Dorinda and Cherie Plus Eight

You're right - it's not as catchy as John and Kate plus Eight but today I had sextuplets plus two :) Except the two were in school so I guess they don't count either. But, I did have triplet girls and triplet boys playing together and since they are just three days apart in age (both born at 36 weeks) they are as close to sextuplets as I'm ever going to get!!!!

My friend Cherie stopped by today to pick up some things and came in to hang out for a bit so we got to enjoy 6 kids instead of 3 each :) Her boys were so good I'm thinking I could handle sextuplets. Ha ha!!

And here's the best I could get of all 6 kids together (the turtle is a new consignment sale find - just $4 new in the box!! - can't beat that):



Closer in of the boys at least - all of them and Alyssa's foot :)



Now Alyssa's in but Rachel is crying and moving. Of course.



Rachel took a liking to Jack - I think he's her favorite and yes, she can tell him apart from Tommy! (Jack is thinking "who is this crazy chick? At least she's kinda cute!"



Julianna and Tommy:



And Christian - sorry about the box that was our old ball holder :)



Finally, the last time these six kids were together - we've both come a LONG way since!

It's March

Wow! I'm just barely catching my breath and it's just March 3rd. I've been hard at work at my Criminal Behavior class midterm. I'm 3 pages in. I'm not sure how many I have to go and to be perfectly honest I don't want to think about it. I have three days :)

Tonight I got the joy of volunteering at a local consignment sale. As a lot of you know I LOVE clothes. Mostly kids clothes since they are way more fun to dress then I am!! Maybe when I'm skinny and beautiful again. Ha ha! So, since I love clothes I obviously buy clothes for my girls and lots of them. Then there's the task about what to do with them?

Lately I have become very passionate aobut not keeping things. I have discovered that I kept too much of Kaitlyn and Caleb's clothes hoping to pass them down. Instead I have ended up with lots of clothes and nothing to use them for. I have also become very involved with consignment sales and am now convinced that there's nothing you can't buy cheaper and second hand and there's NO reason at all to keep stuff lying around. If the Lord willed and for some reason we had another child I can get everything I would need for cheap so why hang on to it?

Seriously! Items sell so much better the newer they are. The better the brand the better the re-sale. That's my other money tip (after the grocery game). Buy the best clothes you can afford - if you can't buy full price from a brand name store then buy at a consignment sale - just brand name unless it's seriously all out play clothes! When it's not brand name it's almost like throwing money away because no one else will want them and they don't wear that well.

On my kids clothes I have already made about $500!! And that's just selling a fraction of what they have. I'm using this money to buy their summer clothes (the only usual exception is Easter/Christmas clothes though I think by next year when I'm able to sell this year's clothes that will be covered too). Next year I will sell these clothes, etc. and I really pay very little for their clothes and I think they're always dress quite cutely. (Pajamas are the exception - I couldn't care less what they wear to bed).

These are my exhausted ramblings - I swear I could write a book on the subject. In the coming months I'm even considering setting up my own business and consigning brand name clothes for others on E-bay so this is a serious passion of mine :)

Ice Skating

What did you do for Leap Year? I got to go on a field trip :) I haven't been ice skating in a LONG time but today I got a chance to put some skates on and get on the ice. It was great. Kaitlyn did well but she has the personality that if something is hard and frustrating and she doesn't get it really well right away then she doesn't like it. So, she struggled but I think she did great even if she thinks she hated it.

Here's a few pictures:

Getting on the ice...



Some friendly help.



Moved on to a "walker" so that she could stop hugging the wall.



So proud that she's getting out there!



Yes, I was there and on the ice but it's hard to get a picture of yourself :)




And tonight Kirk and I actually get to go on a date!! He's been working sooo hard and I'm so glad that my good friend, JoRonda (mom to 13-year-old triplets plus an 8-year old) volunteered for the job of watching my 5 kids for the night. God bless her!! I am looking forward to dinner and a movie. I think I really like Leap Year.

Big Kids Update

I have been feeling lately that the big kids have gotten a little lost in the shuffle. I've updated about the babies and the family in general but not specifically about Kaitlyn and Caleb.

