New House, Visitors, and Lots of Cuteness

We have now been in our new house for a little over three weeks and it still feels like we are trying to get settled. Micah and I both don't have much patience for chaos (I know you all must be laughing at us for having triplets with that comment!), so we get a bit stressed when things aren't working properly or aren't in the right place. Although this house was built in 2000 and doesn't need anything major done, we have lots of little projects that add up so we have been spending as much time as possible getting things checked off our list. Things have also been added to the list since we got here as this house was not as clean as it first appeared. I spent over 8 hours scrubbing the laminate flooring in the kitchen with a metal brush to get the years of grime out of the cracks...it looks great now but definitely an unexpected task. So needless to say we are worn out and ready to feel more settled.

The grout in our master bathroom should really be white. It's not perfect yet, but the part on the left is how it started...black.

Dirt caked laminate floor

Evening #1 of 4 scrubbing the floor after the babies went to bed. I did end up using a bigger brush than that the other three nights, but it still took a very long time.

Although we have been busy getting things done so our house is more comfortable for us, we have still been enjoying our new space. We moved just in time for the babies as they needed more room to roam, and I am enjoying the extra space all over the house! Although I can't wait until everything is "done," it is a great layout for our family and we are enjoying the neighborhood as well.

Lots of room in the hallway by the bedrooms upstairs for us to spread everything out during bath time

Jack's room (it's actually a big room but there's not much in it right now)

The girls room. I decided to put their cribs on an angle in the corners which I really like. Now we need to fill up this space more as well (there's a lot of room not showing in the pic). 

The loft upstairs which has been a great feeding and diaper changing area. I love that we no longer have three bottle warmers in the kitchen and the rock n plays are upstairs out of sight since they only use them for feedings now. It's also convenient to have everything upstairs since they drink bottles after waking up from naps and night time.

The family room / play area (before the cords were put in the wall). We love all of this space and we are storing all of the toys on the shelves in the wall.

Playing on the grass at the park by our house (a 2 minute walk!)

Lexi in the swing at the park by our house

Faith and Jack sharing a swing at the park by our house

Jack enjoying the double swing. We won't be able to do this forever, but it works great now since there's only two swings at the park.

Two weekends ago my friend Katie came for a visit while Micah went climbing (he's training for a Yosemite trip in May). We had a great time and the visit was definitely too short. Katie is always a great help as she enjoys getting things checked off my list almost as much as I do, and we have a lot of fun even though we spend most of the time doing work around the house. Her last visit was in September when the trio was 3 months old (1 month adjusted) so they have changed tremendously since then. Last time they were just starting to smile but now that they are very interactive it is obvious that Alexis, Jack, and Faith all love Katie! We can't wait for her next visit, but I'm hoping to make a trip out to visit her this summer alone...crazy to think about!

Katie helped me make my first batches of baby food! This is the sweet potatoes. 

I had heard about the mesh feeders so Katie and I decided to buy them and try them out. Everyone LOVES eating out of them. So far they have fed themselves banana, avocado, and pear without me worrying about choking.

Katie with Alexis, Jack, and Faith (left to right)

Me with Jack, Alexis, and Faith (left to right)

Me making sure Jack and Alexis don't fall backwards while sitting (they are getting much better at this every day!) while I catch Faith falling. I am a great multi-tasker :).

Micah's parents came last weekend and they worked their tails off getting things done around the house for us. Micah and his dad:

• moved the electrical wiring so that it is behind our TV in the wall (baby proofing) which included cutting two large holes in the drywall and then patching them
• put knobs and pulls on our kitchen cabinets and drawers
• put shelves up in the garage (which Karen spent time staining)
• changed the pipe for the cold water supply line (something that came up in our inspection)
• put in a new water heater (not from the inspection but since they were messing with the water anyway and it was an old, small heater we decided to go for it)
• painted part of the garage white since it was a dark shade of blue that made the garage feel smaller (Karen actually helped Micah with this one)
• changed out the shower head since the one in our shower leaked
• and I'm sure there's more I missed...

And that list doesn't even include the stuff Karen and I completed (cleaning a disgusting oven, cleaning carpet along the walls that hasn't been cleaned in years, other misc cleaning like washing random dirt and food off the walls, putting up a family photo wall, and of course taking care of the babies all weekend while the guys worked on the more technical projects).  It was a very busy 2 1/2 days and I am so thankful that they live close enough to come down and help as they are both very hard workers!

