Family time at The Cove

Pics: Kendall saw the camera and wanted to get it. Mommy and her little buddy, Clark. Emma seems to be interested in a videography career path. Emma in the pack n play sleeping and holding her feet. Clark flashing another beautiful smile. Emma hamming it up. Emma enjoying the outdoors and the sun on her face. Clark napping after a long afternoon at the park (the reason he doesn't appear in as many pictures as the girls). Emma, Daddy and the ducks. Clark being a ham. Kendall and Mommy having a laugh. Emma finding the grass. Emma and her beloved paci. Kendall finding the grass. Kendall and Daddy. Kendall getting sassy with her paci.



We had a great afternoon as a family at The Cove (a park in our area). The weather was PERFECT and the babies did really well being in a new place for such a long time. We tried to get a lot of pictures as this was sort of their first visit to a park (aside from their first walk in a stroller back in March). Kendall and Emma had their first experience touching grass on film, but I missed it with Clark (sorry buddy). All three of them saw ducks, geese and the lake and they also felt the wind on their face (and blowing their hair!!!). Mommy even put socks on the girls because people are always telling me that their feet are cold and it seemed pretty breezy(Clark was napping at the time and wrapped up in a blanket).
Prior to that, I had taken a few pics in their denim (just because), so there is a little mix of scenery (our living room, the park, the pack-n-play).
They are all doing really well. (We will probably mess that up as tomorrow is flu shot day in addition to two more vaccinations.) They have been so much fun to play with and watch them start to interact with each other. Kendall is crawling more and more each day. They are all LOVING the jumperoos and jumping like crazy. They have also really enjoyed spending more time outside as the temperatures have been so pleasant. We sit in rockers on the front porch, exersaucers on the back porch, plus time spent on walks in the strollers. Emma still has the loudest voice, though she seems to be the quietest in terms of the number of times she uses it. Kendall is full of laughs and giggles. And Clark is somewhere in between (starting to chat more and laughing a lot as well). Emma has really started to get pretty giggly in the last couple of days also. It's just so much fun to get them laughing.
I need to get to bed, but hope that you all enjoy the pictures. My thoughts as we left the park today: "A good time was had by all." :)

Babies still sharing their VOLUNTEER spirit!

Just wanted to share a few pics of the babies in their Volunteer garb. Kendall on a walk. Emma and Miss Patti(our sitter). Clark and Miss Patti again.

We are sorry that the Vols didn't win this past weekend (but for our Gator friends, congrats!). No time for a big update, but I wanted to post a few pictures.

