Not my proudest moment...

Or should I say, don't read if you have a weak stomach. Ella may be a smart girl, but she is going through a less than pleasant 2 year old phase (at least I hope it is only that) of picking her nose all the time. The story she will one day wish I didn't post goes like this: Yesterday morning Kay Kay went to help Ella go potty. E has become pretty independent and only likes to use the big potty without her potty seat. That is fine with me... makes her much more portable. Anyway, she had Kay remove the potty seat so she could hold herself up and "not shaul in". Then as Kay went to help her up onto the potty, just as nonchalantly and politely as you could imagine, she said, "Here Kay-Kay, could you please hold this booger for me?" Thank goodness Kay didn't run straight for the door and instead stuck around to explain to her that there are things that you just can't ask someone to do for you. Oh my goodness!!! I was mortified... Suggestions for getting a 2 year old to stop picking her nose at any given time? Please???

Vacation Bible School

Ella and Lily ride the train

Landon enjoys the ride

More kiddos enjoying the train

Dusty and Bee- All aboard

This has been a milestone week for Ella. She has enjoyed for the first time a small taste of school... vacation Bible school, that is. It has been lots of fun to watch her interact with all the other children, and other adults too. She has been pretty sheltered up until this point. I'm afraid that going forward she is going to be totally bored to be stuck here in this house with only her sisters to entertain. The nights have been awfully late, 6-9pm VBS put us home and in bed way past her usual 8pm bedtime. She has been coping by actually taking an afternoon nap again for the week. Hopefully we'll be able to stick with the naps and get back to the early bed time soon. We have really had fun; I'll post more pictures after the play day tomorrow morning.

Presents!!!

Gamma came in this afternoon for a visit, and she brought presents. So while Ella was away happily playing at Vacation Bible School with her friends, the babies had the opportunity to open a few gifts without her heup. It was one of those situations that left us scratching our heads saying, why do we bother with actual toys? The box was their absolute favorite part!

Sarah, Maggie, and Kate attack

Maggie poses - every time I get out the camera

Meanwhile, Ella is enjoying her friends at VBS

Swimming with Friends

Kate poses for the camera

VJ enjoys the water table

Kelli and Sarah playing in the pool

We have been incredibly busy this week... so I've mostly just got pictures from all our adventures. These are a few of the best ones from an afternoon spent swimming with lots of friends and their kiddos. We have had Aunt Kari here for a visit for a week, and we're trying to make the most of our time with her! It is so nice to have her close to home- unfortunately I didn't get any good pics of her with the babies in the water, and she'd kill me if I posted the bad ones!!

Miss Ella

Ella has been wow'ing me with the things she says and does lately. I've been trying to keep track in my head so that I won't forget, but I'm sure I've already forgotten lots... the picture is her idea of finger painting. I left the back porch (where messy crafts are often done) for just a few minutes, and by the time I got back she was already painting her face.

About a week ago she brought me a book into the kitchen first thing in the morning and said, "Mommy, your letter is on this book. Here is an M for you." Now, we have talked about my letter being M, Daddy's is D, Sarah's is S, you get the picture, but we've never pointed the letters out in books. Instead we have been using the foam floor mats that we play on. I was so excited about the fact that she was taking what she learned and applying it to other areas that I asked one of our sweet volunteers Ms. Kit about it. I wondered out loud to her what I should be doing to encourage her reading skills. Ms. Kit said to not worry about reading and instead focus on math with our house full of girls. In all her years of teaching first grade she said it was very rare for a girl to not learn to read unless there were learning disabilities involved. So now we are trying to incorporate some numbers into our daily discussions as well. She'll be ready for preschool in no time!!

Aside from being very smart, Ella is also pretty manipulative. She knows what she wants and will do and say anything to get it. She came to me a couple of days ago and said, "Mommy, Baby Sah-wah and I weely want a cookie." I don't know why she thought she needed to include Sarah, who doesn't eat cookies yet, in the request.... unless she sees how the babies needs are constantly being met? I had to take away play-doh priveledges for a few days several days ago because she didn't want to help clean up. Last night after dinner she asked to play play-doh and I reminded her why we couldn't. She said, "I'll cwean up THIS time." I said no but maybe in another day or so, to which she replied, "How bout chalk then?"

