Bonnie and the Quads

I thought I would answer two of the questions that folks most frequently ask me. First, "How is Bonnie doing with the babies?" and second, "Have you updated your blog recently?"

Bonnie is a great big sister. Truly, we couldn't ask her to do any better. She shows almost no jealousy, although she almost always performs some sort of attention getting behavior shortly after we start a feeding. Currently, her favorite attention getter is going to the bathroom on her own. She will take off her own pants and diaper and climb onto the toilet. She will then re-emerge a few minutes later either naked from the waist down, or with her pants around her ankles. A few days ago, she appeared half naked with a wipe and started cleaning the windows by the front door. Very cute. Of course, after the show we have to chase her down and get her dressed again. We love those naked buns around here!!!

Last week, I was feeding two babies, and two were sleeping in the nursery. A few minutes into the feeding, the other two woke up and started crying. I put down the two I was feeding and went to go get the other two ready to feed. The two I had been feeding started crying, but after a couple minutes, the crying stopped. When I got back to the living room I found Bonnie "feeding" the two babies I had left behind. They had milk all over their faces, heads, and necks, but the bottles were in their mouths...so big kudos to big sis for helping mommy out!

Bonnie also does a great job of feeding, burping, patting, and rocking her own babies. She has four, but favors the "twins" that arrived on Christmas day. Here are some pictures of her caring for her charges which are simply known as "Pink Baby" and "Purpah Baby."

Bonnie has been really big on giving hugs lately, so in addition to the many snotty kisses the babies get every day, she is also giving them hugs. She likes it when we hold the babies down so that she can come right up and give them a big hug. She has tried to make off with a baby a time or two, so we have to be careful with this. She actually wrapped her arms around Teddy the other day and then looked at me and said, "I got it. Let go, Mommy. I get it."

With her own brand of pronunciation, Bonnie has also developed her own nick names for the babies. Teddy is "Tebby" or "Tubby." I'm often guilty of calling him Tubby, just because it is so darn funny.

Oliver is "Ah-di-ver" and Ollie is "Owie" I think "Owie" is pretty funny, so he is often referred to as "Owie" these days.

Audrey is "Ah rey" and Melanie is "Many."

Bonnie is picking up on everything we say these days, so she often calls Teddy, "Tebby Man" (after hearing Daddy say that one day) and "Tebby Bear."

When a baby is fussing, I often say something like, "Oh Ollie, what's wrong?" So now when a baby starts crying she will say, "Oh Many!" or "Oh Owie!" with great enthusiasm.

The babies aside, Bonnie is making her mark outside of home, too. She still goes to preschool full-time and has recently graduated to the 2-3 year-old-class. She has a boyfriend named Jackson at school. She and Jackson hold hands, dance, and draw together. Bonnie kissed Jackson about a week ago. Daddy sat down and had a chat with her after the kissing incident. He also had a word with Jackson's father.

The house is quiet during the day without Bonnie's constant chatter, but being home alone with Bonnie and the babies can be quite exhausting, so we think it is still best for her to be in school during the day. However, we are considering scaling her back to three days a week now that mommy is getting the hang of this mom of five thing. She will continue to go full-time for the balance of January, and we will decide on going part time in the next week or two.