More Visits from Grandparents!

My parents came to town for a long weekend a couple of weeks ago. Although they were originally scheduled to land around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday and leave around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, their outbound flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems so they ended up rescheduling everything at the last minute and flying out of a different airport. Sadly this cut the trip a little shorter as they didn't arrive until midnight on Wednesday and they had to leave at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday, but we still had a great three full days together.

My parents with Alexis, Jack, and Faith (left to right) the night before they left

My mom reading to Jack, Alexis, and Faith (left to right). Faith does not want to sit back in her Rock n Play anymore so it's time to transition them to eating on the floor.

My dad and I made the mistake of looking above the kitchen cabinets and realizing how full of grease and grime they were, so we spent a few hours scraping them off with metal brushes and Magic Erasers. They are now pretty clean so I should probably put some newspaper down for easy cleaning in the future!

Before. After looks immaculate :).

My dad thinks this is fun but the excitement wore off pretty quickly for me.

My dad also spent some time working on our yard, which is not my or Micah's specialty. Thankfully my dad really enjoys yard work and he says he'll return every March to get everything trimmed and ready to go for the summer! Our grass has some weeds and crabgrass so he worked on that, but the biggest job was definitely trimming our very overgrown bushes in the front yard. I didn't get a before pic but the bush directly in front of the house was totally blocking the front window so trimming it definitely lets more light in the living room. He also reworked the layout of the rocks in the front yard as they were a mess (Yes, I know an all rock yard sounds strange to our friends and family in Michigan but this is normal in the desert!). Maybe next year we'll plant some flowers, but for now I think we'll stick to the basics since we've never been responsible for a yard before.

My parents love to decorate their own home and they do a really good job, so I was excited to have them here to help me with our living room. My dad hung a lot of our frames and my mom helped me shop for some decorations. Although we still need a couple of things like a chair and some new pillows for the couch, so far I think it looks great and I can't wait for things to slow down a little so Micah and I can actually spend some time in there reading and such.

Our living room - no toys :). There will be a baby gate blocking off this room and the stairs so we don't have to worry about it being baby proof.

My parents also helped me put up the tree decals in the girls room and in Jack's room. The first one took some time, but my mom and I finished the second one in only 45 minutes! I feel like they look super cute and they brought more color into the room without having to paint.

Putting up the girls tree

Jack looking at his new tree

Alexis and Faith (l to r) with their tree

I also found a spot for the pinwheels that used to be above our changing table...above the cribs!

Although the majority of our time was spent doing things around the house, we did get out one afternoon for a quick trip to the zoo. And when I say quick I mean we were there for about an hour! I wanted to wait until after the afternoon nap since that is when the babes are awake the longest, but I was surprised to learn that the zoo closes at 5:00! Luckily the zoo was not strict about closing time as we actually were there past 5:00 along with many other zoo guests, but it turned out to be a bad time for a zoo visit as most animals were no where to be seen. Since our main objective was to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather, we still had a great time.

Faith is in my arms, and Jack and Lexi are in the stroller. The people watching was just as much fun as the animals for these social butterflies!

Jack and Lexi

Faith looking at the flamingos with Grandma

My parents left early Sunday morning and Micah's mom arrived Monday afternoon for a visit. Micah's dad had forgotten his tool belt when he was here last, so it was the perfect excuse for Karen to come back! This time instead of doing stuff around the house constantly I took advantage of the babysitter and went out and did errands several days in a row. Micah and I actually left the house together in the evening three nights in a row without kids (twice to run errands and once to go to the climbing gym)!

Faith is ready for Costco!

Jack and Faith riding around in the cart at Costco

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

Surprisingly, we don't have any family or friends scheduled to visit until July which is strange after many months of visitors. Now we are actually planning a few trips of our own which is exciting and scary to think about with three babes. In two weeks we are headed to Denver to visit Micah's sister and her family. Micah's parents will meet us there as well and it will be the first time Micah's sister's family will meet our trio. We are excited for all of the cousins to meet, but it might be a crazy weekend with six kids 4 and under in one house ;).

In less than a month we are flying to Michigan to visit family. Micah's mom is driving down to ABQ so she will be with us for all of the flights, which is a huge stress reliever. The babes and I (and Karen) will be there for 2.5 weeks, but Micah will only be there for a weekend as he will be climbing in Yosemite during that time. Micah is flying back to Michigan the day we leave so that he can help us with the babes on the flights, which may sound a little nuts but is probably necessary. I'm really looking forward to seeing friends and family in Michigan and bringing the babes to some of my favorite spots in my hometown!

10 Months

As far as milestones go, I don't feel like I have much new to report this month which is slightly disappointing as I really thought all three would be scooting around and everyone would have at least one tooth. I know every baby develops at their own pace (blah, blah, blah...I feel like I get this talk all of the time) but the main thing that helps me not to worry is knowing that Micah didn't walk or get his first tooth until he was 15 months old (and he was full term!). Considering that he has a PhD and he is a great athlete, I don't believe that taking a few extra months to reach milestones is an indicator of future success. On the other hand, I got my first tooth around 4 months and walked at 10 months so I guess I was just hoping our trio would take after me in their development, but now that Faith is getting fast with her scooting I realize that it will be nuts when all three are crawling so I better just enjoy this stage while it lasts!

