Well, actually we left town to go see Santa, but those are minor details. We haven't talked a lot about Santa, but they have really been picking up on the idea and have been excited (or anxious) to see him. Ellie has been spontaneously saying "I love Santa!" When we talk about going to see him Avery got a little anxious and sometimes said "I scared," but other times would be excited to talk about him. So we figured she would be pretty nervous. We hadn't decided what our Santa plan was going to be, but a fellow rugby coach gave us a heads up that his law firm had a great Santa today our in Millheim so we decided to go for it and met up with some friends in the area and grabbed lunch.
Here are the pics...
playing trains while waiting for Santa
surprise! Look who was helping Santa today?!
"Hopey!"
Happy boy & his Hope elf
Well, 2/3 isn't bad right?
sooo close...
Ellie's favorite chair at lunch
proud boy who can blow his new train whistle from Santa
making coffee
serious little baristas
mmm...Ellie & Isaiah must make some good coffee!
Santa visit round 2
not bad
Michelle was REALLY happy for this one
watching Santa's Christmas train
wishing they were a couple inches taller =)
watching with friends...note the potato chip riding aboard the train...
Bernie made lots of little friends by sending chips around on the train
I’ve been trying to get this post written for close to a
week and just keep getting distracted by ten million other demands on my
time. Shocking, I know!
We are in the midst of yet another big transition in our
house! We had a lovely international
themed thanksgiving dinner with friends...
and then right after we bid them adieu
we also said hasta la vista to the cribs! Let me preface the rest of this post by asking all the parents reading this...when your kids were two, did you ever once think "Hey, we should invite their two best friends over for a sleep-over!?" NO! I didn't think so...
This was NOT the plan! I was in
the “cribs til three” camp, but realistically was really really hoping we could
make it until we moved next summer. Then
we could have big exciting big kid beds in the new house. But alas, it was not meant to be. They have been able to climb out of their
cribs for close to six months; you may recall seeing these pictures in
June. But after putting them in sleep
sacks for a couple days (which made it too hard for them to swing their leg up
to the top bar) they kind of got over it and the novelty of climbing out seemed
to wear off. And since then I don’t
think they have climbed out more than a handful of times, and even then, only
one at a time. I don’t know what was in
the air on Wednesday last week, but as I was trying to put them down for a nap
all three were repeatedly climbing out of their cribs. And they are so quick that by the time I’d
put one back in, the other two were out and running around the room like wild
hyenas. Now, if you had to guess who the instigator of craziness was going to be, who would you guess? Avery, right? But no, it was actually Ellie both at this nap and at a couple of bedtimes since who has been the most hyper and uncooperative! It was truly naptime
mutiny. Thankfully I was in a good
mental place for this trip to crazytown.
I feel like I tried everything. I
tried positive reinforcement for the two seconds one of them would stay put, I
stayed calm, I tried removing special things like a blanket or a stuffed animal
but nothing was working. And then I
walked out of the room because they were being so ridiculous and also so
hysterical that I could no longer keep a straight face and I couldn’t let them
see me laughing about it! I took this
video after I collected myself and prepared to walk back in. As you can probably hear in my voice, I was
still struggling to keep a straight face.
I tried putting the girls in sleep sacks, but they’re too big and strong
now and were still out in .2 seconds.
After this I went in and basically started the naptime routine over. We sat down to read books and again they were being super cute! All of this cuteness made it easier to stay calm about this craziness!
I thought maybe if I put all their mattresses on the floor
they would think that was cool and would buy in to laying down. They did…for half a second! But they were being so cute rocking and
singing to their babies/animals that I left them alone and just hoped that
eventually they would give in and crash.
That definitely did not happen.
And when Avery gets really tired she can get on quite a mean streak and
that is exactly what happened. As you
can see in the video she’s laying on the futon and then seemingly out of
nowhere she goes over and bites Isaiah on the back over and over again. So I went in and we had a little chat and I
got everyone settled down before leaving again.
