Farewell, Big Red Triple Stroller

On Saturday I was driving home on Tramway and I saw our old triple stroller! I sold it to a fellow triplet mom over 5 months ago. Although I've seen photos of it on Facebook, this was the first time I saw it being used by the new family in person. I'm so happy that the stroller found a good home since I enjoyed it so much while we had it.

The big red triple stroller is quite possibly the only baby item I've sold that I've gotten teary over. Perhaps it was the hormones from this current pregnancy that added to my feeling sentimental, but for me that stroller meant independence with three babies.

I bought the stroller off of Craigslist when our babes were about 4 months old, and before that the only way I could leave the house alone with them was to put one babe in a carrier and push two in a stroller. This stroller also meant I could run while pushing the babes, which was a dream come true for me!

Unfortunately this stroller was too big to fit in our car, especially after Micah accidentally backed into it and the frame snapped only 6 months after we bought it (so we could no longer fold it). But, thankfully, he was able to fix it with zip ties so we could still use it! I was happy to have it just for walks and such from our house, though, as it would be pretty big to use in public spaces anyway.

We went on too many walks and runs to count with this stroller, especially during the summer of 2014 after our trio's first birthday. They were very content sitting in the stroller at this age and I really enjoyed the exercise and fresh air. I also often pushed our babes the 1+ mile uphill to the grocery store, grabbed a few things that fit in the basket in the bottom of the stroller, and then jogged home (with the stroller pulling me back downhill the whole way!).

Here are some photos from the three years that we had the stroller:

October 2013...all bundled up for their first ride in the new stroller (F, J, A)

October 2013

January 2014 (J, A, F)

June 2014 (A, F, J) during one of our numerous trips to Smiths for groceries (and sometimes Starbucks for mama)

June 2014 (F, J, A)

October 2014 (A, F, J)

October 2014 with Daddy (F, J, A)

March 2015 (A, J, F)

April 2015 (A, J, F)

June 2015 (A, J, F)

September 2015 (A, J, F)

May 2016 (F, J, A)

July 2016 (F, J, A)

Sandia Crest Trail

I started writing this blog post several months ago, but finishing it hasn't been a priority until now. I haven't had much energy with this pregnancy, and when I have had energy there have always more important things that needed to be done. In the last two weeks, though, I have handed over both of my volunteer jobs (as the Treasurer for our church and as the Treasurer for the NM Parents of Multiples club), so I finally feel like I have a little time to do things that aren't 'work.'

On July 31st of last year, Micah and I hiked / ran the 26.5 mile Sandia Crest Trail. Although I had first heard about this trail when we moved to Albuquerque in the fall of 2010, I had forgotten about it after becoming pregnant with our triplets. Running and accomplishing fitness related goals has been a big part of my life since high school, but it has been easy for me to push my own training and goals aside since having a family. It's not that I don't value these things anymore, but it's hard to find the time and energy when caring for three kids.

Last spring, though, I decided that I wanted to set another goal for myself since I knew that we were planning on transferring our last embryo from our original IVF cycle at the end of the summer. I did a half marathon in May 2015 when Alexis, Jack, and Faith were almost 2-years-old (you can read about that here), but other than that I hadn't trained consistently since before my first pregnancy. Originally I thought I wanted to run another half marathon, but I was having trouble finding one that fit in my schedule. One day I was talking with an acquaintance who mentioned that she had hiked the 26+ mile Sandia Crest Trail from Placitas, NM to Tijeras, NM, and that's when I realized that I wanted to do that with Micah instead of running another half.

I asked my friend Val if she would watch our kids for an entire day so that Micah and I could do the trail. Val is a wonderful friend, and she understands that one must start an endeavor like the Sandia Crest Trail early in the morning in case of inclement weather, so she agreed to come to our house at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 31st.

We packed our running vests the night before with snacks, which included a variety of energy bars, energy chews, crackers, salami, and Gatorade (I added up the calories from my wrappers when we finished the hike and I ate 1,620 calories from the energy bars and chews alone that day!).

Micah and I drove the 40 minutes to the trailhead in Placitas and started hiking at 6:00 a.m.

