Picture, picture

Yesterday Ted and I accompanied the kids on a school field trip to a local farm. We had an amazing time as a family, and I took lots and lots of pictures—a grand total of 207 in the space of 3 hours, to be exact!

My faves? These two, which I think say so much about what I want my life to look like:

Mostly happy!

And what my life actually feels like most of the time:

Frazzled mommy, disgruntled kiddos!

Ah, 3-year-old quadruplets. Hard to live with 'em ... wouldn't want to live without 'em!

"Vintage" clothes

As you probably know by now, I'm a sucker for comparison photos. So this weekend, when Lucy and Dahlia found the muumuus that Tia Glenda brought them from Hawaii a couple of years ago, I just had to grab my camera. Here is the original picture I posted of the girls modeling their then-new outfits:

And here they are in the same outfits (matching bloomers now serving as shorts), almost exactly two years later:

The girls also still love to wear the dresses that Bisabuelo brought them from Peru nearly three years ago:

Last year they wore them as long shirts over khaki shorts; today they wore them as decidedly shorter shirts with the very same shorts (apparently Lucy and Dahlia are getting taller but not any bigger around!):

Very soon my beautiful daughters will grow out of these not-quite-vintage clothes. When they do, you can bet that I will carefully put away these special outfits in the hopes of someday seeing my granddaughters grow up in them!

Growing up

Almost exactly two years ago our Bisabuelo brought us these beautiful handmade dresses from Peru:

Lucy and Dahlia at 8 months old

Today we wore the same dresses to church—this time as shirts:

Dahlia and Lucy at 2.5 years old

My, how we've grown!

For the sake of completeness

After seeing my photographic comparisons of Ted and the Fab Four yesterday, friends have been asking to see side-by-sides of me and all the kids, too. And since we're nothing if not equal opportunity around here—here you go!

Suzanna at 2 years old, Isaac at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Lucy at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Jude at 2.5 years old

Suzanna at 2 years old, Dahlia at 2.5 years old

We already knew that Jude and I are twins, but I think Lucy resembles me a lot here, too. Which is weird because, in my last post, I was sure she looked like Ted. I guess she must be the perfect combo!

Daddy's turn

Since I posted photographic proof that Jude is my mini-me, several people have wanted to know which of the Fab Four most resembles Ted at this age. Naturally, I couldn't resist digging up his 2-year portrait to compare to current photos of the kids.

While most people say that all four of them look just like me, some maintain that Isaac is Ted's carbon copy. As for us, we've always thought that Dahlia is the one who favors her daddy the most. Looking at these comparisons, however, I'm shocked to realize that Lucy might actually take after him more than any of the other kids—their eyes are different, but check out the nose and mouth. What do you think?

Ted at 2 years old, Isaac at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Lucy at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Jude at 2.5 years old

Ted at 2 years old, Dahlia at 2.5 years old

Mamá's boy

When the Fab Four were babies, people would often say that Lucy was my mini-me. As the kids get older, however, it seems that more and more people are sure that Jude is the one who looks exactly like his mommy. We've always thought that he looks more like my brother and dad instead, but when Ted saw Jude's snapshot in last week's nicknames post, he was struck by how much it resembles pictures he's seen of me as a little kid. Of course, when he told me this, I just had to dig up my second-birthday portrait and make a side-by-side comparison with the "Judo" pic:

Suzanna at 2 years old (left) and Jude at 2.5 years old (right)

Notice the eyes, the nose, the bow of the mouth, the shape of the face ... pretty freaky, huh?

The girl is mine

ATTITUDE!!

I have no idea where she gets it ...

Lookalikes and more

As I promised to do a while back, I scanned a baby picture of me to compare it to a photo of Lucia at the same age:

Suzanna at 3 weeks

People tell me all the time that Lucia is my mini-me, but looking at these photos together, I'm not so sure anymore:

Lucia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

I wish I had a 3-week photo of Ted to post for the sake of comparison, but the earliest one I have of him is his 1-year portrait. I did take pictures of the other kids when I took the one of Lucia, though, and I can't decide which one (if any) most resembles my own baby picture:

Jude at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Isaac at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

Dahlia at 9.5 weeks (3 weeks adjusted)

In addition to posting new pics of the kids, I wanted to give everyone an update on Jude's echocardiogram: As I suspected, it showed no signs of a hole in his heart! Unfortunately, this doesn't mean that all is well with the little guy. For the past few days, both he and Isaac have been constipated, probably because of the rice cereal we'd been giving them to combat acid reflux. Since Jude no longer shows signs signs of reflux and Isaac's seems to be under control with twice-daily doses of Zantac, we've stopped the rice cereal on the boys (as well as giving them sugar water and using the infamous lubricated Q-tip method) in an effort to get things moving again. No luck yet, but I figure it's gotta come out sometime, right?

Despite the boys' troubles, the girls are still on rice cereal (and Zantac in Dahlia's case) for their acid reflux. Their systems seem to handle it just fine, and although they do eat less than the boys, they are steadily gaining weight: At the girls' 2-month appointment yesterday, Lucia weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. and Dahlia was 8 lb. 8 oz. Yes, the little runt has surpassed her sister by 2 ounces! I think that Lucia is going to have to stop looking in the mirror and get serious about eating if she is going to keep up with Dahlia.

Lucia admiring the baby in the mirror

As for me and Ted, we are exhausted but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the sleep-deprivation department. For the past week and a half, the babies have been sleeping at least 5 hours in a row, and on two nights, three of the four slept 7 hours! If we could just get all of them to agree to sleep that long at the same time, we'd be all set. I didn't let the lack of sleep prevent me from meeting with my Moms of Multiples group last night, though. I had such a great time talking to and laughing with them that I didn't get home until just before midnight (just in time to prevent the Civic from turning into a pumpkin!). The babies even got a play date out of it: This morning I met one of the triplet moms at a park, and we sat with the babies (making sure no one got too close to them) while her kids wore themselves out on the playground. It was exhilarating to be in the outside world and know that I can manage four babies somewhere else besides home and the pediatrician's office. I need to stop procrastinating and get around to ordering a quad stroller soon!

First trip to the park
(left to right: Lucia, Isaac, Dahlia, and Jude)