Girls’ Room, Part II

So much to blog about. So little time! With a new year comes new resolution to get caught up on some blogging. Hopefully my intentions will come to fruition. It’s actually a good thing that I am so behind, because I have been enjoying life so much that I haven’t had time!

I decided to start with the girls’ room, because we are just about ready to start on the boys’ room! So it’s definitely time! To read Part I about the girls’ room, click here.

We did finally get the girls moved into their new room, back in July. They absolutely love it! Sometimes they don’t even let their brothers in. Believe it not, we still have some things to finish up, like flower boxes on their playhouse, and my Dad has offered to build them a little shelf for their books. But here it is during move in time.

We weren’t able to get the beds to fit the way that we originally planned. (I know you are shocked to hear that our plans didn’t turn out again!) Those of you who are really observant may notice that we have a different ladder, too. My Dad kindly made a new one for us as the original one went into the doorway. My Mom got the princess canopy and flower lamp for the girls. I think they just make the room! And the dresser used to be Dave’s when he was a kid. It fits perfectly, don’t you think! Papo and Grandma are so proud to see their granddaughters getting good use out of it!

Lauren couldn’t have been happier about finally being in a big girl bed like her sister. She originally refused to have a bed rail put on her bed. That very night I tried to put it up, she fell out of bed and ending up sleeping in the playhouse. But now she has outgrown it and sleeps like a big girl without it (or any diapers, too!) I also love that I can come in and kiss her cheek at night, too.

Alyssa is thrilled with her bed and all the high storage she has for her treasures. At first, the ladder was too steep for her siblings to climb up, but all good things must come to an end. There have been a couple incidents where little brothers have sneaked up there while she was at kindergarten. Anger ensued. But she has found ways to make lemons out of lemonade and now puts stickers over the marks the vandals have put on the ceiling above her bed.

There are other times, though, when the girls are feeling really generous. They let the boys come in, crank up the Doodlebops, and share their bed for a little party! I love watching them all have a good time and enjoying their new space.

It was a lot of hard work, but so worth it now!

God bless,

Amanda

I've Got Chills - They're Multiplying......

We did a little, er, ah, family bonding last night. It was one of those nights you shudder to think about as a parent to 4, but it appears the storm has passed. Some kids will do anything to watch Finding Nemo at 2am! Alyssa and I are the lone ones standing, although I think we have both had a touch of the bug. She served her time with something similar 2 weeks ago, though.

It's never a good day when you start it by doing two loads of laundry at 12:30am. But despite all the people up and down the stairs, pulling cribs apart and wiping them down, and the laundry room churning at full throttle right across from Alyssa's bedroom, she slept through the whole thing!

We'd appreciate your prayers for us during this rough time. In particular, we have had some concerns about Jack lately, and him not gaining weight. I took him last week to see a specialist (pediatric pulmonologist) about his breathing troubles, and she did give us some good tools to use to try to keep us out of the ER (4 times in 4 months is too much).

However, she also ordered some further testing to rule out other problems. We are awaiting the blood test results to see if he has celiac disease or if his immune system responded well to some shots he was given in the past. Most concerning, is that he will be taking a "sweat test" next Monday. This is to rule out Cystic Fibrosis. The doctor thinks that, most likely, his problems are due to childhood asthma, but we have to make sure these other issues aren't a problem. Please pray with us that all test results will come out well. We may not get the results for another month, so the waiting is tough, too.

Jack was also tested by an allergist. He took those 16 pricks in the back like a champ. We did confirm that he is officially allergic to peanuts, cashews, milk and eggs. There is a 20% chance he could outgrow the nut allergy and a 70% chance he will outgrow the milk and egg allergy. (Alyssa was allergic to milk and eggs and did outgrown them at age 3.) We also found out that he is allergic to a mold that is common in the fall. That was a very helpful piece of the puzzle. The last two autumns, we have had a lot of sickness. So next year, we will start Jack on an allergy medicine and hopefully avoid some of the past misery! Lauren has to go in next for allergy testing, as she has shown some problems with milk. There have been some serious reactions to milk in England recently, so we need to get on top of that, too.

The good news is that both of the boys seem to be over their last cold. I think that Jack enjoyed having the company during the breathing treatments, though. He's back to being the lone ranger (get it? He's wearing a mask.) with preventative breathing treatments twice a day now.

I'd also appreciate your prayers for me as I am still going through physical therapy for some back problems. I need prayers for good health in general! It's time to get on with life!

More fun stuff later!

God bless,

Amanda

Snippets

Here are a few snippets from our life that don't particularly have anything to do with each other, but I have to record them somewhere so I can look back someday and laugh. You, on the other hand, can laugh about them today.

