19 Months

So so sweet my babies. Look at those bellies. Would you believe they were preemies now?

This cracks me up. She's got her arm around Brock while chatting on the phone. Sorry it's so bright. Camera must have had a flash malfunction.

All three are pro's at crawling up the stairs and Addison can walk up the stairs if her hand is held. Although we know they can back down a step or two we are not ready to let them attempt it all the way from the top.

What personalities they are getting! Addison is ornery as can be, Brock is stubborn as can be and Tyler is as laid back as can be. Big change from the Tyler I brought home from the hospital that was my fussy butt. He still likes to be held and snuggled though.

I asked Brock tonight if he was ready for bed and he signed back to me "play play play". Haha If I ask him for a kiss or hug he tells me "No". Normally after a few minutes he will come back and give them to me. He's still very dramatic in his temper tantrums.

Addison is climbing everything to sit on. The high she can get the better, but all she does when she gets there is sit for a few minutes then cry because she wants someone to get her down. She is doing this thing with her eyes where she rolls them at people then laughs. She also likes to bat her lids.

Tyler is really quiet lately. He is standing his ground more but he is quite content sitting on his bean bag with a book for up to 15 minutes at a time. I think it's funny because every time I look at him he has the book upside down. While at the pool Tyler kept copying me by signing "Play" and "Water".

All three love the song "When you are happy and you know it". I've sang this to them since about 5-6 months old, but now they can do it all too. When I say stomp your feet, clap your hands, jump, touch your nose, and just about any other silly thing I can come up with they do it. Such smart little ones.

So they will be 19 months tomorrow. It's so hard to believe!

Camping Trip

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Saturday night was an adult only night. We were up pretty late playing scrabble. The couple we were with(Randy and Rachel) had a pop up camper that they had borrowed so we sat in there away from the bugs. At about mid night we decided we should shut the windows. Rachel went to crawl into one side to shut them and we heard a very large boom. Then realized we were all sitting at a 90 degree angle. It took a minute for Randy to realize he needed to go stand on the other side to straighten us back out. We were laughing so hard and Randy says "Oh that's what those jacks were for". :) Yes we had tipped the whole pop up over on it's side and woke up everyone on the campground. I'm sure it was a very funny sight to see from the outside if you could get over the fact that you were woken up to a camper hitting pavement. I think we laughed for another 2 hours after that. Let's just say I woke up with very sore stomach muscles.

Saturday morning we headed out to pick Oaklen and Tyler up. We grabbed some lunch from Mcd and was impressed that Tyler ate a whole cheeseburger on his own. When we returned we headed to the pool to meet up with some of my friends (Bryson, Jessica, Nicci and all their kids)who were also staying at the campground. We had so much fun at the pool. Tyler was a real sport despite he missed his nap. He played in the baby pool fountain for about an hour and Jessica spoiled him with a capri-sun. Oaklen played in the big pool with Adam until Tyler and I went to watch them jump off the diving board. Tyler would say "Bu uh" every time Oaklen got up there. Oaklen had a great time back at the camp ground with Hunter. In fact they stayed so busy we did not hear a peep out of them. We took all the kids to the park in the evening then walked over to talk with some people Adam works with. It was a great evening. Tyler loved playing with Gavin's lawn mower and we are going to have to purchase him his own.

Addison and Brock had a good time with Mike and Toni. However Addison conned a new dress out of them. How did she do that? Let's just say Adam's new car no longer has that new car smell. They were on their way out to eat and Brea had to run to wal-mart to get Addison a new dress. Which is cute as can be. All in all the kids did just fine being separated and we all enjoyed ourselves.

Pictures

Who's finger is it? It almost looks like it might be Addison's................................................................................................................................................................................................................................but it is indeed his own. Whenever you ask Brock where his nose is he puts his finger in it.

The new thing is to wear hair bands anywhere but on your hair. On the four head, around the neck, even over the eyes.

Addison with four over her eyes.

Addie with 3

Addie with two and yes she is sitting on her kitchen....AGAIN

We had a blast camping over the weekend. I will add pictures soon.

Adam has gotten almost all dry wall up and has moved the attic entrance. We should be mudding by the weekend. I've been taking pictures but they are getting really hard to tell what you are looking at.

signing and sound effects

I've had a lot of people ask me if there is something wrong with my children since I am teaching them to sign. Absolutely not. There is nothing developmentally or physically wrong with them. We started signing because it's easier for babies to sign than it is for them to learn to speak. They sign earlier and are able to communicate with us. Even though they can not say monkey, bird, or kitty cat they can tell us if they see one by signing it. Studies also show that teaching babies to sign may increase their IQ so why not do it?

Pull em up

Stackers

My sweet little pumpkins. They never cease to amaze me. For many days now I have found my pitchers stacked like this with no one around to claim the wonderful creation of the leaning tower of pitchers. Today I finally found the culprit when she returned with her fifth pitcher. I should have known it was her as she loves to stack her Lego's. She can stack these all up under a minute if her brothers are not inter fearing.

I caught a video of all three helping daddy stack them up.

The thoughts (or struggles) of a triplet momma

I realize there are times that only another mom of multiples can truly understand the thoughts and feelings of another momma of multiples.

I've been given three wonderful babies all at one time. They sleep, nap, eat and play together. They are always the "trio" the "triplets" the "babies". Everything I do is in three's. I must count to 3 20 times a day. One diaper two diaper three diaper..one bite two bite three bite. It's hard sometimes to understand they are all separate. Not that I don't think of them as individuals but they are always three and everything is done in 3's.

