It started as 4 under 4

This is not photoshopped. We really did this. Even Darth Vadar was there.

I have always lived in the Northwest. Not always in the rain necessarily. Pullman during the college years and Central Oregon for the past nine are certainly different than our hometown alma maters: Seattle (me) and Portland (Jon). Central Oregonians refer to all areas west of the Cascades as “The Valley.” We are Valley kids at our core. Translation: Very used to the gray and the moist (hate that word, moist, but whatever).

BUT, one thing I love about being a Northwesterner, especially a “Valley” kid, is when the sun comes out, everything drops and you absolutely “carpe diem” (“seize the day”). We had no idea when we planned to go to Seattle that the sun would decide to shine on us and we would be able to “carpe diem” to it’s fll capacity!

I visited Seattle for a weekend a month or so ago when I was solo from my family (and went a little overboard on the happy hours), but my time there made me long to go back with the whole fam damnly. It’d been over a year since my husband, my children and I have made it back to my hometown roots of Seattle. I missed it, and the people there. Yes, I know we have had an unusual amount of insanity going on. Yes, we have too many children to smoothly make a voyage like this, but that’s no excuse! People we love have never met our baby boys, aunts and uncles and grandparents need to see the bigger kids and hear their cute little voices before the become teenagers. Regardless of the hassle, we don’t want our family’s size/ages to get in the way of living life. At least not ALL of the time.

So we decided to come to Seattle for Mother’s Day. My mom (aka “Tutu”) was going to be up here with her other children (I know, amazing she has other kids—we sort of “hog” her right now). The biggest hurdle to coming up for a weekend these days is we are too damn big to just crash at someone’s house anymore. My kids would overrun anywhere we’d stay and I wouldn’t want to put anyone I love through that. We have officially graduated: We now need to get a hotel (with a pool of course!) when we go on vacation. 

Now, parents who have tried to do the hotel thing with young kids, it’s hard. Can suck actually. When your kids nap, your trapped in your room, trying to be quiet and still with the heavy hotel room blackening curtains drawn. Same deal at night—your kids go to bed at 7 or 8pm, and again, you’re trapped. You all have to sleep in one room, so when one is up in the middle of the night or at 5am, everyone is up. Plus you have no kitchen so you end up doing all meals out, which is a pain in the butt with littles. Not to mention expensive.

How to combat this: Well, Jon and I are almost at the point where we don’t care about being trapped in a dark room in the middle of the day or early in the evening because we are so frickin tired ourselves. We want to sleep too! We’ve learned to sleep babies in the closet (or bathroom) so they don’t wake everyone else up. We are up at 5 or 6am anyway. And we pack all our own food and snacks so kids are pretty much taken care of on stuff they’ll actually eat. Then we just get to treat ourselves. Still, to make it more pleasant for all, we booked two adjoining hotel rooms—my mom in one, our fam in the other. We put a twin in each of the closets, Sam shared a bed with me, Alice with Jon, a grandma next door to help if it gets nuts—perfect. Plus you can put kids to bed and have another room to hang out it. Or even sneak down to the hot tub with my husband once kids are asleep (leaving them with Tutu of course, thanks Mom!). It’s not a bad set up, and worth the money, especially if it has a pool.

As you can imagine growing up in Seattle in a big family myself (four kids), I have never stayed downtown. Well, my wedding night I guess. But really never had to stay in the heart of the city. I had no idea where to start. Can I just say how amazing the Internet is?! Went to Hotwire, plunked in my specifications (area we wanna be in, pool, not one star, etc) and how much I wanted to pay, and “go”. Tada!! Here’s your hotel: Warwick Hotel in downtown Seattle.

Generally, we are pretty simple—like a Motel 6 kinda caliber, what with all of the kids, and so forth. Well it turns out to be a WAY nicer hotel than my family should really be in. This hotel was in Belltown, a pretty upscale part of Seattle right near the Seattle Center and Space Needle. It’s right in the heart of downtown. We really had no right to be there.