 

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We've known for a while that Lauren doesn't need as much sleep as the boys. Occasionally on the monitor, we will hear her wake up first and say, "Dack, wake up!" or "Dewww, wake up." We figure she gets bored and wants someone to play with. But Dave and I were cracking up when last weekend we heard her yelling "STAY AWAKE! STAY AWAKE!" at the top of her lungs. She may be little, but she sure can yell. The boys must have been out cold, because we didn't hear a response.

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I've told you already about the problems we had finding childproof knobs that Jack couldn't open. (Click here for Part I and here for Part II.) Now he has figured out how to climb over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, how to turn on a lamp (that bugged him for a whole day) and how to open the big sliding door on the van. Eye yi YI! This picture is of him working on the gate over a year ago.

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Drew, the big goofball, has now decided that it is fun to run around with his pants around his ankles. So out of the blue, he will just pull his pants down and start running around our yard until he trips and falls. I'm sure our neighbors probably wonder why we say "Drew, pull your pants up!" all the time.

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Alyssa had just taken some medicine when she realized she needed to use the facilities. She came to me to double check that this was ok. She was afraid she would wash the medicine out. I guess she thought there was a direct line from from her stomach to her bladder.

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This week, we were going through Alyssa's candy stash, trying to get rid of some things before Halloween. I was chewing a couple of pieces of bubble gum at the table while the kids finished up their dinner. Without even thinking about, I started blowing some bubbles. The kids were ooo-ing and aaaahh-ing at them and saying more and do it again. It never even crossed my mind that this would be something new and fascinating to them. So after about a dozen tries, I was able to get a really good bubble going. It was about the size of my head. Then all of a sudden it popped, as bubbles do. A ton of it stuck to my glasses (which I still haven't gotten off all the way - will peanut butter work on that?) and all over my cheek. As soon as the kids saw their Mommy with bubble gum all over her face, they broke into immediate hysterical tears. I guess I was a frightening sight. All Dave and I could do was laugh, and Dave is still walking around saying "That was awesome."

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One of the cutest things I get to watch is how Lauren just idolizes her big sister. She follows her around everywhere and tries to be just like her by putting her spoon in the sink like she does, putting her sippy cup of milk in the fridge like big sis and they even like to dress alike. One day in the back yard I noticed that Lauren was acting as Alyssa's little lackey by bringing sand back and forth between the sandbox and the treehouse on the top of their playset. That at least explained where all the sand was coming from. I love watching them play with their dolls together, though. It is too cute.

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Jack is by far my favorite to kid to clean up at the table. First of all, he is almost always the cleanest. He doesn't like to be dirty, and I can even tell when I am doing laundry which clothes were his. But I also love it when I wipe his face. He makes this "buh ba buh ba" sound as I wipe his mouth. I'll have to get a video of it sometime. It cracks me up!

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Drew is our ball fanatic. He sees balls everywhere he looks, be it a rock, cantaloupe or bald guy on the newspaper. One day in the backyard I was kind of bored and hit one of our balls with a bat. Drew looked at me as if to say "Mom, you've been holding out on me? I never knew you do that with a bat!" So I taught him how to hold the bat and swung a few times. Then I threw a ball straight up and we hit it. He got the sweetest smile on his face, like that was one of the neatest things he has ever done. So now every time we are in the backyard, he always brings me a bat and a ball. If I pitch him a beach ball, he can hit it back to me. See Mom and Dad, all those years of playing softball did help me later in life.

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Here's a conversation that Alyssa and I had recently:

A: Mommy, are you going to have any more new kids?

Me: No honey, I think I am done.

A: [Looks very disappointed and gets very upset.]

Me: Where would we put another baby?

A: Put it in the room with the rest of them.

Me: Where would we put its things?

A: In the room with the rest of their stuff.

Me: Well, how many more kids did you want me to have?

A: Five! I really like babies.

Me: I guess so! 

Once I got over the shock of this conversation, it made me feel better that she wasn't too scarred from having triplets join the family or she wouldn't be asking for another baby!

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Lately at our house, it seems like we have been having themes to our meals. One lunch became Knock Knock Joke Day. Of course, the jokes were only funny to the under 5 crowd, but the little kids at least got the jist of when to say "Who's there?" Another meal became Walrus Dinner Night. Just feed your kids sausage links and French fries, and you, too, can have Walrus Night at your house!

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Alyssa is now asking deep questions before she goes to bed at night. One night she asked me "Is Santa Claus real?" I started explaining about a man named Kris Kringle, and then she asked more questions. To one of them I answered, "Well, let's see what Daddy thinks." Then I ran downstairs, grabbed Dave by the hand, and said, "Help, she is asking questions about Santa Claus!" Tonight she was asking me all kinds of questions about how the sun comes up and down. The nerd in me couldn't resist talking about the rotation of the earth. She said she claims she understood it. We'll see. But who says you can't use a Biology degree when you are a full-time mom!

