We Are Moving!

For years Micah had mentioned the possibility of getting a temporary position in Washington DC with his employer, but he was waiting for the right opportunity to come along. At the beginning of the year there was a job posting in DC that looked interesting to him, so we decided he should apply. But then COVID hit, and we didn't hear anything, so we figured it wasn't going to happen. Towards the end of April, though, Micah was contacted about the position. He was told that he had to decide if he was really interested in making the move before going through the interview process, as they only wanted to interview serious candidates. Since we were in the midst of the Stay at Home order due to COVID we were a little hesitant when thinking about moving, but ultimately we decided he should go for it . We were shocked when he was given the position! We have been all over the place emotionally around the move, especially since a cross country move is daunting to begin with, but especially during a pandemic. But overall we are all excited to live somewhere different for awhile. We have been in Albuquerque for almost 10 years already and, besides this temporary move, we have no plans to leave New Mexico.

May 2020 at the top of the Sandias in ABQ

Although we spent the first 8 weeks of our Stay at Home Order enjoying a bit of a slower pace, once we were told on May 7 that we were moving to DC, we got busy with purging stuff we no longer needed, tackling an ever growing list of house projects, finding renters for our house in ABQ, researching where to live in the DC area, and researching homeschool curriculum, plus Micah has been extra busy at work in preparation for this transition. I know many people will look back on their quarantine and remember their extra family time, or maybe even being a bit bored, but this has become one of the busiest seasons of life for our family.

Micah’s position will take us to the DC area for 1-3 years. It sounds like most people end up staying for 2 years, but it all depends on how things are going with the job. Knowing we are coming back to ABQ definitely helps with the sadness around our move as, although I haven’t always talked about the city in a positive way, it truly has become home for us. We will certainly miss our community (and the weather) while we are gone!

Of course, one thing that makes this move harder is that it happens to be during the middle of a pandemic. Although we are becoming accustomed to wearing masks in public and such, it definitely won’t be easy to find a new community while we should still be avoiding other people. We also are leaning towards homeschool since starting at a new school with part time school / part time distance learning doesn’t sound ideal. We’ve also already switched our kids to two different schools for Kindergarten and First Grade, so going to a third school in three years doesn’t sound great either.

As of right now, the kids and I plan to leave ABQ on July 13. My mom is flying out here and then her and I will drive to Michigan with the kids. We are going to stay with my parents through the end of August while Micah wraps things up with work in ABQ. The kids and I are definitely looking forward to our time in Michigan since so much is closed in ABQ right now and we don’t even have access to a private pool. For us, summers in Michigan include a lot of swimming in pools and lakes, and we can’t wait for that. I'm also looking forward to having the stress of getting ready for the move behind me, and a long stop in Michigan along the way to DC should be relaxing (plus I'll have the help of grandparents). 

Christmas 2010, two months after we moved to Albuquerque and Micah started his job at Sandia

May 2020

Alexis, Jack, and Faith at 9 months old. This was taken one week after we moved into our current house in Albuquerque. It will be hard to leave the house that the kids have spent the majority of their lives in!

April 2017 when Graham came home from the hospital. He has spent his whole life in this house.

Mother's Day 2017

Our only "pool" in Albuquerque this summer

7-Year-Olds

Another year has come and gone! This last year seemed to go so fast, and the last few months have been really strange since we have been at home due to the governor's "Stay-at-Home" order because of COVID-19. I'll be honest, I worry about a lot of things, but I never even realized that a worldwide pandemic was something to worry about! Although the situation is not ideal, I have to admit that I've enjoyed a slower pace without rushing the kids off to school and trying to keep up with other activities for the kids and ourselves. The last few months have given the kids a chance to play a ton, which is something they always long for. We've also gone on numerous bike rides and scooter rides around the neighborhood, which is something we didn't do very much before we were stuck at home because we would just take our riding toys to the park instead.

