2011 Recap

Grab a cup of coffee or tea, find a comfortable place to sit and settle in for a long one...

Caleb, Eli, Thomas

Life has changed so much in just 12 short months. The babies are hardly recognizable, this time last year they could not sit up on their own, stand, crawl, walk, say mama or laugh at funny stuff. This is what the boys looked like (see pic above) and they were all recovering from RSV. We made one doctor visit and one ER visit but they pretty much kicked RSV in the butt. Everything I had heard about RSV I thought for sure they would all have to be hospitalized but I think I owe it to the fact that they were born so healthy and they weren't tiny newborns anymore but still the size of most newborns weighing about 10lbs each.

There were so many firsts not only for them but for us as well. It's hard to believe that not long ago these three distinct persons did not exist but now they are the most important persons in our lives and can't imagine life without them. I sometimes look at each one of them individually and think how blessed I would feel to have just one of them yet I have all three! I still hold that all three boys are very similar to each other in personality, temperament and looks but they are also so different from each other in those same categories. It's a hard thing to understand until you've spent a significant amount of time with them or I can imagine any set of genetically identical persons.

They have become such rascals however they are very well behaved as always for their age. They get cuter every day to me even though they are getting less and less cute to the general population. I can't help but think they are God's gift to mankind but don't worry I don't expect you to think so. I'm sure all loving parents feel the same way towards their own kids or maybe I'm still on that infamous baby honeymoon. And yes I can laugh at the bumper sticker that says "7 billion miracles is enough."

The boys have taught me so much, I'll highlight just a few things:

-Patience: I am not a patient person, really I'm not. If I didn't learn patience I would go crazy among all the screaming, crying, and chores that keep stacking up.

-Reliance: Having infant triplets you pretty much are on survival mode for the first year or so. I learned not to worry too much about the future and just keep relying on God that everything will work out and if I do we can at least count on shelter, clothing and food. In the end nothing else matters. What makes you happy and satisfied is being surrounded by people you love and care about not material things, secular work, or even the weather.

-Re-organization or Adaptation: I've always been a very organized person and admitedly love making excel spreadsheets. With the boys always changing things up I've had to learn how to re-organize often and never get too comfortable or 'set in my ways.' This has been one of my weaknesses, failing to recognize that change has occurred and that I need to adapt to it.

-Expectations: I haven't been one to read all the mile stone books or look too much into what's coming next.  The 'now' is more than enough to keep me preoccupied. I've learned that you can create a lot of anxiety thinking 'if only they did this or that,' because then when they finally do there's a whole new set of challenges and there you are again thinking 'if only.' If only they slept through the night, life would be so much easier, well now it's, if only they wouldn't constantly fight over toys. It's always something, that you CAN expect.

There is something very good that might be coming into our future. We are hopeful it will happen but am not at liberty to say what it is yet, I will tell you when it is more certain. For now we are just happy for the prospect of it....

Staycation

Thomas looking as handsome as ever even with a cheerio crumb on his lip

Eli stellar in orange

Caleb playing with my scarf

Another great visit with Chance and Janet. Oh my where to start, we seriously have way too much fun with them. We took the boys to their first zoo trip ever and saw two bears wrestling (so cool). Went out to dinner twice and the boys actually behaved well. We rode light rail twice, once to the mall and the other to the zoo, the boys enjoyed people watching on it. Phil and Chance played more Tecmo Bowl and NBA Jam than either I or Janet cared for. And we ate lots of tasty food together. Phil was home all week and we had a wonderful staycation!

 Thomas really appreciated going out to dinner that he picked up the bill!

 Phil and Chance playing video games

The latest triple hold!

The boys at the mall were a big hit to passerby's

on light rail, all bundled up

Updates

A couple of days ago the boys threw a curve ball at me. I put them down for their nap at the usual time of 11am and by 12:30pm they were all still awake! We kept hearing them chit chat away which is common for them to do but it never takes them more than 30 min to fall asleep. So nap time has been moved to 1pm and lunch got bumped down to 12pm. Now that Phil is back to work I will need a couple of days to adjust to our new routine.

Eli not too long ago cut his 6th tooth to match his brothers but just as he was catching up Thomas cut a new tooth, it's his bottom left tooth next to the two he already has. That makes a total of 6 teeth for both Caleb and Eli and 7 for Thomas.

