Another first

Our little Pat tried rice cereal for the first time last night. He did not love it, he did not hate it. He took it with a smile (like he takes most things in life). Andrew and John cheered him on and wanted to take a turn feeding him too; I told them they could try once he got a little better at eating and after some fussing, they moved on to something else. It is so hard to believe that Wyatt is already eating cereal. Before I know it he will be crawling, then walking and then telling me "NO" like his brothers do now. It's amazing how fast time passes when you have children. I wish it would slow down and that I could keep them this age a little longer. While I look forward to each stage in their lives, I do not want to give up their sweet smell, their soft skin, their mispronunciations. Ever since becoming pregnant I have always heard that there is nothing like a mother's love. I used to wonder if they would ever know how much I love them (since they are all boys) but then I see their dad looking at them and realize that I am wrong....if they have children one day, they will know.

4 month "well" visit

Wyatt had his 4 month well visit yesterday. The first thing that they asked me to do was strip him down to his diaper so that he could be weighed. My poor Pat did not look well. His whole torso is covered in a rash (the leftovers from his virus). Luckily, he acted well. He smiled and cooed at the doctor while we talked about how he is doing. Then it was time for the physical exam. Poor Wyatt has an ear infection. Another first in his life...and not a good one. This has not been his week. He is taking an antibiotic and a decongestant and we go back in two weeks for his shots.

Wyatt is in the 90% for weight and 75% for height! He is BY FAR our biggest child. Pretty soon they will look like triplets.

Boo Bah Funny

If you have spent much time with John, you have heard him mention the name "Boo Bah" more than once. Boo Bah, whose name is actually Johnathan Arnold, goes to the Rabit's Nest with John. We talk about Boo Bah a lot at our house.

Susan: John, you are silly!
John: Boo Bah Silly!

John, you are funny.
Boo Bah Funny!

John, you are cute!
Boo Bah cute!

John, you are a mess!
Boo Bah may-us!

We can be driving into our neighborhood and John is still saying "Bye Boo Bah!"
John thinks Boo Bah is so cool...and he is! He is older, he tinkles on the potty, he can talk really well, etc.


I have always worried a little about John getting along with the other kids because, even though he has the biggest heart in the world, he is "the biter".

All my fears were laid to rest this morning though! When we pulled up at Heather's, Boo Bah opened the door and John squeeled with excitement...which is normal. But John was not the only one who was excited. I could not get John out of the car fast enough. Boo Bah wanted to know "Where's John? Where's John?"

Both of their little faces lit up when they saw each other! They hugged, threw a few rocks, got yelled at to be careful and went inside to start their day together.

My heart smiled on the way to work. John's little friend Jonathan loves him just as much as our JD "budge" Boo Bah!!

Just a virus

I think every mother probably feels guilty on a weekly, or maybe even daily basis. I know that I do. How do you find the balance of being supportive but not smothering your child(ren)? How do you make your children mind while still letting them have fun? If you have more than one child, how do you spend quality time with them all?
On the way to the ER last night I felt particularly guilty. I always thought John would be my first trip to the ER. John climbs on everything, falls down a lot, jumps from one piece of furniture to another sometimes (we're working on this), so I always envisioned taking him in for stitches or a broken arm. But, as it turns out, Baby Wyatt ended up being our first trip to the ER.
Last night when I began feeding him he felt hot. I did not think a whole lot of it and tried to feed him. He was not very interested in taking his bottle, which still did not alarm me really. I did decide to take his temp and when the thermometer under his arm shot up to 102 in less than 2 seconds, I removed it and thought "this can't be right". I hoped it wasn't right but took his temp again and it read 103.4. Yikes. My poor Pat Pat.
When the on-call doctor said to take him to the ER immediately, my heart started racing. Ashley stayed behind with the twins and I left the house with nothing but a diaper bag that contained no passy and enough formula for 1 bottle...good job, Mom. (Did I mention guilt?)

My mind just raced on the way to the ER. What could be wrong? What if something is really wrong? Maybe he is so laid back because something is wrong with him?

Finally we got seen by the doctor and (as if I did not feel bad enough about not having enough formula or a passy) the questioning started:
When did you notice he was warm? (umm, I am not sure)
Has he had wet diapers? (umm, yeah, I mean I think so)
Has he been acting lethargic? (ummm, he is always pretty laid back)
How long has he been this congested? (a long time, but I have taken him to the doctor for it before).

So much guilt came over me. My poor baby is sick and I have been so busy just doing the normal day to day things that I have not noticed anything. I felt like I was defending the fact that I do pay attention to my child.
So the doctor left and I cried, called Ashley and then decided to let myself off the hook; we all do the best we can.
After a lot of tests, the doctor said that Wyatt was OK. Just a virus. Thank you God.
By this point it was officially my birthday. 2:15 AM to be exact. As I walked out to the car with my sleeping sac of potatoes over my shoulder (who, by the way, weighs almost 17 pounds) I thought it appropriate to ring in my birthday with the person who had changed my life the most in the last year...my precious William Wyatt.

Happy Father's Day

Bye Boat.
Nana with the boys.
Andrew looks over the edge.
Captain Andy...


There are no cards, no gifts, no words to tell Ashley what a wonderful dad he is.
Thanks for taking us out on the lake, thanks for spending time with us, thanks for making the boys listen. Thank you, Ashley, for taking such good care of us all. We love you so much.

Past Tense of Throw

John: Daddy, Daddy, I throwed it. Daddy, I throwed it. Throwed it fence.

Susan: John, that is incorrect English. (Ignorning the fact that he left out "over the" in the last sentence.
Ashley: John, say "I threw it."

