Holiday Season...

To many of you November 30th is just the last day of November but to us Floridians this is the day we can start breathing a little easier. You see November 30th is the last day of the Hurricane Season. Not that we have not been fooled a few times AFTER this day. The rule of thumb is that the BIG Hurricanes have happened already & we can now take down our Hurricane shutters. I would take a Hurricane over any other type of Natural disaster. Tornados freak me out as do earthquakes. I guess that I was alway's meant to live in the Sunshine State. The freaky part about this date this year is that we are getting unusually COLD weather. They say it may even dip into the 40's! Are they out of their minds?? Florida is meant to be HOT! This is way TOO cold for this Floridian! Having four babies to dress during these changes in climate can be challenging. Their wardrobe is pretty much T Shirts & shorts! They do not even own a "coat". A coat can be too warm yet a long sleeve T Shirt is just not enough. Try finding cold weather clothes down here as well, we are in the land of swimming suits! LOL! I just know I will be improvising!! Most of all I am just SO happy to have the Hurricane Season over for yet another year. Just as one season ends a new one begins.. Welcome to the...


Holiday Season...

I've been replaced!

We have a visitor for Thanksgiving this year. My niece, Sarah, brought her best friend Alexis with her to share Thanksgiving with us. Well, Camryn took to her right away. It seems as if she has known Alexis her entire life. She ONLY wants Alexis to hold her, to feed her, to cuddle her, etc. It is BAD! No longer does Camryn want me ALL the time! It is a STRANGE feeling not to have her attached to my hip! I try to get a little snuggle time & she has no use for me! )= Last night we all went out to celebrate Dustyn's 13th birthday. Dustyn got to choose the restaurant & he chose J Marks, it just happens to be down the street from my Mom's house. The weather was perfect so three fourths of us decided to walk there. Of course Camryn wanted Alexis to carry her. Once inside we had to decide where each child should sit. This is important so you have enough helpers by each child. Sarah made the comand decision to place Camryn ACROSS the table from Alexis. It was SO funny to watch her stare at Alexis. She watched her EVERY move. Alexis even helped get her to eat her food. What a great help! It worked out really well UNTIL she had to use the restroom. You would have thought Camryn was hurt by the way she cried for her. Uh oh! I do not know what I am going to do when they all leave on Sunday. I definitely know who Camryn would like to babysit her when we are in Atlanta! For now I just feel like...


I've been replaced!

a day to give thanks...

Ever since I can remember we have been saying the same two prayers. There is the short version "God is good God is Great, thank us for the food we eat, Amen". and there is the LONG one. "Dear Lord, Thank us for the night, for the pleasant morning light, for friends and food and loving care and all that makes the world so fair. Help us to do the things we should to be to others kind and good. In all we do in work and play to grow more loving every day, Amen". I LOVED the 2nd one but would alway's forget how it began so one of my brothers would have to start it for me. That was such a LONG memory and what seems like a lifetime ago. I hope my children grow up with that. To have memories of "family time" with their siblings. I miss that! SO much has happened in my family that we have sort of "lost" that closeness. It is a shame because we used to be close. But time moves on & people change. Hopefully these memories that we create with our family will stick with them. Again, I look to the light at the end of my tunnel & cannot wait for 20 years from now on...


a day to give thanks

old traditions run deep...

