{Tyke Bites} Quick B-Fast, Blackened Salmon & More

Hey y'all, here's another installment of Tyke Bites, featuring a random day of meals in Quadville!

This is what I refer to as my "easy" breakfast, something that's super quick to throw together on mornings I wake up late or we're trying to leave not long after eating as it takes five minutes to prep. I use whatever fresh fruit I have on hand, like grapes and raspberries, flavored Greek yogurt (the quads eat the Greek Gods brand and love the honey blueberry flavor!), mini chocolate Wheaties and Nutrigrain bars.

Lunch was grilled cheese, veggie chips, Caesar salad (they just started becoming interested in eating salad) and strawberries. It's nice when I can make myself a plate of the exact same thing and call it done!

For dinner, we do all eat the exact same thing. I make one meal and then supplement some fruit for the kiddos. Normally, what you're served is what you get and I don't offer anything extra. At dinner time, there's only a slight exception to that rule because I want to make sure the babies have eaten a sufficient amount to be sleeping through the night for 12 hours. If someone has really picked at their plate or not liked what they were served, they may get some Greek yogurt or applesauce to help top them off—and of course, everyone else is also offered some or there will be a mutiny.

This night's dinner was blackened salmon, roasted potatoes and garlic, cheese sticks, pineapple and strawberries for the kiddos. Momma and daddy added wine to round out our meal. ;)

And of course there's nothing better than butter cookies with chocolate and sprinkles! The kids go crazy over these and I let them each pick out their own cookie from the box, which they also enjoy because they must select the very best one even if it takes me five minutes, mom.

Be sure to check out my Tot Food board on Pinterest for more pint-sized bites! And in case you missed it, you can check out what we did the last two weekends here.

{Weekend Recap} 24 Hour Getaway & Crazy Town

Things are still crazy at my house right now. Do you ever have those days where you're so tired that you can't figure out where to start....so you pretty much end up doing nothing? That's pretty much where I'm at today. DEAD TO THE WORLD.  I change diapers, cut up food into tiny bite size pieces for the 5,657,309th time and wipe runny noses. Because that's the glamour of having two-year-old quadruplets in my life right now, folks. I temporarily live in Crazy Town. Be envious.

Somewhere just around two weeks ago things got real ugly in our house. And I'm blaming some bitch of some molars in my toddlers mouths for the time being, unless another cause makes itself obvious. Fevers, nose wiping, crying, screaming, clinginess, yelling like a banshee when I come in their room to sweetly get them out of bed in the morning. Every single day. (In case you didn't catch my post about all this loveliness before, check it out here. You know, so you can be all up to date on this torture. I wouldn't want you to miss anything.)

It's been everything I can do to keep up with things right now. The kids are driving me nuts and about halfway through each day, I'm really not sure I can take anymore. And it's not the whole, I'm-tired-and-just-really-don't-want-to-deal-with-anything-else type of feeling. It's like an I'm-leaving-for-the-beach-and-I'll-be-gone-three-months-tell-the-babies-I-love-them situation. Then I calm down for a second before I fall asleep late at night and it's just enough to salvage things and come back for more punishment the next day. Eek!

Except this afternoon, three out of four were crying non-stop and two of those three were reaching about three octaves higher than usual. You know that wailing, ear-piercing cry that sort of breaks into a raspy spiral at the end? Yeah, that one. It literally sends a chill down my spine. So I left them all in the capable hands of the husband who was pretty much ushering me out the door to go somewhere, anywhere, besides there. He knows when I need it more than I do myself sometimes, and it's actually rare that I just pick up and leave the house when people are around. The only times I'm gone are to run errands, like groceries, and go to physical therapy. All very thrilling outings and I relish every second. Especially when things get super crazy and I squeeze in a pedicure. Then I'm living on the edge. ;)

Often times, it surprises me when I read back my blog post before publishing it and I realize I haven't completely lost my sense of humor. In fact, it's probably a little misleading the way I write many of these posts because it doesn't sound like I've truly gone mental or am on the verge of a major anxiety attack. Coping mechanism, perhaps? Though not a terrible one, I'll admit. Plus I'm too tired to really speak it all out loud so perhaps the energy I'm saving by just transferring direct thoughts into text on a screen salvages the last bits of humor I have left. Consider yourselves extremely fortunate in that case.

