Iced in

From Thursday night to Monday morning it was "trial by fire," or rather, ice, at our house to see if we could cope with quintuplets inside for three whole days by ourselves. . . except we cheated. ;) We took them to others whose cars were iced into their own driveways on Friday and Saturday afternoon. (Andersons and Naomi and Co., THANK YOU!) Gavin is used to driving on snow and ice up in the Sierra Nevada mountains of CA, so he did fine getting around VERY slowly.

Our street and walkway, looking out our dining room window, which the kids spent a lot of time doing.

Every last twig and leave was encased in ice. It was gorgeous but treacherous!

Sunday was the longest day here by ourselves with the five babies, and I could have kissed Judy's feet when she knocked on our door Monday morning! Not only did she come to care for the babies, she brought homemade goodies, did the dishes and continued where I had left off the night before with the laundry. (We had a bit of a fiasco with Seth's soy-formula-laden feeding bag. It involved a huge eruption that spattered nearly everything in our room, including three blankets, a stack of papers, our computer and the ceiling fan! So much landed in my freshly shampooed hair, it made it completely stiff and I had to re-wash it.)

Doing all the laundry, dishes and clean-up for quintuplets plus three bigger people seems a never-ending task. The amount of laundry is truly staggering! All this to say, I DEEPLY appreciate all the help we receive. I'm also glad that in Papua New Guinea it's very affordable to hire local ladies to clean and do laundry (where we line-dry everything); in fact, it's expected - it's a vital part of the local economy. If I couldn't get the help, I can't imagine having time to do anything BUT laundry, and we have to cook from scratch over there, too. Plus things get dirty very quickly due to the dirt roads that are either dusty or muddy depending on the season or even time of day. Mud becomes dust very quickly in the Equatorial sun, and dust becomes mud nearly instantly in the tropical rains. Whenever I am tempted to buy darling outfits for the babies to wear when they get older, I remind myself how quickly Ukarumpa will reduce them to brownish, stained play clothes.

Anyway, to help the days at home pass more quickly we got a little bit inventive: I cleaned out one of the cupboards so the kids could use it to play in, and from then on they've considered it "their" cupboard, even when the pots and pans are still in it!

Will and Marcie

Will ascending the "loft"

Don't you love the fox on his bottom? [Cue the viral YouTube music video in your head.] Each of the boys has one of these snuggly sleepers, thanks to Carlene, and Marcie is wearing an outfit that used to be Megan's. So sweet!

Now David is on the top shelf

We were so bored we got a little silly:

Gracie in a mixing bowl. A very serious thing.

We worked on keeping warm and comfortable. Unfortunately, the babies decided bottles are much more "comfortable" than sippy cups. At night, anyway, we still give them a bottle because it helps them settle down. So much for my post about putting away all the small bottles! :}

Will, Grace, David

David finds three pacifiers (one in the mouth, one in each hand) much more comforting than just one.

Isaac was a huge help!:

Isaac and Seth with David behind them

Gavin, Isaac, Gracie

Pretty little Grace, whose new nickname is "Mouse" because she squeaks and quivers when she wants attention.

In other baby news, Will and David have started saying "hot" about my coffee or food, or, in the case of David, when he walked in front of the space heater and felt the warm air blowing out. So cute!

Another super cute thing David did recently was try to give Seth his inhalers: He put the mask right over Seth's mouth and nose and even tried to depress the canister to deliver the meds! Both boys thought it was great fun. :)

Marcie has taken up to 30 steps at a time. She decides to go on adorable, cautious little walks throughout the day. Seth is standing more on his own, especially while bending over toys, and Gracie can stand but usually doesn't want to.

The kids laugh and play with each other constantly now. It's just too precious for words. I hope to post some video soon.

Keep warm!

Love,
Carrie