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Mondays are always tough days for me, as I am missing the help of my amazing husband as well as facing the prospect of me and the kids for the week. This Monday was particularly awful, though. The kids all had colds, and two of them were throwing up the day before, so a playdate was out. I'm not brave enough to take them many places by myself, so that meant another day at home. I happened to look outside as I was getting the kids breakfast, and my eye was drawn to a fluffy white tail. As I looked closer, it turned out to be a dead rabbit in our backyard. We do have a rabbit that visits us occasionally, and I wondered if it was him (that's him a while ago under the swingset like he owns it).

But I thought we were on good terms! How could he up and die on me with no husband around to rescue me, especially on a day when I needed the kids to run around in the back yard for all of our sanity? So after two hours, I decided I couldn't let it stop us from going out. So I approached it with a shovel. It took me two tries (with coming back in the house in between) before I could get within two feet of it. Then I got the idea to try to shove it into a box so I wouldn't have to look at it. The flaps got in the way, though. I tore those off and tried again, but ended up shoving the thing halfway under the fence. I screamed like a girl, I jumped up and down, and I ran away several times, but finally went at it with a shovel. I got it back from beneath the fence, but flipped it over. At least the eye on that side wasn't staring at me. Then I got it almost in the box (after more girl screaming, parading and the kids asking what I was doing), and then when I went to lift the box upright, it fell out again. It was one of those moments that I am sure would have cracked everyone up if I really was on a reality show. I was so girly it was unreal! Finally, I got it into the box and dragged it just outside the fence and ran inside and scoured my hands (even though I didn't touch the thing). Yes, I have a biology degree and did research for 9 years, but I never dissected anything  and I never killed anything that had eyes that could look at me (that was my rule). But I conquered my fear and it seemed like everywhere I looked the rest of the day were toys or books with bunnies on them. What a terrible Monday. That's not all that happened, but it was the worst of it. Am I imagining it, or did stuff like this start happening to me when I had triplets?

 

Hope your Monday was better than mine!

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

The Crib Wars

It all started one Wednesday morning, when I found all 3 little kids out of their cribs, still in their jammies and sleep sacks. Lauren and Drew were cuddling teddy bears, and Jack was holding a toy cell phone and trying to fix it. They were standing there shoulder to shoulder in front of one of the cribs waiting for me. You know something is up when you see 2 year olds standing still like that (I wish I had a picture of it). I think they were huddled together in hopes that they were safer that way. They were sitting perfectly still and not moving a muscle. I asked them why they were out of their beds, and not surprisingly, they didn't have a good answer. They looked so cute, though, it was all I could do to keep from laughing.

Fast forward to nap time, and I put them back in their cribs and went to read Alyssa a story. After I left Alyssa's room, I heard something that told me to check on the trio. I opened the door, and no kids were anywhere to be seen! I had just heard Lauren say "Shut the door." All 3 of them were enclosed in the closet and boy was I mad when they came out! I put them in different cribs to try to mix things up. I was hoping against hope that they would stay put.

I've been holding off and hoping it wouldn't come to this, but during nap time I finally ordered 3 crib tents. My friend Linda is a genius who found a site to order them from that is buy 2 get one free! Too bad I couldn't "beam them up" instead of waiting for UPS, though.

After their nap (which is a misnomer, because I don't think they slept at all) I found Jack and Lauren out of their cribs again. This time they had destroyed the closet and thrown everything on the floor. They got into a box of cards I had saved, safety/childproofing devices, they threw a picture frame on the floor, Lauren's party dress was on the floor and they barely looked up at me when I came in, because they were so busy going through their loot. Needless to say, sweet Drew, who stayed in his crib, got lots of attention and got to go first at everything that day. He was my favorite of the day. (Whoever is easiest to take care of is always my favorite.)

The next morning, I found all 3 kids out of their crib again. Lauren was by the reading chair, Jack was in the closet, and Drew was climbing the outside of his crib. No fear whatsoever! Well, Grammy had spent the night, because there was a bat in her house (that's a long story) so I had to usher them quickly downstairs so we didn't wake her up. It was tough to think of a way to discipline them quietly, but I told them their day was coming! 

Later, it was time to put the kids down for a nap again. I told them sternly to stay in their cribs or I would get out the crib tents. Well, after I got done with Alyssa, I heard the squeaking of the chair again. I went upstairs, and sure enough, they were all out, running free. So I got out the portable tents, set them up in the toy room and ushered their little mischievous bodies them into them.

A little bit later, Alyssa came and got me and said that Lauren was running around everywhere. The little stinker had figured out how to open the zipper! Not only that, but Jack was in his tent, but flipped completely upside down, and Drew was starting to crawl out of his. I remember Linda the genius saying that she used safety pins to keep the zippers together. I couldn't think for the life of me where the safety pins are these days though (we have moved so many sharp things like that up high, that I can't remember where they landed). I finally remembered they were in the sewing kit, way up high in our closet. So, I crammed them back in their tents, pinned all the zippers together, and left. The kids may have won the first two battles that nap time, but I was about to win the war!

