Farewell 2015!

What a December we had here. The babies turned three months old, and spent the entire month sick. Can you believe it? They've had colds for a full third if their short little lives! Thankfully that didn't stop us from doing our big three month photo shoot.

The colds aren't slowing them down too much. They love play time!

I followed up with the doctor weekly, but since they weren't running fevers it was only last week that the doctor wanted to see them. He confirmed that they do indeed simply have lingering colds that they keep passing and mutating between them. We are hoping that the end will come soon. There was other good news from the doctor's office when the kiddos hit the scales. Their weights  are amazing! Micah is over the 80th percentile and all are over the 50th percentile. Here are their weights as of last Tuesday.

Micah- 10lbs. 7oz.
Becker - 9lbs. 12oz.
Roland - 9lbs. 8oz.
Marin - 9lbs. 13oz.

Because of their colds we've been extra careful about visitors. RSV is our biggest fear during the winter so there is lots of hands washing and sanitizing going on around here. Our first Christmas together turned out to be very quiet. Andy's parents were both out of town. We had planned to see mine, however my dad caught a cold and had to stay away, and my mom had the flu running through her office so she had to stay away as well!

Our Christmas group photo in their outfits from Grandma Mary. Roland has been working on his pout for weeks now and on Christmas Eve he felt that all his hard work had finally paid off. You can't see the subtle lip quiver in the photo, but, oh, trust me, it's there.

People keep asking whether we got all the babies photos with the tree and the answer is "no".
I guess being the big brother has it's perks!

Christmas Eve was warmer than average for Michigan so we decided to load the babies into their strollers and head out for our first walk. We bundled the kiddos and headed downtown. It was a great walk,  followed by the not so traditional Christmas Tater Tot Casserole and viewing of one of my favorite movies, the 80s Classic, The Beastmaster. On a side note, if you haven't seen The Beastmaster, do yourself a favor and watch it. And if you are going for the full 80's B movie experience, make it a double feature with the original Clash of the Titans staring the incomparable Harry Hamlin. You won't be sorry.

Bundled up in their warm suits from Becky!

First outing in the strollers. We let the BeagleDog get in on the action too.

I want to take a moment to talk about a serious topic with which you may not be familiar. Two words. Bald shaming. Bald shaming has gotten a bad rap but you can't argue with results. Just days after my little talk with Micah he began to sprout beautiful new hair buds and now barely three weeks later he has a gorgeous head of hair!

In addition to his new hair and awesome weight  gain, Micah has started smiling and cooing. He gets sweeter every day. He loves  to sit up and look around. He has outgrown all his newborn clothes and this morning got to wear his first hand me down from his daddy, a really groovy Packers sleeper. I think he looks pretty handsome!

So Many Mielers...So Many Chins!

Becker continues to squeak and dance. He loves both! Our little runt is becoming a big guy. For a while he was as wide as he was long. I had taken to calling him The Block. Now he's finally getting tall, though his face still looks like a square. A very cute square. A very cute, blue eyed, fuzzy headed, squeaky square.

Roland has been such a mellow guy lately. He is our champion sleeper these days. I have to wake him up almost every night for the overnight feed. He has an awesome smile, and, like the others, is starting to imitate facial gestures like grinning and sticking out his tongue. He is spending a lot of time awake and loves looking around at his surroundings. He has been spending quite a bit of time in the floor seat and adores the view!

Marin is, well, cranky. She's a bit of a diva. Definitely a drama queen. She has mastered the cry and can manifest multiple giant, fat tears within moments of the onset of the tantrum. If she is picked up she is suddenly and magically happy. She has decided she's not a huge fan of her Rock and Play, but absolutely adores tummy time. This is how a typical Little Lady day unfolds.

Me: Put Marin in Rock and Play after feeding, burping and changing

Diva: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Me: Pick up Marin, sit her upright in my lap.

Princess Pork Pie: So very tired. Can't keep eyes open. Must crumple right here in mommy's lap. "Zzzzzzzzzzzzz."

