By reading the title only, I could imagine how this post could be confused to be related to my prior post titled Emma’s Short Straw. It’s not, but I find the play on words a little bit ironic.
If you’re new to following our site, one of the things that helped us through the first two years was our table for the kids. The Derks family had one and Brenda recommended it so we bought one through a company that provides supplies to preschools and day care facilities. Brenda Derks has never given us a recommendation about raising quints that hasn’t been great. It was SOOO worth it. The table can handle kids up to 55 pounds, so we could include Meredith in our meal plans for the quints. The side benefit to the table was that when the quints went down for their nap, Angela and Meredith could do activities like drawing, coloring, painting, crafts, and all that jazz.
However, after the Christmas holidays, we started to introduce plates and plastic forks and spoons to the quints. Managing Meredith at meal time along with the quints became a challenge as she really didn’t have enough space. They quints would continuously grab at her plate and food and really caused a lot of havoc. Several of our volunteers that helped during meal time could vouch for her (and the quints) behavior on some evenings. Also during the Christmas holidays, as we traveled from one set of grandparents to the other, we really had a good chance to evaluate how the kids did in booster chairs that can strap down to any chair as opposed to their normal table.
So as a result, one of the changes that’s taken place at our home this spring is the transition to a normal kitchen table. Angela and I are trying to take our house back this spring and summer and it’s coming along nicely. This was one of the first steps. Early this spring, we got rid of the old quint table and replaced it with a normal kitchen/dining room table. Back in the day, Angela and I used to sit this very table (as opposed to the couch, living room chair, or floor) and have a nice meal once in a while. It’s so nice to have it back. She and I were just talking about it tonight at our little dinner for two which spurred the idea for this post.
The table is just sitting in our garage and we’re looking to get rid of it. I’d like to keep it for crafting projects with the kids in the years to come, but space is at a premium these days and we’re gonna make do with the kitchen table. If anyone is interested in the table, please let me know. You can contact me by clicking here.
As you can see from the photo below, the kids are transitioning nicely. They’re doing great. During a recent lunch Angela thought that they deserved some pudding. You can see each of them by clicking here. They sure do like chocolate.
Until next time…
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago at 9:09 pm. Add a comment
As promised, I would write about Father’s Day. Here you go.
Father’s Day this year happened to fall on the quints birthday this year. I know. Its special and I do everything that I can to not under value it. It will be a trend as long as I live. Last year, all six of our children were baptized on Father’s Day, just one day after their first birthday. It was very special day for us as a family. I will remember it forever. This year was great. Not just because it was the quints birthday, but because my wonderful (I really mean top of the line!!!) bride is so thoughtful and creative. She’s so fantastic and I can’t underscore that enough.
The quints woke up around 7. Angela was the first out of bed and when I arrived upstairs, she was already changing the kids in to fresh diapers. All of them seemed happy and she had very meticulously wrapped gifts the night prior and they were waiting for me on the table. Coffee was already brewing. She also had egg bake in the oven. She stayed up late the night before cutting up vegetables, and wrapping gifts.
Have you ever met a person who gets every greeting card right, almost as if the card was written specifically for the person receiving it? That person is my wife. I received two cards on Father’s Day. The one she picked out from the kids was funny. I have the one that I received from her on my desk and I’ll never take it down. Perfect. I only wish that I could return the favor. I try, I really do, but I just don’t have the gift that she has for picking out great greeting cards. Must be genetic (sorry mom and dad). Needless to say, she did so awesome that I actually felt bad.
Anyway, breakfast was awesome and afterwards, the kids helped me open my gifts: a new fishing tackle box, a gift card to Gander Mountain plus a special gift from Meredith (representing the whole crew). I’m not a big fisherman. Frankly, I rarely go, but I do enjoy it. However, Meredith has been watching all these animated DreamWorks films recently and at the beginning of the movies, there’s a little boy fishing while sitting on the edge of a crescent moon. She has been bugging the holy heck out of Angela and me to go fishing like that little boy so that she can catch a BIG fish. She’s even seen fishing on TV and been screaming to go.
After I got cleaned up, I packed Meredith in the car and she and I made a road trip to Gander Mountain (that’s a local outdoor sports store). She and I picked out a new Dora The Explorer Fishing Pole. There’s a lot to pick from these days; I seem to recall that my pole as a little boy was Snoopy. After the trip to stock daddy’s new tackle box with fishing gear, we stopped at Burger King. It was her choice. I think that she likes the food at McDonalds better, but she knows that BK has the play land. She’s not dumb.
After lunch, we went home. The quints were napping so Meredith and I showed Angela our spoils. After nap time, Angela and I took all of the kids out for a walk around the neighborhood. Following the walk, we spent and hour or so in the back yard and then enjoyed a DQ Ice Cream Cake for snack time (thank you Hilary for the gift).
