Oh Crap! #43-45

As of late we've labeled the boys 'the rat pack' because as you can guess, they get into everything!

Oh Crap! moment #43

We've been giving the boys more freedom lately because they've been better about not destroying things so quickly. For example, I leave the gate from the living/dining room to the kitchen open and let them roam around the back of the house while I change diapers in the bathroom. Well lets just say they lost some freedom points when they emptied out a brand new container of oatmeal all over the floor. Oh and that's not all, it gets worse. After I did a quick clean up, I went back to wash my hands and when I came back they had emptied out the other container of oatmeal that was half full! Had I not just yelled at everyone for dumping out the first one?!?!?!

Oh Crap! moment #44

The boys have been getting really rough with their cars lately. They get on them and pop ollies, bump into each other, run over things, or what have you.

After warning Eli that he should get off because he might fall. He did not obey and he did just what I predicted. He fell back right onto his big head!  

Caleb has been riding so fast and hard that he'll occasionally flip his car back and lands just like this!  

Oh Crap! moment #45

I'd heard stories of this happening to other peoples kids and thought I was going to escape it since potty training is just around the corner (I know, wishful thinking right?). Well it finally happened. I put the boys down for a nap and I don't think they were very tired because I heard them chattering the whole time I was cleaning. I am generally bound and determined not to go in their room during nap time unless someone starts crying but it had been an 1.5 hrs since I had put them down and I could hear they were all still awake. So I went in out of curiosity and there I see Eli completely nake_d in his crib, his clothes and diapers no where to be found and poop smeared just about EVERYWHERE! I picked him up and kept him at arms length so I as not to get poop on my clothes and put him straight in the bath tub. After a seriously good lather I started drying him off only to notice he still had poop crusted onto his hands. I had to scrub his hands in the sink just to get it off. Funny thing is when I found his clothes and diaper they were completely poop free so they must have come off before he pooped. And I can't be certain but I'm pretty sure I saw him moving his jaw when I found him, ugh!

now some non-oh crap pictures...

Caleb found himself a little corner to play drums at the childrens' museum to play unperturbed. I'm convinced they need a little drum set and if I end up playing it more than the boys then so be it!  

TCE, I only caught Caleb drinking the chlorinated water 4 times!

Updates

The boys had been calling cats diddy (kitty) for quite some time now but recently Caleb has renamed them 'diddle-diddle.' It cracks me up everytime he says it! 

New Approach to Taking Turns

CT (E in back), putting on the charm

at the zoo

T, the boys like the lion sculptures more than the actual lions, ha!  

Eli giving the bear cub a besito (kiss)

CET, lunch at the bare skin mole rat exhibit since it was nice and warm in there  

taking turns with the new fire truck

I've been wanting to take our sharing abilities up one notch for quite sometime now. I can't say they've been the best or worst at sharing with each other but of course there is a lot of room for improvement. I needed to come up with a more fair strategy than just saying it's someone else's turn when a fight breaks out over some toy. Too many times a toy just gets taken and put away because one boy wants it and starts a fight. It's not fair to the other boy who was doing nothing wrong.

Other parents of multiples will agree that getting your kids one new toy can be a huge headache (or three different new toys for that matter). The first day involves lots of fights over the highly coveted new toy. And whoever gets to touch it first for some reason thinks he's the rightful owner and gives you the biggest fuss over sharing. Then once the novelty wears off, sharing improves since it's not the hot new toy it once was but still fighting happens ALL THE TIME. And most will agree that it's impractical (or expensive) sometimes to get three of the same exact toy.

I'd heard from someone that using a timer to time turns works for them. I wanted to introduce this for a long time now but was not sure if the boys were old enough yet to 'get it' but I knew that once they got the concept, that sharing would go much smoother around here. Some time past and I kept thinking about it. Finally I decided it was time (the boys are now 2yrs + 1mo), but I needed a tactful way to introduce the new concept. One that wouldn't result in me handing out time outs or causing me undue frustrations. Then the other day when I picked up the boys from nursery school I found a firetruck in the 'free bin' and thought they'd love to have a fire truck. It was also my opportunity to introduce timed sharing to get us over the much dreaded 'hot new toy' phase.

I waited a few days for the 'right time', pre-nap (they are too cranky post nap), not hungry, not tired and all around happy boys. I placed the firetruck up high so they could all see it but not grab it. I pointed out the firetruck to the boys and told them that they would get to play with it but they'd have to take turns. I then showed them my phone and the alarm that would sound when their turn was up. We went in birth order, and in round one Caleb got it first for 2 minutes then Eli and then Thomas. Caleb was a little upset when his turn was up but got over it quickly. Eli graciously waited for his turn and handed the toy off to his brother when his turn was up. Thomas cried the whole time before and after his turn (but this might have been because he got to play with it briefly on the drive home when I initially got the firetruck, he was probably just thinking he was the rightful owner since he touched it first). Round two went much better and I bumped up the time to 5 min each, none of the boys got very upset and at that point I think they 'got it.' After two rounds I asked if they wanted to play with play dough and they all ran to the table and the fire truck was left behind, forgotten for the moment. A little while later Eli got down and brought the firetruck to the table where they all continued to play nice. The rest of the day they kept playing nice with the new toy and would take turns when I asked them too without the need of the timer. I will use it again if any fights break out over any new or old toy. It feels good to have a system : )

Dumb Boys

First time we've really had to bundle up this fall

Here is a funny video of the boys, for some reason I can't imagine three girls doing this...

