Thursday, October 29, 2015

Fun Fall Day!

Today was an especially fun day and we took a bunch of pics so figured I'd throw them in a post! We spent the morning at the arboretum.  I'm really going to miss this place when we move next summer!
they have some great fall decorations!
"cheese!"


"up so high Mommy!"

a bowl full of pumpkins!
that pumpkin probably weighs 4x what she does!



walking to the cave


make that running to the cave!




running through this tunnel is a game that never gets old!

on the move!

sooo happy!


such a pretty place to play!


climbing the caterpillar



this is his new face...duck lips...
he was very attached to the raccoon & the ram!
 

"Mommy, help you balance!"

 

After naptime Michelle had set up a few fun little art projects for them!
sweet potato painting

painting fall leaves with fingers

and thumbs...

And then tonight was trick or treating in State College so we took the kiddos out for a brief test run of trick or treating.


 

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Terrific Triplet Twos Here We Come!

We are almost two weeks into having three two year olds and we are alive, so that's a win, right?  Seriously though, these three are sometimes a lot to manage, but they are also tons of fun.  I'm sure I'm going to miss a ton of things they are doing in this "wrap up" post, but I wanted to make sure to get it up and done so we don't forget any of this cuteness!


They are growing up so fast and getting big.  We had their two year well check up this afternoon and Avery is the only one still under 25 pounds.  Here are their stats:

Ellie-33.75in (46%tile), 26lbs4oz (43%tile), 48cm head circumference (63%tile)
Isaiah-33.5in (24%tile), 25lb (14%tile), 49.5cm (71%tile)
Avery-33.75(46%tile), 24lb, 4oz(17%), 47cm(35%tile)
(I still think Ellie is taller than either of the other two or at least has longer arms because she can reach things more easily!)
I think you can appreciate the size difference in this pic
and this one shows how close these silly kids are in height
They are talking so much.  It's crazy to hear the things coming out of their little mouths sometimes!  It's changed a lot even in the past couple of months.  The nice thing is that we now understand what they are saying a lot more often, even out of context. And they are pretty persistent with helping us understand if we don't, meaning they are much less content with us saying "oh really, yeah, okay, etc." if we don't get it.

They have also been singing a lot more these days.  Some favorites over the past couple of months have been The Farmer in the Dell, Ring around the Rosie, ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle.  They're all pretty consistent with  identifying colors these days though black, white and brown still get mixed up every now and then. Tonight they all claimed pink as their favorite. They are also really good at "reading," aka filling in the end of sentences in books we've read over and over.  Have you heard of the campaign to get kids to read 1000 books before kindergarten?  I'm 100% positive that we top that number every year.  These kiddos really like to read books and now have the attention span to start to handle a little longer books which has been fun.  They really like Go Dog Go now, which has been great for learning opposites like over/under and in/out.  Their pretend play has also really expanded in the past couple of months and they are playing with instead of just next to each other more and more.  When they cook in their play kitchen they make a variety of food and not just "noodles!" over and over again.  They are all very into their "babies" and have each claimed one as their own pretty consistently.  They like to push them in their doll strollers, wear them in carriers, nurse them, rock them, take them on bike rides and of course, periodically drop them on their heads or abandon them outside!
 
Ellie

 

 
Ellie has kind of taken on more of a leader role lately and for the most part has really just been a joy to be around.  Most importantly to our mommy sanity, she has gotten over her whiney clingy mornings. She seems to be picking up on a lot of concepts, like colors, numbers and letters, very quickly and is the first to answer almost every question we ask when we are reading books and such.  I can't quite describe it, but Ellie has a way of saying things that is particularly adorable.  She generally has the best pronunciation of words so when she mixes things up it just seems so cute.  One of my favorites is that she says "banama!"

Ellie continues to love the color pink and is excited to pick out her clothes and get dressed every morning.  The choosing process is sometimes agonizingly long and I think now that we've switched to fall/winter clothes she seems to think there isn't enough pink or dresses to choose from.  Oddly we have a super cute pink polka dot dress and she doesn't seem the least bit interested in it!  And there's a cute pink shirt with a little design on the front and I suggested it the other day and she said "no, too fancy!" She's a character!

Ellie is also particular about her food and is our pickiest eater. This is relative because really they are all good eaters and fairly adventurous, especially for toddlers, but Ellie has started the classic "I no like it!" when we put her plate in front of her and before she's even tried it.  She has also started requesting "different food," which is tricky because we are working hard to avoid the trap of making two different meals. Ellie has really picked up on the use of polite words and is quick to say please, thank you, and sorry and will even say "bless you" after we sneeze, and also sometimes if someone toots!

