Random Notes

No rhyme or reason to this post, just want to jot down some things about the boys at this particular age (roughly 13 months):

• They are becoming more interested in books every day. Their attention span is improving and they'll sometimes crawl into my lap while I read. Yesterday Griffin wanted me to read "Old MacDonald" to him about 8 times in a row. I'd finish it, put it down, and he would pick it right back up and put it in my hands. I love that they're starting to enjoy reading books!
• Will has started signing "more" to us (when prompted)- it's adorable.
• Cooper is in full-blown toddler mode now- he walks with ease everywhere these days. Griffin can take more and more steps each day, but isn't quite as steady as Cooper. Will isn't as interested in walking yet, though he will try to take steps every day.
• Will made us laugh last night as we were trying to get him to walk about 10 feet between me and Daddy. He took a few steps away from me...decided it was a bit too far to walk...got down on the floor and crawled until he was about 2 steps away, then stood up and walked the rest of the way. Smart kid.
• Cari and Sue made a ball pit for the boys using their inflatable pool while we were out of town last week. We hadn't opened the balls because I didn't want to let them play with them until they were older and less inclined to spend time throwing them out of the pit (and leaving us to clean them up!). They l-o-v-e playing in the ball pit, though, so I don't have the heart to take it away from them. They particularly love when there's an "earthquake" that shakes all the balls around. And (as expected) Will and I spend a lot of time putting balls back into the pit. :)
• All three boys love when we sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" lately- they also will often participate in the hand-clapping part.
• Griffin is especially fond of any kind of music these days and will wiggle around and dance if music is playing.
• They know our evening routine so well now that they will hand me their toothbrushes as soon as Will finishes reading "Night Night Pookie"- melt my heart...it's SO cute!
• Will loves playing with me in the evenings when I get home from work, but after dinner until he goes down for bed he pretty much wants nothing to do with me. He cries when I change him into his PJs, and he'll often cry when we all sit in the baby jail to brush teeth. He definitely cries as soon as the bedtime books are over. He'll stop crying and cuddle with Daddy while he says his goodnights and then screams when I take him away to put him down. And he'll cry when I put him in the crib for the night. It breaks my heart to see him so upset. Putting them in their cribs at night has been my "thing" since they were born, but the past couple nights I've made Dad put Will in his crib...and there are no tears. I won't lie- it kind of hurts my feelings that he doesn't like me at bedtime. But I'm trying not to be offended by his new preference for his Daddy. 
• We have biters in the house now- Griffin and Will are both biting these days. It's the worst...and it hurts!
• Favorite new activity for the boys: storing toys in various spots. They have quite a collection of balls sitting in the seat of the exersaucer. And under all the couches and chairs in the play room. And inside the glider. (Did I mention we have a lot of balls now?!) The other night we found "Goodnight Moon" and "Night Night Pookie" hiding in the storage seat of their elephant scoot around toy. 
• We have been letting the boys sleep with their BOCO blankets and a little teething stuffed toy at night. Will and Cooper throw both out of their crib pretty much the second we lay them down, but Griffin sleeps with his blanket all night. He just loves having something soft to cuddle with while he sucks his thumb!
• We tried to put shoes on the boys the other day. Molly gave us a big bag of Liam's old shoes so I just hunted through the pile to find a few pairs that would fit the boys. They loved to help me look through the bag and pick out shoes, but no one was particularly excited about actually wearing them. All three of them spent a lot more energy trying to get the shoes off their feet than keeping them on!
• Speaking of shoes...Cooper thinks the "stinky shoes and feet" game is hilarious. He laughs and laughs and laughs if you smell his feet and crinkle up your nose and tell him he's stinky!
• Speaking of nose crinkling, Cooper and Griffin both crinkle their noses a lot now.
• They all find it hilarious when you say "Ahhh" after taking a drink. Cooper especially loves to mimic the "ahh" sound.
• Griffin is still our little Bam Bam- he really enjoys banging things around. The louder the bang he can make, the more he enjoys banging.
• Will has two more teeth popping in up top- bringing his grand total to (almost) 6
• Griffin has started mimicking us when we say "Uh oh", though it sounds more like (ahhh uhhhh)
• Their radio flyer wagon has quickly become a favorite for us. We still love the triplet stroller, but the wagon is way more convenient to pack in the car, and the boys really enjoy being pulled around in it. I've been able to venture out of the house alone with the trio to run errands, and we've started doing runs to the grocery store or Sam's all together, which feels so incredibly freeing and normal. Granted, taking them with us to run errands makes everything take about 5 times longer than it would if we were alone- about 3x longer dealing with loading and unloading babies...and about 2x longer dealing with all the people who stop us to comment, talk, ask questions, point and stare, etc... I know it won't happen anytime soon, but I look forward to when we can somewhat fly under the radar when we go out and about.
• The boys start their ISR swim lessons next week. The lessons run 5 days a week, and each baby's individual lesson is 10 minutes long. The next 4 weeks, give or take, will be intense. Their lessons start at 10 am, and they can't eat for 1.5 hours prior (or have dairy 2 hours prior). That means Will will have to have them up and eating breakfast by 7:30 each morning so they have time to digest their food. For babies who are usually still fast asleep at that time, this will be an adjustment. They have dietary restrictions for the weeks that they're in "training"- among other things, they aren't allowed to have pineapple or spinach. For babies who eat spinach mixed with fruits or vegetables almost every day, this will be an adjustment. We have to keep "BUDS" documentation for each baby- tracking their bowel, urine, diet, and sleep patterns. For parents who just finished documenting all that for the first year of their life in our triplet book (and have enjoyed not having to keep such close track of it!), this will be an adjustment.  Then Will will need to get all 3 into swim diapers and their swim gear, collect 9(!) towels, their documentation, etc...and have them out the door no later than 9:30. Every. Single.Day. It is very overwhelming for me to think about, and I won't even really be dealing with it! I scheduled myself to take off the 1st morning of their lessons so I could help Will get everyone ready and out the door for the first lesson (they were supposed to start tomorrow.) However, the lesson start date was postponed by a week, and I have meetings scheduled at that time so I likely won't be able to go. It is so disappointing and definitely one of those moments where I feel like I'm "missing" out on one of their milestones. If I'm being honest, I think I'd be OK not watching the lessons as the Youtube videos I've seen TERRIFY me. But I feel for Will, who is going to have a rough 4 weeks, and wish I could be around to help him. Will isn't very excited about this new schedule, either, but we agree that these lessons are important and worth it. God willing we won't have to worry about it ever, but we want the boys to know what to do if they should fall into water.
• I've written quite a bit more than I intended to, so I think I'll leave this post with some pictures of the boys from today. I let them do some exploring downstairs (they very rarely get free reign on the 1st floor)...they traveled in a little herd and thoroughly enjoyed opening and closing kitchen cabinets and staring out the windows. :)
 

