14 Month Update

I've been without Internet for the last week or so, so I have a good excuse for not posting for a while! I have so much to catch up on though!

The babies are doing a lot... it's like a switch was flipped and they suddenly understand me! They're also mimicking a lot. They’re ALL currently saying the following words: ”Momma”, “Daddy”, “Papaw”, “Night Night” (Ny Ny), “Ball” (Baw), “Bye bye” and “No”. The girls don’t ALWAYS say them when I want them to, but I’ve definitely heard all of them say them at one time or another. Their very favorite word is definitely “daddy”. They say it ALL the time! They think daddy is always outside. I guess when he comes in from being at work, they know he comes in from outside, so that’s where they think he is when he’s not home. They always look out the window and say “daddy, daddy.” When Matt comes home, they all run to him for hugs. After the initial hugging, he and the girls now have a tradition: He says “Ready to go change clothes?” And they start walking to the bedroom door to go change out of work clothes. (They love to be anywhere other than their gated play area in the living room, so it’s lots of fun for them to run around our bedroom.) Here's a pic after the changing has taken place and the playtime begins with daddy:




(P.S. A lot of these photos were taken from my cell phone... not as clear as usual).

As I mentioned, they seem to understand certain things I say now. For mealtime, I’ll say, “ready to eat?” and they’ll all run to the gate for me to pick them up and put them in their high chairs. And If I ask one of them to come to me, they usually will. They also have all of their toys’ songs memorized (and so do I). If I sing the song that goes to the toy house, they all go to the house. If I sing a song for the zoo, they all go to the zoo, etc. It’s really funny to watch.

They’re all giving kisses too. When I ask, “can I have a kiss”? They lean in and give me a big smooch. Now I’m working on getting them to kiss each other!

A little about each baby…
Izzy’s hair is doing the cutest little thing right now... we call her Chicken Little because the back flips out like a little tail. If Matt fixes her hair after bath, he'll put a little peak in the top too, so she looks like this:

She keeps talking a lot. One common thing she likes to say sounds a lot like, "Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy"! Now I don't say this, but whatever she's saying sounds like it. Well... now, that it sounds like she's saying it, we've been saying it too. It's so funny to hear her do it. When I say I love you, she'll (sometimes) repeat something that sounds similar. She’s also getting very into her dance moves. She not only sways side to side, but she’ll bop up and down and lift her little feet. When we give them their milk at night, daddy usually gives Izzy her milk. It’s funny because she used to see the other two climbing up on my lap and she’d start whining because she wanted it too. Now, she walks over to where daddy sits and waits for him to pick her up and give her milk too.

Abby is such a little sweet heart. I’ve mentioned before that she’s a lil doe and afraid of her own shadow… she still is. The other two love to go upside down, but Abby doesn’t want anything to do with it. She holds on for dear life and looks panic stricken, it’s really sad. I told Matt, someday when the other two are riding roller coasters and Abby doesn’t want to, you can’t blame her… it’s something in her DNA! She absolutely hates it! She’s still very attached to Srog and likes to sit on my lap a lot. Here’s a pic of Abby with the worst bed head I’ve ever seen! This was after her afternoon nap, and I don’t know what she did different, but I couldn't stop laughing when I came in and saw it!

Abby knows where her head, nose and ears are when asked…. The other babies know where their head is, but Abby consistently gets these 3 correct.

Ally has been a bit of a hand full as of late. Have I said that about Ally before? She’s definitely got a mind of her own, and likes to throw fits. Her current thing to do is, instead of standing at my feet throwing a fit, she’ll walk away and go scream and cry all by herself. She’s kind of a turkey sometimes. But - she can also be the sweetest baby ever when she wants to be. Her favorite thing to do lately is to put a burp cloth on her head like she has hair. She’ll walk around the living room, with this towel on her head for 10 minutes, thinking she’s really hot stuff! Here’s a pic with Ally and her “hair”:


The other day at mealtime, Ally was covering her eyes with her hands. When I said, “Where’s Ally?” She’d lift her little hands and do it again. I really never taught her that with her hands. She’s really made the most progress in the last month... even though she throws her little fits, I can really tell she’s grown a lot cognitively. She knows how to make all of the toys play music. Here's a pic of her with her toy bus. She would push down on the button to make it play, then clap her hands and look up at me with this shy look. She has this "shy look" often. It's like she's going, "I know I'm cute"!



The weekend before last was so busy! We had two different family reunions, and one of those I was helping plan and set up for… so it was a ridiculously crazy weekend! The babies had a very good time though. Here are a few pics from the reunions:

Sherman Family (My mom’s side). We met in Pryor and used the Fellowship hall at my church. The girls had a great time playing with all of their cousins and 2nd cousins.

Haley/Morris Family (My Dad’s side). We always meet at my Uncle Bob’s house in Southwest City, MO. We weren’t able to stay long enough to get a pic taken with the entire group, but here’s a pic of my dad with his grandkiddos. Needless to say, they were getting a little hot and tired... Poor grandpa Chuck!

Here's a pic of the girls walking around at the reunion. I love their little tennis shoes.

We had a good time at both reunions. I didn’t get to visit with everyone quite as much as I would like since I have three 14-month-olds running around everywhere, but it was still nice to see everyone. I'm very thankful for my family!