At the Tunnel Springs Trailhead in Placitas, NM

Originally I thought we would run more than hike, but I'm not a huge trail runner, there is a lot of elevation gain along the trail, and it's just plain hard to run at 10,000 feet. Other than hiking more than running, the first part of our day went great and it felt like we reached the Sandia Crest House, which is about 12 miles from the Tunnel Springs trailhead in Placitas, quite quickly.

At the lookout near the Sandia Crest House

It's possible that the last time Micah and I were up there together was when I was 29 weeks pregnant with our trio. We had to take a photo in memory of that event as it's hard to believe I was at least 60 lbs heavier at that time.

29+ weeks pregnant in May 2013. A man actually made a comment about me looking like I was going to go into labor up there and he hoped there was a doctor nearby! Luckily I made it two more weeks after that, but I think my body was done.

On the second part of the trail we saw fewer people, the trail was overgrown with bushes, there wasn't much of a view, and the fatigue started setting in. Since I originally thought I was training for a half marathon I was in shape for a 13 mile run, not a marathon. But Micah was a good sport despite my going much slower than he had anticipated. We really enjoyed being able to talk ALL DAY without kids around, or anyone else for that matter.

Unfortunately, we didn't plan as well as we thought we had and we ran out of Gatorade with hours left in our hike. In hindsight, we could have easily refilled our drinks at the Crest House, but we were feeling so good at that point that we didn't even think about it.

Once we hit the downhill portion of the trail, the time and miles dragged. We were both thirsty and tired, and downhill hiking / running is much more difficult than one would think, especially when your legs are already beat.

As we got closer to the Canyon Estates Trailhead in Tijeras, we texted Val to let her know so Dan could come pick us up. We requested water since we were both pretty dehydrated at this point, so we were overjoyed when Dan and their two oldest boys met us a little ways up on the trail with a gallon of ice cold water.

I was happy to have completed the Sandia Crest Trail in 10 hours, which was actually my original estimate. Although I was incredibly sore afterwards due to my lack of training and getting dehydrated on the trail, it was worth it as I was able to check something off of my bucket list and spend an entire day with Micah.

At the Canyon Estates Trailhead in Tijeras, NM and SOOOO glad to be done

The stats from the morning. The Fitbit isn't 100% accurate when it comes to distance, but look at the number of steps I took and the number of "floors" we climbed!

The intramuscular progesterone shots I started the next day for our IVF transfer were literally like salt in the wound for my sore muscles since the needle is huge!

3.75 Years Old

It's hard to believe that in only three months Alexis, Jack, and Faith will be turning 4-years-old. This is the first year that they truly understand getting older, from a preschooler point of view at least, and they are already anticipating holding up FOUR fingers when asked how old they are. Getting older is so exciting for kids!

It's also hard to believe that we will soon have another baby in our family, and our original babies will be the big sibs! They are all super excited for their new role and they often talk about their baby brother. I am really looking forward to seeing them flourish in their new role as they are already so caring and compassionate with one another (at least sometimes).

A spontaneous group hug! Faith is sandwiched between Jack and Alexis.

I decided to weigh and measure everyone as I had a hunch that they all went through a growth spurt. I still cannot believe the results as Faith is now 1.25 inches taller than Alexis! In the past they were much closer in height (at most a 1/2 inch difference), but Faith is now noticeably taller even from a distance. Although Jack is still the shortest, he has actually grown quite a bit in the last nine months as he is up 2.5 inches since his 3rd birthday, whereas from age 2 to age 3 he only grew 2.5 inches in the entire year. It seems that maybe his struggle with his platelets impacted his growth during that year. Everyone continues to be light, but I'm happy to see that they are putting on a little weight. I weighed them on the baby scale, so I feel like this is pretty accurate.


STATS:

Height
Alexis: 39 inches (+.5 inches in 3 months)
Jack: 37.5 inches (+1 inch in 3 months)
Faith: 40.25 inches (+1.25 inches in 3 months)

Weight
Alexis: 29 lbs 1 oz (+ 7 oz in 3 months)
Jack: 27 lbs 1 oz (+ 14 oz in 3 months)
Faith: 29 lbs 6 oz (+ 1 lb in 3 months)


NEW THINGS:

• In the last three months we have traveled to Monte Vista / Denver for Thanksgiving, Monte Vista for Christmas, Monte Vista for a weekend in January, Telluride in February, and Micah took the kids to Monte Vista for a weekend in February. The kids are becoming GREAT road trippers, which is life changing for us. Of course, this change has come right before we add a new baby to the mix, so things will probably become slightly more difficult again for a couple of years. But it's good to know that we've finally reached that point with these three.

