Meluch Triplets

Sledding

2010-12-29T13:32:00.009-05:00

We took the boys sledding this morning. They actually went sledding in our back yard last year, but this time we loaded them up and went to one of the local hills to take a crack.

At first, Aiden (green) wasn't so sure. He had no idea what was going to happen.

Eventually, we got up the hill and Dada was waiting with the sleds. After a few minutes they caught on and were excited to go down.

Here is Brody and DaDa:

Here is Colin and DaDa:

And us all together:

I didn't get a close-up, but you can also see our au pair (Susana). This was her first time sledding ever. I don't know who had more fun--her or the kids :)

And the best way to get back up the hill? Have Dada push you of course. (Brody is getting pushed and you can see me with the other two in the way way background).

ismas and claw claw

2010-12-28T21:15:00.010-05:00

We recently celebrated Christmas (ismas) and the boys were very excited when Santa Clause (claw claw) brought them new toys. Here they are playing with their new train table (A,C,B,and Dada):

They started ripping the train tracks apart, so we decided to put those away for now. But they LOVE playing with the trains and the cars.

Next we skyped with Grammy and Papa so that they could watch the boys open their Christmas presents (Aiden closest to Christmas tree, Brody to Aiden's left and Colin to Brody's left)--if you look close enough you can see Grammy and Aunt Amie watching intently:

And Christmas wouldn't be complete without eating homemade gingerbread cookies with icing :) (B,A,C) They LOVE these cookies. They are still talking about them. I blame Grammy. She spoiled them by bringing them their first gingerbread cookie ever back in early December when she and Papa visited.

If you haven't been living under a rock the last few days, you know that the east coast was slammed with a pretty severe blizzard. Knowing that it was coming, I took the boys out for a bit of an adventure on Sunday morning. First we went to momma's work and ran around in an pretty empty building. Then we went to Dunkin' Donuts and ate glazed donuts (mmmhhmmm donuts). Then we spend about 36 hours couped up in our house going mad. I was so happy when the blizzard warning was lifted.

(Colin, left, Aiden, right)

(Brody, way ahead of them, running for the car)

And this is what our house looked like post-storm:

The big boy potty

2010-12-27T21:55:00.002-05:00

Tonight, I was sitting calmly on the couch with Brody reading "Hello Calico" when I heard some slightly more joyful than usual noises coming from the bathroom. So, I walked over and what did I see? Aiden and Colin with their hands IN THE POTTY. I guess this is where I should be counting my blessings. They have been potty trained since mid-September ;)

My favorite part of today was being snowed in and having Aiden sit on the counter and watch me make soup and smell each vegetable as I was putting it into the pot. Half an hour straight of Aiden-momma one on one time. Colin and Brody demand their one on one time. With Aiden, I make time because he is a such a happy kid he would never let me know he needed it.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-14T09:12:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays. We have been missing from blogland for quite a while, but I hope everyone is well and the holiday season is joyful for you.

Below is our 2010 Santa photo. Dada, Aiden, Mama, Brody, Santa, and Colin.

We *tried* to get the picture with just the boys, but the boys were having none of that. We all had to sit next to Santa together. Thanks Grammy for the cool Holiday vests. Aiden especially liked that his had a truck. Colin loved the penguins on his and Brody was thrilled that there was an entire Christmas tree on his. It is super fun to hear them try to pronounce all of the new words: Christmas, Santa Claus, Snow man. They generally drop off the leading and trailing sounds, so I feel like a language detective most days, but it is so much easier to understand them than 6 months ago (about the last time I posted!). Guess what my New Year's resolution is?

Watermelon and a swim

2010-07-07T10:27:00.001-04:00

Here are the boys yesterday evening after a swim in the pool (Aiden and Colin jumped in the big pool) and splashing around in the little pool and the water table. They are obsessed with goggles (gul-gul).

Colin, Brody, Aiden

sleepless nights

2010-06-29T09:54:00.003-04:00

I'm cleaning my office and I'm embarrassed to say that I found a disc of photos my mom took while on a trip to visit us in October of 2008. Yes. 2008. Here's what the boys looked like then:

I am reminded of this period because the boys weren't really sleeping through the night at this time. Last night, I didn't get to sleep through the night either. Brody would.not.sleep. It took us an hour to get him down last night (8-9pm). He then woke up again at 2am and did not fall asleep for about an hour (after I finally brought him into our bed, which I have NEVER done with him before). Then he was up again at 6:15am, at which point he woke up the dogs, who then woke up his brothers. All told I got about 5 hours of sleep. But they're so freakin' cute aren't they?

Some pictures

2010-06-28T14:04:00.038-04:00

The pictures in this post are from May-June 2010. I had some issues retrieving the pictures from our new camera (bad chord connection) so I had to go to the store and get a dvd made and have just now loaded them on to my computer....(I went a little crazy picture-posting today, but at least I'm not too far behind any more.)

Aiden learning how to hit the t-ball:

Brody (stripes) and Aiden (blue) on the see-saw

Adien (blue) and Colin (stripes) on the swings--their new favorite activity

Brody with Grammy-he likes the swings, but he *really* likes to sit on someone's lap while swinging

Da-da in the pool with Colin, Brody leaving the pool and Aiden sticking his tongue out at the whole thing-

Choo-choo train on ma-ma's lap (Aiden, Brody, Colin front to back). Yes, they say "chuu chuu chuu" while sitting on me.

Brody and Da-Da (and Colin too)

Aiden

U and I went to an exhibition game-Northern Ireland v Turkey

And guess who we saw there?

And guess how hot it was that day?

For the boys' birthday, my triplet mom mentor (a wonderful, wonderful person) gave us her kids' (BGB) play kitchen. I asked if her kids climbed on it? "Oh no, never." Our kids have gotten hours of entertainment out of the kitchen so far, and some of those hours even involve playing with the plastic food and the kitchen as intended. (The kitchen exhibit at our local children's museum is one of their favorite exhibits.)

Watching the cars go by (Brody, Aiden, Colin, left to right). Yes, we do have clothing for them other than pajamas. No, we do not have monkey-free pajamas.

Watching the carousel (Colin, Brody, Aiden)

Colin in the fire truck at the playground at the local elementary school (which everyone LOVES to play on). They are all obsessed with anything that has wheels (including our grill).

Brody (red shoes) and Colin (blue shoes). The boys like to run around and then look in all of the doors/windows. (We always go when the school is closed, but it's still quite interesting for them to look inside.)

Taking a small break...

Aiden, after Papa's heart

A little blurry, but this is how we get out with the boys these days-(Brody, Aiden, Colin, left to right)

A few weeks ago, we went out for pizza and ice cream (at two different places). Here are all of my boys enjoying desert. Brody (who was sitting with me until I got up to take the picture), Colin-to U's right, Aiden-to U's left. They were truly enjoying this summer treat.

Getting ready to go in the big pool (Yes, they have life jackets on.)

Tunnel fun this past weekend. This tunnel entertained them for a good hour. I highly recommend something like this if you have active toddlers on your hands.

These days they really enjoy going up and down the stairs. Since the stairs to our basement are carpeted and their risk of injury is lower, they go up and down these much more often. They are so good at it that we don't have to hand hold, but simply watch them while they're doing it. I can't believe how much they have turned into little boys. Just yesterday, Colin and Brody were wrestling and tickling each other and laughing like crazy. They love to bounce on anything (their cribs, the couch, our bed). They like to stand up on the arm of the couch and jump down to the doggie beds. Fortunately, they are scared enough that they typically don't do anything beyond their comfort zone. Age two is a lot more fun than age one.

Caw-lin

2010-06-23T15:20:00.009-04:00

Last weekend, Colin figured out who he is. He pointed to U and said "da-da". He pointed to me and said "ma-ma". Then he pointed to himself and said "Caw-lin". He also knows Brody "bee-dee" and Aiden "a-en". And, he (and his brothers) have known C for a long time "bee-bee". I think Colin has just passed that critical threshold where the language flood starts. He is repeating so much of what we say and then he uses it later. He is also quite proficient at playing catch. He can throw and catch a size 3 soccer ball at about 3-4 feet distance. He loves to do it so much that he will randomly go up to someone and throw a ball at them.

Brody

2010-06-23T15:20:00.008-04:00

About a month ago we just stopped putting the stroller in the car when we went out with the boys. We would usually hold their hands and let them walk into the store (library, museum) and then put them in a cart or watch them in the contained area. This was ok for most situations, but not for walking around a mall and not for walking from the car to the place when only one adult is present. So we got money leashes. They look like this. They are Brody's favorite thing. He likes to kiss the monkey right before I put it on and right before I take it off. They are my favorite things too because now I can take my kids out by myself again with relative ease. (We have the trailer hitch for the runabout, but it's such a pain in the toosh to attach and remove and reattach that thing!) Plus, the kids love the moneys and the freedom it gives them. They are still good at holding hands on the way in and on the way back from wherever it is that we're going.

Aiden

2010-06-23T15:20:00.007-04:00

Yesterday we were at the library and the boys were playing with the toys (which the LOVE to do--so many things to explore). Then they were drawing for a while. And then Aiden went over to the table, grabbed a book and wanted to climb in my lap and read together. It was so sweet. Then we went outside and the boys ran around, following each other. As they went down a ramp, Aiden fell and scraped his knee. What did he do? He got right back up and caught up with his brothers. He shakes off everything and just keeps going.

summer time

2010-06-18T16:59:00.002-04:00

Here are the boys having a snack (nak) yesterday morning.

Aiden, Colin, Brody

They have gotten so big over the last few months. They have been scaling the gates, so it's made wrangling them more difficult. I'm going to *try* to post more frequently for anyone who's still reading the blog :)

Our kiddos

2010-05-01T13:41:00.009-04:00

Studying a new toy (thanks C & E!)
Brody,Colin,Aiden

Fingerpainting
Aiden

Brody

Colin

Acting like mom & dad
Brody(red shirt) Aiden (brown shirt) Colin (blue shirt)

I love the intent look on Colin's face. This picture also perfectly captures Brody trying to take Aiden's toy. It is so typical of what happens in our house on a regular basis. No matter how cool someone's toy is, his brother's is always cooler!

Two year old stats

2010-05-01T13:23:00.004-04:00

We took Brody to his 2-year-old well visit last week and just a few days ago we took Aiden and Colin. Drumroll:

Brody
35 inches (60th percentile)
25 lbs 14 oz (25th percentile)

Aiden
34.5 inches (40th-ish percentile)
25 lbs 2 oz (10th-ish percentile)

Colin
35 inches (60th percentile)
25 lbs 10.5 oz (25th-ish percentile)

I don't know if I have all of the percentiles right, but long story short-seems like the boys are taking a little after their Da-Da (tall and thin).

They are saying over 25 words:
nose, eyes, hair, ear, ma-ma, da-da, B-B (for our au-pair), car, book, baby, bear, hi, bye-bye, milk, more, ver, si, shoes, uh-oh, dog, bus, eat, no, night-night, yeah, go(go go), banana, home, lily, whereisit, purple, mam-me (for Grammy). Although this is slightly under the "expected" speech at age two (50 words), our Pediatrician is not at all concerned given that they are picking up language, they understand quite a bit, and that they are in a tri-lingual household. That said, I think we are about to have an explosion. Colin is starting to repeat almost everything I say and will combine words if he says them right after I do. He seems to be the verbal leader--as soon as he starts, the other two seem to chime right in. They understand a million times more than they say. They are also learning Turkish and Spanish, but English seems to be dominating.

They have not neglected their gross motor skills either. They climb everything in their path. They love the playground since this allows them to climb freely. They have not jumped yet. (Well, except for on the couch and in their cribs!)

It has been a joyful two years. I won't say it's easy because that would be lying. But, I would not trade it for anything. I have never felt so rewarded from doing anything.

The boys in action

2010-04-19T06:26:00.009-04:00

The boys have discovered a new activity. It is called shoe-time.

We have a mud room where we leave our shoes as we enter the house. Recently, they have decided that wearing others' shoes is the most pleasing form of entertainment. It started a few months ago by wearing mommy's slippers around the house. Now they like to choose from the many pairs of shoes lying around. They even know whose shoes are whose. (Da-da, Ma-ma, B-B--our wonderful au pair). They also have words for socks and shoes. And they like to go-go-go (ga-ga-ga).

Here they are enjoying a snack with da-da. (This was not a posed picture. They all just decided that they wanted to be next to da-da.)
Colin-Aiden-Brody

Right now they are in LOVE with da-da. Every morning when we open the door to take them downstairs, if I try to get them and their bear-bear (ba), books (boo), car (ca), blanket (baa), they move to the other side of the crib and say da-da? It's super cute.

