The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #11

April 11, 2013Amber 10 Comments

It’s 11:00 pm as I type this, so technically it is still Thursday. I’m working at “game time” no doubt! Nonetheless, it is time to reflect upon the little things that filled our week.

1. George and I were inspired by the Glawson Triplets to take the babies to our community playground. We stuffed two babies in each baby swing and they soared. Of course, before we stuffed them in, I sanitized each swing with Clorox wipes. Oh yes, I am that mom. We are enjoying freedom from lock down, but I’m not completely ready to let my germ guard down. Rylin and Mason thoroughly enjoyed their ride, giggling and grinning the whole time. Harper and Sydney didn’t protest, but seemed rather lackadaisical about the whole ordeal.

This is how quadruplets roll at the playground!

Rylin thought this was big fun. I love the wind in her hair.

Hmm, these two don’t seem terribly interested.

2. After I took Mason to Cranial Technologies for his weekly band adjustment, he and I took a detour to one of my former schools. I introduced Mason to the principal, Samantha, and secretary, Mina, at Bonnie Brae. Both of these ladies helped me trudge along as I worked full time the first 20 weeks of a quadruplet pregnancy so I thought it was time they meet at least one of the quadlets. I promised to bring the others someday. And…Springdale and Riverside friends, I promise we will swing by to see you as well.

Mina, Mason, & Samantha.
Mason was highly interested in Samantha’s glasses and seemed to thing they’d be a tasty snack.

3. My Uncle Mark sent this picture to me a few days ago. It is me and my Grandpa I think at Easter, which would make me about 13 or 14 months old. It’s a sweet picture that reminds me of how special he was to me and all of the little things we did together. I will always remember catching fireflies in his yard, swinging from vines, looking at stars with his telescope, performing on his hearth, and going to the beach. In his 87 years, he always stopped to look at bluebonnets and never let the little things go unnoticed. Thank you, Grandpa for teaching all of us to appreciate the little things!

Do you see any of the babies in this picture? I see a strong family resemblance…

hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #10

April 4, 2013Amber 19 Comments

Happy Thursday! Each week, we take some time to pause and reflect upon the little things that made our week special. Here are some of our highlights:

1. Texas weather has been fickle as usual. Just when I packed up all of our winter clothes, the warm spring weather vanished and was exchanged with cool drizzle. I could replace Puxatony Phil as predictor of spring weather. Every time I flip the closets for spring, we have at least two more weeks of winter. I should know this by now, but when we have temperatures exceeding 80 and it is sunshiny for over a week, I’m ready to ditch the sweaters and bring out the skirts. Anyways, all this dreary weather kept us indoors and from taking our evening walks. To change things up in the evening, we’ve been retreating upstairs to the playroom. It is a bit of hassle to haul four babies upstairs for 30-45 minutes of playtime, but we all need the change of pace. When we get up there, eight little eyes dart around exploring the new environment. Plus, all the toys are novel since we don’t get up there often. We primarily use the playroom as Nisey’s guest bedroom and to store toys that are too advanced for the babies. However, the babies surprise me and seem to understand some of the toys I thought were too big for them.

Harper really enjoyed pushing the buttons on the sitting toys. We learned, however, to turn all toys off before bed. The toy in the background spooked George when it beckoned, "Play with me." in the night!

Harper really enjoys pushing the buttons on the sitting toys. We learned, however, to turn all toys OFF before bed. The toy in the background spooked George when it beckoned, “Play with me.” in the night!

2. We’ve been practicing sitting up with the support of Boppy pillows. We since rearranged our “Boppy Conventions” with a new perspective. Harper and Rylin can almost sit independently, but they still need the safety net because they will topple and crash their noggins sometimes. Sitting up opened new horizons for the babies and we did our first sitting up baths in pairs! Harper and Rylin seemed to really enjoy being able to see their toys and splash the water. Sydney lounged back in her seat like the old chair, but appeared relaxed. Mason wasn’t keen on the new bath arrangement and protested with crocodile tears, but eventually warmed up to the idea. I’m excited that bath time could take half as long by putting two in the tub at once! I’m thinking it’s time to expand our bath toy collection as well.

Looks like someone missed the party.

The boys splish splashing!

Sydney’s hair is long enough down the center to make a Cupie Doll curl. Rylin’s is close.

