Hello dear blog friends,
We got many questions! Some we have answered before but will answer in an abbreviated fashion again. We know some of you are new to our blog!!
CNH asks "Any more Gerwer babies planned in the future?"
C: No way!!! Four kids is quite enough. I already struggle daily with obsessing if i have spent enough individual time with them. Not to mention the expense. Two boys, two girls, what else could i possibly want! :)
R: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Lori asks "Silly question, but I'm wondering, I think when you did this before you said you watched some Jon & Kate. Do you still and what do you think about this mess. I loved their show and now I almost feel guilty to watch their family falling apart."
C: Boy does this get asked a lot. And answering it is difficult for me. In the interest of time and me not getting cramps in my hand from typing... short answer... No, we do not. I did enjoy the show the first couple years when it was about the kids and day to day life with high order multiples. Since it is no longer about that, it has since not interested me.
R: I feel about the same way as Casey, but I'll go ahead and be more direct. The parents, show and its producers are more interested in viewers and ratings, then they are with the lives of the eight children on the show. Frankly, its sad. While the two namesakes of the show continue to bicker, the kids are just ignored. Very sad. I hope they quickly realize that they need to turn the focus back on their kids.
MacKenzie asks "I was just wondering, do the kids get any professional photo shoots?"
C: We have done a few with our wonderful friend who is a professional photographer, Betsy Prieto (her link is on the right side of our page). She does all natural light, which we love because it captures true colors. If you mean studio photography, i would LOVE to. But havent. I do regret not doing it earlier in their life and now i wonder if they would freak out in a studio with lights and such. I love studio quality photos too but they are just very expensive. Someday, I will do studio photos of them!
R: If you ask because you're an owner of a professional photo studio, I'm listening....
Cara asked a couple of questions, here they are...
"Do you ever get recognized from your blog?"
C: Yes we do. Especially locally at our grocery store or out and about. Doctors offices, March of Dimes walk, and Babies R Us. Its great to meet readers. Sometimes it can catch me a bit off guard when they know my kids names. Everyone has been so friendly that has introduced themselves and had many nices things to say. The strangest to me is when someone recognizes me when I'm not with the kids!
R: We do, and I still can't believe it. It does take some getting used to. Its always fun to have someone come up and ask how things are going, and to thank us for doing our blog.
"Are any of them identical? They look so much alike! Does anyone other than you and your husband have trouble telling them apart?"
C: No, none of them are identical. We get the question a lot when we are out and it makes us laugh a little. Because to us, they look NOTHING a like. I am not sure if its because we are their parents but we dont think they look anything a like. Reid and Trey look the most a like but still very different. People that are around them a couple of times dont have any problems telling them apart. Especially once you see their personalities. They are all SOOOo different. I love that my kids are all so unique! Most days anyways :)
R: They honestly could not be more different. Photos dont always show what we see, and from our eyes, these are four different chatracters. And I do mean characters!
"Do you have nannies or people that watch them when you guys go out or do your parents watch them most of the time? I nanny 2 year old twins and it is so hard! I couldn't imagine having 2 more!"
C: We have a nanny and a couple of sitter we use. Robbie's parents are also great and help out a lot with watching the kids. They live a mile away. My friends and family know I have a REALLY hard time leaving them. I am working on this. So there are very few people we have ever left them with alone, i can count them on one hand. Usually when we got out for date night or in the evening at all, we have a sitter or Robbie's mom, Janet come over after they go to bed. I know how difficult four toddlers can be! This way, they are in bed at 7pm and we can go out and the sitter has an easier job.
R: You may be surprised to hear, but yes, people do actually want to watch four 21 month olds at once! And better yet, they even come back! :)
"Do they go to daycare during the day since you both work?"
C: No. We have a nanny (Adrienne, whom we LOVE) two days a week, 9 - 5. Both of us work at that time. Three days a week, I am with them and my husband works. I work when he gets home after dinner. I will then work until I go to bed. On weekends, I work during naps and after they go to sleep. I try to spend as much time with them on weekends, since our entire family is home. My most favorite moments are with the 6 of us. Believe it or not, part time daycare is way more expensive for four toddlers than a nanny! Where we are, anyways.
R: No to the daycare. Its really quite expensive, and honestly, paying bills and buying food is enough to keep our bank account wincing! And deep down, even if we could afford it, Casey would not want that. She tries to be with the kids as much as she can. She says its because its hard for her to leave them, but really, its because she loves being around them, and watching them grow up. Since I work during most of their awake hours, I miss a lot, so I count on Casey to keep me updated! :)
Debbie asks "I am a member of PAMOM with 10 month old b/g twins. I would like to know what have been some of the quads favorite toys, food/recipes, and activities over the past year. I would love to hear about activities you did at home during RSV lockdown."
C: I will try to keep this short :). Congrats on your twins btw! And welcome to PAMOM!
Favorite toys: Eezy Peezy ball pit, vacuums, mega blocks, books with animals, any type of ball and container (simple, i know), corn poppers, pull toys that make noise, and tupperware :)!
