CCD & other new things

JP has always been a thinker. He will ask lots of questions and you can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he processes the answers. One of his favorite subjects is God. We get so many questions on this subject that I was thrilled that this week he started Cathecism classes (Catholic Church School) on Wednesday nights. Now I have a new answer when the questions start coming:
"You get to start CCD classes this week"
"What will I learn about?"
"God and his son Jesus."
"God wasn't Jesus' father."
"Well, Joseph was his father on earth and Mary was his mother. God is his father in heaven."
"Who is God's wife?"
"I don't think God had a wife."
"Why didn't God have a wife?"
"That Is A Great Question to Ask Your Teacher!"

Of course he loved his first class. He learned the sign of the cross and his teacher told me that he informed everyone that Jesus had 2 fathers :). I get to stay and have adult classes while Joe has his and I'm looking forward to them. Much to my Mother's dismay, we are not the best churchgoers, but faith and religion are still important to both Joe and I and we want to our children to learn the basis of our faith and hopefully make it a part of thier lives.

The babies had a big week also. They started sleeping 11-12 hours in a row! Well at least the girls have. Ryan did one night (the 1st 8 hours in a row I slept since I was about 4 months pregnant!) but he usually still gets up earlier. I try and pacify him for awhile, but he still gets a bottle between 4 & 5 am. I now break them up and the girls usually get theirs between 6-7 am.

It is also funny to see the jealousy starting between kids. Last week when Aunt Kathryn was here, she was holding Madison. Caitlin was being held by Joe, but that wasn't good enough for her. She kept looking at Madison in Aunt Kat's arms and started crying. Sure enough, when we switched them, she was happy as a clam! They haven't started fighting over toys yet, but I am starting to see them grab for the same toy at once. I'm not looking forward to the day when all 3 think they have to have the same one!

We also started the kids in the exersaucer this week and they love it! Sometimes they won't stay in it that long, but just this morning Caitlin was having so much fun that after she passed out sitting upright in it!



















Ryan with Aunt Kat

























Maddi the frog.

























Maddi in the saucer

























Caitlin playing



















Ryan boy

























It's always a balancing act when you've got 3.



















The girls during tummy time.

























Wow- look at that bubble!

JP got some wildflower seeds from his teacher and had to plant them right away.

Everyone watched as their big brother gardened!!

Welcome Baby George!

Today my brother and Anne welcomed their 1st child into the world! George Stephen was born at 5:16am. A whopping 8lbs 6oz and 21.5 inches! Sean was the last in the line for our family name, so we are so excited for the little guy to carry on the name. George was our Grandfather's name, so it's even more special. Anne did such a great job, no drugs at all! JP & I went to meet George today and the whole family looks wonderful and so excited. Congrats guys!!



















Baby George



















JP & I were pretty excited

























Proud Parents

















































What a cutie!

























Of course, we had to get the Curious George balloon & monkey!

They're 4 Months Old!

On Monday, the babies turned 4 months. We know they've been growing quickly and today we got all their new stats at their check up. Joe is in Minneapolis with work, so Aunt Kathryn who is in town visiting from Boston came with. I thought I would be able to manage OK on my own, but now that its over I am sooo glad she was there. The kids were on their best behavior. We were in the office with the doctor for almost 2 hours. He told us he has never seen in over 28 years 3 babies at once behave so well. Good job guys!

All 3 are doing great. Our doctor uses a regular full term chart to measure the kids. He thinks they are all developmentally normal for 4 months. I think they may be a little on the slow side, i.e. not really holding onto objects, but he says there are full term babies that cannot at this point either. It does look like we will have to go get Ryan's head checked out for a helmet. It has a pretty flat angle across the back. Luckily, our Children's Hospital has a clinic that can fit him right in Denver if they determine he needs one. The only other issue is that they have been getting yeast infections under their necks lately from heat and wetness, but its just something we're going to have to stay on top of. It doesn't appear to bother the kids too much, so that's a good thing. We're so lucky to have 2 pediatricians in the family (Joe's sister Gretchen and my sister Erin), so we usually get several opinions whenever we're concerned about anything!

Here's their official stats:

Ryan: 15lbs 10 oz. 70% percentile of both height and weight!!
Caitlin: 11lbs 11oz 10% percentile weight and 4th in height
Madison: 11lbs even 5th percentile weight and 3rd in height

He said if he would take them back 6 weeks based on their prematurity, Ryan would be in the 97th percentile of both height & weight and the girls in about in the 50th. JP was always in the 90-97th, so its not too suprising!

