A new grocer in the neighborhood.

There were rumors, but I tried not to believe them in case my hopes got too high. But after reading this article, the rumors were confirmed!  An Aldi less than a mile away! (Were you thinking it was something more exciting? Sorry.) It’s always been annoying to me that we’ve had a  grocery store just a few blocks away, yet I’d always rather travel further to a better one. It has been convenient when I am in a pinch, but it was old, and a little scary to be frank. Now, with a newly renovated store, and it being my beloved ALDI, I can get a good portion of my grocery shopping done in good time and good spirits.

I know a lot of the neighborhood is upset about this change, but I guess they haven’t partaken of what this great store has to offer. No, they don’t sell a lot of famous name brands (which I am not one to care about anyway) and they don’t have a full stock of everything (I SO wish they’d invest in fresh herbs, among a few other produce items), but I love it for what it is. I’d say our family has saved hundred of dollars getting our staples at Aldi since my brother introduced us to the place a few years ago. I think the neighborhood will change their tune when they see their receipts as well. Call me a nerd for getting so excited about a grocery store, but this will make my life a bit easier, and every little bit helps.

They may be ready, but am I?

Two weeks everyone. That is how long I have until my babies are 18 months old. I’m in denial, I think. Where did the last year and a half go? (Well, that’s a very silly question, since I know exactly where it went, and it really should seem like longer with all the sleepless nights, and long days, but you know what I mean.) This means a lot of changes. There is the natural progression stuff, like independent play (this is becoming more and more noticeable as we go about the day, and I’m LOVING it), getting into more things (the child-proofing is starting to get tricky around here), and speech and other learning developments, to name a few. But there is one big change that I know many parents really enjoy about this age (at least in my church) is that they are now the appropriate age to enter the  nursery on Sundays. Yikes. 

At book group a few nights ago, my friends were asking me excitedly about this big step and how I felt about it. I should be excited. I should be proud. I should be ready. But, honestly, I’m still a nervous new mom. There are many aspects about the nursery that give me some anxiety.

First of all, we do not skip naps in this family. Except for a the rare occasion that we are on a flight, or have taken a trip to the ER, naps always get top priority. We like our schedule. You can’t be very spontaneous with triplets anyway, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on that much by staying home a lot for them to stay on their schedule. Church is no exception. They’ve always been early risers, so when we were taking them to church, we were able to squeeze a morning nap in before the 10:00 am service began (hardly every waking anyone to get to church on time). And we always got home in time for the next nap. When their sleep schedule doesn’t line up with the church schedule, we take turns staying home. It’s what works for our family. Your kids may be able to skip a nap and do fine. But three overtired babies are very different than one. They might not turn into crazies missing only one nap, but I’m not exactly willing to to see what happens if they do. The older they get, the more easily distractible they are, so I could see possibly skipping a nap on Sunday without having adverse affects, but again, it’s completely different from how I’ve done things. It’s gonna be hard for me to wrap my brain around that one.

Next item on the anxiety list is the germs. They have been so happy and healthy since we’ve kept them in our rest-of-the-winter quarantine. I know we can’t do that forever, but it’s still cold and flu season, and even when it’s not, a room full of toddlers just screams germs to me. I know I have to get over it, and the kids need to build there immune systems, I just want to be selfish sometimes and three sick babies is not fun for mom. And remember that they have asthma, making sicknesses even harder to deal with. Call me a little OCD if you want, but if you saw how glorious my life has been compared to when they were sick, you’d be apprehensive for me as well. But like I said, I can’t protect them forever, and I always thought their 18 month birthday  might be an okay time to start venturing out again, so maybe it will be good for me to get over this silly worry I have.

I also worry a bit about the crew I’ll be dumping my kids on for two hours. Three at once can be a bit overwhelming. They are all great, and I have complete confidence in them, I just feel a little guilty. They say they are ready for the challenge, and I even talked to one today which made me feel a little better about the whole ordeal. Maybe I can get over this bit of guilt. I’m a nutcase, I know.