Speaking of being so tired, the husband and I have both been clawing at the surface during those aforementioned past few weeks of hell on Earth. And last weekend the day had arrived for us to escape for a full 24 hours to a nearby hotel for the night while my parents took over and looked after the quadlings so we could be free. (I swear, Mel Gibson's William Wallace-voice echoes in my head each time we drive away like that... "freeeeeeeedoooomm!")

Our hotel was only 15 minutes away and after we'd checked out then gone downstairs and snagged a drink from the bar, I called Pizza hut and ordered dinner to be delivered to the house right at 6pm. All my parents had to do was cut up food into more bite sized pieces—a staple activity at our house, I swear I spend 90% of my time in the kitchen dicing away!—and hand out plates. Then the husband and I breathed a sigh of contentment, leaned farther back in our chairs and helped ourselves to the cheese board we'd ordered as a pre-dinner snack.

We headed back to the room later to rest and I leisurely read my Rachael Ray magazine and sorted out our meal plan for the next week, an activity I actually enjoy when I have more than six minutes! Then we went for dinner at Benihana's, since neither of us had been in years, we were both down for Asian food and it was less than five minutes from the hotel. It was perfect and so enjoyable and we had several drinks and got to just relax and take our time.

Sleeping in was also a highlight of our stay and we stopped by a movie theater after we checked out to see the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick (I love all action films) then drove over to our church for a meet-and-greet with the pastor and staff as we hope to join soon.

The rest of the afternoon, we hung out in our living room with the quads and watched movies like Brave, which was incredibly cute! The curly red-headed triplet boys were cracking us up during the whole thing and the quads actually watched most of it, in between playing with blocks and coloring. Just to change things up, we ate sandwiches for dinner picnic-style on a blanket on the floor in the living room then went outside to play for awhile since it was no longer 100 degrees.

This weekend has been fairly low-key. We went out Friday night for drinks with the husband's coworkers and enjoyed staying out late and gettin' a little rowdy. I was also grateful to his parents for feeding the babies dinner and putting them to bed for us while we were gone, it was nice to have a break!

With it being so hot, I've adopted a new hairstyle I'd had pinned on my Pinterest beauty board for awhile and love how simple and easy it is, while looking nice and keeping my hair off my neck. I get soooo hot these days all the time. Get the how-to here. I didn't twist my hair as low and loose and the second time I did it, I added some braids for texture.

Saturday morning we all slept in then had biscuits and sausage for breakfast, before piling into the suburban and making for Meemaw and Grandad's house for a surprise visit. They loved it and so did the kids! We had such a nice time that we stayed for lunch, which was easy since I'd brought applesauce squeeze pouches and a ziploc of frozen organic chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries that I just put in the oven to cook.

Back home, after we gave the kids baths and before we put them to bed, they started dancing with each other, which sort of erased any shell shock I'd been in during the week before and made them all cute and wonderful again. Do you see the cycle now!? I know you veteran parents spotted it a mile away...



Today (Sunday), we were supposed to go to church and then have a swim lesson this afternoon but a monsoon of a storm blew in during the wee hours and changed all those plans. The husband had to go to my parent's house to help them suck water out of their kitchen and den, since everything was starting to flood. I did make this pot roast, which was insanely delicious so I paired it with an insane amount of homemade buttery mashed potatoes. Then ate way too much, but I'm justifying it by the fact that it's probably my only meal for the day.

Then the kids started screaming and becoming increasingly unhappy, so I left and now you've come full circle to where I started. At Starbucks on my laptop, typing out bewildered humorous thoughts about my life and wishing away molar teething temperaments and ear-bursting wails.

Figure I've got a little time to respond to some work emails and pick up groceries before I have to return to Crazy Town, since I left two boxes of mac-and-cheese on the counter with a sticky note that read, "dinner." No doubt the husband will be thrilled.

{Littles Learning} Ocean Week

I've officially added a new category to my regular posts called "Littles Learning." I'll be filing everything that has to do with educational activities, crafts and outings for the quad squad under that so hopefully it's easier to find and refer back to as we share our experiences on the blog!

