The DeMaria Family

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Naming Multiples

This week at Multiples and More, the 'Question of the Week' was about naming multiples. (Jan 24, 2010) I am just getting around to answering this question though. I don't think that I have blogged about it yet. I like this question. I print my blog out in a book once or twice a year. This blog is acting as my babies "baby books" because it is so much easier than trying to do 4 different baby books. For those interesting in printing out your blogs I use Blog2print. It is a little expensive but worth it! So on to the topic.

How did you choose your multiples' names? We, or I should say I had a hard time choosing names. Being a teacher is really hard when it comes down to naming your kids. There are so many names that are linked to your students. My husband had a huge list for me to pick from and I was so picky. We finally settled on the names a couple of weeks before the babies were born. All of the babies name have meaning to them.

Anthony Joseph- "Joseph Anthony" is the family name that is passed down through the oldest son in Mikes family. Mikes oldest brother didn't have children so we decided to use the name. I switched it to Anthony Joseph because Mike isn't the oldest so I didn't think we needed to keep the tradition exact.

Michael Huston- Michael is named after his father. Huston is a name that I found in the Sports Illustrated and I liked it. The baseball players name is Huston Street.

Jaileigh Addison- Jai is my middle name and Leigh is my sisters middle name. Addison is a name that Mike and I both really liked. I didn't like that it was in the top 10 most popular names for 2008 so we used it as a middle name. It is also one of the streets that Wrigley Field is on. Mike is a HUGE Cubs fan.

Jakob Thomas- I really like the name Jakob and I spelled it with a "K" because if we called him Jake it would switch and probably cause confusion. Besides I like the "K" better too. Thomas is the family name in my family. I think that everyone person in his family names at least one of their kids Thomas.

Did you stick with family names?
Each of the babies has a family name, so Yes we did.

How do you feel about "matchy" names?
I think they are cute but I can't imagine doing it. I have a hard enough time trying to remember who I am talking to with out having to sort out which matchy name I am trying to say.

Did you worry about their names "coordinating?"
No, I just wanted each of them to have an important and significant name.

Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names?
They were named before we met.

What were your second choices?
Isabella and Grace were our girl names and Dean was a middle name that we were going to use for a boy.

Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor?
I did think about it for Jaileigh. Addison is such a popular name right now that I really didn't want that to be her first name. The boys I must have forgot or didn't care because they all make the top 10 most popular list year after year.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Fashionista!

Jaileigh decided she wanted to pick her own clothes out today. She raided the laundry basket, thank goodness it was clean clothes and not dirty ones. She has on two of her brothers shirts, the teal outfit and the maroon longsleaved shirt, and one of her summer tanktops underneath and her pants. She insisted that I put all of these on and she wore them all day and slept in them too. She would not take them off.

Her she is sooooo proud of herself. Notice the cars that she won't let go of either? Tomboy or Princess? Today seems to be a tomboy day.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Gooooooooooo Blackhawks!

This picture is just to make our daddy happy.

Michael, Jaileigh, Jakob, and Anthony

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Where's Your Belly?

When you ask the babies where their bellies are they look for their belly buttons. They are so silly. Here are pictures of them showing me their bellies. Please look beyond the different states of dress. Clothing is optional at our house and the fact that all of them have one piece on is a miracle, and all of their diapers are on.

Anthony

Michael

Jakob is thinking this is really funny.

And Jaileigh

Monday, February 1, 2010

Seeing Double

Our friends the Woodcock quads came over to visit today. The Woodcock Quads are 6 weeks old. We had 2 sets of quads in the house plus the older brother of the Woodcocks. That is 9 children under 4 and 8 of them were under 2. WOW! I was worried about how my babies would handle the other babies but they did great. Michael loved them and kept rubbing their heads and putting in their pacifiers. He and Jaileigh kept giving them kisses. Jaileigh really wanted to hold the babies. I really didn't think she would like them since she thinks she is the Princess. Anthony was a little put out that they were getting so much attention but quickly forgot about them when he was distracted. And Jakey really didn't care he just went on about his business.

Believe it or not it was a very fun day! It was great to be able to hang out with another quad mom and to see her beautiful babies. It was a sweet reminder of where we were not so long ago. Thank you Woodcocks for coming over. We all enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you again.

Michael is putting McKenzie's pacifier back in her mouth- whether she wants it or not.

The whole group with another wonderful friend Linda. Linda comes on Mondays to play with us. She has been coming to help us since our beginning so I am sure this brought back some memories for her too.

Jakob, Jaileigh, Anthony, Michael still working on the pacifier, Linda and Peyton. The babies are Carter, Presley, McKenzie and Kennedy.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Beautiful, Happy Babies

Anthony tasting and playing in the rocks and very proud of himself.