Must try out every door and cabinet

And help slam the doors shut, too!






Good night cuddles with Daddy

 

Grand Cayman

We had a wonderful trip last week, and committed ourselves to accomplishing everything on our vacation to-do list: which was to do absolutely nothing. It was such a nice change of pace to not constantly be on the go- no meals to prep, no diapers to change, no baths, no chasing babies. A whole week to ourselves to do whatever we wanted was blissful. 

We spent each day alternating between relaxing at the beach or in the pool, drinking far too many frozen fruity drinks and buckets of beer, and then at night moved on to enjoying delicious dinners over evening cocktails and gorgeous sunsets. We were in bed early each night, (I think our latest night out still had us back at the hotel and in bed before 11:00 pm) which worked out well for being up and at the beach before 9:00 am every morning.

The water on Grand Cayman is amazing- the color is out of this world! I have a pretty big phobia of the ocean (I've seen one too many shark movies!) and didn't plan to spend much time, if any, actually in the water. But the beach was just too inviting, and the water was so clear it felt like you were swimming in a saltwater pool. We probably spent 90% of our time in the ocean, which is unheard of for me! I was brave and took out my own jet ski when we went on a snorkeling safari. And I snorkeled without freaking out. All successes for me! 

Where we spent the majority of our days

The sunsets were amazing!

The hotel we stayed at, The Westin, wasn't the best by any means. The front desk staff wasn't overly pleasant or hospitable, and the lobby area was under construction which was a bit of an inconvenience. But to make up for it, we were able to use their non-motorized water activities for free while we were there. So we took advantage of that amenity a lot! I discovered that I'm pretty decent at stand up paddle boarding, which is great as I've been interested in getting one to take to the lake. And we took out kayaks a couple times, too. 

