Splashin...

I almost cried this morning because it rained. Oh how I love the rain...especially after two months of temperatures over 100 degrees. It actually hadn't started raining when we went on our walk but when we were a couple blocks from home, the torrential downpour began. We were stuck under a tree that wasn't providing nearly enough shelter. An older lady took pity on us and opened her garage for us to get dry and wait for the rain to stop. We were soaked!

Point is, I like the rain. When it's not raining however, we have to go find our own relief from the heat. Swimming, as I mentioned earlier, isn't a great alternative anymore because of the babies desire to move around. We decided to try out a local splash park this past weekend to see how they would like that.

We took our large shade canopy which was a lifesaver because there was no shade at the park otherwise. All our pictures are from the smaller fountains, of course, but there were some bigger fountains as well. The park wasn't too crowded...just a few kids running around. So we were happy to get wet and let the babies crawl around.






As you can imagine, Zachary LOVED it. He was drenched and had water in his nose and eyes. He would crawl around and splash in the puddles. He was having the time of his life.


Caleb was equally impressed with the water spouting out of the ground.


Although he was having a good time in the water, Caleb discovered the strings on his pants and sucked on those for the remainder of our time there. He loves strings. It's so weird.


Leah, on the other hand, was totally over it. She didn't like the way the ground felt so that limited her crawling. She wouldn't wear her glasses so the sun was bothering her and she does NOT like water being splashed in her face and eyes. So she took off and watched over the shade canopy for us. Just sucked on some toys and watched her crazy brothers. Again, anything with the slightest bit of risk or excitement is not for her.


We had a great time and everyone lasted about 45 minutes. Pretty good! We'll definitely have to try it out again before the parks close on Labor day.

So here's my funny stranger encounter of the week:

I was at Babies R Us buying a glowing sea horse for Leah's crib (she's having comfort issues lately and cries when we leave the room) and I ran into a nice couple from another country who had a one year old of their own. We chatted for a second and then all the sudden the mom puts her baby in my cart. She was laughing and loving that her baby was partying with us. Her husband was majorly concerned about my thoughts on the matter and kept asking if I was fine with the situation. I assured him that it was fine thinking that they'd take their baby out at any moment....

but they didn't.

They just kept marveling at the fact that their baby was standing with other babies and how cute it was. Caleb gets annoyed with others get up in his personal space so he started to get flustered and I said we should probably get going. That's when the Dad finally took their baby out and we parted ways.

Just so funny. That was definitely a first. I mean, it's quite the party going on in our cart but I'm not sure there is room for anymore. :)

Next up...birthday posts!

The Big Six...

Another multiples play date has come and gone. This one, however, consisted of a lot more baby chasing! All the babies are on the move with about half already walking. Taking a picture was a bit more tricky because one-year-olds do NOT like being forced to sit in one place. We tried to have an older sister sit with them but even she couldn't be the baby whisperer to so many rowdy babies.

Our three are closest to the back corner. Zachary is facing the camera crying. Leah is sucking on a ball and Caleb is turned around trying to climb out.


It's always nice going over to another house because the babies are totally entertained with all the new toys. When it was time to leave we had to pry the babies away. The hosts of the playdate were lucky we didn't just leave them there! This get together was a pool party but because our nap time didn't allow us to be there for the first hour, we thought everyone would've been done swimming. When we showed up though, no one had gotten in yet! So we all just put our feet in and let the babies splash.

Zachary was loving the fountain and kept screaming and waving his hands.



Once the kids got tired of just sitting still, it turned into a wrestling match trying to keep Leah from destroying the plants, Caleb from eating the rocks and dirt, and Zachary from falling in.


Here's our attempted family photo. Leah is undressed because she kept whining and whining and whining. I thought she wanted to get in the water but that just turned her whining into crying. Not sure what her deal was.



We had a good time despite the hot weather and wild babies! Thanks Amy!

Later that evening, we called over a babysitter and the husband and I went out to have an early 6th anniversary celebration. Since our 5th anniversary consisted of a 20-minute wheelchair ride through the halls of the hospital, we decided that this year we needed to go do something we'd never done before. We first thought about doing a couples massage...then we thought about doing dinner plus a 30-minute plane ride over Dallas. Finally, we decided on an activity. We went out to Spring Creek BBQ to eat some decent Texas brisket then headed off to watch the FC Dallas major league soccer team play! We were excited to just hang out and watch my favorite sport. Clark was a champion and endured my glory day stories, opinions, and comments throughout the whole game. The high temperature for that day was about 107 degrees so by the time the game started it had only cooled off to about 100.

