Playgroups

I may have found the key to surviving full days alone with the kids - playgroups. We have discovered that classes for toddlers are 1.) expensive x 3 (even with a sibling discount) and 2.) never scheduled at a good time. So this winter I decided to try to make more of an effort to find free activities to get us out of the house. It just so happened that an announcement went out on our local parents email group that some moms of toddlers were looking for a playgroup. I decided to check it out, and it seems like the moms in the group are pretty nice, and their kids are pretty cute and well-behaved. Plus no one has said anything weird/inappropriate/intrusive about having multiples. They all look a little shell-shocked when all 3 of my kids scream at once though. :)

I've also tried to renew my friendships with local moms of multiples. We had all let playdates fall by the wayside for the past few months, but I think we're all going stir crazy this winter. So I've been getting together with various moms of twins the past few weeks. It's nice to hang out with moms who understand the challenges of multiples - it's like we're all speaking the same language. I also like meeting up with moms at their own houses - so much easier to keep track of the kids in a friendly, baby-proofed space where there are always spare diapers and goldfish crackers.

Here's a blog post that I liked. It's about being friends with the parents of your kids' friends.

And since I didn't want to put pictures of the playgroups up on the blog without other parents' permission, here are some pics of what the kids have been up to the past few days.


Abby loves combing Lucas' hair, and he lets her do it as long as she doesn't pull too hard. I think he's in trouble once she learns to put in barrettes and do braids.

This is how I found Zoey sleeping this morning. She was lying completely straight with both feet sticking through the rails. Maybe that's what helped her sleep till almost 8am!

The kids finally got haircuts again today - it had been several months. Here is Zoey modeling her cute "flip" style.

Abby kept trying to look around to see what Ashley was doing.

This picture got all crooked and blurry because someone bumped into me just as I was taking it, but I thought it looked sort of cool. Lucas looks like such a big boy here! He sat the most still out of everyone.

They enjoy playing stroller derby after dinner.


Another day as a SAHM done. Now off to work tomorrow.

Big Kids

Ok, these kids are growing way too fast and I'm never going to remember all the cute and brilliant things they are doing these days. In addition to adding new words every day, they are practicing getting dressed (Lucas loves putting a few pairs of pants on each leg), getting better at using spoons and forks, and have finally made the full transition from bottles to sippy cups. It's amazing watching them grow and learn, and I'm only occasionally nostalgic for the time when they couldn't yet move! ;)

Here's Zoey taking a break from getting dressed. The other day she was able to put a shirt on correctly, completely by herself. She can almost do pants all by herself - she just needs a little help getting them up & over her bottom.


To help burn off some energy indoors this winter, we created a mini ball pit in the basement guest room/playroom. I think Lucas loves it the most - he likes to go "swimming" in it.



There's a big kid in the house who likes to play in the ball pit too.


We are letting them eat some snacks and meals at their little table now (which used to be mine and my brother's when we were younger). They love the independence, perhaps a bit too much...it's adorable when they stay in their seats...

...but messy when they don't. It's nice not to have to wash 3 separate high chair trays, but there is still a lot of clean-up with this method.


Walking on their homemade balance beam (thanks to Nanny Hannah for the idea)




Reading together


Administering medication (don't worry, the syringe was empty)


Zoey loves trying to balance on things, so Jason thought it might feel good to have her walk on his back. Apparently it didn't. But Zoey had fun!

New yoga pose?

Then Lucas took a turn...he was able to balance for a few seconds before tumbling off


Can't believe they are 22 months old, and will be two years old in two months!

Words

The kids are saying so many words now! Usually if they are told a word once they start using it pretty consistently. And they are starting to put them together into two-word phrases. Here are some cute stories:

This morning Zoey sneezed and Jason and I said "bless you". Then Abby said "bess you" right afterwards. :)



Tonight when I got home from work Zoey came with me into the bedroom to change clothes. She narrated the whole thing: "pants off, shirt off, socks off, pants on, shirt on, socks on".