Caleb vs The Pumpkin

notice brother in the background

do you see the sock on Caleb's hand? He started this trend among his brothers. Many times in the day they walk around with a sock on one hand and then pretend to eat you with it while making 'roar' sounds : )  

New Old Park

We were a little bummed out when our 'big' neighborhood park was closed for a renovation all summer long : ( But I guess it wasn't too big of a deal since I was too scared to take the boys there by myself because of the really tall jungle gym. There was a grand opening this last weekend and we got to try it out. The best way I can describe it is that it is super duper awesome! It has a very modern feel to it and is designed to include children of all abilities. Little did the designers know but this new park is also perfect for a mama of triplets! I can bring them here by myself and not worry about them falling off the jungle gym. And good riddance to tan bark! I hate that stuff : ) Expect the back drop of this park in many blog posts to come!

They better start loosing weight otherwise we won't be able to do this much longer! 

C

scaling the hill

not sure why Eli was upset

there was a fire truck we all got to ogle at the grand opening : )

getting a snack a couple days later before heading out to our new super cool park! 

ECT

marching around a big boulder

the boys climbed this hills for what felt like hours!

this slide was scary fast, next time I'm going down on my belly too

Thomas ended up with wet pants and since it was warm out I figured why make him play in wet clothes : )  

And there is more fun to be had when the boys warm up to the merry go round thingy and the wet sand pit : )

Ring Around the Rosie

The boys would like to show you their latest trick!

Sorry for the poor video quality, we really need another lamp in the living room. And sorry you had to listen to my atrocious voice but as long as the boys like it, I'll keep singing, hehehe! So did you guess what the new trick is? Holding hands! We really should have worked on this sooner but the thought hadn't crossed my mind. We went to story time at the library where they gave us a little tour, so I held Thomas and Caleb's hand and Eli held Caleb's hand while we walked. We got sooo many 'awwwws' and I think I saw someone shed a tear they thought it was so dang cute! And it was : )

I guess tough guys drink milk from sippy cups and carry around stuffed giraffes all over the house : ) 

how do you like the MC Hammer pants I made?

2 legit 2 quit!

Thomas eating broccoli! Yes he eats broccoli : )

Up Close

Caleb, this face meets the golden ratio : )

E, worried

T, even though you have a dumb look on your face you are still beautiful!

post bath is a great time to take up close shots, no buggers for once : )

2 yrs and 1 mo!

CET, C has always been my different looking triplet and I like to joke around that he is our fraternal child. But lately I feel like C and T are looking more alike while Eli being almost a pound lighter is looking more like the different one (not quite since I can still spot Caleb the easiest).  

Eli calling my attention to something he hears

T, making good use to our rain gear, you can't go without it here! 

C

since I brought out their rain boots the boys have been rather obsessed with them and wear them all day long, even in the house : ) 

unsuccessful group photo

pumpkin patch outing #2 was super muddy

poor Eli kept tripping not only because it was muddy but also because his boots are about two sizes too big : (  

The boys haven't called my bluff that they can't go outside without wearing their hats! They look so cute in them : )  

T

T, C

E, ugh! Gag me with a pitch fork!

Whenever I got asked how old the boys were I always had to pause for an awkward second to think how many months old they were. It was hard to ever get used to it since each month it changed! It's so nice now that they are two because for some reason don't feel obligated to tell people how many months old they are and I can just say two now! Well actually I say 'they just turned two' and once they are closer to 2.5 yr I'll probably say almost two and a half, hehehe!

Smart Boys!

Our pre-preschool activities the last two weeks have included an introduction to scissors, painting with water colors, learning shapes, and letter recognition. I keep it pretty casual since they are two year olds with very short attention spans, although I think they do pretty good for only being two. I engage them as long as they will let me and use what ever it is they are playing with to bring up the topics we are working on. Like pointing out shapes that are in their toys or pointing out letters from a book they've brought me to look at with them. We don't have a schedule or anything like that, I just go with the flow and they have been learning a lot. I am surprised at how quickly they pick things up.

The boys thought scissors were pretty cool but I think it will be a while before they fully get the concept. They get the fact that they cut but using them properly is more the challenge.

I didn't realize how much problem solving is required in water colors. It's not so intuitive to take your brush from water to color to paper. The tendency was to go from the water to the paper or the color to the paper. After two painting sessions Thomas started getting the hang of it but the other two not so much. It's challenging and that's the point! We'll keep trying : )

We've also been working on some shapes and I'm certain we've nailed circles, squares and triangles (and maybe stars). Next week we'll move onto some other new shapes to learn.

I thought letter recognition might be a bit too challenging and wasn't really expecting them to be ready for this but to my pleasant surprise the boys have learned the letters C, E and T. I can get them to point to any of these letters from among words. Eli even knows both upper case and lower case 'E.' We still need a little polishing here but I think that's pretty cool! This will be very helpful if we ever want to label things to cut down on fighting since we can't use a picture of them selves since they all look the same, ha!

During these early formative years kids that get a lot of mental stimulation will do so much better in school later on. I'm so glad we signed up for this program since I probably would have never thought scissors at this age would be appropriate. I would have thought finger painting would be a more age appropriate activity when in reality aside from it being a new experience what's the challenge in that? I don't know if this is too high of a goal but I'm secretly hoping I can teach them to read before they even start kindergarten, how cool would that be : )

I feel like the boys have been talking a lot more lately, not so much new words but repeating the words they know a lot more and using them appropriately without any prompting from me. A couple new words this week are zip and yuck.

The boys are also becoming more social and interactive with strangers (meaning not me or Phil). They do really well shaking hands if I ask them to greet someone and saying bye (without me telling them to say it).

Here is a video of the boys just being cute and funny, Eli dancing and then the boys playing with some cabinets (try and see if you can hear them saying 'bye' and 'all done')