I hate going so long without a post. After a few days, I'll start a post-it with some notes on it. Well, the post-it got stuck to my computer earlier this week, and now I've got a 2nd post-it going. Guess that means it's time to update. We haven't been up to a whole lot, but I've got lots of notes about all the funny things they are doing right now.

The day that we were leaving the beach, Emma did a face plant on a toy and ended up with a small bruise right between her eyes. We called her Bruiser for a few days while it lasted. It's really faint here.


My kids are obsessed with socks and shoes. They love to pull their socks off, pull each other's socks off, play with shoes. All of their shoes have velcro, and all we hear when we're in the car is them undoing the straps on their shoes. Or their sisters' shoes. Most of the time, the shoes stay on, but there was one day that we got to daycare and Emma was holding both of her shoes in her hands. They have also started to notice our shoes, and try to put them on or just carry them around. They seem to understand that socks and shoes go ON their feet, but they can't quite figure out how they get there. They'll hold socks and shoes up to their feet.

Emma actually did a pretty good job trying to get Becca's shoes on.



Helping Julie get her socks off.


Julie loves to collect things. When we were at the beach, she spent one afternoon out on the deck, picking up their beach shoes, putting them on a chair, and then throwing them all back on the deck. Picking them up, putting them on the chair, throwing them back on the deck. She also loves to collect socks. She found this pack of wipes last weekend and pulled a bunch out (before I caught her), and she would drop them all, them pick them up one by one, and throw them all back down again.



She also collects socks.


Julie still has the reputation as our little dictator, because although she's the smallest, she talks like she's giving orders. Lately, she has started holding up her index finger when she's ordering things around, like she's saying, "Look, toys - I have one rule! I'm in charge. Just one rule!"

The girls are also starting to carry bigger things around with them while they walk, as they get more stable. Emma really likes to play with boxes and stack them up. When I brought a big pile of stuff home from Costco, she set to work rearranging everything for me.


Becca's latest obsession is this bench. It was originally a tub-side kneeler thing, but was pretty useless (a folded up towel is tons better), so we brought it down for them to play with (based on the recommendation of their early interventionist... I think we were working on picking up toys at the time). I think they had started fighting over hit, because we had hidden it away for a while. But Becca has been using Sillytown as a bench seat lately (and they've all been caught using it as a step stool), and we wanted to give her something to sit on. She LOVES this bench. They all like it -- love to flip it over. Love to stick things in the holes on the bottom. But Becca loves to sit on it and play with toys on it. She thinks it's just hysterical when the toys roll off the bench.


Becca also really likes this dinosaur hand puppet book. She likes to bring it over to us. I put it on my hand and the dinosaurs all say hello and give her kisses and maker her giggle, and then she wants it back. Sometimes she tries to put it on her own hand.

We have these big tupperware containers that we let the girls play with and occasionally store their toys in (until entropy wins). They like to put the containers on their heads. It's really funny, because they kind of have to squeeze them on their heads anymore, and the "brim" kind of goes right across their eyes. Julie's head shape is a little different than the other two - it's more oval shape, so she kind of has to wear the hat on the back of her head. Normally they just tug it on with two hands. Well, the other day, I caught her with the bucket on the floor and her leaning over into it, trying to get her head into it.

Emma still steals her share of toys, but I think she's starting to know that it is wrong. If we are in the room, she'll look at us to see if we're going to yell at her. If we tell her to give it back, sometimes she will. And sometimes she'll just give toys to her sisters. It was so sweet - Julie was throwing a fit last week some time, and after a while, Emma started bringing toys over to her. And eventually Julie started playing with the toys Emma brought her and stopped crying!

Right before we were leaving on vacation, one of the girls' daycare teachers told us that Emma really wanted to wear a barrette like another girl was wearing. She would point to her head like, "where's mine?" We've got a bunch of barrettes, but whenever I try to put them in, the girls pull them right out, so I've given up again. But when we got back from vacation, she apparently developed headband envy. Miss Brittanie gave her her own headband, and Emma was as happy as a clam. Miss Brittanie let her take it home. She loves that thing. We found some more of them for her, and she totally keeps them on. She won't leave the barrette in her hair, but she'll wear that headband all day.

It was kind of coming off when we got home from daycare.




I did do the March for Babies a couple of weeks ago, right when we got back from the beach. The original plan was for us all to go, but there was rain on the radar when we woke up and we decided that the girls really didn't need to be out in that. It rained for the first hour, while we were standing around waiting for it to start. It let up right around the start of the walk. And my kids must be wimps, because I was the only one who didn't bring them! Oh well - hopefully we can all do it together next year. But the important part is that we raised $1126 for the March of Dimes!

Me after the walk.


I took an extra vacation day after we got back from the beach and finally finished up some curtain panels for the girls' room. Well, that wasn't the original plan, but after going down for naps and bed time without a fight while we were at the beach, they suddenly were throwing fits again at nap and bed time. I was starting to wonder if it was too light in there, especially since it's been getting lighter and night and it's not dark when they go to bed. Anyhow, things have been getting better at bed time and nap times. But apparently I only started the 4 panels for the front window, not the side window. That's where most of the light comes from, though. Now I've just got to find the time to make 2 more panels for the side window, and remember how I did all the calculations for cutting. I started these curtains while I was pregnant with the girls, almost 2 years ago now.

