Reflecting

As I was pulling up Griffin's newborn car seat pictures, I couldn't help but look back at some other pictures from 2015. The first half of the year was all about my pregnancy while the second half was all about the babies. I can't believe I wrote this post exactly 2 years ago. It doesn't seem right that the boys have been part of our lives for over 2 years now. And it certainly doesn't seem right that I haven't been pregnant for over 19 months now!

Isn't it funny how time can mess with your mind? It seems the further we get from my pregnancy, the more I miss being pregnant (and mourn the fact that I'll never experience it again). I can, and often do, go back and re-read my blog posts where I checked in every week of my pregnancy. I know when I wrote those posts, I was trying my hardest to be honest about how I was feeling each week so I could accurately document my experience. But as I go back and read the posts, instead of feeling relief that those days are over, I feel a longing. I so miss feeling little (and big) kicks when the boys moved around. I miss having my sidekicks with me constantly. I suppose this is why people have more than one baby!

As I mentioned in my last post, I know in my head that our family is complete. Heck, I was always the first to say that I wanted no more than 3 kids! I certainly never expected to get all 3 at once, though! I wouldn't trade our experience or our babies for all the money in the world. The boys came into our lives as God intended them to, and I am thankful every single day that we were blessed with 3 healthy, happy babies. I love our family and know that life will continue to be fun and exciting with our 3 boys for many many years to come.

But for tonight I am allowing myself to be sad. Sad that I just sold our infant car seat after only one round of use. Sad that I'll never feel another baby disturb my sleep and push on my bladder all night. Sad that I'll never have to shop at a maternity store again. Sad that the boys will never know the excitement of having a baby sibling to love. Sad that Will and I will never know the excitement of having family on standby, ready to race over and watch the boys for us so we can get to the hospital to meet our newest addition. Sad I'll never have to use the damn pump that I swore I wore out after a year of use. Sad that we won't relive those first sleepless nights of a newborn in the house. Sad that we'll never have itty bitty baby clothes in the closet. Sad that for all the "firsts" we joyfully experience as the boys grow, we are also experiencing them for the last time, too. Who knew that something as innocent as selling a car seat could stir up so many emotions?!

As I mentioned above, I found myself looking at pregnancy pictures as I looked for a photo of Griffin in his car seat for the first time. Since I'm allowing myself to be sad tonight, I am also allowing myself to reflect on my big ol' pregnant belly that I rocked for the first half of 2015. I remember when I posted my weekly check in blogs that I was embarrassed to share some pregnancy photos. Instead of being proud of my body for carrying 3 humans, I focused on the fact that I looked fat and gross and worried that was what others would think when they saw these pictures, too. Well, screw that. I love looking at these photos now. Perhaps it's the wave of nostalgia that has come over me tonight but I've decided that I want to document these pictures on my blog. Some of these did get posted during my pregnancy, but there are quite a few that I kept in hiding. I hope I will come back to this post on days when I'm feeling down and need a reminder of what an incredible ride the boys and I went on to get where we are today!

 

 

Perspective, part 3

We sold the last infant car seat today. Oh, how that makes me sad! In my head I know we are done having babies, but my heart definitely didn't want to admit it this afternoon as I passed the car seat on to another family!

So now, a final perspective shot of our Griffin Bear in his first car seat:

Griffin- coming home from the NICU at 14 days old:

Cramming my big ol' postpartum self into the back seat on the ride home

Griffin- 19 months old:

Llama Llama

As part of our bedtime routine, we read the boys 3-4 bedtime books each night while they brush their teeth. Usually we'll mix it up and read some combination of The Going to Bed Book, Good Night Moon, Night Night Forest Friends, I'll See You in the Morning, and we always finish with Night-Night Little Pookie. Llama Llama Red Pajama was an Imagination Library book that the boys received in the mail a couple months ago. They fell in love with it immediately, and it's now the one book that they request by name every night (Mama, Mama, Mama), and every day, too. Not sure why they love it so much, but I personally love their reactions to the story as it goes on. I had Will record them tonight as I read the story. Admittedly, they were more subdued than they typically are when we read the book. They tend to get pretty excited when baby Llama really worries about where his mama is. I love this age!

18 Months Old!

A year and a half old already?! I honestly can't believe how fast they are growing up these days. Some notes about the boys at 18 months:

Will, 18 monthsDesign

Griffin, 18 months

Cooper, 18 months

• Their vocabulary continues to grow each day. They are starting to put together phrases- Will and Griffin will both say "up, pwease!" when they want to be picked up, complete with a very dramatic signing of "Please". Their sign language vocabulary is also growing. They pick up on things from watching their Signing Time DVDs that I don't even realize that they know, which is fun. Out of nowhere the other day Will signed and said "Pway" (play). He now requests to go pway as soon as he's done eating or while we're changing his diaper. They know how to sign and say "hot" and will point to the oven and repeat "hot hot hot" over and over again. Pretty sure that they don't realize what hot means yet, but glad they are relating the word to an off-limits item like the oven.
  
• They have watched Will and I fill up our water bottles at the refrigerator and are just tall enough that they can reach up and push the water dispenser. Thankfully we can lock it but there have been a few occasions when we've forgotten to and the guilty baby ends up soaked!
• I came home from work the other night to find the boys dressed like Texans. I had to take some pics and share them with my Texas grandparents!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Griffin has developed a strong attachment to his Jellycat, Raffi. He will bring it around with him all day, and sleeps with it every night. We take it away from him during meals, but as soon as he is out of his high chair, he's reaching for Raffi again. Raffi is one toy that is, for the most part, off-limits to Will and Cooper...he belongs to Griffin. Will has a woolly mammoth and Cooper has a cat, but neither of them have development the attachment that Griffin has to his Raffi. They won't even keep their Jellycats in their cribs with them- they get tossed out almost immediately. I guess time will tell if they develop the same affection for their Jellycats that Griffin has for his.
  