A couple posts ago, I mentioned the book-and-craft combos I kickstarted each week, inspired by my fellow quad mom, Amber, who also shared her own literacy-based craft ideas on her blog, Four to Adore. Things have sort of taken off for us from there and last week we did an ocean theme with various associated crafts, books and activities.

Before you start thinking I'm all organized and on top of things, please know that just because I'm showing you photos of all these things we did in a week that the rest of the time my house is clean, my kids are well-behaved and I live behind a white picket fence. Some of these activities lasted five minutes while others lasted an hour, some were met with smiles and unfettered interest and others were met with cries and protests and throwing of things. So, you know, to each his own and stuff like that. ;)

I am no chalk artist but I did try to get a little creative with our chalkboard fireplace cover! I figured I might as well find as many ways as possible to incorporate the theme or lesson or book I'm focusing on each week in as many ways as possible. So I drew a couple sea animals on the board and was one proud momma when my little red-head, Trystan, could easily identify each one by the end of the week!

We read our beloved Pout Pout Fish books several times that week...

And I also went out on a limb and tried an activity I'm not normally drawn to, which is to make any kind of "goop" for my kids to get all over them, much less one that required I use my kitchen accessories to do it! But the sea foam activity proved a success and the kids loved it. I put 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup dish soap, 1 tablespoon corn starch into my mixer and put it on high for several minutes until it got nice and foamy. I used washable finger paint to add a little color without running the risk of staining everything within reach of 40 little fingers. Then I realized that my leisurely pace wasn't going to cut it as foam began morphing into soppy colored water in the bottom of my plastic bin, so I churned out enough bowl fulls of whipped soap as fast as I could and hauled the bin to my front porch for the kids to explore.

I hid some sea shells, plastic sea animals and plastic spoons in the bottom of the bin for them to find, and also switched bins halfway through my foam making-process because a shallow, longer container worked better for toddler access.

Another afternoon, while Granddad read Pout Pout Fish, I gave each of the kids an empty water bottle, some small sea shells and little colored gemstones (which were a buck for a sack from Wal-Mart) to start their ocean bottle craft. They spent a good ten minutes emptying the shells out of their bottles then putting them all back in.

After both books had been read, I turned on a slideshow of underwater animals that I'd quickly compiled on my laptop and played this ocean wave soundtrack while I went down the line and helped them each scoop a few tablespoons of sand each into their bottles. (Yes, we got sand elsewhere besides the bottles and yes, I tried not to sweat all the sand that Bam Bam managed to sling everywhere in 2.5 seconds!) Then I added a little glitter, two drops of blue food coloring and some water to finish it off. I used a hot glue gun and squeezed some glue to the inside of the cap before screwing it back on so that the quads couldn't open their bottles and tie dye the carpet in their play room! When I handed each one back their bottle, I also gave them a small sheet of fish stickers to add to the outside since I couldn't find any small toy fish to go inside the bottles. They actually really enjoyed decorating with the stickers, even if they started peeling them off their bottles a few days later. Whatever gets the longest attention span and keeps these toddlers happy!

After the craft was completed and while I vaccumed up some of the wayward sand, the kiddos each got a Bubble Guppies cup of goldfish—I know, so theme-perfect right?!—and settled in on the couch in the play room to watch The Reef, a cute little animated underwater adventure.

We also watched a couple Bubble Guppies episodes throughout the week that dealt with sea animals or the like as well as our Baby Einstein Baby Neptune DVD, our Baby Genius Underwater Adventures DVD (where they learned about seals and can now identify those as well) and any other show I could find that coincided with the ocean. All this replaced our usual afternoon animated TV watching since we try to keep the TV off during the morning and save that little nugget of entertainment for post-naps. Momma needs all the help she can get!

Other activities that I'd considered but did not get to included these adorable handprint crabs, seashell matching, a construction paper underwater scene and a fishbowl paper plate craft.

All in all, I think the quads really enjoyed the activites and I felt good knowing we'd do some new things and new experiences for both sensory and learning. Look forward to sharing our color series with y'all!

Up next: a delightful Weekend Recap...

Is this a Stress Test?

I may or may not be about to pour my third glass of wine and it's not even 9pm. Today was not a very good one for about four tot-sized reasons I can think of. One of those incredibly frustrating days where I wonder how on God's green Earth He saw fit to hand me four children at once and say, "Go forth and be a mother."