I think that Becca has started to say "up." I was trying to teach them to say "up" when they wanted to be picked up onto the couch. Last week, it was a pretty clear "up." This week, it sounds more like she is saying "at." But she has a word for it.

Greg and I were walking in to work one day, talking about who had been up how many times and at what hour the previous night, and he said to me, "Do you remember when our conversations didn't use to be constantly qualified by 'I think' or 'from what I can remember' or 'if I wasn't dreaming this, then...'?" Yeah, that's a pretty good statement on the affairs around here.

The girls all like playing with bibs, mostly just carrying them around. Lately, though, they're trying to put them on themselves. (I think sometimes they also pretend that socks are bibs, because they stretch them out over their heads and then behind their necks? Otherwise I can't figure out what they're doing with the sock!) In the past few days, it has become a "I'm hungry. My bib is on. Where is my milk?" sign. Emma has also started pulling out the blanket we use for their bed time bottles. She wants to be helpful right now. Last night, Emma got herself a bib, and then got one for Julie (Becca was still upstairs getting a bath). The one she brought for Julie was dirty, so I pointed to another one and asked her to get it, and she went and got it for me! Then she helped me get the blanket out, and while I was straightening it out, she got the Boppies out and brought them over to me. When Julie was sick earlier in the week and went to bed really early one night, we only needed the 2 Boppies. But when Emma only saw 2 out, she went over and go the 3rd one. Sweet girl.

So, as I mentioned, Miss Julie is not feeling so well. Daycare called on Monday afternoon saying she had a fever. I took her to the doctor on Tuesday morning and we found out she's got a double ear infection. Her fever was pretty much gone on Tuesday morning, but on Tuesday night, after she had some antibiotics in her, her fever started spiking up to 104.5. It was a pretty scary, rough night for us. By Wednesday morning, her fever was back down to 98. We took her in to daycare, and her fever grew gradually all day. By this morning (Thursday), she was back up to 103 this morning. I stayed home with her, and she slept all day long. I laid with her on the couch this morning, and she slept in her bed all afternoon, until about 5:00. She probably didn't sleep well last night, but I have never seen any of them sleep this much! She ate some dinner, had a bottle, and is back in bed for the night now. Her temp is back down, though. I was checking it all afternoon while she was sleeping (and, uh, making sure she was still breathing!). We finally broke down and bought a temporal scanner thermometer like the doctor's office has and it's the best thing ever.

We decided to split up their 15 month check ups and not do all 3 of them at once this time, and of course we scheduled Emma and Becca's appointment on the day that Julie was sick, so we had to take all 3 of them anyway. Emma and Becca are doing well! We need to work on language development with them, but hopefully the ear tubes will help them hear better, which will help their language skills. Becca's still our tallest, and she's got an inch on Emma now, though Emma's got Becca beat by about a pound. The nurses give them lollipops right before they do their shots, and the girls like them, but they make a huge mess. The lollipops must trigger the drool response, because the girls are literally soaked. When I picked up Emma's shirt later to throw in the wash, it was stiff. Of course, we took the girls for chocolate ice cream after their appointment, so that didn't help. So far, chocolate comes out with oxyclean.

I had another bout with pink eye this week. Second time for me this year.

I took the girls to the zoo on Saturday morning with some other triplet families. Besides getting the triple stroller through the entrance to the zoo, it went pretty smoothly. It was good for me to get out of the house with all three of them - I don't think I've ever done that before. Of course, since it was a Saturday morning, there were a lot of people there. And we got all too many "are they triplets? all girls? you must have your hands full!" Luckily there were other triplet families there to sympathize.

From the zoo...


Emma pointing at the giraffe


While I was at the zoo, Greg was out looking for a water heater. Apparently ours is leaking, and therefore needs to be replaced. That's really all I know about it. Except that it's going to be expensive, and require a plumber.

This week was teacher appreciation week at daycare, and they had themes for each day. Monday was a card day, so I made some cards. Tuesday was supposed to be bath and body products, but how do you buy those for someone else? We went with Target gift cards. :) Wednesday was flower day. So, planning ahead, I had Greg get a bouquet from Costco over the weekend. Nice, right? We won't have to worry about it at the last minute, plus we got to enjoy the flowers for a few days. Yeah, except for the cats. Tipped the vase over on the kitchen table over night. We woke up to a puddle, and lots of soaked stuff (magazine, etc). So then the flowers spent the rest of the week locked in the bathroom. So the flowers did eventually make it in to daycare, but of course it was a fiasco. For today (Thursday), I made some picture frames. Well, I didn't make them. But I painted them (misted with purple and pink Maya mists, for my scrapbook friends, and then sealed with ModPodge) and then decorated them.

cards


frames


Tonight, after the girls ate, Greg became Superdad, and I went out to dinner with some fellow triplet moms. It's always good to get out of the house and learn about all that I have to look forward to. :)