3. Shortly after starting spoon feeds, a friend suggested introducing Puffs since they dissolve and don’t require any chewing. The first time I introduced Puffs, I ended up fishing one out of Sydney’s’ throat and didn’t want to try again. That was until I noticed the babies chomping pureed food and picking smaller toys up. When they were fussing for me to feed them faster, I put a Puff in front of everyone and they did so much better. Since they put everything in their mouths that is exactly what they did with the Puffs, but no coking. It’s comical most of the time because they slobber so much the Puffs stick to their chubby little arms or hands and they can’t find them. Other times they drop into the pocket of their bibs.

Harper is going in for the Puff!

He did it! Puff made it to the mouth.

Rylin scored a Puff too!

4. My hairstylist recommended The Wet brush so I headed to Amazon and ordered a pink one. I received it yesterday and gave it a whirl last night. It worked perfectly. It brushed through my wet mop without snagging or snarling and took a fraction of the time my old comb took. Plus, it was a one step operation: just brush. I used to spritz my hair with conditioner, use a wide tooth comb, then run a paddle brush over everything to smooth it out. I’m all for consolidation so this brush is a winner in my book!

What little things filled your week?

hugs!

Amber

PS- Don’t forget to visit abeautifulruckus.com to see more little things!

The Little Things Thusrday: Installment #9

March 28, 2013Amber 20 Comments

Here are the little things we celebrated this week-

1. We now have three rolling babies (Rylin, Harper, and Mason), plus they all turn and scoot a bit. This meant time for changes in our den arrangement. First we sold all of our little baby equipment (three rock ‘n’ plays, two swings, three Bumbo chairs, and two bouncy seats) on Craigslist. We caught babies trying to flip over while in these types of seats so it was time to say farewell. With all the movement and exploration we noticed far too many baby tangle ups so our coffee table found refuge upstairs. I really like how our den works now. We have just two baby contraptions and an activity table so there’s much more open space for all.

Oh boy! The babies are like heat seeking missles when they see a toy being used by another baby. Harper is stretching out to nab Sydney's toy.

Oh boy! The babies are like heat seeking missiles when they see a toy being used by another baby. Harper and Sydney seem to be scuffling over that book. As of now, they don’t mind having a toy snatched up, but it won’t be long before there are wails of protest.

For the first time in months there is nothing below the television besides baskets concealing baby toys. Ahh!

2. We summoned the babies to be Mini Monets once again for our spring artwork.

This is my favorite piece of baby art so far. We used the babies’ footprints to make robins for spring.

3. Even when we scrubbed it with rubbing alcohol, Mason’s DOC Band started smelling like a foul foot. I tried putting baby powder on his hair as suggested, but he just smelled like a stinky foot dusted in baby powder. My sister reminded me of an amazing product I bought in Vegas a few years ago. It is coconut scented deodorant powder from Lush. They use organic and chemical free ingredients at Lush, which is baby friendly in my book. Now his noggin smells like summery coconut even after hours of wear!

Even when we scrubbed it with rubbing alcohol, Mason's DOC Band started smelling like a foot after day one. I tried putting baby powder on his hair, but he just smelled like a stinky foot dusted in baby powder. My sister reminded me of this amazing product! It is coconut scented deodorant powder from Lush. Now his head smells like coconut even after hours of wear!

There are a few Lush stores internationally located, but if there is not one near you, check out http://www.Lush.com

4. Sydney is clearly our Little Evil Knievel with her stunt girl moves.

Sydney’s latest trick is planking. She should have a seriously developed core now! Sometime we catch her bear crawling like this, but of course she only goes backwards so it’s not efficient means of locomotion.

5. I found my latest snack craving this week when we seemed to have way too many pretzels in the pantry. I paired them with peanut butter and Nutella. I just love salty/ sweet snack combos! George was less than impressed, but I think it is yum-o!

Sometimes I dip the pretzel in each scrumptious spread while other time I mix the spreads together first. Either way I love it!

6. During playtime I’ve been playing children’s music for the babies so they don’t hear only me talking all day. And so I don’t hear myself talking all day! Most of our children’s music was sung by the Fisher Price Little People. The Little People have quite the repertoire of children’s sing-a-long tunes and they can carry a tune, but their voices started grating on me. I visited the itunes store yesterday and purchased a bunch of folksy-indie children’s music that is much more appealing to me. I am the newest fan of Frances England and Elizabeth Mitchell. Seasoned parents, do you know of great children’s music not sung by Wee Sing or the Little People? I accumulated a good bit, but I will soon tire of the 40 some odd songs I have now.

