Twenty-two month old triplets

our little artists...

So our triplets are now 22 months old.  I started this post two weeks ago and am just now getting it up.  I've noticed that over the past couple weeks, when people ask how old they are I say "they'll be two in October." rather than saying they're 22 months.  Maybe it's my own way of mentally preparing myself for that day!?!  Anyway, they are getting so big and doing and saying new things every day.  Michelle's family saw them at fourth of July and then again three weeks later and they were all shocked by how much more they were all talking. It is not at all uncommon now to hear three word sentences coming out of their mouths.  And they love to talk and love to listen to us talk about things we have done and people we know.  Whenever they start to get fussy in the car we try two things, 1) singing songs or 2) talking about people/things we've done.  They are very empathetic kids and whenever anyone is sad they want to talk about it over and over again! They have incredible memories.  And like most almost two year olds, a lot of what they say is pretty hard, if not impossible to understand.  With context we know what they are saying maybe 90% of the time, but without context, like when they are talking about things we did months ago, our understanding drops precipitously!  All three of them have started this cute thing of saying "mommymama, mommymama." And they are starting to talk to each other and play with each other a lot more too.

They have also gotten a lot faster, which can be tricky when they all head different directions!  All three have also learned to jump off the ground with both feet over the past two months, though only Ellie does it every time.  They are much more adventurous on playgrounds now too.  It is fun to watch them try new things.  (Stay tuned for an upcoming post about parenting on the playground!) They like doing more fine motor activities too like painting and coloring and puzzles now too. Over the past month we went "all in" with potty training and they're all doing very well.  It is far from perfect or stress free, but we are out of diapers completely when they are awake.  We still do diapers for naps and overnight, but they sometimes wake up dry, especially Ellie.  I'll have to write a post soon about the experience of potty training triplets! Oh yeah, and they learned to swim this summer.  Be sure to check out the video if you haven't seen it yet!  And I'm posting a new one tonight too!  They've really grown up a ton this summer!

taken 6/4/15

6 weeks later

Ellie

Ellie belle is getting so big!  She is definitely the biggest of the trio.  Ellie does like to eat, but she can get pretty finicky, especially at breakfast!  The girl does NOT like eggs 90% of the time, but then on random mornings she will gobble them up and ask for more.  Oh toddlers and their eating habits! Ellie has cut all four of her canines this month, but they are taking a long time to push through.  As they were emerging she went through a pretty rough period of biting, but that seems to be improving now.  This little girl LOVES her baby dolls and the color pink!  She is particularly obsessed with the "pink baby!"  She loves to push her baby around in the stroller that Grandma Stephen bought for them at a yard sale and put them to bed in a little crib.  The annoying thing is that she constantly asks us to do it for her and as soon as we put the baby in the stroller she takes it out and immediately asks us to do it again!  She likes to "pick" out her own dress/outfit in the morning and rarely chooses anything that isn't pink.  Ellie has a cute little voice and she was the first one to switch from calling Isaiah "Aya" to "A-yay-yah." She has gotten really good at counting to ten and can pretty much do it all by herself though she likes to do it with us.  Ellie LOVES to jump!  She is the best at jumping with two feet and wants to do it all the time, especially in the pool!  Ellie likes to practice things over and over to learn them.  She likes to play catch and worked very hard at learning to catch a ball.  She isn't as much of a water lover as the other two, but she has also learned to swim under water a couple feet by herself in the past couple weeks.

Avery

 

She may be our littlest peanut but it is not for lack of eating.  This girl could eat all day long.  She is definitely a grazer, but at some meals she can really pack away the food and we wonder where she puts it all!  She is also obsessed with nursing lately and gets pretty ticked when it's time to be "all done milk."  Speaking of, in a recent post we talked about how Avery tends to be pretty even keeled, but that is less and less the case lately.  Her tantrums tend to be pretty short, but they are happening pretty frequently when life doesn't go her way.  And let me tell you, this girl has ideas about how things should be and isn't afraid to tell you!  Avery probably has the most unique three word phrases of the bunch.  She really has a knack for words and grammatical structure.  Over the past month she has started using pronouns like "I" and "he" and has added -ing to verbs so now when we're out and about she'll just comment on the world around her and say "he's running."  She loves to "talk" and particularly likes us to talk about her little friend Noah.  Avery is a little fish!  The girl is gutsy and will jump off the bench in the pool and will even jump off the side of the pool.  And she will do it over and over again.  Unlike the other two Avery hasn't cut any new teeth yet. Avery is also our little baby and animal lover.  She spots doggies everywhere and wants to pet every single one. She also likes to pet babies! =)

