Hey Drew

Drew is simply known as Drew Bear around our house. He is cuddly like a bear and hibernates like a bear when he sleeps. Drew was formerly known as Baby C or The Lone Ranger. He is a long, lean yelling machine and has really found his vocal cords! Drew loves to play on the activity mat with overhead light show. He gets so worked up watching the light show and playing with his toys that he just starts yelling at them. I'm pretty sure he is using some baby 4 letter words! After playing hard all Drew needs is his binky and a blanket and he puts himself right to sleep. This comes in very handy as his brothers are not so cooperative.

One of Drew's favorite pastimes is dancing. He likes to Latin dance with mommy (I'm working on my footwork) and enjoys dance-off competitions with Evan. Who knew Drew could do the macarena and break dance! He loves to stand now on his new found dancing legs making it nearly impossible to burp him sitting down. Drew also loves music and has his own song, "Hey Jude" but with the words changed to "Hey Drew". He likes it when Daddy sings it to him. Mommy - not so much.

Drew is happy to play by himself or wrestle with his brothers. He likes to sit in the crib watching the mobile and hold hands with Isaac (and occasionally suck on Isaac's hand). Drew is still quite a talker and loves to have long conversations with Grandpa Grose. From day one Drew has been the cooing baby when he ate and slept. This has continued today and I often hear him cooing in his sleep on the monitor. Of the three boys Drew is currently in the lead with the most hair. It is coming in light brown and is getting close to needing a comb. Drew is a very special boy and our days wouldn't be the same without him!

Isaac I Am

Our little man Isaac. Also known as Spud, Tator Tot, Peanut, and Smiley (and formerly known as Baby B). Isaac is a little flirt and loves to smile at people. He has an adorable crooked smile that will melt your heart (his smile is hard to get a picture of because he is very interested in the camera). He started his flirting in the hospital by winning over all of his nurses and it has continued today. Just the other day while we were out he flashed a big smile at some lady and she just gushed over him. He loves the attention. Isaac is learning to be VERY vocal to get your attention. He likes to be tickled and laughs really hard. Isaac is still little but catching up to his brothers quickly. He wears size 2 diapers now (maybe 1 1/2)!

Isaac just recently decided that Brewster is really funny. He will watch Brewster when he is in the room and then just start laughing at him. He even likes it when he barks (which mom and dad hate - can you say shock collar?) but he does not like Brewster's high pitched "singing" voice as his smile turns into a very concerned look. Brewster is happy to have a little buddy. We are a little concerned about Brewster's influence on Isaac. Isaac has become well known for his licking, drooling, and sticking his tongue out. Don't worry, he's not panting or sniffing bums, just concentrating really hard.

Isaac LOVES to be held and would be happy to hang on to you for hours and walk around the house. He especially likes to hang like a monkey on Grandpa Grose. After Isaac came home from his extended stay in the hospital you could set your watch by a 4pm meltdown but he has gotten used to his crazy and noisy family and no longer meltsdown...at4pm. Isaac likes to hang out and play with his brothers but is sure to tattle if Evan scratches him or if Drew pinches him. Hopefully I will be able to count on Isaac to tell on his brothers when they get older:) Isaac is a very happy baby and makes my day every morning when I wake up to a big smile!

What's Up With Evan

Evan. He is a busy guy these days. For about 2-3 weeks he has been able to roll from his back to his belly. Unfortunately he forgets how easy it is to roll back over onto his back and gets pretty frustrated after awhile. Evan always has a big smile for me when I get him out of the crib in the morning or after a nap. We have discovered that he is a Daddy's boy and will stare at Casey wherever he is in the room. Evan frequently squeals in delight when playing and then cracks up laughing. Like his identical twin, Isaac, Evan likes to put up a fight when it comes to sleepy time. The fight is always followed by a crash though! You can spot Evan in pictures with his brothers because he is always looking at the camera and has his mouth open. Just like mommy!!

Evan is an animal. He is a crazy little guy with crazy little arms and legs. You can see in the picture that Evan has socks on his hands. Although he does like doing sock puppet shows for his brothers the main purpose of the socks are to keep him from scratching (you can also see scratches on his forehead). I just can't get his nails short enough...or maybe I can't get him to stay still long enough to cut them. His crazy flailing arms still require swaddling at bedtime and he will surely wake up if he manages to Houdini a hand out. As previously mentioned, he likes to look at Casey all the time. This makes feeding him nearly impossible when Casey is feeding one of the other guys. He turns his head all over and smiles and giggles at him. You can imagine that Casey can't resist to smile back and really get him going:)

Evan has many names. We are always trying out new nicknames for him. He has previously been called Baby A, Evan Arthur Fonzarelli (only I liked this one), and Cheddar Neck (until mom and dad wised up to the secret hidden roll under his chin at bath time). He is currently called E-Man, Mr. Evan, The Hammer (this is Grandpa Grose's favorite), and Steamroller as he will only rollover in one direction. By whatever name Evan is certainly one of a kind!

$$$

Who knew - babies are expensive!

Lots and lots of special high calorie formula-

$$$

More diapers than the garbage man would like to see on a weekly basis-

$$$

2 weeks room and board for 2 babies in the NICU-

more than $115,000.00

3 healthy little nuggets - priceless!!

What We've Been Up To

Wow! I can't believe the boys will be 5 months old next week. This last month (and previous 3) have flown by so quickly. What have we been up to?

1 doctor visit for Evan's lumpy head (apparently it is normal tectonic plate movement)

1 doctor visit for 4 month well baby check up - seriously considering not doing all 3 shots at once for 6 month well baby

2 rounds of RSV shots in Everett - learned that the car must be constantly moving which also involves rocking the car at red lights

1 trip to store to purchase new jammies because the boys grew so fast

Several trips to the store to purchase formula - they go through more than 1 can of formula a day now

2 trips to the store for all new 8oz bottles after struggling to feed Drew for a week - problem resolved!

Fought off pink eye from Grandpa - this was hard because Grandpa is the baby whisperer!

I got my first cold - that was an awful week!!

Now the boys have colds with little coughs - ugh!!

Grandma and Grandpa are sick...again. Poor grandma and grandpa!!

Broken washing machine - this required shopping, excessive consumer report reading, and cleaning the garage full of baby stuff for delivery guys (poor Casey)

Sleep - not a lot

The boys and I are eagerly anticipating the arrival of a new double stroller that will change our lives! Other than the usual trips to the doctors office the boys have had only one trip for pictures and to Costco and Evan got to visit with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Once we have the new stroller I think we might be ready to go on more outings. It will still be tough to get out and back before the little guys need their next bottle though:)

It has been such a busy, tiring, chaotic, stressful, and wonderful time for our new family so far and we really appreciate all of our friends and family for visiting and checking in on us and being patient with our tight schedule centered around feedings! We might not be able to get out much but always welcome visitors and enjoy the variety to our day:)