Easter

The past week has been pretty busy at the Brouwer house.  We took the boys to church for the first time since they were baptized in October.  I was a little crazy on Saturday night (to say the least).  It was a lot of planning and preparing to get us all out of the house on time.  We made it and the boys were great!  It was so nice to bring them with us.  Will we do it every week?  No way.  We had them sit with us-still pretty leary about germs.  Noah and Reese slept most of the time.  Aiden was too nosy so Nate took him out and he eventually fell asleep in the back of church with Nate holding him.  The craziness of the day caught up with them on Monday.   To say it was a long day was an understatement.  By the time Nate got home I was ready to lose my mind.  We left the boys with my mom and went to the grocery store just to be able to get away.  I never thought I would say the grocery store was my escape.  Tuesday and Wednesday were so much better!

Yesterday my mom and I took the boys to have their picture taken in their Easter outfits.  We haven't had their picture taken professionally since they were 8 weeks old (again, germs.  Picture places are like germ factories).  So, we dressed them up and took them in.  They did great!  Here are a few:

boys

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Aiden=fantastic

Yesterday I took Aiden in for a check-up with Dr. Gokhale, the GI specialist.  She checked him out and in a word said he looked fantastic.  Go, Aiden!  He has grown an incredible amount in 8 months.  He is 27 1/2 in. tall, which is 10 in. of growth since birth.  He is 18lbs. 4.6oz.  That's over 14 lbs. gained since birth.  She always measures his growth against a baby born on 8/2 and not a baby on 9/22 (their due date).  He started off below the groth curve and is now 25th percentile for weight and 50th for height.  That's a huge improvement!  He's completely caught up to babies his age.  She was also happy that he is spitting up much less now that he sits up and moves more.  She asked a lot of questions about his diet and was very pleased with the foods he eats.  She was glad that the growth was encouraged by healthy foods and not empty calories.  He sure loved being there as well.  He crinkled the paper on the exam table and pulled a lot of it out.  She asked if he was always this active and playful.  Yes.  Yes, he is.  :)  She changed his dose of medicine and he will only get medicine at night now.  Reflux is more common at night because you lay flat when you sleep.  A week after he turns 1 we will see her again and hopefully he can come off of the medicine and be done with it.  It was a great visit.

Thankfully we have started sleeping through the night again. 2 nights in a row and it feels great.  Reese has gone back to sleeping in his chair (sigh).  I think he wasn't dealing well with having a stuffy nose at night.  I think we have found the child who will conintually test our patience.  He's also the child who can make you laugh or smile right when you're ready to lose it.  He sure knows how to turn on the charm.  He is babbling like crazy already!  (Nancy-you will be so proud!)  He says, "dada" all the time.  Of course I wish it was mama, but oh well.  Aiden is starting to say dada and some other little babbles.  Noah says, "wawa".  They are also learning to clap.  They don't quite have it down, but we're working on it.  Reese has 2 big teeth in on the bottom.  His smile is so cute with those little teeth.  :)  They are all trying to figure out crawling, which leads to a lot of frustration and bruises.  I know that they will be happy to move.  Many have commented that I will be in trouble when they can move.  I think I will be happy.  Sure it will be hard to keep track, but at least they can get to things and I won't have to get them to everything.  Believe me, it will be nice.  I know it will be craziness, but that's life!  We wouldn't have it any other way.

Longest night ever

Longest night ever...at least that's how last night felt.  From 2:10 until 7:30 someone was awake.  Reese started it (of course), which woke up Noah.  Aiden made it until about 6:30 (I think, time becomes irrelevant at some point) before the other 2 got to him and he started crying.  The past 2 weeks Reese has only slept through the night once.  At first he was getting up because he was getting 2 teeth.  That's the silver lining in all of this...2 teeth have come through.  After that he seemed to make it a habit of getting up around 3:15 every night.  I would just let him cry it out, but then he wakes the other 2 up.  So, I give him his pipe (pacifier), glow worm, anything just to calm him down.  I let him cry, but not enough to wake the other 2.  A couple of nights he has ended up sleeping in a swing or, worse, our bed.  I know.  That's a bad habit.  We try not to do it, but after being up with him an hour and a half sometimes sleep is more important.  Most of the time we just make him tough it out.  When I have to be with all 3 all day I need some sleep though. 

The only way I keep my sanity some days is with routine.  The boys have their routine and I have mine.  I know what I'm going to do every day of the week.  For example I always do laundry on Tuesdays and I make baby food on Monday.  Knowing what has to be done every day makes it manageable.  I also always do things the same way.  That may be a little OCD, but it's how I operate best.  I always wash bottles the in the same order and put them out to dry the same way.  Each of the boys has an assigned color for bowls and spoons-Aiden gets blue, Noah green and Reese orange.  I'm a bit of a control freak, but it also makes my day run smoother. 

