Mr. Smarty Pants

Brady is a little brainiac! He loves to learn, studies everything he sees to pick out colors, shapes, and letters. When he looks at books he will pick out B's and say "B for Brady!" then he proceeds to find the M's, C's and A's and tells me who the letter belongs to. He surprised me by bringing an E to me and telling me it was "E for Elmo". I am so proud of him!

Brady searching for the "b's"


Yay! He found one!

Being silly with Daddy!

The quaddlers love to act silly and play around with Daddy. They are just full of it when he gets home from work each night!

Daddy and Matty!


Daddy and Brady!


Daddy and Cam!


Daddy and Aubrey-O!

Snuggle time with Mommy

Every morning whoever is up first gets some undivided attention and snuggle time with Mommy. They all love to snuggle! I take many opportunities to snuggle with them because I know they won't want to for long. The only problem is sometimes my lap isn't quite big enough for all those who are in the snuggling mood!

Me and my little Matty Boo!


Me and the Brady Monster!


Me and the Cam Man!


Me and my Princess...and of course Baby Abby and Baby Katie!


Nothing better than having my arms full!

Camp

The quaddlers love to play "camp". They shut off all the lights, take out the flash lights and go into the play house in the big playroom and cook, pretend to sleep and just be silly. They always want Ben and I to come in so they can feed us.

They are taking care of Daddy who is sick and laying in bed!


Making something to eat!


Uh Oh, Cameron is sick now too!


Matthew showing off his "bashlights"!


Brady trying to figure out what to do when one of your flashlights die?


Aubrey doesn't look impressed...maybe she just discovered that her camp only comes with an outhouse!

National Prematurity Awareness Day

Today National Prematurity Awareness Day and it's also the quaddlers 26 month birthday! It is hard to believe that my 32 week preemies are now big 2 year olds. 1 out of 8 babies are born premature, meaning 13 million babies world wide are born too soon. We are so fortunate to have a happy ending, many do not.

Then...
Matthew


Brady


Aubrey


Cameron


Matthew and Brady


Cameron and Aubrey


...and now
Matthew


Brady


Aubrey


Cameron


They still pair off in NICU style! Aubrey and Cameron


Matthew and Brady


We obviously have quintuplets now instead of quadruplets because Baby Abby has to be in every picture!

Terrible Twos...

The fighting, pinching, hitting, pushing, etc have been hitting new highs this past week. They are a handful! I was once told by a fellow quad momma that 2's are nothing...it's 3 that has you on your knees praying you make it to 4. Ben asked when they were going to be out of this phase and I had to break this news to him.

Even though they are enough to make a sane person insane by the end of the day this age is also so much fun. They love to play and use their imaginations, color, play doh, and their new favorite is painting. We are able to let them walk when we go places now as long is it is just a short trip in a store they walk and help carry the groceries. Matthew is a big fan of the grocery store! When Ben and I were talking last week about how they were going to a sleepover at Auntie's while we went Christmas shopping, Matthew started pouting and whining "Don't go grocery shopping without meeeeeeeee!" I had to promise him that we wouldn't and when I went to pick him up in the morning he made sure that we didn't.

Christmas shopping for two year olds is a tough job. We went to store after store and ended up empty handed in most. We were able to find them 4 big in size, not in price, gifts from Santa for them all to share and then finding things from us was hard too. They basically have guns or cars for boys...they have a ton of cars and I don't think they need to be practicing shooting each other just yet so we searched and found them some different trucks and a case of play dress up shoes for Aubrey. They each are getting boots for winter and I am planning on hitting up some black friday sales online to find them each a movie for long car rides. We don't do all out here, there isn't room and they don't need anything!

Cameron had his tubes done last week and there is already a difference in his speech. He is saying things more clearly, saying words he never said, and others are understanding him more. His speech therapist said that he has all his letter sounds just doesn't always use them so that is good news!

We are enjoying these warm for the time of year in this area days by getting outside as much as possible. Ben brought home a couple of "cycles" (a police motorcycle and a trike) the other day and they are the cause of many fights during outside time. We let them feed the bunnies carrots one day and now they want to feed them every day. Thank goodness Shaw's runs baby carrots for $1 almost weekly!

Potty training is still going well. They have accidents every now and then but they are doing great! Aubrey is finally willingly wearing underwear instead of insisting on going commando and they all will go in and go without even telling me sometimes. I do feel like I am working in a hospital though with all the pee I am dumping and potties I am cleaning.

The upside and downside of potty trained kids

I love saving $150 a month without needing to purchase diapers. It was an amazing feeling to hit skip delivery on all my Amazon stuff this month. It is great that we are saving the environment more than 700 diapers per month. They love being big kids wearing underwear and going on the potty.

Bringing a potty chair everywhere and using it on the side of the road is not always great, especially as it is getting colder. Hearing them yell "I have to go potty/pee/poop" 10 minutes after you finally get them all laid down for the night just to have them NOT go when you bring them is enough to make you go crazy but you don't want to not take them and have them have an accident. I now can critique the cleanliness of all public restrooms in a 30 mile radius as we visit each one repeatedly on each visit to that store/resturant/convenience store.

They are all day trained, Matthew is even night trained! Aubrey was the super star in the beginning but she is the one that has accidents occassionally now. All in all it has been a great experience but it is also sad that they have grown so much that there is one more thing that screams they are no longer babies!