 

 

They have spent a lot of time climbing this tree since the "Stay at Home" order began

For Christmas we bought the older kids plane tickets to Michigan so that I could take separate trips there with them during the winter (usually we just do one big trip to Michigan in the summer). Jack and I went in January and we had a great time. Alexis, Faith, and I traveled to Michigan on March 11, but we almost didn't go because COVID was just starting to pick up in the U.S. Although it was a weird trip because we didn't go many places due to the virus and I was very worried about us catching it while traveling, I'm now glad that we went as the girls had a great time. It is one of those things that will always stick out in our minds as the last thing we did "before the virus." That same weekend, Micah took the boys to his parents house so that he and Jack could ski one last time for the winter.

Jack on the airplane

Faith and Alexis on the airplane

By the time we all got back to ABQ on March 15, schools across the nation had been closed for a couple of weeks, including schools in New Mexico. This soon changed to schools being closed for the rest of the school year, so we were thrown into "distance learning" with several video calls a week with the kids' teacher and some other students from their class. I was very glad that the kids were in the same class during "distance learning" since it minimized our video calls and we didn't have any schedule conflicts.

First day of distance learning

Journaling during our "homeschool"

Last day of distance learning

Last day of distance learning

I have definitely seen the benefits of being a triplet / having triplets during this "Stay-at-Home" order. Although they definitely do their fair share of fighting, they can keep each other entertained for hours! I'm constantly amazed at the new things they come up with to play. Because of this, they have mostly been okay with staying at home. In fact, they sometimes complain when I say we have to leave the house to pick up groceries or do a Target drive-up order. Kids are funny.

If you have to wear a mask, you might as well make it fun!

 

Although this summer looks different as we aren't doing swim lessons, tennis lessons, VBS, or any of the other things, we are still planning on spending some time in Michigan with my family. I think we are all looking forward to that as even if we mostly stay around my parents' condo, at least it will be a different home than the one we've been in for months on end. Plus my parents and my brothers co-own a cottage on a small lake, which is great to spend time at as well.


I haven't written about the kids since their 6th birthday, so here are some updates on the last year:

Three cakes for three special kids!

Alexis: She continues to be a Daddy's girl. Although everyone loves their 1-on-1 time with Daddy, she requests it the most. She still loves her stuffed Snoopy, but she also loves her newest Beanie Baby husky which she named "Little Howler" (this was a replacement for the same Beanie Baby that she called Baby Husk that she had lost). Both girls never really got into dolls, but they treat their stuffed animals like babies. Alexis is outgoing and she loves to talk to adults. She is a great big sister to Graham.

Alexis reading to Graham

Alexis had her heart set on a Tie Dye cake, and we both had a lot of fun making it.

Jack: Jack is definitely the early riser in our family. In the last couple of months we have convinced him that he doesn't have to wake us up if he gets up before us, so he now goes downstairs, turns on the lights, and plays or reads until someone gets up. This is AMAZING! Lately he has been finding ways to play with just Graham, which is great for both of them since they like to do "boy things" like fly around little airplanes or play with Nerf guns or swords. Jack is really strong and he can do at least 5 pull-ups in a row. He recently figured out how to climb up the brick wall in our backyard by pulling on both sides of the bricks that stick out vertically and scooting his feet up. Jack loves to create things from paper, such as pretend wallets, large creations for his walls, books, etc. He also still enjoys music.

Jack loves Graham, even if Graham isn't always the nicest little brother in return

Jack built this 361 piece Lego helicopter all by himself on his birthday. It took 5 hours, but he was determined!

Faith: Faith loves to organize things and she is a perfectionist. She also loves to plan and make lists. (...I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree 😅). She always wants to know what adults are talking about, and she often says things that make her sound older than she is. She still loves her stuffed Husky and sleeps with him every night. Husky is Faith's baby. She loves to help me around the house as she feels proud of her contributions. She loves to create things, such as a Pin-the-tail-on-the-Unicorn for her birthday. She is also a great big sister to Graham.

Reading to Grandma and Graham

A leaf project she decided to do for fun

Other things...

• School - This year the kids attended Desert Willow Family School for first grade. They were in school T-Th from 8:00-2:40 and Friday from 8:00-12:20. Mondays were homeschool days and they also had homework T-TH. It was a lot of work for all of us, but they learned a lot and they enjoyed their class and their teacher. I got to spend a lot more 1-on-1 time with Graham this year, which was nice. 

