We're moving... the blog, that is

We have moved the blog to our own website: http://www.birchbunch.com/blog

All of the old entries and photos are still there, and there is a new update coming soon!

Sarah's first haircut

We've been getting by with the "whale spout", but Sarah has been taking out the rubber band more and more often. I finally decided to take matters into my own hands (of course I saved the little lock of hair that I trimmed from her bangs).

Before:


During:


After:


There are some more new pictures on the June 2009 page too -- just scroll down past all the Disney photos.

Disney Pictures

I didn't get to the pictures until this morning... we were all completely exhausted by the time we got home. All 3 kids fell asleep in the car on the ride home, Jimmy was trying to find a spot to lie down and go back to sleep on the playroom floor while we were getting them into PJs, but Katie caught a second wind and was running around for 10 or 15 minutes before she finally climbed into her bed.

Jimmy is really hooked on trains now. Before we left for the office this morning, he was riding around on his turtle saying "choo choo choo!" He found his Thomas the train engine and was rolling it around on the train tracks printed on the "town" rug in the playroom. I think his birthday may be a good time to start on the Thomas train collection.

The Disney photos are on the new June 2009 album page. It was a bit difficult to get pictures since all three of us (Russ, Kirsitina, and I) each had a kid to hold on to and chase after, but we got a few good ones.

First Disney Trip

We took the kids to Disney World for the first time today and everyone had a great time! There was a bad accident that had the highway closed down on oir way over, so it took us 3 hours instead of 90 minutes, but that was the only snag we hit all day.

We went on It's A Small World, the Pooh ride (formerly Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - this was my first time on it's new incarnation), the steam train, the Tiki Room, and the treehouse. The kids loved all of it, even the parking lot tram and the ferry boat from there to the Magic Kingdom, but their favorite thing by far was the Pooh-themed playground... with fountains of water shooting up out of the ground. All 3 of them squealed and giggled and got SOAKED!! Fortunately it was 90 degrees out & Mommy brought along a change of clothes for everyone.

They had nice naps in their strollers after Jimmy watched the train go past a couple of times ("WOW! WOW!"). At the end of their nap time we took a snack break in the shade just at the right time in Frontierland and ended up with spots right up front for the parade, which had them waving and clapping at all of the characters & dancers.

We had some dinner and a couple of last rides,and then headed for home as we are all pretty worn out after all the ecxitement.

Pictures to come as soon as we get home & get them to bed.

In the Merry Merry Month of May

If I don't write something here pretty soon, we'll have nothing at all for May, so here goes. It's been a whirlwind month since my last post, with a trip to a baseball game, the March for Babies, new toddler beds for all the kiddies, Mother's Day at our new Ikea store in Tampa, Sarah's first birthday, and a Memorial day cookout with some friends.

We're already into summer here, with hot weather and the return of our frequent thunderstorms. The rain has been great for our drought-stricken lawn, but not so good for the kids, who miss playing outside when it's soggy out there. We've had the kiddie pool out a couple of times already, and we have a couple of fun sprinkler toys as well to help keep cool.

The baseball game was the day after our trip to the zoo from my last post, so we had a very full weekend. A whole group from our multiples club went to watch a local minor-league team play, and the kids loved it. It was the same day as the ballpark's benefit for the Humane Society, where people donate an extra couple of bucks to bring their dogs in with them. Jimmy and Katie spent most of the afternoon saying "Doggie! Doggie! Doggie!" They also got to eat not only hot dogs, but also chips and ice cream, which is always a treat. The biggest hit of the day for the twins was the bounce house they had so much fun in there I am sorely tempted to get a little one for the back yard... or at least rent one once in a while!

Our March for Babies day was a great success, our team raised over $1,300 for the March of Dimes and we had a beautiful morning for the three-mile walk. Thanks to everyone who donated & supported us!

Next up was Sarah's birthday... a whole year old already! I baked a cake and we had a little celebration at home. She was much less tentative about digging into her cake than the twins were on their first b-day, and now all three know the word "cake" and what it means (YUM!).