The boys climbing abilities are quickly surpassing their judgement skills. Eli learned how to effortlessly climb on and off the couch. He seems to have no fear and is frequently at the edge of the couch. What do I do?? I have to leave the room often to change diapers or fix lunch I can't drag all three of them with me everywhere I go. I also don't imagine parents of singletons do either. I don't want to just let them learn by falling off, they could hurt themselves. Oh and Caleb this morning climbed up and over the super yard head first! He was ok but he scared the crap out of me! (Oh crap moment #9)

Through all the chaos of having triplets and them completely taking over the house I had forgotten how nice it is to have our own room! I love having the boys all in one room but the first night I had a mommy dream where I really needed to get to my babies and couldn't, so disturbing! I'm also very excited to get my dresser back into the room so I can once again have a proper underwear drawer, oh the small conveniences that people take for granted : ) When we moved out the crib I made sure to sweep under the bed and it was like a flash back in time, here is what I found:

-my breast pump charger, which I haven't needed in forever!
-3 disposable breast pads
-2 NICU pacifiers (during the first few months they were just barely useful enough that we kept them around, the boys were never that into them and their usefulness topped out at 30 seconds when they would spit them out, and only the paci's that were acceptable were the ones we got from the NICU, all other styles were entirely rejected)
-a handful of earplugs, Phil couldn't sleep through all the 'goat noises' the boys made as preemies, it was like we had a heard of goats in our room!
-1 tiny green baby sock
-1 fleece swaddle blanket
-dust bunnies a plenty, sweeping under the bed regularly is just not a priority these days

Working on writing a meaningful new year post but it will have to wait a few days : )

Womb Mates to Room Mates (15mo!)

15 MONTHS!

Brad Pitt watch out, Caleb Pitt was born with that 'I just rolled out of bed hair look' that takes others hours to perfect! The boy is just blessed with good hair : )

In their Sunday best! TEC

 Mr. Cowlick himself (Eli) woke up one day and was having a perfect hair day! I have two pictures to prove it, although Thomas and Eli seem to have flip flopped and now I can't seem to tame Thomas' hair. I'm tempted to cut it if it doesn't settle down soon. 

Womb Mates to Room Mates

When I found out I was have three babies and not one I threw out my idea of a grandiose nursery with all the details of a perfect baby room. I was more concerned about having a guest room with a bed for all my helper-visitors soon to come. We got one crib and a couple pack 'n play's(pnp) were passed down to us. The first three months the babies all slept next to each other in either the crib or a pnp but then they stopped sleeping through each others crying and we separated them as far from each other as possible. I know some triplet families just bite the bullet and keep them together in hopes that they will just get used to all the crying but I never wanted to sacrifice even one hour of sleep to train them since we hardly slept at all. So for the longest time we had the babies spread out all over the house. At one point we put two together in one room (I don't even remember when) and once we got Eli sleeping through the night we thought it was time for the boys to have their own room. We took town the queen size guest bed and made it The Boy's Room. I don't know why but even before it was properly their room they loved going in there and exploring it. I want to keep the room exciting for them since recently they quit liking TV, so I don't have an easy out for when they are revolting against me! I can now brag that my children don't watch any TV at all (except commercials with catchy jingles), but secretly I wish they did. So the boys room will have separate toys than the living room and we'll use their room sparingly to play in, let's see how long that lasts!

So I present to you a 360degree tour of The Boy's Room: 

This is a video of the boys while taking down the guest bed, they were so excited!

I can't remember where I got this idea but besides labeling what is in the drawers I made these little cut outs so anyone putting away baby laundry will know were things go : )

All our wall art is by dad : )

The boys names were coincidentally all bible names but I think that's really cool! The tags say the meaning of the boy's names. 

The boys were so excited to be reunited that they thought they'd recreate their position in the womb 

I could not get them to all turn around for a picture they were just having too much fun exploring

I caught Eli in mid fall! Perfect form, straight back, arms out and looking forward!

Messy Faces

I just have to keep telling myself it's not right to prohibit my children from eating something just because they get soooooo messy eating it. Raviolis + Triplets = 30min clean up time

Dance Party Revolution 2011

Laughing and Dancing to the 80's (Video)

Yeah, he's pretty bad ass (Thomas' alter ego)

Anyone out there have or know of someone who has dark hazel eyes like this? I've seriously never seen eyes like these!

I've resolved in my mind that it's not getting easier, it's just different! Sure I don't have the physical exhaustion I once had due to lack of sleep but there's a whole lot of mental anguish and frustration. I'm out numbered by two! Six opposable thumbs, 24 fingers, and six little legs can do a lot of damage! Just as I'm through reprimanding one for being naughty the other two join in on the bad act. Time outs only work to distract them from what they are doing but it's no guarantee that they won't do it again. Oh yes and Eli has started hitting his brothers, they learn very fast from each other so the others are sure to follow suite. 

