M&M's

here are the pictures I promised...

Caleb in purple, Eli in yellow, and Thomas in blue

that same day at the indoor park

It's really quite random what the boys choose to say or not to say. Like how I've been trying to get the boys to say milk for the last year and a half (they call all liquids agua). But instead of saying milk they choose to say m&m, what?!  They've never even seen an m&m in real life. They do have these cute m&m onesies that they really like and I've maybe pointed out that those are m&m's on their shirt like twice! Weird kids, anyways they say it super cute, here is a video as proof:

It's Here! (2yr 4mo)

CET 2yrs and 4mo, this year is flying by!
I have more pics of this cute series, I'll post them later though : ) 

Pizza!

I can't even remember the last time we took the boys out to eat (other than Burgerville) but we got brave enough to take to boys out last Saturday. We were going to go to our favorite pizza spot because they have free live music which is really entertaining but more importantly, noisy to cover up any screaming or misbehaving that my boys might do. But as we drove by to find a parking spot the line was out the door so our plan was foiled. We had 5 hungry tummies so no time to go back home and make something, what do we do now?! We ended up driving to another pizza place that is literally 200 feet from our house. We didn't park at our house because it was raining and we feared the boys would get upset at the sight of our house, "you promised us pizza!" It was a much quieter setting which made me nervous but the boys were on their best behavior. I almost couldn't believe how good they were! They waited patiently for the pizza while eating a little box of raisins each that I brought from home. The pizza was so good that they just munched away at their tasty delight without a peep. I was so pleased that I gave them lots of praise for being so good and not fighting, screaming or crying. It was so lovely to go to a restaurant and not scarf down my food. I even drank my yummy micro-brew beer at my own slow pace. Phil and I were so happy that we treated the boys to ice cream afterwards! And we lamented that this was an evening much like we used to have pre-kids (we weren't very exciting people), so fun : )

Eli working on his raisins

E and myself

nom nom nom nom

T

E and pops

C making silly satisfied with yummy pizza faces

It's here!

Our very own Radio Flyer Triple Play Wagon! Ok so at one point we had choo-choo wagon envy. But as the boys got older, I became increasingly annoyed at how much space we take up when we are out and about. Ultimately we decided against getting the choo-choo because it was just too long and big for our taste. The boys do really well walking in places like the zoo but I still don't totally trust them near streets and cars. The second challenge we face these days is carrying all our stuff, for example at the zoo, yes the boys can walk but were do we put our diaper bag, hot chocolate (that we bring to warm up in the winter), lunch and camera? So we've been bringing a stroller with us just to hold all our junk. We have our joovy big caboose (three seater stroller) but as the boys get heavier it's getting really hard to push and steer (they are approaching 25lbs!). So when I saw another triplet mom with this triplet wagon, that I didn't even know existed since it just came out, I immediately had serious wagon envy! Even though we'd only get another year and half out of it, on the inside I was thinking I WANT ONE NOW!!! But it's a little pricey so the boys and I have been saving our pennies for a few months and now we have one! Here is a little product review with my boys as models, they really thought of everything this time: 

It comes with a sun/rain canopy, I think it's silly and we probably won't ever use it. Might be super useful if you have kido's that hate wearing sun hats though.

4 kid cup holders, and 2 adult cup holders 

The handle folds down underneath but sadly it's still too big to fit in the back of a mini van but it fits right in if you take out one of the middle seats. Bigger cars shouldn't have any trouble though. 

The storage pouch that tucks away nicely when not in use. Didn't I say they thought of everything!

fit's through our front door so it should fit through any commercial entrance 

test drive!

Look at all the leg room! Three point seat belts included too but the crotch belt is a pain so we just use it as a lap belt. 