Jakob being shy

Michael in motion

Jaileigh with her "gross" stick. She made me throw it away.

Jaileigh

Shy Jakey

Jakey

Jaileigh and her bat

Anthony smiling for the camera

Michael cheesing it too

Anthony wanted more pictures

Michael

Jakob

Michael

Jaileigh and Jakob

Happy Sunday to everyone~

Thursday, January 28, 2010

1.5 years, 18 months, 547.5 days, or 13140 hours

That is how long these precious babies have been on this earth. Whichever way you count it, these are the best little blessings that we ever prayed for.

Happy Birthday little Quaddies!!!

So, to celebrate the day I thought I would share some of the things that we are currently interested in and doing. As mentioned in the previous past the kids love vacuuming. They also love helping mom clean. I will give each of them a wipe or a rag and they will help me clean. The love to take stuff to the garbage can. I think part of that excitement is the garbage can is outside so they get to look outside for a minute. When we are cleaning up they love to help put things away. Part of that excitement is the praise they get. They love being praised! Now with all that being said you probably think these are little angel children. HA.

They also love to empty all containers filled with toys, they love to throw every toy as far and as hard as they can (this is their fathers fault he gives them LOTS of praise for good throws), did I mention empty things, they love to make messes with their sippy cups, Michael is an expert at emptying is whole water sippy in seconds. Climbing, we have had to remove many pieces of furniture and legs to toys because of the CRAZY climbing that goes on here. These kids have NO FEAR!

They love to play outside. We were outside for over 2 hours yesterday and I didn't see one tear the whole time. Wonders!
They like to protect their sister.
They like to play cars.
They love to play with balls.
They love to hold Jaileigh's baby doll and give it kisses and hugs. Michael will even bounce it up and down.
They love legos.
They love tools!
They love spoons and forks. They like to feed themselves now.
They love their shoes because it usually means they are going outside.
They love visitors. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE visitors!
Love to climb on, in, over, on top of, under, boxes. Who needs toys right?
They love phones, real or play.
They love to share
They like to push things around, like their crib, high chairs, boxes, tubs, etc
They love to play with each other.
They love to kiss and hug. SOoOOOOOOOOo Cute! One of these days I will post video of it.
They LOVE books!
They love animals.
They love dessert! Sadly! They don't get it often but oh my they sure do love it!
They love brushing their teeth or anybody elses teeth.
They love jumping ( or bounce, bounce, bounce) especially on mom and dads bed.
They love looking out the windows.

They love to be held, cuddled, rocked, loved, kissed

They love to be chased
They love to be tickled
They love to be naked
They love bath time
They love to be independent
If you ask if they are stinky, they will grab their diaper, and turn around so you can check. If they are poopy, they laugh and run away.
They love music and songs with hand motions

Words they use

Bonk bonk, thank you, bye, hi, ball, mike, daddy, shoe, num num, puppy (sign), mommy, cracker, baaaa, mooo, oink oink, meow, roar, uh oh, cars, zoom zoom, cluck cluck,neigh, apple, book, more (sign), all done (sign), sssshhhhh, yucky, meeeee, Jakey, Anthony, Michael, Jaileigh, tickle tickle, nose, they will point to various parts of their anatomy too.

Michael trying to escape

The boys all trying to escape

Jaileigh pulling a face

Jakey

Jaileigh

Michael and Anthony

Michael

Michael in his box- not a happy moment. He tipped over.

Anthony

Jaileigh

Jakey

Michael

Jakey with his 2 golf balls

Jakey

Anthony

Michael- being somber

Michael tackling Jaileigh. Yes, he is sitting on her. What a stink! I quickly rescued her.

Jaileigh practicing her yoga

more yoga

Jaileigh and Michael have become the best of friends in the last few weeks. They love to kiss and hug. Whenever one of them is crying the other one tries to "fix" the problem. These two are so sweet. I love watching all of them interact now. They are so much fun! What a blessed family we are.

The formula boxes that are serving as toys and climbing gyms were donated to us by Abbott nutrition. We never used formula so we were able to donate it to another quad family. At 18 months old we are still getting this free formula. A very nice donation on Abbott's part. Now, where are the diapers? That would be awesome!

Monday, January 25, 2010

Fun Times At Our House

Little Rylee entertaining. Look at her! Two at a time! Jakob and Anthony

Can you tell they really like vacuuming? They like vacuuming and playing on the couch without the cushions.

Mikey, Jakey, Anthony, and Jaileigh

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Rain, Rain Go Away

It has been raining for the past week and the babies have some pent up cabin fever. Today was actually a nice day so we let them out to play. They were so excited to be outside again.

Mr. Independent Anthony