Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Not Moving Anytime Soon...

The plumbing inspector finally came to inspect the new line that was installed and the contractor got to close up the sidewalk.  I came home to find the cement being smoothed on the fourth of four squares of sidewalk in front of the house.

The cement was drying.

The babies were napping.

The choice was clear - wake the babies up!  I don't feel guilty - it was dinner time anyway.  We just took a little side trip outside to the wet cement to mark our territory.

First, it was Caroline.  Uncle Kelly kneeled her down in front of the wet square and she placed her hands wide apart as if she were going to start crawling.  I think I might tell her she was doing a handstand.



Next, Daniel came out.  The cement was a little dry on the left hand side, so that one isn't as sharp, but then again, maybe he's just showing an inclination to be a righty...



Finally, it was Max's turn.  He was NOT a fan of getting down on the sidewalk to stick his hands in the cement, hence the blurry prints.  I think it is a PERFECT representation of his go-go-go personality.


And here they are all lined up together:


Isn't it funny how much teenier Caroline's little hands are in the middle there?

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Back to Work and Clean Babies

That's right, back to work...  School started for teachers on Tuesday, and the students came Thursday.  This year, I'm teaching two periods of Spanish 1 and the rest of my time is dedicated to my new job as president of our teachers' union.  Things have been going well, but I haven't had to stay after school for a meeting yet.  We'll see how that goes...

The other big Salvateenie news this week involves bath time.  Instead of dragging them each into the sink-tub individually this week, we decided to try giving everyone a bath together in the tub!  This meant pulling out the rubber duckies we've had stored (and discovering some really cute terry cloth "bath finger puppets" I didn't remember we'd gotten) and the Sesame Street non-skid mat and faucet cover I picked up last week.  

Everyone got stripped down in the living room and then we carried them into the bathroom.  Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to check the water temperature and it was a little too warm for them, which meant we had to hover around the baby with squirmy, screamy, naked babies while we waited for the cold water to mix in. 

But once they got in and over the initial screamies, everything was fun time!














Sunday, August 21, 2011

My last week of summer

I go back to work on Tuesday.  It's going to be a lot harder this time around than it was when the babies were just 4 months old because they are just SO MUCH FUN to be around.

We started off the last week of summer with a trip to Costco and Babies R Us with Uncle Kelly.  I had to stock up on formula for the final month - after their first birthday we get to transition to cow's milk, which will take up a lot of space in the refrigerator, BUT will also be MUCH less expensive than formula - we're paying about $350/month for it now!   BRU was the spot to buy a gate to keep Mobile Max and Creeping Caroline out of the kitchen.  While we were shopping, the Salvateenies stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa.

Daniel is just about ready to take a nap.

Grandma and Caroline are way ahead of the boys - already snoozing!

On Monday, we went to the zoo with the Evans family.  Quynn is going into fifth grade now and completely adores the babies.  Her brother Ian is going into seventh grade and has been bored by the babies in the past (as you might expect a pre-teen boy to be).  But everybody seemed to have a great time.


Ian with the elephant statue

Ian and Quynn with the elephant statue the LAST time we went to the zoo together (7 years ago!)



Caroline and a caro-lion (and Ian)





Caroline spent most of the day kicking her foot up like this


When we got home, we had to unload the babies and then my brother moved the car for me, since we cannot park on our block during paving.  I was setting up dinner for the babies while they played in the living room and heard Max start wailing all of a sudden.  It seems he had a toy that Caroline wanted.  She grabbed it from him and he grabbed back.  When she let go, it smacked him in the face, resulting in his very first black eye!


We won't tell anyone he got beat up by a girl.

On Tuesday, I went back to Babies R Us to return the gate we'd bought and get another one.  Our kitchen doors are amazingly narrow, and the one we'd bought could block the 28" opening, but it didn't function as an opening gate unless you had a much wider space.  We opted for a metal one that swings and, though Max really hated it the first few times he trailed behind me and couldn't get in, I think everyone's adjusting to it nicely.

Wednesday I got to spend the entire day at home with the babies in my pajamas!  Joe went to the day game at the A's, so it was just the four of us.  The paving was still going on outside, so Max was sure to check that out:


Caroline climbed up to look out the window, too, but was more interested in looking down at her brother.

On Thursday, Sam and Junior came to visit for lunch and we sorted through HUGE boxes of clothes to figure out what still fits.


Friday, I had to go to school for the union's meeting with all the new teachers who have been hired this year.  In an attempt to lure more union reps to the meeting, I promised I would bring the babies along.  They were amazingly well-behaved; only Caroline fussed a bit (but I think that's because she wanted to go up to the podium and try out the microphone).  After the meeting, Sam and her friend Niveeta joined us and we went out to lunch.  With four babies in three strollers, we opted to sit outside.

Taking after her brother, Caroline gets comfortable at the table

But not as comfortable as Max, who took a snooze.
Saturday was our friend Colleen's wedding, and the babies got a treat - their "old" doula from their teenie-tiny days came to babysit and play with them for a few hours, and then family took over the babysitting duties, while Mommy and Daddy went off to the wedding.


We came home to reports that Max had been pulling himself up to standing a bunch near the high chairs, and sure enough, Caroline (who also started crawling up on her knees this morning) decided she wanted to do the same.  Here they are having a little conversation across the chair:




Daniel doesn't like being left behind, so I anticipate he's going to keep working on his crawling and standing so that he can keep up with his brother and sister.  All in time for me to go off to work. :(

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Saturday

The babies and I spent Saturday together.  Before Daddy left for work, Max decided to show off a new trick:



Yep!  Max pulled himself up onto his feet!  Caroline didn't want to be outshone, so she started crawling a little bit up on her knees, but normally, she crawls commando-style on her belly:



She even does it when she's zipped up in her swaddle!  It's kind of hilarious.

It was a busy day around the house - the workers were installing sheetrock downstairs in Uncle Kelly's apartment, and out front the City is paving the street.  The boys, being boys, were instantly interested in all the heavy machinery - they moved up the street first with a jackhammer truck pounding holes in the pavement, then with a digger/picker-upper truck scooping up the pieces of pavement, then a pusher-type truck to spread out the dirt, and finally a roller to flatten it all out (can you tell I was never a little boy - I understand they learn the actual names of all those trucks!).  All of this was followed by cement truck and the laborers spreading the cement around and evening it.  Once the boys got involved watching, Caroline decided she did not want to be left out. 

And so this was the scene in my front window:



I only wish I could've gotten a shot from out front!

Eventually the construction lost its appeal, but Caroline didn't think this was any reason for the entertainment to end!  She started in on what must've been a swell comedy routine, because she had her brothers in stitches:



That's right - my daughter the prop comic!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Almost Eleven Months Old!

This morning the Salvateenies had their baths...pretty soon we'll transition from the tub in the sink to a three-at-once bath in the tub.  I'm not sure if it'll take less time, but somehow it seems like it makes more sense than filling up the little toddler tub three times.  But for today, the new addition to the bath routine was the fancy towels our friend Laura brought yesterday:

Caroline shows off the tiger head on her towel

And there's her real head

And being surprised by her brother



Daniel's being eaten by a shark!



I walked out of the room for just a few minutes, and Max and Caroline found a container of baby puffs to snack on...


Wasn't it nice that she kept most of them on her book?
After her snack, Caroline decided she needed to stretch her legs a bit.




You may have noticed that Caroline and Max were wearing similar PJs.  Those are the free swag we scored at the T-Mobile shoot the boys did last week.  I figured I'd make use of the three matching pairs to take some almost-11-month-old pictures.  Sadly, we did not have a pair for Myrtle.