Off To The Pacific Northwest.

I know it's a good thing, but it seems like a very bad idea right now....

Brian and I are headed to Washington State and Northern Oregon for the next 4 nights, leaving bright and early (6 am) tomorrow morning.

I really am excited but I am going to miss my babies so much.

Thanks to my parents and Brian's parents for babysitting our little munchkins while we are gone. I expect them to be completely spoiled when I get back. I'm guessing they will have so much fun they won't even miss us.

Have fun MawMaw, PawPaw, Nonnie, Poppie, and Grandmother...and be sure to follow the 9 pages of instructions that I left you! (Think I'm having some separation anxiety?)

See ya'll Sunday and I can't wait to share fun pics, that is if I can find my camera battery charger!

Jumpin' Jack

Just when you think you have it figured out they go and change the rules on you. They've been sweet, sleeping great, happy, basically pretty much perfect.

Until Jack grew wings yesterday. And climbed out of the pack n play during his nap. Multiple times. To be fair, I was at work, so poor Nonnie had to deal with the madness. I am just so sorry.

He did finally nap, briefly. Which would lead you to believe he would be tired and go to sleep easily.

Not so much.

Again, I completely missed all of the madness. I was at a work training class last night until 11:00. Darn.

Because.... He then climbed out of his crib. Per Brian, approximately one million times. Luckily it only lasted about 3 hours or so. Along with a massive amount of screaming and crying. Except for when he was running around the room, throwing stuffed animals into Ben's crib, ransacking the closet, and conveniently turning the monitor off. Then he was oddly silent.

He finally wore himself out and slept until about 7:00 this morning (not the usual 8:00.) I worked again today. I missed all of the fun.

Today a crib tent was put on his pack n play which worked well at nap time. Unfortunately because of the shape of our crib it will not work there. We turned the crib around b/c the front is about a foot lower than the back. THANK YOU Nana for the suggestion! You are so smart, we never even thought about that.

So, for now, we have outsmarted him. He did cry for about an hour. Followed by silence, which was worrisome. Luckily he was asleep...in his crib.

I sincerely hope he doesn't figure it out any time soon. I need some sleep. And so does Daddy. I am SO not ready for toddler beds.

You are in SO much trouble, mister.

The Very End Of A Very Perfect Day.

Not every day is good. Not every day is bad. Some days are filled with laughter and smiles. Some are crowded with whines and tears. Most days are mixture of it all.

But, oddly enough...after all is said and done, after baths are given, after pj's are on, and after sweet babies are cuddled off to bed.... It's the end to another very, very, very perfect day. A day I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. Ever. Ever. Ever.

Thank you sweet babies for making the last 18 months breathtaking. I believe with all of my heart that each of you are pure magic. I am forever changed because of you. I pray each day that I can give you a life of happiness, friendship, and comfort. Because that is what you give me each and every day.

Thank you for loving hats...

Thank you for the daily reminders that nobody is perfect all of the time.

Thank you for reminding me that dirt doesn't taste so great...

Thank you for warming the hearts of those around you. Thank you for drawing our families close together to share all of this with you. But most of all...Thank you for giving me so many very perfect days... I love you.....

Lily,

Jack,

and Ben.

Think Before You Talk.

I have certainly been known to stick my foot in my mouth a number of times. While I consider myself to be a high self-monitor, I've been guilty of saying the first thing that comes to mind...which isn't always the thing you should say out loud.

Having triplets I've experienced a lot of comments, questions, and intrusions into my personal life by complete strangers. Most are well-meaning so I answer as nicely as I can and move on. But people, the lady I talked with today takes first place in the bizarre question category. So much so, I immediately had to call Brian and relay the odd conversation.


But, I'll just let you be the judge. (Wording has been a bit paraphrased)

This particular conversation occurred on the way to my car. She was a middle-aged nice woman who was helping me to the car with my groceries. We were at Market Street where they do not have any outside grocery cart receptacles so the employees follow you to your car and bring the cart back. She appeared to be of sound mind. I have no reason to think otherwise anyway. I have inserted my inner dialogue in italics...


