Sorry no pictures

Well, my reason this week for no pictures is not because the kids were sick. They've been healthy. I've been sick and really sick this time! Strep throat and a sinus infection. I barely got out of bed on Thursday and I did the rare and unthinkable; I begged Brian to stay home from work on Thursday and take care of the kids for me. Being the great husband that he was, he did. So, thank goodness for daddy, because I wouldn't have made it if he wasn't able to help me out. After some strong antibiotics, I am on the mend this week.

The kids have been fine this last week. Finally healthy and able to go places, even though I wasn't able to take them anywhere. They ate dinner at McDonald's twice this weekend, although grandma and grandpa didn't know they had eaten there on Friday and took them there Saturday. Lucky kids! They got out to story time on Wednesday, the museum Thursday, indoor playground on Saturday and church on Sunday. Fairly normal week. This week is shaping up to be good too, if only the weather would stay this nice!

In other triplet news, they have started stringing two words together almost all the time now, and Xander has even put three together once or twice. Will puts his two words together kind of slowly. For example, he'll want more banana and I'll say "Say more banana." He'll answer "more.......nana." So, the processing time is just a little longer. (We've learned to give them all a little extra time to answer questions, because we've discovered if they have a little time to think, they can usually come up with the correct answer.) Will can also correctly identify "I" and "S" all the time. We don't know why those two letters, but he can spell "IS". The colors are still hard for him expressively, but he is getting better at receptively identifying the correct ones. Xander gets the colors about 50% of the time, and Grace is a know-it-all when it comes to identifying colors. We ask the boys to find a color and she'll run over and do it first. And, she can now identify "X, W, G, Q, S, E, and I" right all the time. We do still need to work on counting, but I heard Will say "one, two" the other day and Xander say "8, 9, 10."

We've started giving them multi-vitamins. Will hates them and won't eat them. Xander gets mad when we won't give him another one. On the horizon, getting rid of the "gugs" (pacifiers, or plugs as they're known in our household.) I'm currently trying to come up with a brilliant strategy to do this with minimal disruption in our sleeping. I haven't thought of anything, so I am stalling. But this needs to happen soon, like in the next month. If anyone has any great suggestions, email me. I'm stumped! That's all for now.

Play-Doh (day-oh)

Well, not a lot happened since I last posted, the reason, of course, illness! Whatever these guys had, it was really bad. Especially Will. I know illnesses affect him differently because of his asthma, and this one was really hard on him. On Tuesday, I mentioned he visited the doctor and he upped his inhaled steroids. By Wednesday, he was wheezing as bad or worse, not sleeping, screaming all the time, still had a fever in the high 102's and was just beside himself coughing. So, I called back the doctor and they put him on oral steroids, too. Dr. Swisher didn't want to do that if at all possible, because he's been on them too often. But, the wheezing was just too bad. Those oral steroids give us a different Will. He was so grumpy and screaming all the time. Friday and Saturday were the worst days. Consequently, we didn't go anywhere all week or weekend. No storytime, museum, church or anywhere else. The only place they did go was grandparents house like normal while I had piano lessons. Monday was a day off for daddy, and things were a lot better. Grace is back to normal, almost done with her antibiotics. Xander never really got sick, although he has a really runny nose, it may be a sinus infection. I'll give him a few more days and see if it clears up. Will, thank god, is finally back to normal. He is still coughing some, but I think he always will be. He's off the oral steroids, just on the inhaled ones, now. And, so far they don't seem to be changing his behavior too much. He's pleasant, laughing and smiling. I even got kisses last night! Today we ventured out to eat lunch at church with grandma. Tomorrow we will hit storytime again and then our class on Thursday as scheduled. It feels good to start doing things again!

You can see from the pictures I got out some play-doh from Christmas to pass a long afternoon when we couldn't go anywhere. They loved it! It occupied Xander and Grace for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (I think that's a record for longest time on one activity). As you can see from the pictures, Grace's main occupation with the play-doh was to break it into small pieces and make a pile. Xander played with the container, putting it in and out, taking the lid on and off, etc. Will was more interested in the tools it came with, the cookie cutters, rolling pin, etc. It surprised me how differently they all played with it. We will remember that activity to pass more cold and rainy days in months to come! I hope you all are staying warm. I hope I will have healthy news to report to you next week. Take care!

Told you these pictures were bad.....

Group pictures

Here are a couple of group shots. If only they had smiled.........But, they did look cute and the pictures really aren't that bad.