So we’ll see how I feel in two weeks. I’m sure the kids will be in heaven with all the new toys, snacks, and other kids to terrorize (okay, they might not be that bad, but I can foresee some toys being stolen). I’m not worried about them in the least.  I do have a little bit of excitement amidst my anxiety. I love that this service is available, and can’t believe I’ll actually have the opportunity to attend the whole three hours of church. It’s been over a year and a half since that’s happened. I just hope that this big step doesn’t give the bishop any ideas about giving me a calling. Believe me, these kids are enough right now!

Haircuts and Suckers

Bennett’s few stray hairs in his eyes have been bothering me. He still doesn’t have much hair, but enough to need a trim. I decided today was the day. Just like Alex, I set him up in his booster seat for the big event.  This time, veggie straws didn’t seem to be enough to keep my curious boy distracted enough to stay still. Luckily I bought some mini tootsie pops for an occasion such as this. Sticky suckers and little flying hairs aren’t the best combo, but it worked wonderfully. There weren’t really that many hairs to cut. Just a little snip here and there. I didn’t want to cut off all his baby curls, of course, but just even it out and clean it up. Quite the handsome fellow, if I do say so.

Before:

During:

After:

His little hairs have been bagged, labeled, and placed in his keepsake box.

And as hard as we tried to keep the other kids away, they wouldn’t have it. And as soon as they saw the delectable sucker Bennett was thoroughly enjoying, they had to have one for themselves. This was their first experience with candy, and it will definitely come in handy when absolutely necessary, but will only be used for very special occasions until they are a bit more responsible with those sticky fingers.

Times and Seasonings

Baking used to be the first thing on my mind. It was my job, my hobby, and even my therapy during hard times. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t have a project in mind, or at least think of something I wanted to make. Never did I buy a pre-made pie crust, or frozen pizza (which are now staples I my freezer). I liked things made from scratch with my own two hands. Nothing beats the feeling of warm, freshly risen dough between the fingers.

But times have changed. Now, there are other things on my mind besides making my own puff pastry for the top of my from-scratch chicken pot pie. Either I’m too tired to make something, or simply don’t have the time. Nor do I want a warm batch of cherry chocolate scones staring at me, just begging me to take a bite every time I pass them. So baking is usually saved for time when it’s more necessary than anything. But I still love the excuse to pull out my rolling pin and dust the counter with flour, no matter the occasion.

Yesterday, I found we’d run out of bread. I usually stay on top of things like that. But I didn’t mind that I neglected putting it on my latest shopping list, because I was in a mood to bake. What is better than homemade bread on a blustery day? So I made my honey whole wheat, and enjoyed every second of it. Elise and I could hardly wait for it to cool before we cut thick slices to make sandwiches with for lunch. The kids can’t get enough of it either. Maybe I’ll leave bread off my shopping lists more often, to slowly work  this baking habit back into my life.

There are times when I want to pull out the big guns. All my tools, and recipes from my years in the business just get dustier every day. Don’t get me wrong, these babies are a WAY better trade off. I can’t even begin to describe how much I’d rather play with them, than with my blow torch and apple peeler/corer/slicer. I just hope now and then I find the time and energy and motivation to reach into that part of my brain for a little nostalgic baking. I’m pretty rusty (and still ashamed at how doughy my pumpkin cinnamon rolls were on Sunday-rookie mistake), so it might take a while to feel like I’m the baker I once was, but I know it will always be there. I can see some very fun projects with the kids in the future. They will be miniature bakers before I know it. I can’t wait.

Now learn to change your own diapers, please.

Watching a baby learn new things is the most fascinating, rewarding, and entertaining thing. My kids suddenly have so much to say, it’s hard to keep up. The signing (thank you Baby Signing Time dvds) has also taken off. I had no idea they were taking in so much until it started showing in our regular conversation this past month. This new world I’ve entered came so much more quickly than I had anticipated. I know they are definitely old enough to talk and sign, but it’s still a shock to me at how fast they can pick new things up everyday. I was so used to having little babies, I don’t know how I feel about the idea of having (am I really going to say this. . .?) toddlers! Of course watching their eyes light up when they learn something new, or hearing their sweet voices ask for a “ na na na” (banana) (weird that I am now officially in the stage of parenting where I have to quote, then parenthesize everything my kids say), is thrilling to say the least, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy this new phase, even if it does mean they’re growing up too fast.