Tonight we're going on a date.  No kids.  Eating a meal while it's hot without anyone wanting to be held.  WE CAN'T WAIT!!  We were given a gift card for Christmas and are using it tonight.  Thankfully my parents are going to watch them..it's bath night, could be hectic.  :)  This is the first real date (other than the grocery store or running errands) since 5 days before the boys were born, which was our anniversary.  Hopefully the boys sleep tonight.  Some time away from them and for them time away from us will be good all around.  I'm sure they want to get away from us sometimes too.  If I'm going to make it to dinner I better go try to take a nap..if you know me you know I don't nap very often.  Hopefully a good long nap is in the works for me today.

Goodbye, old car seats!

Taking a walk in the stretch limo.

Reese

Noah

Aiden

Hooray for new car seats!

Eating outside...in March!

Play time!

Breakfast! (Noah)

Reese

All 3 boys are in their cribs...hopefully napping.  We'll see.  They are worn out from a trip to the Michigan City mall yesterday.  Nate worked (yes!!!), so my mom and I went out and did some shopping.  We were able to find a lot of great clothes for the boys.  We had to buy new pajamas because I didn't plan on it being 85 in March.  They also now have most of their Easter outfits.  Easter will be the first time bringing them to church since baptism.  I'm a little nervous since flu season is late this year.  We'll just be careful not to pass them around too much.  They are getting bigger and are very healthy, but the flu still poses a pretty big risk to them. 

Sleeping has been interesting the past week.  Reese has started sleeping on his tummy.  That was how they put him the day he was born.  He loved being on his tummy.  I went into their room one night because he was crying.  We was at the bottom of the crib on his belly and sideways.  Aiden is sleeping on his side and Noah sleeps on his back.  It's so funny how they were born at the same time and in some ways are so similar and in some ways so different.  We had the head of their cribs higher than the bottom to help with reflux.  Now that they move around so much Nate had to make it all one level last night.  Before I know it Reese will be standing by his crib.

Aiden is now sitting just as well, if not better, than Reese.  Noah is sitting, but still topples occasionally.  He's a big kid, he has a lot of weight to support.  :)  They are happy that they can sit up to play now.  They have a train that they love, a little piano, a toy with all different noises...they just love anything with noise and lights.  (lucky us!) It's fun to watch them play together. 

They are also starting to eat a large variety of foods.  They started meat this past week.  At one meal they eat one chicken breast, plus carrots, plus apples and a 2 oz. bottle.  I can only imagine how much they will eat in about 10 years.  I may have to start my own farm to keep up with them.

Now for some pictures that I haven't had time to
post:

Reese in the first picture and Aiden in the second.

Aiden after fighting because he didn't like what was for dinner.

In the blink of an eye

It's seems as though the boys are growing up in the blink of an eye.  Suddenly Reese is sitting up all by himself (he has been for about 2 weeks).  Aiden still wobbles a bit and Noah still falls back sometimes.  All in all we pretty much have 3 little boys who can sit up.  Reese is also doing a lot of scooting and rolling to get to toys and anywhere else he wants to go.  I have pictures and will post them as soon as I  can....maybe even tonight.  I have been trying to get a good picture of all 3, which is growing increasingly difficult.  It's hard to get them to hold still and smile nice all at the same time.  I know, it will just get worse.

Nate is still home with us.  It will be nice when he goes back to work.  However, we are really enjoying our time at home together with the boys.  We are finally taking them out with us when we have to go to a store and now that the weather has been amazing we are going for walks every day.  We are taking full advantage of the beautiful days.  We even broke out the stretch limo (triple stoller) for a walk yesterady.  This  morning while I cleaned Nate got the boys dressed and took them for a walk.  They LOVE the great outdoors!  We see this as a good thing.  We want them to love being outside.  It's so nice to just say forget the housework, let's go for a walk.  It's definitely one of the perks of being a stay-at-home mom.  I would rather go without all the wants and be able to do this than have stuff and miss out on these great days.  It has really made us reevaluate our needs vs. our wants. 

We're also trying to get them into a new nap schedule.  So far it's pretty rough going.  They are at the point where we want them to take 2 naps.  They used to take 1 long nap, but that hasn't been working.  Nights have been a little off too.  Reese has been up at about 4 the past couple of nights.  We figured out that it's probably because he didn't have his gas drops those days and was uncomfortable and gassy.  Aiden often wakes up screaming at about 6 because he needs to burp.  Really?  You ate at 8:30 before bed and at 6:00 am you have to burp?  Okay.  I guess that's what reflux does to him.  Reese thinks that naps are for other children, but not him.  He would prefer to never nap or only nap when being held.  The glow worm has become our best friend.  He lights up and plays music and they love to hold him.  It calms them down. 

Last but not least we have moved them into big boy car seats.  I was very sad to see the infant carries come out of the van.  They were just too heavy in them and Noah really didn't fit well into his.  So, we researched for 2 weeks on what would fit in our van.  After much measuring, figuring and discussion we picked new seats.  They fit into our van perfectly!!  The boys seem to love them and have much more room to move in them.  They look so old in them.  I took a picture of their last picture in their old seats and a picture of their first time in the new ones.  I'll put those up too. 

Well, duty calls...also known as an over-tired Aiden crying.