Moving Over ...

After a summer's worth of not blogging as much as I'd like, and then often referring people to KLC's blog to see the latest pics of our family, KLC and I have decided to merge our two blogs into one.  Plus, after more than four years in Seattle, two additional kids, a host of pets, a new family home, and more, I am no longer "welcoming future shock."  I feel like I've lived through it and I can gratefully say that this is my new normal.

So please join both KLC and I as we try our best to document our latest adventures on our family blog: http://hootnhowl.blogspot.com

End of the School Year

As we careen toward the end of the school year, I can't seem to find enough time to write on the blog.  That said, the kids are changing on seemingly a day-to-day basis, so I'm going to give it my best shot to document at least some of the happenings around here.

Iver has now had his second haircut.  It went totally smoothly (because I let him hold my iPhone during it.)

The girls relaxing on the floor with a little Eric Carle and Elmo.

Thankfully we've got great family friends who can help us entertain (nearly) the whole clan from time to time.

Here's our baby girl as she rapidly approaches being 6 months old ...

April Update

This past few weeks have seen a lot going on: Stella is fast approaching the 4-month-old mark, Iver is starting to add words left and right, and the twins are reading chapter books in a day or two and started their baseball season.  Next week is spring break and, while we're not going anywhere, we're going to try for as many day and half-day trips as we can.  I'll try to write up what we do if and when we manage to get all of us out of the house.

In the meantime, here are a few random pics from the past couple of weeks in the order of youngest to oldest kids.

Working it in Overalls

There are very few (if any?) adults that can pull off wearing overalls.  Put them on a toddler, however, and you have all sorts of cuteness.  This is proven by our now 18-month-old Iver sporting a pair in these videos:

http://youtu.be/rPu-hDkD6Ow
http://youtu.be/A0lenQqNlPE

Over on her blog, KLC has a photo update of Stella's growth in comparison to her favorite stuffy and a few pics of the whole brood: http://hootnhowl.blogspot.com/2014/03/our-three-month-old.html

Moving

Moving is hard.  I've done it many times in my adult life, from dorms to apartments to condos.  Moving with four kids from one house to another, however, takes things to a whole new level.

If it's any indication of how much time and energy it has taken for us to pack up everything in the old house, get it into the new house, and then actually unpack most things, let's just say that our actual move date was about 2.5 weeks ago.  I've been meaning to write about this very special experience, except that every time I have a free moment I feel compelled to open a box or move something to a new location.

The good news is that we made it through.  We have accepted an offer on the old house and should -- knock on wood -- be closing on that in mid-April.  At that point, we can officially exhale and be done with the two mortgage/house/major renovation stress of our lives.  I'm sure we'll be doing projects on this new house for years to come, but at least there will only be one to worry about!

The clan, as you can tell from the pictures, is having no problem getting settled in.  (Don't ask why I seem to only take pictures when everyone is in pajamas -- it just has worked out that way recently for some reason …)

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.

My Parent-of-the-Year Moment

If you take a look at this picture, you'll see how sarcastic I was being with the title of this post.  This was definitely not my finest day as a parent.

KLC and I went to an appliance showroom to finalize our decisions of a refrigerator, dishwasher, range, etc for the new kitchen.  We were trying to do this relatively quickly since our architect needed the exact specs to put into the design, and we're anxious to get moving on this so we can get going with a contractor.  Iver was being a good sport about the whole thing about looking at lots of stainless steel things that were not toys, but then got fidgety.  I decided to let him move around on their carpet for a little ...

This is where I should have noticed that they had samples for granite countertops about a foot off of the ground.  This is also where I should have noticed that the samples were not attached to the wall.  Needless to say, Iver motored over to the closest one and pulled it off.  Even though I was about a foot and a half away, I wasn't quick enough to stop what felt like happened in slow motion.

The piece of jagged granite (yes, it wasn't even a smooth piece of rock) fell toward his eye.  We were so extremely lucky that it just grazed the area outside of the eye and didn't touch the eye ball.  KLC were able to get him into his doctor's office right away to confirm that everything was OK.  I'm still having bad daydreams imagining what could have happened.  The good news is that Iver seems totally fine after the experience while KLC and I are the ones apparently more traumatized.

(PS If you come to visit and see Iver wearing a ski helmet and goggles 24/7, you'll know why.)

A Fall of Firsts

In the past week or so, we've had a lot of "firsts" around here.  To begin with, the twins had their first day of school, entering first grade (see KLC's blog for pics: http://hootnhowl.blogspot.com/2013/09/first-graders.html). On her post, you'll also notice that we also had the first visit from the Tooth Fairy to the family, whose going rate is $1 a tooth, by the way.

And, just this past weekend, we got to celebrate Iver's first birthday.  It's hard to imagine that it has been a full year since the little pumpkin came into our lives.  I managed not to get any good pics from the party where Iver got his first taste of cake and ice cream, but I think we'll be able to find something decent to post from the day.

Up next?  Our first double mortgage!  OK, that's not really the news.  Our next big thing is that we're closing on a new house next week.  It's not too far from where we live now, but it's slightly bigger and on a quiet street.  It's a mid-century modern house in great condition.  KLC and I got to meet the owner and his daughter accidentally when we went to look at the house (it's a long story but basically we thought there was an open house, but there wasn't.)