And here are lots of new pics:

Ryan: aka- Tub of Large (JP didn't know Dad really said lard!), Largie, Ryan the ferocious Lion.
He's such a sweet big bear!

Caitlin: Caiti Lady, Caiti Girl
Just about as easygoing as you can get. She would rather smile and talk to you than eat most of the time!

Madison: Madigans, Mad Maddi, Scrappy Mads
This girl is the feisty one. If one's awake- it's Maddi, if one's not happy- it's Maddi (but she's so darn cute!)

JP performing his "magic" on the girls to keep them quiet during fussy time.

























See why we get them confused? Caitlin then Maddi


















Caiti, Ryan, Maddi

























JP and Caitlin

Life is Funny

Below is an email exchange between my girlfriend and myself that I came across from 1 year ago today. It made me smile at a) how quickly time goes and b) you never know what life is going to throw at you next!

-My girlfriend's beautiful baby boy Greyson is crawling and babbling and turning 1 Sept 25.
-My brother Sean and Anne have been married a year on Sept 15th and are expecting their 1st child any day.
-And us, well we all know how that turned out!

Actually for those who didn't know, we did go through IVF and had 2 embryos implanted. We were told there was less than a 20% chance that both would make it. It was 6 ultrasounds and 11 weeks later that we found out we were having triplets, not twins. Even though the girls split probably within the first 72 hours, one of them was doing a great job of hiding. My doctor told us that we had less than a 1/4 of 1% chance of this happening. Oh- and we did buy a lottery ticket the day we found out, but weren't so lucky that time!

****

From: Kelly Crist [mailto:jkcrist@comcast.net]

To: Stephanie

Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:17 AM

Subject: Hey!

I just wanted to make sure the baby hadn't popped out yet! I haven't heard from you!
I'm getting set for the crazy week ahead. My parents get in tomorrow, Erin's family Wed, My grandmother Thurs (Sean's wedding is Sat). It should be fun!
Anyway, take care because I probably will not see you before the little one arrives, so know that I am thinking about you and all goes well!!

Kelly

----- Original Message -----
From: Stephanie
To: Kelly Crist
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:28 AM
Subject: RE: Hey!

Kelly, so sorry I haven't reached out to you in the past weeks. Things got really crazy at work, etc. No baby yet...but hopefully it is getting close. The baby is measuring big so I am getting a little worried. Have a great time this week and weekend. I hope everything goes well. Any new news on your baby front...that is if you are ready to share. I will keep you posted. Talk to you soon.

----- Original Message -----
From: Kelly Crist
To: Stephanie

Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 9:38 AM
Subject: Re: Hey!

No news on our front yet. We are actually gearing up to do IVF. Then we can say we tried everything. Hopefully it will work, if not I am so grateful I have JP. It's OK to ask, I really don't mind talking about it. I'm keeping a good attitude about it- it really is what it is and I just feel better knowing we are doing what we can. Have a great week!

Kelly

****

The pictures that started it all (12/2/07):

3-D of the girls. Weren't they cute even then?!

Fall is On It's Way!

Fall is upon us. 2 sure signs: JP started soccer this week and the boys (minus Ryan) went to a CU Buff football game. The weather has started to change too. We've had a couple of cool days and I've been pulling out 3-6 month pants for the girls to wear because they only own a couple of pairs of 0-3 month size. I think in another month or so they will fit into them pretty well.

Speaking of the girls, they are starting to look more and more alike. Joe had mixed them up one morning for several hours before I corrected him and even I had myself doubting I knew which was which the other day. I think I may have to paint a toenail soon! This is going to be fun!!

Other than that, everything and everybody is good. JP still loves school, Joe heads back to school on Tues (yeah for him, sad for me) and besides 3 little growing munchkins to keep me busy, I've started up my business again. http://stores.ebay.com/Forget-Me-Not-Favors I'm trying not to advertise too much and keep it at a minimum, but I really do love my little business. If anyone needs favor tags for their next event, just let me know :) Luckily the babies still nap 3x's a day and go to bed for the night after their 7pm bottle. If I need to hire a babysitter for a few hours a week at some point, that's always an option, but right now it's all working.


Caitlin telling Ryan how cool she thinks he is.



















Go Buffs!

Can you tell how much JP liked the Styrofoam hand they gave away at the game?

Aunt Carolyn & Willa met the boys at the game.

Caitlin supervising Mommy at work.

















Can you tell which is which?

























JP took this picture. I thought it was pretty cute.