Next weekend we were invited to go on a camping trip with another couple and their kids. Can you imagine camping with a 1o year old, a 6 year old and 4 1 year olds in a tent, but how can I go camping with someones kids and not have my own. Of course Oaklen is easy. He always goes with us. He's 10 and can handle himself at bedtime but how could I possibly have the trio and not keep all the other campers up at night. I've tackled everything presented to me, but I have to admit this is not one I am wanting to take on. So after discussing it with Adam we decided that maybe it was time for some one on one time with our precious three. The three who sleep, eat, play, bathe and do everything together. We drew names out of a hat to decide in what order they would get our undivided attention. It's sad really to think of taking one with us while leaving the other two home and at the same time so exciting to get the chance to give each all of our attention and their own special time with mommy and daddy. So the first name drawn was Tyler. The next trips for Brock and Addison have not yet been decided but we will work on them soon.


I wonder about the little things. Will Addison and Brock sleep well without Tyler in the room? Will they wonder the whole time where he is? I realize that they will not always be together as they get older. Different doctor visits, different classrooms, different friends, and eventually off to different colleges and different lives. So why is it so hard on me now to think of them spending one night apart?

For Addison and Brock we have planned a special day for them as well. They will get to spend some bonding time with their grandparents away from the house! My babies had never been away from the house without me until Adam took Tyler to the grocery store a few weeks ago. They have never been out without either of us. Never driven in a car without Adam or I driving. We thought this would be a good time to loosen the reigns for the grandparents. I'm going to put two car seats into our car so they can take them out somewhere. It will be good practice to get out of the house when they only have two and are not out numbered. Not that we don't think they could handle it but it can get challenging at times to say the least.

On a side note. I just spoke with my mom who as most know is also a mom of multiples. We discussed the challenges of always trying to keep everything fair. She said it does not get any easier (thanks mom). My sisters who are 21 are always fussing at her for buying the same thing in different colors. Yes she still does it to this day. :) It feels like a constant battle to keep everything as even as possible, but that she wished she had spent more time with each individually. Which makes me feel better about doing so. To know someone has been in your shoes and tells you to go for it. Thanks for supporting me mom!

Mother's day and Family room

Adam's friend Bill came over to help get the studs up. They got quite a bit done last weekend. This is a 10 foot ceiling so Adam asked the biggest friend he had to come help.

I know it's hard to tell what this is at this point but hopefully this weekend the dry wall will go up and you will see that there is a coat closet, hallway, walk in closet and very small office area for my desk.

My mothers day cake. I get this every year and normaly love them. This year I was sick so I did not taste a thing, however it did not stop me from eating 4 pieces over the weekend. :)

All my children and I.

Addison getting ready to give mommy a kiss.

Photo shoot by me

This is my favorite. Tyler says "IIIIIII" (HI)

Incase you were every wondering how many pictures I take to get one good picture the answer is 25 in about a 5 minute period. Anything over 5 minutes they are squirming and complaining.

My babies are 1 1/2 can you believe it?

I'm a couple of days late on this but was waiting until we got to the pedi's office for new heights and weights. Below is what's going on around here.

Tyler- 21lbs 3oz and 32 inches he has finally started to grow. As you recall last visit they were starting to worry since his growth had slowed all of a sudden. Well there are no more concerns and they boy is healthy and looks great. He's just smaller than the other two. Tyler has 10 teeth and working on his eye teeth. He can sign more than 20 words and our favorite words that he says is zippa and crackor (cracker). He remains the calmest of the bunch and many time you can find him by himself on the bean bag reading a book.

Addison- 22lbs 13oz and 32 3/4 inches She has 8 teeth and is working on her molars. Addison is ahead of her brothers cognitively. She can say and sign more words than her brothers. It is not unusual for girls to be ahead of boys in speech. She can sign just about any animal, tons of different foods as well as basics like bath, sleep, brush teeth, coat, hat, shoes,socks, car, choo choo and the list goes on. Her most recent words have been car and cracker. They all love their crackers. Addison can most likely be found hiding in her cabinet.

Brock- 23lbs 13oz and 34 1/4 inches Looks like he might be tall like his daddy. He has 10 teeth and working on his eye teeth. Brock remains behind the other two developmentally but still not out of normal range. His speech is delayed a tad and the therapist believes it to be caused by low muscle tone in his mouth. He still says B for all M words. He can sign a lot of words but most likes the food words because he uses them often. He is my biggest eater despite his texture issues with rice and noodles. Brock seems to be frustrated often and throws loud temper tantrums. If he really gets worked up it's hard not to laugh. He will run as fast as he can to the play area and throw himself on the bean bag. He's very dramatic. I think a lot of his frustration comes from lack of being able to communicate. Brock can most likely be found fighting with one of his siblings. :) Yes the boy likes whatever toy is already taken which leads to many squealing matches.

Oaklen- no he's not 1 1/2 but he's getting new teeth! Oaklen had a sore throat the other day and Adam told me I needed to take Oaklen to the dentist because he has skin growing over his back teeth. Haha of course as soon as he said this I told Adam he was growing his 12-13 year molars. Just to be safe I did count all his teeth and sure enough he's getting them a tad bit early. Hopefully that will mean he can get his braces on early and back off before high school.

Converting the family room to a bedroom

Well it's obvious we are outgrowing our three bedroom home. So we are converting our family room which has never been used for anything other than storage into a 4th bedroom. When the triplets moved to their own room the master was the only room big enough to hold all three cribs. Adam and I ended up in the smallest room of the house. So we are making a new master bedroom down stairs and moving Addie into the small room. Leaving Oaklen where he is and the small boys sharing a room. Below are pictures of our weekend progress. The white flecks you are seeing is saw dust still floating in the air. I also added these pictures on backwards so top picture was the ending progress of today. This sub flooring will be our hall way and the square is a coat closet.

And had to add a picture of all the babies trying to sit on my lap and no one wanting to share me.