Lousy Weather

The rotten weather ruined our weekend plans. This was going to be the roof over our heads for the weekend.

We bought this trailer a few months ago. Both ends pop out into queen size beds and the table folds down into a double bed. There is a fridge, stove, toilet, sink, tub and shower. It's not real roomy inside but for our first trailer it's probably more than we need. Summer is always a busy time for us so it's not something that we'll use every weekend, but we do have a few more outings planned for this year.

We were excited to take it out with a group of friends for the first time this past weekend but the weather was terrible. It was cool, rainy and windy so we decided that it wouldn't have been any fun at all especially with kids.

Everyone still got together for a bbq Saturday night at our friends Jen and Sheldon's house. We had a good a time and were very happy to be warm and dry. The kids had a great time! They were all sitting around the picnic table, screaming, giggling and banging on the table.



We put the babies to bed there for a few hours and then took them home later that night. I found out about these things called Pea Pods from some other triplet moms. They are little tents for kids to sleep in with a blow-up air mattress and a sleeping bag. I ordered them so we could use them in our trailer and although we didn't go camping I still wanted to try them out. They are so cool! When you take them out of the bag and undo the strap they instantly pop up into the tent, no assembly required. They fold down in seconds and get this...I can easily get them to fit back in the bag! That never happens to me! We let the babies play in them for a few days so they could get used to them. I was totally surprised at how well things went when we put them to sleep Saturday night! Mitchell crashed right away, not a peep from him. Casey cried for about 5 seconds and Maggie for about 30, but that was it. They just crashed. I'm sure it was because it was a hour and half past their bedtime and they were so tired, but that was probably a good thing.

Here is our tent city, all 3 pea pods set up in our basement for the babies to play in them.



So I think this will be the end of traveling with play pens. The pea pods fold up so small and are super light, it will be so much better than lugging around and packing the big play pens. Another good thing about them is that the age range is up to 6 years old so we'll get a lot of use out of them.

Rally Time

I took the babies to a rally today put on by our local twin and triplet organization recognizing National Multiple Births Awareness Day. It was very low key, no bra burning or chaining ourselves to anything. My dad made a good point, that I couldn't burn any bras because then Casey wouldn't be able to wear them around the house on his head (something he really likes doing). The theme of the awareness day was Canada's EI Parental Leave should reflect the needs of multiple-birth families, ie: providing additional leave time for parents of multiples.

I thought this statement from the Multiple Births website was interesting:
"Compared to the first year costs of basic infant needs for a single baby, expenses are $5,000.00 higher for twins, $10,000.00 higher for triplets, and $17,000.00 higher for quadruplets".

The hope is that the government could provide more financial resources to meet the increased costs of two or more babies. In our case, if we were to have our 3 children one at a time I would be off work and on EI 3 separate times. For parents of multiples there is no additional resources available or time allowed.

I've been lucky working for the health region to have been able to take as much time off as I have. I took an extended maternity leave, 18 months as opposed to 12, and now I am on a leave of absence. Financially I haven't received anymore than a parent of a single child would, but I have been able to take this extra time without pay and still have my position to go back to. However, this is something that is within our union and has nothing to do with having multiples.

The babies were really good while we were there. They kept entertained by watching all of the kids and then of course lots of snacks. Here are a few pictures after we got home having a snack of popcorn twists and blueberries. I figure that the blueberries are so healthy they should offset the popcorn twists, right?

Circus Family

On Saturday we took the babies to the circus. Daniel and I were delusional for a short while thinking that we would be fine taking them ourselves. I thought that they would be so interested in watching what was going on that they would sit still. Well, thank goodness Uncle Brady and Auntie Indra came with us otherwise we wouldn't have lasted very long. Mitchell sat really well with Uncle Brady the whole time. He looked like he was parked in front of the tv eating popcorn the way he was shoveling in snacks and watching the show. Casey and Maggie on the other hand were major wiggle worms. They were good in the very beginning and then when the really neat performances were on, but they got bored and wanted to run around a good part of the time. I think part of the problem was that they couldn't see everything that was going on. I didn't get many good pictures...it's kind of hard to take pictures with a little girl trying to jump out of your lap.

The wiggle worms during a rare quiet time.


People were riding the elephants before the show and during intermission but no, we didn't attempt it.

Our one group shot that didn't really turn out.

Mitchell snuggled up to Brady when we got home. He was wiped! And if you notice Indra's belly, we are going to have another baby in the family sometime in June.

All in all, it was a good time and I'm glad we took them. And thank you Brady and Indra for coming with us so didn't have to leave after the first 10 minutes.

The Best $25 Ever Spent

I think this is what the babies would tell us if they could say more than one word at a time. I found this climber and slide on Kijiji for $25 and they have had a blast playing on it so far. There has been a little bit of pushing and budging in line, but for the most part they take turns going down. Maggie likes going down on her tummy, Mitchell goes down and then giggles at the bottom, and Casey goes down and sometimes purposely tries to fall. Here are a few videos of them having fun.


