First Day of School

Austin made it great through his first day and appears to really like it! We had our orientation on Monday night and he really had his schedule down pat and he seemed to be doing pretty well. There was a lot of information and it was a little overwhelming for him. Fascinatingly, the principal actually told the kids he expected they do extremely well on their ITBS because of No Child Left Behind or the school would get in trouble and it was up to them to make sure it didn’t. Hmmmm….last I checked that was the teacher's job. Talk about pressure right out of the gate! Last year his teacher said she would give a list of names of kids who would help Austin get through his day and the middle school said they would find at least one child to help him get from one class to the next, but they couldn't guarantee it would be the same kid. It became VERY obvious Monday night who she had chosen. There were two boys whose schedules (other than enriched study hall) were EXACTLY the same. And they were boys I figured would help him out anyway. That was reassuring! The hardest part is they don't allow sucks or gay to be said at all, zero tolerance, and his favorite word lately is sucks. I've tried and tried to get him to knock it off...hopefully now he really will. As I told him, it is a LONG 17 miles to Freddy to be walking when he gets a detention at 7 am. They also give detention for homework not getting done. I was a little upset about that. One of his “accommodations” is for his teachers to write the assignment down for him in his book and sign off if it is done or not because he can't follow through or copy things from board to paper well. Yet, yesterday his assignment book came home with only his writing in it and noone checked it off to say it was done. The problem with him not having anything formal is that they don’t HAVE to follow the accommodations…it is all just “recommended.” Thankfully, he brought it all home for me to check. This is exactly why I asked for him to be in an enriched study hall and she didn't do it. I can only hope it’s because it was the first day and they’ll get it down soon. The lovely enrichment teacher told them that they were in there because their grades had dropped or test scores had dropped and there was no screwing around. While this might be true of some kids, it certainly isn't for all (ie, Austin). I was a little upset she said that to all of them. She could have just said it was a study hall. He was upset because he thought she meant he was stupid. He was so excited when he came home because he had his schedule down and the building down and he was able to help other kids find their rooms. He loved the lunch (better than Sumner!) and the fact that they had a salad bar that he could get as much as he wanted from. You actually have control over what your child eats and we had to specify how many times he could get more. I checked "as many as he wants!" They are bussed to the elementary because their school doesn't have a lunch room and he handled that well, also. They also have one period a day mid-morning referred to as "advisory." It's pretty much homeroom and they are given that period to take a break and chat or read or whatever, and get a snack. He can purchase healthy snacks and juice from his teacher or bring his own. All his classes are a total of 20 minutes because they cram 11 into a day...I don't know how teachers get anything done in that short of an amount of time! He found his friend at the bus stop in the morning and rode with him every time on the bus, which was good. He said he made the lunch and afternoon busses in plenty of time, also. I re-wrote his schedule for him with exactly when to go to his locker and what to take with him at that time and what to do with homework and highlighted those parts, also. Unfortunately, they cannot take their bookbags with them at all to any classes, not even the last one and he has to get from one end of the building to the other to his locker, quick get everything he needs in his bag, and out to the bus at another end in under 5 minutes or he misses the bus. I am sure in the beginning they are given a little more time...I just hope he continues to make it on time! Last year, he had to have 16 book reports done by the end of the year, 4 each quarter. Anything above that was extra credit, which was great for him because he loves to read. This year, a grade older, they only have to do ONE! Anything over and above that is not extra credit, but they earn "rewards" for them! WHAT??!?? Rewards for reading....that is about the dumbest thing I ever heard of. Why not continue to just expect it or at the minimum, make their "reward" a better grade? I am still not sure if it is because they broke out according to