother and sister which is no fun. There’s a small teeeeeeeny tiny chance they will qualify for next year based on income to dependents in the household but we won’t know for another month or so. I am PRAYING that somehow we’re able to send them as well and will be forced to come up with something as an alternative if it doesn’t work out. Now that summer is here, Korbin just KNOWS he get’s to go to school when it starts up again….eeek. Fingers crossed, Buddy!

Blade, Baxlyn & Korbin staying busy while the others are away. They all ALWAYS include their little brother. It is the sweetest thing. Whether playing “zoo” in one of the bedrooms or “camping out” in the playroom, they always want Blade right there with them!

Here’s to hoping school stays this great as the years approach us!