A piercing scream. A sobbing child. One bite mark—and three seemingly innocent bystanders.
I hear the sounds of distress and come running to see what happened. In an instant, my extensive forensic training (via true-crime novels and television shows) kicks in, and I begin to process the scene.
Step 1: Interview the victim and the witnesses.
I don't expect to learn much from this part of the investigation, and my veteran instincts prove to be correct. What follows is the official transcript of our exchange:
Mommy: (to witnesses) "Who did this? Witnesses: *crickets chirp*
Step 2:Examine the scene.
I have responded quickly enough to ensure that the crime scene remains undisturbed. I observe that all three witnesses are standing in close proximity to the victim. Witness #1 is holding a car, witness #2 is holding a ball, and witness #3 is holding a night-night; the victim is empty-handed. Notably, the victim's arm shows a clear dental imprint:
Step 3:Process the evidence.
This is where my photographic memory comes in handy: I quickly compare the laceration to my mental dental map of the victim and each of the witnesses. My analysis not only rules out a self-inflicted wound, but it also allows me to identify (and sternly reprimand) the perpetrator within seconds.
Case closed! Can you figure out who holds the dubious distinction of being the first member of the Fab Four to bite a former wombmate?
The babies are 13 months old today, and I'm already discovering why people always say that 12 to 18 months is their favorite age range. In the past couple of weeks, I have been repeatedly amazed at the new things the Fab Four are doing! Here are some highlights:
Isaac at 13 months
Weight: 22 lb. 10 oz.
Length: 29.5 in.
Tooth count: 6 (4 on top, 2 on bottom)
Isaac has been walking for a month and a half, and he is a real pro. He likes to dribble balls around (and around) the living room with his feet, and he will throw or roll a ball back and forth with whomever wants to play. A couple of weeks ago, Daddy taught him to high-five, so I guess he's all set to join a sports team now! Isaac has also started pretending to burp after we congratulate him on a real burp (a bad habit we got into because the babies were so difficult to burp when they were smaller). He puts so much effort into it that you can't help but laugh! This kid is all boy!
Lucy at 13 months
Weight: 17 lb. 15 oz.
Length: 27.5 in.
Tooth count: 3 (1 on top, 2 on bottom)
Lucy is our dainty girl, a neat eater with the most delicate pincer grasp. She has been working very hard on standing in the past few weeks, and she can now take up to four steady steps at a time. Lucy also loves to play peekaboo, except that she takes the "peek" part very seriously and will usually only cover one eye (or sometimes just her temple)—I think she feels very sneaky! She is the only baby who will clearly repeat sounds, but the only word she says on her own is still "Pepper." Lucy is the most content and patient of the four. Her biggest challenge is holding her own among her more rambunctious siblings, but she does a great job!
Jude at 13 months
Weight: 20 lb. 8 oz.
Length: 28 in.
Tooth count: 4 (2 on top, 2 on bottom)
Jude is this close to being our next full-blown walker. He can take up to 10 steps at a time, and he is adding to that number every day. He loves to observe any process, be it Daddy taking out the trash or Mommy folding the laundry, and does not like to be confined to the other side of the gate. Jude does the twist on command (we call it his "wiggle-butt" dance), and his new trick is to climb on top of the rocking horse and stand in the saddle like a rodeo clown. We tell him to sit on his bottom, but he listens only about half of the time. I can tell that he is going to be the most mischievous of the four!
Dahlia at 13 months
Weight: 19 lb. 6 oz.
Length: 28.5 in.
Tooth count: 3 (1 on top, 2 on bottom)
Dahlia is standing very well now and, like Lucy, can take up to four steady steps at a time. She is also our little chatterbox. In the past couple of weeks, she has started "talking" as if she were asking you a question or commenting on the weather. Her favorite "words" are "wudgie" and "zoey," but she recently perfected her first real word: "Pepper" (pronounced "ba-po"). Dahlia is liberal with her cheek-to-cheek hugs, freely granting them to people and stuffed animals alike. And if she sees another baby getting love, she will race over to shove that baby out of the way so that she can give you a big hug. This little girl is the Latin lover of the bunch, for sure!
For me, life is feeling a little more normal. The kids are consistently sleeping 11 hours at night—without interruption—and that's huge (now if only my circadian rhythms would get back to normal!). We ditched baby food back around Christmas, so the babies are feeding themselves all sorts of table foods. We are also slowly transitioning to milk and sippy cups (can't wait to be done with formula and bottles!); my original goal was to accomplish this by their due date (February 9), but I think we might need a little more time. It won't be long before my Fab Four aren't considered "babies" anymore!
As the song says, "all I want for Christmas are my two front teeth"—and I discovered yesterday that Isaac's are coming in! Perhaps by Christmas, you'll be able to see them when he smiles:
Isaac at 11.5 months
Jude beat Isaac to the four-teeth mark, though: His canines have been making their way down over the past several weeks. Our little monster is going to start looking like a little vampire!
