Ben Rocks Out

Ben has really come to enjoy the Exersaucer…he takes a few minutes each day to throw down in the mosh pit. This video is also a great chance to see the elusive “Benny smile”….he smiles all the time, just never for the camera!

Jumperoo Jake

Jake has entered a “stiff stage” where all he wants to do is stand.  We recently put together the Chislets’ jumperoo and Jake can’t get enough!  He can’t quite touch the ground yet (we had to give him a “booster” pillow), but that doesn’t stop him from “getting down with is bad self”.

http://www.vimeo.com/2704207

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,
Seth, Jaclyn and the Chislets

A day in the life

One of the most common questions that I get is “How do you do it?”.  So, to quench everyone’s curiosity, I thought that I would share a typical day’s schedule.  Right now, we are following a three hour feeding/napping schedule.  Once the babies start sleeping through the night, I will move them to a four hour schedule.  Below is the schedule for when I am alone with the kids.  When I have help in town, I try to either get out of the house, take a nap, or hit the treadmill during the babies naps.  (Usually, I am either so tired or so stir crazy that the nap or shopping wins out.  Running on the treadmill is really just wishful thinking.)

8:00 - 9:00 am - Bottles/Diapers/Dress babies for the day

9:00 - 9:30 am - Play Time (usually tummy time, play mat time and picture time)

9:30 - 11:00 am - Nap Time for babies (Mom does laundry, empties dishwasher, checks email, brushes teeth, gets dressed, sucks down as much coffee as possible)

11:00 - 11:30 am - Bottles/Diapers

11:30 - 12:30 pm - Play Time (to include at least 5-10 minutes of tummy time, lots of play mat time, story time and, if everyone will cooperate, some individual time with each of the babies while the other two have independent play time)

12:30 - 2:00 pm - Nap Time for babies (Mom eats lunch then washes bottles, makes formula and preps bottles for the next 7 feedings.  Right now, we are going through 21 bottles per day and 84 ounces of formula.)

2:00 - 2:30 pm - Bottles/Diapers

2:30 - 3:15 pm - Play Time (to include at least 5-10 minutes of tummy time, play mat time and more story time)

3:15 - 5:00 pm - Walk (Babies nap while Mom gets her workout in - We don’t actually walk for an hour and 45 minutes, but it takes a long time to get everyone dressed for walk, into their carseats, and then into the stroller/bjorn)

5:00 - 5:30 pm - Bottles

5:30 - 6:15 pm - Bath Time and Play Time (Mom does baths while Dad plays)

6:15 - 8:00 pm - Nap Time (This is the witching hour - Everyone is cranky and no one ever wants to sleep, so we pop pacis, pat bellies, rock babies, do our best to soothe them and when all else fails - we put them in the swings)

8:00 - 9:00 pm - Bottles/Diapers/Dress babies for bed

9:00 pm - Mom and Dad finally get dinner (A big thank you to everyone who has given us take out gift certificates or given us prepared meals for our freezer!  This is all we eat.  In the last 14 weeks, I have only actually cooked dinner for Seth and myself 1 time!  The take out meals/prepared meals have been a huge help!)

9:00 pm - 2:00 am - Bed Time for babies

2:00 - 3:00 am - Bottles (Dream Feed)

3:00 - 5:00 am - Bed Time

5:00 - 6:00 am - Bottles/Diapers

6:00 - 8:00 am - Bed Time

So far, this schedule has been working very well for us.

Pic of the Week: Brothers

This week’s pic is a rare glimpses at the special bond that forms between siblings.  It also seems the boys have found a great way to spend time together and share in their favorite activities:  Jake likes to stand…and Ben likes to lounge!

It’s been exciting for us to watch the Chislets become more aware of each other, things should get real interesting once they all become mobile!

Pic of the Week

Since the Chislets’ arrival it seems we have not been writing nearly the number of posts we would like.  One thing that there is not a general lack of is photos of the Chislets…so in the spirit of writing more we have decided to start posting a “pic of the week” (a picture IS worth a thousand words).  The goal here is to highlight a great picture out of the thousands of pictures we have been posting to our Flickr photostream.  We aren’t promising we will make it every week but we will give it our best shot….so maybe we should call this the “best effort pic of the week”…

This weeks picture is very fitting as the temperature has finally started to drop here in Atlanta.  This past week Jaclyn was very excited to pull out the Chislets’ winter coats/onesies and get them all dressed up for their daily walk!  I had to post two pictures so everyone could see the feet on these things:

These kids look like they’re straight out of the Röyksopp, “Poor Leno” video (they appear right around the 0:23 second mark):

Video is go!

Shortly before the Chislets’ arrival the finance committee (aka Jaclyn) gave me the green light to buy a camcorder.  As you can imagine I have been shooting A TON of video…I finally found a few moments between feedings to edit together a few clips.  So without further ado….it is my distinct honor to introduce the Chislets’ internet video debut:

http://www.vimeo.com/2192003

http://www.vimeo.com/2192170

Keep watching the right sidebar for new videos appearing under the “Recent Videos” section.

Two out of Three ain’t bad…

…except when only 2 of the 3 Chislets are asleep at 3 am!  All joking aside, the kids are really starting to sleep well.  They aren’t quite eating, sleeping and pooping exactly according the schedule that Mom has established, but overall they are doing extremely well.

We had the Chislets’ 8 week appointment this past Tuesday and everyone is doing well.  It was quite an affair as all five of us received shots (Mom & Dad had to get that yearly flu shot)!  It was hard watching the kids get their first round of vaccinations but everyone survived with flying colors.

• Jake is weighing in at 9 lb 4 oz and is measuring 21.5″
• Ben is weighing in at 10 lb 9 oz and is measuring 21.75″
• Grace is weighing in at 8 lb 1 oz and is measuring 20.5″

Happy Halloween!

Love,
The Great Ben-kin, Gracie Ghost and Jake-O-Lantern

The Chislets are 3 weeks old!

Jaclyn and I can barely believe how fast the time is flying.  The Chislets turned 3 weeks old this past Wednesday and we had our second pediatrician’s appointment on Friday morning.  We were only 5 minutes late and only 2 of the 3 kids urinated on the medical staff.  .  .so all and all it was a very successful appointment!

All of the kids are growing up fast:

• Ben, our big man, is weighing in at 8 lb. and is measuring 20.75 inches long
  
• Jake, the flirt, is weighing in at 7 lb. 3 oz. and is measuring 19.25 inches long
  
• Grace, the princess, is weighing in at 6 lb. 2.4 oz. and is measuring 18.75 inches long
  

The kids have all begun holding their own heads up and the boys even rolled their heads over during tummy time this past week.  The Chislets are also beginning to become aware of each other – Ben has been pulled out of the shared crib a few times for clubbing his brother with an arm!