What little things highlighted your week?

hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #8

March 21, 2013Amber 6 Comments

I love when the Little Things Thursdays come back around each week. Thursdays help me pause to reflect upon the past week and all of the wonderful things that transpired. Even though the purpose is to delight in little things, this week we seem have more BIG things to celebrate. I hoped to write full posts on a few of them, but never managed to carve out the time to write them. Hmmm, I wonder why….

1. March 20th was a momentous day in our family. George and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary. We had a hearty chuckle when George thought it was our eight instead. I’m relatively certain that the hoopla of 2012 caused a mental lapse for George and a few more gray hairs. Several weeks ago, Rebecca at A Beautiful Ruckus took a poll asking fellow quad mamas how much they felt having quads aged them. I responded, “not at all”, which likely comes as a surprise (considering the strain of carrying them and how demanding caring for them is now). The truth is I do feel older, but the fact is that I am older. Every day that passes I am one day older than before and I am okay with that. George and I look so young in our wedding pictures, but we were young then, nine years younger to be exact. In our nine years of marriage, we’ve had moments of sickness and health, richer and poorer with each experience helping us to grow together. Through it all, there is no one I’d rather have at my side than George.

George and I met at a pancake breakfast at church. I surprised him with the ingredients for a hearty breakfast for dinner and we spent the evening cooking together. Cooking as a team is something we really miss.

George and I met at a pancake breakfast at church. In honor of our anniversary I surprised him with the ingredients for a nostalgic breakfast for dinner and we spent time cooking it together. He planned to bring take out home and let me take a luxurious bath. Since I beat him to the punch with dinner, I got a rain check for tomorrow.

On March 20th the babies also celebrated their eight month birthday. I took another obligatory crib picture of them. They are really starting to fill it out! Harper is officially in nine month clothing and Rylin is in 6/9 month clothes. Sydney and Mason insist on keeping their six month wardrobe to make sure that clothing storage is a challenge for me.

2. Okay, this one is a little thing, but worthy of mention in our Big Things post. Grandaddy did not style Sydney’s hair. It was a tad chilly when we took an evening walk so she donned a bear hat. She looked like this when I removed her hat! Serious case of hat hair, I think.

3. Do you notice anything different about our recent quad feed? This is MAJOR progress at our house!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that this does not happen the whole feed all the time. However, we are making huge gains in the fact that they are interested, willing, and able to hold their bottles independently. I have not used our bottle buddies in the past week at all!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that this does not happen the entire feed all the time. The way Rylin decided to look at her bottle is fairly common during a feed. However, we are making huge gains in the fact that they are interested, willing, and able to hold their bottles independently. I have not used our bottle buddies in the past week at all!

What little or big things filled your week?

hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #6

March 7, 2013March 7, 2013Amber 4 Comments

Sha-blam! I am on top of things today and have our Little Things Thursday post ready. Let’s hope the rest of my day is similarly productive.

1. Sunday evening George stayed home with the crew while I met up with three special friends. The four of us helped each other weather some difficult times in order to see some beautiful rainbows. These beautiful, strong women will be forever in my heart. It was a bittersweet celebration of friendship as Courtney is relocating to the east coast for a new opportunity for her family. All four of us are thankful for the technology age because she’ll never seem quite so far away. And on the upside, I could take an east coast vacay someday to visit her.

Tarra, Katie, Courtney, and I at Mi Cocina for a bit of Tex Mex and girl time. I hope Courtney enjoyed her scrumptious meal, I don’t think she’ll find stellar Tex Mex on the east coast!

I timed my excursion so that I could help George spoon feed at five and then scamper back in time for the final bottle and bedtime. When I looked down at my phone for a time check, I realized it was dangerously close to bedtime so I darted home. When I opened the door, it was eerily quiet in the house. Apparently the babies got hungry a bit early so George fed all four and tucked them in solo. I was rather impressed with his Daddy skills. I may need to get out more often!

2. The weather on Monday was delightful! We had sunshine and temps in the low 80’s. I seized the opportunity to take the babies outside for tummy time. I spread a quilt where a patch of shade from the house collected and spread toys on it. The babies marveled at the novel sounds, sights and smells of the great outdoors. It was relaxing for all five us and I’m pretty sure we could have napped out there. I can’t wait for another chance to do it again. Better yet, the babies got outdoor swings for Christmas that will host many an outdoor adventure.

Mason craned his neck to observe a low flying plane.

