Crabby Day (16mo)!

16 months!

This photo shoot did not go over well, I made the mistake of showing them a cool toy to make them smile and instead they all wanted it at once and started bawling over it. 

The beginning of the end, the only picture I was able to take were they didn't all look miserable : (

 How appropriate that their pj's have crabs on them : )

Watch this 10 sec video clip to see what I mean, sadly the rest of this day didn't go any better and their 7pm bedtime couldn't come any sooner : (

Why couldn't they look like this for the pictures above : (

Thomas' eyes look so pretty in this picture : )


Here is a video clip of the boys just being their goofy selves, they are so fun to watch : )

Thomas doing a model pose

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Bathtime!

Wrecking havoc while I undress the other two...
The boys get super hyper when they know it's bathtime!

There are things I wish I had never gotten, and things I wish I had gotten. These bath seats are one of the things I'm so glad to have! (Thanks again mama Sue) They are the best things ever and can't believe the boys still tolerate them, I wonder how much longer I can use them for? I love having a designated spot for each boy and although they seem close they cannot steal toys from each other unless someone gets distracted : ) It is a much needed break from all the fighting they do in the living room/designated baby area. 

Baby Updates

Not too many this time around. Thomas last week was having a hard time with some pesky molars that are trying to come in, lots of fevers and cranky-ness (not to mention drooling) but no teeth have popped through. The poor guy seems to be the only one affected by teething, the other two are hardly phased. 

Caleb wants to jump soooo bad, and looks so cute trying. He hasn't gotten any air yet but he's close!

Fun With Cars part 2

This video is the sequel to Fun With Cars, only this time I added music!
Baby You Can Drive My Car 

Hope you enjoyed it, I skipped sweeping my floors today to make it : )

The boys are getting to the age where they cannot let out all their energy stuck at home in the living room, the days when we don't 'do something' they get so cranky. I try to do something different each day like letting them play in their room, giving them a bath, taking a walk, going to the park, or going to the playhouse. This week we've started to go to a neighborhood indoor park, it's actually close enough to walk to, weather permitting. I've known about it for a while but up until a couple weeks ago the boys were still napping during the times it ran. I'd be here everyday if it was free, but at $1/kid, once a week will have to do : )

The boys get so much energy out at the indoor park that they can't make it through lunch so they go straight to naptime after we get home!

#3's all around!

Look at these shaggy haired raga-muffins? I tried gel and leave in conditioner and nothing could tame these heads. Do they need a haircut or what?!

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I put the boys in PigTails not to see what it was like to have girls but so I could cut off a lock or hair and save it for the memory books : )

Before (T)

After

All the hair from three boys : (

Just like dad!

I gave all my 4 boys #3's (length of the hair clipper attachment). After my mom warned me that the hair clippers might scare the boys I started to get worried since I don't know how to cut hair using scissors. But the boys did really well. Caleb started crying a little the last few passes but Thomas actually started laughing because it was tickling him. It took approximately 4-5minutes per baby, dad's hair takes longer of course. I was sad to see their still baby soft hair go but I must say they are looking as handsome as ever!

Phil trying to get Thomas to point #1 after the 49er's won their game on Saturday. It looks like they have a fighting chance at the super bowl, Phil would like to give a shout out to our home team, "Go Niners!"

Eli makes up for the fact that he bites by giving lots of hugs!

If good looks could kill you'd be dead now

Bunny Thomas

Tiny Feet

I made some foot impressions of the boys to see how much they've grown since they were born. I wanted to do this right at 12mo but haven't had the time. Their shoe size hasn't changed so its probably not much difference now at 15 mo. Right now they fit a size 3 shoe and fit into most 12mo clothes with the exception of the longer pants. I'm assuming all weigh around 20 lbs and measure about 29 inches (it's been a couple months since they were last measured). They have sure come a long way!