IT
WAS
HOT!

If felt like we were in an indoor arena with no air conditioning. Just stifling. Nobody at the game seemed to mind though so we didn't either! FC Dallas lost 1-0 but it was a good game nonetheless. We brought a little water spray fan that saved my life. In those types of situations, paying an atrocious amount of money for a cold bottle of water isn't given a second thought.


One more year of marriage in the books. Let's hope this next year isn't quite as exciting. :)

Just in case you were wondering...

this is what you would see if you ran into me at the grocery store. Yep. I'm one of 'those' people. The mom with all her kids in the cart ripping stuff off the shelves when she's not looking. Throwing stuff on the ground, etc...



My grocery store visits are starting to become pretty predictable. Usually I get comments on the trio and I make some joke about how I collect babies as I walk through the store. The cashiers usually joke about how the babies can't be scanned and won't show up on the receipt. I get at LEAST a half a dozen comments about how I have my hands full and that I need a bigger cart. Today though, I had a conversation I've never had. I was at the farmers market and a man was being very complementary about the babies.

Then he said, "they look like they are really close in age..."
Thinking he was making a joke I said, "you mean closer than a minute?"
Then he said, "oh...I was thinking months. They all came in the same grouping?"

Funny. I like talking to people like him that ask questions and don't always make assumptions.

Anyway, putting the kids in the cart now is SO easy for me. Although I don't have a ton of room for groceries, it sure beats juggling car seats and pulling a stroller.

I have felt like such a bad mom this week because of all the falls/tumbles that have been occurring. I just can't physically be by each baby when they take a tumble. Lots of time it's on the tile because they are pulling up on everything (usually stools and chairs) but aren't very stable. We've now moved our play area to our front living room that is carpeted to try and avoid any massive head injuries. Even doing that though, they still manage to find a way to bang their head on something. The piano bench, the corner of the wall, or even the tile in the bathroom. I was wiping Zachary's nose in the tub a couple nights ago and the next thing I know, Caleb (who was leaning up against the wall of the tub) had lunged himself forward head first onto the bathroom tile. It was bad. I seriously felt terrible.

Like I mentioned, they can all pull up on the piano bench and push the keys. It's really cute and usually whatever I am playing is drown out by the low notes being played by a baby. This next picture is so cute...it's not even funny.

They are practicing for their one-year old recital! They'll be playing, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." :)



Pictures like this just remind me that even though I can't be there for every little bump and bruise, I think we're all going to be ok.

Three Babies Movin!

This past week with Caleb has been rough. He's been crying a lot and getting frustrated at his inability to keep up with his siblings. The other two would be playing with him, then leave to play somewhere else. That's when the screaming ensued. He just felt like everyone was leaving (he has severe separation anxiety as well).

Then....

one day he crawled and pulled up. Like he had had enough and just decided to do it! He's really good at crawling too...seems like he's been doing it for a while now. HOWEVER, he's pretty bulky and has problems moving quickly. His reaction time isn't great either so he has a ton of bruises on his face from falling on the tile. I was actually embarrassed to take him out today thinking someone would assume I had hit him. No one turned me into CPS luckily.

Here's the big guy on the move!



Now that all three of them can crawl, story time feels like Planet of the Apes. They are crawling up my arms, clawing at my face, pulling my hair, sucking on my shorts, biting me knee, drooling all over, etc... It's pretty wild. Really though, they usually corner me and I have to hold the book high in the air so they can't attempt to destroy it. We always have a good laugh and Clark snapped a picture of the chaos.


Here's a picture from our latest swimming adventure. Lately the babies like to sit on the edge more than be in the pool. We're teaching them how to lean forward and fall into our arms. Leah WILL NOT do it. Not a risk taker. Zachary is all over it. You barely have time to set him on the ledge before he's leaning toward the water! Caleb will do it with a LOT of persuading. He's pretty cautious. Amazing how different they are from each other!