Ay yi yi. For all of my posts about crafts and outings and life with quads, some weeks are a shit show and the kids don't cooperate and I'm left shuddering on the couch at the end of the day stress-eating birthday cake-flavored oreos. Other weeks, or even days, things go swimmingly and I feel like Mother of the Year. Today just wasn't one of those days and I've got to find a way to cope and pick up and start again tomorrow.

I haven't been able to update the blog like I want to lately, I haven't been able to keep up with my story assignments for work as well as I need to be, I haven't kept up with cleaning much either! But right now, even though things are mess, the house has slowly become quiet...

...and I'm going to shut down what's been my temporary work space at the dining room table and call it a night.

At least it was a good day for my mailbox (I'm always surprised at how much I look forward to my new issue of Parents magazine) and I've got a new bottle of wine to crack open and the husband just clicked on the TV.

Pretty sure it's going to take me about 8,329 hours to decompress after today but that leaves a lot of room for improvement when tomorrow comes, right?

{Weekend Recap} The Quads go to Church & 12 Toddlers Come to Play

Milestone:

"...a significant event or stage in the life, progress, development,or the like of a person..."

This is an online dictionary's definition of the word and it truly sums up this past weekend. (Unlike the dictionary's other definition, "a stone functioning as a milepost." Much less thrilling, though sometimes that's how I feel when it's been a rough day. Anywho...)

It should be of little secret that having kids in your life certainly influences a lot of the events and achievements you look forward to. Kids influence the level of excitement and love (and anger, frustration, exhaustion and confusion!) you feel on a daily basis, and they also influence the activities you focus on and the moments you cherish.

Since we brought the babies home from the NICU when they were two months old, we looked forward to having them dedicated at our local church. But being on quarantine with preemie infants didn't allow for a trip to public places so we had to postpone. Now they're two years old and we've still yet to have them dedicated but just might have found our new home church where that can happen! Sunday was a monumental occasion because the husband and I took the quad squad to church for their very first time, accompanied by Grandma and Granddad. :)

You always hope for a good family photo of special occasions, like the one we captured above, but really other than those two seconds, the rest of the photos look like this...

The kids did so amazing and I was so proud of them and so proud of how far we've come that I actually teared up twice—once in church and once in the car when we left! The husband and I took the quads to Children's Church and stayed in there the whole time since this was their first experience in a classroom-type setting of any kind. The nursery workers and director were all very accommodating and super sweet and we loved everything. So did the quads! They did awesome, better than I'd even hoped, and took part in some of the activities and eagerly watched all the other kids around them.

After church, we went out to lunch as a family and enjoyed that experience and the kids continued to be on best behavior! It's just so special to do things that make us feel "normal" and not have to worry about logistics or how we are going to get four babies in somewhere, or fielding questions and stares or watching the clock so we don't miss the next feeding or something.

The crew went down for naps pretty well after their morning of excitement, which was great because by the time they woke up, two other sets of quadruplets had arrived at our house!! Yup, that's right. I had three sets of quads at my place, which amounts to twelve two-year-olds! A fellow quad mom I know that lives in Indiana was in town visiting family and we had planned an afternoon play date several weeks ago and invited my local quad momma, Amber, to come join us.

I made 12 plates of fruit, chicken nuggets, fries and cheese for the kiddos' dinner...

...and served Caesar salad and lasagna (and wine!) for the adults! We ate while the kids enjoyed their delicious cookie cake for dessert that Amber brought and watched Bubble Guppies in the play room. It was surprisingly peaceful and quiet to have a dozen toddlers in there!

After everyone dispersed and went their separate ways, the husband and I hung out in the front yard with our own quads for a few minutes and relished the big day we'd had! I mentioned it was like we'd just hosted an entire birthday party (after hosting our squad's second birthday several weeks ago), but without presents or having to decorate! After all, we'd had 17 kids of various ages at their party and had 12 kids of the same age at our play date.

The afternoon was a small undertaking, but definitely one we enjoyed. Which is shocking when I really sit back and think about it, because my life is so different now than it used to be!! I mean, just looking at the couple of blog posts I have started on my computer is a perfect indication of where my focus lies these days. Kid meals, kid activities, kid learning, kid decor, kid outings and so the story goes. And I'm thankful for every single chapter...