reading ability in grade school and they do not at the middle school level or what. There are some big difference because we switched districts...it is still just whole-grade sharing, we have yet to merge, so each district sets their own standards. His teachers all seem great and I think he is really going to enjoy them. He has already decided Mr. N is his favorite teacher...big shock. Mr. N teaches science.Aidan is getting VERY excited to start preschool. We have orientation for that next week. He cannot wait. This is a hard year for me with Austin starting middle school and Aidan starting preschool. I felt like a dork when I dropped Austin off at the bus, restrained myself from getting out, and started crying watching him walk to the bus!I kinda wish that I could have done this a little more gradually, but Aidan needs something of his own and needs interaction with peers. He’s not so good with the whole sharing thing!Noah now has two teeth! Steve taught Nathanial and Ethan how to hold their own bottles a few weeks ago and they are really starting to get it down. Nathanial rarely drops his bottle now and can even hold it up in the air to get everything out. Ethan is learning to put it up in the air, also, and can take it out of his mouth and get it back in again, as long as he doesn’t drop it (which he tends to do quite a bit!). On Monday night, they were all hungry at the same time, which they always are, so Steve put Noah on the floor and tried him. The little stinker held on to his bottle for Daddy! He wouldn’t for me! Last night, he did it again and Noah did it for him again…with me in the room! So, this morning, I lined them all up, handed them their bottles, and sat by them. They all fed themselves!!! Yeah!!! This makes it a little easier at feeding time! Noah and Ethan still drop theirs quite a bit, but that’s fine with me. They are also LOVING eating “real” food. I just run from one to the next in a line and keep it coming. Noah and Ethan are not real good about waiting their turn, but they have no choice. As always, I added more pictures to the dropshots page of Austin’s first day and babies holding bottles, etc.

State Fair, Here We Come!

Boy, oh boy have we been busy this summer! It seems like Austin just got out and suddenly summer is over! Austin starts middle school next week and we have his orientation Monday night. How did THAT happen?!?A lot has happened lately and I will try to remember it all!Austin had fair last week and did awesome! He received blue ribbons for his photo series with all his brothers together on the inside and each alone on the outside and blue for his Consumer Savvy where he compared three kinds of cake and then wrote up what he learned. One of his pictures is going on to State Fair! He also got Best of Show on that picture!!! That is such an honor and he is only a second year junior! We are so very proud of all his hard work…it really paid off for him!He also did very well with his rabbits. He received blues for two of his rabbits and they received first and second place in their class (junior doe fancy breed). His other senior doe also received first place and a blue. His buck received a blue, then went on to get Grand Champion fancy breeds!!! That is awesome. The thing we are most proud of is that he received Grand Champion Junior Showmanship!!! He did an excellent job with his rabbit and was awesome! Last year he was reserve Junior Showman, this year he got it! So awesome! What a lot of people don’t see and don’t understand is that he doesn’t just do it and show up at fair. All the prior work for him is a lot more difficult and takes a lot more time and effort for him. For example, the cakes took over five hours to do because of difficulties with the measurements and his motor skills and meltdowns in between because “this is impossible!” The rabbits he works with for hours every day to get them ready. He took well over 200 pictures to get SIX that he could actually show. It took him another five hours to mat them just so and get them ready. Then it comes time for fair day and he hops in the car, ready to go…no projects, no goal sheets, no exhibit labels, nothing. Doesn’t even faze him that he has forgotten it all, until Steve or I remind him to go get it. When we get there, he is overwhelmed by all the people and very nervous, but he works through it all with breathing, etc. This is just a *sampling* of what goes on for him to get ready for fair and he does his projects himself, with very minimal help from Steve and I and that is why we are even more proud of him. At least he knows he can accomplish things if he wants to! We are going to State Fair Sunday and I will update then to let you all know how he showed at the state level. That is not conference