Uncle Dan and Aunt Victoria

Most of the rest of last week was surprisingly uneventful. The sleep situation hasn't been great lately, though, and seems to be getting worse. We have at least 2 in bed with us every night. It's not that they won't go to bed ... it's that they wake up. And I know that we need to let them cry themselves back to sleep, but that's easier said than done with three in one room. And the one time we tried it with Becca, she screamed for an hour before we couldn't take it any more.

We took the girls to the park after work on Friday. (It used to be that fresh air ensured we'd get a good night sleep, but even that doesn't seem to work any more.) We were going to attempt Applebees for dinner, but there was a wait, and the girls were already antsy. We hadn't eaten anywhere with table service with them yet. The hard part is just getting everybody in and out. Normally, we'd take a stroller, but that's to the familiar places where we know there aren't stairs, and there is somewhere to park the stroller.

My brother Dan and his girlfriend Victoria came to visit us this weekend, and to meet the girls for the first time. On Saturday, we went to try out a different playground. It was a little bit too old for the girls... there were only 2 toddler swings, and not too much else they could play on, especially since it was swamped with older kids. It was just a gorgeous day, 74 and sunny, so the place was packed.


















After the park, we took the girls for their first taste of ice cream. Emma and Becca had a few tastes. Julie made some awful faces, but wouldn't stop eating it. We finally had to cut her off. But we definitely have one ice cream fan. We got some barbeque take out for dinner, and I couldn't believe how much the girls LOVED pulled pork. They kept yelling for more.

We had originally planned to go to an annual triplet Easter egg hunt on Sunday afternoon, but it had already started drizzling in the morning. The rain picked up later in the day, and with three crawlers, it just didn't make sense. Especially since they all have developed some chest congestion and a cough. Instead, we went downtown for an early dinner at a pizza place I've been craving. The girls did great - they ate some snacks, and then tried some pita and hummus. And then pizza. We tried to feed them some pizza a few months ago, right after they started eating solids, and they weren't terribly interested. But on Sunday, oh my. They. loved. it. Becca kept grabbing at Greg's arm to feed her more. Emma did her best "hungry baby bird" impression and just sat there with her mouth open. And Julie just kept eating as fast as I could feed her.









Back to the grind on Monday. Tuesday morning brought a recheck of Becca's ears and iron levels (iron is still low, but in the normal range. We continue "iron therapy" for another 2 months, then take her off for 2 months and check her at 18 mos(!) to see if she's built up iron stores). And the timing was just perfect, as we also have started another battle with pink eye. So I kept her home after her appointment. She got 2 doses of antibiotic in and was cleared for daycare on Wednesday, but sure enough... Julie's eyes were gooped closed this morning. Oh, and they both also have ear infections.

Julie is in a "throwing toys" phase. Not throwing them at someone... but when she's taking things out of the shopping cart or something, she'll just throw them over her shoulder. She's working on bye-bye ("buh buh" with a wave). Her favorite toy at the moment is a cloth book that has lots of flaps.

Emma's a walking fool. We are working on giving meaning to "mama," "dada," and "Emma." So far, Emma keeps saying "dada" and pointing to herself. We think that we have taught her that "dada" is a verb meaning "point at yourself." She loves the toy corn popper, but she hasn't figured out how to walk and push it yet. No, she likes to push it while sitting, or just swing it around.

Becca has started taking a few more steps on her own. She loves to play with all of the walking toys, and when she's not playing the music on the toy stroller (she's the first to figure out how to push the button on the bear's belly), she's flipping over all of the toys to give them a tune up.

They've all got brand new shoes right now. Stride Rite's sale ends on Sunday, so I wanted to get them all a pair of sneakers and then a pair of closed toe sandal sneakers. Becca and Julie got these sneakers, Becca in sandstone and Julie in the Azalea. Becca and Julie both got these sandals. I didn't want to get them the same thing, but we got Becca's first, and when I took Julie, I found out that her feet are smaller, and these were the only ones that came in her size. Emma got these sneakers and these sandals.