Isaiah

He is a funny little boy.  Isaiah loves to be silly and watch your reaction.  His new thing is that he likes to jump up and instead of landing on his feet he just lands straight on his butt like he is on a trampoline, only he will do it straight onto the floor!  He loves to do it and just look at us and crack up.  Isaiah was the last one to learn to climb out of his crib, but the sleep sack worked wonders to keep him in the crib.  In fact, a few times he would start climbing out while I was still in the room and I would ask him if he needed his special blanket and he said yes.  So I put it just over his arms and didn't even put his legs in or zip it and he just laid down and went right to sleep!  So cute!  Isaiah's little voice is adorable.  He continues to be our biggest babbler and can go on long tangents with an intelligible word sprinkled in here and there!  He language has really blossomed this summer.  His cutest phrase hands down is "bye bye. see ya!" which he says repeatedly because he likes to to leave a room and then come back. He has a lot to say, but when he is even a little bit upset he has a really hard time using any of them! Isaiah has been in a rut lately of waking up from a great afternoon nap super duper crabby. =(  And sometimes he just wants to cuddle, but other times even when I try to cuddle him he throws a fit.  He has made huge progress with sleeping lately (see this post for more info), which has been a huge relief, though we do still have our occasional early morning snuggles. Isaiah also cut all four of his canines recently though there are just barely through the gums.  Since both of his sisters get to pick dresses hanging up in the closet he wanted to wear dresses too.  So we hung up all of his rompers and so now if you ask him what he wants to wear he will often say "dress." =)  And really, they are mostly like a dress because with this whole potty training gig we rarely snap the snaps!

These three continue to keep us on our toes!  Truly, they are all incredibly funny, loving, and sweet kiddos.  They are also wiley, busy, and testing little toddlers.  So ya know...on our good days, well, in the good moments, they are just a joy to be with and we love watching them interact with each other...and in the not-so-good moments they make us want to pull our hair out and run away.  But we never will, because, really, we can't imagine it any other way.  We are so lucky to have these three amazing almost two year olds in our lives.

 

Way too close to two!

Something about saying our babies are twenty months just makes them seem way too close to being two!  They are getting so big and so fun and so crazy! It's hard to believe how much they've changed in the past two months!  Looking through pictures I couldn't believe how much they've changed since the beginning of April! They are in the middle of a huge language explosion and I think we hear at least one new word a day from one of them.  They have the cutest little voices and it is getting a lot easier to understand them now.  They have a lot to say and are starting to get a little ticked when we don't understand what they are saying. They say each other's names all the time and it is adorable!  They like to say lots of names and will request that we sing the "hello" song from music class to various people (Abigail, Grandma, Grandpa, etc).  A couple nights ago Ellie decided we needed to sing hello to the milk too. =)  Silly babies we have!

running down the driveway

exploring at the Children's Garden

fun on our friend's porch swing!

ringing in 20 months with a bang--2 ear infections & the stomach bug =(
but making the best of the doctor appointment by ripping up the paper!

They also really like to all be together and whenever they are split up they can't stop talking about their siblings.  One day we went to the Y pool & Isaiah had a bloody mouth that wouldn't quit so I took him outside to the playground to play while Michelle swam with the girls and she said the girls could NOT stop talking about him and barely even wanted to swim.  And last week when I took the girls to the doctor and didn't bring Isaiah they asked about him about 50 times.  Over the past month or so they have also started to differentiate between Mama & Mommy.  The girls have it down and Isaiah transitioned from calling us both mama to now calling us both mommy most of the time or switching them. =)  Here are a few videos of them playing & then a quick snapshot of each of our beautiful babies over the past couple months!