3. The babies received their fifth and final round of Synagais (medication to help prevent RSV). This means that lock down is finally coming to a close! It is sort of an odd feeling knowing we won’t have to be quite so stringent with preemie precautions. I realize the babies cannot live in a germ free bubble for their entire lives and need to experience illness to build immunity, but I’m not quite ready to embrace the freedom either. It’s not as if toting around for babies will be easy so I don’t think we’ll be exactly gallivanting around town frequently, but at least we can. It probably mostly means that visitors will not be required to get the TDap and flu shots anymore. We will continue to request shoes to be removed, thorough hand washing, and smoke free clothing. I figure those things are just good health practices for any family.

I am eternally grateful for the help of some close friends who help me schelep the babies to the doctor and/ or care for them while I work. Terri volunteered to help with the last two rounds of Synagasis and proved herself an excellent baby soother and distracter.

I am eternally grateful for the help of some close friends who help me schlep the babies to the doctor and/ or care for them while I work. Terri volunteered to help with the last two rounds of Synagasis and proved herself an excellent baby soother and distracter.

4. Yesterday my in-laws kept the crew while we worked. I think they had quite a lot of fun. When I came home, I noticed Rylin’s hair was sticking up all over. I asked her if it was from the wind when they took a walk, but discovered that Grandaddy took up baby hair styling. Apparently a drop of water doubles as baby styling product. Hilarious!

What little things filled your week?

Hugs!

Amber

PS- Stay tuned to find out about our Plagiosaurus. Did we get a pet dinosaur???

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #5

February 28, 2013Amber 9 Comments

You guessed it, it is time for The Little Things Thursdays again! I just love doing these posts because it captures the snippets of our daily lives perfectly. Here’s what we’ve been up to this week:

1. Rylin is not quite ready to roll over, but she began tolerating tummy time really well! She will stay on her tummy for at least 10-15 minutes without protest and pushes up on her arms. She is also sitting up with minimal support rather well.

This is an odd camera angle, but I had Rylin supported by my leg, and took the picture myself. The pink pacifier looking thing is AMAZING. It is a RAZ- Berry teether. Everyone except Harper has been gnawing on it all week. Harper doesn’t like it because he still thinks it is a pacifier.

Rylin is rocking tummy time!

2. Harper doesn’t care about rolling over either, but he thinks he may want to scoot away! When on his tummy, he also pushes up on his arms, but kicks his feet and pushes back a bit. In other news, Harper started cutting a tooth and boy did he have something to say about it! He’s been extremely vocal about his displeasure with this new tooth. Orajel is amazing stuff!

Notice the green ball to the left of this picture, that is where Harper started!

3. Nisey brought a Jumparoo over and it is Sydney’s new favorite past time. That girl LOVES to jump. She seriously jumps with enough force to get a bit of “air”. While jumping she giggles and grins the entire time. The other babies have given the Jumparoo a spin, but could take or leave it. Sydney being the quirky girl she is found a way to get around a bit too. Instead of scooting on her tummy, she inchworms backwards when laying on her back! I attempted to record this, but of course she was too camera shy to demonstrate.

It was incredibly hard to capture Sydney smiling in the Jumparoo because she moves so fast in it the camera blurs most of the images!

4. Mason is a man on the move too. He’s been kicking and pushing while on his tummy enough to get a bit of locomotion. He can turn around from one place to another and often tries to nap toys from siblings.

Hmmm, looks like someone is headed under the coffee table.

5. With spoon feeds we’ve accumulated new gear and have zero storage space left in our kitchen. George snagged an old microwave cart from his dad and re-purposed it. He sanded it down and re stained it from blonde to a deep espresso. We then bought several yards of fabric and made panels to go around the bottom and conceal the clutter. We store it in the dining room, but can roll it into the kitchen as an island.

Look at all the clutter we can hide now! The cart was a different color before, but I forgot to snap a picture. The basket on the top contains snacks for our helpers.

6. My hands have begun taking an elderly appearance in recent days. I wash A LOT of bottles, wash my hands a bazillion times a day, and slather hand sanitizer all over them too. At one point, my knuckles started cracking and bleeding. I began using thick moisturizers and wearing gloves to bed. Crazy, I know, but I was desperate. Then, Mom had some great advice. When I wash bottles, I now put a little Aquaphor on the dry spots before gearing up with my handy dandy kitchen gloves. It has worked wonders! Just as I figured this little trick out, I have four fewer bottles to wash per day. With all the spoon fed calories the babies take, they started refusing a bottle. We’ve officially gone from our original eight feeds (total of 32 bottles) to just four bottle feeds (total of 16 bottles)! This means we can probably toss bottles in the dishwasher from time to time too.