View from our balcony...my toe polish matched the balcony rails perfectly

Inviting waters

This rain never actually made it to our part of the beach, but it was awesome to watch! The thunder there is INSANELY loud, especially during summer storms.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the sunset cruise we took on our own private sailboat! It was just Will, me, and the Captain, Orneil. He was a great person to chat with- he knew a ton about all the Cayman Islands and we learned a lot about the Island culture. He is also a very active member of the pirating community on Grand Cayman! It was fascinating to learn about their pirate week and all the prep that goes into getting ready for the island's big celebration. I likened it to prepping for Mardi Gras each year in New Orleans. Our sailing adventure ended with us helping tow a stranded eco-tour boat back to shore! Quite an exciting evening. 

Some info about Pirates Week: http://www.piratesweekfestival.com/
And Orneil's (AKA "Captain Wes") Pirate Group: https://www.facebook.com/LasTortugasPirates/?fref=ts

"Our" boat for the evening!

Will loves to get these sail photos

On the water, in his happy place :)

The boat we "rescued"

Another beautiful sunset

Towing the boat

Basically the only photo we took of ourselves the whole trip

We were fortunate to get to see an amazing sunset immediately followed by an awesome full moon rising!

And of course, we missed our babies like crazy! They thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled by their aunts and cousins, though, and I am pretty sure they didn't miss us nearly as much as we missed them! Thank goodness for FaceTime, dropcam, and text messages- we still saw them and talked to them every day we were gone. I know they had a great time when they weren't thrilled to see us when we walked into their room on Friday morning to greet them!

Taking the wagon for a spin

Taking Cooper for a spin

Enjoying the ball pit (that Mom and Dad wouldn't open for them but Aunties would!)

Happy morning baby!

Happy morning baby #2!

Rub a dub dub, 3 babies in the tub!

I'm so glad we were able to get away for a perfectly relaxing vacation, just the two of us. It was good for all five of us to have a break from our normal routine! We were certainly excited to see the boys, but Will and I are already dreaming about our next trip, and can't wait until the boys are big enough to enjoy a family trip back to Grand Cayman!

Last But Not Least!

With just hours to spare before we left for vacation, I was able to catch some of Will's first steps on camera, too! I'm so glad we were there to witness their first steps as it would have killed me if they started walking while we were gone!

Prayers for all of us this week as Daddy and I take a much needed recharge break and leave the aunts in charge!!

Walker #2

Griffin is getting the hang of this walking thing, too! He's a little tipsy, but I'm sure he'll be cruising in no time...

A Day in the Life: 12 Months

In preparation for our big trip to the Cayman's and leaving the boys for our first extended period of time, I have been prepping a binder for Sue that's full of information about the boys. I'm sure it's information overload, but I am admittedly anxious about leaving them for a week and want to be sure that I have all the bases covered in case something happens while we're away. I've pretty much wrote out my newest "Day in the Life" post to include in the binder so I figured I'd go ahead and copy/paste it here to save me from having to re-write it in the next couple weeks. So, here's a look at what life is like for us at 12 months old:

7:30-8:30 AM: the boys will wake up on their own any time between 7:30 and 8:00 AM. They are pretty quiet and content to hang out in their cribs for a bit as they first wake up so you don’t need to rush in there. When we do go in, they all need diaper changes and into their outfits for the day. If we plan to take them out and about, we put them in “real” outfits (rompers, or shorts and t-shirts or onesies); otherwise, we typically just put them in a clean onesie and no pants. 

8:30-9:30 AM: Breakfast time. They eat all meals at their triplet table now. They get milk with all meals now- some days they are more enthusiastic about drinking it than others. We typically put Cooper in the middle seat because he has had a tendency lately to throw food on the floor. He still does it from the middle seat, but not with the same enthusiasm and determination that he does from a side seat! Be sure to give Cooper 1 ML of his Ranitidine meds before breakfast.

9:30-10:30 AM: Play time. We take them on a walk around the neighborhood if it’s not too hot. If we do walk, we rotate the baby up who gets to sit up top in the stroller and usually bring some water along for them to have. If the weather doesn't permit for walking, they are perfectly good playing upstairs for a bit. When we are upstairs with them, they can roam the bonus room freely and will generally play well together. They are not allowed to play on or near the entertainment center (though they will surely try!). We have toys strategically placed to try and block their access but they will still squirm through- they’ll need to by physically moved away from the TV. Often.