Judeat 11.5 months
The girls still have just their two bottom teeth. But these sisters are "two" cute, if I do say so myself:
Lucy at 11.5 months
Dahlia at 11.5 months
In non-teeth-related news:
Everybody is now clapping for real (even Lucy!)—especially when I either clap or say, "Good job!" or "Yay!" Lucy is a pro at waving hello and goodbye, and last night I taught her to blow kisses (she sticks out her tongue and licks her palm—hilarious!). Jude and Dahlia are starting to wave, too. Isaac doesn't wave yet, but he has finally started babbling like the others. And (drumroll, please) he is officially walking! Check it out:
When I was pregnant, I didn't realize what a wonderful resource (and source of support) my local Moms of Multiples (MoMs) group would be to me once the babies came. The women in the group share everything from quick and easy recipes to Halloween costume ideas for multiples to real-life horror stories (for example: lady in Target asks triplet mom who's shopping with her girls, two of whom are identical, "So which one is the ugly one?").
One of the most useful tips I've gotten from the veteran MoMs so far is to buy a notebook for each child and keep it in the kitchen. That way, every time one of kids does something new or cute, I can quickly and easily jot down whatever it is before I forget. The notebooks are not as fancy as baby books, but they're not as much work, either. Exactly what I need!
As I looked over my entries yesterday, I realized that the babies started doing 10 new things during their 10th month (how appropriate!). One or more of them can now:
Feed themselves! Exactly a month ago, Isaac fed himself a Cheerio at the dinner table. A couple of minutes later, Dahlia did the same. Then Jude did it. And then Lucy did it! I find it amazing that, while the babies usually reach milestones days or even weeks apart, they all started feeding themselves within minutes of each other. We are now trying out various table foods, with varying degrees of acceptance.
Isaac at 10 months: Almost always the first to do something new!
Clap! Dahlia started doing this on her own one day at the breakfast table. At first she would get the cheesiest look on her face when she clapped; I wish I had gotten it on video because now she just claps like a normal baby.
Play with a ball! Isaac has discovered that some toys bounce if you throw them! So he now plays his own game of fetch, throwing bouncy toys in one direction, crawling across the pen to get them, and then throwing them in the other direction. Ted is certain that Isaac is going to be a pro athlete one day and make us all millionaires.
Bite! Everyone but Lucy has two teeth now (she has one), but some teeth have had more time to grow than others. Isaac's are pretty big, and, with more on the way, he will bite on anything for relief. Including our arms.
Throw tantrums! Okay, so this started before the 10-month mark, but I just recorded the phenomenon last month. Dahlia wants to be an only child, and if she doesn't get your attention when she wants it, she'll throw back her head, arch her back, and kick her legs wildly. This is accompanied by very loud screaming, of course. We've been using the "ignore" tactic—does anyone have a better suggestion? I am afraid that the other babies will get some bad ideas from Dahlia!
Dahlia at 10 months: Doesn't she look so innocent?
Babble! Dahlia and Lucy have been babbling for a while, but Jude recently joined them in saying ba-ba, da-da, and na-na. Jude has also started chirping and making other cute sounds when he plays—so cute!
Jude at 10 months: Happy to see Mommy after his nap!
Say words!As I related earlier this month, Lucy can say "Pepper," and she often will call the kitty's name when she is in the room. But Lucy has also added to her repertoire by repeating "banana" at dinner and "bubbles" at bath time. Oh, and while we were watching "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," Lucy said "Obama"—twice!
Lucy at 10 months: Learning to pattycake with Abuelita Joanna
Call me! Everyone except Isaac cries, "Mamá, mamá," whenever they are upset. I am pretty sure that they are talking to memost of the time!
Sit up, crawl, and pull up! When Lucy decided to catch up with her siblings, she did it fast: She sat up and crawled on the same day, pulled up to standing 5 days later, and started cruising 5 days after that! She can pretty much keep up with the pack now.
The Fab Four at 10 months: Nothing can stop them now!
And, last but not least:
Stand alone! Isaac has been experimenting with letting go when he's standing up. I have seen him stand on his own several times in the past week. From this position, he can also squat to sit without holding on to anything for support. I have a feeling that walking is around the corner. Eleven months, here we come!
I won't sugarcoat it—this past month has been a hard one.
We kicked it off with all of the babies getting roseola (several days of fever, followed by a rash). Naturally, their symptoms did not all appear on the same day—Lucy was the first to have a temperature, then Jude, then Isaac, and finally Dahlia. To compound the sheer misery of dealing with miserable babies (thank God my mother was in town!), the air conditioner chose to die on the second day of fever (which happened to be my birthday). A new air conditioning unit was not the kind of birthday gift I'd envisioned, but at that point I would have paid anything for a little relief.