They are doing amazingly well and they make me laugh every day. Lately Kaitlyn has been obsessed with tornados. She had one bad dream and we have been discussing it ever since. Do they come here? Do they kill people? What do they look like? I thought the "why" stage was over but now it's just deeper questions.

We've also been working hard on her science project. It should have been on tornados but "I wasn't afraid of tornados before my science project" so it's on the praying mantis and of all things we are growing them. Okay, not me. I was too scared - I sent them in to school for the teacher to help her with. Her teacher loves science. The thing is they send these things in a vial and they are wrapped in their harden shell. I open the thing and it says that this hardened shell contains 200 eggs! What?? I thought I was getting one. On the plus side only about 50 to 100 will survive. I am NOT feeling better about this. And when they hatch I am supposed to provide them with food. They are carnivorous (of course!) so I have to give them wingless fruit flies. If I don't give them the fruit flies they will eat each other. Great. That wouldn't upset Kaitlyn. See why I sent them off to school? That and the fact that you have to mist the egg sac shell thing every week. Not that hard but if you see my list from yesterday I WILL forget and they'd all die and they'd never hatch. Who's dumb idea was this anyway? Hmmm, sort of mine. Never give kids the option for science proejcts. And this is just 2nd grade.

Here's Kaitlyn. Yep, staged picture but we haven't done anything exciting lately and it's rare that I get her out of her school uniform. She HATES to change. HATES to pull her hair back. HATES leaving the house, ever. For anything. LOVES animals.



Here's Caleb. I don't know what's with the pose. He was just doing it. Trying to balance. Cracks me up. He's sooo funny! He spends his days playing super heroes and wrestling with dad. He hates school in the morning and loves it in the afternoon. He has a new boy in class who he says "sins a lot". When asked how many times he got in trouble. Caleb said, "about 100" - in one day! Probably not :)



And not to exclude the triplets:

Alyssa's stylin' - LOVE this hat :)



Darn dishwasher is so attractive to them now. But ask them in a few years and they'll be no way!



"Give me that" - essentially her motto

Confessions

So, the truth is I am a very disorganized mother of 5. Or I put too much on my plate. I think the most disorganization is in my home. I know lots of other mothers of triplets whose homes are perfect. I have friends without triplets as well and a lot of them have the same neat home. Apparantly I have misplaced this gene because believe me my mother's home is perfect. Whatever she taught me growing up has apparantly fallen out of my tiny brain. It leaked through all the cracks and floated away.

Lately I have been feeling just a bit overwhelmed by the state of my house. How do I keep it all together?

List of things to do this month:
- write a chapter a week in novel
- complete 2 lessons in writing course
- post responses to discussion questions in Master's course
- finish midterm for Master's course
- tag items for consignment sale (my own)
- tag items for consignment sale (other people's)
- list clothes on Ebay
- do 12 loads of laundry
- make 40 school lunches
- complete science fair project with Kaitlyn
- sign up as moms of multiples treasurer
- sign up as church nursery coordinator
- make 25 dinners - we go out a few times :)
- update blog
- take pictures and video of the kids
- take care of 5 kids 24/7 - thank God they sleep some of those hours!!

So, where to I fit in organizing my house? I clean it - vacuum, dishes, laundry, bathrooms but yet my house feels cluttered all the time. I have NO idea what to do. Any thoughts?

The Grocery Game

With a family of seven the expenses can get quite high. While I know very few things about saving money I've learned a few recently and I thought I'd share. A friend in Florida introduced me to the coolest thing - the grocery game.

Basically if you get the paper you just keep your coupons instead of clipping them and you file them by date. You subscribe to the grocery game and then every week Sunday through Tuesday she tells you what's on sale at your favorite store and then if there's a coupon to go with the sale she'll tell you and you buy that item for really cheap. She highlights the best deals in blue and the free deals in green.

From the website this explains what it is:

What is The Grocery Game?
The Grocery Game is a fun, easy way to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month. TERI'S LIST reveals the "rock bottom" prices on hundreds of products each week and matches them up with manufacturers' coupons for the best possible savings at your local supermarket. The Grocery Game has exclusive databases that track manufacturers' coupons along with weekly sales and specials, both advertised and UN-advertised. With TERI'S LIST, the days of time consuming work required for effective coupon-ing are over. The Grocery Game does all the hard work and research, presented in a quick reference format on the internet each week, as TERI'S LIST. Members log in, spend a few minutes with a pair of scissors, and they're off to win The Grocery Game!