That’s where the video picks up again and you can see her being so sweet
to Isaiah, patting him and then going to steal the elephant from Ellie because
he asked for it! She’s like Jekyll and
Hyde when she is tired! Unfortunately
she reverted back to biting later so I removed her and put her in a peapod tent
in the guest room where she promptly fell fast asleep! The other two never gave in and just didn’t
nap.
Shockingly that night all three slept in their cribs without much hassle, probably because they were so darn tired!
Naptime on Thanksgiving Day was shaping up to be just like Wednesday, and we only had two peapod tents as back up, so we opted to convert Avery's crib to a toddler bed and put the other two in the tents. Without the other two to interact with Avery settled down in her "big girl bed" right away.
So, after we finished our delicious Thanksgiving dessert the next night we proceeded to convert the other two cribs to toddler beds too. In hindsight, doing this on a night when the kiddos ate hardly any dinner and ate two desserts may not have been the best choice, but it went fairly well. Isaiah did end up sleeping in a tent in the guestroom and Michelle and I definitely stayed in a little longer than normal to help the girls settle, but they did it. We did have one teeny tiny little issue...
Poor thing had to poop and we didn't hear/understand her if she was trying to tell us. So she pooped in her diaper but then took her PJs and diaper off and put her diaper in the potty before promptly collapsing with her PJs around her ankles on the futon! But we cleaned her up and she settled pretty easily in her bed.
And the next night Isaiah decided to get on board and since then they've slept every night and naptime in their "big kid beds" and have excitedly showed them off to everyone who comes to visit or that we Facetime with. We started a sticker chart and that seems to be helping when they are testing the waters with getting out. I don't have any illusion that this streak will continue, but I feel okay about it knowing that we have the peapod tents as back ups. I think it was Thursday night that Michelle and I panicked about the fact that we only had two of those tents and promptly got on the internet and ordered a third! It will be good to have them for traveling anyway because they are so much smaller and lighter than pack-n-plays, so even if we don't really need it as a toddler bed back up, it will still be useful. In fact, yesterday at naptime Isaiah asked to sleep in the tent and then both girls joined in. Fine by me! As long as they nap I don't really care!
I have to say that this transition hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected, at least thus far, but they do seem to be having a little more trouble settling if they wake up in the middle of the night or too early in the morning. This morning I was in their room settling one after the other from about 4:30 on. I'll keep you posted!
So, I never wrote a follow up post about our first trip away
from the kiddos. All in all, it was
great. Michelle was pretty exhausted
from all the time spent networking and presenting at the conference and spent
most of the trip limping from a combination of blisters and too many hours
standing on cement. I spent a lovely
morning sitting at a coffee shop working with our friend Marty who flew in from
Seattle to hang out. We ate a ton of
delicious food, enjoyed a couple of happy hours with Marty and classmates from
Michelle’s program, and even did a bit of shopping. The hardest times for me were when I would
see other little ones in passing. But
honestly, it was shockingly easy to slip back into my pre-kids, big city
lifestyle for a few days. And we kept
getting cute pictures of the kiddos off on a variety of adventures with Grandma
and texts that they were doing well, which made it much easier to just relax
and enjoy the time away.
yes, we did spend a lot of time eating & drinking ;)
On Friday
afternoon we tried to FaceTime the kiddos and that was a mistake. They were super happy and excited to see us,
but the internet was iffy at the convention center so we lost them multiple
times. And I think they realized we
weren’t coming home right away and got pretty sad, especially Avery who just
started crying. (Michelle and I were right that she would have the hardest
time.) That was the hardest moment of the trip for all of us I think. Denise said overall they did really well, but
generally missed us the most whenever they were waking up in the morning or
from naps. They had a great time with Michelle's family and went on lots of adventures!
