Toddler Beds…

It seems just like yesterday I was on bedrest at home, laying there watching a bunch of men fill my spare bedrooms with cribs. This past week we said goodbye to those cribs and hello to toddler beds. Bittersweet, yes, but the easiest transition for me (emotionally speaking) so far. I had planned on keeping them in their cribs until they were 5 years old. Ok not really, but as long as I possibly could. Had you told me a month ago we would be in toddler beds by Christmas, I would have thought you were crazy. After more and more escapes by Baxlyn, even with a crib tent, we knew it was time. Rather than just switching her to a big girl bed alone, we went ahead and transitioned all of them.

Like many parents now days, we bought the cribs that converted to toddler beds that convert to a full sized bed as well. Below you see they all gathered as Daddy opened their new railings!

With four “helping” toddlers at our feet it took a good 25 minutes to assemble the new pieces to each crib. They each held tightly to the screws and tools Bret was using and offered a helping hand every chance they got.

The boys hard at work!

Baxlyn’s bed was the first one done and they all had to try it out! You can see Brody still hard at work making sure each screw is in tight!

A shot of the boys room and their new big boy beds!

Once the cribs were assembled we were ready for our first test…dun dun dun, Nap time. I took everything out of their rooms with the exception of their dressers (which the knobs are off of, btw, so they are not able to open them) and a few small lovies. Realistically I knew nap one would hardly be a nap at all with their new found freedom. The first thing they ALL did? Switch beds. That, by far, has been the coolest part for them about the whole transition…getting to sleep in the other’s beds.

After putting them down… I guess now I should say “in” for a nap, I listened to them laugh and have an absolute BALL for hours. Their doors were shut and I checked on them frequently just to make sure they weren’t ripping down the walls or hanging from the ceiling fans. I actually took a video camera in with me each time I checked on them and got some hilarious footage I hope to share sooner than later! My biggest fear of the entire toddler bed transition was that they would try to come out of their rooms. I pictured babies laying on the floor, fingers reaching under the crack of the door and them crying and begging to come out. Boy was I wrong (man those words have been used on this blog a lot lately). They don’t argue a bit to go to bed/nap now and enjoy playing in their rooms together!

It’s been a week and a half now and the “newness” of their new beds is wearing off, which it good. The first week they all stayed up for hours (literally) after being put to bed. With the exception of Poop Fest 2011 and occasional ruckus with the boys,  it’s usually them just talking, bed hopping, and playing until they fall asleep.  The last three nights the boys have actually gone straight to bed, with maybe 5 minutes of play. I’m confident as time goes on, they’ll all settle down even faster.

Here’s the four of them in their Little Sleeper Keepers just before bedtime. Baxlyn, Korbin, Kylee & Brody

  

While the girls sit with each other in one bed doing some sisterly bonding and read a book the boys are in the next room doing everything but that. They’re bonding alright, but in a completely different way. They prefer to jump, laugh really loud, take their sheets off the bed, lick each other and throw their lovies on the floor. Here they are wearing their capes…

 

The first of the three nights they went right to bed, I love this. Brody wasn’t feeling well and asked to go to bed, I sent Korbin in behind him and 5 minutes later found them together. Gotta love how they’re snuggled in with their Dudu and Fido!

Thought this was a cute one. Baxlyn snuggled up on the floor next to Kylee’s bed…

         

Looking back I think, once again, I was worried for nothing when it came to another transition. Sleeping through the night, check! No more bottles, check! Potty Training, check! Now Toddler Beds, check!  That’s the last big thing until Kindergarten right?! For now I’ll choose to not fight the battle of “making them lay still and go to sleep right away”. It’s working for us and it’s not too stressful! I’ll update you in a month or so. Hopefully I’m able to report they go to sleep within a few minutes of being put down, we’ll see!

Stay tuned to hear all about their FIRST SLEEPOVER!!!!!