How Do We Play The Grocery Game?
If you have your Sunday newspaper and TERI'S LIST, you will have everything you need to play The Grocery Game. Each week, TERI'S LIST matches sales to coupons from weeks or months past, along with new coupons from this week's Sunday paper.

You can get started with our $1 TRIAL. This will give you 4 weeks of playing The Grocery Game. You will log in to TERI'S LIST each week, check off the items you want to buy, print your customized list, pull the corresponding coupons and you're off to win like a pro!

You will want to read TERI'S GAME RULES, for all of the best savings strategies and how to get the most out of TERI'S LIST.

I highly encourage you to check it out! Save money on your groceries and have fun doing it. It really works!! If you sign up please include me as a referral - every person helps :)

The Grocery Game

Easter Outfits

I love dressing my kids. It's just fun. And one of the biggest deals for us is Easter. Christmas is also a big picture deal as you all know from the family portraits but Christmas seems easier. The colors are pretty basic and there's not a lot you can do with that :)

And then there's Easter. Do we take the whole family picture? Do we do just the kids? How many family pictures do we need? Not much has changed since Christmas. So, because of that we decided to do just the kids this time. You know some fun pictures. Great. Now which ones? This is so complicated and I'm so picky. There are so many choices and yet not enough. And the price is crazy. I can't win!!! Try dressing five kids to coordinate and match - it's not easy.

After much discussion and fret (on my part) I finally came to something I wanted. I had it all in my cart on-line and what happens? Someone goes and buys all the dresses in size 7!! What? Who did this to me? I'm sure they knew I was ready to check out and took my dress!!! So, now I'm a bit annoyed because I finally came to a decision (and if you want an idea of how much of a decision this was just ask Kirk - I was driving him crazy) and then I couldn't have what I wanted. No fair!

Being that I am older then 2 I have to think through this in an adult manner. So, today we packed everyone up and headed to the mall. A real trip to Gymboree - not a mommy one on-line. Wow!! I am happy to report that everyone did very well. The triplets were a HUGE hit. Everyone stopped, started, pointed, talked about us, asked questions. Yep, that's normal. One man stopped Kirk and asked in earnest whether or not he had a son. Upon finding out that we do indeed have a boy the man patted Kirk on the back and felt good about our lives in general. So glad we could help! I even heard the "I'm glad it's them and not me" remark. Me too.

Beyond that they loved the girls at Gymboree and that was fun. We were their walking advertisement. I would so do that!!

And here are what the kids will be wearing in their pictures. We haven't done that yet but soon. I'm very excited. Caleb will be wearing a tie (probably pink so he can match his sisters). He's going to look so handsome!

Sleeping Beauties

Even though I'm not a very big Disney fan I can't miss the opportunity to reference the Disney Princesses since, after all, some of the most popular princess are Ariel (A), Belle (B) and Cinderella (C). I got great pictures of Julianna sleeping a while ago but Alyssa has been much harder to catch actually sleeping! But finally, I have acheived my goal so I'm going to share some cute pics of the girls at their best.

Julianna's under there somewhere...



Sweet feet :)



Rachel's easier to capture - she sleeps a lot!



Rachel's the only one of the three that does not cover up with blankets when she sleeps - this is probably because Julianna likes to steal Rachel's blankets at night or is it that Rachel enjoys giving them to her?



All previous attempts ended like this...



Finally today :) So cozy - I wish I could trade places!



And just some video I got of the girl's the other day - too funny!

15-Month Check-Up

Just under 15 months ago we walked into our pediatrician's office for the first time with the triplets. Then we were carrying two of them in car seats and I had to carry Alyssa in my arms because she had failed the car seat challenge and had to be transported in a car bed. Times have changed so much since then so today instead of being carried the girls walked into their appointment. They aren't exactly following directions yet so they found it more fun to explore but it was great to see the nurses and doctors who have watched them grow over the past year.

The girls are doing very well. They were all fine and healthy except Rachel who did have a minor ear infection and could (hopefully) explain some of her crankiness and tiredness as of late. She's now on antibiotics. I'll let you know if it helps!

