How's
that for alliteration?! Last weekend we had a gogreous sunny and suprisingly sunny
Saturday so we took the triplets to the beach. (There I go with the S's again!)
About 25 minutes from our house there is a little lake with a small beach that
we have heard people talk about, but never actually been to. It was so sunny
and nice that Michelle decided to play hookey from PhD Land and just spend the
day with us. We wanted to do something fun and outside so we decided to check
out Whipple Dam. We left a little after nine and hoped that the kiddos might
take a little car nap on the way. Naturally they fell asleep about ten minutes
before we got there! We folllowed a handful of other cars into the park and
thought that was odd, but we were blown away by how packed it was. We got out
of he car and at first glance it looked like the entire lake was surrounded by
fishermen standing practically shoulder to shoulder and we were ready to bail.
But we were meeting a friend there so we decided to stay and after a little
investigation we found out that it was opening day of trout fishing season!
Thankfully, there was no fishing from the beach so it worked out just fine.
While we were
playing in the sand I stumbled on a fun and super easy balance activity for
toddlers and thought I'd share. You know how toddlers just LOVE to knock down
block towers, and basically destroy just about anything?! Well, they also LOVE
to stomp on and destroy sandcastles! Their initial instinct was to just squat
down and smash them with their hands, but with a bit of prompting and just a
little support at first they got the hang of stomping on them and then that was
all they wanted to do. I just used one of their little stacking cups that we
brought to the beach and kept scooping up sand and making mini castles and they
would just follow me around stomping on them left and right.
Oops, he missed...
And Avery jumped in & stomped it before he could
Why do I like this
activity? Well, in order to stomp on the castles they have to briefly stand on
one foot. And while most of us don't spend much time each day standing like
flamingos, we do stand on one foot at least a few times most days. If you stand
up to put on your pants or your socks or shoes, you are standing on one foot.
By the age of three most children should be able to stand on one foot for at
least three seconds with a stable trunk and hands on their hips. If you don't
get to the beach as often as you'd like you can also work on single leg balance
by having kids kick balls, knock down block towers with their feet, try to pop
bubbles with their toes, or stand up to put their feet in shoes (even if you
have to help a little.) Just being at the beach is great for working on balance especially for toddlers who have been walking for a few months because just walking on the uneven sand and in shallow water is a great balance challenge!
This morning we decided to tackle an art activity! The other day I tried making paint bags, but we didn't have tempera paint so I followed a recipe online to make my own paint and, well, it was a total flop! The paint was way too thin & just sunk to the bottom of the bags rather than staying wherever they squished it. So today when they wanted to paint I decided to use the paint from the bags so it wasn't a total waste!
Pinterest fail!
Michelle has done a couple of poster presentations this semester and it turns out that those posters make excellent art spaces for triplets! Here are some pics from the event. And yes, it was an event! Though I will say that they actually stayed put on the paper for at least 15 minutes straight and our new Melissa & Doug no-spill paint cups worked great!
top view early on
And a little farther into it...
"whadya think Mommy?!"
Isaiah concentrating on adding red!
Ellie & her green paint...
Avery branching out to a new spot on the paper
showing off their work to Hope!
And once painting the paper got old, they moved on to painting their legs!
Shortly after the body painting commenced they started looking for new canvases around the house so I had to quickly round up all the painting supplies and get everyone's feet & hands wiped off! The paint recipe was kind of sticky so painting led directly to our next activity for the morning...bath time!
I have been thinking about writing this post for months because I don't think I've written anything about nursing since the summer. We are still nursing the babies, but probably 3 months ago or so we cut down to 2-3 times a day. We still nurse them when they wake up in the morning and before bed and if one or both of us are home then we typically nurse them in the middle of the day before their afternoon nap. Then of course there are the times when someone wakes up from a nap incredibly sad or has a serious wipeout and needs some extra help settling down. I don't think we set out to nurse them this long (I know Michelle's original plan was 6 months!), but it's just part of our routine right now and I for one am not really ready to be done. Michelle is definitely more ready to be done, but the babies are to blame for that because they are definitely NOT ready to be done and in fact are currently kind of obsessed with nursing and Michelle has had it with having little hands diving down her shirt requesting milk the second she walks in the door!
It is hilarous to think about how different nursing these three is now compared to a year ago. I know this evolution happens for every mom who nurses into toddlerhood, but there are definitely some things that are different with multiples and some that are unique to having two moms both nursing triplets.
I don't know, but I suspect that other moms nursing toddlers are familiar with what we like to call "nursing yoga" where their little ones practically do sun salutations or work on their cirque du soleil routines all with your nipple in their mouth. Their favorite yoga pose is standing on one leg with the other kicked up behind, similar to this standing bow pose!