Double (Naked) Trouble

Lately, everyday is an adventure when it comes to night and nap time with the boys. I put them in their room and never know what I will come back to. The biggest challenge lately has been keeping them dressed while in their cribs. They were dubbed the Duct Tape Duo a little while back and I thought that phase was over. Boy, was I wrong. It’s been 2 weeks now of constant stripping and getting into nap time trouble in general. I haven’t been duct taping them in a while because, like I said, I thought that phase was over. If you are easily grossed out this is your warning. This post has some pretty detailed happenings in it so you may find it better to come visit in a few days when we’ve moved on to the next subject…

They’re still doing great with potty training and go number 2 on the potty almost daily. I do put them in pull ups/diapers for nap and night. The other week I could smell toxic fumes coming from their room so I went in and found both boys naked with their pull ups laying next to them in their cribs. Korbins was clean but Brody’s was not and he was surrounded by little smeared brown footprints…eww. So I get the mess cleaned up, give them a good talking to, duct tape them and put them back down. The days go on and their room continues to smell like a hamster cage – no joke.  It always stinks but it’s just been wayy worse than normal. I’ve cleaned it from top to bottom. The cribs, sheets, blankets, lovies, floors all of it was cleaned and I just couldn’t figure it out. I eventually go to change the boys sheets AGAIN thinking maybe someone peed again without me realizing. I lift Korbin’s mattress to change the sheet and there in the corner of his crib between the mattress and railing I see something that resembles charcoaled road kill. I thought it was his monkey or another small stuffed animal. After squinting and moving his crib away from the wall to get a good look, I realized I had just discovered the mysterious deadly stench. All this cleaning I had been doing and I totally missed the dried, God only knows how old, crusty turd in the corner of his crib. Although a little disturbed knowing my kid had been sleeping inches away from this thing for days, I was glad I finally found it, hopefully meaning their room would smell better soon. Sheesh.

Needless to say that night I was going to make sure there was no nakedness going on. Below you’ll see they are diaper duct taped, wearing backwards footed sleepers (they can unzip them from the front) which are duct taped at the zipper, AND halo sleep sacks that are also duct taped at the zipper. They did well that night but wow, that’s a lot of work and duct/gorilla tape gets expensive after a while… it worked but wasn’t ideal.

This is a few days before the above mentioned poop party. I was cleaning house and heard the boys’ lullaby monitor/project thingy getting louder then softer, louder then softer, then twinkle twinkle little star followed by the sound of heartbeats. Someone had there hands on it and I was prepared to catch them in the act. With camera in hand I swung open the door and to my surprise saw Brody on top of his dresser having a ball…

I know what you’re thinking. Heather, look at how close the dresser is to the crib, of course he’ll climb up there… But for those of you who know Brody, know that this is quite a huge task for him. He still struggles to get up onto the couch on his own, I still have NO clue how he managed to climb over and on top of the dresser. As mad as I was I’ll admit I was kinda proud of him… this is a serious accomplishment for this dude! That being said it was still a problem. You’ll see in the first picture his crib was then turned around so the tall back side was facing outward making it impossible (err.. I think) for him to climb out.

 OK, back to the nakedness. I still needed a sure way these crazies were not going to get naked and an easier way at that. Layers and layers and boat loads of duct tape worked but was a lot of work and took a good 10mins to do properly…multiply that times two (or more) and it’s a true pain. I had read when the quads were itty bitty about Little Sleeper Keepers but had totally forgotten about them until another quad mom mentioned them again. Not only did she remind me of them, she had some that she was no longer using and sent them to me – thanks again Amy! Little Keeper Sleepers are snug fitting sleepers and have a zipper up the back and have a total of three snaps at the non-stretch neckline. We put them in their, what they call “suits”, and have had no escapees so far!         

We made the switch to toddler beds this week (details to come on following post) and the quads have been on a new high since their new found freedom. Yesterday I made the mistake of putting the boys “down for nap” without the Little Sleeper Keepers. I told myself they would be fine and would be too busy causing other kinds of trouble rather than naked trouble. They’ll be having too much fun jumping from bed to bed to even think about getting naked…. wrong again. After two hours of hearing their giggly fun I stepped in to check on them and to what I swear must have been Poop Fest 2011. Both boys were both out of their beds butt naked, surrounded by (lucky for me) firm turd balls. Absolutely disgusting. I can only thank God it’s only two of them rather than all four. There was poop everywhere. On their beds, in their beds, under their beds, under their fingernails, on the window sill, it was smeared into the blinds…etc. NOT FUN and all because I had faith that they wouldn’t get into “that kind” of trouble. You can bet your rear they will not be left alone again in the near future without being in those new sleepers.

I am confident we have finally found the solution to the toddler nakedness in our house and totally recommend the Little Sleeper Keepers to other moms out there dealing with their own little Houdini!

Christmas Parties!!

First and foremost I’d like to say thank you to you readers for the sweet comments on the last post about Kylee’s new therapy. She’s done GREAT since that rough second day and is using her left hand to do everything, still very difficult of course, but she’s using it.