Isaiah

gotcha mom!

concentrating hard

this boy LOVES sandboxes

his "Oh!" face!  He loves to pour water on his head &
tries to do it to the girls too, who are NOT fans!

Isaiah continues to be quite the little chatterbox!  He is particularly chatty in the car.  I wish I knew how to upload some of the recordings I have taken of them in the car on my phone because it is pretty hilarious and cute.  He finally has the language to show us how much he knows and it is a ton!  He knows and is willing to say pretty much any animal sound we throw at him.  And he and the girls can now fill in & request animals when we sing Old MacDonald or Down on Grandpa's Farm in the car.  Isaiah also really likes counting and says probably 75% of the numbers from one to ten and will say them in order to count with us.  Most of them only vaguely sound like the number because he is still missing a lot of consonant sounds, but he has the right vowels and inflection.  Two and six are his favorites I think.  He had his annual evaluation for early intervention a few weeks ago and as we expected he no longer qualifies because all of his scores fell right in the average range!  Hooray!  Here's a quick clip of him just jabbering away & clearly trying to tell me something!

Isaiah is still our little explorer and wanderer and the other day at the park he just decided to conquer this big grassy hill and made it all the way to the top.  Of course then he was stuck and too afraid to come down so I had to go rescue him! He's been kind of funny at the outdoor pool.  He loves the pool and is very brave and repeatedly puts his whole face in the water, but then gets unexplicably nervous at times walking around the splashpad area.  Isaiah has big feelings and when he's happy he's really happy and has contagious belly laughs, and when he is sad he is really sad!  As I was looking through pictures for this post I noticed that I have WAY more pictures of him crying/melting down that I do of the girls, and I think it's because it just happens more often and sometimes over the most ridiculous things.  Isaiah and I have been spending a lot of quality time together at night as I attempt another round of our co-sleeping night weaning plan.  It has been going pretty well and he's had multiple nights recently where he has slept from 7/7:30 until about 5 before waking up and needing help falling back asleep.  I'll take it!

Avery

getting dirty (probably as a ploy to get to go in & "wash hands"

happy girl bouncing on mommy's knees

super cutie

peeking...

Avery continues to be our most physical kiddo.  She LOVES to wrestle and over the past few weeks has adapted her strategy to get her siblings to wrestle her.  She used to give them hugs and then take them down, but lately she's been going for the submissive strategy and just lays on the floor and calls their names to entice them to come wrestle her.  Avery loves to climb on top of the big cozy coupe truck that we have, which makes us nervous, but she has been a little better lately about only doing it when we are there.  Her big crash when she stood up in the jog stroller and tipped it seems to have made an impression because now as soon as we see her thinking about standing up in a stroller we ask her what happened when she stood up in a stroller before and she immediately says and points to her nose, which is what she hurt in the fall.  Speaking of physical skills, Avery is basically diaper free now except at night.  She still has accidents and we are still working on getting the poop in the potty thing down, but overall she has been doing very well.  Two weeks ago she refused a naptime diaper and I told her she could try it and she has been dry every time since.  Of course then she got sick and had diarrhea for 5 days straight so that meant diapers all day every day so we'll see how she does now that she's better.  She loves to wash her hands and would do it a hundred times a day if we let her.

Avery is putting two words together pretty consistently and is pretty insistent with helping us understand what she is saying when we don't get it.  She has quite a screechy "no" these days and the other day she said no and crossed her arms.  We have no idea where she got that from!  Avery likes to pretend to make food for us and when you ask her what it is you are guaranteed to hear her say "noodles" because she loves a book we have from my mom about babies eating noodles.  She knows the book too and will pretend to get noodles in her hair and on her nose and in her toes too.  Avery is obsessed with babies and everywhere we go she asks if we are going to see babies.  She is sooo sweet with any babies we do see like at music class and is very very gentle with them, softly touching their hair.  It is pretty cute.  She is also pretty into her "Humphrey dog" as you can see in this video.

Ellie

our little thumbsucker =)

another happy bouncing baby (er...toddler!)

Super Ellie & her sidekick monkey!

just a stunningly gorgeous pic of Ellie!

and an extra pic that captures her truly cheesy smile!
(she LOVES getting to ride on the front bike seat with me!)

