Alexis, Jack, and Faith turned 4.5-years-old on December 7th and I've decided it's time to write an update post on them since lately most of my posts are about Graham. Getting my thoughts together for this post, and writing a post about Graham turning 8-months-old on December 22 before actually getting around to writing this post, reminded me just how difficult it is to write about three kids at once. Writing about Graham is fairly simple since I only have to keep notes on one baby, I don't have to try to make it "fair" by writing the same amount for multiple children, and I don't have to work hard to keep the posts short since there isn't as much to say about one baby as there is about three. And I suppose I could write about each child separately, but quite frankly they are so similar in their activities and such that it just makes more sense to do one post, plus I think most people find their interactions with one another interesting since they are triplets. (Anyone sensing 'triplet mommy guilt' here? I don't think that will ever go away for me!). Anyway, I'm sure there is plenty more I could write about with our trio, but I'm this post is long enough. Enjoy!
- Height and Weight...
- Alexis: 41 inches, 31.5 lbs (+1.5 inches and 1.5 lbs in last six months)
- Jack: 39.5 inches, 29.5 lbs (+1.25 inches and 2.5 lbs in the last six months)
- Faith: 42.25 inches, 33 lbs (+1.5 inches and 3 lbs in the last six months)
- Interestingly, the difference between the kids' heights continues to be about the same as they all grow at the same rate.
- Swim Lessons: In mid-August we enrolled the kids in swim lessons for 30 minutes a week at a local, indoor swim school. For the most part it's going well, although Faith gives me some resistance in the morning before we leave since she gets nervous about who will be her teacher, and the resistance is contagious so I'm usually convincing all three to get out the door. Our kids definitely like when things are predictable, which I can relate to, so the fact that the swim teacher changes each week is hard for them to accept. Once they get in the pool, though, they are fine and they seem to enjoy it. They get split into groups of three kids per teacher each week depending on what skill they are working on, and sometimes they are together and sometimes they are separated. Being separated does sometimes make them a little sad as they seem to have more fun when together, but mostly they are okay with it.
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| One of their first swim classes when all three were with the same teacher |
- Preschool: In September the kids started Pre-K 4's. Last year they went to school two mornings a week for 3 hours and there were 10 kids in the class. This year they are going to school three mornings a week for four hours and there are 16 kids in the class, so twice as many hours per week and a lot more kids in the class. Last year it took several months for all three kids to be comfortable being dropped off at school, but this year we have had zero issues! They seem to be slowly making new friends and, although it has taken some time, they are becoming okay with being separated for lunch (different tables in the classroom) and other activities at school. They are all learning so much too! They know almost all of their letters and numbers 1 through 9. They surprise us all of the time with things they know from school.
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| This was the first year we could do an ornament advent calendar as the kids understood the concept of opening one door per day. The 'line leader' for the day got to open the door, and they were able to find the correct number by themselves as long as I told them to look for 2 3, as opposed to 23, for the two digit numbers. They loved this. |
- Kindergarten Decision: Technically they could go to Kindergarten next year as they will be 5-years-old in June and the cutoff is September 1st, and we started this year of preschool thinking that they most likely would go to Kindergarten next year. But after giving it a lot of thought, watching their preschool interactions, and talking to people who have experience and knowledge with this decision, we have decided to wait a year. Academically I believe they would all be ready for Kindergarten next year, but I'm more concerned with the social aspect. Since Jack is more reserved and very small (11th percentile for height and not even on the chart for weight), we believe it will be to his advantage to wait another year. Although the girls might be more ready socially and size-wise, another year definitely won't hurt them in the long run. On top of the social aspect, as their mom I didn't feel ready to send them to school from 8:00-2:00 five days a week. I enjoy doing things with them such as visiting the zoo, which we won't have as much time for once they are in elementary school, and I also have peace of mind knowing that we are their biggest influence in their lives right now since we spend the most time with them. The world can be a scary place, and keeping them home with me for another year (besides going to preschool a few mornings a week) feels like the right decision.
- Art: There is a constant stream of art at our house. All three kids spend a lot of time drawing, painting, coloring, and cutting. I love seeing all of their art, but I have to admit that some days I feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the paper being used and I can't possibly keep every creation, so most of it gets recycled. I do take pictures of the really good stuff, and I keep some of the things that really strike me. Their drawing has really improved over the last few months, thanks to preschool, as their teacher has been teaching them to think about objects in terms of shapes. Their people are becoming more life-like and less like Mr. Potato Heads with arms and legs sticking out of their heads. They each have their own small notebooks to draw and write in, and we have gone through several per kid as they fill them up quickly. I hope they continue to love creating things for years to come.