She is a very pleasant child on the whole, and often melts my heart with the things she says. I asked her to check on Kate while I was in the babies room changing Maggie and Sarah the other day. Kate tends to get into things she shouldn't when left alone. Ella grinned over at me and said "It would be my pleasure." Now what mom wouldn't love that response out of a toddler?

Late 9 Month Check-ups

We took the babies for their 9 month check-ups today. They are actually closer to 10 months, but here are the stats....
M 18lb 11oz 27.5"
K 18lb 2oz 27.25"
S 18lb 2oz 28"

Everyone received one shot and a clean bill of health... the doc said we are all right on track with other 10 month old babies developmentally. Good job girls!!

Big Bed Results....

Well last night I got up to take care of S about 1:45am, and on my way to the babies room I saw this.... Apparently E had fallen out of her big bed onto the floor without ever waking up! I left her there for a while, long enough to deal with S, and then I took a quick picture, picked her up, and put her in her crib. Guess we'll have to wait to sleep in the big bed until I can get some kind of rail or something. At least I had put a pillow on the floor beside the bed in case of just such an event.

A Slice of the Day

S & K are "in the TV"

meanwhile, M strikes a pose

and E climbs through the roof!

We had no big plans and accomplished nothing today, but we had some fun moments with Katie and Nanna Betty here helping out. For the last few days E has been napping again, only she is doing so in her big girl bed now. I told her that if she would nap without getting out of the bed for a few days in a row that she could try sleeping at night in there. I realized this afternoon that today was the 4th day in a row with a successful nap... including 2 weekend days, so tonight she is sleeping in the big bed. I really can't describe how quickly it seems she has grown up on me. Suddenly, in just the last 3 weeks or so, she seems to have lost lots of her baby qualities and gained so many big girl charactaristics. She is amazing! I can't believe how happy and sad I am about this at the same time.

The babies are very fun to watch these days. They are so aware of one another.... always looking to see what the others are playing with and getting into. I can count on the fact that if one finds trouble it won't be long before the others are also involved. They move in a little pack most of the time... one right after the other. They are quite skilled at using people as human jungle gyms. All of them get the occasional case of the "I NEED MY MOMMY's". Fortunately for me, they usually only go through that one or two at a time, and I have 2 arms. They are all very mobile and becoming sturdier on their feet. I've seen all 3 of them at separate times cruise the fireplace or couches... I have a feeling it won't be long until we have walkers!!

Enough rambling...

Father's Day Morning Photos

Father's Day at the Pool

Happy Father's Day

Happy late Father's Day to Daddy, Pop, Pop C., Papa Gary, and Grandaddy Blair. We had a fun filled evening at Mimi & Pop's pool yesterday. E had a great time playing with cousins... especially Cayden. The food was great and the company even better! Unfortunately it wasn't exactly a relaxing time for Scott as he was in the pool managing at least 2 kiddos at all times as you can see in the photo above, but he enjoyed himself thoroughly ( and that's what counts). The babies all had a blast playing in the water as well. We had some very tired little gals at the end of the day. Happy Father's Day to the very best Daddy four little girls could ever have!!

Friday Night Date...

...play date that is. E had a great offer to go to the park this evening with her good buddy Chase. She has walked around most all day with not a stitch of clothing on. However, the minute I asked if she would like to go with them she went straight to her room and got herself dressed. I took that as a YES! Minutes after that she was at my side asking every few seconds, "Is Chase here yet?". They apparently had a wonderful time. Theirs is a very interesting relationship so far. Chase is an older man (he'll be 6 soon), and because we lived far away for E's whole first year, he referred to her as Baby E for the longest time. Then because he is a preschooler and the babies were quarantined for RSV season, we didn't get to see much of them this past winter. Now they're finally getting to be friends in reality and not just imagination. It is so nice to see theirs beginning as the next in a very long line of friendships.... Pop and Chase's Pawpaw are best buddies, Chase's mom and I are best friends, and now we get to watch these guys grow up as friends. However, on the way home Chase was overheard politely asking E to "please stop calling me honey"! Too cute. I suppose her affections were just a little too much for him. We got this quick picture of them while they were eating their picnic supper.

Kissy Face & Sound Effects

Today at lunch S was really enjoying her yogurt. Then she started making this really cute kissy face... smacking her lips and asking for more. By the time I got the camera I was lucky to get her to repeat it, but she did somewhat cooperate.

