What to Blog?

I seem to have this problem of going too long inbetween blogs, and then I can't remember everything that we've been doing since the last blog. Hmmm.

Well I'll start with the easy stuff: Charlie and Louis. As I write this they are 3 1/2 months old. I have come to the conclusion that they do not like to sleep during the day for naps. There was a short while, like three days maybe, that they did do a good job taking naps. Sometimes we're so busy doing things that I get them down for a nap, and then all of a sudden they are awake but I didn't pay any attention to how long they napped. Well I started to keep track, and they stink. We're talking 30-45 minute naps. Give me a break. Its not like I don't put any effort into getting them to sleep either. I try swaddling, rocking, swaying, the swing, the papasan chair, and sometimes they just won't sleep. Going on walks works, and that is about it. I've also tried reasoning with them, but I've been reminded that you can't reason with a three-month-old. At least at night they are sleeping longer. Louis made a new record last night and slept from 8 - 4 AM. Charlie slept from 8 - 2 AM. Both are pretty good. In the picture above, Charlie is on the left and Louis is on the right.

Enough with sleeping. Charlie has started to find his voice! He likes to say "Gee", as in "agree", but with out the "r". He musters out some other noises too, if I could only talk baby talk I would understand! In fact, right now he is staring at me and saying things that sound like somebody getting chewed out, probably because I'm not holding him. Louis hasn't found his voice as much, but he is one baby that is already on the go. He tries to get to anything he sees that he wants. It is cute. They both like to sit up and also stand. Pretty soon they will be ready for the exersaucers, and I bet they will really enjoy them.

They both get their heads up pretty high when on their stomachs, but no real signs of rolling over yet. Louis sometimes likes to lay his head on the ground when he's having his tummy time, and use it as leverage to try and turn over. Its quite amusing. They are both very happy babies, following in George's footsteps there. More party-animal like skipping their naps, but we'll manage. Charlie is on the left here and Louis is pictured on the right.

They are looking very, very similar these days. Before Charlie had a lot more hair, but he has been balding. Louis had almost no hair, but now it is growing fast. So now their hair looks about the same! The only way to easily tell them apart is (besides the painted toe nail) that Charlie's face is still rounder and a bit bigger than Louis's. Another way is their ears, but its not easy and I can't remember who's ears are which. One set of ears is open on the very top, and the other set of ears is closed. If you don't know what I mean, I'll have to explain in person. Size-wise they are looking very close too. They're into 3-6 month everything now, and even some of that is getting short. They go back to the doctor on 9/29 next for their 4 month checkup.

Now onto George. He continues with the attitude. He is always such a happy guy, always wanting to have fun that sometimes we have to explain that this is serious time. An example being when we are changing his diaper and he is kicking his legs, it helps him stop kicking his legs. Well, he has taken it one step further to help Mom and Dad remember when it is serious time. We were shopping for shoes one day. I had Charlie and Louis in the double stroller, and I was pulling George in a cart as well. (By the way, I will never do this again. I will shop only at Target, which has a cart big enough to accommodate all three kids). Anyway, George did not want to try on his shoes or stay in the cart. He wanted to get out and look at toys. So, I'm sure you can imagine the things he was saying, or yelling: "Let me out! I wanna look at toys! I don't like these shoes!" This went on for a few minutes, but then it escalated and the yelling was followed by "This is serious Mom!" It is really so hard not to laugh at this when he says these things. In the picture above, Louis is on the left and Charlie is on the right. George is...you can figure that out!

George started his next round of swimming lessons, but he only goes once a week now. Anything we do now that requires me leaving him is hard, because he's going through the separation anxiety. Almost always if someone comes and pries his hands off of me he's just fine. But sometimes people don't do that, which is tough. I recently joined MOPS, which is Mothers of Preschoolers. Its an opportunity for me twice a month to get together with other moms and have some people watch the kids. The first meeting was a few weeks ago, and dropping off George took 30 minutes because I couldn't run out of the room fast enough before George tackled my leg, and nobody was willing to pry him off of me. Talk about frustrating! It will hopefully get better soon. The next meeting is coming up, and I'm going to try bribing him with lollipops. In this picture, Louis is on the right and Charlie is on the left.

George is continuing to be an excellent big brother! He loves to hold hands, give kisses, proclaim how happy Charlie and Louis are. He especially likes it when they are awake so that he can play with them.

Matt has been busy brewing beer so we're going to have plenty to drink. He has a new wheat beer that will be ready and also a nut brown ale, a good fall beer. He survived the first Monday night watching the kids while I was at my photography class. They were all in bed when I got home and he still had a smile on his face. He's also been busy trying to stain our deck. He has almost a full coat on, but then it started raining a bunch and we have to wait for some dry time. That is a lot of what he worked on labor day weekend, in addition to raising the sagging deck about 6" in the middle. It looks much better now!

As promised, here are some pictures from Charlie and Louis's baptisms on 8/24.

I'm also including our first family picture, which was taken sometime in the middle of the summer. I'll figure out exactly when later.

We're hopefully going to be settling into a nice routine for the fall to promote everybody's good mood. Things are definitely more enjoyable when people are in a good mood, including me! As for Doctor vs. Lactation Consultant, Round Two, that might be coming soon. I did meet up with the L.C's, but forgot to mention that they are still tongue-tied and tell them the story. I'm actually surprised that they didn't ask about it too! So when I see them again in a week or so I will bring it up. For sure it will at least be good entertainment.