Before ending, here's a random pic I had to share... Again, taken with my cell phone, so a little blurry, but this is a pic of the girls in a little car wreck.... poor Abby!

4th of July

Ok, so I've been on a little blogging hiatus, but I'm back. Honestly, everything was so mundane for a few weeks, I didn't have much to blog about. However, the girls did a lot over the holiday weekend.... I'll share with you in a sec.

Here's the latest on what they're doing:

We're all very big into saying "Uh-oh". Anytime anything is dropped or anyone falls down, we will hear this word in triple time. Izzy and Abby have been saying it well for about 3 weeks, Ally just started this week. Her version still sounds a bit like, "uh-uh", but she's getting the hang of it.

I've finally got them to go to one long nap after lunch. This works out much better for going places and getting things done. They go down about 1:00 and sleep until 3:30 or 4. Most of the time, I leave them in their cribs until 4 for some "alone time", as I like to call it. Alone time for mommy and babies. They're constantly on top of each other and together and I think a little alone time is good. Usually, they don't fuss much about it... they've got a few soft toys in their cribs, so they keep busy.

Speaking of cribs, we've decided to add double doors to the opening between the two rooms that make up the nursery. Ally has been sleeping in the guest room pack and play for quite a while now, because she has a tendency to wake up her sisters. So... we're going to try to move her back to her crib, but move the crib to the other side of the double doors and move a changing table into the room with the other 2 cribs. I'll put a fan on both sides for a little white noise and to drown out any crying. This is our first attempt at getting her back in her crib. If this doesn't work, we'll most likely turn the guest room into Ally's room with a little paint and redecorating. Currently that room is kind of the catch-all, and we kind of like it that way, so let's hope the double doors work.

The girls are all very much into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show right now. We watch it a couple of times a day and the girls dance and giggle when they see Mickey. Abby bobs her head, Ally sways side to side, and Izzy will pick up her feet, sway and sometimes even bounce. They look back at me, grin really big, then keep dancing. So cute! I'll try to add a clip of this soon.

A big thing the babies like to do lately is climb on the couch. They LOVE to romp and giggle all over it. Here's a pic of the couch fun:

left to right - Abby, Ally, Izzy

We're having a little problem with the toy sharing lately. It seems they always want what the others have. Hmmmm.... guess it starts young, huh? Anyway, I think it's impossible for them to understand the sharing concept right now, so I use the rule: whoever had it first, gets to play with it. When they lay it down, it's free to take. Now, if I see them sharing, I don't enforce the rule, but generally, they get pretty terratorial when sisters try to play with their toy. It's pretty difficult, but we're doing the best we can. Other mothers tell me they think my girls will be well-rounded, able to play with other kids well because they have to share all their toys. I, on the other hand, have this fear that they will be extremely possessive ("mine!") because they have to fight for everything they have. I guess time will tell.... let's hope they're right!

We've been having some other babies come over for play dates once every two weeks on Thursday mornings. I make the coffee and another mom brings breakfast. It starts at 9, and we usually sit and chat until 11:30 or 12:00. Here's a pic of the babies playing. From left to right in the pic: Izzy, Pierce, Cooper, Andi Mae, Ally, Elizabeth, Abby. The first few play dates, Abby and Ally were a little clingy, but they're starting to relax and play with others a little better.



The babies are really starting to mimic what we say. For example, if we say "I love you", Abby will repeat something that sounds a lot like it. They're starting to point to body parts pretty well too. When asked, "Where's your head", "Where's your nose?" they'll point to it. They're not right all the time, but most of the time they do well. They still love to wrinkle up their nose and breathe hard when asked if they're mad, and they're doing well at waving bye bye. These are just some of the things they're doing, but that's all I'm going to capture for now.

We had a pretty busy 4th of July weekend. Matt had Monday off, so we decided to do more than the usual. On Saturday, even though it was raining, we decided to go to Tulsa to eat at Red Lobster, then go to the mall. This was the girls' first trip to the mall. You should see the looks we get when we go out. I swear... we hardly could eat our meal for all the interruptions we received from people wanting to make comments or ask questions! Here's a pic of us heading to the mall: Ally's turned around looking at me. Izzy is next to her and Abby is in the back.


In front of Dillard's in the strollers...
Izzy is in the single stroller. Ally and Abby in double.






While at the mall, we had the girls' feet measured and got them some tennis shoes. Feet sizes are: Ally - 5.5, Izzy - 5 and Abby - 4. P.S.... Man, it's expensive having 3 babies!


On Monday, we went to Matt's parents house for some BBQ and some fun in the baby pool. They had a baby pool set up that's shaped like a whale... here's some pics of the girls playing in it:


Left to right - Abby, Izzy, Ally



Abby

Ally, just before she decided she didn't like it anymore.

Izzy loved every minute and could've stayed in for a very long time.
Meemaw and Papaw also had a fun pool set up for the older grandkids. Here's Madison and Damon playing in their pool:

After the whale pool, we decided to see if the babies wanted to play in the big kids' pool. They enjoyed it too! You won't see any of pics of Ally here because 1) She was the baby I was responsible for and 2) she didn't want to stay in long.

Abby
Izzy
Abby splashing, Izzy in background apparently taking a jump shot.

This is all I have for now... I'll try not to wait so long before posting more!