Elliott & Rice

"Hhhmmmm, I am not sure about all this."

"It sure is runny."

"It keeps running down my chin."

"Don't take the spoon away."

"Give me that spoon. I'll do it myself."

"You don't do it fast enough. Just turn it up."

"Much better. The big gulp of rice cereal."

"That was delicious."

Our son is ready for solids. He lapped it up in a big way today. He finished his little bowl and then moved on to Mazie's. He was a little unsure, but loved the experience.

Lucia & Rice

"So, hey, where's this rice everybody's been talking about for a month now?"
"Oh, here it comes. I am excited."

"Hey wait. What am I supposed to do with this mess?"

"This tastes horrible."
"You can have it back."
Lucia did very well today eating her solids. She was a trooper. I don't think the experience really thrilled her, but I think she'd like to try again...which we will do tomorrow.

Mazie & Rice

Today we began feeding the babies solids. Rice cereal to be specific. Wow. What a mess. We fed them in their bumbo seats. I had wanted to feed them outside, but H thought the additional element of the outdoors might be too much for them, and she is probably right. So, we laid down a towel and set up bumbo shop with their three ramekins of watery rice cereal and three plastic spoons.

Mazie was not too into it. She didn't last long. After about five minutes I had to move her to a swing. She did consume a bit of cereal but did not seem to enjoy the experience.


"Where's the butter and brown sugar?"

"I doubt you would have liked it either."

A few more photos

This is one of my favorite photos from the weekend. H took it of Grandma and Lucia playing "This little piggy...." Lucia is named for my Grandma: Elizabeth Lucia. I had really been looking forward to getting a picture of the two of them and this one is perfect. This photo is the first in a series of three "This Little Piggy" pictures.


This is a picture of my sister and me with our babies, along with my mom and her sister, Anita, and Grandma. Anita has always been very special to me. I have a lot of great memories of time with her as a child: going to the creek, going out in the woods and picking blackberries and coming in and making blackberry pie, sliding down her bright blue carpeted stairs. The baby order for the next two photos is MELA.

Here are the four generations. This weekend was the first time for mom to be with all four of her grandbabies. She had a wonderful time having us all together. It was a short but sweet trip.

Avery Time

We got a few precious hours with Avery and her parents. The babies interacted with her. Avery and Elliott definitely spent some time examining one another. Mostly the four played on the blanket next to one another. Avery is beautiful with the prettiest big brown eyes you've ever seen. Our babies were envious of her ability to sit up unassisted and of her lush head of hair. We look forward to when we can all be together again.


Avery and Lucia:Avery and Elliott:

Happy Birthday to Grandma

The party for my grandma was wonderful. About 200 people came by to wish her a happy 90th birthday. The food was delicious. Lots of people wrote sweet letters and memories to be displayed for the event. The flowers and decorations were pretty. She looked beautiful, as always. It was nice to visit with family and friends we had not seen in a while.

For grandma's cake, Molly and Anita painted 90 little terra cotta pots and put little candles in them. Then the cake stands were large painted terra cotta pots. After we sang to her, everyone helped her blow out her candles.

Here is my family and my sister's family with Grandma. Behind us is a long table filled with photographs, memories, poems, and lots of other memorabilia to celebrate Grandma's life. The baby order is their birth order, ALEM.
This photo is of Mazie, Lucia, and Elliott with their cousin JaMari. He is only two months old and he weighs almost as much as Lucia. They had a good time hanging out together. This is our first time meeting him. He is very easy going and sweet.

Mazie and Lucia in their party attire, sans footwear.

A Plea to Saint Christopher

This weekend will be a big one for the five of us: We are going away for the weekend. I am rather nervous about how things will go, but, also, I am excited to see how things go. There is a joke (although it isn't very funny) in the world of multiples that trips are not called vacations, but relocations. Trust me, we are not relocating so we can rest or get a change in scenery. The reason we are relocating is to help celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday. I can't think of a better reason to get us out of town.


So, how do we go about this relocation? I have been collecting boxes for a while now. I am packing in boxes so they can be loaded into the car without much loss of space. We have also made a rule that if it doesn't fit into the "school bus" that we purchased to tote these youngin's around in, then we aren't bringing it. (An antiquated es-car-go capsule that attaches to the top of the car and a metal deer rack that attached to the hitch in the back were two options we considered.)