Household in a frenzy

Well, we are having company this weekend, so my household is in a frenzy. Normally preparations for company would take a lot of time, but with triplets living here now, time is not something we have a lot of. With that in mind, I have chosen carefully the things that have been the priority 1.) planting fall flowers in pots for the outside of the house 2.) cleaning windows around the house 3.) cleaning the garage door windows 4.) packing up books and various things in an effort to babyproof. As you can see, Aunt Tami is in big trouble because I still haven't put sheets on the bed, cleaned the bathroom, checked for toilet paper, vacuumed the floors, etc. Just kidding Aunt Tam. I promise that the bathrooms will DEFINITELY be clean. :) We also have other friends coming in from Gainesville for the big game this weekend. Obviously, they are rooting for the "other team". Our babies will show them some VOLUNTEER spirit in their fun outfits and you all will see the pics VERY soon.
On top of the other preparations, we ran out of homemade peas and green beans, so the babies are getting more of the store bought stuff. This isn't "against the rules" or anything, just expensive and we had hoped to make as much of our own food as possible. It has just been really hard to carve out the time to make it, though it isn't THAT time-consuming, see above where I mention that we are short on time these days. :) So, that is something else I need to do tomorrow - make peas and green beans for babies.
The baby food choices are expanding: peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, applesauce, pears, carrots, blueberries (combined with applesauce or pears), rice cereal and we've added back squash (since the dr felt Kendall had eczema not a reaction to food and Ems and Clark just have sensitivity to the acidity in dirty diapers rather than to the food). We are hoping to add other breakfast options like oatmeal soon and more veggies like broccoli, spinach, etc. We are still using the 4-day rule for introducing any new food, so it's taking some time to get a large menu for them.
They are gobbling down their plates of food at each meal (three times a day). They get about 5-7 tblsp of food each time (which seems like a lot to me), but they seem to really enjoy it. Emma is even doing better at eating and almost always cleans her plate. Kendall is a riot when she gets veggies that she doesn't seem to care for at first. She crinkles up her face and gags and then tries to make her "motor boat sound" and ends up spraying the person feeding her with what she is eating - yummy. Clark still keeps his mouth open just like a little bird. They all seem to eat fast - by choice, not just because we shovel it down in an effort to hurry. You simply cannot get the food into Emma's mouth fast enough. We are still giving them four bottles a day, the last one being between 7:45 and 8:15 just before bed. We also try to get them to eat more rice cereal just before putting them to bed. Some nights we are very successful and others...um, not so much.
We did have a full night of sleep on Tue night when they went down at 8p and no one required any intervention until after 7am. It was heaven since it was my night with the monitor. Of course, there were some moments of fussing, but it always subsided quickly and then I just wake up wondering why I haven't heard anything from them all night. I think it's a mommy-thing. But Wed night was anything but restful, so you just never know. They are definitely improving though and we are happy to see a potentially full night's rest on the horizon. :)
We now have three jumperoo things - two Rainforest Jumperoos and another Baby Einstein version. They really do love these things. Emma has just learned how to jump in them and is so princess/ballerina-like. It's the funniest thing to watch her as it looks sort of Riverdance-y while she jumps with her feet sort of to the side. All three of them can be in them at once and seem to encourage each other to jump more. Kendall really gets on a roll and starts jumping like crazy and loves to have an audience.
They have also begun tooling around in a walker (downstairs only). Kendall seems to love it the most and is enjoying her new-found freedom. She is attracted to the garbage can - or at least the plastic bag inside of it, so babyproofing is a definite issue these days. She seems to be the one who is teaching us quickly what needs to be taken out of their reach the fastest. She created an avalanche of kitchen things the other day when she rammed the walker into the side of our baking table, so we found somewhere else that we need to look when deciding what to put away from babies' reach.
We had a very windy Sunday and had the babies with us for a quick trip to Sam's and Wal Mart. The wind was blowing their hair around - even Kendall and Clark. How cute it was! They are all growing so fast and it appears that the food is really helping them "bulk up". It certainly has changed the diaper-changing situation in our home. Boy howdy can they make a diaper dirty now that they are eating food! But it is all a part of growing up and it's still fun.
Gotta go get that bathroom clean! I apologize that I don't have any pics, but I didn't have one of each baby that is recent and didn't want to appear to have favorites. So, I will get pics up in a day or so.

Just cute pics

Pics: Kendall trying on her GO VOLS smile (more of that to come). Emma at 7 mos looking oh so precious (sorry it's a repeat, but I wanted to get the others up here and didn't have one of Ems - sorry baby girl). The morning lineup of exersaucer parking at the front door, although they are usually all bunched up so they can see out of the front storm door.
Aunt Sandi and Clark showing off the bib she gave them (don't worry, they are ALL VOL, but we are trying to please the Ohio State relatives :) ). Clark and a cute crooked smile with Daddy - but we cut him out of the picture. Kendall being a superstar!

No time to post a lengthy update. Babies are eating, pooping and sleeping (sometimes). They are making all sorts of new discoveries each day and growing fast. More updates later. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Happy 7 Months Little Munchkins!!!

Pics: Clark and Uncle Tom getting ready for the VOLS! Kendall hamming it up. Emma and her cute bow (from Aunt Marsha).

Well, I can't even believe it has been 7 months already. We have commented more than once that the days are LONG, but the weeks fly by. They are growing and changing so much and often we don't even notice some changes since we see them everyday.

Kendall: She has spent this week trying really hard to crawl. We noticed that she is moving around but hadn't really seen what it was she was doing. Today we figured out that she is sort of crawling backwards. Sort of. She pushes up with her arms and then scoots back with her legs. It's funny to watch because she is focused on an object in front of her and seems to want to get to it and then ends up farther away as she does her "crawl". I'm wondering if she will master this thing by the end of the week???? She seems to enjoy baby food - a lot (until today). She has been more than willing to eat peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes and she is the only one who gets rice cereal (though it's usually in her bottle). Today we introduced prunes (for various reasons - we can buy organic, it's a "first food", and quite frankly, we are hoping to keep them all in good "shape" as the other foods seem to be slowing things down a bit). They caught her off guard a little, but then she seemed to be OK with them. She was pretty cranky though when her sister started going off the deep end. She was almost unwilling to finish eating. And this evening, she was gagging constantly while trying to eat our homemade (Mommy and Daddy made it yesterday) peas (organic baby food peas). We are hoping it is just the texture as they are a little chunkier then the usual "first foods" as she has been happy to eat peas so far. We will probably have to save them for her once she hits the "second foods" stage. She is still all smiles much of the time. Most people can get her to flash them a cute smile when visiting. She loves to giggle and dance (my own little "dancing queen" - I hear Abba----aaahhhh). Lately, she seems to be able to occupy herself on the floor mat scooting to different toys and being curious. We also think she will have great abs sometime soon as she spends SO much time on her tummy. Her new talent is also her ability to jump in the jumperoo toys (like Clark). She is chatty at times and has a crazy "hyperventilating-sort-of" sound that she makes when she is excited or bored (we checked with the dr and it isn't anything to worry about). Aside from that, she has sort of a quiet voice and sometimes it sounds very "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (a popular 80's song) raspy. Her eyes continue to be SO expressive and you can see a smile coming on if you just watch them. And they are bright and blue'ish, but maybe hazel is coming??? There is finally a little more hair coming in that we can almost get the hair clip (from Aunt Marsha) to stay in her hair. There is still no sign of teeth, but that doesn't stop her from flashing those beautiful gums!

