Family Photoshoot

Here are some of the nicest shots from our recent family photo shoot. Photos from our third floor porch with the city skyline in the background will never get old!

November: A Quick Recap

We've been busy, somehow even busier than usual, and blogging just hasn't taken a high priority.   Here's a quick recap of all that we were up to last month. 

Alex - Mr. Personality

Alex seems to be the family extrovert, though lately he's going through a very clingy, Mommy-phase, that I'm hoping disappears in the next month or so (similar to when Oliver's vanished).  While Oliver and Lukas tend to have more serious solemn faces, Alex is usually smiling and and pretty happy-go-lucky.  He makes this noise that sounds like "Ah, ha, ha" when he is running towards something he likes that always makes me smile.   

Lukas... Little Lukie

Lukas is our little munchkin.  Though he isn't technically the youngest, and was a bit heavier than Alex at birth, he's our littlest peanut.  Hovering at the fifth percentile for weight and only slightly more for height, he is very small for his age, but makes up for it with plenty of attitude and personality! Lukas is independent and tends to keep to himself, but is also very caring, bringing his brothers' their lovies when he sees that they are sad or that a lovey is being neglected.  He may not be as loud as Alex, but he is constantly babbling and telling us things, especially pointing out the planes, dogs, buses, and trucks he sees when we are out.  He also is the most German of the bunch - this kid has the German stubbornness and temper in spades! 

Cuteness Report

When I came home from work today, oliver was up on the third floor for 10+ min solo while I chatted with Karla. Then he came down and wanted to show me what he had done (oh, oh I thought as we climbed the stairs, this kid could  do a lot of damage in that.amount of time).

When we got upstairs Oliver proudly showed me how he had cleaned up for me.  He had put all the coins I had.dumped out (grabbing bus fare) back in the containera, put the pillows back on my chair and a half, and put all the toys we have to occupy the kids when we get dressed in the morning, back in there bin.

After searching around my bedroom for a minute I had to ask, "oliver, did you clean up my jeans?" "Yes" he scolded, "you never clean up your clothes, so I had to do that too". Then he took me to my armoire and showed me all of my clothes he had shoved into my underwear drawer.

PoTD: Oliver's first Reward Chart Prize

Our friends Oliver & Debbie gave us a great parenting suggestion when we saw them last weekend and we implemented it immediately when we got home. When Oliver earns 10 stars, he gets a treat, special outing, or a prize. We had tried a chore chart previously, but found it to be a bit to early to incorporate in our daily routine.

Over the past week and a half, Oliver had earned stars by getting himself dressed and undressed (a constant battle in this house), for behaving while Natalie handled bedtime solo, as well as for rewards for being a loving, helpful, big brother.  This method is great for both encouraging independence (so annoying to coax him to get himself dressed twice a day) and also a nice way to acknowledge unprompted good behavior.

His first prize was Chick Hicks, the bad guy from the first Cars Movie.

POTDs: Lukas at Nest

Alex.was feeling a bit under the weather today (the puking on himself, me, and our bed at 3am last night variety), so I left him with Natalie and Oliver and headed to our Mommy & Me class alone with Lukas this afternoon. Since Alex had already gotten to go once alone, it was a happy coincidence that Lukas got a similar experience. Since it was such a mild day and things have slowed down at work, I through him in the sling and we walked to class and back.  He was down-right adorable on the ~1mile walk over, pointing out (and exclaiming --  very talkative kids in this family) every single parked car, taxi, bike, dog, and person that walked by us.  So much city life to take in!!!  Since I usually have them in the stroller, which means little interaction, it was nice change of pace to have some special one-on-one time and a "conversation" the whole walk over.  

At class today, one of the other kids had a truck from the Cars movie.  Since Lukas' favorite pasttime is trying to play with Oliver's Cars cars, I knew it was only a matter of time before he got his hands on this one.  Sure enough, while all the other kids were playing in the sensory bin filled with Rice Krispies (remember, Lukas has an affinity for Crispix), he took the opportunity to stake claim to the truck.  

Baby/Family Update... but they aren't babies anymore

This post (and the few to follow shortly) have been looming for months now and weighing on my mind with each passing month I don't get them published.  Since the babies were 10mo old, I've been wanting to write a separate post on each to to encapsulate their individuality....  6+ months later, they have changed so much and their personalities are even more developed - I wish I had captured a snapshot of their 10mo personalities then. But so it goes...  Individual posts on all three coming soon.   

In the meantime, a quick Baby/Family Update.  {Sheepishly}, these photos are actually from a photoshoot I did back in late September.... 

Superhero family!

Halloween was so much fun this year!  Oliver really understood what trick or treating is all about and the babies loved being set free (taken out of their stroller) to run around on the streets that had been closed off for trick-or-treating. 