When I was a kid we, my entire family on my mom's side, would gather together at a local park EVERY holiday. Most of all on Thanksgiving. We had SO much fun having turkey & all the fixin's out in the wilderness. Ok it was not exactly the wilderness but we were outside under a pavillion in an extremely wooded park. This was the COOLEST park around & I was able to spend time with my relatives. This tradition lasted till I was about 18 years old. The extended family got SO large, the children started getting jobs & some even got married so we stopped doing it all together. I know, I was sad too! Fast forward many moons later & we sort of re created this tradition when I got married for our wedding rehearsal/BBQ. We, the cousins, realized how much fun it was so we decided to start the tradition up again for Thanksgiving. YAY! This will be our 3rd Re-Anniversary for Thanksgiving at the park. We invite our in-laws, friends, friends of friends, etc. Let's just say it is quite the party. Our family has grown a lot & a lot of my 2nd cousins have babies my childrens age. (I started mommyhood late!) Can I tell you how YUMMY the food is!? So many different types of fixin's that it ends up being a smorgasboard of food! Our little one's are just at the age to enjoy it. This park has nature trails, a tunnel that takes you out to the beach & it used to have an observation deck in which we thought took forever to get to. That must be looking at things through a childs eyes. The many hurricanes & years of use have taken it's toll & it is no longer in use. It was SO cool! From the top you could see the ocean through the trees or the boats in the intracoastal. Don't get me wrong, the park is still cool it would just be cooler is the observation deck was still open. I cannot wait for Turkey day! We are going to have such a fun time. I am SO thankful that...


old traditions run deep...

13

Today is our son Dustyn's birthday, his 13th birthday in fact! He is now a TEENAGER!! YIKES! I cannot believe it! It seems like yesterday when he was just 5 years old and I just started dating his Dad. He was a peanut then & now he is SO tall! Pretty soon he will be towering over me. I can wait for that! (= 8 years and 4 babies later he is a teenager! WOW! We have gone through SO many things together. Michael & I have been room parents in many of his classes, volunteered at his school, Summit Christian, even chaperoned some school field trips. I miss that! Now I get to savor his school memories from afar. Dustyn is one SMART cookie. He excells in Math, go figure! He is sensitive & inquisitive, he is alway's learning. Most of all he is a WONDERFUL big brother. The babies absolutely ADORE him! He loves them too! I think having these babies helped him grow as a person. He was the only child for so long. He's adjusted very well to having to share us with them. What can I say? He is one great kid! There is so much I could say about Dustyn. He LOVES cars, knows everything there is to know about them. Especially the high end ones. Knows how much they cost & how fast they go. I do not have the first clue about that kind of stuff. Where we live we have quite a bit of property & he loves to take his air soft gun out to shoot various things. He mostly shoots lizards to feed his dragon, yes we have a pet dragon. After we found some eggs under it he became a "she" & was named Puff. Puff the magic dragon she became, LOL! We have had many "boy" pets. MANY snakes, spiders, iguanas, a fish & even a dog. For now it is just a pet dragon. He is quite the well rounded child and keeps us busy. I need to remind myself that he is just...


13

"Hot"...

We constantly tell the babies to watch out because something is "hot". The stove is "hot", their food is "hot", their "cha cha"(hot chocolate)is "hot",etc. I think "Hot" was one of their very first words! LOL! Well the other night we brought new meaning to the word. It was FINALLY cold enough for us to light the fireplace. In Florida that is a feat! Daddy was excited & wanted them to experience their "first sitting by the fire". He went out & gathered a few logs that a friend of ours gave us from a tree he chopped down. Daddy was excited but I was AFRAID! Too afraid that they would burn their little fingers by getting TOO close to it or by touching the screen & getting burned. I never had a fireplace as a child so I did not know exactly how to "prepare" them. Needless to say I did not do well with this and I put Daddy in charge! Well, They did better than I thought they would. They stood there mesmerized by the sight of it, just watching the wood crackle & flames flicker. It is an AMAZING thing to watch and the aroma of a wood burning fireplace smells SO good. When Daddy opened up the screen to add more wood they paid close attention. I was afraid again that they would copy him & try to open it up themselves. You know how children can be, INDEPENDENT! After a few scoldings they knew not to touch. I just hope that they will remember that a fire is...


"Hot"...

the talk...

