Our new tricks!

The babies have been on the move and taking over the house. The latest thing they love to do is clear off the DVDs and shove them under the entertainment center. Brady found the stairs and is attempting to get onto the landing...time to put up the gate! Matthew and Brady can get themselves up and down the little step to get into the toy room so they can check out the action in there. Cameron tries like hell to catch up with the older two and gets very frustrated while Aubrey is content playing alone...she must want to get away from the boys. LOL! Aubrey is the first to learn how to clap and she thinks she is pretty special. Here are a couple videos to show what I have caught in action so far this week.

Last but not least...

the little Diva cut her first teeth! She was super whiney all night on Friday night and Saturday morning the cause was discovered when she had 2 little teeth on the bottom. She is trying to catch up with the boys! To date the stats are Matthew-4, Brady-2, Aubrey-2 and Cameron-4.

Matthew and Brady are army crawling all over the place with Cameron learning quick. They will get up on all fours and crawl but realize they get where they want to go faster army style.

My dad took me to see Bon Jovi and Kid Rock last night and it was a great show but I have come to realize that I can't function as well on 4 hours sleep as I could 5 years ago. Is this a sig I am getting old??? Thankfully Ben's mom came and helped him with the kids when they got up at 5:30 this morning considering I had only gone to bed 1.5 hours before!

Today my old boss Carol came up from RI to meet the babies. Her and her husband, Al, had treated me like family since I began working for them in 1996. Unfortunately he passed away shortly after the quads birth and never got to meet him. It was great to see her and very nice of her son to drive her up for an afternoon visit.

This week is looking quiet for us so maybe I can get some pictures and another post up sometime this week.

Picture Time!

10 months old!


"Get me away from those BOYS!"


Chilling out in their new bean bag chairs


Loving the pool!


Aubrey in a great mood


Brady in his favorite hiding spot


Matthew up to no good


Cameron laughing at Brady...


who was cracking himself up!


Aubrey playing catch with Mommy!


"What? I didn't take Matty's blanket?!?!"


"HaHa! I got it back!"

Milestones!

The babies have been turning into big kids before our very eyes this week! What happened to the little midgets who had heads that fit in the palm of my hand? It makes me sad to realize those days are gone forever and I will never get to experience infancy again. :(

Matthew has decided that he can get everywhere by CRAWLING!!! He does get on all fours and crawl a foot or so then he decides that it is quicker to army crawl. He loves that he can find Daddy whenever he wants to! He is up to 3 teeth now, 1 on top and 2 on the bottom.

Brady thinks he is the coolest because he stands up and the others can't. He just looks at them and says "haha" then usually falls over because he is too busy teasing to pay attention. He has two teeth on the bottom now.

Aubrey still is toothless and is trying to crawl with little success. She loves when we sing the Elmo song to her and she repeats the "la la la la" when we sing it. It is so cute!

Cameron is the leader of the tooth race with 4 and one on the way, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. He watches Brady pull himself up and tries to follow suit by grabbing the couch cushion and looking at it like "why aren't you standing me up?"

The are trying more and more table food and doing well with it. I think the transition to having regular meals with us should be easy in another month or so. They are all bug fans of straws so I ordered some new spill proof straw cups to give them at meal time hopefully eliminating all but the bedtime bottle within the next few weeks.

We spent the past 2 days at Moose Hillock Campground with Uncle Tom and Auntie Kate. They slept great and were so well behaved. Swimming was fun! They loved the water in their floats but enjoyed it way more when they were being held. Everyone there kept asking if they were quads and the other usual questions. I was able to swim since my wrist is making a great recovery so I had the stitches out and got a removable splint. I still can't lift the babies or do anything with my hand until I start therapy in a couple weeks.

Ben had his 3 month check and everything still looks good so he has one more 3 month check then he goes onto 6 months checks. He has been cleared to work part time with no more than 2 consecutive hours sitting or standing.