Watch Casey's reaction when Maggie sneaks in front of him while he's day dreaming. And then Mitchell tries to sneak in too.



Casey's look of shier terror. He really does enjoy going down the slide, although you wouldn't guess it by this look on his face.


Maggie loves to take her time when she knows that the boys are waiting for their turn. What a funny girl!

The great thing about getting kids toys on Kijiji is that when you are done with them you can usually get what you paid back out of it.

Our New Nephew Calder

My brother and sister-in-law had a baby boy on May 8th. Calder Reiter was 8 lbs 4 oz, completely healthy and handsome. I took the babies on an overnighter a few days ago so we could go see him and visit Jody and Missy. He weighs more than Casey and Maggie did combined when they were first born and he was 4 inches longer. Yet when I was holding him, he still seemed so small! It was so nice to cuddle a newborm baby again. He is such a sweethart and a really good baby. Big sister Ava is adjusting really well to having a little brother around.


My parents and I took the babies out for a walk while we were at the lake.

Casey stayed pretty close to Grandpa either holding his hand or wanting to be carried. Maggie divided her time between Grandma's side and exploring on her own. Mitchell was the leader of the pack, he was always running off in one direction or another.

Maggie and Mitchell almost look like they're holding hands.

What does this look like to you?

A rock stuck in the road? To all of us, yes. But to Mitchell it was a challenge. A challenge to get the rock out of the ground without using his hands. While we were walking we turned around to see our beaver boy down on his hands and knees trying to lift the rock up with his bottom teeth. Oh man did we laugh! He didn't get the rock but he did get a mouth full of dirt. I think Mitchell thinks that his teeth are like another set of hands. He can get almost anything open or off with his teeth. He has removed many of the little rubber or felt pieces that are on the inside of the cupboard doors so they don't slam shut at both our house and Grandma and Grandpa's.

Park and Play

Last weekend we took the babies to the park that's about a 5 minute walk from our house. They had a lot of fun! Maggie and Casey took to the slide right away, they took turns having daddy hang on to them as they went down. Mitchell walked around casing the place out at first, tried the slide but then settled into the swings. The way that the playground is set up, I would not be able to have them there without someone else with me. Besides the fact that it's not fenced in (although I don't think at this point any of them would run away on me), there are some pretty big drop offs from platforms that they can climb up on. For example, right behind where they would go down the slide is a fireman pole down to the ground that would be about a 4 or 5 foot drop.

We were a kept pretty busy with the 3:2 ratio, but I did manage to get a few pictures.




Maggie had her heart set on going on the big kids swing.


Earlier this week I went to a drop in program at one of the soccer centres in the city with some friends and their kids. You paid $5 for up to 3 children (which was perfect for us). It was basically a big indoor soccer field with ride on toys, balls, a climber/slide, a ball pit, oh and about 40 kids. Then there was a row of chairs off to the side for the moms to sit and visit. The sitting and visiting part didn't really happen for us because we were out in the middle of all of the kids but the kids had a good time and we did get a bit of a visit in.

Lauren's little girl Addy was posing while I took a picture of the field.

Jen's little boy Luke, who also happens to be Maggie's boyfriend although not according to her daddy, was cruising around on a car.

Jordyn was helping Maggie up the slide.

Thanks for the suggestion Lauren, we'll definately go back again! She also told me about a similar program there that's free for employees of the health region so I'll definately have to look into that.

Mother's Day

We went to Daniel's sister's place on Mother's Day for our nephew Charlie's 3rd birthday party. It was also our other nephew Emmett's 2nd birthday the weekend before so there was a lot to celebrate. Mitchell really took a liking to Charlie's dinosaurs. After him and Uncle Brady started playing, he would not let go of them. Here he is with Grandpa and daddy and his dino buddies.


The drills were the thing to have before the dinosaurs were discovered.

Maggie hanging out with Grandma and Great Grandma Rauckman.


Casey has a thing for Uncle Brady's hat. We have pictures on a few occasions of him wearing this hat. What a cutie!


The guests of honor, Emmett and Charlie at gift opening time.

Daniel got a few pictures of my babies and me earlier that day. The only way to get them to sit still for a group picture anymore is to bribe them with something, so please excuse the window handles that theyre chewing on.


The babies had a good time playing with their cousins and rest of the family. We did pay for getting them to bed late though...they were grouchy the next day!

Our Little Convicts

The boys got new pyjamas that make them look like little prisoners. Here are the convicts with their daddy before they were arrested.

Here are some mug shots of prisoner #101. Charges against him are theft, mischief, assault, and disturbing the peace.



Mug shots of prisoner #102. Charges against him are anything and everything you can think of!

He thought that puckering up and blowing kisses could get him out early.


And here is the eye candy of the prison. She just walks around making the place look good. Although she does commit her fare share of crimes too.