Transitions

Change, change, change.  I am a creature of habit, so change does not always come easy to me! However, after the last year and a half I think I am tolerating change a little more.  More importantly, I am anticipating it and finding regularity in it!
But change can be good, too.  And nothing is more sweet than seeing the "typical" developmental changes in our miracle babies at just the right times.  Maybe partly because I am an OT, and partly because we prayed for these children so long, I never quite feel blessed or thankful to God enough for the transitions and changes in our life right now.

Here are some of our transitions at the moment:
School & Work Transitions

Our girl showing off her new backpack and working on some self-appointed "homework"

Jenna is starting Kindergarten next week!  All day, every day.  I could say a bunch of mushy stuff about how fast it went, but: 1.  I think I would cry 2. It sounds so cliché & 3.  Every parent reading this gets it.  They grow up waaaay too fast!
I am also very excited to be going back to work next week.  It is so ideal:  I will be working as a school OT in the same district I have worked the past 10 years, but only 1.5 days a week.  I will be working with a new population & staff.  I am looking forward to the newness of it, getting out of the house regularly, and using my brain professionally again!  I feel like I have worked harder this last year and a half "not working" than I ever have in my life, but at the same time I have been blessed so abundantly  that I can't complain.  More to come once we roll into our new routines...

Andy & I on a date night, Jenna climbing trees with daddy.  For those of you that don't know, he owns a tree business where he cuts & prunes trees.  Andy is clearly training Jenna to be his helper someday, and she is a natural!  I Love my Tree Monkeys!

Food Transitions
Baby food is basically extinct in our house.  It didn't take the babies long to realize food is much more exciting when it has texture and can be fed to oneself.  This is awesome, but the downside is I am constantly cleaning up food from the floor, high-chairs, bibs, hair, & clothing!  They are very messy babies and I am SO GLAD the weather is good, because they eat and bathe outside on nearly a daily basis!

Even the boys, who took longer to like finger foods, turn their nose up on baby food now!  Big Kids!

 Snacks:  Instead of eating inside & messing up the high chairs & floor again, they have been eating the after nap snack outside.  In a pack n play.  Watching big sister play.  Perfect for eating veggie straws & drinking water!  When they are done, I simply shake the crumbs out of the p & p and keep it out for a holding cell after baths later on (at the water table, outside).  Since they don't go in one very often, it is a novel thing to do and they don't mind sharing one p & p (after all, they did all share the same belly!).

Bottles & milk:  We still are in the process of transitioning the babies from bottles to sippy cups, and they seem to do better during the day but the morning & night bottles they like to use- well, bottles!  Hannah drinks 100% milk now, but since the other babies still qualified for formula this month, I am using up the free formula before transitioning them to milk.  I still mix in 25% milk so they are getting use to the taste but boy will I be happy when I don't have to mix formula any more.

---But, good news!!!  I was still feeding the babies their  bottles 2 at a time.  Early on, I facilitated all 4 babies taking bottles propped up using the "quad-feed" style.  However, when the babies got older and more wiggly (around 5 months), I became frustrated in this method because they would wiggle around, drool out the milk, meaning more laundry for me and less milk in their bellies.

Even though it took up way more time, I actually ended up liking this method because it was semi-personalized time with them.  I would use this time to sing & talk to the two I fed, making eye contact and snuggling with them.  Well, this method worked great until about 2 weeks ago.  Suddenly they all wanted bottles at the same time.  They were pulling hair, poking eyes & noses, and being bothersome to the 2 trying to drink.  With caution, I tried the quad-feed again.  Amazing!  In 10 minutes, four babies were fed and happy.  They boys hold their own bottles, the girls sometimes do but need a little prop up still.  Now, they refuse to take a bottle unless it is this style.  YEAH!!!

Mobility Transitions
First off, we are moving to big carseats!  Because the girls are definitely over 20 pounds but the boys are not quite there yet, we still have 2 old baby seats and 2 next-step-up seats.  I will be ready to be done with those baby carriers for good!
We also have had mobility transitions in play.  I have switched a lot of our "baby" toys over for bigger toys that facilitate climbing, walking, cruising, language development and problem solving.  I also have been having to keep an eye on them.  These monkeys like to climb on EVERYTHING!  (I am sure someday they will also accompany daddy in the trees, ha!)

The babies are definitely getting mobile in so many ways.  Hannah is all-out walking.  Lauren is "Finger Holding Walking", meaning she can do it but only with the confidence of holding onto someone's hand or finger.  She does walk a few steps without help and is just so proud of herself!  Tyler cruises well but is NOT interested in walking holding onto my hands or a toy yet.  Tanner pulls himself to stand and is starting to cruise, and he also is starting to regular crawl instead of army crawl (especially when mommy is around, because we have been working on this!!!).  Here is a video clip that shows their mobility and a little slice of our life!  (hope it works, if not, sorry!)

The babies have also been learning to crawl up the stairs.  I figure the sooner they learn, the better!  Lauren is actually scarily proficient and they all are fascinated with stairs, however they haven't quite realize the dangers yet!  I usually only have 2 practice at a time so I can save a faller if needed.

I am sure there will be more changes as soon as I get use to these, but that's life, right?  Transitions are good.  Change is good.  Let me say it again, cause I need to hear it.  Change.....is good.

Hugs!

Becky