The cords are gone! We are all super excited! L to R: me :), Alexis, Faith, and Jack. They wouldn't sit still so I had to join them in the pic.

And through all of this the babies have continued to be super cute. Although we are having some problems with the girls sleeping through the night (trying to figure out why...teething, increase in solids, too cold in their room, trying to crawl, hungry because not drinking as much due to eating solids, etc??), during the day they are great babies and I tend to forget the difficulty they give me at night :). Here are some recent pics.

Jack after a bath

Faith testing out the hiking backpack and loving it (and Jack smiling in the background)

Lexi sitting in the third row of our 4Runner with me while the other two drank their bottles (on a climbing outing)

Jack napping in Val's arms during a climbing trip (and sucking his thumb which he usually does while he sleeps)

Faith after a meal

Jack in our backyard

Faith in our backyard

Alexis in our backyard refusing to stay on the quilt

Faith (middle) doing her newest pose. Maybe she'll be able to get to a sitting position by herself soon.

Jack and Alexis in the Costco cart back at the car after our successful first solo trip

Alexis rolling all over the place. The play area isn't big enough for her :).

9 Months (in the midst of getting settled in our new house)!

Since moving out to Colorado in January 2003 I have moved eight times, but this move has definitely been the most challenging. Considering the fact that I am trying to take care of three babies while moving and getting settled I guess that statement is obvious, but it is more than just baby care that has made it more difficult. While Micah has always been in charge of taking apart and setting up furniture, taking shelves and stuff off the walls and patching holes, moving the heavy things, setting up the computers, and doing anything that requires a power tool, I have always been the one to organize the kitchen, the bathrooms, our bedroom, and the living room. This time, though, I also set up the family room/ play area, two bedrooms for the babies, and the loft area which we're currently using a bottle feeding / diaper changing area. Believe me when I say I'm not complaining about having more house, but in the past things went from the old living room to the new living room and so on, but this time I have decide where everything should go as there are so many more options! Although almost all of the boxes have been unpacked, we still have a bit of work to do before we will feel "settled," so I will post some pics of our new house in the next week or two as we get a few things checked off our list.

Usually I kind of put life on hold while I move and get settled as I can't stand living in chaos, but I guess the babes missed the memo as they have continued to reach milestones and somehow they are already 9 months old!! It's good that they have been thriving through the move, and it's a reminder to me to stop, take a break from unpacking and organizing, and enjoy the time I have with the babies every day. Here is their 9 month update.

How old? 9 months

Our weights: 
Alexis: 14 lbs 5.5 oz (+ 1 lb 3.5 oz from last month! She has caught up since her sickness!) Jack: 15 lbs 1 oz (+ 13 oz from last month) Faith: 14 lbs 5.5 oz (+ 13.5 oz from last month and exactly the same weight as Alexis!)

Size clothes: The girls have outgrown most of their 6 month clothes and are moving onto 9 month.  Jack is wearing 6 month pants and 9 month tops. Everyone is in 9 month pajamas.

Eating schedule: Up until two days ago, everyone was still getting 5 bottles a day and we were still feeding every 3 hours (same schedule as last month), but I decided it was time to add another solids feeding and drop a bottle so now we are on day #2 of four bottles (around 7:00, 11:00, 3:00, and 7:00) and solids about halfway between each bottle (9:00, 12:30, 5:00). For some reason I always seem to change their schedule around their monthly birthdays, but I guess that's when I realize they are growing up and need a change. Although I'm still doing seven feedings a day between bottles and solids, I am very excited that everyone has now taken an interest in eating solids as this is extremely important for their development. Plus, dropping a bottle is huge as it means we don't need as much formula (saves money, time making formula, less bottles to wash, and so on!).

Naps: I am so thankful that the babies are finally in a great nap routine! The morning nap is about an hour long and the afternoon nap is between 2-2.5 hours long (we'll see how this goes with our new schedule but I'm hopeful it will stick). This is amazing for me as they are consistently napping for the same time period, which means I can get a lot more done and even get a little "break" in during the day! These naps have been a lifesaver during the move. In the past I felt like I needed to do so much around the house while trying to interact with one or more babies, so now that they are sleeping at the same time I feel like I can be present with all of them while they are awake and focused on stuff around the house while they are asleep. So much better for everyone! Faith sleeps in the guest room during naps so that everyone has their own room as sometimes they don't fall asleep right away and would keep each other up if in the same room.