Me: Yay, sleeping baby. Back to the Rock and Play

Drama Queen: "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Thankfully, when she's sweet she's super sweet and it more than makes up for the cranky times. She is a super snuggler. She also refuses to wear two socks, but has mastered keeping one on for several days.

Marin operates in two modes.  Sleeping... 

...snd Sassy!

A couple weeks ago Andy and I were able to drive to the wedding of one of his high school friends in Chicago thanks to the Grandma's willingness to babysit. It was a great evening and a much needed foray into adult conversation. Hopefully I didn't slip and baby talk to anyone.

A rare glimpse of me NOT in my pajama pants.

As we close 2015 and welcome 2016 I can't help but be reminded of how richly God has blessed us this year, with four healthy babies, amazing family, wonderful friends, and the best Prayer Warriors ever. I hope that we have been, and continue to be, faithful stewards of all that has been entrusted to us.

Becker and Micah in their matching duds.

Andy, please refrain from eating The Spaceman.

Sympathy tantrum.

Playtime!

I'll leave you with a little video I call "Bromance". Enjoy!

Love, blessings, and a Happy 2016 to you all!

Jen and Andy
Sweetness, Block, The Lip and Porkus

"The Talk"

I had hoped that I was years away from having this talk with any of the kids. I certainly never anticipated dealing with this before they hit three months. Today I had to face the fact that for Micah the time had come, and I could no longer avoid the truth. It went much like this.

Poor little bald fella.

An Epic Birthday.

I'll bet when you read "epic", you thought of a few words. Wonderful, perhaps? Fabulous? Amazing? The best ever? Well, in this case, the context of epic, was epically bad. But more on that later.

First, a happy Thanksgiving to you all. We had a spectacular day around here. Both of my parents and stepparents, as well as Andy's mom and stepdad, descended on our house, feast in hand. We literally didn't have to lift a finger, including to hold babies, who were cuddled from start to finish. The only blemish on the day was that my awesome sister, The Bug, whose idea the whole celebration was, got sick and was unable to join us. Though the day was wonderful, her presence would have made it a little sweeter. That, and a Packers win. Don't even get me started on our beloved Packers season thus far.

The day after Thanksgiving, our Micah (SweetMicah) came down with a cold, followed quickly by Becker (Spaceman, Squeaks), Roland (The Gunslinger) and Marin Grace (Pork Pie, Baby Girl). Can you imagine having four sick two month olds? It's as bad as you've imagined. I'm pretty sure that Andy was excited to go back to work today.

On another topic, did you know that the 22nd was my due date? That these babies would be just a week old now had I held off until then? Amazing, when I reflect on all they have accomplished in just a couple months; breathing on their own, lifting their heads, trying to roll, smiling, cooing, Marin beating a PDA and a pneumothorax, perfecting a hundred different cries to signal their needs, following rattles with their eyes, taking nearly four ounces from their bottles at each feed, and so many other things that are too numerous to list here.

Here's a little glimpse at then and now.

I call Micah SweetMicah for exactly the reason you'd guess. He is amazingly sweet. If you were to pick him up you'd find that he just melts into you. He's not fussy, he doesn't cry much, he loves to look around, and he loves to make eye contact. He's just, well, sweet. The poor boy did run into a bit of bad luck though. A couple weeks ago he started losing his hair. On top. Only on top. He still has his nice dark side hair, but on top, nothing. With a hat on he looks like his same sweet self, but take off the hat, and you have Terry Bradshaw. Needless to say, it's hat on for now.

Sweet Baby.

Terry Bradshaw.

Little Becker is the comedian of the group. I wish I could tell you why. Is it the squeaks? The squawks? The funny faces? The hair sticking up? All of these? It's hard to say for sure, but whatever it is, he makes everyone laugh. Unfortunately for him, it's even hard to take him seriously when he's crying because that's funny too. He and Roland are tied for lightest baby now at just about seven pounds each, but Becker seems smaller because he's shorter that Roland. He may turn out to be our stocky guy. We'll see, but for now, he's the funny guy.

