I survived the Christmas of 2012

Our boys are so sick, the poor guys.

Everett, Finn, Olive and I

It all started Sunday when while at my in-laws, Colin developed a cough and fever. Since then, we've had moments when we thought everyone was getting better, only to have them seemingly get worse.

Right now, I'm sitting outside the boys doors (Colin says it helps him fall asleep when I sit outside for a bit) and all I hear is a chorus of coughing. :-( I feel so bad for them.

This morning we finally took them to the doctor. Our doctor is really great... he's new to us since we only recently moved here, but today's visit confirmed that he is the right doc for us. We arrived like a coughing tornado through the office, barely fitting into the examination room. He was so patient with the boys, and took so much time with us in general, explaining things and going over their individual issues and treatment plans (all have the flu to varying degrees, but one also has a slight ear infection and one has more serious respiratory involvement... it's a preemie thing unfortunately).

Colin was tested for influenza and bingo, that's the winner. Yes, he had his flu shot, but I guess it's not a 100 percent gaurentee of protection. The doctor explained that lots of times when people get sick, they say, "I've got the flu" but it's not really the flu. The true flu, yikes, it's really nasty and hard to kick.

I feel awful because at first we thought that Colin had a mild something or other that would surely pass in a day or two (he rarely gets sick). We continued to see our families.... who are now pretty much all sick. Had we known what was hitting our family, we would have high tailed it out of there at the first sign of sickness and holed up in our house. Lessoned learned.

Ahhhh, the joys of parenthood. This week we've experienced middle of the night vomiting attacks while sleeping with the vomiting little (it's like the worst alarm wake up EVER), diarrhea in the bathtub (O.M.G never thought about that when I thought envisioned parenting), and not a lot of sleep. But we're in this together. I keep trying to focus on the positives which is that this too shall pass, we're all together safe and the cuddles right now are endless. All they want to do is cuddle.

Tonight, as we put the kids down for bed, Chris and I thought it might be appropriate to get t-shirts made when this little parenting adventure passes.

I survived the Christmas of 2012.

There was lots of laying around this week...

Medicine time

Christmas morning #1... the calm before the storm

The "calm" I'm referring to in the title is the lovely Christmas morning we had together, last Saturday, before heading out to visit our families.

The "storm" I'm referring to is the coughing, sneezing, fever, diarrhea, vomiting illness that has ripped through each one of our boys, starting Sunday and still going strong today. Oh. My. God. What a week. Thank God Chris and I are still fine (knocking on wood right now!) because our boys needed us healthy and caring for four sick little guys is a two person job for sure.

But let's start with last Saturday. It was WONDERFUL! We woke up with the boys and watched them excitedly slide down the stairs to see what had unfolded during the night.

Here are some highlights:

I love the look on Colin's face in this picture as he discovers that Santa has eaten almost all of the cookies he baked and left for him.



And then that turned into, "Ohhhh, Santa left some crumbs... may as well finish those off...."

Colin determined that Santa's sleigh must have brushed the trees upon landing on our roof. How else could you explain the branches that must have gotten stuck in his coat and then left on our floor??

Then it was time to open gifts!

These scooters were a favorite this year. We got two for the boys to share and we now realize that two more may have to arrive around birthday time. They are a hit... and hard to share!

I got Colin a guitar as kind of a last minute impulse purchase. I couldn't help myself. He loves music and putting on "concerts" for us. Truthfully, I bought it just to see the look on his face when he opened it.

Worth it.

(I won't even mention that one of the guitar strings totally popped off within the first hour of him playing it! Grrrr! When the boys get over this bug, we'll be heading back to the toy store to "fix" it)

That's Finn there in the center of the photo checking out his new Winnie the Pooh book. Finn LOVES Winnie the Pooh. He's so cute that Finn.

Beautiful chaos.

We spent the rest of the morning playing with their new gifts, making "mini" pancakes (their fav) and just being together. For both Chris and I, it was one of our most favorite mornings ever.

Also, Chris was there too! I don't know why he's not in any of these pictures! I guess he took a lot them :)

Twas the night before Christmas, sort of

The boys received a letter in the mail today, from Santa himself! Santa told them that he was coming to our house tonight! It was all very exciting.

Tomorrow we leave for South Bend to spend time with Chris's family. On the afternoon of Christmas we'll head up to my parents house in Michigan to spend time with them as well. It's going to be a whirlwind week and the more Chris and I got to thinking about it, we thought it might be nice to have a little Christmas here, just us, before heading out for the week. Plus, we wouldn't have to haul all of the boys gifts. Our minivan is full as it is!

Colin and Chris baked cookies for Santa (he requested cookies in his letter). They opened up the chimney (we'd had to fashion a latch on it to keep the triplets from opening the doors and trying to crawl in), and even cleaned up the toys so that Santa wouldn't trip and hurt himself. He's got a clear path now from the chimney to the tree, thank Heavens.

So Colin laid out the cookies, poured some milk and drew Santa a map (his idea), explaining the steps to get from our roof, down the chimney to our tree. Our fireplace is in a different room than the tree. I guess he wants to be extra sure that the toys make it under the tree and Santa doesn't get lost! haha!

Chris and I had such fun wrapping the gifts, snacking on the cookies and spreading dirt, sticks and leaves around the fireplace.

It kind of feels surreal. Like playing house.

We have children. They are ours and tomorrow they are going to wake up, run down the stairs and get excited over the fact that Santa has come. Just like we did as kids with our own parents.

I kinda can't wait to see their little faces.

Dear boys,

Boy did your dreams come true this afternoon!

A huge truck pulled up to the house, complete with a crane type thing on top, to deliver the dry wall for the basement.

Nothing could have been more exciting.

