So much going on...

So there has been a lot going on here lately.  With birthday parties, babies, deployments, first days of school, doctor appointments, dentist appointments and on and on things have been a little crazy.  Here are a few random pictures from our days lately.

Here are John and Grant.  I'm hoping they grow into being good brother buddies.  Right now they both cry at me a lot so they have that in common.  Grant is acting a little jealous of John sometimes.  He doesn't like John to sit in his swing, the bouncy chair, on mom's lap, on the boppy pillow or use any blankets that he thinks should belong to him.  Plus he gets very frustrated sometimes (Grant I mean) 'cause he can't tell us what's wrong.  So there is a lot of screaming some days.  John is pretty good at sleeping through scream tantrums which I think is amazing.

Angie, Scott's sister, is visiting and has been helping me a lot with Grant in particular.  Here is an instagram picture she took of him at the park.  He looks so happy.

And Angie has had a lot of success getting him to eat food, which is great 'cause he's generally such a picky eater.  Here he is eating peaches off the table.  He was having trouble picking them up 'cause they were so slippery.

Here's Matthew post-dental check up.  He was cavity free and got a special cavity free sticker.  Matthew and Anna love the dentist.  I guess that's a good thing.

Here's Grant peek-a-booing with a sweater Grandma Keeler made.  So much fun!

John is a great sleeper.  Better than Grant is these days.  Here he is about to fall asleep.

And he's out.  I love those cheeks!

More sleeping.

Matthew posing with a cardboard Matthew that Angie helped him make.

The kids had lots of fun coloring their cardboard people.

And Grant got a cool cardboard sign.  Mr. Grant that is.

Here's Anna playing Legos.  

She was sure to show Angie which Lego piece she had stuck in her nose a few months back.  Nice!

Grant was trying to grab the boppy pillow when he fell asleep in the swing.

Here's John giving Angie a hug!

And more sleeping (those cheeks!)

Grant looking so cute in the monkey hat (another cute pic courtesy of Angie).

And the two little boys (as I have taken to calling them although Grant gets offended if he hears himself being called "little") taking naps at the same time, while the big kids are at school!  Amazing!

 
I'm sure John will wake up soon, so I better enjoy this quiet time while I have it!

Haircuts

We took the kids to get haircuts today.  Sometimes I cut their hair at home, but I thought they could all benefit from some professional hair help this time.  This was Grant's first time to get a real haircut (a not at home haircut).  He got to sit in the car shaped chair and he did pretty good.  He cried a little bit and they gave him two cars to hold (one for each hand of course) and that sort of worked to distract him.  

 He didn't totally love the haircut experience, but we all got through it.  Good job Grant!

 Here is a "before" picture of Grant's hair.  He had a lot of fuzzies up on top there.  Cute and fluffy!

 And here is the "after" picture.  He looks very straight laced now doesn't he.  :)

Anna also got a cute haircut.  You can't really get the full effect here, but it looked cute on her!  And she allowed the stylist to put a clip in her hair, which she doesn't usually let me do.

 

And Matthew got his hair all cleaned up too.  They even spiked his hair up in the front, which I never do, but he liked it.

 

And here is the crew altogether.  John didn't get a haircut although he does have a few longish fuzzies in back.  I figure he can wait on that.  :)  We're also taking bets to see if John's hair goes blond like Matthew and Grant's hair did.  They had brown hair when they were born also...so we'll see.

Here is John showing off his hair.  Will it turn blond like the other boys?  

We'll just have to wait and see...

Anna Goes to Preschool

Monday was Anna's first day of preschool.  She has been excited to start and I'm excited for her.  She picked out her outfit for her first day - a sweater dress and boots, even though it was 90 degrees outside.  The first day of school was also picture day.  Here are Anna and Matthew getting ready to head to school - Matthew is so much taller than her even though she is only 17 months younger.  They both go to school at the same time (drop off AND pick up at the same time) at different schools.  Luckily the schools are just a few blocks apart and I can drop off Matthew early and pick up Anna early.  So hopefully it works out.  We'll see.

Anna was so excited!  She has the same teachers Matthew had last year and meets in the same classroom.  Since she went with me to pick up Matthew 99% of the time last year she is very familiar with the class, the teachers and the whole process, so hopefully that helps.
She picked out a Tinkerbell backpack for school that is almost as big as she is.  Hopefully she grows into it this year.

We made it school on time after dropping off Matthew and Anna wasn't nervous at all.  She learned where to hang up her back pack and the whole coming to school routine, so I'm hopeful things go well.  Here she is signing in at the beginning of class.  Happy first day of preschool Anna!