We’ve had a total of 3 Christmas parties in the last 8 days. Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin have enjoyed each one and what it had to offer. Up first was Bret’s work party (before Kylee got her new bracelet). This was our first year attending and it was so fun. From cookie decorating, to coloring cards for soldiers, to the children’s entertainer, there was much to do! The group of ladies in charge of the cookie decorating station couldn’t get enough of the quads and kept luring them back to their table the entire night by offering more (and more) cookies… thanks ladies, realllly!

Baxlyn was the only one interested in coloring cards for the soldiers that night. There were little…how do I describe them… “felt-covered” cards with little Santa’s and such on them and the kids were supposed to color them in and leave a nice message. 30 minutes later Baxlyn had not only colored hers in, she kept going until there was NO white showing on her card at all leaving no room for any kind of message. Front, middle AND back was solid color! I can only hope the solider who receives her card can feel the love she poured into that thing! While Bret watched the little artist do her thing, Kylee, Korbin, Brody and I were entertained by an awesome children’s entertainer who sang songs, introduced puppets and made cool things out of balloons. Baxlyn joined us just in time for the really good stuff. All of the kids were invited up on stage to sing and play instruments. You can see in the pic below, Baxlyn found her a little spot in the very back where she sat and played her little drum the entire time. When the kid songs were over and the stage was cleared, there sat Baxlyn and her drum. The song leader said we had witnessed a  “Christmas" miracle” by her not getting trampled!

 

Friday morning we had the ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) Christmas party. Below you see them working hard on more sugar cookies – notice Kylee using that left hand to shake her sprinkles – whoop whoop!

 

It took a lot of bribing but we were able to get Korbin & Kylee to pose for a picture with the Sesame Street gang…

    

Last but not least, we attended our PAMOM Christmas party today. A gymnasium full of little people who all came in twos, threes or in our case, fours! Bret had to work so I went solo and whew… what a challenge! My other MoMs are super supportive and helped keep count of not only theirs, but mine as well. Miss Baxlyn is super independent and doesn’t see the need to be accounted for. One minute she would be coloring at a table by herself and the next I’d find her across the gymnasium in a bounce house full of kids..she’s a busy bee for sure! I had to take a picture of the picture she was coloring. I was extremely impressed at how well she stayed in the lines, something we haven’t practiced a whole lot at home.

Thanks to the puppet lady, Brody Baxlyn Kylee & Korbin all sat down for a brief period of time allowing Angela to take a picture of me with them! That’s one thing I fail at, being in pictures WITH my kids. I’m a picture taker for sure and rarely go a day with out picking up the camera. It’s not often people take the camera from me and demand me to sit and smile too!

Among all of the kids’ parties, us adults managed to get out for some time too to celebrate my Bethany’s 25th birthday! Here’s Chris & Bethany, Anna & Mason and Bret & myself at La Hacienda Ranch!

Silly girls… Heather, Bethany & Anna!

Stay tuned. Another BIG transition this Mama is pretty anxious about….. eeeeek!

Kylee’s New “Bracelet”

I mentioned a while back about doing constraint induced therapy with Kylee. After doing tons of research and talking to many people about the process Bret and I decided to do it. Although most of what I read is the therapy done on adults after a serious brain injury, I did see several stories on the constraining done with small children. Every single story I read was successful, which was super encouraging, I heard of not one case where the patient’s condition didn’t better from the process.

A little background for those who don’t know, Kylee suffered what’s called IVH (intraventricular hemorrhage), also known as brain bleeds, shortly after birth. IVH ranges from grades 1 to 4, 4 being the worst, usually causing long term damage. Kylee suffered a grade 1 on the left side of her brain and a grade 4 on the right resulting in the left side of her body not functioning exactly as it should and causing her some slight delays. The medical terminology for her condition is Spastic Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy.

Kylee’s occupational therapist put in the order for her new brace and  yesterday we introduced her new “bracelet” to her and began       Day 1 of an 8 week process. The brace is made of neoprene and has a splint in it not allowing her any movement from just below her elbow to her finger tips. By keeping her right arm (the “good” arm) constrained, her affected arm/hand/wrist is  being forced to do all of the work. She has to wear her bracelet 8 hours a day (keep in mind she sleeps an average of 16 hours in a 24 hour period), which means basically the entire time she’s awake, besides baths.

Mrs. Regina, her new OT, came yesterday and I had already pumped Kylee up about wearing her new pretty bracelet. She was stoked and was ready to rock and roll when Regina got here. She did well for the first few hours of wearing it but, as I expected, it got old pretty fast. Today, Day 2, Kylee is extremely frustrated and asks to take her bracelet off throughout the day. Although I know these babies are doing phenomenal, and I am so so glad for that, I’d be lying if I said a small part of me didn’t feel a bit of guilt for not being able to carry them longer. It’s time like these, when they struggle with the long term issues from their prematurity, that I wish I could go back in time and have a re-do at the whole quad pregnancy thing.