Girl's Stats:

Julianna: 23.10 pounds putting her in the 60th percentile for weight
Rachel: 19.10 pounds putting her in the 10th percentile for weight
Alyssa: 22.12 pounds putting her in the 50th percentile for weight

By height Julianna is almost in the 90th percentile; Rachel is in the 50th and Alyssa is in the 70th. Julianna and Alyssa's heads are huge while Rachel's is still quite small :)

So, my girls are doing great!! This weekend we got a painful reminder of how blessed we are when we found out that a girl's in my on-line multiples club has lost one of her triplet daughters (Zoe). We are so very sad for her loss and ask that you would lift this family up in your prayers:

Tripled Pink

What's Changed in 15 Months?

A lot! Well, of course, we all knew that. But can you believe the girls are 15 months old today? I can't. Today we had the great pleasure of meeting three new little baby girls. These precious girls were born at just 24 weeks and spent 135 days in the NICU before coming home in January. Other then being born early and still being on oxygen they reminded very much of my three little girls so many months ago. To hear them all cry at once. I'm not sure that was the most pleasant of memories...

But they are adorable. Their mom gave me permission to post some pictures of her sweet little girls: Juliette, Katie and Sophie - that's their birth order - Juliette and Katie are identical. Welcome home little ones!! (Remember when my girls were this little?)





Now 15 months later my girls have their own personalities and quirks. I shared video of Rachel's earlier this week. Julianna is just a crazy little girl who loves to give me five, show me her belly and "talk" in a language I don't understand. She has become very vocal about her likes and dislikes.

Rachel can giggle so cutely when she's not screaming. She's also very inquisitive and can play so well by herself - provided I'm nearby.

Alyssa is just cute. She can be silly and interestingly she has turned into my easiest going baby. She can't give five - she can only give ten :) She just gets too excited (I promise to get video of this soon). She also gives the cheesiest of grins.

Today as I met three new triplets it reminded me of just how far we've come. Fifteen months ago the girls barely moved, now they're everywhere. Then we were juggling feeding three babies at once - we're still doing that but it's a tad easier - they do feed themselves pretty well. Rachel can clean her tray of just about anything - go figure huh?

Of course a lot has changed but it's fun to remember. Sometimes :)

Valentine's Day

Anniversary gift for my parents: $50
Food for school Valentine's Day party: $12.50
Triplet's Valentine's "gifts": $26.50
Big Kid's Valentine's "gifts": $25
Take-Out dinner on Valentine's day - whole family: $40

Getting the perfect Valentine picture:

Priceless:



Happy 38th Anniversary Mom and Dad!! And Happy Valentine's Day everybody else!!

The Rachel Switch

Off, on, off, on, off...



Mommy's girl?

Where's Your Belly?

How To Use a Roll of Toilet Paper in Five Minutes

(Taken while I was at my monthly moms of multiples meeting and dad was home alone with all five kids - when they're all giggling it's NOT a good thing)

Embracing Triplets

Thanks to everyone for voting! Seems like most people would vote for dressing the girls alike or at least to coordinate them. After talking to lots of moms of multiples, I have come down to the decision that I love having triplets and I want to embrace that. For now and for the most part I will dress the girls alike or at least coordinating. When they get older I'm sure they will have their own opinions about how they dress. So, until anyone else volunteers to do my laundry and dress my kids in the morning I will be taking the easy way out :)

On the same topic, I want to be able to go out in public and share my girls. I don't have a disease and I don't want to hide in my house. If people wish to point and stare and talk about me, that's fine. I'm proud of my girls. I'm proud of my five kids.

In fact my new license plate came today telling everybody I have 2 kids and triplets. I also ordered my new window sticker for my car:



So if you see me out in public stop by and say hi. Tell me how cute my girls are cause they are. I'm happy to have triplets!! They're not fun and games every day of course but it is a blessing to have three at once. Even now I can hear them upstairs giggling and "talking" to each other. I look forward to more years with them whether they're dressed alike or not :)

Go Giants!!!