Example: My mom, who drove her own car up with Alice, and chose to do valet (I know, valet, so not our league). So as I am checking us in, the bellhop rolls in the cart with the luggage from her car and on it are two port-a-cribs, two Bumbo baby seats, a bright green suitcase that looks like a dinosaur, and a pink plastic Leap Frog toy picnic basket that sings when you open it. Oh, and her water wing floaty was hanging from the coat rack rail. Wow. We are not the typical cliental for an upscale downtown hotel. But hey, they have a pool, so fair game.

Jon of course was too cheap to pay the bellhop, so I rolled up our double stroller packed with kids carrying a baby in a front lack of course, and Jon hauled up our gear, including a cooler. Yes, we brought a cooler to a 3-star hotel. We make our way to the 14th floor with our campout gear and turns out we have a stellar view! Out our window is the Space Needle in all it’s glory! What a life: We drank Coors Light from the market across the street and dolled out string cheese and juice cups and/or bottles to our kids as we enjoy our million-dollar view for $85/night. Classy, eh? You go Hotwire!

People stared at us everywhere we went. I can only imagine that a man wearing a baby standing next to a woman slso wearing a baby and pushing two other relatively small people is sort of out of the ordinary on the urban sidewalks of downtown Seattle. People like us are out there in the world, but we are more likely to be at a Costco in the Burbs, not sightseeing at Pike Place Market. But it was fun! It kinda makes me smile inside to see people starring at us and counting on their hands, or saying, “are these all yours!?”

Probably the highlight for me was meeting up with my family on Saturday at the Greenlake. We decided to meet at Spuds, a greasy 50s-style fish joint my family loved, especially my dad. Nice and kid-friendly.

Here’s what was so cool—four generations were represented. We were a big group, 15 of us! From our 8-mos old twins to my almost 90-year-old grandfather (my dad’s dad and my children’s only living great grandparent left), and lots of aunts and uncles and siblings in between. Even my pseudo grandmother Blanche who can’t hear so well, but cuddled our babies with such sweetness. It’s amazing how babies can bring so much joy, and it was such a mother’s day gift to me to see my four children brighten the faces of four generations of people I love very much. As I looked around that family gathering on an unexpectedly beautiful Seattle day out at Greenlake, a mountain of fried fish in front of us, people laughing and smiling and commenting about which kid looks like which relative, aunts and great aunts and uncles and great uncles talking with each other and playing with my kids, I actually started to well up a bit: “My dad would have so been here today, and he would have loved this,” I thought. “I wish he was here, dammit.”

All in all, it was the perfect Mother’s Day gift for me—a fantastic weekend. Yes, there hard moments like walking down 4th avenue with a screaming Max Ergo-d to my back (an Ergo is a baby carrier, FYI). Or Sam getting scratched a bit by my sister’s cat (hey, a good lesson to think twice before wrestle-petting a kitty). Or locking all four kids in the suburban and Jon and myself out at our gas stop on the way home (thank you Lord it was a warm enough day that Jon’s window was down). But there were great moments too, like our twins sleeping in closets and closing them up for the night (aka shutting the closet door). Like all four kids in swimsuits (and three in swim diapers!) with their floaties and waterwings and animal towels in the hotel elevator of our swanky hotel. Like my four-year-old exercising his first pick-up line on the playground (“Uhh, do you like  Empire Strikes Back”? he says to an older girl who starred at him, then turned and ran away).

I still think a successful vacation at this stage of life is a vacation that is more fun moments than hard moments, and this short weekend trip fit that description. Even with all of the stares. 

More Seattle trip pics. This is what we look like as we travel these days.

View from our hotel room!

My mom just sent me this: My dad (who passed away in 2007) with my sister, toddler Anna-Lisa (or as my kids call her, “Auntie Lisa”). It’s probably 1983 (love the red Osh Kosh) and my Dad’s hauling my baby sis in the trusty red wagon.

And yes my dad is too cool for school. Hilarious. Are we gonna look this funny to our kids 30 years after the fact? Yes, yes we are. The fact that my dad is almost exactly my age in this photo is crazy. While I don’t have a leather coat on today with a popped collar, I’m sure my kids will someday make fun of the silver sparkly Tom’s I bought yesterday (although right now they think they’re AWESOME, so there!).

Yeah little ole wagon. I remember you so well. Mine is plastic, not wood, but same concept: It contains!

This is as cute if not cuter in person than in a photo. 