Avery has tried to up the ante a bit by trying to do a plank while nursing by putting both feet up on the crib behind her! Another favorite nursing game over the past few months include the ever popular "nipple peekaboo" where they either take our hand or put their hand on the nipple to play peekaboo a few times before re-latching. Isaiah prefers the more traditional version of covering his one eye and playing peekaboo because then he can keep nursing! (smart boy!) We are also super into body parts and what better time for a review session than while nursing, right? Some current favorites include eyebrow, cheeks, chin, lips, teeth, and of course nipple and breast! Intermittently stopping nursing to blow a few quick raspberries on Mama's belly or breast is another funny one.
They sometimes like to give their loveys a nip of milk too. =)
Only moms of multiples though can truly appreciate the challenge of trying to referee a tandem nursing session. What does that even mean you ask? Well, remember, these guys are toddlers now and they don't stop being toddlers while they're nursing so the urge to test limits and annoy their siblings remains strong! It is fairly routine to have to employ mama handcuffs to prevent hair pulling, eye poking, and other "annoy my nursing buddy" tactics. Now, to offset those particularly obnoxious moments there are also occasional moments of incredible sibling sweetness where one will reach over and give their nursing buddy a back or head rub or try to hold hands.
hard to say whether Avery is getting a back rub and a head rub
at the same time here or if Isaiah is about to pull her hair!
The one thing that I suspect is unique to our situation and is also quite hilarious to watch is the game of musical nipples. Avery started this game a few months ago and it took us a little while to catch on to her plan. She would stop nursing and start saying "shhhhhh" and after a bit we figured out that she was trying to say "switch" because she wanted to switch spots with someone! Now they all do it and pretty much every night now someone initiates a switch and often there are multiple switches. I think this concept is pretty hilarious and most of the time the others are pretty amenable to the swap though sometimes we have to negotiate a trade. Lately they've also started saying switch when they want to switch sides.
If I'm the only one home before a nap and decide to nurse them we have a lot of these negotiations and do a lot of slowly counting to ten before switching so the third baby can get a little milk too. I am actually amazed at how cooperative they typically are about taking turns most of the time. Though there are times like the photo below where the third just tries to nudge someone out of the way using his or her head!
just in case you were wondering, no, I do not have 3 nipples
maybe I can get milk from Isaiah's head?
(or maybe if I bite his head he'll get outta my way?!)
And then when it was time to switch Isaiah tried to get milk from her cheek =)
I don't know how much longer we will end up nursing, but but it has been quite an adventure thus far and one I'm so thankful to been able to be a part of! Love these crazy little toddlers!
Our kiddos are still obsessed with being outside and we are so happy that the weather is finally nice and we can actually make that happen! We have been spending a ton of time outside and enjoying it!
On Monday afternoon we hung out at the arboretum children's garden (which will be MUCH prettier once things are actually blooming!)
gotta love attempts to get pics of all three now!
playing music in the treehouse
We had a picnic too
They all insisted on trying my bubbly water....
And after playtime we had a good time playing in a field...
Ellie wasn't so sure about the whole barefoot thing at first...
but she came around!
gang up on Mommy time!
upside down Elle-belle
"spin!!"
I loved this pic I took of Ellie & then decided I needed similar ones of everyone...
We had a pretty low key Easter day today which was pretty lovely. We did a couple of Easter-y things over the past couple of weekends and today we just enjoyed a day at home with an afternoon trip to the park. Here are some pics of our Easter festivities & some pics from today...
skipped morning nap for their first easter event...can you tell?
brave boy!
nice low key low pressure intro to the big bunny
only one willing to sit with him!
but the girls did give high fives
another high five!
all in the pic plus their little buddy
not so sure about these ears Mom!
a quick snuggle with Grandma!
surprise! here I am!
(they were all hiding behind the decorations & running out!)
sooo cute!
well....a holiday mixup? Our friends brought that for collecting eggs
Isaiah had other plans!
opening gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Stephen
big bags! what's in there Avery?!
the grass might have been the most coveted item in the bag!
Avery was putting grass between her toes & on her head, etc
apparently buckets on your head is a thing now!
killing a little time before the egg hunt at our favorite local cidery!
waiting for the "hunt" to begin!
and the hunt is on! I was WAY too busy trying to keep track
of all three of my little hunters to take pics, but our friend snapped this one
of her daughter who just charged out into the field! Thankfully all 3 of ours
stayed close by!
We had to start the morning off with bunny pancakes today!
the blueberry eyes & nose were the first to go!
oooh says Isaiah!
cards are sooooo fun! -Ellie
And the silliness continued....
We got outside for a while this afternoon & I tried to get cute pics of them with our spring flowers...
note the word TRIED above! =)
okay this one is kinda cute
and this one
"haha! I got you flower!!"
let's just say this is NOT how I envisioned this shot turning out!
BUT how great is Isaiah's windblown hair?!? =)
yup, that one was a fail too! but the flowers are pretty =)
a bunny ear selfie
one more goofy selfie
Michelle getting in on the fun while we did work tonight! =)
