Prayers, Praises and Updates

I have realized lately that I never gave you the good news about Ellie!

My post from 6/18:

I would like to ask you all to pray for my very good friend, Laura. Today Laura had her third daughter. While this is a joyous time for their family little Ellie is just about 2 pounds since she was born at 28.4 weeks after Laura's water broke 4 weeks ago. We praise God that she was able to carrie Ellie for as long as she did but they both have a long road ahead of them. I don't know more details but I know she needs prayer!!

Ellie has now been home from the hospital for two weeks! Yea!! Praise God!! She is doing amazingly well and is already over 6 pounds! Such a fighter.

At birth:





Today a chunkie preemie :)




Now I have a new friend to pray for! What is up with all these difficult pregnancies? Anyway, my friend Kristy is now on bed rest with baby #3. Did I mention that baby #1 is just barely 2?? I think she's trying to keep up with me :)

The problem is that Kristy has been bleeding and now suffers from subchorionic bleeding which is a bleed in the folds of the outer fetal membrane next to the placenta. These bleeds, or clots, can cause the placenta to separate from the uterine wall if they get too large, if they develop in a bad spot, or if they aren’t eventually reabsorbed. The bad news is if this bleed spot is not reabsorbed by the next appt. Kristy has a 25% chance of losing this precious little baby (probably her third boy!!). So, please, please add Kristy and her family to your prayers! She is on bed rest with two very small boys running around. Many of us know how very hard that is.

This is Kristy pregnant. Hmmm, yea I think I see it :) Truth is I'd like to look this good!!



And an update on the babies. Julianna is talking in complete sentences which I find amazing. Today she said while holding the remote to me "want Hi-5" which is their new absolute favorite TV show (they still love Elmo). Hi-5 is kind of, sort of like the Wiggles but way better. Lots of singing and costumes. Adults dressed up in fun costumes acting like kids. They love it. Then she looked at me and said "I want up" meaning up into my lap.

Rachel has been very busy coloring on EVERYTHING. The walls, the chairs, the windows, the floor, my computer, the couch, blankets - she will seriously try coloring on anything. Alyssa decided to join her today and color happily on the slide in the living room (current play room).

Other then all the coloring the girls have been very good playing together and running around everywhere. They have also adjusted to the new school schedule pretty well and I am soo happy about that! Hopefully Rachel and Alyssa will be talking as much as Julianna soon!

T-Ball

I am the proud mama of a baseball player! Technically T-ball but I'm so excited that he is doing something for boys :) I grew up watching my younger brothers play and have looked forward to the day I too would be on the ball field watching my own son play. And since I only have one son I am all the more thrilled to watch him be a boy :)



The good news is that he really likes it. He just has fun getting out there and playing. His favorite part? When they slap hi-fives at the end and say "good job" to each other. The bad news? He's not that good or at least he's not a natural. I have no idea what that would look like at 4 years old but right now we have to yell at him repeatedly to pay attention and to run the bases. But I can see significant improvement since he first got out there at a practice a few weeks ago.



Tonight he was first at bat and actually did pretty well - he got a hit and made it to first base :) Of course, all the kids stood there till they hit and while some of the kids were already very good at hitting the ball no one had the whole idea of baseball down yet. They played three innings which meant until every kid had batted and run the bases. No one kept track of the score or the outs.



Caleb got to play catcher and third base this time - he will rotate through every position. Hopefully by Saturday he'll catch on a little more. It's still cute to watch all these little boys (and some girls) play baseball (t-ball).



This is his "ready stance" - he really has been practicing - I think he'll do so much better as he gets older. I just hope he has fun doing it!



And the girls:









The boy in the picture with Rachel is my friend, Kathy's son, Jesse. Jesse's big brother, Liam is on the team with Caleb and their dad, Bill is the coach.

This is the only picture I got of Rachel by herself:

Yearly Trip To Six Flags

Today was Kirk's work's yearly picnic at Six Flags and as always we were very excited about it. I LOVE Six Flags - mostly the Superman ride - it's my all-time favorite ride. And Kirk's company buys out the park for the day and we pay just $10 (per person) for the entire day including food and drinks around the park - seriously no better deal!!

It started out as a great day - we had the triplets covered by bigger triplets :) Well, two of three bigger triplets and their mom and we even got to the park before the gates opened. That has never happened before! We headed to the back of the park to ride the good rides but we made one fatal mistake.

