Have Triplets, Still Travel: August 2016

While I'm not formally taking pictures and posting updates of the boys each month, I still like the idea of monthly check ins to document how the boys are growing and developing. So here are some snippets of how life is going for us right now:

Our once great eaters are starting to become more selective and picky. And unfortunately what they don't like goes straight to the floor. It's simultaneously hilarious and maddening to watch them while they look you dead in the eye and throw their food off their plate. Cooper is especially bad about doing this. He will try a food, then make an over exaggerated, disgusted face, yank it out of his mouth with his hand, and finally toss it to the floor with a flourish. I can't help but laugh every time he does it, which I know doesn't help things. He just has so much sass!

It's hard to stay mad when he flashes that smile
They are using sign language every day. Will is definitely the best about it. He can now sign "More", "Cracker", "All Done", and "Please." And "cracker" and "cracker" and "cracker" again. We're working on "book" right now, too. We've decided that he probably thinks "cracker" means "any food" and he has quickly learned that signing "cracker" means that he'll likely get a little something to eat, especially if he pairs his "cracker" request with "more" and "please". I have said this before but it is so fascinating to see how smart they are and how quickly they can catch on to things! Cooper and Griffin will sign, too, but they don't have the expanded vocabulary that Will has.
We try not to let them watch a lot of TV, but there are some days when I will put on their Baby Signing Time DVD to distract them while we are meal prepping. They pretty much hate everything about being in the baby jail area downstairs but we don't have any other options to contain them while we are getting their meals ready, so they're stuck in the small space. The DVD is a nice distraction from the screaming and crying. I also recently learned from a friend that Baby Einstein movies are available on YouTube. I took advantage of that the other day, too. I certainly don't want to make TV as a distraction a habit...but some days I'm more OK with it than others.

Some days you just need Baby Signing Time to help you get dinner ready
Everyone is walking well lately. Cooper and Griffin are the most sure-footed, though Will is starting to prefer walking to crawling lately, too. Just like he was a fast crawler, Griffin is our fast walker. He definitely gets ahead of himself and is almost running before he topples over.

Besides his feet, the elephant is another favorite mode of transportation lately
For some reason lately they LOVE to be on the couch. Probably for closer access to banging on the window. They've started teaching themselves to get off the couch by going down backwards.

Bang Bang
Speaking of "down"- that's a new word for Will lately. He often says "dow-yune"when he wants to be picked up or put down. We're working on teaching him what up means now, too.
They are all babbling quite a bit these days and will say words like "Mama" and "Dada" on command. Quiet time at our house is rare these days; any time the boys are up, they are talking, screaming, laughing, or yelling. I love hearing a house so full of life! I rode in the back with the boys the other day and caught a video of a particularly chatty Will:

Griffin has had some separation anxiety issues lately. Little man HATES to be alone! He can't be the first to go into the car when we're loading them up and it doesn't go over well when we leave him alone in a room for a couple minutes. He prefers to have us nearby. He is still fond of having something soft to cuddle with when he's tired and wants to suck this thumb. He's not particularly attached to any one item...as long as it's soft he will snuggle it. He'll often cuddle the shirt he's wearing in a pinch. It's pretty cute to see his little belly stick out when he pulls his shirt up to cuddle.

Any soft thing will do!
Griffin has also started to become a bit attached to a jelly cat that was gifted to him by our friends Jess, Ryan, and their son Ben (who has a well-loved jelly cat of his own). They got each boy their own stuffie when the boys were infants, and ironically Griffin has latched on to the one that he was intended to have- a Giraffe for Griffin. He's started taking it to bed with him at night, and it's about the cutest thing ever. Will and Cooper will start with blankets and stuffies in their crib but almost immediately throw them out. Griffin will usually keeps them in bed with him all night long. I keep meaning to send a pic to Jess, but I know she reads this blog, so I'm sure she'll be happy to read this note. :)
The boys are obsessed with certain toys right now- a purple phone that they love to carry around and pretend to talk on, a yellow bat that they love to bang on the window or the wall, and a yellow bucket that they love to talk into and wear on their heads. Not sure why they've decided these toys are so great right now, but the really love to play with them.