Here’s Kylee with her new bracelet last night before bed…

Today, not quite as happy, but hanging in there. So hard to explain this type of thing to a two year old…

The everyday tasks for her are proving to be extremely difficult. Eating is by far the hardest but she’s done well… if you know this girl, you know there’s not much that will stop her from eating her food ;)

Although I don’t expect her left hand to have perfect function after the 8 weeks, I am confident we will see good results. I’m sure wearing her new brace will get easier for her but in the meantime, this lil’ girl (and this mama) could really use some prayer to help us cope with the new struggles!

Kylee Mae, Mama loves you sweet girl <3

Christmas Crafts in Quadville

         

It's winter time, it's cold outside, and let's face it, it's a chore to get 4 two year olds out the door to go places when you're by yourself. The past two years we've spent most (if not all) of the winter in the house due to RSV/flu season (which by the way 3 were diagnosed with strep again this week). Now that they're older, keeping them busy and entertained at home is getting harder. They still don't get into TV shows or movies too much, which isn't a horrible thing but on occasion I'd really enjoy the break a simple 30 minute show could give me. With the holiday's here now we've been jammin' to Christmas music everyday while dancing and decorating too! Now that they (and by they I mean Kylee) don't eat everything in sight I thought it would be a good time do get down and dirty with some finger painting, glitter and glue! It's a little stressful and causes quite a mess but it is fun and the quads enjoy it. Here's some of our holiday creations so far...

First we have our Christmas wreaths. These are my favorite and take the most time by far. I start with making their little hand prints, wait for them to dry, cut them out, hot glue them together and top them off with a little holiday raffia. We’ve got them all around our house and are making extra for our friends and family too decorate with too!

While the green paint is out we make some upside-down handprint Christmas trees decorated with fingerprints for lights and a little glitter for sparkle…

Our little snowmen…

Of course we had to make some Reindeer! The face is a footprint, the antlers, a set of handprints and the nose and eyes, thumbprints! Add some eye lashes to the girls’ and red glitter to the nose and wa-la, Rudolph!

Our little herd of deer… L-R Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin.  Notice Brody & Kylee’s little flat feet…no arch, whatsoever!

At last, our Christmas tree this year with NO GATE around it!

I’d love to hear any kid-friendly ideas YOU have for home made holiday decorations. What do you do with your kiddos when its cold and wet outside?

Pita the Elf

We had a great Thanksgiving and spent the day at Papaw's house with friends and family! I absolutely love this time of year, the cooler weather, being with family, the decor...everything. With 4 two year olds who are starting to understand a little of what Christmas is all about, the magic is in the air!

Many of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the Elf on the Shelf. I just heard about it last year but apparently this little tradition has been around for years. In case you're like me and out of the loop, let me fill you in. The Elf on the Shelf comes to your house at Christmas time and watches your children during the day. Each night your elf flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus, letting him know if the child was on their good behavior or not. He returns each morning and can be found sitting in a new place to keep an eye out for another day. After learning about the little guy, I knew we eventually would have to get one. Having forgotten about it since last Christmas, I went to my Mom's house a few weeks ago and there it sat... a fancy white box that contained our very own Elf on the Shelf!

We put up our Christmas tree a few days ago (yes, before Thanksgiving) and today I introduced the quads to the elf who would be visiting us daily until Christmas. They all sat and gazed with excitement as I opened up the special box this morning and they all yelled "SANTA CWAUS!!!" when they saw the little elf sitting inside. I explained to them he was an elf from the North Pole, Santa's helper, and told them he was here to see if they're being good or bad and how he would report to Santa each night. At two years old they don't really grasp the whole idea but the wheels are slowly turning! I told them we needed to name the elf and Brody's first response was "Christmas Light". Kylee came up with "Pita"....sorry Brody I think we're going with Pita.

Pita also came with a book, explaining just what he does for Santa and reminding the kids to be good rather than naughty! Find out more about the Elf on the Shelf by clicking here! Click here to see Santa's elves in training camp!We'll keep you posted on our new pal Pita!

"Potty like a Rock, Potty like a Rock Star..."

Rock Stars, that's what they are. Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin have continued to do GREAT at potty training! It's been just over a week now since we did our 3(4) Day Potty Training and wow, I'm still amazed at how...dare I say... easy it's been. Between them all, we have one accident every 2 days or so...not too shabby!