How old? 10 months (8 adjusted)

Our weights: 
Alexis: 15 lbs 9.5 oz (+ 1 lb 4 oz from last month)  
Jack: 15 lbs 11.5 oz (+ 10.5 oz from last month) 
Faith: 15 lbs 6.5 oz (+ 1 lb 1 oz from last month)

Size clothes: For the most part everyone is wearing 9 month size clothes. Jack has started to wear some 12 month PJ's.

Eating schedule: We are still doing bottles around 7:00, 11:00, 3:00, and 7:00. We are now feeding solids around 8:00, 12:00, and 6:00. Breakfast and lunch are pretty much right after their bottles and dinner is later as I like to wait until Micah is home from work so he can feed the purees while I make our dinner, and then the babes can munch on teething wafers or their mesh feeders while we eat our dinner. It has been fun to eat family meals together! Everyone has cut back their formula volumes during the day since we have been doing more solids, so we have been getting the girls up around 10:30 (before we go to bed) so that they get in a few more ounces for the day. We would wake Jack up too, but he refuses to eat at this time of the night! Although this feels like a step backwards since it is an extra bottle, Micah and I both feel like it's worth it as the girls seem to sleep better when they get more calories and of course we want them to continue to gain weight.

Naps: Naps are still going great! The morning nap is about 1-1.5 hours and the afternoon nap about 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes the morning nap is cut short if we are going out somewhere or if I want the afternoon nap to be especially long, but that doesn't really have an impact on their moods during the day. I am so thankful for great nappers and I hope they continue to nap well for the next few years!

Bedtime: Bedtime is still going great. We have started to put Faith in the guest room at night as the girls were waking each other up and we would end up with a hysterical baby in the middle of the night. Separating them has helped us all sleep better, and eventually we will move Faith back into her crib. Jack still sleeps through the night, although the other night he was pretty upset around midnight but I think that may have been teething pain.

Favorite foods:  Definitely Sweet Potato and Chicken puree....they can't get enough! They also love a Banana, Zucchini, and Amaranth puree that I had bought online (I had a ton so it's a good thing they loved it, but now it's gone!). I have made some of my own baby food (sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, black beans, and rice) and I've mashed banana and avocado, but I've been mixing this into store bought baby food as they seem to enjoy purees with multiple ingredients more. The store bought purees also tend to be thinner so mixing something I made with that gets it to a good consistency. They really like yogurt which we do most mornings for breakfast. They love banana and avocado in their mesh feeders, but they don't like it as much mashed because I can't get it very thin when I hand mash it. They still love teething wafers and we've recently introduced yogurt melts and puffs which they all enjoy eating.

Food dislikes: Any plain green vegetable (green beans, peas, etc). Anything with lumps or that is thick.

Likes: Being tossed in the air by Daddy, funny noises, watching people dance or jump, getting tickled, musical toys, watching each other play, touching each other (and everyone is getting more tolerant of this as well). When everyone starts getting fussy, a walk is always a great thing! They also seem to enjoy going to stores as they all love to people watch.

Dislikes: Getting faces cleaned after eating and getting diapers changed (everyone wants to roll away now).

Our milestones: All three sit great now. Although they occasionally fall backwards, we no longer put pillows behind them as most of the time they are fine and they can safely get out of a sitting position when they want to. 

Faith goes on all fours all of the time and sometimes she'll move a hand or leg, but when she really wants to get somewhere fast she resorts to her army crawl (which is really just her left arm and right leg doing all of the work). It is almost time to put up the baby gate as Faith has ventured into the living room many times to check out the cat scratcher and the living room is not going to be baby proof. Faith also crawls into the kitchen now to look out the slider door or check other stuff out. 

Lexi still resorts to rolling to get places, but it is a very intentional roll as she sees a toy she wants or somewhere she wants to go and she just starts rolling there! I don't think she's anxious to crawl since her rolling works out so well. 

Jack might be doing a tiny bit of scooting (I never actually see it but somehow he seems to move around a little), but mostly he just pivots around and he does seem to get upset that he's stuck while the girls move around him. He still loves to stand and is pretty strong, but I'm trying not to encourage it too much right now as I know it is important for his development to learn to crawl first.

Things we do to make Mom and Dad smile? We love when they interact with each other and giggle with each other. It's fun to hear them say words like mamamama, dadadada, and recently Jack has started saying something that sounds like gooey, gooey, gooey. The other day Faith figured out how to get the lid off of the Cetaphil lotion tub and she got it all over the place, including in her mouth. Although we had a mess to clean up, I loved seeing her get into "trouble" like that as it means she is a smart, healthy baby. I really worried about all of them while they were in the NICU, and especially Faith since she was there for an extra 2.5 weeks, but stuff like this is proof that they are doing great. Pretty much everything they do makes us smile.


Our Pictures


ALEXIS

JACK

The rash on his face is from the teething drool. Poor little guy!

There's his one and only tooth!

FAITH

We couldn't get her to stay in one place as she kept crawling to us!

All fours! Smiling at Daddy :).

Crawling to Daddy during her photo shoot

ALL TOGETHER (L to R: Faith, Jack, Alexis)

Jack is a thumb sucker

The only one where they are all looking at the camera. This is getting harder as they get more mobile and interested in their surroundings (and each other).

The mat has become the new favorite toy. After the photo shoot Alexis pulled most of it apart. I've found this is also a great teether :).

Faith crawling away

I was glad Micah was home to help as usually I do this myself but it is exhausting!

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 :).