Mr Mom

Ben is finding it very challenging being Mr. Mom! I always would tell him he didn't understand how hard taking care of the four of them is and I don't think he fully believed it until this week. I am able to still put away their clothes, get out clothes for bed and the next day, get their food together, make bottles so he doesn't have as much to do as I normally do in a day but we is definitely realizing that being a full time parent is as much if not more work than working outside the house full time.

We are grateful to have Jackie here to do baths Monday, Wednesday and Friday because that takes a lot off of Ben. Not that it is difficult to give them baths but it takes a good hour to get the four of them bathed and dressed. It is so frusturating for me to not be able to do everything for the babies and I think they are upset that I am unable to meet all of thier needs. It stinks!

The past couple of days the babies have been crabby and not sleeping well. A couple of them spiked fevers that lasted only hours and now Matthew and Cameron have developed a rash so Ben is taking them to the doctors today to find out what is going on with them. Sleeping through all of this has not been an easy task! Monday night Cameron would not stop crying unless Ben was holding him in his arms so I spent the night trying to get all the other 3 back to sleep. Tuesday night, thankfully, Diana spent the night so I could try to sleep and Ben needed to get rest for his CAT scan yesterday, Last night was ROUGH! Matthew and Cameron did not sleep hardly at all and Brady decided to join the group up early this morning.

Brady made a big milestone last night when he went from laying down to sitting up then pulled himself to standing, dropped his paci, went down for it and stood back up! What a big boy!!!

Happy to be home!

I was so happy to get home and see my babies today! It is going to be a hard month or so for all of us I think. Ben is going to have to take over the role of primary caregiver and the babies are going to have to learn I cannot meet all their needs. The toughest part for me will be letting others help out. I am always wanting to do it all and hate to ask for help.

So it all began Thursday night when I had been up countless times with Aubrey. The final trip into the babies room had me contemplating bringing Aubrey into our room to sleep in the mini crib so I wouldn't have to make another trip in. Thank God I didn't! I thought I was heading in my bedroom and was reaching for the door as I took another step and realized that I was falling down the stairs. I bounced off a couple steps before smashing off the wall at the bottom and hearing a snap. I knew then my wrist was broken. Ben heard the fall, me scream and Cameron start crying he thought I had a baby in my arms when I fell. I am so grateful that wasn't the case!

Ben grabbed me a couple ice packs, went upstairs to calm the crying babies, get me clothes, help me dress and got ahold of Tom and Kate to come watch the babies so he could bring me to the ER. As soon as we got there the ER doctor took one look and told the nurse to make me comfortable because it was broke and the needed X-rays. After some painful x-rays they tried to find me a Orthopedist that was willing to take the case and finally found Concord Hospital, two hours away. My parents and Ben kept me company during the day and after much confusion I finally got operated on and got back into my room around 10pm. The surgeon informed me that was one of the worst breaks he had worked on. It broke off at the joint with lots of fragments and it was resting below the rest of the bone.

So now I am hanging out with no use of my left arm for 6 weeks which means no lifting the babies. :( We are very grateful to Tom and Kate for always being here whenever we need them, coming at 2am and keeping the babies for 2 nights. A huge thank you to Jackie for doing all she does for us on a daily basis and always stepping up to help in a crisis. She always knows just where to find everything and what the babies schedule is so I am able to just leave her in charge if need be. Thanks to Diana, Matt, Crystal, Ryan and Lauryn for helping with feedings and keeping the babies happy and to the Styles for setting up our yard sale.

If the weather is nice we hope to put out the yard sale stuff and make some cash now that I will technically be out of work for the next several weeks.

change of plans

No yard sale tommorrow I took a tumble down a flight of stairs last night and broke my wrist really bad so I am at Concord hospital having surgery to repair it.

Yard Sale!

