Update

Life is still so busy... time is rare.

• We're still in the process of keeping the house "show-ready".  I am so over it.  I will never move again after this time.

• I've been applying to new jobs "down South" (Southeastern MA).  Deadlines aren't for awhile so I won't know anything for awhile, but I just want to have a job already so we can have some direction in our lives.

• The girls turned 2 on Saturday!  They're so big I can't stand it.  They had a blast opening gifts.

• Colby, Syd, and Zoe got sick starting Saturday night.  Slight fevers always keep us on edge with Colby's history of febrile seizures and the {slightly} elevated tendency for siblings.  Luckily, we were seizure free and they're all fine now.

• Now I can't even figure out why we're so busy when I have nothing of substance to update on.

Bullets

• The Boston MoD walk was today.  We've decided to pretend that 2013 didn't happen.  We'll do better next year.  :)  In the past 3 years (2010-2012) we raised almost $30,000 as a team- so about $10,000 a year.  This year?  $2,000.  We've had a lot on our plates... new baby and house stuff.  So we dropped the ball, big time.  Every year we make shirts-- not so much this year.  We usually do a "big" event.  Not this year.  This year the only people at the Boston walk with us were my family.  At the Lowell walk it was my family + one of our friends + two of Johnny's cousins + one college friend.  Not our 40+ turn out of years past.  Again, we'll get better.  Oh, and we didn't even really walk today because of parking drama + hungry kids + rain.  Next year will be different.

• But I should mention, we may have only raised $2,000 but we are SO grateful for that money.  And we KNOW that it will go to a good place to give babies a healthy start.  $2,000 is better than nothing.

• SYDNEY.  I know I've mentioned it before, but that girl is TROUBLE.  She can be so sweet but she can be mean too.  And I mean mean because she knows what she's doing.  I can ask her "Is it nice to bite?"  and she'll answer no.  And then I can ask her about pinching and hitting and scratching and so on.  I can also throw in "Is it nice to hug?" and she'll answer yes.  So I know she gets it, but then a minute later the teeth or the nails come out.  Colby has a huge bruise on his back and Zoe has a few on her body.  

• I am burnt out.  Between everything {life} I'm just tired.  Hunter sleeps well from about 10-1 or 2, but then he's up pretty much every hour ish, which I can handle because he's easy, but add in everything else of life (you know, dishes and laundry and cleaning up and putting kids to bed and baths and on and on) and it just never ends.  I don't expect anything to change here, but just saying.

• But the girls are finally off the bottle.  They have been for almost a month.  For a month or so my routine was "put the girls to bed, come down, feed Hunter, get him settled, then wash a sink of bottles, do laundry, etc." and it got to the point one night I looked at the sink of bottles and I was just done.  So I washed them, packed away the drying rack and all the bottles and just called it quits.  The next day the bottles were "broken" and we had a rough day but it was over before I knew it.  And they're fine... though it does make me a little sad sometimes because Zoe loved her bottle so much and now she's so big.

• The day after the bottles broke Zoe decided to break free of her crib for good.  She's been climbing out for awhile, but she was just done.  I put her in, she was out.  End of story, so she spent a day on a mattress on the floor and after a particularly rough night with her on the floor but then jumping in Syd's crib we got 2 toddler beds (amazingly cheaper than buying the conversion rails).  We had an awful couple of naps and nights, but now they are amazing.  It takes a little to get them down for bed, but once they're out, they're OUT.  No more waking up crying and all that crazy jazz we had.  Naps are a snap too.  So my girls are officially BIG.  And two in two weeks.

• Hunter is growing like a week and on all the WHO charts for growth.  It's amazing.  He's officially 1/2 Syd's size and just under 1/2 Zoe's size (they're about a pound apart).   He's just chunky and chubby in all the right baby places.  It's just so odd when I compare him to the other kiddos.  Colby was 9lbs at 3.5 months after TONS of extra calories to plump him up.  (Though a 2lb 3oz vs 4lb 14oz birthweight makes the comparison pretty unfair)  The girls are just slow to gain weight even though they eat like horses.  It's so odd to have a baby that fits into the clothing that matches his age.  We just bought him 3-6 month clothes for the summer and his 0-3 are right on target for him right now.  What did I buy the girls?  12-18 month clothing and even that is loose!

Continuation of bullets...

Since last time...

• Our house was officially listed this past weekend.  We've had two showings so far- Monday and yesterday.  They are a huge pain in the neck.  We joke that our house is in "Transformer" mode.  We have the house with kids and toys & then to show we "transform" to the "show" house where we put all the toys in the basement and make everything look "just so".  And holy goodness, it's exhausting.  And then we have to manage to get out of the house with the four and find something to do.  The first day we were actually just leaving as the agent showed up and he told us to stay.  So we hunkered in the backyard as random people went through our house.  Awkward.  Last night we got out on time, but H had to eat so we ended up parked in front of the mail house as he chowed down before heading to the park with the rest of the kids.

• Hunter's appt at Children's yesterday showed that yes he does have a hypospadias.  So we'll be heading back to Children's in about 5 months for him to have surgery.  I knew it was coming I think, but it still was a little hard to hear the words.  It's not a big deal, but anesthesia and an hour+ of surgery on my baby isn't something I look forward to.

• In other news, my itty preemie was 10lbs yesterday.  That's up about 5lbs 2oz in the past 2 months.  What can I say?  He likes to eat.  He'll eat pretty much every 1 hour & 45 minutes from about 2am to 10:30pm.  From 10:30pm to 2am I get a nicer little break.  :)  But it's so much less exhausting to nurse him than it is to deal with the bottles and pumping I did with Colby & with the girls so I will take it.  

• And he's waking up so I will go.  I never post pictures on here anymore because I don't have time to upload and edit all the photos and to get them all set.  Instead follow us on instagram-- ccszh.  I post there more frequently.