We got home from Denver on Sunday afternoon and all three
were napping so we didn’t get a joyful “run to mommy” welcome home, but
they certainly were happy to see us when they woke up. We got lots of good hugs and snuggles that
afternoon.
welcome home snuggles
We weren’t about to start a
10hr drive at 4pm so we drove home all day Monday making for a long long
day. And because I missed Monday and had
a couple of quarterly review meetings my work week was jam packed Tuesday
through Thursday. And of course,
Michelle has been trying to get a ton of work done this week too. Between that and just having been out of
routine for a week, this past week has been a rough one. I’m sure it is a combination of factors, but I completely
lost my parenting groove making this past week feel even harder. I’m sure some of it is that we’ve all been
off our normal routine for a week but I also think being completely “off duty”
for five days seems to have reset my
sense of “normal” or made me forget how much energy a typical day with triplets
requires. I have just been off my game
all week and even just having the mornings and evenings with the kiddos has
felt so hard. I’ve been more easily
frustrated with their typical toddler refusals, constant dawdling, whining or
crying for what they want, and what feels like constant fighting. When I’m not completely immersed in it I can
see that it’s really just typical two year old behaviors and no different than
before the trip and that there are lots of cute and fun moments too. But in the moment, it’s hard to see and feel
that. I was looking for a crabby whiny kid pictures to add here, but
when I'm "off my game" I can't step back enough to take a picture so all I found where cute and silly pics and videos like these two!
Update:
I started writing this post on Friday or Saturday. It is now Tuesday and I am happy to report
that on Sunday things started to turn around.
I’m starting to get my groove back and can feel myself having more
patience and having an easier time staying calm amidst the chaos. That is the key to sanity I think when trying
to parent triplet two year olds…finding a way to find, be, and model calm
amidst the chaos. I think I just found
my own new internal mantra. =) Here’s to
a better week and lots more calm amidst the chaos!
Today marks a big milestone!
It’s our first time leaving the kiddos!
Michelle and I are on our way Denver for four days and the kiddos are
staying with Grandma Stephen! Now, we
aren’t exactly going on vacation per se, since it’s for the American Speech-Language
and Hearing Association conference, but it’s still four days and four nights of
not being responsible for three little people.
And our friends Marty and Carrie are flying in from Seattle to connect
with us and keep me company while Michelle is busy networking and presenting
four posters. We did one poster together, which is how I justified tagging
along for this trip. =)
Originally I just wasn’t going to go, but we thought maybe
it was time for us to give it a try! So
Michelle called her mom and somehow convinced her that she could take on this
challenge! We thought maybe we would fly
Denise down to State College so the kiddos could just be home, but then we
looked at flights and it would’ve been almost $2000 for our flights plus
Denise’s so in the end we opted to drive up to Chicago and fly from there. Denise has been recruiting help and when she
told her best friend from high school that she was going to be watching the
triplets, Marie offered to fly out to help!
The kiddos are excited about seeing Marie, who we stayed with on our
weekend in Connecticut this summer. And
Auntie Tracy, Auntie Jess, and Grandpa will all be chipping in to help
too!
I’m going to be very interested to see how we all handle
this new experience. I think I’m probably
most nervous for Denise! She is going to
be exhausted by the time we get back on Sunday!
Michelle and I are doing well so far.
I will admit I got a little misty eyed putting them down for nap today
knowing I wouldn’t see them for four days.
The only time I’ve been away from them is one night when I had my
hysterectomy last summer! Michelle went
to this same conference last fall so she’s been away before, but she knew I was
still there with them. While we waiting
in the security line Michelle and I were theorizing about which of the kiddos
would likely have the hardest time with us being away and we both put our money
on Avery. That being said, they are all
VERY excited to see Grandma and the rest of the family so they might not miss
us a bit. =) I’m guessing the toughest
times for them will be bedtime and first thing in the morning, but we’ll see! I know Grandma has a lot of fun things
planned for the kiddos while we’re gone!
I’m hoping they can find a little time to Facetime with us!
Michelle and I will be challenged to balance enjoying the time
with our friends and taking advantage of the time to sleep! We started off the trip with a delicious taco & tequila dinner with Marty. =)
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.
