Bentley--Button Boy

Bentley loves to push buttons. We could (but won't) post dozens of photos of Bentley pushing buttons or twisting knobs on phones, CD players, radios, dishwashers, ovens, hot tub control panels--you get the idea. One day when I let him play with our phone he dialed 911. I quickly hung up, but it was too late. We got a call back asking if there was an emergency. That's the last time for months that I let Bentley play with our phone. In fact it wasn't until tonight that I allowed him access again to our phone. I let him have the phone (as a bribe to sit still) while we were trying to get a photo of him with the twins. He held the phone tight, but used his other hand to forcefully push the encroaching babies away.

No nice group shot. We will try again another day.

And there was bloodwork - for all!!

I told Matt he can't say we never get out to do anything exciting, why just this morning we took all 3 children to the hospital lab to get blood drawn. How many people have that much fun?!

The twins are supposed to be taking a vitamin supplement for extra iron, because they were borderline anemic when we left the hospital. The vitamin drops are foul smelling and vile looking things, which stain clothing if they are spit up. I don't like them and neither do the babies. The Dr. said we could quit with the vitamins if their iron levels look good, so I jumped on the opportunity to check those levels! Bentley was lucky enough to join us because we never did get around to having his iron levels checked at his 1 yr appointment.

It went surprisingly smoothly. Jackson screamed for 1 minute, Genevieve gave 1 half hearted cry, and Bentley was fascinated by seeing blood drip out of his finger. There was only screaming from him when the phlebotomist wanted to put a band-aid on his finger for him. I'm grateful we have such good natured kids!

Sleeping the day away

The twins seem to enjoy napping in our futon chair. This is a good thing, as I liked the concept of the chair but no one in our home was actually using it. I'm getting value out of the purchase now!

Quest for the ideal infant carrier

After having Bentley I developed a fixation with baby carriers. At one point I owned 5 different types, in the hopes that one of them would be *the one*. No luck. I'm not sure if the problem was Bentley, me, or the fact that all of the carriers seemed a little awkward to get on and use. In any case, Bentley and I never got into the habit of using one.

Now there are 2 more little people at my house, and I'm on the hunt again. First, because it makes it easier to get out of the house if 1 baby is in a carseat, 1 is in a carrier, and then there is *just* Bentley to somehow keep track of. Second, because with 2 babies and 1 mom there is less time to rock in the chair while gazing lovingly at eachother. I want the twins to still be carried/held as much as possible, so I'm back to baby carriers.

When we go out we've settled on the Baby Bjorns. They are very easy to put on - it's a baby carrier for dummies. For home use? We're in love with our new baby sling! It's awesome. Light weight, easy to fold up, and easy to wear. Since I'm used to having a huge belly, it doesn't feel strange to walk around and do chores with a baby in a sling.

Apparently they can be used for children up to 35 lbs so I made Bentley try it out - it was a no go with him. Jackson and Genevieve are happy with their lovely pink and green carrier though. :-)

Bentley--Toddler Photographer

Occasionally (being the indulgent grandparents that we are) we allow Bentley to push buttons on opa's fancy camera. Opa insists that Bentley is too young to use the camera solo (it weighs quite a bit and is rather large and awkwardly balanced), so I help hold the camera while Bentley pushes the buttons. Boy does that flash do a number on your eyes. Ouch! Below is a sample of Bentley's work.


Can you tell a difference in style between the photos that his opa (or his mother) takes and those that Bentley takes? I rather like the angle and the cut off bodies. I tend to frame entire bodies or at least entire upper bodies in my photos, but perhaps I'll take a lesson from Bentley and not be so rigid in my viewpoint. His photo is quite dynamic, don't you think?

I'll be out of a job soon!

Bentley is growing more adept at helping every day. If I don't learn some fancy new tricks pretty soon he's going to be the one in charge around here! His favorite chore is burping the babies. He believes that a good firm thumping is most appropriate and surprisingly enough (in my opinion) it actually works half the time! Here he is in action:

And, here are the twins comparing notes on the help received from big brother. Jackson seems quite animated, he must have really liked it!

At last! Peacefully asleep after another successful feeding. Thank you Bentley!

Mediterranean Black Bean Soup

My random new crockpot recipe of the day scores a home run with Bentley! I just never know what he's going to love, or for that matter what he's even going to be willing to put in his mouth and try. The real test will be tomorrow when I find out if he wants to eat it again for leftovers at lunch time.

Why 2 pictures that are quite similiar, you ask? Because he's THAT cute, of course!

If you can't join them...

gnaw on them. That seems to be Jackson's motto, and I feel quite sad that I wasn't able to capture the moment on camera. Because there is 1 of me and 3 of them, often times someone is waiting to eat while someone else is finishing up their meal. That's the way life has to work around here!

Today Genevieve was finishing up her bottle, and Jackson was quite impatient to finish his... apparently his arm wasn't cutting it:

Luckily for him he was in the right position to nibble on his sister's toes. She made some pretty funny faces while trying to shake him off... :-)

Photo Contest--Judges Needed

Kara found this hat at a garage sale. We've tried it on all three babies and want to know which one you think should be awarded permanent custody of the hat. (If you think this is not a boy hat, think again--think Hawaiian. Those testosterone-laden Polynesian males often wear brightly colored floral prints. Break out of your cultural box!)

Cast your vote now.

A Night of Freedom

Freedom to sleep... we love our children dearly, of course, but we jumped on the offer from my parents to take them away for a sleep over! Bentley seemed really crushed to be away from us:

Don't worry. That's not his chair, he's just keeping it warm for Genevieve. :-)

Thank you Grandma and Opa! It was a marvelous thing to sleep all night long again!