After Jack flipped his tent over (sorry I don't have a picture of that one), we put the portable beds into their cribs. That worked out pretty well, but I think the tents get a little hot. Then a couple of days later the crib tents arrived. I have never tracked a package and watched for it's arrival like I have for that one! It killed me to see that it sat all weekend. I almost went and got it. They arrived late in the afternoon, so I only had time to wash them and set up one. It took a while, but it was so worth it! We figured if anyone would get out of it, it would be Jack. So he got to sleep in it the first night to test it out. It worked great! I love these things. They even have a loop on the end of the zipper that you can attach to one of the latches on the side to keep the kids from unzipping it.

Now, the crib tents are all in place, and the kids are used to them. The first few days, they actually slept more, too, (probably catching up from the nap that they missed). They think it's kind of a fun game to help us zip them shut. Drew is able to zip it shut all by himself now. I also like how they allow us to arrange the cribs however we want, without having to worry about them jerking the blinds down or ripping the border off the walls. If only I had bought them sooner, it might still look like a cute nursery with safari animals on the walls. Live and learn! At least I can claim victory in keeping them safe in their cribs during nap time!

 

 

Stay turned for the next saga: from nursery to nudist colony!

 

God bless,

Amanda

http://four-and-no-more.blogspot.com/

Back At Work

Well, I am back at work now. After a summer of leisure (sort of), I am back to watching the kids by myself for long stretches now. Last Wednesday, Dave went into school to get some things ready for Monday (his first official day back at school) and he had a coach's meeting afterwards. We kind of split the day and he took the kids to the grocery by himself in the morning (brave man, I know). I got to have lunch with some of my buddies from my previous career. When I got home, the kids were already down for a nap. We usually put them to bed in their sleep sacks (backwards, so they can't get them off). However, we have been having the leftovers of another stomach bug that the kids caught (the poor grandparents and other friends had to deal with sick kids while we were gone). So, the sleep sacks were all in the wash, so Dave put them down for a nap without them. Two little children didn't sleep the whole time naptime. The third, meanwhile, was sound asleep with his hiney hanging out and his diaper on the floor when I walked in to get the other two. And, nope, I wasn't lucky enough to escape cleaning up a mess this time.

While I was changing the sheets, the kids were going nutso. It's almost like Dave gave them mochas before he left or something. So the phone rang, and it was a friend from church asking me to speak at the upcoming women's retreat (pray for me!). During our somewhat deep conversation, I had to interrupt our conversation 3 different times. The first time was to break up a gang hitting incident. The second time was because they had pulled our cheap shades off the wall again. They took the roller the shades were on and were playing tug-of-war with it, having sword fights with it, and hitting each other with it. Then finally, they were fighting because they found two pairs of my shoes. But, since, there were four of them and only two pairs of shoes, a fight ensued. So while I was on the phone, I went into my closet and grabbed two more pairs of sacrificial shoes. I threw them at the kids much like a zookeeper giving raw meat to the lions. 

Afterwards I thought, you know what, I didn't miss having adventurous phone calls like that while I was in New York. I didn't think about wiping off the table and cleaning up food 3 times a day. Other people cleaned up after me! I didn't miss the whining, screaming, fighting, and disciplining that are an integral part of my day. I didn't miss times like on Friday when I was laying on the couch trying to have an adult conversation with my husband and my son came up and headbutted me in the eye. Then drooled on me when his Dad picked him up and made him say sorry. In New York, I would put things down, and no one would move them, except for the maid tidying up! (The maid!!!!) I ate hot meals start to finish, I had lots of adult conversations that weren't interrupted, and I only had to change clothes when I was the one who spilled something on them! And I didn't have to fix 3 different meals due to allergies and picky eaters. Instead, I had people cooking awesome food for me! I would sit and read a chapter or two in a book - non-stop, without interruptions, and without having to re-read a paragraph to remember what I was reading about. Now I am lucky to get an article read in the newspaper. Ahhh, boy did I need a break from all that, I mean this! Now, I get to deal with fun things like our DVD player, which now has no sound and the menus are all in Spanish (after Alyssa messed with the buttons to skip a scene on her movie). Yo hablo Espanol?

