Babies' First Halloween; 9 Months Old!!!

Pics: Kendall Bunny. Clark's first "costume" as a pumpkin. Emma Bunny. Emma trying to stretch out in the choo choo wagon and see the stars. Clark and Uncle Tom. Sleeping bunny (K) and the other two party animals going for a Halloween stroll with Uncle Tom in front of the house. Sleeping bunny (E). Ems and Uncle Stevie having fun. "Uncle" Tommy and Clark (once Clark had switched to his other "costume" as the new UT football coach). "Uncle" Tommy and Kendall. "Aunt" Teff and Kendall. Clark's new "smile" where he opens his mouth really wide. Aunt Karen with Kendall (being a ham) and Ems trying to drink her bottle shortly after K climbed on Aunt Karen to try to confiscate said bottle. Nana reading a book with Kendall. Ems on mohawk hair night after baths. Clark's mohawk. Kendall's mohawk.

I'll update later. Babies on the move (it;s now really Saturday morning).

Our Little Pumpkin Patch

Well, it doesn't look like we will get the babies to an actual pumpkin patch, so we tried to get a few pics here at home. The PJs were a gift from Aunt Karen and Nana. The orange noses (see each baby) are a "gift" from all of the orange food that they eat everyday (including sweet potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, squash). I think that we will try to get the pics again as it wasn't a great night for Emma. Clark was very focused and somewhat serious in every picture. Kendall was a ham as usual.

We also had our first ride in our Choo Choo Wagon last Friday (10/17). Aunt Karen and Uncle Tom actually took them (after Mommy initially got them set up and went along for the first few minutes). Now that they are able to sit up on their own, they are finally able to use the Choo Choo wagon that Mommy has been dreaming about since she heard about the wagon from other triplet moms. The Choo Choo was a shower gift (the November 2007 baby shower) from Aunt Tami, so it's been in the dining room (now known as the Baby Super Zone)for almost a year. I hate it that she couldn't be here for the inaugural ride, but hopefully she will enjoy the pictures.

Aside from that, things are just trucking along. Teeth continue to torture all three babies as they are all getting new ones. Mommy, Daddy and the rest of the family and baby helpers are almost equally tortured. Clark appears to be getting about four new teeth and Emma is getting two, three or four (it's hard to see in there and they tend to bite). Clark's teeth are super sharp (shark teeth) and he bites down hard, so be sure you don't go sticking your finger in his mouth anytime soon. Kendall is still working on those first two teeth.

We are trying to back off of some of the orange foods because of the orange noses that resulted, but our understanding is that this isn't harmful....it just looks silly. We are grateful that they continue to be really good eaters. They eat pretty large plates of food three times a day. We try to give them mostly veggies and as much homemade stuff as we can produce, though it's only veggies (corn, peas, green beans, sweet potatoes and mixed veggies). We bought some frozen fruit also and plan to try that this weekend. A new food that was NOT a hit (though it came highly recommended) was avocado. All three gagged and spit it out. Mommy and Daddy have to agree with them on this one, as we are not avocado fans either. We are debating the introduction of meats. Some people say you can wait until after 12 mos old, others get started much sooner. We haven't really decided one way or the other, so I haven't added any to their diets yet, but we will need to work on adding proteins as they get older and drink less formula. There are other ways of adding protein and I would rather try them for now and leave the meat for later. The baby food meat looks really gross and smells even worse.
Babies are fussing, so I have to cut this short, but I wanted to get the pictures posted.

Baby Takeover; Kendall has a tooth

Pics: Clark and Kendall lounging/playing together. Clark in his cute "future Wall St Journal reader bib (from Theresa). Emma rolling around being happy. Clark at his safari activity table. Emma on her first Tigger ride. Kendall on her first Tigger ride. Clark is all smiles with those teeth. Kendall hamming it up with Aunt Karen (she saw the camera was out and started smiling). A few pics of the new Baby Zone. Emma striking the "Louis pose" while napping. Emma and Kendall enjoying time in their new space.