• Reading - Everyone has become a great reader during the last few months, and I contribute a lot of this to reading with their grandmas on FaceTime during "distance learning." They were able to read books that they were more interested in, and since both grandmas didn't have much going on the kids could sit with them for 30-60 minutes and read! They can basically work their way through any book, and I now hear the girls read aloud at the breakfast table or after they go to bed at night. Jack enjoys reading too, but he is more interested in finishing chapter books than just reading random picture books. For their birthday they received five books from the "Bad Guys" series, and Jack finished the first three quite quickly.

• Math - Desert Willow has their own curriculum so this year the kids really focused on addition including stacked addition, adding any numbers up into the trillions and beyond, rounding numbers to the 10's, 100's, and 1000's, etc. It was challenging, but they were so proud when they reached the end of Addition 1.
• Writing - I am constantly finding random notes, signs, etc. around the house that the kids make.

Jack's note to the neighborhood: Do not get the virus - Stay Home

Faith probably writes the most notes

Alexis wrote this after Micah wasn't feeling well (after a 4 hour, 23 mile, run in the foothills)

• Climbing - Before COVID hit, I was taking the kids to the climbing gym after school once a week. They loved it and they were getting good! Thankfully they are still young, so even if we have to take a break from climbing for awhile they can still get back into it.

• Skiing - All three love to ski and they went a few times this winter with Micah.

• Taekwondo - In August the kids started Taekwondo at the YMCA near our house. Overall they enjoyed it, but we ended up only doing it through November. In December our family battled many sicknesses so we weren't able to make it to practice, and then the kids didn't seem interested in going back. I was fine with that since we were so busy with schoolwork and it was always a battle getting them out the door to practice. But they have fond memories of their time in Taekwondo class.

• Piano - In August the kids started taking piano lessons and they loved it. Getting them to practice during the week was challenging since they were so busy with schoolwork, but they loved the 1-on-1 lessons (and the best part for me was that the teacher came to our house so we didn't have to sit around her house for 1.5 hours every week!). Since COVID, I have tried to keep up the piano lessons using the little that I remember from learning in elementary school. Thankfully they are beginners so I can figure it out, but getting them to practice without them (or me) getting frustrated is a challenge. We have taken the last few weeks off, but I hope to re-start again soon.

• Night - It takes the girls hours to fall asleep at night, and not having to wake up for school in the morning has only made it worse since they can sleep in. Some nights one of the girls will be awake as late as 10:30 or 11! We put everyone to bed between 7:30 and 8:00, but they just don't seem that tired.

• Fighting - Some days / weeks it feels like there is constant bickering and fighting. Someone always feels left out and they get really annoyed with each other. Mainly being stuck at home definitely hasn't helped any of this, but I get tired of being their referee (and many days I just make them sort it out on their own).

• Pretend Play - They continue to play elaborate games, which sometimes seem to take more time and effort to create / set up than actually play. But a lot of the fun is in the creating for them. For awhile they were really into playing camping, which included packing their backpacks with random stuff. The other day Faith wanted to celebrate Husky's birthday so she made all sorts of decorations, party invites, party favor bags, etc. When they actually celebrated the "birthday" it only took 10 minutes, but it took her hours to make everything. As long as they are busy and being creative, I am happy!

• Lost Teeth - Faith has now lost 4 teeth, Alexis has lost 3 teeth, and Jack has lost 3 teeth (including the two he had pulled when he was 4-year-old). They all have adult teeth growing in on top and it makes them look so different!

I can still remember the day that Alexis, Jack, and Faith were born like it was yesterday. I can still picture the tiny babies that they were, and it is amazing how they have thrived over the last seven years. Although many days I am exhausted, especially since we haven't been able to get away from the house much, when I get to the end of the day I often think about how how great these three really are. They are truly miracles.

7th Birthday Interview Questions

I've been asking the kids the same questions every year since their 3rd birthday. It's fun to see how their answers evolve each year!

ALEXIS

What is your full name?  Alexis Joy Howard

How old will you be on your birthday? 7

When is your birthday?  June 7

How old is Mommy?  37

How old is Daddy?  38

What is your favorite color? Purple, black, and red [exactly the same as last year!]