Bedtime: Most nights bedtime goes very smoothly. They go to bed right after their last bottle and although sometimes we need to give the girls their pacifiers, it doesn't take them long to fall asleep. We have never rocked the babies to sleep since we didn't have enough arms to rock everyone at once, so they are great at falling asleep on their own. So thankful for this as well! Since we moved on Saturday the girls have been sharing a room and they are not waking each other up at night. Jack has his own room now and I'm not sure if he's noticed this change or not, but it feels a bit strange putting him in his own room every night after putting three babies in one small room for the first 7 months they were home.

Night Sleep:  I don't know if nights have really gotten better or if we are just really used to waking up, but since our move things seem to have improved. Maybe it's because every little noise doesn't wake us up since our bedroom is further from their rooms? Regardless, the girls have only ended up in our bed a couple of times in the last week and they seem to be getting better at self-soothing (they can both put their own pacifiers in their mouths which is really helpful). Jack still sleeps through the night most of the time.

Favorite foods:  I have not been very consistent with feeding them solids due to our move, but they also haven't given any negative reactions to any of the purees I've fed them. They all really enjoy the Little Yums teething wafers as they can feed themselves and I think they enjoy munching instead of just swallowing the purees. I was hoping to do Baby Led Weaning (feed them more table food than purees), but I've realized it makes me super nervous and I find it hard to watch three babies eating at the same time to make sure they're not choking. I received some great advice from a friend on adding variety to their diets, instead of just the store bought purees, so we will be trying a lot in the upcoming month! One thing they all seem to enjoy that isn't necessarily "baby food" is yogurt. I just buy the plain stuff and mix in a little baby food to give it flavor. I have made yogurt in the past too, so I'll probably be doing that again soon.

Our likes? Pretty much the same as last month, but they have also taken a real interest in our cat. Every time she walks in the room all three focus on her and watch her every move. It's quite funny to watch, but I am a little nervous for when all are truly mobile as I'm sure they will be grabbing at her and she's not very tolerant of stuff like that. They all really like to grab at and touch each other (feet, hands, ears, heads...).

Our dislikes? On the flip side, all three get really upset when another baby is touching them! Once in awhile they'll tolerate, but not for long. Faith gets really mad when we wash her face after she eats. Luckily she's the cleanest eater so she doesn't require as much clean up. Lately we've been having a pacifier stealing problem. Both girls love their pacis and they have no problem grabbing a pacifier out of one another's mouth and putting it in their own (kind of hard for me to watch as a germ-a-phobe!). This really upsets the girl that had the paci originally, so I've got to figure out someway to deal with this as they now can scoot and roll to each other to steal the pacis...

Our favorite games/toys? All three have taken much more of an interest in toys now. They love the rock n stack (rings on the stick that they can take off), anything that plays music or lights up, or anything that they can chew on (which is any toy or anything else they find).
 
Our milestones? Everyone can now sit for an extended period of time, although no one has figured out how to catch themselves when truly falling so I usually have a Boppy around them if I'm not right there. All three pivot when on their bellies and Lexi loves to roll all over the place. Faith is scooting wherever she wants to go. It's still not fast (or necessarily efficient) but she can move when she sees something she wants! Jack cut his first tooth! Still no teeth for the girls but they are constantly drooling and sucking / chewing on things so I'm guessing by next month they'll have at least one tooth as well.

Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile? Their babbling is adorable. We can't get enough of their giggles. We love to watch Faith scoot around. It's also fun to feed them solids now that they are all actually eating it. This has just been a fun age.


Our Pictures:


ALEXIS

JACK 

He was distracted by Faith playing

 





FAITH 

She was distracted by Jack playing

ALL TOGETHER (left to right: A, J, F)

At least it was a graceful landing!

It's a little harder to get a cute pic on their backs these days as all they want to do is roll over and move around! Or touch each other. For those that think our babies are always smiling, here's evidence that they're not ;).