And here they are playing on their older siblings' (er doggies') beds:

They are so delightful. I love watching them play together as they are always coming up with a new "game" to play. It gets a little dicey sometimes when they all want to do the same thing at the same time or to put a big object into a tiny space, but overall it is truly fun.

They are all obsessed with Thomas the train. They hold up their hand and say toot-toot (tuh-tuh). They also sometimes line up as if they are a train--all three in a row, tuh-tuh, tuh-tuh, tuh-tuh, and then they "roll" around the room.

My mom just left from a week-long birthday trip. We were all playing at the park and we left in separate cars. My mom said good-bye to the boys as they sat in their car seats. After my mom closed the door and started walking to the other car, Colin said mam-me. We hope you come back for another visit soon mam-me!

Happy SECOND Birthday!!!

2010-04-14T07:36:00.004-04:00

Today Aiden, Brody and Colin are two years old. I honestly can't believe how quickly it's all gone by. We're just starting the day, but already the boys are enjoying their new toy (Thanks to Sarah for passing this along):
Brody (front), Aiden (middle), Colin (back)

If you're a new mom, kiss your baby (babies). It goes by so fast!

Night Night

2010-02-21T19:50:00.001-05:00

Every night before we put the boys down, we sit on the tiny couch in their room and read stories. After we put them in their cribs, we kiss them and they kiss us and we say night-night and they say ni-ni.

Colin

Aiden

Brody

(I'm posting this on 3/21/10. But we still read stories every night!)

Cim bom bom

2010-02-21T13:41:00.002-05:00

It's that season!

Colin (shirt on) and Aiden (shirt off) playing with U

I love this one of Brody!

Colin

(It's actually 3/21/10, a month later--but there's a big Galatasaray game today! Cim bom bom.)

First Official Hair Cuts

2010-02-13T13:31:00.005-05:00

Although we gave the boys a buzz cut last June, today was the first time we ever took the boys somewhere for a professional to cut their hair. I forgot my camera, but honestly I don't think I would have been able to snap photos as I was holding or corralling boys (so many things to touch at the salon). But I did manage to snap photos when we returned of the final product.

Colin

Aiden

Brody

If you look behind Brody, you will see a key hanging from the door. This is because they learned how to open doors months ago and we fitted all of our downstairs doors with some kind of lock. God help us when they figure those out!

(I'm posting this about a month later. Colin actually figured out how to unlock the doors with the key when the key is in the lock this past week.)

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-13T13:19:00.005-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Grammy sent the boys some Valentine-themed rice crispy treats. I didn't realize what was in the box until I looked over and saw Brody consuming the goodies. It took Aiden and Colin a minute to catch on, but eventually they figured out how to open their respective boxes. February 14th also marks the date the boys turn 22 months. Two months until 2!!!

Aiden

Colin

Brody

(P.S. I know Valentine's Day was over a month ago (today is 3/21/10, but better late than never :))

Lovies it is

2010-02-09T21:39:00.011-05:00

The boys have all become attached to their various lovies. This is what they look like almost every morning. (Colin, Aiden, Brody left to right)

They always sit in the same order, in the same chairs. And get mad if someone takes their chair. Aiden is in the middle in the green chair (he likes the colors orange and green). Colin is to Aiden's right (our left). Brody is to Aiden's left (our right). As you can see, they each like to have their bear bear, and sometimes their blanket. Aiden likes to have his orange car while Colin isn't happy unless he has his red fire truck. Colin went through (is still going through?) a phase where he would eat, sleep, play and bathe with his fire truck. Now he just sleeps and plays with it (usually). Colin is also attached to a book with a variety of animals (which he is holding in this picture). From "reading" the book, he decided he liked the chimpanzee, so he made up his own sign (he puts his hand on top of his head and says oh oh oh). Any time he sees a chimpanzee (or monkey type animal) he makes this sign. So cute! Brody has been very attached to his bear bear for quite some time. He loves on it all of the time. He also likes certain books, which he insists that nobody else touch. (They are actually all very protective of their toy, book, or food stashes!) We all sit on the couch in their room before bedtime and read stories. Brody always races to the couch to get to his favorite spot and grab his favorite book(s) of the day. Once it's time to go down, he makes sure everything makes it to his bed--bear, book, blanket, and sometimes balls (the plastic ones you see in the ball pits).

Here is a picture of our first real snow this year (2010). They are wearing these awesome snow suits that baba anne and baba baba gave them. (Colin-bright orange, Brody-blue, Aiden-green). You can even see Birdie and Scooter in the background. The boys wandered around the yard for at least 1/2 hour. They were having a blast!

Aiden giving his bear bear "love"

Brody with his bear bear

Colin with his fire truck

Typical morning play time (Brody is giving love to the big bear bear, Colin is in the middle and Aiden is reading the book--albeit upside down.)

And morning snack (Aiden, Brody, Colin--wow, they sat in their birth order! Probably why I took the picture :) )

Other stuff they've been doing-
Puzzles. They love puzzles. My favorite (and theirs) is one that has 9 shapes (each shape is a different color)--gotta love Melissa and Doug. It took Colin less than a week to figure out how to put the pieces back in the right places. He is also learning to recognize and say a few colors--red, blue, purple. Aiden and Brody are also able to put the puzzle together with help. Brody definitely knows how to say blue--his favorite color. Aiden likes to steal the orange and tan color (that looks like a shade of orange) pieces from his brothers when they are putting the puzzle together--orange is his favorite color.

Language. They are getting so proficient at their receptive language, especially with the things they hear every day. I can give each of them instructions (bring momma the bottle) and they will do it (if they feel like it). Their spoken language is coming along and is mostly english with some turkish and spanish and, honestly, some words they've completely made up (for example, "daaaa" means take this, I'm giving it to you.)

Helping. We have plastic bins that we put categories of toys into (one box for blocks, one box for toy cars, etc.). We usually take out one bin at a time and they play with that set of toys for a while. When it's time to clean up, the boys all help out and put the toys away. It's the best thing ever!

Drawing. They have started drawing with crayons--without eating them! This is still a highly supervised activity, but it is remarkable how much fun they have making "art". Of course, they often try to hoard all of the crayons. Then a switch flips and they decide to give away all of the crayons. They say "Daaaa" and hand a crayon to the closest brother nearby. In addition to crayons, they love drawing on the etch-a-sketch toy.

Stairs. Sniffle. They have started to walk up the stairs instead of crawl.

Crib hopping. We configured the cribs in their room so that they are side-by-side. Aiden is in the middle. At naptime today Colin climbed into Aiden's crib! Three times. I knew it was coming, but wow!

They are turning into little people. What happened to my babies?!!! Sometimes they even act like little stinkers. (They steal each others' favorite toys, they push each other down, pull each others' hair, and more). But almost as soon as they do these stinkerish actions, they turn into these warm, loving, caring beings toward each other. They are on the verge of age 2. I really can't believe it. It has been such a blur!

To our family and friends---sorry we've been out of touch. I've had crazy work deadlines and we've all had the flu and two colds since 1/1!

And if you made it to the end of this post--here's a picture of the boys from Christmas. They are wearing some cute clothes given to them by U's parents and holding toys given to them by my parents. Thank you!!!!
(Brody, Colin, Aiden)

Comments

2010-01-06T14:53:00.004-05:00

I recently found a few odd comments on my blog and have deleted them. If you read my blog, don't click on any of the hyperlinks appearing in the comment boxes. They can't be trusted to take you to a safe web page. I do not want to make the move to moderated comments, but I might do this if I keep seeing strange comments on the blog.

Edited to add:
I have made one change. You now need to be a registered user to post a comment. I am hoping this gets rid of the poster who keeps leaving annoying links in the comment section. All this means is that you have register to leave a comment.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-03T13:06:00.011-05:00

I can't believe I posted as little as I did in December. I was busy. But, we did manage to take a few photos. Here are some of the boys on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24).

You can look at the shoes to tell who is who. (Brody-blue penguin; Aiden-dark blue with racing car; Colin-brown with front-loader)

I managed to catch the progression in this set of photos. It is very typical of them to notice what the others are doing and then try to get in on the action. Sometime this results in the utter cuteness that is these photos, and at other times it results in fighting over a toy (or two). It also captures their ever-growing physical abilities. They have also figured out how to move large furniture next to things so that they can climb on to forbidden areas. I'm dreading the day when our gates don't hold them back any longer.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-13T07:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we made our annual trip to the local mall to get our Santa picture taken. Last year both Grammy and Babaanne were here, but this year only Grammy was here to witness the chaos that is photography with Santa.

The plan--line up the boys in birth order and have them all be cheerful and delighted to be sitting on Santa's Lap and have the perfect holiday photo to share.

The reality--Aiden was ok, even pleasant sitting on Santa's lap. Colin was terrified the moment he realized he was leaving my arms for Santa's lap. Brody full heartedly rejected the idea of sitting on Santa's lap by arching his back and starting a temper tantrum. So, we started out by U holding Colin and me holding Brody. Neither one of them like that, so we switched kids. Almost instant calmness ensued. Instead of the second Santa photo being just the kids, it has the parents too. (We are obviously not dressed for the occasion!) But at least we have a family photo!

(Colin on my lap; Aiden on Santa's lap; Brody on U's lap)

Compare with last year:

Vist from Grandma (Babaanne) and Aunt D

2009-12-09T09:11:00.005-05:00

We had a nice visit from Babaanne and Aunt D in the week before and week of Thanksgiving (and Bayram). U and I were really, really sick during the second week, so we couldn't do everything I planned to do. Nevertheless, the boys definitely enjoyed visiting with Babaanne and Aunt D and I think they especially enjoyed all of the tasty food. They are definitely exhibiting preference for Turkish food!

Here are a few photos of the boys with Babaanne:

With Colin:

With Brody:

With Aiden:

We love you and miss you and can't wait for our next visit together!

Finger Painting

2009-12-05T21:34:00.017-05:00

Last Saturday (Nov. 28) I decided it was time to try finger painting. It was a ton of fun and I think the boys really liked it. Here are a few pictures.

First I gave out the paper.

Aiden

Brody (you can actually see his bloody nose...that I blogged about a few days ago.)

Colin

I put a dab of color on their paper, let them play with it, then put a dab of another color, and let them play with it and so on. It was really fun to watch what they did with it and how they navigated the paper and the paint.

Aiden

Brody

Colin

I also want to say sorry that we were not able to do this while Babaanne and Aunt D were here. I had a touch of the flu and it just sapped all of my energy. We really enjoyed their visit and I hope they come again soon.

Hot Chocolate walk/run

2009-12-05T21:06:00.006-05:00

Today we went to a Hot Chocolate walk and run. The plan was for me to do the 2 mile fun walk with the boys and U to do the 5-K right afterward. Here's a picture of us all (well U and the boys) right before the start.
U is holding Brody, Aiden is in the middle and Colin is in the back.

Long story short, it was cold, cold, cold today and the walk started a little late. By the time we got going I think the boys, especially Brody who refuses to wear his hoody, were too cold, a little hungry and a tiny bit overstimulated from all of the people and the noise. So, after about 1/4 mile or so, they were all crying. After about a minute of that, I turned the stroller around and we proceeded to go back to the car. I cranked the heat, put on relaxing music, and after about 15 minutes, this was the scene:

Aiden, Brody, Colin (LtoR)

Then I busted out the rice chex, cheddar bunnies, and dried apples (and water of course). Colin slept through the whole thing, but Aiden and Brody were chowing down. They were reading books, hanging out and generally have a fun time. Eventually U called me and I told him where we were waiting for him. Pretty soon, I saw him coming my way with 2 mugs of hot chocolate:
U's just left of the ambulance

The satisfied runner:

All and all we had a great time together. I hope we can all do it again in the future, but I will not take the kiddos when it is so cold that it starts SNOWING during the race!

Brody and the stool

2009-12-01T11:33:00.002-05:00

Today I took Brody to the doctor (had a few bloody noses over the last few days, which after the doctor visit seem to be nothing). He put his sippy cup on the doctor's stool that spins around. He was fascinated by this for a few minutes (well 15 minutes). Then he figured out that he could push the stool around. Then he decided he wanted to push it under the exam table. The problem was that the stool would not fit under the exam table with the sippy cup on it. The sippy cup would fall off of the stool every time he tried to push the stool under the table. He started to melt down. Luckily, I only had one kid at the doctor so I was able to distract him before he spun out of control. All and all he was incredibly cute and charming. He was talking in the sweetest tone you can imagine throughout almost our entire visit. Then when we left the office I ran into a mom with 3 kids, the youngest of whom was there for the 12-month well visit. Although her kids were scared and hid behind mommy, Brody said hi to all of them and then proceeded to "show off" what he could do, playing with the toys in the office and climbing on to and off of chairs. It was so sweet to spend a few minutes alone with one of my kids.