Comparisons

Top Row: Caleb, Eli, Thomas
Bottom Row: me#1 I see either Eli or Thomas, me#2 &3 I see Caleb

Top Row: Caleb, Eli, Thomas
Bottom Row: Phil#1 I see Caleb (he smiles like this often), Phil #2 I see Eli (it's a very Eli look), Phil #3 I see Thomas

Most people see the boys for the first time and immediately say they look like me. I think it's easy not to look past the big eyes and dark hair. Looking through both our baby pictures I think I almost see Phil in them more than I see myself, but certainly that's up for debate. Let's break it down:

Hair: mama's color, but dad's hairline

Forehead: they have dad's big forehead or receding hairline, however you want to look at it : )

Eyes: They are big like mama's but not as big. I've been told by every optometrist I've seen that they are in the top 5% of the population (in size), so the boys eyes did not quite reach my epic proportions.

Eyecolor: Dark hazel, blue grey with a brown ring around the pupil. They decided to appease both of us, what nice boys : )

Nose: I can't tell who it looks like, from the baby pictures it looks like it could be either of us, so I guess time will tell....

Mouth: mama's

Head shape: I think more like dad than mama

Skin Color: Right in the middle, they are looking pretty pale right now but not pastey white.

Size: I was a pretty chubby baby so I think they take after Phil in that they are pretty shrimpy babies.

Hands and Feet and Body Shape: I don't think I can tell yet, they could go either way? I hope they are tough looking with broad shoulders like dad : )

Facial Expressions: dad's

Personality and Temperment: dads, no question about it! They are so easy going and well behaved : )

Oh Crap! moment #10 & 11

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Oh Crap! moment #10

One day while I was giving the boys a bath I noticed they had had enough so I get Thomas out first, I dry him off, diaper him, and put him in a onesie. Next I get Caleb out and start drying him off, then out of the corner of my eye I see Thomas reaching into the bathtub for something, I tell him no and pull him away. That does nothing to dissuade him and he goes right back to it, then, thinking he wasn't capable of it, in he goes right into the water head first. I push poor Caleb to the side too roughly in my haste to get Thomas out that it scares him and he starts crying. I get Thomas out of the water immediately after he falls in since I was only a foot away. Thomas is now soaked and crying. Afraid of a repeat incident I start draining the tub and pull Eli out. Well at this point there is complete chaos in the room with now three babies crying, two still naked and both Caleb and Thomas are falling repeatedly from the slippery wet floor. I'm losing control here and don't know what to do. Then I start to compose myself and I put Eli to the side and dry up the floor. The crying is subsiding and no one is falling now, so I just had to take a step back and laugh at the shinanigans these boys put me through! *Big Sigh*

Oh Crap! moment #11

The boys lately when they see one of their brothers getting a bottle or nursing all Hades breaks loose, perhaps a primitive sign of jealousy. As bed time was approaching one day, I go into the kitchen to fix up a bottle. Both Thomas and Eli were at the gate watching me make this bottle and throwing a raucousness by screaming and shaking the gate back in forth. I was looking away when I heard a loud bang followed by crying. I look back and both boys are on their backs with the gate on top of them. As I pull the gate off of them, I see Eli has a busted up bloody lip. The poor boy shedded several drops of blood but by day two it was hardly noticeable! (Very scary though when blood is involved!)

I really like this picture because so many things are happening in it. Me, I'm giving Phil a break from almost single handedly filling up the entire bounce house. Eli in the back is looking cheeky. Thomas is being so cute 'helping' me blow air into the thing. And Caleb in the front crying because of who knows what!

I like to go over the different sounds that animals make and the boys seem to really love it because they stare at me inquisitively as I do it. Sometimes I use toys or pictures to show them what sound that particular animal makes. The boys were looking kind of bored the other day so I started asking them what sound does a dog make? followed by woof woof. I go through several more including cow, kitty, and duck. It looked like they were loosing interest so I gave it a break, then five seconds later Eli picks up a stuffed kitty and a plastic cow that were on the floor (among many other toys but no others who's sounds I had made) and is trying to show them to me. Coincidence? I think not! What a smart boy!

The boys have led me to believe that they know right from wrong. When they get into something they are not supposed to they try to hide it or they run away. For example, I notice Eli acting rather suspicious, he's walking away from me and looking back at me to see if I see him. I look and he's got my cell phone, that little rascal! Of course knowing right from wrong doesn't mean they'll always do whats right.