Favorite foods: This is tough because right now, i have typical toddlers. They are so picky!! They love sweet potato fries, whole grain chicken nuggets, green beans, carrots (cooked not raw), mini pancakes, egg and cheese omelets, FRUIT LOOPS (i know, sugar, but they love them and they want to kiss Tucan Sam on the box every time!) and animal crackers!
Favorite activites over the past year: We used to go feed the ducks every Sunday as a family, that was so great! The kids loved ducks and to see all the people and animals at the park. We used to also get sno cones on Sundays, such a mess but the kids LOVED IT. They would sit in their choo choo and eat it like big kids (spilling half of it). And I regret i was always so busy trying to contain the mess, I never got any pictures of that. Swimming, my kids LOVE swimming (except Cameron, but she enjoys the first step). They love to "help" in the yard, pulling weeds, digging in dirt with shovels, dumping water, its so great!
What we did last year during RSV lockdown: It was tough. We started working on crayons during that time. We got the ball pit. PLaying in different areas of the house. Lots of push toys. This year we are doing a sort of lockdown because of the flu concerns. So we have started building forts with pillows, chairs and sheets. They are really into helping mommy clean (i love this but it takes me forever to get anything done). So they help me vacuum or wipe windows. Puzzles, lots of puzzles and books. Still love the ball pit. Starting to do make believe stuff like pretending to cook, taking care of their baby, etc. They also love to play chase with the dogs. Aqua doddle and coloring. Building towers with blocks.
I hope some of that info was helpful!
R: Or..... save your money and just buy them some wrapping paper and a cardboard box. It will keep them just as busy, and a box can turn into anything the imagination allows! This sounds goofy, but their favorite part of Christmas and Birthday was wrapping paper and boxes.
Annonymous asks: "I have two questions- what is their birth order and what is their order weight and height wise (biggest to smallest) and has it been that way since birth or have they switched around?"
C: Trey (2 lbs 5 oz), Reid (1 lb 15 oz), Cameron (2 lbs 11 oz) & Brady (2 lbs 5 oz).
They have pretty much stayed in the same weight order. Cameron is our biggest and one of our tallest. Reid is tied with her in height but is out lightest. She is TINY. Trey is starting to catch up height wise and is second biggest now. Brady is always about 5 oz behind him but is our shortest.
R: Not much I can add to that one. Except Casey is wrong about the heaviest. That would be me....
Annoynomus asks: "And are you doing RSV lockdown this year? If so, what are your rules?"
C: We are not doing TOTAL lockdown like we did last year. We realize it is important to introduce our kids to some germs. But there are some very bad germs out there (RSV and flu) that we have to be very careful with. The kids (and us) got flu type A last year and it was rough. And that was even with lockdown, we hope to avoid that this year. We do allow friends to come over if they are not sick and have not been sick in the last 48 hours or around someone who has. We will go to friends and families houses who are healthy. We are still VERY cautious about them being around children who go to daycare or school. They are the main carriers for swine flu at this time. We WILL not be taking them to indoor play areas, running errands indoors in public, the mall, etc. We are going to avoid doctors offices as much as possible. We can play outside when the weather is nice. Our challenge will be keeping them from MASS boredom over the next few months, me too!
R: To summarize that paragraph: KINDA!
Maggie asks: "What are the kids middle names and how did you pick all their first and middle names? I love that your girls have unisex names..."
C: THANK YOU! Some people really arent on board with the unisex name thing, but me having one myself, i love it!
Robert Joseph Gerwer III, AKA "Trey" - named after his father, who is a junior, that was an easy one :)
Reid Josie Gerwer - We had Reid on our boys favorites list and it was actually Robbies idea to think about it for a girls name. And it just fit. SHE IS SO REID!! I cant picture her named anything else. We wanted her to have the same initials as dad and i really wanted Josephine as her middle name but Robbie said no. We both liked Josie.
Cameron Shay Gerwer - Robbie came up with her name after we found out what we were having. One day i was asleep and he was getting ready for work and he said "How about Cameron for one of the girls" And we both liked it and it stuck. Shay was a middle name we had on our "middle names" list that we liked and went with Cameron.
Brady Sean Gerwer - I actually came up with this name. Its origin is Gaelic and Robbie's family is from Ireland. Sean is an Irish name and we both loved that name. It works great, because Brady looks like a little Irish man with his white skin :)
* Out of our whole list of girls names we came up with before we were pregnant and before we knew the sexes, we used NONE of them! So funny how things change.
R: We also picked Cam's initials so they matched Casey's (She was Casey Smith). And we wanted an S middle name for Brady so he would match Cam's middle initial. They are all completely different, but its nice to have them linked in one way or another.
SOOOO sorry folks for this being done so late.
We have an exciting post coming up on why it took so long to get a blog post up....
HINT:
"Aruba, Jamaica, Ew i wanna take you, to Bermuda, BAHAMAS, come on pretty MAMAS..."
Love, Casey & Robbie