Thankfully the boys have always been very patient and aside from trying a few times when they were little I never found it necessary to double or tandem nurse the boys. It always felt awkward but probably because I just never perfected the art of double nursing. Lately though, first thing in the morning everyone is SUPER cranky, that is until they nurse. So I've seen no other way than to nurse two boys at once and hope the third boy can be soothed by dad for a few minutes while his brothers finish up. I have yet to feel very comfortable doing it but at least I don't have to hear screaming first thing in the morning : )

On the happier side of things starting at 14 months I revised our routine and it has gone very well. The boys always adjust so well to changes. Basically I just dropped one milk feeding but it feels way less hecktic than before. Every one nurses an equal amount of times and everyone gets one bottle of milk each day, everything is even steven now. I feel less guilty about forgetting who had more bottles and less time nursing yesterday. Here's how our days go now and probably for many months to come: 

6:30am wake and Milk feeding #1 (everyone nurses, no bottles)

7:30am Breakfast

10am Snack #1 

10:30am Milk feeding #2 (Two nurse one bottle), followed by nap time

12:45pm Snack #2 for whoever wakes up early and while we wait for everyone else to wake up from nap

1:30pm Lunch

2:30pm Milk feeding #3 (Two nurse, one bottle)

4:30 Snack #3 (3-5pm is our window of opportunity, when we 'do stuff')

5:30pm Dinner

7pm Milk feeding #4 (Two nurse one bottle), followed by bed time

During our window of opportunity: Mondays we stay home and just play or we take a walk weather permitting. Tuesday we go to the playhouse. Wednesday we stay home and just play or take a walk(this is our meeting night so the boys get out of the house at least once). Thursday we do errands if needed. Fridays the boys get a bath. 

I also forgot to mention that at 13 months I had to get tough with Eli. He was still waking up in the middle of the night to nurse once. It still was not bothering me until I read somewhere that kids that don't sleep through the night have more temper tantrums. So at some point it is beneficial and healthy for kids (and adults) to sleep uninterrupted through the night. Eli had not had any temper tantrums but I figured it's best to nip this one in the butt early on before there is a problem. With the threat of SIDS out of the way now I just stopped picking him up, he'd cry for about 5-10 minutes and then fall asleep again. He stopped waking after about 4 days. So we're done with that but I do miss snuggling him at night, oh well it's for his own good. 

Well dad is home for a whole week and one day due to mandatory PTO use. The boy's aunt Janet arrives tomorrow and uncle Chance the following day so we are looking forward to some fun times : )

Bunny Eli

Here is a video of Bunny Eli giving himself kisses in the mirror

Thomas' Dance Routine

This just couldn't wait until the next blog post...Thomas' dancing is starting to rival Eli's (the original dancing machine)!

Be sure to watch this in full screen : )

Playtime!

Eli

Eli

Thomas

Caleb

We took the boys to a nearby elementary school to play in the playground. It brought back good memories of grade school, the little cubbies with your name on it, crayons and paste! My aspirations of home schooling don't seem realistic anymore. Raising a family of five is very expensive, the boys aren't even over 20 pounds yet and you should see how much I spend on yogurt alone! We are scraping by for now but I just don't see how we will make it in the long run. I will eventually have to go back to work, but I'm holding my ground and don't ever want to go back full time. I want to be able to drop off and pick up my kids from school and spend the entire weekend with my family. Of course this is a long way off and won't happen until the boys are in 1st grade when they start going full time. The boys have a tricky birth date since they were born in September. I want them to have an advantage so I don't want them to start kindergarten early. So we are looking at the fall of 2015 when they start Kindergarten. Seems so far off but I know we'll be there before we know it. I checked out a few schools in our area and the one in the pictures above has a Spanish imersion program which would help tremendously my plight for the boys to learn proper Spanish, after two Spanish AP classes I still don't quite know where to put the accent marks!

Literally within 2-3 days after changing my baby sign language strategy the boys are all picking up on it. Partial success but we are moving in the right direction. We have been working on the sign for 'more,' Eli seems to be the most consistent followed by Thomas then Caleb. They don't always use it but if I promt them by asking them if they want more while signing it myself they will usually respond by signing back. We've started on the next sign, 'gentle,' because they are too rough with the kitty and I'm afraid he'll scratch them someday if the boys go too far with him. The other cat steers clear of the boys so we don't worry about her.

The boys (well mostly Thomas) have been super drooly lately I think we have some molars trying to make their way in. Thankfully haven't had any more middle of the night screaming because of this.

We are having a record breaking dry December here and it has just been awesome! We are trying to enjoy every minute of it, I can take a walk at anytime I darn well please. It feels like since we've lived here we've gone through so many record breaking months but for rain! I feel like we deserve this : )

Eli sure does know how to use a sippy cup!

I can still pick up all three at once, check!

Sometimes you have to be creative to get things done around here : )

Thomas has at least two in his mouth, one in his hand and he's reaching for another one! I can't believe how much these guys love tater tots! I bought a humongous bag for them and in anticipation of Janet & Chance's visit : )