My memory is not good enough to go 3 weeks without a post.

I got a haircut on Saturday morning, the first time since October. It always feels so good once it's done, I don't know why I put it off. I did the Costco milk run, and ended up getting the girls a sandbox while I was there. I've been looking for one for a little while. I like the cute little plastic turtle/frog/ladybug etc., but in all of the pictures online, there's one kid in the sandbox and he takes up about half the sandbox. So I knew I was going to have to find something bigger. I managed to get it off the stack of boxes, on the cart, and out to the car. But then I had to figure out how to get the car seats out of the car, and was about to lose it.

We finally found a FABULOUS babysitter (and that's why I'm not revealing her name! stay away! she's ours!), so we made plans to go out to dinner on Saturday, just the 2 of us, to celebrate my birthday (the previous weekend). For a change, I wanted to try a new Persian restaurant downtown... and it was great! And then we went to get my favorite dessert (at another restaurant): white chocolate banana cream pie. Oh yum. We made a quick stop at Barnes and Noble on the way home... I can't remember the last time we wandered around a book store together. A great night. Hiring a babysitter is expensive, but definitely something we will do again.

The girls are getting tired of being cooped up in the living room (in the confines of the Great Wall), so we have started letting them into the kitchen a bit more. Emma figured out how to open a drawer, and Julie seems to have figured out the cabinet knobs, so we have to watch them like hawks. But they have so much fun padding around the kitchen. I took Becca with me to the grocery store on Sunday, and while I was gone, Greg had Emma and Julie in the kitchen. They were playing "chairs" (you know, "chairs." where you slap the chair to make noise and then push it around the floor to practice walking?) when they discovered the box of chips from Costco.





I like this one because it looks like Emma is shaking all of the bags to figure out which one has the most.




Becca's hair is almost in her eyes now, so we are trying out hair clips. She tends to pull them out, though, and I don't want to have to worry about her (or other kids) chewing on/swallowing hair clips. Anyhow, we were trying out some new ones on Sunday night, and the other girls insisted on getting involved.

I love this, because, in the background, Julie has pulled the clip out of her hair and is trying to stick it back to her head. The girls are kind of obsessed with putting things on their head right now, which is totally our doing. It completely distracts them: put a toy on their head and they stop whatever they are doing to try to figure out what is going on, get it off, and now they are trying to put things on their own heads. So. stinkin'. cute.


"What is this?"


Becca tolerating it.



Monday came around awfully quickly with the time change, and the girls were just worn out when we got home from daycare. Emma and Julie stayed asleep when we brought them in from the car, and look passed out on the living room floor.




Becca woke up, though.


We went to the ENT this morning with Emma and Julie. He said they both have fluid in their ears (Emma's being worse), but he didn't really push us one way or the other on tubes. We can call and schedule the surgery any time, but in the mean time we've got a recheck scheduled for all of them in a month to see if they have dried out at all. He said he's not really worried about the infections, more about the lingering fluid impacting their hearing and development. We are trying to decide how to proceed.

After the ENT, we made a quick trip to the mall to get Emma measured for shoes, now that she is walking. I'll scrimp on lots of things, but I really wanted to get some good shoes to start her off. We've been in Target and Payless shoes. And, of course, Mom of the Year had her in the wrong size. But she is all set and looking awfully cute. We'll have to get some pictures. I actually saw that One Step Ahead sells a shoe measuring thing for $10. With how fast we're going to go through shoes, I'm thinking it might be worth it.

Wait, it's not February anymore?

So Julie's pink eye? Not pink eye. No, she came home and that eyelid started turning red and swelling. I had already resolved that I'd be staying home the next day and taking her to the doctor. When she woke up Thursday morning, though, her eye was hugely swollen to the point where she could only open it a crack. So, off to the doctor we go, and they're like, "Wha?" No real "cause," just an eye infection. And an ear infection. The doctor freaked me out a little bit when she said, "We take eye swelling very seriously because there's a very thin layer between the eye and the brain." So, uh, I thought I'd spread the word.

