Dress up for days

Ellen recently discovered the Disney Princesses and is a bit obsessed. In my guilt of the girls having very few toys as we await our sea shipment I decided to take both Ellen and Anais to the toy store to pick something out. Ellen got a Snow White dress up outfit with dress, crown, purse and heels. She insisted on putting them on as soon as we got home and then talked Shawn into letting her sleep in her "gown" because after all that is what Snow White did. Needless to say we are on day 4 and the non-washable "gown" is close to rags. The child finds it "disgusting" to share a sippy cup with Anais but will wear a cheap polyester outfit with ice cream stains for days on end.

Au Pair!

A Swedish au pair named Hannah has moved in and joined our family. She is 25 years old and will be staying with us until early-September. Now I have help during my many desperate hours :-) and can manage to actually get out of the house with all 4 kids in tow. I might even find time to get my haircut and go to the gym. We are very excited!

1 step foward... 2 steps back

Or is it 2 steps forward... 1 step back. I suppose it depends on your attitude. Given the fact that I'm barely able to keep my eyes open this morning, my attitude is not so positive :-) Last night was a bit exhausting but the babes are napping now and the girls are munching on some cereal so I have a bit of a break and thought I'd share this cute photo of the 4. Ellen and Anais were very excited about holding the boys this morning.

Through the night!

The boys are 3 months old as of today - hard to believe. And Nicolas, my new favorite child, has officially slept through the night. Given our family history, I didn't think it was possible until a breastfed, co-sleeping baby was at least a year but he actually slept from 10:30pm to 6am! More sleep then I've gotten in 4 years! And - knock on wood - this shouldn't be a one-time occurence as most nights he sleeps at least 6 1/2 -7 hours. 'Course the joke's on me given that the rascal Dylan grunted and groaned most of the night and ate at 2 and 5am.

Summer Fun!

Happy Father's Day

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was not very eventful and poor Shawn didn't have much of a Father's Day weekend what with doing laundry, being ordered around by Ellen and putting together the girls furniture. He did get a nap in on Sunday but let me sleep in a bit in the morning.

Ellen was running around last night and bashed her head. She has a bruise above and below her eye in the shape of the end of a door. She hasn't gotten a black eye yet but I'm a bit apprehensive about going out with her as she looks like she's been beat. What will the neighbors think!

Anais's daily head-bump

Anais is now two and is having some growing pains. She's become a bit clumsy and has what we refer to as her "daily head-bump". Usually it's falling off a chair, runing into something, tripping, etc. Yesterday, she had a pretty bad fall off her chair at breakfast and bashed in her tooth. We had to make an emergency trip to the dentist - just me and the 4 rascals in tow. We are quite a sight I must admit. Needless to say Anais did not enjoy her first dental experience. She kept on begging for her "teter" (pacifier) but I just couldn't bear to pull it out in front of the dentist. Hopefully she was not too traumatized :-) Thankfully everything is fine and she just tore a bit of her gum.

Nicolas and Dylan @ 2 1/2 months

Nicolas and Dylan saw the doctor last week for their first vaccinations. They are getting very big and at 2 1/2 months Nicolas is 11 lbs 4.6 oz and 22 1/4" while Dylan is a hefty 12 lbs 0.59 oz and 22 3/4". They started to really smile the day before Papa and Ghio left and are now smiling often. We can't wait for you all to meet them!

Chicken Pox!!!

First it was Ellen. After having a vaccination at age 2, she managed to avoid the chicken pox last spring as it spread through Seyssins. She was not so lucky this spring. And 2 weeks later little Nicolas had spots. Next it was Dylan. He had the lightest case with only a couple pox. And finally, poor Anaïs was stricken. And she had an extreme case. Keep in mind that this particular strain got the other 3 kids when they each had about a 10% chance of developing the chicken pox thanks to the vaccine and my immunity. Anaïs had neither the vaccine nor my blood. She's on the mend now but still freaks out pregnant women at the grocery store. Let's hope she's not scarred for life.

Settling in...

Well, we are back in the good ol' U.S.of A. and doing our best to settle in. Our full-emersion techniques include buying a soccor-mom-from-hell 8-passenger minivan and a man-sized 4x4, V6 pick-up truck, deciding between Dora, Scooby, Princess, Shrek, Blues Clues, Mickey or Elmo Fruit "Flavored" Snacks at the grocery store and discovering the joys of our DVR machine. I'll never miss a Jeopardy question again!