Just a quick update on how our week is going. It's going badly. Sick AGAIN! And, they're very sick this time. Grace started to get pretty sick Sunday, and by Sunday night was awful. Fever, coughing, runny nose, couldn't sleep, wouldn't eat or drink. She had a terrible night Sunday, up every half hour or so. (Daddy and I got no sleep.) I took her to the doctor Monday morning and she had an ear infection and sinus (adenoid) infection. So, she's on antibiotics and on the mend. Will got bad on Monday and was coughing and wheezing horribly all day. Monday night was worse, he was up every half hour coughin and crying. At one point, he had a 103.8 fever, which really worried me. So, back to the doctor we went Tuesday and found out that his is only viral and it's setting off his asthma pretty severely. Dr. Swisher upped the dosage of his inhaled steroids and said there's pretty much nothing else we can do, because it's viral. So, we loaded him up on motrin and nebulizers all day and he's sleeping right now. Let's hope it lasts, I don't think Daddy and I can survive another rough night.

So, that makes four times we have been to the doctor in one week. It's a good thing Dr. Swisher is a patient man. We have a close, personal relationship now, he was even joking around with me this morning. His nurse, Aimee, knows us very well now, and we chat like old friends. It's nice to have such great people to take care of them, but on the other hand, I wish we weren't there so often! There has been nothing else going on this week, just trying to get through these illnesses. We haven't done any of the fun things I had planned. I'm hoping they're well enough by Thursday to go to their class at the museum. That's all. Think healthy thoughts for us.......

Will at 2

William is pretty much an open book. You can always tell what he is feeling or thinking by the look on his face or his actions. He has nothing to hide. When he is happy, he is VERY happy, laughing, running around and being silly. When he is mad, watch out! He will scream at the top of his lungs. And for having asthma, he has strong lungs! You can tell from his pictures, he was the happiest and most well adjusted one during the photo shoot. He is pretty quick to warm up to new people and places, including the nursery at church (he cries when he has to leave.) He loves, loves, loves to rough-house with daddy and anyone else who will do it with him. While he has been the last one in the past to do new things (like walking) he is developing a big vocabulary and loves to point out and label everything he can. He eats a lot if it's something he likes, but he is very picky. If he doesn't like what you give him, it will probably end up on the floor. He can be persuaded to eat a couple of bites of the bad thing, if you're giving him something he likes in return. He has a big sweet tooth and would eat only carbohydrates if we let him. He drinks a ton and loves milk. He is so lovable, and hands out hugs and drooly kisses freely while at the same time poking you and jumping on you (he thinks that's hilarious). He tolerates pretty much everything that makes the others mad, like brushing teeth, washing hair, and seeing the doctor.

Other funny things about Will:

Favorite toy: The furniture. He spends a good deal of his day climbing on my nice furniture. When he is not doing that, he can be found carrying around a lego door (don't ask) or playing with the shopping cart. He also loves footballs and has a pretty good throwing arm.

Favorite food: Oatmeal ("oatme" as he calls it). He sees and hears oatmeal everywhere in his daily life. One night, he was supposed to be sleeping in bed. Brian put a bowl of something into the microwave and from his crib I heard him say "oatme, oatme". Every bowl of something in a book is oatmeal. Little Miss Muffet eats oatmeal, apparently.

Favorite book: "Goodnight Moon" which incidently has a bowl of "oatme" in it.

Favorite thing to do: climb, run, jump, anything physical. We think he will play football when he's older. He also likes books and towers.

Favorite Sesame Street Character: Ernie. Elmo is a close second.

Likes: Physical activities, the park, pool and outside are big fun. Likes riding his red car outside. Throwing and catching balls and he LOVES this red firetruck thing at the indoor playground. He doesn't play on anything else and gets MAD when he has to leave.

Dislikes: Eating things he doesn't like, this includes vegetables. He also dislikes his favorite foods being gone from his plate. This includes, but not limited to, oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly, cheese and pudding. I can't think of a whole lot else he doesn't like. He tolerates pretty much everything and is very laid back.

Funny things he does: He will run from the kitchen wall into the living room, when he gets to the carpet, he will fall down, put his legs above his head and say "crack" (crash). We don't know why but he thinks it's funny. He will also tense up all his arms, legs and head at the same time and then laugh about it. Aunt Lisa thought he was having a seizure. When he's drooling we say "Will, wipe your drool." He uses his shirt to wipe the drool off his chin. (He still drools a ton!)