Another thing I didn't mess while we were in NYC was the war on ants. We have had a terrible time with them this year. Has anyone else out there? I can't imagine why we they would like our house, with 4 kids living here. Maybe it's because of times like a couple of days ago, when Lauren dragged the Sit 'n Spin over to the counter to use it as a ladder. She had found the grapes, but when I noticed they were way past their expiration date, I grabbed them before they got to her mouth. I know, I am such a mean mommy by not letting my kids eat rotten food. And if Jack hadn't pulled the Sit 'n Spin over earlier to turn the coffee pot on, she probably wouldn't have even known about the grapes. In case you are wondering why our kids don't just climb on the counters using chairs like most kids in America, it's because we put the chairs in the other room. That way they don't climb up and find the remote for the car and honk the horn (not that we don't do that ourselves) and do things like turn the coffee pot on! I will say one thing for the ants, though, at least they were nice enough to let Dave know where the dead rodent was in our garage instead of springing that one on me!

Did I mention how much I enjoyed having a maid clean up after us while we were on vacation. It was wonderful to come back to our room after seeing the sights and sounds and having the bed made, trash dumped, and the bathroom cleaned, including nice little V's folded onto the ends of the toliet paper. Now that I am home, I have decided that not only do my kids have new-dar, but they also have clean-dar. Clean-dar is when an alarm bell goes off in our children's heads to mess up something we have just cleaned. Like when I wipe off the door to the stove, then they come over and get fingerprints all over it. Or when I actually take time to wipe down the walls in the kitchen (this is not very often, I assure you), there are always new food spills on just those walls by the end of the day. Before we left, the kids put some really cheap stickers on the windows on either side of our front door. Well, with my I'm-all-refreshed-from-vacation burst of energy, I decided to get ambitions and scrape them off and get the Windex out. I had wrongly assumed that since these stickers barely stay on a paper for a day that they would come right off my windows. I'm sure the sun baking them on didn't help, but can anyone tell me why cheap sticker adhesive stands up to Windex but not the treacherous likes of a piece of paper?! Lucky for me, I have my trusty Pampered Chef tool, that also works great at taking concrete hardened oatmeal off the crevices of my kitchen table, too. And speaking of stickers, the other day I also found another cheap little sticker behind Lauren's ear that had been there most of the day. When I inquired why (that was my first mistake), I was told that Drew wanted to give her an earring. Again, why can these cheap little stickers stay put behind a triplet toddler's ear all day, and yet I am still left with stickers on my windows? Am I on Candid Camera?

The cribs were in this new formation when we got home from our trip (don't mind that little boy with toliet paper covering his tushy).

Why? Because when my mom went to get the boys up from their nap, and Drew was not only in Jack's crib, but bouncing on Jack's back! Just before we left, he had started doing a superman dive across the cribs, ending with a somersault landing in another crib.We tried another formation (not pictured) that also didn't work. What was my first clue? Dave asked me who was in what crib when I put them to bed after he got them up from their nap. Then we tried to go back to my mom's configuration (above) which would have been fine, except for one crib blocking the closet door. Evidentially, we put them too close, because Drew was landing in Lauren's crib again, and we weren't sure how he got there. I peeked in and saw him lean across (just the corners of their cribs were in the vicinity of each other). Then I heard Lauren grunt, like she was pulling hard on something. Then she said "Excuse us. Excuse us." (I have no idea where that came from. Maybe she thought that's what you say when you are coming through a tight space with something heavy.) Then I heard a thud and they laughed excitedly and started to play together. Mystery solved.

So now we have them in this configuration.

And check out the progress they have made on stripping the border. Jack has even made it down to the paint in one section.

We hire them out for very reasonable rates, if you are interested. I bet some of those home improvement shows could use them.

I don't mean to complain. I've just got the Monday-after-vacation blues. Except for today is Wednesday, and I've been back a week now. But I did start writing this on Sunday. But we had a pediatrician appt Monday (more on that later), and yesterday I threw my back out, and well, that's why I am finishing this on Wednesday. I really do love my kids and enjoy this crazy life we have, but I just wanted to reminisce about the good ole' days of vacation. Thanks for letting me vent!

God bless,

Amanda

PS Have I mentioned that 3 of my 4 kids now have a cold? I hope it's from the shots from Monday.

PPS How about those Olympics. I've gotten in the habit of thinking "Hey, let's watch the Olympics tonight and see Michael Phelps win a gold medal and break a world record!"

Moving Day

We have tried many different combinations of sleeping arrangements for our kids over the last two years. First, we had them all 3 in our room, which was very handy for the middle of the night feedings. But then it started to sound like a barnyard (picture sheep and goat sounds), so we moved them all into the nursery.

Then, Lauren went through a rough spell of double ear infections and cutting teeth, which made her really hard to calm down at night. This was also when it was time to transfer them from bassinets to cribs. So we moved Jack and Drew into the guest room. We could frequently hear them entertaining each other on the monitor, especially when Jack was able to rock back and forth on his hands and knees (they both thought that was hilarious).

So that obviously left Lauren was in her own room (Alyssa's nursery when she was a baby). This worked especially well when Lauren only needed one nap a day, but the boys needed two. Alyssa also seemed to like this and enjoyed visiting her siblings in their cribs.

