9 months old

Well, it has been a really long time, so I thought I'd finally publish a post . I do apologize, it's just a whole new world with 3 little boys. Wonderful but very, very busy.

The 5 of us. Our Happy Fanily :)

Charlie is 9 months old now. He is 22 lbs 3 oz (76%) and 28 1/2 in long (76%). They didn't measure his head, but his head is much more proportional than the big boys. They totally have Brecht heads and were always in the 95th percentile :) Charlie is crawling, free standing/cruising, and babbling like crazy. He says, mama, dada, & Ga! I'm not sure what the las one means, but he says it all the time. Mostly he travels around the living room climbing up his musical chair, learning table, or ball popper. When he is excited he claps his feet. He even does the baby moon walk in the bath tub. When I scoot him to the back of the tub, he claps his feet and splashes all way to the faucet. He loves life and is a joy to be with. We definitely needed him!

Tate is loving 3 yr old preschool and enjoying having Mommy home with him every day. I'm staying home this year and have decided to watch one little friend during the day. It's perfect beacause it gives Tate a companion to run around with all morning. Our little friend is a 2 year old little girl, Claire. It helps with my girl fix and her Mommy is one of my super friends, so it's fun seeing her every day, too. :)

S.Jessen is doing great in kindergarten and is learning the tricks of the trade. Raising your hand, walking in the halls, and staying out of "that mean office!" He likes school and is loving the world of reading!

I am loving staying at home and adoring Roger for making it possible. I will teach again sometime, just trying to enjoy the years I can't get back while I can.

Granny and Pops before we went to do a little trick or treating. S.Jessen was a storm trooper, Char was a frog, and Tater was Iron Man.

Our 3 little pumpkins and their pumpkins they made with Daddy.

Scariest Place on Earth?

OK, to make life simple right after having a baby, we decided to do S.Jessen's birthday with both families, and to combine it with my nephew Luke's birthday, too. My brother Aron and his family were to be moving the week of S.Jessen's birthday and the boys were both turning 5 so we headed to Chuck E. Cheese in Cedar Rapids with all of my immediate and some extended family, my in-laws, and my brother's in-laws, too. AND we decided not to book spot before because we thought for sure we'd get tables. We did have to wait a while to get a table, but the scary part to me was all of the kids running everywhere. We lost Tate 3 times! It seems like it should be kidnapper central, but they do have the nice stamps on your hand that is the same as your child's. BUT they couldn't find Charlie's sticker on his car seat when I was checking him out and they let me take him anyway...

Riding with Chuck E. Cheese, & Tater

Playing air hockey with Pops

It was a nice time, but just a real culture shock for this novice Chuck E. Cheese mommy! We could never go there without all the family to help out.

Meet the Great Grandparents

At 3 weeks old, Charlie went on his first road trip, and he got to meet all of his great grandparents. On Friday, we headed to my parents house and we have two sets of great grandparents (Nanny and Papa, and Great Grandma and Grandpa Kolosik) that live on the very same street, so that was an easy visit! The next day we went to a going away party for my brother and his family (they actually moved to Cincinnati last weekend :( ). On Sunday, we headed to see Roger's parents and Great Grandma Verna. We got to meet all of his great grandparents in two days, whew!

Big boy ready to go!Great Grandma and Grandpa Kolosk thought that he was great!

Nanny was so happy Charlie was finally there!

Papa had been asking about Charlie for a while. They were ready to meet :)
Great Grandma Verna was excited to meet our little feller, too!

It was a nice weekend and Charlie travelled very well in the car. It's nice he has some brothers to look at. Poor S.Jessen didn't have anyone to look at when he was a baby, but Tate and Charlie were born with siblings to look at and laugh with. I guess that's why we had Tate so soon after S.Jessen's first birthday. We felt bad for him... I think I've found myself in another story so that's it for now :)

Bath helpers

The majority of the time that I was pregnant, I was prepping the boys for Charlie's big arrival. I'd tell them they would be big helpers. The only thing I knew they'd really love to do was to help with baths, especially Tater. When he came to the hospital on the day Charlie was born, he pushed his sleeves up and asked if I could help him give Charlie a bath. Poor kid, I could barely get out of bed and he's ready for me to help him give the baby a bath. So, we didn't do it that day, but we did the day after we got home. The boys both loved it, and have since loved it now that Charlie is in his big bath. Here are a few shots of my little helpers :)
Each boy was washing and lotioning a leg. One did the tummy and one did the back, too sweet!

3 Boys Pics

I never anticipated getting so many pics of the 3 boys so early. We've been very fortunate to get some great poses! The jammy one we had to take because our cousins got us matching winter jammies for Christmas, and we wanted to get the shot taken before Winter was over. They all turned out really great!

Happy day before your 32nd birthday, Daddy!

Weekend Visitors

Uncle Aron, Charlie, and Luke

Our first weekend home, Uncle Aron, Auntie Ayla, Isaac, and Luke came to visit. Of course the one picture I have of Ayla is on my mom's camera so she's not on here, but she did see him! They all came on Saturday and then Uncle Al and Auntie Rachel came to visit on Sunday. It was a super weekend showing off our kids and visiting our siblings. The ones that could be there :)

All 5 rascally Kolosik grandsons: Tate(3), Charlie(new), Isaac(7), S.Jessen(5 in March), and Luke (5 on Feb. 20)

The oldest Kolosik cousin and the youngest: Isaac and Charlie

Uncle Al, Charlie, and Auntie Rachel, and their baby its house

The whole bunch

Going Home

We brought Charlie home on a Wednesday night. It was a relaxing night home, and Granny had baked up a storm so Charlie boy and I were very prepared to eat and sleep. The big boys were very excited to have us home and we were happy to be out of those hospital beds. I was pretty sore, but the boys were very aware that Mommy had big owies from taking Charlie out of her tummy and were very sweet and patient.

