Friday, November 1, 2013

In the Halloween Spirit


Pumpkin picking


Caramel apple making 

Jack-o-lantern crafting




Birthday celebrating

Trick-or-treat prepartying

Picture posing with James and Jack: 


(That's Tuukka Rask and Milan Lucic for the Bruins uninitiated)

Baby bonding (Grace as Wonder Woman, Bridget as a gorilla, Nicholas as Flynn Rider)

Happy Halloween 2013!

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

36 Weeks with the Twins


Here I am in all my glory!

Per the twin books' orders, I've spent this pregnancy more or less counting milestones. Making it to 24 weeks was huge in terms of viability, but of course as soon as I got there I looked ahead to 28. Then 32. Thirty-four was another huge milestone since research shows twins almost always avoid long-term complications when they're born past 34 weeks. And now we are past the 36-week date, which is the latest my books even discuss! (It's rare to have NICU time at this point unless there's an unforeseen complication.) 

Dave and I have had one personal target date, which is to make it past Halloween. Since he already shares his birthday with every trick-or-treater in America, adding two babies to the mix would be a bit overwhelming. (Dave wouldn't mind, since he's not exactly a limelight kind of guy, but would his birthday ever get attention again? Not likely.) And here we are, hopefully not jinxing it with this blog post, almost to November 1st.

I'm feeling fine, although I keep saying that after the babies arrive I'll look back and let myself truly realize what a physical burden this has been--right now I only feel lucky for having had no complications (knock wood) and being up and active this whole time (keep knocking!), if sometimes exhausted and definitely larger/slower than usual.

Mentally, I'm ready for these two hooligans. I think the older three are ready too:



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Bridget at 18 Months

It's time for an update on the feistiest girl in the family! 
(And for those of you who know our family, that's saying a lot.)

Bridget's doing a lot more reading these days. Her favorite books are When I Go to the Supermarket; Itsy Bitsy Spider; Freight Train; and any book I can condense to a few words per page, since her attention span is brief to say the least.

Her favorite activity is going outside, or "at-siiiiigh!" as she demands on an hourly basis. Here she is swinging with older friend Casey (Ryan's little sister) and same-age bud Grace:




She loves baths, and we love how she looks after a bath:





At about the 18-month mark, her strawberry-ish blonde hair got long enough to secure with clips and hairbands:


She's just as mischievous as she looks with those pigtails; the only saving grace discipline-wise is that (for now, knock wood) she responds to time-outs--she even tries to cut them short by calling out "Saw-ee! Saw-ee!" before the timer lets her get up.



She knows what she wants, even if she doesn't want it for very long: she's constantly asking to "sit" or announcing, "I want cack-uh" (cracker) or "Smoo-mie peeez!" (smoothie please), and the other day she shook her head when I tried to give her a kiss and insisted, "I KISS!" before planting one on my cheek.




She still loves babies and thinks everyone has them in their bellies. 
Here she is with the baby brother of one of Will's friends:


Bridget's by far my wariest kid when it comes to doctor's visits, but she made it through her checkup just fine. Her stats were (mumblemumble third child syndrome) squarely in the 75th percentile for height and weight.


And most importantly, she is still positively in love with her brothers. She calls them The Boys ("da boy-ees," as in "Where da boy-ees?") and can only be talked into sitting still for a movie if she's set up with a) Will and Finn and b) some movie popcorn. (Even then, it only lasts a few minutes.)

The interactions between Bridge and her boy-ees are undoubtedly part of the reason she's had a verbal jump in the last month as well. Here she is in the grocery store parking lot asking for me to unbuckle (bunbuckle) her:


She asks for "choo-choo" (Thomas) and Elmo on TV/iPad/iPhone, immediately asking for the other when the first starts to play, and only ever makes the requests because she wants to hear the opening song:


Another consequence of having two big brothers and a genetic predisposition to growing up fast is this:



What can I say? The girl loves her potty. (She also loves to yell "Pee!" and then leans down to touch it before we can stop her.) (She is NOT potty-training; just trying out big-kid behaviors per usual.)

She's a handful and a menace and a total joy--her older siblings and soon-to-arrive younger ones are so, so lucky to have her around, and so are we. 

Monday, September 30, 2013

Will is 5!

Will's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which was great for so many reasons. First of all, it meant he got to experience that awesome feeling when your party is on your ACTUAL birthday! It also meant that instead of a weekday of celebrating with family and then a weekend party with friends and having everything spread out and sometimes seeming like this birthday will never ever end, we got to do one big, splashy, jam-packed day of fun.

First, the annual balloon-and-singing wake-up call:



Posing in his new Bruins jersey:



The party gets started:

With cousins Bella and Joe
Preschool friend

Another preschool friend

James before telling me "No pictures!"

Connor and Will!

Connor, Will and Abby flashing their fives

Joined by Jake and Kaben


Will's preschool friend and her twin sisters, who are in Finn's class this year

Daredevil Bridget imitating her brothers' moves


Will with Ella

Boys in blue

We ordered Bruins cookies so the entire morning could be no-forks-required--this was a serious clean-up coup!

Plotting his wish between Maisie and Sammy






Jack, Connor, Will and Finn: the fantastic four

Kaben taking care of Bridgie

Will with his surrogate big brother

The four Pflegers!

Natalie and "Baby Bridgie" in a quasi-hug

With oldest bud Ryan (they met at four and six weeks old, respectively)

The three stooges amigos!

We had a quick celebration with Nan and Mamp in the afternoon




The day ended with some family self-pictures, a lot of hugging, and even more "I can't believe you're five!" commentary from me and Dave. Although when you have a preschooler who's already saving his dimes for his first car--specifically "a Chevy when I'm seventeen after I'm a student driver and get my learner's permit" (he even has a dealership picked out for that blissful day twelve years in the future)--then "five" doesn't seem so terribly old after all.