More Braunschweiger Cousin Fun

Since we had so much fun at Kim & Bill's back in March, we invited ourselves over for another playdate!  Once again, all the cousins played nicely together.  The big kids especially enjoyed the battery-operated cars (Lightenin'! as Oliver says) and there were plenty to go around.  Nicole even brought a mini-one that the little boys were able to ride.  After lunch and some trains inside, we got everyone into costumes.  Pure coincidence that everyone was a superhero.  Pretty sure this photo will live in infamy!  Then we headed back outside to soak up more of the gorgeous Autumn weather. 

Visiting the NJ Grandparents

Adam was able to score a last minute ticket to the Eagles/Dallas game on Sunday.  Since the orchard was already halfway to my family in Jersey, we took two separate cars there and I continued north, while Adam returned home to enjoy some peace and quiet.  

Sidenote: Adam had been stuck with the kids for a full Sunday, plus morning/bedtime routine on Mon-Wed while I was in Cali on a recent business trip.  I enjoyed a lovely afternoon of San Diego weather, a crisp cold glass of white wine, while reading a library book that Sunday.  It seemed only fair that he gets some kid-free time too.    

Annual Apple Picking Adventure

Even though Ken and Lee Ann had taken the boys pumpkin picking, Adam and I ended up really wanting to do a family trip to the orchard.  What a difference a year makes!  (last year's post).  We've been to Linvilla so often in recent years, that we decided to go elsewhere.  We ended up at a small, quaint farm (you actually drove through a neighborhood to find the entrance) near New Hope.  It was a quick tractor ride to the apples and we were able to easily walk back.  The babies happily wandered around between the trees, pointing at all the apples, birds, airplanes they saw, while we alternated apple picking with Oliver. Well, to put it more accurately, Adam & I picked apples, while Oliver ate as many as he could get his hands on! 

Lots and lots of photos from our outing!!!!

And now... A Mommy Update

This blog has always about the kids... this time, I'm going to talk a bit about myself for a change!

POTD- Alex at Nest

On Monday, Lukas was feeling a bit under the weather.  So, I kept Lukas home with me while Natalie took the other two to the playground.  When it came time for our Mommy & Me class, I left LUkas and his germs home, and took Alex solo.  I thought he would enjoy the one-on-one time a lot more than he did. Usually, Alex is the only kid (out of 8-10) that is actually sitting in the circle, listening to the book and participating in the songs.  This time, he was off, just like the other kids, too busy playing to be bothered. 

When Alex is excited, he flaps his hands/arms!  It's pretty darn adorable.  

POTD: Firetruck Museum

Today, I took care of the babies for a few hours so Oliver and Natalie could go off on an adventure. They went to the Fire truck museum, which I thought Oliver would love. The highlight of the trip seems to be the new fire engine Natalie bought him. Not sure what exactly Oliver was expecting, but he wasn't very impressed by the museum.

Pretty impressive how often I post now that I mainly use my cellphone - apologies for the.many typos as a result.

POTD- Oh Lukas

All of our kids love climbing in/out of, sitting in, and being carried around in washbaskets, cardboard boxes, etc. They must be part cat!  Last night, I put the big pot we use to make spaghetti sauce down on the floor and Lukas immediately clammored to be put inside. Moments later, he's screaming, because its too small (even for him) to sit comfortably in. As soon as he's free, he's trying to climb back in.  Ha!  Once I started taking pictures, Oliver wanted in on the action.

POTD: Ready for Halloween

After we got home from bowling on Monday, Natalie and Oliver hung up our new spider web and spiders (bets on how long until Alex or Lukas swallow one?) and Oliver and I decorated the front door.

Yesterday, I bought our remaining family costumes - must say, this is the first time in a very long time that I am excited for Halloween!

Celebrating Oliver's Half Birthday

Since Adam had off from work yesterday for Columbus Day, I sent him off with the twins for our weekly class at the Nest. I was looking forward to doing something with Oliver then, and when I realized Sunday was his half-birthday, I decided to make it a more official outing. Natalie and I took Oliver out to get Halloween costumes and go bowling.

Trip to Alexandria

This past weekend we were in Alexandria, VA visiting some good friends. Brady and Sarah are the.ones we went to Asheville with in Oct '05 and visited in Japan for Christmas '08. They have a 1yr old son and we had fun catching up while watching the kids play.

Natalie came along with us. She spent Saturday being a tourist in DC and then watched our kids in the hotel on Saturday night, so we could enjoy and evening of adult conversation over a delicious dinner and drinks. On Sunday morning, I entertained the kids in the hotel while Adam and Natalie slept in and then we had a tasty breakfast at their house (we may need to invest in our own waffle maker!) before heading home.