We found some great toddler beds and got Jimmy's & Katie's set up last month, with Sarah's mattress still on the floor until she figured out how to get in and out of the beds. That didn't take long at all, and Tidbit got her bed shortly after her birthday. Bed time is a little crazy as they all run around the room, lift up the blinds and peek out the windows, pile into each other's beds, and whatever else they do in there (we try not to look :-). It is working out very well, they do settle down eventually (usually in their own beds), they all sleep well through the night, and if any of them wake up early in the morning, they play quietly in their room for a while, at least.

For Mother's Day, Russ and the kids took me to the Ikea store that just opened in Tampa. We had a great time! It's getting easier and easier to take the kids out places with us, and they even seem to enjoy the trips more. We picked up a great table and chairs for the playroom, along with some cute pictures, a rug, and a pair of toy bins, a shelving unit for the living room, and some more little goodies. I had a marvelous time, and I got my first present from the kids too -- Kristina (our wonderful nanny) traced their little hands onto paper and turned them into "flowers"!

The cookout was lots of fun. We kept it small this year, but we are hoping to make this an annual tradition and have it be the big "birthday bash" for the three kids & Russ (all of their birthdays are in May & June). It will be bigger & better next year!

Lots of photos in the April and May albums.

First trip to the zoo

We took the kids to the zoo for the first time today, and all had a great time. The twins walked around at first while Sarah rode in the stroller, then Jimmy & Katie wanted to ride so I carried Sarah in the sling. She was so comfy she had an extra little nap before lunchtime while we strolled through the Florida exhibit.

J & K loved seeing the animals, though the ones that were far away or sleeping weren't of much interest. Fortunately this zoo has plenty of up-close exhibits, including the friendly goats at the children's area (we might try going into the petting zoo next visit), a platform where you can feed special crackers to a giraffe (we didn't buy any, but the the giraffe didn't know that so was up close anyway), penguins in a glass enclosure, the underwater windows into the fish & manatee pools, and plenty more.

We stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants there, where Jimmy and Sarah stuffed themselves with chicken nuggets and Katie decided that french fries were the order of the day (she'd had a couple earlier, at snack time). We spent a little more time after lunch in the Asian habitat area, which had some really interesting animals like the Sloth Bear and Bearded Pigs, then headed for home when everyone began looking sleepy. Katie conked out before we even got her strapped into her car seat, and Jimmy wasn't far behind. Sarah was well rested from her extra morning nap, but still dozed a little. We drove around for about an hour to let them sleep and managed to time it just right to be home just a few minutes after they woke up, ready for snacks!

There are several more photos from our day on the April 2009 page.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! We took the kids to an Easter egg hunt, their first, over the weekend. Fortunately the age groups were separated so we didn't get trampled. They didn't quite understand the idea of collecting the eggs, so almost as many came back out of their baskets as went in, but they had fun while they were at it. We got to spend quite a while at the playground there too, and Katie caught on to the "big kid" swing with some help from Daddy -- then didn't want to get off. Jimmy enjoyed swinging with Kirby, and Sarah had fun just walking around and swinging with Mommy.

Another highlight of the day was lollipops -- another first for Jimmy and Katie. Katie went to town on hers right away, Jimmy wasn't even sure he wanted to put his in his mouth (funny, he'll put nearly anything else in his mouth!). Once they got a taste of the sweets, their first reaction was to try to brush their teeth with the lollipops. It made sense once I thought about it -- the only thing they have that tastes like candy is their toddler toothpaste. Funny how those little brains work!

The empty plastic eggs seemed to be as big a hit as anything else, so Easter morning they got baskets full of those, plus some other toys. Speaking of toys, I have determined the toy preference hierarchy: 1. dirty diaper, 2. clean diaper that Mommy needs to put on someone, 3. box of diaper wipes (must be CLOSED when Mommy needs to get one out, but when no one's looking must be OPEN and emptied one wipe at a time), 4. any of the other 190385476573 toys in the room.

New April 2009 album page with photos from the egg hunt, our new backyard playhouse, and more. There's also a new video (as of last week) with some cute twin stuff on our YouTube playlist.