Monkey fun

Do you know who is who in the pictures? :-)

Bentley turns to religion

At times, it is a little stressful at our house (that's a peanut butter M&M bag, in case you are one of the unfortunate people who can't immediately identify these delicious candies!). Bentley normally enjoys his siblings, and he's becoming more helpful every day. But sometimes taking care of two babies is overwhelming. When the chocolate isn't enough, Bentley has found that religion can help... he's taken to reading the church magazines to cope. We've caught him doing this on multiple occasions.


Hopefully he'll talk soon so he can share what he's learning, I myself have not had any time lately to read the new issues!

1st 3 against 1 outing

For kicks and grins I took all three kids to the Dr.'s office this morning to get weight checks on the twins. This was the first time I ventured out alone with all of them... Jackson and Bentley shared the stroller, and Genevieve used the Baby Bjorn. I should have practiced with the stroller BEFORE we got to the parking lot and we were already running late. It doesn't look that complicated, but although I was eventually able to open it up I couldn't get it to fold all the way back up to go back in the vehicle. Luckily I drive an SUV and could fit it in there anyway, or we might still be standing in the parking lot!

Anyway, we survived the outing and we're safely home again. Jackson weighed in at 7 lbs 9.5 oz, and Genevieve is at 7 lbs 7 oz. Matt asked me how we're doing on a cost per lb, looks like we're at about $10,000 per lb of baby right now. :-) No, I'm not kidding. The NICU adds up quickly.

The twinks are sleeping, recovering from the fun visit. I tried to convince Bentley to eat pasta with me for lunch, but when he refused I fed him Thin Mint cookies instead - although I probably shouldn't admit that? :-)

Good girl, bad boy?

We were working on the perfect shot for the twinks birth announcement tonight. It's much harder to work with two babies than one! This shot didn't make the cut, but I felt it deserved a place in blog history.

Genevieve is praying, and Jackson... well, if you look closely you can see that Jackson is letting us know what he thinks of all the bright flashes? :-)

Straight jackets are welcome here

The miracle blankets have arrived at my house, many thanks are due to a fellow twin mother who suggested (and provided!) them. :-) They bear a slight resemblance to straight jackets, and when bundled up Jackson and Genevieve look a little bit like mummies... I think they like them though!? The design is ingenious. There are two flaps on the inside, you wrap each arm in one and tuck the extra material under their backs. Then you fold up the leg pouch to trap the little legs, and then you take the two outer flaps and wrap them around and around and around - until they're so snug that they know resistance is futile!


We're only on day 2 with the miracle wraps, but so far I'm impressed. It still took the twinks a little while to drift off to sleep land, and I had to reinsert the baby plugs a few times until they made it there. However, once asleep, they slept peacefully next to each other in their crib for over 3 hrs. Perfect! This is wonderful. I hope they think so too. They slept swaddled in the new blankets from 12-3, and then they had a break to sleep with Mom and Dad from 3-7. They slept in the blankets again from 7-10. We'll see how tonight goes.

I'm taking control

Ok - so maybe it's slightly delusional to think I can take control of my life when I have 3 children under 2. I'll blame it on sleep deprivation, and go right on ahead pretending that I can be in control of my/our lives. I sat down this afternoon and put together "THE SCHEDULE".

I need to find some bright neon paper to give "THE SCHEDULE" the appropriate respect that it deserves, but for now it will have to make do with plain white paper.

It has occured to me that without some semblance of routine and order, I won't survive. The kids might - but I'm sure that I won't. I need a little bit of organization to my day, and the assurance that sleep is coming every night (refer to next post on straight jackets!). The schedule is fairly simple, with slight room for deviation. I've heard it's important to be flexible. :-) It outlines when Bentley and the twinks get up, when they eat, and when they will be sleeping. I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Happy Birthday Goma!

My Mother hasn't quite decided on if she's a Grandma or an Oma, so I've taken the liberty of answering the question and going with Goma until told otherwise. I bet that will make her want to pick one.

Genevieve celebrated Goma's birthday day in style... it's hard for a girl to find enough places to wear all her dresses, so why not - right? Granted, she had to leak through her diaper and get both her onesie AND the birthday girl before we took the hint and pulled out the party dress. Some days are like that when you can't talk yet - it can be hard to communicate your desires!

Jackson, super baby

Jackson has now rolled over not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4... but 5 times! The 1st time was a couple days ago while both Grandmas were home watching the babies and Matt and I went to the movies. We believed them when they shared their story, of course... :-) Today Jackson repeated his baby trick 4 more times for me. He had to do it 4 times because it took until #4 for Mom to clue in and take a video to record the event for those that doubt. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to upload the videos to blogger. I do have it available, however, for your viewing pleasure upon request.

All the creatures were stirring...

at 4 a.m. this morning. Yuck. I checked the calendar and no sign of the full moon, so I'm not sure what posessed all 3 of our children to wake up and STAY UP as of 4 a.m.. Normally we can count on Bentley to be reasonable, but I think seeing the twins in our bed threw him off. It took until about 6:30 to get him back to bed. As for the twins, they downed their bottles and then stayed awake doing dinosaur grunting noises for a couple hours. This has inspired their Mother - I am researching miracle swaddle blankets that promise me 8 hours of sleep in a row, vibrating bassinets with remotes that promise to lull my children into a peaceful sleep, ... hopefully I will have some luck.

My 1st gift from Bentley

I can't promise that I will keep this gift from him forever but since it is the first gift he's brought me I decided to record the occasion. It is, of course, noteworthy!

This gift was collected while out on a walk with Grandma Vicki. He found this treasure, and insisted on bringing it home. If I was going to think too hard on the subject I could speculate he intended the gift for his Dad, but since I was the only one home - I got it!