Emma: She too seems to be trying to get mobile, though she has not been as successful as K. She loves to roll around on the mat and get into everything. She especially loves this safari toy that makes (a lot of) noise and lights up. Pretty much everything she can get her hands on ends up in her mouth, but of course, she does have teeth and more may be coming soon. Her other favorite thing to "eat" is her feet. She is quite flexible and can get her feet up to her face very easily. Speaking of eating, she is not our best baby food eater. She was great at it in the beginning and it appeared that she would be the neat one, but that is not the case any longer. She seems to have changed her tune and isn't happy about baby food. (Or is it that we no longer enjoy feeding her????) Anyway, she now screams quite a bit. She demands more food immediately - no waiting to distribute a mouthful to Clark or Kendall - and ALWAYS requires that her hand (or arm, or bib, or someone's arm) be used to help her swallow her food. It is the weirdest thing. I read that when they stick their fingers in their mouths while eating, it can be helpful for them to learn how to swallow the food, so I wasn't discouraging it. But now, it's just a gigantic mess. And I don't know how much food she even gets down. And the screaming thing...it's gotten to where Clark will burst into tears because he just wants to eat his food and she is screaming in his ear and we are so focused on that that we aren't giving him another bite. But, she's still our Ems. She is SO cute first thing in the morning when we are pooped out and trying to get them all ready for the first bottle. She is cooing and singing and squealing. It is just the most adorable thing. Sometimes it's annoying because we want her to drink her bottle and quit singing, but it's just so cute that you can't help but smile. She is still ahead of the pack in the hair dept. Her hair appears to be pretty dark. And her eyes remain different - one blue and one brown. As I said in the other post, she is our little peanut being about 2 lbs lighter than K and C, but seems to always be doing new things and picking up new "skills" and we are happy about that. We're thinking that she will be into singing (because of her high, LOUD voice), or maybe some sort of sport as she loves to slam her toys around. Uncle Tom would be thrilled if she played baseball/softball....I would suffer through it in silence (I hate being in those bleachers in the blazing hot sun) if it was what she wanted to do. I think there is a chance that, despite her size, she might be more of the "leader" of the three. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out in a few years, but right now, it seems like she calls the shots. She loves to be outside. In the midst of a meltdown, a nice stroll in the yard seems to settle her down quickly. I think she loves to hear the sounds outside. And she also seems to enjoy hearing her own voice outside as she was singing at the top of her lungs when I took the three for a walk this morning. She too has a beautiful smile and a cute laugh.

