Part II: Birthday Palooza!

CAUTION: PICTURES AHEAD...

Well the blessed event has come and gone. The day we thought would never arrive has passed. The year everyone said is the worst is now just a bunch of memories and pictures.

Remember these guys?

Zachary...

Caleb...

Leah...


Those pictures were just hours after their birth and I sit in awe every time I look at them. Just how strong each baby was and what a miracle they were all somehow packed inside my belly. I occasionally look back at pictures from the beginning. Although it was a scary time, I like to remember and see how far we've come.

One year. I remember feeling like one year was SO FAR AWAY. I wanted to be done with bottles and formula so bad but knew we had a lot of months ahead of us. I tried to do as accurate of a calculation as I could to determine just how many bottles we prepared this past year. My rough estimate is 4, 960. Don't worry, Clark checked my math. I just think it's too many to comprehend.

The day after their birthday the bottles stayed in the cupboard, whole milk came out of the fridge, and sippy cups were used. I felt like I should have shouted hallelujah's as I was preparing everything. What a milestone. We lived and breathed bottles and formula. Now milk will be just a side note to everything else they will be eating. Unfortunately, Caleb went on strike and would not drink anything that morning. He definitely wanted his bottle. After the first nap he caved though. Strangely enough there has been a LOT more crying and whining since the switch. I've already stepped up the food a notch but maybe I should go another. Anyway, this transition isn't going quite as smooth as I would like, but I hope after a couple weeks we'll get all the new times, amounts, and details worked out.

Ok ok ok. On to the birthday palooza! The day before their birthday we headed out to Red Robin for lunch. This was mainly for Clark and I to eat at one of our favorite restaurants and celebrate our survival. We joined some friends and had a good time chatting and watching the babies experience balloons for the first time. We also decided to give each baby a birthday lemon. Unfortunately we only had Clark's phone camera so the pics aren't great. So funny to see their faces although Clark started feeling super bad. Hey...every kid has to try a lemon at one point or another.

Zachary's first taste...

Leah knew right away it was not something she'd like more of...


Caleb dug into his lemon with gusto. He probably got more lemon than he bargained for but his face afterwards was priceless. We'll just show a happy picture of him and his balloon.


Back in March there was a local consignment sale. Just a huge building full of gently used baby stuff. Everything you can imagine. Obviously we hustled over there with a few items in mind and came away with exactly what we wanted! Among moms of multiples there are certain products that get more recommended than others. Products that are well loved by both mom and babies. The choo choo wagon is one of them. Much to our delight, there was a choo choo at the sale with THREE wagons! We purchased it right away and have kept it up in the attic since. The morning of their birthday we busted it out and the babies loved it! We laughed during our entire walk because Caleb was just in awe.

Sweaters were even needed that morning because it was a cool 60 degrees! The first cool week in months couldn't have come at a better time! Here's the babies checking out the wagon to make sure it was safe to use. Caleb, our inspector, gave us the 'all systems go' look...


So we loaded everyone up and off we went! They are in birth order in honor of their special day.


I ran ahead so I could catch a video to show just how cool the wagon is...



Ya...stupidity moment in the video when I couldn't think of the word 'back' while referring to Caleb. That's just one of many reasons why maybe we shouldn't be parents of triplets...sporadic delay of cognitive function (there's another reason somewhere in the remaining post. You win if you can find it)!

We had talked about possibly going to the zoo on their birthday so the fact that they liked the train sealed the deal. As soon as they woke up from their first nap, we loaded everyone up and drove downtown. It took about 30 minutes to get there and we had almost two hours to walk around. Surprisingly it went REALLY fast because there was a lot to see! Here's Dad and the babies before entering the zoo...


Just thought I'd throw in a shot of some monkeys since we have a few of those living in this house...


Caleb wanted a closer look at the giraffes but they were busy doing other things...


