Multiples and More Question of the Week

Describe your children's personalities, in birth order. Do you think your kids personalities are related to their birth order?


No, I really don't think their birth order has much to do with. I think most of the birth order personality traits come because of their length of time in the family in certain rolls. For example the first born has been around longer so tends to get put in the roll of 'helping' when a new baby comes along. A second child is the baby until a third child is born, then all of a sudden he's not the baby, but he's not the older child that gets to help out either, thus feels kind of lost (creating middle child syndrome.) And I don't think that multiples get the chance to establish those kinds of rolls. I feel like they just grow into their natural personalities. But, that's just my opinion. :0)


Is your baby A any bolder or more dominant than B, C, D?

Yes, my baby A (Addison) has a hard time remembering that she's not in charge of the whole house.



Does your last-born reach milestones last as well?

Actually, my last-born (Kirsten) has reached many of the milestones first, from being the first to cut teeth to the first to wear a bra (of course, Wyatt's not in the running for that.)


Are there any characteristics that you feel are somehow related to birth order?

No, not really. They have such different personalities. And Wyatt and Abigail were born at the same time (c-section) so I don't know what those traits might even be. lol


Do you find that a lot of people like to "classify" your kids? How do you feel about it?

I guess I don't really look at things as classifying them.

I mean, it's not hard to see that Addison is bossy, loves to talk (all the time), and isn't afraid to take charge.

Abigail is very artistic. She has much more talent than the other three and she works hard at it.

Kirsten is very girly. She loves all things glittery and sequencey (probably not a word). Not to say the other girls aren't, but not like Kirsten is.

And Wyatt? He just doesn't care. Unless the girls want to use something that belongs to him. Then he cares a lot.

I don't really think that classifies them or compares them to each other. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. It's true when we're adults and when we're kids.

I guess that means that if it is classifying them, then I must not be bothered by it. lol

Calgon take me away!!

Especially if Calgon is the name of a large yacht with a crew dedicated to seeing to my every whim.



Wouldn't that be nice?



This has turned out to be another crazy month.



We had to update our computer server at the office. Then it didn't communicate properly with my computer, so that had to be updated. Now it has Windows 7 which doesn't operate properly with our accounting programs. Because of that I have at least one of my programs shut down on me at least 3 times a day. This has made it quite the challenge to get people's books done and W-2's out in a timely manner.


I've been so frustrated with just the computer situation that it's all I can do by the end of the day (usually night) not to burst into tears.

Maybe after this weekend and the end of this month I'll actually have the time to send out the Christmas presents that haven't been sent because Abigail got pnuemonia.


Burned the side of my face this morning with the flat iron. Go me!


And then, to add to everything that already needs to be done, the school called yesterday morning and Dax had to go pick up all three girls because they have lice AGAIN!! Wyatt said there were only 12 kids left in his class yesterday after they finished head checks. That means that at least 1/3 of his class got sent home.


So, I left the office early yesterday (at 6:00 p.m.) so that I could come home and treat the girls hair. I spent hours combing through their hair.


Only for the nurse to call again for me to go get Kirsten because she still had some today. The other two checked out fine this morning (thankfully).


Needless to say, Kirsten got treated again today.


Twice actually.


And then I combed through it again.



If I have to go pick someone up again tomorrow, I think I'll flip out.


Abigail is sick. I think she just has a cold, but with her I'm a nervous wreck. She's also losing her voice. This morning Addison told her that it makes us happy for her (Addison) to lose her voice. Wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that she hardly ever quits talking? And if she's hoarse, she talks even more because she thinks she sounds cool.



On another note, Dax was looking at some of the pictures on Addison's camera tonight and we found this.







See what happens when you're not watching them?


I swear that child had about 100 pictures of herself on that camera.


I guess that's good for her self image though. Isn't it?

Question of the week

The question (or questions) of the week on Multiples and More is:


How did you choose your multiples' names?
Did you stick with family names?
How do you feel about "matchy" names?
Did you worry about their names "coordinating?"
Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names?
What were your second choices?
Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor?


We had already picked out a boy name and a girl name before I even got pregnant so those two were easy. We got to use them both. They were Wyatt Kendall and Addison Noel.


After that we didn't have any ideas at all. We never thought we would need more than those. lol


I bought several books and read names until they all started to run together. It got hard to even remember ones that we might have liked.


Then I just started to listen to peoples names in conversations, on t.v., just where ever I could.


Dax decided that he liked Abigail so we decided to go with it.


Then we decided on Kirsten after hearing it on a tv show (Party of Five, I think).


But we were totally at a loss for middle names. Again we hit the books.


