One year ago today...

...three amazing ladies came into the world, and made our little family complete. It hasn't been easy, it hasn't been smooth - - and yet it has been perfect.

I have said it before, but I can't say it enough: we are so very lucky that the girls are happy and healthy and thriving. It's amazing really. We watched some videos on Monday night from last summer, and -- wow. The girls were so small, and helpless looking. We love to just watch them grow, to see their minds developing, to see their personalities blossoming, to see them grow more and more beautiful every day.

As much as I hate to quote Kate, "It may be a crazy life, but it's OUR life."

Happy birthday, my dear Emma, Julie, and Rebecca! We love you so much!

Emma


Julie


Becca


Julie


Julie


Becca


Emma


Emma


Julie


Becca

Stability

As we are rapidly approaching the girls' first birthday, I feel like we are finally get closer to something resembling stability and, dare I say it, sanity. Don't get me wrong - it's still on the fringe of utter chaos, but becoming more manageable. Greg and I are able to get more done around the house on the weekends, and we've been doing a little bit better at getting dinner on the table at night.

Becca has pretty much recovered from the bronchiolitits. She's got one more nebulizer treatment to do, and I don't know who will miss it less - us or her.

Becca getting her medicine


Julie curious why Becca is getting so much attention


So, after being home the first week of January with a sick Becca, we were trying to get out the door on Monday morning of this past week, and Emma was just screaming. Right before we put her coat on we decided to check her temperature ... and it was 103. So, home again. I took her to the doctor in the afternoon, and she's got another double ear infection, after just having finished up a round of antibiotics two days earlier. We are trying another antibiotic now... whatever she has is resistant so far. I hope this clears it up, because the next step is a round of very painful shots. Poor kid.

By the time we got home from the doctor, she was in better spirits. Since it was just her, I let her crawl around on the kitchen floor. I don't think she's ever been able to do that before. Something about listening to her slap around on the kitchen floor made me so happy. I'm not quite sure what - for some reason, it made everything feel real at that moment: I have kids. Strange how those little moments can hit you.

She made it into the cats' water bowl twice: the first time she just stuck her hand in. The second time, she tipped it over, and tipped it toward her, so after a second her hands were wet, her knees were wet and she started whimpering because she was getting soaked.

I also pulled out the pony (that's what the video was from). She doesn't move around on it much, but she likes to sit on it and play with it.


Then she crashed in her high chair that night.


Emma has been going through a developmental explosion lately. Just in the last week or so, she has started eating more adventurously, having "conversations" with herself complete with facial expressions, and just bouncing with excitement. She also seems interested in engaging her sisters in play, and she may have even given them hugs. Some friends came by a few weekends ago to pick up some baby gear, and Emma was so excited to meet new people.

Becca, sweet sweet Becca, is our troublemaker. Bully, really. They had to give her two time outs at daycare this week. (They're not *real* time outs - - they just put her in her crib for a few minutes.) Once, she hit another kid on the head with a toy, and once she pulled Julie's hair.

Both Becca and Julie are going to be transitioning to Emma's class in daycare this week. Such big girls! They have started feeding Becca and Julie the table food that they offer at daycare each day, and they're doing really well with it. Becca is probably our best table food eater, in terms of being able to get food in her mouth, chew bigger pieces, etc.

Julie is our drama queen at the moment. She DOES NOT like it when she catches someone leaving the room. She's always been able to shift moods on a dime, but now if one of us walks a way from her, she just starts crying. It doesn't matter if someone is still in the room with her. She is also quite the ham: we went for portraits today, and that child put on quite the show for the camera. She has started clapping, and loves to do it. And she can't clap without this big huge grin on her face.

Becca and Emma playing


Emma and Julie playing with the shopping cart


Becca


Julie


Becca, Emma, Julie. Just an ordinary night. :)


We love yogurt and cheerios for breakfast!
Emma


Julie


Becca


All of the girls are working on walking with the shopping cart and stroller. Emma's definitely the closest to walking, but I think it will still be a little while. They say that she will stand on her own without holding on to anything at daycare for a second or two, but at home she seems to be too busy to stand still. Julie has just started to get in to the walking thing, and it still a little "stiff." The funniest thing, though, is that when we put the doll in the stroller for her to push, she stops, pulls the doll out by its head and throws it on the floor like, "c'mom, ma, she's just dead weight."

