Princess Sassypants

We have started calling Grace "Princess Sassypants" because she has such sass and always wants to get everything she wants immediately. She screams when she's bored or unhappy. She likes a LOT of attention and wants to be entertained. As long as you are doing all of those, she is happy! When I found the shirt she is wearing at Old Navy, I had to buy it. If you can't see from the pictures, it says "Sassy". Perfect for her. I took a series of pictures of her in it to scrapbook. She happens to be happy in these pictures because I was paying full attention to her, but she has also been teething more and is in some pain. The orange ring was popular today, because it was nearly frozen and it felt good on her gums. She has a cheerleading outfit she's going to wear to watch the first Husker football game on Saturday, so I'll take pictures of that. We are also meeting, for the first time, their two sets of twin cousins on Saturday. So that will be fun. Go Huskers!

Harvard bound!

Here are some pictures I took today of the boys in their Harvard t-shirts we brought them back from Boston. You can't see it, but the bottom says "Class of 20??" Pretty cute. They are both doing really well at sitting, as you can see. Hardly any falling anymore, except in the pursuit of the cool toy just a little out of reach. Will has started the game of "see how far I can put a toy into my mouth" and consequently has been gagging himself a lot. He has also perfected the roll from back to front. We're not sure why it took him so long, he was always just content laying on his back or tummy. But, now he rolls with purpose! We find him all over the room, looking for better toys than what were nearby. Xander is teething more. He has been very grumpy and drooly lately. More bumps on the bottom and top, so more little teeth on the way!
The top picture is of Will taking a nap. This is how we find him sleeping now, almost everyday. He uses the bumper to pull himself to his side and snuggle up there. It's seems uncomfortable to us, but he seems to like it, because he does it often. We'll post more after our family gatherings and first Nebraska football game after this long weekend!

A day in the life of triplets.....

Since I don't have a lot of news to report, nothing much new happened this week, I will answer a question that I get from a lot of people "What are your days like?" Well, they can sometimes be crazy, and sometimes be good. But, here is roughly what we do in a day.

Around 6:30 (sometimes much earlier) they wake up and get a bottle. They play while mommy and daddy get ready for the day. Around 8:30 they get a morning nap. Breakfast of cereal and a fruit is at 10, which is also the time the first person of the day comes to help mommy. At 11:00 is another nap, which will last until around 12. Then, there's lot of play time, and some Johnny Jumper time, too. Sometimes around 1:00, mommy will put them in their high chairs and let them watch Teletubbies in the kitchen (this is usually the only way she gets a break to eat lunch.) Another bottle at 1:30, and another person comes to help. Afternoon nap starts around 2:30 and lasts as long as mommy can make it. Sometimes 2 hours, sometimes 15 minutes. (She prefers the longer ones). Play time until 5:00 when dinner is served and one last person comes to help for an hour or so. Lately they have been eating sweet potatoes for dinner and have been liking them OK. We tried peas on Sunday and again today. They did NOT go over well. We'll keep trying them, though. Daddy usually comes home around 6 and plays. Bathtime is every other night at 7:30, last bottle of the day at 8 and to bed before 9. As you can see, we're very scheduled. But, we have to be, otherwise we would be crazy! They follow the schedule surprisingly well, too.

These are some pictures I took this week. It shows them in some daily activities. We have a family gathering this weekend, I'll post some pictures of that next week.

Top: Xander and Grace holding hands while watching Teletubbies.
Middle: Grace after Aunt Kara fed her peas. Surprisingly, she was smiling. However, she sneezed peas all over Kara's white pants as Kara was singing a song about not getting peas on her pants.
Bottom: Will, playing in the ever popular "farm chair."

We survived!

Well, we're back from Boston and everyone survived! Brian and I survived our first vacation away from the babies, the babies survived life with grandmas and grandpas, and the grandmas and grandpas survived watching the babies for several days! Brian and I had a wonderful time. Boston is gorgeous. The weather was perfect, we did some fun things, ate some great food and slept in every morning! We hit all the big historic spots in downtown, went to several museums and the aquarium, rented a car and drove to Salem and Tanglewood to see the Boston Pops, went to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park, and took a boat cruise of the harbor. It was great!

While we were gone, the babies had an exciting advancement. When we left, Will had one little tooth poking through, when we got back, all three of them had 2 teeth poking through! They have been a little bit grumpy and running low grade fevers from the teething, but they're surviving. They are sitting by themselves very well. Except Xander, who sacrifices his personal safety to reach a toy. He will fall forward, sideways or backwards as long as he gets the toy he was trying for. They're still enjoying their solid foods. Peaches, plums, apples, bananas and pears are all hits. We're going to try a vegetable this evening for dinner and see what happens. I don't know..... We were only gone 6 days, but it is amazing how much bigger they looked when we got back. We bought them t-shirts in Boston that say "Future Harvard Freshman" and "Harvard class of 20??", so I'll take a picture of them wearing those soon. I posted a couple pictures of our trip, since I didn't take any pictures of the babies this week.

Top: The skyline of Boston and Boston Harbor from our boat.
Middle: Brian sitting on one of the wharfs looking out into the harbor.
Bottom: Us at Tanglewood.

For those of you who don't know what Tanglewood is, it's where the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops spend their summer and do outdoor concerts. It's up in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts, very close the New York border (very close to where I lived in New York). We saw the Boston Pops with John Williams conducting all his best movie music. They played "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "War of the Worlds", "Memoirs of a Geisha" with Yo-Yo Ma on the cello and "Star Wars" with James Earl Jones narrating. Steven Spielberg was there in the audience, too. It was absolutely beautiful. It was cool, around 60 degrees, but there were probably 10,000 people there. We sat in what they call the "shed" (that building behind us in the picture), which is an outdoor concert hall. It was very neat!

Sitting up!

Hi everyone! I should have posted these pictures several weeks ago, since that's when they were taken, I just haven't had time (wonder why?) All three of them are starting to sit up by themselves. They can all sit with only a boppy for support, and Grace can sit for quite a while with no support until she topples over. We like to put them in a triangle and put a whole bunch of toys in the middle and let them duke it out over the coolest ones. If you hold one toy up, they all reach for it at the same time. Will has the strongest grasp and will usually get a hold of it first, but if he drops it, Grace will grab it. They turn seven months on Tuesday the 8th.

Not much else new has been going on here. They are enjoying their solids. They're having cereal twice a day and bananas. I think we'll try apples this week and probably some vegetables next week. I will probably not update the blog next week. Brian and I are leaving for Boston early Wednesday morning. Pam and Mike get to watch them Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Dale and Ellen are taking them from Friday evening until we get back on Monday. Good luck to the grandparents! Brian and I are in need of a vacation, if for nothing more than some sleep and baby-free meals (neither of which we have had in seven months). I know it will be hard to be gone from them that long, but it will be good for us! I'll post a picture or two of our trip when we get back. Take care everyone!