Favorite food? Shrimp pasta and maple yogurt with blueberries

Best friend?  Faith

Favorite song?  Skip to My Lou [one of her nicknames is Lou]

Favorite animal?  Snoopy and Little Howler (stuffed animals), Dogs and rabbits (real animals)

What are you scared of? Moths, spiders, and other creepy bugs [ABQ has had a moth invasion this year!]

What makes you happy?  Having Daddy time [1:1 time with Micah]

Where is your favorite place to go? Explora [same as last year!]

What do you want to be when you grow up? A vet or an astronaut [exactly the same as last year!]

What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do? Relax, and not pick up after us 😆

What is Daddy’s favorite thing to do? Mostly run

What is your favorite subject in school? Math and Reading

Self Portrait

She wanted a tie dye cake with homemade frosting and lots of sprinkles

FAITH

What is your full name?  Faith Elizabeth Howard

How old will you be on your birthday? 7

When is your birthday?  June 7

How old is Mommy?  37

How old is Daddy?  38

What is your favorite color? Pink, turquoise, and yellow

Favorite food? Watermelon

Best friend?  My whole family

Favorite song?  What Doest the Fox Say

Favorite animal?  Cheetahs and dogs

What are you scared of? Dark caves

What makes you happy?  Dogs

Where is your favorite place to go? Our cousins' house in Colorado

 
What do you want to be when you grow up? That's hard. Not a vet. Not an astronaut. Hmmmm. I want to be an accountant. [Like her mom!]

What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do? Relax [Can you tell I've been a little overwhelmed lately...both girls said this!]

What is Daddy’s favorite thing to do? Look at his phone [In his defense he doesn't look at it all day while he works, so he's trying to catch up on his social life at night.]

What is your favorite subject in school? Math

Self Portrait

She wanted a cake shaped like a Husky, and she drew plans ahead of time so we knew exactly how to decorate. I did the frosting and she did the rest.

JACK

What is your full name?  Jack Micah Howard

How old will you be on your birthday? 7

When is your birthday?  June 7

How old is Mommy?  36

How old is Daddy?  37

What is your favorite color? Everything but pink and purple

Favorite food? Pesto Pasta

Best friend?  Dad

Favorite song?  Handlebars [same as last year!]

Favorite animal?  Lizard

What are you scared of? Monsters

What makes you happy?  Dad

Where is your favorite place to go? Cool Springs Trampoline Park

 
What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer [Just like Dad!]

What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do? Work

What is Daddy’s favorite thing to do? Run

What is your favorite subject in school? Math

Self Portrait

Jack wanted an all chocolate cake shaped like a 7

Graham is 3!

My blog writing has taken a serious drop every year as I wrote 54 posts in 2014 (when our triplets were babies) and in 2019 I wrote 9 posts. But even if I don't make time to write about the smaller events that happen in our children's lives, I will keep writing birthday posts! It is so much fun to look back on how much they change from year to year, and the older kids have enjoyed hearing me read the blog posts about themselves when they were younger. 

Somehow another year has already passed and Graham is 3! Thankfully we didn't have anything planned for his birthday as we haven't ever done big birthday parties for our kids, so having a "quarantine birthday" didn't seem like that big of a deal. Graham enjoyed opening presents throughout the day, talking to his grandparents on FaceTime (my parents even made cupcakes for themselves and wore party hats so that they could join in on the fun from afar!), eating cupcakes, playing with bubbles, and even seeing a friend who stopped by to wish him Happy Birthday from his car. 

Here is a snapshot of Graham at age 3...

Height: 37 inches, which means he grew 4.5 inches in the last year which puts him in the 40th percentile for height. This is the most that any of our kids grew from age 2 to age 3. Although he is still shorter than Faith was at this age, he is about the same height as Alexis was, and he is 2 inches taller than Jack was. A year ago Graham was the same height as Jack was at that age, so it just goes to show that Jack’s blood disorder really did have an impact on his growth.

Weight: He is about 27 lbs, which makes him the heaviest of any of our kids at this age (although it’s funny to call him heavy, since he’s only in the 7th percentile for weight). In comparison, Jack was about 24.5 lbs and the girls were just over 26 lbs.