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| Alexis showing off her cutting job |
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| We made a black and orange chain for Halloween and decorated with "ghosts." First I made a few ghosts for the kids to draw faces on, and then they went crazy cutting out and adding ghosts all over the chain. There were about 50 total! |
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| My parents gave the kids butterfly stencils and Faith said this was great grandma, grandma, and me |
Family pictures from school before they started drawing bodies on people, but I love how they each drew our family so well.
Pictures of people that Jack (blue) and Faith (pink) drew recently:
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| Drawing and spelling "boo" on the driveway for Halloween |
- Books: Thankfully, all three kids still love books. I have given up on any sort of 'quiet time' at our house as it was more of a battle than it was worth for me, but when I need a little peace and quiet because things are getting too rowdy, or I need to feed Graham and he is simply too distracted by the commotion, I tell everyone to grab a book and read and it works great.
- Playing Together: Alexis, Jack, and Faith still spend a lot of time playing together, although sometimes only two will want to play outside in the backyard and the third will want to stay inside with me (usually one of the girls wants to stay inside). They definitely have their fair share of fighting and annoying each other, especially when they have different ideas on how to play with their toys and such, but they can go quite a long time playing well together. They are lucky to have constant playmates at home! Just recently they have also been able to play board games by themselves, such as Hi Ho Cherry O! This feels like quite the milestone.
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| Lined up for a photo with their stuffed animals (F, J, A) |
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| Alexis posing with Faith's husky next to a tower she built. Faith took this photo. They love to use my phone to capture photos of each other, and this has come in handy when I want photos of me too! |
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| Backyard play. We love our sunny days! |
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| Playing a "sleeping" game |
- Favorite Toys: Their favorite toys continue to be their magnet tiles, their Hot Wheels cars, and their larger plastic trucks. They love to build garages out of their tiles for their cars, and then the larger trucks take on the roles of mommy and daddy and drive around the small cars. I don't really follow their games closely, but I think that's the gist of what they are doing.
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| I can't believe I don't have photos of the garages that the kids create, but here is a spaceship that Jack made from the magnet tiles |
- Growing Independence: In their 4-year blog post I wrote that Alexis, Jack, and Faith were becoming more independent, and thankfully this has continued. Alexis can unbuckle herself and her siblings from their car seats, which is great as it's a pain to climb into the back of the car to unbuckle them. It's pretty hard to buckle the car seats since we have the straps tight (as they should be for safety!), but all three buckle their own chest clips and Alexis is able to get in one of the bottom buckles. I think as they grow a little bigger and stronger all three will be able to do their car seats by themselves which will be amazing. Lately they have been very into picking out their own clothes, many days before I even ask them to do so (especially Jack as he doesn't like to hang out in his PJ's as long as the girls). I have to admit that I've had to let go of outfits that go together and having the girls coordinate, although most of the time the outfits are fine and the girls choose to coordinate. They can put on their underwear, pants, socks, and shoes 100% by themselves, and they are learning how to put on their own shirts too (until recently I've been handing it to them the correct direction and then they put it on). They also have been taking the initiative in finding their own snacks and opening packages by themselves (they really love it when they get to use their scissors to open things). All of these things probably seem small, but to me they are huge since I went from having three kids that needed me (or someone else) to do EVERYTHING for them, and now I don't have to think about and do all of these small tasks every day.
- Size Difference: The height difference between Alexis, Jack, and Faith is quite obvious, and they've heard us talking about it for various reasons so they've picked up on it. For example, when people ask how I tell the girls apart I say it's easy for me (which is true!), but one way for others to tell them apart is that Faith is taller. We also have a measuring stick on our wall for tracking their height, so they can see with their own eyes who is the tallest and shortest. So far Jack doesn't mind being the shortest, but this might really frustrate him later in life. The one thing that did bother him, though, was that the girls quite often made comments about him being the littlest and youngest, so one day I decided to set the record straight....
- Birth Order: We decided early on never to make a big deal out of their birth order. People LOVE to ask who is the oldest, but I always think that is the dumbest question because I had a c-section and they were all 1 minute apart, and the order was dependent on who's limb was the closest to the incision (sorry if that's graphic but it's true!). I didn't want them thinking they were better or worse than each other because one was born a full minute before the other as it's obviously silly. But one day when the girls were talking about how Faith was the oldest (their logic since she is the tallest) and Jack is the youngest because he's the shortest, I said, "Actually that's not right. Alexis was born first, Jack was born second, and Faith was born third." I then went onto explain that height has nothing to do with age and I gave them examples like their cousin Brayden is taller than me but he's only 12, which is much younger than me. After we talked about many different people like that, it finally clicked! Since then they have not made any comments about Jack being the youngest, and in fact they love to tell people, "Faith is the tallest but Alexis is the oldest." Facts solve so many problems, but I'm so glad that we waited to tell them their birth order until they could truly understand what it meant since it now solved a problem instead of created a problem. Plus, Graham is truly the youngest in our family now, so Faith didn't get upset about being the 'baby' of the family.