The name's Grant. Mr. Grant.

 

I've been getting a lot of comments lately that Grant is at "such a cute age."  He is.  He's 16 months old.  He jabbers, he sings, he imitates what the big kids do and toddles around quite adorably.  He also screams, runs away from me in public places, lays down on the ground in protest (goes "boneless") and screams more and hits things out of frustration when he can't communicate with us.  He also writes on himself every chance he gets, eats inappropriate things (but refuses to eat real food) and wakes up at 4:30 in the morning...ready for his day.

Today at the doctor as he was screaming and running around, turning the lights off on the lab techs while they tried to take John's blood and causing general havoc (everyone at the clinic now officially hates us by the way) I was trying to remember how cute he is and what a "cute age" he is at.  That helped a little...but not until I was well away from the doctor...and the judgmental stares of all around us were but a distant memory.  

I'm really working on getting this kid to talk a little more so he can tell us what he wants instead of just screaming for everything.  :)  He is cute though.  I keep telling myself that.

Grant Guptill:  free form artist (notice the leg art below), cup thrower, early riser, little brother blanket stealer, boot try-er on-er, eater of floor detritus, Lego investigator, and adorable toddler.

And he definitely prefers his milk shaken (or thrown)...not stirred.

Anna Guptill

Anna, who for a long time has refused to acknowledge that her last name is Guptill (she always told us she was just "Anna Rose"), has finally decided to accept it.  

Today she told me her name is "Anna Guptill Rose Disneyland."  

At least she got the Guptill in there somewhere.  :)

John getting bigger

Here are just a few picture of John at 12 days old.  He is getting bigger and starting to look like less of a newborn - more like himself.  So far he is a good sleeper and a pretty easy going baby.  He can amazingly sleep through screaming and other loud noises from his older siblings.  He is sleeping a good long stretch at night which I think is wonderful right now, even if it doesn't last.  When he gets really upset he will do that holding your breath cry where he breaths in for a really long time while his face gets really red and then screams.  Luckily he doesn't do that too often and even his angry cry isn't very loud.  As of his 5 day appointment he had almost regained his birth weight and he seems bigger and heavier now, so I think he's doing just fine on the eating.  He's a sweet little guy.

And here is a video of John.  It's nothing too exciting, just something to remember what he looked like as a little guy. 

John's First Bath

John had his first real bath today.  My mom and the kids all helped make this bath possible.  John cried a lot at the beginning - the kind of cry where he's just breathing in for a really long time before he screams.  By the end he had stopped crying and was just accepting it.  He was all cute and clean at the end of it all...and no permanent emotional trauma I think.  Here he is in his tubby.  This is when he had already reached the "acceptance" stage of the bath.

 He doesn't look happy, but he wasn't crying anymore.

That's something.  I love those super chubby cheeks and that double chin! 

 I think he was just waiting for it to be over

 And soon enough it was.  Here he is all snuggled in his towel.

Nice and clean.

 And in jammies.  His left clavicle is the one that got broken and he is more hesitant to use that arm as a result.  So he'll punch you with his right.  I think he's getting ready to do that here.

It's good to be clean!

And here's a bonus picture...John sleeping.  He's a good sleeper.

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was Matthew's first day of kindergarten.  He was very excited!  He is going to our neighborhood school, a different school than he went to for pre-k, which was kind of confusing for him.  I think he realizes it's a different school now though.  Here he is getting ready to walk over.

He told me it was too sunny for pictures outside.  He goes to half day kindergarten from noon to 3pm. You have to pay tuition if you want your kid to go to full time kindergarten in our district.

The school is a short walk from our house.  If you walk fast it's about 5 minutes.  Matthew found a creative way to wear his backpack.  An open water bottle spilled on his backpack just before leaving for school, so he tried wearing it a new way that wouldn't get his back wet.

 Here we are at the playground just before heading into class.  Matthew is in the back there.

 And marching into class.

 Matthew found where to hang up his backpack and found his seat!

 And here he is signing in.  The teachers were sure to tell all us parents not to get emotional in front of the kids on the first day.  Matthew was excited to be there and had no trouble saying goodbye to me.  When he was younger I imagined he might have some trouble when it came to school time since he used to be very shy and clingy when he was small.  I'm happy to report he has completely grown out of both of those.  He's actually pretty chatty and outgoing now and very excited to start kindergarten.  Hooray!

I had to sign in at the school to go in his class with him.  Exciting!  Walking back home after I dropped him off I felt a little sad that my little guy is now big enough for kindergarten.  Where does the time go!