We decided to ride the Penguin's Blizzard River - we've never ridden it before. Made me horribly sick. I do not handle turning in circles well at all! I spent the rest of the day fighting a headache and nausea. Despite my misery the rest of the family had fun and I did manage to ride Superman twice (though it's not as fun when you feel horrible). Pictures from the day (roll over pictures if you want to read the captions):

And while we were gone it seems the girls didn't miss us a bit!! They got tons of attention, played outside and inside - went on a walk, watched TV, played on the swings and read books. What more could three girls want on a Saturday? They even got a nice bath :)

Rene and Rebekah are 9 years old and everything I know about triplets I learned from them and their mom (brother Ryan was on a camping trip with his dad). I knew their mom, Ute, before, during and obviously since her pregnancy with the triplets. Knowing her great outcome helped me be a lot less scared of my own triplet pregnancy. Obviously she hasn't lost her touch (of course, having two 9-year-olds who love babies and help out with everything helps too!!). Thanks Ute and girls...

So, for next year I'll just remember NOT to ride the horrible twisting ride AND to bring myself some Advil! It seems to have made things a lot better. Despite my physical difficulties I am already looking forward to next year...

New Frames

I had the funnest time tonight. It was kind of a girl's night out. Except the girl I went out with was my very own daughter, Kaitlyn. It is a rare moment that I actually get to hang out with her by myself. We had a great time :) The real reason we went out was to have Kaitlyn's eyes checked. She's been in glasses for a year but lately her eyes seemed to be getting worse and I was right. New glasses it is.

Okay, seriously, how cute is she?



Above is the before picture - pink glasses.



And this is the after picture - it may be a tad hard to tell but they are now gold frames.



How cool is she? These glasses have magnets to hold sunglasses on over the lenses so she only has to have one RX pair. The doctor said she needs the sunglasses so we got both in one. That and the coolness factor.

While we waited for her glasses we shared a pretzel and browsed at the bookstore. We had a lot of fun together. I think I'm liking this age :) And then, I have to wonder what in the world will this be like when I have three girls this age??!!

1st Playgroup

I guess this is a week of firsts! This morning we had 4 moms and 9 kids 2 years old and under. Three sets of twins and one set of triplets from the moms of multiples club I belong to. And my triplets and two of sets of the twins were born November 15, 16, and 17th respectively! So, in a way we had Septuplets! How crazy is that?!

The kids interacted really well. There was lots of pushing and toy and snack stealing but of course, that's normal :) I did notice a lot of the same behaviors in some of the other twins, pushing each other off their mom's lap! I experience a thousand times a day no matter how big my lap is. On the plus side, Rachel really seems to like the boys :) She gets right up to them and talks to them till they smile at her. She's working it! Strangely she seems most attraced to boys that are also blond. I have to laugh at her preference. So cute.

This isn't a close-up so you can't see that well but Connor was totally cheesing the camera - how funny is he! He and his twin brother Cole are one day older then my girls.



These are the oldest twins and the only boy/girl set:



Kristin and Reagan. Reagan's twin brother Keenan was Rachel's favorite - they are one day younger then my girls. Apparantly November 2006 was a VERY busy month for multiples everywhere :)









I think my girls had a lot of fun and I know they are looking forward to playing with all those twins again! Maybe someday they'll actually interact and play quietly with each other. Well, I can dream...

1st Haircut!

We did it! We cut the girl's hair tonight. Okay, not me. We took the kids to Cartoon Cuts and they did a great job. While Rachel and Alyssa's hair wasn't that bad, Julianna's bangs were in her eyes and she couldn't see! Not to mention her poor hair in the back that looked more like a mullet. Now it's so nice and even.















Somehow I didn't get an after shot of Alyssa or Caleb though he gets his hair cut all the time. Don't worry Alyssa still has all her curls - I made sure they didn't cut them out!! They all did great. No one hated it or cried much. Julianna LOVES having her hair done so she thought it was great. Now I have their first locks and little certificates for each of them! They're getting so big :(

So This Is How It Goes...

I feel like half of my day is spent searching for things that the girls need - their clothes, their shoes, their sippy cups, them and the other half is spent cleaning up after them and spinning in circles to keep them from making more messes. I juggle cups of water that they want out of the fridge, I juggle them as they cry, fuss or just want to cuddle, I juggle food. I probably say "please don't throw that on the floor" ten times a day or maybe an hour - it's hard to tell.

I also say, "please don't touch that"; "I said, don't touch that!" This usually refers to my computer or electronics of any kind - you all know about the DS' but there's also the phones, the remote, the computers. Sometimes, however, this refers to their sister's food and person. Which brings me back to juggling whoever is most "injured" at the moment.