After a couple of hills we smoothly made it to the park! Sooo easy to maneuver 

Were was this wagon two year ago! All in all its a great product and so much more compact than the alternative. My only gripe is that it's all plastic (except the hardware of course)! Why don't they make things out of wood or metal anymore, I'd gladly pay more for it! Maybe it'd be too heavy then, anyways, so far I think you can only buy it from Radio Flyer or Toys R Us. It retails for $199.99 (plus shipping if you get it from RF) but we got it on sale for $15 less at Toyr R Us with free shipping. Pretty cool, huh!?!

To The Top!

Caleb doing a little boot camp training...

starting at the bottom

assessing the challenge and making sure he really wants to go through with it 

doing pretty good

making progress

oh no! his hand slipped, will he give up???

things are not looking good, can you see the anguish on his face or is just sheer determination!?! 

he's almost there!

He did it! The look and face of accomplishment!

may I reiterate how difficult group shots are these days!

Caleb eating menudo with tortillas

Caleb's favorite food might just be toota-tootaa's (tortillas), the boy can put away as many as four corn tortillas along with his meal. I'm no fan of the sorry excuses for tortillas that you can buy in US grocery stores, I can choke them down in they are heavily masked with other foods but Caleb loves them even just by them self. I can only imagine the hurt this boy would do in Mexico where tortillas are made right!

Trains

some random pics of the week....

CTE, bed heads

Eli made this all on his own and then showed me that it was a ladder, smart boy! 

E

Since we went to the fire station, Caleb always wears this hat and he even takes it to bed with him (the mr potato head glasses too, don't know what's up with that though) 

T

C

T trying on dads cool new glasses

E, right before he went bizerk because he didn't want his picture taken (no no it's much too soon for this!) 

Everytime we go to the science museum I try to get the boys to wear the cute little chipmunk costumes but of course they never want to! This time Eli wore it the entire time we were there, so cute!

Train Museum

CTE

E

T and dad

Playing with chuggington, the boys fav part of the museum!

me and E

the dudes

We had a fun weekend, we checked out a new train museum in town on Saturday and watched a crazy awesome football game on Sunday. We (well mostly Phil) are so excited that the 49ers are going to the Superbowl!

Fire Station

CET, chillin at the toddler gym

Penguins!

Thomas looking like a 2 year old Brad Pitt, maybe not but I think so : )

BEST DAY EVER!!!

Eli did eventually high five the firefighter : )

I've been meaning to set up a fire station tour for the boys (and friends I want to invite!) but I still haven't gotten around to doing it. I will at some point but as I procrastinate it a little longer we were invited to tour a fire station through the boys pre-preschool program (it's not the actual name, just what I call it). Although Eli and Thomas didn't outwardly show a ton of excitement I knew that on the inside they were very impressed by what they saw. Caleb on the other hand showed his excitement by saying 'wow' a lot and rattling some incoherent babble when he wanted me to look at whatever was impressing him at the moment. The firefighters were equally as impressed by Caleb's siren sound he kept making. As the tour ended their teacher asked if we could eat lunch at their table and the firefighters told us we were welcome to as long as they didn't get called out, in which case they'd have to quickly usher us out. We took the risk and as we were cleaning up, sure enough they got a call. It was really cool because as we were getting our coats on outside we got to see the firemen jump into their truck and head out with sirens blazing and firefighters waving bye at the boys. Pretty awesome way to end the tour : )

Updates

So I think the nap crisis we were having has been averted. I'm not sure I've figured it all out but here is what's working at the moment. I put them down in their cribs for nap (as late in the day as possible without having to push back bed time more than 30 min), I give them each several books to help wind them down and I leave the door open a crack and pull up a chair with a book or computer in hand. If anyone even gets one leg over the edge of the crib to jump out they get a quick reprimand (they don't seem to even try to jump out anymore, so long as they know I'm watching them). Since I started doing this they have almost always fallen asleep within 15-30 min. On the rare days where they just can't fall asleep I send them to bed an hour early. I think the problem was that being in the same room and being able to climb out of their cribs they were just riling each other up with chatter and play but I know they still need the nap because come 6pm I can't hardly keep them awake! I notice they go down way easier on days that they get enough exercise.