Then we noticed that Lauren would get really upset when we put her to bed a night. I consulted with my expert panel of multiples moms and it seemed like all of them put their trio (or quads) in the same room at this age and they slept pretty well. So we decided to try putting them together again in this configuration last December.

Lauren absolutely loved it! We didn't hear a cry out of her again at night time. She was happy to be back with her buddies again. The kids also loved that we made the other room into a toy room (and we liked having a place to put some of the toys).

Shortly thereafter, we rearranged the cribs this way, so that we could fit the dresser in their room. The kids seem to like this arrangement, so that they can pass stuffed animals and books back to each other (sometimes after naps all the books are in one bed). I also think having the cribs close together like that helped intimidate them from getting out of their cribs. The sleep sacks slow them down a bit, too. So far, Lauren has fallen out of her crib once (Jack cried as much as she did). Another time, Dave went to get them after their nap and hit Drew in the head with the door. So far, those have been the only escape attempts.

We did have to make one minor adjustment, and moved Drew into Alyssa's old crib. He is too rowdy and jumped so much, he kept knocking a screw out of the borrowed crib he was in. So, we moved him into the middle. Since he's the first one to fall asleep, that helps calm the crew down a bit. Here's a video of the trio, anxious to get out of their cribs after naptime.

 

All was well until this summer, when we started to notice that the room they were in was getting really hot. I think every house has a room where the register doesn't seem to work very well. That's the room that they were in. It is also on the southwest corner of our house, so it gets a lot of sun. So, a few weeks ago, we had moving day. We decided it was time to move Lauren, Drew and Jack back into the nursery again. For those of you keeping score, this takes Dave's grand total of crib assemblies up to 8 (what a guy)!

The register works very well in there, and they don't get the afternoon heat coming in. They seem pretty happy about it.

Lauren

Drew

Jack

The first day night that they were in their new room, Dave was cutting the grass. I guess he had a feeling that someone was watching him, because he looked up and saw Lauren looking out the window. She kept smiling and waving and blowing him kisses from her crib. So the downside is the blinds are accessible! Training is now in progress for her to leave them alone.

One other downside of this move is that the trio has been doing some redecorating to make the place their own (note the border in the background - especially as compared to the earlier picture). Alyssa did give them a small start (less than a week before we moved her out). We never got around to fixing it and now it's too late!

You can see how dark it gets in their room now in this video. I guess poor Jack thought it was dark, too, because he got lost in his sleepsack and very frustrated. He frequently likes to pretend that he loses his arms (as you can see in the video above), but I guess this time it wasn't so fun.

Here's to hoping we are done moving for a while!

God bless,

Amanda

Love Each Other or Else

As you can imagine, we have our fair share of hitting, biting, and fighting over toys in our house. Maybe we have just become demented over all the stress from the last few years, but sometimes we find these fights to be a little amusing.
Some fights, we stay out of it and let them figure it out, as you will see in a minute. But blatant hitting and biting call for the offender to say "sorry" and hug the victim. Lauren gave us a boost of encouragement that our rules are starting to sink in when she was playing with her teddy bear and Piglet the other day. She had one face the other and say "sorry." It was too cute.
These videos were taken today. A new fun thing to do in our house is climb into the crib of another person to play (unless you are Lauren and too little to do that yet). Commentary is courtesy of Daddy aka Dave.





We have lots more where that came from, but I just don't have time to find them right now!
God bless,
Amanda

Kiddos Update

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been over a month since we have updated the website. We have been busy as you can guess. It's actually a good thing, because we have gotten to do some fun social things, like watch the SuperBowl with some friends and today we had a fun playdate. We haven't had too much of that the last two years, but people have actually been brave enough to invite us over lately! So anyway, here are some much overdue updates on the kiddos.

Alyssa is enjoying preschool and especially loves the weekly assembly of the classes in the chapel to sing. The snacks are a big hit with her, too. She is learning how to trace letters, what sounds letters make, and thinks she can read already (we call it memorizing). She has just started really playing with baby dolls a lot lately, too. One day she walked up to me with 3 baby dolls in her arms and said, "Look Mommy, I have triplets." She has been a huge help with the babies, most of the time without being asked. She often takes their coats and shoes off when we get home from somewhere and during bathtime she even takes off diapers and shampoos heads. Alyssa continues to be immersed in pretend play. Sometimes she chooses to playact rather than read bedtime stories. Dave doesn't do it her way, though, and sometimes that frustrates her. She loves princesses and dress up. Cinderella is her favorite movie right now, too, especially since she got a Cinderella doll and the movie for her birthday. Now that she is a 4, we have moved her up to the "big girl" class at church, and she seems to really enjoy playing with the big kids. (She didn't want to leave the nursery at first, because all her siblings were in there together.) She is already talking about how she wants to have a princess themed party for her next birthday (not until December). She told me the other day, "On my next birthday I will be 5. Can you believe it?" Then a few minutes later she declared, "When I'm 5, I'll get to drive the car."