Pajama Time

Sorry, still not doing great about remembering to take pics during the day. Here are a few we took the other night. E was pulling the babies around in the mega blocks wagon.... great fun! Hopefully I'll do better tomorrow. We weren't home long enough today to take any good photos. We made our first shopping trip to the outlet malls with Mimi, Ms. Sydney, E, and all the babies. It was a pretty decent time. We left after first naps, had lunch out at the food court, and returned home in time for bottles and second naps. After dinner we went to Mimi & Pop's pool to cool off. All four of the girls really seem to love the water! Hooray!! It really tires them out and helps with the recent sleeping issues...

Whew...

Dear Friends and Family,

I have not abandoned the blog. We have simply had a great deal going on around here lately. Not the least of which is the fact that E decided Friday before last that she was finished with diapers. She is 27 months old... I was going to wait to make any formal attempts at potty training until she was 3, but she woke up and said she wanted panties instead. This is definately the best method of potty training that I could have hoped for... mom does nothing and child trains self. I do ask her numerous times daily if she needs to go, but truly other than that we do nothing differently. She even went on an 8+ hour road trip to Memphis to visit Kari the first Sunday after with only three stops for potty break! I'm still amazed and in shock and hope I haven't jinxed us with my ramblings here, so enough potty talk.

I have not been blogging much mainly because I lost my muse since poor S has decided sleep is for the weak again. No time to post or do anything fun in the evenings of late as I'm holding her in my arms for hours on end. I've posted before the fact that S is the baby of the group, and since these will be my last I suppose I indulge her too much in this manner. However, I guess tough mommy will have to come back soon because I am beginning to feel the stress and fatigue of not sleeping properly once again. No extra creative juices flowing for taking great pictures of the kiddos doing fun stuff either; don't worry, I'm sure when the sleep issues are resolved we'll be back in business.

For now, I'll report that I attended an absolutely beautiful wedding Saturday night that was so nice I left with an "all's right with the world" kind of feeling. I was actually the first person to arrive at the ceremony. I guess that's what happens when you have triplets and are allowed out of the house on a weekend night... In fact, I believe I was running toward the door when Mimi arrived to take over for me! After spending a wonderful evening chatting with old friends I came home to hold Sarah for 3 hours before she finally fell asleep enough to put down.

I got to go to the wedding thanks to my dear friend Joan who spent yet another weekend here at Babyland. She is really awesome. Scott and I had some good time alone with E while she entertained and cared for the babies Saturday morning, also. Thank you, thank you, thank you Joan for so selflessly coming and caring for my family so that I can be totally free to do the things I want to do!

Finally, if anyone is still reading (I know most of you are just looking for the pictures) I have a funny little E story to tell. This morning after E woke up she was dancing around the living room like a little indian. I asked her what she was up to, and she said she was doing a rain dance. Cute, so I reminded her that we need to pray for some rain today. She made her request to God for some aa-in. We had a nice little rain shower this afternoon and E got to go out and run in the rain for a little while. Afterwards, I reminded her that we should say thanks to God for sending the rain today, and she said "Dear God, Sank you for the aa-in. It was nice."

So, hopefully more photos and less words next time...

All About S

Okay, so the grandmother's were beginning to fear that I was going to forget to dedicate a post to S. So here goes... S is definately the baby of the bunch. I know I've mentioned that before, but even though she is only the youngest by less than 1 minute, she still plays the part like a pro. It seems everyone babies S. M & K will usually cruise by and give her a quick kiss on the head in the mornings while she is still finishing her bottle. She is E's favorite baby too(this month anyway). When I first began trying to get the babies to sleep on their own, this child could cry for the entire length of time that I would let her... 15 minutes or 1.5 hours... did not matter. Turns out I was just a terrible mom and was keeping her up longer than her little body could handle. Once I started putting her down first and before she acted tired, she would simply roll over and go straight off to sleep. What a relief to finally figure that one out! During the trial and error of that whole process, however, she spent many an extra hour in my arms, thereby earning her the title of "baby" in my mind. She started out the heaviest at 5 lb 6 oz but quickly fell to last place in weight standing. She probably weighs about a pound less than M at this point. She's still only got one tooth, but she's working very, very hard on the next one. She is usually very content and plays well on her own. S is very stubborn; she will not eat something, not even try it a second time, if she doesn't like it on the first go around. She shakes her head no, no as the answer to almost every question ever posed. She is stubborn and willful as most family babies are, she was the first to say dadada and babbles all the time, and she is adored by everyone around here. We all just love her to pieces!!