Clark: Sweet, precious, patient Clark. He is not as quiet as he was. He has times where he is pretty chatty - especially hanging out in his crib when he wakes up and we haven't come to get him. He just lays there sort of moaning and groaning and then sighing and cooing. VERY cute. I've been a little freaked out to find that he has flipped out of his sleep positioner and is up against the crib rails with his mouth around one of them. It's probably about time to take out the positioner and discontinue swaddling him, but we just haven't made the official transition. He has the most gorgeous eyes....big and dark blue. And his little 2-tooth grin is just adorable. We thought that he was taking his time with the developmental milestones - like rolling over, etc, but now he's just rolling everywhere and is actually quite good at sitting up (not entirely by himself, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was the first to accomplish this). He seems to really enjoy music - Daddy's guitar, the music on Baby Einstein videos, the noise that the jumperoo makes, etc. He is getting much taller and heavier and there is more hair coming in everyday. We are so amazed (and thrilled) that he went from being the smallest at birth (just 4lbs and only .4 oz) to being the largest (at just under 16 lbs). He continues to be great at the jumperoo toys and even when you try to get him to stand, he is trying to bounce and jump. I think I'll have to call him Tigger with all of the jumping he does. He has an infectious laugh and gets tickled easily by funny faces and noises. He too can be calmed by a stroll through the yard and usually falls asleep in the stroller when I take him for a walk. He is by far the best eater of the bunch. We still get a nice "baby bird" mouth so that food goes in easily. It seems like he really enjoys the food (even the homemade chunky peas that made K gag). While he can give you a wonderful smile, it is sometimes difficult to capture a photo of this because he gets distracted by the camera. Once he knows it is there, he can't stop staring at it with a "deer in the headlights" sort of look. He loves to kick and splash during bathtime and he is also quite limber because he too is able to get his feet to his mouth (yummy???). I've also noticed that he is now able to get the bar on the bouncy seat popped out of it's place because he likes to prop his feet up there and play with the toys. Beyond that, he is just SO snuggly that you can't help but squeeze him and plant kisses on him.

That's all for now. I just wanted to post a few notes about each baby so you can get a little insight about what is going on with them.

We are gearing up for the start of football season, so I just have to mention....
GO VOLS!!!!

"Six" month pedi appt

Quick update from pedi visit today. Everyone looks great. Clark and Emma are apparently going to have diaper rash until they are out of diapers due to a sensitivity to the wet diaper (thankfully it is not an allergy to the diapers). Kendall appears to have baby eczema but the pedi is confident that it will resolve itself and clear up over time.

Here are the OFFICIAL stats:

Kendall - 15lbs 10oz, 26.4 in long

Emma - 13lbs 13oz, 25.75 in long

Clark - 15lbs 15oz, 26.8 in long

We will continue introducing veggies and fruits that are "1st" foods (pureed and strained) and then move onto "2nd" foods, which are a little thicker and chunkier. We can also begin to try sippy cups with juice if we are interested (which we are not interested in right now). Once we get into 2nd foods and they show an ability to grasp with their fingers, we will start on finger foods (including Cheerios). She expects that they will be eating finger foods by the time we go back for our 9 month visit (which will actually occur at 9 months, as opposed to this 6 mo visit at almost 7 mos).

We had two more vaccinations (DtAP and Rotavirus). Again, it is a little scary, but we feel like we are making the best choice for our children by holding out on vaccines and just doing two each month. They will be completely up to date before they start kindergarten, so it will be just fine and the pedi is happy with the schedule we are using. The babies did great, only fussing for just a few seconds before Daddy got a laugh out of them.

They also had bloodwork (and did GREAT-esp with the distractions provided by Daddy and Aunt Karen) and it all looked just fine. The major concern is anemia at this point and they showed no signs of any problems like that.

We are relieved to have another round of vaccines behind us and also to know that they are growing well. Of course, Emma remains our little "peanut", but as we've said before, she's busy growing hair and teeth - no time to get pudgy. :) They were all very active at the office and the dr is pleased with their development and believes that are right on track with other babies their age (actual - not adjusted for their early arrival). We are going to work with them to get them stronger and able to sit on their own, but they already show signs of being close to that point. They are also showing a lot of interest in trying to crawl, so it could be any day now. OH MY!!!!! Daddy needs to get the baby-proofing done (an assignment given to him since he's much more handy than I am) pretty soon or else they will soon be into EVERYTHING!

Sorry no pics this time. We'll be back again soon with more, but I wanted to give everyone the latest on their stats and let you all know that they are doing well.
Thanks!

Our 1st trip to McDonald's..Clark has teeth!.. Pics from Dollywood....

Pics: All three in McDonalds for the first time. Kendall in her cute hat. Emma kickin it with her paci and pretending she is an only child. Emma being cute in her car seat with her polka dot and stripes hat. Clark and Kendall in the double stroller "posing" as twins. Clark in his cute bucket hat looking like he is on vacation.

I just got new pics from Uncle Stevie of our trip to Dollywood and McDonalds. Hope you enjoy them.

Clark has a tooth or two coming in (just like Emma) right up front on the bottom row. Speaking of Emma, she really does have two front teeth (lower) coming in as they are sticking up a lot more these days. Kendall is busy dancing, getting strong (probably walking before she ever crawls) and not worrying about having teeth (or hair for that matter).

I'm not going to post a big update as I'm POOPED and want to take a nap before the last feeding of the night. Hope all is well with everyone checking in on us.