Jack tried skiing in Telluride

Alexis tried skiing in Telluride (Faith wasn't interested)

Playing foosball for the first time while waiting for food at a restaurant

Family pic at the top of the mountain in Telluride (the kids and I got off the gondola to watch Micah start skiing down). I love that you can't even tell I'm 30 weeks pregnant in this photo, which is so different from my triplet pregnancy.

The girls enjoying the gondola ride

The girls staring at the TV screens on our ride home from Telluride. Alexis had the sun in her eyes so she solved the problem herself by putting on her sunglasses. We love this newfound independence!

• Three months ago I wrote that I was trying my best to enforce a quiet time, but since then I have given up. Between having people in town and traveling it was hard to find a rhythm, and it never worked how I imagined anyway since inevitably one or more kids had to poop only minutes after I closed their doors for quiet time, or they had some other type of emergency. Now when I notice that they are overstimulated or tired, I ask everyone to look at books for a little while. Sometimes they do this on their own as well.

One of my favorite sights

Reading at Grammy and Grandpa's

Some days, though, everyone is tired and we need to snuggle up and watch a movie

• The girls have been waking up dry in the morning for awhile, but they were refusing to wear underwear at night. We created a reward chart and after they wore under for five nights (and woke up dry) we took them out for ice cream. Although Faith had a couple of night time accidents when she had a cold, all of the other nights have been completely dry! 

They call Menchie's frozen yogurt the "ice cream factory"

• In mid-January we decided we were tired of emptying the little potties, so we created another reward chart and after five days of all three using the big potty we took them out for ice cream. The girls still have a little potty in their room for night time in case they need it, but life is so much better now that we aren't constantly dumping pee or cleaning poop out of the little potties.

• Jack and Faith both got their first ear infections in the last couple of months after having bad colds.

• I am trying my best to motivate all three kids to undress / dress themselves in the morning and at night, and I think we are almost there! All three are physically able to do everything, but they don't always "want" to do it. One way I have motivated them is to make a video on my phone while they change using "Time Lapse" as they enjoy watching themselves move super fast. Just this week, though, I created yet another reward chart and all three undressed / dressed themselves each morning without any resistance. We will be going out for ice cream soon for this milestone!

• Most of the time I have to closely monitor the undressing / dressing process to make sure it happens, but there have been a few times that the kids have taken the initiative, after I mention that they need to change, and started doing it without me even being in the room! It feels like a lot of progress is being made when that happens!

• We finally transitioning from sippy cups to open cups (please don't judge us!). The kids are very capable of drinking out of open cups, but sippy cups are easier since they can carry them all over the house and bring them into the car. The kids haven't complained about the lack of sippy cups yet (they agreed that they were big kids and they no longer needed them), but I do have to find a way to make sure they get more fluids right now since they drank more from a sippy than they do from an open cup. We also have water bottles and straw cups, so I think as long as I give them a variety throughout the day they'll get the liquid they need.

• All of these transitions (getting rid of nighttime diapers, getting rid of little potties, getting everyone to dress themselves, and getting rid of sippy cups) are to encourage independence before the baby arrives as we know we won't be able to help them as much when that time comes!

• Alexis is terrified of dogs. This has definitely gotten worse over time and I'm not sure what the trigger was, but now she screams and becomes frozen whenever she sees even the tiniest dog. The ironic part is that she loves to pretend to be a dog when she plays. Maybe this is her way of coping? She is also terrified of our cat, which makes for some tense moments at home.

• We discovered that Jack is allergic to dog saliva after he got licked by a friend's dog. I guess between Alexis' fear and Jack's allergy we won't be getting a dog, which is fine by me! I've never been a dog lover and I definitely don't need anything else to take care of right now.

• All three kids seem to really enjoy school as they are always eager to get there and no longer cling to me (Alexis was the last to stop clinging at drop off, but she has no problems now). I am so glad that they love it since that helps me enjoy my two mornings alone each week without worrying about them. While they are at school I run errands, go to my midwife appointments, work on things around the house, and such. It has been great to have this time to get things done, especially since I've been so tired during this pregnancy and the kids no longer nap.