Lauren has turned into the sweetest little thing and is so mellow and easy going these days. She loves to be held and often says "up" so I pick her up. She loves getting dressed and will bring coats and shoes to me. Sometimes she gets mad when I dress Alyssa first in the mornings, because she likes it so much. A couple of weeks ago in the church nursery they had to keep her coat on her, because they said she got so upset when they took it off. She loves to talk and learn new words and point to things in books to show what she knows. She also gets the cutest smile on her face when I can understand what she is trying to tell me. When she gets upset sometimes, she gets so distraught the she just lays her forehead on the floor. She is a tiny little thing, but still holds her own and bites when needed. But she will also share, like the other day when she had a ball that Drew wanted and she gave it to him (not right away, but she did willingly give it to him). She is also getting pretty good at feeding herself yogurt on a spoon. She is still fearless and I have yet to see her afraid of anything. She is my adventurous wanderer who likes to go off and explore new things. She is starting to show some motherly instincts with her brothers and seems to like routine. She is very social and always seems to be checking on what everyone else is up.

Jack still loves to figure out how things work. His favorite right now is the safety gates mounted to the wall. Yesterday, he even figured out how to latch it on one side. He also loves closing doors, but was mystified recently as to what happened when I stuck a foam block in the way to keep it from closing. He has the funnest squeals when he is excited about something and often says "ut oh" when something drops on the floor. He enjoys books a lot, too, and before bedtime and naptime he sits down in his crib with his arm around his teddy bear and "reads" books. He is definitely going to be a red head and throws the full tantrums by flinging his body back and usually hitting his head on the floor (which just makes him madder). We have been trying wheat occasionally with the kids and they still don't tolerate it that well. Jack seems to have the hardest time with it. But he has also put on weight well now that it is out of his diet and his appetite has really come back. He also snuck up on the table and ate his big sister's peanut butter sandwich one day and got hives. Peanut allergies can be serious, so now we have an epi pen in the diaper bag in case he has trouble breathing. Yikes! He is very aware of everything going on at mealtime, and keeps score to make sure he has gotten the same food as everyone else. Jack also loves to talk on the phone, it doesn't matter if he has a pear slice or a piece of foam in his hand. Whenever the urge hits him, he just babbles away and asks Mom and Dad to talk on the "phone", too.

Drew continues to be our physical guy with the jolly temperament. He can throw a ball about 7 feet and is pretty good at playing mini hoop in the bathtub. The kid LOVES balls and the fastest way to make him smile is to give him one. He also loves to tackle his siblings, even Alyssa. She agitated him today and he responded with a pretty good take down. Usually, it seems like he is just bored and needs something to do, but putting the coats on the kids seems to trigger his instinct to tackle, too, for some odd reason. He also loves to cuddle, too, and loves to be held like Lauren. The kid has a very high pain threshold. If he gets hurt or has to have his hand smacked to stay away from something dangerous, sometimes he laughs. He also cues us off to when he is going to do something mischievous by giving a deep laugh on his way to his next mission. He often trips on the walk over, because he gets so focused on what he is doing. He still loves to eat and has learned to tell us the sign (from sign language) for eat when he is hungry. When he cries, it is just this sad pathetic cry that makes you almost feel sorry for him. But overall, he is a pretty tough kid that I predict will play football someday. Drew has also really gotten attached to his teddy bear, which he calls "Ba ba." Often at night when we check on him, he is sleeping on Ba ba as a pillow or has his arm around it.

Overall, as a family, life is seeming more normal, whatever normal is for us. Maybe I should say it's more balanced, as we are getting out a bit more, like taking the kids to the grocery to get out of the house for a while. We tried feeding the trio off of plates for a brief period, but that got too messy when they figured out how to make them projectiles. Once a day we give them a bowl and spoon. They are starting to get the hang of it. We are also very thankful for some suction cup bowls that we found to make this much neater of an event (thanks Munchkin!). Our kids are starting to play together now during the after dinner sugar rush. It's fun to watch them chase each other around and laugh and play. Alyssa also likes to walk one of her siblings around by the hand or arm around the shoulder and pretend they are walking through the forest. The kids also like to play ring around the rosy and sometimes we can get the little guys to play hide and seek (or sometimes it turns into "Hide the Lauren.")