After looking at many houses over the past several months, there was something about this one that just clicked for us.  The owner has been there for the past 50 years -- yes, you read that right -- and it is a truly loved family home.  (As an example of how meticulous they kept the house, the dishwasher from 1972 in the kitchen still works.  I'm happy any time I can be introduced to a working appliance that is older than me.)

Alas, the dishwasher and the rest of the kitchen need some updating, obviously, so we will be embarking on our first renovation.  Unlike other handier members of my family, we won't be doing any of the work ourselves.  Rather we have hired an architect and will be getting a general contractor to do everything we can afford want done before we move in.  So even though we will close on the house in just a few days, we'll be staying in our current one probably through January and then putting this one up on the market.  The housing market in our part of the Seattle has been really good lately for sellers, so we're knocking on wood that this keeps up through the spring!

On The Move

Well, it's happened.  We can no longer take our eyes off the pumpkin because he is officially mobile.  He's been flipping over to his hands and knees from a seated position for quite some time, but he never seemed to want to go anywhere after that.  No more.  The little guy has figured out that he can basically gets wherever he wants to go.  Leave him on the floor before bath?  He heads to the front door (see pic).  If you want to see him in his full moving glory, take a look at the video on You Tube ...  http://youtu.be/L4gfEHH91HY

RV Trip!

About a week and a half after we returned from Massachusetts, we set off for our next adventure of the summer: a road trip to the Oregon Coast in a rental RV.  The main impetus for going to the Oregon Coast was that KLC's mom wanted to have some of her ashes scattered along a particular stretch of beach where they would often vacation as a family when KLC was younger.

Of course, we wanted to honor her wishes, and we decided to do it in a way that we thought she would approve.  Rather than just drive straight there and rent a house or hotel, we chose to rent an RV in Portland and then drive to three different campgrounds along the coast before ending up in Lincoln City where we would meet other family for the scattering.

It was our first (and probably last) time renting an RV.  Especially a 30-ft one.  Somehow we managed to avoid hitting anything or anyone while driving this enormous house on wheels.  We were also able to give the twins a taste of 'real' (aka, tent) camping by using the new tent that my parents got the twins for their birthday last month. Along the way, we went to a maritime museum in Astoria (see the pic of J in the Coast Guard survival ship), explored a shipwreck, visited the Tilamook Cheese factory, and saw some spectacular scenery.

The morning we scattered her mom's ashes, it was clear and blue -- not a given on the Oregon Coast at any time of the year.  There are a group of seals that sun themselves across the bay on a spit of sand at this particular spot.  One of them was bobbing around in the water not far from where we gathered.  I got the feeling it was Ruth giving a wave to say hello and glad we could make it.

Vacation in MA

Last week, we traveled back to Massachusetts to visit with family and friends.  Our goal is to get back East every summer, but with pregnancies and very small babies, this is a little tricky.  Since we didn't make it last summer, we were very excited to get there this year.

There were lots of cousins and new friends to play with and so the twins had a blast.  Iver was his happy self and was thrilled to be held by so many new people.  We (meaning KLC) took a ton of photos on the trip, which hopefully we'll get organized and uploaded soon.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a couple that I took with my iPhone, which is probably the right vehicle for my photo-taking ability (which is not very high).

Note to self: consider buying the extra seat once the babies get to be about, say, 10+ months old.  Iver was a trooper with the flights, but he's just a little too big to sit on our laps for 6 hours.  And, unlike the twins, we can't give him a video or books to entertain him.  The good news is that he was entranced with the airplane safety card.  I think that kid knows more about how to exit a plane than anyone!

Iver and his Animals

I've written before about Iver's love of Comet.  I may have failed to mention that his obsession also extends to Zeke, our 13-year-old semi-ornery cat.  We do have to remind Iver to be "gentle" with both of the animals because he just wants to grab onto both of them so tightly.  It's a credit to Comet and Zeke that there are very tolerant of this -- even if we don't stop Iver quickly enough before he grabs a tuft of fur ...

Anyhow, I think this video is a good example of Iver's focus and interest when it comes to his pet-siblings ("piblings"?)  http://youtu.be/MFVd6TNJyxw

Super Siblings

It's hard to believe, but the twins are almost 6 years old.  I feel like this past year has been one of such change for them.  They are readers and writers now.  They have friends that they like to spend time with more than their parents (at least sometimes.)  They make up stories and are often really funny.

Perhaps the greatest thing is watching how the twins interact with and love Iver.  The other day, A said to me: "I didn't realize how great it is to have a little brother.  If I knew I would have told you to have one a long time ago."

The two of them are truly fantastic older siblings.  We never worry about Iver not having enough stimulation.  Whenever they are around, the twins want to play with him, read to him, or just make him laugh.  They might not always listen to us or each other, but I know they are always looking out for their little brother. He's really a lucky kid, and we are very lucky parents.

My Four Front Teeth

A few weeks ago, we noticed a couple of little white protrusions coming out of Iver's bottom gum.  We figured this explained the extra wakings at night and occasional crankiness.  Before we knew it, however, those two bottom teeth had found a couple of friends on top.  That's right, our little baby is freaking me out by growing four teeth.

Every time I try to take a picture of said teeth, he moves his tongue over them.  When I try to move his tongue, well, let's just say it's not very productive as far as getting a photo.  Sometimes you can see a couple of them at least when he laughs -- or just looks a little quizzical -- so here's proof that Iver is getting to be a very big boy.