judging, it is the picture all alone with his goal sheet…he cannot explain it or anything, so it is a little more difficult, but it doesn’t even matter what he gets…he did incredible to get there!Aidan is getting ready for preschool and oh so excited! We have an open house August 21 and then we find out when he starts. He will go three days a week in the afternoons. I know he needs to be away from me a little more, so we are starting him now. He is very needy still and always wants to be with me…to the point that lately he sobs when I leave. Not good.Now for the babies. Boy has a lot happened!! Noah is sitting…sitting!! He doesn’t do it for very long, but it is a bona fide sit! Ethan is slump-sitting and Nathanial is happy as a lark on the floor! Ethan is getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, ready to crawl! He will, in fact, move a few inches even! Ethan and Nathanial got their two bottom teeth in and did so with relative ease. Noah, not so much. He FINALLY broke through his bottom tooth and is working on another, but man has he been a BEAR throughout this process! Nothing easy with that little man! Ethan has been having a little separation anxiety when I lay him down for naps and bedtime. He cries, then I go back in for about 3 minutes, then he is fine when I leave. The other two haven’t started that yet, but they are all a little leery when I leave the room or get out of sight of them. They are all such loves. I love going through every stage with them and they are so much fun. I had read in several different books when I was pregnant that the first year with triplets is a blur and you don’t really get to know your babies because it is all work, work, work. I was a little disheartened, but figured there had to be SOME positives to the first year. I have found that to be false for us. I know each baby very well, as well as I did with the older two. They all have their own little preferences and slight differences (major in Noah) in personalities and I really don’t feel like it has ALL been work. They are on an awesome schedule and are very good babies, so maybe that helps! They had their six month appointment today. I cannot believe they are six months old already! Nathanial was 16 lb, 5 oz and 27”, head was 16.5”; Ethan 16 lb, 7 oz, 26.5”, 16.5” head; Noah 17 lb 1 oz, 26.5”, 17” head. They are all getting to be the same size, and most exciting, they didn’t need to be on the preemie chart anymore!!! They each got three shots and that wasn’t fun at all. Ethan didn’t say a lot about it. Noah SCREAMED….he hated it and he made sure you knew it! Nathanial did not like it either, did great for the first one, but then screamed through the second two, then was OK. They all came home and are sound asleep now. Hopefully they will sleep off the worst of it! I’ll update again after Sunday on State Fair results! If you want to see pictures, they are at www.dropshots.com/5boysmom . There are also some of Austin at www.bremercountyfair.com and then you click on “buy pictures.” (You don’t have to buy, you can just look.)

Boy Scout Camp

Austin went to Boy Scout Camp last week for the entire week. He loved it and had a lot of fun! He got to participate in swimming, first aid, and Trail to Eagle, which is learning about basics for Boy Scouts and “tying knots” (according to Austin). We went for Parent’s Night on Wednesday night and had a very eventful dinner with him. While waiting to get into the dining hall, we noticed three (!!!) dead bats by the door. I HATE bats! Then, they served “Chicken on the Bone” (which if you know me, is just DISGUSTING, in my so humble opinion). I did TRY to eat a piece, but it quickly got the best of me and I handed it over to Steve…I just couldn’t do it. Then, halfway through dinner, a bat started flying around, right near our table. Ugh! I don’t know how he survived all week, but I wouldn’t have been able to! Then Austin took me to his campsite. He thought it would be a great idea to go across a swinging bridge (I also hate bridges and have an extreme fear of heights) and take the long way to his site. That took us a while. Then I noticed that a lot of people were meeting us when we were almost to camp, who left after us. Austin said they took the big hill and I probably wouldn’t want to do that. I told him I’d try on the way back. Needless to say, that took mere minutes compared to the other way. Now I know which way to go next year! But I did get a nice tour of the campgrounds, so it wasn’t all bad.Friday Steve heard someone’s pager at work (a volunteer firefighter/EMT) go off saying “the grass fire at Camp Ingawanis is under control.” So Steve thought it would be a good idea to tell me about this. My first concern was “is Austin OK??” Then, our next concern (and