Words, words, words

The "verbal explosion" is in full swing for Jimmy and Katie, they are both learning new words daily and putting them together in new and interesting ways. Jimmy still does a lot of talking in his own language, with even longer monologues and more expression. Sarah is starting to make a few sounds that seem intentional, I think I've caught a couple of "mama"s, "buh buh buh" when someone leaves (combined with a little arm wave), and something that may be "more". Katie is really becoming our "little momma" more and more. She knows what the other two aren't allowed to do, and lets them know it with a stern "No! No!"

We're creeping up on potty training time. Jimmy and Katie are already fascinated by the goings-on in the bathroom, and with the contents of their diapers ("Poop?" "No poop in this diaper." "Tee tee?" "Yes, tee-tee"). One day last week Jimmy was looking out the window at the rain pouring down. "What's that?" Russ asked. Without hesitation, Jimmy answered, "Tee tee!" Also, whenever anyone, anywhere passes gas, Katie helpfully announces, "Poop!"

Sarah is becoming quite steady on her feet. She now sets off on her own walking, and often makes it halfway across the room before she loses her balance. It seems like she is making the shift from preferring to crawl to preferring to walk when she can and isn't in too much of a hurry (crawling is, after all, still much faster and easier).

We all went to a local fair over the weekend, and the twins spent most of the time out of the stroller. They had a blast collecting sticks, leaves, and pine cones, but were a little shy when people tried talking to them. It is getting easier to get out of the house with the whole family, especially now that Sarah is eating anything she can fit in her mouth. We have to be careful to give her small enough pieces for her to handle with only four little front teeth, as she will attempt to eat anything and everything (and Jimmy & Katie helpfully try to feed her all sorts of things, edible or not). We are also working with the twins on sitting in their seats at mealtimes for a little while before and after they actually eat, and on using plates and forks, all of which is coming along very well.

Bed time has just become a new adventure, as Katie has defeated the Superyard fence and can now climb into Sarah's crib at will. This makes Sarah very unhappy, and Jimmy too since he can't quite manage the climb himself. For now we have relocated Sarah to a pack & play in our bedroom, tomorrow night we are going to try her mattress right on the floor (with some pillows around it) and then it may be time for everyone to move into toddler beds at once. Thw twins have had one side off of their cribs for a while now, and they're fine that way, except that the mattresses are pretty high off the floor. They don't fall out much, but they do have a hard time climbing back in once they get down, especially Jimmy, so he ends up sleeping on the floor a lot. The toddler beds we're looking at are lower to the ground, which would make the up & down a bit easier on all of them.

There are lots of new photos on the March 2009 page and about six minutes of video that I pieced together from the snippets we captured through the month:

Big Sister, Little Momma

I was nursing Sarah in the (one remaining) comfy chair in the kids' playroom yesterday. Katie climbed up next to us, poked at Sarah's mouth a couple of times and said, very sternly, "No bite Sarah!"

I also managed to capture a few of Sarah's steps on video:


And, while I'm at it, the giggly block-stacking video I mentioned in the previous post:

First Steps, More Words, Eating, Sleeping

Sorry for the disappearing act, we're still here and doing fine. Shortly after my last post, I started going back to the office full time, four days a week (and diving into some new projects that have me working at home on my "days off" too). and the next thing I knew, the entire month of February was gone.

We have been busy at the house as well as at the office. The kids' playroom and bedroom, which were our old living room and bedroom, have new carpet and paint (after some minor, but much-needed repair work on the walls). Since the kitchen is relatively new, compared to the rest of the house anyway, we decided to just give it a fresh coat of paint and leave the rest alone. It's amazing what a new color on the walls does for the place!

We've also had quite a bit of work done outdoors, fill dirt, grading, walkways, and patio. The kids now have an outdoor play area, which is now their favorite place to be. We moved the Kangaroo Climber out there, added a sand/water table (no water until it gets a little warmer, though!), a couple of Cozy Coupe cars, and some balls & toys, and they love it. Jimmy and Katie, with their rapidly expanding verbal skills, now ask for "outside?" several times a day. Fortunately we have the weather for it, even in the middle of winter!