John: (smiling) I threwed it Daddy!!!

Stop It Mommy

Andrew's favorite new saying is "Stop it, Mommy". Here is a picture of the swating that goes along with it. :)

Here is a picture of our little Billy Idol.

Concert and Cookout

Sunday night at our church there was a concert and a "cook-out" (hot dogs and burgers inside). Nana, Papa, Uncle Chad, Ash, the boys and I all went and had a blast. A great group of young singers from Arkansas came to sing. It was a wonderful concert not because their voices were wonderful, but because their hearts were in it. Now that I have children I look at things so differently. All I could think during the concert was how proud their parents must be!

But...they could not be any prouder than I was of Pat Pat. He went to the concert with us because I could not bare to put him in the nursery twice in one day. He did not make a peep. He sat and listened to the music for a while and then went to sleep in Mommy's arms!

The twins LOVED the cook-out. They were so happy to see Nana and Papa and loved eating their hotdogs with c-pap (John's way of saying ketchup) and chips. John also had fun cheering for the winners of the desert contest!

Pat Pat the Chunky Monkey

Wyatt does not go for his 4 month appt until 6/19 so I have no idea how much he weighs, but I would guess that it is 15 or more pounds. He has been wearing 6-9 month clothes and they are not too big!

Last night before putting Wyatt in the tub, I actually had to clean lint out of the rolls in his neck.

This weekend Granny Meg thought that his sandals were rubbing his ankles wrong, but his skin was just red from not getting enough air in the rolls!

We also can not buy diapers in bulk for that little gummy bear because he outgrows them before we can use them all!

And he is just as sweet as he is chubby! We are so blessed.

Swimming

This weekend the boys went swimming, not once but twice in one day, in two different pools, in two different states. Our Saturday morning started by going to Granny Meg and Pop's house to pick them up before heading to the pool in their neighborhood. I think Pop was more excited than anyone else! There were so many of us that we had to take two cars. The pool was like bath water. John wanted to get in and out over and over again. Andrew enjoyed jumping off the side to me and Pop. He went under, blew bubbles in the water, kicked his feet and moved his arms. That boy is going to be on the swim team I think. Wyatt and Granny Meg stayed in the shade while the rest of us played for as long as we could stand the heat, which was not long. There were actually two other sets of twins at the pool. 7 kids total, all twins except for Wyatt. What are the odds of that?

After a PB&J lunch we hit the road for Gastonia to visit Coach, GG, Grandmama and Granddaddy. We arrived in Gastonia napped and ready to go! Well I did not take a literal nap, but I did zone out to the sound of my three sleeping beauties snoring all the way up I77. They are so beautiful when they sleep...long eyelashes and precious little chests barely rising and falling.

Swimming in Gastonia was even more short lived due to heat and misbehavior, but at least they got to get wet. We had a delicious dinner and headed for home.

I knew something was wrong when Wyatt started screaming (that baby RARELY screams). He was hungry...again. It takes a lot of calories to maintain that girth! So, after buying a case of water in order to get one that was not cold, Wyatt got his diaper changed and a bottle and he was as good as new.

Brothers

Last night around 12:30 AM I heard Andrew crying and went to his room. I opened the door immediately, assuming that he would be standing there. When I opened the door I saw a mound on the floor. Both he and John had gotten off their mattresses and were laying together, hugging each other, on the floor. I thought it was so sweet that they had found comfort in being close to each other. Little Andrew looked up and said "Mommy, tiss"! I gave him a kiss and he went right back to sleep.

My precious Wyatt slept from 9:30 PM to 6:00 AM. He is SUCH a good baby! I am not sure if it is his personality that makes him so easy, or the fact that there is just one of him, or maybe the fact that he is a term baby...or maybe it is all those things rolled into one that help make him so wonderful, but he is just a joy. Ashley and I were talking recently about how different this experience called parenting has been with him than it was with the twins. No home health, no monitors, no cardiologists, no surgeons, no physical therapists, no ENT or allergists; it is so much less stressful, but we are not taking it for granted. We are so lucky to have had this "normal" experience after having had our twins almost 3 months early. We got to hold him right when we he was born, Ashley was able to cut the cord...there were only 5 people in the room when he was born (including me)!! It has been truly wonderful.

What a weekend!!

This was a very big weekend at the Gilfillan house!

Saturday morning we headed to the zoo. We went early in hopes of beating the crowds and the heat and Ashley and I did not have very high hopes for the trip. Usually John and Andrew bicker in their stroller, want to get out and walk, do a lot of whining, etc. when we go to the zoo (or anywhere that they have to sit in the stroller for that matter). This trip was totally different though. The boys were both very interested in all the animals. They looked at each exhibit intently and made comments about certain animals. John saw a bear and said "HONEY" (that is Granny Meg's dog's name) and at the monkey exhibit Andrew said "Monkey funny"! Wyatt chilled in the baby bjorn the whole time sleeping. I think everyone there was as taken with him as they were any of the animals. Everywhere we went people smiled at us and said "awww, look at that baby!!"

Saturday night we had a birthday party for Granny Meg. The boys had fun hanging out with GM and Pop. GM read them books, Pop fed Wyatt twice, and when it was time to go to bed...the boys got to move our of their cribs. Ash took the cribs down and they slept on mattresses on the floor. We were very proud of them because it went very well. They made the transition pretty easily and have only gotten up a few times. They get up very early in the morning now, which is brutal, but I know that before long I will have to drag them out of bed to get them off to school, so I will just try to enjoy these days while they last.