I can tell they LOVE to communicate with us. Here area few language development highlights for each.

Alex:

He’ll say almost anything we ask him to (or that we don’t mean for him to hear). During his turn playing Peek-a-boo, he excitedly said “pit-a-pit-a-pit-a-boo!”

At breakfast, out of the blue he just said “O, P, Q, R”. Interesting choice of letters. Q is pretty fun, I’ll admit.

A couple weeks ago, he signed and said “mo ter ter” ( more crackers). Isn’t that a sentence? We’ll work on adding “please” to that. Though his “please”, looks more like he’s pretending to slit his throat. We’ll work on that too.

Says and signs mommy and daddy perfectly. Love that.

Bennett:

His “2” is hilarious. I didn’t know he could stick his lips out that far. Same with “Q”.

Loves any song, especially when there are accompanying actions (a most recent favorite: The Itsy Bitsy spider.) No matter his mood, if you start any song, he’s a happy kid.

Loves the ABCs as well. While the others like me to start them off, Bennett likes to say “Eh” (A) by himself.

Says “apo” when he sees an apple in one of his books. Again, his rounded lips crack me up every time.

Ruby:

Any time I’m putting in a dvd, she immediately begins saying and signing, “baby, baby, baby. . .” (If you haven’t seen Baby Signing Time, it’s how the show begins.) We might have to get those back from the library.

She also starts singing “Baby Mine”, when we start our lullaby cd before she goes to bed. Can’t wait to hear her sing more songs in the future.

She walks all over the house saying and signing “Toto” (cracker) and is quite proud of herself.

“Sleep” is one of her favorite signs. I wish was as enthusiastic about actually sleeping. (She’s been a bit stubborn lately, probably due to pending molars.)

They all have plenty more words and signs, but you get the idea. They really do learn a lot from each other which I love. I have tried countless times to get a decent video of their letter and number skills, but of course it’s taken weeks. They’d be saying the alphabet almost perfectly, and the moment the camera came on, they seemed to be stricken dumb. Through these few videos, you should get a good idea of how much they know. Notice they do about every other letter/number as they take my cues. They also give each other tips as to what comes next, you’ll see. Though the boys are the stars in these videos, Ruby does know her fair share of letters and numbers, she’s just more selective of when she likes to show off.

Bennett’s half-hearted approach.

Sorry about the oatmeal and bananas smeared everywhere. They choose the most opportune times to perform.

Please excuse our mess. It was the bedtime, and the kids had really torn up the playroom that day.

This was our birthday present to Uncle Matt. (I hope he doesn’t mind me posting it.) They weren’t super cooperative, but still funny. And Ruby finally has something to say for the camera.

And why not include an outtake.

You are probably incredibly tired of hearing me recite the alphabet by now. I know I am. Though I’ll never get tired of here the babies say it. What can I train them to do next?

Mr. Golden Sun

What a gift to have 70 degree weather in the middle of February (much unlike last year). On Thursday and Friday it was so gorgeous. I don’t think I have ever craved the spring more in my life. I know we aren’t quite out of the woods as far as cold weather goes, but we’ll take any nice day we can get. We tried to take full advantage of the wonderful weather, which I’ll get to in a second.

I first have to say that we were again very sad to have to say goodbye to Mom and Dad on Tuesday. Mom had been here for almost a month. She always gives so much time, energy, and love  to be here with us. I think because she had twins of her own, she could easily sense the desperation in my voice when I truly needed help (and I don’t like to ask for it very often, so I must’ve really needed it). When the kids and I were terribly sick, she didn’t even hesitate to change her ticket to join the house of RSV. I felt a huge load lifted from the moment she arrived. We are all better now, and though we don’t have the same needs than when we were sick, we still miss her terribly. I just love my mom. And dad too! He also was the greatest of help. I miss you both. And so do the kids. Here they are all saying goodbye as they drove away.