The twins are both picking up new words every day, it seems, and learning how to put them together to tell us things and (more importantly) ask for what they want. When we decipher what Katie is trying to ask us, she grins and says "yessssssss!" Jimmy still tells us a lot of things in his own language, but he is quite serious about it. He often comes up to one of us and runs through what sounds like several very important sentences before walking away. I wish I knew what his words meant!

They both have quite a collection of animal sounds -- when we read Goodnight Moon they chime in with "grrrrrr" (for the bears sitting on chairs) and "meeeeeeeow" (for the kittens). They are finally learning to put names to people too -- Mama, Dada, Jimmy ("Jee-ee"), Katie ("Kay-ee"), Sarah ("Sawa"). Sometimes they fight like crazy over a toy, a seat, or nothing at all, other times their bond is very apparent. One of those times is at night... they started climbing the cribs (into them first, but we realized that this meant they were also able to climb OUT just as easily), so we took the sides off and put a cushion on the floor for the first few weeks. At nap time they both sleep in their beds, but at bed time they start out in bed but more often than not end up on the floor (with all of their blankies, stuffed animals, etc.), curled up together.

Sarah is learning all sorts of things from the twins, sometimes a little too much (like climbing up on the little picnic table). She started standing on her own and taking a step or two a couple of weeks ago, now she's up to five or six steps in a row and standing for nearly a minute at a time. She also finally took to the sippy cup (we never did get her to take a bottle more than once in a while), which is how I was finally able to leave her at home with our (wonderful!!!) nanny and get back to work. She's now holding her own cup, taking two naps a day and going to bed at the same time as the twins, eating everything in sight by the fistful, and has two (bottom) teeth, a third that just came in (on top), and a fourth ready to make an appearance any day now. She is babbling up a storm, starting to wave and say bye-bye ("bah bah bah"), and she loves giving kisses!

I did take some pictures while all that was going on, a few more back in January and a bunch in February. There is also a new video in our YouTube collection of all three laughing at knocking down stacks of blocks.

Busy Start to 2009

We had a great Christmas and, so far, a wonderful new year. The house addition got finished just in time for us to put up our Christmas tree in the new living room. It never did get decorated, but it was enough to just have it there.

The babes don't "get" Christmas just yet, but they certainly seemed to feel the excitement and squealed as they ran in to explore their new toys. We got them a play kitchen, a "Kangaroo Climber" with a little slide, and some other toys (some of the biggest hits were ones I picked up at the multiples club garage sale a couple of months back).

Once we had the furniture in the new living room, we were able to turn the old living room over to the kids as their new playroom, and bring the old dining table back in from the workshop... it's nice to be able to sit down for a meal again!

On New Year's Day we hauled our old mattress into our new bedroom (the new bedroom furniture wouldn't arrive until a week later), but realized that we had some drywall repair and painting to do in our old bedroom before we could put the kids in there so we all slept in the new bedroom together for a few nights (fortunately we have a pack & play for each of them). They are all sharing a room now, which is working out better than we expected. The twins are used to sharing a room, but we were worried that they might keep Sarah awake, or vice-versa. Instead, they all seem to keep each other company, and we have even been able to get Sarah to bed at the same time as Jimmy & Katie. She still wakes up earlier than they do most mornings, but fortunately they sleep right through her crying.

This week we are finishing up the wall repairs and painting in the front part of the old house, which includes the playroom, so it's pretty crazy at home right now. Kristina and I took the kids to the aquarium all day yesterday to stay out of the way, then we had to improvise a play area in the dining room for the next couple of days until the drywall work is done. Over the next week or two we'll have it all painted, get the new carpet installed, and be back to normal in that part of the house anyway. Outdoors, we had grading work done last week, sod put down yesterday, and a new walkway and patio are in the works. A little bit of fence for their outdoor play area, and then we should be able to take a breather for a little while before we move on to the rest of the project list.

I have finally uploaded more photos from December, Christmas, and a few January pics too.