Blueberry Daisy Dresses

Thank you Ms. Emileigh for the very cute dresses! We wore them to church for homecoming today. Everyone thought we were super cute, and mom said we were really good. We sat relatively still and quiet for almost 2 hours... can anyone believe that? Mom was sure suprised! Anyway, we just wanted to say thanks. Love- k, m, & s

Happy Anniversary

Congratulations to Nanny and Pop C. on their 56th Wedding Anniversary!!!!!

All About K

"Are you sure I'm not having a good hair day, Mom?"

From the very beginning, even in the days of ultrasound pictures only, we have joked that K was actually my sister's baby. She was always putting her rear end in someone else's face and then waving to us back in those days. Since she has been outside my body she has continued to remind me of Kari in so many ways. People even say that they look alike. She was the first to get a tooth- now she has 6. She was so active early on that I would have bet money on her for first to crawl, but instead she was last. She would sit in the floor and cry because the other two were getting the things she wanted but was too lazy to roll to them. When we first started feeding finger foods, she would sit like a little bird with her mouth wide open and wait for me to put something in it instead of reaching down in front of her for the food! She seems to be the most communicative so far... don't want to jinx her here though. She is eager to cheer for herself and her sisters. When she finally did start to crawl, if we cheered her on she would stop, sit, and clap for herself. She says hi and bye with a cute little wave. She also likes music, and I think so far she is the bookworm of the group. There have been a few knock-down, drag- out fights over a little rubber duckie book the girls have. K is always at the middle of them... for some reason she feels she is entitled to have every book in the house exactly when she wants them. She is always the first to smile... what a twinkle she has in her little eyes! This child is just so darn easy to love. I know I mentioned the similarity to Kari...

Advice for those expecting triplets

Yesterday afternoon, amid a no nap taking scream fest here, I had a call from someone expecting triplets (friend of a family member). It was the second time someone expecting triplets had asked for any advice I might have. So here it is, for what it's worth. Just a few tidbits that I would offer to those expecting three....

1. Accept all the help and volunteers that offer... just be sure to have a system set up so that people are coming and doing when and what you need them to and not adding to your stress.
2. During the first few sleep deprived months try to have help lined up even during the night time hours so that you occasionally get a break to sleep.
3. During those same months your mind and body will suffer, but rest easy knowing that in only a couple of months more (or 7 months if yours are anything like ours) when the babies are actually sleeping at night, you will probably remember that it was bad, but won't be able to specify what was bad about it.... other than the sleep deprivation because your beautiful, interactive, smiling, SLEEPING babies are so much fun!
4. Don't plan on going out much, especially if the babies are born during RSV season. Even if you weren't a germaphobe before, chances are good that will change when you have 3 tiny, premature babies in your care. No children or sick people even came to our house from October to April. We are finally out and about, and I don't sweat people talking to and touching the babies at all like I used to... the babies even eat the occasional cheerio (and who knows what else) off the floor here at home or even 'gasp' a restaurant table.
5. I wish I'd started the blog earlier so that I could more easily look back at all the milestones the babies have hit, but see items 2 and 3 as to why I just got started.... no extra time for anything but sleep.
6. The hardest thing for me at first was just not having enough hands to hold and comfort them all at the same time. It was nice to have someone else here to help Scott and I so that each baby had someone holding and loving them individually at feeding time. Now that they are mobile, all I have to do is sit and play with them in the floor and they make their way over for hugs and kisses when they want them... which, fortunately for me, is very, very often!! We also had E to consider in terms of making time for her to have mommy and daddy time, individual attention that she was so accustomed to, etc. That might have been the hardest part instead... hummm, not sure which was hardest.
7. Don't let other people convince you that you can't breastfeed because you have triplets, but also don't wear yourself out in the attempt. The pump and I made it through 6 months of torture, and by 7 months they were weaned from breastmilk to formula. I hope that I did some good with all that pumping- they got what they needed to grow healthy and strong, but I can't tell that they have suffered in any way due to formula for the last few months. An added bonus was loosing all the pregnancy weight and still eating everything under the sun...
8. Enjoy your babies as much as you can at every single stage because just like with singletons they grow up way too fast.... the days are long, but the years are short!

Hope this helps someone, and for all the family and friends reading, don't worry- tomorrow it will be back to pictures and kiddo updates!