Well, they are officially taking over the house. This comes as no surprise to us, mind you, but it is happening. We had originally set up the smaller dining room as the playroom. On Sunday we decided to go ahead and move the dining room table (it's smaller now without the leaves/extensions) out of the larger room and into the smaller room. The babies will get the larger dining room as their own...at least for now. We felt like they weren't getting enough opportunities to stretch their legs and practice crawling with things set up as we had them. Now they have a huge space for playing with toys, crawling, beating each other up, etc. We will still keep some toys elsewhere (jumperoo's are in the family room, walkers are in the kitchen) because we are in those rooms and the babies will want to be there at times with us. But the majority of their things will go to the new, improved, expanded and revised playroom.
Despite the larger area, I still saw Kendall climbing over both Emma and Clark earlier today. They also still tend to come together in the same area in the play yard (AKA Baby Jail) as they are always interested in the same toy once one child beings playing with something. Another favorite pastime is known as "steal my sister or brother's paci". It's great fun for all, except the one it is stolen from. We have witnessed a baby taking a paci from another one's mouth when the accused thief is already sucking on a paci! It's crazy stuff.

Kendall has found her "bye-bye hand" though she doesn't know it yet. We are also happy to report that KENDALL HAS A TOOTH! Yes, it is true. A tooth has begun to show up (actually it came out last Thursday, Oct. 9). We are glad that the drooling finally has a specific purpose. Kendall is also mastering the yoga pose "downward facing dog". It is too funny as she gets her legs up under her, but straight up. And her bottom is way up in the air. It has something to do with her "form" of crawling, but I haven't really figured it out yet. K is able to find more to do when playing alone, often just laying on her back, staring up at the ceiling (fan, light, air vent or just the ceiling) and kicking one leg up in the air. playing with the others is still something she will have to work on. :) She is still the one who wants to put on a show and loves to ham it up for the camera. I think maybe she will be our little rock star like Daddy.

Also gaining teeth is Emma with at least one (maybe two) upper teeth. She is making every toy wet because she is sucking on everything. It's pretty gross, actually, but cute too. She is working hard at sitting up and also crawling. She is still in the early stages of crawling, but she does get around to everything she needs. She has also become a master jumper in the doorway jumpy things. She seems to love bouncing around. She is able to spend more time playing independently as well, which, again, is very good news for us. A funny thing about her time with siblings is when she seems to want to use them (or their bottoms) as a pillow. It looks like Ems finds comfort being close to the other two and likes to lay against them at times. Very cute. She still loves to sing and chatter whenever - but especially when she is outside. I kind of think that she likes how it sounds outside to hear her voice, but who knows.

Clark seems to have teeth coming in everywhere. He has his upper two front teeth peeking out and now it looks like the ones on either side are also trying to pop through. He is getting much better at sitting up, though I still don't really see him trying to crawl anywhere. Again, he does appear to move around sometimes, but I'm not sure exactly how he did it. He is also good at keeping himself entertained when he is alone, though he gets pretty frustrated when trying to play with his sisters as they always want to steal the toy he has or they want to plow over him to get to something. He loves the safari activity table and can sit for a while making everything work. I think he actually understands that a certain lever makes these little circles spin, etc. What a little smarty-pants. He is still good for a good cuddle with mommy or daddy and it is quite rewarding to have him hold you around the next and snuggle his face in your shoulder.

Well, I guess it's about time that I go make bottles or put away baby clothes. Thanks again for keeping up with our progress.

Happy Fall Vol!!!

Pics: Kendall fell asleep while in her jumperoo. Kendall with Emma in what appears to be a baby-choke-hold. Kendall showing off Mommy's fav jammies (note the hole in the foot because K has gotten to long for them - so now Ems is wearing them). Clark in his cute overalls...looking very handsome. Grandpa and Clark - Happy Fall Vol. Nana, Mommy and the crew. Emma in the Elder-family rocker and more interested in the grass below. Kendall's turn and highly distracted by the mums. Clark's up next and also more interested in mums than smiling. Aunt Karen and Ems. Uncle Tom with Clark and Kendall. Nana managing to squeeze all three on her lap. Grandpa, Daddy and the crew. Grandpa and Ems (how cute is she?). Kendall and her first ride in a swing. Ems first ride. Clark's first ride.