The hair on the back of the boy's heads started to look wavy several months ago so ever since I'd been waiting for those big curls to come in but so far no curls just waves. All the Pittsenbarger men go curly but it turns out not until they hit puberty : ( With their hair becoming more and more uncontrollable I'm convinced they are all in need of haircuts! I'm thinking Euro-mullets? Unlike all other mullets these are cool since all the popular European soccer players sport them. So next time you see the boys they may look very different... : )

Where Will We Go Next???

Phil and I have been hording our credit card miles ever since we got married. We put everything we possibly could on our credit card, and of course payed off the balance in full at the end of each month. Our plan was to acquire enough miles for a big trip, to go some where far far away. First we thought Europe but then the Euro got so expensive that it made us look else where. Next we thought we'd use it to go visit Phil's brother in China. We almost bought tickets around the time we were trying to get pregnant, I figured it'd be no problem if I traveled in my second trimester, bad thinking. Thankfully we held off because there was no way I was traveling anywhere pregnant with triplets! 

So fast forward to present day, we are now a family of five! The price of five round trip tickets going anywhere would cost us a small fortune.With enough miles for almost three round trip tickets and our time to travel overseas quickly coming to an end since the boys can't travel for free past two years of age we needed to cash out our miles this year!  

Where to go? Where to go?  We contemplated San Diego, Mexico, Hawaii, and Belize. One thing we knew for sure is that we want to go somewhere sunny and warm in the spring when we are starting to go crazy from the endless rain. So where did we decide to go???

The boys are so excited about our family vacation they decided to see how their sun hats looked!

San Diego:
Pros
-we have family there so we wouldn't need to pay for accommodations
-I've wanted to go back to the SD Zoo since I last went when I was 7, it was awesome then and can't imagine how much better it is now!
Cons
-I hate driving, especially on vacation (California=Driving and lots of it), and we'd have to shell out for a rental van and lug our huge car seats around in the airport.
-the boys might be a bit young for the zoo, sea world, and lego land, not to mention hefty admission fees

Mexico:
Pros
-the family would get to meet the boys
-free accommodations
-it just so happens my family is from a beautiful part of mexico by the beach, Mazatlan : )
Cons
-there's a scary drug war going on! nough said

Belize:
Briefly entered our mind, it has the second largest coral reef in the world so we've wanted to go for a long time...but too many unknowns to venture on with toddler triplets in tow.

Rather quickly we decided on Waikiki, Hawaii! We've been here before and know what to expect. It's very walk-able so we don't need a car. We found a cheap but nice condo to rent so we can cook our own food since good food in Hawaii is hard to come by at less than $20/plate. Oh and Phil's sister and brother in-law are coming! You didn't think we'd attempt this on our own did you? (BTW this is NOT the 'good' thing I talked about in my last post, I'm not that shallow! : )

Bounce House Fun!


The boys have their very own bounce house in care of Tia Aracely : ) Who needs Chucky Cheese now?!

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Is that Thomas in the middle or Rod Stewart!?

Updates

Eli cut a new tooth, it's the bottom right tooth next to the two that were already there (opposite side of the one Thomas just cut). So now Caleb is behind with 6 teeth while Thomas and Eli have 7.

We went to our first multiples event last Saturday and I don't think I've ever seen more double strollers in my life! Our local multiples group rented out the entire Children's museum and it was awesome! The boys really loved it and they had lots of cool exhibits they could explore. I met a couple other moms with triplets and talked to some twin moms I'd met before. Unfortunantly I don't have any good pics to post because we forgot how crappy point-n-shoots are for indoor photography, lesson learned, don't leave home with out your dSLR!

Eli was the first to bite (and still the only) and he went a long time before he bit again. But when he did he went on a biting spree, he bit each of each of his brothers twice in one day. You can't entirely blame him though because his brothers sometimes think it's funny to put their hands in his mouth! You think they'd learn but no, they get bitten about every other day now. Oh man, what am I to do now : (

A few weeks ago I posted about how I taught the boys how to do these little hand gestures to songs I'd sing to them. I cannot for the life of me get a good video of them doing it. This was the best I could do. In the first song the boys are supposed to wiggle their hands which Caleb and Eli both do briefly but Thomas opens and closes his hands (so silly). The other song I sing they are supposed to tap their thumb on their palm repeatedly, Eli is the master of this and does it all the time even without the song. The other two are not big fans and I can only get them to do it on occasion : ) Here is the video, and I apologize for my terrible singing...