Maggie's Walking Now

Here she is doing her thing!

Mom Tricks

One night this week we had meatloaf, peas, mashed potatoes, and cornbread for supper. Now, I've tried on several occasions to feed the girls mashed potatoes, and each time they have refused. However, this particular evening we were at Mimi's and immediately when she finished using the mixer on the potatoes, we gave 2 little gals the beaters and dipped a spoon in the bowl for the other baby. They ate them like they had never eaten before.... even after downing all the meatloaf, peas, and cornbread their little bodies could consume. It was like I was giving them candy because they were able to hold the spoon (and/or beater) covered in potatoes themselves. I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me to document the occasion. So maybe when they start using utensils that they hold themselves meal time will become less stressful?!? Doubt it, but one can always dream, right?

Flashdance & A Flashback

I intended to post this picture day before yesterday of Ella after her time of "rest", ha, ha. She was dressed normally when she entered her room for a nap, and when she came into the babies room to find me an hour later she was dressed like she belonged in the Flashdance video. We laugh often at the fact that with Ella's choice in clothes and accessories we fear she may have missed her generation... she's a true child of the 80's!

Tonight as I was preparing to get in the shower I had a flashback to 6 months ago... to a time when I first began to spend small amounts of time alone with all of my children. In order for me to shower and not have the whole family/neighborhood up here making sure everything was okay, I had to first call a couple of them and alert them to the fact that I would be unable to answer the phone. It seems that in little flashes I can remember how hard last year was, but fortunately most of it is a blur... the hard part anyway.

I certainly wouldn't trade our new challenges for our old ones. I absolutely love the little people that the girls are turning into. I think Maggie, Kate, & Sarah are doing things sooner than Ella did, and my only guess as to why is that they have each other and Ella to look to and therefore only have to make a quarter of the mistakes to reach the desired results... it probably doesn't hurt that they have a good leader in Ella either. For example, the babies are now about the age Ella was when we settled into our new lives here and introduced her to her favorite play place, Burger King. I distinctly remember that she wasn't able to make it up onto the first level without help, and yet all three of the babies, when given the opportunity, are able to crawl up the slides, through the entire easy level, and really cover some ground there.

Final important note for the day is that Maggie has begun walking. She's only taking a few cautious steps away from the furniture at a time, but she's doing it all on her own. She looks so proud! I'll try to catch her on video soon.

No Rain In This House

This was how Ella looked when she came out of her room after "resting" for about 30 minutes this afternoon. Nap time has rapidly diminished to quiet play/ dress up/ insanity for our little E!

"Can't see out from under this hat, Mom. Don't you think I'm cute?"

On her way back to her room for the remainder of my one hour of daytime peace.

This morning started off with a bang. I knew today was going to be yucky because Sarah woke up with a fever of 101 degrees, and Kate threw up her entire morning bottle... all before 7am. The three little ones were cranky, not feeling well, and just generally disagreeable. Sarah tried all day long to tell us something with grunts! The child is so frustrated by not being able to communicate with words- I am so thankful for the little sign language she already knows, but even that didn't help today. Add to the sickies the fact that Ella didn't actually take her much needed afternoon siesta, and I'm just one tired mommy! More tomorrow, and hopefully only good stuff... No more rain in this house!

Sesquicentennial Parade

Our town is celebrating it's Sesquicentennial (150 years) this year. We've had several weeks worth of festivities...today was the big parade. Because churches are some of the only entities that have been around as long as the county, many of them had floats in the parade. We went along this morning to provide the caboose to our church's train. Ella got to ride on the actual train (a well disguised/decorated golf cart) with Dusty and Kim, and the babies tagged along in their choo-choo wagon. You'd think they pulled themselves as tired as they look in the picture from the car on the way home! Thanks to Cindy and the gang from church for inviting us to take part, and to Mimi, Mike, & DooDah for helping make the morning go so smoothly.

More Please

We are loving our Signing Times DVDs. Sarah signed "more, please" yesterday and has continued doing it all day long today... when she wants to be pushed more on the tricycle, when she wants more watermelon... you name it, she wants more of it, please. It is way too cute for words!

Tonight while in the bath Kate reminded me that she needed to brush her teeth. They all get such a proud look on their little faces when you are able to understand what they are trying to say.