Fall foliage fest

2009-11-17T20:46:00.009-05:00

Two weekends ago we raked our front yard. This resulted in a huge pile of leaves, which the boys (all of the boys) had a fantastic time with.

U is holding Brody, Aiden is the one in the middle, almost completely covered with leaves and Colin is to the left of the picture.

Brody offering a helping hand:

Aiden in the huge pile and Brody in the front:

Aiden (need I say more?):

I *think* this is Colin:

Honestly, the red hoodies are great when you're at the playground trying to pick out the kids, but in the front yard under a pile of leaves it makes it a little hard to remember who is who.

The kids had a complete blast. I can't believe how much fun they had tossing leaves and getting buried in the piles. In fact, they had so much fun that this past weekend I raked up the few scattered leaves left and created enough of a pile to entertain them for about twenty minutes. They LOVED it. I can't wait for next fall!

Halloween

2009-11-17T20:38:00.005-05:00

Yes, I know Halloween was last month, but this is honestly one of the few spare moments I've had these days. We didn't make it out to trick-or-treat, but I did manage to get the boys into their Halloween costumes and stroll around the neighborhood mid-afternoon.

Colin with Da-da

Colin was a little bit interested in the costume wearing. He was curious if the person he was looking at in the mirror was actually him or not! His brothers on the other hand were not that thrilled.

Brody, Aiden, Colin (front to back)

The hats stayed on for about 10 seconds after I snapped this photo, except Colin who kept his on for the whole ride. We saw a few people and the boys even waved at some of them. The costumes were entirely too big (we had to roll up the legs and the arms). I'm hoping that next year we'll get them in the costumes and maybe even take a short walk around the neighborhood.

18 months!

2009-10-23T11:26:00.024-04:00

Pictures at the bottom of the post.

Last week (Oct. 14) the boys turned 18 months. On Friday morning (Oct. 23) we went to the pediatrician. They melted down. They were absolutely terrified of the whole visit. I couldn't fill out the paperwork. I couldn't speak with the doctor without holding two crying babies. Thank goodness C was there. She helped calm them down a little. Here are their stats:

Aiden
32.5 inches, 23 lbs 2 oz

Brody
32 inches, 23 lbs 4 oz

Colin
31.5 inches, 22lbs 14 oz

One of the questions we were asked is how many words they say. They said the boys should have 5-10 words at this stage. I didn't realize it, but they actually count animal sounds as words.

They all say:
Hi, Bye, More (Maa), Milk (Mee), Ver (Turkish-"give me"), de me (may may; Spanish-"for me"), Raahh! (to "scare" us), Brrrm (the sound for cars, buses, trucks), and Sh! (as in quiet, along with the finger in front of their lips)

Colin says:
Bus (with Spanish pronunciation)

Aiden says:
Eat (EEE)

It seems like one will "get" a new word or sound and the others "learn" it from him. That is why most of their words are in common and why Aiden and Colin only have 1 unique word each.

They asked if the boys pretend to do things. They all pretend to talk on the phone. They will pick up random toys and then mimic talking on the phone. And, whenever they get the chance, they steal C's phone. They can pretend, but I guess they prefer the real deal.

They also asked if the boys are:
Walking-
Walking? Nope. Running? yes, yes, and yes.
Climbing-
When they're not running.
Pointing-
Yes.
Playing peek-a-boo-
Oh my gosh, yes. They LOVE this game. In fact, U plays hide-and-seek with them. He hides in one room and they run into the room and look for him. They all laugh hysterically when they find him.

Here a few things about the boys.

Colin is in a physical phase right now. He was the first to go feet first down the slide. We have a small couch next to Brody's crib and Colin was the first to climb from the couch into the crib. He also likes to sort toys. We have a changing table in their play area with clothes on the first shelf. We put the crib bumper on the side panels so that the boys wouldn't pull the clothes out. Now Colin likes to stuff toys between the bumper and the point where the bumper meets the shelf. I've gone to get a pair of pants out and found 20 or so blocks. Just now I took a picture and counted--only 7 tonight (see below) When we go up for bedtime, he likes to play in the closet in their room. Sometimes he reads books to himself and sometimes he puts toys into the canvas shoe organizer hanging inside the closet. He also likes to put toys into the other canvas shoe organizer hanging outside the closet. He likes to close the closet door and play peek-a-boo with us or his brothers. When he finishes playing in the nursery at night, he likes to crawl into my lap and have me read him a book.

Brody has been super snugly the last few weeks. In the morning when we give them their bottles, he drinks a few sips in his chair and then comes over to sit in my lap. He wants me to hold him while he drinks his milk. He loves his bear. He is my meat eater. If I put a vegetable, fruit and meat in front of him he will almost always go for the meat first. When his brothers aren't eating their meat, he'll finish theirs. He likes to knock over the block towers either he or anyone else has constructed. He loves to watch tv. He sits on the couch, arm on armrest like a grownup. He is a little shy and a little sensitive. When he looks at me it's as if he and I have a special secret that he doesn't want anyone else to know about. Only when I agree to these terms does he crawl up into my lap and snuggle tight.

Aiden loves to roll cars or trains or buses or trucks--basically anything with wheels--around the house. He lines cars up and pushes the back one to make all of them move. When he watches tv, he likes to lie on his stomach, arms hanging over the armrest or on one of the doggie beds. His favorite activity these days is to bend over, arms on the floor and put his head on the floor. I've posted a picture below. He started doing this a few weeks ago and I guess it looked like a lot of fun because now Brody and Colin are doing it as well. Aiden really likes to "read" his book when I put him down for bed. He also has a bear who he loves to sleep with.

And here is a picture of our first snow (Oct. 16). Yup. Already. I know, you can't really see the snow, but trust me it was a flurry.

Fall Foliage Pictures

2009-10-21T09:47:00.016-04:00

Last week the babies hit the 18 month mark. I took pictures, but they are still on my camera. We'll go for their well visit later this week, so I'll post those pictures along with their stats after the appointment. In the mean time, one of my colleagues who happens to be an amateur photographer took these AMAZING photos of the boys on Monday. I think he could go pro. What do you think?

Aiden

Colin

Brody

And here are a few more photos snapped by another one of my talented colleagues:

Brody

Aiden

Colin

Aiden with me

He was actually crying pretty hard in this photo, because he wanted to walk where he wanted to go, not where I wanted him to go. This was a repeating theme throughout the photo-taking process, not just with Aiden but with all of the boys. They are all blessed with the ability to think independently.

Here's how we managed to get the photos. My mom was visiting, so after the boys' afternoon (and only) nap, she drove C and the boys to campus. I met them there with my two friends and we proceeded to follow the boys around campus for about 45 minutes. They ~~walked~~ ran all over. I think we were all exhausted from chasing them. They were all over the quad, up and down stairs, up and down platforms and stairs at an outdoor atrium, all over the green behind the outdoor atrium, around and around various walkways and piles of rocks and piles of dirt and leaves and whatever else they came across.

One thing was especially cute. Brody was walking next to a curb and he noticed that his shoes were causing the crisp fall leaves to collect in front of him. After about 20 feet of walking there was a nice pile of leaves. He stopped, bent down, picked up about ten leaves and threw them up in the air. It was so cute!

I paused while typing up this post because my friend just stopped by with ALL of the photos. They are incredible! It's too much for me to post all of them, but the ones I'm sharing here definitely capture the essence of the day. Enjoy!

I should also mention that Babaanne, Babababa, and Aunt D gave the boys the clothes the boys are wearing in the photos. Thank you so much!

And Thanks again to my wonderful colleagues!

Belly laughs

2009-10-13T11:03:00.002-04:00

Over the weekend, the boys and I were having breakfast together. Aiden looked over at Brody and then he started laughing. Not the tiny chuckle laugh, but the deep belly, you-are-seriously-cracking-me-up laugh. He would stop for a few seconds and then he would look at Brody and start laughing all over again. Brody and Colin started laughing with Aiden, and so did I. I never did figure out what made Aiden laugh so hard. I'm guessing that won't be the last time I don't "get" it. Kids, what a complete and utter joy!

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday

2009-10-10T20:41:00.006-04:00

I'm sorry the posts have lacked photos recently. Honestly, the last time I took pictures with my camera was 9/6/09 and today is 10/10/09. My mom was here, so I do have some pictures from a little bit later than 9/6, but not much later. Things have just been soooo busy! (I do have some video from the last month, but I have never even put video from there onto my computer, so a post with said video won't happen any time soon.)

Today I took a picture of what our living/play room looks like these days. This is what it looks like about 30 minutes after the boys wake up:
In this picture, Brody is in blue, Aiden is in front (to our right of Brody) and Colin is in back (to our left of Brody). Right after I took this picture, Colin ran into the other room.

In both pictures you can see Brody hugging his "bear bear" as I have been calling it lately. He is so attached to this bear. He loves on it all the time. He sleeps with it. Sometimes he sees the bear and he goes over and lies on top of it, talks to it, and eats its nose. The bear stinks so bad. I washed it last week. It didn't help much. But, boy oh boy does he love that bear!

It's fall and the leaves are, well, falling. I took the boys on a walk and there were leaves on the ground everywhere. It was actually very pretty. I was pointing out the leaves and all of the different colored trees and then I decided to let them each hold a leaf. I pulled over the runabout gave them each a leaf. They looked at it and then each one promptly put it in his mouth! I told them "yucky" don't eat the leaf. But they insisted. Eventually I had to take the leaves away. But they had fun exploring them before I did. Here's a few photos of them on our walk:

They are in birth order, front to back: Aiden, Brody, Colin. I didn't do it on purpose. I never put them in the same seats. They wind up in whatever order they come to the door. Sometimes I start front to back and sometimes I go back to front. Today, though, they came in order :) By the way, you can see their cute shoes in this picture!

Round and Round and Round and Books

2009-10-07T11:16:00.002-04:00

Yesterday when I got home from work Colin ran into the kitchen, stopped, and turned around in a circle. He made about three to four complete turns, then he stopped. He looked at me with a proud yet silly expression. Then he stood in the same spot for a few seconds after which he tried to walk toward me. He was dizzy. Of course, since this was the first time I've seen him spin himself around, I don't think he realized he was dizzy. As he staggered toward me, he nearly fell forward. He caught himself and managed to walk diagonally across the kitchen and eventually made it to me. How cute!

And the cuteness didn't end there. When I was reading Colin "Water Water Everywhere", I pointed out the octopus on a page. Colin pointed where I pointed. Then I pointed to the octopus on the next page. Colin pointed too. Then I turned the page and asked "Where is the octopus?". And Colin pointed to the octopus! I went to the next page and he proceeded to point out the octopus on that page too! We made it through almost the whole (8 page) book before he lost interest. I can't believe how fast they are growing up!

Size 5.5

2009-09-30T10:06:00.003-04:00

Last Monday (9/21) we made our first trip to the shoe store. The boys got their feet measured and they are all wearing the SAME size! 5.5 (12-18 month). It's so hard for me to believe how close they are in sizes--not just shoes, but clothes too. My sister has identical twins (so when asked I do say yes, it runs in the family), and her girls were always different sizes (shoes, clothes) at the boys' age. Anyway, we got some really cute shoes (Robeez)--one pair has front loaders on them and the other pair has racing cars. We already had one pair (generously passed on to us from another family) with penguins. I really love these shoes. The soles are soft and the boys have found these to be the easiest shoes to walk in---by far. And no, the company is not paying me to endorse the shoes. I just love them.

sssssss

2009-09-30T10:02:00.003-04:00

When the boys are eating, Birdie and Scooter (our labs) wait in the mud room. They do not wait patiently. Often Scooter will bark about every 45 seconds. C often puts her finger in front of her mouth and says "SSSSHHHH Scooter". Well, the boys are at the stage where they mimic everything we do. So when C starts telling the doggies to be quiet, the boys put their finger in front of their mouths (and honestly, often up their nose) and say "SSSSSSS". I have to say that it is really cute.