Xander at 2

Xander. What can we say about Xander. What a funny kid! I sometimes call him "mini me." Not a mini Erin, but a mini Brian. He does so many things that are just like his dad. Grandma Ellen has noticed it also and has commented on it several times. He is very observant like his dad and quite, most of the time. He's content to play by himself next to the bucket of legos and just build a tower. He's slow, just like his dad. I don't mean slow developing, but slow moving. Almost always is he the last one done eating, it takes him forever. It takes him forever to wake up in the morning and walks so slow! What a dawdler. He will eat anything you put in front of him. I have a hard time saying what his favorite food is, because he eats everything. Just like his dad, there's very little he won't eat. He has an adorable smile, a cute giggle and is very smart and a lot ornery. He is the most verbal of the three, imitating everything he hears and saying words I didn't know he knew (like ceiling and mower). Just tonight he counted to ten by imitating Brian. But, he did it like Count von Count from Sesame street (1, ah , ah ah. 2 ah, ah, ah). It cracked us up. He isn't always quiet, though he's definitely a toddler. He likes tickling, chasing daddy around the house and gets into all the rough-housing the others do with daddy.

Other favorites of Xander:

Favorite toy: Hands down, legos. Most days he can be found in the living room building towers.

Favorite book: The Train Ride or I'm a Little Teapot.

Favorite food: As I said before, almost everything. He does particularly like rice krispies with banana. He eats 3 or 4 helpings of that each time.

Favorite thing to do: Build legos and watch Elmo.

Favorite Sesame Street Character: Cookie Monster. That's "his" doll and he does a great impression of Cookie.

Likes: building towers, coloring, putting the baby in the carrier and walking around, pushing his juice cup around in the shopping cart and pushing the mower outside.

Dislikes: swimming (he just doesn't really like the pool that much), cheese and cottage cheese, (although he has been eating some cheese lately, but he won't touch cottage cheese), strangers (including the doctor), and the nursery at church (he's been the last one to warm-up to it, although this last week was better).

Something funny he does: Loves to touch the ceiling and asks to do it around tall people like daddy, Grandpa Dale and Uncle Wes.

Grace at 2

Grace at two years old is a happy and funny girl. She is helpful, energetic, silly and lovable. She freely hands out hugs and kisses to everyone and everything (including pictures in books) and is always on the move. She loves her family and usually plays very nicely with her brothers (although when the mood strikes her, she is known to knock down someone's tower or steal their toy.) She's incredibly independent, and hardly ever wants to do something you tell her to (like brush her teeth or drink her milk.) I wonder who she gets that from......Luckily, her desire to please people can sometimes outweigh the stubbornness. She likes to jump, climb and runs instead of walks. We think she should be a gymnast. These are some of the professional pics of Grace from last Friday. The photo shoot did not go well, she didn't feel good and was in a bad mood. These are the only ones of her not crying, and I'm not exaggerating about that. Maybe I'll post some of the crying ones later on. It's pretty bad, and I was kind of embarrassed. She sure did look cute, though.

Here are some of her favorite things:

Favorite toy: balls, blocks for stacking or books.

Favorite book: I'm A Little Teapot by Iza Trapini

Favorite food: string cheese, yogurt with fruit and spaghetti

Favorite thing to do: push the baby around the house in the stroller, read books, go outside and bath time.

Favorite Sesame Street Character: Elmo

Likes: playing rough with daddy (she's very strong and not very heavy, this makes for an excellent combination to throw around), reading books, and water.

Dislikes: Fish sticks, having her hair put in a ponytail, and dogs.

Something funny she does: Puts her face in your hand, holds on tight, moves back and forth and says "Oh no! Oh no!" We have no idea why she thinks this is funny.

2 years old!

Happy Birthday to Will, Xander and Grace! The triplets are 2 years old, and no one can believe it. Two years has flown by so fast (although some days it feels like it's been 8 years!) We had a small celebration with cake and ice cream, saving the big celebration for July, as I have mentioned before. They didn't quite know what to do with the candle, as you can see from the pictures. But, they enjoyed having Happy birthday sung to them (we sang it three times, one for each.) They INHALED the cake and prmptly asked for more. They didn't want cookies or anything else, it had to be cake. Luckily, ice cream also hit the spot. They were in a good mood that night, despite the looks on their faces in the pictures (do I say that a lot?) and I think they enjoyed their little party. They also can sort of say "happy birthday" it comes out "happy bo". Close enough!