It is amazing how much stuff the babies have outgrown already! So I decided it was time to do a yard sale. My friend Marlene Styles volunteered to use her home since it was in such a great location as the site of our sale. I got some help this afternoon getting everything tagged and ready for the yard sale and was surprised just how much I really had to get rid of! Anyways anyone looking for baby clothes and other stuff stop down at the Styles residence on Route 3 in Groveton just north the Meeting House beginning at 8 am. Marlene and I along with the kiddos would love to see you!

We took the babies to the town pool this evening and were pleasently surprised to find out that it is free for residents this week! It was 84 degrees and the babies loved it, except for Cameron who was exceptionally crabby after deciding he was not interested in taking his afternoon nap. It seems to be a trend this week that they are all taking turns not napping well. At least bed time has been fantastic this week. No crying out of Matthew and everyone has slept through the night for 2 nights now without any paci retrievals. I probably shouldn't write that because it will jinks me! LOL!

We are looking forward to another fun weekend! First the yard sale then Story Land with Uncle Tom and Auntie Kate on Sunday. Let's hope there is some great weather!

we need to go back on vacation!

Yesterday was a horrible day with the babies! They were just super crabby all day and napping was not something they were interested in doing, other than Brady who took 2 two hour naps. Even with the long naps he was still crabby. We decided we needed to go back on vacation! The were so good while we were away. Usually when they are in large crowds they get mad because everyone is playing pass the babies and touching their heads and faces...which they HATE! Everyone just let them play and sat and played with them without picking them up and it made them so much happier.

As hot as it has been the heat doesn't seem to bother them which is great. The only time they were actually in good moods all day yesterday was when we took them out for a walk. I think I am going to fill their baby pool so they can cool off in it tonight. We will see if Aubrey enjoys it anymore than she did last time.

I called a local hotel that lets you pay by the day to swim with the thought that we would bring them there last night and was informed that it was $6 a person...even for the babies! That is ridiculous! Thirty bucks for us to swim for maybe an hour... we will pass on that! I don't think our town pool is warm enough for the princess to enjoy. My uncle's pool was 78 and she was iffy about it but the hotel pool was really warm and she loved it.

Cameron got himself another tooth on the top this time and Brady popped his first one on Monday too. Matthew and Brady got their cribs lowered last week and now the other two need to have theirs lowered as well. Last night Cameron got up on all fours and put his hand on the top rail to wave at us. It isn't going to be long before we have four crawlers!

One thing we discovered over the weekend is that people in larger areas are much more accepting of multiples. Never once in all our stops did we encounter anyone who was rude. Everyone who spoke to us told us what a blessing they were and how lucky we were. It was so refreshing! Here at home we get the rude comments about it all the time and it is frusturating. I guess some people didn't get the lesson that if you have nothing nice to say don't say anything at all. I am tempted all the time when people give us "advice" to tell them if they think they can do better with the 4 of them then come down and give it a try. Did we plan to have quads? No, but we love them and I wouldn't trade it for anything even on days like yesterday!

4th of July Weekend

The babies had a great time on our mini vacation this weekend. They were the best behaved 9 month olds that you could ask for! They all were smiley and never once while we were out were they crabby. They even slept better in the hotel than they do here at home even. We crammed a lot into a short amount of time but it was nice to see everyone and it makes me wish my family lived a lot closer.

We started our trip off Saturday morning and made a stop in Tilton for feeding and some pajama shopping. I could have gone crazy in Carter's but was well behaved and left with only one set of pj's for the boys and a shirt for Aubrey. Next up we headed to Lee to see the MacLeod family and let the two sets of quads play together. We had so much fun and wish they lived closer it was so nice to visit with people who really understood what our life is like. My babies succeeded in tearing up the place and trying to bully the other set. They obviously think that the 2 months older they are gives them the right to be the boss of the other babies. What fun they will be once all 8 of them can run around and cause some trouble! LOL!