Ella was watching the Baby Signing Time DVD's last night as we were putting the babies in the bed and was wholeheartedly attempting to perfect every sign that she saw. She is excited when she's able to make her fingers do what they are supposed to...

Two thumbs up for these DVD's from the whole gang!

On the Move

One of the same age group triplet moms posted a question regarding babies and climbing a few days ago on our forum. Here was my response.

I have one Houdini, one climber, and one walker.
Houdini-
The girls were at my mom's one day last week when she had to call my dad inside from working to help her. He said she was in a panic saying that she had LOST one of the babies. She went to the bathroom and left them all 3 playing in their toy box in her family room. When she came back just minutes later Kate wasn't there. The basement door was locked, the gate was up at the bottom of the stairs going to the upper level, and all the outside doors were closed, but she couldn't find Kate anywhere. Mom is generally very level-headed, but that day after she checked under the bed, behind the furniture, and made 3 laps around her house calling for Kate, she phoned my dad to get inside ASAP... meanwhile I was in town with Ella. Almost as soon as dad walked in the door mom happened to look up to the top of the staircase, and there was Kate... smiling like the Cheshire cat! All the times mom had called her name and walked by the staircase, I just can't help but wonder if she was sitting up there grinning. We have no idea how she got around, under, over or through the gate and banister rails. I just can't imagine her head, much less her body would fit through either of them, but climbing the outside of the gate is also very hard to believe.
Climber-
Maggie will climb on anything that presents itself. Yesterday she pushed a little tykes chair into the bathroom and used it to climb up onto the bathroom counter. This morning she used the same chair to climb up onto the table out in the play room. I walked in after sweeping the kitchen floor quickly and found her "dancing" up on the table. I almost had a heart attack. Later this morning all 3 girls worked together to push a little plastic chair up to the big rocking chair in Ella's room and then they proceeded to climb up into it and rock it together. Gotta love teamwork!
Walker-
Sarah has finally decided that walking is better than crawling. Somehow this seems far less stressful than Maggie's climbing and Kate's disappearing skills! To borrow words from Dr. Seuss... Oh, the places we'll go (when they are all 3 walking)! Yikes!!

Ella and Kindermusik Tales

Ella attended her first Kindermusik class today. She loved Ms. Lou and was excited about all the singing and dancing. The class is pretty full. I think there are about 12 children 18 months to 3 years old in there, plus their parents and a couple of infant siblings... it is going to be a wild and crazy adventure for us both. I love that she enjoys music so much. It is fun to hear her singing to herself all the time, and I believe that this class is only going to help encourage that. While we were still at home getting ready to go (and she was "helping" me put on my make-up), she got out the eyelash curler. Now, I'm not much of a make-up person at all. I almost never use the eyelash curler, so when she asked if I was going to ooze it I said that I only use it on special occasions. She looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Well, I would ooze it on Wednesdays." We came to the agreement that if she could tell me what letter Wednesday starts with in 3 tries that we would both be sporting curled eyelashes at our first Kindermusik class... and I must say, we had some of the prettiest eyelashes there. On the way out of the building she gave me one of her very best fake cries and said, "Mom, I'm gonna miss Ms. Oou when we get home." She's such a sweetie!

Watermelon Eating Contest

Sorry for the overload. Lots of new pictures tonight... I finally got them all downloaded today, so we're up to date picture wise.

We gave the girls watermelon last night for dessert and then ended up letting them just have a hay-day with it. It was great fun to watch! Ella is absent in these pictures because she DOESN'T LIKE watermelon. She'll be the subject of my next post.

Sarah

"This is my serious face.... I use it a lot."

"Look how filthy I am... mud is actually rolling down my leg!"

Sarah Bug is "the demanding one". She is a child who knows what she wants and doesn't stand for anything less. She is the pickiest little eater, and her size shows it. I'm working hard to fatten her up a bit, but she really wants to be a fruitarian (if there is such a thing). I have yet to find a fruit that she doesn't gobble up, but other foods are another thing all together. She has always been a TV watcher... I mean, if it is on she zones in. She also loves watching the Signing Time DVDs that we have and knows lots of signs. Today while we were at the mall there was a young lady sitting next to us in the food court with a hat on, and Sarah gave herself a nice, sticky hairdo by signing hat over and over again with messy hands. She just wouldn't stop until both Mimi and I acknowledged the hat; it was too funny! After a couple of weeks of being up with Sarah at night, I discovered last week that she has 5 teeth instead of just 2. Whew... glad to know it wasn't just a bad habit! Even though she is demanding, I find it quite endearing that lots of the time what she is demanding is attention from me or someone else. KayKay likes to say that Sarah just wants everyone to think that they are her favorite.... anyone who is close enough to pick her up is great!! She is a total snuggle bug and knows about a thousand and one ways to climb/sneak into your lap. I certainly enjoy making room for sweet Sarah in my lap.

