Ode to Play-Doh

On this New Year's Day,

Oh, dough of many colors,

Nigh an hour of peace

Keeping busy with Play-Doh!
(clockwise from bottom left: 
Jude, Isaac, Lucia, Dahlia)

Think Weird Al for babies

Going through the junk drawer yesterday, I came across a scrap of paper with a list scribbled on it. Inspecting it more closely, I remembered that sometime last summer I decided to write down a bunch of "songs" that I liked to sing to the babies at the time. Each was based on a rock/pop hit, but I'd tweaked the lyrics to entertain the Fab Four (and my sleep-deprived self). If you came over to help us when the babies were small, you might remember hearing me sing/say:

"Let's burp! Put on your red shoes and burp the blues" (to the tune of "Let's Dance" by David Bowie) or "Gimme a burp!" (said like Janet Jackson says, "Gimme a beat!" in "Nasty") when the babies were hard to burp ...

"All I want is some poop; just gimme some poop" (to the tune of "Gimme Some Truth" by John Lennon) when Isaac was constipated ...

"Dirty Lucia-ah" (to the tune of "Dirty Diana" by Michael Jackson) when changing Lucy's poopy diapers ...

"Let's get, let's get, let's get washed!" (to the tune of "Let's Get Rocked" by Def Leppard) or "Pour some water on meeeee, in the name of love" (to the tune of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard) when I was giving the babies a bath ...

"Who's sad?" (said like Michael Jackson says, "Who's bad?" in "Bad") if a baby was crying ...

"They say that waking up is hard to do-oo; now I know, I know that it's true-oo" (to the tune of "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" by Neil Sedaka) if a baby woke up crying, or ...

"Here I come, baby; comin' to getcha!" (lifted from "Foxy Lady" by Jimi Hendrix) when I was on my way to pick up a baby—for any reason.

Ted and I have come up with more silly parodies in the months since I made this list, but I don't even remember what they were anymore. I'm glad I recorded my greatest hits from the early days!

I am full of babies

That's how my coworker Jon described me today, and it cracked me up! Of course, I can't feel any of the babies yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not constantly aware of their presence. Mostly, they make me tired and extremely hungry to the point that I cannot even sleep through the night without waking up for a hearty snack (okay, it's more like a meal). I hear that's pretty normal, but I can't help suspecting that four babies make you hungrier than just one.

In other news, at 9 weeks I can no longer button my jeans. I am using a hair band looped around my button and through my button hole to extend the reach of my waistband. It's working pretty well so far, but I have to admit that I had to unzip my pants on the car ride home from work today (I don't think the drivers around me noticed). Any day now, I won't even have to inform people that I am pregnant. Things are already happening so quickly!

What's not progressing quickly is the name selection. The truth is that we have been so overwhelmed by the thought of having quads that baby names are the last thing on our minds. We've kind of decided that the most efficient thing to do is to wait to make those decisions until we find out the sexes of John, Paul, George, and Ringo (yes, that's what I immediately dubbed them when we got the quad news), which won't happen for a few weeks yet. That way we don't waste a lot of time deciding on names that won't even be needed.

Nevertheless, we do have a number of helpful friends who are having fun coming up with names on our behalf. Here's the most complete (and the most inspired!) list I've received so far, courtesy of Jana (coworker and cat-sitter extraordinaire):

The basics (read: boring!)—these are the top four names for boys and girls in 2008-2009 (in order):

Girls: Madison, Hannah, Emily, and Alexia
Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua, and Matthew

In no particular order, here are the more—shall we say—colorful names!!

The 4 food groups: Ham, Broccoli, Milk, and Wheat
The Growing Pains kids (kinda appropriate): Mike, Carol, Ben, and Chrissy
I Love Lucy: Ricky, Lucy, Ethel, and Fred
The Scooby gang: Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy (I'd be remiss if I didn't include them)
Deck of cards: Heart, Club, Spade, and Diamond (although these do sound stripper-ish!)
70s disco: Earth, Wind, Fire (and Water)
The 4 elements in all living things: Oxygen, Carbon, Hydrogen, and Nitrogen
4 really bad celebrity kids names: Pilot Inspektor, Prince Michael II (yes, because there's a Prince Michael I), Zahara, and Kal El
The 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
The 4 corner states: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico (the kid who gets the name New Mexico could definitely be shortened to "Mexi"—just a thought)
If you have 4 girls, how 'bout 4 flowers? Daisy, Rose, Lily, and Iris
Popular city names: Paris (of course, right!?), London, Brooklyn, and Dallas
And finally, what seems to be the most logical of all, The Fantastic Four: Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and Thing

Other interesting suggestions have included rock stars (Axl, Slash, Izzy, and Duff), comedians (Larry, Curly, Moe, and Shemp), and biblical characters (Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, and Chuck—hey, sometimes it's hard to come up with that fourth name!). If you have any more name ideas for us, leave a comment—we just might use one of them!