Quilao Triplets: April 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kodak moments

One of my greatest challenges is taking a decent picture of my girls. All at the same time. All looking at the camera and smiling if I'm lucky. I usually try at least once a week. I bribe. I plea. I dance and shout and shake, rattle and roll trying to get a good picture.

This is the best shot of my most recent attempt. Makena looks like she's asking if I want a piece of her! This picture may not make it in a frame, but I know I will look back at it and remember my two year old beauties. And they're getting closer to 3 every day and I'm already catching glimpses of the handful they have yet to become.

April 2008-- 2 years, 8 months old

This was one of my earlier attempts to take a picture of the girls. I'd prop them up and try to take a picture quickly before they slumped over. Most of the time I lost the battle but the moment was still captured.

February 2006--5 months old

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Weekend pics

The girls enjoyed the warm weather this weekend and they were out in their pool by 10:30 this morning. The boys next door even joined us for awhile!

Lissy is going to be great at doing cannonballs in the big pool when she gets older! Or as she tells it, "My jump in the water!"

Makena Jo

I don't think Evan will be easily intimidated by girls when he gets older....looks like he's getting quite the stare-down! The girls really do love when they all get to play together.

Calum got his feet wet.

Riley ( her new favorite phrase is "No way!")

The conversation goes something like this....

Me: "It's time to get out of the pool."

Riley: "No way!"

Me: "It's lunch time"

Riley" "No way!"

Me: "Yep, and then it's nap time!"

Riley: "No way!"

Not sure what these two were looking at, but I thought it was too cute how they're all huddled together!

Lissy coming down the slide!

Keep the line moving......

Our cat watched the fun from our front window!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Role reversal

I came home from work yesterday and my three adorable children wanted to come with me upstairs while I changed my clothes. In the process of putting my “play” clothes on, I had to go to the bathroom. Of course, this can’t be done in private anymore. The girls want to pull up chairs and watch what happens when mommy goes to the bathroom.

Once the girls heard the tinkle-tinkle in the toilet I received a round of applause and Alyssa announces “mommy get M&M!”

What a huge relief for them….mommy is potty-trained!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Shhhhh.....don't tell your sister!

Occasionally, the girls are able to have a few stolen moments of individual time with us and we get to treat them to things they normally don't get to do.....like sitting on the kitchen counter to watch daddy make pancakes. It would be impossible to allow all 3 of them up on the counter because six little hands grabbing at the hot stove and all the appliances is too overwhelming and difficult to prevent. Because the girls sleep in separate rooms, we have times when only one child is awake and I always like to make that time a little special. We are able to read a book without fighting for lap space or we can walk to the mailbox and not fight over the keys or who gets to carry the mail. I always say "Shhhh.....don't tell your sister!"

I realize that it won't be long before they start spilling the beans and telling each other about their alone time with mommy and daddy. It's not so easy to do now, but as the girls get older I really want to make sure they get that individual attention every once in awhile. For those of you with multiples or more than one child, have you found ways to spend time with your kids individually?

Friday, April 18, 2008

The stats

The girls had a great check-up this morning and overall handled the appointment well. The girls are always a little scared about the doctor's office once we get back into the room. There were tears at first, but everyone settled down after they were weighed and measured. Makena is the most frightened of the bunch due to the extra year of RSV shots she received. She was older and remembers those visits. So it is nice when we get to go in and there is no pain associated with the visit.

We have also been watching the Elmo video were he visits the doctor. I spent some extra time talking to the girls about what to expect today and I think it helped. We practiced looking in each other's ears last night and talked about the doctor listening to their chest. Elmo is a rockstar in our house!

We kept the girls busy by letting them manhandle the computer while we waited for Dr. G.

Makena was so interested in watching Alyssa with Dr. G.

The stats are....

Miss Makena: 24 pounds, 11 ounces (5th percentile)/ 36 ¼ inches (49th percentile)

Miss Alyssa: 25 pounds, 5 ounces (10th percentile)/ 35 ¼ inches (25th percentile)

Miss Riley: 25 pounds, 6 ounces (10th percentile)/ 36 ¾ inches (62nd percentile)

We celebrated our successful visit with a yummy Jamba Juice...a favorite in our house. We are keeping the girls on whole milk for at least another 6 months to see if we can fatten them up a bit more.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Wordless Wednesday-MEOW!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sunday randoms

Today was another sunny day. Hot for April...close to 90 degrees. It felt like it was the middle of summer. So, what do we do when it's hot and I haven't bought the girls a kiddie-pool yet for the summer? We go over to my brother's house and dunk the girls in the drink cooler. My 3 girls and my niece fit inside and could barely move around, but they played in there like it was the best thing ever!

Later, we went over to the house next door because all the big kids wanted to go swimming in a real pool and since the water had finally reached 70 degrees, they thought it was warm enough to go swimming. My girls waded on the 6 by 8 foot step that is built-in on the shallow end of the pool. It was perfect for them. Until my daredevil Makena, decided she wanted to skip right into the pool and launched herself off the step. Thankfully, I was 2 steps behind her and grabbed her before she got too far, but she managed to dunk herself all they way under! She was ready to jump right back in too. Crazy girl.