Down to one nap

2009-09-19T19:10:00.002-04:00

Yesterday the boys only had one nap. We've been trying to move them to one nap a day for a few weeks now as they were only sleeping a very brief amount of time during their morning nap (some days only 20 minutes). Yesterday we took the plunge and they slept for almost two hours. Today, however was a different story. They were pretty fussy all morning. We gave them lunch at about 12:10 (usually they have lunch closer to 12:30). And right after lunch we put them down. They fell asleep within ten minutes. However, at 1:00 our neighbor went outside to get something out of their car, our dogs alerted us of this by barking. loudly. And the boys woke up. I thought they would cry for a few minutes and then fall back asleep. No such luck. They cried for 20 painful minutes. At that point, I went in and got them all. I thought they might fall asleep if we took a drive, so we piled them in the car and I took a 45 minute drive. It's beautiful out with all of the fall color starting to pop. I guess the boys thought so too since they didn't sleep a wink. We pretty much kept to the regular schedule for the rest of the afternoon and wound up putting them down about 10 minutes early. Better luck tomorrow I suppose!

Luckily, my wonderful husband watched them while I took a nap. It would have been so hard to make it through today without that nap since I woke up at 4am this morning (one of the babies cried for about 20 seconds and then rolled over and went to sleep).

Some days it is so hard to have triplets. If I only had one I'd probably have just gone in to the nursery, grabbed the baby and taken him to nap with me. No such luck with three. If I go in the room, the other ones always wake up, or if they are awake, they demand my attention as well. It is so hard to satisfy the needs of all three simultaneously.

9-9-09

2009-09-09T20:48:00.003-04:00

I went to a function this morning and as I was listening to one of the speeches, I looked down at the program and realized today is 9-9-09. As I'm sitting here typing this on my triplet blog, I realize that on 7-7-07 I had no idea what was in store in the months to come. 7-7-07 was a little over a month before I got pregnant with the boys. Some of our special friends got married on 8-8-08. We couldn't go to the wedding because we were still trying to figure out how to organize/cope/deal with our new life with triplets. It makes me wonder what we'll be doing on 10-10-10, 11-11-11, or 12-12-12!

And a picture just for fun:
The boys go on a walk most mornings (either with C or with me, or my mom, or U, or whomever). They love it. Last week they got to see cows up close on several occasions. They were completely engrossed!

Yard/Garage/Tag Sale and March of Dimes

2009-09-07T16:31:00.007-04:00

Over the weekend we had a garage sale. We were basically up to our ears in infant stuff--clothes, toys, etc. We also had myriad other items which were basically taking up space. So, we put everything out and, thankfully, we were able to find happy homes for a lot of our items. We were given so much clothing by family, friends, friends of family, family of friends that we decided to donate the proceeds of our clothing sales to March of Dimes. Our boys were born at 35 weeks, only 5 weeks premature, but we feel that they benefited from the research and information provided by March of Dimes. If you are interested in donating to March of Dimes, you can link directly to their donation site.

Here's a picture of me with Colin (you can see the sale in the background):

The boys were each trying on my hat. They thought it was so great to put on my hat. Then, they would try to put in on my head. U and I bought the boys their own hats since they are always so fascinated with our hats and because we would like to block some of the sun. Do they wear their hats? Never. Well, not for long anyway.

Here's a picture of Aiden:

And, of course, little Brody (also with the hat!):

nose and other random stuff

2009-09-01T17:31:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Colin was sitting on my lap and I pointed to my nose and said "Mommy's nose". I then asked him "Where is Colin's nose?". He proceeded to grab my finger and place it on his nose. It was so cute.

On Saturday, we were driving to a local indoor activity center. I turned around to check on the boys and Brody gave me the cutest, Brodiest smiley look I've ever seen. He looked right at me and it was as if he was saying "yes, I am Brody and I love you so much mommy".

Last night when we were putting the boys to bed, Aiden was hanging out in Brody's crib. He does this every night. I don't know why he likes it, but he loves to play in there before bedtime. I was sitting on the couch next to Brody's crib reading Brody stories. Aiden was leaning over the crib watching me read stories. They all enjoy a peekaboo storybook with ducks and frogs and such. On one page is an animal and the facing page has pictures of cute babies. Each time I read this book, I point to the babies and say "baby". Sometimes I make the sign for baby. We started reading this story. As soon as I pointed out the first baby in the peekaboo book, Aiden got as close to us as he could (on his tippie toes, pulling up on the crib) and said "bee-bee". I did the sign for baby and Aiden threw down his bottle and made the sign.

I love the boys so much. They are amazing!

fenced in front yard

2009-08-29T10:15:00.013-04:00

Last weekend, U fenced in a portion of our front yard. This is so that the boys have a nice grassy area to run around freely. They love to kick the ball around. (I think we have some budding soccer champions!) Also, there is a tree that they love to "hide" behind. They peak out from one side and then run the other direction. But their favorite activity by far is to wave at each and every car, person, dog, stroller, bike, truck and any other moving object that goes by. "hiiiiiii" "byyyeeee".

Waiting for the cars to go by:

Colin:

Brody:

Aiden (I couldn't decide which picture I liked better):

The boys have been giving each other things over the last few months. For example, when they are drinking their milk in the morning, they will often trade bottles. When I was snapping these pictures in the yard, they did this with some leaves on a branch.
Aiden playing with leaves:

Colin saw Aiden and decided to play with the leaves:

Colin then passed the leaves on to Brody:

Frustration

2009-08-26T12:05:00.003-04:00

I get an email from the hospital where the boys were born every so often. Today, I read the paragraph labeled "Frustration" and I had to share:

"All that learning is exhausting. No wonder your child may still need two naps a day. Another signal that your toddler is working hard is a bout of frustration. Each new understanding and every new developmental stage is a new challenge. Mastering any milestone usually leads to a moment of frustration; it is in this moment that a toddler will summon the extra determination required to achieve his goal. Expect temporary frustration at some point, and recognize it as an essential step in learning new skills. Screams and tantrums aren't fun for you or your child, but they often are a positive sign that a breakthrough is just around the corner. And when your child does succeed, be sure to celebrate the accomplishment with lots of praise. Children thrive when their accomplishments, no matter how small, are recognized."

This sounds exactly like my kids. For example, Colin tried to put a colander into the football-themed carrying basket the other day. The colander is much, much larger than the opening of the basket and it didn't fit. His response? he threw both items on the floor, clenched his fists, let out a noise half-way between a yell and a cry, shook, turned beet red and then repeated the whole procedure about three times before he figured out it just wasn't going to work the way he wanted. This happens when trying to put the (wrong-sized) lid on something, trying to put incompatibly shaped blocks together, trying to open book pages (that mommy and daddy even have trouble opening), and myriad other things. If it is possible to do whatever it is that they are trying to do, they usually figure it out after a tantrum or two.

a post...at last

2009-08-26T10:42:00.003-04:00

I don't know why I have been so busy these days. At night I'm so exhausted I haven't had too much time to post. I've been meaning to write a post about Brody's paci for a while. A month ago, we realized that he was too attached to his paci. If it wasn't in his mouth, he was crying, whimpering, throwing a tantrum, and basically losing it. So we decided to stop giving him a paci during the day and only give it to him during nap time and bed time. Then a few days after that, we decided to get rid of it all together. Well, it's been about a month and after the first day I don't think he's really missed it. And, he loves to say "hiiiiii" and "byyyyyeeeeee" as he waves. I don't think he would be quite so vocal with a paci in his mouth 24-7. He has transferred all his paci love onto the white (well not so white any more) bear. He loves to bite the bear's nose, hug the bear, throw the bear around. When I go to get him from his crib, he is standing, holding the bear, with a huge smile on his face.

16 months old!

2009-08-14T14:33:00.003-04:00

Today the boys are 16 months old. They are no longer babies, having officially entered toddlerdom in the last few months. When, exactly, I can't be sure. But I know that now, when I look at them, I see little boys.

They walk, they climb, they talk, they exhibit distinct preferences. My head is reeling with everything that has transpired in the last two years. Two years ago, I was not pregnant. I did not know if I could even get pregnant. Now I have three lovely beings that I look forward to seeing every single morning when I wake up. They have been such a fulfilling part of my life.

Cuddly Colin

2009-08-12T22:21:00.003-04:00

Colin is definitely our cuddler. In my last post, I wrote about how he likes to cuddle. Well, on Monday we found out why the recent burst of cuddling--

The morning started like any other, except Colin was a little fussy. First, I took his temperature. No fever. He cried through the entire morning routine, breakfast and all. Every time I put him down (or U put him down), he would just start crying. So, I pretty much held him all morning long. We finally got to the clothes-changing point of the morning and that is when we realized why he had been crying all morning---red dots all over his torso. Right away, I called the pediatrician and got an appointment for that morning.

U had to go and pick C up from the airport (she'd been vacationing with friends and family and enjoying some well deserved R&R). Her flight arrival time made it impossible for me to only take the sick child to the airport. So, I loaded up the boys right after their morning nap and off we went to the doctor. Thankfully we had just gotten a hitch attached to our car and I was able to bring the runabout stroller! I managed to get to the doctor, check in, and wait patiently for our appointment (and our NP was running behind!). The boys actually had a really great time running around the doctor's office, saying "hiiii" to everyone, pulling magazines and books off of the shelves, playing with the beads-on-a-wire contraption, and looking at the fish. Eventually, we were called back and the boys had an entirely different room to explore, where they climbed on the footstool, pushed the doctor's seat around the room, and played with the beads-on-a-wire contraption (it was *very* different than the two in the waiting room).

The NP eventually came in and after a fairly quick examination, she told me that Colin had Roseola formally called roseola infantum or roseola infantilis (aka exanthem subitum, Baby measles or 6th disease). In the grand scheme, this is not a very serious illness. I had given Colin some tylenol in the preceding days because he was running a low grade fever. I honestly thought he was teething (turns out he was doing that too), but thankfully he never spiked a very high fever (only about 100-101-ish). He now has 4 bottom teeth! And today he is feeling much better (rash is virtually gone and he is back to his playful self).

It's so cute how kids go to their comfort zone when they're sick. For Colin, that is snuggling.

Backhoe

2009-08-09T07:55:00.008-04:00

On Monday the local water/fire department had to replace the fire hydrant in our front yard. So, at 8am, U and I took the kids out to the front porch and here's what the boys got to see:

Brody was so excited. We told them the big huge machine is called a backhoe. From that point on, Brody was saying "Baa! Baa! Baa!" and pointing. I was holding him and it was all I could do to contain him to my lap. He would have preferred to get on the grass and go over for a much, much closer look.

After a while, we brought the boys in to have breakfast. Fortunately, they still had a view from the window:

They are becoming much more vocal. Brody has mastered "hi" and "bye" with the accompanying wave. Although he sometimes says hi when people are leaving or bye when they're coming, it is very sweet the way he says each word. He extends the sound almost as if he's holding a note. Colin also says hi and bye sometimes. He and Aiden are waving as well (sometimes even on demand).

They each have 3 bottom front teeth (when is the 4th right tooth going to pop through the gums?!), 4 top front teeth, and one top left molar just poking through the surface. We give the boys a toothbrush with toothpaste and let them "brush" their own teeth. I am not sure how much good it does, but they seem to enjoy trying to imitate me when I brush my teeth in front of them. They usually twist and turn too much for me to get much brushing done, but occasionally one will let me get in there and get the job done.

Colin has been incredibly snuggly these days. He often just wants to climb up on one of our laps and lay his head on our chest and give us a hug. U and I agree that this just melts our hearts. Here's an example from last night:

Everyone is climbing like crazy. They are all able to climb up on our couches (which are slightly taller than grammy and papa's whose couches they were able to master back in June). They like to climb on the built-in benches on our deck. They like to climb (and have been climbing on since they were 14 mo.) on the step 2 climber (designed for 18+ mo.) we got them a few months ago. Here's the usual goings-on after dinner:
(Aiden on climber, Colin at the gate, Brody on the bench)

They are all starting to really enjoy books. For a while now we've been taking the boys up to their room for the last half an hour before bed and reading them stories and letting them play. Recently, they have all become very interested in having stories read to them. Last night for example, Brody saw that I had the new nursery rhymes book that grammy bought them on her last visit (thanks grammy!) and he grabbed my arm as if to say "read it to me". So I lifted up my arm and he crawled in my lap and snuggled up for what would turn out to be the reading of four books. Next, Colin came over for a little snuggle, short story and more snuggle. After a while, Aiden saw what was going on and he came over for some action. It turns out that the nursery book is his favorite, and when I put them to bed, he didn't want to let it go. So I put him down with the book. As I left the room he was reading it to himself. They have all been "reading" books to themselves recently as well.

We are finally (I think) getting out of the biting phase. They still bite each other (and me) occasionally, but it seems to be (thankfully) subsiding.

15 month stats

2009-07-29T16:00:00.002-04:00

The boys had their 15 month well visit on July 23. They are all on target developmentally.