I had the kids write the first letter of their name on all of their school Valentine's. This is Faith writing her "F."

Alexis wrote her name in chalk on the wall in our backyard. She gets better at this every day!

So many sweet things come home from school

Jack is the master of "J's" and he loves to write and draw

A person!

• They also love their weekly gymnastics class and it's so fun to watch them learn new skills and become more confident.

It's really hard to get a good photo from gymnastics, but here Jack is in blue, Alexis is in yellow, and Faith is in white & pink

• Alexis and Faith are outgoing, and they love to tell strangers everything. This always surprises me since I was a shy child myself. Jack is much more like me when it comes to strangers.

• The kids have started to lie to us, which has been surprising. We'll ask something like, "Did you hit your brother?" and we've received the response "No" repeatedly even though we have every reason to believe that it happened. 

• They also ignore us, which isn't really new, but still frustrating. This often happens when we are asking them to do something, such as pick up their toys.

KID QUOTES:

It's impossible to write down all of the surprising or funny things that Alexis, Jack, and Faith say, but here are some that I recorded over the past couple of months.

Jack:

• "I have a picture of Daddy. Want to see it? It's on my Facebook." [I didn't know he knew about Facebook. I promise I don't look at it that much when the kids are around!]
• "Grandma and Grandpa are so cute." [said when I was tucking him in Micah's parents' house]
• "The snow is not melting, the grass is just sticking out." [I think he's an optimist]
• (while crying) "I don't like this shirt." (Why?) "Because it's not beautiful." [???]

Alexis:

• "Guys I need some confidence. Give me confidence!" [She must think confidence means space]
• "I'm done changing sheets. I've been changing sheets for yeeeaaaarrrrssss." [When Micah was changing the sheets on the kids' beds and asked them to 'help.' Just a little dramatic.]
• "The doctor's orders are don't wash my body." [To Micah during bath time when he forgot and started using soap on her body. Her eczema has been really bad this winter so I took her to the doctor, and Alexis remembered everything the doctor said!]

Faith:

• "Don't break my heart!" [To Micah when he was splitting a Valentine heart chocolate for the kids to share]
• "I slept so good I even got a little rest." [Sometimes things sound intelligent but don't make any sense, lol]
• "Poor Daddy. He does everything wrong." [Faith likes us to drive through the entire neighborhood when we come back home, which she calls the "turning way." Although this seems silly and takes a few extra minutes, we often do it so that we don't have to put up with a tantrum. Micah must not do it as often as me, though, as she said this one day when I was driving through the neighborhood after an outing. I promise, I don't say things like this about Micah!]
• (Faith called Micah to her room at 6:40 am) "I have a present for you!" (She opened the curtain) "A beautiful sunset!" [She meant sunrise, but it was super sweet]
• "You sound like a man." [This was said to a guy at the zoo with long hair. She said 'hi' to him and when he responded I guess she was surprised that the long hair didn't mean he was a woman!]

I feel so fortunate that I get to stay home with the kids. Although we have our difficult days, it is a lot of fun to watch them grow up right before my eyes. It's always good to reflect on how far they've come as so many details get lost in the day-to-day busyness.

Grandparents are a big part of these kids' lives, despite the fact that we don't live near any of them. We are so glad that we've been able to see Micah's parents so often because it's only a four hour drive, which is easy for the kids now. My parents also come out here several times a year, and the kids love to FaceTime with them since Grandpa is always so funny. This was taken on the night they we celebrated Christmas with my parents in early January.

The kids are always playing some complicated game that I don't understand but they all seem to know what is going on. This game involved their stuffed animals, play food, and sleeping...

The girls aren't sold on ponytails yet, but they sure look cute!

I saw someone else do this recently with their identicals, and I thought it was interesting. Alexis is on the left and Faith is on the right. I think their major difference is their eyes, but overall they are so similar.

We never complain about backyard picnic lunches in February!

Built-in playmates is definitely a perk of triplets. I was surprised when I saw them attempting to play catch in the backyard as this is a difficult skill, but they made up for it in the distance they stood apart. Smart kids.

One of our numerous zoo outings. I hope this doesn't change too much with the addition of the baby as the kids truly love running around the zoo and botanic garden.

They are even conquering some of the "big kid" stuff at the parks now.