Kate

"Check out my filthy dress. Isn't it hilarious", she says!?!

"I'm taking these glasses off, immediately."

Even though she's not shining it in any of these photos, Kate is still our girl with the million dollar smile! She can light up a room in a hurry with it. She is often in the middle of things, but can play very well by herself. She doesn't need a lot of attention to be happy, but it is a real pleasure to snuggle on her. She loves to give kisses to all the baby dolls, and anytime there is something soft on the floor she makes a bee-line over and piles onto it. She currently has 7 or 8 teeth, I think. She also likes to know where Ella is at all times... Kate calls after her big sister constantly. In a lot of ways Kate is the most easy going little girl we've got... thank goodness there's at least one!

Maggie

Maggie is our joker, hat/sunglasses wearing, adventurer... who happens to be the most shy when someone new comes around. Oh, and she's also the one who is most afraid of loud noises. She loves to watch Baby Signing Time and is the first one to sign for me to turn it on before bedtime. She is the best eater I've got... we sometimes call her Mikey (Give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything, remember?). I'm pretty sure she has 7 teeth, but don't hold me to that. She is a great sleeper and overall a wonderful little girl.

Tired Girls

We spent the entire morning out shopping... well, actually we went to the mall about an hour away from home and managed to "shop" only in Toys-R-Us and have lunch and a carousel ride... guess that still counts as shopping, ha,ha. The girls only slept for about 30 minutes in the car on the way home and that was it! So I put them down for a nap after we'd been home for 30 minutes or so. I always found that Ella had to unwind in the comfort of her own home before she could sleep- I figure the little girls will be the same way. I guess they were just too tired to sleep (yes, that does happen here) because after about 30 minutes of fussing that turned into crying, I called their nap time quits. Instead I got them all out of their beds and put their pillows and lovies on the floor and let them keep their paci's while playing in their room. Maggie and Kate immediately began to snuggle up to each other and their pillows/lovies. It was very, very cute so I grabbed the camera. I wish I'd grabbed the video camera because they were giggling and chatting with each other the whole time.

Sesame Street Live

Ella and I went to see Sesame Street Live yesterday afternoon with Dena, Ansley, and Brody. We all had a great time! It was lots of fun for me to watch Ella dance, sing, and wiggle her way through the afternoon. She got so excited when they sang the ABC song; she looked right up at me and said, "Yeah Mom, I know this one!". Even though it was during her regular nap time, she was pretty cooperative... except while I was trying to take a picture. Hence the "cute" picture of the back of her head... every one I took was like that so I just chose one where Ansley was looking and smiling with Dena and Brody in the background. An added bonus for both Dena and I was that in addition to having the opportunity to catch up on the drive down and back, neither of us was yelling to the back of the vehicle to answer any little girl's thousand questions because Ella and Ansley were too busy talking each other's ears off!! We had a great time. Thanks Dena and gang for inviting us to go along!

Waiting for DooDah

I just love the photos of Ella waiting by the window with her bags packed watching for Donna... we have pictures of Kari and I sitting at the end of our driveway with coats on and suitcases packed waiting for Donna to come home from work.... her house was where we always "ran away" when we felt the need. Looking back I can only imagine how much my mom must have welcomed those breaks from us occasionally... probably as much as I needed Ella's DooDah time tonight! Thank you so much Donna!!

Ella was so excited to find out this afternoon that she was going to play with Cayden at DooDah's house tonight that she even managed to take a good nap starting at 2pm. She slept until 4pm, and then wandered around until 5:15 asking if it was time to go yet. She packed her bag.... including her house shoes, PJ's, toothbrush and lots of other good stuff. No one mentioned spending the night, she was just hoping that would be the case. From what I hear she and Cayden had a great time! She made an attempt at spending the night, but without her 2 best paci's she just couldn't do it. She arrived home around 8:45pm a very tired little girl.