Here are their stats:

Colin:
Height: 30.5 inches
Weight: 21 lbs 2 oz
Head cir.: 47 cm

Brody:
Height: 30.5 inches
Weight: 21 lbs 9 oz
Head cir.: 47 cm

Aiden:
Height: 30 inches
Weight: 21 lbs 2 oz
Head cir.: 47 cm

It's so funny. We always think of Colin as the "tank" because he always appears so much bigger than Aiden and Brody. We think of Brody as the "bully" because he is always taking his brothers' toys. We think of Aiden as the "dare devil" because he is always pushing the limits with respect to climbing. It is amazing to me that their stats are so similar and that Brody is our big guy :)

sleepless

2009-07-29T13:29:00.003-04:00

I went to bed around 11pm last night. Almost as soon as I started to fall asleep, I heard someone crying. I waited, and the crying subsided. About 15 minutes later, just as I was falling asleep (again), the crying started up. I waited and the crying stopped. About 20 minutes later, just as I was falling asleep, the crying started yet again. It is somewhat of a regular occurrence for one of our guys to wake up, cry, roll over and go back to sleep. It is very UNusual for this to keep happening for an hour straight. So, I went in to check.

As soon as I opened the door, I realized that it was Colin screaming bloody murder. He was terrified. I picked him up and he clung to me for dear life. I have no idea what he was dreaming or what happened, but he was completely scared. First, I took him to the bathroom and checked his temperature. Completely normal. I took him to the bedroom and U came in as well. We gave him water, but he didn't want to drink it. He was scared and he just clung to me. After about 10-15 minutes, I felt him relax and he seemed to be drifting off to sleep. So we brought him back to his crib and although he cried for about 20 seconds, he rolled over and seemed to go to sleep. I sent U to the basement so at least one of us could sleep.

About 20 minutes later, just as I was falling asleep, the crying started up. I waited and the crying stopped. About 20 minutes later, just as I was falling asleep, the crying started yet again. At this point, it's been about 2.5 hours of on-and-off crying. I have no idea what's going on with Colin, but he definitely is not sleeping. So, I went in and got him. Again, he clung to me seemingly terrified. I took him back to our room and laid down with him on my chest. After about 20 minutes, I felt him drifting off to sleep. I was trying to figure out--do I put him in his crib, or do I keep him in bed with me? We have never slept with the boys in our bed. They typically like their crib and do not seem to settle down unless they are in their own bed. Last night was different. I decided to keep Colin in bed with me. I placed him next to me. I immediately worried he would not be able to breathe (he sleeps on his stomach and we have a very thick, cushy mattress pad). So, I flipped him over on his back. He promptly flipped onto his stomach. I flipped him on to his side. He stayed there. He slept. I watched. Around 4am, I finally dozed off. Around 5am, I heard the birds chirpping and I felt Colin. He was cold. I freaked. I put my hand near his nose. He was breathing, and he was perfectly fine. I closed my eyes and tried to relax.

Around 5:50, I heard Aiden and Brody starting to wake up. Colin opened his eyes and looked around. He was still half asleep and he could barely focus. He fell back on the bed and went back to sleep. He did this a few more times. Then he seemed to actually wake up. He looked at me with a sweet, half-smile and gently laid his head down so he could keep an eye on me. We stayed that way for a few minutes. Then Aiden and Brody made it clear that they were awake and ready to face the world. So I brought Colin downstairs and heated the milk. U got up with the boys and I went back to sleep. I slept on and off until 11. Thank goodness C started a half an hour early today! She is such a lifesaver!

A birthday and a trip to Maine

2009-07-28T09:23:00.008-04:00

Yesterday was my birthday. U and I went to Maine last week to celebrate. It was very nice to get away with my husband to reconnect. My mom and my niece were here to help C with the boys. We missed them so much, we actually returned a few hours early so we could tuck them in.

Here are the boys enjoying home-baked (thanks mom) chocolate cake:
Brody

Colin

Aiden

They actually ate bacon while we were gone! They didn't like it very much, SO we gave it to them again this morning and they liked it much better. They are trying more and more new things these days. I'm thinking of giving them peanut butter, but I'm worried that they may have or may develop allergies. I guess we'll find out!

And here's one of us at Acadia National Park (Sand Beach)

Finally, just for fun, here's a picture of the boys from this morning
Colin (white pjs), Brody (blue pjs), Aiden (green pjs)

Action Photos

2009-07-22T20:38:00.016-04:00

Last weekend, we were going to take the boys to an indoor activity center, but, sadly (or fortunately?), it was unexpectedly closed. Instead, we took them here:
Aiden, Colin, Brody

Colin tried to escape:

So, U thought he might be ready for some ball time:

Brody got far, far away from his brothers, and (in the back) you can see Aiden trying to escape:

Sweet Brody. I wish I knew what he was thinking:

Aiden escaped:

Colin:

Aiden eating an unidentified (brown) substance:

Brody wanted some mamma love:

Brody with baba:

Colin:

They LOVE to spread out. It seems like whenever we go to a park that has a lot of open space, they go in three. different. directions. It's so cool to watch them explore. They had a great time. We'll hit the indoor activity center some other time.

The park was nearby a local airport, so I had to snap this picture for my dad (and any of the other aviation enthusiasts reading):

15 Months!!!

2009-07-14T21:16:00.012-04:00

The boys are 15 months old today. We didn't take any pictures today. However, we have a few cute ones to share that we've snapped over the last few weeks.

Look what we can do (the rare picture with all 3 smiling AND in the same frame):
(Brody-with paci, Aiden-top left, Colin-top right)

Aiden and Birdie (and yes, Birdie is basically sleeping and Aiden is trying to get in the cabinet):

Brody

Aiden

I also tried to take a picture of Colin on the couch, and well, here's what I got (you can see his sleeve and part of his arm):

Really, if you are reading this blog and wondering what it's like to have triplets, here's how m.a.n.y. of our mornings go. Each of the boys had a bear and they were all walking around holding, snuggling the bears as well as biting the bears' noses, and I thought "what a great time to take a picture". I turned my back to grab a camera, and when I turned back around, this is what I saw:

Aiden is playing nicely with the bear. Brody is very frustrated and can't quite decide whether he wants to get mad or cry (in his defense, he had been a bit sick and teething, so he was a little out of sorts), and Colin took the opportunity to get into trouble. He's trying to open what looks like a waste basket. Actually, it is a waste basket but we use it to keep the kids' dirty clothes. It was a fantastic idea for many months, but now they are strong enough and smart enough to have figured out how to get into it.

Aiden's been expanding his vocabulary. He says many things, just not too many that I understand. On Sunday, however, I was saying Brody's name and Aiden looked at me and said bow-dee. And every time I said Brody, he said bow-dee. So, he seems to be learning his brother's name!

Brody loves to dance. When we put good music on, or when we make music with our kiddie instruments, he likes to dance, dance, dance. He used to just bounce up and down, but now he's figured out how to pick his feet up and even turn in a circle.

Colin is in love with the kiddie pool. Any time he sees water, he can't wait to get in. We went to a party two weekends ago and he made a beeline for the kiddie pool and got in, pants, shirt, shoes, socks and all. I didn't have a change of clothes (I thought I did, because I nearly always do in the diaper bag, but I must have used them and not replaced them...oops!), so he went around without his shirt on for the rest of the party.

The boys are doing great. Aiden has another tooth (I think a first year molar). I don't think the others have one yet, but based on their fussiness, they're coming. They are still drinking bottles, but transitioning (oh ever so slowly) to sippy cups. They drink water out of sippy cups all day and they have milk in a sippy cup with lunch. They still enjoy their morning and evening bottle. We give them a bottle mid-afternoon, but they aren't very interested in it any more. They like to eat many things. Their favorites include blueberries, avocados, tortellini, ravioli, mac & cheese, and cheerios. We gave them vanilla ice cream for the first time last weekend (after going to the local petting zoo), and I think they really liked it. Maybe we'll try again next weekend. They have moved into the climbing phase. They like to climb on the couch, the picnic table, the deck outside, and anywhere else they can manage. They are getting very tall and are reaching for door handles and I don't think it will be long before they figure it out. Looks like we are all moving to the next level (of our own personal video game).

Is that two weeks of blogging or what?!!!

Sharing

2009-07-03T10:07:00.002-04:00

This morning when the boys were drinking their bottles (yes, still drinking bottles), Brody looked at Colin, held out his bottle to him and said "ver". Colin held his bottle out to Brody and they traded. They then proceeded to drink their bottles, happy as clams.

Newest Toys, surgery and daddy too

2009-07-01T21:43:00.010-04:00

On Saturday morning Aiden saw Brody in the chair and decided it looked like so much fun that he decided to climb up and enjoy the chair as well.The look on Aiden's face is classic. Determined, unaware that perhaps Brody may like the chair to himself. In typical Brody fashion, he doesn't mind too much, as long as he still gets to stay on the chair.
(Brody is in yellow, Aiden in Blue)

On Brody's chest you can see some remnants of the sticky stuff they use to attach monitoring devices during surgery. He had his second tear duct surgery this past Friday. It was, again, a simple probing but this time there was an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor in the OR as well. The ENT was able to observe the entire procedure with a camera and performed some additional minor procedures of his own. I took Brody to the follow up appointment yesterday and everything looks fantastic. Only time will tell, but we think that this time the surgery will work and everything should be just fine. If not, we'll have to consider another surgery.

Next, U decided that he wanted to hold all three babies (ok, I think I will always call them babies. They are my babies afterall).

Colin was very pleased with this idea. Brody too. Aiden on the other hand was probably wishing he was still in the chair that he worked so hard to get in to.

On Sunday we picked up a few things for the boys. Here they are sitting at their new little tikes table, eating cheerios, looking like the little boys they are turning in to.
Colin, Aiden, Brody (left to right)

13 minutes later (Aiden is king of the hill)

and this morning
Brody, Colin, Aiden (left to right--notice Colin is clapping)

Words

2009-06-23T20:50:00.003-04:00

All of the boys say de-de for doggies, vey for ver (turkish for give) and ge for gel (turkish for come). These were their first words.

Colin (the one who loves to eat) says ma for more and for milk.

Today we were reading a story before bed and we saw a picture of a baby. I pointed to the baby and said baby. Then, Aiden said be-be for baby. A few minutes later, he looked right at me and he said it again. So cute!

When I get up in the morning, as I leave the room the door always makes a loud sound (the door is stuck to the door frame and makes a de-sticking crackling sound as I open it--gotta love houses built in the 1940s!). Then as I step out of the room, I always land on one of the creaky floorboards. Needless to say, the boys ALWAYS hear me when I leave the room. As soon as they do, I hear ma, me, ma, me-me, which are their words for ma ma and all versions mean they know I'm there.

They are getting so big. They know what we are saying. They all respond to their names. They know to wave to say hi and bye. They know to clap when we say clap (or they hear it in some song on tv). They know to come when we say come (or gel). They know what we mean when we say no, even if they don't always respond to that one. I'm guessing we'll be trying to get them to follow that direction for a long, long time.

We've done some signing, and what we've done consistently (more for example) has gone really well. We're going to continue with it in hopes that they will be less frustrated when trying to communicate with us.

Hair Cuts and Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T20:58:00.015-04:00

Happy Father's Day to all you dads and dads-to-be out there.

Our babies are getting bigger and as they've grown, so has their hair. We've been thinking about getting their hair cut for a while, but haven't found a salon that specializes in child hair cuts. U brought up the hair thing with me yesterday and suggested that we give them a buzz cut with his clippers. I cried. It was hard to digest clipping all of their babiness away. I told him I'd think about it. Today he convinced me.

Aiden before

Brody before

Colin before

Obviously, they all needed a little snip. They each had hair at least half-way down their nose!

Aiden after

Brody after

Colin after

Our kids actually smile all the time. Just never when we snap the picture (or so it seems). And, they are definitely into biting each other (and sometimes us). I hope they outgrow the phase sometime soon. It seems to be a bit of a defense mechanism. When one brother tries to take another brother's toy, first brother bites. They are all equally likely to bite, so they are all about evenly marked.

In addition to the first hair cut, we had a few other firsts this weekend. They all drank out of a straw for the first time. I have tried giving them a taste of whatever I've been drinking (probably water) out of the regular-sized straws, but none of my guys were interested. I read somewhere (probably on a TC post or someone's blog) that juice boxes are good at helping them figure it out. I squeezed the box and got the juice up the straw so all the boys could taste the juice. My kids have never tasted juice before, so I was pretty sure they would go for something so sweet and that their instincts would kick in. They did. In no time they were drinking from the straws like champs. (So, first time drinking from a straw and first time drinking juice.) Next, they each got a toothbrush, with toothpaste. I brushed their teeth and then gave them the toothbrush. They LOVED it. They walked around and brushed their own teeth. Amazing! I think they must have seen me brushing and/or picked up some moves from this teeth-brushing song they like to watch. Either way, I think they'll have very good dental hygiene. I can't believe how fast they are turning into little boys!