Tonight started out like most nights. We all sat down & ate dinner together. Daddy at one end & Mommy at the other with our five children in between. Luckily we did not have any moments of flinging food (Brendan & Avery love to throw food!). After they were "All Done"(Camryn's new favorite saying) it was bath time. Bath night is every other night in the Fulton home. In the beginning I gave them a bath EVERY night but I was too pooped for words! So when they were 7 months old & I got post pardom (LONG story)everything changed. I went in to my Doc's office to talk about my "Life". When she heard that I bathed them EVERY night she gave me a reprieve. She said that she did not even bathe her child every night. So after a LONG chat & a RX later our bath night turned into every other night. It is amazing how a slight shift in the schedule makes everything all better! Dustyn, our soon to be thirteen year old, helps me with them during bath time. He will get their towels, shampoo, stand guard so they do not drown, etc. That was a VERY important job when they could just barely sit up. On quite a few occasions he helped me rescue a baby or two that dropped below the surface & almost drowned! Thank you Dustyn!! Things are MUCH easier now. I will scrub them up, let them play & pretend to swim for a bit then I ask one to pull the plug for the drain. They then say "bye bye" to the water & the bubbles. I then dry them off & they scurry off in their hooded towels to their Daddy in the next room. He lotions them up & dresses them in their PJ's. After the last one is changed we all gather on our bed & let them play. They LOVE Mommy & Daddy's bed. They even know whose side is whose. It is funny to watch how they interact on a KING size bed. Camryn will try to get away from us before she is even dressed. She jumps a bit and then usually finds her way to my side of the bed as if she were me under the covers. She just lays there like she is going to go to bed. It is a sight to see. Avery usually jumps around & then searched out my BIG brown teddy bear. I started snuggling this bear when I was pregnant & has become a hard habit to break. She LOVES it when I say it is MY bear. She then goes after it even more. Brendan just loves on everyone. In the beginning he would climb up to the head of the bed & run his fingers across the carved wood. For awhile there we wondered if he might be a decorator or designer since he noticed the details. Now he just goes up there & trys to give whichever sister is there a BIG hug. Sometimes he will hug on us too! Lindsey is our little joker. She LOVES to jump around from pillow to pillow as she giggles all the way. She likes to be tickled too! Dustyn will eventually hop on the bed and the six of us becomes seven. Tonight's routine was just the same. while we played with the babies we chatted with Dustyn about "stuff". Usually this is when we can get in some conversation about his life & especially about girls. We want to make sure that the info he gets is from us & not his friends. As you can expect he is not quite ready to talk to us about them yet. LOL! During this "talk" little Miss Avery comes by & tackles Dustyn. She is our little brut. Nothing fazes her! Well after the tackle Dustyn then smells something funny. Now mind you Brendan has been constipated & we are in search of a poop. PLUS they usually all poop after a bath, I know, GROSS but it is true! So we all have our "smellers" on to see if anyone does the deed. In addditon to all of that Avery has this very BAD habit of undoing her diaper or at least trying to by sticking her hands down her pants. Below is a picture of this that I captured purely by accident. Avery is in the background doing you know what!

I do not know why she does this or how to get her to break this habit! This is something we deal with EVERY day! It was in fact Avery that he smelled. So in a matter of 20 minutes she stuck her hands down there & she had stinky hands. No poop or pee just a weird smell. My WONDERFUL husband decides this is an opportunity to talk to Dustyn about even more "stuff". So he proceeds to tell Dustyn about how some women douche. I guess he thought odor down there = douching. I do not do this so I do not understand his logic. Well as you can probably already figure out that comment went right over Dustyn's head. So Michael then digs himself in even deeper by saying just like people with bad breath use mouthwash woman use things down there to make it smell better. OH BOY! Did I really marry this man? LOL! Dustyn does not need to know anything about "down there" on a woman! At least not about douching or vaginal odors. Like a baby even has odors! Needless to say we had a VERY red faced soon to be 13 year old! Yikes! We are lucky that he knows what to expect from his Dad. He got up from the bed & said I did NOT need the know that. Good for you Dustyn! I can just about imagine what kind of "talks" he will have with your siblings when they get older! I am just sorry that you had to endure...


the talk...

