Twins Turn 6!

The twins turned 6 in October! It's hard to believe that they are six years old already. I still remember holding tiny little Ava in my arms and being afraid of hurting her since she was such a little peanut.

We did the twins' family party the weekend before their birthday.

They both got tons of presents that they loved. Carter's theme was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is obsessed with getting all things Turtles. He's well on his way there with all the Turtle stuff he got for his birthday. We let Ava get her ears pierced as her gift so she got earrings, stationary for mailing letters, and a Ken to counter all her Barbies, along with some other things too.

Someone else loves the Turtles in our house too! She was overjoyed to see all the new stuff Carter got. Don't know many 2 year olds who love Mickey Mouse and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

The weekend after their birthday, we did the twins' first friend party at Lifetime with a bounce house. The kids had a blast. As the party is limited to 12 children, including the birthday child(ren), we let each kid pick 5 friends. Ava's friends are a mix of preschool friends, soccer team friends, and an old neighborhood friend she still sees at school.

Carter's mix was a neighborhood friend, a soccer teammate, two friends from school, and a preschool friend's brother (who came in Ava's bunch. They go over there for playdates and he's only 1.5 years older so the four all play together).

They had lots of fun jumping in the bounce house, running around the gym on scooters, playing games, eating pizza and cupcakes and opening presents. Jake and I enjoyed doing nothing! After holding parties for Ellie on my own, it was a treat to not have to plan every activity. There were 3 girls in charge of running the show and they did everything except put my gift bags together. I think they would have but I had tossed everything in a bag to bring with and they didn't know how I planned to divide things up. To Jake and I, it was worth every penny to not have the mess and the planning!

It's hard to believe these two are getting so old and grown up. They had their 6 year check up this week. Ava weighs 44 lbs and is 43 inches tall. Carter is 54 lbs and 46 inches tall. Both tall enough to go on rides and waterslides! They sailed through their vision and hearing tests and are both perfectly healthy. It's such a blessing to have these two and to see the bond between them. I can't pretend to fathom what it must be like to be a twin. That connection is something no one else can understand. Despite their regular sibling spats, they love to snuggle with each other and I still find the two of them sleeping together on the weekends. Always touching in some way when they sleep together too. I can't wait to watch how their connection develops as they get older! 

Love you both Ava Marie and Carter Jacob!

Broken Arm

I know, I know. Over a month and a half between posts. In my defense, October was a very busy month for us. The twins had soccer games the first two Saturdays of October. The third weekend, we did their family birthday party. The last weekend was cousin Isabella's birthday party and the twins' friend birthday party. Add in our fall photo session taken by myself, the pictures I took of Amanda and Tony's family, and then having a photographer take ours as part of a fundraiser for the multiples group and you can see that we haven't been home much. 

As if all that wasn't enough, little Hannah, the resident daredevil, decided to throw us a new one and break her arm.

It all started with this lovely kitchen I bought her in August when I started watching the extra baby. Hannah seemed bored at home so when I saw that someone from my multiples' group was selling this and they lived in Lakeville, I bought it as fast as I could. It's been a good buy. Hannah loves to cook food with it. Unfortunately, based on it's close proximity to the couch, Hannah would also occasionally try to climb on top of it.

On Tuesday, October 15th, I was upstairs about to print off an activity page for the school-agers to do when Ellie got home from school when I heard a crash and crying. I ran downstairs to see both Hannah and Sophia crying. Carter, ever the little policeman, was quick to fill me in on the story. Hannah had climbed on the top of the kitchen, fallen and landed on Sophia. I knew the instant I looked at Hannah and the way her right arm was hanging that it was broken. Poor Sophia didn't get much comfort even though she was crying harder as I knew instantly that I had to get Hannah to the ER. A couple frantic calls later as I tried to get someone to answer their phone to come sit with the other kids, Amanda arrived with her girls in tow and I raced off to the ER. I'm still not sure if she ever understood what I said on the phone in my crazed, hysterical voice other than that I needed her to come over and watch some of the kids!

Hannah did indeed have a supracondylar fracture of her humerus. The ER doctor sent the x-rays to an orthopedic surgeon and they decided that it would be better to do surgery to set bones, muscles, tendons, etc correctly the first time rather than to need surgery in the future in case the muscles and tendons didn't get placed correctly when the bone was set. So poor Hannah, after having to have x-rays done twice, was prepped for her first (and hopefully only) surgery.

The thing on her left arm is called a no-no. Basically it's purpose is found in it's name. It wrapped around and covered her IV so she couldn't pull it out or tamper with it. I kept her right arm covered for all pictures. You're welcome. It's an image I will never get out of my head and I decided no one else needed to see it too.

After a quick 20 minute surgery, Hannah got to spend the night in the hospital so they could make sure she was fine after surgery. The surgeon placed two pins in her arm to help keep everything in place while it healed. It was a very unpleasant night as she woke up crying a lot and I rotated between sleeping with her on the hospital bed and on the uncomfortable and cold couch in the room.

For the first week, her arm was in a soft cast. This was basically a bunch of gauze and a few ACE bandages.

However, after a few days at home, Hannah adjusted to life with only one arm. We did have to duct tape the top and bottom of the soft cast as she would pick at it and try to pull it off.

Because of the cast, for 3 weeks Hannah only had a bath every other night instead of the usual nightly one. Since I had to wrap her arm in a plastic bag and hold it over her head while I washed her hair, it was hard to get all the snarls out. Add in a child who hates getting her hair brushed and wasn't able to roll around much while she slept and this is what the back of Hannah's head looked like!