I was more than happy to break out their spring wear this week. It’s no question that the warmer months are more convenient when kids are involved. They are such cute little summer babies, with their chubby arms and legs more exposed.

And everyone loves the new car seat situation, especially when we have more places to go.

We met up with some friends to walk around the lake. There was no question that the kids missed the fresh air and sunshine as well. They seemed so relaxed while they enjoyed their surroundings. And I’m sure they liked seeing a lot of friends again.

When we went to the park, I decided since the kids can walk now I shouldn’t have to make three trips back and forth to the car to carry them to the swings. But just because they can walk, doesn’t mean they will. I practically dragged them across the street as they tried to grab any interesting looking object from the road. I look so much like a mom in these pictures that is weirds me out (in a good way, of course). Must be my choice of shoes mixed with the hand-holding. And my mini van in the back doesn’t hurt either.

So it’s not as warm now as it used to be, but those couple days really gave me what I needed to push through the rest of the winter. It will be worth it! Of course, then we have the unbearable summer to survive. Oh well. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

A LOVEly weekend.

We celebrated Valentine’s Day all weekend.

It started on Friday when we went to our Stake Valentine’s dance. We enjoyed lots of chocolate, a few dances (we weren’t among the group that could actually dance), and then had a great time with some friends in the primary/game room playing a few rounds of Bananagrams and Boggle. Ah, stake dances remind me of my younger days.

Uncle Jonny also came to to town for the conference my parents were going to. The kids weren’t shy in the least. I think Ruby followed him wherever he went. He said goodbye on Saturday where I’m sure he was tackled again by Juju, Gabe, and Melody. We missed them like crazy.

On Sunday, Mom, Dad, and I went to an hour of church to hear Elise and another speaker give great talks on marriage. How appropriate. Then we swapped with KC and played with babies.

A

I found out that she really loves to be naked.

B

KC and I planned a night away while my mom and dad were here, willing to babysit. But Learning there was a lovely indoor pool, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to take the kids to play for a while after we checked in. They were in absolute heaven. They have been so deprived of the outside world, so I think they were especially giddy. I might have been having just as much fun myself as I watched their faces light up with so much joy.

B

A

We said goodbye to everyone, and enjoyed a much-needed night away from it all. We pretty much ate chocolate for dinner, which no one complained about.

I dropped KC off at work, and was greeted at home by some very happy faces. The wonderful thing about getting away is that you get some time off, and then you miss your kids so much that you are excited to come home too. I wasn’t able to make my few-years-running traditional breakfast for the kids, but they’ll probably enjoy it more next year anyway. It was a gorgeous day, and we spent a good portion of it outdoors. Just like the pool, the park made the babies very happy.

For the most part.

He does walk, he just wanted to be closer to the bark so that it was easier to pick up and put in his mouth.

Elise and Jeff had a V-Day date planned, so we decided to hit the town with Mom and Dad. We indulged in a truly delicious Lebanese feast.

That was quite the celebratory weekend. Too much chocolate, though. I don’t think I’ll let myself hit the candy clearances this year.

Cupids

There's a lot of love going on over here today, which I'll write about later. In the meantime, enjoy this little Valentine.
You can thank Elise and her mad skills for this little gem.

An afternoon off.

What would you do if your triplets were in very good hands with their grandparents at home, leaving you free to do whatever you please for an entire afternoon? My dad came to town last night for a conference in DC. Since it is going to keep my mom and dad busy for the next few days, they suggested I take an afternoon of carefree, no-rush, do-whatever-I-want fun. My mom often reminds me to get out of the house while I have the chance, but I don’t always want to leave her with the crew for more than a quick trip to the store, and usually they are asleep most of the time. I know she can handle them, that’s not the issue. It’s that I feel slightly guilty giving her all that responsibility for an extended amount of time, knowing all she might encounter. Now that she’s been with them for all this time, and knows their routine (it takes relearning every time she comes, as they change so much between her visits), it gets easier for me to leave guilt-free, but still, if it’s not necessary to leave, I feel funny doing it. But maybe getting out just to get out is okay sometimes, even if you aren’t out of milk, or don’t need more baby ibuprofen. If the offer is there, it’s okay to take advantage of it.