Warning: Parent With Video Camera

Playing on a Saturday morning. What to watch for: Julie (in back in red PJs) trolling the floor and either pretending to or eating whatever she can find. Ems is standing at the fence in red PJs, and Becca is in pink.


Becca playing with the ball. What else to watch for: Emma trying to steal the show. Julie's barking giggle. And if you watch closely at ~1:47, Julie does her Adam-doing-an-impression-of-Jamie impression from Mythbusters very briefly. She puts her wrist up in front of her mouth and rubs it back and forth, and wiggles her fingers. (This is Adam's impression of Jamie's mustache.) She does this all the time!


Playing in the corner. They were giggling nonstop before I got over there. Julie's in red giggling. Emma's in the pink cupcakes, and Becca's playing under the swing. I forgot that there are outlets over there. I knew there had to be another element of danger, in addition to the swing, the drawers full of cds (the swing blocks them closed), the knobs on the drawers, the close quarters, the window, the curtain, the window sill, the tiny bit of expose marble in front of the fireplace.


Emma riding her pony. This was on her sick day.

Glamour

I've had subscriptions to 2 magazines that have gone under in the last year.

As compensation, I am now getting 2 copies of Glamour every month.

(Actually the 1st one that went under actually sent me something else first. But then that went under, too. And then Glamour.)

If I had to vote for one word that was most distant from my life, either now or ever, it would be "Glamour."

And if I got 2 words, they would be "double Glamour."

I can't decide if it's worth the effort and $10 to cancel them, or whether it's just too funny to see them in the mail.

New Year's Resolutions

Better late than never, right?

- - - To be the best mom I can be. I need to work on patience. I need to spend both quantity and quality time with my girls.

- - - To be healthier. To eat better, to eat less. To not eat in response to stress.

- - - To spend less time on the computer. I feel like I just waste too much time. I definitely want to keep blogging, more frequently if possible. But I need to waste less time on Facebook and Google Reader.

- - - To make sure that I still have some time for me. Scrapbooking has been wholly neglected for the last year or so. The big cleanup/clean out recently should help things.

If I had to choose a word for the year, it would be BALANCE.

More Pictures

Emma reads Technology Review, too.


Becca and Emma go shopping


Well, when they all push at the same time in different directions, at least the stroller doesn't go anywhere.


Emma walking with the stroller


Sweet Bex


Sweet Julie


The poor humus container never had a chance.


Julie always seems to have a tear in her eye.


More sweet Becca. Funny story: Becca is very efficient. When she's playing with something and she wants to move, she will put a toy in her mouth and army crawl around the living room, kind of like a dog. When I took her back to the pediatrician on Thursday, she was going crazy with the paper on the table, ripping and eating it. To distract her from eating the paper, the doctor gave her a tongue depressor, which she loved. So, I'm trying to get her jacket on and she has two handfuls of paper. I resort to trying to buy her off with the tongue depressor. And what does she do? Open her mouth. "You can just put it in here, ma, my hands are full right now."


The girls have all been playing in this corner lately. I'm not sure what the draw is: the window, the curtain, the swing, the drawers on the entertainment center, or just the danger of it all being so close together. Julie and Emma were having a major giggle fest this day, giggling and making each other giggle. It's too funny.


Emma making Julie giggle


More gigglebots


Another day, and they're all still drawn to the corner. It usually ends in someone crying.

Happy New Year!

Well, a new year. The first year we are starting together as a family. Greg told the girls, "This year will have 19 more days in it."

Us on new year's eve.


We rang in the new year rather peacefully. The girls chose to celebrate the new year with the British at 8pm EST. We were glad they chose to fall asleep shortly thereafter, and didn't feel the need to wake up at midnight. Greg and I mostly spent the night cleaning. His big project for the last week or so has been cleaning out the garage, and we can now fit a car into it again! Good timing, too, because it's been really cold the past few nights. My project has been cleaning out my craft room. It has been largely ignored for the last year, and even when I moved everything in there, it was kind of in a rush without much thought or planning for functionality. It's not quite done yet, but much closer. I can't wait to get in there again and actually work. And the girls are going to have one rockin' craft kit when they're ready for it, with all the stuff I cleaned out.