Lucas is obsessed with the Sesame Street video they got for Christmas. It has the honker monsters in it, so whenever he wants to watch it he says "honkers honkers". hee hee.



And when somebody hurts someone else and we ask them to give a hug and say sorry, they do real hugs with arms around each other. It's really sweet.


Group downward dog


They are pretty awesome.

Introducing Nanny Hannah

Jason and I realized that we haven't done a nanny update in forever. First we had Mali, who was with us Aug '10-May '11, when she had to return to med school. Then we had Gina just for the summer of '11, and then her fall class schedule was too complicated to be able to continue working. We decided that when searching for our next nanny, it needed to be someone who really wanted to do childcare for a living, not just part-time while also being a student. We were lucky to find Hannah, who is young but has had a lot of caregiving jobs. She came to us when the kids were at the height of separation/stranger anxiety, so morning departures were rough for awhile. But now the kids are past that and they seem to look forward to Hannah coming over - it was really cute when they started saying her name. She does lots of fun things with them, and she is great at keeping the kitchen and play areas clean.

We only have a few pictures of her so far.

This pic was taken back when there was still a lot of separation anxiety going on. They'd even melt down when we arrived home in the evenings. So they weren't thrilled about sitting with Hannah at this particular moment.

She takes pictures of them when she has a free hand. This pic is from way back in October.

These are more recent



I have no idea how she got them all sitting together and smiling!


And here's a video she took of the girls showing off their knowledge of body parts.


We're glad to have you, Nanny Hannah!

A visit with friends

This weekend we went to visit our friends Mike & Jill, and their girls Heidi (5) and Maya (3.5). They only live 2 hours away so it's the perfect distance for a little road trip and sleepover. We had a great time re-connecting with them -- it's been a long time since we've had the chance to sit around and have wine & cheese, or coffee & eggs, with good friends while the kids are happy. The little ones really looked up to the big ones and loved playing with their toys. We even tried to brainwash them a little bit into giving up their bottles for good by saying things like "see how the big kids are drinking out of their cups?". Even though the girls skipped nap on Saturday they rallied until bedtime with very little whining, and Abby and Lucas slept a solid 13 hours (Zoey joined us in bed around 2am).

Peace and quiet for the grown ups while the kids are occupied.


5 year old Heidi did a great job of reading to the little ones



Music Time


There was some fun Sunday morning coloring.


The two families together!


And for comparison, here the pic from our visit last year on New Year's Day.


Overall, it was a great break from the routine and we hope to see them again soon!

Videos

Kitchen Peekaboo (ignore Jason's attempts to get them to say "ho ho ho" at the end)


Lucas reading


Ok, and one old one that I randomly chose from our collection without watching it first....

Children's Museum

Wow, more than a week this time since I've posted. It's been busy since going back to work after the holidays, and we all had colds last week. So I barely had the energy to get the kids in bed each night, let alone do blog posts.

Today we enjoyed the beautifully warm weather by going downtown to our pedestrian shopping mall and stopping in the small children's museum. We got a family membership so now we can go anytime we want. The kids enjoyed exploring all the different toy stations and watching the bigger kids play. They stuck close by us at first, but as they got more comfortable they really started exploring. Which was great for them but we were glad that both of us were there so we could keep track of them. Most people who noticed we had triplets were pretty nice and didn't say anything too weird. Except for this one mom who said her two kids were 18 months apart so it was kind of the same as triplets. Um...


Exploring.

Zoey cuddling with dad and the stuffed animals.

Notice Lucas trying to climb up on the railing.

Peeking in the tunnels.

Whee!

After the museum the kids rode the carousel outside. It's small and person-powered, so kids can go at a pace that's comfortable. Abby and Lucas loved it!


Zoey finally decided to take a ride after seeing Abby and Lucas enjoy it.

Lucas enjoyed pushing the carousel himself. He did a great job!


After the carousel we let them run around free a little bit, especially by the woman who was blowing bubbles. Then we corralled them all (I was wishing we had put their backpack leashes on them!)and headed home. Hopefully we can do another fun outing tomorrow!