Our Future Home

Originally when we bought the house that we are in now (5 and a half years ago), we thought that we would stay here until we had one, maybe two kids and then look for something a little bigger. Well, fast forward to 3 kids at once and we realize that a house with more space and a different layout would be really nice.

We were a little delayed getting started due to sorting out plans and getting the appropriate permits, but things are now well under way. We are hopeful that they will get the house to lock-up before everything freezes so they can continue on without more delays through the winter. It will be sometime in the new year until we get into the new house.

We are really excited about everything and look forward to having more space for the babies to run around. They will all still share a room for now. When Maggie feels she needs a little space from her brothers she can have her own room. The house is a modified bi-level which means our room will be above the garage. The basement is a walkout and we are having it finished before we move in. We've got plenty of baby-sitters lined up...Gail (my sister) and her family live on the same street a few houses away, so it will be really nice to be so close to them.

Here are a few pictures of our place to this point. The roof is almost finished so we are hoping the snow we had today won't last and they will be able to keep working for a while yet. We couldn't get around to the back to take pictures because it was so muddy with all of the snow and rain today.


Our little goblins got all dressed up today in their Halloween costumes and looked so cute. We have many, many pictures to sort through so it may be a few days before I get them on here. It is so hard to get a good group shot of them anymore so I'm hoping there will be at least one good one.

Little Buddies

It's been a busy week around here. The babies and myself all had a little bit of a cold, nothing major but thankfully it's run it's course. The real time sucker has been the poop monster that invaded our house and all of the laundry it has created. All 3 of the babies have had a bad week of diarrhea (sorry, maybe too much information!). It is crazy how it can make their behinds flaming red and so sore in no time. But it does seem like they are getting over this too.

The babies are starting to be a little more interested in playing and interacting with each other (not just stealing and fighting over toys). Mitchell and Maggie will try to give each other kisses which actually ends up just being a little bit of a (usually) soft head butt. Mitchell also tries to play with both Casey and Maggie and kind of climb on them. I'm not sure if he is trying to hug them or tickle them but it ends up more like he is attacking them...he gets excited and pulls them down. Sometimes we'll hear them giggling and they are just sitting by each flapping their hands up and down or throwing something but they think that is so funny. So although they are by no means great play buddies yet, it is getting better. We can't wait until they really like playing together and can have fun together.

Here are a few pictures of the 3 of them. They were having a snack on the floor and then all started to give kisses (bump heads).




Here Mitchell was in attack mode. He thinks it's funny and usually Casey or Maggie do too until he gets a little too rough.


Maggie loves this little fire truck that we have. She climbs on and waits for one of the boys to come and push her.Here is her highness waiting to be taken on a ride.

And her royal servants doing their duties.



"Hey, I didn't tell you to stop!"


Halloween is coming up this weekend and we are so excited to get them dressed up! Stayed tuned for pictures of the cutest 3 little ________ that you have ever seen!

Walking Update

The past few days have been so much fun around here watching everyone learn to walk. Although Casey was probably the most wobbly at first he now is cruisin'. He is so proud of himself (as he should be) when he is walking. Sometimes he stumbles after a few steps and then other times he can walk all the way across a room and even turn corners. He also thinks it is pretty funny when he falls down. The other day he would walk with a huge grin on his face, arms up in the air and then fall down and giggle, it was so cute!

Mitchell and Maggie are a little more hesitant than Casey and not quite as willing to walk whenever you ask them to, they've got to be in the mood. But before long I'm sure they'll be chasing after Casey.

Here is a video of each of them.




We have had a cut lip and many bumped heads in the past few days which I am sure will become the new normal around here. We are very proud of our little walkers! They are 11.5 months by their adjusted age which the pediatrician judges their milestones on (13.5 actual), so they are right on track. It seems so bizarre that our little babies are old enough to be walking! Please excuse me while I go get a tissue.

