Three Years Old

When we found out we were pregnant with triplets, one of my first thoughts was, “How will we survive the terrible twos?!” I knew the baby stage would be a challenge in living with a lack of sleep, but I knew age two would be a challenge in patience. Patience is not my strongest quality as I tend to get frustrated easily and I want things to go my way. Well, here we are three years into parenthood and we have survived the “terrible twos.” But since becoming a parent I have learned that it’s not actually the terrible twos that are the real challenge, it’s the terrible threes! Two-year-olds definitely come with some frustrations, but three-year-olds know how to argue, negotiate, bargain, manipulate, and they can be bossy. I guess we will be able to determine whether 2-year-olds or 3-year-olds are more challenging for us as we celebrated our trio's 3rd birthday this past Tuesday, so we officially have three 3-year-olds in our family.

Three-Year-Old Stats

WEIGHT

Alexis: 26 lbs 3 oz (gained 3 lbs 9 oz in last year)

Jack: 24 lbs 10 oz (gained 3 lbs 2 0z in last year) 

Faith: 26 lbs 3 oz (gained 3 lbs 14 oz in last year)

HEIGHT

Alexis: 37.25 (+2.75 inches in last year)

Faith: 37.5 (+3 inches in last year)

Jack: 35 (+2.5 inches in last year)

Teeth: Woohoo, all of their baby teeth are in! We are so glad to have teething behind us!

Size clothes: The girls are mostly in 3T tops and bottoms, although some of the bottoms still fit from last year even though they are 2T since the length doesn't matter. Jack still fits pretty well in 2T, but he is also wearing some 3T (I didn't realize how little he would still be this summer so I got rid of some of his 2T clothes already!).

Eating: Our kids continue to be picky eaters, although Jack is the pickiest as he mostly eats fig bars, PB&J, and animal crackers. He will eat most fruit, he likes yogurt and cheese most of the time, and he likes some meat like chicken nuggets and meatballs. It’s almost impossible to get him to eat veggies. The girls will try most things but they don’t necessarily eat very much of it. Most meals Jack only sits for a few minutes and then he loses interest, although we try our best to get him to sit and eat, but the girls are willing to sit and eat their food. We still rely on sippy cups most of the time mainly because they are “spill proof,” but all three kids are completely able to drink from open cups and straw cups.

Naps: Naps are completely unpredictable, so I've started to call it "quiet time." This has helped me since I have accepted the fact that at least one child probably won't nap, and I'm happy if I get 45 minutes to myself. Jack naps about 95% percent of the time for about 1.5-2 hours. Faith and Alexis seem to take turns not napping, and some days both don't sleep. About once every 2 weeks all three nap, which is amazing when it happens. I usually don't let them sleep past 3:00 (or 3:30 if they lay down late) as it ruins bedtime if they nap too long.

Bedtime: Big changes have happened over here and it has been good for everyone. The girls were having a really hard time settling down and going to sleep since they were sharing a room and they were in toddler beds, so they weren't contained (imagine two toddlers running around screaming and giggling in the dark...one night it ended in a black eye). So a couple of months ago we officially moved Alexis' bed to the guest room and we have all been sleeping so much better. Not only do the girls fall asleep much more quickly than they did before, they also tend to sleep longer in the morning! Most days everyone sleeps until 7:00, but some mornings one or two kids sleep until 8:00. This is a big difference in our schedule as in the past the girls were up by 6:00 or 6:30 at the latest and Jack was up at 7:00. Now if only we could get to bed on time to maximize our sleep!

Words: All three kids talk in full sentences and sometimes they tell stories. For the most part the girls talk more often and are a little more clear than Jack, but I think that comes down to a boy / girl difference more than language skills. They use new words all of the time, and they like to ask us to name things for them if they don’t know what it’s called. Here are some things they have said recently:

Faith:

• “Mommy I like you, but I miss Daddy.” (One random weekday when Micah was at work)
• “What happened to that beetle, [Hand on my arm] did it have an accident?” (After I smashed a very large beetle that walked into our house twice in 10 minutes)
• “No one is saying hi to me.” (When I was pushing the triple cart around Target. The kids are used to getting a lot of attention when we are out.)
• “Do you put juice in it? Do you put apple juice in it?” (While eating super juicy watermelon)
• “Jackie’s like, ‘where my people?’”(When the girls and I were driving back to the hospital in the morning when Jack spent the night for his treatment)

Jack:

• “I'm going to be a mommy because I'm going to drive a car and I like your purse” (He wants to grow up quickly)
• “Some day, I'm going to be big and you're going to be little and I'm going to mow and you're going to watch.” (After watching me mow the backyard and wishing he was doing it himself)
• “Some day I'm going to drive a Jeep, you're going to drive a Jeep [to grandpa], and Daddy's going to drive a Jeep.” (When at breakfast with Grandpa Howard and Micah)
• “I like your phone [keys, purse, car, etc.]” (He tells us he likes our things as he hopes we will give it to him)
• “I'm making a garden for you mom. I'm a man [while touching his chest].” (Playing in the backyard and pretending to garden)

Alexis:

• “No, I'm not cute, I'm beautiful!” (In response to me telling her she was cute)
• “You're not the best reader.” (To Micah when she was trying to get me to read instead of him)
• “Are we there yet?” (About 5 minutes into our 4 hour road trip and every 10 minutes after that) 
• “Did you know Daddy is a genius of the world...tall, tall, tall.” (I’m not sure what she thinks genius means…)
• “I don't have to hold your hand, I'm big and strong and healthy.” (When walking down the stairs at our house)
• “Daddy is my father and you are my child.” (Random comment when I was tucking her in at night)

New Things: 

• They insist on climbing into their car seats, which takes a lot of patience from us as they don’t always move quickly and we are usually in a hurry.
• They can walk in and out of stores, church, or anywhere we need to go without using the wagon even if I’m the only adult.
• They love to play pretending games with each other on a daily basis. I enjoy being a spectator and listening to the ideas they come up with. Many of their games are inspired by “Daniel Tiger” episodes, and I’m not sure if this is good or bad, but their imaginations take off from there and their games last longer than an episode from the show.
• They like to know their “choices” for meals and snacks, and they pick from there. This is something I dreamed of when they were younger as it gets tiring deciding on everything a person eats when you don’t know if they really want to eat it.
• They are good at consoling each other when someone is sad or scared. They will say reassuring words, give hugs, and they show empathy.
• They love attention and they seem to get into “attention competitions” when other adults are around. They’ll take turns saying, “Watch this!” and then one of them will do something to get praise, such as a dance move, a jump, etc.
• Everything we do seems to require a timer being set. Whether it’s taking turns with a special toy, leaving a park, or going upstairs for quiet time, everyone is much more cooperative if there is an alarm going off. I’m glad this is working as it’s less work for me and the kids seem to understand that when the timer goes off it’s not negotiable. Most of the time they ask me to set the timer, which is handy since I don’t always think of it.

Current Schedule:

In some ways I feel like I’m becoming less efficient and maybe a bit lazy as our kids get older. I used to have to adhere to a strict schedule so that all three babes were relatively happy and so that I could get everything done during a day. Now there isn’t quite as much physical work to get done, but there is a lot more time spent convincing the kids to do things such as get dressed, eat a meal, get in the car, etc., so I still feel exhausted. Our schedule has become so simple as opposed to the early days with triplet babies. And we are so much more flexible as the kids are able to handle changes in the schedule, plus there is simply less than needs to get done in a day. Our general schedule is as follows, but it can change quite a bit from day-to-day:

7:00-8:00 Kids wake up

8:00 Breakfast

8:30 Clean up the kitchen and help the kids get dressed

9:00 Kids watch a show while I shower and get ready

9:30 Leave our house

9:45-11:45 Botanic Garden, Zoo, Park, or errands (morning snack while out)

12:00 Lunch

1:00-3:00 Quiet Time / Nap (I clean up the kitchen, pick up toys, check my email, and try to get something done off of my To Do list, but most of the time a child is downstairs with me since they didn’t fall asleep so this is a challenge)

3:00 Kids watch a show while they wake up from a nap as they tend to be cranky after sleeping

3:30 Play outside or go to a park (afternoon snack)

5:00 I make dinner

5:30 Eat dinner (as soon as Micah gets home)

6:00 Play at home

7:00 Change into PJ’s, snack, read

7:45 Brush teeth

8:00 All in their rooms ready to be tucked in. We now go around to each room to tuck in each kid individually as it became too chaotic to do this with the other kids in tow. They seem to enjoy waiting for us to come in while looking at books or playing with toys in their room.

No more carrying three babes up and down the stairs multiple times a day for naps. No more crazy feeding schedule to make sure all three get enough calories. No more scheduled diaper changes since 2 of the 3 are mostly potty trained. When our kids were tiny I dreamed of a simple schedule like this one, and now it is here.

Hello Preschoolers:

During this next year the kids will, hopefully, all be 100% potty trained. They will start preschool two mornings a week in the fall, which will be strange for me since I currently spend most of my time with them. And they will learn many new skills throughout the year. We are truly saying good-bye to the baby days and hello to our preschool days as our kids enter their fourth year of life.