- Dentist: It's amazing how big of a difference 6 months makes when it comes to dentist visits. When we went to the dentist in April it was a nightmare for the girls, and especially for Faith, as they were terrified. Alexis let them do a little cleaning, but Faith wouldn't even sit in the chair and she panicked when the dentist came to look at her teeth. In October, though, I took the kids to the dentist by myself (Micah had always come along before since it was such a battle) and I had ZERO ISSUES. They all happily sat in the chair for a cleaning, had x-rays taken, and sat in the chair for the dentist to look at their teeth. Wow. I was amazed. The only terrible part was that now that we had x-rays the dentist saw several cavities in between Jack's teeth that he wasn't able to see before, which meant I had to take Jack back two more times for a cap and fillings. Thankfully I was able to leave the girls behind for both appointments so I could focus on Jack, while Graham slept in the Ergo for most of it. It was a miserable process as it took so long, especially once Jack started panicking about the whole thing, but we made it through and we are trying to take better care of his teeth going forward. Unfortunately it seems that his issues are genetic or possibly from being premature as the girls had zero cavities each.
- Chipped Tooth: Unfortunately for Jack, right around the same time that he had the three dentist visits for his exam and fillings / cap, he also fell hard while running down the sidewalk and hit his two front teeth. One was chipped pretty badly and both are turning grey. Although the dentist recommended that we get both teeth pulled by an oral surgeon so that they don't get infected, we decided to wait since they didn't seem to be causing him much pain after the initial few days. Sadly, he has bonked those same teeth a couple of other times since then, which is scary since it hurts and they bleed a lot, but so far he still has his teeth.
- Movies are Scary: Most kids LOVE to watch movies and we have been looking forward to watching movies with the kids as they get older, BUT our kids are scared of movies!! Jack is okay with most of them, but the girls are convinced that movies such as Trolls and The Polar Express are going to give them nightmares, and when we turn the movies on they cry and whine. It's so frustrating since most kids their age love movies and we'd enjoy cuddling on the couch and watching some of these with them, but instead they just want to watch shows such as Chuggington and Curious George. Maybe in the next year this will change.
- Climbing: For awhile we were taking the kids to the climbing gym on a semi-regular basis, but then we got busy and it hasn't happened in awhile. Alexis is absolutely fearless when it comes to climbing and she will climb on the boulder, up the wall on top rope, and she even enjoys the auto belay. Faith will climb on the boulder and the top rope. Jack will climb up the boulder, but he is quite fearful of getting above our heads on top rope, so he's only made it to the top a few times with a lot of convincing. We hope to take the kids to the gym more in the future, but it's really challenging to take them all at the same time since someone has to be watching / holding Graham so only one adult to belay and monitor the other kids. It will get easier as they get older, but right now they just don't understand enough about climbing safety and they don't have a lot of patience when it comes to waiting for their turn to climb.
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| Alexis climbing to the top of a play structure with Faith below her |
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| Jack on the boulder at the gym |
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| Jack climbing outside |
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| Alexis climbing outside |
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| Faith climbing outside |
- Running: The kids have noticed that Micah and I enjoy running, so they have started asking to run with us. Many times before or after our run we will take one, two, or all three with us to "run" in the neighborhood. We've realized, though, that the main reason they want to run is because they want to drink the "blue juice" (aka blue Gatorade) that Daddy drinks after his runs. Oh well. It's still fun to introduce them to running as we hope that they enjoy running as much as we do someday.
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| Alexis and Faith running down the trail by our house |
- Pull Ups: One night when we were getting the kids ready for bed Micah showed the kids what a pull up is on Jack's bunk beds. Since that evening the kids have made 'pull ups' a part of their bedtime routine, which isn't necessarily what Micah was aiming for as it makes it difficult to get all of their teeth brushed and get them into bed! But, surprisingly, they are all getting stronger and they might be able to do a pull up in the next few months. Of course, Micah told them that when one of them can do a pull up from a dead hang he will take them out for ice cream, so now they have made this their mission!