The girls are talking so much and really showing their independence. They want to climb into their car seats and highchairs, which seems to test my patience on a daily basis when we have somewhere to go. They have opinions about what they wear and it cracks me up. Riley wanted to wear a certain pair of shoes the other day, so she said the shoes we had for her were too small and she wanted the pink ones. They tell on each other all the time now. Sissy pushed me, sissy took my toy, sissy pull hair....it's funny and even helpful now, but I can see what the next few years will bring. DRAMA!

The girls love to pretend they are cooking. Favorites on their menu are "roni-roni" (macaroni), a "cracker sandwich" and "dinner soup."

I was trying a dress on Riley recently and I told her she looked pretty. She looked at me and said, "like mama." My heart melted!

Alyssa is scared to use the potty after she accidentally pooped on it the other day. She hasn't sat on it since.

We have a check-up with the pediatrician on Friday. Can't wait to get current weights and heights and see how they are doing on the growth curve.

I can't believe how often I have to go to Costco. We go through milk and cheese like crazy.

That's all for my random Sunday thoughts. I'm off to bed.

Hugs!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Fun in the sun

We had beautiful weather here in California today. I think the temperature got up around 88 degrees and we soaked it up. I hauled my girls to the park in the choo-choo wagon this morning and worked up quite a sweat. I figure I'm pulling 75 pounds of toddler and 30+ for the wagon so it's good exercise!

We enjoyed the afternoon with BF Jess and her boys. The kids played in the sprinklers and ate ice cream cones! One of the things I LOVE about the warm weather is that I just hose the girls down before we come back inside.

Makena

Alyssa

Mmmm.....ice cream!

Calum ate the entire cone! Not bad for a 13 month-old!

Evan always helps me get the girls home safely by escorting them to our front door!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Three little monkeys

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Downward facing potty

The girls have come up with their own yoga method for coaxing the pee-pee out. Not the most conventional method, but as long as they are trying, I'll take it. They are enjoying the M&M prize at the end when they do manage to pee. Makena has also figured out a way to get as many M&M's as possible...she gives a little squirt and stands up for all the fanfare and retrieves her M&M. Then she'll sit down again and give another little dribble so that she can get another M&M. If she's lucky, she repeats the trick 2 or 3 times.

I have also figured out that I am a lazy potty-trainer. It's alot of work to....

take 3 sets of clothes off
monitor who is sitting on the potty
monitor who is running around naked (making sure they don't pee on the carpet by mistake)
when someone does go pee, I have to snatch up the bowl promptly before six admiring hands are splashing around in it
award the prize M&M AFTER cleaning hands of the toddler who just rubbed her hands all over her nether regions
try to put a diaper back on one trainee while the other two are either sitting on the potty or running around naked.
Dump pee-pee in the toilet and clean out the potty bowl
Assist the successful trainee in flushing the toilet
Eventually get everyone dressed again

So, I'm happy with the 1-2 times a day that the girls make it on the potty! We are still using chairs rather than the big potty in the bathroom, because they usually want to go pee together.

Go figure..... three girls already developing a co-dependent bathroom relationship.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Childhood Memories

I found this old picture of myself and I'm guessing that I was about 5 years old. The bunny pin stuck to my jacket clued me in that this must have been taken on Easter Sunday. The chair that I am sitting in, was an antique chair of my grandmother's. Many of my childhood pictures, specifically from holidays or special occassions were taken in this chair. My grandmother used to make clothes for me when I was a little girl and she made the pink jacket I am wearing. I really admire people who can sew. I think it takes such talent.

My grandma also used to make barrettes for me. Remember the ones with the thin ribbons that were braided into the barrettes? And to make it extra cool, you would put beads at the end of the ribbon that would whip you in the face when you shook your head from side to side?

My grandma was such a wonderful person. She had the kindest heart and was always so happy. One of my favorite memories from childhood was hanging out at my grandparent's house during the summer. Sometimes my cousins were there with me, but lots of times it was just me. One of our favorite games to play was Bingo and my grandma always had a bag of wrapped prizes for the winner to choose from. I would watch old episodes of "I love Lucy" or "Leave it to Beaver" while snacking on Velveeta cheese and fudgesicles. They had a crotchety old dog named Philly who would curl up with me on my grandparent's bed in the afternoon and we would take a nap.

Little things used to excite my grandmother. She used to tell us that she enjoyed getting the cute little gift bags with the pretty tissue paper and we didn't need to bother putting a gift inside. She went through her first drive-thru carwash when she was in her 60's or 70's with my aunt and I think she almost peed in her pants because she thought it was so funny. She would get a little tipsy off a glass of champagne on special occassions and giggle like she was a teenager.

She was full of life and laughter until the day she died.

I miss her.