 She still looked beautiful from the front though!

After one week in the soft cast, we went in and they removed the soft cast components and put on a hard cast. Hannah told everyone that she wanted "blue" for her cast but when looking at the color choices, she picked out purple. I think we need to spend a little more time on our colors!

I felt much better after the hard cast was on as it seemed much stronger and sturdier than the soft cast. As soon as Hannah felt better after all this, she went back to her daredevil ways, cast and all. The hard one at least seemed to better withstand her adventures!

So Belle had to trick or treat with a purple cast on her arm. Thankfully the Belle costume fit over her arm. Otherwise Hannah spent the three weeks she was casted wearing Ellie or Carter's shirts.

Three weeks to the day of the ordeal, she had her cast removed. Poor Hannah cried while they cut her cast off because the little saw machine was noisy and scared her. She screamed while they removed the pins (I had to look away. Yuck!). And she cried while they did final x-rays. It didn't help that her appointment time was during the middle of naptime. She had a slight infection where the pins were but after 5 days of antibiotics, that cleared up. It took the poor girl several days to start to move her arm around again. Now she seems to have full movement in it again. She had an appointment this week for a follow up and it looked like everything is as it should be. Of course, when the doctor wanted to see her arm and tried to touch her, Hannah yelled "Give me my arm back." I'm guessing she's feeling better!

It was quite the adventure but thankfully it is over already. Little ones heal quickly so she only needed to be casted for 3 short weeks. The surgeon does want to see her again in 3 months for x-rays again and only time will tell if everything is ok with her growth plates. He seems confident everything is lined up correctly so I have faith in his confidence!  

And as a side note, after much debate regarding the kitchen, it has been moved several feet from the couch. Jake was in favor of turning it into bonfire material but I overruled that by simply sliding it over a bit. Hannah loves the kitchen and Sophia already stands at it so I know it will be played with for years to come. We will never put tall furniture right next to the couch again though!

Soccer Kids

Ava and Carter are signed up for soccer this fall and are loving it. Jake volunteered to coach Carter's team, just so we could make sure the buddy would play and encourage him when his nerves got the best of him. It was a good decision as the first two practices, he was like Jake's shadow and would not get into the drills or scrimmages. I took these pictures the first game and such a difference from then to now. Today was their fourth game and Carter gets out there and into the game now. He still needs to work on getting from one of the field to the other a little quicker but he will be aggressive when there is a pack around the ball and had a couple good boots of the ball today. 

Carter's team is the Sharks and while they are having a lot of fun, the team is currently 0-4. There's two games left for this season but Coach Jake has a realistic goal: just score a goal! I think the team has only scored 3-4 goals in all four games so he'd be happy with a shot just making it into the net!

The Green Limes are on fire! Their team is 4-0 and they all play really well together. Her coach is great, knows a lot about soccer and is good at getting the girls interested in the sport and into the games. Ava's first game, she scored 2 goals! I don't think she's scored one since then but she is phenomenal at getting down to the other end of the field on defense and blocking shots. She also gets in there when the kids are all packed together and will kick the ball out. Today's game, she had a couple fast breaks down the field. One time she even had the perfect assist and helped on one of the team's goals. She definitely gets the concept of the game and is good at playing.  

A friend took these pictures across the field during the first game. Coach Jake in action!

 And the paparazzi mama.

Poor Hannah and Sophia are getting a taste of what their formative years will be like: sitting in bleachers and along sidelines during their older siblings' sporting events! Poor girls! Luckily the place where the soccer fields are at is one of the same parks our family likes to play (the one with all the wooden structures). Ellie's job is to entertain Hannah during games and keep an eye on her at the playground. Hannah loves getting to play at the park so right now, it's a win for her. Sophia doesn't have much of a preference and gets to sit in my lap during games so I haven't heard her complain too much! She's also learned to take her morning nap in the stroller and ignore all the yelling and cheers.

First Day of School!

 

Ellie's first day of 5th grade. Her last year in elementary school. How did this girl grow up so quickly? Seems like yesterday I took her to her Kindergarten orientation.

The drop off crew

First on the bus!

 By his locker at orientation

 

By her locker at orientation

1st official day of Kindergarten!!

My 3 school-agers

The neighborhood bus crew

Home from their first day

Class of 2031. She's got a few years ahead of her yet!

The kids have adjusted well to school. The twins go to A.M. Kindergarten. They love going to school every day and love their teacher Mrs. Molesky. Ellie has Mrs. Curry this year and seems to enjoy her as well. One thing we have noticed is that with school every day, Ava and Carter are tired in the evenings. We've had a lot more meltdowns and temper tantrums in the last few weeks. It's hard because they both have soccer practice in the evenings too. Ava practices on Tuesday nights and Carter on Thursdays. So bedtimes are later at least two nights of the week. There are only 3 more weeks of soccer games so once that ends, we'll be able to get back into a good bedtime routine and make sure the troops are fully rested.

Sorry for the month between posts. Between school starting, soccer practice and games, and dance class, things have been a bit nuts around here. I've also added another baby to my day by watching a neighbor's little girl. She started mid-August when she was 12 weeks old so with three under 2 during the day, I've been a bit occupied! I have tried to update the blog a few times but between crying babies or my browser not working, it hasn't happened. I had to download a new browser today but it seems to be working so I should be back to being able to update the blog, provided the little ones allow me the time!