3 months old ... and smiling!

It may be hard to believe, but with four 3-month-olds, Ted and I have now officially changed a year's worth of diapers, fed a year's worth of bottles, and burped a year's worth of babies. We do not, however, have a year's worth of parenting under our belts, so we are muddling our way through it all like any sleep-deprived new parents and just doing the best we can.

Fortunately, though, the lack of sleep did go down a notch last week: Little Dahlia has slept until approximately 7am for the past 6 days in a row! Our brown-eyed girl is also eating as much as her big brother Isaac, and I have a feeling that it won't be long until she catches up with our current heavyweight. Here she is cracking up at her silly mommy:

Isaac is still struggling a bit with fussiness related to his acid reflux, but it's not affecting his weight at all: He was 11 lb. 14 oz. when I took him to the doctor a week ago! He slept until 6am one day last week, but usually he's clamoring for food at 4am sharp. When Isaac gets your undivided attention, he gives you a big smile, and his beautiful, blue eyes light up as he says, "Ah-woooo!"

I call Jude a "lump" because he is usually just content to slump over on your shoulder and sleep all day. When he's supposed to be sleeping, though, he's wide awake and kicking the whole time, taking in everything in the room with his big, gray eyes. Jude is still taking forever to eat, and I've given up on trying to get him to eat as much as Isaac. When he laughs, he likes to say, "Goo!"

Lucia is still the littlest one (Ted describes her as "dainty"), but I think she may be entering a growth spurt: She's now eating as much as Jude! Blue-eyed Lucy rarely cries, and she was the first to smile. I am going to have to be careful with her because I think that smile could get me to do just about anything she wants!

Lucy also got her first acting gig on Sunday, as the Baby Jesus for a Christmas DVD (another baby was also filmed, so we don't know whether Lucy's footage will be used, but she's still a star in our eyes!). Here she is smiling up into Mary's face:

This post would not be complete without a big thank you to all of the wonderful people who have helped us out over the past 3 months, and especially to those of you who answered my S.O.S. call for help last week—for the first time in a long while, we have coverage for the entire work week! This is a big deal because it means that Ted will not have to take time away from work to help me feed the babies, which in turn means that he will get done working at a decent hour (rather than as late as midnight), and he can actually do something other than work or feed babies. I am in no hurry for the kids to grow up, but I will be so glad when they can hold their own bottles!