You all pressed your faces against the window, and kept saying things like, "Wow!" (Carter, Everett), "This is AMAZING!" (Colin) and "Hi!" (Finn).

Colin also said at one point, "I can't believe this is happening at our house!!" hahaha

Yes, it was all very exciting.

We got such a kick out of watching you boys this afternoon. If only we had deliveries every day.....

Carter, Colin, Finn and Everett

Everett, Carter and Finn, watching them carry the drywall down to the basement, utterly amazed.

Heavy hearts

This past weekend was so ordinary and yet sooo not. Our hearts were heavy and like every parent in America, Chris and I have held our boys a little tighter since Friday's news. I smelled them and kissed them and didn't mind reading, "just one more book" or playing just "one more game". At one point Friday I turned on 'Curious George' and within a few minutes the boys were all cuddled around me on the couch. Feeling them all gather around me and pile up on my lap like little bear cubs is one of my most favorite things in the world. They climb and bump and wiggle into place and we all become one big lump on the couch, ready to watch a show or read a book. On Friday as we all sat there, Everett kept turning and saying, "kiss", and I  kept thinking about how I wish I could protect them forever.

Over the weekend Chris got up early with the boys, worked on the basement, and took Colin ice skating. I made our meals, played with the boys, and grocery shopped for the week. We broke up fights over toys, had one good night of sleep and another in which the trips kept us up. We bought a lamp and read about a hundred books (no joke- the trips are WAY into reading right now, especially Everett. Although we don't have a hundred books.... there's a lot of repetition.... I digress). Chris and I rented a movie and ate bags (yes plural) of popcorn on the couch. We went to church. It was all so ordinary and yet we felt so blessed to be able to have that sort of weekend with our boys. Our minds were never far from the tragedy though. Our church always has a prayer for children before they are dismissed for Sunday school and as I placed my hand on Colin's leg and closed my eyes in prayer, I felt tears running down my cheeks. When I opened my eyes, I saw almost every mother in room wiping their own eyes. The tragedy in Connecticut reminds us that we are all vulnerable and we are all connected.

Colin was so excited going to bed tonight because tomorrow is a preschool day. I felt my heart tighten a bit as he talked. I realize that for him, school has become a place where he feels completely safe, loved and known.

School should feel be that way for all children.

I hope that somehow out of this, changes are made. Both in terms of gun safety and mental healthcare. The issues are complex and people have strong opinions. Still I hope, that somehow meaningful change can happen.

Let the Christmas season officially begin!

My final paper for this semester of grad school is DONE! I got to write this paper on a topic that really interests me (how kangaroo care can offset the stress of the NICU setting and alter brain development in preterm babies), but it still was so painful to write! I just kept procrastinating and procrastinating.... At one point, I texted Chris from the library that I'd rather birth triplets than birth this paper... less painful.

But it's done and I feel so free! Like I can finally focus on Christmas and enjoying the season with my family.

We have done some decorating already though. Colin helped with the tree. He was thrilled because helping with the tree meant that he had to stay up later than the babies.... something he was more than willing to do.

In the background, you can see all of our pictures piled on the dining room table. We're in the process of finally hanging up pictures!! Slowly making this house ours....

Since we moved over the summer and still don't quite have our moving boxes sorted out, we couldn't locate the box containing our ornaments! One year we'll find them :-)

Not a problem though. Colin offered to make the ornaments. Which coincidentally, required him to stay up a little later the following two nights :-) Again, he was more than willing.....

Chris and I took bets on how many times the children would knock the tree over, but honestly we didn't give them enough credit. They love the tree but haven't fallen into it or tackled it once yet. Such a pleasant surprise.

Blanket rides!

One of my boys favorite activities is being pulled around on a blanket. They all just barely fit but always seem to make room for each other. 

And boy is it an arm workout for whoever is pulling! These boys are getting heavy!

Zombie Monday

Argh.... wrote this yesterday and forgot to post... probably because I was exhausted! See below :-)

..................

My conversation with Chris just before turning out the lights last night:

Chris: My sinus's are killing me. I think I might take the sinus nighttime stuff but it will knock me out. You okay with that?

(this is a conversation must have in our house lately because as I said in a previous post, our youngest darlings have been sleeping terribly. It's hard to go it alone if it's a rough night)

Me: Sure, take it. The past two nights the boys have slept great. I think it will be fine.

Famous. Last. Words. It was so not fine!

Let's just say it was a rough night with the boys. And my darling husband snored through it all! Don't worry though, I texted him at 4:30 a.m., "I'm still up!!" Just so he'd get that in the morning and know I wasn't exaggerating about how hard the night had been. :-)

So here I am today, walking around, making lunches, playing cars on the floor with the boys.... but really sleeping.

Is it bedtime yet?

Six years

Since I made a promise to my husband in the Basilica at Notre Dame.

So much has happened in those six years. 

Like four little boys.

So much has changed. 

Like we now live in the suburbs, never go out to dinner past 7 p.m., are tired ALL THE TIME, and haven't had a weekend away since.... since I actually can't remember. 

Sad? nah. I love our life together. 

Saturday night my mom drove here to watch the boys so that we could go out to dinner. We had a wonderful time and as always vowed to try and get more time to go out just us. Us out to dinner, chatting by candlelight is the best.  

I knew I married a good man but the father he is really blows me away. I often wake up to the sound of him making pancakes with the boys or laughing with them downstairs (Yup, he lets me sleep in a lot). To watch him with our boys makes me love him even more, and in a way I couldn't have even predicted when we married six years ago.

Chris's gift to me was that he put up curtains for me in the living room- they look great!! After the boys went to bed we snuggled by the Christmas tree, admired the curtains and ate some strawberry cheesecake ice cream. We may not be fancy but we are happy.

And grateful. 

Back at ND this fall watching the Irish beat Pitt. Most nerve wracking game ever.