Crawling has instilled a new sense of independence for the babies. Unfortunately, this independence has made our swimming outings miserable. They HATE to be in their swimming floaties because they can't really move at all. They have no freedom...they just have to sit there so after about 10 minutes of crying, we call it a day and get the babies out of the pool. They are fine if you hold them one at a time but that still leaves a third baby crying to get out which ruins all the fun. After our last swim of ten minutes, we got the babies out and got them dressed. They were all super happy to be out of the pool so we snapped some photos.



Swimming has been fun but seriously, this heat is insane. After 7am we don't go outside because it's suffocating. Please please send some cooler temperatures our way soon!

P.S. One more month of formula...HALLELUJAH!

Summa Summa Summatime...

There has been a lot of water, swimming, and baby nakedness around these parts lately. Mostly due to the fact that it's boiling hot here but also because Clark has had some time off work! He has been taking the last part of his paternity leave and we have been so spoiled having him around these last few weeks. I know, the babies are almost a year. He didn't use all his leave right after the birth because the babies were in the NICU and then we had moms here to help. Soooo.....he used it this month which was perfect!

If there is one thing you know about Clark though is that he LOVES to be outside and he LOVES swimming. Besides wanting to build a pergola and spend time with the kids, he wanted to relax and swim. Fortunately for us, our friends just down the road have been taking an extended road trip this month and asked us to pool-sit! Of course we agreed and have been swimming as much as possible. They have a nice, big magnolia tree that shades the pool and keeps the babies out of the sun. Because of the heat here, the pool is about 90 degrees. Perfect for me! The babies usually only last 30-40 minutes but we rotate them in and out of the pool to try and keep them entertained. Lots of work for us but it's nice to cool off during the day.

Zachary is sitting in Leah's floatie, Caleb in the middle, Leah on the right, and Clark under the water trying to position them for me! :) Leah has the most sensitive eyes and squints even in the shade but she would not keep her sunglasses on for this picture.

Some days when we just weren't feeling up to all the loading, unloading, changing, drying, and changing again....we'd just fill up our own pool in the backyard and beat the heat that way. The luxury of our backyard is that we just throw the babies in naked! No changing, dressing, or swim diapers involved. So great. Think what you want...but it's hot here and it's our own backyard. Anyway, they loved having lots of room to crawl and move in the water and played with spatulas and whisks ( I didn't want to walk all the way to the bathroom to get bath toys :).

We love this picture because it totally shows each baby's personality. Caleb finding the nearest string to suck on, Leah just learning how to crawl and gathering everything in her path, and Zachary right up in your face being the life of the party.

I have some naked butt shots but we thought we'd spare the babies and give them SOME privacy in their infancy.

Now that everyone can kneel, pull up, and sometimes stand, they are all OBSESSED with doing that in the tub. By the time we get them out, they are all dry because they've been standing the whole time. They love to hit the wall of the tub, throw toys over, and laugh at each other. We just let them all hang out until someone falls over causing a domino effect. This results in lots of crying and usually someone can't recover from such a trauma. Typically bath time ends at that point.

We have a couple fish puppets that the babies love so we put on a show while they stood in the tub. We got lots of laughs! Who would've thought that we'd be such entertaining puppeteers!

Sadly work and real life has to resume again. We'll sure miss Clark's energy and creative ideas to keep the babies entertained. We've loved all the swimming and sun but we'll be glad when it finally cools down here!

Facts of the Week...

With the babies approaching the eleven-month mark, things are getting alittle more crazy/fun everyday. Here are some fun facts from this past week:

#1) Leah is crawling! She is slow and very wobbly but it was so exciting to watch her realize what she could do and how impressed she was with herself. She obviously takes second to Zachary in the crawling department which puts Caleb third by default. Poor guy. I guess someone has to come in last. We can tell he is getting progressively more frustrated with himself because of his inability to get around. Hopefully with the other two moving he'll just get the picture and start going! We're pretty proud of Leah though!

#2) The bedtime bottle is gone, done, eliminated, banished. We used to feed the babies some veggies and cereal before their bath and then give the bottles after. It came to a point where we were fighting with all three babies just to drink anything for that feeding. They weren't interested, too full, overly tired, etc... Who knows. I was tired of the battle and of throwing away unused formula. Sooo....now we do three bottles a day (6am, 11am, 3pm), two meals (8am and 5pm), and a snack (1pm). I make up for the formula they're missing from that eliminated bottle by mixing it into their food or offering a sippy cup with their meals. This has been helpful because they need to master the sippy cup anyway since bottles will be disappearing very soon. Let me tell you, one less bottle a day is a dream. We just feed them dinner, bathe them, and they are off to bed. Love it.

