Sunday, August 28, 2011

First Adventures

I promised some stories about our adventures this week. Here they are! This is a long blog but mainly due to the wealth of pictures included. With so many “firsts” this week, we had a lot to document!

Last Friday we lost power in our house as a result of a storm. We lost it around 11:30am and by 3:00pm it was too hot to keep the babies home. Sean came home early from work to help me load the kids in the car and we used the power outage as an excuse to head to my parents’ house with the babies for the first time. Their new cousin, Alyvia (only 3 weeks old) came with my brother, Mike, and sister-in-law, Sarah, as well. With all 5 grandkids there, it was definitely time for some photos!!

Grandpa kissing Abby


Meet Your Cousin! : Uncle Mike, Cousin Aly, Caleb, and Daddy


All of the Girls…and Uncle Mike??  Aunt Sarah, Aly (in coral), Abby (in white), Mommy, and Ellie (in pink)


A Bunch of Babies!—Clockwise from lower left: Ellie, Caleb, Eli, Aly, and Abby


All of the Grandbabies and their parents- Clockwise: Aly (in coral), Aunt Sarah, Abby, Mommy, Ellie, Daddy, Caleb, Eli, and Uncle Mike


One with the Quadruncles! Uncle Chris (in yellow) and Uncle Josh (in orange) with their nieces and nephews


Grandmacita with her Granddaughters: Abby, Cita, Aly, and Ellie


Grandmacita and Grandpa with Abby (check out the look on her face!), Aly, Ellie, Eli, and Caleb 


After dinner, we loaded the kids back up and headed home….to our still dark, un-air-conditioned house. Surely, we thought, they will get the power back on soon. We started our 9pm feeding and about half way through, everything came back up. We were having flashbacks to the last outage that ended up being a weekend away from home, and although it worked out, it really wasn’t something that we wanted to repeat. We were more than relieved to suddenly be able to see each again.

The only problem was that the house didn’t seem to be getting any cooler.

We could hear the air conditioner trying to kick on, but nothing cold was coming out. And, every time it tried to start up, the lights flickered. We got the kids in bed, turned on all of the ceiling fans and made a mental note to call the HVAC guy the next day. Then we lost power again in our bedroom, both bathrooms, and to the refrigerator. We only lasted until about 1am on Saturday morning, and then had to move the babies to my parents’ house because the lack of air conditioning, combined with no electricity to run the fans, and no refrigerator to keep bottles cold wasn’t working for us.

And that’s where we were for an entire week. It took a little longer to get things back in order than what we had hoped.

So happily, we are back home as of last night! Even though we had a lot of fun hanging out with my family for a week and watching the babies  experience their First Extended Family Dinner (on my side),  First Family Campout , and First Slumber Party at the Grandparents, it is wonderful to be home. But now that we are home, the babies look HUGE in their cribs!

Here are a few more pictures of our adventures at my parents’ house: 

Double Trouble! What Happens at Grandma’s…Eli and Caleb


Uncle Josh holding Abby right after her bath (she was pretty mad at mommy and much happier once Uncle Josh got her) 


Ellie and her Thumb


We were also excited to get to take the babies to visit Sean’s parents as well! Last Saturday (the day after we lost power), we loaded everybody up and took them out to Ma and Pa’s house to watch the Cardinals game. It was our second visit over there, and the kids had a great time! 

Just Arrived: Caleb, Abby, Ellie, and Eli


Abby wanted to help Daddy carry in his book


After the feeding, Ma and Abby were both tuckered out


Pa and Caleb cuddling after a feeding


Nap time! Clockwise from lower left: Eli, Caleb, Abby, and Ellie


When the game was over, we decided to have another new adventure…Sean’s parents took all of us out to dinner! Since the kids hadn’t taken much of an afternoon nap, we gambled and hoped that they would sleep through the outing. We were glad to know that in addition to Sean’s parents, Sean’s sister, Ruby, her husband Todd, and daughter Marissa, and Todd’s parents, Ann and Tom were going to be there as well. If all else failed, we had enough arms to go around. Ruby called ahead to the restaurant to let them know that six month old quads wanted to go out to dinner with their grandparents. They very kindly reserved the back part of the restaurant for us so that we could have space for all of the car seats.