Checking out of the hospital

The updated Happy Fanily
3 happy Brecht boys

Happy Fanily has a new member

On February 9, our Happy Fanily welcomed it's newest member: Charlie James Gariel Brecht. Charlie has two middle names. He is named after his Grandpa Jim, Uncle Aron James, Uncle Alan James, Pops Gary L. Kolosik, and Uncle Adam Gariel. We just liked the name Charlie. He was 9 pounds 1 3/4 oz and 21 inches long. He was delivered via c-section. At first, I had the choice since I've had both kinds of deliveries, but since my water didn't break, c-section was the only choice. Apparently I was having contractions the morning of, but I didn't feel them, yea!

Here Roger and I were ready to go at 5 in the morning! This is my game day shirt. I've worn it on all three boys' birth days.

Did I look ready to go or what? I felt great, but he was quite the load to carry around and I of course had super swollen feet and legs.

Meeting Mommy and Daddy

The delivery was quite successful, but due to some extra fluid not squeezed out from a regular vaginal birth, Charlie had to be on oxygen for several hours. That was pretty heart wrenching for me because I saw him for about 30 seconds when he was delivered and then not for 4 hours. I was scared he would want to adopt one of the nurses as his mommy.

All of our parents were there for the delivery and they were all kind and waited for me to hold him first. They could go see him in the nursery, but I was stuck to my bed with my handy dandy catheter.

Proud Grandma & Grandpa Brecht and Granny & Pops Kolosik

Charlie was a natural at nursing, but lost a whole pound in the hospital due to the lovely circumcision he had the following morning. That was pretty stressful for him and eating was not high on his list. We had no jaundice for the first time and were able to take him home instead of having to stay an extra day.

Granny and Pops brought big brothers S.Jessen and Tate in to see Mommy and Charlie. It was hard because I looked tired and all the tubes and stuff were a little scary. They were proud though. Each one handed me a rose and they were excited to see their baby. Tate was more excited to run all over the room so the stay wasn't long, but it was nice to have all three boys together for the first time.

Our 3 beautiful boys

Great Accomplishment

In all the hub bub of Christmas I completely forgot to brag about my husband's great accomplishment of receving his MBA. He finished his classes from Mississippi State University in December with a 4.0! It was a lot of hard work and we wore him pretty thin, but he got it done and we are so proud of him.

Game Recommendations

Ok Mommies! We have found some fun games to play that may be oldies to some of you, but they are new to us and we've had a blast! I thought I'd let you know what we've been playing just in case you get into a winter slump and need something new to do! These 3 games are quick and easy for kids from 3 up! We've been playing: HyperDash, Cranium's Cariboo Treasure Hunt, and the oldie Guess Who? (Our 3-year-old is not playing Guess Who?, but S.Jessen does very well). We've also tried Hyper Jump which is on our list. S.Jessen has been playing a Leap Frog hand-held game this is kind like the old Sequence game called Fix it? Now I'm too tired to go find it to get the exact name, but he loves it! The other game Tate enjoys is Zingo! Enjoy!

Charlie is coming soon

Another sweet baby boy will be here very soon!

This is me a month ago! I swear my stomach has doubled in size since then!

Well, I went to my latest doctor's appointment and we went ahead and scheduled a c-section for Monday, February 9. Roger and I have been back and forth about it. The thing is that I've done both kind of deliveries. The doctor said I am a prime candidate for the V-BAC (vaginal birth after cescarian-sp? ), but the risks scare Roger to pieces. Even though there is a small chance something could go wrong, I'm ok with the c-section. I just know I healed better after S.Jessen was born without a c-section than with Tate who was breech and did have one. The fact that I grow super huge babies though makes the c-section enticing though. S.Jessen was 8 lbs. 3 1/2 oz and Tate was 9 lbs 3 oz. I hope I don't keep with the trend of adding a pound per boy, yikes!

I am very excited that we are down to the last month. My legs are starting to swell and teaching all week last week was a kick in the butt after having 17 days off of school! It's a good thing we had a snow day today. My mom and dad visited this weekend and helped us prepare more for our Charlie boy. He can officially come home now. We've got his room nearly ready (only minor decorative things to add). We've got all of his clothes washed and my diaper bag is packed. I haven't packed my bag yet. I've got 4 weeks! And heaven knows my babies do not come early!

When I was rocking the boys tonight Tate said, "I'm sitting on Charlie!" and S.Jessen said, "I have no where to go!" Not much longer and they'll have their spot back :) I think we are all ready to meet this little man.

Reading books with my boys

Sledding

Here are the pics from all the guys taking the boys sledding before Christmas dinner. Apparently Roger's and Tate's sled broke on the way down the hill. Rog got a huge bruise on his rear! Tate apparently cried, but was fine after that. He didn't go down the hill again though. S.Jessen went down the big hill with Mason, but was fine without going again. He liked it, but it was a big hill. In fact when he got back he told me his heart only hurt one time while he was gone. Here I am thinking about real, physical heart pain and he then says that hill was really big. He was just a little scared. Poor babe, but it was fun for them all and super nice of them to bring them!

Here we come!

The below pics look like Roger and Tate's crash, I'm not sure...

This last one may be Jim, Joe, or Al with someone?