The Hickey Quads and the MacLeod Quads


Next up we continued on to the hotel to check in, set up the pack and plays and feed the troops before heading to my aunt and uncle's house for pizza. Almost the whole gang was there so we were able to visit a little and eat before it was time to retreat to the hotel and put the babies to bed for the night. Matthew was not at all happy to go to bed! My little party animal wanted to stay up, as always! He succeeded in waking Brady twice and Cameron once before falling asleep at 8:30 and he managed to keep himself asleep until 5 am with the exception of one 9:30 paci retrieval. The others slept until 5:30 am the next morning also. I was not looking forward to being up with them because they were in a strange place.

Sunday morning we were all up, showered, dressed, babies fed and ready to roll at 7:15 am so we went across to the Panera Bread to get some breakfast. Mind you the babies all ate a bowl of Oatmeal with Blueberry and Pears and a 4 oz bottle but when our breakfast came out you would have thought we had starved them for DAYS! So I ended up returning to the counter and getting them a blueberry muffin to share. Everyone but Cameron was loving us feeding them small bites from our fingers and it took a while but I finally realized that Cameron would take a bite from the fork but not my hand. He always needs to be a little different! Once he tried it he couldn't get enough either. The four of them managed to polish off the entire muffin. Boy are we in trouble when they start eating real food!

Leaving the hotel all dressed in their best Red White and Blue


Aubrey loving the blueberry muffin


Cameron saying "I will not open my mouth except if you have a spoon in front of it!"


Matthew yelling for another bite


Brady says "MMMmmmmmm"


After breakfast we went back to the hotel and I gave the babies a nap while Ben went to the store and to find Dunkin Donuts. Then we gave them bottles and headed to the Stone Zoo to see the animals with my Dad, brother,nephew and my youngest cousin. They liked to look around and see the animals and Aubrey did not whine once about any of the animals so that was a nice treat for us. She is so like her mother.

The six of us at the zoo


My brother Kyle and nephew Evan checking out the wolves. Evan thought that this one was real!


Daddy and Babies ready check out the zoo


Me and the Babies posing with the flamingos!


Matthew wasn't too sure about this


Happy Cameron watching the people and animals


Aubrey loved the flamingos


Brady was excited about the bears


Getting cooled off in the fan that blew a nice mist of water


After the zoo we headed back to my aunt and uncles for the pool party and BBQ. It was the quads first time in a big pool and we weren't sure how they were going to like it. Brady is definitely the water baby of the group, he loved it from the first dip. Before long the other three got acclimated with it and were floating around as well. The boys all figured out that if they kicked their feet they would move so that was a fun trick for them all. I wish I had had a little more time to visit with everyone but the babies kept me pretty busy the entire day and before long it was time to take pictures and say good bye so we could bring the babies back to the hotel for bed.

Aubrey thinking..."Do I really want to do this?"


..."OK, fine! As long as I have my paci and Daddy"


Cameron figuring out how to splash


Brady playing ball


Matthew chilling out


Ben and Aubrey, Me and Cameron, Courtney and Brady, Melissa and Matthew


The girls
Courtney, Jamie, Caitlyn, Aubrey, Kari, Melissa and Cherise


The guys
Karl, Jeff, Jason with Cameron, Mike with Brady, Kyle and Evan, Matthew M., and Ben with Matthew H.


All the McAllister Cousins except for Brandon and Dan


The babies were ready for bottles and bed early Sunday night. After a day in the pool and heat they were soooooo tired they slept from 7pm-5am with only 2 wake ups for pacis. I think we need a pool! LOL!

Monday morning we got all our stuff together and decided to take a dip in the hotel pool before heading out. They liked that pool even more because it felt as warm as their bath water. Cameron figured out how to blow raspberries and make bubbles in the water so he amused himself with that trick for a bit while everyone else took turns swimming around the water.



Ben and I each grabbed a quick shower and loaded the van up for our journey home. 6 lost pacifiers and 13 shoe stores later Ben settled on a pair of sneakers and we arrived home 8 hours after we left for our 3 hour ride. Understandibly the babies were all crabby by the time we went home and as I am typing this I have gone up to replace pacis, pat backs, etc 12 times so far. I think it is going to be a LONG night!