3 For 3!!!

What are the chances that all 3 of our babies would start to walk on the same day? Well I don't really know, but I wouldn't think they would be that good. But holy crap today was the day!! And all within about 2 hours!!

Mitchell was the first to take off. My friends Leah and Erica were over visiting and we were sitting around in the living room. Mitchell stood up and took about 4 or 5 steps over to the girls. I just started screaming! I was so shocked and totally not expecting him to do that. Mitchell did it a few more times throughout the night and got up to about 6 or 7 steps at a time.

Next was little Miss Maggie, she was so funny! As soon as Mitchell took his first little stroll she started standing up, staying there for a few seconds and then sitting down. She did it over and over, probably at least 20 times while the girls were still there. She was trying so hard to walk. Then not long before bedtime after many, many more standing and sitting bouts she finally took a few steps. She was hilarious....she would take 4 or 5 steps, fall down and then get right back up and do it over and over again. I think she would still be going now at 10:00pm if we would have let her.

Just before we were going to put Casey to sleep for the night I told him that tomorrow would be his day to start walking. Well, apparently he didn't want to be left out because he took a few steps shortly after that. He was determined to walk as well. We were so excited to have each of them walk for the first time so close together. They did the best when they had their back to me and walked toward Daniel...maybe that is a sign that they will be running away from me and going straight for daddy.

It was so amazing to watch each of them take their first few steps and watch those little wobbly legs try to keep them balanced. Here is a video clip of Maggie. We'll try over the next few days to get one of each of them.



And I thought our house was crazy already...oh my goodness!

End of the Bottle Era

We are officially all done with bottles! I am so happy to be done with the daily struggle of trying to get them to lay still long enough to drink them and not throw them all over the room. They were even worse about drinking them when we were somewhere else and there was more going on or more people around. So this past weekend we tried going without their bedtime bottle and they were just fine. I realize now that it was more of an issue of me worrying that they may not drink enough milk without having their bottles and start to fall down on their growth curves. But so far that's not the case, they are making up for it in all of the food they are eating.

As happy as I am to be done with bottles a part of me is also sad to think that our little babies are already at this stage. We were remembering back to the early days when we had a hard time keeping them awake long enough to get them to finish their 3 or 4 ozs. of milk. We would unbutton their little preemie sleepers and try and tickle them, blow on them or lay them on their bellies to get them to wake up. Wow, that seems like years and years ago when in fact it was only 1 year ago. Last year at this time everyone had been home for just under 2 weeks.

Here is yesterday's early morning meeting over milk. I think the boys were conspiring on how crazy they could make mommy that day!



We have a really good schedule right now and still stick to it pretty faithfully, otherwise naps don't happen and then everyone is unhappy.

Our days look like this:
7-7:30 they wake up
8:00 breakfast
9:30 nap (hour and a half)
11:30 snack
12:30 lunch
1:30 nap (around 2 hours)
4:00 snack
5:30 supper
6:45 snack
7:30 bedtime!!!

We are so lucky that they are great sleepers! Sometimes they decide not sleep in the afternoon, but for the most part they do really well. And at night they go down (and always have) without any fussing. Everyone is usually awake at sometime during the night trying to talk to their brother or sister in the next crib but they go back to sleep on their own. Someone asked me if I am going to take them down to 1 nap a day soon and my answer was NOOOOOO WAAAY!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving weekend....I should say nice company and visiting with family, not so nice weather. I can't believe how it went from hot weather to snow within just a few weeks. We did our usual circuit over the weekend getting to both of our families. It is a lot of packing, unpacking, loading and unloading but it is nice to see everyone.

I had some fun with their hair this weekend. Maggie looks so cute with a pigtail in. I borrowed some hair elastics from Ava, her cousin. The ones that I had for her had a button on it and I couldn't leave it in her hair because the boys would pull it out and then try and eat it.


I just couldn't resist putting one in Casey's hair too. It is so soft and curly/wavy and there is so much of it. I don't think Daniel enjoyed it as much as the rest of us, seeing his son with a pigtail in his hair. Here is our little sumo wrestler. He looked so cute...I think it suited him!



