March Madness…Graf Quad style

       The kids celebrating St. Patty’s Day.

Pius and Danna giving kisses. 

Sorry it’s been so long, but you guys are getting used to it from us right?  At our last post we left off with the poop down the floor vent and pee all over the mattresses.  The all-afternoon timeout worked for all of them, except Pius.  For some reason the following Monday he decided to poop in the room again.  This time was right before nap time. 

Here is the floor vent they removed and used as a toilet.

I put on his pull up and started on one of the others.  Pius went back to his bedroom and while I was getting one of the others done, he decided to move Danna’s mattress, take off his pull up, squat on the floor, make a huge poop, and replace Danna’s mattress to cover his evidence…if only he would have had some air freshener.  He was given away when I walked into the bedroom.

After I had cleaned it, and they had finished naptime, Pius got another long timeout.  None of them have pulled anything like that since…thank God.

We handled “spring forward” very well.  Actually, I was shocked at how well it went.  The first part of it was easy.  I woke the kids up at the “new” 8 o’clock in the morning and despite some sleepy eyes they did well with it.  When nap time rolled around they were more than ready for a nap.  As they woke up from naps, I got them out of bed (even if they woke up a little early) so that bedtime would stay the same.  Their bodies adjusted very well and we haven’t had any problems with it.

As for my personal favorite over the past couple weeks my wife went from completely gorgeous to totally hot in a matter of hours.  She surprised we with a new haircut.  I’ve always been a short-hair kinda guy and Moni surprised me with a trip to Aunt Donna to chop of her hair.  She also darkened it, which is also a personal favorite of mine.  Here is the photo evidence:

Before…like I said completely gorgeous.

After…with beautiful Aunt Donna and her hair completely chopped!

About a week and a half ago I heard back from the company that will be publishing my book.  They are going to continue forward with the project.  I returned a signed contract and they are working on the preliminary layout of the book.  Hopefully in about a month they will be sending me what the inside of the book will look like.  I will make suggestions for changes to the layout and hopefully it will go into print sometime in the next few months.  I’m pretty excited about all of that and hopefully everything continues to go well.

The kids are in the midst of the threes and whoever came up with the term “terrible twos” needs to rethink that thought process.  Two-years-old was a piece of cake compared to what we have been going through for the past couple of months.  In the words of the great Torey Tubre, “Goooood Laaawd.”

Pius “mean-mugging” the camera.

Pius and Forrest making funny faces.

Danna with her “Josie-doggie” and her drink.

Laine-Train’s funny face.  (Sorry hadn’t washed his hands yet, but the picture opportunity took precedence.)

B, M, P, F, D,and L

Fat Tuesday!!!

It’s Fat Tuesday, which for me means trying to eat fast food 7 times today, drink a case of Dr. Pepper and be as lazy as possible.  My Lenten sacrifice is going to be giving up the fast food, pop and working out every day.  Wish me luck.

As for the kids, I hope they give up a few things too.  Last weekend, we celebrated Stubby’s birthday.  The kids earned the first real discipline of their little lives as they were forced to miss his birthday dinner on Friday.  Friday morning we were getting excited to go to Dudley’s for his birthday dinner and watch WSU hoops.  The kids must have got a little too excited because at nap time they were holy terrors.

They never went to sleep during their entire nap time.  They fought, played and basically yelled the entire time.  With about an hour left of nap time, I got Moni up because I had to run to the grocery store.  I went into their room, threatened them that if they didn’t lie down and be quiet, we weren’t going to go to Stubby’s birthday party.  I left and when I got back home, Moni was in their room and the boys were all sitting against the wall while Moni was cleaning.

After I had left, they took their sheets off of the mattresses, pissed all over them and Laine had taken off his pants, removed the vent from the floor and pooped down it.  Needless to say, it stunk and the kids were in BIG trouble.  I had just changed the sheets and cleaned their blankies so that was a waste chore.

They were not very happy, but they got an entire afternoon/evening time-out.  They were really mad when Moni went to Stubby’s birthday party and we all stayed home and watched the game.  They kept begging me to turn it to Sprout, but every time they would talk, I would say, “Be quiet.  You are in time-out.”  The boys sat on the couches and Danna was on the rocking chair from 4-7:30.  I think the extended time-out worked because we haven’t had a problem at naptime/bedtime for the past 4 days…knock on wood.

Pius in timeout…pretty sad about it.

Forrest…probably was the most angry…that’s not a fake face.

Danna is shocked she got into trouble from Daddy.

Laine with his tale between his legs…he knew he had done something wrong.

The kids did get to go the next day to Chico’s for dinner for Stubby and I think they learned their lesson.  Since our 3 hour time-out they have acted a lot better.  I think that was the first time they realized they missed out on something because of how they acted, so hopefully they will behave a little better when we threaten to take something away.

Picture of us administering a timeout.

Other than all of that, it was a great week.  I hope next week’s post is another “uneventful week” post.

Billy, Moni, P, F ,D and L

Uneventful Week

This past week has been pretty uneventful.  The kids are growing and learning and it is a lot of fun watching their personalities continue to become their own.  They each have certain attributes that they each claim exclusively.

Pius is an extremely good-hearted little boy.  However at the same time he is our little antagonist.  It is hard to explain.  He wants to be a good big brother so badly that he will do something ornery so he can turn around and do something nice.  I can say without a doubt that he loves each of us in his family so much, but sometimes he thinks he has to stir the pot to show it.

Pius and Forrest playing on the rocking chair...and we wonder why it’s broken.

I think Forrest is going to be the most challenging of the four as they grow up.  He is hard to handle.  I was telling Moni the other day that he is so stubborn that sometimes I just let him go so he will learn that his fit throwing isn’t going to accomplish anything.  He also remembers AND repeats everything.  We can say something one time, and it is stuck in his steel trap of a brain.  He tells everyone, “My name is Forrest. I live in Kansas.”  “Don’t say that word.  That’s a bad word.”  “You don’t know poop from apple butter.”  “I am three years old right now.”  (Just to name a few.)

Danna continues to amaze us.  When Moni’s quad mama buddies were in town a couple of weeks ago and they met the kids all of them said she is a normal little girl….surrounded by men all of the time.  It was good to hear people that have just met her reinforce to us that she is doing well.  She is still behind the boys on some things, but she honestly seems to catch up a little every day.  She is also obsessed with three things:  doggies, balloons and flowers.  We can get her to snap out of any funk with one of those things.

Danna showing off her nappy, messy hairdo.

Laine is set in his ways and usually he will not budge on them.  If I am here for it, I have to sing “Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison” along with the music during naptime and bedtime.  I have to drive if I am going with them somewhere in the car.  Everything has it’s set way of happening.  Laine seems to panic if something gets changed around a little.  He always looks for comfort in consistency and if something gets out of order he doesn’t always accept it at first.

Laine really wants to dance, but really wants to avoid the camera, too.  What to do?  Oh, I know, I’ll get jiggy with my fire truck blankie over my head.

As for Monica and I, we can now breath a little since we got our tax return back.  Whew!  The kids make for wonderful little write-offs so when we are losing our patience with them we have to remember that despite their annoyances, at the very least, they come in pretty handy during tax season:) 

Anyways, this past week was as regular as one can expect with quadruplet toddlers in the house.

With love,

Billy, Moni, Pius, Forrest, Danna and Laine