Steve’s first) was “did Austin start it??” He got home late Friday night (11:30) and didn’t even mention it! We had to ask him about it and he said someone’s rocket had started on fire while in air and started a fire in a nearby field. No big deal to him!The babies are still doing fantastic! Nathanial is REALLY trying to crawl…it’s making me VERY nervous! He can get almost anywhere he wants to be by pushing off of his feet and legs. I am sooo not ready for this! Ethan now has both his bottom teeth in and Nathanial woke up the other morning with TWO new teeth, both bottom, both appearing at the same time! He really did well with it. Poor Noah has been teething the longest and still has no teeth to show for it! Poor little fella! We also moved the babies into their own cribs last week. I expected Nathanial to have the hardest time out of all of them. I was wrong. Ethan has had the hardest time adjusting. He cries a little every time he goes down, but I have discovered that if I remember to turn his light and music on, he does OK. They all snuggle up to the side rails to comfort themselves, I think. It has gone better than I expected though!I took their “five” month pictures (just a little late!) and added them to www.dropshots.com/5boysmom, if you want to check them out! They didn't turn out terrific, but it is what it is! They are getting way too antsy to get good shots anymore! I added other pictures, also, of lots of different things!That’s it for now! They go for their SIX month visit August 6 (I think!). I cannot believe they are that old! Austin has fair and shows his rabbits August 3. He gets his photography and Consumer Savvy judged on July 31. So I will update for that, also.

Vacation Updates

Well, we are home from our trip to my sister’s. We all had a great time and are so glad we did it. We can’t wait to do it again! As always, there are pictures on www.dropshots.com/5boysmom.We arrived last Saturday afternoon. We had lunch with a friend on Saturday. It was nice to catch up and visit. We hadn’t seen each other in a while. It’s amazing how busy lives can get! Then we arrived at Shawna’s later in the day. We spent the rest of the time relaxing. Sunday we relaxed and didn’t do a whole lot either, although the kids had a lot of fun! We had mom and Granny and Grandpa Charlie over for supper and got to visit with them. Ethan bit Granny on the shoulder and she yelped and said he had a tooth. I didn’t believe it, but on closer inspection, he does! He got the first tooth!! On his left bottom. So cute! It also explained why he was so owly at bedtime the night before and wouldn't take his nap that day!Monday we went to the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque with my mom. Our kids love going there. The kids loved all the fish, the otters, the boats they got to control, and the William M Black. It’s neat for my kids to be able to tour the Black. When I was growing up, it was only open for school tours. We went every year, but that was pretty much the only way on. Now it is open year round as part of the museum. They also all got to touch a stingray. That was fascinating. Then they felt all sorts of odd little shelled fish things. If Austin was here, he could tell me what they were, but he’s not and I can’t remember. Even Noah and Ethan got a chance. Noah stared at it and found it fascinating. Ethan looked at it, but didn’t get too close to it. Emma was hesitant at first, but then touched them. Cael also touched them. Then in the afternoon, we went to the pool in Dubuque. That was very refreshing, as it was really hot!Tuesday we went to the Madison Zoo with my dad. That was really nice. The kids had a great time. We didn’t get through the whole thing…I think it was my first time ever not getting through it all in one day!! We kept getting stopped for everyone to see the babies. I felt like we should set up a side attraction, one day only! Oh, well…I don’t really mind and people love to see them. It just forces me out of my comfort zone a tad, but Steve and I are starting to believe that was God’s ultimate plan in giving us triplets! Aidan LOVED the goats. I could not get him away! He has always loved goats and he wasn’t about to leave them before he absolutely had to. Austin, as always, was the perfect tour guide and could tell us almost anything about any animal. We then headed home to grill out and Dad was going to stay longer, but there was a thunderstorm warning and he had his Harley, so he had to get going while the going was good!Wednesday (the Fourth) we went to Steve’s sister’s for Troy and Shane’s birthday. Aidan loves to see Shane, so he was excited. They played a really neat game and had fun with that. Aidan searched for the fish and figured out how to turn off Sue’s fountain