The weekend is supposed to be warm. We may have a little rain today for our travels, but after today it is supposed to be sunny and in the 70s all weekend. My grandma has not seen the babies yet so we are very excited for her to finally meet them. Our other thrill for the weekend is getting to see Karen, Jon, and Avery. We have not seen them since the babies were three and a half weeks old and Avery was twelve weeks old. Now they are six and nine months. We are so looking forward to some short but quality time with them.

I am sure we will learn a lot this weekend about travel with three six month olds. We hope y'all have an enjoyable weekend.

The photo is of H and my grandma at our Atlanta shower last July waiting for brunch at Pastries-a-Go-Go.

We've got the big head

Yesterday we went to the pediatrician for our six month check-up. Everything seems to be going well. The babies are reaching their milestones. They are all staying on their growth curves. Before our nine month visit with the pediatrician in June, we will be seeing the orthopedist and optometrist just to check to make sure their hip clicks have resolved themselves and that their eyes are developing properly.

Here are their weights and lengths. The numbers in parentheses are what percentile they are in for the 34 weeks gestation growth curve. All three of the babies' heads are in the 95 percentile.

Lucia
14 # 1 oz (75%)
25 1/2 inches (90%)

Elliott
15 # 10 oz (90%)
25 3/4 inches (95%)

Mazie
12 # 5 oz (between 25% & 50%)
24 inches (75%)

I have been a little concerned about Mazie's weight. I had a feeling she was not gaining at the same rate as the other two babies. I did, though, think she would be weighing closer to 13 pounds. Our doctor said that Mazie has consistently stayed on her particular growth curve so there is no need for worry. Mazie will probably always be "a little smaller" than the other two. "Like 'Four feet, eight inches' smaller?" I asked. "Probably not," she responded. We'll hope she gets her height from my dad's side of the family, so that her version of smaller will be reaching 5'7" instead of 5'10". Either way we will love her just the same.

Oh, and we got two more teeth yesterday: Elliott's first and Lucia's second.

Of geniuses and toofers

Mazie has a Fisher Price Rainforest mobile that has four butons: Rainforest sounds, Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart. That third button, the red one, is Beethoven. Yesterday during their afternoon nap I was in our bedroom which adjoins their nursery. I heard "Ode to Joy" playing. I knew that I had a Bach CD in their player so I couldn't imagine where this lovely Beethoven piece was coming from. It is one of my very favorites, so at first I thought it was just playing in my head. But then I paid attention and decided I was definitely hearing Beethoven. About this time the music stopped. I walked into the nursery and this is what I saw. Mazie Bell in full control of her beloved mobile. She clearly had to push the red button to turn on the Beethoven serenade, and, to erase any doubt she thought I might have had about her abilities, she pushed the same button to make the music stop.

Before you email me imploring me to go ahead and get her tested for the gifted and talented program, know also she loves to sleep in the far corner of her crib. On more than one occasion she has woken herself (and me) up because when she tries to turn her head over she bangs her head into the base of her mobile. She will do this repeatedly until I pull her out into the middle of the crib. (Also, truth be known, I think she is using her head to hit the buttons on her mobile and not her hands. I can't be sure, but her forehead was right at the level of the red Beethoven button. This is still a feat for a six month old, but perhaps not as impressive as if she were using her pointer finger to make her selections. Please don't tell her Mama Bee, we'll let her believe the child really is a prodigy.)

Our other important event of the day is a pretty little tooth poking through the surface of our first born's pink, swollen, and tender gums. That's right. This first is not Elliott's to be had. Lovely Lu has sprung a tooth, bottom left. She also has one just below the surface next to it. Elliott also has one that I can see, but not feel. So, it seems we are entering the world of the little tic-tac teeth babies, where teeth are a pristine white, lasting until coffee and Cotes du Rhone enter their lives. I have no pictures of teeth to share as Lucia will barely let me see the tooth myself.

More Six Month Photos

Here we are in all our birthday glory. Thanks for checking in on us. All photos are LEM.
The attraction of the pretty candy dots:

They are six months--they can eat M&Ms now, right?