Armer Lukas (translation: Poor Lukas)

Last night, just at the start of the "witching hour" Lukas tripped and fell and was bleeding pretty heavily from his mouth. a quick call to my pediatrician later and Lukas and I were off to CHOP to have him checked out. I thanked my lucky stars in the car that we had an au pair living with us again. Natalie was home and able to keep an eye on the others until Adam got home. the last time we had a minor late-afternoon medical emergency before Adam got home, I couldn't get a hold of neighbor-friends and had to drag all 3 to the pediatrician.

It turns out that Lukas did not bite completely through his tongue as I had feared, but had just broken through on the top and bottom. we had just been at the pediatrician yesterday morning for their 15mo check up, which included vaccinations and the flu shot, so Lukas was immediately distrusting od anyone in scrubs. which didn't help the situation. When they finally did check him out, I had to lay down with him on my chest holding down his arms, while a nurse kept his.mouth open so a doctor.could look around. Every chance he got, Lukas sprayed us all with very loud, wet raspberries, indicating his anger at what we were putting him through.

They gave him some Tylenol when we arrived and told us to give him more for pain as needed, but otherwise his tongue would heel itself.  This turned out to be an expensive outing for an applesauce dinner and Tylenol! My Oma used to say "Arme Heike" or "Arme Nicole" whenever we would tell her we were sick.  Armer Lukas! he's doing okay today, but is clearly disinterested in any type of solid food.

POTD: Lukas fun

Lukas vetoed the PM nap today. This is how I finally got him to sit still (he wanted nothing more than to run, run, run in the basement.)

Consignment Sale Junkie

Tis the season for consignment sales!!!  Yes, yes, I've become a bit obsessed, BUT they are a great way to pick up kids gear at a reasonable price.  This is the second time that we sold some of our baby stuff to fund our purchased.   At the Main Line MOM (Moms of Multiples) sale, we ended up making $286, which more than covered what we bought. 

Photos: Loaded up for the sale (first) and our haul (second). 

Anniversary Trip to Manhattan/ Weekend with Grandma & Pop-pop

For our anniversary, Adam arranged for us to take a child-less weekend to Manhattan.  Ken & Lee Ann were nice enough to take care of the rugrats for us and Adam and I had a lovely time playing tourist and enjoying the peace and quiet of sleeping in!  The grandparents were exhausted by the time we picked up the rugrats, but everyone seemed to have a fabulous time.  Of course, all 3 of the kids slept better that weekend than they ordinarily do for us!

September 2013 Family Update

It's been awhile since I have taken the time to write a longer post... Yes, yes, technically this September family update is being published in October.

Doesn't Labor Day always have that "new beginnings" feeling similar to New Years???  I feel that way at work. Everyone gets back from summer vacation and our team has a renewed focus to complete the projects and goals we set for ourselves at the start of the year.  This September, it has felt even more so, as Natalie joined our family Labor Day weekend and Junior League (where I've taken on a leadership position) kicks off its new year in September as well.  Lots of changes for this family lately! 

Long Overdue 12 Mont Post

PLACEHOLDER!!!!

I need to get a 12mo update (with stories, photos, & milestones) together, but since I keep pushing it back, it is falling more and more out of order...  Submitting this as a placeholder so the post doesn't fall more behind. 

POTD: Checking out Washington Square

Yesterday morning we took the babies to get bloodwork drawn as part of their 12mo appointment, since their 15mo appointment is next week. Oops!

On our way back to the car we enjoyed a perfect fall morning in a different park.

POTD: Fancy Schmanzy

Last night Adam  and I attended the opening night of the Philadelphia Orchestra with some of my Junior League friends. Love an excuse to get Adam into his tux!

Oliver & Natalie Activities

On days Oliver isn't at daycare, and Natalie has all three, I am trying to work from home.  Since Oliver doesn't get to see Natalie very often (in daycare 3 days a week), we're trying to create some opportunities for them to have one-on-one time. This will be a chance to improve Oliver's German and give Natalie some variety from the rest of her baby-focused week.  Each Monday afternoon they will go out on an outing together (while the babies and I take a Mommy & Me class) and on Friday mornings they will do some kind of arts & craft project while the babies nap. 

Their first activity was Flubber, a project from Tante Kristy meant to be used at the bungalow on a rainy day, that we just hadn't gotten to.  Since Bentley really disliked this project, I had low expectations, but Oliver had so much fun!

Family Outing: Lancaster & Strasburg Railroad

Last Sunday, we packed up and took all the kids and Natalie to Lancaster.  Since we didn't really work any family outings into our staycation, Adam and I were both antsy for an outing that was a bit farther from home.  Crazy to think how different this outing was as compared to last year.

We like getting up & out early, so the babies can take their 9am nap in the car.  Since the first train ride wasn't until noon we needed to kill some time in Lancaster in the morning.  We went to see the miniature train museum, which was pretty cool.  There was lots to see and even the babies enjoyed watching the trains zip by and all the people and animals figurines they had that moved. 