I seriously meant to put this up before the game and then time got away from me and I wasn't able to do so. While I was born in New Jersey my parents are from New York and my dad has been a Giants fan for as long as I can remember (Jets too) so in honor of my dad I was rooting for the Giants. On the flip side, if the Patriots had won it would've given them a perfect season and that would have been amazing. But, still I was rooting for the Giants and after an intense 4th quarter it was great to see them pull it off!

That being said, the pictures we took tonight have nothing to do with the game. Instead my good friend, Joanna, and family came over in matching outfits (just the girls to my girls - not the whole family). To add to the voting dilemma about dressing them alike, how cute are they?

The girls in their Sunday best - this is coordinating - different tights :)



Sorry I have to be in the picture but I felt it was the best way to get all 6 girls to sit still.



Don't miss Caleb in the background...



And, finally, all the girls looking cute in their matching outfits! For the record if I dress them alike now doesn't mean I will forever - just while they're little :)



And I just have to add this - this is Julianna and her tiger. He has no name because she's not old enough to name him/her but she LOVES this tiger. If someone else has it she will complain to high heaven to get it back!

Dressing Alike

I know it seems incredibly early to be thinking about spring and summer clothes but trust me, it's not. The girls have enough clothes for winter so if I buy clothes it's now for summer and I am struggling with a dilemma. Should I dress the girls alike or not?

Before they were born I had decided not to dress them alike very often. I had no idea how alike they would look and didn't want to confuse anybody plus I didn't want the extra pain of having to change one girl's clothes just because someone else threw up or pooped and got their clothes dirty.

Since then I have somewhat changed my mind. While it is still a huge pain to change all three if they get their clothes dirty they usually only wear one outfit a day so it's less of a problem. Also, they don't look anything alike so we can tell them apart no matter what they're wearing.

I have also found that grabbing the same outfit for each girl means I only have to think about their clothes for like 5 minutes whereas if I dress them differently I have to carefully examine each outfit to see how it relates to the other. Sound weird? Well, if one girl is wearing pink and the other is wearing red or blue people will assume that the other one is a boy. Not a big deal at home but when we're out - big pain.

To help me answer this question I have created a poll and really want your opinion. Should I embrace that they are triplets and display it to the world that they are or should I make them individuals and dress them differently. I could also coordinate and that is similar outfits but not exactly the same - same shorts, different tops - same clothing line different style. Commenting that it's up to me isn't helpful so you have to vote!! And vote often :)

Laundry Day

The girls are oh, so helpful.



This is what laundry day in our house looks like. I don't even remember how many loads this was but it took me 2 days to wash and fold :) I know I could do a load every day but I hate laundry so I do it all at once every other week (and some in between when needed).



And this is how our house looked tonight when all the power everywhere went out for over an hour. I've never seen my house any blacker! It was freaky. It certainly proved one thing: Alyssa is scared of the dark. I mean petrified. We suspected this when she spent the entire second nap screaming her head off - something she doesn't do any other time that she wakes up. I started putting a night light in which ever room she was in and it seems to have helped. Go figure.

Right now I am just eternally grateful for lights...

Bathtime Fun

After a little protesting by Julianna the girls are out of their bath seats and into the tub. I wanted to capture a little bit of the fun (no obscene pictures I promise) of the girls in the bath along with the older two kids who still enjoy being in their own bath!



So silly! Love the hair Julianna...



The older kids are having fun:

Fun With Balloons

So the girls are always cute (okay, except when they are screaming but you get the point) but yesterday they got balloons from Harris Teeter and just loved them - so I had to grab a few shots.

The balloon is actually stuck to her head - it followed her all around the play room.





Alyssa's looking a little posed but I swear I had nothing to do with it!



After chasing Rachel around forever - I finally got a few good shots. Has to be even! Although I guess I shorted Alyssa with just one good photo :)





These are the outfits the girls wore to Harris Teeter - complete with bow and even a pink jacket. I was still asked if they were two girls and a boy or all girls. What do you think? And please, please tell me which one is the boy?? Also, a cute older couple thought they knew my parents because they knew someone who's daughter had triplets and were shocked to find out that there could be more then one set of triplets in Northern Virginia! So cute :)

"More" Please!