Earlier last week (Tuesday, I think), we took the girls for one more trip to see the Christmas lights. Greg and I appreciated the vintage Smurf lights.


Luckily we ran in to some friends while there, and got this great family picture.



The girls are testing out some new hats and mittens from Greg's Aunt and Uncle. The girls weren't sure what to do with the thumb hole, but they stayed warm, and the hats didn't fall in their eyes.



I got a barrette in Becca's hair at some point this week. These pictures make her look SO much older. And yes, she's reading Technology Review (my alumni magazine). A future Engineer?


Another trip to the doctor last week. Daycare called on Wednesday and said that Emma was inconsolable. Ear infection. They aren't sure if the first one just never went away, or if this is a new one, but she's on stronger antibiotics now. She is doing MUCH better with medicine. What finally seemed to have worked for us is just not trying to hold her while we give her the medicine. We bring it in to the living room and sit down next to her or across from her, and she takes it on her own terms. No more drama. Whew.

Anyhow, after the 10 minute nap in the car on the way to the doctor, she was a much happier girl, so we decided to stop at Hobby Lobby on the way home. Emma hung out of the cart the whole time! People kept laughing and asking if she was asleep. Nope, just intently interested in the floor. Thank goodness for cell phone cameras.


After that, it was about time to go get the sisters. Everybody was asleep when we got home.


Love, love, love this picture of Emma and Greg.


We moved one of the white noise machines downstairs to try to calm things down at bed time. Julie found it right away. Turned it on. Turned the volume all the way up. I think she was trying to pretend she was at the beach again.


The grocery cart from Santa has been a big hit.


Julie is our dancer. She loves music, and loves to be able to play music herself, either on the shopping cart or the little doll stroller. She's always liked it, and still loves the music from the exersaucer. She bops up and down to it.

Meal times are slightly improved these days. We're continuing to give them something they can feed themselves first - usually bananas, celery, etc. and then following that with a jar of fruit/veggies. We have started giving them some jarred meat. I want them to get some protein, but they don't seem to want to feed themselves meat yet. Oh, and it's not that "meat sticks" stuff (actually, the jar might say "stix," lending even less credibility). I am hoping it doesn't come to that. Although... apparently Emma ate spaghetti-os at daycare last week. Really, Emma? You won't eat ravioli, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, or even cheese puffs, but you'll eat that crap? I really hope I don't have to break down and buy spaghetti-os.

Bed time has been a battle again. We had kind of given up on "sleep training," because the girls go to bed at different times every night. I mean, we enforce an 8:30 bed time, but sometimes they will fall asleep earlier, or they'll be ready to go upstairs at different times. We've been trying to put Emma to bed first every night this week, and we're pretty much listening to her scream herself to sleep every night. Sigh.

So that brings us to the first week of the new year... which hasn't gone quite as we had hoped. We are having a hard time getting back into the routine of having no time. Things were pretty smooth over vacation, and we even managed to get a few real meals on the table. Nothing Martha Stewart, but certainly less take out. And this week just feels like things are falling apart all over again.

Becca is sick with bronchiolitis. She's having a hard time breathing, she's coughing, and she had a really high fever (102-104) earlier in the week. She also has an ear infection. Greg or I have been home with her since Monday, and she won't be back at daycare before Monday. We went back to the doctor for a recheck on today (Thursday), and her lungs sound much better. Her fever finally broke on Wednesday. She's on 3 different medicines right now, and she just isn't herself. She's very clingy, doesn't want to play, cranky, fighting naps, and will just kind of space out. Poor thing. Luckily, she is getting better and we are on the mend, but it has been very draining for all of us. Emma and Julie don't understand why they can't play with Becca, why they can't play with her nebulizer, or why she is getting so much attention. We have again given up on the attempt of sleep training, in order to get Becca as much sleep as we can.

I've got more pictures to post, but it's late, and this post has been dragging on for days now.