  
  
  
  
•  Their relatively picky eating continues. They will still eat just about any fruit we offer them, though we did learn that Cooper is not a fan of clementines. He'll eat mandarin oranges out of a can, but won't touch fresh cuties. We gave them blackberries last week for the first time. Cooper and Griffin devoured them, but Will wasn't as into them. There are very few vegetables that they will eat these days. They, of course, enjoy french fries (regular or sweet potato) and will eat butternut squash, but haven't been as interested in roasted sweet potatoes, which were previously a go-to veggie for us. We recently started buying the Green Giant Veggie tots that are made out of broccoli and cauliflower and they will eat those, so we take it as a win.
  They pretty much consist on a steady entree diet these days of cheese quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hot dogs, chicken cordon bleus, english muffin pizzas, grilled cheese, and grilled chicken tenders from Chick Fil A. They are still boycotting pasta, though admittedly, it's been awhile since we've offered it to them.
  
  They love, love, love muffins ("muh muh", not to be confused with "mama") and will request them just about every morning. We go through quite a few packs of mini muffins each week. I've made several large batches of mini banana and blueberry muffins, too.
  
  
  • They have a new favorite bedtime book- Llama Llama Red Pajama. It's requested by all three of them over and over again ("Mama? Mama? Mama?") until we read it. 
  
  
  
  
  •  All three boys have pretty much mastered walking/crawing up the stairs on their own, and we are actively working on teaching them to go downstairs alone, too. Our constant reminders to "go onto their bellies and slide off" the couch must be sinking in because they all instinctively will turn around and slide down the stairs on the bellies. We still have a long way to go before we will confidently let them go up and down the stairs alone, but they made a lot of progress, especially in the past couple weeks!
  • I think we are getting closer and closer to the big potty training moment, too. Will, especially, seems to be very aware of when he is filling up his diaper. He will often tell us what he's doing when it's obvious he's pooping ("poopoopoo"). And all 3 are seemingly aware of when they are in need of a diaper change. Just tonight, when I asked Cooper if he had poop, he gave me a gigantic grin and squatted down and grunted. Yup, pretty sure he knows what I was talking about.
  • Our pediatrician recommended that we start using the bathroom with the door open and talking about what we're doing so they get a better idea of what it means to go potty. They are certainly intrigued! I had to snap this picture the other day as they were very interested while Daddy used the bathroom- he had quite the audience! :)
    
  • Speaking of understanding us, it is amazing how much they comprehend these days. You can ask them to get you something very specific and they will seek it out for you. Their imagination is starting to take off, too. They like to pretend a lot right now- they will wash their hands in their play sink and take fake drinks out of water bottles. 
  • We took the boys to a gymnastics center last week for their preschool open play. For an hour each week they open the whole gym up for kids under 5 to have play time. The boys really enjoyed running around! It was well worth the $5 per child and proved to be a pretty good workout for Will and me, too. Chasing around 3 toddlers who have free reign to run where ever they want is pretty tiring! 
  • Cooper has recently started saying "Bye!" very clearly. He thinks it's pretty funny. Will does a good job of showing off his jumping skills in this video, too:
  
  
  
  

  • They have been enjoying all their Christmas presents. The tent my parents got them is perfect for playing peek-a-boo with each other, and the slide has yet to get old!

   

   

Day Date with my Wills

At their 18 month well visit, our pediatrician noticed that Will had developed a dark spot on his birth mark, and wanted us to have a pediatric dermatologist check it out, just to be safe. His consult was this morning, so Cari came over to watch Griffin and Cooper so Daddy and I could both take Will to his appointment. 

Happy to report that the dark spot is just a birthmark mole, and nothing at all to be concerned about. We'll keep an eye on it as he grows and it will be regularly checked by the pediatrician, and later by annual dermatology visits. 

With the exception of a quick trip to the store here and there, very rarely do we leave the house without all 3 in tow, so this was a special treat for Will. He seemed to enjoy the one-on-one attention he was getting all morning, and was perfectly behaved for the doctor. We enjoyed lunch at The Cheesecake Factory after his appointment, and I must say- lunching with only one toddler is a breeze! Dare I say, it was a leisurely lunch! No worrying about the table being large enough to keep food, drinks, silverware, salt & pepper shakers away from grabby hands, no spending more time cutting up food for 3 toddlers than actually eating your own meal, and we didn't even get a second glance from people. 

Of course, we missed Griffin and Cooper, but it was actually really nice to be able to have some one-on-one time with just Will. I think he enjoyed it as much as his Dad and I did! I told Will yesterday that we need to plan more single-baby outings so each boy has a chance to have a special date and our undivided attention.

Solo lunching- he was happier than this photo makes him appear!

Saturday

We took the boys out to run some errands this morning and Griffin got himself a new hat! He took a liking to it at Target and ended up wearing it the whole time we were in the store.

He LOVES his new hat!

And, in case anyone ever wonders how we spend our afternoons when we aren't out and about, here is a glimpse into our day:

Reading

Playing

Sticking close to Mama and Dada