FREE playtime with precious babies/toddlers!

Anyone? . . . Anyone? We have lost a lot of our regular volunteers during this busy season; some for a couple of months due to injury or surgery (NOT caused by the quints!). This whole weekend we have only one volunteer signed up in one time slot, so things are getting pretty slim. If you are in the area and happen to have any spare time (ha, ha! Does anyone have spare time around the holidays??) and want to come our way, we'd love to have you! You can even come in your pajamas - I'll no doubt be in mine. :) As always, just contact jonesquints@yahoo.com or sign up on www.lotsahelpinghands.com if you're already part of that list, or if you have our personal contact info you can come directly to us. In advance, thank you to those who have helped, are helping, will help, or are praying for help! We thank God for family in the area, but they all work, too (including weekends, alas!).

Now that three of the five babies/toddlers are walking and all are climbing and sleeping less during the day, I admit it's getting more challenging to stay on top of them all. Plus, there's always the "to do" list that doesn't get done while I'm baby wrangling. Don't get me wrong, I love baby wrangling - they are SO cute! - but it is exhausting (everyone who's ever volunteered or ever taken care of even one active toddler is nodding their head), and I enjoy them so much more when I can feel like I'm taking care of them better - with help - or am able to step away for a while.

And now I need to get to bed so I can baby wrangle tomorrow morning. At least Gavin will be home!

Some more beautiful pictures our babysitter Naomi took (except the last two; Gavin took those):

Seth

Marcie and the mole rats again (Apparently the zoo remains a favorite place!)

She cautiously walks quite a bit of the time now, but can still move faster crawling.
She just seems more careful overall when eating, maneuvering around stuff, or even with her bottle. When it fell over today she put it back upright. Baby Isaac would have ignored it! She and David both put things back in boxes or drawers, whereas Gracie, Seth and Will seem much more interested in removing things only. It's hard to know what is different stages/rates of development in different areas vs. what is personality. They are certainly each unique and fun, though!

Seth and Grace and . . . do you see what I see?
(Upper right, in the sunlight BEHIND the thick glass.)

I love how Marcie's eyes look so blue in this outfit!

This boy looks TIRED! Seth taking it easy on the swing.

Seth has lost weight; please pray for him to gain it back, and for wisdom for us as we try to balance tube feedings with table food. Too much tube feeding and he won't eat as much by mouth (and won't get as good nutrition); too little and he loses weight, and this is a time when his lung growth in particular is critical. We do NOT want him to lose weight, that's for sure! We want to see him steadily gain. His pump has been giving us problems, so we're going to call the medical supply company on Monday to try to get a better one. His activity level has skyrocketed, so that alters his nutrition requirements too, of course. It's hard to sit still long enough to eat/drink sometimes!

Gavin thinks these look like potty practice photos.
Really, Marcie just likes sitting in anything she can!

  

. . . until she can't get out by herself, of course!

Beautiful elf-like Gracie loves expressing herself verbally almost constantly now! Too cute.

David and Will with Marcie in the far background coming down the hall and Gracie to my left. Not a great picture, and it didn't even capture what the boys' shirts from Lynnette say ["It's not easy being cool" with a snowman and sunglasses], which was the whole point of the photo. However, when neither boy will sit still for more than a second, you gotta take what you can get!

See what fun you could be having playing with the babies?
Gracie and Isaac (their favorite playmate!)