Ellie has the best cheesy smile and she gives it up freely pretty much any time you ask.  It is sooo fun and totally adorable!  Ellie has really gotten into jumping lately and a couple times has actually gotten both feet off the ground.  They all like to jump but Ellie & Avery have actually cleared their feet from the surface.  Ellie has also gotten really into and quite good at climbing!  I think she is probably a better climber than Avery though not quite as adventurous as Avery at climbing new things.  Ellie is also talking a lot and putting two words together a lot of the time.  She has the best pronunciation of any of them and is therefore the easiest to understand.  She busts out new words all the time that take us by surprise.  The other day her new word was "shadow."   Ellie is also really good at filling in familiar books.  They all do it now, but Ellie is probably the most consistent.  So we read the book but leave off the last word and she fills it in every time, even if she is off wandering around the bedroom.  Their favorite book to do this with is called Mommy, Mama & Me.

And just as Avery is obsessed with babies, Ellie is obsessed with baby dolls.  She loves her babies and likes to bring them with her wherever we go.  She also gets pretty territorial about whichever baby she is into at the moment and this has led to her new favorite phase "No, Mine!"  She has totally overgeneralized it and will say it when she just means no sometimes, but she does have the most developed sense of ownership I think.  Last night we gave them new water cups and this morning Ellie knew whose was whose despite the fact that she & Avery both had red cups, just with a different lid.  We were surprised!  Ellie is still the queen of snuggling and thumbsucking and she is still in a mama mama mama phase.  When she's not being clingy though she is super fun to play with.  Ellie has started to pretend to cook in their play kitchen and she and Avery in particular like to pretend to grab food from a book and take and share bites of it.  It is pretty adorable. Ellie has generally been pretty anti-wrestling, but over the last few weeks she's been coming around to it and latched onto a new game where she likes to ride on Isaiah's back. =)  Avery tries to entice Ellie to ride her back, but 90% of the time Ellie says "No.  Aya (Isaiah). Back."  It's adorable.  If you've been following us on facebook you've probably already seen this video, but it's so cute it's worth watching again!

Happy Half Birthday! 18mo wrap up

Wow!  Our babies are one and a half!  They are getting so big so fast!!!  They certainly are becoming their own little people with lots of their own ideas!  It's been fun to watch them starting to expand their play.  The tricky thing is that they are also starting to talk about things that aren't present, which is challenging because we still can't understand a lot of what they say!  Since our big trip to Seattle these kiddos can't get enough of being outside!  Thankfully the weather is starting to warm up so we can actually do it.  They're all starting to run a lot more now and are getting fast!

 Sleep continues to be a big challenge still 18 months later.  Isaiah went through a really rough patch where even when he woke up & was standing in his crib crying, he didn't settle when we picked him up and instead would ramp up even more and basically throw an all out tantrum, arching his back and screaming.  Thankfully he seems to have moved past that and generally snuggles in when I pick him up but he and Avery are still up at least twice every night and sometimes three times.  When they have a bad night then Ellie has a bad night and Ellie really needs a solid 12 hours of sleep to function.  And when she doesn't get it she can be pretty whiny and clingy the next day.  They are interacting with each other more and more every day and are often quite sweet to each other.  I got Isaiah's bear hoodie on him the other day and he walked the walrus over to Avery & handed it to her and then insisted Ellie take the dino hoodie (the ones they most often wear).  And there are lots of random "gentle touches" where they rub another kiddo's head or give them a "ba-ruh" (aka backrub).  It's really fun to watch!  Here's a video of Isaiah feeding Avery at dinner the other night and some other shots of them interacting.

kisses!

feeding the dog puppet blocks together

wrestling over the rugby ball

I attempted to get an 18 month group shot, but, well, group shots where everyone is looking and not cranky are incredibly difficult to get!  So here are some of the best ones!

everybody is looking!