We were all a little under the weather and a little tired from our vacation to Florida last week (which I will blog about soon), so we had a low key weekend at home. We are really starting to have fun with the boys. This afternoon, before the hair cuts, we (all 5 of us) were dancing to different types of music. It was hilarious to watch the boys try to imitate our dance moves. They really love music. The dogs were in the mud room, looking through the glass at us, wondering what the heck we were up to. If you have triplets under the age of one and you're wondering if it will ever get easier (and more fun), it will.

My cute daredevils

2009-06-01T17:22:00.016-04:00

This afternoon, we went to the park. The park we usually go to has two areas: the toddler/small kid area and the big kid area. Guess where my kids like to play?

Here is a picture of Brody (with paci) and Aiden climbing up the big-kid construction (I don't know what they call these things). Colin had already made it past me.

Here are Colin (blue) and Aiden (red) walking on the bridge. You can also see Brody's arm (orange). I should mention that our frequent trips to the park would not be quite as doable without the help of our awesome au pair-C (who you can see in the picture)!!! THANK YOU!!!

After we all slid down the slide, Brody spent a good ten minutes loading chips onto the bottom of the slide. Aiden and Colin were swinging gleefully in the mean time.

After Colin climbed (which he LOVES to do) the blocks to his left, he had the cutest expression.

On another note-every time the kids walk under the slide in this picture, their hair stands up due to the static electricity. Check out Aiden's hair (oh, and he's cute too)

They are no less fearless at home. Here is Brody trying to stand up on the train. Even though he is only squatting in this picture, he will actually stand up, and let go of the handlebar, clap his hands and look generally very pleased with himself.

And Aiden who I managed to snap an actual photo while he was standing:

And, here they are in the PJs Aunt P got them ages ago: (Colin, Brody,Aiden). They finally fit (mostly. I think they take their height from me). Thanks Aunt P!!!

It's been so much fun getting to know these guys over the last year. These last couple of months have been a whole new experience for me as they have gotten more and more mobile. While it is certainly much more difficult to keep them out of danger's way, it is so, so much more fun to see them discover everything and to play with them. Recently, Brody discovered how to cover himself up and then reveal himself to us when we say "Where's Brody? Where's Brody" and then "There he is". Aiden and Colin also do this, but Brody seems particularly fond of this. Colin is my snuggle pie. We have three squishie bears that friends of the family gave us (the K's) and Colin loves to hold them and bite (kiss) their noses. He also loves to snuggle up with blankets and these cute yellow duckie stuffies that U's mom gave the boys. Aiden has been incredibly pleasant over the last few weeks. He seemed to have been really frustrated for a while, but now he's our most content child. I think he's gotten strong enough and now he can do a lot of the things his brain is desiring to do. Every day is full of fun, wondrous experiences. Over the weekend, we fed the kiddos watermelon for the first time. They LOVED it. Honestly, I think it gave them the hiccups, but it was worth the smiles that came with the eating of the melon. We are still giving milk to the boys 4x/day. They drink 3 8-oz bottles and 1 sippy cup of milk during the day. We are working toward eliminating bottles, but the progress on that front has been slow. In sum, we love the three wonderful beings who have chosen to share their life with us.

Mall Runaround

2009-05-27T17:19:00.002-04:00

I went to the mall with my friend on Sunday. She wanted to look for some dresses and I thought it would be fun for the boys to get out. My friend pushed the single umbrella stroller and I pushed the double. Well, she found a few dresses to try on and the boys were getting restless just sitting in the stroller. So, I pushed them (both strollers) into the mall lobby outside of the department store and I turned them loose. Instantaneously I had 3 bodies going in 3 directions. The look on each of their faces: pure joy. I didn't have the heart to stop them and put them back in their stroller, so I would run after one, put him near the stroller, then run after another, put him by the stroller, etc. Several mall goers walked by me and offered to help (I must have looked like the storied harried mother of triplets or something). I did that for about 5 minutes and then I decided mommy'd had enough exercise. I coaxed them back into the stroller with bunny cheese crackers and cookies. I'm glad I let them run around, but I'm not sure I'll be doing that again by myself. I always feel like the kiddos are missing out on all these things I would let my kid do if I only had one, so I like to give them a little taste of it. Also, I used to swim in a swamp where alligators live when I was a kid, so I have a slightly different sense of what's really dangerous.

Quiet Activity...

2009-05-26T09:28:00.010-04:00

We have these great push-pull toys that our friends C&E gave our boys for their birthday. They like getting on and off of the toys, pushing each other around, putting toys on the seat, taking toys off of the seat, putting toys into the compartment, taking toys out of the compartment. However, we have these push-pull toys in our ~~living room~~ play area. This is not the only area where they play. Actually, to try to ward off boredom, we rotate them to different areas throughout the day.

The other main area they go to is the kitchen. We originally had toys on the bottom of the microwave stand. Then my mom visited and purchased a tiny plastic basket for the toys to be stored in. Then the boys figured out that they could push the basket around the kitchen. Then they started fighting over the basket. So the next time my mom was here, she purchased another basket. Unfortunately, she couldn't find the same color. So, the boys would fight over who got which basket. Last week, C & I were roaming around the store (boys in tow) and I spotted baskets of the same color--so I quickly decided to buy two more. Now when the boys get into the kitchen, it's pure silence except for the swish noise of the baskets moving around the floor. I'm thinking of attaching a towel or swiffer sheet to the baskets so they can help clean the floor!

Playing in the kitchen:
(Brody, Aiden, Colin--closest to farthest)

(Aiden-facing us, Colin, Brody-farthest)

(Brody-front, Colin, Aiden-back)

Playing with the train:

Cute picture of Colin:

When Brody cries....

2009-05-21T08:33:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to post this for a while. When Brody cries, Colin will often bring a pacifier over to Brody and try to stick it in his mouth. He also brings him bottles and generally tries to comfort him. Colin is very empathetic and it is so cute to see him giving care to his brother.

And Again....

2009-05-17T14:53:00.002-04:00

We took a short ride to the store with a bull's eye as a logo (15-20 min.) and it happened again. We were literally pulling into the parking lot and I heard this noise and I turned to U and asked him to check on the babies (yes, I'm still calling them babies). And that's when we found out that Colin had tossed his cookies again. Now I'm really starting to think that he gets motion sickness. We're planning on flying for vacation this summer. Hopefully he'll be ok!

Minus 17 weeks

2009-05-12T16:15:00.003-04:00

I found some sonogram pictures that I had scanned into the computer and I fooled around with them to come up with something. This is an amalgam of the 18-week anatomy scan. That's when we found out the sex of our babies. Before this scan, we knew we were having all of the same sex (because we were told we were having identicals), but we did not know whether they were boys or girls.

The white writing is what the sonographer wrote as she did the scan.

Edited title---whoops 35-18 = 17!!!!

Attempt at video---

2009-05-10T00:11:00.004-04:00

Here's my first try at uploading a video. It's from my mom's camera, so the quality is not great. However, it has great action shots of the kiddos as well as the doggies swimming in the background.

Happy Mother's Day and More pictures

2009-05-09T23:20:00.023-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of you MoMs out there, but especially Happy Mother's Day to our mothers: Grammy and Babaanne. Here are a few things the boys have been up to over the last week or so-

Early Mother's Day brunch-
and Colin, Aiden, Brody (L to R)

Brody-putting things in the car toy-

Brody-happy to be out and about at our favorite bookstore-

Colin-showing off his 3 bottom teeth-

Aiden-stacking blocks-he did this all by himself yesterday!

Playing in the baby pool-

Swinging around-

U with one of the babies (can I still call them babies?)

Sharing an apple with mom (Aiden in green, Brody in white, Colin in red)

Aiden in the basket (sorry for the red-eye)-

Waiting for their 1-year old pediatrician appointment (U is holding Aiden, Colin in red, Brody in blue)

The boys are all doing great health-wise. We couldn't get accurate weights on them because they all went into melt-down mode (their morning nap was interrupted in order to get to the appointment...something we will not be repeating in the future). They were all on the low side, but again, who knows what that really means when we couldn't get the weight quite right. We already have our next appointment booked, so cross your fingers for us.

Brothers working together

2009-04-28T21:33:00.007-04:00

C snapped this today and I can only imagine how entertaining it must have been in person. Thanks to C & E for the nice new push/sit-on toys!

Aiden pushing Colin

Aiden pushing Colin with Brody trying to get in on the action

And apparently Colin got bored of just sitting on the train, so he decided to stand on the seat of the train toy. He would hold on to the handles and then let go for a few seconds and then repeat. I have been telling everyone for the last few months that Aiden is our dare devil and Colin is our deliberate (cautious) child. After today's events I'm considering revising my thinking.

How do you wash the car seat cover?

2009-04-26T21:41:00.005-04:00

Today I decided to take the boys with me on an errand. My work colleague's wife had twins a little early and I dropped by some preemie clothes. Well, they live about a half an hour away and so round-trip is about an hour. When I left the house, the boys were doing ok. When we were almost at their house, the boys got a little restless, but they calmed down when I stopped the car. They thought we were going to get out or something, but we weren't (my colleague wasn't even home!). So as we pulled out of the driveway, the boys started crying. I tried to sooth them, but they were having nothing to do with soothing. Then after a few minutes, they calmed down a little. Then I heard this sound that I can only think of describing as the sound that you hear when you plunge a toilet. It was not a sound that I normally hear when we're driving around, so I decided to pull over and check it out. (Warning--don't read the rest of this post if you are easily grossed out.)

I opened the car door and poor little Colin had puked all over. Our car seats are still rear-facing and he had puked so hard that it hit the actual seat he was facing and even hit some of Aiden's seat. So I unbuckled him as quickly as possible and stripped him down to his diaper. I grabbed the wipes (thank goodness for wipes) and got as much of the puke off of him as I possibly could. Then I held him and he seemed to calm down. Oh-did I mention that Aiden and Brody were becoming increasing unhappy by the minute? Well, they were. When I put Colin back in the seat, and I didn't pick up Aiden or Brody, they both went a little nuts. I couldn't pick them all up (not safe at all considering where I was pulled over on the side of the road). So, I shut the door, got back in the car and made my way home. Two hysterical babies and a calm baby who'd just puked (oh and hit his head earlier in the day). The whole time, I am wondering is he car sick? Is it something he ate? Is it the head trauma he suffered earlier in the day? Why are my other babies crying? Are they sick too? What was that sound I just heard? Should I pull over? I surely would if I had one baby, but with three, by pulling over I'd just be prolonging someone's agony. So I raced home. When I pulled up in the driveway, U heard us and came outside in a flash.

After taking a quick dip (Aiden and Brody) and a leisurely playful dip (Colin) in our newly purchased baby pool, we put the boys down and then I had to figure out how to get the car seat cover off of the car seat. I figured most of it out, but there were these blasted little black buttons that I had to pull with all of my might (granted I'm not that mighty) in order to remove them. Finally I did and now there is a car seat cover on my balcony dripping dry. Sheesh!

Big Boys...

2009-04-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

Here are the boys looking less and less like babies...
(Brody, Aiden, Colin)

Birthday (and more) Pictures

2009-04-24T20:37:00.013-04:00

I'm sorry this has taken forever. This has been a super hectic time for us. The boys had a great birthday. Here's proof:

The day started with homemade birthday cupcakes-
Colin

Brody

(notice Brody's bloody nose-with the helmets off it's been quite a task to keep the boys safe!)

Aiden

Brody, Aiden, Colin
playing with new blocks

Aiden and Colin
playing with their favorite kitchen toy

Family Picture
Aiden, Colin, Brody

Grammy with the Boys
Brody, Aiden, Colin

Hanging out on the Deck

Their birthday was very low key. We got up like we do every morning. Then they drank their bottles and we changed their diapers and they got their first presents: bouncy balls, wooden blocks and leggo blocks. Then we moved to the kitchen and they played with their regular toys. Then we transitioned to the high chairs and they had their normal breakfast-bananas, cheese with toast, pears and water. Then we sang happy birthday to each of them as we brought cupcakes with huge #1 candles on top. They didn't quite know what to think of it all. Then we plopped the cupcakes onto their high chair trays. They each looked curiously at them and wondered what the heck to do with it. Then Colin dove in. Before long everyone was enjoying a morning cupcake. It was very cute! (Of course I'm going to say that because I'm the mom, but come on...the pictures are cute, right?) Later in the day, U's parents called and sang happy birthday to the boys. Colin and Brody were very entertained and started dancing around. They also got to take a trip to Walmart with C & Grammy and C bought them a fire truck and toy remote, cell phone and keys. They LOVE the toy cell phone and fight over it constantly (including biting each other!). Thank you! Betty Crocker, er I mean Grammy helped make the cupcakes. Thanks Grammy for coming up for the boys' birthday.