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| Jack doing a 'pull up' before bed |
- Food: Faith has become our most willing and least picky eater. Alexis has become more picky over the last few months, and she no longer wants to eat things that she enjoyed before, like Bunny mac n cheese. Jack continues to be the pickiest and most reluctant eater, and we still end up feeding him bites during some meals. I'm not sure why he isn't very interested in eating at home, but most of the time he just seems distracted and says that it 'takes too long to eat' (although we constantly try to explain to him that it wouldn't take so long if he just ate the food and got it over with!). Recently I've realized that Jack does not like to eat outside of our house, unless it's a snack from our house. The kids eat lunch at school, and for the most part he finishes that, although I don't send very much food. The kids also eat a morning snack at school which is provided by a different classmate each day, but Jack pretty much refuses to eat that so I've worked it out with his teacher that he has to try a bite of the snack provided and if he doesn't like it he can have a fig bar (he has a stash at school that the teacher keeps for him). The only reason I send a different snack is because he is so tiny and needs all of the calories he can get each day, otherwise I would make him learn to eat the other snacks. I also have to admit that I can relate to him as I did not like eating at school or other people's houses when I was a kid (maybe that sounds weird and I'm not sure what the root of the issue was, but I know I felt uncomfortable).
- Drama Mamas: Yikes. People think 2-year-olds are hard, but most people don't get to experience two 4-year-old girls at once! I was told that it would get easier once the kids turned 4, but once again that was from people that didn't have girls, let alone multiples. I'm not trying to be stereotypical as I know that each child is different but, from talking to my friends that have girls and boys, it seems that most believe girls are a little more difficult than boys when it comes to the emotional rollercoaster. These girls can turn on the tears in an instant. They are sad, happy, mad, ecstatic, and somewhere in between in a matter of minutes. It's really hard to keep up and some days I simply don't know what to do. Alexis and Faith definitely build off of each other's emotions too, so everything is amplified. I guess I just need to sit back and hang on as it's only going to get more intense as they get older, especially when we hit the pre-teen and teen years. Jack can be emotional too, but I never feel overwhelmed by his emotions as there is just something different about it that's hard to explain.
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| Faith crying real tears after I told the kids I was going to the climbing gym when Daddy got home. The reality is that they don't care at all when I leave for awhile, but thinking about it has her in tears... |
- Big Siblings: All three are amazing big siblings to Graham. They rarely act jealous of the attention we give him, although the other day Faith did ask me if I loved him more than them which was little heartbreaking, but as soon as I stopped and talked to her about that question she started giggling so she may have just been looking for my reaction. They all love to give Graham hugs, make him laugh, and entertain him with toys. They have shown a little frustration with him recently since he's now mobile and can interrupt their play by getting into their toys, but they just need to learn to play where he can't get to them which will take a little time.
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| Everyone always wants to hold Graham for the photos. Posing at the Botanic Garden this fall (J, F, G, A) |
So there's a synopsis of our 4.5-year-olds, although I think this ended up being more of a novel than a synopsis. Being a mom of triplets definitely has its challenges, but I'm so thankful that I get to be the mom of these three amazing kids, and that I get a front-row seat to watching triplets grow up since it is such a unique experience.
Here are some extra photos from the past six months:
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| Faith sleeping with her animals |
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| Alexis sleeping with her animals |
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| Jack driving the ATV at Grammy and Grandpa's house |
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| Faith |
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| Alexis |
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| With Grandpa and Grandma (J, G, A, F) |
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| Enjoying suckers after school, which was their reward for finishing their lunch |
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| I took all three kids to the shoe store to pick out their own shoes for the first time ever (two separate trips as I couldn't manage the chaos of all three choosing shoes at the same time). Alexis' light up shoes weren't my first choice, but she continues to be so proud of them and she shows them off to everyone. |
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| The kids' first time apple picking (A, F, J) |
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| Ready for church (A, J, F) |
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| Shoes were a nightmare for me since our mudroom / laundry room is tiny, and I knew that when Graham became mobile he would get into the shoes around the house. I bought this bench with baskets for the kids so that they each have their own basket for their shoes, which has been a great solution. The kids "helped" me put it together, and I think they were impressed that I could build something! Now I wish I would have found something with four baskets, though, as it won't be long before Graham wears shoes too! |
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| Posing for a photo on a short hike in the foothills |
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| Halloween when Grandpa and Grandma were in town |
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| Jack wore a different costume for trick or treating than he did for the trunk or treating above |
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| There weren't many leaves in our backyard for awhile, but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast |
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| They were great Christmas tree decorators this year |