They are playing with each other more and more. And with that comes more and more fighting. They all tend to gravitate toward the same toys (and more often- the toys that we only have one of), which usually ends in someone crying frustrated tears, or trying to bite one another. On the flip side, they entertain each other more and more now, too. The other night Will was cracking up at Cooper while they were playing in their tent. It melts my heart to hear them laughing. Here's an example of them simultaneously playing AND fighting with each other:

And speaking of laughing, this mama will do pretty much anything over and over (and over) again to hear these boys laugh. They think it is hilarious when I pretend to eat their oranges and pucker my lips up in a "sour" face:
Cooper was sick a few weeks ago with a high temperature that kept us all night. He was screaming in his crib if we tried to put him down, he wouldn't lay with us in bed if we tried to put him down with us, he didn't want milk, he didn't want to play...he just felt miserable which in turn made us feel awful. He finally fell asleep at 6:30 AM. We took him to the doctor in the morning but they couldn't find anything wrong with him and he quickly got over the fever about 36 hours later. This was the first time in a LONG time that we've pulled an all nighter, and certainly the first time we've been up with a sick baby. It made me appreciate our normally sleeping through the night children! At any rate, during his all-nighter he taught himself how to whine and now he whines all.the.time.

4:45 AM. By this point I'd given up on trying to get him to sleep and had turned the lights on

FINALLY sleeping at 6:30 AM zzzzzzz
We are in the 3rd week of ISR swim lessons. It's a very demanding schedule of being up and having the boys fed no later than 7:30, then out the door by 9:15 for their lessons. Will has been doing a great job on his own most days, and has yet to be late to the lessons, which is pretty impressive. We've learned quickly that organization is key and being prepped and ready as best we can the night before we go anywhere is the best way to make sure we don't forget anything and aren't late! We had hoped the boys would be able to learn the "swim, float, swim" method of ISR, but their instructor Donna decided last week to just teach them to float. They weren't picking up on her swim cues quickly enough so we will just focus on floating for now and will move on to swimming once they are older. We aren't allowed to take pictures during the lessons but I did snap this one on Day 1:

Waiting their turn
The lessons are typically held in a private pool but on inclement weather days Will has to take them to an indoor pool for their lessons. I think this email I got from him last week pretty well sums up his opinion of taking the boys to lessons at the public pool: "Civic center swim lessons suck. Old ladies everywhere wanting to talk and touch babies; old men naked in the locker room wanting to talk. Ugh. And no changing tables anywhere so have to put them on the benches in the locker room. Double up the towels and changing pad from the diaper bag but still ugh. #twomoreweeks"
They still love books, and will ask you to read the same book over and over and over again. Sometimes forcefully. If you put a book down when you're done reading, they will often pick it back up, walk over and open your hand up and put the book back in your hand to read. I love that they enjoy books, though, and will gladly read to them as often as they want us to!

I can't put him in his crib at night, but I am allowed to hold him if I'll read him a book!
We have been working with our photographer to get prints from their one year photo shoot ordered. I love, love, love these shots that Krista captured of the boys, which is making it difficult to decide which ones to blow up!

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

photo credit: Krista Lee Photography

Will and I were long overdue for a friends' weekend so we arranged for Cari and Sharon to watch the boys for us so we could have a fun day on the lake. We try to get together with this group about once a month for dinner. In reality, I think the last time we saw everyone was around Christmas. It's just not that easy to wrangle everyone up these days! Our friend Michael is gearing up to leave town soon to do a long stint of traveling- he'll be hiking one last section of the Appalachian Trail in order to complete it and then will be hitting up several states on an extended road trip. So we were bound and determined to get some time in with him before he leaves us!

According to Cari they had a great day and read Brown Bear, Brown Bear about 100 times. It's a definite favorite book among the Mason boys these days!

We captured the first of many readings!

The weather was 100% NOT good boating weather, but we decided to go out anyway. When we only get one day off from parenting here and there we can't let a little bad weather stop us from enjoying the day! One bonus of rainy days on the water- we pretty much had the whole lake to ourselves!

Snuggled under the canopy in the pouring rain

Braving the downpour

Dancing in the rain

Breaking in the new UT hat

So. Cold.

Despite the poor weather, we had a great day on the water and decided to take extra advantage of the babysitters! We ended up going down to Nashville for dinner with the crew, too. In retrospect it was an ambitious plan, likely fueled by the excitement of being with friends (and beer). We were all pretty worn out at dinner and more than ready to head to bed. We had a fun time, though, and as a bonus- we now know we can easily catch an Uber ride home for a reasonable rate! Huge thanks to Cari and Sharon for taking care of the boys for us. We always feel recharged after some time away to be grown ups!