Avery pointing out her pony

Ellie was over it, but Avery looks cutest in this one so had to include it

Isaiah

Our little dude has really grown up the past couple of months!  He has been making huge developmental strides, particularly in language.  Isaiah is quite the chatterbox these days!  He just jibber jabbers non stop though we can't really understand any of it!  He reminds me a lot of my little brother Matt when he was little with his non-stop talking. He does have about 50 words now though that we can understand, which is what you hope kids will have by 18 months.  He's even starting to put two words together every now & then.  Tonight he scooped a big bite of dinner and said "big bite!"  So cute!  He is our most skilled user of utensils and works hard to scoop and poke his food at meals.  He is also our little outdoor explorer.  He loves to wander and isn't afraid to go fairly far from us, which is a little scary because we have three kiddos to keep an eye on, but I also love seeing him just be brave and take off on his mini adventures.  Isaiah can be really sweet to his sisters, but sometimes he gets this mischievous look on his face & will do something he knows will annoy them.  Isaiah is still our biggest music lover and random dancer.   We started music class (a Christmas gift from my mom & dad) a few weeks ago and the LOVE it!  I'll have to write another post about music class soon, but he is a music class rockstar!  He really pays attention and imitates the teacher and other kids.

peek-a-boo!

"what?! "
just ridin' my giraffe listening to some tunes....

goofy boy wearing sunglasses in the tub!

my little outdoor adventurer!

buckethead!

Ellie

Ellie-belle really likes her personal space these days.  She can get quite the squeal/pterodactyl scream when one of her siblings touches her or snatches a toy, particularly if she has just woken up or hasn't gotten enough sleep in general.  Ellie loves her morning snuggles with mama and wants to snuggle for at least ten minutes before she wants to nurse. Really she likes to snuggle a lot throughout the day.  Lately if we're out & about she will go explore or play and then come running back to give me a big leg hug.  It's so cute! When she's not being snuggly though she can play independently quite nicely. She likes to walk holding hands and will just hold her hand out waiting for us to grab it.  Ellie is a big fan of her stuffed animals these days and carries them around.  They are all starting to really grasp the concept of ownership now and Ellie thinks it is really funny when we ask her who something belongs to.  The other day Michelle asked Ellie if the cup of coffee was hers and Ellie said "nooooo" and proceeded to say "noooo" over and over when asked if it was Isaiah's or Avery's and she seems to get a kick out of the ridiculous questions like "is it Humphrey's coffee" and will laugh while she says "nooo!"  Ellie has a ton of new words too and busts out new words at least once a day.  We can't keep track anymore!  Ellie also makes some hysterical faces these days!  She's sooo expressive with her face!

just hangin' at the park

the run back to mom & hug her legs smile

one of soooo many goofy faces

happy girl!

"cheese!

Avery

Our little peanut is the queen of pushing boundaries.  She knows the rules and likes to push the boundaries multiple times a day.  Michelle and I are frequently using our behavior analysis skills we learned during our time at the autism center!  There are times when it is clear that she is just looking for our reaction, so if it's not too dangerous we do a lot of ignoring.  Avery really likes interacting with adults and when she's not being a stinker to get attention she is being super duper cute!  She can really turn on the charm and does lots of sweet things like giving unsolicited hugs and backrubs. She also gives her siblings some great hugs and kisses.  Avery is going through a separation anxiety thing particularly related to naptime and bedtime.  She anticipates it coming and starts trying to stall with one more book, or milk, or "poop."  The request for the potty is the worst because we want to do anything we can to support them using the potty, but sometimes it very clearly seems like a stall tactic!   The great thing about Avery is that despite her sleep challenges she is rarely in a bad mood.  Sometimes she wakes up sad, but it doesn't usually last long and she is back to her happy even-keeled self. And like the other two she can bust out some goofy faces these days.  Her latest is that if she notices you are taking her picture she will give a big cheesy grin & instantly turn away from you as if to say "haha!  look how cute your picture could've been!"  Avery is also starting to sing since starting music class and it's super cute to listen to her little voice.  She has a big vocabulary now and is pretty persistent with helping us understand what she is talking about by adding gestures and showing us things when she can.  Avery continues to be our little gross motor girl and lately has been determined to be able to walk up and down short steps without holding onto anything.  She's taken a couple of tumbles, but she keeps trying and has mastered up to three steps in a row.

silly baby!

playing dress up

cheesin' it up in Hope's hat

another silly baby in sunglasses

safety first!