Being silly

Here are some funny pictures from the past week. They are starting to be more creative and funny in the things they do. The top picture is Will in a flower pot. Ellen got some for her birthday, which they were over here celebrating on Sunday night. They thought it would be funny to put them in there. The bottom picture is Will and Grace playing hide and seek in them. Middle picture is Grace having a seat in the shade on top of the picnic table. Then there is an action shot of Xander walking. I'd say he's walking about half the time now. He still is a little unsteady, but is starting to walk over and around obstacles. He likes to walk in circles in the kitchen. Other good news, Will has started taking steps on his own. He is even getting brave and letting go of what he's holding on to and trying to walk away. He doesn't get very far, but that's a step in the right direction! He walks all over the house pushing the walking toy and he really likes the freedom of that. It won't be long now until he starts going everywhere walking.

In other news, we have finally figured out that there are other animals in the world that make sounds other than "quack"! They all know sheep now. Xander also know snake. Grace makes a funny monkey and car (vroom, vroom) sounds. If you ask her "are you a tiger?" she'll growl. Will chats all the time, not even to really anyone in particular. They all sign more, please and now milk. We've even seen Grace sign "milk, please" together. We were impressed by that. They are following directions well, too. Especially Grace. Lately, we've been able to tell her to go get something "Grace, go get the book" or "Grace, give this to Xander" and she does it. Last night she threw her bottle on the floor, I put her down and I said "Go get your bottle." and she came back with it. Pretty good. Although, right now I am not so happy with her. She is not falling asleep for her nap. She's laying in her crib playing. What a stinker! Have a good week everyone!

Illness and a haircut

Our big news this week is that Will got his first professional haircut. I took him to a children's salon on thursday because his hair was getting so long and out of control. He did really good, no crying, right up until the end. The lady got out the razor thing and he didn't like the sound of the buzzing coming that close to this ears. Then he cried. But, he got a balloon afterwards and I think that made up for it! (botton picture). We also have been fighting small colds. I think we picked them up at the doctor's office on Tuesday from the toys there. They got runny noses, coughing, sneezing and fevers on Wednesday. We've been giving Will albuterol treatments for the coughing, and he's better. They all still have really gross noses, but no fevers anymore.

On a personal note, some friends of ours from church, Kristy and Greg Fisher, need lots of prayers this week. Their son Nathan, who would have been 10 next month, died this morning. They still don't know what the cause was, but he was in bed when it happened. Nathan had a lot of developmental delays, and has had some recent illnesses, but none that we thought were that serious. I used to do music therapy with Nathan before the triplets were born, and he was in my choir at church. We know Kristy, his mom, from bell choir and other activities at church. Please, keep them in your prayers at this very difficult time. That's all for now, more next week.

15 months!

Just a quick update from our doctor's appointment today. Everything is all good! Dr. Swisher was pleased with Grace's walking and Xander's almost walking. He said not to worry about Will, that he will do it in his own time, and he is making progress. So, no problem there. He gave us some advice about Xander's biting (which has gotten worse the past week or so) and talked a little about languge development. They are where they should be for now, but triplets and multiples in general develop language later. We are going to try and combat that with lots of language in the house, and maybe try to arrange some play dates with older kids to help that language come along.

In other news, we've learned a couple more signs. They've all started doing the sign for "please" when they want something. Xander is using the sign for "milk" a lot more, too. We're working on animal sounds, but so far, everything still says "quack". Xander's new thing is falling backwards. When he's sitting on the floor (and a couple times, standing) he'll just fall backwards. Doesn't matter who or what's behind him, he just lands. He's fallen on me and Brian, toys, other kids, hard things, but it doesn't seem to phase him, he still does it. When I hear a thud in the living room, you can be pretty sure Xander is falling backwards. While I was cleaning up dinner tonight, I heard 3 or 4 thuds. I caught him doing it in his crib on Monday, he even hit his head on the back of the crib. Didn't matter. Still does it. That's all for now. I'll try and get more pictures to post for next week.

Happy Easter!

Here are some pictures from easter yesterday. It was a big day. We did early church, nap at home, then lunch at the Niebuhrs where they got lots of fun things, including new books, easter eggs filled with fruit puffs and goldfish crackers, clothes and outside toys. Then we went back home for another nap, then over to the Hoefs for dinner. They got more outside toys, clothes, a vacuum cleaner, mower and push toy, plus some other fun toys. Spoiled! But, they were very good all day and I think they had fun seeing family and playing with new toys. More update tomorrow after our 15 month checkup!

Walking!

We are very happy to report that Grace is now walking full time! Her only limitation is that she can't always stand up in the middle of the floor, she's not quite strong enough yet and that takes a lot of balance. So, if she trips over something on the floor, she'll crawl to the next best place to stand up then keep walking. She's enjoying her new freedom. She walks everywhere, all the time. She makes laps around the house. She'll even be standing, playing at a toy, turn around, walk 5 feet away, turn around, walk back and continue playing. We think she does that just because she likes walking. It's pretty cute to see such a small thing toddling around the house. It seems that we're always wondering where Grace is these days, because she roams around so much. Xander is getting closer to walking, too. He has really improved his balance in the last week and is now becoming pretty daring and will let go and walk a short distance to another object. He enjoys that, because he always smiles and claps for himself when he gets to where he was going. Will is still Will. He has started cruising on the furniture a lot more and walking behind toys much further than he used to. Now if we could just get him to balance and stand up without holding on......

Not much other news. I did forget to report that Will and I took another trip to the doctor two weeks ago, for wheezing. We have now purchased a nebulizer and are using as needed for the wheezing. Since we've had it, we've used it a lot. Unfortunately that means we'll probably be going on long term medicine. I'll find out for sure when I take them to the peditrician for their 15 month appointment next week. You can tell from the pictures that we got out their new sand and water table and played in it for the first time. They got soaked, but they enjoyed it. The most fun thing was putting the sand in the water. The other pictures are just candids of them playing in the house and hugging their care bears, something they love to do. They make a funny squealing sound when they hug something. I'll post more after the dr appointment on Tuesday afternoon.