A big first today! At lunch I was feeding the girls these Gerber Graduate Lil Crunchies and they loved them. I actually fed them the Zesty Tomato flavor and I can't believe they devoured them since neither of the older kids like tomatoes. I do keep trying with everyone since I LOVE tomatoes.

But that's not the big first. Today Julianna and Rachel both signed "more" - they loved these things so much they couldn't help but tell me they wanted more :) We're still working on the sign for please but now at least two of them have added "more" to their "all done" - yes, they have that one down quite well. Thanks Gerber for these great snacks...

Uncle Michael Is 30!!

And he's single!! If you know any single girls between 25 and 30ish please let me know. I'd like to marry him off :) Happy Birthday Michael and welcome to your 30's. I hope the next decade is even better then the last.

Over the summer we had a chance to visit him at his house and took some pictures. Doesn't he look so natural holding 3 babies?? I never got these pictures up then but I thought they'd be a great way to wish him a Happy 30th today.





All 5 kids having fun :)

It's All Fun And Games...

Until someone gets hurt! I'm not apologizing for another video because this was just too cute to pass up tonight. But I will apologize for the stuff on the floor - the girls were playing with the empty BJ's boxes and scattered them. That and they're addicted to playing with spoons. Someday I'll get video of Rachel and her spoons. She falls asleep with them and wakes up clutching them... Silly girl!

Snow Babies

Just last week the girls were walking on the grass in the "spring" - today we got about five or so inches of snow which for us is a good amount. I LOVE the snow so we had to take the girls out for their first trip outside in the snow. I hope you don't mind all the pictures and video :)

Hanging out in the snow:



The girls on the sled:

Poor Rachel

Today the girls turned 14 months. All three of them. You know that and I know that but most people don't know that. Recently I have been asked if I have twins and a singleton. When I give them a confused look I get "well, that one looks different" or "she's too small to be the same age".

While it is true, that she's smaller then the other two and that Alyssa and Julianna look more alike they are not older then Rachel. Alyssa is actually younger.

So, I was already pretty frustrated when I got to Giant and discovered that my new awesome triple-wide stroller is too big to fit through the front door. I had to unload all three girls, corral them, fold down the stroller and try to get them in the front door. Thankfully someone took pity on me and helped me in. Then I had to reload them all and make my way to the pharmacy to fill a RX. Of course, I'm running out of time - I have to be to the kids school in 30 minutes plus get some groceries. Not going well.

"Oh my goodness, look at this!" An older lady stops by the stroller. Nothing new, happens everywhere. I smile, what can I do? I'm kind of stuck in line.

"So, what do we have here? Two boys and a girl?" The lady is looking up and down the triple wide stroller. They are ALL wearing identical pink shoes and identical pink and green striped shirt (I meant to take a picture but forgot). Most of me is wondering which one is the girl.

"No, they're all girls." This is why triplet moms need to practice that fake smile. Probably moms of all special needs kids or any other human being that attracts attention for any reason.

"They're not twins are they?"

What?!

"They're triplets."

"Oh, but that one looks so different." Thank God Rachel has no idea people are talking about her.

"Yes, she does." What else do I say? I've had people question us severely as to why Rachel looks different and how she could be so much smaller. Kirk says I should start saying "You're right! She must not be a triplet, she's too small!" I should of said, "No, they're not triplets I had one every five months for 15 months." I wonder how long it would take her to figure out that math (and biology).

The lady's friend walks up, stops, looks over the stroller, asks, "Is it hard to have three at once?"

"Um, yes." Again, what the heck do I say?

I got stopped no less than 6 more times before I tried to make my exit from Giant. I go through the self-serve because it's the only one big enough for my stroller. No one helps. The lady manning the self-serve aisle sees me try to exit (hey, maybe these doors are wider) and says, "I don't think you'll fit." Does she offer to help? No. Thank God, a very tall man knew how to dismantle the doors so that the sliding doors open out and I could fit through.

To say all this, I'm no longer shopping at Giant. At Harris Teeter, I can get in right away, they have cookies out front and people trip over themselves to offer help. I swear they do. I get help out to my car, people grabbing milk for me, surely someone would've helped me that works there if there was a door issue.

Happy 14 months to the girls. And I still miss my mom who has been gone a year tomorrow from her "help-with-the-triplets" post. Bummer but I have managed to survive thanks to the help and support of quite a few others.