She looked a little better by Friday morning, and was cleared to go back to daycare. But were we in the clear? Of course not. Because Becca and Emma had come home with goopy eyes on Thursday night. At that point, it was more work to take just one of them in to daycare, so we had another ladies day at home, and met Greg at the doctors office... despite swearing that I would never ever take the 3 of them to one appointment again. The only reason that we survived this one was that the doctor came in VERY fast. And what do you think the verdict could possible have been? Ear infections, of course! Now everyone is on the same antibiotic at 3 different dosages. We are starting to think about getting tubes in the girls' ears. The ear infections have just been constant since Thanksgiving time. I don't know whether they'll get better as it warms up, or if that's just wishful thinking. So if you have thoughts on tubes, please feel free to share. I've heard nothing but good things... except for the mom of twins I ran in to at the ENT whose son had clogged tubes. The promise of an uninterrupted night of sleep may be swaying me, though.

And a funny doctor story... we saw one of the doctors that one of the girls had seen before, but he'd never seen all 3 of them ("just heard about them." Can't say I'm surprised our reputation precedes us.). Anyhow, he had to face the wrath of Emma. She HATES having her ears looked at, probably because they're always infected. As soon as you start to lay her down on the table, she goes into a cross between a full fledged freak out and a temper tantrum. It takes 3 people to hold her down. And then he looked at Becca's ears, and she just lays there. So, as he's leaving, he said to Becca, "You did very good." And to Emma, "And you... you are very strong." Yup.

So that weekend was a bit of a blur, with unhappy girls waking up at night, and waiting for Julie to stop looking like she got in an awful fist fight over the last Teddy Graham. We did take the girls out to dinner one night. We went to McAllisters, where we've taken them before. And honestly, to us, it was about an average trip. We made the mistake of getting them mac-n-cheese (in addition to a baked potato and chicken), and it was a HUGE mess. They were covered in food. The floor was covered in food. The high chairs were crusted in food. And their clothes had big huge soaked patches of cheese. So we're leaving, and this table of 3 older women ... I'll call them grandmotherly types... stops us, and says what good parents we must be because they are the best behaved babies they've ever seen. And Greg and I were just taken aback... Really? Then we realized that they couldn't see the mess from their table. :) It was very sweet of them to say, and totally made our day. We don't always feel like great parents.

Everybody playing.


Everybody's on antibiotics so I should have been in the clear for not missing any work last week, right? Yeah, until it snowed on Tuesday. And schools dismissed at noon. And daycare closed early. To complicate things even more, the Passat (as in, the only car that will hold all 3 car seats) was in the shop that day... for the 2nd day in a row... after we had to pick it up un-fixed on Monday afternoon because they waited until the end of the day to diagnose the problem after having the car all day long. (I'm looking at you, Steve White.) Hence my minivan question for those of you on Facebook. The snow didn't really stick... it started to accumulate on the ground, but then melted quickly.

For some reason, I decided that they day that it snowed would be a good day to go to the DMV to renew my driver's license, seeing as how it expired 4 days later. So I get to the door and they make you take an eye test ... and I couldn't see the last set of numbers. The lady kept saying, "Take your time, try it again." And I was like, "Well, they're not getting any clearer." I've never needed my glasses for passing the eye test before. Sigh. So I had to leave, defeated, and come back later in the week with my glasses. I got a new prescription when I finally went to the eye dr last September, but they told me that it wasn't a whole lot different that the glasses I already have, so I still haven't gotten new ones. The funny thing was that, with the glasses, the last set of numbers was perfectly clear, but the first 2 sets were a little harder to see.

Somebody put the remote control down the leap frog table.


I managed to make it out to dinner with a group of triplet moms last Thursday... the first time I've made it to a monthly dinner in about a year. So things really are getting more manageable. It was a ton of work for him, but Greg was able to get the girls fed and put to bed so that I could get out. He's the best.