Up until this point, we have been very careful not to take our kids out in public unless we are going to a doctors appointment. But, one of the quad moms that I’m friends with mentioned a few weeks ago, that going out to a restaurant with them is a relatively safe outing. Since no one actually knows us, most people will just observe from afar, and if they try to get close, we can ask them to step back and not touch without worrying about a friend’s feelings. Armed with that info, we finally decided to give it a try.

It was an AWESOME first dinner out! Both girls slept all of the way through it, Caleb was awake but quite content to observe the room from his car seat, and Elijah waited until the end to start getting cranky.

Not to mention, the place that Sean’s parents took us to was a fantastic Italian cafe that we had been wanting to try but hadn’t made it to yet (wonder why? Lol!) Jovito’s is family owned and everything tastes 100% homemade. In fact, for one of my babies’ showers, Ruby bought all of the handmade desserts from Jovito’s. I’ve tried several different types of Italian cookies along with their amazing cupcakes and all of them are amazing! My very favorite cookies in Kansas City are their lovely little Italian treats that have two pieces of a toffee type cookie sandwiched around a thin layer of chocolate. The perfect ratio of cookie to chocolate…and a total addiction! Ruby knew how much I loved those cookies at the shower, so the weekend after I ended up in the hospital waiting for babies to arrive, she showed up with two dozen cookies for me to enjoy. It was painful to pace myself; I could have scarfed them all down right then!

Unfortunately, the night we went, they were out of my favorite cookies (apparently I’m not the only person in KC to love them!) but we did try some other wonderful things. I had the Italian salad with house made ranch and Sean had the pasta trio. Served with fresh bread, and topped off with a warm brownie a la mode…yummy!

So, obviously, we thoroughly enjoyed the food aspect of our night out. The quad part of our night out was quite entertaining as well. When we were unloading all of the babies from the van, a guy who pulled up next to us in the parking lot, watched us carry them inside and finally asked, “are there anymore?” Haha! I told him that we just had four. :-) Once we got inside, people just stared at us. You could tell they were trying to figure out if all four belong to us or if maybe one or two belonged to Ruby and Todd. A few people finally walked over to ask us if they all went together.  We made quite the scene!

Jovito’s Italian Cafe


Checking out the babies (you can see the cork board behind everyone). Most of these people are related to the babies with one or two strangers included.


Eli and Ellie who is happily asleep!


I love this one! Caleb checking out Uncle Todd’s dad, Tom.


Abby dreaming about sweet things and Caleb (who was still keeping an eye on Tom)


First Restaurant Outing for the Quads--A Success!!!


 

The owner of Jovito’s actually called her husband to come to the restaurant and meet the quads. He came with his camera and we are now proudly displayed on the cork board by the cash register, right in the middle of it! If you happened to find yourself in Jovito’s (which is highly recommended), look for us on the board! We aren’t too hard to spot!

It isn’t too often that a restaurant welcomes infant multiples with such open arms. They were so accommodating and invited us to come back again soon. We were a bit apprehensive about taking them to a place of business like that, but we couldn’t have had a better first dinner out!

-Posted by Rebecca

6 comments:

  1. And I thought my 5 grandchildren under 4.5 years was a handful! Rosie & Tom look so proud! Blessings to you all.

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  2. What a great post! THANKS. Really LOVE keeping up with you guys! Mary Beth

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  3. I lived in Kansas City for 25 years when serving the Lord with the Stonecroft Ministries. Was also a member of Blue Ridge Bible Church. Was called home to Lebanon, PA, 15 years ago when my mom had a few physical problems and I was helping my dad to take care of my mom. In July, Nancy Van Gulick put a picture of your babies on Facebook. I clicked on the picture and really enjoyed reading all about your babies. I asked Nancy if she knew the babies and she said the grandfather to the babies is the choir director at Blue Ridge Bible Church. That is when I signed up to receive your blog. Sure have enjoyed seeing the pictures and reading about the way you write about each one of the babies. May God Bless both of you as you lean on Him for your every need. Janice Koehler

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  4. Six months old???? Already??? When I think back to those first posts and all the struggles, it seems like yesterday. But here are the quads, out "gallivanting" at fancy restaurants! Way to go, Ishum Clan!
    Lee Ann

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  5. I'm glad you guys finally made it out of the house and had such a great time.

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  6. hope all is well! wishing for more posts so see how much they have changed in just these short, few months!

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