Curiosity or naughty?

These three are definitely becoming toddlers. They are starting to exhibit traits of toddlers and boy is it hard with three in the house. They want what they want, when they want it and don't even think of trying to make them do something they don't want to do! They have been fighting over toys a lot, pulling each other's hair, running over each other and for those of you who don't know this, Xander is a biter. Usually Will is the target of his bites, because Will tries to take his toys. Currently, Will has two old bruises on his arms and two new red marks, that will turn into bruises, on his back from Xander. It is quite naughty and we're not entirely sure what to do about it.

The top picture is Will, looking out the window at their wagon that was sitting on the porch. Will has figured out that he loves to be outside. However, when you bring him in, boy does he pitch a fit! When I took this picture, he was at the window screaming, because he wanted to be out there in his wagon. Will has a one track mind! The bottom picture is of them eating fruit puffs that someone spilled on the floor. One of them pulled the bottle out of their diaper bag and was playing with it and of course, got the lid off. It was a nice before bed snack!

The middle picture is of Xander climbing inside the lego table. This is one of several things he's discovered is fun. Another one is that the lazy susan opens up (see next post). But. even with all the orneriness, they are quite lovable, and are making great strides. Grace walks almost full time, now. She enjoys making laps around the kitchen island. Xander has started getting better balance when he walks. I think we'll see him start to take off more in the next few weeks. Will is standing more and walking behind push toys, it's taking him a while, but he's coming! They all are drinking much better this week from cups, bottles only firs thing in the morning and before bed. And, I'm happy to say, pasta is back in favor. They went through a phase when they wouldn't eat any pasta dishes. But, they have rediscovered them and especially mac and cheese! They ate an entire box of kraft mac and cheese on Friday! They're slowly learning more words, Grace says "daddy" now and Xander signs "milk", even though he won't drink it! We've been playing outside lots and they enjoy that. Have a nice week everyone!

Croutons are Yummy!

On Friday last week, all three of them were playing in the kitchen. I noticed Will had a poopy diaper, so I took him into the nursery to change him. Xander and Grace were very quiet in the kitchen, then I heard a jar thud on the floor. I knew they had gotten into the lazy susan. So, I went out there and I found what you see in the picture. Xander had gotten out a box of croutons, dumped them on the floor and they had eaten most of them. Xander was making his "yummy noises" and Grace was shoving them into her mouth as fast as she could. I think they enjoyed their snack, but needless to say, they smelled like croutons for the rest of the day!

Outside time!

Since the weather has actually been nice this last week or so, we've started to get outside. We went to the park and took a walk on Tuesday, played outside on Tuesday night, and all day Sunday, grandma and grandpa Niebuhr played with them outside. Will and Xander are enthralled with the trees, as you can see from the pictures. The trees aren't very big around, since they're only a couple years old. They loved looking up at them and shaking them. The other picture is Grace playing with Brian. She loves to be thrown. He gets her pretty high!

Not much other news to report. We are still working on sippy cups. Xander and Grace have shown preference for straws, so that's how they are mostly drinking their milk lately. Will isn't getting any day bottles anymore, he drinks out of his cup very well! They have most recently discovered that they like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, they have enjoyed them several times. Still not doing good at green vegetables, but they will eat orange and yellow ones. We've been a little sick again this week. Little fevers and some sniffles and LOTS of crankiness. Unfortunately now, Brian and I have a touch of whatever it was. I think the kids are find now, though. I'll post again next week!

14 months!

The triplets turned 14 months on Thursday. On that day, we started getting rid of some daytime bottles, so far, OK. They will drink 3 or 4 ounces of milk from their cups while eating, when they're not throwing them. That's good, but it's not enough to last them the whole day. So, they're still getting a few bottles a day, until they drink more. We went to the NICU follow-up clinic on Friday afternoon. They are doing everything they should be at this point, so nothing to worry about. The boys are still about where they were last week as far as walking. But, little miss Grace has decided that's the best way to travel. She walks almost everywhere she wants to go now. If she falls or loses balance, she crawls the rest of the way, but she's walking more than half the time, now. She has gotten good at turning, walking around things and I've even seen her bend down to pick something up, stand up again and keep walking. Pretty good! It won't be long until she's walking full-time.

The top picture has a funny story. Kara and Wes came into town on Saturday and took the kids for a walk in their wagon. While they were walking Grace fell asleep and fell onto Xander's lap. She slept there while the boys pulled her hair and poked her eyes, but she never woke up. We took that picture when they got home. It was pretty funny. The other pictures were just taken around the house yesterday, they were just playing and being funny. We're going to the park today, so hopefully I'll have some pictures to share from that. We're enjoying the nice weather, we've been out almost everyday for the last 5 days! Love it!

14 months on Thursday

Another week has passed, and we survived the "blizzard" we had last week. We even got an extra morning with daddy that we weren't expecting. With all the snow on Thursday, Brian couldn't get out of the driveway. So, he stayed home from work with us that morning. My parents picked up around noon in the 4 wheel drive SUV and took him to work and my dad went to the office for a couple hours, too. Then, I took the SUV with a carseat in it and took Will to the doctor. He was on his 4th day of 102.7 fever. Glad to report it wasn't anything but a little virus, he's better now and it did NOT result in any coughing or wheezing, so no nebulizer treatments. I'll be glad when the snow is gone, the weather warms up and we can start playing outside and taking walks again!

In other news, we are replacing bottles this week with tippy cups. No more day bottles for these guys. Hopefully they'll make the transition well. Will and Xander really do well with the cups, Grace, not as well, but I think she'll be forced to catch up when she is really thirsty and that's the only way she'll get liquid! It's interesting though, how they all have their strengths. Grace is so very close to walking full time. She can walk pretty much anywhere, and go any length. She just has to decide to do it all the time. So, she's ahead of the boys in that area, they're ahead of her with the sippy cups.

We are also very excited that we think Xander has said his first word. They all babble syllables like "mama", "dada" "nana" and others, but don't really use them as language, and of course they all sign "more". But, Xander has started saying "quack" and he'll do it if you say "Xander, what does a duck say?" or hold a duck up. It's very funny. He crawls around the house "quacking" all day. We get a kick out of it. It is neat to see how much their receptive language is improving, too. They understand so much now. They know phrases like "Do you want some milk?" or "Let's get your coat." and "can I have a hug?". They have started following 1 step directions, too. When Grace stands up in the tub, all I have to say is "Grace, sit down" and she does, every time. They will also follow directions if you say "get the ball" or "give that to me". It's neat to see then develop language this way. However, we've also started having problems with sharing, taking each other's toys and Xander has taken to biting. They cry when they can't have something they want, or if something they have gets taken away. I think it's just the beginning for that!

The top picture is of them playing on the couch. For some reason, they absolutely love to crawl around on it. I don't particularly like all the drool on my nice couch, though! We see the doctor at the NICU on Friday again for the follow-up developmental clinic. They are chronologically 14 months, but developmentaly 12 months, so this is like their 12 month checkup. So, I'll post any news about that. More next week.