We had dinner as a family followed by bath time. Everyone went to bed without a fuss. Key note from the day: I never raised my voice. I almost always have to raise my voice at least once, but I never did on Father’s Day. I leave you with this picture from earlier in the morning right after opening my “special gift” from Meredith and the crew, my new hat. She made it with mom during her activity time earlier in the week. I wore it almost the entire day and its setting on my desk right next to the card from my bride.
I am truly blessed.
Until next time…
Posted 7 months, 4 weeks ago at 8:53 pm. 1 comment
Just another day in paradise at the Tille House. A fear of mine came to fruition this morning. As you may have read in an earlier post, the kids are no longer in cribs. They’re kind of free to do whatever they want during their “nap time” and/or “bed time.” They’re actually in there right now (sleeping, I think) and I hope in better condition than how we found them this morning.
Going back over the previous months, Alex has felt the need to be a little more “free” when he sleeps. We’ve found him progressively less and less dressed as we get the kids up from their naps and in the morning, but over the past couple weeks we’ve found him sleeping completely naked on the floor. No blanket, no socks, no diaper; just naked.
This morning, Angela and I woke to the sound of a thud on the floor to their room above us. Crying quickly ensued as they woke each other up. 6 am. We let the crying go a for a while hoping that they would eventually calm down and play for a while, but the crying got more intense and started to sound like someone was hurt so we came upstairs. Angela beat me out of bed and when I made it to the top of the steps; I found her in the kitchen wiping off Alex’s hands with a washcloth. He was completely naked and crying which isn’t uncommon any more. Madeline was screaming for some reason and was a bit out of control which also isn’t uncommon right after getting up. Lauren and Emma (already wiped down) were quietly playing on the floor. Brooklyn was giggling and eventually ran from around the island in the kitchen, but was naked from waist down. That was a complete surprise. I asked Angela what the hell was going on. She told me that someone had an accident, but this time it was a little more serious.
I feared the worst, but we got lucky this morning. Angela told me that when she opened the door to the kids’ room, Emma (not one of the diaperless kids) met her at the door with a turd in each hand. Wrong day to draw the short straw Emma…
If anyone has any ideas on how to get kids to keep their clothes/diapers ON, I am open to any and all reasonable suggestions. My fear is that one day we’ll walk in and poop will be smeared on the walls, kids will be covered in it on their hands and faces. Anyone with an idea, please help!
My next post will be about my Father’s Day; hopefully very soon.
Shortly following the day where Alex destroyed the wall next to his crib, he decided that he had had enough of being penned up in his crib at nap time. He climbed out of his crib and ran around the room and handed out toys to each of the girls in their cribs. Angela heard the chaos and went to investigate. She chuckled a little, put him back in bed, took the toys away and told them all to go to sleep. Minutes later, she heard a thud followed by more giggling and laughing. Alex was out again.
Angela put him back in his bed seven different times that day during nap time before she finally gave up. This new development opens a huge can of worms. We knew this day was coming, but we were unprepared to actually make a decision on how to handle it? Do we put him in the only bed that converts to a day bed and let him run? Safety is obviously a concern. Do we put one of those netting covers over his crib and if we do that, how long do we expect all of them to stay in cribs and do we want to go through with that expense? Do we just pull his crib and put his mattress on the floor and leave the girls alone? Do we move him in with Meredith and leave the girls? Do we pull all the cribs, just throw the mattresses on the floor and let chaos ensue? What do we do?
He didn’t get out that night so we decided to let it go and we would deal with it the following day. As you might imagine, he got out again, but it was different this time. He managed to get his arm stuck. He had a pretty good welt on his arm and that was the end of the cribs. We couldn’t take the chance of someone getting seriously hurt and it was only a matter of time before the others got out so we decided to get rid of the cribs all together. By the time that I got around to disassembling them, I only had a couple hours before they went to bed so I really needed to get moving. I called up Dan Swenson, promised him beer, and got to work. He brought his daughter Savana along to help Angela out with the kids.
Naptime and bedtime are a bit of a challenge now. We don’t have any video of them with the door shut, but they seem to have one hell of a good time. Laughter and giggling last most of the afternoon when they’re in their room. All of them seem to sleep for a short period of time, but I don’t think that they’re ever all asleep at the same time. They just sleep where they land. We’ve checked in on them a couple times. Sometimes they’re on the floor, sometimes they’re on the mattresses and sometimes they’re half on the floor and half on the mattresses.
Below is a video from 15 minutes prior to bedtime the first night without cribs. You can guess how bedtime went. I hope you’re happy Alex!
Until next time…
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago at 10:24 pm. 2 comments