Emma

Well, apparently we need a new small digital video camera. We've got a video camera, but, uh, can't find the wire right now to connect it to the computer. We've got the Canon Powershot (which is now almost 5 years old) which is much easier to use, but ever since we've started using it again, it will sometimes get that shading across the top of the screen. Sometimes it doesn't, though... Anyway, here's some video of Emma.

Making funny noises.


Walking! She wasn't too happy about it at the time. (Someone remind me not to turn the camera sideways to shoot video. Sigh.)


Working on a post on what we've been up to.

Christmas Wrap Up

Christmas Eve was a bit of a blur. From what I recall, the girls all took a really long nap in the afternoon. That NEVER happens. But it did allow us to make some of the final preparations for Santa's arrival.

Some cute pictures of Julie from Christmas Eve. We've discovered that Cheerios are a universal favorite.








I'm not a big fan of leftovers. Well, there are particular leftovers that I like - - but they are few and far between. Thanksgiving leftovers are at the top of my list, though. We wanted Christmas to be really low key, so we could just see how the girls took it all in and go with the flow. So, I decided to make a turkey on Christmas Eve, so we'd just have leftovers on Christmas. (Maybe this will be a new tradition?) It was a very pretty turkey, if I do say so myself.


Anyhow, after the eating fiasco earlier in the week, we decided that if the girls were insisting on feeding themselves, we were going to have to come up with food that they could have. And so, on Christmas Eve, we fed them turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. (Oh, they also got a celery stick to gnaw on, which was easily their favorite part of the meal.) I swear, when we put the tray of food in front of them, they looked at us like they hadn't expected us to call their bluff. None of them ate a whole lot, but we all sat down at the table together, for the first time ever.

Emma thinks it's funny that we're trying to get her to eat something that's not pureed.


Julie's eating something. Or at least pretending to.


Emma's actual verdict.


Becca takes a taste here or there, but really preferred gnawing on the celery stick. Actually, the only reason she's going after the turkey here is that the celery stick was on the floor at this point.


Christmas was just right. After a Christmas breakfast of bottle, yogurt, and cheerios, we took the girls into the dining room to open presents. The girls are pretty much confined to the living room at the moment, so the dining room was a bit of a challenge - hasn't been babyproofed, no gates, etc. We could get about 3 presents open before the girls were crawling all over each other trying to play with everything all at the same time.

Christmas breakfast


The tree:


They got some ride-on toys that they are really excited about, but probably not quite ready for yet.

A pony!


Becca's car


Emma's trike


Our very own biker gang.


As expected, everything went into their mouths. Wrapping paper, presents, etc.

Becca opening presents with her teeth.


Julie taking a snack break.


Emma, getting into everything. She did rip the paper on that big box, but it may have been accidental, in her pursuit of the farm and the bead roller coaster.


Poor Dusty.


Lefty hiding in the tree. She's never gotten into the tree like that in the past. But this year, the cats love walking around on the presents, and I think they've been hiding back behind all the presents.


When we couldn't keep the order anymore, we shifted back to the living room, and have slowly been bringing their presents in to the living room for them to play with.

The girls took another good nap on Christmas. We definitely attempted to wear them out. We also went out to Starbucks later in the day, mostly to get us all out of the house.

Needless to say, we didn't get everything unwrapped on Christmas. So, Saturday became Christmas Part 2. And it went about like Christmas Part 1. We got 4 or 5 presents unwrapped before the girls were climbing everywhere and we couldn't reach them all anymore. So, now it's Monday night, and we still haven't unwrapped everything! Only Santa gifts are remaining, but we're pretty toy-ed out at the moment.

The cats decided to sit out round 2.


One of their favorite toys is this shopping cart. (Julie, Becca)


Emma joins in.


Emma loves this thing. We helped her figure out that it is a walker, and now there's no stopping her. She would push it around non-stop if she could. She hasn't figure out the whole turning-it-around-when-you-hit-the-couch thing yet, but she would be running with it if she could. And because she's Emma, when she hit the wall or a couch, she just pushes harder and from other angles.


Teamwork.


Becca and daddy.


Emma. I think she was clapping about something here.


Julie opening a glow worm (seahorse). "If this thing is supposed to make me go to sleep, you can take it back."


