What?!?! It's August?!?!?! Where did July go?????

Pictures: Slide-time on the porch at home. Emma spent most of the time at the top until she had some help sliding down. All three of them contemplating how to be at the top together and how to slide down. Kendall being serious. Clark decided how he should make his approach (could be head first or feet first, we never know). Emma deciding if she is going to slide down....not yet. Clark taking a break for some hydration. Kendall concentrating on her landing (Mommy thinks she nailed it). The three of them outside Jason's Deli trying to get a picture with Uncle Tom (Clark wasn't feelin' it at that point). Ems chillin' with monkey. Kendall at the park. Clark stylin in his Hawaiian shirt.



Once again, we are moving through another month and I barely realized that I was missing it. Or my "devoted" blog followers have missed it. I've barely been on here to let you know what we are up to these days and I apologize.
Today was a BIG day as Clark started preschool. Long story, but it's just him attending right now. He will be there two days per week for a total of 5 hours. The teacher said it was the best first day ever. He did GREAT! What a big boy. We are happy that he enjoyed it.
SIDE NOTE: I wonder to myself...should I feel like a bad mommy because he doesn't cling to me, desperately dreading the moment that I leave the room? No. I'm raising children who thrive around other people as well as their own family. I want them to enjoy the company of other children and adults. While it's nice to feel indispensable at times, it's also wonderful to feel like you can leave your children with other people and they will be happy until your return. Otherwise, it is really hard to get away and have "me-time".
While Clark was busy at preschool for 2.5 hours, Miss Pam and I headed on an adventure with the girls. We had plans to attend a "Mommy & Me" class, but still had about 90 minutes to kill before it started. We did a quick tour of the area K-Mart (we no longer have one down the road from us, so it's been a while) and then found a park. The girls LOVED the swings. We had them in the toddler swings and then moved to the adult swings and let them sit in our laps. That was really pretty fun, except that Kendall was a little too relaxed and started to slide off of Miss Pam's lap. We didn't have any accidents, but it was funny that she was almost lulled to sleep while swinging.
Unfortunately, our class was cancelled, so we had to turn to Plan B. Wait. We didn't have a Plan B. So, we went to the Dollar Tree. I admit that it wasn't a great substitute for running around a gym with other moms and kids, but it was all we could come up with that would still allow us to pick up Clark on time. Ems enjoyed shopping and wanted to touch each and every item that caught her attention. Kendall was happy in the shopping cart trying on the bird hats and pineapple sunglasses (pretty cute, BTW). We also found princess skirts and wands, books, coloring books and silk flowers (for sniffing). We didn't actually BUY anything important, but it was a way to kill some time.
Clark seemed happy when I walked through the door and it was obvious that he had been having a lot of fun. The teacher mentioned that he would probably sleep well later since he had played (HARD) since I dropped him off. He was also very content to get into his seat in the car and see that Baby Einstein (or Elmo) was in progress.
We decided to take them out for an Italian lunch. That was probably not the best idea after an early start to the day and a relatively busy morning, but they did OK. As expected, they were diving into their beds for naptime when we returned home. Poor little Clark was ready for bed about an hour before the usual time tonight and we haven't heard a peep from him since he went down. The girls have a chance to sleep in a little tomorrow morning, but Clark will be back at school early tomorrow. Woo hoo. Life in the fast lane!
In other news, we've had a few playdates in the last couple of weeks. Mommy has been hesitant to embark on playdates because we did get them out a couple of times in late April and ended up with sick kids. But, it's time to work with it and "build their immunity". Just throwing them out there into the mix of germs and snot and all of that fun, gooey stuff. Last week, we met another triplet mommy and her three boys at a park. The park is a fenced-in area at a church that has toddler-sized outdoor play things. It also has mulch. I hate mulch. I despise mulch. My kids like to EAT mulch. I've FB'd about it and now I will blog about it. Why do they have mulch in play areas? Younger children that play in these areas tend to put everything in their mouths. Why give them something else intriguing to eat? Yuck. So, I spent the better part of 45 minutes trying to be sure that no mulch was actually consumed (and I don't remember seeing any diapers full of mulch later, so I think we did OK). They had a GREAT time as this was a chance to be free of the Super Yard "gated" area in which they live. They roamed all over and climed slides. Yup, climbing. Not really sliding down. Just climbing up. It was cute. A little risky, yes, but funny to watch. The other kids were pros at sliding and "park-ing" in general. There was another (skinny) mom there with her son who was really cute too. Clark was surrounded by BOYS for the first time. And he could have cared less because he was more interested in.....MULCH!!!
We had a MOPS mommy kindly offer to come and watch my kiddos so that I could get some work done as our regular sitter wasn't available both days last week. B brought her son E, who is 2, and they spent the morning playing and hanging out. It was another chance for our kids to be around children a little older and another BOY for Clark to get to pal around with and do "guy-stuff". Kidding. I don't know that there is really too much "guy stuff" to do at 18 mos old, but I think he gets tired of the dance DVDs that the girls like to watch and the pink piano was a little froo-froo (spelling??).
I also tried taking all three of them to a Mommy & Me class/group on Monday morning with Auntie Karen. It was only 30 minutes. I figured that we could all survive 30 minutes, right? Not exactly. We left 15 minutes into the routine. They were too excited to be released from their usual area and were around new and exciting things to touch and explore - coffee pots, shelves with papers Bibles, CD players and an open door to the hallway of the church. Why sit in our laps and sing songs and watch a lady read a story??? I decided that we were a little too distracting to the other children in attendance (quite a big group, actually) and we headed for the van. Ironically, once they were watching Elmo in the van, Auntie Karen and I were able to visit for a few minutes because they were completely content. Go figure. At least we tried. But it's definitely wise with triplets to plan to take extra people along for outings like that. It's SO hard to keep up with 3 kids going in different directions. They are SO excited and curious that they want to see and touch everything and sometimes that just isn't wise.
All and all, it's been a busy couple of weeks. Mommy is working hard to give them some new experiences and opportunities to build relationships with other children. I think it's great for them to be exposed to older kids because they learn new things. Hopefully I will stay motivated to get them out and about as much as possible. There are so many options for activities with the kids in our area and it's great for all of us to get out there and SOCIALIZE!
Thanks for your patience. Happy Back-to-School for all of those headed back to class in the next couple of weeks!