As for milestones, Rachel and Julianna are waving quite well. Rachel was actually quite sweet in the store waving at everybody - this is unusual for her because she is usually anti-social and very into mom or dad. As the self-dubbed "princess" Alyssa has a harder wave to learn and hasn't worked on that yet.

They have all left crawling behind and are walking/running everywhere they go. More pictures soon.

Don't Look Down!!

This awesome photo was done by my husband in photoshop. The tutorial was published in Photoshop Creative which is sold at Borders bookstores everywhere. Doesn't he do a great job??

On a weird note this my 200th post. How weird is that?? When Kirk first brought the idea up for a blog I had no idea what I would write about or when or who would read it. Now it is a daily part of my life and the only way I or the girls will remember my pregnancy and their early years. Go figure.

2nd Blog

I mentioned that I was beginning another blog for writing and I have currently posted the Prologue as well as chapters 1 and 2. Please feel free to check it out and read as you'd like. My goal is to update with a chapter a week so that by the end of the year I should have a complete book. Since I have already completed 2 novels I have a pretty good idea as to how but I also know that life gets busy with triplets, a graduate course and a writing course.

This is my way of making me write and I hope that you make me stick to it!! I won't keep up without people reading so please read and please comment and yes, I will figure out a way to copywrite. Not that I even think I'm that good but you never know.

Link again: Dorinda Writes

Check This Out...

I've mentioned these bows before and now the girls on their website. Yea!! And I think it's the best picture there but I'm a little bias.

No Slippy Hair Clippy

Daily Struggle

Every day I spend my time struggling with whether or not to let the girls play by themselves and cry or if I should stay with them and make sure they are fine (crying still ensues). When all three are crying at my leg, do I leave them and walk away or do I pick one up at a time? Or two at a time? But then I leave one or two out and they are still screaming and I am out of hands. At what point do I really start disciplining?

Having just one at a time meant that one could get all my attention and I could pick them up as needed. Of course, I discipline and they still cried it out at times but not at this age - at least I don't remember that!!

At dinner we have this issue where we must feed the girls to get them to stop screaming while we make dinner but by the time we are ready to sit down and eat they are done and begin screaming in their highchairs. So, we can listen to them scream in their chairs or let them down to scream at our feet. Kirk got video of this one night but I seriously doubt anyone would like to see it! So, of course I struggle with this too.

As I ponder what to do I am also considering all the things that I was not told before I had triplets. I know there are books on the subject of things that you need to know before having a child but so far I have not come across a book on what to expect when having triplets.

A few things you probably wouldn't find in a book about having triplets but probably should:

- the biggest shock by far is that you must know how to blog. If you are unfamiliar with this form of technology then how will you keep your friends and family informed? How will you remember your children's growing up years since obviously you won't have enough time to write it down anywhere else?

- you have to be able to understand a number of strange acronyms - quick what's a MOM? No, not a mom but a MOM (Mother of Multiples). What's an HOM? High order multiples of course. VHOM - well, you get the idea.

- if you find yourself pregnant with multiples you should quickly begin pasting a smile on your face and nodding. "You're having triplets?" Smile and nod. "You have your hands full!" Smile and nod. You will find yourself doing this more often then most other things pregnancy books will have you concerned with.

- you must remember basic biology even if you failed it in high school. What are fraternal twins? What are identical twins? Are triplets actually twins? (no) Can you have triplets "naturally"? (yes) You must also understand what "natural" is.

- none of your appliances will ever be big enough, set money aside to replace all these things - water heater, washer/dryer, dishwasher, fridge, add an extra freezer.

- you will be tripping over kids stuff for the rest of your life - organize in advance - I mean like now even before you have one kid let alone three!! If I could go back I would certainly have started with a better organizational system but alas, I am left struggling to keep up with everything on a daily basis. Fortunately, my husband is forgiving - you should find a forgiving husband too :)

- free time is extremely hard to come by - take advantage of bed rest (if I could go back and tell myself one thing - it would've been this - that hospital stay does eventually end!!) - so, with all my free time I will go write a book and let all the triplet moms in on my vast knowledge!!

Hey, at least I can laugh even when I'm struggling!! It's a gift :)