It’s May. Can you believe it? I cannot. But when I think about it, it does feel like we’ve had a lot of rain, a lot of cold, a lot of sweaters…shouldn’t it be spring already? And like a turtle emerging from its shell, like a bear coming out of hibernation from a long winter, like a mom of infants beginning to come out of the fog, we are beginning to re-enter the world again. Beginning! And it’s a slow, timid sort of reentry. But it’s spring. The sunshine is helping the transition. Warmer weather. No coats to put on your kids before they go outside. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sorta.

I am a full believer in the one year rule: It may have only taken you nine months to make that baby (babies, whatever), nine months to go from your normal self to a giant house with legs (or in a bed as it was for me), but I am a firm believer that it takes you at LEAST a year to sort of become a normal human again. We are not there yet. My babies are only 8 months. We still got some time. Do not be fooled by the teeth.

Yes, the twins have teeth now and two babies teething is really really horrible actually. Like dueling banjos moaning throughout the night. It’s sad. But also harder to be sympathetic at 2:39am, and 3:14am, and 3:45am, etc. We have also been hit by a cold bug—eyes crusted shut upon wake up for all four kids, one after another. And may I say, being a mom of four kids is really hard, but being a mom of four SICK kids with teething twins mixed in is remarkably harder.

Regardless, it is May, and we are trying to get out here and there. I have been in the house far more than is good for Kristin’as spirits (I am a go-go girl extrovert and like to be OUT).  Too much Mickey Mouse’s Clubhouse & Nate Berkus Show gets to me. Time to get out.

Now, getting out with four 4 and under is not easy. I can’t do very many things alone. One of the things I CAN do by myself is the McDonalds playground 1 mile from my house. Well, sorta. It’s contained, they can’t run away like at a park or mall or something. But I can’t very well help my 2-year-old when she gets stuck in a slide way up there while leaving my babies on a dirty disgusting floor. So even that is a little challenging depending on if Alice is having an independent 2-year-old day or a “I need Mommy” 2-year-old day.

Simply getting in the car is a feat of strength. Buckling the two big kids into their carseats in the back, then hefting up the two infant car seats into the captain chair seats in the middle. 8 mos olds are heavy, especially in a carseat, and especially with two. Who needs a gym.

Because of the move, we haven’t been able to park the suburban in the garage. Now, we didn’t have a garage in Sisters (we converted our garage into the playroom). And then in our rental our garage was filled with boxes (and was down two flights of stairs in the split level). Blah. So I have lived without a garage for a long while. Thought it’d be no big deal. Well, it’s a big deal. Getting the kids into the car with clothes in the rain and getting them belted was like a half hour project. Something needed to change as it’s now spring, now time to emerge. Didn’t help that the people who lived in our new home somehow lived WITHOUT AN AUTOMATIC GARAGE DOOR OPENER! What the heck?!?! So we have a garage, it’s actually not filled with boxes BUT we were having to manually open the door. Not gonna work.

So my wonderful husband went and bought an automatic garage door opener and installed it himself. Can you believe it?!? I was so proud. We pushed all of the trikes and bikes (with training wheels) and scooters and ride-in cars etc to the side and got ‘er it. Jon helped me build two shoe cubbies to line the wall, each that holds 15 shoes (we have a lot of kids so need a lot of cubbies) and we put about 30 hooks on the wall for all of the coats. I tell ya, running around to 3 kids rooms to find matching shoes and a coat/sweatshirt that will somewhat match for 4 kids was killing me. Then heave that damn garage door open. 

Well now we’re golden. The shoes are all nestled so snug in their beds while visions of coats we can find danced in Mom’s head. It’s a beautiful thing. I am a sucker for the Container Store (although IKEA’s a little more my price range). 

And that automatic door opener is my FAVORITE thing in the world! Pressing that button, seeing the door rise on my command…?! I cannot explain to you how life changing and wonderful this is to me. And a clean garage with a car in it. I think I can make it another day.

Because we are so organized (ha), and because it’s spring (time to begin to get out), I decided to sign up for the spring bible study at our new church. I need to meet some women. They have childcare provided (that right there is motivation to go). I would go even if its just so I can go to the bathroom by myself! But two hours with other women talking about life and God while my kids get tired enough to take stellar naps…um, please, sign me up.