They are also drawn to the window, so we will open the shades about halfway to keep them safe from any choking hazards. A current favorite activity is to bang objects against the window. 

We don’t really keep them in the baby jail for extended periods of time any more as the space is too small for them to have a lot of roaming room. We do keep them in the baby jail area if we have to leave the room to grab something. And we also have baby gates set up now that we leave closed at all times (especially the one at the bonus room doorway). We’re trying to get into the habit of always keeping the one at the top of the stairs shut, too. Just in case!

10:30-11:00 AM: Snack time. Back to their table for morning snacks. We offer them a sippy cup of water with their snacks, then they head back upstairs for naptime. They may fuss a little bit when we put them down, but that’s OK…they typically quiet down really quickly. 

11:00 AM-1:00/2:00 PM: Nap time. The boys usually will nap for at least a couple hours in the morning, if not longer. We typically clean up the kitchen and get their lunch prepped during their morning nap.

1:00-2:00 PM: Lunch time. Same as morning routine- except a bit messier as we usually feed them a combo of finger foods and spoon fed foods. 

2:00-3:30/4:00 PM: Play time back upstairs. Depending on how late their morning nap lasted there may be time to give them a quick afternoon snack before putting them down again. But if they took a long morning nap there is often not enough time, and that’s OK. They usually go down for their afternoon nap between 3:30 and 4:00 PM.

4:00-5:00PM: Afternoon nap. This nap is not normally longer than an hour or so. If they wake up on the earlier side we give them a snack right when they wake up…but if it’s closer to 6:30 we skip it all-together. They don’t always have 2 snacks in a day so we don’t stress if we don’t get both in! We only have one set of the EZPZ mats so they’ll need to be washed so they’re ready to go for dinner time.

5:00-6:30: Play time and dinner prep. We generally play with them upstairs until about 5:30 or 6:00 then bring them all down to the kitchen and let them play in the baby jail area while we prep dinner.

6:30-7:00/7:30 PM: Dinner time. We typically let them have all finger foods at dinner time and try to time it so we are eating dinner at the same time they are. I usually keep some extra food diced up and ready for them as backup in case they power through what’s on their plates (Griffin and Cooper!) They will often try to steal food off each other’s plates. I don’t know what is so tempting about the other plate when they have the exact same thing on their own… but alas we deal with that every night. We've noticed lately that they haven't been as excited about eating as they used to be. Sometimes we have to grab a fork or spoon and feed them off their plates that way. Will, especially, is a slow eater but gets very excited about trying to feed himself with a fork! After dinner Cooper gets another 1 ML dose of his ranitidine medication.

If there is time to clean up the kitchen after dinner we will; often Will and I will tag team and split up the work. One will work on dishes while the other cleans up the baby area- clorox wiping the triplet table and sweeping and mopping under the table every night. It's always a good day when the dishwasher is nearly full and we can justify throwing the EZPZ mats in there and starting it as opposed to hand-washing everything.

7:00-8:00 PM: Bedtime routine. We take them back upstairs and let them hang out either in a crib or in the upstairs baby jail while we get each one ready for bed. If it’s bath night, we bathe each one individually- it doesn’t matter who you start with.  Bath time takes about 45 minutes start to finish to get all three bathed and into PJs. All 3 boys get lotion and fresh jammies on bath night. Then we let them play upstairs for a bit before bed.

We try to have them down for the night between 8:00 and 8:15. Before bed, we’ll read books while they brush their teeth. I put all 3 in the baby jail and let them brush their teeth in there while Will reads the 3 bedtime books to them. We always read “Goodnight Pookie” last. I sit in the baby jail with the boys to be sure that they don’t steal each other’s toothbrushes, stand up and walk around with them, or use them as weapons against each other. J Once we’re done with books we take their toothbrushes away and then put them into their cribs, one by one. I let the first baby who gets taken to bed “help” me turn on the tranquil turtle before I put him down. They may fuss for a couple minutes (Will especially) when you first put them down, but they usually fall asleep pretty quickly.  

First Birthday Party

I just realized I never posted any pictures from the boys' first birthday party, except for the party details. I'm so thankful that Pete and Sue brought their nice camera along and took some pics to document everything as I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked. It was a great, albeit H-O-T, evening to have a BBQ and the boys loved their 2nd smash cakes even more than they loved their first ones the day before.