Zachary lucked out and got to actually touch a giraffe! Another family was feeding the giraffe so he was up close and personal. I later learned that Zachary actually stuck his fingers in the giraffe's nose...gross...


We called it quits once the babies started to get restless and the weather got too warm. We had seen all we wanted to see anyway. We drove home and once everyone, including parents, had a nice nap, we started the next part of our birthday palooza! Before diving into any cupcakes, the babies opened a few gifts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, and us!

Don't worry, every gift was taste tested by Zachary to make sure it was safe to play with...



I'm always making up nursery rhymes of my own because I can't remember any of the originals so I'm sure the babies were more than relieved to receive a nursery rhyme book from Gram and Papa Rudd! We'll be doing bedtime stories in style now. Thanks so much!


Christmas dress preview. We love love love Christmas around here...


"Give that to me!" (Caleb and Zachary soon learned that the present belonged to Leah anyway).


I have about 50 more present pictures because it was pretty entertaining but I think just a few will suffice. After presents, we brought out the cupcakes! Each baby got a different color and we sang the birthday song three times. Clark was on fire duty because there were six hands grabbing for the flames. No one was injured. :)


The babies dug in with style destroying the cupcakes in no time.


Don't be deceived by the smile, she was totally not into the cupcake. The only bite she had was in this picture.


Zachary was much of the same story. I took this picture because this is often what he does with his food. Smashes, throws, and pokes it with his pointer finger.



Caleb was going in for the steal (above) because Zachary wasn't eating his cupcake fast enough! Leave it to Caleb to show everyone how it's done. He one handed the cupcake and shoved it in his mouth!


He has two upper teeth and you can kind of see them poking through in this picture. What a handsome dude...


For round two, we brought out our rice krispie letters! Clark ate a 'C' cake every year for his birthday so we wanted to continue that tradition. However, I really wasn't feeling the idea of baking more than one cake and trying to cut letters out of them. Rice Krispies seemed like the perfect alternative. I decorated each one with frosting and called it good.


Surprisingly, the krispie letters were a hit! The babies ate much more of the letters and we had to tear them away before we had someone pass out from too much sugar. Their birthday was the first introduction to sugar so we thought exercising moderation would be wise.



Oh ya, this girl was all over it. She wasn't quite sure how to attack the 'L'...


No worries, she figured it out and shoved as much as she could into her mouth.


As you can imagine, clean up was a beast so we turned on Elmo and wiped everyone down.


The whole fam. It's too bad there aren't adult seats in the triplet table...


After the babies recovered from their sugar high and took a bath, we started one last activity before they went to bed. I've always like the Chinese tradition of babies choosing items on their first birthday to indicate future inclinations/passions. So we adapted several ideas from the original tradition and from family members to make it our own.

We had six items. Toy, ruler, pen, candy, scissors, and book (chosen by Clark).


Each baby took a turn to crawl across the room and choose one item. Pairs of items shared the same meaning although the baby could choose only one. We were anxious to see what would be chosen!

Caleb went for the pen right away. The pen and the book mean that Caleb will be industrious and have great literary talent.


Leah went for the scissors first although you wouldn't have known unless you were paying close attention. She grabbed the scissors, sat on them, then went for the candy and ruler with both her hands. She knows how to do things right I guess. Multi-tasking! The scissors and ruler mean Leah will be analytically minded, true, loyal, and exact.


Surprise surprise. Zachary went for the ball. The ball and candy mean Zachary will find much enjoyment in the simple pleasures in life and be very easygoing.


Who knows if any of that will really come to pass but it's fun to predict and see the babies personalities come out in their choices. Once finished with the activity, the babies got one last birthday kiss and went to bed. We were beat! We had a great day though, especially because Clark was able to take some time off. We are so relieved to have the first year behind us and look forward to what's ahead!

Here are the two tired parents...we did it! Don't worry, we polished off all the rice krispie treats and collapsed on the couch.


Happy birthday to our sweet babies!