This stuff works wonders! Just don’t put it on the palms of your hands, ONLY the dry spots.

7. Our blog reached over 100,000 hits this week! Thank you for keeping up with our shenanigans in quadville. We just love getting feedback from our readers so don’t be too shy to share. We hope to bring smiles to your face, laughter to your day, and maybe even inspire you from time to time.

HUGS!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #4

February 21, 2013Amber 10 Comments

Wowzers! Is it really Thursday already??? Seriously, with four babies at home time literally FLIES!

1. Our Occupational Therapist, Laurie came this week for one of our bi monthly sessions. She was impressed with how well everyone is spoon-feeding and how the quad table works. One concern I had was that Rylin still does not tolerate tummy time well. Laurie taught me a new way to do modified tummy time with a chair cushion. It gets Rylin up on her knees and working her core and neck muscles in a new way.

2. Lily has been trying very hard this week to convince us that we actually have quints and she is the fifth baby. Wherever the babies are, Lily is close by. We have been working on teaching the babies to pet her gently. They just love touching her and do pretty well with close supervision. Lily also has been doing very well with them and tolerates all of their squeals and erratic movements. We try to praise her often and pet her so she doesn’t feel neglected.

This picture just makes me happy. Rylin’s smile is absolutely contagious.

3. The quads turned seven months old yesterday. At seven months, most of the six month clothes are getting snug and we moved up to size three diapers (except on Sydney of course). Everyone is officially teething and Mason even has two teeth erupting. Mason is still the only roller, but we are working on it with the other three. During every wake time, I entice them with novel toys and nudge them a bit, but no takers on the rolling. We are also starting to work on sitting with less support. Rylin and Harper occasionally balance on their own, we just provide a safety net in case they tip backwards. They are soaring with spoon feeds and beginning to cry for me to feed them faster!

Here's the obligatory monthly crib photo. I was so excite4d they finally fit into their Quad Squad onsies given to us by a fellow quad mama.

Here’s the obligatory monthly crib photo. I was so excited they finally fit into their Quad Squad onsies given to us by a fellow quad mama.

What little things happened at your house?

Hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment #2

February 7, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 20 Comments

This has been a BUSY week in Quadland so it’s our first post since last Thursday! I’ve been working on another post, but I’m yet to finish that one. We’re linking up with Rebecca at A Beautiful Ruckus for The Little Things Thursdays again. If you have spare time, don’t forget to check out what little things were happening around the blogosphere this week.

Reflecting on our week, I realized I’ve been doing a good bit of online shopping and quite a few boxes arrived at our house this week. Prior to having the babies I loved to bargain shop and would jaunt here and there seeking the best deals. That is a bit tricky since it usually requires two babysitters for me to leave the house. Hence, online shopping gets the job done. I still bargain hunt just in a new fangled way. I often check pricegrabber.com to see who has the best prices. Waiting for all of our boxes of new stuff to arrive is plain fun! Here’s what was new at our house this week:

1. One staple of our babies’ wardrobes is Baby Legs. They are FANTASTIC! Every time we make a trip to the doctor, the babies don Onsies with coordinating Baby Legs. When they need shots, we just pull the Baby Legs down a bit without having to finagle miniature pants and socks. After the shots are done, we load them up and leave. I’ve also figured out that Baby Legs work as lightweight jackets when we stroll around the neighborhood in our Runabout!

Harper and Sydney are modeling their Baby Legs here.

2. Now that the babies are eating real food, we have to prepare said food. We’ve been experimenting with existing kitchen equipment including a Baby Bullet gifted to us, our old Magic Bullet, rice cooker, blender, and food processor. These gadgets got the job accomplished, but very inefficiently. For example, the Baby Bullet took 13 minutes to steam a single pear where we had a five pound bag to puree! After some research we added two new appliances to our arsenal: The Ninja 1100 and 20 cup Aroma rice cooker/ steamer. Both appliances are multi-purpose and we hope will grow with our family. We gave them a test run last night and were able to process the pears in about 25 minutes, including cook time.

3. Sunday afternoon, I left George in charge of the babies and headed to Costco. I picked up organic produce for baby food as well as a few other essentials. Today the babies gave butternut squash a try and LOVED it! I think we have a new family favorite along with bananas. Rylin took thirds of this yummy concoction!