Roland is wide-eyed and curious. He adores looking around the room, and spends more and more time awake these days. He is crazy about his Sit Me Up Floor Seat. He is also not afraid to let us know when he is displeased. His cry is definitely attention-getting, complete with tears and lip-quiver. Andy thinks Roland is the momma's boy of the pack, and this momma is fine with that! Roland is still a little guy, but getting taller by the day. I'm guessing that he's working on becoming long and lean like dad.

And then there's our Baby Girl. Marin Grace is one of a kind. She's growing every day, and in the last few weeks since she's been able to take a bottle and kicked the feeding tube, her chubby cheeks are beginning to shrink. For a while, the lack of exercising her cheek muscles had her looking an awful lot like Quagmire on Family Guy. She is beginning to look facially proportionate at last! Our little Pork Pie is, however, not without her issues. First, she still goes cross eyed from time to time, though this is getting better every week. Next, I'll try to put this delicately, she struggles with occasional, er, frequent, gas. Last, when she cries, it's less like a baby crying and more like a sheep blatting, if that sheep were two hundred pounds and using a megaphone. Despite all this, we couldn't be crazier about her. I just melt when she looks at me, and when she smiles I'd probably give her chocolate if she asked. She's becoming quite the little charmer, despite her less ladylike moments.

Many people ask how we feed four babies. When Andy and I are both at home, we feed two at a time. When Andy is at the office, the old adage, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" proves true. I feed whoever is grumpiest first, then the other two. The strongest feeder goes on the side and the weaker on our laps. My Aunt Jayne captured the feeding routine, as well as a lot of the other photos posted today, during her visit Saturday, when she dropped off about two thousand diapers for the crew. Two thousand, by the way, is not an exaggeration. The diapers, the visit, and the great photos were all much appreciated.

Burping Roland while feeding Micah.

The classic Double Burp.

Okay, on to the epic birthday. Is is Murphy's Law that says anything that can go wrong, will? Well, that's the kind of day we had Sunday, which happened to be The Hubs Birthday. I can spare you a lot of the details by simply reminding you that we were home with sick quadruplets, and that neither Andy nor I were feeling anywhere near 100% to boot.

The evening, fittingly, was just as bad as the rest of the day had been. Let me try to set the scene for you. I was upstairs with the babies, at least two of which were screaming at the top of their lungs at all times. The babies not screaming were busying themselves alternating between coughing and sneezing. Every four and a half seconds or so I was sucking snot out of one of them with the NoseFrida, a nifty tool which allows me to neatly suck gobs of snot using my own mouth and a flexible tube. Yes, gross.

Andy, in an attempt at a much needed escape, decided to head to the basement to start construction a base for the new, quad sized washer and dryer we have arriving tomorrow. (Note: When I say quad sized, I do not mean that we will be putting babies into the washer or dryer, but that the capacity will be large enough to allow us to keep up with the massive amount of laundry the quads generate. Please do not email me imploring me not to put babies in the appliances.) I suspect that the combined music of screaming, sawing and drilling would have quickly driven any visitors out the door that night!

As he worked, Andy, ever a keen observer, noted a change in his environment, namely the sudden appearance of a liquid. Dripping. On his head. A less than pleasant smelling liquid. When he came upstairs to learn the source of the liquid, it was discovered that our Beagle Dog, Lambeau had chosen that moment to pee on the wood floor. To give you a better sense of how incredible this is, let me clarify the following. I can count only a handful of times that Lambeau has ever gone to the bathroom in the house. It happens maybe once a year. Maybe less. Couple that with the fact that Andy spends probably less than ten minutes per year standing in that precise spot in the basement. Add to that the fact that his Birthday rolls around just once per year, and the fact that these three events came together on the same day at precisely the correct moment makes the whole thing pretty incredible. I think Andy will come to see the humor in it. Someday.

I leave you with a video of all the peanuts looking pretty darn cute, just being themselves. As the late, great Fred Rogers would say, "I like you just the way you are".

Until next time!

Jen and Andy
SweetMicah, Spaceman, The Gunslinger and Pork Pie