Becca and the farm both crash after a long day of hard playing.


Julie with a cheerio on her nose. Hey, she's happy about it! Or she's learning to be a ham for the camera.


Emma waving again.


So, the bead roller coaster. Not a walker, you say? Sigh. Yeah, Emma prefers it on it's side, and pushes it around like it's a walker. And it's almost as good at the shopping cart.


I'd have my hands full with this one alone.


Julie thinks, "Wow Emma, you're right. It is much more fun on its side!"


Now Julie's just being cute.


More cute Julie with her new giraffe.


On Saturday night, we took our first family trip to Target to check out the clearance stuff. We managed to get a few more boxes of LED lights for the tree. We finally switched over this year, with a couple of strands we got on clearance last year. We went to Panera for dinner afterward, and the girls did fine again. I hope that we are getting them used to being out in public. We were no louder than the family there with just one baby. I am finally starting to come to terms with constantly being stopped while we are out. "Are they tripets?" I feel like we're past the rude interruptions stage, and we're more likely to be stopped by other families with multiples, etc, who really are trying to lend support. (Of course, when we were walking around at the Christmas lights the other night, and I heard a parent(!) say, "Look, it's a baby train!" to his kid, I was fuming.) Anyhow, that may have always been the case, but it sure didn't feel like it. I just felt like we were being stared at by all these weirdos asking really rude questions. Now at least I'm convincing myself that we get noticed because the girls are so stinkin' adorable, and not because there are 3 of them.

We must have worn Emma out, because when we got back from dinner, they were all asleep in their carseats. Greg brought Emma into the house, and she never woke up. That NEVER happens, now that we've got the bigger carseats that stay in the car. We're constantly waking them up from naps. Becca has slept through it once or twice, but I've never ever known Emma to stay asleep.


On Sunday, we used our brand new Zoo passes (a Christmas gift!). There wasn't much for the girls to see, at this point. The angle from the stroller was a little funny, and if the animals weren't right in front of them, they couldn't really see them. And it's so exhausting to keep getting them all into and out of the stroller. They might have seen the elephants and the giraffes. The biggest hit was the goats, though I didn't get a picture. They were right at the girls' level, and it's basically a petting zoo, so the goats come right up to the fence. Unfortunately, this was on our way out, and the girls were starting to get antsy whenever we stopped pushing the strollers. We got a nice walk in, got familiar with the zoo, and have some ideas for next time.

Julie's enjoying herself, even if she can't see what we're pointing at.


Dad with the girls


Mom with the girls


Look, it's Sophie!


The ladies trying to avoid being eaten by the lion water fountain.


Becca decides that she will ride with her feet up, thank you very much. I wish I could say that it's the first time she's done this, but it's more likely that it's just the first time I caught it on camera.


Another one of the ladies


The fam.


Flamingos.


Emma checking out the pot bellied pig.


Our new feeding strategy has been to give the girls something that they can feed themselves first, while we're still getting everyone strapped in, bibbed, etc. Then we move on to jarred food. This way they can get some practice, and get a little frustrated before realizing how nice it is to have someone feeding you. So nice that you don't need to throw a fit or throw food everywhere. It's working ok so far. We tried ravioli on Christmas, and no one would eat it. But they sure gobbled up the jarred food afterwards. On Sunday, we tried little pieces of banana. Julie and Becca LOVED it. Julie needs the pieces cut pretty small or else she spits them out, but Becca is chomping them up like a champ. She'll eat as much banana as we put in front of her. Emma was in no mood to try something new, feed herself, etc. Greg managed to get a little banana in her mouth, and she liked it, but she still pouted and whined up until she got a bath. Tonight, we tried banana again, and they all ate it! Emma needed some prodding, and when she feeds herself, it's about a 75% chance that the food won't make it into her mouth. But it's definitely a step up from when she insisted on pureed banana.

Monday was back to the routine. The girls went back to daycare, and Greg and I worked from home. Word on the street is that Emma took a step at daycare when she didn't realize that someone wasn't holding her anymore. I have yet to see it myself - she's been too busy with toys this evening to show off her new moves. We'll keep you posted, though. I'm meaning to get some videos up of her waving and clapping, because it's just too sweet.