22 months and a day...

Ok yesterday was their "22 month birthday". We celebrate every month and continue the count down to the ripe age of 2! However yesterday was anything less than exciting. The babies had their annual appt with their pediatric opthamalogist. They do not like going to any Doctor so I do not know what I was thinking when we planned this! I made sure I had enough extra hands for each child. My Aunt Pat & Aunt Donna met my mom & I at the Doctor's office. It started out good, the babies played ALL over the waiting room. This was the first time we actually had to wait in their waiting room. Normally they usher us to a back room to get settled. I guess we are moving up in the world and do not have to worry about catching cooties from other patients. So there we were out amongst the people. They started grabbing books from other kids, made some attempts to "introduce" themselves & they even tried to take a "look see" into another mom's purse. They are WILD! One funny moment came when my Aunt Pat & this other mommy were showing this book to them. There was a page that had a monkey on it. So Aunt Pat says where is the monkey? My sweet little Avery then proudly points to herself! haha! I guess she has been told one too many times that she's a monkey & it set in! What am I going to do with her!? This stage of their life is VERY busy! I feel like I run a marathon every day. It seems like my house is alway's a mess & VERY unorganized! I feel terrible inviting anyone over. Oh to have an ORGANIZED & CLEAN home! ahhh! I have said in the past that I could not wait till they walked & talked. Look at them now!! They are all over the place! Maybe I should retract the statement about wanting them to carry on a conversation with me. Maybe I should appreciate the lack of conversations a little while longer. Especially since they are just...


22 months and a day...

the search for the PERFECT sippy cup...

Ever since these children of ours have been off their bottles I have been on "the search". I dislike leaky sippy cups just as much as I disliked leaky bottles! It is an even BIGGER mess when you have four babies to tend to. SO I was on a "mission" to solve this problem. My mother thinks I am crazy over how many sippy cups we have gone through! It has been an expensive task but one that I intend to tackle! We have gone through the Playtex one's that have a handle on each side. Those lasted the longest but then they literally ate through the spouts! It looked like I was raising animals! So I switched to the ones that were taller with no handles. Those did not go over so well. They liked the handles. Then I decided to try the ones that have straws since they LOVE straws. We had two different sets, one set for milk & one set for their water/juice. Well the 2nd set had these little covers that broke when they'd throw them on the floor. It was TERRIBLE! We had broken off plastic pieces EVERYWHERE! Forget about the thought of the straws being good & that it would prepare them for regular drinks when we went out. Those leaked even more than the ones that they ate through. I seemed to be cleaning up spills ALL DAY LONG! I just could not take it! So I continued my search. The latest sippy we have tried is the Playtex Coolster. I must say so far that this is "thee" cup. I may have to fix the valve from time to time but so far NO leaks! This coming from a mom of quadruplets is a true testiment of the quality of the product! They have a vast array of colors so each child can get "their" color. Well sort of. Camryn's is now orange instead of yellow & everyone seems to want that color too! Who would have thought orange would be the new pink! LOL! I am just happy to have ended...


the search for the PERFECT sippy cup...

mommy guilt part 2

OK I have previously said that I would explain why I no longer dress Avery & Lindsey alike. Well, There is a VERY good reason for this. I cannot tell them apart when I do! I feel terrible not being able to tell one child from the other. They are SO identical that it scares me! There are some slight differences like Avery has a longer face & Lindseys face is just a tad more petite. The easiest way for me to tell them apart is the birth mark on Avery's shin & the scar on Lindsey's forehead. Thank you God for giving her that birth mark! If it was not for that I would have mixed them up a LONG time ago! My hubby says that he has no problem telling them apart. Typical hubby remark if you ask me! I feel terrible that I cannot. I always seem to second guess myself. I wonder what will happen when they get older. They will probably pull things on me all the time! Oh I am going to be in for it! Some days I just close my eyes & try to listen to them so I can notice their differences. Notice that Avery has a deeper voice & Lindsey loves to giggle. Oh I just feel terrible not being able to tell them apart! It gives me a BAD case of...
















mommy guilt part 2

one wimpy white boy!