OK, so, it's been a while. Sorry about that. But the good news is that I have some pics from our "photo session" the other day with our friend, David. These pics are from OUR camera and were taken by us (or our family). We are very certain that David will have MUCH better pictures for us from his batch, but I know that friends and family just want to see pictures and it doesn't seem to matter whether they are any good. As you can see, we had a Fall Vol day in our TN Volunteers gear.

And, you will also notice that Kendall is attacking her sister in one picture. She was crawling OVER Emma in order to get to a toy. Not even a toy that Emma was interested in at the time, but she was just in Kendall's path. And Kendall could have taken another route, but going over Emma was just the one that she chose. Now, it's funny. But soon, we will have to start teaching them about being kind to each other, being considerate, sharing, NOT choking each other, etc. How fun that will be!

Clark has TWO, yes two, new teeth coming in - front and center up top. Woo hoo. It also appears that Emma might be getting the same two teeth, though her's haven't come through quite yet. Kendall still remains toothless, but she is obviously perfecting her triplet dominance in other ways (see above paragraph), so teeth are the least of her problems.

They are all getting more hair now too. Daddy is convinced that it is all of the good food that they are eating. Emma actually has some coming over her ears. It's not time to start putting in ponytails (or pigtails) yet, but it's still cute to see more hair.

Kendall is definitely crawling now and also the one who wants to get into everything whenever she has the chance - by crawling or in the walker. She is still trying to get to the trash bags, but we block her from that. She is always the one to find the things that she can't have (and remind us that we REALLY should be more careful). She has a new growl-raspy thing that she does (very similar to the "Waassss uupppp???" thing from a commercial a while back). She is a chatter box and full of giggles. She is also a contortionist on the changing table which is funny and frustrating at the same time. She has also made us laugh in her ability to fall asleep in the wrong place (like the jumperoo - see picture above - or today in the "baby jail"). We can't GET her to nap when we want her to, but then she just falls over in the midst of playing. Too cute.

Emma is now an expert jumper and loves it. She giggles when you praise her and she could stay there forever, or so it seems. She is also doing much better at eating now that we started letting her stick her fingers and hands in her mouth while she eats. It seems that it has made her less interested in doing so, which is a relief, because it gets VERY messy. She is so good at just playing on her own - in the baby jail, the pack n play or her crib. She will wake up and roll around in her crib hanging out with her toys and books or turning the mobile on and off. While she is still the petite one, it is clear that she is growing as she is moving into more 6 mos things rather than 3-6 mos. And her halloween jammies barely fit since she seems to have gotten longer since we first tried them on. Ems has started to smile a lot more and also loves to chat. Her favorite place is outside and we could just spend the whole day there and she would be completely happy.

It is still so easy to coax Clark into smiling. He is such a bright, cheery baby. He loves to be in the jumpy seat, though he has taken a liking to the electronic toys in the "baby jail". He loves pressing the buttons and hearing certain sounds over and over (and over). He isn't really crawling, but is doing well at sitting up and scooting around to get where he wants to be. He can really relax during a walk and just seems to take in all of the scenery. Lately, he hasn't been the best sleeper and has had to spend some early mornings (5am'ish) with Mommy in bed so that he doesn't wake the others (Mommy enjoys the one-on-one snuggle time). He LOVES to eat. I think that he could almost care less about bottles anymore, though he will usually eat them. Now he is all about fruits and veggies (though not a big fan of squash). He is the neatest of the three when it comes to mealtimes and he still stays in the "ready position" with his mouth wide open when you send a spoon his direction.

The three of them are beginning to pay more attention to each other, though it isn't always for the right reasons. Often it's when one child gets a toy that one of the others decides that is a great thing to play with. At this point, it isn't that they are doing anything intentional, but it still shows that we have a lot of sharing to do. They are also always trying to steal each other's pacifiers. The other day, Emma was sucking on Kendall's paci and it was clipped onto Kendall's bib. I don't know that Kendall even knew what to do at that point.

Well, it's time for me to get to bed. I hope that you all enjoy the pictures.