The first time I went was three weeks ago, and because I have not gone very many places by myself, I had a bit of a crisis. So as I was loading the car I paused to think: How the heck am I gonna get all four of these kids across a parking lot and into their classes by myself? When we’ve been to church on Sundays, Jon’s been with me. Twice the amount of hands, arms and fingers to grab with. When we’ve gone to the store, often someone is with me and/or I have a shopping cart in which to contain the kids. Now, I have a double stroller WITH a glider board, but I tell ya, it takes me like ten minutes to load that thing! (each twin out of infant seat, strap one twin on my body, one in stroller on one side, Alice on the other side, Sam on the glider board, locked & loaded). So it is doable, but kinda a pain when all I have to do is get in the building to deliver them to their appropriate class. Because I am cheap, I never bought a stroller that two car seats can clip on. One more giant expense I did not want to make seeing as these kids are our last (yes, we are done, at least if we have anything to say about it).

So how to organize the children? How to contain them? What aisle of the Container Store has a container to get a mom and four kids some place smoothly by 9:30am? Then as if a bolt of lightning hit my head, I had an epiphany…

My mom had four kids. Slightly more spread out (oldest and youngest were about 7 years apart, but still). What did she do? But I remembered that she occasionally would put the red wooden wagon in the back of her suburban and use that to haul us all around (especially remember this when we went to the fair). It worked great. Whatever kid was tired or lazy could sit in there whereas with a stroller, there’s a lot more straps and buckles. What if I used our Radio Flyer wagon to haul the kids into Bible Study?

So three weeks ago, I tried it out. Worked awesome. I put one car seat with the sleeping infant in the wagon, Alice sat on the other half, I strapped on a baby, and Sam helped me pull. Genius. Kids loved it. Two days later had a doc appointment for twins, realized I can stick BOTH car seats in the wagon! Works like a charm! And people think it’s cute. Got many compliments at the pediatric office. Why didn’t I think of this sooner!?!?

So thus it has become our transportation when I don’t wanna take a quarter of an hour load up the stroller—when we don’t need to “stroll” but basically just need to get from Point A to Point B. Took the big kids to swim at the pool and put two Bumbo seats in the wagon (yes, two Bumbos also fit in there) and sat the twins in there so they could see everything. Kids wanna ride bikes in the street and need Mom’s watching eye? Not a problem! Plop twins in wagon and chase the bigger kids around on their wheels. Drop a bunch of toys in there. They loved. It’s frickin adorable (as you can see above).

So yesterday, it’s Tuesday, it’s May, we’re getting out, getting ready to go to Bible Study. Our one big Mommy solo outing for the week. I have jewelry on because this is the only thing I am gonna do this week, hence let’s celebrate! Put a necklace on!

I’ll close with this: Loading up the wagon to get to the church (dream of the 1890s is alive in Portland), and my bigger children run into the room. They’ve been surprisingly quiet as I have been getting ready for our outing…

Well, see below: Apparently the devil made me do it. And I think the devil would really be Sam, dressing up his sisters as a devil.  I didn’t even know we had a devil costume! Darth Vadar and She-Devil are ready to hop in the wagon to go to Bible Study. Evil children. Evil frickin cute kids.

Darth & She Devil before Bible Study. Lovely.

Random Acts of Twinness (click photo to see more pics).

So a friend is at St. Charles hospital. Just had a baby (congrats!). But she is seeing a ton of the nurses I know! So thought I would upload some pics from the past month or two.

Just to be reminded:

Charlie (baby on left with Daddy Rocks bib) was Baby A (our little guy, bottom bunk, 4 lbs 4 oz). 

Max (baby on right with Mommy Rockstar bib) was Baby B (big boy, top bunk 5 lbs 8 oz).

I think they are in the neighborhood of 16/17 lbs now and drink over a gallon of milk a day. Breast milk (although I do have to supplement a bit these days to keep up). Dear Lord, can I be done yet?! (don’t tell the Lactation Nazis I said that). Shhhh….

Hi to all of those nurses!

Kristina 

We got the mask BTW. The real mask. And a lightsaver. Don’t need to use the plate and a rug remnant anymore. We are official.