#3) Leah is back on reflux meds. I know, I just can't escape the throwing up; though my odds of being rid of it have never been good with three babies in the house. Zachary has completely outgrown his reflux and projectile vomiting. I never thought that time would come. I've been waiting for Leah to outgrow her reflux but it has seemed to worsen with each passing month. She never vomits but is a constant case of spit up ALL day. On our plane ride to Idaho she spit up ALL over the chair in front of us, all over my arm and shirt, and all over the bag. LUCKILY, the passenger next to us was spared. I called the doctor and she put her on Prevacid which has made a VAST improvement in the past few days she has taken it. We're definitely happy about that but hate having those pills on the counter again.

#4) Leah received a CT scan. Remember a long, long time ago when she had that lump under her chin in the NICU? The ENT came to examine the lump and ended up discovering that one of her airway passages was completely closed (the nurses would try and get a feeding tube down into her stomach and could never get it through her nose). Her condition is cogenital and we were lucky both passages were not blocked because she would have had major breathing difficulty after birth. Point is, she received a CT so that the doctor can determine whether the blockage is from bone or cartilage. That way we can make a more informed decision of the procedure that will help open that airway. We can't wait for that day. Poor girl....only have one working nostril. How miserable. Here she is at home after the CT scan with all our bands and her cutsie smock. She was pretty delirious coming out of anesthesia and cried a lot but after about 30 minutes was feeling pretty good again.



#5) Caleb is awesome. It's a fact. I mean, look at this picture:


#6) Caleb's early waking just might be cured! We love Caleb. Like I said, he's awesome...but what's not awesome is the fact that he is usually awake one hour before the rest of us. This is usually around 4:45am-5am. Normally I wouldn't mind but considering he is the loudest baby ever, he wakes everyone up which makes for a really terrible morning. We've endured this for 6+ months trying everything from more food at night, crib toys, later bedtime, etc... Nothing seemed to work. Recently I have come across something called 'wake to sleep.' Basically it is just readjusting a babies sleep pattern to they no longer wake at their normal intervals. We have tried this for the recommended three-night period and have seen some positive results already! Of course some mornings he does still wake early but it is not near as bad and he actually plays quietly. Cross your fingers he will continue to improve!

#7) Lastly, my handsome, hunk of a husband built us an incredible pergola in the backyard. It's been hot here, like REALLY hot. Over 100 degrees everyday with lows in the mid-80's and humidity that envelopes you when you step outside. Regardless, he has put lots of time and sweat into this project so our family can enjoy our back patio with shade and privacy. He has climbed the ladder about 1,000 times, measured and cut and measured and cut, and painted; all with only a few times of asking for my help. He is so talented and loves doing projects like this for our family. There are a handful of finishing touches he wants to do so we can't wait until it is all the way complete!

Video Schmideo...

I'm just posting some videos today because it took me over two weeks to get them uploaded. Ugh. Glad I got a few to work because I love sharing the fun times we have going on around here!

The day before Father's Day we finally got to assemble our bike trailer and try it out. A couple of Clark's long time friends graciously bought it for us when they found out the news we were expecting triplets. We've been excited to use it for some time but needed the babies to be big enough. It also has an attachable handle that converts it into a running stroller. Clark used that every morning while I was gone in Idaho.

Here are the boys trying it out for the first time in 100-degree weather. Seriously, the heat here is ridiculous.


You can see why children have to be a certain size from the picture below. The straps go up pretty high and aren't adjustable. The boys are just tall enough for their heads to be above the straps. Surprisingly enough, the boys loved their first ride and every ride that Clark took with them. We love the trailer and just need to get a bike seat for Leah to go on my bike. Then we're all set!





A lady we attend church with brought some clothes over the other day as well as a talking Elmo. This isn't a normal talking Elmo though. This is a Chicken Elmo and it does the chicken dance. We were excited for the kids to see it since they regularly watch Elmo's Favorite Songs on DVD. This is the result when Zachary first encountered Chicken Elmo....





So funny! But so sad. Don't worry though, they have now become friends.

This last video is so so so cute of Caleb. We were sitting in a circle bouncing a ball and he was getting the biggest kick out of it! Of course he hasn't been nearly as thrilled since that time but at least we got his first reaction on video!