We have not been sick this week, luckily. Tuesday, Will did take an extra trip to the doctor for what else, wheezing. He is back on inhaled steroids, the kind that gave us the "devil-child" last summer. So, we will monitor side effects carefully and hope that his increased size and age will prevent that. So far, not really any change in his behavior, but it's only been 3 days. Wednesday, all three went to the doctor for their 2 year checkup. No shots, and everyone is doing well. Will weighed a whopping 30 lbs even, and was 34" tall. Xander was 28 1/2 lbs and also 34" tall, Grace was a small 24 lbs (2oth percentile) and 33 1/2" tall. But, as small as Grace is, he was pleased with her weight gain in relation to her height gain and given how much she eats (a lot) he thinks she is just going to be someone who is tall and skinny. No other huge news to report from the doctor, he thinks they're doing great.

Today (Thursday) started our toddler class at the Children's museum. It was a fun time. There were lots of activities to do, including painting, reading, playing with animals and flashcards, and even playing in a ball pit. They enjoyed themselves, and next week, we will stay and play at the museum afterwards. It is also neat that I know two other moms and their boys in the class. It's nice to see familiar faces and hopefully the kids will eventually play together. It will be a good use of our time.

They're getting pictures taken on Friday, so I decided I would post individual pictures of each with a short description of them at two years old, likes, dislikes, quirks, abilities, etc. I realized that posting on this blog is great for posterity. Not only can I share with you all what the triplets have been up to, I can also look back on the posts and remember what has happened and when it happened. So, I'll give you an idea of what each one is like individually, and then I'll have a great post to remember things to scrapbook about later on. Look for that sometime early next week. Take care.

Happy New Year!

Sorry for the late update this week. I was a little thrown off my schedule by the holiday on Tuesday. It was an interesting week, this last week. Good because Brian was home all week and we got to do some fun things, but bad because we were still fighting illnesses and doing all the fun things messed up the schedules and got everyone tired out. Thursday, daddy and Uncle Chad got the day off and had a day of fun, while mommy and grandma Ellen took care of all 4 kids. Friday we packed up the minivan and drove to Arapahoe to see the Hoefs side of the family. It was nice to see everyone that we don't get to see very often and we got to play with my cousin Elliot's little boy, Landen (see top picture). However, the trip was blemished a little by the fact that Xander was not feeling well at all. He still had that 102 temperature that started Christmas Eve. Some tylenol and albuterol got him through the car ride home and the night, but we went to the doctor the next morning. They were concerned about the high fever, so they did a strep test, but it came back negative. So, being concerned about pneumonia, they sent us to the hospital for a blood test and chest x-ray. It also came back negative, so we went home and they just told us to keep an eye on him. Well, he perked up by Saturday afternoon, which they spent at Dale and Ellen's and was better by Sunday, which was mommy's day off while Daddy and grandpa watched them. We stayed home on Monday and Tuesday and just took it easy, although Brian and I did go out to dinner and a movie on new year's eve while Pam and Mike watched them. So today, we got back into our weekday routine with story time and lunch at church. There's lots to look forward to this month with the class at the museum and playgroups. It should be a not boring month, like it could be! We still haven't even discovered all the new toys from Christmas. There is a pile in a closet that hasn't even been opened. I figured one of these cold mornings, I would break out the new playdoh and see how they liked that.

By the way, the bottom picture is how I found Xander in bed about 11:00 the other night. I don't know how long he had been out of his pajamas, but he had to be cold, it was a cold night. He enjoys taking off his pajamas lately. This morning he walked around without them for about 30 minutes, because I didn't have a chance to put them back on. His lips were blue by the time I got him dressed, he was cold. We have also given him a native American name (like Dances with Wolves, a name you get by something you do.) It's called "Whines without Socks", he spends most of the day walking around (and whining) without socks. Once he takes off an article of clothing, he walks around with it saying "uh-oh" until you put it back on. Grace does all her colors with almost 100% accuracy. She says the colors fairly clearly, but says "peep" for pink. It cracks me up. She can also pick out a G from a pile of letters for her name. Will loves to point and label things he sees. He announces "home" when we drive into the driveway and points out snow everywhere we go. I asked Will to pick the W from a pile of letters, and he grabbed an M, very close! They got a new phonics thing for Christmas, so they have enjoyed playing with that. Their 2nd birthday is on Tuesday, but we have decided for sure to not celebrate it until July. We are having their pictures taken next Friday, though, so I will wait until then to post those pictures. Have a good week!