so he could see them. We were ALL happy to see Daddy that day. Then we went to my mom’s for supper and got to visit with Granny and Grandpa Charlie again, plus my brother.Thursday we had a relaxing day again, which was nice. We made necklaces and just had fun. Friday we went to get pictures done for my mom and my dad, plus our grandparents. It was quite an undertaking, with seven kids (six of whom are under the age of 4!!), but it was nice to get everyone’s picture taken together. We ended up with some cute pictures. I hope they like them! Then we went to the pool again that afternoon for a while. My mom and brother and his friend came up to visit that night also. Saturday was my step-mom’s family reunion so we went to that for a while. It was another hot, hot day, so they kids had fun in the fountain. It used to be an actual little wading pool, till there was a little e-coli scare. Now it is just a faint spray fountain. It doesn’t matter to the kids, though! Then we headed home after a long week and we were so excited to be home again and see Daddy! The babies started solid food!! They were really ready, so we did it. I started them on sweet potatoes because our grocery store was out of avacados. But, today I got some avacados, squash, and more sweet potatoes. I made two huge sweet potatoes yesterday, but they are eating way more than I realized! So I am back to making a ton of baby food. They appeared to like it! We also separated them into their own cribs. While at Shawna’s, Noah was in his own pack and play and he did awesome. We thought we would continue when we got home and try Nathanial and Ethan separate, also. I really thought I would have the most trouble with Nathanial, but that was not the case. Ethan has had the hardest time and has been crying at night for a couple of minutes when he is first put in, then he stops and all is well and he sleeps good the rest of the night. Austin headed to Boy Scout Camp yesterday after church for a week. He comes home Saturday. I hope he is having fun! I know he was really excited to go. I’m just nervous for him! We get to go to parent’s night on Wednesday, so we do get to see him a little. I’m sure he’ll be so busy and have so much fun he won’t even miss us!Tomorrow, Austin, Troy, and Shane show, so we are going to the Delaware county fair. So Steve won’t work then, either. I survived my first trip with all five boys alone and actually enjoyed myself! It was great to get away and not have to worry about what time Steve would be home. And I am sure it was nice for him to not have to feel guilty about working late. He even took off yesterday for us! He brought home work, but he was here!

We have been trying for another baby with medical help since November 2005 and since Aidan was born on our own. In November, my doctor didn’t seem very positive. He did a suppression cycle and then we began medication in January. We had six IUI’s prior to returning back to Iowa City’s infertility clinic in the end of May. Since we know what worked with Aidan, we started the same protocol immediately. Then began the nightmare of injections, ultrasounds, and blood tests. On June 14, we went in for our IUI. Everything looked great, except one number. The nurse who did it said that with that one number being a little low, the pregnancy rate dropped drastically, so this cycle would not count towards our total of four. So we tried not to get our hopes up, but she still gave us some hope.We went about our “normal” lives for the next two weeks and went on vacation. I was exhausted and moody, but figured it was just PMS.On June 28, I went to Allen in Waterloo at 8:30 a.m. to get our hCG blood draw, so I could go off the progesterone and start everything all over again…so convinced was I that it did not work. I waited and waited and waited, and finally, at 5:30, the nurse from the clinic called. The number was 196…an excellent number that meant I was, indeed, pregnant!!! I was so excited and couldn’t believe it. I asked her three times if she was sure she had the right person and even took a home test at 3:15 a.m. to be positive it was correct. We are now waiting to go in for our first ultrasound on July 20, which will be seven weeks. That will check to make sure the baby has a heartbeat, and with a number like 196, to see if there is possibly more than one! There were three really nice follicles, so technically, there could be three babies, but we highly doubt it. They don’t think my one side works very well and on the side that does work, it only had one follicle. I guess only time will tell.Please keep me and this baby and our family in prayers these next few weeks and months. We can use every prayer we get…it has worked several times and it will work again! God is Great!!!