Growing up

On Monday, Caden will turn 4 and the triplets will be 18 months old. It's one of those times where you stop to really think about that and how fast it all went and everything. It's an exciting time because there are still so many changes and lots of firsts.

Dylan, Evan and Liam no longer have bottles, ever. We had still been giving them one before bed and first thing in the morning but quit on the weekend. So I packed them all up and got a shelf in my cupboard back! YAY. We've also stopped letting them have their soothers during the day. I had watched an episode of supernanny where the little boy was asking for the soother so I thought that it might be to our advantage to get them off of those before they can talk! We haven't had any trouble with either thing. They haven't seen bottles or soothers lying around either though so that helps. If they did they would certainly cry for one.

Sleep is still a bit of a struggle. Last night was great but the nights before that we just had one kid or another keep waking up through the night. We pretty much know why. When we are so overtired we just want sleep and nothing else - we'll go into the kids' room as soon as they start crying and give them a soother instead of letting them cry it out. So, last night we agreed that we'd just let them cry it out and would you believe that no one woke up? nothing until 530 when they started making occasional noises and then at 610 Caden got up. We are happy when we don't have to get out of our bed until 6. Some of you might think that that sounds early, and it is, but when we go to bed at 10 it is 8 hours. That's wonderful to us!

The four boys LOVE love love to play outside and are incredibly content to be out there. When they are in the house they invariably start to fight or whine or just get into things. But outside I hardly have to interfere in what they are doing at all.

So right now we are getting ready for a bit of a birthday party for Caden on the weekend - nothing big. People have all sorts of reasons for doing what they do for their kids' birthday - I just want Caden's face to be lit up and for him to feel special. He'll be happy just to have some of his friends together and for us all to focus on him for the day. I'm looking forward to it.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kiddoes. The first one is Caden with Ceara and Jasmine, a couple of his little friends. The next couple are blurry because Justin is bouncing the boys. I couldn't get one of them holding still but thought they were cute anyway - all 5 of my guys.

The boys love to watch tv, in particular, shows with songs will really grab their attention. The gate is there because without it, I spend the entire day peeling the kids off of the tv and trying to stop them from turning it on and off. I feel like they should be listening to my "no" but with this - it was just more of a fight than it was worth - and therefore - the gate.

We try to eat at the table more often now and I just thought they were so cute all in a row. My issue with this is that we have carpet under this table and that is just gross. So - we are soon going to get something else that I can mop. Once we do that we'll probably start eating in here most of the time.

Caden and Liam
All the kids really love to play with each other. The little boys hug Caden and other time they all like to make each other laugh. It's pretty special.

Breakfast this morning. Cereal with milk. There was a lot of milk on the kids and on the table and a little on the floor but they had fun using their spoons and doing their best to eat like big kids. So many changes. They are getting to be such 'little boys'. Nothing babylike left. That is ok with me in case you are wondering. Some day I might crave that feeling of a little newborn (and then I'll hold someone else's) but I don't miss it one bit right now. Not one bit!