Everyone is hard to get pictures of now because they move so much and so quickly that a lot of our pictures turn out blurry. Mitchell never stays still, so here are a few rare "still" shots of him. I didn't do Mitchell's hair this weekend but I will surprise Daniel some day when he comes home from work.


We were getting packed up and ready to leave my parent's place and had the booster seats on the floor. I turned around to see that Mitchell had somehow climbed right into one and was banging on the tray as if to say, "Where's my lunch?!" It was so funny!

My dad is able to build almost anything out of wood. Here are a few pictures of "Fort Knox"...the homemade baby gates that they used to keep the babies away from the stairs when they were at their place a few weeks ago.

Tornado Touchdown

I have never been in or seen a tornado but I am guessing that it may leave an aftermath that is comparable to this:


Our 3 little destroyers can tear apart a room in no time. Maggie is usually the peaceful and quiet one of the bunch, but I have to say that when it comes to taking all of the diapers and towels off of the changetable and throwing them around the room she is usually the leader of the pack.

We have been in a new routine for about a month now. Once we got the okay from the pediatrician we dropped their daytime bottles and switched to whole milk. I have to say that I was soooo glad to eliminate 3 bottles from our day. It had been become a battle to get them to lay still long enough to drink their bottle since about May. They still get a bedtime bottle, although once I am sure that they are drinking enough milk from their sippy cups throughout the day we'll get rid of that bottle too.

No one is walking on their own yet, but they all love to walk the kitchen chairs and anything else that they can push around the house. Casey is now standing on his own(not just by mistake) so we think he will take a few steps before too long. About a month ago there was a local baby crawl contest. Our babies were born 1 week too early to enter which was too bad because we would have kicked some serious butt! Not only are they lightening fast crawlers, we had good odds.




Daniel and I had a great getaway. Seattle is a beautiful city and definately somewhere we plan to take the kids when they are a little older. We went to 5 (yes 5!) baseball games, did a fair bit of shopping and some sightseeing. It was a really nice break but we were very ready to get home to our babies. They of course were in great hands and everything went fine, but grandma and grandpa may be in need of a holiday themselves after their week.

It's So Quiet!

Today has been a weird day in our house....it is so quiet!! How can a house with 3 1 year olds be quiet? Well, because the 3 1 year olds are not here. Now, if you were to listen in at Grandma and Grandpa's house, I don't think quiet would be how you would describe it.

Daniel and I leave to Seattle early tomorrow morning so I met my parents this morning to switch vehicles and give them the babies. I think I did as good as can be expected and they of course were fine. I am sure they will do great with Grandma and Grandpa while we are gone. I was away from them overnight last October when I had surgery to fix my incision. Then I was away from Casey and Maggie while I was with Mitchell in the hospital. Other than those times (neither of which were fun) I haven't been away from them overnight.

They were having fun helping me pack our suitcases.

The other day we were enjoying some fresh garden carrots. Casey was pretty proud of himself to be sitting on the island chewing on his carrots.

He then proceeded to try and stick the carrot up his nose...it was hilarious!!


The other night I while was bathing Casey, Maggie and Mitchell got into a little mischief. They found the vaseline container that was hidden in the back of the change table. Mitchell scampered off when I walked in and caught them, but here are a few pictures of Maggie. The pictures don't really do her justice. It was so funny!

She was upset here because I took the vaseline away from her.

Mitchell is feeling better and back to himself. He was such a trooper and fought off the pneumonia really quickly. Casey and Maggie both have colds now, but so far that's it.

Good luck and have fun this week G & G. You may be in need of a holiday yourself after this week with our little monkeys.