And then I made him do it all again on Friday, as this past weekend was the Moms of Multiples consignment sale. I dropped off a ton of stuff on Friday (mostly clothes) and then stayed to shop for a little bit. I came home with a few new little treasures for the girls, plus a new t-shirt for myself.

Saturday was my birthday ... much better than last year's birthday when Becca was readmitted to the hospital. But I kind of kept forgetting it was my bithday. I worked at the consignment sale in the morning, and then we took a family trip to the zoo and went to Panera for dinner. Lots of fun. We actually took the girls out of the strollers to look at the animals, and focused on the big ones: elephants, giraffes, and the farm animals. They have some cute red pandas that Emma kept calling "cat"s. Greg and I have a pact to skip the reptile house until the girls figure out that we are skipping it.

Some pictures from the zoo...
Becca


Dad and Emma


Watching the giraffes with Becca


I'm boring her.


See my new "peace, love, and triplets" t-shirt?


This past week has been a big blur. The weather was absolutely gorgeous last weekend, and that carried into Monday. I talked Greg into leaving work a little early on Monday afternoon so we could pick up the girls early and go to the park for a little bit. We went on the swings, the slide, and played in the dirt.

Emma started running a fever on Tuesday night. Both Greg and I had dr's appointments on Wednesday morning, but somehow we managed to get Emma to the dr, too. They said it's not a bacterial infection (so, no ear infection for a change), just a virus. Her fever finally broke on Thursday, so we took the girls to the kick off for the March of Dimes March for Babies at Monkey Joe's. The girls were definitely on the young side, and I knew that... for some reason, I thought that they might still enjoy bouncing around. But I was wrong. They did not like it. There were lots of tears. And screaming if we tried to set them down. But we tried it. And we know we don't have to take them back there for a little while. But more importantly, we are looking forward to helping to raise some money for the March of Dimes. Stay tuned for more info on that.

Other exciting developments...

Emma is walking pretty well. She can walk across the living room. And we got her some new shoes.


They mentioned that, at daycare (and we've seen this at home, too), if someone comes to steal a toy she has, she starts swatting her arms. Not necessarily to hit them, but more swatting in frustration. She is working on perfecting her temper tantrum; right now it involves throwing herself on the floor and screaming. She has also started to get into the shopping cart toy. I know I shouldn't be condoning it by taking pictures, but it is rather impressive.

Julie and Emma


I know, Julie - - I can't believe she's getting in the shopping cart, either!


But she's in.




You can't tell me you're not at least a little bit impressed.


This has been a common Emma pose lately - not sure if she's chewing on her finger or what.


She also loves to carry around and chew on bibs at the moment, particularly the velcro.


Julie is talking a lot, and I swear sometime she sounds like she is barking orders. She's our "little general." Right now, she says "ta ta" alot, which means 'bye,' or 'my bottle is empty.' Julie has just started to stand on her own for a few seconds.

Julie. Her eye was still healing here.




Becca can stand pretty well on her own, and it taking maybe 1 or 2 steps. Becca loves to stand, and then clap for herself. In fact, Becca loves clapping in general, even when she doesn't know what she's clapping for. Becca has been clingy and overly dramatic lately. She pitches a fit when you walk away from her. I haven't figured out if it's an attention thing, or a separation anxiety thing.

Becca.






Becca stealing cheerios from Emma's exersaucer.


I like this one, because you can see her looking straight at Emma.


I don't have a ton of pictures... the girls got me a Flip video camera for my birthday and I just love it! I've been shooting lots of video. I'm posting the video to another site; if you want to see it, please email me for the link.

My hope for the weekend is more than 2 hrs of uninterrupted sleep. I think it's been almost 2 weeks since I've gotten that. This week has been especially bad, between Emma's fever and rash (nothing a $240 tube of diaper cream can't cure).

Blueberry Pancakes

We had blueberry pancakes for dinner.




Julie looked like she fought a giant blueberry and it won.

And yes, her swollen left eye? Yup. Pink eye is back. Nice.