Shopping Cart Lady: "Hey, Wow, Your kids are really close in age."

Me: "Yeah, they're triplets. "

Shopping Cart Lady: "Really? Are you sure? I thought they had to all be exactly the same to be triplets."

Me: "No, they can all be different, I have two boys and a girl. None of them are identical."

Shopping Cart Lady: "Yeah I guess you're right" You think? "Those people on that show with all the kids have both boys and girls." I'm guessing John and Kate plus 8...and those are technically sextuplets... "But wow, I've never actually seen any real live triplets up close."I've actually heard this one before...but you still want to ask if she's seen any dead ones, right?... And really, what are we lady, a zoo exhibit?


Me: "Well, yeah..." Honestly I just have no idea how to respond here

Shopping Cart Lady: "So, wow, they're like normal sized. I mean that's how big a normal kid is right?" Even my inner dialogue is speechless at this point.

Me: "Yeah, they're normal kids there's just three of them. They're actually kind of big for their age."

Shopping Cart Lady: "Huh. What's their names?"


Me: "Lily, Jack, and Ben."


Shopping Cart Lady: "So you have to have a favorite...Which one's your favorite?" This is insane...I'm blogging about this tonight.


Me: "I guess it depends on the day..."


Look pretty normal to me!






O.k., this one might be a little loopy...

Off To Never Neverland...

Inevitably it was to come to this. I've been REALLY lucky to have enough family available at pretty short notice to either leave the well kids home or have someone go with me to the Dr.'s office. My luck was sure to run out eventually.

Kids get sick. That's just what they do. Jack apparently has a bit of a stomach bug which has manifested itself in a few icky diapers and a low-grade fever that has lasted for five days now. Lily had one day of fever but no other symptoms and seems to be fine. She is incredibly resilient. Ben has had a few icky diapers but no fever. THANK GOODNESS because when he gets a fever he means it...usually between 103 and 105.

So, after he woke up this morning with another fever I scheduled a Dr. appointment in the hopes that we could get a family member to come over. We just weren't able to make it happen so I piled all of them in the car for what was sure to be an adventure.

There's just a lot working against you when you do this by yourself. Visions of crowded waiting rooms, people gawking, an hour-long wait to see Dr. Hopkins, and let's not forget fitting a large- and-n-charge stroller into a TINY treatment room were all running through my head on the drive there.

I'm here to say we all lived through it. God was smiling on me today. No wait, quick visit, easy cheesy. Thank goodness. They were stellar as always. Jack didn't even cry. I'm not sure my heart could handle three children having a massive meltdown in a crowded Dr.'s office.

The final verdict is some sort of virus. Big surprise, huh? He also had a bit of a red throat but the Strep test was negative. No ear infection which is what I was really worried about with the low-grade fever. So, we wait and hope there is no fever some time in the near future. Love it when you spend $20 bucks and all you really come away is with what it's NOT...and that there is basically nothing you can do but what you were currently doing.

I am left wondering, however, when the proverbial poop is going to hit the fan (no pun intended). I mean I've been entirely too lucky so far with their fantastic public behavior and I am a-skairt of what could be coming. I would love to say I'm an eternal optimist, but let's face it, I'm dealing with toddlers. There is just simply no telling when they might turn on me.

I've Been Facebooked.

Welcome to the age of social networking. All this really means, however, is that you spend WAY too much time looking up past acquaintances to see how the heck they turned out.

You want all the mean high school girls to be fat, ugly, divorced, or something not so nice. Not really. You hope all of your sweet sorority sisters have lots of beautiful kids and a hot hubbie. You can find out what fantastic jobs your fellow grad school mates have attained. In short, it's an amazing way to catch up with a lot of people in your past.

While I have definitely caught up on some good friends of the past, I've spent entirely too much time perusing Facebook. So that's what I've been doing instead of catching up on my blogs. I apologize. I will be better.