Now that the outdoor pool has closed we rejoined the Y and have gone to the indoor pool a few times and Ellie has really gotten brave and is swimming like crazy.  She has also learned how to gallop and likes to randomly gallop around.  It's pretty cute (and drives Avery nuts because she can't quite figure it out). Ellie also learned to jump down from about 4-6 inches with a two foot takeoff and landing.  And with a little help she has started to get the idea of pedaling a tricycle.

Avery
 




Avery is still a mover and a shaker.  She has the hardest time sitting still and is the hardest to keep track of because she'll see something (often an animal) and want to go check it out.  She was the first one to insist on doing everything herself and probably says "self" or "Avery do it" about 30 times a day.  Her determination and persistence with doing things herself have paid off and she can get shirts over her head now and occasionally get her arms in, though more often than not the neck hole ends up around her waist!  Avery has also figured out how to get all her clothes off, which is tricky since her preferred state of being is "nakey!!"  She has had the hardest time with the change in  the weather since we are now insisting on clothes when they go outside! The fact that she can get her pants and undies down by herself is handy for using the potty though and she is the most independent with that.

Avery continues to be our biggest animal lover and she says "pet the dog" EVERY time we see a dog!  She is very sweet with animals and is very empathic, sometimes to the extreme.  The other day we saw a deer that was limping and I said off-handedly to Michelle that maybe her leg was broken.  Well for many days afterwards Avery would say "deer has broken leg!" sometimes accompanied with a sob or wail.  She couldn't let it go in the car one day so Michelle tried to reassure her that the deer would be okay because it had four legs and could still walk on three.  Well she got out of the car and then wanted to know if she could walk on one leg, lifting up one of her legs! She's actually pretty good at balancing on one foot. =) Her empathy also extends to her siblings  and she is really super sweet to them if either of them gets hurt, coming over to give them a pat on the back or a hug.  The other day Isaiah was crying and she went up to him and said "What's the matter buddy?!" and gave him a little pat and kiss on the head.

Avery has had the hardest time catching on to counting and for a while was stuck going 1, 2, 1, 2...now she usually says 1, 2, 3...6, 7, 8, 9, 10.  She does seem to have a knack for language though and is often the first to try out new grammatical concepts like "-ing" and past tense and is the only one who consistently says "pick me up" instead of "pick you up" and is more consistently using "I" instead of saying Avery all the time.

She is still the most adventurous when it comes to climbing at playgrounds and will try just about anything.  Interestingly, she seems to have the most fear of heights and will crawl across bridges and platforms with a more open design while the other two will walk. 

Isaiah


 

Isaiah continues to be the goofball of the crew.  He has the best laugh and laughs the most!  Isaiah has the longest attention span of the three and is the most likely to get absorbed in play.  He is also the most persistent with fine motor tasks like trying to put puzzles together.  All three kiddos have been enjoying playing hide and seek, but Isaiah LOVES it!  The only trouble is that he often has very specific ideas about what people, especially his moms, should be doing and will lose it if things don't go exactly the way he wants.  He especially likes it when Michelle or I hide under the covers with him on the bed and has a hard time moving on from that spot. Speaking of beds, Isaiah continues to be our little nighttime/early morning snuggle bug. He loves to snuggle with his moms and I think he really likes the big beds.

Isaiah is very concerned about keeping doors closed!  He is constantly closing the gate or the doors and locking his sisters in or out of a space.  He was also  the first one to figure out how to open door knobs, though thankfully not all of them are easy enough for him yet!  He likes to open their bedroom door and go out into the hallway saying "bye bye! see ya!" and then come running back in just like in the picture above.

Isaiah is our music lover!  He is the most likely to break out in song and start bee-bopping to any music he hears.  He's the first to pick up on new songs and was the one who started the Farmer in the Dell craze around here!  He's also the most into trains of the three of them, which you might say is so typically boy, but has no issues bucking the gender stereotypes and periodically chooses to wear one of the girls' dresses and loves their neon yellow and pink shoes!   

Isaiah has been talking a ton more, but still babbles a lot too.  He can just go on and on and on in gibberish with an intelligible word here and there in a string of nonsense.  In general his language seems to come in fits and spurts rather than just continuing to expand on a linear path and I think the gibberish just fills that space where he has a lot to say, but doesn't have all the words figured out yet.  He loves counting to 10, but skips 5 almost every time!