Our First Year Video

I finally had a chance to make a slide show of our first year. It was fun to put this together and a good chance to go through all of our pictures from this past year (and wow, do we have a lot!). When I see the pictures from when they were first born it seems so long ago...much longer than a year. Time has gone so quickly. It is amazing to look back and see how far they have come. And everyone is healthy and happy...we couldn't ask for anymore than that!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pneumonia

Poor Mr. Mitchell had a rough weekend. He started out with croup last Tuesday night. He had the typical "seal bark" at night. His cough changed over the next few days and then on Thursday I noticed that his breathing had become very fast and laboured. I took him to the ER and the chest x-ray showed pneumonia, 1 spot on each lung. When we were in emerg they gave him Ventolin through a nebulizer and we both cried through his first treatment. He was so upset and didn't want to be restrained but fatigue finally overtook him, we both stopped crying, and he crashed for a while. The device that they put babies in to take x-rays look like a torture machine. I understand that they need to keep them still or else they wouldn't be able to take the x-ray, but man, it looked pretty barbaric.

He was admitted that night and put on oxygen, IV fluids and antibiotics. It was so hard to see him sick, I wished I could trade spots with him. The resident doctor said to me that he wasn't terrible, but he was a pretty sick boy. Thursday night and Friday were rough for him but by Saturday he was starting to improve. He got rid of his fevers and oxygen and started to seem a little more like himself. He was smiling and goofing around a bit. He started to eat a little and drink some milk which was good because those were the final conditions to him being sent home.
These pictures were from Saturday when he was starting to feel better.



He was admitted to the same ward as Gail (my sister) works on and she just happened to be working on the weekend. It was nice to have a familiar face around and give us the inside scoop on things. I think she also jumped a few notches on Mitchell's favorite list because she brought him strawberries and grapes!

He was discharged on Sunday and we were curious to see how Maggie and Casey would react to him coming home. They looked at him, smiled a bit and then resumed playing. It didn't take too long for the boys to start fighting over toys again so we knew things were starting to get back to normal. The doctor who released us said that we should try to keep Mitchell's toys separate...obviously she hasn't been in a house with 3 1 year olds because that is just not possible (unless she would have then offered to keep Mitchell until he's not contagious anymore). I fed them from the same bowl and spoon a few hours before we went to the hospital and they were sharing soothies as well. So far Maggie and Casey have been fine and hopefully they stay that way.

My parents and Daniel's parents both came for a couple of days to stay with Maggie and Casey while I stayed at the hospital with Mitchell and Daniel was back and forth. Thank you guys so much! Casey, Maggie and Mitchell were saying goodbye to Grandma...

So we will cancel our playdates and have a pretty quiet week. Daniel leaves to Ontario tonight for the week so hopefully everyone stays healthy.

Although Mitchell was by no means the sickest baby on the ward, it was so hard to see him sick. We never want to go through that again and have one of our babies back in the hospital. This is a important reminder for us that although our babies are not tiny newborns anymore, they are still at an increased risk of catching illnesses (life threatening and non-life threatening) because they were premature.

Riding In Style

Our triple decker stroller has been given a new and improved look. It has been such a good stroller because we can just snap their car seats into the frame. However, they will be out of their infant seats before too long so we needed to find something else to use. Instead of buying the toddler seats for the stoller through the company, I got some that are almost exactly the same from WalMart and much cheaper. Then I ordered seat covers and a sun canopy for the stroller. There is a website called Triplet Connection that has been a godsend for me to get information and be in touch with other mothers of triplets. One of the women who is also a member on the site makes these covers specifically for this stroller.

Here are a few pictures of the stroller, and of course the 3 beauties. They seem to really like these new seats because they can see out them a little more.
I added a few pictures back from their first ride in the stroller when they were almost 2 months old. What a difference 10 months makes!






Yesterday as I was getting supper ready for the babies I heard a strange noise in their change room. All 3 of them were in there and it had been quiet until I heard this rattling noise. They had pulled the handle down on the reclining chair and then Mitchell climbed up and was standing there shaking the lamp that is beside the chair. I didn't get him in action with the lamp but I did get a few pictures before I took him down.



I have a feeling this is just the beginning of these kind of stories.