Sydney & Rylin

4. When the babies were in the NICU, the occupational therapist there introduced us to Wubbanub pacifiers. Since then, each baby has used the same Wubbanub. Recently, they have become sort of “security blankets” as the babies enjoy holding them and rubbing them on their faces or gnawing on the limbs. One day I washed them and left them out to air dry. This did not bode well with Mason who refused his nap until given a damp Wubbanub. Thus, I ordered a second set for backups!

Top: Sydney & Rylin
Bottom: Mason & Harper

5. As the babies began expressing interest in holding their bottles, I thought it might be time to try trainer cups. I ordered a variety of different ones to experiment with and also pulled out some the babies received for Christmas. I’ve been putting about an ounce of water in them and letting the babies try to pick them up.

Mason was the only one who seemed interested in the sippy cups today.

6. The weather here has been absolutely lovely. Despite being February we had highs in the 70’s this week. We’ve logged more time in the Runabout with this weather. We use the sun shade, but the babies heads and faces are usually exposed to the harsh sunlight. They have plenty of winter hats, but no sun hats. So, I ordered some from The Children’s Place. George chose a fedora for Harper and military hat for Mason while the girls got floppy sun hats. They each modeled their hats today. Sydney was a bit perplexed at the size of hers. Apparently she will be able to wear it all summer long!

Clockwise from top:
Harper, Sydney, Rylin, & Mason

What little things happened in your week? Is there anything new at your house?

Hugs!

Amber

The Little Things Thursdays: Installment 1

January 31, 2013February 10, 2013Amber 10 Comments

Fellow quad mama, Rebecca, invited me to join her “The Little Things Thursdays” over at her blog, A Beautiful Ruckus:

http://www.abeautifulruckus.com/

During the week with quads, Rebecca realized there were numerous little moments that made the week special. However, these moments weren’t always worthy of a full blog post. Nor, is there enough time in a day to blog about every little moment that transpires in a day. Hey, it’s challenging enough to post a full post on a weekly basis! Thus, the idea of The Little Things Thursday emerged. Every Thursday she posts snippets of the week’s happenings as a quick way to share with others and document for her family. She also links up with other bloggers who do the same thing, document little things. I’m so excited she invited us to join! We’ve got plenty of these moments and no time to blog them all fully! Here is our first installments of little things from this week:

1. Mason has become a Holy Roller! He’s mastered the skill of rolling tummy to back and back to tummy. If you put him down, he rolls. He rolls on the floor, he rolls in his crib. He rolls into things, including siblings. So far, he’s the only roller in the bunch, but Sydney and Harper have been spotted rolling onto their sides.

Now that Mason is rolling over, we’re having sibling tangle ups! Rylin took the opportunity to kick her brother.

2. All of the sudden, the quads have an interest in holding (sort of) their own bottles! YAY! They don’t quite have the dexterity to hold a full bottle of formula. However, they can hold bottles when the majority is drained. We give Rylin about an ounce of prune juice in a NICU “kitten bottle” and discovered she can hold it herself. Big girl!

Rylin learned to hold her own juice bottle in the morning.

Rylin demonstrating her mad juice drinking skills.

3. We started spoon feeds at the quad table George built. We introduced a few fruit purees over the week with rice or oatmeal. Spoon feeds were a bit daunting at first, but the quad table makes it so easy!

The taste of avocado brought Harper to tears!

4. The babies usually wear Baby Legs or leggings. However, we have all of these precious jeans we never seem to wear. I broke them out for Aunt Cici’s visit on Sunday.

Everyone wore Baby Gap jeans for the first time.

5. Mason has always been a social bug who loves to chat up everyone from visitors to siblings. Today, he rolled over and discovered it’s just as fun to chatter with himself!

Mason discovered he’s a dapper little fella!

6. Now that I am home with the babies most days, I spend A LOT of time in the den and so do the babies. I realized that we’ve been living in a sea of brown. We have a brown sofa, brown chairs, a brown coffee table, and of course brown hardwood floors. For evenings after work it’s one thing, but ALL day in the brown was just too much. This week I took charge of the brown. I grabbed some paint and did a few DIY color splashes to brighten things up a bit. I bought sea shells at Hobby Lobby and painted them chrome to fill a hurricane jar. Then I took a beat up looking end table that was of course, brown and distressed it with a cheery aqua. I also found a nice cream lamp from Home Goods for that table. And, finally I spray painted a the brown picture frame above our mantle white. I just love using paint for quick changes!