When I was pregnant I never thought twice about our children having any health issues. Call it ignorant but I was blissfully happy! All that I concerned myself with was that I was going to be a mommy & just figured they would be ok. My Doctors also did not "Freak" me out with too much worrying either. It was not until the 2nd day of them being in the NICU did I realize how ignorant I was. There were so many babies in there much worse off than our four. I really took in a comment from a passing NICU nurse, that by holding on to them as long as I did I gave them something better than a Harvard education. WOW! We were SO lucky to have some healthy babies! Yes our babies were healthy but they did require a 14 day stay in the NICU at St Mary's Medical Center. Of our four babies Brendan was the worst off. He was the typical "Wimpy white boy" that NICU nurses will share stories of. He had the A's & B's (Apnea & Bradecardia). He needed the CPAP for breathing, the Bili Rubin lights & the warmth from the incubator. He & his sister Lindsey were the last to come home. He was also the 1st & so far only one to go back into the hospital since birth. Over his short 21 months he has grown into quite a little man. He is by far the weakest link of our four. I call it sensitive especially since he is such a lover. He will hug & kiss on everyone! Each of the babies have seen quite a few doctors over the past year & half, but Brendan has one more than his sisters. He see's Dr Bayron, a pediatric Cardiologist for two issues. Being that they were born via C-Section the flap that would normally close during childbirth did not on him and he has a hole in his heart, also known as an ASD. Luckily the PFO closed but unfortunately the ASD has not. So he continues to get checked. I try to see the silver lining & trust that we have a knowledge of things we may never have known about especially if they never caught them in the first place. He is getting the best care & again if he needs surgery he has 2 of the best hospitals within an hour's drive. YAY! Dr Bayron said we will cross our fingers that it will close before his next appt in 6 months I on the other hand want to be prepared. (I had to explain my logic to the doctor because it is always better for me to picture the worst case scenerio & be pleasantly surprised than to go in thinking everything is ok & be blindsided!). I'm telling you this child of ours is...



one wimpy white boy!

insurance shmearance...

I cannot tell you how many times our "wonderful" , I use this word loosely, insurance company has SCREWED up our insurance cards. For some strange reason they cannot figure out who is suppose to have which number. This in turn messes things up for me when I take one of the babies to the Doctor. They submit a claim & the Insurance company denies it because that is not that childs ID #. The saga goes on & on! Why can they not figure this out?! The way I would do it is put us all in age order. That is how our life runs anyhow. We go down the line from oldest to youngest when I share anything about them ie: their names, birth weights, etc. That way the first card would be Michael & it would go down from there. You see the reason for this post is an upcoming Cardiologist appt. for my "Mr. B". He has a hole in his heart that has not changed one iota since birth so we need to see if he needs to have surgery to close it. Heart surgery, just the thought of it freaks me out!! This means I need to get referral after referral due to the type of insurance we have. The things you do just to save a buck when you have so many kids!! I am so not looking forward to his appt. I try to think positive & find the "silver lining" in this. That being that we have some wonderful hospitals near us that are only a short drive away. YAY! I would hate to have to pack up our family for a trek even further away! I am just grateful that my hubby has a job & that we have insurance! Could you imagine if we did not!?


insurance shmearance...

what exactly is "alone" time anyway?

Yesterday I decided to let them eat their breakfast, Cheerios & banana's in their own little bowls in the KITCHEN as I attempted to make my own breakfast. This was a rarity & I decided to take full advantage of doing something for myself. It started out rather well. They all sat down & stayed in one spot sippy's in one hand & their bowls on the other seemingly coveting "their" food. However as I looked at all of them I noticed that Camryn was not part of the "flock". She was all by her lonesome on the opposite side of their play area that has now taken up residence in the middle of my kitchen. Notice that she looks as if she could have cared less.



