Iver's First Hair Cut

Looking back at photos from the fall, it's amazing how much Iver's hair has grown in a few months.  I mean, the picture we have from our pumpkin patch shows him sporting a naturally short style.

Fast forward to this winter and his hair has started to get a little unruly.  We made a less-than-successful attempt to trim his bangs, which left him with something close to the look a Canadian hockey player from the 80s might aspire to (this is not a compliment).

All of this led to the conclusion that the boy did indeed need his first (professional) haircut.  While I was sad to see his super cute curls in the back go, he now looks like he belongs to this decade.  As this sequence of photos attest, he started out curious about and patient with the whole process.  He was totally fine until the very end of the cut when the hairdresser tried to take his picture.

I wanted to end this post by showing he's happy with his new look while zooming around the tot gym at the community center -- even if his parents still miss his baby curls ...

The Last Six Weeks

It's almost shameful that I haven't posted anything on this blog in so long because there has been so much going on.  Actually, that's exactly why I haven't been able to manage to write anything.  I feel like we get up in the morning and it's go, go, go until we are able to get to bed at 8pm (yes, you read that right.)

Let's do some updating.  With this many kids, it's helpful to have some order so we'll go with youngest to oldest.  Stella is now just over 6 weeks old and doing remarkably well.  We took her in for her check up this week and she's 11lbs and 3oz.  Yes, the girl is growing.  She's also starting to smile, which is super cute, and just becoming more aware and responsive every day it seems.

Her big brother Iver is now officially bipedal.  He figured out the whole walking thing seemingly all at once a few Saturday mornings ago.  He stood up for over a minute and then walked across the room.  As is, all the way across the room.  You can see a snippet of Iver in action -- with the twins cheering him on -- at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9Ql4Pcd9yU

The twins are doing really well at their elementary school and have started drama on Mondays after school for an hour.  They are also taking tennis lessons indoors and have been skiing the last four Sundays.  Somehow, they still seem to have boundless energy, which makes us both jealous and exhausted just thinking about it.

In case you missed it, we also won a Super Bowl here in Seattle!  It was actually a lot of fun because people got really into the Seahawks without the jaded it's-been-forever-since-we-won attitude that some Red Sox fans used to hold.  See evidence of our team spirit on KLC's blog: http://www.hootnhowl.blogspot.com/2014/02/go-seahawks.html

And, finally, we have a deadline in sight for actually moving out of this house and into our new one.  Barring some sort of set back (knock on wood), the movers will be coming on February 28th.  This means that the house will be totally finished somehow and we manage to get everything packed.  Oh yeah, and I have to fly to DC for less than a 24-hour stay the weekend before.  No problem!  I hope to write more regularly on the blog, but after reading this last paragraph, maybe I should just plan for the next entry to happen in March!

Stella!

Well, my last post turned out to be timely since a few hours later we headed to the hospital.  KLC went into labor that night and gave birth via C-section to our latest addition around 3am on December 23rd. Stella Malinda arrived weighing in at a healthy 8lbs 5oz.

Even though KLC had the 2nd C-section she was trying to avoid, we got clearance to leave the hospital on Christmas Eve because both she and Stella were doing so well.  It was great to be able to wake up Christmas morning with all of the kids who were excited to welcome their new baby sister.

We had a bit of a hiccup over the weekend when KLC felt unexpectedly worse, which warranted a trip to the ER and being readmitted to the hospital to deal with some fluid around the incision and an infection.  The good news is that we live in a society with antibiotics so she's doing much better and will hopefully feel better every day from here on out.

A quick note about the name.  No, it's not a reference to "A Street Car Named Desire".  Stella was KLC's great aunt and her mother's middle name was "Malinda" and "Linda" is my mom's name so it seemed perfect. Stella is a champion nurser and isn't as serious as she looks in this picture, but it gives you an idea of how beautiful our new little one is.  We can't wait to settled at home with her and the other kids.  I couldn't think of a better way to kick off 2014.

 

Due Date

It's been over a month since I've posted anything, but it's hardly for a lack of activity.  In fact, it's been just the opposite.  We've been neck deep in house renovations (the new one, not the old one), school activities, work, and, of course, getting ready for the arrival of baby #4.

Today is KLC's official due date.  There have been some signs that labor will start soon, but as of this morning we're still at the house with the three (current) kids, making waffles and heading out for a trip to the zoo.

Thankfully, KLC has been better about keeping up with her blog this holiday season.  You can see some pics of recent activities and festivities here and here.  What the exact time line is for upcoming events, we know we'll have a very busy and exciting Christmas around here and I'll do my best to keep up with the news on the blog.

The Macarena

For those of you who thought the Macarena was just a bad dance dream from the '90s, I'm here to tell you differently.  It's alive and well and apparently being taught in P.E. classes in NE Seattle.  If you don't believe this good news, take a look at what the twins can do.  We are so keeping this to embarrass them with watch when they are older.  http://youtu.be/BgBBKTQLHks

Intensity Face

Before we get to the title of this post, I need to do some catching up on the past couple of weeks.  First off, we had a very fun Halloween around here.  The twins got to go to a school party, go to a Halloween party at taekwondo, and then hit the streets for trick-or-treating.  They managed to get a haul, but since one twin doesn't even like candy (except to sort, trade, and play with) we gave a vast majority of it away.  Not before I secured a handful of Reese's peanut butter cups for myself ...

Here's a pic of the crew.  Iver was 'dressed' as a pumpkin, but A & J really stole the show with their wizard and robot costumes:

(Despite his expression in this photo, Iver thought it was great that his brother and sister were in costume.  He knew exactly who they were under there.)

This brings me to the unrelated, but worth noting, phenomenon with Iver that we call "Intensity Face."  What is this, you may ask?  Well, it's something that started happening a couple of weeks ago primarily at the breakfast table.  We'd all be sitting there and occasionally Iver would do this thing where he'd open his mouth and shake his head a little while looking at all of us.  Then he'd start laughing.  Then we'd start laughing.  Now, it's at the point where he'll do this to us to get us to laugh.  Or, if we want to make him laugh, we do it first and then he'll do his own version and then start laughing.  It's hard to describe and this video isn't the finest example, but it gives a little glimpse into how Iver's personality is developing at this stage (that is, being a complete ham at times).  Take a look: http://youtu.be/4oqbq4WYchI and http://youtu.be/-f9dtl6Hs3c

Iverese

There's been a lot going on with us these days -- between school, work, pregnancy, owning two houses (and trying to organize work being done on one while contemplating selling the other within a handful of months) -- we're basically at maximum capacity around here.

That said, I'm trying to document what I can.  Right now, Iver is in the midst of "talking" all of the time.  I call this "Iverese" because it is uniquely his language.  He'll talk like this when you're changing his diaper, when he's going to bed, when he's in high chair -- basically all of the time.  It's hard to capture it on video because he wants to touch my phone as soon as I take it out and point it at him.  That said, this little clip (http://youtu.be/cctBbArlKXM) will hopefully give a glimpse at our budding linguist.