In order to maintain my sanity we eat a lot of snacks. Goldfish are a hit especially when you are able to smush them on the table or sweep them onto the bench and then stomp on them with your feet. Of course this also means that both crumbs and whole Goldfish end up on the floor. Which adds to my juggling for the day. Go figure. After all not everybody likes to walk across their kitchen floor and feel Goldfish under their feet... I'm convinced someday the girls will catch on. Right?

This brings me to the funniest part of my day today. Julianna likes grapes, Rachel hates grapes except if she's allowed to pop them. Yes, it's irritating and makes a HUGE mess but Rachel enjoys popping grapes and grape tomatoes - we keep these away from her.

The thing is Julianna doesn't understand so when Rachel reaches out her hand and does her "gimme" motion - you know she wiggles her fingers to say "give me one!" I can't stop Julianna. I tried she just doesn't understand. So after following the trail of popped grapes I caught up to them once again instructing Rachel NOT to pop grapes!

Her solution? First, she fed them to me. After a while I'd had enough grapes. Then she threw them on the floor. While this was great fun to her it seriously isn't fun for me. Again lots of chasing and "no, don't do that's!"

In an attempt at diversion I instructed them to offer some to Alyssa. Which they did and Alyssa responded with an open mouth. This I didn't get on camera but is so funny. Alyssa opens her mouth and goes "aaah" so Rachel shoves a grape in. Rachel finds this fun so begins to follow Alyssa around saying "aaah" and shoving a grape at her :)

But, this isn't the funniest part. I'm making dinner and finding it interestingly quiet so I'd better go find out what has happened to the grapes (of course they're breaking my no food out of the kitchn rule!). But I digress. Since neither Alyssa or I are interested in being fed more grapes Rachel has found someone else to feed:





Just cracked me up! Right now I'm so grateful that Rachel didn't pop them in his mouth!! Have I mentioned that the girls LOVE Elmo?

Sorry about the poor quality of this picture - I was trying to get them in motion - this is Julianna feeding Alyssa. Can Alyssa make herself any more the baby of the family?

Caleb's 1st Day

While this isn't Caleb's 1st year in preschool today was the first day of a new year so of course I had to take more pictures!

This is the "hurry up and take the picture because this backpack is heavy" look:



Yes, it's the same back pack as Kaitlyn's except in boy color. But we got a good deal at Gymboree and I do love that store :) Plus the lunchboxes clip to the backpacks meaning more room in the back pack for stuff! And today's stuff includes more school supplies - I'll be glad when the first week is over and the kids are "moved in" to school.



Caleb at his desk.



So, now that Kaitlyn and Caleb are back at school what does that mean for me at home? A whole day with "just" three kids! This will be less great in a few years but right now they take a good nap and I get a few hours in peace and quiet :) The flip side of this "bliss" is that I must now get the girls up earlier and feed them breakfast while trying to get K&C ready for school. Not an easy task. Compound that with putting the girls down much earlier for nap then they're used to and then waking them up to pick the big kids up from school means much crankier days. I seriously hope they (um, Rachel) gets used to this soon!

But they aren't always screaming - there are a few moments where they are pleasant. Today Julianna said to me, "TV peas" (which is of course, please). This is sad - my girls are asking for TV!!

Julianna is talking so much - the other two are trying to catch up but I think I've said this before that she seems to be 2 months ahead of the other two. I think the next time I'm asked if they're triplets I'll tell them Julianna is two months older :) I wonder how long it will take them to figure that one out...

She has also got into pulling me where they want to go (this they are all doing and boy is it fun) but today Julianna pulled me from my lunch (the same lunch they avoided eating) to the living room, she patted the couch and said "down". We spent a lot of time this morning with me sitting on the couch watching them climb and slide on our small living room slide:



To Julianna's dismay this morning the slide once again replaced the "updown" What's an updown you ask? Well, of course it's a moonbounce! What do you call it? See, she's talking all the time - she can even say "bye-bye Elmos" Yes, Elmo is plural - don't ask me why. But it's really cute.

Kaitlyn's in 3rd Grade!!

My baby is soo old. Well, not really but today was her first day of 3rd grade and I just can't believe that a new school year has already begun. Of course I took 1st day pictures :) She is more gracious then I. I remember my parents making me do this on the way out the door on the 1st day and at the time I thought it was a silly and annoying thing to do but now that I have my own children I completely understand! This is a big deal! She's starting a new school year!! I pray for her all the time but now I pray that she will have a wonderful year and learn lots.



I think this backpack is already loaded down!!



How cute is she?





Caleb's first day is tomorrow...