No one seemed to "miss" her they just went about eating it was just me that found it strange that she was not WITH them. I wonder if this happens with multiples. Is there always one that wants to break free from the rest? Hmmm... Then I started thinking about how she seems to do this ALL the time. When they get bath's she is at one end of the tub with her back to the rest playing with "her" toys. She will go in their play "house" & play with the toys in there while they're some place else with another set of toys. The list goes on & on. Maybe she just would rather not fight over a toy or is she really hoarding her favorite not wanting to share? Is this normal? Don't get me wrong, she does play with her siblings it's just that she just has a lot of "alone time" too. SO I ask you...

what exactly is "alone time" anyway?

bring on the rain...

We found out what caused our leak, our roof! It was only a SMALL section that needed repaired & it was under warranty. YAY! We are SO happy to now have our roof fixed! We could have done without the noise! SO at nap time the babies fell asleep to "bang, bang, tap, tap.." but the end result was well worth it! Now we have to get the wood floor fixed.. ugh..




bring on the rain!...

mommy guilt...

Does anyone out there have this? Find it hard to split up your time so each child can have "one on one time" with their one & only mommy? I find this to be VERY challenging! I try to pick up a different child first each morning, have one child help me fix breakfast or lunch & I even let one tag along with me when I have some "errand" to run. They need that individual time with their Mommy & I try to make sure they get it. But when they are crying unconsolably, I feel like there is just not enough of me to go around. At times I just have to sit on our recliner so they can climb up, at the SAME time, to hug & snuggle with me. Dustyn says it is the sound of my heart that soothes them. Isn't that AMAZING insight from a 12 year old!? They are getting SO big that soon they will not be able to do this much longer. It is in those hysterical moments that I wonder if I am doing what I should, am I being the best mommy!? Does anyone have any suggestions on making this mommy feel less guilty?


mommy guilt...

I voted, Did you?

The day has FINALLY come! I am SO happy that it is almost over! I was sort of scared to hit my polling place because of the LONG lines the early votings sites had. I remembered what they taught me as a Girl Scout & I came prepared. I made sure the babies had their sippy's, something to munch on & dry diapers. Yes I brought the Babies!! Who was I going to find to watch them!? I decided to just go on my way home from my mom's house. The babies napped on the way so that was a relief! I was SHOCKED as I drove up to our polling place to not find a long line! There was no line at all!! This was the first Presidential election since their birth & I wanted them to see how important it is to vote. They sat patiently as I voted & I must add that they were VERY good! I walked in & out in under 10 minutes. See all of that FREAKING out was for nothing. But then I started wondering if there was no line then where were the voters? Had people thought like I did & did not vote at all!? I hope that they did early voting or better yet absentee. I think from now on that is the way to go for me. No worry, no lines, just vote ahead of time thru the mail.

I voted, Did you?

1 day left to go... YAY!

I love politics but this election is getting to be TOO much for even me! I cannot take all the commercials on TV & the radio. I have finally decided not watch any of it! When a commercial comes on I switch the channel. I realize this is a terrible choice but I just cannot take it! This is also why I have our TV tuned in to the music channels or better yet Sprout or Noggin. The babies LOVE dancing to "The Blend", it is a channel we get on DirectTV. They just start moving their shoulders & tapping their toes to the beat. Watching them dance helps me forget about this C-R-A-Z-Y race for the White House. I still honk my horn & give a thumbs up when I see a McCain bumper sticker or better yet a supporter on the street. I just do not want to hear about it 24/7! Next week I will be SO happy to be able to watch & hear anything without political advertisements! YAY! SO forgive me if I am giddy that we have just...


1 day left to go... YAY!