Dax found Caeden so we decided to use it with Abigail. It's an Irish name and we thought it would work best with Abigail.


Kirsten's middle name was the hardest for us. While I was in the hospital I would watch the credits to shows and read the names. Day after day. Then I finally decided on Sienna for her. And it's a good thing too, because they had already been born by then. lol



We didn't go with family names because I didn't want to have to pick and chose or leave anyone out. So we decided there would be no family names at all. Might as well hurt everyone's feelings instead of just some of them, right?



I'm just kidding!!!



We didn't want matchy names. If we had known how often we would mess up with two of them starting with A we wouldn't have even done that. As for coordinating, we wanted their first and middle names to roll easily with our last name but that's it. We didn't try to coordiante them with each other.

As far as naming them before we met them, we did with Wyatt. lol His was easy. I think we did kind of think of them by their names before they were born, then afterwards when the nurses were asking, we just kind of lucked into the names being assigned to the same child that we had expected them to be. At this point though, I think their names really fit them.


We certainly didn't have any second choices. lol


In all honesty, we wanted names that weren't really popular. We both have unusual names and wanted to do the same with our kids. Who knew that all four of them would wind up being popular? We liked Abigail because it was an old name. Then of course it seems like every other little girl born that year was named Abigail. Fortunately she likes to be called Abigail and most of the other little girls prefer Abbie. Although, I'm not really sure it matters much since most people just refer to them as The Quads. lol

Project 365

I don't think I mentioned it, but Dax and I are doing the project 365 thing. It's where you take pictures and post your favorit every day.


I just wanted to post about it because Dax and I are both doing it and we are really enjoying it. It's also been really great to be doing this together. We each take pictures and each choose one.

Here's our photos for yesterday.

Dax's



and mine



Mine is the reflection of the sunset in the office window last evening.


If you want to check out our other pictures you can go

here to see them or you can click on the Verleye365 over on the right side.


It's only been since the first of the year but already I'm learning to look at the things that I see almost daily in a different way. It's good to see the beauty that surrounds you and learn to appreciate it. It's all too easy to just get used to it and learn to overlook it.


I would recommend this process to anyone.

Paging Dr. Mom to the OR

There's been a tragic accident at our house.





It seems there was a mauling by Kuddles.





Addison brought the maimed victim to me to see if I could do emergency surgery.




Of course I took pictures (because that's what I do) but be warned it's a little grotesque.









It was awful to see Baby Babz with her guts all hanging out.



I told Addison that I would do my best but it wouldn't be pretty.




(I rest my case.)


Addison has had this little bunny (I know it's hard to tell that it ever was a bunny) and slept with it almost since she was born. I think I've convinced her that we'll try once more to wash Baby Babz and then we need to put her away where she can be safe.


Baby Babz has been mauled by dogs twice and she's pulled through. I think she deserves a little time off.

A new look

Kirsten and Addison both got new glasses.


Kirsten was actually going to get the same frames as she had before but since her prescription hasn't changed at all, what's the point in that?


I also cut Kirsten's hair short again.





I don't think Addison really cared what her new glasses looked like, just as long as they WEREN'T ROUND.


It seems that some of her friends told her that she looked like Harry Potter with round glasses.


I'm sure no girl wants to hear that.


She looks more grown up with these though.....and no parent wants to see that.

Schoolin'

There are times that I feel like I live in a circus. Now that we have 4 dogs those times seem to come around more and more often.



The other night the kids were all working on the sit command with their dogs. All of them doing it at the same time and all right there together.




(And, no, that's not a meant-to-be-matching outfit that Addison has on. She put a jacket on over her pajamas.)


We've been to dog training classes that are less chaotic than this was!


Addison seems to think that if she just keeps saying 'sit' louder and more urgently that somehow Kuddles will understand and do it.


It is pretty funny to watch, though.


Even if it craziness right at home.

We have a rule breaker!!

There are not a ton of rules at our house.




Yes, there are rules. Just not a ton of them.




One of those rules is that the dogs are not allowed on the leather furniture.



Makes sense, right?



Hmmm....



Maybe he's trying to explain it to Rocky?



Maybe he's afraid they're going to get caught?




Nope! Neither one seems to be uncomfortable with breaking the rules.

Home builders --- not so much.

I think we've discovered at least one career that may be out of questions for the kids when they grow up.


Construction--at this point--needs to be moved to the bottom of the list.


Grandma gave them a gingerbread house at Christmas time and they put it together while they were on vacation.




This hand is holding the roof on so that I could actually get a picture before it slid off.



Here's some more shots of the finished product.




But at least it's a happy home.......I guess.