Then, just as the roseola subsided, Isaac started cutting his first tooth. Suddenly, the kid who'd been sleeping 10 solid hours a night started waking up screaming every 2 hours! He now has two teeth on the bottom to show for it, but his sleeping patterns have yet to return to normal (I suspect another tooth is on the way). Dahlia, on the other hand, cut her two bottom teeth around the same time Isaac did, with very little change in her mood or sleeping patterns. Are my kids proving the theory that women have a higher pain tolerance than men do? We'll see how Jude and Lucy react to the ordeal when it's their turn!
Of course, none of this—fever, rash, or teeth—stopped the kids from keeping us on our toes with their continuing efforts to become fully mobile. Isaac started cruising a couple of weeks ago (and will loudly protest when confined to the playard); Dahlia occasionally pulls to standing; Jude can sit himself up, pulls to standing like a pro, and is almost officially crawling; and even little Lucy is rocking on all fours (only when she wants to though—you can't make her!).
Freshly bathed and happy—but it's getting harder and harder
to get them to sit still long enough for a quad pic!
We ended the already difficult month with a change in our feeding schedule—never an easy adjustment for any of us. Specifically, we've added a third meal of solid foods (so now they have breakfast, lunch, and dinner—just like real people!), and we've taken away one round of bottles. (Thanks for the advice, Christy!) This means that we are now going through 4 pounds of baby food per day, while the formula we are using has decreased to about two-thirds of a gallon a day. Incidentally, we are using just over two dozen diapers every day now, but we change approximately twice as many dirty diapers as we used to (thanks, baby food!).
As for naps, they've gone from three a day to just two—one in the morning and one in the early afternoon. We have to fight to get the babies to stay awake until bedtime, but I'd say that it's been paying off: Last night Dahlia slept for 12 straight hours! Dare I hope that the others follow suit (and save my sanity) in the near future? Stay tuned!
Things are changing so fast around here. When I wrote my update on Isaac and Dahlia a couple of weeks ago, Jude and Lucy were not even close to sitting up by themselves. Now, although neither can get into that position alone, they can both remain seated if someone puts them that way. This is revolutionary for life around here because it means that, despite their acid reflux, all the kids can play somewhat independently without needing to be propped up in a bouncy seat or swing. Woohoo! Here's more on what's been going on with our "middle" children lately:
Jude is a very sweet little boy who loves to observe the world around him. In the past week or so, he has started to show affection by putting his arms around my neck and giving me wet, sloppy kisses. It's a good thing he's so darn cute during the day because he's long been the main reason I can't get any sleep at night! Since his sleep study back in July turned out normal, we are thinking that he might just be a light sleeper; with that in mind, we moved him into a pack 'n' play in the guest room a few weeks ago, and he's been doing much better.
Jude, hooked up to a bunch of sensors but very
happy to see me after his 3-hour sleep study!
Jude cracks us up because he loves people, but he hates it when any of the other babies touch him or even get near him (not that he has a problem touching them!). I keep telling him that he's just going to have to get used to being crowded all the time! Fortunately for him, he has recently started to army-crawl; the newfound mobility seems to have ease his frustration somewhat. And I know that real crawling is not far away because he will occasionally get on all fours and rock now. Or perhaps he will just skip crawling altogether: A couple of days ago, he surprised us (and himself, I think) by pulling up to stand in the playard—go, Jude!
"Whoa, what did I just do?"
Lucia is pure sunshine: She wakes up happy, loves to talk (she can say "ba," "da," "ma," "na," and "nigh"), and is generally a very content baby. Unfortunately, Lucy hates taking her bottle, which has caused her to fall behind the other babies in the weight department. Thanks in part to Abuelita Joanna, however, Lucy has finally started to fill out. During Abuelita's recent visit, she used her grandma magic to get Lucy to drink everything—all the time! It also helps that Lucy loves her solid foods. As soon as you give her a bite, her little mouth is open and ready for the next one!
Lucy, sitting just as pretty as her sister does
Lucy also loves to stick out her tongue. It's always out there, sometimes with its tip curled up. That little tongue is so cute that we often find ourselves sticking out our own in response (a habit we should probably try to break before the babies start thinking this is a socially acceptable greeting!). As adept as she is with that muscle, however, Lucy is the only baby that hasn't yet attempted to get on all fours. In fact, if you even try to put her in the position, she will absolutely refuse to bend at the hips (stubborn!). We are working with her on that, since she can clearly be quite flexible when she wants to be:
Oh, and I happen to have some news about the other babies, too: Dahlia has mastered crawling, and Isaac cut his first tooth the day before yesterday! Yep, things sure are changing fast around here!
