Table for 13 please...

Pictures:

* Nine kids, two families...yikes?!?! AKA lots of babysitters :-)

* Triplets with triplets! Michael holding Ryan, Megan holding Brooke and Jake holding Jack

* Megan teaching Brooke to play the piano. It's never to early to start, right?!

I know it's been awhile since my last post. Time REALLY gets away from you, especially when I've traveled for work the last three weeks. However, everyone has survived and are actually thriving and learning new things every day. The babies are all rolling over both ways, sitting up and STARTING to hold their own bottles (this is one of my "can't wait till they can do this" milestones!). The feeding (cereal/baby food) is going ok, Ryan isn't so interested, Jack sometimes and Brooke loves everything and often (hence her "round" figure!). They are also going to bed a little earlier (8 pm) now, which helps with Kyle's schedule too. We feed the babies, get them to bed, spend some time with Kyle then put Kyle to bed. And I'm happy to say the boys are all sleeping through the night (have been for months) and Brooke is slowly but surely getting back there. The poor thing, she'll wake up coughing, then can't fall right back to sleep.

Brooke had an appointment with her Pediatric Surgeon as a follow-up to her Pediatrician visit a few weeks ago because her cough has lingered from when everyone had colds last month. So much so that she would cough so hard and often that she couldn't catch her breath. Our doctor was concerned that there may be some narrowing in the esophagus since her surgery. We received great news from the surgeon. They did a swallow test where they strap her to a table (HATED IT...I tried to calm her to no avail so I had to step back from the table, with tears in my eyes) and have her drink barium from a pacifier - while crying hysterically - as we watch the monitor. The great news is that there was no narrowing! And our "little" girl is getting bigger - she's now 15 lbs 14 oz :-)

Before Brooke's appointment we went to Ed's work to visit his co-workers as they hadn't met all the babies yet (and my parents were along for the ride to help!). It was great to see everyone, they are all so sweet! One of his co-workers has twenty year old triplets so it's kind of fun to share stories and commiserate together :-)

After Brooke's appointment we packed up the kids and went to Cincinnati to visit our friends, the Wades. They recently moved there from Champaign and we wanted to see their new place and spend the long weekend with them. They have a beautiful, big new home so adding six people to the house for a weekend wasn't too difficult :-) We had a great time and the big kids were excited to see our crew...thank goodness for the help! Ellie, who is seven, jumped in and fed Jack almost every feeding. Everyone was SO helpful except no one wanted to change diapers...imagine that?! Ellie kept asking if we could wake the babies up because she wanted to play with them. I think Kyle might have a crush on Ellie too, he was following her around the house. It was so cute! Megan not only taught Brooke how to play piano, she had Ryan playing with his feet! I got it on video but have to figure out how to upload it from my phone. It was so funny as he was just jumping like crazy as she moved him up and down the keys! It was less than a four hour trip and everyone was pretty good so we'll visit again soon, especially since they live so close to King's Island amusement park!

On Sunday night we decided to load everyone up (it took two vans - girls (and babies) in one car, boys in the other, and headed to dinner and the park. I was laughing when I told the host that we needed a table for thirteen!?!? And as we walked, single file, through the restaurant (I was in the back of the line) people were actually staring at us! We then went to the park and the river, where Kyle and Ellie had lots of fun throwing rocks in the water. Who knew rocks could be so entertaining?!?!

ALSO...I plan to take the blog private on June 14 because my friend had some psycho using her pics and posing as the mom (REALLY weird stuff!?!?). I would love for all of you legit followers to still be able to read the blog, even if you're friends of friends, etc. Please just send me your e-mail address and I'll add you to the list. After June 14th, you won't be able to access the blog unless you have been invited (I will do so when I get your e-mail).

Send your e-mail to me at: jlogan1113@gmail.com.