Tear Duct Surgery

2009-04-16T09:58:00.002-04:00

Brody had minor surgery this morning to unclog his left tear duct. The surgery took all of about 10 minutes. Everything went as planned and he is recovering like a trooper.

We were able to hold Brody the entire time the nurses and doctors were doing all of the pre-surgery questions, examinations. Then when it came time to go to the operating room, they bent the rules a little and let both U and I walk back to surgery with Brody. (Usually they only allow one parent). We both held him while they attached all of the monitoring pieces and did everything else. Once things were ready, we gently laid him down on the table. He started crying because he really didn't know what was going on and didn't want to be separated from us. It was really difficult for both U and I to watch our sweet baby cry, but he was out very quickly. U and I left the OR, went to the waiting room and collected our belongings. We sat and held hands and reassured each other that everything was going to go well. About 5 minutes after we sat down, Brody's doctor walked through the door with a big smile on his face. He told us the procedure went very smoothly and that the nurse would come get us once Brody woke up. The doctor left and about two minutes later this bubbly nurse showed up and told us Brody was awake and we could go see him. As soon as we got in the hall, I heard my sweet Brody crying at the top of his lungs. I felt relief. It was similar to the way I felt during delivery--the sound of his cry let me know that everything was going to be fine. When we walked in the door, he was beet red from all the crying and still a little out of it from the medication. We held him and gave him his pacifier which helped him to calm down. After a few minutes, we gave him a bottle which he drank voraciously. (This was about 7:50am and he hadn't eaten since 6:30 the night before.) After drinking half the bottle, he decided that he didn't want any more for the moment, so we just held him. Thankfully he was able to keep down all that he ate. He went through periods of fussiness and we played with him and read him stories. We fed him the rest of his bottle and he kept that down as well. They would have let us leave after about 20 minutes, but I noticed that there were red splotches all over his back and a little bit on his neck and cheek. So the nurse had the doctor come by and take a look and once he gave the all clear (the splotches started to fade), they released him and about an hour after surgery, we were headed home. He was very excited to be home with his brothers and familiar toys. And Grammy and C. (Grammy and C were taking good care of Aiden and Colin while we were at the hospital. Thanks Grammy & C!)

Happy First Birthday!

2009-04-14T21:13:00.002-04:00

Today the boys turned one. It has been an amazing year and we feel really blessed. I'll be posting more (along with pictures) as soon as I can.

Pictures from March

2009-03-30T09:39:00.011-04:00

I realize that I haven't posted too many pictures, so here are a few--

The boys at the door greeting U-

Brody and Aiden (in the box) playing in the kitchen-

Boys playing in the kitchen (this is what my kitchen looks like every morning)-

Boys attacking mommy-

Aiden snuggling with mommy-

Yesterday, I tried to go grocery shopping with the boys by myself. Disaster. I didn't really think it through very well. First, I did not consider how I was going to get the boys from the car to the shopping cart (If you are a mom and you know how to do this with 3 babies without leaving them unattended--as in how do I get the cart to my car?, please comment!). Second, I did not consider that the shopping cart (that I could use--3 seats with straps) might be wet considering the rain we were experiencing. I got all the way to the store, then I basically melted down because I was so frustrated--I can certainly shop with one or even two, but three proved to be too much of a challenge for me yesterday. So I drove home, picked up U, and we went to Barnes and Noble and let the boys play around in the kid's section. Then we went to Whole Foods and the kids ate sweet potatoes, green peas, mashed potatoes and rice. We managed to get home just in time to change the boys, give them their bottles, read stories and put them to bed. Whew! Although I didn't get any grocery shopping done, we all managed to have a little fun anyway.

Where is Spring?

2009-03-25T09:51:00.002-04:00

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sound of crying babies. Brody and Colin calmed down after they ate their bottle (for the most part) but Aiden literally cried for 3 hours straight. Our au pair usually takes over at 9am. Yesterday I helped her until we put the boys down for the morning nap because they were so fussy. We are all still trying to get over this awful virus. Runny nose, stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing, sometimes fever, fun diaper clean-up if you know what I mean. When I finally got ready to leave for work, I opened up the front door, looked down and saw something. I couldn't figure out what it was, so I looked really closely. A dead bird. Then I got in the car and looked down at the temperature. 35 degrees. That is how my day started yesterday. I am waiting for Spring.

My Pumping saga

2009-03-20T15:32:00.003-04:00

I'm about to write about pumping milk for the kids, so if you don't want to read about that, you might want to skip this post.
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When the kids first came home I was pumping 8x/day. That is about every three hours, which corresponded to when they would typically take their bottles. It was very difficult the first month. I had few bouts of mastitis. If you haven't had it, you are lucky. It is very painful. But I worked through it. During the first 3 months, I tried to get them to latch on; They only ever did so sporadically. I am happy that they all latched on some. I do think that with one child I might have been able to work it out. But with three, I did what I could.

At some point (I think around 3 mo. of age) I decreased pumping sessions to 7x/day. That was easy. Then, as they started to sleep for longer stretches at night (I think around 5 mo. of age), I started skipping the middle of the night session (2 am) and went down to 6x/day. I did that until U and I went away for our first (and only) time together since the boys were born. After that weekend (7 mo. of age), I dropped down to 5x/day. I typically did 1 session at home, 3 at work, and 1 session right before I went to bed. Throughout this time I have been able to give the kids my milk for about 75% of their feedings. We have had to supplement with formula.

I honestly never thought I'd make it this far. For the first few months I just kept thinking...if I make it this month, then I'll try for one more month. The months just kept rolling by and about a month ago, I realized that instead of pushing myself to make it another month, I needed to start thinking about when I would stop pumping.

Two weeks ago tomorrow (when the boys were almost 11 mo. old), I dropped down to 4x/day. It has been so hard for me emotionally. I don't know why, but I am so sad about it. I think it's just realizing that the boys are really almost one and that many kiddos wean by (or even before) a year old. I know that they have benefited from this, but I know they don't need it forever. When my mom was visiting a couple of weeks ago, I asked her about her experience with my siblings and me. My mom gave all 6 of us the benefit of her milk for essentially the first year of our lives. Some of us weaned before a year old. Before the age my kids are NOW. I know my kids would be (will be) fine once I stop producing milk for them. But I am still sad. Tomorrow I'm dropping down to 3x/day.

More teeth

2009-03-18T16:23:00.002-04:00

This morning, I looked and Brody now has 4 teeth. He has two middle bottom teeth, the tooth to the left of the middle bottom and his left top eye tooth. So his are coming in differently than Aiden and Colin's.

11 months old today!

2009-03-14T21:31:00.010-04:00

Pictures first- I snapped what I could. What can I say, the boys are on the move!

Colin

Brody

Aiden

What are they doing?
-All boys are giving open mouth kisses and they come up to us and give hugs.
-Today, Colin was dropping a toy ball, it would roll to me and I'd throw it back in his reach and he would drop it again. repeat.
-They are eating cheese, yogurt, blueberries, pears, avocados, peas, crackers, puffs, mango, oh and many other things I can't think of at this hour. They really only like to feed themselves (no more baby food, only finger food...except yogurt, which I feed to them in the kitchen because I trick them to think I'm eating it. Somehow if I'm eating it, it's more appetizing to them.)
-They love to explore. New parts of the house, new toys, the outdoors. It's one big adventure for them.
-They are talking to each other and to us. I don't recognize anything (except when Colin says de de), but I'm sure it's coming soon.

Yikes. 1 month and they'll be a year old!

Yucky cold

2009-03-13T17:42:00.002-04:00

Today was Aiden and Brody's turn to go to the doctor. Their lungs were a little more wheezy than Colin's were last week, especially Aiden's. So, they did a breathing treatment on Aiden and sent us home with a machine and a script just in case he gets raspy again. For now we'll be keeping an eye on them and go back if anything gets worse. Hopefully they'll start feeling better soon.

Big News

2009-03-10T21:36:00.002-04:00

Tonight when I came home from work, I let the doggies go outside and then I sat down on the floor with the boys. Colin was kind of crying, so I picked him up and we were all sitting around getting ready for the bedtime bottle. All of the sudden, the doggies started barking. Colin looked up and said "de de". And Colin and I went to let the "de de"s inside. So I am completely convinced that he is talking. Who would think his first word would be doggie?

I also forgot to mention that yesterday when our early intervention therapist came over, Colin went over to her and laid his head on her lap and gave her a sort of hug. I wasn't there, but I hear it was really cute.

Kisses!

2009-03-09T21:17:00.004-04:00

Today when I came home from work, Brody came over to me, sat on my lap, and gave me a kiss! Of course it was the sound-free baby kiss, but it was incredible. U and I always give him (and his brothers) kisses and I guess I knew it was going to happen at some point, but it was so, so cute and precious.

The Woo Woo noise

2009-03-09T12:02:00.003-04:00

All of the boys (first Colin, then Brody, and most recently Aiden) have figured out how to put the back of their hand to their mouth and make a "woo woo woo woo" or a "ba ba ba ba" noise. I think they've seen us do it and when they are looking at us, they see the back of our hand, so they put the back of their hand to their mouths and make the noise. It is very cute. It's another way they communicate with each other.

Aiden. Teeth.

2009-03-08T20:43:00.002-04:00

Aiden has his top left tooth (for 5 total). It's funny. Colin has the top right tooth. This is the same way their bottom teeth came it--first Colin's bottom right and then Aiden's bottom left. Brody still only has 2....

Colin walked!

2009-03-07T19:42:00.002-05:00

SO, after writing that big long post we were hanging out in the living room. I was holding Aiden and Colin was standing (with the aid of the spiral ramp toy thing I was writing about earlier) and then he turned to me, gave me a huge smile, and took two steps toward me. He was so thrilled with himself. Huge, happy, bright smile! I was so proud of him.

Where the heck have we been?

2009-03-07T14:06:00.005-05:00

Well, since Feb. 22nd, the boys got over that virus. It wasn't too bad, just runny nose and no fever and a little fussiness. It only lasted a few days.

Last Saturday, we took them for swimming lessons. It was quite a production. We put swimming diapers and cute little bathing suits (speedo-style) over the diapers and then bundled them up (it was in the 30s outside). I think they sort of enjoyed the water. By the end, Colin would lie on his back (with me holding him) and really relax in the water. Aiden would let us lift him up and put him back in the water (bobbing motion), but he wasn't too keen on lying on his back. Brody was a little more skiddish. He basically hung on to U or I for dear life. I wanted to hold him close and reassure him that he was safe.

We were really looking forward to taking them again this week (my mom is even here visiting and she brought her suit), but Colin started coughing on Monday. By Thursday, he sounded pretty bad, so I took him to the doctor. Fortunately, his lungs were clear and he only had a mild fever. Today he seems normal except for a bit of a runny nose. However, Brody now has a fever, cough and runny nose and is way more snuggly than he normally is. So, the plan was that I would take Aiden to class and mom would stay home and watch the sickies. I packed the pool bag, laid out the swimming diaper and suit. When the boys got up from their nap, mom changed their diapers and we fed them bottles and that's when it happened...Aiden coughed. So I made the executive decision to not take him to swim class. Maybe next week.

In other news...Colin officially has a new tooth, for 5 total. He has the two middle ones on the bottom, two eye teeth, and one of the front top teeth. Aiden's still sticking with 4 (but I think the top middle ones aren't far behind). Brody still has only 2 (but I think his eye teeth will pop any day now).

Aiden is walking all over the place. He can bend over and pick things up and walk across uneven surfaces without falling. He can even keep his balance when his brothers try to knock him down. He, we have realized, likes to be the fearless leader (when his brothers allow). We pulled out a toy that has been in our basement for the last 10 months. Essentially, you drop balls into one of 3 holes at the top and they fall down a spiral ramp and spit out one of 4 holes at the base. Or, the ball can be dropped in a 4th middle hole and it goes straight down. Aiden figured out the ball dropping thing almost immediately. The next day, he tried dropping other things--the rubber duckie, little stuffies, the binkie--and realized that only balls work with this toy.