I don’t think I’m deprived of leaving the house. I made myself take the kids with me on errands earlier than I thought I would, making me feel pretty normal for the situation I was in. And even though I don’t take the kids out right now, I still have my wonderful sister to help me out when my mom leaves. But it’s always rushed, and I always wonder what’s going on at home, and if I’m inconveniencing anyone. KC is great to let me have time to myself on Saturdays, but that takes that time away from him. It’s the life of a mother, I suppose, and I’ll take chubby babies over carefree shopping any day. Sometimes you just wish you had a moment to relax, you know?

I used to shop just for the fun of it. It didn’t matter if I found/needed anything or not, but mostly to just pass the time. Now, shopping without the intent of crossing many things off a list seems like a frivolous, and wasteful use of my time. Free time is precious, so I use it wisely. There is always so much to do at home, so why go out when I don’t really have anything to get or anywhere to go, and spend money I wouldn’t spend if I just stayed home and did my household duties (how warped our brains become when we have kids)? But knowing this opportunity doesn’t come so often, I decided to zip up my boots and head out. With Elise given the same offer, naturally we went together. 

So what crazy plan did we moms come up with to fill our afternoon of freedom? With nothing really in mind, we just set out and decided we needed a couple things at the dreaded Walmart (I had some store credit) where there was also a Redbox there I wanted to hit. That was our first exciting stop. Then we headed to the library to return/check out some items. Woo hoo! Then feeling pathetic, we drove by the nearby theater to see what movies were playing and what times. No good for our schedule. Then feeling even more pathetic, we decided to go to one of our favorite places to hang out, Target. Yes, were were really living it up folks. We hardly bought anything (how’s that for self control?) and headed home to a bunch of happy babies.

Well isn’t that what you would do with your free afternoon? Okay, so we didn’t do anything too productive, or too exciting. But we did get out, and had a good time, laughing all the while. And it felt good. Maybe someday that afternoon could turn into a whole day, or a few days for that matter. Mom and dad, are you ready for that?! As much as I’d miss my little loves, I think I could really do some damage if I had a few days to kill, instead of just a few hours. Hmm. . .I’m liking the sound of that.

Wait. . .let me grab the camera.

I found myself saying this a lot the past few days. Probably too much.  Here are some of the photo-ops that presented themselves.

We upgraded to the big kid car seats. (And it was pretty comical seeing us try to get the three giant boxes into the van- thanks to the kind man who saw my mom and me struggling and helped us out.) Our infant ones can last up to 35 lb.s or something, but I was ready to see my babies’ faces while I drive. Much more entertaining, and reassuring. Of course, Ruby couldn’t resist sitting in her seat before it was in the car.

Though, they might have thought the big boxes were more fun.

Now the car is even tighter.

My mom has been such a lifesaver. Now that nobody is sick, we can just have fun. I only get her for a few more days. I better make the most of it.

They LOVE to feed Penny, and she loves being fed. I think we need to get Penny and upstairs highchair, so she can join in the fun at mealtimes.

Bennett helping with the laundry.

Just because my husband is the only one who enjoys the super bowl (and he is quite mild with his love of the game), it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some game day food. 

For some reason, Alex started saying “Blah” when I’m taking his picture.

The boys insist on playing on the couch several times a day. So to make this a safer activity, we took off the cushions for an easier landing, should they fall off. They were in heaven.

Elise, always keeping the babies entertained.

Ruby thought that wearing only shoes was the funniest thing every. Maybe she was overtired, but she was a spaz that night.

We convinced my mom to come get a pedicure with us. I think she is converted.

I hope the kids are never too old for this.

They keep me entertained, on my toes, and saying “no no!” all day long. I think staying home all the time has made me pay even more attention to their funniness. Looks like the ugly winter has a bright spot after all.