Lost Post: Late July Trip to Avalon

Oops!  Missed a summer adventure.... In late July, Adam & Oliver spent a long weekend down in Avalon with Ken & Lee Ann, et all.  The babies & I were originally going to be there for 4 days as well, but the thought of coordinating naps, food, etc in a hotel was giving me a panic attack!  So instead, Adam & Oliver were able to stay with the family and the babies and I went to the bungalow for the weekend and then came down to the shore as a daytrip.    

Oliver was apparently very, very tentative around the ocean (pretty sure THIS has something to do with it!).  He wanted NO part in the ocean and didn't even want to put his big toe in the water.  The only time he would go near the water was from the safety of someone's shoulders.  By Tuesday, when I got down there, he had finally gotten comfortable with the waves and happily chased the small waves up & down the coast (too bad I don't have a video of that).     

Lukas Milestone: A much needed haircut!

We finally, finally, finally took Lukas to get a much needed haircut.  He and Alex had both gotten a few strands cut by me, but nothing that qualified as photo worthy.  

Before:

Sporting the Donald Trump look!

Bungalow Staycation 2013

At the end of the summer, Adam and I timed our vacation to be off from work in between the nanny leaving and our new au pair starting (which was better in theory, since the nanny bailed a week early).  Since we weren't ready to take on a big trip with three kids 3 and under and had already used our vacation budget to redo the kitchen, we planned a stay-catation at the bungalow.  We intended to be there the whole week with Omi (like I had done last year while Pauline was on vacation), but uncooperative weather, getting-sick babies, and Oliver suddenly refusing to sleep in his own bed put a damper on things.  Adam, not used to lazy, quiet days at the SSC midweek was also getting a bit stir-crazy.  We ended up sticking around until Wednesday and then heading home.   Devon's daycare was closed, so he was with us on Monday & Tuesday.  Oliver was happy having his friend around and the two of them play very nicely together.  We had borrowed the Lightening McQueen car, which easily the highlight of the staycation for Oliver!

Bungalow Delights

We had a blast at the bungalow this summer!  I'm so glad we put the money into the kitchen update.  The babies were happiest being ferried around in their Radio Flyer Wagon from Omi and Oliver was in heaven playing in the sand, on the playground, in the swings, running around in the clubhouse -- the SSC is definitely his happy place.   Here are some snippets from our cousin fun, in no particular order:

Sportsfest weekend, all the BOND/PAL cousins were on hand to play.  (Devon & Nathan missing from my photos).  Uncle Brian and  his friends camped out that weekend and Oliver has been excited about camping ever since (perhaps a campout birthday next year?).  This continues to be our favorite weekend of the summer.  

PAL Cousins: Believe it or not, Preston is just 3 weeks older than Alex & Lukas!

Another SAHM Day

Get ready for a slew of posts as I finally catch-up the blog from all our summer fun!

Our nanny surprised us by needing to stop working a week early.  It was frustrating, since we would have lined up Natalie's arrival differently had we known.  We shipped the babies off to daycare with Oliver on three days and the other two days, I was a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM).  

Never one to just sit around the house, I tried to make the days action-packed.  We started the day making zuchinni bread while the babies napped.  Then I hauled the kids off to the playground.  After my first successful outing with newly mobile babies (ie. 3 kids going in different directions), I attempted to take all of them out to lunch solo.  What was I thinking?  My butt was on in my seat for a total of 30sec, so unnecessarily stressful.  When we got home, I made Oliver a fort in the basement to nap in - he was in heaven!

Welcome Natalie!!!

Have you noticed I've been on a bit of a blogging hiatus lately?  Between weekends in the bungalow (leaving Friday at lunchtime and coming home Monday morning), my work travel, Junior League meetings, Adam's happy hours, and weekly swim class, the last two months have been pretty hectic, and I've barely had time to sit down at my computer.... stay tuned for loads of summer photos/posts, after this weekend. 

Today we welcomed our new au pair Natalie into our home!  The week leading up to today has felt like Christmas... lots of anticipation all around and plenty to do around the house to get ready for her arrival. Oliver and Adam picked her up out in the burbs around lunchtime while the babies and I ran last minute errands in town.  After we got her settled at home, the family did an outing to Tanney Park and then had a yummy pizza dinner.  Fingers crossed for a wonderful year together!

A Day with Nathan

Since the weather on Saturday wasn't great, Oliver & I went up to the club solo the last time.  The babies are awful in the car, and it wasn't worth the hassle of having them in the car 4 hours for a trip that wasn't a full two days.  Omi slept over the bungalow with us on Saturday, which was a special treat.  On Sunday, my cousin Billy & Julie brought Nathan over for the day.  The boys had so much fun playing together, especially at the playground by the pool.  Hopefully, we'll be able to have Nathan over again before the summer is over.