Size Clothes: Recently I switched all of his clothes to the 3T stuff we had from Jack, except for a few pairs of longer 2T pants.

Night Sleep: Graham still shares a room with Jack. He moved in a little over a year ago, and thankfully they both sleep great most nights. Some nights it takes a little bit for Graham to calm down and fall asleep because he wants to keep the light on longer than Jack does,  but most nights we let them work it out so we don’t have to get involved. Occasionally Graham wakes up during the night, but when he does it’s usually just something easy to fix like a bad dream or he needs his blanket put back on. Graham’s bed time is between 7:30 and 8:00, like the older kids, and he wakes between 7:00 and 7:30 most mornings. Sometimes he sleeps as late as 8:30! Thankfully, Jack has gotten really good at sneaking out of the room so that Graham can keep sleeping. 

Jack enjoys climbing into Graham's crib and reading with him before they turn the light off at night and after they wake up in the morning (if they are both awake)

Naps: Graham stopped napping around age 2.5. This was shocking and disappointing to me since our other kids napped fairly consistently until age 3. Occasionally he falls asleep in the car during school pick up, although this hasn’t been happening since school was dismissed for COVID-19 on March 16. Just this week we drove around for a little over an hour in the afternoon, and he fell asleep. Sadly I think he is a bit sleep deprived, but I think that's just part of being a younger sibling trying to keep up with older siblings.

When school was still in session I would often take long walks in the afternoon and sometimes Graham would fall asleep in the stroller

This was two days before his 3rd birthday

Food: I know I handled food differently with Graham than I did with our trio for a few reasons. First of all, Graham had so many intolerances when he was younger that it was hard to find foods that he could eat that he was willing to try (we still limit dairy as I'm not sure it really works for him yet). Secondly, breakfast became a bar eaten in the car when we had to leave the house at 7:30 for school drop off (and most mornings I had to wake Graham up so we could leave on time). Another reason is that Graham is picky. Jack was also extremely picky and I know that we fought way too many battles trying to get the poor kid to eat what I made for dinner. Most days Graham eats what we eat for dinner, but if I know it is something he won't touch I just give him PB&J or chicken nuggets. His current favorite foods are: Z bars, waffles, pumpkin pancakes, vanilla almond milk yogurt, sausage, berries, broccoli, chicken nuggets, PB&J, crackers, pesto pasta, burgers, and fries. He likes to drink juice, chai (a little cold Tazo chai and almond milk), and smoothies. Like the rest of his family, he loves sweets.

A rare Mommy and Graham donut date when the big kids were in school

Excited for a cookie

We've been eating some ice cream cones while we've been stuck at home during quarantine. Graham actually ate some real ice cream in a cone and it seemed to be okay for his body.

When he drinks out of his water bottle he often makes the same gulping sound and the same sweet face that he made when he was nursing as a tiny baby. It's funny how sometimes I look at him while he drinks and I'm taken back to two years ago. I don't get many glimpses of the baby he once was anymore!

Milestones: All I can think of right now is things he hasn't done that I should have been a little better about working on with him. He can walk up the stairs no problem, but he still turns around and goes backwards to get down the stairs (or he slides down on his tummy). He is super strong willed and, although I've attempted to get him to do many things, he has refused. (He won't drink out of an open cup. He still sleeps in a crib. He hasn't potty trained, despite two good attempts on my part. And he won't dress or undress himself, although he can take off his own pants, socks, and shoes). But there are some new things that he does now. He takes showers with Jack. He is learning his numbers and colors. He can ride a tricycle and a small balance bike. He can cut paper. He can find his own snacks in the pantry. And he seems to have stopped biting people, which is a wonderful thing that probably has a lot to do with the fact that his speech has come a very long way!

Riding a tricycle with his rainboots on. If he puts on his own footwear, it's rainboots or crocs since they are both easy to slip on and off.

He loves to cut paper with these preschooler friendly scissors. He makes a giant mess of paper all around him when he does this, but at least it keeps him busy for awhile!

Practicing color matching on St. Patrick's Day.

Climbing in the pantry. The snacks are actually in the a drawer by his knee, but he was just being silly.