We went out for their Mamaw's birthday last week, our first time at a restaurant, I was nervous to say the least. I called the restaurant ahead of time to see if they took reservations, of course, they didn't. I explained our situation to them as well as our STRONG need to be sat as close to the restroom as possible. Thankfully they accommodated us and our table was just feet from the bathroom door. I arrived with the babies a bit early (we were meeting Daddy & Mamaw there) so we could all get familiar with and use the potty. It was our first public restroom experience and eww. The restroom itself was "clean" and well kept for an adult who ya know, DOESN'T grip the toilet seat and practically stick their head IN the toilet to say bye bye to the pee as it's flushed down the toilet and lay on the bathroom floor to peek under the wall of the stall next to us. Although I would feel ok using that potty, having four two year olds in there was not exactly this germ-a-phobic momma's dream. It was a little chaotic to say the least but they all went and we eventually made it to our table. Between the jammin' music that Brody was into (good gosh it felt like we were in a night club as loud as the bathroom music was) and Kylee's slight addiction to flushing the toilet repeatedly I was so afraid they would think the bathroom was way cool and would "need to go" every 5 minutes. To my surprise, they all sat the entire dinner not one gave a thought to the potty again. At the end of the meal we paraded (with our little potty seat in hand) back into the restroom for one last "go" before we left for home. Zero accidents, again, leaving me a proud proud Mommy!

Friday morning we, along with the rest of the family, headed to the Gaylord Texan Ice Sculptures. I was so excited to go see the beautiful scenes made out of ice but was super anxious about the quads being in panties and underwear. It was a bit of a drive and I, having never been there, didn't know what to expect when we got there. I had no clue how big this place was, how crowded it would be, how many bathrooms they had or where they were located. Bret and I decided we would put them in Pull Ups for this trip knowing it would likely be a challenge to get them all to a potty if needed. The kids are great at treating their Pull Ups like panites and know that they are not supposed to pee in them. We got to the Gaylord around 9am and enjoyed walking around the inside of the building that was BEAUTIFULLY decorated for Christmas. We headed over to the Ice Sculptures at 10am and at this point nobody had asked to go potty. To be honest, Bret and I didn't even ask them if they needed to go, assuming they would just go in their Pull Up after too long. I so don't want to be a parent that says "Oh, just go in your Pull Up" if their kids asks to go potty...even though that's what I would have wanted to say. This place was BIG and it would have been a long walk to find a potty for a toddler who gives you about a 9 second warning before needing to pee. We all kept our mouths shut and enjoyed the awesome sculptures.

This place was gorgeous. If you're local and haven't been, GO!

Korbin & I checkin' out one of the many trains!

...and the HUGE Christmas tree!

Lot's of Mommy pics today huh?! Thanks again John & Darrell for being in charge of the pics! Below, would have been great if lil' Miss B would have joined us...what you don't see is her insisting on looking over the opposite side of the bridge...oh that girl, gotta be different.

All bundled up ready to see the Ice... or "eyes" as the babies thought we were gonna see. Notice the onlookers behind me as we wait for our escort...
Just one of the pics from inside the exhibit. Hard to see but here's Brody, Baxlyn, Kylee & Korbin with Shrek, Fiona and their triplets! All of that you see is ICE... so amazing!What's this....a family photo on Shrek's front porch?!? We rarely get a picture of the 6 of us together and I'm pretty sure all of the onlookers thought I was nuts after celebrating the fact we got it! Thanks John for taking it :) Bret was able to talk Baxlyn into cooperating by offering her the best seat in the house, his neck. I can't help but wonder what she's thinking as she check out his nearly hairless head lol.
After leaving the Gaylord, we all drove to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Bret and I planned on taking them potty and were assuming they would all be wet. Totally wrong, NOT ONE had gone potty in their Pull Up....are you kidding me?!!?! SWEET! They went from 8ish am until noon and didn't potty once, I was shocked and again so so proud! Once again they PROVED to me they CAN do this!

We've had several more outings since then...Papaw's house, church, friend's house and this morning, Chuck E Cheese, all trips were successful with no accidents. Simply amazing! For those of you who read the previous post, Potting Training: The Scoop!, you'll be happy to know there has been a great increase in Sucker consumption as well as BIG stickers to the sticker charts! The girls still prefer to "go" at night/nap but the boys are serious about the number 2 business and go in the toilet! I can only pray this successful diaper-free (daytime at least) life continues to go so well!