Colin is standing independently, but has not yet decided to take those first steps. Any day now. He really enjoys sticking his fingers in his brothers' mouths. (Hasn't figured out that that's not the best of ideas, and probably isn't the best activity for keeping disease transmission down). I think Colin was trying to say doggie the other day. We watch a video (I know...bad mommy) that has the song "How much is that doggie in the window" and we sing it together all the time and I almost always refer to Birdie and Scooter as doggies. So, as we were watching it, Colin started saying "dee dee". Very cute. Not sure if he means doggie, but maybe.

Brody is taking a few steps here and there and building confidence with walking every day. My sister sent us a toy that they can use as a walking aid and I think Brody enjoys it the most. He walks all over the kitchen with it. He has switched from thumb to binky. It's kind of sad not to see him suck his thumb any more, because that was so Brody. But now he has his binky. And I keep telling myself that it will be a lot easier to get rid of his binkies than his thumb.

All the boys love to line up at the glass door in our kitchen and look at the dogs or whomever is coming in the house. They "pat pat" on the glass and squeal with glee.

5 weeks and 3 days until their first birthday!

We're all sick

2009-02-22T20:30:00.001-05:00

We're all sick. I think Brody and I caught a cold at the eye doctor's last week. Then we gave it to Aiden and Colin and this morning U came down with it. It's fairly mild as colds go. Actually, no coughing, just bad runny nose and feeling worn down. I think Brody and I are almost back to normal, so hopefully everyone will be back to normal soon.

Milestone a minute

2009-02-18T13:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday,

Brody took his first steps. I had the boys in the kitchen and he put himself into a standing position and then looked at me. I held out my arms and he walked 2 steps to me. It was so cool.

I was holding Colin and looked in his mouth where I saw TWO fang teeth (just like Aiden's). I actually think his top middle teeth are starting to push through, so I'll keep you posted.

Aiden made his way up the stairs. He did it so fast. Boy can he move when he wants to! I even had a little trouble keeping up :)-

My Brother (Uncle S) and my Dad were here for about 3 hours yesterday. Although the visit was short, we really enjoyed seeing them both. Uncle S played with Birdie and Scooter. Happily, they were here for Brody's first steps. Aiden faked out my dad. Dad sat on the couch and he thought Aiden was coming over to say hi. Aiden cruised right past Dad and went for the keys Dad had left on the couch. Colin sat on my lap while Uncle S, Dad and I sat around the table to eat dinner. He kept giving the cutest looks at my Dad, safe in the comfort of my lap. We love it when any members of our families come visit and are looking forward to whomever is next!

Today (so far anyway),

Colin was able to make it up the stairs as well. He was taking his sweet time and he kept wanting to turn around, sit down, look around, go back down a step. So his personality. I bet when we take them hiking in the Grand Canyon (on my list of things to do with them when they're older) Aiden will run down and back out, Brody will study everything he comes across and Colin will sit a while here and there to take in the view.

And, I'm sick and Brody seems to have it too (runny nose and generally tired). HOPEfully Adien and Colin won't get it.

Brody-stairs

2009-02-16T20:14:00.004-05:00

This morning, Brody climbed the stairs all by himself. He was so cute and so proud of himself. I think Aiden and Colin would have/could have as well, but mommy (aka me) got worn out and I was worried that I couldn't keep them from falling if they happened to slip. So, that will be an adventure for another day.

Aiden has 4 teeth and I think 2 more coming.

And I forgot---when I got home today I was told that when the boys woke up from their afternoon nap, Aiden's pants (and toys) were in Colin's crib. How the heck does that happen?

10 months today!

2009-02-14T20:36:00.003-05:00

The boys are 10 months old today. Unbelievably, we didn't even take pictures. Actually, we took pictures on Uluc's camera phone, but I can't transfer them from the phone to the computer....

Today we took the boys on a carousel ride. U first took Brody. Then I took Colin and then U took Aiden. Brody wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He looked around a lot, but with an expression indicating he didn't exactly know what was going on. As they went by, I tried to get his attention by waving and calling his name, but he was looking at so many other things that he didn't see me. Colin sat on the horse and immediately grabbed onto the pole. His eyes lit up and he was completely engrossed. As we went around, he didn't see U the first time around, but the 2nd time around U waved really big and Colin saw him. Aiden didn't even want to sit on the horse at first. And he was crying a little bit. U almost got off of the ride because he didn't think Aiden would settle down. But he did. U held him while the ride was loading up. When the ride was about to start, U finally got Aiden to sit on the horse. I don't think Aiden thought it was super fun, but he got to experience it.

It's hard to believe that a year ago I was 26 wks pregnant and not knowing how long I'd go in the pregnancy and today we took the boys for a carousel ride!

Happy Valentine's day!

2 months and 2 days

2009-02-12T19:09:00.001-05:00

2 months and 2 days until their birthday!!!!!!!

I cannot believe how quickly it's going by.

Brody's clogged tear duct

2009-02-10T21:21:00.003-05:00

Brody has had a clogged tear duct since birth and at their 9 month appointment, our pediatrician recommended we get it checked out. Today I took him to an eye specialist. Long story short, the doctor recommended surgery to have his tear duct unclogged. At this point we're not ready to schedule surgery and are planning to explore other options.

Helmets--2 more months

2009-02-09T17:24:00.002-05:00

We went to the neurosurgeon today. Our doctor had fun trying to measure 3 twisty almost 10-month-olds. (They have to measure the head circumference, and also take two diagonal measurements from just above the eyebrow to the base of the skull underneath the opposite ear). The good news is that in the two months that the boys have been wearing the helmets, there has been definite (measurable) improvement in the previously observed discordance. (In plain english--their head shapes are improving). The doctor said that they typically have kids wear the helmets up until 12 months of age since beyond 12 months there usually isn't much improvement. So they will most likely be done with the helmets in about 2 months. And they will be a year old in just about 2 months. Wow.

Aiden and teeth

2009-02-05T22:23:00.001-05:00

Another poked through this morning. Aiden got his other eye tooth. The way things are going, I'm guessing his brothers won't be far behind.

Thankful

2009-02-04T11:59:00.002-05:00

In the past week a sweet child, a first-year college student, and an elderly lady all passed away. I barely knew any of them, but I felt sad for their families when I heard the news. It also made me thankful that we were given three healthy babies. Even when they miss a nap and all three are screaming to the point where their faces are beet red, all I think is thank you for letting them cry the first time.

Aiden, again

2009-02-02T23:22:00.002-05:00

Aiden got his third tooth. It's one of his upper teeth (the ones right next to the center ones, although the center ones aren't in yet).

Aiden took his first steps

2009-01-31T13:34:00.001-05:00

Aiden took his first steps. It was right after afternoon solids. We were in the dining room. He pulled himself up using the wall, turned to look at me, held his arms forward toward me and then two steps toward me. Just like that!

A week already?

2009-01-29T22:04:00.005-05:00

It's been a week since I posted. Sheesh! It's been a very busy week for me. Work has been a little crazy and we also had company for a visit. I have pictures coming, but I don't have them yet. My mom was here for a quick visit and I know she got some cute ones. My brother S also came and he shoveled our driveway (THANK YOU!!!). I'm guessing he probably got some nice photos of our 'first children'.

We also got a book Toads in the mail. (It's actually a poem by Eileen L. Ziesler named "Toads" and very nicely illustrated by Janelle L. Thompson). It's a great poem! I have NO IDEA who sent this to the boys (sorry, there was no note and no indication), but it is an awesome book which I read to them while they ate their breakfast the other day. So a HUGE thank you to whomever sent them the book.

A year ago, we had just passed the critical viability marker. I was 24 weeks, 1 day. Here's a post from a year ago! Every day I am amazed and thankful for these beautiful boys. I read U the post from a year ago and we both decided to run upstairs and look at the boys sleeping. Colin was on his back in a slightly diagonal way with his feet facing the wall (across the shortest part of the crib), Aiden was lying on his left side, and Brody was lying on his back with his feet facing the wall. They are so, so, cute and sweet when they are sleeping. (And when they're awake, but it's a different kind of cuteness when they're sleeping.)

Aiden in Action

2009-01-22T10:00:00.002-05:00

Here is what Aiden's been up to:

Climbing from the Bouncy chair onto the plastic bin:

Kneeling on his own:

Standing with aid of the Huggies box (Brody in the background):

Cuddly Colin

2009-01-22T10:00:00.001-05:00

Here is my sweet little Colin:

Enjoying bottle with Daddy:

Patting the ball:

Chillin' on the floor:

Blissful Brody

2009-01-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

Here are some cute ones of Brody:

Standing using the Huggies box:

Sitting with his cute slippers on (with Colin to his right):

Looking at mommy:

Updates

2009-01-21T13:27:00.008-05:00

Colin pulled himself up into a standing position this morning! I wasn't in the room, but he gets so excited when he does things like this and I am sure he made very joyful sounds!

The other thing that the boys are working on is their pincher grasp. I have been putting cheerios and tiny pieces of banana on their high chair trays in the morning for the last 5 days or so. For the first day or so, they didn't know what to do. They would look at the food and then look at me and then back at the food. And then I would stick a cheerio in their mouth and they would feel the food in their mouth and give me looks like they were eating a sour lemon and then eventually chew it and swallow it. Now, they have started to figure out how to pick up the food and put it in their mouth. Problem is, sometimes they pick it up and then look at their fist and try to figure out where the food went. They don't seem to realize that it is inside their balled up little hands. So cute! Brody figured out that when he sucks his thumb, sometimes the food will go in his mouth too. In the end, they usually get more food on themselves and their high chairs than in their mouths. Needless to say, they are becoming fast friends with Scooter and Birdie. This morning, Birdie squeezed her head between Aiden's leg and the high chair tray top and had a little snack. Aiden thought it was absolutely hilarious and he giggled like crazy.

We also went to the orthotist this morning for a helmet adjustment. Everything was fine and unless the boys go through a major growth spurt in the next few weeks, we won't go back again for 3 more weeks. We will go to the neurosurgeon in three weeks as well.

Thank you!

2009-01-19T10:22:00.007-05:00

The boys' au pair gave them the cutest slippers for Christmas.

Here's an up close picture:

(The slippers have bells in them, and the boys are very curious about the sounds. So they pick them up and stick them in their mouths!)

And here's one of the boys:
(Colin, Brody, Aiden left to right)

(Of course, I couldn't get them all to sit still. Aiden really wanted to crawl, crawl, crawl!)

THANK YOU!!!

Kneeling,Pulling Up, Standing

2009-01-18T21:48:00.006-05:00

Today Colin put himself in a kneeling position, Brody pulled himself up to a standing position and Aiden crawled on top of a plastic storage bin and then onto the couch! I feel like my life is a video game. Just when I feel like I've mastered the level I'm on, whamo I'm on the next level. You know, like when you're playing pac man (ok I'm a child of the 80s) and after a while that first, second, third level seem so easy and then it speeds up and you can't believe that the previous levels were actually that easy. It's the same board! Well,we have cordoned off and child proofed part of our living room with a combination of a superyard and a gate and electric socket plugs. However, with Aiden now climbing, I don't know what's around the bend. Will he be couch diving? Who's programming this video game anyway?

Our Schedule at 9 months-

2009-01-18T21:47:00.001-05:00

In case you're wondering what it's like, here's our typical day:

6:00-6:45--Boys wake up and start chattering to each other
6:30(or later if they sleep in)--U gets the boys up and changes diapers while I pump
7:00--8 oz bottle (they don't drink 8 oz. more like 4-5 oz.)
8:00--solids--usually banana w/ oatmeal and breast milk (that's what they had this morning) along with some cheerios
9:00--change clothes and diapers; boys drink some more of their bottle
9:15-9:30--put down 1st nap
10:00-10:30--boys wake up
11:00--8 oz bottle (they usually eat 6-7 oz)
12:30-solids--usually a vegetable and some protein (today I gave them tiny pieces of avocado while they sat around me on the kitchen floor)
1:00--put down for 2nd nap
2:00--boys wake up
3:00--8 oz bottle (they usually eat 6-7 oz)
4:00--put down for 3rd nap (we're dropping this nap as they don't usually sleep at this time any more)
5:00--solids--usually some protein and veggies and cereal mixed in (yesterday we gave them little pieces of pasta too)
5:20-6:00--on bath days, this is when we give baths; otherwise, at 5:40 or so we start changing their clothes and diapers for bed time
6:10--7oz bottle (they usually eat 4-6 oz)
6:30--put down for the night

Their schedule is in a constant state of transition. Every week it feels like we are adding something new or taking something away. I guess that's the fun of having infants that are transitioning to toddlerdom!

--Thanks to Hanna for asking about their schedule. I had fun putting it down on the blog.