This is something my older kids didn't get a chance to do at Graham's age because a) we only had one iPad and I didn't want to deal with whining and complaining and b) we weren't stuck at home for a pandemic. The older kids spend a few days a week playing games on ABC Mouse while I cook dinner, and I set Graham up on the iPad.

Trying to keep up with the big kids on their scooters during one of our many neighborhood walks during the quarantine

Speech: Considering the fact that a year ago Graham was just started to say single words and six months ago he was just starting to put four words together, his speech is amazing now. There are still things he says that we don't quite understand, but he speaks using multiple sentences at a time now. He expresses himself really well and uses some advanced words. It's like he was just taking it all in during the first couple of years since all of our kids are very verbal, and now he has joined them in trying to talk the most at the dinner table 😆. Graham continued to do speech therapy up until his 3rd birthday, but we hadn't seen our speech therapist much in 2020 since she had knee surgery and Graham was doing so well anyway. His last therapy session was a couple of weeks ago so we had to do it through a video app on the iPad because of the restrictions with COVID-19. It was hilarious watching Graham interact with the Speech Therapist (Jessica) and the Care Coordinator (Charity) through the screen. He kept saying things like, "I'm going to show you something amazing," and then he'd find a toy to show them. When we would try to talk to each other about things he would say, "Stop!" because he wanted to be the one talking. He still drops the S sound for words like 'stop' so it comes out 'top' and he substitutes the T sound for a K (because sounds like betuz, okay sounds like otay), but these are normal developmental things for kids his age so right now it's nothing to be concerned about.


This is the first year that I've been able to ask Graham the annual birthday questions that I've been asking the older kids! 

What is your name? Graham Mister Howard [it's actually Graham Andrew Howard, but we do call him "mister" and "mister Graham" a lot, so I guess he thinks that's really part of his name!]

How old are you? Teeny

When is your birthday? Saturday [no, it was on a Wednesday, but I was impressed that he said a day of the week!]

How old is Daddy? Big

How old is Mommy? Teeny

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite food? Green

Who is your best friend? Max

I would say both Max and Peregrine are Graham's "best friends" right now, besides his siblings of course. I feel so lucky to have friends that have kids around the same age as Graham. We enjoyed doing a toddler swap during the school year and these boys loved playing together at each other's houses.

Favorite song? Happy Birthday

Favorite animal? That one [pointing to Faith’s stuffed puppy]

What are you scared of? Monsters

What makes you happy? You [pointing to mom 😍]

He may be a 3-year-old, but he still loves to cuddle and doesn't mind being carried. He still gives me the biggest kisses all of the time.

Where is your favorite place to go? To Michigan

What is your favorite toy? Sleeping bag [I don't think this is true, but he was playing in it recently]

What do you want to be when you grow up? A bird

What is Mommy’s favorite thing to do? Pee in the potty [I guess he thinks I really enjoy this since I want him to start doing it too 😏]

What is Daddy’s favorite thing to do? Buckle


Some other recent photos:

He LOVES this Ninja Turtle costume that I bought him for $1 at the NM Parents of Multiples Garage Sale

Dressing up is always fun

Swinging is great and we can't wait for parks to re-open!

Hiking with the backpack that he refused to put on his back

He still looks small next to Daddy

Before the quarantine we were spending a lot of time at the climbing gym

Making a mess of chalk is just as much fun as climbing

Singing loudly in the backyard. He still doesn't sing real songs like the other kids did at this age, but that's probably more my fault than his as I'm sure I sang to the other kids more. 

At High Desert Park

Riding the ATV at Grammy and Grandpa's

Our first outdoor dinner of the year, and Graham had to make a silly face. He enjoys being the family clown.

With his favorite animal, his Koala. He says it, "Fwala."

He has always been mesmerized by water.

He was downstairs all by himself and I found him playing this "fishing" game

So excited about the Easter Egg Hunt

The day after his birthday he woke up and wanted to play with his new bubble lawn mower. He was outside by 7:15 a.m. despite it being a little chilly.

He definitely has his own ideas. He demanded that he eat his breakfast in the living room on this morning. 

Bubbles are the best.