#terrifictriplettwos here we come!

 

 

 

 

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Second birthday fun!


We've had three two year olds in the house now for a week and we are still alive, though barely, but not because of the two year olds, just a nasty cold they passed on to us that has settled in my sinuses and Michelle's throat.  I really want to get a two year old wrap up post done so we don't forget all the super cute things these kiddos have been doing over the past couple of months, but I don't think I have that in me tonight so I'll just recap their little birthday celebrations tonight.

Friday morning Avery was up super early so she and I went on a special mission to the co-op in Ithaca.  We were on a mission to find whip cream and sprinkles and candles for some birthday pancakes.  We failed on the whip cream so opted for ice cream instead. =)  (oh and we also had to get some good coffee for the mommies and auntie! and some breakfast sausage for Ellie, our little sausage lover)  The kiddos thoroughly enjoyed their birthday pancakes and ate pretty much every last bite.  I think ice cream on birthday pancakes might have to be a new birthday tradition, though I think Michelle begs to differ. =) (one failure was that there were no matches in the vacation rental so the candles were just for show!)




After breakfast they got to open a couple of little presents including a tube of bath paint so they took a bath while Michelle and Jess packed us up and got us ready to leave the "vacation house."

Once we were loaded up we headed over to the Ithaca Science Center and spent the morning there since it was another 50 degree chilly day and we wanted them to burn off some energy before we hopped in the car to drive home.  They had a good time exploring the various exhibits both inside & out.






the hand dryer in the bathroom was a bigger hit than most of the exhibits!
We ate lunch at the Ithaca bakery before starting the drive home & the kiddos split a cookie that was the size of their head.

They all took a pretty good nap in the van on the drive home, but weren't too happy to still have a ways to go when they woke up.  When we pulled up to our house Isaiah started crying saying "'cation house, 'cation house, go 'cation house" because he wanted to go back to the vacation house!  Once he got over that we had some dinner and they got to open some more presents.  Grandma Rae & Grandpa Mark sent hula sets for each of them, which of course we had to try on right away.  It was pretty freaking adorable & I'm looking forward to more hula practice in the weeks and months to come.  Here are a few not so great pics of their first time in their hula skirts plus a couple of quick little videos.
I love the coconuts! =)
some is excited that her skirt is pink!



Friday night after the kiddos were in bed we went into planning mode to figure out what to do for their party the next day because it was supposed to be a potluck at a local park with a bunch of families, but the weather was going to be cold and rainy!  After lots of searching we initially planned to switch to a park closer to the house and then head back to the house for food, but by Saturday morning we decided to just have it at our house because it was really yucky outside.  So Saturday morning and nap time was a mad rush of cleaning and trying to prep the house to hold an extra 25+ people while also entertaining toddlers and prepping some food and birthday cupcakes.  In the end it turned out just fine and I think everyone had a pretty good time.  Isaiah didn't nap long enough and was pretty cranky for most of the party, but came around thanks to the bouncy house.  One of our good friends bought this bounce house and has been storing it at our house because they've been in transition with housing and it was a tight fit, but we got it into the screen porch and it was a big hit and made it way less crazy in the house! Here are a bunch of pics from the party...
I'm sooooo glad we got this picture because it captures his mood perfectly!
Grumpy gus holding his birthday balloon
thank goodness for the bouncy house!
look at all this yummy food!
and birthday cupcakes!
waiting for their birthday cupcakes
that was a lot of candles to blow out!
They wasted no time in digging in!


just making sure she got it all...
we managed to sneak in a quick family pic after the cupcakes...
well, after round one of cupcakes anyway...
Avery sharing her second cupcake with Mommy
Isaiah & Ellie moochng Hope's cupcake
look how cute I am...you know I need another cupcake mom!
And this series of Avery devouring her second cupcake was too good to not include the whole thing...





 Thankfully the kiddos could burn off some of that sugar in the bounce house...


triplet wrestling


Hope probably wished she hadn't started this game because then every kid wanted a turn!

 All in all our plan B 2nd birthday party was a success.  Sadly though, the kiddos did not seem to burn off all the sugar in the bounce house because it was a ROUGH night of sleep, which was exactly what happened last year after their cake smash on their birthday!  Might be a combination of things, but I'm definitely attributing part of the blame to the cupcakes!