Climbing continues to be a huge issue for us. First we tried putting the kitchen table chairs underneath the table, intertwined with the legs. Well, now they are smarter and stronger and that doesn't work. So we have to keep the chairs in the dining room (on the other side of the baby gate) to keep them from climbing and messing with the TV and tearing pictures off the walls (lucky they haven't figured out how to climb the kitchen counters yet). The only furniture we have left where they play most of the time is the couch. It is a full time job trying to train them to sit and not stand or jump on it, but they are slowly getting the message (or maybe sick of hearing about it). I am told by other triplet moms that they will soon start climbing out of their cribs. So now we need to get some crib tents to keep them from hurting themselves, because we are NOT ready for big kid beds yet. We put books and stuffed animals in the their cribs to distract them, but usually Drew and Lauren throw all of theirs on the floor or pass them to Jack (who's crib is in the middle). We also got bad cabin fever a couple of weeks ago when we were all sick and couldn't go to storytime, preschool and Bible study. So I cashed in some gift cards and we got a bounce house. That has been a huge blessing. Jack was terrified of it at first, and would only play with the box it came in. Now they all bounce happily away in it, and I am looking forward to burning off lots of energy with it the next few months.

The trio is also learning like crazy right now. We are teaching them the parts of the body, and it's cute to line them up and watch them point all over. We are also doing animal sounds. They know what sheep, snakes, cows, owls, and ducks say. However, somewhere along the way they got convinced that doggies say "kak kak" (quack quack). We are trying to undo this with little success. So now everytime my mom's dog comes over, they point to him and say "kak kak." The also know how to say a few other things like "ni ni" (night night) "appasaw" (applesauce) "ba" (ball) and "bus" comes out pretty clearly (we say bye bye to the bus every morning as it goes by during breakfast). They are learning each other's names and can point to the right person when asked. They have been doing sign language for a while, and do the sign for "more" all the time when they are eating. The cutest of all, is that they can now blow kisses, too!

Well, that's about all for now. Hopefully soon I will find some time to post some pictures. I need to write some Christmas/December thank you notes first, though! Oh and do my taxes while the weather is crummy. First, I need to wrap the presents for the birthday party this weekend. Oh, I also need to get out some bigger clothes for the boys. And I've gotten way behind on laundry. I also really want to put the pictures that we took last spring in frames. Oh, and I probably should go through the stack of Christmas letters on our mantle and update our address book. But first I should probably get some crib tents soon before we need them. And I also need to hook up the printer that hopefully works with our new computer that we had to buy when our other one crashed before I print the taxes paperwork. Oh, and I forgot to decorate with Alyssa for Valentine's Day......................

God bless,
Amanda

This was copied and edited from our previous website on Babysites.

Bath Time

Hi everyone, Dave here.

It seems forever since I've last written a journal entry, so I may be a bit rusty. Why write another journal entry? Well, one word.... triplets! They are so unbelievably challenging right now, but they are becoming more fun each and every day.

Amanda may have already written about this, but if she hasn't, we moved Lauren's crib in with the boys. Why? Well, she was having a hard time falling asleep at night, and we felt it may be because she felt left out. The transition has actually gone pretty well.

Another thing we did to put them all together was to clump them together in the bathtub. Before, little Jack would have a panic attack, which would translate to Lauren and Drew getting a bit nutty. As they've grown older and "matured," I thought we'd try putting them together again, and they've done pretty well. The hardest part is getting them all undressed and in the bathtub before they pee everywhere. Once in the bathtub they tend to start splashing the water, they giggle, and have fun. Drew is the "best" at not crying when we pour water over them, but Lauren and Jack are getting better at not crying, too.

Typically, when we pour water over Jack's head, he usually stands up and wants out. Lauren usually just starts crying. Tonight, Amanda started filling up the bathtub, and obviously the first minute is usually cold water until it starts heating up. Well, curious little Jack decided to lean over for a close look, and he ended up tumbling over into the bathtub. Now, think about what your reaction would be if you were a naked 1 year old who just fell into a very cold bathtub! So, it was expected that throughout the bath he wanted to get up and get out. So, we washed him quickly and got him out.

Drew now wants the choice seat of being by the faucet. I turned the water on to rinse Lauren and Drew, but I guess Drew was thirsty because he kept putting his mouth under the faucet for a quick drink. Also, he "accidentally" turned the shower on, but thankfully, the water was warm and it only took me a second to turn it off, or else Lauren would still be screaming by the time you are read this.

I got Lauren out of the bathtub, and then I got Drew. Now, since Lauren and Jack had already gotten out, the bathroom floor had a few wet spots. Want proof? As Drew left the bathroom, he found one of those wet spots and did a big time slip and fall, but he's fine. Once they all were all dressed, we read some books in Lauren's old room, and we said our prayers. Then we always tell the babies that it's time to go "night night" in their cribs. There is nothing like watching three little babies in their sleep sacks waddle from one room to another. They are starting to better understand us, but we're still hoping Lauren learns the phrase 'NO BITING!" soon.

Well, the eyelids are getting heavy, so I think it's time for me to waddle to my bedroom and snooze.

Take care!
Mr. Mom

This was copied and edited from our original website on Babysites.